The Wedding Wager

by Regina Duke

  “What is it?” asked Kevin.

  Megan sighed. “I shopped for four hours and never even thought about getting a nice handbag.”

  Kevin shrugged. “There’ll be plenty of time for that. Did you want to see my notes on the prenup?”

  “Oh, please, not now,” said Megan. “Jeffrey said I could order something to eat from room service. I need to eat and lie down. Today’s schedule was a huge increase over my activity level in the hospital.”

  “Okay,” said Kevin. “It’s been a long day for me, too.”

  “If I’m still awake after I eat, I’ll look at the notes.”

  “What would you like?”

  “Is there a menu?”

  “Somewhere, yes. But you don’t need one. Just tell me what you want and I’ll have it sent up.”

  “Wow. Nice.” Megan stifled a yawn. On a whim, she said, “How about a bleu cheese burger and a salad? And if you don’t mind, may I lie down for a few minutes while we wait for the food?”

  “No problem. Your door is down that corridor. In case you still think I might be a serial killer, feel free to lodge a chair under the door knob so I can’t get in.” He kept a straight face while he said it.

  “Thank you,” said Megan. She got up and headed down the short hallway to the crimson and gilt double doors. “At least I’ll die in splendor.” Then she opened the double doors and quietly closed them behind her.

  CHAPTER SIX

  KEVIN ORDERED DINNER. He was pleased that Megan hadn’t taken his thousand dollars and bailed on Jeffrey. That was a good sign. But then again, if she was really planning to blackmail him, a measly thousand was just the tip of the iceberg.

  On the other hand, she had looked adorable in her new linen suit. Her long blond hair was just the color he enjoyed. It would look perfect if she had a tan. But then she said she’d been in the hospital. Those pages of medical bills bore that out. So she wasn’t a liar.

  He stood for a long while, looking out over the city skyline. Night was falling slowly, as it did in the summertime. The sun was no longer visible but it still had the power to paint strokes of pink and orange on the underbellies of puffy clouds. But indigo was creeping in from the east, and it wouldn’t be long before the city was a sparkling array of lights. Like a giant Christmas tree slumbering on its side, he thought.

  “Very poetic,” he said aloud. “Save your creativity for after your birthday.”

  He turned away from the long bank of windows and poured himself an iced tea from the tall pitcher on the bar. He pressed a toggle on the wall and soft music wafted from invisible speakers.

  Jeffrey’s voice startled him. “Pretty impressive setup.” He dropped the shopping bags he had carried in on the carpet. They landed soundlessly.

  “Oh, hey. I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “Blame the carpeting. This place is amazing! When you offered me this gig, I had no idea what kind of operating budget you were talking about.”

  Kevin made a face. “My mother sends me money every month. She can’t stand the idea of me actually having to survive on the wages I earn. I’ve been putting it in the bank. Trust me, I couldn’t afford to live like this all year. Want some iced tea?”

  Jeffrey went around to the service side of the bar. “Let me pour. You don’t want your fiancée to see you treating me as an equal. When are you going to tell her the truth?”

  Kevin stretched his neck from side to side, getting the kinks out. “I was going to do it tonight, but I don’t know. A couple of things she said during our interview made me leery.” He lowered his voice. “I can’t shake the feeling that she already knows everything and she’s planning to blackmail me.”

  Jeffrey’s head bulleted back. “Are we talking about the same woman? The Megan I took shopping was very sweet and considerate and she was practically counting prices on her fingers, trying not to spend too much.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. I think you’re being paranoid. But then again, maybe that comes with the territory. After all, you are trying to pull a fast one on your old man, and you are not the most devious person in the world.”

  “No, but he is. And that’s what scares me. What if he already sniffed this whole thing out and planted her here? I wouldn’t put it past him. What if she’s one of his marionettes?”

  “I picked her up in front of a hospital,” said Jeffrey. “But I guess anyone could stand in front of a building and look lost and pitiful.”

  Kevin frowned. “Stop guilt-tripping me. I plan to keep my word, as long as she sees this thing through.” He ran a hand over his mouth. “And those medical bills looked real enough. Of course, my old man wouldn’t have any problem forging something like that.”

  Jeffrey took his chauffeur’s cap off and set it on the bar. He used silver tongs to drop four cubes of sugar into his tea.

  “There goes your paranoia again,” he said. “I think even your father would have trouble seeing through the ‘personal secretary’ ruse. Your name wasn’t on the ad, remember? You placed an ad and rented an office, and you called me and made me a part of this whole charade, for which I thank you very much, by the way. This pays way better than an entry level position with an engineering firm.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Jeffrey grinned. “I’m just saying, there was nothing for your father to pick up on, so Megan couldn’t possibly be working for him.”

  “No, I guess not. But she could still be planning to blackmail me.”

  “You are an idiot,” said Jeffrey lightly. He glanced around. “She in her room?”

  Kevin nodded.

  “Did my cousin take care of your prenuptial agreement?”

  “Yes, thanks. He did a great job. Thank God for friends. I didn’t know who to trust with the details. He’s quite a bit older than you, isn’t he?”

  “Just ten years, but he looks older. That’s why I went into engineering. Law is too stressful. He usually works with international importers and exporters, but he does other stuff, too. When his wife divorced him three years ago, he learned a whole lot about marital law in self-defense. Don’t worry, he knows what he’s doing. Is that the document?”

  Kevin nodded and tapped a fingertip on three pages of small print laid out on the bar. “This is it. I hope she doesn’t bail when she reads this.”

  “You put in the part about you being able to end the marriage at the appropriate time?”

  “Yeah, but your cousin said she needs to be able to do the same or it’ll look rigged and fake for sure. If my father ever sees these documents, it has to look like a real prenup or I’m screwed.”

  “This is so cool,” said Jeffrey. “Tell me again how much money you inherit on your birthday.”

  Kevin punched Jeffrey playfully in the shoulder. “Way more than your puny brain could handle. Now shut up and answer the door. I ordered room service.”

  Jeffrey grinned on his way across the room. “Hey, man, for that kind of money, I’d wear a wig and falsies and marry you myself if I thought we could fool your father.”

  “Very funny,” said Kevin. He strode across the room, glancing toward the doors of Megan’s suite. He put a hand on Jeffrey’s arm and said quietly, “If you value your paycheck, don’t joke around like that again. She might have heard you.”

  Jeffrey grew serious. “Sorry, Kev. I’ll stay in character.”

  Kevin nodded, then realized he was still holding onto Jeff’s arm. He let go. “Thanks.”

  Jeffrey threw his shoulders back and held his nose an inch higher than usual as he opened the door.

  “Room service?”

  “Thank you,” said Jeffrey, in character. “Right over there, please.” He pulled five dollars out of his pocket and slipped it to the waiter.

  “Thank you, sir.” The waiter left happy.

  Jeffrey allowed himself a tiny smile. “I really like doing that,” he said. “Tipping and stuff. Especially with your money.”

  “Great. Don’t get used to it yet.
I’ve still got to get married.”

  “I’d better take her purchases down the hall. Shall I tell her that dinner has arrived?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  Jeffrey winked and whispered, “Very imperious. Good job. We both need to stay in character. Me as the underling and you as the mega rich overlord.”

  Kevin was taken aback. Had he fallen into his role that easily? After five years of earning a living like normal people? The thought horrified him. Once he secured his siblings’ futures, maybe he could give his share to charity. But what if that wasn’t enough? What if he was really his father’s son after all?

  That thought chilled him to the bone.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  MEGAN COULDN’T PUT it off any longer. She had to let her parents know that she was out of the hospital and doing well. If she didn’t call, her mother would be heartbroken when she learned that Megan had gone on with her life without giving her an update. And her mother always found out.

  Her dad? Well, he wouldn’t care one way or another, and that was fine with Megan. They had said their goodbyes the day she decided to go to college instead of following her parents to Guatemala.

  “Missionary work is important,” he said. “More important than running around with your high school friends for another four years. It’s time you settled down into some good works.” His voice had shaken the walls of the flimsy rental they were living in.

  Megan had found herself backed against a wall, her father’s words banging against her eardrums and her sensibilities. But if she surrendered about college, she knew she would never see her friends again, and she would lose all hope of living her own life.

  “Yell all you want, dad. I’m not going to Guatemala. I’m going to college. I have an acceptance letter!”

  “Well, I’m not paying for it! I’m not going to pay someone to turn my daughter away from the path of the Holy toward the worldly! And I’m not yelling, I’m voicing my opinion!”

  Vernon Mully’s features always looked angry, even when he professed to be happy about something. Megan had a theory. She thought all those years of preaching the wrath of God had soured his visage to the point that he could no longer smile or look happy.

  Glenda Mully stepped in quietly, as she always did. “Vernon, a stranger would think you’re threatening our daughter if he saw you looking so intent. Why don’t you back away. Megan, you come stand over here. There are lots of people of faith out in the world. There’s even a campus ministry. I’ve been reading Megan’s brochures. And she is going to college.”

  “There’s no money for college,” bellowed Vernon.

  “Megan knows that. She plans to work her way through, don’t you, dear.”

  “Yes,” said Megan. “I’ve always known I’d have to pay for it myself.”

  “Well, go, then,” said Vernon, his volume inching down a bit. “If college is what you want, just go. We’ll build the mission ourselves! I have to work on my sermon.” And with that, slightly deflated, he left them alone.

  “Your father—”

  “I know, I know,” said Megan. “He means well. He always means well. He just thinks God can’t love anybody who doesn’t bluster and yell all the time.”

  “His powers of persuasion used to be more subtle, when we were younger.”

  “Oh, mom, do you have to go to Guatemala? Isn’t there good work he could do here in the States?”

  Glenda Mully pushed a stray lock of hair out of Megan’s face. “I’ve followed him everywhere else,” she said, “like a dutiful wife, and I guess I’ll follow him to Guatemala. But don’t you worry. You’ll hardly know I’m gone. You’ll be at school, meeting new people, learning wonderful things! I’m so proud of you.” She lowered her voice. “And there’s something I want to show you. Come with me.”

  She led Megan into the tiny bedroom that Megan had decorated by covering the walls with pictures from magazines. Beautiful homes, new cars, even dogs and cats and ponies, were all lined up to represent the future she wanted for herself. A future that would never be hers if she ended up in Guatemala taking care of orphans with her parents.

  “Close the door, dear.”

  Megan did so. She was puzzled, but she waited patiently while her mother pulled a box off the shelf of her closet. It was tucked far back from the edge, and Megan had never noticed it there.

  “I always keep this in your room,” said her mother softly, “because your father never comes in here.”

  Glenda settled on the edge of the narrow bed with the box in her lap. Her hands were roughened with work and her blond hair lightened with streaks of white and gray, but her blue eyes sparkled with the joy of her secret. She patted the bed and Megan sat beside her.

  “What is it, mom?”

  “Something I’ve been working on for years. It’s our secret. If your father knew about it—” She paused. “—well, he doesn’t, so let’s keep it that way.” She opened the box.

  At first Megan thought it was empty. There was nothing inside. Nothing, except a small blue checkbook and a bank statement.

  “I’ve been saving a little here and there over the years,” said Glenda. “When I saw that spark of learning in you, that joy you expressed every morning on your way out the door to go to school, I knew I had to find a way to help you go to college. I know it’s not much, but there’s hardly any left over after running the household, you know.”

  Megan unfolded the bank statement and her mouth dropped open. “Mama! There’s five thousand dollars in here!”

  “Shhh. The Guatemalan mission attracts donors. Your father has already raised seventy thousand toward the building. This money here came from me scraping and doing without for years. And I didn’t do all of that to buy windows and doors for strangers. It’s not much as far as college expenses go, but it will get you a room near campus. It’ll go quite a ways if you’re careful.”

  Megan hugged her mother tight. “Oh, I will be. I’ll be so careful, mom! And I’ll get a job right away, and I’m a resident here so I don’t have to pay out-of-state tuition.” Her voice caught in her throat. “Thank you, mama.”

  Glenda smiled. “And as for me being in Guatemala, just remember our code word.”

  Megan wiped a tear away. “Code word?”

  “At camp that year, remember? Your father’s parishioners wanted the church to sponsor a summer camp experience? And you didn’t want to go because you were only eight and the other kids were ten or older?”

  Megan nodded. Her lips formed a grim line. “And dad said it would look bad if his child didn’t attend because he was the pastor. I was scared to death.”

  “You’d never been away from home before,” said her mother. “I tried to convince your friends’ parents to exchange sleepovers, but your little friends were afraid of your father.”

  “He’s blustery,” said Megan.

  Her mother laughed. “Yes, he is. So when you packed for camp, what did I tell you?”

  “When you called me every night to see if I was okay, all I had to do was say the secret code word and you would come get me, no matter what.”

  “That’s right. You never had to use it, though, because when you got to camp, you had so much fun.”

  Megan nodded. “I did, didn’t I?” She didn’t add that a big part of her fun was the fact that her father had not been around at camp to put his stern kibosh on everything she did. Megan put a finger to her lips and whispered, “Unicorn.”

  Glenda nodded. “That’s right. You remembered.”

  Surrounded now by the luxury of Kevin Wake’s hotel suite, Megan shook off the past and the tender feelings that crept up on her whenever she thought about her mother. She had remembered that code word. In the hospital after the accident, when the doctors told her she would need surgery and physical therapy, she asked a nurse to call her mother with a message: her location and the word “unicorn.” And her mother came.

  Megan was still on heavy pain medications when her mother had to leave a
gain, so she couldn’t recall if she ever found out how her mother got to her bedside from Guatemala. All she knew was that, when she came out of three days of induced coma, her mother was at her side.

  Yes, she would have to call her mother and let her know that she was out of the hospital and doing well.

  Physically, anyway. She reached for the hotel phone.

  As for the rest of it?

  She pulled her hand back. How would she explain the rest of it?

  A soft knock at the door momentarily postponed that decision.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  JEFFREY KNOCKED AGAIN. “Ms. Mully? Your dinner is here.”

  A moment later, Megan opened the door.

  Jeffrey added, “I also brought your shopping bags up, ma’am.” He waved a hand at the pile of purchases he’d set beside her door.

  “Oh, thank you. I’ll put them away.” She reached for the bags.

  “Your dinner will get cold,” said Jeffrey. “I’ll just set them inside the door for you. Mr. Wake is waiting.”

  “Oh, all right.” Megan took a breath and headed for the living area with the wall of windows. She hadn’t expected dinner to arrive so soon. The rest period she’d been craving had only lasted half an hour, but on the other hand she was famished.

  Kevin Wake was seated at a table for two. His square jaw, piercing hazel eyes, and dark wavy hair made him look like a movie star, and the lavish surroundings only enhanced the feel of movie magic. Megan could imagine him tramping up and down hills with a lumberjack’s axe on his shoulder. And she could equally picture him in a tuxedo at a Hollywood premiere. She pulled herself up short when she began to imagine him as a scantily clad lifeguard on a beach.

  On closer inspection, Megan noticed that the table had wheels and realized this was how the waiter had delivered dinner.

  “That was fast,” she said.

  Kevin indicated the other chair. “The service here has been excellent.”