Page 21 of A Complicated Bride

“Nothing that can’t wait until tomorrow. But then I’ll need to face the music.”

“Do you know what you’re going to say?”

“I’m more sure by the minute.”

That caused a world-class ten-point gymnastic flip in my chest. I had to stop reacting like a fifteen-year-old. This was real life and he was real and had real problems and I had some real problems to deal with too.

As if the universe heard me and prompted the prop man, I heard the unmistakable bang of a door being thrown open with force. I knew, without turning, without waiting the heartbeat for the voice to sound, that this was my problem hunting me down and coming to roost.

“Who the hell is that,” Jack said.

Julie jumped to her feet and looked at me. “I’ll get it,” she said as she rushed toward the front foyer.

I looked after her and stood, my legs a little shaky and my mind refusing to move forward.

Before I had a chance to go to the door, before I had a chance to process anything through my stuttering mind, Theodore Longley barreled into the room, heading straight for her. Julie followed in a fluster behind him.

Even with my mind at half-mast I was aware of two things. The look of an angry school master on Teddy’s face and Bradley coming to his feet to stand behind me.

“Lilian. I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but you’re coming home with me. Now.”

Teddy’s come-to-heel pronouncement as if he were retrieving an errant dog cracked my shock induced brain freeze. And how dare he call her Lilian? No one called her that since first grade and that awful teacher tortured her with the formal name all year. Even her mother and father called her Lily on the rare occasions when they’d reprimanded her.

“Who the hell do you—“

“Teddy, please sit down. Lily’s been visiting with her cousin Julie. You’ve met Julie and Jack I presume?” Brad spoke as if he were cast as the one sane person in a farce.

While he spoke, I watched him pour a drink and before Teddy had a chance to answer, Brad handed the drink to him.

“Who are you?”

I’d seen Teddy nonplussed before. Plenty of times. But this would be her favorite she knew, for all time.

“Have a seat. I’m Bradley Simmons. Jack and I went to college together and I’ve managed not to bungle our friendship since.”

Bradley’s smile ten would have disarmed the entire third regiment had they been in the room. I watched with buckling knees as Teddy took the seat Bradley held for him, on my other side, and drank the drink Bradley had given him. It was like he was a snake charmer only with crazed people.

I sat then too and I didn’t know who to stare at, Bradley or Teddy. I was astonished at both for opposite reasons. Although the pull to face Bradley and soak in his charm was enormous and tempting, I knew I had to deal with Teddy. I knew I owed him more than I’d given him so far in ending our relationship.

So I turned to him, all kinds of wavering hesitation nerving me up.

Teddy looked up from his drink at Julie who’d resumed her seat on the calming wave of Brad’s influence.

“I’m sorry I barged in like that. It’s,” he rubbed his face and coughed, then started again. “It’s been a trying day. But still, there’s no excuse for such behavior toward you.” He looked down as if he couldn’t face Julie and Jack another second lest he melt away. His face did look very red.

Then he turned to me as if I were another matter and he had every excuse for boorish behavior. I girded myself for another onslaught of his unheard of shocking behavior, determined not to let him get away with it again without a fight.

Even if I was kind of in the wrong. I felt the sting of shame prickle at my cheeks, knowing Bradley was witness and that he’d had my back anyway, right or wrong. I had no idea if that was a good or bad thing or what the significance was. But I did know that it was completely inappropriate for me to be more concerned about how Bradley felt than how Teddy felt right now.

I knew exactly what that said about the kind of person I was.

Time to step up, Lily. Time to be your better self.

“We need to talk,” he said. My sails collapsed. Teddy had retreated to his quiet predictable accountant self, the one I no longer had any idea how to deal with. And even thought I knew it was time to face the music, I felt stuck. I felt panicked.

I didn’t want to talk to him, not yet, and I look to Julie, but it was Brad that came to my rescue. Again.

“We were just about to have dessert, Teddy. I know you’ve driven a long way. Take a minute to relax, finish your drink and have some desert with us. Julie went to a lot of trouble to prepare it for us after all. I know it’s a special one. You wouldn’t want to ruin her special dessert.”

Brad was a first-class cajoler. I was witnessing that for myself. But then Teddy was easy to shame. He ought to be ashamed barging in here. And that was the least of his problems. He ought to be ashamed of taking me for granted.

I gave Brad a grateful smile and hoped he read me but his face didn’t change, he stayed in his role as charming host-guest and so I was left to make the leap that he knew what he was doing and he was doing it for me and he knew I’d be grateful.

I had the space of one slice of almond chocolate cheesecake with raspberry reduction sauce to come up with the words and the courage to tell Teddy to his face that I wasn’t going home with him.

Disappointing people had never been my forte. Teddy and my parents could attest that I was a people pleaser. It was my downfall. As Brad described the party he’d deserted before heading to the airport to come here in great detail and Teddy shoveled down his cheesecake to get dessert over with, I alternately eyed Julie and eyed the decanter of bourbon. I wondered if I had one last long slug whether it would give me courage or knock me out.