Everglades Wildfire, page 13
She curved around, crossed to the door and rested her hand on the handle. “I’m waiting for Maria.”
“You know why my big brother is marrying you, don’t you?” He picked up the hairbrush and smacked it into his palm.
She stiffened, watched the motion and understanding his threat. “Is that your business? I don’t think so.”
He laughed, the sound making Amber’s throat tighten. “It seems to me that it is, since his marriage affects me.” After he set the brush down, he lumbered closer, sneering. “Rick’s just using you, you know.”
She straightened, returned his stare and kept her mouth closed.
“How about you turn the tables on him?” he asked. “Back out, I’ll see that you’re paid for your trouble.”
Unafraid, she tucked her hands under her arms and lifted her chin. “I know about that scheme with your mother. I’m not interested, and you should give up the whole idea because it has no chance of working now.”
“Why should you be interested when you can get the whole enchilada?” A flash of aimless wrath blazed in his eyes. “Tell your husband, I’m going to stash his wedding present—so he can have the fun of finding it. Tell him I said to have a really, really good time with it.” He left the door ajar when he slipped out.
Maria appeared right after he left, worry pulling on her face. “Everything all right?”
“Fine.” Even more sure that she was doing the right thing, Amber lifted the white garment bag from the closet. “Let’s get me dressed. I have a man to marry.”
* * *
Rick’s father was standing guard over him, seemingly delighting in his son’s discomfort. If he did so much as pull on the stiff shirt collar, Ricky would be all over him. To avoid his father’s scrutinizing stare, Rick crossed the study to look out the window. The white chairs were set up and the garden was buzzing with people. Children who’d been babies the last time he saw them chased each other around the yard. It didn’t look like a fake ceremony that was whipped up at the last minute. It appeared to be meant to be and it made him feel like crap. The scene surrounding him, and the growing pile of gifts and cards on the side table, made him understand he was affecting more people than he realized.
“Only about 20 more minutes, son.” Rick glanced at his dad and figured his pacing must’ve made him look like a restless groom. Which he was, just not for the reasons everyone assumed. Lies on lies, more deception and manipulations. He was as bad as the rest of his family members with no hope of stopping.
“I don’t care what time it is,” he grumbled in response, shoving his hands into his suit pants pockets. Once this was over, and his dad and Maria were secure, he’d head back over to his cottage and stay there where he couldn’t cause any more damage.
His father scoffed. “You don’t have to convince me. I know how anxious you are. From the look on your face I wouldn’t be surprised if you kicked everyone out right after the ceremony so you could—”
“Stop, dad.” Rick should’ve cut him off sooner. Then, more gently, he added. “Thanks for understanding but that’s enough.”
His father, not concerned about the cross tone, only chuckled. “I guess I’ll go check on things. Make sure there are enough chairs—or greet the guests—or something.”
Rick nodded. “You do that.”
His father’s grating laughter rang in Rick’s ears as he left. “Stay gone,” he muttered, even though his father wasn’t the source of his irritation. Amber was. More specifically, the change in her.
She had definitely gotten over him.
He’d been so busy wanting it, he hadn’t stopped to think how he’d feel when it did happen. Like his soul had been torn to shreds.
Thankfully the ceremony would be done and over with soon. She’d be pronounced his wife, then they’d celebrate and then she’d leave. Go back home to the man who was going to give her everything she needed, a home, kids, security.
Those things he’d never offered her.
He paced the small room, passing the photographs spread across the walls. There was one of him and Henry fishing, one of him and his dad making ice cream and even one of the three of them together on the front porch. He paused. There were no pictures of his mother. Henry, the felon, remained, but not Anna. She had been erased. He scanned the rest of the room. It had always had a full display. He clearly remembered several of his mother. There had been at least one of their wedding day, he was fairly sure. But if one from that day had been displayed, it was gone now.
Apparently, his father had moved on with his life. That was a good thing. He had Maria now. The two of them were happy, weren’t they? In love? Committed to each other? Why hadn’t he ever thought about his dad and Maria this way before? These past days had opened his eyes, and heart, to so many things. Anxious, he started pacing again. His third time across the floor, a woman outside caught his eye.
Anna.
Wearing a light blue dress and chatting peacefully with Maria. No lawyers by her side, no legal documents waving.
Impossible.
“It’s time, Rick.”
Rick turned to find the pastor of Maria’s church standing in the doorway. The man’s deep tan would’ve looked out of place anywhere besides southern Florida. “You ready?” he asked, smoothing the lapels of his navy jacket.
Naturally, an enthusiastic reply was expected, but Rick wasn’t sure he could fake out a man who made a living reading people. He tried anyway. “Yes, Sir.” He hesitated after a step. “Has there been any trouble?”
The pastor’s eyebrows curled, “What kind of trouble?”
Rick’s gaze darted toward the window, fell on Anna, sitting in the front row, beside Ricky and Maria. “With any of the guests?”
The other man followed Rick’s gaze. He probably didn’t know who, specifically, Rick was asking about but seemed to understand reassurance was truly needed. “Your dad is very well liked and respected. There’s quite a big crowd for a ceremony put together so...”
“Quickly.”
The pastor smiled, speaking from the doorway. “Yes, quickly. Everything, and everyone, is fine. Come on, you’ll see.” He turned and walked through the doorway.
Rick followed, stepping through the hall then slipping into the garden. The rows of white chairs were nearly full, some of the people turned to watch him walk toward the flower-covered arch set up under a cluster of Slash Pine. As he passed the guests, he started to feel like a fool, about to exchange vows, vows that meant nothing.
He could call the whole thing off.
His father was making his way toward him, to stand with him as his best man. He could tell him now that the wedding was just a sham. He opened his mouth, but the music started, his bride appeared, and his world narrowed to include only one other person.
Amber walked toward him, an unearthly vision in smooth white and bare skin. Tiny beads glinted in the rays of sunlight streaming through the windows, and thin straps that were just asking to be shoved aside ran across her shoulders. A small wake of white foam trailed behind her.
The music stopped when she reached his side, she took his hand and he instinctively wrapped his fingers through hers.
The pastor greeted the crowd.
Rick spoke the vows, all the while staring at Amber, wondering again why she was going through with the ceremony.
She pitied him? Actually cared about him and his family?
“You may kiss your bride.”
Rick held back. When she looked up at him with her soft green eyes, his emotions took over. He reached for her, kissing her as though they were back on the secluded island, where he’d declared that she would always belong to him. He forgot the people watching, until Amber gently pushed him away. His father was first to hug him, kiss Amber’s cheek and offer congratulations.
For the next hour Rick accepted well wishes from dozens of people, most of whom he’d known since childhood but hadn’t seen for years. Everyone was kind, enthusiastic, and sincere. Everyone except, Anna, who still seemed to be simmering with cunning. His mother had come by, offered her congratulations and promised to stop by so they could “catch up some more.” One thing he’d learned these past few days was that there is goodness in people. So maybe there was hope for them to have some sort of relationship. Then again, maybe she was just trying to win him over because she had yet another scheme brewing.
After their short exchange, he did his best to avoid her and be pleasant to the crowd, who after all, had come all the way to his family home to wish him well. It wasn’t their fault the whole thing was a sham. Janice, the woman who worked at the post office, brought Carolina, the woman who ran the gas station. Steve, from the Everglades City fish camp, spent 15 minutes going on about the wonders of married life. And then there were several local and state politicians and his dad’s friend who everyone just called “the judge.” He’d met two of Maria’s friends, Claudia and Ivet. Over And over, people shook his hand, smacked him on the shoulder and kissed his bride.
Finally, the crowd around him thinned, and the guests began making their way to the tables for the lunch. The food was probably excellent, but Rick hardly ate anything and what he did manage to get in his mouth he didn’t taste. At Amber’s insistence, Maria had agreed to skip all the traditional wedding events with the exception of cutting the delicate three-tiered cake. Once the plates were being cleared, Rick waited by the cake, holding the knife. He’d given up on the fake happiness, just wanted to cut the cake so they could get out of there. Amber had a plane to catch. He’d stood in her way long enough.
She came over to him, with Ricky on one side and Maria on the other, looking like she was having the time of her life, as if it was a real wedding. Together they sliced into the bottom layer. He set a single piece on a plate, handed it to Amber. She broke off a small bite with her fork, held it out for him. Staring into her eyes, he ate it, then broke one off for her. The last picture was taken and to the raucous cheers of those celebrating, he hustled her out across the lawn.
Chapter Twelve
Amber lifted the train as she dashed across the lawn to keep up with Rick. She’d slipped out of her shoes and now carried them, one in each hand.
“What’s bothering you?” she asked, after she caught up with him beside his truck. “Did Anna make more threats? I was worried when Maria told me she was there, but she was nothing but polite to me.” Maybe it was his brother, not his mother who’d said something threatening or hurtful. Amber hadn’t wanted to pass on Henry’s menacing message, but maybe she should.
He crossed in front of the truck hood, then spoke to her across it. “No, Anna didn’t say anything crappy to me. Not at all. She gave us her best wishes.”
Hating to see the white tulle turned into a mass of wrinkles, she dropped the train and shook it out. “Is it Henry? Did he say something to you about a wedding gift?”
“Henry is an asshole,” Rick replied swinging himself into the truck. “He’s also my problem.” He shoved the passenger door open, “We’re done. You have a flight to catch, so let’s go.”
The etched lines in his face startled her. He looked the same as that first day. How? After everything they’d been through? Her heart clenched. Hadn’t his feelings changed for her at all? She slipped in and sat with her hands in her lap, then she remembered. “My things are still inside.”
He turned to look at her, his gaze on her face but not seeing anything, especially not her love for him. “Where?”
“In the bedroom where I got, where...” The sweet memory of Maria pinning up her hair and helping into the beautiful dress cut through her mind, stopping the words. By the time she found her voice, Rick was already climbing out of the truck.
“I’ll be right back,” he said over his shoulder then stalked back the way they’d come.
To let in a breeze, Amber rolled down the window beside her. The wind lifted the tendrils of her hair and blew them across her cheek. Wanting to see herself done up as a bride one last time, she lowered the visor. Too bad the pink in her cheeks was from frustration and a tinge of anger rather than from excitement and happiness. Movement in the distance caught her attention and she stopped looking at her face, turning instead to watch two men moving along the far side of the house. One of them could be Henry, but the distance was too great, and the view wasn’t all that clear. Her nerves ignited.
She glanced toward the door. Rick should be back by now. Unless he’d run into someone he hadn’t had the chance to chat with yet. The tingle across her skin started to turn into thick dread. The two men had stopped moving and were standing, backs flat against the side of the house. Amber sat still, her heart thumping as she watched them.
The sudden squeak of the driver’s side door made her jump. Her backpack sat on the bench, her bouquet on top of it.
“Thought you might want it,” he said.
She placed her hand on the flowers to keep them from falling onto the floor as Rick roared away from the house. The bouquet, beautiful but temporary, seemed to symbolize everything at stake and everything lost. One last time, she looked back. Guests lingered in the backyard. The two men were gone.
Dust floated up from the two-track and branches smacked the sides of the truck. Rick didn’t slow over the ruts. Instead he seemed to go faster. Maybe, Amber realized with a pang of sadness, he was thinking this was the last time he’d have to make the short trip between the big house and his cottage. Now that everything was settled, and Ricky and Maria were secure, he planned to cut off contact again and stay holed up in his small house, tending the gators and ignoring the world. He hit a deep hole and the truck lurched, and she braced herself put putting her hand on the roof.
She tried to convince herself how he chose to live his life now didn’t matter. They’d find a way to end the marriage and that would be that. The end. Be glad, she told herself. But she wasn’t.
Once they reached his yard, he tumbled out then jogged up his steps. He returned a few seconds later with all her things. Amber stood, her heart splitting while he stacked her stuff into the backseat of her rental car.
After he closed the car door, he spun. “Do you have it ready?”
She blinked.
He leaned his hip on the side of the car. “That paper you asked me to sign.”
Oh. That.
Amber dropped the bouquet she’d grabbed and went to get her backpack. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but she refused to acknowledge them as she dug around to find the document and a pen.
He signed it quickly, handed it to her, his face softening. “Thank you.”
She shrugged.
“No really. Thank you.” He touched the side of her face and in that instant, all the feeling of longing and connection rose to the surface. “What you did was...”
Thinking about how she felt about him and what she’d done, what they’d done, everything blurred. “Stupid? Irrational?” Dark humor and grief swirled inside her, came out in a miserable, awkward chuckle. “I probably shouldn’t be laughing.”
He smiled. “No, probably not.” Looking off in the direction of the big house, he sighed then said, “I’ll call you. We’ll work it out... the legal stuff.”
“Yeah. Okay.” She slipped the paper into her bag next to the papers he’d saved from the fire and tossed the bag into her car. When she straightened to say goodbye, the only thing greeting her was the slam of Rick’s door.
With shaking fingers, she untied the train of her dress, rolled it up. Next, she slipped out of the dress, rolled it up as well. She slipped off her shoes and put them on top of the dress. Then she dug out the outfit she’d had on when she arrived, put it on. She picked up the neat pile of white and carried it to his porch, laid it in front of his door and left.
The last time she’d been in the rental car had been that first day. She’d gotten what she came for and then some. With the document signed, her research was secure. The answer about Rick, too, she had that. It was over. Despite the ring on her finger and the wedding certificate she’d signed—it was over.
Why didn’t it feel over? Why did she still feel connected to him?
Stop. She told herself. Stop thinking about him. Three hours from now she’d be high above the earth, speeding her way back to Ohio. Her future was there. The end of the semester, graduation, life after. She tried to convince herself she’d gotten what she’d come for—the signed document, access to even more research and the answer to the question.
She forced herself to accelerate down the long drive. She turned on the radio, tapped through the stations, stopped at an old Christina Aguilera song then turned up the volume and tried to sing along. Before she reached the end of the drive, a single car raced past, scattering stones and dust behind. She braked, turned to watch it disappear. The hair on the back of her neck bristled. Not her business, she told herself, turned and crept forward.
Another car roared past, accelerating as it vanished into the cloud of brown dust created by the first one. Again, Amber slowed, turned, watching as it roared down the driveway. She hit the brake, heart thumping, pressed it harder. She stared at the steering wheel, watched her knuckles turn white. A third car went past, this one slower, but still like the others it passed her without pausing, the driver’s attention straight ahead. Once it was out of sight, she loosened her grip on the wheel, spun it to the right and eased her way through the U-turn before hitting the gas and heading back to the cottage.
The three cars were parked side by side, filling the yard directly in front of Rick’s porch. The cottage door was open. A man stood in the doorway. Amber pulled off to the side, parked then scrambled out.
The man in the doorway held up a hand. “You’ll need to wait here, Ma’am.”
She looked over his shoulder, watching the group inside tearing the place apart. A couple of them were in police uniforms. “I need to see Rick.”
“Do you live here?” he asked, bobbing to block her view of the officers inside.
