The Bride Next Door

by Hope Ramsay

  He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m going to stay, and I’d like to be your man for a while. I’ve got some money stashed away, and I was thinking about setting up a recording studio. I can’t write or sing, but I think I’m a good listener. At the very least, let me help you.”

  Arwen stepped into his embrace. “I think I need help,” she murmured against the fabric of his T-shirt, which smelled like smoke and laundry detergent. “’Cause I lost my job today.”

  He pushed her back a little and looked her in the eye. His face was a picture of concern, and Arwen’s heart opened up completely. She could love this man.

  “How did that happen?” he asked.

  She cuddled up against him again. “It’s a long story. How about you make me another margarita and I’ll tell you all the details?”

  “Sounds like a good first step. I promise to listen diligently.”

  Courtney’s face looked tear-swollen in the mirror, and no amount of concealer was going to hide the fact that she’d cried herself to sleep. She considered her options.

  Tuesday was her day off. She could crawl back into bed, where she would probably end up crying some more. Or she could pull herself up and get on with her life. She’d fallen for Matt Lyndon, and it hadn’t worked out. This was a surprise? She stared at herself. “You knew the risks when you crossed the hall and knocked on his door,” she said to herself in a watery voice.

  Shit. It was going to take a long time to get over him. But loafing around the apartment having crying jags wouldn’t roll back time or change her stupidity.

  She should get up and get out. Take care of her errands. But before she hit the grocery store and the dry cleaner, she needed to apologize to Leslie and Sid.

  So she took a long shower and tried to wash away Matt Lyndon. It didn’t work, but at least it woke her up.

  An hour later, she pulled into the Dogwood Estates parking lot determined to make it through her day with calm and grace. But the sight before her was so depressing. Dogwood Estates looked almost abandoned. The windows on half of the units had been boarded up, the weeds hadn’t been mowed in weeks, and a group of young men were loading boxes into a U-Haul trailer parked way on the other side of where Sid and Leslie lived. People were moving out.

  A ten-pound weight dropped onto her chest. In a few days, it would be Leslie and Sid packing up a U-Haul and moving away, maybe as far away as Arizona. Courtney would probably never see them again. She wiped an errant tear that dribbled down her cheek. She needed to stop crying. Now. Leslie and Sid didn’t need her tears.

  She held this thought in her mind as she knocked on Sid’s door. Leslie answered, looking like an aging Rosie the Riveter in a chambray shirt knotted on one side and a cute red bandanna around her head.

  “Hi,” Courtney said, trying in vain to keep her lips from trembling.

  “Oh, honey, what’s the matter? What’s happened?” Leslie grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a motherly hug that smelled exactly like Estée Lauder. All of Courtney’s resolutions melted like a lump of sugar in a cup of hot tea.

  “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed against Leslie’s shoulder.

  “About what?” Leslie dragged her across the threshold and shut the door.

  “About making you think I was angry, you know…about…about you and Sid. I’m not angry. I’m just…sad…sad…’cause you’re moving away,” she wailed.

  “Hush, now.” Leslie patted her back and made soft cooing sounds as Courtney fell apart for the second or third time in as many days. What the hell was wrong with her? She couldn’t seem to stop crying.

  “What’s the matter?” Sid asked.

  Courtney finally raised her head to find Sid standing at the end of the short entrance foyer looking confused and adorable in his madras shorts and Rolling Stones tongue-and-lips logo T-shirt.

  “I came to apologize.” Courtney sniffed. “About yesterday. I didn’t leave the protest because I was angry with you guys.”

  Sid dug into the pocket of his shorts and handed her a handkerchief. “Here, honey. Dry your eyes. We didn’t think you were angry with us.”

  “But we were worried about you,” Leslie said. “That’s why we sent Matt to find you.”

  “But he said—”

  “Well…” Sid drew out the word. “We might have led him to think that.”

  “Why?”

  “Can I get you some ice tea? A piece of pound cake?” Leslie asked like the perfect hostess.

  Courtney shook her head. “What are you two up to?”

  Sid turned away and sank into his recliner. “Sit down, sweetie.”

  Courtney sat down on the couch, and Leslie sat beside her, reaching out to snag her hand. “When Matt kissed Arwen yesterday, Sid and I both saw how you reacted, and it—”

  “Oh, for crissake,” Sid interrupted. “Arwen’s been shacking up with that Rory character over in apartment 5B. I can’t imagine what she sees in that guy. He’s—”

  “Rory Ahearn lives here?”

  Leslie and Sid nodded.

  “So you see, dear,” Leslie said, “we knew Arwen and Matt were just work colleagues. That kiss was as innocent as can be. But you reacted like a woman in love.”

  Courtney’s emotions took another wild flight, and she pressed Sid’s handkerchief to her eyes. “I’m such an idiot.”

  Leslie put her arm around Courtney’s shoulder and hugged her close. It felt so nice to have someone care. Suddenly she understood why Sid had fallen for Leslie. She had a big heart, and she needed to take care of people. Now that Courtney had found her, she didn’t want Leslie to move away. Leslie had the capacity to become a stand-in for the mother Courtney had missed all her life.

  “You two had an argument, didn’t you?” Leslie asked.

  Courtney nodded. “And I apologized when I found out the truth, but…” Her throat knotted up. Dammit, what was wrong with her? She took a deep breath. “He’s made it clear that he can’t accept my apology. And I really don’t blame him.”

  “Oh, honey, give him time.”

  She shook her head. “No. I messed up this time. And besides, he’s like you and Sid, and probably Arwen. He’s going to be leaving. Soon.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  Courtney dabbed at her eyes and pulled herself together enough to tell Leslie and Sid the entire story, sparing nothing. When she had finished, Leslie looked at Sid. “That’s ridiculous. How could Matt’s own father fire him that way? And poor Arwen. She’s been our advocate for months and months.”

  “And where the hell were Andrew and David?” Sid asked. “If you ask me, the only one who really cared about us was Matt.”

  “I told you that boy had a heart of gold. Are you willing to admit that I was right and you were wrong?” Leslie asked.

  Sid nodded. “Yeah, I am. I had that guy read all wrong. Look, we need to go over to LL&K right now and give Charles Lyndon a piece of our minds. I mean, we’re the client, aren’t we?” Sid stood up.

  “You’re right, dear, we are,” Leslie said in a mild tone. “But before we go charging into LL&K with our guns flashing, we need to plan a strategy.” She stood up. “I think we need to consult with Linda.”

  “Look, guys,” Courtney said, “no amount of protesting is going to change things. I mean, you guys are going to Arizona, and who knows where Rory’s going to go. He’ll probably take Arwen to Nashville or something. And Matt will move back to the city because he’s not cut out to be a small-town lawyer. And…”

  Her voice wavered again, and she had to swallow back a lump. “I don’t want you guys to pick a fight with Charles Lyndon,” she finally managed to say. “I want to find a way for you guys to stay here.”

  “But aren’t you furious with him?”

  Courtney parsed through her emotions and shook her head. “I’m sad, Sid. I’m so very sad. I feel like everyone I care about is leaving and I’m going to be left here all alone.”

  “Oh, honey
, don’t.” Sid crossed the living room and sat down beside Courtney on the couch. “I had no idea you felt that way.”

  “You’re my last link to Dad,” she said, tears falling down her cheeks. “You’re like family. Please don’t go.”

  “I don’t want to go, sweetie. But Leslie and I have been all over the county looking at apartments. There aren’t any here that we can afford.”

  “Well,” Leslie said with a firm nod, “that’s not entirely true.”

  “What?”

  “These apartments still exist. If we could find some way to stop GB Ventures from tearing them down.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Sid asked.

  “Oh my God, I just had an incredible idea,” Courtney said.

  “What?” Leslie and Matt asked simultaneously.

  “There’s one man in Jefferson County who has the money to do it. And he happens not to give a rat’s behind about what the Lyndon family wants or needs.”

  “Who is that?”

  “Jefferson Talbert.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Matt would have boycotted the Lyndon family’s Fourth of July barbecue if left to his own devices. Showing up and having to face his father sounded like a recipe for the kind of family drama he’d always hated. He wasn’t like his older brother, Daniel, who thrived on rebellion. No, Matthew was the middle child, sandwiched between Daniel the rebel and Jason the brainiac. Matthew had always tried to toe the line. Always. Not that it had ever gotten him much approval.

  Dad wasn’t his only problem. Mom would be all over him, and he’d have to rain on her parade by telling her she needed to stop her clandestine planning for his apartment. If he didn’t have a job here in Shenandoah Falls, then he wouldn’t be living here for much longer.

  So all in all, avoiding his parents sounded like a good plan of action.

  But at 8:30 a.m. on Independence Day morning, someone knocked at his front door and roused him from the couch where he’d fallen asleep the night before. He sat up, his mouth dry and his head pounding, payback for the bourbon he’d consumed last night.

  He didn’t want to answer the door for fear it might be Courtney. What would he say to her? He’d been pretty crappy to her on Monday night—asking for her kindness and repaying it with his anger.

  He should have accepted her apology.

  Dr. Doom jumped up on the coffee table and meowed just as Matt’s unwanted guest knocked again. “Guess I’m done hiding out, huh?” he said to the cat.

  Dr. Doom meowed again. The sun was up, and he was hungry.

  Matt pushed up from the couch and answered the door, finding his cousin Jeff, dressed in a pair of skinny jeans and a white T-shirt bearing the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” leaning against the doorframe. Jeff took one look at Matt and said, “Tied one on last night, huh?”

  Matt nodded and opened the door a little wider. Jeff was the last person on earth he expected to see at his front door.

  The Lyndons were a clannish lot, and Matt had grown up with cousins to the right and left. In fact, the children of Mark, Jamie, and Charles Lyndon were almost like siblings. All of them had grown up in Shenandoah Falls. All of them had gone to the Episcopal High School. All the boys, except Daniel, had gone to law school at the University of Virginia.

  Jeff had missed all that. His father, Thomas, had moved away from Shenandoah Falls and married Nina Talbert, heiress to the Talbert billions. Jeff had been raised in New York City and had visited Shenandoah Falls only once as a child. A few years back, Jeff had come for an extended stay in his father’s fishing cabin and met Melissa Portman, the owner of the used book store on Liberty Avenue. They’d fallen in love and had gotten married, but even though Jeff now lived in Shenandoah Falls, his relationship with the family remained strained.

  He refused to use his father’s last name, and he tended to avoid family gatherings at Charlotte’s Grove.

  “Why are you here?” Matt asked.

  “Invite me in and I’ll explain.”

  Matt nodded and stepped away from the door. “The place is a mess, but…”

  Jeff gave the apartment a quick inspection. “Not really. You should try living with Melissa for a while. Then you’ll know what a real mess is all about.” Just then, the kitten came bouncing in Jeff’s direction. “Hey, Porthos, wazzup?” Jeff scooped the cat into his arms, where Dr. Doom made an idiot of himself. A frisson of guilt worked its way down Matt’s back. Doom ought to be living across the hall with Courtney. He needed the cuddles and lap time more than Ghul did.

  The thought of Courtney’s lap simultaneously aroused and depressed him.

  “Can I get you something? I’ve got Cokes, water, beer,” Matt asked.

  “Nothing, thanks.” Jeff sat down on the couch, and Matt sank into one of the side chairs. The moment his ass hit the leather, he wished he’d gotten himself a glass of water. “So?” he asked.

  The cat had already curled up in Jeff’s lap. “Yesterday I made a cash offer to buy Dogwood Estates from GB Ventures. Considering the negative press in the Daily, the company agreed. Of course, I offered them twice what the property was worth. I thought you’d want to know.”

  “You what?”

  He shrugged. “My wife wanted this to happen. And I have a blind spot when it comes to her. Dogwood Estates is going to be a huge money loser. But hey, a guy needs tax deductions, right?”

  “Right.” Matt frowned. “What the hell is going on?”

  “A couple of things. First, Courtney is Melissa’s best friend. Second, Courtney had a couple of good reasons for wanting this to happen.” He ticked his reasons off on his fingers. “She didn’t want Sid and Leslie to move away. She didn’t want Rory Ahern to leave the county and take Arwen with him, especially since she’s not sure Rory and Arwen are a match made in heaven. And finally, she wanted to get you off the hook with Uncle Charles and Heather.”

  “What?”

  “I tried to explain to her how things work in the family, but she was adamant on that point in particular. It really didn’t matter to me because I’d already read the stuff in the paper. Nice job, Matt. Have you ever thought about becoming an investigative reporter?”

  “No.”

  “A candidate for office, maybe?”

  “No. Absolutely not. Who would vote for me?”

  Jeff settled back on the couch. “Uncle Mark has been pestering me for the last six months about running for the County Council. He thinks someone needs to challenge Bill Cummins this fall. The only problem is that the party doesn’t have anyone willing to run. Mark thinks this is great because I wouldn’t have to mess with a primary or anything. But the thing is, I have no desire to enter politics. Do you? I think you’d be good at it. Of course, it would mean staying here in Shenandoah Falls.”

  “I wouldn’t know the first thing about—”

  “We’re talking the County Council, Matt. And your name is Lyndon. Plus, you’ve single-handedly exposed some pretty rampant corruption—enough for someone to wonder if Cummins was getting kickbacks from GB Ventures. I don’t think you’d have any problems raising money.”

  “I didn’t expose GB Ventures on my own. I had some help from inside the county government and from Arwen Jacobs.”

  “Okay, so you’ve already assembled a team. That seems like a good start.”

  Matt shook his head. “A team? What are you talking about? I mean, Heather took money from Jerry Beyer, the CEO of GB Ventures and—”

  “Who hasn’t taken money from Jerry? He spreads his money around like manure, currying favor wherever he can. Heather’s an idiot if she continues to take his money now that your exposé has appeared in the paper. To tell you the truth, I’m surprised Brandon tried to intimidate you and Uncle Charles. I can’t imagine Heather knew he was doing that.”

  “You think she’s going to be okay?”

  “Of course she is. She didn’t do anything unlawful. And neither did Jerry Beyer, unless h
e made under-the-table payments to Bill Cummins. In which case, they are both going to jail.” He smiled.

  “And who’s going to pursue that angle in this county?” Matt asked.

  “You. If you ran against him, you’d have a lot of opportunity to raise questions. And those questions would interest any number of hungry journalists. If you want to finish the job, you need to run. And you’d be doing me a favor. It would get Uncle Mark off my back. He really wants a Lyndon on the council.”

  “But would he be happy with me? I mean, I’m—”

  “The guy who exposed Bill Cummins for the crook he probably is? Yeah, I think Uncle Mark would be delighted to have you. And so would Uncle Jamie. You do realize that several of his farmhands had to quit because they couldn’t find housing in the county. So get your ass in gear. Go take a shower and a couple of aspirins and make yourself presentable. We’re going to Charlotte’s Grove for the barbecue and a long conversation with Uncle Mark and Uncle Jamie.”

  Courtney sat on the folded seat of the commode in her bathroom staring at the little plus sign on the early pregnancy test. Really? This was like some epically cosmic joke or something. How could she be pregnant?

  Easy answer: They hadn’t used a condom that very first time. They’d lost control and…

  Damn. Now what? A week had passed since her argument with Matt—a whirlwind week in which so many things had changed for the better, thanks to Jefferson Talbert’s incredibly big heart.

  Courtney would be forever indebted to Jeff for rescuing the tenants of Dogwood Estates. Although it would take more than a year to fully renovate every one of the apartment units, Jeff had already sent in a group of landscapers to hack back the weeds and resurface the parking lot. Roof repairs were also underway, and the trash containers had been secured against wildlife.

  The renovations would be staged so that any of the remaining residents could stay in their units until newly refurbished apartments were ready for them. Best of all, Jeff had frozen the rent for the next three years for all remaining tenants. Leslie and Sid had decided to move in together, and yesterday they’d asked Courtney if she would plan a small wedding for them.