selling short, Lena. Me, my family or yourself. Let me know when you've got the answer.”
He bent, brushed his lips over hers. 'See you later.”
The reception moved into the ballroom, and still managed to spill onto the galleries, onto the lawn. For the first time in decades, the house filled with music and laughter. Racing children, crying babies, flirting couples and gossiping friends filled the great room, relaxed in the shade of white umbrellas at tables around the gardens or plopped down on the gallery.
Declan liked to imagine the house absorbing all that positive energy, even into the dark corners of the rooms he'd kept locked.
'Declan.' Effie laid a hand on his arm. 'May I have this dance?”
'Did somebody kill Remy?' He led her out on the floor. 'I figure that's the only way he'd let you more than a foot away from him.' He kissed her hand before taking her into his arms. 'Can't blame him. When you've got the most beautiful woman in the room, you keep her close.”
'Oh, Declan.' She laid her cheek on his. 'If I wasn't madly in love with my husband, I'd make such a play for you.”
'If you ever get tired of him, let me know.”
'I want to thank you for everything you did to give me this perfect day. I know my mama, my sister and I drove you a little crazy the last couple weeks.”
'Has it only been a couple weeks?' He laughed. 'It was worth every hour I hid in closets so none of you could find me.”
'I'm so happy. I'm so happy, and I love you. I love everybody today,' she said with a laugh. 'Everyone in the world, but today, next to Remy, I love you best of all so I want you to be happy.”
'I am.”
'Not enough.' She turned her lips to his ear. 'Declan, there's something in this house that's just not finished. I didn't think I believed in that sort of thing, but … I feel it. Whenever I'm here, I feel it. I feel it even today.”
He could feel the tremor move through her, rubbed his hand over her back to soothe it away. 'You shouldn't think about it today. You shouldn't worry today.”
'I'm worried for you. Something … it isn't finished. Part of it, somehow part of it's my fault.”
'Yours?' He eased her back now so he could see her face, then circled her toward one of the corners. 'What do you mean?”
'I wish I knew what I meant. I only know what I feel. Something I did, or didn't do for you. It doesn't make a bit of sense, but it's such a strong feeling. The feeling that I wasn't there for you when you needed me most. I guess I'm a little afraid something bad's going to happen again if it's not all made right. So, well, as silly as this sounds, I just want to tell you I'm sorry, so awfully sorry for letting you down however I did.”
'It's all right.' He touched his lips to her forehead. 'You couldn't know. Whatever it was, if it was, you couldn't know. And sweetheart, this isn't a day for looking back. It's all about tomorrow now.”
'You're right. Just … just be careful,' she said as Remy walked up and gave Declan a mock punch.
'That's my wife you're holding, cher. You go get your own girl.”
'Good idea.”
He hunted up Lena, found her in a clutch of people. The red of her dress was like a sleek tongue of flame over her dusky skin. He imagined his reaction to it, to her, transmitted clearly enough as he saw that knowing and essentially female look come into her eyes as he stepped toward her.
He turned slightly and held out a hand to her grandmother. 'Miss Odette, would you dance with me?”
'Day hasn't come when I'll turn down a dance with a handsome man.”
'You look wonderful,' he told her when they took the floor.
'Weddings make me feel young. I had a nice talk with your mama.”
'Did you?”
'You're wondering,' she said with a chuckle. 'I'll tell you we got on just fine. And she seemed pleased when I told her I saw how you'd been raised up right the first time I met you. She paid me back the compliment by saying the same about my Lena. Then we chatted about things women often chat about at weddings, which would likely bore you-except to say we agreed what a handsome young man you are. And handsome young men should find more reason to wear tuxedos.”
'I could become a mamtre d'. But they get better tips when they have a snooty accent, and I'm not sure I could pull that part off.”
'Then I'll just have to wait until your own wedding to see you all slicked up again.”
'Yeah.' He looked over her head, but Lena had moved on. 'This one's working out pretty well anyway. I was a little panicked that the storm last night would screw things up.”
'Storm? Cher, we didn't have a storm last night.”
'Sure we did. A mean one. Don't tell me you slept through it.”
'I was up till midnight.' She watched his face now. 'Finishing the hem on this dress. Then I was up again 'round four when Rufus decided he needed to go outside. I saw lights on over here then. Wondered what you were doing up at that hour. Night was clear as a bell, Declan.”
'I … I m/'ve dreamed about a storm. Pre-wedding stress.' But he hadn't been up at four. Hadn't been up at all, as far as he knew, after midnight-when he'd walked through the house to turn off all the lights before going to bed.
Dreams, he thought. Wind and rain, the flash of lightning. The yellow flames of the fire in the grate. Pain, sweat, thirst. Blood.
Women's hands, women's voices-Effie's? –giving comfort, giving encouragement.
He remembered it now, clearly, and stopped dead in the middle of the dance.
He'd had a baby. He'd gone through childbirth.
Good God.
'Cher? Declan? You come on outside.' Gently, Odette guided him off the floor. 'You need some air.”
'Yeah. Southern ladies are big on swooning, right?”
'What's that?'
'Never mind.' He was mortified, he was awed, at what had happened to him inside his own dream. Inside, he supposed, his own memories.
'Go on back in,' he told her. 'I'm just going to take a walk, clear my head.”
'What did you remember?”
'A miracle,' he murmured. 'Remind me to buy my mother a really great present. I don't know how the hell you women get through it once. She did it four times. Amazing,' he mumbled, and headed down the steps. 'Fucking amazing.”
He walked all the way around the house, then slipped back in for a tall glass of icy water. He used it to wash down three extra-strength aspirin in hopes of cutting back on the vicious headache that had come on the moment he'd remembered the dream.
He could hear the music spilling down the steps from the ballroom. He could feel the vibrations on the ceiling from where dozens of feet danced.
He had to get back up, perform his duties as best man and host. All he wanted to do was fall facedown on the bed, close his eyes, and slide into oblivion.
'Declan.' Lena came in through the gallery doors, then shut them behind her. 'What's the matter?”
'Nothing. Just a headache.”
'You've been gone nearly an hour. People are asking about you.”
'I'm coming up.' But he sat on the side of the bed. 'In a minute.”
She crossed to him. 'Is it bad?”
'I've had worse.”
'Why don't you just lie down a few minutes?”
'I'm not crawling into bed on my best friend's wedding day-unless you want to keep me company.”
'It's tempting. Seeing a man in a tux always makes me want to peel him out of it.”
'Mamtre d's must just love you.”
'There now, you made a stupid joke, so you must be feeling better.”
'Considering I gave birth less than twenty-four hours ago, I'd say I'm doing great.”
