by Cee, DW
“Thank you, Brother.” Donovan gave an appreciative nod to Al who was doing his best to make up for his wife. “Next bottle of wine is on me.”
“So then...” Becky held back only long enough to be polite. “Why Jane? What was with the let’s-have-sex, plane tickets?”
What?
“Shit, Becky. Really? Do you have no filter?” Donovan got angry with her.
“Shit,” Becky replied. “I’m so sorry. That’s not what I meant. Laney. They didn’t have sex...right, Donovan? I mean when she spent the night at the Peninsula with you, everything was platonic...right?”
“Dear?” Al put a piece of tomato on his fork and shoved it in Becky’s mouth. “Shut up and eat this, instead.”
“Damn you, Becky!” Donovan cursed while I put my head down and ate my salad.
There were no words for the pain I felt hearing about Donovan and Jane. They were obviously more seriously involved than I’d imagined and that hurt more than all the painful memories combined. This was what I’d feared about Donovan’s recent interest in me. This crushing pain he could so readily put in my heart was what I wanted to avoid. But no past heartbreak could have prepared me for the one I was feeling right now.
“It’s not what you’re thinking. Becky doesn’t know what she’s talking about, Princess. Jane and I were not involved like that. I mean...we were in Chicago together, but...I can explain it all. Please, don’t let what you just heard put a wedge between us.” Donovan begged pretty soundly, but what I heard and what I felt couldn’t be helped. Otherwise, I would have tuned it out immediately.
The rest of dinner was Becky and Kelley talking about their other two sisters, Rachel and Amanda. They told me where they lived, how many kids they had, and who their husbands were. There wasn’t anything I could add to their conversation until Kelley asked me about Jake and Emily.
“Jake and Emily had another boy, first week of July, and they just arrived in London. Jake is teaching at a few hospitals and their corresponding medical schools and the family will take up residence in Gram’s flat for a few months.”
“Is that where you’re staying?” She continued to bring me into the conversation.
I wasn’t much up for conversation so I gave her a simple “Yes.”
“What will you do in London this next year?” Al asked.
“I was thinking about following Jake when he went to Oxford and Cambridge and auditing some classes. I don’t know if that’s done in England, but I’d like to take some literature classes. Or maybe I’ll sit in one of Jake’s med school classes.”
“That’s right. I remember Donovan telling me you were part genius.” Al’s smile forced a weak smile out of me. He was trying so hard to cover for his wife, who obviously wasn’t happy with me as her brother’s love interest, and for his brother-in-law, who would have a hard time recovering from this revelation. “You’re going to med school next fall?”
“Possibly. I haven’t decided between med school and film school.”
“Oh, Laney! How wonderful. You’re going to be a doctor just like your dad?” Kelley let out a great big smile.
“Maybe,” I smiled back, minus the great and the big.
“How about if we retire for the evening?” Al suggested. “The four of us got in today and we are exhausted.”
“Where are you staying?” Donovan spoke for the first time since he got upset with Becky. “You going back to Paris tonight?”
“No, we got rooms at the château you and Laney are lodging in. We borrowed a true minivan and drove out here for the night, so the six of us should fit, barely.”
“Why’d you get a minivan in Paris?”
Al clearly stated his displeasure. “Because your sister insists that she needs ample space. She can’t stand being crowded these days. Another quirk of pregnancy, I’m supposed to accept, I’m told.”
Kelley and Noah laughed at Al’s resigned face.
Though it was supposed to be a quick drive, we got lost due to the lack of signage. But when we came upon the château, we were all in awe of the property. The exterior red brick building reminded me of the Crawley’s family home in Downton Abbey. This château was so spectacular it took my breath away, until a blinding disappointment walloped me back to reality. In all likelihood, Donovan and Kate had spent their nights here. From what Kelley mentioned, there were only four rooms in this surreal bed and breakfast and the thought of Donovan and me possibly being in the same room that Donovan and Kate had once been in, made me ill.
“What’s wrong? You went from looking amazed to offended,” Donovan whispered.
I didn’t answer him. How could he read me so effortlessly, and yet have no idea when he was opening up an old wound?
When we checked-in, I didn’t fight the same room situation. Donovan had booked us the largest one, and without argument, I followed him into the magnificent room. Everything about it was French, minus the gilded rococo feel. I felt like Marie Antoinette with her baroque-red canopied bed, the chandeliers in the sitting room, and green-marbled bathroom. The original 1800 decorative moldings were as breathtaking as the French doors leading in and out of every room. Had I not been in such a crappy mood, I would have enjoyed this château a lot more.
“You ready to talk?” Donovan carefully approached me.
“No. I don’t want to talk. It’s been a long day and I’m tired. Since we left London, I haven’t had a day of rest. Could we push this off for another day?”
“Delaney. We can’t progress if we don’t talk.”
“I don’t know if we should progress. The more I hear, the more disturbed I am, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get over whatever progressed between you and my cousin.”
“Nothing happened between us. I mean, nothing of importance happened. My idiotic sister spoke rashly.”
“So you didn’t give Jane ‘let’s-have-sex’ plane tickets?”
“No, I mean yes, I mean...SHIT! Sit down. Let me explain.”
“Donovan, I don’t want to know anymore. I told you earlier that I was afraid of you. This wasn’t an exaggeration. Your past, your words, your actions can hurt me so profoundly. I don’t want that kind of pain anymore and it isn’t healthy for me. Coming to London, I thought I got away from it all. But you brought it all with you, and with a vengeance. What I’m feeling right now is exponentially worse than what I felt in LA. If you truly love me, stop hurting me.”
With that, I picked up a jacket and walked the serene grounds. No matter the situation, there was always a pro and a con to it. Why couldn’t life just give me the lemonade already squeezed, stirred, and made? I always got the bruised, hard and dirty lemons that made me scratch my head and wonder what I was to do with the delinquent batch. After walking the surroundings for a very long while, I did the usual and let logic guide me. There was always a rainbow at the end of a thunderstorm and a light at the end of a tunnel. If Donovan and I didn’t work out, I’d know what it felt like to be loved by this man. My curiosity would be satiated and hopefully I could move on and learn to love someone else. Michael and I were done, but I was only twenty-three. There were ample years to love and be loved. If at worse, I could end up like Gram and find my second love sixty years later.
“Hello, Laney Reid.” Al and Noah were sitting outside having a glass of wine. “We have here a fabulous bottle of Cabernet I just billed to the man you aren’t speaking to right now. Would you like to join us?”
Al always had a way of making me laugh. He must be the sweet to the acidity in that relationship. “I think I will.”
“You had a quirky look on your face before you answered. What were you thinking?”
“You speak!” I embarrassed Noah with that statement. “I’m sorry! That was obnoxious. Perhaps I caught the Becky syndrome.”
“Ohhh!” I got cackles all around. “The tigress fights back,” Noah raised his glass, and I clinked it before drinking what Al declared to be a fabulous Cabernet.
/> “Let me be the first to apologize for Becky’s lack of discretion and also the first to say that nothing happened between our brother-in-law and your cousin.”
“Do you know for sure?” I challenged.
Noah added, “Perhaps what Al is trying to say is that though he’s not positive what happened between those two, we can tell that our brother-in-law is finally in love and shitting in his pants right now because you are pissed.”
“Yep! That’s what I meant to say. My wife is very uncomfortable in this pregnancy and every little thing gets on her last nerve. That doesn’t mean you got on her nerve, but she just wanted some answers from her brother and it came out the wrong way.”
Sighing very loudly, I said, “I don’t blame Becky. Though tact doesn’t seem to be her middle name, there’d be no issues if Mr. Taylor hadn’t been such a Lothario.”
“Do you remember me asking you to take it easy on Donovan, back in May? That he had never been in love before and that he had no clue what he was doing?”
I nodded yes but argued, “He asked a woman to marry him when he was my age. I think you can count that as having been in love, Al.”
“He was infatuated with Kate. I’m sure he loved her to some degree, but what I see in him right now is the kind of love we men only find once in our lives. It’s that knock-my-socks-off, blow-me-down, shit-woman-where’ve-you-been-all-my-life, kind of love. Donovan is in love and is lost because he doesn’t know if you will accept him.”
“Damn, Al. Is this how you won over your wife? You can be poetic in your own rudimentary way.”
Noah almost coughed his wine back up, laughing at my comment. “You are one witty young lady. I can see why our brother-in-law can’t take his eyes off of you.”
“Was this bottle of wine bribery from Donovan? Did he ask you to come out here and put on this amateur production praising Donovan Taylor?”
Both men were now dying of laughter. “Hell!” Al was choking on his wine. “Donovan is in for the challenge of his life.”
“Mr. Lothario has no idea the hell that awaits from a woman scorned,” Noah agreed.
“Delaney.”
“You’re off the clock now,” I whispered to the two men. “The star is ready for his monologue.”
“Shit, Bro’. I thought Becky and Kelley were tough chicks. You got yourself the smartest, wittiest, and quite possibly the most entertaining woman of all the Taylor women,” Al declared, getting up with Noah.
“Good night, Tigress!” Noah gave me a kiss on the cheek as support.
“Go easy on him. If we counted against us all the mistakes we’ve made in the past, who would have a future?”
“Go wax lyrical to your wife, Al. She obviously needs a little patting down, smoothing over, whatever you do to keep her happy.” I waved good-bye.
“Can I join you in a glass?” Donovan asked hesitantly.
“You might as well. Those two men just billed this bottle to you, I was told.”
“Assholes,” he said with a grin and poured some in his glass, and topped off mine with the rest. “Is it good?”
“It’s all right. Not the best, but not bad.”
“How do you feel?”
“My body feels like a patient recovering from the flu and my heart feels like a recovering alcoholic at Oktoberfest.”
Donovan cracked up. “What the hell does that mean, Delaney Reid? You were always so entertaining with your words. Remember your list of euphemisms? Jake, your uncle, and I had never laughed as much as we did that night in your bedroom. You are hysterically funny.”
“I’m glad someone is finding humor in all this.”
“Pick up your glass and let’s walk back to our room. We’ll talk on the way.” I did as he asked and he underhandedly curled his fingers into mine. “What did you mean about being a recovering alcoholic at Oktoberfest?”
“My heart is like that of a recovering alcoholic at the biergarten. It knows it’s dangerous to be around you, and yet it can’t say no. You are temptation at its worst. Every time I see you, I desperately want you to see me back. Every time I talk to you, I long to hear you say a kind word to me. And every time my heart falls deeper in love with you, I search for a sign that you might return even an inkling of that love. That’s what makes you so lethal and me so weak.”
“Delaney.” He tried to counter.
“There’s more. Let me finish. There’s a part of me that wants to know the good, the bad, the ugly about Donovan Taylor, but like I told you earlier, you have an enormous amount of power over my heart and I don’t like it. I think I’ve decided during my walk that I am satisfied knowing you loved me at one point in my life. If it all ended tonight, my curiosity would be filled and I’d eventually find a man who loved me just as much as I loved him.” All these words were spoken with confidence but why was my heart so sad?
“Delaney Reid,” he said sweetly. “If you like, I will give you the entire trilogy on Donovan Taylor, the unabridged version. And you are not the only one hurting right now. I hurt knowing I’ve done this to you, and I fear wondering if you’ll ever forgive me for all that’s happened in the past few months. I am not satisfied with you knowing that I loved you for this brief a period, and we will not end tonight, nor any other night till one of us dies. As I uncover daily the endless layers of your love, I can confidently say, I will return these layers—in multifold—if you’ll give me a chance. This probably won’t be the first time I’ll disappoint you and break your heart. I haven’t even begun the unabridged version of my life. But bear with me and continue to love me?”
“How do you do this to me all the time?” I laughed and teared at the same time. “You have this freakin’ gift, or curse, of making me happy and sad all within the same sentence. Who the hell taught you to play with people’s emotions?” I tried to pull away as he put his arms tightly around me. “Don’t spill wine on my only dress, Donovan Taylor,” I warned in jest and broke our mood.
“Let’s go to bed, Princess. Each and every day with you is a blessedly long one.”
“Was that a backhanded compliment?”
“You take it any which way you like.”
I woke up to the smell of a wonderfully strong cup of coffee and the buttery scent of French croissants. Donovan held onto a large tray of food while I sat up and readjusted my position in bed.
“My gosh, that smells delicious,” I declared then took a sip of the strong coffee. “Oh, that’s good.”
“Wait till you try the jam and butter on these croissants.” He tore off a piece, lathered it with both accoutrements, and fed it to me.
“That’s heavenly, Donovan.”
“That smile on your face is heavenly,” he commented and then made up another bite for me and fed me again.
“You shouldn’t spoil me like this. I may decide this is the life I want, and you’ll be stuck.”
“I’d gladly feed you every morning if this is what you ask of me.”
“Sure, Donovan Taylor.” I shook my head to show him I didn’t believe him. “You say that now, but once I’ve decided to give in to your charms, I wonder if you’ll be singing the same tune?”
“Why, Princess, I have no idea what you are talking about. You are already under my spell as I am under yours.”
“Smooth, Mr. Taylor. Now stop with the yapping and feed me another bite,” I demanded with a smile.
We left the château earlier than we wanted because Donovan couldn’t rearrange his morning meeting. Without saying good-bye to anyone, we got into Paris in plenty of time for us to shower (separately) and change for a new day. Donovan dropped me off at the convention center before going to work, so I could give Bee a much-needed hand for her show.
“I’m going to do my best to make it to the show, but it all depends upon this lunch client.” Donovan apologized.
“Donovan, you are not here on vacation. Put work first. It would be great if you could support Bee, but your parents
and my parents will be here, and hopefully your siblings and their spouses will make it down in time to watch Bee’s creations.”
“Beautiful, it’s you I want to see strut down that catwalk, not the clothes. I’ll do my best to be here.”
“All right.” I smiled in his arms. “Have a productive day.”
“Are we good?” His voice softened and his confidence weakened.
“We are good till the next round of drama,” I gave him a lighthearted answer.
He wasn’t satisfied. “When can we sit down and lay everything out on the table?”
“I’ve no idea. We are all supposed to have a family dinner at some bistro in Saint-Germaine-des-Prés after the show.”
“Damn. I love my family and yours, but they’re seriously cutting into our personal life.”
“We will talk soon. But for now, all is right in my world—though it shouldn’t be.”
“I love you Delaney Reid,” he said in all seriousness.
“Donovan Taylor. I have waited my entire life to hear those five words from you and to be able to tell you that I love you too.”
He showed his cocky, self-assured and knowing grins, again. “One last kiss,” he barely finished those words before capturing my mouth in his. Every one of these kisses stirred my senses and I honestly couldn’t wait till we could get all our issues cleared—Kate, Jane, Michael—so we could move on in the physical sense of our relationship. I knew Donovan was itching to get there. Every night I could feel Donovan’s hands roaming my body when he thought I was asleep.
It wasn’t like he was molesting me in my sleep, but he roamed as much as was “proper” for him to touch a girl who technically had a boyfriend. Featherlike kisses generally came hand in hand with the roaming hands and there were times when I wanted to pop my eyes open and have him finish the job because I felt like I was on fire. Even if it killed us tonight, we’d get everything out in the open. I’d do my darnedest to let go of his past, and we’d move on to loving each other completely.