The Manning Sisters

by Debbie Macomber

  The silence hummed as Taylor considered her words. “What about Cody?” she asked finally. “Have you given any thought to his feelings?”

  “Yes.” Christy had thought of little else. Never in her life had she asked more of a person than she was asking of Cody. Another woman had destroyed his trust, and there was nothing to assure Christy that he’d want anything to do with her after this.

  As painful as it was, as difficult, she found she couldn’t humiliate her parents and risk destroying James’s chances with this case.

  Even if it meant she lost Cody.

  Nine

  Something was wrong. Cody felt it instinctively, all the way to the marrow of his bones. Christy had left two separate messages on his answering machine, and every time he’d played them back, he’d felt an achy, restless sensation. It wasn’t what she’d said, but how she’d said it. She sounded lighthearted and cheerful, but beneath the facade, Cody heard unmistakable confusion.

  He’d tried to phone her back, but to no avail. Unable to sleep, he rose in the early morning hours and drove around the back roads outside town, trying to make sense of what was happening. Or not happening.

  He couldn’t find the answers, not when he didn’t understand the questions.

  His greatest fears were about to be realized. Once again he’d fallen in love, involved his life with a woman who couldn’t be trusted.

  Christy isn’t Becca, his heart shouted, but Cody had virtually given up listening.

  The sun had barely crested the hill as Cody sat in his Cherokee, looking at the valley below, pondering what he should do. If anything. Dammit all, he should never have let this go so far. Becca had taught him everything he needed to know about women and love.

  Dawn burst over the hillside, with golden rays of sunlight splashed against the rugged landscape, and small patches of light on the horizon.

  Cody released a jagged sigh, then started his car. As much as he’d like to turn his back on the entire situation and pretend the past two weeks with Christy hadn’t happened, he knew the effort would be futile.

  He glanced at his watch, knowing Russ and Taylor would be up and about. He needed to talk.

  The light from the kitchen window glowed as Cody approached the ranch house. He pulled in to the yard, turned off the engine and waited until the door opened and Russ appeared on the back porch.

  Climbing out of the car, Cody joined his friend.

  “I thought that was you,” Russ said, opening the door in mute invitation.

  Cody removed his hat and set it on the peg while Russ walked over to the coffeepot and automatically poured him a mug.

  “Taylor’s feeding Eric,” Russ said. “She’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  Cody nodded and straddled a high-backed wooden chair.

  Russ sat across from him. “Personally I don’t think this thing with Christy is as bad as it sounds. Although, to be honest, if I was in your shoes, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  Cody hadn’t a clue what his friend was talking about but decided not to say anything, hoping Russ would explain without him having to ask.

  “How’re you holding up?”

  “Fine.” Cody was about to drop the charade and ask his friend what was going on when Taylor came in, wearing a long pink housecoat. Her hair was mussed and fell to the middle of her back. She offered Cody an apologetic smile, and once more he was left to interpret the meaning. His gut was tightening, and he didn’t know how much longer he could go on pretending.

  “Good morning, Cody,” Taylor greeted him, helping herself to a cup of coffee. It seemed to Cody that her smile conveyed more concern than welcome.

  It was all Cody could do not to leap to his feet and demand someone tell him what was happening.

  “I suppose you’re here to talk about Christy?” she asked gently. If Russ hadn’t said a word, Cody would’ve guessed something was wrong just from the way Taylor was looking at him—as if she wanted to put her arms around him and weep.

  “Christy’s been on my mind,” he answered brusquely.

  “You realize she doesn’t have any choice, don’t you?” Taylor added. Her eyes, so like Christy’s, appealed to him to be open-minded. “Russ and I’ve gone round and round about this and—”

  “Any choice about what?” Cody demanded. His friends exchanged a surprised look.

  “You mean Christy didn’t get hold of you?”

  “No.”

  “Then you don’t know about the engagement party?”

  “All I got was two messages in which she sounds like Mary Sunshine. I knew she wasn’t telling me something. I sensed that right away.”

  It took a moment for the news to hit him. Engagement party? That meant she was still involved with…If he hadn’t already been sitting down, Cody would have needed a chair fast. He’d heard of men who’d had their feet kicked out from under them, but he’d never understood the expression until then.

  “Oh, dear.” Taylor reached for her coffee and it was clear that she was upset. Her hands trembled, and her eyes avoided meeting his.

  Cody transferred his attention to Russ, who looked as uncomfortable as his wife. “What’s going on?” Cody asked in a deceptively calm voice.

  Once more, husband and wife exchanged glances as if silently deciding between themselves who would do the talking. Apparently Russ presented his wife with the unpleasant task, because she swallowed, then turned to Cody. “My sister’s caught in a series of difficult circumstances.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “Apparently my mother took the two weeks while Christy was here in Montana to plan an elaborate engagement party. It seems her spirts needed a boost, and my father thought involving her in planning a party would help. Unfortunately he was right. Mom threw herself into the project and arranged the event of the year, starring Christy and James.”

  “Are you telling me she’s going through with it?”

  “She doesn’t have much of a choice. The celebration’s scheduled for this evening.”

  This second bit of information hit Cody with the same impact as the first. “You’ve got to be kidding!”

  “I wish we were,” Russ said, his expression annoyed. “My in-laws mean well, but Christy’s trapped in this fiasco simply because there isn’t time to cancel it now.”

  “What about James?” Cody asked, stiffening as he mentioned the other man’s name. Every time he thought about the Seattle attorney, he struggled with anger and jealousy. James Wilkens had far more claim to Christy than he did. They both loved her, but it was James who’d given her an engagement ring. It was James her parents wanted her to marry.

  “James is another problem,” Taylor whispered.

  Cody didn’t understand. “You mean he’s refusing to release her from the engagement?”

  “He doesn’t know Christy intends to break it off,” Russ said without preamble.

  Cody would’ve accepted just about anything more readily than he did this news. Christy had played him for a fool, used him the same way Becca had, for her own selfish purposes—whatever they might be.

  “She’s going to tell James everything,” Taylor said heatedly in her sister’s defense.

  Cody didn’t bother to comment, still reeling from this last news.

  “When I talked to her, she’d just returned from seeing James. She’d gone to him with the best of intentions, wanting to tell him about you and break off the engagement before it went any further. She was hoping the two of them could discuss the engagement party and decide what could be done.”

  “She didn’t say a word about me to James, did she?” At Taylor’s wilted look, Cody decided that was all he needed to know. He stood, emptied the contents of his mug into the sink and set it on the counter so hard that it almost shattered.

  “She couldn’t tell him,” Taylor cried. “If you love Christy the way you claim, you’ll listen long enough to find out why.”

  Cody did love Christy, but he didn’t know how mu
ch more battering his heart and his pride could take. He stood frozen, waiting for Taylor to continue.

  “If she told James about you, she might put his entire career in jeopardy.” For the next ten minutes Russ and Taylor took turns explaining the situation as best they could.

  “Christy doesn’t have any choice but to follow through with this farce of a party, don’t you see?”

  Taylor did an admirable job of presenting her sister’s case; Cody would give her that.

  She kept her pleading eyes focused on him. “If it’d been up to her, she would’ve ended the engagement five minutes after she got home.”

  Cody didn’t respond, although it was apparent his friends were waiting for him to say something.

  “You’ve got to appreciate the situation Christy’s in,” Taylor went on. “What would you have done had the circumstances been reversed?”

  Cody closed his eyes, pondering the dilemma. What would he do?

  He just didn’t know.

  “Oh, sweetheart!” Christy’s mother exclaimed, stepping back to examine the effect of the full-length layered blue dress. “You look like an angel. Eric, come and see.”

  Eric Manning, wearing a white tuxedo with a pale blue cummerbund the same shade as Christy’s dress, stepped gingerly into the living room. He eyed his youngest daughter and nodded approvingly. “You make an old man proud,” he said with a warm smile.

  “You’ve never looked lovelier,” her mother added.

  Christy managed a smile. She had no idea how she was going to make it through this party. She might be able to fool her parents, but surely someone would notice. Rich would. Of her three brothers, she’d always been closest to Rich. He’d take one look at her and immediately guess that something was wrong.

  Not that it would make any difference. She’d stand before family and friends and pretend to be madly in love with James, pretend to be an eager bride-to-be. But the only thing Christy was eager for at the moment was to put this evening behind her.

  “I’d like to propose a toast to the happy couple, my sister Christy and the love of her life, James Wilkens.” Rich Manning raised his champagne glass to the couple.

  Christy grinned at her brother and fought the urge to empty her champagne glass over his head. Of all the guests, she’d expected him to realize how miserable she was. Instead, he’d unwittingly made things even worse.

  Smiling faces nodded appreciatively at her brother’s words before the party-goers sipped the vintage champagne. The round of toasts had been going on for several minutes. Christy wasn’t sure how much more of this she could endure.

  Her father had proposed the first toast, followed by her uncles and all three of her brothers. Each seemed to add something to the list of blessings they wished for her and James.

  Christy swallowed another sip of champagne as her fiancé stood at her side, tall and debonair. She could barely look at him without being overwhelmed with guilt. They’d spent two hours in each other’s company, and neither had spoken more than a handful of sentences.

  In retrospect Christy wondered how she could possibly have agreed to spend the rest of her life with James. He was wonderful, but it was increasingly obvious that they were painfully mismatched.

  Hoping she wasn’t being conspicuous, Christy scanned the gathering, wondering if it was possible for anyone to read her thoughts. Not that it would do any good.

  “Would you like something to eat?” James asked, glancing toward the linen-draped tables where trays of hors d’oeuvres lay waiting.

  Christy shook her head, positive she wouldn’t be able to keep down a single bite. “Nothing for me, thanks. What about you?”

  “I’m fine,” James answered.

  The music started, and a handful of couples were making their way to the gleaming wooden floor. “I’ve always been terrible at this sort of thing,” James confessed, reaching for Christy’s hand. “But I suppose it’s expected of us.”

  Christy nodded, wanting nothing more than to escape. A path was cleared as James led her to the dance floor and slipped his arm around her waist, careful to maintain a respectable distance between them. The music was slow and melodious, a love ballad, whose words seemed to ridicule her more than anything that had preceded the dancing.

  James smiled into Christy’s eyes as they moved across the floor. Soon other couples joined them.

  Her fiancé seemed to relax a little more now that they weren’t the only two on the floor. For that matter so did Christy. “I’m sorry I haven’t been myself this evening,” James murmured regretfully.

  Christy was ashamed to admit she hadn’t noticed. Her whole attention had been focused on simply getting through this ordeal.

  “The Mulligan case is going to take up a lot of my time over the next few weeks, and I can only hope you’ll be patient with me.”

  Christy was horrified to realize she’d forgotten all about the trial and how important it was to him. “Oh, James, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even ask how everything went this morning.”

  “Not as well as I’d hoped,” he mumbled under his breath.

  “I’m sorry,” she said again. “But I understand you’re going to be busy. In fact, it might actually work out for the best. You see, I met—” She wasn’t allowed to finish.

  “I knew you’d be understanding,” he said, cutting her off. He smiled gently and drew her toward him. “You always have been.”

  “You, too,” she whispered sarcastically, but James didn’t respond.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to pretend it was Cody’s arms around her. That was the only way she’d be able to continue this farce. Keeping his image in her mind gave her a sense of purpose, a means of enduring this disastrous night.

  After a respectable number of dances, James escorted her off the floor. Until then Christy hadn’t noticed how tired and defeated he looked. Several family members insisted on dances with her, and Christy found herself on the floor with a number of uncles, her brothers and longtime family friends.

  James was doing his duty, as well, keeping the women from both families occupied. She did see that he managed to do so without dancing with any of them, and that made her smile, however briefly.

  It wasn’t until the end of the evening, when Christy decided she just might survive, that her aunt Lois, her mother’s youngest sister, asked the impossible question. “When’s the date for the wedding?”

  The whole room went silent. The music ceased, and everyone turned to stare at Christy and James. They were sitting together in a long row of folding chairs against the wall. It was the first time they’d sat down that evening.

  Christy felt like a cornered animal. The cracker in her mouth seemed to go down her throat whole.

  “You don’t have an engagement party without letting those you love know when you’re planning the wedding,” Aunt Lois said.

  James glanced at Christy. “We haven’t had a chance to discuss a date, have we, darling?”

  “No,” Christy muttered. It wouldn’t look good to announce that she was counting the days until she could break the engagement. If she was going to discuss a wedding date with anyone, it would be with Cody. But he hadn’t asked her, and after he learned about this evening, Christy doubted he’d ever want to see her again.

  “Springtime is always lovely for a wedding.” Aunt Lois stood directly in front of her, waving her arms, demanding the attention of Christy and everyone else. “George and I were married in May, and the flowers were gorgeous.” Pressing her gloved hands together, she released a slow sigh of remembered happiness.

  “But May’s almost a year away,” Elizabeth Manning objected loudly, walking across the dance floor to join this all-important discussion. “Why wait so long? I was thinking more along the lines of November.”

  “November?” Christy echoed.

  “The leaves are always so pretty then. You know how I love orange, brown and yellow,” she said, looking at her daughter.

  Already Christy could see her mothe
r’s mind working, plotting and planning. She’d enjoyed making the arrangements for the engagement party so much that she couldn’t wait to start on all the pomp and ceremony of a formal wedding.

  “With your dark coloring, Christy, an autumn theme would be perfect.”

  “Personally I favor a December wedding,” Eric Manning shouted. He’d obviously had more than his share of champagne.

  “December?” Elizabeth shrieked, shaking her head. “Never.”

  “All right,” Eric countered. “Let’s ask Christy and James which date they prefer. This is, after all, their wedding.”

  “Ah.” Christy couldn’t think. Her mind froze along with her hands, which were raised halfway to her mouth, her fingers clutching a delicate artichoke canapé. In a panic she looked at James, her eyes wide in speechless appeal. If ever she needed rescuing, it was now.

  “What do you say, sweetheart?” her mother asked.

  By some miracle Christy managed to lower the cracker to her plate. “I…I haven’t given the matter much thought.”

  “When George and I decided to marry, we couldn’t do it fast enough,” Aunt Lois informed the group.

  “November,” James said decisively. “Your aunt’s right. There’s no need to put off the wedding.”

  “We don’t have to choose a date now, do we?” Christy asked. “Not when you’re so busy with the Mulligan case.”

  His hand patted hers gently. “This trial will be over soon enough, and I’ve been selfish not to consider your feelings. Naturally you and your mother will want to start making all the necessary arrangements.”

  “November would be perfect.” Elizabeth Manning opened her purse and withdrew a small appointment calendar. “Let’s pick the date right now. How does the twelfth sound?”

  Once more Christy found herself speechless. “Ah…”

  “The twelfth sounds grand,” James said triumphantly, and lightly touched his lips to Christy’s cheek. “Isn’t that right, darling?”

  The whole world came to an abrupt halt, awaiting Christy’s reply. The walls seemed to be falling in around her, until she could hardly breathe.