Loe raamatut: «The Marriage Adventure»

CHAPTER ONE

THERE he was—her mother’s dream son-in-law.

He hadn’t noticed her yet, and Maria paused in the hallway, looking him over as he sat there on the living room sofa.

It had been a while.

He’d been wandering the world, while she’d been living a quiet life just a few blocks away from her childhood home. He’d been rafting down glacial rivers and hang gliding from mountain tops while she’d gradually removed herself from her parents’ adventures and settled down to a calm, quiet life, taking art classes and spending her evenings with a good book or a movie, a cat or two by her side. There was much to be said for living vicariously.

But now Eddie was back.

He was sitting alone in the living room, which probably meant her mother had excused herself to help her father resolve a crisis in the kitchen. His profile was to her as he stared into the fire.

He was looking good. He hadn’t changed much. He was a few years older, but his hair was still thick and dark, long enough to brush his shoulders. That was how it usually had been. Once in a while Eddie would get his hair cut really short—and then he didn’t bother with it for months and months. She didn’t like long hair on men. She always thought it made them look feminine, sissy and pretentious.

Except Eddie. Anything looked good on Eddie.

Not that she should notice. She should be looking at him as a brother figure. Nothing more—but it hadn’t been that simple for a long time. Not since her hormones came out of hiding and started playing tricks on her.

In the determined spirit of playing a mischievous little sister, she sneaked into the room and came up behind him, intending to cover his eyes with her hands in an old childish game. But before she got that far, Eddie had twisted around and grabbed her wrists—and somehow she was flying through the air.

She landed on her back across the sofa, her head resting on his arm. She blinked up at him and worked on catching her breath. “Hello, Eddie. Long time no see. Welcome home.”

“Hello, Maria. Did you really think you could sneak up on me?”

His voice was like she remembered. Rough velvet, if there was such a thing. Sandpaper wrapped in silk.

Sexy.

Oh, damn it. So much for the brother figure.

She struggled to sit up, but his arm was across her middle, holding her in place. She grinned up at him. “Hey, I had to try. The way you always bragged about your honed reflexes…”

“Ah. So you wanted to see if I was getting old and decrepit yet?”

His eyes were dark. From a distance they seemed brown, but up close their color was revealed as a deep blue. It was an illusion she never got used to. “Age never crossed my mind. You may be over the hill, but it’s quite a long way down. Don’t worry.”

A smile hovered on his lips. “You’re rolling with me, remember?”

“Happy birthday, Eddie.”

“Happy birthday, Maria.”

They shared a birthday—five years apart. For a while, their parents had celebrated their birthdays together. Until, of course, Eddie became too old to share his birthday with a little girl.

The little girl had sulked quite a bit on that first birthday alone.

“You should let me go,” Maria said, pushing at his arm. “Mom and Dad still wouldn’t mind seeing us get married and live happily ever after, you know. Not a good idea to raise their hopes.”

Eddie grinned and tangled his fingers in a strand of her long hair. He seemed in no hurry to let her go, and well, she probably could escape if she wanted to, but she really was quite comfortable where she was. He pulled gently on her hair. “I’ve always liked to live dangerously.”

“I know you do. But I don’t, remember?”

“Still haven’t found your adventurer’s spirit, kiddo?”

Kiddo. Damn. She wasn’t twelve years old anymore. Couldn’t he see that? “I’m not a kid anymore. And I’m no longer searching for my adventurer’s spirit.”

An eyebrow lifted. An interesting view from this angle. “Really?”

“Yup.”

“Come clean with the folks and all?”

“Yup.”

“Brave of you.”

“Wisdom comes with maturity. Ouch! Stop pulling on my hair!”

“Sorry. Just checking for gray.”

Eddie teasing her. She was on familiar turf now. Still, she should probably get her head away from his chest.

Soonish.

“Oh, damn. You found it?”

“Found what?”

“That gray hair.”

His eyes warmed in amusement. He had tiny laughter lines, and the curve of his lips as he smiled was close to irresistible. She was in trouble.

Why hadn’t he stayed away for a few more years? She still hadn’t found her stable, calm, boring, stamp-collecting dream husband.

“You have one gray hair?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes. It was there this morning. I thought about pulling it out, but Mom’s superstitious. She always claimed seven new gray hairs grew in its place. So I decided to let it live.”

Eddie’s chest shook as he laughed. As she was pressed against it she couldn’t help but notice. His fingers brushed through the hair at her temple, sifting through it, as if in search for that lone gray ranger. “You could always get a magic marker and color it. I’m sure they make one in auburn.”

“Nah. I’ll let it live and grow old gracefully.”

“It’s your birthday, kiddo. Gray hair or not, why aren’t you out on the town with a hot date?”

“Why aren’t you?” she countered. She really should sit up now.

“I am,” he assured her. “Your mother told me I would be having dinner with the most beautiful girl in the world.”

Oh, jeez. “I see. Did she tell you the most beautiful girl was already married?”

Eddie’s gorgeous eyes went wide in shock. “You got married?”

She giggled as she used the opportunity and slid away from him. She moved to the other side of the sofa and smirked at him. “No. I’m not married. Yet. But Mom is. She’s the one who invited you to dinner, isn’t she?”

He glowered at her. “Tease. You had me worried there for a minute.”

“Aw, Eddie, no need. You know you’ve ruined me for all other men. No one else has ever thrown me over his shoulder and carried me down a mountain almost comatose after sunstroke.”

Eddie winked at her. Maria looked away and grimaced at herself. They should turn to good old-fashioned adult conversation. No more flirting. Not that she’d anything against flirting. It was all fine and well, but not with Eddie. Definitely not since he could make her insides flutter like that.

Sneaking up on him had been stupid. Now her face was flushed, her breathing was off, and the way he felt against her was imprinted on her memory.

Not good. Not good at all. Time to act like a serious grown-up.

“It’s been forever,” she said. “How’ve you been? Where have you been?”

He put an arm across the back of the sofa and shrugged, flicking his hair away from his face. “Here and there. Mostly there.”

“Imagine that,” she said dryly. “When did you get back? Been in town long?”

“Almost a week.”

Maria smiled ruefully. “For you, that’s quite a long stay.”

“I’m staying for a while, this time,” Eddie told her. “My nephew needs me. He’s my godson, remember?”

Maria nodded, surprised—and skeptical. Jenny’s beautiful little son had been diagnosed autistic last year. He was a challenging little boy—didn’t need much sleep and was on the go around the clock, getting bigger and stronger by the day. Jenny was starting a behavioral program at home, one that required a lot of time and effort. She had high hopes—but it would take a lot of work.

Yes—Jenny and Samuel desperately needed help, especially now that her husband had jumped ship, but for Eddie to settle down and become a professional uncle—it seemed almost absurd.

“I haven’t seen Jenny forever,” she said. “We speak on the phone occasionally, but we sort of lost touch after she got married. It’s a shame. I should give her a call this week.”

“Next week is better. She’s out of town with Samuel, doing some sort of a workshop to prepare for the new treatment program.”

Maria nodded. “I’ll call her next week, then. So, you might be here all summer?”

Eddie shrugged. “I’m staying a while. For now, your parents have hired me as a consultant for Intrepid Adventurers—and we’re approaching an agreement on things.”

Agreement? What kind of an agreement?

Before she could ask, Eddie was pointing at her. “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you. How’ve you been?”

“Fine. Great. I quite like life without adventurer’s spirit. Life is pretty good. Tell me—how are your parents doing? I haven’t seen them in years.”

Their parents had spent many vacations together—doing something exciting and thrilling. Maria had hated those vacations, everything from skiing to bungee-jumping.

Later, when she’d finally gotten up the nerve to tell her parents her true feelings about adventuring, they’d allowed her to stay behind, and she’d gotten to hang around at the cabin or the ski lodge or whatever lodgings were available. Life had become lovely. Finally, vacations she didn’t have to fear. She could curl up in an armchair with a book and hot chocolate, or sketch the scenery, or bundle up to build a snow army outside, or go for quiet walks and just let her mind wander.

She liked excitement to stay put inside her head. It was just the way she was, and she didn’t apologize for it any longer.

Eddie, on the other hand, had loved every minute of it. He’d come along on every single trip, and bit by bit Maria had become more and more irritated by the way her parents would look at him and then at her, as if thinking “why can’t she be more like Eddie?”

Almost unaware of what she was doing, Maria frowned. Eddie had always been perfect. The perfect son—only he wasn’t theirs. He was the boy next door, always brave and competent, laughing through danger when she was holding back tears, singing his way up a mountain while she was sweating and panting and wishing she’d been born to a pair of couch potatoes.

Her emotions had gone through a regular roller-coaster ride where Eddie was concerned. As a child she’d adored him when they were at home, when things were calm. She’d resented him during summer vacations when he’d been her parents’ surrogate son, the perfect one. She’d developed a huge crush on him in her teens, culminating in a mortifying incident when she was eighteen.

Since then she’d rarely seen him. He’d been away, adventuring all over the world. Her parents got regular postcards—always with a PS she’d come to depend on as one of the constants in life: Say hi to Maria for me.

“Mom and Dad are fine,” Eddie was saying. “They’re still in Egypt, no talk of returning anytime soon.” He tapped her shoulder. “But weren’t we talking about you?”

Maria crinkled her nose. “I’m boring, Eddie. Remember? Nothing remotely interesting about my life.”

Eddie was nice enough to chuckle, as if she’d made a joke instead of stated a fact. “Your mother tells me you’re working as an artist and a writer now.”

Maria felt like snorting. She could imagine just what her mother had said, and Eddie had probably done some heavy editing on her precise words. She glanced toward the kitchen, where she could now hear voices. “Did she actually tell you that? Did she say working?”

Eddie chuckled. “Not exactly. She might have phrased it a bit differently.”

“Yeah, I thought she might have. Well it is a job. Not a very well paid one, unfortunately, but I’ll get there. Meanwhile I work full-time at the library, too, and call it research.”

“You’re doing children’s books, right?”

“Yes. I started out illustrating other people’s books, but now I’m working on writing them as well. It’s a challenge.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Well, it’s not jumping out of airplanes or scaling Everest, but to me, it’s exciting and fulfilling.”

Already she was on the defensive. Why? There was nothing to defend. There was nothing wrong with enjoying a nice, quiet, calm, boring life. She wanted boredom. She craved boredom. She’d craved it practically from birth but been denied it far too long. She had no reason to make excuses for the way she chose to live her life.

But a part of her desperately wanted Eddie’s approval. Always had. His respect had been hard-won. Little girls generally had a tough time impressing older boys. It was for Eddie, more than for her parents, she’d struggled for so long, pretending to be another adrenaline junkie, although she hadn’t realized that until much later. But that was all in the past now. She had no reason to seek his approval. She didn’t need it.

“What are you working on now?”

She tossed her hair back and glanced toward the kitchen. She should probably go check if her parents had gotten lost inside the fridge or something. They could cook well enough, but they weren’t very good at practical things—indoor things. Like cleaning up after their gourmet cooking sessions. “Are you really interested?”

“Of course I’m interested.” He made that sound like a given. She relented, vowing to stop being so defensive.

“Well…it’s a fantasy story. You know, heroes and dragons and monsters and stuff.”

“Aha. You mean—an adventure.”

She scowled at him, then grinned. “Yeah. I guess. Adventures on paper—that’s excitement enough for me, thank you.”

“So you did discover your adventurer’s spirit after all.”

She stared at him, not sure if he was joking or not. Yes—that was one way of putting it. She liked working on adventures inside her head. As long as they didn’t involve actual heights or actual tarantulas or actual flame-breathing dragons, adventures were just fine.

She did have an adventurer’s spirit after all. One that was now pushing her relentlessly toward fictional journeys of danger and excitement.

Eddie had homed into that instantly, while nobody else had ever made the connection—not even she. How? She almost felt as if he’d invaded her private thoughts and feelings.

“How’s the book going?” Eddie asked, oblivious to her inner turmoil. She blinked, snapping back to reality.

“Okay. Not bad. Well, bad, but I know it will pass. It always does, eventually. I have most of the story down in my head, except for the very ending, and some minor issues.” She sighed. “Well, a huge issue, actually.”

“What’s the problem?”

“The hero. I can’t get him to materialize properly on the paper.” She looked at Eddie and frowned, trying again to picture Marius. Eddie raised an eyebrow in question and his face was superimposed on her mental picture of Marius.

Yes!

She clicked her fingers and frantically looked around for a pencil and paper. “That’s it!” She jumped to her feet and glanced around, as if a sketchpad were likely to materialize in her parents’ living room. She slapped a hand against the back of the sofa in frustration. “Oh, damn it, why didn’t I bring a sketchpad? Why don’t I ever have a sketchpad when I need one?”

Eddie chuckled. “Is this what a sudden burst of inspiration looks like?”

Her heart was actually beating faster in anticipation of finally getting Marius on the page. Didn’t she have a small sketchpad in her purse? “Oh, yes. Would you—?”

Her parents burst into the room, voices raised as always in an attempt to drown out each other, and it was too late to wrangle a promise out of Eddie.

Later, Maria promised herself. Even if she had to corner him after dinner and draw on paper towels with a ballpoint pen, she would take advantage of this. She was getting quite desperate for inspiration.

“Maria!” Mom said, hugging her. “Happy birthday, darling. Isn’t Eddie a nice birthday surprise?”

Oh, yes, Mom. Wrap him up in a bow and nothing else and he’ll do nicely….

Argh! What was wrong with her? Return of the Killer Hormones?

“Yes, it’s nice to see him again,” she muttered. She hoped she wasn’t blushing too much. It really wasn’t polite to picture old friends in their birthday suits, even on their birthdays.

“It’s been a while since the two of you celebrated your birthday together, hasn’t it?” Mom continued chattily. “Remember, Maria, when we mixed up the presents, and he got your Barbie doll and you got his model fighter jet?”

“Well, I haven’t forgotten,” Eddie drawled with a lopsided smile. “It was an extremely traumatic experience. I have buddies who still bring up my Nurse Barbie when they need to twist my arm.”

Maria shook her head. “I remember. Poor Nurse Barbie had been stripped naked when I got her back. I had to go on a dangerous excavation through the pile of wrapping paper to find her uniform. Typical.”

“Boys will be boys,” her mother said.

Her father laughed. “Remember what Maria used to retort whenever you said that after one of Eddie’s escapades?” He mimicked a little girl’s voice. “Well, boys just aren’t a good idea in the first place!”

Maria smiled wistfully at the proud way her father slapped Eddie on the back. Dad had always adored Eddie. She’d never doubted her father’s love for her, but they’d never been much in tune and had grown apart even more when Maria withdrew from the expeditions.

A familiar friend, jealousy, reared its ugly head. She firmly squashed it. Her parents were allowed to love Eddie. It didn’t take anything away from her, and it was childish and immature to begrudge him that. He’d been their dream son—and had grown up to follow in their footsteps. Of course they were proud of him.

If only they were proud of her, too.

She glanced toward the shelf where her illustrated books were displayed and bit her tongue in punishment for the self-pitying thought. They were proud of her. It just wasn’t quite as obvious as their pride in Eddie. That was only natural. He was working in their field, following up on what they’d taught him through the years.

She felt Eddie’s gaze through her thoughts, and broke free of her musings to glance at him. He was grinning. “Boys not a good idea? I hope you’ve changed your mind since then.”