One Lavender Ribbon (24 page)

She smiled over at Will who had stopped all motion. His eyes were locked on her finger, still hovering near her mouth, the swirl of cream cheese gone.
Oops
. She bit back a smile, but this only made him look . . . hungrier.

They drove to the zoo, with happy chatter filling the car. Even the parking lot was partially shaded by the giant tropical plants that fenced the perimeter. A souvenir store housed the ticket counter where Will paid the admission. Pops and Sara hovered over a bin filled with soft stuffed animals. Adrienne watched as Pops held a fluffy bear to Sara’s cheek. She hugged it, then held it out for him. Glancing left, then right, Pops gave the thing a quick hug and dropped it back into the bin. Sara giggled with delight.

They stepped through the entrance, and Sara stopped, with a hand over her heart. The traffic backed up behind her. “Gracious. I feel like I’m in a
Jurassic Park
movie.”

Adrienne touched the older woman’s shoulder and tilted back. “Well, hopefully, there aren’t any dinosaurs to chase us.”

Pops stepped closer to them. “No worries, ladies. We will protect you.”

The pathway twisted and twined while the towering plants curved over their heads in long, graceful, jungle-green arcs. “It looks like a rain forest,” Adrienne said, remembering the one she’d visited in Belize. She shielded her eyes to gaze up, up, up to the tops of the massive trees.

Pops unfolded a map and studied it. “Which way first? There’s a lot to see.”

“Lead the way, Pops,” Will said when the others shrugged. “You’ve got the map.”

Sara pointed to a sign. “I don’t want to miss the monkeys. They’re my favorite.”

Pops took her by the arm. “If sweet Sara wants monkeys, then she shall have monkeys. But no feeding them, okay?”

Copying his grandfather, Will offered his arm to Adrienne, so she slid her arm through his and enjoyed the warmth and scent of the man beside her. There was something special about the Bryant men, she realized. Though there were many differences, there were striking similarities. Intensity, for one. Pops was all about Sara. Yesterday in the cemetery, Will had been all about Adrienne, kissing her, soaking her in. That’s what it had felt like to her, like she was a warm bath that he’d just lowered himself into, invading, but also savoring. To her delight, Adrienne discovered she
liked
to be savored.

For most of the day, Will and Adrienne walked together, a few yards behind Pops and Sara, giving the older couple plenty of room to get reacquainted.

Forever the gentleman, Pops gave detailed attention to Sara, holding her hand or cradling her arm as they strolled along. Even stepping ahead to kick a discarded cup out her path. It was sweet, intimate, the stuff of movies. And the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. The way Will showered attention on Adrienne was something he’d obviously learned to do from William, the patriarch of the Bryant clan.

Will leaned on a fence, half-watching the lions, half watching Adrienne. One of the lions stretched, his powerful legs and shoulders growing tight beneath the yellow fur.

In two months it would be Pops’s birthday. He wanted to involve Adrienne in the plans he was making, but reluctance stopped him because she was as skittish as a wildcat, and he couldn’t bear for Pops to have any more rejection. Would Adrienne still be hanging around in two months? He hoped. But who knew?

“I think they’re amazing.” Adrienne’s fingers twined in the chain-link fence. “Did you know the females do the hunting?” She tipped her head to look at him, dark hair spilling over her shoulders and onto the spaghetti-strap tank top she wore.

“The females usually tend to have sharper claws.” He glanced down at her hands. “That’s true of most species.”

She gave him an evil look.

Why did he love to torment her so? He hadn’t done silly things like this since he was a kid. In fact, he couldn’t remember being this silly when he
was
a kid.
Poor Will, always so serious. Lighten up, kiddo
, his dad would say.

“There’s a lion pride in Africa that can take down an elephant,” Will said after they listened to a zookeeper rattle off lion facts. When the keeper produced several pieces of meat on the end of a long stick, Adrienne leaned away from the fence.

“They kill it?”

“Mm-hmm. It’s the only pride known to man that can kill a full-grown elephant.” He turned slightly to lean on the fence. “I heard about it when I was in Africa.”

“Did you go there to see your parents in Senegal?” She pivoted too, half-facing him, half-facing the enclosure. When one of the lions stood, she leaned back again, even though there was a double fence separating her from the cats.

He closed a protective arm around her waist. “They were in Tanzania back then. I visited one summer during college. We went on a safari.”

He watched as the idea played across her face. “
This
close to
those
animals with
no
fence. Sounds exciting, but yikes.”

“I loved it.”

“I bet it was hard to come home.”

He shook his head. “I was ready by the end of summer.” He didn’t want to venture into this conversation but needed to if he was going to ask for her help—which is what he’d decided to do somewhere around the time he’d slid his arm around her trim waist. “I figured they would move back home after Grandma died, but nope.” He couldn’t help the contempt in his voice.

“You don’t approve of them being there?” Adrienne’s fingertip ran along a jagged edge of the chain-link fence.

“I know it’s important work, don’t get me wrong.”

She moved that fingertip to his jaw and ran it from his earlobe to his chin. “Sounds like you’ve practiced saying that.”

He shrugged, or it might have been a shudder from the whisper-soft pad of her finger on his jaw. He wondered if her fingertip tasted like ice cream. “Well, just because I know it, doesn’t mean I believe it in my heart. Even though I know I should.”

“How long have they been there?”

“In Africa? Since my first year at college. They’ve served in several countries there. About eleven, twelve years now.”

“That’s a long time.” She took a thoughtful moment. “It’s got to be very rewarding.”

“I guess,” he mumbled. “They were supposed to be home in a couple months. Now they say they can’t. It’s Pops’s birthday . . . ”

“Oh,” Adrienne said, looking across the walkway where Pops and Sara sat on a park bench. “He must be crushed.”

Will’s eyes followed hers to the man who was, in all ways, his hero. Pops had one arm draped around Sara’s delicate shoulders. With the other hand he pointed to Sara’s beloved monkeys on the island adjacent to the lions. Will watched the couple laugh in delight as one of the gray and brown monkeys did a backward somersault from a tree branch. “Well, he’s too good of a man to let them know how upset he is.”

Adrienne’s mouth tipped into a bow-shaped frown. He wanted to kiss the frown away, taste those pouty lips. Instead, he concentrated on the anger he felt toward his father for not making more of an effort to get home. “Anyway, I want to have a party for Pops, and I was wondering if you would help me plan it.”

She gazed up at him, eyes sparkling. The bow became a smile, a heart-melting, mind-blowing, world-rocking smile. “I would love to. Can we tell Sara?”

“Sure, but I want it to be a surprise. Pops has never had a surprise party before.”

She tilted her head. “He must be so proud of you.” Adrienne placed her hand on his shoulder, letting her fingertips rest against his collarbone. She stretched up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I would love to help.”

Adrienne worked like a maniac to finish the baseboards in the upstairs hall. She still needed to sand and paint the ones downstairs, but the long corridor, with no furniture to buffer its emptiness, made these much more noticeable. She’d worked up a good sweat when the doorbell rang.

“I’m coming,” she hollered from the top of the steps. She’d invited Sammie over to see the lavender room and, well, to apologize for being a friend MIA.

Adrienne flung the door open and hugged her friend. “I’m so glad you came over. I thought you might be angry with me.”

Sammie frowned. “Why?”

“Well, I haven’t called you very often lately.”

Sammie waved a hand in front of her face and passed Adrienne on the way to the kitchen table. “Oh, please. I’m not one of those needy friends who get their feelings bruised if you don’t call and let me know you need to go to the bathroom.”

“Thanks.” Adrienne giggled and followed with, “I think.”

“I stopped by Saturday.”

“I was gone.”

“With Will, no doubt?”

Adrienne nodded.

“He’s becoming quite a habit.”

“I know,” Adrienne said. “I’m sorry . . . ”

“Stop that. Stop apologizing for having a life.” Sammie tilted her chin up. “That’s all you’re doing. So please don’t apologize for being human.”

Adrienne pressed her lips together.

Sammie’s hands went to her hips, cinching the waist of the brown and green dress she wore. “I’m surprised you think me so shallow.”

“I don’t.” Adrienne’s face dropped. “It’s just that I haven’t really had a close friend since college. When I tried to make connections in Chicago, it made Eric crazy. Sammie, I know we’ve only known each other for the few months I’ve been here, but . . . I think you’re the best friend I’ve ever had. Am I pathetic?”

Sammie grinned. “No, Chicago. You were in an abusive relationship where your world had to orbit around Eric.
He’s
pathetic. You? You’re magnificent.”

Adrienne hugged her again, catching Sammie off guard.

An uncomfortable moment stretched out between them. “But I have to admit, it doesn’t say much for your taste in friends.”

Adrienne laughed.

Sammie, usually tough edged, slid an arm around Adrienne’s shoulder. “You’ve been a great friend too,” she admitted, jostling her a little. “Now, tell me all about Mr. Wonderful. We can look at the lavender room when we’re done.”

The two women sat at the kitchen table, which was cluttered with paint samples. Adrienne’s next project was the master bedroom. “I don’t know what to say about him.” Her finger traced an edge of a robin’s egg blue paint chip. “It’s all been something of a whirlwind.”

“But you care for him?”

Adrienne looked at Sammie. “I do.”

“But . . . ”

“At first, he was really suspicious of me. Somewhere along the way, I think that dissolved.” She held the paint chip out for Sammie to inspect; Sammie made a horrified face and tossed it into the trash can nearby.

“You think the suspicion dissolved?”

“He never wants to talk about the past.” She held up another, a soft butter cream. Sammie made a
meh
face.

“So he doesn’t like to talk about the past. Prison record?” Sammie teased.

Adrienne rolled her eyes. “No, nothing like that.”

Sammie shrugged. “For some people, it’s just easier to concentrate on the future. If they have issues, dwelling on the past retards their growth.” Sammie plucked a forest-green paint chip from the group and held it up. “This one.”

Adrienne took it, considering her bedroom in deep green. She preferred the shade of Will’s eyes. “He has
major
issues with his parents.”

“Honestly, Chicago, don’t you think most people do?” Sammie shrugged. “So, basically, you have a grown man who has issues with his parents and won’t deal with the past? This doesn’t really seem like cause for alarm.”

But Adrienne was somewhere else. Her mind was on her five-year marriage to a self-absorbed womanizer. She couldn’t fathom how it had taken her so long to see it. “Eric never spoke of the past. If it was painful, he just stuffed it away deep in his heart. The problem with that is, the heart still hurts. And that pain would come out.
Lash out
at whoever was in the way.”

Sammie studied her. “Do you think Will is like Eric?”

“I don’t know, but one thing I do know is that I will never be in a volatile relationship like that again. Never.” She laughed without humor. “You know, whenever I didn’t do exactly what he wanted, he would say, ‘Can’t you see how much trouble you’re causing?’ ”