by L. M. Reed
~ * * ~
Blinking a few times to clear my blurry vision, I saw a familiar face grinning at me.
“About time, Sleepyhead.”
“Richard,” I whispered raising my hand from the bed to touch his face.
He leaned into it, eyes closed, and murmured, “In the flesh.”
“You’re okay?” I asked anxiously, withdrawing my hand as he opened his eyes.
“It’s gonna take a whole lot more than a little bit of smoke to do me in,” he laughed, but his laughed turned into a hacking cough.
“Richard!” I exclaimed, concerned.
“I’m fine,” he assured me after the coughing fit had ended. “The doctor said I’ll probably have this cough for a couple of days…no big deal. I am kinda ticked off though.”
“Why? What’s wrong?” I asked in alarm.
“Doctor said I have to lay off the stogies for a while,” he answered sorrowfully.
“Richard…” I began hesitantly, not knowing where to begin…how to thank him.
“Don’t get all mushy on me,” he warned. “You tend to do that, you know.”
“Thank you,” it seemed inadequate but it was probably all he would allow me, plus the fact that my throat was parched, making it hard to say much of anything.
“You owe me big time,” he grinned.
“Yes I do.”
“I’d demand your firstborn but I’d have no earthly idea what to do with a baby,” he said playfully. “I’ve never understood why anyone would want one of those nasty things, anyway. So, instead, I’ll settle for an invite to your exclusive, ‘friends only’ wedding. Wilson said you wanted to invite me, but he was against it. Now he’s suddenly all for it. Go figure.”
“Richard…” I began again, seemingly unable to get any further than his name, guilt as well as my parched throat holding me back.
How would I ever repay him? I hated that he was in pain because he had unwisely fallen in love with me. What was he going through? He had saved my life just to see me married off to another man. Tears filled my eyes.
“Stop it, Allison,” Richard said with uncharacteristic roughness. “It’s not your fault that I fell for you, or that Becky targeted you. You have a damned guilt complex about everything, and I admit I’ve used it in the past to manipulate you, but this time even I, the scum of the earth, the manipulator of the century, the…well you get the idea, even I don’t want you to feel guilty about anything that’s happened. After seeing Wilson with you yesterday, I realized something; you are his whole life…hell, without you he’d be…well, if anything had happened to you it would have destroyed him. I don’t even know if I’m capable of feeling that kind of emotion.”
“You are,” I insisted, “I’m just not the right one for you, that’s all.”
“Thanks for saying that, but people like Nat and me are too self-absorbed to care about anyone else more than ourselves,” Richard said, unusually serious. “But enough self-examination,” he continued briskly. “Too much of that is definitely not a good thing for me. Do I get my invite?”
“Actually I was hoping you’d give me away,” I said uncertainly watching him carefully for his reaction.
There was a moment of silence as he processed my statement, which Richard promptly shattered with a paroxysm of laughing and coughing that lasted a full minute. Alarmed, I was about to push the button to call the nurse, but his hand on mine stopped me.
“Give…me…a sec,” he said between spasms. Eventually he calmed down enough to be coherent. “I’m sorry,” he said wiping the tears from his eyes, “Only you would come up with something like that.”
Worry as well as the throbbing pain in my head made me more irritable than I normally would be.
“It wasn’t that funny,” I said in annoyance.
“I guess in a warped way it would be kind of fitting,” Richard chuckled carefully, obviously not wanting to set off another coughing spell. “You were supposed to marry me after all.”
“Then you’ll do it?”
“I’m assuming that your parents won’t be in attendance,” he raised an eyebrow, “and that your father won’t be fighting me for the privilege.”
“Not if I can help it,” I muttered.
“Then I agree on one condition…no…make that two conditions.”
Eyeing him suspiciously I asked, “What conditions?”
“First, Wilson has to be fully in agreement,” he began. “That’s important to my second condition.”
“Okay,” I consented cautiously. “What else?”
“I get to kiss the bride,” he said mischievously. “And I mean really kiss the bride.”
“Richard…”
“Those are my conditions, take ‘em or leave ‘em,” he said adamantly. “If I’m going to give you away, I’m going to make damn sure I get to give you a proper goodbye kiss.”
“Alright,” I conceded reluctantly.
I wasn’t sure how James would take it, but I selfishly wanted Richard to be there and give me away. Ironically, I finally realized that as irritated and annoyed as Richard had made me over the years, he had been more of a best friend than Nat. Even though it was a different type of friendship than I had with Elsee or James, it had been an important part of my life. He also, as he admitted earlier, wasn’t shy about playing on my guilt feelings.
“I hate to bargain and run, but I have to get over to my parents’ house to reassure them their only offspring is alive and well,” he said ruefully. “Let me know what Wilson says. Oh, and by the way, the police are going to be here to get your statement later in the day. Usually they would frown on my visiting you before they could talk to you, but since I wasn’t there for your part, and you were unconscious for…well…pretty much everything else, I guess they figured it would be okay.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I said fervently.
“Anytime,” he replied as he left me alone with my thoughts.