JC’s chest turned to ice, stealing her breath, staring at a picture of Reed and Annie together with Sam and Jenny. The photo was taken at a restaurant on the beach. Annie and Jenny linked arm-in-arm in the center of the picture with radiating smiles. Annie was beautiful, dark espresso hair accentuated her pale skin.
JC touched her thumb to Reed’s fulsome smile that revealed his happiness, an easiness she hadn’t seen him wear before. She was the love of his life. Will he ever be that content with me? The imaginary bucket she’d been filling full of the positive reassurances, claiming Reed as her own, just had the bottom cut out of it.
Her throat constricted around insecurities and her nose tickled as she fought back the burn of tears threatening to come. How can I ever make him as happy as she did?
She wasn’t certain how long she’d stood in the hallway before the sound of the sliding glass door being opened, jolting her back to reality. She forced herself to return the picture on the table and step into the bathroom.
A chilly shutter trickled through her as she caught a glimpse of self-doubt staring back at her in the mirror. For the first time in her life, JC wanted a man to catch her. She didn’t want to run. She didn’t want to leave his side. She felt more comfortable with Reed than without. He made her feel complete.
She splashed water on her face, grumbling, “He’s already found his true love.” She could see it in his smile. The question she’d been silently asking, stared straight at her out of a leather frame. “How am I supposed to fall in love with him if he’s already found his soul mate? I don’t want to be second.” JC dampened her neck with wet hands “A replacement. A fill in.”
Her insides twisted with uncertainty and she could scarcely breathe. Dr. Phil was in full swing, only it wasn’t her sister she wanted to bear her soul to. It was Reed.
“Pull it together. You can’t do this now.” She brushed the wetness from her cheek. “Suck it up. That’s what Tracy would say. Suck it up, JC. Everything happens for a reason.”
She collected herself and made her way into the hallway, taking another agonizing look at the picture of her boyfriend with the love of his life. Hearing voices in the kitchen, she replaced to picture to its designated spot and trudged toward the foyer. JC stopped dead in her tracks, overhearing her name mentioned in between the clatter of dishes.
“How’d she land him anyhow?”
“I don’t see what’s so great about JC Mathews anyway,” a woman sneered in a mumble.
JC edged closer to the kitchen, patiently waiting on the other side of the wall for them to leave so she could escape the hallway.
“She’s probably after his money. I’ll give him six months and he’ll be broke, crawling back in Texas, lickin’ his wounds and beggin’ Sam for full partnership.”
Recognizing the voices from the bar, she folded her arms across her chest, scowling in silence at the loathsome ridicule.
“Maybe her daddy is out of money. I don’t even like his movies. She’s not even that pretty!”
JC’s eyes narrowed deeper and her neck and ears burned with irritation. It was one thing to make erroneous statements about her, but saying unwarranted lies or bullshit about her family was an entirely different ballgame. It was like striking a match to a tumbleweed. She crept from behind the wall, still hidden from the view of the kitchen.
“Annie wasn’t that pretty either,” came a pitiable slur.
“Now, she was after his money.”
JC’s jaw flexed. She grimaced at the deplorable stabs.
“Annie was just a sugar baby trying to marry up. He got lucky if you ask me. He might’ve been stuck with her forever.”
“Or divorced for half his money.”
The conversation carried on, spewing out disparaging words, painting Annie as a gold digger looking for a sugar daddy. A culmination of jealous slurs filtered through the kitchen, pouring fuel on JC’s mounting anger.
JC dropped her arms to the side. Her fists clenched in tight balls as angry heat raged at the obnoxious hateful remarks being made about a woman who wasn’t even there to defend herself. Before she realized what she was doing, JC marched passed the archway straight into the kitchen.
The unsuspecting women who’d been downing Margaritas at the bar caught site of JC. Each put on their best forged intoxicated smile.
“Hi, JC. We were just saying how lucky Reed is.” Her tone dripped with spite and her smartly painted brows pinched upward as she struggled to hold onto the counter for support.
JC’ lip furled. “Is that so?”
The curvy brunette smudged her finger beneath her false lashes, her blank gaze never leaving JC. “How lucky are you to date Reed. He’s quite a catch, honey.”