A Bachelor Falls

by Karen Toller Whittenburg

  “There’s a short little blonde from Chicago trapped at the zoo?” Ellie guessed.

  “No.” Ona Mae cut her eyes in all directions before she whispered excitedly. “It means trouble,” came her succinct explanation. “Trouble in black and white.”

  THERE WERE TWO BODIES draped over the front fender of the 1957 Chevrolet when Ellie finally tracked her adolescent apprentice to the back bay of the garage. She identified Chip by the grease-streaked uniform that covered his gangly legs and the worn, dirty Keds that tried courageously to contain his huge—and still growing—sophomore feet. The other body—the one clothed in a good blend of cotton and synthetic tan trousers, the crease of which broke perfectly over the tops of cordovan loafers with a double layer of shine—was just as familiar. She’d recognize those long legs and tight end no matter what hood they were draped over. All those years of schooling and Ross still didn’t have the good sense to change his clothes before investigating the intricacies of a Chevy V-8. She moved closer to the vintage convertible she’d been in the process of restoring ever since she inherited it from Uncle Owen. “Better be careful, she eats would-be mechanics for breakfast.”

  Thwack! Thwack! Two heads struck the underside of the hood in simultaneous surprise. “Ellie!” Chip frowned and rubbed the back of his head. “Why’d ya always havta sneak up on me like that?”

  “If you’d been working up front where I left you, you’d have seen me coming two blocks away.” She turned and eyed the other man, who eyed her back with identical interest. “All those years of school and you still can’t remember to change your pants before you get close to Hot Rod.” She brushed at the line of red primer dust that now streaked his tan slacks midthigh.

  “If you’d quit messing around with her bodywork and paint her, I wouldn’t have to keep buying new pants.” Ross’s smile warmed her with its familiarity. The affection in his eyes always made her feel as if the sun were shining just for her.

  “Him.” She stressed the correction. “The only thing feminine about this Chevy is his owner.”

  Chip made a scoffing, coughing sound, but she ignored him. Preferring denim to silk and the smell of axle grease to perfume didn’t make her less of a woman...at least not in her own eyes. And that, after all, was the only view that mattered. “And you know I can’t paint Rod until he tells me what color he wants to be.”

  “Red,” Ross said. “I’ve told you a thousand times, he wants to be red. Red and white.”

  “Well, I think he’s leaning toward baby blue.”

  Ross shook his head. “Candy apple red. I’m telling you, Eliot. It would be a crime to paint this automobile any other color. Have I ever led you astray?”

  Ellie laughed. “So many times, it’s a wonder I’m still speaking to you.” Moving forward, she slipped her arm around his waist and hugged him. “I’m glad to see you, Ross. You look...” She stepped back and gave him an appraising once-over. “...great.”

  He patted his lean stomach with self-satisfaction. “I feel great. Being in love agrees with me.”

  It certainly appeared to, she thought. From the top of his blond head to the all-American burliness of his brawny shoulders and chest, he looked hale and hardy, healthy and rather alarmingly happy. Ellie felt the first smidgen of unease, but she brushed it aside with the reminder that Ross was twenty-nine years old—old enough to know when he was in love and when he wasn’t. “So where is the love of your life?” Ellie asked. “Are you trying to keep her under wraps until the wedding? Because, I warn you, it’ll never work. Even as we speak, there’s a betting pool going on down at the Save-Rite as to who’ll be the first person in town to spot her.”

  “Oh, man...” Chip’s voice trailed into a valley of disappointment. “You mean, I coulda won some dollars? I already seen—saw her. She was right here a few minutes ago. Oh, man...”

  Ross clapped the youngster’s shoulder. “There’s no lotto at the Save-Rite, Chip. That’s just Eliot’s tacky way of keeping me humble.”

  Chip looked to Ellie for confirmation and she shrugged. “Sorry, kiddo, no quick cash today—unless you get that bookkeeping caught up for me.”

  “Ah, Ellie, I hate workin’ inside. Couldn’t I—?”

  “No,” she said firmly. “You couldn’t. At least, not until the office work is done.”

  Chip shuffled off, head down, hands thrust into the dingy pockets of his coveralls, defeated.

  Ellie smiled. “He doesn’t believe me, but there goes the next governor of this great state of Missouri.”

  “In that case, I’m glad I’m going to be living in Illinois.” Ross’s gaze followed the dejected teenager as he crossed the dirt and gravel drive of Applegate Auto Repair shop and entered the sunshine yellow clapboard office. “Aren’t you shooting a little high for that kid, El? I can see him managing one of my dad’s K-Stop stores someday or maybe opening a rival auto shop across the street from you. But governor?”

  Ellie cut her gaze to his. “It could happen—and don’t you go thinking it can’t, either. Chip needs all the positive thoughts he can get. He’s having a tough time right now.”

  “But he’s got you on his side, and that means he’s going to come through a winner, whether he wants to or not.”

  “He’ll come through a survivor, one way or the other.” The office door slammed and Ellie sighed. “At least, if I have anything to say about it.” She turned her back on the ordinariness of her own life and smiled at her friend. “So, when did you get into town and when do I get to meet Tori?”

  “We flew in this morning. I did the chitchat thing with Mom and Dad, told them what they wanted to hear, then headed for town. I wanted you to be the first person to meet Tori, but you weren’t here, so she had to settle for Chip.”

  “Obviously he didn’t hold her interest for long. Unless...” Ellie glanced suspiciously toward the office. “You guys didn’t leave her inside while you came out here, did you?”

  “She walked across to Abner’s Drugstore to get something. She should be back any minute.” Ross arched his eyebrows in self-defense. “I can’t believe you’d even ask me that. You know what a courteous guy I am.”

  “Mmm-hmm. I also know how single-minded you get when you start talking about cars, too. She wouldn’t be the first date you’ve left twiddling her thumbs. Remember that time you left Belinda Morgan at the Dairy Queen to go with Shorty Silvers to see a motorcycle? You forgot all about her.”

  “That was a thousand years ago! And I didn’t forget her, I just figured it was so late she’d have gone on home. I didn’t know she would sit there waiting for me to come back and walk her home until her parents called mine in the middle of the night and wanted to know where she was.” His smile curved with embarrassed amusement. “Sheesh, I can’t believe I ever thought I was in love with her. Is she still as, uh, astute as she was in junior high?”

  “There are those who still refer to her as Bubblehead, if that’s what you mean. Not me, personally, of course. You know I never criticized any of the females you chose to grace with your adoration.”

  “Like hell, you didn’t.” He grinned with the ease of long friendship. “I admit I dated a few women who were somewhat IQ-challenged, but you have to admit most of them were pretty bright.”

  Bright enough to latch onto the most popular, best-looking, finest all-around athlete, most-likely-to-succeed male ever to stroll the halls of Bachelor Falls High School. As if that took much in the way of brains. “Unfortunately an above-average IQ doesn’t prevent someone from being a nitwit. And you, Ross, have always been a nitwit-magnet.”

  “Was. My foolish-heart days are definitely behind me, now. Wait until you meet Tori,” he said with a smile. “She’s so...perfect. So sweet and cute and funny and... Well, you’ll see for yourself soon enough. You’re going to love her as much as I do.”

  Ellie felt another twinge of unease, but dismissed it as nonsense. Just because she’d heard him say the same things before, just because she recognized that hi
gh-beam gleam of infatuation in his eyes, just because it all seemed so completely familiar...well, that didn’t mean this time wasn’t different. After all, he hadn’t come close to getting engaged to any of the other women. “I’m sure I’ll be crazy about her, Ross. Although I have to tell you it’s going to be hard for me to love anyone who drives a Miata.”

  He shrugged apologetically. “Her parents gave it to her for graduation and she loves it. What can I say? It was before I met her, before I had a chance to enlighten her, you might say. You’ll have to take her under your wing, El. Explain to her the mysteries of the sports car engine.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she can’t wait to have that discussion.”

  “She’s interested in everything. You’ll see. But she will tell you this car needs to be candy apple red and not blah blah blue.”

  “If she mentions ‘candy apple red,’ I’m going to know you coached her on what to say, so you’d better hope she sides with me. Or suggests another paint color altogether.”

  “She’ll say red.” He patted the Chevy’s fender again, then dusted his hands of the sanded primer. “Hey, Mom told me Lana got married yesterday to some big-shot developer from Texas. And she’s already pregnant.”

  “Yep. He’s a really nice guy. I like him a lot.” Ellie pulled a rag from her hip pocket and wiped a speck of grease from the chrome valve covers she’d only recently installed on the engine. “The baby’s due in August. Kelly’s been scrambling around trying to find somebody to modify Lana’s bridesmaid’s dress. Her wedding’s only a month away, you know.”

  “All your friends are getting married, El. Any special guy in your future?”

  “Sure. I just haven’t met him yet. Mabel and Hazel both have nephews they want me to meet, but so far I’ve been lucky enough to miss their occasional visits.”

  “Ah, but Dad said you caught Lana’s bouquet at the wedding, so the handwriting is on the wall, my friend. You’ll be the next one to get married.”

  She offered him a wry look. “You’re next, Ross, my man. Not me. And do I have a few things planned for your last week of freedom.”

  “I sure hope one of them is a bachelor party. That’s probably the only way I’ll get to spend any time with the guys this week.”

  How naturally he labeled her as one of the guys, Ellie thought, only half-pleased by the inclusion. “Oh, I’ll bet neither one of your parents told you what happened at Blake’s bachelor party. Belinda was the entertainment.”

  “No kidding. What did she do for talent? Twirl her...batons?”

  “She used her pom-poms, I believe.”

  Ross grinned. “She didn’t.”

  “Well, in actual fact, all she did was put on her old cheerleader costume and do a couple of high kicks, but you’d have thought from all the gossip that she stripped to the buff.”

  “Boy, am I sorry I missed that party. Belinda always did look damn good in that short little skirt.”

  “Not to mention that tight little sweater.”

  “Did she? I never noticed,” he said piously.

  She knew better and told him so in a glance. “Well, Belinda’s performance has been the hottest gossip item since Tommie Nell got so mad at Mayor Jimmy that she sold the Honda he bought her and traded it for that beat-up old Barracuda.”

  Ross laughed. A pure and pleasant sound that Ellie loved more than anything. “How did you and I grow up so sane in this crazy town?” he asked.

  “Sane? You may have, but I certainly didn’t. I’m as crazy as the rest of them. And wait until you hear Auntie Om’s latest dream. Trouble for you, Rossy. Trouble in—”

  “Ross?” The soft, sexy drawl came from just inside the office’s open door.

  “Tori.” Ross’s welcoming smile made even Ellie’s heart beat a little faster...and she was completely immune to his myriad charms. “Come out here, sweetheart, and meet my best friend in the world.”

  Ellie turned to greet his fiancée, ready to love anyone who loved Ross. She wasn’t ready, though, for the woman who stepped from the shadows of the inner office into the noonday sunshine. Tori Bledsoe was petite, busty, blond, cute as a button and looked so much like every other woman Ross had ever loved—Belinda included—that Ellie’s heart sank like a stone. Or maybe it was just that Tori was wearing a matching print shorts outfit. A zebra print.

  Trouble, Ellie thought. Trouble in black and white.

  Chapter Two

  Halfway through the blue-plate special at Hazel’s Hash House, Ellie came to the reluctant conclusion that Tori Bledsoe was a nitwit. For the better part of the past hour, Ellie had hoped she was mistaking naïveté and a dewy freshness of spirit for a lack of depth. But midway through Hazel’s Run, Boys, Run meat-loaf platter—when Tori smiled beatifically across the table and announced that she and Ross planned to have three children, Kaleb, Kameron and Krystal, all spelled with a K to match their last name of Kilgannon—the jig was up.

  It wasn’t so much the sound of all those Ks tripping off Tori’s tongue that nudged Ellie over the edge, as it was the besotted look on Ross’s face as she said it. For him to sit there and trade glorified smiles with a woman who had his entire future mapped out to an alliterative K was the final, decisive straw.

  Ellie knew that look. She’d seen it many times and she knew in her heart of hearts that Ross was at the peak of infatuation. A pinnacle of adoration that, if past history was a good indicator, would begin a speedy descent sometime very soon. Probably sometime around the second day into his honeymoon. Ellie put down her fork, her appetite disappearing into the abyss of sudden worry.

  “...and I’d sworn I wasn’t going to get into another serious relationship for years and years and then Daddy insisted I go with him to what I thought would be just another stuffy old dinner party.” At this point in her story of how the two of them had met, Tori reached over and nestled her hand under the protective cover of Ross’s, her big blue eyes melting him with one seductive sweep of her lashes. “Well, needless to say, Daddy made sure I was seated next to Ross and that was the end of that resolution! The very next morning I told my friend, Chrissy—you’ll meet her at the rehearsal dinner Thursday night, Ellie. She’s my best friend and Ross just adores her, don’t you, sweetie?”

  From the look on his face, Ross adored the entire population of the world, including insects. Ellie had always hated this stage of his love affairs. How a man as intelligent, attractive and all-around wonderful as Ross could be reduced to a huge, hulking grin went way past her ability to understand. Certainly she had never been so enamored with a man that she’d needed plastic surgery just to wipe the sappy smile off her face.

  “Well, I told Chrissy that very next morning,” Tori continued her story. “I said, ‘Chrissy, last night I met the man I’m going to marry.’” Impossible as it seemed, the smile brightened. “And two weeks later, he proposed.”

  Ellie smiled. “No one could ever accuse Ross of being a slow starter when it comes to love.”

  He frowned meaningfully across the table and, although Ellie privately believed her comment had breezed past Tori without so much as rippling her sails, it seemed Ross thought a clarification was in order. “That didn’t come out quite right,” she clarified with an easy smile. “What I meant was that Ross has never been the kind of fella who lets the grass grow under him when it comes to romance.”

  The frown deepened into furrows across his forehead and Ellie raised her eyebrows in a silent What? He answered by tightening one corner of his mouth, indicating she should make another attempt. Damn it, Ellie thought. If he’d told Tori she was the only woman he’d ever loved, this was going to be a very long week.

  “What I really meant to say is that Ross has gobs of experience in following his, uh...heart.”

  Ross’s green-eyed gaze cut sharply to Ellie and then away. “What Ellie is trying so inelegantly to say,” he corrected gently for Tori’s benefit, “is that I know my own heart. Other people may spend their energy wondering if they’ve finally
met the right person, but I took one look at you, and knew you were the one.”

  Tori leaned toward him, their lips meeting in a sweetly intimate kiss. Ellie stabbed her meat loaf and wished Ross wasn’t always so sure of himself at this stage of a relationship, wished he wasn’t always so serenely certain that this love was different from all the rest, wished he wasn’t always so all-fired-up confident that this time he was really, truly, deeply in love. Maybe this time it was the real thing. Maybe she was being too sensitive, too pessimistic, letting past experience make her uneasy. But then she looked up from the blue-plate special in time to see him give Tori’s nose an affectionate tap and Ellie knew Aunt Ona Mae was right. Ross was headed for trouble. Trouble in black and white.

  “I’ve never known a woman mechanic before.” Tori’s guileless curiosity turned back to Ellie. “Or anyone with a poet’s name.”

  “Eliot’s one of a kind,” Ross said affectionately.

  Ellie shook her head. “Not really. A lot of women are interested in cars and there were several in my auto mechanics classes at Ozark Tech. You’d probably be surprised at how many garages are actually female-owned and operated.”

  “I can’t imagine working on a car.” Tori wrinkled her cute little nose. “Doesn’t grease get under your fingernails?”

  “A professional hazard,” Ellie admitted, glad that at the moment, her hands were as clean as Tori’s, if not as beautifully manicured. “I wear cotton gloves when I can and that helps, but a lot of times I just have to get down and dirty with an engine and depend on my degreaser to save the day.”

  “I bet you have to get a manicure every other day.” Tori displayed her rose-petal-pink-tipped fingernails on the blue gingham checked tablecloth. “I have my nails done every week now that I’m working. The keypad of my calculator chips the polish something awful.” She stopped examining her nail tips and smiled serenely again. “So, what kind of poetry do you write?”

  “The worst kind.”