“Milo’s request was much better,” Petey declared as Wyatt prodded Abby into motion.
* * * * *
Abby fidgeted the entire time they were on the plane. The closer Wyatt got to the house, the more nervous she became.
“What if he doesn’t want me?” Abby asked.
Wyatt just sighed and shook his head. Even he knew that question wasn’t worth wasting a thought on. He’d already told her not to worry and that Jesse would be ecstatic when he discovered her in their home. Wyatt intended to help her set up the kitchen since Jesse hadn’t wanted to do it without her and disappear shortly before his cousin was due home. He didn’t want to give Abby too much time on her own. She was frantic enough without whatever nonsense her mind might conjure up if she had more than a few minutes alone.
When Jesse had called to let him know Abby had left him and was on her way to Harry’s, Wyatt was more shocked than he had ever been in his life. Every day he expected to hear that Abby had come to her senses and returned. A week later, Frank and Shelby broached his private domain, something rarely done by anyone, and pleaded with him to speak with her. They believed Abby would listen to reason if he were the one supplying it.
Wyatt debated for hours after they finally left over whether or not they were correct. The thing that finally motivated him to get involved was the visit he received from Dwayne. Without Holly. It was the first time in the years they had been married that Dwayne ever asked Wyatt to keep something private between the two of them. As far as he knew, Holly still didn’t know her husband had asked him to stick his nose into a personal matter.
Instead of contacting Abby, as they all urged him to, Wyatt chose to speak with Harry. After all, Jesse thought highly enough to entrust his wife’s care to the man, so Wyatt decided to seek his opinion of her state first. It was Harry who mentioned Jordan’s attempt to spur Abby into motion. When that failed, Wyatt did the unthinkable and took matters into his own hands.
When they reached the house, Wyatt took Abby’s suitcase and waited for her by the door. He knew she had a key and wanted her to open the door herself.
Abby delayed entering the house by lavishing Trevor with attention while Wyatt stood by patiently. When her dog bounded back inside, she had no choice but to follow.
“Oh,” Abby gasped as she looked around the living room.
“Nice,” Wyatt commented. “Friendly. Home.”
“Yeah,” she agreed.
“Needs more. Guess he’s waiting for you.”
“But what if…”
“Stop. You’re here now. The rest doesn’t mean diddley. Want this upstairs?” Wyatt wiggled her suitcase.
“No,” Abby answered forcefully. “I mean, I’d rather wait. To be sure.”
He shrugged and carried it to the kitchen with Abby following. “What goes where?”
Abby looked at the boxes stacked along the wall. Some were the ones Jesse had helped her bring from Earl’s. Some were obviously from Jesse’s apartment.
“He really didn’t put anything away.” She was awed.
“Told you that.” Wyatt rolled his eyes. Abby must have thought he was making that part up. “Gotta get to it. Needs to be done before Jess gets home. Should have plenty of time if we work at it.”
“Oh, um, okay.” Abby turned around slowly as she considered how to arrange things, her expression full of disbelief.
A little later, they were down to the last box. Trevor had finally stretched out on a throw rug to watch. He seemed to realize Abby was back to stay and it was safe for him to move more than two feet away from her.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Jesse stared at his brother’s retreating back as Frank walked into his home. After an extremely frustrating and unproductive day, he hoped to unwind by spending some time with the couple. They offered their support constantly since Abby left. Now, on the one occasion he wanted their company, Frank informed him that they were unavailable.
After thinking on it, Jesse decided against calling his parents. They were already worried enough. If they saw him now, they’d take one look at him and know he was a complete wreck. He needed to avoid Holly too. She meant well but he wasn’t up to her constant advice and Jesse was certain Dwayne wouldn’t be able to rein her in this time.
That left Jesse with only one other nearby choice. Wyatt. He pulled out his phone. “Hey.” Jesse greeted his cousin sadly, knowing he didn’t need to pretend with him.
“Jesse,” Wyatt responded. “You and Frank done?”
“Yeah. I still don’t get what the point of today was but we got what you wanted. Frank said he’d drop it by in the morning but I could get it back from him and bring it over now.”
“Thanks, but I’m not there.”
Jesse sighed. “You coming back soon? I was hoping we could talk a little.”
“Sorry, no. Don’t know when I’ll free up. Taking care of something and I need to finish.”
“Ah, that’s okay, Wy.” Jesse pushed away his disappointment. “I didn’t really want anything specific. I’ll catch you another time.”
Jesse drove home, his spirits sinking as he went. His desperation grew with each passing mile as he tried each of his friends. All were either busy or not answering so that meant another night spent with just Trevor to talk to. Too bad the dog didn’t speak English. He barked and whined at the appropriate places in their conversations but it just wasn’t the same as another person.
Pulling to the curb in front of the house, he wished he had the energy to go work out at Shane’s studio. He had a set of keys and Shane wouldn’t mind. Maybe after he took Trevor for a walk he’d head over there and make himself stay until it was time to call Abby.
“Hey, Trev.” Jesse ruffled the dog’s fur. “I was afraid you were going to disappear on me too.” He got a woof in response. “Need to go out?” Trevor walked farther into the room and sat down. “Not yet, huh? Okay. You let me know when you do.” Woof. The dog stood and looked over his shoulder. “What is it?” Woof, woof. Trevor moved toward the kitchen. “Guess you’re ready to eat. Kind of early. I thought we’d go for a walk first.” Woof. “Okay, Trev. At least you’re here. Can you believe it? The one day I actually want to hang out, no one has time for me.” Woof. “I should’ve just come to you first.” Woof. “You’ll talk to me, won’t you, Trevor?” Jesse followed the dog into the kitchen.
“I’ll talk to you.” Abby spoke from her position near the door leading to the garage.
Jesse was half afraid he was hallucinating when he heard Abby’s voice. He wanted her to be there so badly he wouldn’t have been surprised if she was an illusion. When he turned, he saw her standing by the door, her suitcase at her side.
“If you want me to,” she added.
He was speechless as he stared at her. When he saw her start to tremble, he broke the spell. “Abby? You’re really here?” She nodded. “I’m afraid you’ll disappear if I move.” This time she shook her head. “How? I mean, when, uh, what changed your mind?”
“Wyatt,” Abby answered, fighting her tears. “He came for me. He said you should call him and tell him if he needs to come back and get me or not.”
“Abby.” Jesse was still stunned.
“We put everything away for you in here,” Abby babbled. “You should have done it right away. The living room looks nice and I like the color you painted the kitchen. I haven’t gone into the other rooms. I didn’t want to trespass if you don’t want me here.”
“Abby…”
“Just call Wyatt. Please?”
Jesse could see she seriously wasn’t sure if he wanted her to stay or not. Hoping to calm her, he called his cousin. “Thank you,” he said as soon as Wyatt answered. “I haven’t figured out how you did this yet but thank you.”
“She really thinks you might not want her to stay.” Wyatt actually laughed.
“I can tell that by the way she’s still standing by the door with her suitcase while she insists that I call you from across the room.
Where are you? Were you all in on this?”
“Yep. Sorry you thought we all deserted you but we needed to make sure you went straight home.”
“Was the rest of today bogus too?”
“Had to keep you occupied somehow. Don’t worry. I’ll call Frank. I’m with Brett and Andie now. Guess I can head home since I’m assuming Abby won’t be needing a ride tonight.”
“Hell no! Now that she’s here, I doubt if either one of us will be going anywhere any time soon.”
“Don’t know about that. Jordan called earlier. Kiley’s in labor. That’s where Shane and Alyssa are.”
“What? Kiley’s in labor and Brett isn’t there with Jordan?”
“They were waiting to hear from you. Figured if you lost your mind and I had to come get Abby, you would need them. Couldn’t let either one of you alone if I did the wrong thing. Told them all they shouldn’t worry but they still wanted to wait for you.”
“Christ, Wy. How could any of you ever think there was any chance that I wouldn’t insist that Abby stay forever? Tell them thanks for their concern but get the hell to the hospital where they should be. And make sure someone calls us as soon as Kiley has that baby.”
“Will do.” Wyatt was still chuckling. “Hey, Jess? I know I don’t really need to say this but Abby’s pretty scared. Get her to tell you about what Jordan said and ask her to show you Brett’s sketch. Listen before you react.”
“All right. I will. Thanks again, Wyatt. You don’t know how much you amazed me with this one.”
“Someone had to do it. Tell your wife I would appreciate it if she stays where she belongs and make sure she calls me, okay?”
“Sure,” Jesse agreed before they both disconnected. Abby had relaxed slightly during the call but she was still by the door. “You heard me. I want you here more than I ever wanted anything. Please stay.”
“I was afraid. I’m sorry. Wyatt came to get me because he and Harry decided I didn’t know how to ask if I could come back. He said you couldn’t come after me since that might make me think you’re like Earl.”
“I had to wait for you, Abby. No matter how much I wanted to beg you to come home, I couldn’t.”
“I know. And they were right. I knew I was making a mistake before we got to the airport but I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“Aw, Abs. All it would have taken was for you to say you changed your mind. I kept hoping you would. I hoped you’d say so every time we talked.”
“Wyatt knew how often you called me. He also knew the only time I called you was the day I got there. He must have told Jordan I couldn’t even manage to do that. They thought I’d never come back if I was too afraid to call you.”
“He said I should ask you about whatever Jordan said to you and for you to show me Brett’s sketch.”
Abby dug the drawing out of her suitcase and handed it to him. “Brett added the one of me while they ate lunch. Jordan said he wanted me to see how bad we both looked. He said I had panicked when Earl found me and I was using that as an excuse to hide. He said the same things you did before, that I was still hearing Earl telling me what to do and that’s why I wouldn’t stop hurting us.” Her voice caught. “I’m so sorry, Jesse. I was wrong to leave like that. I thought I was making sense when I said I had to protect you. Do you think you can ever forgive me?”
“Abby.” Jesse held out a hand toward her and waited for her to approach. “There is nothing to forgive. I understand what you were thinking.” He smiled almost shyly. “I love you, Abby Monroe. Welcome home.”
With that, Abby stepped into his arms and hugged him to her. “Jesse,” she sniffled, “I love you so much. I promise never to run away again.”
“Don’t. Never is a long time and who knows what will come up. How about if you promise to go stay with Wyatt if you ever need space to think things through in the future? He asked me to tell you he’ll be grateful if you stay where you belong from now on. It’s so far out of character for him to do something like this. I can’t believe he actually came to bring you home.”
“He reminded me how he promised Gwen to help you take care of me and couldn’t keep letting both of us suffer when he knew how to stop it.” Abby let Jesse dry her tears.
“I knew he liked you but this is way more than that.” Jesse studied her again now that the tension was gone. “Harry told me you were barely eating and you seemed to be fighting a headache more often than not. I was afraid you were making yourself sick.”
“I’m sorry.” Abby tried to pull out of his arms.
“Don’t be.” Jesse refused to release her. “You’re pale and I would have known you weren’t eating without Harry saying anything. I wasn’t criticizing you, precious. I was making an observation.”
“But I look even worse…”
“You’re beautiful,” Jesse interrupted. “You’re always beautiful to me. You were the first time I saw you when you had a migraine. You were the day we got married. Every time we made love. When you’re laughing or crying. When you’re cooking. When you were talking to Trevor. When you were discussing things with Wyatt. You were beautiful even when you walked away from me at the airport with Earl’s bruises covering your face again. You are now when it’s easy to see you’ve been under a lot of stress. Bottom line, Abby. You, my wife, are a beautiful woman, period. I am so happy you’re here.”
“Me too, my more-than-handsome husband.” Abby giggled, causing Trevor to prance around them. “Guess you guys talked?”
“Yeah.” Jesse laughed with her. He suspected Trevor was chuckling too. “He is unique. I swear he knew exactly what I was saying. I’m sure he was responding.”
Trevor barked appropriately. “He says he was.” Abby included him in their hug when he jumped up against them.
“Come on, Trev, be a bud. I’m sure you got a kiss when Abby got here. I’m still waiting for mine.” Jesse had to laugh as Trevor flopped onto the rug. “My turn, Ab?”
She responded by raising her lips to his. She put her heart into the greeting he requested, leaving them both breathless long before it ended. “Hi, Jesse,” she whispered when they separated. “Will you show me what you’ve done in the rest of the house? I’d like to unpack if that’s okay.”
“Why don’t I feed Trevor first, in case it takes us a little while to get back down here?” Jesse suggested between kisses.
* * * * *
Over an hour later, Abby was standing naked in front of the open closet. “We can exchange anything you don’t like,” Jesse told her as she looked at the clothes he bought for her.
“I don’t believe you got all this for me when you didn’t even know if I was ever coming back.”
“Wishful thinking? I don’t know. I went along with Shane one day when he wanted to pick up something for Alyssa and it just sort of happened. It made you feel closer somehow. Maybe I’m just nuts. It’s not like you have an over-abundance of clothes. Did I screw up?” he asked, insecurely. “I tried to find things similar to what you chose when we went shopping together and nothing even remotely resembles the clothes you left behind at Earl’s.”
“It’s all great. Really. I’m just so surprised.” She leaned back against his bare chest and pulled his arms around her. “I missed you.”
He caressed her breasts. “Me or my hands?”
“Mm.” She arched into his palms. “You and your hands.”
“Good.” He nibbled her neck. “Because I missed you and having something to fill my hands.”
Abby shifted her hips against his most recent erection. “And I like being filled.”
“Tease.” He chuckled.
“Nope.” She turned and wrapped her hand around his shaft. “I had a thought.”
Jesse moved in her stroking fingers. “Guess I know what that was.”
“Nope.” She tongued the nearest nipple. “I think we should take a shower.”
“Just a shower?”
“Nope. A nice long shower that includes you letting me show you ho
w much I like the way you fill my mouth.”
“Sounds good. Then what?”
“Then I think we should go get some baby balloons so we can take them to Jordan’s as a surprise for when he gets home later.”
“How do we know what kind of balloons to get?” Jesse let her lead him to the shower.
“We don’t. We’ll get lots of ones that say congratulations and ones that have baby things on them and a few of each for boys and girls and then we’ll only take the right ones once we know what Max is.”
“Okay. What if the door is locked?”
She rolled her eyes. “One, I know you can open the door if it’s locked. Two, you installed the system so I know you can disarm it before it goes off. And three, I doubt if either of them even remembered to lock the door or turn on the system once they realized Kiley was in labor.” Abby nibbled her way down his chest before sliding to her knees. “Please?” She peeked up at him just before she caught him with her mouth.
Jesse moaned as her tongue caressed him. “You don’t play fair.”
“No, but you don’t really mind,” she paused long enough to comment.
“Hell no,” he agreed as he lost his train of thought. All that mattered at the moment was that his sexy wife with her incredible mouth and magical tongue was home. How could he deny her anything that made her smile as she just had? Thank goodness the grocery store at the edge of town was open all night. No way were they going anywhere until he got to give her the same treatment he was getting. Now that they’d cemented her homecoming by making love with slow tenderness, he knew neither one of them would hesitate to rediscover the many other ways they had of sharing pleasure.
Epilogue
An hour after Brett and Andie’s nuptials, Abby reluctantly handed Max McKade into an impatient Wyatt’s waiting arms. The brief exchange of vows had been incorporated into the full weekend of Memorial Day events celebrated by the entire town. The park was crowded with townspeople as well as friends and relatives of the couple. Jordan had recorded some special commercials to ensure that everyone around knew of the various activities planned for the weekend. Though he currently limited his hours at the station to managerial duties in order to spend time with Kiley and their new son, many listeners took advantage of the picnic to meet the talk show host and his family. At the moment, he and Kiley were sharing a dance with the bride and groom.
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