Caroline Cross - The Notorious Groom

Her expression went from puzzled to indignant in the blink of an eye. “I didn’t!”

“Not even to Miss Brown at the library?”

She flushed. “Oh, that.”

“Yeah. That.”

“But it doesn’t count,” she protested. “Not really.”

“How do you figure?”

She rolled her eyes. “‘Cuz Miss Brown’s different. She’s really nice. And she really listens when you tell her stuff, but she never gossips. And she likes me for me—not so she can be friends with you. Besides, the only reason I said anything—at least at first—was ’cuz I needed to know how to spell something. You can’t look it up if you don’t know how to spell it,” she finished earnestly.

“I suppose that’s true,” he said, more than a little taken aback by her obvious regard for Norah. “Just out of curiosity, what was the word?”

For the first time, she looked uneasy. “Bankruptcy,” she mumbled, avoiding his gaze.

“Bankruptcy? Where the hell did you hear about that?”

“Oooh. You swore.” She stuck out her hand. “Pay up.”

“Chelsea,” he warned.

She pouted. “Pay up or I’m not saying another word.”

Silently cursing the weak moment when he’d agreed to her scheme to cure him of using profanity by charging him twenty-five cents for every expletive, he stalked across the room, snatched up the jeans he’d worn the night before and tossed her two quarters. “Okay. Now answer the damn question.”

She sent him a reproachful look but complied. “I heard it from you. You were on the phone talking to Uncle Joe. Usually I don’t pay attention ’cuz it’s just about cars and engines and sports and stuff, but this time you sounded so worried...” Her voice trailed off. “I never heard you sound like that.”

And here he’d thought he was doing such a good job shielding her from the gravity of their situation. “Ah, Chelse. You should have said something.”

“I couldn’t! I didn’t want you to think I was ease... eades—”

“Eavesdropping?”

“Yeah. Plus I know you think I’m only a kid and you don’t want me to worry. But then Sarah’s mom told Sarah we might have to move, and Sarah told me, and I don’t want to. I like it here. I don’t want it to be the way it was...before. So I thought...maybe, if I told Miss Brown about it, she might help.” She cocked her head consideringly. “How come you know I talked to her, anyway?”

“Miss Brown—” he felt strange referring to Bunny-Boo so formally “—came to see me.”

“Really?” Her eyes lit up. “Does she want to give us some money? She said she’d try to think of a way to help, and everybody knows she’s got lots.”

Eli stared at her, at a loss for words. “No,” he managed finally.

Chelsea’s thin shoulders slumped. She glanced dejectedly at the toe of one small sneaker. “Oh.”

“And even if she did offer money, I wouldn’t take it, baby. Things are a little tough right now, but we’re going to be all right. I promise.”

She didn’t look convinced but nodded anyway. “Okay.” Her brow creased. “But...what did she want?”

He hesitated, not quite certain how Chelsea would take the news. “Believe it or not, she wanted us to get married.”

Her head snapped up. “Really? Wow! That’s awesome! So are you going to do it?”

He stifled the urge to roll his eyes. “No, I’m not.”

“But why not?”

For a split second he was tempted to blurt out the truth. Because I’m not the marrying type. And even if I was, the last person on earth I’d pick for a wife would be Bunny-Boo Brown, whose idea of a good time is probably rearranging a card catalog.

Yet one look at Chelsea’s trusting blue eyes made him realize the need for a little diplomacy. He cleared his throat. “Because,” he explained, “Miss...Brown and I don’t love each other. Heck, we barely even know each other. And it’s not like it would be a real marriage. It would only be a temporary one, for the summer—”

“That’s okay.” Chelsea gestured expressively. “Lots of my friends’ parents are divorced. And this way I wouldn’t feel bad when things were over ’cuz I’d know what was going on. And we’d have a really neat place to live this summer, with a yard and trees for Oliver and—”

“No.”

“But—”

“No. And that’s all there is to it.”

She gave him her offended look and fell silent—for all of ten seconds. “Eh?”

“What?”

“How come Miss Brown asked you? I mean...I know why we should marry her.” The look she flashed him was eloquent. “But why does she want to marry us?”

He shrugged. “It’s a legal thing.”

“What kind of legal thing?”

“It has to do with her grandfather’s will.”

“What about it?”

“She has to get married or she loses her house,” he admitted reluctantly.

“But that’s terrible! Poor Miss Brown! She must feel really awful. Willow Run’s so cool.”

He felt a flicker of surprise. “You’ve been there?”

“Sure. Me and Sarah go visit sometimes. Miss Brown likes us to come. She’s all alone, you know.” She stared at him meaningfully. “Remember how lonely you were before you had me to keep you company?”

Great It wasn’t bad enough that until a few minutes ago he’d been totally ignorant of a significant part of his daughter’s life. Now he was supposed to feel guilty about Norah’s solitary status, too. “Maybe we could get her a kitten,” he murmured.

“Eli!”

“Let it go, Chelse,” he said, starting to get exasperated. “Miss Brown is planning to ask someone else, so there’s no reason to get all worried.”

“But, Eli! I don’t think she’s ever even been on a date. What if she picks somebody awful?”

The specter of Nick Carpetti rose up to haunt him. He pushed it away. “That’s not any of our business.”

“But she’s my friend,” Chelsea said stubbornly. “And you always say that if you want to have a friend, you have to be a friend.” She squared her deceptively dainty shoulders and stood even straighter. “As Miss Brown’s friend, I think we ought to marry her.”

Eli shook his head. “No way.”

“But you always say—”

“Forget it, baby. No matter what I said, I’m not getting married.” He made a vow then and there to keep his mouth shut in the future.

Chelsea gave him a long, indecipherable stare, then slowly transferred her gaze to the floor. “Okay,” she said sadly. In a gesture strikingly similar to Norah’s earlier one, she let her shoulders slump before she turned and began to walk dejectedly away.

“Hey.” He followed as she trudged to the minuscule bedroom. “Where are you going?”

She sighed. “To lie down. I don’t feel very well.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What about the kitten? Don’t you want to call Sarah and give her the good news?”

“I’ll call her later. I don’t feel like it now.”

“Now listen, Chelse—”

“It’s okay. I know you’re only doing what you think is best. But it just wouldn’t be right for me to be happy when poor Miss Brown is going to feel so bad.” Refusing to look at him, she picked up her one surviving teddy bear and curled up on the bed with her back to the door.

Eli’s heart squeezed, even though logic warned that she was playing him like a violin. “Aw, jeez. Come on, baby. It’s not like she’s going to be homeless or something.”

Chelsea shrugged. “I don’t know...she is all alone in the world, you know.”

He was not going to let her make him feel guilty. After all, despite what his daughter seemed to think, he was not some sappy romantic hero who had nothing better to do than marry women to keep them off the street. Not that Norah was in danger of having to live on the street. No way. Although if she was, he supposed he would at least have to consider—