ARROGANT MASTER (15 page)

BELLAMY

“Go say hello to your future in-laws.” My mother elbows me
in the back as she carries a giant bowl of potato salad out the back patio
sliders. “You’re standing around like you’re shy, but you’re coming off as
rude.”

She’s wearing her clown lipstick again. I suppose it makes
her feel special, or maybe it makes her standout amongst the younger wives.
Either way, I’m fully prepared for her to prance around like some made-for-TV
mom and feign excitement when she swaps recipes with Cortland’s mom and the
other McGregor sister wives.

She lives for this stuff, and it’s only gotten worse since
we moved away from our old ward and stopped going to our old church where she
had an ‘in’ with a handful of church cliques.

“Judy, is it?” I hear her say sweetly to one of
Cort’s
moms. “Hi, I’m Jane. I’m Bellamy’s mother. Mark’s
first wife.”

On any other planet…

I tune her out as I stir the punch. The mountain of orange
sherbet refuses to melt with the ginger ale, but that’s okay. I’m not going
outside until this punch is damn good and ready. My hand reaches for my side
pocket, feeling for the rectangular outline of my phone. The clock above the
kitchen sink reads twelve-fifteen, and twelve hours from now I’ll be behind the
walls of Dane’s Golden Oak estate. I can only imagine how lavish it is. Knowing
him, every square foot of that place is elaborately outfitted from the floors
of his foyer to the shelves of his refrigerator. There’s something inherently
sexy about a man who pays attention to detail and has an affinity for the finer
things in life.

Or maybe it just holds an exotic appeal since my entire life
has consisted of blue carpet, Thomas
Kinkade
reproductions, and tater-tot casserole.

Either way, I can’t wait to see
it,
though I have a feeling we’ll be spending most of our evening behind the closed
doors of his master suite.

I should be more nervous than I am, but for whatever reason
I’m bursting with confidence today. Maybe it was the pampering yesterday and
the anticipation of slipping into the silky black mini-dress I snuck home in
the bottom of my bag today.

“Bring that outside, will you, Bellamy?” Summer stands in
the doorway, one foot in and the other out. “And grab some of those red plastic
cups.”

Just like that, I’m right back down to earth, smack dab in
the middle of my current reality. The sherbet appears to have melted, so I take
that as my sign. Besides, the sooner I get out there, the sooner this can all
be over with.

“There she is!” Judy flashes a wide smile and opens her arms
to greet me with a hug like she does every time I see her at Bible study. I
place the sloshing punch bowl on a nearby table and return her gesture. She’s
sweet enough, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s aware she raised a son who
uses sex and threats to manipulate women.

My father watches us from across the yard. He stands next to
Cort’s
father, and they’re both sipping lemonade and
steering clear of the children running circles around them. I loosen my posture
and offer him a relaxed
smile,
not wanting him to have
any reason to think this entire situation fills me with dread.

“How’s my girl?” Cortland’s voice sneaks up from behind me,
and my body clenches before it remembers he can’t touch me right now in the
presence of family.

“Hi.” I turn to him and grin like I’m some lovesick puppy
dog. “Haven’t seen much of you these last couple days.”

“Wasn’t expecting someone’s boss to get her a Land Rover,”
he says. “I kind of liked taking you to work the other morning.”

“The Land Rover is borrowed,” I say. “He didn’t give it to
me. And you made me late.”

I say it all like I’m razzing him, but I’d love nothing more
than to punch him across his perfect, cleft chin.

Judy releases a nervous giggle.

“She’s teasing me, Mom,” he says, playfully jabbing the side
of my arm in slow motion. “It’s what she does, this one. She’s spirited. It’s
one of the things that initially drew me to her.”

And that point goes to
Cortland.

“Ah. So you two
are
perfect together.” Judy looks at her son like he’s truly God’s gift, but I’m
dying for her to elaborate since she clearly deemed him
spirited
as well.

What does she know?

“Hey, hey.” Cortland’s father comes up behind Judy and
places his hand on her shoulder. She covers it with her own and brushes her
cheek against it. How could two sweet human beings give birth to such a
monster? “Your dad went to check on the burgers, but I thought I’d steal you
away for a bit if I could.”

My phone buzzes in my pocket, sending my heart into a state
of arrhythmia. My fingers twitch, resisting the urge to whip it out right here
and now to see what Dane wants. He’s probably reminding me about tonight.

Like I could possibly
forget.

Or maybe he sent a special message to amp me up a bit.

Because
I’m not already buzzing with anticipation.

I flatten my hand against the rectangular outline in my
pocket and then nod. “I’m so sorry. I just need to check this quick. It’s
probably my boss. I’ll be right back.”

I bite away the stupid grin on my face and yank the phone
out, carrying it over to a secluded corner of the backyard. It fumbles out of
my hand and lands into the grass face down, and I curse its slickness. I need
to get a cover for this thing.

When I bend down to grab it out of the grass, a
Sperry-covered foot appears out of nowhere and lands right on top of it. I
glance up, squinting through the bright sun to see my beloved tormentor.

“Really, Bellamy?” Cortland says, his arms folded.

I push his calf until he steps off my phone, and I quickly
jam it into my pocket before he has a chance to see anything on the screen.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit rude?” he asks. “My father
asked to talk to you, and you ran off the second your phone went off.”

Yes, it was extremely rude. I will absolutely own that. But
he doesn’t understand the consequences I might face if I don’t respond to Dane promptly.

“My boss is pretty demanding.” I roll my eyes and huff as if
Dane texting me is an unfortunate burden.

“It’s a Saturday.”

“Exactly. He’s such a slave-driver, that guy.”

“What could he possibly want from you?”

“He was gone the last couple days. Maybe he has a question
about a report I did?” My brows meet in the middle. “Your guess is as good as
mine.”

“I think he can spare you for the next few hours.”
Cortland’s uncrosses his arms before resting his hands on his hips and blowing
his sandy hair from his eyes. “Come on. Stick with me. Let’s show our families
how perfect we are together. And go apologize to my father. Don’t ever pull
that stunt again.”

If he were Dane he’d yank me inside, give me thirty whacks,
and then fuck me in the mouth.

I curse Cortland with every step I take toward Walter and
Judy, and I don’t need eyes in the back of my head to know he’s burning holes
into my back with his stare.

“I’m so sorry about that, Walter,” I say. “I just started a
new job, and I’m still trying to get a good grasp on that work-life balance.”

It’s a term I’d only ever read about in psychology and human
development classes. It’d been mentioned briefly in random chapters when
discussing modern day stressors working adults faced.

“Oh, my Walter knows all about that, don’t you honey?” Judy
pats him on the arm. “You’re talking to a man who doesn’t know how to take a
day off.”

“Vacation days are for corporate drones,” Walter says. “When
you own your own business, you don’t get things like holidays and paid vacation
days.”

Judy laughs and stares up into a carefree, cloudless sky.

“Good thing this job is only temporary.” Cortland stands so
close behind me I sense the heat of his breath on the back of my neck. We
aren’t touching, but we’re damn close. He’s doing it on purpose. “As soon as
we’re married, you’ll be too busy keeping house and chasing after kids, you’ll
forget you ever even had a job in the city.”

My phone vibrates again. I’m not sure how long its been, but
I can only imagine Dane getting stirred up thinking I’m ignoring him.

“Oh,
Cort
, she’s got plenty of
time before she has to start popping out babies,” Judy says.

Thank you, Judy.

“Wait a year or two, sweetie. If you’re anything like me,
once you start, you won’t be able to stop!” She chuckles. “Babies were like
potato chips for me. I couldn’t have just one.
And as cute as
little
Cort
was as a baby?
You’re in for a
real treat.”

Gag me.

“Marcy!” Judy yells over toward another sister wife. “Wasn’t
Cort
just the cutest baby?”

“Sure was,” she yells back. “He won first place in the cutest
baby contest at the Woodfield County Fair.”

Cortland blushes, smiling wide and showing off his camera-ready
smile. There’s no denying he’s an attractive man, and I believe his mothers
when they say he was a cute baby, but there’s no way on God’s green earth I’ll
ever incubate anything of his.

“So have you always lived in Whispering Hills?” I have to
change the subject. It’s way too early to be discussing babies, especially when
we’ve only been courting for a couple months, and there’s not even a set
wedding date yet.
And because it’s just not going to happen.
“I don’t recall seeing
Cort
at the high school, and
he would’ve been a couple grades above me, right?”

“We homeschooled, Bellamy,” Walter says, his thumb hooking
through the belt of his dad jeans. “That’s the McGregor way.”

“We’ll do the same,” Cortland says. “Our children will never
see the inside of some government funded, institutionalized, Godless public
school.”

I’m sure his parents put those words in his mouth.

“I loved attending public school.” I shrug, my eyes darting
from Walter’s to Judy’s. “I think I turned out all right. You should see my
sister, Waverly. Little Miss 4.0.
Never so much as a tardy on
her record.
Gets to school early every single day. Epitome of
responsible and intelligent.”

I wish my sister were here, or one of my mothers.
Someone who could back me up.

“I’m going to stir the punch,” I say, stepping away and
realizing Walter never did pull me aside like he wanted to. No telling what he
was going to say to me, but I can only imagine it wasn’t going to be anything
that might make me feel any better about the direction this situation is
headed. “Be back in a bit.”

Offering a wave, I slip out of their little circle and make
a beeline for the food table where Waverly’s already stirring the murky
contents of the punch bowl.

“Scoot over,” I whisper, taking the ladle out of her hands.

“Huh?” She scrunches her nose but steps aside.

I glance around to make sure our immediate vicinity is
clear. Dad’s several feet away, but the sizzle of the grill and the carefree
shrieks of children should drown out anything I might say right now.

“I had to get out of there,” I mutter.

“Must be pretty nerve-wracking.” She nods, watching me
carefully, “wanting your in-laws to like you and all.”

I laugh, tucking my chin against my chest. “I don’t care
about that.”

“Cortland being too clingy today?”

“That’s everyday.”

“You don’t even act like you like him half the time.”
Waverly’s statement sends a shock to my heart. I’ve been trying my damnedest to
act like I like him, but if she sees through me, I’m a goner. “I mean, you act
like it around them. But with me, you’re a totally different person when you
talk about him.”

Thank God.

I release a harbored breath and nod. “It’s just not all
raindrops on roses all the time. Relationships are challenging. They’re a lot
of work. I just don’t want to give our parents any reason to worry about any of
this.”

“They really want you guys to work out.”

“I know.”

“Just promise me you won’t marry him if you don’t love him.”

“I promise.” With my pointer finger pressed hard into my
chest, I draw a slow ‘X.’

“Punch looks good,” she says.

When I glance down, I see I’ve created a mini tornado in the
bowl. I stirred so hard it’s swirling.

“Guess so.” I tap the ladle on the side and set it down. On
the other side of the yard, all the sister wives have gathered around a picnic
table and are apparently ignoring the major kid fight going on over some bright
green kickball. “I think your negotiating skills are requested over there.”