Perilously Fun Fiction: A Bundle, Pauline Jones [top 100 novels of all time .txt] 📗

and her aunts seemed determined to mess that up. He’d show up at the door and they’d circle her like wagons until she finally put her foot down.

“What is with you? Do you think I don’t know he’s my father? Because I do! And I’d like to spend some time with him!”

They looked at her with pale sad eyes and heaved heart-wrenching sighs. Since her heart was wrenched because of Delaney, it wasn’t too pleasant.

“Don’t you like him? What?”

Miss Weena and Miss Hermi nudged Miss Theo who cleared her throat, hemmed and hawed a bit and finally said, “We don’t want to lose you again, dear girl.”

Luci sank onto the stairs and looked at them in shock. “That’s what this is all about?” They bobbed their buns. “But...why would you lose me?”

“He seems to get what he wants,” Miss Weena muttered. “Even when he shouldn’t.”

“He didn’t get Lila,” Luci pointed out, “and he didn’t even know about me.”

“He did get Lila or there wouldn’t have been a you,” Miss Hermi said with a blush. “And she’s afraid he’d get her again or she wouldn’t have moved to California and taken you away from us.”

“Oh, my dears,” Luci said, trying not to laugh, “don’t you get it? I’m more likely to stay if my dad and I are friends. You should be encouraging him, not discouraging him. If anything takes me away, it’ll be my responsibilities back in Butt Had.”

“I don’t think anyone should live in a place called Butt Had,” Miss Hermi said. “It sounds like an insult.”

“Why don’t you invite your father over for dinner?” Miss Theo suggested. She’d always been a fast study.

Mickey’s world didn’t come to an end the night Delaney died, but it did slow to a crawl through a dark tunnel that seemed like it would never end. He went to work. He put on his dress blues and went to his funeral. Through a fog of guilt, he saw Luci look at him, but he couldn’t make himself walk to her, so he turned and walked away again.

It wasn’t her fault Delaney was dead. He wanted to tell her that, but then he’d have to admit whose fault it really was. His. Only his. He let himself get distracted and a good man, his best friend in the world, was dead. Gone.

It wasn’t real.

It was too real.

He couldn’t deal with it, so he dealt with it by getting busy and moving so fast he didn’t have time to think or feel. But he couldn’t move fast enough to get away from Eddie’s wedding.

He stood next to him holding the ring while Miss Weena strewed her rose petals for the bride in a puce dress he couldn’t have described later if his life depended on it. He shook Eddie’s hand and kissed the bride’s lifeless cheek, then followed them out into the bright, hot sun. He blinked, like a mole emerging after a long winter and felt the first flicker of warmth in his body, a twinge like blood returning to a limb that had been asleep. It hurt. But it was better than being numb.

Almost relieved, he pelted Eddie with rice, then stood there, feeling the sun warm his face as the crowd fanned out for cars and the drive to the reception at the Seymour House. After the reception, Eddie and Unabelle were heading over to Mississippi and the gambling boats. She’d promised not to bet on the Saints anymore if he’d teach her to play poker.

He felt Luci watching him and turned to her.

She looked beautiful and so...sad. He’d never seen her that sad.

He cleared his throat, felt the bitter regret slough away. “It wasn’t your fault.”

Tears started in her eyes. She drew a shaky breath and said, “It wasn’t your fault either.”

“Yeah, well—”

She touched him, stopping his breath and starting his heart pounding. “Delaney doesn’t blame you.”

“Right.” Like he didn’t know that. Delaney wasn’t feeling anything anymore. He rubbed his face. “You going to the reception?”

“Are you?”

“I guess.” He sighed. “I’ll need to look in. For a few minutes. Still not in a party mood, but want to see Eddie in the gazebo.” He managed a grin and held out his hand. “Go with me?”

Luci smiled and he realized just how much he’d missed her. Her smile. Her insanity. Her... essence. His other half. The crazy part.

Like him, she still bore the bruising of Delaney’s death. There were new lines around her eyes and mouth. But beyond that, there was something different about her. Something vivid. As if she’d waked from a long sleep, too.

She took his hand and they turned together.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“I know.” She squeezed his hand and he knew it was going to be all right.

They didn’t talk on the drive, but he noticed Luci kept biting back a smile, as if she had a secret.

“What?” he asked as he helped her out of the car. Her dress, virginal white and more bride-like than Unabelle’s, fell around her calves like foamy waves against a beach. Like a phoenix from the ashes of his grief, he felt love rise up and almost choke him. He wanted to grab her, tell he loved her, make her stay and not ever leave him, but it wasn’t his decision to make. She had to choose to abandon family tradition, take that step into the unknown. He had no idea if she could or even would.

She shook her head, like she’d heard his thoughts, and his heart plunged in his chest until she said, “Wait until we get inside. Then you’ll see.”

“See what?”

But she just shook her head again and pulled him up the walk. Inside he could hear the Hepplewhites bawdy intro.

“Oh, no. Not beefcake. Not today.”

“Trust me,” she said, taking the resistance out of his sails. “Just...trust me.”

Her fingers meshed with his. A perfect fit. Did she realize it? Her eyes glowed a yes, but how good was he at reading her eyes? He let her pull him up