“Whenever my best friend, my college roomie, my partner in crime and sister of the heart finds her fiancé in bed with her cousin, I spend the night.”
For the first time, Sonya felt tears sting her eyes. But not from sorrow or pain, from sheer gratitude.
“Thanks. Just the thought of dealing with all this makes me want to crawl in a hole. No,” she corrected. “It makes me want to bury Brandon in one. I—” She broke off at the knock on the door, glanced over. “You don’t think…”
Cleo’s tiger eyes flashed. “Let me answer. I wish I had those combat boots, but a knee in the balls works.”
Chapter Two
But when Cleo yanked open the door, prepared for battle, Sonya’s mother, Winter, rushed in. She squeezed Cleo’s hand first, then went straight to her daughter.
“Honey, baby, I’m so sorry.” She wrapped Sonya tight, swayed. “Don’t cry. Don’t cry. He’s not worth it.” Turning her head, she pressed her lips to Sonya’s cheek. “I know you love him, but—”
“I don’t. I stopped. I don’t know if it’s supposed to work like that, but I stopped.”
“I don’t know either.” Winter drew back, cupped her daughter’s face, studied it. “But if it’s true, I’m glad. Anybody who hurts my girl doesn’t deserve love. I’m so glad you’re here, Cleo.” She reached back for Cleo’s hand.
“How do you know about it?” Sonya asked.
“Tracie—who will hear from me—went straight to her mother. Blubbering. Can I get in on that wine?”
“I’ll get you a glass,” Cleo said.
“Summer called me—after she’d mopped Tracie up and read her the riot act. Sonya, you know Summer loves you, so I hope you don’t blame her. She’s equal parts furious, mortified, and devastated.”
“I don’t blame her. Of course I don’t. Tracie’s an adult. An adult slut.”
“She—Tracie—claims it just happened. Thanks, sweetie,” she said when Cleo handed her a glass of wine. “What bullshit. Landing in bed with your cousin’s fiancé doesn’t just happen. And in your cousin’s house? In your cousin’s bed?”
“Red stilettos, a low-cut white dress, and sexy underwear. Just happened, my ass. She’s welcome to him.”
“I can promise you he won’t be welcome in my sister’s house. Now, I’m going to go strip those sheets off your bed.”
“I already did. I did that after I called Cleo. I thought about burning them, but they’re really good sheets. I’m going to send them out for laundering because I’m not going to wash them myself. Then I’ll donate them.”
Winter grabbed her into another hug, swayed with it.
“That’s my girl. You’re really all right?”
“I’m really mad. I’m so damn mad, and furious with myself for not seeing what he was.”
“I didn’t see it. I think I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I didn’t see it. You know what they say about hindsight. I can look back and say, oh sure, that, and that and there. I should’ve known. What good does that do?
“I’m going to sit.”
And she did.
“I was so worried I’d find you heartbroken that I didn’t have room to let the anger out. Now that I know you’re not? The hell with him.”
“The hell with him,” Cleo echoed, and walked over to tap her glass to Winter’s.
“Okay.” Sonya did the same. “The hell with him.”
“You need to change the locks.”
“I took his key, Mom.”
“Change them anyway. Where do you think he’ll go?”
“Don’t know.” Sonya toasted again. “Don’t care.”
“No, really. I’ve got another bottle of wine in the car. And boxes the nice young man at the liquor store gave me. We can use them to pack up his things—clean sweep. And I’ll take them to him.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“Oh, my only child, I insist.” Iced fury came into her mother’s changeable hazel eyes. “He’d probably go to Jerry’s, wouldn’t he? Best man, close friend. I can go by on my way home and dump them.”
“I love you, Winter.” Cleo sat beside her, snuggled in. “I love my mama, and I love you. Sonya and I hit the mama lottery. Maybe when we’re packing up his crap, some of those cashmere sweaters he’s so fond of end up with little pulls and snags. And it would be a shame if a couple of his fine leather jackets somehow ran into something sharp.”
“Girlfriends are the best friends,” Winter said. “We could do that, or we could let that go knowing he lost the best thing he could’ve had in his life. I’m betting he knows it.”
“I still want to bury a pair of his boxers under a full moon. Curse him with chronic jock itch.”
Winter smiled. “That seems fair. Let’s go get those boxes.”
* * *
They packed. His two tablets, his laptop, the Alexa. His collection of watches, cuff links. Shoes. So many shoes.
Sonya remembered his luggage—Globe-Trotter, of course—so they packed those pieces with shirts, jackets, sweaters, suits, sportswear.
They boxed up toiletries.
“He’s got more skin and hair products than I do.” Cleo held up an unopened package of moisturizer. “Do you know what this brand costs? And he’s got an unopened spare?”
“Keep it,” Sonya told her. “Hell, take anything you want.”
“Only if it’s unopened. Anything else has his cooties in it. Are you sure you don’t want it?”
“Absolutely. I don’t want any of it.”
“Then I’ll take it. Winter, how about we split anything that’s still sealed. We’ve got eye gel—and eye masks—serum. I had a sample of this serum once, and it’s great. I’m making a pile.”
Winter just nodded, stepped back, hands on hips. She’d used one of Sonya’s hair ties to pull her chin-length hair—nearly the same shade as her daughter’s—back in a stubby tail. Her eyes, hazel to Sonya’s deep green, scanned the now loaded bathroom counter.
“We’re going to need more boxes.”
“Screw boxes,” Sonya decided. “I have trash bags. He has so much stuff! Where am I in this? Why didn’t I notice I have half the space he did? He had the entire closet in the spare room, and more than half in the main bedroom closet. And somehow he took over the desk in the spare room for work, and I ended up using the dining room table.”
“Erosion happens gradually.” Winter rubbed Sonya’s shoulders. “A rock’s strong, but it doesn’t notice how the water’s wearing it away.”
“You look so much alike,” Cleo murmured. “The shape of your faces—that heart shape, your hair color. That peaches and cream skin that tells me I need this high-dollar skin care more than either of you.”
“You have gorgeous skin,” Winter told her. “Gold dust on caramel, a gift from your wonderfully diverse ancestry. My girl has her father’s eyes.”
Winter gave Sonya a quick hug. “He’d have kicked Brandon’s ass. I don’t think I’d have tried to stop him. Andrew MacTavish was a gentle man, but when roused?” She gave Sonya another squeeze. “Stand back.”
Then she nodded. “Trash bags. Yeah, seems fair. More than.”
“I’ll get them. And order the pizza,” Cleo offered. “We’re closing in on done.”
“She’s a treasure,” Winter said when Cleo went out.
“I know. She says the fates saw to it we were roommates in college.”
“What do you say?”