Away From the Spotlight (65 page)

“Not great, but he’ll be okay,”
Max
responded somberly.

“That was kind of you to tell him first and in person,” Daniel added.

“
I don’t think there is any way I could have been kind, but I didn’t want him to hear it through the grapevine.”

“You care about him, don’t you?” Daniel asked.

“Yes, I do,” I answered honestly.  “I will try to keep this low key to the extent that I can
, b
ut you guys take care of him, okay?”

“We will,”
Max
answered.  “Are you happy?”

“Very.  Will is everything I want.  It’s just hard this morning because of John.  I feel
terrible
.”

“It should be easier for him now that you are completely off the market and there’s no hope.  He’ll move on now,” Daniel said.

“You two probably hate me now,” I frowned.

“We don’t.  We understand.  It’s just that John’s our friend.”
  Daniel was nothing if not loyal.

“Aren’t I?”
I asked tentatively.

“Yes.  If it were you instead of John, then we would be worried about you.”
  That answer
should not have
surprised me.

“You think we’ll all be able to be the
‘
Four Musketeers
’
again?”

“In time,”
Max
responded.

“Just let me know when and count me in.”  I left
Max
’s office feeling a little more
optimistic
that everything would work out in the long run
,
and John and I could be good friends again.

I
thereafter
returned to my office to start work for the day and closed my door for some privacy.  I sat at my desk unable to do anything other than turn on the computer and watch it load
, as
the events of the past few days
had been so overwhelming
.  I certainly hadn’t left the office on Friday planning to re
concile
with Will and get married.

I started to think about whether I had done the right thing.  Had we eloped before our painful breakup, I would have had no doubt.  Now that I knew how Will could hurt me and now that I had seen th
e other side of him, I wondered w
hat other unpleasant events could we look forward to that might cause Will to push me
away and become Mr. Hyde again.

As if
Will
could read my mind,
he called me at that moment.  “How is
m
y wife
doing th
is morning?” 
Will
sounded cheery.

“Good.  Glad I don’t have anything pressing.  I don’t think I’
ll get a whole lot done today.”

“You don’t sound happy.”

I hadn’t realized. 
“No, I am.”

I must not have
sounded
convincing, because he said,
“You can tell
me.  You can tell me anything.”

“Well, I had the pleasure of hurting John again and then I had to face the music with
Max
and Daniel.”

Will tried to be comforting. 
“I’m sorry.  I know th
at had to have been difficult.”

“I try so hard to be a good person, but, in this instance, I have failed miserably and repeatedly
,
I’m afraid.”

“It will be fine.  It may just take a while.  You’ll see.  Is
that all that’s bothering you?”

“Kind of.”

“And kind of not.  What else?”

“I’m just coming to terms with this weekend.  It all happened so fast.  I went from pr
actically hating you to . . .”

“You
hated
me?”
I could hear the horror in his voice.

“That’s probably too strong a word
, b
ut I had loved you so much and you hurt me so badly.  My anger was pretty fierce.  I thought I had gotten over the anger until I saw you at that sushi place.  When I saw you, I
didn’t even know that person.”

“It’s okay.  Neither did
I.  I wish I could say something that would make the past few months go away and for you never to have seen me like that.  I am terribly fl
awed and I’m sorry for that.  I’
ve made a mess o
f things.  Can you forgive me?”

“I have forgiven you.  I married you.  It just doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten or that it doesn’t scare me that these events could happen again.  I worry because I just don’t think I cou
ld take it again.”

“I promise nothing will separate us again.  Just like it said in our
vows, ‘Til death do us part.’”

“Well, about fifty percent of all marriages
are ‘til divorce do us part.’”

“We’ll
be in the other fifty percent.”

“How do you know?”
I was still worried.

“Because I love you and
I
am
not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice.  Unless
you
have any plans to break us up?”

“No.  I wasn’t worried about me.  I was worried about
you
.”

“We’re good then?”

“Yes, I guess so.
”  I could hear a little sigh of relief on the other end of the phone.
“
Other than Saturday, h
ave you ever noticed how we have
a lot
of these kinds of conversations over the phone
or out in public
?”

“Yes.”

“I wonder why that is.”

“Because when we’re alone together, we can’t keep our hands off each other
,
”
Will said in a sexy voice.

“I guess that’s true.  Do you think we’ll ever be able to have them
when we’re alone together
?”

“If you mean, ‘do I think that we’ll be able to keep our hands off each other at some point,’ I certainly hope not.  But I do think we might be able t
o figure out how to multitask.”

“Funny.”
I
chuckled
.

“Well, now that that’s settled, I’ll let you at least attempt to work today.  I’ll be waiting fo
r you tonight, Mrs. MacKenzie,” Will said with an unspoken promise in the tone of his voice.

“When I think of “Mrs. MacK
enzie, I think of your mother.”

“I see your point.  Speaking of my mother, I called my parents today to give them the
good
news. 
I thought it would be too late if I waited for you to come home. 
She and my father send their love.  She was hoping that maybe we could hold a reception in England over Christmas.  I know it
’
s
short notice, but we might be able to have some privacy if we can do it before word of our marriage
gets
out.”

“That would be great.  I assume your mother probably already has ideas and
at least a partial guest list?”

“You know her well.”

“I’m open.  You did such a wonderful job on the engagement party there, I trust you.  We’ll let my mother have at it
for
the reception over here.  I should tell you that
Rachael
is planning my
bachelorette party
, probably as we speak.  So, you s
ee I really will miss nothing.”

“I’m glad, but I have to ask, can’t one of your other friends plan your
p
arty? 
Rachael
is the
least likely to keep it tame.”

“I promise there will be nothing extreme.  Can you promise the same with
your
friends?”

“I think
Rachael
is worse than any
friend of mine so don’t worry.”

“All right.  You just reminded me that I should probably call my mother.  She would be unhappy if she knew that so many others were told
first.  I’ll see you tonight”

“I love you.
I almost said your full name.  I know what that does to
you.  I’ll wait until tonight.”

“Good.  I love you.  Bye.”

I then logged
i
nto the
network
and called my mother.

I didn’t know how to start
since
I knew she would be disappointed.  “
Mom, I have some news for you.”

She said simply,
“Y
ou and Will got back together.”

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Because there was more life in your vo
ice than I’ve heard in months.”

“Oh.  Well, there’s more.  You see, we elop
ed this past weekend.”

“You’re
married
?”
  She sounded surprised and, I was
certain
, hurt.

“Yes.  I’m sorry.  I know you’re disappointed you weren’t there.  We wanted to be married right away and without all the chaos of the press.  I promise you it was elegant and that there are pictures.  It was just the two of us in a suite at
the Four Seasons in Las Vegas.”

“I believe that it would have to have been elegant.  No drive-through wedding for you.  You’re such a planner though.  I wouldn’t have believed you would do something so
big on the spur of the moment.”

Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have been wrong. 
“Well, I did.”

“There will be a reception, I hope
?
”

“Well, I was hoping you would help with that, not financia
lly, but in terms of planning.”

“That’s the br
ide’s family’s responsibility.”

“Well, good luck trying to convince Will.  Even if you win the argument, he’ll probably go around you and pay for a good part of it without you even kn
owing.  That’s just how he is.”

“Hmmm.”
She didn’t sound convinced.  She didn’t know Will.

“There’s one other thing.  Will’s mother wants to have a reception in England as well.  I told Will she could plan that one.  She wants to hold it at Christmastime.
  Is that okay?  Can you come?”

“Of course, we’ll be there.  Should I call
his mother and offer to help?”

“That would be nice.  Just let her have her way though, okay?  I want to make her happy.  I’ve taken her son and am keeping him in the United States.  I think she was hoping that he would eventually return to London to live.  I don’t thi
nk that’s going to happen now.”

“I can do that, I guess, s
ince I get to do the one here
.”

“We probably want to do it sooner, rather than later
,
if we can before the press gets wind of it.  That’s going to be the hard part
:
keeping it
quiet.  I don’t want a zoo.”

“I assume you want to hold it in L
.A. rather than San Francisco?”

“Yes.  Do you mind?”

“No.”
  She sounded like she meant it so I was relieved.  Although my family was there in Northern California, most of Will’s and my friends were here in Southern California.

“Good.  It’s all settled.”

“Congratulations, honey
.”

“I’ll call Dad and
Kelly
, okay?  Let
me
tell them.”

“
All right,
”
she agreed reluctantly.

“Lov
e you, Mom.  Talk to you soon.”

I then called my Dad, who was very excited for me, and almost as excited about the upcoming trip to England for the reception.  Like my mother, he wasn’t surprised that Will and I had gotten back together, only that we had done so and gotten married in such
s
hort
order
.

After that, I called my sister on her cell ph
one to make sure I reached her.

“
Kelly
, I have some news for you.”

“You and Will are back together
,
”
she said with a deadpan voice.

“Why is no one surprised?”

“Because everyone knew it would happen sooner or later
,
”
she said matter-of-factly.