Bachelor On The Prowl (19 page)

Holly looked at her watch again, frowned. “Already? I told her I wouldn’t be ready until noon.” She lifted her shoulders, shrugged. “Okay. Would you please ask her to just come on back here? Thanks, Irene.”

She winced involuntarily as she heard her mother’s brisk footsteps approaching over the bare hardwood floor. Julia might be satisfied with the “whole effect,” but her mother would be pulling out her tissues and calling Holly her “baby.” She quickly reached up to lift the veil from her head.

“Holly! Oh, my! Oh, my goodness,
look
at you!”

Too late. “Hi, Mom. I’m just helping Julia out with the new petite-size gowns. What do you think of this one? The bustier look a little much?”

Hillary Hollis rolled her eyes, put her thin coat and her purse down on the wooden folding chair in the corner. “I was referring to the veil, dear. Do you think I don’t know you’re in your underwear? Nobody gets married in a bra and slip.”

Holly grinned. “Obviously you haven’t seen some of the gowns out there these days, Mom.” And then she sobered. “Mom. Could I ask you a question?”

“Of course, sweetheart,” Hillary said, fussing with the folds in the veil. “I may not have the answer, but I’ll certainly do my best.”

“You always do your best, Mom,” Holly told her quietly, her heart bursting with love for this woman who managed all of her family so effortlessly, made them all feel so special, so loved. So loved. And that brought her back to her question. “Mom, how did you know you were in love with Dad? I mean, that you were
really
in love with him? This is important, Mom. Probably the most important question I’ll ever ask.”

Holly watched as her mother’s eyes—green, just like hers—went rather soft and dreamy. All these years, all the trials and arguments and minor tragedies, and her mother’s eyes still went soft and dreamy when she thought about being in love with her Howard. Amazing. And something to wish she had for herself. “Mom?” she prompted.

Hillary sighed. “Well, darling, I wish I had an easy answer for you, but I don’t. There are the symptoms,
of course. Can’t eat, can’t sleep, can’t think of anything but him—that sort of thing. But
knowing
that you’re in love? I don’t think that’s something we
know,
not right away. We
believe.
Yes, that’s it. We
believe
we’re in love, and then we take that next step, a real leap of faith,
hoping
that what we have, what we think we have, is the real thing.”

“I don’t understand,” Holly said honestly.

“No, of course you don’t,” Hillary said, nodding. “We marry because we think we’re in love, sweetheart. That’s how every marriage starts. But
staying
in love takes real commitment, through the good times, through the bad times. I loved your father the moment I saw him, Holly, but I didn’t really understand how
much
I loved him until we’d shared a few joys, weathered a few storms together. Love, the sort that lasts a lifetime, is really a gamble. We can’t be one hundred percent sure, going into a marriage, that love will endure, grow. But if we love, we take that leap of faith. To do anything else, to deny what we feel? Well, why would anyone do that? Think what they might miss.”

“No guarantees,” Holly said on a sigh.

Hillary reached up, patted her daughter’s cheek. “They’re men, sweetheart, not cars. They don’t come with warranties. Now tell me, do you love Colin? Because we are talking about Colin, aren’t we?”

Holly bit her lips together, nodded. “We’re talking about Colin. And, yes, I do love him. Or, at least, I know I’ve never felt this way before, not ever. And I’m feeling some of the stupidest things, Mom. I want to cook for him, I want to make a home for him. I want— dear, God, I want
babies.
I want to wake up in the
morning arid see his face with a morning beard. I want to sleep in his arms. I want to talk to him, tell him everything I’ve never said to another living soul—and I know he’d listen, he’d understand.”

She raised both hands to her cheeks. “Oh, Mom, do you
hear
me. Did you ever think you’d hear me say anything like this?”

“Gown’s ready,” Julia said, holding the ivory organza creation high in front of her as she reentered the fitting room from the factory. “Oh, hi, Hillary. I don’t know where Irene went, so maybe you could help me with this? We were running a little ahead of schedule, but now we really should be ready.”

“Yes, I saw that as I came in,” Hillary said as Holly looked at Julia suspiciously. “It looks beautiful. I love organza.”

“
Excuse me, but is there something I should know?
”
Holly asked, only to be ignored, as if she were a mannequin, not a real, living person.

“Yes, but it’s not quite right for Holly,” Julia said once the veil had been removed, the gown slipped over Holly’s head, and the veil once more in place. “I had thought so, but it’s not quite sophisticated enough. That’s one of the problems with petite sizes. We tend to forget that all petites aren’t either eighteen or eighty. I’ve tried to cover that lack in my ready-to-wear, and now I have to do it again with the bridal wear.”

“I like this one,” Holly said, suddenly feeling quite possessive of the gown she wore. She slanted her head to the side. “Of course, I do like
peau de soie,
and if there could be just a bit of Alencon lace? I know huge puffy sleeves would drown me, but is there any reason
we couldn’t modify the sleeves a little, cut them down
to my size?”

Julia held up one finger. “I know just what you mean. December, right? Simplified, but
still more dra
matic, more sophisticated. Hillary? If you’d like, you could help me as I sketch the idea I’m getting. Holly, it doesn’t itch anymore, does it? Good. Now, you just stay right here, and I’ll send Irene in to help you out of that gown.”

“Yes, but—” Holly began, then realized she was talking to empty space. “Great Just what I need to do, stand around in a wedding gown all day. And what was all that business about the time?”

She stood, tapping one foot, thinking over everything her mother had said, marveling that she hadn’t known just how brilliant her mother was. She’d always seen her as
mom,
not as a woman, and yet she felt closer to her right now than she had since she’d been a little girl.

She looked at her watch once more—having her own obsession with time today—and wondered where Colin was, if he’d already left his hotel in New York, was winging back to Paris, so graciously and maddeningly giving her the time and space she so stupidly thought she’d wanted, needed.

And she came to a decision. Two, actually. One: she was an idiot. Two: she didn’t have to remain an idiot

“Irene?” she called out “Could you come in here and help me, please?” Reaching behind her, she tried to grab hold of the zipper, get herself out of the gown. She wanted to call the Waldorf, see if Colin had checked out yet. It was either that or she was going to have to fly to Paris. Maybe she’d wait until he was
biting down on a croissant at some outdoor trendy caf
e
on the West Bank, then tell him she was pretty sure she was goi
ng to marr
y him. Turnabout was, after all, fair play.

Just as her fingertips finally made contact with the zipper, Holly realized something else. It was quiet. Too quiet. The hum from the sewing machines was missing. Nobody was talking, laughing. The door to the office was closed, so she didn’t hear any ringing phones, the beep of the fax. Not even the sometimes annoying play of the music system broke the silence.

Why? What was going on? Where had everyone gone?

And then th
e silence was broken as the music system came to life. She
looked up at one o
f the speakers, as if an answer
coul
d be found, then
felt like presence of somebody el
se
in
the fitting room. She turned, looked, saw everything and everyone she wanted to see.

“You’re so beautiful
.”

“Colin?” Holly took a step forward, nearly tumbling off the platform. “What—what are you doing here? You’re supposed to be flying to Paris. That’s where I just decided to go, to be with you. And
…
and what are you wearing?”

“Those of us in the know call it a tux,” he said, walking toward her, magnificent in his tuxedo, that whole Greek god come to life thing hitting her all over again, just as it had that first day.

He held out his hand, and she held hers out to him, let him help her down from the platform.

“I had this whole romantic speech planned, telling you how I can’t live without you, about how much I
love you, about how I worked it out with Max that after you and I honeymoon in Paris until Christmas, I’ll be heading up the offices in New Jersey. All that good stuff,” h
e said quietl
y as he looked at her, as he just kept looking at her.
“
This was going to be my lag proposal. As a matter of fact, I think I’m supposed to be down on one knee right now. It all seemed like such a great plan at the time. Everybody thought so. Except now I can’t remember anything. I
can only
look at you.”

She caught her breath as she
realized that his
eyes were over-
bright
.

“Colin?” she asked, feeing tears stinging at her own eyes. “Are you trying to ask me something?”

His smile was soft, and she felt herself melting toward him, so that she had to put a hand against his chest, to steady herself.

“I’ve
been
trying to ask you something, darling, from the moment we met The rest of this was Julia’s idea, her idea of a romantic proposal scene. Except the music. Irene supplied the music.”

Holly closed her eyes, listened. “Frank Sinatra?”

“Irene’s favorite. Miss Hollis, may I have this dance?” He took in a deep breath, let it out slowly. “May I have every dance, for the next hundred years?”

Holly blinked, nodded. Still looking just at him, seeing no one but him, she tugged at her train until she could fold its length over
h
er arm, then stepped closer to Colin, stepped into his waiting arms.

Holly rested her head against his chest as he sang along with Ole Blue Eyes, sang the words to the second verse of what would become their own special song,
would always be their own special song: “I’ve Got A Crush On You.”

The curtain behind Holly split open at the middle, and Julia, Hillary, Irene, and even Max poked their heads into
th
e room, all of them smiling, all of them believing that he or she had been successful cupids.

Colin saw everyone, mouthed a silent “thank you,” and then pressed a kiss against Holly’s temple. He drew her closer, and the two of them began to move to the music of their lives
…