Beth held the heavy present in her arms and yawned. Jet lag was a real hag with one heck of a backswing. Cynthia opened the door to Dan's parents' place and pulled Beth inside with a massive grin. "Is that for us? Engagement parties are the best!" She squealed and grabbed the package from Beth and gave it an experimental heft. "Oh my god, it's heavy. It's that Mix Master!"
"Shut up," Beth grumbled. Her sister always guessed her gifts within seconds. Even the year she'd added rocks to the gift box to try and throw her sister off, she'd piped up with, "It's that bracelet I wanted and a few rocks to throw me off." The girl was lucky Beth even bothered to wrap her gifts anymore.
Her sister tore off down the hall calling, "Dan! Beth got us the Mix Master!"
"Whoopee," came his reply. "Another thing I will never, ever use."
Beth entered the kitchen where a few gifts were already stacked on the kitchen island.
"Oh, be happy for me, honey.” Cynthia wrapped her arms around Dan's neck, giving him a big smooch.
"For our wedding," Dan said, breaking free, "get us something we could both use, okay?"
"Like what?"
Dan shrugged. He grabbed a strawberry off a platter and dipped it in chocolate fondue. "One of these? They're wicked-awesome."
Dan's mother, Wini, entered the room and laughed. "That would be a lovely gift. And if you don't get one tonight--"
"Dibs!" Beth called.
Wini smiled and continued, "Beth will buy you one as a wedding gift."
Beth giggled at her sister's unimpressed expression.
Dan pointed his strawberry at Beth. "And lots of chocolate. The proper fondue stuff that you can't get in town. And it has to be a chocolate fondue fountain, not one of those silly pot things."
Cynthia rolled her eyes.
"Deal," Beth said and shook his hand.
Dan wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “You're going to be the best sister-in-law ever. Too bad you don't come with an equally awesome brother-in-law."
"Not yet anyway,” she replied.
The air in the room shifted and Beth turned to see Oz standing in the doorway. "Hey," he said, addressing everyone. He glanced at Beth and said stiffly, "Have a nice trip?" He placed his lopsidedly wrapped gift with the others.
"I did, thanks." She bit her lip from sharing how wonderful it had been. She'd only been back two days and was still bursting with the thrill of having been away.
Dan handed Oz a bottle of beer and he chugged half of it back while everyone stood uncomfortably. Yeah, they were once engaged and now they were broken up. Elephant in the room. She got it. But it didn't mean everyone couldn't act like normal human beings.
"Neither of you brought dates?" asked Wini, rearranging the food platters to create room for paper napkins.
Oz and Beth shook their heads, giving each other side glances.
Wini raised an eyebrow but said nothing as she snagged her purse off the counter. "I'm off to play bridge with the girls, you kids have fun."
"Thanks, Wini," Cynthia said, following her future mother-in-law to the front door, Dan in tow.
"Where's Mandy?" Beth asked Oz. He shrugged in reply. "You didn't ask her to come?"
"Where's the doctor?” Oz stared straight ahead while taking a swallow of beer.
Two could play this game. Only she wasn't dating Nash or kissing him in public. At least not on this continent. “Dunno.”
Oz gave her a side glance, shoulders tense. "Why do you think I'd bring Mandy?"
"Why do you think I'd bring Nash?"
He turned to face her, arms crossed, incredulously look on his face. "France! Rumor is--"
"And since when did you start subscribing to the rumor channel, Oz? And what does it matter to you what I do or don't do?" The front door opened and closed, Cynthia hollering her hellos as more guests arrived.
"Guys, time to play games!" Cynthia called from the other room.
Beth and Oz stared at each other, chests heaving. Oz wasn't a mortal enemy. He was still a reasonably nice guy, despite being an ex who'd broken her heart. She sighed and held out her hand. "Truce?"
Oz stuffed his hands in his armpits and rocked back on his heels. "You're different, you know that?"
"So are you."
He shook his head. "I only wish."
Beth gave him a puzzled look and he drove a hand through his hair and slowly kicked the air like he was punting an invisible football. He leaned against the island and blew out an enormous breath. "This whole finding oneself is unbelievably difficult.”
"Tell me about it."
Oz let out a snort. "You already know yourself. At least a lot more than I realized."
"Hardly."
She looked away. She didn't want to explain that being around Nash had shown her there were things about herself she hadn't known and wouldn't have discovered. The biggest example being France and the outreach.
Oz was right. She was different.
And he wasn't. But there was still something about him that drew her in. It was beyond his strong shoulders, hard quads, kindness, and their shared history. It was the fact that it was still incredibly difficult--even seven months later--to imagine a future without him. He was more than a habit. He was her heart’s pacemaker.
Oz pulled a hand down his face. “This is the hardest thing I've ever done." He glanced at her, his eyes soft and warm. "Second hardest."
Despite the warning bells ringing in her mind, she asked, "What was the first?"
"Guys!" commanded Cynthia. "Chop! Chop!" She swung into the kitchen. "Everyone's in the living room. Come on."
Beth stared at Oz, trying to read his mind. Was he hinting that breaking up with her was the hardest thing he'd ever done and that he regretted it and wanted her back?
She gave herself a little shake. Hello. Earth to brain. It was over. They were both moving on.
Following Cynthia, they entered the adjoining living room, their steps in sync. They awkwardly sat on the last seat available. The love seat.
Seriously? In a room full of couples. She felt a setup coming on. Oz gave her a helpless shrug and she let out a huff of laughter.
"Okay, it's like the newlywed game. Okay, it is the newlywed game!" Cynthia giggled and bounced on the couch next to Dan, acting like a giddy teenager that had sipped more than her fair share of Baby Duck and had just spun the bottle, landing on the boy she'd been chasing for months. Beth gave Oz a cross-eyed look and he chuckled as he leaned back in the love seat, draping an arm over the back. Great. Now she couldn't lean back without cozying up to him due to the way his weight would slip her up against his side. As tempting as that was.
Cynthia passed them a pad of paper and marker. "First question--"
"Wait. How do we play? And am I on his team?”
“Hey!” Oz protested.
“Yeah,” Cynthia said, not missing a beat.
Beth narrowed her eyes. Lovely. Total set-up. She sucked in a long breath, vowing not to spoil her sister’s party. She was a big girl, she could handle this. She and Oz knew each other like nobody else in the room and would kick some serious butt. Her sister would wish she’d never dreamt up the game.
“What do we win?" she asked.
“Gloating rights," Dan said. The group of twelve groaned. "Okay, what?" he asked.
"Title of some sort," quipped Oz. "Like The Greatest Couple in Blueberry Springs."
Beth shot him a look. Why would he want to share a title like that with her? He ought to know she was not going to take this game lying down. Nu-uh. They were going to cream these pansies if it was the last thing she did.
"Deal!" yelled Dan, half-standing. "And you are so going down Mr. Best Man."
"Relax.” Cynthia laughed, pulling him back onto the couch.
Beth narrowed her eyes and cracked her knuckles.
"Okay, here's how it goes,” her sister announced. “I ask a question. If it is for the women, they write down their answer, secretly, and the guys write down what they think their women answered. If the answers match up you get a point."
"Wait, you wrote the questions?" Katie asked from her spot on a dining room chair.
Seriously? She chose a hard chair over the love seat?
"Foul play!" called her boyfriend, Will.
"Agreed!" said Beth.
Cynthia shuffled her notecards and looked put out.
"No way," protested Katie. "We ask questions of our own choosing."
The group agreed and Cynthia threw up her hands. "Fine. Each team asks a question for the group and the couple with the most points wins." She cleared her throat and chose a card. "First question."
"No way," said Katie. "All new questions."
"Seriously? For the title of The Greatest Couple in Blueberry Springs?" asked Dan. "You think we'd cheat?"
"You're going down whether you stack the deck or not,” Beth said.
"That's my girl," said Oz, giving her shoulder a quick rub.
Cynthia rolled her eyes. "Okay, Fine. First question. Women answer. Where was your first official date?"
There were murmurings of, "That's easy," as the gals smugly wrote down their answers while the men's confidence flagged. Beth folded her sheet in half and decided she hated this game. Yeah, she and Oz could rock it, but it meant a lot of cruising down memory lane on a bicycle made for two.
"Women, show your answers!" Cynthia announced. "Annnnd men!"
Beth glanced at Oz's answer. "Benny's Big Burger." They nodded and slapped a high-five.
"How do you not remember where our first date was?" Katie complained to Will.
"This is where you first held my hand," he replied. "That was at least a full week before your so-called first date."
"Semantics. They'll get you every time," said Dan as he chalked up everyone's score. "Men, think like your woman!"
The next couple conferred on their question and asked, "What the men love most about their women."
Beth gently cleared her throat. This game was seriously not for the broken up. She tapped her pencil against her blank page. She hadn't a clue what Oz loved most--assuming there was still something. She wrote down smile. He used to say it brightened his day.
Oz wrote down independence.
"What? My independence? Since when?"
"You have all this secret independence hiding in there. You know. Like you're strong and don't even realize it."
Beth frowned. He was throwing the game. If he actually thought that, he would have trusted her to help him find his real life and wouldn’t have broken up with her. He would have risked telling everything. She cracked her knuckles, determined to get the next one right.
The next couple of questions were gimme questions. Favorite colors, hated foods, favorite vacation, etcetera. They were one point behind Cynthia and Dan with two more questions to go.
Oz whispered in her ear. "Do you think we should give it to them seeing as it's their party?"
"Don't you dare!" Cynthia pointed at Oz. "I heard that. I want to win the title fair and square."
The next question was a double-header. What the man's dream job was as well as the woman's. Beth wrote down that she was doing hers and that Oz didn't know.
He wrote down the same.
"Woo!” Beth jumped up and gave Oz a double high-five up high and down low. If he'd been standing she would have given him a chest bump as well. She turned to her sister who had received half points, allowing Beth and Oz to catch up. "In your face!"
"This last question will break the tie between sisters and declare a winner. Drumroll please! What was your worst fight about?"
Beth closed her eyes and drew in a slow breath. Son. Of. A. Bitch. Why was she playing? She hated this game. She contemplated making a joke of it and writing down Oz leaving the toilet seat up or even storming out of the room. Instead she slowly wrote Life.
Barely breathing, she waited for the reveal. Tons of fights were displayed around the room and Beth shut her eyes. Fights about jealousy, misunderstandings, all fights they'd had since the break but had never known before then. Dan and Cynthia had both written down the same thing. The wedding. She glanced at Oz's card knowing no matter whether they won or not that she'd see one of their ugly, heartbreaking fights they'd had over the past few months. Seeing his tight scrawl she did a double take.
Love.
What? He thought their biggest fight was about love? He gently turned her held out paper to see her answer. They held each other's gaze for a moment.
This was starting to feel a lot like group therapy.
"Congratulations, Cynthia," Beth said as she stood up. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be back in a moment."
"Loser!" sang Cynthia, doing a victory dance.
Beth hurried to the bathroom, leaning over the sink to ease her riled up stomach. They'd been great together--she and Oz--but when the chips were down, had they ever actually been on the same page?
She smoothed her curls and dried her hands before returning to the living room. Her sister had moved on to opening gifts. She stood at the edge of the room, not wanting to be close to Oz as confusion and a million thoughts swirled through her. She hadn't thought of Nash and their Parisian affair all night. She'd been certain he was the right choice--the right path into her future. But now she wasn't sure. Oz was still such a part of her life and her history. When it came right down to it, weren't their final answers the same? Weren't love and life inexplicably tied together? Wasn't that exactly what all their fights had been about over the past seven months? She wanted to walk across the room and give him a big hug and suggest they drop the past and carry on from today forward like everything was brand new. No assumptions. No history. Just the two of them and their future together.
Beth watched Oz from the edge of the room. As Cynthia continued opening gifts his face took on a guarded, nervous expression. Cynthia unwrapped Oz's gift and turned a small, rough wood box over in her hands, giving Oz a puzzled look. "Thanks, Oz."
"It's whittled," he replied.
"Whittled?" Cynthia struggling to act pleased. Beth would have laughed at the scene if it weren't for the look on Oz's face. He'd never been worried about gifts before. Why now? What was going on?
Cynthia set it aside. "It's lovely, thanks."
Dan picked it up. "This would be great for cigars."
"You are not smoking cigars!"
"Still, it would be good. Thanks, Oz."
When all the gifts were opened, Beth yawned, begging off due to jet lag, saying her goodbyes.
Oz met up with her in the entry. He gave her an awkward fist bump. “We rocked that--even though we didn't win. Team Wilkineiter still has it."
She nodded uncertainly. She focused on tugging on one of her knee-height boots she'd bought in Paris, and not on the expression she knew she’d face when she asked him for what she needed. "I was wondering ..."
His cell rang and he ignored it.
"Aren't you going to get that?" she asked as it continued to ring.
He balanced her as she zipped up her last boot. He shrugged and glanced at the screen. His expression changed and he turned away muttering, "Sorry, I think I need to get this."
Beth zipped up her jacket, listening to Oz's end of the conversation. "When? Now? Are you okay?" Pause. "I'll be right over. No, it's okay. Everyone's leaving anyway." Oz hung up his phone and apologized.
She studied his expression and it hit her. Mandy. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"No, what's wrong with Mandy?"
"She needs help." Oz tapped her arm. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone."
She almost reminded him that it was her that he was talking to before she remembered exactly who she was to him, an ex. She didn't get to bear his secrets any longer. She was no longer his accomplice in life. She was nobody.
Lowering her head, she fiddled with her zipper. "I, um. It's time for me to move out of Katie's." She looked down at her feet encased in gorgeous leather. "And I, um, was wondering if maybe there was a way to get some of the equity out of the trailer?" Her voice rose and cracked.
"When?"
"I kind of don't have money."
"You did last month.” He zipped his jacket with a sharp tug that just about broke the zipper and stepped into the crisp October night, his shoulders rigid.
She called after him, "What? I lose everything?" She stood on the front step and he turned, his eyes flecked with amber.
"Is this what you want?" he asked, his voice quiet.
"I can't stay with Katie forever."
"Fine, I'll put our place up for sale." He turned on his heel and strode off, his hands buried deep in his pockets, shoulders hunched like he was pushing against a snow storm rather than the odd falling leaf.
Beth swallowed hard, struggling to find her voice. To shout out not to sell the place. To ask if they could try again. Instead she watched as the darkness slowly closed around his form.
"So, tell me, what were the men in Paris like?" Mary Alice asked Beth, her eyes glittering with excitement.
"Mary Alice, you're married. Not to mention, have kids my age." Beth placed breath mints and a carton of milk by the register.
"So what?" She waved a hand and gave an impish grin. "I've heard about the Italian men and even met a few here and there, but the French? No such luck. Are they smooth and stuck up? Are they good lovers? I've heard they're short." She raised her brows. "In more ways than one."
"Mary Alice!" Beth scolded with an embarrassed laugh.
Mary Alice guffawed and leaned against the counter, arms crossed. She pressed her body forward, pushing her breasts upward and creating a deep gulch that hid great treasures of Kleenex, cash, cigarettes, and anything else Mary Alice wanted close at hand. "You can't convince me you didn't see the undercarriage of a man while in France."
"Mary Alice!"
"Look at you glow. You may as well take out a flashing billboard saying you got some in France." Mary Alice raised her eyebrows. "So? What are the French men like?" She paused, her eyes boring into Beth. "Or was it a more local man?"
Beth let out a snort and tried to look unimpressed. There was no way she was revealing to anyone in town what had happened between her and Nash. It was their little secret, not fodder for the town's gossip fest. In fact, to help curb any suggestion of them being more than friends they'd avoided each other for the past week and a half. At first, with the excitement of everyone asking about the trip she hadn't really missed him, but now his absence was starting to nag at her. In France, and even before, she had gotten used to leaning over to whisper her thoughts in his ear or to point out something unusual. Now, she had to sneak off to text him. And it wasn't the same. Going back to friends sucked. She missed Nash like an amputee missed their lost limb. It probably didn't help how her feelings about Oz had been stirred up at Cynthia's party last week.
"Well?" Mary Alice asked. "The French men ...?"
"It's hard to tell with the language barrier and all," Beth admitted truthfully. "Although, they do seem better dressed than the ones around here."
"Honey," Mary Alice wheezed with her smoker's voice, "that don't take much."
"The sights were amazing. We went to the Louvre, which is massive. I got lost trying to find the ladies room. There was more than one."
"You already told me about the stuffy art. I wanna know if you and that Nash fellow finally fit it together."
Beth gasped and took a step back. "Mary Alice! Really." Beth gave her head an indignant shake. "I honestly can't believe you would ask such a thing!"
"Ha! And peanut butter is pink. You know the whole town is speculating and I'm the only one with the courage to ask."
"The word you're looking for isn't courage, Mary Alice."
Mary Alice laughed. "Look at you with your spunk. Something happened to you, girl. Something good.” She gave another laugh and reached over the counter to give Beth's cheek a light pat, enveloping her in a familiar and strangely comforting waft of stale cigarette smoke. "You are so cute when you act all confident and are mooning about.”
Beth slapped the latest edition of In Style on the counter. She gave Mary Alice a firm don't-mess-with-me look. "Ring me up."
"That all?" Mary Alice looked at the pile, then up at Beth. "I don't want you getting all the way home and finding you need yet more milk. Whacha makin' that you need milk every night after the grocery store closes, anyway? You didn't get yourself a French baby did you?" Mary Alice raised an eyebrow and eyed Beth's midriff.
"Very funny. You missed your calling as a stand-up comedian."
Mary Alice smirked and mentally calculated Beth's small pile of purchases before ringing them up. "You know, it's good to see the life back in you."
"Sorry?"
"That Nash fellow. I had my doubts about him, being all slick and citified, but he's brought you right back alive again."
"Oh," Beth managed to muster before scooping up her items. "Um, we're not together." She retreated to the safety of the street before Mary Alice could pull any meaningful information out of her.
Mary Alice called after her, "I hear you're moving out of Katie's; if you need a place our guest room is still available!"
Not on your big, fat life.
Beth let out a deep breath. Mooning about? And her and Nash? Could everyone really tell or was Mary Alice just fishing?
"Beth, wait up," Katie called as she scurried down the street in a woolly, fashionable hat. Since being away, the air had lost the heady scent of decomposing leaves and the first light snowfall had occurred making her disappointed she'd missed it. Thin patches of snow hung on the odd clumps of leaves still desperately clinging to the trees in the square across the street.
"Hey." She whacked Katie in the chest with In Style.
"Sweet! Thanks for the ones from France, too. C'est inçroyable! The pictures are lovely, unfortunately the text is really hard to understand."
"I thought you knew French?"
"Yeah, but this season they're talking about things differently. I don't know. It's their frame of reference or something. I ended up ordering a French-English dictionary because Nash stopped translating for me. He claims it takes up too much patient time. Truthfully, I think his French isn't so hot." She rolled her eyes. "He doesn't even pronounce Christian Louboutin properly."
"His French is just fine, Katie."
"Ooh. Look at you sticking up for Doctor Boy." Katie nudged her with an elbow and a grin.
Beth rolled her eyes and opened her car door, vowing to never, ever hint about her Parisian fling to Katie. The really, really good Parisian fling. The one she would repeat in an instant. The one that kept bursting into her thoughts and dreams and was likely to have her panting and calling out in the night. Hello, embarrassing! Especially with Katie just one room over. The very definition of awk-warrrrd.
"Fluffy's up the tree again," Katie said. "And Oz is a bit preoccupied."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Beth said tightly, imagining his arms wrapped around Mandy's naked frame. She slung her purchases onto her Volvo's passenger seat. She didn't need Oz and he didn't need her. She’d started to want him at Cynthia’s party and then he’d raced off to save Mandy. That was a good reminder of where they stood.
Plus, she had moved on, right? Right.
Well, mostly. It still burned to think that he'd chosen Mandy again over her. His fiancée.
Katie looked up and down the street then leaned in and whispered, "He's drunk."
Beth checked her watch. It wasn't even suppertime. "Drunk?"
"He's been having some ... issues."
"Did he and Mandy break up?"
"He says they were never together."
"Yeah, right." You didn't start rumors in town by doing nothing. Well, usually.
Katie shrugged and fiddled with her ponytail. "I don't know. He and Mandy are telling two different stories. I think maybe he's having troubles with the rumors about you and Nash. He hasn’t been the same since Cynthia’s party.”
Beth's breathing stilled and she willed her eyelids to not flutter closed in defeat. Of course it wasn’t just Mary Alice and a few others thinking something was up. "What rumors?"
"You two are an item."
Beth laughed despite herself. How could she be so stupid as to think she'd get off scott free and without Oz having some sort of fit about it?
"Yeah, I know." Katie shot her a relieved look. "Nash? Like, come on."
Beth climbed into her car. “Oz seemed fine at Cynthia's party." Although the rumor she'd overheard at work this morning was that he'd been best friends with the bottle since then. Question was, who drove him to drink? Her or Mandy?
She stared out her windshield, blocking out Katie's ramblings about how impersonal Nash was at work and the new protocols he'd put in place to prevent nurses from eating at their stations and how Beth would never go for someone like that and how she was silly to have believed the rumors even for just a minute.
"What about Fluffy?" Katie asked as Beth started up her car.
"Call the goddamn fire department.” Beth caught Katie's shocked expression. "What?"
"Mrs. Everett is going berserk."
Beth sighed and pushed herself out of the car. "Oh, fine. It's not like I haven't seen it done enough times."
They crossed the street and stopped under the large oak in town square. Sure enough, Fluffy was perched among the snowy branches, yowling her little lungs out.
And just below the tree was Oz's groupie, Mandy. She adjusted the neckline of her tight, woolly sweater, a bright scarf obscuring most of her cleavage. "Where's Oz?"
"Why should I know? You're the one sticking your tongue down his throat."
Mandy backed up a step and opened her mouth a few times before saying, "Hostile much?"
Beth snorted.
"Oh, Beth," breathed Mrs. Everett as her mittened hand clamped on Beth's arm. "Poor Fluffy. She's been up there for twenty minutes!"
“Don’t worry. I’ll get her down for you.” Beth slipped from the woman's grasp and tossed her fitted corduroy coat to the ground. She shivered as she sized up the oak. Why on earth had she agreed to this? Tree climbing--both up and down--was supposed to come naturally to cats, and an activity Beth should have left firmly in childhood.
Beth hoisted herself into the tree's branches, sending bits of snow and the odd stubborn leaf onto Katie. She was halfway to Fluffy when a familiar voice yelled, "Hey, Beth!"
Instinctively, she looked down and just about fell out of the tree. Oz was gazing up through the branches, his brown eyes filled with concern.
Beth stepped further out and stretched to get a grip on the branch above her. She walked her feet up the trunk and, with a soft grunt, hooked a leg over the branch. Sucking in a deep breath, she concentrated on not falling. In a feat of gravity-defying stupidity, she got herself on top of the branch before realizing that what goes up must come down.
No wonder Fluffy always asked to get rescued. Climbing down was going to be a task and a half.
Lovely. As lovely as poo pudding.
She tried to coax the cat closer as she risked a glance at the people below. She swayed dangerously and cursed under her breath. The ground was a long way down. Falling would definitely make the paper. It would also make her a laughingstock, get her a new nickname, as well as hit the rumor mill's frontline. Again.
Fluffy danced daintily toward Beth, gliding her tail across Beth's face as she strutted away. Beth rubbed her nose and waited for the cat to make a second flaunty pass, before grabbing the squirming body and tucking it under her arm. Fluffy wiggled and twisted until she was clutching Beth's shoulder with every single one of her dagger-like front claws. Beth slowly scooted her way back toward the trunk, resisting the urge to pull Fluffy's nails out of her skin and leave the cat to her own devices. How had Oz always made this look so easy?
"Here," came a voice directly behind her ear, just about causing her to toss the cat out of the tree. "Everyone knows it's my job to rescue Fluffy." Oz wiggled his fingers at Beth. "Come on. I have to get back to helping Benny with his cabinets."
"Are you sure? Katie said ..." She scrutinized Oz. He seemed sober. Shaven. Handsome.
"Just give me the cat." He stretched for the feline, refusing to meet Beth's eye.
"Fine." Beth thrust the cat at him, trying not to appear anywhere near as thankful as she felt. "Your funeral."
Oz placed Fluffy on his shoulder and was rewarded by a loud purr. Stupid cat.
In several quick moves the man and cat were safely on the ground. He had to be sober to do that, didn't he? Or maybe it helped to be drunk--you didn't stop to think, you just moved.
Beth dangled both legs off the same side of her branch. She was still several feet from the branch below.
"This is so not good."
She flipped onto her stomach, her legs still a hopeless distance from the next branch. She shuffled closer to the thick trunk and carefully reached out to hug it. Slowly, she slipped off the branch and allowed herself to slide down, as if hugging a rough, oversized firemen's pole. The bark lifted her shirt, scraping her stomach and arms as she slid to what she hoped was safety.
Her eyes watered as the bark stung her skin. "Ow, ow, ow!"
She loosened her grip as the scraping continued and plunged out of control, her left foot making flimsy contact with a young branch. She scrambled like an uncoordinated squirrel, grabbing a handful of withered leaves.
An "ooooh!" came from the crowd below and Beth bit back a curse. If she hadn't been blessed with such a curvy figure, i.e. big boobs, she was certain she could have climbed down with grace.
"Are you coming, Beth?" Mandy called. "Ozzie is already down!" She caught the brightness of Mandy's scarf and she fumbled to get out of the tree fast enough to gauge what was truly going on between the two of them.
"Enjoying the view!" Beth chirped. Her arms were covered with long, red scratches, stung like nothing she’d ever experienced, and felt completely useless. When she finally hit the ground she was not going to look good. She climbed down a few more feet and ignored Oz's offer of help.
Peering through the branches she saw the glint of a can as it met Oz's lips. If she was around he had to drink, it was that simple, wasn't it? By the time her feet touched the ground, she was pissed off and damp under the arms. Fluffy and Mrs. Everett had wandered off, as had most of the crowd. Oz rocked back on his heels and smiled at Beth.
"Best entertainment in town."
"Bite me." She dusted herself off and grabbed her jacket, hoping nobody would notice the sweat on her brow. Some hurry he was in to get back to Benny. The liar. His pants had to be rather uncomfortable considering they must have been on fire.
"Aw, come on, Beth," Mandy cooed, hanging off Oz's arm. "Everyone knows Oz rescues Fluffy because he's the best climber in town."
Beth turned away, sickened by how at home Mandy appeared on Oz's arm. She spotted Nash crossing the street, striding toward the action with determined purpose. Beth moved to head him off. In her current mood, she might find herself making out with her former fling in the center of town just to spite everyone.
"Hang on there, Beth," Oz drawled. She stopped and turned, hand on her hip, jacket slung over her shoulder.
Oz, a casual jumble of limbs, the can of beer hanging from his hand as though it had always been a part of him, stepped forward, slipping Mandy off his arm like he had so many times in the past.
"What?" Beth asked sharply, her eyes catching the amber glint in Oz's dark eyes.
He touched Beth's shirt above her left breast. She reached out to slap Oz, but a fist flew past her, knocking Oz to the ground before she could make contact.
Beth stumbled forward, turning to see who had come up behind her. Nash gave a primal huff, his blue eyes flashing like frozen blades.
Oz slowly raised himself into a crouch, rubbing his jaw.
Nash pushed himself in front of Beth, fists tight under his chin. In a flash, Oz lashed out with his legs making Nash do an awkward dance in order to stay upright.
"Stop it!" Beth shrieked.
The men, brows lowered, repositioned for another blow. Katie pushed her way between them, Mandy on her heels.
"You planned this!" Beth pointed a finger at Katie who slapped it away.
"Did not!"
"You don't grab a woman's breast in public,” Nash bit out.
Mandy stepped in. "He didn't, you liar!"
Katie moved to stay between the two men and said calmly to Beth, "Your shirt is ripped."
Beth looked down to see her bra's pink lace exposed through a large tear.
"I was being a gentleman," Oz growled, pushing his torso toward Nash. Katie placed a hand on his chest to keep him at bay. "Which is more than I can say for you." Oz gave Nash a look loaded with judgment. "You may have intentions for my girl but--"
"You call--" Nash squared his shoulders.
"Your girl?" Mandy cried.
"Where's your sense of honor?" Oz asked.
"I was protecting hers!" Nash quipped.
"Well, it's a little late for that.”
Katie stayed between the men, her face lined with anger, a glare aimed at Nash. "What are you? A Neanderthal? I expected more out of a man like you. Fighting and acting like Beth's your piece of meat."
The doctor’s fists fell, the fight gone.
"Nash, let's go." Beth pushed at his tight shoulder and didn't dare look back. "This isn't worth our time."