Project Valentine (A Homespun Romance)

by Kakade, Geeta

  Arthur and Molly, raced around the side of the house, skidded to a halt right in front of them.

  "I forgot my flowers," said Molly. "They're still in the car."

  "I'll get them out for you." She needed time to organize her thoughts. Picking up the pot of violets in the pretty ceramic container, and Molly's overnight bag Jessica turned.

  "Let me take that from you," Karl slipped his fingers between the strap and her shoulder and removed Molly's bag.

  Jessica trembled as Karl's gaze focused on her mouth.

  "Uncle Karl look at my flowers. Do you like them? Jessica said this way Mommy would have something that lasts longer."

  "Jessica has very good taste." Karl approved, his eyes on Jessica.

  "Jessica are you going to come with us to the hospital to meet Mommy and the baby?"

  Jessica looked at Molly's expectant face. "You know this is a special time for family to be together," she said gently. "Maybe I can visit at the weekend or after the baby comes home."

  Molly didn't argue with that. Just flashed her uncle a glance and turned away into the house. "I'm going to talk to Arthur about the baby," she announced. "If I let him in on everything from the start he's not going to be jealous of the baby."

  Karl's brows were raised high as his gaze quizzed Jessica's face. She clung to the open rear door of the Audi for dear life, refusing to laugh. Humor wasn't going to divert her this time.

  "I really have to be going now." As their gazes meshed Jessica recalled the goodnight kiss. It hadn't been imagination. It had been Karl. As the memory of his tucking her in carefully flooded her mind, Jessica's heart accelerated to it's now familiar calypso rhythm.

  He stepped forward and bent his head. "Sweet Jessica," he murmured a tormenting fraction away from her lips.

  "Excuse me, please!" Molly's voice was an unwanted wedge between them.

  They both turned their heads to look at her. Jessica wondered if imagination supplied Karl's sigh. Molly held a remote telephone out to her. "Daddy's on the telephone and he wants to talk to you Jessica."

  "To me?"

  She looked at Karl. A shrug was his only response as she took the phone from Molly.

  "Hello?"

  "Jessica!" Warmth spiced with a British accent poured over the phone. "Jim Spencer here. How are you?"

  "Fi...fine thank you Mr. Spencer."

  "Please call me Jim," Molly's father requested. "I won't keep you long. My wife and I just want to thank you for being Molly's friend and say how much we look forward to meeting you this afternoon."

  Jessica looked at Molly. Her angelic expression gave nothing of her schemes away. Karl's niece had a great future in the diplomatic service.

  There was nothing she could say except a weak, "Me too."

  "Great! Is Karl there?"

  Jessica handed Karl the telephone and stood in the sunshine, staring at the begonia in the flower beds.

  "Let's go in and have some lunch, then we can leave for the hospital," he said after a few minutes.

  Jessica looked down at her clothes. "I'm not dressed right," she muttered to herself.

  Karl caught the words, stopped to look at her in amazement. "Of course you are!," he said, "You're perfect!"

  There were two kinds of perfect. Perfect as in it- doesn't-really- matter perfect, or the perfect-for-me perfect. Jessica wondered which one was Karl's perfect.

  Molly was talking to Arthur in the family room. "Daddy says we're going to move into the house before Mommy gets out of the hospital. You're coming too. We'll be together every day." Arthur put a huge tongue out and licked Molly's face. "Have you seen a baby before Arthur? Daddy says you have to be very careful around the baby, or you might have to be kept in your dog run all the time."

  "Woof,” the deep rumble had Molly giggling. Encouraged the Great Dane put one huge forepaw on either side of the couch and licked her face again. Molly's arms circled the dog's neck and she hugged him tight.

  Jessica watched Karl remove some French bread from the oven and slice it. He'd mentioned the house Molly's parents had bought in the city of Walnut, ten minutes away. Arthur would be gone soon. Jessica wondered what would happen then. Would she ever see Karl again? Her throat constricted.

  The future didn't beckon. It threatened like rain packed clouds.

  "Let's eat. Molly, go wash up." Karl set the shrimp salad on the table, next to the bread basket. "Will you have some coffee?"

  "No thanks."

  A future without Karl seemed bleak and lonely. Would he simply return to his old way of life, settle back into ways he had no intention of changing after Arthur was gone.

  It's a free country, remember? There's nothing you can do really if the man chooses to remain single.

  Suddenly cold, Jessica shivered.

  "May I be excused, please?"

  Jessica looked up in surprise. Molly had cleaned her plate in record time. Her own bore a pile of crumbled bread and a moved-around shrimp salad. Karl was treating her to one of his gimlet glances.

  "Don't you like it?"

  "It's delicious." Hurriedly she picked up a forkful and carried it to her mouth, to prove her point.

  "Are you upset about something?"

  "No."

  "What is it then?" He reached for her hand.

  "It's nothing." It was hard to look into rocky mountain eyes and lie.

  Karl's eyes began to glitter. "You don't like having your mind being made up for you, remember? Are you resenting that, maybe?" His thumb caressed the inside of her wrist, making her pulses riot.

  Jessica pushed her chair back and rose to her feet. Her mind scrambled for reasons and coming up blank. "I was just wondering what to get your brother and the baby." A decision surfaced. "In fact, I think I'll go pick up something now and meet you at the hospital."

  Karl frowned. "We could stop off on the way to the hospital if you feel you have to get something."

  "I'd rather just meet you there."

  Karl searched her face and then nodded. "Fine. It's quarter to two now. If we meet in an hour in the east parking lot of St. Mary's, will that give you enough time?"

  "Yes." Jessica picked up her plate to put it in the sink, but Karl stopped her with a touch on her wrist. "Leave it. I'm just going to put everything in the dishwasher."

  "I'll see you later then." Would she ever get over this odd reluctance to leave him?

  "Drive carefully."

  Jessica had no idea what to get Molly's mother. Frantically she tried to remember what Molly had mentioned her mother liked. Nothing came to mind. Nothing but a pair of hands that could have her from sane to crazy in thirty seconds, a mouth that ought to be cited a fire hazard.

  The signs were all there. She'd seen them so many times before. They always made her want to run. Except that this time she was running toward not away. She didn't feel threatened by Karl.

  Jessica took a deep breath. So, she wanted more with Karl Wagner. The question was, was he willing to give anything more?

  Seeing the sign for the east parking lot of the hospital, Jessica shelved her thoughts temporarily and concentrated on finding a place to park.

  Karl and Molly were waiting for her in the parking lot.

  "Got what you wanted?" Karl opened the car door for her, making her feel eggshell fragile.

  The port-a-crib she'd picked out was the latest one on the market the salesperson in the baby store had assured her. It folded into a compact rectangle, easy to carry around.

  "Yes, thank you." Jessica got out of the car and looked at Molly anxiously waiting to be noticed. "Molly, you look beautiful. I love your dress."

  Her hair was brushed out and a ribbon tied in it. The pink and white dress made Jessica long for a girl of her own to dress and to share secrets with.

  "Jessica, will you check my bow please?" She turned her head so that Jessica could see the pink ribbon in her hair. "Uncle Karl isn't sure he got it right."

  Karl shrugged and a small smile tilted the corner of
his mouth. "Don't have any experience in that department. Sorry."

  A pulse leaped into a break dance in Jessica's throat. Imagination supplied a picture of Karl wielding a hairbrush, trying to tie slippery satin ribbon into a bow.

  "It's a bit loose." Jessica's fingers trembled as she retied the bow.

  Molly was very quiet as they walked to the hospital. On the maternity floor Jessica stopped by the foyer.

  "You go on ahead. I'll be along in five minutes."

  Karl didn't argue. Just put an arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side. "No." His tone cut off all protests. "You're coming with us."

  At the door of his sister's private room he stopped, letting Molly go ahead.

  "Mommy?" There was uncertainty on the girl's face as she looked at her mother in the hospital bed, surrounded by unfamiliar equipment.

  "Darling!" Andy Spencer's face glowed with love as she opened her arms to her first born.

  She was so beautiful. Silky blond hair like her daughter's and even from this distance, Jessica could tell her eyes would be just like Karl's. She wore a pink bed jacket, over her hospital gown.

  "Oh, Mommy. I was scared...." Jim Spencer rescued the pot of violets just in time as Molly went into her mother's arms.

  Jessica blinked rapidly. Her glasses were getting steamed up again.

  Jim Spencer came towards them, shook Jessica's hand, and said, "Jessica, I'm Jim. Glad to meet you."

  An arm around Molly, Andy held her hand out to Jessica. "Jessica, I'm so glad you could come. Thank you for everything."

  Jessica didn't quite know why she ended up hugging Andy but she did. It had something to do with the warmth in the dark eyes so like Karl's, the sheen of moisture in her own eyes.

  "Mommy does it hurt?" Molly's eyes were on the intravenous bag of saline suspended by her mother's bed, the tubes that connected her to it.

  "Not anymore." Over their daughter's head her gaze locked with her husband's. The look they exchanged proclaimed it had all been worth it.

  "When can I see the baby?" Molly demanded.

  "I'll take you right now." Jim Spencer put a hand out to his daughter and they left the room hand in hand. “You can just look at him for now but later when he gets stronger, you can hold him.”

  "Everything all right, sis?" Karl came up the other side, ran a hand over his sister's head.

  "I'm so happy K." Andy turned her head so that her cheek rested briefly in her brother's palm. The diminutive she used emphasized their closeness. "Richard Karl is doing so well in his incubator. Everything's turned out fine. Thank you both," she included Jessica in her warm smile, "for all you've done for us."

  "Isn't that what families are for?" Karl demanded.

  Andy rested against her pillows. For an instant as she looked at her brother there was pain in both their eyes. It wasn't hard to guess they were both thinking of their parents.

  "I called Mother and Dad this morning." Andy said carefully.

  "How are they?"

  "They're fine." Andy picked up the pot of violets, buried her face in it. "Said they'll be here in July. They're planning a cruise to the Bahamas then."

  "I see."

  This was March. Andy's wording made it seem as if seeing Richard Karl was secondary to the senior Wagner's cruise.

  Jessica's heart contracted with pain as she looked at their faces. Emotional wounds rarely healed completely. Time just covered them with a thin shield.

  Andy turned to Jessica, obviously wanting to change the subject. "Molly hasn't stopped talking about you, since the day you met. Tell me about your family. I always wanted a large family, but Jim says he's leaving home if I ever mention the subject again."

  They laughed and talked till Jim returned with Molly.

  "Before you go," Jim said, his tone indicating visiting hours were over, "Molly and I have something for you Andy."

  "I have everything I want." The sparkle in Andy's eyes was a sharp contrast to the pallor of her face.

  The box Jim drew out of his pocket was wrapped in silver foil. Andy handed it to Molly to unwrap saying her fingers were weak with excitement. Taking the jeweler’s box Molly held out to her, Andy flipped the lid back.

  "You shouldn't have. Not now, when we have all these bills to pay." The tears in her eyes as she looked at her husband, his answering look as he moved to take her in his arms, sealed them off in a world of their own.

  "Oh yes, I should have." He pressed his lips against her hair.

  Andy held the box out to the others and concentrated on kissing her husband. Nestling on a bed of olive green velvet was an incredibly intricate gold bracelet set with the tiniest pearls Jessica had ever seen, and midnight blue sapphires.

  Molly picked up the bracelet and handed it to her mother. "Look inside," she commanded.

  Andy read the inscription out loud. Richard Karl. It was followed by the date.

  "It's beautiful."

  "Mommy has another bracelet with my name inside it." Molly told Jessica proudly. "Daddy gave her that one when I was born."

  Karl pulled something out of the pocket of his jeans.

  "Another present?" Andy's eyebrows threatened to disappear into her hairline. "You've already offered to pay to have the baby's room decorated in the new house."

  "That's for Richard Karl," said her brother. "This is for you."

  It was a pendant to match the bracelet. Karl and Andy's husband must have shopped together. Heart shaped, the pearls and sapphires caught the light and glittered.

  "You spend too much money on us," Andy reproved Karl.

  "What's it there for anyway?" A shrug dismissed the cost of the gift, his sister's thanks.

  A look passed between Jim and Karl and the latter got to his feet. Andy was definitely looking worn out.

  "Time to go," Karl pretended to stifle a yawn. "Bet everyone's going to be glad of an early night."

  Molly kissed her mother and her father. Though Andy looked tired, she protested their leaving, urged them to come early the next day.

  "Jessica, thank you for coming and for the port-a-crib. I wanted one of those. Come visit us soon, in our new house."

  "I will," Jessica promised and then they were all being ushered out by a determined Jim.

  They stopped off at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Richard Karl was in an incubator that had been moved near the large window so they could see him easily.

  Molly pressed her nose to the glass again. "Mommy touched him this morning," she said. "There's a special place in the incubator she can put her hand through. Daddy says it's important for babies to be held. They need to feel they're loved."

  Jessica looked at Molly's little brother and her throat closed up. He looked like a crumpled rose, eyes closed, hands curled into fists.

  "Daddy says I looked just like Rikki when I was born."

  "Rikki?' her uncle questioned.

  "It's what I'm going to call him," Molly explained. "He looks just like Rikki Tikki Tavi."

  Jessica's mouth worked. The baby looked just like Rudyard Kipling's mongoose? She dared not look at Karl. The baby was so beautiful. Perfect in every detail. Jessica thought of the physical and mental strain Andy had undergone to have her son. Yet today she looked ready to do it all over again. Jessica blinked. The miracle of motherhood was one of the most moving.

  A touch on her shoulder made Jessica start.

  "Penny for them?"

  "My mother says a child is a man and a woman's gift to the world. A sign of their belief in the future. Belief that there will be a world of peace and happiness for that child to live and grow in."

  Karl's hand tightened on her shoulder. Jessica stole a glance upwards. There was an amazing softness on his face. "I'd like to meet your mother sometime."

  "She'd like to meet you too." Suddenly it seemed important to let him know the comment didn't signify anything deeper. "Our house is always full of friends and family. Visitors say they've stopped trying to sort out the relatives from the rest.
It's easier that way."

  Karl smiled, turned as Molly tugged at his sleeve. "Uncle Karl what are we going to have for dinner? I'm starving."

  "Give me a minute Molly and I'll think of something." He turned to Jessica. "Want to come eat with us?"

  Jessica looked up at him, shook her head. "No thanks. I have a few errands to run."

  The way she felt, she needed a little time to herself.

  Karl hesitated, then nodded. "Talk to you tomorrow then."

  "Tomorrow," echoed Jessica.

  They parted at her car. She drove home feeling lonely and teary, wondering if she was coming down with the flu.

  About to attribute it to lack of sleep, Jessica paused. She'd never lied to herself and didn't intend starting now. Her moodiness had something to do with the way Jim Spencer had looked at his wife. Jessica knew she wanted someone to look at her like that.

  She took a deep breath. Not just anyone. Karl.

  The way Karl had looked at the baby was branded on her mind. Wistful, longing, needing. It wasn't the look of a man who was content to remain single. It was the look of a man who didn't dare reach out for what he wanted because he didn't want to hurt another human being as his mother had been hurt.

  She didn't know a single other man who thought like him. She knew so many who took what they wanted without consideration for anyone's feelings but their own.

  Jessica pulled into the covered parking space by her apartment and put her head on the steering wheel for a second.

  Convincing Karl Wagner he would make an ideal husband and father, made the labors of Hercules seem like child's play.

  "Balance it on the tip of your finger, squeeze the solution on to it, hold your eye open with one hand and flip it into place. There you go! Now, think positive thoughts." Jessica ordered her reflection. "The new contacts are going to do just fine in your eyes. You are not going to have any problem with them. Wearing them is just a question of mind over matter."

  Dr. Phillips, her optometrist, had been very positive about the latest pair of contact lenses. "Everyone whom I've recommended them to, has done very well with them," he'd told her. "They're especially made for sensitive eyes."