Chris sighed. "You're right, but unfortunately for you, there is really no night life here on the East End. Unless you want to go to a restaurant?"
"Not hungry," Pinky shrugged. "Maud packed such a wad for us to carry over here, that one would think we are spending the whole year. Let's go watch TV then. I carried my chemistry book to study for finals but my mind is not on it. I keep wishing it was morning so that I can see the spectacular views outside."
Chris shrugged. "Okay, after you. Though I think I have watched most of the Star Trek episodes already."
Pinky lead the way to the sitting room and sat in one of the overstuffed chairs. "I can't believe you don't have property here. This is a really nice place to live."
"I do have property here." Chris sat beside her, their thighs almost touching. He looked at her legs; they were smoothly shaven and looked golden.
"Pinky."
“Hmm," Pinky said, glancing at him.
"You are not going to wear skimpy clothes to the wedding tomorrow, are you?"
Pinky snorted. "No. I bought a stunning dress. I have never spent so much money for one item of clothing, but since you grudgingly asked me to come, and wanted to make a good impression on your friends, to prove to them that you are not a sad and lonely man that needs to carry his housekeeper as a date," she shrugged, "I bought an elegant knockout dress just to show them, boss man. Don’t worry."
Chris sighed. "Thank God for that, and I'm not a sad lonely man."
"Yes, you are!” Pinky said. "You have been grouchy since you told me about the wedding. I was wondering why but then I came up with one reason. It has something to do with that certain female, whose name I am not allowed to call or I'll be fired. Her name begins with K and ends with elly."
Chris looked at her sideways and then heaved a sigh. "You are too perceptive for your own good."
"You are too burdened for your own good." Pinky looked at the television screen; the images melding together as she formulated her thoughts. "But I hope you realize that you can tell me what has you so tied up inside. I am a good listener and willing to help, and I won't even charge you overtime."
Chris looked at her long and hard; her blond hair was in little curls all over her head. Close up he could see the evenness of her skin tone and the curve of her lips.
"I will bear that in mind, Petrina Black."
Pinky smiled, showing him her straight white teeth.
*****
The wedding was at Lion's Gate on Ezekiel's sprawling 45,000 sq. ft property; about fifteen minutes drive from where they were staying. It was a ten o'clock wedding which was supposed to be held in the courtyard. Chris had been to Lion's Gate before; he remembered it as a magnificent house.
"I can't believe that Phoebe is getting married," Pinky said beside him incredulously. "I spoke to my brother last night and he is going to be here too. Phoebe actually arranged for his entire band to be flown in today. Can you imagine?"
Chris grunted.
"And her friends, Erica and Tanya, are going to be brides maids, even though Erica had her baby six weeks ago."
Chris glanced over at her; she was applying lip-gloss to her already shiny lips. He had to admit that she looked as elegant as she said she would. She had on a hunter green dress with a modest neckline and intricate beadwork around the neck area. She was also wearing matching shoes and had a brown hand bag.
Even her usually wild looking hair was somewhat tamed into a curly blond style—it suited her. In fact, she looked extremely pretty. He would have told her so after he had found himself gaping when she came downstairs earlier that morning, but in usual Pinky style she had waltzed downstairs, gushed how handsome he was and started telling him that she had chosen to wear green so that when she was near his hazel eyes would pick up the color.
"We are going to be quite the couple, boss man." She had announced.
He smiled slightly. Pinky was like a force of nature. When he saw her this morning the dark level of despair that he had felt in anticipation of seeing Theo and Kelly had subsided into a mist.
He was calmly heading toward Lions Gate and wondering where all the anxiety that had him tossing and turning last night had gone.
"Is your friend Caleb going to be there?" Pinky asked him, capping her lip-gloss and smiling in his direction.
"Definitely," Chris said nodding, "he is on babysitting duty. As you said, Erica is a part of the wedding party. She won't have much time to attend to the baby."
"Oh," Pinky said glancing through the window, "is she—who cannot be named—attending the wedding?"
Chris tensed. "She is friends with Ezekiel. She might be there."
"Small world," Pinky said tensely. "Do you still have feelings for her?"
Chris turned into the driveway leading to the beach side mansion and absentmindedly handed the security guard his invitation.
The question rang in his mind and gave him a weak helpless feeling of despair. He had told himself several times that he was over Kelly, but was he really?
He had not taken out his feelings and examined them close up for a long time. He had put his emotions on icy lockdown for so long now that he resented Pinky for asking him about them.
She was looking at him fearfully as if she expected him to blow at any minute.
"I don't know." He smiled at her, hoping to impart to her that he was fine. He wasn't sure the smile reached his eyes.
Pinky exhaled. "Okay." Then she looked around her surroundings and gasped. "This is serious luxury."
Chris chuckled. "Promise me you won't say anything outrageous to the people here."
Pinky giggled. "I won't say a thing out of the way, boss. I promise to keep my speech free of slang. If I see celebrities I won't hunt them down for an autograph, but I may beg them for a picture.”
Chris sighed. "That's all I ask."
*****
The courtyard was beautifully decorated in white and gold. There were hundreds of white roses everywhere. There were two columns of chairs that were facing the sea and a fancily decorated wedding arch. The air was heady with the scent of the roses. Quite a few persons were already there and seated. It was not as big a wedding as Pinky had thought it was going to be. She counted about two hundred chairs.
Pinky sat beside a girl named Vanessa who said she was a former co-worker of Phoebe's. She was especially glad that Vanessa, who was sitting to the right of her, was so friendly because Chris was staring tensely into space.
She knew that he was holding himself tautly because she glanced at him every three minutes to see if he was all right—his jaw was constantly clenched. She could not imagine the kind of anxiety and stress he was going through at the moment.
He looked so handsome though, with his cleanly shaven jaw and those clear hazel eyes. He was dressed in a black tuxedo and she thought how magnificent he looked.
She felt privileged that she was sitting beside him as his 'date'. She wished it were real though; that they were really dating and that he was intensely in love with her and not Kelly.
She was anxious to see Kelly, that paragon of virtue that Chris held in such high esteem. In a way she was just as anxious to see her as Chris was. Maybe, if she could pinpoint the one thing that made Kelly so attractive to Chris she could emulate it.
Pinky didn't even know if that theory was workable. Though Chris' emotions were thoroughly engaged, she knew that human emotions were a mass of contradictions. Maybe what was attractive to him in Kelly would be totally abhorrent with her.
What would make Chris be so fixated on one woman for most of his life? She pondered the question for all of five minutes and then she shrugged inwardly—that's why chemistry was her area of study and not psychology.
"This is spectacular," Vanessa was saying to Pinky.
Pinky nodded. "It is. I never knew that places like this exist outside of fairy tales."
Vanessa laughed. "Me neither. And to imagine, Phoebe gave up all of this when she wasn't sure that she loved Eze
kiel. That is admirable."
Pinky smiled. "It was."
She saw a flash of red and black and realized that her brother and his band had arrived.
"Hey Charles," she said loudly and waved wildly.
Charles spun around, and waved at her. He came over with a grin on his face.
"Hey, you guys are early. "
"The wedding is scheduled to start at ten," Chris said, glancing at his watch. "It's five to ten."
Charles shrugged. "Phoebe told me that her mother insisted on her wearing some elaborate wedding gown that will take about five hours to get into."
"Is that so?" Chris asked appalled. "If I had known this tidbit of information, I would have come twelve o'clock instead."
Charles shrugged, "Phoebe said she was going to defy her and wear something else. We'll see who wins that war. Besides, Tanya and Erica are her bridesmaids and they are not really known for their patience. I am going to set up for the reception. Apparently there'll be some fancy violinist doing the ceremony. See ya later, Sis, and I must say you look really good."
"Thank you," Pinky grinned. "You dear boy."
Charles rolled his eyes. "Why are you talking so fancy?"
"My boss insisted on it." She glanced at Chris.
"Oh," Charles grinned, looking at Chris' tight expression. "Talk to you later."
They didn't have long to wait for the wedding to start. The groom came out standing beside the minister and his best man. They were dressed in white and were relaxed and laughing.
"Oh my God," Chris said, a strained look to his mouth.
"What?" Pinky asked anxiously.
"The minister," Chris said strangled. "Why didn't I think of that? Why didn't I think that he would be their minister? There she is." He whispered.
Pinky craned her neck to see who he was going on about. The minister was a handsome guy dressed in a black tux that was similar to Chris'. He had a sprig of white in his lapel.
"Where is she?" Pinky asked anxiously.
Then she saw her, without Chris having to describe her. She was wearing a multicolored silky dress in a halter-top style. She had long natural curly hair. Deep brown complexion and she was looking over the crowd too.
She wanted to see if Chris was around but she was playing it casual, Pinky surmised. She was doing it furtively just like she would have.
Pinky knew the exact moment that Kelly's eyes found Chris. She looked directly behind and then at Chris, her eyes widened a bit and even at the distance Pinky could see her tense up.
Pinky imagined that she could feel the electricity in the air. Chris was tenser than ever and his eyes were drinking her in like a lost puppy. She felt like grabbing his shoulders and shaking him to get him out of his Kelly-induced trance.
Kelly was the first one to break eye contact and Chris was still staring in her direction like a statue.
"Stop it!” Pinky said, exasperated. "She is married, remember?"
Chris slowly closed his eyes and exhaled. His first eye contact with Kelly was not as traumatic as he thought it would have been. All of that angst and build up over her and it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. The sharp pain he had been tensing up for had only been a dull thud.
He opened his eyes and smiled at a concerned looking Pinky. "Relax. I am okay."
Pinky subsided in her chair. "Glad to hear."
A lone violinist slowly walked to the front playing Canon in D. Behind him walked the bridesmaids in gold gowns and then the bride in a simple white sari wedding dress with gold threads running through the material. It seemed as if the morning light glinted off her in a golden glow.
The crowd actually gasped when she appeared. She carried a lone rose and a peaceful smile.
The groom had tears in his eyes when he saw her and he met her halfway down the aisle.
Pinky rummaged in her bag for her handkerchief. She did not want her mascara to run but she could see the raw love on Ezekiel's face when he looked at Phoebe, and that created a yearning within her that she didn't know she had.
The whole ceremony was a tearful one. The bride and groom took turns tearing up. The vows were so solemn and inspiring that Pinky found herself sniffing several times and had to borrow a wet wipe from Vanessa to dab at her eyes. Chris looked at them in disgust.
"I am never going to a wedding with you again," he whispered to Pinky when it was over. "What are you sniffing about?"
Pinky swatted him with her kerchief. "It was just so beautiful when they looked into each others eyes…they wrote the vows themselves. It was poetic and romantic," she sniffed.
Chris looked up in the air. "Women."
Pinky pouted. "I am not the only romantic here, Mr. Donahue. You have loved the same woman for years. Who is the hopeless romantic?"
Chris looked at her sharply. "Don't bring that up now. We still have the reception to go through."
"Okay, all right," Pinky said shakily. "Let's go congratulate the bride and the groom."
Chapter Three
Chris found himself in the mini orchard before the reception began. Pinky had dragged him in there because she had spotted Tanya and Erica. He had reluctantly gone along, though he had seen several business acquaintances he could have tarried with and made polite chatter.
Tanya and Erica were standing beside Caleb who was holding his daughter. Beside him stood Kelly and Theo with their children and his son.
It was his worst nightmare come through.
He had actually stopped when he saw them standing around in their little group.
His son was in Theo's arms with his head on a shoulder; a small trusting hand around his neck.
When he stopped, everybody looked around and the conversation ceased. It was as if all the background noises had faded too and there was only silence. He silently cursed Pinky in his mind for allowing him to walk into this trap.
"Hey Chris," Caleb said loudly coming toward him; coming to his rescue. Chris' eyes had stopped on the toddler's hand around Theo's neck and they couldn't move.
He hadn't seen Mark with Kelly at the service, so he had assumed that he wasn't there. How wrong he was. His heart and head were scrambling; he didn't know what to think, where to look, or how to feel.
His flesh and blood was just ten paces away and he couldn't touch him or acknowledge him in anyway. The pain that he had expected to feel on seeing Kelly slammed into him when he saw his son.
"Just walk away, man," Caleb was saying to him seriously.
Pinky who had eagerly run over to Tanya and Erica had sensed the tension and was wondering why the dramatic pause until she followed Chris' eyes and saw the little boy. She could read a wealth of pain in Chris' eyes. When the little boy raised his head and she saw his eyes—so identical to Chris'—she understood so much more than she had before.
For Chris, Kelly was not just an unrequited love. She had been his lover and the mother of his child.
Tanya whistled under her breath. "Uh oh."
Pinky felt like echoing that but she valiantly kept her mouth shut.
Erica grabbed Tanya's hand. "Let's get out of here. We have pictures to take after the bride and groom are finished with their personal photo session."
"But that's not yet," Tanya protested, her eyes darting around the frozen milieu, "Can't we stay?"
Erica pinched her and pulled her away. "Come Matthew and Thea."
The children had stopped their chatter when the adults had all stood around tense but they followed their aunt obediently.
Thea looked behind at her parents curiously but Erica was right behind her, prompting them to leave.
Pinky was left standing in the mini orchard, with its overhead glass ceiling and grape vines, feeling as if she was caught in the middle of something for which she had no preparation. Caleb had not gotten through to Chris, who was still standing his ground and staring at the toddler.
"Come on man," Caleb was urging Chris.
Chris looked at him and cleared his throat. "This h
ad to happen sooner or later."
Caleb shrugged. "Okay then. I am going to be outside in the reception hall."
Chris sauntered closer to Kelly and Theo. He was emanating a confidence that he was far from feeling. Theo had a frown in his eyes, a keep off look that was annoying Chris slightly. They were all adults here, what did they expect him to do? Run off and avoid them like he was some sort of prima donna? His father had taught him to stand and face difficult situations like a man. That lesson had stuck.
"You know," Chris drawled casually, "I always thought that in this whole situation I was the one being punished the harshest."
Theo cleared his throat. "Chris you promised to stay away from us."
Kelly shrank closer to her husband as if being too close to Chris was contaminating her somehow.
Chris pushed his hand in his pocket and affected a casual pose. "Pinky, you see why I was so solemn when I came to Cayman? This is my son, Mark, and these are the people who are raising him without my input. It seems a bit unfair doesn't it?"
Kelly and Theo spun around and looked at Pinky. They had not realized that she was there; so tense they were when Chris had walked into the room.
Pinky cleared her throat. "Maybe I shouldn't be in here now. I... er... excuse me."
She left the three of them reluctantly.
"Daddy, can I go find Mafew and Thea?" Mark spun around and looked at the strange man who was gazing at him.
Theo set him on his feet and straightened up, watching as Mark toddled over to Chris, his upturned face looked so innocent and trusting.
Chris hunkered down to his level. "Hello, little one."
Mark backed off and went back to Theo, hugging his feet.
Chris stood up—a pain, so sharp, hitting him somewhere in the region of his heart.
Mark doesn't know me, Chris reminded himself, even though he felt as if he knew the boy from all the PI pictures, he was just a stranger to his son.
A strange man and he would ever be a strange man if the hostility that he could feel coming from Kelly was any indication. Curiously, Theo was not as hostile. He was contemplating him with an unidentifiable look in his gaze.
If It Ain't Broke Page 2