Chapter 18
18
M argo sighed when she and Carley arrived at her place. They'd been sensible and let Sid and Grace drive them home. She'd have to go pick up her car in the morning. Sure, she'd had a few drinks. So what? It was just what she needed to let go of some of the tension. And, dammit, Jace made her feel special. Beautiful. Desirable.
My god, how long had it been since she'd really and truly felt that way?
She sat on the sofa and kicked her sandals off. Carley sat in a chair across from her and toed her sandals off. Carley took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She pulled her phone from her purse and scrolled a bit.
Margo frowned. "If you're going to ignore me, I'm going to bed."
"I'm not ignoring you. I wanted to show you a couple of pictures." She found what she'd been looking for and came to sit next to her on the sofa. She held her phone in front of Margo and grinned. "Look."
She'd taken a picture of her and Jace dancing. They were smiling at each other, and she had her arms around Jace's neck. His arms were wrapped around her, and the muscles in his arms stood out to her. She'd felt that strength. Looking at him now, though, he was s-e-x-y.
"Wow," she whispered.
"I know. You too look so good together. I couldn't resist taking the pictures."
"Pictures? How many did you take?"
"Scroll."
She scrolled to the next picture, which was Jace's head thrown back laughing. It was incredible.
The next picture was them walking to the dance area hand in hand. He was easily ten inches or so taller than her. Her hair managed to keep some of its wave despite the humidity. She smiled as she stared.
Scrolling to the next picture was one of Jace whispering in her ear or chatting with her. She remembered him telling her he didn't think of himself as a flirt. He was happy. Why had she not recognized that? Happiness and flirting were not the same thing.
She scrolled once more and stared at the two of them looking at each other. She was telling him something.
Carley leaned in. "That's my favorite picture."
"Really? It's not the best one."
Carley giggled. "I know, but look over your shoulder."
She pulled the phone closer and looked. Sierra could be seen just behind her.
"Blow the picture up and look at her face."
With her thumb and forefinger, she stretched the picture and looked at Sierra's face. Margo grinned. "If looks could kill."
Carley laughed and clapped her hands. "That's what I thought." She sat back and rested her head on the sofa. "Logan was a dumbass."
Margo forwarded the pictures to her phone, then handed it back to Carley. She leaned back with her head on the sofa, too, and stared up at the ceiling with her sister. "I agree."
Carley chuckled and took Margo's hand in hers. They sat that way for a while and then she said, "Are we looking for your necklace tonight or tomorrow?"
"Tonight. I'll end up waking up about two in the morning otherwise, and start thinking about it."
Carly sat up with a sigh. "Okay. Let's go do it."
"You don't have to help me. You can get some rest if you like."
"Nope. I'm here with you and for you. Let's go."
Margo nodded. She stood, and they walked together down the hall to the master bedroom. Margo's jewelry box was built into the closet when she and Logan built this house. It was something that she'd always wanted and was so excited to have. She lifted the top of the jewelry box, pulled out the boxes that were inside, and handed them to Carley. Any nice piece of jewelry she had gotten, she kept in its box and put it away for safekeeping. She opened the drawers and pulled out boxes. Carly took them out and laid them on the bed. Once all of them were on the bed, they sat on the edge and opened the lid of each box. Her necklace box was not there.
Carley said, "I don't even know what to think. Why would he do that? That makes no sense. He could have just bought her a new necklace."
Margo shook her head. She scraped her fingers through her hair and stretched her back. The deeper we get into this whole ridiculous situation the more questions I have. None of it makes sense. None of it. I can't even imagine why he would come home here, have dinner with me, talk about business, and act like nothing was wrong while he was having an affair. I can't imagine that he took his estate planning folder out of the safe, had his will changed two years ago, and still had dinner with me and acted like nothing was wrong. Like everything was fine. We weren't lovey-dovey anymore. No. And you know, I can't even remember the last time we had sex, but he certainly wasn't angry toward me. We didn't have animosity. I simply don't understand it. And now the necklace."
Margo looked across the bed at all the jewelry. Over the years, she acquired a beautiful collection of necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. The weird thing was she seldom wore any of it anymore. When she was younger, she thought she wanted the jewels. But the Florida heat normally made her sweat, and she didn't like to wear jewelry that was hanging on her neck when it was so hot. Unless it was for a special occasion.
Carley stood. "I don't understand any of it either, Margo. It's the weirdest damn thing, isn't it?"
"It is, and now I don't even know how I'll ever get the answers I want."
"We could go to a...what do they call them? A medium and have a seance? We could ask that fucker."
Margo chuckled. "If he's this much of a coward, he won't even show up dead."
She looked at her sister and they both laughed. "I mean what more could you do?"
She laughed. Carley laughed, and then they laughed harder together, and it felt good to laugh. She shook her head. “I didn't even know if I could laugh, but it just seems to be so stupid, and I can't stop thinking about how much like a prank this is. Like I'm waiting for this fucker to come back and say, ‘Gotcha!’"
"That's what I was thinking, too."
Margo paced across the floor a couple of times, and then she froze. "Oh my god, I had this all insured." She ran to her closet, knelt, and opened the safe. She pulled some paperwork out of the safe and found the envelope she was looking for. She took it out to the bedroom and opened it up.
"Carley, I had that necklace insured."
They looked through the paperwork and found the document for the diamond necklace that Logan had given her. She had to take pictures of it. She had the information on the size, the carat weight, and the gold weight of the necklace. It was all included in the insurance papers. It was all there.
"He didn't give her this. He forgot about this."
Carley clapped her hands. "This is fantastic. You can turn this into the insurance company and put that little bitch in jail for theft."
"That's certainly an idea and one that I'm going to think about for a little while. But don't tell anybody about this just yet. I want to think on it long and hard before I put things into motion like that."
"I get it, but Margo this is great. This is...this is fantastic. You can at least threaten her with it. Watch her smug face fall."
"Right. Right, I can certainly do that. By the way..." she halted and waited for Carley to turn and look at her. "I asked Jace Marriott out on a date tomorrow night."
Carly's smile grew large, and she got up and ran to her sister and hugged her tight. "I'm so proud of you Margo. I am so proud of you. And, whew, he's a hottie."