After the Loving

by Gwynne Forster

“Which feline family you talking about, brother? Surely not the house variety.”

  “Do they always meddle with you like this?” Velma asked him, and he got the impression from her tone of voice that she didn’t like it.

  He turned into the driveway leading to the Eagle Park Palace Hotel. “The three of us jostle all the time, and because Henry practically raised us, he reserves the right to say whatever appears on the tip of his tongue, but if my finger began to bleed, all of them would run to me with Band-Aids. That’s what this family is all about, Velma. We’re here for each other.”

  She looked great, and he felt good walking through the hotel lobby with her holding his arm while the crowd of onlookers waved and smiled. “You should wear this color all the time,” he told her. “And this style suits you. I like it better than your caftans. You…you look terrific.”

  “Thanks, but maybe you need glasses.”

  He stopped and looked hard at her. “You’re telling me I don’t know my own mind, that I don’t know what I like and don’t like? I’ll tell you this—I do not like those caftans you wear. Dressed like this, you look like a real woman.”

  If she was posturing for more praise, she could forget it. He wasn’t in the business of building egos with empty phrases.

  Just what I needed to keep my head straightened out. He walked on with her but didn’t offer her his arm. They joined Telford and Alexis in an anteroom, and he watched a subdued Velma embrace her sister and her brother-in-law.

  “My mummy is going off with Mr. Telford on a honeymoon. What does a honeymoon look like, Mr. Telford?”

  “I’ll…uh…find out while I’m there and explain it when we get back.”

  Russ snickered. It wasn’t often that he saw his older brother squirm and loosen his collar.

  “Time for the party to enter the reception room,” the manager told them.

  They stood around the table laden with the wedding cake, calla lilies and glowing candles. Russ stepped up and raised his glass. “It gives me the greatest pleasure to introduce to you Telford and Alexis Harrington.” After the applause, he continued. “To my brother and his wife. May you always be as deeply in love as you are this day.” He let the champagne drizzle down his throat, set his glass down and moved aside.

  Drake held up his glass. “I thank my brother for giving me such a wonderful sister and a niece who I adore as if she were my own child. Telford and Alexis, God bless you with a long and happy life.”

  It was Henry’s turn. “This is one of the happiest days of my life. Take care of each other, and grow old together in peace and love.” He took a few sips and set the glass aside.

  Russ motioned to the orchestra, and Telford waltzed onto the center of the floor with his bride in his arms. His turn, but he felt a little shaky about it. He figured it would pay him to keep his distance from Velma, though he didn’t discount his strong attraction to her. He preferred independent, self-assured women, and Velma had just showed signs of a lack of self-confidence, at least with him. He liked the company of mature people who knew who they were and where they belonged. However, as custom demanded, he stepped in front of Velma and opened his arms. “Dance with me?” he asked her, for he didn’t believe in taking anything for granted.

  She smiled, lifted the hem of her gown and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks. I’d love to dance with you.” She danced well, he realized, a point in her favor, for he loved to dance.

  The manager announced that dinner was served and that dancing would continue later. After dinner, Russ said to Velma, “Drake’s car is in the hotel garage. If you wish to stay, he’ll drive you home along with Tara and Henry. I’m driving Telford and Alexis to the airport in Baltimore as soon as they change clothes. I can drop you by Harrington House, but no one will be there with you till Drake gets back.”

  She thought for a couple of seconds and quickly made up her mind. He liked that. Nothing got on his nerves faster than shilly-shallying.

  “I’ll go back with Drake,” she said. “Drive carefully. Will you come back to Eagle Park tonight?”

  “Yes, but it will be late. I’ll see you in the morning.” To his own surprise, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. “It was fun. Good night.”

  He could take her with him, and maybe he should, but if he did, it would seem that she was his date, and he wasn’t ready for what that would imply. He walked over to Telford and tapped his elbow.

  “Alexis will blow a fuse if I speed, so we’d better get started. Check-in time is an hour and a half from now. Say your goodbyes, man.”

  It amused him when Alexis, who stood within hearing distance, said, “If he spoke to all these people, we’d miss the plane. Everybody thinks newlyweds are off-the-wall anyway, so why don’t we just sneak out? I’ve already prepared Tara. Let’s go.”

  “Woman after my own heart, brother. Meet you in the lobby in ten minutes.”

  Telford clapped his hands. “Unmarried ladies to the right please.” About a dozen women including Velma gathered there. Alexis tossed her bridal bouquet, and Adam Roundtree’s cousin caught it.

  As Russ was leaving the reception hall, he glanced to his right, toward the spot where he last saw Velma, and noticed that her gaze followed him. His heart battled with his will in a fight to which he was entirely unaccustomed. He stopped, turned and walked over to her.

  “Do you want to ride with me? I’ll drop them at the airport and head directly to Eagle Park. Do you want to go?”

  She gazed steadily up at him, almost as if trying to see inside of him, to divine his motive. He wasn’t accustomed to that Velma—serious, standing her ground and doing it without the props of wit and quips. He spread his hands palms out, telling her without words, “what you see is what you get.” Suddenly, a smile enveloped her face, and relief flooded him, though he could not imagine why.

  “I’d love to go, Russ.”

  No silliness such as “if you’re sure you don’t mind” or “if it won’t inconvenience you.” Straight from the shoulder. She wanted to go with him, and she didn’t mind letting him know it. Another point in her favor. He liked a woman who let a man know what she wanted.

  He took her hand. “Come on. I’ll tell Drake you’ll be home later.”

  “Way to go, man,” Drake said, his voice well contained. “It’s the simple things that count—they can make you or break you.”

  “Yeah. It’s easy to forget that.”

  “Would you like me to get a vase for your flowers?” Russ asked Velma.

  “Thanks, but each stem is in its own little water cup.” She gazed up at him. “You’re a thoughtful man, and it’s something I appreciate.”

  He didn’t know what to make of that statement, so he let it go. Fortunately Telford and Alexis appeared, having changed into traveling clothes. To his amazement, neither of them seemed surprised to see Velma with him.

  “All right,” he said. “Let’s get this show moving. If we waste another minute, I’ll have to drive ninety miles an hour in order to get you to the airport on time.”

  “Don’t tax yourself, brother,” Telford said. “I can get us there driving fifty-five or sixty, so if you’d rather I drove…”

  Russ couldn’t help laughing. “All right. All right.” He buckled Velma’s seat belt. “You two buckle up back there.” He ignited the engine and headed for Route 70. He didn’t feel the need to talk; most any subject would take him down from where he was. He didn’t want anything to blight his mood. How many times had he feared Telford would let Alexis slip through his hands? It took him a long time to concede Drake’s point, that Telford was a different man when he was in Alexis’s company, that he had never known Telford to be truly happy until he fell in love with Alexis and Tara. It was an incontestable truth; they belonged together.

  He glanced at Velma, who sat beside him serenely with her hands relaxed and the bouquet lying in her lap. “Thank God, she doesn’t feel the need to chatter,” he said to himself. He flipped on the radio and out came the st
rains of “Will You Dance This Waltz With Me?” As if of its own volition, his head turned toward Velma and, at the same time, she looked toward him. A grin formed around her lips, and then she laughed. He didn’t ask her why she laughed, because he knew. It was the reason why he also laughed. They could duck it as much and as often as they liked, but something would always remind them.

  “I won’t ask what the two of you are laughing about,” Telford said.

  “Oh, you can ask,” Russ replied, “but it won’t do you much good.”

  “What if I ask?” Alexis put in.

  “Won’t do you any good either,” Velma said.

  That wasn’t the first notice she had given that she would support him, that she’d be there for him if he needed her. He recorded it in his mental notebook. A long-term arrangement with her wasn’t on his agenda, but he had to reckon with it because her attraction for him was nothing to gainsay. He wanted her, but he wasn’t sure he was willing to pay the price.

  “You’re here with twenty minutes to spare,” he said to Telford when they reached the Baltimore International Airport.

  “What was his top speed, Velma?” Telford asked.

  “My lips are sealed. You two have the time of your lives.”

  “We’ll do our best,” Alexis said.

  “Thanks, brother, for everything. I’ll finish thanking you when we get back.”

  Driving away from the airport, Russ found himself thinking of a way to end what, for him, had been a perfect day. “We’ve got about an hour and forty-minute drive ahead of us, Velma. Would you like to stop somewhere for some kind of beverage and a snack? I don’t drink anything alcoholic when I have to drive, but I could use some iced tea or a soft drink.”

  “I’d love to stop,” she said. “Anyplace where this evening dress won’t look silly.”

  He couldn’t help laughing. “No matter where we stop, your dress won’t look a bit sillier than this tux with mauve-colored accessories.”

  She seemed disappointed, but she was good at bluffing, he saw, when she lifted her chin and said, “I remember you said you liked this gown I’m wearing. Well, it’s mauve, too.”

  “I like it on you.”

  She didn’t let him drop it. “It’s not more outlandish than the brilliant red or royal blue accessories that some men wear with formal dress. Besides, you look fantastic in that getup. I was practically ogling you when we were waiting for the bride to reach the altar.”

  “Really? Thanks for the compliment.” He knew she’d stood there cataloging his assets until he caught her at it and looked her straight in the eye, but he didn’t think she’d be comfortable knowing he was aware of her uninhibited admiration.

  “What do you say we stop at the first drive-in restaurant on Route 70? Give ’em something to talk about in there.”

  “Fine with me.”

  A groan escaped him when he saw the long line. “You have a seat somewhere,” she said. “I’ll get what you want, and we’ll be out of here in twenty minutes.”

  He stared at her. “I’d like to know how you plan to manage that.”

  “Have a seat and you’ll see.”

  He took out his wallet and handed her a twenty-dollar bill. “I’d like a huge bottle of ginger ale and a blueberry muffin.” She saluted him, and he went to find a table, praying that he wouldn’t have to spring her from jail. In less than five minutes, she arrived at the table he chose holding her bouquet as if it were a baby, and followed by a busboy who carried their order. The busboy took the food off the tray and placed it on the table. Russ handed the man a five-dollar bill and thanked him.

  “No problem, sir. Congratulations and much happiness.”

  “What was he…?” He stared at Velma who was near convulsion with suppressed laughter. “How did you…?”

  “I just went to the busboy and told him we were already late for the wedding. People heard me and it was like the opening of the Red Sea. They assumed I was the bride. The busboy ran behind the counter and collected what I wanted, took it to the cashier, I paid, and you know the rest. Here’s your change.”

  When he could get his breath, he said, “Well, hell,” opened a bottle of ginger ale and was about to pour some in a glass for her when the humor of it struck him. He slumped in the chair and gave in to the laughter that rolled out of him. He knew that everybody in the restaurant was looking at them, but that seemed to make it all the funnier.

  When they managed to control their laughter, he found her staring at him. “What is it? Did I get some blueberries on my teeth?”

  “I never knew you to laugh like this. It is wonderful. Just…just wonderful.”

  He sobered then. “Drake likes to call me ‘old sourpuss.’ Is that what you think of me?”

  “That hadn’t occurred to me. In this context, I think of you as a serious-minded man who has a low tolerance for nonsense.” She lowered her head a little, and stole a glance at him. “Russ, I’ve been called a prankster, and I suppose you’d classify that as nonsense.”

  “Most of it is nonsense, but if it’s witty, if it’s clever, that’s different—then it’s a challenge. However, that’s not an invitation for you to—”

  She held up her right hand. “I know. I stand sufficiently warned. Still…” She let him wait for her next words, and he found himself anticipating them with heightened pleasure. “Uh…I can’t imagine myself not going to great lengths, if necessary, to make you laugh.”

  “Yeah. A prankster would do that.” He pondered her words, but didn’t wonder why she enjoyed seeing him laugh. As frank as he was finding her to be, she’d probably tell him without any prompting.

  Nonetheless, it gave him something to contemplate. “I never thought much about my personality or how it strikes others,” he said. “It’s who I am, and I can’t see myself pretending to be what I am not.”

  Her left hand moved toward him, and he thought she would reach for his hand or, at least, touch it. But she almost snatched it back, and he realized that what he’d thought was insecurity could well be an uncertainty as to how to relate to him.

  “Velma, I find that it never pays to try to figure out a person.”

  “You think I’m trying to figure you out?”

  “Aren’t you? You wanted to touch my hand, maybe even hold it to show the sympathetic understanding that you felt, but you weren’t certain how I’d react and you withdrew.”

  “What would you have done, Russ, if I’d held your hand?”

  “How many times tonight did I take your hand? Did I ask permission?”

  Her eyes sparkled like a dozen night stars, and her face bloomed into a smile. “Russ, what you’re saying is like dangling money and jewels in front of a thief.”

  He glanced at his watch, poured the remainder of the ginger ale into their glasses and took a sip. “Not quite. It means take a chance. Show me who you are, and I’ll reciprocate.”

  “But not necessarily in a way that I’d like.”

  He drained the glass. “True. But you have one thing going for you. We Harrington men respect women. Now, if we don’t get out of here, that busboy will know you handed him a line.”

  “Right.”

  When they stood to leave, the busboy appeared with a tray, cleared the table and let a grin take over his face. “Congratulations again, sir. This made my day.”

  “You’ve been very kind,” Russ said. He wanted to get out of there before he folded up in another laughing fit. As they walked toward the door, the other diners applauded, and he could feel his lower lip drop when Velma waved and blew kisses to the people.

  Deciding to play along, he slipped an arm around Velma’s waist, and while he didn’t succeed in keeping the grin off his face, he was able to resist howling with laugher until they got into the car.

  “I never had so much fun in my life,” she said. “My sister wouldn’t dream of doing anything like that.” She shifted her position until she sat with her back partly against the door. “Wasn’t that fun?”

/>   “Probably. I’ve never been tempted to do anything like that. I don’t know which cracked me up more, your arriving at the table with the busboy or blowing kisses at your fans.” He ignited the engine and headed for the highway. “Velma, you’re full of surprises. I had a very different picture of you, and I’m glad you agreed to come with me.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Neither Henry, my brothers, nor Alexis would believe I’d participate in any harebrained thing like that.”

  “Are you ashamed that we did it?”

  “Who, me? No, indeed. I don’t know when I’ve had so much fun.”

  “I’m glad, Russ. I’d like us to be friends.”

  He came within a breath of asking her what kind of friends, and he was glad he corrected himself before the words slipped out. He finessed a response. “Why shouldn’t we be?”

  When she didn’t answer his question, he considered it another point in her favor; she wouldn’t gainsay something was important to her. She stifled a yawn.

  “Sleepy?” he asked her.

  “Terribly. I was so keyed up when I went to bed that I was still awake at four-thirty this morning.”

  “I won’t feel badly if you sleep.”

  “But I will. If you talk, I’ll stay awake. What was it like being the middle of three boys when you were growing up?”

  “Now that’s a topic for a cold night. Growing up and being an adult…it’s all the same. Telford and Drake are closest, because Telford was protective of Drake. So was I, for that matter. That left me to my own devices, and I used it to my advantage. Strange thing is that Drake isn’t spoiled—he’s one hundred percent man.”

  “What did you do on your own?” she asked with such sincerity that he knew her questions sprang from a genuine interest in him.

  “I read the great philosophers, the leading writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Shakespeare, Richard Wright, newspapers, the funnies, whatever I got my hands on. And one day, I read about Frank Lloyd Wright. After that, I read everything about him that I could find.”

  “So he was your idol and the reason you became an architect?”

  “Partly. Telford’s the other reason. He had this dream of vindicating our father, and he talked about it so much that… Well, it fit with my passion for Wright’s work. Drake’s a born engineer. From childhood, he was always interested in how to make things work, and it is he and not Telford or I who fixes things around our home.”