Mr. Forever

by Sara Daniel

  “You just said Ethan was handling everything.”

  “I need to go shopping. All I have is the forty-dollar dress I bought five years ago for Aunt Carla’s wedding. Ethan said the dinner party and going on The Brighid Show could really help our company if I don’t screw up.”

  “He didn’t say that.”

  “He said it diplomatically.” She knew what he meant. With a mixture of dread and anticipation, she watched the bathroom door open. As usual, her heart pounded, and she became sweaty and tongue-tied just looking at Ethan. And that was with him fully dressed.

  He winked at her as he sauntered into the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal from the box she’d left out.

  “I don’t mind shopping with you,” Olivia said over the phone. “But where am I going to stay and what will I do while you’re at the party?”

  “You can share my room at Ethan’s.”

  He sent her a sideways look over the Rice Krispies. “You better be talking to Olivia or Austin.”

  “Olivia,” she mouthed. She spoke into the receiver again but kept her gaze on his face. “If Ethan still doesn’t have a date to the party, maybe you can tag along with him.”

  He stared right back at her, but she didn’t have a clue what he was thinking until he spoke. “I don’t have a date. Tell Olivia I’m saving a spot on my right arm for her.”

  “Did you hear that?” Penelope said into the phone. I got a pity date for you, while I have a real date.

  Ethan snatched the phone from her hand. “When you come, bring a couple dozen scones…The almond-poppy seed ones are definitely my favorite. Bring lots of them…What do you mean you’re not sure you’re coming?…Fine, I’ll go in the dressing room with Penelope and help her try on dresses.”

  Penelope yelped and lunged across his chest for the phone. “Olivia, you have to come. I need a female opinion from my sister, not some guy who wants me in red sequins with plunging cleavage that I’ll never fill.”

  “You’d look great in red sequins,” Ethan said. His face was inches from hers. “And I’ll be the judge of your cleavage.”

  “Did you hear that?” Penelope demanded in the phone. “This is why I need you, Olivia.”

  “All right, I’m coming.” Olivia sounded resigned. “How do I get there?”

  Olivia had to deal with Caleb again. She’d planned to stay out of his sight until he left. Cowardly, yes, but exactly what her emotions were capable of handling. She shouldered her overnight bag and stood by the front door as he came out of his room with his final load of luggage and Liam strapped in his infant seat.

  “Is something wrong with my checkout slip?” He looked no happier with this reunion than she was.

  “It was fine.” He’d left a generous tip that guaranteed a down payment on her building repairs and renovations. Unfortunately, it left her with the icky feeling she’d earned it on her back. “I’m going to New York too.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  Liam whimpered and squirmed against his car seat straps.

  She resisted stepping forward to soothe the baby. “Your date wants me to take her shopping and I’m going to dinner tonight with your brother.”

  He glared at her. “You could have warned me.”

  “It was just decided a half hour ago. I barely had time to close up the house and pack my bag. I’m warning you now so you don’t have any nasty surprises when you get to the airport and find me on your plane. If you have a taxi coming and want to cancel, we can all take my car over.” Because of the storm, he hadn’t been able to get an immediate replacement on his rental car after it was towed.

  “Actually, Maude is driving. I’ve asked her to spend a couple days in New York caring for Liam until I can hire a regular babysitter for him, and she agreed.”

  As he spoke, Maude’s Buick rolled up the driveway. She couldn’t fault his thoroughness in lining up care for Liam. At the same time, without Austin, Olivia was free until next weekend. Liam would have been comfortable with her. Didn’t she deserve consideration?

  Olivia sat in the backseat with Liam as Caleb and Maude sat in the front. She amused the boy with a small assortment of books and toys, even as her mind wandered. Caleb needed to fall in love. Olivia had lost her chance for it to happen with her. Instead she was on a journey to steer her little sister toward happiness and let her sister heal the scars on Caleb’s heart. Of course, if that didn’t work out, Penelope could have Ethan, who already loved her.

  Olivia wouldn’t have to look after her sister for much longer. Penelope had finally spread her wings. Austin still needed her and would for a few more years, but he was growing up fast, needing her less every day. Someday all too soon he would leave home. She only had Liam for a few more minutes. She would eventually have foster children — some younger, some older — who needed her for a while. But despite her belief that the parent and child bond was the only lasting love, a child’s presence wasn’t truly permanent. She had no one to share her life with.

  “Do we need to stop for breakfast before we get to the airport?” Maude asked.

  “I brought scones,” Olivia offered, although they’d still have to make a stop for Caleb.

  “Oh, that’s perfect,” Maude said.

  “What did you bring besides scones?” Caleb’s words sounded like they were coming through clenched teeth, but he didn’t turn around for her to be able to tell for sure.

  “Nothing.”

  “No tea?” He was mocking her, of course.

  “No tea, no preserves, no butter. Just cold, dry scones. Want one?” She gave up trying to entice him. It had the opposite effect anyway.

  “Might as well. I’m already running late for the meetings I have lined up this morning. I don’t want to stop and make us later. Scones are better than starving.”

  Not quite the endorsement she’d choose for this year’s summer brochure, but she passed him a plain scone along with Maude’s preferred orange currant flavor. He held the triangle biscuit on his palm. “It’s lighter than I expected.” He stared at the golden brown floury top. “Lighter in color too.” He flipped it over to reveal the same golden brown underneath. “You didn’t burn the bottom.”

  “Of course not.” Insulted, she turned her attention back to amusing Liam. She’d never get Caleb’s approval. He’d made that known from the beginning. Scores of guests had deemed her scones perfect, but he’d find something lacking. He’d certainly found plenty lacking in her.

  A moan tore from deep in his throat, a sound of sensual pleasure more intense than any he’d made last night. Despite her resolve, she looked up at him. He’d devoured half the scone and wasn’t stopping.

  It meant nothing. Just because he made sounds of rapture and looked like he was in ecstasy didn’t mean he felt it. He was probably in the midst of an allergic reaction, and they’d have to detour the car to the nearest hospital.

  “That was delicious,” Caleb proclaimed as he swallowed the rest of the scone. “I’ve never tasted anything so soft and flaky and delicate. Why didn’t you tell me they were so good? I would have eaten them every day.”

  She clenched the armrest on the door. “I did tell you. You simply ignore everything that comes out of my mouth that doesn’t mesh with your beliefs.”

  “Can I have another scone? Name your price. I’ll pay.”

  Olivia was silent as Maude turned the car turned into the tiny parking lot of the regional airport that was hardly more than a paved landing strip. Caleb went to talk to the pilot and Maude made a run to the bathroom. Caleb returned first, and Olivia had her answer for him. “My price is for us to settle up with that kiss I owe you.”

  “We’re not kissing. I made a judgment error.”

  “Was your error choosing the kiss as your reward, or was the error kissing me during sex last night?”

  “Two judgment errors,” he snapped. “You’re wrong for me. You’re wrong for Liam. You’re wrong for Forever.”

  She flinched. “Well, you’re r
ight about one of those. I am wrong for Forever. But if you’re putting your stupid theories above your happiness and your son’s happiness, then you’re not the father Liam needs.” She handed the bag of scones to him. “You can have all of them. You need something you can find pleasure in for the rest of your life.”

  Caleb walked into the conference room. His lawyers sat on one side of the table. Jennifer’s lawyers were across the table. Jennifer was standing at a window that looked across the river to New Jersey. She turned to him. “Can I talk to you for a minute without these guys?”

  Caleb preferred to get a feel for what she wanted from him and her long-term plan of involvement with Liam first. On the other hand, he didn’t want to antagonize her before they started negotiating. She could easily inflict further damage on his reputation — and worse, on Liam’s future.

  So he nodded and ushered her into a side room. They hadn’t been alone together since the night Liam was conceived. Now he felt nothing but awkwardness and the frustration that she was the root of his problems. He closed the door behind them. “Why do we need privacy now when you didn’t last week?”

  She paced the floor. “I am so sick of your lawyers going on and on about how Liam is only ‘allegedly’ your child. By all means, do the paternity test thing, so you can have the proof. Knock yourself out. In the meantime, stop making it sound like I slept with a different guy every night so there’s no way I could know for sure you’re the man.”

  “How do you know?” Caleb asked. He’d thought the very things she was accusing him of, and as far as he knew it was the truth. She’d slept with him. He had no reason to think he wasn’t one of many. Unlike with Olivia, their encounter hadn’t been special or meaningful.

  “I wasn’t sleeping around. That’s how I know for sure it was you. I’d broken up with my boyfriend three months before. There hadn’t been anyone since then and I didn’t expect anyone in my future. I was hoping he and I would patch things up when he came back from Afghanistan; his upcoming tour of duty was part of why we broke up. I wasn’t looking for a guy to take his place while he was gone. I didn’t plan to have sex. That’s why I wasn’t on birth control. The night with you was just an accident.”

  In more ways than one, apparently.

  “Look, you were pretty drunk, so maybe you don’t remember. You pretty much passed out after you came. But the condom broke.”

  He hadn’t remembered. He searched his memory, but he had no recollection of a used condom at all. All he could think was that it was Ethan’s fault he got so drunk that night that he was in this situation in the first place. Of course, if Ethan’s confession from last night was accurate, Caleb was to blame for Ethan’s prior marriages not working out, which put all the blame back on Caleb.

  “I took a shower right away,” Jennifer continued. “I thought everything would be fine, but it wasn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me when you discovered it wasn’t fine?”

  She shrugged. “Scared, I guess. Lonely. I missed having a boyfriend. No offense, but I knew I didn’t want anything long term with you.”

  It was hard not to take offense, but at the same time he wouldn’t want anything long term with someone who passed out on him and had only a vague recollection, at best, of their time together.

  “I thought having a baby would replace my need for Jay. But it just made the loneliness worse. I also discovered I hate being a mother. I only want to be Jay’s girlfriend.”

  He couldn’t believe he almost felt sorry for this woman who had put him and Liam through hell. “So what are you going to do?”

  “First of all, I don’t want Jay to see me as someone who was a total slut while he was out of the country.”

  “You could have told me about Liam privately. Then the entire country wouldn’t be speculating about how many partners you’ve had.”

  She folded her arms across her chest. “Okay, yeah, maybe I should have. But I’ve always wanted to be on TV, and they didn’t pick me for American Idol or Wheel of Fortune.”

  “If you got what you wanted when you went on The Brighid Show, why do we have lawyers waiting next door who are charging us by the quarter-hour?”

  “I’ve had an offer to be on a reality show.”

  “A reality show?” Good Lord, he could only imagine how the media would eviscerate him with that angle.

  “It’s going to be about me living my life while pining for my man who’s off in a war zone, and how maybe he’ll want me, maybe he won’t when he comes back. I want the show to focus exclusively on me…and Jay, of course. I don’t want Liam in it.”

  “On that, we’re in complete agreement.” Even if Liam wasn’t part of the show, his mother baring her life in a humiliating reality program was bound to come back to haunt him eventually.

  “The problem is your people keep mentioning my name whenever they talk about the scandal, so it keeps swirling around in all the media hype over you. I need audiences to stop being interested in my relationship with you and Liam so they can focus on the real issue in my life — missing Jay.”

  She was so different from Olivia. Caleb could hardly comprehend that they’d lived in the same house for a few months. She was walking away from her own child, as if he meant nothing to her. Olivia, on the other hand, was rearranging her entire life to accommodate kids she’d never met. “Don’t you care what happens to Liam?”

  “I know he’s in the best possible hands. I’ve heard plenty of your lectures about putting kids first and doing the best thing for kids, so have at it. I’m giving you the chance to practice what you preach.”

  Olivia would really like that line. “If we keep your name out of our press releases and interviews, then what?”

  “You can have full custody of Liam. I mean, I guess at some point he’ll want to know who I am, and I’ll probably want to see how he turns out, but…” Her voice trailed off.

  “We could let the lawyers work out the specifics of that,” he managed. Full custody. Liam was his biological son and she wanted to give him full custody so he could raise him in a stable home.

  And she was smiling about it. “Yeah, we could let the lawyers earn their ungodly rates. Thank you, Caleb.”

  He was the one who should be thanking her. She’d given him more than he would have considered asking for, but at the same time he felt sad. Liam deserved so much more from his mother than someone who would probably want to see how he turns out. “Are you sure this is what you really want?”

  “Yes, I’m absolutely sure.”

  His underlying goal in Forever was to help kids who were victims of bad parenting. Liam was one of those victims — from both parents. No longer. From now on, Liam’s needs came first. Fortunately, what Liam needed was exactly what Caleb had to do to save his career. Liam needed a mother and Caleb needed a wife — of the Forever variety.

  Chapter 19

  Caleb went from the lawyers’ meeting to the Forever offices. He immediately spotted Ethan in the front of the reception desks. A small crowd of loyal employees was gathered around him. Caleb sighed with relief. Last night’s harsh words were behind them, and his brother was now rallying the troops. Ethan was willing to stand up for him when no one else would. Caleb needed to let him know how much he appreciated that.

  “So,” Ethan continued his speech to the amassed group. “This is the last time you’ll see me in the office. Effective yesterday, I resigned from The Forever Marriage to become business manager of Penelope’s Pleasures, the country’s elite creator of custom perfumes. You all might want to consider doing the same.”

  Caleb gasped. His brother hadn’t just bailed on him. He was trying to take the company down with him. “The Forever Marriage has merit and we all know it,” he announced, shifting everyone’s attention to him. “That’s why we’ve dedicated our lives to marriage and this company. I’ve made mistakes, but we’re working hard to get the company back on track.”

  “Is the kid really yours?” John Winston, his top couns
elor and vice president of operations, demanded.

  Ethan had publicly quit, leaving him without a business manager and marketing director. Now his premiere Forever example was questioning him in front of the entire company. “Everyone here knows how important marriage is to me. I’m counting on all of you to help me remind the rest of world. The Brighid Show generated a lot of publicity. Not the kind we wanted, for sure. So we have to go back to our desks, man the phones, and correct the misconceptions. Marriages are at stake. People are counting on us. Don’t let them down.”

  “I have no intention of letting couples down. But we all deserve some straight answers from you.” John spread his arms to encompass everyone in the room. “Do you intend to marry the child’s mother? Do you care at all about the home your child will grow up in? Or are you laughing at us behind our backs? Did you build this company as a joke to see how many people you could sucker into a relationship you wouldn’t be caught dead in?”

  “I am completely dedicated to marriage. I’ve married myself to the institution.” He’d turned his back on a woman who loved him and his son because his priorities with The Forever Marriage came first.

  “The institution is your best friend?” His most faithful employee blasted him while Ethan looked on, smirking. “How can an institution validate your world and explore your dreams? If you want me to stay with this company — heck, if you want there to be a company — show us your Forever marriage. Show the world.”

  Caleb looked around the room. Everyone was watching and waiting for his decision. John might have been the one speaking, but the others would have an easier time clearing out their desks and walking out. “Come to the company dinner tonight. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by my Forever partner. She will put all your concerns to rest about where my priorities lie.”