Year of Living Blonde (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 1) (5 page)

They head over to the couch, where Chloe searches for something inside her backpack to show Lindsay.

“I found some more horses I wanted to show you,” Chloe tells her. “I think they’re in my bedroom. I’ll be right back!” Chloe desperately wanted a horse of her own, but it was such a big responsibility that Natalie and Peter both agreed to wait until she was a teenager before getting her one. In the meantime, she was learning everything she could.

As Chloe leaves the room, Natalie feels awkward standing next to Peter. She wishes she’d had some warning so she could have at least pulled herself together. The two of them have a lot to talk about. She’s about to ask him if he’ll stay while she goes and takes a shower, but then sees him surveying the living room with distaste.

“What the hell happened here? Did you have some kind of party?”

“What do you mean?”

“And maybe you can explain this.” Peter pulls out his cell phone. A few seconds later, he puts it on speaker and holds the phone up.

At first, all Natalie can hear is a bunch of loud rock music. But then she recognizes Guns N’ Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle.”

Oh, no.

Dread rises as she hears a slurred voice talking over the music. It takes her a second to realize that it’s her own drunk self who’s come on the line.

“And if you think you’re going to take away my HOME or my DAUGHTER, then I will fight you to the DEATH. Do you hear me? Do you?” There’s more music and she can hear Axl singing, though it’s garbled, and then “To the DEATH!”

The message ends abruptly and Peter puts the phone down.

“Damn, how many times did we play that song?” Lindsay asks with amusement.

“Apparently more than once.” Natalie tries to hide her own smile.

“I don’t think this is funny at all.” Peter scowls at the two of them. “Do you know how disturbing it was to receive a message like that?”

“Disturbing?” Natalie looks at him with amazement. “You’re going to talk to me about disturbing? You completely disappeared. Where have you been?”

Peter shifts uncomfortably. “I told you I was leaving. Don’t act like you didn’t know.” He walks over to a chair in the living room and then stops abruptly. Leaning over, he picks up an empty wine bottle. His mouth drops when he sees the label, and when he sees the second one on the coffee table, he reaches down to grab it, as well.

“I can’t believe you’d do this to me!” He shoves the second bottle up accusingly. “Do you know how expensive this wine is that you and your sister so carelessly drank? I bought this Cabernet at an auction!”

He tips it upside down and not a single drop comes out.

Natalie watches. “I have to admit, it was pretty good.”

There’s a moment of silence and she can hear Peter’s angry breathing. His nostrils flare. “
Pretty good?
That’s a hundred dollar bottle of wine!”

“Wow, is that right?” Natalie turns her head toward Lindsay. “Did you hear that? I guess that wine cost a lot of money.”

Lindsay, who is thumbing through a magazine, doesn’t even bother to look up. “Well, it was, you know . . .
pretty good.
”

A strangled noise comes from Peter’s throat while his face turns a shade of red seldom seen outside Cartoon Network. “I can’t believe this! What is wrong with you, Natalie? They serve this same vintage at the White House, and you and your crazy sister are knocking it back like its Boone’s Farm!”

Natalie rolls her eyes. “So what?”

“’So what?’ That’s all you have to say for yourself? And just look at this place.” Peter waves his arms around. “I’m gone for a week and when I come back, I find that you’ve completely trashed our house!”

“Don’t exaggerate. It’s just a little messy.”

“There’s an
axe
hanging from our front door, for God’s sake!”

“Oh . . . well, that’s true. But I can explain that.”

“I think the axe is cool!” Chloe pipes up as she comes back into the living room.

Lindsay chuckles. “Thanks.”

Peter glares at Lindsay. “I knew you were behind that. I hope you have enough money to pay for a new door.”

“No problem.” She meets his glare with cool detachment. “Though, why do you even care? From what I understand, you don’t live here anymore. In fact, where exactly are you living? Why don’t you enlighten—”

“Stop it, you two,” Natalie cuts her off. “Lindsay, why don’t you and Chloe go get some ice cream?”

“Ice cream?” Chloe asks. “But if I leave, I might miss something. You and Daddy never fight. I want to know what’s happening.”

Natalie looks at Lindsay for help.

“Actually, a new gelato place opened near my apartment,” Lindsay tells Chloe. “Do you want to go check it out?”

Natalie can see Chloe wavering. She knows if Lindsay suggests it, it must be cool. In her eyes, everything Lindsay does is cool.

“All right,” she agrees.

After Chloe and Lindsay leave, Peter takes a seat in a living room chair and shakes his head. “How could you, Natalie? How could you drink that Cabernet? Or even the Pinot Noir we bought in Napa?”

Natalie sits on the couch. Peter has such a hurt expression she almost regrets drinking the wine. But as she studies him, she realizes he looks different. And it’s not just because she hasn’t seen him for a while.

“Why do you have a tan?” His hair is lighter as well, as if it’s been bleached by the sun. Natalie gets a sick feeling in her stomach. “Where have you been?”

Peter has the decency to at least look embarrassed when he answers her. “Mexico.” He clears his throat. “We went to Cabo San Lucas for a few days.”

Natalie is stunned. While she’s been trying to cope with his abandonment, Peter has been on vacation. He traveled somewhere warm and sunny with
her.
She pictures him sitting on the beach with a drink in his hand, the blurry image of another woman by his side. She’s so furious it nearly eclipses the pain.

“You know what? I’m glad Lindsay and I drank that wine! I wish I’d poured every single bottle you own down the drain!” Natalie pushes herself up from the couch and goes into the kitchen to get away from him.

She stands next to the sink, trying to calm herself.
Why would he do this to me? Why? After everything we’ve shared over the years.
She squeezes her eyes shut as hard as she can and wishes she could cry.

“Natalie?”

She turns and Peter is peering around the corner. His face sorrowful. His
tan
face.

“What did I ever do to you that would make you treat me like this? Tell me,” she demands.

He walks slowly into the kitchen and stands near the island. “That’s not an easy question to answer.”

“Yes, it is. You must have some reason!”

Peter seems to be searching for the words. “I don’t know. It’s just everything. I don’t feel a real connection with you anymore.”

“Have you even tried? Don’t you think I’d like to go to Mexico and sit in the warm sun? Why not ask
me?
”

“I did.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Last year, I tried to get you to fly down there for vacation with me, but you refused.”

Natalie tries to remember what he’s talking about and it does sound familiar. Then suddenly it comes to her. It was just after she and Blair had signed the lease on La Dolce Vita. He wanted to fly down to Cabo San Lucas, but she couldn’t leave because they were opening their bakery.

“That’s not fair. You knew I couldn’t go anywhere then. I was starting a new business!”

Peter shakes his head. “It’s always something, Natalie. Face it—you have no sense of adventure. All you want to do is work. Day after day, without end. But I don’t want to spend my whole life working. I want to live, too.”

“I enjoy my work, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a break sometimes. We could take a vacation together, if that’s what you really want.” She walks toward him and tries to take his hand, but he pulls away from her.

“It’s too late for that. It’s just no good between us anymore, and it hasn’t been for a long time.”

Natalie swallows. She knows he’s talking about their sex life, or the lack of it. To be honest, she’s not even sure when they did it last. A quickie in the dark before she had to get up and go to work? “We can fix that, too,” she says quietly.

“Lena told me you’d say that.”

“What?” A shock runs through her body as she hears that woman’s name. “You’ve talked about this with
Lena?
”

“I talk about everything with Lena. We love each other. She actually listens and cares about what I have to say.”

Natalie grits her teeth.
That bitch! Who does this woman think she is, discussing our marriage?
“She’s stealing you! Don’t you see that? What kind of terrible person breaks up a family? And you’re so deluded you think you’re in love with her!”

“Lena isn’t like that. And she didn’t have to steal me, Natalie. The fact is, I was already gone when I met her.”

“Because I didn’t want to go to Mexico? After all these years, that’s enough for you to leave?”

“Look, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I need more. I want a woman.”

“I am a woman!”

“Barely.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I want a woman who cares. Who makes an effort to look, you know . . . sexy.”

And even though he says he doesn’t want to hurt her, Natalie is hurt. Deeply. It’s like a knife through her heart. She knows she isn’t sexy or a great beauty, but Peter knew that when he married her. “So you finally decided I’m not good enough for you, is that it?”

“We’ve simply outgrown each other.”

Natalie is silent as the pain sinks in. Her family is going to pieces and there isn’t anything she can do to stop it. “What have you told Chloe about all this?”

“Nothing.”

“Why not?”

“Actually,” Peter looks sheepish, “since you’re so much better at these things, I was kind of hoping you would explain it to Chloe. But in a way that’s fair,” he adds.

Natalie is incredulous and then realizes nothing has changed. Peter might be leaving her, but he still wants her to handle the messy details of his life. She thinks of Chloe and figures at least this way she’ll have control over how Chloe learns about their family falling apart.

“Fine. I’ll handle it. I always take care of everything, so why should this be any different?”

Peter looks like he’s going to argue, but then stops. “Call me after you talk to her.” He pushes away from the counter. “Also you should know that I hired a divorce lawyer. In fact, after seeing the state of this house, I’m glad I did. I don’t know what you were thinking, throwing a wild party like that. I’m glad Chloe wasn’t here.”

“Stop exaggerating. There was no wild party. It was just Lindsay and me.” She crosses her arms. “And you’re not touching my house.”

“It’s half mine.”

A flicker of worry passes through her.
Could he really force me out?
“When did you hire a lawyer?”

“Recently.” He takes a step closer to her and she recognizes his ‘dentist voice,’ the reasonable one he uses when he’s trying to convince a patient to follow his advice. “There’s no reason things have to get ugly between us, Natalie. Lena thought it was a good idea after that voicemail you left me, and I agree with her. It turns out if we keep things amicable we can be divorced in as little as ninety days.”

Ninety days!

Natalie tries to catch her breath.
So Blair was right.
She wants to make sense of everything, but it’s all happening so fast. She feels as if she’s been thrown into the deep end of the pool without any idea how to swim. One thing’s for sure, though. No one is stealing her husband without answering for it.

It’s time to pay Lena a visit.