think I would like being totally dependent. You have to realize I’ve worked and earned my own spending money since I was fifteen.”
“Then get another job. Dammit, I don’t want you working for Griffin.” He took his hand away from Cara’s thigh, just moments before she shoved it away.
“I can’t believe you’re jealous of Neil! That’s so ridiculous!”
“The guy’s against you marrying me, Cara. I can tell.”
Cara opened her mouth to object and then pressed her lips closed when she realized she couldn’t honestly speak a denial. Roy looked over at her knowingly. “I’ll bet he tried to talk you out of accepting my marriage proposal, didn’t he?”
“Whatever kind of advice Neil gave me prior to our becoming engaged, his only concern was my happiness. Ever since I told him I was going to marry you, he hasn’t said the first negative word. And he would never do or say anything to undermine our marriage once we’re husband and wife. Neil’s too honorable a person.”
“He’s got you convinced he’s some kind of saint. That’s for certain,” Roy muttered.
“Darn it, I wanted the two of you to be good friends.”
“Fat chance.”
Cara sighed, her anger ebbing and leaving her deflated. “This puts a damper on everything, Roy. My job is a big part of my identity, just like your job is a big part of who you are.”
“But you’re going to change your identity and become my wife, Cara. You’re going to become the mother of our kids.”
“And you’re going to become my husband and the father of our kids.”
He sucked in a breath and expelled it noisily. “Cara, you’re not telling me you’d back out of marrying me before you’d quit working for Griffin?”
“I’m saying it’s unreasonable for you to expect me to quit a job I love.”
The quarrel continued until they arrived at the church. Cara was so upset that she could barely concentrate on anything Father Kerby said during the pre-marital counseling session.
Afterwards Roy made a stiff offer to take her out to supper, and Cara refused, asking him to drive her back to the store where she’d left her car. He complied, obviously still furious at her.
Neil’s garage doors were raised. Cara glimpsed him bent over beneath the raised hood of the old car he was restoring, a 1954 Corvette. Following the same instinct that had led her to his house, she pulled into the driveway and got out.
He straightened up, wiping his hands on a rag as she approached. Country and western music played on a portable boom box sitting on a shelf. Cara was reminded of the many times she’d gone looking for him at different stages in her life, when she was down in the dumps about something and needed to talk. Often she’d found him tinkering with his car in his parents’ garage.
“Hi, there,” Neil greeted her now. His tone was gentle and his gaze perceptive. It wasn’t necessary to tell him she felt lousy. He was reading that message in her face and body language, she knew.
“Hi. Just like the old days, huh? Except your taste in music has changed. You used to listen to rock and roll.”
He shrugged. “Occasionally I tune in a classic rock station.”
“Too many painful memories?” Cara’s voice was soft with sympathy as she filled in the gaps of what he hadn’t needed to explain. Some of those hit songs on classic rock stations would take him back to the era when he’d dated Lisa, back to their married years.
“Yes. You and Roy had a spat?” he asked. As always, he seemed more interested in her than himself.
“It was more than a spat. Neil, he insists I quit my job!” she burst out.
“I was afraid of that.”
“He’s actually jealous of you! I tried to tell him that you’re like a brother to me, but I couldn’t seem to get it through that thick skull of his that my relationship with you poses no threat to him.”
Neil crossed his arms and leaned against the car. The slump of his shoulders spelled out resignation. “It won’t be easy to replace you, but I certainly understand your position.”
“My position is that I’m not quitting.”
He sighed, rubbing a hand down the back of his head and neck. “Cara, there’s a lot of give and take in a marriage.”
“Roy’s being unreasonable. He’s not considering my feelings. I love my job. When I said yes to him, it was with the full intention of continuing working. For years and years.”
“You plan to have a family, don’t you?”
Cara bobbed her head in the affirmative. “Yes, but so what? I figured you wouldn’t mind if I set up a playpen at the store like Allison did when she had Jessica.” Allison was one of the two other women employees who worked in the office under Cara’s supervision. “Remember how we all pitched in and helped take care of Jessica? Even Jimmy and Peewee?”
“Maybe Roy will come around.”
“He’d better.” Cara stood on tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek, letting her actions thank him for listening and being there for her, centering her world. He responded in kind, silently saying You’re welcome with a brief, warm hug. “See you tomorrow,” she called over her shoulder as she walked to her car.
“Drive carefully,” he called back, his tone sober and concerned.
On the way to her apartment, Cara remembered the question Roy had asked her this afternoon during their heated argument: You’re not telling me you’d back out of marrying me before you’d quit working for Griffin?
Yes, Roy, that’s what I’m telling you, she thought now. She simply couldn’t marry anyone who expected her to cut Neil out of her life. For that was what Roy actually demanded.
Even though Neil had never said as much, Cara knew intuitively that he needed her to be there for him, too. She brightened up his day-to-day existence. Under no circumstances was she going to abandon him.
If Roy couldn’t understand, then he definitely wasn’t the right husband for Cara. She needed to call a halt to the wedding plans.
Her whole family would be terribly disappointed, but no more disappointed than Cara would at postponing becoming a married woman. By the time she eventually did find a better husband prospect—a man more considerate of her needs—Sophia would have passed away. Cara would live the rest of her days regretting that she hadn’t fulfilled her grandmother’s wish to attend her favorite granddaughter’s wedding.
Moving like an old man, Neil closed the garage doors after Cara’s car had disappeared from sight. Her visit had robbed him of all incentive to resume his repairs to the engine of the car. After turning off the boom box, he went inside his silent house.
For all her bravado, Neil expected that Cara would give in to Xavier’s ultimatum that she quit her job at Griffin’s Auto Parts. What choice did she have?—other
