Mindful of how much time had elapsed since I’d turned on the water, I scrubbed hurriedly and finished up. No need for him to label me high maintenance. Besides, his plans likely included a hop in the shower himself and I didn’t want him to accuse me of draining the hot water tank dry.
I dried off just as quickly and slid back into yesterday’s clothing. My long hair hung damp over my shoulders and I frowned at it in the mirror. Typically, I blew it dry before securing it in a ponytail. I’d grown up believing the wives’ tale my mom had told me about wet hair snapping clean off where it had been tied in an elastic. True or not, it wasn’t something I wanted to test out. But today it looked like I would have no choice. If I let it dry loose on its own, I’d look like I slept all night in my car. That wasn’t exactly the image I wanted to project, even if I was only attending courthouse nuptials.
With a sigh I opened the bathroom door and walked down the hall to where Will sat, staring blindly at the television. My appearance caught him off guard; he jumped just the slightest bit. Unsure what to say, I went directly over to my purse and began rummaging around in it for a hair band.
“Give me your keys,” he said, breaking the silence.
“What?” It was my turn to jump.
“Your car keys. I’ll go out and start it for you.”
I stopped what I was doing and met his eyes. “Why?”
“Because it snowed last night. You don’t want to have to scrape your windows, do you?”
“Well, no. Not really. But are you sure that kind of thing is safe? Leaving a running car unattended in the middle of town? It’s not much, but it’s the only thing I’ve got.”
Will rolled his eyes at me. Then he stuck out his hand, palm facing upward. My argument apparently null and void, I unearthed my key ring and gave it to him. We were both careful to avoid touching each other; he wrapped his fingers around the cold metal as I pulled my own hand back swiftly.
He stood in front of me for a moment longer, watching what I was doing. When I produced an elastic band out of my bag and began gathering up my hair to secure it, he shook his head. I froze in place, confused.
“You have time to dry your hair.”
I laughed dryly. “Nice try. I know my purse is big, but I’m not brandishing hair appliances inside.”
“I’ve got a blow dryer.”
I tried to picture Will as a metrosexual, but just couldn’t quite do it. I was learning things about him, all right, but they weren’t the things that I’d expected. He ignored my look of amusement and continued.
“In the bathroom cabinet, under the sink.”
“Okay, thanks.”
Just when I thought the scene couldn’t play out any more awkwardly, I pictured him going out in the snow, barefoot and shirtless to start my car. Despite my attempts to play it cool, I snorted, the sound disrupting the silence. He was debunking my theory anyway, as he’d headed over to the closet, where he stood pulling on a hooded sweatshirt. As he slid his feet into a pair of untied gym shoes, I spun quickly on my heel and fled back to where I’d come from.
“In the cabinet, under the sink,” I mumbled as I opened up the said space. The vanity door creaked to attention. If I was trying to be discreet, I would have failed horribly. But since I had permission now, I took advantage of it. Once I located the hair dryer, I searched around for what other treasures I could uncover.
Will wasn’t one for organization, but I couldn’t judge. When I pulled out the dryer, various other items fell to the floor. A can of hairspray, a bottle of lotion, a cosmetics bag. When he’d admitted to having girly stuff, he hadn’t been lying. I stared at the mess I’d created on the floor, wondering what it all meant. My thoughts instantly went to his daughter, playing dress up in front of the mirror. What other reason would there be to have these things here? Before I considered other options, I scooped up everything and plopped it all back in the bottom of the cabinet. The heap I’d thrown it in didn’t look any different than how I’d found it.
I begged my mind to empty as I dried my hair, focusing on coaxing the black strands into submission. As thick as it was, it took a fair amount of time to dry completely but I forced myself to do it. I had the feeling that Will would feel slighted if I didn’t. I needed all the help I could get with fostering a civil environment, especially given the fact that we’d undoubtedly run into each other again.
Maybe I should have thought about that before I slept with the friend of the soon to be husband of a friend. But whatever. I hadn’t and it was damn the consequences now.
Done with my hair, I unplugged the dryer and stuffed it back under the sink. Makeup could wait until I purchased my outfit and changed my clothes. Surely he could understand that. And it wasn’t like I needed to slather on cosmetics to look presentable anyway. I just liked to because it was fun.
When I came out of the bathroom this time, Will was prepared. He took in my appearance as if looking at me for the first time. I wondered what he was thinking behind those impossibly green eyes. Was he proud that he’d made me a notch on his belt? Was he upset that we’d succumbed to drunken temptation against our better judgment?
He grabbed my coat from the back of the couch, where I’d shrugged it off last night. Like a true gentleman, he helped me into it, stepping away from me as I zipped it up.
“So,” I said, smiling at him like we weren’t about to keep the biggest secret ever known to man from our mutual friends, “I guess I’ll see you at the courthouse?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
I moved to pick up my purse.
“I’ll walk you out,” he offered.
“No, you don’t have to. I’m sure I won’t get lost.”
“No, I kind of have to go out with you if you want to leave.”
“Okay. If you insist.”
Only when he led me around the side of the duplex did I understand. Sure enough, my car was running, fully defrosted by now. He was right - it had snowed overnight, leaving behind a hard freeze that would have been a bitch to remove with my ice scraper. He’d pegged me correctly as the impatient type who’d clear off a tiny corner of the windshield before heading out, leaving much to chance.
He’d also taken my concern about auto theft seriously, considering the fact that he’d pulled his police car into the alley behind the parking area, effectively blocking the Taurus in. I smirked, not certain if I should read anything more into that than what appeared at face value.
“If that’s not a crime deterrent, I’m not sure what is,” I said eventually. “Thanks.”
He shrugged. “It was nothing, really.”
“You’re a good guy, Will,” I said. Then, inexplicably, “Your wife was stupid to leave you.”
Pure conjecture on my part. We hadn’t gotten into details of his relationship with her. But I didn’t pinpoint him as being the type to end things.
“I don’t have a wife.”
The right thing for me to do would have been to quickly jump in my car and get the hell out of there. Mental forehead slaps were not enough punishment for my uncouthness. But we both stood there, the chilly December morning air whipping around us, silent. I dropped my eyes away from his face and focused instead on my car door, planning my escape.
“Gracie,” he said finally.
“Yeah?”
“How often are you in Fort Wayne?”
My eyes shot back up to his. “Maybe once or twice a month. Why?”
Again with the shrug, though the casualness of the action appeared forced. “No reason.”
He fished his own keys out of his pocket, a nonverbal cue for me that it was time to get a move on. I headed over to the Taurus, while he began walking to his patrol car. Both of our movements were exaggerated; we were waiting for the other to break.
Will broke first. “Hey. Got your phone on you?”
“Of course.”
He rattled off a list of numbers while I stood dumbfounded.
“What’s that?” I asked.
&nb
sp; “That’s my number. You should text it - right now - so that I have yours.”
“Okay.” I pulled my phone out of my bag, swiped the touchscreen and waited for him to repeat what he’d just said. He enunciated the digits carefully, watching from afar as I typed them in. I sent him a quick message, nothing raunchy, and then confirmed it was done.
“See you later,” he said in closing.
“Definitely.” Because it was true; in more ways then one, I believed.
I lowered myself into my car, settling back into the driver’s seat and closing my eyes. Behind me, I heard Will start his car and I watched in the rearview mirror as he pulled away. I stayed where I was for a second, allowing myself to gain some composure before I headed off in search of a sale and an outfit for a wedding.
Chapter Three
“What are you wearing?” I asked as soon as Lauren answered the phone.
“Right now? Sweats and a tank top.”
“No, later on today. I’m not certain what protocol is for getting hitched by the justice of the peace. Dresses? Jeans?”
“Oh, good. I’m glad Blake got a hold of you in time. And that you had enough vacation hours to call in to come up here.”
“Yeah,” I hedged, “something like that.”
“Do you have enough time to pay for it?” she pressed.
I laughed, knowing it was too late to sweat the details now. “Guess we’ll find out.”
“Oh dear.”
“It’s the end of the year, girlfriend,” I said breezily, “I’ll get all my time back in January. Now on to the important stuff. What are you wearing?”
I could practically hear her planning on the other end of the line. “I don’t know. Not everything fits again yet. Probably just a sweater and a pair of pants.”
“Gee, thanks for the moral support.”
“Sorry.”
I pulled into the parking lot of the city’s open air mall and sighed. I didn’t exactly look forward to trudging from store to store in brisk winds and snow flurries, but I was comfortable with this end of town and wouldn’t get lost here. Besides, the place was not that busy, which meant that other people thought more logically than I did. At least I could get a prime parking space.
“I think the occasion calls for a new outfit,” I said as though I had just decided upon it. “So I’m going shopping.”
“Whatever floats your boat.”
“I think I’ll just stop in Fort Wayne somewhere and grab something. Mind if I stop over at your place to change?”
And there was the true reason behind the phone call. While heading to the southwest edge of the city from Will’s place, I’d devised a plan. I had a key to Lauren’s old place and I knew she wouldn’t care if I used it. However, I also knew that she was still pretty tight with her former neighbors. If Regina or Brian mentioned to her that I was over at her house before I could, it would look like I was hiding something. Which I was.
“Not at all. Come on over.”
“No, not your home,” I stressed, referring to where she and Matthew lived. “Your place. I don’t want to interrupt anything or wake up Sadie or something.”
Or for her to know that I was already only twenty minutes away. She would expect me to jet in much closer to game time and I was devoid of knowledge of where to go to kill a few hours.
“Yeah, that will work, too.” She covered her surprise well, though I could tell she was slightly disappointed. She seriously wanted me to bond with her daughter, when we were still warming up to one another. “Actually, we’re dropping off Sadie at Regina’s on our way to the courthouse. You can just ride with us if you want.”
“Perfect. See you in a bit, then.”
I hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. That was a very close call. If I hadn’t have asked for permission, I wouldn’t have needed Lauren’s neighbors to rat me out. I would have busted myself by being parked in her driveway.
It was probably ill-advised to go shopping at an outdoor venue in December in Indiana wearing stilettos, but it wasn’t like I had much of a choice. Fortunately, most of the snow that had fallen had melted away from the pavement and the mall owners had done a commendable job of clearing the sidewalks.
I went looking for an outfit with an open mind. My only prerequisites were that what I found had to be budget friendly and it had to go with my current shoes. Considering that they were black suede platforms, that one was a fairly easy task.
I ended up settling on a pair of skinny black dress pants from the clearance rack of one store, pairing it with a oversized wool sweater from another. I told myself that Lauren wouldn’t notice that I was wearing the same camisole as yesterday, considering it would be firmly layered under another item. I’d done a quick sniff check of it in the dressing room to confirm I hadn’t spilled alcohol on it last night and it passed. So I was in the clear to wear something over it, since wool was incredibly itchy, but damn cute.
My new clothes in bags and my credit card balance that much higher, I stopped by a fast food drive through on my way to Lauren’s and ordered an early brunch. With all the commotion this morning and the resulting insecurity, food had been the last thing on my mind. But now my stomach was making itself known and I had more than enough time to answer.
The blue ranch that Lauren had called home during her self-imposed exile from Matthew and Blake loomed ahead of me before I knew it and I pulled in the drive like I owned the place. Well, I had picked it out for her and somewhat talked her into purchasing it. She didn’t hold any buyer’s remorse over my head, though, and for that I was glad. When we’d toured it together, she’d been hell bent on the desire to move out of the hotel she’d been living in since packing up and running away from Blake’s in the dead of night. The simplest course of action would have been to, I don’t know, actually talk to the siblings about the mess she was in, but for once she’d chosen the most convoluted solution to her problem.
What neither one of us knew when she signed the purchase agreement was that in mere months, she and Matthew would find their way back to each other and embark on making everyone else sick with their happily ever after. It couldn’t have happened to two better people, though she’d drug out the process about six months longer than it needed to be.
But her poor choices in reading the future led to me having a nice, warm place to wait until it was time to watch the other sickeningly sweet couple make it legal. Hey, I could find the good in any situation.
I grabbed my food, threw open my car door and nearly fell on my ass while stepping out onto the driveway. Fortunately, my free hand latched on to the roof of the Taurus and I was able to regain my balance without looking too stupid. Even so, my head involuntarily turned to the house across the street, wondering if Regina was watching out the window, laughing at me.
Cautiously, I half skated up the sidewalk and to the front door, twisting open the lock and kicking off my offending shoes as soon as I stepped inside. No sense in tempting fate. It was still morning and I’d already fallen off a bed and almost slid underneath my car. Maybe I should just lie down on the couch until I was certain all the effects of the previous night had been removed from my system.
I flipped on the television for background noise as I ate, crumpling up my wrapper and tossing it in the paper bag on the floor. I could clean up later. Right now, the thought of curling up for a few minutes didn’t seem so bad. So I did, resting my head carefully on the arm of the couch so that I wouldn’t wreck my hair.
My eyelids slipped shut and I might have dozed off for a few moments, but I was acutely aware that the situation I’d put myself in was anything but comfortable. In mere hours, Will and I would be face to face yet again, pretending that nothing had happened between us. It was a good thing he’d always been quiet around us as a group; the silence wouldn’t seem too weird on his behalf.
Me, on the other hand, I felt like the words “I just had sex” should be written across my forehead. It wasn’t my nature to be discreet, th
ough I’d certainly learned how to keep other people’s secrets since Lauren had moved up here. By default, I’d become everyone’s confidant. But who would I spill my confessions to? I’d firmly wedged myself between a rock and a hard place.
Things would be much easier when I was on the highway, headed back home to Indianapolis. It would be infinitely less challenging to lie to them all long distance, and maybe even to myself. Out of sight, out of mind.
About an hour before I expected Lauren, Matthew and Sadie to show up, I grabbed my purse and headed for the guest bathroom. I propped the bag on the closed toilet seat and rummaged around until I found all of the makeup I kept in its depths, positioning the cosmetics on the counter as they were discovered. For once it worked to my advantage to constantly be running behind schedule. My makeup routine for the bank was often done while at stoplights, in transit to my teller window. I even had a travel toothbrush - which of course I didn’t use in my car - but it came in handy here.
When I was pleased enough with my reflection and convinced that the previous night and early morning’s activities weren’t visible to the general public, I walked back out to the living room to sit and twiddle my thumbs. I had nervous energy in spades. I prayed it would be better once we all met up, when the attention was firmly on Blake and Chris and their abrupt decision to head to the altar.
Because I turned my head constantly to stare out the picture window at the front of the house, I spied Matthew’s Camry as it came down the street. He pulled into Brian and Regina’s driveway for obvious reasons. I had no doubt that once their daughter was safely inside the neighbor’s house, he’d come over here. But even so, I grabbed my purse, locked up the house and headed - rather gingerly - across the street to meet him.
Lauren was still inside when I made it over, leaving Matthew sitting alone in the idling vehicle. He jumped when I pulled open the rear door on his side of the car and hopped right in.
“Hey there,” I said in greeting.
“Hey. You know, I would have come over to get you.”
I watched him in the rearview mirror and could tell that he was smiling at me. I smiled right back. “Yeah, I know.”
Changed Page 3