The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (36 page)

There had been fireworks, Jonquil thought, as she finished kissing Gage after the barbecue in Etta Talmadge’s yard. The Fourth of July had been perfect, utterly perfect if such a thing could be true. And the kiss after the final volley of fireworks had been even better.

“Hey, you should take that inside.” Angela came over, slightly tipsy from the alcohol she’d consumed. She had only been off work for twenty minutes when the fireworks had started but had apparently made short work of several beers in that time.

“I think I like it here just fine,” Jonquil said, settling into Gage’s arms a little more. The past couple of weeks had been heaven for her. He was actually acknowledging her as someone important in his life. He’d fielded questions, deflected intrusive ones and took it all in stride as they maneuvered through crowds that day in the park. And he’d barely let her out of his sight. Maybe there was hope for a future after all.

“I bet you do.” Angela stumbled slightly as she walked closer, catching herself easily. “I remember wanting to cuddle up to that sexy chest. But Jonquil always gets what she wants, doesn’t she? Perfect little Jonquil. And she is sure getting her man.”

Jonquil frowned. Hadn’t they already cleared the air on this? Angela was still upset and blaming her? “That’s so inaccurate.”

“Oh, no it’s not,” Delphi said. “You’re disgustingly nice and organized and everyone loves you. You have actual grace, as opposed to myself, and I still can’t hate you. There’s something wrong with that.” She tugged Jeremy into the conversation. Vince and Cami followed right behind.

“You’re full of it.” Jonquil felt awkward about the praise and totally unworthy.

“Does she do anything badly?” Cami asked Angela.

“School. She sucked in school.” Angela laughed loudly at the thought. “She’s probably the only one out of you who didn’t last a year in college. Mom always said it wasn’t her fault, but it felt good to be better at
something
than her.”

Angela rested her head on a nearby tree, closing her eyes.

Jonquil really wanted to close her eyes. Or maybe to melt into the grass. Why did Angela have to have such a big mouth?

“You didn’t finish college?” Cami asked. “You never mentioned that.”

“You never asked. I didn’t need a degree to work with flowers.” Jonquil tried to shrug it off, but she couldn’t help feeling somehow less-than. She tried to hide her lack of formal education by learning everything else she could.

“Yeah, they say she’s dyslexic, but I always wondered if she just didn’t care enough to try harder.” Angela said in a soft tone that sounded like she was about to pass out.

Gage must have thought the same because he slid an arm around her waist and pulled her away from the tree. “Come on, you should rest for a little while. How about if you lay down on the trampoline? It’s flat and mostly bug free.”

“Sounds good.” The words were slurred and barely audible.

Jonquil could barely hear the words as Gage took Angela aside. She watched for a moment, then gave her sisters a defiant look. And was surprised not to see censure in their faces. “What?”

“You never mentioned you’re dyslexic,” Delphi said.

“Why would I? Does it matter? Do you feel bad for me now? Poor Jonquil, couldn’t even finish her associates degree. Too much of a quitter to stay with it until she succeeded.” She felt small and angry with Angela for mentioning it. What would they all think now?

“Your reports are always really good. I would never guess,” Delphi said.

Jonquil scuffed her foot a little, but didn’t look away. “I have Tara review them before sending them on. I tell her it’s so she’ll understand the reports I have to file in case I need to take time off, but she does it with every report. I’m not sure if she thinks I’m sloppy or if she just thinks I’m lazy, but she’s caught a lot of mistakes on reports and orders before I send them.”

“Sounds smart to me.” Delphi took a sip of her Coke. “It’s not like you had to have college for your job, so what would be the point? You’re a genius with flowers and that’s much more important for your work, anyway.”

The point would have been the degree, which was maybe a lame reason as they went, but Jonquil had always felt substandard because she didn’t have the stupid piece of paper. Even though she had a great job she loved. Maybe she felt stupid because she couldn’t hack it. She nodded instead of speaking.

Gage returned and slid his arm around her waist again. “Are we telling stories about our misspent youths?”

“Not even close,” Delphi said. “I have no misspent time in my past. How about you?”

“Plenty. But that’s enough for now. You ready to go home?” he asked Jonquil. “I’m beat.”

“Sure.” He knew she was stupid and now he was ready to take her home. “We should cart Angela with us.”

They were in the car, Angela passed out in the back, pulling out of the driveway when he asked her, “So I missed most of the conversation. Why didn’t you graduate?”

“I couldn’t hack it, okay? School is lame and I didn’t need a degree, so I quit.”

His thumbs beat on the steering wheel, keeping time to the music for several seconds. “You couldn’t hack it? Right, because you quit every time things get tough.”

“I do. I’m lame and a wimp.” She faced the window, willing herself not to cry when everything seemed piled in her psyche at the moment. “And stupid most of the time.”

“Give me a break. You’re not stupid. Not ever and you’re not even a little bit of a wimp.”

She stared in the darkness, but saw nothing.

“You think not finishing school makes you stupid?” he asked.

“It doesn’t make me smart.”

He swerved into a side road and pulled to a stop against the curb. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You were smart enough to know that school wasn’t your thing, that you had other skills that you could focus on. That you could learn on your own or under your boss or whatever and live your own life.”

“Says the man with an actual degree.”

“I hated every minute of those classes. I was the idiot because I wanted my dad to be happy, to be proud of me, so I stuck it out. But he never was, he just wanted a carbon copy of himself. I wasted years before I was smart enough to figure out that falling in line was never going to make me happy. Or him. I was always trying to be the good son, so I did what he expected. I wish I’d figured that out sooner and done what I wanted.”

“But you didn’t quit because you couldn’t handle it. You quit because you hated it.”

He shot her a look of disbelief. “You didn’t quit because it was hard, Jonquil. Admit it. You quit because you didn’t love it. Because it wasn’t important enough to you. I’ve seen you drag yourself on a twisted ankle for miles, not giving up, not stopping no matter how miserable you were. You’re not a quitter. And you’re sure as hell not stupid.”

But it wouldn’t be enough to keep him around when he had enough of her, would it? “Thanks.” She didn’t believe a word he said. He was just being nice before he kicked her to the curb.

He swore and pounded a fist on the steering wheel, then steered them back onto the road. “I swear I don’t get women. You want to be strong and independent and do your own thing, but then when you change course from the one everyone else put in front of you—proving you’re strong and independent—you beat yourselves up for not fitting their mold.”

“I guess we’re just a mystery.”

“It’s stupid. Why do that to yourself?”

“Says the man who just told me I’m not stupid and apparently tied himself in knots trying to please his father.” When Jonquil finished speaking she shut her mouth and eyes before she said anything worse. It was bad enough as it was.

They drove in silence for a long moment and then he stopped his car.

She opened her eyes to see her house. What a lousy ending to a nearly perfect day.

“Let’s get her inside,” he said.

They each took one shoulder. Angela was completely out of it.

“She’s going to have the worst hangover tomorrow,” Jonquil said, not feeling as sympathetic as she normally would.

“Next time I’ll send her to the kids’ table for pop,” Gage said. “We taking her up to her room?”

Jonquil eyed the sofa. “No. Let’s put her down there. The sofa’s really comfortable.”

They settled her on the sofa and Jonquil pulled off Angela’s shoes, covering her with one of the blankets they kept in a basket under one of the end tables.

“So, you probably have to be up early,” she said, turning back to Gage. “The mountain bike festival will keep you hopping for the next few days.”

“Yes, but it’ll be fine.” He threaded their fingers together and tugged her toward the door.

“You need me to walk you to your car?” she asked, wondering if he wasn’t done telling her how stupid she was.

He stopped and stared at her. “You brought stuff to spend the night at my place, didn’t you?”

She blinked. “You still want me to go home with you? I thought you were going to leave me here. That you changed your mind.”

His brows lifted. “Why? Because we had a dust-up in the car? One I still don’t understand? Apparently we have some issues to work through. It’s hard to do that if we’re apart or with other people coming in and out.” He tugged her hand toward the door and she acquiesced.

“What do you want from me?” Jonquil asked when they were nearly to his house.

Gage didn’t respond until he parked in his garage. “I really don’t know.”

“You don’t? Then maybe you should take me back home instead. Where no one is wondering what they’re doing with someone like me. They’re my sisters, they have to love me. You don’t.”

Gage turned to her. “Come in, please, so we can talk?”

“I thought you were the king of action instead of talk.” She pushed out of the car.

He hurried around the nose of the car and got to the door to the house first, opening it for her. “I don’t get what’s going on.”

She passed him. “Okay, let me lay it out for you.” Jonquil stopped just inside the kitchen, her heart breaking. “What’s up with us? We’re not just friends anymore. I don’t sleep with my friends. But what are we? You said we have something special, but what does that mean, really? What are we?”

Gage paused and looked a little scared at the change in topics. “We’re us.”

“Nice. Brilliant. But is this going anywhere?”

“Going where?” he asked. His eyes were wide, a little scared as he watched her.

Could he really be that clueless? She shook her head, disgusted with all of it. “Just take me home, Gage. If you don’t know the answer to that question, if you weren’t expecting me to bring this up eventually, we really shouldn’t be wasting our time together.”

“What do you mean?” Panic filled his face and he grabbed her hand. “Are you breaking up with me? Why? Because I can’t understand girl talk?”

Jonquil stood there in the kitchen of a fabulous house that she’d grown to adore. With the man she loved more than anything and she didn’t know what to think. What other option did she have, and why had she thought she could put off the inevitable forever?

“I love you, Gage. I’ve loved you for a long time. I can’t do this if you aren’t invested in us, if you think this is just two people enjoying themselves before they move on to something more.”

His mouth moved, but he didn’t speak at first. “What? You what?”

“I love you. Idiot. I want to be with you, to marry you and stay here and have a few babies and raise them surrounded by my sisters and your friends in the town where you grew up. But I can’t wonder anymore if you’re going to get sick of me and walk away, so I’m telling you. You need to figure out what you want and let me know. Soon.”

Gage still appeared to be trying to decide how to deal with her pronouncement when Natalie came around the corner from the living room. “That’s very sweet.”

“Wait, what are you doing here?” Gage asked Natalie, but he snagged onto Jonquil’s arm before she could move back to the garage to climb in the car.

“I came to talk to you about the house.” She put her hands on her hips. “I refuse to sell.”

“Well, since I’m the executor, that’s too bad. I get to decide and since you can’t afford to buy the house and maintain it on your own, it’s going to be sold.”

Natalie frowned. “I’d really hoped your brush with death would have changed your mind, but since it didn’t.” She lifted the hand she’d been holding at her side and pointed a gun at him. “I know you carry. I want you to take it out and set it down. Now. Or I’ll hurt her. And you wouldn’t want me to hurt the woman who’s crazy enough to think you’re the love of her life, would you?”

Natalie stood in the doorway, holding the gun, making Jonquil’s heart pound and her eyes grow wide from fear. “Natalie, what’s this about?” she asked, not understanding and more than a little terrified. How could this be happening to them again so soon? And why from Natalie?

“What does it look like? I’m sick and tired of things never working out the way I want them to. It’s time that all changed, so guess what, brother, you’ve been telling me to take charge of my life. And now I am. Your gun. Put it on the floor by the door.”

“What do you want?” Gage asked, even as he pulled his spare gun from the holster and put it on the floor as directed. The cops still had his Glock in evidence.