Any Way You Spin It
An UPPER CRUST Novel
by Monique McDonell
Any Way You Spin It, Copyright Monique McDonell
Published by Redfish Publishing
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Contents
Any Way You Spin It
Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
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Acknowledgements
Prologue
It was another day at Sleazy Dan’s. The bar’s actual name was Dan’s, the sleazy was implied by the strippers, the lack of windows, and the floor that stuck to your feet when you walked. It was on the edge of Reno, and it felt to Minnie like the end of the world. When she stepped in from the bright Nevada sunshine, it felt like she was entering an alternate universe and she wasn’t quite sure how she’d gotten there.
She removed her own T-shirt and bra and replaced it with the cropped white version that left nothing to the imagination. She looked over at Karan, stage name Lacey Amour, covering her thong and pasties-clad body in body glitter and was thankful for her Daisy Dukes.
She tried to tell herself it could be worse, but she couldn’t quite decide how. She was living hand-to-mouth in a seedy motel, working as a waitress in a strip club. She’d abandoned her kids to chase some guy, and for what? He’d long moved on, and now she was alone and ashamed.
She’d tried to stop drinking more than once. Right now, she was three days sober. It was a vicious cycle: when she was sober, the clarity of what she’d done to her family brought her to her knees and she was too ashamed to reach out to them, and when she was drinking, she couldn’t. She’d work it out. She had to.
Lacey walked over and gave her a weak smile. “We better get out there before Dan comes looking.”
“Sure.”
“You want to get a drink after?”
“We’ll see.” Truthfully, it was more of a one-hour-at-a-time than a one-day proposition right now.
Harry was behind the bar and tipped his head at her. He wasn’t a bad guy, and that made him the only one in this joint. The front row was half full of seedy businessmen, three regulars sat at the bar, and the booths were empty, apart from a ridiculously handsome guy alone in the back booth who looked more interested in his phone than the talent on stage.
She grabbed a tray and walked over.
“I’m Jade. What can I get you?” she asked, and he looked up at her. She never used her real name here. Damn, he was good-looking. He looked cultured and neat. What the hell he was doing here she had no clue. Slumming it must have been his thing. Everyone in this place had a thing.
“Scotch on the rocks, thanks. Whatever your best is.”
Their best wasn’t much, but as she weaved her way back to him after collecting his order from Harry, the eyes of at least one of the businessmen boring into her, that was what she was carrying. She slid his drink and bowl of stale nuts across the table to him.
“You work here long, Jade?” He drew out her name nice and slowly.
“Little while.”
“You like it?”
“It’s a job.” She gave a one-shoulder shrug.
“Yeah, funny job for an accountant, though.” She froze. Hairs pricked all over her body. “Isn’t it, Minnie?”
He leaned in and picked up his drink, taking a long slow sip of it before putting it down. Meanwhile, Minnie didn’t move, not a hair, not a muscle.
“I’m a waitress,” she said when she finally found her voice.
“Sure, you’re also the mother of three great kids and the sister of my fiancée, Lucy.”
“You know Lucy, and my kids?”
“I do. They sure miss you.”
“Jade.” Harry was calling her from the bar.
“I have to go. I’ll lose my job . . .”
“Take your time, I’m not going anywhere.”
He was waiting for her at the end of her shift. Usually when you saw a strange guy in the parking lot of Sleazy Dan’s you panicked, but tonight she didn’t feel panicked.
“You want to grab a coffee or a burger?” He tilted his head toward the diner over the road.
“Sure.”
“I’m Chase, by the way. It’s nice to meet you.”
She was trying to process this. The guy knew Lucy, no he’d said he was her fiancé, and he knew her kids. She was aware the kids were with her mom in New Hampshire. She knew they were safe, but she didn’t know much more.
They sat opposite each other in the diner booth, and he slid his phone across the table. A photo of her kids was on the screen. She ran her finger across the outline of their faces and blinked back the tears that clouded her vision. She needed to see them clearly.
“Scroll through, there are lots more.” His voice was gentle. She swiped the image and here they were at a lake, at a football game, her son playing baseball, another with Lucy. “They’re doing fine, settled in, they’ve got great friends.”
The waitress came, and he ordered coffee and two burgers. They didn’t need her, then. Her kids, they were doing fine without their crazy drunk of a mother who had abandoned them. “Good. I want them to be happy.”
“What about you? You don’t look real happy to me, Minnie.”
“I’m doing okay.”
“Let’s cut through the crap. You’re working in a dive bar, you live in a dump, the boyfriend is gone, you’re all alone, and you’re barely making it.”
“Don’t sugarcoat it.” She snorted.
“I’m not here to judge you, I’m simply stating the facts. I don’t think this life you’ve got going here is making you happy. You drinking?”
“How’s that any of your business?” she growled at him.
“Answer me.”
“I’m trying not to.”
“Trying is good.” His tone was gentle. “It’s hard to quit, especially
without help.”
“It is.” He had that right.
The coffee and burgers came. She was starving; she couldn’t really cook in her motel room. She was living on cereal, chocolate bars, and ramen noodles. She started eating. He sat back watching. What did it matter what he thought? She was hungry, she was going to eat.
“Do you want to go home?” he asked when she’d polished off the burger. “Is that what you want?”
“I can’t go home, Chase. There are some things you can’t just apologize for and move on. Sometimes you can’t just say you’re sorry and expect people to forgive you.”
“True. You can’t.”
It felt like a slap. Had she thought he was here to rescue her and tell her it was all okay? Maybe.
“So why ask?”
“I have a proposition for you. Lucy and I are getting married in three months. I want you to go to treatment until just before the wedding. Rehab. There’s a wonderful place that the doc on TV swears by. I’ll get you the treatment if you are willing to do the work. Afterwards, if it sticks, you come home, come to the wedding, and make amends.”
“And?” She knew there was more.
“And you see . . . you don’t swoop in expecting to uproot your kids and turn their lives upside down. You work your way back in. I don’t know how it will play out. I really don’t. Maybe you’ll never get your kids back, maybe you don’t deserve to, I can’t say what will happen because I don’t know. But what I do know is that they need to know you’re okay and healthy and that you care enough about them to get that way. Your family needs to heal, and only you can make that happen.”
Minnie looked across at him. This was her one shot. It was a shot she didn’t deserve, and she knew it. She was lost and broken and damaged, but she was still smart somewhere in there, smart enough to know that whatever he was offering was better than this life.
“Yes. I say yes, let’s do it.”
Chapter 1
The chauffeur-driven car that picked Minnie up from Logan Airport earlier that morning turned into a circular drive in front of a house in Marblehead. It wasn’t really a house; it resembled a small castle, turrets and all. She blinked twice to be sure she wasn’t imagining it. At this point, nothing about Lucy’s fiancé, Chase, should have surprised her, but this did.
Since he’d found her in Reno, he’d escorted her on his private plane to the Carolina Coast where she’d just spent eight weeks in an exclusive rehab center sobering up and learning the techniques she needed to return to her real life. Chase had sent her money and clothes and even visited her once for family weekend.
“We’ll be family soon enough,” he’d said.
She knew he was also trying to protect her children and sister from the possibility that she would fail. She wasn’t stupid. She knew he wanted her to succeed for herself but even more so for them. She’d checked out of the center three days earlier, and he’d checked her into a nice hotel so she could transition back to reality. The truth was she was sure that had been a test to see if she’d remain sober in a room with a minibar and a hotel with several places to drink.
And now here she was outside Chase’s mansion, about to go inside for her sister’s bridal shower where her children, sister, and mother would all be. She rubbed her sweaty palms over the fabric of the floral dress she was wearing. She checked her lipstick again. She was stalling and she knew it. The shower wasn’t starting for an hour. Chase had arranged for her to come beforehand. If it was a disaster, she’d be back in this car heading off in less than sixty minutes. She hoped not, but she knew it could happen.
The car door opened and there was the man himself. He crouched down on his haunches so he was at eye level.
“Hi. How are the nerves?”
“Out of control.” It was the truth. She was terrified.
“It’s going to be okay, I think.” The qualifier didn’t help, but she was pleased he didn’t lie to her and promise something even he couldn’t deliver.
“Thank you for everything, for all your help, not just getting me here, but with my kids and everything. However this plays out, I’ll always be grateful.”
“You’re welcome. Now come on, let’s rip this emotional Band-Aid off fast.”
Lucy was standing in the foyer when the huge wooden front door opened. In stepped Chase with a small woman in front of him who looked like a neater, softer version of her sister Minnie. But it couldn’t be, could it?
“Min?”
“Hey, sis,” she said quietly.
Lucy raced toward her and threw her arms around her. “Oh my god, you’re not dead, thank goodness.”
“You thought I was dead?” It was a shock to hear that. She had assumed that Chase had informed Lucy that she was in rehab and doing well, but that clearly wasn’t the case.
“I didn’t know what to think. I’m equal parts thrilled to see you and wanting to kill you myself, which of course makes no sense.” Lucy stepped back and looked her up and down.
“That makes sense to me,” Minnie conceded. If the shoe were on the other foot, she’d be furious. When Lucy first moved in with her and Nick, her late husband, she’d wanted to throttle her just for not letting them know where she was, and she was a grown woman out with friends, not a woman who’d been missing for months.
“You did this, didn’t you?” Lucy turned her gaze on Chase. Her voice held a hint of accusation and a whole lot of awe.
“Guilty. I thought everyone needed to know she was okay, and for her to actually be okay as well.”
“And are you?” Lucy turned back to face her sister. This time her face was searching for signs of good health or intoxication, she supposed.
“I’m just out of rehab, and I’ve done a lot of work . . . not that that excuses anything . . .”
“Yeah, well, it is a start.” Lucy crossed her arms and stared hard at her sister. “You can’t screw with the kids, Min, do you understand that? They’re happy and settled and they’re what matters.”
“I know. I know.” Her voice was tinged with sorrow and remorse.
“How about we go find them, Luce?” Chase said. But there was no need because at that moment the kids in question came bounding into the room and stopped short, in unison, like a skit from a cartoon, when they saw Min.
Minnie drank them in. Katie was so much taller, she wasn’t a little girl anymore. She’d filled out and become a young woman. She still had a serious expression on her face. Her brown hair was shoulder length, and she looked beautiful. Sophie was tall and lean and athletic, all legs and arms like a baby giraffe. She had Minnie’s blonde hair and big eyes. And Oliver, damn he was a handsome boy. He’d always had such an open, trusting demeanor and she was pleased to see that he seemed to have retained it.
“Mom?” Sophie asked, her brow scrunched in confusion as if the woman before her might be a mirage.
“Yes. I . . .” She was lost for words. After the months of longing and waiting to see them, she’d played this moment over in her head a hundred times at least, and now she wasn’t able to form a coherent sentence.
“I invited your mom along so she could help us celebrate the wedding and so you could all catch up.”
“We thought you were gone for good,” Katie said, the edge to her voice was unmistakable and not unexpected.
“I’m sorry about that. I wasn’t very well, and I made some poor choices as a result.”
“Yeah, I would say so.” Katie’s arms were crossed tight across her chest, and it was clear she wasn’t in a forgiving mood. Minnie had been warned by Chase that she would be the most hostile. She’d taken over as the caregiver for the younger two long before Minnie left home, and she’d never fully relinquished the role.
“Are you really my mom?” Oliver asked. “You don’t look how I remember you.”
“Oh.”
He stared at her hard. “My mom has shorter hair, and she never wore dresses once my dad died.”
If he’d noticed that, lord knows what else h
e remembered. “It’s a special occasion, so I dressed up, and my hair grew. Just like you did. You’ve grown a lot.”
“Okay,” he said, but he didn’t step toward her. This was not the hugs and kisses she had hoped for.
“She most definitely is your mom, and she’s going to be here all afternoon, so when you’ve had some time to get used to that idea, you should have a talk with her, let her know what’s what with you,” Chase said, taking charge. “Meanwhile, I still need help getting all the balloons set up. Can you guys help me?”
And they followed him out of the room, only Oliver took a look back at her.
She let out a sigh. She’d been holding her breath.
“It’s a bit of a shock,” Lucy said beside her. “For everyone.”
“I know. This was Chase’s plan. I don’t know if it was the right way. I can leave.”
Lucy grabbed her arm. “No one is leaving. Leaving is what got us in this mess. The people in our family need to get better at staying, starting from today. Now come on, our mother is here somewhere. I know she’d love to see you.”
“Okay.”
“And for the record, she’ll be as unrecognizable to you as you were to Olly.”
The balcony looked out over the ocean and sparkled in the sunlight. Minnie had snuck out for some air. It was overwhelming to be back amongst so many people she knew. People from her hometown that her sister Lucy had reconnected with in her absence. Old high school friends like Todd and Mike and Marissa, and of course Piper and Cherie who she knew from Pied Piper’s Pies where Lucy had worked for years. She had just learned that Lucy now had a fancy new role with the company, which was being franchised across the country, and Minnie was thrilled for her.
She’d just finished catching up with her own mother, and it was true that she was nothing like she’d been when Minnie left. She looked every bit the respectable middle-aged woman, it appeared she’d conquered her own demons at last, and she was sober after decades of drinking. Her partner Kevin, who had been helping raise the kids, seemed delightful. Minnie had a lot of mixed emotions about that. Of course, she was happy for her mother’s sobriety and extraordinarily grateful she’d come clean in time to help look after her grandchildren, but Minnie couldn’t help but wonder how different things might have been for both Lucy and herself if her mother had managed to turn things around earlier.
Any Way You Spin It: An Upper Crust Novel (The Upper Crust Series Book 7) Page 1
