Ruthie stilled
him and fiddled with his tie, her usual jovial smile planted on her face. She
was dressed in a cream colored chiffon dress. Her hair looked stiff from too
much hairspray meant to combat the humidity.
Her voice was
confident when she spoke. “Don’t you worry. You don’t know my Cara the way I
do.”
“She’s too damn
stubborn,” Devin sputtered, darting a glance to the double doors at the back of
the church, willing Cara to appear there.
“Hmmm. You’re
right about that.”
“She’s
headstrong.”
“Right again.”
“She can be
impossibly irrational.”
Ruthie chuckled
and patted his shoulder. “And she’s completely in love with you. She’s always
been.”
Devin’s breath
caught in his throat. Was she? After that glorious night they’d made love in
Nantucket, he would have bet his last nickel Cara loved him as deeply as he
loved her. But she’d never uttered the words.
“Don’t worry
yourself so much,” Ruthie said. “You’ll sweat in your tux and you look much
too handsome for that. I know my Cara. She’ll be here.”
* * *
Cara’s heart
fell through the sand when she saw the “For Rent” sign hanging in the window of
Devin’s cottage. Except, it wasn’t really Devin’s cottage. He’d only rented
it to come here for her birthday and decide what he wanted to do with his
life. Apparently he’d made his decision and she wasn’t part of it.
The headlines
in the Boston Globe that morning buzzed about how Devin Michaels had scored
another legal victory. The appeals judge had decided to listen to Devin's
case. Cara had no doubt he'd score yet another legal victory. With so much
work to do on the case, he’d probably gone back to Manhattan.
How could she
have been so stupid? Cara chided herself as she ran down the beach toward her
parents’ home. Maybe they hadn’t left yet. Maybe the movers were still
putting the furniture on the truck and she still had time to find out where
Devin had gone.
As she
approached the house, she paused and leaned over, resting her hands on her
knees, trying to catch her breath. The movers were there. But instead of
loading furniture on, they were unloading. The new owners were nowhere in
sight. But neither was her family. They had already left town without her
having a chance to say good-bye.
Cara did
nothing to hold back the tears rolling down her burning cheeks. She’d been so
pigheaded; trying to prove everyone wrong she couldn’t see that she was the one
who’d been wrong.
So wrong.
She loved
Devin. She always had and always would. But she’d gone ahead and pushed him
away one too many times.
She forced air
into her lungs to help stop her sobbing. As she walked through the white
picket gate, sidestepping the strange men unloading boxes and chairs, she felt
lonely. The only signs that she and her family had called this house home were
the names etched in the cement walkway leading up to the front porch. She and
Manny had “helped” their father build the walk when they were kids. They’d put
their hand print in the cement before it dried. Her mother scribbled the
names.
She sat cross-legged
on the walk, feeling the gritty sand embedded there dig into her thighs. With
her hand splayed, she touched the tiny print she’d made years ago. Back then
her only ambition was to please her parents. How had she gotten so headstrong
and stubborn that she’d sabotage her own happiness with Devin just to prove
them wrong?
A crunching
sound on the pavement caused her to look up. She was met by her brother
Manny’s warm smile.
“That was a
long time ago, wasn’t it?” Manny held his arms open wide and Cara rushed up to
give her brother a hug. “I knew I’d find you here. Everyone’s been worried?”
“I know. I
should have been here to see Mom and Dad off,” she sobbed. “I’ve been so
stupid.”
“So I’ve
heard.”
She pulled
away, wiping her tears from her cheeks as she looked at him. It amazed her
that after all this time seeing him in the collar, she still could look at
Manny and see the snotty little brother he’d always been to her. “Who’s been
talking about me?”
He laughed.
“Everyone! When the bride doesn’t show up for her own wedding, people start to
talk.”
“What do--you
mean they’re all down at the church...waiting for me?”
“Yes. Mom sent
me back here to see if I could find you. Devin’s having a coronary.”
Her eyes flew
open wide. “Devin’s there!?”
Manny
chuckled. “It’s usually customary for the groom to be present at the wedding,
too.”
“Wedding,” she
muttered. Yes, it was Labor Day. It was supposed to be the day her parents
would renew their wedding vows. Or rather, she and Devin would become man and
wife.
“I thought he’d
gone back to Manhattan.”
Manny shook his
head. “You can’t get rid of Devin that easy. Not this time anyway.” He
pointed to the moving van. “This is all his stuff.”
Tears rolled
down Cara’s cheeks and she trembled. “Devin bought the house?” She couldn’t
believe it. This must have been one of the “plans” Devin had mentioned while
they were in Nantucket. Except she’d been too stubborn to listen to him.
Manny bent down
and kissed her cheek. “Come on, Sis. This isn’t just Mom’s day, it belongs to
you and Devin, too. Your gown is down at the church. All we have to do is get
you there.”
* * *
The organist
started to play the traditional wedding march as Harold took Cara by the arm.
She was wearing the dress intended to be a bridesmaid’s dress for her mother
and father’s ceremony. But then, of course, her mother had planned this whole
affair all along with Cara being the center of attention. It was her wedding
day.
“Wait, Daddy.”
Harold groaned
and checked the watch on his wrist. “What now?”
“I need to see
Devin.”
He grinned.
“Honey, you have the rest of your life.”
“No, I need to
see him before we get married.”
“Why?”
“I just do.”
“Are you sure?”
Cara nodded.
“Please?”
Harold heaved a
sigh. “Okay, but your mother won’t be too happy about the groom seeing you in
your dress before the wedding.”
Cocking her
head, she sputtered, “All of the sudden she’s going to pull tradition on me?”
He nodded.
“You have a point, dear. I’ll see if I can smuggle him back here without your
mother catching wind of it.”
She threw her
arms around her father. “Thank you, Daddy.”
As the door
closed, Cara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She’d never told Devin
she loved him. Somehow, that was vitally important for her to do before they
became man and wife. Nothing else mattered more than that. The cake could
melt in the heat, the balloons could pop, the canopy on the back lawn of the
rectory could collapse, and all the flowers in Westport could go ahead and wilt
in the sun.
But it was
important that Devin knew she was marrying him because she loved him more than
anything else in the world. She always had and she always would. She needed
to say it and he deserved to hear it from her first, before she professed it in
front of a church filled with people.
Cara paced the
room, smoothing down the skirt of her dress with her sweaty palms. She turned
to the sound of the knock on the door and waited for it to open before she was
able to breathe again.
Devin’s worried
face greeted her. He looked bewildered, tired, and absolutely the most
wonderful sight a girl could ever hope for. His black tuxedo was neat as a pin
and he filled out every inch of it as if it were tailor formed to his body.
It took visible
effort for him to breathe, too, as he carefully closed the door to the bride’s
room behind him and took a few steps into the room. His face, she’d never
forget it, was like that of a starving man who’d finally had a banquet laid out
in front of him.
“You look
beautiful,” he whispered, then took in a deep breath, stretching the fabric of
his tuxedo jacket against his chest.
She couldn’t
help but feel giddy and lightheaded. “Do you really think so?”
He smiled at
her shocked expression. “I always have.”
She looked down
at the bouquet of tiny pink and white princess roses in her hand. “What are we
doing here?”
“I thought we
were getting married.” For a fleeting second a worried expression clouded his
smile. “Are we?”
“I’m here,
aren’t I?” No, that wasn’t it. That’s not what she wanted to say. “You were
right. I was scared, Devin. The way I behaved, it was never that I didn’t
want to be with you. So much was changing around me, Mom and Dad moving to
Florida, me re-evaluating my life, you coming back to Westport. I was scared
of all that change and I thought, if I could just keep us the way we were, you
wouldn’t leave, too.”
She bit her
bottom lip to keep it from quivering.
“I just want
you to be the first to hear me say how much I truly love you.”
He breathed a
sigh of relief and advanced toward her. She wanted so much for him to take her
in his arms and melt the uncertainty away, but there was still so much that
needed to be said. She held up her hand to keep him from his quest and his
expression collapsed.
“Is that really
enough, Dev? We’ve been down this road before. I don’t want to blow it.”
“That's not
going to happen,” he assured her with a smile. “Seventeen years ago we weren’t
ready to love each other. Our ambition never would have survived if our love
did. One of us would have had to give up our dreams for the other to realize
theirs. I had to leave you then because I couldn’t face us having to choose.
But we don’t have to make that choice anymore.”
“Are you sure?
This is all so crazy.”
“Sure it is.
But what’s even crazier is if we let this chance slip away from us.” He looked
at her, pleading like a desperate man about to hang on the noose. “I love you,
Cara. Nothing else matters as much as that anymore. Nothing.”
It was if the
clouds parted and the heavens were shining down on them. It all made sense
with Devin, just like she knew it would. Time had seasoned them enough to
realize what was important.
She hooked her
arm around his and reached up, giving him a sound kiss on the mouth. “I guess
we’ve waited long enough, huh?”
He smiled his
answer and led her to the door. After opening it a crack, she pushed back the
door and swung around, a sinking feeling flooding her stomach.
“The marriage
license,” she gasped, putting her hand over her mouth.
“What about
it?”
“My mother must
have had it forged. It’s not legal!”
Devin returned
a devilish grin, pulling her into his arms. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
She pushed at
his chest, not finding the same humor he found in their predicament. “I
finally have all that I want right here in my arms and I’ll be damned if I’m
going to let it go now on a minor technicality. I want this marriage contract
to be legal!”
“Don’t worry,”
he whispered, opening the door. “Manny is used to your mother’s antics, remember?
He’s got another marriage license for us to sign right after the ceremony. We
can take that down to city hall and apply for a valid license then. This
marriage contract is legal.”
Minutes later,
with her arm hooked on her father’s, staring at Devin through the sheer fabric
of her veil, she realized, in their hearts, it had always been.
The End
Dear
Reader:
Although
written more than a decade ago, THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT still brings a smile to
my face. How many of you can see
your
family in these pages? I hope
you enjoy reading this story as much as I did writing it.
I
love to hear from readers. Please email me at
[email protected]
or visit me at
http://www.lisamondello.blogspot.com
.
Also
available on ebook:
All
I Want for Christmas is You
The
Knight and Maggie’s Baby
Nothing
But Trouble
Cradle
of Secrets – Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense
Her
Only Protector – Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense
Yuletide
Protector – Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense
Fresh-Start
Family – Harlequin Love Inspired Romance
In
a Doctor’s Arms – Harlequin Love Inspired Romance
Please
look for more e-books by me to be published in 2011 and 2012 available in all
e-book formats.
Warmest
regards,
Lisa
Mondello
Excerpt
from NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
“Like I just told you, ma'am,” Stoney Buxton said, glancing
up through squinted eyes at the fair-skinned woman standing over him. “I’m a
rancher. I don't do wilderness tours. You'll just have to find someone else
to guide you through that terrain.”
Though the sun
floating in the cloudless sky in front of him made it difficult to see, he
tipped the brim of his well-worn cowboy hat with the edge of the hammer he
gripped between his fingers to get a better look at the young woman.
Now what in
hell’s blazes is this?