**Chapter 1**

The rehearsal dinner was at a restaurant that Jess had chosen because it had exposed brick and good lighting and a private room in the back that fit thirty people exactly. Sloane knew this because she had helped Jess choose it four months ago over two bottles of wine and a spreadsheet that Jess had made and Sloane had gently reorganized because Jess's spreadsheets were always enthusiastic and never quite functional.

She arrived at seven in a green dress she had bought specifically for this weekend — not the bridesmaid dress, that was lilac and hanging in her hotel room — just something that was hers, that she...