Lori Wilde - There Goes The Bride (38 page)

The FBI debriefed Delaney at her parents’ home and then went off to find Paulette and her stepson Monty. Honey would eventually have to deal with her blackmailing mother face-to-face, but for now, her only concern was her daughter.

“I’m so sorry,” she told Delaney. “The way I raised you was wrong. In trying to keep anyone from finding out that I was living a lie, I forced my fears and anxieties onto you. I emphasized perfection, because I couldn’t afford to slip. I demanded too much from you and Skylar. I know that now, and I’ll go to my grave regretting what I did to you.”

“No, Mother,” Delaney said. “I don’t want you to have regrets. You were strict, yes, but you taught me a lot. And now that I understand where you came from and why you did what you did, it makes it easier to accept your flaws. I forgive you, Mother, and I only hope you can forgive me for hiding out from you for two days. I was just so angry when Nick told me your real identity. I couldn’t believe you’d kept such a dark secret for so long. I mean, if you weren’t who you said you were, then who was I? I needed time to sort it all out. I should have called you. It was so wrong of me to let you worry, fearing I was dead.”

And then she told Honey about how Nick had rescued her from the kidnapper.

“Where is he?” Honey asked softly. “I’d like to meet the man you’re in love with.”

“Who says I’m in love with him?” Delaney’s eyes widened.

“You can’t hide it, sweetheart. It’s in your face. You look the way I felt when I first met your father.”

“I guess he wanted to give us our space,” she said.

Honey reached over and squeezed Delaney’s hand. “I’m so happy you didn’t marry Evan. And I’m sorry you felt pressured into a wedding. I’m so glad that you knew better than I did and stuck to your convictions, even if your methods were a bit unorthodox.”

The maid appeared in the dining room where Honey, Delaney, and James Robert had congregated. “There’s a visitor at the door to see Delaney,” she announced.

“Nick!” Delaney cried. She was up and out of her seat. She ran down the hall, threw open the door.

“Hello, Delaney,” Evan said. “May I come in?”

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she’d known this moment would come; she’d just hoped it would be later rather than sooner. But here was Evan, and from the look on his face, he wasn’t going away until he’d had his say.

“Evan,” she said.

“Delaney.” His eyes were tinged with sadness, and she just felt awful. “I’m glad to see you’re all right.”

She ushered him over the threshold. “Come on in.”

He followed her inside and then they just stood awkwardly in the foyer, avoiding looking each other directly in the eyes. It hurt her to realize how she must have hurt Evan. He’d been her best friend for as long as she could remember.

“Evan,” she started, “I’m so—”

“Shh.” He raised an index finger. “Don’t say it. You don’t have to apologize to me.”

“Yes, yes, I do. I’m so ashamed of the way I treated you. Arranging my own kidnapping.” She shook her head. “It was cowardly.”

“It’s all right. I understand. In fact, I’m glad you had the courage to dump me at the altar. Granted, your methods were a bit unorthodox.” His laugh was shaky.

“You were glad?”

“Yeah.” He smiled ruefully. “I didn’t want to marry you either.”

Flabbergasted, she stared at him. “Then why didn’t you just say something?”

“Why didn’t you?”

Good question. “Because we were perfect for each other, everyone said so.”

“Same here.”

“Why did you ask me to marry you in the first place?” she asked.

“Because my family was pressuring me to get married, to give them a grandchild. It’s a drawback to being an only child born late in life. Your parents fear they’ll die before they’ll get to see their grandchildren. I wanted to make them happy, and you’re one of the finest women I’ve ever known. But after going to Guatemala, I realized I love that kind of primitive medicine. I want to move there, live there. I want to make a real difference in those children’s lives. And I do love you, Laney—”

“But not in the way we both deserve,” she finished the sentence for him.

“Yeah.” He pressed his lips together tight.

Tears misted her eyes. He was a good man. Just not the man for her.

“I was looking for the magic that was missing between us,” he said. “And I found it in Guatemala.”

Delaney smiled. Tears were in his eyes too. “I understand completely.”

They looked at each other and then burst out laughing, as tears slid down their cheeks.

“Friends?” Evan stuck out his hand.

She took it. “Friends.”

He reached out and gently touched her cheek in a sweet brotherly gesture that she cherished but did not yearn for. “You’re an amazing woman, Laney. I hope you know that, and I hope you find the same kind of happiness in your life that I’ve found in Guatemala.”

“I’ve already found it,” she said.

“Good for you.” Evan kissed her on the forehead and then he was gone, leaving her feeling a little startled by his admission and a lot relieved. She was also stunned by what she suddenly realized about herself.

All this time she’d been looking outside for the answer to what was missing from her life. And here it turned out the magic had been inside her all along. Afraid of her own power, she’d hidden it, covered up beneath a fake facade, a false image. By trying so hard to please others, she’d denied her true essence.

Nick alone had seen her potential. He was the one who had shown Delaney her real self.

And she loved him for it.

Now all she had to do was tell him exactly how she felt.

It was a media circus around the house for the next few days. Delaney kept expecting Nick to call her, but he never did. She knew he’d gone back to work and she supposed he was too busy to make contact, and that he was trying to give her some privacy.

But when a week went by and he still hadn’t called her, she began to worry.

She called Lucia and was distressed to learn not only had Lucia not heard from Nick, but that the buyer for her house had backed out of the deal and it was back on the market.

She called his cell phone. No answer. Same with the home phone.

She had to face facts. He was screening his calls and didn’t want to talk to her. Heart breaking, she came to the awful conclusion their time together hadn’t been as magical for him as it had been for her.

In the past, she might have accepted defeat, but no longer. She’d been through too much. She’d learned how to speak her mind and tell people what she wanted. Sure, she might get rejected, but wasn’t it better to get rejected than to never express your opinion, never get what you really want, and always settle for second best because you were afraid to speak up?

She picked up the phone and called Lucia again. Delaney had a plan.

That night, Delaney dreamed of Skylar. She was wearing the same black baby-doll-style KISS T-shirt and faded blue jeans that she’d worn to the concert on the day she’d died. She was also wearing the wedding veil and carrying a pink suitcase.

“So what’s up? You eloping with a KISS roadie or something?”

“Witty,” Skylar said, “but no. I just dropped by to say so long.”

Delaney sat up in bed. “So long? What do you mean?”

“I got my wish.”

“What?”

“I wished on the dream version of your veil on the same night you wished on it, and well, the deepest desire of my soul came true.”

“What did you wish for?”

Skylar gave her a wistful smile. “You can’t guess?”

“You wished for me to find true love?”

“No, you had that covered.”

She met her sister’s eyes and saw tears shining there. “For Mother’s secret to come out?”

“Not exactly.”

“What exactly?”

“I wished for you to be able to let go of the past—to let go of me. I was happy to be here for you, in your dreams, Delaney, since I couldn’t be here in the flesh, but you don’t need me anymore. You’ve confronted your demons, faced off with Mother, and found your true self. You don’t need me anymore. And that’s a good thing.”

Anxiety gripped her. She’d been dreaming of her sister almost weekly for the last seventeen years. What would she do without her? “But I don’t want you to go!”

“It’s okay. It’s time to embrace the future, embrace your new life with Nick, and you can’t do that with me hanging around.”

“Skylar,” her voice, brittle with tears, cracked open.

“Adios, little sister.” Skylar leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Never forget I’ll always love you.”

And with that, her sister picked up her pink suitcase and was gone.

A week later, Nick was moping in his truck on the beach at Galveston Island where he and Delaney had almost made love, listening to sad country-and-western songs. Going to Delaney’s home, seeing how she really lived in opulence and glamour, had brought out the fact that he was pipe dreaming if he thought he was ever going to fit in with a woman like that. No matter how down to earth she seemed.

He took a pull off his soda and tried to tell himself that everything was going to be all right. That they’d had a good time together, and it needn’t be anything more than that. But deep down inside he knew it was a lie. He loved Delaney as he’d never loved another.

Finally, he understood why Amber had left him for another man. With Feldstein, she’d found the magic that was missing in their relationship. The magic he thought he’d found with Delaney.

But now he wasn’t so sure. Would love and magic be enough to bridge the chasm between their upbringings? He feared it would not.

Despair consumed him.

He reached up to start the engine and accidentally hit Lalule. She hula danced.

Shake it up.

What on earth had compelled him to let down his guard and let her get so close to him? Why had he told her about his mother? Why had he given her a hula doll of her own?

From the minute Delaney had tarped him outside Evan’s office, he’d known she had the potential to hurt him bad. He hated feeling like this—all soft and mushy. He wanted his hard outer shell back, wanted his cynical cop attitude back.

It was too late for regrets. He’d fallen in love with Delaney, but she was out of his league, out of his reach.

There was a knock on his window and Nick almost jumped a foot. He looked up and saw Trudie standing there, a deep frown on her face.

He rolled down the window. “Jesus, Trudie, you about scared me to death.”

“What are you doing out here feeling sorry for yourself?”

“I’m thinking,” he said.

“Well, your grandmother is looking for you. She just found a new buyer for the house, but she wants your approval first.”

“She didn’t want it before, why is she suddenly interested in my opinion now?”

“Don’t be a putz,” Trudie said. “Get over to the house.”

Grumbling, Nick drove over to Nana’s. Lalule did the hula.

Shake it up.

Damn that hula doll.

He parked in the driveway of the house he’d grown up in and his chest tightened. He hated that he was losing both Delaney and his home too.

“Nana,” he called as he went up the steps, house keys in hand. He turned the key in the lock, pushed open the door. “Nana? What’s up?”

The smell of lasagna was thick on the air. Damn, but he was going to miss the smell of this house.

He went to the kitchen.

And stopped dead in his tracks.

There at the stove stood Delaney. Wearing nothing but high heels and an apron.

What was this?

She turned to smile at him. “Welcome home, Nick.”

“What do you mean, welcome home?”

“I’m your grandmother’s new buyer.”

Damn if his smile didn’t spread all the way across his face. “You’re kidding me.”

“Nope. Unfortunately, this house is just a little bit too big for little ole me. I was hoping that maybe you could help me fill it with children.”

“Why, Delaney Cartwright,” he said. “Are you proposing to me?”

“Why yes, Nick Vinetti, I think I am.”

And that’s when Nick Vinetti knew all was right with the world.

Epilogue

T
he winter issue of
Society Bride
declared the double wedding ceremony of undercover cop Nick Vinetti to successful business entrepreneur Delaney Cartwright—and oil tycoon Jim Bob Cartwright to Fayrene Doggett—the “must crash” nuptials of the season.

Texas Monthly
decreed that following on the heels of her daughter’s faked kidnapping from her wedding to Evan Van Zandt, the outing of Philadelphia blue-blood Honey Montgomery Cartwright’s true identity was nothing less than a Texas-sized scandal.

The
Houston Chronicle
dubbed it the best water-cooler gossip of the year.