A May-September Wedding (14 page)

She headed
back upstairs, lost in thought. One of Cal's classmates and one of
the few who would have served in Engineering with him. Phyl had a
few situations over the years where she and Harry had been friends
with both partners in a divorcing couple. Cal would have had to
choose between Jack, his fellow officer, and Susan, the wronged
party, and if the reports were correct it would have been an easy
choice for Cal. He'd been very clear about his views on divorce. It
was probably a factor in why he wasn't at all interested in any of
the divorced soccer moms – he might be committing adultery if he
married one of them.

She climbed
into bed and gave a prayer of thanks for Cal and his principles.
But she understood better why he was so reluctant to admit their
mutual attraction.

Jane Maloney
nudged Phyl in the ribs and nodded her head toward Cal, who was at
another table filling out Felicity's soccer registraton. "So what's
he like?"

"Who? Cal?"
Phyl looked in Cal's direction and tried not to let her feelings
show too much.

"Of course
Cal." Jane whispered conspiratorially. "So what's he like?"

Phyl looked at
Jane in a puzzled way. "He's a been a great friend for years and
very supportive of me and the kids since Harry died. That's a hard
question to answer in a few words."

"No, silly. I
meant in bed. He's pretty hot for his age, any age actually." Jane
leered in Cal's direction.

Phyl said,
icily, "I wouldn't know. He's just a friend."

Jane gave Phyl
a knowing look and said, "No need to get huffy. It's just that you
spend a lot of time together and you're both widowed..." Jane
caught the look Phyl was giving her. "Hey, if you're not involved
maybe I have a shot at comforting him a bit."

Phyl felt her
anger rising along with a possessiveness that surprised her. "I
don't think you'd get very far with him if that's all you're
looking for. He's a good Christian man and I don't think he'd do
anything like that except with his wife."

"I was just
fantasizing. He was pretty polite when he told me he wasn't
interested in me. But if you ask me, you're the only one of the
single moms that has any chance with him anyway. I know I'd want to
be sitting down if he ever looked at me the way he does at you."
Jane seemed oblivious to Phyl's discomfort. "I mean I'd be so weak
in the knees..." Jane fanned herself with a file folder to
emphasize her point.

She's
envious of me.
Phyl was thunderstruck. In her
heart of hearts she hoped that Cal really was attracted to her, but
she'd never said anything for fear of embarrassing him. Phyl
replayed the last couple of events she and Cal attended together.
People they knew were looking at the two of them differently and
there were whispers that stopped when they got close.

Many of the older single moms were still friendly with Cal,
but the flirting had toned way down.
So that's why Jane
asked how he was in bed. Everyone thinks we're sleeping together.
Fat lot they know.
But her thoughts and eyes
drifted over to the table where Cal was chatting with the coach
about the elite squad tryouts. He saw her looking his way and held
her gaze for a second as his face softened into a secret smile for
a second.

Phyl looked demurely down at the paperwork in front of her
and wondered what she was going to do with the revelation. Well,
his mourning year was over in a few weeks. That was all the space
she was prepared to give him.
I'm a grown woman and I
know what I want.
She looked over again at
Cal.
I want him. Except for sharing a bedroom, we might
as well be married, so that's what is going to happen.

Phyl began to plot her campaign.
New clothes,
she thought,
and lots more
flirting
. She got a satisfied feeling as she
thought about the decision.

Cal came over
to ask when everything wrapped up and Phyl made sure that her
flirting included a few touches here and there. The other moms
raised their eyebrows when Cal flirted back.

"Dad, why do I
have to go to this interview? My marks are good and we gave them
the reference letter from Father Gary." Felicity was on the edge of
mulish.

"The principal
wants to meet you. He needs to know that you take your Christian
faith seriously. It is a Christian high school. They have
standards." He let the implication that the other high schools
didn't hang in the air.

Felicity
sighed. "I know that, Dad. John and Chantelle from church both go
there and they think it's a pretty neat school. Lydia and I went to
the grade eight day and Chantelle was one of our tour guides."

"So you'd know
someone there besides Lydia. That would be nice."

"I'm a bit
nervous about the interview, Dad. I mean, we did do the catechism
classes with Father Paul for our confirmation and the Madisons do a
great job making sure there's some Bible study at the youth group,
but our church isn't as evangelical as some of churches the other
students go to. John said that when he got there he went from being
one of the most conservative kids in the school to one of the most
liberal."

"I talked with
the principal. He's very aware of our church and its Gospel
mission. Just because we're a liturgical church doesn't mean we
ignore evangelism or the Bible. I don't think you'll have any
problems at all."

Cal took a
seat in the waiting area while Felicity went in for her interview.
While he couldn't hear what was being said, he knew that it was
going well because Felicity's tone was interested and impassioned,
the way she sounded when she was having a good conversation.

The principal
came out to hand Felicity back to Cal. "You have a remarkably level
headed daughter, Mr. Richardson, and a pretty passionate Christian,
too. Please pass my compliments to Father Gary and Father Paul and
the rest of the Sunday School team. I think Felicity is going to
fit in very well here." The principal paused, "And I already
reassured her that her best friend Lydia will also be offered a
place in next year's grade nine class. Lydia was concerned that
Felicity wouldn't be offered a place."

Cal thanked
the principal and picked up the registration package that was
waiting at the administration counter. John from church was headed
to his next class and stopped briefly to say hi. A few of the boys
gave Felicity admiring glances as they slowed down to see who John
was talking to.

They climbed
into the car. "So, what do you think?"

"It wasn't
that scary after we got to talking. He wanted to know how often I
prayed and if I had accepted Jesus as my Saviour, you know, the
usual youth group stuff. Then he went over the school rules with
me. You and Phyl are both more strict than the school, so that
won't be a problem. The girls' uniforms aren't too dorky and you
can even wear slacks. And I noticed that there's a girls' soccer
team. I might try out for volleyball, too, but that's a sport for
tall people like Lydia." She sat back and sighed.

"Well, they
also have a badminton club and that's a sport for nimble beasts
like you."

Felicity stuck
out her tongue at her father. "Dad, I felt so short when we got
caught in the class change. Well, I am a bit short. Okay, four foot
ten is really short. Lydia's going to fit in right away, I mean
she's tall and blonde, like half the girls in the school, but I
only saw one other girl near my height."

"Well, Beast,
I was told that most of the kids come from good Dutch Reform
families. Even I felt a bit short at class change and I'm six foot.
I wouldn't worry about it. I'll bet the girls will be jealous of
you. Like your mom, you're petite and sweet and a lot of fun and
they will feel big and clumsy next to you."

Felicity
paused to think, for a change. "Yeah, I guess. Lydia sometimes
complains about that and I tell her that it would be nice to be
able to see the bus coming when I'm in a crowd."

"I'm sure God
has his reasons for making us all different."

"Well, at
least I can buy clothes off the rack, well petite sizes anyway.
Lydia has to wear skirts most of the time now because they don't
make pant legs long enough in her size."

"So, where do
you want to go for lunch?"

Cal listened
with amusement to Felicity run through about twenty choices before
settling on Colonnade Pizza, like he expected, if they could share
a lasagna and salad.

"David, I'd
like to invite your Dad and Phyl and the kids for Easter dinner."
Judy studied her husband's face.

"Dad and
Felicity would be welcome. We haven't seen them in a couple of
months." David tried to be non-committal.

"You mean you
haven't seen them. Brenda and I went over last week to visit with
them while you were in Richmond. Brenda loves hanging with her
aunts."

David said,
tightly, "Lydia Schuyler is not Brenda's aunt. They are not
family."

"Oh lighten
up, David. I know you don't like Phyl, but why not?"

"She was a
stuck up bitch in high school and she's still a stuck up bitch.
It's embarrassing that Dad's mooning over her."

"You know
they've been friends for a long time, David. And she's always been
helpful."

"Mark my
words, she's going to be trouble for Dad."

Judy said,
"Well, I like her and they don't have any other family in town
since Harry's Dad retired last month and moved to Halifax to be
near his wife's people. They will already be in the car with Cal
after church. So I'm going to invite them. But if you're going to
be this miserable about it, she probably won't accept. And don't be
surprised if Cal decides to have Easter dinner with her rather than
us."

David glared
at Judy. "Do what you want to do. You will anyway." He stormed
angrily out of the kitchen.

Judy stared at
David's retreating form. There was something very strange going on
with David. She hoped it wasn't about money again.

Easter service
promised to be a joyous antidote to a prayer-filled and somber
Lent. Phyl decided that the time for dark clothes was well past, so
she went out to buy a new spring dress and bonnet for Easter. It
felt a bit odd to be able to pamper herself after pinching pennies
for so long. But her bank balance was very healthy so she left the
kids with Cal on Saturday so she could also get her nails and hair
done properly for the first time since Harry died.

When Cal and
Felicity came over to get them before church, Phyl made sure that
she stood in a good spot to make Cal notice her presence. A
widening of the eyes and a flaring of the nostrils as he registered
the new outfit told her that he wasn't immune to her. That was
fine, she was through playing fair with him.

Cal had to
force himself past Phyl's front door when he saw her in her new
Easter dress. It was a multi-coloured silky print that had all of
the shades of the irises in the front yard. It was predominantly
blue with swirls of purple and yellow and hugged her fine figure
except for the full skirt which swirled enticingly as she moved.
Her coordinating yellow hat with the blue and purple band sat
neatly atop her braided and coiled blonde hair. The bold yellow
should have clashed with her fine ash blonde, but somehow it
didn't.

Phyl stepped
closer and he was overwhelmed again with the scent of baby powder
and orange-mango. Cal had always thought that young mothers were
the sexiest creatures on God's earth and the smell of baby powder
on a woman always hit him hard.
Surely she wasn't
trying to attract that kind of attention from him?

She reached up
to smooth a stray lock of Cal's hair back into place. Cal almost
grabbed her hand to restrain it, but instead just looked into her
eyes. They stood there, lost in each others' gaze for an
indeterminate amount of time.

"Dad, Dad!"
Felicity's voice came to his ears as she began to poke him. "Isn't
it time to get moving?"

"Right, so it
is."

Cal moved to
the passenger's side of the van and handed Phyl into the front seat
under the watchful smirks of the kids.

Easter service
was a festive occasion with lots of joyful old hymns and modern
praise songs. Phyl's lovely voice brought a smile to Cal's face. As
they had been doing for a couple of months, when neither of them
were on the duty roster for something they sat close together.

After service,
Ginny Madison sidled up to Cal, who was holding Phyl's coffee while
she attended to something else, and said "So, when did you and Phyl
start going out?"

Cal stiffened
in surprise. "We aren't going out. What would give you that
idea?"

Ginny smiled
archly. "Well, it might be that you're always together when I see
you. Or maybe the way you look at each other. Or the fact that you
vacationed together last month."

"Ginny, she's
been a good friend for years. She's probably my best friend now
that Brenda and Harry are gone. But we aren't going out
together."

"You may be
fooling yourself, Cal, but you're not fooling anyone else." Ginny
spotted Phyl coming back and noted the fond looks passing between
them. "Good luck with Phyl, Cal. You deserve to find another good
woman. Happy Easter."

Phyl saw the
thoughtful look on Cal's face. "What did Ginny want? Is it
something about youth group?"

"No. She was
just gossiping. It wasn't anything important." Cal handed Phyl back
her coffee and they stood shoulder to shoulder while various people
came over to talk to them.

Lydia stood in
the corner with Felicity, half watching their parents interact.
Lydia was quietly excited but not volunteering anything. Felicity,
impatient as usual, asked, "What?"