by Layne, Ivy
Taking in the crowded room, my arm looped through Cooper’s, I teetered between happiness and nerves. This was our first public outing since he'd hauled me out of the engagement party only a week before. So far, no one had brought up the incident. Everyone was acting like Cooper and I had been together forever. Everyone except for Lacey, who shot me vicious looks but otherwise kept her distance.
The music kicked up and Cooper led me out on the dance floor, swinging me into his arms. I’d known him for nine years and had no idea he knew how to dance.
“You know what you're doing,” I commented as he spun me out and reeled me back in. I couldn't remember ever seeing Cooper wearing that carefree smile before. He winked at me—another surprise—and said, “Dance class. Way too many years of dance class.”
I should have known. Of course, Lacey had sent all the boys to dance class. Pushing away the thought of Cooper’s mother, I said, “It paid off.”
“How did you know I could dance?” I asked as the song ended, easing into something with a slower rhythm.
Cooper pulled me into his arms, leading me in a slow foxtrot. “Alice, I don't think there's anything about you I don't know.”
“I'm not sure if that's romantic or creepy,” I said.
“Maybe a little of both,” Cooper admitted without remorse. “But if you're on the line, I'd go with romantic.”
I made a noncommittal noise in my throat. Secretly, I agreed, but I wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. He glanced over at Jacob, now dancing with his new bride. “It was a nice wedding.”
Nice was an understatement. The wedding was at Château du Jardin, a vineyard and resort about an hour outside of Atlanta. Luxurious didn't even begin to describe the place. Jacob had reserved all the available rooms for family and friends, but most of the five hundred guests had made the trek from the city. No one was going to miss the wedding of the decade.
Jacob and Abigail had been married in the atrium at sunset, the pink and gold rays streaming through the glass roof, the light gilding Abigail as she strode down the aisle. As beautiful as the setting had been, I found myself getting a little weepy at the devotion in the bride and groom's eyes as they said their vows.
Weddings always got to me. My own had been a rushed affair, my husband and I two kids too stupid to slow down and think things through, in too much of a hurry to have a proper ceremony.
My mom hadn't mentioned it in years, but I knew there was a part of her that still hadn't forgiven me for depriving her of a wedding. I was her only daughter, and if my brother Pete’s wedding was anything to go by, she had more rehearsal dinners in her future, but not much else.
Even though my own marriage had ended in disappointment, I wasn't a cynic. It had been a privilege to watch two people so deeply in love pledge their lives to one another.
The excellent food and fantastic champagne didn't hurt either. Cooper had a room in the resort, and we'd arrived early, spending most of the day at the pool.
After the spectacle Cooper had made of us the weekend before, I was taking it easy on the champagne. Most of the guests had been partaking since well before the wedding and formal dinner. By now, everyone was loose and happy, exactly the way they should be at a wedding.
The rest of the Sinclair siblings were clustered on the far side of the dance floor with some of the Winters. When the music stopped, I expected Cooper to guide us in that direction. Instead, he led me to a quiet corner.
Angling his body to block me from view, he dipped his head and brushed his lips across mine. “You're making me crazy in that dress.” Lifting a finger, he tapped it against my lower lip, painted a deep, vibrant red. “All I want to do is pin you against the wall and kiss you.”
I felt my eyes flare with alarm. If Cooper kissed me my lipstick would tell the tale to every single one of the five hundred guests surrounding us.
“I know I can’t,” he said, reading my mind, “And that’s making me even crazier.”
Bending, he pressed his lips to the side of my neck just below the hollow of my ear. Heat speared through me, and I wobbled on my heels. His lips brushing my ear, Cooper murmured, “You need to carry around a step stool. I can't reach all the places I want to put my mouth. You're too short.”
“You're too tall,” I shot back. “It's not my fault you're so big.”
“At least I’m in proportion.”
I knew exactly what he meant. He was in proportion. Cooper Sinclair was big everywhere. “Anyway,” he went on, “I like you small. Makes it easy to pick you up and put you where I want you.”
He rested his mouth at my temple before straightening. “But not in the middle of the wedding reception. One scene was enough for now. We can make another scene later.”
“How about we not make any more scenes at all?” I asked, expecting Cooper to agree. Cooper wasn't exactly known as the wild man of the family. If one of them was going to make a scene it would be Evers, or maybe Axel. Not Cooper.
Defying expectations, he sent me a heated glance. “Oh, I can guarantee we’ll make another scene. Too many more parties like this and I won't be able to resist throwing you over my shoulder again.”
I rolled my eyes, but I didn't mean it. At the time, I'd been pissed as hell that he'd kidnapped me from the middle of the party, but now, looking back? Yeah, I wouldn't mind if he threw me over his shoulder again. That had been hot.
I leaned into him, the hard length of his body warm against my side. “You can put me anywhere you want when we get back to the room.”
“I plan to.”
Heat spiraled through me. We weren’t staying late at the reception. Not with that plush hotel room upstairs.
“You want another glass of champagne?” Cooper asked. “Or something else?”
“Champagne,” I said. “I think they're going to cut the cake soon.”
Cooper eyed the bar closest to us. People crowded around, the bartenders moving at top speed, the path between packed with people.
“Stay here. I'll be right back.” Cooper disappeared into the crowd.
The ballroom of Château du Jardin was massive and filled to capacity. I didn't recognize most of the wedding guests. The Winters family ran in very different circles than a lowly office manager. I spotted Evers across the room with Summer, standing beside Axel and Emma. I thought about going to join them once Cooper came back when a familiar figure stepped into my view.
Lacey.
She moved into my space, standing so close she loomed over me. I resisted the urge to retreat. I wasn't going to let Lacey intimidate me.
Unlike her impromptu engagement party the week before, Lacey hadn't bothered to stay sober for this party. Her eyes were red and bleary, her body loose and uncoordinated as she threw her hands wide and hissed down at me, “You got what you wanted, didn't you, you little slut.”
Oh, fuck this. I wasn't putting up with this bullshit tonight.
This was one of those retreat is the better part of valor situations, because letting Lacey Sinclair hurl invectives at me was not on my to-do list.
Have fun.
Dance.
Get Cooper naked.
Those were my priorities. Not humoring his bitter, drunk mother. I glanced over her shoulder for Cooper and stepped to the side, trying for a clean getaway.
Lacey was having none of it. Her hand shot out and closed over my wrist.
It was stop or fall.
I stopped.
“What do you want with me?” I asked, suddenly so very done with Lacey’s bizarre vendetta against me. “I have never done anything to you, Lacey. Anything. I have no idea why you hate me so much, but I’m sick to death of—”
“Oh, you know. You pretend you're so innocent, but you know.”
Chapter Eighteen
Alice
I wrenched my arm out of her grip and
stared at her. I was missing a piece of the puzzle. I didn't know. I had no clue why Lacey hated me so much, but it was becoming very clear that Lacey thought she had a reason.
As far as I’d seen, Lacey didn’t like anyone, but her hatred for me was personal.
“Lacey, I really don't know. If I've done something, if there's some reason you dislike me so much, please, just tell me so I can apologize and we can move on.”
Her laugh was brittle. Sharp. “You think you can just apologize for fucking my husband? That's rich. Maybe wedding vows don't mean anything to you—”
She looked down her nose at me as if I were a piece of trash she'd scraped off her shoe. “—but if you thought you could seduce him into hiring you, fuck him while he signed your paycheck, and no one would blink an eye, then you’re a lot stupider than I thought. Everyone knows what a whore you are. Everyone. Maxwell wasn’t going to leave me for you. I’m his wife.”
The word came out on a hiss, her face less than an inch from mine. I was too stunned to flinch.
What the hell was she talking about? Me? And Maxwell? Was she insane?
She closed a bony hand around my upper arm, shaking me hard enough to make me wobble on my heels. “You’re just another of his sluts. He should have fired you when he was done with you. And now you have your claws in my son? You think I’m going to let that go? You’re trash.”
My mouth fell open in shock. My brain was blank. Later I'd wish I'd had a snappy comeback, but in that moment, I was utterly without words. Why would she think I’d slept with Maxwell? Gross.
Maxwell was an asshole and a letch. He propositioned me once when he hired me. I shut him down, and that was it. End of story.
And what did she mean everyone knows?
Cooper's voice barely penetrated my shock. “Mom, drop it,” he said, the words falling like stones. “It’s ancient history. Alice was hardly the first woman Dad seduced, and she sure as hell wasn't the last. It ended almost a decade ago. It doesn't mean anything. I don't understand why you blame her when you sure as hell don't blame him.”
Horror curdled in my gut.
What the fuck?
Cooper, too? Cooper thought I'd slept with Maxwell? Did everyone think I'd slept with Maxwell?
Oh, my God, that’s what Lacey meant by everyone knows. They all thought I’d slept with Maxwell.
My mind raced, putting it together. I thought back to those first few months at Sinclair. The guys who’d propositioned me. The way Cooper and his brothers had been distant and unfriendly.
Oh, God. They all thought I'd been sleeping with Maxwell. That I’d cheated on my husband with their father. The rich dinner and glass of champagne turned rancid in my stomach. Saliva flooded my mouth, and for a terrible moment, I thought I was going to throw up right there in the middle of the wedding reception.
I turned, desperate to flee the crowd, to let this new reality sink in somewhere private.
My world was upside down. In a split second, everything I knew had changed. I was still the same, but the person everyone saw when they looked at me—she was a stranger.
They thought I'd slept my way into the job. That I'd had an affair with my married boss, and now I was sleeping with his son.
I was going to throw up.
Cooper's hand closed around my arm yanking me to a stop. “Where are you going? Don't listen to my mother—”
Pain sliced through my heart. Cooper thought I'd slept with his father. He thought I was capable of showing up to work every day with a smile on my face after spending my nights in his father's bed. That I could so easily betray my husband and ignore his father’s wife. All this time, Cooper thought that’s who I was.
I couldn’t stand it a second longer.
“You think I slept with your father?”
Cooper’s eyes locked on mine as if he were trying to read my soul. In his own eyes, I saw the absolute truth. He did. He really did think I'd slept with his father, that I’d betrayed my vows. That my moral compass was so askew I'd been able to hop from my husband’s bed to his father’s and to my desk without a hitch.
Finally, he said, “Alice, it was a long time ago—”
I wrenched my arm back, but his grip was iron. Deciding something, Cooper turned, striding toward the door and pulling me along with him. Fine. I'd said I didn't want another scene, and I meant it.
I didn't want to think, didn't want to put these pieces together all the way. Didn’t want to understand what this meant. He came to a stop in the hall outside the ballroom. Pulling me beside a stack of chairs that had been tucked behind the side curtain, he looked down at me, concern clouding his icy blue eyes.
“Alice, I don’t understand why you're so upset. I know. I've always known. I forgave you a long time ago. I don't care anymore. Like I told my mom, it’s ancient history.”
“Why do you think I slept with Maxwell?” I demanded, cutting him off.
He forgave me?
The presumed generosity—like he was doing me a favor—broke through my shock like shards of glass in an open wound.
Cooper was finally getting that something was wrong because he took a step back and said slowly, “My father told me. When he hired you.”
“What exactly did he say?” I asked, my words clipped and quiet.
Cooper shifted, crossing his arms over his chest. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it for a moment, appearing to reorder his thoughts before he said simply, “That he was sleeping with you when he hired you, and a few months after that, he said it was over.”
Yeah, right. I knew Maxwell. I’d worked with him for four years before he'd disappeared. I was absolutely sure whatever Maxwell had said about me hadn't been that generous or appropriate.
Considering the names Lacey had called me, and knowing Maxwell's vocabulary, I could only imagine what he’d told his son.
Bile rose in my throat. My heart thumped in my chest, bruised and aching. I couldn't look at Cooper, couldn't see that forgiveness for my sins in his eyes.
My chest so tight I could barely draw a breath, my words came out propelled by little more than sheer will. Looking past him at the wall, I said, “It would have been nice if someone had asked me. I never slept with your father, Cooper.”
“Alice—” Cooper reached for me, but I dodged to the side, looking over my shoulder and seeing the door to the ladies’ room.
“Just… Give me a minute, Cooper. I just need a minute, okay?”
I lurched across the hall, pushing through the door, barely hearing him say, “I'll be right here,” before it shut behind me.
Women crowded the generous space, sitting at the vanity tables touching up their hair and makeup, gossiping about the other guests. No one spared me a glance. I was a nobody.
Heartsick and numb with shock, I wove through the crowd, taking the large handicapped stall at the end and locking the door behind me. I closed the seat on the toilet and sat, bracing my elbows on my knees, holding my head in my hands.
I couldn’t go back out there, couldn’t look Cooper in the eye. Forget about the rest of them. Axel, Evers, Knox. Emma. Oh, God, did Emma think I’d slept with Maxwell?
Everyone knows.
My heart turned to ice at the thought. They’d all believed Maxwell’s story. I couldn’t go back out there. Not now. Maybe not ever. All I wanted was escape. To hide. To get away from the ugly truth I’d never suspected.
The moment that thought surfaced, I knew what I had to do.
Run.
Run fast and far, before Cooper could figure out what I’d done. Once I was alone, really alone, I could stop and think about what to do next.
I sat up, pushing aside my pain and humiliation, forcing myself to think. And then I saw it.
My one stroke of good luck.
The bathroom had a window. And I had my way out.
&nb
sp; Chapter Nineteen
Cooper
I stared at the door of the women’s restroom, still as a statue, my brain turning over on itself. I couldn’t get my bearings.
Was it possible I’d been wrong all this time?
Thinking of my father with Alice had been unrelenting torture. It ate at me for so long, eventually, I’d had to find a way to make peace with it. The only other choice was to avoid Alice, which would have meant firing her.
Firing Alice wasn’t an option for so many reasons. The most important being that I couldn’t live without her. When I’d realized I needed to see Alice every day more than I needed to hang on to the past, I’d forced myself to let it go. Mostly.
I couldn’t let it go completely, couldn’t forget that the woman I wanted had been his first. That she’d let him touch her. She’d had him inside her.
It was wrong to want her, but I did. I couldn’t help myself. I’d been telling myself to get over it for years. Years.
Alice could never be mine.
Even if she left her loser of a husband, she couldn’t be mine because she’d been his first.
One day I’d walked into the office after a job gone bad, feeling like the world was crashing on my head, and Alice had smiled at me. She’d looked up from her computer, handed me the coffee she’d had waiting, and smiled at me.
A smile overflowing with her heart, with care and compassion, with friendship and concern.
A smile that was just for me. All at once, I’d known.
I was never going to get over Alice.
Never.
I'd never stop wanting her.
Because Alice was worth wanting. She was worth waiting for. The past didn’t matter.
I didn't want to be defined by choices I'd made years ago. Why should I hold Alice to the same standard? Whatever she'd done with my father, there hadn't been anyone else since.
She'd been faithful to her jackass of a husband even though he didn't deserve it. That one fling with my father aside, she’d been everything that was loyal and honest.