Prescription For Love (The Kingsley Series) (5 page)

"You know I will," Tabitha giggled. "We're going to skip the 'fit for a star' part, and give her a wedding fit for a queen. Maybe then she won't be able to afford to get married again for a while."

"Please, she'd just snag another billionaire."

"Like McMillan," Tabitha grumbled. "Some girls have all the luck."

"Luck has nothing to do with it," Cameron laughed, pulling out her contact notebook and starting a list of numbers to call. "Jeez, and people wonder why I don't get married."

***

"I can't believe you're telling me this," Drew whispered, dropping his head to rest his face in his hands.

"Well, I'm not saying that you shouldn't do it, Drew. I'm just saying you really want to think first. Make sure this is what you want. That she's what you want. I just want you to be careful."

"I'm almost thirty, and I'm just walking into marriage for my first and hopefully only time," he answered, his voice rising slightly, taking on the gruff tone of frustration. "This isn't something I've taken lightly."

He spread his hands, his eyes wide, his expression hurt. Sighing, he twisted, watching a breeze flick through the budding limbs of a tree outside the window. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Be careful,"
she'd said.
"Think first."
He'd thought she liked Cass, he'd thought that she was happy for him. Was she now showing him otherwise? Would she try to talk him out of marrying Cass?

"I know, Drew. I know you've thought about it well; you've never been one to make decisions lightly. It's just ... you're my little brother, and I like Cass. I just don't want to see anything happen to either of you, I don't want you to get hurt."

"Get hurt?" His gaze left the window, hurt showing on his face for an instant, before he quickly turned away again.

"Well," Cameron said cautiously. "I know you've been through stuff, especially lately, and that she's been through stuff too. I don't pretend to know everything Drew --"

"Don't you," he interrupted. "Aren't you?"

Ignoring the barb, Cameron took a deep breath and ploughed on. "I don't pretend to know everything, but my world is in weddings; it's in marriage. And I don't want to plan any more weddings for you, or for Cass. Please, Drew, I'm not trying to overstep anything, but I love you and I want to know you're okay. With you and Cass both fresh out of therapy, you're both in vulnerable places, and --"

"We're not out of therapy." Drew smirked, watching his sister's mouth fall open, her dark eyes going wide with surprise. She wet her lips with the tip of her tongue, neatly closing her mouth and he watched her throat work as she swallowed.

"You're not?" she asked.

"Nope. We've switched though; we don't see Mac anymore. He referred us to a colleague of his, someone who does marital counseling. Cass and I are going preemptively, trying to set ourselves up for something solid. We're aware that we've only known each other a short time, and we admit we spent much of that time apart. But we're committed to making it work, making sure we know each other well and that our connection is a good one. I love you Cameron, and I'm glad you're looking out for me. But I'm not some young dumb kid anymore. I know what I'm doing here. So are you with me, or not?"

"Of course I am," Cameron said, crossing her legs. Drew couldn't help smiling, watching her. She was sweet, funny, and beautiful. She should be married now herself, but her cynical nature blocked her off from people, her jaded perspective keeping her alone. She looked small there, sitting primly in Adam's favorite chair, her slender legs crossed before her.

Though most of the Kingsley children had moved out and moved on to live in their own homes, their original family home was still a bustling place to be. Most of the Kingsley's still came home several times a week for family dinner, and they all still had keys to the house. Adam and Eva loved seeing them, loved the surprise of walking into a room and finding a grown child there, having the chance to touch them and interact with them.

Eva especially loved the way her children felt free to come and go, free to enjoy their own lives, but they were always pulled home by the force of their family bond. She prided herself in raising children who had grown up to become her friends, people that she was proud to know, and she told them often.

Drew sighed. He knew that his sister really was only trying to look out for him, trying to protect him from the statistics that she lived in every day. "You know, Cameron," he said softly, waiting until her eyes met his again before continuing on. "I'm a cop. I don't see happy-go-lucky, perfect marriages every day either. I see beaten wives, enraged husbands. I see injured husbands, jilted women, rejected, broken-hearted people. I see them cry, I see them rage. I see them drunk, strung out. I know what I'm risking. I know what I'm getting into."

"I know you do," Cameron murmured, guilt filling her, sorrow twisting her stomach.

"That's not always the reality, Cameron, not everywhere. It can be something more than that, more than being beaten down or humiliated. Marriage isn't always equivalent to brokenness." Drew leaned forward, sliding from the couch to the floor, stretching out on the soft braided rug their mother had made when they were children. He folded his arms, his hands pillowing the back of his head, his ankles crossing.

"Look around you," he said. "Right here in this house. It's a perfect example of what marriage can be. Mom and dad, you've seen then them, how in love they still are. No one misses the way they look at each other; it's something that just cannot be overlooked. You can't stay cynical like that, Cam, not when you're here, not unless you've forgotten what we saw growing up. What we see outside this house? It's not marriage, not in the sense that we want. It's just misguided people, and they want to be loved. But they don't know what to look for."

"And us?" Cameron asked, looking down at her brother, sprawled out comfortably on the floor at her feet. "Do we know, Drew?"

"Well, I think we do," he answered, grinning up at her. "We had a good example. We know what love looks like. Real love, not just the simple companionship that people settle for when they're desperate to escape loneliness. Yeah," he nodded, "I think we know what to look for."

Beyond the doorway to the formal styled family room, Eva Kingsley smiled to herself, a single tear easing its way down her cheek. She'd been on her way into the room to retrieve a book she was reading, but had stopped when she'd heard Cameron and Drew. She'd be embarrassed to admit that she'd eavesdropped, but she'd never deny her pride in her children.

She listened a few moments more, amazed at the clear way her son saw the world, the gentle way he spoke to his sister, though his frustration was apparent in his tone. She wished, though, that Cameron could see love in the world, wished that she wasn't so caught up in the statistics of it all. Eva wished that her daughter hadn't lost the innocent romantic she'd once been, hadn’t had her heart and her trust broken at such an early age. But there was a sense of longing in her daughter, Eva knew, and someday soon, Cameron would give in. She would give up the cynical view she'd taken, and maybe then she’d let someone new into her heart. It was only then that she could heal, and then she might find love.

In the meantime, Cameron was with her brother; she was in good hands and good company. Nodding to herself, Eva turned silently and went upstairs to the room she had shared with her husband off and on for most of their lives, the room they'd grown in, the room they'd fought in. The room they'd loved in, the room they'd created their family in.

Proud that her children were learning together, growing in the wisdom that she and Adam had tried to give them, Eva smiled contentedly. She wouldn't interrupt their time together; she didn’t really need that book just yet.

***

"Is it normal to be this nervous?" Cass asked, tucking her hair behind her ear. The dark strands fell back as soon as she released them, coming forward to caress her round cheek. Rolling her eyes, she grinned.

"Now if you had long hair like mine," Cameron teased with a wink, "It wouldn't do that."

"Yeah but if I had long hair like yours, the headaches would kill me. Long hair is so heavy," Cass laughed. "Seriously though, I'm all jittery, all the time. The therapist Drew and I are seeing thinks it's cute, she says it's just bride stuff, but I just feel so nervous."

"I guess that depends on what sets it off," Cameron said, wondering if Cass would have mentioned this with Drew here. Thankfully, he'd been called in to work, which left Cameron and Cass alone for a little girl talk over the wedding plans.

"What do you mean?" Cass asked, fidgeting in her seat as she tried to find a comfortable position. They were in Cameron's office, and the hour of sitting was beginning to have an effect.

Cameron sighed. "There are lots of different things to be nervous about or afraid of when you're getting married Cass; it's just a matter of sorting out the bridal nerves from the authentic concerns." Turning, she waited for Cass to answer while she tried to focus on finding the right sample books they were supposed to be looking through.

"Hmm. I guess that's probably why the therapist doesn't seem concerned. It's probably just jitters then," Cass rambled. "I know I'm right to marry Drew; I love him with all my heart. You know, I'll never forget what it felt like to walk into that hospital room and see him all patched up from the shooting, what it was like to wonder if I'd ever get to be with him for real, without my past standing between us. And I know he loves me, too, and he's an amazing man. I'm afraid of stupid stuff, like what if something goes wrong with the wedding, or what if we have a fight or something? Or if ..." her voice trailed off, her cheeks coloring with embarrassment.

"Or if?" Cameron prodded, placing a stack of books on her desk in front of Cass.

"Or if I look bad. Fat. In my dress, I mean."

"You just try to relax. It's my job to coordinate all of that, to make sure everything is perfect and seamless. Nothing will go wrong. And you will be beautiful. You have this brilliant color in your skin when you're with Drew, and the way you love him is out for everyone to see. And you don’t look fat. You’ve actually lost a lot of weight since you started running. You look great so just try to relax, and trust me to pull this all together. Now, let's get into these books, and you can tell me what you like and don't like."

"Okay," Cass said, reaching forward to lift a small booklet that listed linen choices. She flipped through the pages, each one complete with a tiny square of fabric.

"What kind of budget are we looking at?" Cameron asked. "Have you guys talked much about that yet?"

"Actually, there sort of isn't one," Cass said, tucking her hair behind her ear again. She tensed slightly, nervous again. "My, um, my mom is paying. Janet says it's her right, that she raised me, and that Jim provided well for her. She says it’s one of the things he provided for in his will. She won't let me argue with her."

"Well that's good," Cameron said. "For you, anyway. You get your princess day, and you don't sell your firstborn. Win-win." She laughed at the horrified expression on Cass's face, taking out her notebook to jot down things Cass liked.

"I'd just as soon do it cheaply at the clerk's office," Cass said. "You know, and save the money for furniture or something. I don’t need all this attention, you know. I'm no princess, I'm just a regular girl. I've not had an easy road in life, and I don't pretend life is a fantasy. But I know that Janet wants this, and I know that Drew wants it for your mother. We don't want to do anything huge, but we're definitely in the market for something nice. You know, swanky enough for the moms," she laughed.

"Oh, well if you want swanky enough for my mom, you need this book, not that one," Cameron said, reaching over to take the linen booklet Cass had been looking through. She pressed a thicker, heavier book toward her, gesturing for Cass to take it.

"Wow, look at this!" Cass exclaimed, opening the book to a random page near the middle. This book, too, was complete with fabric samples, but there were full spread photos on each page also, showing off different sets of crystal, china and cutlery.

"This book is bit fancier, but everything you see comes in the set together," Cameron said. "It's kind of done as a package deal. Now, it's all rental stuff, of course, but the best thing about this company is that they come and set everything up for you, and then they come back to take it all down again. Their work is top-notch too, very professional. They’re my favorite to work with. But it’s nice to look through there, because it's kind of 'what you see is what you get.'"