"We have a proposal for you two," Jamie began when they were all sitting in the living room. "Ryan and I have talked about doing this ever since we got back from the ride, and it seems like we’re about to run out of free time. So, if you approve, we’d like to watch Caitlin for a few days after I come home from Rhode Island."
Annie looked at Jamie, then at Ryan. "You know you can have her any time you want. But why on earth would you want to have her around the clock?" She obviously realized how harsh that sounded and moderated her question. "I mean, I know it’s fun to be with her for a few hours, but it’s quite a different thing to have her for days at a time. You wouldn’t have a moment to yourselves."
"That’s our point," Jamie said. "We think you two need some time alone. Ryan tells me that your anniversary is coming up, and we’d like to do this as a little present for you."
"Are you serious?" Tommy asked, since Annie couldn’t make her mouth work. "You want to give us time alone? Completely alone?"
"Yes," Ryan confirmed. "We really think you need some time to just relax. We see how hard you both work to take care of the munchkin here, and your schedules don’t allow you to be alone enough. We’d really like to give you this little gift."
Annie finally got her mouth to relay the messages that her brain was firing. "But we can’t…" she stuttered. "We can’t impose on you for something like that. It’s just too much."
"Look, Annie," Ryan explained. "Once school starts I’m going to be busier than I’ve ever been. I have a game almost every Friday and Saturday, and I’m going to have a ton of homework. My time with Caitlin will really be reduced and spending time with her now will fill my tank up a little bit. We really want to do this–both for you and for us."
"How much time are we talking about here?" Annie asked, her excitement showing in her dancing blue eyes.
"We could go for a week," Ryan said, "but whatever you think is best for her would be fine."
Annie cast several questioning glances at Tommy, but he was apparently content to let her make this decision. "I’d guess that four days would be her capacity," she mused. "Would you just hang around the house, or what?"
"Well, we were really planning on going to Disneyland," Jamie proposed. "Neither of us have been, and we thought it would be more fun if we had Caitlin with us."
Annie smiled broadly, charmed by their naïveté. "I don’t mean to burst your bubble, but at her age, she would be just as happy to sit in the back yard and dig a hole with her little shovel, but if you don’t mind taking her, I certainly don’t mind her going."
"Fine with me," Tommy agreed. "Then when she’s 20 and complains that she never got to go anywhere, we can point to this trip that she won’t remember, just to make her mad!"
"That’s what parents are for," Ryan agreed with a laugh. "Taunting the kids is one of the biggest perks."
"Are you sure you know what you’re in for, guys?" Tommy asked seriously. "She can really be a hellion nowadays, and I’d hate for you to have your trip ruined."
"I know there’s a chance that she’ll hate it and want to come home," Ryan agreed. "But I think it’s worth the risk. Besides, we’ve discussed our plans for having a family, and it would be nice to get some firsthand experience. It might give us a more realistic impression of what it’s like to have a baby."
"I’m sold," Tommy said. "I’ll put in for a few days off when I get to work tomorrow."
"So where do you plan on going for your trip?" Jamie asked, very excited at the prospect of them having their first vacation in nearly two years.
They looked at each other in rather stunned silence as they both realized that they were free to leave the house alone for the first time in a year. "I’m happy to turn off the phone, lock the door and sleep," Annie admitted.
"That sounds a little boring to me," Tommy said thoughtfully. "I’d like to go to a nice resort where we can turn off the phone, lock the door and sleep," he said with a laugh. "But we have a lot of bills coming up. So I don’t know if that’s possible."
"Maybe something will turn up," Jamie said with a sly smile that only Ryan caught. "You never know."
When they were getting ready for bed, Jamie prevailed upon Ryan to pose for a picture of the temporary tattoo that Jordan had bought for her. She had her in just her undershirt, lying on her side with one leg drawn up. She finished the roll, and took it out of the camera, slipping it into her bag to drop off for developing. "I think that might be a nice picture for our Christmas card this year," she teased.
"Just remember, paybacks are a bitch!"
"And knowing you, it will be a doozy," she acknowledged wisely.
"Count on that, Babe," she agreed as she pulled her onto the bed. "I’ll have lots of time on my hands during the next week to think of an apt punishment."
"Speaking of hands," Jamie teased, pulling Ryan’s hands to her face and kissing them tenderly. "How many times a day do you think your hands will be in my favorite place while I’m gone?"
"I don’t know. This will be a new experience for me," she admitted. "Since you’re my major erotic stimulus I don’t know if I’ll have the need with you gone."
"I don’t know, Baby. I think your drive will continue unabated," Jamie guessed.
"We could have phone sex every night," Ryan said suggestively.
"We could," she agreed. "My cell phone has nationwide access. Have you ever had phone sex?"
"Does having sex in a phone booth count?" she asked with her most innocent face.
"No, Ryan, it does not, you little exhibitionist."
"Then I have not had phone sex," Ryan said proudly.
"Oh boy, virgin territory," she said sleepily as she snuggled closer and drifted off, wrapped around her partner like a human blanket.
As soon as Jamie thought her mother would be awake on Friday morning, she gave her a call.
"Hi, Mother," she said in greeting. "Feeling generous today?"
"For you? Always, Dear. What do you need?"
"I wanted to ask a favor of you, Mother."
"Anything in my power, Sweetheart. Just ask."
Ten minutes later, Annie was staring at Jamie in open-mouthed shock. "But...but...but Jamie, we can’t just go use your parents house," she stuttered.
"Why not? It’s my mother’s home, and she is very happy to share it with me and the people I care about. She was very enthusiastic when I asked her. You’ll offend both of us if you don’t accept," she threatened.
"But won’t they want to use it?"
"No. Mother will be in Newport for the rest of the month, and my father doesn’t go down very often at all. Mother said he’s sailing in a race the weekend you’d be there, so there’s no chance that he could go even if he wanted to."
"But Jamie, this is just so generous. I don’t know if we can accept. You know how Tommy is about gifts."
"It’s not a gift, Annie. It’s a big house that’s sitting empty on a week that you’d like a little vacation. It won’t cost my parents a dime more to have you there. They have the pool heated all the time, the lights come on every evening at dusk, there’s a maid who comes in even when they aren’t there. It’s a waste not to use it."
"Did you say a pool and a maid?" she asked weakly, finding a chair and sitting down before her legs gave way.
"An indoor pool that you can go skinny dipping in," she added, keeping up the pressure.
"Okay, we accept," she said decisively. "And if Tommy makes a fuss he can stay home. I’ll go alone!"
Jamie didn’t play golf that afternoon, deciding to stay home and get ready for her trip. When Ryan returned home from work, she lay with her head hanging from the end of the bed and watched her partner pack. "You really are good at this, aren’t you?" she queried from her upside-down perspective.
"Years of practice," the blonde admitted. "I can pack for a month in one suitcase if I need to."
"Where did you ever go that you were limited to one suitcase?" she teased, knowing that the Evans family woul
d never be concerned with paying for excessive weight on a flight.
"I’ve had some pretty rugged trips," she informed her with a scowl.
"Like what, Provence on $2000 a day?"
"No, smarty pants. Like riding llamas up to a remote mountain in Peru. Or a wildlife preserve in Kenya, or..."
"Your mother rode a llama??!"
"No. I took a lot of vacations with just my father," she recalled fondly. "We were quite the pair when I was young. I looked forward to those trips for months," she said with a faraway look in her eyes.
Ryan rolled over quickly and jumped to her feet. The quick motion made her very dizzy, and she stumbled drunkenly until she reached her lover. "Whoa!" she said as she grabbed her head. "Head rush!"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, you just looked sad, and I wanted to give you a hug," she said, doing just that.
Jamie let out a heavy sigh as she snuggled into the hug. "Who’s going to do this for me next week?" she asked in a small voice. "I’ve become very hug dependent, you know."
"Can you store up some extras? I could hug you all afternoon."
"I didn’t think about how hard this was going to be when I agreed to go," she admitted. "I used to just pack up and leave and not give it another thought. But now, I don’t think about anything but when I’ll be with you again. It’s really going to be hard to live without you, Baby. I don’t know how I’ll be able to sleep."
"Why don’t you call me late every night? We can cuddle over the phone, and I can tell you bedtime stories about the fair princess in the faraway castle and her handsome lover, the dark, brooding Celt."
"You’re as far from brooding as people get, but I would love to have you talk to me while I lie in bed."
"Just make sure that your phone works nationwide and make sure you take your charger."
"Okay, I’ll make sure it’s on my list." She walked over to a neatly typed sheet and read it carefully. "Yep. It’s on here," she said.
Ryan walked over and checked the list. "This isn’t very long, and there’s almost no clothes mentioned. Are you nudists?" Her waggling eyebrows indicated how receptive she would be to that practice.
"No," Jamie laughed, snatching the list from Ryan’s hands. "What we do best as a family is shop. I just thought it made sense to take clothes for the first day and then let mother buy me all new things. She’ll do it anyway, so I might as well have less to carry."
"I can take you to your flight, can’t I?" Ryan asked.
"Sure. I assumed you would. Why do you ask?"
"I thought you might feel uncomfortable with me kissing you madly and making a dramatic scene in front of your mother. I was afraid you’d be embarrassed when I fell to the ground and wrapped my arms around your ankles and begged you not to leave me."
"How can I be embarrassed when I’ll be glued to you like a moray eel?" she teased back. "The airport personnel may have to pull us apart."
"When’s the flight again?"
"Sunday at 12:20 a.m."
"That’s just a nice way of saying really late Saturday night," Ryan admonished her.
"I know, but the red eye really makes the most sense. I can sleep the whole way and not feel like I’ve lost a day with you. Think you can really wear me out tomorrow so I fall asleep as soon as we leave the ground?"
"Now that I can do," she promised with a kiss.
They set a new record for early bedtime on Friday night. Even Martin had to tease them a little as Jamie dramatically stretched and yawned at 7:15, just minutes after the dinner cleanup.
Their passion for each other was much fiercer than normal, the upcoming separation making them nearly wild with desire. By 9:30 they were limp, sweaty, and unbearably thirsty. "Why don’t we remember to bring something to drink with us when we come down?" Jamie whined.
"I don’t understand why we can’t learn a simple lesson, ‘making love makes you thirsty’."
"I hate to have to get dressed to go upstairs," Jamie moaned pathetically as she gave her lover a surreptitious glance to see if she would take the bait and run upstairs.
"I feel exactly the same way," Ryan replied, not noticing, or choosing to ignore the obvious plea.
"What should we do?" she asked in her best helpless voice.
"I’ve got an idea," Ryan replied with a gleam in her eye. She crawled out of the mess of tangled sheets and stumbled over to Jamie’s phone. She shot her lover a smug smile as she dialed. "Hey," she said in her traditional greeting.
"Can I help you?" Conor asked with a chuckle.
"Do you remember when you thought that Mary Beth Ennis was pregnant?"
"What!?" he shouted.
"Do you remember?" she asked slowly.
"Well, yeah, that did tend to stick in my mind, since I thought my life was over."
"If you don’t bring down two huge glasses and a pitcher of ice water I’m telling," she declared defiantly.
"Gee, Ryan," he laughed. "That threat would have a lot more punch if I was still 19. I think Da knows that I’m having sex now. You know, you could just ask nicely, rather than trying to coerce me," he suggested.
"What fun would that be?" she asked, as though it was totally obvious.
"You do have a point there. Trickery is always more fun," he admitted with a laugh. "I’ll be right down. Do you have the energy to come to the door? Or should I snake a hose under it and pour the water through it?"
"No, the cubes wouldn’t fit. I’ll come to the door...after you leave," she said sternly.
"I never get to have any fun," he grumbled.
"Why don’t you get your own girl, rather than sitting at home on a Friday night? That could be fun."
"But who would bring you little sex maniacs your water?" he reminded her.
"Good point. My needs are paramount. Now make it snappy," she ordered. "We’ve had tremendous fluid loss down here. Lives are in the balance."
"Okay, okay, I’ll be right there," he said with a laugh.
Several minutes later Ryan opened the door to find the requested pitcher of water, two 64 oz. Big Gulp cups filled with ice, two oranges, and four Oreos. As she brought the tray in she looked at Jamie and said with a grin, "Living here isn’t half bad, is it?"
"Are you sure you don’t mind me playing golf with Daddy this morning, Honey?" Jamie asked for the fifth time.
"Jamie," Ryan soothed, wrapping her arms tightly around her. "If I had my way, I’d slap a pair of handcuffs on you and throw away the key. But I don’t in any way wish to stop you from spending time with your family. I think it’s important that you do, so you’ll never hear a complaint from me."
"I like the thought of being handcuffed to you," the smaller woman purred, thinking that it was impossible to have too much togetherness.
"Let me get my bag of tricks, and I can make it happen," Ryan assured her, starting to head towards the closet.
"After I play golf," Jamie decided, placing a fond kiss on the tip of Ryan’s nose. "Having you bound to me would screw up my swing."
They played their round very quickly since the course was wide open on this foggy Saturday, and it was only eleven when they finished up. "Can I convince you to have lunch with me?" Jim asked with just a touch of uncertainty in his manner.
Jamie desperately wanted to get home to Ryan, but she wanted to send up the first trial balloon about her distribution, and she thought it best to do that when Ryan wasn’t there. "That would be great," she agreed, tucking her arm around his waist as they walked into the clubhouse.
After their order was taken Jamie took a deep breath and launched into her speech. "I’ve been giving a lot of thought to my financial situation, Daddy."
He cocked his head but didn’t comment, even though she thought she could detect some irritation in his intent green eyes.
"Looking carefully at my trust portfolio, I’ve been distressed to see that I’m barely keeping pace with passbook interest."
"You do understand that the funds are invested very conser
vatively in compliance with your grandfather’s instructions, don’t you, Jamie? His intent was to preserve principal, not to grow the fund."
"I understand that, Daddy, and I think that philosophy might have been valid when he made that decision, but it doesn’t seem wise at this point in my life. I’m just 21 years old, and I can afford to be a little more aggressive with at least some of the money."
Folding his hands on the table, he looked at her and asked, "Just how do you plan on accomplishing that, Jamie?"
"I’d like to take the 25% percent distribution that I was entitled to on my birthday," she said.
He looked like he was trying to remain calm as he took in several deep breaths. His hands were clasped together so tightly that she could see his fingers digging into the spaces between his knuckles. "Entitled is not the correct term, Jamie," he finally said. "You’re entitled to the distribution of your entire account upon your 30th birthday. Up until that point, all distributions are purely discretionary. The mere fact that there is a schedule of possible distribution dates should not lead you to believe otherwise."
She was stunned by both his tone and the formality of his speech, and she sought to determine what the cause of both was. "You sound like you’re angry, Daddy. Is something wrong?"
He consciously tried to appear relaxed, and was fairly successful at doing so, years of practice in the courtroom once again paying off. "No, nothing is wrong, Jamie. I just like to be clear on matters like this. I’m just sounding like a lawyer. Sorry about that." He gave her a smile and added a pat on the hand, and this seemed to reassure her.
"That’s okay," she said dismissively. "So, to phrase it correctly, I suppose I’m asking for a discretionary distribution of 25% of my trust." Her vivid green eyes were locked upon his, and both of them could feel that this was turning into a test of wills.
"What do you plan on doing with the money?" he asked. "This is a very large sum, as you know."
"Yes, I know that, Daddy, and at this point I’m not sure how I want to invest it. I assume I’ll hire a broker to help manage it. I don’t want to be reckless with it, if that’s what you’re worried about," she insisted.
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