The Friendship Pact. Tara Taylor Quinn
anticipation as he waited for his bride to appear.
Bailey wasn’t sure why she and Danny had never been able to bond. Was it him? Her?
Lord knew she’d tried to be open with him. For Koralynn’s sake. Bailey would do anything for her best friend and she knew that her lack of closeness with Danny bothered Koralynn.
“And...fill...my...nights...with...”
Step. Pause. Step. She didn’t miss a beat. Koralynn and Danny had been sleeping together since the night of senior prom when Bailey, as class president, had crowned them king and queen. For a second, Bailey’s admittedly frozen heart warmed as she thought of her friend’s joy anytime Danny was around.
Step. Pause. Step.
Bailey’s gaze traveled from Danny to the man standing beside him, a couple of inches taller, a little lankier, but missing nothing in the looks department. Jake’s hair was a bit shorter, a bit more styled, than Danny’s. His eyes, though, were a lot more mysterious—probably hiding the jokes he was telling himself about everyone there.
Jake Murphy, Danny’s best friend.
He stared at her, his face expressionless.
They’d done it, too. Had sex. That same night. It hurt. He’d wanted to try again. She hadn’t. Until that damned Homecoming weekend her junior year at Wesley...
Step. Pause. St—
Passing the fourth pew on the bride’s side, Bailey saw her mother. Alone.
Stumble.
Her mother had married again after Stan. The guy from her firm, the one she’d had the affair with. But after the first year, he’d become a judge and she’d spent more time going it alone than with her husband. And the more she was alone, the more she drank.
It was always like that. Things started out great.
Step. Pause. Step.
Then after the wedding, that aura faded into familiarity. And bills. Responsibility and compromise. Wants denied. Arguments. Morning breath and flu. And then one day husband and wife couldn’t stand each other.
She reached the first pew. Mama Di’s smile was blissful—and she was looking right at Bailey. Her gaze told Bailey that Mama Di thought she was beautiful. Inside and out. It told her she was loved as only a mother could love a child.
Bailey smiled. She hated the trembling in her lower lip.
Step. Pause. Step.
And turn.
The “Wedding March” began.
Chapter Three
I couldn’t believe it! It was finally happening! In a few short minutes I was going to be Koralynn Brown. Mrs. Danny Brown. I supposed I should be nervous. Mom told me I might be. That I could get scared and start to worry about all the changes that were happening so quickly. College graduation. Bailey going to law school. My first teaching job. And now, marrying Danny and moving into our own place.
But I wasn’t nervous at all—unless you counted the irrational fear that the world would end before I could make it down the aisle. Or there’d be a fire. Or one of us would get deathly sick or in a car accident or...
“You ready, baby?”
Daddy’s voice had an unfamiliar quiver and he squeezed my hand. I glanced up at him and for a second there, I did panic. I was getting older. Which meant Daddy was, too. And Mom.
“I’m just getting married, Daddy,” I whispered, alone with him in the vestibule at the back of the church. The “Wedding March” was supposed to play one stanza before we started up the aisle, to give everyone a chance to stand before I appeared.
We’d been talking about the ceremony for months. And had rehearsed the whole thing the night before.
“It’s not like I’m leaving town, or anything,” I said, still looking up at him. “And it’s not like I’ve never lived away from home. My college dorm was way further than Danny’s and my house is.”
He smiled. Nodded. Patted my hand.
And had tears in his eyes.
I got all choked up, too.
The second stanza started.
“I love you, Koralynn Mitchell,” Daddy said, taking the first step forward. “You might be exchanging my name for his, but you’ll always be my baby girl.”
“You love Danny, “ I reminded him, on the next step. But I think I was asking for confirmation, too.
“’Course I do, baby,” Daddy said. “I’m just being a silly old man, having trouble giving up my girl.” We were at the door to the sanctuary.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” I told him, clutching his elbow for all I was worth. Mom had worried that I might stumble in my shoes. I hardly even knew I was wearing the four-inch spike heels. I’d taken years of ballet, so walking on the balls of my feet came naturally.
“I’m proud of you, Koralynn,” Daddy leaned over to say as we walked through the door and the music swelled. “You’ve made my life perfect...”
The way I figured it, Mom and Daddy had given me a perfect life. So perfect that sometimes I worried that something bad would happen to spoil it all. Obviously I was prone to irrational worries...
I smiled as Daddy and I started up the long aisle, excited and a bit uneasy, too, as I met the eyes of so many people I’d known my whole life. Everyone I loved was in that room. Would we ever be together like this again?
For a happy occasion?
My gaze sought Bailey’s. She was up there waiting for me. Jake was up there, too. Waiting for Bailey, or at least that was my theory. And I hoped my best friend would find the strength to open her heart to him before he moved on.
“You made a good choice,” Daddy leaned over to tell me.
I nodded. Smiled. And then I saw Danny. We’d talked about whether his tux should be brown or black. His shirt gold or rose colored. I forgot all of it as I looked him right in the eye and knew that my life was just beginning.
I wasn’t marrying this man because my parents liked him. Or because, as Bailey said, he was crazy about me. Plain and simple, I was marrying him because I couldn’t imagine life without him.
October 2008
Hands trembling, I sat down on the cold hard chair next to my best friend, took her into my arms and held on.
“Oh, my God, Kor. Oh, my God.” Bailey’s voice was muffled against my neck.
“I’m right here, sweetie. And I’m not going anywhere.”
Bailey’s older brother, Brian, accompanied by his state-supported part-time caregiver, was on a flight up from Florida, but wasn’t due for another couple of hours. Which left Bailey and me alone in the ICU family waiting room.
“Oh, God, Kor, I didn’t...I had no idea....”
Nestling my face against her hair, I spoke just above her ear. “There’s no way you could have known,” I said. Bailey’s mother’s life had been like a roller coaster since before Bailey was born. Who could have predicted that this latest divorce would cause her to...
“He was a judge,” Bailey said. “How could I possibly think she’d win against a judge?”
“You trusted the justice system,” I told the woman who was currently ranked at the top of her class in her last year of law school.
“This is the man who used his power to get out of paying every single contractor they’d hired to remodel their house. Threatening those companies, saying he’d cause difficulties from the registrar of contractors, was wrong. And that’s only