‘Get out. I only want to deal with Charles.’
‘Yeah, about that. Tsk tsk, you know the rules. Charles is off limits to you. Oh, and do kindly fuck off with your demands. Sit your ass down, bitch, you and I are having a Come to Jesus and you’re getting saved.’
‘Who do you think you are?’ Eve moved from foot to foot like the nervous little bunny she actually was. Right about that moment, Kate felt like a wolf.
‘I’m what you might call self-actualised. Imagine that. A whole nation of women who aren’t all whiny and dependent on men, especially those who dumped us, for our survival. We can open our own jars of pickles and everything. You see, I’m not here to use a pillowcase filled with bars of soap to beat some sense into you. Even though it’s mighty tempting. I’m here because I pity you and I figure, if another woman pitied me because I was a hag and a loser and couldn’t let go of a man who clearly didn’t love me, I’d want to know so I could stop being pitiable.
‘You’re alienating your kids in this odd crusade of yours. Sure Adrienne is backing out of the wedding and that pleases you to bring chaos into our lives. But you’re destroying her relationship with her dad. Why would you want that? It only hurts her. In the end, you’re going to drive one daughter away from you and the other away from her father and you still won’t have Dix. He’s mine now. That’s not going to change and you know that. You don’t have to like me. I sure as hell don’t like your worthless ass. But if you have any dignity at all, any true maternal love for your daughters, you’ll swallow your self-pity and stop involving them in things that don’t have a thing to do with them.’
Kate stood and looked around. God the place gave her the willies.
‘You don’t know anything about it.’
‘I know all I need to know. You’re a mother, why don’t you act like one? All you’re doing is hurting your kids. It’s not going to change anything with Dix except to drive him even further away. This isn’t a contest. They’re your children. They love you and their father both. But he doesn’t love you, nothing you do will make that happen. Ten years from now, he still won’t love you. Even if I walked out on him now, he still isn’t coming back to you. So what I’m saying is, all you’re doing is being a shitty mother and driving a wedge between your kids and their dad. Eventually between them and you because they can’t trust you to put them first. And you’ll have nothing then. Let go and move on. Be happy, Eve. Open your own fucking pickle jars and find a man who wants you as much as you want him.’
Kate stood and brushed down the front of her pants before looking at Eve again. ‘Don’t hurt him again. I love Charles very much and you’re hurting him with this petty shit. You’re making him feel this way towards his child. It’s you, not her. Have some dignity. Stand on your own two feet and stop acting like a fourteen-year-old girl. Next time I will bring that pillowcase, you get me?’
She sailed out the front door with a wave as Eve stood, openmouthed, watching her leave.
Arrested by the sight of his wife standing, steam rising from her body as she reached out to grab the champagne, Dix simply stood and looked at her. Her body was long and lithe, the water sliding down her skin, hair slicked back to enhance the beauty of her features. She took his breath, stole any other thoughts but the ones he had of her.
She saw him and smiled, that smile he knew was only his. That side of her he knew she rarely revealed to others.
The smile drew him in, brought him into motion as he climbed back into the hot tub with her, putting the tray of food down and taking the glass she handed him.
He clinked it to hers. ‘Happy wedding day, ma’am.’
She laughed, settling back into his arm, resting her head there as she looked up to the stars. ‘Happy wedding day, sir. This place is awesome. I vote we always stay in hotels with hot tubs and private patios.’
Their honeymoon would be spent at a beautiful luxury resort, in their own private villa complete with steps straight down a cliff to the ocean and the aforementioned hot tub right outside a bedroom the size of a small city/state. He planned to take her in every room, on the floor, against the walls, in the huge shower and tub, on the bed, wherever struck his fancy.
‘If it means you’ll always be naked, I’m totally up for it.’
‘What I like about you, Charles, is how very easy and simple you are. If there are exposed boobies, you’re happy.’
He laughed. ‘Especially if they’re your boobies. Not that I’d write off any old breast sighting. But yours are my favourites. By far.’
They looked pretty damned good there in the water. Good enough to touch, he thought as he moved a hand to idly brush the back of his knuckles across her left nipple.
It sprang to life, which pleased him inordinately, pleased him to know he
