Page 69 of What Happens This Christmas
Most everything else about her was fake as well. She flashed me a smile, and I had confirmation her teeth were fake. Fake tits, her cleavage practically spilling out of the top, but not in a sexy manner. Honestly, it was coming off as desperate.
Fantastic.
I should have gone home earlier, then I would have missed her coming in. “How do you know my name? Been here before? Or heard about me from one of your friends?” It had happened before, so I was no stranger to it. Women gossiped, told each other about some bartender they’d met and liked. It made them want to come in and see for themselves. Perhaps I’d given one of them my name.
She tipped her head back and a hearty laugh escaped her, one that made my skin crawl more than anything else. Why did it sound like nails on a chalkboard? Maybe it was because I was tired and only wanted one thing right now—to see my wife. It had been a while since the thought had flooded my mind, and it was nice to have it again.
“Silly Nicky,” she replied, still ignoring my questions. That was really obnoxious behavior. If she was single, that might be why. She couldn’t answer a damn question. “It’s Sibley.”
Adding a Y to the end of my name was not cute, it was annoying. Also, Sibley? I didn’t know a woman by that name, and if I had, I would definitely—
“We spent summers together on Long Island. Virginia was always like a second mother to me, but you…you were always so brooding, so hard to read as a kid. I see much hasn’t changed.” She extended her arm, her fingers inching, practically crawling, closer to mine. We weren’t on a first date, and I wasn’t looking to touch her hand to check for a connection.
Thank God that I wouldn’t have to get back in the dating game. It turned out that, just as before, I didn’t have the patience for it. I had been lucky when I’d met Candy, and that was that. “I wish I had better news for you.” Actually I didn’t necessarily care one way or another. “But I don’t remember you.”
“That’s fine.” She rolled her eyes dramatically, and I saw the white of them, causing me to cringe slightly. Did everything she do have to be so over-the-top? “No one ever called me by name,so that might be why.” She waved a hand between us, slicing the air with the motion. “Plus, I was a redhead, and my eyes were green.”
I placed my tongue in my cheek, narrowing my eyes as I racked my brain.
Jesus, I was shuffling through years of memories, though. We were talking my childhood, which was filled with get-togethers, meeting my parents’friends, going to the country club, and enduring other ridiculous things. I’d even been roped into going to a debutante ball with the girl next door.
Then it came to me.
Suddenly.
As if out of the clear blue sky.
My eyes widened at the realization. “Goose,” I practically shouted, unable to believe that it was her. I’d wonder how I could have forgotten her, but she looked like a totally different woman. Changed would have been an understatement. I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, shaking my head as I took her in for a second time. I wasn’t staring at her, studying her in the same way, though. Now I was seeing her as the girl I’d practically spent every summer with growing up. She’d been younger than me, and our parents had always made a point of pairing us up like being forced together as adolescents would make us want to be together as adults. “Quite the transformation.”
“I know, right?” she cried, touching the bottom of her hair and looking off to the side like she was on stage to receive an award. “It’s incredible what a little surgical and cosmetic adjustments can do to a person. I went through a pretty nasty divorce recently, so I needed the change.” She shrugged. “I call it a glow-up.”
I frowned, knocking on the bar again. “Sorry to hear that. Divorce can’t be easy.” I wasn’t sure how long she had beenmarried for or what the circumstances were that led to that, but it had to have been bad if she described it asnasty.
She snapped a finger and shot it in front of my face. “No, they are not. Especially when he’s a pig.” She sighed. “Something that I looked past until I could no more. It changes a girl, realizing that you’d never be enough for a boy like him.” She raked her teeth over her bottom lip and spoke even softer now. “That’s why I’m not looking for boys anymore. I’m looking for a man, and from what your mother tells me, one is on the market.”
I crossed my arms. She needed to get her facts straight. “Surely, she wasn’t talking about me. I’m married.”
She brought a hand to her lip and traced the outline of it with her long fingernail. “Your mother told me you’re getting divorced. So, it’s only a matter of time, right?”
Wrong. So very fucking wrong. And I couldn’t believe my mother was trying to set me up with a woman I hadn’t seen in half a lifetime. A woman who was obviously in a deeply emotional place right now. I didn’t need more bullshit in my life. Damn it, what was my mother thinking?Probably that she knows best.Well, she didn’t.
I knew she disliked Candy, but this was ludicrous, and I wouldn’t stand for it.
“Listen, Goose, it’s been nice seeing you again. Nice trip down memory lane, but unless you’re ordering something, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” I turned around to grab a rag to wipe off the bar, for no other reason than to keep my hands busy. “Leave,” I insisted, gritting my teeth. “Or order, but do something besides just sit there and stare at me.”
She exhaled. It was forced, just like everything else about her. “Do you have any vodka?”
“Let me get that for you,” I said, retreating to the back to get a fresh bottle.
My plan was to treat her like I would any other paying customer. Even though every time I looked at her, I pictured my mother and saw red. Meddling in my life like this, what had she been thinking?
Chapter 31
a hundred elves banging a hundred tiny hammers
Candy
Standing outside The Black Sheep, I allowed my fingers to dance over the diamond and blue topaz necklace I’d chosen to wear today.
