Strange Neighbors (25 page)

   The hot sting of tears welled up in her eyes and a lump formed in her throat. It wasn't just about how to tell Jason she'd lost it—if indeed she'd ever had it— maybe it was a sign. Maybe she had lost Jason. Her heart ripped in two at the mere thought.

   She burst into tears and her father appeared in the doorway seconds later. "There's something bothering you. Something terrible, and I demand you tell me what it is."

   "Oh Daddy…" she sobbed. "Jason gave me this beautiful diamond engagement ring, and I've lost it!"

   "Engagement…!" His posture stiffened, then relaxed. "I understand now. Where did you last see it?"

   She tipped her purse toward him. "It was right in this compartment. Now it's gone." She blubbered until he came over and sat next to her on the bed.

   "Maybe it's a sign," he said. "I still think you should come home."

   Merry cried, "No! If it's a sign of anything, it's a sign of how much I love Jason, and how much I don't want to lose him!"

   "Oh," her father said, sounding disappointed. "Why weren't you wearing the ring?"

   "I—I said I had to think about it."

   "That was very wise. You've only been together a short time. And maybe if you come home and think about it…"

   "Stop it! Stop saying that! I'm not moving home and that's final!" I swear, I've never punched an old man before, but if he keeps this up…

   Thank goodness the guests had gone home. If they heard her yelling at Mac like that, they'd all be crowding around her.

   Her father bristled. "You do not have to be so rude about it, young lady."

   Merry doubled over and sobbed again. Her father patted her gently on the back. "Look, I know you're upset. We'll just forget you said that, all right?"

   "Gaaaa! No! We won't! I meant it. Look, I'm sorry if I was rude, but I'm twenty-five frickin' years old. I need to be on my own for a while. That's the only reason I hesitated about marrying Jason."

   Was it? Was that the only reason? Good lord, she had accepted a ghost and witches living in the same building with her—not to mention a vampire birth father—and even considered them friends. Her eyes and mind were opening, probably as a result of finally being on her own. Unsheltered. Perhaps whatever had happened with Jason was something she could try to understand and get used to.

   She fished frantically all through her purse and felt something in the lining. "Wait. I think I may have found it."

   She pulled the lining inside out and noticed a hole about the size of a nickel in the bottom. It may have fallen through it! She tore the lining along the seam and dove into the compartment again. "Eureka!" she cried. The ring was only a little worse for wear, a piece of lint lodged in one of the prongs.

   She immediately slid it onto the ring finger of her left hand and yanked out the lint.

   Her father grabbed her hand and whistled. "My, my. That's a rock you don't want to lose! You'd have had a pretty hard time paying back what that monster cost."

   She giggled with relief. "It's not a monster, dad. It's a symbol of love. Big love." She rested her head on his shoulder.

   Mac put an arm around her and kissed her temple. "Okay. I guess my little girl is happy, and I'll just have to be happy for her."

   She threw her arms around his neck. "Thanks, Dad. That's all I want. I know it's soon… but it's right."

   Now if I can only apologize to Jason for freaking out, I hope he'll understand and forgive me. He has some explaining to do, though. Why the heck did he keep this from me for so long? And what exactly is it? There's so much to talk about.

   "I've got to go home, Dad. I've finished the dishes. Will you drive me?"

   His eyebrows rose. "Isn't your car outside in the driveway?"

   "No. Jason dropped me off. He was going to come with me, but…"

   Mr. MacKenzie held her gaze, and she fidgeted under his intense scrutiny.

   "Well, he changed his mind. He also had an invitation from his aunt and didn't want to hurt her feelings. And you guys didn't even know he was coming, so he didn't have to worry about letting you down." Okay, that was sort of true. He'd told her that Dottie had assumed he'd spend Thanksgiving with them, and by now he probably had.

   "He intended to come with you and then changed his mind? You must have been disappointed. So that's why you were pouting all day."

   "Well, yeah. Of course. So, will you drive me home?"

   "Only if I can speak to him."

   "Dad, for God's sake, will you stop protecting me? I'm a grown woman! Now do I have to take a cab to the train station or should I ask Matt?"

   He sighed. "One of us will take you back to Boston," he said, albeit reluctantly.

Chad followed Dottie to her apartment to see what devilry she was up to now. Plus he felt like taking a ride on their ceiling fan.

   "Ralph, what's Jason's deep, dark secret?" Dottie asked sweetly.

   Ralph whirled around. His eyes rounded and fixed upon her. "What do you mean?"

   "There! That expression tells me everything. You know, don't you?"

   Uh-oh, Chad said to himself. The old man's in for an interrogation. He really needs to work on his poker face.

   She folded her arms and waited.

   Ralph puttered to the kitchen. "I'm making myself a sandwich. You want one?"

   "Don't you dare try to change the subject," she cried, bunching her fists and striding after him. "If something untoward is going on with our nephew, I have a right to know what it is."

   "Untoward? What the hell does that mean? And what gives you that right? Don't you think that if he wanted you to know, he'd have told you?"

   Untoward. Adjective, meaning unfavorable or unfortunate. Chad enjoyed his expanded vocabulary. He'd worked hard to become a journalist. As a black man in the sixties, it had almost required memorizing the dictionary. And even then, he suspected he might have been hired by the newspaper as the token black man. Untoward circumstances will force Ralph to divulge a secret he's been sworn to keep. Untoward.

   "I want you to tell me," Dottie whined. "We promised each other long ago we wouldn't have any secrets from each other."

   Oh, Christ on a cracker! The dude's really in for it now. I can't believe he agreed to something like that. Hell, I wouldn't promise to tell any woman everything. A guy who does that is asking for a flowerpot to the head.

   "That was thirty years ago when I was stupid in love and would have promised you anything."

   Oh no! Talk about brutal honesty. Chad was trying hard not to laugh. I don't want to miss a word of this.

   She reeled back. "Don't you love me now?"

   "Of course I do! Would I put up with your antics if I didn't?"

   "Antics? I have no antics… Hey! You're trying to change the subject on me, aren't you?"

   Chad shook his head as he observed from the stationary ceiling fan. Nice try, man. But you know she's never

going to drop it.

   She jammed her hands on her hips. "Well, it isn't going to work. I know you're keeping something from me and I won't stand for it!"

   "You'll have to, Dottie. I don't know what you heard or where you heard it, but I have no idea what you're talking about. He could have meant anything. Maybe he's a secret cross-dresser. By the way, what did you hear, and where'd you hear it?"

   She shrugged. "I overheard Jason talking to himself. He was wondering how to tell Merry about his deep dark secret."

   "Well, that's what you get for eavesdropping. You'll have to ask Jason if you really must know, but I think that would be too damn nosy, and you know what a private person he is. Do you want him to evict us?"

   "Don't be ridiculous! He won't evict his own relatives."

   Famous last words, lady. If I were him, you'd have been tossed out on your ass a long time ago.

"Hi Roz, it's me. Do you have time to talk?" Merry twisted the phone cord and bit her lower lip. She hoped her best friend could give her some perspective.

   "Sure. Where are you?"

   "I'm still in Schooner. Matt's driving me back to Boston in a few minutes. I need to talk to someone I can trust before I leave, though."

   "Sounds serious. Do you want me to come over?"

   "No, that's okay. By the time you got here, it would probably be time to leave."

   "All right. So what's up?"

"Jason asked me to marry him."

   The shriek on the other end of the phone almost blew out her eardrum.

   "Jesus, Roz. You might want to save your excitement. I found out something about him that's giving me fits. I don't know what to make of it."

   "Uh-oh. What is it?"

   "I can't tell you… Well, not specifically. Not until I find out more about it. I'm really, really confused right now."

   "Crap. How am I supposed to help you if you won't tell me what it is?"

   "I don't know," Merry moaned.

   "It's awfully soon to talk about marriage, don't you think? I mean, you only met him in October, right?"

   "I know. And at first, he said he wouldn't push me to make a decision. And then he did anyway. So I said yes, and then I found out this awful secret."

   "He told you about this… something—whatever it is—after you said yes?"

   "He didn't exactly tell me. He more like showed me. All I know is that I have to talk to someone."

   "Why? Does he have two dicks or something?"

   She laughed. "No, believe me, the one he has is quite enough."

   "Maybe the person you should be talking to is Jason."

   "I know, I know. But he's not the only one with a problem. Part of it is me."

   "In what way?"

   "I'm not sure. When I'm with him, I just sort of melt. You know? I'm afraid I won't be able to stand up for myself."

   "Why? Does he boss you around?"

   "No! It's not that. I just want whatever he wants,

because I want him to be happy."

   "That's called love. It sounds like you've already made a decision."

   "No, I haven't. I don't even know how I feel about this. I do know how I feel about him."

   "And…?"

   "And yeah, I love him. Still, I'm confused. I really need to figure out what the whole other thing means to me before I just give in to what he wants, which is a short engagement."

   "How short?"

   "He wants me to go with him to Florida in February for spring training, as his wife."

   "Wow. That is short. And you said yes?"

   "Yes."

   "But that was before you knew about this… thing."

   "Yes."

   "What is it? Some kind of visible growth that's genetic?"

   She chuckled. "No. Well, not a growth. I don't know about the genetic part. Maybe it's the side effect of some kind of scientific experiment?"

   "Say what?"

   "Never mind. I can't go into that. Not yet."

   "Okay. So back to the proposal. How do you feel about the engagement now?"

   "I don't know," Merry wailed. "I don't know how I feel about anything!"

   "Boy, you're flip-flopping all over the place."

   "I know. It's like… Well, not like I've lost myself or anything. More like I'd never found myself. Now I have, but can I trust it?"

   "I was wondering how this was going to play out. I mean, you just busted out on your own. We talked about going clubbing, kicking up our heels, and then you go and meet this gorgeous hunk and fall in love immediately. Aren't you apt to feel gypped out of the whole singles scene? If not now, how about ten years from now? Twenty years? The rest of your life?"

   "I don't know. From what I've heard from you and the girls I work with, it's not that glamorous. Oh, I know. They complain about their husbands, but they wouldn't want to go back to being single for anything."

   "We're not talking about them. We're talking about you. How do you feel? Take it slow. Think about each situation. Spit out words that describe as many things that you're feeling as you can. Maybe we'll see something emerge. Start with how you feel about being with Jason now, then move on to how you feel about being with Jason forever."

   Merry sat silent. Crap. Was it that easy?

   "Okay… I'll try it." She took a deep breath. "I feel lucky, loved, appreciated, incredibly special…"

   "Anything else? Anything negative?"

   "No. I think those are the words I'd use for how I feel about being with Jason now. I mean, I was worried about his fame and how that could drive me nuts, but he's pretty much put those fears to rest."

   "Yeah, I guess if he proposed, he means it. Okay, so now think about being with Jason for the rest of your life. How does that make you feel?"

   "Um… lucky. Incredibly special. Like I couldn't have done any better in life. A little scared, but I think that's normal."

   "Hmm…" Roz said. "I'm suddenly envious and want

to ask you if he has any brothers?"

Merry chuckled. "He does, but he's already married."

"Damn."

   "I'm still upset that he didn't tell me about this complication before."

   "Yeah. You need to confront him about that, but you might want to keep the big picture in mind. Maybe he was just afraid you'd say no and wanted to know what you'd say before you knew about the… thing. That could make him do it ass-backwards, but it was only a mistake and probably forgivable."