“Then your mother dies, and you have to depend on Danielle. We all know she doesn’t make the best choices when it comes to friends.”
Just like clockwork, the doors opened, and Finn Taylor walked through looking like a zombie. His face was slack, and he sort of stumbled through, not paying any attention to the people around him. He disappeared behind the door to the bridal room.
“It’s just wrong.” Hillary shook her head as she stared at the door Finn Taylor had closed.
Val mumbled something about getting a glass of water and fled. She avoided the reception hall, needing a moment. She turned down a quiet hall that led to the Sunday school rooms.
Val glanced at herself in the reflective glass of the trophy case. The Methodists regularly trounced the Presbyterians in softball and had the trophies to prove it. Damn, she looked good. She had picked out the bridesmaid dresses herself. The pink brought out her delicate skin, and the sheath emphasized her slender figure. She could still fit into her old cheerleader uniform. Not many people could say that. Certainly not Dani, though Dani had already been portly in high school. Damn her. Val had worked her ass off to make sure this was a great social event. She was going to use this as a stepping stone. She wasn’t going to be one of those trashy Bay girls anymore. The Smart family might not be the cream of the crop, but they were a definite move in the right direction. They owned their own land and attended the right church. They didn’t live in a rundown old house and scrape for every penny the way the Bays had.
She was grateful to her sister for sticking around after their mom died. She really was. Dani had put her through college. It was the sensible thing to do, she told herself. She was the one with potential. She was the one who made good choices. By the time she was in junior high, Val had already eclipsed her older sister in every way that mattered. Dani might have been a straight A student, but that wasn’t what counted, not really. What counted was how well you fit in. Val had ruled the school with an iron fist. She’d been the Queen Bee.
She was going to be that again. Marrying her sister off had been the first step. Then all she had to do was get Dani to sell her half of the land they inherited. How the hell was she going to do that if Dani didn’t leave? She was on a timetable. Sooner or later the mayor was going to announce the development of that land, and then Dani would get half of the six figures their pitiful piece of Willow Fork was going to go for. The only reason John Hartley hadn’t announced the development yet was the fact that Val would cut him off. She couldn’t keep him on her sexual string forever.
“You got any idea where Dani went?”
Val spun around. Jimbo Smart stood behind her in his tuxedo jacket and black denims. She hadn’t been able to convince him to wear the trousers. Apparently only fags wore trousers. Jimbo might be all right in the sack, but he was a dumbass everywhere else. It briefly ran through Val’s mind that maybe her sister had found out she was screwing Jimbo. She decided the only way to deal with the situation was to power through. “None whatsoever. You want to tell me what you did?”
That was the way to do it. Put the blame on everyone but yourself. It worked almost every time. Sure enough, the dumbass mechanic reddened.
“I didn’t do nothing, Val. Hell, I ain’t even talked to her in a couple of days except at the rehearsal dinner. I did exactly what you told me to and laid low.” His boots moved restlessly across the floor. He kept his voice very quiet. “I let Momma handle her. I have no damn idea why she did that. She seemed just fine last night. She spent all her time with Finn, but she seemed happy.”
Finn. Damn him. Finn was the cause of all this chaos, Val just knew it. Dani had been fine right up to the minute Finn drove into town and got out of his fancy car. It was pathetic. Val wasn’t stupid. She knew her sister was in love with a man who would never return it, not the way a woman needed to be loved. Jimbo would have given Dani kids and a house to keep and some sort of place in the community, besides her current place of pathetic doormat old maid. Now Dani was going to be the crazy, pathetic doormat old maid. And Val was her sister, painted with the same damn brush.
“Obviously she wasn’t happy, or she would still be here getting ready to toast her new marriage.”
Jimbo shrugged out of his tuxedo coat. “Maybe it’s for the best. She’s a nice enough girl and all, but she’s pretty damn cold in the sack.” He winked at Val. “Not like you, sweet thing.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not here. Will you try to look like a sad groom?”
He leaned against the faded paneling beside the trophy case. “I’m not really. Look, Val, my momma told me I had to get married. Dani was sweet, but she sucks in bed. I don’t get it. She’s got a rocking body. Anyway, she doesn’t want to get married. Fine. I’ll find someone else. You’re available, right?”
Val’s stomach twisted in revulsion. As much as she enjoyed Jimbo, she was never going to be the wife of a mechanic. Now, the wife of a politician, that she might be able to handle. But John Hartley was never going to leave his middle-aged wife for a retail clerk. She had to bring in some cash of her own. And that meant getting rid of her sister. One way or another.
Val turned on her stilettos, not bothering to answer the redneck who couldn’t even get someone like Dani to marry him. It had all gone to hell. She strode into the reception hall, determined to figure out a way out of the mess her sister had left her with.
Chapter Four
Dani sat on the sofa and looked between the two men who were carefully studying her. She decided she’d been more comfortable with her boss’s husband when he had a baby attached to his chest. He’d seemed far less dangerous with a toothless infant dangling in front of him. Now little Josh and Olivia had been put down for naps, and she was the object of both men’s attention. She tried hard not to feel like an insect they had carefully pinned and made ready for dissection. Jack Barnes and Julian Lodge seemed perfectly comfortable with the silence that hung heavy in the air.
“Thanks for the clothes.” She had to say something. She smoothed down the cotton T-shirt Jack had found for her. The jeans were slightly too big, but a belt had taken care of that. She glanced at the clock, wondering if there was any way she could get out of here before her boss came home. Abby Barnes was away this afternoon attending a wedding. Her wedding. But where was she going to go? A part of her wished she was still in that car with Julian, just driving. She hadn’t had to face reality while she was in that car. Well, she had to face it now. She wasn’t some dreamy-eyed teen. She had to take her medicine. She would have loved a day or two to sort things out, but she wasn’t going to get it. “If I could just use a phone, I’ll get out of your hair.”
“Who do you intend to call, little one?”
Dani sat up straighter. God, couldn’t the man ask a simple question without the words going straight to her crotch? And why did he have to call her little one? She obviously wasn’t little. Val was the slender one. Maybe he wasn’t as nice as she thought he was. He wouldn’t be the first person to make fun of her. She crossed her legs and gathered her last shred of dignity. She should never have gotten in the car with him. She shouldn’t have run in the first place, but getting into a stranger’s car was ludicrous. If she couldn’t handle Jimbo Smart, she had no idea how she was supposed to hold her own with Julian Lodge. Perhaps it was time to grow a backbone. “That is none of your business, Mr. Lodge.”
One elegant eyebrow arched, and the room seemed to get cold.
“Sir.” So much for a backbone.
Jack Barnes laughed sharply. “Well, that was inevitable.”
Julian slid a glance Jack’s way. “Any possibility there’s someone I can pass her off to?”