One Lavender Ribbon (33 page)

Water swirled in her bathroom sink as she rinsed the brush. She knew there was a strong possibility this would blow up in her face. It was a huge gamble. So far, things had worked out in her schemes, but each time she felt more and more like she was on the chopping block. Though this scared her, there was something that scared her even worse. The last time Will got mad at her for interfering, something in Adrienne’s heart had snapped. Something deep within her had changed. There was a disconnected resolve she didn’t particularly like but couldn’t eradicate.

Will is not like Eric,
she whispered to her mirror reflection. But in the deepest part of her heart, she knew she was almost done giving him chances to prove that.

Other than that nasty little revelation, things between her and Will were great. They had met regularly to finish the party plans over the past five weeks. The party planning was just an excuse to get together. They both knew it. They had agreed on every detail—even Sammie catering the bash—and had grown more and more excited as the day approached.

Adrienne bounced down the stairs to find him examining her clipboard list of things to do before the party. For a hot second, she panicked, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she remembered she kept the other list in the drawer,
the list of things to do before picking up Charles and Peg.

“Can you stay for lunch?” she asked, slipping the clipboard from him.

“Wish I could.” He took it back, tossed it onto the couch, and pulled Adrienne into his arms. “I’m just dropping off some things at the Bonita Springs bank branch. Thought I’d drop by.”

She liked this: his wanting to see her so badly, he dropped by when he was supposed to be working.

“The party is almost here, and Pops doesn’t have a clue,” he said.

The party is almost here.
Those words dropped into her stomach and burned like acid.

His hands laced together at the small of her back. “Well, I better get going.” With a long exhale, he started to release her.

Adrienne grabbed him by the shoulders, tipped her head back, and pressed her mouth to his.

For a moment, he must have been surprised, but settled deeper and deeper into the kiss until his hands were roaming her back and tangling in the loose strands of her hair. Finally, he broke the kiss. “If you’re trying to get rid of me, you’re failing.”

She shook her head. “No, Will. I’m not trying to get rid of you.” Adrienne’s heart pounded from more than just the kiss. She needed to tell him about his parents. Now was the time. This might be her last chance. “I just . . . ”

He tilted her chin with his thumb and finger. “I know. You love the flowers, but you’re not used to someone spoiling you, right?”

She swallowed the words she needed to speak. “Right.”

Will kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll see you Saturday.”

She nodded and followed him to the door, knowing that if things played out the way she expected, she might never get to kiss him again.

By Friday evening, everything was set. She’d picked up Sara early that morning and zipped to the airport that evening. Adrienne’s special touches in the upstairs bath were not lost on Charles and Peg. Charles had gone on and on about how the space looked, and even grabbed and hugged her. The two were loving, touchy people, reminding Adrienne of her own father. Now the three ladies sat on the back deck, listening to soft island music and the sound of crashing waves.

Sara stood up from her beach chair. “I’d love to stay up late with you two, but tomorrow is a big day. I need my beauty sleep.”

“I won’t be far behind you, Sara.” Adrienne squeezed her hand as she walked past.

“Sleep well, Sara,” Peg added. They watched as she disappeared into the house.

“What’s it like?” Adrienne asked, handing Peg a cup of tea. “To live so far from home?”

Peg sipped the drink as the bright moon danced on the water. “At first, I cried all the time.”

Adrienne stopped what she was doing and looked directly at her. “Really?”

Peg nodded and ran her fingertips through her wavy, dark hair. It was cut into a short bob that reached her shoulders when she shrugged. Her legs, tan and lean, stretched in front of her on the footstool. Crossed at the ankle, she seemed very much at home in the hard-backed wooden chair. “Being so far away from Will was gut wrenching in the beginning. I worried about him constantly.”

Adrienne smiled, wondering what that would be like—creating a being that is an expression of both you and the person you love and watching him grow. For a moment, she remembered a trip to the park when she’d seen a little girl fall off the monkey bars. Adrienne had watched the girl’s mother clean the wound, wiping her own tears as much as her child’s. What was it like to love someone more than life itself?

“But now,” Peg continued, “now, when I’m there, it feels like I’m home. And when I’m here, it feels like I’m home.”

Adrienne liked this woman with her sweet, tender spirit and her spine of steel. Every now and then, with a certain glint in her eye, she looked like Will. “Will favors you,” Adrienne said when she realized she’d been staring. “I didn’t see it at first, but he does.”

“I don’t see it myself, but people have always said that.” Peg thought a moment. “He acts like me too.”

“Really?”

She nodded, eyes twinkling. “We’re organized. Particular. We’re planners.” She leaned over the table and lowered her voice. “Everything Charles is not.”

Adrienne remembered the airport as Charles had lumbered along, haphazardly fumbling with the same number of suitcases Peg was effortlessly rolling behind her. He had lost his wallet and then found it, only to discover his passport was missing. He found the passport and noticed his driver’s license was gone. Once everything was back in order and in its proper place, they were able to leave. By the time they got to the car, his wallet had gone missing again. Of course, this, coupled with his cheery disposition about it, made him that much more endearing.

“So opposites do attract?” Adrienne said.

“For us, yes. I adore him. And I can beat him at basketball,” she threw in as an afterthought. “That’s always good for the female ego.”

“You two are very fortunate to have each other.”

“We are.” Peg studied her. “It’s also quite a blessing that you have come into our lives, Adrienne.”

“Well . . . ”—she squirmed—“I don’t know that it’s
that
much of a blessing.”

“I do,” Peg said regally. “There are no coincidences. Everything happens for a reason. It was no sheer accident you came into Will’s life.”

Uncomfortable now, Adrienne toyed with the edge of her cup, wondering how everyone would feel tomorrow. “Pops and Sara were reunited. There’s no doubt that was meant to be.”

They both pivoted as the back door opened. Charles’s gentle face popped out. “Honey, have you seen my reading glasses?”

Peg reached for his hand. “Bottom left corner of your suitcase.” One quick squeeze, and she unwound her fingers from his.

“How about my planner?”

“Jacket pocket,” she returned.

“And my toothbru—”

“In the brown carry-on.”

He gave her a smile that conveyed every emotion from “I love you” to “I could never survive a day without your help.” It was a look Adrienne knew was reserved only for his wife.

When he disappeared into the house, Adrienne grinned. “Wow, you really are organized.”

Peg nodded. “Where were we? Oh yes, I was getting ready to tell you not to forget there’s a destiny in all of this for you.” Seeming to sense the gravity of her words, she laughed.

Peg spoke of destiny as if she had a window into it. Adrienne wished she could spend more time with her.
Make tonight count,
her mind teased.
By tomorrow, you’ll be saying good-bye to all of them.

S
ammie dropped off the birthday cake. She’d be back within an hour with the food. Guests were going to arrive at noon, and Will was planning on getting there by ten o’clock. Adrienne gripped the kitchen counter until her fingers ached. For the thousandth time, her gaze skittered to the wall clock. Knots tightened in her stomach each time the minute hand circled. She wasn’t in a party mood.

She should have told him.

This was a rotten deception that could be looked at as nothing but a rotten deception. For five weeks, she’d met him for coffee or lunch, all the while knowing his parents were coming, but not breathing a word of it. She tried to scrub the frown from between her brows and hoped for the best. After all, it was Will who wanted his parents to come in the first place. He had been upset that they weren’t coming. So maybe . . .

No. She was grasping at straws. Whether he’d be happy or angry, their being here was beside the point. She’d known and she hadn’t told him. There was going to be a reckoning for that. Her eyes flashed to the clock again.

And the time for reckoning was upon her.

She’d just finished cleaning up from breakfast when the doorbell rang. It was 10:05. She took a moment to brace herself. It was just enough time for Peg to get to the door.

“Will!” Peg screeched and threw her arms around her son.

Adrienne peeked around the kitchen wall, as Will stood frozen, arms flat against his sides.

“What are you doing here?” he finally managed, a smile beginning to form.

Peg motioned behind her. “This is all Adrienne’s doing,” she said excitedly.

Adrienne swallowed and slunk back farther behind the wall.

“Really?” His eyes followed his mother’s gesture.

Adrienne watched the smile disappear completely as his gaze bore through her.

Peg was dragging him into the house, pulling him to the couch, and chatting about everything from how hot it had been in Africa to how Will looked thin—had he been eating right? “You aren’t living on coffee, are you? You know you can’t skip meals and stay healthy.”

Adrienne leaned her head against the wall, wondering where the regal, majestic woman she’d had tea with had gone. The doting, exuberant Peg rambled on and on, and honestly, Adrienne just wanted her to shut up and for this whole mess that she, Adrienne, had created to go away.

She listened from the safety of the kitchen as mother and son talked. Will was genuinely happy to see his mom; that much was obvious. She could hear it in his voice. But the ten minutes she worked in her kitchen only increased her dread about the inevitable confrontation.

Adrienne snapped to full attention when she heard Peg say, “I’m going to go let your father know you’re here. He can’t wait to see you!”

“Great,” Will said, disguising most of the tension in his voice. “I’ll go to the car to get the chairs I brought over.” Then, loud enough for her to hear and cringe, he added, “Maybe
Adrienne
could help me.”

She shuffled out of the kitchen and followed him, a prisoner led down death row. The late morning sun heated her flesh. Rather than walk beside him, she fell in line behind Will—away from all that anger on his face. At the trunk of the car, he turned on her. “What’s the matter with you?”

She thought she’d be hurt by his words but found she wasn’t. A seabird flew above them, its call echoing off her ears. She wanted to tune into that—the bird, the sky, anything but Will. He’d reacted exactly the way she thought he would. Exactly the way
Eric
would.

When she didn’t answer, his anger flared.

“How long have you known they were coming?” He waited only a moment. Through gritted teeth, he asked again, “How long?”

She wouldn’t lie. For stability, she rested her hip against his car. “Five weeks.”

He threw his hands up. “And what—you forgot to mention it?”

“I was afraid you would be upset.”

“Oh, I am upset!” His eyes narrowed on her. “Do you really think that every time there is a problem, you can just play God and make it all work out? You need a reality check.” He stared down her road as if he couldn’t stomach looking at her.

But rather than feel hurt by it, she got mad.
Mad
was a fairly new sensation for Adrienne, filled with power and control. Her hand rested against her stomach where the seed had first taken root and now had grown to full-fledged fury. “They’re here for Pops. And if you don’t like it, too bad. You’re the one that wanted them here, remember? You were mad they weren’t coming; now you’re mad they did come. Maybe it’s
you
that needs a reality check.” She poked his chest with her index finger.