The Sizzle Saga

by Sarah O'Rourke

  “We’ve seen plenty of each other, Molly,” Devil mumbled under his breath, shifting just quickly enough to avoid another jab by that lethal elbow. If he’d known she was this violent, he would have worn a bullet-proof vest. And maybe a cup.

  The good pastor merely leaned back in his chair, the springs squeaking under the pressure. Tilting his head, he cleared his throat as he said calmly, “Still ain’t answered my question, son.”

  Feeling Molly stiffen beside him, Devil decided that if he wanted to make it out of the room with the pastor’s blessing, he had better find a way to win the man over to his side. “Molly was not pregnant when I asked her to marry me, sir. That much I can guarantee you. Don’t you agree, sweetheart?” Molly merely nodded, unsure to trust her voice at that moment. Seriously, how far could one taunt the good Lord before lightning rained down from heaven?

  “Then it’s true love that has drawn you into the bonds of holy matrimony?”

  Feeling that they had made it past one giant hurdle, Molly squeaked out, “I’ve known Will....Devil for years, Pastor. He and Grant were best friends growing up and still are. I’ve worked for him for a while, and I guess we just grew to love each other over this time.”

  His eyes narrowing as he re-focused his gaze on the dark-headed man, Pastor Martin asked, “I’ve not seen you in church ‘til this past week, Devil. You worship in another church nearby?”

  “I’m Catholic, sir. Well, really a lapsed Catholic. Is that going to be a problem?”

  ~~***~~

  An hour and a half later, Molly literally slumped against the fine leather seat of Devil’s car as she moaned, “How could you do that to me? Are you TRYING to get me thrown out of the Baptist church, Devil? Never in the history of the Ramsey family has one of us been cast out. My momma will kill you with her bare hands if I’m the first.”

  “Honey, I don’t think it’s as bad as you think it is,” Devil replied, easily starting the car and moving them out of the parking lot. “After all, Pastor Martin did agree that he’d think about it overnight before making any decisions. That’s progress.”

  “That’s his way of trying to buy time to find a way to let my mother down easily, you jackass,” she muttered. “You told him you were a lapsed Catholic, and then you refused to get baptized by him!”

  “Molly,” Devil said with a long-suffering sigh as he caught her flailing hand in his, “as I informed the good pastor, I was christened as an infant and confirmed at thirteen. Nana made sure of it. I think those ceremonies are good enough, don’t you? I won’t insult her by changing lanes in the religion department at this late date.”

  “Did you just ask me if that was good enough? Did you? Because the answer is NO - not if it means that I’m not going to be married in the eyes of God in the holy church, it’s not good enough!” Turning sharply in her seat, she ignored her tightening seat belt as she declared, “You find a way to get yourself under the water, Devil, or I swear by all that’s holy that my Momma will personally drag you down to the river and dunk you herself. And let me tell you, she’s gonna be holding you down for a long time just to make sure it takes!”

  “Molly, you’re yelling,” Devil returned with exaggerated patience.

  “Am I?” she virtually shrieked at him. “I can’t think why that would be, can you, Devil? I’ve only been dragged through the streets of Atlanta on a freaking wedding march that would have made General Sherman proud – all in an effort to save your sorry butt! In the past three days alone, I’ve been poked by sadistic seamstresses, force fed enough wedding cake samples to nearly compel me into Jenny Craig, dealt with finicky florists hell-bent on finding the perfect freaking bloom since I do NOT want poinsettias at my wacky wedding even if it is the freaking season… Do you want me to go on? Because I can go on! You have no idea what this so-called perfect day entails! And YOU! You couldn’t even manage to convince one pesky pastor that you might at some point in the future consider joining his church! Which I could understand if you were a deeply religious man, but you’re NOT! You are a Catholic that doesn’t even know where the confessional is anymore!”

  “But I’m still a Catholic, Molly,” Devil stated evenly. “Catholics don’t quit being Catholic because they stop going to Mass. Believe me, the Delancys feel as strongly about that as the Ramseys do about their church.”

  Pressing her lips together, Molly slumped in her seat and battled tears. Thanking God for the darkness, she turned to stare out the window. Why couldn’t he understand how important this was to her? This was the one aspect of the entire wedding that she couldn’t… she wouldn’t compromise. She was raised in that church. It was as much a part of her as her name was. She didn’t expect him to feel the same way, but she needed him to understand that this was important to her.

  “Let me put this in terms you can understand, Devil,” she said quietly after several minutes of silence. “Either you find a way to marry me inside my church, or you can find another bride. This is important to me. Really important,” she informed him in a breaking voice. “My Momma and Daddy were married in that church. Grant and Karen were, too.”

  “I was there, Molly,” Devil reminded her gently. “I was the best man.”

  Ignoring him, she continued. “I attended Vacation Bible School there. I was baptized there. I’ve taught Sunday School there. I need my wedding to be there, too. I won’t consider any other option, Devil. I just won’t.”

  There was no way he could mistake the heartbreak he heard in her voice. Quickly pulling over on the side of the darkened road, he gazed at her averted face in the dim interior of the car. “Okay,” he acknowledged softly. “Give me your phone, Molly.”

  Startled, Molly turned to look at him. Even in the shadows, she could see the serious look on his face. “Why?”

  “I need to make a phone call. I assume that Pastor Martin’s number is in your call log,” he remarked, holding out his hand.

  “Y-yes, but what are you going to do?” she asked hesitantly, her stomach clenching in fear. “You can’t threaten him, Dev. He’s a family friend. My Daddy and the pastor hunt together, for heaven’s sake. The man knows how to use a gun, you know.”

  “I’m not going to threaten him, Molly. I promise. I’m simply going to tell him how important this is to us. Trust me,” he urged when she still didn’t pass him her phone. “I’m not going to take a chance on losing you over this – not when I can see how much it means to you and your family. I’m not a complete asshole.”

  Biting her lip, Molly nodded, slowly reaching into her purse and pulling out her phone. “Please don’t make this worse,” she choked, her eyes filling with tears.

  Devil’s jaw clenched as he stared into Molly’s pale face. “I won’t, sweetheart. I’ll fix it. No matter what it takes, I will fix this.” Waiting until she nodded, he opened the car door and climbed out from behind the wheel, his fingers already scrolling through her recent contacts.

  Molly watched him move to the front of the car and pace back and forth along the edge of the road. He had the phone pressed to his ear, but it was much too dark to see his face. An anxious knot formed in the pit of her stomach as she waited for him to return. Reaching forward, she upped the heat to take the chill out of the car, but knew instinctively that the coldness she felt had nothing to do with the December temperature outside and everything to do with the fact that the man she loved was currently swallowing his pride and making nice with her pastor.

  And he was doing it for her.

  No other reason – just for her.

  She hadn’t mistaken that tender look in his eyes either. Yes, he’d looked at her like that before, but usually when she was flat on her back and he was buried inside her… not when she was threatening to call off their wedding.

  She knew it really made no real difference to Devil where they were married. Her church, Nana’s church, Vegas or the courthouse; for him, one location was as good as another to him. Unlike her, he wasn’t particularly religious. He had his own mora
l compass that he allowed to set his course in life, his own set of rules that he followed.

  The only logical explanation that he would be standing in the chilly night, talking to her pastor, was that he wanted her to have what she wanted. The fact that a powerful man like him would humble himself before a guy that –before tonight – hadn’t been a part of his life at all, it meant something.

  Something vital.

  Something special.

  And something very real.

  Molly smiled as her body began to warm and the butterflies stilled in her belly.

  “He loves me,” she said out loud, staring out the windshield at the outline of his tall body.

  He did; she knew it. She just wondered if he’d realized it yet.

  Sizzle: Chapter Fifty-One

  “So, it all worked out fine, Nana,” Molly said happily as she finished summarizing the events of the previous night for Devil’s grandmother. “After apologizing to Pastor Martin for his glib behavior and explaining that while he’d drifted from the Catholic Church, he still felt loyal to its teaching, the Pastor said he respected his honesty and agreed to marry us. Of course, Devil had to promise to attend services with me as much as he could, but our ceremony will be held at Hillhaven.”

  “That’s my grandson. Gifted with a silver tongue, he was. At least, he has it when he needs it,” the elderly woman sighed, her blue eyes dancing with amusement as they met Molly’s.

  “I didn’t think he’d be able to pull it off,” Molly admitted, still slightly awed by the feat he’d pulled off with the head of her church. Pastor Martin wasn’t exactly known for being the most cooperative man of God. He liked to have things the way he wanted. The fact that he’d relented was testament to Devil’s skill at negotiation.

  “What did ye threaten the boy with, lass?” Nana asked, keenly aware of how stubborn her grandson could be.

  “Calling off the wedding,” Molly mumbled guiltily, averting her gaze from Nana. “I was desperate,” she added defensively, relieved when the old woman laughed and banged the cane her hand rested upon on the floor.

  “Ye know how to get the point across with the lad,” Nana remarked, approval glittering in her lively eyes. “My Willy has met his match with you, me girl.” She nodded in satisfaction. “I knew ‘twould be a match well made. I’ve been tellin’ ye momma for years that this was meant to happen. She pished me away, but I knew, I tell ye. The question is, why are you so very surprised by his actions? Of course, the lad did what he had to do, child. He wouldn’t risk ye or hurtin’ ye heart. A gal’s wedding is a milestone in ‘er life. Ye should have things the way ye want for it. Willy knew that. Besides, swallowing a tad of crow is good for ‘is soul, it is.”

  Closing her mouth on what she’d been about to ask as the elderly woman’s hired nurse walked into the room, Molly smiled at the young woman.

  “Sorry to interrupt,” the woman apologized, “but, it’s time for a pill.” Dropping a white tablet in Nana’s hand, she waited until her patient had popped it between her lips to hand her the water. “I’m Elizabeth, the RN assigned to care for Mrs. Delancy,” she introduced herself to Molly, shaking the other woman’s hand.

  “Pleased to meet you,” Molly greeted the other woman. “Molly Ramsey soon-to-be Delancy.”

  Swallowing a sip of water, Nana sighed. “It’s one pill after another around here,” she muttered with a mock glare at the pink-scrubs-clad petite nurse. “What was that one?”

  “Blood pressure pill,” the woman answered with a gentle smile. “You’re free of me for another few hours,” she declared with a wink as she finished taking the old woman’s pulse and made a note on the pad she kept in her pocket.

  “You know, I’m capable of taking my medicine all by me lonesome,” Nana huffed, rolling her faded blue eyes as her nurse chuckled.

  “I agree, but I’m here because your grandson insisted,” the nurse reminded her. “You’ll have to have that argument with him. After speaking to him during my interview, however, I got the feeling that few people are brave enough to take that gamble.”

  “My granddaughter to be, here,” Nana countered as she nodded at Molly. “She could take up the cause, couldn’t ye, lass?”

  Looking from the nurse to Nana, Molly shook her head. “Not when your health is at risk, I won’t. Devil is right about this. If you won’t go stay with Momma and Daddy or move in with us after we’re married, you’re stuck with a nurse until you’ve recovered. I know you feel better, but you had a heart attack.” While she understood the older woman’s need for independence, not even she was willing to risk Nana’s health.

  “I am recovered,” Nana harped with a frown.

  “I concur,” the nurse laughed. “You’ve rebounded amazingly well, and it was only a mild cardiac event.

  “What?” Molly asked sharply, looking at the nurse. “Mild? Nana has congestive heart disease. That’s a serious condition. One that will never be cured.”

  “Yes, but it is one that is controllable when it’s treated with the correct medications. She’s responding wonderfully to the tweaks the cardiologist made in her dosages. Didn’t you tell them, Mrs. Delancy?” she asked Nana cheerfully. “When I took her to her appointment yesterday, the doctor said…”

  Clearing her throat, Nana lifted her hand to still the conversation. “Let’s not bore the lass with all the details, Elizabeth.”

  Shocked, Molly stared at Nana. “No, bore me, Elizabeth,” she all but insisted. “It seems Nana has conveniently forgotten to tell us some key details regarding her heart. What did the doctor say?”

  “Well, I was just going to say that the cardiologist thought that with the adjustments he’d made to her medicine, she might well outlive us all. It’s great news, isn’t it? Why didn’t you share it with your family, Mrs. Delancy?”

  “I… well… you see…” Nana faltered, paling as Molly’s eyes bore into hers. Pursing her lips, she settled back into her recliner. “I had me reasons. Good ones, too.”

  “Could you please excuse my grandmother and me for a few minutes?” Molly asked the nurse quickly, smiling benignly before turning her gaze back to the crafty old woman before her. “We seem to have quite a bit of good news to discuss.”

  “Of course. I’ll just be reading in the kitchen if either of you need anything,” Elizabeth replied before slipping out of the room.

  Waiting until the other woman was out of earshot, Molly turned wide eyes on the fidgety old woman in front of her. “Nana,” she said softly. “What have you done?”

  “I could ask you and Willy the same question, lass,” Nana commented blandly.

  Feeling those familiar all-seeing eyes on her face, Molly resisted the urge to bite her lip. “Nana…”

  “Why do the young always assume the old get stupider with age, darlin’?” she asked, narrowing her gaze on Molly’s flushed face. “Just because I’m elderly, donna mistake me for daft.”

  “We haven’t! Neither one of us! Ever,” Molly countered truthfully.

  “So, are ye tellin’ me that this marriage was planned before my old arse ended up in a hospital bed?” Nana asked calmly, folding her hands in her lap. “Don’t bother tryin’ to fib, me girl. You’d never be able to pull off the ruse.”

  “You knew? The whole time?” Molly gasped, her voice high and tight as the grandfather clock ticked off the seconds in the corner of the comfortable den. Devil’s grandmother had known the entire time that their engagement had been a plan they’d concocted between them.

  “Still sharp as a tack up here, lass.” Nana tapped at her temple with one finger before smiling at Molly. “Aye, I knew. I even ken why ye did it.”

  Molly’s jaw hung open as her heart raced and she shook her head. What did this mean? Was she even still getting married?

  All she knew was that she needed to tell Devil that his grandmother was going to be okay. Immediately. “We need to call Devil,” she said out loud, grappling for the cell phone she’d dropped on the table beside he
r when she came in.

  “Ach!” Nana hissed, leaning forward and snagging the phone from Molly’s fluttering hands with the speed of a woman half her age. “Ye will not! At least, not yet.”

  “Nana! Devil needs to know that the woman he loves above all others is going to live! You’ve got no idea how worried he’s been. He’s terrified of losing you!” Molly chastised, hopping from the armchair she’d been sitting in and reaching for the phone again.

  “Sit, lass,” Nana demanded imperiously, pointing a finger at the seat Molly had just vacated. “First, we talk. Then, maybe, I’ll let ye call my Willy.”

  Taking a deep cleansing breath, Molly sat.

  “All right,” Nana declared with a nod of her silver head, “Now, we chat.”

  “Nana, what do you want me to say? I know you’re probably angry that we deceived you, but I promise, our intentions….”

  “You didn’t deceive me, darlin’,” Nana soothed the rattled young woman in front of her gently. “Unless, you’re gonna tell me that ye don’t love my grandson.”

  Molly was stunned speechless again. What did she say to that? Of course, she loved Devil. She’d loved him her whole life, but admitting it out loud wasn’t something she’d ever done. Not really.

  “Well, tell me, lass,” Nana prompted impatiently, tapping her fingers against the chair as she waited for Molly to speak.

  “I love him,” Molly whispered. “I love him very much, Nana.”

  “I know.” Nana shrugged. “Known it for years as a matter of fact. And in ye heart… you want to wed him, aye?”

  “I can’t marry him with this lie between us. He only told you that we were getting married that day because he wanted to see you happy. It was an impulsive fib that he told with only the best intentions,” Molly explained, eager for Nana to understand and accept what they’d done.

  “My Willy has never been the impulsive sort, lass. I think if the lad could be called anything it ‘twould be opportunistic. He knew what he was doing when he announced he was marrying you that afternoon in the hospital. He saw the chance to have what he wanted and jumped on it with both feet lest it get away. I don’t doubt that he wanted to make my eventual passing easier. Oh, no. William would do just about anything for me. I know that. But what he wouldn’t do is marry a woman that he didn’t already love deeply, lass. He chose you. Make no mistake about that.”