No Strings Attached (The Escort #1) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Leah

“
I’m So Proud Of You
,” my mom repeated what she’d said close to a hundred times since I told her about the show. I never got tired of hearing it. She squeezed me, rocking me side to side, and she felt tiny in my arms. I was so glad to be home. “This is a really beautiful idea, Leah. I’m glad you’re going to be using your talent to help people who need it. Your sister would’ve loved this.”

“She’d be right down in the trenches with us.” I blinked back tears. Holidays without Lisa were rough, but that’s what traditions were for, so we could keep her with us. “I’ll make her proud, I promise.”

“What the hell happened to you?” Dad asked Raven right before Mom and I both lost our shit. He poked at the side of her head, which now sported a half inch of blonde regrowth. “You get in a fight with your hairdresser?”

“No.” She ducked away from him, smoothing out the rest of her hair.

“She did it to herself. On purpose.” I laughed. It had grown on me, and now I thought it was cute. “Raven, don’t you dare let your grandfather bring our bags upstairs.”

“I won’t.” She took her bag back from Dad and rolled my suitcase away. We wouldn’t see her again for a couple hours. Holidays put Raven on complete social overload.

“Give me those,” Mom said, taking the shopping bag of gifts away from me. “I’ll put them under the tree.”

The house smelled heavenly. Pine and fresh baking surrounded me like a hug. Nothing had changed in my parents’ house since I’d moved out. While that would irritate me anywhere else, I welcomed it here. The one thing that had remained constant my whole life.

“What do you need help with?” I asked.

“You just got here. Relax,” Dad insisted, motioning for me to sit down. “Want some coffee?”

“Always.” I didn’t sit, instead opening the fridge under the guise of grabbing cream but I had an eye out for unfinished projects. “What are the hard boiled eggs for?”

“Deviled eggs,” Mom called out from the living room. Score. “You love those.”

I handed Dad the cream and he eyed the eggs in my other hand. “What are you doing? Sit down and have some coffee, for Christ’s sake.” My dad’s superpower was the ability to weave profanity into any sentence.

“Starting the eggs. I’m not used to sitting and doing nothing.” I brought them over to the sink to peel them.

“Leah, I can do that.” Mom tried to take the plate away from me.

“I have an ulterior motive.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her. “I’m dying for these.”

“Your pocketbook is buzzing,” Dad announced as he put my coffee down on the table, trying to bait a trap for me. “Your phone or some damn thing is going off.”

“My phone probably.” I wiped my wet hands on my jeans and dug in my bag. I was hoping it was another picture from Jagger. He’d gotten my package and took a picture of himself wearing the hat, scarf, and nothing else. Later a video followed of him eating the brownies. Naked.

This was the gift that kept on giving.

I responded, encouraging him to do something with the lingerie. I had to angle the phone just in case my dad got a chance to know Jagger way better than I ever wanted him to.

Nope. One missed call. From Rich.

Ugh.

Rich only called me for two reasons: to wheedle more time with Raven or to bitch about how much money the court ordered him to give me each month. Even he wasn’t tacky enough to complain about money on Christmas. My heart fell into my stomach. I’d been hoping to get through this trip without any contact.

“Rich Manfredi.” Bastard. Like he couldn’t see it was me on his caller ID.

“It’s Leah.” I made a face at the phone. Dad grumbled something about wanting to crack nuts. He wasn’t a fan of the ballet and we’d never roasted anything over an open fire, so I contained my chuckle. “You called?”

“Yeah,” he grunted, clearly just as excited to speak to me. “My mom asked me to invite you to our party tomorrow night. She wants to see you.”

Rich’s mom had been sick on and off for the last couple of years, complications from diabetes. I liked her, much more than her son, so he picked the right string to tug on. “Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve. We do that here.”

“I know, but that’s all she’s doing this year. She hasn’t been feeling great and she’s on a restricted diet.” Rich actually sounded concerned. Shit. She must not be doing very well. “She asked to see you.”

“Hang on.” I put the phone against my shoulder. My mom made no effort to hide that she’d been eavesdropping. “Judy’s asked for me to stop by Rich’s house tomorrow night.”

“That’s fine, honey. Go. We’ll work around it.” Mom took the plate of peeled eggs away from me.

“I’ll be there,” I said to Rich. “But I’m keeping Raven for breakfast the next morning.”

“That’s fine.” He was being way too agreeable. “Bring your folks, too. It would be nice to have everyone together again.”

**

“I should’ve gotten drunk first.” I sighed and pressed my forehead against the car window. Dad turned on to Rich’s street, my old street, and it didn’t matter how much time had passed. Nothing could make the sickening feeling of walking back into the too-small skin of my old life. No matter what I’d accomplished or how happy I was, Harborside Drive would forever be a memorial to my failures.

“Leah!” Mom turned around to scold me. “You talk like that in front of your daughter?”

I shot a glance over to Raven, catching her smirk. “Of course I do. I won’t pretend to be something I’m not.” Mom shook her head and turned around. “I did that for fourteen years and look where it got me.”

Cars lined the street in front of the house. Once Dad parked, everyone got out of the car, but I needed a minute. “Ma, come on. It’s not that bad.” Raven looked back in from the open door.

“Liar.” I still didn’t move.

She crawled back into the car. “The quicker we do this, the quicker we can go back to Grandma’s and watch movies.”

That’s my girl.

But it made me a little sadder that she didn’t want to be here, either. This was her home once, too.

Mom grabbed my hand as we caught up to them on the walkway. “Judy didn’t look so hot the last time I saw her,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to be surprised.” Mom volunteered at the hospital. She started doing it after we lost Lisa. I had no idea how, I couldn’t set foot in one of those places anymore.

I nodded. Anxiety had me tight in its grip and any word would come out like a squeak.

Raven led the way. She had a bed here and didn’t have to knock. I’d forever feel like an intruder as I took my boots off and put them in the pile near the door. Shelley had put white carpet in the living room over my beautiful hardwood floors. Who put carpet anywhere anymore? The living room was full, and they were excited to see Raven. Anyone with a purple, whatever the hell her hairdo was called, was bound to get a reaction. The reception cooled when they realized she’d brought an entourage.

“Oh, you came.” Shelley’s sister wrinkled her nose at me when she took my coat, shunning me in what used to be my fucking house.

“I’m not staying long.” I could hardly breathe. My parents were talking to Rich, who had Raven in some weird headlock type hug that she was definitely hating.

“Don’t cause trouble tonight,” she mumbled before turning away from me. “It’s Christmas.”

It was possible no one saw me make a face behind her back, and if they did, they couldn’t be all that surprised. I joined my parents. “Hey, Rich.” I tried to play it cool, like the last time I saw him face to face he hadn’t told me and anyone within earshot that he never loved me. There was no way he could top that performance. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Leah.” He took a step toward me, letting Raven go, but didn’t touch me. “Thanks for coming tonight.”

Okay, someone was on their best behavior. “Is your mom in the kitchen?”

His face fell. “She decided to stay home. She wasn’t feeling well.”

I turned on my heel. “I’m out of here.” There was no reason to stay.

“Leah.” My mom had a way of packing too much meaning into my name. She grabbed my arm before I had a chance to make a clean getaway. “We’re here. We might as well stay.”

“Why?” I hissed, shooting a look back to Rich. Whatever mask he usually wore fell, and the naked disgust was plain on his face. “This isn’t my home anymore.”

Mom pulled on my arm tighter. “Don’t make a scene.”

Whose side was she on? “I’m not.” And I’d never win this staring contest. “Fine. I’ll have a drink and then we can go. Raven wants to watch movies.”

“Please stay, Leah.” All the little hairs on my neck stood up as Shelley put her hand on my back. “Everyone’s coming over, and I told them you’d be here.”

“We’ll stay for a little bit.” I didn’t return Shelley’s smile. I could never be that fake. “I was hoping to see Judy.”

“She wanted to come, but she was exhausted. They changed her medication and so far, it’s not quite right. Let me get you a glass of wine. I have a couple questions for you anyway.” Shelley headed over to the bar area and took the lid off of a crock pot. “This is my first attempt at mulled wine. It’s pretty good, I think.”

“It smells good.” Maybe this wouldn’t be absolute torture. My parents had settled on the couch and started chatting with some of my old neighbors.

“So I got a new headboard for our bed,” Shelley said with an apologetic smile. I didn’t buy it for a second, everything she did was calculated, especially when it came to me. I took a long sip of the wine, burning the back of my throat. It actually was good, but the taste she’d left in my mouth was impossible to rinse away. “It’s black leather and it’s got indented buttons. I was wondering what I should get for bedding? The flowered stuff I have looks ridiculous.”

It sounded hideous. That crap was awful in an office and it certainly didn’t belong in a bedroom. “That’s a pretty masculine look. You’ll have to go with something bold.”

“I was thinking that, too. Do you think red would work?”

In a brothel
. I choked on my wine. “Maybe something Asian would be nice with it.”

“I’m here!” Ugh. Beth felt more comfortable in my old house than I did. It was a sure sign of the apocalypse. “Traffic was terrible and the airport was a zoo.” She addressed the entire room and kissed Shelley’s cheek, completely ignoring my existence. Good. “I told you all I was bringing a date this year. Here he is!”

This ought to be good. I turned around and dropped my wine on the floor when I saw Jagger standing in the doorway.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Leah

“
What The Fuck
?” Everyone in the room was staring at me, their faces contorted as my vision started to tunnel. Hot wine soaked into my socks. But I couldn’t move, couldn’t tear my eyes away from Jagger. I only knew this was real because he looked just as horrified as I felt.

“You know Jagger, Leah.” Beth sauntered back over to him, putting her hands on his arm. He shook away from her, eyes locked on mine like he was trying to send me a silent message. But she grabbed him, harder this time. “Anybody who pays enough money can spend time with him.”

“What are you talking about?” Shelley played dumb, but there was no way she wasn’t in on whatever this was. A nightmare. “Isn’t that the guy that Leah brought to the reunion?”

“He is.” She was so goddamn proud of herself.

Rich walked between me and Jagger, clouding the small circle that hadn’t completely blacked out of my vision. “What the hell is going on?” He glared at me, like this was my fucking fault. “What’s this guy doing in my house?”

Words failed me. It didn’t matter what I said, no lie would change the fact that Beth was paying Jagger to be here right now, the most perfect instrument in the ongoing ballad of my humiliation. Jagger was the only thing I could see clearly; his eyes dark, his lips pressed together. He’d pulled away from Beth again, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off of me.

“Let me explain,” Beth said loudly, walking away from Jagger and closer to the living room. I didn’t dare turn around. The silence spoke for the audience assembled behind me. “I got to the reunion early and saw this beautiful man alone at the bar, asking the bartender a ton of questions. I figured I could help him out, if you know what I mean. He told me that he was meeting his date later on and he wasn’t familiar with the area. But he gave me his card. I guess in case things didn’t work out with his
date
.” Beth’s smile spread slowly across her face as she twisted the knife in my gut with amazing precision. Evil like this didn’t just happen. It was cultivated and refined until it became a deadly poison. “Imagine my surprise when his date turned out to be Leah! Something wasn’t right about it. She wasn’t his type. A guy like this would have a skinny little model on his arm, especially since he claims to be a photographer. His website is full of pictures of junk. So I kept digging, and my search brought me to this forum where women were talking about men they hired to have sex with them.

“I didn’t even know you could do such a thing. I mean, that’s disgusting! Leah wouldn’t do something like that, right? But there couldn’t have been two people named Jagger Holiday. I asked them more questions and they gave me the information for his agency. I needed a referral, so I gave Leah’s name.” She shrugged, and she spoke to me like I was the only person in the room. “And here we are. Merry Christmas!”

“Dear God,” my mother said softly. My parents heard every word of that. I wanted to die.

“Oh my God.” Shelley’s mouth dropped, and she looked between me and Beth. It was so fucking staged. She was in on the fix all along. That’s why Rich asked me here. Not to see his dying mother. To humiliate me in front of everyone I knew. “You’re saying that Leah brought a male prostitute to our reunion?”

“Pretty much.” Beth laughed.

“What hell is wrong with you, Leah?” Rich got right in my face, bright red. “This is what you’re doing with the money I send you every month?”

I wasn’t thinking in terms of words anymore. Just red hot emotion. Something inside me erupted. I’d been driven from this house in shame once, and I’d be damned if it happened again. “No. It’s what I’m doing with
my
money. Yeah. I hired Jagger to go to the reunion with me.” I looked over to him and winked. He looked like he was going to pass out. I took a step toward the two wicked bitches and my ex-husband. “And let me tell you something, it was the best money I ever spent. You want to know why? Because now I know how a man is supposed to treat a woman.”

Rich burst out laughing. “Oh, this is too much. Leah hired a hooker and thinks she’s in love.” He shook his head and pinched between his eyes like he was trying to stop tears. I wanted to punt his pig head like a football.

“No. I thought I was in love with you, Rich. But you proved me wrong.” I marched over to Jagger and took his arm. “He hasn’t yet. That’s the difference.”