Suddenly a Bride (17 page)

“All right, the last three dates. But Bob Irving wasn’t so bad, was he?”

“I’d rather have a root canal,” Chessie told him evenly. “Two root canals.”

“Point taken. No more setups, no more blind dates.”

“Ah, there is a God. What else am I supposed to tell her? Should I be taking notes here?”

“No, I think you can remember that I only agreed under duress, and that it was you who spilled the beans to me about Richard Halstead.”

“Keep it up, Will. Soon you’ll be accusing me of doing away with Jimmy Hoffer.”

“That’s Jimmy Hoffa, and you still probably don’t know who you’re talking about.”

Chessie shrugged. “I heard it somewhere. He’s supposedly buried in some ballpark.”

“The Meadowlands, which is a sports stadium. And stop stalling.”

“But I like stalling. I can’t believe I’ve agreed to run interference for you. Why am I doing this again?”

“Oh, I don’t know, Chess. Maybe because you started it all?” Will suggested, tongue-in-cheek.

“Oh. Right. So I tell her I sicced you on her—to be platonic, if I recall correctly, which you probably bungled immediately. I tell her I let it slip that she was considering marrying Eve’s new squeeze—can you believe that one? I mean, our own Eve and a big-time bestselling—”

“Uh-uh, back on point, Chess. You’re almost done.”

She stuck out her tongue at him. “I thought I was done. Or do you want me to tell her that business about you loving her? Do I look like Cyrano De Bergerac to you?”

“Only maybe a little, around the nose…”

He ducked as Chessie whipped a white satin ring bearer’s pillow at him. He caught it deftly and then held it, looked at it. “Chess? You’re the expert. Can you have two ring bearers?”

His cousin looked at him for a long time, her eyes taking on a rather moist, dreamy look. “You mean it, don’t you? You really love her. Oh, Will…”

“Hey, don’t get sloppy on me now,” Will protested, laughing, as she came around the desk and flung her arms around him. Good old Chess. She deserved a happy ending of her own.

“So we’re good?”

Elizabeth looked at Will as he handed their tickets
in at the gate, the boys already running ahead of them toward, naturally, the nearby cotton-candy booth. It was really their first chance to talk, as Mikey and Danny had pretty much monopolized the conversation all the way to the ballpark.

“I’m still rather embarrassed, but yes, we’re good. Chessie took total blame for everything.”

“I sent her three dozen yellow roses.”

Elizabeth bit back a smile. “Yes, she told me. Apropos of nothing much, I guess, Richard gave me a raise.”

Will put his arm around her shoulders as they joined the boys. “We could pretend this is our first date. Our first, nonengineered by someone else date? Except that would be rather pointless, don’t you think? I’m just glad we didn’t have to go through some tortured two-way explanations. So much easier to blame Chessie.”

“I think she enjoyed explaining. She said she felt like she was back in high school. And I’ll admit it, I’m glad we don’t have to talk about any of it anymore.”

“I’ve missed you, by the way.”

She waited until he’d paid for two bags of instant tooth decay, and the boys headed for their seats as if they knew just where they were going, which they probably did. The male of the species had good memories for these things. “We’ve seen each other every day, at baseball practice, when you come to visit the boys.”

Will pulled her closer for a moment, pressing a kiss against her temple. “Don’t tell me you need me to draw you a diagram,” he said teasingly.

“Well, maybe it was a good idea to…you know. Slow down for a while?”

“Maybe. But I would like to submit for the record that slowing down was not
my
idea.”

He steered her toward the cement steps leading down to his reserved seats. Before she went ahead of him she dared to put her hand on his cheek and say quietly, “For the record, it wasn’t my idea, either. But Mikey wasn’t sleeping too soundly there for a while.”

“Sure, blame the kid,” Will whispered back to her, also giving her a quick swat on the backside, so that she laughed and hastened to her seat.

Elizabeth had been shocked, to say the least, when Chessie had asked her to meet her for lunch two days ago and told her that Will knew all about Richard’s proposal and the fact that Elizabeth had been seriously considering it. Considering it to the point of going to Second Chance Bridal, trying on a wedding gown.

“Which I’ve got put aside for you, by the way,” Chessie had told her. “No pressure, but you’ll never find anything better suited to you. Now all you need is a groom, right? Should be a snap.”

Not so much as a single serious boyfriend until Jamie, five years a widow, and suddenly Elizabeth might have to consider a second marriage proposal in a little more than two weeks?

Was it any wonder just looking at the twins downing their cotton candy by the handful was making her stomach queasy?

“Hot dog?” Will asked her.

“No! I mean, that is…no, thank you, I’m not hungry,” she answered, feeling her face growing hot. “Did you hear about the big trade this morning?”

Will looked at her in some astonishment. “You know about the trade?”

She returned his look with one that said
doesn’t everyone?
“We read the sports page every morning now at breakfast. The boys are improving their reading skills while thinking they’re only having fun, and I’m learning more about baseball. Bringing a pitcher over from the American League should work well, at least the first time other National League teams face him, but I don’t know if he was worth four of our IronPigs. We’re supposed to be the top Phillies farm team, bringing our own talent up through the system, not a candy store for other teams to go shopping in when we want a new left-hander to beef up our bullpen.”

“Good God, I’ve created a monster.” He gave the bill of her pink IronPigs baseball hat a tap.

“Yes, I think you have,” she said, rather pleased with herself. Then, emboldened, she added, “I sent Chessie a box of dark chocolate-covered caramels. Eve told me they’re her favorite. I was so nervous about having to tell you about Richard. So, yes, I guess I was sort of avoiding you, even when you were visiting the boys. Then again, it wasn’t until she told me she’d told you she’d pretty much tried to set you up as a sort of guinea pig that I really realized how…tacky the whole thing could be, if you didn’t see the humor in all of it.”

“There was humor in all of it? Would that be before or after I took you to bed?”

Elizabeth shot a quick look toward the twins, but they were busy watching the team mascots, a pair of huge plush pigs, chase each other around the infield.

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this anymore,” she said quietly.

“That was my idea all along. Yet here we are, talking about it. But I think I know what’s still needed before we can just forget how and why we met, and concentrate on how we are now.”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

He took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissed her palm. “Elizabeth, I’m sorry. I set out to flirt with you on orders from my cousin, and I didn’t let you know I knew when I found out about Richard. Now you.”

Elizabeth took a deep breath, let it out slowly, even as she tried not to look as pleased as she felt. “All right. Apology accepted.”

“And…?” Will prompted when she turned toward the field, to watch FeRROUS and FeFe Pig dance to the music now blaring out of the loudspeakers.

“Hmm?” Elizabeth looked at Will, eyebrows raised in question. “Was there something else?”

“You’re not going to apologize for using me as a guinea pig?”

Elizabeth frowned, as if considering the question. Her heart was beating faster now, and she might even be hungry. Being with Will was so much fun, especially
when he made her feel so alive, so
female.
“Nope. You made the first move, remember?”

“Okay, I’ll give you that one. But what about not telling me about Richard?”

She shrugged her shoulders, then nodded her agreement. “But,” she added, “exactly when was I supposed to tell you that Richard had asked me to marry him but I hadn’t said yes yet? It’s not the sort of thing that comes up much in conversation, you know? Besides, it wasn’t as if you had asked me to move in with you or marry you or anything. You didn’t even ask me to go steady with you, which was high school speak for being exclusive in my hometown, so what did it matter? Chessie explained it all to me. The whole thing was awkward, yes, but I was totally blameless.”

“Remind me to kill that woman,” Will grumbled as everyone in the ballpark stood for the national anthem.

By the seventh inning, Elizabeth had managed to down two slices of pizza and a tall cold soda, and the boys—and she included Will in that description—had consumed hot dogs, a large bag of peanuts and cups of colorful little frozen dots that turned to ice cream in their mouths. Elizabeth knew this because Mikey kept opening his mouth after taking a spoonful, to show her this grand metamorphosis.

It was a good thing she kept no candy or sweets in the house, although Elsie spoiled them with her home baking more often than Elizabeth could like. Still, a ballpark was a ballpark, and what was a ballpark without hot dogs and cotton candy and…and turkey legs.

Danny was sitting on Will’s lap now, listening intently as Will pointed out the reason the outfielders shifted their positions depending on whether there was a right-handed or left-handed batter at the plate, while Mikey, who still tired easily, leaned his head against Elizabeth, who had put her arm protectively around his shoulder.

“Maybe we should cut this short,” she said to Will. “We’re up eight-to-two, and Mikey’s running out of steam.”

You’d have thought she’d asked the man to forego Christmas.

“No, the boys want to stay,” Will said, so quickly it was as if he was verbally biting her head off. “Dan, Mike—you don’t want to go home yet, do you?”

“I’m tired,” Mikey said and then put a hand to his belly and looked up at Elizabeth with those big eyes of his, a trick he’d quickly learned got him her full attention these days.

“I’m not,” Danny said, glaring at his brother. “FeRROUS and FeFe are going to shoot T-shirts at us from those little cannons before the Pigs come up to bat next time. Aren’t they, Coach?”

“During the seventh inning stretch, right,” Will agreed, patting Danny’s back as if the child had just answered the bonus round question on some TV game show. “Why don’t we do that, Mike? Stay for just this half-inning and the show, and then we’ll get you home?”

“I think we should go now,” Elizabeth whispered to
him, not understanding why Will seemed so adamant to stay. In fact, he looked almost desperate that they stay, and she might not have known Will all that long, but she’d never seen him look even remotely desperate.

“Okay,” Mikey said, yawning. “But I’m still an in-balid.”

“That’s invalid, and you are not. The doctor said you’re doing just fine.”
And I should stop babying him,
Elizabeth told herself. “All right, Will, we’ll stay.”

“Was I overstepping some line here, Elizabeth? Coming between you and the boys?”

She shook her head. “No, not at all. I’ve been in charge for a long time, that’s all. And sometimes when one of them says jump, I just ask how high. I’m overprotective, and it’s got to stop. They aren’t babies anymore, much as I want them to be. It’s not going to kill Mikey to wait a few more minutes so that Danny can see the mascots again.”

“You’re not overprotective. You’re a mommy. But you’re right. Mike was just pulling your chain. Brings back memories of my younger days. Poor Mom, I could wrap her around my finger anytime I wanted to. I guess girls can do the same magic with their fathers. That’s something to think about.”

Elizabeth looked at him questioningly, but just then the batter for the Louisville Bats hit into a double play and the inning was over.

“Here comes FeRROUS!” Danny shouted, slipping off Will’s lap, his hands outstretched and ready to catch one of the rolled-up T-shirts that would soon be
launched into the crowd. Mikey was beside him in an instant, stepping all over Elizabeth’s toes, his tiredness and crankiness of a few moments ago seemingly forgotten.

“And there’s FeFe!” Mikey yelled, pointing down toward the infield. “What’s FeRROUS got?”

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said as the two mascots came together, taking hold of a large rolled up something-or-other FeRROUS had brought onto the field.

FeFe pointed in their direction, and the two mascots danced their way toward the seats as they separated, unrolling a long white banner with red letters on it.

“Oh,” Elizabeth said, staring at the words.

Dan and Mike—may I please marry your mother?

“Oh,” she said again as the boys began pointing to the animated screen deep in center field and she saw herself, saw all of them, live on the screen.

“What’s it say? What’s it say?” Mikey asked excitedly. “Look—there we are! We’re up on the big screen!”

“Somebody wants to marry Mom,” Danny said as Elizabeth felt every pair of eyes in the entire ballpark turning toward them expectantly.

“I do, boys,” Will said, ruffling their curly heads. “Would that be all right with you? After all, you’re the men of the household.”

The twins exchanged looks, and then shrugged—mirror images of each other, as they so often were.

“Sure,” Danny said. “It’s okay with me. Mikey?”

Elizabeth looked to her son, only two minutes
younger than Danny, but several months behind him in many ways. She knew that would even out in time, but for now, Mikey always seemed to need her more than Danny did.

“Mom?” Mikey asked as the lady in the row just below theirs pulled out her phone and began taking pictures of them with it. “I guess it’s okay. Is that okay with you?”

“Uh, here’s where I take over, now that I have your blessing,” Will said, and the next thing Elizabeth knew he was down on one knee. Vaguely she could hear peanut shells crackling. “Elizabeth, I love you all so very much. I know we haven’t known each other very long, but the rest of our lifetimes won’t be enough to show you how important you are to me, how much you and Dan and Mike have already enriched my life. Will you and your sons please marry me?”