The whole situation reeked of failure. “Great. Just fu –”
“Watch your language, young lady.”
“Sorry, Grandma, this is crap.” I hated myself for falling into a stupid trap.
“Yes, it is. And I will be there to help you.” She raised her eyebrows. “But watch your language.”
The light bulb went off in my head with the most brilliant scheme. “Grandma, you just gave me the best idea.”
“What?”
I didn’t answer. I kissed her cheek and ran to my room to make the call.
TOP OF THE 6TH
Daniel waited outside for me as I parked in front of his house. He tossed a duffel over his shoulder and strolled to the car.
“I have some bad news and some good news,” I said as soon as he opened the door. “Bad news first?”
He settled in the seat and tugged at his seatbelt. “Shoot.”
“We’re getting ambushed.”
His head shot up just as the seatbelt locked in place with a loud click. “Excuse me?”
“This whole dinner with my mother thing is actually a ‘surprise’ party.” I hadn’t bothered to put the car into drive yet. He could’ve backed out and I would’ve totally let him.
“And?” he asked.
“My mother invited Andrea.” Maybe I’ll wait on the Theo and Erik thing until we’re almost there.
“Nice.” He leaned across the console and kissed my cheek. “Guessing she doesn’t know that Andrea’s with Theo now.”
I did a quick shoulder check and pulled onto the street. “Nope, she just heard we had a falling out.”
“So much for the gossip in Hillside.” He switched the radio off. “Who else?”
Crap. I stayed focused on the road and told him the partial truth. “And she invited Erik.”
“The jackass from the party?” His hands clenched into fists on his lap.
“The very same.”
He smashed his head back into the headrest. “This can’t get worse.”
“Oh, wait,” I said, deciding to just tell him and get it over with. “She also invited Theo.”
“Are you kidding me?”
I shook my head.
He put his hand on the door and unbuckled his seatbelt. “Let me out. I’m not going.”
I kept driving, hoping he was joking. “You’d leave me alone with those people? And their parents?”
“They are your ‘friends’.”
I took a deep breath to stay calm. “Which brings me to the good news.”
“How can there be good news?” His hand was still on the door.
“We’re going to pick up Adam and Heather.”
He let go. “Really? Why?”
“Yes really. I figured they’d make a good buffer. We can hang with them and ignore the other crap. If all else fails, we also have some back up if Erik or Theo try to start anything.”
“I don’t like this, Vic.” He put his seatbelt back on.
“Neither do I.” I reached across the console and squeezed his knee. “Just be glad Grandma warned me after she talked to my mom.”
“Your grandma’s cool. Is she going to be there?”
“Yeah.” I smiled knowing that Grandma would be another buffer. We might be safe after all.
He smirked. “Is Charles coming?”
“Not that I know of.” The thought of Grandma bringing Charles to Chez Hudson almost made me laugh. “Is it that obvious that they’re into each other?”
He laughed. It was good to hear since I expected I’d get gloomy Daniel all night. “About as obvious as we were.”
Heather and Adam waited for us outside Hansen’s. Each had their own bag with a change of clothes. Adam wasn’t too keen on coming along until I explained the whole Theo-Andrea thing in full. Then he had no problem with it.
Adam and Daniel argued about some local band I’d never heard of on the way to my mother’s. Heather shifted in the backseat and stared out the window. I felt bad for putting her on the spot.
When I drove through the gates, Adam shut up. I pulled around the back of the house and parked by the garage. We were twenty-five minutes late, but I really didn’t care. No one else had parked back there, but they normally don’t. Whenever we have any kind of dinner party, it’s like a show of who has more money. Guests rarely drive themselves. A tiny speck of hope sprung up in my chest.
Then I heard a splash in the pool and a murmur of voices.
There went that speck.
I led the way into the kitchen. Lilly smiled at me. Her eyes widened when Heather squeezed in beside me on my left. Daniel tried to push between us, but Heather wasn’t about to budge so he was left in the background. When Adam came in and slipped in beside me on my right, Lilly’s smile brightened the room once again.
Uh-oh. Smiling at Adam could only mean one thing. It didn’t help that Adam had to stand sideways and his chest was pressed against my arm. Lilly’s expression was enough to convince me that she thought Adam was my boyfriend. I hoped Mom didn’t make the same assumption. This wasn’t good.
“Your mother is in the sitting room,” Lilly squeaked. Then she went back to basting a turkey.
“Thanks, Lilly.”
The sitting room was on the other side of the house with a view of the pool. I led my friends through the ridiculous hallway and oversized staircase. It felt wrong to be here.
Heather muttered a “wow”, and I felt ashamed. This house was too much for anyone with less than twenty kids. We didn’t need all the room. We didn’t need all the crap either. I stretched back and grabbed Daniel’s hand, pulling him up beside me. Just outside the doorway, we all stopped.
“Ready?” I asked, hating the quiver in my voice.
Nobody said anything, so I led us into the lion’s den.
Mom held court from the wingback chair facing the door. Everyone Grandma had listed was already here. The Marshalls wore matching tennis outfits, which is a fashion faux pas no matter where you live. Erik’s dad was refreshing two drinks when we walked in while his wife sat with Mr. Smithton at the piano. They chatted away, unaware that we’d even entered the room.
I squeezed Daniel’s hand for good measure.
I feigned surprise and asked, “What’s going on, Mom?”
“Oh, Victoria, I’m so glad you’re finally here. You remember everyone.” She motioned around the room as she walked over toward us. Her eyes dropped to where my hand was intertwined with Daniel’s. Like a pro, she showed no reaction. “I have a special surprise for you. All of your friends are out by the pool.” She noticed Adam and Heather. “I’m so sorry. We haven’t met.”
That woman never missed a beat.
“Mom, this is Adam and his girlfriend Heather. And you remember Daniel.” I equaled her tone and charm. Two could play this game. And I learned from the best.
“It’s so nice to meet you.” She held out her hand to Adam and Heather but not Daniel.
I smiled as fake happy as I could. “So, who’s out by the pool?”
“All of your friends.” She put extra emphasis on the word. “Andrea, Theo, Erik, Logan, Rachel, Eva, Shanna, and Millie. They’re going to be so happy to see you, dear.” She swept her hand to the hallway. It was permission to leave the room. “Now go out there and have a good time. I’ll have Lilly call you in for dinner at six-thirty so you can change.” She noticed our bags. “Oh, and leave those at the bottom of the stairs. Lilly can take them up.”
“I’m sure Lilly has enough to do, Mom. We’ll take them up first.”
She gave me a tight smile. “That would be nice.”
Just to piss her off further, I took the steps two at a time. When we got to the second floor, I almost started laughing. Part one of hell day was over. Part two, the pool, was going to be far worse. We may not even make it to part three. Dinner.
Lilly may have had a lot going on, but I had an ulterior motive for bringing the bags up myself. Call it a stall tactic. Daniel snickered at my girly room covered w
ith baseball posters. Heather drooled. It must have been a Barbie dream room to her. Adam looked like he was unimpressed. It was one of the reasons I liked him.
We managed to goof around for fifteen minutes before Lilly found us under Mom’s direction. Five minutes after that, we made our way out to the pool.
Andrea bolted up from her cushy chaise lounge when we walked out the patio doors. Rachel pulled herself to her elbows and ogled Adam. The guys were nowhere to be seen. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Heather pull Adam closer.
“Vicky,” Eva shouted, “get over here. Tell us about this baseball thingy you’re doing.”
“And introduce us to your new friends,” Rachel added as she stared at Adam over her too expensive sunglasses.
We skirted the pool and it took all my strength not to push Daniel in just for the fun of it. Under my breath, I said, “It’s all good.”
Daniel put his hand on my lower back. Tremors exploded up my spine.
“Hey, Eva.” I nodded to Rachel and Shanna. “This is my friend Heather and her boyfriend Adam.” Heather smiled at me. “And this is Daniel.”
The girls smiled and introduced themselves. Andrea and Millie argued a few seats over. I strained to hear them, but they kept their voices too low. Andrea stood up and I expected her to storm out like a diva. She didn’t.
“Vicky, can we talk? Please?” she whispered.
I wanted to say “no” but didn’t.
She nodded toward the other end of the pool and we walked over in silence. Daniel’s eyes never left me while he sat down with Heather and Adam at one of the tables. The girls went back to their sunbathing and gossip.
“I’m so sorry, Vicky,” Andrea began. She wrung her hands together. “Can we please move on from this?”
“Why should I? It’s not like you didn’t know –”
“He told me you guys had broken up already. When you found out about Stacey.” She was almost desperate enough for me to believe her. “After what happened at the benefit –”
“What happened at the benefit?” I snapped. The night replayed in my mind. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Other than Theo getting invited.
“He said you were mean. He said you told him to shut up.” Now she just looked confused. “He said you blamed it on your dad, but he thought it came from you. That’s why he hit on me on the plane. He thought you guys were already through.”
The anger started in my toes and vibrated up my legs, through my torso, and into my head. By the time it got to my mouth, I exploded.
“What. The. …,” I said, surprisingly calm for as pissed as I was. “And you believed him?”
She shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to believe him. When he said all that, I stopped thinking of him as your boyfriend. He was charming and romantic. I assumed you wouldn’t care since you guys weren’t together anymore. Does that make any sense?”
Unfortunately, it did.
“And it’s not like you were pining away for Theo.” She glanced at Daniel. He laughed at something Adam said. I loved how the corners of his eyes crinkled when he smiled. It made me melt. “I mean you guys were hooking up before Theo cheated, right?”
“What?” The more lies he told her, the more I hated him. “No. We weren’t.”
“Theo was so sure you were.”
“Well, I wasn’t. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Ask Daniel. He’ll tell you that too.” I glared at Andrea and felt I owed her the truth, no matter how hard it was to admit. “I knew it was over between me and Theo, but I felt I owed it to him to at least break up in person. I was going to do that the day I saw you guys at the park. You can tell Theo that if you want.”
Her face dropped. “No, I can’t. We aren’t together.”
“That was quick.”
“I know. The whole thing felt wrong, especially after we got back. Just wasn’t the same as it was in Paris.” She shrugged, and I knew that bastard had dumped her.
“Is he really here?” I asked, hoping that he wouldn’t have the balls.
“Oh, yeah. He’s in the pool house with Erik and Logan. They’re playing video games.” She looked toward the building. “He’s up to something.”
“Why do you say that?”
She turned back to face me. “If I tell you, promise you won’t get mad.”
“No.” I wasn’t going to lie. I was tired of all the damn lies.
She closed her eyes. “He told me the only reason he went out with you was so he could meet your dad.” She paused and her eyes popped open. She stared at me for a moment before adding, “Don’t you remember when he asked if you’d help him get an internship?”
“Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because he’s here for the same reason. He wants to get in good with the Senator.” She reached for my arm, but I stepped away from her. “Theo is only out for Theo. Vicky, you know it’s true.”
“Why should I believe you?” I asked, even though I did.
A splash interrupted our conversation. Rachel had jumped into the deep end. Shanna and Eva followed. The water did look inviting, especially since it was a typical St. Louis summer day: eighty-five with enough humidity to curl the straightest hair. A quick glance at Daniel told me I needed to get back to him. He looked uncomfortable and so did Adam and Heather. It was time to play hostess.
“We’ll talk more later,” I told Andy and went back to my friends.
“What’d she want?” Daniel asked as soon as I sat down. When I told him what Andrea said, he nodded. “Yeah, I can see that.”
I stood, slithered out of my shorts, and pulled off my tee. “Come on.”
He smiled and took his shirt off too. His smooth chest took my breath away. Daniel was perfect, thin but not too thin. He had some clear definition but not too sculpted. It took everything in my power not to reach out and run my hand down his skin.
Adam and Heather followed us into the pool. We stayed at the shallow end, talking about the team. Rachel came over, eyeing Daniel. Shanna joined us along with Andrea and Eva. They started asking the guys about how good or bad I was. Soon the girls were telling Daniel stories about me, some I wasn’t sure he needed to know.
The boys didn’t bother to come out of the pool house. For that I was grateful. Once Theo, Erik, and Daniel saw one another, hell might very well break loose. Lilly called us in to get ready for dinner. Daniel and Adam were the only guys that needed to change. Lilly led us up the stairs, ushering Daniel and Adam into a guest room. The girls were directed into my room. Lilly stood in the hallway until I closed my door. And as soon as it did, I was bombarded with twenty questions.
“Vicky, Daniel is h-o-t hot. Are there any more like him on the team?” Rachel asked as she stripped off her bikini top. Shanna and Eva chimed in to agree. “And I bet he could even teach me a thing of two.” She looked at me with her vixen smile. “He is good, isn’t he?”
No way I was fessing up to that. At least verbally, my cheeks felt warm with a blush. “I wouldn’t know. We haven’t been together long enough.”
Shanna laughed. “What? But he’s so into you. I can’t believe you haven’t done it yet.”
I shook my head. Andy held back a grin as she combed out her hair. She knew me too well. I slipped into my closet to get away from the conversation and pulled on a cotton halter dress in pale orange. My shoes that Andrea had taken with her on the trip were back in my closet. They were perfect for this dress.
“Thanks, Andy,” I said as I came back out.
She smiled. Her sundress was white with pink flowers. She wore her blonde hair cascading over one shoulder. Shanna had put on a black skirt, her favorite color, and a lime green sleeveless top. Eva, in a powder blue dress with gladiator sandals, and Rachel, in a vampy yet still summery red spaghetti strapped dress, looked their usual elegant selves. The epitome of class and wealth all in one room.
Lilly knocked on the door, the two-minute warning. I glanced at Heather as she sat at the vanity in a brown floral baby do
ll dress and black flats. She hadn’t said a single word since we came upstairs. I pulled her hair up into a low ponytail and ditched the claw clip she was so fond of. Heather wasn’t a conventional beauty, but she wasn’t ugly either. I combed some gel through with my fingers to tame her thick blonde strays. Lilly knocked again.
Andrea opened the door. “We’ll be down in a minute, Lilly. Thanks.”
It didn’t feel right so I braided the ponytail and Andy jumped in to touch up Heather’s makeup. It took all of five minutes, but the results were striking. Heather smiled at us in the mirror then we headed downstairs.
Daniel and Adam stood on one side of the hallway. The other three guys leaned against the opposite wall. It looked like an 80s movie standoff.
Adam grinned when he noticed Heather. He hurried over and whispered, “You look great, babe.”
I felt horrible about overhearing that but incredibly satisfied. Fingertips brushed against my back, sending that familiar shiver snaking up to my neck. I smiled over my shoulder at Daniel. He looked pretty good. I didn’t know what to expect since I’d only seen him in shorts or his baseball uniform. He wore a pair of pressed khakis and a black polo. Gel tamed his shaggy hair.
He ran his fingers down my arm and linked them into my hand, giving a reassuring squeeze. Together we took a deep breath and crossed the hall toward the dining room. Adam and Heather fell in behind us. The only two left in the hallway were Erik and Theo.
I did not like this one bit.
We walked by them. Daniel tensed beside me. We kept our eyes toward the dining room, not once looking at Theo or Erik. They didn’t say anything that I heard, but Daniel heard something.
Adam jumped in between them before Daniel could do anything stupid. Erik and Theo pretended to be innocent. Daniel and Theo glared at one another in a show of male posturing. Nobody said a word as the tension rose in the hall. Adam pushed us into the deathly quiet dining room.
We took our seats, but Mom motioned for me to join her in the hallway before my cushion could get warm. A faint murmur began as people started talking. Daniel and Adam had their heads bent together.
Mom waited for me, quietly tapping her five-hundred-dollar pumps on the marble floor. “What was that all about?”
Extra Innings Page 12
