“Let me try to work it out when I get home. I have to break this to Vanessa.”
“Do you still want to marry me?” He looked suddenly crushed, and she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.
“Of course. I just don't want to startle her by doing it so quickly.” And then there was Teddy she would have to explain it to. She wondered what his reaction would be. But Vasili was always insistent.
“When it's right, you have to grab the moment.” It was not unlike what Brad had said nine years before, which somehow gave his urge to rush into marriage a little more respectable credence.
“I'll work it out.” Her voice was very quiet.
“When?” He was pushing and it drove her crazy. She was already torn between reason and passion.
“As soon as I go home.”
When she got off the plane at Idle wild Airport in New York, Teddy was waiting. He looked strangely serious, and Serena saw almost right away that his eyes were sad. He kissed her as he always did, and when at last they had picked up her bags and got into his car, he turned toward her. “Why didn't you tell me why you went over there?”
A knife of guilt cut through her. He already knew. “Teddy … I went for a shoot, and the shoot was canceled.”
“But you went to see a man too, didn't you?” Her eyes glued to his, she nodded. “Why didn't you tell me?”
She sighed deeply then and shook her head. “I'm sorry, Teddy. I don't know. I just didn't know where things stood. I thought I'd tell you when I got back.”
“And?” He looked deeply hurt that she hadn't told him. He had seen a small item in the papers. It mentioned Vasili Arbus by name, and that Serena was staying with him.
She took a deep breath then and looked into his eyes. “I'm getting married.” She wasn't sure why but she felt as though she had to defend herself to him.
“Already?” He looked shocked. “To Vasili Arbus?”
“Yes, to both questions.” She smiled then. “I love him very much. He's brilliant and wonderful and creative and a little crazy.”
“So I've heard.” He stopped to look at her then. “Serena, do you know what the hell you're doing?”
“Yes.” But she still felt a little flutter of fear. It had all happened so quickly.
“How long have you known him?”
“Long enough.”
“Serena, do whatever you want, live with him, go to London, but don't marry him. Not right away.… I've heard a lot of strange things about that man.”
“That's not fair, Teddy. It's not like you.” She looked upset. She wanted Teddy to approve of what she was doing.
“I'm not saying that because I'm jealous, I'm saying it because I love you. I've heard that—that he killed his last wife.” He looked terrified and pale in the car, and Serena's eyes grew bright with anger.
“How dare you say something like that! She died from an overdose!”
“Do you know of what?” His voice was strangely quiet.
“How the hell do I know?”
“Heroin.”
“So she was a junkie, so what? That's not his fault, and he didn't kill her.”
“Oh, God, Serena … please be sensible, you have so much at stake, yourself and Vanessa.” And dammit, he thought to himself as he voiced his objections, I still love you. “Why don't you just give it time?” But he was forcing her to dig in her heels.
“I know what I'm doing. Don't you trust me?”
“Yes.” His voice was very quiet. “But I'm not sure I trust him.”
She shook her head and looked out the window. “You're wrong, Teddy. He's a good man.”
“How do you know that?”
“I feel it.” She looked steadily at Teddy. “And he loves me. And we're in the same business. Teddy …” Her voice grew very soft. “It's right.”
“How soon are you going?”
“As soon as I can.”
“What about Vanessa?”
“I'm going to tell her when I get home.” And then she looked searchingly at the man who had been her brother-in-law and dearest friend for years. “Will you come to see us?”
“Anytime you let me.”
“You'll always be welcome. You're the only family I have, other than Vanessa. That better not change now.”
“It won't.” But he drove her into the city in silence, trying to recover from the shock of all she'd said. For the first time in a long time he wanted to tell her that he loved her. He wanted to stop her madness, to protect her.