THE FALL

by Marie Force

  As Ed and Mitzi danced to "When a Man Loves a Woman," Ted noticed his grandmother dabbing at tears and reached for her hand.

  "Their wedding day seems like five minutes ago," Lillian whispered in Ted's ear.

  He smiled and squeezed her hand.

  The microphone was passed around to friends and relatives who added their congratulations.

  "Whenever I hear someone say all families are dysfunctional, I think of the Duffys who epitomize the word functional," Smitty said when the microphone reached their table. "I thank the four of you for making me a part of your functional family, and I love you all."

  Ted was touched when Smitty's voice broke at the end.

  "I spend my days brokering the end of marriages, and it would be so easy for me to become a cynical disbeliever," Parker said. "I think the only reason that hasn't happened is because of my long friendship with the Duffys. These two marriages have gone the distance and have done it with so much style. I also thank you for including me as a member of your family, and I'll be here in five years for the forty-five-seventy party."

  Lillian rolled her eyes and groaned, which made everyone laugh.

  Chip took the microphone from Parker and stood up. "I, too, have had the great honor to be included as a member of the Duffy family, and let's face it, we all want what they have. In keeping with this great celebration of marriage, I asked Mitzi and Lillian if they would mind if I hijacked five minutes of their party to do something I should've done a long time ago. I'm lucky that my beautiful girlfriend Elise has stuck with me for almost six years, and I'm hoping someday she and I will be celebrating an occasion like this with our family and friends."

  Elise looked up at Chip with wary, expectant expression.

  "Elise, I love you. Will you marry me?" Chip asked as he produced a ring from his pocket.

  She gasped and then burst into tears as the other guests applauded.

  Astounded, Smitty and Parker whooped and hollered when Chip gathered Elise into his arms and kissed her before he slid the ring onto her finger.

  Ted stood up to get a better view and saw Caroline wipe tears from her cheeks. "You two have been holding out on me," he said to his mother and grandmother.

  Both shrugged with delighted innocence.

  "You didn't have any idea?" Mitzi asked.

  "Not a clue. I think Chip managed to pull off a total surprise. Elise looks floored."

  "Go on back there with them," Lillian said. "You've done your duty up here."

  "You did a wonderful job, darling," Mitzi added.

  "I'll be back to collect that dance you owe me," Ted said to his grandmother before he made his way through the tent to his friends' table in the back. He hugged Chip and kissed Elise, who was still crying and gazing at the ring on her finger.

  "Well done, buddy," Ted said to Chip. "You surprised us all."

  "I was dying to tell you today at the beach," Chip said with a euphoric grin. "I didn't think I was going to make it."

  "Did she say yes?" Ted teased. "I never heard a yes."

  "Of course I did," Elise said.

  "It's the end of an era," Smitty lamented with mock seriousness.

  "Nah," Parker said. "Nothing's going to change."

  Ted glanced at Caroline, filled with the sudden awareness that everything was about to change.

  Chapter 15

  Ted was dancing with his grandmother when he saw Caroline slip out of the tent and head in the direction of the guesthouse. Smitty, Parker, and Chip were enjoying cigars on the lawn, and Ted couldn't see Elise but assumed she was with them.

  When the song ended, Ted escorted Lillian back to her seat and was on his way to a clean escape when his mother stopped him.

  "Oh, Ted, darling, do you remember Madeline and John Harrington?"

  They had been summer friends of his parents' for as long as they had been coming to the island. "Of course." Ted shook hands with both of them. "I ran into Jack in Newport a month or so ago," he said, referring to their son. "He was pushing a big stroller."

  Madeline laughed. "His twin boys are two years old."

  "Doesn't he have older children, too?" Mitzi asked.

  "Yes, four of them. The oldest is in college. He had the twins with his second wife."

  The small talk was killing Ted. "Would you all excuse me, please? It was great to see you again."

  "You, too, Ted," John said.

  He left them talking to his mother and followed the gravel path through the pitch black night to the guesthouse where the creak of a rocking chair told him Caroline was sitting on the back deck.

  "I saw you leave. Are you all right?"

  She didn't answer.

  "Caroline?" His heart knocked against his ribs. "What is it? Are you all right?"

  "I really wanted to…"

  "What?" he asked, his heart pounding.

  "Cut in on you and your grandmother, broken ankle and all."

  He jammed his hands into his pockets to resist the overwhelming need to touch her. "This has been the longest day of my life," he whispered.

  "Mine, too. I loved hearing about how your parents and grandparents met."

  "My grandmother has us figured out."

  Caroline gasped. "Oh, no! Oh, God, Ted, what she must think of me!"

  "She thinks you're lovely."

  "Does she think we're awful?"

  "No, she thinks we're lucky. My boss is sending me to New York for a conference in two weeks."

  "Really?"

  "Uh huh, and I want to see you while I'm there."

  "I want to see you, too. I don't know how I'll ever stand to wait two weeks."

  "I want you to wear that dress again—just for me this time."

  "Anything," she said, sounding breathless. "Anything for you."

  * * *

  Smitty crushed out his cigar and wandered back into the tent to look for Caroline. Elise was returning from the restroom where she had repaired the damage the flood of tears had done to her makeup.

  "Have you seen Caroline?" Smitty asked, scanning the crowd. The red dress was nowhere in sight.

  "Not in the last fifteen minutes or so."

  "Maybe she went back to the house to get a pain pill."

  "I thought she wasn't taking them anymore."

  "She's been on the ankle a lot today. She might've needed one."

  "Do you want me to go check on her?"

  "That's all right. I'll do it." He kissed her forehead. "Go find your fiancé."

  "Fiancé," Elise giggled. "That's going to take some getting used to."

  "I still can't believe Chip pulled one over on all of us."

  "He's just full of surprises."

  "I'll be back in a minute." Smitty took the scenic route from the tent across the lawn behind the main house. The moonless sky was polluted with stars. Stopping for a moment, he gazed up at them, taking advantage of the rare opportunity to study them without any light to hinder the view. He picked out the Big Dipper before he continued along to the guesthouse.

  He had almost reached the back deck when a sound stopped him. A whisper. Someone was whispering.

  "I want you to wear that dress again—just for me this time."

  "Anything. Anything for you."

  "Tomorrow, after you talk to him, will you call me?"

  Duff? Why's he whispering, and who is he talking to?

  "I don't have your number."

  Caroline? What the fuck?

  Smitty heard the rustle of clothing and swallowed a growing tidal wave of panic and rage and disbelief. More than anything else, there was disbelief.

  "Here's my card. Call my cell. I'll be waiting."

  "I will."

  "No matter what happens, remember we're in this together, and we'll figure it out. Somehow, we'll find a way to be together."

  Smitty backed away before they could discover him, his heart in his throat as he cut between the two houses on his way to the driveway. Once he felt the crunch of shells beneath his feet, h
e began to run.

  Chapter 16

  People were beginning to leave by the time Ted returned to the tent with his heart still racing from the conversation with Caroline. Chip, Elise, and Parker were seated at their table enjoying another round of champagne.

  "Hey," Parker said. "Where'd you disappear to?"

  "My mother asked me to walk a couple of old ladies to their car since it's so dark." The lies were coming easier all the time.

  "Pimped out by your own mother," Chip commented with a wry grin. "It's a sad day for mankind."

  Ted laughed despite the tension coiled within him that threatened to burst at any second. "Where's Smitty?"

  "He left a few minutes ago to find Caroline," Elise said, adding with a wink, "I'll bet we won't see them again tonight."

  While Chip and Parker snickered, Ted fought to stay calm.

  "I can't believe how well things are working out between them," Elise said. "He's so happy with her."

  "I wonder if they'll be the next ones to get engaged," Chip said, kissing the ring on Elise's finger.

  "What do you think, Duff?" Elise asked.

  All eyes fell on him. "Who knows?" Ted's shrug did nothing to give away the sick feeling he had inside.

  * * *

  Smitty ran until his lungs burned and his legs were in jeopardy of giving out under him. The night was so dark that only the sound of surf hitting the shore to his right indicated that he had run to the island's northern point. He made out the hulking shadow of a large boulder by the side of the road and lowered himself onto it. Gasping for air and sweating profusely, he dropped his head into his hands and tried to absorb what he had overheard.

  How the hell had this happened? They're involved? Since when? As far as Smitty knew, this was only the second time they'd ever even been together. No one falls for someone that fast. Maybe I heard them wrong. No. No, I didn't. No way.

  As Smitty reviewed every minute he and Caroline had spent with Ted, he shed the tuxedo jacket and bow tie so he could unbutton the shirt that had tightened like a noose around his neck. That first morning, after they met while he was asleep, Ted had joked about running away and marrying her. The joke took on new meaning now.

  Later that day, Smitty recalled Ted's reluctance to leave the emergency room after Caroline broke her ankle. Had he already fallen for her then? Smitty figured at the time that Ted hadn't wanted to abandon them in a medical situation. Had there been more to it even then? That week, Ted asked in an e-mail about how Caroline was doing with the ankle. Again, Smitty hadn't thought a thing of that question from his friend the doctor who had been with her when the accident happened. In fact, Smitty even encouraged Caroline to respond to the message herself. Other than the day she and Ted ran together and she broke her ankle, when had they even spent any time alone?

  Smitty was certain he hadn't missed the signs because there hadn't been any to miss.

  Another thought suddenly occurred to him. Last night. Parker and Caroline were acting so strange. Did Parker walk in on something when he went home early? Ted and Caroline were alone together in the house for hours. Oh, Christ! Parker caught them! But wouldn't he have told me? There was something he had wanted to say to me, but then he thought better of it. If the shoe were on the other foot, would I have told him? I don't know … God. Does Parker know something? Caroline hadn't wanted to make love. Was it because she had already been with Ted? The thought made Smitty sick.

  Ted Duffy. My closest friend in the world. Tears of disappointment and bitter betrayal burned in Smitty's eyes. If you had asked me thirty minutes ago who I trusted more than anyone, I would've said Ted Duffy. As he absorbed the almost secondary blow—that his relationship with Caroline was over—a different sort of disappointment set in. Even though he had only known her six weeks, he'd had so many hopes tied up in her and now they had been dashed because apparently she fancied herself infatuated with Ted—someone she had seen just twice.

  All at once, the whole thing struck Smitty as funny. He laughed so hard he almost fell off the rock. Then the pain came back in a staggering, agonizing torrent, and it wasn't funny anymore because he knew Ted Duffy, really knew him. And the Ted Duffy he knew wouldn't do something like this, wouldn't risk a friendship like theirs unless he honestly believed he was in love with her.

  Somehow that hurt more than anything else—that Ted would endanger their twenty-year friendship for a woman he'd seen only twice in his life.

  For all his success, for all his money, for all his so-called good friends, Smitty realized in that moment that his life was as much a house of cards now as it had been the day he left the projects. As he listened to the roar of the waves crashing onto the rocks far below where he sat, he gave significant thought to hurling himself over the edge. Who the fuck would care anyway? Ted would probably be relieved to have me out of the way. But the part of Smitty that was deeply, seriously pissed didn't want to let his friend off that easily.

  So then what's the plan? He puzzled it over from every angle and decided preserving his friendship with Chip and Parker was his top priority. He couldn't lose them all. That just couldn't happen. Losing Ted would leave a big enough hole in his life and his heart. And Ted's family, he thought as a new wave of sadness rolled over him.

  Smitty ran a shaking hand through his hair as he remembered years of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with the Duffys. They were the only family he had. Mitzi and Lillian called him every year on his birthday without fail. He never went on a long trip without letting them know where he would be so they wouldn't worry if they couldn't reach him. Sometimes he thought they were the only people in the world who truly cared about him. His friends loved hanging out with him, but Mitzi and Lillian worried about him. There was a difference.

  Don't fool yourself, man. If it comes down to a choice they'll side with him because blood's always thicker than water. You may think of them as family, but he is family to them—the golden boy wonder who's made them so proud his entire life. I wonder if they would be quite as proud if they knew what I know about him.

  After he had stewed over it for a long time, Smitty stood up slowly and with a roar of fury, he heaved his tuxedo jacket over the edge of the cliff. He began the walk back to the house on tired, trembling legs. I know what I need to do. I just hope I can pull it off.

  * * *

  The squeak of Nikes on wooden stairs alerted Smitty that Ted was on his way downstairs the next morning.

  Ted came to an abrupt stop on the second to last step when he found Smitty asleep on the sofa still wearing what was left of his tuxedo.

  Smitty kept his eyes closed and his breathing steady, aware of Ted studying him for what must have been a full minute before he continued on his way out the door to run.

  After he was gone, Smitty exhaled a long deep breath he hadn't known he was holding. The events of the previous evening came rushing back to him, and his eyes pooled with tears. His head pounded from the half bottle of Smirnoff he had consumed in the abandoned tent after he returned to the Duffy's compound.

  He wanted to get something for his aching head but couldn't make himself move off the sofa. The longer he stayed where he was, the longer he could put off dealing with whatever this day had in store for him.

  Ted had been gone for about thirty minutes when the master bedroom door opened. Caroline came out wearing the pink silk robe Smitty had bought for her after the first night they spent together. The memory made his heart hurt.

  She too stopped short when she found him on the sofa in the clothes he'd had on the night before.

  Unlike Ted, though, Caroline came over to the sofa and crouched down next to him.

  "Smitty?" she whispered.

  When he didn't stir, she brushed a hand over his face, and it was all he could do not to smack it away. He didn't want her anywhere near him. But he just continued to feign sleep.

  She got up and went into the kitchen. A few minutes later, Smitty smelled coffee and opened his eyes just enough to watch
Caroline take her mug outside to the back deck.

  The others began to filter downstairs, each repeating the same routine when they discovered Smitty on the sofa. He could hear them whispering as they tried to figure out why he had slept there and why he was still in his tux.

  Chip confronted Caroline on the deck. Their voices drifted in to Smitty through the open window.

  "What's up with Smitty?" Chip asked.

  "I don't know. I went to bed, so I didn't hear him come in."

  "We thought he was with you," Elise said.

  "No," Caroline said. "He wasn't."

  "Where was he then?" Parker asked.

  "I don't know, Parker," Caroline said with a testy edge to her voice that said she didn't appreciate his accusatory tone.

  Yes, Smitty thought. Parker knows something or he wouldn't be so sharp with her.

  Ted returned from running and stopped for another long look at Smitty on the sofa before he joined the party on the deck. "What's going on with Smitty?" he asked.

  "We're wondering the same thing," Parker said.

  Smitty could just imagine the look Parker had tossed at Caroline. He was in what they called his cross-examination mode.

  Sure enough, she said, "I told them I have no idea. I was asleep."

  Smitty didn't want to imagine what passed between Caroline and Ted. He listened to their speculation for a few more minutes before he pulled himself up and off the sofa with great reluctance. Just get through this day, one hour at a time until you can be alone. With a silent prayer for strength to a God he didn't much believe in, he pasted a grimace on his face and went outside.

  All eyes turned to him.

  "Morning," he said, rubbing his aching head and doing his best to avoid eye contact with Ted and Caroline. The blinding sun made his eyes water anyway.

  "Hey," Chip said. "What the hell happened to you? You look like shit."

  "Then I look as good as I feel." Smitty flopped into a rocker with a dramatic groan. Don't overdo it, man.