“My goodness,” she stammered. “I should have known you two might be together. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’m just not thinking straight because…Well, I’m just not is all.”
She looked to Sebastian then started to pace. “I’m going out for a spell, dear. I know it’s late but I do so want to see this darling town all snowy and like a winter wonderland. I hear there’s a little gazebo and we don’t get much of this sort of thing in Florida and…” She stopped pacing and sighed. “Oh, what the heck, I’m off to meet a man. There, I said it. I’m an old hussy.”
“Dad’s been gone five years. You’re allowed to have a life.” His voice more controlled than he felt at the moment and it wasn’t because mother was meeting Terrance, it was because he wanted to take LuLu on that love seat in the corner. “Have fun. I won’t wait up.”
She giggled then sobered, nibbling her bottom lip. “This is all new for me but it feels right. He’s a fine man, Sebastian. I’ve known it for a while now.” She blushed and turned for the hall.
Sebastian took a deep breath. “The plan’s working. Mother didn’t care what we were up to with a new man in her life. And she deserves this. Works on all fronts.”
LuLu headed for the door. “I’ll follow your mother and make sure she connects up with Terrance. We don’t want her out at night all alone and I feel responsible.”
“If this town was any safer it would be in a Disney movie.”
She stopped and studied him. “And that’s one movie you and I will never star in. When we’re alone together it’s all sex and steam. We have to stay apart.”
“No more meetings in the conservatory?”
“You concentrate on getting Rebecca and Cordell into that wine cellar. I’ll check on Isabella and then I’m going home, away from you and convince myself you’re just another guy. I’ll see you tomorrow for the wedding.”
“Nonwedding and I am just a guy.”
She let out a little whine then ran off. He headed to the kitchen for cheese and seduction stuff…whatever the hell that was. One more day and then he’d be gone, and LuLu and her sexy whine would be part of his past. The thought sat like a lump of coal in his gut. But that was too damn bad. When he put on his uniform years ago he knew there’d be times like this. Trouble was, then it was a noble idea and he hadn’t met LuLu.
Yeah, keeping busy was the answer and—“Mother?” Sebastian said as he rounded the corner. “What happened to the walk? The gazebo and the cute town? You’re still here.”
“Well, you see, the snow is really coming down so we decided to take a walk in the garden out back. It’s beautiful under the full moon and—”
“Snow?”
“As in white stuff falling from the sky in buckets. This Bevvy thing has rotted your brain, son.”
Oh shit! LuLu was headed into town. She’d freak when she couldn’t find Isabella and probably go looking all over the place for her. What if she fell? Got buried in a snowdrift. She was pregnant, dammit!
“Something wrong, dear? You look awful.”
“Indigestion. Too much pie. Everything’s fine. Enjoy your walk.”
“But we had cake for dessert and cookies. I saw LuLu walking down the drive. Does she have far to go?”
He kissed Isabella on the cheek then made for his room. He needed to find LuLu. Why didn’t he check the fucking weather? Because he was too obsessed with fucking LuLu.
He took the steps two at a time, changed into jeans and boots, grabbed his coat and was out the door. He headed down the curvy drive and across the two-lane to town. No sign of LuLu except her footprints. She had nice footprints, cute ones. He was getting a hard-on over her footprints…He was going insane.
When he got to the gazebo she wasn’t there. He peered through the falling flakes to the blue and red Budweiser sign. He pushed open the door to Slim’s and some bluesy tune, and LuLu sitting at a table with…Oh damn “Bevvy?”
“Sebastian,” Bevvy called across the bar, standing and waving her arms. She grinned and motioned him over. LuLu sat with her back to him, he recognized the brown robe. With luck it was another Joseph in for a visit. She didn’t move, didn’t look at him, didn’t even turn toward him to acknowledge his existence. It was his Joseph all right. Double damn.
Bevvy threw her arms around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. “Oh, Sebby, you are the best.”
LuLu peered up at him, her eyes shooting daggers. “Depends on what best you’re referring to. Best soldier, best kisser, best liar.”
Bevvy sat and pulled him into the chair beside her. “I met this nice girl dressed up like a shepherd and we got to talking and she knows you.”
“Well, look who’s here,” Isabella said as she strolled up, her arms through Terrance’s.
“Mother?” Great. The night was getting better and better. “What happened to the garden walk?”
“We just kept on going because the stars are beautiful and here we are and…Well, mercy me, it’s Bevvy?” Mother blinked a few times. “When did you get into town, dear? Oh, my stars, you’ve come back for the wedding!”
“I have?”
“You’ve reconsidered.” Isabella threw her arms around Bevvy. “Welcome to the family. The judge is still scheduled for tomorrow and—”
“I’ve reconsidered?”
Oh damn, for the second time, Sebastian thought. This was like walking through a land-mine field never knowing what would blow up next.
“Sebastian is the best man,” his mother went on. “Well, actually he isn’t the best man, he’s really the groom. A little wedding joke.” She laughed. “But now you’re here and the wedding will go off without a hitch.”
“I’ve reconsidered,” Bevvy repeated starting to look royally pissed off with her arms folded over her chest. “What the dickens is going on here, Sebby? Exactly what did you tell everyone about us breaking up?”
LuLu stood. “And let’s not leave anything out, Sebby. To be more specific, you said that Bevvy’s the one who called off the wedding.”
Bevvy’s eyes rounded. “Me? But—”
“You didn’t end it?” Isabella gasped, staring at Bevvy with her jaw dropping a fraction. “I don’t understand. This is all very confusing. Then why in the world did Sebastian say you did?” All eyes zeroed in on Sebastian and enemy fire took on a whole new meaning.
Sebastian stood. “Yes, it was my idea to call off the wedding.”
Isabella draped her arm around Bevvy and drew her close. “And here I thought you a little trollop for running off with that drummer person.”
“Actually, I did run off with him, but only after Sebby said he and I were through.” Bevvy sniffed. “He went and broke my heart, Isabella. He truly did.” She brightened. “But I’ve found true love now and that’s why I’m here. I came to thank Sebby for doing what he did. Bruno is the love of my life.”
“You lied to us?” Isabella said to Sebastian. Was that steam curling from her ears? “How could you? We’re your family. This entire wedding catastrophe is all your doing?” She tapped her booted foot and shook her head. “I worried about you, fretted something terrible, said novenas, lit candles for your poor old broken spirit and right now I’m thinking about breaking your head.”
Sebastian said, “Bevvy got her drummer, the family got to visit. I broke the engagement because I didn’t want to leave Bevvy behind to worry about me. I said she called things off because no woman likes to get dumped so I let her do the dumping.”
“Wait a minute!” LuLu’s eyes grew huge. “You made this decision to not get married all by yourself? You didn’t tell Bevvy what was going on in that brain of yours? Shouldn’t she have a say?”
“But I did find my Bruno,” Bevvy sighed, till LuLu poked her in the chest saying, “You’re a grown woman and capable of determining your own life.”
Bevvy’s eyes got dreamy. “And I want my life to be forever with my drummer boy. He had my name tattooed on his forehead inside a heart. And he has a lock of my hair attac
hed to his earring.”
Sebastian said to his mother, “Dad was in the army all those years and I knew you worried when he was gone, and the thought of doing the same thing to Bevvy or anyone else didn’t feel right. And she and Bruno had been doing the eye contact thing all night, so I figured letting her go was the best for both of us.”
“It was my bachelorette party, eye contact with cute guys is expected,” Bevvy said as Isabella stood tall and added, “And I knew full well what I was getting into when I married your father. I do have a brain, you know.”
“Well, now,” said Terrance as he drew up beside Sebastian. “I believe I understand what you’re doing here. A man’s got to take charge in these situations, do the responsible thing for the women in his life. Sebastian here didn’t want his new bride to fret so he saved her from that. Right smart thing to do as I see it.”
“Save her?” LuLu said. “Like she can’t take care of herself? Marriage is a partnership. What century do all you men live in?
“I want to live with my Bruno in any century.” Bevvy batted her eyes. “We’re going on tour in January, living in one of those big buses and going all over the place with the Blue Sticky Notes.”
“See,” Terrance said. “Women get so love struck they don’t know what they want.”
Rebecca and Uncle Cordell strolled into Slim’s, and Rebecca said, “Well, my goodness. Looks like the party’s moved to here and…Bevvy? You’re here? How exciting. Does this mean the wedding’s back on? Bless my heart!”
“Only if I marry my Bruno,” she mewed, then Isabella added, “And there’s a new wrinkle. Sebastian’s the one who called off the wedding because he didn’t want her to worry when he leaves next week, do you believe that?.”
“Oh, my,” said Rebecca, giving Sebastian the no-good-rotten-scoundrel look.
“But it is the honorable thing to do,” chimed in Uncle Cordell standing behind Sebastian, the three men doing the bonding thing. “If he and Bevvy were meant to get hitched, then they could tie the knot when he got back.”
Rebecca’s eyes lit with fire. “That means marriage is only for the good times. If things get tough, woman should just cut and run, is that it?”
Rebecca, Isabella, LuLu, and Bevvy stood on one side of the table, Sebastian, Uncle Cordell, and Terrance on the other, with customers enjoying the soap opera. Sebastian said, “We’re making a scene here. I think it’s time for us all to be getting back to the inn.”
“I have my Bruno’s Hummer,” Bevvy said, her lids fluttering. “I’d be happy to give you ladies a lift back to the inn. Bruno said he knew I’d be safe in the Hummer. Wait till you see it. It has a TV.” She clasped her hands to her chest. “He is my darling hero.”
LuLu sat. “Think I’ll hang out here for awhile.”
Rebecca added, “A Hummer? Now that’s a truck with some major cahonies.”
Uncle Cordell’s eyes rolled. “What kind of talk is that from a lady?”
“A lady who can make up her own mind, in case there was any doubt.”
“I’ll wait with LuLu,” Sebastian said, making it a statement instead of a question and knowing he’d made a big mistake doing that the minute the words were out. He needed a class in women 102. He flunked 101.
LuLu glared. “There’s only one main road through town so I’m not likely to get lost. I can handle it all by myself. And the snow’s stopped.”
The women, except for LuLu, trooped for the door, the men looking pissed without a nice fat Hummer waiting for them. The customers took up with their food again, sad the new show in town was over.
When Sebastian got outside he stayed on the porch, watching the women load into the Hummer, the men trailing behind. He pulled a cigarette from a pack and lit up, something he rarely did anymore. The porch light caught the “hazardous to your health” warning and he considered where he’d be ten days from now. Hazardous was a hell of a lot more than cigarettes and he knew in his gut he did the right thing in calling off the wedding.
He inhaled another drag, turned his collar against the chill and waited for LuLu-the-stubborn to get her very lovely fanny outside so he could walk her home.
Three
LuLu sipped her cider and gazed at the front door of Slim’s. Another guy gone right out of her life, but this time like before with Jerome it was a good thing. Not only didn’t she need to get involved with another Mr. coming-and-going but this one thought he had all the answers. She didn’t need Handsome making decisions for her like he did for Bevvy. What the heck was the man thinking? And why did she have to keep thinking about him? At least she had the night to herself and could work on getting him out of her system.
She headed for the door, stepped outside and straight into Handsome’s path. “This is not you going home.” And it sure wasn’t her getting over him.
“Thought I’d walk you to your place.”
“I’m going back to the inn and I can do it on my own.”
“Going to the inn because you miss me?”
She did but she’d get over it. “Since you’re here and not likely to leave me alone you can help. We need to get the happy couples happy again. They like each other well enough, some great attraction going on there but your little scheme with Bevvy turned everything upside down and got them doing battle royal instead of making out. We need to fix things, we’re responsible since we set them up in the first place.”
She was babbling. Being with Handsome in the falling snow on a beautiful starry night was enough to make any woman babble her head off.
“We’ll go with the original idea, lure them to the garden room and wine cellar. Cold but isolated and we’ll only keep them there for a few hours, which should be enough time to let them work things out.”
She resisted the urge to snuggle close to Handsome as they walked to the inn. She needed distance and noninvolvement to get through this night and send him on his way tomorrow without ravaging him. Okay, how’d that last part get in there? She shouldn’t even be thinking about ravaging. She was mad at him! No ravaging. She was glad he’d be gone…remember!
“I want to get something straight so you don’t think I’m a complete jerk. When I went to pick Bevvy up from her bachelorette party she was sitting on Bruno’s lap and he wasn’t giving her percussion lessons, unless that’s done with his tongue halfway down her throat. I figured if she was acting that way with me stateside and our wedding right around the corner, what would she be doing months from now when I was halfway around the world? I didn’t want to be worrying about her, and she sure didn’t want to be worrying about me. I did her a favor and she knew it. That’s why she showed up tonight.”
“Dear man, the reason she showed up was to impress everyone with the Hummer.” Lights in the bushes led the way up the curvy drive to the warm lights of Hastings House glowing through the windows. “Looks like a Christmas card. Perfect place for a nonwedding.”
“And getting the loving couples loving again. With luck there should be so much love in the air by midnight the place will be dripping with it.”
“And I can go home and get some sleep.” She rested her head against his chest. “What a crock.”
“What’s a crock?” His arms held her close.
She shouldn’t let this happen, she was mad, remember? She really sucked at remembering lately. “As long as you’re within a ten mile radius I’ll never be able to sleep because I’ll be thinking about you.” She looked up at him. “Well, more accurately, I’ll be thinking about sex with you. Do all pregnant women want to get laid this badly? I don’t remember feeling this way when Jerome was around.”
“Must be my good looks and great personality.”
And it was, but acknowledging that was no way to get over him and she was already doing a really bad job of that. “Mostly it’s that you’re good—make that great—in the sack. Can’t believe I really said all that. Hormones on parade.” She wiggled out of his arms and pushed open the door, pulling Handsome inside behind her. She kicked off
her boots and hung up her Joseph’s coat. “On with the plan.”
“I liked our plan outside better.”
“We need to stay away from each other. We can do that. Right now we don’t even like each other all that much, except for sex, so it should be a snap. Sex isn’t everything.”
Sebastian hunted up Uncle Cordell sitting by the fire, sipping brandy. What Sebastian wouldn’t give to have LuLu by this fire all to himself, and that her thoughts ran in the same direction only made him think about it all the more. Who knew that horniness was contagious? “Rebecca needs you to help bring up a case of wine from the wine cellar.”
“And your arm’s broke?”
“Hey, she asked for you and I am not getting between two opposing fronts. Maybe she’s looking for an opportunity to apologize, consider that. You really get along and a little difference of opinion over decision making shouldn’t get in the way.”
“Criminy sakes.” Cordell gazed into the fire. “What is it with women? If I live to be a hundred I’ll never understand them. You think you’re trying to protect them, put yourself out for them and take care of them, and then they get their panties in a twist and get all huffy about taking care of themselves and doing their own thing, and suddenly you’re the bad guy.”
“You are asking the wrong person about this. I got a bad track record in the female department.”
“True enough.” Cordell offered up his drink in a salute. “Neither of us is worth a damn when it comes to women. But if Rebecca needs me I’ll help her out, and maybe she does want to apologize. She really is all wrong on this protection idea.”
“Uh, you might want to soft-pedal that idea a little if you’re wanting her back. No woman wants to hear about being wrong.”
“Well, she is, dammit. But I’ll go see what she wants all the same.”
Which was good since Sebastian just told Rebecca that Uncle Cordell wanted her to pick out the right wine for tomorrow’s dinner. That was one way of getting them into the cellar at the same time. He sucked at telling lies.
“Can you forget about being right for a little while?” he called after Cordell.
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