Wedded Bliss

by Kathleen Y'Barbo

  “I’m sorry?”

  Mrs. Denison sat a little straighter and gave him a direct look. “I’m going to need to know just what you’d be paying me. And then there’s the benefits package. There is one, isn’t there?”

  He leaned back, and the chair squeaked loudly. “Of course.”

  “What about vacation?”

  “Two weeks for the first three years, then three. After five years, you’ll be eligible for a month.”

  She shook her head. “That won’t do. I’ll need four to start. I don’t ’spect I’ll need to go any higher than that, so don’t worry. We’ll just keep it at four from now on out.”

  Bob suppressed a smile. “Anything else?”

  His assistant looked past him to the window. “Those planes of yours—they ever take people?”

  “We’ve got a fleet of corporate jets for hire. Those carry people.” He studied her with curiosity. “Why?”

  “My husband’s got a brother—a stepbrother, actually, but he never thought of him as anything other than blood kin—and he’s over in Florida. Moved in with his son and daughter-in-law two summers ago. Greg—that’s his name—keeps asking me to bring Bliss down there to visit.” She leaned forward. “You figure my daughter and I might catch a ride down to Tampa on one of those planes? During my vacation time, of course.”

  Bob pretended to consider it. “I think we might be able to work something out.”

  She sat back. “I’m not hearing anything definite in that statement.”

  “All right. Yes, once a year I will okay a flight to Tampa for you and Bliss.” He paused. “The jets generally hold eight, some of them twelve. Feel free to fill those empty seats.”

  Her poker face slipped. “You serious?”

  “I’m serious.” He rose and offered her his hand. “What do you say, Mrs. Denison? Will you accept the job as my assistant?”

  “Don’t you want to see my work history? Maybe get some recommendations? ’Course I worked for my father-in-law—that’s Mr. Ben Denison—over at the sawmill until I met my husband, Mr. Ben’s younger son. I kept books for him and ran the office until Bliss came along. Once my husband took over for his daddy, Bliss and I started coming to work with him, and before I knew it, I was running that office again. I did that until the mill sold three years ago. It’s what he wanted, rest his soul, but I don’t believe my husband realized what he was doing when he asked me to part with that job.”

  “All the more reason to take this one,” Bob said gently. “It’s yours as long as you want it, and I promise there are no plans to sell the place.” He paused. “In fact, I had hoped to pass it on to Amy someday. I don’t know if she’ll want it, but I pray she does.”

  “Well, that’s a prayer I’ll join you in.”

  “And joining the company? What’s your position on that?”

  Mrs. Denison studied him a second longer, then nodded and shook on the deal. She climbed to her feet and straightened her sleeves, then headed for the door, her back straight as an arrow.

  Pausing at the door, Bliss’s mother met his stare. “Mr. Tratelli?”

  “Why don’t you call me Bob?” He paused. “Or Bobby’s fine, too.”

  “All right. Bobby?” She ducked her head. “Do you realize how old I am?”

  “I’m sure I could find out easily,” he said. “But I don’t think it matters.” He paused to offer a smile. “Do you?”

  Once again, she fell silent. Her response was to press her finger to her lips and disappear into the lobby. A moment later, her voice came through the intercom. “Your conference call is ready for you on line two.”

  “Thank you, Mrs. Denison.” Bob paused before reaching for the phone. “Thank You, Lord, for arranging this. I’m not sure what You’re up to, but I do pray You will keep me posted so I can do my part.”

  An hour later, he hung up from the call and read over his notes, adding to them where he felt more information was needed. When he was done, he stuffed the information into the folder and set it aside.

  A check of his watch revealed it was nearly ten thirty. He buzzed the front desk. “Mrs. Denison, has the wedding planner in Lafayette returned my call?”

  “No, sir,” she quickly responded. “Do you want me to get them on the line?”

  “Yes, please,” he answered. “It’s Divine Occasions on Ambassador Caffery.”

  A few minutes later, she appeared at the door. “I’m sorry, boss. I had to leave a message.”

  He nodded. “That’s odd, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know,” Mrs. Denison said. “Maybe they’re just busy.”

  “Maybe.” He thought a moment. “What does my calendar look like for the rest of the day?”

  “I’ll check.” She returned with the leather-bound planner. “Chamber of commerce luncheon at noon, tux fitting at three, and a meeting with your broker at five.” Her gaze lifted to meet his. “That’s it.”

  “Cancel the fitting and reschedule the meeting with my broker for Tuesday.” He reached for his keys.

  “Are you leaving?”

  “I can’t just sit around waiting for the wedding planner to call me back. I’m going to drive over to Lafayette and pay them a visit. They can’t ignore me if I’m standing in front of them.” He paused to search her face, and she seemed troubled. “What? Do you think it’s a bad idea?”

  “Well, not completely,” she said slowly. “Do you know what Amy’s plans were for the wedding?”

  “They should be in the e-mails she sent me.”

  Mrs. Denison nodded. “Hold on a second, and I’ll print them off.” In no time, she returned with a blue file folder. She thrust it toward him. “Something blue,” she said with a giggle.

  “What?”

  “You know,” she said, “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.”

  “Oh, sure, got it.” He smiled. “So this has everything I need?”

  Her nod was without enthusiasm. “What? You’re not telling me something. What is it?”

  “Well, it’s just that I wonder whether you should go alone.” She paused. “What I mean is, sending a man by himself into a wedding planner’s offices is sort of like sending a woman into Sears to buy power tools. She might have a list, but will she really know what she’s looking at?”

  “Hmm, I see your point.” He snagged his jacket. “That’s easily fixed. I’ll swing by and fetch Neecie. She’ll know what she’s looking at.”

  “Sure,” Mrs. Denison said. Once again, her lack of enthusiasm was evident in her expression.

  Bob paused at the door. “What?”

  Mrs. Denison shrugged. “Oh, I was just wondering if Neecie would be willing to close up shop a second day to go running off to Lafayette. It’s so far.”

  “Nah, it’s less than an hour. Besides, she and I go way back. I’m sure she’d be glad to help out an old friend.” Bob loped out of the office and climbed into the truck with a light heart. Tonight when Amy called, he’d have something positive to tell her. That alone made him smile.

  Sure, he’d lost Yvonne to blue Hawaii—and he’d miss her terribly—but in the process, the Lord had brought Mrs. Denison to fill her absence. The truck rolled over the ruts on the parish road, then fishtailed onto the empty highway. Ten minutes later, he pulled to a stop in front of Wedding Belles and bounded to the door.

  It was locked.

  “Neecie,” Bob called as he pounded on the door. “Open up! It’s me, Bob.”

  Shielding his eyes with his hand, Bob peered inside the depths of the darkened store. Please, Lord, Mrs. Denison’s right. I can’t do this on my own. Please provide someone. Anyone.

  He resumed his pounding. “Neecie, come on,” Bob finally said. “I know you’re in there. You have to be. It’s Thursday. You can’t be gone.”

  “But she is.”

  Bob whirled around to see Bliss standing on the sidewalk. From the running shoes, sweatpants, and ponytail, he deduced she’d been to the gym. She toss
ed her cell phone into a small black purse and fished out a key on a large round ring.

  “Where is she?”

  Bliss shrugged and stabbed the key toward the lock. “No idea, but I’m beginning to get worried about her.” Several attempts later, Bob walked over and took the key from Bliss, fitting it into the lock on the first try.

  “I know,” Bliss said as she accepted the key from him. “I’ve got an appointment for contacts next Tuesday.”

  Any other time, he would have made a joke, possibly made light of the fact that she’d need to carry around her reading glasses until then. This, however was a desperate moment, and he was a man with little time to spare. Since the Lord didn’t see fit to bring Neecie back in time to go with him to Lafayette, He must have intended for Bliss to accompany him.

  In light of the tangle of feelings Bob still hadn’t unraveled, Bliss was not his first choice. Obviously he and the Lord saw things differently.

  Bob took in the woman’s appearance and shook his head. “Bliss, I’m in a hurry here. Get out of those clothes and climb into the truck.”

  Nine

  “Excuse me?” Bliss gave the lunatic the look he deserved and pressed past him to step inside. She would’ve slammed the door in his face, but for a big guy, he moved awfully fast.

  In more ways than one, if his pickup line was to be believed. Pickup line. Bliss groaned at the pun and kept walking.

  “Wait, what? What did I say?”

  “Get out of my clothes and get into your truck?” She pressed her forefinger into his chest. “Since when does that line work, buddy? Surely not with this girl.”

  His face went white, and he began waving his hands frantically. “Oh no, Bliss, that’s not what I meant.”

  Hands on her hips, Bliss stared him down. “Then what did you mean?”

  “I just meant those clothes have got to go.”

  She left him standing beside the counter. “Go home, Bobby. I’ll tell Neecie to call you when she gets in.”

  “I don’t have time to wait for her.” Heavy footsteps echoed behind her. “I need you, Bliss, and I need you now.”

  Bliss stopped short and whirled around, nearly slamming into his chest. As she backed up two paces, she made the odd observation that he smelled quite nice.

  Bobby shook his head. “Look, I’m sorry. I just meant that I can’t take you dressed like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like that.” He pointed to her ponytail, then allowed his gaze to slide past her purple LSU Tigers T-shirt to land on the sidewalk.

  She looked down at the grass stains on her shoes and the gray sweatshirt wrapped around her midsection. He did have a point. Still. . . “Who said I was going anywhere with you?”

  “Bliss, you have every right to tell me no. I mean, I haven’t exactly been saying all the right things, and we did almost kiss each other yesterday, which would have been a huge disaster.”

  A huge disaster? Ouch. She bit her lip to keep from responding.

  Bobby started pacing. “And you’re the last woman I want to ride to Lafayette with.”

  Ouch again.

  “I’d much rather take someone like Neecie who doesn’t make my brain feel like scrambled eggs.”

  Scrambled eggs? That might just redeem the last comment. And the ones before that.

  If she could decide exactly what he meant by it.

  “How am I doing here, Bliss?” Bobby sighed and stopped pacing to turn and face her. “Look, I’m not good at this. I’m just a dad trying to do the right thing for his daughter.”

  Bliss leaned against the wall and crossed her arms in front of her. “I’m still not clear on what the right thing is, Bobby. How is dragging me to Lafayette in a party dress going to help your daughter?”

  “It doesn’t have to be a party dress. Just not something so. . .”

  Her raised eyebrow stopped his words. “So?”

  “Please?” Bobby met her stare. “All I’m asking is for you to ride with me to Lafayette to check out the only wedding planner in three parishes who hasn’t hung up on me.”

  “Why do I need to come? Can’t you do this yourself?”

  “I thought of that.” He paused. “Your mother said it would be like sending a woman to Sears to buy tools.”

  Bliss tried to keep her expression neutral. “Well, I can see your point, but this is my day off. I was planning to—”

  “Please?”

  So much emotion in one little word. Still, it wasn’t the word but rather his eyes that proved to be her undoing. Despite all the stupid things he said while trying to be brilliant and persuasive, his eyes sent her scurrying upstairs.

  “Make a pot of coffee for the road, okay?” She paused midway up the steps. “You do know how to make coffee, don’t you?”

  She came downstairs twenty minutes later, expecting to smell coffee perking. Instead, she saw Bobby sitting at her table reading the morning’s edition of the Latagnier paper and sipping from a brown paper cup with the words Java Hut emblazoned in black beside a gold fleur-de-lis.

  He smiled when he saw her, then gestured to a matching cup sitting on the counter. “And you didn’t think I knew how to make coffee.”

  Bliss shook her head. “Let’s get this mission started, Bobby, before I change my mind.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” He punctuated the statement with a crisp salute before snagging his coffee cup and trotting behind her out to the sidewalk.

  Retrieving her keys, Bliss aimed them at the lock on her shop door, then paused to pull her reading glasses from her purse. Bobby chuckled and headed for the truck to open the door for her.

  “So, where are we going again?” Bliss asked as Bobby backed the truck out onto Main and headed north.

  “Lafayette.” He pointed to a slip of paper folded in half and sitting on the console between them. “A place called Divine Occasions.”

  “That’s a nice name.” Bliss retrieved the paper and recognized her mother’s handwriting. “Hey, I know where this is. Mama and I checked them out when I was thinking of opening my cake shop. As I recall, the elderly ladies who ran the place were very helpful in giving me advice.”

  “Good, then you can help me find them.” He paused to smile. “And then you can translate.”

  “Translate?” Bliss watched as he turned just past Latagnier Elementary and headed for the interstate. “As I recall, they spoke perfect English.”

  Bobby accelerated onto the highway before glancing her way. “Maybe so, but it’s already been proven that I don’t speak female.”

  “You’ve got a point.”

  “Hey,” he said a few minutes later, “thanks for coming with me.” He gave Bliss a sideways look. “Honestly, I’m terrified I’m going to mess this up for Amy.”

  Bliss’s heart lurched. How sweet was this? “I won’t let you do that, Bobby.”

  True relief crossed his face. “I appreciate this more than you know,” he said slowly. “More than I can say.” He paused. “But then, we’ve already established that I don’t speak female.”

  They shared a laugh, then fell into a companionable silence.

  “Hey,” he said a few minutes later.

  Bliss shifted in the seat to face him. “Yeah?”

  His gaze swept over her. “You look nice,” he said. “Really nice.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I appreciate you doing this. Coming with me, I mean.”

  “So you said.” She smiled. “Really, I’ve done everything today that I planned. Well, except that book I was going to read. Haven’t gotten to that yet.”

  “Well now,” he said with a wink. “I guess I should step on it so you can get back quickly. Wouldn’t want you to miss reading your book.”

  Bliss’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, right. How about you concentrate on being careful instead of fast? I’m kind of over car wrecks.”

  “What does that mean?” He signaled to change lanes, then shot her a look. “I’ve never been in a wreck in my life.�
�

  “Well,” she said slowly, “you’re the lucky one then.”

  Leaning back against the leather seat, Bliss closed her eyes. She knew Bobby was probably looking for an explanation, but the walk she’d taken combined with the hot shower had her relaxed and feeling as limp as. . .

  “Bliss?” The word floated softly toward her through cotton-thick clouds. “Bliss?”

  Her eyes flew open. Where was she? Heart pounding, Bliss leaned forward only to be snapped back by some sort of restraint.

  “Hey there, slow down, darlin’. Let me get the seat belt for you.”

  Bobby. The truck. A gas station. Beyond that, a freeway.

  Slowly these things began to make sense. She was accompanying him somewhere.

  Bliss took a deep breath to slow her racing heart, then let it out as Bobby leaned toward her and unsnapped the seat belt. When she met his gaze, he grinned.

  “What?” She swiped at her mouth with the back of her hand lest she’d been drooling.

  “You talk in your sleep.” He opened the door and climbed out, then closed the door behind him.

  Bliss watched him slide his credit card, then pump the gas. When he returned, she was ready with a swift response.

  “I do not.”

  Bobby started the truck. “You don’t what?”

  “I don’t talk in my sleep.” She buckled her seat belt.

  “Bliss,” he said slowly, “if you’re asleep, how would you know?”

  That question alone silenced her for the rest of the short trip into Lafayette. The navigation system on the truck led them directly to Kaliste Saloom Road and Ambassador Caffery, then into the parking lot of a shopping center.

  “What’s the name of this place again?” Bobby asked.

  “Divine Occasions,” Bliss said. She pointed to the far end of the center. “Best as I can remember, it was down there. See the tire center? The place should be just across from it.”

  Bobby nodded and pointed the truck in that direction. “There. I see it.”

  He drove past a card shop, two restaurants, and a place that sold Christmas decorations year round to pull the truck to a stop in front of Divine Occasions. Or, at least the place where Divine Occasions used to be.