The Marriage Contract (14 page)

Ruthie’s lips
thinned.  “I had no way of knowing if he’d be able to attend.”

Cara’s mouth
flew open, and she forgot they weren’t alone.  “Ma, didn’t you think I’d be
taking him?” 

Ruthie huffed. 
“What am I supposed to think?  You've been living under the same roof for a
week and you hardly see each other.  What does that say?”  

A chasm in her
mind widened, revealing a glimpse of what her mother was up to a bit more
clearly. 

“Did you tell
Daddy that I was marrying Devin?” 

 Ruthie lowered
her gaze.  “I doubt your father would have given his blessing otherwise.  You
know how fond he's always been of Devin,” she said, as if that made perfect
sense for her behavior.

“Doesn't he find
it a bit odd for me to have one man living under our roof and marrying
another?”

“The
conversation didn't even get that far.  You father is just happy to have you
married, at this point.  You know this time of year that if it isn't connected
to baseball, chances are your father isn't paying attention anyway.”

Cara stood
straight as a board, her fists balled by her side like a two year old about to
have a tantrum.  She couldn't believe her ears. 

“So you just
invited Devin and set up this story.  First the Omar booties and now you’re
picking out my husband?  You’re incredible!”

“You have to
admit Devin is a far better choice than Roger.  One day you’ll see that I’m
right and you’ll be as happy with Devin as I am with your father.”  Ruthie
tossed her frosted hair back and forth to make her point.

“What are you
talking about?  I don’t have to admit any such thing.  I've chosen to be with
Roger.  You're just going to have to accept that.” 

Cara gripped
the skirt of her dress and stormed into a private dressing room to escape her
fury.  Much to her amazement, it followed her, and in her two by two stall, she
began to wonder just what she was so angry about.  She was used to her mother’s
antics.  This latest classic Ruthie trick shouldn't surprise her.  

So why was she
so angry?  Her mother had never hidden the fact that she wanted Cara to marry
and give her grandchildren.  But it never seemed like a possibility with
Roger.  She'd always known Roger liked things just the way they were, simple,
uncluttered.  Safe.  Family was something he'd always deemed clutter, which was
mainly the reason she never approached him about her sudden change of heart
regarding children and family.  

She carefully placed
the delicate dress back on a hanger and opened the drapes to the dressing
room.  Only then did she realize that the rest of her clothes were in the
larger, open dressing room with full length mirrors.  Being humble in your
underwear was hard, but at least she was only with her mother.  She only hoped
cat suit Penny was long gone and on to other things by now.

* * *

Devin tried his
best to keep the shock from creeping into his tone, but the look on Cara’s face
was truly hilarious and he just had to laugh.  It was a deep belly laugh that
did wonders to lift his mood.  “Who’s getting married?”

“This isn’t
funny, Dev.  She’s doing it to me, again.” 

Cara plopped
down on the back stairs of Devin’s cottage and rested her elbows on her knees. 

“I’m almost thirty-five
years old and she still treats me like I’m a teenager.”

He coughed the
rest of his laughter out of his system before joining Cara on the stairs. 
Trying his best to keep from laughing at the absurdity of the situation, he
began in a more serious tone, “Maybe that’s because you still treat her like
your mother.”

Her eyebrows
furrowed, and she looked at him like he had five heads.  “What the hell is that
supposed to mean?  She is my mother!”

“Yeah, and
you’re still knocking heads with her just to goad her.”  He shrugged.  “Why
don’t you see it from her point of view?”

Her face
registered mock panic.  “You're nuts if you are seriously starting to see the
crazy logic in her thinking.”

He chuckled. 
“I've been thinking that a lot about myself lately.”

She shot him a
questioning look, but he waved it off as usual.  He didn’t want to think any
more of how he'd found the deeper he dug into the Palmer case, the more he
found that it was botched to high heaven.  He’d think about it when and if he
decided to take the case to appeal.

“Mom hates
Roger.  Roger hates her.”  She threw her hands up in frustration.  “I don't
know why I bother trying.” 

He waited a
fraction of a second before responding.  “I'll tell you why.  Because you know
she hates him.” 

Cara gave him a
long sideward glance, but remained silent.

“Forgive me for
saying it like this, but from what I've seen, you and Roger don't exactly seem
like the ideal couple.  No matter how ideal you say he is.  What do you even
see in him?”

“Roger is a-”

He waved his
hand.  “I know, I know, he’s a fine man.  You told me all that.  Ruthie told me
all that.  But what else?  Does he make you laugh?  Does he feed your soul? 
Does he take care of your heart?”

A flash of pain
crossed Cara’s face with his last remark.  Just enough for him to read her true
emotion. 
Bingo.
  She wasn’t in love with Roger.  And maybe she'd never
been.  His mood was lifting higher and higher by the moment.

She turned
away, hiding her pained expression from him.  “Maybe you've kept him in your
life just to bug your mother?”

She twisted
around to face him straight on.  The fire in her eyes blazed.  “I can’t believe
you’re saying this to me?  You think I'm with Roger just to get Mother Ruthie
upset?  Don’t you think I’m capable of choosing my own companions?”

The fire in her
was strong, but she wasn’t angry, he noticed.  She was merely hurt by his
inference that Roger was a safe bet to drive her mother crazy. 

His voice
softened, and he took her hand in his.  It was silky soft against his palm and
the contact immediately took on an intimate feel.  He looked at her cinnamon
eyes and felt he could see straight through to the center of her being.  It
amazed him that they could be so close and yet so distant at the same time.

Their eyes
locked and he wondered how he could ever tear himself away from her gaze.  He
didn’t want to.  He wanted to sit there and look at her, drown in the depths of
her soft brown eyes. 

Things had
changed between them.  Not just in those few short moments when he felt like
this connection between the two of them was welded together.  That was their
friendship.  But these new feelings were different.  Like last night when she
looked up at him while they were riding the carousel.  In his mind, he knew
this was the same Cara he'd known seventeen years ago.  And yet, his feelings
for her had changed.  They'd grown deeper than he'd ever thought he was
possible.  They had an intrinsic connection that time had never been able to
break.

Yet, something
was wedged between them.  Or rather someone.

Devin drew in a
deep breath and brushed his thumb across Cara's fingers.  These feelings were
more than just friendship.  There was no doubt in his mind about that now.  It
was only when he started to speak that he realized his breath was caught in his
throat. 

“I hate to see
you settling for something for the wrong reasons, giving up your dreams,” he
said softly.  “You deserve better than that.”

Cara finally
pulled her hand away, breaking the connection.  Although the mid-day sun beat
down hard on them, he suddenly felt cold.  

Lifting herself
up from the steps, Cara exhaled loudly. She walked a few steps down toward the
picket fence and stared out at the ocean before swinging back to look at him. 

“In Boston,
everything made sense.  I come down here for a few weeks and it seems my whole
life is turned upside down.”

“It happens. 
No one is immune.  You just have to work through it.” 

He picked a
splintered piece of wood off the stair tread, snapped it and tossed the two
pieces to the sand.  He’d spent these past few sleepless nights thinking about
more than the Palmer case.  He was thinking about re-writing his future.  And
every time he looked beyond leaving Cara, he didn’t like it.  Not one bit. 
That said more than any court transcript ever could.

She buried her
head in her hands and chuckled wryly.  “Every time I turn around I’m coming to
you with something, Dev.  You don’t need to listen to all this crap on your
vacation.”

“You know you
can always come to me.”

“I think I've
always known that,” she said softly.  Cara glanced at her watch and then rubbed
it nervously.  “I guess I should be getting back.”

Devin heaved a
sigh.  “Getting ready for the big birthday party?”

She smiled and
when she did, he couldn’t help but smile, too.  Her smile quickly vanished. 
“You’re definitely coming to the party, right?  I can only imagine what other
surprises my mother has in store for me.  Get a little champagne in Mom and
she's liable to insist we get married on the spot with Roger as best man!  I need
you there tonight to make things bearable.”

The past few
days Devin had come to realize there was a lot he needed in his life, too. 
Most importantly, he needed the fanciful laughter of his best friend Cara.

“I’ve got to
run, too,” he said, pushing himself off the stairs.  “I’ve got to go pick up
Bruno at the Vet.”

Cara's
expression perked up.  “You named the dog Bruno?”

“Do you think
it fits?”

She smiled,
walking backwards toward the gate.  “Yeah.  I think it fits great,” she said
softly.  She waved before turning and walking toward the beach. 

He watched her
slip her sandals off her feet and dig her toes into the sand as she walked.  As
she made her way up the beach, his mind focused on her words.  She needed him. 
There wasn't anything she could ask for that he wasn't willing to give her. 
That's the way it had always been.

He needed her,
too.  But Devin was sure Cara meant it in a different way. 

She wanted his
friendship. 

He just wanted
her.

* * *

Cara slipped on
her pale pink cotton sun dress, thankful that the brief afternoon rain had
cooled off the night air.  Still, the thought of pantyhose was deplorable, so
she chose not to wear any.  From all the time she'd spent in the sun, her skin
had a healthy glow.  She chose only to wear a little mascara and pale lipstick
for makeup. 

After stepping
into her white sandals, she descended the stairs to see if she could help her
mother with any last minute details.  She should have been looking forward to
this festive occasion, but she wasn’t.

She walked into
the kitchen where her mother stood wearing an apron covering her dress.  On her
feet, swollen from the heat, she still wore her floppy slippers.  Her face was
the picture of contentment.  Cara smiled inwardly.  Ruthie loved catering to a
crowd.  Still, she had to wonder if her mother had any regrets choosing a
family over her career.

“What can I do
to help?” Cara asked.

“Nothing,”
Ruthie answered, smiling.  “I’ve got it all under control.  Maybe you can help
your father?”

Instead of
finding her father, she walked out to the back porch.  The sun was just sinking
behind the ridge of trees, casting long shadows across the yard leading to the
beach.  The humidity that had plagued them for the past week had eased some. 
She sat on the porch swing, waiting for Roger to finish dressing.  Or working. 
She didn't exactly know what he was doing at the time.  Odd.  She had no idea
what he was doing and they were living in the same house.

It was just as
well Roger wasn't around.  She needed time to think about what direction her
life was going, and she couldn’t do that if she had to paste on a smile and
sound happy.  Or worry about what fireworks would go off when Roger came face
to face with her mother. 

Within the
hour, the house was filled with her parents’ friends as well as old friends
Cara hadn’t seen in years.  Somehow her mother managed to contact her
assistant, Louise, for a list of Cara’s friends from Boston.  It kept her busy
mingling.  Since Roger knew most of her friends from the city, Cara was pleased
when she looked over and saw that he was comfortably conversing with a group of
people.  Unfortunately for her, it left her more time to watch Penny, who was
putting on an award winning performance cozying up with Devin.

She had to stop
this.  She had no business being jealous of Devin with another woman.  But she
was.  And it was almost painful to watch.  She waited until Penny left Devin’s
side to approach him.

As she walked
over to him, her mouth was as dry as a cotton ball.  When his lips lifted to a
wide smile, her spirits lifted a notch and she actually felt her heart flip. 

Devin looked
too good for words.  He wore a new pair of blue jeans and a white cotton shirt
that glowed against his newly tanned skin.  She noticed he wore no socks, just
a pair of dockside loafers on his feet.     

He leaned
forward and whispered in her ear.  “Having a good time?”  He smelled of
aftershave and beer and something more.  His skin was warm and intoxicating and
she had to fight to keep herself from drifting closer to him. 

“Yes,” she
lied.  Before she had the chance to say anything more, the room hushed.  She
turned around to find everyone staring at her. 

Her father
walked slowly into the room holding her birthday cake with all the candles set
ablaze.  As he made his way toward her, the crowd of people in the room
gathered around her and everyone began to sing Happy Birthday.

She looked at
their faces.  They all wore smiles as they sang.  But inside, Cara just wanted
to cry.  What the hell was wrong with her?  This was her birthday and everyone
was there in honor of her, for heaven's sake.