by Pat Ballard
Jake liked her to lie beside him and read him a story when he woke up. That’s what they did each morning. He seemed to do better during the day if they started the day with some quiet time together. As she lay on the bed beside him and read to him, Jake twirled a strand of her hair around and around his small hand.
She didn’t know how long Sam had been standing there when she closed the book and looked up, but she was taken aback by the gentle expression in his eyes.
“Daddy!” Jake yelped and leaped for his father.
Sam laughed and dropped his briefcase in time to catch the flying bundle that came toward him.
He looked breathtaking in his dark gray three-piece suit. But suddenly Nella had a flashback of how he’d looked earlier without a shirt on. That was one memory she needed to lose.
That afternoon Sam called and told Nella not to make dinner, that they would eat out.
They had a nice meal in a small restaurant, with Jake doing most of the talking. When they started to leave the cashier handed Jake a lollipop and asked if he wanted it. He looked up at Nella hesitantly. “Will just one make my teeth rot out?”
Sam exploded with laughter, but Nella managed to maintain a straight face. “I guess one will be okay,” she told him.
Back in the room, Jake got busy playing with a new toy Sam had brought him. Nella was getting his bed ready to tuck him in for the night when Sam came into the room.
“The office staff is throwing a party Friday night. They want to celebrate the opening of our new facility here. They’ve been after me to let them meet you, so I’d like for you to plan to come with me.”
“Won’t that be awkward for you?” Nella wondered how he felt about having to introduce his plus-sized wife to everyone.
“I’ll take care of myself. Just be ready to go at seven o’clock. Oh, and it’s kind of dress up, but not really formal—do you need to shop?”
“Well, actually, I will need to shop. I didn’t come prepared to party.” She had plenty of clothes for all occasions at home, but she hadn’t planned to be going out much, under the circumstances.
“I called the babysitting service here at the hotel today. Jake can stay with them.” As usual, he had everything under control.
He was leaving the room when he turned back to her.
“Oh, and thank you for teaching Jake that candy will rot his teeth,” he said, a slight smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
Then he added more seriously, “I’ll admit, when I made our arrangement with you, Jake’s diet was the only thing I was concerned about. But you aren’t at all like I expected.”
“You mean because I don’t lie around all day on the couch and eat junk food? And because I exercise, and try to be healthy?”
She knew she was being blunt, but with this subject she meant to be blunt. He was like so many others who had a false concept of fat people.
“Yes, I guess that’s what I mean.” To her amazement, he looked embarrassed.
“Sam, I don’t mean to be unkind about this, but you’re just one of a multitude of people who have been brainwashed into believing the wrong thing about fat people. You see, I inherited my size, just like I inherited the color of my eyes, the shape of my nose, my height—well, you get the picture.”
She would have gone on, but just then Jake bounded into the room wanting to know if he could sleep with his new toy.
The next night, Sam asked Jake if he’d like to go to the beach the next day and have a picnic. Jake was instantly excited, and started bounding around making plans that included Nella. Finally she stopped him.
“Jake, maybe your daddy wants just you and him to go on a picnic. I think he wants to spend some time with you.” She assumed Sam wanted a day out with his son.
“Why don’t you want to go?” Sam asked from across the room, where he sat in a recliner, watching the evening news. He muted the TV to wait for her answer.
“Well—I just assumed—” she stammered, taken by surprise at his questioning look.
“Well, you assumed incorrectly,” he informed her. “I want this to be a family outing for Jake’s sake. He needs to get the feeling he belongs to a family.”
“Yeah, Nella, we’re fambly, so you’re coming, okay?” His decision seemed to be made.
“Okay,” Nella agreed. She glanced at Sam, but he was already listening to something on the TV.
The next day was beautiful. The sky was a magnificent azure blue, with a spattering of white clouds pushed along by a playful breeze. The temperature was perfect for a picnic. Not too hot, yet warm enough for a comfortable swim.
Sam led them to a spot that was secluded from the rest of the people on the beach. It was like their very own private little haven. Jake conned his father into building a sand castle, so Nella slipped out of the wrap she’d worn over her bathing suit and headed for the water.
“Be careful,” Sam called over his shoulder, and continued to help Jake.
The water engulfed Nella as she dove into an oncoming wave. She loved swimming so much, she was convinced sometimes she’d originally descended from a mermaid. She swam until she became tired, then headed back to shore.
When she returned she saw Sam sitting in the water, just deep enough for Jake to splash and play. As she approached, she could see sun glistening on the dark hair on Sam’s chest. He made a spectacular sight sitting there playing with his son. She wished she were able to tell him that she’d never be attracted to him, but to her dismay, she knew that wasn’t the case. She didn’t like his hard approach to life, but that didn’t keep her from appreciating his beauty, and being physically attracted to him. What an impossible position to be in.
She loved watching him with Jake. He became a different person. Which one was the real Sam du Cannon? The hard, no-nonsense business tycoon, or the warm, laughing, loving father?
As she approached them, he looked up and watched her walk toward them. His eyes traveled her entire length before coming back to hers. It was hard for her to find a bathing suit that fit the top part of her body correctly, as her breasts were much larger than average, and there was an impressive expanse of cleavage showing. The motions of swimming had worked the suit even lower than when she first put it on. Droplets of water cascaded down her cleavage to disappear in the valley below. Sam’s eyes took in all of it, and he felt a stirring in the lower part of his body.
Before he could analyze his thoughts, Jake discovered Nella and ran toward her. She sat down in the water beside Sam and started playing with Jake. Soon all three of them were in a water-splashing game that had sheets of water flying everywhere, and their peals of laughter sounded like any happy little family out for a day of fun.
Friday, as Nella dressed for the company party, she felt butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She was a little nervous. Taking care of a three-year-old was one thing, but going out in public to a party, pretending to be the happy bride of a man who didn’t even like her, was going to be quite another.
She was happy with the results of her efforts when she was dressed. She’d bought a beautiful purple three-piece outfit. The color was wonderful on her. The neckline of the fitted bodice dipped just low enough to show the enticing beginning of cleavage. The skirt was straight and reached just below mid-calf, and the jacket that completed the ensemble was a soft gauze-like material that flowed when she walked. She wore a long faux pearl necklace and pearl drop earrings. Her dark hair was cooperating exceptionally well, and she knew she looked her best tonight.
When Sam returned from taking Jake to the baby-sitter, Nella was ready and waiting for him. “You look very nice tonight,” was all he said, but several times she felt his eyes on her as they drove to the party.
Sam looked even better than usual. He had on a black suit, yellow shirt, and a black and yellow paisley tie. The yellow shirt enhanced his dark hair and bronze complexion, and made his unusual eyes even more startling than they normally were. Nella wanted to tell him how devastatingly handsome he look
ed, but she was afraid she couldn’t be as passive and nonchalant with her compliment as he had been with his. And she sure wasn’t about to let him know just how handsome she thought he was.
She could feel excitement start deep inside her in anticipation of the challenge that lay ahead. It had been a while since she’d had a chance to go to a party, and she was anxious to get the evening under way.
When they entered the main room, Nella was surprised at the large crowd. People mingled everywhere. She had no idea Sam’s company was this large. Actually, she knew nothing about his work, as they never discussed it.
Sam introduced her to several people, and then disappeared into the crowd. She tried to mingle for a while, but soon realized these people all had their own little cliques and their own common interests, and she was an outsider. She casually made her way to the bar. She was aware that eyes followed her and comments were made, but didn’t trouble herself trying to second-guess what was thought or said.
She ordered a glass of champagne and leaned against the bar to sip her drink as she watched the party goers. She loved watching people as they struggled to impress each other and themselves. Especially women. She had held to a theory for a long time that women dressed for each other. Women seemed to have an obsessive desire to impress the other women around them. The competition had always been a mystery to her. Why couldn’t women just enjoy who they were as individuals?
Occasionally she caught a glimpse of Sam as he drifted from group to group. He seemed well-liked and accepted among his co-workers, and the smile on his face was warm and friendly. That was the most surprising. She’d only seen that look on his face for Jake. Apparently he could be very charming. She noticed several women openly flirting with him, even though they knew he was married now.
She was brought out of her deep thoughts by a quiet voice close beside her. “What’s a beautiful lady like you doing standing here alone?” The line wasn’t unusual, but it brought a slight smile to Nella’s lips.
The man standing beside her had startling blue eyes that seemed to be trying to pierce her soul. His hair was sandy brown and was beginning to recede at the hairline. His eyes were the only outstanding feature about his face. The light reflecting off them made them sparkle like cut glass.
Before she could answer, he reached over and took the glass from her hand and set it on the bar. “Would you allow me your first dance of the evening?”
Without saying a word, Nella allowed him to take her hand and lead her to the dance floor.
She loved playing “the games” at these social settings. She never took the comments seriously, and she had never seen a man yet she couldn’t outwit in these little charades. In fact, more men than she knew had walked away feeling a little jilted when they’d had to go home alone.
The first dance was a waltz. Nella and Blue Eyes swayed with the music as if they’d danced together all their lives. She could tell he loved to dance by the way he moved and guided her through the steps. He really wasn’t trying to hit on her. He just wanted to dance. Soon the waltz stopped and the band struck up a Rumba.
“Can you Rumba?” he asked.
“Try me,” she said.
At times like these she was so thankful her father had started her in dance classes at an early age, and that she had loved dancing enough to continue taking classes even up to the present. There weren’t many dances she couldn’t do.
Her love for dancing showed now as she and her partner blended and became one with the music. He was good! How she appreciated dancing with a good partner!
She wasn’t aware that the other dancers had cleared the dance floor just to stand and watch her and her partner move and sway to the sensual beat of the Rumba. She didn’t hear the comments of how well she danced, and, on several occasions, how beautiful she was. She didn’t see the scowl on Sam’s face.
Only when the music stopped and people applauded did she realize what had taken place. She had barely caught her breath when the band started again, and another man took her hand to dance.
Thus went her evening. She only paused long enough to switch partners and then continue dancing.
She was beginning to feel tired when the band started a slower than usual waltz. She felt strong arms surround her, and a very familiar aftershave engulfed her. She looked up into Sam’s golden eyes.
“My, my, aren’t we just the social butterfly?” She heard the trace of sarcasm in his voice.
“Well, I’ve never been a wallflower, Sam. So if that makes me a social butterfly, then I guess I am. But what do you care?” She could tell he was angry, but she was at a loss as to why.
“You’ve danced with every man here tonight! How does that make me look?”
“No, Sam, I’ve danced with every man here that has asked me, except you, my new husband, who hasn’t, until now, acted like he even knows me. How does that make you look? And when you finally do ask me to dance, you’ve done nothing but scowl at me. Surely, you don’t think you can bring me to a party, desert me, and expect me to stand where you left me until you return?”
She was expecting anything except his lips descending and engulfing hers in a long, gentle kiss.
He had to shut her up, and it was the first thing that came to his mind. When he ended the kiss she was too stunned to say a word. He led her from the room.
Glances and smiles were exchanged as heads nodded knowingly at each other. To the people left behind, Sam and Nella looked like two lovers leaving in the heat of the moment for pleasures that couldn’t wait.
As for Sam, he wondered what in the hell had just happened.
And for Nella? She smiled softly to herself, knowing she had just won another argument.
After the car was in motion toward the hotel, Nella broke the silence. “Sam, who is John McHill?”
“I’ve known John for years. He and his dates used to double date with Vanessa and me. Why?” His voice was tense from the remembered kiss.
“He was asking me a lot of questions about you and me and Jake. He mentioned Jake’s grandparents wanting to raise him so badly. How does he know about that? Have you told him?”
“Everybody at the office knows I’m having to fight them to keep Jake, so the word probably got to John somehow. I’ve never spoken to him directly about the situation. I don’t see him as much as I used to, now that Vanessa is gone.”
“Well,” and her voice became more concerned, “I don’t like him. I don’t trust him, and I felt like he was interrogating me. I felt like he only asked me to dance so he could ask me questions. I think you need to be very careful around him.”
“I think maybe you’re overreacting, but I’ll watch for any strange actions from him.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t resist telling him the next thing. “He said he found it strange that you’d married a plus-sized woman. He said he was the one who went for the full-figured women, and you always wanted the string beans.”
Sam didn’t bother to comment. They rode in silence for a few minutes, then he asked, “Who was your blue-eyed dance partner? Someone you know?”
“This was your company party, Sam. How am I supposed to know him? Don’t you know him?”
“No, I don’t know who he is.”
“Then he must have come with one of your employees, because I sure don’t know who he is.”
“Well, he sure seemed to want to know you better. You two were quite a spectacle on the dance floor.”
“In what way? Did I embarrass you?”
“No. In fact, you’re a very graceful dancer. Half the men there were drooling over you.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Under any other circumstance Nella would have thought he was jealous, but she knew Sam du Cannon wasn’t jealous of other men looking at her.
“Let’s just drop it, okay?”
They finished the drive in silence. Nella, smiling, remembering how much fun the evening had been, and, Sam, wishing he could stop seeing Nella’s body swaying to that sizzling Latin music,
and feeling those full, warm lips yielding beneath his.
Chapter 4
Nella left Jake at the hotel’s childcare center and spent part of the day shopping. She needed some time alone for a change. It’d been a week since the company party, and she was still on a high from the good time she’d had. Sam had been a little distant for a couple of days after the party, but soon things had settled back into their previous routine.
She bought a couple of items, but mostly just browsed and relaxed.
When she returned to get Jake, she had to wait for the mother ahead of her to get her two little boys, ages approximately two and four, who ran to their mother calling, “Mommy, Mommy!”
Nella watched Jake as he stood quietly and absorbed the transactions between mother and children. She wondered what he was thinking, and he was unusually quiet on the way home.
She forgot the incident until later that night.
They had finished dinner and Nella was stacking the dishes in the dishwasher. Jake sat on Sam’s lap and listened intently to the story Sam was reading to him. When the story ended, Jake sat quietly for a few minutes, instead of running and putting the book away as he usually did. Suddenly he sat up and looked Sam directly in the eyes.
“Nella’s my mommy now, okay?”
Nella froze in her tracks as her eyes met Sam’s across Jake’s head. She watched several emotions pass over Sam’s face as they stared at each other.
Jake reached up and with a hand on each side of Sam’s face, pulled his father’s head down to make his dad look him in the eyes. “And now I’ll call her Mommy, okay?”
“Jake,” Sam’s voice was quiet and gentle. “Will you go to your room and let Nella and me discuss this?”
The child climbed from his father’s lap and obediently started for the door to his room. Just before he got to the door, he stopped and turned back to his father. He pointed his finger at Sam and in a very serious voice said, “You better say yes!” Then he entered his room and closed the door.
