Free A Very Dirty Wedding by Sabrina Paige Page B

arrival tonight.  I don't know when Caulter is coming, and I don't want to know -- I didn't even dare to ask my father earlier when he called to relay his travel plans.
    I'm already paranoid that my father can smell my lust for Caulter, like I'm some kind of animal in heat.
    I sigh, spreading lotion over my legs.  "Ella is...okay, I guess."
    Jo leans back on the towel laid on top of the boat dock, pulling at the edge of her black-and-white checkered swimsuit, this retro number with straps that come up like a halter at the back of her neck.  The tattoo she got this year, cherry blossoms intertwined with Japanese characters, goes down the side of her hip, half under the swimsuit and half out.  I don't know why we're laying outside in bathing suits, soaking up rays; we're slathered in enough sunscreen to drown, and wearing floppy hats big enough to practically require their own zip codes.  But this is what we do here during the summer, so it's force of habit, I guess.
    "Okay?" she asks.  "Ella Sterling is just...okay?  The Dick is marrying a big celebrity and he only just told you about it -- and that's all you've got for me?  Spill it."  She looks at me from behind her huge dark sunglasses, but I can't see her eyes.  Then she slips them dramatically down to the edge of her nose.  "Details.  I want absolutely every last detail."
    "She's just...okay, I guess," I say, realizing I mean it.  "She's not really a bitch, I guess.  She's actually kind of... blah ?"
    "Like, she has no personality blah ?"
    "Maybe.  Or she's just not very assertive," I say.  "It's hard to tell.  My father is pretty..."
    "Fucked up?" she asks.
    I laugh.  "That's not what I was going to say."
    "It's what you were thinking, though."  She leans back, arching her back up, displaying her breasts, even though it's just the two of us.
    "It's totally not what I was thinking."
    "Continue, please," she orders.  "You father is an overbearing dickhead who treats her the way he treats you, and -- "
    It annoys me that Jo lumps Ella and I together, like we're both some spineless creatures just being trampled underneath my father's will.  "I haven't really seen them together much, you know.  I mean, there was this photo of them on his desk - from Christmas - and they looked...happy."
    Jo grunts her response.  "Happy," she says.  "That's all you've got for me.  You have Ella fucking Sterling in your house and all I get is blah and happy .  You know I want the dirt."
    I exhale.  Of course.  Dirt.  "She's super... bright ."
    "Bright," Jo repeats flatly.
    "And un-caffeinated," I say.  "Like, bright without ever drinking coffee in the morning."
    "That's unnatural," Jo says.  "I hate her already."
    Now I can't help but smile.  "Oh, and she drinks these smoothies, like this algae shit that smells so bad.  Caulter called them her fish tank shakes."
    Jo's ears perk up at the sound of his name, and I immediately regret mentioning him.  I'm telling no one what happened with Caulter.  He will remain my dirty little secret.
    I will take him with me to the grave.  Maybe even literally, if he keeps being such a jerk.
    I'm aware of Jo's eyes on me, her glasses perched on the end of her nose again as she peers over them, examining me like some kind of specimen.  "Caulter?" she asks innocently.  She draws out his name, letting it roll off her tongue.
    I roll my eyes and huff loudly, turning over onto my stomach, mostly so I can avoid making eye contact with her.  I'm afraid if I look at her, she'll be able to read my thoughts, tell what happened with me and Caulter.  I force a casualness into my voice I definitely don't feel, although I don't have to fake the disgust that naturally seeps into my tone.  "Caulter.  Her son."
    "That's right," she says.  "I almost forgot.  She has a son.  He's like, a total train wreck, isn't he?"
    "He's a disaster.  Completely and utterly."  There's no way that Jo, with her affinity for tabloid magazines and