Anabel Unraveled (27 page)

Chapter 29—Jared

“Well if it isn’t the most notorious bachelor in town.” Carly Waterstreet bent over and gave me a lingering kiss on the mouth. “Sorry I’m late, I had a meeting with my buyer, and that girl is such an idiot. I think I’m going to have to fire her.”

“How long has this one lasted?”

“Three weeks.” Her smile was vicious. “Her name is Sandi with an ‘i.’ I shouldn’t have even considered her based on that stupid spelling alone, and the fact that she dots her i’s with a heart!” She sat down on my lap, and whispered in my ear, “Needless to say, I definitely need to . . . relax . . . tonight.”

“Well, you’ve come to the right place,” I grinned broadly, resting my hand on her thigh.

Carly was probably one of the smartest women in DC. We had been in the same class at Georgetown. During our graduation ceremony she had leaned over and whispered to me that she had decided she didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore.

I had scoffed, but she was serious. She was a brilliant law student, and turned out to be an equally brilliant businesswoman. She used all of her persuasive skills to talk her way into a bank loan to open a boutique in Georgetown where she sold high end fashion and served all the best clientele that DC had to offer. She often frequented the pages of Washingtonian Magazine—and I always enjoyed the times that she had me with her.

“Well,” she said, her voice seductive, “I guess I can’t spend the entirety of our meal on your lap.” She stood up and I caught her arm.

“Are you sure?”

She smiled. “Poor Jared. Life’s been rough, huh?”

“Yes.” I sat back in my chair. “By the way, thank you for prying yourself away from work for an evening.”

“I had to. I couldn’t let you mope over some silly girl.” She sat down and adjusted herself. All of herself, an act clearly done for my benefit. “I can’t believe it. You finally found someone who doesn’t want you.”

“No, she wants me, Carly. She wants me very much.”

“Are you just saying that because you don’t want to look pathetic? Honey, I’ve seen you puking your guts out into my bathtub, you can’t sink much lower.”

“I seem to recall you weren’t too turned off by that.”

“Well, what can I say, love?” she purred. “You and I always had something special.”

“We did. What happened to it?”

She considered. Then she broke into a smile. “What does it matter? We can try and rediscover it tonight.” I felt her foot against mine. “And don’t worry, Jared. You won’t get me pregnant. You’ve got enough trouble with what’s-her-name. The fat one.”

“That’s low.” I glanced down at my phone. The screen had lit up, and I saw it was a Virginia number. Probably Anabel’s house. “She’s having a baby.”

“Well, pregnant or not, I seriously doubt she’d be able to fit into anything in my store,” Carly snapped.

“What’s with you?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she reached across and covered the screen of my BlackBerry with her hand. “Hey now,” she sounded angry. “What’s more interesting, me or that thing?”

“You, of course,” I lied.

“Good,” she warned. “I won’t tolerate anything but the best.”

“And you’ll get it,” I promised her. But from that point on, I was distracted.

My phone kept ringing.

First, Anabel called.

Then Matt called.

Then Anabel called again.

It was getting really difficult to ignore her.

I didn’t know what to do with her. I was also irritated she had Matt calling me—if he hadn’t told her that day when we last spoke, I was sure he had filled her in by now about what had happened with me and his sister. I still hadn’t gotten over how she had behaved on the phone the other day. She had been such a brat, and I didn’t want to deal with her at the moment, not when there were much more pleasant prospects in front of me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, smiling at the beautiful woman across the table.

Losing Sam’s friendship had been hard on me, so I had been spending way more time with Carly—up until Anabel’s big revelation that she was having a baby. And this made Carly angry—she didn’t like having to share me. Even though we had never had an official relationship, I knew that she considered me hers. And most of the time, that was fine with me. After Sam, she was my best friend.

She just also happened to be a friend that I had sex with, and I hadn’t done that since I found out Anabel was pregnant.

“Your phone keeps ringing,” she noted, throwing her head back a little.

“I’m a popular guy.”

“I see that,” she concurred with a cold smile. “Is the little girl calling you?”

“Yes, Anabel has called,” I was annoyed. “Can we not discuss her, please?”

But this was where Carly rose to the task. Like she had done several times during mock trials, she started circling, getting ready to go in for the kill. “What did you see in her anyway? Oh that’s right,” she said cattily, “you didn’t.”

That was once. “I asked you to not talk about her.”

“I just don’t understand why you would get involved with someone like her. I saw those pictures of her in the paper, Jared. She was a mess. She still is.”

Twice. “Carly, lay off of her.”

“You might just want to reconsider your priorities. That’s all I’m saying.” She took a bite of her salad.

And three times. “That’s enough,” I warned. “Don’t forget, she is having my baby.”

“Alright then, honey,” she teased with a flirtatious smile. “I won’t tease you about the cranky little teenager any more. As long as it doesn’t take away from the . . . rest of our evening?”

This was bad. I wondered if I should try and get out of this situation, but I was having a really hard time keeping my eyes off of her. My conscience was nagging at me though: it wasn’t fair to either Carly or Anabel to be jerked around by me. But one of these women had very little interest in me at the moment, while the other was offering herself to me on a silver platter. Being with her was a lot easier than being with Anabel, and it was a welcome change of pace. Besides, Carly was right about one thing: it wasn’t like Anabel had been nice to me lately. I decided to ignore any further calls from her, and focus on having a good evening.

But then my sister called. Twice. Three times. “Excuse me,” I apologized to my dinner companion. “What?” I barked into my phone.

“Where are you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Have you forgotten,” my sister whispered, “what today is?”

“Thursday?”

“Jared, it’s the Princess’ birthday,” she hissed. “She told me not to call you, but I snuck away and, oh, is she ever mad.”

“What? No, that can’t be right, her birthday is . . .” I swallowed. “Thursday. Today.”

Carly sniffed, and made a show of adjusting the strap on her dress. I had to force myself to focus on my phone conversation. “Should I come over there?”

Meghan sighed. “I would call first.” And then she hung up on me.

Wonderful.

I tried to smile at Carly. “Will you excuse me for a second?”

She sniffed again.

So I dialed Anabel’s phone. She answered on the second ring. “Yes?”

“Hey, baby,” I said.

There was silence.

“I screwed up, huh?”

“Why couldn’t you at least answer when I called?” She sounded very calm, very cold, and very, very angry.

“I’m sorry, Anabel, time got away from me, and—”

Carly made a point of yawning loudly and saying, “Jared, I do wish you would get back to me . . .”

“Who is that?” came Anabel’s voice in my ear.

“I’m having dinner with a friend, honey, I—”

”So what you’re telling me,” she started to shout, “is that you met some girl and you’re having dinner with her instead of coming to my party! You said you would be here, and you’re off getting . . . well, you know what you’re getting. I can’t believe you, Jared! I was worried! I thought you were dead!”

“Honey—”

“No,” she cut me off. “Just no. You know, it makes it really hard for me to defend you when you go out of your way to make yourself into a villain!” For the second time that night, I was hung up on.

Great.

Carly raised an eyebrow at me. “I take it you and I won’t be spending the rest of the evening together?”

“As much as I would like to, I have a very upset birthday girl I need to see.” It was too bad, she was a gorgeous woman. “Rain check?”

She smiled an icy smile, and I knew I had blown it with her. We wouldn’t see each other again for a very long time. I walked out shaking my head, wondering how long it would take for Carly to forgive me. Getting into my car, the thought did cross my mind that her reaction was probably nothing compared to what awaited me in Mclean.

I slammed the steering wheel as I pulled out. How did I forget Anabel’s birthday?

There was no doubt about it. I was screwed.

Chapter 30—Anabel

So, this was my first real birthday party, and I wasn’t having any fun.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t ungrateful for the effort. Meghan had come, and I was pleased to see that she and Kevin were deep in conversation. Sam and Matt were chatting and they kept pretending not to look at me, but I knew they were. Charlotte and Phil were being gracious hosts, keeping everyone’s drink filled, serving all sorts of food, and even Alexis was making an attempt to be civil by talking with Charlie—although whatever it was they were talking about seemed to make them both unhappy.

But Jared wasn’t there.

So I sat on my couch, pulling at my hair and thinking. It’s not like I had been shy about the fact that my birthday was approaching; I had mentioned it to him at least three times, and I had even called and left a message for him yesterday. My heart was hurting, because I had wanted him to be there.

I guess I had just thought that it would be a chance to see what we could be like as a couple. I wanted to see what it would be like to be together because we wanted to be, not because a hearing or a death had caused us to be in the same room together. Part of me wanted to pretend that we could be together for a reason other than the fact that there was a baby on the way. Not only that, but I had resolved to tell him tonight about my health issues. After spending the day with Matt, weighing the pros and cons, we had agreed that Jared had a right to know there was a possibility he’d be raising the baby by himself. On top of it all, I was irked because I had spent nearly an hour straightening my massive pile of hair and had even made an attempt to apply makeup. Matt came and sat down next to me, avoiding making eye contact. “I don’t want to hear it,” I told him.

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” he replied. “I just thought you could use a friend right about now.”

I stared at him.

“I mean, this is your party, and you’re just sitting here and moping.”

I shrugged. “Everyone else is busy talking to someone. They don’t seem to need me.”

“Maybe none of them know what to say.”

“Or maybe,” I said darkly, “you’re all just afraid that I’ll go off on you.”

“Well, the thought did cross our minds, and I was the lucky one who got selected to talk to you.”

“I’m so sorry they sent you into the lion’s den.” Was he flirting with me? It was hard to tell, but there was a definite twinkle in his eye.

“Don’t be. I’m lying; I just couldn’t stand to watch you sit around like this anymore.”

I looked at him then, and realized that I was developing a problem, and that problem’s name was Matt Moore. I rubbed my belly.

“The baby’s not giving you trouble, is she? Because I can have a little chat with her.” He put his head near my bulging stomach.

“Nah, I think she’s asleep.” I leaned back into the couch.

“How do Alexis and Charlie know each other?”

“I thought they just met tonight.”

“Really?” He was frowning.

I punched his arm. “Forget them. I want all of your pity focused on me. Do you know what it’s like to be at your own birthday party and feel like you’re the least attractive person there?”

Matt looked around. “Oh, I don’t know. I’d say you’re the best looking brunette in the room.”

I glanced at the two redheads and the blonde who were my rivals for this honor, and started to laugh. “I guess it’s a good thing that you aren’t comparing me to the men in here, I’d have some stiff competition from you,” I teased him.

He grinned at me then, the color rising in his cheeks a little. “I don’t know about that, Anabel.”

“Are you blushing? Because that’s seriously adorable.” I leaned in and touched his face.

He eluded my grasp. “So are you going to sit here and feel sorry for yourself all night? It’s unfair to yourself, you know, to just waste the opportunity to have a good time.”

“I had fun with you earlier.” Indeed I had. Matt had taken me for a picnic in the park, and then we had seen my first movie in a theater. We had also spent a fair amount of time finding ways to throw popcorn down each other’s shirts. “Doesn’t that count?”

“Yes, but I think you might want to allow yourself to have a little fun now,” he pointed out.

I groaned. When he was right, he was right. “Okay, I’ll pull myself out of this funk. Now help me up.”

Just then, the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it!” called Meghan, and I took the two hands that Matt extended to me. As he pulled me up, I lost my footing a little and fell a bit into his arms. He caught me, and steadied me. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, holding tight to him. “Just lost my balance.” I stared into his eyes, and for a moment, I thought, I should kiss him. Then I checked myself. What was I doing? Still, gazing into his eyes, I had to fight back the urge to do it.

Impulsive Anabel, however, was restrained by the sound of Jared clearing his throat. As I turned to look at him, I felt Matt stiffen. I caught his eye and nodded at him, and then I turned to Jared. “So glad you could make it,” I didn’t bother to hide my scowl. I turned and smiled at my guests, and said, “Excuse me.” Then I took Jared’s arm and marched him outside.

It was cool, and I instantly regretted not having my sweater, so I crossed my arms and glared at him. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”