Best She Ever Had (9781617733963)

by Ellis, Shelly

  “We’re here tonight to celebrate the fact that after one baby, a lot of drama, and several designer shoe purchases, Keith has decided to stick around. He’s taken on the brave task known as falling in love and making a life with my dear sister Stephanie Gibbons, and decided to put a ring on it, ladies and gentlemen!” Dawn said.

  After that intro, several people, including Stephanie and Keith, walked to the stage and shared heartfelt speeches honoring the engagement, drawing more applause and a few tears from those in the room.

  Korey was shocked at all the warmth he felt radiating from the couple and the Gibbons clan in general. Considering their well-earned reputation as merciless man-eaters, he didn’t expect all this love and bliss. It made him uneasy, seeing the girls like this. Where was the ruthlessness? Why didn’t they seem colder? Had the Gibbons family finally changed after all these years? Did that mean Cynthia could change too?

  No, he told himself. It was all an illusion. Fast forward a year or two and Lauren would probably be divorced from her millionaire husband Crisanto, and still wrangling with him in court over alimony and child-support payments. Stephanie would have dumped Keith for a geezer who owned several mansions. Dawn would be zeroing in on her next husband.

  And Cynthia?

  Cynthia will be doing the same shit she always does, he told himself.

  After the fifth and what seemed like the final speech, Korey glanced at his watch, wondering if he could inconspicuously make his way to the doors. After all, Clarissa seemed engrossed with her family and Jared at the moment, and the crowd around the bar seemed to be dispersing. Korey could probably sneak out without Clarissa noticing.

  He turned and started to head toward the exit, but he paused when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Excuse me! Excuse me, everyone!” Cynthia said into the microphone, making Korey instantly turn back to the stage. “Wait! We’re not finished yet. It’s my turn!”

  The crowd fell silent again.

  “Yes, I know. I know everyone is shocked that I’m going to give a toast to Steph and Keith too, but I swear, everything I have to say is good.”

  “Girl, it better be or I am yanking that mike out of your hand!” Stephanie barked, making several in the audience laugh.

  “Look, I know that I haven’t been the most supportive of you and Keith,” Cynthia began. “Maybe I’ve even, shall we say, disparaged your relationship a few times. Okay, maybe more than just a few times . . . maybe a lot. But”—she held up a finger—“I can be the first to admit when I’m wrong.”

  “Since when?” Lauren asked, making her other sisters and even their mother burst into laughter.

  “And,” Cynthia said loudly, before giving her youngest sister a withering glance, “even I can’t deny, Keith, how happy you make our Steph. Being in love with you has definitely . . .” She cleared her throat. “It has definitely changed her.” Cynthia slowly scanned the room. Her eyes stopped, and she locked gazes with Korey.

  Several people in the crowd turned to see whom she was staring at. Korey gritted his teeth when he became the focus of their stares.

  If this was supposed to be some type of apology from Cynthia, it was falling on deaf ears.

  I said I’m not getting sucked back in and I meant it, he thought. He didn’t care how many damn speeches she made.

  “It’s changed her a lot, b-but in a good way,” Cynthia quickly clarified. “It’s made her a better person, Ko- . . . I mean, Keith. So please, cherish what you two have. Be honest with one another. Be dedicated to each other. Don’t . . . don’t let anyone or anything take that away from you.”

  Cynthia lowered the mike, and an awkward silence fell over the room.

  “Uh, to . . . umm . . . to Stephanie and Keith!” Dawn suddenly shouted, holding up her wineglass.

  “To Stephanie and Keith,” the audience echoed just as Korey turned around again.

  To hell with this, he thought. He had heard enough.

  “Korey?” Cynthia shouted from behind him as he walked through the restaurant doors. “Korey, wait up! Please!”

  For five seconds, he contemplated ignoring her and continuing walking down the sidewalk to his car, but that wasn’t his style. Plus, he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of him fleeing as if he had done something wrong.

  Korey slowly turned to face Cynthia. When his eyes settled on her as she emerged from the shadows and into the glow of the overhead street lamp, he was slightly irritated at the fact that he was still awed by her. He couldn’t deny that. Even after all she had put him through and their painful history, he still wanted her. No, he was more than slightly irritated by that fact. It really pissed him off. That woman had an unholy hold on him, but he wouldn’t let it rule him anymore.

  “What do you want?” he asked tersely.

  She took another hesitant step toward him. “I-I saw you talking to Clarissa earlier. I just wanted to . . . I wanted to say thank you for doing that.”

  His mouth fell open in shock. That wasn’t the answer he had expected. It caught him off guard, but he quickly recovered. “You don’t have to thank me. I didn’t do it for thanks. I wanted to see her.”

  “Is that why you came tonight? To see her?”

  He nodded.

  “I was hoping you two would get the chance to talk.”

  “Well, it was long overdue.”

  She pivoted from one stiletto heel to the other. “I was . . . I was hoping we would get the chance to talk too, but you didn’t seem to want to talk to me. I thought you were avoiding me.”

  He opened his mouth to argue, but she quickly held up a hand.

  “And you’re right to avoid me! If I were you, I’d be . . . I’d be avoiding me too. What I did was wrong. I know that.”

  “Wrong?” he asked, raising his brows comically and taking a step toward her. “You think what you did was wrong? No, wrong is putting it lightly. What you did, Cindy, was so fucked up it can’t even be put into words how fucked up it was! What you did was—”

  “I had my reasons, Korey.”

  “And none of them were justified! So don’t even try that ‘see my side of this’ bullshit with me!”

  “I wasn’t going to . . .” She closed her eyes. “I wasn’t going to ask you to see my side. I just wanted to apologize.”

  “Yeah, well, frankly, your apologies don’t mean much. I’ve heard them before.”

  She winced. “I figured you’d say that. Look, either way, Korey, I wanted to apologize to you. I know you will probably never forgive me—”

  “Because I won’t,” he answered bluntly.

  “Look, you don’t have to like me, but we have a daughter together. We’re . . . we’re co-parents now, and it would be . . . it would be good if we were on speaking terms, at least, for Clarissa’s sake.”

  Who was this woman standing in front of him, making valid, mature arguments? Who was this woman who was apologizing and taking responsibility for her actions like a grown-up? Was it a trick, more subterfuge on Cynthia’s part?

  “Can we at least be on speaking terms?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I guess I can do that.” A polite hello every now and then wouldn’t kill him. He glanced at his car in the distance. “Is that it? Is that why you followed me out here, to ask if we could be on speaking terms?”

  “No.” She hesitated again. “I also wanted to ask for your forgiveness, but I figured it was pointless to ask.”

  He gave a cynical smile. “It is.”

  “Korey, everything that I said in there, I meant. And I wasn’t just talking about Steph; I was talking about me too. I have changed. I have!”

  “Cindy . . .”

  “I’ve changed for the better—”

  “Cindy . . .”

  “—and I owe that to you! I don’t—”

  “Stop!” he said, grabbing her shoulders. He shook her, making her blink in surprise. “Stop! I don’t want to hear this!”

  “But I don’t know what else to do! I can’t make
—”

  “Let it go! You can let it go and move on! That’s what you can do. That’s what I’m going to do.”

  She stared at him blankly.

  “It’s over. Okay? This has dragged on for almost twenty damn years, and I’m not doing it anymore.”

  “But what about what happened between us? Everything that we’ve been through? What about—”

  “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right?” he answered weakly. “Let it stay there.”

  “What?” Her eyes filled with tears. “There’s no way I could . . . There is no damn way it’s that simple, Korey!”

  “It can be if we let it be.” He dropped his hands from her shoulders and took a painful swallow, dislodging the lump that had formed in his throat. Despite his best efforts, his emotions were overwhelming him. He had tried to put up a wall, but he wasn’t succeeding.

  “We’re Clarissa’s parents. We’re on speaking terms—but that’s it,” he said. “That’s all we are. All right?”

  She looked shell-shocked, and frankly, he was a little startled himself by the words that were coming out of his mouth. Cynthia would always be more than a fellow “co-parent” to him. He knew that in his heart. But he couldn’t cave on this one. She had put him through too much.

  She took a deep breath. “All right,” she whispered.

  But she didn’t seem all right. She looked so hurt and downtrodden that it crushed him.

  “At least we’re better off now than the last time we did this,” he ventured, trying to make them both feel better. “At least there’s that.”

  She gave a sad smile. “You mean you aren’t driving off angry, leaving me on the side of the road?”

  “Hold up! I didn’t leave you on the side of the road. I left you at your driveway.”

  She shrugged. “It was all the same to me.”

  “The details are important, though.”

  “They are . . . like the fact that I never appreciated you and realized what we had,” she said forlornly.

  Korey pursed his lips. He wasn’t getting sucked into that whirlpool of emotion again. He’d never get out of it. He started to turn to walk back toward his car but paused. “Look, I’ve gotta go. Maybe I’ll see you next week.”

  She frowned. “Next week?”

  “Yeah, I’m supposed to meet Clarissa for lunch.”

  “Lunch? Oh, I-I can make something for you guys,” Cynthia volunteered eagerly, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands. “Sandwiches or . . . or something nicer than that. Just let me know when you want to stop by. Just . . . just let me know. I’ll . . . I’ll . . .” Her words tapered off.

  “I will.” He waved. “See you around. Give your sister my congratulations.”

  “See . . . see you around,” she whispered.

  It took a great deal of effort, but he turned and walked away, putting one foot in front of the other, forcing himself not to look back.

  Epilogue

  “What are you doing in there?” Lauren asked as she frantically knocked on the bathroom door.

  Dawn rushed into the bridal suite, lifting the hem of her pale-gray silk bridesmaid gown. “She’s still in bathroom? The ceremony was supposed to start thirty minutes ago!”

  Lauren rolled her eyes. “I know that! I can read the clock on the wall. I’ve been trying to get her out of the bathroom forever!”

  “Is she sick . . . I mean, nauseous or something?”

  “I don’t know! I have no idea what’s wrong! She isn’t answering me!”

  “Damn it, we don’t have time for this!” Dawn lamented. She tossed her bouquet of peonies and lilies of the valley onto the nearby king-size bed and stomped in her high heels over the plush carpet to the bathroom door. She stood beside her little sister and also started knocking. They banged their fists simultaneously, making it impossible to ignore them.

  “I know you hear us!” Dawn shouted. “Answer the damn door!”

  “What?” a voice inside the bathroom finally snapped.

  “It’s Dawn! Open up!”

  “Give me a few minutes! I’m . . . I’m getting myself together.”

  “Honey, we don’t have a few minutes,” Lauren said. “You’re already late. We have to put on your dress and get you downstairs now! Everyone’s waiting!”

  “Mama’s starting to get antsy, and you know how she gets!” Dawn said.

  Both sisters pressed their ears against the door, waiting for a reply, but heard nothing.

  “Are you coming out?” Dawn asked.

  They waited again. Still nothing. Dawn and Lauren turned to each other and slumped against the door in defeat.

  The vows hadn’t even been exchanged yet, and it looked like today’s spring nuptials were off to an inauspicious start. The outdoor wedding had to be moved inside because of rain, though the forecast had predicted perfect blue skies. The buttercream icing on the tiered wedding cake was melting faster than the makeup on half of the attendees’ faces in the humidity and heat. And the minister was now squawking that he had another wedding later that afternoon and he would have to leave if the ceremony didn’t start in the next hour.

  Considering how long the bride had waited to finally get her man, none of the sisters could understand her sudden cold feet.

  “Cindy, please come out!” Lauren pleaded.

  “What the hell is going on?” Stephanie yelled as she strode into the room, dragging the flower girl, Zoe, behind her. Flower petals trailed behind them down the hall and onto the bridal suite carpet. A wreath of rosebuds fell into the toddler’s eyes. “The string quartet has played the same four songs five times now. There’s only but so much stalling we can do down there!”

  “Cindy won’t come out of the bathroom,” Dawn explained, pointing to the door.

  “What?” Stephanie crossed her arms over her chest. “Enough of this! I’m going to take care of her.”

  Lauren and Dawn’s eyes widened.

  “Come over here and stand next to your auntie, sweetheart,” Lauren said, taking Zoe’s little hand and steering her to her side as Stephanie stalked across the room.

  “Better cover those little ears,” Dawn warned out of the side of her mouth.

  “Cynthia Nicole Gibbons, if you don’t get your yellow ass out of that bathroom right now,” Stephanie said through clenched teeth, “put on the gown you’ve got hanging up out here, and come downstairs, I’m going to tell Korey not to bother with your loopy ass anymore! He should just save himself the time and frustration. You obviously don’t want to marry him!”

  The three sisters breathed in audibly when they finally heard the door unlock. It swung open, revealing Cynthia, who stood in the doorway in her underwear and champagne-colored satin heels.

  “You better not say a damn thing to him or it’s me and you, Steph!” she threatened, pointing her finger into Stephanie’s face.

  “What difference does it make? If you’re so eager to marry him, then why the hell are you barricaded in the damn bathroom?” Stephanie shouted, shoving Cynthia’s hand away.

  Cynthia winced. “Because . . . because what if . . . what if Korey doesn’t want to marry me?”

  “What?” the sisters all cried in unison.

  Stephanie groaned. “Seriously, we don’t have time for this, Cindy!”

  “What do you mean what if he doesn’t want to marry you?” Dawn asked in exasperation. “The man has been downstairs for the past half an hour staring at his watch, wondering why you’re taking so long!”

  “But what if he doesn’t want to stay married?” Cynthia walked across the room and sat down on the bed. She dropped her head into her hands. “What if he walks away again? I’ve messed up with him so many times. And you all know I’m not perfect!”

  “That’s for sure,” Stephanie muttered.

  “What if I do it again? God, what if he leaves me again?” She closed her eyes and threw back her head. “I don’t think I can take it a third time!”

  Cynthia’s sisters sat on the be
d beside her. Stephanie tugged Zoe onto her lap while Dawn rubbed Cynthia’s back soothingly.

  It had taken almost a year to earn back Korey’s love and even longer to earn his trust, but Cynthia had managed to do it. They had started off slow with their “strictly co-parenting” routine. Korey and Jared had come to Cynthia and Clarissa’s house once every couple of weeks for dinner, and the four sat through what were initially strained conversations over meat loaf and mashed potatoes that eventually became fun nights filled with food and joking. One evening Clarissa and Jared accidentally forgot to mention that they couldn’t make it to dinner (though Cynthia still wondered whether it was really an accident and if the kids were trying to set them up). Korey and Cynthia ended up eating alone. They had such a good time that night that they started to enjoy more and more dinners alone when neither of them had a date and the kids were busy. Then they started to take a few evening walks, much like they had when they were teenagers. During those strolls, Korey got to know the new and improved Cynthia Gibbons, and the coldness that had set into his heart gradually thawed. After a dinner and late-night movie on the couch last August, one thing led to another and Korey and Cynthia ended up spending the night together. A few months later, Korey popped the question—to Cynthia’s great shock. Now it looked like that shock had morphed into paranoia that he was going to change his mind and dump her.

  “Look, Cindy,” Lauren began, “there are no guarantees in any of this, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a chance, honey. You’ve wanted this man for . . . for basically . . . forever, right? Together you’ve been through three marriages and twenty years between you to get to this point. You keep being drawn back to one another. Why? Because you love each other! So—”

  “So just put on the damn dress, grab your bouquet, and let’s do this! Come on!” Stephanie said, scooting Zoe off her lap and rising to her feet. “We’re late!”

  Cynthia ignored her sister and continued to shake her head. “When he left me the first time, I became a cold, heartless bitch. When he left me the second time, I was devastated and didn’t know how I would make it through it. What if—”

  “Then don’t mess up,” Dawn said firmly. “Finally be the girl you always wanted to be. Be the woman he’s always wanted you to be! Leave that cold, heartless bitch behind for good.”