60. She Defied the Mistress
She Defied the Mistress
Gwen
Marnie’s mouth dropped open. Eyes like saucers tracked me as I hobbled into the café and then turned into dinner plates when she noticed the swaggering Italian two steps behind me.
Together, Romeo and I were a disaster—bruised and beaten—and although the sleepy tourists of Mosman barely noticed me, my shadow attracted more than his fair share of fluttered eyelashes and smiles. I suppose his busted lip and shiner complemented his whole tattooed, tough-guy aesthetic.
“Oh!” Marnie leaped up, her hands pressed to her cheeks. “You guys look awful! Here!” She yanked out an empty chair. “Sit! Sit!”
Steadying my hand on the back of the chair, I gritted my teeth and sat down.
Marnie watched the entire production with an awkward smile stretched across her face. “You look, um…” She winced. “Goooood?”
“I’m fine.”
“You would say that,” she scoffed, the ruffled rainbows of her skirt puffing up as she collapsed into the chair across from me. “And you.” Her eyes lifted to Romeo. “Finally earned your paycheck, huh?”
A pang of guilt stabbed under my ribs. Toby-style, I snatched a menu. “That’s not from Ian,” I muttered, avoiding questioning eyes by scanning the daily specials.
I caught a glimpse of a tattooed hand snaking around the back of Marnie’s chair as Romeo leaned over. “I…fell,” he said.
“You fell?” I could hear the disbelief in Marnie’s voice. “Off what? A building?” She paused—probably to flutter her eyelashes at him. “Poor baby. Does it hurt?”
“Sí, Bellezza,” Romeo said, “but there is one place I ache most of all.”
Unamused, I glanced up in time to see Marnie’s eyes dart to the zipper of his pants. I whacked the menu against my forehead. Have some chill, Mar . Not that Romeo minded the direction of her lusty brain. He rumbled a laugh.
“My heart, Bellezza ,” he corrected her gently. “Did you know you stole it?”
“Did I?” she breathed.
I groaned. My best friend had a serious weakness for crap murmured with an accent. I lowered the menu and shot a pointed look at Romeo. “Shouldn’t you be—I dunno—guarding me or something?”
“Always work and no play,” he grumbled. “You and my employer are far too alike.” I watched through slitted eyes as his hand slid along the top of Marnie’s chair.
“I’ll make myself useful to stay in his good graces.
Coffees for you both, yes?” Dark eyes burned into mine.
“But no wandering off this time, sorellina .”
I sank lower in my chair. Forcing a smile up at Romeo, I gave a shaky salute. Lesson learned. My butt would stay glued to the chair. That didn’t mean I appreciated the patronizing pat he dropped on my head, and I shoved him away with a glare.
Marnie’s chin fell into her hand as she watched Romeo saunter to the counter. “That man is absolutely going to break my heart.” She sighed.
I frowned. “Mar.”
Reluctantly, she dragged her eyes away from his butt. “Are you about to cockblock me with common sense?” she asked.
“He’s literally the son of a crime boss.”
“Details, shmetails.” She waved me off with a dismissive hand. “So, he’s a bit rough around the edges. What does it matter anyway? I’m a struggling artist—”
“You live in a loft in Mosman,” I pointed out. “You’re hardly struggling.”
“You and your facts.” She rolled her eyes.
“Okay, okay. So, I’m a successful artist. I live solo, and I’m never going to have kids.
Hell, I’m probably going to grow old and fabulous, surrounded by nothing but rescue cats.
Let me have this one fling with a tortured bad boy.
” She clasped her hands under her chin and offered me her sweetest smile. “Please, Gwen.”
I followed her gaze to where Romeo lounged against the counter.
He divided his attention between charming the flustered woman jabbing at the cash register and keeping a suspicious glare on me.
He was a shameless flirt. Whatever it was about him that made hearts skip beats, I didn’t get it.
That wasn’t the point, though. Unconditional love and support for my best friend were just that—unconditional.
“Go forth and make all the bad choices,” I said with a sigh. “But what if Tobes and I set you up with someone? Maybe there’s a nice, quiet dentist at his new clinic that you can corrupt?”
“No thanks. I’d take my chances with Romeo’s family over meeting another dentist like Ian any day.” Her eyes darted over the signs of Ian’s handiwork still bruised on my face. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I reached across the table and grabbed Marnie’s hand. “I’m fine,” I reassured her. “Seriously. I made a dumb decision, and I’ve learned my lesson.”
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”
“I know.” I squeezed her hand before leaning back in the chair. “I had a session with Paula yesterday, and since Liam put me on a forced vacation, I’ve got plenty of time to go to an extra session later this week. And she’s given me the number for a crisis line if I…”
Have a breakdown. Get overwhelmed. Need to talk.
I gusted out a long breath. I’d been stuck in all those places more than once over the last few days. Letting myself feel the emotions instead of burying them under a stony face and a dismissive attitude had been more challenging than I could’ve imagined.
Luckily, Toby was always there, hovering and waiting patiently to help.
Luckily . To think that a few months ago, I was ready to end our marriage, and now, I couldn’t imagine how I would’ve made it through this patch without him.
All the hard work we’d put into rebuilding our relationship had been worth it. Toby was worth it.
On the brink of a fresh wave of tears—not my first for the day—I couldn’t finish what I was going to say, so I forced a smile in Marnie’s direction instead.
She frowned. “I’m not buying it. Care to reconsider your answer, counselor?”
“I’m working on getting to fine,” I replied honestly.
“Anything I can do to help?”
“The silly midnight memes you send help. Oh, and invite me over for a girls’ night. Until we sort out a housing situation beyond hotels and crashing at Cat’s, I’m feeling slightly claustrophobic. There are a lot of people buzzing around me all the time.”
Marnie didn’t do roommates. She loved her own space, so I knew her smile was genuinely sympathetic. “Tobes must be dying of jealousy if there’s competition to be at your beck and call.”
“You know him too well.” I laughed. “You should’ve seen the daggers Elias got when he passed me the mashed potato at dinner last night. Only Toby is allowed to pass me the mashed potato.”
Marnie faked a shocked gasp. “Scandal!”
We both laughed. Some of the tension melted from my muscles, and I relaxed properly for the first time in days. The bustle of the café and listening to Marnie’s chatter about the pottery creations she’d dropped off for firing helped to turn my thoughts off.
When we were conspiring about how to sneak in a pedicure, a plate of pancakes and a coffee cup were dumped unceremoniously in front of me. Romeo was a black blur across the café.
“What the—?” Marnie gawked.
The furious click of heels charged for the table.
With her chin hiked up, Kayleigh blazed toward us in her cropped palm-print blouse and palazzo pants.
A red-faced man in a suit chased her through the door.
Unbothered, she slid her designer sunglasses onto her head, hoisted her bag on her shoulder, and kept right on walking.
She only skidded to a stop when Romeo and the suit wedged her between two tables with no escape.
My phone was already in my hand, punching in a quick message to Wayne after I shared my location.
Gwen
The socialite just crash-landed my brunch.
Wayne
Finally. Some action away from this desk. Give us five.
“Um, can you move, please?” Kayleigh snipped at Romeo. “I need to talk to Gwen.” She tried to elbow past him but growled with frustration when he sidestepped to block her. “Gwen.” Her head poked around his broad shoulders. “I need to talk to you.”
I wasn’t given a chance to answer.
Romeo’s arms folded across his bulky chest. “My instructions are that you will talk to Signora Sullivan over my dead body.”
Kayleigh’s chin jutted out more stubbornly than ever. “I will make a scene,” she warned.
“Isn’t she already making a scene?” Marnie muttered.
She wasn’t wrong. Every set of eyes in the café pretended not to be interested in the chaos Kayleigh was wreaking on Wednesday brunch. Romeo shot a helpless look in my direction. I sighed. So much for a quiet coffee and debrief with Marnie.
I nodded at him to let Kayleigh through. Arms still folded, not budging an inch, he nodded at the guy in the suit, who stepped forward to pat down Kayleigh’s sides.
She squealed and slapped at his hands. “Is this necessary?”
“Precaution,” the man grunted.
“Precaution! Jesus Christ,” Kayleigh hissed. “People don’t carry weapons to cafés in Mosman!”
Smirking, Romeo inched open his suit jacket, and whatever Kayleigh saw hidden inside made her eyes bulge out of her head. She stood rigid, glaring straight ahead until the pat- down finished. Her confidence taken down a notch or two, she wobbled on her heels the rest of the way to the table.
Marnie turned to me, eyebrow up. She questioned if I was going to entertain this bullshit conversation. I was. I cocked my head, watching Kayleigh sit down, cross her legs, and smooth her satin pants over her knees. She was getting comfortable—not a quick chat, then.
“Thank you for seeing me,” she said primly.
“It didn’t seem like I had much of a choice.” I dug my fork into the pancakes and popped a wedge into my mouth. I kept her sweating while I took my sweet time washing it down with a sip of coffee. “What do you want, Kayleigh?”
“I want you to stop.”
I waved my fork for her to keep talking. “I’m going to need more than that.”
“Stop humiliating yourself. Stop lying. Stop faking the messages.”