Page 157 of Confessions

“How’s he gonna beat this?” Weldon asked as he, with his cane, hobbled across the upper balcony and stared down at the party below. A curved staircase swept from one floor to the next and a string quartet played love songs while waiters scurried back and forth to the kitchen. “When the girl gets married, I mean. How can he top this spread?”

“He’ll find a way,” Carlie predicted. She let her gaze wander through the bejeweled guests, searching for Ben.

“Always does,” Thelma agreed as they used the elevator and rode down to the festivities.

“He’ll have to rent the damned Ritz,” Weldon grumbled. The elevator doors opened. Her father, moving stiffly with his “damned walking stick,” headed toward the open bar.

“Should he drink?” Carlie asked.

“I don’t know.” Thelma threw up her hands. “But he’s been such a bear to live with since he gave up cigarettes and chewing tobacco, I’m not going to be the one to tell him to lay off the drinks. At least not tonight.”

“All right. We’ll let him cut loose a little,” Carlie said with a smile.

Even though she’d spent two hours in the beauty shop and was wearing a shimmery new green dress, Thelma looked tired. Her days of working at the soda counter and evenings of taking care of her husband were starting to tell. Between her shifts she’d had to run Weldon back and forth to the hospital for physical therapy and even though Carlie helped out when she could, the strain was beginning to show on Thelma’s pretty face.

“Come on. You, too. Have a glass of champagne,” Carlie encouraged her mother. “I’m driving, so you can have all the fun you want. Come on. All your friends are here. It’s a party.”

“Fun—” her mother started to complain, but changed her mind. “All right. Don’t mind if I do.” Her lips twitched and she headed off to the champagne fountain.

Carlie saw people she’d known all her life and stopped to speak to old classmates and friends, but she couldn’t help searching the crowd, hoping to find Ben. She allowed herself one fluted glass of champagne and mingled with the other guests.

“Glad you could make it.” Thomas Fitzpatrick’s voice was a gentle whisper behind her.

“Wouldn’t miss the social event of the season,” she said, turning to face him. His wife, June, stood fifty feet away, her inflexible back turned toward her husband as she chatted with a wasp-thin woman in purple and an elderly man. The woman was a reporter for the Gold Creek Clarion. The man with her owned the newspaper.

“Oh, this isn’t the event of the season,” Thomas said proudly. “Just you wait until the wedding. That will be something. Oh, here they come now.” He touched Carlie lightly on her upper arm and pointed to the top of the stairs where Toni, in a shimmering silver dress, was speaking with a tall blond man of around thirty. An engagement ring with a huge, sparkling diamond graced Toni’s hand.

“That’s Phil,” Thomas said as he gazed at his future son-in-law. “Phil Larkin, attorney, stockbroker and financial whiz kid.”

“You like him?”

“Couldn’t be more pleased if I’d handpicked him myself, which, come to think of it, I did. Introduced the two of them last year. Phil’s father—you remember Kent Larkin—was a state senator in the sixties, and Phil’s ambitious. He could follow in Kent’s footsteps.”

“I suppose,” she said, shifting to put a little distance between her body and his. Thomas dropped his hand from her arm as casually as if he hadn’t known he was still touching her.

Thomas had always been interested in politics. Just before Roy was killed, Thomas had considered running for office himself. Now, if his future son-in-law’s dreams were realized, Thomas would have an ear to the state legislature and a doorway open to push in his ideas. It all depended upon Phil and how much he wanted to please his soon-to-be father-in-law.

“When’s the wedding?” Carlie asked, trying to make small talk.

“Around Christmas, if all goes as planned.” His lips tightened a bit as he watched his daughter. Toni flung her blond curls over her shoulder rebelliously and with a pout, started down the stairs without Phil. He scurried to catch up to her, his face red in embarrassment. Toni didn’t seem to care. She mingled with the crowd, smiled and seemed to ignore the man of her dreams.

A blast of February wind seeped inside and Carlie glanced behind her as one of the pairs of French doors opened. Ben, dressed in a black tuxedo, walked into the room and Carlie’s heart kicked. His hair was slightly mussed from the wind, his cheeks dark, his expression thunderous. As if he knew exactly where she was, he glared in her direction, grabbed a drink off the tray near the door and took a long swallow. His gaze shifted for a second on her companion and his scowl deepened as he began threading his way through the crowd.

So he was jealous. Carlie didn’t know whether to be angry or flattered. She started to excuse herself from Thomas and meet Ben, but Ben was intercepted by a petite woman with straight brown hair and a skin-tight white dress. Tracy. Carlie’s face seemed suddenly tight. Thomas whispered something to her, but she missed it.

Tracy wound her arm through Ben’s and beamed up at him.

Ben leaned over to whisper in Tracy’s ear. She tossed back her head and laughed lightly, as if she adored him.

Carlie’s heart seemed to turn to stone. She told herself to relax, Ben was only talking to Tracy. She had no rational reason to feel the jealousy that coiled around her insides. Besides, if anything, she should admire Tracy. She’d overcome the stigma of being an unwed parent and was struggling to raise her child and all Carlie could

think about was the fact that she was already irrevocably tied to Ben. Somehow, some way, Carlie had to learn to deal with Tracy or else she had to accept the fact that she had no future with Ben.

Rather than watch Tracy beam raptly up at Ben another second, Carlie turned her attention back to Thomas. There was a change in his tone and she wondered if he noticed that she hadn’t been listening. He touched her again, lightly on the hand and she managed a tight smile.

“Friend of yours?” he asked when she glanced back to find Ben still in conversation with Tracy.

“I’ve known Ben a long time,” she hedged.