Eddie’s Prize

by Maddy Barone

  Lisa and Bree joined some other women at the door. Steve gave them an exaggerated bow with many hand flourishes and melted into the crowd. The big room was being transformed from a dining room to a dance hall. With a little organization, eight hundred men could get a lot done. Lisa winced at the squeals and thumps of tables being folded and dragged across the floor.

  Bree winced too, but her smile quickly came back. “Your dress is really pretty, and I love the way you’ve done your hair.” Her pale blue eyes examined Lisa’s face. “You’re wearing makeup!”

  “You saw me put it on.” Lisa’s teasing tone died. “It’s getting pretty old now, so this is the last time I’ll get to wear it.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s funny. I never used to notice I had it on, but now it feels a bit strange.”

  “Uh-huh. Let’s go collect our plates and stuff.” She had to raise her voice to be heard.

  Lisa followed her to the kitchen. The metallic clang of washed and dried silverware being tossed into piles and the clatter of plates rang out in the hallway, which was crowded with other women who had come to pick up their things. But as they pushed through the women, she noticed the kitchen’s large, rolling service window cover was raised to reveal the activity inside the kitchen. She stopped dead with her mouth open. There were fifty or sixty young men working briskly in there, all shirtless. The women weren’t there just to collect their tableware. They were there to watch a show. The Chippendales had nothing on the young men of Kearney. The models and actors Lisa had mingled with in her old life had bodies they had worked to make perfect. The men of Kearney had bodies honed by daily physical labor, and the results were stupendous. Lisa saw Cory drying dishes and realized the physique she assumed to be scrawny was slim but leanly muscled.

  She bent so her lips were close to Bree’s ear. “Are we supposed to be staring like this?”

  “Sure. It’s the Gala. Eddie told me the guys fight for the right to be on kitchen crew. The men always take their shirts off so they don’t get wet while they’re working.” She stilled. A scolding note raised her voice. “But you’re a married lady. You’re not supposed to watch. Go back to Mom and Dad.”

  Lisa suppressed a laugh and fought her way out of the crowd of women. How many of these girls had watched Eddie wash dishes? That thought banished the laugh and made her want to pull someone’s hair.

  The arena was set up now for dancing. The head table was still in its place on the stage. Ray was talking to Faron Paulson, and Darlene sat with her head nodding with weariness. Some tables were still set up at the edges of the room with leftover goodies set out for snacking, and there were plenty of chairs for people to sit in when not dancing, but the center of the room was clear. On the opposite end of the room from the Madisons, a handful of men were setting up drums, guitars, and violins. It reminded Lisa of a high school dance in the school gym. She went to Darlene.

  “If you’re tired, I don’t mind going home early.”

  “No! We can’t do that. You’ll be doing a lot of dancing tonight. I think I’ll sit most of them out, so you need to represent our family.” She looked Lisa over from head to toe. “You look lovely. You’ll shine like a silver flower when you dance.”

  Dance, she did. The first dance of the evening was opened with only Ray and Darlene doing a slow, stately waltz while everyone else watched. Afterward, every woman was on the dance floor for every dance. Lisa was claimed first by old Mr. Gray.

  “You know how to schottische?” he asked.

  Lisa shrugged with a smile. “I grew up in rural Minnesota. Every wedding dance I went to had polkas, waltzes, two steps, and schottisches. Believe me, I can do them all.”

  And she did. With Mr. Gray. With his eight grandsons. With Ray. With Peter Vann. With Cory and Chas, and Nathan Martin, and Mr. Packard. After fifteen dances, the band called for a break. Lisa thanked God for the chance to rest and took the apple cider Mr. Packard brought her. Only after pouring half of it down her throat did she realize it was hard cider.

  “You better slow down, Mrs. Madison,” he said with an amused quirk to his lips. “No need to drink so fast. There’s plenty more where that came from, and it should last all night.”

  Lisa noticed some of Taye’s Pack prowling through the crowd. They seemed to be more anxious to keep a protective eye on the women they considered theirs than to dance. Lisa wondered if she might be one of the women they were watching out for. She saw Jay, Snake, and Jelly always near her, at equal distances from each other and her. As the band came back to their instruments, Snake broke formation and asked her to dance.

  “Where’s Carla tonight?” she asked as he turned her in an expert circle.

  “She has a cold.” He shrugged. “The Chief wouldn’t have liked her to come, anyway. Too many men here.”

  She was startled. “Did he say she couldn’t come?”

  Snake smiled. “No, he’s not stupid. But she knew how he felt.”

  “What about Tami?”

  He shook his head. His wavy hair brushed over the hand she had on his shoulder. “None of the women came. Only some of us men came, mostly to help Des protect his women. And see if any of us might find our mate.”

  After her dance with Snake, she danced with Jelly, Jay, two of the werewolves who lived at the Plane Women’s House, and men she’d never met until tonight. When the band called for another well-deserved break, she went to sit on the edge of the stage that held the head table, fanning her flushed face. The room might be cold, but such vigorous dancing warmed the dancers.

  Dane Overdahl found her there and offered her another cider. Thirst made Lisa welcome the cold drink, if not its presenter. She sipped more cautiously this time. When Dane asked her to dance, as she was afraid he would, she struggled for a polite way to refuse him.

  “Lisa!” Ray’s voice boomed from the table above like the voice of an angry god. “Don’t be rude. Dance with the man.”

  Lisa accepted the hand Dane extended. To keep up appearances, she smiled while he led her out to the dance floor. The dance was a slow waltz, and she had to admit Dane danced well. The clasp of his hand was warm, the arm around her waist firm as he guided her in the dance. He was three or four inches taller than she, so she had to look up to see his face. She expected him to take liberties, but other than pulling her a little too close, there was nothing for her to protest. Even his conversation was unobjectionable at first.

  “It’s been a great Gala, don’t you think, Mrs. Madison?” he remarked innocuously.

  “Yes, I’m really enjoying myself.”

  He sent an admiring glance over her. “Your dress is beautiful. Like one from the Times Before. Is that one you designed?”

  “Yes, it is. Thank you.” The slow beat of the music made it too easy to relax in his arms. Lisa stiffened her back. “I suppose your mill business slows down in the winter?”

  “Quite a bit, yes, but not entirely. Some people keep their grain whole until they want it ground for flour. Of course, our busiest time is late fall, after harvest.” He moved a little closer to execute a turn. “Where’s Eddie got off to?”

  “Vet business. He’ll be back soon.”

  “Must be quite the emergency to take him away from the Gala.”

  Lisa braced herself. A new note had entered his voice, slightly sarcastic, slightly disdainful. “Yes.”

  “How are you and Eddie doing?”

  “Fine.”

  His lips brushed her ear. “That’s a fib, darling. Eddie is behaving like a spoiled little boy.”

  Was the music ever going to end? She saw other dancers watching them. “Please, you’re holding me too close.”

  “Not as close as I’d like to,” he whispered. “Come home with me. Repudiate Eddie, and I’ll treat you like a queen.”

  For one wild second Lisa imagined slapping his face, but making a scene would be horribly embarrassing. “The answer is no.” She was surprised the words came out so clearly, considering she spoke through clenched teeth. “I love Ed
die. We wouldn’t be having problems if you would just leave me alone.”

  He glanced to the side and a strange, taunting smile curved his lips. As he pulled her into another slow, lazy turn, he pressed her against him, breast to chest, groin to groin. “You can’t blame me for Eddie’s stupidity.”

  He let go of her hand to try to nudge her chin up. She stubbornly refused to look at him. “You’re embarrassing me,” she told him.

  A hard hand on her shoulder dragged her away from Dane. She staggered, tripped over the hem of her dress, and fell on her ass. Golden hair gleamed in the lantern light as Eddie jumped forward to punch Dane in the face. Dane fell and didn’t get up. Eddie whirled and bent to grab her arm, dragging her roughly to her feet. His grip was so tight she thought he’d crush the bone. Tears of pain stung her eyes. He shook her hard enough her French twist began to unfurl.

  “You look like a cheap woman from Omaha,” he hissed at her.

  A sledgehammer slamming into her breastbone couldn’t have hurt more. “I do not,” she hissed back. “Let go. You’re hurting me.”

  The rage on his face dissolved and despair filled his eyes before he closed them. “God, I wish you were gone,” he mumbled. “I hate the thought of enduring you for the rest of my life.” His fingers loosened on her arm, and his eyes opened to focus on her. “I have got to get out of here.”

  He turned from her and pushed through the crowd. Lisa stared after him, a violent mix of pain and fury dancing in her stomach. If he had punched her, it couldn’t have hurt or humiliated her more. “Eddie,” she croaked.

  He paid no attention, and soon he was gone. The music had stopped, either because the song had ended or because of the drama, and the dancers stood staring at her. In fact, just about every person in the arena was staring at her. Hannah was close, looking appalled. Her cousin Ruth was close too, but her face was gleeful. Lisa’s arm throbbed where Eddie had gripped it, an echo of her heart beating as it broke. On the floor a few feet away, Dane groaned. Lisa glanced at him with no sympathy and turned very deliberately away from him to walk to the head table. She made her steps steady, her face calm. People scrambled to get out of her way, and at first she didn’t realize why. Then she saw Hawk and Des had flanked her, and their glares cleared a path. She paused at the step of the platform to thank them, but they had already turned to leave her.

  Lisa kept her head high as she took a seat at the Madisons’ table, grimly refusing to acknowledge the agony in her chest, the ache in her arm, or the low rumble of whispers from the dance floor. There was a fresh cup of cider there. She drained it.

  “What in the hell was that all about?” Ray demanded.

  She shrugged coolly. “Nothing important.”

  “Is that why you didn’t want to dance with Dane, hey? Has he been causing trouble?” Ray slapped a hand down on the table. “By God, I’ll have a word with him.”

  The threat made Lisa giggle. The strong cider sent her floating like an escaped helium balloon. Or maybe it was a reaction to Eddie’s cruel words. He wished she was gone. Only the years of smiling for the camera, whatever her feelings might be, allowed her to smile blandly at the dancers. She was floating above the pain, but she was afraid that wouldn’t last.

  “I don’t think you need to do that, Dad.” Pain threatened to pop the balloon. She loved having a father. Was Ray still her dad or was that over? “Eddie made his feelings pretty plain.”

  Darlene leaned over. “Eddie has a temper, but if you apologize to him, it will work out.”

  Lisa’s mouth fell open. Apologize? She should apologize? For what? Punching her mother-in-law wouldn’t make anything better, so she controlled herself. How long was this agonizing party going to last? Lisa wanted to go home, to just get out of here so she could cry in private.

  But what home? The little house she’d tried to so hard to learn to keep for Eddie? Was that home? No. Eddie didn’t want her. He wished she’d never come into his life. He didn’t want to endure her for the rest of his life. Heart surgery without anesthetic must feel like this. She wanted her house in California. She wanted tissues and wine and a box of chocolates and her stereo playing her favorite music. She wanted to stand crying in a hot shower until her skin pruned. She wanted to throw herself across her king-sized bed and scream her pain out loud.

  Instead she kept her eyes resting serenely on the dancers, a small smile on her lips. She nearly cracked when Jelly, the sweet, young, teen-aged werewolf asked her to dance. She refused, but he looked so sad she let him sit on the stage beside her chair, his long legs dangling to the floor. Other men from the Plane Women’s House and the den came and sat with him, an honor guard to shield her from more pain.

  She spent the next hour pretending she felt nothing, chatting occasionally with Jelly and Snake. Any other man who approached was met with a wall of werewolf bodyguards. The effort to present a serene façade made Lisa feel detached from the people and happenings around her. She just wanted to survive long enough to get some place private so she could break down. If the wolves hadn’t created a protective barrier around her, she would have failed.

  “You make me feel safe,” she told Snake. “Thank you.”

  He smiled bashfully. “Don’t like to see a lady cry.”

  “I wasn’t crying!”

  “No, you’re brave.”

  Tears nearly escaped. “No, I’m not. You remind me of my brother.”

  “I like that. I never had a sister.”

  Finally, the band began to put away their instruments, and the wolves drifted away. Lisa hoped she could go home now, but there was one more thing on the agenda before the Gala ended. Ray stood, and three couples were pushed to the front of the crowd. One of the couples was Cory and Val, and another was Faron Paulson and Donna Morgan, a forty-something plane crash survivor. Lisa didn’t know the third.

  It was the shortest wedding ceremony Lisa had ever attended. She congratulated Val mechanically. “I hope you’ll be very happy,” she told her friend with a hug.

  Val returned the hug. It looked like she wanted to say something, but she hesitated too long. Lisa stepped back to let other well-wishers in.

  Darlene told Ray to assign a few men to take her back to the house. Even through the glass bubble she had put around her emotions, Lisa was sorry Darlene was exhausted. Her face looked as gray as Lisa felt.

  “I’ll go with you,” she said.

  Darlene paused and then nodded. “Fine. Ray, me and the girls are heading home. Lisa, run find Bree so we can go.”

  The sleigh ride through the dark town was cold, the wind cutting like an icy blade through the skirt of Lisa’s thin dress. As cold as the night wind was, her heart was even colder. When the sleigh pulled up in front of the mayor’s house, Bree grabbed her arm.

  “Lisa, come stay with us tonight. It looks like Eddie must still be out. Your fire will be cold.”

  The thought of losing her long-awaited privacy almost made Lisa snap. “No, thanks to you, I know how to get a fire going.”

  The truth of that made Lisa smile more warmly. Darlene and Bree had taught her so much about how to get along in this world.

  “Really, thanks. But I just need to be alone for a while.”

  Lisa took her dishes, her work clothes, and her lantern and fled to her house. It was cold inside, but the coals in the kitchen stove weren’t entirely dead. Still wearing the party dress she’d been so proud of, she coaxed the coals back to life. She carried the lantern to the mirror in the bedroom and examined her face by its light. She didn’t look like a slut. Her makeup was minimal. Eddie must have gotten her confused with the woman from Omaha.

  A tiny crack in her emotional defenses threatened to shatter the whole thing. Eddie. Why had he said it? Why did he say he wished she were gone? Why?

  From the first day of their marriage, she had tried to be what he wanted. She learned to cook. She learned to do laundry. She learned to not smile at men. But what had he learned for her sake? To talk out what bothered h
im? No. To stick around so they could work things out together? No. To share things with her? No.

  Well, the hell with him. Lisa squirmed out of the dress and put on a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, both pairs of the socks Bree had knit her, and boots. She had to leave here. This little house could have been a home. Lisa had bent over backward to make it a home. If Eddie had put in a tenth of the effort she had to make their marriage work, this house would have been a wonderful home for them and their children.

  Carla would welcome her at the den, but how could she get there? A woman walking alone at night through Kearney to the den was asking for trouble. She had to figure out a way to get to the den.

  She was still cold. She went back to the living room to put her coat back on. Through the picture window she saw Cory riding a horse down the street. That was her escape going by! She opened the door.

  “Cory! Where are you going?”

  In the starlight reflected on the snow, his face was a pale blur turned toward her. “I’m going to the Plane Women’s House to get Val.” A big grin parted his lips. “We’re married.”

  “Yes, I know. Congrats! Would you mind waiting for just five minutes so I can come with you?”

  Cory shifted his weight in the saddle before dismounting, throwing the reins over a fence post and walking up the path to the door. “Are you leaving Eddie?”

  It was hard to say it. Even as hurt as she was, it was hard to put it into words. “Yes. I repudiate him. Will you help me?”

  “Sure. I can take you to the Plane Women’s House. You shouldn’t stay there, though. It’s still in Kearney, and Eddie might try to take you back. Des wouldn’t like it and that would mean a fight.”

  Lisa could imagine it. The werewolf Des had married the co-pilot and was the head of the Plane Women’s House now. Like Taye and his Pack, Des was protective of women. She shuddered. “I need to get to the den, but I can’t go out there myself. Maybe Des can get me there.”

  “Yeah, probably.”

  “Just give me a few minutes to pack a couple things, and I’ll be ready to leave.”