Lila jumped a foot when she noticed him, causing Creigh to step even closer, clearly invading her personal space. Lila didn’t know where to turn. She knew she should take a step back but more than anything she wanted to step closer. She knew she told Jilly that this man was an impertinent Romeo but it was all she could do not to throw herself into his arms. He positively radiated sexual energy. Lila had no idea what was wrong with her. She had always been a woman of strong moral fiber, but at the moment she wanted to rip her clothes off and have her way with this hunk.
Before she had a chance to say anything, Will stepped forward and boomed, “Creigh, my boy, how have you been?”
Lila wondered how her father knew him. Then her mother put her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “We miss your mother so much.”
Creigh was taken off guard seeing Will and Bitsy Montgomery with the beauty from the airport. He quickly put two and two together and asked, “My gosh, are you little Lila Montgomery?”
Will playfully punched him in the arm and said, “Not so little anymore, huh?” Lila thought she would die of embarrassment! Creigh continued, “I haven’t seen you since you were a little girl.”
Lila finally found her voice and asked, “Who are you?”
Her Father answered, “My word, don’t tell me the two of you have never met? Lila, this is Creighton Ashwood, Lillian Ashwood’s son.” It was that moment that Lila remembered him. Creighton Ashwood was eight years older than she and the last time she saw him was when she was seventeen. She had developed such a mad crush on him that summer she made sure she ran into him every Saturday after he finished playing golf. It occurred to her that Creigh looked so much like Julius Hedgeworth in
She Sins at Midnight
because Julius was probably subconsciously patterned after him. Not to mention, her heroine had the last name of Ashwood. Lila felt her knees go weak. Here she was standing in front of the biggest crush of her life and she could barely keep from peeling her clothes off. What kind of lady was she?
Creigh smiled down at Lila. He had no recollection of Will and Bitsy’s daughter after the age of six or so. Had he known she would grow up into such a beauty he would have made a play for her long before she got married and had a family. What amazed him though was even knowing that she was married with kids didn’t seem to be putting a damper on the uncontrollable desire he felt for her. He silently chastised himself. Since when did he go on the make for married mothers? Creigh finally managed to ask Lila, “How are your children? Did they have fun at the pool today?”
Bitsy interrupted, “Children? What on earth are you talking about, Creigh? Lila doesn’t have children. She’s not even married.”
Upon hearing that news, it was all Creigh could do not to drag Lila off to a dark hallway and do the most explicitly naughty things to her. This angel was not a mother and she wasn’t married. He didn’t know why God was smiling on him but he made the decision at that moment he was going to further his pursuit of her. He had never felt such intense lust in his life.
Lila stammered, “Those were my friend Jilly’s children.” Then she asked, “And how about your friend?” She stressed the word friend. “Did she have a nice day at the pool?”
Creigh immediately took her tone, “Yes, my goddaughter Katrina and I had a lovely time. Thank you for asking.”
His goddaughter, what great news! Lila was more turned on than ever. Good lord, if she didn’t walk away from this man soon, she was afraid that she would make a scene. Johnny chose that moment to announce that the Montgomery’s table was ready.
Will shook Creigh’s hand and invited, “Why don’t you join us Creigh? We’d love to have a chance to catch up with you.”
Creigh declined stating a previous engagement. Giving Lila another approving look, he added, “But I would love to have the opportunity to catch up with
all
of you later. Why don’t I give you a call, Will and we’ll set something up?”
Lila wasn’t sure how she even managed to walk to into the dining room. The thought of seeing Creighton Ashwood again both thrilled and petrified her. She was relieved that the girl at the pool wasn’t his girlfriend. But she had never reacted so strongly to a man as long as she had lived. It was very disconcerting.
Then Lila remembered the bimbo on the plane. She wondered what the chances were that she was another of his godchildren. Oh hell, she didn’t even want to think about it. Why not just add that to the growing number of things to ignore? She mentally made a list. One: forget that you wrote a graphically sexual romance novel. Two: forget that said novel has been nominated for a prestigious award that if it wins, will out you to everyone you know as a pervert. Three: forget that the most gorgeous man you have ever seen is a blazing womanizer. At the rate she was going, there wouldn’t be that many things to bother remembering. This was not the simple trip home she anticipated.
* * * * *
M
eanwhile, in the ladies’ room, Melinda unbuttoned her blouse two extra notches and pulled the turbo strap on her wonder bra so her boobs were even closer together, enhancing her already astounding cleavage. She rolled the waistband on her skirt three times so the hem rose considerably and flipped her hair about twenty times so if would be full and sexy. Then she added more eye liner and put on a darker shade of lipstick. Once she was satisfied with the outcome she walked out to meet Creigh with thoughts of a little seduction of her own.
Johnny raised his eyebrows when he saw Melinda’s transformation and asked her to follow him. He led her through the blue dining room where her eyes were immediately drawn to a beautiful woman who looked like a prettier and thinner version of Lila. She knew she had to be seeing things. There was no way that Josh’s big-assed assistant was dining in the same country club as she was, in Bentley, Illinois. Her mind had to be playing tricks on her.
When Melinda arrived at the table, Creigh let Johnny pull her chair out. He was so shocked by her makeover that he just sat there in mute silence. Melinda misread his reaction for total and absolute lust.
She leaned across the table and purred, “Did you miss me?”
Creigh answered, “Miss Forrester, we have some rather important business to discuss here. I think it would be in the best interest of your lawsuit if we kept our relationship purely professional.”
Melinda raised an eyebrow, “Whatever you think, Creigh.” She knew he was just covering his butt, legally. There was no way on earth that Creighton Ashwood didn’t want her. After all, she knew the power she had over the weaker sex. She planned on using it to its capacity on this man.
J
ohnny had just seated the Montgomerys at their regular table when Lila looked across the room and could have sworn that she saw Melinda Forrester slinking her way across the dining room. She gave herself a sharp reprimand for letting any thoughts of the troublesome starlet occupy her. After all, she was thousands of miles away from Los Angeles. Lila really, really, needed to relax and forget her mounting problems for awhile. Yet, before she did, she told Will and Bitsy all about the feud between her and the movie star.
Will assured his daughter that Melinda was jealous of what a beautiful, accomplished woman she was.
Lila exclaimed, “Jealous? Of me?! Dad, Melinda is a young skinny film star who makes millions. What do I have that she could possibly be jealous of?”
Bitsy declared, “The Melinda Forresters of this world are a dime a dozen. All you have to do to get another is to bleach her hair, give her some fake boobs and inject her lips until they look like a vulva.”
Completely nonplussed that his wife just said the word vulva in the dining room of the club, Will added, “And let’s face it Li, the girl probably isn’t firing with all her pistons. She’s most assuredly jealous of your intelligence.”
Before Lila could disagree, Bitsy added, “Don’t you worry about Melinda Forrester. She’s nothing but a pathetic slut, a veritable whore if you will.” For good measure she added, “And I’m sure she’s a bitch as well.”
Lila said a prayer that her mother never develop Tourette’s Syndrome. If she could rattle off such a litany of salty adjectives without it, they were doomed if she lost control entirely. She told her parents they would have to agree to disagree about Melinda and perhaps the best thing was not mention her again.
At that point, Bitsy and Will were full of talk about Creighton Ashwood. It didn’t slide beneath either of their radars that there were sparks in the air between their daughter and Lillian’s son. Bitsy informed Lila that Creigh was a wonderful man, something of a legal genius as well. Lila asked whether Creigh lived in L.A. or Bentley and discovered that he had been in Los Angeles the same amount of time as she had, ten years.
Lila wondered what law firm was Creigh’s. She also wondered why their paths had never crossed at industry parties. Josh made her go to more events than she thought was necessary. Plus, all the big entertainment lawyers were always invited to Amalgamated’s holiday doo at The Peninsula Hotel. She would have known if Creigh had ever shown up. Although, she did miss last year’s affair due to an unfortunate outbreak of pink eye. Josh informed her that runny pink rabbit eyes were totally unappetizing (like anyone ever ate at those parties) and he thought it would be best if she didn’t come (she would have contracted it sooner had she known. It would be her get out of jail free card.) She was currently planning an attack of scabies for the next big function.
When the waitress arrived, all three Montgomerys ordered the beer-battered halibut. Lila got hers without the tartar sauce, but with extra coleslaw. She didn’t know what they did to the coleslaw at the club, but she found herself craving it at the most unlikely moments. And there was nothing in this world worse than craving something when it was over two-thousand miles away.
Lila found out more about Creigh’s history over dinner. He had never been married, although he had been briefly engaged after college. According to Lillian Ashwood, he was the best, most thoughtful and wonderful son in the whole world. Bitsy added her own side note, “And what a butt! Did you see those buns, Lila? Yummy!”
Lila looked up in shock, “Mother, I cannot believe you just said that. Of course I didn’t notice his butt, I just met him.” Then she looked to Will for help, “Dad, can you believe what Mom just said? Can’t you control her?”
Will chuckled, “No way, Li. Your mom is a lot more fun when she’s out of control.” He winked and added, “If I’m lucky, she might just be out of control when we get home tonight.”
Lila chose that moment to get up and go to the ladies’ room. Spending time with her parents these days was like hanging out with a couple of seventh graders in the throes of their first love. In other words, they were positively nauseating.
As Lila reapplied her lipstick in the bathroom (just in case she saw Creigh again), Jessica Bowman walked through the door. Lila met her eyes in the mirror and knew there was no point in pretending that she didn’t recognize her. She was going to deal with this the same way she would if she ran into Jessica at the reunion. That would be straightforward and without breaking out into a cold sweat, she hoped. Trying to sound friendly, she asked “Jessica, is that you?”
Jessica broke into a big smile and announced, “Lila Montgomery, don’t you look gorgeous! Are you home for the reunion?”
“I’m here for an extended visit with my folks but I’ll still be around at the time of the reunion, so I’m sure I’ll go. How about you?”
She answered, “Actually, I live in Bentley now. My husband and I just moved back from Chapel Hill. He transferred to a job in Chicago. Charles is a stockbroker. What does your husband do?”
Remembering to breathe, Lila answered, “He hasn’t told me yet.”
Jessica looked confused, so Lila explained that she wasn’t married. She thought she would see pity or sympathy in Jessica’s eyes, but instead her old classmate said, “Good for you. Marriage is not all it’s cracked up to be.”
Lila had no idea what Jessica meant by that comment. She just knew that she felt a ray of hope that she might not be viewed as the class failure after all. It seemed that her life might not be the only one that didn’t turn out as planned.
Jessica apologized, “I’m sorry I said that to you. It was a ridiculously personal comment to make to someone that I haven’t seen in fifteen years. I’m just having a bad night.” She changed topics and asked, “Do you still see Jilly Simms?”
Lila answered, “I sure do, but she’s Jilly Sparks now.” Lila continued to tell Jessica all about Jilly’s great life with her wonderful husband and three perfect children. She felt extremely protective of her friend and wanted Jessica to envy what a great life she had. She added that Jilly and Bill were members of the club so she was sure that Jessica would eventually run into her.
Jessica smiled, “I’m sure I will. Does Jilly play golf or tennis?”
Lila knew that Jilly didn’t have the time or money for either of those pursuits but she didn’t want their nemesis to learn too much too soon so she answered, “Every now and then.”
Jessica said, “Good, maybe she and I can play together some day. I don’t have many friends left in Bentley and it would be nice to see a friendly face.” With what appeared to be a very sincere smile, she continued “I hope we see each other again before the reunion, Lila. It’s been fun catching up.”
As much as Lila didn’t want to see Jessica before the reunion or at the reunion for that matter, she was oddly touched that Jessica would want to see her. Maybe she wasn’t as scary as Lila remembered her to be. Not that Lila was actually going to go wild and become friends with her or anything; it was just liberating to feel some of that adolescent angst start to slip away.
As Lila walked back toward the dining room, she saw Creigh leave the library and he wasn’t alone. He was with the Melinda Forrester look alike. Lila wound up within a few feet of them by the time she reached her table. That’s when she made eye contact with Melinda’s twin and realized this was no twin. This really was Melinda, in the flesh, in Illinois, in her country club, with the man of her dreams! Lila actually felt a little dizzy but managed to stammer, “Melinda?”