Attraction (14 page)

know how much has been spent.”
“The last I heard, the budget had risen to nearly nine hundred thousand dollars.”
For several seconds, Caroline could not breath.
“Hello? Are you still there, Caroline,” Alana queried when silence from the other end
was close to a minute.
“Nine hundred…” Caroline croaked out. She cleared her throat. “That’s nearly one
million dollars. How are we to ever pay back that sum of money?”
“There is no need for you and your husband to pay anything back.”
“But that’s a fortune.”
“I know it’s a lot of money to most people. But, I’m afraid, for our family…well, let’s
just say it amounts to spilt milk.”
Tanner and Roberta were not heard from by either families for close to two weeks. On
the first weekend of the elopement, Riley went to her parents house for dinner. Caroline revealed
that she had finally talked to Alana.
“For the first few minutes, both of us were trying to outdo the other in apologizing, her
for Tanner’s behavior, and me for Robbie’s,” Caroline said a little ruefully. “I was so relieved
that they weren’t angry at Robbie for doing what she did to Heron.”
“Why should she, when it was their other son who stole her away.”
“That’s exactly what Alana said. I’m just thankful that she and Roy are not taking it upon
themselves to punish Tanner for this. I even thought that they might disinherit him and banish
him from the family forever.”
Riley smiled, “Thank God that this isn’t Victorian eighteen hundreds.”
“Oh, I don’t mean it quite that way. And, you know, Alana seemed rather to take a
positive view of this whole development. I’ve a suspicion that she wasn’t nearly as shocked as
the rest of us over Tanner and Robbie. Do think, Riley, that she thinks as you do, that Tanner
might, indeed, be a better fit for our Robbie than Heron was?”
“Well, she knows her two sons better than anyone else. Only she could be the best judge
of their strengths and weaknesses.”
Caroline shook her head as she reached for the mashed potatoes, a giving a little sigh. “I
just wish Robbie and Tanner had managed this whole affair in way that caused a lot less trauma.”
The following Tuesday afternoon, Riley heard a knock on her door at her home. When
she opened it, she saw her sister and Tanner standing there, both looking anxious and sheepish.
“Oh, God, Robbie!” She threw her arms her and the two sisters hugged while laughing.
“And Tanner.” Riley threw her arms around him, as well. “Come on in, you two.”
“Are you sure it’s alright,” Roberta asked.
“Sure, why wouldn’t it be?” Riley led them into her kitchen. “Would you like something
to drink? Coffee? Tea? Juice? Oh, I know, champagne. What better time than this to open a
bottle of champagne.” She pulled out the bottle and unwrapped the foil. She stopped when she
saw the uncertainty on their faces. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, should we really celebrate, with the way things are,” Tanner asked.
“Not unless you two didn’t get married. Did you get married?”
“Oh, yes, we are definitely married.” Roberta and Tanner held up their left hands, each
wearing a simple gold band on the wedding finger.
“Then it’s a perfect time for champagne. Have you seen anyone else since you came back
from Las Vegas?”
Roberta answered, “No. We didn’t dare. You’re the first. And we weren’t even sure of
that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I would have wanted to see you. Here, Tanner, you pop
the cork. I hate doing that.”
She handed him the bottle, then turned and brought down three champagne flutes. Tanner
pulled the cork with a loud pop and poured the liquid into the glasses. Riley raised hers. “Here’s
to the newlyweds, may your life together be filled with happiness and satisfaction that you both
deserve.”
She was appalled when Roberta burst into tears. “Robbie, what is it?” She drew her sister
into her arms, while Tanner set his glass down, ran his hands through his hair, turning away, just
as upset. “What’s wrong, you two? Oh, no, you’re not regretting getting married, are you?”
Roberta pulled herself out of her sister’s arms and slipped her arms around Tanner,
grabbing for the tissues that were on the counter. “No, no, we don’t regret that at all. It’s just, it’s
all a mess. And we don’t know if we can ever face Heron, even Tanner’s parents, or Mom and
Dad?”
“Look, do you love each other?”
Roberta and Tanner looked at one another, their love for one another shining from their
faces.
“Oh, yes, I love him very much. I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”
Tanner bent his and planted a kiss on top of his wife’s bright blond head. “And I’m mad
about her. I have been ever since I first saw you on my first day at work.”
Riley lifted her champagne and sipped from it. “Then that’s all that really matters. As
long as you both realize how much you love one another, then everything else is secondary.”
“But we still have to face the music, though,” Tanner pointed out. “I don’t know if my
family will speak to me, ever again. Not after the embarrassment I handed them”
Roberta’s lips trembled as the tears threatened to fall again. “Oh, and your father might
fire me. And you, darling.”
“Stop that,” Riley said severely. “No one’s going to get fired. No one’s been banished.
And no one’s going to get banished. Now, you two must get a hold of yourselves, because both
of you will have to face your families again. And Heron. First thing is to realize that you’re
married, and that what’s done is done. Nothing can change that. The only thing that makes what
you two did to Heron bearable is your love for each other. Both of you must cling to that,
because it will be what gives you strength for the next few weeks. Now, pick up your glasses and
let’s start making amends by forgiving yourselves and christening this marriage of yours.”
The couple hesitantly picked up their glasses.
Riley raised her. “To both of you, and to your love. May you find the best and be able to
weather through the worst with that love.”
They drank to the toast. Tanner and Roberta looked at one another, and smiled into each
other’s eyes, their smiles silly and passionate of the newly in love. They kissed, their lips
lingering.
“Now, I do have to ask, how did this all come about,” Riley said, refilling each of their
glasses. “Robbie, you never gave me any indication that you ever had any feelings for Tanner.
All this time, I thought you were madly in loved with Heron.”
“I don’t quite know what I was with Heron. He’s about the most amazing man I’ve ever
met. I guess I was enchanted by him. I mean, look at him, what woman wouldn’t be so entranced
by a man like that. His looks and body alone spellbounds a woman, doesn’t he? And then there’s
his frightening intelligence, his powerful presence, his towering self assurance, that dark,
brooding sexuality about him.”
Riley smile was more of a grimace. “Not to mention his domineering ways, his
arrogance, his disregard for the feelings of others, his superciliousness, his intolerance of what he
perceives as weakness in others.”
Roberta reached her hand out to Tanner, who took it and kissed it. “And then I met
Tanner, the first day he walked into the office, fresh from Harvard, so handsome, charming,
boyish, kind, generous. And funny. My heart didn’t skip a beat the way it did when I first met
Heron. It just stopped, and I couldn’t figure out, for the longest time why it stopped.”
Tanner planted a comforting kiss on her cheek. “I knew the minute I saw her that I was
done for it. I was in love and that was that. No other woman would do for me as long as I took a
breath.”
“But, I could hardly think myself in love with one man when I was in love with another,
now could I?”
“So, she denied it,” Tanner said. “And since it was completely inappropriate that I should
be in love with my brother’s fiancée, I tried to ignore it, as well.”
“And it for worked, for awhile,” Roberta explained. “But, then, things were coming to a
head. You know, like the wedding, that horrible Hildegaard, all the flowers that I had to choose,
the polka bands, over a thousand wedding guests, the expensive wedding dress. And I was
beginning to realize that once I walked down the aisle towards Heron, that I was going to have to
spend the rest of my life with him.”
“That day, I found her in her office, having a nervous breakdown again, her face white,
sweating,” Tanner said. “I took her in my arms to comfort her, and, suddenly, holding her in my
arms, I knew I could no longer keep silent about how I felt about her. And, so, I told her. I laid
my heart out to her.”
Tanner opened his arms and Roberta, her face shining with love and gratitude, walked
into them.
“And I knew I could no longer ignore what I had been trying to deny for so long,” she
said. “I was in love with the right man but was going to marry the wrong one. And I found
myself in the biggest dilemma of my life.”
“We felt so desperate, that day,” Tanner continued. “Robbie knew she had to back out of
the engagement, but she felt she couldn’t, because the wedding was less than a week away and
so much preparation and money had gone into it.”
Roberta shuddered. “All those flowers. The wedding dress had just arrived from Vera
Wang and it had cost nearly a quarter of a million dollars. And then there were all those guest
gifts, each at one hundred dollars. I think I started to get hives when I thought about all that
money that was being spent. And then poor Tanner, here, knew he couldn’t let me marry Heron,
but he couldn’t bear the thought of betraying his own brother.”
Tanner said, “So, we felt we had no choice, but to run. And run we did.”
“And I know that I should have realized a lot earlier that I didn’t really love Heron, but,
well, he’s Heron. No woman in her right mind wouldn’t want him, or turn him down when he
chose her to spend the rest of his life with, now can she?”
Riley said with some bemusement, “What I should have done from the very beginning
was to take a pin and prick his skin to show you that like any human, he bleeds.”
Roberta sighed, picked up her champagne and sipped. “Yes, I’m afraid you’re right,
Riles. And you were right about him being all wrong for me. He was completely wrong for me,
and I should have seen that from the very beginning. I was never really comfortable around
Heron. Whenever I was around him, I was always afraid of saying the wrong thing, or doing the
wrong thing. Sometimes I would laugh at something, or tell him something that I thought was
funny, and he would give me that patient look of tolerance, and made me feel like I was some
backward country girl. And I felt that he expected me to play the society wife, one who
entertains all these big and important people, and always says the right things, and is always in
control of the situation. I knew I could never be that, even if I tried. I’m afraid Tanner here is
more of my speed, a man who appreciates a woman of less sophistication, who isn’t really into
living the grand life, and one who prefers to sit at home with her family, curl up with her
husband with a good book or watch TV.”
“And Tanner is not a man who runs roughshod over your gentle and kind nature and is
dismissive of your simple ways,” Riley pointed out.
“No, Heron never tried to do that with me,” Roberta protested.
“Then why did you often get that feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach, huh,” her
sister countered. “Oh, well, you’re safely married to a much nicer man, even though he may be
Heron’s brother, and so, you’re well rid of your former autocratic fiancée. Let’s drink to that,
shall we?”
Tanner laughed but Roberta gave her an admonishing glance. “He’s not all that bad,
Riles. And anyway, Tanner and I still have to put up…see him almost everyday. Besides, Heron
has his good points. He’s generous as well, is hard working, is considerate to those in his family,
and patient.”
“Alright, I’ll let you have Heron having his good points as well as his bad ones. I for one,
am drinking to the fact that I would much prefer to have as my brother-in-law your current
husband than the one you were going to marry.”
Tanner picked up his glass. “Here, here, I’ll drink to that one.”
Laughing, all three lifted their glasses, clinked them, and drank.
CHAPTER SIX
While the enfoldment of Tanner and Roberta’s marriage into both families was not
smooth and with complete equanimity, it was no large step for the two parents to come to accept
this unexpected marriage from the marriage that they had been looking forward to only a few
weeks ago. Although both mothers could not help but scold the two on their method of
matrimony, it was obvious to them that Tanner and Roberta were very much in love. Caroline
and Alana could not withhold their approval when they saw the happiness and contentment in
their eyes, and how well they seem to be in tune with one another already on such short
acquaintance. As well, both mothers were not the type to dwell on past mistakes and misgivings,
but let their lives as well as those of their loved ones continue with hope and acceptance.
The only one who had yet to accept the new marriage was, of course, Heron. He had yet
to appear at any of the family gatherings, and appeared to avoid all contact with any members of
his family. Even at the corporation, where he was intricately involved in business matters, he
shunned both his brother and Riley. He even avoided his father beyond the business meetings
that they held.
“Come now, son,” Roy said impatiently when Heron declined for the third time going to
lunch. “You must come to terms with this marriage sooner or later.”
Heron stacked his papers neatly into his suitcase. “Do I, Father?”
“He’s your brother, Heron.”
When Heron looked at his father, his dark eyes were flat. “Who happen to have stolen my
fiancée.”
“Yes, I know. That was damnable on his part. On both their parts. But we can’t do
anything about it, now, can we?”
Heron clicked shut his briefcase. “No, Father, we can’t. Don’t worry, I’ve come to that
realization long ago. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment with a client.”
Roy with a sense of frustration and parental concern watched his oldest son walk calmly
out of the boardroom.
The next day, Roy thought it best that he send Heron on a month long trip to Europe to
work out the contracts for a merger with a financial house in Germany. It had been planned that
Roy would go and bring along Tanner as a junior executive so that he could be trained in the
intricacies of international business transactions. As it was, Roy and Alana felt it best if they sent
Heron alone, who was more than capable of sitting through hours and hours of negotiations and
maneuvering through pages and pages of contracts on his own, so that he could immerse himself
in the many details of the business, hoping that it would take his mind off his doomed