Marrying Mallory (2 page)

“You did the right thing both times.” Elizabeth picked up a
breadstick. “I’m glad we decided to eat at Olive Garden. They have the best
breadsticks.”

Poor Heather had been in love with two great guys, but each
time she’d gotten cold feet and broken the engagements. When she’d been engaged
to Toby, it’d been such a wonderful time in her life. She’d been positive he
was the one for her. “Heather, you should drive me when I have the surgery. When
I was checking out Dr. Whitman’s credentials on the Internet, it didn’t mention
anything about him being married. And from his photo, he’s very good-looking.” 

“Sure, I’ll be your driver if you’re determined to do this,”
Heather said. “He has a sterling reputation. And he’s single. Maybe Dr. Whitman
will fall in love with you, and you won’t have to pay for your surgery.”

“That’s not going to happen. For one thing, I’m sure it’s
not ethical from a professional standpoint, and for another thing I’m not looking
to get romantically interested in my plastic surgeon. When I mentioned Dr.
Whitman’s single status, I was thinking how you two might hit it off. You both
like surgery.” The only man for her had been Toby. Although they’d been
divorced for five months, she hadn’t gone out with anyone. And she didn’t plan
on it. A teacher at her school had asked her out recently and she’d turned him
down. She had her shot at marriage and it ended.

“I’m not interested in a surgeon for future husband
material.” Heather laughed. “I was engaged to one. Remember?”

“Maybe Dr. Whitman will be different.” Heather’s past
surgeon fiancé had been pretty uptight.  

Elizabeth wiped her mouth with a napkin. “
How
are you
going to pay for this surgery?”

“I’m probably going to take out a medical loan. I’m not sure
how much it’ll cost yet, so I’ll decide when I know the exact price.” Who was
she kidding? She hated to borrow money and pay interest. After all, she saw
what had happened to her mother when she got deeper and deeper in debt.
Fortunately, her mother’s financial status had improved.

“What brought this on anyhow?” Elizabeth asked. 

“I decided if I’m going to do this surgery, I shouldn’t wait
any longer.”

“What about Josh? Do you think he’ll be scared to see you
with a splint on your nose?” Heather took a sip of iced tea.

“I’m hoping he won’t have to see me. I want to schedule it
when he’s away. I looked online and the splint is on for only a week. He’s
going to visit Toby’s parents for two weeks in June at a lake house they rented.”
Holding a breadstick in her hand, she said, “I love the smell of bread baking.
Maybe I could get a part-time job as a baker to help pay for my surgery.”

Elizabeth chuckled. “You baked bread sometimes at the steak
house when you worked there one summer. You complained how you got burned
taking the pans out of their oven.”

Mallory sighed. “I even get burned on my own oven. I’m such
a klutz.”

“Don’t get mad but I like the way you look,” Heather said.

She wasn’t surprised by Heather’s comment. “You just don’t
like change.”

“There’s nothing wrong with your nose. I don’t think it’s
big. Did your students say something nasty about your nose?” Elizabeth asked.
“Remember, they’re kids and like to rile the teacher. It makes their day
interesting.”

“I did overhear a few students say that Mrs. Harrington has
big boobs and a big nose, but that isn’t why I want surgery. Ella… she’s a
teacher at my school who recently had nose surgery. She’s pleased with what Dr.
Whitman did. I tried to talk my mom into letting me have surgery before I
started college, but she was adamantly against it then. It’s been in the back
of my mind ever since. And you didn’t want me to mention Toby, but I have to.
His girlfriend Samantha has a cute little nose so I’m a bit envious.”

“Well, she’s also a blonde. Are you going to change your
hair color too? “Elizabeth gave her a big grin. “We can both be blonde for my
wedding.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’d look good as a
blonde. Anyhow I like my brown hair. Listen, you two I’m only changing my nose.
Nothing else.”

“I’m glad you aren’t married to Toby any longer.” Elizabeth
sighed. “I know you aren’t going to like to hear this, but Toby never
appreciated you. You put him through law school and it wasn’t easy with you
assuming all the financial responsibilities. Then the louse cheats on you. And
it’s so unfair he built a beautiful house while you stayed in the old small one
that constantly needs work done on it.”

Heather told the waitress thanks as she refilled her drink.
“You know Mallory wanted to keep their house. And Toby paid off the mortgage
and gave the house to her.”

Elizabeth shrugged. “I guess that was a bit generous, but
I’m sure he was also thinking about Josh when he did it.”

Some things never changed. Elizabeth tore Toby down and
Heather defended him. “It has needed some minor repairs,” she said. “And it’s
not that old. Only twenty years old. Toby did come over when the lights kept
flickering in the living room.” 

Elizabeth laughed. “We all know that you could’ve figured it
out. But that was a clever way to get him to work on your house.”

“Toby surprised me how quickly he came to look at it. I
guess he didn’t want an electrical fire happening in the house. Plus Josh
complained to him about the TV going off and on before I used an extension cord
to plug it in another room.” 

When Elizabeth’s cell phone rang, she pulled it out of her
purse. After glancing at the caller ID, she told them, “It’s my mom.”

Mallory took a sip of her coffee. Thank goodness, she liked
it without sugar and cream. When she drank iced tea, she had to have lots of
sugar in it. She worked too hard to lose weight and wanted to keep it off.
Another breadstick would be nice, but she was going to have self-control and
stop at one. She turned to look at Elizabeth when she heard her name.

Elizabeth said, “I’ll tell Mallory. Bye, Mom.”

“Tell me what?”

“She said you’ll need alternations on your bridesmaid dress
since you lost weight.”

“I will, too, because they always order these dresses a size
too large.” Heather put her glass down. “Then you have to pay for alternations.
It’s a scam.”

“I know. I tried to tell the one doing the ordering, I
needed a size smaller.” Hopefully, her dress wouldn’t need shortening too.
Besides alternation expenses, she and Heather were throwing a bridal shower for
Elizabeth. She was going to be the matron of honor, so she’d be expected to
also give a bachelorette party. And she planned on getting an expensive wedding
gift for Elizabeth and Derek. After all, she’d been friends with her since they
were in elementary school. Maybe she could get an extra job. Tutoring paid
well. She should know. She had to do tutoring plus teach in order to pay all
the bills while Toby was in law school.

Elizabeth jabbed a fork in her salad. “Mallory, if you have
this surgery, you should make Toby pay for it. He owes you after all you did
for him. I know you refused alimony.”

She swallowed a mouthful of pasta. “I don’t want him to pay
for it. We aren’t married. And once I mentioned getting my nose done when his
sister told me she hoped Josh didn’t get my nose. When I joked that I could
sell a kidney to get money for a nose reduction, Toby said I should find a
plastic surgeon who needed a kidney.”

Heather frowned. “That’s terrible.”

“Actually we all laughed. It seemed funny at the time.” She
shouldn’t have shared this because it made Toby seem insensitive. He wasn’t.
Well, that wasn’t totally true. He hadn’t thought how hurt she’d be when he had
his affair.

“Do you two have any plans?” Elizabeth asked. “I told Derek
I’d make this a short girls’ night and meet him at Lowe’s. We want to pick out
all the light fixtures for the house.”

“If you weren’t my friend, I’d be jealous of you.” Heather
brushed bangs off her forehead. “Building a new house and getting married. You
do things right.”

Mallory wasn’t envious of Elizabeth, but she worried
sometimes about her friend marrying Derek. Something about him didn’t ring
true. Sure, he attended church regularly but he had a snotty attitude and
seemed insincere to her about his faith. If she had to put a label on Derek
Anderson, it’d be hypocrite. For all Elizabeth’s negative comments about Toby,
he was never a hypocrite. She hoped Elizabeth wasn’t making a huge mistake in
marrying Derek.

“Derek and I are blessed. But we did wait to get married so
we’d be financially secure.”

Her cell phone rang and she saw it was Toby.

“I feel left out,” Heather said. “There’s no one calling
me.”

“Hi. How’s pizza night?” she asked Toby.

“Our son likes his pizza. Mallory, we need to talk sometime
soon.”

“About what?”

“I can’t talk about it on the phone. Maybe Tuesday evening
when we’re at Josh’s soccer practice.”

“What’s wrong?” Mallory asked quickly. “Is it your job?”

“No, my job’s fine. We’ll talk soon. I better get back to
Josh. And Mallory, I’m sorry for a lot of things. Bye.”

She put her phone on the table, staring at her friends for a
moment. “Toby, wants to talk to me about something while Josh’s at soccer.”

Elizabeth gave her a thoughtful look. “I’d make him wait.
Don’t stay at practice. Tell him you have to do something with me for the
wedding. He probably wants to beg off taking Josh next weekend.”

Heather nodded. “I agree. You’re always available for him.”

Mallory shook her head. “Toby’s pretty reliable when it
comes to having Josh every Friday and Saturday. I appreciate your concern, but
I know exactly what both of you are thinking and not saying. He’s going to tell
me he’s serious about Samantha and they’re getting married. But that’s not it,”
she said with conviction.

“What makes you so sure?” Heather asked.

How could she explain it? She just knew something was
terribly wrong from how he’d talked to her. “His voice sounded the way it did
when he told me he wanted a divorce. Sad and hopeless. So whatever it is, I
know one thing. It’s something big.”

Chapter Two

Because of the lightning and rain, the coach canceled soccer
practice on Tuesday evening. Mallory couldn’t believe it. She wanted to talk to
Toby and find out what was wrong. Why did it have to storm the night they both
went to watch Josh practice?

She’d always looked forward to not only watching Josh play
but to spending time with Toby. Funny, he seemed more relaxed on soccer night
then he ever did when they were married. She guessed Toby could only take her
in small doses.

After practice they had family night for Josh, so Toby never
brought his girlfriend Samantha. They went to Wendy’s frequently because Josh
liked their kids’ meal with chicken nuggets and apple slices. Fortunately, he
also loved pizza, so sometimes they went to eat at Jac & Do’s, one of the
oldest pizza restaurants in northwestern Ohio. She sighed, remembering how
important this place had been to them while Toby was in law school. They
couldn’t afford much, but they’d splurged once a week to eat at Jac & Do’s.
Sure, it wasn’t a fancy high priced restaurant, but they served the best pizza
in Findlay. Their crust was thin but if you asked for a thicker crust, you got
it. Her mouth watered at the thought of their cheese garlic pizza.

They could still go out for dinner. She’d suggest it when
she called Toby to tell him about the canceled practice. She glanced at the
kitchen clock and decided to try him at work first.
After eating we can come
back here to talk while Josh watches one of his Disney movies.

When she heard Toby’s voice, her heart started beating
faster. Why couldn’t God have answered her prayers about staying married to
him? Even after he’d told her he wanted a divorce, she had faith it wouldn’t
happen. As a Christian, she felt divorce was wrong. But Toby’s affair with his
law partner, Lacey, had torn her apart and she finally had agreed to the
divorce. “Hi, Toby. I’m glad I caught you. Soccer practice has been called
off.”

“I figured they’d cancel it.” He laughed. “I bet Josh’s
disappointed. He loves to play in the rain.”

“And the mud. I was thinking we still could have our weekly
family night and—” 

“I can’t. Samantha called earlier and I told her I’d drive
her to the hospital. Her mom was in an accident. Samantha’s car is still in the
shop.”

“Is her mom going to be okay?”

“I think so but they want to do more tests and keep her for
a couple of days.”

“Tell Samantha her mom’s in my prayers.” She hated Samantha
was Toby’s girlfriend, but she hoped her mother wouldn’t have severe injuries.
If Toby hadn’t joined the fitness club, he never would’ve met Samantha. Well,
their paths might have crossed eventually in the courtroom. She worked at the
gym while attending law school. Being in awesome shape, Samantha apparently
used the gym’s machines. “You could drop her off and we can meet at a nearby
restaurant.”

“I’m sorry, Mallory. When it kept raining, I figured practice
would be called off so I made plans to see a client. I’m going to do that while
Samantha visits her mom.”

She wasn’t going to wait another night to find out what news
Toby had planned on giving her at the soccer fields. “I thought you had
something important to tell me tonight.”

“It can wait. In fact, I shouldn’t have mentioned it yet to
you. We’ll talk as soon as I have enough information to explain it.”

Great, Sunday might be the earliest she’d get to talk to him
about whatever was happening in his life. She picked Josh up on Sunday mornings
for church. Toby only went to church on Christmas and Easter with them. “Could
you give me a hint what it’s about?”

Josh stood by her and pulled on her arm. “Mommy, I’m hungry.
When are we going to eat?”