Once Upon a Marriage

“So he got lucky.”

“No, he played smart.” Elliott took some satisfaction in relaying this particular truth. Though he really had no reason to feel ownership of the outcome. Liam Connelly was just a job. “He took no big risks. And quit when he started to lose.”

“Because Bruce was ready to come upstairs?” Most might have missed the hint of vulnerability in the woman’s eyes. If he hadn’t been trained to see such things, Elliott probably would have, too.

“Bruce spent twenty on penny slots, won thirty and then seemed to take great delight in cheering on Liam.”

He wasn’t being paid to spy on her intended. She’d never even hinted that he should.

But Marie had told him Barbara’s history. She was Marie’s mother.

And there he was, stepping out of bounds.

“He drank two beers. Liam had two, as well.”

Barbara nodded. Looking a bit like a little girl, unsure.

“I had none,” he added. Because the woman did that to him. Made him feel that he wasn’t giving her enough.

“And women? Liam’s a good-looking man. And there are women paid to please those with money to spend.”

And Bruce had been at his bachelor party. A woman like Barbara, no matter how much she loved her soon-to-be husband and felt she was doing the right thing...had to have some doubts.

Not that it was his job to tend to that.

“Neither one of them did more than tip the waitress who brought them their beers.” He’d have told her if either man had behaved differently. Because she was paying him.

And maybe...because he knew it would matter to Marie.

The woman he’d been hired to protect.

“One more thing.” Barbara’s eyes took on a steely glint.

He nodded.

“I need your word, here in this church, that you will never, not ever, tell my daughter that I hired you to watch over her.” There was no vulnerability about the woman now.

She was pure businesswoman who knew her rights. With ethics on her side.

He knew his job. The answer was a given. And...

She held up her hand. “Do you think I’m stupid, young man? That I’m blind? Or that I don’t know my own daughter?”

He blinked. Leaned back. Two minutes ago he’d been feeling sorry for the broad, and now...

“Marie has...issues. I’m to blame for a lot of them. If not all of them. And I’m telling you right now, she can’t ever know that I hired you. You and I are the only two people who know. I haven’t even told Bruce. As long as we agree never to say anything, she’ll never have to know.”

“I...”

“Please.” She leaned forward, her tone no less adamant for being hushed. “We don’t have much time. I’ve created the monster within Marie. It’s up to me to do what I can to protect her from it. I know that I trusted you with my daughter’s life...”

“Barbara?” Reverend Billings’s voice came from inside the chapel. She wasn’t standing in the opening as she’d been instructed to do. The music wouldn’t start until she was in place.

So the video played smoothly afterward.

“Just a minute,” she called.

Bruce was probably sweating bullets. Afraid she was going to change her mind. Two beers had loosened the psychiatrist’s tongue the night before. He’d never met anyone like Barbara. Was having a hard time believing she really wanted to spend the rest of her life with a boring guy like him.