Return of the Jerk (Sweet Life in Seattle, Book 2) (50 page)

Blair only felt guiltier.

The irony is that
Edge of Zen
is still riding high. It hit number three on
The
New York Times
best sellers last week and is doing well everywhere. Though apparently, Nathan has gone into hiding, according to Fiona. All Tori could confirm was that he’s been staying with Brody.

Organ music flows through the church, and everyone turns and watches as each bridesmaid makes her way down the aisle. When it’s Tori’s turn, she looks pretty carrying a bouquet of pink flowers, her hair shiny and long, flowing down her back. Marla comes next, looking deeply tan, wearing her usual superior smirk. Finally, the familiar opening to Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” begins and the bride is there, too, smiling nervously at everyone. She’s being walked down the aisle by Lori and a man she assumes is Kiki’s dad, though Blair has never seen him before. Blair hasn’t seen much of Kiki as an adult, but still feels an obligation toward her since she was around her quite a bit when they were growing up. She remembers babysitting her with Tori lots of times.

The church is mostly quiet as everyone watches the ceremony. Oddly, Blair can sense the woman sitting next to Brody staring at her. Finally, Blair looks at her, but the woman turns her head away.

Blair wonders who she could be. She doesn’t recognize her as any family member. Considers maybe she’s with Austin’s family, but why would she be sitting with Brody and Kiera?

As Blair’s trying to figure this out, the woman glances at her again and while her look isn’t exactly hostile, it’s not friendly, either.

Blair scans what she’s wearing—a tight red dress, four-inch strappy heels, chandelier earrings. She’s gorgeous, but her clothes are more appropriate for a night club than a wedding.

Who is she?

After the ceremony, everyone goes out front to blow bubbles at the bride and groom who get into a white stretch limousine. There’s no sign of Nathan anywhere and that woman is gone, but Kiera comes over to ask Blair if she needs a ride to the reception.

“Thanks, but I drove here myself.”

“Okay, just thought I’d ask. Brody and I are going to head over now.”

Blair nods and is ready to go, but then decides to ask Kiera about that woman. “Who was that sitting next to Brody during the ceremony? I didn’t recognize her.”

Kiera gets a pained expression on her face. “She’s with Nathan.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” Kiera says, pushing back some of her blonde curls from where the wind is blowing them around. “She’s from Spain, arrived a few days ago. I just met her this morning.”

Blair swallows, sick to her stomach.

“She’s staying at a hotel downtown.” Kiera puts her hand on Blair’s arm. “Are you okay? I know you and Nathan broke up. I’m so sorry. I don’t even understand what happened.”

“I’m okay. I can’t talk about it right now.”

Kiera nods with sympathy. “All right. I’ll see you at the reception.”

Blair watches Kiera go over to Brody then heads out to her own car—the Honda. Once inside, Blair sits there. Doesn’t move. Can barely breathe.

So that’s Sonia.

Nathan must have asked her to fly out.
That was fast
. Apparently, he couldn’t wait to get back together with her.

Blair closes her eyes to fight off tears. Tells herself it doesn’t matter, which obviously isn’t true, but she doesn’t know what else to do. More than anything, she wishes she could just go home. Get in bed. Sleep until her heart doesn’t hurt anymore.

Instead, she starts the car and drives toward the reception. She doesn’t have much choice. Her cake is there, and she’s expected to be there, too.

The party is already going full swing when she arrives, which isn’t a big surprise. If Nathan’s family is good at one thing, it’s partying. Austin’s family seems to be the same, so between the two of them, there’s a lot of alcohol flowing.

Her cake is along the back wall and she goes over to inspect it. They haven’t cut it yet, and it’s still holding up well.

“The cake looks amazing!” Kiki says, coming up to give her a hug. “Everybody’s been raving about it. Thank you so much!”

“You’re welcome.” Blair smiles.

They talk about the ceremony a little bit and how Kiki and Austin are planning to drive down the Oregon coast for their honeymoon.

There’s some commotion on stage and it looks like the band is setting up, so Kiki leaves to speak with them.

Blair grabs a glass of wine and searches around for Tori, wishing she could just leave. Finally, she sees Tori with her mom, who Blair discovers is already drunk and talking loudly.

“I think you need to have a seat, Mom,” Tori is saying to her, holding her mom’s arm.

“I’m fine. Let go of me! It’s that jackass’s fault. What kind of asshole walks out on his woman the day of her daughter’s wedding?”

“Hi, Lori,” Blair says, coming up to them. “Everything okay?” She’s dealt with Lori drunk before and knows the best thing is to keep an even voice, pretend everything is normal.

“That dirtbag, Garth, ran out on me this morning!” Lori says, even louder than before.

Blair isn’t quite sure what to say.
Good riddance
comes to mind. Instead, she puts a sympathetic expression on her face.

“I’m just trying to get my mom to have a seat, relax a little bit.” Tori smiles at Blair apologetically. It’s a smile Blair has seen Tori wear a million times in regards to her mom.

“That’s a good idea,” Blair says. “Why don’t we all go sit down?”

“Need another drink,” Lori grumbles.

Blair studies her. Lori’s eyes are bloodshot. There’s pink lipstick smeared over the lines of her mouth with some of it on her teeth. Her blonde hair is pulled into an elaborate French twist. The blue cocktail dress she’s wearing is tight and shows off a fair amount of overly tan, wrinkled cleavage. Despite all this, Lori still has a certain sex appeal.

Somehow, they manage to convince her to sit down, mostly by telling her they’ll get her another whiskey sour. One of Lori’s friends comes over, which becomes a good distraction.

“Thanks,” Tori says to Blair. “Garth chose a great day to leave.”

“Can’t say I’m sorry to hear he’s gone, though.”

Tori sighs. “Me, either.”

Blair’s eyes search the room. As always, without effort, she spots Nathan. To her surprise, he’s looking directly at her, and her heart skips a beat. Their eyes stay on each other for a long moment, but then he turns away. He’s standing near the wedding cake, talking to a couple of people. Sonia is there beside him, and she now sees what she missed in the church earlier. Sonia is clearly Skank Factor X.

Tori notices where Blair’s focused. “That’s Sonia, the Spanish girlfriend. Apparently, she arrived a few days ago. Road brought her over to my mom’s yesterday.”

Blair lets out her breath. “What’s she like?”

“You don’t want to know.” Tori pauses then shakes her head. “Horrible.”

Instead of feeling jealous like she used to, Blair discovers she feels sad for Nathan.
He deserves better, even if it’s with someone else and not me.

The band starts playing a cover of The Romantics “What I Like About You” and Tori reaches over to grab her hand. “Come on, I love this song.” She pulls Blair up from the chair. “Let’s dance.”

Blair resists at first, but then gives in. Figures why not. She goes out and dances with Tori. By the third song, a couple of young guys, friends of Austin’s, come over and ask each of them to dance. Tori and Blair both say yes, and Blair almost has fun. The guy who asked her is named Jacob. He’s a lot younger than she is, but cute. Tall with dark hair, and a good-humored face. He has a hip-hop style of dancing that keeps making Blair laugh.

“God, we’re robbing the cradle here,” Tori whispers in her ear at one point.

Blair shrugs. “Who cares?”

She still notices Nathan occasionally. Off to the side, he doesn’t dance and mostly just stands there with a stony expression. Sonia is talking to Brody and Kiera, using elaborate hand gestures.

Eventually, she and Tori stop dancing and tell the two guys they’re going to take a restroom break. The guys want to meet up later, but she and Tori only commit to a ‘maybe.’

“Let me go find my mom first and check on her,” Tori says. “I’ll meet you in the bathroom.”

“Okay.” Blair grabs her purse and heads toward the restroom. The band is playing Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, though the sound is muffled as she walks down the hall away from the main room.

After peeing, Blair goes to wash her hands at the sink and winds up standing right next to Marla putting on lipstick.

“Nice ceremony,” Blair says to her, being polite.

“Mmm,” is all Marla says, studying herself in the mirror. Queen of her own skank universe.

Blair smiles to herself. The bathroom door opens and she glances at it, expecting Tori, but instead Sonia comes inside. Sonia’s eyes search the large bathroom, and as soon as she spots Blair, heads straight over.

Marla is still standing there, and Blair watches with interest as the two women notice each other, wondering what will happen.
The clash of the skanks! Will there be a rift in the space time continuum? Will lightning bolts shoot from their eyes and fingertips?

A battle to the death!

Blair is disappointed when all the women do is glare at each other and swap bitchy looks.

Come on, that’s all? Seriously? Heck, I can do better than that.

If only Fiona were here, Blair muses. She could teach these amateurs a thing or two.

After Marla leaves, Sonia changes her focus. “You are Blair?” she asks, moving closer, enveloping her in a cloud of astringent perfume.

“Yes.” Blair grabs some paper towels to dry her hands, wondering what Sonia could possibly want.

Sonia rakes her brown eyes over Blair from head to toe. Blair recognizes the way she’s doing it.
Classic Skank Factor X behavior. Apparently, it’s the same all over the world. Who knew?

“What is this difficulty you are having with Nathan and me?” Sonia wants to know. She pronounces his name ‘Naytun.’

“Difficulty?”

“You are jealous of us? Yes?”

Blair puts the paper towels in the trash. Sighs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Nathan is trying to get the divorce, but you will not give it to him. Why?”

“He wants to divorce me?”

“Yes.” Sonia gives her a superior smile. “You have not seen him for many years. It is finished.”

“I don’t know what he’s told you, but Nathan has never asked me for a divorce.”

“But that is why he came back to Seattle!”

Blair goes still as this piece of news takes her by surprise.
Is this really true?

“He came back to get the divorce from you, so we could be together. We love each other.” Sonia looks at herself in the mirror and starts fluffing her hair out. “Do not make this so big a problem.”

She stares at Sonia. This had never occurred to Blair before. Obviously, she never wanted a divorce, but it makes sense Nathan would have come back eventually wanting one.
He never said a word, though.

Blair goes back out to the reception, still in a daze, wondering if there’s any truth in what Sonia told her. She doesn’t see Tori and decides to go outside and get some fresh air instead.

There are a few people out back, most of them smoking, so Blair walks around to the other side of the building.

To her surprise, she discovers Nathan. He’s standing alone, leaning against the wall as he drinks a beer and looks out at the mansion’s manicured grounds.

He doesn’t see her yet and Blair stops, unsure of what to do. She doesn’t want him to think she followed him out here.

Just as she decides to leave and go back, he notices her.

Blair takes a deep breath and walks over to him.
Might as well.
Up close and in the light of the late afternoon, she can see he looks tired, though his grim expression isn’t helping matters.

“Enjoying the party?” he says.

“I guess.”

He nods and takes a drink from his beer. “Could see that.”

She stands next to him, leaning back against the wall herself, wondering what he’s talking about.

“Who’s that guy you were dancing with?” he asks.

She glances at him to see if he’s joking, but it doesn’t look like it. “Some friend of Austin’s.”

They’re both quiet and suddenly there’s so much Blair wishes she could say, everything that’s in her heart, but then it occurs to her.
I’ve already said it all. He knows everything. Knows I’ve loved him for years, and this is where it got me.

“So, that’s the famous Sonia from Spain.” There’s a bitter note in Blair’s voice she doesn’t intend. She wonders if she should ask him if it’s true what Sonia told her, but then she’s not even sure if she wants to know.

Nathan takes another swig of beer but doesn’t reply, just stares out at the landscaped grounds. “How’s Mr. Maurice doing?” he asks.

“Not good.”

She feels him turning to look at her so she meets his gaze. Golden-green. Her breath catches. She’d almost forgotten that dazzling color. Her whole life awash in gray since he left.