After that, I went to Rachael’s office. I didn’t even have to say anything because she noticed my rings right away.
“So was it a very Elvis wedding?” she asked facetiously.
“No. For a quickie wedding, it was actually very elegant. We got married in our suite at the Four Seasons overlooking the lights of Las Vegas. It was just the two of us, a minister, the wedding coordinator, and a photographer.”
“Will I see the photos in all the magazines?”
“Absolutely not. No one knows yet. Besides, Will had everyone sign Confidentiality Agreements. Pretty smart, considering I’m the one who’s the lawyer.”
“Are you going to hold a reception for everyone?”
“Yes. We haven’t thought through the details yet though, but we’ll probably do it soon. The longer we wait, the more chance word will get out and we’ll end up with chaos.”
“Do we still get to do a raunchy bachelorette party?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
After Rachael, I told my secretary, Marie, who was very happy for me. I warned her that we may be in store for more of what we had to deal with a few months back. She replied that she didn’t mind. I hoped, rather than believed, that she meant it.
Finally, I went to speak to Max and Daniel and, luckily, found them together in Max’s office. I closed the door behind me and sat in one of the client chairs next to Daniel. From the expressions on their faces, they apparently already knew, so I asked, “How is John?”
“Not great, but he’ll be okay,” Max responded somberly.
“That was kind of you to tell him first and in person,” Daniel added.
“I don’t think there is any way I could have been kind, but I didn’t want him to hear it through the grapevine.”
“You care about him, don’t you?” Daniel asked.
“Yes, I do,” I answered honestly. “I will try to keep this low key to the extent that I can, but you guys take care of him, okay?”
“We will,” Max answered. “Are you happy?”
“Very. Will is everything I want. It’s just hard this morning because of John. I feel terrible.”
“It should be easier for him now that you are completely off the market and there’s no hope. He’ll move on now,” Daniel said.
“You two probably hate me now,” I frowned.
“We don’t. We understand. It’s just that John’s our friend.” Daniel was nothing if not loyal.
“Aren’t I?” I asked tentatively.
“Yes. If it were you instead of John, then we would be worried about you.” That answer should not have surprised me.
“You think we’ll all be able to be the ‘Four Musketeers’ again?”
“In time,” Max responded.
“Just let me know when and count me in.” I left Max’s office feeling a little more optimistic that everything would work out in the long run, and John and I could be good friends again.
I thereafter returned to my office to start work for the day and closed my door for some privacy. I sat at my desk unable to do anything other than turn on the computer and watch it load, as the events of the past few days had been so overwhelming. I certainly hadn’t left the office on Friday planning to reconcile with Will and get married.
I started to think about whether I had done the right thing. Had we eloped before our painful breakup, I would have had no doubt. Now that I knew how Will could hurt me and now that I had seen the other side of him, I wondered what other unpleasant events could we look forward to that might cause Will to push me away and become Mr. Hyde again.
As if Will could read my mind, he called me at that moment. “How is my wife doing this morning?” Will sounded cheery.
“Good. Glad I don’t have anything pressing. I don’t think I’ll get a whole lot done today.”
“You don’t sound happy.”
I hadn’t realized. “No, I am.”
I must not have sounded convincing, because he said, “You can tell me. You can tell me anything.”
“Well, I had the pleasure of hurting John again and then I had to face the music with Max and Daniel.”
Will tried to be comforting. “I’m sorry. I know that had to have been difficult.”
“I try so hard to be a good person, but, in this instance, I have failed miserably and repeatedly, I’m afraid.”
“It will be fine. It may just take a while. You’ll see. Is that all that’s bothering you?”
“Kind of.”
“And kind of not. What else?”
“I’m just coming to terms with this weekend. It all happened so fast. I went from practically hating you to . . .”
“You hated me?” I could hear the horror in his voice.
“That’s probably too strong a word, but I had loved you so much and you hurt me so badly. My anger was pretty fierce. I thought I had gotten over the anger until I saw you at that sushi place. When I saw you, I didn’t even know that person.”
“It’s okay. Neither did I. I wish I could say something that would make the past few months go away and for you never to have seen me like that. I am terribly flawed and I’m sorry for that. I’ve made a mess of things. Can you forgive me?”
“I have forgiven you. I married you. It just doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten or that it doesn’t scare me that these events could happen again. I worry because I just don’t think I could take it again.”
“I promise nothing will separate us again. Just like it said in our vows, ‘Til death do us part.’”
“Well, about fifty percent of all marriages are ‘til divorce do us part.’”
“We’ll be in the other fifty percent.”
“How do you know?” I was still worried.
“Because I love you and I am not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice. Unless you have any plans to break us up?”
“No. I wasn’t worried about me. I was worried about you.”
“We’re good then?”
“Yes, I guess so.” I could hear a little sigh of relief on the other end of the phone. “Other than Saturday, have you ever noticed how we have a lot of these kinds of conversations over the phone or out in public?”
“Yes.”
“I wonder why that is.”
“Because when we’re alone together, we can’t keep our hands off each other,” Will said in a sexy voice.
“I guess that’s true. Do you think we’ll ever be able to have them when we’re alone together?”
“If you mean, ‘do I think that we’ll be able to keep our hands off each other at some point,’ I certainly hope not. But I do think we might be able to figure out how to multitask.”
“Funny.” I chuckled.
“Well, now that that’s settled, I’ll let you at least attempt to work today. I’ll be waiting for you tonight, Mrs. MacKenzie,” Will said with an unspoken promise in the tone of his voice.
“When I think of “Mrs. MacKenzie, I think of your mother.”
“I see your point. Speaking of my mother, I called my parents today to give them the good news. I thought it would be too late if I waited for you to come home. She and my father send their love. She was hoping that maybe we could hold a reception in England over Christmas. I know it’s short notice, but we might be able to have some privacy if we can do it before word of our marriage gets out.”
“That would be great. I assume your mother probably already has ideas and at least a partial guest list?”
“You know her well.”
“I’m open. You did such a wonderful job on the engagement party there, I trust you. We’ll let my mother have at it for the reception over here. I should tell you that Rachael is planning my bachelorette party, probably as we speak. So, you see I really will miss nothing.”
“I’m glad, but I have to ask, can’t one of your other friends plan your party? Rachael is the least likely to keep it tame.”
“I promise there will be nothing extreme. Can you promise the same with your f
riends?”
“I think Rachael is worse than any friend of mine so don’t worry.”
“All right. You just reminded me that I should probably call my mother. She would be unhappy if she knew that so many others were told first. I’ll see you tonight”
“I love you. I almost said your full name. I know what that does to you. I’ll wait until tonight.”
“Good. I love you. Bye.”
I then logged into the network and called my mother.
I didn’t know how to start since I knew she would be disappointed. “Mom, I have some news for you.”
She said simply, “You and Will got back together.”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Because there was more life in your voice than I’ve heard in months.”
“Oh. Well, there’s more. You see, we eloped this past weekend.”
“You’re married?” She sounded surprised and, I was certain, hurt.
“Yes. I’m sorry. I know you’re disappointed you weren’t there. We wanted to be married right away and without all the chaos of the press. I promise you it was elegant and that there are pictures. It was just the two of us in a suite at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas.”
“I believe that it would have to have been elegant. No drive-through wedding for you. You’re such a planner though. I wouldn’t have believed you would do something so big on the spur of the moment.”
Ordinarily, she wouldn’t have been wrong. “Well, I did.”
“There will be a reception, I hope?”
“Well, I was hoping you would help with that, not financially, but in terms of planning.”
“That’s the bride’s family’s responsibility.”
“Well, good luck trying to convince Will. Even if you win the argument, he’ll probably go around you and pay for a good part of it without you even knowing. That’s just how he is.”
“Hmmm.” She didn’t sound convinced. She didn’t know Will.
“There’s one other thing. Will’s mother wants to have a reception in England as well. I told Will she could plan that one. She wants to hold it at Christmastime. Is that okay? Can you come?”
“Of course, we’ll be there. Should I call his mother and offer to help?”
“That would be nice. Just let her have her way though, okay? I want to make her happy. I’ve taken her son and am keeping him in the United States. I think she was hoping that he would eventually return to London to live. I don’t think that’s going to happen now.”
“I can do that, I guess, since I get to do the one here.”
“We probably want to do it sooner, rather than later, if we can before the press gets wind of it. That’s going to be the hard part: keeping it quiet. I don’t want a zoo.”
“I assume you want to hold it in L.A. rather than San Francisco?”
“Yes. Do you mind?”
“No.” She sounded like she meant it so I was relieved. Although my family was there in Northern California, most of Will’s and my friends were here in Southern California.
“Good. It’s all settled.”
“Congratulations, honey.”
“I’ll call Dad and Kelly, okay? Let me tell them.”
“All right,” she agreed reluctantly.
“Love you, Mom. Talk to you soon.”
I then called my Dad, who was very excited for me, and almost as excited about the upcoming trip to England for the reception. Like my mother, he wasn’t surprised that Will and I had gotten back together, only that we had done so and gotten married in such short order.
After that, I called my sister on her cell phone to make sure I reached her.
“Kelly, I have some news for you.”
“You and Will are back together,” she said with a deadpan voice.
“Why is no one surprised?”
“Because everyone knew it would happen sooner or later,” she said matter-of-factly.
“I didn’t.”
“You probably couldn’t see what everyone else could.”
“What?”
“How much he loves you.”
“He broke up with me though.”
“We figured he’d eventually get over his stupidity.”
I never thought of my sister as particularly insightful and I was astonished as a result. “You were right. Anyway, we got married over the weekend.”
There was silence for a few moments.
“Now that surprised me. Seriously?”
“Yes. In Vegas.”
“That doesn’t sound like you. You haven’t got an impulsive bone in your body.”
“It wasn’t so impulsive. Had it not been for our breakup, we might have been married already. So when we got back together, we didn’t want to waste any more time. Plus, if we did it before the press realized we were back together, we could have privacy.”
“Did you have privacy?”
“Yes. We got married Saturday night in our suite at the Four Seasons in Vegas overlooking the Strip, just the two of us, a minister, a wedding planner and a photographer. We wore what we did when we were engaged in England. Will had my wedding ring already so it was just a matter of getting a license and getting him a ring. The wedding planner took care of all the other details. There were beautiful flowers and all the other traditions, you know, something old, something new . . .”
Then she had to interrupt with the question that would make everything sound impulsive. “When did you get back together?”
“Saturday morning.” I knew how ridiculous it all sounded.
“He got it all together that fast?”
“Will always manages. His name probably helps and so does his money.”
“Wow! Well, I hope you’ll be happy. You got what you wanted, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Do we get to have a party of some kind?”
“Mom’s going to start planning a reception here in L.A. for just after the New Year and Will’s mom is planning one at Christmastime in England. I hope you can come. Also, Rachael is planning what is likely to be a raunchy bachelorette party. I don’t know about a shower yet. I suspect that something along those lines will happen as well.”
“I’ll be there. It’s not quite busy season yet, although getting too far into January might be tough, but I promise you I won’t miss any of it.”
“Good. Well, I better let you go.”
“K. Congratulations.”
I tried to get down to work. I only paid partial attention though. I was going to have to review everything again tomorrow before any document was transmitted.
It was well after my normal lunchtime when I ventured out of my office to grab something to eat at the café in the building. I learned quickly that word had spread throughout the firm as I was stopped repeatedly so that congratulations could be provided and my wedding ring admired. I tried to keep it quiet and to pull people out of the hallways into more private areas so that John didn’t have to hear any of it. It made my trek to get something to eat that much longer.
I finally made it back to the office, lunch in hand, to work while I ate. As was the case before lunch, my concentration wasn’t great. I stuck it out for the entire day, leaving at normal close of business time for people in most professions, but early for those in mine. I hoped that anyone who noticed I was gone would understand in light of the fact that I had been married less than forty-eight hours.
Chapter Forty-Seven
I arrived at Will’s house just before seven. As I thought about it, I realized that it was now my house too and I was going to have trouble getting used to that. Things had changed so fast.
As I entered the house, I wondered what I had in store for me. I couldn’t imagine that Will was going to allow a normal evening at home. I was right. Will, Stephen, Colin, Kate and Gemma were waiting for me out on the patio. Despite the fact that it was December, it was Los Angeles so it was dry and wasn’t too cold. We had a little dinner party, just the six of us, to celebrate. It was fun having
our little group back together again.
I noticed at one point that Gemma was smiling and giggling a little.
“What is it?” I leaned over and asked while everyone else was still talking.
“Nothing. I was just thinking. Well, I know you know a little about it so I can say this. Rachael called this evening about your hen party.”
“Man, she’s fast.” I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Rachael was going to enjoy this I was sure.
“She wants to have it this Friday. I’m sorry. I can’t help, but laugh.”
“Oh, no! This is going to be embarrassing, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely.”
“Okay, we have to have a pact to keep this a secret. You know, like ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’? Same idea here. Promise? Not a word to Will and the guys.”
“Promise. I imagine that it will be embarrassing for all of us. I doubt I’ll want Colin to know either.
“Good.”
When Will and I returned to his room after dinner, I told him, “I understand I might be busy on Friday night.”
“I heard. I couldn’t get any details from Kate and Gemma, but there was a lot of giggling involved. I assume Rachael has planned your hen night.”
“I think so although Rachael hasn’t told me yet. I’m sure she’ll tell me tomorrow. She was probably trying to get everyone’s availability today since it’s on such short notice. So much for me calling my friends and telling them I’m married. I’m guessing the word is out.”
“I’m sure the word will be out with my friends soon as well. I think Stephen and Colin are getting my mates together that night as well for a stag party of sorts. I made them promise that it would be tamer than your party probably will be, especially since I am already a married man.”
“We’ll see about that. There are plenty of Gentlemen’s Clubs in L.A. where you can get into trouble. My bachelorette party will be a little more makeshift and probably involve embarrassing lingerie and toys.”
“Sounds good to me. This weekend should be fun for us.” He leered at me. “In fact, why don’t we get a head start on that now?”
Away From the Spotlight Page 33
