The Right Bride

Chapter Thirty-Eight


COMPLETELY DRAINED AFTER her first morning at home with Cameron, Shelly, and Emma. She handled several business calls, went into her office at Fairchild Industries to exchange the paperwork she’d finished for the paperwork she needed to complete. She shot off several emails on the Fairchild/Merrick land deal and ended her afternoon in the city at her publisher’s office. The two new books were going to press. The publisher had gotten the advanced copies Marti requested. She had them gift wrapped along with another surprise for Emma.

She had almost everything in place for her to leave at first light on Saturday. Cameron would be married in the afternoon, and she’d be long gone.

The Decadence restaurant lunch crowd must have thinned out at this late hour. She took a seat at the bar and gulped down a glass of water. Elizabeth came out of the kitchen with a huge smile on her face.

“I told the staff to tell me if you came in. I called Jenna upstairs, she’s on her way down.”

“Um, why?”

“Because we haven’t seen you in quite a while and we were wondering how things are going. Cameron is a bear. Jenna threatened to fire him if he keeps yelling at people and drifting off into space half the day. His assistant is about ready to poison him. Lucky for him, he eats here every day.”

“Lucky for him is right. I, on the other hand, plan on killing him the first chance I get and think I can get away with it. Your husband’s an FBI agent. Maybe he can give me some pointers on how to kill someone and not get caught.”

Elizabeth laughed. “That bad, huh. We heard about him and Shelly moving in with you. That really sucks.”

“You don’t know the half of it. She catalogues the value of everything in the house. ‘Oh my, just look at this vase. Hand painted in Venice, it must be worth a thousand dollars,’” she mimicked Shelly’s annoying voice.

“You’re kidding. Sam mentioned when she was on your sailboat she did the same thing.”

“Yes, very annoying.”

“I can imagine. We all know she’s after Cameron for his money. Now that George left him a fortune, well, I can imagine she’s thinking she can sleep on a fourteen-karat gold bed.”

“How about we just dump a molten load over her head and put her in the garden?”

“She’d scare away all the birds.” Elizabeth put a hand on Marti’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t look so hot.”

“It’s been a long couple of weeks.” She picked up the bag at her feet and handed it to Elizabeth. “I brought this in because I need a favor. It’s important, and I’d rather Cameron not know about it.”

“Okay. What is it?”

“It’s the dress I had made for Emma for the benefit on Friday night.”

“Which you’ll be going to, right?” Jenna asked from behind them.

“I promised Emma I would be there, and I will. How’s it going by the way?”

“Are you kidding? The day I talked to you I got a call from the curator for the Fairchild Collection. They’re lending me eight paintings to display. Plus a member of the Fairchild family is giving Emma a painting as a gift, since the foundation exists because of her. I got a call from the publisher of the Tina’s Travels books and they’re donating two hundred books all signed by the author. We’ve got so many people coming to see the paintings, I had to ask the hotel to give us the largest ballroom. Once word got out the author of the books is attending, I got more calls asking if children could attend. I still don’t know if we’ll have enough room for everyone, but at two hundred dollars a plate and the auction, I don’t care.”

Marti’s spirits lifted. “Wonderful. So it all worked out.”

“Worked out. We’ll probably raise more money this year than any other year. It’s funny you said I’d probably get a call by the end of the day, and I did.” Jenna’s last words were laced with suspicion.

“Things have a way of working out.”

“You said that too.”

“What can I get you to eat, Marti?” Elizabeth wanted to get some food into her. She looked exhausted and, well, ill.

“I have the biggest craving for some apple pie. Please tell me you have some,” she pleaded.

“I have a fresh baked one in back. I’ll get you a big piece. How about you, Jenna?”

“I’d love it.”

“Put some chocolate sauce and whip cream on mine.” Marti needed something sweet. She smiled at herself when she realized she was having her first craving.

“What are you smiling about?” Jenna asked, suspicion laced in her words.

“Things have a way of working out in the end. I may not have Cameron, but I did get something out of the last two months.”

“Emma?” Jenna knew how close she was to the little girl. If she could make Cameron marry Marti, she would. They’d all tried and tried to make Cameron see reason, but he just wouldn’t budge. She’d even threatened to fire him if he didn’t marry Marti. He told her to go ahead.

“Emma. God, I will miss that little girl when I leave.”

“You’re leaving?” both Elizabeth and Jenna asked in unison.

Marti grabbed her plate and dug into the aromatic pie. Baked apples and cinnamon. The scent made her mouth water. At the first bite, she moaned with pleasure. She looked over the ledge of the bar and grabbed the bowl of olives. She dipped one in the whip cream and ate it. God, that’s good.

“You are so weird.” Jenna shared a look with Elizabeth.

“I’m hungry. Oh, Elizabeth, I forgot to tell you something about the dress for Emma. Please make sure she wears her necklace from George? She’ll want to wear it like a crown.”

“Okay. I’ll tell Jimmy to bring it when he drops her off at the penthouse after school.”

“Perfect,” she said around a huge bite of pie and whip cream.

“How are things going between you and Cameron? I know he’s miserable. Frankly, you don’t look much better.”

Jenna suspected the strange food combo meant Marti was pregnant.

“Things went from unbearable to downright devastating the other night. Then, he moved his fiancé into my house and she asked me to make her eggs this morning. Over easy, I believe she requested.”

“You didn’t make her eggs,” Elizabeth said.

“No, I did not. Instead, I was a complete bitch to her and implied Cameron and I had slept together the other night.”

“What did she say? Did she ask Cameron if you guys slept together?”

“I doubt it. She’s too stupid to figure out what I meant. Correction, she doesn’t care to figure it out because Cameron is worth too much money for her to care if he slept with me.”

“Do you think she’s pregnant?” Are you pregnant, is what Elizabeth wanted to ask.

“I think it’s more likely Cameron is pregnant than Shelly. He won’t listen, though. After everything I’ve said to him, what he learned about George being his father, and everything else, he still won’t believe she’s lying and only after him for his money. It doesn’t matter to him I love him. He chooses her each and every time I make a case for him to be with me.”

She stabbed at the pie with her fork with each word. “I feel like the more I show him he has a choice, the more pathetic and desperate I look. He made love to me the other night, and in the next breath he tells me he’s holding the wedding at the house, my house, and he and Shelly are moving in the next day.”

Marti sighed deeply. “Thanks, guys. I’m so happy I got all of that off my chest. I feel so much better.” The sarcasm didn’t fool them. She took another big bite of pie. “I feel like crap,” she said around the bite.

“Chew your food, for God’s sake. I’ve never seen anyone eat pie so fast,” Jenna teased.

“So he loves you, wants you, and turns around and is a complete a*shole to you.”

“Thanks for summing things up for me, Elizabeth.”

“Speaking of the a*shole, here he comes,” Jenna said.

Cameron saw all of them the minute he came through the door. He’d been in a bad mood all day. He’d left thinking of all the questions she’d asked him to answer about her and he couldn’t answer one. Her last name was at the top of his list of things he wanted to know.

Besides the questions, he couldn’t get the memory of making love to her in the rain out of his head. His body acted like he was a testosterone-strung-out teenager, keeping him in a perpetual state of arousal.

He walked right up to her, spun her seat at the bar around to face him, and leaned over her and took her mouth with his. He held her face in his hands and wouldn’t let her turn away. He kissed her hard and insistent until she opened her mouth to him. He rubbed his tongue over hers, tasted apple pie and chocolate on her lips. He didn’t stop until he knew she was kissing him back with all the ardor he gave to her. When he pulled away, he looked her right in the eye and asked, “What’s your last name?”

She went from stunned silence to spitting mad and shoved him away and stood. “You can’t do this to me. You can’t kiss me like that, come home tonight, kiss her hello, and think it doesn’t hurt me.

“Tell me, Cameron, will you kiss me like that now and sleep with your fiancé tonight? Do my feelings mean so little to you, you think it doesn’t matter how you treat me, so long as you get what you want? Did you ever once consider my feelings before you did any of this?”

She didn’t wait for a reply. She grabbed her purse and ran out of the restaurant crying.

“You’re an a*shole,” Elizabeth and Jenna said.

“Thanks. I didn’t know that already.” He sat in the chair Marti fled and rubbed his hand over his face and neck, digging his fingers into the tense muscles. “Do either of you know her last name?”

“We wouldn’t tell you if we did,” Jenna said.

“That’s what I thought.”

“You’re an idiot. She loves you and you treat her like some cheap piece of ass. Shelly is a cheap piece of ass and you ask her to marry you. Tell me, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“Shelly is pregnant.”

“And you love Marti,” Jenna said. “Finish Marti’s pie.”

He looked at her plate. Less than half of a piece left, it had chocolate sauce, ice cream, and whip cream on top. Olives on the side?

“What’s with the chocolate sauce and olives?”

“I think she was having a craving.”

“That’s just gross,” he said and pushed the plate away.

“You’re an idiot.” Jenna walked away with that parting shot.

Elizabeth left and went back into the kitchen, carrying a package.

Cameron was left sitting there alone, brooding.