Runaway Bride (Across the Stars: Book 2) (8 page)

Chapter Eight

On the way to the movie theater, Mark rambled on about the different movies he’d seen, and though she replied, he sensed Lexie’s mind was on whatever happened on the phone.  Mark didn’t like the change in Lexie’s mood.  Before Nick called, she seemed to be having a good time and now, it was as if the wind had been taken out of her sails.  He wasn’t sure why, but he got the impression that Nick said something to make her feel as if she didn’t meet his expectations, whatever those expectations were.  Mark hadn’t met the guy, but he had the urge to warn him to treat Lexie better.  But it didn’t matter.  Lexie wouldn’t marry Nick.  She’d marry him.  And he’d make sure she knew he appreciated her.

After he parked his car in front of the theater, he turned to face her.  “If you’re not in the mood for a movie, we can do something else.  We could go to the beach and take a walk.” The last thing he’d do was suggest she go home.  “Or we can just go for a drive.”

Her gaze left the parking lot and went to him.  “If I ask you a question, will you be honest with me, even if you don’t think I’ll like the answer?”

Unsure of whether this would be good or not, he nodded.

“Did you know that Mrs. Morris’ painting represented the conflict between the good and bad moments of Rome’s past?”

“No.  I couldn’t make out anything about the painting.  I felt bad once I realized how nice Mrs. Morris was.  I wanted to like the painting, but I didn’t.”

“She was nice, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she was.  Much nicer than most of the others that were there.”

“That’s what I thought, too.”

“Is that what’s bothering you?  Do you feel bad because you didn’t like her painting?”

“Kind of,” Lexie replied.  “But I’ve mostly been wondering if something is wrong with me because I didn’t see what the others saw tonight when they were looking at all those paintings.  Nick wasn’t even there and he knew exactly what Mrs. Morris was trying to say with her painting.  My mom would have seen the symbolism, too.”

“I was there and all I got out of the painting was the different geometric patterns in it.  In fact, that’s all I saw in all the paintings.  Somehow, I doubt the artists were hoping I’d be counting circles and other shapes.”

Letting out a slight chuckle, she said, “Maybe the one with all those circles was supposed to be an appreciation for geometry.”

He grinned.  “It would have been an awesome painting if that was the case.” Glad to see her smile, he added, “There’s nothing wrong with you, Lexie.  I think art is meant to be subjective.  I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to look at a painting.  And besides, symbols mean different things to different people.  If you see a glass that is filled halfway, people will debate whether it’s half-full or half-empty.  It’s the same glass, but their perception of it is unique.  Just because others said the painting was about the conflict between good and bad, it doesn’t mean that’s what the painting is about.  I think most of the people agreed that’s what the painting meant because they didn’t want to take the risk and say they saw something different.  And I bet some of those people were just as confused as we were.  Only they were afraid to admit it.”

“Maybe.  I’d like to think so.”

“It’s hard to be the person who sees things differently.”

As he said that, he thought of his own struggles to fit in on Earth.  He was careful to pick up on the familiar expressions of the culture and learn the customs so he’d blend in.  Chris hadn’t been as concerned with fitting in, and there were times when their coworkers sensed he wasn’t ‘normal.’ But Chris didn’t care.  If he wasn’t sure about something, he came out and admitted it.  Had he been at the gallery, he would have said he didn’t see what others saw.  Sometimes Mark admired Chris for his ability to show his inexperience.

Mark directed his attention back to Lexie and wondered if they were more alike than he had originally suspected.  Maybe they were both trying to fit in and hid their uncertainty as much as they could.  Maybe it was why he felt that being with her was so natural, as if they belonged together.  Maybe she could understand him in a way that no other woman on this planet could.

“Sometimes,” Lexie softly began, “I wonder if I’m marrying Nick because it’s what I want or because it’s what my mother wants.”

He’d been waiting for her to say this.  He turned toward her in interest, hoping she’d continue, hoping this would be the moment when she realized she was better off with him.

Finally turning her gaze to him, she sighed.  “You know what?  I’m tired of thinking.  I just want to relax, watch a corny movie and forget everything.”

Despite his disappointment since he had been hoping to have this conversation with her, he smiled and nodded.  He wouldn’t press her and maybe next time he saw her, they could continue this conversation.  There was a balance between helping her discover she was better off with him and pushing her away.  It had to be her decision.  “Let’s see the movie.”

He got out of the car and opened her door so he could escort her into the theater.

***

As soon as Chris stepped into his house, Caitlyn stood up from the couch where she’d been reading her book and gave him a long kiss.  He held her close to him, savoring the moment.  This was what he had hoped his life would be like when he left Pandoran.  A life mate to come home to after a long day at work; one who would be happy to see him when he walked through the door.  And it was even better than he imagined.

When their kiss ended, he smiled at her.  “How did your day go?”

“It was wonderful,” she replied, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him another kiss.

“As much as I’d like to believe I inspired two passionate kisses, I suspect there’s more to your good mood.”

“Okay.  There is, but I’m still glad you’re home.”

He gave her a light squeeze then closed the front door.  As he led her to the couch, he asked, “What are you excited about?”

They sat down, and she snuggled up to him.  “I have the perfect woman for Mark.”

“Really?”

“Yep.  I think he and Sandy will be great together.”

“Sandy?” He expected her to say Lexie since Mark was so confident that Lexie was the right one for him.

“I’ve known Sandy my whole life and she’d make a great wife for him.  Mark deserves a woman who’ll be kind, steadfast, a good friend.  She’s all that and more.  She’d be ideal for a life mate.”

He hesitated but asked, “What about Lexie?”

Caitlyn’s eyebrows furrowed.  “Lexie’s engaged.  She’ll marry…that guy…the doctor, Nate or something.”

“I don’t remember his name either.”

“That’s because the only thing my mom calls him is ‘the doctor,’” she replied with a giggle.

“If she had any idea how useless doctors were on my world, she wouldn’t be so impressed.”

“Well, they’re extremely useful on Earth.  Anyway, Lexie’s getting married.  Mark can’t have her.”

“But the wedding hasn’t happened yet.  Doesn’t that mean Lexie can marry Mark?”

“Theoretically, that’s true, but Lexie is about two weeks away from marrying the doctor.  Two weeks.  A woman doesn’t end her engagement that close to her wedding day to run off with a man she barely knows.”

“She doesn’t?”

Mark seemed so sure that Lexie was going to run off with him, and Chris assumed that Mark knew everything about this world.  But maybe he didn’t know as much as he thought.  Caitlyn had lived here her entire life and she was a woman.  Who better to understand what Lexie would or wouldn’t do than her own sister?

“Lexie and that guy are a sure thing.  We need to fix Mark up with someone who’s available, and I can’t think of anyone who’d be a better life mate for him than Sandy.  She’ll be good for him.  She’s fun to be with, kind, pretty.  Better yet, she already knows that you’re from another planet, so it won’t be hard to explain that Mark’s an alien, too.  It’s perfect.  And since Mark’s your best friend and Sandy’s mine, we can double date.”

“Mark’s my best friend?”

“Sure, he is.”

He hadn’t thought of Mark as a friend.  “Mark’s just someone I know.”

“Someone you know and like.”

“He’s okay.”

“For someone who is okay, you two get along awfully well.”

“That’s because we’re from the same planet and work at the same place.”

She patted his leg and giggled.  “If you say so.  Anyway, I was wondering if we can take Mark and Sandy to Lexie’s engagement party?”

“You want Mark to go as Sandy’s date?”

“Not directly.  I want us to pick up Mark and Sandy on our way to the party.  It’s a subtle way of getting them together.”

He sighed.  “It sounds manipulative.”

“It’s not manipulative.  All we’re doing is putting two people together.  They will start talking and realize they’re meant to be together.”

“But didn’t you try that at our wedding?”

“I introduced them at a time when there was too much going on.  Sandy was my maid of honor, and Mark was your best man.  That didn’t leave them adequate time to talk.  But if they’re in a car, they’ll have that opportunity.” She squeezed his hand and grinned.  “I’m telling you, once they start talking, love will bloom, just like it did for us.  I fell in love with you when I first met you at the diner.  All it took was a simple conversation with you and I wanted to know more about you.  If you hadn’t cast your spell on me, I would have agreed to go on a date with you.  And after a few dates, I would have known I wanted to marry you.  But you did your magic with the hormone thing and sped up the process.”

“I didn’t use magic.  It was a simple will of releasing a sex hormone into the air.”

“Considering it left me with no choice but to perform the bonding ceremony with you, I say it was magic.” Before he could argue it was more along the lines of science, she added, “I’m glad you released that magical spell over me.  You gave me a husband,” she kissed him, “and a child.” She placed his hand over the bulge in her belly.  “You’ve given me everything I ever wanted.  I know Mark can do the same for Sandy.”

Though he didn’t think Mark and Sandy would end up together, he couldn’t fault Caitlyn for trying.  Her heart was in the right place.  And who knew?  Maybe Lexie was going to marry the doctor and Mark would have to continue his search for a life mate.  Either way, they’d all find out soon enough.

Chapter Nine

The bell above the front door rang in the diner and Sandy glanced up from the table she was wiping down.  A wide grin crossed her face as she picked up the washcloth and went over to Caitlyn.  “How nice of you to visit me while I serve my penance to society.”

“Hey!” Jack, her boss, called out from behind the counter as he poured himself a cup of coffee.  “I’ll have you know the health inspector just gave this restaurant his seal of approval.  That means this is a first-class establishment with fine cuisine.”

Caitlyn laughed.  “We only tease you because we love you, Jack.”

He rolled his eyes but grinned.  “With friends like you, who needs enemies?”

“What you’re missing by not working here anymore,” Sandy joked.  “Did you come here to eat half the food Jack has in the kitchen?”

Caitlyn rubbed the mound in her belly and shook her head.  “No.  The cravings went away a couple days ago.  I’m safe around food for a while.”

“Too bad,” Jack said after he drank some coffee.  “Now that you’re not my employee, you have to pay full price for your meals.”

“I still came by to eat at my favorite diner,” Caitlyn assured him and glanced around the place.  “Business is really suffering without me here to liven things up.”

He snorted.  “You wish.  We just got through a huge lunch rush.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep,” Sandy added.  “It was so crazy that the new waitress ran off.”

“She didn’t,” Caitlyn replied.

“This job isn’t for the weak of heart.” Sandy shrugged.  “Everyone thinks waitressing is so easy, but it’s not all roses when you got a bunch of impatient people who think they need their food two minutes after making their order and then leaving a $1 tip, if they bother to tip at all.”

“I once had someone leave a few dimes.  It wouldn’t have been so bad if the man hadn’t been complaining that the coffee was too hot and the water with ice in it wasn’t cold enough.”

“That’s nothing,” Jack interrupted.  “I’m the one who has to slave away in the hot kitchen to make the best food in Florida.  It’s enough to drive a man to smoke.  Speaking of which, I think I’ll take a break.”

Sandy waited until he went outside before she motioned for Caitlyn to sit at a booth.  “So what really brings you here?  It can’t be Jack’s cooking.”

Caitlyn giggled and sat down.  “Okay.  You caught me.  I’m here to give you good news.”

“Oh?  You won the lottery and decided to give me half?”

“What is it with you and the lottery?”

Sandy sat across from her and grinned.  “I don’t know.  I guess I think it’s neat when someone can be going through life and suddenly strike it big.  Kind of like Chris falling from the sky and marrying you.”

“Maybe it’s your turn to strike it big.  Remember Mark from the wedding?”

“Kind of.  He came from the same planet as Chris?”

“Right, and as luck would have it, he’s still looking for his life mate.”

“Oh.” Understanding what Caitlyn was getting at, Sandy sighed.  “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“He didn’t seem interested in me when we were at your wedding and he didn’t sit with me at the reception.”

“To be fair, there were a lot of people there.  Maybe he tried to, but couldn’t.”

Sandy didn’t know if she believed that or not.  True, there were a lot of people in a small space and it was hard to find a place to sit, but it seemed that if he had really wanted to, he would have found a way to sit with her.

Caitlyn reached out and touched her hand.  “You can’t let the break up with Josh keep you from finding true love.  You owe it to yourself to move on.”

“This has nothing to do with Josh.  That was twelve years ago.  I have moved on since then.”

“Then why won’t you date anyone?  You have so much to offer someone.  Why not at least give Mark a chance?  He’s a good guy.”

Sandy thought about telling her friend the truth, to explain why Josh ended the engagement with her, but even as close as she was to her best friend, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Chris and I are going to Lexie’s engagement party,” Caitlyn began, “and we’d like to pick you and Mark up.  It’ll be very informal, so you shouldn’t think of it as a date.  Just talk and get to know him.  If things work out, that’s totally awesome.  If they don’t,” she shrugged, “then they don’t.”

“Alright,” Sandy agreed.  There wouldn’t be any harm in that.  “As long as he doesn’t know what you’re trying to do, I’ll go along with it.”

“Deal.”

“Now, what would you like to eat?”

“The usual.  A cheeseburger and fries.”

“Do you want chocolate on the fries?”

“No, thankfully.” Caitlyn shivered.  “I know I go through periods where I want chocolate on almost everything, but I’m happy to say that isn’t the case today.”

With an amused grin, Sandy stood up.  “I see no harm in chocolate when it’s on pie, cake, or in cookies.  Want dessert?”

“I guess a slice of pie can’t hurt.”

“Not with everything else you’ve been eating,” Sandy teased.  “I’ll tell Jack what you want when he gets back and in the meantime, I’ll get you some pie.”

***

On Friday, Chris walked into the employee’s lounge. “Hi, Mark.”

Mark glanced up from his cup as he poured coffee in it.  Chris walked further into the room and put his hands in his pockets.  Noting the way Chris rocked on the balls of his feet, Mark’s eyebrows furrowed.  “Is there something you want to talk to me about?”

“Yeah,” Chris replied.  “How did you know?”

Mark hid his grin.  It was easy to read Chris’ expressions, but he didn’t think his friend would like knowing how transparent he was.  “Just a hunch.”

He nodded.  “Okay.”

Mark placed the coffee pot down and added some sugar to his coffee.  “What is it?”

“Is Lexie still going to marry the doctor?”

“The doctor has a name,” he replied with a chuckle.

“Yeah, I know, but it’s hard to remember what it is since Caitlyn’s mom always calls him ‘the doctor.’”

“His name is Nick.”

“Right.  Well, is she still going to marry him?”

“You’re going to her engagement party.  You tell me.”

“I thought you were…  That is to say…” With a sigh, he shrugged.  “Anyway, Caitlyn wondered if you’d like to go to Lexie’s engagement party.”

The invitation came at the perfect time.  Mark had been wondering how he could show up at her engagement party.  His plan had been to call her to ask about the movie they saw and work in an invite during the conversation, but if he went with Chris and Caitlyn, then he didn’t have to do that.  He could show up and it would seem natural.  Lexie was close to realizing Nick was all wrong for her.  The next time he talked to her, he hoped she would admit she didn’t want to be with Nick, and even better, she’d realize she was meant to be with him instead.

Turning to Chris, Mark nodded.  “Sure, I’ll go.  When is it?”

“Tomorrow at noon.  Caitlyn and I will be by around 11:40 to pick you up?” Chris asked.

“Sounds good.  Thanks, Chris.” He checked his watch, noting it was time to get to work.  “I’ll see you at lunch.” Excited, he left the lounge.  The next time he saw Lexie, everything between them would change.

***

Lexie drummed her fingers absentmindedly.  Across from her at her parents’ kitchen table, her mother worked on the seating chart for the wedding reception.

“We can’t have your Aunt Trista sit next to your Aunt Lora.  Those two are still arguing over who was more popular in high school,” her mom commented.  “You’d think at this stage in the game, they’d be beyond high school, but they never did move on from the past.  The petty things some people worry about.”

Lexie forced aside the urge to roll her eyes.  Her mother had her petty moments as well but didn’t see them.  As her mother continued agonizing over every wedding guest and where they would sit, she looked at the engagement ring on her finger.  Why was it that the closer she got to her wedding day, the heavier the thing felt?  Was this something she really wanted to do?  Marriage was a huge decision, a lifetime commitment.  Did she want to spend the rest of her life with Nick?

“Oh Lexie!”

Surprised by the excited tone in her mother’s voice, Lexie’s gaze went to her.  “What is it?”

“You’ll never guess who’s coming in for your wedding!” When Lexie didn’t respond, she continued, “Your cousin, Marcia Williams!  You know, the one who married the lawyer last year.  I remember the way Marcia was bragging about all of the lawyer’s credentials, but he doesn’t save lives like the doctor does.  And to be honest, the doctor has more awards.”

It was on the tip of Lexie’s tongue to mention that her mother was being just as petty as Trista and Lora but kept her mouth shut.  She wasn’t really interested in having a debate with her mother over what qualified as “petty” anyway.

As her mother turned her attention back to the seating chart, Lexie stared out the kitchen window, twirling the engagement ring around her finger.  It was a pleasant day.  The kind of day she should be spending at the beach.  She’d love nothing more than to take another walk along the shore with Mark.  She could tell him about the long afternoon with her mother, and he’d listen.  Sometimes he seemed like the only person who actually listened to her.  Everyone else seemed more interested in telling her how to feel or act.  He didn’t pass any judgments and better yet, he was interested in what she wanted.

“I think…  Lexie?”

Lexie’s gaze went back to her mother.  “Hmm?”

Her mother put her pen down, leaned forward and studied her.  “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You look distracted.  Honey, I’m your mother.  You can tell me anything.”

Since she’d already expressed her misgivings about marrying Nick to her mother at the mall, she didn’t know what else to say.  As much as she’d like to think that she and Nick would grow to fall in love with each other over time, she was beginning to suspect that the only person Nick was capable of loving was himself.  She hated thinking it, but if it was the truth, then didn’t she owe it to herself to admit it?

Her mother offered her a smile and patted her hand.  “I understand you need some time to think.  You were always an introspective person.  If you want to talk, I’ll be here, even if it’s in the middle of the night.”

“I know, Mom.  You’ve always been there for me.”

“And I’ll keep being there for you.  Just because you’re getting married, it doesn’t mean I’ll stop being your mother.”

She nodded, and her mother turned back to arranging where everyone would sit.  The process ended up lasting an hour.  When Lexie finally left the house, she headed for the beach.  Out of habit, she turned on the radio, but she didn’t pay much attention to what was playing.  Her mind was a jumbled mess.  She knew she needed to think through her impending marriage, but it was easier not to and the longer she went without thinking about it, the harder it was to face the future looming before her.

When she pulled into the parking lot, she realized she had forgotten to bring her beach bag.  She sighed.  She was having a lot of trouble thinking straight and she suspected that wasn’t going to get better any time soon.  She turned off the ignition and got out of the car.  Even if she didn’t get a chance to lie down and soak in the sun, she could still go for a relaxing walk.

She took off her sandals and held them while she made her way to where the water rolled onto the sand.  It reminded her of that evening when she and Mark went for a walk.  She scanned the beach, wondering if he was nearby, but he was nowhere in sight.  Disappointed, she continued her walk.

At one point, she unzipped her purse and grabbed her cell phone.  She dialed his phone number but quickly hung up.  She couldn’t call him.  At least, she shouldn’t.  But maybe she could call him and invite him to her engagement party.  But it seemed wrong to have him celebrating her engagement to another man.

With a sigh, she slipped the phone into her purse and zipped it back up.  No.  She wouldn’t call him.  And she wouldn’t invite him to the engagement party.  It was just too awkward and it brought up a struggle she didn’t need to think about.  Figuring she’d wasted enough time at the beach, she headed back for her car.