Blissed (Misfit Brides #1) (30 page)

“Interfering with Kimberly’s attempts to capture his attention.” Marilyn shuddered. “Next you’ll be encouraging him to associate with your sister as well.”

“My sister is a good person working for a good cause,” Natalie said.

“Your sister is a disgrace to Bliss, as are you.”

“And you’re a nasty old woman on a power trip.”

Marilyn didn’t flinch, but her lips flattened. “Since you’re so determined to ignore me, let the record show that I’ve requested you to discontinue your attempts to secure CJ’s affections by sharing top secret Golden Husband Games event information with him.”

Natalie sucked in a lungful of air that didn’t deliver any oxygen to her body. Her marrow crystallized with ice. “You wouldn’t dare—”

“Bliss has certain standards, Miss Castellano, and you do not meet them. And then you proceed to meddle and interfere with our Games and try to be better than every other hardworking family on The Aisle? Were your mother here, she’d echo my sentiments.”

“My mother would tell you to go to hell. Who plans the Games means
nothing
. That they’re done, that they’re done
right
, that they’re a tribute to what Bliss stands for is what’s important.”

“Done
right
and done by the
right people
are one and the same. You, Miss Castellano, are not the right people. And your mother knew it.
That
is why you were denied her position on the committee. She didn’t want you to have it.”

Natalie hardly recognized her own deadly quiet voice. “You’re lying.”

“Come now, Miss Castellano. Despite your own delusions, you must’ve known she was looking for a Husband Games apprentice. The single sons on The Aisle are simply taking too long to find wives, or she would’ve had her replacement trained years ago.”

“That’s ridiculous.” But possibly true. Mom
had
mentioned concerns over the future of The Aisle a time or two. In conjunction with Knot Fest activities? Natalie couldn’t remember. It was all too hazy.

Too long ago.

God
, she wished Mom were here now.

“But the more immediate point,” Marilyn said, “is that your mother would be horrified to learn you’ve been encouraging an honored guest in Bliss to cheat. I daresay she’d kick you out of her house for disgracing her and the town she loved so much. She’s rather lucky she’s already in her final resting place, isn’t she?”

“Get out,” Natalie breathed.

Marilyn didn’t budge. “All the work you think you’re doing? If word gets out what you’ve done, it will be for nothing. Your mother understood the unique value of Bliss’s celebrations of wedlock better than anyone. She understood the value of Bliss’s status as the Most Married-est Town on Earth. It’s why she ran the Husband Games for so many years. You, Miss Castellano, are not your mother.”

No, she wasn’t. She never would be. She’d always known that.

What she’d never fully comprehended, though, was how much better Bliss could’ve been if her mother had run it instead of Marilyn.

“Now, let’s start again,” Marilyn said. “And let’s see if perhaps this time you learn your place.”

Natalie snapped.

It wasn’t a physical snap. Didn’t come with a loud clang, or even a subtle pop. One minute she was standing there, shocked motionless, and the next, Marilyn said
learn your place
, and
poof!
Natalie’s life shifted into complete focus.

First she swallowed the lump that had been forming in her throat. Then she cleared her eye of any threat of weak emotion. Next, she pulled herself taller than she’d been before Marilyn knocked on her door.

Natalie turned on her heel. She marched into her sewing room and pulled a file from the desk, then marched back to stare down the Queen General.

“My notes,” she said. “On
everything.
” She shoved them into the QG’s chest, gratified when the older woman’s eyes went uncharacteristically wide. Better was watching her take a step back.

Natalie followed.

“You win,” she said into the rapidly narrowing space between them as she advanced on Marilyn and Marilyn backpedaled for what had to be the first time in her life. 

“No more divorced woman marring the sanctity of your precious committee,” Natalie said. “I quit. I quit the janitorial committee. I quit the Golden Husband Games committee. I quit the Knot Fest committee.”

Marilyn tripped another step back.

“Now,” Natalie snarled, “get the
hell
out of my house. We’re done here.”

Whether Marilyn had gotten what she’d ultimately come for, or whether she’d recognized Natalie as a threat to her physical well-being, the QG listened.

The neighbors probably wouldn’t have noticed, but as Natalie stood tall, proud of finally fully standing up to Marilyn, watching her retreat and knowing the work Marilyn had just given herself, Nat saw less regality and more evil old witch in the QG’s stride.

Because no doubt, the QG was an evil witch. She’d just ensured that it wasn’t enough for Natalie to quit the Knot Fest committee. To leave her mother’s final Husband Games. To step back into the shadows of Bliss, where Marilyn wrongly thought Natalie belonged.

No, Natalie couldn’t stop there.

And that knowledge was what ultimately broke her.

She slammed the front door. Took four steps into the house, and crumpled into herself.

She’d just let her mother down. But she couldn’t let herself mourn her failings just yet. She had a few more disappointments to hand out first.

CJ
SMOTHERED a laugh on his way up Natalie’s front steps. Noah was rocking his completely inaccurate rendition of the new Billy Brenton tune they’d just heard on the radio. Legs kicking haphazardly, head back, arm bent like he had an invisible microphone, the kid crooned with all the might in his little heart. CJ needed to remember his camera so he could tape stuff like this and send it to Saffron. She’d left Billy’s band when she got married, and video footage of Noah mimicking the country rock star would have her rolling.

Hanging out with this kid took him soaring into a completely different stratosphere. Better, CJ had a pizza in one hand, a pack of juice boxes in the other, a pretty lady waiting inside, and nowhere to be until tomorrow morning.

The past few weeks, he’d come to think of Natalie as a friend. When she let her guard down, she was funny. Nice. Frustrating in that wonderful way women could be when a guy wanted to touch them but couldn’t.

Tonight, he could stick around. Have dinner with his
friend
and her son.

Accidentally cop a feel, maybe. If his hand happened to brush Nat’s ass when he reached around her for a slice of pizza, he’d apologize. Pretend he hadn’t enjoyed it. Try to do it again.

Give some thought to that idea Kimmie had sparked. Give some more thought to the kind of unique
comfort
he’d be able to offer Nat when Arthur finally told her what he’d confessed to CJ today.

Maybe not help her make sense of it, but there would definitely be more feel-copping in the course of his comforting.

The door opened, and his plans stepped in a pile of goat shit.

“Mom, look! Me and CJ went fishing with Grandpa, and we brought pizza for dinner. And I’m gonna do the dishes and wash my face and be a big boy and
everything
.”

Natalie’s cheek twitched—effort of holding something in, if he knew anything about upset women—then she squeezed Noah’s shoulder. “You want to wear your dinosaur cape to dinner? It’s on your bed.”

Her voice was froggy, but Noah didn’t notice. He jumped and pumped a fist in the air. “Yeah!”

Natalie looked past CJ, swept a gaze up and down the street, then stepped out onto the porch. She gestured limply toward the pizza. “How much do I owe you?”

His heart turned into a glacier. “Nothing.”

She scrubbed her hands over her cheeks. Her eyes wrinkled up, but she blew out a slow breath and blinked twice before looking up at him with bloodshot eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not a charity case.”

“Nat?” Something was wrong. And acknowledging that there was something wrong with his
friendship
with her made him acknowledge that this was more than friendship.

Her humorless laugh sent an icicle through his heart. “I’ll write you a check for the babysitting.”

“Are you—” He swallowed, because this conversation had
I’m breaking up with you
written all over it.

They weren’t actually dating, and she was breaking up with him. “What the hell, Natalie?”

She met his gaze evenly. “
What the hell
is my life. And I need you to stay out of it.”

“Why?”

“Marilyn threatened to ruin me.”

“Tell her to piss off.”

“She threatened to start a rumor that I helped you cheat in the Games.”

Her dinner splatted onto the porch about like his world just had.

Fucking Games.

It was always the fucking Games.

CJ shook his head. “Enough. I’m done.” He reached for his phone.

Natalie stopped him with a soft hand on his arm.

Soft.

Not a feeling he normally associated with her, but there it was. Softness. In her touch, in her face, in her voice. “You have to play.” Her voice wobbled. She took a hiccupy breath, but she held herself together. “I quit the committee. I gave her all my notes.
I’m
done. But I wanted—I can’t—they’re my mom’s last event.”

She was the least helpless woman he’d ever met. A titanium brick wall reinforced with lead couldn’t stop her if she decided to go through it. But tonight, she looked broken.

“Your mom’s gone,” he said.

Stress accentuated the tight lines in the corners of her mouth. “Yes. She is. But as long as I’m not, I’ll honor her memory by doing the right thing.”

“You’re not doing this for her,” he growled. “You’re doing it for yourself.”

He’d anticipated the flare of irritation in her dark eyes, but when she followed it by schooling her expression in blankness, his gut twisted.

“And what are you doing for
yourself
?” she said.

Some menacing calm in her voice would’ve been nice. Instead, it was just as flat and empty as the fight in her eyes.

“You’re leaving,” she said. “You have eleven sisters and a brother who adore you, but you won’t trust any of them enough to let them in. You’re so fixated on being wrong
once
, you can’t conceive of taking a chance on something that might be right. So who’s wrong, CJ?” Her voice cracked. “Me, for wanting to honor my mother and not make my father endure any more embarrassment on my behalf, or you, hiding from your life because you’re not man enough to take another chance?”

He wasn’t hiding from anything. He was standing here, wanting to eat a pizza with the woman she was ten minutes ago. At least, he should’ve been. Red haze crept into his vision. A roiling sensation in his gut had him clamping down on the trembles starting in his core.

She hadn’t just hit a nerve. She’d hit his worst nerve.

“You need to leave,” she said.

Little footsteps echoed inside the house, and grief flooded his veins.

The door flung open. “Mom! Mom! Look, I’m super-dino-man!”

CJ stepped back.

He didn’t belong here.

He never had. He’d just been pretending for a while. A different kind of adventure, that’s all it was. He thrust his hands through his hair, then squatted when Noah barreled at him. “I’ve gotta go, little dude. You take care, okay?”

Noah flexed his puny little bicep. “I’m the man of the house. I can take care of everything.”

Life sucked eggs sometimes. “Counting on you, sport.”

“See you tomorrow, CJ!”

No, he wouldn’t. But that was a problem Natalie would have to deal with.

It was time for CJ to move on.

D
AD GOT HOME around nine. Calling him hadn’t been easy, but it was the only option Natalie had left. Mrs. Tanner was still recovering and wouldn’t reopen her day care until after Knot Fest, if she reopened at all. Natalie didn’t want to waste time and effort and emotions finding Noah another sitter. She wanted him with family.

Family was all she had left to count on.

“You look tired,” Dad said.

Not tired. Stretched so far she’d snapped.

They were in the living room on opposite ends of the molded leather couch. When she called, Dad hadn’t asked much, and Natalie hadn’t offered much. Just that she needed help. Now, he was eyeing her as if he was sizing up her mental state, but she didn’t have the energy for anything beyond the basics. She held up her hands in surrender. “I’ve made a mess of everything.”

He shook his head. “I was wrong, Nat. You can handle anything life throws at you, and Noah’s a lucky little guy to have you. You’ve done real good here.”

Her eyes stung. She didn’t know if she’d fooled him or if he was saying it to make them both feel better, but the conviction behind his words wrapped around her like a warm, safe blanket on a cold night. “I’ve had help.” She still did. She was still living in Dad’s house, working at Dad’s shop, now calling Dad to watch Noah.

“Nobody can do it all by themselves. But what you have done is amazing. Your mother would be so proud of you. So proud.”

She swallowed a sob. She wasn’t amazing. She was a fake. A big, posing phony who still had to call good ol’ Dad to fix her problems. “It’s not enough.” She curled her legs beneath her and pressed her palms into her eyes. “God, I’m tired.” Tired of work. Tired of the festival. Tired of her life.

She wanted to disappear for a couple weeks at a spa. She’d even raid Noah’s college fund and take herself skydiving if a certain someone she’d just kicked out of her house would go with her.

Just so she could pretend for another couple of days. “I’m so tired of being a grown-up.”

“Got a real good offer on the shop from someone who wants to keep it as a boutique,” Dad said. “Suppose you probably heard about that though.”

Natalie was going numb. Numb was good. She was tired of feeling. “You should take it.”