Читать книгу The Wedding Plan - Abby Gaines - Страница 13

CHAPTER FIVE

MERRY’S FATHER WAS ASLEEP when she arrived in his room at seven the next morning. Now that he was stable, he’d been moved out of ICU, and even with all his tubes and monitors, he looked peaceful. More peaceful than she felt.

She’d had a third glass of wine with Lucas last night—it seemed they’d both felt the need of some liquid courage—and now she was paying for it with the thumping in her temples.

She sat with her eyes closed, waiting for her dad to stir. Lucas had said he’d meet her at the hospital this morning so they could announce their “engagement” together. She had to admit she was pleased not to be doing it alone.

By the time John woke, soon after eight, she felt a little less seedy.

“Merry-Berry,” he said sleepily.

She sprang to her feet. “How are you feeling? Can I get you something?”

“I feel good,” he murmured, sounding surprised.

The words sent a chill through her. Dr. Randall had described kidney failure as a “peaceful death.”

A nurse came into the room then. Merry wondered if one of her father’s monitors had alerted the nursing station that he was awake.

“Good morning, Mr. Wyatt. Think you can manage some breakfast?” The nurse’s tone was brisk, practical.

“I’ll have the pancakes with extra syrup,” John joked.

His courage brought tears to Merry’s eyes.

The nurse’s expression didn’t flicker. “You’ll have oatmeal.”

Merry gave her a look that asked her to lighten up. The woman—the name badge pinned to her pale pink tunic top said Cathy Martin—met it with indifference. She checked her patient’s blood pressure, tutted a little, then left.

“Are all the nurses that unpleasant?” Merry asked, feeling disturbed.

“They’re fine. That particular one seems grumpy.” Her dad sounded tired.

“Hi,” Lucas said from the doorway.

She spun to face him. Embarrassment and nerves—and maybe a slight hangover—made her clumsy, and she knocked her dad’s IV stand. Somehow, that set off an alarm.

“Damn.” Flustered, Merry gazed at the three screens that monitored goodness knows what, trying to figure out what she’d done. “Damn, damn, damn.”

Lucas sauntered over, as unflappable as a guy who’d aced the Rocklike Calm class would be. “If it’s important, someone will be here soon.”

Before he’d finished speaking, Nurse Cathy Martin was back. She bustled to the displays, then hit a button on one of the devices hooked up to Merry’s dad. The beeping stopped. She turned to Merry. “Who set that off?”

“It might have been me,” she admitted.

“Be more careful next time.” The nurse left.

Lucas raised his eyebrows at Merry. “Dad and Stephanie are parking the car. They’ll be here shortly.”

Merry glanced at her watch. Not even eight-thirty. “That’s an early visit.”

“I told them our news,” he said, too quietly for John to hear. “They insisted on coming.”

She stared at him, aghast. So there was no going back. Not that she wanted to…much.

Sure enough, Dwight and Stephanie arrived a minute later. Stephanie, pushing Mia in a stroller, was smiling brightly enough to light up a Christmas tree, and even Dwight looked almost jolly.

“Did you tell him?” Stephanie asked.

John lifted his head. “Tell me what?”

Merry gulped. Drew a breath. Before she could speak, Lucas said, “Merry and I got engaged last night.”

Any doubts Merry might have had evaporated in the burst of elation that came over her father’s face. “Merry, that’s…” He stopped, choked by emotion. His jaw worked. “That’s wonderful.” He stretched his arms out; carefully, she went in for a hug. He kept his left arm around her while he shook Lucas’s hand. “Smart decision, Lucas. You won’t regret it.”

“I know,” Lucas said with such sincerity that she stared. Then she realized he meant he wouldn’t regret faking an engagement for a few days.

Nor will I. Not now that I see how happy it’s made Dad.

Her father chuckled. “To think that all you two needed was a little push from me. Dwight, didn’t we always know they were destined to be together?”

Lucas’s dad was more about logic than destiny, but he nodded.

“We should have pressured them years ago,” John continued.

“We should have,” Dwight agreed. “If you recall, Stephanie wouldn’t let us.”

His wife swatted his arm, and he caught her hand and kissed it.

“So, where’s the ring?” John asked.

“We haven’t had time—” Merry began.

“Right here.” Lucas pulled a dark blue velvet box from his pocket.

What the heck? Merry held her breath as he opened the box. Nestled on the plush white lining was a ring. A square-cut emerald flanked by two diamonds. Where did this come from?

“You going to put it on, honeybun?” Lucas asked.

Hadn’t she said no honeybun?

Lucas placed a finger beneath her chin and lifted. Ugh, she’d been standing there with her mouth open.

“No, she is not going to put it on,” Stephanie said.

Merry turned to her gratefully.

“Not even you could be so unromantic, Lucas,” his stepmom scolded. “You’re going to put it on her.”

Lucas paused. “Of course I am.” Next moment, he had the ring out of the box and was advancing on Merry.

He took her fingers in his. For a long moment, he examined her hand, as if weighing his options. Don’t you dare back out now.

He must have read her thoughts, because he slipped the ring on swiftly, decisively. Slightly too large, it glided over her knuckle.

Stephanie applauded; little Mia clapped her hands in imitation.

John gestured to Merry that he wanted to inspect the ring. She moved closer, relieved to get away from Lucas.

The bad-tempered nurse came in with John’s breakfast. “Very nice,” she said about the ring, though no one had asked her. She plunked the tray down on his table and marched out again.

“I gave your mother an emerald,” John said, his voice heavy with emotion. He closed his other hand over Merry’s. “Nice job, Lucas.”

“Thanks, John.”

“So, when’s the wedding?”

From the jerk of Lucas’s chin, Merry guessed he hadn’t anticipated the question. Lucky for him, she had.

“It’ll take us a couple of months to get organized,” she said.

Her father’s face fell. “I was hoping it would be before…”

He seriously expected her to go from single to engaged to married in just a few days?

“There’s nothing we’d like better, John,” Lucas said. “Unfortunately, blood tests and waiting times and the like mean it can’t be done. We figured we might as well wait a little longer and do it properly.”

Nice work. Merry telegraphed the message with her eyes.

He gave her a smug look that said, What do you expect from a guy with a degree in Rocklike Calm?

“There’s no blood test in Connecticut,” Stephanie said, sounding confused. “No waiting time, either. Don’t you remember, Dwight, you rushed to get our license, thinking it would take forever? And it turned out you could just roll up, pick up a license and get married five minutes later.”

“That’s right,” Dwight said. “Lucas, where did you get your information?”

Oh, heck. Merry held her breath.

“It’s been a while since you and Stephanie tied the knot,” Lucas said. “Things have changed.”

Good, she congratulated him mentally. Good thinking.

To her horror, Dwight pulled out his iPhone.

“Let’s see,” he said. He typed surprisingly fast for an old guy typing with his thumbs on a virtual keyboard.

Dread pooled in Merry’s stomach. Let Lucas be right. Let the rules have changed.

“Ha,” Dwight said with a note of triumph that sent her hopes plummeting. “You’re right, darling.” Darling being Stephanie. “No waiting period in Connecticut and no blood test. You can apply for a license Monday to Friday between eight-thirty and four, and get married five minutes later.”

Lucas looked faintly green.

“Today’s Wednesday,” John said. “Isn’t it?”

Merry nodded.

“Well, then. Nothing to stop you.” Uh-oh, he was looking teary again. “To see my little girl get married…a man could die happy.”

“I—I don’t have a dress,” Merry blurted. As if that mattered.

“You can wear mine,” Stephanie said. “It’s not new, but it’s Vera Wang. Great design doesn’t date.”

Merry whimpered.

“Merry,” Lucas said calmly, “could I see you for a moment?”

In the hallway, he dragged her out of sight of her father’s glass-walled room. “You do realize you need to tell your dad that we’re not getting married?”

“Of course I do!” she hissed.

“Then stop talking about your damn dress, and get back in there and do it.”

Immediately, her hackles rose, the way they had since they were kids. “It’s not that easy. You’re the one who told him the blood test was all that stood in our way.”

“How was I to know there’s no blood test in Connecticut?”

Grouchy Nurse Martin walked by, eyeing them curiously.

Merry waited until she’d passed. “You’re the one who gave me an engagement ring—no wonder he thinks we want to get married.”

“I was trying to look convincing,” Lucas said.

“Where did it come from, anyway?”

“Jeweler friend,” he said. “Let’s get back on topic. Namely, telling your dad there won’t be a wedding.”

She closed her eyes. “How am I supposed to do that when he said he’ll die happy if I get married?”

“He’ll just have to die mildly content,” Lucas said.

Her eyes snapped open.

He swore. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. You know I didn’t, or I wouldn’t have offered to get engaged in the first place.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “There must be a way to do this. Let’s think.”

Merry thought.

Presumably, he was doing the same.

“We can come back tomorrow and say we got married,” he said in a flash of inspiration. “We’ll tell them we went to city hall.”

“Dad said he wants to see me get married. I couldn’t do that to him.”

“You won’t be doing it to him. You’ll be pretending to. In the end, he’ll just be relieved we’re married.”

“What if he wants to see the marriage certificate?” She could imagine her sentimental father wanting to admire the document.

“We’ll say we lost it.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You think of something, then,” he ordered.

Silence fell again.

Lucas had the next idea, too. “We could pay someone—an actor—to be a fake celebrant.”

It was a tempting possibility. But…

“Dad will want Reverend Carter from our church to do it,” Merry said glumly. “And I can’t just say he’s not available—Reverend Carter’s coming to visit him this afternoon. Plus we’d still have the marriage certificate problem.”

More thinking.

“There’s only one possibility,” Merry said at last.

“Fire away.”

“We really get married,” she said. “Right here, in front of Dad. And then we get a divorce.”

“Are you nuts?” His voice rose, and the security guard stationed by the elevator looked in their direction.

Merry spoke quickly, quietly. “My friend Sarah got divorced last year, and it’s almost as easy as getting married. From what I remember, we can file for a no-fault divorce on grounds of irretrievable breakdown of the marriage as soon as we like. The day after the wedding. Ninety days later, we’re divorced.”

“No,” he said firmly.

“Divorce isn’t ideal,” she agreed, as if the only problem with getting married would be how to end it. “It means we both end up, well, divorced. We could look into annulment.”

“No,” he said again.

“You were willing to give Dad a kidney,” she reminded him.

“A lot less complicated,” Lucas said.

He was right. But Merry was desperate. “This is your big chance to rescue me. You love to rescue.”

“You hate being rescued. You refuse to be rescued.”

“Not this time,” she promised. “Do you remember when you were ten years old, telling Dad and Dwight you wanted to marry me?”

He blinked, then shook his head, as if shaking off that moment of weakness. “Yeah, and the next day you peed your pants and I changed my mind.”

The heat in her cheeks told her she was blushing. “So I had the occasional ‘accident.’ Shoot me. Look, Lucas, Dad wants us to get married, and right now allowing him to die in peace is number one on my list. Are you going to marry me or not?”

“Not.” He folded his arms across his chest and stared her down.

Merry spun on her heel and marched back into her father’s room, Lucas right behind her. She narrowly missed crashing into Nurse Martin, also on her way in again.

Her father gave her an anxious, hopeful look.

Merry beamed. “Great news, Dad. We’re getting married tomorrow.”