Suddenly a Bride (10 page)

“Let me guess. That’s when the elephant pogo stick derby started,” Will supplied, digging his spoon into the bowl of lemon sherbet and holding it up to her mouth.

“Mmm, that’s so good,” she said, accepting his offer and only a moment later realizing that his offer and her acceptance had seemed quite natural. “Anyway, it was a crazy couple of years. Nobody expects to have to grow up quite that fast, but we managed it.”

“And as one of the guys who did more than his share of party-heartying in college, I apologize most profusely. I skidded through college on my charm, I admit, and only buckled down once I got to law school. I’m trying to picture that time and add a wife and two babies into the mix.
I can’t imagine it. Plus, and don’t hate me for this, I was a trust-fund baby, as well as on a full scholarship.”

“Full scholarship? I thought you said you skidded through college.”

“Not an academic scholarship, Elizabeth. I played baseball. I don’t know how The Hammer knew that, but she got me good.”

“I don’t know. I’ve watched you, and I think you’re enjoying yourself. I know Mikey and Danny think you’re the best coach ever—and that’s a quote.”

“Pushing aside the fact that they’ve never had a coach before, I’ll consider that a compliment.” He waved to the waiter, who brought the check. “We’ve missed the movie, you know. What do you say we go walk off some of this meal instead? The parks are closed for the night, but there’s a nice walking trail that runs through my condo development.”

Elizabeth gave a quick thought to her new heels, which looked a lot better than they felt, but then nodded her agreement anyway. The night was feeling special, and if she’d said no, he might just take her home. She wasn’t ready to go home.

Will’s condo complex wasn’t at all what Elizabeth envisioned, which was a series of apartment buildings divided up into residences. Instead, Will drove between decorative low brick walls marking the entrance to a community of two-story single homes, each house different in design but alike in its “accessories” of cream-colored stucco and red barrel-tile roofs.

The houses were well spaced, and the lawns were all
lush and deeply green. The roads were fairly narrow and curvy, with no sidewalks, and she could see that many of them ended in culs-de-sac complete with center islands planted with roses and small evergreens. It was all very beautiful…yet rather sterile.

“Pretty,” she said as Will pulled the Mercedes into a double-wide driveway in front of a double-door garage that was painted brick-red, just like all the other garage doors.

“Is it? Sometimes I feel like the modern-day version of
The Stepford Wives.
Everything perfect. Matching but not matching and yet all still so oppressively the same. I nearly got brought up on the association’s idea of federal charges last year when I tried hanging out a Philadelphia Eagles football banner. It interfered with the architectural concept, you understand. Which, by definition, I believe is Neo Classical Bland. You don’t see the For Sale sign because they aren’t allowed, either, but I do have the place on the market. Turns out I’m not the march in lockstep kind of guy who fits in here.”

“But you bought the house, I mean the condo. So there must have been a time you thought you were a…a lockstep kind of guy.”

“What can I say, the place comes with a great golf course and some pretty cool clay tennis courts. I just didn’t count on anyone really taking all the condo restrictions seriously. Then I met Mrs. Thorogood. I’ve met Mrs. Thorogood a lot, actually, in this past year.
You’re in my black books again, Mr. Hollingswood,
” he
sing-songed, waving his finger in Elizabeth’s face. “
White lights only for Christmas decoration, Mr. Hollingswood, and no crass commercial decorative figures on the communal lawn.
I ended up with Santa Claus waving at me from my foyer. It just wasn’t the same. All this, and the condo association fees seem to go up every month. Secretly, I think they’re pooling together to hire a lawyer who can figure out how to get me out of here.”

Elizabeth laughed as they got out of the car and stood together on the driveway. “People actually
pay
to be told what to do in their own homes? That’s horrible.”

“No, it’s what they want. The condos supposedly sell after only a few days on the market. Mine’s been on for a week now, and I’ve already received two offers. I figure one more is the charm, and then I’ll pick one of them to be the lucky people who get to not put out their Santa next Christmas.” He took her hand. “Come on, the path is just down here at the end of the street. Let’s walk.”

Elizabeth sighed inwardly as they walked along the side of the narrow roadway, caught between the peaceful quiet of the evening and the tingling awareness of the man who walked beside her. Holding her hand. Pointing out the condo where Mrs. Thorogood resided, joking with her that, although each lawn was well manicured, somehow it always looked as if the blades of grass in Mrs. Thorogood’s front yard all stood at attention.

When they reached the macadam path, Elizabeth
asked him to stop and then used him as a supporting prop as she slipped out of her heels. “Ah, that’s better. I’m much more used to sandals and sneakers, I’m afraid. Do you mind?”

“Not if you don’t,” he said, taking her shoes from her and holding them by the heel straps as they continued down the path. “This should be a beach, and we could wade in the ocean as a full moon makes a pathway across the water. Since it isn’t, would you settle for a walk along the fourteenth fairway? The grass has to be softer than this macadam, and there are a few sand traps and a pond near the green, so we can pretend we’re at the beach.”

“We’re allowed on the course at night?”

He laughed softly. “I’ll put it this way. If we see a rather large woman wearing a pink polka-dot dress and a look of outraged dignity advancing toward us—well, it’s every man for himself.”

“You’d desert me and run away?”

“No, I suppose not. It would probably be safer to hide behind you. I don’t think she’d hit another woman.”

“You’re making that up. Mrs. Thorogood never hit you.”

“No, but she’s thought about it. Did I tell you about the skunks?”

Somehow they’d gone from hand in hand to arm in arm, probably because he thought she might stumble in the dark now that they’d left the pretty lights of the walking trail behind them. Now she looked around her
nervously. “No, I don’t think you’ve mentioned skunks.”

“Matt Peters, my partner in the law firm—Hollingswood and Peters, Attorneys At Law, you know, very classy—thought it would be fun to hire this company that puts creatures in your front yard to celebrate your birthday. Well, flamingos, cows, buzzards or whatever the heck else they use. One for each year. Matt, who thinks he’s so clever, went for skunks. Cardboard skunks, thirty-two of them, one for each year. Along with a sign that read
Getting Old Stinks.
”

“Let me guess. Mrs. Thorogood was not amused.”

“Mrs. Thorogood physically pulled every damn last one of those skunks out of the ground and threw them on my porch.”

Elizabeth laughed. “Oh, she did not.”

“Oh, but she did. I’ve got video of the whole thing. It’s beautiful. I’ll show it to you some time. Whoops. Steady there. Step in a hole?”

Elizabeth kept her left foot off the ground as she clung to him. “No, it was a rock or something. I’m probably fine.”

He peered at the ground. “Damn. Not a rock, a concrete yard marker. I doubt you care, but it means we’re one hundred and fifty yards from the green.” And then, before she could protest, he’d scooped her up in his arms and was walking back toward the path. “There’s benches every so often, under the lights. We can see the damage better.”

Elizabeth clung to him—really, was there anything
else she could do? The man had picked her up, for goodness’ sake. “I’m fine, Will, really. It was just…unexpected.”

He headed toward the nearest light lining the path, and there was a bench sitting beneath it, just as if he’d ordered it to be there. “I’ll put you down, but keep your foot up until we can see what you did.”

“
I
didn’t do anything,” she pointed out as he lowered her on her right foot and then held on to her as she eased down onto the bench. “I didn’t even twist my ankle. I’m fine.”

“Ya-huh,” he said, reaching down to take hold of her calf and lift her leg, which sent her to quickly holding down the skirt of her dress. “Oh, boy, you’re bleeding.”

“I am?” Elizabeth leaned forward in surprise, the better to see her foot. “Where? I don’t feel like I’m bleeding. I mean, I don’t hurt or anything. How much blood?”

“That depends. How squeamish are you?”

“I’ve got two seven-year-olds who think falling down and running into things is their job. One more trip to the local walk-in clinic and they’ll start keeping a file on me,” Elizabeth muttered, trying to bend her leg so that she could see the sole of her foot. But Will was holding tight to her heel and wouldn’t let go. “I’m not going to faint, Will.”

“That’s good to know. It’s not horrible, but you can’t walk on it barefoot on this macadam, either. Let’s get you back to the house.”

“I can hop,” Elizabeth protested, having already de
cided that her first date in a decade or more was not exactly going to be one she would share details of with Chessie during any girl-talk session. “Really, Will, I can—never mind,” she said as, once again, he picked her up as if she weighed no more than one of the twins. “Wait, my shoes. They’re on the bench.”

“So? I thought they hurt your feet.”

“But…but they’re pretty,” she said, knowing how silly that sounded.

Will turned back to the bench and then bent his knees so that she was low enough to be able to reach the shoes. “So are tigers, but I wouldn’t advise trying to pet one.”

“Oh, good logic. I’m bleeding, and the man gives me logic. I’m really bleeding? Because I still don’t feel anything.”

“You’re probably in shock,” Will told her matter-of-factly as they left the trail and were headed back up the street to his condo. “Put your head on my shoulder. That should help. That, and I’ve got some brandy that’ll get your heart pumping again.”

“Oh, really,” Elizabeth said, the light from the streetlamp revealing the smile on Will’s face…and the twinkle in his eyes. “Exactly how much blood is there?”

“You’re doubting me?”

“I’m beginning to, yes,” she told him just as a porch light went on and a door opened at the condo with the at-attention grass blades.

“
Mis-ter
Hollingswood! What do you think you’re doing with that young woman?”

“I swear to God she sits at her window 24/7, just so she can leap out at people,” Will grumbled, stopping to turn toward the clearly disapproving Mrs. Thorogood. “Well, hi there, neighbor. Look what I found on the golf course. I’m going to take her home with me now and ply her with liquor. Have a nice evening!”

Elizabeth bit her lips between her teeth and buried her head against the side of Will’s neck to smother her giggles.

“Well, that got her back in her cave,” Will said as he continued along the road, crossing his yard and only putting Elizabeth down when he’d reached his front porch. “Then again, she could be calling the police. I should have thought of that one.”

“You’re insane. Do you know that?” Elizabeth asked him as he opened the door and then led her, hopping, into the condo. “That poor old woman.”

“That poor old woman can pull staked skunks from the ground with one hand and flip them twenty feet onto a porch. I’ve got video, remember? Can you hop from here?”

“To where?” Elizabeth asked him as he turned on the lights and she saw a long, wide hallway made up of a deep cherrywood floor, creamy wainscoted walls and a marvelous tray ceiling, the center of which was painted a lush cranberry. As she looked further she could see that a dining area had been carved out of the space and marked by white wooden columns. “Where’s your kitchen?”

“Straight ahead, past the stairs. I’m going to go upstairs and find my first aid kit.”

The moment he was gone, Elizabeth leaned a hand against the wall to balance herself and bent her leg so she could get a look at this horrible bleeding wound she couldn’t even feel.

“Oh, ouch. Okay,
now
it hurts.” She must have stepped on the very edge of the marker and then sort of slid down it, because the scrape went from the middle of her arch and ran straight up toward the top of her foot. It wasn’t a cut, not really, but more of a three-inch long brush burn that had only bled in a couple of places. Mikey’s latest boo-boo had looked much the same last week when he’d tripped over his shoelace and gone down on the driveway, skinning his knee.

Gingerly, she put her foot down, keeping her weight on her toes, and made her way into the kitchen just as Will joined her, holding a white plastic box with a red cross on it.

She sank onto a chair at the table and waved at the box. “Let me guess, you were a Boy Scout.” She noticed that he’d taken off his sports coat and removed his tie. She admired him when he was more formal, but he was so much more approachable like this. Still the most handsome man she’d ever seen but more human than Greek god.

“Hey, don’t knock it. If Mrs. Thorogood comes bursting in here, I could tie her up using six different knots.” He pulled out another chair and motioned for her to rest her foot on it. “Okay, not as bad as it looked earlier, but you lost some skin, didn’t you? Are you up to date on your tetanus shots?”

“Yes, Dr. Will,” Elizabeth said, wondering why she hadn’t already sunk into a hole somewhere in embarrassment. “Look, it’s really not all that bad. If you’d just wet a couple of paper towels, I’ll wash it off and—”

Will shot her a look that told her she’d probably be smart to just sit back and let him play doctor, so she did.

From his back pocket, he produced a washcloth he’d brought downstairs with him, and for the next five minutes she watched in varying degrees of embarrassment and then rather disturbing awareness as he tended to her injury.

He held her calf cupped in one hand as he carefully washed her foot, as he knelt in front of her and checked to make sure there were no bits of grass or grit in the wound, and, finally, as he used a cotton swab to spread antibiotic ointment on it, then taped a gauze pad to her foot.