“Oh, Sawyer, you’re too kind,” a woman’s voice said. “I really don’t deserve it.”
Isabella stuck her finger down her throat. “Gag me.”
“No seriously, I’m a grown man,” a man’s voice said. Without question, it belonged to Sawyer. “I can’t hold those actions from so long ago against you at this late date. Though there was the whole vibrator thing...”
Isabella’s ears perked up. “What the f—” she mouthed at Clementine. She tried to strain to see exactly who this woman was he was so obviously charming.
“You mean when it went off in that girl’s backpack? Were you there then?”
“Was I there?” he said. “I’m the one who did it.”
The woman started to laugh. “Oh, my God, that was you?”
“Amelie, I’m the one who planted that. But I put it in the wrong bag,” he said. “It was supposed to be in your satchel.”
“Amelie?” Bella hissed. “Amelie?”
The waitress came to take their orders and Isabella shooed her away with a lacerating glare.
“Bell, I think you need to calm down for a second,” Clementine said. “I knew this was a bad idea.”
“Calm down?” Isabella said. “Are you mad? I will calm down over my cold, dead body. Just you watch. You haven’t seen me calm until you see this.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sawyer couldn’t believe he was sitting here having what was supposed to be a romantic dinner with the one and only original mean girl, Amelie Baumgartner. And enjoying himself immensely.
“So after university, I followed in my father’s footsteps and studied law,” she said, “and I became a barrister. Which is how I ended up in Monaforte—my company has me working on a case that will likely keep me here for the next year. And I don’t know a soul but for Gabriella, so it’s been such a treat to meet you. Or should I say re-meet you. And thank you for being such a lovely, understanding man.”
Sawyer laughed to himself. If only it was Isabella saying that rather than Amelie. Not that he wasn’t fine dining with Amelie—she really seemed to be a nice woman and was genuinely repentant about her youthful callousness. But the whole time he was talking to Amelie he was thinking only of Isabella, wishing he could have another knock-down, drag-out fight already so they could get on to the make-up sex. Even though the chances of getting to that phase were shrinking by the day. His efforts to reach out to her had fallen flat; he didn’t even have her phone number and was trying to contact her via Clementine instead. It never helps to have a gatekeeper blocking access. Especially of the cockblocker variety.
“Amelie, I just wanted to say it’s been so much fun getting to know the adult version of you tonight.”
“Not nearly as fun as it has been for me,” she said. “It’s as if we’ve known each other forever.”
“Which we have, in a way,” Sawyer said. “Only you’ve gone from being someone I used to know to someone I’d like to get to know.”
“Oh, Sawyer, you’re too kind,” Amelie said. “I really don’t deserve it.”
“No, seriously, I’m a grown man,” Sawyer said. “I can’t hold those actions from so long ago against you at this late date. Though there was the whole vibrator thing...”
“You mean when it went off in that girl’s backpack? Were you there then?”
“Was I there?” he said. “I’m the one who did it.”
The woman started to laugh. “Oh, my God, that was you?”
“Amelie, I’m the one who planted that. But I put it in the wrong bag,” he said. “It was supposed to be in your satchel.”
Amelie looked at him, her mouth open wide in surprise. “For me? A gift?”
Sawyer laughed. “Yeah, that was going to be the gift that keeps on giving. I wanted you to have a taste of your own medicine. I figured maybe it would get you to finally stop being such a bully.”
“How’d you get it into that girl’s backpack?”
“I broke into the wrong girl’s locker. Complete idiocy on my part. I’d planned it out so well. I felt awful when I learned it didn’t end up in yours.”
“Gee, thanks,” she said with a wry smile. “Whatever happened to that girl? I remember she just disappeared.”
“I’ll tell you what happened to her,” a quiet yet very angry-sounding voice said just past a thicket of vines and orchids.
Sawyer looked up from the table to see a clearly enraged Isabella, who would have been breathing fire from her nostrils if only she could.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Bella!” Sawyer said, looking a bit confused. “Speak of the devil!”
“Don’t Bella me, Sawyer Patterson,” Isabella said, her eyebrows pressed so firmly together they’d practically become one. “And the only devil anyone’s talking about is you.”
“Huh?”
“First of all, you’re, you’re here—” she spread her arms out wide.
Sawyer squinted at her. “Yes...”
“You didn’t even let the sheets get cold before you were out gallivanting around with, with, with this, of all things!” She pointed an accusatory finger at Amelie, who leaned back, cowering away from Bella’s ire.
“How dare you be so insensitive to me?” Bella continued.
Sawyer tried to get up so that he could see Isabella more completely, obscured as she was through the tangle of vines and flowers.
“Bella, why don’t we just leave and let them finish their meal,” Clementine said.
“Why don’t you just let me speak my piece and not interrupt me?” Isabella cast a glare at her good friend.
Clementine’s jaw dropped.
On some very distantly removed level of rational thinking, Isabella knew she was losing her shit in a completely inappropriate way, but she couldn’t stop herself. She was thinking on a reptilian level right now and the only thing that reptile wanted to do was squeeze the life out of that miserable woman dining across from Sawyer. Amelie Baumgartner. How dare he!
“Isabella, I think there might be some misunderstanding here,” Sawyer said.
“Oooh, no,” she said. “Everything is abundantly clear. First, you bed hop like a damned flea. But then, you do it with my nemesis. The bitchiest female on the face of the planet. Was this some sort of sick revenge? Or part three of your master plan to shame me till you break my spirit?”
“Oh, God, Princess—”
“Don’t you princess me. So did you already have this witch on speed dial? Or did you unearth her, maybe hunt her down on Facebook, just to show me you could one-up me?”
“Isabella, this was all just a weird coincidence,” Sawyer said, trying to speak but having a hard time over Bella’s protestations. “I was just meeting Gabriella’s friend for dinner. I had no idea who she was. But look—it’s all good now!”
Isabella stopped for a second to shoot a laser glare at Amelie.
“I’m sure it’s perfectly good, Sawyer. Did you hook up with this one too? I bet she’s easy peasy—probably didn’t even wait for the egg rolls to arrive before she was groping you underneath the table.”
“Bella, really, sweetie, it’s time we leave,” Clementine said, trying again to interject some reasoning into the scene to no avail.
“You know, if I wasn’t a princess, I’d deck you.”
Clementine covered her mouth with her hand. “B, seriously, come on,” she said, pulling on her arm.
“I’m afraid you’ve got this all wrong, Isabella,” Sawyer said, shifting toward Amelie to protect her, in case Bella actually acted on her threat to slug the woman.
“The only thing I got wrong was succumbing to your dishonest efforts to sway my opinion of you. You were awful in boarding school, you were awful at my party, and you know what? You were particularly awful in bed.”
Clementine’s eyes opened wide. “Okay, then, looks like we’re just going to mosey along here.” She grabbed Bella’s purse and fumbled around till she found the key, locking her elbow with Bella’s and pulling her
toward the exit, Isabella muttering all sorts of inappropriate comments the entire way out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Well, that didn’t seem to go so well,” Amelie said.
Sawyer frowned, lost in thought.
“What was your first clue?”
“That one’s a live wire. You’d best be careful with her or you’ll end up shredded to bits.”
“Too late.”
Amelie sighed. “I’m sorry for whatever my role might have been in that scene. Clearly, I missed some of the backstory but obviously, there is a backstory.”
“It’s complicated,” Sawyer said.
“I’ve got all night.”
Sawyer looked at her, and for lack of a shoulder to cry on, he opened up with everything that happened with his princess.
~*~
“Well, that was quite the story,” Amelie said, taking a final bite of her food.
Sawyer nodded his head. “And the damnedest thing is I want to go running back to her right now and straighten everything out.”
“I’d suggest if you’re going to the palace, you might want to borrow one of those suits of armor they likely have propped up in a corner somewhere. Otherwise, you’re a dead man.”
“I don’t even have the luxury of going to the palace,” he said. “Don’t even have her contact information. All I’ve got is access to her best friend, and you saw how little influence she was wielding there.”
“So if you’ve got her number, then shoot her a text. See if she can help you. She looked a little freaked out by everything, so maybe she’d be willing to run interference if it would straighten everything out.”
“Hmmm...” Sawyer said. “Do you think that could work?”
“Put it this way: it couldn’t hurt. At this point, you are so deep in the doghouse that you’ll never be seen or heard from again, except for the occasional howling at the moon.”
“Would it be awfully rude if I ended our evening on this note?”
“After everything I’ve done, at the very least I owe you this one, Sawyer,” she said. “Go track down the friend and see if she’s got the keys to the palace.”
~*~
“Can I just say that that didn’t go as planned?” Clementine said as she unlocked Isabella’s Audi and started the car. “Do you really think that was such a good idea, raging on the guy and that stranger like that?”
“Oooh, no. She was no stranger,” Bella said. “That is the evil, horrible, no good, very bad source of my teenage angst. And she was on a date with Sawyer, who seemed perfectly happy to sleep with me a mere week ago and now he’s planning to bed that wicked she-devil? That is so not cool.”
“Maybe there was a misunderstanding, Bell,” Clem said. “After all, you really didn’t let the man speak.”
“There was no need to hear a word out of his mouth,” she said. “It was abundantly clear what was going on there.”
“Honestly, Isabella, the only thing clear there was that you completely lost your shit in front of those people, which isn’t such a great reflection on you. What happened to your whole take the high road, be Zen, let it go, all those philosophies you decided to adopt last week?”
Isabella frowned and remained silent in the passenger seat, mulling over that little contradiction.
“I tell you what,” Clementine said. “Why don’t you just come over to my place, we’ll order in—not Chinese—open a bottle of wine, and we can watch Titanic or something equally heartbreaking. I think you need a good cry, just to purge all of those fierce emotions that clearly have been building up inside of you.”
Isabella let out a huge sigh. “Well, it’s not like I want to go back to the palace and listen to Luca tell me all about his latest celebrity girlfriend.”
“Luca? Again? I thought he gave up on actresses.”
Bella shook her head. “I don’t know what his deal is but I swear if the girl isn’t on the cover of a tabloid, he doesn’t want her.”
“Well, it would be good if we could keep you off the cover of any tabloids, so let’s go try to calm you down so maybe we won’t have any more unpleasant scenes in restaurants. K?”
Bella nodded, a tear or two leaking out of the corners of her eyes. Maybe she was furious with Sawyer, but what she wasn’t ready to admit was that more than anger, she felt terribly hurt. She’d let that stupid man into her heart just a tiny bit, and dammit, she knew that was a huge mistake.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sawyer decided that texting would be far more effective than calling. Besides, chances were good Clementine had her phone on silent, not wanting anything to disrupt whatever heart-to-heart she might be having with the princess while trying to talk her off the ledge. He hoped that maybe she was giving her a good chewing out, but he figured in reality, no one reprimands a princess, except maybe a queen. Must be why they get so darned spoiled. And sassy. Damn, her, she had a hell of a mouth on her. Sawyer was almost turned on, listening to her turn downright tornadic with rage. He was like some Pavlovian dog: once he got a taste of that churning energy, he wanted more.
Hey, Clem, it’s me, Sawyer. Look, I know things looked pretty sketchy tonight with me being with Amelie. But I need you to help me out here. Trust me, you can even ask Gabriella, I was only doing her a favor by going out with her friend. I had no idea who she even was. I was just trying to have dinner and capitulating to my friend’s request.
When I found out who she was, the first thing I thought was what a great idea it would be for her to meet Isabella and apologize to her. That’s just what I was about to suggest when Isabella launched into that tirade.
Please—I really need to talk to her. Help me out, would you?
~*~
They’d just started watching the movie and were awaiting their pizza delivery when Clementine’s phone dinged with an incoming text message.
Isabella didn’t even bother to ask her about it; she was so tired out from the emotional exertion of the past couple of hours, she instead curled up on the sofa and settled into the movie. She’d borrowed a silk camisole nightgown from Clementine and was totally engrossed in the film, oblivious to anything else. She didn’t even notice when the pizza arrived.
~*~
Sawyer heard the text message as he was getting into his car.
Hey, Sawyer. Normally, I’d try to stay far away from this mess, but I’m a little worried about Isabella. She is so even-tempered and just normally such a chill person, I don’t even recognize the woman who went so apeshit on you tonight. I’m sure I’m going to tick her off, no doubt, by meddling, but hopefully, she’ll get over it. Sometime this century. Now, here’s the deal: we’re at my place, watching a movie. I’m going to leave the front door unlocked. We’ll be in the study. Please, be super quiet coming into the house. When I know you’re here, I’m going to just get up as if I’m going to get something in the kitchen, then you’ll come in and replace me. She’s so tuned out right now she might not even notice the difference LOL. The beauty of this plan is this: Isabella has to be quiet or else she’ll wake my mum, and she knows better than to do that. The last thing she wants is my mum chiming in on her relationship woes, especially because she knows my mum will then tell hers. So after I slip out, it’s up to you to ply her with your charm and apologies, even if you didn’t do anything wrong. Good luck!
Hallelujah, he thought as he entered her address into his GPS. There is hope.
~*~
Sawyer was so paranoid Isabella would discover him and kick him out, he even turned off his headlights as he drove down the long, dark driveway of Clementine’s family estate. He then parked behind the barn, far from the manor home, in order to avoid being heard shutting the car door. He quietly crept up the front stairs and opened the door like a cat burglar, desperate not to make the slightest sound. Once inside, he slipped his shoes off, carrying them in his hand as he negotiated his way down the hallway. When he got to the study, he gave a nod to Clementine, who slipped out while Isabe
lla was engrossed in the movie, oblivious to anything going on around her. She didn’t even turn when Clementine closed the door behind her on the way out.
The timing was impeccable. In the movie, Jack and Rose would soon be steaming up the windows of the car in the cargo hold just as Sawyer slipped behind Isabella and put his hand over her mouth, whispering in her ear, “It’s me, Sawyer. Don’t make a noise or you’ll wake Clementine’s mother up. I’m here to clear the air, Princess. I don’t want you thinking I’m a bad person because I’m not.”
Isabella didn’t yell, but she did bite down on his finger, which almost made Sawyer scream out in pain.
“What did you do that for?” he said, shaking his hand against the sting of the bite.
“You know why,” she said in a hiss, glaring at him.
“Princess, you’ve got it all wrong,” he said, stroking his hand through her hair from behind as he tried to pull her closer to him. She was like a wild horse that needed to be gentled.
“Damn, that hurt,” he said, licking his finger where she’d broken the skin. “Isabella. I shouldn’t have to remind you that you’re the one who left me holding the bag. Remember? We spent the whole night together, we had the most amazing time, and then the minute I fell asleep, you turned into a pumpkin or something. Only you didn’t even leave a glass slipper behind... just the memories.”
“It wasn’t the minute you fell asleep,” she mumbled.
“Well, close enough. All I know is I fell asleep the most satisfied I think I’ve ever been, and I woke up abandoned and alone. A lot of good that does a man’s ego, you know.”
“Sor-ry,” she said, pouting with emphasis. “I just couldn’t deal with it all. It was a mistake and I had to go.”
“So you’re telling me all the intimate things we said and did with one another that night, that was all a mistake?”
Isabella paused, leaving the two of them staring at the large screen with Jack and Rose caught up in the aftermath of their steamy encounter, Rose’s hand streaking the fogged-up window.
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