“Okay, let’s start again. You flew home because of Becky and Peter, but why are you here?”
“Oh, no… I said for one thing. But that’s not the main reason.”
Erik looked at Jess, and tried not to tap his foot impatiently. It was starting to get dark, and he was having trouble reading the look on her face. Finally, deciding he didn’t want to get into anything with her anyway, he turned around and started putting his tennis racket into his bag.
“Jess, if you came here to gloat about your date with Ian, I’m not in the mood for it right now. Let’s talk about it tomorrow, okay?”
He sighed glumly and slung his bag over his shoulder.
Jess saw him getting ready to leave and quickly blocked his way.
“No, don’t go. I mean,” she licked her lips, “I wasn’t even going to talk about that, but since you brought it up, Ian turned out to be a jerk, just like you always thought.”
Erik stopped in his tracks, giving Jess a chance to finish.
“I mean, technically, he did ask me out.”
Erik scowled and started to push by her until he felt her hand on his arm.
“But I was so, you know, like yuck. All I could think about was what a jerk he was since his girlfriend,” Erik raised his eyebrows and she rolled her eyes, “yeah, I know, girlfriend, was in the other room while he was hitting on me.”
Jess seemed to be oblivious to the fact that she still had her hand on his arm until he cleared his throat and took a step back.
She sighed and then laughed inexplicably. He watched her step toward him again slowly.
“Anyway, I have a much more important bet I was hoping you could help me win.”
Erik looked at her suspiciously. Jess was acting very strangely. Maybe she was jetlagged or something.
“Uh, sure. I guess so,” he said.
He had promised himself that whatever happened with Jessica when she got back, he would keep his cool, and some distance. Somehow, though, she was making this very difficult.
“Can we maybe talk about this tomorrow though?” he stuttered as she stood inches from him and looked up hopefully.
“Well, I suppose.” She pulled the tennis bag off his shoulder and set it on the ground again before grabbing his hands. “But I’d much rather get started on it today. It won’t take long.”
Erik looked down at their hands in real confusion.
“For starters,” he heard her say before he had a chance to back away again, “you need to do this and this.” She moved his hands up to place them on her shoulders.
“Perfect,” she sighed and she squiggled in closer to him.
“What exactly is this bet?” Erik asked feeling both very nervous and, maybe, a little bit hopeful.
“Well,” Jess said slowly, looking up at him from beneath her lashes, “I made a bet with my coffee friends in Tahoe to get another date; a much, much more important date this time.”
Jessica looked up at him expectantly. He stared into her eyes. For once they were absolutely sincere and not angry at all. Erik began to smile.
“So, what… I’m like practice or something?” he teased.
“Hardly,” Jessica said wryly. “If I wanted to practice it would be with someone a whole lot easier than you.”
Erik scowled and Jessica laughed before getting serious again.
“It’s never easy between us, is it Erik? I wonder why that is?”
Erik didn’t know the answer to that. In fact, that question had been plaguing him a lot lately.
“I guess great things never are,” Jessica continued. “But I’m tired of settling for the mediocre or not listening to what my own heart tells me is great. I’m pretty sure that’s what my journey was really all about.”
Erik saw her look up at him and smile shyly.
“I’m listening now though, Erik,” she said, searching his eyes.
Through the dark they stared at each other knowingly until they were suddenly blinded by the park lights flashing on.
“No,” Erik said with a laugh, shading his eyes to see her better. “It’s never easy.”
He reached over and put his hand up to block the light for her too. The sudden spray of water from the sprinklers made them both laugh. “But it’s always interesting.”
Erik watched Jess hold her breath waiting. Softly he leaned down and through the shower of water, kissed her.
“Now, about that bet,” he said as he slung his tennis bag back over his shoulder and picked up her luggage.
“Yes,” she smiled. “So I guess this means I’ve won another one.”
“Hold on,” Erik said as he took her hand to lead her off the courts, “who said anything about you winning the first bet?”
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UNTANGLING THE KNOT
Chapter One
Neurotic brides were the very worst type of nightmare, Gabriella thought, staring morosely at the file she had started for the newest wedding she was planning.
Stop! She gave herself a mental slap on the back of the hand. Of course it was normal for brides to be nervous and uptight. Where was her compassion? Her empathy? Getting married was a huge decision, something most women looked forward to all their lives. Not for the first time Gabriella had to remind herself to be less judgmental and more patient.
These were just the type of thoughts that landed her in confession so often. Father O’Shea couldn’t understand why she felt the need for weekly reconciliation, but then he didn’t know how frequently her internal dialogues took a negative turn.
Gabriella re-focused her energy on reviewing the notes in her file before she had to meet Mandy in person. Her efforts proved useless. All she kept thinking about was the groom, Ryan, and why he’d chosen to remarry after losing Evie only a couple of years ago.
While not best friends, Gabriella had known Evie fairly well. Evie had taught a few religious education classes at St Therese, and since Gabriella had also taught there, they had worked closely together for a while.
An image of the kind young woman floated through Gabriella’s mind and she tried not to allow feelings of grief to overwhelm her. The pain she’d felt setting up Evie’s funeral flooded her. The aneurysm had taken her so unexpectedly, and unfairly. Over two years ago now. She hadn’t seen much of the family since then, but she’d never forget the pain in the eyes of Evie’s two young children while they sat silently in their pew at the funeral. She wondered how they and their dad were coping.
Apparently fine, she thought caustically, remembering the reason for her soon-to-be appointment with Ryan and his fiancée. Focus on the wedding, Gabriella told herself. It was her job to make the ceremony a happy event, no matter what the situation.
Gabriella had a feeling that this would be easier said than done. When they had spoken by phone, Mandy had asked if the church could even hold 500 people. Gabriella remembered the sarcastic tone of voice Mandy had used and realized it was at that point she’d jumped from feeling extremely muddled to plain annoyed instead. She’d wanted to tell Mandy how lucky she was just to be marrying into that family. But, of course, she’d held her tongue and reassured Mandy that the church was plenty large enough.
Still, 500 people would be a large wedding to coordinate. Gabriella had assumed they would hire a wedding planner but Mandy had insisted that together they could handle the arrangements.
“Ryan is such a celebrity,” she had said. “We must be extra careful that nothing gets leaked to the press.”
; Since they’d been talking on the phone, Mandy, thankfully, hadn’t seen Gabriella roll her eyes. But, when Mandy had talked about a date in May or June, Gabriella hadn’t been able to hold in her laughter. Aside from the fact that most of those dates had been booked for months already, she had explained to Mandy that the Catholic Church required six months of preparation time to ensure that the couple was truly ready to commit for a lifetime.
“And,” Gabriella had pointed out, trying to put a positive spin on it, “we will have more time to get all of the arrangements perfect.”
But Mandy had seemed really upset about the waiting requirement and it had taken a lot to convince her to agree to July 25th.
“Well, at least it’s before Ryan’s season starts back up again,” Mandy had said with a sigh. “Though it doesn’t leave much time for a honeymoon, now, does it?”
Since football didn’t actually start till September, Gabriella questioned how long Mandy had intended to travel. Maybe she’d forgotten there were kids to consider.
Gabriella was just wondering if they’d be bringing the kids with them to the appointment when she heard Father O’Shea shuffling down the hall toward her office. Accompanying him were some familiar voices. She quickly shut the file and waited for them to reach her open door. But, seemingly lost in conversation, they stopped short and their voices continued to echo from the hallway outside.
“It will be wonderful to see those kids of yours. I haven’t seen them at church in a while.”
Gabriella smiled at Father’s tone. He could do Catholic guilt better than most moms she knew.
“I know,” came Ryan’s remorse-laden reply.
Gabriella imagined the chagrined look on his face and then thought she heard something else in his voice, something that sounded like worry.
“I-I can’t seem to get Chloe to go anymore.”
“Hmmm, that is tough.” Father O. paused. “Tell you what, why don’t you bring her in with you to help plan this wedding? I bet Gabriella will get Chloe back into the fold, so to speak.”
Gabriella rolled her eyes. She couldn’t imagine why Father thought she was such a paragon.
“Where is your lovely fiancée by the way?”
“Oh, isn’t she here already?” Ryan sounded startled.
Gabriella too was surprised . . . and she was starting to feel like a voyeur. She pasted a welcome on her face, wiped her hands on her skirt, and headed to the door to take over.
Chapter Two
Ryan couldn’t help but smile as he shook the tiny hand of the young woman Father O’Shea was introducing. At first glance he had thought she was a kid. But now that they were face-to-face he could see that she was closer to his own age.
“Hello,” she said, “I’m Gabriella. I’m not sure if you remember me.”
Ryan studied her more closely, vaguely recalling that she had somehow been involved with Evie’s funeral. Given the circumstances for his visit, it was very diplomatic of her to leave it at that; but for some reason this only made him want to explain to her how difficult his decision to remarry had been.
If anyone had told him six months ago that he’d be engaged to be remarried, he would have laughed outright. Even now, he had trouble reconciling his need for Mandy in his life with his desire to hold onto his past wife. The only thing that helped was reminding himself that Evie was the one, well, sort of, who had encouraged him to remarry.
Two years of grief and raising ten-year-old Chloe and five-year-old Peter had worn him down, so that the lone bright spot of Mandy had seemed like a breath of fresh air in his dark life.
He thought back a month, to the day that had finally pushed him over the edge. He and the kids had sat at dinner with his mom talking about their day. Tired, he hadn’t even paid much attention to their answers.
“So Chloe, anything exciting happen at school today?” His mom had shoveled a second helping of pasta onto Ryan’s plate. She never stopped worrying that he would fall back into not eating as he had right after Evie’s death.
“No, not much Gran,” Chloe had answered.
“What about your spelling test?” Peter interrupted, mouth full as usual.
After dinner, when they were alone, his mom told Ryan that Chloe had shot Peter a nasty look, making her assume it hadn’t gone well. But instead of relating bad news, Chloe had mumbled something about receiving a perfect grade.
When did Chloe start thinking she needed to hide the things she did well? he’d wondered.
When Chloe was little, he and Evie had needed to explain to her that there simply wasn’t room on the fridge for all of her amazing drawings. Now the surface of the fridge was empty, devoid of all but the long list of to-do items that his mom kept organized for them. Clearly Chloe didn’t seem to want to make a fuss about her accomplishments anymore.
The memory of his conversation with his mom was still vivid and he was so lost in thought he barely heard Father O’Shea and Gabriella talking about the details of an upcoming retreat. That sole word ricocheted through his brain . . . Retreat, retreat. What he’d been doing for two long years . . . and on that night a month ago he’d found there was nowhere else to retreat to. He’d reached a dead-end without any escape.
To have missed this red flag in Chloe’s developing personality had finally gotten through to him where nothing else had. The pressure and failure had broken him. For two years he had done everything he could to hold things down . . . his work, his family, some sort of plan for the future, and still things were falling apart around him.
Lights down and the gas fireplace turned on, Ryan had poured himself a shot of whiskey after his mom had left. Drinking was —something he never did, especially the night before what he knew would be a long day of training. But, the last thing on his mind that night had been training. He had taken his drink, then sank into the leather couch in front of the fire.
He remembered how the light had played on the amber liquid in his glass, and how he’d watched the swirls while he had considered how to fix things. The feelings of loneliness and of missing Evie had been so acute that night that he had practically felt her there with him. The fact that she wasn’t had made him angry as hell. There were days when he wished he could give up and though he knew Evie would have hated that in him, he didn’t even care anymore. It was easy for her; she wasn’t there to have to deal. She’d left it all to him.
“Damn it, Evie,” he’d shouted into the empty room, oblivious to the tears sliding down his cheek. “You have to help me. I need you. I just can’t do it anymore. Please, please tell me what to do.”
He’d begged her . . . and for the first time, she’d listened; she’d answered.
Suddenly his head had cleared and an image of St. Therese Church had filled his mind. Even now he could picture the way Peter and Chloe had appeared, all dressed up with white flower petals flying through the air. The vision was still as clear as if he were looking through a glass window.
In the light of day, he laughed at the unlikelihood of the situation but also sighed in acceptance. He would not explain how he’d gotten here . . . to Gabriella or anyone else.
In any case, he doubted anyone would believe that getting remarried was never his decision to make. Even in death, Evie was still the one calling all the plays.
* * * * *
UNTANGLING THE KNOT – Overview –
Gabriella doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into when she begins organizing the church celebration for Ryan and Mandy’s wedding. Is it possible a good Catholic girl can subconsciously sabotage the wedding she is planning?
A cross between Parent Trap and The Wedding Planner, Untying the Knot is a contemporary romance about Ryan, a father of two, who is engaged to be remarried, and the church wedding coordinator, Gabriella, who begins to fall in love with Ryan and his two kids.
Running beneath this, however, is a deeper story of grief and the journey taken by Ryan, his kids and Gabriella to embrace, rather than run from, their true emotions.
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Betting Jessica Page 25
