The Arrangement (11 page)

“Eli, dear, please call me Victoria,” she slurred.

“Whatever you say, Victoria,” he obliged.

A gag rose in Evie’s throat.
Is this how an actress feels? How much longer can I play the part of a politician’s girlfriend?

When she finished ogling Eli, Evie’s mother placed thin arms around her in a limp hug. “Smile, sweetheart, everyone’s watching,” Victoria murmured in her ear. Obediently Evie turned the corners of her mouth upward.

As quickly as her mother had swooped down upon the couple, she backed away. “Drinks are in the cooler under the food tent, and the barbecue is ready,” she announced more to the gathering crowd of friends than to the couple she just greeted.

The low buzz of conversations resumed, and people migrated toward the tables whose white tablecloths were hidden beneath mountains of barbecued meat, steamed vegetables, crusty bread, and moist cookies.

“Don’t look now, but the Barretts’ newly married son and his lovely bride have entered the tent,” a deep voice whispered in her ear. Evie’s brother slid his arm around her shoulders. “How ya making it, Sis?”

“Why couldn’t you have shown up five minutes ago?” she growled after shooting a smile toward her sister-in-law, Leigh Anna.

“Well, that’s not much of a greeting.” His body shook with unreleased laughter.

“Yeah, whatever.” Evie watched as her parents’ friends loaded their plates with free food and lounged in chairs protected from the sun by her parents’ tents. “Who are all these people?” She recognized only a few faces.

Eli leaned in toward her, his eyes focused on a table at the end of her parents’ “camp.” “See the guy in the sweatshirt and black cap?” He nodded in the general direction of a table seated with three couples.

Evie smiled as though he were telling her an amazingly interesting story and nodded in return.

“That’s Dr. Evans, the new dentist in town, and the woman next to him with the really bad dye job is his wife, Patricia.” Eli pivoted slightly to face Evie more directly. “And the large man with the graying beard loading his plate at the barbecue table sits on the city council. He’s talking to a younger man in a red shirt who just opened a new pharmacy downtown.” Eli continued to point out various political and business leaders in their small community as though he had known them all his life.

Evie clamped her mouth shut and followed Eli’s tour with her eyes. “How do you know all these people?” she hissed. She grew up in Duncan. She should know who controlled what part of the community.
Have I been away that long?

“A politician always knows who’s in charge.” Eli grinned, his perfectly straight white teeth gleaming.

Evie swatted his shoulder with the back of her hand and headed for the soft drinks. Ice clinked when she pulled a can from the cooler. The drink inside fizzed when she popped open the tab. Under the food tent, she plopped some of the steaming meat onto her plate with more ease and comfort than she felt. Beside her Eli copied her motions without speaking.

When she finished picking from an assortment of fresh cookies for her dessert, Evie turned on her heel to walk to a table far away from her parents’ crowd of friends. Without looking, she charged ahead and ran into a petite, dark figure. “Watch it!” she warned too late.

“Eeek,” Leigh Anna shrieked at the same time. A soda stain spread over her white tunic. She held her arms away from her body. In one hand she held a soda identical to Evie’s and in the other hand a half-empty plate. “Yuck!” she whispered and brushed past Evie to the table, where she grabbed a handful of napkins and began to dab at the wet spot covering her front.

Evie followed her sister-in-law, matching her step for step to the table. She set down her plate and drink to help Leigh Anna blot the dark liquid from her top. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you were there. I should have been watching where I was going.”

Together they worked to restore the once gleaming fabric to its original white state.

Leigh Anna dropped her napkin on the table. “This stain will never come out. It’s the first time I’ve worn this shirt. I can’t believe I’m so careless.” She scanned the area where her husband’s family gathered. “Evie, do you remember if Taylor had his jacket with him? Maybe if I put it on, I can cover up this hideous spot.”

“I don’t remember.” Evie’s eyes roved over the crowd again. She noticed her brother, without a jacket, talking to the city councilman Eli pointed out earlier. Just as she started to break the bad news to Leigh Anna, another idea jolted her into action. She grabbed her sister-in-law by the wrist and nearly jerked her away from the tent.

“Wha—,” Leigh Anna started to say as Evie cut her off.

After taking only two steps from the tent, Evie turned to Eli. “If they ask where we went, tell Taylor, Mom, and Dad that we’ll be back. I’m going to get Leigh Anna another shirt.” Without another word she turned back to her prisoner and again escorted her, almost roughly, away.

Leigh Anna rubbed her wrist when Evie finally let go of her five minutes later. “What’s gotten into you, Evie? You could have politely suggested we go back to your sorority house and find another shirt. You didn’t have to drag me away.”

“Sorry,” Evie growled at her sister-in-law. “I just had to get away. I couldn’t have come up with a better plan if I’d intentionally spilled my drink on you.”

“Evie, you’ve really lost it.” Leigh Anna’s shoes clicked quickly on the pavement. For each of Evie’s long-legged steps, Leigh Anna took two. She panted and gulped in air as Evie continued a steady pace.

Evie stopped and swiveled to face her sister-in-law, the sorority house looming behind her. Tears clouded her eyes.

Leigh Anna slowed her pace until she reached her sister-in-law. “You want to talk about it…?”

Evie slid her key into the lock on the front door of the house and ushered Leigh Anna inside. The clack of their shoes on the hardwood floor echoed back at them. Only sunlight lit the large openness of the foyer where the girls gathered for weekly meetings, discussed the new pledges, and gathered in the evenings after class. The room had emptied hours earlier amid a flurry of sweaters, skirts, and high-heeled boots. Now the silence wrapped around Evie like an old blanket.

“Evie?” Leigh Anna’s voice broke into Evie’s thoughts.

“Oh, sorry.” She sighed. “I was just thinking about how beautiful and peaceful this house is without all the noise and gossip.”

“You’ve had a tough few weeks since you and Ben broke up, haven’t you?”

“Yeah.” Evie turned and walked up a flight of stairs, then unlocked the door to her room. “I think I have a white shirt you can wear somewhere,” she offered as she opened her closet door. “I have some stain remover in the cabinet under the sink,” she directed her sister-in-law to keep her from seeing the mess of clothes thrown into her closet.

She had fully intended to straighten it up a couple of days ago, but then Ben called and wanted to meet for ice cream. After not seeing him for two weeks, she immediately abandoned all other plans and followed his directions to a secluded park across town.

Evie blinked now to bring her thoughts and clothes into focus. With one hand she flipped hangers from one side of her closet to the other side. “Found it,” she announced as she pulled out a white tunic very similar to the stained one Leigh Anna still wore.

She watched as her sister-in-law scrubbed stain remover into the dark spot on her shirt. Leigh Anna stopped her work and smiled at Evie. “Thanks,” she said as she reached for the other shirt. She turned her back and pulled the dirty shirt over her head before putting on the clean one. “So do you want to talk about what happened with Ben?”

Evie filtered the truth from the fiction she’d told everyone. She wanted to confide in someone, but she doubted Leigh Anna could be trusted with this truth. Finally, she said, “You and Taylor are so lucky. I mean, Taylor fell in love with a ‘suitable’ woman. Dad didn’t have to pick you out.”

Leigh Anna snorted.

Startled, Evie shot her a hard look. “What?”

“Our whole marriage was fixed, Evie. Did Taylor not ever tell you that?” Leigh Anna held her soiled shirt under water at the small sink in Evie’s room.

“Fixed? You mean, as in
arranged?”

“You got it.”

“But…you seem so much in love.”

Leigh Anna turned off the water and faced her sister-in-law. Her smile and flushed cheeks reminded Evie of the descriptions of women in love in novels. “We are.”

Evie studied the woman in front of her. How had this woman found love in an arranged marriage? “I don’t understand.”

A nervous laugh escaped. “I didn’t either in the beginning.” Leigh Anna hesitated as though some voice in her head warned her to choose her words carefully. “I—” She took a deep breath. “I was supposed to marry someone else.” Her voice sounded stronger than the mist of tears in her eyes appeared. “Do you remember Ted Crestwood?”

Evie nodded. Confusion clouded her memories of an almost forgettable boy a few years older than herself. He was the definition of average: average height, average weight, average grades, average athletic ability.

Leigh Anna turned her eyes back to the shirt in her hand, blinked hard, and then looked back at Evie. “He had already asked Dad if he could marry me. In fact, his mother found an engagement ring in his room. He was headed home after work one night when a drunk hit him head on. The hospital said he died instantly.”

Silence hung like a heavy blanket over the room. Evie could hear her breath, heavy with sadness for her sister-in-law, as she tried to process the story. Leigh Anna spoke the words of certain sorrow with strength—maybe the strength that replaced fear as time worked its magic healing. Evie tried to conjure up the words to say to comfort Leigh Anna, but nothing seemed right.

Leigh Anna continued her story. “I took a semester off from school just to try to figure out where my life was going. Ted was almost finished with his degree in architecture. He was going to work for a firm for a few years, and when I finished with my business degree we were going to open a little firm on Main Street in Duncan. I could work and keep the kids there when they were younger.” Her eyes glazed over. Evie felt certain she was envisioning the little office that never existed. A certain sadness over what would never be filled her voice when she added, “When he died, all my plans died, too.”

“I can’t imagine,” Evie whispered.

Leigh Anna stood from her perch on the edge of Evie’s bed and walked over to the mirror attached to the dresser on the opposite side of the room. She ran her fingers through her hair for a minute before turning around and propping on the dresser to face Evie. Her eyes lacked the dreamy gaze and instead held an acceptance of reality.

“I realized I couldn’t depend on someone else. God promised not to give me more than he would give me the strength to handle. So I needed to handle this. I did not want to run a business for someone else, and I did not want to be in business by myself. So I looked into degrees that would allow me to support myself with or without a husband. Nursing presented the best opportunity; plus it would let me help other people, like Ted, who were hurt and needed someone. So I went back to school and drowned my sorrows in studying.”

“Wow,” Evie breathed. “But what about Taylor?” she asked as she remembered how they began this discussion.

Leigh Anna smiled openly. “Dad knew I had no interest in dating. For two years he let me deal with my loss. I came home to visit him one weekend, and he announced he had invited someone over for dinner. I was furious.” A light, airy laugh bubbled into the air. “I stormed to my room and packed my bags. I was determined to leave before this guy showed up. Dad followed me and began to explain the situation. He knew I was scared and fragile. He was afraid guys would take advantage of that. So he began to pray that God would direct a suitable husband into my life. That’s when your dad approached my dad about a marriage arrangement for Taylor and me.”

“Weren’t you angry?” Evie blurted out.

“Until Dad explained that he had asked around about Taylor and dug into his character before he agreed to set us up for a date. He promised me I did not have to marry Taylor, but he did expect me to have dinner with him and give him a chance. He knew Taylor had been very involved with the church youth group, the college student ministry, and that he was finishing his law degree. That’s why he thought we would get along. Taylor valued the same work ethic and Christian standards we valued.”

Evie opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again. “I forgot he was so involved,” she murmured. The next words tumbled out. “Since I stopped going when I came to college, I thought he did, too.”

Leigh Anna leaned backward and cocked her head to one side. “Really? You had no idea he was so involved with church?”

Evie shook her head. “We really didn’t talk much after he moved away to college. In fact, most of the weekends he came home I was gone somewhere.”

“Evie…” She twisted her hands together. “He’s accepted a job with a firm that defends religious groups. He’s planning to tell your parents this weekend. We’ll be moving to D.C. at the end of the year. He’ll start in January, and I’ll finish my final clinicals there with him.”

Evie’s struggled to process the news. “I never knew he was
that
involved.”

“That’s what really attracted me to him in the first place. I agreed to go out with him one time as a favor to my dad. We discussed our career goals, and he told me this was his dream job. I told him I wanted to finish nursing school, work for a year, and then start the nurse practitioner program. He supported my dream as much as I supported his.”

“So what made you decide to go out with him again?” Evie asked as she mentally set aside the news of her brother’s new job to focus on the continuing story of his courtship with his wife.

“He knew about Ted. When he took me home after our first date, we sat on the porch and talked for a long while. He asked about Ted and our relationship. He really listened as I explained what an amazing Christian Ted had been. He even held me while I cried. He said he knew if we started a relationship that Ted would always be there. He didn’t want to replace Ted or make me feel like I couldn’t talk about him. I knew at that moment he honestly cared about me and truly wanted to be a part of my life.”