The Hate Vow by Nicole French

Nineteen

“So, your mom gets here when?”

“Tomorrow night,” I said. “Her flight arrives at JFK at nine, and Eric’s sending a driver to bring her out here immediately.”

Skylar and I were driving up to the Hamptons. The engagement party was scheduled the following day, but Celeste insisted I arrive early with the rest of the family to help everyone “prepare” for the events. It was part of “hostessing,” she said after making several more comments about my hair that even had Gemma looking embarrassed on my behalf. And since I was to be the new female head of the de Vries family—this was stated with no little disdain—it was imperative that I learn to do it right.

Which apparently meant learning to drink a lot of gin by the pool, wear a bunch of ice-cream-cone outfits, and look bored.

The “family” included Eric’s mother, Heather, and her current husband; his aunt Violet and uncle Fisher; Nina and her family; plus a giant array of great-uncles and aunts, their kids and their kids’ kids, all of whom would apparently fit easily onto the estate along with several sets of guests, including the Crosby-Sterlings. Brandon had driven the kids himself earlier so they could have fun at the pool instead of being stuck in the city. No doubt the ladies who lunched were more than happy to “hostess” him.

My mother was arriving the night of the party, hopefully in time to meet some of my to-be in-laws and get used to the idea that her daughter would be living like this for a while. I wasn’t sure how she would respond. She wanted me to be well-off, of course. I knew that. But the kind of wealth the de Vries commanded was pretty much unfathomable to most. It would be overwhelming to anyone.

Eric had to stay at the office a bit longer. The plan was for him to arrive for dinner that night after I spent the afternoon welcoming the de Vries family’s guests to their sprawling estate.

And sprawling it was.

“Holy shit,” I murmured as David, Skylar’s driver, took us down the last of several winding roads off the main drive toward the ocean. A massive house—if you could even call the shingled behemoth that—arose in front of us at the center of what had to be at least fifty acres of open property. We passed a full orchard, several ponds, two separate tennis courts, three pools, and multiple guesthouses before we came to a stop in the massive roundabout driveway full of very expensive cars. I spotted two Bentleys and one Maserati.

“Who needs that much horsepower?” Skylar wondered. “I’m fine with my Prius.”

The house itself, though, was even more impressive. It was a huge white monolith, complete with massive Doric columns and windowed walls that extended endlessly in either direction. The gardens included rows of blooming roses, and I recognized one corner of the site of the family portrait in Celeste’s sitting room. This wasn’t a house, I realized. It was a palace.

David rounded the circular driveway and came to a stop in front of a cascade of steps from a grand main entrance. Garrett the butler emerged and walked briskly down the steps to greet us. Even in the warm July sun, he was still dressed in full tails and a stiff white collar.

“Ms. Lefferts,” he droned as he opened our door.

“Do you ever get a day off, Garrett?” I asked as I got out, followed by Skylar.

The stolid old butler gave me a droll look. “Certainly not, miss. And I wouldn’t want one, either.”

“Garrett, you remember my friend and lawyer, Skylar Crosby. Her husband and kids should have arrived this morning.”

“Indeed, they have. Shall I have your baggage brought up to your suites in the west wing?”

I nodded. Suites? Wings? I suppose that made sense.

“Sure,” I said. “The suites work, I guess. Where is everyone right now?”

“The pool, miss.”

“Wow,” Skylar murmured as we followed Garrett up the steps into the house. Our feet rapped on the marble floors as we walked through a yawning entry hall lined with gleaming silver sconces. “This place is insane.”

I gave her a funny look. “Sky, you do remember that you and Brandon are worth almost as much, right?”

She shook her head. “It’s just a bank account, Janey. Our house is nice, sure, but it’s not this place. It’s not a castle.”

And this house certainly was. After I prodded him for a tour, Garrett smugly informed us that the estate boasted seven suites across three wings, plus ten extra bedrooms, for a total of thirty-seven bedrooms in the entire place, on top of a separate servants’ quarters in the basement, four living rooms, two game rooms, three kitchens, and a whole other bunch of rooms that I couldn’t begin to remember.

He led us down a huge tiled hall that reminded me again of Versailles before taking us outside through the biggest French doors I had ever seen. We entered a massive pool area, complete with an outdoor kitchen on one side, another tails-wearing bartender on the other making cocktails, and several sets of outdoor furniture surrounding a huge kidney-shaped pool. Behind that, grassy grounds spilled toward the dunes and the Atlantic Ocean, the roar of which could be heard above the hum of people.

Garrett darted in front of us.

“Are you going to announce us like royalty, Jeeves?” I joked as he stopped by the pool.

“Ms. Lefferts and Mrs. Sterling,” Garrett droned, and immediately turned on his stuck-up heel and reentered the house.

“Well, I guess that answers that question,” I muttered as the other ten occupants around the pool turned to see who had arrived.

“It’s Crosby,” Skylar called, though Garrett paid her absolutely no mind. She shook her head. “Freaking patriarchy.”

It was a bit much for a patio full of family. I spotted Nina and her husband at the far end with their daughter, standing with some of the other cousins and friends I had met at that first dinner. Everyone appraised us quickly and turned back to their gin and tonics, utterly unimpressed. On the other side of the pool, the older crowd was stretched out on loungers or drinking under wide umbrellas. A few people looked over their giant sunglasses at me with bored expressions before falling back onto their sun loungers.

Under a giant umbrella sat Celeste de Vries herself, fast asleep beside a tall gilded cage of birds. Mostly parakeets, from the look of it. They were all different colors, their chirps providing a little music to the otherwise humdrum scene. One chirped more loudly than the others, and Celeste gave a snort before sinking back into her nap.

Skylar immediately located Brandon in the pool, entertaining a bunch of kids. Once he spotted her too, he pulled himself out of the water. Several of the sunglasses—mostly females’, but not all, I noticed—dropped again at the sight of his big body glistening in the summer sun.

“Thank God,” Brandon said as he bounded over to us. “The party finally arrived.”

I pushed my glasses down too. Skylar rolled her eyes. She didn’t care if I inspected the man candy she called a husband, especially when said candy was six feet, four inches of stacked muscle. Brandon might have been forty-two, but he was a fox. A little too big for my taste, but nice to admire nonetheless.

“Jane, stop looking at me like a piece of meat,” Brandon said as he toweled off.

“Then stop walking around looking like one,” I retorted as I accepted his kiss on my cheek. “Get a beer belly like most men your age, why don’t you?”

“I would if I thought my wife would like it.”

It was sweet, but sort of nauseating. Okay, and maybe a little jealousy-inducing too. Would I turn a guy away if he looked at me the way Brandon looked at Skylar? Hard to say, since none ever had.

Except Eric. That voice inside was talking again––the one that kept telling me it was a bad idea to marry my ex, one of the only real relationships I’ve ever had.

A voice I’d been steadfastly ignoring.

Shut up, you. Great. This wedding was turning me into a schizophrenic. Fucking perfect.

“Jane!”

We turned to find Caitlyn Calvert striding across the patio, looking effortlessly beautiful. Her long, honey-brown hair fell in waves down her back. Hmm, looked like someone got herself a new ombré color job. Her open white kimono revealed a perfectly sun-kissed, Pilates-toned body clad in a blue and white striped bandeau bikini. She was preppy, cool, classic. Everything I was not.

“What a fantastic dress,” she said as she delivered a few air kisses to me.

I looked down at the yellow wrap dress I had sewn last summer. It was one of my favorite things I’d ever made—square neck with pockets in the sides, plus embroidered red and black flowers over the A-line skirt. Cute, but not overdone. Next to Caitlyn, I felt like a peasant bumblebee.

“Hello,” I said. “I—what are you—I wasn’t expecting you here this weekend.”

Caitlyn laughed, bright and airy in the sunlight. Two diamond tennis bracelets sparkled on her wrist—a lot different than the collection of leather and brass bands on mine.

“Oh, you’re funny,” she said. “I’d never miss the de Vries white party, Jane. I’m practically one of the family, remember? You’ll soon discover that I’m pretty hard to get rid of.”

“Like a yeast infection,” Skylar whispered into my ear.

I snorted. Brandon looked red in the face.

“What’s that?” Caitlyn asked.

“Ah, nothing,” I said. “It’s great that you feel so close to all of them. Maybe you can teach me how.”

She smiled brilliantly. “Love to!” She turned to Skylar, who was looking her over critically. “And it’s Skylar, right. B has been talking nonstop about you. I’m so glad we get to meet again.”

Skylar glanced at Brandon. “Have you…B?”

The man at least had the decency to blush as he pulled his wife closer, apparently not caring at all if he got her sundress wet in the process. “Well, you’re worth bragging about, Red.”

Skylar softened. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said, shaking Caitlyn’s hand when Brandon wouldn’t release her.

Caitlyn turned to me. “No E?”

Skylar arched a brow at yet another letter-based abbreviation, and I bit back the urge to laugh. Was Caitlyn trying to advertise her knowledge of the alphabet?

“He’s coming tonight,” I replied.

“Well, good,” Caitlyn said with a friendly smile. “We’ll all have a little more time to get to know each other, won’t we?” She winked at all of us, then sashayed back to Nina and the other cousins watching us.

“Where are the kids?” Skylar asked Brandon.

“Luis is napping in our room—Red, don’t worry, there’s a nanny up there—and Jenny’s still in the pool with the other kids.” He nodded toward their daughter, whose bright red hair glowed in a sea of blond.

“Brandon!” they shouted. “Come play king of the mountain!”

“Be right there!” he called back. He turned to Skylar. “You coming, babe?”

“Come on, Mommy!” Jenny’s little voice rang out.

“Let me go change,” Skylar said. “We’ll go grab our suits and be right back.”

Brandon jumped back into the pool with a howl that startled Celeste out of her sleep (though she fell right back in). But when Skylar turned to go inside, I was stuck in place.

“Janey?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Shit,” I gritted out as I looked around the pool, struck by sudden realization.

Two things were immediately clear. One, I stuck out. That was nothing new, as Celeste had informed me at the bridal shop, but my pink hair was even more vibrantly odd-looking here than it was in the city.

That was uncomfortable, but I could deal with it. The other, unfortunately, I could not.

I turned to Skylar, my face already flushed. “I, um…I forgot something.”

Her face screwed up. “What did you forget? Oh my God, Janey, you didn’t forget your dress for the party, did you?”

I shook my head. “No, no, not that. I, um…okay, so I didn’t realize there would be a pool here. And that people would be around it.”

Skylar looked around. “You didn’t bring a suit?”

“No, I brought a suit. But I’m not…prepared…to wear it. If you know what I mean.”

Skylar looked at me blankly before realization dawned over her freckled face. “You are kidding me. You came to a Hamptons beach party without getting a—”

“Eh! Can you not yell it for everyone to hear?”

Skylar rolled her eyes. “You are ridiculous. Okay, fine. We’ll get David and see if we can’t find you a place in Southampton that will do a walk-in.”

“I don’t have time for that, Sky. Plus everyone is going to wonder where I went. It’s fine. I’ll just, I don’t know, not wear a suit and manage.”

“Jane, you’re going to be on a beach for several days. Are you going to be the one weirdo who doesn’t go in the ocean? It will be you, Celeste de Vries, and Eric’s great-uncles, landlubber.”

My horror must have been evident, because Skylar started to laugh. It wasn’t funny, though. Eric’s uncle Rufus had been known to cop a feel after he had too many gin and tonics.

“I’ll just go into town and get some Sally Hansen at the supermarket or something,” I said. “I can take care of this myself.”

“Dude, you don’t know if they are going to have that.”

“Well, I don’t have time to track down a stupid spa right now, Skylar!”

She shook her head, chuckling to herself. “Fine, fine. I have some you can use, okay. I was going to do my brows tonight, but I’ll tweeze instead.”

I looked at her hopefully. “For real?”

She grinned. “Yeah. What are best friends for, if not to share their extra waxing kits?”