by Arlene James
The smile that spread across his face then was totally spontaneous. He was amazed at the strength of his own feelings. “I love you, Matilda Kincaid-Soon-to-Be-Ellis.”
She beamed, as calm as a goldfish pond. “Okay, then. Let’s go do it.”
He nodded and covered her hand with his own where it rested on his arm. They strolled side-by-side into the Kincaid living room. Evans Kincaid stood in front of the fireplace mantel in full police uniform. Another man with sleek dark hair sat on the sofa. He wore a well-tailored suit and highly polished black shoes, and he looked as comfortable in Evans Kincaid’s neat living room as he might in his own. A small, pretty woman with large eyes and short, light brown hair occupied an armchair at an angle to the sofa. She was dressed casually in sandals, tailored khaki shorts and a yellow camp shirt. Mattie led him there first.
“Orren, this is my stepmother, Amy. Amy, Orren Ellis.”
Amy smiled up at him. “Mr. Ellis.”
“Orren, please.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Orren. You have darling children.”
“Thank you, ma’am. They can be a handful at times, but I’m proud of them.”
“As you should be. They’re so beautiful, especially the little one. All those blond curls!”
Orren chuckled. “That’s my Sweetums. She’s a real little angel. So’s Yancy, the next one. You’d think she’d be jealous with her baby sister just a year behind her, but she’s not. Then there’s Red.” He rubbed a hand against the nape of his neck, grinning. “That is, Jean Marie. I call her Red because of that hair of hers—and the temper that matches it! She’s the one who keeps me on my toes, I can tell you. And Chaz…” He paused, looking for the words. “I was so young when he was born that I didn’t have the faintest notion what I was doing, but somehow he’s turned out just fine. Frankly, I don’t know what I’d do without him. He’s my good right arm, and that’s saying something for an eight-year-old.”
“Spoken like a proud father,” Amy said, glancing at Evans.
“With kids like mine,” Orren told her seriously, “a fellow can’t help being proud.”
Evans Kincaid cleared his throat. “Such a proud father would understand my concerns for my own daughter.”
Orren turned to face him. “Oh, I do, sir. If you’ll recall, I telephoned you for permission to hire Mattie at the beginning of the summer.”
Evans’s gaze was accusing. “You led me to believe that you understood she’s too young to make these important decisions all on her own.”
“That’s exactly what I thought,” Orren said. “It’s a wonder she didn’t crown both of us with a heavy skillet.”
Evans huffed. “My daughter would never resort to such violence.”
“Well, she’d be justified if she did,” Orren drawled. “We both misjudged her shamefully. It’s a wonder to me that she hasn’t reshaped both our heads. I’m still amazed she fell in love with me.”
Evans rolled his eyes. “Mattie falls in love at the drop of a hat!”
“Is that so?” Orren said smoothly. “I’ll have to remember to drop mine every day then.”
A warm, rich chuckle floated up from the couch. “You may have met your match here, Ev.”
Mattie sighed. “They’re as alike as two peas in a pod, Reverend.”
“I see what you mean.”
Orren stepped over to offer his hand to the reverend while Mattie made the formal introduction. “This is our pastor and friend, the Reverend Bolton Charles.”
“Call me Bolton,” the reverend said, coming to his feet and grasping Orren’s hand.
“Thank you. I prefer first names myself.”
“Excellent. Why don’t we all take seats?” So saying, Bolton Charles waited until Mattie dropped down on the sofa, then reclaimed his place next to her. Mattie pulled Orren down on her other side. Evans stayed where he was by the fireplace, though a pair of armless wooden chairs of the sort that were commonly used for dining had been placed next to the hearth. Bolton Charles linked the fingers of both hands together and crossed his legs. “Now then,” he said, “who would like to begin?”
Mattie lifted a hand timidly, the other grasping Orren’s. “Orren and I are getting married,” she began.
“You think you’re getting married!” Evans snorted.
Mattie paused and began again, more forcefully this time. “Orren and I are getting married, and we’d like my father’s blessing. He’s being unreasonable, though, so we thought—”
“Unreasonable!” Evans exploded. “Merciful heaven, Mattie! He’s looking for a full-time housekeeper and baby-sitter—among other things!”
“That’s not true!” Orren said. “If it was, I couldn’t do better than Mattie, but she’s already keeping my house and looking after my kids. I don’t have to marry her to get that!”
“Which brings us to the other things!”
“I’m in love with Mattie! I want to spend the rest of my life with her.”
“I’m sure you said the same thing to your first wife,” Evans retorted grimly.
Orren sighed. “I made a mistake with Gracie, and I don’t deny it, but I was young, and I wanted a family of my own.”
“Which is precisely Mattie’s case!” Evans pointed out.
“But it isn’t,” Orren said, looking at Mattie. “I’ve never known anyone as wise as your daughter. And she tells me it’s largely due to you, sir. She also tells me that she loves me because I’m so much like you. Personally, I don’t see it,” he muttered out of the side of his mouth.
Evans shook his head. “Neither do I! But even if it were true, it doesn’t change the fact that Mattie’s too young.”
“Daddy, you know that Mother wasn’t much older than me when the two of you married,” Mattie pointed out.
“But she had benefits you didn’t, Mattie. Your mother died when you were at a vulnerable age. You didn’t have the kind of female guidance that she did because of it.”
“I grew up fast because of it,” Mattie argued.
Evans appealed to Amy and Bolton Charles, a hand pointing at each. “How long has it been since she was wearing those outlandish costumes and starching her hair to stand straight on end? Would you call that growing up fast? Good grief, I moved here from California to get her away from some rock-and-roller with braids and nose rings!”
Mattie looked at Orren, a smile quirking at the corners of her mouth. “He was a total fake,” she confided. “Even the tattoos.”
Orren groaned. “Are you telling me that’s what I have to look forward to?”
“I’d say it is guaranteed. In fact, I think we’ll be lucky if that’s the worst Red brings home before she’s done.”
Amy laughed. Orren groaned again, imagining the fellows who were going to be paraded through his living room in a few years, and said to Amy woefully, “And I’ve got three daughters!”
“So far,” Mattie said meaningfully.
Orren swiveled his head so fast it nearly came off. “I knew that was coming eventually.”
“Think we might have room for one or two more?” she asked softly, squeezing his arm.
“We’ll make room.”
Evans Kincaid erupted again. “My God, Mattie! Please tell me that doesn’t mean what I think it does!”
“Why not? Daddy, you know I’ve always wanted children.”
“I’ll kill him!”
Mattie leaped to her feet. “You’ll do no such thing!”
Orren jerked her back down again. “Hold on.” He glared up at Evans. “Let’s get one thing straight right now. Mattie and I haven’t done anything to be ashamed of.”
“By whose standard?” Evans snapped.
“Now, Evans,” Bolton Charles cautioned.
Orren was on his feet before he realized he even intended to stand. “By any standard.”
“So you say, but how am I supposed to know that?”
Orren shook with the effort to hold on to the last shreds of his temper. “You might try giving y
our daughter the credit she deserves! You don’t have any reason to think particularly well of me. I’ll give you that. I’ve made my mistakes and I own up to them. But Mattie is above reproach. As her father, I’d think you’d know that much anyway!”
“Meaning I don’t know anything about my daughter, I suppose!”
“Doesn’t look like it from where I’m standing!”
“You may not be standing much longer, pal!”
“You think so? We’ll see who’s left standing!”
“Oh, my!” Amy gasped, and suddenly Mattie was pushing between them.
“Orren, honey?”
He looked down in some confusion and barked, “What?”
Mattie shook her head and looked past him at Amy. “Didn’t I tell you?”
“Good grief! In the same family?”
Mattie shrugged helplessly. Amy put the heels of both hands to her forehead, shuddering. Evans looked as confused as Orren felt. Bolton Charles uncrossed his long legs and cleared his throat. Every eye went right to him like metal shavings drawn by a magnet.
“Well, since it no longer appears that you’re going to beat each other senseless, I have a thing or two to say.”
Orren glanced at Evans guiltily and saw the same reflected back at him. He swallowed, feeling foolish, and looped an arm loosely about Mattie’s shoulders as she leaned into him, her arm going around his waist. Bolton Charles got up, pushed back the sides of his jacket to slide his hands into the pockets of his pants and strolled into the center of the room.
“Let’s work backward, shall we? Now then, Mattie’s right.” He pointed a finger back and forth between Evans and Orren. “You’re definitely two of a kind.”
Evans and Orren both opened their mouths to protest, but Amy added her weight to that of Mattie and Bolton. “He’s right. Mattie told me, but I had to see it to believe it.”
Evans snapped his mouth shut with a click of his teeth. Orren looked down at Mattie with new respect. “Maybe there’s more to the notion than I thought.”
Mattie smiled up at him. “Why do you think I love you so much? I told you before that I’d known only one other father as devoted as you.” She looked at her father. “My own.”
Evans sighed. “Honey, if that’s true, then why can’t you see that I only have your best interests at heart?”
“Oh, I do see it, Dad. Just as I saw that Orren only had Yancy’s best interests at heart.”
“Yancy?”
“That’s my second daughter,” Orren said, admitting sheepishly, “I guess I baby her too much. I just don’t want her to be jealous of Candy.”
“That’s Sweetums,” Mattie explained helpfully.
“Anyway, Mattie saw that Yancy was a little behind emotionally for her age and pointed it out to me.”
“We’ll be enrolling her in prekindergarten at First Church in the fall, by the way,” she said to Bolton Charles. Bolton nodded. Orren scraped a hand through his hair. His baby going off to school already! He didn’t even want to think about it.
“I guess we will,” he said uncertainly.
“Count on it,” Mattie said flatly, and Orren felt the color drain from his face. He took a deep breath.
Bolton Charles bit his lips and looked away. Evans was watching Orren and Mattie with beetled brow, as if he wasn’t quite sure what he was seeing. Bolton cleared his throat again. “To get back to my comments…”
“Sorry,” Mattie murmured.
Bolton waved away the apology as unnecessary and looked to Evans. “The plain fact is, Ev, they’re both over eighteen. If they want to get married, they can, with or without your approval.”
“So I should just accept it and shut up?” Evans asked disbelievingly.
“I didn’t say that.”
“Mattie’s just barely past eighteen!”
“I’m almost twenty!”
“Man, if I’ve heard that once I’ve heard it a hundred times,” Orren muttered.
“It’s true!”
“All right, sweetheart. I’m not arguing. I was just letting your father know he’s not getting anywhere with that line because I’ve tried it myself!”
Evans frowned. “You have?”
“Repeatedly.”
Evans looked at Mattie, puzzled. Mattie shook her head. “I keep telling you—”
“I know, I know, peas in a pod!”
Amy laughed. Bolton chuckled. Mattie managed to keep it to a smile. Orren couldn’t help smiling himself. “I guess maybe we’re more alike that we realize,” he said to Evans. “It doesn’t seem too bad from my end. If I can do for my children what you’ve done for Mattie, I’ll be more than happy, and that’s a fact.”
Evans pulled in a deep breath, his hands going to the back pockets of his slacks. “You’re not quite what I expected,” he conceded reluctantly. “But that doesn’t mean I’m okay with this!” He turned his gaze on his daughter. “Mattie, what about college? You know what a store your mother set in a college degree. Don’t you think she’d be upset by this?”
Mattie sighed. “Oh, Daddy, don’t you see that I’m doing exactly what mother did? She dropped out to marry you and have me. She wanted her degree, yes, but not until I was old enough to function on my own enough of the time to allow her to do justice to her studies. Her love for you and her desire to have a family came first. She didn’t even know what she wanted to major in until we talked it over together! Well, that’s exactly where I am. I can’t seem to find a reason to stay in college, Daddy, not now. I’ll go back someday because, of course, I’ll want to set an example for my own children. But right now, Daddy, my place is with Orren.”
Orren tightened his arm around her. He loved her so much that sometimes it was impossible to contain it all, and it just flowed over. “Mr. Kincaid,” he said, “you referred to my first marriage a while ago, and I want to say right now that it was a terrible mistake. I can’t regret it completely because that’s where my children came from, but I’ll admit that it was bad enough I don’t want to make the same mistake again. I’d never marry again if I wasn’t convinced that it was right. Sir, I know Mattie is the woman for me, the only woman for me.”
“I might believe that, Ellis,” Evans Kincaid said, “if you hadn’t been married before, but you must have felt the same way then and you admit that was a mistake!”
Frustrated, Orren shook his head and looked at Mattie. “I just don’t know what else to say.”
Mattie looked at Evans. “Daddy, is there anything that would convince you?”
“If you waited until you graduated from college,” he said after a moment.
Mattie closed her eyes. “I can’t do that. Orren and the kids need me, and I need them.”
“My children love Mattie as much as I do,” Orren said softly. “I can’t tell you how much she’s brought to our lives already, and I just can’t imagine living the next two years without her.”
“Evans,” Bolton Charles said, “you know what it’s like to be in love as well as I do.”
Evans looked at Amy. “Yes.”
“Then surely you can understand why they don’t want to wait.”
Evans looked at Mattie. “I understand that my daughter could be making the biggest mistake of her life.”
“Daddy, please…”
Orren tried one more time. “We’re already a family in our hearts, Mr. Kincaid,” he said. “I can’t ask my children to wait another two years for their mother.”
Bolton tried, too. “Of course, they’ll go through premarital counseling.”
Personally, Orren didn’t think they needed counseling, but he bit his tongue and nodded his head. If that’s what it took, he was willing.
“I hope you’re wanting a real wedding,” Amy said from her chair. “I’d hate to see you married without some celebration.”
Mattie looked at Orren. He wanted to march her out of there and marry her that afternoon, but he let her know with a look that he’d do whatever she wanted. “Nothing too fussy,” Ma
ttie said to Amy. “I was thinking a morning service, maybe a tea-length dress, just the family and a few close friends.” She looked at Orren and added, “A luncheon would be nice for the reception, nothing extravagant.”
“So we’re talking about a couple of months from now?”
Orren put his foot down then. “Not that long, I hope. I’d like to have it done before the summer’s over.”
“I agree,” Mattie said.
Bolton injected a sour note. “I couldn’t guarantee a free weekend at the church for the next month.”
“Orren’s off on Mondays,” Mattie said.
Amy glanced at Evans, who stood with head bowed, his hands at his hips, one knee cocked slightly. “So’s your father.”
“A Monday it is then,” Orren said before anyone could ask if Evans would actually be there at the wedding.
Bolton pulled out a pocket calendar and counted the weeks, naming a date. Orren felt as though he could finally breathe again. He pulled Mattie even closer to his side. She laid a hand over his heart and smiled up at him. He wanted to kiss her so badly, and she knew it, too! Otherwise she wouldn’t have thrown that regretful look in her father’s direction. He was through worrying about Evans Kincaid himself, but he’d go through all the motions for Mattie’s sake.
“What about attendants?” Amy asked quietly.
“Oh, Terri, for sure,” Mattie said, “and the girls, of course.”
Orren chuckled. “Man, are they gonna love that!”
“Won’t that be adorable,” Amy said, smiling. “Think Candy’s old enough to make a flower girl?”
“I think so,” Orren said.
“Of course she is,” Mattie agreed.
“What about you, Orren?” Amy asked. “Anyone else you want to include in the wedding party?”
Orren shrugged. “I might ask Jake to be my best man. That’s my boss.”
“Anyone else?”
“Not really. Just the one I think.”
Bolton clicked the ink pen with which he’d been jotting notes in his pocket calendar and said, “Well, I think I just need to know one more thing. Shall we schedule the counseling sessions for Mondays as well? We’ll need three.”
