Bad Boy's Bridesmaid (16 page)

“Mandy, I have
needs!
”

Oh, God, she
followed me into the main hall of the country club.

Why would she
follow
me?

I covered my eyes,
stumbling anywhere I could hide from what I just witnessed.

I had my pick of
traumas—emotional, mental, social, existential…

Pretty sure I
lost my faith too, somewhere around the time Mom thanked Jesus for the man’s
personal endowments.

I crashed into
the fountain, stumbled, and would have tumbled into the water if Nate hadn’t
caught me. I wish he let me fall into the water, then I might have washed that discovery
off of me, but I probably needed acetone or another industrial solvent for
that. Holy water. A priest.

An exorcist.

Lindsey was not
at all amused. She stomped her feet and squealed.

“What in the
world
is going on?”

“No words,” I whispered.

I blinked,
forcing the Lovecraftian image out of my head. That horror remained in my sight,
like I’d stared straight into the sun. Oh, to be one of the lucky bastards who
had the foresight to sear out their retinas.  

Mom stormed into
the ballroom. Thankfully she had put on clothes, but I think she left her bra
somewhere in the bathroom.

Her words
repeated in my mind.

Give it to Momma
.

Her steps
stopped before me. When we were little, Mom insisted Lindsey and I look at her
when we were being punished. Not today. Never again.

I was
certain
she didn’t have time to wash the fingers she pointed at me.

“Don’t you dare
lecture me!” Mom scowled. “What you saw was an adult thing.”

I didn’t know
what I saw. I didn’t want to
remember
what I saw.

I had just caught
my
mother
sneaking into a public restroom to have sex with a stranger…

Because I was
about to do it too!

Although Nate
wasn’t a stranger.

…And neither was
the man who ran after her.

Nate had stayed
quiet until now, but he swore in shock once he recognized Mom’s chosen partner.

“Holy
shit
.”

Marcus
Washington jogged after Mom. He said nothing, but rejoined his equally
perplexed wife.

Oh my God.

Mom was having
an affair with the groom’s
dad
?

Mom crossed her
arms. That helped to reduce the wiggle of her unsecured chest, but it couldn’t
undo the damage. All I envisioned was the absolute earthquakes that were her
mamma-jammas lopping this way and that as she pile-drived her chosen conquest.

“What the hell
is going on?” Lindsey demanded. “Stop
embarrassing
me!”

“It’s perfectly
natural, Mandy!” Mom wasn’t letting this go. “I will
not
have you
shaming me.”

“I…I didn’t
shame,” I said. God, she was angry. Then again, I would be too if I had been
interrupted before I…ugh. “I will never, ever talk about it again, Mom.”

Lindsey groaned.
“
What
happened?”

Mom’s voice
rose. “I had hoped you were mature enough to understand that sometimes a woman
needs to be pleasured.”

Lindsey’s mouth
dropped open. Nate shuddered.

The
entire
country club staff and its guests stopped to stare.

Hiding in a hole
wouldn’t do it. I planned to rent some machinery and dig a pit large enough to
bury my entire family from regular society.

“I’m sorry, Mom,”
I said. “Let’s just drop it.”

“We are all
sexual beings! There is nothing wrong with two consenting adults exploring
their desires.”

Nate nudged me.
“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”

I gritted my
teeth. “
So
not the time!”

“I mean…if you
have questions…” Mom shook her head. “Lord knows you haven’t found a man yet. I
never needed to worry about this conversation with you.”

Done. That was
it. I was done.

“It’s fine,
Mom.” I stepped back. “Look, you guys have the venue stuff handled. I’m going
to…go. And I might be back for the wedding.”

I bolted for the
exit as my sister lost her mind.

Nate followed,
and I was too shocked to shoo him. He led me to his car and helped me into the
passenger seat. We sat in silence as we contemplated ways to purge the memory
from our minds.

“So…” He started
the car, but he didn’t drive. “That was your mom…”

“Who was the man
she was…?”

Riding?

Gag.

“Gotta tell you,
baby, I don’t make a habit of recognizing men based on their…meat, mid-grind.”

“I think it was
Bryce’s dad.” I bit my lip. “Marcus ran into the hall after her.”

Nate laughed.
“Great. This is a special kind of fucked up.”

“Take me home?”

He agreed,
though just as the heebies shook out of me, the jeebies smacked me full force.
I recognized the SUV in the corner of the parking lot.

“Oh no.” My
stomach dropped. “
Dad
’
s
here? He’s gonna walk into the middle of all
of this. What if he finds out that Mom is…”

Nate shrugged.
“Doing what? They’re
separated
. Didn’t they sign the divorce papers?”

“It’s not
final.”

“Well, your mom
was one good bounce away from drying the ink on her signature.”

I gasped. “How
can you say that?”

“Baby, they’re
adults. They can do what they want.”

I guessed that
included hurting each other and destroying thirty years of a life together.

But Mom had sex
with the groom’s
father
!

This wasn’t just
going to tear the family apart; it’d ruin the Washingtons
and
decimate
the entire neighborhood. Our families were friends. We grew up together, helped
each other,
married
each other.

Was
no one
happy anymore?

Hell, Lindsey
and Bryce were fighting more and more, especially once he learned about the
first “Dirty Dance” he’d have with his bride. Mom and Dad couldn’t be in the
same room together. Now Marcus and Darla had infidelity problems.

Damn. The only
person who had it right was Nate. He kept out of relationships and commitments,
and he was happier for it.

Maybe he knew
best.

I didn’t want to
think why it comforted me that he drove me home and walked me to my door, but
Nate knew how to make me smile. Laugh.

Melt.

I let him inside
my apartment, and it wasn’t even against my better judgment. I just…

Wanted
him there.

He had been to
my apartment before…the first time we fooled around. Sure, it wasn’t his classy
bar or his beautifully renovated apartment on its second floor, but I liked my
place. It was tiny, but it got me away from home during college and kept me
away once I graduated. Dad’s advertising company did well, but I didn’t have
enough saved for a better place.

Besides, I had
planned to find a home once I met the man of my dreams. We’d save for a house,
have a small wedding, and then start a family.

Happily ever
after, right?

My life was just
a little out-of-order.

“You okay?” Nate
asked.

He eyed the bed
in the corner—miraculously made this morning without laundry stacked over the
comforter.

“I can run to
the bar, get us a six pack if you want to drink it away.”

The closer we
got to the wedding, the harder it was to refuse a drink. Apparently, the only
way people survived the last few weeks of planning was to write the toasts
while toasted.

“I’ll survive.”
I plunked onto the couch. “I just didn’t expect to walk in on
that
.”

“Front row show
too.”

I gave an
awkward laugh. “At least it wasn’t a role reversal. Had
we
been in there
a couple minutes earlier—”

“I don’t know
what you saw, but from my angle it looked like they had been going for a
while
.”

“Oh gross!” I
smacked him with a throw pillow. Nate grinned, seizing it from me to retaliate.
I ducked away. “Haven’t I suffered enough?”

He shrugged.
“The ladies’ room was occupied. Nothing stopped us from using the men’s.”

“Do I look that
depraved?”

“Like mother,
like daughter.”

I huffed,
grabbing the rest of the pillows on the couch to pitch at his head. Nate laughed,
blocking the shots. He smiled, and that damn grin fluttered me into quiet
confusion. It was sexy enough to make sneaking into bathrooms in public places
seem…fun.

Something about
Nate made me wild, but even at his most wicked, he seemed so gentle and
passionate and so easy to…

I sucked in a
breath.

Well, that was a
trap I set for myself, and I nearly fell in head first.

If I wasn’t
careful, I’d keep tumbling around Nate, perpetually off-balance and trembling
and aching to touch him.

I tugged a
pillow back and clutched it to my chest. It wasn’t the best defense against
him, but I wanted to be cautious. If Nate hadn’t noticed a difference in my
body at the cabin, I doubted he’d randomly guess about the baby now.

His
baby.

I liked the
sound of it.

“So what do we
do?” I asked.

Nate smirked.
“About what? Dangerous question, baby. You might want to be more specific.”

True. I had too
many questions and not enough courage to ask them.

What do you want
to do about the baby? How do we handle having a child? Would you like to be
involved? Do you think it’s okay that we aren’t together?

...
Should we
get together?

Like
that
wouldn’t create a mess of complications. I’d stick to the stickiest issue at
the moment.

“What do we do
about my mom and Bryce’s dad?”

Nate answered
immediately with a decisive wave of his hand. “Absolutely nothing.”

“
Nothing
?”

“Not our
problem.”

“But he’s
married
—”

“You can’t save
everyone’s relationship,” Nate said. “Hell, most people can’t save their own.
He knew what he did, and so did your mom.”

I squeezed the
pillow. “Just feels…crummy.”

“It shouldn’t.
You’re too fixated on everyone else’s relationships.”

He stretched out
against the couch, arms on the back as if baiting me to scooch close and
snuggle against his chest. That was the type of thinking that got me in trouble
in the beginning.

“Hell, you’re
too obsessed with relationships in general,” he said.

“At least I’m
giving them some
thought
, unlike
you
who runs at the first sign
of commitment.”

“I’m not afraid
of commitment.”

“Then why
haven’t you found someone yet?”

“Who says I
haven’t?”

My throat closed.
“Have you?”

“There you go
again.” Nate teased. “Always thinking of other people’s love lives instead of
your own.”

“Believe me, I’m
focused on mine.”

“Are you?”

I answered
honestly. “Why do you think I keep pushing you away?”

“I’d love to
know.”

He curled a
finger for me to come closer, but there was only one way that game would end. I
shook my head and dug into my side of the couch.

That only baited
him.

I should have
stopped him.

I should have
pushed him away.

Nate crawled over
me, pinning me in the corner with a hand on the couch’s arm and back. The
pillow was a good choice. It kept a solid four inches between us, enough room
that I’d have to lean forward to take a kiss.

And that was a dangerous
and foolish thing to do.

“You were
saying, baby?” Nate shifted, knocking my legs open so he could get even closer.
“Why do you keep pushing me away?”

I was doing a
really lousy job of it now. “Because you’re bad for me.”

“Am I?” He
leaned a little closer, and his hoppy, masculine scent dizzied my head. “Be
honest.”

“You’re the only
man I’ve ever let this close.”

“That doesn’t
make me bad for you.”

“It doesn’t make
you
good
.”