AT LAST
Luc’s brows rose as he drank in every aspect of Dexter’s appearance: his clothes, his height, his net worth. Katie could practically see Luc’s mind churning, the cogs and wheels rotating with all the calculations doubtlessly arriving to his satisfaction. Her insides shook with anger. How dare he!
She glanced at her watch. 7:15. Dexter was punctual as usual and still wearing his workday khakis and white button-down. She loved that he was so dependable. In contrast, Luc showed up unannounced, uninvited, and at the worst possible moment for all involved but showing no remorse for his social faux pas.
Dexter walked in and crossed the room to a vase full of pink roses. “Pink this week,” he said, sniffing the buds. “Do you like them?”
“I love them. You’re so generous to send the flowers every week. It makes me feel as if I’m starring in my very own movie.”
Dexter kissed her near her ear. “You should feel that way. I hope to keep making you feel that way until you could star in Titanic as the old woman.”
Katie giggled but stopped at the sight of Eileen, standing out of Dexter’s line of sight and sticking a finger down her own throat.
“We have to eat,” Eileen announced. “My shrimp is already rubbery. Luc? I assume your ill-timed entrance means you’re joining us?”
Luc lifted Eileen’s hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “It’s lovely to see you too, Eileen. How long has it been?”
“Not long enough,” Eileen replied. “Sit down, I’ll go get the pot.”
Their table, a cheap Pottery Barn knockoff, boasted three place settings. Katie kept talking while she went to the kitchen to get a fourth.
“Yes, everyone sit down, I’m just going to get another bowl. Luc, you will love Eileen’s soup. You should hire her to do demonstrations at your stores. She is such an incredible cook, and everything is healthy so her clients can eat it. She’s taken a lot of Mam’s recipes and made them low-calorie.”
Katie rambled until she returned to the table with a placemat, bowl, and soup spoon for Luc. “So, Luc, this is Dexter Hastings. My soon-to-be fiancé.” She gazed at Dex with pride. His short-cropped haircut was boyish in style, and his hulking boxy frame made him look like a football player next to Luc’s more cut, swimmerlike body. Not that she was comparing them.
“So, Luc,” Eileen said as the men shook hands. “You don’t think Katie has had enough humiliation for one lifetime at a DeForges family function? You really want to dress her like a pink flamingo for this event? Maybe you can buy her a pair of stilettos and stick her in as a yard decoration when you’re finished.”
“I don’t know if Katie can hold her balance that long, but it’s not a bad idea.” Luc brushed past Eileen and strode to the table. “I can’t wait to have some of this delicious homemade dinner of yours, Eileen. And, Dex, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Anyone who sees the beauty in my Katie is a friend of mine.” Luc shook out his napkin and laid it on his lap as if he’d been to dinner there the previous night.
“The famous Luc DeForges,” Dex said. “So you do exist.” He leaned in. “Are you really a billionaire?”
“She speaks of me often, does she?” Luc winked. “Multimillionaire.”
Katie rolled her eyes at Luc’s supposedly humble admission.
“Actually, she never spoke of you,” Dexter said. “I didn’t know you were the rich guy until you said your last name. She just said she dated a guy named Luc back in college. We all make our mistakes.” Dexter grinned.
Katie suppressed a smile and sat down at the table. Eileen brought in a pitcher of iced tea and set it between their places.
“You know, I think she did mention you once recently. We were taking out the garbage, and your name came up. ‘Gosh, what’s that ripe smell? Hey, how’s that Luc DeForges doing anyway?’” Eileen set down the pot, and the smell of dirty socks wafted up from the soup. It wasn’t one of her better creations to serve company, but then, Luc hadn’t been invited.
Luc grinned.
“Katie tells me you’re planning to fly her home for our engagement ring. That’s very generous of you, I must say. Getting home on a teacher’s salary isn’t easy,” Dex said.
“I would think you’d spring for the ticket, Dex, seeing as how you’re saving on the ring and all. Not to mention common courtesy.” Eileen wasn’t going to let anyone off the hook.
Katie giggled awkwardly. “Let’s eat. We don’t want that shrimp to get any more rubbery, do we?”
“You need to try the dress on after we eat, Katie. That’s why I’m here. I’ll need to have it refit before we leave if it isn’t right. Not sure we'll have time once we’re in Nola—that’s New Orleans, Louisiana, Dexter.”
“I figured,” Dex said. “Thanks for the clarification, just the same.”
“There will be rehearsals, garden parties, and of course the wedding itself.”
“Katie doesn’t sing that kind of torch song anymore, so I’m sure she’ll need practice,” Dex said. “No broken heart to whine about these days, is there, sweetheart?”
“No.” She laced her fingers through Dex’s. “I’ve left the lonely hearts club.”
“The fact that you know about dress fittings,” Dexter said to Luc. “That the reason you’re still single?”
Eileen spit out a mouthful of tea. “Let me pray for dinner.” She quickly recited a familiar table blessing, and they all picked up their spoons.
“I hired a dressmaker for Katie.” Luc’s cheek twitched. “I don’t know a thing about women’s fashion, but she told me a long time ago that she loved this dress, and I saw it as an opportunity to make her dream come true while she did me a favor. My brother Ryan is a big fan of her singing, and it makes a wedding so much more personal to have someone you know perform.”
“We’re planning a small wedding,” Dexter said. “Just intimate family and friends, so we won’t need to put on any kind of show. Just Katie, the Lord, and me. That’s all we need, right, baby?”
Luc cleared his throat. “Won’t you have ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ sung?” Luc’s gaze drilled into Dex. “That’s her favorite song.”
“It used to be her favorite,” Dex said in obvious challenge. They both looked to Katie for clarification.
“We haven’t really discussed music yet,” Katie said. “We have to get engaged first.”
Luc stuck a spoonful of Eileen’s soup in his mouth and moaned appreciatively. “Eileen, this is really good. You say it’s healthy? No offense, but it didn’t smell all that appetizing.”
“I didn’t have lime. Usually it has a very fresh, citrusy smell. If I’d known the owner of Forages Foods was coming for dinner, I would have asked you to pack a lime. It’s a Thai dish. Tom Yum,” she said.
“It’s delicious and healthy, huh? I might have to get this recipe for the store.”
“I’m a personal trainer, Luc. Of course it’s healthy. One of my services is to make up menus for my clients and show them how they can lose weight without even trying if they keep fresh ingredients in the refrigerator.”
“You have a list of these ingredients?”
“Of course I do, but it’s not free. It’s part of my service. I still run out occasionally—the lime, for example.”
“Did you think I was going to steal the list from you?”
“You’ve stolen what wasn’t yours before. Never can be too sure.”
“Mmm. All full.” Katie hadn’t touched any bread or salad, but she lifted her bowl and brought it to the kitchen. Once at the sink, she leaned on the edge of the old castiron basin and breathed in and out slowly. She felt a hand on her back and instinctively knew it was Luc. “Why did you come back?”
“Maybe because I know what your favorite song is. Poindexter can tell you differently. You might even buy into it, but that doesn’t make it true.”
“A person can change, Luc. My favorite song could change.”
“Did it?”
She turned and took the bowl from his hands and placed it in the sink, flicking on the water and letting the stream warm. Steam rose from the faucet. “I’m going home for the wedding. Let’s leave it at that, shall we? I’m not the same person I was, and neither are you.”
He gave a curt nod. “Will you try the gown on so I at least know it fits? Being different and all, you may have changed your size too.”
“Is that a reference to the picture on that magazine?”
Luc stepped forward. “You are more beautiful than the first day I saw you—”
Eileen entered the kitchen with the feathered dress in her hand and pressed it into Luc’s chest. “You should hire a date. Surely you can scrape up someone from that dating gene pool of yours—you know the one; has the same IQ as a Barrel of Monkeys game.”
Luc whistled. “Everyone seems to know what’s best for Katie, but how about if we let her speak for herself?”
“Why don’t we?” Eileen crossed her arms.
Luc stood behind the fluff of feathers, and Dexter blinked from the pass-through. Katie felt the weight of their stares in her gut.
Eileen continued, “Why don’t we ask Dexter how he feels about Katie going back to this forties-themed wedding. Dex, don’t you think it’s time she got over her romanticized view of the past and started living in this decade?”
“Katie loves her forties. I don’t understand it. I listen to that station of hers, and it all sounds the same to me. But as long as she doesn’t make me watch another black-and-white movie, I don’t see the harm in her liking those things.”
Luc’s lip lifted to one side. “Sam Spade? Film noir? Citizen Kane? You’re not a fan?”
Dex’s face filled with mirth and he shook his head. “She made me watch Casablanca and The Philadelphia Story. Does that count?”
“Made you? She made you watch some of the greatest films ever made? Dexter, Katie is introducing you to the sweet life. Would you squander such a gift?” Luc’s blue eyes fell on Katie. “When the men were men and the dames were dames.”
“Dames?” Dexter leaned over the pass-through. “I was raised by a single mother. She would have killed me if I used that word. I prefer science fiction. Fantasy. We’re different, Katie and me. That’s what makes us so great together, right?”
He looked to her for confirmation, and she felt shame that he’d used the word prefer. Why on earth did it bother her?
“Right. We have an agreement,” she explained. “I watch nothing to do with a hobbit, Vulcan, or comic book hero, and in return, Dexter’s not forced to sit through a foreign romance, a BBC production, or one of my classic films.” She blew a kiss to her fiancé.
“So what do you two have in common, exactly? What do you do together? It’s all well and good to have your guy time, right, Dex? But then what?”
Luc plunked his fedora, which he’d removed during dinner, back on his head. Katie wondered if he was trying to send Dexter some kind of underlying message. People assumed Luc wore the hats as part of his eccentric rich bachelor image, but he’d worn them in college, where he was viewed less as an eccentric and more as a weirdo. Like Katie, Luc held an affinity for a simpler time when people’s roles weren’t as complicated. When swing dancing and big band music ruled the airwaves, and communication didn’t include fourteen types of technology, but a simple conversation over coffee and a beignet. Of course, Luc also felt the freedom to heave her over his shoulder like he was working the docks, so maybe she had romanticized prior roles too much.
“You want to try that dress on, don’t you, Katie?” Dexter asked her.
Katie nodded so quickly she created her own weather pattern.
Dexter addressed Luc. “That we both want to see her in that gorgeous dress—that’s what we have in common. Go put it on, sweetheart. I’m curious what you’ll look like as a bird.”
Her face burned hot, but she snagged the dress from Luc and scampered down the hallway to her room. She began to belt out “At Last” with enough emotion that it might put Etta James to shame, and she heard Luc laugh from the kitchen. No doubt neither Eileen nor Dex recognized the tune.
Did Eileen really think she should refuse the gown? The thought had never crossed Katie’s mind. She hated to admit how her heart leapt when Luc brought up the idea of clunky heels. She clutched the gown as though thieves were lined up along her hallway and snuggled the downy mass of feathers to her heart. They felt like angels’ wings against her skin.
Once in her bedroom, she kicked off her Keds and held the gown in front of her reflection. She’d considered having the gown made for her own wedding but nixed the idea rather than explain to Dexter a sudden feather fetish. She exhaled a small whimper. “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.”
Katie had left her great love for period dresses back in New Orleans with her collection, which she’d sold to another struggling student trying to make her way through college the same way. She’d forgotten how the feelings sparked endorphins as though she’d run for miles.
She tossed the dress onto her bed and pulled the door shut. She shimmied out of her jeans and hoodie and kicked them into the corner, where another explosion of dust bunnies erupted.
She fluffed the feathers outward and stepped into the dress. She secured the shoulders, the fit of which was like a cape. She twisted and turned in the mirror and covered her face, peeked through her stretched fingers, then dropped her arms. “At laaaast,” she crooned, “my love has come along . . .”
Too paralyzed to zip herself up, she stood mesmerized by her own reflection—she looked like Ginger herself. How she longed to be able to have such beauty when she performed. Back in the day, she’d been reliant upon what the secondhand stores offered.
Someone rapped on the door, and she wiped her eyes and opened it.
“I figured you might need me to zip you up,” Eileen said as she moved gazelle-like into the room. She stopped mid-stride. “Oh, Katie.” The two friends stared at one another. “You have never looked more like . . . well, like you.”
Katie crumbled into her hands and felt Eileen zip her up.
“What’s wrong?”
“I miss it. I miss the Barrelhouse Club, I miss singing an old song with passion. Not that I don’t like singing in church, I do, but this is what I did out in the world. This is how I connected with barflies and street people and told them about Jesus. They thought I was a star, like their fairy godmother. It’s not the same here.”
“Don’t let this dress cloud your memory. You always wanted to be a teacher. Besides, you need to hurry. Luc is trying to talk sports to Dex out there.”
“I still want to teach, Eileen. Nothing makes me prouder than watching the kids hit some milestone. That’s not what I mean. It’s just that I feel closer to God when I’m singing to the ‘least of these.’ Does that make any sense?”
Eileen stepped forward and patted her wrist. “Katie, I’m only worried you’re muddling all these feelings. If you wanted Luc DeForges, you know I’d support you. Much as I might want to vomit in my own shoes, I’d support you. But if you want to sing and swing dance, you can easily find a club in San Francisco. You don’t have to give up your dreams because you’re getting married. Dexter wouldn’t want you to sacrifice yourself for him.”
Katie crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed the feathered cape.
“You’ve got two guys out there. One has already broken your heart and disappeared off the radar screen. The other one wants the same things you do: a family, a ministry together, a future. I know your nana’s ring means a lot to you, but is it worth losing that guy out there who wants to marry you?”
“Of course not, but this won’t cost me Dex. We’ve agreed that I’ll get the ring and he’ll ask me to marry him in some surprising and elegant way and present it to me.”
“I don’t want it to come to blows here. And it will, Katie. You mark my words, it will come to blows. Maybe not in a physical way, but Luc owns you in his own way. You’re the hydrant, he’s the dog.”
“Ewww! You can’t come up with a better analogy than that?”
“You’re wearing his collar. You have Luc’s license around your neck. This dress is his license.”
Katie slumped. Everything seemed so simple until she stared at her reflection. Even Eileen had said that Katie looked like herself. Had she abandoned a part of herself for security? “But I love Dexter!” she said out loud.
“Katie?” Luc stuck his head around the doorframe. His Adam’s apple plummeted and rose, but he said nothing.
Dexter appeared beside Luc. He crossed his arms like a genie and placed a forefinger to his jaw. “Hmm. I’m not sure what I think.”
“It’s better with movement.” Luc stepped forward and opened his palm to her. “May I?” he asked Dexter.
“Be my guest. I wouldn’t know what to do with her dressed like that.” Dex laughed.
Katie took Luc’s proffered elbow. He circled his arm around her waist and with the other hand pulled her into him with a spin. Then he pushed her away, and she twirled until she came to the end of his long reach. Luc circled her back and began to sing, “Heaven, I’m in heaven . . .”
Her head fell back, and they began to dance cheek to cheek. The roughness of his evening shadow felt natural against her complexion, and she drank in the familiar scent of him. He dipped her and left her with her back arched and dependant on his arm.
Dexter stood in the doorway. “So that’s swing?”
His question broke her dream state, and she pulled her gaze from Luc’s. He lifted her to an upright position. She shook her head and untangled herself from Luc’s embrace. “That was a waltz,” she told Dexter. “Let me teach you.” She held her arms up toward his shoulders.
“No, no. Not me. I’m enjoying watching you. I can’t see how beautiful you look if I’m right beside you.”
“But we’ll dance a waltz at our wedding. Come here.” She motioned with her forefinger.
“This is swing.” Luc took her back and twisted her into a sweetheart, showing Dex the basic steps as if to say how easy it was, then tossing her feet into the air as though she was nothing more than a mop. He lifted her at the waist. “Sidecar!” Luc shouted, and he placed his hands on her hips.
Katie stopped. “I don’t think I—” She clasped her hands around Luc’s neck and kicked her legs up into an L. She went to one side, then back down again, and he flipped her to the other side, where she lifted up into an L again. Katie squealed with delight in the momentum, and she came back down hard. “I don’t think I move that way anymore.”
“We’re pathetic!” Luc threw his head back. “That is not how you do it, Dex.” He twirled her into a basic dip and kept her off her balance. “We have to finish strong.”
She pulled herself upright using Luc’s neck to straighten up.
“I’ll leave the dancing to you two,” Dexter said.
She held out her hand, “Come on, Dexter. It’s fun, I’ll show you.”
“I’d better get going,” Luc said. “Katie, the gown fits you like a glove. Maybe I should have planned an extra day for us to practice though.” He laughed. “Dexter, pleasure to meet you.”
Luc shook Dexter’s hand and exited the room so quickly, one would think she’d asked for his hand in marriage. Again.
She searched for breath and finally inhaled a gasping current of air. “Won’t you at least try? For me, Dexter?”
“You’re a good dancer, sweetheart.” Dexter pecked her forehead like an old uncle. “But I’m afraid I hung up my dancing shoes at the high school prom.”
She tried to kiss him back, more romantically, but his lips were hard and pursed. The movement came off as cold and wooden, with as much passion as a woodpecker has for the tree it’s headbutting. She glanced over at Eileen, who had the decency to look away so as not to remind her she was no Scarlett O’Hara. Katie wasn’t the sort to incite that kind of passion in men, and one of the finest things she could do with life was to embrace what she was—not pine after things that would never be. It was why she and Dexter were getting married, she reminded herself. He loved her for who she was now, not for some false image she used to inhabit.
“So will you learn one swing dance for our wedding?” she asked him.
“Oh no. We’ll have to invite Luc or maybe this brother of his. Ryan, you say? He can dance with you, and the two of you can entertain the crowd. My engineers at work will love it, but if I did it, I’d never hear the end of it.”
“At our wedding? You want Luc to dance with me at our wedding?”
“Well, I don’t want him to dance with you, but if you want to dance like that, I’m afraid I have no choice.” He pecked her cheek again. “Katherine, go home and get the ring. Don’t overthink this. Our wedding will be perfect.”
“Do you like the gown? You never really said.”
“It’s a bit much for my taste. Drowns out your beauty. You don’t need a dress to capture people’s attention, you do that all by your lonesome.”
She frowned.
“But it’s beautiful on you. You’d make a paper sack look good.” He pressed another chaste kiss to her forehead.
“Would you stop that? I’m not your niece!”
“What?”
“And I detest the name Katherine!”
“I think you need to eat a little more tonight. You’re grumpy. Eileen”—Dexter saluted with two fingers—“excellent dinner, thank you so much for including me. Katie, I left the suitcase in the living room. Do you want me to bring it in here?”
“Yes, please.” She sidled up next to Dexter and laid her head on his shoulder. “Does it bother you that Luc is taking me home? You know, in his private plane?”
“If I didn’t trust you, I wouldn’t be marrying you.”
“So it doesn’t bother you that Luc-my-old-boyfriend happens to be the billionaire, I mean, multimillionaire Luc DeForges?”
“You never cared for money. If you did, you wouldn’t be spending all this effort on a ring that can’t be financially worth the travel. As for having his own jet, I suppose that’s just a solid business expenditure for a man who travels as much as he does. I’ve got to go check on my mother tonight, so I have to run. Call me tomorrow.” He stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
“You were hoping to get blood out of a turnip?”
“Cut it out, Eileen. Is there anyone who would meet your standards for me?”
“After tonight? Pretty much anything male who isn’t Dex or Luc. You need a man with a whole name, for one thing.” She exhaled. “Dex cares, he’s just not good at expressing himself. I assume that’s why you carry around that ridiculous scrapbook.”
“My father would have been happy I’d found a good man who will care for me and our children!”
Eileen stayed calm but didn’t change her tactics. “You don’t have to go home for the ring. Stay here and let Dex buy you one. He may not have seen anything in that dance of yours, but trust me, I felt the electricity. If you were in one of my yoga classes, I’d make you leave for the force field of electromagnetic energy you brought with you.”
Katie had to go to New Orleans. It was her last chance to find out why Luc had tossed her from his life like a banana peel off the back of her father’s pickup. Love was a decision. A choice. All the leading experts said so, and she’d decided she would love Dexter in a way that honored and respected him. The way she’d loved Luc left her worn out and depleted, like an empty air mattress. Then what use was she? She’d get her ring and closure as well. Then nothing would stand in the way of her life with Dexter.