by Maren Smith
“Hello,” the woman said and dropped an armful of red, pink and yellow roses on an empty space in the seat next to Megan’s chair.
Jamie sat back, stunned as the woman disappeared and her equally grinning companion bent down to deposit another armful on the floor at her feet.
“Gosh, he’s a keeper, isn’t he?” the companion gushed. “Is it a special day?”
Stunned, Jamie could only say, “We’re getting divorced.”
The woman gave her an odd look, but both she and her friend returned to their curbside flower kiosk and each gathered up a second armful. It took another four trips apiece to transfer every blossom they had into the back of the Travis’s limo. Roses, daisies, carnations and tulips overflowed every available spot, leaving barely enough room on the seats for them to sit. And as load after armload was deposit around her, Jamie looked out the window in stunned silence at Travis, who walked slowly up and down in front of the limo, head down, talking on his phone.
When the women were done and Travis had paid them, he came back to the car and bent down to climb inside. He took one look at Jamie, with Megan in her arms and said, “Absolutely not! If Megan is in this car, then she is buckled in her seat. Accidents can happen at any time. Jamie, you are a better mother than that!”
“I thought you were going to leave us here,” Jamie confessed. She looked down at the piles of flowers, feeling foolish now for having bothered to entertain such a thought. And when she finally raised her eyes back to his, the expression on his face almost reduced her to tears.
“What in God’s name makes you think I would abandon you on the side of the road?” he asked her. He shook his head and, not waiting for an answer, climbed in to sit beside her and closed the door. “Put Megan in her car seat. We have to go.”
Feeling even worse now than when they’d left the house, Jamie fastened the baby back into her seatbelt. They rode the rest of the way to the SeaTac Airport smothered by an even heavier silence.
As Ben drove them to the check-in terminal, a line of people standing along the curb caught Jamie’s eyes. As the limo drew closer, they held up a series of large white signs, each with a hastily scribbled word in large black, felt-tip-marker letters.
“I,” she said as she read down the line of signs, “Can’t. Live. Without. You. Marry. Me.” Her mouth quirked up and she laughed, even as twin tears spilled down her face while she read the final sign. “James?”
Travis bent to look out the window. He frowned. “That’s what I get for attempting romance while in a hurry.”
“Love. Travis.” Jamie covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes shining brightly through her tears.
“They would get my name right.”
Turning in her seat, Jamie said, “You mean it, don’t you? You’re not just saying it? You really do love me.”
Travis looked at her. “Yes. I really love you.”
“Then why do you want a divorce?”
“So I can marry you again. A real marriage, made for the right reasons and without time restrictions.”
“You love me.” Jamie had to shove two dozen carnations out of the way to reach him. She straddled his lap, cupping his face as she kissed him eagerly. Hungrily. “You love me,” she whispered.
His arms wrapped tight around her, holding her as close as she could come before he drew back a hand and swatted her hard. “You are in more trouble than you know what to do with, little girl.”
She nodded, tears coursing down her cheeks to her chin. “Okay.”
He caught her face in his hands. “Come here.”
The door swung open and Travis’s lawyer, Dan Gregor, stuck his head inside. “Oh, sure. Get me out of a family picnic, put me to work on a Saturday, ‘rush, rush’ you said, and here you are, locking lips, about to miss your flight.”
Travis broke his kiss to check his watch. His eyes widened. “Oh, damn! Come on, darling.” He patted her bottom twice. “Grab the baby. We’ve got to run.” To Dan, as he ducked out of the back of the limo, he said, “James? You did that on purpose.”
Affronted, Dan protested, “It was a bad connection. By the time I noticed, you had turned the corner and there wasn’t time to change the sign. Here.” He shoved a clipboard into Travis’s hand and tapped the bottom of the paper that was attached to it. “Do you want to stay married?”
“I don’t.”
“Then sign and stop being so grumpy. You’ve won the girl, you saved the day, it’s a Hollywood moment here.” Dan took back the clipboard and pen, and as Jamie emerged with Megan in her arms, said, “After what I’ve been through these last couple of weeks, I don’t blame you for wanting to give this big lunk the boot. My condolences for having to live with him full time. Must be hell.”
“I’ll put up with that kind of lippy-ness from my secretary,” Travis warned as he strolled back to the trunk to help Ben with the suitcases. “But only because she’s pregnant.”
Dan blinked twice. “I’ve got a pregnant sister in Miami. Does that count?”
“No.”
“Hm.” Dan held out the clipboard for Jamie. “All that and discrimination, too.” In the act of setting the largest suitcase on the sidewalk, Travis cast the lawyer a dark look, which he pointedly ignored. “Here, sign at the ‘x’.”
“Grab a suitcase,” Travis told him, and the four of them ran all the way to the check-in counter.
“You had to stop and get flowers,” Ben panted, laboring alongside them under the weight of most of the baggage.
“It was worth it.” A suitcase in each hand, Travis ushered Jamie, who carried only Megan, into line ahead of him.
“Wait up!”
When Jamie turned around it was to see the judge that had originally married them, red-faced and panting as he jogged down the length of the terminal to catch up to them.
“See,” Dan said, nudging Ben with his elbow. “It’s not just me.”
Travis set his suitcases down to throw an arm around Jamie’s waist and draw her into his side.
“This,” the judge panted heavily as he reached them, “is not supposed to be a weekly event!”
“I appreciate your coming,” Travis told him.
“My youngest granddaughter is, at this very minute, taking her very first swimming lesson. I’m supposed to be manning the camcorder. You’d better appreciate it.” The elderly judge swiped a handkerchief across his flushed forehead, then glared at Travis. “Let’s get this show on the road. Do you?”
“I do,” Travis said.
“Do you?” the judge asked Jamie.
She looked up at Travis, smiling. “I do.”
“Not to ruin the moment,” a checker at the counter called out, “but you folks are next. Are you flying today or what?”
“We are,” Travis and Jamie said together.
“Amen,” the judge announced. He threw up one hand in a half-hearted wave good-bye. “I’ll have the paperwork in the mail on Monday. Enjoy your trip.”
“Is that it?” Jamie asked, as they shuffled up to the counter.
“I hope you enjoyed your five second return to single status. Unfortunately, now you are once again Missus Dorsett,” Dan told her as he passed his bags through to the counter attendant. “God help you.”
“Thank you,” Travis told him.
“You’ll get my bill on Monday, too.” Dan clapped him on the shoulder. “Try not to alienate her any more than you absolutely have to.”
“With friends like these,” Travis said as he took the tickets.
“Your flight’s already made their final boarding call,” the counter clerk told them. “I’ll call ahead that you’re on your way, but you’d better hoof it.”
Once again they had to run, barely reaching the gate in time. It was a full flight, even in first class, and they endured a few annoyed glances from the other passengers as they made their way to their seats. While Travis and a stewardess stowed their luggage, Jamie slid into the chair next to the window.
“Seatbelts,�
�� the stewardess reminded as the plane began to move, drawing slowly away from the terminal gate.
Stashing Megan’s diaper bag in the space beneath Jamie’s seat, Travis sat down next to her. Above them, the speaker clicked on.
“Welcome and thank you for flying United Airlines, this is your captain speaking. The skies are sunny and beautiful, and we’re anticipating a smooth flight all the way. Please direct your eyes to the front of the cabin where the airline attendants will go over the safety procedures as we taxi out to the runway. Also, I’d like to extend a special welcome aboard to newlyweds, James and Travis Dorsett. Welcome aboard, fellas.”
Jamie covered her mouth with one hand while Travis bowed his head, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. “I knew it,” he said to no one in particular. “He did it on purpose. I’m going to kill him.”
“Here’s to wishing you a happy honeymoon, wherever your destination may be,” the captain cheerfully continued. “And remember, no joining that mile-high club.”
“I thought our first wedding was unromantic,” Jamie giggled, but caught her breath when he turned his head to look at her. “I liked the flowers, though. Thank you.”
His mouth turned up in a warm, slow smile, and he reached out to take her hand. “They sin who tell us Love can die,” Travis told her softly. “With life all other passions fly, all others are but vanity.”
Jamie laced her fingers with his, the man she’d thought she’d lost, and she shifted closer to him, wanting to lay her head against his shoulder while he spoke.
“In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell, nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell; earthly these passions of the Earth, they perish where they have their birth; but Love—” his hand squeezed hers warmly, “—is indestructible. Its holy flame forever burneth, from Heaven it came, to Heaven returneth; too oft on Earth a troubled guest, at times deceived, at times oppressed, it here is tried and purified, then hath in Heaven its perfect rest; it soweth here with toil and care, but the harvest time of Love is there.”
She smiled, and her eyes sparkled. In a voice for his ears alone, she said, “You are the head of my household. I will respect, obey and trust in you to care for me. I will confide in you, depend on you, and under no circumstances will I ever run away from you, or from us, again.”
He cupped the side of her cheek as he leaned down to kiss her seductive lips.
The Mountain got his contract, and Jamie got to be a Geisha girl for an evening. She also got the paddling of her life on the very same day they arrived home from their trip. Megan got both a mother and a father, as well as two dark-haired and blue-eyed brothers, who grew up to follow in their father’s footsteps and in more ways than one. And you can bet, they all of them lived happily ever after.
The End
If you liked this story, you might also enjoy:
Kindred Spirits
The Mountain Man
If you like westerns, try:
The Bride Takes A Cowboy
The Locket
If you like your Alphas to be a little more Domly, try:
Her Montana Master
Kaylee’s Keeper
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