AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Really?”
I’d crossed paths with Chandler once, and that was quite enough. He was another insufferable bore out of the same mould as Buckley and Stu, but roughly fifteen years older.
“Yes,” Odette told me in the same snooty tone that Marjorie had used. “He was there with his daughter, being supportive. But that’s yet another thing you have no clue about.”
If we hadn’t been in front of an audience, I’d have pulled Odette’s hair out, which was something I was quite familiar with. Don’t be fooled by the prim exterior—she knew how to use those nails. I still had a scar on my arm from one of our childhood fights. But even after all the spats we’d had over the years, she still hurt me more with her words than with her fists. Odette possessed an uncanny ability to make me feel inadequate, especially when she insulted me in front of others.
“When it comes to my friends, I know how to be supportive, thank you very much. But you didn’t ask for any help with the wedding planning, plus I live an eleven-hour drive away.”
“I meant children. You know nothing about children.”
“I know when they’re miserable.”
From my own personal experience, no less. Plus I babysat for Cade at work sometimes when he wanted a night out with his fiancée, and his daughter was a normal, healthy six-year-old who wouldn’t be in the running for the Junior Miss Android prize, unlike my nieces.
“I suppose it’s a good thing that you’re too selfish to have babies yourself,” Odette said. “Growing up with all that negativity would only impact their personal development.”
I’m sorry, what?
“You think I’m selfish for not having children?”
“Well, yes. What if your husband wants to be a father?”
“I don’t have a husband.”
Odette rolled her eyes. “Exactly.”
Clarice held her arms out. “Ding-ding, end of round one. Can’t you two quit fighting for just one day?”
I wasn’t about to stop defending myself. “Odette started it. I don’t even know why she made me come to this stupid wedding.”
Odette gasped. “My wedding is not stupid! Tomorrow is the most important day of my life. Do you have any idea how much effort I’ve put into planning everything?”
Marjorie, Ashley, and Kimberlee swivelled their heads from side to side, the three of them spectators in our game of verbal tennis. Honestly, I should have stayed home instead of returning to Maine to relive my teenage years, I understood that now, but I still refused to let Odette win. The drive that had turned me into a good FBI agent and an excellent hacker might have made me a terrible sister, but Odette was a pain in the ass, and I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut.
“What happens after the wedding?” I asked.
“We’re going to Antigua.”
“No, I mean after that.”
“Huh?”
“Putting so much focus on one day is unhealthy. Isn’t life with the man you love more important than a fancy dinner?”
“Of course it is. After the honeymoon, we’re signing the papers on a house in east Lewiston, and then we’ll start a family. And what will you do? Stay in your crappy apartment with your cat and buy another computer?”
“Odette…” Clarice’s tone held a warning. “That’s enough. Not everyone has what it takes to be a mother.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked. “You think I don’t have what it takes?”
“You chose the easy route in life, that’s all.”
“The easy route? Do you have the faintest clue what I even do each day?”
“I know you quit the FBI, and you’ve never had to change a diaper or clean up baby vomit at one o’clock in the morning.”
Clarice shrugged one shoulder, and that tiny gesture said more than words. She was basically dismissing my entire career. In the FBI, I’d tracked foreign adversaries and helped to keep the country safe so she could sleep at night, and at Blackwood, I’d been part of a team that busted a freaking trafficking ring. But all of that meant nothing because I didn’t know how to change a diaper?
