Where Dreams Books 1-3

by M. L. Buchman

  Maria bore up as well as she could, her head spinning wildly. It made it difficult to keep her balance and more than once Perrin had to steady her.

  She had her suspicions as to what the dress was. Then was pretty sure she was right. Perrin had said she’d make a wedding dress for Maria. Well, she wasn’t ready for it, but she knew better than to try and stop Perrin when she was on a roll.

  “Is this what you did for Jo and Cassidy?”

  “You mean accost them in a dark alley and force an amazing dress over their heads with no warning at all?” Perrin mumbled around a mouthful of pins.

  “Yes!” Maria felt terribly lightheaded as Perrin made subtle changes that made the dress shift and cling to her skin.

  “Uh. Guess so. Never thought about it much. Cassidy not so much. She was the first of us to fall in love, I wasn’t really ready for that. It was a real ‘Duh!’ moment for all of us when it finally happened. Jo?”

  Perrin tugged on something that threatened to cut Maria in two, but then eased back off before she had a chance to complain.

  “Absolutely. I mugged her outright. If you ever want to see your daughter-in-law all soft and gooey, it was the day I put her wedding dress on her. She wasn’t even dating Angelo yet, though they were sweet on each other for months, but they hadn’t even figured that out yet. I told her to never underestimate the power of a great dress. It seems that was enough.”

  Maria opened her eyes in surprise. Perrin was inspecting the dress’ bodice critically. When she went to glance down, Perrin put a hand under her chin to stop her.

  “Not yet.”

  Maria focused on watching Perrin’s face as she worked. Critical consideration. An inordinate amount of talent focused on the problem of just what to do with Maria’s chest.

  Perrin tugged a little. “Oh, I know! No peeking!” And she was gone. She returned moments later with a gold chain and a piece of the sheerest fabric Maria had ever seen.

  “I better be wearing more than that.”

  “Yes, you better, or not a single man in the whole place would be able to speak, including the minister. Now be quiet.”

  Maria stood and was quiet. She closed her eyes again, to resist the urge to peek, and enjoyed the slightly pampered feeling of Perrin bustling about her. So, Perrin had known that Jo should be in love, even before she was. Or knew that she was long before Jo knew it. Or… Maria sighed. This was all getting much too deep for her.

  Perrin was like her son in that way. Angelo was a deep chef. His growing success was his combination of an exceptional palate, that she liked to think came from her, and an intense intellectual focus that was all his own. He built layers, depths, whole oceans of flavors that rose and melded into a satisfying whole without either disappointing or overwhelming.

  Perrin did the same thing in fabric and clothing design. Deep design.

  Maria wasn’t deep, she just liked to cook. She liked flavors. Liked the juxtaposition of the unexpected with the tasty. So much of what she did was by intuition and testing, rather than figuring it out beforehand.

  Perhaps that was the problem? Hogan had figured out that he was in love with her. And she’d been trying to figure it out as well. It wasn’t how she cooked. Maybe it wasn’t how she fell in love.

  “Okay. Keep your eyes closed until we get to a mirror.” Perrin’s hands were steadying as she guided Maria forward.

  She barely noticed as Perrin slipped high heels on her feet. Sandals.

  “You can open them now,” Perrin finished positioning her then stepped aside.

  Maria opened her eyes.

  She almost turned around to see who the mirror was reflecting before she realized that she’d been transformed. Her hair, always worn loose to her shoulders, was swirled atop her head. A simple gold chain adorned her neck. Then the dress…

  The dress.

  “Oh my god, Perrin.”

  It was the simplest of dresses. It was “the little black dress” that every woman had in their wardrobe. But there the similarities ended. Every curve, every seam traced a line of Maria’s body. Curves enhanced, waist trimmed. A forty-seven year old body that looked twenty-five. But it didn’t just look younger. It was a twenty-five year old’s shape but with maturity, elegance, even a sophistication that Maria had always known she lacked. The skirt pleated, ever so slightly emphasizing without enhancing womanly hips, as if celebrating the son she had birthed. It swirled just shy of her knees stating, “This woman still has great legs and the confidence to show them.” The strapped-leather sandals were merely the capstone on that statement.

  “But how…” She turned to view her profile. Maria hadn’t looked this good since before she’d gotten pregnant, if then.

  She turned the other way. No clearer how the magic had been done.

  “You have such great lines, I just emphasized them,” Perrin moved in and they looked at her reflection together. “Your neck is your great feature. So, the black dress draws all attention to your beautiful skin. Rather than a plunging neckline, being slightly more covered up will slay Hogan and leave him desperate to see more.”

  Perrin held up the bit of sheer fabric. She’d done something to it. She slid it over Maria’s wrist like a corsage. For some reason that bit of an accent worked, setting off the dark dress, making it clearly a celebration.

  “And watch what happens when he finally slides the ring on.” Perrin took a thin strip of gold ribbon and wrapped it around Maria’s finger.

  It caught the glimmer of the golden necklace and stood out ten times more than it would any other way. A black dress that not only showed off the bride within and acknowledged the woman, but also highlighted and celebrated the sanctity of the marriage vows and the purpose of the wedding.

  “We’ll dress Hogan in a white tux and tails. He’ll fight it, but it will be perfect. When you dance in his arms, it will be beyond perfect.”

  Maria pulled Perrin into her arms.

  “You’re right. It will be.”

  Her instincts had known exactly what they were doing when they’d led her to Perrin’s shop. The answer was there all the time, she just had to see it herself in the smile worn by the woman in the mirror.

  Chapter 12

  Hogan had been bemused by the instruction. So far, he’d been the one to set their plans, showing Maria a new Seattle, the one beyond her normal haunts of Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. He’d been thinking to take her for drinks and dinner at the Space Needle; the food was good, but the view was spectacular. Or maybe up to the St. James Cathedral for a performance of Handel’s Messiah. It wasn’t St. Patty’s in New York, but it was still pretty spectacular.

  This time, she’d sent him a simple text. “Waterfront Park. Seven p.m.”

  So, here he sat on a park bench staring across the water at the site of their first date, the Seattle Great Wheel. Tonight it was lit like a red and green pinwheel, a giant swirling disk against the night sky.

  It had been a week since he’d told Maria he loved her. It had simply been true, so he’d said it. Really not one of his smoother moves. For the hundredth time since, he wanted to kick himself, but it wouldn’t make it any less true.

  Since his declaration, she had been her usual, amazing self. Mostly. He would occasionally catch her watching him thoughtfully. As if he were a loose cannon that might go off without warning.

  Actually, that wasn’t fair. That was simply what he’d felt like. The most Maria showed was that perhaps she was a little quieter and more thoughtful than usual. But she was still the best companion he’d ever been with.

  They talked, he’d never talked so much in all his life, and had a great time doing it. He was a corporate software engineer, she was an exotic, Italian chef. She was a great beauty and he was, well, Hogan Stanford.

  And they’d made love. Since he’d been stupid enough to just blurt his feelings out li
ke that, they had made amazing love. What had started as good sex, had become wholly incredible. Tender, gentle, sweet one moment, wildly passionate the next. Such fierce mood swings that it set them both to giggling and other times close to tears. Whatever they might each think or feel, their bodies were very happy together. He ached with need for her no matter how often they sated it. She claimed to be suffering from the same problem.

  He would be patient. Honestly he would. Maybe with time, he could get over being such a doofus. Maybe.

  “What are you thinking so deeply?” Maria stood only a few feet in front of him. She looked radiant.

  “Thinking of you, what else? You have taken over my brainpan. Wiped out my gray matter and filled it with endless, vibrant tapes of a woman who smiles back at me for reasons impossible to fathom.”

  Then she did just that. Smiled at him, soft and close. An intimate sharing.

  When he continued to stare at her, she swirled slightly side to side as if showing off her coat. Her coat! Sky blue, long wool. And a hat more golden than the sun.

  He sat bolt upright in shock.

  “You! It was you that I saw from my window. All of it was you from the very start.”

  She nodded, “I almost fell down when you told me about that. You fell in love with me from a dozen stories above without even knowing who I was.”

  “I did. That’s because I’m a smart guy. Either that or insanely lucky.” She’d said love. It was the first time she’d acknowledged that he loved her as if it were simply a fact. Which it was. He felt a ray of hope, but quashed it hard. Always rushing things, Hogan. Just stay relaxed. He told himself that often, and unsuccessfully.

  In answer, she merely held out her gloved hand and tugged him to his feet. Hand in hand she led him south along the sidewalk, turning in at the Great Wheel. To his surprise she walked right by the ticket line, as if she merely wanted a closer look.

  He offered to get them tickets, she just shook her head and led him forward.

  At the loading gate, she produced a pair of tickets from her coat pocket.

  The man signaled there’d be just a short wait. Though several gondolas were loaded ahead of them, they were still standing out in the cold. Not that he minded. Holding Maria’s hand in his, smelling the soft scent of her upon the air, he’d be content to stand for hours and watch the bright lights of the Wheel and the Seattle waterfront.

  “Here we go.” She led him aboard the gondola. But it was different from the other one they’d been in a few weeks ago. It was trimmed in black instead of white. Rather than a long bench seat on either side, there were four armchairs. They looked deep and comfortable. It was also warm; this gondola had a heater. Christmas carols were playing softly in the background. He’d known there was a single VIP gondola on the Wheel, but had never given it further thought.

  Maria pushed him gently into the seat opposite hers, so they faced each other knee to knee. With a friendly nod, the attendant locked them in and they were off.

  How was he supposed to admire the view with Maria sitting directly opposite him? She opened her coat and set it aside. She wore one of his favorite red dresses and a thin gold chain.

  “I haven’t seen that before.” He traced a finger lightly along the warm metal and cool skin. “It makes your neck look amazing.”

  She nodded at the compliment, but still didn’t speak. Her smile was full of secrets, ones that he had learned she wouldn’t be revealing until she was good and ready. Sometimes he could pester the answer out of her, but not when she smiled like that.

  Then they swung out over the dock and he looked down in surprise. The floor was made of glass. He could see the steady stream of people in holiday attire, wandering along the pier. So many couples and families.

  If he was ever going to have a regret, it would be that he hadn’t had children. He and Vera hadn’t wanted any, though it had taken him over a decade for him to realize that too was information. He and Maria had met too late in life and now there would be no children. Of course the thought of having a hormonal teenager running around the place when he hit sixty destroyed the image.

  He looked again out of the gondola. It was like they were in a glass bubble floating above the city.

  Maria handed him a bottle of champagne. It had been opened and capped. She held out a pair of wide-bottomed mugs. She didn’t need to explain, flutes on a moving gondola were just asking for a spill.

  So, they sipped champagne and watched the city as they rose into the sky. At the very top, Maria broke her long silence.

  “This was for you, Hogan. For how you made me feel when you said that you loved me. Like a bubble floating above the city. Not knowing if I was safe, or about to float away. It should have been terrifying, but it wasn’t. I wanted you to know that.”

  For a moment, he thought this was a speech about how it was over. But before the fear could even begin to form, she leaned forward and kissed him in a way that wiped that doubt aside. Deep, tender, lingering. By the time they parted, they had returned most of the way to the bottom.

  “Twice more around,” Maria said as they swung through the loading station.

  As they rose once more, she began talking. She told him of her first passion, of her love for her son, of her being abruptly out of a job when the senior Morgans had retired six months ago.

  “There is another thing I want you to know, Hogan. They set me up very well in thanks for my years of service. Very well. I want you to know that because it is important that you understand, I’m not interested in you for your money. I’m at least as comfortable as you are.”

  Hogan hadn’t even connected that. Vera had certainly cared a great deal about the wealth and status, just not enough about him to remain true to her vows. As with any corporate executive, he certainly hadn’t helped matters by working so many hours, but neither had he cheated. He’d never even thought about that with Maria. He should have, but he hadn’t. And now he didn’t need to.

  She freshened their glasses as the vista of Seattle and Elliot Bay once again lay far below them.

  “There is one other thing you need to know about me, Hogan.”

  He tipped his mug toward her indicating he was listening.

  “I love you so very much that I don’t know what to do with all of the emotion inside me.”

  She took the mug before it could slip from his nerveless fingers.

  “Yes, took me by surprise too.” She brushed her fingers along the chain at her throat.

  “Really? You love me?” His voice, little more than a croak, reflected strangely off the gondola’s windows.

  “Really. Now, if I know you, Hogan, this would be a good time for you to pull that ring out of your pocket.”

  He almost asked how she knew, he’d only purchased it this morning. But then thought better of it.

  Instead he recalled Perrin’s words about Maria, “Scary smart.”

  Hogan did it right. He knelt upon the sky, the clear glass at the bottom of a gondola a hundred-and-seventy-five feet in the air, and asked her properly.

  When he slid the gold band around her finger, it was the happiest he’d ever been in his life.

  The third time around the Great Wheel, not a word was spoken, and three of the four seats remained empty.

  Chapter 13

  The air in Hogan’s condo seemed to shimmer it was so filled with energy and amazing scents. Maria was proud of Manuel and Angelo, they’d really outdone themselves. The food had poured forth from Hogan’s kitchen in such abundance that it was impossible to credit even if the prep work had been done in the nearby closed restaurant. They’d served family style, a dozen heaped dishes arriving on great platters all at once.

  The centerpiece was a trio of traditional Christmas panettone loaves, tall, cylindrical and baked to a crunchy dark brown. Inside they’d be a soft yellow bread filled with candied orange and
raisins.

  There was a massive tureen of Natalini, macaroni and meatballs in a capon broth soup and a huge dish of sausage-filled Ravioli alla Genovese buried in Nora’s Ligurian basil pesto. Henry had sent over a whole side of halibut to show he wasn’t hurt at Maria falling in love with someone else and the boys had roasted it with fennel and baby potatoes. A chicken Marsala, a rack of lamb with an apple compote…the bounty spread far down the table and to Maria, every bit of it smelled like home. After a prayer of thanks and blessing, everyone simply dug in, drank, laughed, and made merry.

  Maria and Hogan had decorated the Christmas tree in the living room together last night. It glowed and reflected off the night-dark windows. They’d also brought some of the family portraits from the Pioneer Square condo, the first but not the last to hang on the long wall behind the dining table.

  The massive oak table, lit with a dozen candles, was covered with a festive cloth purchased for the occasion. Maria and Hogan sat at the table’s head. Everyone was crowded together elbow to elbow. Christmas garlands and long streamers of red and green ribbons were laced among them. And a single streamer of white, black, and gold had been threaded through them all. For so they had been dressed for their marriage; the color of gold the single accent to reflect the bond of their promise to each other.

  They had seen no reason to wait. They weren’t twenty after all. The ceremony had been small, attended only by their closest friends who even now sat about them. Hogan had managed to arrange for them to wed at St. James cathedral, an intimate afternoon ceremony of as much beauty and simplicity as her wedding dress.

  Perrin sat to Maria’s right. She squeezed the girl’s hand as she held her ring close beside her necklace to indicate how perfect it had been. Neither of them risked speaking, because they’d just start crying all over again.

  “They’re happy for you,” Hogan’s whisper tickled her ear.