Jailbird

by Heather Huffman

“Girls,” Charlie answered her as he entered the room. His eyes locked with mine and he smiled. It was a lopsided grin that told me he was incredibly proud of pulling off this surprise.

  “So are you hoping for a boy?”

  “As long as the baby’s healthy, I couldn’t care less,” Charlie’s hand found mine. He managed to be polite, but I knew he was as eager as I to reconnect.

  “I want a boy,” I managed to string together a whole sentence, although my voice was a little thick. “The world needs more men like my husband.”

  The doctor smiled, but it was the look on Charlie’s face that made me blink back tears. My throat already felt like it had a golf ball wedged in it. The look of total adoration in his eyes was about to send me over the edge.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. The doctor was moving about the room, but I wasn’t paying attention to her. I was busy drinking in his every feature. Maybe if I imprinted him firmly enough in my memory, it would feel more like he was with me when he went away again. I didn’t want to think about him going away, though, so I refocused my thoughts.

  A lock of hair had fallen out of place and it made me deliriously happy to see it. Imagining sinking my fingers into his hair—that was a good way to redirect my thoughts.

  “Do you want to know the sex?”

  “Hmmm?” Had she read my mind?

  “Do you want to know if the baby is a boy or a girl?” she repeated patiently.

  “I would,” Charlie gave his vote, a smile tugging the corner of his lips. He knew what I’d been thinking.

  I nodded. I didn’t trust myself to sound intelligent at this point. While I’d been gazing dreamily at Charlie, the doctor had moved a machine closer to the bed. Now I watched her as she scooted the paper so she had access to my stomach and squirted startlingly cold gel on it.

  “I thought we were just going to listen to the heartbeat.”

  “Why listen when you can watch, too? Look… there’s your baby.”

  Our eyes locked on the screen, a look of awe on our faces. Sure enough, there was a little humanoid sucking its thumb on the screen. She took measurements while we stared at the image. Had it really been so long since we stood on Anjelita’s back porch arguing about whether or not this was a good thing?

  “Ten fingers, ten toes and one boy,” the doctor informed us. The tears did come then. I couldn’t help it. Charlie kissed me sloppily on the forehead. He laughed, he cried. I did a lot of both as well. He never let go of my hand. My eyes never left the screen. I couldn’t wait to meet him for real.

  “Is he healthy? Is everything like it should be?” Charlie asked.

  “Yes. He’s very healthy,” she assured us. “His measurements put you due on July 10.”

  “My parents will be back by then,” Charlie seemed happy about that, but I groaned.

  “Great. I get to meet your parents as I’m giving birth.”

  “My parents are in West Africa doing some mission work,” he explained to the doctor at her confused look.

  “Sure, tell the doctor after fifteen minutes, but leave your wife in the dark for six weeks.”

  “It never came up.”

  “Would you like some pictures?” Dr. Hoffner interjected.

  “We’d love pictures,” our attention turned back to the baby.

  Charlie stroked my hair and I contented myself to watch the baby’s heart beat, to watch him kick and squirm while the doctor printed snapshots. And before I was ready, she was shutting off the machine and wiping my belly clean. Of course, anytime between now and July 10 would be too soon for me.

  “You can get dressed now,” she informed me. “And rest assured that you’re doing a good job. The baby is healthy; your weight is fine; everyone looks good.”

  “Thank you so much,” I wished there were more I could do. Words seemed to be so shallow.

  “Yes, thank you… more than we could ever say,” Charlie shook her hand, breaking contact with mine for the first time.

  “It was my pleasure,” she assured us and was gone.

  Charlie didn’t waste any time. He placed his hands on either side of my face and kissed me properly the second we were alone. I think I might have actually whimpered a little. It was a bit embarrassing how quickly I went from feeling motherly to an entirely different emotion.

  “You’d better get dressed,” his voice was jagged by the time he turned me loose. “Or no one else is going to get this room for a while.”

  “Charlie,” I admonished. He didn’t need to know I’d just been thinking the same thing. I scurried as best as a pregnant woman can.

  “I missed you. Oh, I have missed you,” he offered by way of explanation.

  “I missed you, too,” I paused over my shoes to look at him again. “I still can’t believe Rachel did this. How long have you known?”

  “She called me last night. Anjelita has Cara.”

  “What about the custody trial?”

  “It’ll still be there when I get back.”

  I wondered how long he’d be here. Would he have to leave when we walked out these doors? I didn’t want to ask. Still, the thought brought tears to my eyes again as I fumbled with my shoes.

  “Hey, hey, don’t do that,” he caught my face in his hands and brushed a tear aside with his thumb. “Unless that’s happiness spilling out.”

  “I don’t think I can take watching you leave,” I admitted. “I don’t want you to go without me.”

  “We don’t have to think about that today,” he pulled me into his arms. “Today is ours. Maybe we can even steal tomorrow.”

  I nodded. I desperately wanted to steal tomorrow, too. But at least I knew I had today. “Do you have the pictures? Let’s go show Conrad.”

  “I do,” he held them up for me to see. Together, we went to show Conrad the nephew he’d been so sure of. Conrad picked me up for another bear hug and even hugged Charlie. Rachel hung back, taking it all in and smiling shyly. I don’t think she was expecting Charlie and me to turn our hugs on her, though. Startled as she was, she did hug us back.

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I whispered in her ear. “Thank you so much.”

  “It was nothing,” she seemed embarrassed by my praise.

  “To me, it was everything.”

  “Can we take you guys to dinner or something tonight?” Charlie looked from Conrad to Rachel.

  “Actually, you guys have plans. Sorry,” Rachel grinned liked she wasn’t really sorry at all as she handed me an envelope. “Give me a call when you resurface. I should have more information then.”

  “Okay…,” I agreed hesitantly.

  “I’ll take care of getting Conrad back to his car,” she shooed us out the door. I couldn’t quite decipher the look on Conrad’s face, but I had a feeling it was one Lenora Smallwood would have given anything to earn from him.

  I stood on tiptoe and pulled him down so I could kiss his cheek before following Charlie out the door.

  “Is that your car?” he smiled as I unlocked the El Camino.

  “Conrad gave it to me.”

  “Nice.”

  “I like it.”

  “You would.”

  “At least it’s not boring.”

  “Are you saying my Corolla is boring?”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Boring, maybe, but practical.”

  “But this has character.”

  “Something like that,” he grinned. “What’s in the envelope?”

  “Room keys for the Hilton in Baton Rouge. And a note saying that it’s paid through the end of the week. Along with room service, courtesy of the network.”

  “Huh. That’s really sweet of her.”

  “She has a crush on Conrad.”

  “Really?” Charlie seemed skeptical.

  “Yep. I’ll fill you in later. Do you want to follow me in your boring car?”

  “I’d rather ride with you.”

  “But we can’t leave the boring car here. Come on, follow me. I know my
way around Baton Rouge. Well, I did ten years ago.”

  “That’s comforting.”

  This time I grabbed him for a kiss before turning him loose to slide behind the wheel of my El Camino. I was so excited at the prospect of spending the rest of the day with Charlie, my entire body practically hummed. The baby did a few somersaults. I assumed he was happy to know he was a boy.

  Charles Junior? I shook my head. That didn’t work. Nathan? No, that was Plan B’s name. Conrad? Maybe….

  I spent the rest of the ride trying to name my little gymnast. Before I knew it, we were there and I was walking through the hotel lobby with Charlie’s arm wrapped protectively around my waist. He smelled so good. The heat of his body sent shock waves rippling through my veins.

  It was ridiculous. For a woman who’d thought of little else besides food and a bed to sleep in for so long, it was kind of laughable to be feeling like a tigress on the prowl right now. Still, I’d be really proud of myself if we made it all the way to the room before I started ripping his clothes off.

  He traced feathery kisses along my neck as we rode the elevator up. My eyelids fluttered and I caught my lower lip with my teeth. He was making this really difficult.

  And then, sweet relief, we were alone in the room. The instant the door latched, clothes started flying. I wanted to touch every centimeter of his skin. My fingers greedily devoured his arms, his chest, his back… I laced them through his hair and pulled him to me so I could taste his lips once more.

  He was trembling with restrained desire. He kissed my face, my neck, my collarbone. His hand roamed and cupped and caressed. Neither of us could seem to decide what we wanted to experience most. We wanted it all.

  Together, we stumbled towards the bed. We got about three steps closer before we gave up and folded together to the floor. Every nerve ending was on full alert. The carpet scratched my back and his skin felt hot and alive against my bare skin.

  Maybe there had been a time when sex had been wielded as a weapon. Evil had used it to try to steal my humanity, to smother my spirit. But now, in this moment, it was an instrument of restoration. There was something powerful in being soul to soul with the one who made you a whole person.

  So here, in the dark with him, I could feel my weary spirit spark to life again. That spirit, along with every other fiber of my being, was hungry for a taste of him—this man who made everything suddenly so right.

  I didn’t think there would ever be enough of him to satiate the starvation that had built over the last months. But sometime in the night, sometime after moving to the bed, we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  I didn’t want to sleep. That took away from the time I knew I had. But my body won the argument with my heart and I eventually dozed off.

  Charlie woke me up a few hours later by placing a trail of kisses from my collarbone to my belly and back again. We made love and dozed off again. I woke him next. After another nap, sunlight tried to sneak through our curtains. We ordered breakfast and took a shower together while we were waiting.

  I didn’t want to ask if we were going to take another day but I didn’t need to. Charlie made a phone call to tell the person on the other end he’d be two more days at least. I breathed a little easier after that.

  For the rest of the day, there was no one or nothing in this world besides our two bodies. We didn’t talk about anything going on. We didn’t make plans. We ate, we slept, we picked another area of the other’s body we hadn’t memorized yet.

  As I traced his bicep with my tongue, a thought struck me and I giggled.

  “What?” he eyed me warily.

  “You remember that first Sunday together? The one where we played tag with Isabel and Cara?”

  “Yeah….”

  “I really wanted to do this then,” I illustrated exactly what had flitted through my mind that afternoon.

  “You don’t say,” he flipped me onto my back. “Because I really wanted to do this….” My eyes rolled completely back in my head at that one. I wanted more, but I was also pretty sure it would kill me.

  By that evening, we’d finally reached the point we could hold a conversation over dinner. Charlie told me about Cara not liking her music teacher; I told him about my reservations over Gabrielle taking to Nick so quickly.

  “Aw hell,” I slapped my forehead. Charlie made a face at me. “Sorry. I just remembered I was supposed to leave something with Rachel and forgot with all of the excitement.”

  “What’s that?”

  “She’s going to look into Nathan Smith’s finances for me.”

  “You two have become quite the bedfellows lately, huh?”

  “Poor choice of words,” I smiled devilishly. “But we do have a lot to offer each other.”

  “I don’t want her turning her attention away from Daniel Winslow for this.”

  “No worries, I’m sure she’ll just ask an intern to do it. Can we get interns? I want someone to do my bidding.”

  “I don’t think it works that way.”

  “It was worth a shot.”

  “It would be nice… oh, by the way, thanks for all of the work you did at the office. I made a killing on wills. And the place looks great.”

  “You’re welcome,” I wiggled my eyebrows at him. “I accept services as payment.”

  “Good grief woman; you’re going to be the death of me.”

  “What? I just want you to rub my feet….”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Well, for starters anyway….”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I lost all sense of time. I was pretty sure it was afternoon. We lay sprawled out on the bed, his arm as my pillow and his free hand tracing lazy circles on my stomach. I alternated feeding myself a grape, then one to him.

  “Did you mean what you said?” Charlie asked.

  “I always mean what I say. Which particular sentence are we talking about?”

  “That you wanted a boy. I mean, about why you wanted a boy.”

  “Of course I meant that,” I set the grapes aside and cupped his face in my hand. “You don’t know how amazing you are, do you?”

  “I’m nobody special, Neena. I’m just an average guy in a small town. I’ll never have much money. And I’ll always cringe when you swear.”

  “There’s nothing wrong with being a small town guy. You make enough money to take care of your family. In case you haven’t noticed, I have been trying to cuss less. And you are anything but average. The world needs more everyday people who will do what’s right when it comes down to it.”

  “What did I ever do to deserve you?”

  “When will you understand what you mean to me?” I stroked his temple, my eyes trying to say what words could not. My heart drummed in my chest, seeming to cry out that it, like the rest of me, was wholly his.

  Charlie’s phone chirped—a sound so out-of-place in the moment it startled us both.

  “I’d better get that. I’m waiting to hear from the court clerk to see when we’re on the docket.”

  I nodded, content to watch him search for his phone. It occurred to me that I should call to check on Gabrielle soon. And I needed to call Anjelita before she completely disowned me. Besides, I missed her.

  “Good news,” Charlie smiled as he hung up. “I don’t have to be in court until Monday morning. If I go back Saturday, that should be plenty of time.”

  “Really?” I couldn’t help grinning like a fool. It was better than Christmas. “Can I call Anjelita for you?”

  “Sure. I think I want another shower. And I might even put some clothes on.”

  “Go for it. It gives me something to do.”

  “How so?”

  “I can imagine taking them back off.”

  “I love you.”

  “Go get your shower. You stink.”

  Charlie shook his head and chuckled. He went to round up his clothes and paused. “Do you know what the bags are along the wall?”

  “What bags?”

  “Th
ose bags,” he pointed. Sure enough, there were five bags lined up along the wall. It was scary how unobservant I was when Charlie was in the room. He padded over to them and peeked inside the first one. “Huh. It’s clothes.”

  He gathered them up and brought them over to the bed. Together, we emptied them one by one onto the rumpled sheets.

  “Do you think someone forgot them?”

  “No, housekeeping wouldn’t have left them. Besides, do you really think the last couple to stay in this room was a pregnant woman your size and a man my exact size?”

  “Good point,” I hated it when he was logical. “Did Rachel leave them?”

  “Most likely. Do you really think she has a thing for your brother?”

  “They’re crazy about each other. It really upset her when he blamed her for us being apart, me not going to a doctor. He shouldn’t have said that to her.”

  “We’d still be together in Hampton if she hadn’t run that prime time special,” Charlie countered. “I see what he means.”

  “She didn’t mean any harm. Besides, how was she supposed to know I was still alive?”

  “I appreciate the room and her helping you get to the doctor, but the clothes are too much. These are really nice,” he held up a pair of slacks, an almost covetous look on his face. He wanted the clothes. Funny, it had never occurred to me that Charlie might sometimes want things like expensive clothes. I wondered what else he’d sacrificed in raising Cara alone.

  “Take the clothes. I’ll talk to Rachel later.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I want you to have them. Please?”

  “I’ll pay her for them.”

  “By all means,” I smiled. “But if you don’t hurry up, I’m going to butt in line for the shower. I can’t wait to try on real maternity clothes. I’ve never had maternity clothes.”

  “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. I’m so sorry,” he looked absolutely horrified. “Why didn’t you buy yourself some clothes with the cards?”

  “I was saving them for food and rooms and minutes for my phone. I’m blowing through the cards quickly enough without wasting money on things like clothes.”

  “As soon as this custody hearing is over, I am going after Daniel Winslow full time so we can end this thing. I want you to come home so I can pamper you properly.”