Created In Fire (Art of Love Series) (25 page)

Silence fell in the kitchen. The sizzle of the griddle was the only sound for a few moments.

“Cursed you? What woman? Wait—let me ask a serious question before I go nuts trying to keep up with that analytical brain of yours.
Who are you talking about?”
Michael asked.

Shane swallowed. “That’s what I’ve been trying to say—
I don’t know
. She lied to me about who she was. She was a little older, funny, sweet, and—perfect. She was perfect. I want her back. I want her in my life.”

Will shook his head and sighed. “Shane, I warned you to stop picking up women in bars.”

“I haven’t picked up a woman in months. This time it wasn’t my idea, Dad. It was her damn idea. She was too normal for me, but no—she didn’t want the preppie guy who was smiling at her all night. She wanted me. Then she told me to buy my shoes at Beadman’s because she bought some for her nephew there,” Shane said, noticing everyone was staring at him. “I sound like a raving madman, don’t I?”

“Pretty much,” Michael said, agreeing with him. Shane looked like a wild man talking nonsense about an invisible person.

Carrie looked at Shane’s face.
Yep. Big old teddy bear
, she decided. She walked by Michael and smacked him hard on the arm.

“Quit being snarky and show some sympathy. Can’t you see Shane is upset?” she demanded. She looked around the kitchen and couldn’t find what she wanted. “Where do you keep your drawing pads, Michael?”

“Why?” Michael asked.

When she growled at him for not answering her question, Michael walked to the refrigerator and pulled a tablet off the top of it. “Here. I can’t believe you’re so cranky without sleep.”

Carrie took the tablet and made herself skim past Michael’s excellent drawings. “I want to look at these more later,” she said to Michael softly and saw him nod.

She flipped to a clean page, and slid it in front of Shane. “Draw her. Capture her image while she’s still fresh in your mind.”

Shane raised his pen over the white pad. He thought of how she looked asking to buy him a beer, then later looking down when they had first joined their bodies. He saw her look away when he asked her real name.

Then suddenly it was like a light racing through him as the image flowed from his fingertips and out his pen with a speed he’d not managed before.

And this time when Shane went to fill in his heroine’s face, it was her. He actually sniffled and fought tears as she began to appear on the page. The relief of seeing her again, even in this form, astounded him.

“Oh my God, I fucking fell in love last night,” Shane said, the amazement of it in his voice. “She warned me she only had one night when she asked me to spend it with her. I couldn’t have said no. It just wasn’t possible.”

Carrie stood by his shoulder, sniffling herself as she watched him draw a heroine with so much pain in her eyes that the woman leapt off the page.

“She’s in pain,” she said.

“Yes,” Shane said, calmer now that he could see her again. Capturing her image in ink made her at least a little real. “I don’t know why she’s hurting. She never told me. All I could do was hold her and try to make her happy. I want to date her. Hang out with her. I haven’t had that kind of girlfriend in a long time.”

He ripped the sheet off the tablet and handed it to Carrie, who passed it to Michael. Will and Jessica leaned over Michael’s shoulder to study the picture.

Shane was already drawing another one, Carrie noticed. This time it was just the woman—not his heroine. This time she was smiling and in her eyes was the keen pleasure of her time with Shane.

“If she’s local to Lexington, someone knows her,” Carrie told him. “If we have to, we’ll do an art show of these pictures until somebody recognizes her. We can find her. I’ll get you a cable promo on KET.”

Michael, Jessica, and Will stared at Carrie, who was petting Shane’s hair as she promised him solutions.

Shane nodded. “She knows who I am, but she won’t come back. Whatever is keeping her away is serious. She swore she wasn’t married, and I believe her—have to believe that much to keep from going crazy. We’d—neither of us had been with anyone in a while. It was like we were preparing for each other. Now I don’t want anyone but her. It’s never been like that for me before.”

Carrie sighed and put her arms around Shane as he sat. He leaned his shaggy head against her chest and sighed in frustration.

“
I don’t believe this.
You’re hugging my brother now?
” Michael demanded, his tone irritated. “After last night, I can’t believe you’re going hug every other man but me.”

Jessica reached out and smacked Michael on the back of the head.

“Ouch…hey,” Michael said, surprised.

“That’s for keeping Carrie awake and not letting her sleep,” Jessica said. “Look at her, Michael. She’s falling off her feet this morning. I wouldn’t hug you either.”

Carrie laughed, and Shane laughed against her as he raised his head.

“Thank you for the hug,” Shane said. “And the laugh. I needed that.”

Carrie nodded, sniffled, and leaned over to kiss Shane’s cheek. Shane handed her a napkin for her eyes.

“I’m like a freaking faucet. Once the tears are turned on, I can’t turn them off,” she said. “Just another lovely pregnancy thing.”

Carrie looked at Michael, saw sympathy in his gaze, and walked to him. His arms were around her the moment she got across the room to him. He rocked and soothed her as the pancakes and food were walked around them to the kitchen table.

“You can take a nap after breakfast. Please don’t ask me to apologize for last night,” he said. “I’d rather you stay mad at me than say that was not good for you.”

“I’m not a hypocrite. And I can’t take a nap. Your mother is taking me shopping to buy a dress for next weekend,” Carrie said, pulling out of his arms.

“Skip the shopping. It’s no big deal. What do you need a dress for?” Michael asked, looking around to see everyone staring at him like he was insane. “What? I like the clothes she wears now.” He looked into Carrie’s startled gaze. “Your skirts always look great on you.”

Carrie burst out laughing. She liked him more for forgetting. It made it less calculating and more—well, almost real that he’d get caught up in other things and forget.

“There may be hope for you after all, Michael Larson. While you figure it out, I need to wash up again for breakfast. My eyes are burning from crying. I’ll have Ellen drop me by a store later so I can buy some more frozen yogurt bars. If we’re going to go through so many at once, we’re going to need to stock up a few boxes.”

She walked out of the kitchen and headed to the bathroom.

“Really? Frozen yogurt bars?” Shane asked. “I want details.”

“Just pregnant woman cravings,” Michael told him, his face flushing as he remembered how many trips he’d made to the refrigerator to bring more back to bed with him.

Jessica turned to look at what Will was doing, pretending great interest in it. Will drew in a breath and fought the laughter building up inside him. Michael’s lie might have fooled Shane, but the two of them knew better.

We need some of those
, Will mouthed silently, grinning when Jessica nodded.

“I know Carrie doesn’t have another art show. What do you think is going on next weekend? Did she tell any of you?” Michael asked, looking around and heading to the coffee pot. He poured a cup, trying his best to think what had slipped his mind.

“Just how many brain cells did you lose last night, Michael?” Will asked, earning his own slap from Jessica.

“A few,” Michael said, laughing.

“Had to be more than a few if you forgot your own wedding after all the planning you did for it, son.”

Will only laughed as the coffee cup slipped from Michael’s boneless fingers.

“I—I forgot. Shit. I really forgot,” Michael said in disbelief, looking at the brown liquid now on his clothes and the floor.

Jessica handed Michael a towel she whipped off a rack by the sink. “You’re cleaning up your own mess. Looks like Carrie’s not the only one who needs more sleep.”

Shane watched his brother bend to mop up the coffee and shook his head. “Dude—glad to see I’m not the only crazy person here this morning.”

“Yeah, well I’ve got a check to prove you’re the poorer one,” Michael said, gloating.

“Don’t tempt me to beat you in front of the woman you forgot you wanted to marry so badly,” Shane taunted.

“BOYS! No sniping and fighting this morning,” Will roared, his voice booming out in the kitchen and making Shane and Michael instantly stop talking.

“Wow,” Jessica said, blinking as she walked to stand very close to Will.

“That’s just damn impressive. Put yelling at me at the top of my favor list,” she whispered, wrapping her arms around him as he blushed. “I won’t even yell back.”

Michael and Shane looked at each other. “Like we didn’t get it from him,” Michael said sarcastically.

“Dude, I warned you once to stop saying things to make Dad upset,” Shane told him. “All I have left in the world to live for right now are his banana walnut pancakes.”

Across the room, Will swore richly while Jessica laughed at his side.

Chapter 17

It was shocking to Carrie that she now had a wedding dress. It was being altered, just a little, but should be ready by Thursday.

Despite her other marriages, this was her first genuine wedding dress. The others had been simple civil ceremonies, hardly creating a ripple in her nervous system. The wedding Michael and Ellen were arranging had every one of her nerves stretched as far as they would go.

She had taken one look at herself in the white fitted dress that made her look like a movie star and gone to the bathroom to throw up as soon as she was out of it.

Ellen had found her on the bathroom floor, wrapped around the toilet, and sent sales girls scurrying for soda and ice.

Carrie had cried then, appalled when Ellen had cried with her.

Then as if making Michael’s mostly stoic mother weep wasn’t humiliating enough, the sales women in the bridal store joined in.

Between the five of them they pretty much emptied a whole tissue box while Carrie picked out shoes and undergarments to go with the gown.

By the time she walked through Michael’s door, she was beyond beat physically, and emotionally distraught as well.

When Michael met her in the hallway, she wavered in front of him. He scooped her up to keep her from falling at his feet.

“She’s sick again,” Ellen told her son, wanting to cry again for the love she saw in Michael’s face. It had been one emotional roller coaster of a day.

“I’m just very tired,” Carrie said quietly, letting Michael take her down the hall without complaint.

Michael tucked Carrie into bed, brought her a pill and some water. Then he slipped shoes from her feet and rubbed them until her face relaxed. When she finally fell asleep, he grabbed the throw from the foot of the bed and pulled it over her.

Satisfied that she was at last okay, Michael turned to leave the room, surprised to see his mother leaning in the doorway watching. He thought she had left.

They walked down the hallway together to the kitchen. Ellen went to the refrigerator and got out two beers.

“Since when do you drink beer?” Michael asked, watching fascinated as his mother twisted the tops off both as if it were a common thing for her to do.

“
What? I can’t have a beer now and again?”
Ellen asked her eldest sharply, then relented her sarcasm when she saw the look on his face. “I just need a little something to steady me. It’s been an emotional day.

“You look very much like your father when you’re with Carrie, Michael. I am very lucky that he was the father of my children. Carrie is a lucky woman as well. You really do want this baby, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Michael said, taking the open beer she brought to him. “I want both of them.”

“Of course you do,” Ellen said, biting her lip. “Michael, I need to tell you that I think Carrie’s afraid of marrying you. She took one look at herself in her perfect wedding dress and all but fainted in fright. She got completely sick afterward, and then the entire shop—including me—ended up bawling when she couldn’t stop crying. She’s as exhaustingly intense as you are.”

Michael laughed and thought his mother might smack him for it. Her glare was fierce.

“
You think it’s funny that she’s sick?”
Ellen asked sharply, ready to deliver the lecture from hell about respecting the woman in his life.

“No. Of course it’s not funny, not in the genuine sense anyway. I know she’s intense Mom. We fight and make up several times a day. She’s logical, and I create chaos in her life. The prenuptial contract was the only way she would agree to marrying me. Our relationship has never been
normal
,” Michael said. “But scared or not, or normal or not, we’re both going through with this. I want legal rights to both her and the baby.”