Too Hot to Handle (28 page)

He’d started something here, and this was the place he’d finish it, once and for all.

CHAPTER TWENTY

A
SMALL
PARTY
for Crystal apparently meant forty of her closest acquaintances milling about looking beautiful and removed. How she could possibly know more people in Jackson than Merry did was a complete mystery. Though maybe an unrestored ghost town in the middle of nowhere didn’t make for the most extensive social life.

Or maybe beautiful people were naturally attracted to places like this. The house that Crystal had borrowed from a friend had a multitiered stone patio that overlooked the valley of Jackson Hole from a comfortably superior height. Maybe packs of rich, elegant people wandered neighborhoods like this one, idly slipping in and out of parties thrown by their kind, sleeping wherever they ended up at 2:00 a.m. like a big pack of viciously polite dogs.

Or possibly Merry’s mind wandered when she was bored.

“Ugh,” she groaned to Grace. “How long do we have to stay? Would it be rude to finish this glass of wine and then leave?”

“Probably. But there’s rarely a good reason not to be rude, I always say.”

“Liar. Now that you’re working for Eve you’ve turned into a well-behaved pussycat.”

Grace shrugged one shoulder. She’d finally been civilized, and she tried to pretend she didn’t like it, but she was clearly more comfortable in her own skin than she’d ever been. Even though she was working in the same industry she’d left behind, moving away from L.A. had freed her somehow.

“You haven’t punched anyone in months,” Merry pointed out.

“Ah, but I did slap Shane.”

Merry winced a little. Now that she’d gotten some of the rage out of her system, she almost felt bad about that. But not so bad that she turned down the miniature crab cake a waiter offered. Or a second glass of wine.

“This expensive wine really is good.”

“It almost makes up for the company.”

“I’m sure they’re all lovely,” Merry said. She wouldn’t know because she’d huddled at the edge of a patio with Grace from the moment they arrived. “I’m glad you talked me into the dress, though. These people aren’t really a summer-party flip-flop crowd.”

“You look beautiful. Maybe you should pick out a guy and make your move. Get Shane out of your system with a quickie.”

Merry looked doubtfully around at the men wearing expensive sport coats over shirts unbuttoned at the collar to signify they were at a party and not a business meeting. “I’ve never had sex with a rich guy. What’s it like?”

Grace shrugged. “Same as anyone else except for the Perry Ellis underwear. Maybe a little more manscaping, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

Merry grimaced. She had no idea if she was, but it hardly mattered. Grace would be the one to rebound from a betrayal with a hostile one-night stand. Merry would rather curl up in her bed for six months to a year. Alone.

“Look at that guy,” Grace suggested, pointing her chin toward the next patio up. “He’s pretty damn hot.”

He was. In a sculpted blond kind of way. He’d ditched his sport coat at some point and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, which also added to his appeal, but only until Merry got a look at his forearms. They were perfectly tanned and nearly hairless. Oh, they looked strong enough, but in a Bikram yoga kind of way, not in the I-haul-lumber-every-day kind of way.

Not that it mattered. Carpenters were off the menu.

She gave up her study of the blond guy and swept the crowd. Maybe there was a big, rich rancher here. But, no. Rich or not, Merry didn’t think a man like that would be Crystal’s type of friend. A little too salt of the earth.

“There she is,” she breathed when she finally spotted Crystal working her way through the crowd. She drank the rest of her lovely, expensive wine without even tasting it and braced herself for the assault of Crystal’s family love.

“Merry,” Crystal purred as she approached. “Why, you look lovely tonight.”

“Thank you.” Merry ran a nervous hand down the fitted black dress Grace had forced her to try on. Merry’s favorite part about it was the color. A ridiculously boring thought, but black was flattering and it had allowed her a little freedom in searching the clearance rack for shoes. The magenta pumps wouldn’t have gone with much else. Of course, she’d never have a need for them again. Maybe she could just wear this outfit to the Crooked R every Friday night. After all, there’d be new people there every weekend who hadn’t seen it yet.

“You look great, too,” she said, a compliment that Crystal accepted with ease. After all, her pale gray sheath had probably cost five hundred dollars. Merry had a feeling that estimate was a little naive.

“So you brought Grace.” She didn’t even bother with one of her patently fake smiles; she just narrowed her eyes in Grace’s direction. Grace returned the favor.

“I did.”

“What happened to that gentleman friend you were so eager to bring?”

“It fell through.”

“Hah.” She followed her tiny, evil cough of a laugh with a knowing grin.

“It fell through,” Merry insisted, her voice rising.

“That happens sometimes. The trials of being single.” A nice, subtle reminder that she’d been married for eight years and a mother for five.

Merry tried to sink her own jibe. “Well, you know how these cowboys are, rugged and free-spirited. Big and…hard to tame. It’s amazing a girl can even hold on for one night. Then again, there’s always another one coming down the trail. So to speak.”

Grace choked behind her.

Crystal smiled tightly. “Maybe you and your friend here should just settle down together. She’s always around, after all. I noticed some of her clothes at your place and only one bed.”

Merry sighed. “Really? You think that insults me? Have you ever noticed how hot Grace is? She’d probably rock my world.”

“Oh, I would, darlin’,” Grace growled with a promising trill of her tongue.

Dropping her elegant face for a moment, Crystal rolled her eyes in disgust. “I guess you’re even more like your mom than I thought you were.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Figure it out. Look, I was doing my mom a favor inviting you here. You could at least be polite. Maybe even appreciative.”

“Appreciative? What the hell do I care what your mom wants?”

“Because my mom was doing it for
your
mom, who called with some sob story about how we’re all the family we have. But you know what? That’s not true. Not for me and not for my mom. We both have husbands, and they have families, and now my brother and I have kids. So no, you’re not the only family I have, Merry Slacker, and I wish you’d stop trying to push your way in.”

Merry gasped in utter, dumbfounded shock. Where the hell had this come from? “Are you insane? I’ve never tried to push my way into anything!”

“No? How about the trips to Disneyland your family took with mine? Or the weekends at our lake cabin? And what about all those summers you came to ‘visit’? All those weeks you spent at our house? You think those were about bonding?”

“Yes! Our moms wanted us to—”

“Oh, please. Those visits were a way of getting you out of your shitty neighborhood for a while because your mom couldn’t afford to send you to summer camp like a normal kid!”

Merry was so shocked she just stood there blinking and trying to close her jaw. Now she understood all the years of bitchiness. All the meanness and cruelty. Merry had never been anything but a pitiful, poor relation hanging around and ruining Crystal’s fun. Following her like a clingy little bird. “Take Merry with you,” her aunt had called out a hundred times. A thousand. Merry had been three years younger and a million times less cool.

“Merry,” Grace said from her side, “let’s get out of this bitch’s sight before I break my streak and end up in jail again.”

“Again!” Crystal sneered.

“Yes,
again,
you stupid cow. So don’t think I don’t know how to make you sorry for being the shittiest person I’ve ever met. And I’ll do it in front of all your new friends. God, can you imagine how long they’d tell that tale? It would go down in history, you ever-loving
bitch
.”

“Get out,” Crystal growled. “And take your slacker girlfriend with you.”

Merry looked at the last of her wine. She looked back at Crystal and her gorgeous silk dress. She wanted to do it. She really did. But she took the high road and set the glass on a table…just in case the low road suddenly looked too good to resist.

“You’re cruel,” she said softly.

“Whatever,” Crystal snapped.

“I mean it. You’re mean and awful. I was just a little girl. I’m sorry if I ruined your summers and one of the four family vacations you took every year.”

“Oh, here we go.
I’m
sorry my mom was so much more successful than yours!”

“That’s not what you need to be sorry for,” Merry growled. “It was scary for me, you know. Spending weeks in a big house with people who didn’t accept me. It was lonely, watching you and your friends play without me while you whispered and laughed and shot me angry looks. And the thing is… You were just a kid, too. I can forgive you for that. You were dumb and I was interfering with your life and your plans. But you’re a fucking adult now, Crystal, or so you remind me every time I see you. You’re all grown up and you’re still no better than that nasty selfish little girl you were.”

Crystal snarled, her lips thinning into a cruel twist. “You were nothing but a—”

“Fuck off,” Merry said quietly. “I’d rather have no family at all than have you.”

Amazingly Crystal shut her mouth. Merry turned and walked away. She tried to act cool and removed, but she was still reeling. “What the hell was that?” she whispered to Grace.

“You told her off!” Grace crowed. “You owned her!”

“But… Why would she say things like that?”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing she said was true.”

“But it was true, Grace. How did I not see it? I was a charity case! I still am a charity case.”

“You are not.”

“Are you kidding me?” She avoided the wide wall of glass doors that led into the beautiful three-story mountain lodge with all its expensive wood and stone architectural details and skirted around to the side.

“Merry—”

“I’m pitiful, Grace. Look at me!” Her heel sunk into the grass and she leaned to the side, waving her arms in wide circles, trying desperately to grasp at balance. “Oh, God, look at me! I’m living in your apartment, on a
couch,
sleeping with a guy who was gracious enough to charity fuck me while he was screwing me over and still hanging out with my rich cousin who wished she didn’t have to invite me along. You just bought me the first dress and heels I’ve worn in years, I’m about to lose the only respectable position I’ve ever had and my own mom doesn’t want me anymore!”

Grace had been poised to pounce, her mouth parted to speak, hands already midgesture, but she paused at that. Tucking her chin in, she shook her head. “What?”

“I’ve always known I wasn’t like other people. I couldn’t find that thing. That one thing. Whatever else happened in your life, Grace, you always had your gift with makeup. You knew you were good at
something
. Really good at it. I’m not good at anything. Hell, I’m not even geeky enough to be good at being a sci-fi geek. But I always thought my mom was proud of me.”

“She is proud of you!”

“She bought a new condo and made clear I wasn’t welcome there. I wasn’t even staying with her anymore! She just said, ‘I won’t have room for you to stay with me, Merry.’ What the hell?” Merry swiped a tear off her cheek and kicked off her shoes to make her escape. But halfway past the house, she was stopped by a high stone terrace. “Goddamn it, how do you get out of this stupid place?”

“Merry!” Grace grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. “Merry, your mom isn’t tired of you or ashamed of you or whatever you think is going on.”

“I see how she keeps pushing me on my cousins. Hoping they’ll rub off. How she keeps encouraging me to find my gift and be something better. She wants to be sure I don’t fly back to the nest again like some undeveloped adolescent bird.”

“Your mom believes in family. That’s it. That’s her deal with your cousins, and as for pushing you out of the nest, it’s only because—” Grace cut off her impassioned speech with a snap of her teeth that even Merry heard.

“What?”

“She’s…”

“Oh, my God, don’t try to come up with a made-up reason!”

“It’s not made up! Your mom is dating someone and she doesn’t want to tell you!”

Going by Grace’s expression of solemn horror at the secret she’d revealed, Merry felt like she should have experienced a moment of shock, but she could only shake her head and laugh. “And that’s supposed to weird me out? Seriously, Grace. I’d be happy for her!”

“I know, but…”

“She wouldn’t tell me to get out and stay gone just because some man occasionally spends the night.”

“Um. I don’t think it’s a man.”

Now Merry felt the shock. She blinked. She opened her mouth. Then closed it. “What?” she finally managed.

“Look, she called one day for you when you weren’t here and I heard a woman’s voice. Someone walking in like she was free to come and go as she pleased. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but your mom acted so flustered I noticed it. And then the other day when she was on video, I saw a pair of heels next to her couch. She never wears heels. She chastises me for wearing them. And these were red spike heels, and I just…I called her the next day. Just to see if she wanted to talk. To see if anything was going on. And…”

“And?” Merry demanded.

“And she said she was freaked out about telling you. I’m sorry, Merry. She was trying to figure out a way to tell you herself, but I couldn’t keep my mouth shut any longer.”

“Oh.” Merry edged backward until her heels touched rock, and then she sat down on the first narrow ledge of the wall. “But… Why wouldn’t she tell me?”

“She just…”

“Why would she think that would matter to me? She’s a hippie for God’s sake! She raised me to love everyone! And she couldn’t even be honest about that?”