The Debutante

by Magnolia Mason

  “Oh, hell,” I hissed when I saw the gas gauge was flirting with empty. “Oh, double hell.”

  That’s what you get for daydreaming, I thought as I pulled to the side of the road and killed the engine. Now what are you gonna do, girl?

  Dusk was quickly melting into night and the only lights I could see were my own headlights glaring out into the darkness, illuminating the trees. I shut off the headlights and sat in the darkness to gather my thoughts.

  I wasn’t scared of the dark or anything, but I hated being alone out in the countryside—especially pregnant and with just a couple bottles of water and snacks to keep my guts together until morning. And I didn’t want to walk off into the darkness and get lost or risk wandering into the bayou.

  “You better hunker down,” I said out loud to myself as I reclined my seat and stretched my legs. The baby kicked as if she knew I’d gotten us into trouble.

  “Calm down, little girl,” I said to her as I stroked my belly. “Everything will be just fine. Nothing bad is gonna happen.”

  As if to spite me, a fat raindrop fell on the windshield, followed by another and another and another. Soon, a lush black shower was falling, blurring the windows completely. It would have been soothing if I hadn’t been so stressed out about it.

  My mother’s words came back to haunt me: …just be careful, there’s a storm moving in…

  “I will never hear the end of this.”

  I reached into the backseat and found my purse. Naturally, my phone was buried under all the gum wrappers, coins and debris with just ten-percent of its battery left and no reception to speak of.

  “Damn,” I uttered as I held it up to the roof in a vain attempt to catch more reception, but it was hopeless. “Well, it was a Hail Mary anyway. Guess we’re gonna be camping out here, baby girl.”

  I leaned back against the seat and pulled a sweater across my chest and belly. There was nothing to do but get comfortable and close my eyes, to let the rain lull me to sleep for a while. It worked. The rain sent me drifting despite how uncomfortable my seat was and, before long, I was asleep.

  “Hey—hey, you, wake up!”

  A voice came out of the darkness along with pounding on the driver’s side window. A flashlight beam slid through the darkness and came to rest on my face as I fought to get my bearings.

  I squinted and shielded my eyes from the light as a massive gust of wind rocked my car.

  “What’s going on?”

  I called out as I rolled my window down a crack. I was still half asleep and totally confused by what was happening.

  All I could see was darkness and a vague form standing out there in a rain slicker. Strangers always made me nervous, so I kept the window mostly up. If push came to shove, I probably had enough gas and fumes to put a few miles between me and him, if he tried anything funny.

  “The storm surge is coming up,” he shouted back, his voice half-eaten by the wind. “The water’s gonna come up over the road. You need to get out of here.”

  “I can’t! I’m out of gas,” I shouted back.

  The man shined his flashlight off into the darkness where I knew the river was raging. I was glad I couldn’t see what he saw. He shook his head.

  “Where you headed?”

  “Three-Mile Bridge,” I answered, though I didn’t know why on Earth I would say that. That’s where the hunting cabin was—Jack’s hunting cabin.

  “Three-Mile Bridge?” he repeated as he turned back and peered in the window at me.

  My heart stopped.

  “Jack?”

  “It’s me,” he answered as he slapped his hand on the roof of my car. “And you’re in luck. I’m headed to Three-Mile Bridge myself and my truck is full of gas.”

  It was just my luck. There was nothing in the world that I wanted less than to be with Jack at that moment. I didn’t want to talk to him, I didn’t want to see or smell or hear him. I just wanted to be alone. I didn’t want him to rescue me.

  As if she could sense him, the baby inside me kicked and fluttered. I pressed my hand to my belly. I didn’t have a choice. I couldn’t risk saying no.

  “Fine,” I said as I grabbed my coat and purse and stepped out into the driving wind and rain. “Get me out of here.”

  Chapter 19

  The cabin let every drop of water slide right off it. It was snug and tight, so plumb I doubted that anyone on Earth could build a better little house. Jack had built it all by hand, of course. He’d lathed and laid every board and struck every nail. Everywhere I looked, I saw him.

  A shiver wracked my body as I huddled beneath a quilt with my hair dripping wet and my skin clammy.

  Jack built a fire for us, his hands working magic over the bundle of twigs and chunks of dry wood. If I let myself, I could pretend we were back in the time before, back when things were so good and so right before the lies and the secrets and everything else.

  I couldn’t let myself think about that. I had to be strong. I had to remember Jolene and him no matter how much it killed me.

  “What were you doing all the way out there?” Jack asked as the kindling smoldered beneath his hand.

  Soft gray smoke curled up between his fingers followed by a few tendrils of yellow flame. The light made his chiseled face glow a soft bronze color.

  “I was taking a country drive and that’s where I ended up,” I shrugged as I watched him concentrate on the fire. I wasn’t going to say more. I wasn’t going to tell him that I was headed to the Governor’s Mansion to remember the night of the debutante ball.

  “Hell of a day not to check the weather forecast, Cassy,” he said as the flames spread and started to consume the wood. The oak logs spit and crackled as the heat spread through them.

  “I did check it, actually,” I answered as anger flared up inside me. He had no right to tell me what to do. Not anymore. “I just miscalculated my time or fuel or something. It doesn’t matter. It’s not your concern.”

  “It is my concern, actually. As long as you’re carrying my baby, everything about you concerns me.”

  His baby. She’s my baby, I thought as my hand landed on her round little shape beneath my sweater. I mean, I knew she belonged to both of us but she was living inside me. She was mine.

  “Well, I appreciate your concern and everything, but it’s none of your business. It was an accident.”

  “If I hadn’t come along, you’d still be out there on the side of the road with the rising water.”

  “But I’m not out there on the side of the road anymore, so let’s drop it, okay?”

  I turned away from him and rubbed my hair with a towel to dry it off. Heat billowed off the wood stove, warming up the cabin as I dangled my bare feet above the wood floor.

  “Okay, I’ll drop it. But we’re going to talk later, you and me,” he said as he stood up and pulled on his rain slicker. “There are some things we need to get straight for her sake.”

  With that, he stepped out into the driving rain, leaving me alone. I stripped off my wet clothes and grabbed a pair of long johns and a flannel shirt from Jack’s duffel bag. Fast as I could, I pulled them on and climbed beneath the blankets. When he came back, I closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep to shut him out.

  I don’t know if it was the chill in the air, the sound of rain or the comfort of being in that old bed beneath those soft quilts, but soon I was truly asleep. It wasn’t until Jack climbed into bed beside me that I stirred… both to wakefulness and in my body. I felt every nerve in my bones and skin and muscles draw to him like magnets. As much as I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t deny the power his body still had over me.

  “You awake?” he asked as he settled beneath the blankets, leaving a gap between our two bodies. The air between us rapidly warmed.

  “No.”

  He laughed softly and stretched out, folding his arms behind his head. He didn’t speak or move, he just laid there as if savoring the moment. Despite everything, I let my heart reach out to him. I desperately wan
ted to feel his touch and hear his contented sighs as he wrapped me in his arms, but all that was behind us.

  “Jack?” I whispered as I stared at him through the darkness. I could just make out his profile, lit up by the glow from the wood stove.

  “Mmhm,” he answered without turning his head.

  “Thank you for rescuing me. That’s twice now that you’ve saved me. I owe you.”

  “You don’t owe me anything,” he said. His head turned toward me and I saw his eyes smiling through the dim light. “It’s my job to protect you. It’s my honor to protect you.”

  It took every ounce of my strength not to throw myself into his arms. Could I forgive him? Did I want to forgive him? These were questions to which I had no clear answers.

  “What was it that you wanted to talk about?” I asked, though I knew. He wanted to make the arrangements for the baby. Even if he had been unfaithful to me, he would always do right by his daughter, that much I knew.

  He sighed and shifted beneath the quilt.

  “You sure you want to talk about this right now?”

  “It’s as good a time as any, I suppose. When else am I gonna be trapped in a cabin with you?”

  “Fair enough.” He rolled onto his side to face me. “About Jolene…”

  “Oh—oh, hell, no, we’re not talking about her,” I spat as I sat up and stared down at him. “That’s off limits.”

  “I never looked at her, Cassy. I’d never give her a second look,” he said, speaking over me. “It was business. Business, that’s all.”

  “Bull shit,” I answered back. “She’s gorgeous. She’s—she’s like a goddess, or something. And what business does she run where you’d be a customer?”

  “D’Hauterive Historical Restoration,” he answered in a serious voice. “She runs her daddy’s business since he retired. They restore historic old buildings. Like the house you came to in New Orleans.”

  That stopped me short. I knew the name of that business, but I hadn’t made the connection. I certainly didn’t think that Jolene D’Hauterive had anything to do with it. She was a debutante, not a businesswoman. I imagined her getting her nails done not getting her hands dirty.

  “So, she’s renovating that old house?”

  “She’s consulting on it—I’m restoring it with these two hands,” he answered. “Will you listen to me now, Cass?”

  My heart was pounding like crazy, but I nodded. I would listen to him. I would hear what he had to say, however much I might want to run away. I couldn’t run away anymore.

  “That old house is something special and I’m a man who will admit when he’s in over his head. I reached out to Jolene when I realized I couldn’t handle it on my own. She’s always loved that house and had a portfolio filled with ideas. I wanted the house to be perfect. Do you believe me?”

  It all made so much sense, but I couldn’t drop my guard. I couldn’t open myself up to him again just to find out he was lying. Of course, everything I knew about Jack told me he wasn’t a liar. He’d never been a liar, not like Cash. Cash always lied, and he was lying about this, too, wasn’t he?

  “I believe you, it’s just… well, Cash told me you and she were…”

  “I know what he told you, but he was lying. Lying is like breathing to a man like him. Why on Earth would I do that? I wouldn’t. I couldn’t.”

  Jack slid closer and stared into my eyes. Warmth and sincerity radiated from his face. His hands closed over mine, holding them tight as he searched my face.

  Suddenly, the certainty I felt was undeniable. I’d known all along who and what Jack was, but I’d been denying it. I’d been painting him with the same brush as Cash because I was hurt and confused.

  “I know you wouldn’t ever do that to me. I know it. I—I’ve just been so scared.”

  “Oh, Cassy,” Jack purred in his low, caramel-rich baritone as he closed his arms around me and pushed his hulking frame between my thighs. “I know you’ve been scared and it kills me. I hate that I wasn’t there to help you. I hate that I wasn’t there to make it go away.”

  All at once, his mouth was on mine, his hands in my hair, his strong, supple body cradling me against him. His mouth tasted of mint tea and he smelled like woodsmoke, spice and leather. I melted into him, a sob escaping my lips between kisses as I let him devour me.

  “I missed you so much,” I managed to say as tears spilled over onto my cheeks, mingling with the hot, wet path of his kisses down my neck.

  “I feel alive again,” he whispered as his skilled fingers undid the buttons on the borrowed flannel shirt I wore, uncovering my body. “Don’t ever leave me again.”

  Through half-closed eyes I watched him as he saw me for the first time, fertile and pregnant and growing big with his child. His pupils grew and a smile bent his lips as he slid down my body, easing the long johns down my legs.

  “Now you,” I teased as my naked body danced with electricity below him.

  “Whatever Cassy wants, Cassy gets,” he answered as he pulled off his shirt, revealing the smooth, strong lines of his abs and shoulders and arms.

  His tanned skin seemed to glow bronze in the firelight as he undid his heavy leather belt. The sound of the brass buckle clinking sent a wave of arousal through me, making me flush with heat. When I saw his desire for me, I nearly gasped with desperation, it was so gorgeous.

  We came together so fast and strong, it was like a chemical reaction. The feel of his mouth sliding hungrily over my breasts and belly and down to the tender slice between my legs made me groan and gasp. I plunged my hands into his thick hair, holding him in place while I rode the swell of pleasure building inside me.

  “Jack… oh, Jack…”

  I couldn’t hold on anymore, I had to have him. I had to feel him inside me.

  When he entered me, I cried out, my voice echoing off the ceiling and walls.

  “That’s it,” he answered back as he delved deep inside me, filling me up. It’d been so long, I felt like half a virgin again. “God, you feel so good, Cassy…”

  “Don’t stop,” I begged as he rolled his hips, taking me with tender ferocity while the storm raged outside. “Don’t—god, don’t stop…”

  The smell of him, the feel of him, the taste of him, was all so familiar and yet brand new. We were linked now in a way we weren’t before, by our very essences, by the life inside my belly that was half him and half me.

  All the love and loss and fear and strength between us melted together to become something else—an unbreakable bond. It tightened until I felt myself let go and ride the cresting wave of pleasure washing over me. Jack drove his loins into me, releasing his heat deep inside with a guttural growl that made me tremble.

  “I love you,” he murmured into my ear as he dozed off, still buried to the root inside me, all snug and tight.

  “I love you too,” I answered as I pulled free and curled up against his taut belly.

  It was decided—it was him and me and her. It was us. All the lies and secrets and pain between us was gone, like it had never existed.

  Now, all I had to do was figure out how to break the news to mother and everyone else without risking my tuition and our relationship.

  But that was for tomorrow.

  Chapter 20

  “Are you ready?”

  Despite his best effort, Jack couldn’t fully hide the nervousness in his voice. I met his eyes and felt the strength flow between us. He squeezed my hand as I nodded yes.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” I sighed nervously as I glanced up at my house looming big and white and picture-perfect on the autumn street. My parent’s house never looked prettier than on an autumn day.

  The lawn was littered with orange and red and yellow leaves, contrasting the deep green turf. I held the image in my mind. I wanted to remember my family home before I was cast out, as I was certain I was going to be.

  I mean, how do you tell your mother that you’re in love with and carrying the child of a man she nearly married ye
ars and years ago? Everything felt so natural with Jack, I nearly forgot that I once called him daddy.

  “We don’t have to do this, you know,” Jack offered. “We could drive on out of here and never look back. No one would know our history; they’d only see a couple in love with a little baby.”

  Tempting as it would be to just leave and never come back to Buford, I couldn’t just cut off all ties with my mother. I had to tell her the truth, even though it wasn’t going to be easy.

  “No, we need to do this. I need to do this. You don’t need to come with me, if you don’t want to. It’s my battle.”

  I meant every word of it. It was my battle and my life.

  “It’s mine too, Cassy. Your mom and I have a past, too. It wouldn’t be right to keep it from her.”

  I let out a deep breath and nodded as I put my shaking fingers on the car door. There was nothing that scared me more than what I was about to do, but I had to. I had to do it, whether I liked it or not.

  “Well, then I guess we better get going. The sooner this is over with, the better.”

  Jack got out and jogged around to the passenger side to open the door for me. He gave me a hand up onto the curb and draped his arm around my waist as he walked me up the pathway to the front porch.

  Something momentous was about to happen. It gave me a feeling not unlike a wedding. We were going to stand up and declare ourselves to my mother…

  Oh, god, what was I thinking?

  “Mother?” I called out as I pushed open the front door and stepped into the foyer.

  “Cassy? Cassy, dear, is that you? My god, I was worried sick about you!”

  Mother walked out from the butler’s pantry wiping her hands on a cloth. She startled when she saw Jack standing beside me with his hand resting on my hip.

  “Jack rescued me,” I explained as I went to her and kissed her powdered cheek. “The car ran out of gas out by the Governor’s Mansion and the water was rising and…”

  “Hey, Lucy,” Jack said as he nodded at mother in greeting. She smiled stiffly and nodded back as she wiped her hands on the white flannel cloth she held.