A Week Till the Wedding (20 page)

Then she looked at Vivian, puzzled for a moment. After that moment, recognition showed on her face in shock and even horror. “Dear God, what are
you
doing here?”

“Miss Eunice,” Daisy said sweetly, “I thought you might enjoy seeing an old friend again.”

“An old friend? Is that what you think—” She stopped short, raised a hand to her forehead and blinked quickly several times. “Who are you?” she asked Vivian. “You do look vaguely familiar.”

Vivian smiled oddly and took her seat. “We used to go fishing together, many years ago.” She remained calm. Of course, she’d been forewarned about her old friend’s mental condition.

“I don’t fish,” Eunice responded coldly. “Fishing is for men and small boys. Ladies do not fish.”

“Well, you once did.” Vivian smiled at the hostess. “Susan, this meal looks just wonderful. It’s very gracious of you to have me.” She hardly looked, or sounded, like the harridan who had threatened him with a shotgun and called his grandmother an “old bitch.”

Tonight, after dinner, he and Daisy would break the bad news to Eunice. They weren’t engaged. They never had been. It wasn’t going to be easy. Throughout dinner Grandma Eunice ignored everyone but Daisy. She talked about wedding plans—the wedding was just a week away!—the dress Daisy still hadn’t tried on, food for the reunion and the wedding reception. Everyone but Vivian, who was thoughtfully quiet throughout, tried to change the subject. The weather, the cousins who would be coming in the following weekend, sports, recipes. But there was no swaying the very determined woman.

Grandma Eunice wanted to talk about the bridesmaids—Daisy’s sisters, she assumed, looking pointedly at Lily as she suggested matching yellow gowns. Reverend Ashton would perform the ceremony, of course. Grandma Eunice said she’d already ordered the cake, and mentioned who was going to take care of that task. Jacob made a mental note to call the cake maker first thing in the morning. Monday, if they were closed on Saturday. The last thing he needed was a tiered wedding cake showing up during the reunion.

When that was done and Grandma Eunice sighed in satisfaction, Vivian and Lily turned the conversation around. Finally. They drew Caleb into their discussion, asking about his business in Macon. Lily talked about her new job, about life in Atlanta...though she did know better than to mention that her sister would soon be joining her there. Maddy added in her two cents; she loved Atlanta, loved the shopping there and thought that Lily’s job at an art gallery sounded very cool.

Daisy didn’t say much at all. Neither did Jacob. He was having a hard time choking down much in the way of dinner, and judging by the way Daisy played with the food on her plate, maybe she had a lump in her throat like the one that had formed—and stayed—in his.

Jacob never suffered this way at home, in San Francisco. He never felt as if the world around him was spinning wildly and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do.

There was still a week until the family reunion began. A full week. Jacob was suddenly anxious to get back to work, back to a world he knew and could manage. Here everything was out of control; including him. He wanted Daisy; he missed having her in his life. But she’d proved that she didn’t trust him, and they couldn’t have a long lasting relationship without trust.

Maybe he’d lost the right to expect her trust years ago.

Maybe he’d never deserved it.

* * *

Daisy didn’t look forward to telling Miss Eunice the truth, but it had to be done. She’d agreed to this farce in order to placate the delusional woman, but she was having second thoughts over a difficult dinner. Had she just made matters worse by playing along thus far? Would finding out that there would be no wedding at the Tasker Reunion send the matriarch into a downward spiral? She didn’t want to be responsible for causing problems, but the truth of the matter was, she might not be here for the Tasker Reunion. Not that she’d ever planned to let this ridiculous scheme go that far.

They would break the news gently, and then Daisy would leave and Jacob would be left behind to deal with the fallout. Daisy looked at Caleb, who sat directly across from her. Why hadn’t Miss Eunice fixated on him? He was older than Jacob, lived closer—though from what she’d heard he didn’t make it home often. Maybe he needed a little polishing, but there might be a gem in there. Somewhere.

As dessert was served—a choice of strawberry or chocolate cake—Miss Vivian launched into another tale of the old days. Miss Eunice just looked confused, as if she had no idea what the other woman was talking about. Fishing. Hikes in the woods. Skipping school.

Miss Eunice fanned herself with her napkin as if she were suddenly warm, and even said, at one point, that their guest must have her confused with someone else.

And then Miss Vivian put her fork down, took a sip of her decaffeinated coffee and looked squarely at Miss Eunice. “Have you ever told your family about the time you pretended to sprain your ankle to get my fella to carry you home?”

Miss Eunice sputtered. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Vivian laughed. “Come on, Eunice. It’s been more than sixty years and you have the same tells when you lie. You drum your fingers and your right eyelid twitches. You cock your head to the left.” Miss Vivian turned to Daisy and glared with strong, certain eyes. “You
do
know she’s lying about the memory lapses, don’t you?”

Chapter Fourteen

E
veryone at the table went silent and still. For a long moment you could’ve heard a pin drop. Then Caleb coughed, and Lily put a hand over her mouth and muttered a soft, “Oh, my God.”

Jacob stared at his grandmother and tried to recall how often he’d seen the “tells” Vivian spoke of, since he’d returned home. He would dismiss the bitter old woman’s accusations as a mean-spirited joke, if not for the expression on Eunice Tasker’s face.

She was horrified. Chastened. Guilty.
Caught
. Those fleeting expressions didn’t last long. She tried to recover and insist that she had no idea what their guest was talking about, but it was too late for proclamations of innocence. It didn’t help matters at all that as Grandma Eunice pretended to be ignorant, her eyelid twitched. She tried to catch the telling tilt of the head—a half second too late—and she clutched at the armrests of her wheelchair, apparently to keep her fingers from tapping.

“Miss Eunice?” Daisy said softly. Even she—who was so willing to look for the good in everyone but him—could see the truth, now. The color drained from her cheeks. “Did you really...all this time...oh, my God, it makes a sick kind of sense.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “That’s why you never spoke of my parents as if they were still alive, even though when Jacob and I were together they were still with us. You couldn’t bring yourself to be
that
cruel.” She pushed away from the table, stood and ran out of the room without looking back. Lily followed.

Jacob started to rise and follow, but he didn’t. Not yet. Daisy hadn’t been happy with him when the evening had started; she surely didn’t want anything to do with him now.

Maddy looked from her husband to her mother-in-law to the matriarch. It took her a moment but soon she, too, stood. She did
not
cry as she directed her attention to her husband’s grandmother. “So all this time you’ve been pretending you didn’t remember me, when you’ve been mistaking me for a cook or a seamstress or a maid, it was a
joke?
You have got to be kidding me,” she added under her breath as she threw her napkin to the table.

She left the room, storming out with her head held high and her husband on her heels. Ben shot one last glance at his grandmother. Jacob read the shock on his brother’s face, the disbelief and condemnation.

“Really, Mother?” Jim Tasker said, sounding both resigned and sad. It was telling that he didn’t sound particularly surprised.

Maybe if she’d been prepared for the bombshell, Grandma Eunice would’ve handled the situation better. But as it was she sat there, guilt written all over her face. She didn’t say a word in her own defense, didn’t attempt to pretend that she had no idea what everyone was talking about. She hadn’t been losing her mind; she was sharp as a tack and as ruthless as ever.

Susan put her palms on the table and took a deep breath. In an instant she left behind her role as hostess and became the woman who’d taken on the family business affairs as if she’d been born to them. The fixer, a level head the family could rely on. “This revelation is distressing, that’s true, but the reunion starts next weekend and we
will
move on and get past this. No one outside this room has to know...”

Jacob finally stood. “I won’t be here for the reunion.” He didn’t feel the need to say anything more as he left the room.

At the moment he longed for an uncomplicated life filled with work and nothing else. He longed for a schedule he could follow; command and control over the events that ruled his days.

But most of all, he longed for Daisy, and after this...after this he figured there was no way she’d ever speak to a Tasker again.

He couldn’t say he blamed her.

* * *

“You battle-ax,” Eunice said sharply as Vivian rose and stepped in her direction. “How dare you come into my home and interfere in family concerns? Can you see what you’ve done? You’ve ruined everything.”

Those few who remained in the dining room were talking among themselves, ignoring her as they discussed potential ways to fix the damage she’d done. At least, that was the way they phrased it. Eunice didn’t see that she’d done any damage. All she’d done was put Jacob and Daisy together so they could find their way. That wasn’t so bad. Was it?

Susan moved to Jim’s side and put her hand on his shoulder. Jim patted Susan’s hand then left his hand sitting there, on hers. Funny, but she didn’t see them this way often. Together. United. Good heavens, different as they were—imperfect as they were—they were still in love. Maybe her son had done something right, after all.

Jim and Susan, even Caleb, talked about the reunion, Doc Porter and all those who had left the dining room table with hurt feelings.

Eunice only felt guilty about one of them. Daisy.

“What
I’ve
done?” Vivian repeated. “I told the truth. Not that you’d recognize the truth even if it bit you on that overly generous ass of yours.”

Eunice gasped. How dare this woman come into her home, disrupt all her plans and then insult her? She tried to come up with a proper response, but words failed her. She hadn’t had time to plan for this, to mull over her words, to script the evening.

“You’re the one who’s been lying to your family, Eunice. You’re the one who has once again woven a tale in order to get your way.” Vivian leaned over and gripped the handles of the wheelchair Eunice sat in. “Do you even need this contraption? I can just see you, using the wheelchair to get sympathy, then getting up at night and walking around the house when no one else can...”

“I do need this chair, dammit. I wish I didn’t.”

Vivian placed herself behind the wheelchair and pulled Eunice sharply away from the table. Eunice gripped the armrests and screamed weakly for help. Vivian—her oldest friend, her oldest rival—stopped and looked toward Susan, rightly sizing her up as the one in charge.

“I’ll just take her to her room, if that suits you. Y’all have work to do and I don’t think Eunice will be of much help here, given the circumstances.”

Susan agreed, dismissing Eunice without giving much thought to the obvious peril she was putting her mother-in-law in. The hateful woman who had ruined everything might decide to push an old, helpless woman down the front porch steps, or dump her in the hallway and leave her there to flounder and call for help that wouldn’t come. Panic welled up and she gripped the armrests of her wheelchair and held on. For the first time in a very long time, she was not in charge of the situation.

“Where to?” Vivian asked as she pushed the wheelchair into the wide hallway.

Eunice pointed, half expecting Vivian to turn in the opposite direction out of spite. That didn’t happen.

Vivian pushed the chair slowly, even gently. She sighed. “If I was lucky enough to have a family, I wouldn’t lie to them,” she said. “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

That truth hurt, even though Eunice was still convinced she’d done the right thing. Jacob needed Daisy. If not for the very necessary lies she’d told of late, he’d still be in San Francisco! Didn’t the end justify the means? That wasn’t a discussion she intended to have with this interloper. “Surely you have some family, somewhere.”

“No.” There was sadness in Vivian’s voice. “Frank and I never had children. I had two miscarriages, and after that I just didn’t get pregnant. There are a few nieces and nephews scattered about, but we were never close. I doubt they even know I’m still alive.”

“I’m sorry,” Eunice said. “I lost three myself...two stillborn before Jim and one who died at a few days old when Jim was three.” She thought about how nice it would’ve been to have the support of a friend in those tough times. She wondered if Vivian had had a friend to help her when she’d lost her babies. There was no way to describe that pain to someone who had not been there.

Claiming the man she’d loved had cost her a good friend. She’d thought the trade a fair one, at the time. Now she was not so sure.

The past was still between them, a living thing after all this time. “I loved him,” Eunice whispered. “You had Charles, for a while, but you never truly loved him. Not like I did.”

“I know.” Vivian stopped pushing, positioned Eunice, set the brake and walked around the wheelchair to sit in the occasional chair in the hallway. Now they were face-to-face, and for the first time Eunice looked her old friend in the eye without lies between them. Vivian was a strong old bird, stringy and wrinkled and healthy, for her age. She wore a life of hardship on her face; it was clear in her eyes that she had struggled. And yet the face was still much the same. Eunice saw the girl she remembered in those eyes, in the set of the mouth. “But he was still mine, and you took him.”