Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Tess knew that her last two weeks in Copperville would be rough, but she hadn’t understood the half of it.
She ached from wanting Mac, but she’d expected that.
The need for him was always there, a subterranean current that sometimes bubbled to the surface and threatened to drown her.
But the moments she hadn’t expected were worse — moments when her first impulse was to share some little detail of her life with Mac, until she realized she could no longer do that.
There was the time she rescued Sarah’s kitten from a tree, and the hysterical sight of Mrs. Nedbetter riding around on her new mower, even though she had a postage-stamp lawn.
Tess would hear a good joke or read an article about a new technique for breeding horses, and pick up the phone.
And then the truth would hit her. No matter what he’d promised about always being friends, their friendship was dead.
The most exquisite torture of all lay ahead of her.
Her parents’ anniversary party was no longer a surprise — surprises seldom worked out in Copperville.
Once the secret was out, her family had decided to combine an anniversary barbecue in the park with a going-away party for Tess.
Most of the population of Copperville would be there... including Mac.
By the day of the party, Tess had packed most of her belongings, including many of her clothes.
Too late she realized that the only thing she hadn’t packed that was festive enough for the event was her daisy-patterned dress.
Mac would probably think she’d worn it on purpose.
The only reason it still hung in her closet was that she hadn’t gotten around to stuffing it in the bag of discards she’d collected to give to charity.
As she zipped the dress, she realized the pearl necklace she’d continued to wear probably would be another red flag for Mac.
For the past two weeks she kept meaning to take it off for good, although she couldn’t make herself give it away.
But each time she’d reached for the clasp so she could put the necklace back into her jewelry box, she’d decided to leave it on a little longer.
Putting the necklace away seemed so final, as if that would sever the last tie with Mac.
Besides, her mother had mentioned how nice she thought it was that Tess was finally wearing the lovely gift Mac had given her.
Her mother might notice the necklace was gone and comment, Tess decided.
Better to leave it on. Mac would just have to deal with it.
She arrived at the park early to help her brothers and sisters-in-law with the preparations.
They worked steadily for two hours in the heat, tying balloons to lampposts, firing up the barbecue grills and chasing rambunctious children.
Tess welcomed the sweaty, frantic activity and pushed thoughts of Mac to the back of her mind.
But her pulse started to race right on schedule when he backed his truck up to a ramada and started unloading the kegs of beer that had been ordered for the party.
“Guess I’ll go help him,” Rhino said.
“Don’t sample the wares until we’re finished here,” Joan called after her husband.
Tess kept sneaking glances at the two men as they laughed and joked with each other while unloading the kegs.
Pretty soon Hammer, Dozer and Tim wandered over and joined them.
Everyone acted like the best of buddies, and she began to hope that her brothers had made a temporary peace with Mac.
Once she wasn’t around, they might be able to put the whole incident aside.
“Hey, Dozer,” Cindy called over to the group. “Time for you and Tim to start cooking. People are beginning to arrive and the anniversary couple will be here any minute.”
“Coming,” Dozer said.
Deena continued tying the last of the balloons on an adjacent ramada. “Hammer,” she called. “I need you to check on Jason and Kimberly at the swings. Suzie’s been playing with them over there, but I’ll bet she could use a breather.”
Hammer headed toward the swings. “Jason, let Kimberly have a turn, son!”
Tess pretended not to notice that Mac had tagged along as Tim, Dozer and Rhino approached the table.
Instead, she concentrated on filling a large wading pool with ice to hold the salad bowls.
She’d never followed through on her plan to use ice during lovemaking with Mac, but ice never failed to remind her of the passionate adventures they’d shared this summer.
“Cindy, which cooler did you put the hamburgers and hot dogs in?” Dozer asked.
“The red one,” Cindy said.
“Which red one?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Cindy got Dozer by one arm and Tim by the other and propelled them over to a nearby ramada. “Come on. I’ll show you.”
Tess dumped the last bag of ice in the wading pool. ‘This is ready, Joan.”
“For what?” Mac asked.
Tess glanced at him and could tell by the challenging look in his eyes that he’d meant for the question to rattle her. It did. Her cheeks warmed. “We, uh—”
“It’s for the salads, so you don’t get poisoned by the mayonnaise,” Joan said briskly.
“That’s not all it’s for.” Rhino grabbed a piece of ice and slipped it down the back of Joan’s dress.
She shrieked and scooped up a handful of ice, pelting him with it as she chased him across the park.
And just like that, Mac and Tess were alone.
He picked up an ice cube and tossed it up and down in his hand. “We never did get around to this, did we?”
Her throat felt so tight that she couldn’t speak. She shook her head.
“Guess we never will.” He tossed the ice on the ground and moved closer. “How are you doing?”
“Okay.” She risked one look into his eyes and glanced away again. Too potent. She cleared the huskiness from her throat. “How about you?”
“Okay. I thought about calling you to see how you were holding up, but I thought that might make things worse.”
“Yeah. It probably would have.” She watched the ice cube melt in the grass at their feet. “Mac, did my brothers—”
“Beat me up? No. In a way I wish they had. It might have made me feel better.”
Tess glanced across the park. Joan and Rhino were walking back toward them. They didn’t have much time. She lowered her voice. “Dammit, I will not have you taking the blame for this. It was my idea and I should be the one feeling guilty, not you.”
“Like they said, I could have turned you down.”
“You knew I was going to nab somebody for the job, and you were afraid I’d end up with a dweeb.”
“Yeah. And then there was that dress.”
She glanced at him.
“Why did you wear it today, Tess?”
Because I was selfish enough to want you to look at me like that one more time. “I’d packed everything else.”
“And what about the necklace?” he asked softly. “Didn’t get around to packing that, either, did you?”
Her heart ached so fiercely she could barely breathe. “Mac, I—”
“Promise me something.”
“What?”
“That you’ll wear that necklace in New York.”
“Loafing, are we?” Joan said with a grin as they walked up. “Boy, I can’t leave my staff for a minute without discipline going to hell.”
Rhino’s glance shifted from Mac to Tess and he frowned. “I’ll put Big Mac to work for you, sweetheart. He’s probably distracting Tess so she can’t get anything done.”
“Oh, I don’t really care,” Joan said. “After all, we won’t have Tess around here much longer, so I’m sure everybody wants a chance to spend a little time with her today. Technically, I shouldn’t be making her work at all, since this is also supposed to be her party.”
“I wouldn’t feel right sitting around,” Tess said. She’d caught the brief look of disapproval on her brother’s face. He might have shelved his anger for the time being, but he wasn’t about to let Mac spend any more time alone with her.
“None of us are going to sit around,” Rhino said. “Come on, Mac. I have a bunch of lawn chairs in the van. Let’s go take them out and set them up.”
“Sure thing.” Mac glanced at Tess.
She realized she was clutching the pearl in one hand.
She released it and turned away. His request completely confused her.
He knew that wearing the necklace would be a constant reminder of him, preventing her from moving on to someone else.
That sort of dog-in-the-manger attitude wasn’t worthy of him, and she couldn’t quite believe that was his motivation.
Yet she could think of no other reason he’d want her to continue wearing the necklace.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Who did he think he was, branding her like that when he didn’t have the slightest intention of making a commitment himself?
Her parents arrived soon afterward. Once the party was in full swing, Tess focused on making this a special day for her parents.
More than once she felt the tug of tears as she realized that by next week she wouldn’t be able to see them and talk to them every day as she could now.
She wondered if she’d made a terrible mistake taking the job in New York, but she couldn’t change her course now, and besides, she needed to get away from Mac.
If she stayed around much longer, he would surely break her heart for good.
Although the festivities took most of her attention, she couldn’t forget that Mac was there, although she really tried.
Despite her efforts, she always seemed to know where he was, whether he’d stripped off his shirt for the volleyball game, or had taken yet another kid for a ride on his shoulders, or was challenging one of her brothers to a game of horseshoes.
His voice, his smile, his laughter drew her as if they were connected with an invisible string.
Finally she decided the pearl necklace was part of the problem. She couldn’t take it to New York, let alone wear it while she was there. And Mac needed to know that.
She excused herself on the pretext that she needed to head for one of the park restrooms. When she was away from the crowd, she took off the necklace. Unclasping it wasn’t easy because her hands were shaking. Once she’d done it, she felt as if someone had wrapped her heart in barbed wire.
But this was what she had to do. She found Mac eating some of her parents’ anniversary cake while he talked with a couple of ranchers who lived on the outskirts of Copperville.
“Excuse me, Mac,” she said.
“Sure.” He glanced at her bare neck and his gaze grew wary. “What is it?”
She reached over and dropped the necklace in his shirt pocket. “I need you to keep this for me.” Choking back a sob, she turned and hurried away.