When Al got down on one knee in front of all of them, Joe was furious. He didn't show it, and he knew he didn't have the right to feel that way, but he couldn't help it, nor was he eager to examine why.
The day had gone so well until then; all of them and their families had gathered at Mrs. Anderson's house on the occasion of Rachel completing her duties as executor of the will, with the handing off of the keys to the house to the New Westminster Historical Society, for their use as a sort of museum, the ceremonial final gesture. Marjorie Wilson, the representative of the Society, had been there to accept the keys, and in her enthusiasm to meet the grown-up children that had lived on Lawrence Street in the Seventies and made such an impression on the older woman, she'd photographed them for a display to go in the museum, a before and after piece side-by-side with photos of them as children, and interviewed them individually to see where they were now.
Admittedly, it had gotten a little weird when Rachel had asked to have a seance using a ouija board she and Al had found in the attic, and he'd refused to participate, creeped out by the thought of contacting spirits, even if he hadn't believed for a minute it would happen; some things from his Catholic upbringing had never left him, it seemed. He'd chosen to look after all the kids outside while Al, Lauren, Sunny and Tej had joined Rachel for the seance at the kitchen table.
When they emerged outside, Joe saw them and said, "So? Did you get it out of your system?"
"You dodged a bullet," Tej said. "It got a bit spooky."
"It was only spooky because I cried in front of you, and we're not that close yet," Rachel said.
"So, no table knocking? No ectoplasm? No spirits talking through Sunny?" Joe asked.
Rachel laughed and threw her arms around him. He stiffened in surprise at first, but then hugged her back. It felt good, having her in his arms. Maybe too good. It reminded him of another time a tall woman had been in his arms, and he had to cut off all communication with his lower body to prevent an erection.
"I love you, Joe," Rachel said. "Thank you for loaning Lauren to me."
It was such a surprising thing for her to say that he was too moved to speak at first. It was the first time any of their reunited friends had ever expressed affection for him, but it sounded so natural coming out of her mouth that he could only respond in kind.
"Love you too, Rachel," he said, choking up.
"Aw!" Lauren said, throwing her arms around both of them. "You two are adorable!"
"I'm serious," Rachel said, and Joe felt her tears soaking his shoulder. "Thank you all for coming back into my life, for being my friends. I really don't know where I'd be without you now."
Suddenly the others were there, wrapping their arms around the three of them. This was the moment Joe wished could have been frozen in time, all of them together, yes, but mainly Rachel and his wife holding him.
"And, cut!" Marjorie said.
They unlocked and looked at the woman, who'd been filming them, apparently. "I couldn't help it," she said, "you're all just so precious. Were you all like this when you were younger?"
Rachel chuckled. "Sometimes."
Marjorie sighed contentedly. "I think I'm going to lock up now and head home for the day. Thank you all again for doing this today. I want you to come back and see how I put it all together in the displays."
Rachel shook her hand. "Sounds good. I really want to see how it turns out. Have a good rest of the day, Marjorie."
"You too." She waved to all of them and went back into the house to close everything up.
It would have been nice if their day had ended there, but Sunny wanted to take a walk down memory lane, literally, looking at Lawrence Street, reminiscing and remarking on how much everything had changed. All of their old houses were gone, replaced by larger ones with smaller yards. The bean fields were paved over. It was a depressing epilogue to the story of this day, which had such a great climax earlier with that hug.
And then Al had to go down on one knee in front of Rachel, making everyone gasp, and Joe knew this was what everyone would remember about today, Rachel especially.
Joe knew the two of them were seeing each other; Lauren wouldn't stop talking about it. For her it was something out of a romance movie, but Joe still thought they were mismatched. He didn't think they'd progressed this far, though, so it was a surprise to him that Al was making this leap.
Out came the little box. Al opened it, and there was the ring. Tej squealed. Lauren put her hands over her mouth and tears filled her eyes.
"Will you marry me?" he asked.
Even the kids had gathered to see what all the grown-ups were looking at. They were oddly quiet, as if they'd intuited something out of the ordinary was happening.
Rachel shook her head in disbelief. "You're a stinker, you know that? Did you do this on purpose, in front of all our friends, to make sure I wouldn't say no?"
Joe wondered that himself, and he resented Al for putting her in this impossible position. When Joe had proposed to Lauren, it had just been the two of them on a blanket in a quiet place on the grassy slope of Burnaby Mountain, with a nice view of the city, the sky coloured coral by the setting sun. Proposals were supposed to be private, in his opinion, on the off chance that whomever you proposed to said no, limiting the embarrassment to the two of you. Bringing all their reunited friends into this put the burden on Rachel, to accept or bear the weight of her friends' dismay if she refused.
But Al shook his head and said, "I wanted them here to witness how much I love you, and I couldn't think of a better audience than our fellow members of the Lawrence Street Detective Club, as I propose to you on the very street where we grew up."
Rachel closed her eyes. "Oh, for God's sake," she said, "You bloody romantic, yes, fine, I'll marry you!"
The friends burst into applause as he slid the ring on her finger. Lauren whooped and Sunny clapped Al on the back while he was still on one knee.
Rachel pulled Al off the ground and kissed him, and hugged him. Al was crying, and Joe didn't feel so angry anymore, because the two of them looked genuinely happy.
As the newly engaged couple hugged their friends, Joe said, "Now you get to be like us!" He couldn't quite keep the irritation out of his voice when he said it, though, and he thought they noticed.
"I knew this would happen eventually," Sunny said. "You two can't take your eyes off each other."
"First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes..." Lauren sang.
"I'm not having a baby at my age," Rachel declared. "Sorry, everyone, it's not in the cards. Apple is enough baby experience for me." Apple was the daughter of Rachel's friend Allison, the widow of her ex-husband.
"I don't think I'd have the energy for a baby either," Al said. "I wouldn't say no to other possibilities, though."
They all turned to him, even Rachel. "What are you suggesting?" she asked.
Al shrugged. "When you talked to Danny today, I thought, what if... what if, maybe down the road, after we're married a few years, we look into maybe fostering a kid? Maybe we could make it up to Danny by being the loving household Danny never got, so at least one more kid won't end up like he did."
"Oh," she breathed, and now she was crying. "Oh, Al, that sounds like a lovely idea. An older child like Danny."
Joe didn't know what Al was talking about; did he mean Danny Trybek? How could Rachel talk to him if he was dead? Unless that was what Tej was talking about when she'd said the seance had gotten spooky. If so, he was glad he'd missed it. Al's suggestion was a noble one, though, and Joe's irritation with him diminished. It made him want to reevaluate his rancour for him; what was it about this shy, boyish, unassuming guy that made him want to give him a wedgie?
"That sounds nice," Lauren said, "but just do your research if you decide to do that. Fostering is very challenging work. We clung to the idea for Danny because we thought it was the way to get him out, but we really didn't know. It's as hard on the foster parents as it is on the kids."
Rachel nodded. "Yeah. We'll think long and hard about it. But that's down the road. For now..."
"For now, we have a wedding to plan!" Lauren said, squealing.
"Do you and Tej want to be bridesmaids?"
"Uh, hello, I'm your maid of honour?" Lauren said, as if there were never any question.
"Isn't the term matron of honour, if you're already married and have kids?"
Lauren gasped and punched her in the arm. "Ew! That makes me sound a hundred!" she said.
"A hundred and four, actually," Rachel corrected. Mrs. Anderson, whose house Rachel had just given over to the Historical Society, had lived to that age.
Lauren growled at her, then hugged her fiercely.
The hug lasted longer than hugs normally lasted, and Joe noticed they were whispering in each other's ear and asked, "What are you two whispering about?"
"I'm giving her the garter belt I wore on our honeymoon to cover both the something borrowed and something blue," Lauren said with a mischievous smile.
Joe remembered that garter belt, and wished she wouldn't give it away, because thinking about how it had looked on Lauren when she'd worn it and nothing else led to thinking about how it would eventually be around Rachel's thigh, maybe while she wore nothing else, and that made him irritated at Al again, and suddenly he realized why he couldn't stop wanting to punch him.
Because Al didn't deserve Rachel, and Joe wanted her for himself even though he was married to Lauren and would never want it any other way. Just hearing Rachel say she loved him, even if it was just as a good friend, made him picture her breathing it in his ear while he was on top of her.
He shook away that dangerous thought and tried to be happy for them.
Thanks for reading this far! If you read the first novel in this series, you'll know I wrote this scene from Rachel's point of view, and from that point of view you'd think every one of her friends was happy at witnessing Al's proposal. I thought it would be interesting to write about the one dissenter among them, and why he was so furious. It makes Joe a bit of a dick, wanting Rachel when he's already married to Lauren, but it also makes him human, and it's fortunate we all don't verbalize everything we think (except on the Internet, maybe), or the LSDC might have split up a long time ago. They still might, and you can find out by clicking on "Continue reading." If you liked what you just read, hit the "Vote" button and leave a comment.
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