Dumping Billy
Page 32
“I might ask you the same question,” Billy said.
She blushed. “I’m here to see Bina celebrate.”
“Out here on the terrace?” Billy asked.
It was too much. She didn’t need to be teased by the man she’d loved and lost.
“I just . . . I have to go back now,” she told him. “Nice seeing you.”
She got as far as the door, her hand actually on the knob, when his arms came around her and his hand rested over hers. “Don’t touch the dial,” he said.
Kate watched, her face reflected in the glass of the terrace door. Her lips were trembling. It wasn’t a pretty picture. Inside, everyone was on the dance floor, celebrating with Max and Bina. Why was Billy torturing her like this?
In the reflection of the glass, she saw him lean forward. She felt his face beside hers. “Kate,” he whispered in her ear, “want to dance with me?” Without turning around, Kate shook her head. “Oh, come on,” he said, the familiar coaxing tease in his voice. “You know you want to.”
Kate turned to look at him. They were face-to-face, an inch or two of space between them. She could feel the stream of air from his nose on her forehead. She might not be able to have him, but for now she could inhale the same air he breathed. Then he took her in his arms and they began to move to the music.
Kate was stiff at first but soon couldn’t help but relax into his body. God, she missed his smell, his skin, his clean heat. This was breaking whatever was left of her heart, but she couldn’t help it: She moved her arms up so that they draped over his shoulders.
“Kate,” Billy said, pulling back slightly, “tell me you missed me.”
“Missed you?” Kate echoed. Could she—or should she—describe the ache and emptiness and regret she’d felt since . . .
“Look, I don’t know how the whole thing started, or whose idea it was, or whether it started as a joke,” Billy began, “but I heard about your proposal.”
She looked up at him. How did he know about Steven? She’d told only Elliot. But then, she reflected, he’d probably told Bina, and she’d told . . . well, everybody. “It was ridiculous,” she said. “It had nothing to do with you.”
His shoulders, under her arms, shrugged. “Maybe yes, maybe no,” he told her. “You know what happens after you date Dumping Billy.”
“Stop,” Kate told him. “I never dated you because of that. It’s a stupid nickname.”
Billy shrugged again. “Everyone called me that. And everyone knew its truth but me.”
“You don’t think you’ve got some kind of . . . power, do you? I mean, to get people married?”
Billy laughed. “Don’t worry. I’m not delusional. At least not in that way. I watched as one by one, all the guys I knew got married. And I wondered, What was I waiting for? What was wrong with me?” He looked down at her. “I had a prolonged adolescence. And I knew how much my dad loved my mom. I . . . I had fun, but I didn’t want to settle. You know what I mean?”
Kate nodded up at him.
“You were different. You had the courage to leave, to raise yourself above what you came from. You, well, you’re accomplished.” He paused. “And I probably shouldn’t say this, but I think we have a lot in common. I’m not saying I have your education or anything. But we both overcame a lot of early loss. You know what I mean?”
Kate nodded again, speechless, listening. His body against hers, moving to the music through the heat, felt like some kind of delicious dream. She didn’t want to think about waking up.
“I think people who haven’t suffered, well, good for them, but they’re different from those of us who have,” he said. “I don’t know all the psychology, the way you do, but I know that people like us, we’re always going to be scared that we’re going to screw up, that we’re going to make the wrong decision and wind up where we started. You know?”
Kate nodded. She knew too well. She felt her heart begin to beat faster. Was it possible that he wasn’t just forgiving her, but . . . She couldn’t think. The heat and her excitement seemed to close in on her.
“I don’t know why I had higher ambitions than the guys I know. Or why I went to France. I don’t know why when I came back I wouldn’t settle for a job working for someone else. Why I took over the bar and changed the clientele. I just wanted to be . . .” He paused. “It seemed like I wanted something more than Arnie and Johnny did, not that . . .” He took a deep breath. “I mean, how do you pick a partner not just for a few months, but for life?”
Kate nodded. Steven had done for months, and so had Michael . . . but for life? How did one know?
Billy continued. “It’s not like I’m a snob, or I look down on the guys I know or the women I dated. We had fun. When we broke up I didn’t hurt them. I liked them.”
“I know you didn’t hurt them,” Kate said. “They all like you.”
“Good. And it seemed to help them resolve things.” He smiled. “I mean, they did all get married. My magic touch?”
Kate felt her face get hot again. “You know I never believed that nonsense. . . .”
“Until it happened to you.”
“It didn’t happen to me. I had known Steven for years. And I wasn’t interested in him.”
“Really,” Billy said. And at that moment the band inside began to play the hokey-pokey.
Kate pulled herself away from him to stare into the room. “How did you do that?” she asked.
Billy just looked at her and smiled. “Coincidence.”
Kate wouldn’t accept that. Had he timed this? Did he know the band? He seemed to know everyone. She continued to stare at him. “How did you get them to play that just now?”
Billy shrugged. “Magic?” He leaned forward and nuzzled her ear. “You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out. You put your left foot in and you shake it all about,” he murmured. “You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around.”
He swung Kate out away from him but held her hand tightly. Then he pulled her back into him, this time closer than ever. He stopped dancing and put his arms around her. He kissed her, and she let him. She kissed him back passionately, even if this was the last kiss he gave her. Even if he’d shown up only to punish her for her deceptions. “This is what it’s all about, Kate,” he said. Tears came to her eyes. Billy kissed her again.
“You’re not angry at me?” she asked.
“Well, of course I was angry with you. I was furious.” He paused. “You know how it is. The truth hurts. But I figured the entire thing out, and the parts I didn’t know, Barbie and Bev were happy to fill in.”
“They were?”
“Sure. And you know what the French say: Tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner.”
To understand all is to forgive all. Kate, for the first time, began to feel flooded with hope. “But we, well, we tried to use you for Bina, and I, well, I . . . I didn’t mean to hurt you, it was just . . .” She didn’t get to finish. Billy put his hand over her mouth and then kissed her again.
Kate looked through the terrace door to see a large crowd of women gathering around a barely visible Bina and Max. She knew the couple planned an early escape to get the last minute flight they’d booked for their honeymoon.
“Kate,” Billy said, and she turned back to him. “I know I just own a bar in Brooklyn, that I’m not as educated as you are, but I can’t stop thinking about you. From the first time I saw you, I—” He was interrupted by a hubbub below them.
The wedding crowd was streaming out the front doors. Billy and Kate watched from above as Max covered Bina’s face. The two of them were pelted with confetti and flower petals. (Mrs. Horowitz had not allowed rice. She said it was too dangerous and could put somebody’s eye out.) The driver of the wedding limo was holding the door open, but the guests and family were shouting and blocking the couple’s way. Billy looked down and grinned. “Ah. The usual gauntlet.”
Kate watched her friend. Bina was laughing and struggling to get into the car. “Throw the bouquet
! Don’t forget the bouquet!” yelled Barbie.
Bina looked around wildly. “Where’s Katie? Where’s Katie?” she yelled back. “She has to catch it.”
Same old Bina, Kate thought. She knew she should be there seeing Bina off, but she’d never make it downstairs and outside in time—and most of all, she couldn’t bear to leave Billy.
“Let’s go, Bina,” Kate heard Max urge. “We’ll miss the plane.”
Meanwhile the crowd was getting rowdy. Arnie and Johnny were “decorating” the limo with shaving cream and streamers. Mrs. Horowitz was giving a bag—probably full of kugel—to the driver, while Dr. Horowitz tried to confiscate the aerosol cans.
“Throw the bouquet! The bouquet!” Bev screamed.
“Katie!” Bina shrieked.
At that Max took the flowers from her hand. With all his strength, he wound up to pitch and tossed the bouquet in a wide arc high into the blue, blue sky. All eyes followed it.
With a somewhat violent whoosh, Bina’s bridal bouquet hurtled through the air toward the terrace. Kate stepped back in time to avoid being seen by the crowd below. To her amazement, the bouquet fell with a splat at her feet. Startled, she and Billy stared at it silently. She felt paralyzed with embarrassment and . . . fear. Her longing was almost too much to bear. Then Billy broke the moment by stooping gracefully, picking it up, and offering it to her. Kate accepted it as if in a dream. She stared down at the bouquet in her hands, then at Billy, then back to the bouquet. She said a silent prayer that this moment wasn’t just a coincidence. That it meant something real and lasting. She knew she was blushing, but she forced herself to look at Billy Nolan, even if it gave her away.
“How did you manage that?” Billy asked. “Was it magic?”
Kate, no matter what the cost, nodded, because it was.
“Kate, will you marry me?” Billy asked.
And, of course, she did.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Chapter Thirty-five
Chapter Thirty-six
Chapter Thirty-seven
Chapter Thirty-eight
Chapter Thirty-nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-one
Chapter Forty-two
Chapter Forty-three
Chapter Forty-four
Chapter Forty-five
Chapter Forty-six
Chapter Forty-seven
Chapter Forty-eight