My Curvy Valentine: A Perfect Fit Novella (15 page)

They both got out of the car. Alex had the cake in one hand and wrapped his other arm around her as they walked toward the door. “This could be fun,” he said into her ear, his lips
brushing her skin, making her all hot and bothered and cranky at the same time. “It’s just dinner. You’re not walking into your execution.”

“We can drop the cake off and go.” She leaned against him, glad he was there, glad he always seemed to be there when she needed him lately.

“Stop being such a chickenshit. A little party never hurt nobody.”

“Quit quoting song lyrics to me,” she grumped.

“Party in the USA. It’s your party and you’ll cry if you want to. You’ve got to fight for your right to party.”

She looked up at him, grinning as she watched him try to think up another song. “That was a mighty impressive showing, my friend.”

“You bring out the best in me,” he said as they walked up.

“I saw you guys pull up a little while ago,” her father greeted them, smiling. “You didn’t have to sit in the car. Everybody is here already. How are you doing, Alex?” He extended his hand.

“Fine, sir.”

Her father was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a paper party hat. He was smiling and she felt like the body snatchers had paid him a visit. What happened to the man she knew?

“It’s cold out here tonight. Come on in, kids.”

Maggie walked in, immediately noticing the changes that her childhood home had undergone. She hadn’t stepped a foot inside it since her mother moved out over two years ago.
But it wasn’t the neat and orderly family home she remembered. It looked like a bachelor pad, with leather sofas and a huge flat-screen TV taking up half the wall. There was even a framed football jersey. What was next, a neon beer sign?

“Hey, Maggie!” She took her attention off the décor to see Gordon waving at her. He too was wearing a party hat, holding a drink in one hand and a small paper plate in the other.

“Hey, Gordon.” She took a step further and then she paused.
Gordon?
The man her mother was seeing?

“Oh, my baby is here!” Her mother came out of the kitchen a big glass of wine in her hand. “I’m so glad to see you.” She kissed both of Maggie’s cheeks.

“Mom?” She shook her head, now completely and utterly confused.

“I was just chatting in the kitchen with Tina. She’s a hoot and a half. Did you know she used be a go-go dancer in her day? With those tall, white vinyl boots. I’m so jealous. My older sister had them and I was just dying to have them. My mother said I had to wait till I was sixteen to get them, and don’t you know, by the time I was old enough they had gone out of style.”

“Hi, Maggie.” A woman resembling Angie Dickinson appeared from behind her mother. “I’m Tina.” She hugged Maggie, who was so dumbfounded she couldn’t respond. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

So this was Tina. When she’d heard her father had a new girlfriend, she had pictured a younger woman, or at least someone his age. But Tina was older. She was fantastic looking, but probably had ten years on her dad.

“Yeah. Hi, Tina.” She looked at her mother. “What are you doing here?”

“I think she means, it’s nice to meet you Tina,” Alex said. “Thanks for having us. We brought the cake.” He stepped forward to kiss Betty’s cheek. “How are you doing, gorgeous? I hope you’ve recovered from our night together?”

“Oh, you fresh boy!” Betty blushed. “I’ve recovered just fine. Gordon and I are ready to join you over there again. Just say the word and we’ll be there with bells on.”

Clayton came out of the back then and leaned against the wall, just taking them all in. He seemed so cool and calm about their mother and her boyfriend joining their father and his girlfriend for this strange little dinner party that she wanted to smack him. He’d probably known about it. He’d probably set her up as payback for something she did as a kid.

“The cake is beautiful!” Tina said as she took it from him. “It’s so lovely to meet you, Chef Sanna. I’ve heard great things about your bakery. And about you from Phil. He’s so happy that you’re dating his daughter. He said he always liked you as a kid.”

“What?”

“You’re dating?” Clayton and Betty said at the same time.

Maggie shook her head, much too confused by the extra unexpected guests to follow the conversation. “What’s going on here?” She turned to look at Alex. “My mother is here.”

“I know, Mags.”

“She’s here and she brought Gordon, the guy she’s seeing, to her former husband’s birthday dinner.”

“Yes. We’re happy to see them, aren’t we?” He pulled her slightly away from the rest of the group.

“Stop talking to me like I’m a mental patient,” she hissed at him. “You know this is crazy. My mother and her boyfriend are here with my father and his girlfriend. My father is wearing a goddamn party hat. On what planet does that make sense?”

“I know this is weird for you, but you have to pull it together. Because this is your family now and it doesn’t matter how much you don’t like it. This is the way things are.”

She took a deep breath. He was right. Freaking out wasn’t going to change things. But she really wanted to freak out. It might make her feel slightly better. “Shut up and stop pretending you’re the sensible one here.”

He grinned at her. “I
am
the sensible one and
you
shut up.” He took her shoulders and spun her around. They were all staring at her. The parents who divorced after a long, strained marriage, their significant others, and Clay. She thought her brother was scowling, but she couldn’t tell with his bushy beard and the messy hair covering his forehead.

“Maggie’s cool now,” Alex announced cheerfully. “Something smells good in here. What’s for dinner?”

“Garlic and rosemary pork lion, brown butter mashed potatoes, and roasted broccoli with lemon and pine nuts,” Phillip said stepping forward. “I made it myself. Everything should be done shortly.”

“You made dinner?” Maggie blinked at her father.

“Yes. I took a cooking class after your mother left. I figured I had to. I didn’t realize how spoiled I was until she was gone.”

“You never realized how good she was. It’s a little too late now.”

“Maggie May,” her mother scolded.

“It’s all right, Beatrice.” He held his hand up. “She’s upset with me. She’s entitled to be.”

“That may be, but I won’t have anyone being rude tonight. He’s your father, young lady, and you will respect him.”

“Why are you defending him? He treated you like shit.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know. We are friends now,” her mother said firmly. “We are going to have a nice night. All of us.”

“It’s okay, Beatrice.” Phillip shook his head. “Maybe this was a bad idea.”

“No, it wasn’t a bad idea.” Betty’s cheeks were red with anger. “Maggie May, I don’t ask for a lot, but I’m asking you to be here for your father tonight. It’s his birthday and the only thing he wanted was for all of us to be here.”

Maggie didn’t want to agree. Everything inside of her was screaming that this wasn’t right, that she should get the hell out of there. But her mother was right. Betty never asked her for anything, and if this was that important to her, then she would make an effort. “I’m sorry, Dad.” She touched his arm, uncomfortable with doing anything else.

“No worries.” He smiled at her. He smiled. She was so unused to seeing that. He always seemed so angry growing up. So miserable. “Who wants a drink? Tina makes a damn fine Orange Splash. I didn’t think I would love such a female drink, but it’s good.”

They ate a dinner in the formal dining room that she could only ever recall them using once, when they were celebrating Clay’s acceptance to West Point. But then the mood hadn’t been this… relaxed. Her father was laughing with her mother over a joke she didn’t hear the
punchline to. She could barely concentrate. She was too busy being focused on the mega crazy change in her parents.

“Want another drink?” Clayton asked as he started to get up from his seat beside her.

“No thanks.” She looked up at him. Clay was always hard to read, but she really wanted to know what he was thinking.

“I’ll bring you one anyway. You need one. Mom, Tina, you want?”

“Some sangria, please. Or maybe I shouldn’t. I might be feeling too good already.”

“Oh, have one,” Tina urged. “I’m going to.”

“Coming right up, ladies. Alex.” Clay smacked him in the back of the head. “Get up off your ass and help me.”

“Watch them hands, army boy,” Alex shot back. “I can still take you down.”

They left her alone with her parents and their partners. “So, Maggie. Your mother tells me you were designing bionic limbs before you left to work here in town.”

“I wasn’t,” she said feeling too out of sorts to even pretend to lie. “I designed bionic penile implants. I’ve never shared that with my parents though, Tina. Because I was terribly embarrassed by it, but what the hell? I don’t want anybody thinking I left a fulfilling job helping people with disabilities for a dumb reason. I was seriously just not happy helping old men get boners.”

A hush fell over the table, all eyes on her again until her father burst out laughing. “That’s a hoot, Maggie!”

A hoot?

“I always wondered how those things work. I’ve got a buddy who said he was interested in getting one. Little did I know my baby girl was designing them. I might have him give you a call and you can walk him through the finer points,” he said, laughing.

“You don’t care?” she asked, dumbfounded. If she had told him this three years ago she was sure he would have had a coronary and dropped dead on the spot.

“Of course not. I’m proud of you, babe.”

“What?”

“Me too,” Gordon said. “It may not have meant much to you, Maggie, but to some men you did the work of God.” He smacked his knee and chuckled. “They’re thanking you in their prayers, I’ll tell you what.”

“And now I get why you quit,” Betty said. “You could have told us, baby girl. We would have understood.”

She could have told them? They would have understood
. She would have called bullshit on that, but she was too stunned to talk.

“Oh, Beatrice,” Phillip said. “I’ve been meaning to tell you. Tina found a great deal on a three-day cruise leaving out of the city in a couple of weeks. What do you think about you and Gordon coming along?”

Maggie’s head snapped up. Did her father just ask her mother and her boyfriend to go on vacation?

“What do you think, Gordy Pordy? I think it sounds like fun.”

Sounds like fun?

“I say yes. I love cruises. Maybe if we have a good time we can take a long one together in the spring?”

Together? In the spring?

What the hell?

“Good,” Phillip smiled. “I need a man to hang out with.”

“I’m sorry,” Maggie said, her sanity finally slipping. “But what the hell is going here?”

“What do you mean, pumpkin?” Betty asked, looking toward the kitchen door. “Where is your brother with those drinks?”

“Are you all seriously going to sit there and act like this is normal? Like you didn’t have a horrible marriage. That Clay and I didn’t grow up in a house of military rule and strained silence. How can you sit there and be so happy now?” She looked at her father. “You weren’t happy when we were kids. You weren’t happy married to Mom. But now you’re planning vacations together and acting like one big freaking happy family. I’m sorry, but this is not okay with me. And I can’t just sit here and watch you all act like the last twenty years didn’t happen.” She got up from the table. “Happy birthday, Dad. I’ve got to go.”

*

“What the hell are you trying to pull?” Clayton cornered Alex as soon as they walked into the kitchen.

“What the hell are you talking about?” He pushed Clayton back a step.

“You lied to me about what you and Maggie were doing. You lied right to my goddamn face.”

“I didn’t lie to you. I’ve never lied to you.”

“What the hell was Tina talking about then? She said my dad told her that you two were together. How the hell would he know if it weren’t true?”

Alex didn’t know how to respond to that for a moment. He knew Clayton didn’t want him messing with Maggie, but what he did with Maggie was none of his friend’s business. “He saw me kiss her. We aren’t together and I’ve never had sex with your sister.”

“I don’t know if I can believe you. I saw the way you two were looking at each other. You think I’m stupid?”

“You think I would lie to you?” Alex pushed him again. “I’ve been your best friend since we were twelve years old.”

“Yeah, and I know you’ve been trying to get in her pants for a while now. You think I didn’t know that you guys hung out when I wasn’t around? You think it was just coincidence that you had to open your bakery in the building Maggie lived in? That you had to move right next door to her?”

“I chose that building because my father owned it and it was in a good location.”

“Bullshit! You came back here for her.”

“And so what if I did? So what if I’m seeing her? You act like I’m some kind of scumbag. It never occurred to you that I could love your sister? That I could be a standup guy?”

“What?” Clayton froze and then all at once Alex saw all the tension seep from his body. “Are you in love with Maggie?”

“What the hell are you talking about? Who said anything about love?”

“You did. Just right now.”

“I’m not in love with Maggie.” He shook his head, confused about what they were talking about. “You went away and we stayed in touch. You went to war and we got closer. You came back from war a whole different fucking person and she’s became my best damn friend. I like her. Okay? I look after her. Okay? You’ve have your head stuck up your ass for the past year and you haven’t even noticed how much she’s changed. I like her and if I want to be with her I should have your blessing instead of this shit.”

“Okay, man. Whatever.” Clayton turned toward the fridge grabbing two beers. “Help me get these drinks.”

They walked out, Clayton acting as if nothing happened between them at all. It was quiet when they got back to the dining room, the mood much darker than when they left. “What happened? Where’s Maggie?”