Plus None 2 (26 page)

I look back at Alex. He’s always been able to read me like a book, and I hope now is no exception. I raise the microphone back to my lips. “Please, everyone, raise your glasses in a toast to my beautiful, baby sister, and her new husband.”

A hundred glasses twinkle in the soft lighting of the tents. I don’t have a glass, but I focus all my attention on the bride and groom.

“May you love everyday like’s it the first day and live every moment like it’s the only one that counts. I love you both.”

The guests yell their cheers and drink to the happy couple who look adoringly at one another before pleasing their guests and sharing a small kiss.

I hand the mic to the bandleader and he hands me Wade in exchange. Tears leek from each of his blue eyes. “That was magical, ‘cuz. You totally fucking nailed it.”

“Thanks, Wade. That means a lot.” I pull him off the stage.

He turns and envelopes me in suffocating hug, weeping unrestrained onto my shoulder. Barry, his brother Carl right behind him, both dressed in identical camouflage suit jackets, pulls Wade off me. “C’mon, Wade. Let’s get you another drink,” he says, only it sounds like,
drank
. The three head toward the bar. Great, just what Wade needs right now, more alcohol.

Arms encircle me from behind and Alex’s lips press lightly against my neck. “Some speech,” he says, hugging me close.

I reach up and push my hand through his hair. “I hardly remember what I said.”

“Mmmm.” He kisses the spot beneath my ear then spins me around to face him. “You basically said Cadence was your hero and Ken’s stuck for life with an adrenalin junkie.”

I pound his chest playfully. “I did not.”

“No.” He sways us to the rhythm the band has struck. “You didn’t. You did great, actually.”

“Yeah, it turned out okay.”

We dance on the lawn, the wedding moving happily around us. As Alex turns us in a slow circle I notice Luke, big and handsome in a blue suit, standing in profile near one of the linen-draped reception tables. He’s talking to someone I can’t see but it must be a girl, because I can tell he’s in full Luke-flirtation mode. I’ve been on the receiving end of those moves enough times to spot them.

So it seems like everyone’s getting their happy ending. Paige and Ken, me and Alex, Cadence and…Cadence. It’s bound to take some time for her to really get to know who she is, who she’s capable of being. I can’t believe I’m thinking it, and there’s no chance I’ll say it aloud, but Cadence Spelling is kinda, sorta, my hero.

Alex rubs his hands up and down my back. “You cold? You just shivered.”

Nothing a stiff drank won’t cure.

Where do rich people get these fancy soaps they always seem to have in the guest bathroom? The fancy soap store? I’ll ask Brook, maybe she keeps some in stock. I dry my hands on the plush cream hand towel and check my reflection in the mirror. My hair’s beginning to rebel from all the dancing but otherwise, I look pretty good. I reapply my shimmering lip-gloss before pushing it between my cleavage and into the strapless bra. Huh. The aunts are on to something here.

When I pull open the door Helena Ramirez nearly bowls into me. She drops the hand that had been turning the doorknob and rights her footing. When she sees it’s me, she frowns.

“Hello, ” she says, pushing lovely hair off of her lovely face.

“Hi.” I’m having such a good night I’m in no mood to duke it out with Alex’s drunk mother in the bathroom. I step around her to get to the hallway. She turns with me, placing a hand at my elbow.

 “I was hoping I’d get a chance to speak with you,” she says.

She drops my arm and shifts uncomfortably. Her black lacy dress fits her beautifully. She looks much younger than her fifty-three years. I can hardly believe she’s Alex’s mother.

She stays quiet so long I figure she’s changed her mind and again turn to leave.

“No, please. Don’t go.”

The champagne is making me nicer and more patient, so I stand still and wait for what she’s got to say.

“I wanted to apologize, for the way my husband and I behaved at the dinner party. I’m not…I don’t like to think that will be your only impression of us.”

She fumbles her next sentence several times before getting it out. “I wasn’t a very good mother. I let Juan boss us around and I didn’t protect my son like I should have.”

“Seems to me you’re still not.” Champagne or not, I’m unwilling to be lenient for her actions toward Alex.

She nods somberly. “I thought about what you said, after you left the house. That he needs me. We haven’t been close in a very long time. Juan always did the parenting and I let him push Alex further and further away from me.”

“You can still do something about that, you know.”

Helena shakes her head. “It’s too late.”

“It’s never too late to tell your kid you love them. That’s the past, Helena. He’s still here.”

“He’s a grown man now.”

“That doesn’t make him any less your son. Tell him you’re on his side.”

She doesn’t respond, but looks to the floor.

“Are you on his side?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Why?”

“Juan’s forbidden it. He’s so angry with Alex for ruining the deal with Gordon. He wouldn’t even come tonight.”

“But is everything ruined? I got the impression business might go on as usual.”

Helena crosses her arms and leans against the door. “Unfortunately, there are other factors. Juan hoped that by becoming family, Gordon might loan us funds to keep up appearances. We’re broke, you see,” she says, hanging her head lower. “The family fortune is gone. Now that the wedding’s off, Gordon won’t dare help and we’ve got no other options. We’ll have to sell the house.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, sincerely. “Does Alex know?”

“No. He knows things are bleak but no one knows the full extent of it besides of Juan and I.”

“What’re you going to do?”

Helena laughs, a salty smile on her mouth. “I’m not sure. We’ll sell off most of the furnishings. We may be spared from having to get jobs.”

The horror.

“But things will change.” She stands tall and fluffs her hair, at once effortlessly beautiful. “Take care of him for me, will you? Maybe, if you can manage it, help him forgive me.”

“You can do that for yourself. He’s right outside, Helena.”

Her eyes are so very much like her son’s. Only I can’t read her thoughts the way I can Alex’s. She gently shuts the bathroom door on me.

The foyer is filled with mingling guests and I spot Jolene and Patsy in a heated discussion by the front door. I make my way to them, worried they’re about to come to fisticuffs with each other.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

Patsy gives her sister a hard look. “She’s trying to steal my man.”

“He ain’t your man. I saw him first and he prefers blondes.”

“Then he definitely wouldn’t be interested in you. The carpet hardly matches the drapes these days.”

 “Who are y’all talking about?”

Patsy tilts her head to the left. A man of about ninety sits in a wheelchair at the door of the expansive living room. His wispy white hair floats around his head like cotton candy.

“You can’t be serious,” I say.

“Oh, I’m serious all right.” Patsy pats her hair.

Jolene accepts the challenge and shoves her breasts as high as possible.

“He’s about a hundred years old.” I look between them.

“And sole heir to an oil fortune,” Jolene replies.

I turn, astounded by their shameless behavior. Well,
astounded
may be too strong of a word. Mildly shocked perhaps. Maybe Helena should get in on this action. She could certainly use the cash…

But someone else has already beaten her to it. I smirk, turning to face my gold-digging aunts. “Sorry girls,” I say, throwing a thumb over my shoulder. “Looks like you’re too late.”

The hem of Brook’s black dress rides up dangerously as she sits across the decrepit lap of the old baron. I do believe I may be looking at a future uncle. That is, if he can survive the engagement.

 Lord knows I nearly didn’t.

Epilogue

Thirty Weeks and One Day after Brook Sat on a Dead Guy’s Lap

Wedding showers, April showers, shower curtains….  I’ve dealt with a lot of showers this year but none can compete with the giddiness a baby shower brings. The bakery has been transformed. The tables are covered in pale yellow and green checked tablecloths. A garland announcing, ‘Welcome Baby,’ sags merrily across the front window. The little mint green and buttery yellow cupcakes I made for the occasion sit in a pretty tower on the counter.

Paige looks exhausted, but happy. I claim the seat next to her and place a cupcake on her plate. “How’re you holding up?”

She looks sleepily at me, her head in her hand. “I’m tired all the time, my boobs hurt, and I haven’t had sex in weeks. Why don’t they put any of that stuff in the baby books?”

“Look on the plus side. No one expects you to wear makeup or traipse across three counties for Sunday fishing.”

“True.” She eyes the treat in front of her. “I really shouldn’t.”

“Oh go on.” I nudge her with my elbow. “I’ll have one with you.”

She grins and we both dig into our desserts, happy to have the excuse to indulge.

Brook taps her way across the bakery on canary yellow heels and places an envelope in front of me. There’s a wad of fives and tens inside. “Your guess came closest to the due date,” she tells me.

“You guys placed bets on my due date?” Paige asks, smiling.

“Sorry, baby, I know you thought you were being covert but no one throws a wedding together that fast unless a sin’s been committed.”

“Wait--” Paige looks between us, her smile replaced by a look of annoyance. “--You were betting before we announced it? Before I got married?”

Brook looks guilty. “It was Jolene’s idea.”

Jolene waves unapologetically from the counter.

I fold the envelope in half and stick it in my back pocket. Paige puckers her lips and squints her eyes at me. “Hey, don’t hate the player, hate the game. And speaking of games, should we start the baby games now?”

Paige perks up and Brook claps her hands. “I’ll go get the measuring tape.”

As the aunts go over the rules for the many baby-themed activities, Paige excuses herself to the bathroom. Cadence, ten pounds heavier and infinitely nicer than when we said our grudging farewells at the wedding, takes the empty seat.

“It’s so exciting, isn’t it?” she says.

“I can hardly believe it’s happening so soon. I don’t feel prepared.”

She waves. “It’ll be fine. Do you know what the name’s going to be?”

“There’re a few likely candidates, but nothing’s been decided yet.”

She looks around us. We made our peace before the wedding but haven’t spoken since. It’s odd to think we’re no longer on opposite sides and yet, I’m not sure we’re friends either.

“So.” I pull her attention back to our table. “How’ve you been?”

Her grin is ear to ear and what I previously took as a tan seems like the radiant glow of someone truly happy. “Well… I got a job planning parties. And I moved out of my parent’s home into a little one bedroom downtown.”

“Wow, that’s great. Good for you.”

“Thanks.” I know that look. That’s the look of someone who is having great sex and wants to shout it from the rooftops, but tries not to.

“What else?” I lean closer.

Her blush warms her cheeks prettily. “I met someone.”

“And…”

“And…things are going really well.”

“Well Cadence Spelling I do declare, you seem positively smitten. So come on, out with it. Who is he?”

Her smile twitches slightly. “Someone I met at the wedding.”

“Oh Lord. Not one of my cousins?”

I can see by the disgusted look on her face it most certainly is not.

“I got an apartment in Dallas, Charlie, not a lobotomy. He’s a Derrickhand.”

There’re a lot of Derrickhands in Texas, but I only know of one charming enough to make a grown woman act like a schoolgirl.

“Cadence! Luke Walker?”

She positively squeals with delight. “He took my number at the wedding and we’ve been talking ever since. I didn’t think he was ever going to ask me out.”

How about that? “He didn’t hound you for dates?”

“He acted like a gentleman, Charlotte.” She reverts to a familiar tone. But it soon disappears as she thinks about Luke. “I told him my problems with Daddy. I wanted to get free of all that before getting swept up in any more doomed romances. Luke said I was worth waiting for, so he did.”

Well I’ll be. Cadence and Luke. I never saw that one coming. “You seem really happy.”

“I am.” She turns those big blue eyes on me. “How’s Alex? He all settled in to his new office and enjoying life in Harlow?”

“He loves it. Of course, he’s already had to represent Jolene in court for soliciting a police officer.”

“Oh my! Why would she do a thing like that?”

“She’d just left a male strip club. He was sitting in a cruiser in the parking lot and she thought he was one of the entertainers. When he told her to turn around and spread ‘em, she took it as an invitation.”

Cadence laughs uncontrollably and I can’t stop myself from joining her.

 After the whole debacle at the wedding, when Grandma Chamberlain accused Brook of smothering Ken’s great uncle Teddy with her cleavage, and Jolene’s brush with the law, the aunts have been on their best behavior. Paige wouldn’t approve but they’ve been running a bet on what sex the baby will be. I myself put ten dollars down on it being a boy. At first I was against the whole, wait and see angle, but the closer we get to the due date, the more excited I am.

“Alright y’all,” Patsy yells over the mingled conversations of guests, “time to play guess how big the belly is.”

Paige returns from the bathroom and gives me a salty look. I shrug. The aunts are in control. What’re we going to do about it? Pens and paper are passed around and we all make our guesses. Most are the same, between thirty-six and forty-inches.

“What’s your guess, Amber?” Brook asks, a red marker ready to record her number on a piece of white paperboard.