by Pamela Yaye
Teddy knew exactly what Diana meant. She loved being touched by Adam. Whenever he put his hands on her, she felt his tenderness. She wanted to turn into his arms and settle there forever.
“Teddy, you’re blushing.”
Teddy snapped out of the reverie she was falling into. “I am not.”
Diana didn’t respond. At least, not in words. She gazed at Teddy for a long time.
“All right, I’m attracted to him. And yes, I’ve noticed that he touches me a lot.”
“And you like it.” It was a statement.
“I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t feel anything more than a warm hand, but for some reason my entire body almost glows.”
“I am so glad to hear this.”
“Why?” Teddy asked.
“Because you deserve to be happy.”
“You’re only saying that because you found Scott and you think everyone should feel like you do.”
“You’re right,” Diana said. “What I feel for Scott is amazing. And I never thought he’d be the man for me, but since that time long ago, you’ve sort of given up on ever finding someone. But with Adam—”
“Stop.” Teddy put her hand up. “There is no Adam and me. We’re not a couple. We’re only together for this short period. He and I set the rules and we’ll live by them.”
“Teddy, things always change. You know that.”
“Not this,” Diana said.
“Does he feel the same way about you?”
“I don’t know,” Teddy said, sorry this conversation had taken this turn.
“Does he know how you feel?”
Teddy shook her head. She hoped he didn’t know.
* * *
The jewelry store on the corner of Nassau and Williams Street had sat there for decades. Adam passed it almost daily, but he’d never stopped to look into the windows. Yet today he stood there, staring at a setting in the window. Would Teddy like that? he wondered. He pictured the ring decorating her elegant hand.
“Never buy the ring unless she’s there to pick it out,” someone said behind him. Adam turned to find Veronica Woods standing behind him. She was the last person he ever expected to find on a street in Princeton.
“Veronica, this is a surprise.”
“A good one, I hope,” she said. She leaned forward to kiss him. Adam pushed his cheek to hers and stepped back. Veronica was dressed impeccably in black and white, looking like someone he’d see on the cover of a glossy magazine. Her long coat was ringed with white fur around the neck and sleeves. On her head sat a matching hat. This framed her face, softened her features and made her desirable to any man—except him.
“What are you doing here? I thought you moved out to Chicago.”
“I did. I’m only back for a visit, but I’ll be here for a couple of weeks. When I left, I took a job working for a decorator. After a few years, I joined the partnership. A while after that, I was about to strike out on my own when we decided to open another office. I’m running that office.”
“Here in Princeton?” Veronica represented betrayal to him and he didn’t want to be reminded of it constantly. He knew she’d never really been in love with him, but the humiliation she heaped on him was not easily forgotten.
“Philadelphia,” she corrected with a shake of her head. “I came up today to see some old friends. I didn’t know one of them would be you. I take it you’re still running that investment company.”
He nodded, disappointed that she didn’t remember the name of his company. He could tell Veronica hadn’t changed much. She looked better than she had five years ago. Her clothes were designer originals, but her values were the same. She acted as if they’d parted as friends, as if nothing had occurred between them.
“Things must be going well if you’re looking in the window of a jewelry store.” She indicated the display windows behind him. “Who is she?”
Adam glanced at the window. The setting he’d been looking at sparkled. “You wouldn’t know her,” he replied. Adam hadn’t seen anyone on a steady basis since he and Veronica’s relationship had ended. He wasn’t about to let her think he was harboring any residual feelings for her.
“It must be serious. I never thought you’d give up your bachelorhood.”
“Change happens,” he said, refusing to mention anything about their past.
She smiled. Adam knew that look, knew that the sweeping down of her eyelashes meant she was covering something she didn’t want him to see.
“Why don’t you buy me a cup of coffee and tell me about her?”
He looked over her shoulder at the university that dominated the college town. “I’d love to, but I have to get back to that investment company. I only stepped out to pick up my lunch, which is probably ready by now. But it was great seeing you again.” He knew he was dismissing her. “Good luck with your design firm.”
She opened her purse and pulled out a business card. “Call me sometime.”
He took the card. “If I need a decorator.”
“Or if you just want to mull over good times.”
Adam doubted he would call for that reason, but he nodded. Veronica again leaned forward. This time she kissed his mouth. And of course it would happen then. As he raised his head he saw two women turn the corner and walk toward them. Immediately he recognized them both.
Teddy and Diana.
It took a moment since they were talking to each other before Teddy recognized him and smiled. The two approached.
“Hello, Adam,” Teddy said. She glanced at the woman and nodded.
“Veronica, this is Theresa Granville, my fiancée, and her business partner, Diana Thomas.”
As the women acknowledged each other, Teddy reached into her purse and extracted a tissue. She held it out to Adam.
Red wasn’t his color.
* * *
At seven o’clock that night Teddy stood outside Adam’s condo. She pushed the doorbell and heard it chiming through the ornate entryway.
“So that was Veronica?” Teddy stated by way of a greeting as Adam opened the door.
“That was Veronica.” Adam sighed. He stood back and allowed her to enter the foyer. Taking her coat, he hung it in the hall closet. “I assume you’re hungry and since I didn’t know what you might want to eat, I bought a variety of entrées.”
He led her into the dining room, where several bowls of Chinese food sat on a table set for two. She’d glanced in the kitchen on the way and saw the paper containers whose contents he’d transferred to china bowls. She wondered what Adam was trying to do, what he might want to tell her.
“Sit down,” he said and poured her a glass of white wine.
Teddy took a seat and because she was hungry, she filled her plate with a small sample of everything and ate heartily. Adam, on the other hand, pushed his food around but ate very little. He felt guilty, she thought.
“Adam, is something wrong?”
“Why do you ask that?”
She was sure something more was wrong than she thought. In her experience, any time a question was answered with a question meant something was wrong. Their meeting on the street this afternoon had prompted her to rethink their plan.
“What is it?” she asked.
Adam got up and took his wineglass. He offered his hand to Teddy and they moved from the dining table to the large family room. This one also looked as if a decorator had a hand in the furnishings and wall art. It had a large circular sofa facing a gigantic television and a fireplace with a fire that crackled and popped, adding ambiance to the evening meal. Teddy took a seat on the sofa.
She finally spoke. “Is this about Veronica?”
Teddy felt the tension rising in her. She didn’t know how this was going to end, but she didn’t think it would come out in her favor. Adam turned to he
r and Teddy knew the look. It was an ending. Everything had been packed and was ready for release. Teddy just needed to wait for the last train.
“Is she your one and only? I know the rules we set in place when we started this. But if you want to end the pretense so you can be with—”
Teddy didn’t get any further. Adam moved faster than lightning. He was in front of her, pulling her up from her seat. His face was so close to hers it scared her. “This is not about Veronica. I saw your face this afternoon. You looked as if I’d kicked you.”
Teddy pulled back, taking a step to straighten herself. “Things are getting complicated,” she said. “More so than we thought they would. Now you have a former lover in town.”
“Emphasis on ‘former.’ Our relationship ended long ago. It’s old news.”
“Is it?” she asked.
“Very old,” he confirmed.
“It didn’t look old. In fact, it looked as if there would be a new edition. And I thought in light of that, you might want to end this. Now.” He was holding her so close and so tight, she could hardly breathe. “I thought you and Veronica wanted to get together. After all, you were wearing her lipstick.”
Adam’s head moved with the same speed as he’d crossed the room. His mouth clamped on hers and held for a long moment, long enough for Teddy to cling to him. These days that took less than a second.
“Now I’m wearing yours,” he said.
Teddy couldn’t stop the smile that turned her mouth up. The smile became a giggle and then a laugh. Adam put his arms around her and together they laughed. The tension that had settled between them on the main street in Princeton that afternoon lifted.
Adam took her hands and they sat side by side on the sofa. The fire gave the room a rosy glow. Teddy slipped her feet out of her shoes and tucked them under her.
Adam smiled. “Comfortable?”
She nodded. “Tell me about her?”
“I told you the story before.”
“And there’s nothing more?”
“Nothing.”
“But she’s back now. More than likely you’ll run into her from time to time.”
“She’s a decorator. She’s opening a business in Philly. Probably more of her clients will be in that area than here.”
Teddy felt he was giving her excuses, rationalizations that could boil over and change at any given moment.
“Was she The One, Adam? Did you think the two of you would have the forever kind of love?”
He hesitated a long time. He took a drink of his wine but didn’t move away from Teddy. She felt for a change in his body, a stiffening of muscles that indicated an increased heartbeat or a rush of blood to the head, even a raised eyebrow. None of the cues were present.
“My brother Quinn says there comes a time when you have to risk your heart. I thought I was doing that with Veronica. I thought she felt the same about me. That proved not to be the case.”
“So you’re no longer willing to risk your heart?” Teddy asked. “I guess that makes me perfect for you.”
His head snapped up. “How so?”
“Your plan. The Marriage Pact. It’s perfect. There’s no chance of you risking anything. You can satisfy your inner logic of never letting a woman entangle you the way Veronica did without the burden of complications.”
“That’s not what this is about,” he protested.
“Are you sure?” Teddy raised her eyebrows, giving him an inquiring look. Her heart was beating so fast, she didn’t know if she could speak, but she understood everything now. She knew there was more to this deception than just eluding his mother’s attempts to have him find a bride. He’d built a wall around his heart and Teddy was the temporary guard who would keep the wall intact for a while. Then he’d move on to the next guard or retreat into his overseas connections as a method of keeping himself free of risks.
“What do you think this is about?” he asked.
“That’s a loaded question. Are you sure you want the answer?”
His face wasn’t exactly blank, but Teddy could see he was trying to keep it free of expression. He nodded. “I’m a big boy. I can take it.”
Teddy uncurled her feet and stood up. Taking her wineglass, she walked about the room. “A decorator did this room, didn’t she?”
Adam frowned. She knew he didn’t understand the question.
“Veronica has never been here,” he said.
“I didn’t think it was her,” Teddy told him. “It’s a beautiful room. I could see it in one of the glossy magazines.”
“But,” he prompted.
She came back to him. Faced him. She sat on the huge coffee table that held only a glass vase of flowers, her knees only an inch from his.
“There’s nothing of you in this room. There’s nothing of you in the entire house. Not even in the bedroom.” She paused, giving him a long look. “Maybe the flowers are your reflection, which are surprising since most men would never think of flowers, especially fresh ones. Few would buy them or replace them when they died.”
“Or drive home to get a single red rose?”
Teddy smiled remembering the mug on her kitchen table the first time they made love. The thought nearly undid her. That warm blanket began to settle, but she pushed it aside. She needed to stay on track. Allowing thoughts of their lovemaking would send her soaring in a different, although wonderful, direction.
“That, too,” she said. “Only the flowers say you have a heart, much less want to risk it.” She took his hand. He didn’t pull it away, but it had gone from warm to slightly cold. “I’m sorry your don’t like what I’m saying, but you did ask. I hope you see that, like your brother said, without risk there is no love, and without love, you’ll have a very lonely existence.”
Adam pulled her up from the table and onto his lap. “So you believe I should let go of the past and open my heart?”
Her own heart was beating a drum in his ears. She nodded.
“Are you also saying I should approach Veronica and see if what I thought we had in the past could be rekindled? Bring the fire back to life?”
Teddy forcibly controlled her urge to move out of his arms. “If that is what you want,” she whispered.
“That’s not what I want.”
She raised her eyelids and stared directly at him. She knew she shouldn’t ask, but she had to know. “What do you want?”
“Right now? Right this very moment?”
“Yes,” she said, drawing the word out as if it had several syllables.
“I want you.”
* * *
“I want you” wasn’t the same as “I love you.” Adam knew that. He wanted to say it, wanted to let Teddy know that she meant more to him than any woman ever had, but he couldn’t get the words out. So he retreated, retreated into what any man would do in his situation.
He kissed her.
Teddy didn’t protest. She was pliant in his arms. He wanted her there, wanted to tell her everything she wanted to know, but he’d been burned before.
* * *
It was hard to think there was hunger in the world when Teddy looked at all the food on the tables in Dr. Sullivan’s dining room. She said “tables,” since there were at least three. They were covered with turkey, salads, sweet potatoes, green bean casseroles, corn bread dressing, pies, cakes and even more dishes, all smelling delicious and making her stomach growl.
Just as both mothers were trying to get their offsprings married, both mothers were outdoing the other with the amount of food they cooked and delivered. Her sisters Sienna and Sierra brought their signature dishes. Emory, her brother, was exempt since he’d proven years ago that cooking wasn’t something he would excel at. Teddy arrived with a dish of macaroni and cheese.
“Who do you think will win?�
�� Galen whispered in Adam’s ear.
Adam glanced at the football game on the big-screen television, but he knew his brother wasn’t speaking of the game.
“You don’t even want to go there,” Adam said. “It could get bloody.”
“Just remember,” Quinn joined in. “Everything is delicious. Nothing is better than the other.”
“They are all equally great,” Adam and Galen said in unison.
“Obviously you three have gone through this routine before,” Teddy said.
Quinn nodded. “And we learned early not to play favorites.”
“Remember that time everyone made the green beans and wanted all the cousins to judge them?” Quinn asked, laughter in his question.
Galen frowned. “That year I was sure someone would die.”
They were all laughing at a shared memory. Teddy knew from her own family that the rivalry was all in good fun. She hadn’t made a green bean casserole. Her dish was macaroni and cheese, which sat on a warming plate in the dining room. Teddy was free to join the others and enjoy the game. Dr. Sullivan had already refused any additional help in the kitchen.
“So,” Galen said, looking at Adam, “when are you two getting married?”
The room went quiet. Everyone stared at Galen.
“What?” Galen asked, spreading his arms in innocence, one of them holding a beer. “You’ve been going out for months. This is the second family dinner you’ve appeared at.” He glanced at Teddy. “It must be time for marriage.”
“We’ll set ours when you set yours,” Teddy told him.
“Me?”
“Yes, I have a sister and I see how you look at her.” Teddy checked that her sister Sienna couldn’t hear her. “I’ll point that out to your mother. Then all we’ll need is one more dinner and it can be a double wedding.”
Again, the room stared at the youngest Sullivan son.
Finally Quinn laughed and, pointing at his brother, said, “She got you.” Everyone burst into laughter.
Obviously embarrassed, Galen was the first to stand up when his mom announced the meal. The dining room didn’t have the same dimensions as the restaurant where their anniversary dinner was held. Instead of a U-shaped arrangement, two parallel tables had been set up. Adam steered her to one the farthest from both their parents.