Rosie bumped her shoulder up, forcing Julie to raise her head. Rosie held on to her arm with one hand and reached up to straighten Julie’s askew little bowler. “Now, go dry your eyes and pretty yourself up. This is going to be a great night. I just know it.”
“Oh?” Julie wiped gingerly at her eyes, trying to avoid smearing any more mascara onto her cheeks than was probably already there. “And just how do you know that? You sound pretty certain.”
Rosie shook a finger at her. “Oh, no. You’re not hearing it from me. Now, get yourself and your makeup into that little bathroom I saw off the kitchen and fix yourself up before you have to explain why your face is such a fright. They’ll think this is a Halloween party, for crying out loud.”
When Julie didn’t move, but looked instead at the halfcompleted punch, Rosie gave her a gentle shove in the right direction. “I’ll finish here.”
Julie smiled at Rosie and gave her a quick hug. “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Rosie. Thanks for listening.” When Rosie waved her away with a dimpled grin, Julie quickly turned and grabbed her purse.
Avoiding the kitchen exit from the large dining room, she turned instead to her right and tiptoed down the terracotta hallway to the tiny half bath wedged in between the coat closet and a guest bedroom. Damn. The door was closed. She tried the knob gingerly. And locked. Now what? Julie bit at her bottom lip and looked around. Well, what are you thinking? Like there isn’t a mirror in the guest bedroom. She had just started in that direction but the bathroom door opened up. Of course. “Mike.”
“Hey, good guess.” He looked at her face. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve been cry—”
“No, I haven’t. Are you through in there?”
“I might be.” He stood in the doorway and crossed his arms over his neon-green knit shirt and equally bright green-and-white shamrock-patterned suspenders. They looked wonderful with his white pants. And green socks. And white shoes. “Why were you crying?”
Julie took a deep breath and resettled her one shoulder pad that felt like it was bunched up inside her kelly green dress. “You don’t want to know. Now, will you please let me by?” Turning to the side, she tried to wedge her way in with her shoulder.
“Hey, don’t let me stop you.” He stepped aside when she shoved past him. And stood there staring at her.
At the mirror, she groaned at the sight she made with mascara smudged under her eyes. Opening her purse, she cocked her head at him. “Do you mind?”
He straightened up and took hold of the door. “My mistake.” And then stepped back inside, closing it behind him. He pushed in the lock button and turned to her. “Better?”
Julie gave a heavy sigh. “I meant from the outside.”
“And I mean to find out why you were crying.”
“Well, I don’t intend to tell you. Not yet, anyway. Right now I’m going to fix myself up. You can stay and watch. Or you can leave.” That said, Julie focused on her reflection in the mirror. The moment was here, he had every right to know, and yet she just couldn’t get the words out. Rosie’d said wait, and so she’d wait. So there. Cop-out, screamed the little voice in her head. Shut up.
“I’m staying.”
Holding a moistened tissue to her eye, Julie turned slightly. “Suit yourself.”
“I will.” He squeezed by her to sit on the lowered toilet seat.
Julie removed the cap from her pencil liner and looked down at Mike, sitting sideways and looking up at her, completely fascinated, apparently, with this totally feminine business. “Could you maybe move in a little closer, Mike? I still have enough room to move my elbow.”
“Sure. No problem.” He grasped her hips, moved her out, swung his leg in front of her and then moved her back in, wedging her between his thighs. “Is that better?”
“I was being sarcastic.”
He grinned up at her. “And you did it very well. What’s that thing you’re doing now?”
She looked from his face to her own hand. “It’s an eyeliner pencil. Surely you’ve seen one before?”
He pretended to search his memory. “Possibly. So why were you crying?”
Julie leaned over to him to put her nose right to the tip of his. “Because you won’t ever let me be alone in a bathroom. Happy?”
He reached up with both hands to cup her face and give her a quick peck. “No. So why were you crying?”
“Because you won’t quit asking me questions. You’re making me crazy, Mike DeAngelo.”
“Good. Because you’re keeping me awake nights, Julie Marie Cochran. I’ll tell you how many cold showers I’ve had to take in the past few weeks, if you’ll tell me why you were crying.”
“That’s it.” Julie pulled her nose away from his and straightened up. Wedging away from him, she went toward the door and opened it. With her gaze on Mike, she ordered, “Out.”
“Oh, there you are, Mike.”
Julie jumped about ten feet and jerked around. “Mother!”
“Well, don’t blame me. I was just passing by. I’ve been looking everywhere for Mike. I should have known you two’d be in a bathroom somewhere. Mike, Sal’s eating cookies in front of your son and now Aaron wants one. Can he have a shamrock cookie?”
“Is there another kind tonight?” The big jerk just kept his smart-aleck grin on Julie and then winked.
Tugging on the jacket hem of her green polyester pantsuit, Ida made several sideways stabbing motions with her head, as if telling him to come with her. “Can I see you a minute, Mike? It’s about the, uh, cookie thing with Aaron.”
Some little light bulb dawned over his head apparently, judging by how animated his face suddenly became. And, whereas Julie hadn’t been able to budge him, he jumped right up and went with Ida, barely nodding to Julie as he brushed past her. She shook her head and closed the door behind him. And locked it. Men. And mothers. Sheesh.
After repairing the damage, Julie surveyed her reflection in the mirror, made a face and went to the closed door. With her hand on the knob, she took a deep breath, let it out slowly through pursed lips, told herself to just get through the night, and then opened the door.
Only to come face-to-face with a big, green bulldog holding a fistful of cookies and leaning against the opposite wall. Sal Pomerantz. He held out a frosted shamrock. With his mouth full, he asked, “You want one?”
Doggone him. She couldn’t even see him without wanting to kiss his forehead and smile. “Sure.”
“Mike sent me to see why you were crying. He says you’ll talk to me.” He swallowed, took another bite and waited.
Julie fingered her cookie and grinned hugely. “You know, he probably didn’t want me to know that he told you to check on me.”
“Yeah, well, who cares? Especially if he was the one who made you cry. I already owe him an ass-kickin’ for the last time.” He looked down at her hand. “Is that my ring?”
Julie held her hand out for him to see. “It certainly is. Pretty, huh?”
Sal took her hand and rubbed at the green discoloration around her finger. “Pretty cheap, is more like it. So, what’re you cryin’ about? And don’t lie to Uncle Sal here. Me and you, we got a history with this cryin’ thing of yours, remember.”
Julie shrugged her shoulders and stared down at her cookie. Finally she nibbled a bite off it and looked up at Sal’s rugged face. He watched her with a depth of emotion that warmed Julie’s heart. “I wish I could tell you, Sal, but I have to tell Mike first. It’s only fair.”
“Oh, so now we’re bein’ fair. Yeah, well, fair was me gettin’ to be his best man when he was goin’ to marry Caroline. You know you cheated me out of a trip to Boston and then home to Brooklyn?”
Julie bit at her bottom lip and then offered a bright smile. “Tell you what, if I ever get married, you can be my best man, okay? Or my maid of honor. Would you like that?”
Sal shrugged his massive shoulders and looked up and down the hall before resettling his gaze on Julie. “If
the dress fits, I’ll wear it.”
Julie chuckled, and then changed the subject. “Hey, Sal, I really like Rosie.”
“Yeah, me, too. I think I’ll chase her until she catches me.”
“Good. I’m happy for you.” Julie felt a warm rush of affection for this man. Why couldn’t it be this easy with Mike? “You know what? I already feel better, just talking to you.”
He smiled. “That’s the old Pomerantz magic.” Then he turned serious. “Julie, if there’s ever anything you—Well, you know.”
“I know.” She took his hand and squeezed it. “Now, come on. Let’s go join that party. It sounds like about fifty people have shown up since I went into that bathroom.”
“Yeah, and they’re all green.”
Julie looked at his outrageously bow-tied and checkered outfit and then down at her own costume. “Unlike us, right?”
Sal straightened up, feigning outraged dignity. “Hey, we’re the epitome of high fashion here. Come on—” He put his huge arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go show these people how to party until we’re green around the gills.”
13
IT DIDN’T TAKE JULIE more than a couple of hours to get green around the gills. The noise, the crush of the crowd, everybody and everything’s greenness, the food, the combined body heats and perfumes, the music. She’d never been bothered by those things before. So maybe it was the pregnant thing playing on her nerves. All she knew was she’d needed to get away for a few seconds, to just sit somewhere quietly and breathe in and out.
When she came back into the room from her tenth trip to the washroom, she looked around. Mike was sorting through CDs with Sal, Rosie, Charlene and some of her other friends from work. Several people from the apartments were out on the patio talking and laughing with some folks from church. Huddled around the green buffet were chattering guests from about three different generations.
Over on the couch, Mom was sitting with Dad, holding court. It always amazed Julie that her mother could bring together such a diverse group of people who really didn’t know each other at all, for the most part, and it always worked out. What kind of party would she have when she found out her daughter was an unwed mother?
Okay, time for a breather. Before she could be seen and drawn back into the crowd, Julie bypassed the living room and continued on down the long, darkened hall to its end and eased open the door. Peering into the semi-darkness, lit by a shell night-light, she found that the little mound on her parents’ king-size bed was Aaron. Moving to the bedside, she leaned over and smoothed back the black hair from his little baby forehead.
He mumbled in his sleep and turned over onto his back. Julie pulled her hand back and held her breath. Aaron slept on. She smiled down at him, wanting to pick him up and hold him to her. He was precious, and so much like Mike. And yet he was his own little man, too. She could listen to him prattle on all day.
Someone behind her gripped her shoulders. Julie’s breath caught. But a soft, warm breath on her neck shused her, even as she was pulled back against a broad, familiar chest. “It’s just me. I saw you come down the hallway. Cute kid, huh?”
Julie relaxed against Mike, covering his hands with hers when he wrapped his arms around her waist. “He sure is. You make pretty babies, Mike DeAngelo.”
He kissed her neck and whispered, “I want to make pretty babies with you, Julie Cochran.”
Oh God, oh God, oh God. Julie fought the tensing in her muscles, forced herself to remain calm. Tell that to her heart. “Well, we can’t,” she whispered back over her shoulder. “I work, remember? And we’re just friends.”
“Outside,” Mike breathed into her ear. He withdrew the warm comfort of his arms from around her and took her hand, leading her out to the hallway. Once he’d eased the door closed behind them and looked up the hallway, apparently wanting to be sure they were alone, he put his hands on her arms and looked down into her face.
Julie’s heart pounded with the rhythm of the music filtering from the party. Tell him, tell him, tell him, her conscience demanded. “Mike, there’s something I need—”
“No. Me first, okay? For the past few weeks, I’ve been hounding you with questions—small questions, questions that matter, answers that matter, things we had to know about each other. But there’s something more important I haven’t asked you yet.”
Julie frowned. “I don’t think I got all of that.”
Mike looked confused himself. “Me, either. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is—” He quickly looked over his shoulder and then back at her. “We don’t have much time here before the cakes are presented, so what 1 mean is—”
“The cakes? What cakes?”
Mike exhaled roughly in exasperation. “Don’t interrupt me or this whole thing’ll go bust. Now, here’s the thing. I don’t care if you work. I want you to work. Your work is who you are. I’m a big jerk for ever thinking otherwise. I realize now—my enforced celibacy has cleared my brain-that it was never Tory’s work that pulled us apart. It was Tory’s.um, what can I call it? Her self? The way she’s made? See, I blamed her job, saying if she didn’t have that, she’d’ve never left. But I know now that’s not true. She would have left, anyway. And for the right reason—she and I just didn’t love each other enough. I mean, it just wasn’t there between us. See what I mean?”
Julie frowned. “I think so. Go on.”
“Okay. And with Caroline, I was just doing what I thought was best for Aaron. Don’t get me wrong. I had, and still have, some feelings for her. But she and I know we were fooling ourselves, calling our friendship love. Because that’s what it was—friendship. So I didn’t love her, either, really, in the right way, the only way that counts.”
“What.” Julie swallowed the hard lump in her throat. Was he getting ready to tell her he didn’t love her, too? “What is the only way that counts, Mike?”
He gripped her tighter. “The way I love you, Julie. All my life, I’ve been looking for you. And I’ve made a lot of women miserable while I tried to find you.”
Julie’s heart hammered. “What are you saying, Mike?”
He smiled, his heart and hope reflected in his eyes. “I’m saying I want you to marry me, Julie.”
Okay, it’s a line from really old movies, but it fits here. “Mike, this is so sudden. I don’t know what to say.”
“Sudden? How can this be sudden? I’ve been going around for weeks with a part of my anatomy hard enough to cut diamonds every time I even think I can smell you, and you say this is sudden?”
Julie put a hand to her mouth to stifle the giggles. When she got hold of herself, she told him, “I mean, we’ve only known each other for about six weeks.”
“How long is enough, before two people know it’s right? Two months? Two years? I’ve known forever. Somewhere deep in my heart, I’ve known since the first time I saw you.”
Julie blinked rapidly to clear her vision. “Mike, are you sure? I mean, you were engaged to someone else two weeks ago. How can you know that what’s in your heart now won’t change in a month?”
“It will. It’ll be stronger.” Mike let go of her to step back and run his hands through his hair. “I’ll grant you this much—I’ve been a mixed up son of a gun where women are concerned. But I know this is right, Julie. I know it. You are the one, the only woman I’ll ever want. Hell, just look at me. I’ve lost ten pounds, I forget to shave, and I’m dressed in green and white—for you. I hate green and white. What more proof do you need? I’m a man in love.”
Julie’s heart started to bubble over with joy. “I’ve seen you wear green before, Mike DeAngelo.”
“All right, I lied about that. So what do you say, Julie?” He looked again over his shoulder and then turned his avid gaze back on her.
She tried to look around his bulk. “What is going on out there, Mike?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar. It’s gotten awfully quiet.”
“No, it hasn’t.” He barely kept a grin off his face.
“I swear, you are the worst liar.”
“You should be glad. When I’m eighty and tell you I’m going golfing, but I’m really going to the nudie bars, you’ll know.”
“You go to nudie bars?”
“I said when I’m eighty. You’re getting off track here, Julie. And you haven’t answered me yet.”
Oh God, oh God, oh God “I can’t. Not yet. First I have to say this, Mike. You’ve been here in Tampa for a year. Before that, Boston. Before that, Atlanta. The FBI moves you a lot. And that’s your career. But I have to think about mine. What if you’re transferred? What do we do then?”
“That’s a tough one, I admit. All I can say is, before I even met you, I talked to my boss about staying in one place, since Aaron is getting close to school age. They guaranteed me three more years here. That’s the best I can do. But a lot can happen in three years. I may not want to stay on with the FBI. You may not want to stay at the bank. We could be new parents by then. I know that’s not really an answer, but we could be completely different people in three years with whole new priorities. Anything can happen.
“And already has.” The time for keeping secrets was over. This was what Rosie meant about her waiting, about talking with Mike first. The stinker knew, which meant Sal knew, that Mike was going to propose to her tonight. So, therefore, did her mother, she’d just bet. And her father. Which explained the party. This was a stinking conspiracy, that’s what it was.
“What do you mean, ‘and already has’?”
There it was. The question. Julie pushed at his chest, finally sending him back a step. “I’m pregnant, you big jerk.”
Mike quit breathing. His mouth dropped. His eyes bulged. His face turned red. Julie observed all these things with clinical detachment while time stood still. Was he finally going to just explode? Yes.
“You’re pregnant?” he screamed out, loud enough to be heard in Miami. No, Key West. No, Cuba.
Out of the corner of her eye, Julie saw about fifty heads pop around the corner from the living room. Behind her, she heard Aaron stir. “Yes, I am. So it’s a good thing you want to marry me, isn’t it?”
A Man In Demand Page 17