The Sometime Bride

I picked up from my grandmother.”
    “Speaking of your Grandma Russell…”
    “No, Mike,” she said, lightly brushing aside his hand. “Let me finish. It’s very important to me I get this out—before I lose my nerve.”
    Mike set his palms on his thighs and waited.
    “Mike, I’m—”
    “Dirty rich,” he said, turning his eyes on hers.
    Carrie gasped. “Have you been talking to my grandmother?”
    “Carrie, beautiful Carrie,” he said, cupping his hands over her satiny shoulders. “Did you for one minute think that wealth would be a hindrance?”
    Carrie nodded but saw nothing besides her own confusion mirrored in his eyes.
    “Honey, the only one setting up roadblocks here with his miserable life is me. You, Carrie St. John, have everything any woman could ask for. You’re intelligent, attractive, accomplished at your job—and rich. I, on the other hand—”
    “Oh,” she said, scooting back and out of his grip. “So you are holding my bank account against me.”
    “That’s not what I said.”
    “Well, it’s certainly what you implied by telling me I already had it all. For your 411, I don’t. At least not what I most want in here.” She stopped and thumped her chest. “And in case you haven’t heard, money can’t buy you love.”
    “Oh, I know that for certain,” Mike assured her. “And for your information, though I had suspicions you had money, my falling in love with you had nothing to do with your bank account!”
    “Your what?” she asked, her voice softening in disbelief.
    Holy cow! He’d gone and done it. And for crying out loud, right smack in the middle of the closest thing they’d had to an argument yet.
    Carrie reached up and pinned his face between her hands. “Repeat what you just said.”
    Do it better this time, Mike warned himself. Much better.
    “I, uh…” Mike swallowed hard past the lump in his throat. “Carrie, it’s true. I know I was a jackass at dinner…” Oh great, he was doing just wonderfully. Curse words and all. “I mean, I know I overreacted. But, in truth, it drove me crazy seeing those other guys vying for your attention. And it made me think about… Realize just what a danger it would be to have you on the open market.” Nice, Mike. Real smooth, you unromantic doofus! Well, at least she wasn’t laughing.
    It was all Carrie could do to stifle a chuckle. He was trying so hard it almost hurt her to watch. For all his experience with women, it was overwhelmingly obvious Mike Davis was, at this moment, mapping uncharted territory.
    “Carrie St. John,” he said, the words erupting from his throat like red-hot lava. “I love you.”
    Carrie wasn’t sure whether he looked more amorous or petrified, but whatever it was, she understood that Mike had just put his heart on the line.
    “And I love you back,” she said, bringing the cushion of her mouth up to his.
    “Now,” she said after their long, languorous kiss, “let’s go dance while the two of us still seem to be agreeing on something.”
    “I don’t like to dance,” Mike protested.
    “Oh yes, you do,” Carrie answered with a mysterious grin. “I’ll prove it.”

    Carrie was right about the dancing part, Mike thought, reveling in the comfort of her curvaceous body snuggled up against his own. The song playing was a band arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” It had been the only song in high school, Mike recalled, shutting his eyes, that even the nerdiest guys could get a dance for. Though he wasn’t prepared to tell Carrie just yet, in his day, the swim-team fellows weren’t the most sought after of the jocks. Mike’s early successes with women came later, in college. But now, thinking back to his Ashton days and gently swaying to the music with Carrie, he was glad for every forgotten dance. Every pigtailed, pug-nosed girl who’d ever rejected him. And yes, even snooty Alexia. For if it hadn’t been for any of them, he would have had no way of knowing exactly what he held in his arms now.
    The music slowed to a stall and polite applause, and Mike feared the band leader would pick up his tempo. But instead he sent a smile over Carrie’s shoulder and gave Mike a knowing wink as he began a slow, jazzy rendition of “Lady in Red.”
    Carrie didn’t know if the music was still playing, or if it was merely the pulse of her heart that was lending rhythm to her feet. All she knew was that she felt protected, sheltered, and loved. Wholly and