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HARPER
*
KAT AND HER CRAZED pursuit of me had me checking over my shoulder as I hurried away from the bathroom. Unfortunately, I still needed to pee. All that coffee had caught up with me. A server replenishing the hors d'oeuvres table, pointed me in the direction of another restroom.
This one was located outside the ballroom, and was far less crowded. I stayed in there longer than necessary, touching up my makeup, and holding my wrists under cold water, hoping somehow it would help calm my nerves. It didn’t. I returned to the ballroom feeling even more anxious than before. I headed straight for the bar and ordered a gin and tonic. I don’t know why I thought it would help. The whiskey sure hadn’t. But I needed something.
The bartender gave me an amused smile. "Could I see some ID?"
Really? Even with my fancy up-do and polished makeup I was still getting carded. I blushed and opened my glittery clutch and pulled out my wallet.
The bartender eyed me skeptically, like I'd flashed him a fake ID, but he poured me a drink anyway.
I drank it fast. I held up my finger to the bartender for another one.
The second drink I nursed. I wasn't ready to leave the safety of the bar.
"Lucky," a woman's voice said. "I wish I could have a drink." The woman leaned in and in a conspiratorial whisper added, "Sure would make this evening easier to bear."
I turned a smile on her. She was young and slender, and most definitely pregnant; one of those women who would get her figure back almost immediately after giving birth. Her hair was the color of rich coffee. Tendrils were escaping from her loosely fashioned chignon.
"Sparkling water on ice," she told the bartender.
"First time at one of these?" she asked me.
"Yep."
The bartender handed her the water. "Could you add a splash of cranberry juice to it or a twist of lemon?" Then she smiled broadly. She had an infectious grin that lit up her big brown eyes. "Or both?"
"No problem." The bartender took back the glass.
"Thanks. You're a doll," she said, when he set down the sparkling pink liquid with a slice of lemon poised on the rim.
"I'm Tanya. My guy is the one over there talking basketball, judging by the jump-shot he just mimed." She tilted her head in the direction of a couple of men in dress uniform. He was still pretending to hold an imaginary ball aloft.
"I’m Harper," I said and swept the room with my gaze. "I'm not seeing my husband right now." Panic jolted through me. What if Kat had him cornered already?
"Come meet the rest of the first-timer crew," she said.
I brought my glass with me.
"I should warn you," she said as we approached the cluster of women. They'd clearly gravitated away from the main crowd, the guests who were old-hands at all this. "Not sure if it's catching, but about half of us are pregnant."
Fat chance of catching anything. These women clearly had husbands who had faith enough in their wives to start families. Your marriage is about to go over the cliff, I reminded myself, be thankful that you aren't pregnant.
Two of the women looked to be even further along in their pregnancies than Tanya. One of them, a short brunette, had her hand cupped around her extended belly.
"Roll call, girls. We have another newbie here," Tanya said.
Everybody took turns saying their names.
I introduced myself as well, but I was gripping the almost empty glass so hard that my fingers were getting numb. How did you make small talk when your marriage was about to end? I managed to smile and nod, but my mind careened from waiting for Rowley's evil ex to destroy my life to pulling my husband aside and explaining it all to him. Either way, it was over.
"That one’s mine." Denise, the brunette who still had her hand braced on her belly, pointed toward Tony.
"Oh, I've met him. He's a friend of my husband's."
"Who's your husband?"
"Rowley Ford."
"Oh my God,” she said. “You're the captain's wife?"
"I'd heard he'd gotten married," a woman with a pixie cut piped in. Her name hadn't stuck with me.
"How did you meet?" Tanya asked, her big brown eyes wide with curiosity.
"He was my brother’s best friend in high school. I’ve had a mad crush on him seemingly forever."
"Who doesn't have a crush on him?" she asked.
"They just don't get hunkier than Captain Ford."
Nothing ever changed, it seemed. Rowley would always have a female fan club.
"Don't look now, but here he comes," Denise said.
Tanya smiled around the straw in her mouth.
Rowley gave my waist a possessive squeeze as he arrived at our circle. "Mind if I borrow my wife?"
"Go right ahead," Tanya said with a light laugh.
As we stepped away, he took the glass from my fingers and raised his eyebrows. "You need to eat something."
He found a place to set the glass down. Having Kat's threat hanging over my head like a sword, and guzzling two drinks was making me feel wildly unpredictable. Do not mess with his hard-earned career, I warned myself. Be good. Be careful.
"Let's dance first," I said.
I realized as we stepped onto the dance floor that I'd never danced with him before.
"Finish the sentence you started back there."
"What sentence?" I craned my neck to look up into his face.
"Focus, baby. Matt had sent you pictures of the awards ceremony. You said that was the day you decided to. And then you trailed off."
"My theory is everything always loops back to you. For me, that is. Everything for me, loops back to you." There I was racing off at the mouth again, without thinking through what I was saying.
"How many drinks did you have?"
"Just two."
"That was two too many."
I smiled against his chest.
He sighed with impatience. "Decided to do what?"
"My brother sent me pictures of the event. Pictures of you and Kat together..."
"Yeah, I got that,” he said, sounding more than a little frustrated. “And?"
"And...Finn had been bugging me to marry him so I called him that very night and said let's do it. Check the dates if you don't believe me. I was married a day after last year's ball."
"Impulsivity, a trigger, and too much tequila," I recited my reasons for marrying again.
"Are you saying seeing me with Kat was the trigger?"
I nodded against his chest. "Finn knew everything. I guess he figured I'd forget all about you once we were married."
I brushed my fingers over the nape of his neck, just along his hairline. "And now I have you but I'm not going to get to keep you."
He reached back and peeled my hand from his neck. "What does that mean?"
The music was still playing and we stood stock-still staring at each other. "Ignore me. I'm not making any sense. You’re right. I need to eat something to soak up some of this alcohol."
He followed after me, but an older woman intercepted him before he got too far.
I glanced back.
"Do you mind if I commandeer your dance partner, dear?" she asked me. "My husband has two left feet.”
"He's all yours. I have my eye on those lovely desserts over there."
Low blood sugar was hitting me hard. I was feeling clammy and shaky. I got to the table and the world went black for a second. My vision cleared almost instantly, but the idea of fainting and pulling down the table with all those dishes on it scared me.
Figuring I needed something more substantial than dessert, I filled a plate with hor d'oeuvres; mushroom tarts, bacon wrapped shrimp, and tiny quiches, and quickly popped one into my mouth and chewed. I ate another and then grabbed one of the bottled waters on offer and unscrewed the top. Drinking water from a bottle while dressed in an evening gown seemed a little incongruous, but I was hoping to dilute the alcohol in my blood.
The music stopped and I watched with amusement as another older woman approached Rowley. They were never going to let him leave. I felt a little guilty for dragging him to the dance area in the first place.
I finished the bottle of water and had another couple hor d'oeuvres. I was just starting to feel a little better when I saw Kat striding toward me with a catty smile. Her teeth were smeared with her bright red lipstick. I certainly had no intention of pointing that out.
"God, you're like a cartoon villain," I said and walked away before she could utter a word. I crossed the room and stood at the edge of the dance floor, waiting for the music to stop.
My pulse was jumping as Rowley stepped away from his dance partner.
I reached out and took his hand. “I need to talk to you,” I said.
“What’s going on?”
I could sense his surprise as I clutched his hand and led him toward the ballroom doors. Was his phone buzzing or was I being paranoid?
“Just looking for a little privacy,” I said. I dropped his hand and walking ahead of him through the entrance hall and then down a hallway until we were finally alone.
Now, standing next to him, I could hear the buzzing distinctly. Kat was probably sending text after text like a madwoman. He reached inside his jacket.
“Wait, before you look at that, I need to say what should be obvious. I would never cheat on you. You are my everything.”
His gaze narrowed with suspicion and he yanked the phone from his pocket.
I congratulated myself on saying the exact wrong thing.
He glanced at the screen and scowled, then he turned his phone around for me to see. I was sitting behind the drum set, my drumsticks a blur. So Kat was starting off slowly, obviously intending to build toward a crescendo.
“You’re a blonde here. When was this taken?”
“The day after our wedding.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I had an obligation to perform with my band and I figured you would demand that I stay home. It was a small act of rebellion.”
He was staring at the screen again. I caught the flicker of his hazel eyes beneath his thick black lashes as he tracked the pictures he was swiping through. I wanted to grab the phone out of his hand, instead I took one of the loose strands of hair that framed my face and started winding it around my finger.
I knew the exact moment when he landed on the photo of Finn and me. His whole body stiffened. He lifted his hardened gaze to my face.
“The hug was completely innocent. I had just told him I'd remarried. That's the beginning and the end to that story." I pulled in a shaky breath. “You’re a man who insists on control. And I don’t know how to handle that.”
“So you behave like a spoiled brat and do exactly what would piss me off the most?” The question of who had sent him those images wasn’t important to him right now. It was only my actions that he seemed to care about.
“Someone was trying to blackmail me with those pictures. Does that even matter to you?”
That had gotten his attention. He dropped his arm to the side. “What the hell do you mean by blackmail?”
The door to the stairwell opened and a couple stepped out. The woman was talking and the man was nodding. They glanced at us curiously before continuing their conversation.
“I’m going back to the ball,” I said and followed in the couple’s wake.
“Get back here, Harper,” he called after me. “We’re going the fuck home.”
I hesitated for only a moment in the entrance hall before turning away from the ballroom, and moving toward the glass exit doors as fast as my steep heels allowed. There were cabs lined up outside the hall and I climbed into the first one.
"Where to?" the cab driver asked.
"Just drive, please."
I must have looked kind of wild-eyed, because I caught the driver glancing in the rearview mirror to see what I was all about.
I was doing exactly what Rowley always worried I'd do, using escape as a solution to any problem.
Gin, rich food, and panic were a terrible mix. My stomach did a flip-flop. I opened the window and let the cool night air hit me. It blew through my carefully piled hairdo. Strands came loose and whipped in my face.
I sat back in the seat but left the window open. I expected to hear my phone chime at any moment, for Rowley to reach out to me no matter how furious he was. I snapped open my clutch purse and checked to make sure I hadn't turned the sound off. Nope. Sound was on. No calls, no messages. I turned the volume up to high and dropped the phone back into my purse.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. With his long stride, he could have easily caught up with me. He could have stopped me from climbing into the cab. I thought of the look in his eyes. The photos had jarred him.
The driver eyed me again in his rearview mirror. "You okay, miss? Do you need me to pull over?"
The brisk air had blown some sense into me. Why let Kat win again without a fight?
"I'm fine now," I said. I couldn't blame the guy for being worried that I was going to get sick all over his cab.
I rattled off my address then took my phone out again and checked for messages. Nothing. An ominous sign.
I paid the fare along with a generous tip for the worry I'd caused him.
The damp grass brushed the bottom of my dress as I crossed the backyard to the garden. I gathered up my dress and lifted it to ankle height as I pushed open the gate. The solar lights lit the garden well enough to spot the fake rock. I pried it open only to find it empty. I lifted a couple of the real rocks in case I'd stuck the key beneath one of those. Terrific, I'd misplaced the emergency key. I walked back through the gate and took a seat on the back stoop and removed my high heels.
The next door neighbor's cat hopped over the fence and joined me. She climbed into my lap and started purring before I'd even stroked her fur. My phone stayed silent and my chest tightened. I shivered. I'd left my pretty wrap in the coat room.
I needed to be where he could see me, otherwise he might pass right by the house believing I wasn't there. The only light on inside was the dim one we'd left on in the kitchen.
I picked up my shoes and walked barefooted around to sit on the front porch. The cat followed. The moment I took a seat she crawled back into my lap. She kneaded my dress with her paws, pulling threads, but I didn't dislodge her, I liked having the company.