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Addie pelted the water with two rocks at once, hard, as if she was punishing them. “How did you convince him?”
Ellen nudged her, blond bob fluttering around a mischievous expression. “Take a wild guess.”
“Ha!” Addie’s grin stretched her mouth to its maximum. “I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you!”
“I knew you would be.” Ellen waggled her brows lasciviously before settling back into being serious. “But that wasn’t the whole story of course. One day he told me that before he could commit to me, he had to tell you how he felt about you. He thought that was the only way to finally put those feelings to rest.”
“Urgh.” Addie cringed, waving away Paul’s imaginary speech like a bad smell. “That would have been so painful all around. For him, for me, for you...”
“I didn’t know how it would go.” Ellen shrugged, gazing distantly out to sea. “I was only sure of how I felt about Paul, and how I was pretty sure he felt about me underneath, and that I’d have to fight to keep him for both our sakes. So I told him if he didn’t stop hedging and making excuses, in short, if he wasn’t man enough to give us a serious shot, I was outta there.”
“Really? You would have left him?” Addie gasped, horrified to think that this perfect couple might not have made it as far as this weekend’s joyous celebration. Then she caught a look in Ellen’s eyes. “You were bluffing.”
“Of course I was bluffing!”
Addie burst out laughing. She liked Ellen more and more. “But Paul didn’t know that.”
“Exactly.” She heaved a larger rock over the ledge and nodded in grim satisfaction at the splash. “I gave him the ultimatum Friday, left him alone all weekend and caught up with him Sunday night. He was a wreck. Absolute mess. But he jumped, and I caught him like I said I would.”
“Thank God he did.”
“The point of all this is, Addie.” She turned and fixed Addie with a look that made Addie brace herself. “We both took a risk for something we not only believed in but deeply wanted to happen.”
Addie narrowed her eyes. Okay. She was getting it now. Someone had been talking to someone about certain decisions involving big risks. “Gee, Ellen, is there any particular reason you happen to be telling me this now?”
“Who, me?” Ellen plonked a hand to her chest, eyes innocently wide. “No, of course not. Just a bride musing on her wedding day.”
“Uh-huh.” Addie picked up a good-size rock, heart beating like mad, not sure what she was feeling. “Has someone mentioned something about me and a certain, oh, I don’t know, other person lately? Anything?”
“No, no, not at all.” Ellen spoke reassuringly. Addie didn’t buy it for a second. “I have really good intuition about this stuff. You and Derek have been setting off sparks since you met. I thought maybe y’all needed a push in the right direction.”
“Ha.” Addie hurled the rock as hard as she could. “I wouldn’t begin to know what the right direction is.”
“Addie, all I know is that the only two people who walk on water in Paul’s world are you and Derek.”
“And you.”
“Well, obviously.” She winked.
“Me, I was in the water yesterday.” Addie mimed a sudden drop. “I sank right to the bottom.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. You were really important to Paul, his first ideal of love. And Derek was kind of his savior. My life with Paul wouldn’t have been possible without Derek. The close relationship Paul has with his family would not have been possible without Derek. Any kids we have would not have been possible without Derek. He is a good, good person who has had a lonely and hard life, and he needs someone really wonderful who can...” She frowned and gestured aimlessly. “I don’t know—”
“Rescue him?”
Ellen laughed. “That’s about the last word I’d think of when it comes to Derek, but I suppose there is an element of that. Anyway, I’m just saying, Addie, that sometimes we need shaking out of our usual ideas about ourselves and what we want and deserve in life.”
