by A. C. Arthur
Now, they lay there, Jenise resting on his chest with Savian’s arm around her.
“It’s been a long day,” she said sleepily.
“Too long,“ he replied.
“We have work tomorrow,” she stated, hating the thought of having to go into the office and spend hours away from him.
“We do,” he replied.
She took a chance and asked, “Dinner tomorrow night? I know this great Mediterranean inspired place. I think you may know the owner.”
He’d chuckled. “Sure. I bet I could get us a discount, too.”
Jenise smiled, happy with the easy rapport they now had and even happier with the feeling of being in his arms one more time.
“That sounds terrific,” she chimed in.
There were a few moments of silence where Jenise had been just about to fall asleep. Then he said, “Let’s get married on Christmas Day.”
She stopped breathing. Really, her eyes shot open and Jenise was certain she didn’t breathe for a few seconds before the air whooshed out of her as Savian adjusted himself so that he could look down at her.
“I mean it, Jenise,” he said seriously. “Last night and today has shown me that life is too short. If you want something you have to reach out and take it before it’s too late. I want you. I need you. I love you.”
Just like that, she thought. The words were so Savian. The moment, she thought was much more her style because it was romantic as hell without any planning or trying involved. He said he loved her. The words replayed in her mind, warming her heart. She’d never told him those words, but she’d felt them every day since they’d been in New York.
“I love you,” she said wanting to give him something in return.
He smiled, bringing a hand around and touching his finger to the tip of her nose, then to tap on her chin.
“So marry me on Christmas Day. I promise you it will be magic.”
Jenise smiled. If she hadn’t known her answer before that moment, she definitely knew it now.
“You said the magic word,” was her reply. “Yes, I’ll marry you on Christmas Day.”
Chapter 14
The next week and a half went by with a whirlwind of activity. His mother was elated the morning after her accident when Savian announced he and Jenise were getting married while they sat in the courtyard having coffee. The look on her face was worth every painful and stressful moment he had gone through in all of his life.
“I don’t know what to say,” Carolyn had immediately exclaimed. Her shaking hand finally managing to put her coffee cup on the glass-topped table without it, or the table, cracking. “A Christmas wedding. How wonderful! Oh, it’s going to be beautiful. Just beautiful!”
“Congratulations, son,” Reginald had said.
Savian could see the genuine joy in his father’s face. He heard the pride in his voice and because he loved Jenise and his mother with every fiber of his being, he did not bring up what was going on between the younger and the Senior Donovans at the moment. Instead, he’d given his father a nod and a, “Thanks, Dad.”
“Have you thought about where you’d like to have it? Christmas is only a week or so away. So we have to get moving fast on the planning,” Carolyn said, effectively ending those few moments of tension between Savian and his father.
Jenise chimed right in. “So, I haven’t even talked to Savian about this yet. But I’ve been thinking about it all night,” she added with a smile so bright it lit up every dark space in Savian’s mind.
“I really love this space right here. I had a chance to see a little bit of it last night and then again morning when we came down to get breakfast started, Savian said this was your favorite spot. The moment I came out here I knew why. I’d love to get married right here. If that’s okay with you.”
The tears came quickly and Jenise had immediately begun apologizing. Waving a hand to silence them. his mother shook her head until she was able to speak.
“That’s perfect,” she said, her voice cracking. “Just perfect.”
So, the date and the location were set, and by the time Savian had finally arrived in the office—after driving Jenise back to his place to get her car and changing his clothes—Dion, Sean and Parker were waiting for him in his office. He’d walked in, closing the door behind him and could only grin at the message they’d scribbled on the dry erase board that normally sat in the corner.
What took you so long? Welcome to the Married Donovans Society!
“Ha, very funny,” he’d said as he passed the board and went to stand behind his desk. “You’re not married yet, Parker.”
Still grinning, but leaning over the desk with his arm outstretched, Parker shook his younger brother’s hand and said, “Yeah, well that’s just a technicality. Adriana’s talking about a destination wedding so that may take a little longer than a week and a half to plan.”
“True,” Savian added as he also shook Dion and Sean’s hands. “I hope Jenise has enough time to do this the way she wants.”
“Never fear,” Dion said. “As I was leaving my office I ran into Regan and Lyra. They were on their way downstairs to grab Tate and then were heading over to Jenise’s office. I overheard my beautifully pregnant wife asking, ‘How could she possibly work on a day like today?’ To which your adoring sister replied, ‘I know. We have way too much shopping to do for any work to get done today.’”
Savian had to laugh with the guys on that one, and not just because of what was said, but moreso because of Dion’s dead-on impersonations of the women. They’d spent another half hour talking about the wedding and before his cousins and brother had left, they’d made Savian promise to meet them after work today to go shopping for Jenise’s ring.
“Who proposes without a ring?” Dion had asked.
“I did and it cost me dearly,” Parker chimed in.
Sean nodded his agreement. “Yes. Believe me, you want to pick out the ring for her, not have her pick it out for you. Your bank account will thank you later.”
Savian had leaned back in his chair with a grin that was becoming more natural than he ever thought it would. “But I want to make sure I get something she’ll really like.”
“That’s why you’re going to take us with you,” Dion added.
“But you don’t know her like I do,” Savian objected.
“No,” Sean told him. “But we know we’re Donovans. There’s nothing we won’t do for the women we love. We’ll just be there to remind you of that fact.”
Savian had spent the rest of the day thinking about his wife-to-be and that soon, she would become a Donovan.
He wondered if that would be a good or bad thing for her.
#
“We called you all here because there’s something we want to tell you,” Bruce began.
It was the night before Christmas Eve and they’d each received a text message to meet in the conference room at Excalibur at six o’clock. Savian, Parker, Dion, Sean and Regan each sat in the spot they normally occupied at the table that was normally reserved for business matters. Savian had a sinking suspicion, however, that this meeting was about something else entirely. It was also the only place that they could meet that wasn’t full of wedding preparations.
“You’ve each been asking questions about the vandalism at our homes and that cryptic email message, and lately Carolyn’s accident,” Bruce continued. “We want to clear the air.”
Regan spoke first. “We appreciate that. We’re all family here, we have to stick together, always, and that’s not possible if we don’t all know what’s going on with each other. You taught us that, daddy. When we were just little kids you taught us to always look out for each other, remember?”
Regan had captured their father’s gaze and held it, adoringly, just as she had when she was a little girl. Reginald nodded.
“You’re right, baby girl. That’s why we’re going to tell you that there is something going on. Something that happened a long time ago. At the time,” Reginald
said, clearing his throat, “we thought we were making the right decision for everyone involved. We never wanted to hurt the ones we loved in any way. But people make mistakes. The good thing is that eventually, hopefully, they figure out the error of their ways and do whatever they can to make it better.”
The last was said as Reginald looked to Savian.
This was the man that he’d looked up to all his life, so Savian did not turn away from him. Instead, he gave a quick nod, signaling he was ready to hear the rest.
“As you all know there’s a wedding coming up very soon,” Bruce interjected. “Your mothers have been running around these past days buying up everything they can and getting with the other women and planning. It’s been a lot of activity going on. And we’re all excited,” he said. “Congratulations to you again, Savian.”
“Thanks, Uncle Bruce,” Savian said tightly.
“The family’s coming in tomorrow. Since the wedding is on Christmas Day, your mothers thought it would be a good idea to have the family holiday dinner on Christmas Eve. Henry, Bernard, Everett and Al are all coming. Their kids are too,” Reginald said. “So we’d like to wait until the day after the wedding to talk to everyone together. Carolyn mentioned last night that you and Jenise aren’t leaving for your honeymoon to Australia until Monday morning.”
Savian wanted to know right now and he was certain his siblings and cousins did as well. Still, he recognized their dilemma. Telling whatever this secret was before the holiday could quite possibly destroy the celebration for all of them. Of course that depended on what the secret was. Considering his father and uncle were standing in front of them now, suggesting they wait, it must be something big. After all, it did involve the murder of at least one person. He’d begun to wonder what else had happened during the time they’d kept this secret, things that hadn’t yet reached out to touch the family.
“I think that’s a good idea,” Sean said. “I don’t want anything to affect Briana’s Christmas. She’s too excited and so is Tate.”
Dion nodded. “I don’t want Lyra upset right now at all. We’re trying to do all we can to keep her off bed rest for as long as possible. Too much stress is not going to be good for her.”
“Or for you,” Savian said to Regan.
She was already shaking her head. “Not knowing is going to worry me more. But I agree, let’s wait until after Christmas. If it involves the entire family, then we should all be together when the secret is finally revealed.”
Parker sighed. “I agree. Let’s wait until Saturday,” he said. “But not a second after that. Because whatever happened all those years ago has come back to haunt, not only you guys, but all of us as well. Somebody out there definitely believes that revenge is a dish best served cold. I’d rather we be prepared to fight fire with fire, if we have to than to continue to wait around like sitting ducks.”
Savian looked at his father as Parker spoke those words. Apparently, Reginald had said that to both of them.
“We’ll tell you all everything on Saturday. Not a day later,” Bruce said solemnly.
#
Christmas Eve
Jenise stood beside her husband-to-be at the head of a huge dining room table in Carolyn and Reginald Donovan’s house on Thursday evening.
The house was already beautifully decorated and Jenise had been fighting back tears since she’d arrived there two hours ago. In the past week and half she’d shopped for a dress, explained her vision for the perfect Christmas wedding, selected a reception venue, talked about food and cakes and wedding favors, bands, DJs and yes, mistletoe. There was going to be lots of mistletoe throughout the entire wedding. She was exhausted and excited and overwhelmed with the love she could feel in this room.
Her family had arrived this morning. Morgan was staying with her at her apartment, while her mother, father, grandparents and brothers were all situated at a hotel. Sure, it was last minute during the holiday season, but the Donovans seemed to know everyone and Savian had called a man named Jason Carrington that he’d met when he’d been in Monterey last summer for an industry conference. Jason Carrington owned Carrington Resorts and had just opened his first east coast hotel in Miami six months ago. Jason had happily given Jenise’s family the top two penthouse suites for the holiday weekend and the following week as a wedding gift.
All of Savian’s uncles were here. Jenise had been introduced to every one of them and their wives personally. They were scattered around the room at the moment, but she could look up and see each one: Henry and Beverly, Bernard and Jocelyn, Everette and Alma, and Albert. Their children had also come, and while she was eventually going to need a chart to keep them all straight, she was certain she had them mostly together right now. There was Linc and Jade, Adam and Camille, Trent and Tia, all three of Henry’s sons. Max and Deena and Ben and Victoria were Everette’s sons. Keysa and her husband Ian and Brynne, who had a beautiful smile and bubbly personality, were Bernard’s daughters. Brock and his wife, Noelle, Brandon and Bailey were Albert’s children. Of course the children had children and so the house was now full of giggles and child-chatter that filled Jenise with such a spirit of home and love that she’d felt even more blessed than she had the day before.
Six months ago she was working ten to twelve hours a day, going home and falling face-first into her bed. If she had a date every other month that was good, a bout of satisfying sex was even better. But there’d been nothing like this. She’d never imagined this was where she’d be and this man would be all she could think about. Her gaze fell to her mother at that moment. Marianne practically beamed. She’d been elated when Jenise had called that morning when she’d finally arrived at work, to tell her that she was getting married. She hadn’t asked who Savian was because she’d heard the name Donovan before, which made her even happier. A half hour later when Gwen had buzzed into her office to say that Lyra, Tate and Regan were there to see her, Jenise had thanked the heavens for the reprieve. Of course, she’d had no idea that reprieve would lead to hours and hours of shopping and planning with the women, but that had been a good thing also.
“We want to thank all of you for being here on such short notice,” she began when the room had finally started to quiet down, courtesy of Savian taping his fork on his champagne glass until Jenise thought it might break.
“Savian and I are extremely blessed to have such a wonderful and supportive family.”
There’d been a little clapping at that point and then Savian said, “We wanted to let you all know that we don’t need anything as a wedding gift. We talked about it and we’re going to start looking for a house when we return from our honeymoon. But we do not want any of you to spend your money on us.”
Jenise nodded. “What we would appreciate much more, is if you would instead make donations to charities that are near and dear to us.”
Savian moved from beside her to set his glass down and pull out the cards she’d made earlier that day. He began passing them around the room as she spoke.
“Stand for the Silent is a national non-profit agency that currently reaches over a million students in more than a thousand schools. We’d like to reach more, to assist by providing counselors and support teams to help every victim of bullying across the country,” she said.
Carolyn shed silent tears as she looked down at the card.
“We’d also like to support the My Big Is Beautiful Forever Foundation which is a relatively new start-up that also supports children, young adults and adults who struggle with their weight and the stigma the world puts on them. The national spokesperson that was just named a few months ago for this organization is a good friend of mine that I went to college with, her name is Amber McNair and she’s a beautiful person inside and out, regardless of her dress size,” Jenise said.
Morgan was the first to begin clapping when she finished, followed by Regan and Adriana, and then Ms. Carolyn. Before long the entire room was clapping and everyone was standing.
“I’d like to make a to
ast,” Reginald said over the noise.
Everyone picked up their glasses, holding them high. “To my son and the beautiful and intelligent woman who has agreed to marry him. May each of your days be filled with love, loyalty and trust. God bless you.”
“God bless you,” Carolyn chimed in, clinking her glass to her husband’s.
Savian touched his glass to Jenise’s, then leaned in to do the same with his father’s. They sat down to eat after that. There was so much food and wine and a Christmas punch that Jenise almost choked on after sipping, that she wondered how tomorrow would compare to this.
After dinner, the family moved to the living room where there was a twelve foot tree decorated in heirloom ornaments, handmade pieces by Carolyn’s children and some she’d collected over the years. The gold and white themed tree stood tall and majestic in the corner of the large space. The kids happily milled about on a hunt to find the gift boxes with their names on them as the adults exchanged a few boxes of their own. When one had been given to Savian he’d leaned over to show Jenise that it had both their names on it.
“Oh, didn’t we say no gifts,” she’d whispered to him.
“Guess that announcement came too late, besides, we said no wedding gifts, not Christmas gifts,” he told her.
She’d nodded and decided to simply go with the flow.
It took Savian a few moments to get through the lovely dark red paper and the gorgeous gold bow that had been expertly tied on top. When he finally got past through the wrapping paper and wadded through all the tissue paper inside, he pulled out a miniature grandfather clock. It was gorgeous with its dark wood color and bright gold face and pendulum.