Perfect (Second Opportunities 2)

"I'm not," Meredith said. Holding up her glass, she looked at Julie and said with a soft smile, "To every woman who loves as deeply as we do," then she lifted her face to her husband and added quietly, "and to the two men we love."

Julie watched him smile at her with tenderness and unembarrassed pride, and she fell in love with both of them at that moment. They were like Zack and herself, she decided; they were love and commitment and unity. "Please say you'll stay for dinner. I'm not much of a cook, but we may never meet again, and I'm dying to know more about … about everything."

They both nodded at once, and Matt said straight-faced, "Everything? Well, then, I guess I could start with a detailed analysis of the world financial markets. I have some fascinating insights into the probable causes of the declining world markets." He laughed at her appalled expression and said, "Or, I guess we could talk about Zack."

"What a great idea," his wife teased. "You can tell us both about your days as neighbors."

"Let me start dinner," Julie said, thinking madly of what to make that wouldn't take much of her time from the conversation.

"No," Meredith said, "let's send Joe for a pizza instead."

"Who's Joe?" Julie asked, already reaching for the telephone to order a pizza.

"Officially, he's our chauffeur. Unofficially, he's a member of the family."

A half hour later, the threesome was cozily ensconced in the living room and Matt was doing his best to satisfy both women's curiosity with a carefully censored version of his bachelor days as Zack's neighbor, when the doorbell rang.

Expecting to see a distinguished, lofty, uniformed chauffeur, Julie opened the door and found herself looking instead at a giant of a man with an ominously ugly face, a beguiling grin, and a pizza box atop each of his outstretched hands. "Come in and join us," she said delightedly, taking one pizza and drawing him inside. "You didn't need to stay out in the car in the first place."

"That's what I thought, too," Joe joked, but he glanced at Matt to see if he wanted him present. When Matt nodded, Joe stepped inside and took off his coat.

"Let's eat in here where there's more room," Julie called to them over her shoulder as she put plates on the dining room table.

"I'll get the wine," Meredith said, standing up.

Joe O'Hara sauntered into the dining room and shoved his hands into his pockets, studying the courageous young woman who'd spoken up in Zack's behalf on television. She looked more like a pretty coed than a teacher, he thought, with her shiny dark hair tied at the nape with a bow and her soft skin aglow. She didn't look one bit like the overblown sexpots who'd hung onto Zack, and Joe liked that. He sent a questioning look at Matt, who was standing beside him, watching her with an affectionate half-smile. In answer to the unspoken question, his employer slowly nodded and Joe drew the obvious gratifying conclusion. "So," Joe said aloud, "you're Zack's lady."

She stopped in the act of putting napkins next to plates and raised eyes the color and softness of blue violets to his. "That," she told him, "is the nicest compliment I've ever gotten." To Julie's amazement, the big man reddened around his collar. "Do you know Zack, too?" she asked to put him at ease and because she was eager to know everything she could.

"You bet I do," he said with a grin as he and the Farrells sat down. "I could tell you stories about him that no one knows, not even Matt."

"Tell me one," Julie said enthusiastically.

O'Hara helped himself to a slice of pizza, thought for a moment, and then said, "Okay, I've got one. One night, Matt had an unexpected guest and he sent me next door to Zack's house because we were out of Stoli—vodka," he explained. Julie nodded her understanding, and he took another bite of pizza before continuing enthusiastically, "It was about midnight, and the lights were on in Zack's house, but no one answered the door. I could hear his voice though, and women's voices, coming from around in back, so I walked around the house, and there was Zack, standing by his swimming pool, still wearing the tuxedo he'd worn to some party he'd been at."

Julie perched her chin on her hand, fascinated. "What was he doing?" she asked when O'Hara took another bite of pizza.

"Swearing," Joe said succinctly.

"Who was he swearing at?"

"The three naked women in his pool. They were fans of his who'd found out his address somehow and figured he'd join them for a little orgy once he saw them nude in his pool."

"O'Hara!" Matt warned.

"No, this story's okay, Matt, honest. Julie won't get jealous or anything. Will you?" he asked her uncertainly.

Laughing, Julie shook her head. Zack loved her, she knew that now. She had nothing whatsoever to be jealous about. "I won't be jealous."

"I knew you wouldn't," he said with a satisfied glance at his employers. "Anyway, Julie," he continued to her, "Zack was boiling mad, and I'll tell you somethin' you may not know—underneath that cool, calm surface of Zack's, that man has got a temper you would not believe! When the women wouldn't get out of his pool like he ordered 'em to, he told me to catch them as he threw them out, and that's exactly what he did. He waded into his pool with all his clothes on, and the next thing I knew some broad about twenty years old rolled out of the pool and landed at my feet, stark naked. Then Zack came wading out of his pool with a girl under each arm."

Julie tried not to look the least bit shocked by the story. "What did you do with them?"

"Just what Zack said to do. He was so damned mad, he wouldn't let 'em get dressed. We carted 'em, howling and protesting and begging for their clothes, down the driveway to where they'd left their car, then Zack stuffed his two in the back seat, while I unloaded mine into the front seat. Then he yanked open the front door, turned on the ignition key, and jerked the car into gear. "Drive it or crash it," he told them, "but get the f—ing hell out of here and don't ever come back!"

The women exchanged gratified looks, obviously in complete accord over Zack's upright morality.

"You never told me about that," Matt said with a puzzled frown.

"Hell, I tried to tell you, but the woman you were entertainin' that night was tryin' to get your clothes off, so I left the Stoli on the bar and went to bed."

Julie delicately focused her laughing gaze on her pizza, Meredith propped her chin on her folded hands and gazed at her husband with amused eyes, and Matt sent a chilling glance to his errant chauffeur, who held up his hands and said defensively, "Meredith's smiling, Matt. She realizes you had no idea you were married to her at the time!"