by Marie Force
“I don’t either,” Parker said. “I was as surprised by it as you are.”
“Did he say anything about Smitty?” Chip asked.
“Just that there was a lot he needed to tell me and he would eventually. It was pretty obvious he didn’t want to get into it on his wedding day.”
“Has anyone heard from Smitty?” Elise asked.
“He called me with his flight info before he left Sydney, but not since then,” Parker said. “I sure do hope he gets here in time to see Lillian. She really seemed to fade tonight after the wedding. I don’t know how much time she has left.”
“He’ll be a mess if he doesn’t get to see her,” Elise agreed sadly.
“Did Smitty say anything about Duff and Caroline?” Chip asked.
“No, we haven’t talked about it.”
“Jesus,” Chip muttered. “What a fucking mess. There’s no way Duff and Smitty are ever going to be the same after this. Nothing will be.”
“I’ve been thinking a lot about that since I first saw them together last night,” Parker said as he opened a bottle of wine for Elise.
“That must’ve been so shocking,” she said, her eyes full of empathy for Parker.
“I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach or something. I just can’t figure out how it happened. The not knowing is driving me nuts.”
“Me, too,” Elise said. “You know, I walked in on them in the kitchen last weekend when you guys were in town. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but now it occurs to me they were having a pretty intense conversation.”
Parker told them about finding Caroline on the stairs when he went home early on Friday night and the lies she and Ted had told him about it.
“This whole thing is so fucked up,” Chip said in a burst of anger. “He acted all surprised on the phone with me this week when we were talking about Smitty going to Sydney, and he knew exactly why Smitty went.”
“How do you suppose Smitty found out about them?” Elise asked. “And when?”
“I can’t imagine,” Parker said. “None of us knew, so how did he?”
“Maybe she told him,” Elise said.
Chip shook his head. “I doubt it, but somehow he figured it out. I’ll tell you what: I just can’t get over Duff doing this to him of all people. We all know how tough he’s had it.”
“Duff said something to me tonight that really hit me right here,” Parker said with his hand over his heart. “He asked me to remember what we’ve meant to each other for more than half our lives. I hadn’t looked at it that way before—the half our lives part—and now that’s all I can think about. I’m trying to keep that in mind and not judge him solely on what’s happened in the last week.”
Elise got up from the barstool in Parker’s kitchen and went around the counter to hug him. “You’re very sweet to look at it that way.”
“You’re forgetting about Smitty,” Chip reminded him. “You’ve known him for half your life, too, and he sure as hell didn’t deserve this—from either of them, but him especially.”
“This is Ted, Chip,” Elise pointed out. “He hasn’t forgotten about Smitty. He must be so torn up about doing this to him.”
Chip’s eyes flashed with passion. “This is a black and white issue, Elise. There’s no gray area here. She was his best friend’s girlfriend. Hands off.”
“They fell in love, babe. Come on. Don’t be so unforgiving.” She kept her arm around Parker. “What would you have done if I’d been going out with Parker when you met me?”
Playing along, Parker wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek.
“Nothing!” Chip slapped his hand on the black granite countertop. “I would’ve done nothing! I wouldn’t have done that to my best friend.”
“You’d like to think so, but who knows what any of us would do,” she said.
“You’re being a romantic,” Chip said. “We live in the real world where you don’t do something like this to a friend. Am I right, Parker?”
Parker chewed on the inside of his cheek. “She does kind of have a point. We’d all like to think we know what we’d do in any given situation, but until you’re in it . . .” He shrugged.
“See?” Elise said with a victorious smile. “That’s all I’m saying.” She kissed Parker full on the lips. “I’m leaving him for you, you sexy beast.”
“While that’s a very tempting offer, honey, I’m afraid I have to decline,” Parker said with a grin. “I’m taken.”
Elise inhaled dramatically. “Do tell!”
Parker told them about Gina.
“Oh,” Elise said with her hand over her mouth. “Oh, you’re the romantic! I never knew you had it in you. What an amazing story! Isn’t it, Chip?”
“All these secrets.” Chip shook his head in disbelief. “I thought I knew you guys as well as I know myself.”
“I didn’t tell anyone for two years, Chip. I finally told Duff about it Sunday on the way home from Block Island. He was the first person I’d told. So don’t be offended.”
“I’m not,” Chip said, clearly working hard not to be. “I’m happy for you. You know that.”
“Thanks.”
“While we’re talking about all this touchy-feely bullshit and since you’ve now had some experience with the job, I wondered if you’d be my best man—that is, if you can get your filthy hands off my woman.”
“I’d love to.” Parker laughed as he reached across the counter to give Chip a high five.
“Good. Thank you.”
“Have you set a date?”
“Thanksgiving weekend,” Elise said.
The doorbell rang, and Parker went to answer it.
“Hey, this is a nice surprise,” he said with a delighted smile when he found Gina on his doorstep. “Come in.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t call first, but you sounded so down on the phone that I wanted to come see you.”
“You don’t have to call first.” He hugged her. “I’m so happy to see you.” He hoped his kiss told her just how much.
She caressed his face. “Did you get to sleep at all?”
“Nope. I ended up at a wedding. How about you?”
“A couple of hours.”
“I’m sorry I kept you up all night,” he said with a grin.
“I’m not. It was the most wonderful night of my life.”
“Mine, too.”
“I had no idea it could be like that.”
“It’s never been like that for me, either,” he confessed. “Where are the boys?”
“Staying with my sister tonight. She’s so thrilled about us that she’s offered to take them whenever she can to give us some time alone.”
“Remind me to send her some flowers,” Parker said with another kiss.
“Who’s out there, Parker?” Elise called from the kitchen.
Parker felt Gina’s withdrawal even before she pulled free of his embrace. He reached out to bring her back. “Hey, she’s my friend,” he whispered. “Her fiancé is here, too, and he’s one of my best friends.”
Gina’s cheeks colored with embarrassment. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ll be right there,” Parker called to Chip and Elise. He took Gina’s chin and urged her to look at him. “You don’t ever have to worry about other women with me, Gina. I’m thirty-eight years old, and I’ve sown all my wild oats. I love you, I’ll always love you, and after last night I can assure you I’ll never be interested in making love with anyone but you.”
Visibly touched, she said, “I have some rather significant issues with trust.”
“That’s understandable, but not all men are pigs. You can trust me.”
“I’m sorry. You haven’t done anything to deserve this.”
“Don’t be sorry. Just give me a chance to prove you can trust me.”
She rested her hands on his chest and looked up at him with her heart in her eyes. “I love you, too, Parker,” she said for the first time. “I’ve thought of nothing but you sin
ce you left this afternoon.”
“Then we have that in common.” He kissed the end of her nose. “Do you think maybe you could say that other thing one more time, just so I can be sure I heard it right?”
“What?” she asked with a teasing smile. “That I’ve thought of you constantly?”
“Not that. The other thing.”
“That I’m sorry for not trusting you?”
Amused by this playful side of her, he said, “All these things are good, but they’re not what I’m looking for.”
“Hmmm,” she said, pretending to give it significant thought. “Oh! I know.” She tugged him down and pressed her lips to his. “I think what you’re looking for,” she said as she made him crazy with a devastating combination of lips and tongue, “is that I love you, Parker King. I love you, I love you, I love you.”
“Now we’re talking.” He sank into the kiss until he remembered he had guests. “Come meet my friends.”
Ted held Caroline close to him in their enormous bed and listened to the soft music coming from the radio on the bedside table.
He sang along to “You and Me” by Lifehouse, about a guy who couldn’t keep his eyes off the woman he loved.
“I love that song,” Caroline said with a sigh of contentment.
“So do I. And now every time I hear it I’ll think about being in bed with my gorgeous new wife at the Ritz.”
“And when I hear it,” she whispered in his ear, sending a shiver through him, “I’ll think of my sexy new husband and how he drives me wild with that thing he does with his tongue.”
“Wild, huh?”
“Mmmmm.”
“Want me to do it again?”
She groaned. “Not yet. I can’t take any more right now.”
His smile faded.
She propped herself up on one elbow. “What’s wrong?”
“I feel kind of guilty having all this fun when my grandmother’s so sick.”
“Oh, baby, she wanted us to have this night together. She arranged it for us. She wouldn’t want you to feel guilty.”
“I’m going to miss her.”
“I know you are.”
“It makes me so sad that she won’t know our kids.”
“You were lucky to have her this long. All my grandparents were gone by the time I was twenty-two.”
“That’s too bad. And you’re right. I am lucky to have had them so long, but I’m afraid I’m less prepared for life without them than I should be.”
“That’s because they weren’t your average grandparents,” she reminded him.
“No,” he said with a laugh. “They were never average.”
“I don’t think she’d want you to be sad. I don’t know her very well, but I can picture her saying ‘I’ve had eighty-eight wonderful years. I’ve got nothing to complain about, so quit your fussing, Ted Duffy.’”
Impressed, Ted turned on his side to face her. “That’s definitely something she would say.”
“Do you want to go soak in the Jacuzzi for a while to get your mind off it?”
“No.” He got up suddenly. “There’s something else I want to do.”
“What’s that?”
Ted went out to the parlor and returned with a hotel portfolio and pen.
“What are you up to?”
He got back into bed and reclined against the headboard. Pulling out a piece of Ritz Carlton stationary he put it on top of the portfolio. “Remember that list of worries we put aside for tonight?”
“Unfortunately, I remember it all too well.”
“We need to make a different list.”
“What kind?”
“Our plans. We need to make some plans.”
Intrigued and amused, Caroline said, “Okay. What’ve you got in mind?”
He wrote their late July wedding date on the top of the page. “All right, number one, is meet Caroline’s parents. That’s a no-brainer.”
“Number two has to be plan a real wedding or number one isn’t going to go too well,” she said.
“Now you’re getting into the spirit of things. Number three is move Caroline from New York to Boston.”
“Whew, that’s a biggie.”
“You want to, though, right?”
“I’ve already moved to Boston. The rest is just details.”
He leaned over to kiss her. “I like your attitude. Number four is a honeymoon involving a significant amount of nudity.”
She laughed. “Oh, God, I’ve married a nudist. I should’ve been warned about this.”
“There was no time. That’s what you get for rushing me into this marriage thing.”
“Who rushed who?”
“Details, baby. Either way you’re going to have to find out all my secrets as we go.”
“So far, you won’t hear me complaining. What’s number five?”
He wrote, “Finish Caroline’s book (See that Cameron? You’ve wormed your way into bed with us.)”
She dissolved into laughter and reached for the pen. “Number six,” she wrote. “Figure out Ted’s career and decide where we’re going to live.”
“Good one. Number seven,” he said as he wrote, “have a baby.”
She took the pen again. “Number eight, have another baby.”
When he had retrieved the pen, he wrote, “Number nine, make sweet love every day.”
She cracked up. “You’re dreaming.”
“If I am, don’t wake me up, okay?”
“You say things that just go straight to my heart, Ted Duffy.” She brushed her fingers through his hair and kissed him. “All right, I’ll compromise.” She reached for the pen and inserted the word “almost” in front of every day.
“I guess I can live with that,” he said begrudgingly.
“I have one more as long as we’re going for it,” she said. “Number ten, live happily ever after.”
“Perfect.” He held up the page to admire their work. “We’ll keep this on our fridge and check off each one as we get it done. It’ll remind us of this amazing week and this amazing night. That way, whenever real life gets in the way of our plans, we’ll remember how we felt on the day we began our life together.”
“I won’t need the reminder, but I love the idea.”
“And I love you.” He rolled over to kiss her, and the paper fluttered from his fingers onto the floor.
Chapter Thirty-Five
They spent most of the next day at the hospital where Lillian was sleeping for longer stretches and was less lucid when awake.
After he and his father consulted with her doctor around noon, Ted said, “I don’t know if Smitty’s going to make it.”
Caroline put her arms around him from behind. “She said she’d wait for him and she will.”
Ted clutched her hands. “As much as I want him here because he belongs here, I’m worried about seeing him. He’s going to freak when he hears we’re married.”
“He’s had a week to get used to the idea of us as a couple.”
“That’s not long enough, baby. He’s going to be shocked to hear we’re married. Everyone is.”
“I’ll be very surprised if he says a word about it with your grandmother being as sick as she is. He’s going to know this isn’t the time or the place.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.”
Parker, Chip, and Elise came in late that afternoon, and after they had exchanged hugs with Ted’s parents and sister, Ted took them in to see Lillian and Theo. Since the small room was getting crowded, Ted stepped into the hallway to wait for them.
Elise came out first, wiping away tears as she hugged Ted. “Are you doing all right?”
“I’m hanging in there.”
“If there’s anything I can do for you—any of you—I hope you won’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thanks, Elise.”
“Um, congratulations. On the wedding and everything.”
“Thank you,” Ted said, touched by her support.
Parker and Ch
ip came out of Lillian’s room a minute later.
“Thanks for coming, you guys.” Ted noticed Chip fixating on his new wedding ring.
“Do you need anything?” Parker asked.
“No, we’re good,” Ted said.
Chip put his arm around Elise. “Well, we’re going to get going.”
“Okay.” Ted hid his disappointment at the brevity of their visit. “I know my grandfather appreciates you coming.”
Chip nodded and escorted Elise down the long corridor. She looked back over her shoulder and blew Ted a kiss.
“He’s pissed,” Ted said to Parker.
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been in a situation like this before, so I don’t know what to expect.”
“I think you know exactly what to expect.”
“So you too, huh?”
Parker’s shrug was weary. “I don’t know what I am. I’m doing my best to keep an open mind, but I’ve got to be honest with you. It isn’t easy.”
“Parker . . .”
Parker held up his hand. “You’ve got enough on your plate right now. We’ll talk about this later. Call me if there’s anything I can do. I mean that.”
“Thanks. Are you getting Smitty in the morning?”
“Yeah.”
“Will you, I mean, can you . . .”
“Prepare him for what he’s going to find here?”
Chagrinned, Ted nodded.
“Of course I will. Do you think I’d let him discover you’ve married his ex-girlfriend when he sees the ring on your finger?”
The shaft of pain surprised Ted and sent him reeling.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Parker said.
After he had walked away, Ted leaned back against the wall and hung his head, struggling to absorb the blow. When he looked up he found his grandfather watching him through the window. Ted managed a small smile for the old man.
Caroline came to find Ted a short time later.
“Did they leave?” Ted asked.
“A few minutes ago.”
“Were they nice to you?”
“Elise was. Parker and Chip kept their distance.”
“Same here. If everything were normal, they would’ve been here all day.”
She put her arms around him. “I’m sorry, honey. Maybe with time . . .”