A Christmas Affair (7 page)
Read A Christmas Affair Online
Authors: Adrianne Byrd
It was one of those times when if you truly love someone, you have to set them free.
Resolute, I gathered up the yards of silk and rushed back up the staircase, then blew into my bedroom like a hurricane. Two seconds later, my sister rushed in. “Help me out of this thing,” I ordered.
“What?”
“You heard me. The job pays twenty dollars.”
That got my sister to move. In no time, Tess had unfastened the pearl buttons on the back of my dress, and then I ordered her to lock the door and help me pack.
“But where are you going?” Tess asked, nervously. “Hennessey wasn’t kidding. Daddy asked Sheriff Cooper to block the main roads.”
“Then I’ll take the back roads,” I said, grabbing my small suitcases out of the closet.
Tess blinked. “You’re running away?”
“I have to. This isn’t right and Daddy isn’t listening to reason,” I huffed as I pulled clothes out of my drawers and started cramming them into my suitcases. “This is my life, and I’m going to make my own decisions.”
“But … but … “
“All I need is a head start.”
“But where?”
“I’m going to stay with Aunt Charlene.”
“In New York? How are you going to get all the way up there?”
I dropped to my knees beside the chest of drawers and quickly pulled out my stash. Being a sought-after babysitter in town, I had managed to save a lot of my money. All I needed to do was borrow my father’s car to the airport and my cash would take care of the rest.
“I don’t know about this,” Tess said, backing toward the bedroom door.
I caught the sneaky movement out of the corner of my eye, and I flew to the door and locked it before my sister had a chance to bolt. “Snitches get stitches,” I warned with a wave of my finger.
Tess gulped as her eyes widened.
Unless I wanted to tie my sister to a chair, I would need to go at this another way. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to scare you … it’s just that I can’t marry Lyfe right now. It isn’t right. You know it. We all know it. And if I don’t stop this train wreck, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life.”
“But I thought that you loved him.”“I do. And I will always love him. But getting married like this … at our age, is going to destroy our love before it ever has a real chance of getting off the ground. We need to have a chance to grow into ourselves before we try to blend our lives together. I want to finish high school. Go to college. Start a career. And I know that he wants those things too.” Tears blurred my vision as I cocked my head and stared into my sister’s eyes. “Don’t you understand?”
Tess hesitated, but then she slowly nodded.
“Good. So you’ll help me?”
“All right.”
I drew my sister into my arms. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” When I stood back up, I wiped at my eyes and dove back into my packing. When I finally got my two bags stuffed with all I was ever going to get into them, I headed toward my bedroom window.
Tess stopped me. “Wait. What about Lyfe? Shouldn’t you leave him a note or something?”
I blinked. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You need to say something.”
“I … I can’t.”
“But—”
“What can I say that won’t make him come chasing after me? If I apologize and tell him that I still love him, then he’ll come after me. You know he will … or he’ll just sit here and wait until I come back. I don’t want him to do that.”
“But if you just disappear, it will break his heart—and what about Mom and Dad?”
More tears rushed to my eyes. “If I break his heart, then he won’t come after me and try to change my mind. And I’m not so sure that he wouldn’t be able to change my mind if he tried. And Mom and Dad … I’ll call them when I get there.”
“But—”
“No. This is best,” I decided firmly. “No note.”
Tess just pressed her lips together. “You’ll call me once you get there, won’t you?”
“Of course I will.” I smiled.
The bedroom door knob jiggled, and then there was a knock.
“Corona Mae, are you in there?”
Tess’s eyes bulged.
“Yes, Momma. I’ll be right out.” I turned toward my sister again. “Give me five minutes before you let her in.”
“They’re going to kill me you know,” Tess complained.
“I really appreciate you doing this for me.”
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.”
I delivered a quick peck to her plump cheek. “I love you, lil’ T. I’ll call you as soon as I get to Aunt Charlene’s.” With that I ducked out of the window and raced away from my wedding, determined not to look back …
“We’re here, Ms. Banks,” the driver announced.
Corona snapped out of the past and closed her diary. However, her chest still ached as if she’d just made that heart-wrenching decision a few seconds ago. After all
this time, there were still so many
“what-ifs”
tumbling around her head like Texas tumbleweed.
The driver opened the back door and Corona glanced up as ten-year-old Melody climbed into the car and smiled at her with her father’s cognac gaze.
“Hey, Mom.”
“W
ell, well. Lookie here. It’s the birthday boy!” Tess stepped in front of Lyfe and crowded his personal space. Her bright brown eyes and apple-cheeked smile was like a punch in the gut. Lyfe had to take a deep breath and lean back from her in order to get his bearings.
“It’s the second time in three days that we’ve run into each other. We better watch out, this could actually mean something.” Tess laughed and reached up to pin her number to his chest. “Here you go, handsome.”
He glanced down and shook his head. “Uh, I don’t think that is such a hot idea.”
When he started to unpin the number, she covered his hand with her own. “Don’t be so hasty. You know there
is
a chance that you were just with the wrong Banks girl.” She shifted her brows up. “If you get my drift.”
His brothers exchanged knowing looks and cocky smiles.
Lyfe’s laugh was out of his mouth before he had a chance to consider whether it would hurt her feelings. He didn’t have to look over at the pool table to know that he was once again the center of attention.
Tess’s brows stretched up.
“No offense, Tess, but I can’t help but look at you like a little sister.”
Hennessey leaned over to remind him, “We don’t have a sister.”
“And if we had one that looked like her, I’d gouge my eyes out,” Dorian said, as his gaze slowly caressed her curves.
The glowing comments made Tess toss them each a devastating smile. “Why thank you, guys. You always did know how to say the nicest things—though I wouldn’t date a single one of you.”
The brothers snickered.
“So Thanksgiving is over with … You thinking about hanging around?” Tess asked.
“Can’t say that I am—though I do miss it around here,” Lyfe said. It was the truth. He loved the simple life and the friendly people. People in the city moved too fast for him, and they never seemed to really take the time to notice things around them. Was it so wrong to like coming home to a house that wasn’t inches from the neighbors? Hell, who could tell all those suburban McMansions from one another anyway?
The urban world was just a place where everyone killed themselves trying to keep up with Joneses. They all had to have the same houses, the same cars, and damn near the same trophy wives and two point five children. It was insane—and yet, there he was, participating in the rat race, trying to prove to the memory of
a seventeen-year-old Corona that he had what it took to be successful in the big cities, too.
He would never admit that truth to anyone, not even himself.
But since he’d been back, he’d been having some odd dreams; one with him living in a nice house with a huge yard and a wraparound porch. He could picture himself, sitting on a porch swing in the evenings with Sadie at his side, listening to crickets and watching the sun go down. A couple of times, he dreamed that Corona Mae would one day join him out on that porch. Maybe in the yard there would be a dozen mini-me’s running around, filling the evening sky with the sounds of their exuberant laughter.
Silly him.
Tess cocked her head and then waved her hand in front of his face. “Hello. Earth to Lyfe. Is anyone home?”
“Huh? What?”
Tess’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “And who are you thinking about?”
With perfect timing, Leanne popped up and set another bottle down. “You’re hitting these pretty hard tonight.”
“I can’t imagine why,” he mumbled under his breath.
Tess smiled. “Maybe because you have someone on your mind? I don’t know. Maybe someone who’s getting married soon?”
Lyfe rolled his eyes and reached for his new drink. Had everyone taken up pouring salt in people’s wounds as a hobby?
“Maybe someone you should call?” She tugged his ribbon. “Hint—that’s not
my
number.”
Lyfe took another look at the number and for the first time noticed the 917 area code. “New York?”
“Yea.” Tess clapped her hands. “Everyone give him a round of applause.”
His brothers, always up for embarrassing and humiliating him, gave her the resounding applause she was looking for.
“Why are you giving me a New York number?” Then it hit him. “Oh.”
Tess twisted up her face. “You know, I think I gave you more points for intelligence than you’re due.”
“A lot of people make that mistake.” Royce chuckled.
Lyfe tried to remove the number pinned to his chest. “In that case, I still don’t think that I need—”
“Of course you do. Corona Mae is getting married … or have you forgotten?”
“Well, good for her,” he said, turning up his bottle again.
Tess laughed in his face. “You two really are pathetic.”
Suspicious, Lyfe lowered his beer and eyed her wearily. “Two?”
“You’re not just going to let her marry that guy, are you?”
“Let her?” He laughed. “I don’t believe I have any say in the matter.”
This time Tess cocked her head and jammed her hands onto her hips. “Wow. Waaaay more points than you deserve.”
Lyfe set his bottle down. Clearly he’d already had too many if he was having a hard time following this conversation. “What are you getting at, Tess?”
“Look, Lyfe, let me give it to you straight. Everyone
in this town knows that you still have the hots for my sister.” She glanced around and asked, “Am I right?”
The crowd, all the way up to the bar, yelled back, “Yeah!”
Tess turned back around. “See? Don’t get me wrong, you’ve been doing an admirable job trying not to show it, but you’re not fooling anyone. I saw how you watched that interview the other day. Admit it.”
Lyfe was a second away from denying the charge, but stopped short when he saw his brothers lined up by the pool table, ready to call him on his bullshit. “Look. Maybe you all forgot, but
I
was all set to marry Corona Mae a decade ago. She’s the one that left
me
. I emptied out my measly savings account and bought her a diamond. And I was left standing in a too-small rented tuxedo with half the town staring at me.”
“Diamond chip,” Tess corrected for another round of chuckles. “A hundred and fifty bucks don’t get you far, even if it was back in the day.”
“Whatever! I was proud of that ring.” He sat up straighter. “It was the best I could afford.”
“There was always the bubble gum machine,” Dorian said, jumping in on the act. “Who knows, if you’d gotten her a ring from there, she might’ve showed up.”
“All right, enough,” Lyfe barked. Everyone jumped at his harsh tone, and he realized that maybe he needed to call it a night and just get back home to Sadie. “Look, guys, I’m really not up to this. I think that I should go.”
“Fine. I’ll drive you home,” Tess said, snatching his keys off the table.
“To Atlanta?”
“You’ve been drinking.”
“I also have five brothers here who can drive me home.”
“Home? I’m not ready to go home,” Royce said, glancing around. “Anybody ready to go home?”
Like good little soldiers, the rest of the Alton clan shook their heads and pretended like they couldn’t possibly be torn away from the party of the century.
“Good. Then it’s settled. I’ll drive you.” Tess smiled broadly.
Lyfe glowered at his brothers. “Judases.”
“C’mon, Lyfe. I’m just trying to help you do what you should’ve done a long time ago—get your girlfriend back.”
When his face twisted in confusion, she added, “I’ll explain my plan on the drive home. And then you can thank me later.”
“I
thought you said that this was just going to be a small intimate party,” Corona said, settling down into her vanity chair to put the final touches on her make-up.
“According to my mother, a hundred of her closest friends qualifies as a small party.” Rowan chuckled as he fidgeted with his tie. “If you’re going to be a part of the James clan you better get used to these sorts of things.”
“Warning received,” Corona mumbled and then took a deep breath. “It just seems like we’re always going to one party or another. It would be nice if we could just carve out some quality time with Melody.”
Rowan’s hands fell to his sides. “You think that’s going to help her warm up to me?”
Corona shrugged and held on to her optimism. “At the very least it will help her get used to the idea of our getting married.”
“Wishful thinking.” He laughed then began attempting round two with his tie. “If that’s what you think, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can sell you.”
She laughed. “C’mon. It’s not that bad.”
“Oh? Is that why she told me that she thought that people who made a living by pretending to be other people were stupid?”