Deep in the Heart (45 page)

“
Yeah, I’m sure.”

Pictures of the wedding party at the mansion had given way to pictures of just Keith and Dallas, and from Isabella’s room above the festivities, Maggie watched them below, holding hands, smiling at each other, and kissing. Every look, every kiss broke her heart into a few more pieces. She wrenched her arms over themselves to keep the pain away, but still it attacked her like warriors breaching barricades. He was getting married. Keith was getting married. This was real. It wasn’t just some nightmare that she would wake up from. It was really happening. Tears slid out of her eyes as she watched them, so happy, so right together. Keith’s arms were around Dallas just as Maggie had wished for so long they would be around her.

Dallas gazed up at him, and the look he gave her in return could hold no other meaning. Watching it was horrible. It was like being ripped apart from the inside out. The soft knock on the door smashed through her, and she swiped at the tears as she turned. “Yeah?”

“
Maggie?” Jamie asked in instant concern when she saw her. “Maggie, what’s wrong?”

Anguish crashed through the pain. “I… I can’t do this.”

Jamie’s concern deepened. “Can’t do what?”

Maggie raked her fingers through her hair. “I can’t stay here. I’ve got to go.”

“
Go? But…”

An escape plan formed in her head as Maggie looked at the young lady. “You have to cover for me, Jamie. You’re good with the kids. They’ll be all right with you.”

“
Me? Maggie, what are you talking about?”

“
Tell them I got a call from home. Tell them it was an emergency, and I had to go. Tell them I’m sorry.” She stepped past Jamie and ran to her room, tears blinding her path. Nothing other than the overwhelming desire to run was getting through. If she could just leave, just get out of here before anyone knew she was gone, then surely her heart wouldn’t crack in two.

As she dragged her suitcase from the closet, she heard the first strains of the violins downstairs. Guests were already arriving. She didn’t have much time to make her getaway. In fistfuls she yanked her clothes from the closet and threw them into the suitcase just as the door to her room came open.

“
Maggie? What’re you doing?” Greg asked in horror. “Where are you going?”

“
Back where I belong.”

“
Well, I guess you got what you wanted,” Tanner said to Ike as Keith readjusted his tie at the mirror of the bedroom where they were getting ready. “Ms. Montgomery’s leaving.”

In one second the tie was forgotten as Keith spun. “Leaving?”

Tanner nodded. “Jamie just came and got Greg. She said Ms. Montgomery’s real upset. She’s packing to leave.”

“
What? No. She can’t…” Keith was at the door in two steps, but before he could get through it, Ike stepped between him and his destination.

“
Let her go, Keith. She’s no better than the rest of them.”

“
The rest of…?” Keith wasn’t comprehending. “Get out of my way, Ike.”

But the old cowboy didn’t budge, and with his foot anchored there, neither did the door.

Anger snapped into Keith. “Move, or I’ll move you.”

Ike stood for one more long moment, and then with a slow shake of his head he stepped to the side. Keith yanked the door open and raced into the hallway, through the upstairs, and right to the kids’ wing.

At Maggie’s door Greg stood pleading with her to stop. “You don’t have to do this, Maggie. Really. It’s not…”

Keith pushed past Greg, and the sight of Maggie standing at the bed, her back to the door, latching the suitcase slammed into him. “Maggie, what’re you doing?”

In a breath she whirled around. The look in her eyes was hard and determined. “I know. I should stay for the kids’ sake, but I just can’t. Okay? Don’t ask me why. I’ve just…” She reached back and swung the suitcase to her. “I’ve got to go.”

“
Maggie, wait.” As she brushed by him, Keith snagged her wrist, and she stopped one inch from him. His gaze slid down her face to her lips and then traced back up again. “Please don’t go. I don’t want you to go.”

She slammed her eyes closed, and he knew she was fighting as hard as he was. “I hope you and Dallas will be very happy together.” With that she opened her eyes, and the look in them ripped his own helplessness wide open. One shake of her wrist, and she was free of him. “I’ve got to go.”

Knocking into everyone she met on the way out, Maggie headed for the stairs.

“
It’s time, everyone,” Patty Ann said, climbing the stairs and meeting Maggie coming the other way down them. “Ms. Montgomery, where are you going?”

But Maggie never stopped. Keith followed her out of the room and stood with a whole audience behind him as he watched her go. He wanted to go after her, to stop her, and tell her that he loved her, but the truth was, he loved her too much to do that. She was better off without him.

“
Would someone please tell me what’s going on?” Patty Ann asked, her face livid.

“
Greg.” Keith turned to his best friend. He didn’t even have to say the words, the look of sheer panic conveyed the message perfectly.

“
Yeah, I’ll go.” Greg started down the stairs after Maggie, but Patty Ann stopped him.

“
You’re the best man. You can’t leave.”

“
Oh, yeah? Watch me.”

Glad for the tennis shoes, Maggie ran stumbling down the trail to the guesthouse. The suitcase banged into her leg, nearly tripping her, but she didn’t care. She had to get away.

Knowing that the barn must be at an angle to her present location, she ducked into the trees and cut cross-country. “God, please, please, just get me out of here.”

“
The final guests have been seated!” Patty Ann exclaimed in horror as she climbed the main staircase into the emotional chaos above. “Your parents are walking down the aisle right now. You’re supposed to be downstairs ready to go. What are you all doing standing around for? We’ve got a wedding to put on.”

The others seemed to scatter to their rightful posts, but Keith couldn’t move. He stood there at the balcony railing gazing down into nothing. He couldn’t move, not a finger, not a toe. If Greg didn’t find her, she might be gone forever. It was what he said he wanted for her, but watching it happen was killing him.

“
Mr. Ayer,” Patty Ann said, reappearing at the bottom of the steps. “Now!”

In her headlong dash to leave, Maggie had almost forgotten the secret of getting the barn door open. Finally with a bang of her body into it, the bolt came free, and the door swung open. Motion after motion she made until she and the suitcase were in the car, and it was running. She spun out of the barn and urged the little car up the path to the trees.

Details like closing the barn door were lost in the haze of numbness. She drove past the garage without looking at it and turned on the pavement. In less than a minute she was at the mansion and in less than another she was out the front gate. Swiping at the tears she forced herself not to think about what time it was, about what was happening, about life itself. Where she was going, she had no idea. Anywhere had to be better than here.

Six hundred pairs of eyes gazed at Keith as he walked out of the side room and took his place at the front of the assembled guests. He wasn’t really breathing or thinking. It was more momentum carrying him forward than anything. Right up front his father smiled at him and nodded. There was something so spirit-sapping about that look, Keith had to look away. Yes, his father was proud of him because this wasn’t him—it was some made-up, plastic replica of him that clinched him in its vice grip.

“
Finally, you are rising to the occasion” his father’s look seemed to say. Keith shook his head and replanted his gaze to the aisle beyond. Dallas, basking in the glow of having all eyes on her, walked gracefully beside her father. Mr. Henderson, too, was milking this walk for all it was worth. Flashbulbs went off ahead of them, and disgust clutched Keith’s gut. In minutes he would be tied to that farce of a delusional display. It wasn’t real. None of it.

“
Do you want to be rich or to look rich?” Maggie’s voice asked from deep inside him. Looking at them, Keith couldn’t help but think how rich they looked but how terribly poor in morals and judgment and the things that really counted that they were.

When they made it to the end of the aisle, Mr. Henderson turned and kissed Dallas. Then he looked at Keith with a gaze that would’ve melted Everest. “Be good to her, you hear me?”

Keith swallowed and nodded. When Mr. Henderson stepped to the side, Keith offered her his arm. He wasn’t going to make the mistake of taking her hand like he had at the rehearsal the night before. If he had learned anything, it was that this was important, and every detail had to be right.

“
No!” Maggie wailed as the hissing sound increased sending the power in her car into a death spiral. When it rolled to a stop on the side of the road leading out of Pine Hill, she allowed herself to sit and wallow in her pathetic bad luck for one moment before she slammed her shoulder into the door to get it to open.

At the front of the car, she reached down to pop the hood, nearly scalding her hand in the process. When the hood was open, she waved the steam away. “I cannot believe this. What else could go wrong?”

Just then she heard the sound of a vehicle coming up behind her, and she turned and shielded her eyes from the late afternoon sun. Maybe if she was lucky, she could get a ride to a bus station. Del Rio sounded really nice right about now.

However, when she got a good look at the stopping car, annoyance jammed into her. In seconds it was stopped and the driver was out and striding toward her. In just as many she was buried in his arms.

“
Maggie,” Greg said. “Oh, thank God you’re okay.”

“
Do you, Keith Warren Ayer take Dallas Celeste Henderson to be your lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold from this day forward ‘til death do you part?”

The words seemed so simple. Two of them. Two little syllables in fact, but the questions and concerns smashing into each other in the middle of his gut wouldn’t let them find the air.

The minister cleared his throat. “Umm. Mr. Ayer?”

“
Huh?” Keith asked, looking up at him as if he had no idea why he was standing there.

“
Do you take Dallas to be your wife?”

Keith’s gaze slid to her, and one question trumped all the others. He glanced at the preacher and then at her. Finally his gaze settled on the preacher. “Hold that thought.”

“
I can call a tow truck,” Greg said as they stood beside the road, examining the heap that used to be a car.

“
I’m sorry.” Maggie glanced at him. “You were supposed to be at the wedding. I didn’t mean to drag you into this.”

“
Hey, don’t sweat it. I’d rather be out here with you than at some pretentious showboat wedding anyway.” He smiled at her. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. I’ll call a tow truck to come get this. We can go back to my place.”

Panic seized her, but he just smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll behave myself.”

“
Keith, what do you think you’re you doing?” Dallas asked in a barely contained screech as he dragged her from the garden into the little side room. Once there, she yanked her wrist free of his grip. “This is not funny.”

“
I’m not laughing.” He turned to her and put both hands on her arms which were bare owing to the strapless wedding gown. “Listen, I have to know something.”

Her eyes were wild with frustration. “What? That you’re insane?”

“
No.” Seriousness snapped through him. “Listen to me, Dallas. I have to know something before we do this.”

“
What? What in the world is so important that you humiliate me in front of six hundred people?”

Keith took a breath to settle the question in his heart. “Do you believe in God?”

At that, even her anger fell into incomprehension. “Wh…? Do I…? What kind of a question is that?”

“
I have to know. It’s important to me.”

Dallas took that in, closed her eyes, and shook her head. “Keith, this is crazy. What difference does it make if I believe in God or not?”

“
Just a simple yes or no, Dallas. That’s all I need.”

She thought a little longer. “Well, yeah. I guess so. I mean. What’s not to believe?”

The answer wasn’t really an answer, more of a question. “Do you have faith that He’ll get you through life? I mean does He factor into your decisions at all?”

Her gaze turned decidedly skeptical. “God?”

His spirit was falling through her apathy toward the topic. “Yeah. Is He a real part of your life?”

“
I…” She let out her breath. “I don’t know. What do you want me to say?”

“
The truth, Dallas. I want the truth.”

The door swung open.

“
What’s going on in here?” his father hissed.

“
Please, Dad. We’re in the middle of something.”

“
Yeah, does the word
wedding
come to mind?” his father asked.

“
Please, Dad, just give us a minute.”