This Changes Everything (23 page)

R
eluctantly
, Sly followed Liam and Cleo out the door. He wasn’t thrilled to join Trixie and Hugo’s wedding celebration right now. He’d been so close. Just a few more minutes and she would’ve caved. She’d be on her way to his place where he could seal the deal. Or begin sealing. It might take hours.
Days
.

Directly behind her, he watched her fair hair sway back and forth as she moved, remembering how silky it felt under his fingers. He’d always appreciated her hair, even before he’d been ready to admit how much he appreciated the rest of her.

She was still fighting it. Maybe the celebratory atmosphere would make his case better than he ever could.

“April and Zack are already here,” Liam said, striding down the steps to the driveway. “With their dog. It’s quite a zoo in there right now.”

“Is Mouse there too?” Cleo asked.

“I’m sure there are,” Liam said.

Cleo laughed, giving Sly hope.

“Not that kind,” Sly said. “Mouse is my dog. He’s with Bella right now.”

“Too bad,” she said softly.

“It is?” Sly asked.

She glanced at him. “Cool dog. I didn’t really get to see him before.”

“You will.” He held his breath, waiting for her to disagree. She didn’t say a word.

So close
. One toast and they were out of there. He’d properly congratulate Hugo later.

It was already dark outside, but unusually clear. No fog to block the three-quarter moon glowing over the roof of Trixie’s house or the shimmering lights of the East Bay cities below. November brought the first really cold nights of the year, but that was good for climbing into bed.

A red Mini pulled up just as they were crossing the driveway between the two houses. Rose climbed out and gave them all a curious look.

“Turns out Trixie’s really married,” Sly told her.

“I knew it!” Rose spun around and bent over to shout into the car. “I told you it was real!”

Liam threw up his hands. “Did everyone know but me?”

Mark got out of the Mini and slammed the door. “I thought Mom was fooling around.”

“Don’t remind me.” Liam marched up to the house and pulled open the front door. “Come on, let’s meet the guy.”

“He’s a good guy,” Sly said.

“Better be,” Liam said.

They filed inside and were attacked instantly by Trixie’s three tiny dogs and a larger, quieter dog with three legs.

Trixie rushed over with a champagne flute in each hand. “Oh, Liam, you interrupted them. I told you not to go over there.”

Liam whacked Sly’s shoulder. “He looked like he needed a moment to regroup.”

Trixie shoved a glass into Sly’s hand. “Buck up. She’ll come around.”

“Hello,” Cleo said. “Right here.”

“I know, dear, that’s why I’m holding this glass for you.” Trixie gave her the other one.

Hugo joined them with two more glasses. “We got a chocolate cake at Safeway. It’s in the kitchen.” He handed both glasses to Liam. “Come on, the ice cream’s melting.”

Putting their arms around each other, Trixie and Hugo wandered back into the kitchen.

“Nice,” Bev said, taking one of the glasses from Liam. “It’s like a birthday party. Oh, careful Sly. Look out below.”

Sly looked down and saw baby Merry crawling around Cleo’s feet, patting her boots with two chubby hands.

Sipping her drink, Cleo shot Sly a small smile. “She has a shoe fetish. Isn’t that cute?”

“You’re cute,” Sly said, pitching his voice low. “Irresistible, even.”

Cleo held his gaze. Pink spots bloomed on her cheeks.

Moving between them, Liam lifted up Merry and planted a raspberry on her belly. “Leave the shoesies alone when people are wearing them, Mer-bear. Your fingers will get squished.”

“We’ll get cake,” Bev said, clapping her hands. “Cake.”

“Ooh,” Merry said. Was she trying to say shoe? Could a one-year-old baby do that?

Bev and Liam followed the others to the kitchen.

“Ooh,” Merry repeated over her daddy’s shoulder.

Sly turned to Cleo. “Let’s get a piece of cake, shall we? I should give a toast.”

“Tough crowd.”

“I’ve had worse.” Sly stole a kiss. Her lips tasted like champagne. When she didn’t slap him or run away, he kissed her again. “I like your shoes too.”

She blinked and stepped away. “Somebody said there was chocolate.”

Feeling more than a little hopeful, he caught her arm in his and walked through the living and dining rooms to the kitchen. Although it was a big room, the Johnson family and its matrimonial satellites were a growing group. Mark and Liam’s little sister, April, was there with her boyfriend, Zack. Sly had hired him briefly that spring, but it hadn’t stuck. His relationship with April seemed far more lasting. He’d heard they were engaged.

Bev shoved two plates laden with chocolate cake and ice cream at them. “Everyone should start eating.”

“That’s my girl,” Liam said, smiling at her over the fork in his mouth.

“Well, they should,” Bev said. “The ice cream’s melting.”

“While everyone does that,” Hugo said, “I just want to say how much I appreciate you welcoming me into your family like this.”

There was only a split second of silence. Then Liam said, “As long as my mom’s happy, I’m happy.”

Trixie burst into tears. “Oh, I knew it would be OK.” She flung her arms around her oldest son and hugged him so hard he yelped. When she withdrew, he had chocolate smeared over his white dress shirt.

Hugo blotted her tears with a paper towel. “I told you.”

“It’s Mark I’m worried about,” Trixie said, looking around. She found him sitting on the floor with the three-legged dog in his lap. “Are you OK?”

Mark drained his champagne. “I’m kind of annoyed. But I’ll get over it.”

“It’s annoying I’ve brought another man into your father’s home?” Trixie asked.

“No, it’s annoying I was…” He frowned. “Wrong. I hate being wrong.”

“You didn’t have all the data,” Rose said, stroking unkempt hair off his forehead. “Garbage in, garbage out.”

“
I
didn’t need any extra data,” Liam said.

Mark looked mournfully into his wife’s eyes. “He’s never going to let me live this down.”

“What data did you need, honey?” Trixie asked.

Leaning on Rose, Mark got to his feet. He gestured at Hugo. “I’d never seen you two together.”

Sly looked at his uncle, flushed and beaming. He saw the way Trixie stood next to him so that at least one body part was always in contact.

“But now that you have?” Trixie put both arms around Hugo and rested her cheek on his flannel-shirted chest.

“Now I know I’ve got a new stepfather,” Mark said. “Not that I had an old one. Right?”

Trixie smiled up at Hugo. “He’s the first.”

“And the last,” Hugo said.

“Unless you die,” she said, still smiling.

More than one person sucked in a shocked breath.

“Well, I am a widow, for Christ’s sake,” Trixie said. “I’m just being realistic.”

After everyone had some cake and champagne and shook Hugo’s hand or hugged Trixie, the initial discomfort seemed to fade. Conversation turned to Merry and grandchildren, Rose and Mark’s wedding earlier that year, April and Zack’s recent engagement, and the family’s plans for Thanksgiving.

Conscious of being an outsider, Cleo moved to the back of the group, near the doorway to the dining room, where she could shovel more chocolate cake into her mouth. As soon as the moment was right, she was going to slip away.

“How about a toast,” Sly declared, tapping a spoon against a glass. He was standing in the middle of the group, a relaxed smile on his face.

Cleo ate another bite of cake but was too distracted to taste it. He was always so confident. Anytime, anyplace. Always at ease, always sure of himself. Almost as much of an outsider as she was, but right there in the middle of things, commanding attention and getting things done.

He raised his voice to address the group that was now circled around him. “I haven’t prepared anything to say, given the circumstances, so I’ll have to speak from my heart. I do have a heart, by the way.” He grinned as the group laughed. His gaze met Cleo’s and held it. “Not that I can claim to be an expert on love. Not this kind of love. Some people are naturals and seem to be born with an infinite capacity for giving and sharing and caring.”

She swallowed.

“The rest of us,” he continued, “are selfish bastards.” His grin returned along with the laughter.

“Speak for yourself,” Mark called out.

“Oh, I do, I do,” Sly said. “Which is exactly what Hugo and Trixie said back there in Vegas. I’m not a big fan of Elvis, but he did a pretty good job of capturing the moment in words. Don’t be cruel, love me tender. Or whatever. Like I said, I’m not a fan.”

“You’re rambling,” Mark said.

“Hey, you’re next, geek boy,” Sly said. “Because, as I said, I have a heart, or I did before I gave it away. Some of us are late bloomers. Some of us are slow to figure things out. But we get there in the end. And if we’re lucky, we get the chance to make it stick. Make it forever. All those years of getting it wrong have made us experts on what to do to get it right. And we’re afraid of going back. It’s highly motivating, is what I’m saying.”

“What
are
you saying?” Mark asked.

“Let’s see if you like it when you get interrupted at my wedding, Mark,” Sly said.

“You’re getting married?” April asked. “When did this happen?”

C
leo couldn’t take
it anymore. She dropped her empty plate on the counter and ducked out of the room.

It didn’t feel real. It was like a play, and she was exiting stage left. Just a few days ago, Sly had run away at the thought of marriage. Now he was announcing their mythical engagement in front of his family and friends.

Her body felt weightless, insubstantial. She floated through the living room and out the front door. She floated down the steps to the driveway and across the pavement to her car parked next door.

There she put her hand on the hood and drew in a breath, feeling as if she’d run a marathon at ten thousand feet.

“Hold it!”

She looked back at Trixie’s house, not recognizing the voice. To her amazement, she saw Sly barreling down the steps three at a time, arms waving.

What was the matter with him?

He ran across the driveway, tripped over a rosemary hedge, and tumbled to his knees into the mulch. Before he was even on his feet, he gasped “Cleo!” and lurched forward and fell again. “Please.”

She continued to stare. Although she did have her hand on the hood of her car, she hadn’t intended on driving away just yet. Her plan had been to enjoy the fresh air and ponder the infinite sky while she waited for him to come out of the house so she could tell him she loved him.

But maybe he didn’t need to know that. She kind of liked seeing him all riled up. Desperation looked good on him. It went nicely with his dimpled chin and bedroom eyes.

Sure, it was evil, but she’d make it up to him.

“Yes?” she asked, staying where she was.

He got to his feet and brushed the bark chips off his knees. “Don’t go. Please, for God’s sake. We have a chance to really make something here. You and me. Don’t you see? It’s real. It’s never happened to me before. I didn’t realize what it was until it was almost too late. Don’t make it too late. I love you, Cleo. I love you like crazy. I think I’ve loved you for a really long time. I was just too stupid to admit it.” He approached her slowly, one hand out in front of him as if he were soothing an unbroken filly.

She overcame the urge to neigh. “How long, do you think? That you’ve loved me?”

“I don’t know, a long time. At least since that time you got me to sneak into the Claremont with you to use the hot tub.”

Her insides went gooey on her. “That was ages ago,” she whispered. “I thought you’d forgotten about that.”

“Hardly. It’s the first time I saw you… almost naked. And then you went into the water.” His nostrils flared.

The Claremont was a ritzy hotel and spa in Berkeley that catered to rich vacationers and the business elite. That day had been the one-year anniversary of her divorce, and she’d needed a distraction.

“It was one of the best days of my life,” he said. “But now I know that’s because you were in it.”

Her heart skipped. Oh, he did good grovel. She couldn’t keep up the tough act much longer. “And you got to see me all wet and slippery.”

Nodding, holding her gaze, he took a step closer. “I felt guilty about… dwelling over… that day as often as I did.”

“Dwelling?”

He was directly in front of her, inches away. “Fantasizing.”

“Why didn’t you do anything?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I—” Because she’d never let herself believe it was possible. “I had no idea you felt that way.”

“So you fantasized about me, too?” Smiling faintly, he brushed his knuckles across her cheek. Shivers ran down her back.

She’d walked right into that one. “No.” When he tensed, she put her hand over his wrist. “I didn’t let myself.”

“I’m a guy. I let myself. Sometimes more than once on the same day.” He pressed the back of his hand against her cheek. “You’re blushing again.”

She was. Like crazy. But she was also laughing.

With a sigh, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Kiss me.”

Lowering his head, he returned the embrace and slanted his mouth over hers. Gentle and then hard, demanding. She slipped her tongue between his teeth and savored the feel and taste of him. His hands moved down her back and held her firmly against him. The kiss deepened. She ran her fingers through his hair—for days she’d been afraid she’d done that for the last time—and pushed him against the side of her car.

“As much as I’d like to,” he said, nibbling her eyebrow, “we can’t do this here.”

“Why not?”

“Because, sexy temptress, the things I’m going to do to you aren’t intended for a general audience.”

Running her tongue along his jaw, she twirled a lock of his hair around her index finger. “What kind of things?”

He moved a hand between her legs. “Good things.”

Her brain flickered and went dark. She was done thinking for a while. “Sounds good.”

“Get your car later. Come on.” He clasped her hand and pulled her with him down the driveway to the street. “Mine is parked just a few houses down. A neighbor let me put it there.”

“Because of Trixie?” she asked, jogging after him.

“Because of Trixie.”

“She’s really something,” she said.

He stopped and twirled her into his arms. Moonlight lit up his face. “You’re the something. My something,” he said softly. “My everything.”

Her word was only a breath. “Oh.”

“I meant what I said at the house. I want to marry you and have babies and watch TV with the babies and maybe even learn how to play the piano.”

Was this really happening?

Shaking his head, he stroked her shoulder. “I’m going too fast. I’m scaring you. Forget I said anything.”

Belatedly, she found her voice. “Are you kidding? I’m trying to memorize every word. I’m afraid I’ll get it wrong when I tell my mom.”

He recoiled in mock alarm. “The future mother-in-law.”

“Stop that. When you ask me to marry you,
if
you do, make it really obvious that’s what you’re doing. Or if it’s me, I’ll do the same. Otherwise it doesn’t feel serious. It’s like we’re just joking around.”

He caught her up again in his arms and kissed her so hard she forgot her name.

An immeasurable amount of time later, he asked, “Did that feel serious?”

A siren wailed in the distance. The night breeze, picking up force, blew a strand of hair out of his eyes.

“Oh, yeah,” she said.