The Late Bloomer's Road to Love

by Marie Ferrarella

  He guided her down the hallway. The Starlight Room was at the very end of it. The sign right beside the door said Reserved for a Private Party. Wyatt paused to look at Rachel. “Ready?”

  No, she wasn’t, but she wasn’t going to get any readier just standing here. “Just open the door.”

  Wyatt pretended to take a little bow. “Your wish is my command,” he replied glibly, pushing the door open for her.

  The wall of noise hit her immediately. Rachel looked around and saw that the entire room was packed. She could easily get lost in the crowd.

  Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  With that, she slipped her arm through Wyatt’s and entered the ballroom, telling herself that she wasn’t nervous.

  Chapter Twelve

  It took exactly ninety seconds after Wyatt and Rachel had crossed the threshold into the ballroom for Wyatt’s mother to hone in on them.

  Once Ariel Watson had spotted her son and the young blonde on his arm, the small, powerful matriarch made a beeline for them.

  Her eyes intently focused on her “target,” Ariel quickly wove her way around an inordinate amount of couples who were milling around, making small talk while they appeared to be waiting for the festivities to officially begin.

  His mother was exceedingly fast for someone her age, Wyatt thought when he saw her heading toward them, moving like shark about to launch into an overdue feeding frenzy.

  It was too late to turn around and leave, he feared. His mother would most likely just make a scene. Their only chance was to stand their ground.

  He really hoped that Rachel was up to this.

  Leaning his head in toward her ear, he warned Rachel, “Brace yourself. Incoming.”

  Rachel had been busy taking in the general scene around them and didn’t immediately grasp what Wyatt was telling her.

  Turning toward him, she asked, “What?”

  “Mother at three o’clock,” he told her, nodding in that general direction.

  Wyatt didn’t dare point his mother out for Rachel’s benefit because he knew the woman would see his gesture. He didn’t want to alert his mother even a second before they came together that they’d noticed her coming.

  Rachel instantly looked toward the part of the room Wyatt had indicated. She could feel her stomach tightening as she readied herself for the interrogation.

  Calm down, Rach. If you can get through your dad’s long journey back to his old life, you can get through and put up with anything.

  Heartened to some degree, she pasted a wide smile on her lips. She was not about to let the woman know that she was intimidated by her. If nothing else, she owed this to Wyatt for getting her father back to his old self.

  “So,” Ariel said on reaching them. Her alert brown eyes took in virtually every single inch of the young woman standing next to her son. “This is her.”

  “Yes,” Rachel answered before Wyatt had a chance to say anything, “this is me.” Leaning forward, Rachel extended her hand toward the older woman. “How do you do, Mrs. Watson? Congratulations on your daughter and son-in-law’s milestone anniversary.”

  Ariel made a vaguely dismissive sound as she waved her hand at the words. “Ten is not a milestone. Now, twenty-five or fifty, those are milestones.”

  “Still, ten isn’t all that shabby,” Rachel told her. “Baby steps,” she added with a smile.

  Apprehensive that his mother was going to escalate this exchange into a full-blown argument, Wyatt prepared to jump in, ready to draw Rachel out of the line of fire and leave if it came to that.

  Instead, his mother surprised him by nodding her head at Rachel’s comment. “Baby steps,” she repeated as if she agreed with the evaluation.

  “So,” Ariel continued, leveling a piercing look at the young woman. Rachel could have sworn the look had gone straight down into her chest. “Just what is it that you do?”

  “Mom.” There was a warning note in Wyatt’s voice, telling his mother to back off. The last thing he wanted was for Rachel to feel as if she was being interrogated. It nothing else, he felt that his mother’s manner was insulting.

  Ariel turned her head and gave her son an amazingly innocent look. “I’m just curious, Wyatt. Can’t a mother be curious about the young woman her son brought to his sister’s anniversary celebration?” she asked in an almost childlike manner.

  Who did his mother think she was kidding? They both knew that this wasn’t curiosity, Wyatt thought. His mother was grilling Rachel and he felt as if he needed to protect her before this got worse.

  “It’s okay,” Rachel told Wyatt complacently, holding up her hand to make him keep back any other accusing words. “I don’t mind answering.” She turned to his mother. “Right now, I am currently helping to run my father’s restaurant—”

  “Helping?” Ariel asked, obviously keenly interested in learning every single detail about this young woman’s life. “Was your father thinking of retiring?”

  “Dad had a heart attack, so I stayed on to help him keep the restaurant going. He truly loves that place,” she said without any reservation.

  “You stayed on,” Ariel parroted as if the phrase somehow felt foreign to her. “Does that mean, before any of this happened, you were planning on going somewhere?”

  Rachel nodded. “Yes, ma’am. College.”

  For once, Wyatt noted, his mother actually looked impressed. But then her confrontational nature reasserted itself. “And where was your mother while all this was going on?”

  “Mom!” Wyatt chided, really annoyed now.

  But Rachel answered Ariel calmly, “My mother died some years ago.”

  For once, Ariel was speechless. And then, recovering, she said, “I’m sorry to hear that.” Wyatt actually thought it sounded as if his mother meant that. “No siblings to pitch in?” she asked.

  Rachel took the question in stride. “I’m afraid that I’m an only child.”

  “And you gave up college to help your father?” Wyatt’s mother asked incredulously, as if trying to absorb the information.

  “To be accurate, I postponed it. Actually, right now I am in the process of taking online classes at night and trying not to fall too far behind in my studies,” Rachel said.

  “Really?” Ariel marveled.

  Wyatt was surprised there was no note of sarcasm or cynicism in his mother’s voice. Instead, he realized, she actually looked as if she was impressed by what Rachel had just told her.

  Quite honestly, he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. But for the first time in as long as he could remember, Wyatt felt that just might not happen.

  “Wyatt, don’t just stand there like a statue. Go get this lovely young lady a plate of canapés,” his mother instructed.

  “No, that’s fine, Mrs. Watson, I am perfectly capable of getting my own plate.” Rachel smiled at the woman who, she thought, looked rather motherly in her own way. “It’s just nice to be out in public for a change instead of working in the restaurant or trying to catch up on my studies. Coming here is kind of a treat for me,” she admitted.

  Ariel nodded. “If you don’t mind my asking,” she began.

  Wyatt braced himself, ready to jump in and tell his mother to back off if her question got too personal—which it generally did. There was just no letting his guard down around his mother, he thought wearily.

  Seeing the look on Wyatt’s face, Ariel protested, “I was just going to ask her how the two of you happened to meet. Is that so terrible?”

  Rachel saw nothing wrong with that. It gave her the opportunity to talk Wyatt up. She remembered that he had said his mother wasn’t happy about his choice of vocation. Maybe this could get her to change her mind, at least a little.

  “Before the doctor would clear my father to get back to work—something my father desperately wanted to do—he needed to take some ph
ysical therapy sessions—and do well with them. But my father isn’t the easiest man to handle. He kept firing all the physical therapists who came to work with him—until,” she informed Ariel with a smile, “your son came along.

  “Apparently, Wyatt has just the right magic touch,” Rachel continued. “My father stopped snapping at his physical therapist and finally listened to what was being said. Thanks to your son’s efforts, my father is finally getting better and stronger.” She turned to smile at Wyatt, then addressed Ariel, “You should be very proud of your son.”

  Ariel pursed her lips together, then shot a look in Wyatt’s direction. “I’ve been told that,” she said to Rachel.

  “Well, it’s true. My father is a very stubborn man and your son got him to respond in a way that I’ve never seen him respond. He’s actually almost docile.” Her smile widened a little more. “He really likes your son.”

  “Hmm.” Ariel allowed herself no further response than that. And then she quietly instructed, “Well, enjoy yourselves tonight. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around, Rachel,” she said just before she withdrew from her son and Rachel. She sought out some other people, family members she was not all that crazy about but was willing to tolerate for the space of one evening.

  The moment it was safe, Rachel blew out a long breath. She felt oddly calm at this point. “Well, that went better than I thought it would.”

  When Wyatt didn’t respond, she turned to look at him. For his part, Wyatt was staring at her unabashedly. “What?” she asked.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, his expression not changing.

  “Tell you what?” Rachel asked. She didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. Apparently, tonight was going to require a great deal of patience on her part.

  “That you’re a sorceress,” he said simply.

  Rachel blinked. “What?”

  “A sorceress,” he repeated. “I have never seen my mother take to anyone the way she just took to you. She was positively nice.” He was clearly in awe of what he had just witnessed.

  “I didn’t do anything special. I just answered her questions,” Rachel said with a shrug.

  “You did more than that. You cast a spell over her,” Wyatt told her. “I have never seen her take an interest in anyone—including me and any of my siblings—the way she just did with you. You have extraordinary powers,” Wyatt marveled. “I hope you continue using them for good.”

  “Maybe the problem is that you let your mother get under your skin and get too defensive when she says anything.”

  Wyatt shrugged. “Say what you will. But as for me, I’m planning on keeping you around as a good-luck talisman.”

  She looked at him. The idea of his saying that he wanted to keep her around instantly caused a warm glow to spread all over her. She knew he was just kidding, but it would be really nice if just part of him actually meant what he had just said.

  C’mon, Rach, you don’t have any time to get involved with anyone. Even if this had a chance of working out—and there are absolutely no guarantees of that—you have a life to catch up on. You had a late start, remember? Don’t stall out altogether, she warned herself. Just get your head in gear and do what you need to do.

  “Earth to Rachel,” Wyatt was saying, looking at her curiously.

  When she realized that she had allowed herself to slip away, she looked up into his eyes, contrite.

  “Hey, where did you just go?” Wyatt asked her, amused.

  “Nowhere,” she answered defensively. “I was just thinking that maybe you were being too hard on your mother.” Rachel grabbed at the first thing that occurred to her.

  “Well, before I witnessed this display tonight, I would have said I was being way too charitable to her,” Wyatt laughed. “To be honest, I’ve heard people refer to my mother as ‘you-know-who.’ That includes my own father—although not within her hearing range, of course,” he admitted, his grin widening. “As far as I’m concerned, I feel as if I just witnessed a Christmas miracle—four months before Christmas.”

  Rachel smiled at him, pleased at the way everything had gone. “Why don’t we go get some canapés like your mother suggested. I suddenly feel very hungry.”

  He nodded. “I guess practicing witchcraft can really take a lot out of you.

  “Ouch!” he cried, stunned as he grabbed hold of his shoulder.

  Rachel had caught him totally by surprise. He hadn’t expected her to suddenly punch his biceps with her doubled-up fist.

  But then, he thought, massaging his arm to get the circulation going, doing the unexpected was entirely in keeping with the woman’s behavior.

  “Canapés, not a bad idea,” he agreed. “People are beginning to line up now.”

  Taking her over to the line that was forming, Wyatt introduced Rachel to several people that he knew.

  And then, belatedly, he saw that his sister and brother-in-law were also in the same line.

  “You made it,” Myra declared, pleased, as she hugged her brother.

  She was looking not at him, but at the woman Wyatt had brought with him. She raised her eyebrow in his direction, silently asking him for an introduction.

  “Myra, Matthew, I’d like you to meet Rachel. Rachel here just survived a heavy-duty display of Mom’s interrogation talents. She not only survived, she won Mom over.”

  “You’re kidding!” Matthew marveled, looking at Rachel with wonder and admiration in his eyes. “Really? I haven’t been able to do that in fifteen years. What’s your secret?”

  She shook her head. “Your brother-in-law exaggerates,” Rachel told him.

  But Wyatt waved a hand at Rachel’s modesty. “Don’t listen to her. I was stunned speechless.”

  Wanting to draw attention away from what Wyatt was saying, Rachel opened her purse and took out the anniversary card along with the gift certificate she had placed inside it. She held it out to Myra.

  “Happy Anniversary,” she told the couple. “Wyatt wasn’t being very helpful, so I didn’t know what you might like as a gift. I thought that I couldn’t go wrong with a gift card—unless it was for some obscure place,” she conceded. “This one isn’t. It can be used anywhere.”

  Myra and Matthew exchanged looks and Myra’s face lit up as she said, “I know just the place where we can use this,” she told Rachel. Hugging her brother’s companion, Myra said, “Thank you!” with more enthusiasm than Rachel thought the gift warranted.

  “You’re welcome,” Rachel replied, feeling just a little confused. “If you don’t mind my asking, where are you thinking of using this gift card?”

  His sister exchanged looks with her husband again. It was obvious that the couple had a secret that they were just bursting to share.

  “So,” Wyatt said, “Are you going to answer the question, or are you planning on keeping us guessing for the duration of the evening?” He looked pointedly from his sister to his brother-in-law.

  To his surprise, Rachel was the one who came to the couple’s defense. “It’s okay, Wyatt. Don’t pressure them. They’ll tell us when they’re ready to. Right?” she asked, looking at Myra.

  His sister smiled at Rachel, then looked at her brother in turn.

  “You made the right choice, little brother,” she told him. “Smart thinking is a really good quality for an uncle.”

  “An uncle?” Wyatt questioned. He looked from his sister to Matthew. “Does this mean...?”

  “It does,” Myra practically squealed. “We’re having a baby!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  A second, louder shriek came on the heels of the first.

  There were less than five seconds separating the two. It melded into the noise the crowd was making, but Rachel managed to pinpoint its source and the direction it was coming from.

  She quickly tugged on Wyatt’s arm to get his attention. Wyatt was ju
st about to hug Myra and looked quizzically in Rachel’s direction. He hadn’t heard the second squeal.

  “I think you’d better get ready to catch your mother,” Rachel told him. “She looks like she’s about to pass out.”

  Wyatt thought of his mother as having the constitution of an old warhorse. He was about to contradict Rachel when he glanced in his mother’s direction and saw her pale face.

  “Oh, wow,” he exclaimed, quickly making his way to her. Reaching her just in time, he put his arms around his mother as she was beginning to sink down to the floor.

  “Mom? Mom?” Wyatt cried urgently. “It’s all right. Open your eyes!”

  The words seemed to snap Ariel out of her temporary departure from the immediate world. “All right?” she echoed, looking up at her son as if the words he had just uttered didn’t make any sense. “It’s downright wonderful!”

  Pulling herself together, Wyatt’s mother straightened her shoulders and made her way directly over to her daughter, gesturing the guests who were in her path out of her way.

  “Myra! Really?” Ariel cried in stunned disbelief. “You’re pregnant?”

  Myra was pressing her lips together to keep from crying tears of joy. One defiantly slid down her cheek. She nodded, beaming.

  “Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you found out?” Ariel demanded. She looked accusingly at her daughter. “And what are you doing on your feet? Sit, sit! Someone bring a chair over for my daughter,” Ariel ordered.

  Several people immediately jumped to drag chairs over.

  Wyatt leaned over and whispered into Rachel’s ear. “Something tells me that maybe Myra should have kept this a secret a little longer—like maybe until just right before she delivered.”

  Rachel laughed. “Your sister probably told her now so that your mother wouldn’t start criticizing her about all the weight she was gaining in the months that lie ahead.”