Bad Cruz(34)

A lot of water (and scandals) passed under the small-town bridge since she’d had him. Mrs. Kimbrough had a plastic surgery gone wrong, Meghan Harris and John Smith left their spouses for one another, and we were pretty sure our newest resident was under witness protection.

The real reason people looked down on her was because she added gasoline and thick eyeliner to every bad thing people had said about her.

“It’s fine,” I said curtly. “She keeps a low profile.”

About as low as Everest if we’re getting technical here.

“Think you’re going to hit it?” Wyatt popped another crunchy item into his mouth. Nachos? Tacos? His fiancée’s dry p…ersonality?

I dug the heels of my palms into my eye sockets. “Too messy.”

“I was going to say—use two condoms. I don’t want any complications, especially so close to my wedding day. Mom and Dad are uptight as it is.”

“Why do you think?”

I started rummaging through all the crap she’d left on the vanity, which was a lot. Her imprint was all over the room. Her hairspray, stockings, cheap plastic accessories, and gum wrappers.

Messy Nessy indeed.

“They want to make sure it doesn’t end up in a divorce, too,” Wyatt winced.

My older brother was an engineer at a Wilmington-based company. A real catch in Fairhope. Or at least he had been, before he’d married his first wife Valerie.

He’d met Valerie while she waited on him at a titty bar—his words, not mine—and thought it would be a good idea to bring her home and make an honest woman out of her.

Three years, Valerie’s cocaine habit, and an emptied bank account later, Wyatt had been back on the market. This time, he hadn’t wanted stormy and electrifying.

He wanted the dullest version of a woman the world could offer him. Someone who was tame and didn’t need to be constantly watched and entertained and pacified. Sweet, unassuming Trinity Turner was the human equivalent to the color beige.

“I don’t think it will,” I said, putting the mouth of a hairspray bottle to my nose and sniffing. Smelled like an impending accidental fire and a Yankee candle.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Wyatt chuckled. “Anyway, Mom is having a heart attack thinking Messy Nessy is going to seduce you.”

“She’s not my taste.”

“She’s everyone’s taste when it comes to a one-night stand. But long-term?” Wyatt tsked. “Hard pass.”

My older brother knew so little about me, about my life, sometimes it felt like I was conversing with a complete stranger.

“Anything else I could help you with, bro?” I was done badmouthing Tennessee for one day.

“Nope. Just work on that best man’s speech. You know I wanna read it and give you the OK beforehand.”

“No problem.”

“Oh, and Cruz?”

“Hmm?”

“If you happen to take a picture of her sleeping naked…well, you know my number.”

I killed the call, catching the tail of the conversation between Tennessee and her sister Trinity.

“I didn’t want to say anything next to Bear, but Rob’s been calling nonstop, Nessy. He said you were not picking up.”

My roommate caught her lower lip with her teeth, releasing it slowly.

“Yeah. I still haven’t told Bear Rob’s in town. He doesn’t know.”

“He does now,” Trinity said apologetically. “Rob got his hands on Bear’s phone number somehow. And since Bear has been raiding the Costellos’ internet package…”

It was good to know some things ran in the Turner family. Like their need to hijack other people’s online network.

“No!” Tennessee gasped, sitting upright on the bed. “Are you kidding me? The gasshole! I can’t believe him.”

I couldn’t believe she said gasshole. Intentionally.

How old was this woman, three?

And how come she didn’t have any problem dressing like a streetwalker when she gave strong prude vibes in other regards?

“Yes,” Trinity said hotly. “But let me tell you, I was there when it happened, and Bear did not appreciate Rob going behind your back at all. He told him, and it’s a quote, ‘I don’t want to see you. Not because of what you did to me. We don’t know each other, so I’m not gonna take it personally. But because of what you did to my mom.’ That’s what he said. Said he couldn’t imagine betraying you like that. Then he hung up on him. It was epic.”

I expected her to cheer this development, but her frown surprised me.

“He wouldn’t be betraying me. I want him to have a father figure in his life.” Tennessee gnawed at that bottom pouty lip now, forgetting I was in the room. “I just hate that Rob did that without telling me. Shows that he hasn’t changed at all.”

“Well, you did ghost him for two weeks,” Trinity pointed out.

“He ghosted me for thirteen years!”

“True. The flip-head.”

There was so much wrong with this family and their vocabulary I didn’t know where to start.

“Can you do me a favor?” Tennessee asked. “I need to ensure this doesn’t get out of control. Can you ask Bear to hand over his cell phone so that Rob cannot get to him? I want to give this man a piece of my mind and don’t want Bear to feel pressured.”