Newlywed Games

by Mary Davis

  Duly admonished, the two women fell silent. As usual, when Bruce spoke, he was obeyed.

  At long last the time came for them to go home. Since they all couldn’t fit in Bruce’s Infinity, Brock had driven Meghann’s mother in the Corvette.

  “We’ll take the ‘Vette.” Bruce exchanged claim tickets with Brock. “Would you take the others home? We’ll meet you there.”

  The valet brought the Corvette first and Meg and Bruce were off—but she realized they were heading in the opposite direction from Bruce’s apartment. He fit well behind the wheel and shifted smoothly. He seemed to belong there and obviously enjoyed driving his toy.

  “Where are we going?” Meghann asked.

  “It’s been a long day. I thought you could use a break from your mother and mine, and we should check on a certain black Lab.”

  “I would like to see Lucky.”

  “It will also give you a chance to tell me exactly what Charmaine said to you. This time without interruption.” His tone left no room for argument.

  Sixteen

  MEGHANN SWALLOWED HARD. SHE THOUGHT THIS CONVERsation was finished. Evidently not. “It was nothing, really.” Please drop the subject. She didn’t want to think about that woman at all. She could still feel Charmaine’s icy stare and her haughty laugh.

  Bruce reached over and took her hand. Meg looked at him in surprise.

  Why would he do that when they were alone?

  “Meg, it’s clear she upset you, and I want to know what lies she is spreading.”

  Hope sparked inside her. Lies? Were they lies? She hoped so…with all her heart. “Why do you think she told me lies?” Because I’ve lied?

  “Charmaine Altman is incapable of telling the truth. Unless, of course, it gets her what she’s after.”

  Do you think I’m incapable of the truth, as well?

  His mouth was a thin, hard line. “She will say anything to get what she wants.”

  “And she wants you.” Meg hoped she didn’t sound as jealous as she felt.

  “Well, this is one time Charmaine is not going to get what she wants. I have absolutely no interest in her. All I want from that woman is her absence.”

  “She said you two were seeing each other at the hotel.”

  Maybe that’s why he gave you the time off…so you wouldn’t see them. She closed her eyes against the suspicions. Shut up! Just shut up!

  “She said that?”

  Meg opened her mouth, then shut it. Had Charmaine actually said that? She thought back.

  “Do you really think he’s at the hotel all that time alone?”

  Don’t embellish, Meg. You’ve done enough of that. Speak the truth. “Well, no…but she implied it.”

  The engine roared as he downshifted and made a quick turn into a grocery store parking lot. He parked away from the store entrance in a deserted section of the lot. His knuckles were white from the grip he had on the steering wheel.

  “I take it we’re not here to shop?” she asked, trying to lighten his dark mood.

  He turned to face her. “Tell me every word she said.” His words were forced like it was a chore to get them out.

  He was not going to be dissuaded or put off. Fine then, she would tell him. He asked for it. This day had already gone from bad to worse, she might as well make a complete disaster of it. “Let’s see, she started off by saying my dress was drab and that I am a lowly employee and beneath you.”

  His grip tightened on the wheel.

  “She said she broke your heart when she left you and the engagement ring you offered her was much bigger than the ring you’d given me, so I was unimportant.”

  “Me, marry her?” His words came pouring out, like lava erupting from a volcano. “No way! I never proposed to that woman. She did all the chasing. But I knew before long that she was the type of person to get what she wanted, then stab you in the back and laugh while washing the blood from her hands. She’s a user and a manipulator.”

  He leaned his head back against the seat, running a hand over his eyes. “What ever attracted me to her in the first place?”

  The fact that he had once been attracted to her stabbed at Meghann’s heart. “She’s beautiful.”

  He was silent for a moment, and then he sighed. “I was an idiot.”

  She swallowed against the pain his words caused her. He had been attracted to her looks. He couldn’t deny it.

  “Meg, there is beauty—” his voice dropped a little and he touched her shoulder—“and there is beauty. Charmaine Altman is an ugly person where it counts.”

  “She was convinced she’s going to get you back. That you were using me to make her pay for hurting you.” She wanted to know the truth about Bruce’s relationship with this woman, even if it irreparably wounded her, so she plunged ahead. “She said she would have you back, that you’d be together…in every way…and that she’d be sure to keep you on a short leash.”

  “I will never be in that woman’s bed again!”

  At Bruce’s spat-out words, Meghann sucked in a quick breath. She felt as though someone had seized her heart in an iron fist and squeezed it until she wanted to cry out from the pain.

  The look on Bruce’s face told her he regretted the words, wished he could recall them, but it was too late.

  Charmaine had told the truth. She and Bruce had been lovers.

  Struggling for breath, Meg looked out the window, studying the darkness that seemed to be pressing in on her. “She said you two were…involved.” With gritted teeth, she tried to swallow down her unwanted tears.

  So much for your knight in shining armor. At least you know now your dream man isn’t the man of character you thought he was.

  “I’m sure the word she used was lovers.” His heavy words were controlled and measured. “Meg, please let me explain.”

  She held up a hand, halting him. “You don’t owe me any explanations. It’s really none of my business. Can we go now?” She tried to sound cool and dispassionate, to somehow mask the wave of anguish washing over her and the tears struggling for release.

  “Please, hear me out.” He put his hand on her forearm. “I want to explain.”

  She turned to him, drawing her arm from his contact. She gave him a look she hoped said if-you-feel-you-must-I’ll-listen, praying her features revealed none of her true, raw emotions.

  He studied her for a moment, then looked down at his hands. “It was a long time ago with Charmaine. Over three years. I was a different person then. I wasn’t a Christian, and I prided myself on the effect I had on women. I saw nothing wrong with using it to my advantage. I’m not proud of that, Meg, and I’m grateful I’m not that man anymore. But I won’t lie to you about who and what I was.”

  His gaze came to meet hers. “But I want you to know I have not been with a woman in the two years since my thirteen-year-old brother showed me the way to Christ. God has changed me in so many amazing ways. I don’t miss that partying womanizer I used to be. It was a lonely life, and I never want to go back to it.”

  Meghann stared at him blankly. A partying womanizer. The terms seemed as far from reality as possible when it came to this man. She didn’t doubt his effect on women. How could she, considering the way he affected her every time they were together? But she couldn’t, no matter how hard she tried, imagine him using someone that way.

  Whatever else she thought, she knew this much was true: Bruce was no longer that man.

  He turned back and gripped the wheel again. “ ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’ God reconciled the world to himself in Christ, Meg, not counting my sins against me.…God made him who had no sin to be sin for me, so that in him I might become the righteousness of God.”

  The passion and determination in his voice moved her deeply. Slowly, inexorably, the tears worked their way down her cheeks.

  “I am a new creation. I’ve been given a second chance. Washed by the blood of Jesus. I messed up royally the firs
t time around. I’m doing it right this time.”

  Stunned by his honesty, she didn’t know what to say, how to respond. He wasn’t the perfect fantasy she’d concocted in her mind…and he had a past, a history of mistakes. But so did she. And a present full of mistakes as well.

  No, Bruce wasn’t perfect, but he was doing his best. He was trusting God’s promises and trying to live a changed life. And that was more powerful than perfection any day. In that moment, as she listened to him pour out his heart to her, Meg loved him so much it hurt.

  Realizing her face was probably betraying her every thought, she turned away. She hated being so transparent to him. Could he tell she loved him? Probably. If he returned her feelings, he would have said something. But he said nothing of the kind.

  “We should get going.” His tone was weary, resigned. “They’ll be wondering what happened to us.” He turned the key in the ignition and hesitated. “Meghann?” He reached out to lift her chin with a light touch of his finger. The tenderness in his eyes was heart wrenching.

  “Ah, Meg…what you do to me.”

  His hand cupped her face, and the gentle touch sent shivers coursing through her. She knew he was going to kiss her, and she was glad. She wanted him to do it. Now. Here. With no one around to see them.

  But even as she leaned toward him, his hand fell away, and he turned back to grip the steering wheel.

  Then, without a word of explanation, he turned the key in the ignition.

  Mortified, Meg sat there, gripping her hands together in her lap. She was such an idiot! Why would he even think about kissing her? She was a friend, nothing more. Someone he’d promised to help.

  The sooner she got that through her stupid head—and her foolish heart—the better off she’d be.

  When they got back to the house, there was a big hullabaloo about where everyone was going to sleep. The first option proposed was for Bruce and Meghann to stay at her place, but Meghann insisted on being near her mother. So she suggested she and her mother could go to her place. Wrong. It seemed everyone wanted to be around Meghann…everyone except Meghann herself.

  She just wanted to get away. To be someplace where she wouldn’t have to put on a front for a while. She felt like a favorite toy being fought over.

  The final decision was made: Mr. and Mrs. Halloway would take the master bedroom; Meghann and her mother would be in the guest room; and the two brothers were assigned to the living room sofa bed.

  The rest of the evening was interminable. Finally Meg saw her escape when Olivia turned to her, concern on her face.

  “Dear, are you all right? You don’t look well at all.”

  “I’m not.” The first truth she’d uttered in days. “I’m sick.”

  No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she found herself being ushered to bed by two cooing mothers. But for all that, Meg was more weary than she’d ever been in her life—heart weary, soul weary—she couldn’t sleep.

  She spent a restless night sharing a room with her mother, thinking about Bruce’s honesty that night. It gave her hope that he could have feelings for her—not love, at least not yet—but someday. But even that filled her with uncertainty, with dread.

  Because she knew what she had to do. She had to get up the courage to tell him how she felt about him.

  Seventeen

  THE NEXT MORNING MEGHANN SAGGED ON JENNIFER’S couch. Jennifer had a cozy one-bedroom apartment not far from Meg’s place. Meg had hurried over to catch Jennifer before she went off to work.

  “I hope you don’t mind my drying my hair. I still have a job to get ready for,” Jenn said, flicking on the dryer and picking up her styling brush. Meghann got up and stood in the doorway to the bathroom.

  “I have a job, too.” At least, the last time she checked she did. After all that had gone on, the way she’d gotten Bruce’s family caught up in this mess…well, she deserved to have him fire her.

  “Yeah, but you’re getting paid for staying home.” Jenn worked the brush through her dark, shoulder-length hair as she angled the dryer.

  “I’m still working on the ball. Believe it or not, it does take a chunk of my day.” But Meg knew as well as Jennifer that the few hours she was putting in didn’t warrant her pay. More guilt to pile on to her plate. “I didn’t come to talk about work. I have bigger problems.”

  “What? Like wheedling a proposal out of Bruce?” She batted her lashes at Meg, then turned back to the mirror with a Cheshire grin.

  “No. Bruce’s parents and brother showed up last night.”

  Jennifer switched off the dryer and turned to her with her mouth in a surprised O. “Your in-laws are here?”

  “They aren’t my in-laws.”

  “Close enough. And maybe with any luck they will be someday.” She wiggled her eyebrows.

  “Jenn, this is serious. Now I’m lying to his family, too.”

  “Ah, yes, but apparently Prince Charming didn’t tell them the truth, either.” She seemed intrigued by this information.

  “That’s not the point.”

  “Oh, Meg, lighten up! Why are you taking all this so seriously?”

  “Why don’t you take anything seriously?” Meg snapped back. “What am I going to do now? I never should have let you talk me into this.”

  “Fine, blame all your troubles on me,” she said, holding up her hands, waving her blow dryer and brush around. “See if I care. But answer me this, why did you take my advice if it was so awful? You could have told your mom the truth. I didn’t exactly hold a weapon to your head and force you into this little charade.”

  Meghann opened her mouth for a retort…but there was none. Her friend was absolutely right. She was the one who’d given in to the urge to lie. She was the one who’d passed by opportunity after opportunity to set things right.

  Nobody else.

  Just her.

  “I rest my case.” Jennifer set down her dryer. “Now, answer me one more. Is your mom improving or not?”

  “Well, yes.” It was true. Her mother had most of her color back, and she didn’t need to sleep as much.

  “Well, then, I rest my case. Clearly what you’re doing is for the best. Besides, you’ve only got a few days and Bruce’s family hits the road. Then soon your mom will go home, and you and Bruce can go back to your lives. No harm, no foul.”

  Jenn looked so pleased with herself that Meg didn’t have the heart to argue. But deep inside—where she felt the constant struggle, the tug to do what she knew was right no matter how terrifying it might be—she knew her friend was wrong. Flat wrong.

  There was a great deal of harm taking place. To Bruce. To Meg’s heart. Maybe even to her spirit.

  She just didn’t know what to do about it.

  Later that afternoon, Bruce came home, opening his front door with care, wondering what kind of greeting he’d receive from Meghann. He had worked diligently straight through lunch so he could come home early to see her.

  It hadn’t been easy to tell her those things last night, to let her see his imperfections, his weaknesses. But when she’d listened so intently, when he’d seen the understanding in her eyes, he’d almost lost control. It was only God’s grace that had held him back, kept him from taking her in his arms and kissing her senseless. Kept him from proposing to her on the spot.

  All day long he’d thought about her, wondered what she was thinking, how she was feeling about what he’d said. And he’d prayed. Asked God to show them a way out of the mess they’d made for themselves. Asked him to salvage their relationship from the disaster they’d created.

  Now what he wanted to do was see her.

  Looking around, he found the usually overcrowded apartment empty, except for his pseudo-mother-in-law in the kitchen brewing some tea. “Where did everybody go?”

  Gayle stirred a half a teaspoon of sugar and a dab of milk in her cup. “Your father had some urgent business to take care of. He dropped your mom off at the hairdresser’s on his way and will pick her up when h
e is done. And Brock went with Meghann to the house to feed Lucky.”

  “Brock is with Meghann?” He didn’t realize he spoke the words aloud until Gayle placed her hand on his forearm.

  “Don’t look so worried. He just wants to get to know his new sister-in-law. Those two get along great.”

  Her words hit him like a roundhouse punch. He had the urge to run after them and snatch Meg away from his brother, to take her somewhere remote out of reach of any man who would steal her from him.

  “Relax,” she said, giving his arm a gentle squeeze. Gayle’s expression told him she knew things weren’t quite right between him and her daughter. If she only knew how wrong they were.

  He couldn’t relax. If he weren’t careful, he would lose her. She could slip right through his fingers. He had to talk with her, tell her how he felt, ask her outright if there was anything for them beyond their little masquerade.

  He hoped so. Prayed so. If not, he knew without a doubt that it would take a lifetime to get over Meghann.

  But would confessing his love for her be enough? Not if she didn’t feel the same way. He had to think of something else. But what? If only she loved him.…But as often as not, she was nervous and tense whenever they were alone, as though she’d rather be around other people.

  Well, there were plenty of people to keep her occupied…not the least of which was good old Brock.

  Bruce needed time.…

  “There’s something I have to do.” He gave Gayle a quick peck on the cheek and rushed out the door.

  Meg shifted uneasily on the porch step.

  Brock had asked if he could accompany her to check on Lucky. There had been a tense encounter between Brock and his father over the length of Brock’s unruly hair. Meg couldn’t understand why Bruce’s father didn’t just leave him alone. Yes, his hair was long, but that was hardly something to be ashamed of nowadays. Besides, he always kept it neat and it fit him: unconventional, yet attractive.