Carved in Stone

by Donna McDonald

  “Is she afraid of you for some reason?” Will asked. “I never thought to ask that question before, but Jessica has certainly shown me that sometimes women are afraid to get emotionally involved, even with trustworthy men.”

  Michael remembered their one extraordinary night together several weeks ago. She had stood in his largest art piece, looking up at the twisted metal, and then looked at Michael with tears in her eyes. Her tears had seduced him, and he had kissed her with his heart open. She had even taken him home. Defenses down for the first time since he’d known her, Carrie had given Michael everything she was as a woman that night. In his mind, it had been the most perfect first time with a woman he’d ever had.

  The next morning, Carrie wouldn’t even look at him and had hidden in the bathroom until he’d gone. Michael still had no clue what had happened, but he sure as hell couldn’t ask for an explanation from a woman who was so obviously ashamed of having been with him. He dreamed of their time together daily and hadn’t been able to touch a woman since. He for damn sure couldn’t believe Carrie had gotten engaged already. It hadn’t even been a month yet.

  Michael ran an agitated hand through his hair. “I’m done. I have to be. I gave it my best shot, and that’s all you can do. She’s engaged to another guy again, and I’m tired of competing.”

  Will nodded, thinking about his weekend with Jessica and how he had tried to give her all he was, to take all she was willing to give him.

  “Yes,” he said, agreeing with his eldest. “That’s all you can do.”

  ***

  Three days later Michael stood at the patio door looking out into the courtyard watching his father chiseling away at the statue that was close to being a full figure now. Another David was fully emerging, he thought, only half listening to Shane’s argument in his ear.

  “I can’t take mom in right now. I have to finish the initial drawings by the weekend. Let’s put her in a hotel room. I’ll even pay,” Shane said. “It will also keep me from having to hire a cleaning service to dig me out of my chaos here.”

  “We can’t do that. She’s making me feel guilty because I took Dad in, and her feelings will be hurt if one of us doesn’t take her,” Michael told his brother.

  “Of course she’s making you feel guilty, that’s how Mom gets her way. I love her, but no one wants to live with someone constantly critiquing them,” Shane said, frustrated as any kid is at having to deal with divorced parents. “It’s kind of interesting that Luke forced her out of the house this time. He never did that before.”

  “Everybody has a line of no return,” Michael said, thinking of how he currently felt about Carrie.

  “Can Dad stay with Jessica?” Shane asked, the logic of the solution seeming pretty obvious to him.

  Michael was silent for a couple of heartbeats. “Shane, Mom’s not wanting me to ask him to leave. She just wants to stay here, too. I think she wants Dad back.”

  “No way,” Shane denied. “Why do you think that?”

  “Because she told me—you know she tells me fucking everything like I’m her best girlfriend or something. And for the record, I want a share of the profits if you put that shit in your book,” Michael demanded, his laugh sardonic. “Mom said she misses the way Dad made her feel protected and cared for like she was a special person. She said she might have made a mistake leaving him for Luke.”

  “Has she seen Dad since he was with Jessica?” Shane asked.

  “No,” Michael said. “She would not be pleased with how contented he looks. But the other problem is Dad hasn’t seen Jessica all week. He’s been carving pretty much until he drops, then he sleeps, gets up, and spends another twelve hours on it. Jessica’s avoiding him. Dad thinks she’s still in love with her dead husband.”

  Shane’s deep sigh reached all the way through the phone.

  “Aren’t things supposed to get better as you age? Where the hell is all that wisdom people keep talking about? And why can’t our parents find any of it?” Shane demanded.

  “Beats the hell out of me,” Michael said, laughing. “So what am I going to do? I have the extra room. I don’t think Dad would care all that much, but my instincts are warning me Mom will take advantage of the situation.”

  “Talk to Dad about it,” Shane advised. “There’s really no other choice. I need two days, and then I can take whichever one you don’t want to deal with.”

  “I guess I could have them both here for two days. Maybe it might force Dad into tracking Jessica down and seeing what’s up with her,” Michael said. “He’s giving her too much space.”

  “I definitely am going to owe you for some of my book content. Most children of divorced parents want them to reconcile. Why don’t you?” Shane asked. “I mean—I don’t either, but what’s your reason?”

  “Jessica gets him. Jessica gets his art. Mom will clean my kitchen, scour my pots and pans, and my refrigerator will be full of great food. She will also complain about the metal in the courtyard and tell me I need curtains on the patio door to block the view,” Michael said. “I want Mom to go back to Luke. She was happier with him. What’s your reason?”

  “I agree with you about Mom and Luke. I got okay with them pretty fast as a couple because anyone can see they want the same things in life. Mom always wanted things Dad didn’t want,” Shane explained. “I miss the family unit, but not the constant struggle. My awareness is why I chose psychology as a field of study.”

  “You always took college way too seriously. In the future, try drinking and sleeping around,” Michael advised. “It’s less work than becoming a renowned psychologist, and a lot more fun.”

  “Call me back later and let me know what happens,” Shane said, ignoring Michael’s other comments.

  “Sure,” Michael said, clicking off his cell phone.

  He rolled his eyes to the ceiling, and then brought them back to the man at the end of his courtyard wearing a breathing mask and covered in enough marble dust to look like a ghost. The smoothing phase was always the messiest.

  “No problem. I’ll just tell Dad that Mom is moving in for two days. It’s not like my life isn’t insane enough as it is,” Michael complained to the walls.

  ***

  The first day all three of them were in the house, Ellen couldn’t help noticing the men avoided her by staying out in the courtyard all day. Michael was using a fire pit to bend metal into circles. A pile of at least thirty rusty rings was now heaped up near the patio door.

  Ellen Larson Cannon couldn’t help wondering what her son had against curtains that would shield the mess from the house. She toyed with the idea of buying and hanging some for him anyway, but Michael was already impatient with her. She didn’t want to risk him getting more upset.

  Not that Will was much better. He certainly hadn’t spent any time with her since she arrived. The shaved head and the earring was a shocker, but the distant look in his eyes was the most disappointing. They had always been close. Even when she’d been dating Luke, Will had always listened with a sympathetic ear. Losing his concern for her happiness had bothered her more than she thought it would. In fact, it almost bothered her more than Luke’s ultimatums about their marriage.

  Barely forty and in the upswing of his career at a law firm, her younger husband wanted her to be all about his work and his life. Truthfully, most of the time she was happy to entertain his clients and coworkers at the cabin. He also had some nice friends, and they did many fun things as a group. Lately though she was tired of feeling like nothing more than a servant in her own home. She didn’t like being taken for granted. Her husband and sons had been much more appreciative of her.

  Comparing her one-year marriage to Luke Cannon to the thirty-plus-year marriage to William Larson had become a habit lately. If she’d only acted on her remorse sooner, Will might not be so enamored of the Daniels woman. She couldn’t be that much fun in bed, Ellen reasoned. Her friend that was raped could barely stand sex anymore, and her husband had given up after a coupl
e of years and filed for a divorce. Ellen knew Will wasn’t going to be able to live very long with a woman who wasn’t as passionate as he was. His libido had not diminished much with age.

  It was the idea that Will was finally moving on from their divorce that bothered Ellen the most. For the hundredth time in just the last month, Ellen wondered whether she had made a mistake in leaving Will and the security he had given her. Her ex-husband was great in bed, but Ellen preferred Luke’s elegant lovemaking to Will’s more earthy approach. Still, both men were enthusiastic lovers and she had never lacked for physical satisfaction with either of them.

  If it wasn’t for the adolescent motorcycle habit and the naked statues, William Larson might have been the perfect man and she would still be with him. Well, and maybe it would have been nice if Will’s idea of a good time wasn’t going to art museums or walking through gardens. Normal pastimes like sports and watching television were foreign concepts to Will for relaxation. Not that Will ever relaxed really, the man could work on his naked statues from dawn until dusk, and often did.

  No, Will hadn’t been perfect for her, but he had been a good man. And in all the time she’d been with him, he had always been appreciative of her. She just hadn’t realized it until lately.

  Ellen sighed and wondered if cooking dinner would warm Michael and Will up to her presence. When the doorbell range, she went automatically to answer it.

  “Ms. Daniels,” Ellen said with a frown, not liking that she had to look up a good six inches at the woman standing on Michael’s stoop. “Please come in.”

  Jessica was equally surprised to see Will’s ex-wife standing in the house looking like she belonged there. She cursed the urge that had brought her over here in the first place, but since she was already crossing the threshold, she figured she might as well do what she came to do.

  “I came to see Will,” Jessica said at last. However, her resolve about having a heart-to-heart about her apprehension of their relationship simply fled in the face of her annoyance over the woman’s presence in the house.

  “Yes. I figured you were here for him,” Ellen said dryly, closing the door behind her. “Will is working in the courtyard. He’s been there practically non-stop since I got here yesterday.”

  “I see,” Jessica said, not really seeing. But how did you respond to that sort of comment from your lover’s ex-wife? All Jessica could think about was that the woman had been there overnight. Maybe she’d waited one day too long to come talk to Will.

  Ellen motioned out the patio door. “You’re welcome to go on out if you don’t mind the chaos going on out there. Michael is throwing metal everywhere.”

  “It’s interesting to see Michael work. What’s his new piece going to be like?” Jessica asked, trying to make polite conversation.

  “Rusty, bent metal just like his other pieces I imagine,” Ellen said in response. “I’m afraid I’m not a fan of my son’s art. His high concept symbolism is lost on a lowly math teacher.”

  Math teacher? Mentally rolling her eyes, Jessica filed that little tidbit away for the next time Will teased her about Adam.

  “I saw Michael’s giant metal man at the Louisville Fairgrounds. It made me his fan for life,” Jessica told her, giving the woman a tight smile. “I also saw some of his other work in Cincinnati last year. That smaller piece he did for the city park has the most beautiful color treatment on it. Michael said it was rust-proofing, but the blood-red dripping finish makes an impression.”

  “Your artistic observations are lost on me,” Ellen said with a laugh. “I do appreciate there seems to be an audience of some sort for his work.”

  “Well, being an art teacher, I guess I’m a fan of all art. Will took me to see his work at the art center in Berea on our first date,” Jessica said, tired of hearing the woman’s dismissal of Michael’s work. “His David statue there was so realistic I couldn’t stop myself from the touching it. I think I might have embarrassed Will with my reaction.”

  “Doubtful,” Ellen said, smirking. “Almost every woman does something crude to the man parts on his marble men. Will used to grin like an idiot when he caught a woman sneaking a feel. I would have been jealous, but Will isn’t the kind of man to shift his attention randomly from woman to woman.”

  Jessica nodded, offering a tight smile. “Will told me he was a one-woman kind of guy. Still, it’s good to hear it from a woman he was once committed to.”

  “Ms. Daniels, I think it’s only fair to warn you that I’d like to be that one woman in Will’s life again. I’ve decided I made a mistake divorcing my husband,” Ellen said firmly, watching for emotion in Jessica’s eyes.

  Jessica had run into her share of jealous ex-wives and girlfriends over the years, so Ellen Cannon’s declaration did not bother her. The only thing she wondered about was whether Will had any feelings left for the woman. Since she considered her relationship to Will temporary anyway, she decided in that moment of holding the woman’s gaze to keep him for the duration. Will’s ex-wife would just have to wait for her second chance.

  “I’m afraid you’re one weekend late wanting Will back. Now you’re going to have to wait until he gets tired of me first. That may take a while,” Jessica warned softly but just as firmly.

  Ellen watched Jessica Daniels slide open the glass patio door and step out.

  So that was the reason for Will’s emotional distance, Ellen thought. He was sleeping with the Daniels woman. Fortunately the relationship was still new, and not running smoothly if Jessica’s face was telling the truth. Not once had the woman smiled or looked happy about her relationship with Will.

  She needed to work quickly, Ellen decided. She needed to make sure Will knew her intentions before he spent any more time with the Daniels woman.

  Chapter 13

  “Hey,” Michael said, watching Jessica halt and smile at the metal across the fire pit.

  “Do you enjoy pounding the metal into compliance? A furnace would be more practical for that much effort,” Jessica said, smiling. “The metal would bend like a cooked egg noodle.”

  “It would also be more expensive,” Michael said with a grin. “I did learn to pound with both hands so I wouldn’t end up with one super-sized arm.”

  He made a sign to indicate how much larger his right bicep could be.

  Jessica laughed. “What are you working on?”

  Michael looked at the rings in a pile. “Wedding present,” he said coldly. “I wanted to make sure the love of my life has something to remember me by this time around when she marries the wrong damn man again.”

  Jessica raised an eyebrow at both his anger and his passionate resentment.

  “Sorry,” Michael said. “I’ve been interested in my events planner for a few years now. We got close a few weeks ago, but she dumped me without saying what went wrong. Now I hear she’s getting married again. This is marriage number three for her.”

  Jessica looked at the pile of metal rings and back at Michael. His need to personally pound that large pile of symbolic wedding bands suddenly made a lot of sense.

  “Rust-treat the finished piece like you did the one in Cincinnati. Make it so it looks like you bled all over it. It will make a stronger point,” she advised.

  Michael smiled and sighed at the great suggestion. “Go kiss my father and make him look like he did when he came home Sunday. He’s been sleeping with your vagina and trying to give you space.”

  Jessica sighed and shook her head negatively. “I’m sure glad my daughter lives in Ohio. I don’t think I could handle my own adult child interfering in my dating life. You and your brother are bad enough.”

  “I guess you saw Mom,” Michael said, ignoring her comment about interfering. He was safeguarding, even if Jessica didn’t know it.

  She nodded and looked down, not really having anything remotely nice to say about Michael’s mother.

  “Don’t let Mom bother you. She mostly a good woman, but she can be more melodramatic than an angry artist,” Michael
said, frowning. “Her husband kicked her out. Shane is taking her this weekend.”

  Jessica nodded again, saying nothing in return. She couldn’t tell a son—even an adult one—that his mother wanted his father back. It was every divorced kid’s dream. She also couldn’t tell Michael that she was still intending to break up with his father eventually, but that his mother’s comments had changed her mind about doing it today. Ellen Cannon’s warning had shown Jessica the 3D-reality of what Will might end up doing after her. Up to today, it had been theoretical. She’d be a fool not to wonder if Will had at some point just been waiting for his wife to come around.

  Jessica sighed at her thoughts and chastised herself for worrying about it. She had learned over the years to be selfish about taking what she wanted because most of her relationships never lasted long anyway.

  Granted, she was more conflicted about Will than the typical man she dated.

  Panicked as she was about staying involved with him, while facing down Ellen, she had become equally panicked about never having him again. Knowing Will might decide to go back to the woman, all Jessica wanted now was more time. She wanted at least a few more nights, a few more memories. If Will wanted to give them to her, Jessica was going to be selfish enough to take them. His ex was just going to have to wait her turn, and Jessica was not sorry about letting the woman know she considered Will hers for the moment.

  Jessica walked resolutely to stand in Will’s line of sight, waiting for him to see her.

  Still absorbed in his task of sanding away the chisel marks on the statue’s chin, it was a few moments until Will saw Jessica standing there quietly watching him. He walked to his tools table and put his equipment all down. He brushed himself off as best he could, removing his breathing mask as part of the process.

  “It took you long enough to come see me,” Will said, stepping in close to her. She reached out and touched his earring and then ran a hand over his shoulder.