The Debra Dilemma (The Lone Stars Book 4) (28 page)

Warren nodded. “I was just thinking the same thing. Follow me. I think we should show him the trophy room. It will scare the bejesus out of him.”

Debra looked at Sweet Louise for a translation. “What am I missing?”

“They think of CoCo as their own little sister. Most of the guys on the team do. They get a little touchy when she brings boys home…well, touchy really isn’t the right word. They get a little homicidal when she brings boys home.”

Warren cracked his knuckles. “Her last boyfriend took her out to eat at a fast food place—”

“Little fucker disrespected her by taking her to a place with paper napkins.” Devon nodded to himself. “He’ll never do that again. He’ll never do lots of things again.”

“You promised not to kill him.” Grace eyed Devon. “He’s still alive, right?”

“He’s still breathing.” Seth stood and fist bumped Devon.

“I started a separate bank account just for bail money in case we have any female children.” Laney patted Devon on the shoulder. “I’m thinking that I might need to up my contributions.”

“That’s so sweet.” Devon kissed her. “My woman plans ahead.”

“What did I miss?” CoCo walked into the dining room. “Whoa, that’s a lot of sparkly stuff.” Her eyes zeroed in on a gemstone-encrusted box in the middle of the table. “Is that a Rubic’s Cube made out of…what…rubies, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires and…what’s that yellow stone?”

“I think they’re all different colored diamonds.” Debra shook her head. “My father gave it to my mother on her birthday one year.”

“Why?” Sweet Louise cocked an eyebrow.

“That’s exactly what my mother said.” Debra remembered playing with the Rubic’s Cube with her mother. They messed it all up and then figured out how to take it apart so they could get all of the colors back together. Now that she thought of it, maybe it wasn’t such a stupid gift, because… she and her mother had spent hours playing with it.

“Where’s your boyfriend?” Warren rolled his neck like a boxer about to jump into the ring. “I’d like to meet him.”

“Not in a million years. I halfway like this one.” She pointed first at Warren and then at Devon and finally at Seth. “Hands off and no trash talking around him either. He’s a pacifist and a poet. Any trash talk would make him cry.”

Every muscle in Devon’s body tensed and Warren’s jaw went block hard. Seth’s face turned red.

He stepped in front of CoCo. “This is important. Does he eat meat?”

“He’s vegan. So what?” CoCo sent Debra a discreet wink.

“Really?” Devon growled.

“Nope, I’m messing with you.” CoCo grinned. “You’re never meeting him…ever.”

“Uh huh.” Seth nodded. “Sure.”

It was sweet to see a room full of alpha males go all alpha because they loved CoCo. There may be hope for humanity.

Sweet Louise pulled Warren by the arm to one of the bedrooms in the north wing of Debra’s house. At least he thought it was the north wing. He looked around. It could also be the northwest wing.

The bedroom was done completely in baby blue. Baby blue wallpaper, baby blue carpet and accessories. And one of those huge wooden four-poster beds with a baby blue canopy. It was very Henry VIII meets
Downton Abbey
. Stuffy didn’t begin to describe it.

“So when are you popping the question?” Sweet Louise closed the bedroom door behind her.

“Why?” Did she know something he didn’t know? Had Debra mentioned marrying him to Sweet Louise? “Did Debra say something to you?”

Christ, he felt like he was in the fifth grade asking his best friend if the girl he liked, liked him back.

“No, but you should seriously consider finding the wedding band that goes with this ring.” She pulled out the sapphire and diamond ring that he’d first seen over ten years ago. He’d spied it on the dining room table less than an hour ago.

He reached into his front trouser pocket and pulled out the thing he always kept with him. He held his closed fist out to Sweet Louise and then opened his fingers. “You mean this?”

Her eyes turned the size of Oreos. She took the delicate, platinum filigree band from him. “How?”

“She showed me those rings when we were together before. Even back then, I knew it was her favorite—”

“How did you find it?” Sweet Louise put the wedding band up to the sapphire ring and they fit perfectly together just like he and Debra.

“I wish I could tell you some romantic story about how I traversed the seven seas tracking it down, but honestly, I bought it off of eBay.” He took the sapphire ring from Sweet Louise, turned it over and showed her the tiny worn ‘PLAT’ on the upper left-hand side of the engagement ring and the very worn ‘Tiffany & Co.’ on the right. “It’s a Tiffany’s special order. I called their eight-hundred number, spoke with a lovely woman who’s name was Nora. I remember her name because after I told her about the ring, she refused to give up until we found it. She helped me track it down on eBay. I sold my crappy old Corolla and my mother’s wedding ring to pay for it.”

Sweet Louise put her hand over her heart. “You’ve kept it all of these years. That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard. Let me hug your neck.”

She wrapped her arms around him and crushed him to her. It was a mother’s hug…a hug with her whole body like the ones his sister used to give him. Sweet Louise finally let go and dropped her hands.

“I don’t know why I didn’t sell it. Even when money was tight and I couldn’t scrape together rent money, I hung onto it. And then later, when I hated Debra, I still kept it.” He took the wedding ring from her. “Don’t know why.”

“Sure you do. Deep down you knew that the two of you would get back together.” She wiped a tear that ran down her cheek. “Now my mascara’s going to run.” She flapped her hands out in front of her like she was fanning the tears away. “You’re always causing trouble.” She grinned. “In a good way.”

“Everyone’s good at something.” He was rather proud of himself.

It dawned on him. All these years he’d held onto the ring not because he didn’t want to sell it, but because selling it had honestly never occurred to him.

Sweet Louise took a moment to pull herself together. After she was reasonably calm, she nodded. “Okay, so what’s the plan?”

“Plan?” He grinned messing with her.

She thwacked him on the back of the head. “The engagement. The girls and I are willing to help in anyway you need.”

“It’s funny you should mention that.” He slipped both the engagement ring and the wedding ring into his trouser pocket. “I was thinking the same thing.”

“Okay, I repeat, what’s your plan?” Sweet Louise was glued to his every word.

“I was thinking I’d pop the question on Christmas Eve and give her the ring and the engagement ring then—that is if she doesn’t notice it’s missing before then.” He smoothed a wrinkle out of the sleeve of his button down and waited for Sweet Louise to gush over his romantic plan.

Instead of gushing, her eyes narrowed and she threw her arms Heavenward. “Dear Lord, please give this man the common sense you gave a Ford Pinto, because I’m finding it hard not to murder him before he proposes to the woman he loves. In Jesus name I pray, amen.”

Slowly her arms lowered.

“What?” He nodded. “That’s a fantastic idea.”

“After Valentine’s Day, New Year’s Day, and her birthday, Christmas is the worst day to give her an engagement ring.” She shook her head and looked at him like he was the world’s biggest idiot. “Giving a girl a ring on a holiday is horrible…especially Christmas because all it says is that you’re too cheap to buy her a Christmas present and an engagement ring so you cheaped out by combining Christmas with your proposal. Honestly, I can’t believe that men have ruled the world this long.”

“So the impromptu wedding I was planning on throwing for New Year’s Day is also a bad idea?” Not that he’d actually started planning the wedding, but he felt like he needed to stick up for mankind and needle her a bit.

She cocked her head to the left and then to the right. “That’s not a bad idea. A wedding isn’t necessary a bad thing…especially if it’s a surprise.” A slow, devious smile sliced across her face. “I’ll take care of everything. We’ll have a Roaring Twenties themed wedding so she can wear her aunt’s flapper necklace, and it matches the era of the ring.”

“But…wait a minute.” He’d only been joking. “Shouldn’t she plan her own wedding?”

It’s not that he didn’t want to marry Debra, but she might like to have a say.

“Trust me, she’s going to love this and love the fact that we loved her enough to do this for her.” Sweet Louise leaned into him. “I don’t know whether you realize it, but Debra has never experienced unconditional love. It breaks my heart to see her waiting for us to find fault with her and cut her out of our lives. Giving her a grand gesture like this will in some way help her to understand that we’re not going anywhere. She needs to understand that we will always love her and nothing she does and says will change that.”

He’d never thought of the unconditional love thing. He loved her unconditionally, but he hadn’t exactly showed her. Then again, how did you show unconditional love besides always being there for someone.

“Okay, I’m going to rally the troops,” Sweet Louise pointed to Warren, “don’t blow our surprise.”

“But—”

“Do you love Debra and want to marry her?” Sweet Louise crossed her arms.

“Yes, but—”

“There is no but.” She smiled at him. “I’ll handle everything. All you need to do is follow my lead.”

Surely Debra would want to plan her own wedding. Although it pained him to admit it, but Sweet Louise was rarely wrong. He glanced at the date on his watch. If she was right…again, he’d be married in less then ten days or more precisely two-hundred fifty-six hours and thirty-two minutes. That sounded like the best plan in the world. But what if Debra really didn’t want to marry him? Sweet Louise would have gone to all of this work and he’d be humiliated. The world started to spin. Debra did say that she would say yes when he asked her, but what if she wanted a long engagement, or worse, didn’t really want to marry him? He grabbed the nearest thing—Sweet Louise—to keep the room from spinning and to avoid face planting in the floor.

“Honey, what is it?” Sweet Louise walked him over to the bed.

“What if she really doesn’t want to marry me?” He could feel it—Debra would leave him again.

“Don’t be an idiot. She loves you. As long as you don’t do something completely stupid to screw it up, she’s going to be with you forever.” Sweet Louise sounded so sure.

The room spun faster. He had a habit of screwing things up.

Sweet Louise smacked him hard on the back of the head. “Snap out of it. You’re being such a…well, it rhymes with wussy. I don’t like that word, but sometimes there isn’t a good substitute.”

Her slap had actually made him feel better. He sat up and shook off her arms.

“What do you need from me?” He and Debra would be together no matter what it took. They’d be married in a nineteen-twenties themed ceremony on New Year’s Day and if she didn’t like it, she could plan another wedding and they could get married again or renew their vows or whatever.

“That’s the spirit.” She shoulder nudged him. “Now, you’ll need to round up some groomsmen, but I’m pretty sure they’re all married to her bridesmaids except for CoCo. You can have Seth walk her down the aisle. Julia can be the flower girl and HW and Cart can be co-ring bearers.” She nodded to herself and started making mental lists. “All the men will need to get tuxedos, and since it’s a Roaring Twenties theme they should probably have tails, but I’m not sure we’re going to be able to find those on short notice—”

“What about you?” He really wanted her to be in the wedding and he knew that Debra would too.

“As mother of both the bride and groom, I’m going to officiate the ceremony. I brought you two back together and I’m going to make it official.” She shrugged. “Besides I can’t decide whose side I’ll be on so I’ll take both sides and perform the wedding.”

“I didn’t know you could do weddings?” There was so much about her he didn’t know.”

“I can’t…yet, but I’ll be ordained by the time your bride walks down the aisle.”

“You didn’t bring us together. In fact, you did everything in your power to keep her from me.” Warren remembered the words restraining order coming from her mouth more than once.

Sweet Louise sat back grinning manically while she steepled her fingers in front of her like the evil mastermind in a cheesy spy movie. “Or did I?”

He just watched her as the pieces fit together. “You did one of those reverse physical mom Jedi mind tricks, didn’t you?”

“I’d quote Yoda here, but I’m sure George Lucas would send me a bill. Since we’re no longer on speaking terms, that would be bad.” She winked.

“Damn, you’re the coolest person I know.” He was pretty sure she was kidding.

Three hours later Warren smiled to himself. He could get used to this life. He and Debra were spending their first night together in what was becoming their house.

The only thing he liked better than being around his good friends was being alone with Debra. He stood at the huge double front door with his arm around her waving goodbye to Sweet Louise as her caddy rolled down the driveway.