by Lee Wardlow
I nodded. “I’m trying not to, but I was crushed, Georgie.” I bit my lip trying to decide if I should tell her. Then it all spilled out. “And Eddie, he lied to me.”
I sobbed into my hands unable to stop the tears that started when I admitted how much it hurt that my uncle lied to me. “Davy,” Georgie shouted. He walked into the room as Georgie righted her top. She handed Gage to him.
“What happened?” He asked as Georgie slid down by me.
“She’ll tell you later, if she wants to.”
Georgie cradled me in her arms and held me. “Caz, it’s all right. Let it out. Then, let it go.” She tried to sooth me as I cried in her arms, but nothing was making it better. I just needed to get it out of my system.
“Burp him for me, would you?” Georgie asked Davy.
I saw through my tears that Davy was both concerned and confused. Later, when I was calmer, I would have to explain to him where this rush of tears came from.
I hadn’t told anyone which is probably why it all came to the surface so suddenly. When the tears were done, I felt like an idiot. I leaned back into my own space, wiped my face on the sleeve of my hot pink scrubs. Both Davy and Georgie were looking at me.
“I’m sorry.”
Georgie patted my leg. “Why are you sorry?”
“For breaking down,” I replied.
She snorted. “I have six sisters. We have all cried on each other’s shoulder at one time or another, even Dallis. So, no apology necessary.” She squeezed my hand. “Maybe, Caz you need to do that occasionally. No one can be strong all the time.”
“Thank you, Georgie.” I still felt silly even though her kind words were meant to help.
She looked at Davy, rocking back and forth with Gage while Fox looked at me with uncertainty. “Well, I had better get going. Hunter will be coming home soon and wonder where we are.”
I rose from the sofa with Georgie. She took Gage from Davy and headed towards our front door. Fox naturally followed his mother. “Hey, thanks for bringing that stuff from Dad,” he said.
She glanced over her shoulder. “You’re welcome. I was there, made sense since I come right by here on my way home. I’ll see you guys at Sunday dinner.”
“Yep, we’ll be there,” Davy replied for us. “Do you need help with the boys?”
“I got this,” she said. “I usually have them by myself. Hunter works a lot of crazy hours.”
Standing on the front porch, he tucked me into his side. “Want to tell me what that was all about?” He asked.
“Over dinner,” I suggested.
“Okay.”
That was Davy. Easy going. Never pushy. He waved before Georgie turned to back out of the drive. Then he guided me in the house. I helped him get food moved to the small breakfast table. We were having lasagna.
Each of the brothers had learned the recipe from Helen, their housekeeper who spoiled them rotten.
“Did you make this or did Helen?” I asked.
“I did.” He had an indignant look on his face.
I chuckled. “Davy, you’ve been known to ask her to fix dinner when I’ve been working. Then, you stop and pick it up on the way home.”
“I won’t do that anymore. She’s not doing that well.”
He glanced up at me then back at the table.
“Since her surgery?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Lorna’s been taking over more and more, giving her time off so she can take it easy. Dad asked her if she wanted to retire yet. Told her she could still live at the house where she has lived since we were little. You would think he had insulted her integrity.”
“She’s proud,” I replied. “She wants to remain useful.”
“Lorna said the girls keep bringing the kids over to see her. She loves that.”
“That’s good. I’m sure they cheer her up.”
He nodded then went back to eating. He glanced at me a time or two then he put his fork down. He wanted to know why I was crying. I sighed. I wasn’t going to get away from answering this time.
“I feel silly.”
“You were pretty upset. Did Georgie tell you something that upset you?”
“Oh no, Davy. That wasn’t it at all. She and I were talking about the similarities between me and Dallis.”
He shrugged like he wasn’t sure he understood.
“We’ve always felt like we had to take on our younger siblings and care for them. I think she had the bigger burden.”
He laughed. “So, what about that made you cry so hard, Caz?” I could see Davy was really worried about me.
“I never told anyone not even you, because I’m so used to sucking it up and moving on that I just kept quiet about my feelings.”
Davy reached across the table. “What Caz? Your feelings about what?”
“Lacey, leaving like she did. Not just that she ruined our wedding. I could have gone on without her I suppose…”
“But it wouldn’t have been the same,” Davy told me. “I understood that. I wouldn’t have wanted to have our wedding without Ewan.”
I nodded. “It was that she left town and didn’t tell me. I know she was mad at me about Brodie but Davy, she and I have been through so much together.” I felt the tears choking me again and stopped. “She left me,” I repeated. “And Eddie lied to me.”
Davy covered my hand with his and held on. “I knew you were upset about Eddie, but I didn’t know you were so upset about Lacey not telling you where she was.”
“For the longest time, she and I were all each other had. Sure, we had friends, but we were always afraid to have anyone over because we didn’t know if Mom was going to be sober or so drunk she would embarrass us.” I had to get up and blow my nose.
Davy watched me. I could feel his eyes on my back. When I tossed the tissue in the trash I leaned against the counter. “Am I being a baby?” I asked him.
He came to me. He caged me between his arms. “No,” he said. “You have every right to your own feelings, Caz.”
I leaned my forehead against his. He straightened and tugged me against him. I closed my eyes and slipped my arms around Davy’s waist.
“You should talk to Lacey. Tell her how you felt about her leaving.”
“Seems kind of silly now.”
“Maybe,” he replied. “Maybe not if it’s still bothering you so much.”
I tilted my head back. Davy brushed his hand across my face and cupped the back of my head. He leaned closer like he was going to kiss me, but he just looked at me. “You look beautiful tonight.”
I lowered my lashes and chuckled. “I have no make-up on. I’m tired. It was a long day. I’m sure I don’t…”
“Hey,” he cut me off. “I said you look beautiful. Now take that compliment and say thank you.”
Laughing at him, I replied, “Thank you.”
“That’s better. Now get over here and eat your dinner before it gets cold.”
Davy took my hand and led me to the table. He held my chair while I sat. Then he sat beside me and resumed eating.
“What did your dad send over with Georgie?” I asked making conversation.
He looked at me kind of sheepishly. Then he said, “I guess I should have talked to you first.” He reached behind him and retrieved papers off the counter. “When each of us gets married we get this,” he said. He handed me a letter first. “It’s from my grandfather, my father’s father.”
Dear David,
I hope that I will live long enough to see the day that you marry the one woman that lights up your life the way that your grandmother Sophia did mine.
I glanced up at Davy. Then I looked at the letter in my hands and continued reading.
If I don’t I want, you to remember some things.
A Steward marries for life.
When things are bad and trust me in your marriage there will always be times when you want to walk away.
Don’t.
She was worth marrying, she is worth staying wit
h. Find that reason that you married her in the first place.
I smiled at the words. Then I looked up at Davy, “Was he alive when your mom left your dad?”
He chuckled. “Yes, he was. My dad took it personally that she left because he had been through so much with Fiona. He felt like a failure. A Steward married for life. My grandfather told him, he had served penance long enough. Time to move on. My mother had her moments of insanity.”
“Why did you want to marry me?” He seemed shocked that I asked such a silly question.
“Women,” he said. He laid his fork down. “Besides the obvious that I’m crazy about you?”
I laughed. “What about me made you feel like I was the one? You obviously thought Georgie was too at one time.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Caz, I thought we were done with this?”
“I’m just trying to understand. That’s all.”
I focused on the letter.
The woman is always right, David. At least let her think so. Your life will be less complicated if you don’t argue with your wife.
“My grandmother cleaned at Steward Steel,” Davy said. I glanced at him. He was pushing food around his plate. “She thought it was inappropriate to date the son of the owner because she worked for him. She kept telling him no.”
“Obviously they got together,” I noted. There was Ian and seven grandchildren as proof.
“They did. My grandfather, Hugh finally got his father, to explain to Sophia that it was all right with him if they dated. Grandpa said he knew from the first moment he saw Gram, that she was the one.”
“How?”
He chuckled at me. “Read the letter, he’ll tell you in his own words.”
I had to wear Sophia Bianchi down. My father had to be the one to convince her she could go out with me. I started saving my money after our first date because I knew she would be my wife one day. When you know, David, you know.
It wasn’t that she was beautiful because she certainly was. I hope that you remember your grandmother, she died very young, taking my heart with her.
That is how you know it is true love, my David. If you can’t possibly live without this woman…if another woman cannot take her place, that is true love.
I have lived some lonely days without Gram because no one could ever take her place, in my heart, in my mind, in my home or in my bed. That is how you know she is the right one.
I glanced up at Davy.
“That’s how I know, Caz,” he said. “I don’t want to live without you. When I read Gramps words this evening, I thought damn Caz, she’s taken me over. She owns me.”
The letter in my hand trembled.
“Georgie and I have known each other forever. We got confused by situations that threw us together intimately. We were good together. I missed her when we broke up, but I realized that what I missed more than anything was having her as my friend. Not as a potential wife or a lover. She was right when she said we weren’t meant to be together. In September at the Labor Day Celebration in town, I saw your eyes and I knew, Caz.”
His dark eyes, were his grandmother’s eyes. I had seen her picture before at Ian’s. They were focused on me now.
“If I lost you, it would be like losing a piece of me, Caz.” Davy’s voice had gone soft. “I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to live my life without you. You’re essential to my happiness.”
I laid his grandfather’s letter down and slipped over to him. Davy scooted back in his chair and pulled me into his lap. “I love you Caz. It’s that simple. I love how your OCD makes you crazy if you don’t pick up a towel off the floor. I love how your insecurities about your body make you vulnerable. I love how strong you can be when you need to be.”
I hugged him hard cutting off his air. “Don’t kill me, sweetheart.” I loosened my arms. “I love how kind and compassionate you are about other people and their problems. When Lacey is hurting, you are hurting too.” I laid my head in the crook of Davy’s neck. “She doesn’t always realize how lucky she is to have you.”
“She does.”
“No, I don’t think she does.”
“You’re prejudice.”
“I am because I feel like the luckiest man in the world to find the woman who lights up my life like Sophia Bianchi lit up Hugh Steward’s life.”
“The letter is sweet,” I whispered.
“It is,” he replied. “He goes on to tell me how to always treat every day with you as a special day. To kiss you every morning and every night. To tell you that I love you more each day.”
Davy’s arms tightened a little about me. “I do love you more each day, Caz. I know you want to have a baby right away but I’m selfish, I want to enjoy you as my wife for just a little while before I have to share you with our child.”
I leaned my forehead against Davy’s. He nuzzled my nose with his. Then he kissed me. Sweet. Tender. Gently, his lips touched mine over and over.
“I’m going to take a bubble bath,” I whispered.
“You’re done eating?”
“I ate half of it. If I eat anymore, I won’t fit into my dress.”
He shook his head at me. “I wish you would quit worrying about your weight.”
“Never,” I informed him. “If I do, I’ll weigh as much as my grandmother, Burt.”
He shoved me off his lap. “With that letter, comes a trust of twenty thousand dollars.”
I turned and looked down at Davy.
“That is what I should have talked to you about. We don’t need the money. We both have great salaries. I have money myself which is yours whenever you want.”
He had told me that before. I felt weird about taking money from Davy.
“I asked Dad to setup the money in an annuity to be held in trust for our children to be split equally at a certain age. We just have to decide what that age is.”
I liked that idea. We were providing for their future, the way his father had done for them. “I like it.”
“I’m glad. It made a huge, difference to us as adults to have down payments on a house or a car,” he explained.
“I agree. I’m glad you thought of it.”
“Dad set up our trust funds for each of us when we were born. It didn’t hurt that was money, Mom couldn’t touch when she left him.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Davy,” I scolded him.
He popped the lasagna in his mouth. After he swallowed, he said, “It’s the truth.”
I shook my head and left the kitchen. “You can always join me,” I offered.
“No thanks,” he replied.
“Always my romantic hero,” I shouted heading up the stairs.
Chapter 6
I went to the bedroom and perched on the edge of the bed. My feet ached from standing all day. I removed my shoes and rubbed my feet. Then slipped my socks off too. I took them and the shoes to the closet. I lined my shoes up carefully on the rack. Then made one crooked just to be naughty. I needed to learn to let little, things go.
The scrubs I was wearing went into the basket. I started to walk to the bathroom in my underwear. I stepped back into the closet and removed my bra and panties. I was going to live dangerously and walk naked to the bathroom. It was easy enough to do, Davy was still eating in the kitchen.
In the bathroom, I sat on the edge of the tub and turned the water on full blast letting the steam rise from the surface of the water. I liked it nice and hot. The bubble bath was beneath the sink, I grabbed it and filled the tub with thick, foamy bubbles that smelled like lavender and honey. Before I could get into the tub, I put the bubble bath away. My OCD wouldn’t let me do otherwise. One misplaced shoe was all I could take in one night.
I climbed into the tub and laid back into the bubbles, resting my head against the hard porcelain side. It felt good to relax. The heat relaxed my aching muscles. My eyes closed. My body went limp. I almost fell asleep until I felt Davy’s finger running down my cheek.
&
nbsp; I popped one eye open. “Whatcha doing?” I asked. He was naked, gazing down at me.
“Proving I’m romantic. Now scoot down.”
I moved down in the tub, so Davy could slip in behind me. He stuck on foot in and groaned. “Trying to cook my nuts,” he declared.
“I wasn’t expecting company because somebody said no thanks,” I replied gazing over my shoulder at him trying to slip into the water and not scald his precious jewels.
He settled down in the back of the tub. Removed his glasses and sat them on the table beside us then he tugged me back into his arms.
I leaned against his chest and Davy kissed my cheek. I adjusted slightly in his arms and water sloshed over the top of the tub. We both leaned over to look at the puddle on the floor. “We’ll clean it up later.”
“Just remember it’s there so no one falls when we get out.”
“No kidding,” Davy said. “That could be hazardous.”
Then he rested against the tub again and closed his eyes as I had previously. “So, what do two people do in a bath together?” He asked me. “Just sit here lazily. Holding each other?”
“Fool around,” I informed him.
He peered over the side of the tub. “I don’t think that is an option, babe unless you want to clean up half the water that’s in here with us.”
My always practical Davy. I sighed. “I’m content to have you hold me.”
“That sounds good.”
“But if you want to give me an orgasm, that would be so relaxing right now.”
He laughed at me.
“Blow job, tomorrow?” He asked. I frowned at him over my shoulder. “I mean, I know you’re tired tonight and it just sounds really good to me.”
I shook my head at him. “All right.” I felt like we had just negotiated a major deal, one orgasm for another. His fingers in exchange for my mouth.
Davy propped my leg up on the side of the tub. With one hand, he touched between my legs, with the other he caressed my breasts. I leaned my head back against his shoulder and closed my eyes letting the pleasure wash over me like a warm shower. It was delicious.
