Eight Hundred Grapes

Jacob looked back and forth between us. “You did?”

Lee nodded. “Yes. We met and I met her stepdaughter. Pancake girl, yes?” She pointed at Jacob with that chain. “You guys know each other?” she said.

“We don’t really,” I said.

Jacob shot me a look. “Georgia is Dan and Jen’s daughter.”

“Oh . . .” Lee said, confused. And I could see her mind going. Hadn’t she mentioned Jacob yesterday?

I gave her a smile. “I didn’t make the connection that you were Jacob’s fiancé.”

She smiled back, but there was an edge to it, as if she didn’t believe me. Which was fair—I had known who she was, I just hadn’t wanted to. “Well, you made it now,” Lee said.

Jacob took Lee’s hand, looking increasingly uncomfortable. “Lee and I are going to grab a drink,” Jacob said. “But I’m sure we’ll catch up with you later. Or during the announcement.”

“No,” Lee said, her voice a little forceful.

Jacob looked at her, confused. “Why not?”

“I’ll get us a drink,” she said. “You guys catch up.”

Jacob forced a smile, but Lee was already walking away from him. She was all legs and thin arms, glittering chain—a woman that you’d let leave you at the altar and then try to make things work with anyway.

Jacob turned to me. He turned to me and I could see him trying to decide what he wanted to yell about first.

“You filed an injunction against me?” he said. “You couldn’t be a bigger pain in my ass.”

“You weren’t giving me much of a choice, were you?”

He shook his head. “You’re making things difficult for your father here. No judge in his right mind is going to consider your case. You know that, right?”

I nodded, but a ruling wasn’t what I was after. If the board disliked the headache of a lawsuit enough, they would stop Jacob from moving forward. Jacob knew that, which was why it was confusing, the grin he was wearing.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

He shrugged. “I appreciate your desire,” he said. “Misplaced as it may be. I appreciate what you want to do for your family. Plus, you’re kind of glad that I came tonight, which is nice to see. Especially after what a dick I was. Sorry about that.”

“Really?”

“I’m a little sorry,” he said. He paused. “Were you spying on my girlfriend?”

“No. I like her. She’s lovely.”

“That’s not an answer. You were spying on my girlfriend. Why?”

“I don’t really know. Can we leave it at that?”

Jacob looked at me, really looked at me. “Okay,” he said.

Then he motioned to Michelle, the beautiful Michelle Carter. Ethan Tropper stood guard near her. Everyone was watching her every move and pretending they weren’t. The Sebastopol housewives whispered to one another as they checked out her shoes, her skin, her legs. A group of teenage boys walked back and forth past the table, trying to get up the nerve to ask her for an autograph, or maybe just to touch her hair and run away. Who could blame them? She was mesmerizing.

“I didn’t expect to see her here,” Jacob said.

“Please don’t say how pretty she is.”

“How about sexy?”

He smiled and so did I. I couldn’t help it.