Page 16 of Screwed
She carried the cake into the kitchen of her parents’ River Oaks home.
“Who else is coming?” she asked.
“Just family.”
Just family. Ha. That meant a full house, given the size of their family.
“Josh Junior,” Mama continued.
Of course. Josh was Daddy’s mini-me, working with him in the real estate development business Daddy had taken over from Mama’s family.
“And Griff is coming.”
“Oh my God! Really?”
Mama smiled, clearly happy to see her other son. “Yes. He flew from Florida just for the party.”
Mama and Daddy weren’t happy Griff had taken off for Florida years ago, when they thought he should have been working in the family business, but Griff had always been the black sheep of the family. Callie missed him so much, but she understood his rebellion. Where she’d tried so hard to please Mama and Daddy, Griff had enjoyed pissing them off. She and Griff had a bond, a feeling of being on the outside of their own family, while Josh Junior was the favored son.
“And Aunt Emily and Uncle Jason are coming, and of course Grandma and Grandpa Sutherland.”
“I can’t wait to see them. I love your dress,” she said truthfully. The black-and-white print dress draped perfectly over Mama’s slim frame. “Is it new?”
“Yes. From Manon. She told me she offered you your old job. Are you going to go back there?”
“I don’t know. Probably not.”
“What would you like to drink, dear? We’ll open the champagne later, but we can have a glass of white wine now if you’d like.”
“Sure.” She could probably handle one glass of wine after her excesses the other night.
Mama poured wine and handed her a glass. Then the front door opened and voices carried through to the back of the house. “Oh, someone is here. Excuse me.”
Mama’s high heels tapped against the hardwood floor as she hurried off.
“Hey, cupcake.”
Callie turned to see her father enter the kitchen. He was handsome at fifty-four, his still-dark hair thick and shiny. His short beard and mustache were neatly trimmed, but his eyebrows were as wild as always.
She smiled at the childhood nickname. Apparently she’d loved sweets since birth. She moved toward him for a hug. “Hi, Daddy.”
When she’d learned that he had cheated on her mother more than once, she’d felt let down and betrayed. She’d lost respect for her father. But she’d come to realize that while her parents had been together thirty years, they weren’t exactly the poster couple for love matches. From some things her mother had said after she’d revealed that news, Callie now believed that her father had likely married Mama for her wealthy family’s social and business connections. That seemed to work fine for Mama, too.
But he was still her daddy, and she loved him.
“I had lunch with Beau the other day.” Dad poured himself a glass of bourbon. “He says he misses you.”
Callie’s eyebrows flew up, and she swallowed a sigh of annoyance. “Too bad he didn’t miss me when he was screwing around with all those other women.”
“Language, young lady.”
“Oh please, Daddy. I could say much worse.” Her jaw tight, she took a small sip of her wine.
“He was the perfect husband for you, Callie.”
She stared at her daddy. How could Beau be perfect when he was a cheater? But that just showed what her father valued in life. Beau’s family connections and business acumen were apparently what mattered most.
Even though lately she’d been questioning the extent of her feelings for Beau, nobody wanted to be cheated on. It was humiliating and insulting. It only reinforced her belief that she wasn’t really worth loving. Her parents had basically ignored their children while they went about their lives, hiring expensive nannies and sending them to swish summer camps. She’d tried so hard to be perfect so they’d love her, and when she’d married Beau, she’d finally felt their approval. Her divorce put a sharp end to that.
