It's Always Complicated (Her Billionaires Book 4) (2 page)

“That’s not what I mean, Cathy, and you know it. We’re traveling here for Josie’s wedding and it’s our responsibility to make sure we take care of her mother in the best way possible so everyone can have a memorable family experience.”

Check that one off the list
, Josie thought to herself.
Memorable? Achieved.
 

Aunt Cathy looked a little shocked that Calvin wasn’t backing down. “Take care of Marlene?” she asked, eyes narrowing.

“You really oughtn’t make fun of Marlene like that,” Calvin said. It was evident that arguing with Cathy pained him. “She can’t help it.”

“Can’t help what?” Cathy asked, seeming as surprised as anyone to find herself at odds with her new husband. Josie froze, watching the two of them. Cathy was like a mother to her, and she’d never imagined Darla’s mother would ever marry. Watching them interact was fascinating. Like watching
Animal Planet
, only with humans.

“Marlene can’t help all her sexual...proclivities.” Calvin tapped the side of his head with his fist. “She’s, you know. Touched in the head. She had a traumatic brain injury, after all. She can’t help herself.”

Cathy peered at Calvin like he was peeling off his human outer shell and revealing himself to be an alien.

“What in the hell are you talking about, Calvin?” she asked softly. Josie’s back pulled up straight. The tone. Oh, she knew
that
tone.

That was the tone that said Darla was getting a whuppin’ for disobeying her mama. And to hear Cathy use it toward Calvin boiled up a mess of emotions inside Josie that felt icky.

“I’m saying that when Marlene was in the car accident and she got that brain damage, it
messed up her head
. You know the doctors told us she
can’t control herself sometimes
. And
she has problems with executive...functioning? That’s what they said.
” He faltered,
frowning,
clearly struggling to remember what the doctors had said.

Calvin looked at Alex like he was throwing a Hail Mary pass. “You’re the one who helped us get her a new evaluation with the neurologists in Cleveland and in Pittsburgh. The accident did this to her, right?”

“Did what?” Alex asked, his face a neutral mask. His eyes jerked around the large, cavernous baggage claim area, bouncing between Cathy and Josie. He was, Josie realized, figuring out the lay of the land.

“Made her a, a, a—a loose woman,” Calvin said, his voice holding a desperate urgency.

“You think,” Cathy thundered, limping over to her husband and getting in his face, “that we should go easy on Marlene fucking two hockey players in the airplane bathroom because she got brain damage from an accident that happened twenty years ago?”

Alex exhibited remarkable intelligence by remaining silent. Josie was impressed. Either he was being smart or he was scared shitless. She was pretty sure it leaned toward the former, but you never knew with Aunt Cathy.

“Yes!” Calvin exclaimed. He turned to Alex. “This behavior of hers can be explained by the brain injury, right? You’re a doctor.”

“I—” Alex sputtered a bit. Josie felt bad for him.

“Calvin, Marlene was an utter whore long before she ever got into the car accident with me, Charlie and Jeff!” Cathy declared.

Josie felt her face flush at the word “whore.”

Calvin’s expression went from quiet determination to dissembled horror.

“What?”

“She stuck to Jeff once they were married,” Cathy said to Josie, laying a hand on her forearm. “She didn’t fuck around on your daddy.”

“Oh.” Josie didn’t know what else to say. The word floated off into the air like a drunk butterfly.

“But lord knows she drove that man to hide from her sometimes. She had the libido of a seventeen-year-old boy. Jeff used to call and beg Charlie to break something on the car so he’d have an excuse to come over whenever Marlene’s hormones were flying. Said he sometimes thought about buying a stick shift car just so Marlene would have something to use in a pinch when his cock was twice dead.”

“Oh.” Josie definitely didn’t know what to say to
that
.

“He used to buy Neosporin for the chafing. But then Marlene just said it made good lube.”

Josie wished she could poke her eardrums.

“And then there was the weird fetish for having sex outdoors,” Cathy added.

Josie felt Alex freeze. He went stone stiff. Neither of them breathed.

“But that was all on Jeff. He was the one who—”

“Cathy, honey, I don’t think we should speak ill of the dead,” Calvin beseeched her.

“Speak ill? How is talking about their sex life ‘speaking ill’? You want me to speak ill about him, I got plenty I can say. But I can tell you one thing: Marlene ain’t fucking two guys at a time in public because she got her brain injured in the car accident. She’s just drawn to it.”

“Like Darla,” Calvin murmured, his eyes alight with understanding. “So it runs in the family.”

Cathy’s turn to freeze.

“Did you just call my daughter a
whore
?”

“Poor Calvin,” Alex said under his breath. Cathy’s finger was in Calvin’s chastened face, waggling like she was conducting the Boston Pops. Calvin’s hushed tones of apology were like shooting a squirt gun at a wildfire.

“Poor Calvin? Poor
you
.”

“Poor me?”

“I’m never, ever having sex again after learning all that about my parents,” Josie replied. “Get me to a convent.”

Alex laughed and went to put his arm around her.

“I’m serious. Ewwwww.” She shook him off.

“It’s kind of freaky to hear your dad was into, you know...”

“Air fucking?” Josie hadn’t used Alex’s term for outdoor sex in years.

He turned a furious shade of red and refused to look at her.

“Maybe it’s genetic,” he finally replied in an arch tone.

“You think? Maybe we should ask Meribeth if she—”

“That’s gross,” Alex grunted. “No.”

“See? Doesn’t feel good, does it? When it’s your parent, it’s different, isn’t it?”

They both sighed in unison, their attention drawn to the sight of Calvin’s big, thin hands cupping Cathy’s ass as they kissed and made up.

“Welcome to my Big Fat Ohio Wedding Family, Alex. I hope you’re happy. This was all your doing.”

He gave her a hug and rested his chin on her head, taking a deep breath in.

“I’m happy. I am.”

Lydia

The campground office looked like an office supply store threw up in it. Lydia poured herself a cup of coffee and walked around to the desk. Sandy’s entire wall was nothing but tiny, colored sticky notes arranged on the giant whiteboard.

“What is this?”

“Wedding planning.”

“Whose wedding? Prince Harry’s?”

Sandy made a face. “You know perfectly well whose wedding. Laura and Dylan and Mike, and Alex and Josie. It’s the only wedding we’ve ever hosted here aside from, um....”

“Luke’s,” Lydia said softly. The subject of her deceased brother would never, ever be an easy one.

Sandy squared her shoulders. “Right. And because none of my other children has shown the slightest inclination to marry or reproduce—”

The camp store doorbell rang and Mike walked in. He snaked an arm around Lydia’s waist.

“—or listen to me about anything, for that matter—” Sandy continued, taking a deep breath as fortitude.

“Here comes the grandkid speech,” Lydia muttered under her breath.

“Is it the ‘when is someone going to produce a grandchild for me’ speech or the ‘when will one of my children have a wedding and then a grandkid’ speech?” he whispered, tightening his hold on her.

“I think it’s a little of both.”

Mike gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and, wisely, said nothing.

Smart man.

As Sandy spoke about the wedding, her paperwork and hand motions eerily similar to that of a general in combat, directing troops and receiving logistics reports, Lydia steeled herself for a long monologue.

Jeremy bounded in the door, drenched and wearing only his bathing suit.

“Blue kayak number
22
has a leak,” he announced, dripping everywhere as he made himself a cup of coffee.

Sandy sighed. “I’ll let Miles know. Where is it?” She picked up a walkie-talki
e
and told Miles to come to the camp office.

He looked down at himself. “In the water,” he explained, his words drawn out. “I was
in
it when I discovered the leak.”

Mike made a grunting laugh as Lydia burst into giggles.

“It’s not funny!” Jeremy protested.

“Losing a good rental kayak never is,” Sandy murmured as she waited for Miles to respond.

“I’m safe and just fine,” Jeremy said in an arch tone. “Thank you
all
for asking.” He looked pointedly at Mike. “I barely managed to tie it to the main buoy first from the dock.”

“We’re laughing at the thought of you voluntarily doing anything athletic. Your idea of exercise is dragging all the empty beer bottles to the recycling bin,” Mike said.

“Hey!’ Jeremy shot back. “That’s not...” He frowned. “Okay, that’s true,” he grudgingly admitted.

“Why were you kayaking?” Lydia asked, reaching up to touch his wet, curly hair. It hung in perfect little ringlets around his pale face. Mike was the athlete, on the ocean for hours with the kayak. Jeremy might play a pick-up game of basketball here and there, but he definitely wasn’t one to just go out in the ocean on a boat for fun.

“Miles asked me to test out the...oh, I’m going to kill him.” Jeremy’s mouth tightened. “He knew there was a leak in that kayak.” He looked down at his soaking wet body and grimaced. Lydia, on the other hand, took in all six-and-a-half-feet-plus of him and felt a stirring deep in her belly that she tucked away for later. He was fine. A fine, fine man made even finer by standing here in only swim tru
n
ks and a scowl.

Even Sandy laughed this time.

“I don’t have time for this,” she said, looking over the papers all over her desk. Lydia knew her mother loved the complications of such a huge event, though. “The wedding group starts to arrive tomorrow. A hundred and ninety people, all staying in cabins and tents. We have to do a huge lobster and steak dinner for the reception. Thirty-seven kids under the age of eighteen. Two people in wheelchairs. This is a logistics feat.”

“If anyone can do it, Mom, you can,” Lydia reassured her.

“And we’re all helping,” Miles declared, walking into the office and edging past Sandy to grab a cup of coffee. He gave Jeremy a long look. “You’ve been swimming?”

Jeremy tossed a pen at him.

“Well,” Miles said dryly, “now I know blue kayak number
22
is out.”

“You asshole,” Jeremy muttered.

“How’s the wedding planning, Mom?” Miles asked, eyes twinkling. Lydia knew that Jeremy would find a way to get back at her brother. The two had a strange mock-adversarial relationship. Miles had definitely gotten the upper hand this time, though.

Jeremy would need to up his ante.

“It’s our biggest event yet. And it’s all planned out perfectly, but we’re one big storm away from disaster,” Sandy fretted. “Plus, this isn’t the most, ah...
conventional
of weddings.”

“We’ve got the media under control,” Mike said. “I talked to the bride—”

“Which one?” Sandy asked nervously.

“Laura Michaels. She and Mike and Dylan are the ones who’ll get news coverage,” he explained patiently. Lydia watched him, marveling at how cool and collected he was. Her mom was most worried about the media frenzy. Her dad was worried about her mom. When her grandma, Madge, had suggested Escape Shores Campground for the double wedding and the brides and grooms had all agreed, they hadn’t realized how the Boston-area media might hunt down the story.

Nervous about the media coverage bleeding into Lydia, Jeremy, and Mike’s privacy, Sandy’s stress level had jumped.

“And you think we won’t have the news stations descend like locusts?” Sandy asked Mike in a pleading tone.

He shrugged. “I can’t guarantee anything, but we came up with a plan to throw them off. Most of the fake leaks we’ve sent out seem to be working. Security will be tight at the perimeter of the campground. We even have a few boats lined up for any overly-enthusiastic paparazzi that try to get to the wedding via water. We have some consultants looking at social media and so far, most of the news sources think the wedding’s next week.”

“Let’s keep it that way. There are so many things that could go wrong, and we’re not even talking about the wedding party itself.”

“What do you mean?” Lydia asked, puzzled.

“Well,” said Sandy, “there are four mothers. Three grooms.” She looked uncertain. “Two brides.”

“And a partridge in a pear tree,” Jeremy sang.

Lydia whacked him. She got a very wet embrace and a hot, coffee-flavored kiss in return. That stirring deep inside turned into a throbbing
a
s Jeremy grabbed her ass, his palm becoming a hot promise. Mike’s eyebrows turned down just enough to make her realize he knew what was going on.

Good.

Three’s company, right?

All her blood rushed between her legs and she struggled to maintain composure to continue the conversation with her mom and brother.

“And one of the mothers of the bride just got arrested in Portland for having sex with two college hockey players in an airplane bathroom,” Miles added without emotion.

Everyone turned to him, eyebrows up.

He held up his hand, smartphone in it, and wiggled his wrist. “Am I the only one following social media for this shindig?”

“What?” Sandy said, her voice turning into a giggle at the end. “A threesome in an airplane
what
?”

“Not sure which is more scandalous,” Miles added. “The airplane bathroom part or the threesome part.”

Lydia shot him a look that could peel paint.

“Depends,” Pete muttered. Lydia jolted, not realizing he was there, sitting in a small office chair behind a partition, eyes focused on a folder stuffed with papers he was reading. “Which hockey team?”