Chapter Ten
Tammy
It had been three weeks since our fake wedding and fantastic fake honeymoon, and the day I would see Nate off for Lexington. Right now, however, I was leaning on the handle of my umbrella under the porch of the front entrance to the Hamptons Peak, watching as my most recent clients got into their Lamborghini, gave a wave to the valet and zipped off into the rain.
A couple dressed to the nines in clothes that probably cost more than my childhood home in Kentucky glided past me, and I stepped to the side, feeling a little self conscious even though my own clothes were nothing to scoff at. The guest house would have been a more homey and pleasant place to talk to my new clients, but they had insisted that we meet at the exclusive club, claiming that I shouldn’t worry about getting in - everyone here knew them and no one would question why I was here. I knew that, of course. The club wasn’t so exclusive that its members couldn’t have guests. I would just rather meet somewhere more comfortable and private. What I wanted didn’t really matter in the whole scheme of things.
Finally, for the first time, my services had attracted the attention of the Hamptons filthy rich, and I was determined to see this through. I was pretty sure the couple just wanted to flaunt their wealth a bit, and they couldn’t know that I’d already been to the Hamptons Peak many times with friends. They also couldn’t know that I dealt with clients exactly like them all the time - people who wanted their wedding to be better than anyone else’s and continuously mentioned that I must feel lucky to have access to wealth like theirs for my own entrepreneurial reasons.
I snorted, and some of the uneasy feelings plaguing me lessened somewhat. They were wrong about that. Two of my friends were married to billionaires, and I had even fake married one myself.
Still, I couldn’t help but fidget as I peered in the direction of the covered parking area and found my SUV nowhere in sight. This was what I wanted, right? Rich clients with memberships to places like the Hamptons Peak where they could boast about their perfect wedding and dare their friends to try and do better?
I had set a goal for my business, and the couple in their luxury Lamborghini had just confirmed that I reached it. And the cherry on top of the success sundae? I had scored a fantastic, five-day vacation complete with delicious sex, beautiful waterfalls and scrumptious five-star meals with an old friend. Today, I should feel refreshed, relieved to be out of financial stress and just generally over the moon about life itself, right? I didn’t, I was fighting back the tears.
The arrival of my vehicle combined with memories of the spectacular Niagara Falls cheered me up a bit. It really had been a great vacation - and a great date. Nate and I went on a dinner date a week before our wedding, just as I had agreed, and we called our trip to the Falls a date, just as he had agreed. Both dates went swimmingly. Labeling our time together after our honeymoon as adatetook all the tension out of the budding renewal of our relationship. We had complimented each other, kissed whenever we wanted and shared food when we ordered at a restaurant without feeling weird about it. We talked, laughed and told stories both old and new. We were ourselves on these so called dates.
I felt my eyebrows draw together in a smirk. It wasn’t right to say thatallthe tension had drained from our relationship. The sexual tension remained at an all-time high. Nate and I had made good use of that honeymoon suite and the master bedroom in his mansion since then.
Over the past few weeks, a new kind of tension was rearing its ugly head, though, and I didn’t know how to beat it because it was horribly familiar. For the second time in our relationship, distance was about to become an issue between Nate and me.
As the valet held open the door of my SUV, I slipped behind the wheel, and my sigh turned into a throaty groan of annoyance. I had helped Nate get what he wanted and he helped me get what I wanted, but we would be losing each other again in the process. It was just so sad and unfair.
The moment we had boarded the plane to fly back to the Hamptons from Niagara Falls, uneasiness swelled in my stomach. To deal with it, I had slapped a bandaid over the stabbing feeling. The next day I called Nate to plan another date… then another, another and another. I had filled my free time with Nate and made more free time when I ran out. Then I scheduled Nate into that too. I even did something I had never dreamed I would do - I brought Nate along once or twice when I met clients to show them around potential wedding venues.
He’s an asset,I had tried telling myself the third time I invited him along. Since Nate had a background in real estate, and I could even introduce him to clients, I really wanted to impress and say, “This is my husband, Nate. Yes, he did play for the Lexington Colonels!” Then I would always act surprised when they recognized him, but secretly, I would feel proud. But the pride would burst like a bubble when I remembered that it wasn’t real, it wasn’t real,it wasn’t real.Get it together, Tammy.
I never fully got it together, and I finally admitted to myself that I brought Nate along because of the looming deadline on his stay in the Hamptons. If I happened to be too busy to fit Nate into my day, I practiced multitasking by dragging him around with me. It wasn’t really dragging, though, because he never minded joining me. He knew our time together was coming to a close, too.
Finally, last night, we couldn’t avoid the subject any longer. Without our usual teasing attitudes, we sat down in my living room to talk.
We hadn’t really come to a conclusion because there was none that appealed to either of us. There were only the facts, and those facts outweighed our mutual desire to continue seeing each other. Nate had his job, I had my job and our jobs were nowhere near each other physically. In the end, we agreed to do what we had intended when we parted for college. We agreed to give long distance a real, honest try… after Nate swore up and down that he wouldn’t vanish on me again.
I didn’t think he would, honestly. Nate was more mature now, more willing to sit down and talk things out. The cocky high-school jock I knew didn’t know how to communicate feelings, and adult Nate seemed to have left that character flaw in the past. Not too long ago, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but I was starting to trust Nate again. Not beyond a doubt - not one-hundred percent yet - but almost. I treasured the time I got to spend with him over the last few weeks, and I wished they would never end.
But they were. The blustery, stormy weather mirrored my feelings as I headed toward Nate’s mansion to pick him up and drive him to the airport to meet Mack. Nate quickly slipped his luggage into my new SUV, patted me on the leg and said, “Let’s get this over with.” I nodded and pulled out of the driveway of Nate’s mansion that had been my home several nights of the week since our return from the Falls.
When I pulled to a stop in the private parking lot where Nate would meet Mack who had come to pick him up in the Colonel’s chartered jet, I asked, “Are you sure Mack wants to leave today? The weather looks like it’s getting worse.”
“I’m sure. He called me before they left Lexington. And apparently it’s nice and sunny in Kentucky.” Nate smiled, but not the wide, skin-wrinkling expression of happiness familiar to me.
“I bet.” I returned a smile of my own, but my attempt was worse than his. “Hey, thanks,” I said, trying to manage a little humor. “You know. For not leaving without a goodbye this time.”
“No problem.” His face finally cracked into that brilliant smile. “Thanks for giving me another chance to say goodbye… and a chance to straighten out our past issues.”
“You’re welcome.” I leaned across the center console for a long, intimate kiss - the last one we would have for a while. “But can we not make it permanent this time?”
“Definitely,” Nate agreed. “As soon as I’m settled in, I’ll come home for the weekend. And I’ll fly you out to Kentucky when you have time. Maybe we can visit Somerset.”
“That would be nice.” One more kiss between lips tasting of wistfulness and a sorrowful wish, and Nate and I drifted slowly apart. “Let’s uh… get your stuff.” I swallowed a sniff and got out of the SUV before my thick throat could betray me.Stop it,I commanded myself sternly. This wasn’t really goodbye. In fact, since everything else was fake, maybe this goodbye was fake too. Maybe Mack would suddenly decide to make the Lexington Colonels into the Hamptons Colonels.
That didn’t happen, of course. Mack walked over as we got out of the vehicle and shook Nate’s hand before giving me a quick hug, talking all the while about how happy he was for us.
I fit the role of a newly-wedded wife saying goodbye to her traveling husband with ease. I helped Nate carry his bags to the plane, told Mack to take care of Nate for me and keep him out of trouble, flashed the wedding ring that I had to return tomorrow and gave Nate a sweet goodbye kiss at the steps to the plane when it was time for him to board. I raised a hand and waved as the plane taxied to the runway, and slowly turned around. Then, I got back into my car and cried my eyes out for five minutes before driving back home.
By the time I reached the guest house, my eyes were dry and my chest hurt a bit less. I even felt a little silly for my outburst. Nate wasn't my real husband. For goodness’ sake, I hated the man until a couple of months ago. I might have looked like a wife saying goodbye to her husband today, but the reality was far less romantic, and I didn’t need to cry over it.
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