His Band of Gold

by Melissa McClone

  Will should have been happy, but he wasn’t. This whole situation was starting to weigh on him. Big time. His mom might be going over ideas with Kelsey, but he would be the one working with her, spending all his time with her, living with her. It would be much easier if she left. Not tomorrow. Not after Faith’s wedding. But today.

  Starr’s laughter reached across the room and warmed Will’s heart. It had been too long since his mother had laughed this way. Guilt tightened his throat. How could he be thinking of himself when Kelsey was making such a difference for his parents?

  “The theme should revolve around hearts since it’s Valentine’s Day,” Starr proclaimed.

  Kelsey jotted in a notebook. “Have the colors been chosen?”

  “Faith left it up to me.”

  The pride in his mother’s voice made Will smile. For Mom, he would work with Kelsey. No matter how much her presence unsettled him. He could handle two weeks.

  “I was thinking red and pink, but that might be too cliché,” Starr said. “Besides, my daughter has never been a big fan of pink. Not even as a little girl. What do you think?”

  Kelsey tilted her chin. “It’s your choice.”

  “I just…” Starr sighed. “What would you do if it was your wedding, Kelsey?”

  Now this was going to be interesting. Will leaned back on the couch and rested his feet on the coffee table.

  Kelsey bit her lip. “My wedding?”

  “Yes,” his mother said. “What colors would you choose?”

  Kelsey hesitated. She crossed her legs and uncrossed them, picked up her notebook then placed it on her lap.

  Will grinned. Way to make her squirm, Mom.

  “What’s wrong, dear?” Starr asked.

  He nearly laughed at the pained expression on Kelsey’s face. Talk about payback for all her anti-marriage talk. And her kiss in the parking lot.

  “I’m used to offering ideas, but I don’t want my personal likes and dislikes to get in the way of helping you define what the bride and groom—or in this case, you—want. You’re the customer.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Starr said. “You’ve catered to all our whims on the last four weddings. Pretend this time it’s yours.”

  Oh, Mom. You’re going to scare her off. Will felt sorry for Kelsey. Well, almost.

  “But it’s not my…mine,” Kelsey explained. “It’s Faith’s.”

  Starr smiled. “Humor me.”

  “Let’s see…we had sea-foam green and coral at the first, sage and gold at the second, black and white at the third and cerulean blue and silver at the fourth,” Kelsey said.

  “Forget about the other weddings. What would you do for this one?”

  A minute passed. Kelsey’s eyes darkened as if she were contemplating the solution to world hunger, not what colors to use in a wedding. “I suppose I’d use intense colors. Red and purple.”

  “Oh, yes. Faith loves purple.” Starr’s excitement was almost contagious if one could get excited about colors. “It’ll be stunning.”

  “‘Stunning,”’ Will echoed though not as enthusiastically as his mother. His comment earned him a glare from Kelsey.

  Starr laughed. “Now was that so hard?”

  Kelsey smiled, and Will noticed she didn’t answer the question. “I’ll meet with the florist to discuss the arrangements. Do you have any ideas on flowers?”

  Starr nodded. “Please get the folder next to the computer, Will.”

  His mother’s words came slower this time and took effort again. As Will headed toward the desk, he glanced at the grandfather clock on the far wall. They’d been working for almost three hours. “We should call it a day.”

  “Not yet,” Starr said.

  Will handed the file to Kelsey and sat in a chair next to his father. The two women seemed to be in a world all their own. Every few minutes he’d catch a word or two. Engraved frames…a string quartet…Canon in D, a DJ, and flowers.

  What was it with women and flowers? Red spray roses, purple violets, grape hyacinths, jasmine, pansies, Laurustinus, synogonium foliage. It was all Greek, or in this case, Latin to him. Enough was enough. Time to call it quits.

  “Mom’s been going all morning long. Don’t you think we should let her relax and take a nap?” he asked Bill.

  “She’s enjoying herself.” His father smiled at the pair of women huddled over a spiral notebook and stacks of file folders and bridal magazines. “Let’s not ruin it.”

  “But the doctor said—”

  “A smile on your mother’s face is the best medicine,” Bill said. “Trust me.”

  Will wasn’t so sure. Sure she looked happy, but what about the dark circles under her eyes? Being that tired couldn’t be good for her. As he watched her, his jaw tensed. His mother was still beautiful, but she’d lost that spark in her eyes, the vitality that used to radiate from her. She’d faded from a vibrant color into a pastel. His chest tightened.

  “That should do it for now.” Kelsey closed her notebook. “We’ve got enough to get started with.”

  “If you have any questions, give me a call.” Starr patted Kelsey’s hand. “And don’t forget to keep in mind what I said about the other…thing.”

  Kelsey grinned. “I won’t.”

  The edges of his mother’s mouth turned up slightly. Even tired, she still managed a smile. “It’ll save us so much time when we plan the next wedding.”

  “Next wedding?” Will stared at his mother, then at Kelsey, who merely shrugged. “What are you talking about? Faith won’t be getting married again.”

  “She won’t.” Mischief glimmered in Starr’s tired eyes. “But you will.”

  What had he done to deserve this? He’d been a dutiful son, a loyal brother, a faithful husband and a loving uncle. But he wasn’t going to get married again. No way. No how.

  Not even for his mother.

  Will leaned against the counter in his parents’ kitchen feeling as though he’d been shanghaied. His father was giving Kelsey a tour of the house while his mother sat across from Will with a white envelope on her lap and a strange smile on her face. Maybe this was all a big joke to her. Then again…

  “What’s this all about, Mom?”

  “I hope your father doesn’t take Kelsey into the exercise room. It’s a mess from my physical therapy.”

  “Kelsey won’t mind.”

  Starr eyes gleamed with interest. “She’s very attractive.”

  Will wasn’t about to go there. He groaned. “I’m not getting married again so whatever you’ve got up your sleeve—”

  “I want you to read this.” She handed him the envelope. “After the stroke, I had one of my nurses help me write everything down in case I didn’t have the chance to tell you myself. I’ve been waiting for the right time, but I don’t know if there is a right time.”

  The emotion in her voice concerned Will. He’d never seen his mother like this, not even in the hospital. A quick, disturbing thought raced through him, but he pushed it aside. His mother couldn’t predict when she was going to have another stroke. Still, apprehension remained. He ran his fingertip along the seal of the envelope, but didn’t open it.

  Starr took a breath and exhaled slowly. “Please read it.”

  With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he ripped open the envelope and unfolded the letter.

  My dearest son,

  I’m writing this from my heart. I hope you will take it that way and not be upset at me. First let me say, I love your father. I truly believe he is my “one.” He’s not only my right and left hand, he’s my heart. But after my stroke, I realized it wouldn’t be fair to him to live the rest of his life alone if I died. I’d want him to have a second chance at love.

  His hand trembled. “You can’t be serious.” Starr’s tired eyes pleaded with him. “Keep reading.”

  Anything else would be a disservice to the love we’ve shared all these years, to the values we lived by and instilled in you and your sisters.

  I belie
ve Sara would feel the same way. I loved her as if she was my own daughter, but you both were so young when you married. You were traveling, and she was away at school. And though you loved each other deeply, the times you spent together were nothing more than extended honeymoons. Fate stepped in before you could have anything more.

  Jagged raw feelings sliced through his heart. He crinkled the edge of the letter. “You’re wrong, Mom. Sara and I…we had so much together. Our marriage was perfect.”

  “But Sara’s gone.” Starr reached out to touch his arm. “Please read the entire letter.”

  Will didn’t want to read any more. He wanted to shred the letter into tiny pieces and toss it in the garbage can. He continued reading instead.

  It’s time for you to put the past behind you. You shouldn’t grow old alone, loving a memory, when you can grow old with a loving woman by your side. It’s time, Will. You need to find a woman to love and marry. You deserve a second chance at love. It’s what Sara would want.

  He felt as if he’d been sucker punched. His mother didn’t know what she was saying. She couldn’t believe what she’d written. Not after all the things she’d told him growing up. All those stories about true love and happily-ever-after she’d told him and his sister. The stories about the Addisons who had come before them and how they had a tradition to follow, to uphold. “Does Dad know you wrote this?”

  She gazed at him through lowered lashes. “No, when it’s time…”

  “Mom—”

  “I love you so much and I want you to be happy.”

  “You have no idea what would make me happy.” Will’s tone was harsher than he’d intended, but he couldn’t help himself. This was his worst nightmare come true.

  Starr smiled. “Thank you.”

  “For what? I yelled at you.” He brushed his hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Mom.”

  “Don’t be sorry.” Her eyes twinkled. “You didn’t yell, you finally talked to me like a real person, not a fragile piece of crystal about to fall off the shelf.”

  “Is that what this is about?”

  “No,” she admitted. “It’s about you moving on. You don’t have to do it today or tomorrow, but I want you to think about what I wrote.”

  Will didn’t need to think about it. There was nothing left for him to do. He had moved on. Moving on did not include remarrying. He folded the letter and jammed the paper into his jacket pocket. His mother was wrong, but this must have been a hard letter for her to compose. “I appreciate your concern, Mom. Every thing you do reminds me how lucky I am to have a mother who loves her kids as much as you love us.”

  Chapter Five

  As Will paced the length of his living room and back, Kelsey thumbed through the preference sheets Faith had filled out over the years. Four different sets. Four different weddings to four different grooms. A deck of cards would be easier to make sense of and sort through. Perhaps with a little help…Kelsey glanced up at Will. “It isn’t so bad.”

  He tightened his mouth to a thin, grim line. “Easy for you to say.”

  He was acting as if someone had stolen a closetfull of Manolo Blahnik shoes. Not that Kelsey hadn’t felt the same way when she realized what the next fourteen days held for her and that she was going to need every bit of help Will was offering. But first she had to help him get through this thing with his mother. Kelsey wasn’t sure what had happened while she’d been with his father, but Will had been stoic and silent since they’d returned to his house. It had to end. She couldn’t afford any distractions with all the work they had to do. “Starr loves you.”

  He stopped dead in his tracks. “She wants me to get married again.”

  He said the word “married” as if it were the name of a virus with a one-hundred-percent fatality rate. Not that Kelsey didn’t feel the same way. “Starr only wants you to be happy.”

  “I am happy.”

  About as happy as a four-year-old asked to wear a tuxedo and be the ring bearer at a wedding and endure the torturous ordeal of standing still. Kelsey smiled.

  Will frowned. “This isn’t funny.”

  “Oh, it’s very funny. If you could see your face.” The only things missing were crocodile tears running down his cheeks and a pout on those kissable lips. Will was all man, but if he ever had a son, Kelsey knew what he would look like. Cute wouldn’t even begin to describe him. She felt a little hitch in her heart. “You don’t look very happy right now.”

  “Imagine how you would look if your mother wanted to marry you off A.S.A.P.”

  “Not pretty.” Just the thought horrified Kelsey, but marriage was the last thing her mother would ever suggest to her. Besides, Mom was too involved in her own life and marital status to care about Kelsey’s.

  “Exactly.”

  “But Starr’s not trying to marry you off. At least not until after Faith’s wedding.”

  “Still not funny.”

  “Come on,” Kelsey urged in her most encouraging you-haven’t-gotten-fat-since-ordering-the-wedding-dress voice. “She’s only looking out for your best interest.”

  He stared at her as if she’d grown horns and turned green. “My best interest?”

  Kelsey nodded. “She wants to see her children—all of her children—settled.”

  “Settled does not equal married.”

  “Maybe not to you. Or me,” she admitted. “But it does to Starr. She doesn’t want you to be alone.”

  “I’m not alone,” he countered. “I have Midas. I…” He frowned. “Why am I even discussing this? I’m not getting married. I couldn’t marry again. My marriage was perfect.”

  Perfect. Just the idea made Kelsey squirm in her seat.

  “Sara was my life,” Will continued. “How do you replace all that?”

  You don’t. But Kelsey knew better than to answer out loud. Neither of them wanted to marry, but for completely different reasons. “Try to see it from your mother’s point of view. She’s trying to get all her ducks in a row, so to speak, in case something happens—”

  “Nothing is going to happen to her.” The determined set of his chin told Kelsey that wasn’t an option, not on Will’s watch. If only life were that simple and predictable.

  “She’s tying up loose ends because she’s feeling vulnerable right now.” And Kelsey could see Starr wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Kelsey’s heart went out not only to Starr, but to Will, too. “She only wants the best for you and your sisters.”

  “What’s ‘best’ can’t be defined by our marital status. If you read her letter…”

  “What letter?”

  A vein on his neck throbbed. “It…it’s not important.”

  Kelsey wasn’t quite sure she believed him, but that wasn’t her concern right now. “Listen, your mother’s simply getting carried away with Faith’s wedding. Once it’s over, your marital status won’t be an issue. I’ve seen it happen lots of times.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Time will tell,” Kelsey said. “But right now I need you to put it on the back burner and focus on helping me with Faith’s wedding.”

  He cocked a brow. “You want my help?”

  Kelsey hesitated. Asking for help wasn’t easy for her to do, but in this case it was a necessity. “Yes.”

  He raised a brow. “Why the sudden change?”

  She shrugged. “It’s not really a change, per se, but certain things aren’t as finalized as I’d hoped.”

  “My mother said she had everything planned.”

  “She did,” Kelsey said in her most tactful voice. “She has everything planned conceptually. Making it happen is something else.”

  “How much do we need to do?”

  Kelsey took a calming breath. “Pretty much everything except the invitations.”

  Will combed his hand through his hair. Man, she loved his hair. Kelsey gritted her teeth. No, she didn’t.

  “Where do we start?” he asked.

  “I need to see Faith’s dress. Starr said it’s h
ere.”

  “No one can see it. Faith’s order.”

  “Fine.” Kelsey pursed her lips. “But you can be the one to explain to her why her bridal bouquet clashes with her gown.”

  “Flowers can’t clash with a gown.”

  Men. Kelsey rolled her eyes. Gorgeous or not, they didn’t get it. “Oh, yes, they can.”

  “How?”

  “Where would you like me to start? How about with the different styles and fabrics used in wedding dresses and how that can be overwhelmed by the flowers or vice versa? Or would you rather hear about the various shapes of bouquets and flowers you can use that can make or break a gown? Teardrop, heart, nosegay. Would you like me to go on?”

  The dazed look on his face was priceless. He might have been comfortable in her overtly feminine office and not have too much of a problem helping with wedding plans, but details of gowns and flowers were out of his realm. Totally. Kelsey chuckled.

  “You can look,” he said finally. “The dress is hanging in her room.”

  Kelsey followed him up the stairs. Cute butt. She’d love to see him in a pair of Levi’s jeans. No, she balled her fists, she wouldn’t.

  “Did my mom tell you she wanted Faith to wear her wedding dress this time, but Faith said no?”

  “She didn’t.” Poor Starr. Many mothers-of-the-brides wanted to pass on their gowns to their daughters. Kelsey’s own mother had a personal collection of wedding gowns, dresses and suits in every style from traditional to sleek sophistication, but luckily Kelsey would never be in need of one. “Perhaps a granddaughter will want to wear Starr’s gown someday.”

  “That would make my mom happy.”

  Kelsey smiled. “Or perhaps your bride—”

  “Don’t say it, don’t even think it.” Will grimaced. “You don’t understand. If my mother got wind of that…”

  “She’d have her dress cleaned, pressed and ready to go.”

  Will nodded. “She’d want you to find the perfect veil to match.”

  “Shoes, too.”

  He smiled. “And a coordinating bouquet. You wouldn’t want the flowers to overwhelm the gown,” he imitated her.