Jack and Kelly drove to Hamden for her parents’ weekly Sunday dinner. They were in his Jaguar, and she couldn’t help but appreciate the buttery softness of the leather as she melted down into the seat. It was nothing like her little civic.
“Are you close to your family, Kelly?” Jack asked as he turned off the highway at the sign for Hamden.
“I am. I don’t make it for dinner every Sunday, but I try to get there two or three times a month. My mom is a great cook so it’s not a hardship,” she said, with a small smile.
Jack made a left turn onto a tree-lined residential street. “Tell me again how many of you there are?” She had told Jack about her brothers and sisters before, and she suspected that in his line of work, he remembered names and details with very little effort. Kelly had a feeling he wanted to keep her talking to calm her nerves and she was thankful to him.
“There are four of us. My sister Jessica who’s two years older than I am, and our older brothers Liam and David. My sister and my mom and I are really close, so I know they’ll be hurt I didn’t tell them about you.” Kelly chewed on her bottom lip and looked out the window as he pulled over to the side of the street in front of the house where she grew up.
“You ready?” Jack asked her when she made no move to open the car door.
“Better get it over with, huh?” she said, but she looked far from convinced of that idea as she stepped out.
Jack ran around to meet her, and took her hand in his as they stepped along the walkway. Kelly was surprised by how supportive and nice he was about meeting her family. She hadn’t expected this big business mogul to be so accommodating. So genuine and sweet. But he kept proving her wrong.
“It’ll be all right, Kel.” He squeezed her hand, and for a moment Kelly felt as though they had been friends forever with the easy way he had fallen into calling her ‘Kel’ and the way he was able to calm her whenever she began to feel as if she had fallen down a rabbit hole—which was a lot lately.
She opened the front door and pulled Jack in behind her, still holding his hand. “Mom, Dad,” Kelly called out, “we’re here.”
Kelly’s mother came walking in from the kitchen wiping her hands on a dishtowel. “Who’s here, Kelly? Did you bring a friend?” Her mom stopped when she saw Jack. “Oh, you brought a friend,” she said, all smiles and beaming. Kelly knew her mother was thrilled that she had brought home a man. Just wait until she found out he was a married man. Her married man! How would she react then?
“Jim!” her mother called out over her shoulder. “Come meet Kelly’s friend.”
“Mom, this is Jack. Jack, my mom, Betty Bradley.”
Just then her mom spotted the diamonds on her left hand and gasped. Taking Kelly’s hand in hers she stared, gaping. Watching the pained look on her face, Kelly tried to get out the words.
“Um, Mom. Jack and I…. We, um….” Kelly couldn’t figure out the right way to tell her mother she had missed her daughter’s wedding.
“Ma’am….” Jack put his arm around Kelly. “Your daughter gave me the honor of becoming my wife,” he said in a somewhat old-fashioned way that was probably very out of character for him, but was absolutely the perfect way to explain things to her mom. Kelly felt a surge of gratitude for Jack and sank further into the curve of his body.
Kelly watched as her mother absorbed the news, but the shock on her mother’s face was all she could see. She didn’t know if her mother was happy or mad or what.
“Jim!” Her mother really bellowed now. “Come meet Kelly’s new husband.” Her mother’s voice raised in pitch with each word so that she was practically squeaking at the end.
Kelly felt nervous laughter bubbling up as the front hall was quickly filled with her father’s large frame, her two older brothers, who both stood as tall as Jack and were both glowering at him, and her older sister—all talking at once.
Jack kept his arm around her, and Kelly grabbed onto his hand as it wrapped around her waist, clinging to him as if he were an anchor.
Her anchor. She didn’t know what to say. Jack’s calm voice broke through the madness once again.
“Sir,” he said, extending his hand to shake hands with Kelly’s father, “I’m sorry we didn’t come to see you all first. It’s just that this took us a bit by surprise.”
Kelly almost laughed at Jack’s explanation, but she also knew that he was trying to throw himself under the bus for her, and she was in awe that he would go to these lengths to take the fall with her father.
She knew not many people could ever say they’d heard such a humble apology coming from Jack Sutton. The look on her father’s face was priceless, and her brothers even seemed to relax slightly as they watched her father take Jack’s hand and shake it.
Suddenly, her mom and her sister were pulling her into the kitchen as her sister squealed with excitement and looked at the diamond on Kelly’s hand. Jack was dragged off by her brothers and father to the study for a drink. She could only hope he would survive until she managed to rescue him.
Jessica held Kelly’s hand tightly and gaped at the ring on her finger, but all Kelly could do was look at her mother’s face. There was no anger, just pain. She could see her mother was trying to hide the pain and it tore Kelly up. She had known this would be hard, but she almost wished her mother would yell and scream. Anything would be better than this silent look of hurt.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Kelly said quietly. “I know you probably wanted to be there, but we just had a private ceremony at the courthouse. It was all so fast ….” She broke off, not sure what more she could say to try to explain something that really couldn’t be explained.
“Are you pregnant?” Jessica asked in her melodramatic stage whisper.
“Oh, Jessica, don’t be ridiculous,” Kelly’s mother swatted at Jessica and turned to look at Kelly for a good long moment.
In her quiet way, her mother asked her, “Are you happy, Kelly?”
Kelly nodded, “Yes, Mom, I really am.” Not for the reasons you think, but yes, I’m happy.
Her mother gave one swift bob of the head. “Then I’m happy, sweetheart. That’s all I needed to hear.” And with that, Kelly was wrapped in her mother’s arms. She couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt, though, and somehow her mother’s quick forgiveness made it worse.