“We’ll slip out when she stops talking, when it’s less noticeable,” Reed whispered.
Norah nodded. Awkward.
“I know it’s not easy for you to be here,” the woman continued, turning slowly around the room to speak to all tables. “And because you are here, you’ve taken the first step in your relationship recovery.”
Okay, what? Relationship recovery?
Reed raised an eyebrow and looked at Norah; now it was her turn to shrug.
“My name is Allison Lerner,” the woman on the platform said. “My husband, Bill, here, and I have been married for thirty-six years. Yes, we got married at eighteen—badump! No, seriously, ladies and gents, we have been married for thirty-six years. Some of those years were so bumpy we threatened each other with divorce every other day. Some months were good. Some days were amazing. Do you want to know why we didn’t divorce despite the arguments, problems, issues, this, that and the other?”
“Yes!” a woman called out.
Allison smiled. “We didn’t divorce because—and this is the big secret—we didn’t want to. Not really. Even when we hated each other. We didn’t want to not be married to each other. Not really.”
“What the hell kind of special event is this?” Reed whispered. “They’re the entertainment?”
“God, I hope not,” Norah whispered back.
“All of you taking tonight’s Relationship Recovery seminar are here because you don’t want to divorce or separate or go your separate ways, either. So enjoy a glass of wine, folks, order your appetizers and entrées, and once the waiters are off in the kitchen, we’ll start the hard work of saving our relationships. Because we want to!”
Norah glanced around. The woman with the arms crossed over her chest had tears in her eyes. Her husband was rubbing her arm—half-heartedly, but hey, at least he was doing something. The entire restaurant must be booked for the seminar.
“I sure got this one restaurant choice wrong,” Reed said. “Shall we?” he asked, throwing down his napkin.
“Sir, you can do this,” Allison Lerner said from behind them as she put a hand on Reed’s arm. She and her husband must have been on the lookout for runners. “You deserve this. You both do. Give yourselves—and your marriage,” she added, glancing at their wedding rings, “a chance.”
“No, I—” Reed started to say.
“Allison is right,” Norah said to Reed. “We need to learn how to fight for our marriage instead of against it.”
As Reed gaped at her, she realized how true that was. Reed was fighting against it without even knowing it because he didn’t want a real marriage. Norah was fighting against it because she wanted more when she’d agreed to less. Did that even make sense? No wonder she was so confused about her feelings.
“We need to figure out how to make this work, right?” Norah said. “Let’s stay.”
Reed stared at her, then glanced at Allison’s patiently kind face. He sat back down.
“I’m thinking of pasta,” Norah said, opening her menu.
He raised his eyebrow at her. Scowled a bit. Then she saw the acquiescence in his eyes and the set of his shoulders. “Okay, okay. I’m in.” He opened his menu.
They ordered a delicious-sounding seafood risotto as an appetizer. Norah chose the four-cheese-and-mushroom ravioli for an entrée; Reed went with the stuffed filetto mignon. Norah sure hoped he’d offer her a bite.
“Everyone, take a sip of your beverage—wine, soda, water, what have you,” Bill Lerner said from the platform.
Norah and Reed picked up their glasses, clinked and took a sip. The woman next to them frowned. There was no clinking at their table.
“Okay, now put down your drinks,” Bill said. “Turn to your partner. Look at your partner and say the first nice thing that comes to you in reference to your partner. Ladies, you begin.”
Norah turned to Reed. This was an easy one. “I love how you are with the triplets. I love how you read to them and blow raspberries on Brody’s and Bea’s arms but not Bella’s because you know she doesn’t like it. I love that you know which of them likes sweet potatoes and which hates carrots. I feel like I can relax as a parent in my own home...well, your home, for the first time since they were born because you’re there. Really, really there. It’s a good feeling. Better than I even hoped it would be.”
Norah felt tears spring to her eyes. She hadn’t meant to say all that. But every word was true. Oh hell. That was the entire reason she’d agreed not to rip up the annulment papers—so that exactly what had happened would happen. And she wanted things to change? She wanted more? She was being selfish. Demanding more of Reed than he wanted to give. Putting the triplets’ good new fortune in jeopardy. Mommy’s love life had to come second. Period.
Reed took her hand and held it. “Thank you. That means a lot to me. Those babies mean a lot to me.”
She almost burst into tears but held back the swell of emotion by taking a sip of wine.
“Okay, gentlemen,” Allison said from the platform. “Your turn. Say the first true and nice thing you feel about your partner.”
Reed took a sip of his wine and then looked at Norah. “I admire you. You’ve got your act together. You’re lovely. You’re kind. You’re funny. I like seeing you around the house.”
Norah laughed. She liked what he’d said. Maybe it wasn’t quite as personal as what she’d said, but it came down to him liking her, really liking her, as a person. And liking having her around.
“Okay, gentlemen,” Bill said into the mic. “Now look at your partner and tell her how you felt about what she said.”
Reed put down his glass of wine, which from his expression, he clearly wanted to gulp. “Maybe I am the triplets’ father, after all.”
Norah did feel tears sting her eyes this time and she didn’t wipe them away. She was also speechless.
“I realized it before you said what you said. I realized it from talking to David Dirk. I love those babies, Norah. They have my heart. I am their father. If they’ll have me.”
Norah bit her lip. “They’ll have you.” I’ll have you.
“Okay, ladies, now tell your partner how the nice thing he said about you made you feel.”
Norah took Reed’s hand and squeezed it. “You’ll never say anything that I’ll treasure more than what you just did. The triplets come first. That’s just how it is with me.”
He tilted his head as if considering something. But he didn’t say anything. He just nodded.
“Whew!” Allison said from the platform. “That is quite a bit of work we did all before the entrées were served! Feel free to talk about what we just did or change the subject and enjoy dinner. Once you’ve had a chance to eat, we’ll resume with the next exercise. Of course, after dinner, we’ll get into the heavy lifting.”
“Luckily we’ve got plans,” Reed whispered. “So we’ll have to skip the heavy lifting.”
Norah smiled. “Oh?”
“There’s something I want to show you. Something more fun than heavy lifting.”
“I feel like my head was put back on straight,” she said. “So I’d say this Relationship Recovery seminar was a huge success. In just one exercise.”
He squeezed her hand but again didn’t say anything and cut into his delicious-looking filetto mignon. He cut a bite and instead of lifting the fork to his mouth, reached it out to hers. “Ladies first.”
She smiled, feeling her moment-ago resolve to focus on the partnership and not her heart start to waver. How was she supposed to avoid her feelings for Reed Barelli when he was so wonderful?
She took the bite and closed her eyes at how tender and delicious the steak was. “Amazing,” she said. “Thank you.”
She scooped a ravioli onto his plate. “For you.”
And then they ate, drank and didn’t talk more about the exercise, which the poor w
oman at the next table was trying to get her husband to do.
“So you really like my hair this way?” she’d said three times.
The husband shoveled his pasta into his mouth and barely looked up. “Honestly, Kayla, with your hair blonder like that, you look just like you did the day I got the nerve to talk to you after earth science class junior year of high school. Took me a month to get the courage.”
The woman gasped and looked like she might faint. Pure joy crossed her face and she reached out her hand and squeezed her husband’s. “Oh, Skip.”
Sometimes people knew how to say the right things at the right time.
Reed glanced over at the Lerners on the platform. They had their arms linked and were feeding each other fettuccine. Norah’s and Reed’s plates were practically empty, both of them having just declared they couldn’t eat another bite. “I say we slip out now.”
Norah smiled. “Let’s go.”
Reed put a hundred-dollar bill and a fifty on the table, then took her hand and made a point of asking a waiter where the restrooms were, pointing and gesturing for show. They dashed over to the entrance and then quickly ran up the hall. They were free.
“That was unexpected,” Norah said on a giggle as they stopped around the corner of the lobby. Her first giggle since her wedding night.
“But worthy,” Reed said. “Our marriage feels stronger. We actually did some good work in there.”
Norah smiled. “We did. So what did you want to show me?”
“Follow me.” He pressed the elevator button. Once they were inside, he pressed the button marked Roof. They rode up forty-two floors and exited into a hallway without any doors except one with a sign that said Roof. Reed pushed open the door and she followed.
It was a roof deck, with couches and chairs and flowers and a bar staffed with a waiter in a tuxedo. Reed took her hand and led her over to the other side of the deck, away from the small groups gathered. She gasped at the view of the Strip, sparkling lights everywhere, all underneath a canopy of stars.
“Something else, huh?” he asked, looking up and then around at the lights.
“Yeah,” she said. “Something else. You sure don’t see a view like this in Wedlock Creek.”
Would she appreciate it even more if Reed were standing a drop closer? With his arm around her? Or behind her, pressed against her, both of his strong arms wrapped around her? Yes, she would. But hadn’t she said she wasn’t going to be greedy and selfish? She knew what was important. She had to remember that and not want more.
Reed’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the screen. “It’s David Dirk,” he whispered. He turned toward the view. “Hey, David.” He listened, then smiled. “Great news. And yes, we’d love to. See you in two hours.”
Norah’s eyebrows shot up. “We’d love to what?”
“Seems we’re invited to be David and Eden’s witnesses at their wedding at the Luv U Wedding Chapel.”
Norah was surprised. “Wait. Eden flew here? She’s giving up the Wedlock Creek chapel and her dream of triplets?”
“I guess she did some soul-searching and decided what she wanted most.”
Norah nodded. “That’s the key. What you want most. You have to follow that even if it involves some compromise.”
And what she wanted most was a good life for her children, the security and safety Reed would provide, the love and kindness, the role model he’d be. She wanted that for her triplets more than she wanted anything. Even if her own heart had to break to get it.
He’d be there, right? Even if he was a million miles away at the same time.
“Wow,” Norah said. “She must really love him.”
“Well, she’s still getting some assurance. Turns out there’s a legend associated with the Luv U Wedding Chapel.”
“And what would that be?”
“Eden’s parents eloped there the summer after high school, scandalizing both sets of parents. Twenty-five years later the Pearlmans are happy as can be. According to Pearlman family legend, if you marry at the Luv U Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, you’re pretty much guaranteed happily-ever-after.”
Norah laughed. “That’s a really good legend.”
Reed nodded. “This has turned out to be a pretty busy day for us. First a marriage counseling seminar over dinner and now we’re witnesses at a legend-inspired wedding that almost didn’t happen.”
“Like ours,” she said. “It’s pretty crazy that it happened at all.”
He looked into her eyes and squeezed her hand. “I’m glad it did happen, Norah. Our insane wedding changed my life. For the much, much better.”
She squeezed his hand back. “Mine, too.”
Because I’m in love with my husband. A good thing and exactly what wasn’t supposed to happen.
I love you, Reed Barelli, she shouted in her head. I love you!
She wondered what he was shouting in his head.
Chapter Twelve
“Well, it’s not the Wedlock Creek Wedding Chapel,” Eden said, reaching for her “something borrowed,” her grandmother’s seed-pearl necklace. “But if getting married here blessed my parents with twenty-five so-far happy years and four children, I’ll take it.”
Norah clasped the pretty necklace for Eden and looked at her reflection in the standing mirror in the bridal room of the Luv U Wedding Chapel. The bride looked absolutely lovely in her princess gown with more lace and beading than Norah had ever seen on one dress. “I love it. Your own family legend.”
Eden bit her lip and looked at Norah in the mirror. “Do you really believe in the Wedlock Creek legend? I mean, you had triplets without getting married there.”
“Well, actually, I did get married there, just after the fact. So maybe the fates of the universe knew that down the road I’d be getting married at the chapel and so I got my triplets. Just early.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh, who the hell knows? I think Reed will tell you the legend is true, though. He got married at the chapel and voilà—father of triplets.”
Eden laughed. “Poor guy.” Her smile faded as she stared at herself. “Do you think I’m an idiot for forgiving David and marrying him on his terms after what he pulled?”
“I think you know David best and you know what’s right and what feels right. No one else can tell you otherwise.”
Eden adjusted her long, flowy veil. “I know he loves me. But he did a real bonehead thing just running away. I mean, I really thought something happened to him.” She frowned. “Maybe he’s too immature to get married. I know I’m not about to win Person of the Year or anything, but still.”
“Well, he got scared and he didn’t know how to deal with it, so he fled. He didn’t want to lose you by telling you how he really felt. In the end, though, he did call you and tell you the truth. You two worked it out, because here you are.”
Eden’s smile lit up her pretty face. “It’ll make one hell of a family story, huh? I’ll be telling my grandkids about the time Grandpa ran for the hills to avoid having quadruplets.”
Norah laughed. “You just might have quadruplets anyway. You never know.”
“Mwahaha,” Eden said, doing her best evil-laugh impersonation. She turned around to face Norah. “So is this your honeymoon? Is that why you and Reed are here?”
Honeymoons were for real newlyweds. She sighed inwardly. There she went again, wanting more.
Was it wrong to want more when it came to love? If your heart was bursting?
Eden was eyeing her, so she’d better say something reasonable. She had no idea what Reed had told David about the two of them and how they’d ended up married. Probably the truth. She knew Reed Barelli well enough to know that he didn’t lie.
“I suppose it’s like a mini honeymoon. Reed just started at the police department, so he can’t take off any real time.” She kind of liked saying that.
It was true—in a way. This was like their honeymoon. And since they were newlyweds, they should have this time away.
“He must really love you,” Eden said, turning back to the mirror to freshen her pink-red lipstick. “He married a single mother of seven-month-old triplets.”
Norah felt her heart squeeze. How she wished that were true. Of course, they couldn’t go backward and fall in love and then get married. They’d already done the backward thing by getting married first, then actually getting to know each other. She smiled, her heartache easing just a bit. There was hope there, no? If you started out backward, you could only go forward. And forward was love and forever.
Unless your husband was Reed “No Romance” Barelli.
Did a man who didn’t believe in romance bring his dry-eyed deal of a wife to see a breathtaking view forty-two flights above the city? Did he do any of the sweet and wonderful things Reed had done? Including offering her the first bite of his incredible filetto mignon?
“He’s a great guy,” Norah said. He sure was.
Eden smiled and checked that her pearl drop earrings were fastened. “You’re so lucky. You have your triplets and your hot new detective husband who’s madly in love with you. You have everything.”
Oh, if only.
* * *
After tearing up a time or two at the wedding and doing her official job as Witness One, Norah watched as David Dirk, looking spiffy in a tuxedo, lifted his bride and carried her out of the Luv U chapel. Reed threw rice and then it was time for the next couple to say their I Do’s, so Norah and Reed headed out into the balmy July Las Vegas air.
“Case closed with a happy ending,” Reed said. “The best kind of case.”
“I think they’re going to be just fine,” she agreed. “But he’ll probably keep doing dumb things.”
Reed laughed. “No doubt.” He looked over at her. “So should we head back to the hotel? Have a nightcap on the terrace?”
“Sounds good,” she said. And too romantic. But there was nothing she’d rather do than continue this night of love and matrimony with her own husband.
Detective Barelli's Legendary Triplets Page 13
