And Then He Kissed Me

by Southwick, Teresa

  “She really wants us there?”

  “If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have extended the invitation. You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced a Marchetti holiday.”

  “What about your grandmother?”

  “We’re going to keep our fingers crossed that this is nothing serious. If the worst happens, we’ll go with Plan B. Until then, we’ll assume that it’s business as usual. And I would very much like you to be there.”

  Abby felt like she was standing on a cliff, one foot solid on the ground, the other poised in the air. She could pull back, or free-fall. It would have been safe if he was still involved with Madison. Although, he’d said breaking it off was Madison’s idea. So he still had feelings for her. Which meant that as far as she, Abby, was concerned, it was still harmless. And with the rest of his family there, she would barely see him. But his last words tipped the scale.

  “So what do you say? Will you come?”

  She took a deep breath, then smiled. “Yes.”

  Chapter Six

  Florence Marchetti graciously held court at the head of the table while her husband, Tom, charmed everyone at his end. Abby watched, feeling as if she was dreaming the best holiday she’d ever had. The day had been magical so far. All the Marchettis had treated the Ridgeway sisters as part of the family from the moment they’d arrived. Nick had teased and joked, behaving like the friend he’d always been to her. She was finally relaxing into the spirit of the festivities.

  Flo glanced at each member of her family, then smiled warmly at her two guests. “Gentlemen, and ladies, this is the portion of the program where everyone has to tell what he—or she—is thankful for.”

  “All together now,” Nick said. In unison with his siblings, he groaned loudly.

  Abby couldn’t help laughing. She was sitting, to Mrs. M.’s right, tucked between Joe and Luke with Grandma on her left. Sarah sat beside the older woman and directly across from Alex. Nick was on one side of his dad, and his sister Rosie with her husband Steve and six-month-old baby Stephanie on the other. The flowers, silverware, matching crystal and china were breathtaking on the Italian lace tablecloth.

  Abby couldn’t believe she was a guest. She was still shaking her head over the fact that eleven adults and one baby in a high chair were comfortably seated at this feast. There wasn’t a folding table or chair in sight. And she, Abby, was included.

  This must be the equivalent of the fairy-tale ball. But Abby would bet her gravy and mashed potatoes that no one made Cinderella give a speech about how grateful she was. So every fairy tale had a price. Soon it would be Abby’s turn to come up with something articulate and witty—all the Marchettis were glib and interesting—and actually speak about what she was thankful for. Unless a miracle or a disaster happened, she didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting out of it.

  From the opposite end of the table, Tom Marchetti said, “You start, Flo.”

  “Thank you, dear. I’m grateful for my healthy family.” The woman’s glowing gaze lingered on her granddaughter, then moved on and stopped at her mother-in-law. “I’m thankful that Grandma’s tests showed she had nothing more than high gas pains. And I’m very, very thankful that Sarah and Abby could join us today to equalize the male-to-female ratio.”

  “Amen to that,” Rosie said. “Steve and I have done our part with a baby girl. But the rest of you are lagging.” She glanced lovingly at her husband, then sternly looked at her four older brothers. “What’s the holdup, guys?”

  “No holdup,” Luke explained. “That would imply a delay in a plan to have children. Hard to do when you’re a confirmed bachelor like myself and my brothers.” He looked around. “Right, guys?”

  Joe nodded agreement. “That means we’re never getting married,” he clarified. “But if I do, and that’s a very big if, I will produce only male children.”

  “Like you have so much control,” Rosie teased.

  “Don’t go there, sis,” Joe said. “You’ll lose that argument.”

  “I know who determines the sex of the baby,” Rosie scoffed. “I was talking about the ‘married’ part.”

  Joe shot her a disbelieving look. “You don’t think I can fend off a determined woman bent on marriage?”

  Rosie laughed. “I think you’ll fall like a ton of bricks when you meet the right woman, so don’t even talk to me about controlling a romantic situation.”

  Abby breathed a sigh of relief that their verbal sparring gave her a reprieve from the thanks-giving speeches. On top of that, it gave her an opportunity to observe all the Marchetti men in one place and in action. She studied Nick, who was putting away a fair amount of turkey and dressing. He was the best-looking by far, she decided, among an impressive display of masculinity. Joe and Alex had the same dark coloring. Luke’s hair was lighter brown and he was the only one with blue eyes. She had never noticed that before.

  “Marchetti men have control over everything, at all times,” Alex said. “Including marriage.”

  “Right on, bro. That said,” Joe continued, “I guess I’m thankful that I’m not married.”

  “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.” Rosie’s husband, Steve Schafer, gestured with his fork. His darkblond hair and blue-eyed good looks were an attractive counterpoint to his wife’s wildly curly black hair and brown eyes.

  “Rosie told you to say that,” Alex said.

  “I did not.” She shot him a glare, then leaned down to retrieve the rattle her daughter had dropped.

  “She didn’t,” Steve agreed. “Marrying Rosie and having the baby were the best things that ever happened to me.”

  “She’s the most beautiful baby in the whole world,” Sarah chimed in.

  “Stephanie is the best,” Joe agreed. “Too bad you were also forced to take my sister in the merger.”

  “I’d be a mess without Rosie,” Steve said with heartfelt sincerity. The look he gave his wife was filled with so much love, Abby felt it clear down at her end of the table.

  “Thank you, honey.” Rosie leaned over and kissed her husband’s lean cheek. “I suppose it’s no secret that I’ve loved you since I was a girl. As far as I’m concerned, you still walk on water.”

  Abby suddenly realized what the phrase “lonely in a crowd” meant. And the term “third wheel.” Seeing this young couple so much in love opened an ache inside her. Would she ever find something like that? Absolutely, came her answer. Just as soon as she had the time to look.

  “It’s gettin’ deep in here,” Joe said.

  “You can say that again,” Alex agreed.

  “I third that,” Luke chimed in. “You’re awfully quiet, Nick. Does this mean you’re weakening on the subject of marriage? Is there going to be an announcement soon about you and Madison?”

  Nick met Abby’s gaze down the expanse of table. “No. She broke it off. She thinks I have feelings for Abby.”

  Abby felt eleven pairs of eyes on her. It would have been twelve, but baby Stephanie was busy examining her fingers. A ten-second thankful speech would have been easier.

  “Nick mentioned that to me,” Flo said. “And I’ve found Madison to be quite perceptive.”

  “She’s wrong this time,” Abby answered. She remembered Nick saying that his mother liked Madison and was disappointed about the rift. “Besides, I think they’ll work it out. They’re just taking a break from each other.”

  “Interesting,” Luke said. “She’s beautiful and brainy, with a body that—”

  “Careful, Luke,” his mother warned. “We have an impressionable teenage girl here.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. M.,” Sarah said. “But I’ve heard worse. High-school guys are so gross.”

  “What about Austin?” Nick asked her.

  “He’s different,” Sarah answered, looking down at her plate as a blush crept into her cheeks.

  “We’re getting off the subject,” Luke said. “Whose idea was it to take a break?” he asked Nick.

  The edge in his voice drew Abby�
�s attention to him and the way he stared at his older brother. Something had kicked up the intensity in his already intense blue eyes. Interesting, she thought.

  “It was hers,” Nick answered.

  “Then she had her reasons,” Tom Marchetti interjected.

  “Getting back to what we’re thankful for,” Nick said, changing the subject again. “I’m more thankful than I can say that I’m not married.”

  “Me too,” Joe said.

  “Me three,” Alex added.

  “Never have, never will,” Luke chimed in fervently.

  Flo Marchetti looked around the table, clearly puzzled by her sons’ attitude. She fixed her gaze on Nick. “You’re responsible for this.”

  “Me? What did I do?”

  “You’re the oldest. The leader of the pack. You set the pace. You’ve obviously done something, or said something, to turn your brothers off to the institution of marriage.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Ma.” Nick’s eyes sparkled with humor.

  “Don’t blame Nick,” Joe said. Abby liked the way he jumped to his brother’s defense. “We’re not a pack of sheep.” He glared at Rosie when she made a baa sound, then continued. “We don’t follow the leader. We can think for ourselves.”

  “Darn right we can,” Nick seconded.

  “You know, Flo,” Tom Marchetti interjected, “it’s really none of our business. When the boys are ready and the time is right, they’ll get married. You can’t rush these things.”

  The woman smiled at her husband. “You’re right, dear. But I can’t help being a little impatient at the amount of time they’re taking. I’m not getting any younger. I would like more grandchildren. And this attitude. What makes you all so positive that marriage is something to be strenuously avoided?” Flo looked around her table at each of her sons. “There’s a saying—”

  “Never judge anyone till you’ve walked a mile in his sneakers,” Nick, Joe, Alex, Luke and Rosie all chimed in together.

  “Apparently I’ve said that once or twice before. And I thought no one listened to me.” Flo grinned at their good-natured teasing. “Except for Rosie and Steve, none of your sneakers has ever walked down the aisle. So how can you be so sure marriage is the pits?”

  “It clips a man’s wings.” Joe shrugged.

  “Have you ever been married?” she shot back.

  “Of course not, but—”

  “Then don’t talk to me.” She looked at Alex and Luke in turn. “You two?”

  “No, but—”

  “Then you don’t get an opinion.” She fixed Nick with a look that even a covert operative trained to resist terrorist interrogation would have trouble ignoring. “Nick?”

  Abby was puzzled. Surely they knew about Nick’s marriage. Why would his mother dwell on something that had hurt her son so badly?

  As his silence stretched, Flo Marchetti’s eyes narrowed on the son in question. “You have that look, Nick.”

  The eldest of the macho Marchetti brothers squirmed. “What look? I don’t have a look.”

  “Since you were a little boy, and you did something you were ashamed of, you would get an expression on your face.”

  “You’re imagining things, Ma,” he said shrugging.

  Flo shook her head. “I can’t explain it. Just something a mother knows. So I say again, how can you judge the institution of marriage when you’ve never been married?”

  Nick met his mother’s gaze, then glanced quickly at his father who was watching him intently. He looked at Abby, then said, “I suppose it’s about time you knew. I was married.”

  It was as if the cone of silence had descended over the table. No one said a word; all of them stared at Nick. Abby could tell from the genuine expressions of shock that no one in his family had known about this. She didn’t know what to make of the fact that he’d told her. Good heavens. Why?

  The stunned, unnatural quiet stretched on and grew awkward. Finally, Flo cleared her throat. When she spoke, her voice was surprisingly soft. “Why didn’t you tell us, Nick?”

  “It’s not something I’m proud of. Like you said, I’m the oldest. I set the pace. Some standard, huh?”

  “But we’re your family, son.” His father’s gaze held sympathy.

  Nick is hating this, Abby thought, studying his smoldering eyes and tight jaw.

  Thoughtfully, his mother took a sip of wine. “It happened that summer you worked in Phoenix.”

  Nick nodded. “She was pregnant.” There was a gasp of surprise from Rosie.

  “With your baby?” Tom Marchetti’s tone was controlled, barely.

  “No. The father walked out on her. I cared about her, so I proposed. I wanted to take care of her and the baby. She said yes.”

  “So what happened?” Joe looked shell-shocked.

  “The jerk came back. He had a change of heart.”

  “And so did the woman?” Flo’s expression was angry, a mother lioness protecting her cub.

  Abby knew exactly how she felt. She saw the miserable look in Nick’s eyes and wanted to wrap her arms around him. At the same time, she would give anything to have five minutes alone with the witch who had made him look like that. There would be a tonguelashing of monumental proportions.

  Nick heaved a sigh. “Yeah, she took him back. Said she loved him and it would be best for him to raise his child. She got an annulment.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Rosie asked, shock and indignation in her voice. “I don’t understand how you could keep something like this a secret from your family.”

  That makes two of us, Abby thought.

  “Yeah.” Steve’s face, normally impassive, showed his confusion and hurt. “You never said a word.”

  Nick ran a hand through his hair. “It was a stupid thing to do. Not one of my better moments. I didn’t think it was necessary to share my humiliation.”

  It wasn’t that, Abby thought. And he wasn’t a coward. He’d been terribly used. She glanced around the table and saw the same expression in everyone’s eyes—pain and anger. He hadn’t wanted his family to suffer, too. The need to shield them had kept him quiet. But he also felt it was his mistake to fix. All alone. How awful for him, she realized. Keeping the feelings bottled up inside him. Again, she had the urge to wrap her arms around him and comfort him.

  “Well no wonder you’re a confirmed bachelor,” Luke said. “The woman in Phoenix, then Madison. You’re zero for two, bro.”

  There was a teasing note in his voice, but Abby sensed it was too soon for one of Nick’s wry grins. She knew her instinct was right when Nick glared at his brother and stood up. “I think I’ll get some air. Just talk amongst yourselves.”

  Standing on the sidewalk outside his parents’ home, Nick dragged in a breath of air. It was dusk, and a stiff breeze made the November evening chilly. Not to mention the hovering moisture that hinted of rain. But after being on the family hot seat, it felt pretty good. So the cat was finally out of the bag. He felt two parts relief mixed with a dash of embarrassment and anger. Which wasn’t nearly as bad as he’d expected.

  Somehow, telling Abby first had taken a lot of the sting from the wound. He had to thank her again for that.

  The front door opened. He didn’t look around to see who it was. Either his mother or sister, he suspected. They’d both want to give him a shoulder to cry on.

  Amazingly, he found he didn’t need to cry. He’d come outside because he didn’t want to talk about it anymore, and he knew they needed to.

  A single set of footsteps sounded behind him on the concrete. Then a familiar fragrance surrounded him. Abby. His gut tightened with anticipation, and his nerve endings began to tingle. His heart rate kicked up. His powerful physical response to her worried him. He had just come clean about his one and only folly. He’d vowed never to take a chance again. No way did he want a repeat performance.

  Standing beside him, Abby faced into the chill wind. It blew the hair off her face. She was wearing black slacks and a fuzzy, soft-looking
royal-blue sweater that he’d noticed earlier made her eyes sparkle like rare and beautiful sapphires.

  “You never told your family, Nick.” She spoke softly, but her tone was filled with censure.

  “It would only have hurt them, and there was nothing they could have done.”

  “I know that.”

  “I’m the golden boy. I got dumped in a big way. I didn’t want their pity.”

  “I figured that, too.”

  Since when had she gotten to know him so well? He looked down at her pensive profile as she stood beside him. “My humiliation is complete. I finally told them.”

  She glanced at him, then started to pace back and forth in front of him on the sidewalk. “You have nothing to feel sorry about. That woman gets the blue ribbon for dumb. She hurt a great guy like you. There should be a special place in hell for her. You were willing to be a father to her baby, and she tossed you aside like yesterday’s linguine for the jerk who hadn’t the decency to marry her right away.” She walked four paces, then stomped back and stared indignantly up at him.

  Nick was stunned. When he’d first told her, she’d been supportive and bracing. And he liked that. He also liked that somewhere in her passionate monologue there was rage on his behalf. On top of everything else, he couldn’t help thinking that she was beautiful when she was angry.

  And he wanted to kiss her.

  Big mistake, he told himself. Don’t go there.

  She continued to walk back and forth, shaking her head and mumbling. He could almost see the steam coming out of her ears. A smart man didn’t step in front of an out-of-control locomotive. Nick considered himself to have above-average intelligence. He folded his arms over his chest and watched for several moments in surprised fascination.

  Finally he couldn’t stand the suspense and had to ask, “Why are you so mad now?” he asked.

  “Because I saw what it did to you, telling them like that.” She stopped in front of him and put her hand on his arm.

  “Thanks to you, it wasn’t as bad as I’d thought.”

  In fact, she made a lot of things better. Except his sleep. Ever since the night he’d almost kissed her, he couldn’t seem to get the thought out of his mind. How would she feel? What would she taste of? Would she kiss him back with all the passion he suspected simmered below her cool, controlled surface? Did she wonder about kissing him, too?