Нора Робертс - Happy Ever After

He knew very well Parker could and did adjust her manner and conversation to any sort of social situation. But it was more than that here. He knew, just as he’d known when they’d shared that first pizza, that she was relaxed and enjoying herself.

They talked about places they’d both been, places his parents had traveled before he’d been born, when he’d been too young to remember, others he barely remembered.

They talked about her business, and his mother’s laugh bolted out time and again when Parker relayed some weird or funny anecdote about an event.

“I’d never have the patience for it. All those people calling day and night, whining, bitching, demanding. Hell, I want to pop one of Mal’s customers at least twice a day.”

“Parker doesn’t pop them,” Malcolm put in.“She crushes them like bugs.”

“Only when absolutely necessary.”

“What are you going to do about Linda Elliot, or whatever her last name is now?” When Parker hesitated, Kay shrugged. “None of my business.”

“No, it’s not that. I’m not sure, really. It’s going to be tricky. I have crushed her like a bug, which gave me tremendous satisfaction. But she’s Mac’s mother.”

“She’s a slut who thinks she’s better than everybody else.”

“Jesus, Ma.”

“No, you’re absolutely right,” Parker said to Kay. “She is a slut who not only thinks she’s better than everybody else, but has a persecution complex on top of it. I’ve despised her all of my life, so there’s nothing you could say about her that would offend me.” Parker sampled another bite of lasagna and lifted her eyebrows at Malcolm. “What? I’m not allowed to despise anyone?”

“Just doesn’t seem your style.”

“She used and emotionally abused one of my closest friends as long as I can remember. She deserved a lot more than what I was finally able to give her. But . . .” Parker moved her shoulders, drank some wine. “She’ll come to the wedding. She’ll want to show off the new husband, flaunt it. She’s currently barred from the estate, but I’ll have to rescind the directive for that.”

“You, what, banished her?”

Parker smiled at Malcolm.“Yes.Very satisfying.And believe me, she’ll be handled at the wedding. I’m not sure how yet, but I’ll lock her in the basement before I let her spoil one minute of that day for Mac and Carter.”

Kay pursed her lips, nodded. “I bet you would. If you need any help on that, let me know. I’ve never had any use for her.”

“I didn’t realize you and Linda knew each other.”

“Oh, she wouldn’t know me from a naked Eve, but our paths crossed here and there. Used to come in for dinner when I worked at the restaurant. And she went to plenty of the parties where I helped out.”

Kay moved her shoulders as Malcolm often did to signal “no big deal.”

“She’s the type who looks right through you when she’s snapping her fingers for another drink or faster service, and doesn’t quibble to complain about the help when you’re standing right there.”

Parker smiled, and there was something fierce in her eyes.“Kay, would you like to come to Mac’s wedding?”

Kay blinked. “Well, I barely know the girl, or Carter either.”

“I’d very much like if you’d come, if you’d be a guest in my home for my friend’s wedding.”

“To help bury the body?”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. But if it does . . .”

“I’ll bring the shovel.” Kay clanked her glass enthusiastically to Parker’s.

“You two are a little scary,” Malcolm observed.

At the end of the evening, after the meal was cleared, after dessert and coffee—and when his mother made apple pie from scratch she was serious—she waved him and Parker off. “I’ll deal with the dishes in my own good time.”

“Everything was wonderful. Really wonderful.Thank you.”

Kay gave Malcolm a smug smile over Parker’s shoulder when Parker kissed her cheek.

“See that he brings you back.Take her up and show her your place, Mal.”

“Sure. ’Night, Ma.Thanks for dinner.”

He walked Parker around to the steps leading up to his apartment. “You gave her a really good time.”

“It was mutual.”

“She likes you, and she’s careful about who she lets in.”

“Then I’m flattered.”

He paused outside his door. “Why did you invite her to the wedding?”

“I think she’ll enjoy it. Is that a problem?”

“No, and she will. But something else was going on in there.” He tapped a finger to her temple. “Something else when you asked her to come.”

“All right, yes. Linda hurts people. It’s what she does, whether deliberately or carelessly. Your mother strikes me as a woman who doesn’t bruise easily, but Linda managed to. So she should come to Mac’s wedding as a welcomed guest while Linda will be there only out of duty, and will never be welcomed in my home again.”

“That manages to be calculated and kind at the same time.”

“Multitasking is my specialty.”

“No question.” He ran a hand down her arm, lightly. “You’re careful about who you let in.”

“Yes.”

He studied her a moment longer. “I don’t bring women here. It’s . . . weird,” he added, gesturing toward the house.

“I guess it could be.”

He unlocked the door. “Come on in.”

It wasn’t colorful like his mother’s, and came very close to spartan.And it showed an efficiency that spoke directly to Parker’s sensibilities.

“Isn’t this clever? I imagined a couple of small rooms, and instead it’s like one open space.A kind of great room, with a kitchen tucked in the corner, and your living space angled off by the furniture.”

She shook her head at the enormous flat-screen dominating the wall. “What is it with men and the size of their TVs?”

“What is it with women and shoes?”

“Touchй.”

She wandered over, saw the small, and again efficient and streamlined, bedroom through the open pocket door, wandered back again.

“I like the pencil sketches.” The black-framed grouping on the wall held wonderfully detailed street scenes.

“Yeah, they’re okay.”

She took a step closer, peered at the signature in the bottom corner. “Kavanaugh.”

“My father did them.”

“They’re wonderful, Malcolm. It’s a good piece of him to have with you. Can you draw?”

“No.”

“Neither can I.” She turned, smiled at him.

“Stay.”

“I have an overnight bag in the trunk of my car.” She opened her purse, took out her keys. “Would you mind?”

He took the keys, jingling them as he studied her. “Where’s your phone?”

“In my purse. I turned it off before dinner.”

He leaned in to kiss her. “Answer your calls, then turn it back off. I’ll get your bag.”

She pulled out her phone when he went out, but took another moment to look at his space.

Ordered, efficient, she thought again, and very spare.The space, she thought, of a man used to moving on, and doing so with little fuss.

Shallow roots, she mused, and hers were so very, very deep.

She wasn’t sure, not at all sure, just what that meant.

Pushing it away, she turned on her phone and began to work her way through texts and voice mail.

MALCOLM ARRIVED AT THE CRASH SITE WELL AFTER THE COPS, THE fire department, the paramedics. As a concession to the cold, light rain, he yanked up the hood of his sweatshirt as he walked to the yellow tape and flares.

They’d removed the bodies—he had no doubt there had been bodies when he saw the crushed and twisted mass that had once been a BMW.

The second car had taken an ugly hit, but could probably be salvaged.

With some luck, whoever had been in the Lexus should have walked, limped, or been carried away still breathing.

His job was to tow away what was left.

Over a road slick from an incessant drizzle, the cop lights shone through the shifting mist onto broken and glittering safety glass, skid marks, bent and blackened chrome, blood, and, more horribly, a single shoe not yet recovered from the shoulder of the road. It etched a picture in his mind, one of fear and pain and shocking loss.

The accident reconstruction team was already at work, but he could put it together for himself.

Wet road, a thin haze of fog. BMW, driving too fast, swerves, skids, loses control, crosses the center line, clips Lexus. Goes airborne, flips, slams, rolls twice, maybe three times.

Yeah, given the weight, the velocity, the angles, figure three times.

Somebody goes through the windshield, probably a passenger in the backseat of the mangled M6 who hadn’t been wearing a seat belt. If there’d been a front-seat passenger, he or she would’ve been crushed.The driver wouldn’t have been any luckier.

He could see the fire department had sliced through the BMW, using the Jaws of Life like a can opener, but the odds they’d pulled anyone alive out of that violent wreck were next to nil.

He’d seen pictures of the car he’d been driving after his wreck, and got a flash of it now. It hadn’t looked much better than the M6. But then stunt cars were built to wreck, built to protect the driver when they did, unless somebody up the chain decided to cut a few corners, save a few bucks.

He hoped the passengers had been unconscious or dead before that slam and roll.

He hadn’t been.And he’d felt it all, the shocking pain, the brutal tearing and snapping. Felt it all before he’d gone to black. If he let himself, he could feel it all still, so the smart thing to do was not let himself.

He stood, hands in his pockets, waiting for the cops to clear him to tow away the destruction.

WHILE MALCOLM STOOD ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, BLOOD AND pain in his mind, Parker smiled at the roomful of women chattering and laughing their way through the final stages of Mac’s bridal shower.

“We done good.” Emma slipped an arm around Parker’s waist.

“We done really good. She looks so happy.”

“I didn’t want to say it before in case it tempted fate, but I worried right up until the last minute that Linda would hear about this and crash.”

“You weren’t alone there. The advantage of having her living in NewYork now is she doesn’t hear everything, and having a new, rich husband keeps her busy.”

“May it last,” Emma prayed aloud.“This whole evening’s been great—and Linda-less. Everyone’s had such a good time.”

“I know. Look at Sherry. She still has that new bride glow, and the way she’s talking to your sister—”

“Pregnancy really agrees with Cecelia, doesn’t it?”

“It does, and the way they have their heads together, I think Sherry’s already wondering how it would agree with her. I think I should take over as photographer for Laurel. She’s—”

“No.”

“I don’t see why she should—”

“Parker, we talked about this.” Emma turned.“Laurel got voted in because I get too distracted and end up talking to everybody, and you . . . Well, you take too damn long trying to make the perfect composition or whatever so you end up getting next to nothing.”

“But they’re very good next-to-nothings.”

“Exceptional, but we’ll take less exceptional bunches.”

Parker sighed in defeat. She really liked taking pictures. “If we must. I guess we should mingle again. People are going to start leaving soon.” She slipped her phone out of her pocket when it vibrated. “It’s a text from Del.”

“Probably wants to know if it’s clear for him and Jack and Carter to come home.”

“No. He says there’s a bad accident on North, south of the parkway. Traffic’s diverted and backed up. We should let anyone planning to use that route know, and that they’d be back in a couple hours.”

“I hope no one was hurt,” Emma replied, then smiled as her mother beckoned her from across the room. “I’ll help pass the word.”

Like a good party, it tipped over its scheduled time, involved numerous stragglers, and left its hostesses limp with happy exhaustion.

“Now I want champagne.” Parker grabbed a bottle and poured. “You sit, Mrs. G.”

“I believe I will.” Mrs. Grady plopped down, slipped off her party shoes, stretched out her legs. “Fill that up.”

Obediently, Parker filled glasses to the rim while Laurel cut slices from what was left of the triple-tiered buttercream cake she’d covered with free-form chocolate petals.

“Golly. Look at those fabulous prizes!” Mac beamed blurrily at the gift table, where Parker had carefully arranged gifts as Mac had opened them. “It’s like I won a small, tasteful department store. Did I thank everybody?”