The Bride's Curse (21 page)

“Oh, I do remember all that,” said Mary. “My grandmother had hated Troy’s grandmother ever since some boy she liked had asked the other one to a deb dance. They hadn’t spoken civilly in years. I had to make my mother promise to keep them apart. And one of my bridesmaids got into a snit because I’d chosen lemon yellow brocade for their gowns and she said it didn’t suit her coloring … ha, but it’s all a long time ago and it didn’t matter anyway, in the end.”

“You poor dear,” Noelia said with real feeling. “You just go and sit down with the young ones and I’ll bring us some nice chamomile tea and maybe see if there are some chocolate digestives left.” Noelia’s recipe for all ills—tea & English chocolate digestive biscuits.

Kelly had quickly explained to Noelia that the ghost was not the missing groom but, in fact, his best friend. Or ex-best friend, Noelia corrected. “Obviously, he’s the rat who had something to do with the wedding not going ahead and I doubt the groom would still consider him his best friend. And rightly so.”

“How do you reckon that?” Brett asked.

“The miserable beast seems to like keeping people in suspense and playing tricks on them. I mean, he could easily have confided in Kelly, explained what was happening, who he was and what he wanted. But he’s kept her dangling all this time, as if his wishes were some hilarious treasure hunt.”

“Apparently there are rules that govern haunting,” Kelly said dryly.

Mary drew in a sharp breath. “It’s true that Peter liked to play practical jokes, but surely he wouldn’t have been mean enough to deliberately ruin our wedding day. Although getting Troy drunk … ”

A sudden shrill whistling sound pierced the silence, startling them all. “Is that … ?” Mary asked, looking around nervously.

“The ghost?” Noelia asked sweetly. “Oh, no. That’s just our old fashioned kettle letting us know it’s on the boil and ready to make instant coffee for us.” She aimed a meaningful glance at Kelly.

“You drink instant coffee?” Both Atwells exclaimed at once, looking incredulous.

Kelly flushed with embarrassment but before she could stutter an excuse Noelia chimed in. “Yes, we do, because some dumb ghost broke our glass carafe on the very ancient coffee maker we used to have, and we had that because the BOSS of this store is too mean to spring for a modern coffee maker.”

Kelly flushed a deeper crimson. “It’s just not been in the budget, but remember what I said? That we’d get one … ”

“Yeah, well, until then, it’s instant. But we do have cream.”

“So, let’s get to it, shall we? This your computer? Not as ancient as your coffee maker, I’m glad to see.” Brett rubbed his hands together in anticipation of finally solving the decades-old mystery of his aunt’s missing groom.

Noelia agreed to take care of whatever customers ventured into Wedding Bliss so, armed with steaming mugs of strong coffee and a plate of chocolate biscuits, Mary, Troy, and Kelly gathered around the store computer in the back room and accessed the Internet. Kelly asked Mary to write down some of the things she knew about Troy.

“What sort of things?” she asked.

“Start with his age, birthdate, where he was born, parents’ names, and siblings, that sort of thing. And things he liked, hobbies, anything like that. These could be leads in tracking him down.”

Mary looked doubtful. “After all these years? I mean, he used to love frozen bananas covered in chocolate, he jogged six miles every morning, and he collected Superman comic books. But he’ll be in his sixties now. I think it’s unlikely he’ll have the same interests. After all, I used to be his main interest and that obviously changed … ”

“Don’t be bitter—you’re not the only bride to be left at the altar, you know.” Kelly softened the words with a smile, but she could see that Mary felt the sting so she added, “My fiancé chickened out just a couple of weeks before the wedding. Believe me, I now realize it was the best thing that ever happened.”

“Don’t you ever wonder what might have been?” Mary was pulling up an old wooden chair from the corner of the room, deliberately avoiding Kelly’s eyes.

Kelly sighed. “No, I don’t believe in regrets like that. No one can build a life on might-have-beens.”

Mary surprised her by plopping her bottom down on the chair beside her and leaning over to pat her cheek. “I know how much you must have been hurt. But you’re a wise woman, too. You’re not spending the best part of your life pining away for a man who obviously wasn’t good enough for you, especially when there are such better choices around.” Her eyes slid toward Brett, who was tapping his fingers on the Mickey Mouse mouse pad while watching the computer’s search engine load. Kelly’s redhead complexion blushed deep scarlet. How much did Mary know or guess about her relationship with Brett?

Mary sighed again. “That’s what I did, wasted the best part of my life and it took you seeking me out—and that nephew of mine—to pull the blinkers from my eyes.”

“Group hug!” Brett declared with a grin, wrapping his arms around Kelly and Mary. “If all this warm and fuzzy stuff goes on much longer, I may forget I’m a big strong guy and cry like a girl.”

The moment lightened, they turned to the computer, laughing.

At first their task looked daunting. “Who’d have thought there could be so many Troy Matthews in Maine with a birthday in March?” Kelly groaned as Google spat out a seemingly endless list.

Mary patted her hand over the computer mouse. “Don’t get discouraged, dear. After all, we’re not even sure Troy is in Maine. There are forty-nine other states as well, you know.”

“And then there are the other 192 countries in the United Nations, not to mention the rest of the world … ” Brett added mischievously.

“Thanks, guys. Ever heard the term ‘Job’s comforter’?”

“Isn’t that the guy in the Bible who … well, didn’t get that much comforting?”

“Got it in one. Now, can we come up with some filters for these results?”

“Sure,” Mary said. “Only, er, what are filters?”

Kelly resisted the urge to beat her head against the computer screen while Brett explained the mechanics of a computer search to his aunt.

“What about his war service?” Mary asked. “I’m pretty sure Troy would have gone to Vietnam if he was drafted.”

“But so would many others,” Brett pointed out.

“Yes, but it cuts down on the number of Troy Matthews we have to look at—by army service, age, etc.” Mary looked down at her lap and added quietly. “There might also be records if he … if he didn’t come back.”

Kelly used Mary’s list to filter for age, place of birth, parents’ names, military service … and let out a groan of frustration that startled the other two out of their Computer 101 conversation.

“I think this is Mission Impossible,” she told them. “It’s going to take years to check out all these Troy Matthews results.”

“Are there no matches at all?”

“That’s the problem. There are plenty of matches and the only way to really weed them out is to start getting phone numbers, if we can find them, and start calling … ”

At that moment, Noelia came in carrying a tray of sandwiches from the nearby Sweets ’n’ Savories Café. “Thought you might need some refreshments, ladies and gentleman.” She grinned. Peering at the screen over Kelly’s shoulder, she murmured, “There sure are a lot of Troy Matthews.”

“Too many. I feel defeated,” said Kelly.

Noelia handed the sandwiches out and poured hot water onto instant coffee. “Do you remember that
Sesame Street
thing? You know, ‘one of these things is not like the other one’?”

Eye rolls all around, but Noelia ignored them. “You had to look at the objects and decide what made one of them different. You’ve got lots of results that look the same there, so what’s different about our Troy Matthews?”

“Yeah, we have a gazillion of them to go through to find that one that’s different. If he’s even here.” Kelly’s voice was bleak.

“Don’t despair—let Auntie Noelia help.”

“She’s your aunt?” Mary asked, looking from Kelly’s tall, red haired, slim figure to Noelia’s short, gray/blond and comfortable one, with an eyebrow raised.

Kelly rolled her eyes again.

“Just a figure of speech, Auntie,” Brett broke in.

“Well, now we’ve got that out of the way. Listen to my brilliant idea. This Troy comes from a pretty well-off family, right?” Noelia continued.

Mary nodded. “Oh yes. They claimed they could trace their ancestry back to the Mayflower. I believe their relative was a cook or janitor on board … ” she added waspishly.

“So, we have a seafaring cook or janitor whose family has gone up in the world through a few generations. Wouldn’t a scion of a family like that go to an Ivy League university? And don’t they keep good records of their alumni?”

Stunned silence followed. Kelly gave a whoop and threw her arms around Noelia. “I’ve always said you were brilliant—I just never knew how much!”

Noelia looked smug. “While you’re feeling grateful, how about a new coffee maker?”

“Let’s just see if you’re right.” Kelly turned a questioning glance on Mary. Her heart kicked up a notch when the older woman answered, “Oh, yes, generations of Matthews went to Harvard Law.”

This time Kelly let Brett take over the computer as she finished her meal and drank coffee. Mary was so quiet she asked her if something was wrong. “Don’t be too disheartened, we’ll find Troy,” she said.

“I was always afraid I’d find out that all the time I’d been hating him and loving him and grieving, that he was dead.” Tears stood out in Mary’s eyes.

Kelly gave her a quick hug. Then she swapped places with Brett. He had already opened the Harvard Law School site and was working on lists of their alumni from the relevant time period. After glancing at several, she gave a little victory cry.

Turning the screen slightly so that Mary could see, she asked, “Do you think this could be Troy, forty-some years later?”

Mary put on her reading glasses and peered at the small photo that appeared alongside the details of one Troy Joseph Matthews of Bar Harbor, Maine. “Oh, dear lord, yes, it surely just could be. He’s got less hair, more wrinkles—haven’t we all—and he didn’t wear glasses, but yes, it could be him.” She clutched her hand to her chest and tears sprang into her eyes. But a mischievous smile danced on her lips and she added, “Still got that sparkle in his eye, though. My, Troy, you’re still an attractive man!”

Brett and Kelly met each other’s gaze and did a synchronized eye roll. Catching them, Mary sniffed and said, “What? Just because I’m old doesn’t mean I don’t have … feelings.”

Chastened, Brett moved back to the computer. Several key taps later, he sighed. “It says he served in Vietnam and he’s kept in touch with his alumni but I can’t find an address and he’s not listed in the phone directory.”

“Ah, sometimes keeping up with friends can bring benefits. Just give me a few minutes. I still have some connections … ” Kelly pulled her phone from her purse.

• • •

They almost needed a shoehorn to pry Mary away from the online information, scanty as it was, about Troy Matthews. It appeared he’d finished law school, done service in Vietnam, been wounded, and returned to Maine. There he had spent some time in rehab, then attended college and become a Certified Public Accountant.

“Golly, I can’t imagine Troy as an accountant. All the ones I’ve ever met are staid and stuffy.”

Brett and Kelly locked gazes above his aunt’s head.

“Aunt Mary, have you considered the idea that you might not like the, er, mature version of your long ago love?” Brett was trying to be tactful. Kelly didn’t know whether to cry or laugh at the attempt.

“What your nephew is trying to say, in his own special roundabout way, is maybe you’ll be disappointed if we actually find this guy and he’s a real boring old jerk and you don’t like him anymore. Like looking at the photo of the class stud in the school yearbook, then meeting him at a school reunion years later, all beer belly, bald, and gone to seed, and wondering what the hell your crush had been about.”

Mary was silent for a few minutes as she thought about that. Finally, she heaved a sigh and said, “After all these years I’m not expecting the same virile young man I once knew.” She winked at Kelly as she heard Brett’s scandalized intake of breath. “Right now, however, I’d just like to look him in the eye and find out just why he dumped me like a … a … ”

“That’s okay, Auntie, we get the picture. Anyhow, now that Kelly’s managed to get an address from some of her friends in the veterans’ volunteer group, we should schedule a visit. Bar Harbor is a bit of a drive from here, so I suggest we leave it until tomorrow, when we’re all fresh and we won’t be hammering on the poor guy’s door after he’s in bed.”

“I don’t want to phone in advance; I’d rather just call in on him, surprise him, and see how he reacts. See if he even recognizes me, remembers me, now.” Mary’s voice had a sad, wistful note that wrenched at Kelly’s heartstrings.

Brett and Mary arrived at Wedding Bliss a little later than planned the next morning. Kelly watched curiously from the window of Wedding Bliss as Brett moved to the passenger seat and helped Mary out onto the sidewalk. The older woman was carrying a large gift wrapped box.

“I wonder whatever that’s about,” she murmured to Noelia, who had come to stand beside her.

“I haven’t got a clue, but I do love presents. Wonder who it’s for?” Noelia opened the door to let Mary and Brett in,

“You were so good to us yesterday, Noelia,” Mary said. “And so we thought a little gift was in order.”

Mary made a great show of presenting the gift to Noelia Russo. Noelia glanced at Kelly, who patted her shoulder. “I know how much you love presents,” she said. “Go ahead—you open it.”

Noelia began to eagerly rip off the wrappings, then blushed and looked at her audience. “I’m sorry for tearing into it, but I don’t often get presents.”

“Go ahead, dear, and I hope you enjoy it,” Mary told her.

The last sheet of giftwrap fell to the floor to reveal a box containing a gleaming state-of-the-art coffee maker, complete with all the bells and whistles. Noelia screeched with joy, hugged Mary, and carried the box into the back room to set it up. Mary went with her to enjoy watching her put the machine together, so Kelly took the chance to hug Brett. He gathered her into his arms for a lingering, hot kiss. “I’m glad you stayed with me last night, Red. I love falling asleep with you and waking up to find you still there.”