My Name is Nell Page 23

  “I think maybe your news changes everything. No way is he going to stay in Fayetteville, Arkansas.”

  “Mom, don’t you get it? It’s like he’s Prince Charming.”

  Nell hiccupped, caught between laughter and tears. “Be that as it may, but I have a feeling this Cinderella is back to scrubbing pots and pans and cleaning the fireplace.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Why on earth not?”

  “Because you’ve seen him, haven’t you? You’ve told him how you feel.”

  Abby was way too sharp. “How on earth would you know that?”

  “Well, duh, Mother.” She pointed to the collar of Nell’s robe. “Look at your neck. You’ve got a hickey the size of a headlight!”

  NELL WENT AROUND the next day at work adjusting the silky scarf wrapped around her neck, hoping no one besides Abby would detect the all-too-visible signs of an enchanted hour of lovemaking. The smug grin had not left Abby’s face since. This morning before she’d left for school, she’d shot Nell a knowing look, then said, “Lookin’ good, Mom.”

  But the hickey blooming at the base of her throat was the least of her worries. Fifty million dollars! An unthinkable amount, almost obscene. She couldn’t begin to wrap her mind around that information. How could Brady have withheld such a vital part of himself? There was no way he would turn his back on his lucrative business. And no matter how much she loved him, she couldn’t uproot Abby and leave her family. California was glitzy and foreign. This was her home, the place where she’d wrestled with addiction, where she felt safe, secure.

  She stood at the copy machine, lost in thought. The truth was, his wealth scared her to death. Just like her alcoholism had to scare him.

  She gathered up the flyers and returned to her office, eyeing the clock. Half an hour to go. Then home. To Brady. Before she’d left him yesterday afternoon, she’d invited him to dinner tonight. Knowing Abby would be at the high school football game, Nell had originally envisioned an intimate evening—soft, romantic music, flickering candles, good food. And, just in case, she’d thought about putting fresh sheets on the bed.

  But Abby’s bombshell had changed all that. Now instead of a flirtatious smile, she’d greet Brady with a huge question and butterflies in her stomach.

  BRADY HAD BEEN euphoric all day. Everywhere he looked was something to like—the smogless blue skies, the hometown-friendly store clerks, the harvest decorations bedecking most front porches. Yet the hours until he could be with Nell again had passed too slowly. His heart warmed every time he thought about her sweet, spontaneous responses to his lovemaking. She had no idea what a sexy, desirable woman she was. Rick must’ve been an idiot.

  Or the wrong man. The next thought brought a grin to his face. Heck, maybe all along she’d been waiting for him. Well, her waiting days were over. Now that he’d come back to her, he would never let her go. Life, he’d learned, was too short to be eaten up by grudges and pain.

  Yet sitting here at the dining room table after her delicious pork roast dinner, with the light from two tapers the only illumination in the room, he sensed something was out of kilter. Nell had been abnormally quiet, the silences filled by the mellow strains of dinner music. When she had talked, it had been about work, Abby and AA. Especially AA. As if she was trying to warn him off. She’d confessed to her bout with temptation when he’d left to return to California. He recognized that she needed to tell him the worst, so he let her relate each detail of the night of her accident and of her recent struggle.

  As she talked his stomach churned, both with memories of Brooke and Nicole and the all-too-real eventuality she painted for him. No more kidding himself. Her sobriety was hard-earned. Always there would be the fragile balance between will and temptation. Yet he’d told her he was certain about his feelings and about his commitment.

  He studied her across the table. Her skin was pale above the soft robin’s-egg blue sweater she wore. Her serious gray eyes spoke volumes about her struggles—and her fears.

  Yet in that moment he loved her more than he could ever have thought possible. Whatever the future held, they would face it together. He waited until she finished talking. She sat, hands folded in her lap, head bowed.

  “Okay,” he said. “That’s out of the way.”

  She looked up. “What do you mean?”

  “The attempt to run me off. It didn’t work, Nell. So now, how about the truth?”

  “The truth?”

  “Yes. Why are you so hell-bent to put obstacles in our path?”

  “Obstacles?” Her mouth flattened to a thin line. “Since you’re so into the truth, why don’t you come clean, too?”

  What was she talking about? “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “The little detail about yourself you forgot to mention.”

  He hadn’t a clue. “Detail?”

  She reached into the pocket of her skirt and drew out a folded piece of paper. She handed it to him. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

  He unfolded the sheet of paper and scanned the contents. That damn Wall Street Journal article. Why was she looking at him with such resignation? Such sadness? “What about it?”

  “Brady, my God, you’re a millionaire.”

  “So?” What in hell was the problem?

  “You didn’t tell me.”

  “No, I didn’t. You know why? Because it isn’t important. It’s just money, most of it on paper. I hardly ever think about it. Yes, I can live well and that’s nice, but the money itself is meaningless.”

  “How can you say that?”

  “Because my success was never about money. It was about proving to my old man that I’d amount to something after all.”

  “Oh.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “I can’t live in California, Brady. I’m a homebody.”

  Now he understood. She thought he was going back to California, that he expected her to adapt to his lifestyle, when in fact it was just the other way around.

  He circled the table and knelt beside her chair. “You’re too late, Nell.”

  She bit her lip, then spoke. “When do you go?”

  If she hadn’t looked so forlorn, he’d have chuckled. Instead, he rose to his feet, took her by the hand, then pulled her into his arms. “I’m not going anywhere, especially not without you.”

  Her voice quavered. “What do you mean?”

  “I bought the land today.”

  “You did?”

  “And that’s not all. I’ve rented office space, hired a project architect and am in the process of setting up an Arkansas corporation. I like Arkansas—the land, the people, everything. Above all, I love you. Money and success mean nothing if you don’t have someone with whom to share them. You and Abby are my ‘someones’ and you’ll have one heckuva time getting rid of me.”

  She trembled in his arms and he wrapped her even closer. “So you’re an alcoholic and I’m a millionaire. Big deal. I can put up with you if you can put up with me.” He tilted her chin and smiled down at her. Her face was alight with hope, a flame he wanted to tend for as long as he lived. “Marry me, Nell.”

  No sooner were the words out of his mouth than the front door banged and Abby came barreling into the room. Talk about timing.

  “Oops, sorry,” she said, doing a theatrical about-face.

  “No, wait, Abby,” Brady said, still holding Nell in his arms. “Help me out here.”

  Abby turned around, cocked her head and studied him. “Sure. Whaddya need?”

  He nodded down at Nell. “Convince the woman to marry me.”

  “Mo-om—” Abby sprinted across the room and joined the hug. “Are you crazy?” Then Abby grinned at him. “Of course she’ll marry you.”

  The two of them stepped back and looked at Nell, who turned from one to the other, her eyes glistening, her cheeks pink. “Are you ganging up on me?”

  “If that’s what it takes,” Brady said.

  Nell seemed about to speak, but
hesitated. Brady’s heart was in his throat. She moved to put an arm around Abby. “Are you sure, honey? You know what this means?”

  Abby stood up tall. “Yes. It means you’ll have a husband who loves you and I will have a way cool stepfather.”

  Nell gazed at her daughter for a long moment. The love in her eyes almost hurt Brady to watch. Then she turned those same eyes on him. “I would be honored, Brady.”

  He enclosed his new family in his arms, home at last. A chuckle rose from deep in his belly. “It’s not every day a fella gets two lovely females for the price of one.”

  NELL DETAINED Ben Hadley after her Saturday morning meeting the next day. “Walk me to my car?” she asked.

  “It would be my pleasure,” he said gallantly taking her by the elbow.

  It was a gorgeous November day, sunny and cloudless with the kind of chill that brings roses to the cheeks. “I have news,” Nell said as they exited the church.

  Ben kept walking. “And what would that be?”

  “I’m getting married.”

  He dropped her arm, took off his hat and, with wild abandon, threw it into the air. “Hallelujah and amen!” After he retrieved his hat, he faced her, beaming with unadulterated joy. “How did that come about?”

  Her eyes danced. “Let’s put it this way. I accepted some things I couldn’t change, had the courage to change some things about myself and finally had the wisdom to know the difference.”

  Throwing her arms around the older man who had always been there for her, she whispered, “Oh, Ben, my name is Nell and I am loved.”

  EPILOGUE

  NELL STEPPED OUT of the bathroom, pulling her satin peignoir closer around her. Brady, in plaid flannel pajama bottoms, lounged on the striped love seat in one corner of their cozy bedroom in the Edgewater Inn. A floor lamp cast soft light across the room. She could feel the pulse in her neck quickening as her eyes fixed on his bare chest. Despite having been married before, this felt like her first honeymoon. Like a real honeymoon.

  He held out an arm, beckoning her to join him. She snuggled against him, reveling in the sea-fresh aphrodisiac of his cologne. “It was a great wedding, wasn’t it?” he said, fondling her shoulder.

  “It couldn’t have been better. I hadn’t realized how moved I would be by having our family and friends all together.” She smiled, remembering her mother beaming from her first-row pew; Lily, radiant in a deep purple dress; Chase prancing up the aisle as ringbearer; her co-workers and many of her AA friends gathered to wish her well. She would never forget the moment when the organ swelled and she took Ben’s arm as he led her toward her handsome groom.

  She continued, “How special it was that your dad and Velda could be here.” Although the situation had been somewhat awkward, Stella had taken the matter in hand and made his parents welcome. “Did you mind about Danny?”

  A shadow fell across his face. “I would’ve liked him to be my best man. But I guess our relationship will take time. At least he answered my last e-mail.”

  “Well, Carl filled in beautifully. I enjoyed meeting him and Jill.”

  “They’re great people.” He sat quietly for a moment, then went on, “Abby was a gorgeous maid of honor. If you hadn’t been such a beautiful bride, I’d have had a hard time keeping my eyes off my new daughter.”

  “I was so proud of her.”

  “Do you think she’ll be all right in Dallas while we’re gone?”

  “Now that she’s accepted you as part of her family, I think she’s realized she has to make more of an effort with her father and Clarice. She told me the other day that maybe there were some things she hadn’t understood. That maybe she hadn’t given them much of a chance.”

  Brady chuckled as he played with her hair. “Sounds like she’s growing up.”

  Nell sighed. “Too fast.”

  “But just think,” he said, moving his hand to part the collar of her peignoir, “that’ll leave all the more time for us.”

  Nell nestled her head into his neck and rubbed gentle little circles over his chest with her fingertips. “That could be good,” she agreed.

  “Say, before you get me too hot and bothered to think straight, I have a confession to make.”

  Her hand stilled. Not another one. She had had it with surprises. She lifted her head. “What?”

  “You think I brought you here to the Edgewater Inn because you told me about it in the library that time, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “That’s not why.”

  “It isn’t?”

  “Nope.” He leaned across her to retrieve a small journal from the lamp table. “You’ve stayed in this very room before.”

  The inn wasn’t that big. She’d thought it mere coincidence. “How did you know?”

  He thumbed through the book, flattened it to one page and handed it to her. “Recognize this?”

  Nell read her entry in disbelief. I’ve been so alone. When you’ve loved and lost, doubt replaces hope, insecurity replaces confidence and you wonder who you are. Whether you can go on. Or even want to. She had actually been that woman, sent off to the restful bed-and-breakfast by her mother and sister following her final divorce hearing. She read on, her eyes filling with tears as she remembered that Nell. This time of quiet and contemplation has been a great gift, restoring my belief that no matter how severe the storm, rainbows can happen. Regardless of how desolate I feel right now, I have to believe that somewhere out there is someone for me. Someone I can trust. Someone I can love. When I find him, the two of us will come to the Edgewater Inn. Together.

  When she glanced up, Brady was studying her, his eyes bathing her with love. “I came looking for you.”

  “I…I don’t understand.”

  “I didn’t care about anything. I’d lost hope. And then I read your entry. You understood how I felt, but with one difference. You believed in rainbows.”

  “And?”

  “I decided I wanted to meet the rainbow woman.” He picked up her hand, urging her understanding. “That’s why I came to Fayetteville.”

  “Brady, that’s wild. I can hardly believe it.”

  “Believe it.” He took the book from her and flipped through more pages, then settling on one, handed it back to her. “Read.”

  He moved closer, putting his arm back around her, his warm breath stirring the hair at the back of her neck. Whispering the words aloud, she began to read the firm, clear handwriting. For most, this place is a sanctuary. I would like to believe it could be. I read in these pages of celebration, new beginnings, old joys revisited. Only in one entry have I found another who understands pain. Nell, whoever you are, if there are such things as rainbows, help me find them. Then maybe, just maybe, we will come back here together.

  She drew a stuttering breath. If it was possible to feel more love for another, to be more loved by another, she couldn’t imagine it. “I never knew,” she murmured.

  “The only thing that matters is that I found you, my beautiful Nell.”

  When he pulled her against him and lowered his lips to hers, she didn’t even realize her robe had fallen open revealing the lacy see-through teddy she’d bought especially for him. For her rainbow man.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-3661-5

  MY NAME IS NELL

  Copyright © 2003 by Laura A. Shoffner.

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