ARROGANT PLAYBOY (57 page)

BELLAMY

“Go say hello to your future
in-laws.” My mother elbows me in the back as she carries a giant bowl of potato
salad out the back patio sliders. “You’re standing around like you’re shy, but
you’re coming off as rude.”

She’s wearing her clown
lipstick again. I suppose it makes her feel special, or maybe it makes her
stand out amongst the younger wives. Either way, I’m fully prepared for her to
prance around like some made-for-TV mom and feign excitement when she swaps
recipes with Cortland’s mom and the other McGregor sister wives.

She lives for this stuff, and
it’s only gotten worse since we moved away from our old ward and stopped going
to our old church where she had an ‘in’ with a handful of church cliques.

“Judy, is it?” I hear her say
sweetly to one of Cort’s moms. “Hi, I’m Jane. I’m Bellamy’s mother. Mark’s
first wife.”

On
any other planet…

I tune her out as I stir the
punch. The mountain of orange sherbet refuses to melt with the ginger ale, but
that’s okay. I’m not going outside until this punch is damn good and ready. My
hand reaches for my side pocket, feeling for the rectangular outline of my
phone. The clock above the kitchen sink reads twelve-fifteen, and twelve hours
from now I’ll be behind the walls of Dane’s Golden Oak estate. I can only
imagine how lavish it is. Knowing him, every square foot of that place is
elaborately outfitted from the floors of his foyer to the shelves of his
refrigerator. There’s something inherently sexy about a man who pays attention
to detail and has an affinity for the finer things in life.

Or maybe it just holds an
exotic appeal since my entire life has consisted of blue carpet, Thomas Kinkade
reproductions, and tater-tot casserole.

Either way, I can’t wait to see
it, though I have a feeling we’ll be spending most of our evening behind the
closed doors of his master suite.

I should be more nervous than I
am, but for whatever reason I’m bursting with confidence today. Maybe it was
the pampering yesterday and the anticipation of slipping into the silky black
mini-dress I snuck home in the bottom of my bag today.

“Bring that outside, will you,
Bellamy?” Summer stands in the doorway, one foot in and the other out. “And
grab some of those red plastic cups.”

Just like that, I’m right back
down to earth, smack dab in the middle of my current reality. The sherbet
appears to have melted, so I take that as my sign. Besides, the sooner I get
out there, the sooner this can all be over with.

“There she is!” Judy flashes a
wide smile and opens her arms to greet me with a hug like she does every time I
see her at Bible study. I place the sloshing punch bowl on a nearby table and
return her gesture. She’s sweet enough, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s
aware she raised a son who uses sex and threats to manipulate women.

My father watches us from
across the yard. He stands next to Cort’s father, and they’re both sipping
lemonade and steering clear of the children running circles around them. I
loosen my posture and offer him a relaxed smile, not wanting him to have any
reason to think this entire situation fills me with dread.

“How’s my girl?” Cortland’s
voice sneaks up from behind me, and my body clenches before it remembers he
can’t touch me right now in the presence of family.

“Hi.” I turn to him and grin
like I’m some lovesick puppy dog. “Haven’t seen much of you these last couple
days.”

“Wasn’t expecting someone’s
boss to get her a Land Rover,” he says. “I kind of liked taking you to work the
other morning.”

“The Land Rover is borrowed,” I
say. “He didn’t give it to me. And you made me late.”

I say it all like I’m razzing
him, but I’d love nothing more than to punch him across his perfect, cleft
chin.

Judy releases a nervous giggle.

“She’s teasing me, Mom,” he says,
playfully jabbing the side of my arm in slow motion. “It’s what she does, this
one. She’s spirited. It’s one of the things that initially drew me to her.”

And
that point goes to Cortland.

“Ah. So you two
are
perfect together.” Judy looks at her
son like he’s truly God’s gift, but I’m dying for her to elaborate since she
clearly deemed him
spirited
as well.

What
does she know?

“Hey, hey.” Cortland’s father
comes up behind Judy and places his hand on her shoulder. She covers it with
her own and brushes her cheek against it. How could two sweet human beings give
birth to such a monster? “Your dad went to check on the burgers, but I thought
I’d steal you away for a bit if I could.”

My phone buzzes in my pocket,
sending my heart into a state of arrhythmia. My fingers twitch, resisting the
urge to whip it out right here and now to see what Dane wants. He’s probably
reminding me about tonight.

Like
I could possibly forget.

Or maybe he sent a special
message to amp me up a bit.

Because
I’m not already buzzing with anticipation.

I flatten my hand against the
rectangular outline in my pocket and then nod. “I’m so sorry. I just need to
check this quick. It’s probably my boss. I’ll be right back.”

I bite away the stupid grin on
my face and yank the phone out, carrying it over to a secluded corner of the
backyard. It fumbles out of my hand and lands into the grass face down, and I
curse its slickness. I need to get a cover for this thing.

When I bend down to grab it out
of the grass, a Sperry-covered foot appears out of nowhere and lands right on
top of it. I glance up, squinting through the bright sun to see my beloved
tormentor.

“Really, Bellamy?” Cortland
says, his arms folded.

I push his calf until he steps
off my phone, and I quickly jam it into my pocket before he has a chance to see
anything on the screen.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit
rude?” he asks. “My father asked to talk to you, and you ran off the second
your phone went off.”

Yes, it was extremely rude. I
will absolutely own that. But he doesn’t understand the consequences I might
face if I don’t respond to Dane promptly.

“My boss is pretty demanding.”
I roll my eyes and huff as if Dane texting me is an unfortunate burden.

“It’s a Saturday.”

“Exactly. He’s such a
slave-driver, that guy.”

“What could he possibly want
from you?”

“He was gone the last couple
days. Maybe he has a question about a report I did?” My brows meet in the
middle. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“I think he can spare you for
the next few hours.” Cortland uncrosses his arms before resting his hands on
his hips and blowing his sandy hair from his eyes. “Come on. Stick with me.
Let’s show our families how perfect we are together. And go apologize to my
father. Don’t ever pull that stunt again.”

If he were Dane he’d yank me
inside, give me thirty whacks, and then fuck me in the mouth.

I curse Cortland with every
step I take toward Walter and Judy, and I don’t need eyes in the back of my
head to know he’s burning holes into my back with his stare.

“I’m so sorry about that,
Walter,” I say. “I just started a new job, and I’m still trying to get a good
grasp on that work-life balance.”

It’s a term I’d only ever read
about in psychology and human development classes. It’d been mentioned briefly
in random chapters when discussing modern day stressors working adults faced.

“Oh, my Walter knows all about
that, don’t you honey?” Judy pats him on the arm. “You’re talking to a man who
doesn’t know how to take a day off.”

“Vacation days are for
corporate drones,” Walter says. “When you own your own business, you don’t get
things like holidays and paid vacation days.”

Judy laughs and stares up into
a carefree, cloudless sky.

“Good thing this job is only
temporary.” Cortland stands so close behind me I sense the heat of his breath
on the back of my neck. We aren’t touching, but we’re damn close. He’s doing it
on purpose. “As soon as we’re married, you’ll be too busy keeping house and
chasing after kids, you’ll forget you ever even had a job in the city.”

My phone vibrates again. I’m
not sure how long its been, but I can only imagine Dane getting stirred up
thinking I’m ignoring him.

“Oh, Cort, she’s got plenty of
time before she has to start popping out babies,” Judy says.

Thank
you, Judy.

“Wait a year or two, sweetie.
If you’re anything like me, once you start, you won’t be able to stop!” She
chuckles. “Babies were like potato chips for me. I couldn’t have just one. And
as cute as little Cort was as a baby? You’re in for a real treat.”

Gag
me.

“Marcy!” Judy yells over toward
another sister wife. “Wasn’t Cort just the cutest baby?”

“Sure was,” she yells back. “He
won first place in the cutest baby contest at the Woodfield County Fair.”

Cortland blushes, smiling wide
and showing off his camera-ready smile. There’s no denying he’s an attractive
man, and I believe his mothers when they say he was a cute baby, but there’s no
way on God’s green earth I’ll ever incubate anything of his.

“So have you always lived in
Whispering Hills?” I have to change the subject. It’s way too early to be
discussing babies, especially when we’ve only been courting for a couple
months, and there’s not even a set wedding date yet. And because it’s just not
going to happen. “I don’t recall seeing Cort at the high school, and he
would’ve been a couple grades above me, right?”

“We homeschooled, Bellamy,”
Walter says, his thumb hooking through the belt of his dad jeans. “That’s the
McGregor way.”

“We’ll do the same,” Cortland
says. “Our children will never see the inside of some government funded,
institutionalized, Godless public school.”

I’m sure his parents put those
words in his mouth.

“I loved attending public
school.” I shrug, my eyes darting from Walter’s to Judy’s. “I think I turned
out all right. You should see my sister, Waverly. Little Miss 4.0. Never so
much as a tardy on her record. Gets to school early every single day. Epitome
of responsible and intelligent.”

I wish my sister were here, or
one of my mothers. Someone who could back me up.

“I’m going to stir the punch,”
I say, stepping away and realizing Walter never did pull me aside like he
wanted to. No telling what he was going to say to me, but I can only imagine it
wasn’t going to be anything that might make me feel any better about the
direction this situation is headed. “Be back in a bit.”

Offering a wave, I slip out of their
little circle and make a beeline for the food table where Waverly’s already
stirring the murky contents of the punch bowl.

“Scoot over,” I whisper, taking
the ladle out of her hands.

“Huh?” She scrunches her nose
but steps aside.

I glance around to make sure
our immediate vicinity is clear. Dad’s several feet away, but the sizzle of the
grill and the carefree shrieks of children should drown out anything I might
say right now.

“I had to get out of there,” I
mutter.

“Must be pretty
nerve-wracking.” She nods, watching me carefully, “wanting your in-laws to like
you and all.”

I laugh, tucking my chin
against my chest. “I don’t care about that.”

“Cortland being too clingy
today?”

“That’s everyday.”

“You don’t even act like you
like him half the time.” Waverly’s statement sends a shock to my heart. I’ve
been trying my damnedest to act like I like him, but if she sees through me,
I’m a goner. “I mean, you act like it around them. But with me, you’re a
totally different person when you talk about him.”

Thank God.

I release a harbored breath and
nod. “It’s just not all raindrops on roses all the time. Relationships are
challenging. They’re a lot of work. I just don’t want to give our parents any
reason to worry about any of this.”

“They really want you guys to work
out.”

“I know.”

“Just promise me you won’t
marry him if you don’t love him.”

“I promise.” With my pointer
finger pressed hard into my chest, I draw a slow ‘X.’

“Punch looks good,” she says.

When I glance down, I see I’ve
created a mini tornado in the bowl. I stirred so hard it’s swirling.

“Guess so.” I tap the ladle on
the side and set it down. On the other side of the yard, all the sister wives
have gathered around a picnic table and are apparently ignoring the major kid
fight going on over some bright green kickball. “I think your negotiating
skills are requested over there.”

Waverly spots the fight and
exhales loudly. She’s better equipped to deal with those things than I am with
her saintly patience and sweet demeanor. I glance around to make sure I’m still
alone and use the opportunity to finally check my texts from Dane.