Page 20 of Never Marry the Best Man (Whatever It Takes #4)

Now that you mention alimony, I’ve been meaning to renegotiate based on your higher income. I’ll have my lawyer get in touch

You mean your brother? Hey, you texted me. Just trying to raise my blood pressure? If I have a stroke, there will be no more alimony!

That went downhill fast. Even though things were more cordial between them than they used to be, they could still set each other off. Not much point now in asking for the name of his immigration attorney.

Plus, there was the issue of alimony. It wasn’t a small sum, either.

“What is it?” Tom asked anxiously. “Bad news?”

“Not exactly. My contact–he’s not a lawyer but he has some experience in this–he says the fastest way is probably for you to…” She looked at Tom’s face, so close to hers, and her courage failed. “Did you send me that link to the Saltzman rules?”

“Yes. The fastest way is for me to what? What did he say?”

“Are you seeing anyone?” she blurted out.

“What? Of course not! If I were seeing someone, I wouldn’t have kissed you like that! You don’t know me very well, do you?”

“No, I just–obviously that didn’t mean anything–but one possibility that my, um, contact mentioned–” With impeccable timing, her phone chimed.

The last thing she wanted was to keep up a vitriolic exchange of text messages with Carmine. It had been a bad idea to contact him in the first place. Not a bad idea of Nessa’s, she was just problem-solving, but Ranney should have known better.

“What do you mean, it didn’t mean anything? It meant something to me!”

Glancing at her phone, she saw that the text was from Claire.

What time did you say you would be here?

I didn’t say, she replied . There’s a lot going on here. Charlie just got out of surgery, though, if you want to share that with the wedding party. Seems all is well.

Okay. They’re not here right now. But you’ll be here tonight, right?

I think so. Once I get done here, we need to rent a car. I think it’s about 8 hours. There aren’t any problems, are there?

“I cannot talk to you when you’re typing,” Tom said.

“I’m sorry. It’s Claire again. I have a feeling something’s wrong, but she’s not telling me. What were we saying?”

He sighed. “You were filling me in on what you learned about the citizenship process. Then you said it didn’t mean anything to you when I kissed you, which is very bad news, because–as I was saying–it meant something to me.”

“It couldn’t have.”

“What do you mean, ‘it couldn’t have’? I just said that it did.”

“It couldn’t have because I am old enough to be your–I am older than you are. It was just an impulse. We’ve been having sort of an adventure, and that always brings people closer in the moment. That’s all.”

Tom stared at her.

“Well, that’s pretty cold,” he finally managed.

“Not cold, not at all! Look, it was lovely, I thoroughly enjoyed it, I will always remember it, but it wasn’t… real.”

“It wasn’t real? ” Indignation made his voice rise at the end. “I beg your pardon, but I believe I am the best judge of that. The only judge of that, other than you!

It was Ranney’s turn to stare in silence. He sounded sincere. More than sincere.

He sounded outraged.

After running his hands through his hair in exasperation, it stood out here and there in clumps. He looked like he’d just gotten out of bed, and she thought vaguely that it was hands down the sexiest thing she’d ever seen.

“I didn’t mean to offend you,” she said hesitantly. “I just–”

Tom had been leaning on the window ledge next to her chair, arms crossed over his chest. Before she knew what was happening, he was bending forward, kissing her again, already tasting familiar yet still new enough to be thrilling.

“Is this real enough?” he murmured into her mouth. “Do you feel it?”

Her phone slipped out of her hand and clattered to the floor.

The hard crack of a phone case on linoleum is guaranteed to draw horrified attention, even from passing strangers, but neither of them registered it.

And if that didn’t sink in, they were unlikely to notice Ignacio’s heavy but quiet footsteps halting abruptly a few feet inside the door, or Ani’s surprised intake of breath as she bumped into his back.

What Ranney did hear, quite distinctly, was her daughter’s voice uttering one disdainful word: “Unbelievable.”

With that single word, any spell was broken. She leapt to her feet, but Nessa was nowhere in sight.

“Excuse me.” Brushing past Ignacio, she gave Ani a distracted smile and bolted out the door.

No sign of Nessa in the long hallway, but Ranney caught what might have been a flicker of long blonde hair disappearing around the corner.

She hurried in that direction and turned the corner herself just in time to see Nessa repeatedly and impatiently pressing the elevator button.

“Nessa!” she called, trying to pitch her voice below hospital-code-red alarm level yet still stop her daughter from eluding her. Nessa did not look up, but punched the button twice more. “Ness!”

For once, a slow elevator worked to Ranney’s advantage; the doors remained resolutely closed.

“Nessa, I can explain,” she said, slightly out of breath. A stony stare was the response. “Come over here and talk to me, please.”

To the left of the bank of elevators was a sitting area, just two chairs and a tiny table. Nessa perched on the front edge of one seat, clearly ready to take flight if what she heard displeased her. Ranney took a breath.

“Look,” she started. “That was bad, there is no denying it. But it’s not as bad as it looked. Ani’s bodyguard is so big, and she’s so small, that I don’t think she saw anything.”

“ I saw something,” Nessa pointed out.

“It was terrible timing. If you’d come in one minute later, there would have been nothing to see. It’s all a misunderstanding. I was explaining that to him when he…”

Nessa looked her mother in the eye and she trailed off.

“So you had no indication at all that this inappropriate thing was about to happen.” Nessa’s disbelief was evident. “That this person who is involved in a Wedding Protectors event, a family member, was so interested in you that he was likely to make advances in public. You did not see it coming.”

“Make advances?” Ranney repeated with a tiny smile.

The smile was a mistake.

“Nothing about this is funny! Where were you last night? Where was he? You are old enough to be his mother!”

"Nessa! This is none of your business!" But ouch. Double ouch . The comment felt like an accusation. An implication that she didn't deserve Tom. That this was all ludicrous. That Ranney being romantically involved with Tom itself was bizarre and unreal and unnatural.

"My mother disappears with a strange younger man who might be a sleazy opportunist and it's none of my business? He could be scamming you!"

"What on earth... you're just making things up now, Ness! He's the cousin of the groom. An architect. A grown man who can -- "

"Mom! Listen to yourself! Even you know how ridiculous this is. You're not behaving like you. Did something happen? Did he drug you? Did you hit your head or what?"

Ranney was shocked into silence.

"Drug me? Hit my head?"

"At least that would explain why I found you with such a - with someone who - Mom, this is impossible to believe!"

Impossible.

There is was again.

“Last night–at least, what was left of it by the time we got to a hotel–I was in my own room and Tom was in his. There was a fair amount of drama with the emergency landing and the ambulance, and in the confusion, Tom and I got left behind. When you walked in on us in Charlie’s room, I was explaining to him that sometimes in difficult circumstances, people can feel drawn to the person they are with, and it’s not reality. ”

“You didn’t look like you were explaining anything, and you didn’t look like you objected, either.” Nessa stood up. “What it looked like was a single older woman being preyed on!”

"Look, I get it. you're older. Lonely. Men can turn women like you into targets."

"NESSA!" Ranney's blood pressure wasn't going to handle this for much longer. "You make me sound feeble and demented! You're describing the opposite of who I am."

“That's the point! You didn’t even tell him you had a daughter. He had no idea who I was!”

“Because we were getting to know each other, and I get to be just me, just Ranney, not Mom or Mame's daughter or Evan's sister or Carmine's ex or a Wedding Protector. Just me sometimes!"

Nessa finally stopped attacking and just blinked.

For all of Ranney’s on-again, off-again dating history, she had made a conscious effort to compartmentalize.

Her romantic life and her mom life were kept strictly separate.

Dates took place on nights when Nessa was with her grandmother; sleepovers, if they happened, only happened when Nessa was away at camp or at a sleepover of her own.

She knew her mother went out, knew she had male friends, and it had never been a problem.

But it was all theoretical.

And if Ranney wept any tears of disappointment or loneliness, she did it in her bed, long after Nessa was asleep.

It was dawning on Ranney that Tom might be the first man Nessa had ever seen her with in the flesh. So to speak.

All of which only made a bad situation worse. She was going to have to mediate this as a parent and as a co-worker. Where are you when I need you, Mel Robbins? “Let Them” only goes so far.

“Ness, this is not a total disaster–just an awkward misunderstanding that only you and Ignacio even witnessed. Remember Mia Cooper’s wedding, when Katie got caught kissing Patrick in front of everyone at the reception?”

“Of course I do, but it’s not the same. They’re married now, and they have a baby. And that was at least normal.”

“Normal?” Ranney felt her spine tingle. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean! Patrick is older than Katie, but he’s a guy! It’s normal.”

“I don’t see your point,” Ranney said stiffly, but of course, she did. All too clearly.

Normal.

Impossible.

Prey .

Her daughter had some very rigid ideas about Ranney, and it was on full display now.

And it hurt. Oh, how it hurt.

“We should get back there,” Nessa said, shaking her head quickly, a deep inhale meant to cleanse, but it sounded so dismissive. “They’ll be bringing Charlie back, and we have to make plans.”

“My plan hasn’t changed.” It was clarifying in Ranney’s mind as she spoke. She stood. “I’ll be going on to the Freestone Club. With Tom.”

“You’re joking.”

“Not a bit. My job is to get to the scheduled event as soon as everything is under control here, which it appears to be. Assuming that Tom doesn’t feel duty-bound to stay with his cousin, and I don’t see why he would since Ani is here, the logical thing would be for us to go there together.”

“Mom! Are you even listening to me?”

“There is one thing I heard that I would like to correct. I am not old enough to be his mother.”

“I knew it! I knew something was going on!”

"And I am your mother. This conversation is over."

So much for mediation. With little or no dignity left to muster, Ranney turned on her heel and headed back down the hall. That tingling in her spine had felt vaguely familiar, and she now recognized the feeling.

It was defiance.

She was a grown woman and she did not need anyone to tell her the right course of action.

Least of all her daughter.