by Cora Brent
I propped my chin on his chest while he lazily ran his fingers through my hair. “I don’t really want to go anywhere,” I said honestly. “How long have we been out here?”
“I don’t know. I don’t care.”
“Do you care that you’re sprawled on the ground in a public place with no pants on?”
“Do you care that your underwear was ripped off and is probably hanging from a nearby bush? Besides, my pants are still on. They’ve just been adjusted.”
“Yeah well, that adjustment could get you arrested.”
“Claudia,” he murmured and reached over to run his thumb over my lower lip.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just wanted to hear your name so I said it.”
“There you go again with those one liners.”
“And they still messing you up?”
I sat up and smoothed my dress down, figuring it probably had a handful of grass stains on it that would be plainly evident in the light. “It seems my actions tonight confirm it.”
“You’re not a mess,” he said confidently in the dark.
“No? What am I then?”
Easton jumped to his feet and pulled his pants up. His tone was matter-of-fact as he zipped them closed. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, honey. That’s all.”
I was silent. Easton finished dressing and then grabbed me around the waist. “So quiet. Something run off with your tongue, Claudia Giordano?”
“No. But Easton Malone might have just abducted my heart.”
He drew in a sharp breath and took my face in his hands. I could barely see him. But just being close to him took my breath away. That’s how it would always be, no matter if we were apart for a day or for a year. I was convinced that if I had my back to the door and Easton Malone walked into the room every nerve in my body would be roused before my eyes or ears confirmed his presence. It was time to recognize that I wouldn’t find this with any other man. He was my best friend and my lover. I wanted to share all the most important life moments with him every day and then lie down with him every night.
Easton brushed his lips against mine, giving me a teasing hint of his tongue. Then he folded me in his arms. “Your heart is all I’ve ever wanted, Claudia.”
I really didn’t want to interrupt the moment but we’d left things in uncertain shape back at the wedding. Jack might be even more drunk and wretched than he’d been before he bolted off the dance floor. Allison would need to be shielded from his misery as much as possible.
“Let’s go inside,” I said, taking his hand and pulling him away from the shadows.
Easton laughed. “You realize you have sex hair and smeared makeup, right?”
“So? Your ass is probably wet from your pants being bunched up in the grass.”
He circled his arm around me, squeezing my hip briefly. “We’ll get a few stares you know. Hope a scandal doesn’t bother you.”
“No scandal,” I insisted, holding onto him as we reached the threshold. “Just us.”
“Just us,” he repeated, touching my cheek. “Finally.”
I smiled. “Finally.”
Easton squinted into the room. “Does Getty know the words to any song not originally recorded by Journey at least three decades ago?”
“I don’t think so.”
At least once in a person’s life it should be possible to walk into a crowded room and have the attention of every single eye there. After all, everyone knew who Easton was. He was a local legend. People still glued themselves to him out of nowhere and asked him to sign whatever balls, shirts, napkins or skin they had handy. I was under no illusions about how much of that attention was female and some of it was in attendance tonight. Easton didn’t look at them though. He only looked at me.
“You should kiss me now,” he said with bold certainty.
“I don’t feel obliged to put on a show.”
Easton wasn’t deterred. “Well I do.” Then he abruptly bent me at the waist and kissed me long and hard in the manner of classic old Hollywood.
When he let me come back up for air he winked, taking my hand. He’d changed. We both had because that’s what happened to people over time. But the passing years hadn’t shattered his mischievous spirit and for that I was glad.
“Hey, get your rotten hands off my niece.”
Rocco had materialized beside Easton. He looked all sweaty, like he’d been tearing it up on the dance floor. His grin was a mile wide though. “Sure as hell took you two long enough. By the way Claudia, your lipstick’s on your chin and there are grass stains on the back of your dress.”
I shoved him. “Shut up and get back to your bride.”
Rocco grew serious. “This is good news. I mean that.”
“Now if only everyone agrees,” I said, scanning the wandering wedding guests.
Rocco pointed. “Over there.”
Jack hadn’t noticed us yet. Maybe that last whiskey shot had the curious effect of sobering him up because he appeared far more alert than he had been earlier as he wept through the jarring rhythm of the tarantella. He was dancing with Allie, her little feet over his large ones, his hands holding her up. She was looking up into our father’s face and laughing. Then the music ended and Jack scooped her up, holding her close.
“Folks, I hope the bride and groom will forgive me but I’m going to depart from my regular set and sing something for a special couple who seem to have found their way to one another at last. “
I didn’t realize at first that Getty was referring to us until I looked around and saw him raise his arm and point directly at me. He nodded his head as if to say, Yeah guys, I’m talking about you. He launched right into a beautiful song, one I knew well, a power ballad called Faithfully.
“You promised me a dance,” Easton reminded me.
I answered him with the truth. “I’ll promise you anything.”
He led me to a tiny clearing on the dance floor and took me securely in his arms. The world might have stopped spinning for all I knew as I put my head on his shoulder and felt it all; the music, his hands on my back, the lost years that were over now.
Even before we’d started dancing together we had an audience. I forgot about them though until Getty stopped singing. Then I noticed that there were a few more people watching us at the end than at the beginning.
Allie was nearby, giggling. She yanked her hand out of Jack’s grip and ran to us.
“Dance with me too!” she commanded and held her hands out, expecting me and Easton to each take one. Of course we did.
We had to work hard to keep up with Allie. She was an excitable whirlwind of happy movement. Jack hung back, casting indecipherable glances our way as he stood on the sidelines. Ben Hollis went out of his way to keep Jack engaged in conversation. Eventually Getty wrapped things up and issued a heartfelt congratulations to the newly married couple as guests began to depart. Allie was finally tiring. She rubbed her eyes a lot and at one point tugged on my hand as a signal she had something important to say.
“Why were you kissing Uncle Easton?” she asked when I bent down to her level.
I smiled. “Because I wanted to.”
The answer made sense to the little girl. She nodded knowingly. “Is he your boyfriend?”
I wasn’t sure ‘boyfriend’ was the right label to apply to this roller coaster. But it was a word Allie understood.
“Yes,” I said loudly. “Easton Malone is my boyfriend.”
“Claudia,” called Easton. He was standing a few feet away, holding up his phone and grinning. “Say that again, would you? I swear if it kills me I’ll invent a way to send it back in time to my lovesick fourteen-year-old self.”
“Be sure to let him know he’ll have a long wait in front of him.”
“Trust me,” Easton said seriously, lowering the phone and looking me in the eye. “He would wait forever.”
Meanwhile, Rocco and Sheryl were hugging everyone in sight and Getty’s waitress had recla
imed him, hanging on his side with her eyes shining while my uncle grinned.
“Hate to cut the night short but I gotta go do something about this before my zipper busts,” Getty announced to everyone in earshot, proving that personal growth was not universal with the passing of years. The woman swatted at him but she squealed when he seized her for a sloppy kiss and they stumbled out of there a moment later to locate her car.
Rocco and Sheryl were getting ready to take off in the Mustang. Rocco had loudly forbidden anyone from messing with his car but Getty hadn’t listened and wrote all over it with shaving cream. That might have been another reason why he took off early.
While Rocco took a quick walk around the car and shook his head with disgust, Sheryl paused to hug her father. I saw a tear fall down Ben Hollis’s dark cheek as he embraced his eldest daughter. Then he kissed her on the forehead and let her go.
Jack still had not said anything to me since I returned to the reception hall with Easton. He stood beside me as I held Allie’s hand and watched the fading taillights of the Mustang.
“Good for them,” Jack murmured with soft wonder and it didn’t seem like he was talking to me, or to anyone really.
“Jack,” said Easton. He stood in front of my father, looked him in the eye, and held out his hand. It was a gesture of respect from one man to another. It was Easton’s way of asking for Jack’s approval.
My father was a good four inches shorter than Easton. He looked searchingly up into the face of the younger man before nodding once and firmly returning the handshake.
Allie was getting cranky by this time. Easton picked her up and carried her through the dark parking lot to Jack’s car. Jack made no objection when Easton got behind the wheel. He took off his jacket, covering Allie with it as she yawned in the backseat, then climbed in next to her. Luckily the drive was short because without Allie’s chirping voice the mood was rather surreal and awkward.
We pulled up to Jack’s house and he immediately jumped out of the car and withdrew the sleeping child. Easton and I were following him up to the path of the front door when he turned around.
“I’ve got her,” he said to us as he unlocked the door with his free hand.
I reached out and touched my sleeping sister’s back. “I’ll get her ready for bed.”
“Claudia,” my father said calmly. “I said I’ve got her.” He stepped over the threshold and turned on the light in the foyer. When he spoke again his voice was weary but clear. He did not turn around. “Have a good night, you two.”
I bit my lip as Jack disappeared. “I bet he doesn’t know that her nightgown is in the top drawer of the dresser. I should go tell him.”
Easton pulled me back. “Claudia. It’s okay. They’ll be fine for the night.”
I laced my fingers through his and pressed against him. “Are we going somewhere?”
“We’re going home.”
“Where’s that?”
“Don’t you know? It’s wherever you are.”
I brought his hand to my lips, kissed his broad knuckles. “Show me.”
The house where Easton lived with Getty was silent. I felt unaccountably nervous as he unlocked the door.
“East,” I gasped when he swept me into his arms. “You don’t need to carry me into the house.”
“Yes I do,” he replied and kicked the door closed behind him.
“Wait, are you really going to haul me all the way up the stairs like this?”
“Quiet, I’m concentrating.”
This house had the same floor plan as Jack’s. Easton was staying in the bedroom at the top of the stairs. He set me down and turned on the light.
“I never found my underwear,” I joked.
Easton didn’t crack a smile. He was completely serious now. “You won’t be needing it.” His blue eyes scanned me slowly. I couldn’t think of a word to describe the intensity in his expression. There was nothing adequate.
“Easton,” I whispered, my heart pounding.
His voice was low and heavy with desire. “Turn around. Don’t ask me why.”
I faced the wall, closing my eyes when I felt his hands on me a second later. He found the zipper on the back of my dress and began pulling it down with excruciating slowness.
“This won’t be quick,” he warned, peeling the fabric from my shoulders and over my breasts. “I’m taking all the time in the world tonight.”
Briefly his hand paused between my legs and I groaned, wanting more than a tease. He wouldn’t give it to me though, not yet. Easton unhooked my bra and kneaded my breasts while I moved my ass against him, going crazy over the feel of how insanely hard he was.
I turned on him abruptly, tackling the buttons on his shirt and running my hands over the sinfully solid expanse of his chest. He moaned and got his hands all tangled in my hair when I started kissing so I went lower.
“Wait,” he said in a strangled voice the moment I got his pants open and my mouth on him.
I paused, shaking my head stubbornly, then returning to what I was doing, meaning to suck him like he’d never been sucked before. He wouldn’t allow it though. He picked me up and moved me over to the bed. There he loomed over me and swiftly removed the rest of his clothing. He opened my legs and stroked the inside of my thighs.
“I need you,” I whimpered.
“I know,” he answered plainly. “I love you.”
“Easton.”
“Shh, baby. Just let me just have this.”
He was between my legs now and his hands moved under me, lifting my hips. I bucked beneath him, growing frustrated, but Easton was in control. He entered me slowly and moved with deliberate precision. I was already on the edge, trying to beat the crashing wave back just a little longer so it would be sweeter in the end. Easton began pumping faster, no longer able to keep himself at bay and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“I love you too,” I cried. And then I came. Easton followed immediately, clutching me so closely as he shuddered we could have been one body instead of two. Neither of us said anything else for a long time as our heartbeats slowed to a reasonable pace and we lazily ran our hands over each other’s skin. In the silence I heard the echoes of the words we’d said moments earlier. I knew he did too.
There wouldn’t be any confusion this time. No mistakes, no misunderstandings, no despair. There was no going back, no way we would allow what we’d found to be lost again.
It had taken so long to get here. And now there was only us.
Finally.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
JACK
Jack hung back by the boardwalk and watched them.
Allie was walking between Easton and Claudia, possessively holding their hands. Jack could imagine the bright chatter coming out of his little girl’s mouth but he was too far away to hear it. The waves were calm in the distance as the sun finally agreed to sink below the horizon.
Easton always liked to blast the local classic rock station as he worked in the shop. Today on the radio there had been a mention of the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, the shortest night.
“It’s officially summer,” Easton had commented brightly as he exchanged one wrench for another in the toolbox sitting open next to Jack. There were other tools around. He didn’t need to walk clear to the other side of the shop. East had been treading lightly around Jack since Rocco’s wedding two weeks earlier. That night had been both Jack’s low point and the moment that began his slow climb back to the light.
That was also the night Easton and Claudia faced the world with their arms around one another and dared anyone to have a problem with it. Jack took one look at his daughter’s face while Easton held her close and couldn’t think of a single valid objection. But a familiar stab through the heart reminded him of his own fresh pain. Oh, how Anya would have loved to see them together on the dance floor, so in love that it hurt to look too closely.
“It is summer,” Jack had agreed. “Yet another summer.”
Easton waited for a few seconds to see if Jack would say anything else but there was nothing worth saying at the time. Jack had thought no moment could be as terrible as reaching for his wife one morning and discovering that she was gone. It didn’t matter that he had expected it, that he’d had years to prepare. It was terrible anyway.
And then he’d found himself wiping his own bile from his mouth as he hovered over a sink at his brother’s wedding. He’d exited the bathroom and the first thing he saw was Allie’s bewildered little face. He wouldn’t do this. He couldn’t do this. Right there in front of him was a breathing piece of Anya, an independent person in her own right who was bound to look back on these days with dark memories. Jack was grieving. His heart would always grieve. But there had to be room for more than sorrow. If Anya were here she would demand it.
So that was the moment Jack held his hand out to his little girl and said, “Come dance with me, munchkin.” They were still dancing together when Easton and Claudia returned.
As for Claudia, Jack had never seen her so happy. He watched her from a distance now, her dark hair blowing wildly in the evening sea breeze when she turned to Easton. In a sweet gesture, Easton gently smoothed Claudia’s hair away from her face, then leaned over and kissed her. These days when Jack looked at Easton he couldn’t think of another man who he would rather see holding his daughter’s hand. That was a good thing because they already seemed bound for something permanent. Rocco and Getty were still joint owners of the house down the block but Easton had withdrawn what bank funds remained from his brief career in the majors and made them an offer on it. Rocco, of course, was living across town with his new wife so he was happy to accept. And Gaetano, at the age of thirty-six, had abruptly decided to remake himself. He quit the shop last week and announced that he would be moving to California. He said if he didn’t do it now then he never would. That sounded like a good reason to Jack.
A pair of seagulls screamed directly overhead and Jack closed his eyes, feeling abruptly peaceful. And why shouldn’t he? He had a mission, a purpose. He opened up his eyes and smiled at the sight of Allison capering around on the sand as she played some inexplicable can’t-catch-me game with two adults who both cherished her and clearly loved one other. Jack watched as the sand was kicked up beneath his daughter’s little feet while she dodged back and forth.
