Tears dripped from her eyes, but it wasn’t all out sobbing like she often did. “It wasn’t supposed to make you cry. Please open it. It’s intended to make you happy.”
Her fingers slid under the wrapping paper as she carefully took it off. When she got to the velvet box, she said, “Oh, Evan. You didn’t.”
“Didn’t what?”
“Get me jewelry.”
“You’ll have to open it to see.”
She lifted the lid to see the beautiful necklace. Hanging from it was a gold pendant and in the middle sat a perfectly cut diamond. Its cut and brilliance sparkled and caught the light perfectly. It wasn’t fancy, but it was elegant, with gold filigree around the pendant. On the back I’d had her initials and mine engraved at the top, leaving spaces for more to be added.
“The stone reminded me of the way your eyes sparkle,” I told her.
“It’s dazzling. I love it, everything about it.” She leaned over for a kiss. “I want to put it on, but I’ll wait to get home so I don’t have to bother with this scarf and coat.”
“There’s something else. Turn it over.”
She did and saw the initials. Then I explained how our child’s could be added.
One hand covered her heart. “I’ve never had anything so lovely or meaningful before. Thank you for such a beautiful and thoughtful gift.” She kissed me again.
“Let’s go home. I want to see how it looks around your lovely neck.”
“How do you always know the right thing to say?”
“I only say what comes to mind.”
“You won’t be saying those things for long.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to look like I swallowed a watermelon in a few months.”
“Didn’t you know?”
“Know what?”
“Watermelon is my favorite fruit.”
Thirty-Seven
Evan
Sylvie woke up upset and thinking about her mom. It was Christmas Eve and I wanted this to be a great day, not a terrible one. We had that appointment with the realtor at one, so I was going to do my best to cheer her up.
Her hands latched onto me and she asked, “What will I do? My Dad has always been so strong. He’s the one I’ve always depended on.”
I stroked her hair and said, “First, now you have me to lean on. And second, it’s time for us to be strong for him. You’re not in this alone. If there’s anything he needs, I can help. I have a lot of connections and don’t forget Grey. He does too.”
“Maybe I should call Grey.”
“Sylvie, don’t you think you should let that be your dad’s decision? Maybe we’re jumping the gun a bit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it. You’re a psychologist. The brain is complex, right?”
“Yeah. Oh, my God! How could I have been so blind? What if she’s deeply depressed?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“And combined with menopause, it can do super weird things to your body and mind.”
“Exactly. Think about the strange things your body is going through right now with your pregnancy.”
All of a sudden, her arms were around my neck and she was snuggling me.
She pulled back and said, “Thank you. I’ve been so emotional, it never entered my mind that could be it.”
Her smoky gray eyes that were clouded with pain cleared and it eased me somewhat. I hoped I hadn’t given her any false illusions though.
“Why don’t we get out of here?” I suggested.
“Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t care. Brunch?”
“Okay. I could go with something light.”
Since it was a gorgeous day for December, I suggested something different. “I have an idea. Why don’t we pick something up and have a picnic somewhere?”
Her eyes lit up as she grinned. “That sounds wonderful. Can we go back to the lake?”
“Anywhere you’d like.”
We dressed and drove to a great deli to pick up some carryout food. I had her stay in the car while I ran inside and purchased an array of things I hoped would tempt her. They packaged it up in a box with everything we needed.
It wasn’t five minutes later, and my phone rang. I answered it on blue tooth. Pearson’s voice echoed through the car.
“Hey man, Rose told me about Aunt Cindy.”
“Yeah, we’re not sure what’s going on, but Pearson, don’t breathe a word of this to anyone, not even Grey. Sylvie’s dad doesn’t want anyone to know until they’re certain what it is.”
“I get that. And no worries. I won’t say a thing. Tell Sylvie we’re thinking of her.”
“She can hear you. We’re in the car.”
“Hey, Sylvie. I’m so sorry about this, especially with—well, you know.”
“Thanks, Pearson.”
“Hopefully, we’ll see you two at my parents’ tomorrow.”
“Talk later.”
Sylvie’s hand landed on my thigh. “That was sweet of him to call.”
“I’ve noticed ever since he went through rehab and got with Rose, he’s much more considerate. More like the Pearson I used to know before he went with that huge law firm.”
“They sure did a whammy on him.”
“You know, we’ve talked about it and I’m not so sure it was the firm as much as it was that one partner that badgered him. Pearson is so damn competitive, he let him get way too far under his skin.”
“He’s a much better man now, even though he went through hell and back to get there.”
“Jesus, Sylvie, every time I think about when Grey called and told me the news of what happened, I get serious chills. I’ll never forget that day. It was brutal.”
“I remember. And poor Rose blamed herself.”
“She shouldn’t have, but thank God, it turned out okay for them.”
We pulled into the parking lot and thankfully, the place was empty. Touching her cheek, I said, “Looks like we have the lake to ourselves.”
“I guess everyone is getting ready for Christmas.”
Unloading the trunk, we set up our picnic site and took seats on the blanket. It was brisk but not too bad. I’d grabbed an extra blanket for Sylvie in case she got cold.
“What’s in the box?” she asked.
“Aren’t you eager?”
“Yeah. That’s a big box.”
I unpacked it and when I kept taking things out, she asked, “Who else is coming?”
“No one. Why?”
“You have enough food in there for an army.”
Shrugging, I said, “I wanted you to like what I got. I didn’t know how your stomach would react.”
“That was thoughtful of you.”
Picking up each container, she opened them up and made little murmurs of joy that drove me slightly insane. “By the sound of things, I take it you like?”
Grabbing a fork, she slipped it out of the plastic wrap and started to sample what was in each container.
After a few minutes of her moaning, I said, “Jesus, Sylvie, you sound like you’re having an orgasm.”
The fork was in her mouth and she stopped what she was doing. Then she slid it out and with her mouth full, she asked, “I do?”
“Yes. And it’s making me…well, you can guess.” My eyes flicked downward and then back up. Hers must’ve followed because she focused on my dick.
She swallowed her bite of food and said, “I did that?”
“You always do that. Can you promise me something?”
“What?”
“No, you have to promise me first.”
“But what if it’s something I can’t do?”
“You can do this.”
“How do you know?” she asked, her eyes full of questions.
“Trust me, I know.”
“Okay.”
“Can we jump on the bed naked sometime, like we did the night you can’t remember. I’ve never laughed so ha
rd in my life.”
“Shit, Evan. I can’t believe I did that.”
“You made me do it.”
Her playful side emerged, and she laughed. “That’s so weird. I never jump on the bed.”
I clicked my fingers. “The day after Christmas, we’re going back to my place so we can jump on the bed.”
“You’re a big kid at heart, you know that?” She pointed her fork in my direction.
“And so are you, which is why we are going to have the best time parenting,” I said.
She dipped her head and gave me one of her serious gazes. “Evan, parenting isn’t all about fun. What about the stinky diapers and middle of the night feedings?”
“I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have the boobs to do it.”
“Can’t we do that pump thing into a bottle so I can help?” I really wanted to and when she mentioned the boob issue, it saddened me.
“I’ll have to ask Marin or Milly. They both had twins, so they must’ve done something different.”
“It would’ve really been exciting to have twins.”
Her lower jaw slackened. “Are you serious? They definitely run in the West family. Dad and Uncle Rick have them on their mom’s side, I think. Do you have them in your family? But no way do I want them.”
“My grandfather was a twin. Maybe next time.”
“What would we do, Evan? What if we have twins at some point?”
“Then we’d get two cribs, two times the amount of diapers, twice as many of everything. And we’d love them with all our hearts. That’s what we’d do.”
Instead of a smile, I got sobs. What was I going to do with my girl until these emotions passed? I needed to talk to someone about this on how to cheer her up. Because right now I was as helpless as a guppy without water.
Thirty-Eight
Sylvie
Poor Evan. All he’d been exposed to were my tears and family’s bad news.
“I have an idea,” he said. “Let’s take a walk by the lake.”
“Okay,” I said, sniffing. He handed me a tissue first. Then we went for a walk.
As we walked, he told me some of his boyhood stories about Pearson and him. They got into lots of trouble. Not bad things, but kid stuff like broken windows, borrowing things from the neighbor’s garage, and then forgetting to put it back. One time, one of their neighbors went out of town and they decided to have a pool party at their house. They invited all the kids over, not realizing the neighbors were coming home that day. There were about twenty or more kids in their pool when they came home. Evan had climbed the fence and unlocked it for all the other kids.
“I was in deep trouble for that one. My dad told me I couldn’t go outside for two whole weeks, but I ended up driving my mom so crazy, we secretly made a deal. I would go out and then be back inside by the time Dad got home from work.”
“You were awful.”
“Not really. I was just rambunctious. I ran a lemonade stand one summer in the entrance to the neighborhood but didn’t make any money because I tried to charge a dollar per glass. No one would buy any because it was too expensive. I figured why sell it for so cheap when I’m working my ass off out there in the sun?”
He was so serious when he told me that story. “That’s how you became such a shrewd businessman.”
“Maybe, I don’t know. But it was true. I squeezed fresh lemons and all. And those assholes were too cheap to buy my fresh lemonade. So I put up a sign that said I would donate some of my profits to charity.”
I stopped walking and grabbed his hand. “How awesome. How much did you end up donating?”
“Hardly anything because they still wouldn’t buy. So I moved my stand right outside of the entrance to the pool and bam. My sales soared. I took off the donation to charity sign because I figured I didn’t need it anymore. It was impossible to keep up with the demand, so I had to stop selling the fresh and switch to the powdered kind. My mom made me drop my price too. But I still made a good bit of money.”
“I’m envious. I had to babysit for my little sisters. I would much rather have sold lemonade.”
We kept walking with leaves crunching underfoot, and I took in the beautiful scenery. The winter sky was bright blue painted with white streaks. A gentle breeze blew as a hint of snow was in the air. The sun winked off the surface of the lake, reminding me of bright silver coins.
I inhaled the fresh air and said, “I love this place. “It’s so peaceful.”
“I knew you loved it. I’m glad you wanted to come back here. It’s one of my favorite places too.”
“Mom used to bring us here when we were little to feed the ducks. Reynolds was afraid of them and would scream and cry. They’d chase her while Piper and I would laugh.”
“Shit.”
“What’s wrong?”
He turned and said, “We left our food out. I forgot about the damn ducks.” He took off running.
I didn’t think we’d gone far, but he ran much faster than me. By the time I caught up with him at our blanket, it looked like an army of vultures had descended.
“Holy crap. The ducks did that?”
“Look at the blanket.” He waved his arms in exasperation.
There were muddy duck prints all over it and our boxes of food were destroyed. It struck me as hilarious and I completely lost it. At first, he just stared at me as though I was cuckoo. But then he joined in. It was amusing. We’d lost our extravagant brunch to nothing but a bunch of voracious ducks.
“I hope they don’t get sick from all this fabulous food,” I eventually said when I could talk.
“Not me. I hope they throw up. That’s what they get for stealing our food. And I had barely tasted it.”
“Then maybe I need to treat you to lunch somewhere else.”
He waggled his brows. “Oh yeah. What did you have in mind?”
“There’s an amazing place not far from here.”
His eyes filled with disappointment.
“What, you wanted something else?” I asked innocently.
A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he took one large step towards me. His hands cupped my cheeks as his mouth possessed mine. His kiss wasn’t gentle, nor was it brief. It was demanding and awakened an ache deep within me. Desire flamed to life as I gripped his jacket to hold on. I did not want this kiss to end, but it did, abruptly. My breath dragged through my lungs harshly and all I wanted was more.
But Evan was a tease. He stepped out of my reach and began to clean up our picnic.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What does it look like?” That grin returned, and with it, full-blown lust.
“Hurry up.” I helped him pile everything into the box so we could throw it away.
“Why?”
“Let’s go home.”
“What are we going to do there?”
“What else? Have lunch, of course.”
Evan picked up the box and found a trash can to deposit it in. Then he stuffed the blankets in his trunk, and we got into his car.
“Sylvie, if you think I’m going to wait until we get to your place, you’re mistaken.”
“What do you mean?”
“Take your pants off.”
I gaped at him. “You mean we’re going to do it here? In the parking lot?”
“I don’t see why not. There’s no one around, unless you count those pesky ducks.”
“What if someone comes.”
“That’s my plan.” He quirked a brow.
I slapped his arm. “Be serious for a minute.”
“I am being serious. Take off your pants. Now.”
Call me crazy, but I did. The last time I’d had car sex was in college and it wasn’t great. He pushed his seat all the way back and reclined it.
“Climb on over. Are you wet?”
“I’ve been wet since that kiss.”
The words barely left my mouth when he crushed his lips to mine. His hand went between my thighs
and found my clit. I was wet all right. When he slid inside of me, I gave no resistance, except for the fact that he was large and stretched me wide. Thrusting deep, I moaned my pleasure as the swell of him surged against me, while his thumb worked my nub.
Our mouths separated and he said, “You’re so hot, Sylvie. How does this feel?”
“Perfect.”
He thrust faster and I caught his rhythm as he continued to plunge into me. The first tingles of my climax hit, and then grew stronger until my muscles flexed around him and I called out his name. He groaned and came right after me.
“I needed that,” I said.
“So did I.”
Someone pulled up next to us.
“Oh, fuck.”
“Don’t worry, sweets. Just slide on over and put your pants back on. These windows are tinted pretty dark.”
I did as he told me, but there was no way they couldn’t see inside. My hands trembled as I pulled my jeans on.
“Of all the places to park, why’d they park right next to us?”
“No idea.”
“Thank God they didn’t come a few minutes earlier. At least we were fast.”
“True.”
Then we heard a knock on the window.
“Evan, I can’t look at them. You have to handle this.”
He rolled his window down and I heard a familiar voice.
“Dude, what are you doing here? Your windows are awfully steamy.” He laughed.
“Pearson, what are you doing here?”
“What does it look like?”
I turned to check. He was in running clothes with his friend, Petey. Shit. I’d never hear the end of this. Then he stuck his head in the window and sniffed. “Yeah, I know what you guys have been up to.”
“No, you don’t. We came for lunch, but the ducks attacked our food.”
He laughed but didn’t believe us. “Yeah, right.”
“Seriously, man. Check out that trash can over there.”
“Okay. But then why were your windows steamed up?”
“We were talking.”
“Uh huh. What I can’t figure out is why here and not at home?”
“Go run.” Evan rolled up the window to a chuckling Pearson.
One Indecent Night Page 21