“Kali!” Jenny shouted from outside. “Come here, quickly!”
“Oh, no, he’s hurt,” she said with a moan, rushing out of the room. When she reached the steps of the church, she caught sight of a weary Travis standing beside a taxicab. Standing beside him was a small girl who held tightly onto his hand. She was looking around curiously. At last her eyes came to rest upon Kali, who stood frozen at the doorway.
Kali’s hands flew to her heart, and she gasped. Standing before her was her mirror image, a child unmistakably her own.
“Oh, my God,” she breathed, walking slowly forward. “Cheryl?” Tears filled her eyes. She had grown so much! Where was the little girl she had known? Her heart ached with the knowledge that she had lost so many years. Yet here she was. Kali longed to touch her, make sure that this child would not turn out to be a dream. But would Cheryl remember her?
“Mommy?” Her voice was timid, and she looked anxious. But as she gazed up at the woman before her, recognition flooded over her. This was the woman in the photograph her father had given her to keep by her bedside! How many nights had the little girl hugged that picture, wondering why her mommy was gone, crying for her to comfort her? In the beginning she had asked her father to take her to her mother, but after his cold threats, she’d never asked again. But she’d never forgotten her mother. And when this tall man named Travis had come to talk to her father and later explained to her that he would be bringing her home to her mother, she’d left with him gladly. Now she glanced up at him and he squeezed her hand reassuringly.
“That’s your mommy, Cheryl,” he murmured. He let his eyes take in the beautiful picture Kali made. “I’m sorry I’m late, but I had to pick up your wedding gift,” he murmured, his voice husky. He knew he would carry with him the image of his future wife’s joy for the rest of his life.
She looked up, her face filled with overflowing love for the man who had moved heaven and earth to bring back her child. “How did you find her?”
“We can go into that later,” he told her. “Right now I think we have a wedding to attend.”
Kali hesitantly held out her hands to Cheryl, fearful that the girl might be reluctant to come to her. Her heart sang when Cheryl ran into her outstretched arms.
“You’ve brought me something so special that I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to thank you,” Kali cried, gazing up at Travis with tears in her eyes.
“The look on your face is enough,” he assured her as the trio walked into the chapel amid the many well-wishers present to view the reunion of mother and daughter, and later the wedding that was all the more poignant because of the deep love between the bride and groom.
It couldn’t have been a more perfect day. In less than twelve hours Kali had regained her daughter and gained a husband. Knowing how loath she was to be parted from Cheryl for even a short time, Travis suggested they put off their honeymoon for a while so they could have time together as a family, and Kali loved him for it.
The wedding reception was now long over, and an exhausted Cheryl was put to bed in the guest room while Travis and Kali shared some time alone in the master bedroom. A champagne bottle sat in an ice-filled bucket near the bed while they lay under the covers in each other’s arms. Travis moved away long enough to set his glass on the nightstand.
“Now, I think it’s time to get this marriage consummated,” he growled, pulling her on top of him.
She placed one hand on his chest and pushed away.
“My darling, this marriage was consummated many times before the fact,” she informed him with a sultry smile.
“Yeah, but I’m a henpecked husband now. Hey!” He flinched when she socked him in the arm and jumped out of bed.
“You will not put me off, Travis Yates. All these years I have gone crazy trying to get Cheryl back, and you accomplished it in a short period of time. How?”
He shrugged. “I sent some friends of mine a description of her. They found her and called me, and I flew over. Say, Paris is some city. We’ll have to go there sometime.”
“Travis!” she wailed.
He took pity on her then. “Some old friends of mine are living over in Europe now, and I contacted them about Cheryl and Blayne. Using what many would call unorthodox methods, they were able to track the two of them down and get word to me before he disappeared again.” He made it sound much simpler than it had really been.
“Why didn’t you tell me when you first heard?” Kali demanded, dropping down to sit on the end of the bed.
His dark eyes softened with love. “I didn’t know if I could get there before they disappeared again, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up if nothing came of it. You’ve been hurt enough, love,” he told her, leaning forward to take her hand.
Kali would have dropped into his arms right then if she hadn’t wanted to hear the entire story so badly. “I’m surprised Cheryl went with you so readily.”
He grinned. “I had a little help. I stopped off in Virginia first and picked up her teddy bear, dragon, and a picture of our wedding announcement. She definitely remembered the stuffed animals, remembered you, and after we talked for a while she was glad to return to the States as long as I threw in a trip to Disneyland as a bonus.”
“What happened in Paris?” she wanted to know. “Where did you find her? At least she’s been eating well. Blayne could never even boil water, so who took care of her?”
“She was staying at a house belonging to a friend of your ex-husband’s.”
Kali’s eyes narrowed. His casual answer sounded much too pat. Why did she feel as if there were a great deal more to the story? “A girlfriend?” she pressed.
Travis stretched his body, his hands braced behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. “Sort of.”
“Sort of? Either she was or she wasn’t, Travis.” She rolled over onto her side, placing her head in her hand. “Which was it?”
Travis mumbled something.
Kali angled her head forward. She wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly, and she sincerely hoped she was wrong.
“Travis, tell me now or consider yourself celibate until the year 2000.”
He turned his head and grinned lazily at her. Angling himself up, he leaned over her and rested his hand against a full breast, the nipple immediately peaking against his palm.
“Wanna bet as to who can hold out the longest?”
A tiny groan left her lips before she could call it back. “What is his friend who took care of my daughter?”
He took a deep breath, already anticipating her reaction. “A hooker.”
“A hooker?” she screeched, then quickly lowered her voice. “Are you saying you found my little girl living with a hooker? With God knows what kind of men around?”
Travis sighed. This kind of conversation wasn’t what he had planned for his wedding night. In fact, he hadn’t planned any at all.
“She’s a very nice woman. She told me she didn’t entertain her—uh—clients when Cheryl was around.” He decided he would be better off not telling Kali how beautiful Marie Bouchet was, or how she had offered the tall dark American a freebie.
Kali thought of a little girl who had grown up too quickly due to her years in Europe and from probably spending so much time with adults instead of playing with children her own age. She wanted to think of Cheryl playing with her dolls and wearing play clothes, not watching orgies or whatever they did over there. Her imagination ran wild at all sorts of perverted activities her daughter may have observed.
Travis grabbed her hand and pulled her back against him, rubbing his hips suggestively against hers.
“Stop thinking the worst,” he chided. “She seems to be a pretty together kid, and with us as parents she’ll do even better. First thing tomorrow I’m calling my lawyer to draw up adoption papers if it’s all right with you.”
She stared into his dark eyes. “Blayne gave up all rights to Cheryl?”
“Let’s just say I persuaded him to.”
Kali’s lips quivered in a smile. “Oh, Travis, did you do what I think you did?”
He nuzzled her throat. “Let’s just say he won’t be playing any more pretty-boy parts for a while.” His voice hardened. “I had to, Kali. I took one look at his smirking face when he found out we were getting married”—he would never tell her the exact words Blayne had used about Kali because they were too obscene—“and I knew I had to do something. He signed readily enough and gave me his promise that he would stay in Europe.”
Kali hugged him tightly. “Did I ever tell you how much I love you?” she whispered, blinking to keep her tears back.
He leaned down to kiss away the salty tears. “Many times, but I’ll never tire of hearing it.”
Kali moved closer to Travis, whispering over and over that she loved him, and promising to show him how much before the night was over.
Epilogue
Travis’s photo book portraying a woman’s strength was well received when it came out a little over a year later. The cover photograph was of Kali. Inside, there was a different shot of her, a fashion photograph taken five years before. With maturity had come strength and even more beauty, and Travis never tired of telling Kali how lovely she was and how lucky he was to be married to her. He had even dedicated the book to her.
Kali had delivered “Human Frailties” into the hands of a literary agent and several months later rejoiced when it sold. Her first work would be published shortly. To celebrate their mutual success, Travis held a cocktail party at the studio.
Kali was there, irritated with Travis’s overly solicitous manner.
“Are you sure you don’t want to sit down?” he asked for the hundredth time. “After all, you’ve been standing for well over an hour, and I don’t want you to become tired.”
“Travis, you’re a real pain in the rear,” she told him bluntly, gesturing with her glass of soda water. “I’m pregnant, not dying.”
“Is he acting like a first-grade pain again?” Jenny asked as she approached them.
“Yes!”
“No!” was said simultaneously.
Kali ordered Travis to be silent. “Ever since he found out I was pregnant, he hasn’t let me be alone for more than two minutes. He even told the doctor something must be wrong, since I haven’t had any morning sickness. He’s even bribed Cheryl to keep an eye on me when he isn’t around to make sure I don’t get into any trouble.”
Jenny smiled at that. Kali had been very patient with the young girl over the first few months of Cheryl’s return. She spent many hours explaining to her that she hadn’t been the one to abandon her, that her father had taken her away, and about how long and hard Kali had worked to regain Cheryl. Surprisingly, Blayne hadn’t talked against Kali very much and only explained their reason for living in Europe as it being crucial for his career. Kali learned of the many “aunts” Cheryl had stayed with while her father worked and was grateful that Cheryl didn’t know exactly what Blayne did for a living. She decided to wait a while before going into all the details behind the divorce and Cheryl’s kidnapping until the girl was old enough to understand. No matter what, though, Kali would not show Blayne to be the black hearted villain, because he had taken good care of Cheryl and she was grateful for that.
She had finally learned from Travis that when he’d first learned of Blayne’s whereabouts he had flown immediately to Germany to confront the man. He’d given him one option: Blayne could save his health and pretty face only if he gave up Cheryl. Kali had a sneaky suspicion that money had also changed hands, but Travis never spoke of it and she never asked.
From the beginning he was the father to Cheryl that Blayne had never been, and the two were now inseparable. Kali’s recently confirmed pregnancy was the frosting on the cake.
Jenny leaned over and lowered her voice. “Is it really true that Travis fainted when you told him you were pregnant?”
Kali’s lips curved upward. “Out cold.”
“And yet he plans to take childbirth classes with you and be present in the delivery room?”
“Yep.”
“What if he faints in the delivery room?” Jenny’s eyes sparkled with amusement at the idea of the toll man’s passing out on a linoleum floor.
Kali looked across the large studio at the man she couldn’t imagine not loving. At the man who had basically given her a reason to live and love again.
“If he does, I’m sure he’ll have the grace to wait until we know if it’s a boy or girl and make sure mother and baby are fine.”
Two hours later, husband and wife were alone in their bedroom talking over the events of the party.
Kali related her conversation with Jenny and laughed when Travis grimaced.
“Talk about ruining my macho image,” he grumbled good-naturedly, tossing his clothes in the hamper and ducking in for a quick shower. When he came out, a towel wrapped around his hips and another being used to dry his hair, Kali couldn’t keep her eyes from straying over his masculine form with an undisguised hunger. Travis saw her expression and grinned wickedly. “Hey, lady, for someone who’s pregnant, you sure get some funny ideas.”
“You’ve never complained before,” she retorted, reaching into the tiny refrigerator they kept in the bedroom and withdrawing a pitcher of juice. She poured some into two goblets and handed one to him. “In fact, if I recall last night correctly…”
“Okay, I get the picture,” he said hastily, drawing her into his arms for a lengthy kiss. “Mmm, you taste better than any juice.” From there it was inevitable that they retreat to their large bed for some leisurely loving. Afterward they curled up beside each other, sipping their juice.
Kali looked up at him wordlessly and raised her glass in a silent salute that spoke so eloquently of her love for him. Likewise, Travis lifted his glass, his dark eyes loving her as thoroughly as the rest of him just had. All of Kali’s doubts were gone now.
Only Love Page 22
