The Creek Series: Complete Set: Parts I, II, & III Page 11

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “No. I think I should go home. I can get a cab.”

  “Wrenn, whatever it is, just say it. From the way you look right now, I think you might be better off if you just blurt it all out and get it over with.”

  “Not that simple. Let’s talk about you.” My body began to tremble and because I was propped on the table, it vibrated vigorously.

  “Shit. I’m a careless jerk. I’m so sorry. Whatever I did, whatever wound I opened, I’m really sorry.”

  I knew life wasn’t going to get any easier. My counselors had practiced with me on several occasions for discussions of this nature as part of the process. People were curious and, for the most part, were innocent of their reactions. I took a deep breath and prayed for courage and understanding.

  “The weekend I met you was at the beginning of a series of chain reactions. My high school sweetheart and I got back together over the holidays, but our time was brief when he was killed in a work accident at the end of February. Between that and situations involving my ailing mother and almost losing our family farm, it’s been a very trying time.”

  “I’m so sorry you’ve suffered, Wrenn.” He grabbed my right hand across the table and held it between both of his.

  I actually witnessed his eyes water and saw my pain had bled over to him. When he got up from his side of the booth and came to mine, I just stared up at him.

  “Scoot,” he ordered.

  “Uh, okay. Yes, sir.”

  He wrapped his arms around me tightly. “Sometimes hugs are better than words.”

  His actions were almost my undoing…

  How did he know what I needed, even when I didn’t know myself?

  By the time our food had arrived, calmness had come over me and I was starving. He remained beside me, and we joked and kidded around about sports and all kinds of things, especially since I was wearing a Razorback sweatshirt. On occasion, we would touch a hand or arm or even elbow one another. Innocent, but flirting all the same.

  “I’m surprised someone hasn’t hurt you for that shirt.”

  I looked down my chest and back up before finding the glint of sarcastic light in his eyes. “Ha. I dare them. Where did you do your undergrad?”

  “OU.” He smiled, with only one side of his lips rising to meet his cocky flamboyance.

  “EEEK. Gross. No OU and no Alabama!”

  “Well, I think I can change your mind.” He elbowed me again.

  “I doubt that. You’re right, though, about this pizza. It’s really good and whatever kind of sausage that is, it just became my favorite.”

  “The sausage comes from a meat market in McKinney, and everything else is local. Glad you like it.”

  He was impressed that I loved beer and all kinds of sports and could actually carry on a decent conversation about ranching.

  “So, why did you tell me your name was A.D.?”

  “Dane is okay for the business world, but it doesn’t match the ranch, a bit of a sissy name, I think. I would love nothing more than to simply tend my land and livestock for the rest of my life, but for now, Grandfather needs my help in our company.”

  “He adores you. He talks non-stop about you.”

  “I could say the same about you.” He paused and I noticed a bit of sadness come across his face. His jaw tightened. “I’m all he has left. When he’s gone, I’m alone with a billion-dollar company and inherit a life I care nothing about.”

  “Sell it.”

  “That’s the plan, but don’t tell him that. I have no intention of living in Asia the rest of my life. He didn’t mind spending much of his life there after Mimi passed away, until he started taking care of me.”

  We talked about his travels, and I told him I didn’t even have a passport. I’d only been to three states my whole life and shock wasn’t even close to describing his reaction. Talking with him was as comfortable that night as it had been the first time I’d met him. There was something about Dane I couldn’t put my finger on, but he was charming and very unpretentious for his wealth.

  When dinner was over, I waited for the check, but it never came. “A deal is a deal. Where’s the check?”

  “Your money’s no good here.”

  “Dude, look. It was our agreement.”

  “Did you just call me dude?” He took his ball cap off and swatted my shoulder with it. “I own the place, and you can’t pay.”

  “You tricked me.”

  “The pizza was worth it, though, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, I’ll tell all my friends.”

  “Nothing like word-of-mouth marketing.”

  He drove us back to my house, and I debated the age old question of whether or not to ask him in and decided to throw out all caution. “Want to come in for a bit or do you have to go?”

  “Sure. I’m not in a hurry.”

  I flipped the TV on to a Dallas Stars hockey game and went to fix us drinks. “I’ve got Coke, Dr. Pepper, Jack, Captain Morgan, Bud Light, Corona, and sweet tea,” I hollered out.

  “Is it good sweet tea? I love good sweet tea.”

  Since I’d made it fresh that morning, I was hoping it was good by his standards. When I handed him the ice cold glass, I waited for his approval.

  “Yum. Did you make this?”

  I nodded with a smile.

  “It’s a keeper. No one around here does sweet tea very well. You’ll have to show me the trick.”

  We sat on opposite ends of the leather sofa, but I extended my feet toward him and tried not to feel awkward. Even though we cheered for the Stars, it didn’t help. They lost.

  “Have you been to a game?”

  “A live hockey game? No.”

  “I’d love to take you. I have season tickets a couple of rows off the glass.”

  “That would be awesome.” My answer was almost a shriek.

  “How about Thursday?”

  “I can’t on Thursdays. I have thera—” I paused and sat up quickly, staring at the floor. I knew my own truth and decided there was no need to hide what I’d been through and what it had taken to get me to the good place I’d come to. “I go to a grief support group on Thursday nights.”

  “Nothing wrong with that. Don’t be ashamed. I didn’t go to therapy when my mom was killed in a small plane crash in Africa and because of my anger and my inability to control it, I ended up getting into trouble and going to jail.”

  His answer caught me by surprise. He didn’t seem the type, and I would’ve never guessed he would be a man with a rap sheet. I didn’t know what to say. Sure, I wanted to know the whole story, but like my own, sometimes the questions were harder to ask than actually answering them.

  “I don’t want you to miss your group. I’m leaving town for Asia again in a couple of weeks, and I don’t know when I’ll be going to another game, but we’ll add it to the to-do list for sure.”

  “Do you make lists?”

  “Can’t live without them. That’s a weird question. Why did you ask?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. I couldn’t imagine not being with him and knew I’d spend the entire grief meeting wishing I was with him. “Just curious. On second thought, I’d love to go to the game on Thursday. It won’t hurt for me to miss this week.”

  “Then it’s a date.”

  A date? I had to stop myself from over-thinking things, or I would’ve started an emotional spiral, at the risk of sending myself out of control. Having someone pay attention to me after so long in withdrawal, it was a dangerous game of sudden attachment, which we’d learned about in grief support.

  “I need to get home to Grandfather. I’ll see you tomorrow when I bring him in.”

  “Absolutely. It’s our wedding day, and I’m looking forward to it.” I giggled.

  “You two are a riot. You’ve been the delight in a bad situation for him. I can’t thank you enough for that.” He touched my shoulder softly with a little pat, and then he was gone.

  For the first time in
almost a year, I went to bed with a smile on my face, instead of falling asleep on the couch from tears and exhaustion. I felt alive and it was great, if only it would last.

  Nothing good ever lasted for me…

  Chapter 19

  The next afternoon, Mr. Lawrence and Dane appeared right on time. However, my gentlemen friends were dressed in tuxes and carried a clothing bag from a designer boutique.

  “You two look quite dapper today.”

  “Only the best for our wedding day,” Mr. Lawrence quipped.

  I pushed him back to a private room for his chemo treatment and noticed most of the staff began to gather to see what was going on. Almost everyone knew of the joke going back and forth about our pretend wedding day.

  “Dane is holding a gift for you. I hope you’ll do me the honor of wearing this and giving me the first dance?”

  “The first dance is always reserved for the bride and groom,” I teased and winked at him.

  While he underwent his treatment, I took the bag and went to our locker room to change. My breath was caught in a tight gasp when I unzipped the bag to find an exquisite beaded champagne gown. There were shoes and jewelry in the bag as well. The closest I’d gotten to seeing something this beautiful popped from the page of a magazine.

  Darlie came to check on me. “Oh, my God.” She put her hand over her mouth, and her eyes were huge. “Turn around, I’ll zip it up for you.” She started laughing. “Honey, you have to take off the bra. It doesn’t work with the dress.”

  I walked over to the mirror and laughed. “No, I guess it doesn’t.”

  I removed the bra and slipped on the glitzy peep-toe stilettos, and she zipped my dress. The shoes were a smidge tight, but would surely stretch to a perfect fit after wearing a couple of times.

  “I have a brush if you don’t.”

  “Huh?”

  “You need to get rid of that ponytail.”

  “But then these won’t show.”

  I opened my hand to show her the beautiful dangling earrings that were encrusted with stones resembling diamonds.

  “Those are beautiful. They look like diamonds.”

  “I think they might be, or they, along with the little blue box that says Tiffany, are excellent knock offs.”

  Darlie looked over to my left to the bench in the middle of the room. “That is definitely Tiffany. Oh. My. God.”

  She helped me fix my hair into a sexier loose knot and pulled out bits and pieces of make-up she’d stashed over time in her locker. By the time she finished, I was giddy with anticipation. I had no idea what to expect next.

  Darlie went to check on the rest of the patients and the happenings with Mr. Lawrence and came back to get me. “Time to go, tootz,” she said.

  The shoes were very tall, forcing me to walk slowly just to keep from falling off of them. We cut through the back hall, which ended at the side of our Radiation Therapy control room, which was large enough to fit thirty people easily, and thirty people were lined up around the walls, shoulder to shoulder. There were patients, family, and staff all smiling. Standing in the middle of the room was Mr. Lawrence, and soft music played in the background.

  “May I have the first dance?” He asked, his hand extended.

  “But, of course.” I walked to him, taking his hand, and he slowly moved to the music. He didn’t move his feet much, and he held on to me for support, but his grin said he was a happy man for the moment.

  When the song stopped, the audience clapped, and Mr. Lawrence held my hand out in front of my body and bowed to me.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this has been all in fun, but this young lady has been a delight to me every day I’ve been here as a patient, and I thought why not have a little magic? I’m an old man, not getting any younger, and well, we all need fairytales.” He kissed my cheek. “Thank you, Ms. Cunningham, for the dance.”

  “May I have the next one?” a deep voice asked from behind me.

  I turned to see Dane approaching with a wheelchair for his grandfather and Peggy, his assistant walking beside him.

  “Certainly.” I giggled.

  We helped Mr. Lawrence get in the chair, and the music started again. Dane wrapped his right arm around my waist and held my left hand in the air in a formal dancing pose. He led me around the room. His stride was small in steps and easy for me to follow in my very tall shoes.

  “You went to a lot of trouble—the dress, shoes, and even jewelry. I’ll get it cleaned and return it to you, so you can get it back to the owner. This was very sweet.”

  “You are the light for him every day in what would normally be a dark world. It’s the least we could do, but just so you know, he picked everything out online, and I simply picked it up for him. Everything is yours to keep as a gift from him. He would be hurt if you mentioned returning them.”

  I was stunned. No one had ever done anything like that for me. “Thank you.”

  The staff went back to work, and Edgar approached Dane and me. “Wrenn, may I have a couple of minutes with you?” His face was stoic, and I suddenly cringed at the thought of being fired.

  As I walked away, I glanced back at Dane, to see him smiling.

  I followed Edgar through the back hall to his office. He didn’t ask me to take a seat.

  Nervous that my termination was coming, I decided to take the bull by the horns and accept my fate. I couldn’t face him, so I focused on the plaques on the wall over his shoulder and spoke with conviction. “I’m sorry, Mr. Walls. I had no idea this totally unethical event was going to happen, but I accept responsibility and tender my resignation effective immediately. I’ll clean out my desk and locker and be on my way. Thank you for everything.”

  He started laughing. “Wrenn, I didn’t call you in here to fire you. For heaven’s sake, you went out of your way to make a dying man happy. In fact, he’s so happy he wrote a gracious note to administration and has left us with this extremely sizeable check to purchase a brand new Cyber-Knife we haven’t had the budget for. He also left a huge endowment for students in your name, but you didn’t hear that from me. I brought you in here to give you this card that was left here by administration and to tell you they have given you a week off with pay any time you want to use it. It’s all in there.”

  He presented me with a large red envelope. “Times like these are one-in-a-million, Wrenn. Enjoy it and be proud of your work here. Remember, it’s always the small things that move the most mountains.” He stood and patted my arm and walked out.

  I reached for the corner of the desk and held it for a moment for stability. While I had been using my work as an escape to forget my pain, I’d been able to help someone else forget his.

  Mom was right; life was a circle.

  I sensed someone watching me and turned to my right to see Dane standing in the doorway. His hand was on his hip, which had his jacket pulled to the side, exposing his toned body. The sight of him standing there excited me in very delicate ways.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Yes, perfect. I should go change. I can meet you in the lobby.”

  “I’d prefer it if you stayed in your gown for dinner; otherwise, I’m gonna look out of place in this tux.”

  I dabbed at my misty eyes. “Huh? Dinner?”

  “Yes, Grandfather made dinner reservations for us at Mansion on Turtle Creek. Peggy is taking him home after his treatment is over.”

  “I need to tell him goodnight.”

  We walked arm and arm back to the treatment room. Mr. Lawrence was dressed in his regular clothes, and the chemo cocktail was hooked to the catheter protruding from his chest.

  “There’s my missus. You look beautiful, my dear. Thank you for a magical moment.”

  Leaning in to kiss his cheek, I said, “My pleasure. Everything was perfect. See you tomorrow?”

  “It’s a date. Good night, Wrenn.” He paused to look at Dane. “Take care of her, son.”

  “Of course,” Dane said with a soft touch to his grandfather’s ar
m.

  Dane pulled his car around to the side entrance and helped me into the seat. He drove with smooth motions, holding my hand for the most part. I wasn’t expecting to experience such a comfortable feeling with him so quickly, but it was as if we’d been friends for a long time. We laughed and joked, and I wondered if his parents had sent him to charm school or something like that. His mannerism was witty and soft spoken at the same time. He came across as confident, but not cocky.

  “Good evening, Mr. Lawrence,” the attendant said.

  They knew him by name?

  He left the car keys with the valet and opened my door for me.

  The mansion was breathtaking. I’d never been in a place that size or that beautiful. The details were almost overwhelming. My heart began to skip beats, and I felt a little winded as we were shown to our table. There was no one else dining in the same room.

  The chair was held for me to sit, and our waiter placed the napkin in my lap. The realization I was out of my league was all consuming. A hick from Arkansas, I didn’t belong in a world of millionaires.

  I stared at the silverware. For a moment, I imagined the scene in Pretty Woman where Julia Roberts is counting the tines on the forks. The problem was I’d forgotten the number of tines to look for.

  As many times as I’d watched that movie…

  “Relax. It’s just food. Try what looks good and eat it if you like it, or not, and don’t freak out over which fork to use, just grab one.” His voice was just above a whisper, so only I could hear him.

  “How did you know?”

  “You’re staring at the forks. I can teach you anything you want to know about fine dining, but this is for Grandfather. He would be here if he felt up to it. The dancing was all he could muster. You’re absolutely stunning tonight. I wanted you to know that.” He put his right hand on my cheek.

  I leaned into it. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  The food was presented so beautifully I felt like I was destroying art as I ate, but it was so delicious I couldn’t stop myself. By the time dessert was brought out, I was so full I thought I might bust my zipper.