Love Is Nuts (3 Tales) (3 page)

The sobs paused on a trembling breath. “Don’t you need to bring a marriage license for places like that?”

Not a yes, but not a no either. She was considering it.

Danny took heart. “I guess. But we’ve already got ours.” Angelica had made sure of that.

“Yeah, but it’s back at the Karma Suite.”

“Nope, I put it in your purse before we left.”

Mona stiffened slightly in his hold. “You really did plan to elope, didn’t you?” She pushed back to meet his eyes. “Danny, I…I might have misjudged you.”

He wished.

“No, sweetheart, you saw me for what I was.” With the emphasis on
was
. “It was wrong how I acted before – and I’m damn sure not proud of it now. I want to make it right. I want to make a fresh start. With
you
. Do you think you can give me another chance? Please? Maybe we don’t exactly love each other – yet – but we can work on it. We know we’re good together in bed. We can build on that, can’t we?”

She lowered her gaze, pulling the shutters down over her thoughts. Danny couldn’t see into her eyes, but he suddenly saw
through
them – saw what she did the way she saw it.

Another psychic insight?

Memories like movie images filled his mind. Mona’s memories, not his, and the change of perspective made a difference. He saw a fast-forward seduction by a reckless Romeo who’d swept Juliet off her feet – then dropped her – nights of long hot loving that had ended with a short cold goodbye. No wonder she didn’t dare trust him.

“Romeo oughta be horsewhipped,” he muttered to himself.

“
What
?” Her gaze flashed back to his. The look in her eyes softened. “Yeah, well, I didn’t exactly do right by you either. I should have told you myself I was pregnant. You had a right to know, for godssake. It wasn’t fair to let you find out the way you did. But” – she swallowed, hard – “I was afraid you’d think I did it deliberately to trap you into marrying me.”

“Hell, I’d marry you even if you weren’t having my baby!” He yanked her back into a tight hug. “But I’m glad you are. In fact, I hope we have a lot more. I, um, like kids,” he confessed a little sheepishly. “I think I’m going to like being a dad.”

“Oh, Danny…”

Yep, she was bawling all over him again. Good thing he was wearing a towel.

“I like kids, too!” she wailed. “I’ve always wanted a big family!”

“Then that’s something else we can build on.” Making love and making babies. The two things did seem to go together. “C’mon, sweetheart, what do you say?”

Danny himself was out of words. If Mona didn’t answer yes, he’d have to kiss her into a stupor and carry her to the chapel before she regained her senses. An enticing idea actually. He half hoped she’d say no.

“Yes!” she yelled.

Oh, what the hell…

He kissed her anyway.

* * * *

Lounging in the luxurious Karma Suite, a cell phone in her hand, Angelica chuckled. She’d hired the Sharpe Security & Surveillance team for show, so to speak, not because they were especially good at their job – which they weren’t.

The agency’s owner, Mr. Sharpe (a misnomer if ever she’d heard one), was on the other end of her phone, nervously explaining how Danny and Mona had just walked
out
of the walk-in wedding chapel, looking immensely pleased with themselves.

Big surprise. Angelica had already heard this news from Great-Uncle Guido, the grump of the Other Side. But she’d seen it even earlier – back when she’d first dreamed of Danny’s marriage. Good Lord, that’s why she’d chosen this resort. Because its very convenient little chapel matched the one in her vision. But she couldn’t have told Danny and Mona that. If
she
had arranged the chapel wedding, they’d have balked at it out of pure stubbornness. So she’d arranged the dreaded “Nuptials of Babylon” instead, to give them something worse to balk at.

Heh, heh.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Sharpe, you’ll still be paid in full,” she assured him.

A sigh of relief sounded. “That’s real nice of you, Mrs. D’Leon – and much appreciated – considering we botched it. Y’see, we weren’t watching the chapel too close. We figured that was the last place those two would head for.”

He apologized profusely for letting them “escape.”

“Horse hockey,” Angelica said. “They
escaped
straight into each other’s arms – exactly what I wanted them to do.”

“Uh-huh.” Sharpe cleared his throat. “No disrespect intended, ma’am, but if you wanted ’em to ditch your wedding plans, why’d you hire me and my team to keep ’em corralled till the big day?”

“To give them something to ditch besides each other, of course. Something to make them join forces – to open up and start
communicating
. Nothing brings people together like facing a common foe.”

She chuckled again.

“You mean the whole thing was a setup?” Sharpe chuckled, too. “Remind me never to play poker with you, Mrs. D’Leon. You are one very smart lady.”

“Thank you, Mr. Sharpe, but not really. I just…see a lot, that’s all.” She ended the call and sat back, thinking.

Angelica had four children and enough grandkids for a baseball team, but Danny had always tugged hardest on her heartstrings. She’d raised him after his parents’ ugly divorce and probably spoiled him, trying to make a sad little boy smile again. They were close, he and she, despite all the drama of his youth, or maybe because of it. The little boy had become a rebellious teen who grew into a reckless young man, and she’d often worried about him. But no more. She knew him better than he knew himself, had understood the reason for his wild behavior, even when he hadn’t. To Danny, love had been the one risk he didn’t dare take, so he’d run like the devil from it.

Lucky for him, it caught him anyway.

She gazed off into space. In her mind’s eye, Angelica saw a long happy life ahead for Danny and Mona – and she always saw things correctly.

Well…almost always.

Her granddaughter Sophia baffled both the inner and outer senses. Sophia was her cousin Danny’s polar opposite, a brilliant girl but a hopeless romantic who believed in love at first sight and soul mates. She penned poetry, devoured classic literature, and knew exactly the man she wanted.

Lord Byron.

Not the original, of course – he’d been dead for too long – but Sophia was convinced he had a modern-day twin around somewhere. She just couldn’t find him, and she’d been looking for months now.

Neither could Angelica, though God knew she’d been looking, too, searching with psychic sight. Why did she keep drawing a blank? There had to be
someone
out there for Sophia. Angelica sensed him even if she couldn’t see him. Maybe not a Lord Byron, but—

Her cell phone buzzed.

Half in a trance, she stared at the caller ID.

Byron Sharpe?

Close enough!

Honestly, she should have considered him before. No doubt she would have if she hadn’t been busy with Danny and Mona. But they were well on their way to happiness now, so she could devote full attention to this new development.

Rapid-fire images scrolled through her mind. Why, they could proceed with Saturday’s wedding as planned – only with a different couple in the lead roles. It hadn’t been cancelled yet, and Sophia, unlike Danny, would adore it. She thrived on theatrics, and wouldn’t mind the short notice, believing as she did in love at first sight. So would Byron Sharpe once he saw Sophia D’Leon.

Oh yes, this could work. A tender poet and a tough PI… Sophia and Sharpe were perfect for one another. Like Beauty and the Beast.

Angelica felt confirmation chills up and down her spine. With so much already in place, all she had to do was introduce the two and let nature take its course.

And if nature hesitated, she could always give it a little nudge in the right direction.

She smiled as she answered the call. “Yes, Byron?”

It took him a moment to respond. She’d never used his first name before. It apparently knocked him off balance.

Good.

“Um…yeah. Sorry to bother you again, Mrs. D’Leon, but—”

“Please, call me Angelica.”

“Sure” – he coughed – “whatever you say. I, um, was just wondering if we should pack up now that you don’t need us anymore.”

“Certainly not. You may send the rest of your team home, if you wish, but since I’m paying the full fee, I expect you, at least, to remain here the full amount of time for which you were hired. I’m sure I can find…another job for you to do.”

“Uh-huh. Like what, ma’am, if you don’t mind my askin’?”

Poor boy, he did sound suspicious, didn’t he? Probably thought the wealthy old widow was about to proposition him. How amusing. She was, of course, but not the way he feared.

“Oh, nothing difficult. I’ve decided to go ahead with Saturday’s festivities – as a party perhaps. It’s rather too late to cancel the whole thing, what with three hundred guests on the way. One of them, my granddaughter Sophia, is arriving early, in fact. This evening. She’s a gorgeous girl, quite stunning – and quite rich, naturally, being one of my heirs. I’m worried she’ll attract too many lascivious advances in a place like this.”

“So, um…you want me to be her bodyguard?”

Now he sounded excited, like he could scarcely believe his luck.

“Precisely. I want you to stay close by her side and keep the wolves at bay, so to speak.”

“Sure thing!” His breathing quickened. Good Lord, he practically panted into the phone.

Angelica smiled again. It was just as she’d suspected –
foreseen
– Sharpe was something of a wolf himself, and a mercenary one, but that was all right. Lust and the love of money could lead to deeper love. The important thing was that she’d stirred his interest along with his libido. Fate and Romance could handle it from there.

“No need to worry, ma’am. I’ll take real good care of her!”

“I’m certain you will.” Still smiling, Angelica cut the connection and laid her cell phone aside, gazing off into the future.

Such a beautiful thing, young love.

=========

<<<>>>

II.

Seducing Sophia

(Rated PG-13)

Head in the clouds and feet on a plush pink carpet, Sophia entered the Karma Suite of the Aphrodite Ashram-Hotel in the “Elysian Fields of Love” luxury resort. The name sort of said it all.

A “crackpot place,” her cousin Danny had called it – but he would, of course. Danny had always been the rebel-without-a-pause type with no sense of romance or whimsy, no
poetry
in his soul. He’d never believed in true love the way she did. Danny had chased skirts while Sophia chased rainbows.

Which made it all the more ironic to consider that
he
was the one married now, and she was still searching for her soul mate.

Sigh.

Sophia had arrived at the resort that evening, only a short while ago, in order to attend Danny’s wedding ceremony, a huge colorful event planned by their grandmother for the day after the morrow. Except Danny and his bride Mona had escaped the plan via one of their own that afternoon.

Amazing. She wouldn’t have thought he had it in him. But she had to admit he and Mona had certainly looked happy when she’d seen them in the lobby and heard the story. They’d been checking out of the hotel just as she’d been checking in – off to honeymoon somewhere other than the “crackpot” Elysian Fields.

Where, exactly, Sophia hadn’t inquired and didn’t much care. She’d been too busy basking in the glow of their newfound love and wishing some of it would rub off on her.

“Is Gran still here?” was all she’d asked.

“Yep, and expecting you. She’s waiting up in the suite. And still planning on a big party this Saturday, whether there’s a wedding with it or not. Says it’s too late to cancel with so many guests on the way. Watch your step, Sophie,” Danny had teased as he’d hugged her goodbye. “Now that Gran’s got me married, she’ll be looking for someone for you.”

One could only hope.

Sophia and Danny’s grandmother, Angelica, was wonderfully wealthy and wonderfully psychic. She heard spirit voices and saw visions of the future, but for some reason she hadn’t seen Sophia’s yet – or if she had, Angelica was keeping it to herself.

“I wish she would,” Sophia had answered her cousin. “But only if she can find me Lord Byron.”

Or a man like him. A passionate poet with dreamy eyes and lofty ideals, someone as lyrically romantic as herself. That’s who Sophia wanted, and she refused to settle for less. That’s why she was still a virgin.

Double sigh.

Danny had laughed at her answer – he’d thought she’d been joking – but Mona had looked sympathetic. Women understood these things.

“All I can tell you,” she’d whispered, “is that love has no logic and no shame. It hits when you least expect it, and tosses you the last person you think you want – but the exact one you need.”