Playing for Keeps (6 page)

And with Sarah helping me I couldn’t possibly bomb. I had ideas and knew flowers, but I was smart enough to realize there were trade secrets I didn’t know.

Another thing quickly becoming clear was that I’d been sent out woefully under-equipped to handle the assigned tasks. We never talked date or budget or anything concrete about what she wanted other than “perfect” and “just like Mom would have wanted.”

Nell and I were going to have a serious talk. I’d lay down the law, whip her into shape, and force her to let me do the flowers. After all, I deserved to have some fun for organizing this wedding.

Chapter Five

Good warriors cause others to come to them and do not go to others.

— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

As soon as I got home from my tour of local florists, I called Nell and ordered her to come over so we could talk.

She arrived three hours later. I was sitting at the kitchen table, nursing my second beer and mumbling to myself. The beer was for courage. The mumbling was to practice how I was going to lay down the law.

The back door opened. I expected Nell to breeze through the way she usually does, hanging her purse on the doorknob before closing it.

Instead, a small Wookiee darted in and did a lap around the kitchen table before rushing me with its head, which it buried in my crotch.

I screeched. The harder I shoved it away, the more it pressed itself into my business.

“
George
.” Nell snapped her fingers as she entered the kitchen. “
Down
.
Sit
.”

George must have decided he liked me because he jumped up and licked my face.

“Ugh.” I wiped the slobber with the back of my hand and scowled at Nell as she pulled him off. “Can’t you control your dog?”

“He’s a puppy, and he’s actually very well behaved for being so young.”

He didn’t look like a puppy. I don’t know much about dogs because we never had pets growing up but I remembered hearing you can tell the size a dog will be by how big his paws are.

I glanced down at them. “Holy crap. He’s going to be the size of a small horse.”

“The woman I bought him from assured me he wasn’t going to get very big.”

Yeah, right.

George lunged at me again and almost managed to make contact before Nell reined him in.

“Out.” I pointed at the door. “The dog stays outside.”

“Come on, Gracie. Don’t be such a hard ass.”

Was I being a hard ass? I rolled that around for a second. Then I pictured George peeing, or worse, on the rug in the living room. What were the chances he was housebroken? Then I tried to picture Nell cleaning up the mess, but the only image coming to mind was Nell running out the back, leaving me to deal with it.

“No way.” I shook my head. “The yard’s fenced in and he can run around and do whatever he likes out there.”

“It’s not like we’re going to be here long.”

I got up and opened the door. “Get him out of here.”

Nell grumbled but did what I said. But when she came back I could tell from the set of her jaw she was pissed.

She got unreasonable when she was pissed. I sighed as I sat down again. “We need to talk about the wedding.”

She crossed her arms. “What about it?”

“It’s six months away.”

“No shit. Is that what you called me over here for, to tell me the obvious?”

“Nell, you don’t have time to mess around. Did you know it could take six months to get your wedding dress? If you aren’t careful, you could end up walking down the aisle in something you’ve worn before.”

She gasped at the thought. “We’re going this weekend to look at dresses.”

I knew that’d properly horrify her. “Only it won’t be an aisle, because booking the church looks impossible at this point. Not that it makes any difference because have you even set a date yet?”

She opened her mouth but I pressed my advantage now that I had her attention. “I went to look at the florists today, and I gathered information for you, but I can’t honestly recommend one without knowing what you want and how much you want to spend. We never talked about a budget. You know I want to help, but I need a little more direction. It’s your wedding, after all.”

We sat in silence, frowning at each other for what seemed like forever before she said, “You’re right.”

I almost fell off my chair. That might have been the first time those words had ever crossed Nell’s lips.

She sighed. “Riley and I can’t agree on anything. We haven’t set a date yet because he wants it at the beginning of October and I want it at the end. The beginning works better with his schedule but it conflicts with my finance convention. And he wants to do the guest list first and then decide on a budget, but that’s so backwards. You have to do the budget first so you know how much to spend, right?”

I nodded, but I’m hardly an expert with money. I was thrilled when my bank offered online services because it meant I didn’t have to continue the pretense of balancing my checkbook.

“And we just found out that his parents are stopping by on their way to Mexico and we don’t know where to put them.”

“Riley doesn’t have space in his apartment?” I’d never seen it, but I’d pictured it to be huge.

“No. His place isn’t much bigger than mine.”

Which meant it
was
huge.

“So Riley thought he could crash at my place so they could have his, but I don’t know.” Her brow furrowed. “It seems like such an invasion of my space.”

“Uh, Nell?” I covered her hand with mine. “You’re marrying the man. In a few months, you’re going to be living with him all the time.”

“I know,” she wailed.

“If you aren’t ready to get married, wait a little while. It won’t hurt to wait a few more months.”

“No, I really do want to marry Riley. I love him.” She swiped at the drops that leaked from her eyes. “I’m going to stop by his apartment and straighten everything out. I’ll see you in the morning, okay? Our first dress appointment is at ten.”

I only cringed a little. “Sure.” I gave her a hug and walked her to the door.

George was waiting for us on the stoop. He had something dangling from his mouth, something that looked suspiciously like one of the white tulips I’d planted in the garden this year.

Nell shoved George down the steps before I could get a closer look. “See you later, Gracie.”

I tried peering around her but she kept moving, hiding him from my view. I glanced at the flowerbed and, sure enough, an entire row of tulips was gone.

“Next time keep that mutt locked in your car,” I yelled. Nell has selective hearing so I wasn’t positive she heard me.

I stomped back into the kitchen and decided to exorcise my anger by cooking dinner.

An hour later, I had a pot of meat sauce simmering and pasta ready to boil when and if anyone came home this evening. Daddy should have been home by now, but given the way he’d been acting lately I’d have been surprised to see him. It was Friday night—who knew where Chloe was?

Empty house. That meant one thing: bath time.

Our house has two full bathrooms as well as a half bath downstairs. You’d think I’d be able to soak in peace once in a while. No such luck. Every time I go to soak, whichever bathroom I pick gets invaded, usually by Chloe but occasionally by my dad. It’s almost worth it to watch him flush deep red. Even Nell interrupts from time to time. I think she times her visits specially to catch me in the tub.

It was rare to find myself home alone, and I intended to exploit it. I took the stairs two at a time, ran down the hall, and locked myself in.

I frowned at my nearly empty bottle of bubble bath. It was half full the last time I used it.

Chloe.

Shaking my head, I poured what was left in the tub and waited for it to fill before stepping in.

I felt infinitely better even with just my pinky toe wet. By the time I’d completely submerged my body I was in heaven. I took my hair down, dropped the rubber band on the floor, and dunked my head.

What was it about baths that were so soothing?

I let myself drift, lackadaisically creating bubble sculptures. I didn’t know how much time went by before the door began to rattle.

“Gracie, are you in there?”

“Go away, Chloe.”

“I have a date tonight and I need to get ready.” Pounding on door. “Let me in. I’ll be late.”

“Go away. I’ll be out soon.”

“But my makeup is in there.”

“Go
away
.”

Silence.

Nothing happened, so I relaxed, easing my body lower in the water, but several minutes later I heard a metallic scraping. The doorknob jiggled twice and then Chloe burst in, triumph written all over her face.

“Out.” I pointed at the door.

She ignored me. My sisters are good at that. Opening a drawer, she rifled around and pulled out assorted tubes, pencils, and compacts.

I wanted to stick my tongue out at her but what kind of example would that set for the brat? Instead, I hunkered down and tried to ignore her back.

“What time do we have to go try on dresses tomorrow?” When I didn’t reply, she glanced at me through the mirror as she applied mascara. “Sulking is really unattractive for someone as old as you.”

For once I wished I were as crude as the rest of my family so I could flip her off.

“What do you think I should wear tonight? I want something that says ‘strip me’ but that doesn’t imply that I’m a slut.”

“Chloe.”

“Knew that’d get you.” She grinned at me. She took out a compact and dusted some powder on her face. “Hey, what’s up with Daddy lately? I haven’t seen him in forever.”

I wondered where she and Nell learned to be so girly and why that gene skipped me. “How would you know? You’re never home.”

“I’m home enough.” She dabbed some gloss on her lips and studied her reflection. It must have met her satisfaction because she ran a brush through her hair a couple times and strode for the door.

“Come back and clean up your stuff.”

“I’m late. I’ll do it when I get back.” She waved over her shoulder on her way out.

“Don’t stay out too late,” I called after her. “We have to do the dress thing at ten tomorrow morning.”

The only response I got was her bedroom door slamming.

“Brat.”

I tried to stay in the tub longer but my peaceful mood was disrupted. Muttering under my breath, I got out, dried off, and put on the green terry cloth robe Nell made me buy. She said it made my eyes look like mysterious jewels. I told her she needed to lay off the crack.

I brushed the tangles out of my hair and left it down to dry. There was a pint of Cherry Garcia—my favorite—in the freezer and it was calling my name. I was positive it was there because I hid it behind a bunch of frozen meat. Otherwise, between my dad and Chloe, it’d have been gone in one day flat.

I was sitting on the counter, swinging my feet, and eating ice cream out of the bucket when someone tapped on the kitchen door. Pete. I smiled and motioned him in.

“I see I’m too late.” He held up the bag in his hand.

“Whatcha got?”

“It was supposed to be a surprise.”

Pete knows I love surprises. “Tell me.”

He pulled out a pint of Cherry Garcia. “But you already have some.”

“That’s okay.” I capped my container, put it back behind the ground beef, and reached for the one he brought me. “Yours probably tastes better.”

He laughed softly and leaned against the counter next to me, arms folded, watching me eat. “No Batman pjs tonight?”

“Nah.” I licked the spoon. “Batman’s in the wash, and I can’t find Superman. I think Chloe stole him.”

“Hmm.” He tugged on my hair. “I like it down. You should wear it this way more often.”

“It looks messy.”

“It looks sexy.” Pete rubbed the lock between two fingers.

“No, it doesn’t.”

He just stared at me. I tried to gage his thoughts by his eyes, but I’d never seen them this color before. They were definitely blue, but darker and more turbulent. I leaned in to get a closer look.

“Grace, what are you doing?”

“Nothing.” I squinted at them, puzzled by this new hue. What did it mean?

“Grace?”

I shook my head. Strange. I ate another spoonful of ice cream as I tried to figure it out.

Then I became conscious of his gaze dropping to the neckline of my robe. I looked down and noticed it’d fallen open—not completely but enough to show I had nothing on underneath. I blushed. There wasn’t much to stare at, but it was all hanging out.

Pete was probably marveling my lack of endowment. I rushed to cover up but his hands beat me to it.

“Here.” He tugged the neckline closed, his hands fisted around the collar.

The air around us changed. It became thick and hot like I’d left the oven on. My nipples tightened, breath caught in my chest, and I couldn’t breathe.

Pete’s eyes darkened and for a horrified moment I thought he was going to kiss me. But he let go and stepped back.

“I should get going. Enjoy your ice cream.” He walked out without the customary goodbye peck on the cheek or tugging my hair.

I thoughtfully licked at a spoonful and watched him leave. That was
weird
.

I probably imagined it. Yeah. Because Pete was just a friend. Even if my nipples didn’t believe it.

Chapter Six

The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy but does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him.

— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

For once in her life Nell arrived on time.

She breezed in at nine thirty the next morning, a cheery smile on her face and George trailing behind her. “Good morning.”

George tugged on his leash, wanting to go back out but Nell yanked him inside and closed the door.

“He goes outside.” Then I thought about my poor tulips. Which was worse: a bed of decapitated flowers or a shitty rug?

Right. “Take him outside, Nell.”

“Oh, he’s so cute.” Chloe abandoned her cereal and waved him over. George, excited by the attention, jumped straight into her lap and gave her doggy kisses. “Come here, boy. That’s right. Good boy.”