by Sandi Lynn
She stood there with narrowed eyes, staring at me.
“Your mood changed. You seem better. What’s up?”
“Nothing. I just had a nice lunch and de-stressed.”
“Did you talk to Jackson?”
“Yes. He called me.”
“AHA!” She pointed at me. “That’s why you’re in a better mood, because your man called and made your day.”
Rolling my eyes, I stepped away from the counter and walked over to the other side of the shop to look over the espresso bar, which was ninety-five percent complete.
“He had nothing to do with it and he’s not my man. I just needed some food.”
She threw her hands up in the air and walked away. I didn’t want to tell her about my dinner plans with Gregory tonight because I didn’t want to be bombarded with a million questions. I would tell her and Evelyn all about it tomorrow once I got some answers.
Chapter 29
Jackson
Placing my phone in my pocket, I walked down the street and into my favorite chocolate shop that was family owned and had the best chocolate I had ever had.
“Hello there, Jackson.” Jacob Small smiled.
“Hi, Jacob.”
“Welcome back to Chicago.”
“Thanks.”
I stood looking through the case of the homemade and handcrafted chocolates his family had been making for over fifty years.
“What can I box up for you?”
“Just give me a two-pound assortment.”
“Two pounds, eh?” He smiled.
“Yeah. I have a friend back in New York who I know will love these.” I grinned.
“Judging by that grin, I’d say she’s pretty special.” He winked.
“She’s a good friend.”
“There you go.” He reached over the counter and handed me the box of chocolates while I handed him my credit card.
“Thanks, Jacob. It was good to see you again.”
“Same here, Jackson. I hope your good friend enjoys.”
“She will.”
When I arrived back at my father’s penthouse, I walked in, only to find Katerina sitting on the couch, crying. Shit. I rolled my eyes and sighed.
“Where is he?” I asked as I walked over to her.
“He left. Said he needed to take care of a few things.”
I didn’t know how to console her. Or any woman, to be exact. It was natural for me with Emily, but with Katerina, I didn’t want to make things for her worse.
“Your father is an asshole!” she yelled before blowing her nose.
“Yeah. He is.” I sat down next to her.
“How could he do this to me? Just ask for a divorce out of nowhere?”
“You knew what you were getting yourself into when you married him. You are wife number five.”
“I thought I was different,” she cried.
“And so did wives’ number two, three, and four. Listen, Katerina, I’m sorry. You’ll come out of this a much stronger person. You’re a beautiful young woman and any man would be lucky to have you for his wife.”
“You think so?” She sniffled as she looked at me with her tear-filled eyes.
“I know so. You didn’t want to waste the rest of your life with him anyway. He did you a favor.”
“I think he’s seeing someone. When I asked him, he denied it.”
I inhaled a deep breath because I wouldn’t doubt it. It was what he did.
“If he is, then I feel sorry for that poor woman and you should too.”
“I do, and you know what? She can have him!”
“That’s right. He’s her problem now.” I smiled.
“Thanks, Jackson.” She placed her hand on mine. “You’re a good man. Some woman is going to be lucky to have someone like you in her life.”
“Thanks, Katerina. I’m going to go. I wasn’t supposed to leave until tomorrow, but I need to get back to New York.”
I gave her a hug, grabbed my suitcase, and headed out the door. Pulling my phone from my pocket, I dialed my father.
“What’s up, son?”
“I just wanted to let you know that I’m flying back to New York tonight.”
“I thought you weren’t leaving until tomorrow.”
“I have a lot of work to do, Dad.”
“Okay. I’ll see you in a couple of weeks. Take care, son.”
“You too, Dad.”
I had too much on my mind to stay in Chicago another night, plus I was starving for sex and I needed to see Emily. With my father getting another divorce, his moving back to New York, and my mother’s pending divorce, it was all taking a toll on me.
When I arrived back in New York, I stopped by Jules’ place before heading home.
“Hey.” She opened the door and hugged me. “What the hell is going on with our parents?”
Stepping inside, I headed right to the bar in the corner of the living room and poured myself a scotch.
“They’re batshit crazy. That’s what’s going on.”
“Is Dad seriously moving back here?”
“Yes. He’ll be here permanently in two weeks.”
“Jesus Christ, Jackson. I can’t even wrap my mind around all this. Both our parents are getting divorced again and Dad’s moving back. Should they even be in the same city?”
“I don’t know.” I poured another scotch and downed it in one gulp. “All I know is that I’m staying out of it. I don’t care if they’re both getting divorced and I don’t care if they’re at each other’s throats. I have my own life and issues and so do you. Parents or not, they are no longer our problem.”
She stood there with her arms folded lightly, nodding her head. “I agree.”
I set down my glass on the bar and kissed her cheek.
“I have to get going. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Chapter 30
Emily
I walked into Scarpetta fifteen minutes early with a bundle nerves that resided in my belly.
“A booth for two, please,” I spoke to the hostess as she greeted me.
She grabbed two menus and led me over to a corner booth with high backs. It was the perfect spot that would give Gregory and I more privacy.
“What time will your guest be arriving?” she asked as she set down the other menu across from me.
“He should be here in about fifteen minutes. My name is Emily and he is an older gentleman with salt and pepper hair.”
“Very well. I’ll be on the lookout for him.” She smiled.
The reason I arrived early was so I could down a martini to calm my nerves before he showed up.
“Good evening.” The peppy waitress smiled as she set down a drink napkin in front of me. “What can I start you off with?”
“I’ll have a neat martini with three olives.”
“And your guest?”
“I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask him when he arrives.”
“One neat martini with three olives coming right up.”
My drink couldn’t get there fast enough as I sat at in the booth and pondered whether or not I was ready to hear what Gregory had to tell me. The waitress walked over, and before she could set my drink down, I grabbed it from her hands and immediately took a large gulp.
“Sorry. This is very much needed at the moment.”
“It happens to all of us.” She smiled.
As I looked up, I saw the hostess walking Gregory to the table and the nervousness I already had felt intensified.
“Emily.” He smiled nervously as he sat down.
“Gregory.” I nodded.
“Is that a neat martini with three olives?” he asked as he looked at my glass.
“It is.”
“That’s the way I order mine.”
I needed to just come out and say what I was thinking. There was no use in making this situation any more awkward than it already was.
“I called you because I want to know how you knew my mother. I want to kno
w how you met, where you met, how old you were, and what your relationship was.”
After the waitress took his drink order, he folded his hands on the table and took in a deep breath.
“Your mother and I met through a mutual friend one summer when we were sixteen years old. I don’t care what anyone says, it was love at first sight for both of us. I’ll never forget the first moment my eyes laid sight on her. I thought she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. And her smile, just like yours, would light up the darkest rooms. She was sitting on a blanket on the beach in a black and white polka dot bikini when Crystal introduced us.”
“Wait a minute. You know Crystal?” I set down my glass.
“Yes. Crystal had moved next door to me when we were just ten years old. We became good friends and, shortly after, my father was transferred to San Francisco and we had to move. But Crystal and I still remained very good friends. When I was sixteen, my father got transferred back to Los Angeles and we returned there. I was reunited with her and that’s when she introduced me to your mom.”
I sat there, intently listening to him speak as I grew angry on the inside at Crystal for never mentioning him.
“Karen and I spent that whole summer together and saw each other practically every day. We did everything together, and there wasn’t one moment I wanted to be without her. Our relationship grew even stronger over the course of three years. Her dream was to own her own business someday and mine was to serve our country. Enlisting in the army was something I had wanted ever since I was a child. My father served as well as my uncles and grandfather. We talked about marriage, kids, and building a future together. She had it all planned out, right down to the red brick house with the white picket fence and the springer spaniel named Dooley.”
A small smile crossed my lips because that was a side of her I’d never known.
“I told her all along I wanted to enlist in the army, and she tried to talk me out of it every time, giving me reasons not to do it. With her as the main reason, I tried community college for a year, but it just didn’t cut it for me. Being in the army was in my blood, and I loved her so much and she loved me, so I knew deep in my heart that our relationship would survive it. I told her that after I finished training, I’d come back and we’d get married and then we could be together forever. She finally agreed and I enlisted. The day I was leaving for training, she told me she was pregnant. That was the happiest day of my life, and then she begged me not to go. But it was too late; I had no choice. I’ll never forget the tears that fell from her eyes as I said goodbye to her with the promise that I’d be back and that I’d write to her every day. It was only for ten weeks, Emily. Ten weeks of training and I’d be back to get my girl, marry her, and raise a family.”
There was a moment of silence as he picked up his martini and took several sips before going on with his story.
“I kept my promise and wrote to her every day. When I had the chance to call her, I would, but I heard nothing but sadness in her voice. I missed her so much and I promised her we’d be together soon. Then a war broke out and the unit I was assigned to was getting deployed right after training. They wouldn’t even give me a day to see her. When I wrote and told her what was happening, she wrote back and told me that she understood. With every letter I wrote to her from that day forth, I begged her to send me pictures of her and her growing belly. But no letters ever came, except for the ones I wrote to her that were returned.”
“I’m so sorry, Gregory.” I reached out and placed my hand on his.
His eyes met mine and I gulped at the sadness that resided in them.
“Two years later, the war ended, and I returned back to California, only to find out that her mother had passed away a year prior and that she had moved. Nobody knew where she went. After her mother’s funeral, she packed up all her things and quietly moved away. I spent the next year searching for her.”
“What about Crystal? My mother would have told her where she was going.”
“Crystal was studying abroad in Paris at the time and it was impossible to get hold of her. I wrote her letters and she wrote one back saying that she had lost touch with Karen and she didn’t know where she went.”
“Well, she obviously lied to you because Crystal was there when I was born.”
“I figured she did, but what else could I do? I finally gave up, went on with my life, and prayed to God every day that I would find my child. I never even knew if you were a boy or a girl. When I walked into your shop that day, I felt like I was seeing Karen all over again.” His eyes swelled with tears.
After we finished eating, we stepped outside the restaurant, and before parting ways, I spoke, “I need time to process all of this, Gregory. I hope you can understand.”
“I do understand, and I want you to take all the time you need. Hell, if you want me to do a paternity test, I will. I’m sorry for just springing this on you, but I’ve waited twenty-seven years for this moment.”
I reached over and gave him a hug. “I’ll be in touch. I promise.”
I sat in the back of the cab, not knowing what to think. All these years, and the shield my mother had over her heart was for a reason. A reason she never once talked about. All her lectures about happily ever after made sense to me now. She lived a loveless life all because she couldn’t stand by and wait for the only man she ever let herself love.
When I stuck my key in the lock and opened the door, I jumped when I saw Jackson sitting on my couch watching TV.
“Oh my God. You scared me.”
A smile crossed his face as he got up and walked over to me.
“I’m sorry.” He kissed my lips.
“What are you doing here?” I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow.”
“I decided to come home a day early. I wanted to surprise you. Are you surprised?” He smirked.
“Very surprised.” I laid my head on his shoulder. A shoulder I desperately needed.
“How did your dinner with Gregory go?”
“God, Jackson.” I broke our embrace. “The things he told me about him and my mother.”
“I want to hear all about it. But first, I brought you something back from Chicago.”
“You did?” I smiled.
He walked over to a black bag that was sitting on the counter and pulled out a black and gold box.
“What is this?”
“Open it up and find out.”
I carefully removed the lid and stared down at the chocolates that were staring back at me.
“Jackson.” My eyes widened as I looked at him.
“Taste one.” He winked with a smile.
Taking a chocolate from the box, I took a bite and it felt like heaven in my mouth.
“Holy shit. Oh my God.” I placed my hand over my mouth as I devoured the small square.
“Good, isn’t it?”
“Where did you find these?”
“From a family-owned chocolate shop in Chicago. I’ve been buying chocolate there for years.” He placed his hands on my hips and kissed my forehead. “I’ll grab the wine, you bring the chocolates, and we’ll continue our talk in bed.”
“How about the bathtub?”
“You want to take a bath?” He raised a brow.
“Yes. Wine, chocolate, and bubbly water. Is there anything better?”
“Well, I can think of something better, but I’ll take your word for it.” A sexy smirk crossed his face. “I’ll take the chocolates and start the water and you grab the wine. I’ll meet you in the bathroom.” His lips brushed against mine.
I was so happy he came back tonight because I really needed him after my dinner with Gregory. I was so confused and torn up by his story that I felt somewhat lost and I knew that just seeing Jackson would help me find my way.
Chapter 31
Jackson
The warm bubbly water was invigorating. I didn’t do this; I didn’t take baths in general. Especially not bubbl
e baths with a woman. This was my first time and I could say that I was thoroughly enjoying the soothing water with Emily pressed against me and my arms wrapped securely around her. Her head rested on my chest as her back pressed against me. Our wet skin meshed together while my fingers lightly ran up and down her arm. Her story about Gregory surprised me a bit but gave insight to the behavior of her mother all those years.
“How are you feeling about all this?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. I’m sad for Gregory and I’m sad for me because my mom didn’t trust me enough to tell me about him. All those years of keeping him a secret when I asked over and over again about my father and the lies she told.”
“She had her reasons, Emily, and once you talk to Crystal, you’ll have a better understanding of what your mother was thinking.”
“True. Now, tell me about Chicago and your dad.”
I let out a long sigh. “He’s divorcing his fifth wife.”
“What?” She lifted her head and looked at me. “Why?”
“He said he didn’t love her anymore, and that’s all he would tell me. He’s moving back to New York.”
“How does your mom feel about that?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. Like I told Jules, I’m staying out of it. They can do whatever they want, but I’m not letting it affect me. I’m washing my hands of their marital drama.”
“Don’t you think it’s odd that they’re both getting divorced at the same time?” she asked as she reached over and grabbed a piece of chocolate.
“Kind of. But everything about them is odd.”
She let out light laugh.
“Now, let’s not talk about them anymore. As much as I’m enjoying this bath, it’s time to get out and fuck you. I’ve been sexually starved for three days.”
She sat up and turned around, so she was straddling me while her lips pressed against mine.
“Who says we need to get out?” She smiled.
A growl erupted in my chest as I stared into her eyes and then down at her luscious wet tits, which made my cock stand at full attention. My hands grasped both of them, kneading softly and taking her hardened peaks between my fingers. Our lips met and twisted while our tongues tangled together. As I placed my hands firmly on her hips, she lifted herself up and slowly took me inside. Gasps of excitement filled the air surrounding us. Her hands weaved through my hair as she moved up and down. The feeling of being inside her was euphoric. I could sit in this tub and let her fuck me all night. My fingers moved from her hips and down to her clit, softly caressing it as her moans grew in intensity. Her wet pussy tightened around my cock, making the feeling of an orgasm come to the surface. She swelled beneath my fingers and moaned as she came. Pushing down on her hips, I thrust up, in and out of her as she straddled me, her tits bouncing in my face, making the sight before me utterly intoxicating. One more thrust and it was there; the explosion inside her. I threw my head back and moaned as the rush of warmth resided inside.