He hadn’t spoken of them in any detail. They hadn’t gotten that far in any conversation yet. Thus far, she was so damned happy to have someone else to talk to other than her brothers and Krysten, they hadn’t tackled the personal stuff of who was oldest or anything like that. She relaxed and cut herself some slack. It had only been two weeks since they met in person.
“Krysten, everything was in the file you gave me. Of course I know he has six sisters,” she told her.
“Gurl, I’mma need you to find out which one is gay or bi before the wedding,” Krysten said in a rush.
“I think something is really wrong with you Krys.”
“Yes it is. I have not had any since that hot little red head in Nawlins. I swear, what that young thang did to me, I thought it would at least hold me for six months, but c’est la vie! I am hornier than ever,” she said in a huff. “When is this wedding any way...I need to know how long it is going to be before a sister can get some loving?”
“My wedding is not a source for you hooking up with new victims,” Darlene said adamantly.
“Why not? Your last wedding I had to get a new Rolodex. There was so many bi-curious women there, I had to make a planning calendar.”
Darlene could not help but laugh. “I am trying so hard to understand how you can believe that one of his sisters is gay,” she responded.
“Six girls...yeah, one of them or a cousin is ready to try something new, step out and get some strange, and Krysten is going to be handing out the punch and finger sammiches if you know what I mean.”
“Sadly, I do,” she drolly told her friend.
“So, when is the wedding,” she asked.
“In a couple of months, or so. I need to sell the house, get rid of the stuff in it, peddle the other car and plan to drive across country,” she said.
“Let Daniel help you with all that stuff,” Krysten advised.
That was the last thing Darlene wanted. George took care of all the details for her and look what that got her. Nope. This go around, I am getting my hands dirty and getting in on the action.
“I got it. I will talk to you soon,” she told her as she hung up the phone.
It was less than three minutes later when it rang again but this time it was Daniel.
“Hey there Park Ranger,” she said in the line. Since hearing Cassandra use the line, Darlene had adopted it into her vernacular with him during their conversations.
“I want to see you,” he said to her. Just like that. Nothing more. Five words and her palms were sweating and other parts were starting to hum.
“Well, you know where I am,” she told him jokingly.
Daniel had been getting antsy. He was afraid she would change her mind about marrying him. He was a hands-on type of guy and he needed to be a little more hands on with her. “I will be there on Friday. Can you tell me a decent hotel that’s nearby?”
“Hotel? I wouldn’t hear of it. I have plenty of room, you can stay with me. Besides, I’m going to be staying with you pretty soon,” she said.
There was silence in the line.
“Daniel?”
“I’m here,” he said.
She paused for a moment, taking into consideration all of the details he made a point of emphasizing about living in Wyoming. He had been careful not to be too personal.
“I’m not going to change my mind Daniel. I am ready for a new life with you,” she told him.
He breathed a sigh of relief. “I am hoping after this weekend we can set a date,” he said softly.
“I need to sell the house and a vehicle, but it shouldn’t take too long. After that I am all yours,” she told him.
“All mine?”
“All yours...” she told him after a slight pause to change the topic. She was suddenly feeling warm. “What time and what airline?”
He loved how she cut to the chase. “United, 10:30 am, is that going to be a problem for you with your job?”
“I am not working, but more than likely, my brothers will be here and they will want to meet you. Are you ready for that?”
He chuckled a bit. “Are you ready to meet my six sisters, who by the way, want to plan the wedding. I guess they are happy someone is finally marrying me,” he told her.
“I am okay with the courthouse. I had the big wedding once, and it is over-rated. I would like something more intimate,” she said softly. It was his opening to make a play on the words she used.
Daniel wanted something more intimate as well. Since he held her in his arms, it was all he could think about; holding her again. Kissing her again, hopefully something more.
“I will let them know. If you want, I can give Iris, that’s my oldest sister, your number,” he told her.
Darlene was disappointed that he didn’t have a snappy comeback to the intimate comment. Instead he went one better. The octaves in his voice were lowered when he said the next eight words which made her want to dance.
“I can’t wait to make you my wife,” his words were sensual. They were also loaded with something more than the formalization of a union on paper and the ceremonial gathering in a room full of family and friends.
“I will see you on Friday,” she told him as they said goodbye and she hung up the phone. She fell back on the bed clutching the cell to her breast as if she were holding his last breaths in her fists. Darlene felt young again.
I feel wanted.
He needs me.
“Thank you Jesus!” In retrospection, missing this type of feeling when she dated George was like an after light. Darlene was no longer afraid of the sun setting. The dark of night was not an issue for her anymore. Her mornings were going to be much brighter.
Chapter Twelve –Semi-Darkness
“Would you calm down,” James, her brother, commanded her. He had arrived on Thursday night to purchase her son’s car and drive it back to Virginia Beach. She didn’t want to admit it, but of her two brothers, James, who was only older by a year, was her favorite. He was also less bossy than Roosevelt.
“I can’t! His plane will be landing in less than an hour!” She squealed. “How do I look?” She glanced at herself in the mirror again, checking her teeth, then under her eyes for bags and dark circles. Darlene pinched her cheeks to add a bit of color.
“What is wrong with you?” Roosevelt asked. “I have never seen you like this.”
“I have never felt like this...he is so...handsome...and big,” she said with a smile. “Did I mention he was big?”
“Yes!” Both brothers said at the same time.
Darlene could not stop fidgeting. She felt like a 17 year-old on prom night. In some ways she was glad her brothers were staying the weekend as well. At least that way she wouldn’t make a tart out of herself by pouncing on the poor man. As crazy as Krysten was, she had raised a valid point, how long was a reasonable wait before she made love with him.
That’s stupid; you are going to be his wife.
Wedding night.
Oh yeah.
She was grinning as she thought about being intimate with him. The new feelings coursing through her body was awakening the woman in her. The grown woman. The woman with a focus on herself and some much needed happiness.
“You are really digging this guy aren’t you?” James asked her.
“I plan to marry him, so yes,” she said as she giggled a bit more.
James and Roosevelt stood staring at her in an awkward amazement. They had never seen their sister act this way. Even as a child she had a fierce determination to take care of everyone around her, including the weaker smaller kids in the neighborhood, stray animals, and the earth. The more of an activist she became, in their opinion, the less sociable she was. Every conversation with her was almost an argument on the reduction of their carbon footprints, recycling initiatives, and doing good deeds for their fellow man. This was the first time in many years, the brothers had ever seen her excited about something in her own life.
“James, I hope you are planning to put
something on the grill,” she told him. “I made a kale salad, cooked some green beans and bought some corn that we can roast in the husk as well.”
He raised his eyebrows to Roosevelt mouthing, “She made it herself?”
Roosevelt only responded by mouthing, “last time I was here she cooked me breakfast.”
“I can’t wait to meet this man!” James shouted over his shoulder as he walked out the back door to start up the grill.
Darlene didn’t respond but checked herself in the mirror again. A quick glance at her watch and she realized his plane would be landing in a half hour. “Oh crap! I need to get to the airport,” she said as she grabbed her purse and keys. She gave her vehicle choice a second thought as she paused and put back the keys to the car and grabbed the ones to the SUV. “He may not fit too comfortably in that car,” she said with a wink as she exited through the basement door to the garage.
“Be back in a jiff!”
Roosevelt looked at James. “I’m with you. I can’t wait to meet him as well. He has to be one helluva man to make her react like she was 16 again.”
“In all honesty, she didn’t act like this when she was 16. It is just good to see her up, around and smiling,” James said. “For that alone, he has my vote.”
“We have to make sure her assets are protected before she signs on any dotted line,” Roosevelt cautioned.
“Seriously man? She is an attorney. Environmental or otherwise...she is not one to mess with,” he said. James paused for a minute. “Did you see that smile on her face?”
“Hell, did you see that she was checking her makeup. I didn’t even know she wore makeup!”
Laughter filled the room as they prepared the kitchen to meet the man who would be their new brother-in-law.
Daniel stood on the curb of Dulles airport partially in shock from the landing of the plane, the other from what Darlene drove to pick him up. When she said a black SUV, he was looking for a Ford Explorer or a GMC, he didn’t expect her to pull up in a Range Rover.
“Hey lovely lady,” he said as he opened the back seat to deposit his well-worn overnight bag.
“Hey there Park Ranger,” she said with a bright smile. “Going my way?”
Daniel slid into the passenger seat and looked over at her. She didn’t disappoint him as she quickly leaned towards him for a friendly peck.
“I thought you’d never get here,” she confessed with warm cheeks as she glanced at all the man which was to be her husband.
“The way that plane landed, I wasn’t sure if I was here or if the pilot had parked at the wrong airport. I think I got whiplash,” he said as he rubbed his neck.
Darlene knew exactly what he was talking about. “I meant to warn you about that. Dulles has one of the shortest runways in the world. Pilots have to have a lot of flight hours before they are even allowed to fly into DC. Are you okay?”
“My neck isn’t but a hot shower should loosen it up a bit,” he said to her as she pulled into traffic. He paused for a minute as he watched her handle the vehicle. “I couldn’t wait to get here to see you either.”
Darlene wore crisp black slacks with a peach colored twin set and set of pearls. Daniel could tell the pearls were expensive. As she took side streets and drove into a gated community, the homes in which they whirled past were also very expensive. Brick homes with lots of glass and modern features. She pulled into the driveway of an extremely well maintained home with a three car garage around back. At a push of a button, the first garage door rose inviting her to park the equally expensive vehicle.
Next to a black Jaguar.
A black Jaguar that was parked next to a black BMW.
“That is my son’s car. My brother James, who is upstairs, bought it and is driving it back to Virginia Beach,” she said as she touched the Jaguar. “I am selling this one back to the dealer next week.”
She headed towards the stairs, “Come on in. My brother Roosevelt is upstairs as well. You know they are anxious to meet you.”
He wasn’t excited about meeting them. His excitement at seeing her again also waned as he entered the state of the art kitchen with shiny copper pots hanging from racks. He eyed the sub-zero fancy appliances including the refrigerator with a television in the door.
“Come on this way to put your things down and get washed up before we have lunch,” she said with a smile.
Daniel walked down the wide hallway towards the guest room on hardwood floors that almost shone under the directional lights which bounced soft illumination off of posh art in gold frames. The walk took him past an office that had large pictures of Darlene with the President. He stopped to look into the office.
“Darlene, is that you with the President?”
She turned to come back to the office, sliding by him, careful to not allow any of their body parts to touch. “Which picture are you looking at?”
He stepped inside the office to look at the walls. There was a picture of her with Presidents 41 through 44. Daniel was impressed. “You met all four of them?”
Her brow was furrowed, “No, I fought with all four of them. The sitting one is the only one whom I was able to get to designate some new National Park Sites. Brown’s Canyon in Colorado wasn’t on my list, but I will take it as a victory,” she told him as she led him to the guest room. A guest room that was more luxurious than any hotel he had ever spent the night in.
“Join us in the kitchen when you are ready,” she told him with a pat on his arm as she walked by.
Lord that was one fine specimen of a woman. Daniel was worried if he was truly going to be enough man to be her husband. The concern he felt showed on his face.
“What are you thinking Daniel?” she knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it from his mouth.
He sat on the corner of the bed, a look of defeat was on his face. “You will give up all of this to live in a sparse cabin in the middle of nowhere...with me?”
“Yes, that is my intention,” she told him as she stood rooted to the floor.
Daniel was shaking his head. “I don’t know Darlene...I mean...what could I ever give you that you don’t already have?”
“Hope,” she told him. “You have given me hope.”
She watched his face closely as he processed her words. As she had taken in his and connected with him, she wanted him to connect with her. “Daniel, I’m yours if you will have me.”
A sliver of a smile came to the corner of his mouth. “Of course I will have you. I’m here. I’m ready right now.” His hands rubbed across the denim legs of his jeans as if he were warming his hands.
“Well, I hope you are ready to meet my brothers. You have to get through them first. Are you prepared for that?”
He chuckled a bit as he watched her taut little back-side leave the room. Yep, that is a fine specimen of a woman. Bring on the brothers. In his mind, he would take on an angry mother bear to call Darlene his own. Coming home to her every day was going to change his life in so many wonderful ways.
Darlene was going to be his second chance at happiness.
Chapter Thirteen – Shade
It was now or never and Daniel wasn’t sure what was going on in Darlene’s life that she would want to walk away from such a posh and cushy lifestyle to come and live in a cabin where snow could come up as high as the window sills in winter. Uncertainty caressed his ego making his stride stumble as he made his way back to the kitchen. Am I going to be enough?
The smile she gave him as he stepped on the patio was plentiful enough to fortify him to try. I can make her happy. I am more than enough.
“Hello,” he said to the two brothers. “I am Daniel.”
“Come on out Daniel. I am putting some steaks on the grill,” James said to him. Daniel stepped out onto the complicated deck that housed a hot tub, seating for twenty and grill which was surrounded by a sink, a mini bar, and an outdoor fridge.
“Daniel these are my brothers, James on the grill, and Roosevelt on the couch,” Darlene said to hi
m.
Roosevelt rose slowly. “Hey man. A park ranger huh?”
He shook his hand. “Yes, for nearly thirty years. I have two years before I retire. What do you two do for a living?”
“I am sheriff in a small town in south Georgia,” Roosevelt told him with pride.
“I am a police officer in Virginia Beach,” James said as he flipped the steaks. “You want a beer?”
Before accepting, Daniel looked at Darlene, “Are we going back out tonight Darlene?”
She shook her head no as she stood still watching him with her brothers. He was solid.
And virile.
I like the hair on his forearms.
She spotted strands of hair on his chest.
A manly man.
“Sure, I’ll take one,” he said, accepting the beer. He waited before he sat down.
“Go ahead, take a seat while we finish up,” Roosevelt told him as he watched the man very closely.
The air was thick with unsaid thoughts and no one wanted to break the ice. Daniel took the lead, “So I guess that would explain the two back ground checks on me in the last two weeks. Who pulled my financials and did the additional credit check?”
Both James and Roosevelt raised their hands. Everyone started to laugh which lightened the mood. The brothers had questions for him and they began to rattle them off. James went first.
“So, am I understanding correctly that DJ Wilstrom, the actor, is your son?” James wanted to know.
“And his mother is that sexy Angie Chihuahua?” Roosevelt asked.
Daniel swallowed hard, but his attention was on Darlene. Her eyes kept staring at his thighs, then his chest, roaming back to his thighs. He extended his right arm to her and she quickly moved to sit on his lap. Her head lay upon his chest as his arm cradled her close. He planted a light kiss on her forehead while he inhaled the soft scent of her perfume. It felt so natural that he almost forgot they were not alone.
He did not look up at the brothers. His eyes were focused on the top of her head, looking down her nose to those kissable lips. He spoke slowly, “My son is Daniel Jr, and like that made up Hollywood name, his mother is Angela Morrison. The Chihuahua was given to her by one of those sleazy agents that said she had the tenacity of same said dog,” he answered.
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