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Of course, hewascoming, wasn’t he?
I glanced at Mom, just as Jacob leaned in close to murmur something into her pearl adorned ear. And I knew true love when I glimpsed it; I’d seen it often enough in Jacob’s eyes when he looked at my mom. I was seeing it now.
They were so… lucky.
Mom had been married three times, and none of those other marriages had worked out. Jacob had been widowed, married again and divorced, not to mention that a crazy lady had abandoned her child on his doorstep; he’d raised four sons, sometimes on his own, and one of them wasn’t even his.
Either of them could’ve become jaded, given up on love long ago. But here they were, starting over again. With the love of their life.
I watched as Jacob discreetly skimmed a knuckle along Mom’s neck. A shiver ran through me and I looked away, feeling like a lame voyeur, but warm and fuzzy, too. At the same moment, I raised my champagne flute to my lips—and spilled it down the front of my dress. It must’ve been refilled again when I wasn’t looking.
Mom gave me a startled look and handed me a linen napkin. But that really wasn’t gonna cut it.
A waiter appeared like magic to pour me another and I excused myself to the powder room. It wasn’t until I climbed awkwardly out of my chair and took the first step, in the three-inch heels I’d borrowed last minute from Alyssa, that I realizedhowdrunk I was.
Like,whoa.
Alyssa gave me another concerned look and Dani hooked her eyebrow at me like a question mark. Everything was starting to look a little… off.
I’m okay, I mouthed in their direction as I turned to go. I grasped the back of Alyssa’s chair for balance and swallowed hard.Oh fuck, please don’t let me throw up in front of everyone. I looked at Mom, who smiled prettily, glancing about to make sure no one was noticing the hot mess that was her drunk daughter.
I beelined into the kitchen and swiped a bottled water from the fridge, waving off the offers of assistance from the catering staff and locking my sights on the army of French doors that seemed to be tromping towards me.Outside.I needed fresh air. The very last thing I needed was to leaveeau de vomitin Mom’s elegant toilette.
The next thing I knew I was through those doors, stumbling along the stone path outside, horribly misjudging the distance between said path and my own feet. Luckily there was no one around to see it. With difficulty, I wrestled off Alyssa’s size six shoes, which we’d somehow crammed onto my size seven feet, and tucked them under one arm. I stood swaying in the shadows of the backyard, carefully breathing in the sweet scent of freshly cut grass.
I took a tentative swig from the water bottle, and when it didn’t come back up I took a few more sips. I rolled the cool bottle on the bare skin between my breasts, took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. I could smell the lovely scent of Mom’s flower gardens. The clean, faintly salty air of the saltwater pool. Through the open French doors, I heard the distant, homey clinking of dishes.
Through the trees, I heard the smooth, throaty rumble of a high performance car, one of the happy couple’s wealthy friends driving home, hopefully a lot more sober than I was right now.
The shitty thing was, I loved this place. I missed it.
It seemed so incredibly unfair that I had to avoid it. Over the last three years, since she’d moved in, Mom had been working overtime making Jacob’s hometheirs. I’d been living with Mom before she moved in here, and she and Jacob had welcomed me to move in when she did. But I just couldn’t be here for it.
I couldn’t stand seeing Shane around this place.
For a moment, I felt awful for Jacob. He probably wouldn’t let it show if he was hurt, but his son should’ve been here by now. It was getting crazy late.
When was he gonna show his smug cover model face?
But I knew, I was only partly indignant for Jacob and Mom. The other part was for me; for the nineteen-year-old girl who was fool enough to tumble into bed with a stranger who had a blinding smile, pale wolfish eyes and no hope of ever returning her misguided affections.
I’dlikedhim that night.
I’d really liked him.
I stumbled along the stone pathway, feeling my way along the low hedge on one side and the stone balustrade on the other. It wasn’t totally dark, but I was having a little trouble gauging where the bushes were. And where exactly I was in relation to them. Hundreds of tiny golden lights twinkled like fireflies in the dark, peeking out between the leaves of the tiered gardens. I made my way toward the pool, making a mental note to avoid falling in.
It would really ruin Mom’s wedding shower if I drowned.
I caught the scent of automobile on the night air, and suddenly realized I was nowhere near the pool. That car I heard leaving must’ve been arriving. I looked up at the golden lights along the driveway through the trees, glowing on top of their posts. Somehow, I’d gone the wrong way.
I wobbled in a circle, trying to sort it out. I’d ended up at the edge of the driveway, where it wrapped around the house on one side. I heard a voice—a smothered, female voice. Then a sort of grunt and a giggle, and what sounded like a slap of flesh on flesh.
I stumbled a few more steps.
I could see the car through the trees now. It was a yellow Lamborghini.
And there in the near-dark between the golden lights, someone was standing over it.
