“You try putting six cases of wine on the back of a motorcycle and see how far you get,” Shay said dryly.“It’s a good thing you’re getting married. You’ve obviously lost your sense of adventure already.”
Shay’s only response was a snort as he slammed his door.
“You as excited about wearing rented clothes as I am?” Dev asked as they walked up to the shop.
“Speak for yourself. I own mine.”
Dev looked at him with a raised eyebrow. “You planning a lifestyle change I don’t know about, Cary?”
Shay shrugged. “I figure, she’s getting a special dress. It’s the least I can do to get a wedding suit.” He opened the door to the shop.
Inside, silver mannequins posed in the latest men’s formal wear. “So what did you guys pick out for me?” Dev asked, scanning over the array of vests pinned up on the wall behind the cash register. “Just what exactly is the well-dressed best man wearing these days?”
Shay spoke to the man behind the counter and turned back to Dev.
“Maybe salmon-pink tails? What do you think?”
The clerk returned. “Your suits are in your dressing rooms, gentlemen. If you’ll just follow me?”
When they met in front of the mirrors a few minutes later, Dev was in a classic tuxedo and cummerbund, while Shay wore a tux with a silver brocade vest.
“Nice threads,” Dev said, looking him up and down.
“They seem to fit,” Shay said, checking it out in the mirror.
“Amazing what they can do with Velcro these days,” Dev added.
The clerk reappeared. “Is everything all right?”
“We’re good to go,” Shay said. “If you can pack them up we’ll be all set.”
They changed and milled around in the front, waiting for the clerk to bring their clothing up front. “So what do you think, bud, you ready for this?” Dev asked as he fingered the white scarf that hung around the neck of a tuxedoed mannequin.
Shay nodded. “Yeah, I am. You?”
“I think I’m putting my sister into good hands.”
“I’m sure your sister would point out that she didn’t need to be in anyone’s hands,” Shay said dryly.
“You’re coming in on the bar, though.”
“Just to run the music side of it. She’s heading up the rest of it.” Shay gave Dev a curious look. “Are you okay with that? Do you want me to buy you out?”
“Hell, no,” Dev said dismissively. “I trust you guys to make me an exorbitant amount of money. I figure I’ll retire on it and live on my boat.”
Shay gave a short laugh. “You always were an optimist, weren’t you?” He took the garment bag proffered by the clerk.
“When it comes to you, buddy, there’s no reason not to be.” Dev’s expression turned serious as he pushed open the door and they walked to the truck. “You and Mal are going to work, I think.”
Shay grinned and opened his door. “I think so, too. It’s been about a week since she’s threatened to strangle me, so I figure we’re doing well.”
“That’s my Mal,” Dev said fondly.
“So what about you?” Shay asked. “What’s with you and Taylor?”
Dev shrugged uncomfortably and concentrated on fastening his seat belt. “Nothing much. We like each other, we get along great. We’re just letting it run and playing it by ear.”
“Yeah, I can see how Melissa would scare you off of anything serious for a while.”
“No, it’s not that. We just agreed that we’d keep it light.”
“Whatever works,” Shay said mildly. “Although I can’t see what someone who looks that good would want with you.”
Dev raised an eyebrow. “Someone who looks that good? Aren’t you supposed to be marrying my sister tomorrow?”
A ridiculous grin spread over Shay’s face. “Yeah, I am, aren’t I?” He pushed his sunglasses up on his nose and backed his truck out of the spot.
“So what made you sure about all this?”
“Sure about Mallory or sure about getting married?”
“Both.”
Shay shrugged. “Well, first it was that I couldn’t get her off my mind. And whenever something happened, she was the first one I wanted to tell. Every time I thought about the future, I saw her there, so it just sort of made sense. Still does.” He stopped at a traffic light and gave Dev a curious look. “So are we talking about me or about you?”
Dev watched a man walk out of a doughnut shop laden with boxes. “I don’t know. After what happened with Melissa, I can’t say I trust anything I feel. Still…”
“Still what?”
He stared moodily out the window. “I know I didn’t start into this thing with Taylor looking for anything special. And she’s so gun-shy, we practically had to write out a contract that we wouldn’t get serious. But it feels good, in a way it never has for me. Like night and day compared to Melissa. Being with Taylor is…well, being with her is better than being alone.”
Shay snorted as they began moving again. “Now there’s a ringing endorsement.”
“No, you don’t understand. I like being alone. Even with Melissa, I kind of liked it, the nights we’d be apart.” They drove along a stretch of waterfront with a beach club complex of cabanas overlooking the ocean. “It was a lot more peaceful, you know? Melissa was always a lot of work, especially by the end. It was only when she wasn’t around that I could just hang.” He paused. “But it’s not like that with Taylor. I don’t feel like I have to do anything. It’s easy, the same as being alone.”
Shay followed the road when it veered left, turning past a tavern with an old mural of Roger Clemens winding up for a pitch. The mural still showed The Rocket wearing a Red Sox cap, Dev noticed in amusement. An expression of cost savings or fandom, he wondered.
“Have you told Taylor any of this?”
Dev shook his head. “It’s too new. Besides, I tried the long-term thing with Melissa and it blew up in my face. Who’s to say it wouldn’t again?”
“Well, if you haven’t even talked with her about it, you’re probably getting ahead of yourself thinking long-term. But you shouldn’t let Melissa poison the rest of your life.”
“It’s not that I don’t believe in long-term involvement. I do. But before I put myself on the line again with someone, I need to know I’m doing it for the right reasons and not just chasing after some fantasy.”
“Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever met anyone else that was better than being alone?”
He pretended to think, but he already knew the answer. “The man gets engaged and he thinks he’s an expert on relationships.”
MALLORY STARED AT THE CARDS, tapping her fingers restlessly. “I’ll raise you two and call,” she said, pushing a pair of M&M’s into the center of the table and turning up her cards to show three jacks.
Fiona groaned and tossed her cards down.“Sorry, guys,” Taylor said, showing her flush and scooping the pile of M&M’s toward her.
“I can’t believe my brother brought a card shark with him,” Mallory muttered.
They sat around her coffee table. On the television, Myrna Loy and William Powell traded bon mots in After the Thin Man. The scent of baking brownies perfumed the air.
“Aren’t you glad we talked you into leaving the pub to the caterers?” Fiona asked.
Mallory took a drink of Coke and grabbed a chip from the bowl that sat at her knee. “You’re such a good influence, Fee. How did I ever get along without you?”
“Haven’t a clue. Perhaps it’s time to talk about that raise?” she said hopefully.
The front buzzer rang and Mallory jumped up lightly to answer it. They heard her feet clattering down the staircase that led down into the bar and the door to the street that she shared with it.
“So is she nervous, do you think?” Taylor asked Fiona.
“Maybe a little,” Fiona guessed. “She wasn’t any pushover for Shay, I’ll tell you that. Mallory’s not shy about keeping the jury out until s
he’s sure. She seems sure about you,” Fiona said unexpectedly.
Taylor gave her a quizzical glance. “Sure about me how?”
“Well, I wouldn’t know, of course. But you’re here, aren’t you? Mallory doesn’t let people into her home unless she likes them. Dev’s ex-fiancée, for example, would never have been here.”
“Mallory didn’t like her?”
“Loathed her,” Fiona said cheerfully. “Thought that she was going to lead Dev a miserable life. She was never so happy as when he called off the engagement.”
The door to the front stairway opened. “Looks like Shay and I can get married after all,” Mallory announced, stepping into the room. “The missing bridesmaid has arrived. Becka, meet Fiona and Taylor. Becka used to be my neighbor in Massachusetts. Becka, Fiona is currently the light of Shay’s brother’s life.”
“And your shift manager,” Fiona put in tartly.
“And my highly talented and valued shift manager,” Mallory smiled. “Taylor came up with my brother for the wedding.”
The redhead that walked in with Mallory gave a smile. In contrast to Fiona’s fiery auburn curls, she had short, deep red hair with a fringe of bangs that only focused attention on her enormous green cat eyes. Something about the sharp-pointed chin and full cheekbones made Taylor think of a fox, a vixen peering out from the woods.
“Hi, guys,” Becka said, sketching a wave. “Whatcha doing?”
“Taylor’s currently cleaning us out of M&M’s,” Mallory said dryly. “Grab a seat, let me get you a drink and we can deal you in. Where’d you leave Mace, anyway?”
“He’s at the hotel looking at scouting reports or something. Spring training. I had to pry him loose from Florida with a crowbar,” Becka said, sinking down on a pile of pillows on the floor.
“Becka’s married to a baseball jock,” Mallory explained, heading to the kitchen.
“Don’t bring me any of that sugary junk,” Becka called. “I’ll take water if you don’t have anything else.”
Mallory reappeared with a glass. “A good guest drinks what they’re given.”
“A good hostess caters to her guests,” Becka countered.
“Most guests aren’t so finicky,” Mallory said, handing her the drink. “Taylor and Fiona don’t have a problem with soda.”
“I’m not finicky,” Becka said hotly and took a sip of her drink. “I just don’t…” A beatific smile spread over her face. “Lime seltzer water!”
“You were saying?” Mallory asked, joining the group sprawled around the coffee table.
“I worship you. I can’t believe I doubted you. I’m unworthy.”
“True. But it was nothing,” Mallory said modestly.
“Well, let’s have a toast to the bride-to-be,” Becka announced, raising her glass. “To Mallory and Shay, here’s hoping they’ll be blissfully happy together, and to the magic bed for getting them that way.”
“I think Shay and I get some of the credit,” Mallory argued.
“And to me,” Becka added, ignoring her, “for giving Mallory the bed.”
Taylor darted looks at the two of them. “What bed?” she asked. “The one you’re giving to Dev?”
Becka choked on her seltzer water.
THEY STOOD IN MALLORY’S bedroom, admiring the satiny carved wood of the four-poster.
“It’s gorgeous,” Taylor said, running a hand up the carved bedpost. “How can you part with it?”“Shay’s already got a bed that he inherited from his great-grandfather,” Mallory said. “Besides, I’m superstitious.”
“What does that mean?”
Mallory exchanged a look with Becka. “You might say I don’t want to interrupt the chain.”
Taylor looked at them with resignation. “All right, what’s the joke? You guys are dying to tell it.”
“It’s not a joke,” Becka said, sitting down on the mattress and bouncing a little. “The bed’s just a…a good luck charm, I guess. A friend of mine bought it. A couple of weeks later she met the guy who’s now her husband. They had two beds, so she gave it to me. A couple of weeks after that, I met someone.”
“This is sounding a lot like one of those chain letters,” Taylor put in.
“Yeah, well ask her who this someone is,” Mallory said. “Only Mr. Baseball Star, Fifty Most Beautiful People Mace Duvall someone.”
Taylor goggled at Becka. “You’re married to Mace Duvall?”
Becka batted her eyes. “Like I said, it’s a magic bed.”
“I’ll say.”
Mallory leaned against the footboard. “I’ll just point out that she didn’t tell me any of these details until after I’d already gotten the thing moved in. I didn’t know I was kissing my singledom goodbye. I wasn’t looking to get married, you know.”
“Oh, you didn’t believe in it even when I did tell you,” Becka said impatiently. “Anyway, it’s not like you’re being tortured into marrying Shay or anything. I saw you making goo-goo eyes at each other when we were here before.”
“I’m just turning nearsighted, that’s all.”
“Yeah, very nearsighted, like you want Shay near you all the time.”
They grinned at each other, then Mallory turned back to Taylor. “So anyway, understand you’re near this bed at your own risk. We can’t be responsible for what happens.”
Fiona gave the bed a speculative look and sat down on the mattress beside Becka.
“I’ll consider myself warned,” Taylor said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.
“Laugh all you want,” Becka said mildly. “The bed is three for three right now.”
In the other room, a timer began to beep.
“What’s that?” Becka asked.
Fiona’s eyes glittered. “Fudge brownies.”
“Oh.”
“You probably won’t want any, though,” Mallory told her. “It’s not health food or anything. It’s got white flour, refined sugar, all that disgusting stuff.”
“I’ll sacrifice for the sake of my friends,” Becka said nobly. “Maybe I’d better go get them out of the oven.”
“I’ll help,” Fiona added and they were gone in a brownie stampede.
Taylor started to follow them until she heard Mallory call her name. She turned.
Mallory stood, her hand still on the smooth, polished wood of the footboard. “I almost didn’t give it to Dev, you know. I wouldn’t have if it had been a couple of months ago, when he was still with that head case.”
“You didn’t like her, I take it?”
“I don’t like anyone who makes someone I care for unhappy.” Mallory frowned. “She pushed his buttons like he was an elevator. No one should get away with treating someone like that, especially when they give lip service to caring for them. Especially not when the person getting hurt is one of my people.”
Taylor nodded. “I can understand feeling like that.” She hesitated. “You know that Dev and I aren’t serious, don’t you?”
“He cares about you, though. It shows when you’re together. And you care about him.”
“Well, yeah, I think he’s really wonderful. I just don’t want to give you the wrong impression. I came up here with him just to keep him company. We’re not looking at a future or anything.”
To her discomfort, Mallory began to laugh. “Whatever you say.” She threw an arm around Taylor’s shoulders. “Just don’t forget to pick up the bed on your way home.”
15
SPOONS TAPPED AGAINST THE sides of water glasses, filling the room with a musical ringing that signified the time for speeches. Taylor looked to the head of the table where Aidan O’Connor, Shay’s father stood up to speak. The next afternoon, at the wedding reception, Dev would give the toast as best man. This night, though, the rehearsal dinner, belonged to Shay’s father.
Wedding traditions had always seemed so lovely and moving to her. She couldn’t say now why she felt so ill at ease. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t been involved in a wedding since her own marriage had imploded. W
hy, then, was her stomach in knots?Aidan cleared his throat. “I want to welcome you all here. Tomorrow, we’ll celebrate Mallory and Shay’s wedding, so let me get in a word or two before things get crazy. First, I just want to say how proud Gillian and I are of our son and his choice of a wife. Shay’s become all we could have hoped for, and he’s chosen himself a smart, capable and lovely bride.”
“And one that won’t take any nonsense from him,” Gillian put in, to the accompaniment of laughter.
Taylor’s mind went back to her own rehearsal dinner. It hadn’t been held at a warm, family establishment but amid the slick, anonymous gloss of a country club. Instead of warmth and well wishing, the words of Bennett’s father’s speech were spun through with sarcasm, cheap shots at Bennett’s expense, and a barb or two for her enjoyment. It should, perhaps, have given her a glimmer of what was to come. At the time, she’d simply held Bennett’s hand and tried to smile.
“Anyway, I know these two are going to have a great marriage and a great life.”
She’d known that she and Bennett were going to have a great life. She remembered sitting there, raising her glass for the toasts, impatient to get it all over with and get on with the business of real life. Foolish and naive, in the way only the young could be, perhaps. Oh, but she’d learned her lesson soon after. Bennett had taught her everything she needed to know about foolish dreams…
Her stomach churned and she rose.
Dev touched her hand. “Are you okay?”
“I have to run to the rest room,” she managed to say, though it felt like bands of iron were tightening around her throat.
“Hurry back,” he whispered, and kissed her hand.
SHE WAS ALMOST PATHETICALLY glad to see their room at the bed and breakfast again, the teal walls, the high bed with its inviting pile of quilts where she could tumble into sleep and perhaps dream. The toasts were done, the light conversations were over. They’d packed Mallory and Shay off to their last nights as single people.
All Taylor wanted was a long, hot soak in the tub, a fire, and a chance to escape the thoughts that had been chasing her all night.Dev laid the key down on the cherrywood dresser and hung up their coats. Taylor fled for the bathroom. She took her time in the tub, then brushing her teeth, brushing her hair, changing into a negligee. It was late and they’d had a big dinner. Perhaps he’d be asleep by the time she was finished, she thought.
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