The Best of Friends

Six

JAYNE DIDN’T KNOW WHAT to do. Running away seemed the best option, but there were nearly sixty well-dressed people between her and the front door.

She searched the crowd and saw Elizabeth standing by one of the pillars. She’d gone completely white, although Jayne didn’t know if that was from the shock of seeing Rebecca after all this time or the shock of seeing her daughter with her own ex-lover.

“What’s going on?” Blaine asked, then followed her gaze and spotted Rebecca.

“Look at that,” he said, sounding pleased. “My baby girl is home.”

He headed for the couple, Marjorie trailing after him. David joined Jayne.

“From the look on your face, you didn’t know she was showing up,” he said.

“I haven’t talked to her in days.” She watched Blaine hug and kiss Rebecca, then shake hands with Jonathan.

“So that’s the old guy Rebecca’s seeing,” David said, grabbing a handful of appetizers from a passing server. “I guess he’s okay, although his kids must be her age. Am I the only one who thinks that’s weird?”

Jayne stared at him. “That’s not the biggest problem,” she said before she could stop herself, then glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot.

“Tell me.”

“No. I can’t. It’s…” She shook her head. “Elizabeth is going to have a heart attack. Do you think people have noticed?”

“The prodigal daughter returning during my welcome-home party? They’re going to notice, but don’t sweat it. Entertainment always makes these things better.” He looked from Rebecca to Jonathan to Elizabeth, then frowned.

“No way,” he said. “Are you telling me my mother and that guy had an affair?”

“Shh.” Jayne waved her right hand at him. “Don’t say it. Don’t even think it. No one can know.”

“Does Rebecca know?”

“Of course. I’m sure that’s most of Jonathan’s appeal.” Rebecca dating Jonathan? Talk about a nightmare.

“I’ve never understood the female experience, but isn’t there an unwritten rule about not sleeping with the same guy as your mother?”

“You’d think so,” Jayne said, glancing around at the guests. Most of them had gone back to talking to each other and were paying less attention to Rebecca’s entrance. A few hearty souls had actually gone over and were speaking with her. “Not to mention the giant ick factor.”

“Dad doesn’t know, right?” David asked.

“I don’t think so. I like Blaine. I’d never want to hurt him.”

“Me, either.” He finished his appetizers. “I’m going in,” he said. “Wish me luck. And remember—we never leave bodies of the fallen behind, so no matter what, you have to come get me.”

She didn’t know if she should laugh or run screaming from the room. “You’re possibly the strangest person on the planet.”

“You’re not the first one to tell me that.”

He walked toward his sister. Jayne hovered for a second, not sure what to do, then went over to stand by Elizabeth.

“So she’s back,” the other woman said.

“Apparently.”

“You didn’t know—I could tell by the look on your face.”

Jayne ignored the flicker of guilt. Technically, she knew that Rebecca was back in town, but she hadn’t had a hint about her showing up at the party. Talk about a ballsy move.

“We’re going to be eating soon,” Elizabeth said. “Naturally I don’t have a place setting for them. I’ll have to do some fast rearranging and figure out who would be safe next to her. And what she’s doing with Jonathan…” Elizabeth cleared her throat. “I suppose that’s the least of my problems.”

“I can take care of the seating arrangements.”

“No, I’ll do it. Just please keep my daughter from ruining this any more than she already has.”

Jayne nodded. Acting as go-between was a familiar role. She’d done it until the day Rebecca had left, taking messages between the women, trying to keep peace and to point out that while they didn’t seem to get along, they were still family. None of which ever made any difference.

Jayne moved toward the crowd that had gathered around the couple. Rebecca looked stunning in a fitted dress and high heels, both in pale blue. Jayne knew she should probably be able to place the designer, but unless there were obvious signs, she usually got it wrong.

David and Blaine were talking to Jonathan, while Rebecca was surrounded by several of her mother’s friends. As Jayne approached, Rebecca gave her an impish smile, then excused herself from the women.

“Jayne,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “What a surprise to see you here. Oh, I suppose it’s not a surprise after all. You would be needed to help things run smoothly. Whatever would my mother do without you?”

“Are you insane?” Jayne asked in a low voice. “Bringing him here?”

Rebecca laughed. “It’s delicious. You have to admit I know how to make an entrance.” She signaled a passing server and took two glasses of champagne from the tray. She handed the second one to Jayne.

Jayne took it, then leaned in closer. “He slept with your mother.”

“I know. That makes it so much better.”

Jonathan joined them. Rebecca leaned into him. “Jonathan, this is my friend Jayne.”

“We’ve met,” Jayne said, then desperately wished she could call back the words. “Years ago. I’m sure you don’t remember. You were…” Sleeping with Elizabeth? Scratch that. “We were just teenagers and not of much interest.”

Rebecca looked at her quizzically. “Nearly finished?”

“God, I hope so.”

“Nice to meet you again, Jayne,” Jonathan said, shaking her hand. “Nice cast. What happened?”

“I thought I had superhuman powers.”

“You don’t?” David walked up and put his hand on the small of her back. “Damn. Someone somewhere has to have them, and I’m going to find that person.” He glanced at Rebecca. “Nice entrance. Very smooth and low key.”

“Thanks. That’s exactly what I was going for.”

Jayne was glad they were talking, because she wasn’t up for speech. Not while she could feel every cell of his skin touching hers. Well, touching through a couple of layers of fabric. Still, it was thrilling.

“You’re staying for brunch, aren’t you?” he asked Rebecca. “Mom arranged to have every single appropriate female in a fifty-mile radius brought here. There’s going to be a talent competition later.”

“Who would want to miss that?” Rebecca asked.

Oh, right. The other women. Some of the thrill left, and Jayne casually stepped to the right. David’s hand fell away. No matter how she wanted things to be different, the truth was David would never be interested in someone like her. The young prince had a destiny. He would marry the “right kind of girl.” Someone from a wealthy family, someone with social status and a closet full of designer handbags.

Rebecca looked at Jayne. “She wants you to keep me in line, doesn’t she?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Are we taking odds?”

“I’m hoping you’ll be merciful and behave.”

Rebecca tossed her blond hair and laughed. “You’ve always had a delicious sense of humor, Jayne. It’s one of your best qualities.”

Rebecca’s work space was little more than two hundred square feet in an industrial building. There were all kinds of artists working on different projects, but in her section were the jewelry designers. While she had her own tools for setting stones and finishing her pieces, she didn’t like working in the condo. Something wasn’t right. Maybe the feng shui was off or the view was too good. Maybe it was the silence. In Italy, she worked with other jewelers, so she was used to the conversations, the sound of grinding and polishing. Regardless, the second she sat down on the beat-up stool in her workspace and flipped on the intense light that flooded her battered desk, she felt wildly creative.

She’d just unpacked three diamonds and a bracelet setting when Jayne climbed the stairs and joined her.

“This is where you’re working?” her friend asked by way of greeting. “Seriously?”

“Isn’t it great?” Rebecca looked around at the paint-spattered cement walls. A guy at the far end of the huge space got out a blowtorch and prepared to climb up a twenty-foot-tall sculpture. “Can’t you feel the energy?”

“Mostly I’m worried about the building burning down, but if you like it, that’s what matters.”

“I love it. No one knows who I am, and if they did, I doubt they’d care. I pay rent just like everyone else.”

“You drive a Mercedes. It’s so new, you don’t have actual plates yet.”

“The rental wasn’t working for me.”

“Welcome to the world of the little people.”

“Don’t mock me.” Rebecca pointed to a stool in the corner. “You can watch me work my magic, then we’ll talk about how brilliant I am.”

“Lucky me.” Jayne sat down and reached for one of the diamonds. “Ballpark it for me.”

“Loose? Three. Three-fifty. But with these and in a bracelet designed by moi? A couple million.”

Jayne carefully returned the stone to the table. “Not even if I made payments for the rest of my life.”

Rebecca grinned. “I could give it to you for cost.”

“Even so.” She covered a yawn. “Sorry. I’m still recovering from the brunch.”

“Did my mother make you stay late and scrub floors?”

“Nothing that dramatic. I did stay until the last guest left, and then I supervised the cleanup. That was the easy part. Listening to your mother rant about your return was painful.”

“She was upset?” Rebecca asked, already knowing the answer. Her goal had been to stun Elizabeth. It seems she’d succeeded in spades.

“Upset doesn’t come close.”

Rebecca laughed and leaned her elbows on the table. “Good. By the way, you also looked a little shocked. I probably should have warned you, but maybe it’s better that I didn’t. Elizabeth won’t think you were in on the secret.”

“Thank you,” Jayne said. “Was it everything you wanted? That entrance, making your mother squirm?”

“No. I always want more. But it was nice that she was unhappy. That makes it a good day.”

Jayne shifted on the stool, then started to speak, only to stop. As if she were choosing her words carefully.

“Where’s the win?” she asked. “At what point is toying with her enough?”

“I don’t know. There’s a whole lifetime of injuries that require payback.”

“You’ve been gone ten years. Aren’t you over it?”

Rebecca straightened. “Over not being wanted by my own mother? Over being told that I wasn’t good enough, that I was a constant disappointment? Over the nagging, complaining, and not-so-subtle comments that life would have been better if they’d stopped with a single child?”

Jayne set her cast-covered arm on the table. “So ‘over’ is the wrong word. At what point do you move on? You’re still defining yourself on Elizabeth’s terms. You’re still making what she thinks the most important thing.”

Rebecca didn’t like that. She picked up one of the diamonds, then put it down. “That’s not true. I’ve been living my own life, without even thinking about her. I’m focused because I’m back.”

“Really? Then why did you name your company Rivalsa? Isn’t the revenge about her? Why won’t you tell her you’re the one behind the jewelry?”

“I don’t want her to know. Not yet.”

Jayne simply looked at her.

Rebecca picked up one of the diamonds, then tossed it back on the table. “Fine. I have mother issues. That’s hardly unique.”

“Yours drag you down. You spend so much time and energy hating Elizabeth. That can’t be good for you.”

Rebecca shrugged. Hating her mother was a whole lot easier than facing the pain inside. The emptiness. The fact that the only time she felt whole was with Nigel.

“Enough about me,” she said. “How’s the wrist?”

“Better. Healing. At least that’s what I tell myself when it aches.” She rubbed the cast. “I miss work. My friends, the patients.”

Rebecca didn’t want to talk about Jayne’s other friends. “What did you think of Jonathan?”

Jayne grimaced. “I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. I’m sure he’s very nice.”

“I’ll admit he’s not my fantasy guy,” Rebecca said. “But he’s reasonably intelligent and funny. Uncomplicated. I think I need uncomplicated.”

“You’ll get over Nigel.”

“Could you give me a date? Even one month in the future. It would give me something to look forward to.” Imagine closing her eyes at night and not hearing his voice or picturing him in her mind. What on earth would she do with her day when she didn’t have missing Nigel to fill up the time?

“You won’t be in love with him forever,” Jayne said.

“Is that a promise?”

Jayne looked uncomfortable. “No. It’s not.”

Because loving one man for the rest of her life, while old-fashioned and depressing, was entirely possible.

“Why did I have to fall for him?” she asked, picking up the smallest of the three diamonds and turning it over in her hands. “Don’t worry. I don’t expect an answer. No one knows why we love the people we love. If only love were sensible.”

“Like me,” Jayne said. “That’s how everyone sees me. Not pretty or funny or charming. I’m sensible and reliable. Like a used compact car. Nothing flashy, but you know it will start in the morning.”

Rebecca stared at her. “That’s not really what you think, is it?”

“Sure. I’m the sensible friend, the person Elizabeth can count on to do the right thing. I can be trusted to know where the good china is and not steal it. I’m a paragon of incredibly boring virtues. You get to be all beautiful and fiery and dangerous.”

“I’m hardly dangerous.”

“You had your mother sweating yesterday at the brunch. And then she sent me to make sure you stayed in line. I’m like those placid dogs a family buys when the dog they chose first is too high strung. I’m the pet’s pet.”

“Which makes me the high-strung dog?” Rebecca asked, trying not to smile.

“Do not make this about you,” Jayne snapped. “I’m serious here. Your mother asked me to help David house hunt. Apparently, men aren’t capable of buying a house on their own. How lucky for all of us that I broke my wrist and am available. Although I’m sure if I was still working, she would explain to me why helping her son was more important than my job.”

“Isn’t everything?”

“Yes.” Jayne covered her face with her hands. “She asked me to tell her any information I may pick up about who he’s dating.” She dropped her hands. “I told her no, but that’s not the point. She asked. She expected I would be her spy. I’m an unpaid family retainer.”

“Is that better or worse than being a reliable used car or a Labrador?”

Jayne’s mouth twitched at the corners. “There are mean-looking tools all over this place. Don’t make me use one on you.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Absolutely. It could get ugly.”

“You can’t take me.”

Jayne stood. “Want to bet? I have years of resentful bitterness on my side.”

Rebecca rose and walked around the table. “I have four-inch heels.”

Jayne’s expression softened. “Thanks for being my friend.”

Rebecca stepped close and hugged her. “Always. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

They held on to each other for several seconds.

“It would make me really happy if you told David to buy a house that would piss off my mother.”

Jayne laughed. “I’m sure it would, but I thought you liked David.”

“I do. You’re saying any house that would annoy Elizabeth would be bad for him?”

“It’s a possibility.”

“Oh, sure. Think of everyone but me.” She returned to her side of the table and sank onto her stool. “What’s he seen so far?”

“A place in Malibu. It was lovely, if you’re in to floor-to-ceiling views and forty-seven fireplaces.”

“Forty-seven?”

“Okay. Three or four. It was huge and beautifully done. Ten acres. What does anyone need with ten acres unless you’re keeping livestock?”

“It’s for privacy.”

“I didn’t realize David was being stalked.”

Rebecca laughed. “He’s not, but land means wealth.”

“I guess, but I think it’s silly. And way too expensive. My entire condo is smaller than the master suite.”

“What did he think of it?”

“He said it was nice, but he wants to keep looking.”

“Did he say why he’s looking in Malibu?”

Jayne rolled her eyes. “No, and if he did, I wouldn’t tell you. If you want to know, ask him yourself. You sound like your mother.”

“Hey, there’s no need to be mean. I’m nothing like—”

Her cell phone rang. Rebecca walked to her purse and grabbed it, then stared at the small screen. There was a single word there.

Nigel.

“What?” Jayne asked, hurrying to her side. “Oh. What are you going to do?”

“Nothing.”

She listened to three more rings, then there was silence. A few seconds later, the message envelope popped onto the screen.

“He’s doing this on purpose,” she whispered. “He doesn’t want me, but he doesn’t want me to forget him, either.”

“Does he know you left Milan?”

“I don’t know.” Part of her wondered if he’d gone to see her, only to find out she was gone. Or was that wishful thinking on her part?

“Are you going to listen to the message?”

Rebecca nodded, then pushed the speakerphone button before dialing her voice mail. Seconds later, she heard Nigel’s voice.

“Becca Blue,” he said, that familiar, low voice making her stomach hurt. “Where are you? I can’t get you anywhere. Are you hiding? I have to go to New York in a couple of weeks. Want to meet me there? The usual place? I promise days and nights of fun. Call me.”

Anger replaced longing. She glared at her phone. “That bastard. I’m good enough to fuck, but not good enough to marry?” She pushed the button to delete the message. If only it were so easy to erase it from her memory.

“I’m sorry,” Jayne told her.

“I know. Me, too.”

“Are you going to New York?”

“No. Not even to annoy my mother.”

“Well,” Jayne said sympathetically, “that’s progress.”

If only it were enough, Rebecca thought. She looked back at her phone. She hadn’t heard from Nigel in weeks. Not since he’d gotten married. She was cynical enough to think he wasn’t missing her all that much. She would guess he might be having second thoughts about the blue diamond he’d given her. Was greed more powerful than guilt? She had a feeling she was about to find out.