And they’d made love. Since he’d been stupid enough to just blurt his feelings out like that, they had made amazing love. What had started as good time, had become wholly incredible. Tender, gentle, sweet one moment, wildly passionate the next. Such fierce mood swings that it set them both to giggling and other times close to tears. Whatever they might each think or feel, their bodies were very happy together. He ached with need for her no matter how often they sated it. She claimed to be suffering from the same problem.
He would be patient. Honestly he would. Maybe with time, he could get over being such a doofus. Maybe.
“What are you thinking so deeply?” Maria stood only a few feet in front of him. She looked radiant.
“Thinking of you, what else? You have taken over my brainpan. Wiped out my gray matter and filled it with endless, vibrant tapes of a woman who smiles back at me for reasons impossible to fathom.”
Then she did just that. Smiled at him, soft and close. An intimate sharing.
When he continued to stare at her, she swirled slightly side to side as if showing off her coat. Her coat! Sky blue, long wool. And a hat more golden than the sun.
He sat bolt upright in shock.
“You! It was you that I saw from my window. All of it was you from the very start.”
She nodded, “I almost fell down when you told me about that. You fell in love with me from a dozen stories above without even knowing who I was.”
“I did. That’s because I’m a smart guy. Either that or insanely lucky.” She’d said love. It was the first time she’d acknowledged that he loved her as if it were simply a fact. Which it was. He felt a ray of hope, but quashed it hard. Always rushing things, Hogan. Just stay relaxed. He told himself that often, and unsuccessfully.
In answer, she merely held out her gloved hand and tugged him to his feet. Hand in hand she led him south along the sidewalk, turning in at the Great Wheel. To his surprise she walked right by the ticket line, as if she merely wanted a closer look.
He offered to get them tickets, she just shook her head and led him forward.
At the loading gate, she produced a pair of tickets from her coat pocket.
The man signaled there’d be just a short wait. Though several gondolas were loaded ahead of them, they were still standing out in the cold. Not that he minded. Holding Maria’s hand in his, smelling the soft scent of her upon the air, he’d be content to stand for hours and watch the bright lights of the Wheel and the Seattle waterfront.
“Here we go.” She led him aboard the gondola. But it was different from the other one they’d been in a few weeks ago. It was trimmed in black instead of white. Rather than a long bench seat on either side, there were four armchairs. They looked deep and comfortable. It was also warm; this gondola had a heater. Christmas carols were playing softly in the background. He’d known there was a single VIP gondola on the Wheel, but had never given it further thought.
Maria pushed him gently into the seat opposite hers, so they faced each other knee to knee. With a friendly nod, the attendant locked them in and they were off.
How was he supposed to admire the view with Maria sitting directly opposite him? She opened her coat and set it aside. She wore one of his favorite red dresses and a thin gold chain.
“I haven’t seen that before.” He traced a finger lightly along the warm metal and cool skin. “It makes your neck look amazing.”
She nodded at the compliment, but still didn’t speak. Her smile was full of secrets, ones that he had learned she wouldn’t be revealing until she was good and ready. Sometimes he could pester the answer out of her, but not when she smiled like that.
Then they swung out over the dock and he looked down in surprise. The floor was made of glass. He could see the steady stream of people in holiday attire, wandering along the pier. So many couples and families.
If he was ever going to have a regret, it would be that he hadn’t had children. He and Vera hadn’t wanted any, though it had taken him over a decade for him to realize that too was information. He and Maria had met too late in life and now there would be no children. Of course the thought of having a hormonal teenager running around the place when he hit sixty destroyed the image.
He looked again out of the gondola. It was like they were in a glass bubble floating above the city.
Maria handed him a bottle of champagne. It had been opened and capped. She held out a pair of wide-bottomed mugs. She didn’t need to explain, flutes on a moving gondola were just asking for a spill.
So, they sipped champagne and watched the city as they rose into the sky. At the very top, Maria broke her long silence.
“This was for you, Hogan. For how you made me feel when you said that you loved me. Like a bubble floating above the city. Not knowing if I was safe, or about to float away. It should have been terrifying, but it wasn’t. I wanted you to know that.”
For a moment, he thought this was a speech about how it was over. But before the fear could even begin to form, she leaned forward and kissed him in a way that wiped that doubt aside. Deep, tender, lingering. By the time they parted, they had returned most of the way to the bottom.
“Twice more around,” Maria said as they swung through the loading station.
As they rose once more, she began talking. She told him of her first passion, of her love for her son, of her being abruptly out of a job when the senior Morgans had retired six months ago.
“There is another thing I want you to know, Hogan. They set me up very well in thanks for my years of service. Very well. I want you to know that because it is important that you understand, I’m not interested in you for your money. I’m at least as comfortable as you are.”
Hogan hadn’t even connected that. Vera had certainly cared a great deal about the wealth and status, just not enough about him to remain true to her vows. As with any corporate executive, he certainly hadn’t helped matters by working so many hours, but neither had he cheated. He’d never even thought about that with Maria. He should have, but he hadn’t. And now he didn’t need to.
She freshened their glasses as the vista of Seattle and Elliot Bay once again lay far below them.
“There is one other thing you need to know about me, Hogan.”
He tipped his mug toward her indicating he was listening.
“I love you so very much that I don’t know what to do with all of the emotion inside me.”
She took the mug before it could slip from his nerveless fingers.
“Yes, took me by surprise too.” She brushed her fingers along the chain at her throat.
“Really? You love me?” His voice, little more than a croak, reflected strangely off the gondola’s windows.
“Really. Now, if I know you, Hogan, this would be a good time for you to pull that ring out of your pocket.”
He almost asked how she knew, he’d only purchased it this morning. But then thought better of it.
Instead he recalled Perrin’s words about Maria, “Scary smart.”
Hogan did it right. He knelt upon the sky, the clear glass at the bottom of a gondola a hundred-and-seventy-five feet in the air, and asked her properly.
When he slid the gold band around her finger, it was the happiest he’d ever been in his life.
The third time around the Great Wheel, not a word was spoken, and three of the four seats remained empty.
Chapter 13
The air in Hogan’s condo seemed to shimmer it was so filled with energy and amazing scents. Maria was proud of Manuel and Angelo, they’d really outdone themselves. The food had poured forth from Hogan’s kitchen in such abundance that it was impossible to credit even if the prep work had been done in the nearby closed restaurant. They’d served family style, a dozen heaped dishes arriving on great platters all at once.
The centerpiece was a trio of traditional Christmas panettone loaves, tall, cylindrical and baked to a crunchy dark brown. Inside they’d be a soft yellow bread filled with candied orange and raisins.
There was a massive tureen of Natalini, macaroni and meatballs in a capon broth soup and a huge dish of sausage-filled Ravioli alla Genovese buried in Nora’s Ligurian basil pesto. Henry had sent over a whole side of halibut to show he wasn’t hurt at Maria falling in love with someone else and the boys had roasted it with fennel and baby potatoes. A chicken Marsala, a rack of lamb with an apple compote…the bounty spread far down the table and to Maria, every bit of it smelled like home. After a prayer of thanks and blessing, everyone simply dug in, drank, laughed, and made merry.
Maria and Hogan had decorated the Christmas tree in the living room together last night. It glowed and reflected off the night-dark windows. They’d also brought some of the family portraits from the Pioneer Square condo, the first but not the last to hang on the long wall behind the dining table.
The massive oak table, lit with a dozen candles, was covered with a festive cloth purchased for the occasion. Maria and Hogan sat at the table’s head. Everyone was crowded together elbow to elbow. Christmas garlands and long streamers of red and green ribbons were laced among them. And a single streamer of white, black, and gold had been threaded through them all. For so they had been dressed for their marriage; the color of gold the single accent to reflect the bond of their promise to each other.
They had seen no reason to wait. They weren’t twenty after all. The ceremony had been small, attended only by their closest friends who even now sat about them. Hogan had managed to arrange for them to wed at St. James cathedral, an intimate afternoon ceremony of as much beauty and simplicity as her wedding dress.
Perrin sat to Maria’s right. She squeezed the girl’s hand as she held her ring close beside her necklace to indicate how perfect it had been. Neither of them risked speaking, because they’d just start crying all over again.
“They’re happy for you,” Hogan’s whisper tickled her ear.
“Shouldn’t they be?”
“No, it’s not that. They’re genuinely happy for you. Even your son congratulated me and gave me a manly hug right down to a thump on the back that might have dislocated a few vertebrae.”
Maria looked about the table. Saw Russell once again wielding his camera, picking his own wife out as she, Perrin, and Jo giggled over something together. Manuel and Graziella sat so close together that it was likely there’d be another wedding celebration soon. The rest of the restaurant staff squabbled and ate and teased down the length of the table. She’d have to get Russell to give her copies for the dining room wall.
“We should do this often,” Maria murmured to Hogan.
At his nod, she grabbed up her knife and clanged it on a glass, calling all of them to attention, quieting the gathering.
“My husband and I—” she whooshed out a breath. “Wow! Is that a surprising thing to say out loud.”
Jo and Cassidy joined in her laugh and nodded knowingly.
“We,” she took the safer road. “We don’t want this to be a one-time event. Therefore, as the restaurant is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, you are all invited for dinner every Tuesday evening. Hogan has—”
“We have,” Hogan corrected her.
She leaned over to kiss his cheek. He turned enough to make it a far more serious kiss that elicited a round of applause and several catcalls. When she managed to get her breath back, she turned once more to face the gathering.
“My husband and I,” it wasn’t any easier to say the second time. “Have this great dining table. Every Tuesday it will be where we all are having dinner. You don’t need to call, you just need to come whenever you can.”
This time the applause didn’t have the catcalls. She looked at Angelo. He placed both hands over his heart and then held them out open-palmed to her. A gesture she’d forgotten from his childhood. She silently returned her heart to him, as the table started debating next week’s menu.
“You’re my family.” She could barely mouth the words, managed them only loud enough for the three girls to hear. True to the rules, the four of them were all crying together.
Much later, after more food, tears, a quick cleanup, and many goodbye hugs, Maria was at last alone with Hogan.
They stood close beside the shining Christmas tree, the only light in the room, and looked out his…their condo window. The quiet Seattle waterfront stretched before them. Off to the left, barely in view, the very highest gondola of the now still Seattle Great Wheel glittered like a star shining in the night.
Hogan held her close from behind. His voice tickled as he whispered in her ear. “Love you, wife.” Then he chuckled. “You’re right, that is wonderfully surprising to say. I’ll have to say it more often.”
“I promise I’ll never tire hearing it, my husband.” Maria lay back against him and slid her arms over his where they encircled her waist.
“They’re your children, you know. They all call you ‘Mama Maria,’ every one of them.”
Maria sniffled and nodded, unable to do more.
“I guess that makes them my kids as well,” Hogan laughed in surprise at his own words.
She looked up in time to see that slow smile, that she so loved, light up his face.
He took her hand and raised it to kiss her on the ring as if anchoring it in place forever.
“A Christmas table surrounded by our family. Who could ask for more?”
Where Dreams Unfold
Chapter 1
Perrin Williams hung up the dress bags and collapsed onto the tattered gray sofa in her design studio. Exhaustion still rippled through her in familiar waves. She felt both the dull ache and the immense satisfaction that typically coursed through her after an exceptionally long bout of clothing design, her favorite form of play.
The gentle light of the warm late-April-in-Seattle morning filled her boutique and design studio with a soft glow that made her want to just sprawl here and giggle madly. Somehow, against all odds, her life had brought her to work and create in this wonderful, safe space.
This time the exhaustion had been earned at the wedding of one of her two best friends. “Jo” Thompson had married Angelo Parrano at an event of grand proportions in the heart of the Pike Place Market.
Many of the Seattle elite had attended. More than a few had commissioned dresses from Perrin’s Glorious Garb. Which elicited another giggle that might have been a chortle of self-satisfaction.
No one around yet to tell her if her tired brain had tipped over the edge to gloating, so she let herself revel in the wonder of it all.
To see her designs flashing among the wedding crowd had filled her heart in a way that had left her speechless more than once last night. Because it was a Market wedding, after all, Jo was the new director of the Pike Place Market, the finest street musicians had added their music—including some great dancing music from the rolling-piano guy. The food was perhaps the finest Maximilien’s had ever made. Perrin had put a giant sign on the kitchen door, “Angelo not allowed past this point.” The groom, one of Seattle’s most highly-acclaimed chefs, had it coming. Everyone, including Perrin, had made sure he was reminded of that sign often throughout the night.
The bride and groom had looked so beautiful dancing beneath the moonlight. They swayed together out on the patio overlooking Elliott Bay, a backdrop of scooting ferries and the brilliant glow of the ice-capped Olympic Mountains beyond. The couple had looked so in love. So happy.
Perrin shot to her feet and paced around the studio. She’d gone past tired and tipped right over into hyperactively awake. At some point soon she’d crash for a day or two, but not yet.
She unzipped the first bag. Jo’s dress of shimmering pale blue cascaded forth. She’d have it cleaned and properly boxed before Jo and Angelo returned from a week in Hawaii. Neither of them had ever been there, and a week was all either of them could afford to be away at the moment. April was perfect weather in both Seattle and the resort on Kauai’s eastern shore, especially known for relentlessly pampering its guests.
Perrin pulled Jo’s dress in front of he
r and posed before the tall antique tri-fold mirror of beveled glass and dark oak. She turned on the lights, the early morning sun didn’t reach into this corner of her studio. The pale blue had complimented Jo’s Alaskan-dark complexion and flowing black hair. There had been no need for the dress to accent the curves, Jo’s body had provided those perfectly.
Perrin tilted her head critically, and then had to roll it around a bit to loosen the crick from a serious lack of sleep. The dress wouldn’t do at all on her own pale skin and slender frame. She hung it on the “to be cleaned” rack.
From the second bag she pulled out the bridesmaid dresses that she and Cassidy Knowles had worn. They had been as softly gold as the bride’s dress had been softly blue. The gold had picked up highlights in the best man’s suit that Perrin had dressed on Russell.
She’d also accented the mother-of-the-bride’s dress with just a bit of the soft gold as well, which had made the photographs really pop. Russell had shared a few tips with her that only a professional fashion photographer would know. Seeing Eloise giving away her previously estranged daughter had brought tears to everyone’s eyes.
Perrin sighed and hung the other dresses beside the wedding gown. Cassidy and Russell. Jo and Angelo. That left only Perrin without a man anywhere on the horizon. Part of her didn’t want one.
“Avert!”
It was like some order from a space-captain’s chair, “Evasive maneuver delta.” “Avert!” It always made her smile, and because it was such a silly and simple thought it usually did track her away from thinking of her life prior to meeting Cassidy and Jo in college.
She didn’t want a man because of the nightmare example of her family, but she also desperately did want one. One like Cassidy or Jo had found. The rough edges of Russell, the sensitivity of Angelo. And as long as she was making a list…
The Complete Where Dreams Page 62
