She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh, well, I don’t listen to giggling girls. I figured you weren’t.”
She watched him from the corner of her eye. He seemed to be chewing his tongue. Her attention was momentarily drawn away from him when she saw Rhonda across the way. It was hard to miss the bright orange—er, tangerine—colored tee-shirt with the words “Future Mrs. Bancroft” on the front.
“Would it matter to you?” Jeremy asked, not looking at her, but with an austere expression on his face. “If I were a duke, that is?”
Meg snorted a giggle. “Should it? I mean, except the fact that you’d be the first royal person I’ve ever met before. It would just be something I can tell my grandkids, I guess.”
Rhonda was on her way to their table, and Meg was mentally running through the best way to handle her friend when she got there.
“I’m not royal. My father is the Earl of Arrington. Of Durma. I’m his heir, but earls aren’t precisely royalty.”
Her mouth dropped open, but no words came forth. She searched for a response, but before she could even begin to think of one, Rhonda was there. And the bright flush to her cheeks warned Meg that she’d had enough alcohol that whatever she had to say would probably be offensive.
“You need to get the hell back, Mister High-and-Mighty. She’s a married woman, and even a duke doesn’t get to screw around with wedding vows.”
Meg wanted to dive under the table and never come back out.
Meg looked like she wanted to run away at that moment. He wasn’t sure if it was his announcement that he was the son of an earl, the fact that her best friend had just made a very loud and vulgar suggestion that he might be inciting her to forgo her wedding vows, or maybe both of them. But she certainly had the expression of a caged animal who wanted nothing more than to escape.
“I beg your pardon?” Jeremy raised his chin and addressed Rhonda over his nose. “There is absolutely nothing inappropriate going on here.”
“Listen, whatever game this is, my brother and I don’t like it. Your cousin told us about you. About the way you fool around with nice girls. But our Meg is sweet and innocent, and we’re not gonna let you do that. You taking advantage of that just because you’re pissed that Geneva’s having a better time than you are is bullshit. Just bullshit.”
Most of what she said made absolutely no sense to him, but she was clearly drunk so he figured he shouldn’t be surprised. With an annoyed roll of his eyes, he turned away from her and sighed long and hard. “Geneva isn’t having that much of a good time yet. And if you know her at all, then you certainly know that much. Meg and I appear to be the only two at this bash who are in control of our faculties. As I said, we’re doing nothing inappropriate. I’d advise you to continue with your own good time.”
From the corner of his eye, he saw Meg lift a hand and rub above her eyebrow, probably doing her best to ward off a headache. His own head began to throb too when he noticed Ray coming towards them again.
And he was paying so much attention to the brother that he missed the fact that the sister was taking a swing at him. Meg shoved both her hands into his belly to push him aside, so the bride’s fist narrowly missed his nose. When she took aim with her other fist, he grabbed both her hands to hold her still.
“Oh my God, Rhonda, stop!” Meg cried, wrapping her hands around her friend’s arm and trying to tug her back.
“Hey, get your hands off my sister!” Ray cried, advancing on them.
“I would gladly take my hands off her if she’d stop trying to hit me.”
Meg let go of her friend’s arm and instead ducked under to get in between them. Jeremy, feeling it was safe, relaxed his hold on the wild bride, pushing a bit to try to lengthen the distance in case she started swinging again.
She didn’t, but Ray did.
Unfortunately, his timing was off, probably due to the alcohol. His fist grazed Jeremy’s upper arm, then kept on going until it made contact with Meg’s left eye. The resulting thwack made him flinch, but he managed to react quickly enough to catch her when she fell.
“Meg!” Rhonda screamed to her friend, then turned to Jeremy. “This is all your fault!”
“You stupid lush,” he retorted. “Get her an ice pack.”
Ray was standing there with a horrified look on his face, and Jeremy was glad when Meg moaned a little because it drew his attention back to her and away from her husband. Otherwise he was afraid he would jump the guy and strangle him with his bare hands.
“What happened?” Meg asked, confusion written all over her face. Confusion mixed with a rapidly swelling cheekbone.
“Oh, Meg!” Rhonda cried, still there.
He was just about to snap at her again when a stranger rushed forward with a handful of ice wrapped up in a dishcloth. Meg held the pack to her cheek as Jeremy helped her into her chair.
“Do you know what this means?” Rhonda again. “This means the wedding’s going to be ruined!”
When the sunshine coming through the window hit Meg’s closed eyes, she wanted to scream and hide under the bed. Instead she reached both hands to rub the sleep from her eyes, then cried out when she touched the swollen and sore cheekbone.
“Holy crap.” She flinched, carefully touching around the area. “This isn’t good…”
After Ray had accidentally struck her, he and Rhonda had gotten into a fierce argument. While Jeremy was whisking her out of the club, the siblings nearly found themselves behind bars when security called for the police. Although her rescuer offered to drive her to her apartment, one of the other bridesmaids, Natalie, took her instead. At that moment Meg was so disturbed by the night’s events that she really didn’t want to be alone with Jeremy, no matter how nobly he was behaving.
With a yawn so big that it hurt her face, she finally worked her way out of bed and to the bathroom. One look in the mirror revealed things weren’t only “not good;” they were pretty darn awful. Her entire left cheek was swollen and bruised black and blue. She twisted her head to the right and then the left to further examine things, groaning when she saw that the white of her left eyeball was red and bloodshot, too.
She heard a commotion in the kitchen area and she rushed across the hall and back to her bedroom quickly. A few moments later, there was a rap at her door.
“Meg?”
She collapsed onto the bed and muffled her groan in the pillows. Ray must have heard her because he knocked again. “Go away, Ray. I’m not dressed yet.”
It was true, but considering he was her ex-husband, seeing her in a skimpy pair of shorts and a gigantic tee-shirt wouldn’t be news to him.
“I’ve got that coffee you like. The one from the shop downtown. They put extra caramel on it.”
With a huffy sigh, she opened the door and yanked the steaming Styrofoam cup from him. “Thank you. I didn’t think you’d come home last night.”
He looked away from her, and his cheeks blushed.
“You didn’t come home. You spent the night with her, didn’t you?”
He brought his own coffee to his lips and lifted his shoulders. “I thought I’d better be here when Rhonda gets here.”
“You know, it would be easier to keep up the façade if you’d keep your thing in your pants at least until after the wedding.”
“C’mon, Meg. Don’t bust my balls. I had enough of that last night.”
She nodded, then backed out of the doorframe so that she could close it and lock him out. His hand in the door stopped her, and she shot him an annoyed glare.
“I’m sorry about what happened. Really sorry. Geneva had Rhonda all worked up, said that dude preyed on married women. Yada yada… and you know how I am when Rhonda gets like that. I just reacted, and I never meant to hit you.”
“Fine. Now get out of here and let me enjoy my coffee in peace before Rhonda gets here. And don’t forget your tux.” Just as he was turning to leave, she spoke again. “And I’m going to do my best to be civil to Geneva today.
She’s in the wedding, and I’m not gonna ruin it for Rhonda, but if you talk to her, you might tell her that I’m pretty sure she owes a few of us apologies, too.”
He stiffened but inclined his head in acknowledgment, then stepped into the spare room to get his things before heading out of the house through the back door. Instead of going into her bedroom, Meg headed off to the kitchen to get some crushed ice and a sandwich baggy. Holding the cold pack to her eye, she tipped her head back to drink some coffee.
“Darn!” she hissed when some coffee dribbled down her chin and onto her nightshirt. As she brushed it away, the doorbell rang. Without even looking up, she shuffled over to answer it.
“Oh, bless your heart! You poor baby,” Rhonda cooed, putting out both arms as she entered, wrapping Meg up in a tight embrace.
“It’s okay. It doesn’t even hurt,” she assured her friend as they separated. Then, she flinched and drew back when Rhonda poked at her cheek. “Ouch! Don’t touch it!”
“I thought it didn’t hurt. So is my dickhead brother still sleeping?”
It was on the tip of Meg’s tongue to retort that Ray hadn’t done any sleeping there at all last night so to keep herself from spouting off, she took another sip of coffee first. “No, he was up bright any early. Left a few minutes ago.”
“Wimp. Probably didn’t want to face me again after last night. I really can’t believe he did that to you.”
Meg dropped her head to the side. “Rhonda, you were the one throwing punches first.”
“Yeah, but he shouldn’t have left you alone like that. He’s your husband, and the entire thing shouldn’t have happened. That guy …”
“Eh!” Meg held up her hand to stop her, then headed off down the hall. “Don’t start that. Jeremy was a gentleman and we were just chatting. Geneva’s to blame for that. She was just trying to start trouble.” Just as she got to her bedroom, she stopped and faced her friend again. “And why the hell didn’t you figure that out, anyway? You know Geneva. You’ve been telling me for two years the way she incites crap all the time.”
Rhonda lowered her eyes with a puppy dog frown. “Meg, you and Ray are my people. You’re my family. And I can tell there’s been tension since he took that job out of state. The miles between y’all must be tough for you guys, and I just didn’t want some new dude to step in between and make it any worse.”
Meg wondered not for the first time why it was difficult for Rhonda to see Ray clearly. It wasn’t that she felt jealous or hurt or scorned necessarily; time and distance had in fact cured her of that reaction. But Ray’s behavior the night before was wrong, not because he had left Meg alone, but because he was dry-humping another woman while still married to her … or at least pretending to be married.
“Don’t worry about us, Rhonda. Ray and I will take care of things between us.” Making a big deal of it now would only result in her spilling the beans about their divorce, so Meg mentally moved on even as she moved into her bedroom. “You’re getting married today. That’s the only thing that should be on your mind.”
As Rhonda followed her into the room, she reached out a hand and affectionately touched Meg’s shoulder. She smiled and patted her friend’s fingers before putting her ice pack back onto her face.
“Do you still keep ibuprofen in your purse?” Rhonda asked, not waiting for an answer but grabbing the giant green bag and digging around.
“Yeah, it should be there. What time are the girls getting here?” She took the offered pills and popped them back, washing them down with coffee. Breathing deep to relax, she plopped onto the bed with a thump.
“Probably in an hour or so…” The sound of the doorbell interrupted her, as a huge grin spread over her face. “But first, I have a surprise!”
Meg decided not to waste any energy getting up, since Rhonda appeared to have enough for the both of them. She felt a twinge of guilt as she closed her eyes, still holding the ice to her cheek. This was her best friend’s wedding day. She should probably be waiting on her hand and foot.
“Plenty of time for that later,” she told herself, then cracked open her good eye when she heard Rhonda come back into the room.
“Ta Da!”
“Martika? What the heck are you doing here?”
All three of the girls had graduated high school together, then Martika had gone on to study cosmetology. These days, she was a professional makeup artist working in California and doing quite well according to Meg’s conversation with her the night before.
Martika shrugged, then stepped close and lifted the ice pack. “After what went down last night, I called Rhonda and asked if I could come do y’all up pretty for the party. Thought you might need an extra dose of doin’.”
Meg wrinkled her nose in a frown, then held her breathe as Martika prodded her eye socket gently. “Bad, huh?”
She didn’t answer right away, and from the corner of her good eye, Meg could see Rhonda biting her thumb in nervousness.
“No problem, hon. I got this. You just sit back and relax.”
“Yay!” Rhonda cried out, startling them both. She jumped up and down, then began a very awkward version of “The Carlton.”
“Stop licking your lips!” Martika scolded, mouth quirked to the side in serious concentration as she brushed copious amounts of lipstick onto Meg’s lips. “I need to powder them and then put on a second coat so it will stay on all night.”
“Can’t we blot some of it off?” Meg frowned.
“No!” Both Rhonda and Martika cried out together.
“C’mon, Meg, look at how hot I am.” Rhonda stepped out the bathroom, smoothing her hands over her hips as she crouched low in a sexy pose. “We are all gonna rock this party tonight!” Then she puckered her bright red lips in a kissy face.
Meg rolled her eyes, but giggled. They were officially high school graduates as of that afternoon, and within just a few weeks, Martika and Rhonda would both be leaving for colleges on far ends of the country. Now that Raymond was finished with his associate’s degree in sports medicine at the local college, he and Meg would be moving into an apartment together until their wedding next spring.
“Okay, doll, close your eyes.” Meg did, then scrunched up her face when she felt Martika’s huge powder brush all over her face and lips. Another layer of red lipstick was next. “Now rub your lips together, and you are good to go.”
“Am I done? Can I get up?”
“Yeah, yeah, get up, you big baby. You’ve been pouting since yesterday. We’re gonna have fun tonight whether you like it or not. Forget my dickwad brother.” As if it would explain everything, she added, “He’s just a guy.”
It was true that she’d been pretty gloomy for the past forty-eight hours or so. She hadn’t minded when Ray asked if it was okay for him to skip their graduation for a trip to Florida with some guys from college. It even made sense in that the school only provided two family seats for each graduating senior, and so there was no way for him to be at the actual ceremony. Plus, Project Graduation was just for seniors, faculty and parents so he wouldn’t be able to come to that party either.
What did bother her was that he hadn’t called the night before as promised. She’d called his room and left a message, but nothing. Not even that morning before graduation. It would have been nice if he at least missed her a fraction of the amount she missed him.
“Okay, buttercup, let’s go!” Rhonda clapped her on the back, then grabbed her hand and tugged her out of the door.
Thanks to the efforts of the administration and parents, the high school had been transformed into a mock-casino, with game tables and phony money. Each senior got a stack of bills to play, plus vouchers for snacks and drinks. Rhonda immediately dragged them off to the indoor bungee slingshot.
“I am not getting in that thing,” Meg advised, shaking her head so hard that her even her super hair-sprayed bangs jiggled.
Rhonda looked devastated. “Aw, you have to. We all have to do it.”
To make herself
clear, Meg backed away from the contraption and far away from the line of students waiting to get in it. She thought to herself, Fat girls don’t do bungees.
Except for her continued blues about Ray, Meg might have had a good time. She even played a few hands of blackjack, scoring some winnings that would put her higher in the pecking order to choose a prize at the end of the evening. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was after midnight, and she hoped maybe Ray would be back at his hotel.
While Martika and Rhonda were distracted at the roulette table, she tried to sneak off to the teachers’ break room to use the telephone. Martika’s voice stopped her.
“Hey, that’s not yours,” she shouted, advancing in Meg’s direction with acid in her eyes.
Meg’s face was full of confusion and also flushed bright red as all the kids around them were now looking her direction. “What?”
“She took your money.” Her friend pointed at another classmate, Shelby.
When Meg put her hand down into the empty pocket of her long tunic, then turned up to look at the girl, she could clearly see in her eyes that what Martika said was true. But Shelby wasn’t backing down. She stuck her nose in the air, then started to walk away.
And that was when Rhonda sprang into action. She leaped in Shelby’s direction, grabbing the girl’s hair to force her back into the circle of seniors now gathering around in anticipation of a fight.
“Rhonda, no,” Meg put her hand on her friend’s arm and tried to shake her. “C’mon, this isn’t worth it. We’re gonna get kicked out.”
Her best friend wasn’t responding. Instead she held her while Martika snatched a wad of fake money from Shelby’s hand, then stuffed it back into Meg’s pocket. She hoped that would be the end of it, but Rhonda reared back and slapped Shelby in the face so hard she was sure the girl’s teeth would be loose.
It didn’t take long for a few of the parents and the faculty to break through the crowd and separate the girls. Within ten minutes Rhonda, Martika, Meg and Shelby were thrown out of the all-night event.
All for Family (The Rawley Family Romances Book 3) Page 4
