Tomorrow's Promises (Bellingwood Book 7) (8 page)

Polly grabbed Drea's arm as she went past her. "Oh, for pity's sake, let's hurry, then. Bunny on the loose is dangerous for Bellingwood."

CHAPTER EIGHT

"Friends are the best," Polly said, a little sloppily. She took a drink of the wine Sal put on the table in front of her. They were in her apartment again, laughing as Sal regaled them with tales of her mother's latest attempts to find her an appropriate husband. Bunny had tried to interrupt a couple of times, asking why Sal wouldn't pass off the rejects to her, but Polly scowled at her and she finally got into the spirit of things.

They'd finished brunch and once the guests had left, quickly set up for the evening's festivities. Polly and Henry insisted that it be simple. The most important part of the weekend was time with friends. Off-white muslin tablecloths with squares of dark blue layered across the top
, set the color and tone for the evening. Candles placed in the mason jars she had purchased for last year's hoedown were set on mirrored glass in the center of each table. It had nearly killed Jeff to leave it so sparse, but Henry backed her up. They hired a band for dancing and Sylvie was cooking dinner. She was thankful her husband didn't have extravagant taste. It was one thing to create lavish parties for Sycamore House, but for the two of them, simple was much more appropriate.

Once the setup was complete, Lydia, Beryl, Andy and Joss joined them in the conference room and office. All eight of them spent two hours calling retail stores in the Waterloo / Cedar Falls area looking for Jessie Locke. They had no luck, but left the Sycamore House phone number with as many people as would take it. Polly had hoped that they
might stumble across the girl. Watching Curtis Locke's pleading eyes as he left with the EMTs had been tough.

She was so thankful that she and her father had always said the words, "I love you," before ending any phone call. Polly was crushed
when he died, but at least she didn't feel guilt over unspoken love. In the darkest nights when she was all alone, tears still fell when Polly thought about how much she missed her dad and how she wished he was here to be part of this crazy life she'd created. He would have enjoyed every single thing at Sycamore House, from the gardens to the animals, the rebuilding to the people. Oh, how she wished he could have known Henry.

Henry came home after she and the girls had gotten comfortable. He was still wearing his Hawaiian shirt and shorts and plopped two blown up palm trees just inside the front door. "Just in case you want to have a luau," he said and headed for his office. Polly
was just drunk enough to be silly.

"He's pretty hot, isn't he?" she asked. "I'd do him in a second."

Drea started chuckling and took the wine glass from Polly's hand. "You might have had a little too much today. You need to pace yourself, there's a long night ahead of you."

Polly bared her teeth, growled, and snatched the glass back. "I am pacing myself." She stood up and her legs felt wobbly, so she handed the glass back to Drea. "Okay, you're right. You're always right. But, I'm going to go pat his butt. I've missed it today."

The three laughed as she went through to his office. He was sitting on the edge of his desk with the phone to his ear and tilted his cheek for a kiss. Polly wrapped herself around him and slid her hand under the tail of his shirt, drawing her fingers up his back. Henry looked at her in shock, then mouthed, "What are you doing?"

"This," she whispered and licked his earlobe, drawing her tongue down his jawline.

"I'll see you tonight, Leroy," he said. "Thanks for taking care of this."

He ended the call and put the phone down on his desk, then grabbed Polly's arms. "What in the world are you doing, woman?"

"I might have had too much to drink," she giggled. "I don't think you should let it go to waste."

"Can't we save this for later when everyone is gone?"

"This is the moment, buddy boy. If you wait any longer, I'll just fall asleep." She leaned in and kissed him. "You don't want me to go to sleep, do you?"

"I'm going to have to chance it." He picked her up and turning around, set her bottom on the desk where he'd been seated. "What are your girlfriends going to think?"

"They've seen me drunk before. They know what I'm like."

"Well this is a new one for me. I'm not prepared to do this in the middle of the day with them in our living room."

Polly stuck out her lower lip in a pout. "You're no fun. I think I'll call you a fuddy duddy."

"You can call me anything you want, but you only have a couple of hours until you need to be dressed and downstairs. You should spend this time with the girls who have flown all the way out here from Boston to see you."

Her lower lip pushed back out and she said, "You're trying to get rid of me, aren't you? You don't love me anymore, is that it?"

"Absolutely. You found me out." Henry reached around her and hugged her close. "I love you more every day, Polly Giller. Now go be with your friends and slow down on the wine."

She hopped down and kissed him. "Okay, if you're going to be a fuddy duddy, I'll go away."

"Believe me, I'm getting you drunk on our honeymoon. I want to experience this Polly when no one is around to compete with me."

When she got back to the living room, Sal placed a large glass of ice water in her hands and said, "Drink. All of it. If you're going to keep up tonight without falling asleep on everyone, you need to start flushing this stuff out right now. I didn't realize you were such a lightweight."

"I'm not a lightweight," Polly protested.

"Uh huh. And I'm a Baptist."

Polly had enough presence of mind to put the glass down on the table before she started laughing. Sal Kahane was a very liberal Jewish American Princess from Boston and the farthest thing from religious she could imagine. Drea and Bunny chuckled a little until her infectious, unreserved laughter had them howling with her. The phone ringing on the table beside Polly finally stopped their hilarity.

"Hello?" she said, trying to control the final giggles that threatened to consume her.

"Miss Giller? This is Kelly Locke. My son and I are on the road. We'll be in town late tonight. Should we just go to Boone and get a hotel?"

Polly shook her head, trying to regain some sensibility. "No, come on up to Bellingwood. It's only another twenty minutes. There's a large party going on here at Sycamore House until one o'clock. Will you be here before then?"

"GPS says we should be there about eleven thirty. I shouldn't ask this of you. Don't worry. We'll stay in Boone."

"Don't be silly. Your husband's room is still available and I'll be downstairs when you come in. Just ask anyone you see for Polly Giller and they'll find me."

"Are you certain?"

"Absolutely."

"Thank you. Have you heard anything else about Jessie?"

"I'm sorry. We haven't. We spent time this afternoon calling all of the retail shops in the malls and plazas in the area. No one had heard of her. I'm not sure where to go next, but I'm not giving up."

"
Thank you. I'm not used to others knowing our troubles."

Polly smiled. This was what Sycamore House was all about and sometimes she got so caught up in things she forgot why she'd named it for that gorgeous tree in the first place.

"Don't think anything about it. Whatever I can do to help, I will. Drive safely and we'll see you tonight."

"Thank you again."

Polly ended the call and put the phone back down, then picked up the glass of water and took a long drink. When she looked up, her three friends were staring at her.

"It's your wedding party tonight," Sal said.

"So?"

"So, you're getting too involved in someone else's problems. You should be celebrating."

"Her problems don't go away just because I'm having a party. Her husband has had a heart attack and her daughter is missing. Really missing. Do I need to further elaborate?"

Bunny put her wine glass down. "I don't know how you do it, Polly."

"Do what?"

"Make me feel so guilty."

"How did I do that?" Polly looked at the other two and they seemed to be in agreement with Bunny. "What?"

"You're always so nice. None of us would have even taken the time to talk to that guy yesterday, much less invite him to stay in our place and then call hundreds of people. You make me feel like a heel just for living."

"Oh stop it. You all have your things that you do. And if someone needs you, you're right there." She turned on Drea. "When my friends called and told you that Joey had taken me, you dropped everything and brought in your brothers to rescue me. Then you took me home and made sure I felt safe that night."

"But you're my friend. I
wouldn't do that for strangers."

"If I called you on Monday and told you that someone I knew was in desperate need of your help, you'd take care of them, wouldn't you? If one of your brothers told you that they had a friend who needed help, you'd take care of them. Right?"

"I suppose."

"I'm not anything special. I just do what I have to do. This woman isn't going to interrupt my party tonight. She's going to show up and I'll ask Jeff or Eliseo to help her find her room. Then tomorrow after I've slept off whatever amount of alcohol I've consumed, I'll see if there's anything else I can do to help her before we get on the road on Monday. I'll show her what I've done and maybe she and her husband can search for their daughter now that
she's in Iowa. It's no big deal."

Sal sat down beside Polly, nudging her closer to Drea so that she could have more room. "It is a big deal, Polly. You're a big deal. And we love you." She wrapped an arm around Polly and hugged her. "You're pretty special."

Bunny sat down on the table in front of the three of them and leaned in for a hug. "You are special, Polly. You're the only person in the world who loves me even when you tell me to get over myself. And I still love you even after you do that. Because you're always right."

"Is this some weird pre-wedding party huddle, too much wine, or have I walked into something scary?" Henry asked.

The girls popped apart and Polly gave a startled giggle. "Something scary. What's up?"

"Oh, nothing. I'm going to take a shower so the bathroom is ready for you later."

"Ohhhhh," Polly's three friends moaned as a group.

"He's so sweet," Bunny said. "I wish ..." before she could finish her sentence, she stopped and smiled at Polly. "I wish every man on earth were as wonderful as he is."

"He wouldn't mess around with me a little while ago," Polly said in a stage whisper to her friends. "He's a fuddy-duddy."

"Well, thank goodness!" Drea said. "I know what you're like when you get tipsy." She turned around and looked at Henry, who had turned bright red. "We feel for you. Do you want us to
corral her while you shower? She might lose control again."

He shook his head and walked away from them to the bedroom, then turned back to them, unbuttoned the top two buttons of his Hawaiian shirt and spread the lapels apart. "Fuddy-duddy this," he said and turned on his heel before opening the door to go into the bedroom.

"Oooooh," they moaned in unison.

Polly smiled. "You might think that because he's such a good guy, he's boring."

"Apparently not," Bunny said, fanning herself with her hand. "That was a nice looking chest, too."

"All mine," Polly said.

Sal stood and said, "I'd better go back to Mark's so I can get ready. He's not as polite and wonderful as Polly's boy."

"Yeah, but he's gorgeous. He can get away with some of that," Bunny said.

"He is that," Sal acknowledged. She bent over and hugged Polly. "We'll be back before it starts. If you need anything, I'll be around."

"Thanks." Polly stood and followed her to the front door. "Thank you for everything."

"See you tonight."

Sal left and Polly put her hand on one of the plastic palm trees. They were ridiculous. What in the world would she do with them?

"If I time this right, I could take a twenty minute nap before I have to get ready," Drea said. "Bunny, what about you?"