No Ordinary Proposal Ch. 02

"Are you leaving me sweating here intentionally?"

Scott chuckled. "You're a better man than I Bob. If you'd brought home a beauty like that I would have been green with envy and doing my best not to show it. The truth is that I could tell that you weren't just attracted to her for that. You could tell that there was much more to her than just what people saw on the outside." He sighed as he looked down the fairway and lined up his drive. It was a good drive, not long, and I could see the strain it put on him to do it. Small things I'd noticed over the past year were falling into place. He looked tired all the time, his vitality showed in short bursts of energy like a candle guttering in a breeze. The entire time I figured it was work that was weighing him down. I looked down at the tee and thought about that. "Don't go soft on me now. I've seen that expression too much over the past year."

"Sorry." I know my smile was strained. I reached up and gave his shoulder a squeeze as he waved me to the tee. My drive was feeble at best. Scott told me not to throw the game that he could win almost fair and square. "Anyway, getting back to the party. You know that Jo has little to no capacity for alcohol, and the eggnog had been well spiked." He laughed. "Well between you being obviously unhappy and her getting more relaxed, things were said. No need to beat around the bush now is there." He added under his voice. "I was drinking ginger ale because of the medications, I was in a position to hear and remember a few things. She told me not to get jealous if I found you and her under the mistletoe and took advantage of rubbing that girl of yours' nose in it. What was her name, Annie?"

"Amy." I said with a chuckle. "Go on." I was getting curious now.

"Well I told her that I wouldn't stand in the way of tradition if it happened, but I told her not to just hang out under it like she was running a kissing booth."

I thought for a moment and wondered if we had kissed that night.

"You did, if that's what you're wondering about." He said, laughing. "I'm sorry if you weren't aware at the time, but Amy had intimate relations with another party-goer that night in one of the bedrooms. Jo found out about it and she was fit to be tied over her treating you like that."

He didn't speak for a few shots. "Confession time." He looked ahead and took his next shot. "I checked up on Jo. We'd been married, oh about a year or so by then. I was traveling a lot and leaving her behind to do what ever she pleased and it began to worry me. It was a fools errand. She was taking a couple courses at a college in the city and volunteered for a while. She had talked about looking for a job just to have something to do and I foolishly dissuaded her and tried to make her a kept woman."

"Does she know about that?" I asked.

He sighed heavily. "She does. I even braced for the impact that never came. She didn't talk to me much after that. I got nearly a month of the silent treatment, and I deserved it. I never tried to justify myself and she said that was what made her realize that I knew I'd fucked up. I only asked her to forgive me for being a fool, and eventually she did."

I thought for a moment and looked at him. "Did you suspect Jo and I were up to something?"

"Suspect is a strong word, I like the term 'worried' because it makes me sound like a lot less of an asshole. I suffered too much jet lag and the long hours had messed me up. I knew plenty of coworkers who got a little on the road, and a few whose spouses got a little while they were gone. Anyway, the guy I hired reported back that you were no where in sight." He took off his sunglasses and held onto the side of the cart and closed his eyes. "Make it quick, not the nose, I'm a bleeder these days."

I might have taken him up on it before his story had unfolded. I exhaled and turned to look down over the pond. I ran my hand over my face and turned back to him. He was just staring at me from the shade of the golf cart canopy. "Can I put these back on." He held up his sunglasses. "Or are you deciding where to swing."

I just waved my hand at his glasses. "We've been friends for half our lives Scott. You honestly think I could do that to you, no matter how gorgeous Joanna is?"

"Shit son." He started in a Texas drawl that he affected sometimes when he wanted to be extra sarcastic. "I'm no fool, but you are if you think that sort of thing doesn't happen, even between the best of friends." He took his cap off and wiped out the band with his towel and put it back on. He sat heavily in the cart and waved me to the other seat so we could keep playing. "I'm not going to justify myself to you either. What I did was shitty and all I can do is ask you to forgive me for it. Trust me, the fact that it was all in my head and proven by an outside source was enough to make me feel about as low as I could get." He listlessly pointed down the fairway urging me to get moving so we didn't get overtaken.

"I've got about two or three months on my feet." He said flatly. "I'll end up in the hospital for the next month or so. I've already signed the appropriate medical waivers, no heroic measures, do not resuscitate, that sort of thing. I wasn't in Houston for work last week, well not so you would know it. I was divesting myself of the majority of my stock. I transferred it to a more diverse portfolio for Jo. She's better off not being a large shareholder of that shark tank. With my luck one of those vultures would descend on her after the funeral to get her into their clutches to improve their holdings." He added gruffly. "Bastards."

The larger bits were starting to form a picture before me. I stopped the cart and looked sidelong at him. "So what about..." I couldn't articulate everything that had happened over the past week. I threw my hands up and dropped them on my knees, shaking my head all the while.

Scott laughed. "C'mon we've got two more holes to play and I'm one stroke ahead."

Neither of us spoke at the next tee. I drove us down the fairway. "What did Jo tell you after we hung up the phone last Thursday night?" The amusement in his voice was evident.

"She told me it would all make a lot more sense after you and I talked. I'm not so sure it does yet, but a lot of my questions now have answers. She asked me about my day, wanted a play by play of everything I'd done."

Scott laughed loudly at that. "I bet she did considering what you actually spent a few hours doing." I felt the blood rise in my face as the embarrassment washed over me. "She's something isn't she?"

"She's terrific." I said softly.

He looked over at me. "She gave you an inkling as to each of our idiosyncrasies, she did tell me that. That was all she told me other than the fact that the rule was obeyed." He looked at me, his expression turned serious. "Thank you for that. It's not that I have any notion that she won't continue to live her life after I'm gone, it's just that I wouldn't want any talk to start. Give it a little time, but I think the two of you will be very happy if you so decide to pursue a relationship."

"What?!" I said, my voice loud to my own ears.

"You have my blessing to get to know one another as well as you like as long as you keep it under wraps until I've passed. Give her a little time after that before going public. I couldn't stand the thought of anybody thinking she'd been running around or, come to think of it, that you were waiting idly by to swoop in on the widow."

"You are out of your ever loving mind!"

"Jo said the same damned thing. That's when she did hit me." He laughed and rubbed his jaw.

"She agreed to this?"

"What happened after dinner the other night?"

I stopped cold and looked at him wide-eyed. I looked down and then back out across the fairway as he lined up his swing. The crack of the club on the ball roused me.

He answered his own question in a dry tone.

"So you're not as averse to the idea as your burst of noble outrage would have me believe." He waited a moment for that fact to sink in while I considered the fact that he was right.

"Let me tell you what happened when Jo got to Houston. When she got to the hotel she burst into tears and made me lay down with her on the bed while she let it all out." All of the smirks and smiles were gone as he gave the account. "It took me over an hour to calm her down enough to get her to speak in full sentences. She felt guilty, extremely guilty, though she never said what it was that she'd done." He reminded me. "She went on to tell me that when she kissed you goodbye at the airport she felt like she was being torn in half. One half wanted to run for the plane, the other wanted to go home with you." He waved me to my ball to take my shot. I took it and it landed about as badly as it could have and stayed on the course. "I'm sure she said something to prepare you for this talk."

"She did. She told me to trust you that you spoke for her as well." I said. Scott's smile came back. "She said that trust was the word to focus on."

"Can I pick 'em or what?" He said his grin faded.

"She wasn't the only one that felt guilty." I added quietly.

Scott squeezed my shoulder. "Let it go. I'd say that my trust in you wasn't misplaced but then I've given you the ammo to throw that back in my face. Let's just say that I'm trying to watch out for my two best friends. I want them to keep an eye on each other, for my sake because very soon I won't be able to do it myself." We walked back to the cart and he turned me to face him. "I know this sounds crazy as hell. I thought it did too at first but then the idea grew on me. I know it's weird to play matchmaker for my wife and my best friend. Promise me this, if things don't work out, for any reason, I'm going to ask you the same thing I asked of Jo. Please, for me, stay friends. I want someone I know that she can trust to be there to lean on, and I want the same for you buddy."

I shook my head. "Why does this feel like you're handing me the keys to a car and telling me to take good care of it? Jo is smart, charming and beautiful, she doesn't need anybody to look out for her. She'll be okay on her own, and the last thing she needs is help getting a guy. She could take her pick of the litter."

Scott smiled. "We agree on that. I'll let you in on a little secret. The uneasiness I felt that first year wasn't what I thought it was. She didn't sleep well when I wasn't home, I remember my guy reporting that the house lights were on late into the night. She doesn't like to be alone. She told me about it and that she'd seen a therapist about it when she lived in Houston. Eventually whenever I had to travel for work she would come along so she wasn't at home alone. We got Maggie a couple years ago when I would have to be in the hospital for a few days getting treatment, and that helped her some."

On the ride back over to the clubhouse to drop off our cart I thought about why this was all coming out now, and why he hadn't told me about the cancer before. We'd both said we were the best of friends and yet he'd kept this from me this whole time. I'm sure he had his reasons, but how did I suddenly figure into becoming the star of this story. The questions began to coalesce in my mind and by the time we were in the clubhouse pub where we had taken a table near one of the patio doors away from others. The waiter took our order and went off to get drinks for us.

"I've got so many questions for you Scott that we could be here until dinner."

"Well I'm functionally retired, you're the one that's playing hooky from work." He smiled.

"I guess I'll start with all of the whys. Why didn't you tell me before now that you were sick?"

He looked out the window. "Pride, stubbornness, I figured that even though I was given odds, I figured that I'd be on the winning side of them." He turned back to me. "Ego. I was pretty stupid. Over the years work has taught me to never show weakness or I'd start out on the downside of any business deal. Unfortunately I let that cross into my personal life."

"I remember. You almost never drank on nights we played poker back in college. I'm glad we never went into competing businesses." I said. "Why me? Why now?"

He gave me a little chuckle but he didn't speak as he glanced up seeing the waiter return. We ordered lunch, as soon as the waiter went out of earshot he replied. "When I had talked about stopping my treatment with Jo she nearly had a breakdown. At my doctors recommendation we saw a grief counselor. Karen helped us a lot, well helped Jo, I should say. She gave us the idea to plan what would happen after I passed away. Remember that holiday party we were talking about earlier? I remember it clearly. Mostly I remembered the two of you kissing under the mistletoe, and the drunken admission that you wouldn't be safe if she got it in her mind to have her way with you. At the time I wasn't overly happy hearing my wife explaining how she was going to corner my best friend to make out, but I realized that you were just the target of my jealousy, my anger. You hadn't done anything other than be a great friend to us both."

The offhand manner with which he referred to his own death hit me like a punch.

"I suggested that she might want to go back to school, finish her degree, maybe hang up her own shingle and start a career. We mapped out where we were, she was still in denial and grieving, I was planning. Inevitability has a way of cementing your path." He took a sip of his drink. "One night a few weeks after New Years, we'd gone to dinner with a co-worker of mine who had come into town from Houston. Jo put on a good show of face, but she had let the drinks get to her and I could see she was near the breaking point. I apologized to Travis and his wife. Jo cried the entire drive home." He paused and glanced up to see the waiter headed our way with lunch. After we'd been served he began again. "Call me a bastard if you will after you hear this, but I did it for a reason, my own reasons. When I got Jo home, I got her comfortable, shoes off, feet up and I gave her a brandy. Gasoline on the fire if you will. I brought up the Christmas party and how angry she was about your date, and how you'd been treated. Well lubricated she went on to tell me how great a guy you were and she would never treat you like that." He chuckled at what must have been a look of shock on my face. "She went on to tell me how if you'd been with her instead of that girl Amy, that she would have hauled you off for some holiday nookie herself. Bless her heart, she gave me the opening I was looking for right there. I asked if she had a thing for you, as innocently as I could, smiling all the while." He laughed at me as I nearly choked on my sandwich.

"You all right over there?" He lifted his fork and took a bite of his salmon. "Relax, you already know that I knew there was nothing going on."

I sipped my drink and cleared my throat. I caught my breath and began to speak. He just held his hand up to allay my fears.

"You have nothing to explain. I was being a bastard but I wanted some unguarded honesty and this was the best way to get it out of her. She said no, but it was the way she said it. She drew out the word 'no' like a kid who was caught lying and doing her best to sound innocent. I sat down and took her feet in my lap and gave her a massage and she melted. I could have had her admit to kidnapping the Lindbergh baby at that point." He pointed his fork at me. "You may want to file that away for later." He took another bite of his lunch. "Anyway she told me something that I wasn't aware of about that party, something I would have thanked you for had I known about it sooner."

I began to nod and let out a little sigh. "That guy. Jim Monaghan was it?" I said softly.

He nodded. "She said he was coming on to her like a freight train while she was in the kitchen and you happened along. You never acted like you knew what was going on, but you were never further than arms reach from her for the rest of the night. She said it was like having a best friend who was a bodyguard nearby and she was able to relax and not show that she'd been rattled by him. You even stepped between them at the buffet when you saw him get close to her again."

"I nearly dragged him outside and kicked the shit out of him."

Scott laughed. "I would have gladly let you. I was barely holding myself together by that point. Had I known about it at the time he wouldn't have been able to walk out of there under his own power, I guarantee you that. I've since gotten my revenge on him. I wonder how he likes North Dakota."

"Is that where he ended up?" I asked with a chuckle. Scott just nodded.

"I'm guessing that's how you lost sight of your Amy that night." He said solemnly.

"She was no great loss Scott. We weren't going anywhere beyond the casual acquaintance. She thought I was a step in the direction for joining the jet-set lifestyle she was looking for. I might have been, it depends on who it was she screwed that night besides me."

Scott reached over and gave my arm a squeeze. "I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have told you, or maybe I should have told you when I found out. I don't know. I wonder if she went to North Dakota with him?"

I looked sharply at him and he just gave me a sly grin and looked down at his plate and kept eating. I started laughing.

When I'd quieted Scott continued. "That night I'd finally put Jo to bed with a couple aspirin. I'd got it in my head to broach the subject when she was more lucid. A few nights later, once the hangover was behind her I asked if she remembered what we'd talked about. She was pretty fuzzy about it so I enlightened her. She was a bit flustered, defended you like a momma bear and cast all the blame at Monoghan. I asked her if she remembered telling me that she was sweet on you and would have shown you a good time that night if you two were together."

"Oh God no." I whispered as I reached for my drink, which was mostly water at this point, and gulped it down.

"Her face turned colors that would make a rose jealous. Well that put her in high stirrups, to use one of her favorite expressions. Once I got her to relax I asked her if she might want to see where things went after I was gone." He stopped speaking.

After a few moments I realized he wasn't done, but he'd hit a tough spot. "What did she say?"

His laugh was painful. "Say? She didn't say anything. Her face went an even deeper red and she hit me hard enough to knock a tooth loose. When the shock of it wore off I realized why she'd done it. I apologized as quickly as I could as she reared back for another swing." He looked up at me to see if I understood and the light dawned on me as well.

"Karen was able to see us the next day. We both told our sides of that story and Karen just shook her head. She then went on to ask me if I had lost my fucking mind." We both laughed at that. "Suffice it to say that I got a long explanation as to why what I thought was a way to help her cope after my passing actually sounded as if I was bequeathing her to a friend."

"How's the tooth?" I asked jokingly.

"Doesn't really matter now does it." He added morbidly. I immediately felt like shit for making light of him.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." I began, he just waved away the apology.

"Once I had the chance to articulate what my thinking was, Karen dug into me for not being more forthcoming about my scheme. She tried to tell me that Jo was a strong independent woman and all that. Jo stopped her before she could take a swing at me too. Jo told her that I was right. That stopped the conversation right there. We talked about it, Jo explained her issue, which isn't just a personality quirk by the way, it's diagnosed, and by then Jo had my hand in hers." Scott closed his eyes for a moment as if remembering something painful. The waiter chose that moment to come back over. He cleared the plates and offered us dessert. We both declined and just finished with coffee.