Shine Not Burn (31 page)

“I’m getting the impression that there’s some chemistry going on over there.”
 
I could tell she was smiling by the tone of her voice.

I took another shaky breath, afraid to admit what I’d done but knowing it was relevant.
 
I really wanted to confess my sins to Father Candice.

“Tell me what you’re not telling me,” she insisted.

“You’re a mind reader now, too?”

“Yes.
 
I always have been.
 
Did you sleep with him?”

“In Vegas?
 
Yes.”

“No, dummy, in Oregon.
 
Don’t play games with me.
 
I have a color and cut in ten minutes.”

 
“Go ahead and go.
 
I have to call Bradley.
 
He’s left me a ton of messages.”

“I can get on a plane and be out there in less than six hours.”
 
She was threatening me.

“No.
Stay put.
 
I already have enough trouble juggling what’s here.
 
I don’t need to add you to the mix.”

“Then tell me.
 
You had sex again, didn’t you?”

“Promise you won’t squee in the phone again.”

“Squeeee!! You totally did it, you big fat ho!”
 
She was laughing out loud, probably in the middle of her salon.

“Yes.
 
Last night.
 
It was amazingly erotic and the wrong thing to do and … shit, Candice!
 
I don’t know what the hell I’m doing!”
 
I felt and sounded like I was on the edge of sanity.

“Of course you do!
 
You’re going with your heart and your vagina instead of your head for a change!
 
Good for you!
 
It’s about time.
 
Damn, when we were in Vegas I thought you’d finally figured it out. But then we got back and you put your head right back up into your butt.
 
Ruby and Kelly and I thought you were a goner.
 
But now you’re back, baby, you’re
back!
 
Don’t quit on us now.
 
There’s too much riding on this.”

“Too much of what?”
 
I was smiling through my tears.
 
Candice had such a way with words.

“Too much happiness, sweetie.
 
I think this cowboy could make you happy.
 
Why don’t you give him a chance?”

“I can’t,” I whispered, looking up at the pictures on Ian’s shelves.

“Why not?” Candice sounded like she was going to cry right along with me.

“Because I think he has a girlfriend.
 
I think she’s his roommate.”

“Well,” Candice said, sparking up again, “then she’s gotta go.
 
You got there first, you’re his wife.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Sure it is.
 
If he had a girlfriend who meant anything would he have slept with you last night?”

“Maybe not.
 
Or maybe he slept with me to teach me a lesson.”

“A lesson?
 
A lesson about what?”

“I don’t know.
 
He seemed mad at me from the moment he saw me.”

“Did he remember you were married?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“But he was mad at you, even though he took off and never called.”

“Yes.”

“Hmmmm… Well, how come you never called him?
 
Weren’t you even curious why he disappeared?”

I shrugged, sitting alone in Ian’s room, trying to remember back to that day two years ago in the hotel room.
 
“I couldn’t.”

“You couldn’t what?”

“Call him.
 
I didn’t have his number.”

“Are you sure?
 
You blacked out for half the night.
 
You blacked out during a whole damn wedding. Surely he could have put his number in your phone and you wouldn’t have remembered that either, right?”

My face burned right along with my stomach.
 
“I … I don’t remember seeing a strange number on there.”

“Pfft.
 
You have like a million numbers on your phone.
 
Didn’t you even think to look for his name?”

A memory came rushing back.
 
“I couldn’t!”

“Why?!”

“Because you dropped my damn phone in the toilet, don’t you remember?!”
 
I was gripping the bedsheets, feeling like I could shred them with my nails.

“Oh, crapski.
 
I
do
remember that.
 
Oh, maaaan.
 
And all your contacts had to be loaded on to a new phone when you got back to your office.”

“Except for the one that was added in Las Vegas, since it wasn’t in my office back-up,” I said sadly.
 
“Assuming there
was
one added in Vegas.”

“I guess you have a mission, then,” said Candice.
 
“You need to ask him if he gave you his number.
 
Maybe you were supposed to call him, and when you didn’t, he got mad.”

“But why wouldn’t I have given him
my
number?
 
If he wanted to talk to me, he could have just called me, right?”

“You’ll never know until you ask.”
 
A stranger’s voice spoke softly next to Candice.
 
“Shit, I have to go.
 
My next client is here.
 
We’ll talk more about this later.
 
Promise me you won’t disappear!”

“I promise.”
 
I wanted to curl up in the bed and sleep the day away.
 
This was a royal mess, and now I realized on top of everything else how I’d basically almost thrown my best friendships in the garbage.
 
When the man-crap hits the fan, girlfriends are the only ones who can make things better.
 
Why had I let them go for Bradley?

“Good.
 
Chin up, gorgeous girl!
 
We’ll figure this out.
 
Meanwhile, I’ll bring Kelly into the loop and get an update from Ruby.”

“No! I don’t know what Ruby’s doing over there, but Bradley
cannot
find out what’s going on here!”

“Uhhh, it might be too late for that.
 
Gotta go, lovebugger.
 
Tah-tah!”
 
The line went dead.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

MY FINGERS SHOOK AS I dialed the phone.
 
If Ruby had told Bradley, my ship was sunk.
 
Not only my lifeplan ship but my work ship, too.
 
I’d built up a reputation as a professional, hard-working woman, and the rumor that I’d gotten married to some guy who I didn’t even know out in Vegas during a drunken party binge would destroy all of it.
 
Poof!
 
Six years, out the window.
 
Back to square one with zero plan for the voyage and shame as my baggage.

I didn’t even wait for the receptionist to finish her introduction to the firm.
 
“Jackie, can you pass me to Ruby?
 
This is Andie and it’s kind of an emergency.”

“Sure, Andie, hold on a second for me.” I got no indication that she knew anything about what I was going through from her tone, but that didn’t mean anything.
 
Jackie was as professional as they come.
 
She could be in on who assassinated the president and she’d still sit there with a bland look on her face and act clueless.

I waited for what felt like forever before the phone connected again.

“Andie?”

My heart sunk.
 
The voice was way too deep to be Ruby.
 
“Yes…,” I squeaked out, barely more than a whisper.

“Andie, this is Bradley.
 
Where in the hell are you?”
 
He sounded both worried and angry.

I swallowed hard.
 
“Pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
 
Where are you?”
 
I wanted to smack myself on the forehead.
 
Way to sound confident, Andie!

“What do you mean, where am I?
 
I’m at work, where you should be.”

“But what are you doing answering Ruby’s phone?”

“I heard it was you and I intercepted.
 
I don’t know why you’re calling her and not me.
 
Something’s going on, Andie, and I want to know what it is.”

I could hear Ruby’s voice in the background now, and she didn’t sound happy.
 
Thank God for Ruby.
 
“I just need to talk to Ruby about some paperwork and then I’ll call you.
 
My phone was dead and my charger wasn’t available, so that’s why I haven’t called.”
 
And I was with another man.
 
Ahhh!
 
This is horrible.
 
I’m going to hell for sure.
 
I need to confess.
 
My ears burned with the idea of coming clean, but it was the only way to handle this now.
 
Lying was wrong and unfair and not who I am.

Bradley was not happy.
 
“Ruby’s threatening to impale me on her fountain pen, so I have to go.
 
Call me immediately, Andie, I mean it.
 
As soon as you’re done with her.”

“Okay, I’ll call you as soon as I’m done with Ruby.
 
I promise.
 
We have to talk.”

“You’re damn right we do.
 
Here.”
 
He passed the phone away and Ruby’s voice came on the line.

“I’m filing a complaint, Bradley.
 
You hear me?
 
An official complaint.
 
You’ve gone too far.”

Bradley responded, but I didn’t catch the actual words.

“Ruby?”

“Yes, Andie, I’m here.
 
Can you believe the nerve of that man?
 
Picking up my calls on my phone and putting his nose in my business?
 
He’s going to pay for that one.
 
I’ve had it up to here with him.”

“Ruby, calm down.
 
You can’t report him for that.
 
He’s upset with me, it’s my fault.”

Ruby sighed heavily.
 
“When are you going to learn that you are
not
responsible for the behavior of the men you date?
 
He’s a big boy.
 
He makes his own decisions.”

“I haven’t called him in over twenty-four hours.
 
He was worried, especially when the first person I called wasn’t him.”

Her voice dropped lower.
 
“Good for you!
 
Does this mean you’re finally going to get rid of his sorry behind?”

“No.
 
Maybe.
 
Shit, Ruby, I don’t know.
 
That’s not why I called.”
 
My hands were shaking so bad, I clenched my free one in a fist and hit the bed with it a few times.

“Mmm-mmm-mmm, you still haven’t cleaned up that language, I see.”

“Stop.
 
Seriously.
 
Did you go into my computer and look at my files?”

Silence.

“Ruby, I know you did.
 
I already talked to Candice.
 
What did you see?”

“Well…”
 
She stopped there.

“Come on, Ruby.
 
I don’t have all day.”

“Fine.
 
I saw your…,” she lowered her voice to a loud whisper, “...marriage license.”
 
She raised her voice again.
 
“Is it real?
 
Did you really do that?”

Tears threatened.
 
“Yes, I really did do it.
 
I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, but I married a practical stranger two years ago at that stupid bachelorette party
you
made me go to, and now I’m out here trying to unwind the mess before my wedding to Bradley.”

“You’re blaming me for this?”

“No.
 
I just put that in there to make you feel guilty.”

She snorted.
 
“Huh, like that would work.
 
I’m proud I did it.
 
I’m
glad
I did it.
 
Anything to get rid of
that Bradley
is a good thing.”

“Listen, Ruby, he didn’t do anything wrong, okay?
 
He’s been a good boyfriend.
 
I was set to marry the guy for … poop’s sake.”

“
Were
set to marry him?
 
As in past tense?”
 
She was back to whisper-yelling at me.

I shook my head and took a deep breath, ready to bawl again.
 
“I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.
 
I have to talk to Bradley, and I have to talk to Mack.
 
It’s pretty much out of my hands at this point.
 
My lifeplan is swirling down the toilet as we speak.”

“Who’s Mack?
 
Is he your husband?”

My heart lurched at the word
husband
.
 
Mack is my husband.
 
The idea gave me chills and brought gobs of fear along with it too.
 
“Yes.
 
He is.”

“Oh my dear Lord … this is a problem, isn’t it?
 
Do you want me to start canceling things?
 
Maybe we can get some of your deposits back.”

“No!
 
No, don’t cancel anything.
 
Just transfer me over to Bradley’s line, please.
 
And Ruby?
 
Please don’t say anything to anyone else.
 
Candice is fine, but no one else can know.
 
It’ll ruin everything at work.”