by Mollie Molay
“How much is a bundle?” Arden asked curiously as she reached for the croissant. “I can pay my share.”
“Too much,” Luke answered as he remembered it had cost him his last twenty. “But it was worth every penny.”
And it was, he thought, as he saw Arden bite into the croissant and her eyes light up in pleasure. He might be broke for now, but barring any unforeseen problems, there was that pot of gold waiting for him.
He was about to bite into the pastry when he heard an ominous conversation beside him.
“I don’t care! Sitting on the floor in an airport terminal isn’t my idea of a honeymoon.” A sobbing bride cried into her groom’s shoulder. “I want to go home!”
“Aw, honey,” her husband said as he tried to comfort her. “It’s not so bad. The hard part’s behind us. It’ll be morning before you know it. We’re bound to be on our way as soon as the sun comes up.”
“I don’t believe you. My back is killing me and I have an upset stomach.”
Luke snapped to attention and peered around him. Another pregnant bride?
His gaze met the beleaguered groom’s eyes in time to see recognition dawn.
“I’m sure you’re going to be fine. It’s just been too much excitement for you,” the man told his new wife. “Besides, I’ve just noticed someone right here beside you who can take care of you if you need him.”
“I don’t care who’s here! I want to lie down in a decent bed!”
Luke exchanged glances with Arden. He curbed an impulse to grab her and run. He wasn’t a doctor, and he didn’t intend to play at being one. Not again.
“Arden,” he whispered quietly. “I think we’d better move on.”
“I’m sorry,” she answered sleepily. “I don’t think I can move another muscle even if I had to.”
“Maybe so, but it sounds as if there’s some kind of trouble with the bride on my right. I don’t intend to get involved this time. I don’t even want to be asked to put a Band-Aid on someone’s finger.”
A tense, male voice sounded in Luke’s ear. “Say, aren’t you the guy who delivered a baby a few hours ago?”
Luke turned back and reluctantly nodded his agreement. “I’m afraid that was me. Why?”
“My name is Henry Gaithers, and this is my wife, Cindy. I’ve got to find out when the plane is leaving for Cancún. If ours isn’t going to leave soon, I’m going to have to find a place where my wife can lie down. It’s either that or take her home and catch another plane some other time. We’d hate to miss our honeymoon.”
Luke glanced at the teary Cindy Gaithers. Just what that bit of news had to do with him, he didn’t know. And he wasn’t in a hurry to find out.
“So, I was wondering if you could keep an eye on my wife until I get back?”
“I’m not a doctor, you know,” Luke replied reluctantly. “I don’t know what I could do for her. Maybe you ought to take her home?”
Arden poked him in the ribs. Her message was clear.
“Okay,” Luke said wearily. “We’ll be glad to keep Mrs. Gaithers company.”
“Great! Cindy, Mr. McCauley and his wife are going to stay with you while I’m gone. I’ll be right back.”
Arden moved to sit beside the teary bride. She took her hands in her own. “It’s just wedding jitters, Cindy. You’re coming down from a high. Take it from me, you’re going to be fine.”
“Are you sure?” Cindy said doubtfully, rubbing her moist forehead. “I feel terrible!”
“Yes,” Arden answered with a rueful smile. Nothing could come close to her own jitters that had prompted her to run from her wedding. “I remember my own. I was a basket case for a while.” Her eyes locked with Luke’s. “But everything turned out better than I expected. And it will for you, too.”
Cindy Gaithers eyed her up and down. “Say, aren’t you the one whose luggage was stolen earlier tonight?”
“I’m afraid so,” Arden said ruefully. She glanced down at herself. “What I have on is all I own until I can get to Cancún.”
Arden’s comments dried Cindy’s tears. “Gee, that’s too bad. Maybe I can lend you a few things.”
“No, thanks. Don’t worry about me. What I need is a hot shower and I’ll be fine.”
“Got it, sweetheart!”
Henry Gaithers barreled back into sight waving a key.
“Got what?” his wife asked. “It had better be good, Henry Gaithers, or I’m going home!”
“The key to a roomette!”
Cindy Gaithers peered at the key. “A roomette? What’s a roomette?”
“It’s a small comfort room over on the international side of the airport for travelers to freshen up between flights.”
She seemed to digest that information for a while. “Has it got a bed?”
“Yes. Well, maybe,” he said as an afterthought. “Sort of a bed. Actually it’s more like a cot. But it has a toilet and a shower.”
Luke perked up. He’d rented a roomette himself on occasion when he had to wait between flights. If they were available, maybe he could latch on to one for Arden and get her out of sight for the rest of the night.
On second thought, he wondered, how in blazes had the man been able to rent one when the entire terminal was bulging with stranded passengers?
“How did you manage to find an empty roomette on a night like this?” he asked.
“Well,” Gaithers said proudly, “I bought the key off a guy waiting for a flight to the Orient. He’s been hanging around for two days. Told me he got fed up hanging around and decided to go back home and wait out the storm in comfort.”
“Why didn’t he use the roomette?” his wife asked.
“He said he bought it off someone else before he took a good look at it. When he did, he decided it was too small for him to stay in overnight. Seems the guy has claustrophobia.”
“Claustrophobia?” his wife gasped. “You know darn well I have the same phobia!”
“I know, sweetheart, but under the circumstances, I thought you might put up with the small size of the room. It’ll only be for a little while.”
“No, thank you!” With an apologetic glance at Arden, Cindy started to gather up her belongings.
“Come on, Cindy. It cost me a lot of money to get the roomette for you. I can’t let it go to waste!”
His wife’s eyes narrowed. “How much is a lot of money?”
“Well… All I had with me. Two hundred and fifty dollars, if you must know. The guy wouldn’t take a check.”
“That was our honeymoon money! What are we going to do without it?”
“Now, sweetheart, take it easy. I did it for you. I figured I could wire my boss back here and get a loan on next month’s salary. After all, you were the one who wanted to get married now and have a honeymoon. I liked things just fine the way we were.”
His wife’s face turned the color of a red brick. “Henry Gaithers, how could you embarrass me this way! Now everyone will know we’ve been living together.”
“Take it easy, honey. Lots of people live together before their wedding day. Why don’t you look at it this way. At least we’re married now.”
Luke could see from the look on Cindy Gaithers’ face that it was the wrong thing to say.
She struggled to her feet. “I’m going home—with or without you!”
“How about the money I paid for the roomette?” her husband protested.
“I’ll buy it from you for the two hundred and fifty,” a voice shouted.
Luke became aware they were suddenly surrounded by interested spectators.
“I’ll make it three hundred!” another voice shouted. “Hell, we don’t even know if the airport will open in the morning!”
“Four hundred!”
“Four hundred and fifty!”
“Five hundred,” Luke heard himself shout above the tumult. “I’ll give you five hundred for the key!”
“Done,” Gaithers said. There was a howl of protests. “After all,” he explained to
the other clamoring bidders, “this man did me a favor when I needed him. I owed him one.”
Luke was in a state of shock. He didn’t have five hundred dollars on him—not anymore! But somehow the idea of a room—private, secure, that he could go to with Arden—carried him away. Before he could think rationally about the sum he was bidding, he was the owner of a roomette. “Will you take a check?” he asked.
“Sure,” Gaithers answered, “but only because it’s you. A favor in return for a favor is the way I see it.”
A favor in return for a favor? Luke had trouble keeping his face impassive. Hell, the guy had doubled his money in the space of a few minutes. What kind of favor was that?
Luke pulled out his wallet and reluctantly took out the spare check he kept folded there for emergencies. He’d had no business getting involved in the bidding in the first place. But as long as he was in this deep, he’d do the right thing.
“What are you doing?” Arden whispered.
“Making sure you’re going to be safe, comfortable and out of sight until the airport reopens.”
She smiled at him, the surprise and gratitude clearly on her face. “Thank you,” she said simply, and Luke felt it all the way to his toes. There was something about this woman—an innocence, and a sensuality simmering underneath it—that got to him. And no matter how many times he told himself to ignore her, to bide his time with her now and say goodbye to her later, he wasn’t able.
“Before we go,” she asked him, a glint in her suddenly sparkling eyes, “I have one question.”
“And what’s that?”
She suddenly looked demure. “Are—are you going to share the room with me?”
Luke didn’t have to think twice.
Chapter Ten
Arden stepped up to Gaithers. “Will you take my traveler’s checks?”
Before Gaithers could reply, Luke roared, “What are you doing? I’ll pay for it.”
“Put back your wallet,” she whispered as she put her hand over his. “I can pay my own way. Besides, I have the feeling you’d rather not leave a personal check behind you.” At his nod, she started to hand the checks over.
“Wait a minute, Henry,” Cindy Gaithers broke in excitedly as her husband reached for the checks. “We have to take care of something first.”
“What’s wrong?” Her husband glanced wearily at his wife.
“Arden doesn’t have any luggage!”
“My bags were stolen last night,” Arden said, waving the checks. “But luckily I had these checks with me in my purse.”
“Sure, but it still means you have nothing to wear tonight except what you have on,” Cindy said with a grin as she gestured to the I Love NY sweatshirt. “That’s no way to start a honeymoon. Anyway, if you’re going to spend your wedding night in a tiny roomette, you’ll want to change into some fresh clothes in the morning.”
“That would be great, except that I don’t see how I could manage that. All I own is what I have on,” Arden said wistfully, glancing down at the rumpled shirt. Large enough to fit a football quarterback, it hung down to her knees and, even rolled at the wrists, the sleeves hung over her hands.
“I have a great idea,” Cindy announced. As the crowd around them grew larger, drawn by Cindy’s exclamation, she gestured at the brides among the curious bystanders. “I’ll bet we could all chip in and give you a bridal shower!”
A bridal shower? In an airport?
Arden thought wistfully of the contrast between the bridal shower Margo had given her three weeks ago and the one Cindy was suggesting take place in a snowbound airport.
Margo’s party had been held in a scrumptious hotel dining room hung with fresh holly, where the scent of gaily decorated Christmas fir trees had filled the air. Each tree had had a different motif, from simple lights and colored bulbs to one that depicted the story of Hansel and Gretel with tiny gingerbread cottages strung throughout its branches. Colorfully wrapped boxes had been piled on mounds of fake snow packed beneath the trees.
The high tea, featuring gourmet teas from around the world had been served on lace-covered tables. Tea cakes and delicate sandwiches of paté and cucumbers on silver platters had been presented by waitresses in exotic costumes. A violin and a flute had played sentimental love songs in the background while she’d unwrapped intimate bridal lingerie to Margo’s ribald comments and bursts of laughter.
Arden shuddered at the reminder that there were unwrapped wedding gifts at home, waiting for her return from her honeymoon. Her mother would have to make excuses and return gifts, instead of the expected thank-you notes. Excuses that made little sense to anyone but Arden.
Instead of dreamy violin music, the only sounds surrounding her were coming from the stranded, halfawake members of the Honeymoon Express Tour. As for food service, the chances of Cindy finding something fit for a celebration like a bridal shower were slim to none.
And yet tonight here was Cindy Gaithers cheerfully proposing a bridal shower in the holding area of a cold, dimly lit airport terminal. And where the guests would all be strangers.
Poised like a cheerleader, Cindy waved her arms and called to the brides in the crowd that surrounded them. “Come on, girls, let’s give Arden a bridal shower! What do you say?”
“A shower?” her husband asked, looking longingly at Arden’s packet of traveler’s checks. “Come on, honey, let’s just take the checks and leave. This whole thing started when you said you wanted to go home and get off your feet!”
“I do, but things have changed. We can go home later. This is going to be fun!” Cindy patted his shoulder. “Besides, Arden was so nice to me while you were gone, the least I can do for her is to return the favor. Just like you’re doing for her husband, sweetheart.” She turned back to the spectators. “Arden McCauley doesn’t even have a toothbrush to start off her honeymoon! We women have to stick together, don’t we?”
“Yes indeed!” The tour leader, Agnes Chambers, cheerfully agreed. “If we can hold a wedding reception here, there’s no reason why we can’t have a bridal shower! Besides, it’ll help pass the time. In fact, I’d like to be the one to give Arden her first shower gift.”
She dug in her voluminous carpetbag and came up with a small, blue drawstring bag labeled Comfort Kit. Courtesy of Majestic Airlines. “There, now you have a toothbrush,” she announced with a flourish, “and toothpaste, a comb and a small washcloth.”
A clamor of questions about what would be an appropriate gift went up as Cindy efficiently went about organizing the bridal shower.
“Now, each of you dig in your overnight bags and see if there’s anything you can spare. Arden can buy anything else she needs in Cancún, but we want her honeymoon to start off right, don’t we?”
“I’m game,” a male voice inquired. “Who has some champagne left? I don’t have a present, but I don’t mind drinking to the bride.”
“Cut it out, Rudy! This isn’t a wedding reception. This is a bridal shower. Men aren’t invited!”
“Why not?” her husband asked. “A party’s a party!”
“Because a bridal shower is a girl thing, that’s why.”
“Let him stay,” Cindy interjected. “We want to give Arden a good send-off.”
“Then, how about some music for dancing? Let’s make this a real party.”
“Hold up for a minute. First things first,” Cindy interjected. “What else do any of you have extra that we can give Arden?”
“I’ve got an extra hairbrush I can give her,” one bride announced. “And some of my special lily of the valley shampoo.”
“And I have the bobby socks and slippers I was going to wear on the plane to give my feet a rest from these new shoes!”
“You can borrow my new negligee,” a new feminine voice broke in, “but I’d like to have it back when we get to Cancún!”
“Are you sure you want to do that, honey?” a male voice questioned anxiously. “I was kinda looking forward to seeing you in it, you know.”
&
nbsp; “Hush, Peter!” his bride blushed and announced in a stage whisper. “You’re embarrassing me. There’ll be plenty of time for that later. I’m only trying to help poor Arden get properly started on her honeymoon. After what happened to her, she needs a break.”
Arden blushed when everyone’s eyes, bright with speculation, turned on her. She remembered Margo’s gift, a sheer white nightgown and negligee ensemble, that had been stolen along with her luggage. The thought ignited a heated response through her middle as she recalled the note Margo had slipped inside the gift box. It had given Arden tongue-in-cheek tips on how to handle what she’d dubbed THE GREAT AWAKENING.
Husband or not, THE GREAT AWAKENING had troubled Arden when she connected it with her former fiancé. She was glad he was out of the picture. Not that she intended tonight to be the night either, but the thought of Luke’s mysterious and intriguing aura made THE GREAT AWAKENING seem different. A wedding night surely wouldn’t be all that an unwelcome experience with a man like him.
For the first time, she dared to contemplate spending the night ahead with Luke in the terms Margo’s notes had suggested.
On the other hand, she had no business thinking of Margo’s hints at all at a time like this, and especially in connection with Luke. They weren’t really married, and tonight wasn’t their wedding night. For Pete’s sake, they’d only met a few hours ago! How did she know he was willing?
She had no business contemplating THE AWAKENING with the first truly appealing man she met. Even with as interesting and mysterious a man as Luke. Especially when he’d already said goodbye.
But, to her chagrin, somehow she was!
“Now, who has a dress for Arden to wear in the morning?”
A buzz went around the group. It was clear no one had an extra dress in their overnight bags. And that the bulk of their clothing was in their luggage on the Majestic charter plane.
“Oh, well,” Cindy decided as she looked down at the small pile of gifts in her hands. “I guess Arden doesn’t need a dress. Not tonight, anyway.”
