Dangerous Curves Ahead: A Perfect Fit Novel (35 page)

“Okay.” She gave him a shy smile and pushed his siblings out of the house.

He watched her through the window until they pulled off into the dreary afternoon.

“You’re in love with her,” his mother said, jolting his attention away from Ellis.

“Yeah.”

“Are you going to ask her to marry you?”

He nodded.

Her eyes filled with tears. “I’m very happy to hear that.” She rushed over and gave him a bone-crushing hug. “She’s good for you.”

He patted his mother’s back and kissed her forehead before he set her away from him. “You losing weight, Ma? You’re looking good.”

She grinned at him and did a dramatic turn so he could admire her. “You think so? I’ve been feeling like an old bag of bones. Do you mind if we sit down? The long drive took it out of me.”

“Of course. Do you want something to drink? I don’t have much. I’m not here a lot.”

“I guessed. When were you going to tell me you were living with her?”

“Eventually, I just asked her today. When were you going to tell me Dad was a drug addict?”

She swallowed. “I wondered when you were going to get around to asking me about that. Could you get me a big glass of water before you start yelling at me?”

He retrieved the water and sat on the couch beside her. “Go on.”

“I always planned to tell you, but I didn’t know how. Things got bad between us before he left. He was disappearing at night, not showing up for work during the day, and there were a few times I had to go searching for him in the bad part of town in the middle of the night. One night we had a huge fight after I found him passed out and I told him that it would better off if he left because I’d rather live without him than have one of our kids coming home to find him dead. Two weeks later he was gone.” She looked at him helplessly. “I wanted to tell you a thousand times but there was no right way.”

“Okay.” He kissed his mother’s soft cheek and patted her hand.

“Okay?”

“Yup.” He shrugged. “I just wanted to know why.”

“You’re not mad?”

He was surprised to find that he wasn’t. It bothered him that his mother chose to keep him in the dark for so long, but after the past couple of weeks he knew it was time for him to let some things go. “Not anymore. Ellis helped me to see that I was being a jackass.”

“I’m glad. Now let’s talk about when I can expect some grandchildren.”

*   *   *

“This bride is going to be the death of me,” Ellis sighed the next day as she studied the dress that Audra Landry has commissioned.

It was nowhere near done because of the intricate hand-beading that still needed to be applied. It was lovely without it. Ellis knew that the bride and her pushy mother would be very happy with the finished product. That was, if they stopped calling her to make changes. This time Audra wanted the dress cut two sizes too small because she was on a juice cleanse that promised to take twenty pounds off.

“I can’t do it,” she mumbled. “I’ve been on every diet under the sun and I know that one doesn’t work. You only lose water weight, not real fat, and then you’re so damn hungry you want to gnaw off the leg of the first person you see. I can’t let her do this.”

“What’s that, Ellie?”

She looked over at Mike, who was going over her books at her computer. “Oh, I wasn’t talking to you.”

“I can tell, but I figured I better say something before somebody hears and tries to send you to a nuthouse.”

“You wouldn’t let them take me away, would you?”

“Not if I could help it.” He extended his arms to her. “Come here, baby.” She curled in his lap and rested her head on his shoulder. “Don’t let that bride make you crazy. You’re the designer. You do what you need to do.”

“Can I be temperamental?”

“Of course.” He smoothed his hands down her back. “Be a total bitch. Your work is good enough to warrant it. As soon as we’re done here, I want you to call her back and tell her you’re not going to do whatever crazy thing she wants you to do this time.”

“I will. I’m glad you’re here.” She nuzzled his neck. “I thought you would be a big pain in the ass but you come in quite handy.”

Once again he had organized her orders, putting them into a user-friendly spreadsheet. She now knew how many dresses she had to complete, how much time they would take to finish, and the cost of materials all in one place, instead of scribbled on loose pieces of paper.

“Glad to be of service.” He rested his lips on her forehead. “Your business has quadrupled in the past three months. You might want to think about separating the clothing store from the dress shop. The store next door is vacant.”

“You think so?” The idea of expansion had been on her mind a lot lately. Belinda had been offering up her nest egg on a daily basis, but she had yet to accept the offer from her best friend. She didn’t want to take Belinda’s hard-earned money—but Belinda worked as hard as she did. Ellis couldn’t run the place without her. Maybe Belinda deserved to own a piece of the shop. “It just seems like such a big step. I don’t know how we would manage.” She looked up at him. “I’ll do it if you quit your job and help me run it.”

“I would, if you could stand working with me every day and living with me, too.”

She kissed his cheek. “You’re sweet but I couldn’t ask you to give up your job for me.”

He shrugged. “Being a cop isn’t that much fun anymore. And I like being in the store with you.” He lifted her hands to his mouth. “If you want to make a go of the second store I want to do it with you.”

Damn it. Shit.
That wall around her heart finally crumbled. She reached up to kiss him.

“Hey, Smelly—oh what do we have here?”

Ellis froze at the sound of Dina’s voice.

No. No. No. No. No. Shit! No.
She hadn’t told her sister about Mike yet. She had pushed it to the back of her mind when they had that fight.

She lifted her lips away from Mike and shut her eyes. This was all her fault. It could have been avoided if she hadn’t been such a coward.

Chapter Twenty-six

Fat Hollywood

Why is it when actors and actresses gain weight for a role they are heralded? When I gain weight over the holidays nobody cheers for me, much less nominates me for a damn Oscar.

Renée Zellweger balloons up to a size fourteen and it makes the nightly news.

Charlize Theron eats a hamburger and the world applauds.

So I propose an award for everyday fatties like you and me and I call it the Chubby Flubby …

“What’s wrong, baby?” Mike looked worried for her.

“I didn’t tell her,” she whispered.

“What?” Mike’s face grew stormy. Ellis knew that things were about to come to a head.

Dina smiled at them, flipping her long auburn hair over her shoulder. “You didn’t tell me you were seeing anybody,” she said.

Ellis lifted her gaze to meet her sister’s. Time to put on her big-girl panties. “I am. I’ve been dating him for months.”

“Aren’t we good at keeping secrets?” Dina moved forward and extended her hand. “Hi. I’m Dina and you’re a hunk.”

She didn’t recognize him.
WHAT!
Dina had gone on and on about how Mike was the one that got away, about how he was a man she could love, and now she didn’t recognize him.

“Dina. This is Mike,” Ellis said dumbly. “Mike Edwards.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mike.” She gave him a flirty smile.

“Dina. This is Mike. From four years ago.”

“You don’t remember me?”

Dina frowned in confusion. “Mike?” She squinted. “Ellis, how could you?”

“I’m sorry for not telling you but I didn’t do it on purpose. I didn’t do anything wrong. We ran into each other a while back ago and hit it off.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong? You let me go on and on about him. You kept trying to discourage me from hooking back up with him. And the whole time you were plotting to steal him from me.”

“Wait a minute,” Mike interrupted but Dina ignored him.

“You’re such a bitch. How did you do it, Ellie? Did you tell him I was dead? Because if he knew I was still single, there’s no way in hell he would want to be with you. I’m the one who has it. You don’t. I can’t believe you would stoop low enough to steal my boyfriend.”

“Don’t go there, Dina.” Ellis stood and confronted her sister. “Don’t you dare.”

“Did you drug him? Is this you getting back at me for that little incident we had four years ago? Or are you still mad because you think you saw him first and I took him from you? God, you’re pathetic. No real man wants you so you have to go after my sloppy seconds.”

“That’s it!” Mike stood and charged toward Dina, but Ellis blocked his path with her arm. “You’re not going to talk to her like that.”

“What?” Dina’s mouth dropped open. “You’re defending her?”

“Mike, let me handle this. I should have told her months ago. She has a right to be mad.”

“No she doesn’t.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Nobody has the right to speak to you like that.”

“Oh Lord.” Dina threw her hands up in frustration. “She has brainwashed you.”

Mike pushed past Ellis and got in Dina’s face. “She hasn’t brainwashed me.” His voice was deadly. “Your sister makes me happy. She’s beautiful and smart and everything you could never be. I was never your boyfriend. You didn’t even recognize me when you walked in the damn door,” he spat. “You want to know the truth about that night? I was going to fuck you and forget you. We never had a shot, but your sister and I are in it for the long haul so you better get used to seeing me around and if you can’t, you can screw off. I will not have you speak to my girlfriend that way. I will not have you push her around and make her feel guilty for your shitty life. It ends today, Dina. You act like a grown-up or you go to hell.”

Dina recoiled as if she had been slapped. “I see how it is.” Her eyes filled with tears. “Good-bye, Ellis.”

She watched Dina go, a heavy pain settling on her chest. She didn’t know why she hurt. She knew her sister. She’d known how Dina would react. Nothing had changed since childhood. Ellis wasn’t going to give up Mike, but she couldn’t stomach losing her sister.

She took a deep breath and rested her hands on her desk. Breathing had suddenly become difficult.

“Are you okay?” Mike eased his arms around her waist and pulled her into his chest. She exhaled.

“I should go after her. I need to apologize.”

He spun her around and tipped her chin up so that his blue gaze could bore into hers. “No. You will not apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“She has every right to be mad. I didn’t tell her about us. I’m surprised you aren’t mad at me, too.”

“I am mad at you.”

“Oh.” She looked away from him for a moment. His gaze was too intense. “I’m sorry.”

“What is with you, Ellis? What’s it going to take for you to trust me?”

“I—I do but—”

“No buts. This is bullshit. I don’t think you—”

She put her hand over his mouth to stop his flow of words. “Please stop talking. I don’t want to fight with you tonight. I want this to work. I want to be with you.”

He pushed her hand from his mouth. “Then why the hell didn’t you tell her about us? We went out half a dozen fucking times. Only a delusional person would think she had some sort of tie to me.”

“Dina is delusional. But I didn’t tell her for the reasons you think.” She took a deep breath, trying to make sense of it herself. “It has nothing to do with you. Dina and I have a difficult relationship. And we were just starting to smooth things over. I didn’t want anything to come between us, so I didn’t tell her. I wanted to. I really did, but I was too afraid to risk it. I’m crazy about you, Mike, but you can pick up and leave or decide one day you’re sick of my bullshit. Dina is my sister forever.”

He shook his head sadly. “We are not temporary. When are you going to figure that out?”

“I—I…”

“This is about Jack, isn’t it?”

“Excuse me?” she asked, shocked that Mike would bring him up.

“He treated you like shit so you assume that I will, too.”

“Mike, don’t.” She didn’t want to think about him now, or about her past with Dina, about all the times her big sister had put her down and pushed her away.

“Answer me.”

“I don’t know,” she shouted at him. “He called me a fat pig. He told me I was disgusting, that nobody else would ever want me. That he was embarrassed to be seen with me. You know what he said the last night we were together? That having sex with me was like being with a broodmare and that he was surprised he could get it up half the time.” She pushed his chest as the tears started to form in her eyes. “Are you happy now?”

“Ellis…” All of the anger seemed to drain from his body.

He kissed her wet eyelids, then her cheeks, and finally her trembling mouth. She hadn’t realized that she was crying until he did. “I wished I could have killed Jack for you. If he wasn’t in jail I would. You know what he said wasn’t true.” His kissed down the hollow of her neck. “You know I can’t get enough of you? I’m crazy about you, Ellie, and I don’t care who knows it.”

“Mmm,” she moaned as he comforted her. She wanted to tell him, that she loved him, but something held her back. She wanted to hear the words from him first. It might be a foolish thing to want because she already knew he loved her, but she needed to hear it. For her it would make everything real. Then she would have no problem admitting what she’d felt for so long. “Let’s go home. I need for you to love me right now.”

*   *   *

Even though Thanksgiving had come and gone in a blur, it was a good one. It was one of the few times Mike was surrounded by his family. He had been with his mother and sisters’ families before, but this was the first year he’d spent the holiday with a woman by his side. Ellis opened up her home and along with his mother prepared a Thanksgiving feast. She was so cute scurrying around, trying to make things perfect, trying to make sure all their guests were happy. He watched her instead of the football game. To everybody else she seemed fine but he knew her better. Her bright eyes were a little dull. The fight she had with Dina was still bothering her.