by Mary Peart
The thought of him inside that lonely motel room twisted her heart. But how could she risk him walking out on her again? She wondered lifting the cup to her lips and feeling the cooling tea inside her mouth. What if he discovered something else in his past that he could not live with? She put the cup down and clasped her hands in front of her. She had tried to bury herself in work but it had not made a difference. She missed her husband and it was not going away.
Chapter 9
“What do you think?” she asked him, her breath coming in little pants. She had pulled him behind her in her haste to show him what she saw. She had worn flats this time so she was well prepared. “Slow down baby,” he had told her teasingly as she pulled on his arm.
“I am excited about it that’s all,” she said with a grin.
“I think it has potential,” he said cautiously as he stared at the structure of the building. She was right it was quaint and had an old worldly feel to it and the peacefulness of it was an added touch. But he never gave his full approval about anything until he saw all of it and read the bottom line.
“You don’t sound enthused,” her disappointment was acute. She wanted him to see it through her eyes.
“I have not seen inside yet.” He reminded her.
“Of course,” she swiftly moved forward and used the key to open the large mahogany door and swung it open.
He stepped in and was struck by the mustiness and waited for his eyes to get accustomed to the darkness. They had come straight here from work and he had put off a meeting with the managing team of the pharmaceutical company because he had promised her and he needed to make up for treating her like crap before.
She watched as he walked around looking at the structure and touching the columns in the hall. He did not say anything to her as his sharp eyes took in the framework. She was chafing with impatience but she knew how thorough he was, that was one of the things that made him such a success as a businessman. He did not think with his heart but with his head.
He went up the stairs and went into all the rooms with her trailing behind him and then went outside to look there. He reached for her hand as he stood underneath an apple tree. The view was spectacular, he thought as he looked over the horizon at the blaze of the sun making its light over the trees.
“You are right.” He murmured, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it gently. “You have a feel about these things.” He turned her around to look at him. “I love it but I don’t want to share it with all and sundry, I want to keep it for us. It can be our home away from home and we can have the children here in the summer. I was thinking we could put a pool over there.” He pointed to where a lean broken down shed was standing. “There could be horses as well.”
She stared up at him and her heart swelled. “I was thinking the same thing myself,” she told him huskily. “But we do not need a pool; there is a stream further up.” She took him to where it was and they stood there looking at the clear water bubbling over the smooth stones buried underneath. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on top of her head as they watched the water flowing.
“I love it,” he murmured softly. “I can get a designer to start working on it as soon as the sale comes through.”
“I want to have a say in the entire thing,” she turned around and looked up at him. “I have some ideas of how I want it to be.”
“Of course you do,” his eyes glinted in amusement as he looked down into her exquisite face made even more so by the animated expression on it. “The first thing we are going to do when it is fixed up is come here by ourselves and break the place in.”
“How?” she asked him huskily, her heart beating rapidly.
“By trying out every room in the house and making love by this very stream.” He told her pushing back the wisps of hair that had blown onto her face. “I am going to explore every inch of your delectable body and start all over again like I want to do right now.”
“Christopher,” she murmured feeling the emotions racing through her body. She could feel his muscles through the thin jacket he was wearing and the feel of it that always turned her bones into liquid. He was hers, her husband and a man who had given his heart and devotion to her and she was giddy with the realization and fiercely possessive of it.
He cupped her cheeks and bent his head towards hers. “I love you,” his tone was slow and drugging as he touched his lips to hers. With a moan of supplication and desire she opened her mouth beneath his. With a groan deep inside his throat he deepened the kiss, his tongue touching hers with an explosion of light and color that had them shivering in much more than the slight wind that was whistling in the trees.
He felt himself harden against her and he felt the overpowering passion flooding his being. It always amazed him the hold she had over him but right now he did not think or wondered, he just embraced it and her as his mouth moved over hers. He had to stop, he knew that or he was going to pull her down on the thick grass and take her right there. He was drowning inside her mouth and the fire that was consuming both of them.
He found the strength to break away and put her from him, his hands shaking, his breath coming as rasps through his mouth. “We need to go home,” he told her his voice thick with emotions.
She nodded, not able to speak just now. Her body was trembling with need and she wanted to feel him inside her. “I cannot wait until we get home.”
He pulled her to him and lifted her up into his arms and walked with long strides towards the car where he took her right there.
*****
Jeremy knew he was going downhill fast. The disease was progressing instead of regressing and Doctor Grey had been frank with him and told him that he probably did not have long. The treatments were aggressive and he was exhausted when he finished a session and just felt like curling up and just dying.
He had tried to call first Lauren and then Sheila to tell them what he was going through but their numbers had been changed. He wished he could see his son and be with him for a little before he passed away.
He had called Sophia to talk to her but she had been avoiding him and now he knew what it was to be all alone. He had gotten the full help and did not want to think about the costs of everything. Tang had really come through for him and he owed him an enormous debt of gratitude.
*****
“I can’t believe the sale went through so fast.” Sophia said her eyes glowing with excitement. As soon as Christopher realized that he really wanted the place he had taken over and had pushed through the purchase. It was approaching May and he was thinking of holding Christine’s birthday there so the renovations had already started.
“And I understand that you have been there every day to see to it that everything is as it should be.” His tone was amused and indulgent.
“Checking up on me?” she looked up at him uncertainly. There was a still a level of mistrust there and one that could not be shaken just so.
“Don’t,” his voice soft and with a hint of steel to it. “I called you yesterday to let you know that the fabric had come in for the wallpaper in the main bedroom. You have to let that go baby.”
“I know,” she looked down at the file in front of her. He had come in much to the consternation of her assistant and was sitting on the edge of her desk. “I am trying.”
“And you have stopped seeing Matthews.”
She looked up at him sharply. “It’s not what you are thinking,” he told her with a sigh. “He called me and told me that you have stopped coming to see him and wanted to know if I had anything to do with it.” His voice was amused.
“He called you?” she looked up at him uncertainly.
“You can just imagine how desperate he is,” Christopher lifted her chin to look at her. “Is it because of me?”
She used her lashes to shield her eyes and gave a slight shrug. “You are my husband and the most important relationship I have. I figured I should try and preserve that and you were right. After the
way he treated me I should not be so chummy with him.”
“And there lies the problem,” he smoothed his thumb over her bottom lip. “I have no right to try to change who you are baby and I let my stupid jealousy get the better of me. I am willing to share the part of you that you share with everyone; with him because I know I have a part of you that is mine alone. I can afford to be generous to the man who never knew what he had when he had it and lost it. I can just imagine how he feels.”
Sophia stared up at him wordlessly, her heart shivering from his words. “I love you,” she said huskily.
“I know,” he moved forward to kiss her lingeringly on the lips. It was the buzzer that interrupted them and as if by rote he was the one who pressed it. “Yes?” his voice had switched gears as if by magic. “I am sorry Mr. Tang but Tiffany is trying to reach you she said it’s urgent.” The girl’s voice sounded breathless with worry and Sophia looked at him tellingly.
“I will be there,” he said brusquely and as his wife looked at him he added. “Thanks.”
“So what are you going to do?” he stood up and pulled her up with him.
“I am going to think about it.” She put her hands around his neck. “I don’t want him becoming too dependent on me and even though he is ill I have to think about you and my kids. Time spent with him is time I could be with you.”
“I want to grab onto that and run with it but I am going to have to disagree with you baby as much as I love what you said. Dr. Grey told me he is not doing well in spite of the treatment and it is easy for me to pay for the treatments but I have no liking for the guy. It is up to you.”
“I have not seen him in a week. He told me he had tried to get in touch with his family in Australia but he could not get their numbers. He said he wanted to see his son before he is no longer around.”
“I will see what I can do.” He kissed her hard on the mouth and released her. “How about going out to dinner tonight?”
“Sounds good.”
Sophia waited until he left and closed the door behind him before making the call.
“Hi Mom, how have you been doing?”
“Hanging in there baby girl. It’s been very busy at the store for the last few days so I have my hands full.”
“Mom I have something very strange to ask of you and feel free to say no.”
“Go ahead honey I am listening.”
Sophia plunged right in after taking a deep breath. “You know how Jeremy has been ill. He is not doing very well and I told you how Christopher has been paying for his treatment.” Her mother made the necessary noises. “He is staying at this crummy apartment and the heating is not all that.” She paused then continued. “You have that house of your neighbor’s that you have been put in charge of and you have no idea what to do with it. Do you think he could stay there?”
There was silence as her mother digested what her daughter just said. Her neighbor, an eighty-year old man; who had lived alone for several years had gone to a home and had given her power of attorney over all his assets had checked himself into a home saying that he was too old now to be living alone. The house was a rambling four bedroom place with a large backyard that Sybil had been seeing to for the past year and had been planning to get it rented but had not gotten the chance yet. “I think what you and your husband are doing are what saints are made of. I want to do my part as well.”
“Thanks Mom you are the best.” Sophia said gratefully. Now to get Jeremy to agree.
*****
Lauren sat there staring at her grandson as he played with the little squeaky toy. Things had gone from bad to worse. It had not worked out with Jeremy and she suspected that it had been the way they had gone into the relationship. The child she had been hoping for had not happened and her husband dying of a heart attack due to what they had done had always been there between them.
She had come back home with her tail between her legs and had tried to patch things with her daughter and it had taken awhile before it had gotten somewhere but she had admitted that she had never loved Jeremy. It had not taken her daughter long to get tired of motherhood and had run off with a boy she had known from childhood and left the child with her.
She supposed she had gotten her son after all, she thought dispirited. She had been thinking about Jeremy a lot lately and felt the regret running through her. She had truly loved him and wished he could come back to her. How would she explain the relationship to his son why his father and grandmother were together was something else altogether. Her gaze went to the little boy with the light blonde hair and amazing blue eyes who looked very much like his father. Little Jeremy Junior.
She was back in her hometown where she had been disgraced years before. The good thing about it was that the houses had been sold by Sheila. The girl had come back and they had bought an apartment and things were going fine until she had left. She and her daughter seem to have a habit of doing that, she thought wryly. Her husband had not had a chance to change the will so she had inherited several million dollars which she had not spent yet, she still felt a little guilty about touching the money.
The phone rang just as she was about to get him something to eat.
“This is Lauren,” she answered automatically.
“I imagine you still go by the name of Copeland?” the deep authoritative voice made her think of Merrick for a minute.
“Who is this?” she asked suspiciously.
“My name is Christopher Tang and I was an associate of your late husband and I also have a connection with Jeremy Matthews.”
“You know Jeremy?” her voice sharpened. His name was familiar because he had businesses in the country and he was very hard to miss.
“I do,” Christopher did not tell her of the relationship. “He is very ill and has been trying to get in touch with you for awhile now.”
“Oh my goodness!” her voice was breathless. “I changed my numbers with all that has been going on. Could you give me a number for him?”
“I can do you one better. How does a trip to the States sound?”
“Much better,” she said with a laugh. “It has to be for two though; my darling daughter has run off with her boyfriend and left her son with me.”
“All the better. I think he would love to see the boy.” Christopher told her.
“How did you find me?”
“I have my ways.” He told her smoothly.
“And you are doing this because you have several altruistic bones in your body of course.” She continued. Jeremy had told her about him being married to the woman he had gotten pregnant and refused to have anything to do with the child.
“My wife is the altruistic one,” Christopher said with a short laugh. “I am doing it for her and for our daughter.”
Lauren heard the incredible love and felt a spark of jealousy. Mrs. Tang was a very fortunate woman. She had seen his pictures in the papers and knew what he looked like.
“I will send a car to meet you at the airport.”
For the first time in a long time Lauren felt alive and going forward to pick up her grandson she hugged him to her. “We are going to visit daddy darling how exciting is that!”
*****
Jeremy accepted the offer with tears in his eyes. He moved out of the apartment with Lauren and Sophia’s help and was settled in at the house next door. “I don’t know how to thank you,” he mumbled as soon as he saw Sybil that day they had come to him to help him move.
“Don’t worry about it,” Sybil told him offhandedly, trying not to appear shocked at how pale and thin he was. “I cook too much as it is so I am just happy to have someone to share my meals with.” And that was that. No accusations about how he had used her daughter and hung her out to dry, none of that. He felt the shame crawl through him and the regret that he had missed out on being a part of this beautiful family that embraced him in spite of what he had done.
Sybil cooked and made sure he had breakfast every morning before she left for the bookstore
and left something for him to have for lunch. She brushed aside his protests that he was putting her through too much trouble. The first Saturday since he had come to live at the house and she had brought him over his breakfast, she had found him out in the front yard with his hands folded and staring off into the garden with its riot of flowers blooming. May had come in with rain and slightly cooling weather and made it bearable to sit outside.
“Hi you are up early,” Sybil took a seat beside him and put the bowl between them. She had done oatmeal with blueberries and some orange juice freshly squeezed. He had not been keeping down anything much and she had been trying to see what he could.
“I could not sleep.” He told her with a small smile. He had gotten so used to her being around that he would not know what he would have done without her.
“Any pains?” she asked in concern. He looked a little better than when she had first seen him and she would like to think it had a lot to do with the food she had been feeding him and not the treatments so much.
“A little now and then. It is mostly inside though,” his voice was sad. “I have wasted my life and I have nothing to show for it. Why are you so nice to me?” he turned towards her.
“You have grown on me,” she told him lightly.
“I made a lot of mistakes,” he said suddenly staring down at his hands. “With Sophia and with Sheila and that mess with Lauren. I guess it is karma.”
“We all make mistakes my dear,” Sybil told him gently, her heart going out to him. “I guess I can afford to be generous because my daughter found herself a wonderful man. You have to find a way to forgive yourself for the mess you made and move on from then. Life is too short for you to be living in regret.”
