“Hear, hear,” Curtis sang. “Not like that arm candy you were seeing earlier this summer, Millie.”
I straightened up, bewildered. “Sam’s—”
“And of course, Millie, if he left you, then he’s obviously very stupid,” Curtis said almost gleefully.
“And he probably couldn’t kiss worth a damn. Officers of the law never can,” Mitch added, his lips twitching.
“Stop it,” I ordered. “Sam is the best man I know! He’s kind and smart and funny and thoughtful, and if he dumped me for my sister, then he’s only doing what he thinks is best for his family, which means he’s also unselfish and decent. And he’s a great kisser, not to mention fantastic in bed. So shut up.” I tossed my paintbrush on the drop cloth next to me and glared at them.
“There’s something else he is,” Curtis said, more gently.
“And what’s that?” I snapped.
“He’s here.”
I froze, staring at Curtis and Mitch. My heart stopped, then surged almost up my throat. I swallowed. Swallowed again. Very quickly, I sneaked a peek behind me. Yup. Sam. Standing in the doorway.
“He’s got flowers,” Curtis whispered. “And he’s smiling.”
I tossed Sam another quick peek. It was true. But still I stood with my back to him, my knees trembling violently. I folded my arms across my chest to hide my shaking hands.
“Hi, Millie.”
At the sound of Sam’s quiet voice, my eyes flooded with tears and I put my hand over my mouth. Curtis reached for Mitch’s hand.
“Fantastic in bed. That’s good to hear.” There was a smile in Sam’s voice. I heard his footsteps coming closer.
A bouquet of yellow roses appeared in front of me. Sam stood so close behind me that I could feel his warmth. “Turn around, Millie,” he whispered.
“What about Trish?” I managed to force out, my voice choked and squeaking.
“Turn around and I’ll tell you.”
I looked at Curtis and Mitch for courage. They were teary-eyed, too, clutching hands as if they were about to meet Russell Crowe on the set of Gladiator. Curtis gave me an encouraging nod.
I turned around.
Sam’s arms went around me and he kissed me hard, fast, and then just crushed me against him. He dropped the flowers to hug me tighter, and my heart flew so high and fast that I could actually feel it move in my chest. I heard a shuddering intake of breath from the other side of the room. Apparently so did Sam, because he looked up.
“Guys, come on,” he said. “A little privacy?”
“Oh! Of course. Terribly sorry.” Mitch, smiling a wonderfully huge grin, led a happily sobbing Curtis from the room.
Sam kissed my forehead and then stared sternly at me. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said, a little smile creeping onto his face.
“You must be a lousy cop,” I said a little breathlessly. “I’m not that hard to find.”
“I had to take care of a few things first,” he answered. “Come on, let’s sit down.”
He led me to a sheet-covered couch and sat, pulling me down next to him. “This has been a hell of a week,” he said, running a hand through his graying hair. Then he sighed and gave me a smile that was half sad and half relieved, and my heart lurched. He took my hand and grew serious.
“In answer to your question, Trish is now over the Atlantic, on her way to Paris.”
From the kitchen came a muted whoop. Sam grinned and shook his head. I smiled back, still dazed at his presence. I was here with Sam. My mind couldn’t seem to get further than that.
“Millie, I’m sorry you were hiding out up here, thinking what you must have been thinking. But I had to straighten things out with Trish before I could take care of you. I mean, she did get a pretty big surprise, finding us like that. And she’s Danny’s mother…”
“I know.”
“That as**ole Avery dumped her, and she panicked. She didn’t think she had any choice other than coming back to the Cape. So she convinced herself that we should give our marriage another try.”
At that moment, Curtis came scurrying in with a beautiful tray of Brie and crackers, grapes, a bottle of wine and two glasses. “Pretend I’m not here,” he whispered, expertly pouring the wine. He flashed a brilliant smile and scurried back out.
“Good friends you’ve got there,” Sam said, watching him retreat. I picked up my glass and took a long sip.
“Curtis and Mitch saw you at the Forge—”
“Yes, we went there for dinner. It was too hard to talk about things at home, with Danny around, and we wanted to go somewhere where no one knew us. Your friends are crappy spies, by the way. Too bad they weren’t listening. They could have saved us a lot of time.” He smiled at me, and I cringed, remembering how I had ordered my friends not to eavesdrop. “Katie told me that you came here, and what you were thinking.”
“Well,” I said, looking down at the Persian carpet, “one does draw conclusions when one hears that one’s boyfriend is kissing his ex-wife, who also happens to be one’s sister.”
“Um, right. And I did kiss her. But I kissed her goodbye.” Sam leaned back against the couch and ran a hand over his face. “Trish said she wanted to get back with me, and I told her two things. The first was that I just didn’t buy it. I’d never made her happy before, and there was no reason to think that I would now. And after she’d calmed down, I think she could see that, too.” Sam sat back up and took my hands in his. He looked at me, his gentle eyes sad. “She just didn’t know where else to go. She’s never been on her own before.”
It was true. My sister, at age thirty-six, had never lived alone. A sudden stab of pity for her pricked my heart.
“Then there was the other thing I told her.” Sam’s voice broke my reverie.
“What was that?”
“I told her that I loved you.” His eyes were steady on me. Even as my heart leaped at his words, a trickle of sadness tempered my joy.
“That must have been hard to hear,” I whispered, looking down. Poor Trish. It was the first time in my life that I’d ever thought of her that way. Alone. Confused. Rejected. I took a deep breath. “So what is she going to do now? Is she really headed for France?”
“Yes. She’s always wanted to go there, always wanted to see more of the world than South Bend and the Cape.”
I nodded, thinking of Trish’s many tirades about how there was more to life than sand and salt.
“I sold the house, Millie,” Sam said quietly.
“Sam, no! Not your house!”
“It’s done,” he answered. “I sold it to the bank, not quite for market value, with the promise that Dan and I can stay until he leaves for college next year.”
“Sam,” I whispered, my eyes filling.
“No, it was the right thing to do,” he said. “Millie, don’t cry.”
“You love that house,” I said. “It was your parents’….”
Sam smiled, then pulled me back against him and kissed the top of my head. “Of course I love it. But it was Trish’s house, too. In a way, it was hers more than it was mine. And she deserved half of it, no matter what the divorce papers said. So now she has plenty of money, hopefully enough to last a good long time, and she can find something that makes her happy. And I can put some more in Danny’s college fund, too.”
“You’re too good,” I whispered, wiping my eyes.
“Millie, this thing with us…” He turned to look at me and cupped my face with his hands. “We started out fast, but I think we should maybe slow down. It’s not your average relationship, being with your ex-sister-in-law. But I love you, Millie, and I want to be with you. Be patient with me, okay?”
“Okay,” I whispered, my heart so full of love and happiness that it didn’t seem there was enough room in my chest to hold it. “Oh, Sam, I love you.”
He kissed me, a slow, sweet kiss that was new and home at the same time. When I opened my eyes, Sam was smiling at Curtis and Mitch, who were peeking around the kitchen door.
“We get to be bridesmaids, right?” Curtis asked.
Sam laughed. “Come on, Millie,” he said. “Let’s go home.”
EPILOGUE
A YEAR AND A HALF LATER, I was once again being harbored at the Pink Peacock, hiding from the man I loved. But this time was very different. Today, in roughly forty-five minutes, I would be marrying Sam Nickerson.
There had been some bumps in the road. Things hadn’t been perfect. Danny had had a bit of a hard time with the thought of his dad and me together. Neither Sam nor I had wanted to cause him any unnecessary discomfort, so we’d been very discreet, dating as if it were the 1950s, with him picking me up at my house and bringing me back with a kiss good-night on the front porch.
But with each passing week, the rightness of Sam and me grew stronger. The strangeness of dating my sister’s ex-husband faded, both for us and for other people. My father was the only one who had no adjustment problem whatsoever, and in that way, he paved the road for us. In the spring, he took Danny away for a weekend of fishing, and when they came back, Dan took Sam aside and told him it was okay if he wanted to marry Aunt Mil. My father never told me what he’d said, only that some things in life were just right, even if they were a little weird.
Then came the sale of Sam’s house, and despite his brave words, Sam’s heart had been a little broken. Three weeks after Danny went to Notre Dame, Sam left his home and moved to a little house near the salt pond. He’d wanted a place of his own, at least for Danny’s freshman year.
It was a smart move. It was good for him to live alone, as it had been good for me. We saw each other at least a few times a week and talked every day. Then one night a few months ago, after we’d eaten dinner at my house, we took a walk up to the lighthouse, and there, while the beacon swept across the ocean and the wind gusted and Digger frolicked, Sam slipped an engagement ring on my finger.
So here I was, sitting at a dressing table, looking at myself in the mirror, daydreaming. Curtis poked his head in. “Princess, are you ready?” Katie had temporarily abdicated her responsibilities as my maid of honor, saying that Curtis would do a much better job with hair and makeup. He looked at my not-quite-finished state and clucked. “The guests are here, everyone is downstairs, and look at you! I leave you alone for two minutes…” He came over and knelt next to me. “Are you nervous?”
“No.” I smiled at my buddy. “Have I thanked you and Mitch for my wedding?”
“Honey, if it were up to you two, you would probably have eloped, and we couldn’t have that. Here, don’t forget this.”
I let Curtis fasten a bracelet on my wrist. “Come on,” I whispered. “Let’s spy.” Snickering, we tiptoed into the hall and took a peek downstairs.
Garlands of roses twined around the railings of the staircase, and candles glowed warmly in the elegant salon. Everyone was there. Mitch, dashing in an Armani tuxedo stood with Katie, who was stunning in her simple, rose-colored sheath dress. They laughed and talked with Jill Doyle and her husband. My mom was elegant and beautiful, bustling about like any good mother of the bride. My dad had Dr. Whitaker cornered, no doubt fascinating the good man with tales from the septic world. Corey and Mikey scurried around, adorable in their tiny suits. Ethel, Sam’s partner, looked quite different out of uniform, actually female, though she seemed a bit on the murderous side, probably because the Pink Peacock was nonsmoking.
A few of Sam’s pals on the police department clustered around the bar. Janette, now pregnant, stood chatting with Zach. Several patients I’d become close with were also here. Not too many people, but everyone we cared about. I couldn’t see Sam, but I heard him laughing. There was my beloved nephew, giving my aunt a kiss and laughing at something she said. Today, in a tuxedo, Danny looked like an American prince. He was Sam’s best man.
There was one more guest, the only one who happened to turn and catch me peering over the banister. Joe Carpenter. He smiled and raised his beer bottle in a silent, affectionate toast. I waved at him fondly.
When Katie had asked me if she could bring him, I must admit I’d been a little stunned.
“As your date?” I’d asked.
“No,” she’d said dismissively, but her cheeks had turned the slightest bit pink. “Not really. Well, we’re just friends right now, okay? Can he come?”
Joe had changed in the past year or so. He’d become head carpenter for Habitat for Humanity on the Cape and had started teaching a woodworking class for the adult education program. Once in a while, our paths would cross at the senior center, where Tripod visited as a therapy dog. When I saw him at the Barnacle, Katie always seemed to be busting his chops in a casual, almost affectionate way. Then one day I’d stopped by and Joe was fixing something at her house, patiently showing Corey how to find a stud in the living-room wall. Who knew? Maybe someday soon, Katie would let a man into her life. If so, it seemed as if Joe would be waiting, because it was clear that he was smitten. They’d certainly have beautiful children.
I took another long look around, trying to press the beauty of this evening into my memory forever. With brimming eyes, I turned to Curtis.
“The Peacock looks beautiful.”
“Thanks. And speaking of beautiful, let’s hope this mascara is waterproof. We don’t want raccoon eyes on your wedding day, do we?”
“How did Sam look?” I asked, standing up and returning to the dressing table in my room. A final glancing at myself in the mirror assured me that the mascara was holding up.