Love in San Francisco ; Unconditionally

by Shirley Hailstock

  Leo chuckled. “I wouldn’t think of it. I’m not afraid of Virginia Gaines.”

  Meghan laughed, “Oh, my God, I was just reminded of that movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

  “Yeah, my last name and your mother’s first,” Leo said. “Your mind does go to odd places sometimes, my love.”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” Meghan said. “Last night I was working on my latest book, and as I was writing a description of the hero, I realized I was describing you. You’re creeping into my subconscious. I had to go back and rewrite the description to match how I’ve described the hero in the rest of the book.”

  “I’m flattered,” Leo said. “You might as well know that you’re the reason I’m writing again. Your interest in my work encouraged me to get back to the computer and be productive. You’re my muse now, so if the book’s a total failure, you can blame yourself.”

  Meghan laughed, “I’ll take that risk. Just keep writing because I’ve got to know what happens to Jess Harper.”

  “You like Jess, huh?”

  “Jess is my kind of man, yes,” Meghan cooed, snuggling closer.

  “I might just kill Jess,” Leo joked.

  “Beware of killing Jess,” Meghan warned, smiling enticingly. “You probably have lots of female readers who like Jess as much as I do.”

  “And since studies show that women read more than men do, especially fiction, I’d be wise to let the stud live,” Leo concluded.

  “You’re a smart man,” Meghan said and rewarded him with a kiss.

  * * *

  At ten o’clock the next morning, Leo pulled up to Meghan’s house behind the wheel of his candy-apple-red, mint-condition, 1967 Pontiac GTO. Meghan, who was waiting at the curb with Chauncey in her pet carrier, melted at first sight of the beautiful muscle car. She had previously seen it in his garage, but never on the road in all its glory.

  “Whitewall tires!” she exclaimed. She put Chauncey on the back seat in her carrier next to Malcolm in his. Leo had gotten out to help her, but saw she didn’t need his help and was slipping back behind the wheel when Meghan said, “Let me drive her!”

  Leo grinned and walked around the car. The two of them met in front of the GTO, and he handed her the keys and went around to the passenger side. “Okay, enjoy yourself but I get equal time with the Mustang.”

  For a moment, Meghan hesitated. No one drove her Mustang except her. Then she laughed and said, “Deal.”

  She got behind the wheel, started the engine and put her hand on the gearshift. Looking at Leo, she said, “You won’t have to work hard to get on Dad’s good side when he sees this baby.”

  “I was counting on that,” Leo said with a conspiratorial smile.

  Meghan pulled away from the curb and thrilled at the feel of the powerful car underneath her direction. Even the sound of its motor turned her on. “Truly, this car is foreplay in its purest sense. Too bad we’re going to spend the afternoon with my parents. But watch out when I get you alone again.”

  Leo laughed, “I’m not above reminding you of that promise later.”

  “You won’t have to,” Meghan assured him. Then she drove in silence, joining the Saturday morning traffic and pointing the GTO to the outskirts of Raleigh and her parents’ sprawling, two-story updated farmhouse.

  Alphonse and Virginia had bought the house over twenty years ago, and it was where the girls had spent their formative years. It had undergone various renovations over time. Still, Meghan felt nostalgic each time she entered the house with its five bedrooms and three and a half baths. The people her parents had bought the land from had been farmers, so Alphonse and Virginia continued to refer to the house as a farmhouse. The only farming they did was to turn a patch of land in their vast backyard into a garden. They’d fenced in the rear of the house because their property backed up to an undeveloped wooded area.

  When Meghan and Leo got to the house, Alphonse, who undoubtedly had heard the rumble of the GTO’s engine, came outside and greeted them with a huge smile on his handsome face.

  Meghan parked the GTO in the driveway behind her father’s metallic blue Super Duty Ford F-250—he’d finally traded in his Hummer—and got out to run into her father’s open arms.

  “Hey, Dad, we’re here.”

  Alphonse was dressed in a blue polo shirt, plaid cotton knee-length shorts and a pair of white athletic shoes. He hugged Meghan tightly and kissed her cheek, but Meghan could tell he only had eyes for the GTO. “Hey, baby girl,” Alphonse said, his gaze on the car.

  Leo was busy getting the pet carriers out of the back seat. He walked around the car with a carrier in each hand. “Hello, Mr. Gaines,” he greeted Alphonse.

  “Leo,” Alfonse said cheerfully. “Is this yours?”

  Leo smiled. “Yes, it is. Would you like to take her for a spin?”

  “Is the sky blue?” Alphonse asked eagerly.

  Leo gestured to Meghan to hand her dad the keys. “I’ll go with your father,” he said.

  Meghan took the pet carriers from him. “Okay, sweetie. Have fun.”

  By the time she’d walked onto the front porch, a carrier in each hand, her mother had stepped out of the house. “Where are they going?” she asked, puzzled. She watched the back end of the GTO as it sped down the country lane, dust and gravel kicking up in its wake.

  “Dad wanted to drive the GTO,” Meghan told her mother.

  “That man and his obsession with cars,” Virginia grumbled, frowning, then she glanced down at Chauncey and Malcolm in their pet carriers. “So you actually brought them.”

  “I told you I was going to,” Meghan reminded her as she squeezed past. “Don’t worry, I’m going to put them in the backyard and set up their dishes on the deck. They won’t even walk on your floors.”

  “Good,” Virginia said. “They won’t be underfoot.”

  Meghan walked straight through the foyer, great room, dining room and kitchen until she reached the French doors that led out to the deck. She placed the carriers on the deck and opened first Malcolm’s and then Chauncey’s. The dogs were happy to be out of their cages and ran right back into the kitchen, where Virginia was rinsing vegetables at the deep, ceramic sink. Meghan ran after the dogs but was too late to prevent their jumping up on Virginia’s legs and trying to play with her.

  “My clean apron!” Virginia cried. She dropped the cucumber she’d been rinsing into the sink and pressed herself against it, a look of consternation on her face. “Meghan, get these beasts out of here!”

  Meghan grabbed Malcolm and Chauncey by their collars but did not immediately herd the dogs outside. “Quiet now,” she said calmly to the animals. “Show your host that you can behave yourselves.”

  Chauncey was the first to respond to her voice, then Malcolm stopped quivering with excitement. After a few seconds, both dogs sat down at Meghan’s feet and looked up at her as if awaiting further instructions. Meghan was proud of them, especially Malcolm, who, in the last few months, had learned how to curtail his enthusiasm. Also, Leo had put in a pet door at his house, and Malcolm was now going outside to do his business on his own. He’d become quite the responsible pooch.

  Meghan stood there, smiling at her mother. “You see, Mom, they’re not savage beasts. They won’t hurt you.”

  Virginia hastily removed her now-soiled apron and regarded Meghan with a sour expression. “I just don’t want to be near them, that’s all.”

  “Why?” Meghan asked plaintively. “Why do you hate dogs?”

  Virginia held her daughter’s gaze awhile before opening her mouth to impatiently say, “Okay, if you must know, it’s because when I was a little girl, I had a dog, a chocolate Labrador that looked just like that one.” She pointed at Malcolm. “And he got killed, stupid dog. He ran into the street and somebody ran over him and kept going.”

  Tears
were forming in her eyes. She grabbed a paper towel from the holder on the counter closest to her and dabbed at her tears. “I know it was years ago, but I still remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. Coco was his name. I was seven years old and I loved that dog. Daddy buried him in the backyard, and I would visit his grave and cry every day. I swore I would never own another pet because it hurt too much when they died.”

  At this point, Meghan was crying, too, and hugging her mother with Chauncey and Malcolm gently licking any surface of the humans’ skin they could reach, trying their best to comfort them.

  “It’s all right,” Meghan said soothingly. “I understand how you feel. Chauncey’s my first pet, but I know I’d be devastated if something happened to her.”

  Virginia looked up at her daughter through tear-filled eyes. “It hasn’t escaped my notice that you named her after that brute who left you in college.”

  Meghan laughed, “Yes, Momma. Nothing escapes your notice.”

  Virginia blew her nose while cradled in her much taller daughter’s arms. “And I haven’t missed the fact that you and Leo are in love. Anyone who sees you together can see that.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’m just worried that history is repeating itself. You fell in love with that football boy at Shaw, and you’re in love with Leo at Duke. If I had known you two were already seeing each other prior to Marjorie offering you a position at Duke, I would have intervened. But, unfortunately, you don’t talk to me, so it was too late to do anything by the time I heard about you two.”

  “Momma, you just ruined a tender moment between us. You don’t need to worry about me and Leo. We’re doing fine, and I don’t believe he’d ever do anything to hurt me.”

  “You didn’t believe that other one would do anything to hurt you, either. Until he did something to hurt you.”

  “What do you want me to do, be alone for the rest of my life? Or wait until you personally pick the perfect guy for me?”

  “No, I want you to be happy. I want all of my daughters to be happy. I just worry about you the most because you’re the last one I’ll have the chance to give advice to and actually see my advice put to good use.”

  “Oh, I see where you’re going with this,” Meghan said as she shooed Chauncey and Malcolm back outside onto the deck. Virginia followed. “You know that you’ll never influence Petra to get married and give you grandchildren, so I’m your last chance.”

  “Exactly,” Virginia readily admitted. “Petra is a die-hard man hater. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s gay and is just not telling me. Five daughters and no one’s gay. What are the odds?”

  “Petra isn’t a man hater or gay,” Meghan informed her mother.

  She watched as Chauncey and Malcolm safely climbed down the steps that led to the backyard. She breathed in the fresh air, admired the blue sky and felt the spring breeze on her face.

  “Now, let’s go finish preparing brunch. I’m hungry.”

  Virginia started to say something else, but Meghan stopped her. “And another thing—if you want to micromanage someone’s life, you ought to get a pet. You can train him any way you want to, and he’ll obey you much more eagerly than any of your daughters will.”

  “I was just going to say I know I’m overbearing sometimes, and it’s something I’m working on, but when I see one of you going in the wrong direction, I wouldn’t be a good mother if I didn’t try to point you in the right direction.”

  “Answer me this, Momma,” Meghan suggested. She waited for her mother to meet her eyes and show some sign that she was actually listening.

  Virginia looked straight at her and sighed softly. “Okay, I’m in the moment with you.”

  “Good,” Meghan said. “Are you proud of us?”

  Virginia frowned and forcefully said, “Of course I’m proud of you!”

  “Well, then, you’ve done your job as a mother. You can relax and enjoy your first grandchild, CJ, and the grandchildren to come. It’s not that your daughters don’t need you. We do. It’s that we’ve got to make our own decisions and mistakes if that’s what we’re going to do. And don’t tell me you took every piece of advice Grandma and Grandpa gave you because I know you didn’t. Grandpa didn’t want you to marry Dad, but you defied him!”

  “It was bad advice,” Virginia said. “The advice I give you girls is good advice.”

  Meghan laughed and went inside. “I’m wasting my time trying to reason with you.”

  “My advice to you about Leo is marry him and have a houseful of children!”

  Meghan spun around, pointing a finger in her mother’s face. “I can’t believe you’re trying to use reverse psychology on me!”

  Virginia laughed, “I can’t win with you! I tell you I like Leo and you turn on me.”

  “What’s going on here?” Alphonse’s booming voice asked from the front of the house as he and Leo came through the door. “Ginny, why’re you yelling at Meghan?”

  “I wasn’t yelling at Meghan,” Virginia claimed. Moving quickly, she went to a deep drawer next to the dishwasher, retrieved a clean apron and put it on. “I was telling her I thought she and Leo make a lovely couple, that’s all.”

  Leo went to put an arm around Meghan’s shoulders. “You okay?” he asked softly.

  Meghan smiled. “Sure, sure I am,” she replied and took a cleansing breath.

  “Please go hug your mother,” he whispered. “I think she’s about to cry.”

  Meghan glanced at her mom. Sure enough, she looked teary-eyed, her bottom lip trembling. Her father was rubbing her arm, trying to be supportive.

  Meghan went and hugged her mother. “You know I love you,” she said in her ear. “And I know you love me. As of this moment, I won’t react to what I consider to be negative comments from you about my life. I know you mean well.” She held her mother at arm’s length and met her gaze. “Now, let me help you finish preparing brunch and let’s have a good time today.”

  “Okay,” Virginia said, her voice soft and hesitant. She sighed. “I got you some fresh cherries for dessert.”

  “I love cherries!”

  Later, as the four of them were sitting at an umbrella-topped table on the deck, drinking mimosas and eating bing cherries after consuming the delicious meal Virginia had planned to perfection, Malcolm came up to Virginia and licked her offered hand. She scratched him behind his ear, and he sat down at her feet.

  This small gesture of kindness from her mother to Malcolm made a lump of emotion form in Meghan’s throat. Maybe her mother was mellowing out.

  Chapter 15

  Leo wasn’t able to get in to see Dr. Angela Omoro until late May, which was cutting it close as far as his plans were concerned. The conference was in early July, and he knew it would take weeks to schedule tests and wait for the results.

  However, luck was on his side and he was able to see Dr. Omoro, have the suggested tests done and get the results back before he and Meghan flew to San Francisco for the conference.

  Therefore, when he and Meghan boarded the plane for San Francisco the day before the conference was to start, he had in his wallet two folded sheets of paper with test results for his heart and the results determining whether he was absolutely sterile or not. Prior to the tests, he was hoping that even if they proved he was sterile, there might be a small chance of impregnating Meghan. He just needed something to pin his hopes on.

  Meghan had the window seat, and he was in the middle. He hoped that the passenger in the aisle seat would be someone easy to get along with. The nonstop flight was going to last over six hours.

  Meghan closed her eyes. He remembered she’d said she’d spent more hours writing last night than she planned to. Now the lack of sleep was catching up with her. “Relax and lay your head on my shoulder,” he told her. Meghan opened her large brown eyes and smiled at him. “This is our first big trip together, and I don’t want to miss anyth
ing.”

  Leo laughed shortly, “I consider our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains a big trip. It’s not every day you run into a bear in the woods.”

  “A very nice bear,” Meghan said.

  “How do you define a nice bear?”

  “He didn’t try to eat us. He just looked us over, decided we didn’t look tasty and ambled on to his destination, wherever that was.”

  “He almost gave me a heart attack,” Leo said.

  “You didn’t seem scared at the time. You pushed me behind you and held me tightly by my hand because you sensed I was getting ready to sprint. You were my hero.” She kissed his cheek, then she scowled at him. “But don’t even mention your heart. I’m still mad at you for not going to the doctor when I asked you to. It’s been months, and you’ve avoided it. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  “As if I don’t care about your opinion?” Leo asked. “Believe me, sweetheart, I care deeply about your opinion, and I’m doing something about my health. I’ll have results for you soon.”

  “I don’t like to nag,” Meghan persisted.

  “You’re not nagging,” Leo countered. “You’re gently reminding me to take care of myself. And I hear you. Now, can we talk about the midterms? You proved me wrong. Your students did very well, and it looks like word of mouth is working in your favor. Pre-enrollment shows students are signing up for your classes in droves. So I’m formally apologizing for calling your style too modern.”

  Meghan grinned. “Apology accepted, Mr. Darcy. And I want you to know no one is more relieved than I am. I’ll come back next term and really give my students everything I’ve got!”

  Leo kissed the tip of her nose playfully. “You already do that.”

  Meghan sighed and laid her head on his shoulder. She closed her eyes. “I think I will take a short nap.”

  A couple of minutes later, she was sound asleep and Leo was left alone with his guilty thoughts. Was he selfish for not telling her everything? Yes, he was selfish because he didn’t want a good thing to end. But the time to end his silence was fast approaching. He would tell her on this trip. No matter what, they would return to North Carolina with everything out in the open.