Not exactly appropriate given that he was holding her son in a bear hug—he’d missed his favorite buddy this weekend—but it was the truth. “Ready to go?” he asked Noah.
“Yeah! Can we have cupcakes for second breakfast?”
Cupcakes. With CJ’s temporary stand-in wife, who felt like his twelfth sister.
His life was currently on the messed up side. “You bet, kiddo.”
They waved at Nat. She smiled again, and CJ decided getting out of here for cupcakes was a very good plan.
Otherwise he might start getting ideas about sticking around after the Golden Husband Games for a single mother he had no business getting ideas about.
Next door, Kimmie greeted them with a wide, open, sisterly smile. “Second breakfast?” she asked Noah.
“Yeah!”
“Broccoli cupcakes or eggplant cupcakes?”
Horror and disbelief flashed across Noah’s features beneath the Falcons cap. CJ was stuck between gagging and laughing. He swung the boy up. “She’s teasing, kiddo. How about a s’more cupcake?”
“With extra marshmallows?” Noah said.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Kimmie let just enough disapproval color her words to remind CJ who her mother was.
She disappeared into the kitchen. CJ put Noah down, and the two of them discussed which of the display wedding cakes looked most delicious until Kimmie returned with a box big enough for two cupcakes. CJ nudged Noah.
“Thanks, Kimmie,” the little boy said.
She handed over her car keys, then gave Noah a hug. “Be good today, okay?”
“Yep. We’re gonna do man things.”
Kid was freaking adorable.
Kimmie cast a quick glance back at the kitchen, then squinted up at CJ. “Hey, listen,” she said softly, “it’s not too late if you want to switch partners.”
Her words were like ice and inspiration at the same time. He shot a look at the kitchen too. “You meet somebody?”
“No, no, nothing like that. You just—you two—you three—” She shook her head. “You’ll do best if you’re with somebody you like. You know, like that. And you do.”
Noah was watching them as if he understood every implication of what Kimmie wasn’t saying, in addition to what she was.
CJ’s hammering heart swelled up to nearly choke him. “It’s okay if you don’t want to play.”
“I do. I’m in. I just thought—never mind. I read it wrong.”
No, she read it right. He was getting too close. Getting those ideas. “We’re good.” CJ tried for a reassuring grin. “Besides, team T-shirts are already ordered. Can’t waste a good design.”
“That’s the stupidest reason ever,” she whispered. Her unique jagged flush crept up her cheeks. “I just wanted to make sure.”
CJ could appreciate that. He wasn’t so sure of a lot of things lately. “You’re a good friend, Kimmie.”
“Can we eat cupcakes yet?” Noah whispered.
Kimmie smiled down at the boy.
CJ rubbed his hat. “Soon as we decide what we’re doing today.”
“I want to go see Grandpa.”
Kimmie’s gaze darted back to the kitchen, and her cheeks took on a darker hue. “You boys have fun.” She took two backward steps, then dashed back to work.
“Where’s your grandpa at?” CJ asked Noah.
“His cabin. We fish like men when we’re out there. Do you think he’s ever coming back?”
“Sure he is. Let’s see if I can get an address, and we’ll track him down, okay?”
“Yeah!”
The only thing Nat ever said about her dad and his absence was that he deserved to enjoy retirement. But her tone always said something more. Something that implied she and her dad were having some issues. Life with CJ’s sisters had taught him to avoid emotional land mines, so he texted Lindsey for the address instead of asking Natalie.
They exited the bakery’s front door, then circled around to Kimmie’s car at the back of the Heaven’s Bakery parking lot. Noah somehow managed to both walk and dance the whole way, singing an impromptu “We’re Going to See Grandpa” song.
Kid was hysterical and adorable. Might’ve had a pretty firm grip on that little organ in CJ’s chest too.
He got Noah strapped in, and was just about to open his own door when a woman exited the back of the bakery, heels clicking and thunderclouds brewing around her.
“CJ,” the Queen General said. “Lovely to see you this morning.”
There was a set to her jaw that said it wasn’t so lovely at all. She continued her approach. Inside the car, Noah’s song went silent.
The trouble coming smelled so bad, it should’ve set off emergency sirens. But CJ’s sisters had also inspired him to master the art of acting dumb and happy. “Marilyn. Lovely to see you too. You wouldn’t happen to have an address for Arthur’s cabin, would you?”
She stumbled to a stop, and a delicate pink stain with jagged edges crept up her cheeks. “Why would I be in possession of that knowledge?”
She was definitely in possession of that knowledge. What he couldn’t immediately grasp was why a woman like Marilyn Elias would have any reason to pretend she wasn’t. “Because you’ve been shop neighbors for thirty years,” CJ said.
“Oh. Of course.” The pink got pinker. As if she were embarrassed for being embarrassed.
As if she were caught.
Holy shit.
Maybe she was caught.
Holy double shit. Time to go dig a bomb shelter.
Because if Natalie caught wind of what CJ suspected, there wouldn’t be a safe corner to be found in Bliss. Possibly in the whole state of Illinois, and some of Indiana and Michigan too.
Marilyn’s blush receded so quickly it might not have been there. “I assume you’re going to let the boy visit his grandfather and for no other purpose?” Marilyn said.
CJ squinted at her.
She gave him the laser death stare back.
Not too different from the way she’d smiled at him over dinner at her house last week, but enough to put a chill in the air and make CJ’s nerves stand on end. “What other purpose would I have?”
“You seem to have become quite attached to your ward’s family.”
His ward? This lady was nuts. “That a problem?”
The General part of Marilyn’s personality bloomed, which he wouldn’t have been able to recognize before last week when Natalie had demonstrated the difference. Damn funny impersonation she’d done. He’d laughed his ass off.
“It certainly might be,” Marilyn said. She spread her legs, tucked her arms behind her back as though commanding her troops. “By the power vested in me as a community leader in Bliss, it is my duty to remind you that there are certain expectations of the honored participants in the Golden Husband Games.”
“You wanna spell out exactly what those expectations are?”
Marilyn spared a glance toward Noah. CJ wished he could reach into the car and give the kid a hug, but he stood his ground with the QG.
“To be precise,” Marilyn said, “despite my daughter’s misguided and ill-advised intentions, there will be no divorced women participating in the Golden Husband Games.”
“Does Arthur know you talk about his daughter like that?”
Her lips tightened, and a hint of color touched her cheeks again. “My personal and professional obligations unfortunately do not always perfectly align.”
“How do you sleep at night?”
“Tread carefully, Mr. Blue. Your time in Bliss is limited, is it not?”
Yeah, he got it. She was the Bliss Queen, and even if he was the Exalted Widower, she’d still keep him as much in his place as she could while he was here. But aside from personally, Nat wouldn’t be a problem for the Queen General much longer.
However, Natalie had something in Bliss that Marilyn didn’t.
She had friends. Quiet friends, but friends nonetheless. If enough of them stood up to Marilyn—
; Holy shit again.
That was the issue.
The whole issue.
“You don’t care that she’s divorced,” CJ said. “You do this because you’re afraid of her.”
“Don’t be absurd.”
But it wasn’t absurd.
It wasn’t absurd in the slightest. “If you’re not, you should be. She’s strong enough to shake up everything in Bliss. Has the friends to pull it off too.” Friends like Kimmie, born and bred and indoctrinated in Bliss, yet willing to defy her mother for a smart, strong, compassionate woman who had once made a mistake.
Friends like CJ, who had found a place here and had friends in his own right.
Marilyn’s laser death glare should’ve inspired terror, but if Natalie could stand up to this woman, hell if CJ would back down.
“Don’t underestimate me, Mr. Blue.”
“I have eleven sisters, Mrs. Elias. I never underestimate a woman. Any woman.” He gave her a mock imitation of her own regal nod. “Enjoy your day. Noah and I are gonna go catch some fish.”
He pulled out of the parking lot with Marilyn scowling in his rearview mirror, but a grin on his own face.
Score one for Team Natalie. Damn if that didn’t make him happier than he’d been in a long, long time.
NATALIE’S GOOD MOOD had been growing by the day, but today, she was giddy. Giddy.
She was still stressed—Pepper would probably buy Mom’s store and Nat still had Golden Husband Games and janitorial committee issues, but Noah was happy. Gabby’s dress was nearly done. The QG had apparently launched an unspoken truce since the cupcake incident, which probably either meant she knew something Natalie didn’t about the future of Bliss Bridal, or she’d changed her mind about wanting it for herself. And Natalie had safely ensconced herself in a farce of epic proportions about her relationship with CJ.
Someone knocked at the door, and her heart smiled. The boys were home.
Her boys.
She was delusional, but she couldn’t stop thinking of them both as hers.
CJ hadn’t touched her since that night at Suckers, and he never stayed long when he dropped Noah off, but he was melding into her life as if he’d been there all along. As if he’d found where he belonged. Listening to him and Noah talk about their day was so natural, she felt more home than she’d been since before Mom died.
And he was here. Again. Now.
She pranced on light feet to fling the door open, but her smile died a quick death.
“Miss Castellano,” the Queen General said in all her queenly, General glory. “A word, if you please.”
Natalie didn’t please, but Marilyn sailed through the door anyway. Nat wrapped her arms over her chest to ward off the chill slinking into her bones. “Mrs. Elias. How may I be of assistance?”
“I’m concerned about the Golden Husband Games.”
Natalie’s pulse missed a stitch. “It’s my understanding that Duke and Elsie are working hard to catch up.”
“I’m not discussing the planning of the Games, though we could have another interesting conversation on that topic, now couldn’t we?”
So much for that truce. “I did what my mother would’ve wanted me to do, and I’d do it all again.”
“Your loyalty is charming, but the Games were never about your mother.” Marilyn eyeballed Natalie’s parents’ wedding picture on the entryway table. Something flickered in her eyes. “The Games are about bringing Bliss back to its full and complete place in the wedding industry, and this, Miss Castellano, is where you’ve failed.”
“I’ve failed?”
“You’ve grown rather fond of disregarding my instructions to you. Going behind the Golden Husband committee’s backs to complicate the planning of them.”
“The Games would’ve flopped without me, and you know it.”
“Continuing to associate with CJ after your ill-advised visit with him in a confessional.”
“You told Kimmie and CJ to watch Noah.”
“Interfering with Kimberly’s attempts to capture his attention.” Marilyn shuddered. “Next you’ll be encouraging him to associate with your sister as well.”
“My sister is a good person working for a good cause,” Natalie said.
“Your sister is a disgrace to Bliss, as are you.”
“And you’re a nasty old woman on a power trip.”
Marilyn didn’t flinch, but her lips flattened. “Since you’re so determined to ignore me, let the record show that I’ve requested you to discontinue your attempts to secure CJ’s affections by sharing top secret Golden Husband Games event information with him.”
Natalie sucked in a lungful of air that didn’t deliver any oxygen to her body. Her marrow crystallized with ice. “You wouldn’t dare—”
“Bliss has certain standards, Miss Castellano, and you do not meet them. And then you proceed to meddle and interfere with our Games and try to be better than every other hardworking family on The Aisle? Were your mother here, she’d echo my sentiments.”
“My mother would tell you to go to hell. Who plans the Games means nothing. That they’re done, that they’re done right, that they’re a tribute to what Bliss stands for is what’s important.”
“Done right and done by the right people are one and the same. You, Miss Castellano, are not the right people. And your mother knew it. That is why you were denied her position on the committee. She didn’t want you to have it.”
Natalie hardly recognized her own deadly quiet voice. “You’re lying.”
“Come now, Miss Castellano. Despite your own delusions, you must’ve known she was looking for a Husband Games apprentice. The single sons on The Aisle are simply taking too long to find wives, or she would’ve had her replacement trained years ago.”
“That’s ridiculous.” But possibly true. Mom had mentioned concerns over the future of The Aisle a time or two. In conjunction with Knot Fest activities? Natalie couldn’t remember. It was all too hazy.
Too long ago.
God, she wished Mom were here now.
“But the more immediate point,” Marilyn said, “is that your mother would be horrified to learn you’ve been encouraging an honored guest in Bliss to cheat. I daresay she’d kick you out of her house for disgracing her and the town she loved so much. She’s rather lucky she’s already in her final resting place, isn’t she?”
“Get out,” Natalie breathed.
Marilyn didn’t budge. “All the work you think you’re doing? If word gets out what you’ve done, it will be for nothing. Your mother understood the unique value of Bliss’s celebrations of wedlock better than anyone. She understood the value of Bliss’s status as the Most Married-est Town on Earth. It’s why she ran the Husband Games for so many years. You, Miss Castellano, are not your mother.”
No, she wasn’t. She never would be. She’d always known that.
What she’d never fully comprehended, though, was how much better Bliss could’ve been if her mother had run it instead of Marilyn.
“Now, let’s start again,” Marilyn said. “And let’s see if perhaps this time you learn your place.”
Natalie snapped.
It wasn’t a physical snap. Didn’t come with a loud clang, or even a subtle pop. One minute she was standing there, shocked motionless, and the next, Marilyn said learn your place, and poof! Natalie’s life shifted into complete focus.
First she swallowed the lump that had been forming in her throat. Then she cleared her eye of any threat of weak emotion. Next, she pulled herself taller than she’d been before Marilyn knocked on her door.
Natalie turned on her heel. She marched into her sewing room and pulled a file from the desk, then marched back to stare down the Queen General.
“My notes,” she said. “On everything.” She shoved them into the QG’s chest, gratified when the older woman’s eyes went uncharacteristically wide. Better was watching her take a step back.
Natalie followed.
“You win,” she said into the rapid
ly narrowing space between them as she advanced on Marilyn and Marilyn backpedaled for what had to be the first time in her life.
“No more divorced woman marring the sanctity of your precious committee,” Natalie said. “I quit. I quit the janitorial committee. I quit the Golden Husband Games committee. I quit the Knot Fest committee.”
Marilyn tripped another step back.
“Now,” Natalie snarled, “get the hell out of my house. We’re done here.”
Whether Marilyn had gotten what she’d ultimately come for, or whether she’d recognized Natalie as a threat to her physical well-being, the QG listened.
The neighbors probably wouldn’t have noticed, but as Natalie stood tall, proud of finally fully standing up to Marilyn, watching her retreat and knowing the work Marilyn had just given herself, Nat saw less regality and more evil old witch in the QG’s stride.
Because no doubt, the QG was an evil witch. She’d just ensured that it wasn’t enough for Natalie to quit the Knot Fest committee. To leave her mother’s final Husband Games. To step back into the shadows of Bliss, where Marilyn wrongly thought Natalie belonged.
No, Natalie couldn’t stop there.
And that knowledge was what ultimately broke her.
She slammed the front door. Took four steps into the house, and crumpled into herself.
She’d just let her mother down. But she couldn’t let herself mourn her failings just yet. She had a few more disappointments to hand out first.
CJ SMOTHERED a laugh on his way up Natalie’s front steps. Noah was rocking his completely inaccurate rendition of the new Billy Brenton tune they’d just heard on the radio. Legs kicking haphazardly, head back, arm bent like he had an invisible microphone, the kid crooned with all the might in his little heart. CJ needed to remember his camera so he could tape stuff like this and send it to Saffron. She’d left Billy’s band when she got married, and video footage of Noah mimicking the country rock star would have her rolling.
Hanging out with this kid took him soaring into a completely different stratosphere. Better, CJ had a pizza in one hand, a pack of juice boxes in the other, a pretty lady waiting inside, and nowhere to be until tomorrow morning.
Blissed (Misfit Brides #1) Page 23