by Emily King
“Pleased to meet you, Angelique,” Amy shook her hand and gave her a smile. She glanced unsmiling at Robin. “I believe we’ve already met at a coffeehouse.”
Robin grunted and looked away.
Angelique glanced between the two.
“What are you doing here, Robin?” Sarah asked.
Robin glanced over at Amy, looking her up and down with a sneer. “Supporting the city lifeguards, what else?”
Sarah rolled her eyes and waited, knowing that something selfless like that wouldn’t be Robin’s real reason.
Robin shrugged. “A lot of important people are here tonight—people who might need my talents as a realtor.”
Sarah nodded. “I should have known that you came to network.” And she knew that by “important,” Robin meant people with money.
Robin shrugged again. “What can I say? I got a very nice commission out of that one,” she said, gesturing at the sprawling mansion. “Who knows what opportunities might come my way tonight?”
Angelique, who had started to fidget in an excited manner during the conversation and who had fixed her gaze on Amy, spoke. “OMG! You’re that lifeguard! I saw you on that talk show! You’re the one who rescued that little boy!” Angelique was now hopping up and down—to the extent that her high heels allowed—and flapping her hands excitedly. Her squeals drew the attention of guests nearby. She pressed closer to Amy, as did other people, and Sarah was squeezed aside as they congratulated Amy and clamored for a firsthand recounting of the rescue.
“Looks like your girlfriend is the flavor of the month,” Robin said, coming to stand by Sarah.
“Last month, too,” Sarah said with a frustrated sigh before she could stop herself from responding to Robin’s dig. Amy’s popularity would be more tolerable if people had better boundaries.
Angelique edged even closer to Amy. One of her breasts appeared to be grazing Amy and she rested her hand on Amy’s arm as she listened to her speak. Sarah was quickly realizing that Angelique wasn’t the innocent lamb she appeared to be.
A muscle pulsed in Robin’s jaw as she watched Angelique and Amy, but her eyes were mostly on Amy, giving Sarah the impression that Robin wasn’t so much concerned with Angelique’s blatant flirting but rather with Amy’s ability to draw so much attention. As Amy collected what looked like a business card or two from the crowd and slipped them into her pocket, Sarah could see Robin practically turn green with envy.
“Ladies and gentlemen…” A voice came over the sound system and made an announcement that the caterers were ready to start serving dinner. People began making their way over to the catering tents to line up at the serving area, and the crowd around Amy dispersed. Angelique had little choice but to relinquish her space next to her and return to Robin. Robin and Angelique headed for the catering area.
Amy came to stand by Sarah. “Sorry about all of that,” she said, looking embarrassed.
“It’s okay,” Sarah said. “You might as well network while the opportunity presents itself.”
“Thanks,” Amy said. She squeezed Sarah’s hand. “I did make a couple of contacts.”
“That’s good.”
Amy nodded. “Are you ready to go see what they’re serving for dinner?”
“Yes, and let’s sit far away from Robin and Angelique.”
Amy laughed. “No problem.”
The line for dinner moved quickly. Amy and Sarah gathered their food and drink and then scanned the area for Justin and Ron.
“There they are,” Sarah said. She gestured with a little tilt of her chin, as her hands were full with her plate and her drink. “Oh, and that’s Peter with them. It’ll be fun to sit with everyone.”
“Yes, I see them. And that’s Peter’s wife, Tammy. I’ll introduce you.”
Tammy was nice, like Peter, and Sarah enjoyed getting to chat with everyone during dinner. Conversation flowed easily among the group and the food was good. Dinner was roast pork, rice pilaf, tropical coleslaw, and a dinner roll. It was a simple meal but well-prepared and satisfying. The dessert course, on the same plate, consisted of a cute miniature lava cake.
The tropical coleslaw, in particular, was tasty. Amy seemed to be enjoying it, too. Sarah wondered if she could replicate the dish at home the next time she had Amy over. It appeared to be regular coleslaw with the addition of diced pineapple, diced mango, and chopped green onions. It had a little zip to it, too, so maybe there was a bit of cayenne in the dressing. Maybe they could make it together like they did salsa, adjusting the ingredients and seasonings until it came out just right.
“Ladies and gentlemen…” The announcer’s voice came over the sound system again at a break in the band sets. He announced that the silent auction would remain open for the next two hours and encouraged everyone to place their bids and to take advantage of the live music for dancing until the winners would be announced. He also announced that coffee was now available in the catering area.
Sarah offered to get coffee for the group and roped Justin into helping her so she could talk to him privately. “I didn’t want to bring it up in front of the others and ruin the dinner conversation, but Robin’s here.”
“No—tell me she isn’t,” Justin said.
“Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. I ran into her at the silent auction, where she promptly outbid me on something.”
“What a bitch.” He shook his head.
“Yeah, and she’s with a gem of a girlfriend. Angelique is her name.”
“Angelique, huh?”
Sarah nodded. “She was so star-struck when she figured out who Amy was that I thought she was going to ask Amy to autograph her boobs.”
Justin snorted, but Sarah had only been partly joking.
“Anyway, be on the lookout for a blonde in a red tube dress and steer clear. I know I’m going to.”
“You and me both,” he said.
She and Justin gathered cups of coffee at the catering tent and returned to the table. A round of “thanks” was murmured as everyone accepted the coffee. Sarah sat back down next to Amy and they sipped theirs. People from some of the nearby tables had begun making their way to the dance area.
A woman’s manicured finger slithered across Amy’s shoulder. “Can I have this dance, stud?”
Sarah looked up at the woman whose hand was on her girlfriend. Samantha! God, was she here, too?
Samantha winked at her. Sarah took a deep breath.
Amy craned her head around to see whose hand was on her.
“I almost didn’t recognize you with your clothes on,” Samantha said as she looked down at Amy, her hand still on her shoulder.
“Excuse me?” Amy asked.
“Oh, that came out wrong,” Samantha said with another wink at Sarah before turning back to Amy. “I was referring to those videos of the rescue.”
Samantha’s attempt to sound apologetic wasn’t fooling Sarah. This was one of her cleverly planned incursions—Sarah remembered them all too well. She sensed Justin, Ron, Peter, and Tammy looking at them. She wanted to head Samantha off before she became any more provocative or embarrassing. “Everyone, this is Samantha, a friend of my ex’s. She owns the South Coast Beach Country Club.”
Samantha spared the group a glance and greeting.
“Oh, you donated that beautiful new driver for the silent auction,” Peter said.
“Why, yes, I did donate that. It is a beautiful club, isn’t it?”
Peter nodded. “Very generous of you. Our department appreciates it.”
Samantha smiled and turned her attention back to Amy. “So how about that dance?” She slithered her finger along Amy’s shoulder again.
Amy took a breath. She cast a baleful look at Peter and then turned to Sarah. “Do you mind? I won’t be long.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Samantha said in sultry tones before Sarah could answer. “I think we’ll have lots to talk about, maybe even about that dealership of yours.” She took Amy’s arm and led her away.
&nbs
p; “Well,” Justin said.
“Yeah,” Sarah said. She got up, not wanting to discuss Samantha with anyone. “I think I’m going to get another coffee. The rest of you should go ahead and dance, too.”
“Are you sure?” Justin asked.
“Yes. I’m sure Amy will be back for me soon.” Sarah headed for the catering tent.
After clearing her head with the walk for another coffee, she headed back to the now empty table. She sat down alone and watched the dancing.
She easily spotted Samantha, who was wearing a white dress that stood out against the other, more colorful dresses on the other women. It was a one-shoulder dress with a slit up one leg that showed off her country club tan in the light from the tiki torches. Like Robin, she was older, but Samantha was fitter and trimmer from her constant golfing and easily pulled off wearing a dress in that revealing style.
Sarah didn’t like what she was seeing on the dance floor. It didn’t look like any kind of business discussion was taking place between Samantha and Amy out there. What was happening was that Samantha was feeling Amy up. Her hands were everywhere, squeezing a bicep here, caressing a shoulder there, and getting dangerously close to her breasts.
Sarah wanted to step in. But on the off chance that Samantha really was interested in Amy’s dealership, she wasn’t going to break up the dance. That, and Samantha was a donor at this event, which Peter clearly appreciated. Sarah sighed.
Robin approached the table. “Looks like your girlfriend is busy again. How about a dance?”
Sarah had no interest in dancing with Robin. “Why don’t you dance with Angelique?”
“She seems to have wandered off while I was busy taking a call.”
“You and your cell phone,” Sarah said.
“Business is business. You had more patience than she does.”
“I shouldn’t have been as patient as I was. You weren’t very nice a lot of the time.” She wished Robin would go away.
“I was nice. I bought you things. For most women, that’s enough.”
Sarah shook her head. They’d been through this before. “Maybe Angelique wouldn’t wander off if you did more than just buy her things.”
Robin shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Angelique is easily drawn to novel things,” she said with a casual look at the dance area.
Something in her tone made Sarah look as well. She barely held back a gasp. Angelique was there with Amy, dancing with her and twining her arms around her like an invasive, creeping vine. When had she gotten out there, and where had Samantha gone off to? Samantha was bad enough, but Angelique was worse and even more dangerous than Sarah thought if she had managed to cut in on Samantha. At this rate, Sarah was never going to get to dance with Amy.
“So, how about that dance? For old times’ sake?” Robin asked, holding out her hand.
Sarah sighed. Despite their past, she couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Robin. Although Sarah had once envied the ease that Robin’s wealth seemed to bring, really there was not much to envy at all. “Just one,” she said, allowing herself to be led to the dance area.
After they began dancing, Robin spoke. “So I’ve been thinking of getting a new girlfriend.”
Sarah didn’t reply, unsurprised that Robin intended to jettison Angelique.
“I always liked you best,” Robin continued. “What do you say you come with me on that whale-watching trip?”
Sarah looked at her in surprise. “Robin, this dance is one thing, but I don’t want to go whale-watching with you and I don’t want to get back together.”
“We could go shopping, too.”
“Shopping? Did you not listen to anything I just said? I don’t care about shopping.”
“Then why are you with another wealthy woman like Amy Bergen? I didn’t know who she was in that lifeguard outfit, but I do now.”
“It isn’t like that,” Sarah said.
“No?” Robin asked.
“No,” Sarah answered. “Money may have been how you reeled me in, but it’s not that way with her.” Robin was so annoying. Sarah could kick herself for agreeing to this dance. “I didn’t even know her last name was Bergen until—” Sarah stopped. She didn’t need to explain herself to Robin.
“Until what?” Robin asked. “Oh, I see. Until after you slept with her.” She snickered.
Sarah stopped dancing, but Robin held on to her. “Okay, okay, my apologies. Maybe you’re a new woman, immune to the lure of money.”
Sarah took a breath and reluctantly resumed dancing. Hopefully, the song would end soon.
“But you’re clearly one of few such women here tonight,” Robin said with a pointed look through the crowd of dancers at Amy. Amy was dancing with yet another woman, another woman who was pawing her. “There are obviously plenty of women eager to get their hands in Ms. Bergen’s pockets and in more ways than one.”
“I’ve had enough of this dance.” Sarah pulled away from Robin and her insinuations and escaped back to the table.
Amy’s suit jacket was draped over a chair. Upon seeing it, Sarah sagged because it meant Amy had been back and Sarah hadn’t been here to reconnect with her, thanks to the dance with Robin. Amy had probably been waylaid by another groupie or auction donor and had left to dance again. Sarah was so frustrated she wanted to cry.
She looked at the dance area, scanning it for Amy. Yes, the woman now dancing with her was probably one of the donors, judging from her very expensive-looking dress. However, Sarah couldn’t be certain. She could be a parent of one of the junior lifeguards, she could be anyone. All Sarah knew was that Amy was dancing with yet another woman who wasn’t her.
Sarah pulled Amy’s suit jacket off the chair and snugged it around her for comfort while she waited for Amy to return. It smelled deliciously of her and she pulled it more tightly around herself.
One of the jacket pockets was kind of bulky. Sarah patted it. Something soft was in there. She reached in. Lacy red underwear! What the hell? Amy didn’t wear underwear like that—whose were they? Angelique’s? Red to go with that red tube dress? Jesus! Sarah flung them aside.
What the hell else was in that pocket? She reached in again. A napkin with a lipstick kiss and a phone number? Hey, wasn’t that Samantha’s number? Wanted to talk about the dealership, my ass! She tossed the napkin aside.
Sarah dug around more in the pocket. What the…? Another napkin with a phone number? And with a smiley face under the number, no less. Maybe it went with those lacy red underwear. Ugh, she didn’t even want to think about those.
And what was in the other pocket? A few business cards. Oh—so one pocket for business, one pocket for pleasure. Nice. Real nice.
Sarah jerked out of Amy’s suit jacket and flung it onto a chair just as Justin and Ron bounded over from the dance area. “Hey, now, what’s the matter?” Justin asked, taking gentle hold of her shoulder and scanning her face while Ron also looked on with concern.
Sarah wiped at her eyes. “Can you drive me home?”
“Sure, sweetie,” Justin said. “We’ll drive you home. We can go right now.”
Chapter Sixteen
The next morning, still hurt and fuming and not in the mood to answer Amy’s phone calls, Sarah went out to the backyard to do some weeding. Yanking weeds from the flower bed along the fence, she threw them into her gardening bucket.
Amy claimed not to be into flings and not to be into lifeguard groupies, but there she had been, collecting underwear and phone numbers all evening long! Maybe she just wanted something brief and simple after all. Maybe she just wanted someone fun and carefree, not someone complicated and serious who taught math and corrected her on how to give her cat a pill and tried to help her in the middle of doing her job in a rescue.
Sarah shook her head at herself. She had even bothered Amy with a question about whether she wanted kids. Amy had been a good sport about the question that night, but she probably hadn’t even been thinking that far ahead, probably didn’t even want to settle down. C
ome to think of it, she still hadn’t introduced Sarah to any of her family, even though they all lived in the area and even though she saw them frequently for brunch.
Summer would be over soon. Maybe their time together was ending with the end of this fling season. Maybe Amy would rather just choose someone new from the women fawning over her. There was certainly no shortage for her to choose from! Those women were unbelievable, trying to steal Amy right out from under her. If they knew about the rescue from the newspaper articles and TV shows, then they knew that Amy had a girlfriend. Did it not matter at all to any of them? Did it not matter to Amy?
Amy parked and hurried up to Sarah’s house. Sarah still wasn’t answering her phone and Amy was still desperate to explain about last night.
After Amy had found her suit jacket splayed on the seat of a chair and Angelique’s underwear on the ground nearby, along with the napkins with phone numbers on them, she had a pretty good idea of why Sarah had suddenly disappeared from the Lifeguard Luau. She had searched the Luau for Sarah, thinking that maybe she had taken a walk over to the silent auction again or to the catering tent, but she hadn’t found her. She had tried her cell phone, wanting to apologize and explain, but Sarah hadn’t answered. She had tried a few more times, but she still hadn’t answered.
Amy had then sent a text to her asking her to confirm at least that she had gotten home all right. She had gotten a terse response of “yes” to that. Justin and Ron must have driven her home, since they had suddenly disappeared as well.
Amy had debated whether to drive over last night, but it was clear that Sarah didn’t want to talk to her just then, so she had driven back to her condo instead. She was here now, though, and she had to get Sarah to listen. She rang the doorbell. There was no answer, so she rang again. Still no answer.
Sarah’s car was here, so Sarah was probably here too unless she was out riding her bike. She could be ignoring the doorbell, but maybe she was in the shower or in the backyard where she couldn’t hear it. Amy walked over to the fence and stood on tiptoe to peer over. Sarah was kneeling at a flower bed and pulling weeds with a certain amount of vigor. Amy girded herself for trouble and called out a greeting to her.