Judy Christenberry - The Bride's Best Man

“I didn’t mean to insult him. But I don’t know him. If he wants to take you out, he shouldn’t feel he has to drag me along. You’re old enough. You don’t need a chaperone.”

Dan laughed. “You’re a straight shooter, aren’t you, Shelby?”

“I try to be.”

“Okay, we’ll negotiate. I feel I owe Kay another dinner if she works all day with Pete tomorrow. But my chances of repaying Kay while abandoning you are nil. You know her. Am I right?”

“Yes, Dan, you’re right. I didn’t know if you knew Kay that well.”

“Even when she was young, she kept her dolls all together because she didn’t want any of them to think she was the favorite.”

Kay blushed and looked away from the table.

“Kay! You never told me that!”

“That wasn’t anything you needed to know,” her aunt said sheepishly.

Dan smiled at her. “Sorry to spill the beans on you, sweetheart. But it was something that had stuck in my memory.”

Shelby was beginning to see why Kay had remembered him for so long.

Kay managed to change the subject back to Pete’s original suggestion. Shelby allowed the three-sided conversation to flow for the rest of dinner without interruption. When they’d finished their meal, Dan leaned over and whispered something in Kay’s ear. Shelby noticed Pete’s complete attention was on Kay’s face.

“Oh, I’d love to,” Kay exclaimed.

Dan looked at Shelby. “I suggested to Kay that we take off our shoes and walk back to your hotel along the beach, instead of the way we came.”

Shelby frowned, unsure what her answer should be. What did Kay want her to do?

“Oh, Shelby, let’s! We can even wade a little bit. That would be heavenly,” Kay enthused.

“Of course, if that’s what you want.”

“Good!” Kay jumped up from her chair and stepped out of one shoe, then the other. Shelby did the same.

“You might as well sit down, ladies. Our shoes don’t come off as easily as yours,” Dan said with a smile.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Kay apologized. “I’m just so excited!”

“I don’t mind your excitement. It makes me feel young again.”

“You are young, Dan,” Kay said.

Dan grinned and shook his head. “Maybe you need your eyesight checked, sweetheart.” Then he stood with his shoes in one hand and offered his other hand to Kay. “Ready to go?”

“Oh, yes!” Kay exclaimed, seizing his hand.

Before Shelby could even think of moving, they were walking along the beach.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized to Pete. “I didn’t mean to hold you up.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Shelby stared at the young man. “I beg your pardon?”

“I haven’t been able to decide if you approve of Dan for Kay. You want to clue me in?”

Shelby gave him a look. “And I was trying to decide if you wanted Kay for Dan or for yourself! Want to clue me in?” she said, echoing his words.

“Lady, I don’t want to tell you anything!”

“Same here!”

With each retort they stepped closer to each other, until they were a foot apart. When she realized it, Shelby turned away, giving him her back in a wordless gesture that spoke volumes.

Neither said anything for a few moments, until Pete broke the icy silence. “Come on. We’re losing sight of them.”

He didn’t bother offering his hand, which was good because Shelby wouldn’t have accepted anything from him.

Shelby and Pete marched down the beach as if they had no knowledge of the other’s presence. Dan and Kay, on the other hand, drifted along the beach, hands linked, through the waves.

After the men had bade them good-night, the two ladies rode the elevator to their floor in silence. But as they entered their room, Kay exclaimed, “Wasn’t that a wonderful evening?”

“I assume that’s a rhetorical question,” Shelby said.

Kay came to an abrupt halt and stared at her niece. “You didn’t have a good time?”

“Dinner on the beach was nice. That certainly doesn’t happen in Cleveland.” Shelby avoided any comment about the men.

“Yes, that was lovely, wasn’t it?” Kay sat down on her bed. “What did you think of Dan?”

“He’s quite charming.”

“Yes, he always has been.” She had a faraway look in her eyes. “It almost seems like yesterday that I’d seen him.”

Unable to hold back any longer, Shelby blurted, “He must be twenty years older than you, Kay!” She hadn’t meant to say anything negative, but she couldn’t help it.

“No, he’s not! Dan is only twelve years older than me.”

“And you’ve been writing for fifteen years?”

“Well, that’s when it first began, but we didn’t write much until after I moved out of Cordelia’s house.”

“Mom didn’t approve?”

The dreamy look fled Kay’s face. “No,” she said in a clipped tone.

“Why?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m going to bed. I think the time change is catching up with me.”

She found her nightgown and went into the bathroom, leaving Shelby sitting on her bed. She crossed her arms over her chest. So her mother hadn’t approved of Dan? That was interesting. Her mother hadn’t had high standards, so what had he done? Robbed a bank?

She opened the sliding door and walked out on the lanai. The gentle breeze and lapping waves distracted her from her thoughts for a minute. Then her mind returned to the contemplation of Kay and Dan Jackson.

The man was charming, as she’d said, but not so charming that he sounded like a snake oil salesman. He appeared intelligent and patient. Certainly more than her. Impatience was one of her biggest faults. Darn it, the only thing she could find wrong with Dan was his age.

“I’m out of the bath, Shelby,” Kay called out.

When Shelby didn’t come in at once, Kay came closer to the lanai. “Aren’t you tired?”

“Yes, I suppose so.” Shelby moved back into the room. “Is it okay if I leave the door open a little so we can hear the waves?”

“Oh, yes, I think that’s a very relaxing sound.”

“Me, too.”

After they were both in bed, Shelby intended to question Kay about her relationship with Dan. But she discovered her aunt Kay was already asleep. Apparently nothing was bothering her conscience. And nothing should. She was a wonderful person, in spite of the tragedies that had surrounded her life.

Kay’s parents had died in a car crash when she was ten. That was when she’d moved into Cordelia’s home. Shelby had been born that same year. Cordelia had turned Kay into a babysitter at once. Though Shelby had vague memories of her father’s presence, she didn’t remember much about him. But Kay’s presence in her life was clear. Together they went through the trauma of Cordelia’s divorce and the ensuing years. Shelby remembered her mother’s hysterics before every one of her father’s visits. Now she could admire his courage, but it hadn’t lasted long. The visits soon stopped.

She remembered being upset when she didn’t see him again, when she couldn’t picture him in her mind. But as she listened to her mother describe him in mean, hateful words, soon it became easier to forget him. Cordelia loathed him so intensely, she had Shelby’s name changed back to her maiden name, Cook. It was as if all memory of her father had been erased.

Then, after her mother remarried, Shelby learned men were untrustworthy. It was a life lesson she’d rather forget but would always remember.

Banishing the memories, she listened to the waves and let them rock her to sleep.

Morning had barely dawned when Shelby awoke. A peek at the bedside clock told her it was only six-thirty, but the time change was wreaking its usual havoc.