Fate Interrupted 3 (14 page)

Chapter
Twenty-Six

Evy squinted at
a large cargo ship floating across the distant horizon like a child’s toy in a
tub. The lake was calm today, nestled beneath a cloudless blue sky that always
seemed so much bluer down by the water. Sun sparkles skittered across the
surface, glittering like brilliant jewels. She looked down at her diamond ring.
It winked at her in the sunlight, mocking her. She closed her eyes and twisted
the rock around her finger, reliving the day he had proposed.

Like any other
warm-blooded girl, it was a day she would never forget. He had caught her
completely off guard and that was just one of the things she loved about him. They
had been at his place, getting ready for his firm’s annual charity event – a dinner/silent
auction that usually rounded up somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred
thousand dollars for Children’s Miracle Network. Evy remembered turning to him
with a necklace in each hand – the final piece to complete the timeless black
dress falling just below her knees.

Which one do you like better?
she
had asked,
admiring how handsome he looked in his tuxedo.

Whichever one goes best with this
, he had answered,
pulling a small box from his coat pocket and cracking the lid open. Evy could
still feel the way her heart had drummed against her ribcage when she laid eyes
on the diamond ring inside.
Big eyes.
And he knew her
style, too: A platinum band holding the perfect sized rock that wouldn’t make
her feel like she was showing off.

Evy would never
forget the way he looked up at her from down on one knee, waiting for her
reply, butterflies tickling her insides. The ring combined with the look on his
face was too much to bear. They had locked eyes for awhile, she didn’t know how
long because time had lost all meaning.

I don’t know what to say
, she had
finally sputtered, both hands pressed against her chest.

His response had
been simple and to the point.

Just say yes.

And so she had,
shrieking with laughter when he swept her up into his arms and spun her around
the room.

Megan’s face
popped into her mind, slashing the precious recollection in two with her jagged
red nails. Evy opened her eyes and dispelled the ghastly image back to the
darkness where it had come. The ship seemed as if it had barely moved and she still
couldn’t believe it. She had only been gone for a few minutes and he already had
another woman in his place – and not just
any
other woman
, but the woman she detested more than words could ever say. Evy
closed her eyes and Megan’s lacey bra burned into her mind, branding her soul
with pain and sorrow. Evy clenched her jaw and looked out over the water, anger
now pushing the sorrow down with both hands, a determined look in its eyes.

She wondered how
long it would take Dean to get bored with just one woman.
A
year?
Two?
Maybe three?
And what if they had children together? Would she really take a chance on her
children’s future with a man like Dean Jacobs? Could she take a chance on a man
like Dean Jacobs?

She shut her
eyes against the harsh sunlight and allowed the image of her with two kids to
enter her weary mind. The three of them sat home alone on a cold winter’s night
while their daddy shacked up with his latest girlfriend inside a warm condo
overlooking downtown. Next, she saw herself dragging the kids to Sugars when
the sitter backed out again, Brooke giving her the
this isn’t a daycare
speech one more time just in case Evy had
missed it the first dozen times.

Evy opened her
eyes and shook her head, shaking the intrusive thoughts into a gray powder. The
wind tugged at her ponytail. Seagulls screeched above. A young couple passed
by, holding hands and enjoying the warm day. When they laughed, there was
something sinister in their smiles. In everyone’s smiles. How could anyone
possibly have anything to smile about on a day like today? She watched them
fade down the wide walkway, her heart breaking in two as a stark realization
settled in.

Dean could never
be with just one woman. He hadn’t before, so why now? What made Evy think she
was so different? She grunted into the wind, twisting the ring around her
finger. There was nothing special about her. This wasn’t a fairytale and she
didn’t have a magic wand. A tear fell from the corner of her eye and she didn’t
know if it was from the wind or the fact that she was in over her head with
Dean. She could never change a man like that. In the end, he would change her.
Change her into a bitter, repressed woman who would never take a chance on love
again.

And even if, by
some miracle, she could change him – they would never outrun his past. Not in
this town. It was big, but it wasn’t
that
big. And this is where her future laid. It wasn’t like she could just pick
Sugars up and move it to some other city, bringing Brooke and Ben along for the
ride. No, this is where she had made her bed and
this
is where she would lie. She sighed. Sometimes she wished she
had never left Des Moines. Things were simpler back then.
Safe.

Megan’s smug
little grin came slashing back into her mind like a lightning bolt splitting
the sky in two.

Dean and I are in
love,
and
nothing will ever stop that.

Those hollow words
rattled around in Evy’s head like rocks in a hubcap, banging and scratching
with no end in sight. Evy closed her eyes and tried shaking them away. When she
opened them she wondered how anyone could do the things Megan had done with a
clear conscience, but quickly gave up trying. It was impossible to understand,
like when people blew up buses or used the mall as a shooting range. Some
people just had the devil inside.

Suddenly, she
saw herself dressed in white, standing up in front of Pastor
Kirkman
with a packed church of family and friends seated behind
her. Dean stood at her side with that smile of his that melted her heart. He
squeezed her hand and then Pastor
Kirkman
asked his
final question:
Is there is anyone here
who objects to this union? Please speak now or forever hold your piece…

In Evy’s exhausted
mind, Megan slowly rose from a pew near the back, wearing a tight fitting red
dress that stopped above the knees. With a silk handkerchief balled into her
gloved fist, she opened her mouth and flies came pouring out.

Evy blinked
another tear down her cheek, knowing she would never get rid of her. She wiped it
away and couldn’t help but wonder what kind of person has sex with a psyche-job
like that. She imagined Dean on top of Megan, pounding her with his hard cock.
The same one he had put inside Evy less than forty-eight hours ago. She
shuddered at the thought, balling her hands into fists. Then she saw him
kissing Megan the same way he kissed her, long and hard while thrusting his…

She pulled off
the diamond ring and threw it as far as she could into the lake. It landed twenty
yards out with a soft
kerplunk
.
Evy watched the ripples extend outward, coming closer, her heart wrenching
inside her chest.

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

After the
morning rush, Tasha dropped onto a stool at the island table with an exhausted
sigh ruffling her lips. The smell of banana and toffee swirled in the air,
fusing with Evy’s latest creation:
Fluffernutter
– a
creamy blend of peanut butter cake, marshmallow, and
buttercream
with crushed peanuts sprinkled on top to finish it off.

“I’ve worked
here for less than two days and you guys leave me here by myself?” Tasha screwed
her face up even tighter.
“On a Sunday morning?
There
were like three church groups that stopped in.” She paused. “One of them tried
to get me to accept Jesus as my personal savior. Do I look that bad?”

A timer went off
on one of the ovens, its high-pitched beeps bouncing off the yellow walls.

“We are so
sorry, sweetie,” Brooke said, quieting the timer and pulling a hot sheet of
chocolate strawberry chip cupcakes out. “Thank you for stepping up
like
that; we really appreciate it.”

Evy slid a tray
of
fluffernutters
into oven number four, slammed the
door shut and set the timer. She checked on a tray of banana toffee muffins in
oven number two and slammed that door shut as well.

Brooke pulled
off an oven mitt and exhaled a fatigued breath, watching her sister start
pouring flour into a commercial floor mixer, using both hands to shake the
large bag.

“Evy, he didn’t
do anything. It was all Shaun and Jon. You know they’re partners in crime.”

Evy’s eyes slid
upward to meet Brooke’s troubled gaze. She had told Brooke about the fight with
Dean but had withheld the part about Megan. It was too embarrassing to even talk
about.
Her fiancé and Megan – alone in his condo once again.
Megan’s shirt unbuttoned to her bellybutton. Just like old times. A cold shiver
wormed down her spine and she dropped the bag to the floor with a heavy thud, exploding
powder into the air.

“He was just
trying to have a good time with the boys, but Shaun and Jon, not surprisingly,
messed it all up,” Brooke pressed the point, wiping chocolate on her apron.

“Yeah, well, if
there’s one thing Dean knows how to do it’s have a
good
time.”

Brooke frowned
and rested her hands on her ample hips. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Tasha looked
from Brooke to Evy.

“Nothing,” Evy
said, dragging the bag out of the way.

“You’re not
telling me something. I can feel it.”

“Brooke, I know
it’s hard for you to do but will you just please shut up for once in your life?”

Brooke sharpened
her gaze and took an ill-fated shot at fulfilling her sister’s request,
drumming her nails against the table. “You found something, didn’t you?”

Tasha turned to
Evy. “Was it a gay porno
mag
hidden under his
mattress?” She inhaled a sharp breath and covered her mouth with both hands. “I
knew he was gay! I called that a long time ago!”

Evy bent an
eyebrow her way. “He’s not gay.”

“Oh snap,”
Brooke whispered coldly, rubbing her arms. “He handcuffed you to the bed and put
it in your butt, didn’t he? Was it an accident or was it on purpose?”

Evy released a
heated breath and disappeared into the walk-in cooler. The refrigerated air felt
good against her skin and so did the quiet. She stared at the cartons of eggs
and gallons of milk, wondering if Megan was still at Dean’s place right now.
And, more importantly, why in the world would he let her inside in the first
place? She leaned her forehead against a narrow metal rack on wheels stuffed
with trays of cupcakes and pies for an art exhibit they were catering tomorrow
night. No way
Megan was
still there.
Impossible.
Even if she was, he wouldn’t touch that again
with a ten foot pole. Evy knew him better than that. Then she saw Megan on her
knees, Dean in her mouth.

Evy grabbed a
carton of eggs and a tub of butter and burst back out into the kitchen, swallowing
a deep breath of warm air.

Brooke watched
her sister set the stuff down, pushing her lips into the side of her face. “Did
he finally admit he doesn’t want kids? That’s it, isn’t it?”

Tasha slapped
the work table, dusting her palm with flour. “He’s in the mob, isn’t he? I
fucking knew it! What an asshole.”

Evy directed an
apathetic look Tasha’s way. “What is wrong with you?”

Brooke picked up
a loaded frosting gun and shot a pink coil of homemade sweetness onto a
chocolate strawberry chip cupcake that had already cooled. She glanced at Evy
out the corner of her eye. “Where’s your ring?”

Evy snapped her
head around, now strongly considering the option of leaving early. “I lost it.”

Brooke set the
gun down and scuttled across the tiled floor in her black Nikes for a closer
inspection of Evy’s finger. The tan line was there but the ring wasn’t.
“Where?”

“If I knew that
it wouldn’t be lost.”

Brooke’s eyes
rose to find Evy’s.
“Seriously?”

“It’ll turn up,”
Evy replied, violently cracking an egg against the inside of the mixing bowl.

Brooke folded
her arms across the hot pink stenciling that spelled
Sugars
on her apron.
“When?”

“In
the middle of the night when I was scrambling to find my missing so-called
fiancé.”

Brooke honed her
gaze to a razor’s edge. “What happened at Dean’s this morning?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why were
you gone so long?”

“I wasn’t.”

Brooke sniffed
at her sister. “I smell fish. Did you go back to the marina?”

“She was looking
for something,” Tasha chimed in, swiveling around on the stool.

“Like what?”
Brooke asked, keeping her eyes on Evy, who ignored both of them.

“Clues.”

“Clues
to what?”

Tasha shrugged
limply. “A stripper threesome?” she suggested, biting into a cupcake and
getting pink frosting on the tip of her nose.

Evy grabbed
another egg and threw it into the bowl, bursting into tears.

Brooke’s heart
slipped onto the floor. She swept Evy up into her arms and hugged her tight,
burying her face in Evy’s neck. “I’m sorry, sweetie. We’re just being nosey.”

“Well, well,
well, looks like we’re just in time for a little girl on girl action!”

They turned to
see Jon waltz through the swinging door with Pam in tow.

“Now’s not a
good time,” Brooke said, rubbing Evy’s back.

Jon thumbed
behind him. “Why isn’t anyone up front? I could’ve swiped an entire tray of
maple bacon cupcakes and you would’ve never known.”

“What is wrong
with you?” Pam scolded. “You know we would’ve taken the vanilla mocha tray.”

Evy twisted away
from Brooke and went to the sink to hide her tears.

Jon traded an
apprehensive look with Pam. “We’ll come back later.” Pam pushed Jon forward. He
stumbled to a stop in the middle of the room and dug his hands into his
pockets. “Listen, I just wanted to apologize for last night, Evy. It was
all my
fault.”

Evy kept her
back to him, trying to collect herself.

“Well,” Jon
continued, “some of it was Shaun’s fault, too.” He paused. “Most of it in fact,
but it was wrong and I really am sorry, Evy. Dean had no idea about anything
but the fishing part.” He looked down to his high top Adidas. “Truth is…Shaun
and I have never been to a bachelor party without strippers before and we were
just scared.”

Pam elbowed him
in the ribs.

Evy sniffled one
last time and turned to face them, a brave smile lifting her heavy lips. She nodded
her understanding. “
It’s
okay, Jon. I just…” She
rushed past them and burst through the swinging door, disappearing up front.

Jon watched her
go, open-mouthed.
“She-it.”

“She’ll be
fine,” Brooke said, going after her. “She’s just under a lot of pressure with
the wedding.” Brooke pushed through the door and vanished from sight.

Jon and Pam
exchanged silent glances and turned to Tasha.

He cleared his
throat and smiled. “Welcome back to town!”

Tasha stuffed
the rest of the cupcake into her mouth. “Thanks.”

“Things will get
better,” Pam said, helping herself to a cupcake. “They’re usually a lot more
fun.”

“I know.”

“But this just gives
a chance to get to know each other better.” Pam eyeballed Tasha as she chewed.
“Let us take you out tonight and show you around a little.
Our
treat.”

Tasha looked to
Jon who nodded with an enthusiastic grin.

“Yeah, we’ll
grab some dinner and drinks at the Rumpus Room and see where the night takes
us,” he said. “Get our drink on!”

Tasha arched an
eyebrow.
“On a Sunday night?”

Pam patted her
hand. “It’s service industry night tonight. Best night to go out.”

Tasha looked
from Pam back to Jon.
“Sounds good to me.”
She looked
up front where sunlight was streaking across the black and white checkered
floor.
“Anything to get away from this drama for a minute.”