by Isabel North
“Language! Don’t smirk at me, young lady. I don’t find rudeness funny. Now. What did you bring?”
“Just me and Sunshine.”
Her mother stripped off her rubber gloves and put them in the cupboard under the sink. “You’re not going to cause a scene, are you? Oh, Nora, don’t. You know Val holds a grudge. I don’t want to have to go through that again. I’m sixty-eight, and it was as bad as being in high school, what with her gossiping and cold-shouldering me for two whole weeks after your last performance.”
Vince’s mother, Valentina Chase, and Nora’s mom had been frenemies since junior high, and they’d been mean-girling each other ever since.
“I didn’t come to cause a scene,” Nora said. “I don’t care about Vince and Melissa.”
“Then why go to their baby shower? No one expects it of you. Apart from Melissa, she’ll be delighted.”
Nora’s smile vanished. “It’s their baby shower today?”
“Tomorrow.”
Of all the… Nora drained the Diet Coke and slammed the glass on the counter.
“Honey, I told you on the phone.” Her mom swept up the glass and put it in the dishwasher.
“My phone ran out of battery. It must have cut off before you said it.” Otherwise she’d have turned the car around and headed back to San Francisco.
“You didn’t bring a present, did you?”
“Why would I bring a present? I didn’t know it was their stupid shower!”
“That’s all right. You can sign the card, share your father’s and my present.”
“I’m not going to the baby shower!”
“It’ll look a bit odd if you don’t. You happen to drive down on the very day—”
“You said it’s tomorrow.”
“—on the day before, but you’re not going? People will think you came down for vengeance or something. Vince will be nervous.”
“I don’t give a fuck how Vince feels!”
“Language!”
Nora ground her teeth. “This was a terrible idea. Terrible. I never should have come back. I should have called the storage company from San Francisco, had them open up the unit, hose it down with gasoline, and toss in a match.”
Her mother welled up.
Nora sighed and stared at the ceiling. “This was supposed to be a quiet, calm getaway from…other stuff. And I came here. I do not know what I was thinking.”
“I can’t help being emotional. This is tough for me, too, you know.”
Nora shook her head in a wordless question.
“It should have been your baby shower.”
“Right,” Nora said. “I’m going.”
Her mother flung her arms around Nora’s waist from behind and hauled back. “No! Don’t make a scene!”
“To the car, Mom.” Nora patted her hands. “I’m going to the car. To get my bags.” She eased free, and held her mother’s shoulders. “We should have had this conversation a while back, but you have to know. I’m glad it’s not me having Vince’s babies. I don’t want Vince. I don’t want his house. I don’t want this town, or the life I had in it. I want—” she had a brief flash of Gabe’s fierce green eyes locked on hers as he worked over her, inside her, and didn’t even bother to hide the shiver, “—I want more.”
“But this was your dream.”
“It was my habit. It was my routine. My rut. I’m fine, Mom. I’m not the scorned woman. I’m the thankful and free woman.” Her mother wouldn’t get it, but Nora had to say the words anyway. “I’m going to hang here with you and Dad. Later, I’ll head to the storage place and go through my stuff. Tomorrow, I’ll go home. I promise you, I am not going to make a scene. I am not going to Vince and Melissa’s stupid baby shower.”
~ ~ ~
“You have to come! Oh, Nora, I can’t believe what a lucky coincidence this is! When I saw you I didn’t recognize you at first because, look, you’re beautiful and stylish, but you’re here. I. Am. Thrilled!”
Melissa wasn’t faking. She really was thrilled.
She was enormous.
She was kidding herself if she thought Nora was coming to her baby shower.
Why hadn’t she run yesterday, the second her mother had told her that today was the special day? Why hadn’t she grabbed Sunshine, sprinted for the car, and gunned it all the way back to San Francisco?
Instead, she’d had to try and be all mature, stick with her plan, tie up loose ends. Of course she bumped into Melissa, buying chips and soda for the shower, right when Nora was buying (slightly fewer) chips and soda for her trip back.
“I can’t,” Nora said. “I honestly can’t, I have to go. Got to be on the road by one and your shower starts at two—” she’d seen the invitation pinned to the refrigerator in her mother’s kitchen, “—so I’m juuust going to miss it.”
Melissa’s face set. “You have to at least come and say hi to Vin, and see the nursery.”
Why was this woman torturing her?
“It’s eleven now. You’ve got a couple of hours. Please, Nora? I’ll be upset otherwise. You don’t want to upset a pregnant woman, do you?”
Nora looked at her helplessly. “No.”
“Come and see Vin. We didn’t see you after…last time we saw you…and I know he still feels bad about it.”
Bad in a litigious way, or…?
“He knows what he did was wrong. We’re about to embark upon the next exciting phase of our life together—” Melissa broke off and waited with a placid smile while the cashier yelled for a price check on the hemorrhoid cream, “—and I want him going into it free of all past burdens. You two were friends once.”
Engaged. They were engaged.
“It’s closure,” Melissa said. “Some part of you must want closure, too?”
She had a point. Nora had come back here to close the loop on her old life, hadn’t she? “Fine,” she said.
Melissa beamed. “Do you know the address?”
Nora glared at her.
“Pregnancy brain.” Melissa smacked her forehead. “’Course you do. Help me pack this lot into my car, and let’s go.”
Nora loaded the ton of food and drink into Melissa’s shiny new minivan and followed her to Vince’s dream house, gawking at the sight of a huge white canvas party tent in the back yard.
“I know.” Melissa laughed, popping the trunk of her minivan. “Seems over the top, doesn’t it? It’s turned into a town event! If I sold tickets, I’d be making a fortune.”
Nora grabbed three bags of groceries, tucked a couple of soda bottles under her arm, and staggered up the driveway behind the equally-laden Melissa. “Should you be carrying that?” she asked.
“Pregnant, not useless.”
“Okay. Is this going to be enough?”
“Oh, this isn’t for the party. It’s for me. These babies are hungry buggers. I cannot stop eating. Why fight it? I’m making the most of the excuse to pig out while I can.”
They dumped the groceries in the kitchen and Nora let Melissa drag her to the living room, where Melissa eased her bulk onto the couch and patted the seat next to her. “So. Nora. What’s his name?”
“What’s whose name?”
“The guy.”
“What guy?”
Melissa flipped a hand at her. “The guy who’s got your face looking so different.”
“I don’t want to offend you, Melissa, but you don’t know what my face is like normally. We met for ten minutes. We’re not friends.”
“I know.” Melissa didn’t take offense. “Although I’d like to be. And I know I lured you here by saying Vin needs closure, but I do, too. Your face that night has been hard to shake.”
“Pretty funny, huh?” Nora made a mock-surprised expression.
Melissa shook her head. “No. You were devastated.”
“I wasn’t. I’m good with all this.”
“I can see that, Miss Fancypants.” She patted Nora’s thigh. “God, I miss my skinny jeans. But back then, you weren’t good
with it at all. I am sorry. There. I wanted to tell you I’m sorry. I’m about to be a mother. My every dream has come true, and it’s all at your expense. I want to be a good mother. I’m starting that by trying to be a better person.”
“That’s very evolved of you.”
“It’s going to make it a whole lot easier if you spill and tell me about the guy. Please let him be fabulous. If he’s fabulous, there’s a chance I’ll stop feeling guilty some day before my babies have babies and I’m a grandmother.”
“He’s fabulous.”
Melissa squeed and clapped her hands. “More.”
Nora smiled and shook her head.
“More,” Melissa demanded, “or I won’t let you feel the babies kick.” She correctly interpreted Nora’s expression. “I will make you feel the babies kick. And let’s not forget, I’m the one who sprung you from the joint.”
So Nora found herself telling her ex-fiancé’s surprise wife about the man she might never make love to again.
Melissa sighed. “He sounds perfect.”
“Gabe?” Nora laughed. “Hell, no. He’s not perfect. Thank God. Who wants perfect? No, he’s a contradiction upon a complication upon a kink. I think maybe that’s why he gets me.” She sat back. “You know one of the first things he did? He held me while I cried.”
“So sweet!”
“I got snot over him and everything.”
Melissa looked a little grossed out, but recovered to ask, “Is this a fling, or is it a long-term thing? Are you going to marry him?”
Nora choked. “Marry him?”
“Ask him! Ask him to marry you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
She shrugged. “He says yes or he says no. What’s holding you back?”
“A strong grip on reality and the fact we have only had sex once.” Three times. And the other stuff. Melissa didn’t need the details.
“Have sex with him a few more times, and then ask. Don’t you want him?”
More than she thought she could ever want anything.
“Melissa, I’m not going to ask him to marry me! Besides, I don’t even know if he wants a round two. It could have been a one-time thing for him.”
Melissa made a sad face. “Was the sex bad?”
“Not for me.”
“Was it bad for him? Didn’t he, you know? Get his?”
“Oh, he got his. He got his a lot.” A lot.
“Then it wasn’t bad.”
“For me, it was wow. For him, it could have been… I don’t know. I don’t have a huge basis of comparison.”
Melissa nodded with understanding. “Tough to live up to Vin.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You know what you need to do?”
“That’s okay,” Nora said, “I’ll work it out.”
“Seduce him.”
Nora went lightheaded at the thought of seducing Gabe.
“Seduce him,” Melissa said. “Then tell him he’s marrying you. Worked for me.” Her eyelids flickered. “Yeah. I hear myself. But listen. I was sleepwalking through my life and I didn’t even know it. The day I met Vin, the whole world came alive. When you’re faced with that, what are you going to do?”
Check he isn’t already committed to another woman?
Melissa continued, “You have to take action. Make it clear where your head is at. If he isn’t with you? Walk away. Move on. You don’t want to waste another six years having a convenient relationship with a guy who ends up saying you were never really engaged in the first place.”
“For God’s sake.”
“Yeah, he still uses that whole ‘didn’t put a ring on it’ defense. Lame.”
The front door opened and banged shut, and a cheery voice called out, “Honey, I’m home!”
Melissa giggled. “It’s our thing,” she whispered to Nora. Raising her voice, she shouted, “We’re in here!”
Vince walked in, saw Nora, and stopped dead. His throat clicked before he forced out, “Nora.”
“Hello, Vince.”
His eyes darted between her and Melissa. “What’s going on?”
“Nora helped me bring my groceries back from the store,” Melissa said. “Unfortunately, she can’t stay for the shower.”
And just like that, Nora was hit with the anger she’d never allowed herself to feel over Vince.
She’d felt sad.
She’d felt indignant. Most of that had been muffled under a blanket of shame and guilt over the vandalism episode.
She’d never let the flare of anger rush through her. It did now. And, as quickly as it had flared up, it burned out.
“Why were you at the store, Nora?” Vince said. “Why are you even in town?”
“Visiting the parents. Tying up some loose ends. Oh, don’t look so nervous. Why do you think I’m here?”
“Honestly? I was thinking, maybe, vengeance?”
“That’s behind me now. Behind all of us.”
“Wow. That’s great. Wow. I thought you’d never forgive me.”
“I don’t know about forgiveness, but Vince, I have to tell you. I no longer care.”
“I knew if I could get the two of you in the same room Nora would forgive you,” Melissa said. “This is perfect. Champagne!”
“Thank you, Nora.” Vince reached out to pat her shoulder as he bustled past. “I’ve got some champagne chilling.”
“None for me, I’m driving!” Nora called after him.
She didn’t want to hang around here any longer. She certainly wasn’t going to hang around drinking champagne with them.
She wanted to go home. She wanted to rush to her parents’ house, scoop up Sunshine, and drive back to San Francisco.
And then she’d try to seduce Gabe.
Nora stood. “Melissa, I’ve got to go.”
“Oh, but—”
“Got to go seduce my man.”
The protests cut off. “Yes!”
“Congratulations on the babies. I’m happy for you.” Well, she was happy for Melissa. “When are they due? If you don’t mind me saying, you are kind of big for someone who’s four months along. Are you sure you’re not having triplets?”
“No.” Melissa curved a hand over her belly and leaned in confidingly. “I’m seven months and change. They’ll be here in a few weeks, can you believe it?”
Nora did the math.
At that point Vince returned with a bottle of champagne, two empty glasses on a tray, and one glass of sparkling water. “Who’s ready to drink to the future?” he asked.
Seven. Months?
Nora grabbed the bottle off the tray, tipped it upside down, and relished the shock on his face as the expensive liquid gloinked all over the carpet.
“What was that for?” Vince yelled. “You said you forgave me!”
“For the marrying thing. And the making me homeless thing. But seven months, Vince?”
“Oh.”
She dropped the bottle, vaguely aware of Melissa struggling to her feet.
“You,” Nora continued, “are a goddamn bastard. You treated me like shit. I deserve to be treated better than that. I deserve more.”
Melissa held up a hand for a high five.
Really? Okay. Nora high-fived her. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to San Francisco, because I know what more looks like, and if my cell phone wasn’t dead I’d totally show you his tattoos. I am going to track him down, and rock his world.”
“You go, Nora!” Melissa said. “Call me and tell me how it works out!”
Why not? Nora gave Melissa an awkward hug. “See you around.”
“Come back for the christening.”
“Sure.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
“I know this is short notice,” Nora said when she dropped Sunshine off for her sleepover with Anna. “I really appreciate it.”
They’d had to sneak Sunshine up the stairs since Anna’s building didn’t allow pets, and by the time they’d made it up, for some reason they were both
giggling like a pair of sugar-surfing tweens. Sunshine was puffing happily, bumping first one of them, then the other.
“No problem,” Anna said. “I wasn’t doing anything exciting tonight anyway.” She laughed. High and loud.
Nora eyed her. “See you at work tomorrow. And, Anna?”
“Mm-hmm?” She was chewing her thumb nail.
“Thanks. You know, for being so cool about me rushing off. And then the dog-sitting.”
“Pfft.” Anna waved away her thanks and pushed Nora toward the door. “It’s nothing. That’s what family’s for. I’ve got your back!” Yeah, both hands planted between her shoulder blades, giving her a big shove. “Off you go. Have fun!”
Nora set her shoulders. Yes. Fun.
She was going to have it.
She tried the Tower of Doom penthouse first, and the security guard told her Gabe had moved out to the warehouse. She sighed with relief. Tonight was going to be tough enough without trying to pull it off in the soul-sucking environs of his marble lair.
The guard had called Gabe while she was driving over, because Nora didn’t even have to knock. He was waiting for her in the open doorway, and he made an odd noise when he saw her black dress. More likely the heels she’d teamed it with.
“Hi,” he said.
“Good evening.” Ugh. Why did I say that?
A tiny smile flickered over his lips, but died as he studied her in silence.
“May I come in?” she asked, feeling a dip of nerves. This wasn’t the friendly welcome she’d hoped for. It wasn’t the cool dismissal she’d dreaded, either. She wasn’t sure what it was.
He stepped aside.
“If you’re busy, I can come back another time…”
Shaking his head, Gabe strode to the kitchen where a laptop was set up with a bottle of beer sitting next to it. He put the breakfast bar between them.
Nora hopped up onto a stool. “Are you busy?”
“I’m always busy. You should know that about me by now.”
“I do know that. I meant, are you too busy for me?”
“No. Never. You should also know that.” He ran his gaze over her, hot and slow.
Encouraging.
“Get you a beer?” he asked.
“Do you have any wine open?”
“No.”
