Breaking All The Rules (Book 1 - Second Chances Series) (16 page)

“The plant isn’t going to make it. I’m on the inside track enough to know that.”

“This is interesting. It’s great that you and Ethan are working together. It must be nice to know he’s got your back.”

“Kind of like you have Janette’s with this wedding,” he said. His subtle lead in was right on time. We needed to get to the point of this meeting. “I really appreciate you doing everything you’ve done for us. I know it’s not just been about the planning. I know money is involved too.”

I gave him the explanation I’d given everyone else who marveled at my effort.  “She’s my sister.”

“I know that, but still…”

“I’m loyal like that. Unlike some other people I know.”

“So, are you saying it was disloyal of me to fall in love with her?”

“It was disloyal to me and to God, not to mention your father’s ministry and my father’s memory for you to get her pregnant.”

Terrance nodded. “That may be true, but I’m human, Nec…Deniece. It’s not the first time I’ve been disloyal to you and God, my father’s ministry and your father’s memory as you so painstakingly put it.”

We both knew what he was talking about. The night I lost the virginity I’d held onto for thirty years. I shook my head. “I don’t know what to feel Terrance. I’m thirty-five and I keep wondering if I missed my chance at a husband and kids because I wouldn’t stay in Garrison and marry my childhood sweetheart. I’m successful career-wise, but there are some days when I wish I’d just kept it simple,” I cried. “But when I feel like that I feel badly, especially now that Janette is pregnant and she’s excited about getting married. I just don’t know how to let go of you being for me and not her. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“But you don’t love me,” Terrance stated, firmly.

“No,” I shook my head like the fact that I didn’t love him hadn’t really entered into the equation. “I don’t, but –”

He raised a hand. “You wanted me to be the guy in the glass case that you could come back to, if you were desperate and decided home was good enough for you.”

“I never snubbed home. I just always dreamed of living in New York.”

Terrance stuck his hands in trousers. “Well, your dream came true.”

I held my tongue. There was no point in letting the words on my mind come out of my mouth, because they were mean. I was trying not to speak out of my ‘bitter’ emotions.

“How do I become your sister-in-law after we’ve been lovers?”

Terrance sighed heavily. “It was just that one time.”

“My first time.”

“I know and I’m sorry I took something so special. But if our family is going to move forward, if the future is going to work, you have to try to put what you and I had in past.”

I squeezed my arms around my chest. “Have you?”

He nodded. “I have. I didn’t have a choice.”

“So, it’s a like a switch you turn off?”

“It’s something I’ve prayed off.”

I twisted my lips in doubt. “You sure about that? You’ve been really foul with Ethan this week. You actually hit him.”

Terrance was silent and then said, “I was trying to protect you. Ethan is young and he’s been kind of unsettled. You don’t need that.”

I bit my tongue and started a count to ten in my head. How dare he think he had the right to decide who or what I needed. 

I’d only gotten to three when he said, “Nectar, I –

“Don’t call me that!” I yelled. “It stopped being a childhood nickname when you whispered it in my ear when you were making love to me.”

Terrance’s frustration rose. He dropped into the chair behind his desk. “Deniece, you can’t keep doing this. I love Janette. And if I’m honest with myself, I’ll admit she reminds me of you.”

“This is getting weirder.” I shook my head. “You know that Janette and I are nothing alike.”

“You’re more alike than you know.”

I crossed my arms over my chest again and cocked my head forward. He couldn’t mean what I was interpreting it to be. “You’re not telling me you’re marrying my sister because she reminds you of me. I may not be happy with this situation, but I love my sister. I don’t want her being used.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. It’s not about your personalities.” He rose from the chair. “It’s your values, the way you love God and care for other people. Your dedication to family. Do you know how hard that is to find these days? People are different. Women have changed.”

I dropped my arms.

“She’s the Malcolm sister that’s right for me and that’s why you said no, Deniece. God didn’t mean you for me. He meant me to be with Janette.”

I bit my bottom lip and shook my head. “So, now God’s in the mix?”

Terrance took a few steps toward me. “God has always been in the mix and you know that.”

“I need to be sure she won’t be hurt. I know you always try to do the right thing.”

“My father’s a pastor, but it’s not the fifties. A man doesn’t have to marry a woman just because she’s pregnant.”

I sighed and tried to process that statement with respect to Terrance’s ‘do right’ ways. “I hear you, but you do remember the circumstances under which you proposed to me?”

A floor board creaked behind us. We simultaneously followed the sound. Janette entered the room. Terrance and I looked at each other and then back at Janette. With our eyes, we asked the same question. How long had she been standing there? Had she heard everything that we’d said?  

Terrance rushed to her side. “Janie, baby, you shouldn't be out like this.” He was crooning in a tone I’d never heard him use before. It was a bit over the top. That was making us look guilty. “And you know the doctor specifically said you shouldn’t drive.”

“I know what the doctor said,” Janette snapped and snatched her arm out of his grasp. “I tried to call you and ask you to bring me some ice cream.  Then I decided I should get out for a bit, so I drove myself. I drove by on the chance you were here and imagine my surprise to see Ethan’s truck.”

“We were talking about the wedding,” I interjected, lying poorly.

Janette cocked her head. “Something you couldn’t say over the phone.”

“Ethan is on his way from the airport. I was going to see him, so I thought I’d ride by on the way.”

She rolled her eyes. “On the way. I’d say this is a bit out of the way to Ethan’s place.”

“Honey, that still doesn’t excuse you disobeying doctor’s orders. You go on home and I’ll follow and double back to Dolan’s and get your ice cream.”

“Don’t mess with my head, Terrance. I walked in on a heated discussion. You and my sister seem to have some things to say to each other. Please continue where you left off. You know the part about the marriage proposal.” Janette's eyes were wet with tears. “Why didn't you tell me you proposed to my sister?”

Terrance looked terrified. “I didn't think it was important,” he stuttered. He looked to me. I turned my head. He was going to have to work this out alone.

“I always thought the relationship between you and Niecy had been more friends than a real couple. I thought you were pals who hung out together.”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest, raised an eyebrow at my sister. “Pals that hung out?” My tone challenged her. It was time for the denial to stop. 

Janette pursed her lips against the lie. “Okay, I knew you were a couple, but I didn’t know you were serious about her or that she had been serious about you. Not proposal serious.” She deliberately turned her back to me and faced Terrance.

Terrance shook his head. “What difference does it make now? That was a long time ago.”

“Not that long and don’t tell me it doesn’t matter because the two of you are here talking about it.” We were silent. She continued. “Now I understand why everyone has been looking at me strange and why my own sister has seemed so different this week. I guess I was somewhere with my head in the clouds, being excited about finally finding the man of my dreams and building a future that I didn’t consider how our relationship would look to everyone.”

The man of her dreams. Those words struck me. I cast a glance in Terrance’s direction. I’d never thought of him that way. Was that what my sister really felt when she looked at him? I supposed it was possible.

Suddenly, I was struck. I remembered why I was here. I was taking care of my sister, fulfilling my promise to my father. I dropped my arms and cleared my throat. “Don’t worry about everyone else. This is your life. The proposal is long behind us.”

“Right, and I didn't really mean it when I asked,” he added.

I rolled my neck on that comment. He quickly tried to clean it up. “I mean. I'd done something and it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

“You'd done something.” Frustrated, Janette tunneled her fingers through her bone straight tresses. “What had you done that made you feel like you needed to propose, because in my case you got me pregnant?”

Terrance swallowed hard. He'd said too much. “This stress isn't good for the baby.”

“A bad marriage won't be good for it either,” she snapped.

I interjected. “I said no. It's like you said before, I broke up with him, twice, so what does it matter about why?”

“I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer but I walked in on a discussion about your ex-engagement, so don’t tell me it doesn’t matter.”

“Daddy had just died and he thought it would be a comfort to me if he asked me. In fact, he asked me the next day.”

“You were gone all night the night the of daddy's funeral. I remember that. Were you with him?” She turned to Terrance. “Did you have sex with my sister?”

“Janette, baby—”

“It's a simple yes or no question, Terrance. Did you?”

He hung his head. “Yes.”

Janette whipped her body around to face me. “God, Niecy. Why didn’t you tell me that?”

I shrugged. “You didn’t tell me you were dating him and what would have been the point? You were already pregnant.”

“You should have told me, both of you.” Janette began to move backward out of the room. Tears were streaming down her face. She released a shuddering sob. “I can’t. I’m not going to be able to do this. The wedding is off.” She turned and left the room.

“Janette, wait!” Terrance followed her. I could hear his pleas and then the sound of her car ripping down the gravel road. I closed my eyes. I shouldn't have come here. I should have just let sleeping dogs lie.

I was as nervous as a stripper in church. Janette hadn’t returned to the house. We’d already gone through the rehearsal for the ceremony with one of the hostesses standing in for Janette. That was easy to explain. She was on bed rest and the bride’s role in the wedding was relatively simple; to walk down the aisle on cue. I joked and said, “My sister has been watching videos of women walking down the aisle for weeks. Don’t worry, she knows exactly how to make her entrance.” A few people laughed and we finished the rehearsal without incident.

Now it was time for us to head down to the fellowship hall where the church’s women’s ministry was hosting the dinner. A bead of sweat trickled down my back. I looked at my watch. It was nearly eight o’clock. I couldn’t believe she wasn’t going to show up for all this.

I glanced at Terrance. He was standing near the window looking like he’d throw up at any moment. One of his groomsman joked, “Well T, if she’s not showing up for the rehearsal, she’s probably skipping the real thing.”

A few people laughed. I was tempted to take out my cell phone and pretend to have a conversation with Janette expressing regrets, but like Ethan had just told me, “
This is Terrance’s problem. Let him sweat it out”.

I looked in Ethan’s eyes and he squeezed my hand. I was so glad he was back. I’d missed him like crazy and unless I was delusional, he seemed awfully glad to see me as well. “It’s not just Terrance’s problem. She’s my sister. She’s hurting.”

Ethan raised a hand to stroke my face. “Janette loves him. They’ll work it out.” He scooted his chair a little closer to me. “Have I told you how amazing you look?”

I blushed. “No, but it’s never too late for that.”

“You’re hair turned out great.” He released my hand, sat back and gave me a brazen once over from my head to my stilettos. “Everything looks great.”

I was about to be generous with a compliment of my own, when out of my peripheral vision, I saw Terrance bolt from the window like he was on fire. I looked out and saw Janette’s car.

“Thank God,” I whispered under my breath.

“Told you,” Ethan replied.

I stood and shot out of the room and into the main hallway behind Terrance.

“Baby, I’ve been so worried,” I heard him say. “Where have you been?”

Janette raised a hand to stop him from embracing her. “I’m here to tell my family and friends that the wedding is cancelled,” she said. “Telling them in person is the proper thing to do.”

“Honey, please,” Terrance pleaded. “Don’t do this. Let’s talk.”

“There's nothing you can say.” Janette was emphatic. Her puffy eyes told the story, she’d been crying for hours. My heart sank. I stepped forward.