She pulled on the waistband of her basketball shorts and tugged down her black tee shirt to cover her ass as she bent down to the floor, not wanting her boxers to flash Bette. "Could you hand me the bag?"
The baggie of brackets and screws had been taped to the headboard, labeled with neat, scrolling curves in black Sharpie. Bette gently pried it off the headboard and held it out to Kerrie between two pastel pink fingers. "Here you go."
"Pretty nail color," she complimented with a smile.
Blushing, Bette held her hand in front of her, admiring them. "I thought it was cute. I'm not quite ready for summer colors yet, so I'm sticking to Eastery pastels for now."
Kerrie cocked her head, grinning at the seriousness on Bette's face. It was adorable.I'm 52 years old, and I'm giddy about complimenting nails."I think that's a nice color."
"I can do yours the next time I do mine," teased Bette, wiggling her eyebrows.
Snorting, Kerrie shook her head as she found the correct drill bit. "That kind of girly stuff isn't for me, but I do appreciate a woman who does."My God. Kerrie, rein it in. You're not suave.
The red on Bette's cheeks deepened at Kerrie's words. She opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by someone calling out from the front door, "Anyone home?"
With wide eyes, Bette held a hand up to stop Kerrie from standing. "No, uh, you stay right there and keep working. I'll get rid of her."
Frowning, Kerrie wasn't sure what to make of that statement. Who was here?
Chapter 17
Bette's stomach plummeted to the floor when she heard the familiar voice of her ex-wife call out, "Anyone home?"
How in the hell did she find me?
Stepping through the bedroom door, she looked out across the open floor plan and silently cursed to herself. Why was Shelly here? The day had been going so well up until that point. Moving is never fun, but she and the others were in a fairly good mood despite the heat. Not to mention, she and Kerrie were getting to spend time alone together that wasn't at work. This was enough to completely ruin that.
Shelly Cooper stood just inside the door in all of her confident, narcissistic glory. Her purse was clutched under one arm, and she had most of her weight on one high-heeled foot with her hip cocked to the side. A smug smile on her thin, pointed face made Bette want to lash out and smack it right off. She was judging Bette's new little apartment. It was evident on her face. She turned up her nose at the cabinets and the boxes and the little space that would become her home. She was probably mentally checking the boxes of what Bette had left. Their marital home had been beautiful. Stunning. And now she was living in a basement with one bedroom and dated cabinetry. She would probably start laughing if she realized that Bette was sharing the laundry area.
Oh god, the last thing I want her to do is to meet Kerrie.Sweet Kerrie didn't deserve to be scrutinized by her vicious barracuda of an ex-wife.
"What are you doing here, Shelly?" Bette seethed in a low, stern voice.
Shelly raised a light brown manicured eyebrow at her. Amusement sparkled in her brown eyes. "Is that any way to greet me? I haven't seen you in 2 months."
"And I wish it had been longer. I didn't invite you here. And I don't want you here. How did you even find me?"
"I still have access to your location on your phone, and Zoe had said she was helping you move today, so I thought I would come and find you. I saw Zoe pulling out of the street a few minutes ago with an odd-looking man. She told me where you were. Who was that with her?"
"That is none of your business. And how dare you invade my privacy by looking up my location. That is a clear violation of a personal boundary."
Rolling her eyes, Shelly walked over to the kitchen island and began opening a box halfheartedly. "Boundaries this, boundaries that. You've always been so worried about ethics when sometimes you have to skirt around things in order to get your way. You could never understand that, could you? And besides, I want to know where my daughter is going to be hanging out. I have no doubt she'll be here seeing you, and I want to make sure it's a safe place."
"Our daughter," stressed Bette, digging her nails into her palms. "She is our daughter. I would never put her in harm's way."
"That doesn't change the fact that I want to know where my daughter is. It's not like you're keeping really good company right now working at a rehabilitation center. Do you really think that's the image you want to portray?"
"And now you're belittling my workplace. This is just like you, Shelly. Nothing is ever good enough. I've met some really nice people there, and I think that I'm actually going to be able to help some of them. Like I could make a difference in someone's life instead of just pushing papers around and trying to hide your mistakes."
"Excuse me, but it was you who made the mistakes. Always off doing things that I didn't tell you to do. I—"
Bette held up her hand, shaking her head. She knew where this was going and was going to stop it before it got bad. She had already let her get too far. "Let's just stop now. We both know how this is going to end. I'll start yelling; you'll start yelling. It's just going to be a big mess, and I don't want Zoe walking into that."
Sighing heavily, she rolled her eyes as if she were a teenager about to throw a tantrum. Shelly crossed her arms, oozing drama. "Fine. Well, I wanted to check with you about Zoe's graduation and party. Jen has already got everything set up. It's going to be beautiful. Very classy. We are going to have it at the house. Graduation is at 11:00, so we're thinking the party should be immediately after that. We've got it catered, and the photographer iscoming. It's going to be really elegant, so make sure you look good for the pictures. And since you're not dating anyone, you're more than welcome to sit with us at the graduation so you won't be alone."
Fuming with anger, her face aflame, Bette began to speak but was cut off.
"She won't be alone."
