A Valentine's Proposal--A Clean Romance, page 17
* * *
MARIAH COULD FEEL Nelson’s smugness, see it on his face, hear it in his voice.
Yes, that kiss had been...unsettling.
Mariah would admit when it came to kissing, making out, she was inexperienced. Not completely, but she hadn’t had a lot of opportunities to practice. There wasn’t a lot for her to compare that kiss to.
She only knew that if Nelson hadn’t pulled away, she’d have done her best to wrap herself as close to him as she could to continue that kiss. The one that made her forget where she was, what she was doing and why. The one she was already missing.
But even if Nelson was a more than adequate kisser, she couldn’t let him have the upper hand. She had to do something so that she wouldn’t throw herself back on the couch to continue that kiss.
Her notepad saved her, as it often had. “There’s something I need to know if we’re getting engaged. Why are you so against people getting married?”
Nelson stiffened, no longer relaxed. He appeared to choose his words carefully. “I’m not against people getting married.”
Mariah raised an eyebrow. “Really. How can you even try to make me believe that?”
Nelson clenched his jaw. “I’m not against marriage, or dating, or love, or any of those things. I’m not a fan of elaborate weddings.”
Hair splitting.
“Okay, tell me how you split that fine hair.”
He narrowed his eyes. She kept her chin up.
“Can you honestly tell me that some weddings haven’t been disasters? That some brides or grooms focus only on the big event, and bulldoze over everyone and everything in their way? They make life miserable for everyone around them in service for their big party? You’ve helped plan some of those, right?”
Oof. Mariah sat back. That was very... impassioned. Accusatory. And somehow, very personal.
“You’re right. There are some people like that. But that isn’t everyone, or even most people. My job was to try to find balance—make my clients’ wishes come true, but as considerately as possible.”
She could see the disbelief in his expression.
“Why do you look like you think I’m lying? What is your problem? Have I ever done anything to make you believe otherwise?”
“Don’t you get paid to make sure the big event comes off, no matter what?”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t make that my only focus. I need people to refer me to friends, so it’s not in my best interest to allow the wedding to make everyone miserable. I try to deliver the event they want, but it’s not a thing in isolation. And I don’t encourage my clients to believe their wedding is the center of the universe.”
His expression hadn’t changed.
“I heard you tell Grandmother, the first night I met you, that you’d worked for Sherry Anstruthers and learned everything you needed to know from her.”
Mariah sat back. Okay, this might explain some things.
“You didn’t hear exactly that. I did work for Sherry, but only for a short while. I didn’t like the way she worked. What I told your grandmother was that I’d learned everything I needed to know about how not to do my job from her. She was a nightmare.
“But obviously, I don’t need to tell you that. You know. You just assumed all wedding planners were like her. Why? What did she do to you?”
* * *
NELSON TOOK A moment to consider what he wanted to say. And to consider what Mariah had said.
He couldn’t remember exactly what he’d heard at his grandmother’s, not at this late date. It wouldn’t be hard to find out how long she’d worked for Sherry, or when. Grandmother probably had her résumé somewhere around. And the only way he could believe Zoey would have worked with Mariah was if she was the anti-wedding planner.
Unless Zoey had been steamrolled again.
“I knew someone who used her as their wedding planner. It didn’t work out well.”
* * *
MARIAH WAS FULL of questions, but she restrained herself. This was important to work out with Nelson.
“I’ve heard some stories, about weddings that were nightmares. While I like to believe all of mine went well, I know I’m not perfect. And I know some of Sherry Anstruthers’s weddings went badly.
“The last wedding I worked on, before coming here to Carter’s, was for someone who’d planned a wedding with Sherry, and she said it had been a disaster. Her fiancé turned into a groomzilla, and she ended up not showing for her own wedding.”
“You mean Zoey.”
Mariah opened her mouth, and then closed it again. He knew Zoey? Obviously. He must have known about her first wedding. That went a long way to explaining his attitude toward her. Zoey had interviewed Mariah five times before finally trusting her to take care of her wedding.
“Are you a friend of Zoey’s? Were you at her wedding?” Had Nelson been there, and Mariah hadn’t recognized him when she saw him again?
There was a bleak expression in his eyes. “No, I wasn’t at her last wedding. And I can’t say I’m a friend of hers, not anymore.”
There was a wealth of meaning behind those words. Mariah tried to decipher it. Had he been a friend of the groom’s? Had there been a break, after the wedding, between the groom’s friends and Zoey’s?
Zoey was such a kind, sweet, shy woman. It was hard to imagine her carrying a grudge. Unless Nelson had been close to her first fiancé. Nelson was a vet, and he’d said he worked with horses. Zoey’s father had an equine veterinary practice. One of the best in the country. In vet circles, he was a big deal.
Zoey’s fiancé had been a vet, too.
An idea flashed across her brain, but no. Zoey’s fiancé had been a Theo, not a Nelson.
“Did you know Theo?”
Nelson shot her a glance, then stared at the blank television. “You could say that. I am Theo.”
Mariah shook her head. “What? You’re not making a lot of sense. Your name is Nelson. Zoey’s ex was Theo—I know, we talked about her first wedding, and what we needed to do differently.”
Nelson fiddled with the TV remote. “Grandmother was an only child. She was the last Carter of Carter’s Crossing. When she married, her husband took her last name.
“His name was Theodore Nelson. After he married Grandmother, he became Theodore Nelson Carter. My father was Theodore Nelson Carter the second. I’m Theodore Nelson Carter the third.”
Mariah felt like a vital part of her torso had taken the first dip on a roller coaster while the rest of her was still waiting at the top of the ride. She held up a hand, trying to come to grips with this information.
Nelson kept talking. “Grandfather was known as Teddy to everyone. Dad was Theo. I was named Theodore Nelson the third so that Grandfather’s name didn’t die out, but instead of confusing everyone with another Theo, they called me by my middle name. Nelson.
“Until I went to school in California. There was another Nelson in my class, so people called me Theo. When I graduated and was looking to work in some of the top veterinary practices, that ‘third’ helped with the snob value.
“I’m Theo, the groomzilla. And your former boss was the one who cheered me on, every step of the selfish, vainglorious way.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
NELSON PULLED UP in front of the Goat and Barley. Tonight he and Mariah were on their first official fake date.
Mariah had planned out a schedule of dates. On a spreadsheet. This first one was to play darts, on a Thursday night. Nelson recognized immediately that she wanted to do something where she felt in control. She would easily win any dart competition against him. That would give her the upper hand.
Mariah had her lists, but Nelson had insider knowledge. And even though he was surprised that he enjoyed Mariah bossing him into this date, he’d insisted he got to plan the second one.
He had some surprises lined up for her tonight, as well.
It was cold outside, but he was waiting for her in the parking lot. Once her car pulled in, he walked over to open her door for her.
It was easy to read the surprise on her face. This wasn’t part of her script. Neither was the kiss.
The kiss was purportedly to sell them as a couple. Nelson had his own reasons to surprise Mariah with some kissing action.
He’d hoped his memory had exaggerated how enjoyable their first kiss had been. After all, this was Mariah. They’d been at odds with each other for months. He didn’t like the idea that she was holding on to the best kiss title he had to give out.
Unfortunately, when he pulled her shocked body close to his, it was his breath that hitched. When she looked up at him in surprise and licked her bottom lip, he forgot who was watching, and why he didn’t want this to be so good.
Then their lips met, and he forgot everything but kissing Mariah.
Eventually, the pesky need for oxygen made itself known and he pulled back, his breath shaky. In the background he could hear comments from other patrons.
Right. This was to sell their fake date. He didn’t dare let her know how much that kiss had rocked his axis.
“Appropriate use of PDA?” he asked, his voice husky.
It took her a moment longer to come back to the here and now. The kiss had thrown her off, and he liked a flustered Mariah. She could deny it all she wanted, but he knew she enjoyed the kissing, as well. She had opened to him, fitting herself against his body in a most satisfying way.
“Right,” she finally said, looking around at their audience.
There were a lot of people arriving, and they’d all seen the kiss. That was a reason she couldn’t argue. She’d resist any intimation that they were kissing because they enjoyed it.
He wasn’t fond of the idea, either, but surely, they’d get used to it after some time passed.
She pulled away, her lips pleasantly pink, her breath puffing in the cold. “Yes, just what we wanted.”
Mariah was a lot of things, but she wasn’t ready to admit she liked him, for real.
“Come on, we don’t want to be late.”
She stopped, ignoring the tug of his glove on her mittens. Her brows lowered as she considered what he’d said.
“Late for what?”
“Trivia night.”
“What?”
He grinned at her. “Yeah, on Thursdays no one plays darts. It’s trivia night.”
He pulled again on her hand, and this time she let him tug her forward. He could almost hear the gears in her head spinning. This was another case where having local knowledge was going to play in his favor.
* * *
MARIAH LIKED PLANNING. She liked lists. She liked the feeling of control. She knew that it was a result of the way she’d been raised, when so often it felt like she’d had none.
She’d carefully planned this first “date” with Nelson. By coming to the Goat and Barley, they wouldn’t be in Carter’s Crossing. It wouldn’t be a blatant declaration that they were dating. It would look like they were trying to be discreet, but from what she’d heard, news would trickle back to Carter’s Crossing. Then they could make a couple of dating appearances in town. People already knew they were spending time with Nelson’s horses and at his place... It was a narrative that would work.
So how had she missed trivia night? She didn’t miss things. She researched and double-checked. She made backup plans. Then she made backup plans for her backup plans.
Well, she wouldn’t be caught out again. This was her job. It was important to her. Nelson couldn’t mess her up.
Nelson had insisted on taking care of the second date, taking place in Carter’s Crossing. With some reluctance she’d agreed. She hadn’t realized he was going to derail her first date, as well.
There were a lot more people from Carter’s Crossing in the bar than she’d expected on a weeknight. But she hadn’t known about trivia night.
She had to absolve Nelson of sabotage. It’s not like he could have asked the pub to set this up for the same evening she’d picked for their date. From the surprised looks being tossed his way, he obviously wasn’t a regular for trivia night. He knew the routine well enough, though, that the two of them ended up at a table together with drinks and the paper lists that all registered teams received. He’d even given their team a name: Carter’s Crew.
She mentally rolled her eyes at that.
Most of the other tables had more than two people. She resigned herself to making an embarrassing showing in this competition.
That was another miscalculation.
Nelson was smart. She should have known that. He hadn’t completed his veterinary studies at the top school in the country because he was stupid.
She was surprised, though, that some of the time she was the one to carry the team.
Her education had been completed on the boat until she’d come on land to go to college. She’d done okay academically, but she’d been out of sync with her classmates when it came to pop culture and lifestyle.
It turned out that she had a good grasp of history, and her geography was totally on. She knew she was lucky such a big section of that night’s quiz was based on bodies of water. It was almost as if whoever arranged the quiz had picked her brain for that section.
Sports? She was at a loss. Nelson aced that.
They both struggled with television and music. They didn’t win, but they came in third. Since there were twelve teams, it was a respectable showing.
They high-fived each other and got a round of applause from the crowd as they went forward to receive their prize: a gift certificate for Moonstone.
It wasn’t exactly the date Mariah had planned, but they certainly made a public splash, so she’d call it a win.
Mariah carefully tucked the Moonstone certificate in her purse. “We could use that for our next date.”
Nelson leaned over the table. “You sound confident that I’m going to ask you out again.”
Mariah leaned toward him. “I’m a big girl. I can ask you out.”
Nelson’s mouth quirked up in that grin that she was getting too familiar with, but someone stopped by the table to congratulate them before he could respond.
When they were left alone again, he ran his fingers over their quiz sheets.
“You know a lot.”
The compliment warmed her.
“You were homeschooled, right? Since you were always traveling on your boat.”
Mariah nodded. “Till I moved to land. My dad taught us.”
Nelson leaned back in his chair. “What was that like? I always had boring regular school, like everyone else I know.”
Mariah traced a pattern on the table with her finger. “I don’t know if I can describe it very well. I have no idea what school is like for other people, only what I’ve seen in movies and read in books.”
“Fewer pretty people, less drama and lots of boring lectures.”
Mariah looked up with a smile. “Well, we had only the three of us, my two brothers and me, so the drama was limited to sibling fights.”
“And the boring lectures?”
“There’s not much point in lecturing your three kids. We already got that for chores around the boat and making sure we wore our life jackets. Dad was a good teacher. He made things interesting. And once we finished our assignments, our school day was over. It wasn’t too boring.
“I always felt like I was the stupid kid, because I was the youngest, and as much as possible Dad would have us all study the same things at the same time.”
“Now, that, I find hard to believe.”
Mariah narrowed her eyes. “Which part?”
“I can’t believe you let yourself think you were stupid. If you were keeping up with older kids, you couldn’t have been.”
She shrugged. “I did eventually figure that out.” Maybe too late?
“Where did you have classes? Was there a special place on your boat?”
He sounded interested. Like this was something he’d been curious about.
“It varied, depending on what we were doing. There wasn’t enough room on the boat for a separate classroom space. We usually sat either in the cockpit or the salon.”
“That sounds cool. Did you run laps around the boat for gym? Climb the mast for recess?” Nelson had a teasing light in his eyes.
Mariah felt her expression go carefully blank. Their life on the boat wasn’t cool, not at all. “We didn’t really do gym. Dad always said we got enough exercise helping on the boat and swimming. And no, we didn’t do recess, either.”
“Was it weird to only have three students?”
“It’s not weird when it’s all you know. And sometimes, when we were with boats with other kids, we’d do classes together.”
Mariah was ready to move on to another topic, but Nelson still had questions.
“Did you have friends on those other boats?”
Mariah looked away. “When they were around, we would play or hang out together.”
“And when they weren’t?”
“It was just us.”
Mariah thought back over her words. She thought she’d sounded all right. Not too pathetic.
“That must have been rough sometimes. I mean, growing up, there were a lot of times I didn’t want to be with my family, so it’s hard to imagine not having Dave around.”
Mariah squished down that envious pang she felt. She would have loved a Dave around. Or a Rachel, or a Jaycee.
She shrugged again, since it was her turn to respond. It was what it was.
“Is that why you’re not navigating around the world with your sextant now?”
She glanced up at Nelson. The words were teasing, but there was too much sympathy in his eyes. He’d figured out that having only her family around hadn’t always been enough. But he was also letting her off the hook.
