Chapter 31 #2
“That’s fine as long as she’s civil to Caroline in the meantime. I’m not going to put up with her being rude to my wife. Grandy is asking us to do this, and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her. Mom needs to understand that.”
“I’ll talk to her, but your mother has a mind of her own, as you well know. You had to have known—both of you—that you weren’t choosing an easy path with this.”
“What was it you used to say? Nothing worth having comes easy?”
Ed’s smile was tinged with sadness. “You always were too smart for your own good.” He reached for Caroline’s hand where she now wore his mother’s ring. “It looks good on you, honey.” He kissed her hand and then turned it back over to his son. “Be careful with it and everything that comes with it.”
“I will,” Caroline said.
Mitzi stared out at the darkness through the window at the end of the long corridor.
Ed wrapped his arms around her from behind and rested his head on her shoulder. “Talk to me.”
“We can’t let him do this. It’s all wrong. They’ll be divorced in a year.”
“He’s a grown man, Mitz. There’s nothing we can do about it.”
“Don’t tell me you’re condoning this! Your son is planning to marry a lying, cheating bitch—tomorrow!”
Ed turned her so she was facing him. “Our son has presented us with a fait accompli. It’s a done deal, babe. We can either get on board and be part of it or be estranged from him and the family they may have together. Do we really want that?”
“She cheated on Smitty, Ed. What’s to stop her from doing that to Ted?”
“That’s not who she is, honey. She’s not a bitch. You thought she was lovely last weekend, remember?”
“That was before I knew what she was capable of.”
“Sometimes things just happen, and while it might not be how you’d choose it to happen, it happens just the same. Maybe we ought to give them the benefit of the doubt, no? We raised a good boy, Mitz. He knows what’s he’s doing. How about we have some faith in him? My mother does. Can you?”
“You know I hate this rational side of you.”
He laughed and kissed her cheek. “And you know I adore your crazy, over-the-top side, but that’s not going work here. You’re walking a very fine line right now with that boy you love so much.”
She leaned against him. “I’m scared for him. I’ve never seen him look at anyone the way he looks at her. What’ll we do if she hurts him?”
“We’ll do what we’ve always done: We’ll surround him with love and get him through it. You don’t have to like this, honey, but you do have to deal with it. He’s asking you to support him. He’s going to have a lot of trouble with his friends, so he’s going to need us to be on his side right now.”
“I’ll try,” she said in a small voice.
“That’s all I’m asking for.”
She wiped at the tears on her face. “I can’t believe I’m losing my son and my best friend at the same time.”
“Your son’s not going anywhere—unless you drive him away—and your best friend will always be with you.” His voice caught. “She’ll always be with all of us.”
Mitzi reached for him. “Yes, she will.”
Ted and Caroline went home around four in the morning to get some sleep and to change.
He called work to tell them he would be out indefinitely due to a family emergency, and he left a message for Martin Nickerson to let the department chief know he would have to send someone else to the conference in New York that week.
Ted would either be at his grandmother’s bedside or at her funeral over the next few days.
They were at Boston City Hall at ten o’clock to get a marriage license. From there they went to a jewelry store to buy wedding bands. As they were leaving the store, Ted checked his phone for the hundredth time since they had gotten up. “I wish Parker would call me back.”
“Why don’t you call his office?” Caroline suggested. “Maybe his assistant knows how to reach him.”
“Good idea. I should’ve thought of that. You’re going to need to do the thinking for both of us for a while, honey.”
“I can do that.”
Ted called Parker’s office and learned he had called in earlier to let them know he was taking the day off, but they didn’t have a number for him other than his cell.
“I’ll bet he’s somewhere with Gina.”
“Try his cell again,” Caroline said.
When Parker’s voicemail picked up, Ted said, “Parker, my grandmother has had a heart attack, and she’s dying.
She’s in the Mass General ICU, and she asked me to find Smitty to tell him she wants to see him.
I need you to help me get in touch with him.
I have no idea where he is in Sydney, and I figured that between you and your father, one of you has a number for him.
I know you’re upset about what you saw last night, but I need your help.
I’ll explain the rest as soon as I can.”
“That ought to do it,” Caroline said.
“I hope so. I can’t imagine she’s got a ton of time left, and we’ve lost a bunch of it playing bullshit phone tag games.”
“I’m glad that things seemed to have worked out for Parker with Gina.”
“I am, too. I hope I get a chance to tell him so.”
“You will, Ted.”
He pulled into a parking space at the hospital and leaned over to kiss her. “Thank you again for what you’re doing for my grandmother. No one dreams of getting married this way.”
“Are you kidding?” she asked with a smile. “Don’t you know what a great story this’ll give us to tell our children someday? ‘Daddy and I were married three weeks to the day after we met.’”
He smiled. “Don’t forget to tell them, ‘It was okay for us but not for you.’”
“That goes without saying.”
“Are your parents going to freak out when they hear about this?”
“Maybe a little, but I’ll fix it with them. Don’t worry about that. How are you feeling about your mother?”
He sighed. “I’m hoping she’s going to be in the room when we get married. Beyond that, I don’t know what to say.”
With her hand on his face, she turned him to look at her. “I want you to know I’m not just doing this because your grandmother asked us to.”
“No?”
She shook her head. “I can’t wait to be your wife, and the last thing I want is for you to take these vows with me today and think I’m doing it for any other reason than I love you and want to spend my life with you.”
“I love you, too, Caroline Ann,” he said, teasing her with the middle name he had learned about at City Hall. “I don’t know what I ever did to get so lucky.”
“Let’s go get married and give your grandmother some peace of mind.”