Page 40 of Pugs & Kisses

E vie closed her eyes for the briefest moment before releasing Bryson’s lips and turning to face her mother and her ex.

She could only hope the smile she offered was convincing enough to conceal the fury building within her.

She entwined her fingers with Bryson’s and tucked herself against his side.

“Hello, Ev,” Cameron said, his gaze squarely on Bryson. He stared at his old classmate with overt contempt in his cool blue eyes.

“Cameron,” Evie returned. “It’s quite a surprise to see you here.”

“It shouldn’t be a surprise at all,” Constance said, patting Cam’s forearm. “We’ve considered Cameron part of this family for years.” She gestured to Bryson. “Cam, this is Brian, a friend of Evelina’s.”

“Bryson,” Evie corrected her.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said.

“Actually, I knew Cameron before I knew your daughter,” Bryson said. He took a step forward and stuck a hand out to Cameron. “We were lab partners at LSU.”

“Oh, really!” Constance said. Her surprise was genuine.

Instead of accepting Bryson’s hand, Cameron brought his champagne to his lips while sticking his right hand in his pocket.

Evie heard Bryson’s low chuckle, but she had no idea how the sound made it past the blood angrily pounding in her ears.

She had to count to five to stop herself from unleashing the obscenity-laced tirade that was sitting like rancid bile on the tip of her tongue.

She wasn’t sure who she wanted to direct it to, her ex-fiancé or her mother.

Tami, the event coordinator, swooped in next to Constance. “Dr. Williams, it’s almost time for the toast. Are you changing into the gold?”

“Yes! The toast!” her mother said. “Cam, you will join us on the dais, won’t you? It wouldn’t feel right not to have you there.”

“No, he is not joining us. He is not family,” Evie said.

Bryson gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Evie knew she should wait until the party was over before addressing the flagrant disrespect her mother showed to her by inviting Cameron, but this felt purposeful. Her mother knew exactly what she was doing.

“I’ll be right back,” Constance said. “I have a special wardrobe change for the toast.”

Evie let go of Bryson’s hand. “I’ll come with you.”

“No, Evelina. I want this to be a surprise.”

“I’m coming with you,” Evie repeated in a voice that brooked no argument.

Her mother’s lips thinned in an irritated smile. “Fine. You can help me change,” she said in a calm, controlled voice. She looked to Tami. “My daughter will help with the dress. Why don’t you make sure all is in place for the toast?” She turned to Evie. “Well, are you coming?”

Evie could feel her anger rising as she followed her mother into the house and up the stairs. Once Marshall left for college, her mother remodeled his bedroom and the adjoining guest room into a dressing suite that was as large as some studio apartments.

The minute they entered the dressing suite, Constance turned and said, “I don’t want to hear your mouth, Evelina. You’re here to help me change into my toast dress and that is all we’re doing.”

“Do you think I give a damn about some toast? Why would you invite Cameron to this party, Mother?”

“Evelina, watch your mouth,” she warned in the tone she used whenever Evie got out of line as a teenager, but she was no longer a child.

Evie folded her arms across her chest. “We are not leaving this room until you explain why Cameron is here.”

Constance turned and walked to a black garment bag hanging next to the floor-to-ceiling mirrored panel. “Help me with this,” she said.

“Why did you invite him?” Evie asked. “Cameron and I are no longer together. I didn’t think I would have to expressly tell you that he is no longer invited to family functions.”

“Cameron is family,” her mother said as she unzipped the bag, revealing a metallic gold gown.

“No, he isn’t!” Evie screamed as she stomped over to where her mother stood. “Dammit, Mother!” She pointed to her chest. “ I am your daughter.” She pointed in the direction of the backyard. “ He is the son of a bitch who brought another woman to my bed!”

Constance let go of the garment bag, her hands falling to her sides. She slowly turned, her mouth twisted with grim annoyance.

“ That is the reason behind your breakup?” her mother asked.

“Yes, Mother. He cheated on me. And I’m pretty certain it wasn’t the first time.”

“Evelina.” The condescension in her voice sent Evie’s blood from boiling to scalding. “I cannot believe you ended your engagement over some woman who probably meant nothing to him.”

Evie stepped back. She stared at her mother in disbelief.

“Do you hear yourself?” Evie asked. “Do you know what you sound like right now?”

“Like a reasonable adult? Like someone who understands that relationships are complicated and you do not throw away ten years over foolishness?”

“Foolishness!” Evie screeched. She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, foolishness. I’m the fool. I’m the biggest fool there is for not expecting this exact reaction from you. I should have known better.”

“Stop with the dramatics,” her mother said.

“You made the decision to put up with Dad’s infidelity, but there’s no way in hell I was going to sit back and let Cameron do the same thing to me.”

“Marriage is not the sunshine and roses it’s portrayed to be in the movies, Evelina.

Sometimes you have to be willing to accept things that are unpleasant for the sake of the partnership.

You and Cameron had the perfect partnership, working in the veterinary practice together.

You could have helped him grow it into the biggest animal clinic in the city.

You should have thought about what you were throwing away before you made such a hasty decision. ”

She didn’t get it. Her mother truly thought it was better to put up with the kind of disrespect she’d dealt with all these years for the sake of what? A job? An image?

“There are certain compromises that I’m not willing to make,” Evie said. “Go ahead and toast to your forty-year ‘marriage.’ I refuse to be a part of this.”

“Evelina, you are behaving like a child. Grow up.”

Evie stared at the beautiful, intelligent, accomplished woman standing before her and all she could feel for her was pity.

She’d done what she could to please her, especially after the crushing blow of not following in her footsteps and becoming a cardiologist. But over the past few weeks, Evie had come to realize that a large part of the reason she’d continued to go back to Cameron was due to the guilt over not falling in line with her mother’s wants.

It was like a penance. A sacrifice to win the love and respect she’d lost when she chose to become a vet.

Her penance was over. She would no longer sacrifice her happiness.

“I hope you eventually recognize that you deserve more than the marriage you have settled for all these years,” Evie said; then she turned and walked out of the dressing room, swiping at a tear that cascaded down her cheek.

She fought the urge to turn around and beg her mother to use this opportunity, while surrounded by the colleagues and friends who’d known about her father’s infidelity for years, to finally call him out on it.

But Constance Williams would never. It wasn’t her way.

“Thank goodness you’re not like her,” Evie whispered.

And that was the painful, simple truth in all of this.

She and her mother were two totally different people.

Evie would never agree with the way Constance had chosen to handle her husband’s cheating, but it wasn’t her place to tell her mother how to live her life, in the same way it wasn’t her mother’s place to tell Evie how she should live hers.

Evie stopped at the base of the stairs and counted to ten before turning and climbing back up the steps. She took a deep breath just outside the door to the dressing room. When she reentered, her mother was standing in front of the mirror, the back of her gown flapping open.

Their gazes connected in the mirrored wall, but neither spoke as Evie crossed the length of the room and stepped up behind her.

“Will you at least admit that you were wrong in inviting Cameron to this party knowing that the two of us are no longer together?” Evie asked as she clasped the fabric-covered button at the base of her mother’s neck. “Just think of how it made Bryson feel to have my ex show up tonight.”

“In my defense, you did not tell me you were bringing a date.” Constance smoothed the soft metallic material over her hips and turned slightly to look at herself from the side. “However, as I reflect upon it, I can see that it was not the best idea.”

“No,” Evie said. She stepped around so that her mother faced her instead of the mirror. “I need you to say it. Say that it was wrong and hurtful and disrespectful.”

“Evelina—”

“If you want me to come out there and put on a show like we’re one big happy family, you will acknowledge what you did.”

“We are one big happy family,” she said. “We are our kind of happy, which is just fine as far as I’m concerned.”

Evie rolled her eyes. She folded her hands across her chest and said, “I’m waiting.”

Constance’s nostrils flared with her indignant huff.

“It was disrespectful,” she finally said. “I apologize. You were right. You are my daughter and I should have put your feelings above what I thought was proper. Cameron does not belong at this party if you do not want him here. And Brian—”

“Bryson,” Evie said. “His name is Bryson Mitchell. Doctor Bryson Mitchell.”

“Bryson,” her mother said. “He should join us for the toast.”

When she had just invited Cameron to join them for the toast with Bryson standing right there? Evie refused to insult him by making him feel like a second choice.

“Why don’t we stick to the Williamses when it comes to the toast,” she said instead.

“That’s an even better idea,” her mother said. She turned and gave herself a final once-over in the mirror, then said, “We need to get back to the party. I spent a lot of money on this gold dress. It’s a nod to the next milestone.”

“Next time you should skip the party and spend your fiftieth anniversary in Tahiti, with a nice young cabana boy.”

“My goodness, Evelina. You are not allowed to take the mic during the toast.”

Evie laughed. As if she would ever.

Once outside, she played the part she was expected to play as she listened to her father expound on the sacredness of a joyous marriage, fighting the urge to chug her glass of champagne the entire time.

Cameron hadn’t taken the hint to leave, so as soon as the toast ended, Evie took Bryson by the hand and together they weaved their way through the throng of people dancing a second-line and exited her parents’ backyard through the side gate.

“Well,” Bryson said once behind the wheel of his Jeep. “That was… something.”

“I’m so sorry about Cam showing up,” Evie said. “It never occurred to me that my mother would even consider inviting him. That’s all on me, because it should have occurred to me that she would do something like this.”

He reached over and took her hand.

“I don’t care about Cameron showing up, Evie.

It’s just… everything. Tonight was a lot.

I can safely say that I have never and would never fit into the world your parents live in.

” He looked over at her and gave her hand a squeeze.

“You want to know what’s wild? I realized tonight that you don’t fit in that world either.

You may try to fit in, but you don’t, Ev.

You’re too down-to-earth. I think that’s why I first fell in love with you all those years ago. ”

Evie’s heart skipped several beats. “First of all, I know that I don’t fit into their world. Black sheep of the family, remember?”

“You’re not the black sheep,” Bryson said with a grin.

“Odd one out, then,” she said. “And secondly, did you just say you are in love with me?”

“I never fell out of love with you,” he said softly. His eyes roamed over her face like a caress. “I tried, Ev. I had all but convinced myself that I was over you. But it’s always been there.”

Her heart swelled to the point that it felt as if it would burst out of her chest.

“I’m not sure I even know what love feels like, Bryson.

I never saw it in my parents. I don’t know if it’s truly what I felt for Cameron all these years.

But I know you make me happy. You make me laugh.

You make me want to be with you every time I’m not around you, and I can promise you that is something I never experienced when I was with Cameron.

I looked forward to ‘me’ time when Cam and I were together.

I haven’t given a damn about ‘me’ time since you came back into my life. ”

“That sounds like love to me, Ev.”

“Good,” she said, fighting back tears. “Because I like this feeling.”

She leaned over to his side of the Jeep and captured his mouth with her own. If the overwhelming contentment she felt in this moment was indicative of what a person felt when they were in love, Evie wasn’t sure if she had ever been in love with Cameron. This was different. This was life-affirming.

“Bryson?” she whispered against his lips.

“Yes?” he whispered back.

“Are we going to your place or mine?”

He pulled away slightly and looked into her eyes. “The dogs are with the sitter at my place, remember?”

“That’s right,” Evie said. “Then why don’t we go relieve the dog sitter?”

Bryson straightened himself behind the wheel and started the Jeep. “The dog sitter ain’t the only one getting some relief tonight,” he said.

Evie threw her head back and laughed. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Cameron walking down the driveway.

Bryson pulled onto the street, and Evie laughed even harder.