Happily Ever After: A Romance Collection

by Amelia Wilde

  “Skeeter?” Melody asked.

  “She kind of looks like a Skeeter, don’t you think?” Nash asked, summoning another happy burble from Felicity. He reached for his water glass, smile slipping as he met Aria’s eyes across the table. “I could give you some tips on how to get her trained to sleep better, if you want,” he said in a careful voice.

  Aria faltered, looking torn, before she finally shook her head. “No, that’s all right. It’s just a stage. I’m sure she’ll grow out of it sooner or later.”

  “She will.” Nash nodded. “But you’d feel more rested, and be a better mama to her, if it was sooner.”

  “I’m doing just fine, thanks,” Aria said, anger creeping into her tone.

  Nash shrugged and smiled his good-old-boy grin. “Just trying to help. Sometimes we white trash folks have a few tricks up our sleeve you princesses haven’t heard tell about, you know.”

  Aria clenched her jaw and turned her attention back to her plate, not saying a word. Mason jumped in to cover the awkward moment by asking Melody what she’d been up to during her week off, and soon the table was alive with comfortable chatter again.

  Chatter from everyone except Aria. She didn’t speak again until over an hour later, when the boys had finished loading the dishwasher, and the girls had cleaned up outside and Nash and Mason were drifting toward the door.

  Aria passed through the living room with a sleepy-looking Felicity snuggled in her arms and paused at the bottom of the stairs. “Good night, Mason. Good seeing you again, Nash.”

  Nash hesitated only a fraction of a second, but it was enough for Lark to see surprise and a more mysterious emotion she couldn’t quite put a finger on flicker behind his eyes.

  “Good to see you, too,” Nash said. “And good to meet Felicity. She’s a beauty.”

  “Thanks, and th—” Aria broke off mid-sentence when she realized Nash was already out the door, halfway down the walk to his car.

  Aria sighed and glanced down at the floor, looking so forlorn Lark wanted to run across the room and hug her. “Well, anyway… Good night. See whoever’s here in the morning.”

  She turned and walked stiffly up the stairs and Lark knew right then that she wouldn’t be dragging Mason off to her apartment tonight. It didn’t matter that Melody had promised to stay in her old room so Aria wouldn’t be alone, there were times when a middle sister knew her unique, bridging-the-gap, skills were needed, and this was definitely one of those times.

  “I know,” Mason whispered, pressing a kiss to her forehead when she stopped by the door instead of grabbing her purse and racing him to his car. “Go take care of her. See what’s up.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lark said.

  “Don’t be sorry. I should be sorry. I should have mentioned your name, and maybe Nash would have realized you and Aria were related and all the awkwardness could have been avoided.”

  Lark winced. “They really don’t care for each other, do they?”

  Mason shook his head. “No, but I swear I’ve never seen Nash be rude to a soul before tonight.”

  “Aria brings out the best in people sometimes,” Lark said with a sigh. “But he still wasn’t that bad. He was nice, really. I liked him, and I think Felicity is in love.”

  “Aria wasn’t bad tonight, either,” Mason said. “Tell her I appreciate her giving me a chance, and tell her we’ll babysit for her some night soon so she can get some sleep. I’m sure we could rig up someplace for the baby to sleep at your apartment, right?”

  “Of course we could. I was thinking the same thing.” Lark’s chest suddenly felt tight. “You’re a good man, you know that?”

  Mason smiled. “I just know what it’s like to be sleep deprived. It’s hard enough when you’re getting paid to work ridiculous hours.”

  “You’re still a good man.” Lark stood on tiptoe, brushing her lips across Mason’s scruffy cheek, knowing she wouldn’t be able to stop if she went for his lips, but needing to kiss him one last time. “See you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll pick you up at noon,” Mason said, gently brushing her hair over her shoulder. “I can’t wait to spend another day with you.”

  “Me, too.” Lark’s breath came faster as Mason’s fingers lingered at her neck. “But now you have to leave, before I forget how much I want to be a good sister.”

  Mason laughed. “All right. Good night.”

  “Good night.” Lark watched him walk down the path to his car, unable to resist taking a moment to enjoy the way he filled out a pair of jeans before shutting the door and hurrying up the stairs to Aria and Felicity’s room.

  18

  Since Mom and Dad’s room was the largest bedroom in the house, they had given up their master suite when Aria moved back in, shifting the furniture and helping get Felicity’s crib set up in the corner behind a wicker screen. The screen gave Aria the illusion of privacy and kept Felicity from being able to see her mama asleep in bed, but Lark knew Felicity ended up sleeping with Aria most nights, when the baby woke to have her milk and refused to go back to her crib without putting up a fuss Aria worried would wake the rest of the house.

  So when Lark knocked softly on the half-open door before pushing it in, she wasn’t surprised to find Aria lying on top of her bed fully clothed with an arm thrown over her face and Felicity asleep in a similar pose next to her on the king-size bed.

  “Aria,” Lark whispered. “Are you awake?”

  Aria didn’t move a muscle, but whispered. “Yes.”

  “Can I talk to you?” Lark asked softly, tip-toeing into the room.

  Aria breathed slowly in and back out. “About what?”

  “You know what,” Lark whispered. “Let’s put Felicity in her bed and you can come downstairs. Let me make you a cup of cocoa.”

  “How about a shot of whiskey, instead?” Aria asked, still not moving or uncovering her eyes.

  Lark thought for a moment. “I don’t think Mom and Dad have any whiskey, but there’s still beer in the fridge.”

  Aria sighed. “It’s all right. I don’t really want whiskey, or a beer. I’m just going to get ready for bed. It’s been a long night.”

  “So you don’t want to kill me anymore?” Lark asked.

  “No. I don’t want to kill you.” Aria finally moved her arm from across her face and opened her eyes, but kept her gaze on the ceiling. “It’s not your fault, it’s mine. Like usual. Like everything else.”

  “No, it isn’t. I shouldn’t have tried to surprise you,” Lark said, pushing on when Aria didn’t respond. “How do you know Nash anyway?”

  “Oh, you know. From…around.”

  “Around where? He said he went to River Valley High School, not Summerville.”

  Aria rubbed the tops of her eyes. “It doesn’t matter, Lark, it was a long time ago. Before you were old enough to know about certain things.”

  “Things like what?”

  “Just…things,” Aria whispered. “Things I did. Things I screwed up. People I hurt without even meaning to. All those kind of things.” Aria sighed again, and a tear slipped quietly down her cheek.

  Lark realized it was the first time she’d seen Aria cry since she and Felicity moved back to Summerville. The very first, and it shouldn’t have been.

  When your marriage falls apart and you’re suddenly a single mother, living with your parents, trying to support yourself and your baby on a pastry chef’s salary, you should be able to cry about it. At least once or twice. You should feel safe to break down in front of the people who understand how miserable you are to have seen your dreams die, and the forever love someone promised you betrayed.

  Lark didn’t know what had driven Aria and Liam apart, but she was willing to bet serious money it was Liam’s doing. Aria had been so in love with him, in a way she had never been with anyone else. From the day they met three years ago, Aria hadn’t glanced at another man. Her man-eater days were behind her the second she and Liam slam-danced into each other at a Violent Femmes tribute band show i
n Atlanta.

  He was her English, rock-n-roll dream come true.

  She was so gone on him that Lark and the rest of the family had done their best to put aside their distaste for Liam’s arrogant persona, the way he acted as if being a record producer and former member of a British boy band made him better than any of the hicks in Summerville, Georgia. They had believed he loved Aria, and that was enough to excuse a multitude of sins. But the truth was no one was really sad to learn Liam wouldn’t be showing up for Christmas dinner ever again.

  No one, except Aria.

  “I guess I deserve this,” Aria said, more tears spilling from her eyes. “And Nash deserved a chance to kick me while I was down.”

  “No, Ra,” Lark said, crossing the room and sitting down next to her sister, careful not to disturb the baby as she brushed Aria’s hair from her face. “Whatever happened between you and Nash, you were only a kid. And as far as Liam is concerned, I don’t know what he did to make you leave, but I have no doubt that you did not deserve it.”

  Aria’s face crumpled. “He was with someone else,” she whispered, swiping at her damp cheeks as she sat up. “While I was pregnant with Felicity.”

  “That bastard.” Lark cursed softly. “You were always too good for him.” She gritted her teeth and shook her head, holding back the much more colorful things she’d like to call Liam, wishing Nashville was closer so she could go punch the jerk in his pompous face.

  Or somewhere else, somewhere more befitting his crime.

  “He promised he was going to end it, and I think he did,” Aria said. “But right after Felicity was born, he started up again. With someone else.”

  “I’m going to kill him,” Lark said, rubbing Aria’s back. “Slowly. With whatever weapon will hurt the most.”

  “He’s not worth it.” Aria sniffed. “After I found out about the second woman, I did a little snooping… He’d been cheating on and off the entire time we were together. With Becky who worked publicity at the record label, and then with some barely legal girl in that British girl band he was helping put together after we first met.” Her head bowed and her back shuddered. “He was making a fool of me the whole time.”

  “I’m so sorry, Ra.” Lark put an arm around her sister and hugged her close. “I’m so, so sorry.”

  “Like I said, maybe I deserved it,” she said, breath hitching. “I wasn’t always so nice to the boys I broke up with. Back in the day.”

  “How old were you when you dated Nash?”

  “We never really dated.” Aria sniffed. “We met at that arts camp I went to when I was fifteen.”

  “Fifteen,” Lark repeated. “You were practically a baby. You didn’t even have real boobs back then, I remember. It was the only thing that kept me from being insanely jealous of how beautiful and popular and talented you were.”

  Aria snorted. “Glory days, huh?”

  “No way. Your glory days are still ahead of you,” Lark said, smiling when Aria turned to look at her with wistful, teary eyes. “You are an amazing person, and an amazing mother, and you make the most unbelievably gorgeous works of cake art I’ve ever seen. Just give me a few years. I swear I’ll make Ever After Catering so big we’ll all be rolling in dough. Or frosting.”

  “Or cheese balls,” Aria said with the ghost of a smile. “I could go for a cheese ball right now.”

  “How about a cheese plate?” Lark asked. “I’ve got feta and brie and some only slightly funky bleu cheese in the fridge. Why don’t I whip up a cheese plate and find some more wine, and you and me and Melody can play cards?”

  Aria’s smile crumpled in the middle. “That sounds really nice,” she said, and promptly began to cry again, even harder than before. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying now.”

  “Because you need to cry,” Lark said. “And you deserve to cry, so don’t you dare apologize.” Lark hurried to the bathroom to fetch some tissues and returned to the bed to press them into Aria’s hand as she stood. “Now, go on. Go downstairs. I’ll put Felicity in her crib and be down in a minute.”

  Aria hesitated a moment before lunging at Lark, pulling her in for a tight hug. “Thank you. I love you, you know that?”

  “You, too.” Lark hugged her sister hard, feeling closer to her than she had in years. Since…Liam came into the picture, as a matter of fact.

  Some partners drew you into their tiny circle, and put up roadblocks between you and the rest of your life. Other partners came into your world and enhanced everything about it, even your relationships with your friends and family.

  Mason had always been that sort of boyfriend. The type her friends loved hanging out with, and her parents flat out loved. When she’d come home, giddy with excitement, and squealed to her entire family that she and Mason were getting married, her mom had burst into happy tears and her dad had hugged her and congratulated her on bringing a son into the March clan.

  Aria deserved someone like that, a man who would make her life fuller and richer, not harder and lonelier. Lark hoped someday she could help her sister find someone like that, someone like Mason.

  That was the thing about being in love: it felt so good, you wanted everyone to have the same blissful experience, to soar on the wings of happiness and anticipation into the fluffy, pink clouds of happily ever after.

  Even after only a few days, you tend to forget the heartbreak of all the loves that ended badly, block out the misery of being left alone and bleeding from the inside when the person you trusted betrays you.

  You forget, until something—or someone—forces you to remember.

  19

  Aria woke up early.

  Very early, considering she’d stayed up until midnight playing cards with Melody and Lark and gotten up to feed Felicity at two thirty, and again at five. But for some reason, her eyes flew open at six fifteen and stayed that way, fixed on the ceiling while an unexpected sense of dread—like a raincloud sweeping in to hover over the bed, menacing her with its ominous, black belly—swelled inside her.

  It was…strange.

  There was certainly no reason for feeling so off-center, not when she’d gone to bed feeling better than she had in months.

  The stubborn, prideful part of her hadn’t wanted to tell anyone what Liam had done, but the lonely, miserable, shattered, certain-she-was-unlovable part had appreciated hearing Lark call Liam a bastard so much it was probably sinful.

  She had needed to hear that she was too good for the man who’d broken her heart into a thousand, razor-sharp pieces, needed Lark’s strong hug and assurance that the best days of Aria’s life were still ahead of her. Just a few hours of not being alone with her secret—one of them, anyway— had been enough to send Aria to bed with a smile on her face and a tiny, flickering flame of hope in her heart.

  She’d fallen asleep more easily than she had in months and dreamed a scandalous dream starring Nash Geary and his impossibly perfect body. The boy had been perfect enough back when they were kids, but the man he was now…

  Well, now, Nash was the stuff of fantasies. And naughty dreams involving her, him, a bucket of ice in a hot tub, and not a stich of clothing.

  No matter how awkward and humiliating eating dinner with him had been, it almost seemed worth it for a dream like that. She hadn’t had a dream that wasn’t a nightmare since she’d caught Liam cheating the first time.

  Between the talk with Lark, the perfect late night with her sisters—eating massive amounts of cheese and snorting wine through her nose over stories from when they were little—and the delicious dream, Aria should have woken up invigorated and ready for a fresh start, ready to move forward with a fire in her gut and an optimistic gleam in her eye.

  Instead, she had…dread.

  It was almost as if something inside of her knew.

  Knew she was going to run into Mason’s creepy uncle at the store while picking up the diapers she forgot to grab yesterday. Knew Parker would tell her that he’d received the message she’d left the other
day asking if he still had any of Mason’s things, and that Parker would give her a box of Mason’s old papers right there in the parking lot of the A&P.

  Knew she would take those papers home and sneak them up to the closet in her room and go through the box during Felicity’s nap, even though a voice in her head screamed for her to leave it alone, to let Lark and Mason be happy and quit looking for the fly in the ointment.

  Knew she would find something that proved that Mason was a liar—a liar then, and a liar now, and making a fool out of Lark all over again.

  Once Aria knew the truth, she couldn’t un-know it. She couldn’t turn back time and restore her own innocence, and she couldn’t sit back and let Lark be tricked by the man who had already shattered her too-trusting sister once before.

  She didn’t want to destroy Lark’s dream, but she didn’t want her sister to be destroyed, either. She didn’t want Lark to know what it was like to give everything she had to a man, only to be left alone and broken when he decided everything wasn’t good enough. She didn’t want her sister to hurt the way she hurt, the way she wasn’t sure she would ever completely stop hurting, no matter how much time passed or how many good things came into her life.

  She had to tell Lark what she’d found. She had to show her.

  There was no other choice.

  By the time Aria found the evidence she had hoped didn’t exist, Lark had already left with Mason for their fifth date. She debated calling Lark and telling her the truth over the phone, but decided it wasn’t right to spring something like that on her when she was alone with Mason, miles from home, with no one there to back her up if things got messy.

  So instead, she sent a text, warning Lark that she had some bad news and that Lark should come home as soon as possible.

  And then she stuck her phone in her pocket and waited.

  Felicity got up from her nap and they played in the backyard with her toys for over an hour, and Aria waited. She put on Blue’s Clues for Felicity and whipped up a lemon meringue pie for desert, while Melody made chicken stir-fry for supper, and waited. She fed Felicity and gave her a bath and spread out toys for the baby on the floor of their room while she folded clothes, and waited.