The Engagement Party

by Barbara Boswell

  Emma offered no such assurances. She bit her lip, looking preoccupied. “I hope I don’t, either.”

  * * *

  “Gracious, Hannah, you’re as jumpy as a cat,” her grandmother observed as Hannah prowled the room, pausing to glance out the window, pick up a framed picture, put it back, sit down and then stand up again to resume her pacing. “Did that phone call from Justine earlier upset you, my dear?”

  Hannah chewed her lower lip. Justine had called shortly before dinner to ask if Hannah had heard anything from Matthew.

  “Mother and I have been trying to call him for the past two days but we keep getting his answering machine,” Justine had said plaintively. “We left messages but he hasn’t returned our calls. When we called him today, some woman answered the phone and said he wasn’t there. But if she was there, why wasn’t he? What’s going on, Hannah?”

  A woman was there. Hannah swallowed hard, remembering the sickly, ominous feeling that gripped her when Justine had uttered those words. The feeling had never left, but continued to grow stronger all through the evening. It was now nearly ten o’clock and she felt ready to explode with nervous tension. Suppose Matthew had been there all along, listening to the phone ring and dispatching his female companion to answer it? And to claim he wasn’t there.

  “Justine wanted to get in touch with Matthew to tell him that the results of the blood work and DNA testing are back from the lab,” Hannah said, hoping to divert herself as much as her grandmother from making speculations. “The tests show a 99.9 percent likelihood that Matthew and Alexandra are mother and son. That’s considered a statistical certainty, both medically and legally.”

  “And what does Alexandra plan to do with the information?” her grandmother asked curiously. “Publicly and legally acknowledge him as her son?”

  “Justine doesn’t know. A lot will depend on what Matthew wants.”

  “I wonder what our Baylor will think?” Lydia grinned wickedly. “He’s placed Alexandra on a pedestal, and I dare say that the news she has a son by a Polk will come as a great surprise to him.”

  “I think he’d rather have Alexandra in his bed than on a pedestal,” Hannah said bluntly. “Maybe the news will inspire him to make a move in that direction.”

  “The situation become curiouser and curiouser.” Lydia chuckled. “Just imagine if your dear brother should also become your stepfather-in-law! Why, it’s something right out of a soap opera.” Her grandmother was an avid fan of daytime drama on television. And an avowed romantic.

  But tonight, Hannah’s usually vivid imaginative streak didn’t enable her to envision such a scenario. “That’s assuming I marry Matthew and Bay marries Alexandra, Grandmother. What are the chances of that happening?”

  “Bay and Alex? Doubtful. You and Matthew? I would bet the house on it, child.”

  Her grandmother was also an optimist. Hannah’s shoulders slumped. She was not feeling at all optimistic. “Matthew’s been gone for five days, Grandmother, and I haven’t heard a word from him since he left. His own mother and sister can’t reach him, either. For all we know, he’s decided to put Clover and all of us behind him. Maybe he just wants to forget all about the Wyndhams and the Polks. And me,” she added, gulping back a sob.

  “Well, it is remiss of him not to call, but I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

  Hannah remembered the blissful days when her grandmother’s reassurances were all she needed to believe that everything was going to be all right. Those days were long gone.

  “I bet Maureen Fitzgerald’s grandmother said the same thing to her the time that Preston Sedgwick blew town for good,” she muttered. Of course, Preston had returned, separated from his wife, three years later to make Maureen the number one topic of gossip in Clover. Hannah shuddered. “I think I’ll take a walk, Grandmother,” she said, staring out the window once more. It was a still, moonless night with flashes of heat lightning occasionally illuminating the black sky.

  “That’s a good idea, dear. You’re quite charged with pent-up energy this evening.”

  Hannah slipped on a pair of sandals and headed out the front door. Her grandmother called it energy, but Hannah knew it was anxiety and tension that were driving her.

  She walked away from the house along an unpaved little lane leading into the woods. Though she normally didn’t walk at night, she wasn’t afraid. Her thoughts were too full of Matthew and the dreadful possibility of losing him to conjure up any fear of the dark.

  She’d been walking about ten minutes when she heard the sound of a car engine. Her parents or Bay were probably pulling into the driveway at home after their respective evenings out. Hannah walked on.

  Not long afterward, the glare of headlights lit up the woods far more more effectively than the increasingly frequent flashes of lightning. Hannah was startled out of her reverie. There was never any traffic along the lane. It was, for all practical purposes, a private road leading nowhere.

  The sound of the engine grew nearer and nearer, while the headlights grew blinding. Hannah quickly left the small road to slip behind some trees alongside it.

  She watched a van pull up and stop. Matthew got out. “I know you’re hiding in there somewhere, little girl,” he called. “Are you going to come out or are we going to play a round of hide-and-seek?”

  Hannah stepped out into the lane, her heart thudding against her ribs. Matthew was standing beside his van, wearing the black jeans and T-shirt he’d had on the first night she’d met him and mistaken him for a cat burglar.

  “You’re back,” she said, feeling absurdly shy. She wanted to run to him but she seemed to be rooted to the spot.

  “Your grandmother told me you’d taken this path. Why in the hell are you running around the woods at this hour of the night?”

  “I like to walk in the woods at night,” she lied. “It’s...peaceful.”

  “It’s also stupid. And it’s about to rain. Get into the van.”

  “It’s not going to—” A crack of thunder interrupted her. It was followed by several cold, fat drops of rain.

  “We’re about two minutes shy of a deluge,” Matthew predicted. He opened the back of the van and climbed in—onto the air mattress. He sat there, grinning at Hannah like a Cheshire cat burglar.

  She stood staring at him. She was thrilled Matthew was back but furious that he had simply shown up without a word, and now expected her to give him a rousing welcome home.

  “I have something in here for you,” Matthew said, his voice both teasing and cajoling.

  She felt warm all over. “I can guess what it is.”

  “Don’t guess. Come here and find out.”

  There was another flash of lightning followed by a crack of thunder and then the rain began to fall. Hannah leapt inside the van.

  “It was raining on the night we met,” Matthew noted, staring out at the rain cascading through the trees. “Sort of symbolic, isn’t it?” He closed the heavy doors. The back of the van was shadowy, the glow of the headlights providing the only illumination.

  Hannah knelt on the air mattress, watching him. The surge of desire sweeping through her shook her to the marrow of her bones. “Symbolic of what?” Her voice was tremulous.

  “Never mind. I’ll tell you later.” His dark eyes gleamed. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. First things first. And the first thing I want is to hear you tell me how happy you are to see me. Then I want you to prove it.”

  It took Hannah less than a second to decide that she wanted the same thing as he did. “I’m so glad to see you, Matthew,” she said breathlessly before inching closer to him on her knees. She rested her hands lightly on his shoulders and touched her lips to his.

  Matthew instantly pulled her against him, his hands strong and firm, his mouth opening over hers, hot and wet and seeking. He thrust his tongue into her mouth in a possessive, erotic demonstration of what he intended to do with his body.

  Hannah responded with an equally erotic and possessive demonstratio
n of what she intended to do with hers. She opened her mouth to him, welcoming him deep inside. She felt the thickness of his arousal against her and clung to him as he lowered her back on to the air mattress.

  “This is the same dress you wore that night on the beach,” Matthew breathed against her neck. He slid his hands under her dress, along the firm, bare length of her thighs. “The wind blew it up and I’ve been fantasizing about what I saw for weeks.” He hooked his fingers under the waistband of her panties. “I wanted to do this....” And he deftly pulled them off.

  His mouth caught hers in another deep, hungry kiss and she responded with all the love and longing she’d kept locked inside her. “I love you, Matthew,” she confessed breathlessly. “I can’t pretend that I don’t anymore. I don’t want to. I have to tell you even if you don’t...love me.”

  “Of course I love you.” He pushed the straps of her dress from her shoulders, then lowered the bodice to her waist, exposing her breasts. “I love everything about you. Everything.” He kissed her breasts and she gasped with pleasure, crying out his name.

  The dress seemed to slide off her body, leaving her warm and naked in his arms, lost in a sensual dream. She dared to place her hand over his steely arousal, which strained against the button fly on his jeans. His hand covered hers and their eyes met.

  “I love you, Hannah,” he said, his voice soft and intense. ”Don’t ever doubt it.”

  “Not even when you go away for five days and don’t call even once to tell me if you’re ever coming back?” She pressed her hand against him, her fingers kneading sensuously.

  Matthew groaned with pleasure. “Haven’t we been through this phone call routine before?”

  Hannah smiled, and her smile was elemental and frankly feminine. “Maybe after tonight, I won’t have to worry about the phone call strategy. Maybe I’ll feel sure enough to call you since I’m not the one with the aversion to dial tones.”

  “I promise that after tonight you will be absolutely sure that I am well and truly—”

  She slipped her bare thigh over his jeaned one. “Don’t say trapped,” she whispered.

  He glided his hand along her silken flesh, to the soft folds of her heated wet center. “I wouldn’t dream of it. I was going to say that I am well and truly in love with you.”

  They kissed and caressed with an urgent frenzy. Feeling dazed and delirious with need, she watched him strip off the rest of his clothes with an almost feline grace. He lay back down with her, and moments later was sheathed deep inside her.

  He filled her hard and hot, and she arched beneath him, holding him deeply, tightly within her and reveling in his possession. They were a single entity, joined in body, mind and spirit.

  “I love you, Matthew,” Hannah cried as their passion burned and flared to flash point. Waves of pleasure radiated from deep within, finally bursting forth in a flood tide of rapture.

  “You’re mine, baby,” Matthew growled just before he felt himself explode in ecstasy. “Always and forever.”

  * * *

  They lay together for a long time afterward, naked and sated and warm, listening to the rain pound against the roof of the van.

  “This was better than any fantasy I’ve ever had,” Hannah said with a contented sigh, comfortably cuddled in his arms.

  Matthew kissed her temple. “I’m glad, sweetheart.” He arched his dark brows. “Hopefully you won’t give me such a hard time when I want to do it again.”

  “Not a chance. I want to do it again, too.” She tilted her head upward to gaze at him. “Matthew, you do understand why I wanted us to really get to know each other before we—I mean after we—”

  “Don’t go getting incoherent on me, little girl.” He laughed softly. “I understand.” He propped himself up on one elbow. “And now, I have something for you.”

  Hannah touched him intimately, her gray eyes playful. “Mmm, I thought you’d already given it to me.”

  “Behave yourself, Miss Farley. I’ve been planning this scene, and I won’t have you messing it up.” He removed her hand from its provocative hold. Seconds later, she watched him slide a diamond ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand.

  Hannah’s eyes widened. She glanced from the ring to Matthew’s face and back again.

  “It was my mother’s engagement ring—my real mother, the one who raised me,” he said softly. “I know she would’ve loved you, too.” He took a deep breath. “Will you marry me, Hannah?”

  “Oh, yes! Yes, Matthew!” Tears of joy trickled down her cheeks, and she tried to wipe them away while hugging Matthew at the same time.

  He was holding her as if he would never let her go, grinning with loving pride as he kissed her forehead and her cheeks before finally taking her mouth in a long, lingering kiss filled with tenderness and passion and commitment.

  The emotional intensity immediately heightened their desire all over again, and they came together once more in a shattering blaze of love and urgency, binding them to each other for all time.

  Much later, after they dressed and faced the prospect of spending the night in two separate beds in two separate residences, they decided they couldn’t bear to spend this very special night apart.

  “I’ll tell grandmother to tell my parents that I’m spending the night with Katie Jones,” Hannah said as he steered the van through the rainy streets of Clover. She gazed down at the ring on her finger, then over at her darkly handsome fiancé.

  Matthew grinned. “Grandmother, of course, will know the truth.”

  “Of course. And I’ll tell her we’re engaged. She’ll be thrilled. You know how much she likes you.”

  “I know. How will the rest of the family take it?”

  Hannah frowned a little. “They’ll probably be scared to death to place an engagement announcement in the paper. Mother will warn me that another broken engagement will result in fatal Farley humiliation and Daddy will say—”

  “We’ll assure them that this engagement is not going to be broken,” Matthew said firmly.

  “It most certainly isn’t.” Hannah reached over and laid her hand on his thigh. “Because for the first time in my life I’m madly, wildly and totally in love with my fiancé. And this time, I’m engaged for all the right reasons.”

  “It’s about time,” Matthew growled. “Your track record is enough to want to make a man rush you immediately to the altar and to hell with this engagement business.”

  “I’ll marry you any time, any place, Matthew. If you want to elope tonight, I’ll be happy to.”

  They braked to a stop at a traffic light, and Matthew leaned over to kiss her. “I know, sweetie. But I want you to have the big white wedding your family has always wanted to give you. I want you to have all the stuff that goes on before the wedding, with all your friends.”

  “I think you mean an engagement party and a bridal shower.”

  “That’s right.” The light turned green, and Matthew stepped on the accelerator. “You know, I’m not the only brave one, risking an engagement to you,” he said lightly. “You’re pretty damn brave yourself, willing to marry a Polk. If I ever go public with my identity, you’ll be branded right along with me.”

  “Should you ever go public with the news, I would be proud to be known as the wife of Jesse Polk’s son.”

  “Don’t forget, you’ll also be the daughter-in-law of Alexandra Wyndham,” he teased.

  “The first time a Farley has ever snared a Wyndham in the past three centuries.” Hannah smiled. “If we ever break that news, Bay will be inconsolable!”

  They both laughed.

  They were holding hands and talking when Katie met them at the door of the boardinghouse. She quickly ushered them into the living room. “I heard you outside,” she said. “It’s nice to have you back, Matthew.” Her smile broadened. “And I can tell that Hannah is glad to see you.”

  “Katie, look!” Hannah impulsively held out her hand to show her the engagement ring.

  Katie’s fa
ce lit up. “You’re engaged! How wonderful!” She gave first Hannah then Matthew a quick hug. “I’m so happy for you both. I feel almost like a matchmaker,” she added, “since you met here in my boardinghouse.”

  “Where Miss Farley promptly decided I was up to no good,” Matthew reminded them.

  Hannah actually giggled. “What a night that was! In the middle of Abby and Ben’s engagement party, you come roaring downstairs, furious because your room was getting rained on.”

  “Please don’t remind me.” Katie groaned. “I had the roof patched, but I’m still nervous that it isn’t going to hold in a bad storm.” As if on cue, lightning flashed and thunder roared and the rain began to fall harder. “I guess we might find out tonight.”

  “Katie, there’s something I’d like to ask you,” Hannah said eagerly. “And I hope you’ll say yes. Will you please be one of my bridesmaids? I’m not sure when the wedding will be, probably late fall but definitely before Christmas. Will you, Katie? Please!”

  Saying no to Hannah Farley was something most people had difficulty doing, and Katie was no exception. “I would love to be one of your bridesmaids, Hannah,” she said graciously. “Thank you for asking me.”

  “I’m glad we have that taken care of,” Matthew said. He wrapped his arm around Hannah’s shoulders. “Let’s go upstairs, little girl.”

  “Yes, darling,” Hannah murmured and squealed a little when he scooped her up into his arms and carried her up the stairs.

  Katie sank onto the sofa and stared into space. A tear rolled down her cheek, and she quickly brushed it away. But another seeped out, and then another.

  Moments later, Hannah ran back into the room. “Katie, I hate to be a bother but I need a few—” She spied Katie’s tears and broke off in midsentence. “Katie, what’s wrong?” she cried, sitting down on the sofa beside her.

  “Nothing.” Katie tried to smile. It was a wavering, watery effort that pierced Hannah’s heart.