Chapter 13 #2
“That’s kind of you to say. It was nice to see you again, but I’d better go join my family.” Thinking of the McCarthys as her family reminded Abby that she’d once expected to be a McCarthy, but that hadn’t happened.
As she walked away, Les—or Len—called after her. “Still can’t believe you’ve got six kids. You’re one smoking-hot mama!”
When she realized the McCarthys had heard what he said, her face got very warm as Adam stood and held a chair for her. Big Mac also stood in a show of respect that Abby found charming. She’d always had a great big crush on him.
“You look gorgeous,” Adam said when he returned to his own chair.
“Thank you. I went shopping today. Time for something new.”
“I saw something just like that dress in Tiffany’s store,” Linda said.
“That’s where I got it. She’s done a wonderful job with the store, and she’s exceptionally good at getting her customers to part with their money.”
“That she is,” Linda agreed.
“What the heck have you bought there, Mom?”
“None of your business, honey.”
“Oh my God,” Adam muttered.
“Just because there’s snow on the roof doesn’t mean the fire’s out, son,” Big Mac said with a wide grin, making Adam groan.
Abby couldn’t help but laugh at his distress.
“So you’ve got six kids now?” Linda asked, winking at Abby. “You work fast.”
Abby glanced at Adam, uncertain how she should respond.
“That guy was hassling her last night,” he said, “so we made up a little story.”
“Is that right?” Big Mac said, eyebrow raised in inquiry as he studied his son.
Chelsea came over to take Abby’s order.
“Saved by the bartender,” Adam said. “I’ve never been so happy to see you, Chelsea.”
“Well, that’s nice to hear. What can I get you, Abby?”
“White wine, please.” She’d learned her lesson with tequila.
While it supposedly made some women take their clothes off, apparently it made her confess her deepest darkest secrets.
She still couldn’t think about the things she’d told Adam last night without wanting to die, so she didn’t allow her brain to go there.
“What’s your pleasure? Pinot? Chardonnay?”
“I’ll try Pinot, please.” Truth be told, she had no idea what the difference was between the various types of wine, so she’d have to experiment and find one she liked.
She used to drink Chardonnay once in a while, mostly to be sociable when she was with Grant, but she’d never really tried anything else.
Well, until she started swilling tequila.
“Coming right up.”
“Another round for us, too, please, sweetheart,” Big Mac said.
Chelsea seemed to melt a little when Big Mac called her sweetheart, but then again, she was only human.
“It’s so nice to see you, Abby,” Linda said. “We’re sorry to hear things didn’t work out with Cal.”
“I was sorry, too.” She hesitated to say more but could tell from the earnest expressions on the faces of Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy that they were interested in what’d happened. “It was different in Texas. We didn’t… It didn’t work there.”
“That’s too bad,” Linda said. “But better to find out now than after the ‘I dos.’”
“Yes, that’s true.” Anxious to turn the conversation away from her sorry love life, Abby tried to think of something else they could talk about. “You must be excited about being grandparents again. Congratulations.”
“We’re thrilled for Janey and Joe,” Big Mac said. “Can’t wait for August.”
“She’ll have a lot on her plate with the baby and school,” Abby said.
“If anyone can handle it, she sure can,” Linda said.
“That is so true,” Abby said.
The conversation seemed to lag a bit, making Abby wonder why Adam was being so quiet.
Couldn’t he contribute something? But no, he sat there fiddling with his beer bottle and sneaking looks at her as she talked to his parents.
And why did he keep looking at her? Was there something on her dress?
She glanced down to find nothing other than a little more breast than she normally showed, but nothing obscene.
She looked up, met his gaze and tried to challenge him to look elsewhere, but he kept his eyes locked on her, almost daring her to look away.
Chelsea arrived with their drinks, which gave Adam something else to focus on besides her chest.
It wasn’t lost on Abby that her entrance had bowled him over. That was ridiculously flattering and did amazing things for her self-confidence. If only his parents weren’t watching their every move, she might be able to enjoy his reaction a little more.
As she took a sip of her wine and pondered the deeper meaning of their attraction to each other, his hand landed on her thigh—under her dress. She choked on her wine, which somehow ended up in her windpipe. The coughing fit that followed was almost as embarrassing as telling Adam her sex secrets.
He patted her on the back until she’d coughed the wine out of her windpipe.
“Sorry about that,” she croaked, mortified as she dabbed at her eyes.
Linda pushed a glass of ice water toward Abby. “Have a drink.”
As she drank from the cool glass of water, she caught Adam giving her a smug smile and wanted to smack him. He knew exactly what he’d done to her—for the second time that day—and wasn’t the slightest bit sorry. Between that and stealing her clothes at the beach, he was batting a thousand today.
“They told me I might find you in here, darlin’.”
Abby froze at the sound of the familiar voice. This could not be happening. She looked up to find Cal gazing down at her, seeming perplexed by the glass of wine sitting in front of her.
His eyes slid over the front of her dress, stopping at her chest and then moving back up to her face. He greeted the McCarthys and shook hands with Big Mac and Adam. “Could you spare me a minute or two?” he said to Abby. “I came all the way from Texas to see you.”
She had no idea what to say. Was she on a date with Adam? Would he understand if she left to talk to Cal? “I…um… We’re—”
“Go ahead,” Adam said. “We’ll wait for you.”
Only the tight set of his mouth told her he was unhappy with the turn of events. And was it wrong of her to be so glad that he was clearly dismayed by the appearance of her ex-fiancé? “I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she said to Adam, loud enough for Cal to hear.
“We’ll be here.”
“Excuse me,” she said to Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy, who seemed intrigued by the drama playing out before them. She hated playing the starring role. She hoped they knew that. When had her life turned into such a three-ring circus?
With that question foremost on her mind, Abby got up on trembling legs and let Cal guide her from the bar with a hand on her back.
She wanted to tell him not to do that. She wanted to remind him that he no longer had a right to touch her in that proprietary way, but she was more concerned about getting out of there without making another scene.
“Better watch out, pal,” Les or Len said. “Her husband won’t take kindly to you touching her.”
Cal’s normally amiable expression turned hostile in an instant. “Her husband won’t, will he?”
“Come on, Cal,” Abby said, pushing him from the bar into the lobby.
She headed toward a somewhat secluded arrangement of chairs in front of the fireplace and took a seat.
Her stomach ached as Cal’s reappearance reminded her of all the hopes she’d once pinned on him—hopes that had been dashed when she saw him with his ex-girlfriend and discovered they still had significant feelings for one another. Don’t forget that.
Rather than sit in the chair next to hers as she’d expected him to, he stood, hands on hips, fuming. “What the hell is going on here, Abby? What was that guy talking about? What husband?”
“It’s something I told him to get him to leave me alone.”
“Why’re you all cozy with the McCarthys?”
Grant had been a sore subject between them from day one. “They’re my friends.” She glanced around the lobby, worried about the formidable Gansett Island gossip machine. As Cal had once been the island’s only doctor, everyone knew him—and her. “Would you please sit down?”
“I don’t want to sit. I’ve been sitting all day trying to get here on three different airplanes.”
“People are looking at us, Cal. I’m asking you to please sit and have a civilized conversation with me.”
“Let’s go to your room.”
“No.”
“I don’t understand what’s happened to you.” He ran his fingers through his blond hair in a frustrated gesture that further ramped up her anxiety. “That dress… It’s not you, and were you drinking? You don’t drink.”
“I do now, and this dress is me. It’s the new me.”
He took a second closer look at the dress, his gaze lowering to fixate on the new tattoo on her ankle. “Are you kidding me? You’re gone one day and now you have a tattoo? You’re hanging out with your ex-boyfriend’s family, drinking and wearing low-cut dresses?”
Abby had to remind herself they were in public, that people were watching. She kept her voice low. “I have two tattoos.” That wasn’t what she’d planned to say, but the words came out of their own volition.
His eyes bugged. “Are you having some sort of crisis or something? I wasn’t paying enough attention to you, so you come home and go nuts?”
“I’m not saying another word until you sit down and be quiet.”
He flopped into a chair. “There. Happy now?”
“For the first time in a really long time, I am happy. Thanks for asking.” As the words came out of her mouth, she realized they were true.
The months of indecision over what to do about another relationship that wasn’t working were over.
She’d made her decision, and now she intended to stick to it. “I’m happy to be home.”
“Your home is in Austin with me.”
She shook her head. “No, it isn’t. I’m sorry, but this is where I belong, and I’m not leaving again. I’ve done that twice now, and it hasn’t worked for me either time. Lesson learned.”
Mentioning her past with Grant was never a good idea where Cal was concerned, but history couldn’t be rewritten. “It doesn’t matter at all to you that I love you? That I want to marry you?”