The Marriage List (15 page)

Delia paused, listening.

"If she gets through soon, I'll have her call
you. Have a wonderful holiday. Yes, you, too."

Delia hung up the phone.

"Why did you tell him about Mario?" Carrie
asked, unable to keep the anger from her voice.

"The man should know who his competition is,"
Delia said, smiling.

****

Grey slammed the phone down, causing his
father to turn around. John Andrews was minding a big pan of bacon
on the stove while scrambling a dozen eggs. Other members of the
Andrews family were getting dressed and dividing up chores.

John looked over at Grey with a quizzical
expression.

"Nothing, Dad." Grey said in a clipped
tone.

"Didn't sound like nothing to me."

"Delia's boyfriend has a thirty-year-old
son…some Latin lover type. He's going to dinner there today."

"You can't be worried about Carrie and this
guy, can you?"

Grey gave his father a stern look.

"She's that fickle, some guy she just meets
sweeps her off her feet? Bosh!"

"That kind of thing happens all the time,"
Grey said, sinking down into a kitchen chair.

John turned off the heat under the bacon and
turned to face his son.

"If that's what's worrying you, what are you
doing here?"

Grey looked up at his dad.

"Son, is this your woman?" John turned his
back to the stove and faced his son.

Grey nodded.

"Then go get her and stop bothering everyone.
We have a Thanksgiving meal to make here. I have bacon to cook. Get
outta here," he said, turning back to the stove not able to hide a
smile from his son and put the heat back on the bacon.

Grey hung his head and smiled. He stood up,
took his keys out of his pocket and moved toward the door, stopping
at the stove.

"I think I need some air. Thanks, Dad," he
said, clapping his father on the shoulder.

John simply smiled at his son and went back
to tending his bacon.

The last thing Grey heard as he was closing
the front door behind him was his father's voice calling out.

"Who's first for breakfast?"

****

Carrie picked up her list with one hand and
downed her second cup of coffee with the other. The turkey was in
the oven. The table was set. The salad was tossed, waiting only for
dressing to be added. Two pies were cooling. Everything else was
being brought by others.

Carrie opened her computer to go back to her
edits while Delia took a shower. She sat at the dining room table
and looked out the window. The wide stream out back had a thin
layer of ice forming in spots. A light snow was falling and just
enough was sticking to the branches of the evergreen trees to make
them resemble the trees in a Currier & Ives Christmas card. The
sight was beautiful, one she had enjoyed for many years when her
family joined Delia and Jack at this cozy little house in the woods
for a family Thanksgiving.

She wondered what Grey was doing, what his
family was doing. She felt guilty about canceling at the last
minute. What would they think of her rudeness? Surely Barbara would
explain everything. Still, she had wanted to go, wanted to meet his
family see their house that Grey raved about so often. They were
probably all having fun, teasing each other, doing chores and
playing games like every other big family on this holiday. Carrie
felt a pang in her chest.
How wonderful to belong to a big
family of loving people.
She sighed and stretched, unable to
concentrate on her writing.
I'm taking today off.
She closed
her computer and threw on fleece pants and a down jacket.

"I'm going for a walk, Delia," she shouted
toward the bathroom.

Carrie picked up a handful of bird seed from
the sack by the back door, went outside and, shut the door behind
her.

Carrie wandered into the woods, looking for
birds. Most had flown south but there were always a few sparrows
and chickadees looking for food. She threw some bird seed on the
ground and kept walking, her eyes searching for a large stump to
sit down on. She found a trunk perpendicular to the ground where it
had fallen after some storm or other and she sat down, watching for
the birds to come eat.

A few did stop by and she pulled out her
camera. She snapped a few good pictures of them picking up the
seed. After about twenty minutes she started to get cold. Her
fingertips and toes became uncomfortable as frostbite threatened.
She started back to the house. When she looked up at the sky, she
was surprised to see smoke coming from Delia's chimney.

Who made a fire?
Maybe Delia had
stopped being afraid of matches long enough to learn to lay a fire
and light it but Carrie doubted it. Delia, such a talented woman in
some areas, was never much of a homemaker. As she got closer to the
house, Carrie noticed a car in Delia's driveway. Sure enough, it
was a silver Jaguar XK.

She hurried into the house and stopped at the
kitchen door to take her shoes off. She heard laughter coming from
the living room and peeked out the pass-through to see Grey having
coffee with Delia in the living room in front of a roaring fire
most likely built by him. When Carrie entered the room, he stood
up.

She looked at him wearing a tan vee-neck
sweater over a white shirt, brown corduroy slacks and a big smile.
Her heart did a flip. She couldn't believe how happy she was to see
him.

"I've got some calls to make," Delia said and
slipped quietly up the stairs to her room.

"Hi," Grey said, standing immobile in front
of the sofa.

"Hi." Carrie returned, her feet riveted to
the ground.

She wanted to run to him but didn't know how
he felt.

"Did you talk to Barbara?" she asked.

He nodded.

"So you know everything," she said.

"Not everything. Don't know how you feel," he
said, moving toward her slowly.

"Me?" She backed away a step.

"What are you going to do?" He continued to
move toward her.

"I…I…"

"Maybe we should talk about it?"

"You drove all this way to talk?"

Grey crossed the room and was standing in
front of her. She looked up into his eyes and couldn't speak. She
couldn't believe how much she had missed him in since Monday when
they were last together.

"I know this is a tough decision for you…and
we haven't known each other for long. But I know how I feel about
you, Carrie," Grey said.

"Do you?"

"We could move in together. I have plenty of
room in my house. Space for you to write…you could have your own
writing room."

"Move in together?" She wrapped her arms
around her chest.

Not what I wanted to hear.

"I don't want to lose you."

He looked down at his hands, then his gaze
went to the floor before it came up to rest on her face. "I've
never made a commitment before. This isn't easy for me." His foot
tapped on the floor.

"And I've been badly burned once, so
commitment isn't easy for me either," she countered.

"What would it take for you to quit?" He
reached out, his hand cupped her elbow. "You make this sound like a
business deal. Like I should name my price."

"I don't mean to. I…this is my first
conversation…like this."

"Never wanted to before?" She stepped back
away from him.

"Never wanted anyone the way I want you."

"You want me to quit?"

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't. Of course I
want you to choose me. But because you want to. Because you love me
the way I love you." A flush stole into his cheeks.

There it is. The magic word. Love.

As he moved closer, she grinned up at him. He
placed his hands on her arms and lowered his head until his lips
were only a breath away from hers.

"I do love you, Grey. More than I
thought."

"I love you so much, Carrie. These past two
days without you, I've been…nuts…miserable. I adore you. I need you
with me. Marry me."

He retrieved a small box from his pants
pocket and flicked it open with his thumb to reveal a stunning
marquis shaped diamond solitaire about three carats.

Carrie's jaw fell open as she stared at the
ring, then at him, then at the ring again.

"Well?" he asked, beads of sweat breaking out
on his forehead.

"Yes…yes! I will," she choked out, emotion
closing her throat.

Grey's face lit up with a huge grin. He took
the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger.

"It's beautiful," she said, spreading the
fingers of her left hand, watching the ring sparkle in the glow
from the fire.

"And so are you," he said, his mouth
descending on hers for a passionate kiss.

Carrie wound her arms around his neck and
pulled herself closer to him. His hands traveled down her back to
squeeze her behind. When they broke, she stepped back, her finger
touched her lower lip.

"I love you so much…I've missed you,
too."

"Why didn't you call?"

"I needed to think this through before I made
a decision. I didn't know what would happen between us. If I quit
my job and you disappeared then I would be…devastated."

"Now you can quit and not worry. I'm not
going anywhere. Go ahead. Call Goodhue. Drop the bomb on him
today," Grey urged.

"I don't have to."

He shot her a questioning look.

"I already did. I faxed him my resignation
this morning."

"You did? Before you knew for certain about
me? Oh, Carrie…you do love me, don't you?" He pulled her into his
arms again.

She closed her eyes and sank into his warmth.
"I couldn't leave you. I figured if you left me, I'd deal,
somehow."

"I'll never leave you."

"I know, I'm on 'The Marriage List',
right?"

"What list?"

They laughed and hugged again. Delia appeared
on the stairs. "So, you two reconciled, eh?"

"We're engaged." Grey beamed at her.

"It's about time!" Delia said, pretending to
wipe her brow.

"Now you can tell Mario, 'tough luck'."

"Mario? Mario's gay," Delia chuckled.

The surprised look on Grey's face made both
women laugh.

"Delia, you lied to me!"

"Not exactly, Grey. He is a Latin lover, but
with men, not women. I decided to leave that part out."

"The turkey's in the oven and everything else
is done here, right? If you want to leave, tell me what to do with
the blasted bird and go ahead."

"Sure?"

"Of course, Cookie. I'd never stand in the
way of true love."

Carrie wrote down instructions, threw her
clothes in her bag and ran out to the car. It was already twelve
o'clock and they had another two hours or more on the road. Carrie
slid into the seat next to him, fastened her seatbelt and sank
back. She couldn't stop smiling. She turned to look at Grey's
profile. He glanced at her, flashing a beaming smile and she
giggled.

Happiness washed over her as the XK flew down
the highway. It seemed like most people had reached their
destinations for the day because the roads were empty.

"Will your parents be mad?"

"My mother has been waiting for you since I
was twenty-five, honey."

"I can't wait to meet your family and see
that fabulous house."

"It pales compared to you." He glanced at her
for a moment.

"Spoken like a man in love."

She glanced out the window, feeling the rapid
beat of her heart.

"Now I can spend my time writing
fiction."

"I have the perfect room for you. It's on the
second floor faces south, gets the morning sun. You can sit in
there and write all day long. No more new business pitches, late
nights…except with me, of course,"

"I'm moving into your townhouse?"

"Of course, you're going to be my wife. I
love your apartment, but it's too small for the two of us…and
eventually the three or more of us."

"Children?"

"How many?"

"Two?" She held up two fingers and shot him a
questioning glance.

"Sounds good to me," He chuckled.

Carrie couldn't get over how high she
felt…floating on air.

****

The XK pulled up in front of the imposing
three story Victorian house at about two thirty in the afternoon.
Grey chuckled to himself assuming all the chores had been done and
he managed to skip out on all of them.

When they got out of the car, he glanced at
the house and saw the entire family crowded around the two giant
living room windows peeking through the drapes. He smiled at their
eagerness. Grey went to the truck and picked up Carrie's suitcase.
When he turned around, she was there, slipping her hand in his. He
laced his fingers with hers. She wore a frown.

"Nervous?"

"A little."

"Don't be. You can't possibly be as nervous
as they are," he said, indicating the house with a nod of his
head.

As they approached the house, Grey saw his
mother disappear from the window first, then each family member
peeled away from the glass and filed into the large entry way to
descend on Carrie when they walked in.

The door opened before they even reached the
front steps and his mother stood, her arms folded across her chest
as it was cold out with a big smile lighting up her face. Grey's
eyes locked with hers and the smile on his face grew to match
hers.

"This must be Carrie," Fran Andrews said,
opening her arms.

She drew Carrie in right away, engulfing her
in a warm hug. Carrie smiled and closed her eyes.

"Good guess, Mom," Grey teased.

"Come inside, come inside, it's cold out
there," Grey's father insisted, pulling on his son's arm, reaching
for Carrie's bag.

"I've got it, Dad." Grey held onto the bag as
his father backed into the house.