Part 1

© Copyright 2006 by Elizabeth Delayne

hey were scheduled to rendezvous with their company at precisely 6:00, no, Noel mentally recalculated military time. They were scheduled to rendezvous with their company at 1800 hours, all the way in Atlanta, hopefully covertly. The mission depended on it. They were afraid the ... (well, at least she refused to refer to him as the enemy) would be alerted to their movement. The plans had been carefully orchestrated for too long for it all to go wrong at the eleventh hour.

Noel rolled her eyes as she checked her watch. She was getting too used to this military terminology. She half expected Dave to synchronize his watch with hers.

Instead, he simply met her eyes with that brilliant grin of his, shut the car door and took her hand. He was happy, and there had been a time when he wasn’t. They headed through the parking garage to the exclusive Atlanta restaurant to meet her parents and at least part of the wedding party. It was after six already and they were late.

Thankfully, they were only talking in military terms. It was their pastor’s fault. A former marine, it seemed to be in his blood. Dan had envisioned this plan from the beginning.

An engagement masked by a busy schedule.

A secret wedding on Christmas Eve.

A subterfuge to shock Carter out of his current painful oblivion.

As they exited the parking garage and met a cold breeze, Dave pulled Noel close. He pointed across the street as they passed the Fox Theater. The old movie palace had been built with an Arabian flare. It was tall and grand and seemingly out of place in the middle of the city.

“Remember the first time we came here together?”

Noel leaned her head against his shoulder as they walked and smiled. “Back when you were afraid to ask me out? I wouldn’t think of it as together.”

“I drove. You rode in the front seat with me.”

“And your sister and brother were in the back seat–the only two who said more then a handful of words to me the entire night. I believe the only reason Carter was given the chance to ask me to come was because Gracie backed out and your mother couldn’t attend.”

“Did Carter tell you that?” Dave looked appalled, but there was a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “My plan worked out you were there with me.”

“So you claim now. Is that why you didn’t speak to me when Carter pulled Becca away to look at souvenirs? Girlie souvenirs? It was so obvious he was trying to get you to talk to me.”

“I was tongue-tied.”

“Afraid of me?”

“No, not afraid. Just waiting for the perfect time–and doing it when my brother thought it was a good time goes against sibling honor.”

“Or rivalry.”

“Just because you’re an only child–“

Noel laughed. “Just because you enjoy waiting.”

“Thinking. Planning. I’m getting better though,” he pulled her close. “I’m on a 12 step process.”

“Uh-huh,” Noel quipped. “And what was the first step?”

“Getting married. I’m sure you’ll get me the rest of the way by the time we’re 91.”

He laughed and held firm when she started to tug her hand away.

As she leaned against him, she sighed happily. Nothing about their relationship fell into a girl’s childhood dreams. Her man had taken over three years to ask her out, then nearly as many to ask her to marry him. Though he did remember to send her flowers–easily logged into his palm pilot–sometimes he would forget simple plans because he was working late.

At least in the last few months his situation had forced him to work on that. Their entire engagement had been set in the middle of grief–his, hers, his family’s. Their pre-marital counseling had been intense. They weren’t just dealing with relationship issues between the two of them. Dave’s concerns had been valid. The situation he would be bringing her into was not new-bride friendly.

They would share their newlywed years with his family. She would carry part of the responsibility. They argued a lot more then before. Pastor Dan had put them through a number of exercises; they worked intensely on their communication, talked extensively about their fears and so many possible issues.

It wouldn’t be easy. They weren’t looking for easy.

But it was time, finally, to except better or for worse and get married.

Only some of the people closest to the ceremony knew. Carter, Gracie and Becca–all members of the wedding party–had not been at the rehearsal. There had been no invitations, and only a small, private shower. They would circulate the news after the Christmas Eve service, and those that could stay would. They wouldn’t have a church full of people, or the extended ceremony. There would be little music, and the entire wedding party–except for the bride–would walk out with the pastor and take their place.

It made their rehearsal dinner a bit unusual. Well, even the rehearsal had been unusual. They borrowed another church to work out the arrangements–it was too risky to use their own. They wouldn’t need to decorate as the church was decorated with fresh garland and poinsettias.

It had been months ago when Dave started attending counseling sessions with Dan. Those sessions had turned into pre-marital counseling when Dan convinced Dave to invite Noel into the sessions and then to ask her to marry him. She’d been waiting. She knew he had the ring.

Those sessions soon turned strategic when it became clear that Carter–or rather his grief–stood in their way. He began to resent Noel, her comfort, even her presence. He’d gone from a boy who would share his popcorn during family movie night, jokingly insist she sit at his side and not Dave’s, to a boy who would point out that she wasn’t family so she didn’t belong at their newly instituted family meetings.

Dave opened the door to the restaurant and Noel stepped into the dimly lit lobby. She tugged off her gloves and rubbed her hands together as she stared down at her ring. The marquis cut diamond, and the half dozen smaller stones, winked back at her. She hadn’t been able to wear it in the months since they’d been engaged. It had stayed in her nightstand where she would slip it on during her evening prayer time and carefully tuck it away after she’d mooned over it the next morning. She wore it tonight–knowing it would never come off.

If the plan worked.

Well, whether the plan worked or not. On that point, Dave–finally ready to get married–had been firm. It was part of his 12 step process, she assumed.

She sighed happily as she held it up in the dim light. “It’s so beautiful.”

Dave tipped her chin up. “Yes it is,” he said as he looked directly into her eyes.

“All right, you two,” Megan, her college roommate and one of her bridesmaids interrupted them. “We’re all here and waiting for you. I will serve as your maitre ’de. If you’d follow me, please.”

Hand in hand, they followed Megan and took their places of honor at the crowded table–mostly her family, some of his, and their friends lined each side. The conversation flowed, even as the food started to arrive.

“So,” Dave’s aunt from Minnesota called from down the table, “tell me again how the two of you met.”

Noel looked at Dave. It wasn’t like there was a particular moment. He’d been there much of the time–distant, busy. Half the time he’d been almost rude, the other half she’d still felt non-existent.

“She used to baby sit my brother.”

Noel snorted. “Try telling Carter that.”

“I have. He just chooses to object to the terminology.”

“I do, too,” she looked down the table at his aunt and shook her head. “I never baby sat Carter.”

“Then what would you call it?” Dave asked.

Noel ignored him. “I worked with the youth group, first with Gracie, but Carter was always there... always…”

“In your face?” Dave quipped.

It was such an apt description of the younger boy, Noel laughed.

“Yes. Dave was around–but he would pretend to have more important things to do. I’d see him occasionally if he came by the church to pick Gracie or Carter up, but he would whisk them away without so much as a word.”

Across the table his groomsmen laughed. “The more important question,” one pointed out, “is why it took Dave years to take notice such a prize?”

“It didn’t take years,” Dave muttered. “But Carter was always rambling on and on about her and trying to set us up. Who would take the advice or a younger brother?”

“Seems to me,” his aunt pointed out, “a smart person knows wisdom lies not with age, but with experience. He knew both of you, didn’t he?”

“And he eats his cereal with orange juice, still tries to wear a striped tie with a plaid shirt, and most of the time wears flip-flops with his suit. I wouldn’t call his taste great.”

Pastor Dan’s wife Celia laughed. “Well, Dave managed to stumble over her despite his brother. Put a plate of spaghetti right in her lap.”

“It wasn’t spaghetti—not as dramatic as all that. Just a simple, gooey piece of pie,” Noel corrected with a little of Carter-learned flair. “And he was perturbed about being there at a youth fund-raiser.”

“I wasn’t perturbed. I happened to be distracted by you.“

”Really?” Noel asked, tongue-in-cheek.

Dave leaned in close, but was stopped by the chirp of his cell phone. He flipped it open and frowned.

“It’s Gracie.”

One of their three insiders. Besides his grandparents, Gracie–being her matron of honor–was the only one whom they trusted with the information.

He gave Noel’s hand a tight squeeze. She watched as he stood. They’d been waiting for Gracie to call–to find out how their plan worked.

Noel glanced across at Pastor Dan, then at his wife. So much depended on this call. She lifted up a prayer and smiled at Celia’s enthusiastic thumbs up.

It would be okay. It would have to be okay. Carter–as she’d already assured the rest of them–had been dying to look in the box–an assortment of photos, a blanket, a teddy bear and a few other treasures from over two years of dating.

She felt Dave’s hand on her back as he pulled his chair and sat down.

“Everything’s moving according to plan. Carter’s told everyone that Noel and I have broken up. He had them take a vote,“ he winked at Noel. “You’re in.”

She let out a breath. “That’s good to know.”

“But get this, he’s organizing the troops,” Dave shook his head. “He’s got it all planned out. And he’s out planned us.”

“I believe the correct term would be maneuvered,” Dan put in.

“What?”

“He’s out maneuvered you.”

“So he has,” Dave looked at Noel. “He thinks I’m at work, so he’s taking Becca over to deal with you around eight.”

Noel checked her watch and lifted her eyebrows. “We could make it.”

“I picked you up–remember? If he gets there early, or we get caught in traffic, we’re busted...I guess if we get caught, we could always break into an argument.”

“I am not going to fake a fight with you. It was bad enough to trick him the way we did.”

“We’ll take her home,” Celia offered. “Besides, I’d like to step in and see a little of the drama for myself.”

Noel laughed. “And you haven’t seen enough of Carter’s drama at church?”


Read Operation Carter Part II!


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lizdelayne@hotmail.com


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