by Brenda Novak
Thad had lots of problems with marrying a stranger, a woman he didn’t love. But he had bigger problems facing the emptiness of his life without doing something to fill it. “No.”
“Jeez.” The pop of Kevin’s mouth on his beer bottle sounded amidst the ringing bell of a game show.
Thad flipped to a sports channel.
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Kevin persisted.
Thad shrugged. “Sometimes you gotta take a few chances in life.”
“Me, I prefer to bungee jump or sky dive. It’s safer.”
“You’ve never been married.” Hell, Thad doubted Kevin had ever really been in love. He liked anything with long legs and half a mind to show him a good time, so long as they didn’t get clingy. He feared commitment, didn’t understand how fulfilling it could be.
“I figure I’ll save that ball-and-chain stuff for later.”
“If you don’t feel the need to share your life with someone you really care about, then I guess there’s no reason to pursue marriage.”
“That’s not why you’re marrying this Macy lady.”
“I’ve already had a fulfilling marriage. Now I’m looking for a child.”
“Shit, man, that’s just hard to understand.” Kevin shook his head. “Why don’t you become a Big Brother? Then you can schedule time with the kid when you want to, work when you want to. It’s perfect.”
Baseball was on ESPN. Thad liked most sports, especially football and basketball, but nothing, except perhaps golf, was more boring than baseball to watch on TV. He kept his thumb on the channel changer.
“Whoa, slow down,” Kevin said when a bunch of young girls wearing bikinis and dancing on the beach flashed on the screen.
MTV. Hardly the type of program Thad was looking for, but he set the clicker down to let his friend watch.
“So is there any way to talk you out of tomorrow?” Kevin asked.
“Do we have to mow the same grass over and over?” Thad demanded. “I mean, you didn’t come over for this little impromptu bachelors’ party to intentionally turn me into a homicidal maniac, did you?”
When he finally dragged his gaze away from the bouncing breasts and gyrating hips on television, Kevin looked surprised. “What? Am I driving you crazy?”
Thad chuckled. Sometimes he wished he could be as unaffected by the ups and downs of life as Kevin was. Or as simply entertained. There’d been a time when he’d been as wild as they come, but he was no longer interested in short-term relationships that went nowhere. He liked to think the change was proof of his maturity and wondered when, or if, his partner would ever grow up. “I’m going through with it, okay? I’m going to marry Macy tomorrow, and I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”
“It’s your life, buddy,” Kevin said, a bit defensive now.
Thad picked up the remote and settled on a rerun of Seinfeld.
“What’s she like?” Kevin asked after a few minutes.
“Who? Macy?”
“No, the woman next door. Of course, Macy.”
“She’s going through hell right now—”
“I know that already. I didn’t say, ‘What’s her situation like?’ I said, ‘What’s she like?’”
“You’ve met her.”
“Once.”
“Yeah, well. Besides being attractive, which I’m sure you noticed, she’s softhearted, fiercely loyal and a real fireball if you piss her off. Mostly, though, I’d have to say she’s…fair.”
“Like fair to middlin’ or what? What the hell does that mean?”
Thad scowled, trying to control his temper. Hadn’t he just told Kevin he didn’t want to talk about Macy? “Fair-minded,” he clarified, thinking about her message on his answering machine that night she’d called and said, “Let’s do it.” He’d given her the money and let her off the hook and she’d jumped right back on again—out of a sense of fair play, he suspected. “She might be too fair-minded for her own good.”
“Sounds like a nice lady.” Kevin took another long drink of his beer and wiped the condensation on his shirt. “When you divorce, mind if I take her out?”
Thad cast him a withering glare. “You ever touch her and I’ll kill you.”
Kevin laughed uproariously. “Aha! That tells me more than everything you’ve said tonight, you tight-lipped bastard.”
Finally Thad laughed, too. “She’s going to hate you,” he said.
* * *
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I should buy a dress for the wedding?” Macy ambled through Dillard’s department store at Fashion Place Mall with Lisa at her side. A song by Savage Garden played in the background, over the public-address system. The store smelled like expensive potpourri, a medley of perfumes and new clothing. “You said we were coming here to pick up some shoes you special-ordered from Nordstrom’s.”
“Can’t we kill two birds with one stone?”
“Are you kidding? I haven’t been able to work for eight weeks. If my mother has to pay my rent another month, she’ll probably disown me. I don’t have the money to buy chewing gum, let alone a wedding dress.”
“Then it will be my present to the lovely bride.”
“I don’t want any presents. This isn’t a real wedding.”
“According to law, it will be real. That’s good enough for me.” Lisa drained her Coke and tossed it in a trash bin.
Macy hitched her purse strap higher on her shoulder. “For crying out loud, Lisa, I could wear my blue jeans for all it’s going to matter to Thad or anyone else.”
They slipped past a woman with a double stroller, who was pleading with her two toddlers to stop whining. Briefly, Macy wished that having Haley act up in a mall was the worst of her problems.
“What will your mother think of you standing at the altar in pants?” Lisa demanded.
“She’ll be glad to see I’m not out squandering money while I’m eating on her meal ticket.”
“Jeez, you make her sound cheap sometimes,” Lisa said.
Macy laughed. “At least I’m not seeing a shrink and dredging up every parenting sin she’s ever committed. And I am grateful that she’s helping me out right now. I just hate being so indebted to her, especially when she makes an issue of it every time we talk.”
“That reminds me, she knows our flyers and posters weren’t bringing in the kind of money you need. How does she think you’re going to pay for Haley’s operation?”
“I haven’t told her that I can yet. When we find a donor, I’ll just say the insurance relented.”
If we find a donor hovered in the air, but Macy was glad Lisa didn’t go there.
“That’s good. Not very believable about an insurance company, but the best you’re going to do under the circumstances.”
“Do you think she’d rather hear the truth?”
They both looked at each other and laughed. “Nah.”
Lisa pulled Macy toward the escalator. “Well, since I’m staying in Salt Lake with Haley and will miss the big ‘I do,’ I want to send something from me along with you. And I want it to be a dress.”
When Lisa made up her mind, there was no use fighting her. But Macy tried one more time. “You’ve already done so much for me, Lisa. Don’t put me any further in your debt.”
“Hey, now you’re making me sound like your mother. If I want to buy you a dress, I will. We’ve been friends since forever. There’ve been a lot of times when you’ve been there for me, too.”
Macy had been hurting so long she didn’t remember a time when she’d been someone else’s strength, except Haley’s. “I hope that’s true,” she said. Then she glanced at her watch. “Only problem is, the mall’s closing soon.”
Lisa squeezed her shoulders. “Then we’d better hurry, because we’re going to find something that will knock Thad’s socks off.”
“As far as I’m concerned, his clothes stay on,” Macy retorted.
“Come on!” Lisa’s eyes sparkled mischievously. “Don’t tell me you haven’t wondered what all tha
t lean muscle would look like al fresco.”
“I haven’t thought about it,” she lied.
CHAPTER NINE
HUES OF MAGENTA AND GOLD streaked the sky when Macy opened the door to see Thad on her doorstep, his car still running, at 5:30 a.m. They had to be at the airport by six to make their flight, so she didn’t invite him in. She let him take the hang-up bag and small suitcase she had waiting by the door to the car while she gathered up her schoolbooks. Studying was hardly the type of pastime she’d choose on her wedding day, even though this wasn’t a real wedding, but time was short.
“I’m glad to see you haven’t gotten cold feet,” Thad said as she shoved her backpack in the trunk where he’d put her other luggage and climbed in the passenger’s seat. Wearing a long, straight denim skirt with a short-sleeved sweater, she crossed her legs and waited for him to come around the car.
An old Journey tune was playing on the radio. The heater hummed, taking the chill out of the morning air, but Macy shivered despite the warm interior. In a matter of hours, she was going to marry a man who was paying her to have his baby. This man…someone she’d met by appointment.
How crazy was that? Sometimes she couldn’t believe she’d let this wedding farce come so far, but when she went over the events of the past two weeks, somehow it all made sense.
Macy didn’t know if that was a good sign or bad. She’d been through a lot in the past year. Maybe the stress had affected her thinking.
“My feet are cold,” she admitted as he backed out of the driveway. He was wearing a pair of khaki pants and a golf shirt that fit him almost as well as his tailored suits, maybe better, but Macy tried not to notice. “As a matter of fact, I’m terrified that we’re making a huge mistake, but…”
He paused before shifting the transmission into drive and glanced over at her. “But?”
She looked into his eyes, ice-blue and fringed with thick black lashes, and faced the truth. “I don’t want to tell you no.”
His eyebrows darted up and he rocked back as if she’d shot him. “That’s probably the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
“Well, ‘no’ isn’t your favorite word.” She swallowed, her throat dry.
“Right.”
“And I’m just trying to be accommodating.” Embarrassed, Macy pretended to straighten her shirt, noticing for the first time that the slit designed to allow her legs some movement was cut up a little high. She smoothed the two sides together until his hand closed over hers, warm and sure. A little flutter in her chest indicated she’d like it if he’d lift her hand to his lips and kiss it again, but the devilish grin that broke across his face told her he wasn’t thinking along the same lines.
“Would this be a good time to ask to come to the birth?”
Pulling away, Macy punched him in the arm for principle’s sake. She was going all soft and gooey, like taffy left too long in the sun, and he was still pursuing his agenda. “At this rate, I’m not even going to tell you when I’m in labor.”
“With the amount of luggage you brought, I thought maybe we were going away for the whole nine months!” Chuckling, he put the car in drive and gave it some gas, and the Lexus purred down the street. “What’s in those bags? Did you forget that we’re coming back tonight?”
“No.” Macy turned her attention to the houses and yards flitting by her window. “Lisa bought me a dress for the wedding, so I brought it. My mother will be there, and I thought we should keep up appearances, at least for the first few months. I don’t want to tell her what we’re really doing. She’ll think I’ve finally lost it.”
He glanced over at her. “I brought a suit.”
Coming to a stop at the intersection of Fourteenth and I, he paused. “Do you want to stop by the hospital and see Haley before we head to the airport?”
“Do you think we have time?” she asked. Part of her wanted to include Haley and pretend this was a joyous occasion. She knew how much it would please her daughter, and there’d been so little to be happy about in the past year.
The other part insisted the less Haley saw her and Thad together, the better.
He glanced at his watch and turned left. “I think so. I bought her a corsage so she’d feel like part of the wedding, at least in a small way. It’s in the back seat if you want to take a look.”
Surprised, Macy turned and lifted the lid off what resembled a cardboard hatbox. Inside she found a beautiful bouquet of white roses, a boutonniere and a small corsage, all packed carefully in tissue paper. The distinctive smell of fresh-cut flowers wafted through the car, and she smiled. “How thoughtful of you,” she said, genuinely impressed.
He winked at her. “I have my moments.”
* * *
HALEY WASN’T AWAKE when they arrived. Macy kissed her forehead to rouse her, and her daughter began to blink and stretch, slowing coming around.
“Mommy?”
“Hi, baby. Thad and I just stopped in to say goodbye. We’re on our way—”
“To get married?” She rose up on her elbows. “It’s today?”
Thad leaned on the railing of her bed. “And since you’re our flower girl, at least in spirit, we brought you something every flower girl must have.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“A corsage, of course, so everyone can tell that you’re part of today’s big event.” He presented her the flowers with an impressive flourish, and Macy marked his incredible sales ability. The corsage could have been a toothpick, and Haley would have felt just as special wearing it.
Had she been fooled by an act, too?
For a moment, fear grasped Macy hard. She was passing one of those milestones in life that would either leave her immeasurably glad or filled with regret. Which was it? Would the operation cure Haley? Would she be able to walk away from the baby when it came? There was no way to answer those questions, but as she watched Thad with her daughter, she knew she was going to take a leap of faith.
“Isn’t it pretty, Mommy?” Haley asked, sounding awed.
Macy nodded. “I’ll be holding a bouquet that looks very much like it.”
“A bouquet?”
“Flowers, like yours.”
Thad held the corsage to Haley’s chest. “When you wake up for the day, since it’s pretty early now, just have one of the nurses pin it on your gown here. Then you’ll be a genuine flower girl.”
Delighted, Haley reverently touched one of the soft petals. “Can’t I wear it now?”
Macy laughed. “I doubt she’ll be going back to sleep any time soon. She can wear it if she wants.”
Reaching into his pocket, Thad pulled out a couple of safety pins. “I brought some special pins so you won’t get stuck,” he said, fastening the corsage to her hospital gown.
Wearing the flowers as proudly as a badge of honor, Haley puffed out her chest.
“I’ll get a picture of the two of you,” Thad suggested, stepping back to use the disposable camera he’d brought with him.
“No! You, too!” Haley insisted until he finally went for the nurse and the three of them posed for the camera.
* * *
“IS THERE ANYTHING I should know before I meet your mother?” Thad asked. They’d been on the plane for nearly forty-five minutes and would be arriving in Las Vegas soon. Macy had studied the entire way, first delving into a thick textbook entitled The Science of Medicine, then leafing through another called Pharmacology. Just reading the titles was enough to bore Thad to tears. He hadn’t thought to bring some work from home, so he’d read everything shoved into the pocket of the seat in front of him, including the emergency-procedure card and a portion of the Salt Lake Tribune, but that had taken him less than ten minutes. The next thirty-five had passed at a snail’s pace. “Did you hear me?” he prodded when Macy didn’t answer right away.
She reached up to turn off the overhead air vent, which was making a racket similar to Darth Vader’s breathing apparatus, and pushed her reading glasses back up on her nose.
“What did you say?” she asked absently, bowing over her book again.
“I asked if there’s anything I should know before I meet your mother.”
“Like?” She looked at him over the rims of her reading glasses, her silky dark hair falling forward, very preppy and very cute, and something tightened in Thad’s chest. Something he didn’t want to acknowledge, let alone explain.
But then he caught a glimpse of the page she’d been studying and his stomach nearly revolted. What was that? A kidney? Jeez!
He looked quickly away. “Like how we met,” he said, trying to divert his mind. “You know, the normal stuff. I think it might be smart if we work off the same cheat sheet, don’t you?”
“I don’t plan on leaving you alone with her. Just let me do the talking.” She went back to reading and Thad sighed, bouncing his knee and tapping the arm of his seat to keep himself busy.
Finally, Macy looked pointedly at his hand. “Do you have to go to the bathroom?”
“No.”
“Then could you hold still?”
He let his finger tap a couple more times, just to bug her, then quit. But he was so restless he couldn’t sit still. He shifted in his seat, trying to find a place for his long legs in the eighteen inches of space the airline allotted him. “What if she wants to know how I proposed?” he asked. “What will you tell her?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll explain that I’ve started a new rent-a-wife business and you’re my first customer.”
“Clever,” he said with a grimace.
“Sorry, bad joke.” She grinned, looking far from repentant, and that…that thing in Thad’s chest tightened again.
“Why don’t we say we met on a blind date?” he asked. “People love to hear success stories that started out as a blind date.”
“Because it makes them feel better about playing matchmaker.”
“We could say that you know someone at school who set you up with me. We met over dinner and fell in love at first sight. A mother would have to be impressed with a story like that. What could be more romantic?”
Macy looked at him, then quickly averted her eyes. “Nothing,” she said softly, and went back to her books, but Thad didn’t mind her preoccupation anymore. His proposed lie had just reminded him how temporary their relationship really was. He no longer felt like talking, and Macy must have lost her zeal for study, because it was a long time before she turned the page.
