Chapter Five
EMILY
By Friday night, I wasn’t worrying about the mess of a date that I’d dealt with Thursday afternoon. Instead, I was in a nice black dress on my way to a fundraiser dinner at Mama’s house for the Davidson Charitable Foundation. I glanced at the backseat. Juniper smiled in her cute little white dress.
I smiled back, even though my heart was thumping harder than I’d like. I’d never told Mama how the date with Logan had gone.
She’d been so busy with last-minute preparations for the fundraiser dinner that she didn’t even have time to harass me about my date.
I hoped she wouldn’t bother me about it until Saturday, but that all depended on what people decided to chat about at the dinner. Maybe a little redirection would be enough that I wouldn’t have to stand there with a bunch of socialites explaining why I all but ran out on the first decent man to look my way since my divorce.
At least that was the plan. Not a great plan, but it was a plan.
My phone rang, and I grabbed it from the console between the front seats after glancing down and seeing it was my mother.
“Mama?” I said. “Did you need something?”
“I’m so sorry, dear.” A long, defeated sigh followed.
My stomach clenched. Mama never apologized unless something awful happened.
“What?”
“I swear I did not know he was coming to this function. You know, more than anything, how much I despise that man.”
My mind reeled as I tried to figure out who the heck she was even talking about. For a second, I wondered if she meant Logan, but I doubt she’d ever describe herself as despising the man.
I gasped as I pulled up to a red light.
“Lionel?” I said.
“Yes, that cheating bum dared to show up to our fundraiser.” She sniffed disdainfully. “I doubt he’ll even participate in the silent auction.”
I wonder whether Mama’s opinion of the man would change if Lionel offered a huge check to the foundation. Fortunately for me, he was thorough in being a bum. Not only had he cheated on me, but he was also a cheap man when it came to anyone but himself.
“Maybe I should throw him out,” Mama said. “I don’t know if I can do that without making a scene.”
“It’ll be all right, Mama,” I said. “I’ll avoid him. He’ll get bored and leave sooner than later.”
“All right. I’ll see you soon, dear.”
* * *
Avoid my ex-husband. Sure, it was at my mother’s house, but she didn’t exactly have a small house. I figured it wouldn’t be that hard.
Right until I stepped into the foyer and spotted Lionel’s smug grin. He was wearing a black tuxedo. The fit was perfect. Then again, it always was. About the only time he wasn’t cheap was when it came to making himself look good.
“Lord help me,” I murmured to myself. I sucked in a deep breath. Though my heart was keeping a steady, normal beat, being around my ex threatened to send my heart pounding at any second. Mostly because I had to resist the urge to slap his cheating face.
“May I take your coat, ma’am?” a young woman in a uniform said near the door. I didn’t recognize her, so she must have been hired for the party. I took my coat off and helped Juniper out of hers before handing them both to the woman.
She gave me a bright smile and disappeared into a side room. That left me facing my ex-husband with only a naïve little girl as my backup, a little girl who loved her daddy and still didn’t understand why he couldn’t live with us anymore.
As if he could read my mind, Lionel smirked right at me. Oh, the bastard. He didn’t even have the decency to be ashamed of his behavior.
Lionel was a good-looking man, but he ruined it with all his constant smirking and smug looks. Staring at him, I wondered why he couldn’t be more like Logan, a good-looking man who didn’t always wear some stupid, arrogant look.
I blinked. Why was I suddenly thinking of Logan? Yes, the man had been tall, dark, and handsome and all that, but we’d had a ten-minute coffee break together, which I ran away from. For good reasons, mind you, but the last thing I wanted to do was start thinking about Logan Hawkins everywhere.
I didn’t need a man, and he sounded like he didn’t have time for a woman. Besides, right then, I stood there glaring at my ex-husband, a living reminder of why men can be more trouble than they are worth. He’d given me Juniper, and I loved my daughter, but other than that, I didn’t want to have to share the same room with him. Bless his heart. The bastard.
Juniper squealed and rushed over to her father. He swept her up into his arms and hugged her.
“How’s my little sweet pea?” he said, his voice almost a coo.
“I’m good, Daddy.”
“That’s great, Juniper. I have someone special for you to meet later.”
“Who, Daddy?”
“Oh, you’ll see. I also have a present for you.”
She let out a giggle of delight, and he set her down.
“Now, you go along and find your grandmother,” he said. “I have a few things I need to talk to your mama about.”
Juniper nodded quickly, gave me a wave, and hurried out of the foyer.
The woman who took my coat returned, and Lionel nodded toward the door.
“Why don’t we go outside and talk for a bit, Emily?”
I shrugged. It wasn’t that chilly outside, so I wouldn’t miss my coat for a few minutes.
He opened the door for me, the closest he’d come to be a gentleman in a long time, and I stepped through.
“What did you want to talk about, Lionel?” I said once we were outside.
“I’m here with a date.”
“And I care because?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t screw this up for me, Emily,” he said, his voice filled with venom.
I reconsidered my slapping plan. “Are you serious now? You’re the cheater, Lionel. Not me.”
“I can’t help it if you couldn’t give me what I needed.” He shrugged. “Maybe you should have just accepted it.”
“Shut your mouth, Lionel Blue. Or I’ll shut it for you.”
Lionel snorted, his taunting smirk returning. “Oh, no, Emily don’t be like that. We wouldn’t want to make a scene at your mama’s party, now would we? Oh, think of the scandal. Think of everything the ladies would whisper about her behind her back. And you, too.”
I gritted my teeth. Plenty of people already whispered about my bastard cheating ex-husband. I didn’t care about them talking about me, but I didn’t want to risk anything that might hurt Mama. Of course, Lionel knew that. He knew how and when to push me and get away with it. Calling him a snake was an insult to snakes.
“Just stay away from me, Lionel, and I’ll stay away from you. Deal?” I said.
“Fair enough.” He gave me a little salute. “You know what’s really pathetic?”
“Do you have to keep talking? Go away.”
He sneered and turned around, heading toward the door. “I’ve moved on, Emily. Maybe you should, too.”
“I divorced you. I did move on.”
Lionel chuckled and headed inside.
I groaned. This was going to be a long night.
* * *
Ten minutes later, I was at the open bar set up in the living room. It’d never been hard for me to get drunk on champagne, so that was my brilliant plan. I’d get a little tipsy. It was Mama’s house after all. If Juniper and I needed to stay the night, it wouldn’t be a problem.
I thanked the bartender as I gulped down half of my first glass. Then I saw Lionel and Juniper. Some blonde barely out of high school in a dress with her boobs spilling out was making cutesy faces at my daughter. Juniper laughed, and I gritted my teeth. How dare Lionel expose my daughter to his floozy of the month, especially one who was closer in age to Juniper than him.
My stomach twisted. I downed the rest of my glass of champagne.
“I’ll have another, please.”
The bartender nodded with a polite smile. It was a socialite party. I doubted he wasn’t already used to angry women trying to drink their problems away. Even if he was, I didn’t care.
I drained the glass in record time. Cloudiness had already set in from my first glass. In a few minutes, this second glass would move me from pleasantly buzzed to delightfully drunk.
“One more, please.”
The bartender smirked at me, and I almost said something but stopped myself. It wasn’t his fault my ex-husband was a bastard.
“You might as well pour a few more,” I said. “It’s going to be a long night.”
* * *
A half-hour later, I’d lost track of how many drinks I’d had. I’d gone way past delightfully drunk to wonderfully wasted. I didn’t normally like to drink so much, but my ex-husband’s appearance at the party with the woman on his arm had struck me to my core. But I wasn’t gone enough to not have some sense of self-preservation. I wandered the party now, sticking close to the walls and avoiding talking to anyone.
I could fake being sober when I walked, but I doubt I could convince anyone if I opened my mouth. At this point, I was probably sweating champagne.
Maybe, just maybe, if I hadn’t replaced most of my blood with champagne, I would have been smart enough to find a bedroom and collapse and sleep it off. Instead, I decided I needed to find some trouble. Bless my heart.
I wasn’t even sure what sort of trouble I was looking for. Just the idea of letting go completely really seemed good then.
I’d slipped into Mama’s huge dining room where a dozen people chatted away, drinks in hand.
A waiter held a tray of champagne. I thought about grabbing yet another glass, but someone else caught my eye. Logan Hawkins.
Shaking my head, I tried to concentrate on the man across the room. It couldn’t be him, right? At least that’s what my drunken mind kept trying to tell me. The little sober part still left reminded me that Logan’s mother swam in all the same social circles as my mother. It was why we ended up together on our sad, little half-date after all.
Sure, I’d not run into Logan at an event like this before, but it was like he said, age difference, and after that, the fact that both of us probably had been busy doing whatever. It didn’t matter. The handsome man now stood across from me in Mama’s house.
Logan chatted away with a friend of Mama’s. He glanced my way and then waved with a smile. Ever the polite society boy. I mean, I basically ran out on our date. If our positions were reversed, I didn’t know if I could be so nice.
When I saw him at the café, I’d already thought he was handsome. Now, though, in his tux, he was painfully handsome. Unlike Lionel, his smile seemed natural and not forced, even if a bit mischievous. He wasn’t some business-obsessed mama’s boy, but a hot man. A hot, unattached man. Just like I was an unattached woman.
Something about how calm he looked bothered me. I couldn’t put my finger on it. At least I couldn’t while drunk on champagne. He was too buttoned-down. I decided to show him a little fun.
Grinning to myself, I swayed slightly, the booze making it hard to stand without trouble. I waited patiently while he finished chatting with Mama’s friend. When she finally walked away, I strode straight toward him.
“Good evening, Emily,” he said.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him with me. His eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. I resisted the urge to giggle.
A huge potted ficus sat in a small darkened antechamber off the main room. Mama loved that plant if only because Daddy had bought it for her a few years back for her during her brief gardening phase.
I finished pulling Logan halfway behind the ficus.
“What’s wrong, Emily?” Logan said.
It was time for some fun. I planted my mouth on his.