by Lee, R. A.
Jake wondered how bad the other center must have been if Brooke thought the new place was a resort in comparison. Stylish but sterile, the whole place was depressing and he finally appreciated the fact his mother was healthy and strong enough to live on her own. She would wither in an environment where she couldn’t command the respect of her stubborn son. In comparison, Brooke’s mother seemed reserved and accepting of her daughter’s choices. They wouldn’t really know, though, because Brooke hadn’t explained the details of their arrangement.
Brooke had lied to her mother. Jake had lied to his mother. The only difference was that his mother was strong enough to handle the situation, and Brooke’s mother looked as if the wind could zap her strength.
A caretaker approached and Jake’s mother asked if she would take a photo of the happy family, which she agreed to and they all smiled.
Hugging and kissing, Brooke’s mother said she wanted a moment with Jake.
Helping her to her feet, Brooke passed her mother off to Jake with a knowing stare. He was to play the loving husband.
Escorting the woman to a table with holiday cookies on a wreath-shaped tray, Brooke’s mother was very lucid.
“My daughter’s not in love with you, is she?” Brooke’s mother said clearly without judgment. Jake was speechless. Obviously this woman could press on against the wind, but not for long. Maybe Brooke already knew that.
“Matthew was the love of her life,” Brooke’s mother explained. Her question had been rhetorical. “When she said she got married again, to a man who also was willing to put me up in this place, I knew she hadn’t married for love. That makes me very sad.”
“You must make her happy, though,” her mother said as they watched Brooke and MJ playing with his new toys with his new grandmother. “She seems very peaceful,” her mother nodded wistfully. “For now that’s all I can hope for. I’m in no place to burden her further.”
Jake didn’t respond. Her mother offered him her hand and Jake gently pulled the weak women to her feet and escorted her back to her family.
More hugs and kisses and Brooke promised to return in a week. Returning home, Brooke and his mother made lunch and Jake went to his room to work.
“Jake, lunch is ready,” his mother called and Jake put away his work and joined his family downstairs.
Begging to play with his toys, Brooke excused MJ from the table. Then he started pleading for Jake to help him put together some racetrack toy.
Jake hadn’t assembled or played with a toy since he was a boy. Brooke’s eyes pleaded for him to spend a few minutes playing daddy.
“Five minutes is all he needs,” she urged Jake.
“Go play,” his mother commanded.
Unsure how to approach, Jake walked up to the tree and sat down on the floor near MJ. Handing Jake some parts, MJ explained that he couldn’t connect the tracks and Jake read the instructions and snapped the track together. Shrieking in delight, MJ raced his cars around the battery-operated track and soon Jake was betting which one would cross the plastic sticker-covered finish line.
A flash went off, and Jake looked up. His mother had stealth photographed him playing dad. That was his present to her, even better than the expensive perfume he brought from Paris.
Jake’s cell went off and he saw the code for Jenny and he leapt up. Turning to take the call, he caught Brooke’s gaze.
“Please. Go,” she said. The phone rang and vibrated in his hand, and he answered it as he hopped up the stairs to his room.
“I’m back in the city,” Jenny teased Jake. “Pick me up at the airport at 10.”
The phone disconnected and Jake stood staring at his escape. Family Christmas was officially over.
Chapter 8
Spending the New Year in the city with Jenny was very relaxing. He had no obligations, no eyes pleading for him to be a good family man for five minutes, no mother nagging him and pressuring him into a role in which he was not comfortable.
With Jenny, they dined at the finest restaurants, attended sophisticated parties and spent the day making love.
Ringing in the New Year, Jake kissed Jenny.
For two glorious weeks afterward, Jake thought their time together would never end, but it always did. That didn’t make their parting any less difficult.
“When will you be back?” he asked as they got ready for another inevitable separation.
“The Count is looking into an ambassadorship and I’ll be very busy with new duties,” she shrugged.
“What does that mean for us, Jenny?” Jake asked, somewhat irritated.
“Just the same as it always does, my darling,” she said, pulling on her robe over bronze, sculpted arms. Freeing her hair from the robe, it cascaded down her back and Jake winced knowing it would be a long time before he saw her again.
Each time it got more and more difficult for him to say good-bye until who knew when.
“What if we weren’t married, Jenny,” he asked, propping himself up on his pillow. “What if we were both single, we didn’t have obligations?”
Without blinking Jenny answered.
“But we’re not, darling, and we do have obligations,” she replied.
“Pretend we’re not,” he insisted. “You and I are both single. What if I asked you to run away with me? What if I asked you to marry me? What would you say, Jenny?”
Storm clouds gathered in her calm ocean blue eyes.
“Even if the Count passed away, we couldn’t get married,” she chided Jake. “The moment I remarry I lose everything.”
“That’s not what I asked,” Jake said, shaking his head.
Sensing his disappointment, Jenny slid over to Jake and caressed his chest to soothe her lover.
“What’s gotten into you,” she asked softly, her eyes a calm serene ocean. Jake caressed her cheek.
“This is fun, Jenny, but I guess I want you all to myself,” he replied softly. “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” she said while kissing his chest and making her way to his lips. The time for talking was over. Making love for the last time again, Jenny left and Jake was alone in his condo.
Like so many times before, Jake was left with the knowledge she would return, they would fall into bed again and all would be forgotten. All the time in between would compress and it would be like no time had passed when they met again. The only thing was that the time in between seemed longer and slower, and their time together shorter.
Dragging himself back to the house, Jake arrived late and headed straight to his room. Downstairs he knew Brooke and MJ would greet him in the morning, so he slept late and didn’t go to the kitchen. Leaving by the front door, he put on his headphones and went for his daily run.
“Jake, dinner’s ready,” his mother called after he had taken a shower.
“I’ll eat later,” he called back.
“Five minutes,” she commanded. Jake wanted to yell something obscene, but he wasn’t a teenager. When he was at the house, he was expected to fulfill certain obligations.
Everybody was seated and waiting for Jake. His mother said grace and they ate quietly. Jake missed the intimate dinners and late night cocktails with Jenny.
Instead of learning about the latest trend in art, he had to listen to MJ talk about his day at school.
“Now, mom’s my art teacher!” he heard MJ exclaim. He hadn’t heard the beginning of the conversation and assumed Brooke was teaching him art at home.
“Isn’t that great, Jake?” his mother beamed. “There is this after school program, and Brooke is now an art teacher.”
Jake looked at Brooke who seemed distant.
“I didn’t know you were into art,” he said.
“I majored in art in college,” she shrugged. “I worked at several galleries. I was working on my master’s.”
“Congratulations,” Jake said and Brooke thanked him.
“Isn’t that cool, daddy?” MJ asked and waited for Jake to respond. Cringing, Jake smiled and said
it was. The first “daddy” of his visits back home was always the hardest, like the first in a series of painful shots.
Jake noticed Brooke close her eyes and sigh as well. It pained her in other ways.
There was no pain when he was with Jenny. Just love. Love and leaving. Jake always felt pain when she left and he had to adjust to life without her, he had to live the moments in between anticipating her next visit.
When they were together, Jenny never had a care Jake knew of, but as he looked over at Brooke, he realized that she was always thinking, always trying to figure out what she needed to do next.
Flashes of their night together where she “thanked him” reminded Jake there was more to her than he saw on an everyday basis. It was hard to see anything but worry and pain in her dark eyes.
When she came to his room to “thank him,” Jake thought she was just a woman who needed a little sexual contact. After he turned off the light, she had stimulated him in places he didn’t know existed. Deftly maneuvering her hands and gently guiding him, she knew what she wanted. Jake thought she was a basic missionary-position woman, but the missionary position was just a cool down.
Sighing and holding her heavy head in her hand as she leaned on her elbow and dutifully forked peas in her mouth, Brooke glanced at Jake and raised her eyebrows to show she didn’t have an answer for whatever question she was pondering in her head.
Eyes brown and sad didn’t compare to the vibrant blue eyes that promised pleasure when he looked at Jenny. Brooke was always somewhere else, working on some problem, gauging her next decision, or remembering what it was like in another lifetime. How did I get here always seemed to be on her mind.
That night she came to him, though, there were no thoughts on her mind. Jake felt she had come to him fully abandoning all worries with a clear and precise goal. Once she had achieved it, she just slipped away as if it were a dream leaving Jake breathless with a newfound respect for the woman he had married.
Unlike Jake, Brooke had been married before and had years of experience with just one man loving and sharing and caring.
When she came to him, Jake assumed she expected something mundane and ordinary, he expected boring and suburban. After all, she had spent eight years with the same man and only one man. How much could she know?
Watching her ponder things Jake could never imagine, he realized that whatever he thought about love and marriage had evaporated the moment she slid off his sweatpants. Unspoken, intimate pleasures awaited the man she gave herself to and Jake had only received a preview.
Jake just wanted to take her mind off things.
Still thinking about Jenny, Jake decided the only way he could do that was to be nice to MJ, play ball and help him with his homework, maybe take him to school and pick him up once in a while.
Brooke always watched in bittersweet fascination as Jake played daddy to her son. She didn’t expect anything else or “thank him” again. Jake didn’t want her to or expect her to because it wasn’t part of their arrangement. That night had been a perk for offering more of himself than was required.
When his mother announced they were throwing a small birthday party for MJ in the backyard, he agreed but said he was too busy to make any plans.
Brooke gave him a hint of what MJ wanted for his birthday and he just handed her his credit card. Shrugging, Brooke took the card and wrapped the present for him. Jake just had to present it to MJ on his birthday.
On MJ’s birthday, Melinda arrived and she and Brooke spent most of the day getting ready for the party. Jake stayed in his room.
Sounds of screaming and yelling brought Jake downstairs. Melinda was sitting at the dining room table, looking out the French doors.
“Sit with me, Jake,” she said, pulling out a chair. “I couldn’t take it out there anymore.”
Jake sat and through the windows of the French doors he saw MJ and a bunch of other kids throwing water balloons while mothers stood observing the situation and talking amongst themselves.
Jake noticed a picture on the table.
He recognized their unofficial wedding photo and picked it up.
It was not one of those happy, loving photos of two people about to start their lives together. They both looked stunned. They didn’t look like a couple that had just gotten happily married.
“Has Brooke seen this?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“What did she say?” he wondered out loud.
“She thinks you both look stunned,” Melinda said, reading his mind.
“We do,” he said and put the picture back on the table.
Brooke backed out from the kitchen with a cake for the birthday boy and a lit candle on top of the racing car shaped cake.
“Cake time,” she declared, “you can’t sit this out.”
“Be there in a sec,” Melinda said as she let Brooke out the door. Holding the cake up high, Brooke was mobbed by children in desperate need of birthday cake.
“How’s it going?” Melinda asked.
“Things are going well,” he said, knowing she wanted to get his opinion about his arrangement with Brooke.
“You know what I mean, Jake,” she admonished her friend.
“Why? Has she said anything?” he shrugged.
“She said it was going well as well,” Melinda said, irritated they didn’t divulge more personal details.
“What did you expect?” he asked while he listened to the kids sing “Happy Birthday” to MJ.
“I don’t know,” Melinda confessed. Sighing Melinda stood and Jake joined her.
“I can see it’s going well,” she said. “Your mother’s happy, she has a grandchild and daughter-in-law,” she pointed out. “Her son’s happy, he has a daddy. Everyone’s happy.”
“That pretty much sums it up,” he said. Melinda waited for a reaction from Jake but he didn’t have any to offer.
“Let’s go have cake,” she said and they headed out to face a mob of children overdosing on sugar.
It was then time to open presents.
“Thank you, daddy,” MJ yelled when he opened the special robot warrior Brooke had purchased.
“I hope you like it,” he yelled back over the noise. Jake’s mother whispered something into MJ’s ear and he came running toward Jake with the robot box in his grip.
Standing next to Jake, who was eating cake, MJ faced his grandma and smiled. A flash went off. It would be another present for his mother.
Watching MJ running back to open his other presents, Jake recovered from the stealth camera attack. When all the presents were opened, Brooke announced all the children would get a gift bag on their way out. Like little soldiers, the children marched and took a gift bag while their mothers escorted them to their homes.
Melinda announced it was time for her to get back to the city, and she hugged Jake. Brooke was starting to clean up and took a moment to hug her friend as they said their good-byes.
Jake decided he could pick up some plates and cups. Grabbing a trash bag from a stack Brooke had ready, Jake proceeded to pick up trash and bits of water balloon pieces. The lawn was soaked. What happened next took him by surprise.
Something hit him on the back and when he turned he saw a failed water balloon jiggling on the grass. Looking up, he saw his mother conspiring with Brooke and they threw another balloon, delighted in their game.
This one not only hit, it splattered, soaking Jake. Standing there startled, he looked at them and they were just beginning.
Ducking, Jake deflected the next one. The battle was on.
“MJ, help,” he cried and MJ looked up from his robot and shrieked in delight as he saw another water balloon fight in progress. Grabbing water balloons from a nearby blow-up pool, MJ handed a balloon to Jake and they threw them at the women.
Jake’s balloon hit and he and MJ high-fived each other.
“I’ll throw, you bring the balloons,” he said, breathlessly coming up with a plan of attack.
Running
back and forth with balloons, MJ handed them to Jake and Jake aimed and made direct hits, and each time the women were shocked that he would hit a woman. They launched a barrage of water balloons at him. Jake decided there were too many balloons on their side, so he was going in for the final push.
Grabbing the hose as they continued their assault, he turned on the faucet and came at them like they were protestors at a rally that got out of hand.
Screaming, the women laughed as they were soaked and Jake declared victory and turned to celebrate with his comrade. Jake’s celebration was short lived. The hose was swiped from his hand and put down the back of his shirt. Turning, he saw Brooke laughing hysterically while his mother urged her on.
Grabbing her arms, she protested while still laughing and holding her ground. Cold water poured down Jake’s chest and she couldn’t stop laughing long enough to surrender. Mud formed under his feet and he fell, bringing Brooke on top of him.
They both grunted as they hit the wet ground and the hose flew out of her hands and slithered away. Dripping wet from head to toe, Brooke was breathing hard but she was no longer laughing. Jake could see her breasts through her shirt, cold and pressed up against his chest. Laughter turned to lust for a split second in her eyes then she rolled off Jake.
“Party’s over,” she proclaimed. “Bath time.”
Protesting, MJ wanted five more minutes and Brooke nodded and headed to the kitchen with the remainder of the cake.
Jake made a request from his mother then headed to the kitchen. Standing at the sink wiping dirt from her arms, Brooke thought it was MJ and she declared that the party was over again.
The cold water only cooled Jake down, but it didn’t quench the fire she had ignited. Coming up behind her, Jake gently put his hands on her shoulder.
Brooke’s reaction was all he needed to know. Moaning, she uncoiled into him, her back arched, her wet head pressed against his chest.
“My mom’s going to take MJ for a while,” he whispered. “I’m going to take a shower,” he suggested. Brooke was breathing heavy and he left her standing at the counter.