Ain't She Sweet? (45 page)

The whole town was laughing its collective ass off.

The book immediately shot to the top of the
New York Times
best-seller list, and a reporter from
USA Today
showed up. Although stories about Colin’s mysterious disappearance had begun to appear in the press, the reporter was more interested in searching out the real-life characters from
Reflections.
The diabolical Valentine was at the top of his Most Wanted list.

“Why, that’s Sugar Beth Carey you’re looking for,” Amanda Higgins said about five seconds after the reporter arrived in town. “Sugar Beth Carey Tharp Zagurski Hooper.”

“You might remember reading about her a few years back,” her husband volunteered.

“She was that waitress who married the oil tycoon. Emmett Hooper was his name.”

The story hit the papers twenty-four hours later, and even Tibet wasn’t far enough away to hide.

Early in May, a month after Colin had left, the painting went up for auction, and the J.

Paul Getty Museum bought it for a little over three million dollars. Even though Jewel and the Seawillows did their best to celebrate with Sugar Beth, she wanted Colin. More than any one of them, he’d understood what this meant to her. But the fact that he didn’t bother to call with his congratulations added another log to the smoldering pyre of her resentment.

She completed the paperwork for the trust that would ensure Delilah’s care, then flew to Houston to spend a few days with her and take care of other business.
Reflections
stared back at her from the window of every bookstore she passed. She treated herself to an appointment at the city’s best salon, followed by a shopping spree, but not even fresh blond highlights and a pair of Jimmy Choo stilettos could lift her spirits.

She returned to Parrish late on a Tuesday night, six weeks after Colin’s desertion, tired, lonely, and teary-eyed. Just as she began to turn off her bedside light, the phone rang, and when she answered, she heard a familiar imperious voice. “Where the bloody hell have you been for the last three days?”

Her legs collapsed. “Colin?”

“What other man would be calling you at midnight, pray tell?”

Everything she’d planned to say flew out of her head. “You
bastard
!”

“Reached you at a bad time, did I?”

“You manipulating
bastard
!” Everything spilled out, all her anger and frustration. She yelled and cursed until she was hoarse, but when she finally wound down, he only said,

“Now, now, my love,” which wound her up all over again.

“I’m not your love! I’m not your anything! You deserted me, you limey prick, and I’ll never forgive you. But I’m glad you left because now I don’t ever have to look at your ugly face again. And guess what? When I told you I loved you, it was a big joke, do you hear me? All this time I’ve been laughing at you behind your back. I don’t love you! The whole thing was a big fat joke!”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he replied, not missing a beat. “But since I love you enough for both of us, I’m not too concerned. It’s embarrassing, really, how much I miss you.”

That calmed her down a little.

She abandoned the side of the bed to sit cross-legged on the rug so Gordon, who’d slithered under the bed during her tirade, could emerge and put his head in her lap. Her eyes had started to leak, but she took deep breaths so Colin didn’t know his desertion had turned her into a regular little watering pot. “How could you have left?”

“An animal in pain. That sort of rubbish.” He sounded haughty, vaguely bored, but she knew him too well, and she wasn’t fooled. She’d hurt him, all right, maybe more than he’d hurt her. She leaned down and blotted her eyes on one of Gordon’s ears. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. You know I didn’t.”

He replied with the same jaded tones. “That fact that you couldn’t help yourself only made it more painful.”

“You were right,” she said in a miserably small voice. “I never gave us a chance. I realized it as soon as you drove off.”

“Of course I was right.”

“Could you come back now?”

“Under what terms?”

“This isn’t a business negotiation.”

“Just so we’re clear.”

“I love you,” she said. “I can’t be much clearer than that. But we need to have this discussion in person. Where are you?”

“As to that . . . I’m not quite ready to say.”

She sat a little straighter. “Then why are you calling? What do you want?”

“I want your heart, my darling.”

“You have it. Don’t you know that?”

“And I want your courage.”

She bit her lip. “The courage thing is starting to come together for me. It’s not happening overnight, but I’m getting there. And I don’t want to lose you. I haven’t really thought this through all the way, but it seems to me that Parrish can survive the scandal of two people who love each other living together for a while, don’t you?”

There was a short pause. “That’s what you want, then? For me to come back so we can live together?”

“I know it’s a big step, but I’m tired of being scared—you have no idea—and I’m ready to take that step if you are.”

“I see.”

“You mentioned an engagement. I’m . . . I’m honored, Colin. I know this is just as hard for you as it is for me. This could be our first step.” He didn’t say anything, and she wondered if she’d shot too far ahead. “But if you’re not ready to live together, I understand, and forget about the engagement—it’s way too soon. I’ll move back to the carriage house so you have some room. I won’t push, and I won’t crowd you. I know how that feels. Take all the time you need. Just come back.”

She waited.

“Colin?”

“You still don’t understand, my darling.”

She was perspiring from nerves. “Understand what?”

“I’m returning on our wedding day. Not a moment before.”

“Our wedding day!”
She jumped to her feet. Gordon slithered back under the bed.

“I’m sure Winnie and the Seawillows will be more than happy to help with the arrangements, and Ryan can expedite the paperwork.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“Oh, but I am.”

“An engagement, yes.” She shot across the room. “After we’ve lived together for a while.

But we’re not jumping into marriage. We aren’t prepared.”

“I’m afraid I have to go, Sugar Beth. I need to get back to work. Congratulations on the sale of your painting. I only wish I could have been there to celebrate with you.”

“Don’t you dare hang up! Are you telling me that you’re not coming back unless I agree to marry you?”

“Of course not. That would give you far too much wiggle room. What I’m telling you is that I won’t come back until you’re standing inside the church, at the altar, with all our friends there as witnesses.”

“That’s ridiculous!” She kicked a magazine out of her way. “This isn’t one of your books, Colin. This is real life. People don’t do things like this.”

“But then we’re not ordinary people, are we?”

She’d started to hyperventilate and sank down on the chair. “Use your head. Neither of us can afford another mistake. We have to be sure we’re completely comfortable with each other.”

“I was sure a long time ago. I’m very much in love with you.”

She gripped the phone tighter. “Come home, Colin. Now.”

“And put myself at your mercy again? I’m hardly that foolish.”

“Then how are we going to settle this?”

“Inside a church in front of a minister. Take it or leave it.”

She jumped back up. “I’m leaving it!”

She heard a bored sigh. “Fortunately for you, I’m prepared to be patient for another day or so, which, more than anything else, bears testimony to the depth of my feelings for you.”

“Stop talking like a fop!”

“I’ll check in with Ryan periodically. But—and listen very carefully, my darling—I will
not
be calling you again. If you were a sane woman, I would, of course, behave in a more rational fashion. Since you are a lunatic, however, this is the only way.”

“You planned this from the beginning, didn’t you?”

“Let’s simply say that you’re not the sort of woman who can be permitted to run amok.”

She clenched her fist. “Colin, please. We have the chance for a future together. Don’t screw it up by making unreasonable demands.”

“How could I screw it up when you’re doing that so very well all by yourself?”

“I’m pregnant! You have to come back right now to take care of me.”

“No, my love, you are not pregnant, and I won’t be manipulated. Now, this conversation has grown tedious beyond belief. I love you with all my heart, and I— Are you crying, my sweet?”

“Yes.” She sniffed. “That’s practically all I’ve done since you left.”

“Truly?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“How splendid.”

And that was that.

Sugar Beth stomped through the house for a few hours, cried some more, and ate her way through two bowls of oatmeal. The next morning she woke up even angrier, grabbed the phone, and hired Bruce Kleinman, Amy’s first boyfriend and the best contractor in town, to start work on the depot. She no longer owed Colin a thing. Right after, she reached Jewel. “Remember when I told you I had this fantasy about opening a children’s bookstore in the depot?”

“I’m hardly likely to forget it. I told you I thought you should do it. You were the one with cold feet, remember? You said you couldn’t do anything permanent because of Colin.”

“That’s not a problem anymore, since I officially hate him. And I hope you meant it about us being partners.”

Sugar Beth pulled the receiver away from her ear to keep Jewel’s celebratory hoots from rupturing her eardrum.

She showered, slipped into a new pair of orange capris along with a sleeveless white shirt and sandals, and called Winnie to bring her up-to-date. Afterward, she set off to meet Bruce at the depot. When they were done, she went to see Jewel so they could discuss their partnership agreement, and following that, she snatched Charlie from his baby-sitter and took him to the park to play. She ended the day with a quick drop-in at Yesterday’s Treasures.

“Jewel’s worried about you,” Winnie said as she entered the store. “I just talked to her on the phone, and she said you refused a Goo Goo Cluster. She thinks I should call an emergency session of the Seawillows to do some triage.”

“Jewel should stay out of the Seawillows’ business,” Sugar Beth retorted. “She laughed in my face when I told her how much we wanted her to join.”

“You probably shouldn’t take it personally.”

“How can I not take it personally? Next to you, she’s my best friend, not to mention my future business partner. And she’s not half as funny as she thinks she is. She said joining the Seawillows was the first step toward putting on a hoop skirt and standing on the front lawn of Frenchman’s Bride waving a parasol and going fiddle-dee-dee.”

Winnie sighed. “This isn’t about Jewel. It’s about you.”

Sugar Beth sank down in an oak farm chair, the emotions of the past two days catching up with her. “Just because a person understands something about herself doesn’t necessarily mean she can fix it.”

“I’m guessing we’re talking about you now.”

“Think about it. A woman who’s always been overweight, for example. She knows exactly what she needs to do to keep off the pounds, but that doesn’t mean she can do it, right?”

“You’ve got a point.”

Sugar Beth pressed her stomach. “Call me crazy, but taking a fourth trip down the aisle doesn’t seem like the best way to fix whatever’s broken inside me.”

“Unless whatever was broken is already fixed.”

“Just thinking about all this is making me queasy. I’ve gotta go.” She grabbed her purse, gave Winnie a peck on the cheek, and made her way out of the store.

The heat had begun to settle in, and as she hit the sidewalk, she slipped on her new sunglasses, a trendy pair of aviators. A man she didn’t know tripped over his feet rubbernecking at her. She was too tired to appreciate the attention.

Gordon greeted her at the door. He’d gotten clingy since Colin left, and she sank down on the tile to give him love, but he was the product of a broken home, and he was too depressed to do more than roll over on his back. Afterward, she made her way to the kitchen, grabbed a carton of strawberry yogurt, and began to pace. Finally, she lay down on the sunroom couch, only to jolt awake a few hours later and begin pacing all over again.

Night settled in, and her agitation grew. By eleven o’clock, she’d worked herself into such a state she couldn’t stand it any longer, so she marched down the street and banged on Winnie’s door.

Her half sister answered in a pair of pajama tops, hair tousled, beard-burn reddening her cheek. Sugar Beth stormed inside. “Can’t the two of you spend just one evening talking like normal people?”

“Don’t take out your sexual frustration on me. What’s wrong?”

“I need to talk to Ryan.”

“He’s asleep.”

“Not for long.” Sugar Beth pushed past her and stalked upstairs. Winnie followed, bitching all the way.

Ryan lay on his stomach, probably naked, although a thin blue blanket covered him from the hips down, so she couldn’t be sure. She punched his shoulder. “Wake up!”

He rolled over, the sheet twisting around him, blinked, and looked past Sugar Beth to his wife, who crossed her arms over her chest and glowered. “She’s your old girlfriend. I barely know her.”

Sugar Beth had started to shake, but she kept her voice low so she didn’t wake Gigi.

“Listen to me, Ryan Galantine. When that bastard calls back, you tell him he’s won this round. I’ll marry him. But I don’t take well to being blackmailed, and tell him I intend to spend the rest of my life making him miserable, got that?”

Ryan pushed himself up into the pillows. He looked sleepy but amused.

Sugar Beth bore in. “I mean it. If he wants this marriage so bad, he can have it, but he’d better be prepared to suffer serious consequences.” She spun around, marched past Winnie, stormed down the steps and out the door.

Ryan gazed at his wife. “They deserve each other.”

Sugar Beth refused to have anything to do with the arrangements other than to say she wanted a private ceremony, just Gigi, Ryan, and Winnie as her matron of honor. No one else, not even Jewel or the Seawillows.