Twenty Wishes (Blossom Street #5)(59)

Barbie wasn’t fooled. She also decided that if this was a test, she’d failed. He knew she wanted to be with him, and because of that she’d endure this…this torture. She began to wonder if Tessa and her family had it all wrong. Maybe Mark wasn’t attracted to her. Maybe he was just trying to punish her. Barbie began to mistrust her own intuition, her certainty that he reciprocated her interest. If he meant to signal that he didn’t want her to bother him again, perhaps she should listen.

Fine. She would.

Barbie stood and, without another word, walked out of the theater.

Tessa, who’d been busy both times she’d fled into the lobby, was waiting for her.

“Well?” the girl asked anxiously.

“I don’t care if I ever see your uncle again,” Barbie said flatly.

Tessa’s mouth fell open.

“What?”

“You heard me. He’s rude and arrogant and…and…” She tried to think of a word that adequately described him. “Mean,” she concluded. Making her sit through that debacle of a movie was downright mean.

“What did he say?” Tessa demanded, trotting alongside her.

“He didn’t have to say anything. I got the message.”

“Tell me,” Tessa pleaded. “My mom and grandma are gonna bug me if I don’t tell them what happened.”

“Let me put it succinctly. Mark isn’t interested. Period. If you think he is, then you and your family are sadly mistaken.” Hearing his wheelchair behind her, Barbie whirled around to face him, ignoring the curious bystanders arriving for the next movie. “Isn’t that right, Mark?”

Mark was silent.

“You like her, don’t you, Uncle Mark?”

“I came to see a movie,” he responded, his voice impassive. “If I wanted to find my perfect match, I would’ve gone online. She is right. I’m not interested.”

Barbie tossed the girl an I-told-you-so look and stalked out. She was all the way to the exit when Mark called her name.

“What?” she asked angrily. “Don’t worry,” she told him before he could say a word. “I won’t make the mistake of sitting next to you again—at any movie.”

He blinked, then shrugged as if it made no difference to him. “Whatever.”

Over the years, Barbie had come to hate that word and its connotation of teenage apathy. With as much dignity as she could gather, she continued toward the parking lot.

She was surprised when Tessa ran out of the building after her. “He didn’t mean anything,” she said breathlessly. “How would he know you hated scary movies? He just wanted to find out if you’d be willing to see something besides a romantic comedy. The least you can do is give him another chance.”

“Why are you trying so hard?” Barbie asked. She was willing to accept that she’d made a mistake and move on. As attractive as she found Mark, she wasn’t going to invite his rejection over and over again.

“You have to give him another chance,” Tessa said.

“Why?”

Tessa paused, then answered on a heavy sigh. “Because my uncle Mark deserves to be loved.” Her eyes pleaded with Barbie’s. “This is new to him. He married his high school girlfriend and never loved anyone else and then she dumped him after the accident….” She gulped in a breath. “I’m positive he likes you—only he doesn’t know how to show it.”

Barbie hesitated. If anything about this entire evening astonished her, it was that Mark hadn’t come outside and insisted his niece mind her own business. Delving inside her purse, she searched for a business card. “Okay, fine. Give him this and tell him the next move is his.”

Tessa’s face shone with eagerness as she nodded. “Great! Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you. You won’t be sorry, I promise.”

That remained to be seen.

Feeling wretched, Barbie did what she always did when she needed solace—she drove to her mother’s house.

Lillie opened the door and immediately asked, “What’s wrong?” Without delay she led her into the kitchen. “It isn’t the boys, is it?”

Barbie swallowed hard and shook her head.

Hands on her hips, Lillie stood in the middle of her beautiful, gleaming kitchen. “Should I put on coffee or bring out the shot glasses?”

Barbie managed to smile. “This time I think I need both.”

Lillie took a whiskey bottle from the small liquor cabinet in the kitchen, then started a pot of coffee. That involved first grinding beans, a production Barbie lacked the patience to bother with.

“So, tell me what happened,” Lillie said when she’d made two Irish coffees. She sat on the stool at the counter next to Barbie and they silently toasted each other with the mugs.

“I saw Mark again.”

Her mother nodded. “The man you met at the theater.”

“Yes.” She hadn’t told Lillie much about him, and with good reason. As soon as her mother learned he was in a wheelchair, she’d find a dozen reasons to dissuade her from pursuing him.

Barbie already knew a relationship with Mark wouldn’t be easy. She’d done her homework. All right, she’d looked up a few facts about paraplegics on the Internet. Even his anger with the world wasn’t unusual. Until this evening, she’d assumed she was prepared to deal with it. Apparently not.