by Elaine Fox
They chatted a while longer, smoothing over all the strangeness that Lily had felt and reassuring each other of their closeness, then they hung up. Lily went upstairs, showered, and came down to begin cooking dinner.
At five-fifteen the doorbell rang. Lily jumped up from the stool in the kitchen and smiled hugely to herself. He was early. Maybe he couldn’t wait to see her again, just as she couldn’t wait to see him. She needed to confirm for herself that what had happened in the shed that morning had really happened. That she and Brady had said they’d loved each other; that they’d embarked on something wonderful.
She ran to the door and opened it wide, smiling broadly.
Her elated expression turned to one of disbelief, however, when she saw her father in his Armani suit standing on her front porch, black limo parked in the street behind him.
“Daddy!” She couldn’t contain her shock, could barely register that it was him there on her doorstep. She felt as if the two were so incompatible she must be experiencing some kind of synapse misfire.
“Honey, I’m glad you’re home,” he said, stepping into the house past her stunned figure. “I would have called, but I didn’t want to alarm you by telling you I was coming.” He turned back to her in the hall and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.
At the sound of his voice, Doug’s bark erupted from the kitchen and his sturdy body came racing down the center hallway. Lily scooped him up before he could get near her father. God forbid he should shred an Armani leg.
“Oh yes,” her father said dourly. “You still have Doug, I see.”
“I’ll be right back,” she said, hastily returning to the kitchen to put Doug in his crate. She barely had the presence of mind to pat him on the head before closing the door, so bewildered was she by her father’s unexpected arrival.
She returned quickly to the hallway. “What were you saying, Daddy? Something about alarming me? Is something wrong? Is—are you all right?” She looked him up and down from head to foot, satisfying herself that he was not in any obvious distress.
“I’m fine, but why don’t we sit down together?” He motioned her toward the living room as if he were the one who lived there.
“Okay.” She proceeded him into the room.
“The place is looking good,” he said. “You’ve done a nice job with it. It looks much better than it did when Aunt Vivien was living here.”
Lily was still gazing at him in stunned incomprehension. “Daddy, you’re kind of scaring me. Why are you here? Not that I don’t love having you here, of course, but…it’s just so unexpected.”
He sat down gravely on the couch. “I know, Lily. And I’m sorry, but it can’t be helped.” He clasped his hands together in front of him and gazed down at them. Lily had never seen him so subdued, so careful of what he said or did.
She sat gingerly on the edge of the armchair next to the couch.
He slid over on the sofa and patted the cushion beside him. “Come sit here, why don’t you?”
Panic flooded through her. She rose on wooden legs and planted herself next to him on the couch. He took her hands in his. Hers were suddenly frigid, his warm and comforting.
“Daddy, what’s this all about?” she asked, barely breathing.
She could not even imagine what he might be about to say. Was he sick? Was it cancer? Had he lost all his money in the stock market? What? It wasn’t as if they had a lot of friends in common that he might have terrible news about.
“It’s about Gerald,” he said finally.
“Gerald!” Her surprise came mainly from the fact that he hadn’t even occurred to her as a possible source of news.
“This is very difficult to say,” he said, looking her solemnly in the eyes, “so I’m going to say it quickly. He’s gotten married. In Hawaii. To the paralegal, Doris.”
Lily’s mouth dropped open. “In Hawaii?”
She didn’t know why those were the words she repeated. They didn’t mean anything to her. They were just the ones that happened to emerge from her mouth.
She blinked.
Gerald.
Married.
Doris.
She could hardly put the idea together in her head.
Then, slowly, the pieces began to fit. She and Gerald had had nothing but uninspired conversations almost since the first week he’d arrived there. She hadn’t been thinking about it much because she hadn’t been thinking about him much. But there he’d been, with the model-perfect Doris, who Lily had no doubt had had her eye on the ubersuccessful and GQ-handsome Gerald for years. They were working together, staying together, talking about all that business stuff that Lily had only been peripherally interested in, in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and they’d eloped. It made perfect sense.
Was that her? Did you tell—? She heard the words again, clearly this time. It had been Doris in the background of Gerald’s call, she knew now, jealous of his conversation with her.
And here Lily had been worrying about what she was going to say to him about her feelings, or lack thereof, afraid she was going to hurt him, shock him, and he hadn’t even had the courage to tell her. He’d sent her father!
She began to laugh. She did not have even an ounce of regret at losing Gerald.
Her father frowned. “I know this is something of a shock. And people react differently to shock. But you do understand what I said, don’t you, dear?”
“Yes.” She nodded, wiped mirth-teary eyes with her fingers. “Gerald got married in Hawaii. To Doris.”
“I have to say that I’m very angry with both of them. In fact I’m considering speaking with the partners about his promotion. This type of shadiness, this infidelity and impulsiveness, well it speaks badly to his character. Very badly. And Doris…” He shook his head. “Honestly it doesn’t surprise me about Doris. She was something of an opportunist, though that isn’t such a bad thing in the context of a law firm.”
Lily sobered slightly. “Did he say…was he seeing her before they left? He wasn’t actually cheating on me here, was he?”
She’d been so sure of Gerald’s loyalty. She hated to think she could be that wrong about somebody.
“I asked him the same thing,” her father answered. “He swore it was something that happened suddenly, to both of them, while they were in Hawaii. In fact he said I could even ask you about that, because he’d invited you to come to Hawaii for a weekend, and why would he do that if he was planning to elope with Doris?” He gave her an inquiring look.
She nodded, remembering. “That is true. He did invite me to come.” She considered a moment, musing how strange life’s twists could be. “It’s funny, I wouldn’t have thought Gerald could be so…spontaneous.”
“I call it irresponsible.” He shook his head again, looking down at their clasped hands. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I hated to have to tell you this.”
He looked so miserable, Lily’s heart went out to him, and she leaned over and gave him a hug. He squeezed her in return.
“Daddy, don’t worry,” she said into his shoulder. “It’s not as bad as you think. Gerald and I…” She pulled back and looked into his eyes. He looked tired, she thought. Older. Maybe it was because he was outside of his office and in her environment now, without his power and authority behind him, that he looked so much more human, so much more vulnerable.
He’d come all the way down here, south on I-95 during rush hour, which was an unmitigated nightmare, to tell his daughter the bad news in person. In case she was upset. In case she needed him.
She had never loved him more than she did at this moment.
“Gerald and I decided before he left to leave things casual, Daddy,” she said, embellishing a little. “Don’t be angry with him. He’s been calling, and we just haven’t been connecting. I mean, the calls have been connecting, but we haven’t. The bottom line is we don’t have much in common, and I think we were both figuring that out.” She paused, let loose another relieved laugh. “Well, clearly he was
figuring that out.”
Her father was frowning at her, confused. “You aren’t upset with him?”
She thought about that. “I guess maybe, just a little. Only because I wish he’d said something to me.”
Then she realized how completely hypocritical that was considering what she and Brady had just done and how she hadn’t given a thought to telling Gerald, not yet anyway. Though she believed she would have mentioned something had she eloped.
“But I understand completely why he didn’t,” she continued. “Completely. And I don’t blame him a bit.” She squeezed her father’s arm. “Really, Daddy, please don’t worry about me. To tell you the absolute truth, I’m relieved.”
He still looked confused, but he smiled. “Then I am, too. But I have to say this is quite unexpected. I believed you would be devastated.”
She nodded. “And a couple of months ago I would have been. But things have changed. A lot.”
As if on cue, there was a brisk knock on the back door, it squeaked open, and in walked Brady, carrying a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers. Lilies.
She smiled at him.
Then she glanced at her father.
He raised his chin and glanced from Brady to Lily. “Ah,” he said coolly. “I begin to understand.”
Her father stood, pulling his shoulders back and giving Brady his most imperious look.
Brady stopped in the doorway, surprise evident on his face. Then he placed the wine and the flowers on the dining-room table and strode into the living room.
“Mr. Tyler, good to see you again.” He walked right up to her father, his hand held out, his eyes direct.
Her father had no choice but to offer his own hand and shake. “Brady, how are you?”
“I’m very good, sir. And you?” Brady stood comfortably, as if her father were just another associate.
“I’m well,” he said ominously, and gave Lily a dark look.
Lily straightened. She was a grown woman, she could make her own decisions. It was nice of him—wonderful of him, really—to be concerned for her about Gerald, but she had done nothing wrong by starting this relationship with Brady.
Well, nothing that he knew of, anyway.
“Daddy,” she said firmly, “Brady has come for dinner. Can you stay too? I’ve made shrimp Louis; that’s one of your favorites, isn’t it?”
Her father was frowning at the floor. After a moment he lifted his head and looked her in the eye. Then he turned to Brady.
“I’m sorry, Brady, would you excuse us for a minute? I’d like to speak with my daughter. Alone.”
Brady’s eyes became guarded. “Of course.”
“Why don’t you open the wine,” Lily said to him, with a look that she hoped he interpreted as don’t go anywhere. “We won’t be long.”
Brady flashed her a smile. “Sure.”
She and her father stood silent while Brady crossed the living room, moved through the dining room, picking up the wine and flowers as he went, and disappeared into the kitchen.
“I thought he was going out with your friend,” her father said. His tone was conversational, but she wasn’t fooled. That was how he lured witnesses into revealing more than they intended.
“I thought he was, too,” she said. “But he decided not to ask her out.”
“He asked you out instead,” her father said.
Lily met his eyes, thought sort of, but said, “Yes.”
“Lily, I don’t know what you’re doing,” her father said intently, his voice low. “Did you break things off with Gerald for him?”
Lily’s insides quaked, the way they always did when her father was angry. And he was angry now, there was no mistaking it. She should have known. He had been almost as anxious for her to marry Gerald as she had been. Gerald was a known quantity to him, a man not unlike himself, and he was right there in the office where her father could guide him, groom him, make sure he was the son-in-law he’d always wanted.
But Lily was the one this was all about, she thought. She was the one at the heart of the matter, and with Brady she was happier than she’d ever been. Granted, it was early, very early, in the relationship, but she already knew that it was special.
“I did,” she said. “And it wasn’t because Gerald was gone, either, Daddy. My feelings for Brady have been growing for months, but I only just discovered, after Gerald left, that he felt the same way about me.”
The least she could do was get Gerald off the hook, because really he’d done her a favor by marrying Doris. She had no guilt, no regrets, nothing to feel bad about now that she knew she hadn’t hurt him.
“I don’t know what else to say, Daddy,” she continued, “except that I’ve fallen in love with Brady. And he has with me.”
Her father scoffed and turned away from her, pacing to the other side of the room before turning to face her.
“And yet a few short weeks ago you were miserable because Gerald was leaving for so long. How fickle, Lillian. I’m surprised at you.”
Lily blushed, aware of how bad it all looked from her father’s point of view. He didn’t understand the turmoil she’d been in, the fear she’d had of falling for Brady, before she knew who he really was, the way she’d deliberately twisted her own feelings to maintain the status quo.
“It’s complicated,” she admitted.
Her father glanced back at the kitchen, where Brady was not visible, and lowered his voice again. “No it’s not. It’s simple. You traded in the difficult path for the easy one. Gerald was going to be gone for a few weeks, and so you turned to the man next door. How could you do it? And for someone like him!” He threw a hand out toward the kitchen. “I thought you’d learned that lesson with the plumber, Lillian. How could you trade a man like Gerald for a man like that?”
Lily’s back straightened, and she glared at her father. “I just said I didn’t turn to him because Gerald left. I was confused about both of them for a long time before that happened. In fact, it was because of my feelings for Brady that I didn’t want Gerald to go away. I was afraid…”
She took a deep breath and ran her hands through her hair.
“Daddy, this is too hard to explain to you. You’ll never understand. I don’t think you could unless you’ve been in the same situation. But you have to trust me when I say that this is not a whim. I’m in love with Brady. And there is absolutely no comparison between him and Duane. They are completely different people. Please don’t humiliate yourself by showing your prejudices.”
Her father’s face went red, and they glowered at each other a moment. He had withered her with this look on any number of occasions but she would not be felled by it this time. This was too important.
“Daddy, I know how things must look to you,” she continued, trying to keep the conversation reasonable, “but this is what’s real. Brady and me. Gerald and I were never right. We were more of an idea than a reality.”
“Don’t give me that mumbo jumbo,” Jordan Tyler said heatedly. The high-powered lawyer being bested by the public defender. “Gerald was going to offer you marriage, Lillian. A good home, a promising future. What has this fellow got? Nothing! Nothing compared to what Gerald could offer you. And how do you know he’s not just playing around? Gerald was a serious person with a serious job and serious intentions. This Cole fellow could be nothing but a fly-by-night!”
“He is not a fly-by-night. He’s a good person, Daddy. The best man I’ve ever been with. You don’t even know him.”
“I don’t know him,” her father said, nodding. “You’re right about that. But I know men, and I know he’s not the type to offer marriage.”
“Just how do you know that, sir?” Brady’s voice, calm but firm, questioned him from the doorway to the dining room. “Believe me when I say that I hated to listen in, but I was only about fifteen feet away, and your voices got pretty loud.”
“This is none of your business, young man,” her father said, scowling at him in a way that had wilted many an adver
se witness.
“I disagree with you, sir. Since you’re talking about me, I believe it is my business.”
The way he stood, so tall and straight, so composed, Lily felt her heart swell with pride. But this was her battle. He didn’t need to hear all of this.
“Brady, it’s okay,” Lily said quietly.
Brady glanced at her, his expression softening. “No, it’s not okay, Lily. This is about me, about you and me, and I’d like to clear up a thing or two.” He shifted his gaze back to her father. “Maybe I’m not a high-powered lawyer making a lot of money, Mr. Tyler, but I have a good career, an enviable career, I believe, and I have had it for twelve years. I make good money, as you should know from my credit report, though I haven’t felt the need to spend it on a closetful of expensive suits or a Jaguar. But the important point that I believe you’re missing is that I am in love with your daughter. And while it’s early yet to be talking about it, I can say with complete conviction that if things continue the way I hope and believe they will, there is every reason in the world to think I will offer marriage to Lily. At which time I only hope your daughter will see fit to accept me, or not, on her own terms and for her own reasons.”
Lily stared at him, respect for him and joy for herself blossoming in her heart. She smiled, her heartbeat fluttering and her mind racing with the knowledge that he felt the same way she did. They loved each other! They had a future! And he was even standing up to her father for her.
She beamed at him.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Brady said with a polite inclination of his head, “I will go set another place at the table. I hope you’ll accept Lily’s invitation to dinner. I think you and I have some getting to know each other to do, because I plan on being around a long, long time.”
“My God, Brady, you impressed him!” Lily exulted, later that night, in her bedroom. “You impressed him like nobody I’ve ever seen before. It was incredible!” She laughed and fell back on the bed, arms wide.
Brady moved to the bed and knelt over her, pinning her arms to the mattress with his hands and leaning down to kiss her. “But did I impress you? As much as you impressed me? She cooks, she cleans, she defends her boyfriend to her father!” He grinned.
