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“No, my love, you are not pregnant, and I won’t be manipulated. Now, this conversation has grown tedious beyond belief. I love you with all my heart, and I— Are you crying, my sweet?”
“Yes.” She sniffed. “That’s practically all I’ve done since you left.”
“Truly?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“How splendid.”
And that was that.
Sugar Beth stomped through the house for a few hours, cried some more, and ate her way through two bowls of oatmeal. The next morning she woke up even angrier, grabbed the phone, and hired Bruce Kleinman, Amy’s first boyfriend and the best contractor in town, to start work on the depot. She no longer owed Colin a thing. Right after, she reached Jewel. “Remember when I told you I had this fantasy about opening a children’s bookstore in the depot?”
“I’m hardly likely to forget it. I told you I thought you should do it. You were the one with cold feet, remember? You said you couldn’t do anything permanent because of Colin.”
“That’s not a problem anymore, since I officially hate him. And I hope you meant it about us being partners.”
Sugar Beth pulled the receiver away from her ear to keep Jewel’s celebratory hoots from rupturing her eardrum.
She showered, slipped into a new pair of orange capris along with a sleeveless white shirt and sandals, and called Wi
“Jewel’s worried about you,” Wi
“Jewel should stay out of the Seawillows’ business,” Sugar Beth retorted. “She laughed in my face when I told her how much we wanted her to join.”
“You probably shouldn’t take it personally.”
“How can I not take it personally? Next to you, she’s my best friend, not to mention my future business partner. And she’s not half as fu
Wi
Sugar Beth sank down in an oak farm chair, the emotions of the past two days catching up with her. “Just because a person understands something about herself doesn’t necessarily mean she can fix it.”
“I’m guessing we’re talking about you now.”
“Think about it. A woman who’s always been overweight, for example. She knows exactly what she needs to do to keep off the pounds, but that doesn’t mean she can do it, right?”
“You’ve got a point.”
Sugar Beth pressed her stomach. “Call me crazy, but taking a fourth trip down the aisle doesn’t seem like the best way to fix whatever’s broken inside me.”
“Unless whatever was broken is already fixed.”
“Just thinking about all this is making me queasy. I’ve gotta go.” She grabbed her purse, gave Wi
The heat had begun to settle in, and as she hit the sidewalk, she slipped on her new sunglasses, a trendy pair of aviators. A man she didn’t know tripped over his feet rubbernecking at her. She was too tired to appreciate the attention.
Gordon greeted her at the door. He’d gotten clingy since Colin left, and she sank down on the tile to give him love, but he was the product of a broken home, and he was too depressed to do more than roll over on his back. Afterward, she made her way to the kitchen, grabbed a carton of strawberry yogurt, and began to pace. Finally, she lay down on the sunroom couch, only to jolt awake a few hours later and begin pacing all over again.
Night settled in, and her agitation grew. By eleven o’clock, she’d worked herself into such a state she couldn’t stand it any longer, so she marched down the street and banged on Wi
Her half sister answered in a pair of pajama tops, hair tousled, beard-burn reddening her cheek. Sugar Beth stormed inside. “Can’t the two of you spend just one evening talking like normal people?”
“Don’t take out your sexual frustration on me. What’s wrong?”
“I need to talk to Ryan.”
“He’s asleep.”
“Not for long.” Sugar Beth pushed past her and stalked upstairs. Wi
Ryan lay on his stomach, probably naked, although a thin blue blanket covered him from the hips down, so she couldn’t be sure. She punched his shoulder. “Wake up!”
He rolled over, the sheet twisting around him, blinked, and looked past Sugar Beth to his wife, who crossed her arms over her chest and glowered. “She’s your old girlfriend. I barely know her.”
Sugar Beth had started to shake, but she kept her voice low so she didn’t wake Gigi. “Listen to me, Ryan Galantine. When that bastard calls back, you tell him he’s won this round. I’ll marry him. But I don’t take well to being blackmailed, and tell him I intend to spend the rest of my life making him miserable, got that?”
Ryan pushed himself up into the pillows. He looked sleepy but amused.
Sugar Beth bore in. “I mean it. If he wants this marriage so bad, he can have it, but he’d better be prepared to suffer serious consequences.” She spun around, marched past Wi
Ryan gazed at his wife. “They deserve each other.”
Sugar Beth refused to have anything to do with the arrangements other than to say she wanted a private ceremony, just Gigi, Ryan, and Wi
Which wouldn’t do as far as Wi
“I’ll make sure the video store hides The Runaway Bride,” Meryli
“If Colin wants to keep her from ru
Wi
That didn’t set well with any of them. “You’d think she’d be a little more important than finishing a book.” Meryli
“I’ve never understood that man.”
“I hope Sugar Beth doesn’t figure out how far down she is on his priority list.”
“You know how sarcastic he can be,” Jewel said, doing her best to defend him. “Maybe Ryan misinterpreted.”
But a sense of uneasiness undercut the rest of their pla
Ignoring Sugar Beth’s wishes, Wi
Ryan managed the license, and Leea
On Friday morning, the day before the wedding, a crew arrived at Frenchman’s Bride to erect the tent for the reception, and not long after, a rental van appeared with tables and chairs. Sugar Beth strapped a headset over her ears to shut it all out and spent the day petting Gordon and making plans for her bookstore while an old Pearl Jam CD blared in her ears.