Satellite of Love (12 page)

Though she ached to take him back to the bedroom and get a repeat performance, she’d had enough time out of direct contact that reason was kicking in. “Michael, are you sure he isn’t right?”

“He thinks you’re trying to steal my money. He doesn’t know you.”

Oh yeah, money. Since he was famous, he probably had some. No wonder every time she mentioned how much something cost he sounded baffled. “We have only known each other for a couple of days though. It’s not even going to be a week until—” She checked her watch mostly because she couldn’t stand the shattered expression on his face. It reflected her own turmoil too well. “Six thirty tonight.”

“So?”

“It’s very fast. Don’t you think?” Maureen chewed her lip. “Shouldn’t we get to know each other better?”

Michael put his hands on her shoulders and leaned his forehead on hers. His eyes bored into hers. “I know you. I love you. That’s all I need.”

Emotion choked her, and she swallowed hard. His absolute certainty was hard to resist. The weight of his hand anchored her to the ground and to him. She couldn’t imagine anything better than to be wrapped in that love forever. She put her hands on his cheeks. “That’s all I need too, but we have to get going if we’re going to stop at the garage on the way.”

“I’m going to have to hire you as a road manager. You’re ruthless.” He kissed her lightly. “Where’s your bag?”

“On the bed.”

He bowed and bounded down the hall after it. God, she hoped his confidence stayed with her. He made it sound so simple.

When he returned, he ushered her into the car and started talking about his plans for the weekend. After the radio show, he wanted to take her out to a restaurant she’d never heard of. Where he’d gotten the recommendation, she didn’t know, but guessed it was several degrees better than the one he’d taken her to last weekend. Saturday there was a concert he wanted to go to, but he had all day free and he was willing to go back to the natural history museum. After he let her out of bed, of course. Sunday, he needed to show up at a record store. It was a surprise appearance and he didn’t have a set time he had to be there.

“I don’t understand how it’s a surprise if you plan to be there,” she said and twisted sideways in the seat. All the better to stare at him.

“It’s a surprise for the people who shop there.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek. “The owners may have told a couple of people, but otherwise nobody knows. We do these hit and run things sometimes. It’s fun.”

She nodded and glanced up the road. They were getting close to the garage. Hopefully, Tony had cooled off after last night. She didn’t want to get caught between the two of them. Most of her life was designed around avoiding tension.

“You don’t have to do this,” Michael said. “We can just go on our merry way.”

“You were very upset this morning.”

“I got over it.”

It was a lie. He wasn’t over it. She spoke enough body language that she could understand the tenseness in his jaw and the stiffness in his back. For whatever reason, the argument with his brother bothered him a lot and she didn’t want him to have to carry that around. “We’ll give him a try before we go. You don’t want him to hear secondhand that we got engaged, do you?”

Eyes bright, he turned a grin of pure glee on her that made her heartbeat leap. “Oh yeah. We got engaged this morning. Maybe that’s what we should do tomorrow. Go hit a couple of jewelers for a big, fat rock.”

“It doesn’t need to be that big.” Her face heated. What were the other teachers going to say when she showed up Monday morning sporting a flashy engagement ring?

Michael pulled into the side lot and shut off the engine. “Ready?”

“Are you?”

He leaned across the parking brake and kissed her. “Now I am.”

She waited while he jumped out and ran around the car to open her door for her. Not like it was a hardship. No one had ever wanted to put her on such a high pedestal before and she was enjoying the view.

Rusty stood behind the counter. He looked up when the bell rang as Michael opened the door. Without a word, he shambled down the hall to the repair bay. In itself, that wasn’t unusual. She hadn’t heard Rusty say more than a dozen words in the six years she’d been bringing her car here. Today, his taciturn nature put her on edge. More on edge.

Michael reached for her hand and as he did, she turned toward him. Over his shoulder she saw an empty nail on the wall over the cash register. That must have been where the picture had hung. She vaguely remembered seeing one there, but hadn’t been interested enough to look at it. Usually when standing at that register she was too busy gasping at the cost of the latest repair.

Tony walked out, sullen. “Yeah?”

“Me and Maureen are getting married.” Michael thrust out his chin.

Tony’s eyes narrowed. “That so?”

“It is.”

The brothers glared at one another across the reception room. Rusty’s shadow filled the doorway to the repair bay, and the sound of Eric shuffling near the door to the side bay came to her. Neither Tony nor Michael were going to move and this reconciliation was spinning down the drain.

“Tony,” she said, breaking into their standoff. “Michael said you were hoping your son would be in my class next year.”

“Like that’s going to happen now.” Tony kept glaring at Michael.

“I’ll talk to his teacher this year and we’ll see who might be the best fit for him. I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“Thank you.” Tony sounded like the last thing he wanted to say was thank you, but she wasn’t going to push him.

“You could be nice about it,” Michael said. “She doesn’t have to help you.”

Maureen squeezed his hand. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” Michael snapped. “He’s busting my ass about screwing up Nicky’s chance to get in your class and he can’t even say thanks when you promise to help? And nothing about us getting married. I told you he was being a dick.”

“You want me to congratulate you for popping the question after a week? I should be apologizing to her,” Tony shouted then turned on her. “You do know he won’t go through with it. Or if he does it’ll be a disaster and you’ll be divorced in two years.”

Michael took a step forward but when she laid a hand on his arm, stopped. That must mean he wasn’t too serious about his threat. “Let’s go,” he snapped, turning for the door. Slamming through it, he shattered the glass.

“I’m right, you know,” Tony said.

“I hope you’re not. I do love your brother.”

“I do too, but he’s a natural disaster. Hurricane Michael, here to destroy your life. Tell him he owes me for the fucking door.” Tony stomped toward the hall, but stopped just short. “Oh, and thanks for the help with Nicky. Me and Pam really appreciate it.”

“It’s not a problem.” Trying to get her pulse and breathing under control, she looked at the broken door. This did not bode well.

* * * *

Bear scowled out the windshield. As soon as she’d climbed back in the car at the garage, he’d reached for her hand and kissed her. Other than a few minutes when he’d needed to navigate onto the highway, he hadn’t let go and she hadn’t tried to pull away. He took that as a good thing, but he wasn’t enjoying the sound of her silence at all. First Marc had to be a loon and then Tony.

“He’s wrong, you know,” Bear said when they got close to the city.

“I know.” Her voice was soft, as if she were talking to him from a distance. Then she squeezed his hand, reminding him how near she was. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell anyone else we’re engaged.”

His body froze and he had to resist the urge to clench her hand. If he squeezed too tight, he could hurt her. “You change your mind?” The thread of wild panic that wound through his voice humiliated him, but he couldn’t take it back now. He couldn’t even stop the beat of panic drumming through his blood.

“No.”

Her tone had the flat metallic taste of a lie. He pulled his hand away from her, clutched the wheel. That he couldn’t hurt when she finally coughed up her rejection. The world started to swim. Ahead the highway divided in three and the woman who’d given him the directions had warned him that it was tricky. One direction led to the morass of downtown. He could get to the radio station from there, but it wouldn’t be easy. A second lane led in the opposite direction. He needed option number three, except he couldn’t remember now if option number three was the left lane, the right lane or the middle lane. Traffic wasn’t helping either. Every other driver on the road seemed intent on shoving him into a different lane and the semis in front of him kept blocking the signs.

“I just think that it’s confusing the issue.” She turned to him. Her tone still hadn’t changed. “Your friends are going to need to meet me before they find out we’re getting married.”

Based on the way his phone had been vibrating since he’d hung up with Marc and turned off the ringer, all his friends already knew. “So we’re still getting married?” He switched into the left lane at the split and hoped it was the correct one.

“I haven’t changed my mind. Have you changed yours?”

“No.”

She smiled. “Good.”

The world stopped swimming and he took a deep breath. Traffic had cleared and he could now see the signs. The wrong signs. “Shit.”

“What?”

“We’re headed the wrong way.”

“No big deal. We’ll find an exit and turn around.”

She had the calm tone to her voice again and was staring straight ahead. Maybe that wasn’t distance from her. Maybe that’s how she handled tension. Marc and Tony were right about one thing. He didn’t know her, but it was going to be a lot of fun getting to know her.

“There’s an exit.” She pointed.

The exit ramp snaked around and dumped them off on a residential street with no sign of an entrance ramp. Bear stopped in front of the elaborate Catholic church at the bottom of the exit. “So now what?”

Frowning, she surveyed the neighborhood. She looked really cute with her lips crinkled with that puzzled quirk.

“I know, let’s run into this church right here and get hitched. That would blow their minds, wouldn’t it?”

She gave him a long suffering eye roll. “That looks like a Russian Orthodox church. I’m willing to bet they don’t marry people who walk in off the street. Even if they did, this isn’t Vegas. It takes time to get a marriage license in this state. Though I have to say, running off and getting hitched would be a lot easier than getting my parents in the same room together.”

“Then let’s go to Vegas. Instead of all that other stuff we were going to do after the radio show, we can hop a flight to Nevada and get married.”

She patted his leg and sighed. “No. Now I think I got lost down here once. Make a right.”

Bear turned in the direction she indicated. His breathing had gotten a lot easier in the last few seconds. “Why is it going to be hard to get your parents together?”

“They hate each other. They don’t even live in the same state.”

“Really?” She said it so matter of factly, she might have been talking about the weather. “What happened?”

“They stayed together until I graduated high school. Then they put the house up for sale and all three of us went in different directions.”

“That sucks.”

“Believe me, it was better than the previous fifteen years. I was the only kid I knew whose parents had separate bedrooms. You need to make, ah—” She glanced in both directions. “Make a right here too. At the next main intersection we can take Ninth back to the highway.

“After that you’d still be willing to get married?”

“I don’t plan to make the same mistakes my parents made.”

“What did they do wrong?”

“Got trapped into marriage with an unplanned pregnancy and then stayed together for the child. It would have been better for all of us if they’d split up.” She reached over and patted his arm. “No unplanned kids for you and even with the planned ones, if things go south we won’t be staying together for their sake because I can tell you from first hand experience that does not work.” She said it with a smirk, but it left him cold anyway.

How to answer that one? At Ninth Street, he followed the signs to the highway. He really didn’t know her at all. “Hey, baby?” he said as he pulled into the radio station parking lot. A couple dozen people hung around the door.