In the Fullness of Time

by Sabra Brown Steinsiek

“We have a lot of work to do this year, Taylor, with the baby and the fund-raiser. I really do need to announce it soon if we’re to make it work.”

  “I know. Laura and I thought we’d announce it when I leave the show in March.”

  “I think it should be sooner,” she said a bit belligerently. “You have no idea how long it took to get things calmed down when you married her.”

  “It’s none of their business, really. I don’t have to tell them— or you—anything.” He was not in the mood to run interference between his wife and the fan club president. “We’ll announce it when we’re ready.”

  She was saved by the bell as the elevator discreetly chimed then opened its doors. She heard Laura’s voice calling Taylor’s name from the apartment and decided to give her something to remember. Just as Laura stepped into the open door to the hallway, Elodie twined her arms around Taylor’s neck and kissed him hard.

  What Laura saw was her husband in the arms of a woman she already hated, his hands on hers, looking for all the world as if he were holding her hands in place instead of trying to pry her loose.

  “Taylor!” Laura’s voice was soft but he could hear the pain in it as he finally succeeded in pulling Elodie’s arms from around his neck. He saw her eyes fill with tears as she turned and fled back into the apartment.

  “Damn it, Elodie! What the hell were you doing?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know she was there and I’ve had too much to drink or I would never…”

  He took her arm and practically pushed her into the elevator. “Good night, Elodie,” he said, his voice full of barely contained rage. As the doors closed and he turned away, she ran her fingers across her lips, which curved into a satisfied smile. “Good night, my love,” she whispered. “It’s going to be a very interesting year!”

  Chapter 10

  Taylor found Laura in their room. She was huddled in the armchair beside the bed, crying hard.

  “Laura…” Taylor came across the room and sat on the floor in front of the chair. He placed his hand on her arm and cringed when she moved away from his touch. “Laura, that wasn’t what you’re thinking.”

  Her emerald eyes were shiny with tears. “No? It looked pretty clear to me.”

  “She kissed me. And it happened just as you came through the door. I was trying to peel her off me.”

  “It didn’t look like you were trying too hard,” she said, sniffling.

  Taylor reached to the nightstand and handed her the box of tissues. “Laura, I swear it wasn’t anything. Elodie is an old friend and she’d had too much to drink. She was going home alone. There won’t be anyone waiting for her.”

  “I swear, Taylor,” she snapped, her tears drying, “sometimes you are so dense. She’s in love with you. She has been for years. Probably has been from the beginning.”

  “I don’t think so, Laura. We’re friends.”

  “Maybe you’re playing at friendship but she’s playing for keeps. I can’t do this anymore. I want her out of our lives.”

  “But Laura…”

  “No buts, Taylor! You have to make a choice, her or me.”

  “You’re being unreasonable. I’ll make sure she’s not a part of our life. You won’t have to see her again. But she’s the president of the fan club. I can’t just replace her. You know the charity would suffer without her influence.”

  “You mean you won’t. She can be replaced easily enough. She delegates everything anyway, then takes the credit. The truth is that Lisa Kindrick has been running the club for the past couple of years.”

  “Darling, you have to calm down and see this for what it was…”

  “I saw, Taylor. I saw way more than I wanted to and more than you ever will. Me or her, Taylor.” She went into their bathroom and stopped just short of slamming the door in deference, he was sure, to her parents who were just down the hall. There would be no reasoning with her tonight; that much he was sure of. A hell of a way to start the new year, he thought, as he left their room for the sanctuary of his study.

  * * *

  She wasn’t surprised that he was gone. She was relieved, though. She didn’t want to continue this tonight, not with her parents here. As much as they loved Taylor, she knew her father would cheerfully kill him for hurting her.

  She’d said things tonight that she promised herself she would never say. She’d known from the beginning that Elodie was in love with Taylor. All anyone had to do was watch her, her heart in her eyes, her hands constantly touching him.

  At first, Elodie had been cordial but distant, treating Laura, as Taylor’s assistant, like a paid servant. When she’d seen that Taylor was in love with Laura, her cordiality had changed to bare civility.

  For a while she had tried to find a way to gain Elodie’s respect but it never happened. When he’d come home from Italy and married her, even the civility was gone, at least in private. Taylor was too important a commodity for Elodie to risk doing something in public that would embarrass him. The few times the three of them had appeared in public together, no one had ever seemed to notice the antipathy between the two women.

  But tonight was too much! Elodie had crossed a line Laura wasn’t able to overlook. And in the deepest recesses of her mind, she wondered if it had been the first time…

  Chapter 11

  Taylor slept on the sofa that night. He wasn’t sure which one of them he was angrier with, Elodie for her actions or Laura for her accusations. With a house full of family and friends, there was no way to discuss it. He was hoping she would calm down by morning.

  He awoke earlier than he’d planned but he wanted to be out of the living room before anyone discovered him there. Rosina and Maria were already up fixing brunch for the crowd and he joined them for coffee in the kitchen as they worked.

  The others wandered in a few at a time, helping themselves to plates of huevos rancheros and Italian bread. Laura was the last to make an appearance and she carefully avoided Taylor’s eyes. Beth noticed immediately. It wasn’t like Laura—or Taylor either—to avoid the casual contact they both usually enjoyed. Laura looked tired and Beth could tell she’d been crying. There was something seriously wrong with this picture!

  After brunch, Taylor and Jason left for their tennis match with Sean and Matteo going along to supervise. The girls went out to visit friends and Maria and Rosina went to Rosina’s apartment to discuss plans for the new baby while they watched the napping twins.

  That left Laura and Beth with some time alone. They retreated to the bedroom where Laura stretched out on the bed with Beth in the chair beside it. They discussed the party and the baby until Beth took matters into her own hands.

  “All right, Laura. We’ve discussed everything else possible. Out with it.”

  “Out with what?”

  “Do you think I didn’t notice that you’d been crying? That you and Taylor were avoiding each other this morning?”

  “Just a domestic dispute. No big thing.”

  “You can’t lie to me, Laura Collins Morgan. I’ve known you too long and something is bothering you.”

  Laura’s eyes filled with tears, “Oh, Beth…”

  As her voice trailed off into heartbroken sobbing, Beth moved to the bed and hugged her until she could speak.

  “What is it? What’s happened?”

  “It’s Taylor. Last night—last night after everyone else had gone, I went looking for him and found him out in the hall with that witch, Elodie Nee, wrapped around him, kissing him as if she had a right. And maybe she did…”

  “What? What could possibly give her the right to kiss your husband?”

  “I don’t think it was just her doing the kissing. Taylor certainly looked as if he was returning it.”

  “You know that can’t be true! Taylor adores you!”

  “And Elodie’s been after him for years! Maybe there’s been something between them all along!”

  Beth didn’t answer. Laura had told her often enough over the last few yea
rs that Elodie was in love with Taylor but Beth never thought she really meant it. Elodie wasn’t any more in love with Taylor than the rest of his fans were—was she?

  “They were just standing there in front of the elevator where anyone could have seen them. My father would have killed Taylor if he’d seen them. What about the girls? How would he have explained it to them?”

  “But none of that happened. So, how did he explain it to you?”

  “He said she had kissed him—as if that made any difference! He tried to make me feel sorry for her because she had no one to go home to. As if that was an excuse!”

  “Do you really think that Taylor’s been seeing her all along?”

  Laura was silent for a long time, staring down at the emerald ring Taylor had placed on her finger when he’d asked her to marry him. Did she believe he’d been cheating on her with Elodie? Raising her eyes to meet Beth’s, she said, “No, I don’t think there’s anything between them—not on Taylor’s part, anyway. There would be if Elodie had her way! But, you’re right. I know Taylor loves me. But he’s so blind to how she feels about him and I can’t make him see it. Taylor’s loyal to a fault when it comes to his friends.”

  “I’m glad you realize that it probably did happen the way he said it did. Laura, he loves you. From the day he met you, there hasn’t been anyone else for him.”

  “I said such awful things to him last night, Beth. We never fight. We don’t always agree but we never actually fight. But we did last night. Taylor spent the night somewhere else.”

  “You’re going to have to talk about it, you know. You have to hear him out and you have to try to make him see how you feel.”

  Laura’s eyes grew dark. “I said one thing that I won’t take back and that I won’t apologize for. I can’t handle Elodie Nee in our lives anymore. If Taylor insists on keeping her as the fan club president and pursuing this friendship, it’s going to have to be outside of our home. I simply won’t put up with her anymore.”

  “Then tell him that and stick to it. But if he decides to keep her in his life, you have to believe that it’s only as a friend.”

  “I know. At least my head knows. My heart still believes differently. I’ll talk to him tomorrow after everyone leaves.” Laura looked at the woman who had been her best friend through so many years—since they were thirteen years old! “I’m so glad you were here.”

  “I’m never further away than a phone call. You know that.”

  “My phone bill certainly does!” Laura answered as the two of them laughed.

  Chapter 12

  There were too many people around for Taylor to broach the subject with Laura. She had seemed calmer when he and Jason had returned from their tennis game and he was sure that she and Beth had had a long talk. The fact that Beth hadn’t met him at the door with her claws out gave him hope that their talk had made Laura see that what had happened with Elodie was really nothing.

  There had been a message with his answering service from Elodie asking him to call. He hadn’t. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to say to her and didn’t want to talk to her right now anyway.

  Everyone would be leaving tomorrow and he would be going back to the theatre tomorrow night. He needed to talk to Laura tonight no matter what it took. He waited impatiently through the last minute conversations and the frantic packing until the apartment was finally quiet.

  He was relieved to see that Laura was still awake. She was propped up in bed, a book resting on the mound of her abdomen. As he watched, the book moved as the baby inside pushed at the unwelcome weight. Laura shifted the book and ran a hand lightly over the spot the tiny hand or foot had pushed against.

  “He’s going to have a fear of books if you keep reading giant novels that way,” Taylor commented from the doorway.

  “She’s going to be a great reader,” Laura commented as she looked at him. He looked tired, she realized, tired and tense. Today hadn’t been any easier for him than it had been for her.

  “May I come in?”

  “Of course. It’s your room, too.”

  He closed the door behind him then crossed the room and sat facing her on the bed. “We need to talk, Laura.” He took her hands in his and never let his gaze waver from her eyes. “I love you, Laura. I have from the moment I met you. What happened last night was…hell, I don’t know what it was! But I promise you I wasn’t a willing participant. You have to believe me.”

  She removed one of her hands from his and caressed his cheek. “I know, Taylor. I’m sorry for doubting you.”

  Wordlessly he reached out and pulled her close, savoring the moment of having her safely within his arms again. After a few minutes of silence that did much to heal their hearts, Laura gently pushed him away.

  “But we do have to talk,” she said. “What are you going to do about Elodie?”

  “There’s nothing to do—she was drunk and probably doesn’t even remember what happened.”

  She shook her head in exasperation. “She remembers. She did it deliberately. I think she heard me call you and set the whole thing up to hurt me—to hurt us.”

  “You’re wrong, Laura. Elodie’s just a friend—a long-time friend,” he said with a note of warning in his voice. “I know you don’t like her but she’s not out to hurt us.”

  Laura sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. How could he be so blind? Opening her eyes, she told him, “It’s you who’s wrong. She’s in love with you and resents me for being the one you chose. I know you don’t believe that and I’m not even going to try to convince you.” She held up her hand as he took a breath to interrupt. “No, Taylor, no more. No more excuses for her. I’ll work with her in her capacity as your fan club president, but she’ll never be welcome in our home again. If you can’t live with that, then I won’t be living with you.”

  Her green eyes were cold and he knew her well enough to know that she meant every word she was saying—there would be no changing her mind on this one. If that was what it would take, he was willing to take this as a compromise.

  “Fine. If it’s that important to you, she’s no longer welcome here. But that doesn’t mean I won’t continue our friendship—I’ll just make sure that you have as little contact with her as possible. But you have to trust me, darling, or it will never work.”

  “I trust you, Taylor. But I will never trust her.”

  “Then can we call this closed and go back to our lives?”

  “After one more thing,” Laura said as she reached out to pull his face to hers. “I’m going to wipe out any memory of her kiss right now,” she whispered against his lips then proceeded to drive any thought of Elodie Nee from his mind.

  Chapter 13

  Taylor had escaped the chaos of the family departures by pleading that he needed to be at the theatre early. It wasn’t entirely untrue—he did need to do his vocal exercises and get back into the mind of his character after the week off. Mostly he just needed a space to think.

  Laura had made it clear last night that she believed him—making up almost made the argument worthwhile, he thought with a smile. But in the clear light of a new day, a new year, he had to face what he was going to say to Elodie.

  A part of him wondered if Laura was right. Was Elodie in love with him? Did she deliberately try to undermine his marriage? No matter how hard he tried to convince himself, he couldn’t believe that it was true. Not Elodie. She was his friend and that was it.

  Still, friend or not, what she’d done was completely out of line. He had to make that clear and he had to tell her what the consequences would be. It wasn’t going to get any easier if he waited; might as well get it over with now. He reached for the phone and began to dial the number he’d called so many times in the past.

  * * *

  The apartment was blissfully quiet. All of the visitors were gone. She missed them already but still enjoyed the quiet that surrounded her—the quiet that had been missing for the last week.

  Going to her desk, she turned
the computer on and opened the file for her novel. It was almost ready to send out, just a few more changes to make. She felt sure it would sell—as soon as she was ready to let it go.

  Rosina cleared her throat so as to not startle Laura. When she was working, Laura was in her own world, unaware of the real one that surrounded her.

  “Laura, these came for you.” She held out a crystal vase overflowing with bright flowers. Laura smiled as Rosina placed it on the corner of her desk.

  “Thanks, Rosina. They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

  “Very beautiful,” Rosina replied. “As long as I’ve interrupted you, is there anything special you’d like for dinner tonight?”

  Laura opened the card as she answered, “We must have enough leftovers to feed an army. Why don’t we make do with those?”

  “I’ll see what comes together,” Rosina said as she turned to leave the room. A loud crash of shattering glass stopped her and she turned to find the flowers on the floor, the vase shattered, and Laura, red-faced, looking at the card in her hand.

  “Laura! Are you all right?” Rosina pushed the mess away from Laura’s feet as she urged her to sit down. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing—nothing’s wrong. I just knocked over the vase.” The tremor in her voice told Rosina she was lying. “Please, just get rid of them,” she said as she knelt down and began throwing the flowers in the trashcan. Rosina helped her pick up the debris and soak up the water with towels from the bathroom. Other than a damp spot on the carpet—and the note that had come with the flowers—there was no trace that they’d been there when Rosina left the room with the trash and wet towels.

  Laura sat at her desk and picked up the card once again and read the handwritten message it held.