“They’re three months old. They don’t even know who I am.” I pictured my towheaded niece and nephew and smiled. “But I miss them, too.”
“Cat, you can’t feed him again,” Gen said. “All he does is eat and puke.”
“If he’s hungry, I need to feed him,” Catherine insisted.
“You take Sophie and give Brendan to me,” Gen said. There was muffled movement on their end of the line and a long pause. “He just needs his binky, and I’ll rock him.”
“I can see this conversation is going nowhere.” Was it too soon to take more aspirin for my headache? My head still pounded. I hadn’t suffered through a hangover of this magnitude since my freshman year of college. “I just wanted to tell you that Leo is ruining my vacation.”
“Oh, he is not.” Catherine’s tone dripped exasperation. “I don’t know how he could ruin a vacation on the beach. Look at him.”
“Catherine!” My cheeks warmed. Look at him? That’s all I’d been doing lately. It wasn’t my fault. He’s the one who kept coming around. I’d been just fine ignoring him.
“What? I’m just saying. There’re worse things for you to
have
to look at while on vacation. You’re welcome,” Catherine said.
“Ah ha! So you admit you sent him here!” The other cucumber fell off my eye, leaving me no choice but to sit up and replace them both with new ones from the tray.
“Actually, we didn’t send him there,” Gen corrected. “Roxanna told him you took off to the Caribbean—alone—and he was on the next flight out.”
Butterflies, though a bit lethargic in action, flitted to life in my stomach. He’d come on his own.
“You went off alone,” Catherine reprimanded.
“This honeymoon cost me a fortune. I wasn’t going to waste it. And I needed this.”
Neither of them argued.
“If I had a passport, I’d be there with you,” Gen said, and I smiled.
“I know you would have.” I fingered blindly around the tray for the glass of tea, then pressed the ice cold glass against my temple and cheek. It helped a little. “It’s really pretty here. I’m glad I came.”
“Have you done anything fun yet?” Catherine asked, and I pictured me in a pool with my legs around Leo.
“I may have Frenched the enemy.”
“What?” Catherine asked. “Jeremy’s there, too?”
“What?” I jerked and both cucumbers fell. One landed on my chest and the other on the patio. “No, he’s not here. I’m talking about Leo.”
Gen laughed. “Leo isn’t the enemy.”
“All men are.” I sucked down half the iced tea through the straw before setting it down on the table beside me. I was so dehydrated after all the alcohol I’d consumed last night, my tongue felt like a thick, dried out piece of driftwood in my mouth.
“I can’t believe you kissed him,” Catherine said.
“You can’t?” I could hear the smile in Gen’s voice.
“I mean, I can,” Catherine corrected. “But it’s not a good idea, Lexie.”
“No kidding,” I breathed. “I was pretty drunk, but I distinctly remember sticking my tongue down his throat.”
“Well, I think it’s great,” Gen said, and then she followed it up with, “Ouch.
Sheesh,
Cat.”
It was a good assumption Catherine had smacked my twin. I picked up a carrot stick off the tray and waved it in the air. “This is why you two should have talked him out of coming. I’m a mess and making bad decisions.”
Except, the kiss had been mind-blowing good
.
When was the last time I’d been kissed so thoroughly? I couldn’t remember; that’s how long it’d been. Clearly, things between Jeremy and I hadn’t been as perfect as I’d thought—there’d been something missing.
Yeah, like passion.
What I’d done with Leo in that pool...
Jeremy and I never had that, not even close.
“I don’t think it’s that bad of a decision,” Gen said.
“Of course it’s a bad decision,” Catherine scolded. “It’s only been a couple of weeks since she ran out of her own wedding. She can’t be rushing into another relationship.”
“I am
not
rushing into anything with
anyone
,” I stressed.
“It’s not ‘rushing’ with Leo. They have history. He’s good for her.”
“He broke her heart, and she was a mess.” Catherine cooed to whichever baby was in her arms now.
I didn’t need the reminder. It was all I’d been thinking about ever since the pool incident.
“They were kids,” Gen argued.
“She shouldn’t be Frenching him right now.”
“Why not?” Gen demanded.
“
Because
,” Catherine said.
“Who died and made you the boss of Frenching?” Gen asked. “Don’t listen to her, Lex. You can French Leo anytime you want.”
“She’s not ready for another relationship yet,” Catherine insisted.
“Leo is a good guy,” Gen said. “And need I remind you, the two of you were pushing dates on me as soon as I broke up with Brent.”
“Yes, well, you weren’t engaged to be married.
You didn’t run out on your wedding.
”
“Thanks for the reminder, Cat.” I would never live it down. I’d be known as the runaway bride for the rest of my life. I looked down to the empty glass in my hand. I’d have to call room service back, which I hated to do for a glass of tea. It wasn’t smart to travel too far from the bathroom—I had a feeling I might throw up again. Soon.
“Lexie and Jeremy weren’t in a good place for months before that. They were practically broken up before the wedding.”
I straightened too quickly and winced against the pang in my head. “We were not practically broken up before I ran out of our wedding.” But she was right. I should have seen it. I whispered, “I thought everything was okay.”
Gen sighed. “I’m sorry, Lex. I shouldn’t have brought that up.”
“See, she’s too fragile right now,” Catherine said. “The best thing for you right now is to not stick your tongue down anyone’s throat until you’re a little more…stable. Just ogle him. Ogling is great therapy.”
She clearly had no idea what it was like to be around Leo—
alone
with Leo. It was impossible to keep a safe distance when there was some weird electric current drawing me toward him.
“But we should all be in agreement that if she
wanted to
she can French anyone she wants.
Because she no longer has any feelings whatsoever for Jeremy
. At all
.
” When I didn’t answer right away, Gen said into the silence, “
Right?
You aren’t still in love with him? I mean, you wouldn’t go back to him after what he did to you.”
“Not a chance in hell.” I shuddered.
“Of course she’s not going back to him. He wanted to divorce her for money. That weasel,” Catherine seethed.
“Exactly. Moving on, that’s what she’s doing. And maybe Leo is just the guy she needs to—”
“No!” Catherine and I exclaimed in unison.
I nibbled at a carrot stick. “Listen, you two. As great as it is to hear your voices and listen to you arguing about whose mouth my tongue should or should not be playing around in, you’re making my hangover worse.”
“You called us,” Gen reminded.
“You were nuts to have flown off on your own. What were you thinking?” Catherine scolded.
I jumped to my feet and winced at the piercing pain in my head. Pressing my fingers to my temples, I whispered, so as not to hurt my head any worse, “My being crazy is not relevant to this conversation. The point is that he is here, I am here, and I don’t particularly like men right now.”
“Really?” The whispered words made me shiver, and I stiffened as Leo’s lips hovered just a breath away from my ear lobe. “I thought you liked having a roommate last night.”
My breaths were shallow spurts as I willed myself to relax.
Impossible
—not with him standing right behind me.
“Listen here, Alexis Anne Gorecki,” Catherine huffed. “Did you want to give your parents a heart attack by gallivanting off to the Caribbean alone,
unchaperoned
? Mom and Dad can sleep at night knowing he’s there. Seriously, Lexie, you should have stayed here with your family instead of running off.”
I stormed away from Leo and didn’t dare look in his direction as I paced the patio. “I didn’t exactly choose all the shit that’s happening in my life, Catherine Lynn. Deborah has decided to
ruin me.
I’ll probably have to move. Out of state.”
Actually, moving sounded like a great idea. Why hadn’t I thought of moving before? Just close my boutique and reopen somewhere else. Another state wouldn’t care about how I’d humiliated the Buchanan family. Another state wouldn’t care about the Buchanans at all. Deborah would forget about me. Moving definitely had a nice ring to it. The wheels in my head turned surprisingly quick, despite my hangover.
“Move? You are so dramatic,” Catherine said, and I pictured the eye roll. “You left your fiancé at the altar. His mom hates your guts, and she’s a psycho. Happens all the time.”
“Oh? How often?” I asked. “I want statistics.”
“The day Lexie stops being dramatic is the day we know she’s been abducted by aliens,” Gen said.
Leo chuckled. I paused for a second in my pacing to give him a glare. My annoyance didn’t seem to bother him one bit, and didn’t wipe the smile from his lips. He now lay sprawled out in a chaise lounge, his arms propping his head up so he could watch me pace. The tank top strained against his pecs, and it was a nice view, so I averted my gaze.
I took my sisters off speaker phone and put the phone to my ear. “Enough with the aliens. This is serious.”
“I know, I’m just saying,” Gen said.
I stopped to lean against the beam of the pergola. The ocean was a breathtaking view. I’d never seen anything like it. “You know, it’s like eighty degrees here all year round? Maybe I should stay.”
“This will all blow over,” Catherine said. “She only went on television because she thinks it’ll help Gerard win the election. Once that’s over with, she’ll leave you alone and forget about you.”
“Eighty degrees year round? Serious? That’s amazing,” Gen said.
“You’re not helping. Shush up,” Catherine told her.
“I’m going in to take a nap. I was up all night because of a lush, and this conversation is too intense for a vacation.” Leo strolled past me and into the villa.
I couldn’t take my eyes off his back; the cotton of his tank top molded to him like a second skin.
He called over his shoulder, “Don’t go anywhere without telling me.”
“I don’t need a damn babysitter,” I snapped after him.
“Sure you don’t,” he answered and shut the patio door on me.
Last night I’d needed more than a babysitter.
Maybe a good spanking…
I snapped out of that train of thought, but then he fell back onto the king sized bed and my imagination stirred up again. The filmy cream canopy drapes were open, cinched at all four posts. He looked comfortable—
gorgeous—
in the bed. Like an open invitation for all things naughty. I turned my back on the villa.
“You’re right. This will blow over. She didn’t want me in their family anyway.”
“I wish there was something we could do,” Gen said, a frown in my twin’s voice—it matched the one on my lips.
“Me too, Gen.” I sighed and closed my eyes. Hangovers made me tired. My eyes felt like sandpaper.
“Roxanna called her,” Gen said, and I held my breath, waiting for her to elaborate.
“Who?” I asked after too long a pause, even though I knew who she spoke of. I pinched my fingers to the bridge of my nose at the corners of my eyes.
“The She-Devil,” Gen said. “Roxanna was pissed after you left.”
I let out a breath of air and waited. And waited.
“Tell her,” Catherine said, but Gen remained silent. “Oh
jeez,
I’ll tell her. Roxanna told Deborah to back off.”
“I’m guessing she didn’t appreciate that,” I said. If it were as simple as that, I’d have called her myself. The fact she’d gone on live television to stomp on me was a clear sign—bold and in all caps—that she didn’t plan on making things easy for me. I’d embarrassed her, embarrassed their family, and may have ruined Gerard’s campaign.
No, me telling her to back off—anyone telling her to back off—wasn’t going to sway a woman like Deborah Buchanan. She was pure evil.
“No, she only laughed,” Gen said. “But she mentioned there was a way for you to fix all of this.”
I stiffened. “What? How the hell can I fix anything? She’s the one who did this to
me.
What the hell does she want from me?”
Catherine cleared her throat. “She wants you to make a public announcement that you ran out of the wedding not because of anything the Buchanans or their son did to you, but because you suffer from a borderline multiple personality disorder.”
My mouth dropped open.
“And she wants you to admit you have rage issues on national television,” Gen added.
I sat down in a lounge chair so I wouldn’t collapse from the shock of it all. I couldn’t wrap my head around the extent of Deborah’s crazy.
“All before the election.”