CJ sat straighter, linked his fingers while his hands dangled between his knees. Now or never.
He hadn’t had the biggest balls in his marriage, but he’d never been a chicken. Wasn’t about to start now.
“I need a partner for the Golden Husband Games.”
Kimmie flashed him a duh look. “And you’re getting short on time. I was pretty young at the Silver Husband games, and nobody’s saying yet which games are on the schedule, but everyone knows it was the how-well-do-you-know-your-wife quiz that totally turned the tide twenty-five years ago. And if it’s not that, it’ll be something else. You need to quit stringing all those women along and make a decision, or there’s no chance you’ll win. Plus you’ll be late with getting the team designs to the T-shirt shop, and my mom will julienne your carrots if you don’t do a few interviews.” She clamped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she said, muffled. “No right to nag you.”
“No, you’re right. I need to decide.” Pick a partner or bail on the games.
Over the last few hours he’d given plenty of thought to bailing. But he always circled back to not being a coward.
And to remembering that he’d promised Serena that they would spend their fifth anniversary here. That he’d play in the Husband Games again for her. Natalie was right. He had a chance to honor his wife and help Bliss at the same time. Serena would’ve appreciated that.
Kimmie swayed on the couch. “Still, your fake wife’s the one who should nag you. Practice, right?”
He lifted his eyebrows at her.
“Ohmigod,” she said. “Nuh-uh.” She jumped up and launched into her hummingbird impersonation again.
This was the tough part, and not just because she was moving so quickly about the room that CJ couldn’t entirely concentrate on what he had to say. “All I’m looking for is a friend,” he said. “I know I’m asking a lot, but—”
“What about Natalie?”
Wasn’t that the question?
He could’ve done the dumb guy thing. What about her? Could’ve simply pretended she didn’t exist.
But he owed Kimmie the truth. “She said no.”
Swift injury flitted across Kimmie’s features, then an almost cheerful resignation set in.
“Figure it’s best if I’m honest with you,” he said. It’d worked for his parents for years. Couple of his sisters too.
“She really said no?” Kimmie said.
CJ nodded.
“I guess that makes sense. My mom would pretty much cream everyone’s butter if Nat played, and Natalie’s working so hard to make sure the Games are everything her mom wanted them to be, and after the way the last Games she played in went—erm, I mean—”
“All good, Kimmie.”
She was right. Natalie was scared. And maybe CJ was being an ass, asking Kimmie to be his partner this soon after Nat said no, but being an ass was what he did.
Especially when it came to holy matrimony.
Kimmie’s gaze darted over him, then to the rest of the room, then back to him. “Then if you’re sure—”
“I’m sure.”
“Wow. Thanks. It’s not like I’ll ever play in the Husband Games for real, you know?” She gave another one of her little half-laughs. “My mom’s gonna pass raspberry ganache when she hears this.”
He’d considered not asking Kimmie for exactly that reason. He was absurdly grateful he wouldn’t have Marilyn Elias as his mother-in-law the rest of his life. On a temporary basis, though, he was eighty percent sure he could handle it. “This won’t cause problems for you, will it?”
She waved his question away. “Are you kidding? After this, I could knock over a cake in the middle of a reception and she’d still weep tears of joy.” She froze. “So are we, like, exclusive? Because I’ve never non-dated a temporary fake husband before. This isn’t the kind of thing they teach in Bliss’s public education system. You’d think they would though, wouldn’t you?”
Crazy-ass town was growing on him, because he could see her point. “I won’t be dating anyone else. But if you meet someone and want out, I’ll understand.”
“That would be weird, even for Bliss.”
“Kimmie, I’ve been around the world, so you can take this to the bank,” CJ said. “There’s nothing too weird for Bliss.”
NATALIE HAD EVERY intention of proceeding with her life on Sunday as though everything were normal. And she did pretty well, too—she sold a few dresses and got next week’s schedule done, she kept Noah happy by letting him play dinosaurs in the shop basement, and she only caught herself looking out the window in hopes of glimpsing CJ every other minute.
But facts were facts.
They’d had mind-blowing, life-altering sex, and then she’d let him go.
And he’d let her.
Obviously, they had no future. Only memories.
She made it through the Knot Fest meeting without drawing any attention to herself. Kimmie was conspicuously absent, and Marilyn had been positively giddy. Which was frankly terrifying.
For many reasons.
But Natalie didn’t have the strength to deal with Marilyn drama today. Or any more drama. She’d given herself enough in her personal life.
Or so she thought, until Duke and Elsie made their report.
The Golden Husband Games were back on track.
Without Natalie. Because of all that she’d done, and she was still fielding calls and e-mails from people who didn’t yet trust Duke and Elsie or hadn’t yet heard the news. But to the rest of the world, the Games were on track without Natalie.
By the time she stumbled back home after the meeting Sunday night and paid Noah’s second sitter of the weekend, she wanted to curl up and cry.
But life had one more kick for her, in the form of a phone call near midnight.
Mrs. Tanner, Noah’s day care lady, was in the hospital for emergency bypass surgery following a heart attack.
Facing the mortality of the woman who cared for Noah forty hours a week made Natalie feel as if she were living through Mom’s final moments all over again. The shock. The fear. The denial.
Nat didn’t sleep the rest of the night, and she felt only marginally better when she got word early Monday morning that surgery had gone fine and Mrs. Tanner was expected to make a full recovery.
It was the news she never got when Mom collapsed on the shop floor. That night, when she’d gone to pick Noah up from day care, Mrs. Tanner had held them both while Nat told him Grandma wasn’t coming home.
Thank God she didn’t have to tell him he’d lost someone else.
No time to dwell on it though—which was probably a blessing—because Nat had a shop to run and short-term day care to find.
And when she failed at the latter, she didn’t have much hope that the former would be easy. Especially when Noah started wailing as soon as they pulled onto The Aisle.
“I forgot Baby Dinosaur,” he cried. “We have to go back for Baby Dinosaur!”
“Baby Dinosaur? Noah, you don’t have a baby dinosaur.”
He broke down in blubbers she couldn’t understand, so she turned the car around and headed for home to figure out what he was talking about. She couldn’t not. Because Mrs. Tanner would be okay, but odds were good Natalie and Noah would be gone from Bliss by the time she recovered, and they had to make this new arrangement work until then.
Fifteen minutes later, they left home again, this time with Baby Dinosaur strapped into a booster seat beside Noah. Cindy the Stegosaurus had apparently undergone a name and personality change. Noah happily chatted with the stuffed orange dinosaur, shrieking and giggling and squirming with all the pent-up energy of a four-year-old boy.
Keeping him at the shop the next few weeks wasn’t a good idea. He needed a safe place to run and play and yell and be a kid.
She needed to figure out a solution.
She needed to call Dad.
Ask him for help.
But she kept letting him down. Kept letting him fight her batt
les. It was no one’s fault Mrs. Tanner had had a heart attack—not even the QG could be that cruel, even if she could cause another person’s health problems. Natalie still needed to handle her issues herself.
To be a grown-up, and to do the grown-up thing.
When she walked into Bliss Bridal, though, one more bombshell dropped.
Amanda was waiting with news.
She made eye contact with Natalie’s hairline when she asked if they could talk a minute. Back in the office, she stared at Nat’s left cheek. “I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to work for your family so long,” she started, and Natalie knew.
Her manager, the longest-running employee at Bliss Bridal, was leaving.
“Will they take good care of you?” Nat interrupted.
Amanda flushed, but she nodded. “It’s a good package.” Finally, she looked Natalie in the eye. “I don’t want to leave you hanging, but with everything so uncertain here… I can’t turn it down. It’s in Chicago, and if I’m ever going to see life outside of Bliss, I need to go now.”
“Sure,” Natalie said, though she was having a mild panic attack. And by mild, she meant epic. “If I didn’t have family responsibilities here, I’d look at moving to Chicago too.”
She choked on her own words though.
Because she didn’t want to move to Chicago. She didn’t even want to move to Willow Glen.
She wanted to stay here. In Bliss. Running her mother’s shop. Being a respected, valued member of the Knot Fest committee and Bridal Retailers Association. Making Dad proud.
Fulfilling her dream.
“I’ll do what I can to help find my replacement,” Amanda said.
But they both knew it was futile. Word had leaked that Dad was selling the shop. Between the boutique’s uncertain future and Marilyn Elias’s interference, there wouldn’t be another manager until the shop had new owners.
Happily married, well-adjusted owners.
“Thank you,” Natalie said anyway.
Because one day soon, she could be asking Amanda for a job.
The front doorbell dinged.
“Nat, I really do hope everything works out for you,” Amanda said.
But there wasn’t much optimism in her words.
“Thanks. Let’s get to work.”
Helping brides plan the day of their dreams was hard today, but Natalie put on a bright smile anyway. Because she had to.
Until a somewhat familiar woman stepped inside the shop an hour later.
The brunette swept an assessing gaze about the room. Her light green eyes met Natalie’s, and Natalie’s heart twisted into knots.
Smiling, she approached Natalie with a painfully familiar confident ease. “Hi.” She stuck her hand out. “I’m Pepper Blue. You fixed my sister’s veil a few weeks ago.”
She didn’t add, And you boinked my brother Saturday night, but she might as well have. For all of Pepper’s wide smile, Natalie couldn’t have smiled back if she wanted to. She wanted to plead cramps and run and hide in the back office for the rest of the day.
Or maybe the rest of her life.
“Natalie Castellano.” Natalie shook Pepper’s hand. “Welcome to Bliss Bridal.”
“No, Baby Dinosaur!” Noah suddenly shrieked from beneath a rack of dresses. “It’s not polite to look up girls’ skirts!”
“Sorry,” Natalie said. “Day care issues.”
Pepper grinned. “No problem. You’ve met my family. Trust me, I grew up with worse.”
Natalie tried to smile back. She did. But smiling didn’t usually sting her eyes.
Or her heart. “How can I help you?”
Pepper leaned across the counter and lowered her voice. “I heard a rumor the owner’s selling.”
Natalie opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
Probably good, because if it had, it would’ve sounded like a wounded animal, and Bliss Bridal was struggling enough without Nat going protective cavewoman.
“I’m in management at Bridal Universe,” Pepper said.
Natalie’s veins iced over. “No.” No question, no doubt, no hesitation. No way in hell—and forget the damn nickel—would she let Dad sell Bliss Bridal to an impersonal bridal retail chain. Hell no. Fuck no.
The brides in the room stared at her. So did the consultants. Pepper drew back a step.
Natalie’s head was shaking. So were her hands. She couldn’t stop either, and she didn’t want to. “I’ll see this place burned to the ground before I let my mother’s shop become a franchise for Bridal Universe.”
Pepper’s cute little nose wrinkled, her perfectly groomed brows furrowed.
And then she laughed. “Oh, no.” She reached out and put a smooth, cool hand over Natalie’s. “Honey, I’m not interested in fattening their corporate wallets with a place like this. I’m asking for me. I want to buy the shop.”
Fragments of CJ’s stories from Saturday night floated into the forefront of Natalie’s mind. Penny stocks. Pepper. Brilliant. Fortune.
Pepper slid a card across the counter. Natalie couldn’t move.
Mom’s shop had an interested buyer.
A viable, smart, interested buyer.
A buyer who would satisfy Dad’s terms of keeping the shop as a bridal boutique, and probably inspire Marilyn to up her game to get the space too.
Natalie was going to throw up.
“Excuse me,” she heard herself say, “I have cramps.”
BLISS DIDN’T HAVE many opportunities for CJ to scratch his risk-taking itch, but asking Kimmie to be his partner in the Games had proven to be the next best thing to climbing the wedding cake.
Pretty sad when a clandestine meeting to exchange “life history binders” in an alley behind a bakery on a Monday morning was his new version of adventure.
“Sorry for making you meet me out here.” Kimmie gestured at the sweet-smelling Dumpster with her pink binder. “Mom’s still on her equivalent of a sugar high over the news. You’d think I told her I was pregnant with the next generation of Keebler elves. Not sure she’s grasped the whole it’s-only-for-the-Games thing yet. Although she was hoping for someone more financially—I mean, she’s delusionally happy for us. It’s kinda scary, actually, and I’m used to her.”
She leaned in and lowered her voice. “Plus I dreamed Lindsey put a hit out on me to make you a ‘single man’ again.”
“Are your dreams often psychic?” Wouldn’t surprise him. The hit or the psychic dreams.
“Not like fortune cookies.”
Before he could decide if he wanted to go down that path, the door one shop down banged open. Natalie shot out into the alley. She stopped short and doubled over, heaving like she’d run a marathon.
“Holy cupcakes, Nat.” Kimmie shoved her binder at CJ and half-trotted to her friend. “You okay?”
Natalie looked up sharply. Her normally smooth hair was rumpled, her creamy shirt wrinkled, her face was so pale it wasn’t far from blue. “I’m good.” There was a punctuated crack in her voice. After one quick glance at CJ, she focused on Kimmie and Kimmie only.
Felt like a sucker punch.
He sauntered after Kimmie, binders tucked under his elbow.
“Mondays,” Natalie said. “You know.”
“Yeah, my Tuesdays are usually like that. Sometimes my Sundays, depending on the week.” Kimmie put a palm to Natalie’s forehead. “You’re clammy. And you look like fried marzipan. Are you sick?”
Natalie swiped at her nose with the back of her hand. “Stressed.” Her gaze drifted toward CJ, but snapped back to Kimmie before it got there. She took a deep breath, as though she were putting her world back in focus.
Lining up which problem she wanted to share with them.
She blinked twice, and her voice was almost steady when she spoke. “Noah’s sitter had a heart attack last night.”
“Oh, no,” Kimmie whispered. “Oh, Nat.”
“She’s going to be okay.” Natalie shivered, her gaze somewhere not in the alley. “I just�
�I’m worried about Noah.”
CJ didn’t know a lot about parenthood, but he knew something about grief.
A few months after Serena died, he’d been in the Swiss Alps. Checked his e-mail right before heading out for skydiving and found a message from Margie that one of their high school friends had almost died in a car accident.
Couldn’t remember the guy’s name now, but he remembered being so shaken up, he cancelled the dive. Sitting in his hostel, wishing he could sleep, thinking about going out and getting drunk, unable to quit trembling.
Because he kept remembering the moment he’d gotten the news about Serena.
He hadn’t wanted to remember.
He’d been useless for about a day—felt longer, but it had only been a day. And the sad truth was, he hadn’t been useless to anybody but himself. The moment that realization had hit him, he booked transportation to France and went skiing.
Ordered himself to get over it. Told himself afterward that it worked, but the truth was, it had taken a while.
Nat looked as if she could use some skiing. Maybe a day at the beach. A massage.
He was decent with his hands. And he wouldn’t have minded having his hands on her skin again.
All of her skin. Maybe get his mouth on her skin again too.
“Does Noah know what happened?” Kimmie asked.
CJ gave himself a mental head slap. Not the time.
“No.” Natalie’s color was coming back. “I need to find temporary care for him. He’s never gone anywhere else. I don’t know how he’ll handle it.”
“Children are adaptable,” an unfortunate voice said behind CJ. “Kimberly had dozens of sitters growing up. Your son will be fine.”
Natalie squared her shoulders and stared back at Marilyn with a mixture of animosity and respect sparking across her face. “Yes, he will.”
“In the meantime, Kimberly and CJ can help you with your little problem.”
An awkward silence settled in the alley. Natalie glanced between Kimmie and CJ, then looked closer.
CJ felt his cheeks turning the same shade as his hair.
“Are you—” Nat stopped herself. Set her dark eyes like black onyx. Her nostrils flared. Just a little. He had to watch her close to notice.
Blissed (Misfit Brides #1) Page 20