A Bachelor Falls Read online

  “I can’t believe some hot country singer hasn’t picked up the option on it. I’ve always felt, deep in my heart, that ‘Shut Down’ could have been a classic.”

  “Funny, I can remember the song, but not who broke my heart.” She pondered the mystery and watched the green Missouri landscape unfold by the mile as Ross drove steadily toward home.

  “Harlen Daniels,” Ross said after a few seconds of consideration. “He left a message on my answering machine and I had to go over to your house to tell you that I was right all along and Harlen really was a jerkface.”

  “Oh, yes, I remember now.” The memory came back to Ellie in sketchy detail. “Harlen was a jerkface and, in my hour of misery, you kept calling your house and letting me hear the message over and over again so I’d understand what a jerkface he was and stop crying.”

  Ross nodded. “That’s just the kind of sensitive guy I am. On the other hand, I did bring along a couple packs of Fig Newtons and my guitar.”

  She laid her head against the leather head rest. “Just think, Ross, when we were growing up, if I hadn’t gotten my heart broken every few months by some jerkface, you might never have discovered your songwriting talents.”

  He smiled and serenaded, “‘Without you...I might have been a plumber. Without you...my life could have been a bummer.’”

  She picked up the tune—or lack of one. “‘You could have been a crooner...like Frank or Bing or Goomer. Truthfully, that doesn’t rhyme, but if it helps, I know the time.’”

  He groaned. “That’s the reason I wrote the lyrics and you didn’t.”

  “I just have to think about it longer, that’s all. And your lyrics aren’t all that terrific, you know.”

  “Which is why I became a doctor. Singing in the operating room doesn’t garner that many critics.”

  “Remember the time you were going to drop out of ninth grade and take Nashville by storm?” Ellie’s lips curved with the memory of those long-ago dreams. “I was going to go with you, and we were both going to get jobs on Music Row until you got discovered.”

  “That’s right.” He was quiet for a minute, remembering. “Now why would you have gone with me? You were never interested in being a star.”

  She shrugged easily. “It was the adventure. The idea of living somewhere other than here. I guess it never occurred to me I could do something like that without you.”

  “There have been moments when I wished you’d gone with me to Northwestern and even on to medical school, too.”

  “I’d have gone in a heartbeat, you know that. But I thought a big university like that was way beyond my reach. Even with scholarships and loans, Mom would have worried herself sick about the money and me being so far away. She needed me to stay close and Uncle Owen wanted me to have the garage and... Well, I’m a small-town girl, Ross. The dreams I had were good ones, but the dreams I have now are just as grand, just as good.”

  She felt the question in his gaze as it turned to her. “And these dreams...the ones you have now...why don’t I know about them? Best friends share their dreams, you know. It’s part of the pact.”

  “They’re the same ones I always had, Ross, just in a little different form. I want satisfying work to do, which believe it or not, I’ve found as a mechanic. I like working on cars and I like doing it in Bachelor Falls. Someday I want a home of my own, a husband, children, to live and love and know that I matter to the people who matter to me. Not as grand as going to Nashville or having an MD after my name, maybe, but it doesn’t feel as if I settled for less. It feels...right.”

  Silence settled between them like a kitten, soaking up the warmth of a sunny afternoon... and that, too, felt right.

  A few miles down the road, Ellie quietly asked, “Does Tori know you once dreamed of writing poetry and song lyrics, Ross?”

  “The subject hasn’t come up.” He kept his eyes on the highway, his hands on the wheel.

  Ellie knew the subject would never come up. Tori saw Ross the way she wanted to see him, the way his parents had always seen him, the way he thought he was supposed to want to be. Oh, becoming a doctor fulfilled some of his own ambitions, Ellie knew, but she also understood that it hadn’t been his idea. At least, not in the beginning. He hadn’t wanted to go that far away to school or to spend so many years in the pursuit of a medical degree. The night before he left for Northwestern for his freshman year at college, he’d come to Ellie, all set to run as far and fast as he could. To Nashville or New York or the Caribbean. To a life where the expectations were his own and not anyone else’s. Ellie had talked him into going to school, to do the thing she felt he really wanted to do, anyway. She’d sometimes wondered if she had done the right thing.

  “Do you remember the song you wrote for graduation, the one about seeking life and finding love and daring to be brave?”

  “That was such a long time ago, Ellie. I’ve forgotten most of it. It’s written down somewhere, I just don’t know where.”

  “That’s okay. I know it by heart... in case you ever need to recall all those wild, young dreams.”

  He looked at her... and smiled a soft and sentimental smile. “If I ever need to remember, I’ll let you know.”

  She nodded and gave him her best and brightest grin. “And if I ever want to blackmail you, there’s always this—‘Belinda...my heart is yours, Belinda. Your eyes of blue, your hair of gold, your lips are like the sweetest rose. Paradise is in your smile. For your kiss, I’d walk ten thousand—’”

  “I must have written at least a hundred dumb songs and that’s the only part you remember?”

  “Oh, no. I remember a bunch of them. Which one do you want to hear? Let’s see, there was ‘Beth, Beth, her name is Beth. The love of my life...her name is Beth.’ And then there’s another of my particular favorites, ‘Debbi, do...oh, Debbi, please. Debbi, babe, I’m on my knees.”’

  His cringe made her effort worthwhile. “Those are just the highlights,” she said. “I can sing the whole song, if you want.”

  “If I thought I could stand it, I’d insist that you sing every verse of every song stuck in the crevices of your rotten brain. But it would be torture for both of us, so... ‘Ellie, don’t. Please, Ellie, don’t. Ellie, babe, I’m on my knees, don’t extend my agony!’”

  They were both still laughing when steam began to boil up from beneath the hood and the BMW cruised to an overheated stop at the side of the road, twenty miles out of town.

  Chapter Seven

  The town hall was festive with green and yellow decorations... green on one side of the community room and yellow on the other. The bridal shower committee had obviously had a small disagreement. When Ellie and Ross walked in at seven-forty, a little the worse for their car trouble, the surprise was over and the wedding shower was already in progress. Bachelor Falls had turned out in force to get a good, long look at Ross’s bride-to-be and, at the front of the room, surrounded by silver, white and pastel packages, Tori sat in happy, center-of-attention splendor, the empty chair beside her covered with swatches of torn wrapping paper.

  “Ross!” She waved gaily the moment she saw him and heads turned to peruse the appearance of the late arrivals. “You missed the surprise.”

  “Car trouble.” Ross answered the question inherent in every raised eyebrow and curious expression. “Busted water hose.”

  “Oh.” It was a collective understanding that had heads nodding across the room.

  Tori’s laugh carried above the other noise, playing to the crowd. “Good thing he had his mechanic with him, isn’t it, folks?”

  Beside him, Ross felt Ellie stiffen and was torn between wishing Tori hadn’t made it sound so servile and knowing she didn’t understand the first thing about cars and what made them go. Or not go. “We had to call Chip to come out and tow us in, but here we are. Have I missed much?”

  “Couldn’t Ellie fix the car?” Tori asked. “I thought she could fix anything on wheels.”

  Ross pursed his lips, wanting to tell
his beloved to drop the subject, even though he was sure she hadn’t meant to sound catty. He moved away from Ellie and down the aisle between the rows of occupied chairs, shaking a hand here and there, stopping to say hi to this one and that one. As he reached the front, Tori stepped around the paper and packages to throw herself into his arms and kiss him soundly on the mouth. For the first time, Ross had no inclination to kiss her back.

  “What’s this?” She pulled back and began patting the bulge in his shirt pocket. “Have you been shopping, Ross? Did you buy something for me?”

  He didn’t know if there was a rule of etiquette on the appropriate timing to hand over the bride’s gift, but now suddenly seemed as good a time as any. Pulling the slender box from his pocket, he offered it to her. “It’s for you,” he said with a rueful smile. “A wedding gift from me to you.”

  Tori’s lips formed a cute pucker of surprise as she took the box and shook it lightly, again playing to his friends and neighbors. “Can I open it now?”

  “I don’t know.” Ross smiled down at her, but couldn’t shake a feeling of complete ambivalence. “Can you?”

  She pouted prettily and tapped his chin with her fingertip. “Okay, smartie, may I open my present?”

  “Open it!” someone called from the back.

  “Come on, Ross...let her open it now.” Tommie Nell stopped fussing with the ice ring in its rubber heart mold long enough to second the motion.

  “There seems to be a consensus,” Tori said happily. “So, I guess I’ll open it now.” She slipped a fingernail beneath the silver ribbon and slid the bow to one side.

  As she tore at the paper with undignified eagerness, Ross looked for Ellie and saw her standing in the back, leaning against the wall. Aunt Ona Mae Hunyacre stood next to her on one side and Shorty leaned against the wall on her left. Ellie had taken off her ball cap before they came inside and he could see the red bill sticking out of her overall side pocket. She hadn’t rebraided her hair after the tuxedo fitting, but had pulled it back in a full, feathery ponytail that she’d then pulled through the sizing loop of the Cardinals cap. Now, without the ball cap to contain it, the ponytail spilled behind her shoulders, leaving curly tendrils to frame her face and ears. It was the way he often thought of Ellie...all eyes and hair and smile.

  “Oh, Ross...” Tori’s breath of delight brought his attention to her again, and he watched as she drew the bracelet from the box and across her wrist to show it off to the assembled audience. “Isn’t it beautiful?” she crooned. “Oh, it’s just perfect. Exactly what I would have chosen if I’d been with you.”

  He couldn’t help it. He met Ellie’s gaze and acknowledged the slight didn’t-I-tell-you lift of her shoulders. “I’m glad you like it.” He accepted Tori’s thank-you kiss with the same antipathy as before, wondering vaguely if he’d have been happier if she hadn’t liked the pearls. No one else seemed to notice his lack of enthusiasm, though, and applause broke out as the kiss came to an unexciting end. Tori blushed and tears of happiness glistened in her eyes, although Ross uncharitably thought it had more to do with the response of the Bachelor Falls populace than with him. Looking out at the familiar faces, the remembered smiles of his childhood, the fond and admiring expressions, he felt the tug of his roots and the knowledge that simply being born a Kilgannon made him a hero in their eyes. A hero, with all its attendant expectations.

  Squaring his shoulders, he smiled back, deciding that if the people of Bachelor Falls wanted to give him this surprise wedding shower, the least he could do was enjoy their goodwill and good wishes. Rubbing his hands together in contrived anticipation, he looked around at the abundance of wrapped packages. “What can I open?”

  “You may open any gift you like,” Tori told him, sharing the little joke with everyone in an encompassing giggle. “Why don’t you open that large package over there?”

  “That’s from me, Ross!” Ernie Potts pointed out his oversize gift from his third-row seat on the aisle. “I brought that big one,” he said, proudly nudging Henry Boyd, who sat beside him. “It’s a picture of the Grand Canyon.”

  Tori’s bright smile dimmed a little as Ross peeled aside the wrapping paper to reveal that it was, indeed, a picture of the Grand Canyon. A very large picture. “Oh, thank you,” Tori said graciously. “I know just where we’ll put that.”

  Ross, not knowing what else to do, reached for another gift.

  SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE BMW’s busted water hose and the moment Tommie Nell shoved a serving of carrot cake and store-bought mints into her hands, Ellie lost her appetite. If it hadn’t seemed churlish and immature, she would have blamed it on Tori’s lilting giggles and excited “Oh, thank you!” repeated again and again. Or on Ross’s doting attentiveness to Tori’s every word throughout the opening of the gifts. As it was, Ellie was stuck with no legitimate explanation for her nagging queasiness... except the two-inch thick cream-cheese icing on the carrot cake.

  Before she could find a place to set the plate where she wouldn’t have to see it, Mabel was taking it from her and substituting another, piled high with apple pie. “Here,” Mabel whispered gruffly, looking around to see if anyone was watching. “I brought this from the diner. You’ll like it much better than Hazel’s dry old carrot cake.” She scurried off, only to be followed a minute later by Hazel, who swapped Ellie’s pie for another piece of cake.

  “She’s a crazy woman,” Hazel whispered in passing. “Thinkin’ anybody wants her sour old apple pies. Can’t give them away at the diner, that’s why she’s hustlin’ pie over here.” Shaking her head of gray-gold curls, she trotted off to get more cake to replace the cake Mabel was replacing with pie.

  “They’re both loonier than two ducks on a picnic,” Aunt Ona Mae said...as if she had any room to talk. “I can outcook both of ‘em with gloves on and wearin’ bifocals.”

  Ellie smiled and nodded, which was always the best answer to practically anything Aunt Ona Mae said. “Do you want my piece of cake?” she offered.

  The older woman sniffed. “I don’t eat cake.”

  “You and Tori have a lot in common,” Ellie commented dryly.

  Aunt Ona Mae peered, squint-eyed, across the great hall at Tori and Ross, who were holding hands and laughing together with Tami and Travis, Bobby Joe and Carla. “Young people,” she said, shaking her head. “Don’t know what they have to cackle about. Just ‘cause they decide to get married and people give ’em toasters and such things, don’t mean life’s a bed of dandelions.”

  Ellie looked around for diversion, and somewhere to put her cake plate.

  “Know what I gave ’em?” Aunt Ona Mae wasn’t going to let Ellie escape just yet. “A bolt,” she informed Ellie with a sage nod. “I stole it from the Bostian’s space ship. Took it right off one of their light panels. It ought to be worth a lot of money once the government admits they’ve known about the aliens ever since Roswell.”

  Ellie was beginning to feel a bit desperate when Mabel came back with more pie. “Give me that.” She snatched the cake plate out of Ellie’s hands and slipped the pie plate in with precision. “Don’t let that woman shove any more of her cake at you, you hear?” She started to walk off, but turned and shook a stern finger under Ellie’s nose. “You eat every bite of that pie, too. You’re lookin’ a might peaked.”

  “You’re looking way too sickly to eat that piece of pie,” Ross said in her ear as he reached around from behind her and grasped the edge of her plate. “Give it to me, but whatever you do, don’t turn around. I don’t want Tori to see me stuffing Mabel’s apple pie down my throat.”

  Ellie let go of the plate and felt better immediately. “You’d better be quick,” she said softly over her shoulder. “She’s already starting to look around. She could spot you any second.”

  “That’s why I’m standing behind you. I’m using your body as a shield.”

  “Great,” Ellie said with a sigh. “Just the way I’ve always fantasized my body being used.”

  Ross peeked a
round her. “Turn just a little to your left. There. That’s great. And I told her you needed to talk to me about the BMW, so look serious.” He swallowed a hunk of pie under the eagle eye of Aunt Ona Mae. “Hello, Auntie,” he said. “Great shower, huh? Thanks for the bolt.”

  “It’s a bolt from Bost,” Ona Mae informed him tersely. “And metal from another planet won’t be any use for holding together something that shouldn’t have been put together in the first place, if you understand my meaning.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of trying to use a bolt from Bost for anything practical, Aunt Ona Mae. Tori and I will prize it strictly as a conversation piece, I promise.”

  “Hmmph,” she said. “You’re a moron.” Then she stalked off with her back as stiff and straight as a postcard.

  “Hey, congratulations, Ross!” Ned Laney walked up, hand thrust forward.

  Ross grabbed Ellie’s arm and pulled it behind her back, where he ditched the empty plate into her outstretched fingers before reaching around her to accept Ned’s felicitous pump of a handshake. “Thanks, Ned,” he said. “And I can’t wait to look over that book on horticulture. Great

  Ned flushed red with pleasure. “Thought you might find it interesting. Plants are our friends, you know.”

  “Ross, my man!” Another high school friend Brad Elston approached Ross from the other side and Ned backed away. “Let’s get out to the lake and get in some fishing tomorrow. If the little woman will allow it, of course.” Brad flirted with Ellie in a sideways glance. “You can come, too, Ellie. I’ll let you...bait my hook.”

  Ellie gave him the benefit of her most sultry smile. “I never touch anything resembling a worm, you know that, Brad.”

  He clutched his chest. “You’re breakin’ my heart, Ellie,” he said to her, then complained to Ross. “She’s always like this with me. Cold and cruel. But I think it’s because she’s secretly in love with me. She’s just hiding her true feelings beneath a facade of dislike. That’s it, isn’t it, Ellie?”