Double trouble (17 page)

'*Are you worried that Kristina might not be able to make it by then?" Matt asked in a perfectly natural tone of voice, as if they'd discussed all this before, as if Kristina's appearance was the only thing that might be troubling her. For a minute, Kayla wondered if she were losing her mind.

**Kayla and Kristina are identical twins," Matt explained to the relatives pressed around them, listening. ''I bet you'll have trouble telling them apart. I know I've had my share of mixed-up moments," he added dryly.

''Don't worry, sweetheart," he said, turning to Kayla with a heart-melting smile. ''Kristina is driving down from Har-risburg today, and bringing your dress, of course. She should be here by one.''

Kristina was in on this, too? Her own sister had conspired with the Minteers to marry her off to Matt today? Kayla was speechless with shock; an aura of unreality enveloped her. One event was following another with dizzying speed and she had no control, no options. She felt a vague connection to the hapless flood victims, trapped before that overpowering fateful deluge.

"Well, look who's here! Luke, you made it!" exclaimed Mark, greeting his brother with characteristic Minteer exuberance.

"Of course I made it. I wouldn't miss Matt's wedding for anything—or anyone, no matter how alluring," Luke added suggestively. The brothers laughed.

Luke looked directly at Kayla and though he was smiling, she could sense the animosity in him. She knew she wasn't imagining it, and when he cornered her alone in the

kitchen a short while later, the coldness in his blue eyes confirmed his hostility. He made no pretense of smiling now.

''Well, you did it," he said in a low growl, out of earshot of the children gathered by the refrigerator, clamoring for drinks. "You successfully trapped my brother. You knew damn well that he would never let his child be born illegitimate."

''\—trapped—'' Kayla was incredulous. "Are you suggesting that I deliberately planned this to make Matt marry me?"

"It's the oldest trick in the book and I can't believe Matt fell for it. You knew my brother had a severe case of the hots for you and you took full advantage. You seduced him while conveniently forgetting the birth control. Bingo. You're getting ^ ring on your finger. You've hooked up with a po-htical rising star with a limitless future and—"

"You couldn't be more wrong!" Kayla cut in hotly. Luke saw his brother as the innocent victim of her treacherous wiles? If he only knew that she was the one being trapped into this marriage by his own family!

"Have you forgotten that you're the one who told Matt about the baby, after Kristina told you," she whispered crossly. "Why didn't you simply keep the information to yourself? Matt would have never known and—"

"Don't even try to use that one! You know damn well that your sister gave me an ultimatum. She said if I didn't tell Matt immediately, she would. And she would also tell him that I'd tried to keep the news from him. You both knew Matt would never forgive me for that. So you win—for now, babe. But I'll be watching you and if you dare to—"

"Here you are!" Rosemary Minteer joined them in the middle of Luke's threat. "Luke, now that Matt is getting married, I hope you'll feel sufficiently pressured to settle down, too. You've wasted enough time dating and partying."

«L

''Yeah, Ma. If only I could find a sweet girl like Kayla, maybe I would," Luke said with credible sincerity. He and Kayla glared at each other, but Rosemary remained oblivious to the tension.

Matt joined them at that moment, glancing from Kayla's pale face to Luke's flushed one. He frowned and put a protective arm around Kayla's waist.

Rosemary Minteer enfolded both Matt and Kayla in an emotional embrace. 'Tm so thrilled about this wedding. So happy for you both!"

What was she going to do? Kayla wondered wildly. There were so many Minteers and they all seemed to be talking at once. She found their ebullience almost as unnerving as Luke's hostility. Should she let out a piercing scream? That might get their attention long enough for her to be heard. She would tell them that she was not marrying Matt....

Simply visuaUzing the scene paralyzed her. What would they do? Suppose the mood turned ugly? Luke had already tacitly threatened her. What did she know about these people anyway?

*'Matt, I brought your suitcases in from the car." His brother John appeared with the two cases, hers and Matt's. ''Want me to carry them upstairs?"

"Yeah, put them in my old room," instructed Matt. "Kayla wants to go up and freshen up before we leave for the hospital for the blood test, don't you, sweetheart?"

She nodded dumbly and allowed him to lead her up two flights of stairs to a small bedroom at the end of the long hall. While Matt and John chatted, she walked to the window and looked out. It was at least a thirty-foot drop to the ground and the closest tree was not near enough for her to reach it and climb down. So much for that rather theatrical mode of escape.

"I'll leave you two alone now, but remember, there's a houseful of relatives downstairs who will start speculating on what you're doing if you stay up here too long." John

winked at Kayla. ''We Minteers are notorious about minding one another's business."

Kayla did not wink back. She was too horrified.

Matt gave his brother a comradely pat and sent him on his way. The moment they were finally alone, Kayla turned on him like a virago.

''Wedding? This afternoon? Have you gone crazy? How could you? How dare you? You—you practically kidnapped me and now you intend to—to marry me against my will?"

Matt closed the bedroom door and stood in front of it, unyielding and inexorable. 'T know it's a...er...shock, but Kristina and I decided that it was for the best, Kayla."

"Kristina and you decided?" she echoed. Her sister was more deeply involved than she'd ever suspected; she'd actually instigated this, along with Matt himself. A wave of depression crashed over her. She felt abandoned and alone.

"Kristina is worried sick about you, Kayla. She was terrified that you'd insist on cutting me off completely and going through the pregnancy alone. And—"

"She had no right conspiring with you against me!" Kayla cried. "It's my decision, my choice to make. And if I chose to go it alone, then—"

"If you were the only one affected, I might agree," Matt cut in roughly. "But there's a baby to be considered, Kayla. And that baby has a right to both parents. I want my child, Kayla, and I intend to be married to its mother when it's bom."

"I'm the one having it! It's mine!"

"And mine, too. Okay, I admit that having my family arrange this surprise wedding might be a bit highhanded-"

"A bit? Try incredibly high-handed! Despicably arrogant. Shamefully presumptuous!"

Matt sighed. "I get the picture. But, let's face it, Kayla, you're going to marry me, sooner or later, we both know

that. I suppose I couldVe gone through the motions of a courtship but it would have been damned inconvenient with you Hving in Washington and me in Harrisburg and you getting bigger with the baby every day. And you're certainly stubborn enough to wait until you're being wheeled into the delivery room before finally accepting my proposal. I'm not good at that kind of melodrama, Kayla. I couldn't handle it."

*'Who says I'd have married you sooner or later?" Kayla wearily sank onto the narrow single bed against the window. "How can you presume to know that?" The burst of anger left her feeling drained and exhausted. She needed time alone to recharge herself for their next round.

Matt didn't give it to her. "You can chalk it up to my monumental overconfidence," he said lightly. "Or my despicable arrogance. Or maybe my shameful presumptu-ousness. Your choice." He glanced at his watch. "It's time to leave for the hospital. Do you want to...uh...use the facihties first?"

He showed her where the bathroom was and Kayla locked herself inside. A quick check out the window—the same steep drop and distance from the tree—also ruled it out as an escape route. Miserably, she paced the floor, her thoughts chaotic.

Matt rapped on the door ten minutes later. "Ready, Kayla?"

"I'm staying in here," she announced.

A girlish giggle sounded outside the door. "I don't blame you, Kayla," came an unfamiliar feminine voice. "I used to lock myself in the bathroom to escape from my relatives, too."

"Tiffany's here," Matt explained through the door. "Come out and meet her, Kayla. She's riding along to the hospital with us."

''Bringing her along for protection?" Kayla snapped. ''It won't work, Matt. Whatever I have to say to you, I'll gladly say in front of your little sister."

"Call me psychic, but I think I sense some tension between you two," said Tiffany. "You've had a fight, huh? Suffering from pre-wedding jitters or something?"

"Something like that," said Matt. "Kayla, I can take the door off the hinges if you won't open it, but do you really want to go through all that?"

No, she really didn't. Kayla imagined a horde of Min-teers crowded around him, cheering him on while she hovered inside. She flung open the door. Matt was lounging against the wall. The young woman standing beside him, rocking back and forth on her heels, was nearly six feet tall, long-limbed and lanky in jeans and a sweatshirt.

Matt smiled at Kayla. "Fm glad you decided to be reasonable, honey. Meet Tiffany, my baby sister, Tif, this is Kayla."

"Hi, Kayla. Welcome to the family," Tiffany said cheerfully. "I volunteered to drive you two to the hospital for the blood test so you could sit in the back seat and neck on the way."

Before Kayla could reply. Matt draped one arm around her shoulder and the other around Tiffany's. "Let's slip out the back and escape all the commotion."

Kayla was so glad to get away from the crowd in the house that she made no protest.

Not surprisingly. Matt and Kayla did not neck on the way to the hospital. Nor did they argue. Instead, they sat, politely restrained in the back seat, while Tiffany talked and talked on a wide range of subjects. Kayla was somewhat awed by her loquaciousness. She worked with politicians, a group never known for their reserve, yet she'd never heard anyone talk as incessantly as Tiffany Minteer.

"Everybody in the family was stunned when you called yesterday and asked them to set up your wedding," Tiffany

chattered on as the three of them traipsed into the hospital lab. *They couldn't picture Matt, of all people, having a whirlwind romance but I myself believe in love at first sight. I think it's a past-hfe sort of thing."

**Not that again!" Matt groaned. ''Tiffany thinks we've all lived before. In fact, she firmly believes we were living in Johnstown back in 1889 and were wiped out in the flood."

''It's true, I do believe that," Tiffany said seriously. "I've never liked swimming. And remember how I hated to get my face wet when I was little? Why, even getting a shampoo was traumatic for me, a vestige from my tragic end in my past life."

"I guess it couldn't have been something as simple as getting soap in your eyes and feeling it burn, huh, Tif?" Matt asked, a trifle sarcastically.

Tiffany was undaunted. "Well, how about the way you and Kayla instantly connected?" she persisted. "You told Mom you met her and knew immediately you wanted to marry her as soon as possible. It's obvious to me that you two shared a past life together. Maybe you were lovers who drowned in the flood, holding on to each other as you were swept under the water."

Matt heaved a sigh. "You've seen those flood movies too many times, Tif."

Kayla made no comment. At this point, Tiffany's reincarnation theory struck her as no more bizarre than the rest of this strange day.

She watched impassively as the lab technician filled a vial with her blood, although the test was more of a formality than a necessity since the marriage license had been obtained by a special judicial favor. Part of her wondered at her peculiar passivity. Was she going to simply allow the Minteers to hustle her to the altar? Time was running out; there were only a few more hours until four o'clock.

Kristina had already arrived at the Minteer house when Matt, Kayla and Tiffany returned from the hospital. Kayla

took one look at her sister, who was sitting in the dining room with a plate heaped with food, and suddenly emerged from the dazed inertia gripping her.

''May I see you alone, Kristina?" she asked very sweetly. "Upstairs, please?"

''Going to talk strategy?" Luke's tones were as saccharine as hers. "You sisters work so well together as a team. You're on a real winning streak, too."

"There will always be winners and losers," Kristina said, smiling fixedly. "Which group do you belong in, Luke?"

Matt had been spirited into the kitchen by an aunt, so his brother John walked the twins upstairs to the spare bedroom on the second floor where Kristina's luggage had been deposited. An ivory-colored suit in a dry-cleaners bag was hanging on the outside of the closet door, a pair of matching high-heeled pumps were in an open shoe box on the floor.

"Kristina tells me you're wearing that for the wedding," John said amiably, nodding toward the suit. "It's really pretty, Kayla."

"I didn't know what color blouse you wanted to wear with it, so I brought you a choice of five, Kayla," Kristina said nervously, opening the closet door. "There's hot-pink, royal blue, bright yellow, pumpkin or olive."

John drifted away, leaving the sisters alone.

"So which color will it be?" Kristina asked. She fiddled with the blouses, nervously chattering on, her eyes avoiding Kayla's. "Uh, what do you think of the Minteers? I like them all except brother Luke. Oh, isn't he obnoxious? He's been making snide Httle jibes ever since I arrived and—"

"I don't want to talk about Luke. My problem is with you! Kristina, how could you?"

"Please don't be mad, Kayla," Kristina interrupted quickly. "At least not too m.ad. You know I only did it for you.. .and for the baby, too, of course. That's my very first niece or nephew you're carrying, you know."

''I don't want to hear any of your rationalizations, Kris-tina! You told Matt about the baby against my expressed wishes. And don't try to con me with that Luke loophole— you knew he'd tell his brother! You assured it. Now you've conspired to trap me into this wedding to a man whom I-"