Til Debt Do Us Part (Married At Midnight #4)

Chapter 18

Eighteen

Talia

I press my fingers against my tulle lace wedding dress and try to keep a straight face. I’m getting the worst stitches in my ribs just from standing here in the backyard of the beach estate at the Cliffs. I try to look the part of the cheerful bride as I stand next to Dare. It’s just that my wedding dress doesn’t allow me that much latitude of movement. And yet there are at least ten layers of clothing between my fingertips and my bare skin.

I sigh loudly.

Dare looks over at me, raising an eyebrow. He nods his head toward the man talking to us, indicating that perhaps I am being rude. He slips his hand around my waist and hugs me, putting his head close to my ear.

“Are you okay? I know Ms. Darcy is telling a very long-winded story, but I’m afraid I have to listen to it if I want any chance of doing business with them in the future.”

I feel the eyes of Ms. Darcy on me. She’s a dour looking woman in an undoubtedly very expensive yet still frumpy dress. I smile and take his hand, kissing his knuckles. “I’m going to the ladies room. And I should check on my Aunt Minnie and my friend Olivia. Can I catch up with you in a little while?”

Dare’s lips twitch and he makes a show of placing a single kiss on my bare neck.

“Be careful. I saw my brother Burn stroll in about twenty minutes ago so I know he’s lurking around here somewhere. I hate to impose on your wedding day, but Frick and Frack have been given explicit instructions not to let you out of their sight.”

I shiver at the feel of his lips on my skin and give him a lopsided grin, squeezing his hand one last time.

“Okay, I hear you. I’ll be back soon.”

Heading toward the house, I use the restroom fairly quickly and massage my ribs with great relief. I keep having painful pinpricks of sensation after I pull my dress down and exit the house again. I spot Frick standing just outside the door as I exit and nod to her. She straightens and gives me a nod in return.

I scan the crowd, looking for Olivia. And I quickly find her sitting at a table, a handsome young man on either side. Olivia picks at an imaginary piece of lint on her bridesmaid dress and nods at something one of the men says. As soon as she sees me, she perks up. Standing, she excuses herself and runs over to me.

“Hey, Mrs. Morgan,” she teases. “It’s weird that you go by a different name now.”

“Not as strange as the fact that everyone seems to have assumed that I am Mrs. Morgan now. Dare and I haven’t actually talked about whether I’ll take his name or if our kids will have a hyphenated name.”

She screws up her face. “I think we both know the answer to that.”

Rolling my eyes, I nod. “I think you’re right. Do you think that we could find a quiet spot to sit down? My feet are killing me.”

She beams and guides me toward the back of the party, to where there are festive white ribboned and blush pink netted tables spread out. “Aunt Minnie has already claimed a table at the very edge of the party. She waves off anyone that sits down with claims that she’s saving the table for you.”

“Ha! She’s right, I’m afraid,” I admit. “I’m exhausted.”

We step around an elderly couple and I see my Aunt Minnie at a table by herself, an entire platter of hors d’oeuvres on the table in front of her. She pops one in her mouth just as I walk up. She looks up and sort of squeals with delight as she jumps up to hug me, her mouth still full.

I hug her gladly and then sink into the seat beside her. The white chair is the same type as the crowd of onlookers that is on the other side of the house. But it is the biggest relief to get off my aching feet and I lean back in the chair with the soft grunt of pleasure. Olivia moves around me and pulls up another chair facing me. She pats the seat.

“You can put your feet up here.”

I slide my gaze to the party guests milling around. If they knew I was pregnant, I think that putting my feet up on the chair would be something that they could overlook. But because my pregnancy is still under wraps, I feel like they will judge me.

I scrunch up my face and shake my head. “No thanks. It’s better if I don’t lose my composure while all the guests are still here.”

Olivia narrows her eyes at me but shrugs. She moves the chair a little so that she’s sitting between me and Aunt Minnie and then slumps into it.

Aunt Minnie leans forward, holding out a cracker with a blob of gray goo on it and a jaunty herb topping. “Would you like some pate?” she asks.

I turn a little green, shaking my head and putting my hand up like a wall to keep me separated from the offending cracker. “No way. Everything is making me nauseated today.”

Minnie pouts for a second and then looks at me slyly. “How do you feel about some chocolate babka?”

The image of a fresh loaf of the sweet bread fresh from the oven, still steaming pops into my head. In my mind, I pull a piece of the bread away and smell the rich, dark cocoa mix with cinnamon that is inside. My mouth starts watering.

God, I wish that I had a piece. I could definitely stomach that.

Aunt Minnie stands up, holding her hand out to me and smiling mischievously. “I have some in the kitchen. I showed up with a few loaves and the Butler had a conniption fit. He made me hand them over to him for safekeeping.” She rolls her eyes. “Let’s go get a piece.”

Jumping up and hugging my Aunt, I grin. “I can’t believe you brought babka to my Waspy wedding. You know that they have always been my favorite dessert.”

“Since you were a kid,” Aunt Minnie says with a smile.

Aunt Minnie beckons Olivia to follow and hurries me toward the house. We go in a wide arc around the wedding guests and are soon huddled in the kitchen and slicing into the decadent dessert.

Taking a slice of dessert from my aunt, I pop a chocolatey morsel into my mouth. The pastry is full of butter and honey, the cinnamony, chocolatey goodness almost too much to take. I close my eyes and let out a moan.

“Oh my God. It’s so good,” I manage between bites.

Olivia winks at me, her mouth too full of pastry to respond. Aunt Minnie gives me a little grin and guides me over to the overstuffed chair in the corner of the room. She and Olivia pull up two heavy dining room chairs and I sit down, feeling a little guilty as I try not to get crumbs on my wedding dress.

Aunt Minnie pops up from her chair and grabs a cloth napkin from a stack on the kitchen countertop, returning to hand it to me.

“Thanks,” I say. “It’s hard to convince myself not to have a second slice of Babka.”

Olivia finishes her piece and dusts her hands off.

“Don’t hold back on our account. There is no one here but us chickens.” She grabs the matching ottoman and pushes it closer to the chair, smiling when I put my feet up on it.

“I’m going to get completely spoiled by the two of you taking such good care of me.”

Aunt Minnie is looking at my feet with a skeptical expression. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear heels. And yet today, you have some serious spike heels on your feet. No wonder your whole body aches.”

I make a face and rearrange my wedding dress, flicking it away from my feet and rubbing the skirts around themselves so that they don’t hang on the floor.

“It’s part of my makeover. It’s taken me a few weeks to get used to them. Heels are definitely torture devices more than anything else.”

Olivia chuckles. “I hope you’re not going to change too much for your new husband. I happen to like everything about you. It would be a shame to bow to societal expectations, don’t you think?”

I flush and set my dessert on the cloth napkin. “I’m afraid I didn’t have a choice. It was one of the stipulations of agreeing to marry Dare.”

Aunt Minnie huffs. “I don’t want to speak ill of your new husband. But I can’t say that I’m crazy about all these new changes.”

“But we're still crazy about you, Talia.” Olivia is quick to cut in. “And will support you in whatever you decide. Isn’t that right, Aunt Minnie?”

Aunt Minnie rolls her eyes and flaps a hand at Olivia. “You’re right, of course. I’m just cranky because I have been alone at the bookstore for too long. I can’t wait until you come back from your honeymoon. I need your help changing the window display again.”

I scrunch my nose up. “I don’t know when I’m going to be able to do that, Aunt Minnie. I think we're going to have to hire you some outside help. You deserve to have someone at the shop more regularly than I can commit to.”

Aunt Minnie looks a little surprised. “You’re not coming back to work at the bookstore?”

I shake my head very slowly. “I don’t think so. I will help whenever I can, of course. But you deserve somebody that can be at the shop whenever you need them.” I bite my lip for a second. “Now that I am married to Dare, I have more money for things like getting you a shopkeeper. Isn’t that nice?”

Aunt Minnie flushes. She stands up and puts her hand up to her hair. Patting the back of her head, she feigns a need to leave.

“You’ll have to excuse me, dear. I want to use the ladies room and maybe swing by the drink station and grab a glass of Pinot. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Aunt Minnie, wait!” I cry.

She shakes her head, her expression tormented. Before I can protest further, she sweeps out of the room, the back door banging as she exits.

Frustrated, I growl at the closed door. Olivia presses her lips together and picks at an invisible piece of lint on her knee. I swing my head around and stare at her.

“She’s being unreasonable. She had to have known that someday I would get married and start a family.”

“Just give her time. Your whole relationship with Dare and decision to get married really threw her for a loop.”

I give her a funny look. “It’s been months.”

“It doesn’t feel like it.”

“Are you telling me how she feels or are you speaking more from personal experience?” I ask.

Olivia blushes and shrugs, but she doesn’t look away. “Oh, you know. Maybe both.”

“Accepting Dare’s proposal of marriage was your idea.” I cross my arms and give her a stubborn stare. “You can’t be hurt when the whole thing was your idea.”

Her nose twitches. “I know. It's just… Everything changed almost overnight. I went from always having you in my corner to wondering when I would see you next. I didn’t expect that.”

The look of guilt on her face is almost painful and makes my heart ache.

I soften and sit up in my chair, reaching out a hand towards her. “I’m sorry about that. It’s just been so crazy. But I will make a marked effort to be better about communication. I promise.”

She flashes me a sad smile and looks down at her hands folded in her lap. “I’m not complaining. Really I’m not. But it’s like I said. It’s an adjustment.”

“I know. I wrinkle my nose. It’s been hard on everyone, myself and Dare included.”

She laughs. “What do you mean? I thought nothing affected cold hearted Dare.”

My head bobs. “I thought so, too, at first. It made me a little crazy. But now that I know him better, I’m starting to see that the whole coldhearted act is just a front. Don’t tell anybody, but Dare is definitely beginning to thaw out where I am concerned.” I look around the kitchen, checking to make sure that we are still alone. Then I press my hand to my baby bump and smile. “He doesn’t say it out loud, but I think that he’s actually really excited for the baby.”

Olivia’s look of surprise couldn’t be more perfect. I sit back, my thoughts drifting to my husband.

How excited he was when I stepped out the front door just hours before and started to walk down the aisle to where he stood beneath the trellis. He tries to hide it, but I have studied his face for months now. I know when he is secretly pleased and enthusiastic.

“Is there anything you’ll miss about your old life? And I’m not asking for or digging for complements here. There’s no need to reassure me that we will always be friends. I am not letting you go that easily.”

“Nor should you,” I reply. “And if you were to ask me what I miss most about my old life, it would be the simplicity of it all. My old life was so simple. I rarely had any cause to be angry or scared or sad. Now I have those feelings all the time.” I pause. “But I suppose I have other feelings, too.”

Olivia narrows her eyes on my face. “Such as?”

I shrug a shoulder, feeling blood rush to my cheeks.

She gets a self-satisfied little smirk on her face. “You like Dare. You actually like being Mrs. Morgan.”

Embarrassed, I look down. “I didn’t think that.”

“You don’t have to. We’ve been friends for our whole lives. You’re always so bashful about liking guys. But I’ve seen you blush and stammer before. You didn’t when we were in middle school. You did once a year in high school. And you didn’t do it once in college.” She holds up fingers to represent every crush I’ve ever had. Then she raises a finger and wiggles her eyebrows at me. “Now your latest is Dare Morgan. A little unexpected. After all, you seem so dead set against everything he stands for. But at the same time, it’s actually kind of perfect. You might as well fall in love with the man you’re married to, right?”

I groan aloud. “Don’t even say the word to me.”

“What? Love?” She slides me a sly smile. “I’m not saying that you are all the way in yet. But I have watched you fall in love over and over again. I recognize the first bloom of love when I see it.”

I roll my eyes. “Please. I’m begging you, stop while you’re ahead.”

She pushes out her cheek with her tongue. She looks a little shifty, like a henchman that is calling something diabolical. But she just stands up and jerks her head toward the hallway. “I have to go grab something. But I’ll be right back. Don’t move a muscle.”

I sink back into my chair and sigh. “That’s not a problem. Although I may fall asleep right here.”

“You want to wait till I get back. I have something for you.” She picks up the skirts of her bridesmaid dress and hurries down the hall. She’s gone for just a minute before returning with a small off white valise suitcase. She wiggled her eyebrows at me as she sits down, opening the suitcase so that I can’t see what’s inside. When she pulls out a long intricately carved T of wood with strings hanging down from each joint of the T. Hanging from the string are soft plush animal ornaments.

I narrow my eyes suspiciously.

Holding up the contraption and putting the valise aside, Olivia leans forward and shows me the ornaments. One is a rainbow, one a cat, one a dog. An elephant, a zebra, and a brown blob that I can’t quite make out. I quirk my brow at her. Every single one of the ornaments is badly stitched and has been very messily colored, as if by a child.

“What is it?” I wonder. “Some kind of dream catcher?”

“It’s a mobile to hang over a crib.” She screws up her face. “Actually, I wouldn’t hang it over a crib. I’m not sure if it’s safe for a teething baby. But maybe by a baby’s window? She touches one of the ornaments and smiles. Each toy was made by one of the kids at Hope House.”

Tears spring to my eyes. “Oh my God,” I say softly. I reach out and gently touched the brown blob which I now see has two lighter brown pieces coming out of the side of one end. “This is so adorable. You had them make it for me?”

Olivia’s grin widens. “I did. And because I know you want to know, that toy you’re holding is supposed to be a moose. That was actually made by Solana.”

I look up at her and beckon her over to me for a hug. “Thank you so much. Really. I have to admit, I haven’t actually bought a single thing for the baby yet.”

She pulls back and looks at me with the prize. “Really? Why not? You have all this money now.”

“Yeah. I don’t know. I think… I think I wanted to make sure that things with Dare would stick. When I first agreed to the engagement, he was driving me up a wall on an hourly basis. I didn’t know if I could really live like that. But he has really toned it down since then.”

Olivia nudges her elbow into my ribs very gently and winks at me. “I got that when I saw you guys all over each other today. You two seem really happy. And I am thrilled for you.”

I hug her again for good measure and then pull away. She sighs and takes the mobile out of my hand and puts it back in the little suitcase. She pats the side of it. “I’m going to go find the Butler and make sure that this gets put in your luggage. You just stay here and try to relax for a few more minutes.”

Nodding, I give her a quiet smile. “I love you, Olivia.”

She doesn’t miss a beat. “You too, Talia. Always and forever.”

She spends and heads off toward the hallway once more. I’m not in my chair for a whole two minutes before Dare opens the door and sticks his head in. He looks at me sitting down and grins at me. “There you are. If you care about me at all, you’ll come save me from being bored to death.”

“That bad?”

He rolls his eyes. “I got trapped talking to the company insurance agent. I was just trying to tell him that I wanted to make an appointment to change my life insurance policy. But he took the opportunity to give me a lot of very serious advice for how to treat a new wife.”

“What, you didn’t find that inspirational?”

He flashes me a smirk. “Can’t say that I did. The worst part was that he wanted to meet with you, too. After twenty minutes, I ended up telling him that you’re the only one that I give a damn about. So in ninety days, I’m going to put your name on my life insurance beneficiary form. Honestly, I almost chewed my own arm off because he had a grip and wouldn’t let go until he was done dispensing his advice.”

“So you give a damn about me?”

Dare frowns. “You know what I mean. It’s just some official mumbo-jumbo.”

“Oh. I get it. You can’t even look me in the eye and tell me that you’re glad that I am your wife.”

“Talia,” he intones. “Be reasonable.”

I throw my hands up in the air, only partially serious. “I don’t know what you expect me to do.” He comes closer, picking up my hand. Squeezing my fingers, he looks down at me.

“I’m glad that you’re my wife. Okay? Does that make you happy?”

I struggle out of my seat and then smooth down my dress. Then I wrap my arms around him and turn my face up, offering him my mouth. He kisses me then, long and slow and oh so passionately that my toes curl up inside my white high heels. Then he pulls back and takes my hand.

“Are you ready to go cut the cake, Mrs. Morgan?” Dare asks.

My heart thuds in my chest as I look at him. I don’t know what to say so I just nod and kiss the back of his hand. We share another long look and then he guides me out of the house to the waiting crowd.