Finally he came to a stop in the garage. He hopped out, trotted around to open my door and then pulled me out by the hand. He was puzzled when I reached for my overcoat. “Chilly?”
I shook my head. “The dress is a bit of… a surprise for someone,” I confided. I hooked my arm with his, glanced around for anyone, before I rushed him down the winding path leading to Petit Paradis. Thankfully, a canopy of trees kept us pretty well hidden from the main house, where people had already begun to arrive for the benefit. I could hear the laughter and music from over nearly a half-mile away.
“Is that someone we’re hiding from a man?” he finally asked as he ducked down beside me.
“Sort of,” I said. While I wouldn’t mind making Oliver pay for his ‘cheap prostitute’ comment, the dress was more of a response to Father than anything else. “You remember the pictures I sent you?” He nodded. “The first outfit is the only thing at Cabot’s that fits someone of my size.”
His brow creased. “Really?” I nodded. “But I thought Cabot’s was a leading fashion icon.”
“Not if you’re an oddly shaped size 16, it isn’t. But Father insists that I only wear clothes from our store, especially for high-profile events like this one, even if they’re not flattering, even if they age me to some kind of boring, old soccer mom. Nothing stylish or glamorous or hip, just the best fabric and accoutrement to detract from all the obvious flaws. Or not even,” I corrected as I thought about how many of those clothes fit. “Don’t get me started on my maid of honor dress for Lucy’s wedding,” I practically snarled. “Two words: strapless and fitted. And every other bridesmaid is a size two/four.”
We reached my bungalow and I practically shoved him inside. Lucy and Gus sat cuddled on my sofa as they waited. Lucy perked up immediately the second she saw him. He rolled with the punches, opening up his arms immediately.
“Lucy!” he greeted, like they were old, dear friends. “I haven’t seen you since San Francisco. Coralie tells me you’re getting hitched.”
She walked right into his hug, playing her part to a T. “Yep. Finally found the one who could put a ring on my finger. This is Augustus, but we all call him Gus.”
Gus stood and shook Devlin’s hand. “I’m sorry, who are you again?”
“Where are my manners?” Lucy said in mock dismay as she revived her improv skills from acting class. “This is Devlin Masters. We met him in college.”
Devlin slid an arm around my shoulders. “Yeah, I tried to date this one but you know how she is. She was more worried chasing around after water rings on the furniture than dating some scruffy liberal arts major. I took a couple of business classes just to impress her, but with her grades I was just playing for seconds.”
I couldn’t believe how well he was selling this story. If I didn’t know the truth, I might have believed him myself.
He was as skilled a liar as he was likely skilled a lover. Both thoughts made my knees wobble.
#BadBoyIndeed #UnoMasPorFavor #MakeMineaDouble
“So what brings you to town, Devlin?” Gus asked.
“Well, thanks to Coralie, I did change my major to business before all was said and done, so I’ve been doing some consulting work that takes me all over the country. When I heard about the event tonight, I called to see if she might be free. Lucky for me, she was.” He grinned down at me like he had just won the lottery.
“Super,” Gus said with his easygoing smile. “Glad to have you along, then. It promises to be an interesting night,” he added with a grin.
Lucy looked between all of us. We were about to make quite the splash at her mother’s shindig. “So are we ready to do this thing or what?”
Devlin’s face spread apart in a cool, confident smirk. “I’m always ready.”
Lucy giggled at the innuendo. She turned to me. “Now that sounds like the start of a promising evening. Let’s go.”
“One last thing,” Devlin said before he eased the overcoat off of my shoulders. I trembled the minute the air hit my bare skin. His fingers blazed fire across my back as he linked his arm around me possessively. He bent closer, looking me right in the eye. “Perfection.”
My legs shook as we all trudged up the stone pathway towards the main house. We rounded the infinity pool, where the lights and the fountains were set to coordinate with the music. The Olympic sized pool was filled with flowers and floating candles, and guests already started to mingle around our outdoor fireplace and bar. Uniformed wait staff circulated amongst the small crowd, carrying trays of our family’s pink, bubbly, fruity champagne. Both Lucy and I reached for a glass the minute we could. We’d need all the courage we could muster to enter those imported French doors leading into the house.
Devlin must have heard my teeth chatter because he squeezed my shoulder for moral support. I smiled at him. He returned it. I melted a little more.
We ran into Gretchen before we saw Father, Aunt Margot or Sylvia. Her widened eyes swept over me. “I wondered where you had been,” she said as she glanced between me and my date. “I didn’t realize you had gone for a vacation in Babylon.”
“Devlin,” I said, “This is Gretchen, the wonder woman who raised me after Mother died.”
He uncoiled himself from me to reach for a hug. My German friend was taken aback and struck practically mute. “Gretchen, it’s so great to finally meet you. Coralie told me all about you.”
Her eyebrow lifted. “Is that so? Because I haven’t heard a thing about you.”
“That doesn’t surprise me at all. Why would someone like Coralie remember some scruffy undergraduate who chased her around like a puppy?”
Gretchen’s eyes narrowed as she studied both of us. If she saw any cracks in the veneer, she thankfully decided to let them pass without comment. Instead she turned to me. “Your father has been asking about you. He’s greeting guests in the formal living room with your aunt,” she said as she turned to Lucy, “and your mother.” Her eyes flew open in shock as she registered Lucy’s drastic new haircut. “What did you do to your hair?”
Lucy preened. “You like it? I was just so tired of all that weight and all that upkeep. I thought it was time for a change.”
Audrey passed by us, wearing a dress much too revealing for her age. She snickered as she assessed both Lucy and me in a second. “Oh, wow. And I wasn’t going to come tonight.” Her blue eyes twinkled up at Devlin. She stretched out a hand. “I’m Aubrey.”
“This is my cousin,” I told him. “She and Aunt Margot live with us.”
He gently brought her hand to his lips. “I see beauty runs in the family.”
Aubrey blushed uncharacteristically as she pulled her hand away. “I, uh, should go check on Mom.”
Devlin really was magical. I’d never seen my overconfident cousin shrink from any attention, particularly from men. With one look, he took her down a few pegs and reminded her she was still an awkward teenager. That was worth the eight hundred bucks right there.
Lucy and I faced each other. “Guess we should get this over with,” she said.
“Shouldn’t we get a last meal or at least a cigarette before we face the firing squad?” was my sardonic reply.
Gretch handed us both another glass of champagne in response.
Both Gus and Devlin acted like our own personal armor as we walked along the tiled hallway towards the formal living room. It had dramatic vaulted ceilings with redwood beams overhead. A cobblestone fireplace crawled up one wall, with an original Monet hanging above it. Everything had my mother’s influence all over it. I had already forgotten most what she looked like, sounded like, or even acted like. It was like Madeline Cabot was part of someone else’s story now.
It only made me miss her more.
I heard Father’s laugh way before I saw him; it instantly made me want to bolt. My stomach coiled like an angry rattler, threatening to spew expensive wine all over our pale pink walls. I felt naked in the revealing dress, not confident like before. I put my hand on Devlin’s arm.
<
br /> “I don’t think I can do this,” I decided at once.
He just held me tighter. “You can do this,” he assured. “You need to do this.”
I turned to Lucy, who nodded in agreement. We’d gone through the paces. We’d done everything right. We’d both graduated college with honors. We both had important jobs in our family businesses. She was about to get married, for crissakes. Yet our parents had never truly allowed us our own autonomy as adults. This was our moment to claim it once and for all. Best of all we could do it together, like we’d done almost everything our entire lives. We were partners in crime. Sisters by choice. “You leave me now and I’ll drown you in the pool,” she warned under her breath.
I chuckled nervously, because I didn’t think she was kidding.
Aunt Margot was the first to turn and see our approach. Her mouth dropped open as she took it all in: me in my sexy new dress, Lucy, with her dramatic pixie cut, and Devlin, quite possibly the handsomest man that had ever graced these four walls. I knew for the first time in her life, my dear aunt was probably shocked silent. All she could do was tap Sylvia’s arm, who turned to look at us with the same shocked expression. I instantly clasped hands with Lucy for moral support. I could feel her tremble.
Sylvia ended up patting Father on the shoulder, and he turned to face us as well. His mouth didn’t drop open. It thinned into a grim, tight line. When Devlin squeezed my shoulders for support, I nearly gasped out loud. I had completely forgotten he was beside me the second my father’s disapproving eyes swept over my new outfit with thinly veiled contempt.
Finally we reached them. “Margot. Charles. Mother,” Lucy greeted with her chin held high.
Sylvia Lyon took it all in with a flashing dark gaze. The dress I wore and the company I kept, and Lucy’s new shorter ‘do, were all drastic changes, granted. But none of them deserved the sheer contempt in her face, as if we’d showed up in some Daisy Duke cutoffs on the arms of a couple of Hell’s Angels. Sylvia steeled her spine and glanced down at Father. “Is your study available, Charles?”
“Yes, I believe so,” he said, and his voice was just as clipped.
“We should go there,” Sylvia decided as she glared between all of us, like we were Lucy’s co-conspirators for evil. Really though… we kind of were. “Now,” she added in a sharp voice that caused a couple of bystanders to look our way.
Father didn’t even argue. “Pardon me,” he said to guest he was currently entertaining, before wheeling himself towards the downstairs study that served as Father’s office. Sylvia stalked behind him, snagging a glass of champagne from a waiter as she went.
Both Devlin and Gus did likewise, both carrying a glass of champagne in each hand. Clearly they knew we would need it.
Sylvia waited until the door closed behind us before she whirled around to face Lucy with a snarl. Her angry voice was strained as she tried not to yell. “What the hell did you do?”
Lucy’s chin rose. “I got a haircut.”
“I can see that,” Sylvia snapped. “But why?”
“Because I wanted to, Mother. That’s a perfectly acceptable reason to do just about anything.”
“You look like a boy, for God’s sake! Your wedding is in five weeks! What do you think your portraits are going to look like?”
“They’re going to look like whatever they’re going to look like,” Lucy responded. “It’s just hair. I would think you’d be more pissed that I bought a new wedding gown.”
Both Gus and I groaned as our eyes closed. We knew the train was off the rails and ready to careen right into the staunch, unyielding force named Sylvia Lyon.
“You what?”
Lucy was undaunted. The bandage was off, and she wasn’t pulling any punches. “I never liked the gown you picked for me, Mother. It’s plain and it’s boring. And while we’re on the topic, I never wanted my wedding color to be puce, either. Puce! Seriously? Is it green? Is it purple? Nobody knows, Mother!”
Because of how tense the situation was, I had to bite back a grin. I knew she wasn’t trying to be funny; it was simply beyond her.
“I never wanted to get married in a cathedral. I don’t want five hundred guests, most of whom I barely know if at all. I don’t want twelve-piece orchestra. I sure as fuck don’t want fois gras on the menu. I wanted a chocolate wedding cake, not boring old vanilla buttercream. And I want fucking hydrangeas for my wedding bouquet! It’s my wedding. You hear me? Mine! And I get to do it my way.”
“That is the most ungrateful…,” Sylvia trailed off. “We’ve been planning this wedding for a year, Lucy. A year! You couldn’t tell me any of this before now?”
“I did tell you, Mother! You ran over me every single time. You made it seem like it was my obligation to make this wedding accessible and enjoyable for everyone else. But I’ve been going completely bananas for months and you haven’t even noticed!”
“Oh, I’ve noticed. Believe me. Whining about this thing or that, completely unsatisfied with every choice I put in front of you, even when I tried to give you what you wanted.”
Lucy scoffed. “You only offered to give me what I wanted when it fit with your overall plan. Face it, Mother. You’re throwing this wedding for you.”
Sylvia was deeply offended. “Do you have any idea how many girls would kill for the kind of wedding I’ve planned for you?”
“Fine! Then give it to them! Give it to whoever you want! Because I’m not going to be there, that’s for sure.” She grabbed a stunned Gus by the arm and dragged him from the room. “Come on.”
Sylvia was stunned silent. Finally she turned to me. “Did you know about this?”
I took a deep breath. “Yes. Anyone who was paying attention would,” I added. It pissed me off that even while Lucy was telling her mother, point-blank, what she wanted, what she needed, Sylvia still couldn’t see past the end of her own nose.
“Really?” she countered. “You’re going to disrespect me now?” She inspected my new look. “It’s not bad enough you show up at our charity fundraiser looking like a cheap hooker.”
“There’s nothing cheap about her,” Devlin drawled with the barest hint of an Irish brogue.
Sylvia’s feathers flared even more. “And who the hell are you?”
He smiled easily as he reached out his hand. “Devlin Masters. Old school chum of Coralie’s. It’s lovely to finally meet you, Mrs. Lyon. And if you don’t mind me saying so, I think Lucy looks stunning with her short hair.”
“As a matter of fact, I do mind,” she snarled as she yanked her hand away.
Father cleared his throat. “Perhaps you should go after Lucy, Sylvia. She’s emotional right now, I’m sure she didn’t mean the things she said.”
“She meant them,” I assured both of them.
“Please,” Sylvia dismissed. “This is just a classic Lucy temper tantrum. But I will go,” she told Father before sneering down her nose at Devlin and me. “You’ve got your hands full here.”
He nodded and watched her leave before he turned back to us. “So was this a coordinated effort, CC?”
I stood a little straighter. “We had to do something to get your attention. Bet you we have it now.”
“That’s enough, young lady,” he snapped. He rolled his wheelchair back around from the desk to face us. “Where did you get the dress?”
“Completely my fault, Mr. Cabot,” Devlin interjected. “It was a gift from my sister. We hadn’t seen Coralie in years, and we wanted to give her something special to wear for such an important event.”
Another effortless lie, but Father was much too perturbed to test it. He had other priorities. “She had something special to wear. Something from our family store.”
“And it was lovely,” Devlin agreed. “But it was a bit old fashioned for her, don’t you think?”
“I think it has timeless style, just like every other piece of clothing we’ve sold for the past seventy-four years. It demands respectability.”
“No question,” Devl
in replied. “But there is something special about a woman who feels beautiful and confident and, dare I say, sexy with her own personal style. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“You think this is her style?” Father questioned.
“I don’t think she knows her style, sir,” he responded. “I think she knows who she needs to be for the store, or for you, but I don’t know that she’s had a whole lot of freedom to figure out who she is yet. Even when we were at Stanford together, she was the one chasing after straight As, no doubt to impress you. She did everything to the letter so that she could ultimately work for your family company, the dutiful daughter that she’s always been since her mother died.”
It was just enough detail to convince Father we had a history, with just enough truth to render me speechless that he could figure all that out in the short time we’d known each other. This man knew how to pay attention. As a result, he picked up on subtle details others might miss.
“That’s all very fascinating, Mr. Masters, but if you don’t mind, this is between me and my daughter.” He turned to me. “I think it would be best if you left. Lucy’s caused enough of a commotion. We don’t need to draw more bad press with your inappropriate outfit and your choice of companion. I can’t imagine that Oliver will be pleased to see you’ve chosen to come to such a high-profile event with another man.”
Through my peripheral vision, I could see Devlin’s eyes dart to my face. I hadn’t mentioned Oliver to him yet.
“Oliver’s a free agent,” I said just to clarify. “And so am I.”
“So that’s it, then?” Father asked. “You’re just going to turn your back on Cabot’s and on Oliver? On me?”
It broke my heart that he saw it that way. “I’m not turning my back on anyone, Dad. I’m just trying to be me. It doesn’t have to take away from anyone or anything else.”
His chin tipped. “Then how come it does?” He used his gnarled hands to roll himself from the room. I crossed the room to shut the door silently behind him.
“Well, that was entertaining,” Devlin said as he propped himself up on the corner of my father’s desk.
Masters for Hire Page 9
