Tracy Kelleher – Family Be Mine (страница 2)

“I’m just so happy, but I think I’d better warn you.”

Sarah inhaled sharply.

“Your father did mention that he was planning on bringing up something along the lines of you finally turning your life around—as part of his toast, that is.”

Sarah groaned silently and placed her hand on her diaphragm. She pressed against the knot of indigestion that had taken up residence for the past few weeks. “I don’t suppose there’s any point in trying to talk to Dad ahead of time?” She looked at her mother’s dubious expression. “No, I didn’t think so. Well, I’m sure I have survived worse.”

She glanced at her watch again. “You know, he won’t get to say anything if I don’t remind the groom that it’s almost time. Zach is one of those people who never wears a watch, which is why he has me around, I guess.” Sarah hoisted up the full skirt of her dress and headed for the door.

“Can’t your father do that?” Penny said. “He’s just outside trying to pick up the baseball game on that little transistor radio I bought him for our tenth wedding anniversary. It’s practically a relic, but he insists it’s still perfectly good, even if it did confuse the security man at the airport.”

Sarah brushed past her mother. “Far be it from me to bother Dad before the seventh inning stretch.” She strode down the narrow hallway. Her satin ballet slippers moved soundlessly along the stone floor. In deference to Zach’s self-conscious concerns about being shorter, she had given up wearing anything remotely resembling heels. Even barefoot, the top of his head came just to her nose, and Sarah, all five-ten of her, had found herself compensating with a noticeable slump. As a physiotherapist, the poor posture irritated her no end. As a woman prepared to join her hand in holy matrimony, she had decided to compromise. She’d stand up straight at work and slump at home.

She reached the heavy wooden door to the chaplain’s office and knocked. Zach had a habit of meditating in anticipation of stressful events, and she didn’t want to interrupt any Zen-like trance too abruptly.

She didn’t hear anything, so she knocked again.

Penny tiptoed next to her daughter. “Sarah, isn’t it bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Sarah put her ear to the polished wood. “There’s no such thing as bad luck.” She called through the door, “Zach?”

She heard a muffled noise that sounded as if Zach had a cough drop lodged in his throat.

The strange muffled noise grew louder. She frowned. That didn’t sound like a cough drop crisis. She placed her hand on the doorknob, pushed the door ajar and looked in.

She froze.

“Sarah, Sarah, is something wrong with Zach?” her mother asked.

Sarah turned to shield her mother. She drew the door shut. “Mom.” She wet her lips, and then wet her lips again. “I think it might be better if I spoke to Zach alone.” There was a quaver in her voice.

From the other side of the door, there was the sound of furniture creaking and rocking.

“Nonsense. I’m the mother of the bride. If anyone should talk to the groom, it should be me, by tradition. I know, you don’t believe in these things, but I do. So, young lady, I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I can see it’s time I asserted a mother’s prerogative.” Penny led with her shoulder past her trembling daughter. She might be all of five foot three and out of her element in an Ivy League setting, but nobody should underestimate Penny Halverson, she of sturdy Norwegian immigrant stock. She not only made lutefisk, she enjoyed it.

“Zach,” her mother called, barging in. “It’s Penny, and it’s time you got…” Her voice trailed off. The creaking and rocking stopped.

Penny turned back to Sarah, her mouth ajar, pointing vaguely behind her.

Sarah nodded. The next thing she knew, her mother had crumpled to the floor.

“Oh, no.” Sarah crouched next to her. “Mom?” She reached for her hand.

From down the hall, she could hear a tapping of heels. “Hey, Sarah, this is your matron of honor doing her sacred duty. The natives are starting to get restless out there, you know. I think it’s time to get this show on the road.” It was Katarina.

Sarah glanced up before quickly going back to holding her mother’s limp hand. “There’s been a slight delay in the action. My mother just fainted. Could you go get Julie?” She bent down. “Mom? Mom? Can you hear me?”

Muffled voices arose from the other side of the door. Then the sound of footsteps followed by a tentative knock. “Sarah,” came a timid voice.

Sarah got up, turned the heavy iron key in the lock and pocketed it. She came back and squatted by her mother.

“What the…?” Katarina shifted her worried gaze from Penny to the sounds.

“Don’t bother with that,” Sarah said. “Just go get Julie. Mom may have hurt herself when she hit the deck.”

Less than a minute later, an Amazon-like woman came running down the hallway, the straight skirt of her teal bridesmaid dress hiked up around her thighs, her dress sandals dangling from her fingertips. As soon as she saw Sarah and her mother on the floor, she skittered to a stop and dropped to her knees. Her bridesmaid’s bouquet landed nearby.

Katarina followed closely behind. “How’s your mom?”

“She’s just starting to come to.” She looked over at Julie. “Your stockings are mincemeat, you know.”

“There’re worse things in life, believe me,” Julie said. She immediately redirected her focus to Penny. “Mrs. Halverson, can you hear me?”

Penny blinked her eyes slowly open and attempted to get up. “What…what happened?”

“Stay there, Mrs. Halverson. You fainted. I’m Sarah’s friend Julie. You remember me?” Penny nodded.

“I’m a doctor,” Julie went on, her voice calm but authoritative. “I just want to check you out before you try to get up.”

Penny swallowed. “I’m…I’m so embarrassed. I’ve never done anything like this before.”

Julie peered into Penny’s eyes and felt around her head and neck for bumps. “Do you remember what triggered the fainting?”

Sarah’s head shot up. “Ah-h, I wouldn’t go there if I were you.”

Just then an argument seemed to erupt from the other side of the door. Julie frowned. “What’s going on in—”

Heavy footsteps coming down the hallway interrupted her words. “Is everyone all right?” It was Ben, Katarina’s husband. Despite his oversize physique, he looked very smart in a custom-made tuxedo. Katarina must have put the screws to him because he’d even gone and gotten a haircut for the occasion.

Katarina put her hand up. “It’s okay, sweetie. I think we’ve got it under control.”

He looked at Penny lying slack in her daughter’s arms. “Well, it doesn’t look that way to me.” His baritone was full-bodied.

Immediately, there was a large thump from the other side of the door, followed by more scurrying noises.

All heads turned, even Penny’s.

Ben pushed his way toward the door.

Sarah stood. “No, let me.” She brandished the key. “Julie, could you hold my mom?”

“Okay. But you’re sure you don’t want to let Ben check it out?”

Sarah sniffed, slipped her grandmother’s watch up her wrist, and stepped around her mother. “No, I think it’s more like cue the bride.” She set her jaw, unlocked the wooden door and pushed it open.

Katarina and Julie craned their necks.

“Oh, my God! I don’t believe it!” Katarina exclaimed loudly.

“What a total and utter schmuck!” Julie shouted.

A startled voice escaped from the other side of the door. “Sarah, I can explain.”

“No, let me,” came a second voice.

Ben took a step forward, but Sarah held out an arm.

“Oh-h-h…” Penny swooned for a second time. Luckily, Julie was still holding her.

Sarah closed the door, relocked it and faced her friends, leaning against the wall. “You saw what I saw, right?” Sarah looked from one face to another.

Katarina nodded. “If you mean that they were untangling their naked selves from a Revolving Half Moon Pose, I would have to agree.”

Sarah bit her lip. “Actually, I think it was the Downward Facing Pigeon.”

Ben coughed. “Where I come from, we don’t need that many words to describe what they were doing. What I want to know is who’s in there with Zach?”

Julie patted Sarah’s mother on both cheeks to revive her.

“It’s Ken, his partner in his yoga practice,” Sarah said.

“Sarah?” the male voice on the other side of the door sounded plaintively. Penny moaned.

Sarah looked down. “Mo-om…oh…Mo-om, I’m so sorry.”

“Was, Zach with—with…another man?” Her mother was almost too frightened to ask. “Here? In Grantham?”

Julie blew air between her pursed lips. “And they would have still been going at it, totally oblivious to the outside world, if we hadn’t made so much noise.”