A Black Tie Affair

by Sherrill Bodine

  “What do you think?” Dottie asked.

  There wasn’t the look in her eyes Athena wanted to see. “Pretty. But we can do better.”

  Dottie stepped back behind the curtain and Athena’s sisters came to stand at her shoulders.

  “Bride. First for her. Second for him. Wedding in two weeks,” Athena whispered.

  Dottie stepped out in the halter-style Diamond dress. The thick cotton lace over the nude underlining of the bodice looked lovely and a little provocative and the ivory silk matte jersey bottom hung beautifully on Dottie, but Athena didn’t like it as well as the Starr dress. Neither did Dottie. They all four shook their heads.

  “What about the Valentino?” Diana asked. “It would be perfect.”

  “Absolutely, you must try it,” Venus insisted, removing it from the mannequin.

  Dottie hesitated.

  “Please, just try it,” Athena encouraged and felt pleased when Dottie took it from Venus and disappeared behind the velvet curtain.

  “I love doing brides,” Venus murmured, turning to the jewelry table.

  “Me, too,” Diana ran into the other room.

  Dottie stepped out in the Valentino dress and coat, with the beautiful rhinestone buckle on the belt accenting her narrow waist. Athena gasped. Dottie looked regal, and the expression on her face was the one Athena had been waiting to see.

  “I feel beautiful,” Dottie breathed, gazing at herself in the mirror.

  “You are beautiful.” Venus handed her a pair of Vendome earrings, rhinestone-encrusted buttons each with a two-inch drop of pure crystals.

  Dottie pulled her hair out of the low ponytail and up into a high knot on her head to show off the earrings.

  “You’re a size-eight shoe, right?” Diana asked.

  When Dottie nodded, Diana helped her slip on satin d’Orsay pumps. “Here, this Charlet rhinestone bag, hand-made in France, finishes the outfit off.”

  “It’s perfect,” Dottie sighed, still staring at herself in disbelief. “I never thought I could look like this.”

  Athena got a lump in her throat. “You’ll dazzle Fred in this.”

  “I’ve felt dazed since I met Fred two weeks ago.”

  “And you’re marrying him already?” Venus gasped, looking as shocked as Athena felt.

  “I should have said met again.” Laughing, Dottie flushed. “Twenty-five years ago we dated in college and reconnected at our college reunion. Fred’s been divorced for years, and I never married. He says we were always meant to be together but we were too young then to deal with it.”

  “I love when couples get back together,” Diana sighed.

  Athena sat down hard on the settee.

  Lost in thoughts of Drew and their past, she watched her sisters fussing over Dottie without really hearing what was being said.

  She tuned back in as her sisters presented Dottie with a gift.

  Dottie shook her head. “I can’t accept these earrings as a wedding gift.”

  Her sisters chorused, “Of course you can.”

  “Please. We want you to have them,” Athena added.

  All of this happened on the outside. Inside, her life played over and over in her head. If she’d needed any further evidence the Fates planned to drag her kicking and screaming toward some monumental conclusion, they’d just given her a preview.

  Half an hour later, laden with the hanging bag holding the Valentino dress, and several boxes, Dottie paused in the door Athena held open.

  Turning, she smiled at all of them. “Thank you all. I feel like you’re my fairy god-sisters.” With a wave, the blissful, blushing bride left to live happily ever after.

  “Or we’re three busybodies, like Mom sometimes called us.” Diana laughed.

  “Or the three Fates butting into everyone’s business,” Athena sighed.

  “No, we simply love to make people happy.” Venus flung herself down on the settee. “Fabulous day.”

  “Now please tell me why you’re worried about Dad,” Athena blurted out, unable to wait another moment, now that she realized time was running out.

  “We think he’s keeping a secret from us.” Sadness flickered through Diana’s eyes.

  Dread gnawed at Athena’s stomach where guilt had left off.

  “She thinks it’s a terrible secret. I don’t,” Venus shook her head, and thick tendrils of hair slipped out of her topknot to fall charmingly around her shoulders. “I think it’s some kind of good secret. Honestly, Dad hasn’t sounded so content in years. Who wouldn’t after being freed from those overbearing Clayworths? Of course he didn’t sound as great after we told him about the robbery and you.”

  “Let’s go to Florida to see him,” Diana declared, hands on hips.

  “He’s coming home soon.”

  “What!” Venus sat up. “Did he e-mail you?”

  “He called my cell this afternoon to tell me.”

  “I knew he was worried about you.” Diana nodded. “It’s time for him to come home. It’s time for all of us to put this business behind us.”

  “For once you’re right, Diana.” Venus sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to put up with the Clayworths, but I’ll never forget about this or forgive them for it. I’m like an elephant.”

  “Life goes on. We need to seize happiness whenever and wherever we can,” Athena said with new determination.

  Venus sat bolt upright on the settee. “You’ve met a new man!”

  Athena shook her head.

  “Yes, you have. I see it in your eyes. They’re getting darker. Mysterious.” Venus chuckled. “Tell us everything.”

  “I promise you I haven’t met anyone new,” Athena declared with real feeling.

  “Someone old. Someone you knew before. Like Dottie and Fred,” Diana said softly.

  Stunned by how close she’d come to the truth, Athena stared at her youngest sister.

  A mischievous glint in her eyes, Venus twisted around, flashed Diana a grin, and turned back to Athena. “Mom always thought Diana was a little clairvoyant. Is she right? Who is he?”

  “Diana is smart. If it isn’t someone new, then it’s someone old.” Athena lifted her chin to the ceiling. “In my case it’s too soon to be talking about romance. We’re talking about Dad. If he’s coming home soon, we need to make sure the house and yard are in good shape. You know how fussy he can be.”

  “Let’s meet at the house and see what needs to be done.” Venus shrugged. “Sometimes I wish he’d sell the money pit, but it has so many memories.”

  Both her sisters gazed off into the distance, no doubt thinking of the rambling old house where they’d grown up, with its old wood floors and huge fireplaces, and the great paneled library where their father pored over books on mythology.

  “I think we should go have a picnic on Oak Street beach, the way we always did on Sunday evenings in the summer.” Diana smiled up at her. “What do you think, Athena?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t tomorrow.” She thought very carefully how to word this so as not to tell any more lies to her sisters. “I have a meeting about the exhibit.”

  “How about afterward?” Diana asked.

  Rapidly calculating what time the sun set, because certainly she didn’t want to be out in Drew’s tiny boat after dark, she nodded. “Come to Belmont Yacht Club around seven-thirty and meet me. Too late for a picnic, but we can go to the house.”

  “Is the meeting with Drew?” Diana asked softly.

  Venus swiveled around to look at Diana and back to Athena. “It is, isn’t it?” A steely glaze in her eye, she nodded with so much gusto, more hair fell around her shoulders. “I know he’s helping you find the dresses and all of that, but doesn’t it bother you not knowing what happened between him and Dad? You know how I feel. All Clayworths should go suck a lemon. We’ll come save you from Drew at seven-thirty sharp.”

  If only Diana was psychic, then she could tell Athena whether or not she was making another mistake and whether her sisters’ arrival would be too
late to save her.

  CHAPTER

  13

  On Sunday the cab driver stopped several yards away from the entrance to the Belmont branch of the Chicago Yacht Club.

  “This is as close as they let us get.”

  Athena sat in the back seat, staring out the window toward the lake and the floating gray New England clapboard Yacht Club. She literally could not move, torn between cold, solid self-preservation, the status quo, and hot, fluttering eagerness to live dangerously. Could Drew be her destiny like Fred was Dottie’s? Or more likely, would Drew rip out her heart and this time she’d never recover?

  “This is the place you wanted to go.” The cab driver’s impatient tone caused her to look up and catch his eyes in the rearview mirror. He didn’t look happy.

  “This is the place you wanted to go,” he repeated louder, like she hadn’t heard him the first and second times.

  If she hadn’t really wanted to come, she’d have stayed in bed with the covers pulled over her head the way she’d been doing for the past several months.

  “Yes, this is the place. Thank you.” She paid the meter and threw in an extra five dollars for sitting like a lump, wasting his time.

  The cab screeched away, merging onto Lake Shore Drive.

  Still, Athena stood where he’d dropped her, clutching her canvas tote. If she and Drew were part of some grand Greek epic, or star-crossed lovers, best to get it over with instead of standing here getting sunstroke.

  She meandered along the picturesque waterfront with docks holding boats, some old and classic, others new and sleek. On her right, the dry sail area looked like giant ship models on stands, waiting to be taken down and sailed away.

  Now she could see the entrance with the guard dressed in white nautical gear.

  Drew burst past him, running toward her. His blue polo shirt and swimming trunks made him look tan and fit.

  Damn! He looks too adorably hot. But forbidden.

  She clutched the tote to her chest like an anchor keeping her grounded. “Am I late?”

  “No, you’re right on time.” Grinning from ear to ear, his eyes squinting nearly shut from the bright sunlight, he grabbed one of her hands, twining their fingers together. “C’mon, I moved my boat to the edge of the clubhouse.”

  It seemed rude to insist unhand me. But serious self-preservation made her dig in her espadrilles. The whitecaps on the lake looked huge.

  “The Skokie Lagoons are one thing. Fun. Great. But isn’t your Penguin awfully small for Lake Michigan?”

  His genuine amusement made her smile back. “Yeah, way too small. We’re taking my Wally 80. C’mon, I’m double-parked.”

  A huge, extremely modern, incredibly sleek boat took up all the parking spaces.

  “It’s a yacht!”

  “Yeah, remember, I race them.” He pulled her up the gangway onto a deck of teakwood big enough for a game of ping-pong.

  He led her two steps down into the cockpit with a control panel of switches, dials, and gauges, and lined on two sides with wide, heavily padded blue leather benches.

  “There are two staterooms and three heads, and that’s the owner’s aft cabin.”

  Down a short hall and through an open door she saw cherry paneling and a wall-to-wall bed draped in Clayworth signature blue.

  “Did you bring a bathing suit?” he asked, still holding her hand and her still letting him.

  What am I doing!

  She pulled her hand free of his warm, smooth fingers and shrugged. “I’m wearing it under my clothes. Only a precaution after getting wet last time we sailed. It’s too cold to swim in Lake Michigan yet.”

  “We’ll see,” he said cryptically, like he had a secret. “C’mon back up.”

  She followed and watched him toss blue cushions on the teak deck.

  “Sit here and relax. I’ll motor out of the harbor before I hoist the sail.”

  Relax? What am I doing here? This is impossible. I’m so wound up if I let go I’ll spin right off this boat.

  Panic made her grab his arm. “Wait! You said you wanted to talk. Can’t we do it here? Not out there.”

  “We’ll talk once we get out of the harbor. Relax,” he ordered again.

  Recognizing his stubborn locked-jaw look, she faked indifference, dropping down and leaning one elbow on the cushions, like she had nothing better to do than watch him looking like the movie star Makayla called him, standing at the wheel of his ship, sailing off into adventure. Like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.

  No. Not like Jack Sparrow. Love Johnny. Hated the gold teeth.

  To keep her sanity, or at the very least maintain her nonchalant attitude, she dropped her eyes to watch the way the bow sliced through the lake. The fine bubbles and sizzle as the water passed the bow congealed into seahorses playing in the foam.

  Fantasy. Like this.

  But the past was no fantasy. It had helped to define her. And that fantasy needed to be put in its place once and for all. Tonight the past needed to be put to rest. And there could be no future, because of her dad.

  So why did I come here tonight?

  As they passed one big bulky boat in the harbor, three teenage boys, one with a blue Mohawk haircut, and a slightly older young man who seemed to be in charge, shouted and waved to them.

  Drew waved back. “That’s my dad’s old Morgan 46. That’s Jeff and the kids from the Youth Center I’m teaching to sail. We were out earlier today. It’s a tub to sail. I think you’ll like this better.”

  His smile was real. Not the surface charm he gave the world. It was like the moment he’d let her in at the museum.

  I came here to finish what we started there. I came to make love with Drew. No promises. No future.

  Instead of being stunned by her hot epiphany, she felt her body truly relax, relieved to let go of the entire pretense.

  Maybe her longing could be labeled sexual attraction. After all, what did she really know about this adult Drew except what she’d learned secondhand from her dad and others, and, of course, from his public life as a retail mogul and his reputation as one of the most eligible men in town.

  Maybe the Fates were actually doing her a favor. Maybe having sex with him would cure her. He might be a terrible lover. Selfish. Clumsy.

  The memory of his kisses swept over her, leaving her weak in their wake.

  Okay. Not clumsy. But probably selfish. Wanting everything his way. After all, he was a Clayworth, accustomed to getting what he wanted.

  As soon as they cleared the harbor, he hoisted the sail and she felt the boat come alive beneath her.

  A few minutes later he motioned her toward him. “Here, take the wheel.”

  Shocked, she put her hands behind her back. “I don’t know how.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  The boat seemed to be in a rhythmic pattern of rolling and bouncing. To steady herself, she grabbed his outstretched hand and let him settle her between his body and the wheel.

  She concentrated so hard on keeping her hands on the wheel she no longer felt the heaving beneath her. She forgot everything but the wind and Drew, warm and strong, looming at her back.

  The farther out they went, the calmer the lake became, and the boat sailed smoothly across it.

  “There, all right now,” he said softly above her right ear.

  “You kept me busy so I wouldn’t notice the chop.”

  Just like you used to do.

  She smiled straight ahead, too confused to turn, for fear of a repeat of the night at the museum. Now she needed to buy time.

  “You remember my sailing secrets.” He chuckled so close his warm breath stirred her hair falling over her right eye. “Ready for that swim? I’ve found a warm spot.”

  Curiosity got the best of her, and she glanced over her shoulder at him. “How did you do that?”

  “Environmental sensors.” He showed her the gauge. “Seventy-three degrees. Warm enough for you?”

  “Yes.”

  He pu
shed a button and the sail dropped. She watched him flip switches and push more buttons, and as if by magic a swim platform with a shower lowered and a ladder extended down into the water.

  “I’m deploying two rafts on tethers to set up a swim zone. The boat will drift, so don’t go past the last raft.”

  She looked around and saw nothing but water and sky, the sun still huge but lower to the horizon and redder.

  “Is it all right to just drift out here?”

  “I turned on radar and AIS with alarm zones. It’s high-tech privacy.” He looked deep into her eyes. “If anyone comes along to disturb us, alarms will go off. I’ve preset a five-mile zone.”

  They couldn’t have been any more isolated. The world focused down to just the two of them. Like in her hallucination. Drew and Athena with nothing between them.

  Now here they were, Drew and Athena with years of unrequited feelings, distrust, and the ever-present pain about her betrayal—and now her confusion about the Clayworths and her dad—between them.

  She gave a stab at being rational. “Are you ready to talk?”

  “I’m ready for a swim.” He pulled off his shirt. His muscles were defined, strong, and heavier.

  She looked away and pulled off her own tank top and shorts. She’d worn her black one-piece instead of her skimpy bikini, which left little to the imagination.

  But his eyes roamed over her and she felt naked anyway. Like they’d been the last time they swam. Naked in the moonlight.

  She needed to do something to break the tension wrapping warm bands of anticipation tighter and tighter around her. Sheer preservation forced her to perform a clumsy dive into Lake Michigan.

  The cold water struck her overheated skin and shock jolted through her, followed by exhilaration.

  All at once Drew surfaced beside her. “Race you to the last raft.”

  He sounded like he had when they were kids, daring her, pushing her. Laughing, she responded, slicing through the waves in her best crawl. Sometimes, when they were younger, he’d let her win.