A Better Place

by Jennifer Van Wyk

  As soon as we pull up to the church, a young gentleman steps up to James’s vehicle and offers to park his car for him. When we were at Tess and Barrett’s the other night for supper, the night that will forever live in lip-tint infamy, they told me the wedding was a little more formal. Apparently, Emily’s fiancé comes from a very well-off family and had some specific requests for the wedding and reception. Valet service must be one of them.

  After handing him the keys, James comes around and helps me out of the vehicle, tucking my arm in his. As soon as we get inside, a young lady takes our jackets. James removes his phone from his jacket pocket, flips it around, and aims the screen in our direction.

  “I need a picture with my girl before everyone else tries to steal you.”

  My smile is so wide it probably looks borderline creepy, but I can’t tame it. After several pictures, because apparently he needed to make sure he’s got a good one, he bends down and takes one of him kissing my cheek.

  Lily comes out of a side room dressed in a short, strapless, fitted satin dress. A wide champagne-colored sash is wrapped around her waist, secured with a large rose the same color. Her hair is done up in a low chignon, full of curls. Her eyes are smoky, cheeks a slight blush to them, and her lips a shiny light pink. She has on tall black stilettos, and I cringe, wondering how her feet are going to survive the night.

  “Carly! Oh my gosh! You look absolutely gorgeous!” she gushes, leaning in before giving me a hug.

  “Sweetheart, have you seen yourself? You are beautiful!”

  “Thank you, but I fear my feet will hate me in just a few hours.” We both look down at the offending shoes and I wince.

  “More than likely, yes. Did you bring something to change into?”

  “Yeah, Emily gave us some ballet flats for the reception.”

  “Oh I’m glad. I think you’ll need them.”

  “Jack looks so good. He’s been hanging out, watching us take pictures.”

  “If Maggie looks even half as amazing as you do, I doubt he’ll let her out of his sight all night.”

  A loud voice clears next to us, gaining our attention.

  “Hey, Lily Bug. Remember me?” James says.

  “Hey, Dad. You look nice.”

  He guffaws. “Nice? That’s all I get?” he asks her, gesturing to himself.

  “Oh, whatever, Dad. You know you look better than nice.”

  “Still, it’d be nice to hear.” He fake-pouts, and she punches him in the shoulder before hugging him.

  One of the things that has made me fall so hard for James is his playful attitude but also how much he loves his daughter. I love watching them interact and listening to the stories they tell.

  “You look really handsome, Dad.”

  He lays a hand on the side of her neck. “And you, my Lily, look beautiful. Save a dance for me tonight?”

  She blushes lightly. “Thanks, Dad. And of course. We gotta show Carly how it’s done, you know?”

  I furrow my brows in confusion but don’t ask what they mean. Knowing James, he has some choreographed dance he plans to do.

  The wedding is stunning, and even not knowing the bride or groom brings tears to my eyes. James’s arm wraps around me tightly through the entire ceremony, his other hand reaching across the front of us to hold my own.

  As Emily and Lucas are lighting their unity candle, James leans over to me and whispers, “One day.”

  Goose bumps erupt through my body, and I have to suck in a breath and clench my thighs together. I look over at him, his eyes hooded as he looks down at me. I bite my lip, and he reaches up and releases it with his thumb.

  “Mine,” he murmurs.

  After the wedding, we walk across the street to the reception hall. Hors d’oeuvres are passed around on trays as people mingle.

  James makes the rounds, his hand never leaving mine, introducing me to so many family members I feel like my head could explode.

  For so long, it was just Jack and I. Even when I was with Vince, we didn’t have family around. He wasn’t close with his parents and he, too, was an only child. To say the onslaught of so many people around is overwhelming is an understatement.

  James, being James, sees it before I have the chance to even try to hide my freak-out. He sits us down at a table with his parents, placing a glass of wine in front of me and kissing me on the cheek.

  His parents are two of the kindest people I’ve ever met. They welcome me into the fold so seamlessly it feels as if I’ve been a part of their family for years. I see James take out his phone and send off a quick text, and a minute later Jack is sitting down on the other side of me.

  “Hey, Mom. You look really pretty,” he tells me.

  “Jack, meet my parents, Deb and George Cole. Mom, Dad, this is Jack, Carly’s son.”

  George stands up and shakes Jack’s hand over the table, but Deb has other intentions.

  “Get over here, my boy,” she says.

  He sheepishly stands up and walks over to her then bends down close.

  She takes him by the face. “It’s good to meet you, Jack. James has told us so much about you. And so has Maggie. Welcome to the family, kiddo.”

  He nods his head, not saying anything in return, then before he can do anything about it, she pulls him in for a hug only worthy of a grandmother.

  He steps away and starts to returns to his seat, but not before Tess comes over with her camera ready, Lily in tow.

  “Picture time, y’all!”

  She takes several shots: some of the four of us, some of just James and me, Jack and me, James and Lily, and also some with her parents.

  I’ve never felt like part of a family.

  Until now.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  James

  After dinner, toasts, cutting the cake and the first dances, they open the reception up to everyone else.

  I stand up and reach down to Carly, not saying a word. She places her small hand in mine. I walk her into the middle of the dance floor and pull her body in close as we begin to sway slowly.

  “Having fun?”

  “I am. Your family, they’re amazing, James. They’ve been really kind.”

  “I’m glad. They seem just as smitten with you as I am.”

  “You’re smitten?” she teases.

  “Oh yeah, baby. That’s one way to put it.”

  “Hmm,” she hums and brings my face down to hers for a kiss. Her fingernails drag along the short hairs on the back of my head, and it feels so good, having her hands on me anywhere.

  We dance several songs before my dad steps in, asking if he can dance with her. She smiles brightly and steps into his arms immediately. If it were anyone else, I’d protest like I said I would, but seeing my dad and Carly dance together only tugs at my heart.

  I take the moment to grab another drink from the bar. After getting a glass of beer, I start to make my way over to our table but am interrupted by a voice I haven’t heard in almost twenty years, a voice I didn’t miss for almost every single day of those years.

  I spin around, hoping not to, but knowing who I’m going to see.

  “Sugarplum.”

  And there it is, the most sickening nickname in all of history, said from the voice of someone who I never want to see again.

  “Nicole.”

  “Good to see you,” she says, smiling as she extends her arms to me as if she’s going to hug me.

  I don’t return the statement. Rather I take a step backward and curl my lip. So many thoughts go through my head, but the first one is I don’t have any desire to be within a football field’s length of her, let alone allow her to touch me.

  “Don’t,” I tell her and start to walk away.

  She reaches out and grabs my arm.

  I turn my head and look at her, yanking my arm back before I storm away from her and into an empty hallway just outside the reception hall, knowing she’ll follow me.

  As soon as we’re away from the crowd, I stand facing he
r, my arms crossed over my chest.

  “I can’t believe you. We are not doing this here. Not tonight. Not on what’s supposed to be Emily’s happiest day. Get out.”

  “Get out? Why? Don’t I have the right to be here?”

  “Are you kidding me right now? Why would you have any right? Why are you even here?”

  She trails her disgusting fingernails across my arm, pushing her fake boobs out as she presses in close to me.

  “She’s my niece, James,” she says quietly in a voice I’m sure she thinks is sexy. It’s not. It actually makes my dick shrink up and my balls damn near disappear.

  “Don’t,” I warn her, taking another step back and grabbing hold of her hand to push her away from me. I don’t even care if it’s with too much force. I want her away from me. Her touch literally churns my stomach.

  She takes another step forward, ignoring my demand, and looks quickly beyond my shoulder. I scrunch my eyebrows, about ready to ask her what the hell she’s doing, when she attaches herself to me like a damn octopus. She presses her lips against mine and wraps one leg around me. I push her away at the contact but not quite soon enough.

  “Is there a problem here?” I hear Carly’s soft, sweet voice say from behind me. The look on her face so heartbroken; obviously, she’s only seen, not heard.

  “Who are you? Interrupt much? I’m trying to have a moment with my husband.” Nicole has a snappy sneer in her voice, her nose scrunched up as she looks in Carly’s direction.

  “U-um,” Carly starts to stammer.

  “My girlfriend. She’s my girlfriend. I suggest you leave. You’re pretty damn good at it, if I remember right.”

  The difference between Nicole and Carly couldn’t be more night and day. I once saw Nicole as pretty, but the years don’t seem to have been good for her. Her hair is long and stringy, her bright yellow dress is not only one of the most obnoxious colors I’ve ever seen, but is tight in all the wrong places. “James, that’s no way to speak to your wife.”

  “Ex. Ex-wife, thank God.”

  She waves her hand in a circle, dismissing my remark like I’m talking gibberish. “We have a daughter together.”

  “We what?” I scoff. “We don’t have a daughter together. I have a daughter. You have nothing,” I remind her.

  “James!” she shouts and stomps her foot. Clearly, she’s not grown up in the nineteen years we’ve been apart.

  “Classy,” Carly says, giggling.

  “Excuse me?” Nicole demands, her voice rising dangerously close to causing a scene.

  “I said,” Carly says, turning fully to Nicole, “classy.”

  “Who do you think you are?”

  “I’m sorry, did you misunderstand when James introduced me as his girlfriend?”

  “Girlfriend? Girlfriend,” she mocks.

  “That’s right. Girlfriend. And from what I understand, you haven’t been around in almost two decades.”

  If I hadn’t already fallen in love with her, I would have in that moment. She brushed off Nicole’s venom so quickly and easily, dismissing her and believing every truth I’ve told her. I don’t think I’ve ever been more turned on. In. My. Life.

  “I don’t see how any of that is your business. Besides, you think you can step in when James has been pining away after me for all this time? You think I don’t know what he’s been up to? I’ve always known. And now he’s fulfilling the dream we created together. His restaurant? That was us. We were going to do that together. Why do you think he never remarried? It certainly isn’t because he was waiting around for you. He was waiting for me to come back.”

  “This is where you’re wrong. See this man right here? He’s mine.”

  Now I’m the most turned on I’ve ever been in my life.

  “I love him. He loves me. He loves my son, and I love his daughter. The girl you abandoned? She’s his, and she’s amazing. And you? You’re nothing to them. But me? Well I’m…”

  “Everything. She’s everything to us,” I speak for her and repeat what I’ve spoken so many times.

  Carly looks at me and smiles sweetly before turning back to Nicole.

  “Leave. You’re not wanted here. Not by James. And I’m sure not by Emily and the rest of the family either.”

  “Is this…”

  I pull her flush to me and trail my fingers down her cheek, my eyes never leaving Carly’s. “What I want? Yeah. She’s everything I want.” My eyes never leave Carly’s, heat unfurling in my core.

  “This isn’t over, James.”

  “Oh yeah, it really is.”

  Nicole turns on her heel and stomps away, and we both burst out laughing.

  I sober quickly, praying that none of Nicole’s words got stuck. “You know she’s full of bullshit, right?”

  “I know,” she says unconvincingly.

  “Beautiful, every single thing I’ve told you is truth. The restaurant? It was always my dream. Not hers. She wanted no part of it. Have I been pining away after her all these years? Hell. No. I mean that. I never found anyone I wanted more with. Until you. You changed it all. The reason I never moved on was because you were my only chance at moving on, and I simply hadn’t met you yet.”

  She looks between my eyes as a wide smile spreads across her face. “I really love you. You know that, right?”

  “And I love you. Forever. Now, dance with me?” I ask her.

  “Always,” she tells me.

  And for the rest of the evening, we laugh and we dance. Maggie manages to help Jack remove the two left feet he claimed to have, and the rest of my nieces and nephews went back and forth between dancing, eating cake, and playing cards at the tables. Everyone is having a great time, drama now gone and over with, and thankfully not made much of.

  I even show Carly how it’s done according to Lily and me, entertaining her with our insane dance moves. Really, it’s just a dance Lily choreographed for us when she was ten years old that’s a combination of moves worthy of an 80s’ pop star, but hey, we had to entertain ourselves somehow in Michigan winters when she was growing up. Snow day dance parties seemed like the perfect way. It’s not my fault I grew up in the decade of the best dancing and taught them to my daughter. I reach down and pick Lily up under her legs and flip her over my arm, and she spins away, taking over the show for a bit. When it’s my turn, I slide across the dance floor on my knees, something that made Lily crack up when she was little, and Carly’s cheers explode through the crowd. By the time we’re finished, the crowd had made a circle around us, but it isn’t about us. We pull in the bride and groom, and thus begins the rest of the guests joining us. At one point, I saw Barrett doing the Carlton, and Tess leading everyone in the best rendition of Thriller.

  I don’t remember the last time I’ve ever been this happy. And by the smile that’s reaching Carly’s beautiful brown eyes that are sparkling underneath the twinkle lights of the reception hall, or the flushed look on her face when she squeals in laughter as my dad spins her around the dance floor, I don’t think she’s ever been this happy either.

  It’s been a week since the wedding, and I’m about ready to shut the lights off at Balance, head upstairs, and get cleaned up. I’ve seen Carly every day since the ceremony, and tonight I have no plans on switching that up.

  Just as I get to the front door, it opens and, low and behold, who walks in… Nicole.

  “Can we talk?” she asks as soon as she steps inside.

  “How did you find me?”

  She shrugs her shoulders. “Asked around.”

  “You’re a real piece of work.”

  “We need to talk.”

  “No, we really don’t.”

  “You think I’m leaving? After the way your girl treated me at Em’s wedding?”

  “Don’t. Don’t talk about Carly, and don’t call Emily Em, like you have any right to use her nickname after all these years.”

  “What happened to you? Carly sure made you cranky.”

  “No, you do not get to say
shit about Carly, or how my behavior is. You don’t have any idea who I am anymore.”

  “And I’m trying to fix that, James. Don’t you see?”

  I walk through the restaurant, turning off lights, putting away tools, trying to ignore the wart that seems to have just grown on my backside.

  I walk into the office, flip on the light, and whirl around to face her.

  “I’m here. You want to talk. So talk.”

  “James. You’re not exactly acting very nice.”

  “Nice? Nice would have not been ambushing me at Emily’s wedding. Nice would have been you keeping your talons inside when you saw I was with another woman. A woman who I love. Nice would have been you staying away, for good, just like you did for the past nineteen years.”

  She flinches, but I continue. “You know, a part of me has always been curious about what happened to you,” I tell her. Not hiding a smidgen of my hatred for the woman who tore our lives apart.

  “I know,” she says, lowering her eyes. A move that used to turn me on. How she remembers that is beyond me, but apparently, she’s pulling out all the stops tonight.

  “You know?” I laugh humorlessly. “You know… what exactly? What the hell is it that you think you know, Nicole?”

  “I know that I left, and it was an awful thing to do. But I also know that I made a huge mistake, and I want to make it up to you.”

  “You want to make it up to me,” I say in a monotone voice that I can only pray she picks up on.

  She nods her head and looks up at me through her what have to be fake eyelashes and overly done makeup. The barely-there makeup that Carly wears, allowing her natural beauty to shine through, can make me hard in the snap of a finger. But this? What Nicole is presenting to me? Nothing but ugliness. I’ve never been so grateful that Lily takes after me and Tess in the looks department (and our hearts) than in this moment, right here, staring at what could have been her future. Our future.

  “How is it you plan to… make it up to me… as you put it?” I ask.

  “James, I love you.”

  I can’t help it. I laugh. I laugh hard, actually. Is it rude? Probably. Do I give a shit? Nope. Not one single flying crazy monkey. As far as I’m concerned, she’s the wicked witch, just ready to take flight.