The Family They Chose

by Nancy Robards Thompson

  “He called the morning you left because I told Paul I’d like to schedule another appointment with him.”

  Jamison’s brows knit together. “An appointment? Why?”

  Olivia sucked in a deep breath. This was it. She had to fess up. Level with him. “After Christmas with your mom and seeing Payton the baby-making machine, I just…I needed to try and have a baby, Jamison. For both of us. I decided to go ahead with another in vitro procedure on my own.”

  Jamison’s confused expression deepened. “Exactly what are you saying?”

  “It’s pretty simple. Except, actually, it’s not. When I went in for the appointment—on that day right there—” she pointed to the photos and grimaced at him, making it clear that they’d revisit the issue of the P.I. photos “—Dr. Demetrios delivered news I didn’t want to hear. He told me that tests proved that my body is going through early menopause, and most likely, that’s why we’re having trouble conceiving. He said that there was a very limited opportunity left for me to get pregnant. So, as you can imagine, I was quite upset. When I ran out of his office, he came after me in the parking lot because he didn’t want me to drive. Sure, he hugged me—that’s what you’re seeing there. He was comforting me—as my brothers might have comforted me. There certainly wasn’t anything illicit going on. Believe me.”

  Jamison stared at the photo for a moment.

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Liv?” His voice was so soft it was almost a whisper.

  “I tried, but you didn’t return my calls.”

  “Oh, my God.” He raked a hand over his anguished face and sighed a miserable sigh. “I am so sorry.”

  “Jamison, look at me.”

  He did. Square in the eyes. With their gazes locked, she said, “There has never been another man for me. Never has, never will be. I love you.”

  He got up and went over to her, sat next to her and pulled her close.

  As he kissed her tenderly, first her lips, then her neck and her collarbones, she decided that there was no need to rake him over the coals over having her followed. She had nothing to hide. She’d told him everything…and now she wanted to give him everything.

  He’d never felt such overwhelming relief in his entire life. Deep inside he’d known Olivia was true to their marriage, to him, but he hadn’t realized just how afraid he was to lose her.

  He felt as if he’d been given a second chance, a new lease on life, on their marriage, and he was so overwhelmingly happy that they’d wiped the slate clean, that they were starting over.

  He wanted to show her how much he’d ached for her, how much he’d missed her and longed for this reunion. He wanted to show her with his lips and hands and body why he was the only man for her.

  Right there in the living room, on the chintz couch, she responded as he held her and touched her and tasted her. In response his own body swelled and hardened. He loved the feel of her slight body, so fragile to his touch. When he moved his hands to her hips, cupping her body and pulling her closer, she arched against him, firing the hardness of his desire.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” she murmured breathlessly.

  He raised his hands to her small breasts, cupping them through her thin sweater, savoring their slight curves before teasing her hard nipples. She gasped. Her head fell back and she seemed to lose herself in his touch.

  But only for a moment when she slid her hand down the front of his trousers and claimed his erection. Over and over she teased him, rubbing and stroking his desire through the layers of his wool pants and briefs. It had been so long and the sensation was almost too much to bear.

  He wanted to savor this moment. So, he took her hands in his and eased her down on the couch, kissing her throat and playfully biting down on her earlobe as he did.

  The thought of making love to her sent a hungry shudder racking his whole body. Suddenly he needed her naked so that he could bury himself inside of her.

  Now.

  When he pushed up her skirt up around her waist, he saw that she was wearing a garter belt and stockings. The sexy sight of her almost undid him.

  She must have sensed as much, because she reached up and unbuttoned his pants. She slid down the zipper and he moved so that she could push his pants down so that he was free.

  It felt like the first time again. Wanting to savor the moment, he slowed down and undid each button on his shirt, shrugging it aside so that it dropped to the floor. In one swift, gentle motion, he lifted her so that he could remove her buttery soft sweater.

  She lay beneath him in her bra and stockings looking like a slice of heaven. He must have been crazy to have thought they needed time apart.

  Slowly, he unhooked the front clasp on her bra. As he freed her breasts, he lowered his head and, in turn, took each one into his mouth, suckling until she cried out in pleasure. As they lay together naked, despite the need driving him to the edge of madness, again, he purposely slowed down, taking a moment to drink in the way her beautiful body looked and to bask in how much he loved her.

  And then they were reaching for each other and kissing each other deeply, body to body, skin to skin, tongues thrusting, hands exploring, teeth nipping—hungrily devouring each other. As he buried himself inside her, he knew without a doubt that this was where he wanted to be, where he needed to be. Because their time apart had proved that life was nothing without her.

  Chapter Ten

  A few hours later, Jamison awoke with Olivia in his arms. It was so good to be lying here next to her, back in his own bed, making love to his wife.

  Somehow, they’d found their way up to the bedroom, stopping to make love on the staircase, in the hall and finally on the bed.

  Then they did it again.

  Olivia shifted, stretched and snuggled closer to him. He buried his nose in her hair, breathing in the floral fragrance of her shampoo and the notes that were uniquely her mingling with the scent of their lovemaking. It was enough to make him crazy. He wanted her so much, he got hard simply thinking about it.

  He kissed her neck and, when she stirred and kissed him back, he tried to shift her on top of him, but she resisted.

  “What time is it?” Her voice was husky with sleep.

  “Ten-fifteen.” He breathed the words into her ear and again she moved so that her body spooned perfectly with his, her tight little rump teasing his erection.

  “Aren’t you hungry?” she asked.

  “I’m ravenous.” He nudged her, wanting to part her legs and slip inside her warmth, but she turned and faced him, just out of reach.

  He moaned and she ran her finger along his jawline.

  “I ordered us a feast from Juan Carlo’s. Endive salad with blue cheese, walnuts and honey, stuffed dates, salmon with crème fraîche and caviar, beef skewers, and cream of artichoke soup, with chocolate fondue for dessert. Plus, we need to open that bottle of champagne that’s been waiting for us since Christmas Eve.”

  She started to get out of bed, but he pulled her back down on top of him.

  “I’m starving, but not for food.” He trailed kisses down her neck and chest to her breasts. Then he gently took her nipple between his teeth.

  Her soft moan stoked the fire, and he sucked her breast into his mouth. She felt so small and fragile in his arms, which, in turn spawned a protectiveness that he hadn’t felt in a very long time. But when he looked up, the resolve in her eyes reinforced the strength of her determined spirit, which she demonstrated as she smiled, pushed away from him and got out of bed.

  “Come help me,” she said. “We can put the food in a picnic basket and bring it up here. We can have a feast in bed. Who knows what we might do with that chocolate fondue…for dessert.”

  She crooked her finger and beckoned him to follow. He was trailing after her in a flash.

  Before too long, they were back upstairs, with their gourmet picnic spread out around them on the bed.

  Jamison popped the cork on the champagne, and Olivia held out two flutes.

 
“Are you drinking?” he asked.

  “Well, yes. Why?”

  “You were always so adamant about staying away from alcohol in the weeks before you had the in vitro procedure. We are going to try again, aren’t we? Because since you went to see the doctor, I’m guessing you’ve already started the hormones, right? If I learned one thing—no, two things—while we were apart it’s that I love you very much and that I’m ready to start our family. Olivia, I think we need this to complete us. And with your condition, it sounds like we don’t have any time to waste. I love you, and I want you to have my baby.”

  Olivia’s gaze searched her husband’s face as the implication of his words sank in.

  I love you, and I want you to have my baby.

  Finally, he was ready.

  But this was just as she’d learned that her only option for getting pregnant was the donor eggs. And she hadn’t told him that part. Mainly because she didn’t know how to.

  It was never so apparent that they needed a child to keep them together. If she couldn’t give him that, it might spell the end of their marriage.

  She would do anything to keep them together.

  Technically, even with a donor egg, she would be having his baby. His sperm would fertilize the donor egg. And as Derek said, no one need be the wiser.

  Even so, her conscience niggled at her. She tried to stave off black clouds of doubt by reminding herself that in a roundabout way, their situation was similar to Paul and Ramona’s ordeal. Not literally, of course, but loosely, in the same way that Ramona had deceived Paul, but he’d forgiven her.

  Ramona’s mother had needed a bone marrow transplant, and Ramona had been desperate to find someone who was a match. She’d learned that years ago, her mom had donated eggs to the Armstrong Institute. Going on a hunch, Ramona had taken a job as a PR specialist at the institute to gain access to the files to see if she could find out if anyone had delivered a baby using her mother’s eggs. A child with her mother’s own DNA, who might be the answer to her prayers.

  Unbeknownst to anyone, she was also on assignment for Keeping Up With Medicine. The journal had hired her to write an exposé on the institute as she searched the files for the identity of the recipient of her mother’s eggs. Sure she’d written the damning story, but she’d tried to pull it before it went to press. Her editor had acted against Ramona’s wishes, publishing the story anyway.

  Ramona had initially deceived Paul for the greater good of her family, and once the truth—and why she’d done it—was out in the open, their relationship had not only survived, it thrived. Not immediately, of course. They’d had to mend and heal their trust. But love had triumphed.

  If there was one thing Olivia still believed in, it was the power of her and Jamison’s love.

  As he toasted her and their family-to-be, she resolved to do whatever it took to give her husband the family they both so desperately wanted. She’d come this far, she couldn’t give up now. Because what else would she have left if she lost him? She’d given up ballet and a career of her own to foster his career and nurture their family. If she didn’t deliver her end of the bargain and give Jamison that family, she’d lose him. She couldn’t afford to let any options slip by untried.

  Three weeks later Jamison held her hand at the institute as Dr. Chance Demetrios implanted three fertilized embryos into Olivia’s body.

  Now, they simply had to sit back and wait to see if the procedure took.

  After the procedure, she encouraged him to go back to D.C. He couldn’t spend the entire nine months holding her hand—or even the agonizing two weeks she had to wait before she could get the pregnancy blood tests. Olivia might have felt desperate, but she never, ever wanted to be perceived that way.

  So she insisted that he go back to work while she busied herself at the Children’s Home. Staying busy would keep both their minds off whether the procedure had taken hold.

  Dr. Demetrios had told her not to even bother with over-the-counter home pregnancy tests because, this early in the game, more often than not, they gave false negative results. So, her only recourse was to get lost in her work at the home.

  Pam needed plenty of help with the Kelso boys. Not that they were difficult, although the little one, because of his autism, did need extra help—which he didn’t always want. Danny often insisted that only his brother could help him, which posed a problem now that the holidays were over and Kevin had returned to school.

  Pam and Olivia had established with Kevin’s school that he could finish out the year even though the Children’s Home was out of the district. The routine and familiarity would be good for him, considering all the drastic changes in his life. The only drawback was that the county could not provide school bus transportation for him. Someone had to drive him, and Olivia had decided that someone would be her.

  This morning when she walked into the Children’s Home, the mansion’s spacious living room had been restored to rights, the Christmas decorations put back in storage. The first thing she saw was Danny sitting in a corner alone, rolling something between his thumb and his first two fingers.

  When Olivia went over to see what he had, she realized that the small, white object was one of the pearls that had fallen to the ground the day the necklace broke.

  When she’d picked up the repaired necklace from the jewelers, it had felt a bit snug. Olivia had had no idea how many pearls were on the strand, so maybe the necklace felt shorter because there was a pearl missing?

  She knelt down in front of the small boy. “Hi, Danny. What do you have there? May I see it?”

  “Duck,” he quacked. “Duck. Duck. Duck!”

  Olivia had done some research on autism and discovered that often a child afflicted with the condition would fixate on a certain object and assign it a name that had nothing to do with it. Just as Danny called her pearl a duck.

  It was unfortunate that Danny had fixated on her pearl. He was only three years old and if he put it in his mouth, he might choke on it.

  “Sweetie, could I please have that?” Olivia tried to take it from his little hand. Not only did he refuse to let go, but he started screaming at the top of his lungs.

  Kevin was at his side in a flash.

  “What are you doing to him?” Kevin demanded.

  “I’m trying to take that bead away from him,” she said over the screams. “I’m afraid he might swallow it.”

  Olivia noticed that Kevin didn’t touch Danny or even try to comfort him. Instead, he’d assumed a protective stance between Danny and Olivia, and verbally took up his younger brother’s battle.

  “He won’t put it in his mouth,” Kevin said. “He never does that, but he won’t stop screaming if you keep trying to take it from him.”

  Kevin seemed totally unfazed by his little brother’s ruckus, but it was all Olivia could do to keep from covering her ears with her hands.

  Pam rushed into the room, her eyes bright with alarm. “What’s wrong?”

  “Danny has a bead and I tried to take from him because I don’t want him to put it in his mouth. He didn’t like it.”

  “Yeah,” Kevin chimed in. “I told you he’ll pretty much scream until he thinks he’s safe and that you’re not going to take it away from him.”

  Pam shot Olivia a frazzled, worried, what-are-we-going-to-do look as the other Children’s Home residents started to gather around to see what all the fuss was about.

  “Well, he has to learn that he won’t get his way just because he screams. Everyone has to abide by certain rules.”

  Kevin shrugged, as if he couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

  “It’s not like he’s going to try and eat it or anything. He just likes it because it makes him feel safe.”

  Kevin’s sage insight made Olivia catch her breath. The little guy was wise beyond his years.

  Pam took a step forward and frowned. “Is that one of your pearls?”

  Olivia shrugged. “All I’m concerned about is his safety. I don’t w
ant him to put it in his mouth and swallow it.”

  Pam frowned. “Danny, give me the bead, please. It doesn’t belong to you.”

  The boy screamed louder. Pam and Olivia offered him a succession of toys, to no avail. Danny held tight to the pearl, continuing to scream when they tried unsuccessfully to pry it from his grip.

  Pam turned to Olivia. “What in the world am I going to do?”

  Olivia understood Pam’s dilemma, but at the same time, her heart was breaking for this poor little guy who was barely out of the toddler phase of his life and for his brave, older brother, who was also much too young to be all alone in the world at the tender age of seven.

  All Danny wanted was to feel safe. Olivia wished there was some way she could comfort him. But she knew that sometimes all the pearls in the world—all the things that money could buy—could never take the place of a family.

  Something Kevin said kept going through her head. “He just likes it because it makes him feel safe.”

  As she racked her brain for a solution and came up short, suddenly she saw Kevin standing next to Pam holding a large toy dump truck. He started spinning the shiny wheels around and around.

  “Look, Danny,” he said. “Truck! Vroom! Vroom vroom! Vroom vroom vroom! Truck!”

  The little boy stopped screaming. His gaze fixed on the spinning wheels. He didn’t say anything, but he stared at the truck for a long moment before reaching for it. When Kevin handed it to him, the single pearl Danny had been holding fell to the floor, bouncing as it did.

  Pam caught it on the up-bounce, closing her hand around it before stashing it out of sight in her pocket.

  “I’ll give it back to you later,” she whispered to Olivia.

  Olivia smiled. “No worries. I know where you live.” Danny plopped down in the center of the living room and spun the truck wheels. The only evidence of his earlier outburst was his tearstained face. Satisfied that the boy the was fine, Olivia said, “Come on, Kevin. Let’s get you to school.”

  When they were in the car, they rode in silence for a few moments. When they reached a stoplight, Olivia said, “Kevin, that was a wonderful thing you did, figuring out how to help your little brother.”