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“Oh please!” Rachel cried out, indignantly, “Are you trying to tell me that your mother didn’t tell you? The wedding was in Hawaii at the end of April. We had nearly the entire island of Maui rented out. Everyone was there except you.” She batted her eyes and stuck out her bottom lip. Lucy thought she looked an awful lot like a woman who was flirting despite standing next to her new husband.
“Maybe Mother mentioned it,” Jamie was saying. “I would have been in the midst of administering mid-terms at that time, so I wouldn’t have been able to make it….”
“Oh my God, are you still teaching?” Rachel rolled her eyes and shook her head. “When are you going to get over your ‘I feel guilty for being rich so I want to save the world’ complex?”
“I didn’t teach because I felt guilty but because I loved it,” he said, looking slightly annoyed.
Michael suppressed a smile, but Rachel once again rolled her eyes before turning to Lucy. As if only just noticing her, she held out her hand and said, “Congratulations on landing a Whitcomb.”
Lucy looked her up and down, leaving the other woman’s hand extended and untouched. Finally she reached out and took the hand and gave it a small squeeze. She saw Rachel staring at the engagement ring on her finger as she did.
“Even better than landing just a Whitcomb, I landed Jamie. That’s cause for congratulations, indeed,” Lucy said.
Jamie coughed and suppressed a smile.
Rachel smiled tightly, gave Lucy a once-over, then turned back to Jamie and said, “You really should have her put that ring in the safe if you’re going to be peddling around town.”
Abruptly, Lucy pushed back from the table and looked at Jamie. “I’m going to use the ladies room.”
As she walked away she heard Rachel say, “Is she always that rude? Really, Jamie couldn’t you have found a woman with a little more class?”
She didn’t stick around long enough to hear what Jamie said in response. She spent several minutes pacing in the bathroom and calming herself down. She’d had a great day with Jamie. She didn’t want to spoil it by getting into a cat fight with a snooty bitch who clearly wasn’t even a good friend of his.
When Lucy finally walked back onto the patio, Rachel and Michael were gone. Jamie stood and immediately said, “I’m sorry. God, I never realized what a bitch Rachel could be.”
Lucy couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing.
“What?” Jamie warily asked.
“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you call someone a bad name.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Remember I called cousin Gretchen’s husband a dickhead?”
Lucy thought about it and said, “You’re right. You did.”
“I call ’em like I see ’em, sweet thing. And I wouldn’t have blamed you for ripping Rachel a new one. In fact, I would have enjoyed seeing it. I settled for telling her you had more class than she could ever dream of having.”
She grabbed his head and jerked him down so she could plant a passionate kiss on him. By the time she broke the kiss, they were both breathing heavy and he was rubbing her lower back, clearly wanting to rub her other places but trying to exercise some restraint in public.
“Want me to call someone else a bitch? Because if that’s what I get as my reward…”
Lucy laughed and pulled his head down for another kiss.
