Double trouble

by Boswell, Barbara

  "Well, look who's here! Luke, you made it!" exclaimed Mark, greeting his brother with characteristic Minteer exuberance.

  "Of course I made it. I wouldn't miss Matt's wedding for anything—or anyone, no matter how alluring," Luke added suggestively. The brothers laughed.

  Luke looked directly at Kayla and though he was smiling, she could sense the animosity in him. She knew she wasn't imagining it, and when he cornered her alone in the

  kitchen a short while later, the coldness in his blue eyes confirmed his hostility. He made no pretense of smiling now.

  ''Well, you did it," he said in a low growl, out of earshot of the children gathered by the refrigerator, clamoring for drinks. "You successfully trapped my brother. You knew damn well that he would never let his child be born illegitimate."

  ''—trapped—'' Kayla was incredulous. "Are you suggesting that I deliberately planned this to make Matt marry me?"

  "It's the oldest trick in the book and I can't believe Matt fell for it. You knew my brother had a severe case of the hots for you and you took full advantage. You seduced him while conveniently forgetting the birth control. Bingo. You're getting ^ ring on your finger. You've hooked up with a po-htical rising star with a limitless future and—"

  "You couldn't be more wrong!" Kayla cut in hotly. Luke saw his brother as the innocent victim of her treacherous wiles? If he only knew that she was the one being trapped into this marriage by his own family!

  "Have you forgotten that you're the one who told Matt about the baby, after Kristina told you," she whispered crossly. "Why didn't you simply keep the information to yourself? Matt would have never known and—"

  "Don't even try to use that one! You know damn well that your sister gave me an ultimatum. She said if I didn't tell Matt immediately, she would. And she would also tell him that I'd tried to keep the news from him. You both knew Matt would never forgive me for that. So you win—for now, babe. But I'll be watching you and if you dare to—"

  "Here you are!" Rosemary Minteer joined them in the middle of Luke's threat. "Luke, now that Matt is getting married, I hope you'll feel sufficiently pressured to settle down, too. You've wasted enough time dating and partying."

  «L

  ''Yeah, Ma. If only I could find a sweet girl like Kayla, maybe I would," Luke said with credible sincerity. He and Kayla glared at each other, but Rosemary remained oblivious to the tension.

  Matt joined them at that moment, glancing from Kayla's pale face to Luke's flushed one. He frowned and put a protective arm around Kayla's waist.

  Rosemary Minteer enfolded both Matt and Kayla in an emotional embrace. 'Tm so thrilled about this wedding. So happy for you both!"

  What was she going to do? Kayla wondered wildly. There were so many Minteers and they all seemed to be talking at once. She found their ebullience almost as unnerving as Luke's hostility. Should she let out a piercing scream? That might get their attention long enough for her to be heard. She would tell them that she was not marrying Matt....

  Simply visuaUzing the scene paralyzed her. What would they do? Suppose the mood turned ugly? Luke had already tacitly threatened her. What did she know about these people anyway?

  *'Matt, I brought your suitcases in from the car." His brother John appeared with the two cases, hers and Matt's. ''Want me to carry them upstairs?"

  "Yeah, put them in my old room," instructed Matt. "Kayla wants to go up and freshen up before we leave for the hospital for the blood test, don't you, sweetheart?"

  She nodded dumbly and allowed him to lead her up two flights of stairs to a small bedroom at the end of the long hall. While Matt and John chatted, she walked to the window and looked out. It was at least a thirty-foot drop to the ground and the closest tree was not near enough for her to reach it and climb down. So much for that rather theatrical mode of escape.

  "I'll leave you two alone now, but remember, there's a houseful of relatives downstairs who will start speculating on what you're doing if you stay up here too long." John

  winked at Kayla. ''We Minteers are notorious about minding one another's business."

  Kayla did not wink back. She was too horrified.

  Matt gave his brother a comradely pat and sent him on his way. The moment they were finally alone, Kayla turned on him like a virago.

  ''Wedding? This afternoon? Have you gone crazy? How could you? How dare you? You—you practically kidnapped me and now you intend to—to marry me against my will?"

  Matt closed the bedroom door and stood in front of it, unyielding and inexorable. 'T know it's a...er...shock, but Kristina and I decided that it was for the best, Kayla."

  "Kristina and you decided?" she echoed. Her sister was more deeply involved than she'd ever suspected; she'd actually instigated this, along with Matt himself. A wave of depression crashed over her. She felt abandoned and alone.

  "Kristina is worried sick about you, Kayla. She was terrified that you'd insist on cutting me off completely and going through the pregnancy alone. And—"

  "She had no right conspiring with you against me!" Kayla cried. "It's my decision, my choice to make. And if I chose to go it alone, then—"

  "If you were the only one affected, I might agree," Matt cut in roughly. "But there's a baby to be considered, Kayla. And that baby has a right to both parents. I want my child, Kayla, and I intend to be married to its mother when it's bom."

  "I'm the one having it! It's mine!"

  "And mine, too. Okay, I admit that having my family arrange this surprise wedding might be a bit highhanded-"

  "A bit? Try incredibly high-handed! Despicably arrogant. Shamefully presumptuous!"

  Matt sighed. "I get the picture. But, let's face it, Kayla, you're going to marry me, sooner or later, we both know

  that. I suppose I couldVe gone through the motions of a courtship but it would have been damned inconvenient with you Hving in Washington and me in Harrisburg and you getting bigger with the baby every day. And you're certainly stubborn enough to wait until you're being wheeled into the delivery room before finally accepting my proposal. I'm not good at that kind of melodrama, Kayla. I couldn't handle it."

  *'Who says I'd have married you sooner or later?" Kayla wearily sank onto the narrow single bed against the window. "How can you presume to know that?" The burst of anger left her feeling drained and exhausted. She needed time alone to recharge herself for their next round.

  Matt didn't give it to her. "You can chalk it up to my monumental overconfidence," he said lightly. "Or my despicable arrogance. Or maybe my shameful presumptu-ousness. Your choice." He glanced at his watch. "It's time to leave for the hospital. Do you want to...uh...use the facihties first?"

  He showed her where the bathroom was and Kayla locked herself inside. A quick check out the window—the same steep drop and distance from the tree—also ruled it out as an escape route. Miserably, she paced the floor, her thoughts chaotic.

  Matt rapped on the door ten minutes later. "Ready, Kayla?"

  "I'm staying in here," she announced.

  A girlish giggle sounded outside the door. "I don't blame you, Kayla," came an unfamiliar feminine voice. "I used to lock myself in the bathroom to escape from my relatives, too."

  "Tiffany's here," Matt explained through the door. "Come out and meet her, Kayla. She's riding along to the hospital with us."

  ''Bringing her along for protection?" Kayla snapped. ''It won't work, Matt. Whatever I have to say to you, I'll gladly say in front of your little sister."

  "Call me psychic, but I think I sense some tension between you two," said Tiffany. "You've had a fight, huh? Suffering from pre-wedding jitters or something?"

  "Something like that," said Matt. "Kayla, I can take the door off the hinges if you won't open it, but do you really want to go through all that?"

  No, she really didn't. Kayla imagined a horde of Min-teers crowded around him, cheering him on while she hovered inside. She flung open the door. Matt was lounging against the wall. The young woman standing bes
ide him, rocking back and forth on her heels, was nearly six feet tall, long-limbed and lanky in jeans and a sweatshirt.

  Matt smiled at Kayla. "Fm glad you decided to be reasonable, honey. Meet Tiffany, my baby sister, Tif, this is Kayla."

  "Hi, Kayla. Welcome to the family," Tiffany said cheerfully. "I volunteered to drive you two to the hospital for the blood test so you could sit in the back seat and neck on the way."

  Before Kayla could reply. Matt draped one arm around her shoulder and the other around Tiffany's. "Let's slip out the back and escape all the commotion."

  Kayla was so glad to get away from the crowd in the house that she made no protest.

  Not surprisingly. Matt and Kayla did not neck on the way to the hospital. Nor did they argue. Instead, they sat, politely restrained in the back seat, while Tiffany talked and talked on a wide range of subjects. Kayla was somewhat awed by her loquaciousness. She worked with politicians, a group never known for their reserve, yet she'd never heard anyone talk as incessantly as Tiffany Minteer.

  "Everybody in the family was stunned when you called yesterday and asked them to set up your wedding," Tiffany

  chattered on as the three of them traipsed into the hospital lab. *They couldn't picture Matt, of all people, having a whirlwind romance but I myself believe in love at first sight. I think it's a past-hfe sort of thing."

  **Not that again!" Matt groaned. ''Tiffany thinks we've all lived before. In fact, she firmly believes we were living in Johnstown back in 1889 and were wiped out in the flood."

  ''It's true, I do believe that," Tiffany said seriously. "I've never liked swimming. And remember how I hated to get my face wet when I was little? Why, even getting a shampoo was traumatic for me, a vestige from my tragic end in my past life."

  "I guess it couldn't have been something as simple as getting soap in your eyes and feeling it burn, huh, Tif?" Matt asked, a trifle sarcastically.

  Tiffany was undaunted. "Well, how about the way you and Kayla instantly connected?" she persisted. "You told Mom you met her and knew immediately you wanted to marry her as soon as possible. It's obvious to me that you two shared a past life together. Maybe you were lovers who drowned in the flood, holding on to each other as you were swept under the water."

  Matt heaved a sigh. "You've seen those flood movies too many times, Tif."

  Kayla made no comment. At this point, Tiffany's reincarnation theory struck her as no more bizarre than the rest of this strange day.

  She watched impassively as the lab technician filled a vial with her blood, although the test was more of a formality than a necessity since the marriage license had been obtained by a special judicial favor. Part of her wondered at her peculiar passivity. Was she going to simply allow the Minteers to hustle her to the altar? Time was running out; there were only a few more hours until four o'clock.

  Kristina had already arrived at the Minteer house when Matt, Kayla and Tiffany returned from the hospital. Kayla

  took one look at her sister, who was sitting in the dining room with a plate heaped with food, and suddenly emerged from the dazed inertia gripping her.

  ''May I see you alone, Kristina?" she asked very sweetly. "Upstairs, please?"

  ''Going to talk strategy?" Luke's tones were as saccharine as hers. "You sisters work so well together as a team. You're on a real winning streak, too."

  "There will always be winners and losers," Kristina said, smiling fixedly. "Which group do you belong in, Luke?"

  Matt had been spirited into the kitchen by an aunt, so his brother John walked the twins upstairs to the spare bedroom on the second floor where Kristina's luggage had been deposited. An ivory-colored suit in a dry-cleaners bag was hanging on the outside of the closet door, a pair of matching high-heeled pumps were in an open shoe box on the floor.

  "Kristina tells me you're wearing that for the wedding," John said amiably, nodding toward the suit. "It's really pretty, Kayla."

  "I didn't know what color blouse you wanted to wear with it, so I brought you a choice of five, Kayla," Kristina said nervously, opening the closet door. "There's hot-pink, royal blue, bright yellow, pumpkin or olive."

  John drifted away, leaving the sisters alone.

  "So which color will it be?" Kristina asked. She fiddled with the blouses, nervously chattering on, her eyes avoiding Kayla's. "Uh, what do you think of the Minteers? I like them all except brother Luke. Oh, isn't he obnoxious? He's been making snide Httle jibes ever since I arrived and—"

  "I don't want to talk about Luke. My problem is with you! Kristina, how could you?"

  "Please don't be mad, Kayla," Kristina interrupted quickly. "At least not too m.ad. You know I only did it for you.. .and for the baby, too, of course. That's my very first niece or nephew you're carrying, you know."

  ''I don't want to hear any of your rationalizations, Kris-tina! You told Matt about the baby against my expressed wishes. And don't try to con me with that Luke loophole— you knew he'd tell his brother! You assured it. Now you've conspired to trap me into this wedding to a man whom I-"

  '*If you don't want to marry him, then don't," Kristina interjected sharply.

  Kayla gaped at her. That was probably the last thing she'd expected her sister to say.

  ''No one is holding a gun to your head, Kayla," Kristina continued. ''If you're determined not to marry Matt, then let's go downstairs and tell everybody the wedding is off."

  Kayla was staggered. She imagined walking downstairs and standing amid all those smihng faces and telling them

  "I—I can't do that, Kristina," she blurted out.

  "Of course you can. I'll go with you, if you'd like. Just say you've changed your mind and we'll be on our way. My car is parked right out front and I'll drive you back to Washington. Nobody will keep you here against your will, Kayla. No one is going to drag you into that church and make you say 'I do.'"

  ICristina was right, of course. The full implication of that revelation hit Kayla with stunning force. Granted, it would be unnerving, but she could walk out of here any time she wanted, without going through with the wedding.

  Kayla's mouth was suddenly very dry. She could hardly swallow. "But—but Matt is—" she paused to wet her lips with the tip of her tongue "—it would be humiliating for him to be dumped so publicly. His whole family is expecting us to get married, they've made all these plans for the wedding and they—"

  "What do you care if Matt is humiliated or his family is disappointed?" Kristina cut in.

  *'Well, I—I—know how it feels to be rejected. Remember when Scott Ceres broke up with me and immediately got engaged to that conniving Victoria Dillon? Imagine how Matt would feel if I left him, with his whole family looking on, believing we're in love and that he's going to marry me! I—I just couldn't hurt him that way."

  ''So you're willing to marry Matt because you feel sorry for him?" Kristina laughed incredulously.

  "Of course not! I'd never marry a man out of pity!"

  **rm not following your argument, Kayla. Are you going to marry him or not?"

  Kayla stared at her. '*Oh, Kristina, I—I think I am."

  "You mean it? You really mean it? You're not just giving in to pressure or exhaustion or—-"

  "I mean it," Kayla said, and this time she wasn't astonished by her own admission. "Kristina, I'd like to be alone for a while.. .to get dressed and.. .and to think things over."

  "I'll go back downstairs and finish eating. Those Min-teers can really cook!" Kristina gave her a swift hug. "You made the right decision, Kayla."

  Yes, she had. Alone in the room, Kayla finally felt in full control of herself. And as a thinking, mature woman, she realized that marrying Matt Minteer was the best thing to do all around.

  Now if she could just get through the wedding...

  Ten

  Minteers of all ages exuberantly congratulated themselves that the impromptu wedding had ''gone without a hitch." Almost everybody had had a hand in arranging the event and locating such wedding staples as t
he organist, flowers for the altar, Kayla's bouquet and even a multitiered cake in a mere twenty-four-hour time span. After the ceremony, a celebratory reception was held in Minteer's Tavern, which was to be temporarily closed to the public until after the departure of the newly weds.

  Kayla, in Kristina's cream-colored suit and royal blue blouse, was thankful for the Minteer ebullience, because it relieved her of having to do anything but smile and nod during the noisy celebration. Someone fixed her a plate from the buffet table that offered a feast of traditional west Pennsylvania wedding food—an ethnic mix of pierogi, rig-atoni, chicken legs, chipped ham, mounds of potato salad and countless plates of cookies. Kayla made a pretense of eating, desultorily moving the food around with a fork. Like

  many a bride on her wedding day, she was too nervous to eat.

  However, unhke most brides, she had married a man she had never had a date with. They'd skipped such traditional rites as the first phone call and the first date and moved directly to marriage and impending parenthood.

  Matt stayed by her side during most of the festivities, and from time to time, Kayla would stare at him, mascuhnely resplendent in his dark blue suit and white shirt, and try to assimilate the fact that he was her husband. It didn't seem real, though the plain gold wedding band encircling her third finger, left hand, proclaimed her new status as a married woman. Yes, the Minteers had even come up with matching wedding rings for her and Matt.

  By nine o'clock, couples with young children began to depart, and Matt's father and brother Mark jokingly announced that the reception was over and their paying customers were now being admitted.

  A group of regulars streamed into the bar and were immediately treated to a round of celebratory drinks on the house. While Matt was being heartily congratulated by the patrons, each of whom he knew by name, Kayla slipped into the women's bathroom. Kristina pushed her way into the closet-sized room with her before Kayla could lock the door.