obvious was it that I’d had too much to drink?” She could hear the liquor in her words—not slurred, exactly, but a shade too precise.
“Only to me, I think.”
Tracy hadn’t been sure herself until postcruise, when her legs had wobbled as she stepped onto the dock. CJ had smoothly taken her arm, as if he was planning an intimate stroll toward the valet stand. Halfway there, he’d explained that the only car the valet would be getting tonight was his, and she would have to come back tomorrow for hers. By then she’d known better than to argue.
“Well, you set Henrietta’s heart fluttering when you grabbed me on the dock. She wants us to get back together. She pulled me aside…” She swallowed hard. Why, after all that liquid, did she feel as if she hadn’t had anything to drink in days?
“She pulled me aside,” she tried again, “and told me that you made a lot of money for her friends over the years, and she is absolutely convinced…you’ll beat those bogus charges against you.”
“It feels good to have somebody stand up for me.”
Tracy waited for the shame to wash over her because she herself had not stood up for him. She waited in vain. “Stand By Your Man” was not her theme song, at least not for this particular man. Maybe not any man, now that she thought about it, because hadn’t she dumped Marsh today, simply because his ex-wife was living with him?
No, dump didn’t quite cover what had happened between them. Unfortunately, she was too tired and dizzy to find another name for it.
“Henrietta isn’t just somebody,” she managed to point out.
“Tonight…somebody said—I don’t know who—that she’s the richest woman in Florida.”
“Edward’s been trying to get her to invest with him for years.”
“She seems pretty smart. She never invested with you.”
“Here I’m driving you home, out of the goodness of my black heart, and you’re insulting me.”
“I am dredging up facts. I am dredging up truth. My parents…my parents have stopped speaking to me, for the most part, because…because they blame me for…”
“Yes, I know what your parents think. Your mother wrote me frequently while I was in prison.”
“My mother?”
“I got almost weekly lists of the ways I ruined your life.”
Tracy hooted. “She hasn’t given that two minutes of thought, CJ.”
“Granted, it was a minor theme in her body of work. The letters were entertaining, but so was watching the roach who crawled out from under my bed at night to search for crumbs. Prison’s like that.”
“Henrietta wants us back together.”
“Yes, she’s told me so, too. I’m supposed to woo you with promises of a new start.”
Now was the time to tell CJ he had ruined her life. Only even in this state, she realized that particular line was her mother’s, not hers. Because CJ hadn’t ruined anything. Somehow he’d had the presence of mind to make sure that if everything fell apart, she got Happiness Key. And because of that, she’d begun a new and different life.
Of course tonight, sitting in the lap of luxury again, she had really, really missed the old one.
“I loved being waited on tonight.” She opened her eyes and saw they had crossed the bridge and weren’t far from home. “I loved…Chateaubriand from real Kobe beef. I loved the truffle paté. I loved the Krug 1990….”
She realized she had forgotten to factor those two glasses of champagne into her liquor intake. And she had never done well with champagne. No surprise she felt dizzy. Mental note: Never again.
“You certainly seemed to.”
She turned to gaze at him, eyelids still slitted. “And so did you, CJ. In fact, I’d say you enjoyed yourself way too much. Maybe that’s why I had so much to drink.”
“Because I was having fun?”
“You were working the room.”
“We were on a yacht.”
“Then you were working the yacht!” She lowered her voice, because raising it made her head throb. “I was married to you. I know what it looks like. You were making connections so you could use them down the line. I’ve never seen that much…showmanship displayed outside the Venice Beach boardwalk. I’m surprised nobody pulled out a checkbook and signed a blank check for you.”
“Well, if I’m as notorious as they say, they wouldn’t have to sign it. I could take care of that, too.”
“What are you getting me into here, CJ?”
He didn’t answer until miles later, when he slowed. They had just crossed the border to Happiness Key, and they were nearly at her house.