Wicked Forest (DeBeers 2)

"Portuguese for 'you're welcome.' I'm showing off. If you're going to use Spanish on me. I'll use some Portuguese. I had a Portuguese nanny." I said, and he laughed,

"We'll teach each other languages, then," he said, and waved after he stepped out of my car.

What a nice man, I thought again, and then I wondered if it was proper for me to get so close and personal with my college teacher.

It's only a friendship, I told myself. What's the harm? There were far more serious problems to solve, most of them inside the gated property of Joya del Mar.

.

"Thatcher asked me to tell you to call him the moment you stepped in the door," my mother said. greeting me. "He sounded very excited."

"Oh?"

He made me promise twice that I wouldn't forget!"

I put my bags of books down quickly and went to the phone.

The moment his secretary heard my name, she put me through to him.

"I met with Kirby Scott," he said. When I told him what I wanted to know, he was afraid I was coming after him as an attorney. He was so shaken by my directness, he was probably more forthcoming with me than he's been with anyone in his life. I learned some things about his relationship with Jackie Lee and with your mother as well. I'll tell you what he said that I think is true.

"But as far as what my sister and mother told me, the bottom line is. I have researched what he told me and I have confirmed it is impossible for him to be my father. He was a few thousand miles away from Joya del Mar and Palm Beach during the period when my mother would have conceived. It is as I suspected and hoped, a fabrication, a plot conceived by my lovely sister and my mother. I've already let Whitney know how upset I am by what they fried to do. My mother is next."

"I'm happy for you. Thatcher. You wouldn't want to be tied to that man in any way or form."

"Be happy for us. I'm no longer hiding anything from anyone here," he said with determination and fury in his voice. "I've changed our plans for dinner. You'll have to wait to enjoy my cooking genius. Instead. I've made reservations for us at TaBoo, the first place I ever took you and a virtual neon sign when it comes to announcing a relationship in Palm Beach. We can go to the beach house afterward. I'll pick you up at seven.

Dress to kill," he ordered. "I don't want a single eye to miss you and me together tonight"

Are you sure?" I asked. Actually. I was having trouble keeping my breath. Suddenly, my whole life, my future, was charging forward at a pace I had not expected.

"Am I sure? I tell you what. Willow De Beers, get that ring finger lathered up and ready. We're coming out. Tonight is our coming-out party!" he practically screamed into the phone.

The moment I hung up, my mother was there, holding her breath in anticipation.

"Is everything all right?" she asked, looking at my crimson face. I could feel the heat in my cheeks and at the base of my throat. "Willow?"

"I think so," I said. "I think I've agreed to become engaged tonight and for all the world to see and know."

She looked astounded, but cautious. "Are you happy? Its what you want?"

"I think so." I s

aid. "Yes. I think so."

"Then let's celebrate and be happy together." she declared, and rushed to hug me.

Regardless of the problems Linden continued to have, he didn't have to look at me twice to see and understand what was happening. Whatever perceptive and artistic ability he had to see things was well at work. He walked in on Mother and me still hugging and laughing, and when we parted and looked at him, his face registered his unhappiness.

"You're going to marry Thatcher Eaton," he concluded before I had spoken a single word,

"Be happy for her. Linden," Mother urged.

"Happy? More like feel sorry for her. What are we going to do now, permit the Eatons to continue to live in our house?" he said.

"No, Linden," I said. "One thing has nothing to do with the other."

He looked skeptical.