Last-Minute Marriage Read online

  “I suppose so,” Ruth declared, looking indignant. “He doesn’t want any visitors, she says.”

  “We haven’t even been able to thank him properly for saving our precious Hope and Hannah.” Tears pooled in Rachel’s eyes. “I can’t bear to think what might have happened if he hadn’t been stopped along the side of the road that way.”

  “Wasn’t Lawrence your sister-in-law’s maiden name?” Maggie asked. “Wasn’t she Mary Lawrence before she married Abraham?”

  “Why, yes, it was. Ruth and I noticed that right away. Of course, Mary wasn’t from around here. And Kate says Mr. Lawrence has never been in these parts before. It’s a common enough name. I don’t suppose there’s any connection.”

  “Still, it seems odd that he doesn’t want to be seen or talk to anyone,” Maggie said, obviously loath to give up the eyebrow-raising topic of the stranger staying at Kate’s.

  They all nodded as Lily Mazerik caught Tessa’s eye and looked up at the ceiling. Tessa bent her head over Hope and Hannah’s gift to hide her smile.

  Someone knocked on the door. Heads swiveled and Maggie gave a snort. “It’s your boyfriend.”

  “The baseball player?” Ruth peered over the top of her glasses.

  “I’ve seen him around town, Tessa, but we’ve never been introduced,” Rachel prompted. “He’s a very good-looking man. Such thick blond hair. And those shoulders.”

  “I’ll introduce you right now.” Brian had spent some time at the Riverman Lounge and eaten some meals at the Sunnyside. And he’d met some of the parents of the kids on the school baseball team. But for the most part he’d avoided the townspeople. He’d been born and raised in New York, only moving to Albany his sophomore year in high school, and he found Riverbend as alien as she sometimes found Southern California. He’d kept to himself, and Tessa hadn’t tried to persuade him otherwise.

  “We’ll let him in.” Hannah skipped to the door with Hope only a step behind.

  “Hello, ladies.” Brian greeted the group with his just-for-you-alone smile. “I hope I’m not intruding.”

  “You’re blocking my view,” Maggie said, not in the least impressed with Brian’s smile.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Brian said, and leaned back against the coffee bar.

  “There’s a present left.” Hope pulled one more package from beneath the wrappings. “Here.”

  “It’s from me,” Maggie said as Tessa took the gift from the little girl.

  “I don’t know how we could have missed it,” Tessa apologized. She removed the wrapping paper. Pink and white stripes with a pink ribbon.

  “I don’t get much chance to wrap stuff in pink,” Maggie said with a sniff.

  Tessa opened the lid of the Killian’s box and folded back the tissue paper that covered what was inside. She recognized it right away. It was an apple-green baby sweater with embroidered pink rosebuds down the front. The one that had belonged to Maggie’s oldest son when he was a baby. A tiny hat and booties lay beside it.

  “Oh, Maggie. I can’t accept this. It should go to your son. Or his children.”

  “Nonsense. My son couldn’t care less about it, and he has five children. How on earth would I pick which one to give it to? Anyway, I made all the grandchildren one when they were born. I want you to have it to start a tradition of your own,” she said more softly.

  Tessa swallowed hard so her voice wouldn’t wobble when she responded. “Thank you. I’ll cherish it always.”

  “Don’t cherish it. Use it. It’ll wash. It’s cotton, not wool.”

  Tessa smiled. “I will.”

  “I think we should start loading things into the trunk,” Brian said. “It’s stopped raining. At least for the time being.”

  Tessa glanced at the clock. “I should be getting back to the store.”

  “Me, too,” Linda said, her eyes following Tessa’s to the clock above the door. “Mitch will be wanting his lunch. Thanks for inviting me,” she said to Rachel and Ruth, and then Kate, who’d just returned from making her phone call. “I got some good ideas for gifts for my daughter today.”

  “Goodbye, Linda,” the women said.

  Maggie levered her way off the couch and picked up a plate. “These cookies are wonderful, Kate. I don’t know how you do it all. Especially with a stranger laid up in your spare room.”

  “He’s no trouble, really. And how could I turn him away? He saved my babies’ lives.”

  Tessa was loading gifts into Brian’s arms. “I’ll take these out to the car.” He turned and headed quickly for the door as if he couldn’t wait to get out of there, which was probably true.

  “I’ll be getting the baby bed and high chair down from the attic as soon as I find a minute to do it,” Kate said as she knelt beside Tessa’s chair to help her fold the wrapping paper.

  “Please. Don’t go to any trouble over it.”

  Kate gave Tessa’s stomach an assessing look. “I don’t think we should wait too much longer. When’s your due date?”

  “December fifteenth.”

  “Definitely not much time. Babies can’t read calendars. They come when they please.”

  Tessa wondered if she was right. She’d begun to feel huge and clumsy. Her breasts were tender. She had twinges of pain in her back and contractions around her middle. All normal, Annie Stevens had assured her. But worrying nonetheless. She had to make up her mind about leaving Riverbend with Brian. And soon.

  “Ready to go?” he asked, shaking raindrops from his hair as he reentered the bookstore.

  “I’m ready.” They’d returned Brian’s rental car to the airport on Sunday. There was little reason for them to have two cars. She knew Brian took it as a sign she’d decided to return to California with him, but he didn’t press her.

  He was trying. Trying very hard to be the levelheaded, responsible father figure she wanted him to be. She just couldn’t be certain it would last.

  Tessa said her goodbyes and Kate walked her to the door of the bookstore. “Are you okay?” she asked, as Tessa fumbled with her umbrella.

  “I’m fine.”

  Kate folded her arms under her breasts. “You don’t look fine. Forgive me for saying so, but you look like a woman with a lot on her mind.”

  Tessa managed a smile. More than ever she wished she could confide in this strong and focused woman. Kate had been through it all. Pregnancy, child birth. Raising her daughters without a man in her life.

  What did she think about Hope and Hannah not having a father figure as they were growing up? Did she regret leaving her husband?

  Would she have regretted staying with him even more?

  Brian appeared in the doorway. “C’mon. It’s starting to rain again.” He held out his hand to usher her to the car. He looked back over his shoulder and gave Kate one of his killer smiles. “Thanks for the party. We both appreciate it.”

  “Tessa’s a friend. It was our pleasure. Call me,” Kate said to Tessa. “Call me if you need anything at all.”

  “Did I hear her—what’s her name, Kate?—say she had a baby bed and high chair you could borrow?”

  “Yes, she did.” Tessa didn’t turn her head to look at him. She stared straight ahead, watching the stores on Main Street go by. Killian’s had winter coats on display in the window, fake snow and child-sized mannequins having a snowball fight against a backdrop of Rockwell’s famous painting of a family sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner.

  She didn’t think it was going to be cold enough to snow in Riverbend on Thanksgiving Day.

  It certainly wouldn’t be snowing in L.A.

  “Does that mean you’ve decided to stay here?” he asked. He flexed his hands on the steering wheel. His knuckles were white from gripping it so tightly, she realized. He was worried about her decision. He did care.

  She turned her head. “Kate offered me a baby bed and high chair when I thought I was going to be staying in Riverbend after the baby was born.”

  “And now?”

  “And now I’m not
,” she said, and felt a sharp stab of pain deep in her heart.

  “Does that mean you’re going to give us…give me…another chance?” There was a tone of suppressed excitement in his voice. She knew what he was thinking. Once he had her back in California he would overcome the last of her doubts and win her back. He was ahead on the count. “I’ll be a good father, Tessa.”

  “I know you’ll try.”

  “When can we leave for the coast?”

  “I…as soon as Mitch can spare me.”

  “You don’t owe him anything.” Brian’s voice hardened slightly.

  “Yes, I do. But I’ll tell him Friday will be my last day.”

  “You won’t regret this, Tessa.”

  But she already did.

  HE’D DONE A PRETTY good job of staying out of Tessa’s way all week but it looked as though his luck had run out.

  “Mitch, I need to talk to you.”

  “How was your party?” She couldn’t have been back from her baby shower more than a few minutes, but she didn’t look like a woman who had just enjoyed an hour being showered with gifts and well wishes from her friends.

  “I…it was wonderful. They’re all so good to me.”

  “They like you, Tessa. They want to see you happy.” He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans to keep from reaching out to touch her. “We all want to see you happy.”

  “Mitch, I’m leaving Riverbend.”

  The words had a sense of finality to them that was as shattering as a bullet to the heart.

  “When did you decide that?” He heard his own voice, felt his pulse hammer in his temple and his groin, so he wasn’t dead, but he might as well be.

  “I don’t know when I decided, exactly. I only know I have to go.”

  “With Delaney?”

  She nodded. She was twisting her hands together in the hem of her smock. It was a rich copper-colored fleece that warmed her skin, but could do nothing to banish the misery in the depths of her eyes. “He’s the father of my child.”

  Mitch took a step closer. There were customers all over the store today, which was probably why she’d chosen this time and place to tell him. Though he felt like it, he couldn’t howl his misery to the moon or threaten to beat Delaney to within an inch of his sorry, miserable life. “He may have fathered your baby. That doesn’t mean he’s going to be a father.”

  “Don’t, Mitch. I have no choice.”

  “You chose to leave him once before.”

  “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

  “You were doing the right thing.” She put her hand to her temple. She was trembling and he could have kicked himself for badgering her this way.

  “Mitch, please. Don’t make this any harder for me than it has to be.”

  “I don’t want it to be easy.” God, he sounded as selfish and self-centered as he’d pegged Delaney to be. “Do you love him?”

  “I don’t think I know what love is. Maybe I never did.” He wanted to challenge her on that score, too. But she was almost at the end of her rope, any idiot could see that, so he ground his teeth together and remained silent. “I do know the right thing for my baby is giving him a chance to know his father.”

  “And that means going back to a man you don’t love?”

  She lifted her chin and looked him straight in the eye, something she hadn’t done for days. Not since Delaney blew into town. “I never questioned my mother when she told my sister and I our father didn’t want us. But maybe my mother was wrong. Maybe he wanted to be a father and she wouldn’t let him. I’ll never know. He died three years ago. I don’t want my child growing up with that question always in her heart. Brian wants to be a father. I have to give him that chance.”

  “He wants you,” Mitch growled. He got a grip on himself before he could add the rest of what he’d started to say. I’m not so sure he wants the baby. How the hell did he know what Delaney really wanted? He hadn’t spoken a dozen words to the man the two weeks he’d been in town.

  “I have to give him the benefit of the doubt for our baby’s sake.”

  “I don’t have any doubts, Tessa. I love you. Stay here with me. I don’t care how often Delaney visits the baby. I’ll still love your child as though she were my own.”

  She pressed her fingers to his lips. “Don’t, Mitch. I’ve made up my mind.”

  “Tessa. Goddamn it, I love you.” He slammed his palm against a support beam, felt the sting of cold metal against his flesh. How the hell could he stop her? How the hell could he change her mind? He’d stayed in a loveless marriage for years for Sam’s sake. He couldn’t fault Tessa for choosing the same rocky path.

  “Don’t say that again, please.” She looked so confused, almost ill. She started to turn away. He reached out and manacled her wrist with his hand. Her skin was like ice.

  “All right, I won’t.” He could feel himself shutting down, just as she was. There came a point when your heart started protecting itself. He’d felt like this once before, cold and detached. It was the day Kara told him she didn’t want any more babies like Sam. The day he knew for sure his marriage was finished. It wasn’t fatal, this awful hollowness in the center of his soul, but he damned near wished it were.

  “I…I’ll stay to the end of the week. Until the Holloway boy—”

  He cut her off. “No, you won’t. Go home, Tessa. Try to get some rest.”

  “But I can’t—”

  “Go home, Tessa,” he said gently. He couldn’t be angry with her. Not when she looked as if she were at the end of her rope. “Go home. You’re fired.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “I DID IT!” Sam looked around to see if anyone on the street was watching him. He didn’t know if he’d yelled the words out loud or only in his head. He was that excited. He’d made the Mini-Rivermen first team. The starters were all sixth-graders. Big kids. But three of the first team were fifth-graders. And he was one of them. He’d get to play in almost every game.

  And if one of the other guys got hurt.

  He stopped that thought right in the middle.

  A team player didn’t think like that. His dad had told him what to do to be a good team player, and it had worked. He hadn’t tried to hog the ball. He’d passed off to the guys with the good shots. He’d kept his eye on the ball and on the other team, the way Coach Mazerik had taught him during the summer. And when he was positioned for a good shot, he hadn’t been afraid to take it.

  He’d remembered everything he was supposed to, and it had paid off.

  He’d made it. He was one of the guys. He’d even heard the whistles most of the time, because Coach Mazerik had told his coach to make sure he used the loudest one he had.

  Sam jumped straight up and pumped his fist in the air. Even the weight of his book bag couldn’t keep his feet on the ground today.

  Wait until he told his dad! And Granddad Caleb!

  And Tessa.

  She’d be proud of him. He’d proved he could do what all the other kids could do. He wasn’t a quitter. She’d know that now.

  She would begin to see what a great kid he was, what an awesome big brother he’d be to her baby.

  Except for what’s-his-name. Delaney. The baseball player. The guy who must be the father of her baby. No one had told him that in so many words, but he wasn’t a dummy. He could figure it out. Delaney had been hanging around for a long time now. Ever since Halloween. He didn’t even have a car anymore. He was driving Tessa’s. Just like he planned to stick around forever. That could be a problem. But Sam had figured he’d work on what to do about Tessa’s old boyfriend later, when he had time to think and come up with a plan. Now he just wanted to tell Tessa his great news and see her smile and have her tell him she knew he could do it all along.

  “SAM, HI. COME IN.” She opened the door wider. She looked past him a moment at the leaden sky. There was a hint of snow in the cold wind, and the sun had vanished. Twilight was already sliding across the river, although it was barely f
ive o’clock. Only a week until Thanksgiving. She had an appointment with Annie Stevens on Wednesday for one last checkup and to pick up her records. Then she and Brian would head for California.

  “I made the team,” Sam burst out, swinging around to face her as she shut the door. “I made the first team.”

  “Sam! How wonderful.” She had forgotten all about Sam’s tryouts. She’d spent the afternoon packing the most precious of her things. Brian had told her to leave them behind. They’d buy everything new to celebrate their starting over when they got to L.A. But she’d insisted, and he’d been halfheartedly helping her ever since.

  “I’m seventh man. I’ll get to play every game. Maybe not till the second half, but I’ll get to play. And I’m going to be so good next year I’ll get to be a starter!”

  “Of course you will!”

  “Hey, what’s going on out here?” Brian came out of the bathroom and spotted Sam. “Oh, hi, kid. I thought there was a fire or something from all the noise.”

  “Brian.” She couldn’t believe he’d said such a thing in front of Sam.

  Sam’s face reddened. “I’m sorry. Was I talking too loud?”

  “Of course not,” Tessa assured him, reaching out to lift his chin a fraction of an inch with the tip of her finger. “You were celebrating. And so am I. I’m so happy for you I could shout myself. Sam made first team, Brian,” she said, still keeping eye contact with Sam for a moment before looking over at Brian.

  “Way to go, kid. Uh, first team for what?” Tessa turned Sam around, and after a silent prompting from her, Brian repeated the question.

  “Basketball,” Sam said, his face tight as he strained to make himself understood. Sam backed away a couple of steps so he could see both their faces.

  “Way to go, kid.” The remark was clipped and impatient. Brian didn’t seem to notice the effort Sam was making.

  “Sam’s worked very very hard to make the team,” Tessa said too brightly, in an effort to fill the silence that followed Brian’s words.

  “Tessa helped. We lifted weights together. Well, paint cans. But it worked.”

  Brian looked confused and uncomfortable.