Happy Campers

by Vanessa Hart

  The red haired waitress interrupted with their beverage order. After she scurried away, Eugene continued. "I was young. Figured I could get over Susan and love again. Your mother and I met, married, and enjoyed a cordial relationship."

  "Cordial?" Gray nearly choked on his drink. "You mean cold. I never saw you treat Mom with affection. How can you say you loved her?"

  "I was faithful and respectful to your mother. She and I loved each other as friends, Gray, but her whole world centered on you and Terri. It was more a marriage of convenience, although we pretended otherwise to the outside world."

  "Not very successfully," Gray muttered. "This marriage of convenience gave you and Mom a family and that was enough?"

  Eugene shook his head. "No. I realize that now. After I ran into Susan, I discovered I'd never truly forgotten her. There's still passion there, son. I'm sorry about your mother. I truly am. And if she were still alive, I wouldn't be sitting here telling you any of this."

  Gray's appetite vanished as the magnitude of Eugene's confession penetrated his brain. He was about to repeat his father's mistake. He would doom Myra to an emotionless marriage, just as his father had done to his mom. His martyrdom would make them both miserable.

  The word passion conjured up Leslie's image. Would he still ache for her in thirty or forty years? His anger and bitterness dissolved. He understood his father, more than he'd admit.

  "I wish you and Susan every happiness, Dad."

  * * * *

  Leslie paid the cashier at the Gwinnett Place Mall coffee stand, then moved down the counter to let her tea bag steep. She stared absent-mindedly at the green and white tile while timing her brew.

  "Leslie?"

  She turned at the familiar male voice. Ironically, the last time she'd heard him speak had been at this mall. "Hi, Josh."

  The strawberry blond-haired wife stood beside him, her smile tentative. Did the woman expect Leslie to tear her apart, limb by limb? Leslie gave her what she hoped was her warmest smile. She couldn't blame Lisa for Josh being a jerk. Hadn't Leslie herself been in the same position with Gray?

  "You remember my wife Lisa?"

  "Of course. It's good to see you both."

  Josh swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing beneath his dimpled chin. In a familiar gesture, he ran his hand through his thick blond hair and cleared his throat. "We're having a cappuccino. Care to join us?"

  Cappuccino? The man had broken her heart, crushed her dreams. Or had he? She worried her lip. "Actually, I'd like to talk to you, if you have a minute."

  Lisa patted his arm, then stepped away. "I'll leave you two to talk while I run to the book store."

  "You don't have to leave," Leslie said.

  "I don't mind." A loving smile filled her face when she turned to Josh. "Order me a latte. I'll be right back."

  Lisa disappeared around the corner from the food court. Leslie disposed of her tea bag in the trash basket, then added milk. She waited while Josh placed his order. "Lisa trusts you."

  "Why wouldn't she?"

  "Oh, I don't know. Your history, maybe?" Even as she said the words, Leslie realized they'd lost their sting.

  Josh paid the cashier, stuffed his wallet into his back pocket, then faced Leslie. "I don't blame you for saying that."

  She shrugged, surprised at her lack of anger. "I apologize. That's not what I want to talk about."

  Following him to a metal table for four, Leslie claimed the chair beside hers for her packages. The day's shopping trip had been expensive, but therapeutic. She had no idea whenever she'd wear that red hot slip of a dress, but she'd bought matching nail polish and lipstick.

  "I've said it before, Les, but I really am sorry I hurt you."

  She waved a hand. "I know. What I want to ask you is, are you happy? Truly and honestly."

  His face widened into a genuine smile. "Very. Lisa's perfect for me in every way. I don't mean you..."

  "Save it, Josh. I don't want you to feel guilty. The truth is, it happened to me, too."

  His eyebrows lifted. "You've met someone?"

  "Yeah." She nodded. "Two weeks before his wedding to someone else."

  Josh's eyes filled with sympathy. "You probably fought him, kicking and screaming. Right?"

  "Close enough. But Josh, he was the one for me. I fell for him so hard and so fast. He called me his soul mate, just like you spoke of Lisa. If nothing else, it helped me understand you and what happened. You would've hurt me more if you'd gone through with the wedding if I wasn't the right one. We both deserve better than that."

  "Les, I can't wait to tell Lisa." He closed his eyes and sighed. "You don't know what a load off my mind this is. I've hated that you were hurt."

  "That's history." She smiled, freeing herself of the year-long grudge. "I forgive you. I wish you and Lisa the very best."

  "You mean that. I see it in your eyes." Josh's smile faded into a worried frown. "But I don't see happiness. Aren't you and this guy together?"

  A crowd of giggling teenage girls filled the adjacent tables. Leslie turned back to Josh. "His wedding's Saturday."

  "You mean the day after tomorrow?"

  She nodded, her eyes filling. "It's, um, complicated."

  "I don't care how complicated it is. You've got to do something! You can't let him marry her if he's in love with you."

  "I have no choice. It's his decision." She blinked back tears. "The bride's pregnant."

  "So? He pays child support and sues for joint custody. This is the twenty-first century. He doesn't have to go through with the wedding." His green eyes widened. "You have to stop it."

  His adamancy drew the attention of the teenage girls. He lowered his voice. "I don't want you to let true love slip through your fingers. When it's right between two people, it's paradise, and you want everyone else to enjoy the same happiness."

  Leslie couldn't help but laugh. This was Josh the Jerk? Her well-mannered sedate ex-fiancé waxing poetic? "Meeting Lisa had certainly lit your fire."

  He nodded. "We both want you to be this happy, too. That's why you have to take action, before it's too late."

  His sincerity touched her. "Thanks, Josh. I really appreciate your enthusiasm."

  "Then you'll do it?"

  She frowned. "Do what?"

  "Crash the wedding!"

  Chapter Fifteen

  Perched on the hard bistro chair, Leslie dug into a double scoop of Rocky Road ice cream. She closed her eyes and savored the marshmallows and chunks of chocolate, the perfect antidote for any crisis.

  "I'm glad you changed your mind about lunch." Kat spooned low fat frozen yogurt into her mouth. "You don't look so good."

  "Thanks," Leslie muttered.

  "I'm serious. You look like the one who's not been able to eat." In spite of her morning sickness, Kat glowed. Her auburn hair tumbling in curls across her shoulders, her makeup subtle and perfect, she'd never looked prettier.

  "I haven't had much of an appetite." Leslie sighed, then attacked her ice cream with gusto.

  She'd told Kat about running into Josh and Lisa, and recapped her talk with Josh. Although Leslie felt no better about losing Gray--as if she'd had him to lose--her conversation with Josh brought peace. Closure. She'd exorcized the ghosts of her jilted bride experience.

  "Well, your appetite's returned now. What's happened?"

  "Josh made a suggestion, one I dismissed as absurd. But it started me thinking."

  "Uh oh. About Gray?"

  Leslie nodded, then swallowed the last of her Rocky Road. "Josh thinks I should crash the wedding and voice my objection."

  "You mean like Bruce Willis in Blind Date? Or Madonna in Who's That Girl?"

  Leslie frowned. "I take it those are movies. Of course, I wouldn't do anything like that."

  "But?" Kat grinned. "I see those plotting wheels spinning, P.G. Turner."

  "A person has only one life. Gray needs to know before it's too late that he has a choice. He doesn't have to marry a woman he doesn't love, ev
en if she's pregnant. I want him to see that I'm a choice, too."

  Kat's eyes darkened with concern. "If he goes through with the wedding, Les, you'll be humiliated."

  "I'm just going to show up. To let him see me. You know I'd never speak out during the ceremony." Would she? With so much at stake, could she sit still and watch Gray kiss the bride?

  "What's changed since he told you his fiancé was pregnant?"

  "I realized I never gave him a chance. He asked to talk to me and I ran away to lick my wounds, giving no thought to his." She shivered, remembering how they'd both licked each other into an erotic frenzy. "Who's to say if it would've made a difference, but he needed a friend and I split."

  Kat shook her head. "I don't know..."

  "I love him." The quiet admission stunned her. She'd never before spoken the words. "I have to know I gave us every chance."

  Kat's eyes filled. "You love him."

  "You aren't going to cry, are you?" Leslie smiled as she used Gray's words, the words that had led to a kiss.

  A kiss that had altered her life.

  * * * *

  "Today's the big day, bro."

  Gray gripped the telephone receiver. "Terri? Are you in Atlanta?"

  "You don't think I'd miss my big brother's wedding, do you? Not to mention Dad's. Isn't that a hoot?"

  "Thank you for coming," he murmured. "I mean, it's a long trip for you and you were just here for Mom's..."

  "Hey, she'd want this, Gray." His sister paused. "All of it. She'd want Dad happy, too."

  Gray couldn't discuss happiness at the moment. "Is Bruce with you?"

  "Of course he is. You know we're inseparable."

  Gray swallowed the regret lodged in his throat. Another set of soul mates, he thought, picturing his younger sister and her devoted husband. "Of course."

  "I won't keep you. I know you and Myra have a thousand last minute things to do."

  "No, everything's arranged. Myra's very organized."

  "Great. So where are you honeymooning?"

  He'd originally planned his honeymoon to be a motorhome trip, but Myra had nixed the idea. Now he couldn't bear the thought of Myra in that bed. He'd put the motorhome up for sale. He needed to rid himself of the painful reminders of Leslie and what might have been. With a baby on the way, he needed the money for a house, anyway. "We're driving up to Niagara Falls after the ceremony."

  "How romantic," his sister gushed. "I'll see you at the chapel, then. Try not to be nervous."

  "Yeah, right."

  Her voice softened. "Bruce and I wish you two a lifetime of happiness."

  "I appreciate it, Terri." Gray hung up the phone and gritted his teeth. At noon today he'd be married.

  To Myra.

  For as long as they both shall live.

  Perspiration beaded his upper lip. The burning cramps returned to his abdomen. Spots danced before his eyes. Clutching his belly, Gray staggered to the sofa and lay down, closing his eyes against the pain.

  "Gray?" Myra sounded a mile away, but the scent of her cologne closed around him. "Gray!" Alarm hitched her voice. She grabbed his wrist, fingered his pulse.

  He forced his eyes open. Myra stared at him, her eyes filled with concern. "Just let me rest a second, Myra. I'll be okay."

  She frowned. "Sugar, you're not okay. You're white as a Yankee in winter and clammy as a goose."

  "I didn't know geese were clammy." His attempted smile faltered.

  "No joking, Gray. You're pulse is erratic. You must be coming down with flu. Let me find a thermometer."

  Being married to a nurse had its advantages, he supposed. Another wave of cramping gripped him. Psychosomatic or not, the attack disabled him worse than his previous ones.

  Myra scurried back with a thermometer, her musk cologne permeating the room. She must've taken a bath in the shit. "Let me stick this in your ear."

  He waved her away. "I don't have fever. I don't have flu."

  "How do you know?"

  He exhaled after riding another wave of pain. "It's happened before. Just give me a minute."

  "Can you sit up?" she asked, after the pain receded.

  "Yeah."

  "Now, what's all the nonsense about this happening before? Why didn't you tell me?"

  "It's nerves." Gray scrubbed his face, releasing a long sigh.

  Her eyes narrowed into green slits. "Nerves?"

  "Myra, I'm sorry. I just can't do this. I can't go through with it."

  Gray braced himself for her anger, her screeching protest. But Myra just sat there, staring at him. Her eyes grew sad. Resigned.

  Lowering her gaze, she placed the thermometer on the end table. "You're talking about the wedding?"

  He nodded. "I've tried, honey, but I just can't force myself to feel something that isn't there."

  "I know."

  "But I want our baby. I want to be part of its life. Please say we can work this out. An innocent child doesn't have to suffer..."

  She slapped her hands over her ears. "Enough with the baby crap!"

  "Myra?" A slow anger burned its way from his stomach through his neck and head. His face heated. "What have you done?"

  Surely he'd know if she'd ended the pregnancy. Or would he? She'd accused him of ignoring her, of being a walking zombie, and she'd been right. He'd been oblivious to everything and everyone since resigning himself to a marriage he didn't want. He hardly knew if she was in the apartment.

  She dropped her hands to her lap. "Chill, Gray. I haven't done anything except tell you a big fat lie."

  Anger faded. A flicker of relief teased its way into his heart. "Lie?"

  She averted her eyes. "Please don't hate me. When you told me you couldn't go through with the wedding, I panicked. I lost my breakfast. Talk about nerves making you sick. Then I thought up the pregnancy angle. I didn't want to lose you."

  "You ... you aren't pregnant?"

  Her blond head shook from side to side.

  "There's no baby."

  "No. There's no baby. I thought if I got pregnant right away I could cover my tracks, but that's not going to happen. You won't make love to me." She gave a hollow chuckle. "You can't even stand to touch me."

  "You were going to let me marry you, even knowing I'd be miserable?" He fought the impulse to grab her by the arms and shake her.

  "No! After you moped around like a kicked puppy for more than a week, I didn't have the heart to keep up the pretense. I started to tell you the other day when I crashed the bowl to smithereens. I lied to keep from losing you, but I'd already lost."

  He shook his head, bewildered by her behavior. She'd claimed to love him, but what kind of love was this? Relieved by her confession, he was also enraged by her treachery and deceit. "I wish you a happy life, Myra, and I'm glad as hell it won't be with me."

  His mind raced to Leslie. Had he lost his chance with her? He'd betrayed her within hours of begging for her trust. He'd promised not to hurt her. Already fragile from Josh the Jerk's fickleness, she'd be unlikely to forgive Gray's behavior. He'd sacrificed their love for the sake of a fictitious baby.

  A lie.

  As close as they'd become, as quickly as they'd bonded, Gray had no idea where Leslie lived or how to reach her. Rob Hupp's trailer shop would be listed in the Yellow Pages, but would Rob help? Gray was probably shit on everybody's list after his shabby treatment of Leslie.

  Damn.

  * * * *

  "I found it," Kat yelled, hanging up the telephone. She scribbled on a scrap piece of computer paper.

  Leslie and Kat had called every banquet hall and church in the metropolitan area searching for Saturday's wedding with a groom named Webster. Too bad neither had bothered to remember Myra's last name.

  "When and where?"

  "Noon at Dogwood Wedding Chapel. It's near Chastain Park."

  Leslie groaned, then headed toward the stairs. "That's an hour away and I'm not even dressed."

  "Hurry. I'll call Rob and let him know where I'll be."


  Leslie's hand froze on the banister. "You're going with me?"

  "You bet. I wouldn't miss this for a winning lottery ticket!"

  Leslie checked the digital clock in her bedroom. She had exactly one hour to dress and arrive at the wedding chapel. Well, if she arrived late, all the better. Gray would see her make an entrance. She just hoped she wasn't too late.

  She wiggled into her new dress, slipped on her new high heel sandals, then headed for her vanity. Her hair cooperated for a change, swept back full and sleek. A quick brushing of mascara and a swipe of her new lipstick completed her rushed makeup job.

  As Leslie skipped down the carpeted stairs, Kat gasped. "You're going dressed like that?"

  "I want to be sure he sees me."

  "Trust me. He won't miss you." Kat smiled. "You look stunning. Let's go."

  * * * *

  Leslie looked more stunned than stunning at twelve thirty when she nosed her Jeep Liberty into a parking space in back of Dogwood Wedding Chapel. "I'm too late, Kat." She banged her head against the steering wheel, chanting, "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"

  "Hey, don't talk that way about my sister!" Kat smoothed out the citation crumpled around the emergency brake handle. "I have to admit, you asked for this ticket."

  "Nobody gets speeding tickets in Atlanta. Nobody!" Leslie rolled down the windows before killing the motor.

  "We're known for our fast drivers, Les, but ninety in a fifty-five zone? That's flirting with disaster."

  Ignoring Kat's comment, she opened the door.

  Kat gestured toward the few scattered cars in the parking lot. "What are you doing? We missed the wedding. It's over."

  "I'm making sure, that's all. I'll be right back." Leslie slid out of the Jeep, mindful of her short dress. She smoothed the silk fabric into place, slammed the door, then marched into the reception area of the wedding chapel.

  A silver haired woman stood behind the desk filing documents. She looked up at Leslie and smiled. "Welcome to Dogwood Wedding Chapel, young lady. May I help you?"