Lacy
Three weeks later, on a Monday afternoon after school, I sat on the bed, surrounded by a load of laundry that I had partially finished folding, only to leave the rest forgotten in the wake of the mailman’s visit bearing the letter in my hand now. I had just reread the contents for the third time when Nick arrived home.
“Lace!” he yelled, two seconds before the front door slammed shut behind him.
I shoved the letter in the nightstand drawer to hide it, and then rushed out to greet him. Nick looked as though he were about to explode from excitement. Before I could ask any questions, he picked me up and whirled me around the living room, leaving me dizzy and breathless when he finally put me down.
“I won,” he gushed, so happy he could barely speak for laughing.
“Won what?”
He rolled his eyes. “Won what? Are you nuts? The contest, silly. The painting. Of you.”
My mouth opened in awe. “You won?”
“The grand prize!”
Once he had his fill of my enthusiastic congratulatory hugs and kisses, he led me over to the sofa and sat me down to explain what would happen next.
“The owner of the gallery here in town, Mrs. Hampton, is the lady who sponsored the contest. Her sister owns the gallery out in Los Angeles. I’m being flown out there to meet with her so she can sort through my portfolio and pick which pieces she wants to use in her summer expo.”
“Nick, that’s so wonderful! When?”
“In two weeks I have to fly out with Mrs. Hampton to meet her sister and sign some contracts. And then you and I will fly back out together for the opening the following weekend. Travel and accommodations for the winner and one guest—that’s you—are all included in the prize package. The only thing we have to pay for is our meals and entertainment.” His happiness overtook him, and he pulled me to him again. “Oh, baby, thank you so much.”
I laughed. “Me?”
“Yes. You were the one who wanted me to enter the contest in the first place. None of it would be happening if it weren’t for you.”
“All I did was bring home a pamphlet. You did the painting yourself. And I’m so proud of you!” I gushed, snaking my arms around his neck again. “I knew you would win, I just knew it. This is wonderful news and I am so, so excited for you. When did you say I would be coming with you?”
“In three weeks. The week after graduation.” He scooped me up close for a kiss when his excitement overtook him again. “Baby, baby, baby! L.A. is going to be so much fun! We’ll be able to spend the entire week sight-seeing and playing tourist. Yeah, I’ll have to spend some time at the gallery, rubbing elbows and trying to network and line up a few commissions, but Mrs. Hampton said most of our time would be free to do as we pleased. We’ll hit all the best restaurants and clubs. We’ll shop around and find you the wedding dress of your dreams at the ritziest shop in town. We’ll make love on the beach at night and take surfing lessons during the day. It’ll be like having our honeymoon before the wedding. And as soon as we come back, we’ll pack up and head straight up to New York so you can have your big shot too. It’s all working out perfect!”
“Wedding dress? Honeymoon?” I echoed.
My face must have registered my shock, for he kissed my nose and laughed. “Oh yeah, I guess I’m getting a little ahead of myself. But the point is, we’re both about to have everything we’ve ever dreamed of, and we’re going to be doing it together.”
“I can’t wait,” I said sincerely, before his lips captured mine and caught me up in his boiling enthusiasm, allowing me to forget for just a few moments about the letter in our bedroom.
Nick
Little less than two weeks later, on Wednesday morning, I opened my eyes to blinding sunlight. Not wanting to move when the feel of Lacy’s naked body against mine made snuggling her close and staying in bed so tempting, I decided to do just that—until I stole a glimpse at the alarm clock.
“Lace, wake up. We overslept,” I said, sliding out of her sleeping embrace. She mumbled and frowned but didn’t open her eyes. “Lace, get up and get dressed. You’ve only got twenty minutes to get out of here or you’ll miss the bus.”
She threw her arm back around my waist and tried to cuddle against me again. “I don’t want to go. There are only two days left, and I’ve already taken all my finals.”
I slid further out of her reach. “You said you had graduation rehearsal this morning. They’re handing out caps and gowns.”
Her eyes popped open wide then. “Crap!”
Lacy shot out of bed, and I laughed as she frantically started dressing. While she finished getting ready in the bedroom, I left her alone to shave and shower in the bathroom.
“I’ve missed the bus and Chris already left,” she called out. “I’m gonna have to take the metro. All I have is a twenty. Do you have any change?”
“Check my wallet,” I shouted back to her as I stepped into the warm shower.
Ten minutes later, with a towel swathed about my freshly showered hips, I went back into the bedroom and stopped short in the doorway.
Lacy sat on the end of the bed with one shoe on and the other still in her lap. Her mouth was open, and her eyes were wide, staring at what she held in her hand.
Taking a deep breath, I crossed the room and knelt by her leg. Lacy held the platinum, diamond-studded wedding set that had belonged to Grace. Jerry had given the set to me the day after her birthday when I went home to visit while Lacy and the band were in the middle of their gig at the club. When I confided to him that Lacy and I were officially together and that I planned to propose soon after graduation, he had given me the rings. Even though I had been saving money to buy an engagement ring of my own choosing, when Jerry insisted that Lacy should have her mother’s set, I agreed, knowing how deeply the gesture would touch her.
“It fell out when I was looking for money. This was my mom’s. Is it what I think it is?”
I held my breath for a moment, nervous suddenly.
“Yes,” I said, concentrating on her face, hoping to read some sort of reaction other than shock.
“I thought you were just day-dreaming about getting married. I didn’t think you were serious,” she said, looking at me at last. “You want to marry me?”
“More than life itself.”
“Why?”
“Why?” I couldn’t help but chuckle. I took her hand in mine and kissed her knuckles. “Because I love you, silly.”
“But I love you,” she argued, with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I’m glad,” I said, just as dramatically, trying hard not to laugh. “Does that mean you’d like to wear this?”
She nodded with enthusiasm. “More than anything.”
I separated the diamond ring from its matching wedding band and slid the appropriate half onto her trembling finger. “There. Now it’s official.”
Before I could say more, she nearly caused me to tip over when she threw her arms around my neck. She kissed me with such vehemence that we were both breathless when she finally decided she’d had enough.
“Better not kiss me like that again or you’ll really be late for school,” I swore, only half teasing. I glanced down at my watch then. “Speaking of which, hate to spoil this great romantic moment, but you’d better hurry.”
I couldn’t remember another time in my life when I had ever seen her smile appear more joyous and genuine than the one she wore as she hurriedly finished getting ready to leave.
I walked her to the door. She started down the porch steps, then stopped and came back for one more kiss. “I love you, Nick Martin,” she whispered earnestly, with her arms still tight about my neck, as though afraid to let go.
“I love you, Lace Dalton.”
She backed across the porch toward the steps again. “You just can’t say it, can you?” she asked, grinning.
“What?”
“My name.”
“Someday I’ll give it a whirl.”
She
was halfway down the stairs when she suddenly changed her mind and came back to kiss me one more time, another long, delving kiss that was nearly my undoing.
“You’ll have to on our wedding day,” she said, in such a sultry whisper that I couldn’t control myself. I picked her up and pulled her legs around my waist to carry her back inside. She broke our kiss only long enough to pull her shirt up over her head as I kicked the door closed.
Fifteen minutes later, after christening the back of the front door, we were on the porch again, where I watched her hurry down the block toward the city bus stop.
I watched her until she was out of sight, returning her waves when she stopped to smile back at me twice. Then I went back inside to the bedroom to change out of the towel and into some clothes. I was pulling on a pair of jeans when the front door opened and slammed closed.
“Don’t tell me you missed the metro too,” I teased. “You need me to give you a ride?”
When she didn’t answer, I grabbed a shirt and started buttoning it on my way down the hall.
I stopped short when I saw my mother standing in the middle of the living room. “Mom! What are you doing here?”
Mother turned on me. “I wanted to talk to you about Jerry, and since you never call or come home anymore, I decided to come see you. The question is, what in the hell are you doing here, Nick?”
Nick
I closed my eyes and shook my head, too caught off guard to think through a plausible explanation.
“Never mind,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’d say from what I just saw out on that porch a few minutes ago, I already know what’s going on here. How could you!”
“How could I?” I said, incredulous.
“You’re a grown man! Lacy is still a baby.”
“Oh, come on, Mom.”
“Then what about your brother? Have you no loyalty?”
Needing a moment to think, I ignored her and went to the coffee pot, taking a few deep breaths to mentally prepare myself for this confrontation. I could feel her glaring at me as I calmly poured us both a cup of coffee that Chris had made before he left.
“Has she been here the whole time?” she asked as I worked, losing some of the bitterness from her earlier tone.
Carrying two steaming mugs, I rejoined her back in the living room, where we both took seats on opposite ends of the sofa, leaving plenty of defensive breathing room between us.
“Yes.”
“Honey, she needs to be home. Jerry is dying. He needs her.”
“Mom, you don’t know the whole story.”
“Then tell me,” she snapped.
I stared back at her for a few seconds, wrestling with the desire to tell her the truth, and wanting to respect Lacy’s wishes that no one know what her father had done to her.
“Jerry knew Lace was here the entire time. He doesn’t want her there, Mom, so please don’t interfere.”
“Why would you say something like that?”
I leaned my head back with a growl of frustration. “Alright, Mom, I’ll tell you, but Lace will never forgive either one of us if you say anything to anyone, especially Jerry. You can’t let on that you know.” Instead of agreeing, she just stared at me expectantly. “You gotta swear or I’m not telling you. I promised Lace.”
“Before I make any promises, I want to know something. Are you keeping a secret for Lacy because you want what’s best for her, or because you’re being selfish and know that she’ll stay here with you as long as you do?”
Struck by her frankness, I had to think for a moment. “I don’t know. Maybe. But regardless of why she ended up here with me, this is where she wants to be now.”
“This will kill your brother. A day hasn’t passed that he hasn’t missed Lacy. He never lost hope. He’s still convinced that she’s going to come home, back to him.” When she saw how unaffected I was by her claim, she took my arm beseechingly. “You can’t do this to him, Nick. He’s your brother. You just can’t.”
“I didn’t do shit to Kevin! He’s the one who screwed it up with Lace all by himself.”
“You set him up, just like he claims!”
“I didn’t put a gun to his head.”
“But you knew they were planning to get married. You manipulated him into doing what he did with Claire, just like you manipulated Lacy so she would find out.”
“None of that matters! She’s with me now, and that’s that.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, holding up her hands to soothe my defensiveness. “Let’s just start at the beginning. I promise I won’t say anything. Just tell me how she came to be staying here when everyone at home believes she’s been in New York this whole time.”
Taking a deep breath, I started my tale of the changes Jerry had undergone in the weeks following Grace’s death. Of the incidents that Lacy had told me about, leading up to the events of the night I took her away. When I finished describing that fateful night, my mother’s chin quivered, and her face was stark white.
“I wasn’t going to leave her there alone with him, Mom. He wasn’t fit to have her there in the house with him, and all three of us knew it. I wanted Lace to tell you and dad what happened. I knew you would let her move into my old room, but she was the one who didn’t want Jerry’s reputation dragged through the mud. He just wanted her gone. He asked me—no, he begged me—to take her and keep her away from him. I don’t know if he wanted her to leave because she reminded him too much of Grace, or if he knew he couldn’t be trusted alone with her anymore. Either way, I stop to see him every time I come home. I’ve tried convincing him to see her or call her or something, because she misses him and it’s tearing her apart, but he’s made it clear that he doesn’t want her to come back. Even after he admitted to me about being sick,” I added, when she opened her mouth, obviously intending to exploit that fact to back her arguments. “Yes, I’ve known from the beginning.”
“Anyway, Lace wanted to leave for New York that night, but I wasn’t about to put her on a bus by herself. She wouldn’t have lasted a week on her own. I didn’t know what else to do but keep her here with me, which, selfish of me or not, was right where I wanted her.”
Mom let out a ragged breath and stared down into the coffee mug for a few moments. “I had no idea, honey. None of us did.” She shook her head. “Damn that Jerry! He never let on that anything happened. Poor Lacy.”
Then my mother looked up and smiled before leaning over to take my hand. “I’m proud of you, honey. You did the right thing under the circumstances. But now that the situation with Jerry has changed so drastically, I think it would be best if you told her about his condition and let her decide if she wants to come home or not.”
“Mom, no,” I said, my voice cracking for the first time. “Even if I trusted Jerry, there’s still Kevin. He’ll be there trying to take advantage of the situation.”
“Honey, if she’s really happy with you and wants to be with you, then nothing Kevin could say or do will matter.”
“She is happy with me. Have you ever seen her look as happy as you did when you saw her leave here this morning?”
Mom closed her eyes and sighed. “No, I haven’t. But, Nick-”
“But nothing! She loves me, and she’s marrying me, not Kevin. I’ve already asked her, and she said yes, so that’s the end of it.”
My mother’s face paled. “You did what?”
“Just this morning. I gave her the ring and she said yes. That’s why she was happy. I’m sorry if that disappoints you. I know I’m not your favorite son so this must be killing you.”
“That’s not fair!”
“The hell it’s not! Where are my congratulations? If it were Kevin, you’d be throwing a party, but for me, you’re nearly in tears.”
“You stole your brother’s fiancé! You and Lacy have both broken his heart!”
“He broke hers first!”
My nostrils flared as a tremble of rage coursed through me, which only grew stronger when I saw
the tears of disappointment in my mother’s eyes.
She retrieved her purse from the end of the couch and took a few shaky steps to the door. There, she turned to face me again. “While you’re telling yourself that she’s happier with you than she would be with your brother, ask yourself if she would still be here if she knew the truth.”
She waited, looking as though she expected me to concede victory over to my brother on principle alone. I refused.
“What? What would you have me do, Mom? Pack her off and send her straight back to Kevin with my blessing?”
“Go see Jerry,” she advised. “Convince him to see her before it’s too late.”
I watched the door close behind my mother, knowing that even if we disagreed on every other point entirely, we both agreed on that one.
I finished getting dressed and grabbed my car keys off the kitchen counter. Instead of my own graduation rehearsal this morning, I decided to follow my mother back home to do some preemptive damage control.
Nick
Lacy had told me about her father’s sanctuary that night so long ago. At the time, I had hoped against hope that she exaggerated the extent of Jerry’s grief. Staring around at the proof firsthand, my first thought was that rather than exaggerating, she had apparently understated. I tried to wipe the shock from my features, but the glare on the face of Jerry’s rotund, matronly hospice nurse was enough reprimand to realize my efforts were futile.
“He wears out quickly so keep it short and don’t upset him,” she warned. “He confuses easily so don’t be surprised if he doesn’t recognize you or trails off on another subject in mid-sentence.”
After instructing me to call for her if the need arose, the burly Ms. Buckner left me with Jerry, obviously impervious to the warped shrine her charge had created to keep his wife alive, only to live out his final days there himself.
I hadn’t been home to see Jerry in weeks, not since the night after Lacy’s birthday when he gave me Grace’s ring. On that visit, he had clearly lost weight, but was up and dressed and still functioning on his own. His condition had rapidly deteriorated since then.
Breaking Lacy (Nick & Lacy Book 1) Page 23
