A Newport Christmas Wedding (7 page)

Nora frowned. “He didn't say that. He just said what would happen. And I know I'll be going to college or something soon, and I wouldn't have said anything until after the wedding because I don't want to mess up things between you and Meri, but Lizzie from the glass studio had saved me a place in her glass class for next semester and I didn't think it was fair not to tell her. I didn't think anyone would hear.”

“Why didn't you just ask us?” Alden said.

“I would have, but I didn't want to be ungrateful.”

“Ungrateful?”

“That you took me in.”

“What? Nora, you're my daughter, this is your home. Where the hell did you get that idea?”

“Well, I wasn't thinking too straight. I wanted to ask Gran but I knew she would tell me I was wanted, because she'd have to.”

Gran held up her hand to Alden. “I've already straightened her out on that point.”

“So I—­now don't get mad—­I called Mom.”

“What?” Alden reared up from his seat, but Gran pushed him back down.

“I didn't know what else to do.” Nora's voice rose until the last words were like a plea.

Alden shot his fingers through his hair. “I should have recognized her hand in this mess. You couldn't just ask me?”

“I know you would want me to stay. And I'm pretty sure Meri would want me to stay. But Mom said there's no room for teenagers in a new marriage. And that I would be in the way. And she said I was an ungrateful, spoiled girl and I could come back, but there would be consequences.” Nora's face twisted and she started to cry. “But I didn't care. It would only be until I turned eighteen and then I could move out and she couldn't stop me.”

Alden leaned back in his chair and rubbed his face with both hands.

“Don't be mad,” she begged. “I know I've ruined everything. I'll pack and leave today. Just tell Meri to come back.”

Her dad's shoulders began to shake. She'd never seen him cry before, ever.

“Daddy,” she wailed. “Please don't be sad.”

He shook his head and uncovered his face.

He wasn't crying, he was laughing, but not the funny kind of laughing. “What did I do in a former life to deserve two such remarkable, infuriating women that I can't live without?”

Nora stared.

Gran smiled.

Alden pulled himself together.

“You'll go get her and make her come home?” Nora asked.

“No.”

“But Dad—­”

“Nora, I brought your mother here against her will. I thought she would get to like it here, but she didn't. I won't make the same mistake with Meri.”

“But Meri loves it here.”

“She'll come to her decision without us.”

“But what if it's the wrong decision?”

“Then we'll all learn to live with it.”

 

Chapter 9

M
ERI HAD TRIED
to pull herself together before meeting Carlyn at their favorite pub for dinner. Hopefully, she looked better than she felt.

She still couldn't believe that Alden drove all this way and then just left before they had a chance to really talk things out.

It was still early when she set out for Mike's. The pub was only a few blocks away, and Meri decided to walk. She'd been spending so much time out at the farm and working that she hadn't had a chance to enjoy Newport at its most festive.

The houses were draped in pine boughs and wreaths. Candles lit every window. Store windows were trimmed in lights and greenery. Happy. This was a happy season. A season of fruition and celebration of the new. A time of promise. Of hope.

She had thought it was the perfect time for a wedding, the changing of one life and joining with another. A perfect time. Until the bridal shower.

And it wasn't just Nora. If that was the only issue, Meri would have sat her down and they would have talked it out.

No. Nora's defection had unleashed all the ifs that Meri had refused to look at before. Things she wasn't sure of. And now Alden had given her an ultimatum. She knew Alden. Understood now that he'd wanted this all along. And now she had to decide or lose him forever. It would have sounded corny coming from anyone else. But not Alden.

He'd been patient with her, waited for her to grow up, stood back while she created her own life and had loved her unconditionally all the while.

How could she ever live up to his expectations?

M
IKE'S WAS A
small neighborhood bar in the basement of a white clapboard federal house circa 1774. The basement window was framed in colored lights with a dancing Santa standing on the ledge.

Meri opened the heavy wooden door and stepped into the bar. The jukebox played oldies and Irish folk songs, depending on the crowd. Tonight it was playing something slow, mournful, sung by a fine tenor voice with a harp as accompaniment.

And she'd been hoping for something a little more lively, like “Jingle Bell Rock.”

Carlyn was sitting in a booth against the far wall. The place was pretty crowded, but the music had a subduing affect, so Mike McGee's welcome had everyone turning around and looking to see who had come in.

Meri waved back, ducked her head and hurried across the room to slide into the booth opposite Carlyn. There were two glasses of red wine on the table.

“Girlfriend, you look like shit. I really didn't think you'd be here for dinner.”

“That's okay, I'll pay for my own burger.”

“That's not what I mean.” Carlyn lifted her hand and a waitress wearing felt reindeer antlers came over to the table.

They ordered their usual giant cheese burgers, juicy and fire grilled, and an order of onion rings to share. “To round out the vegetable pyramid,” Carlyn said. “Now tell me what happened? Or should I ask what didn't happen?”

Meri took a sip of wine. She hadn't eaten all day and it set off a burning in her stomach. Great, she was probably giving herself an ulcer over all this.

“Well?”

“We went back to my apartment.”

“Good,” Carlyn said. “That's good, right?”

“He made coffee.”

“Oo-­kay. And?”

“We were standing there, and everything seemed fine, but then we started talking and I told him all the stuff I was worried about. Like Nora, and how everything might change, and other stuff. And he was all like fine and saying it would be okay. And then—­”

Meri thought back. She'd spent the afternoon thinking about that final exit. “I said something about what if we ended up hating each other and getting a divorce.”

“Oh Lord, Meri. That's the chance you take. It's called life. What did he say to that?”

“He told me to make up my mind and whatever I decided would be that—­forever.”

“What? I totally didn't understand that.”

“He said—­” She really didn't want to share this, even with Carlyn. But she needed Carlyn's down-­to-­earth perspective. And besides, they were best friends. “He said either I loved him or didn't and I had to decide. But that if I decided I didn't want him, it would be forever. Or something like that—­I was so stunned. Then he said he was finished with waiting. And he turned around and left.”

“Criminy.” Carlyn leaned across the table. “And you let him go?”

“How could I stop him?”

“By saying ‘I love you madly, of course I want to get married. Can't wait.' ”

Meri hid her face in her hands. Shook her head. “I am so stupid.”

“Pretty much, if you're here having burgers with me and not with Alden.”

The waitress brought their burgers and set the plate of onion rings between them.

The sight of them made Meri queasy.

Carlyn slid the mustard toward her.

“What am I going to do?”

“You're asking me?” Carlyn shook catsup onto her plate. “Ms. Cut and Run?”

“Well, you're the best I've got.”

Carlyn grinned. “I think there's a song about that.”

“Don't you dare. I'm on the brink of a breakdown here.”

“Then eat your burger. Then you'll call him and give him the good news.”

Meri picked up her burger, put it down again. “You know, it's not the ‘Can I be a good mother to two teenagers,' or ‘What if we get a divorce' stuff. It's just that he's waited so long to have his children with him, and I'm afraid that's what Nora's reacting to.

“Their relationship is fragile still, and adding me to the mix destroys that.” She blew out a sigh. “I don't think I could stand that.”

“Did you ask Nora?” Carlyn asked through a bite of burger.

“No. It never occurred to me until her announcement last night. I thought she was totally on board.”

“Me, too.”

Carlyn dunked an onion ring in catsup and handed it to Meri. “Maybe you should stop worrying about everybody else and think of yourself for a change.”

“I am.”

“Do you want to marry the guy or not?” She picked through the onion rings for the fattest one. “Because let me tell you. If you don't want him, I might just ask him out.”

Meri tried not to smile. She needed to be serious. But she couldn't hold out against Carlyn's jackhammer techniques.

“He doesn't sing karaoke.”

Carlyn sighed. “I could train him.”

“Stop it.”

“So what will it be? Yes I do. No I don't. Or you'll take what's behind door number three?

“I think Alden, Nora, and I should sit down and talk things out.”

“That wouldn't be my first choice, but since you can't always get what you want, I think you should go for it.”

Meri dug in her bag for her phone.

“But maybe not while ‘Louie Louie' is playing in the background. He might get the wrong idea.”

E
VEN
G
RA
N LOOKED
worried, Nora thought as she watched her stir the stew she'd made that afternoon. She had helped, a little bit. Gran had taught her to cook a few things when she'd been trying to get her dad to let her stay.

He'd finally convinced her mom to let her come live with him, and now look where they were. She didn't understand why her dad hadn't just made Meri come home.

How he could be so complacent? No, that wasn't it. Usually when he was upset he went to sit on the rocks overlooking the bay. Or worked at his drawing table. But they were still at Gran's. It was almost like he was afraid to leave.

And that scared Nora. There had to be a way to make this right. If only she hadn't talked to Lucas, they'd probably all be having dinner together, laughing and talking about decorating and wedding flowers, and her Dad would pretend like he didn't get any of it but he would be happy. Like he'd been until a few days ago.

None of them said much while they ate. Gran kept glancing out the kitchen window like maybe she heard something. But it was just hope.

Meri didn't come.

“I think you should call her again,” Nora said.

“It's her move,” her dad said.

Nora cast a pleading look at Gran. She just shrugged and went back to picking at her apple cobbler.

They washed and dried the dishes like always. And Nora was thinking that she hoped they would still eat over here even after Mrs. Miller started cooking for them. Then she remembered, she might not even be here then. Meri and Dad might not be living together and she'd feel sick.

Even when they were walking home she knew her dad was looking out for Meri's car. She sure was. Once, she saw headlights out on the road, but they kept going and Nora slumped with disappointment. Her dad just kept walking.

He's like a zombie, she thought. Not the dragging leg kind of monsters that have books written about them, but the living dead. She gasped.

Her dad reached for her elbow. “Are you okay?”

She nodded, but she took his arm as if she could hold him there, keep him from going to that place that scared her, that made her sad, because she knew he was alone there. And she prayed that Meri would come home.

As soon as they got home she went to her room. Locked the door and pulled out her cell.

She texted Lucas.
Call me. Now.

Nothing.

She couldn't wait.
Emergency.

Nothing. She called him.

“What?” he said on the fourth ring.

“That's a terrible way to answer the phone.”

“What do you want, I'm really busy.” A pause. “It isn't Dad? Nothing's happened to Dad?”

“Nobody's dead, if that's what you mean. But we have a serious problem.”

“Okay. Just hang on a minute so I can finish my . . .”

He left her to silence. She could hear him rummaging around in the background. Then he was back.

“Okay. What's the big emergency?”

“Meri's left.”

“So? Where'd she go?”

“She went back to Newport, because she thinks we don't want her to marry Dad.”

“Well, that's dumb. Why does she think that?”

“It's all your fault,” Nora said, hoping it wasn't all her fault. And afraid that maybe it was.

“My fault? I'm not even there. I haven't talked to Meri since Thanksgiving.”

“It's what you said about all those statistics and second marriages.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Are they true?”

“They're based on collected data and make certain assumptions after taking into account standard deviations”

“Speak English, dammit. This is serious.”

“I am being serious.”

“But will it happen to Meri and Dad?”

“What?”

“You said they would want to be alone so they could start their own family right away.”

“I didn't.”

“Your statistics did.”

“Statistics are bodies of input, they're percentages.”

“You mean Meri and Dad might not be that way.”

“Yes. Or they might. It depends on a lot of factors. You said there was an emergency. Can you get to your point?”

“I called Mom and told her I wanted to move back to her house.”

Nothing but nasal breathing from the other end. Finally, “Are you crazy? Why did you do that? You hate it there.”

“I thought it would be better for Dad and Meri, and now everything is all screwed up. And I'm afraid there's not going to be a wedding.”

“That was the dumbest thing.”

“I know. I'm dumb. I get that.”

“You're not dumb. You just think with your emotions. Not a good way to deal with things.”

“Are you sure you're my brother? That brother is a nerdy kid but he's not some stuffy automaton with no emotions.”

“I've got emotions. I'm just saying you shouldn't have had a knee jerk reaction.”

“Well, I did, and you have to fix it.”

“Nora, maybe we ought to leave it alone. They're the adults.”

“Lucas. Help me fix this.”

“Have any ideas?”

“No. You're the brainiac.”

“With statistics. ­People? Not so much.”

“Well, too bad. You started this, now figure out what we can do.”

He huffed out a sigh. “Let me think. I'll get back to you.”

“Okay, but don't go back to your books and forget.”

“You think I would forget about Dad getting married?”

She really didn't know. Her brother was a kid and yet he sometimes sounded like some old geezer. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. Don't do anything. I'll take care of it.”

“How?”

“That's for me to figure out.”

“You'd better hurry.”

“I will, but Nora . . .”

“What?”

“Whatever happens, don't you dare run away.”