“I’m so anxious to meet Adam’s parents,” Jewel said. “I’ve missed being a part of a family these past three years. Mr. and Mrs. Flint are lovely, caring people. I’ve received such sweet letters from them, besides talking to them on the phone. They’ve told me so many cute things about this man I’m going to marry. They even told me about the time he—”
Over Adam’s half-joking protestations, Jewel began. “Adam’s parents had just moved into their new home and they invited everyone from their church to come to an open house. His mother spent all morning in the kitchen, making her famous cherry chocolate brownies as the main dessert. Just before their guests were due to arrive, she added the final touches to each of her beautiful brownies—a huge dollop of freshly whipped cream and one perfect, maraschino cherry, then carried the huge silver trays into the dining room and placed them on the beautifully set table. She lit the candles, then closed the dining room doors, planning to keep her lovely table and all its goodies out of sight until everyone arrived.”
Adam reached across with a good-humored frown and tapped Jewel’s shoulder. “Okay, sweetheart, this is your last chance. You’d better quit while you’re ahead or I’ll tell my story, too.”
“Too late, Adam. I’ve already started my story. I have to finish.”
Tavia glanced out the side window. Already, the sun had disappeared behind the mountain range. It was great that this couple had been kind enough to give her a ride, but what was she going to do when they let her out?
“Anyway, when it came time to serve the refreshments, Adam’s mother proudly threw open the dining room door—and let out a scream!”
Tavia gasped. “Why? What had happened?”
Jewel let out an animated laugh. “Someone had removed every single cherry and had run a finger through each dollop of whipped cream, stringing it all over the brownies!”
“Not Adam!”
“Yes, Adam. My prim and proper Adam!” Jewel nodded.
Adam gave her a menacing glare, though his eyes showed it was only in jest. “I’ll get you for this, Miss Blabbermouth.”
“But that’s not all,” Jewel went on. “In the resultant shocked silence, they heard a terrible moaning and groaning coming from the bathroom at the head of the stairs. Adam’s parents rushed up to see what it was, and there was Adam—his little hands resting on the sides of the toilet seat and he was—”
Adam reached across and cupped his palm over Jewel’s mouth. “I think she gets the picture, Jewel. You needn’t go into any more detail.”
Peeking over his hand, Jewel’s eyes glittered with amusement. Tavia couldn’t contain her laughter. In her mind’s eye, she could see the scene Jewel had described.
Finally, Adam took his hand away. “Sorry, Tavia, sometimes my fiancée is a bit over the top.”
“Okay, you win, Adam,” Jewel said, smiling at him, “I won’t give her all the gory details, but I will tell her to this day you refuse maraschino cherries and whipped cream. On anything!”
Adam glanced at Tavia in the rearview mirror. “My turn now.”
“Don’t believe a word he says, Tavia,” Jewel cautioned, patting her fiancé’s cheek. “He has a tendency to exaggerate things.”
Adam sent her a good-natured frown. “Me? You’re the one who exaggerates.”
“I only embellish a good story, dear. There’s a difference!”
How Tavia longed to have this kind of relationship with a man, but it never seemed to happen to her. She met few men as warm and friendly as Adam.
“Embellish? That’s what you call it?” Adam checked the traffic to his right and changed lanes before going on. “Okay, Tavia. Let me tell you about this woman. She actually stalked me from the first time she saw me.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it stalking.” Jewel settled herself back into the seat. “But I did think you were adorable, and I wanted to meet you.”
“I hate to brag,” Adam went on, “but I’m a pretty good ice skater. I’ve been skating since I was in junior high. Though I didn’t skate much during my first three years at college, the apartment I moved into at the end of my junior year was just down the street from a skating rink. I figured, rather than go to the student union and bowl or work out, skating would be a great way to get some exercise, and I started going every Friday and Saturday night. One Friday night, as I was skating along, doing some fancy footwork and minding my own business, this pretty gal skates right across in front of me and falls down!” He gave Jewel a wink. “So? What’s a gentleman supposed to do? I stopped to make sure she was okay, then helped her up. She’d skinned her knee a bit, so I took her arm and skated her to the front of the rink and offered to buy her a cup of hot cocoa.”
“I took him up on it immediately!”
Tavia had to laugh at the look on Jewel’s face as she spoke.
“Anyway,” he went on, “after she finished her cocoa, I asked the lady at the concession stand for a little bandage to put on her knee and helped her to where she’d left her jacket and shoes.”
“Then what?” This was like a Cinderella story and Tavia was eager to hear the rest.
“I have to admit she was pretty cute, so I hung around until she came back out onto the ice, then asked her to skate with me when the rink’s announcer called for a couples-only skate. She hung on to my arm like she was afraid she was going to fall down again, and she kept telling me what a wonderful skater I was.”
Tavia clapped her hands. “Oh, that’s such a sweet story.”
“Hey, that’s not all of it. She showed up at the rink again the next night and batted those baby blues at me. Of course, I asked her to skate again, and again she clung tightly to my arm. I figured she must have just started skating and I wanted to do everything I could to help her, so I put my arm around her as we skated, to help steady her. By the end of the evening, she had me under her spell. From that moment on, I never even looked at another girl.”
Tavia leaned forward, placing her hand on his shoulder. “That is such a romantic story, Adam. Thank you for telling it to me.”
Adam caught her reflection in the mirror. “Hey, there’s more.”
“There’s more?”
“Yes. Six months later, Jewel confessed to me she’d learned to skate when she was in high school! That woman had been stalking me for several weeks, trying to figure out a way to meet me, before she came up with that idea of falling down in front of me! She was nearly as good a skater as me!”
Tavia turned to Jewel and gasped. “You didn’t!”
“Oh, but I did, and it worked. Look what happened! I’m engaged to the guy!”
“You are both lucky to have found each other. Adam, I’m sure your parents are going to love Jewel when they finally get to meet her.”
“Adam has told me so much about them. I think his mother and I must be a lot alike. Even though Adam and his father hate rhubarb, she’s as crazy about it as I am. We both hate scary movies and cry at sad ones and we both love to read in bed. He says his mother always has a stack of romance novels on her nightstand, waiting to be read.” Jewel brushed a lock of hair from her face and anchored it behind one ear. “How about your family, Tavia? You said that man back there was your boyfriend. Or should I say a new acquaintance? I guess that means you’re not married.”
“No, I’m not.” Tavia stared out the window, the pain of her past as vivid as if it were yesterday. “I—I don’t have a family,