“All right, I will. But you can tell Amanda that she doesn’t have to keep sending me fancy jewelry. I’m not going to wear it. Soon I’ll be able to buy all the jewelry I want.”
I could tell that Lizzie didn’t want to fight with me, so she bit her tongue and didn’t mention it again.
We slept for a few hours, and when I woke, I jumped out of the hotel bed and cried out, “This is my wedding day!”
Lizzie didn’t say much. She just ordered up room service and set about getting ready. She was quiet as she fixed my hair and helped me into the dress and veil. Then she took a bunch of pictures, probably to take to Amanda.
When we got to the courthouse, I could feel Lizzie bracing herself as Eloise and Deke arrived in their gaudy new clothes.
“Well,” Eloise said when she saw her, “imagine you lowering yourself to join us.”
“We thought you was too good to come back to Barton,” Deke added. “In your ritzy clothes and that limousine out front. You really think you’re something, don’t you?”
Lizzie didn’t flinch. “I know who I am.”
But she looked miserable a few minutes later, standing there with me gushing about how good Rudy looked, all dressed up in a black suit and a white shirt and tie.
I noticed her wiping her tears as the judge conducted the no-frills ceremony. It was over almost minutes after it got started, and I felt a little let down. But then Rudy kissed me, and I realized I was Mrs. Rudy Singer, that I never had to live in that filthy house with Eloise and Deke again.
When it was all over, Lizzie hugged me tight enough to break me. “Kara, promise me you’ll call me if you need me. Anytime. Keep that phone with you. Do you hear me?”
“Of course I will.” I almost laughed.You would have thought I was heading off for the jungle or something. “Don’t worry. He’s going to take good care of me.”
I could see that she didn’t believe it.
As I got into Rudy’s car to head off to the Isle of Capri where we would spend our wedding night, Lizzie got into her limousine. She was crying as they drove off.
I didn’t let it bother me this time. I was too excited about my new life.
THIRTY-EIGHT
I had never been treated like an adult before, not in any real way. But now that I was Rudy’s wife, I felt I was a full-blown grownup. I ordered drinks in the casino that night, and they actually brought them to me. They brought a few too many to our table, as a matter of fact, because Rudy threw down drink after drink, getting louder and more boisterous as he did. I laughed out loud as he twirled me around the dance floor and pranced me around the game room, showing me off to his coworkers. It was the most fun I’d ever had.
But sometime after midnight, he seemed to turn a corner. His eyelids grew heavy, and he started to stagger instead of walk.
When I finally suggested that we go up to our room, he was all agreement.
They had given us a suite. It wasn’t quite as nice as the one Lizzie and I had stayed in the night before, but it was miles above where I’d lived before. He kicked off his shoes as we came in, and he pulled off his tie and plopped down on the bed.
I slipped into the bathroom to change into the gown I’d bought with last week’s tip money. I looked good in it, and I knew it was going to knock his socks off.
But as I walked back into the bedroom, I heard a snore. Rudy was lying on his back, his mouth open, sound asleep.
It wasn’t exactly my idea of a perfect wedding night, and I wasn’t about to accept his snoozing off without any romance at all. So I nudged him slightly. “Wake up, Rudy. You’re not supposed to fall asleep on your wedding night.”
He cleared his throat and turned away from me.
“Rudy.” I shook him harder. “Come on, honey.” But he was out.
So this was how it was going to be . . .
I sat down on the bed and watched him for a minute, trying to decide whether to hit him with a pillow or just let him sleep. It wasn’t as if it would have been our first time. I guess Rudy didn’t feel the sense of anticipation that I had felt.
I finally told myself that it was okay. I couldn’t judge our whole marriage on one night. Besides, being here with him was so much better than living in that trailer without Lizzie around. I started to feel cold lying there beside him, so I got under the covers and moved up next to him.
And as he resumed his rhythmic snoring, I drifted into a light sleep.
He woke me up the next morning as he stumbled out of bed.
I smiled. “Morning, husband.” I loved the sound of that word.
He didn’t even look at me, just headed for the bathroom. I decided I must look pretty awful for him to ignore me like that, so I got out of bed, brushed my hair, and straightened my gown. I didn’t want him to think he was going to wake up to a hag every morning for the rest of his life.
When he came back in, I sort of sashayed toward him. “You fell asleep last night—”
“Food.” He pulled on his clothes, his features grim. “I need food and coffee, and a couple of aspirin. Get dressed,” he said. “We’re going down to eat.”
His tone shattered my anticipation, but I told myself not to be offended. He didn’t mean any harm. I’d seen Deke and Eloise suffering through hangovers for most of my life, and I knew that it would pass and he would feel better soon.
I gathered up my clothes and changed into the sundress that I had originally planned to wear in the wedding. It was cheap and inferior to the dress I’d gotten married in, but it was fine for today. Pleased at the way I looked, I came out and spun around.
“Do I look anything like a married woman?” I asked playfully.
“Nice,” he muttered.
Well, he wasn’t exactly waxing poetic, but it was something. I followed him out of the suite, rode down in the elevator in silence, then waited as he ordered coffee and eggs over easy. When he’d finally gotten food in his stomach, aspirin in his bloodstream, and caffeine in his brain, he started to look a little more like himself.
“I’m sorry I passed out last night.” He rubbed his eyes. “I sure didn’t intend to do that.”
“It’s all right. You’re supposed to party on your wedding night. It’s a law or something.”
He forced a grin and looked at his watch. “What time did I say checkout was?”
“Eleven, but I love it here. Can’t we stay another day?”
“No. My boss gave us one complimentary night for a wedding gift. After that, they make me pay.”
“But don’t you have any money?”
“Not enough for this place. If you hadn’t spent all your tip money on clothes . . .”
My mouth fell open. “Now, wait a minute. I hardly spent anything at all, but what I did spend I spent because I wanted to look pretty for you.”
“You look pretty no matter what you wear.”
That helped a lot. I smiled again and took his hand, but he pulled it away and looked at his watch. “I guess we’d better go on up and pack. We’ll need to get you moved into my place.”
“When the money comes in, Rudy, let’s leave this place. Let’s just put Barton behind us and go to New York. I’ve always wanted to live there. We could get jobs there and start over. Heck, maybe we shouldn’t even wait until the suit is settled. Maybe we should do it now. I can get a job as a waitress. I’ve got plenty of experience. I know there’s something you could do there.”
He leaned back on the booth and shook his head hard. “We’re not going anywhere until that lawsuit is settled.”
“But we can be in touch with the lawyer from there.” I was getting all excited, really thinking that we could pack up and leave for the Big Apple today. “We could go ahead and start our new lives. We don’t have to live anywhere fancy. Something like what you’ve got now is fine. But we’d be out of here.”
He leaned up on the table, resting on his elbows. “We need all our money right now to get through this lawsuit. Where’s that bracelet she gave you, by the w
ay?”
“Upstairs in my suitcase.”
“Good. When we get back to Barton, I’m going to take it and hock it.”
I shook my head. “No! I wanted to keep it.”
“Why? You don’t need jewelry from that woman. You said so yourself.”
“But Lizzie told me it was stupid to hock it at a pawnshop, that we could take it to a jewelry store and get a lot more. Anyway, I like it. It’s pretty. I kind of thought I’d hang on to it until I really needed the money. Let me keep it. Please?”
He breathed out a sigh as the waiter brought the ticket to the table. I watched him scowl as he read it, then he slapped down the cash and got up. He didn’t look like he was going to wait for me, so I got up and followed behind him.
“We have to hurry,” he said. “I’ve got to be back here for work at three this afternoon.”
“You have to work today?” I stared at him. “Rudy, it’s our honeymoon.”
“Somebody’s got to pay some bills. Life isn’t free.”
“But I took the next couple of days off,” I said. “I can make it up later.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have. Things are going to be tight until we get that settlement.”
I was glad Lizzie wasn’t here to hear that. As we drove back to Barton, I started hearing her voice, telling me that she was right, that Rudy only married me for the settlement, that it was more important to him than I was.
But it wasn’t true! He did love me. He would have married me if I was going to be dead broke for the rest of my life. I told myself that over and over until we got to his house.
The house his grandmother left him was old and decrepit and leaned so badly that, if you dropped a marble, it would roll all the way across the floor. And it was almost as dirty as Deke and Eloise’s place. I had never cleaned up at home, mainly because nobody else cared if it was filthy or not, but this was going to be my own home, so I decided to make the best of it. I figured I’d clean up his house and try to make my feminine mark on it. Rudy wouldn’t be back until midnight, and though that was a long time, I figured when he did come, he’d be surprised at the changes I’d made.
I started by unpacking my suitcase and finding a place in the closet for my things. I had so little that I didn’t need much room. I pulled out my underwear and found a space for it in a drawer, then put away my makeup and a few earrings I had bought at Walgreens.
I had finally gotten everything out of the suitcase when I realized that I hadn’t come across the box with the bracelet in it. I searched through my shoes to see if the box had slipped inside one, then the pockets of the suitcase, then the underwear drawer where I’d put my things.
The bracelet was gone.
Had Rudy gotten it when I wasn’t looking?
I knew without a doubt that he had. Again, I heard Lizzie’s voice chiding me, telling me that he’d stolen from me now, that it was all about money. But wasn’t I the one who’d said it always was?
I don’t know why I was so surprised.
My face was hot as I hurried to the phone and dialed the number where Rudy worked. It took a few minutes for them to find him, but soon he came to the phone.
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Rudy, it’s your wife.” I liked the sound of that, even though I was mad.
“Yeah?” There was nothing but cool impatience in his voice, probably from guilt.
“Rudy, I was looking for the bracelet. It’s not in the suitcase.”
“I took it with me. I ran by a jewelry store before coming to work. I got a thousand bucks for it.”
“What? That wasn’t right, Rudy. I told you I wasn’t ready to sell it.”
“Well, I was.”
I couldn’t believe his attitude. He hadn’t acted like this even once when we’d been seeing each other. But I tried to keep my voice level. “Well, what are you going to buy with the money?”
“Just a few of the things we need. It’ll be fine. Just trust me.”
“But, Rudy, I asked you not to sell it. I told you I wasn’t ready. That just wasn’t right.”
“Kara, when you don’t use common sense, I’m always going to override you.”
“But it was common sense.Why are you treating me like this? Ever since last night, you’ve acted like I’m just a lot of trouble to have around. You’re starting to make me wonder if Lizzie isn’t right.”
“Oh, that’s just beautiful! What did she tell you?”
“She told me you were after the money, and I said no, that can’t be right. Not Rudy, sweet, loving Rudy, the man of my dreams.” I started to cry, and I hated myself for it.
His voice instantly softened. “Hey, it’s not like that. It’s going to be all right.”
I had just about had it. “Bring that money home, Rudy. If you spend it, so help me, I’ll have this marriage annulled and I’ll go live with Amanda just to show you.” Then I slammed the phone down.
When it didn’t ring right back, I threw myself on his bed and cried my heart out.
He came home at 7:30 that night, surprising me. I was still brooding and angry, but he held a bou- quet of roses and wore that same old smile that had won my heart before. “I asked them to let me off so I could spend some time with my bride,” he said. “I made dinner reservations at Delta Point.”
I looked up at him with wet eyes, wanting to believe that things were really okay. But I couldn’t help remembering the threat I’d made to him, that I might have the marriage annulled and run off to live with Amanda. I didn’t want to think it had taken that bluff to change his attitude. “Where’s the money, Rudy?”
He took it out of his pocket and laid the cash on the table. “There, now. See? It’s all there, every penny of it.”
I counted out the thousand dollars. “I’m still mad at you for doing that.”
“Honey, I didn’t do it for me. I did it for us, so we could get a good start. But I do intend to use part of it to take you to dinner tonight.”
I looked up at him, searching his face. “Did you really tell them you wanted to spend time with me?”
“Of course I did. I said that they could dock my pay if they wanted, that my little wife was sitting at home alone, and I wanted to be with her.”
I felt better as I tried to picture him saying such a thing to his bosses. “All right. I’ll go get ready.” I put the sundress on that I’d worn that morning, since I didn’t have anything else for a place like Delta Point. He kissed me when I came out of the room and told me I was beautiful, and he held my hand as we drove out of Barton to the restaurant near the casino.
As we ate prime rib and lobster next to a window that overlooked the Mississippi, he started to dream with me about the penthouse condominium we were going to get in New York City, in the high-rise building with a view of Central Park.
“I’ll take you for a cruise around Hudson Bay,” he said, “at least once a week. And we’ll see every Broadway show in town. And we’ll hobnob with celebrities.”
Mesmerized, I hung on every word. I wished Lizzie could hear this. She’d be happy for me then.
“Rudy, Kara, how are you?”
I looked up and saw Stan Mason, my lawyer, the one who was filing my lawsuit. Rudy got up and shook his hand. “We were going to call you Monday. Kara and I just got married yesterday.”
“Really?” The lawyer looked taken aback by that news. “Well, congratulations.”
“Have you filed the suit yet?” I asked him.
“I expect to serve Amanda Holbrooke in a few days. I’ll be getting in touch with you to go over a few more things before we do that.”
It was finally going to happen! I clapped my hands together.
“Well, it was great seeing you. I’ll let you two get back to your meal.”
We watched him return to his table, where several men in business suits were talking.
“We’re so close!” I said. “Rudy, just think of it.”
“Gonna be rich, baby.”
After din
ner, I got up and went to the ladies’ room to freshen my makeup and fix my hair. I felt like I was already some rich millionaire as I came out. Stan Mason was getting ready to leave and he crossed the room to me.
“It was good to see you, Kara.”
“You, too. I’ll tell you what: I couldn’t wait to raise that thousand dollars so we could get this show on the road.”
He frowned then. “What thousand dollars?”
“The thousand-dollar retainer fee.”
He shook his head, then looked toward the dining room. Rudy was sipping on his wine and looking out the window. “Kara, did Rudy tell you that I was charging you a thousand dollars?”
My heart took a nosedive, right into my stomach. “Well, yes. Are you telling me he didn’t give it to you?”
“No, he didn’t. We negotiated a commission for me, but I didn’t ask for anything up front.”
I felt like an idiot, standing there with that stunned look on my face. But I couldn’t think of another word to say. I looked toward the dining room again. Rudy looked so content.
I’d been robbed—not once, but twice. And I heard Lizzie’s voice again, chiding me, reminding me that I didn’t know Rudy that well and that I could do better.
“I’ll talk to you next week,” the lawyer said, but I didn’t reply. Finally, he headed out.
I went back into the bathroom and pushed into a stall. I stood there a moment, trying to get my bearings. The lawyer wouldn’t have lied, which meant Rudy had to be the liar. I felt dizzy and thought I might throw up, but I had to pull myself together. Slowly, I went back out to the table.
“Rudy, I’m ready to leave.” My voice came out hoarse and raspy.
“But you didn’t order dessert.”
“I’m really not feeling well. Can we just go?”
He flagged down the waiter and handed him a hundred-dollar bill. When he’d paid the bill, we hurried out to the car. We were both quiet as we drove the thirty minutes back to Barton, and I used that time to try to sort out what I knew. If Rudy had deceived me, stolen the down payment money and the bracelet, then what did that mean? Was Lizzie right? Had he married me for the money?