MAKE ME A MATCH (Running Wild) (25 page)

Words are a virus from outer space

He thought she’d be happy, maybe say the same thing back to him and then they could live happily ever after, but instead she was scowling at him.

“Eric, is this just an underhanded effort to keep me from going out with Sheldon? Because it won’t work.”

And all of a sudden he got scared. He could really lose her. She might just care for this guy. Fletcher had been right; she was the one he’d been waiting for, and he’d blown it. There was only one more thing to say, and although he’d never said it before, it came out easy.

“Tessa, will you marry me?”

The people at the surrounding tables all turned and smiled at them. They were all listening, and he didn’t care, because he was dying, waiting for her answer.

“I can’t, Eric.” She shook her head, and her curls bounced and resettled. “I want kids, and you don’t, and that’s a big thing with me. I was in one marriage like that, I can’t get into another. I love you, too. But no.”

He saw the pain on her face. He wanted to say, Okay, so we’ll have kids, but he couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried. Instead, he said, “Let’s get out of here.” He put some money down, walked to the car like a wooden soldier, opened the door for her.

She wasn’t crying, but her voice sounded like she might. “Just take me home, okay? And maybe it would be best it you went home, too, until we go to the wedding. If you still want to take me, that is.”

That one blindsided him. Hadn’t this usually played the other way around, him suggesting the woman go home? The hell with her, he had his pride. “Of course I do. I’ll see you Saturday, then. I’ll pick you up about eleven.”

The wedding was at one. He wished there was some way to get out of going, but he was the best man, it was his sister getting married to his best friend, his entire family would be there, and he’d never felt this lousy in his whole entire life, not even when he thought he’d murdered Nicols.

“I can’t wait,” Tessa said in a miserable voice. “I just love weddings.”

If a guitar ain’t never been in a pawnshop, it can’t play the blues

Frank Edwards, blues artist

Tessa cried through the entire ceremony. She started out small and ended up sobbing out loud, eyes swollen and nose dripping. She’d brought a small package of tissues, but she’d run out by the time the justice of the peace declared Sophie and Rocky legally joined.

Rocky’s legal name, it turned out, was Richard.

And her new sea green silk suit was stained down the front, and it was all Eric’s fault.

“Here, honey.” Georgia handed over a fistful of tissues, retaining one to wipe her own streaming eyes. On Tessa’s other side, Gladys was blowing her nose with a vengeance. She was wearing a startling purple suit and the most incredible hat Tessa had ever seen. It seemed to be made entirely of costume jewelry and it blazed every time a sunbeam from the window touched it.

Beside her, Henry wore a perfectly tailored navy pinstriped suit. If he lost seventy pounds or so, he’d be a handsome, heavy man.

Tessa was going to introduce him to Mary Jo Louie. Maybe they’d be a match. Tears welled up again.

From behind her, Simon said in a loud voice, “Is it over now, can we eat, please? I’m hungry.”

Ian said, “Me too, and then can Rocky marry you too, Mommy?”

Karen shushed them and Georgia nudged Tessa in the ribs and shook her head. “Kids,” she said in a fond, soggy voice. “Aren’t they something?”

Tessa hadn’t expected to like Georgia, but she did. Eric’s mother and father seemed to her harmless old hippies, vague and slightly dazed, patently in awe of their grown, competent children.

Tessa had caught them in the bathroom, just before the ceremony, furtively sharing a joint.

“Want some?” Georgia had held it out. “It’s good stuff; we brought it with us. It’ll calm your nerves. Don’t tell Eric. He flushed the last one down the toilet.”

She badly needed calming, so Tessa took a puff and almost burned her lungs out. She was totally out of practice when it came to smoking anything, which was Eric’s fault. If he hadn’t taken up temporary residence in her house and her heart and her life, she’d still be sneaking butts once in a while.

And then instead of calming her, the stuff made her even more miserable, which should be illegal. Why did Eric have to be such a jackass? And why had she ever let herself fall for him?

He’d come to pick her up today and acted like a polite stranger.

So she’d said no to marriage, surely he’d want to go on sleeping with her? Because they really had that going for them.

“Hi, Tessa.” No kiss, no nothing. “You look nice.”

Nice? A three-hundred-dollar suit and a thong and bra underneath that had cost another hundred, and all he could come up with was nice?

And he hadn’t said a single word about Sheldon, so that hadn’t worked the way she thought it might. Something to remember for future reference: If a man didn’t want to have babies with you, he didn’t get jealous.

“Joy, peace, and love,” Anna was saying, hugging the newlyweds. “It’s great to have a new brother-in- law. Welcome to the family, Richard.” She handed out glasses, and Bruno poured wine, and everyone toasted the bride and groom.

“Long life and happiness,” Henry said.

Feeling bereft, Tessa raised her glass. If only Eric didn’t look so damned good in a suit. There should be a pill a person could take against his kind of animal magnetism. He wasn’t even smiling; he hadn’t smiled all day that she’d noticed. And it was like she’d become invisible, because he sure as hell wasn’t noticing her.

Now Sonny had a guitar under his arm, and he and Georgia went to stand by the fireplace, which was heaped top and bottom with roses. Sonny said over the voices, “We’d like to do something in your honor, Mr. and Mrs. Hutton,” and everyone quieted.

Sonny strummed the guitar, and Georgia sang, “You Are My Sunshine,” in a sweet, slightly scratchy soprano. Everyone applauded. They did “Safe in the Arms of Love,” and “This Guy’s In Love With You” and then “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” and every single lousy sentimental lyric reminded Tessa that she was in love with a bozo who didn’t do babies.

Everywhere she looked, romance was in full bloom. Georgia and Sonny sang “Have I Told You Lately That I Love You,” gazing into each other’s eyes. Fletcher was deep in meaningful conversation with the justice of the peace, Barbara Thormand. She was in her mid fifties, with wild white curly hair halfway down her back, an infectious giggle and a body that would have looked fine on a woman half her age. She wore a short red sheath with a long matching jacket over it, and her legs were stunning. Tessa had seen all the men checking them out. Except Eric, he just went on scowling into the middle distance.

Anna and Bruno were holding hands and she saw Anna slide her hand under Bruno’s jacket and run a hand over his buns. And of course Sophie and Rocky were so much in love and lust, it made Tessa’s stomach ache.

“Let’s shake it up a little, babe,” Sonny said to Georgia, and went into “Great Balls of Fire.” Rocky swung his bride into a jive, and then everyone was dancing.

Tessa looked for Eric, willing him to remember the afternoon in his office when they’d made love, and he’d turned the radio on. But he wasn’t in the room any longer.

Karen saw Eric go out to the patio, and she followed him, giving the boys a kiss on the cheek as she passed them. Anna had set them up at the kitchen table with a platter of sandwiches and some bubbly juice.

Eric had a glass of wine balanced on the deck railing. He was staring out at the pond and the garden, his handsome profile stern, arms crossed on his chest.

“Hey, big brother, how you doing?” Karen slipped an arm around his waist and gave him a hug. She noticed he didn’t really answer her question.

“Hi, sweet pea. You’re looking really pretty. You gain a little weight while you were gone?”

“Five pounds, all any woman will ever admit to gaining.”

“It looks good on you. How you feeling? I was hoping you’d stay down south lots longer.”

“It was just the right amount of time. I was starting to really miss the boys. I feel strong again, and the desperation’s gone. Part of it’s the insurance money, knowing I can take my time finding a job, that the kids and I aren’t going to be lead weights around your neck.”

“I’ve never once felt that.”

“I have. It’s past time your sisters grew up and set you free.” She reached over and took a sip of his wine. “So what you doing out here all on your lonesome when the party’s just getting going?”

“I guess I have a hard time being around Sonny and Georgia.”

She needed words here, for him and herself. “This trip was such a gift, Eric. I learned a lot. I’d been holding onto the past, and I found out in Mexico that you’ve just got to let it go. Otherwise there’s no room for the future.”

Eric nodded. “I can see that, all that stuff with Nicols, that was tough for you.”

Karen shook her head. “Not just Jimmy, although he was a big slice of it. But the biggest thing was Mom and Dad.” She struggled for words. “I figured out that all my life, I’d given them way too much power. I wanted things from them they weren’t capable of giving, like unconditional love and time and attention and approval.” She gave a shaky laugh. “Which is why I got married. I thought having a husband would fill that hole, and then when it didn’t, I blamed him. See, it was easier to blame him than to take any responsibility myself.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t see it like that. I don’t know about Jimmy, he was a mixed bag. But Sonny and Georgia chose. They could have done things differently if they’d wanted to.”

Karen nodded. “But they didn’t. And we can’t change that. We can let it stop us from being happy, but it won’t alter the past one tiny bit. And the weird thing is,
they’re
happy. I think they really believe they did their best for us. And maybe they did. They just didn’t know how to do things any other way. But we do.”

“What do you mean, we do?”

“With our kids. We know exactly how not to raise them, don’t we? How many people are that smart about raising kids?”

“You’re getting to sound a lot like Anna. It must be a virus or something.”

She laughed and took his hand in one of hers. “It’s Sophie’s wedding day, come and dance.”

Sonny was playing the “Tennessee Waltz.”

Eric walked over to Tessa and took her in his arms. He held her close, and for a moment she resisted him, but then her body relaxed and flowed naturally into his. She belonged in his arms. She belonged in his life.

“Tessa.” Her ear was close to his mouth, and under the sound of the music, he said, “Tessa, I can’t live without you. You can have the red car if you’ll marry me and have my babies.”

The most dangerous food is wedding cake

She missed a step and looked up, straight into his eyes, her sexy mouth half open in astonishment.

Elation filled him, because he knew she was going to say yes this time, but at that moment, Simon came running up and grabbed Eric, shaking his pant leg and screaming, “Ian fell in the pond.”

Eric didn’t remember racing out the door, leaping down the deck stairs, running across the lawn. He saw only the small body floating in the water, eyes closed, arms outstretched, fragile body limp. He plunged in, snatched Ian up, handed him off to Sonny, who somehow had been right behind him, and scrambled out, desperately trying to remember the pattern of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Ian, water trickling from his face and hair, opened his eyes and struggled upright in his grandfather’s arms. “We fooled you, Grandpa,” he hollered with a wide grin. “I fell in, but Auntie Sophie taught me how to float.”

The entire wedding party was now gathered around the pond.

Ian spotted his brother in the crowd, ran over to him and the two of them threw themselves to the ground, rolling around and giggling at the joke.

Sonny slowly sank to the grass like a deflated balloon.

Eric was shaking, and his knees, too, gave way. He was soaked to the armpits, and he flopped down beside his father, who was almost as wet as he was.

“You okay?” He had no idea how the old man’s heart was. His own was pounding its way almost out of his chest.

Sonny looked at him and nodded, blowing out a long breath.

Eric couldn’t remember when he’d ever looked fully and at length into his father’s eyes. He realized they were the same color as his own, but faded.

Sonny smiled at him, and then he shook his head and spread his hands wide. “What can you do?” He started to laugh.

After a moment, Eric laughed, too, and Tessa lowered herself to the ground beside him. He wrapped a dripping arm tight around her.

“About those babies, Tess. How many did you say you wanted?”

“I think we’ll start with one,” she said. And then she kissed him.

*****