Page 12 of A Complicated Bride

Chapter 5

Lily

Ichecked the rear-view mirror no less than seventeen times during the five minute drive back to the Lamont Mansion—Julie’s house.

“That Bradley is quite a hunk of a man, isn’t he?”

“If you like the flashy over-the-top movie-star sort of looks,” Julie said. “Not don’t you go and fall for him too. Tammy tried that once and look where that got her.”

I smiled at Julie. She’d stopped hiccupping. That was a relief. It had been unnerving.

“She seems to be doing just fine.”

“That’s what they all say two years later.” Julie turned to her then. “I mean it, Lily. I love Brad, but he’s the King of Players. He’s big time. He’s gone from London to New York to Hollywood and conquered them all.”

My heart seemed to float up to my throat and slosh around like a bubble in a a Gallileo thermometer. He was a genuine Hollywood Player. He knew people in the theater in New York, or I’d bet he did.

“That all may be true, but he’s here now, isn’t he? Why do you suppose that is?” I wondered, but I had a hunch. He had a haunted look around the edges, a vulnerable lost boy quality. I’d seen it before. Granted, it may have been on stage while playing a role, but I’d recognize it anywhere never-the-less.

“That’s a very good question, isn’t it?” Julie puzzled about it for less than a minute as I stopped the car in the drive and she jumped out as if the house were on fire and she was running in to save her babies.

I jumped out and ran after her, looking back only once to check and see that Brad ws right behind them, pulling into the drive. Then I let the grin take full hold of my face and every molecule in me grinned in concert. I needed to know who that Bradley Simmons was, what he was all about, what made him tick. I didn’t ever remember being this excited to get to know anyone in a very long time. Maybe ever.

Certainly not Teddy. Teddy was a very straightforward man. There’d been no excitement or challenge. He was predictable, dependable, like a string of numbers adding up to the bottom line.

As soon as I entered the kitchen, all thought of Teddy and Brad disappeared. All confidence in knowing what anything was about evaporated. Two bundles of joy, two little girls babbled and screeched while they sat in high chairs covered in some kind of green slimy food—some kind of mixed vegetable possibly. There were cheerios strewn about the floor and puddles of what looked like apple juice—I hoped. And Julie standing between the two adorable pudgy ten month olds hugging them each in an arm and kissing their adorable messy faces.

“Lily, dear, what a wonderful surprise to see you! What brings you here?” Aunt Nora stepped around the high chairs and carefully avoided he debris on the floor as she came to give me a hug. “Aren’t the babies adorable.”

“Yes—“ Before I could say more, she stepped back from her hug and looked up over my shoulder. I knew who she saw, felt the vibration of excitement.

“Brad—come on in. Can I get you a cold drink?”

“Mom, where’s Jack? I need to see him.”

“In the office. Everything okay?”

Julie took off without another word or a backward glance as if she were the pony express with an important message.

I stared at the screaming babies she left behind and went to them. I couldn’t not console them as they reached and strained to watch their mother leave them behind.

“Brad, help me,” I said as if I had a right. I didn’t, but I knew what I had to do and I needed his help. Aunt Nora certainly could use a break.

He came to her side. “What do you need me to do?”

“Oh, I’ll take care of them,” Aunt Nora said.

“Nonsense, there’s only one of you and two of them. Besides you need a break. Bradley and I have this.”

Nora looked desperate to be convinced so I gave her my best Churchill impression of solid unrelenting confidence.

“We told Julie we’d love to bathe the twins. You go back to the Inn and get a rest before dinner.”

“If you think—“

And before I could come up with another line to convince her, I got some back up.

“Absolutely, Nora.” Bradley reached out and lifted one of the girls from the chair into his arms and held her against him, smearing the green mess of strained vegetables all over the expensive Italian suit and never flinched. My heart flipped over and everything in me paused for a beat to take notice of this magnificent display of heartbreaking male charm, the kind that couldn’t be put on, the genuine down in the trenches kind that matters.