Tomorrow's Promises (Bellingwood Book 7) (9 page)

Bunny looked back and forth between the two of them and said, "Oh, I have plenty to do to prepare for tonight. You go on, Polly."

Polly grinned. "I love you two. See you later." She swooped up her glass of water and went into the bedroom. The shower was running, so she sat down at her desk and composed a text to Jeff Lyndsay, telling him about the arrival of Kelly Locke and her son tonight.

CHAPTER NINE

"Oof," Polly moaned, trying to shift her legs while not disturbing the dog or cats. She pried her eyes open and saw that dawn was barely breaking. There was still plenty of time to sleep. Taking a few days off from being at the barn was going to spoil her.

The party last night had been loads of fun. She and Henry ate wedding cake and toasted each other with champagne. They'd danced and spent time with friends and family. A few of Henry's college buddies had shown up out of the blue and she was finally introduced to nearly all of his extended family. They'd come in from all over Iowa. She had no idea there were so many.

Her aunt and uncle hadn't come over for the party and neither had any of their children. Polly wasn't surprised and as a matter of fact, was just as relieved. Spending time trying to make small talk with people who had told her how little they liked her wasn't how she wanted to spend the evening.

Kelly Locke and her sixteen year old son, Ethan, arrived about eleven thirty, completely exhausted. Jeff showed them to their room and they were going to the hospital early this morning to spend time with Curt. From all accounts, he would be fine.

"You're over there thinking again, aren't you?" Henry whispered.

"I'm just enjoying the fact that I don't have to get up."

"I can't believe you don't have a hangover."

Polly chuckled. He didn't know that she'd quit drinking following her afternoon silliness. A glass of champagne for the toast and she'd spent the rest of the evening drinking water. The last thing she ever wanted to do was be drunk at a party she hosted. She'd experienced that once after college and it was awful. Several of her guests had gotten out of control and she'd been too drunk to deal with it. A fight ensued and Polly had done her best, but one friend had gone home furious, another two friends quit speaking to each other after that night and she felt guilty for all of it. From that time forward, she stayed in control unless someone she really trusted was there.

"You had more to drink than I did last night," she said, turning over to face him.

"That's what you think." He kissed her on the nose. "I had one glass of champagne. I wanted to make sure everyone else was having a good time, so I didn't think it was smart to get drunk."

"We're a pair," she said, laughing. "That's exactly what I did."

"One night this week we are going to just have to get totally smashed together. I want to see you all tipsy and frisky again."

"Can you believe that after all this time, we've never gotten drunk together? I guess we're too old for that now."

"We have at least ten more years before we're too old, right?"

"Yep, we're still baby bunnies, innocent and sweet. But it really stinks having to be honorable and reliable all the time."

Henry leaned up and looked down at her. "Were you ever a party animal?"

"I had my days. Sal and I had a lot of fun in college and then there were a few rousing parties after that, but these last few years I've had other things to do." She swatted his hand out from under his head. "I haven't had time since I moved to Bellingwood. And who goes out and gets drunk with the Sheriff's wife? What about you?"

"Well, of course." He wrinkled his forehead at her. "What do you think? That I've always been Saint Henry?"

"It seems like it. The Terrible Trio at the winery look up to you, so that tells me you didn't do a lot of drinking in high school. All of those guys who work for you respect you a lot, so that makes me believe you don't get out of control much these days."

"No. College was my time, and let's just say I'm very lucky to be relatively intelligent. I don't know how I made it out of my freshman year with any grades at all. Fortunately, I didn't damage my grade point so much that I couldn't rescue it the next three years. I learned how to do both after that experience. But that first year, there were some weeks I went to class every day with a hangover." He huffed a chuckle out. "Dad was so mad. I spent the entire summer between freshman and sophomore year working my ass off for him. And it wasn't any of the fun stuff. He had me out in the heat doing the worst jobs he could find. I think every rotten job that he heard about, he took on a low bid so that I had something to do. He never said anything, but I got the message."

"I love him. What did your mom say?"

"Not much. But one night when I came in complaining about all of the work, she told me that I could make the next summer much easier if I made better choices throughout the school year. It was all up to me. Then she handed me a glass of ice water and told me to go upstairs and take a shower. That's when it finally hit me."

"They're pretty terrific parents. And I love your mom's parents. How come I haven't met them before tonight?"

"They travel all over the world. You should see their house. It's filled with things from everywhere. Grammy is kind of a hoarder. She likes to think of it as her collections, but you can't believe what they have in that house. Granddad worked as a broker in Asia for years, so they have some of the coolest things."

"Did I hear her say they were leaving for the UK tomorrow?"

"Yeah. I think so. They have friends in Wales and spend a couple of months there in the summer and then they'll come home in late August before heading to Greece this fall. More friends. These are a bunch of Granddad's buddies from when they all worked together."

"I had no idea, Henry. What an awesome life. That's so weird though, that you
didn't travel a lot when you were young."

"Mom got yanked around a lot when she was young. She hated that life and when she married Dad, they settled."

"But she moved to Arizona rather than staying in Bellingwood. They'll be traveling back and forth a lot."

"I suppose if you look at it that way. But, you'll notice that she left this home exactly as she had created it and the home she has in Arizona is her nest too. Now she has two places to live and both of them make her happy."

"She does seem happy here."

"Honestly, Polly. I haven't seen her like this in years. I think she didn't realize how much her friends and family meant to her. She and Dad were really intent on getting out of here."

"For you, right?"

"I guess so. I thought it was because she hated the winter and Dad wanted to see another part of the country."

"I think she does hate the cold. But it's all worked out the way it was supposed to."

He wrapped his arms around her. "It did."

The sun had been up for a while and Polly turned around to check the time. "We should probably start moving before Drea and Bunny get up."

"Your friend Bunny is going to hurt this morning."

"I wasn't paying attention to her," Polly said. "She was drinking too much?"

"Yeah. Like a fish. Mark had to carry her up the stairs."

"Oh, good heavens, I hope she didn't puke all over the bed. I'll kill her." Polly moaned at the thought. At least Bunny hadn't been so offensive last night that Polly needed to get involved, but there had been at least two hundred people in the room and her antics were the least of Polly's concerns.

"If she did something stupid, we'll take care of it," Henry said and tucked Polly back into the crook his body made. "You should relax. They're leaving later this morning and we'll have the whole afternoon to get ready for our trip tomorrow."

She rubbed his forearm. "You're really looking forward to this, aren't you?"

"I am, but I've been thinking. Since Joss and Nate aren't going, maybe we should take my truck instead. It's going to be miserably hot without air conditioning."

Polly turned over and lay on her back, resting her head on his arm. "Really? That would be a lot more comfortable."

"Sure. It makes sense. Without Nate, I'm a little nervous about taking my baby out on the road for such a long trip. If something happens, I can fix a few things, but I can't fix it all."

"So ..." she said with a grin. "Could we take Obiwan with us if we drive the truck? It's not like we're going to go anywhere that he isn't allowed and he's a good dog."

Henry frowned. "But if we want to go into a nice restaurant, we can't leave him in the truck. It's too hot."

"We don't have to go to nice restaurants. We can do takeout."

"Are you sure?"

"I tell you what. Let's think about it today. If it seems like something we could do, he'd love it. He loves being with us."

"And you'd have part of your world with you. Don't get your heart too set on it, okay? It would be a lot easier without him."

"When have we ever done easy?" She grinned up at him and then leaned forward and kissed his lips. "Now I'm going to get up. You can sleep with these animals as long as you like."

Obiwan jumped off the bed when he realized she was moving and ran to the bedroom door, his tail wagging.

"I know, I know," she said. "You're desperate. Let me get dressed."

Henry sat up and swung his leg over a cat, then sat on the edge of the bed. "I'll
put food down for the animals and start coffee. What do you want to make for breakfast?"

"If Bunny is really hung over,
she won't want much more than toast. Drea never eats a lot at breakfast. I ate so much last night, I'm still full."

He pushed his belly out and patted it. "Me too," he laughed. "Sylvie is a great cook."

"You nut." Polly laughed and pulled jeans and a t-shirt on, then slid into a pair of old tennies. "I'll be back."

Obiwan followed her through the living room into the old apartment and down the back steps. When they got outside, the sun was doing its best to hold off the clouds that were beginning to build. The forecast had promised rain and it looked like that promise was about to be fulfilled.

"Let's go, bud. I know we won't melt, but I'd just as soon not get soaked." Polly followed the dog to the tree line and then they walked down toward the pasture. The horses weren't out yet.

Obiwan sniffed the fence and looked for his equine friends, but was distracted by something moving through the brush. He took off after it and Polly wandered on. When she heard splashing, she called him back and made her way to the edge of the creek.

He was running through the water chasing a rabbit.

"Obiwan," she snapped. "Come here. You're a filthy mess."

He stopped for just a second, then continued after the rabbit.

"Obiwan!" Her voice got louder and more demanding. "Come."

He was doing everything possible to resist her command, but they'd spent more two years working together and he was programmed to obey. He slowed down, turned and looked at her, pleading for release, but she repeated the command to come and he slunk back down the creek toward her. After he clambered up the bank, she knelt in front of him, telling him what a good boy he was and stroking his head.

"Silly dog," she muttered. "You're a mess, and all for a rabbit you wouldn't eat anyway."

They walked back to Sycamore House and he waited while she grabbed an old towel from a stack she kept at the bottom of the stairs. Soon he was dry enough to go and bounded up the steps. Polly followed, carrying the towel, just in case. Drea and Henry were in the kitchen. He looked up when she entered.

"What's up with the dog?" he asked.

"A rabbit in the creek. He felt the need to give chase."

"You've got a great family here," Drea said. "I'm glad I got a chance to experience it. Ray texted me this morning asking if I approved of Henry."

"Ray's hot," Polly said. "And he likes me. So, you be good to me, hear that?" She sidled up to Henry and slid her arm around his back.

"Hot, huh. Do I need to be jealous?"

"No," Drea said. "I won't have my girlfriends hooking up with those brothers of mine. That would just be wrong."

"Ray and Jon are my knights, though. They're the ones who took care of Joey for me in Boston."

"I know," Henry said, smiling at her. "I'll never forget that week." He looked at Drea, "Your brothers made a good impression on a lot of us. They didn't have to do that."