Читать книгу Her Kind of Trouble - Sarah Mayberry - Страница 11

CHAPTER THREE

“WHY DON’T YOU two walking, talking menaces take it outside for five seconds while your mum and I make the magic happen?” Vivian said.

Her two nephews skidded to a halt halfway through their fourth lap of the kitchen island. They’d been circling her and Jodie like electrons around the nucleus of an atom for nearly half an hour now, fueled by excitement and too many gummy snakes in the lead up to Sam’s birthday party this afternoon.

“Are we getting in the way?” Max asked.

“What do you think?” Jodie asked.

“I think we are being superannoying,” Max said, giving his brother a high five.

Vivian tried and failed to hide her amusement.

“Please don’t encourage them. They already think they’re a comedy duo.” Jodie walked to the sliding door and pulled it open. “Outside. Now.”

Sam and Max moaned and groaned but they did as instructed, trudging across the lawn to the play equipment in the corner of the yard as though they’d been sentenced to life imprisonment.

“Poor babies,” Vivian said.

“Oh, yes, their lives are blighted. It’s a wonder they can smile, let alone laugh.” Jodie rolled her eyes.

They resumed work on the salads. Jodie mentioned that she’d caught up with Nell, one of her bridesmaids, the other day, and Vivian heard the CliffsNotes version of the other woman’s divorce. They talked about various school friends as they finished the prep work for the party, then Jason came inside from cleaning the barbecue, covered in black gunk and rust, and Jodie herded him into the laundry room to clean up. Listening to them bicker companionably and watching her nephews race up and down the climbing frame outside, a warm sense of belonging stole over Vivian.

She had loved every second of her time overseas, but there was no denying that it was good to be back. There was something about the clear, far-off blue of the Australian sky and the faint hint of eucalyptus that wafted through even the most suburban of streets on a sunny day and the flat, familiar drawl of the Australian accent that eased a pressure inside her that she hadn’t even known needed comforting. Put simply, this was home, where she belonged, and it felt right and good to be here at this stage in her life.

Her small moment of introspection was broken by the arrival of her parents, loaded down with yet more food and presents for her nephew. The other guests poured in after that, and it wasn’t long before the house and yard were alive with the sound of children playing and adults talking and laughing. Vivian did her best to be useful, circulating with platters of finger food and keeping one eye on the horde of children rampaging around the yard. She was, however, very aware of the fact that her gaze kept darting to the door every time a new guest arrived, and after catching herself doing it for the fifth time she admitted she was waiting for Seth.

It wasn’t a comfortable admission, given their history, but there was no point denying the truth. From the first moment she’d laid eyes on him she’d been aware of him—drawn to him—and apparently time, experience and maturity hadn’t changed that fact. Regardless of whatever else had been going on in her life, she’d always enjoyed matching wits with him at the family events they’d both attended.

That didn’t mean that she wasn’t fully aware of his many, many shortcomings, of course. She’d always known him for what he was—temporary fun—and had managed their relationship accordingly. But she’d be lying to herself if she pretended that she wasn’t looking forward to seeing him today. Especially since she would have the opportunity to tease him about impending fatherhood.

Despite her vigilance, he must have somehow snuck into the party without her noticing, because the next time she scanned the yard to see if there was anything she could do to help her sister, her gaze got caught on a familiar dark-haired figure keeping Jason company by the barbecue.

Seth glanced over his shoulder at almost that exact moment and her heart gave a distinct excited kick as they locked gazes.

Just like old times.

He smiled, the same cocky, confident grin she remembered so well, and she grinned in return, offering him a nod of acknowledgement. It was tempting to weave her way through the crowd to talk to him, but that would be breaking her self-imposed rule where he was concerned. She was allowed to be amused by him, she was even allowed to indulge in a little flirting, but she was not allowed to make him important. Racing to his side the moment he arrived at the party definitely fell under that category.

Instead, she returned to the kitchen, eager to occupy herself handing around more food.

“Go away. You’ve done enough,” Jodie said, shooing her away like a housefly.

“I want to help,” Vivian protested.

“Great. Go and be charming and funny and make sure everyone is having a good time.”

“It’s much easier to hand around a platter of sushi,” Vivian grumbled.

“Why do you think I’m here in the kitchen?” Jodie grabbed a clean wineglass and poured a generous amount of a sémillon sauvignon. “Here.”

Vivian took the glass with good grace and was about to slip through the sliding doors when Jodie called to her.

“Wait. Jason probably needs a beer. Which means you should probably take one for Seth, too.”

Vivian dutifully accepted the two bottles of beer, letting them hang between the fingers of her left hand. Taking a deep breath, she headed for the barbecue.

She could see Jason’s and Seth’s heads above everyone else’s. They were both slightly taller than average, and they always seemed to stand out in a crowd. Seth’s shoulders were broader than Jason’s, though, his hair darker. He was dressed more stylishly, too, in a pair of low-slung jeans and a wrinkled black shirt with cowboy boots, as opposed to his brother’s polo shirt and slightly too loose bright blue jeans—daddy denim, as she and Robin called it.

Her professional self had to give Seth points for figuring out early what suited him and sticking to it. He always looked effortlessly cool, as though he’d slung on the nearest thing when he rolled out of bed and it just happened to be a very hip shirt and the latest in edgy jeans.

“Apparently you two reprobates aren’t capable of looking after your own hydration levels,” she said as she drew closer, causing both Seth and Jason to swing to face her.

“Finally. I was beginning to think Jodie had forgotten me,” Jason said, his eyes lighting up when he saw the beers she was carrying.

“You could have gotten a beer yourself, you know,” she said as she handed one of the bottles over.

“And leave my sacred post at the barbecue? What sort of heresy have they been teaching you over in the U.S.?” Jason said.

Finally Vivian allowed herself to look at Seth. He was watching her with lazy approval, his gaze sliding over her face before dropping to her body.

“Looking good, Viv,” he said. “As always.”

She was suddenly very aware of the warm sun on her face and how cool and slippery the bottle was as she passed it to him.

“High praise from a connoisseur like yourself, Seth. Thank you.”

His mouth kicked up at the corner at her dry tone. “And she comes out fighting.”

“Self-defense. As always.”

He glanced at the beer label. “I take it there were no Peronis?”

“I don’t know. Would you like me to race back and check for you?”

He offered her the beer. “You’re a champ.”

She let the bottle hang between them, her smile becoming a grin. He knew she wasn’t going to scamper off to fetch him his preferred brand of beer, and she knew that he loved suggesting that she might.

All part of the game.

“Better drink that while it’s still cold.” She took a mouthful of wine. “Might be the only one you get.”

He laughed. “You haven’t changed much.”

“Neither have you.” It had been two years since they’d last seen each other, and any changes in his appearance had all been in his favor as far as she could see. There were new lines around his eyes and mouth, but they only served to underscore the rugged handsomeness of his face. He’d been good-looking when he was younger, but now he was truly a man, and it showed in the hard, slightly cynical light in his eyes and the density of the two days’ worth of scruff shadowing his jaw. He seemed more comfortable in his own body, too, as though he’d settled more deeply into his own skin.

“Jason tells me you’re back for good this time?”

She couldn’t help but register the skeptical note in his voice.

“A friend and I have started a business together. We’ve got a studio in West Melbourne.”

He looked surprised. “Yeah? So you really have given up all that la-la-land stuff?”

“That’s right. How about you? A little birdie tells me you’re running a bar somewhere suitably grungy.”

“Collingwood. And I own the place.” His tone told her he was aware she’d been taking a retaliatory shot.

“The same little birdie tells me that congratulations are in order.” She raised her glass. “Here’s to becoming a daddy.”

He snorted his amusement. “Go ahead, get your digs in while you can. Everyone else has.”

“Have they?” She glanced at Jason, who shrugged apologetically.

“You’ve got to admit, it’s pretty ironic. Considering.”

She knew exactly what he meant. Seth had always been a walking, talking poster boy for an unencumbered, live-for-the-moment lifestyle.

“So have you swapped that little car you used to drive for an SUV yet?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

“You should probably get onto that,” Jason said. “Not much room in that Audi TT for anything.”

“It’s a baby, not a refrigerator,” Seth said.

“Still. You’re going to need to haul a lot of stuff around,” Vivian said. “Diaper bag, pram, portable cot, baby seat... You might even need to get a wagon.”

“Enjoying yourself?”

She pretended to consider. “You know, I am. Is that wrong?”

Jason laughed. Seth gave him a sardonic look.

“Your burgers are burning, by the way,” he said.

“Shit.” Jason turned to the barbecue and started urgently rotating hamburger patties.

Seth didn’t even bother trying to stifle his smile.

“This’ll be you soon,” Vivian said, unable to resist teasing him some more. It wasn’t every day a girl was handed such a golden opportunity. “Barbecues, kids running all over. The whole nine yards.”

“I’m up for it,” he said, surprising her.

She cocked an eyebrow and gave him a look, but his gaze remained unwavering.

“Well, look at that. James has grown up.”

“It’s not that much of a stretch, believe it or not. You’ll see when it happens for you.”

She laughed, acknowledging the hit. “That about makes us even, don’t you think?”

“I don’t know. That stuff about my car was a low blow. I might need to get a few more digs in.”

She held her arms wide. “Free shot. Head or gut, your choice.”

His gaze ran down her body, lingering on her thighs in her tight black jeans.

“Can I choose a different body part?”

She checked her watch. “And there it is. A new record, even for you. Less than five minutes before the first innuendo passed your lips. Impressive for a new father.”

He tried not to laugh but couldn’t pull it off. “Jesus, you’re a smart-ass.”

“Thank you. I’ve had ten years of practice.”

“Has it been that long?” His gaze narrowed.

“Jason and Jodie’s ten-year anniversary was two months ago.”

He whistled. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”

“Doesn’t it?”

Seth took a pull from his beer. “So, tell me about this business you’re starting up.”

They talked for half an hour, filling in the gaps in each other’s lives. As always, she was hyperaware of everything she said and did while near him. He’d always had that affect on her, magnifying her self-awareness to almost painful levels.

Probably that was the rampant sexual awareness that always seemed to be unleashed when they were within a few feet of one another. As she’d acknowledged to herself all those years ago, it had been inevitable that they would sleep together, given that they enjoyed what could only be described as sizzling sexual chemistry. It was just as well that they’d gotten it out of the way early, when it meant about as little as was possible. She wasn’t so sure that she would have escaped unscathed by Seth’s charms if she’d held off any longer. He was simply too magnetic, too attractive and sexy.

Plus, she liked him. She was aware that if one of her girlfriends was dating him, she would advise her to expect nothing but great sex and lots of disappointment. But since neither she nor anyone she personally cared about was emotionally invested in him, she was free to enjoy and celebrate his good qualities.

He was funny. He was hot. He was self-deprecating in the best possible way, yet also charmingly unrepentant about his worst characteristics. He knew who he was, and he liked himself. The older she got, the more important—and rare—both those things seemed to be.

Their conversation ended naturally when Jason started transferring the cooked food to the table that was serving as a buffet. She went one way, Seth the other, and while she remained aware of him for the next few hours, she made a point of not looking in his direction or engaging with him again.

It would be too, too easy to allow their light flirtation to become something else in her own mind. She’d sidestepped that pitfall when she was twenty-three, and she wasn’t diving headfirst into it now she was thirty-three. No matter how wicked and compelling his dark brown eyes were.

The party began to die down after the birthday cake had been dispensed. Children started to become overtired and the high-pitched wail of an upset child became the norm not the exception. A steady stream of parents made their way out the door, and even though Vivian was starting to feel the call of an afternoon nap—one of life’s greatest pleasures in her book—she wasn’t about to abandon her sister to clean up alone. She was returning to the kitchen with yet another armful of dirty plates and cutlery when she found Seth saying goodbye to her sister.

“Great party, as always, hostess with the mostest,” he said, dropping a kiss onto Jodie’s cheek.

“Glad you enjoyed yourself,” Jodie said.

To an outsider, the way her lips curved upward would have looked both welcoming and friendly, but Vivian could see that there was absolutely no sincerity behind either her sister’s smile or her words. In fact, if she had to guess, she’d say Jodie was mightily pissed with Seth. Which was weird, since they had always got on surprisingly well.

“I did, thanks,” Seth said after a small hesitation. “The cake was amazing. I got some good pictures of Sam blowing out the candles. I’ll email them to you when I get home.”

“Thanks, that’d be great.”

Seth’s eyes narrowed at Jodie’s cool tone, but he didn’t push the issue, shifting his focus to Vivian and giving her a quick nod. “Good to see you, Viv. Good luck with the business.”

Behind her, Vivian heard a sound, but when she glanced at her sister, Jodie’s expression was carefully neutral.

“You, too,” Vivian said. “Maybe I’ll drop into this sleazy dive of yours sometime and have a drink on the house.”

“You do that.”

Seth glanced at Jodie one last time before heading for the door. Vivian waited until he was gone before turning to her sister.

“What was all that about?”

Jodie went to the sink and rinsed the sponge. “What do you mean?”

“All that stuff with Seth just now. Are you guys fighting or something?”

“No. Of course not.”

Jodie had always been the world’s worst liar. Her voice got all funny and high, and her gaze started wandering all over the room. Vivian decided to take the fact that her sister was currently addressing the light fixture rather than looking at her as a sign that she was onto something.

“If you don’t want to talk about it, it’s fine with me,” she said.

Jodie pressed her lips together as though she was trying to contain herself. “He’s such a bloody hypocrite, that’s all. I saw the way he was looking at you when he was talking to you earlier. Like you were a woman-shaped lollypop and he wanted to lick you. If I could get away with it, I’d kick him in the shins.” The words burst out of Jodie as though propelled, and she immediately started wiping the counter as though she would mop up her words in the same way.

“Okay. Is there any reason why Seth flirting with me is a problem? I mean, I know he’s having a baby with someone else, but they’re not together, right? And he and I have always had that little flirty routine going on. It’s our thing. It doesn’t mean anything, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I know it’s your thing. And I’ve never had a problem with it. I thought you guys were friends. But—” Jodie took a deep breath. “You know what? This isn’t even worth getting into. Forget I said anything.”

Vivian weighed her sister’s obvious desire to drop the subject against the rather disturbing snippet Jodie had let slip and decided that she simply wasn’t able to let this one go through to the keeper.

“I was under the impression that Seth and I were friends, too. What makes you think we aren’t?”

“Nothing. It was a slip of the tongue. Ignore me.”

“Jodie.”

Her sister closed her eyes for a beat. “Viv. You don’t want to get into this. It’s between me and Jason, really. Not even that. It’s been Seth and himself. The idiot.”

Vivian watched her sister clean the already pristine granite counter. She wasn’t sure why, but for some reason she found herself thinking about the conversation they’d had earlier in the week when Jodie had asked Vivian to be co-guardian to Max and Sam. She felt a little crazy linking the two things, but her intuition was going nuts and she’d learned to trust it over the years.

“Is this to do with the guardianship?”

Jodie went very still, and Vivian knew she’d hit pay dirt.

“I don’t think we should have this conversation,” Jodie said miserably. “I shouldn’t have said anything in the first place. Can we please forget it?”

Jodie looked so unhappy, Vivian swallowed her objection. “Okay. If that’s what you want.”

“I do. I want us both to erase the last five minutes.”

“Okay.” Uneasy, Vivian went to collect more plates.

She couldn’t stop herself from mulling over what little Jodie had said while she worked. Did Seth have some sort of problem with sharing guardianship with her? Did he want it all to himself, perhaps? Was he worried she’d fight him for custody...?

She couldn’t get her head around it. She definitely couldn’t imagine Seth agitating for sole guardianship of Sam and Max should anything happen to his brother and her sister. But clearly something was going on. Something that involved her and Seth.

“Vivian...”

She turned to find an uncomfortable-looking Jodie watching her from the patio.

“Please tell me you’re not out here imagining a million different horrible scenarios.”

“I’m not. Just one or two. That way I can get the details nice and vivid.”

Jodie groaned. “God, sometimes I have such a big mouth.” She joined Vivian at the buffet table. “Are you going to be able to forget what I said?”

“Of course. Although I’ve got to admit that I’m tempted to ask Seth what the problem is. Straight to the horse and all that.”

Jodie’s eyes went round. “God. I almost want to encourage you to do that.”

Vivian set down the dirty forks she’d collected. “Are you going to spill or what? Because you can’t keep dangling the carrot forever.”

Jodie glanced toward the house. “I promised Jason I wouldn’t say anything to you.”

“Right.”

“But I’ve already kind of ruined that, haven’t I?”

“A little.”

“Promise me that you won’t take this to heart, okay? This is about Seth, not you. About his stupid situation. Which is why he’s such a freaking hypocrite.”

“Jodie, come on. You are literally killing me here.”

“Seth doesn’t think you’re a good fit to be guardian to the boys.” Jodie said it in a rush, almost as though she was afraid that she’d lose her gumption if she went any slower.

“A good fit. What does that mean, exactly?” Vivian asked carefully.

“He’s an idiot, Vivian. His head is messed up over this baby stuff with Lola. He’s having problems with her. It’s a classic case of projection.”

“What did he say?”

“He thinks you’re unreliable. A party girl. Flighty.” Jodie curled her hand around Vivian’s. “But he doesn’t really think that, Viv. Or, if he does, it’s only because he doesn’t know you well enough to know the real you.”

Her sister’s words seemed to come from a distance, as though she was shouting them from another room. Suddenly all Vivian could remember was the way Seth’s gaze had slid down her body and lingered on her thighs when he’d asked if he could pick another body part. Meanwhile, he’d been dripping poison in her sister’s and brother-in-law’s ears, trying to convince them not to trust her with their precious children.

How. Freaking. Dare. He.

She inhaled slowly through her nose, trying to order her chaotic thoughts. There were so many directions to go, after all. Outrage, hurt, shame, anger.

“What did you say?” she asked.

“I wasn’t there. Jason spoke to him alone. But he told him that we’d made our decision.”

“Was Jason worried? After what Seth said?”

“No. Not for a second.”

Vivian was hugely grateful for the fact that her sister didn’t hesitate to reassure her.

“In fact, he thought Seth was way out of line. It’s not like Seth’s got a fantastic track record himself. He’s hardly been the poster boy for upstanding citizenship over the years. He’s got a good heart, though, and we both think that is way more important than either of you having nine-to-five jobs. Who cares if it took you a while to find yourself? Who cares if you used to party like it’s 1999? All of those things mean that you’ll be able to offer Sam and Max awesome advice when they need it. If they need it.”

Vivian blinked. “He brought up my career changes? And my lifestyle?”

Jodie slapped a hand to her forehead. “Why do I keep making this worse?”

Vivian gripped her sister’s shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. “You need to tell me everything he said. Every word.”

“I don’t want to.”

“You need to.”

Because Jodie might think that Seth was being a jerk, that he was projecting, that this was some kind of manifestation of the stress he must be feeling as a parent-to-be, but she didn’t know the full story. Jodie didn’t know that ten years ago, Vivian and Seth had had wild limo-monkey-sex at her wedding.

And that changed everything. Big-time.

“Start at the beginning, and don’t stop until you reach the end,” she instructed. And then she braced herself, because she knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.