An Engagement For Two. Marie Ferrarella

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СКАЧАТЬ on a cruise after every divorce. Cruises were her mother’s primary hunting grounds for potential new husbands. She kept going on different cruises until she found someone to her satisfaction.

      “I’m not afraid of having fun, Mother,” Mikki began, attempting to get her mother to see her side for a change even though, in her heart, it was a hopeless endeavor.

      Veronica McKenna Sheridan Tolliver Wilson—her mother thought that having so many names made her seem like British royalty—immediately interjected, “Well, then come! This promises to be a really wonderful party, Michelle. Anderson throws absolutely the very best parties,” she said with enthusiasm.

      Anderson. So that was the new candidate’s name. She wondered if the man had any idea what he was in for.

      “I’m sure that he does, Mother,” Mikki said, humoring her. “But—”

      Veronica was quick to shut her daughter down. She’d had years of practice.

      “Michelle, please, you need to have a little fun before you suddenly find that you’re too old to enjoy yourself. Honestly, I don’t know how I wound up raising such a stick in the mud,” Veronica lamented dramatically.

      Possibly because you didn’t raise me at all, Mother, Mikki thought.

      Between her parents’ arguments and the almost-frenzied partying they both indulged in, singularly and together, she’d hardly ever seen her parents when they were still married.

      She remembered being periodically dropped off to stay with various relatives as a child. As she got older, there were sleepovers at friends’ homes instead, especially her best friend, Nicole. Envious of the family unity she witnessed, Mikki had made sure she was the perfect houseguest, going the extra mile by cleaning up after herself as well as her friend and even preparing breakfast whenever possible.

      It was her way of ensuring that she would be invited back.

      By the time she was twelve, her parents had divorced, and they’d professed to want shared custody of her—which meant, in reality, that neither parent really wanted to be saddled with her upbringing. Each kept sending her to the other. Money was substituted for love. The only interest from either one of her parents came by way of the actual interest her trust fund accrued.

      If it hadn’t been for her great-aunt Bethany, Mikki would have felt that she had no family at all. It was Great-Aunt Bethany who took an interest in her education and suggested that she consider attending medical school.

      The latter had grown out of her having nursed an injured bird back to health after it had flown into the sliding glass patio door.

      “You have a good heart and good instincts, Michelle. It would be a shame to let that go to waste,” Great-Aunt Bethany had told her that summer, literally dropping a number of medical school pamphlets in her lap.

      And that had been the beginning of Mikki’s career in medicine. Her desire to help others, to make a difference, took root that summer. Very simply, it was the reason she had decided to become a doctor.

      There had also been a small part of her—because for the most part, she had given up hoping to make any meaningful connection with her mother—that did hope her mother would be proud of her choice.

      She supposed she should have known better.

      “Well, if that’s what you want, I suppose you should go for it,” Veronica had said when she told her mother of her plans to go to medical school. “But personally, I can’t see why you’d want to go poking around people’s insides or whatever it is that you’ll be doing. It’s all so very icky, darling.” Mikki could still picture the look of revulsion on her mother’s face. “And you really don’t have to do that, you know. You don’t need to earn a living.”

      She let her mother go on trying to talk her out of her choice until Veronica lost interest in the subject.

      Her mother was always losing interest in subjects, this included the various men that she had married. It was always “the next one” who promised to be better. Until he wasn’t.

      Watching her mother over the years, Mikki had become sure of one thing. That was not the kind of life she wanted.

      “I’m only going to be in town for another day or two,” her mother was saying now. “I don’t know why you don’t want to take the opportunity to come out of your shell and see me.”

      “Because I won’t be seeing you,” Mikki pointed out patiently. “Not personally, at least. You’ll be partying with an entire ballroom full of people.” Her mother was never happier than when she was the center of everyone’s attention. And if she wasn’t the center of attention, she did something to make that happen.

      “And what do you want me to do, Michelle? Would you like me to sit by the fireplace like some old woman, mourning over things that didn’t happen?” Veronica asked testily.

      “No, Mother,” Mikki replied. Because it was getting warm in her car, she put her key in the ignition and cracked open a window. She knew she could just as easily step outside, but she didn’t want anyone overhearing her conversation with her mother. “I want you to do whatever makes you happy. Just like I want to do whatever makes me happy.”

      “But—”

      She could hear her mother’s frustration vibrating in the single word. But she’d learned not to allow her mother to play her.

      “Sorry, Mother. That’s my other line. I’ve got to go,” Mikki told her, terminating the call.

      Mikki held the cell phone against her for a moment and sighed. For once, there was no other incoming call, but she couldn’t think of another way to get her mother to stop going on about the party at the Ambassador Hotel that she wanted her to attend. She had absolutely no use for those kind of vapid parties. Mingling with a roomful of strangers wearing overpriced clothes seemed like a colossal waste of precious time to her.

      She supposed that the invitation could be her mother’s way of trying to connect with her after all this time, but she really doubted it. Most likely, her mother was just trying to assuage her guilty conscience, although that in itself was rather unusual. Guilt and Veronica McKenna Sheridan Tolliver Wilson did not coexist on the same plane.

      Best guess was that Anderson Pierce, Veronica’s boy toy of the month, had probably expressed an interest in meeting her daughter. Mikki wouldn’t have agreed to go even if she wasn’t busy, which she was.

      All the time.

      She had a thriving internal medicine practice associated with Bedford Memorial and, if that wasn’t enough, she also volunteered on Saturdays at the free clinic.

      She would sleep, she often said, when she was dead.

      That would also be when she’d party, Mikki thought with a smile. When she was dead.

      Her cell phone began to ring again. This time, she looked at caller ID before answering. The number on the screen was not familiar, but the name above it was.

      She couldn’t remember the last time she had spoken to Maizie Sommers.

      “Mrs. Sommers?” she asked uncertainly, still not sure this was the woman she was thinking of.

      The СКАЧАТЬ