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“What are they up to? The two of them are doing something.”
“Aubin and my dad? No.” I shook my head. “No, I don’t think that she hates him, but they hardly speak.”
“Something’s going on. She’s been texting him. I’ve caught them talking on the phone together.”
Of course, Dad would answer all her calls when I only got the message that his voice mailbox was full. But they never spoke unless I forced it. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure, because I’ve been checking on her. She even drove out to the country club at least once, which I know because I followed her. I tried to get into her phone, too. I did those things.” He sounded ashamed of himself. “I wanted to find out what she was hiding from me so I spied on her, I followed her. I don’t know her,” he told me. “I don’t think I know her at all and with the way I’ve been acting, I don’t even know myself.”
I made more attempts to patch up the hole I’d just made in their relationship but it was useless. Bill said that he had to go back to work but he looked like he needed to go hit a punching bag or scream at the sky. Maybe he needed to scream at my sister.
“I forgot to say congratulations,” he called as I left the training room.
“For what?”
His eyebrows rose. “Your marriage,” he reminded me, and I nodded.
“Yes, right! Of course. Thank you again, Bill and I’m sure this will, um, all work out.”
I texted my sister the moment I left the training room and then, not willing to wait for an answer, I called, too, but it went right to voicemail. Her smooth voice told me that I’d reached Aubin Frazier of Great Lakes Natural Beauty, to please leave a message and she would return my call as soon as possible.
“Aubin!” I exploded, and then took a breath. “I think you’re going to be mad that by mistake, I just admitted a few things about our parents to your husband. I apologize for that but I’m also very concerned about what he said to me about Jess and also about something going on between you and Dad. It sounds like you’re keeping things from Bill, and Aubin, you have to talk to him. He’s your husband and you had that big wedding and swore in front of all of us that you were together for life, and if you’re going to do that, if you’re going to marry someone and it’s God involved and everything, then I think you better mean it! You better love him a lot and you better…oh. I have to go.”
Good Lord. It wasn’t just my sister keeping secrets and I had a lot, a whole lot, that I needed to figure out. Step one was going to be icing my foot because it hurt from Bill’s examination, and then…
And then I had to really think about marrying someone, about marrying him and God being involved and meaning it. About loving him, too.
Chapter 12
They stared at me and I stared back, searching my mind for something to say. “I guess he got his blue eyes from you,” I said to Julianna Bowman. The difference was that her son’s were bright and clear, a beautiful color that looked like little pieces of the sky shone from his face. Hers were more bleary and yellowed, and right now they were gazing at me as if I had a screw or two loose.
I might have. Words continued to flow from me and his parents just kept staring. “Blue eyes, yes. That makes sense, that he would look like you guys. Genetically. Genotypes, phenotypes, that kind of thing,” I continued, nodding. “I think we studied fruit flies…” What? I wasn’t sure what I was saying and I wasn’t even sure that my two feet were on the ground, that my hands were holding the flute of sparkling cider, that it was my white dress—my wedding gown—fluttering around me in the breeze on our patio, the one that had been power-washed and cleared of brush and repaired and painted.
The whole day had been like that, me sort of, but also sort of me off on another plane of existence. I was floating through these experiences like I was watching someone else. There was a woman with perfect makeup and dark hair in an updo that Aubin had somehow created. She put a ring on Bowie’s finger and swore to be his wife and watched him smile. Then she’d circled her arms around his neck and kissed him and the guests, all four of them, clapped but they hadn’t even mattered. All that was important to her was the county clerk saying, “Congratulations to the bride and groom, now husband and wife!”
And we were.
“Hey there, honey.” Bowie suddenly stood behind me, moving as lithely as he usually did on the feet that I was sure would be excellent to dance with. “How are my mom and dad treating you?”
“We’re getting along fine,” I said, which I wasn’t sure was true. They didn’t seem to like me much, or maybe they were just as overwhelmed by all this as I was. It was a lot for anyone take in—certainly not as much as Aubin’s wedding in the giant ballroom with the women in huge dresses and the live band playing, the buffet tables laden with lobster tails and lamb, and the flowers decadently displayed in silver urns. Good Lord, those had been expensive.
No, it wasn’t that kind of wedding, but with my sister and Bowie in charge of things, it had been perfect and everything had gone smoothly. The biggest surprise to me had been Bowie’s hair: he’d come home the day before with the ponytail gone. “Bet’s over,” he’d casually mentioned as I marveled at his new look. If it was possible, he was even cuter.
On top of his perfect hair, my dress was perfect, his suit was perfect, and the rings were perfect. Aubin had taken me to shop for his, a simple, silver band with our wedding date and initials engraved inside it (she’d insisted). And a few days before that, Bowie and I had been lying in the bed we mostly shared now and he’d mentioned, “I guess I should have given this to you before now.”
“What is it?” But then I’d seen the little, velvet box and I’d known. “You didn’t have to get me a ring.”
“No? I’m pretty sure that’s the tradition,” he’d answered, and opened it. “This one is a diamond.”
Good Lord, it sure was. It was large enough that I blinked, momentarily blinded by the sparkle. “Are you serious?”
Yes, he was. “Here you go.” He picked up my left hand and slid it onto my finger and we both goggled at it. Well, I goggled as he nodded, satisfied. “Now we’re all clear,” he mentioned.
“Clear?”
“It’s clear to everyone that we’re getting married,” he explained, and I understood. Our wedding was a signal to Ward that I was not available for his abuse any longer, that was all it was. The ring was a very large, beautiful, expensive signal. But I would give it back to Bowie when we split, and maybe he could sell it or have the stone reset when he found the right woman to marry.
“I also got this, because it reminded me of you.” He gave me another box and there was a necklace inside, a simple chain with a heart pendant. “It’s amber,” he said. “It’s like the color of your eyes, brown but with all those other pretty colors mixed in, and so warm. I’m not very poetic, but when I saw this charm I thought right of you.” He nodded and I held up my ponytail as he clasped it around my neck. He touched it, gently resting his fingertips on my collarbone before he nodded again and lay back down.
