Rebelonging (Unbelonging, Book 2)

by Sabrina Stark

  "No way," Amber said. "I'm here to see you."

  "Why?" I asked.

  "Because you're gonna need a bridesmaid, right?" She held up her arms. "Ta-da! Here I am! I'm thinking of this as my audition."

  I stared at her. "What?"

  "Yeah, I mean it's only a matter of time, right? With you and Lawton getting so serious, I'm totally hearing wedding bells, and I want to throw my name into the hat before all the slots are filled."

  I couldn't help but laugh. "Actually, it's little premature, don't you think?"

  "I am not," she said. "I'm totally mature. And besides, I throw a seriously wicked party. You've got to pick me. I mean, c'mon, you don't have any sisters, right?"

  "No. but I do have a best friend."

  "Fine. She can stand too. I don't care."

  "Wow," I said in a deadpan voice, "that's really nice of you."

  She flashed me a grin. "Thanks. And just so you know, when I marry Bishop, I'll let you be a bridesmaid too."

  My jaw dropped. "You're dating Bishop?"

  "Well no. Not yet. But c'mon. After you and Lawton get married, I figure it's only a matter of time, right? Especially with us being such good friends."

  "Who?"

  "You and me."

  I decided to let that one pass. "But seriously," I said, "I'm not even engaged."

  In spite of Lawton's innuendos in the hospital, it hadn't come up, which I told myself was just fine with me. Sure, he was my dream guy. And sure, I never wanted to let him go. But that was another girl I didn't want to be – the one who moved too fast when the guy wasn't quite ready.

  "So what?" Amber said. "You totally will be." She looked around and lowered her voice. "My parents are friends with this jeweler, and I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but somebody we know – meaning this totally hot guy, not that I'm supposed to notice now that he's off the market – anyway, he just paid gobs of money for the biggest rock this jeweler had ever seen."

  I stared, speechless. What was I supposed to say to something like that?

  Fortunately, I was spared the trouble of saying anything, because suddenly I heard a shrill female voice call out from the other side of the restaurant. "You!"

  I turned around to see Brittney tottering toward us on those obscenely high heels of hers. Co-workers or not, we never spoke to each other, except when absolutely necessary. And the times we did speak, most of our words weren't exactly fit for public consumption, as Keith had warned me countless times.

  Brittney elbowed her way between me and Amber. She gave Amber a long, scathing look and said, "What are you doing here?"

  Amber tossed a long strand of blonde hair over her bare shoulder. "I'm here to see Chloe, not that it's any of your business."

  Brittney's eyes narrowed to slits. She whirled to face me. "This is all your fault."

  "My fault?" I said.

  "Yes, your fault. First you steal my boyfriend, then you steal my best friend!"

  I glanced at Amber. "Hey, I hardly know her!"

  "You do too!" Amber said. "By the way, I look good in aquamarine in case you haven't picked your colors yet."

  "See!" Brittney told me. "And I know you've been stealing my customers too. That Bolger guy, he won't even let me wait on him anymore."

  "Yeah," I said. "Because you keep calling him fat."

  Amber reached out and tapped Brittney on the shoulder.

  Brittney whirled to face her. "What?"

  "Do you know what the specials are?" Amber said.

  Brittney glared at her. "What specials?"

  "Duh," Amber said. "We're in a restaurant. You're the waitress. Seems like an easy question."

  Brittney's jaw tightened and her nostrils flared. "How's this for special?" she said, reaching out to shove Amber with both hands.

  Amber stumbled backward, and caught herself against the waitress stand. Her eyes narrowed, and she barreled into Brittney, knocking her back into the small crowd that had gathered to see what the commotion was.

  The crowd shifted, and Brittney lost her balance, tumbling backward onto a table filled with dirty dishes. Her long blonde hair flopped into the remnants of what looked like blueberry pancakes topped with blueberry syrup.

  With a string of profanity, Brittney toppled off the table and hit the floor. A split-second later, she dove, hard, for Amber's legs. Squealing, Amber toppled over, clutching at the necktie of the man standing nearest to her.

  He lost his balance and toppled over too, landing halfway between Amber and Brittney, who dove for each other with the ferocity of rabid squirrels fighting over the last nut.

  By now, the crowd was going nuts, with the woman watching in wide-eyed horror, and the guys cheering them on, except for the guy with the necktie, who took a heel to the gut, thanks to Brittney's flailing legs.

  Frantically, I glanced around, looking for Keith, a phone, something. But what I found was Shaggy, standing there with his cell phone in his hand and a giant grin spread across his face.

  "Sweeet!" he said.

  "Oh for cripe's sake," I said, continuing to scan the restaurant.

  I caught sight of Lawton, strolling in the front door. He stopped short at the sight of Brittney and Amber rolling around on the floor. I followed his gaze.

  When a sticky blue stand of Brittney's hair whacked Amber in the face, Amber grabbed a fallen squirt-bottle of ketchup and aimed it at Brittney's face. Brittney shoved Amber aside just in time, and a geyser of ketchup streamed upward, raining down on both of them and pelting the nearest spectators with tiny red splatters.

  By this time, both of the girls were covered in food-goo from the tops of their formerly blonde heads to the tips of their decidedly non-sensible shoes.

  I heard a male voice off to my left say, "Somehow, I thought this would be sexier."

  "Got that right," another male voice said.

  And then, I heard a third male voice. It was Keith, who bellowed out, "What the hell is going on here?"

  He waded in, separating the two girls amid a chorus of booing from the male spectators. I felt a hand on my elbow, and looked to see Lawton standing next to me, an amused smile playing across his face.

  "So," he said in a low, amused voice. "How was your day, honey?"

  I glanced at Brittney and Amber, who'd been hustled to opposite sides of a long booth for eight. "Eh, same ol', same ol'," I said.

  Amber's eyes lit up. "Lawton!" she called. "Yoohoo! Over here!"

  Slowly, he turned to look.

  "Have you heard?" she said. "I'm gonna be a bridesmaid!"

  Lawton's face lost all its expression. He glanced at me. I didn't know what to say. He turned back to Amber, and his gaze narrowed.

  "Oh c'mon," she said. "It's not like it's a big secret or anything."

  Lawton looked down toward the floor. He gave a slow shake of his head. And then, he turned to face me. He reached out, taking both of my hands in his. Slowly, he sank to his knees.

  I was having a hard time catching my breath. All around us, the restaurant had grown utterly silent.

  "Chloe," he said, gazing up at me. "This isn't exactly the way I had it planned, but it doesn't change the way I feel. I love you more than life itself."

  "Lawton, noooo!" Brittney yelled.

  "Chloe," Lawton said. "Will you marry me?"

  Epilogue

  Three Months Later

  The day of the catfight was my last day waitressing – and not because I said yes a thousand times over. Lawton was my dream guy, and he was really mine. My heart said yes, and my mouth followed – no overthinking, no hesitation, and no more pretending.

  As far as waitressing, I didn't quit. I was fired spectacularly amid ketchup splatters and pancake goo. Officially, it was for inciting a riot in the dining area. Unofficially, I'm pretty sure it was for calling Keith a pompous dipshit when he told me that I'd be the one paying for all catfight-related damages.

  As for Grandma, she quit her fake mailing job the very next week. In her h
andwritten letter of resignation, she mentioned a new job, one that pays ten times better. She's still doing mailings, but instead of kittens and cooking supplies, these new flyers feature punching bags, sparring gloves, and other martial arts fitness gear.

  Her favorite so far? Nun-chucks. She bought a pair the very next week and uses them for cleaning her rugs.

  Coincidentally, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, Loretta had been fired from her job too, not that she'd told anyone. The rumor? Her colleagues found her impossible to work with. Go figure.

  Fortunately for everyone, she found a new job to replace her old one, something that's enabled her to keep the house and Grandma's cottage, but also keeps her travelling all over the country. She's now the official food critic for an obscure publication dedicated to exotic cuisine.

  The pay is good, but from what Josh says, it's not turning out quite the way Loretta hoped. Her editor, a mysterious recluse named John Livingston, chooses all the featured food. And his tastes are, well, let's just say, a bit on the eccentric side.

  So far, Loretta has tasted fried rat, bat soup, maggot cheese, and my personal favorite, codfish sperm – not that I'd ever try such a thing. But hey, at least it's not oyster gravy, right?

  I finally learned how Keith was able to tamper with my phone. According to Josie, a random building inspection turned up two hidden cameras – one in the restaurant's locker area and one in Keith's office.

  The way it looked, it was the first camera that gave Keith a sneak peek at my locker combination, but it was the second camera that gave him a whole lot of grief. The first camera he knew about, but the second was a mystery to everyone, including the restaurant's owners. No one will say specifically what kind of footage it captured, but let's just say I wasn't the only person fired that month.

  These days, Keith is working as the midnight manager at Sal's Shrimp Shack in the seedier part of town, where the only thing more fishy than the food are the late-night patrons. As for Brittney, she's gone to Hollywood, hoping to capitalize on her instant fame, resulting from a certain catfight video that went totally viral, just like Shaggy predicted.

  And that wasn't the only video that went viral. Shaggy's footage of Lawton's proposal gave Shaggy over a million hits in the first month alone, and made him a small fortune when he sold the video stills to tabloids worldwide. He now has his own cell phone, his own internet channel, and his own locksmith – just in case Jen decides to change the locks again.

  Just as Lawton predicted, Bishop is growing on me. But that didn't stop me from giving him just a little payback for all the hassle he'd given me in those hectic weeks leading up to the engagement.

  Call me a sap, but I did agree to let Amber stand in the wedding after all. I simply couldn't resist, and not because she wouldn't take no for an answer. Mostly, it was because the idea of Amber chasing Bishop from one side of the reception to the other was just a little too hard to resist.

  True, they didn't actually stand up together, with Bishop as Lawton's best man, and Erika as my maid of honor. Still, Amber gave Bishop one heck of a chase – not that it did any good. Turns out, he's a one-girl kind of guy, and his one girl couldn't be more different than Amber in every way.

  As far as the Parkers, they're still missing in action. Maybe they'll show up. Maybe they won't. But one thing's for sure, they'd be smart to look over their shoulders.

  The word on the street is that some very unhappy people are out looking for them, and not just to collect some money. Apparently, those certain people don't take too kindly to delinquent deadbeats beating up on their unique breed of collection personnel.

  As for me, I've never been happier. I've got the man I love, who loves me right back. And as far as my career, it's on a definite upswing. These days, I'm using my accounting degree nonstop. As it turns out, managing a billion-dollar business is no small task, especially when you're never quite sure who you can trust.

  But Lawton trusts me, and I trust him. And we have no more secrets, including the fact that my hunch was correct about his oath to give karma a helping hand. So together, we watch each other's backs, along with all those other more interesting parts. The way I see it – and a certain little dog would agree – a girl couldn't ask for more.

  The End

  Coming in Late July 2014

  Illegal Fortunes

  The Only Thing More Dangerous than the Bad Boy You Left Behind is the Man He's Become…

  If she was such a good fortune-teller, she should've seen it coming. But part-time Tarot-reader Selena Moon is as surprised as anyone when Jim Bishop, the bad boy she left behind, returns from who-knows-where to reclaim the one girl he could never forget.

  Torn between her new life in the South and family obligations in the North, Selena has no time for love, romance, or any other complication. And who can blame her? The first guy to claim her heart, along with her innocence, spoiled her for the safer, easier guys who came after.

  Armed, dangerous, and still smarting from Selena's teary rejection years earlier, Bishop vowed never to return to the city of his youth, where he excelled at two things – getting into trouble and making a mess of things, particularly his relationship the only girl he ever loved.

  She's fearful of repeating the past. He's never been afraid of anything – until now. Because with murder and mayhem surrounding Selena, fate, along with an unwelcome rival, might steal her away before he finally has the chance to win her back for now and always.

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  From the Author

  Thanks so much for reading. Also, thanks in advance to those special readers who take the time to leave a review. I read and appreciate every one. Romance readers truly are the best!

  © Copyright 2014 by Sabrina Stark. All rights reserved. This book and any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.