Ultimate Weapon (McClouds & Friends #6)(57)

She didn’t hear a word of the ceremony. Sveti looked great in her bridesmaid dress, alongside Becca’s sister Carrie, but Tam couldn’t help notice the sad looks she kept casting at Josh, Becca’s brother. Josh was twenty-two years old to Sveti’s fourteen. Guaranteed heartbreak. Sveti was already very pretty if a bit too serious, and prone to moping. But Nick and Tam both would beat up Joshie in a heartbeat if he even looked at Sveti cross-eyed, at least for the next four or five years or so. She was far too young, and she’d been through too much horrendous shit already, but still, there it was.

Josh had other fish to fry anyhow. He was dangling at least ten different girlfriends on a string.

She was going to have a talk with that girl. Poor little thing. She wished Sveti could have exactly what she wanted just once in a blue moon. She deserved it, after what she’d gone through with the organ pirates, as well as what she’d done for Rachel. Rachel had only lived through that ordeal because of Sveti’s love and care.

Tam would gladly chain up that panting dog of a Joshie in a monastery and keep him pure for Sveti by brute force until she grew up.

But life didn’t work that way. People could not be controlled, feelings could not be controlled. She hadn’t always believed that, but the last few months of life with Rachel had driven the point home.

People so seldom got what they deserved, for good or for evil, she reflected, casting a sour look at Janos. Rachel was participating enthusiastically in his efforts to undermine her. And everyone had begun to notice that she had company. Tall, dark, handsome company.

Davy recognized Janos and stared at them fixedly as he jiggled little Jeannie in his arms. He looked puzzled and alarmed.

His eyes asked her is this a problem?

She made an executive decision in that moment to handle it herself and rolled her eyes to indicate, no problem, just a pain in the ass. Hoping it was true. She didn’t want to spoil the party for Davy, either, or any of the rest of them. And oh, joy. Now Margot was gawking, too, her eyes like saucers. A little poking and gesticulating, and within seconds, everyone sitting in her orbit was rubbernecking. A wave of stares, grins, whispers followed from Seth, Raine, Liv, Sean.

Connor and Erin, too. Erin smirked knowingly over her son’s round blond head. Idiot. Thinking that wild, wonderful sex was finally being had by that snotty bitch in her mountain lair. No doubt reflecting smugly that getting properly nailed would magically render Tam a docile, satisfied *cat who would be sweet and nice and obliging to everyone henceforth. Don’t hold your breath, babydoll, she told Erin silently.

Then again, who could blame them for thinking it, after what Davy and Nick witnessed at Shibumi? Everone in the room probably knew the details, the way that crowd gossiped among themselves.

It took a few minutes to identify the prickling heat in her face, it was so unfamiliar. Mother of God. She was blushing. She was shocked at herself. If she needed any further proof of her impending nervous breakdown, this was it. Maybe she was having a hot flash. Premature menopause would be easier to embrace than blushing.

Still. At thirty-one, menopause seemed a bit too much to hope. Flu maybe? A sudden fever? Except that she never got sick.

And since when did she give a shit what anyone thought of her?

She was so absorbed in her own thoughts, the explosion of hoots, howls, and applause made her jump. Nick grabbed his new wife and bent her over in a juicy, triumphant kiss. Tam nuzzled Rachel’s warm curls as the organ began to blare, bracing herself for the obligatory physical contact, the mandatory boring chitchat. Torture, every time.

Why did she go to these events, anyway? For Rachel’s sake, she supposed, but not entirely. She hated them, yes, but she was honest enough to acknowledge that a piece of her, for some reason, wished she was a person who did not hate them.

Part of her wished very badly that she didn’t have to hate everything so goddamn much.

That didn’t help her now, though. Not in the midst of being simultaneously bored, encroached upon, invaded, and annoyed by everyone. She muscled a big smile onto her face, clenched her teeth, and put Rachel on the floor as the deluge approached.

Erin was the first to bear down on her, flushed with triumphant delight. “Hey, Tam. You look great. Gorgeous dress, and Rachel is a doll in lipstick red. What a nice surprise to see you here, Mr. Janos!”

“A delight for me, too.” He bowed over Erin’s hand and gave Tam a sidelong wink before he kissed it, à la Count Dracula.

He would die for that wink, Tam silently vowed. She met Connor’s eyes, grimly amused to note that Connor was as unimpressed as she at Janos’s slick, Transylvanian gallantry. Erin seemed to be enjoying it, though, and baby Kev as well. Babies liked the guy. Go figure.

It made no sense, but she had no time to wonder about it. Everyone was crowding around to see the latest sideshow—Tam with a date, whoo-hoo—and she was trapped in a dance of embracing arms and social kisses and loud exclamations.

Rachel grabbed her thigh, protesting at being lost in a forest of legs, but before she could extricate herself, the child was swept up and almost out of her field of vision, skinny red legs waving wildly.

She spun around with a gasp. Janos was putting Rachel on his shoulders. She shrieked with delight, eyes wide, cheeks rosy.

“Put her down,” she spat at him. “Figlio di puttana.”

He blinked innocently. Rachel chortled, wrapping an arm around his forehead. “But why? She loves it.”