The Magic in her Gift (15 page)

Sara smiled and laid her hand over his.
“Thank you, Elias. It feels good to know someone cares so much
about my happiness.” She gave his hand one last squeeze and then
stood up. “I’m going back and marrying Bart.” She swallowed around
the lump that formed in her throat. “I’m selling the island and
we’re going to have a family.”

Elias stood and gave her a hug. “If
it’s what you want, then I’m happy for you, Sara, and I know your
grandmother would be, too.”

She grinned and hugged him back.
“Thanks for all your help, Elias. I couldn’t have gotten through
all this without you.” She leaned back and looked into his eyes. “I
wish you could come to my wedding.”

He gave her a little wink, his green
eyes twinkling. “You never know, little girl. I just might surprise
you and show up.”

Sara hugged him with a desperation she
didn’t understand. “I’m gonna send you an invitation and that’s a
promise.” She closed her eyes. “Would you thank Mel for me, for
giving up his time to show me around?”

Elias kissed her cheek. “Follow your
heart to find your happiness, Sara.”

“
Okay, we’re ready to go.”
Bart walked over and took Sara by the arm. “Elias, will you look
after the place until the new owners take over?”

Elias stepped away and turned toward
the door. “Don’t you worry about nothing, Sara. I’m gonna take care
of everything.” He called to them over his shoulder, “Let’s get
moving. Daylight’s wasting.”

At the airport, Sara blinked back the
tears from her eyes as she hugged Elias one final time. Getting on
the private plane, she couldn’t help but feel like she’d left
something important behind.

“
Why don’t you ever look
happy anymore?”

The voice of five-year-old Cindy Barlow
brought Sara out of her daydream. She squatted down and looked into
the scowling face of her student. “What are you talking about,
Cindy. I’m happy.”

The child shook her head vigorously.
“You never smile and you don’t play with us anymore.” She put her
small hand against Sara’s cheek. “Did somebody hurt your feelings?
My brother hurts my feelings a lot and it always makes me
sad.”

Sara sighed and pulled the child into a
hug. “I’m sorry if I’ve been a grouch,” she whispered, pleased to
hear the little girl giggle. She pulled back and gave her a big
smile. “I promise to do better. Do you remember that I told the
class I’m getting married?”

Cindy nodded solemnly. “I
remember.”

Sara tweaked her nose and grinned.
“Weddings are a lot of work to plan and they can make you pretty
grouchy. You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Satisfied, the dainty child gave her a
typical toothless smile. “Can I go outside now?”

Sara lightly swatted her bottom and
stood. “Better get moving, young lady. You only have about twenty
minutes of recess left.” She watched as Cindy scurried
off.

“
You’re not going to try and
feed me that bullshit are you?”

Sara cringed and turned to face her
colleague and childhood friend, Rachel Martin. “Is there any way I
can avoid this conversation?” she asked ruefully.

“
I’m your maid of honor
and
resistance is
futile
!” She grinned and motioned toward
the teacher’s lounge. “Come on, spill.”

Sara followed her into the lounge and
relaxed when she saw it was empty. Groaning, she took the chair
Rachel held and closed her eyes. She felt her friend’s hand cover
her own.

“
Honey, what is it?” Rachel
asked.

Resigned, Sara opened her eyes and told
her everything about her inheritance, her dream lover and Bart’s
sudden desire to have a child with her. For reasons she didn’t
understand, she didn’t mention her grandmother’s unearthly visits
or the very real time she’d spent with Mel. Feeling some of the
pressure lift, she leaned back in her chair and waited for her best
friend’s reaction.

“
Are you insane?”

Sara barked out a short laugh. “Not
exactly the reaction I was hoping for.”

“
I’m you friend, I’m not
going to sugar-coat things for you. Hell, you wouldn’t want me
to.”

Sara shrugged. “That’s
true.”

Rachel leaned back in her chair and
narrowed her eyes. “You have to know that Bart is giving you what
he knows you want so he can hang onto all those lovely dollars,
don’t you?”

Sara lowered her eyes. “I know,” she
said quietly. “I don’t care as long as I get what I
want.”

“
Oh, honey.” Rachel pulled
her into a hug. “You know it’s not too late to find real love. You
just have to be open to it.”

Sara pushed thoughts of Mel out of her
head. “I have to take my chances while I can, Rachel. I’m not
getting any younger.”

“
Baloney,” Rachel scoffed.
“Women are having babies all the way into their fifties now. You’re
only thirty-two years old so you have plenty of time.” She sat back
in her chair and regarded Sara thoughtfully. “I do agree with his
idea to sell the island though.”

Sara frowned. “Why?”

“
If the place inspired all
those erotic dreams, you need to stay away from it.” She held up
her hand when Sara opened her mouth to speak. “I’m not saying
there’s anything wrong with fantasizing, but it can’t rule your
life. If you hang onto the place and keep having those impossible
dreams, you’re never going to get out and look for the real
thing.”

Sara’s shoulders slumped. “I guess I
never thought of it like that.”

“
What’s your dear mother
have to say about all this?”

Sara grimaced. “She’s gung-ho about the
wedding.”

“
But?” Rachel
drawled.

“
She’s been pressuring me to
make Bart sign a pre-nup.”

Rachel threw back her head and laughed.
“What did Bart have to say about that?”

“
He reminded me that he
never asked me to sign one before I inherited the money.” Sara ran
her hands through her hair. “He seemed genuinely hurt that I’d
suggest such a thing and reminded me of the plans we’d made to
build a life together.”

“
What do you really want to
do, Sara?” Rachel asked quietly.

She thought for a moment and sighed.
“I’m marrying Bart in two weeks and I’m going to do my level best
to be pregnant before the end of the year.” She sat up straighter
and gazed into Rachel’s eyes. “That’s what I want.”

Rachel stood and pulled Sara to her
feet. She gave her a brief hug and a smile. “Then that’s what I
want for you, honey.”

Sara breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thanks. That means more to me than you’ll ever know.”

“
Hey, you wanna get together
tonight? We can polish off a pizza and a couple of bottles of
wine.” Rachel gave her a saucy wink.

“
I wish,” Sara groaned.
“Bart and I are having dinner at my mother’s tonight. We’re going
to finalize the seating arrangement for the reception.”

“
Ugh, major mood-killer.”
Rachel stepped toward the door. “How about tomorrow
night?”

“
You’re on,” Sara promised.
“I’ll bring the wine.”

“
I can’t believe you invited
that dreadful, un-couth man to the wedding,” Gwendolyn Weller
chastised her daughter. “He won’t fit in with anyone in either
family.”

Sara rolled her eyes. “Did you get an
RSVP saying he was coming?”

“
Of course not. People like
that don’t understand it’s polite to answer invitations. They just
want to take advantage of people’s generosity. He’ll just show up
if he’s coming. “

“
Let’s not fight about this,
Mother. The man’s over eight thousand miles away. It’s doubtful
he’d come this far for a free dinner and glass of champagne,” Sara
said sarcastically.

“
All right, ladies. Let’s
not get off track,” Bart begged. “Sara’s right, Gwen. It didn’t
appear to me that Elias would have the money needed to come all
this way just for the wedding. I think you can safely put that
scenario out of your head and worry about something
else.”

“
Very well,” Gwen sniffed.
“I’ve made sure to separate all the families your mother requested
not to be seated together. Here’s the final plan for seating.” She
handed a stack of papers to Bart.

He turned his attention to Sara. “Do
you have everything packed up that can go? I want to have the
movers there on Sunday.”

She shook her head. “I’ve still got to
box up my dishes and pack away my art supplies.” She tilted her
head and frowned. “Have you cleared out some space for me to unpack
my things?”

“
I’ve emptied out half the
closet and dresser and made room for your things in the bathroom.
That’s all the space you’ll need for now. I’m having all your
things put in storage until we get the house built.”

“
Very sensible, Bart. When
do you plan on building a house?” Gwen asked.

“
It’ll be a while.” He
smiled at Sara. “What we want is going to cost so we’ll wait until
the sale of the island is finalized.”

“
What’s holding up the sale?
I thought the buyers were extremely interested.” Gwen moved to
close the drapes.

He shrugged. “We decided to wait until
after the wedding to take care of all that. I want Sara focused on
the happiness of our wedding and not on thoughts of her
grandmother’s estate.”

Sara knew her mother believed Bart was
stalling so the money would not be hers alone so she jumped into
the conversation. “I’m going to need you to clear out one of the
spare bedrooms for my art supplies.”

Bart clenched his fists and gave her a
smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I don’t have a spare room, Sara.
Your art stuff will have to go into storage until we have a bigger
place.” He shrugged. “It’s not like you’ll have time for it
anyway.”

Sara narrowed her eyes. “You have four
bedrooms, Bart. Surely you can let me have one of them.”

“
One of those rooms I leave
empty for Michael.”

“
Okay, what about the other
one?”

“
It’s a guestroom, Sara. My
family frequently visits and I often entertain out of town business
clients.” He gave her a disdainful look. “Besides, you’re not going
to smell up my home with paint and turpentine.”

“
I’m not
willing—”

“
We need to keep one bedroom
free for the nursery, don’t we?” he asked.

“
Sara,” Gwen scolded, “you
don’t want to subject a baby to all those fumes. It’s not
healthy.”

Sara bit her lip and nodded. “You’re
right, of course. I wasn’t thinking.”

Uncharacteristically, Bart came and
gave her a hug. “It’s okay, that’s what you have me for, love. Just
put your trust in me and I’ll steer you right.”

Sara let herself feel
comfort in his embrace.
Everything will be
worth it if I can have my own child.

Sara stared in the mirror and wondered
if years from now anyone would mention how pale the bride was. The
past two weeks had flown by. She’d worked out her notice at the
school, packed up all her belongings and had a final fitting on the
wedding dress. Now, she was moments away from walking down the
aisle.

“
You look lovely, dear.”
Gwen fluffed out her veil down her back. “It’s a shame you couldn’t
have lost a little more weight, but I think they did an admirable
job of designing this dress to hide your flaws.” The ivory-colored
silk garment fit tightly underneath her ample bosom and dropped to
the floor in a simple A-design. A thick panel of lace camouflaged
her cleavage.

Sara rolled her eyes at the backhanded
compliment.

“
I think you’re crazy to let
that asshole talk you into giving up your painting. You’re so
good,” Rachel whined. Her dress was nearly identical, but in a
gentle, lilac color.

“
Don’t be absurd,” Gwen
huffed. “Her life will be much too full for her to be messing
around with her paints. Just being Mrs. Bartle Everett III will
keep her busy. She won’t need the distraction.”

Sara smiled at Rachel. “Don’t worry
about it, Rachel. I fully intend to go back to painting once we
build our house. I’m going to have a studio designed on the
property so the smells won’t bother anybody.”

“
Very wise compromise,
Sara.” Gwen walked toward the door and then turned back to give her
a baleful look. “By the way, you’re sea captain friend somehow
scrounged the money together to make the trip. He’s sitting in the
back pews on the bride’s side.” She turned and walked out, shutting
the door behind her.

“
What a bitch,” Rachel
growled. “From everything you’ve told me about your grandmother, I
wonder if your mother was adopted.”

Sara smirked and studied her reflection
in the mirror. It pleased her to think about seeing Elias again.
She hadn’t heard her grandmother’s voice or had any dreams about
Meloir since leaving the island. It left her with an abandoned
feeling she didn’t understand and didn’t like.