Jack eyed Grace, dubiously. "I can see you've been checking on this," he said.
"Of course I've been checking," Grace replied. "It's not like we couldn't do it. Grandparents take on grandchildren all the time. It's not so unusual anymore."
"Honey, we're not Sergei and Irina's grandparents, and you've got to let this go."
Mario raised his hand to stop the exchange. "Back to the process," he said. "Does the agency help a couple navigate the complex state adoption system?"
"Actually they do," Grace replied. She looked at him, probingly. "You said you know a couple. Have one of our kids said something, maybe Jeremy and Billy? That could be an option."
"No," Mario replied.
"Then who?" Grace asked.
"Julia and me."
Both Grace and Jack stared at him.
"Okay, I know it's a surprise. It is to me too," Mario said. "I just need to know how complicated the process would be if we decide to go through with it."
"Then you and Julia are getting married?" Grace asked, her brows pinched in disbelief.
"Maybe," Mario replied.
Grace looked at him in concern. "Does Howard know?"
"Not yet, and neither does Julia," Mario said. "I'm just trying to get my ducks in a row. Everything would hinge on my getting a position as Supervisory Director, so I'd be overseeing marshals, instead of criminals in witness protection. But it sounds like the adoption process for kids like Irina and Sergei is relatively simple, and with my background clearance, I can even get into the White House. In the meantime, I'd like to know that the kids won't be going back into the system, that maybe they could stay here under your care."
Grace looked at Jack, who said to Mario, "Under the circumstances, I'm sure that could be arranged. How soon until you know what you'll be doing?"
"Probably before the end of the week," Mario said.
"And Julia?" Jack asked. "Are you sure she'll go along with this? You said you haven't talked to her yet. We are talking marriage and taking on a couple of kids, and she still has phobias that keep her shut in."
"She's well on her way to taking control of her life again," Mario said, "and I'll be there to help her, and the kids."
"Have you thought this through?" Jack asked.
Mario liked Jack, but this was pissing him off. "During my career in the U.S. Marshals Service I've handled the worst of the worse criminals in society. I think I can handle one beautiful woman and a couple of kids, and yes, I've been thinking this through for the past twenty years. It just took me this long to get it all together."
"Sorry," Jack said. "I was out of line. I've raised seven kids and they didn't always think things through before acting, and it hasn't been that long since the youngest of them took off for Las Vegas without thinking things through."
Mario laughed. "I guess I see your point."
"Then good luck to you," Jack said. "You might find taking on a family more challenging than you think though, especially when you're going through the teen years, but when the nest is cleared and they settle in and start raising their own families, and you see some of what you tried to instill in them being passed on to the next generation, it's pretty rewarding."
As Mario left Jack and Grace's house and headed for Julia's cabin, he'd never felt so sure of anything in his life. Taking on a wife, and two kids who'd already bonded with both him and Julia, was the kind of thing Roberta had been pushing him into doing for years, but until now, the thought was something to consider in the future, at least the thought of having a wife had been, but kids had never been a part of the mix because he'd long since passed the age to start a family. But after building the crane with Sergei, and having Irina sit on his lap and smile up at him whenever he read books to her, and on occasion, say a word from the rabbit story, like she understood and was connecting with him, he realized he could be instrumental in directing the lives of these kids, while also having in his life, the one woman he'd only dreamed about.
When he walked into the cabin he found Julia at her computer. "I didn't know you were working," he said. "You want me to come back later?"
"Never," Julia replied. She left the computer and curved her arms around Mario's neck and kissed him. "I wasn't working on a game though. I was on the internet getting information about something called psychogenic deafness, where a person can become deaf when overwhelmed by emotional trauma to the point where feelings are shut down as a protective mechanism, yet the feelings don’t simply cease to exist, because emotions can’t be silenced, and if you try to ignore them, they don't just disappear."
"If that's what's going on, could Irina hear with hearing aids?" Mario asked.
"No, because there's nothing wrong with her hearing," Julia said. "Her brain has shut out the process because words can hurt, and hearing someone tell her that her parents were dead was too overwhelming for her, and moving her from foster home to foster home has been overload."
"Assuming you hit on the problem, what's the treatment?" Mario asked.
"According to what I read, time, patience, love and psychological help, but I'm thinking love is what she needs most. She's been responding to you more than me, and I keep thinking she misses her father more than her mother, for some reason. Maybe Sergei could shed light on that."
"He already has," Mario replied. "When I asked what his parents did, he said his mother had a job where she came home late, and his father worked at home from a computer, so he was the one who looked after Irina and put her to bed at night."
"Then if you get the supervisory job, maybe we could…" Julia stopped. "Forget I said that. I'm still looking for miracles."
"So am I, and the supervisory job could be it. Not only would I be supervising marshals instead of wiseguys, I'd be in one place, so we could be a family. Could you be happy married to me? Like I said before, I'm pretty set in my ways, and I'm probably not the easiest man to live with, but I'm willing to change."
"I wouldn't want you to change," Julia said. "But this isn't the way I wanted things to be with us. When I looked across the lodge and knew it was you, my dream was to stay in contact with you while conquering my phobias, and then to build a relationship with you that could lead to marriage because, over the years, you were the only man I thought I could ever be happy with."
"And I'm still single at age forty-five because you were the only woman who kept me looking. And your phobias aren't an issue," Mario said. "But what's going on with these kids has changed things. I don't want them passed around in the system. Irina needs family and stability, and Sergei needs someone to keep him from going the way I was headed when I was his age."
Their interchange was cut short when Mario's phone rang. On looking at the display, he saw that the call was from headquarters in Portland.
After a lengthy conversation with his supervisor, Mario ended the call by saying to Julia, "I've got to go to Portland tomorrow, but tell the kids I'll be back in time for the fireworks display. I'll pick up some poppers and smoke bombs for them, and a bottle of champagne for us to open at midnight. I intend to make this New Year's Eve memorable."
Julia kissed him, and said, "You can skip the champagne. As long as I have you in my bed at midnight, that's all I need to make it memorable. But you haven’t said what the call was about."
"My supervisor didn't say, only that I needed to be there. It could be my next witness assignment, since that trial's running down, but he also mentioned he was thinking about retiring, which means his position could be open soon."
"Then we'd be living in Portland, if that came about," Julia said.
"Possibly," Mario replied. "But don't get your hopes up. If he's retiring, it won't happen next week, which means, it's more likely that I'm being assigned my next witness."
***
When Mario returned from Portland that afternoon, the moment Julia saw his face she knew their miracle had come. "You got the supervisory position," she said, in an excited voice.
"It's likely." Mario scoo
ped her up in his arms, and after kissing her soundly, he said, "I'll be flying to San Francisco for a thorough briefing, and to give them my decision."
"San Francisco?" Julia said, a sudden rush of adrenaline sending her heart pounding.
"Will you be okay with that?" Mario asked. "I know I said something about Portland, but when my supervisor talked about retirement, he meant two years from now, and the position in San Francisco just came up, and he recommended me for it. I also told him about you and the kids, and that I might have to make a few trips back here during the first couple of months, and he was certain they'd be okay with that, so we could buy a house and get Sergei settled in school, and once Irina knows we'll be a family, she'll probably start talking."
Julia missed most of what Mario said, her mind focused on the fact that, of all the places he could have been assigned, he was being sent to a place where the ground never stopped shaking, and the big one could come at any time. "How long would we be there?" she asked.
"Maybe five years," Mario replied. "I'd be setting my sights on moving up to Assistant Chief Deputy, then Chief Deputy, which is where I want to be when I retire."
Mario's enthusiasm was directly counter to Julia's anxiety, yet she couldn't bring herself to tell him the thought of moving to San Francisco, even for a few years, was terrifying. Envisioning TV news scenes of the Bay area the month before, where a moderate earthquake resulted in sections of buildings fallen away, brought her back to the darkest day in her life. Forcing those images from her mind, she focused on being a family. "Have you said anything to Roberta yet about us getting married and adopting the kids?" she asked.
"No, but I will as soon as I know you're okay with this," Mario replied. "With Roberta, I like to put things off as long as possible, since she has a way of trying to run my life. So, are you okay moving there? I'll be taking you away from your grandfather, at least for a few years, but as soon as I retire we'll come back here and find a house on a few acres, and put up your greenhouse, and maybe get some chickens and have a vegetable garden. But you need to tell me what you want."
Julia realized, if she wanted a life with Mario and the kids, she'd have to somehow set her apprehension aside and trust in fate, because she couldn't ask Mario to give up his career goals. Putting her arms around his neck, she said, "What I want is to be with you, wherever you are, and for us to be the legal parents of Irina and Sergei. That's my dream, and we've just been given our miracle. But what about the adoption? What do you think our chances are of getting the kids, if we get married? I'd hate to tell them and then have something happen."
"After doing some checking, there should be no problem adopting them." Mario curved his arms around Julia and held her against the solid wall of his chest, and said, "I love you, and I can make you one promise. I'll always protect you and the kids, no matter where we are, because all I want now is for my family to be happy."
My family. Mario's heartfelt words had Julia fighting both tears of happiness and tears of worry because, whereas she knew he'd give his life to protect them, he could do nothing if a quake opened up the earth, and buildings came tumbling down.
CHAPTER 17
During the New Year's Eve fireworks display that the Hansen's set off each year on the ranch runway, Julia opted out, telling Mario and Sergei that she was better off staying inside the cabin because crowds and noise were disturbing. To her surprise, Mario kissed her in front of the kids, and said, "I'll be over to welcome in the New Year with you when the fireworks are over."
While she was waiting until the magic hour when Mario would arrive, Julia knew the worst thing she could do was to go on the internet and research the probability of an earthquake hitting the Bay area anytime soon, but she'd hoped to learn that the quake that hit the area the month before had relieved the stress, and it would be decades before another would hit.
Instead, what she found were predictions by scientists: new studies warn that California's bay Area could face bigger earthquakes than previously predicted; it was recently discovered that the Hayward Fault merges with another fault with the potential of creating earthquakes of catastrophic proportions; the Green Valley Fault has stored up enough energy to produce an earthquake with a magnitude over 7.
She also read about liquefaction, where water-saturated mud and sand produce greater motion, turning the ground into a slurry unable to support buildings and their foundations sink into the soupy sands, and the Hayward fault was particularly at risk. But what sent chills through her was the description of the thunderous booming sounds that accompanied earthquakes. She foolishly clicked on a video link with the sounds, and instantly she was back in time to a building that was beginning to break up, as if being bombarded by artillery fire, and a mountain of concrete and steel was falling around her in slow motion. Every breath brought with it dust and dirt, until she was engulfed in a cloud and coughing convulsively. But when the dust started to settle and she was able to suck in oxygen, she couldn't move, because she was buried in debris…
The cabin door opened and Mario walked in. Finding her at the computer, he went over and kissed her on the temple. Not wanting him to see what was on the screen—a photo from the recent earthquake of a highway section so badly warped, cracked and sunken, that a vehicle could have fallen into one of the two giant holes—and know what she'd been doing, she shut off the computer, then turning in her chair, quickly stood to hide the screen, and put her arms around his neck. "How did it go?" she asked. "Were the kids disappointed that I wasn't there?"
For a moment Mario's brows were pinched, like he was mulling something over, then he said, "Irina was happy just sitting on my shoulders where she could see the fireworks, and Sergei was with Jesse the whole time, so you weren't missed, except by me, and since I smell like a smoke bomb after all those fireworks, I need a shower and someone to scrub my back."
"I'd rather scrub your front," Julia said.
Mario gave her a wry smile. "Does that mean I get to scrub your front too?"
"Among other things." Julia headed for the shower, the place she loved most while being with Mario, a place where they could be flesh to flesh, without the restriction of clothes, or sheets, or covers, and with soap to create lathers, the slippery sensation of Mario's palms moving over every inch of her body, and her hands exploring all the sleek muscles of his, then making love under the pulsing spray of the showerhead, was as close to heaven as she ever hoped to be, while still on earth. After they'd finished showering, and while Julia was sitting in her robe on the couch, Mario, who was wearing a T-shirt and sweats, said to her, "I got something for you while I was in Portland. A Christmas present."
"You already gave me boxing equipment," Julia said.
Mario laughed. "I figured I could do better than that."
"I have something for you too," Julia said.
Mario reached out and touched her face. "You already made a decoration for my cabin door. No one's ever done anything like that for me before."
"I don't understand that at all," Julia said. "All I want is to make you happy. Why should I be the only woman to feel that way about you?"
"Because the women I've known over the years were the kind of women Roberta warned me about," Mario said, "and now I'm hoping the soulmate theory about sex and binding souls is selective, that it only happens when both sex partners want to spend eternity together."
"Do you think of us as sex partners?" Julia asked, feeling a twinge of disappointment that maybe, from the male perspective, Mario could think of the two of them in that light.
"There's been some pretty heavy sex going on between us," Mario said, "but no, I don't think of us that way because that would put you in the same category with the women I've slept with, and they meant nothing to me. But you're my entire life now, and if great sex comes with you, that's okay too." He walked over to the door and picked up a bag he'd set on a cabinet when he entered the cabin, and removing a wrapped present, handed it to her. It was professionally wrapped, with a gold
foil sticker with the name of an art gallery on it. On removing the paper, she uncovered a wooden jewelry box that was obviously the work of a skilled craftsman.
"It's absolutely beautiful," she said, while running her fingers over the intricate inlay of a butterfly sipping nectar from a flower. "The wings are so delicate, like the petals of a flower."
"Actually, the butterfly's a power animal," Mario said.
Julia looked at Mario in surprise. "How do you know about power animals? Roberta?"
Mario shook his head. "I read the card that came with the jewelry box. The man who made it is a Native American artist, who includes the inlay of a power animal on every box he makes. I read the cards in all the boxes in the shop, and when I read about the butterfly, I knew it was the right box for you. Go ahead. Open it. The card's inside."
When Julia raised the lid, she was aware of a small folded card, but what caught and held her attention was a ring, sitting in one of the ring slots. Her heart hammering, she lifted it out of the jewelry box, noting the elegant, simple design—a band of white-gold that branched into two, yellow-gold vines that wound sinuously together, wrapping themselves around two sparkling, brilliant cut diamonds. "It's the most gorgeous ring I've ever seen," she said.
"I figure the vines and diamonds are us tangled together," Mario pointed out. "It never made sense to me, having one diamond in a wedding ring, when marriage is about joining lives."
"That's so romantic," Julia said, "and I didn't think you were a romantic man."
Mario laughed. "I'm not, but I'm learning fast."
Julia slipped the ring on her finger, and holding her hand out, caught the light flashing off the diamonds, then she closed her arms around Mario's neck and kissed him, a long slow kiss that didn't begin to convey the deep love she felt for him. But maybe, over time, as the years passed, and lust and passion began to mellow into affection and companionship, he'd look at her contentedly, and know how much she cared.
Finding Justice (Dancing Moon Ranch Book 12) Page 20
