Carole Halston - Separate Bedrooms...?

Roy Xavier spoke from behind Neil. “Hey, I object. The only man who’s giving my woman a massage at bedtime from now on is me.”

“Oh, hi, Roy,” Cara said, her voice lazy with relaxation. “Just give me another minute or two of this heaven.”

“We’re kind of short on time, baby,” he replied.

“Are we? Too bad. Thanks, Neil.” With a sigh, she pulled away reluctantly, and Neil dropped his hands just as reluctantly.

“How are things going, Roy?” he asked, striving to sound genial. Hearing Xavier address Cara as baby in a tone of ownership had grated on Neil’s nerves.

“Couldn’t be better,” the other man replied. His clipped tone jarred with his usual smooth salesman’s manner.

Cara didn’t seem to notice anything amiss. “I’ll be about thirty minutes late tomorrow morning, Neil. I have to run by the printer’s on my way to work and look at some sample wedding invitations.”

“Take your time,” he said. “You need to slow down a little. You’re running yourself ragged getting your wedding organized.”

“Ready, baby?” Xavier drew Cara close and kissed her on the mouth. He would have turned it into a lingering kiss if Cara had cooperated, but she didn’t, Neil noticed, his fists clenching with repugnance.

“I just need to get my handbag. Bye, Neil.”

“See you tomorrow.” Neil averted his head, fixing his gaze on the display instead of watching them leave together, Xavier’s arm around Cara’s waist, staking possession.

The guy wasn’t nearly good enough for Cara. Why couldn’t she see what a mistake she was making? She was just settling for Roy Xavier because she was ready to marry somebody, but mainly because she so badly wanted to make her grandmother happy. Neil was convinced that the business about Sophia’s dream had tipped the scales for Cara.

He didn’t know how he was going to force himself to attend the wedding. Just the thought of watching the ceremony made Neil want to do something to intercede.

Cara was making a mistake. She wasn’t going to be happy as Roy Xavier’s wife. No way.

“Roy, it’s fine to give me a peck on the lips to say hello in front of Neil, but I wish you wouldn’t kiss me as though we had privacy,” Cara said after she and Roy had left the store. “It embarrasses me and makes Neil uncomfortable.” Her cheeks still felt flushed with her annoyance.

“He looked way too comfortable putting his hands all over you,” Roy replied, his voice angry.

“Don’t be ridiculous! He didn’t have his ‘hands all over me’! He was massaging my neck and shoulders. Neil has never touched me in any sexual way.”

“Every time I come into the store, he’s hugging you or patting you. I don’t like it one bit.”

“That’s an exaggeration. Even if it were true, Neil and I are like brother and sister.”

Roy grunted skeptically.

They got into his car. Cara wanted to say more, but she decided to let the subject drop for now. Before she could start up a friendlier exchange, Roy spoke in a more conciliatory tone.

“Let’s don’t fight, baby. But try to see things from my point of point. How would you like walking into the dealership and seeing me being familiar with one of the secretaries?”

“I wouldn’t like it. But you haven’t had a lifelong friendship with one of them, have you?”

Roy held up his hand, and Cara interpreted the gesture as signaling the end of the discussion. She stayed silent while he pulled out onto the street, deciding to let him start up a different conversation.

“Griffin was right about one thing.” Roy took his right hand off the wheel and rested it on her thigh. “You are running yourself ragged organizing our wedding and working a full-time job. I say go ahead and quit the job now. Give him two weeks’ notice, of course.”

“Quit my job?” Cara was staring at him in utter surprise.

“We both want to start a family right away, right? Didn’t we agree on that?” He rubbed her thigh suggestively. “At the risk of bragging, I expect to make you pregnant during our honeymoon.”

“I never said anything about quitting my job when I got pregnant. I’m sure Neil will give me maternity leave the last month or two, if I need to take leave.”

“You’ll have plenty to do to keep you busy without working. Things like decorating a nursery for the baby. Plus keeping house and cooking meals. Remember, I warned you I’m an old-fashioned kind of guy who likes the idea of being the breadwinner.”

“You warned me you like being the main bread-winnner, which is okay with me. But I don’t think I would like being totally dependent. You have to realize I’ve worked and earned my own spending money since I was fifteen.”

“Then get another job. Dammit, I don’t want you working for Griffin.” He took his hand away from Cara’s thigh, just moments before she shoved it away.

“I can’t believe you’re jealous of Neil! That’s so ridiculous!”

“The guy’s against you marrying me, Cara. I can tell.”

Cara opened her mouth to object and then pressed her lips closed when she realized she couldn’t honestly speak a denial. Roy looked over at her knowingly. “I’ll bet he tried to talk you out of accepting my marriage proposal, didn’t he?”

“Whatever kind of advice Neil gave me prior to our becoming engaged, his only concern was my happiness. Ever since I told him I was going to marry you, he hasn’t said the first negative word. And he would never do or say anything to undermine our marriage once we’re husband and wife. Neil’s too honorable a person.”

“He’s got you convinced he’s some kind of saint. That’s for certain,” Roy muttered.

“Darn it, I wanted the two of you to be good friends.”

“Fat chance.”

Cara sighed, her anger ebbing and leaving her deflated. “This puts a damper on everything, Roy. My job is a big part of my identity, just like your job is a big part of who you are.”

“But you’re going to change your identity and become my wife, Cara. You’re going to become the mother of our kids.”

“And you’re going to become my husband and the father of our kids.”

He sucked in a breath and expelled it noisily. “Cara, you’re not telling me you’d back out of marrying me before you’d quit working for Griffin?”

“I’m saying it’s unreasonable for you to expect me to quit a job I love.”

The quarrel continued until they arrived at the church. Cara was so upset that she could barely concentrate on anything Father Kerby said during the pre-marital counseling session.

Afterwards Roy made a stiff offer to take her out to supper, and Cara refused, asking him to drive her back to the store where she’d left her car. He complied, obviously still furious at her.

Neil’s garage doors were raised. Cara glimpsed him bent over beneath the raised hood of the old car he was restoring, a 1954 Corvette. Following the same instinct that had led her to his house, she pulled into the driveway and got out.

He straightened up, wiping his hands on a rag as she approached. Country and western music played on a portable boom box sitting on a shelf. Cara was reminded of the many times she’d gone looking for him at different stages in her life, when she was down in the dumps about something and needed to talk. Often she’d found him tinkering with his car in his parents’ garage.

“Hi, there,” Neil greeted her now. His tone was gentle and his gaze perceptive. It wasn’t necessary to tell him she felt lousy. He was reading that message in her face and body language, she knew.

“Hi. Just like the old days, huh? Except your taste in music has changed. You used to listen to rock and roll.”

He shrugged. “Occasionally I tune in a classic rock station.”