by Sasha Fino
“I was the same way when I was your age,” he said, walking over to her and hugging her. Dean had never embraced Kimberly before tonight. Kimberly was amazed that not only was he loving, but it was his night out, and he wasn’t even drunk. She didn’t smell any alcohol on his breath, either. Perhaps Aunt Blanche was right about him Kimberly thought
“Sweet, what do you want to drink?” Blanche asked him “I think I will have a pop,” he said
“So, how was the hunting trip?” Kimberly asked, making conversation with him
“Bad year, I must say,” Dean confessed sitting down at the table
Kimberly sat down beside him, thinking of what more to say. Blanche came back to the table with three drinks of pop and handed one to each of them
“It sure is nice to eat as a family,” Blanche said, sitting down at the table.
“Yes, we need to do it more often,” Dean told his wife, “We shall.”
“Uncle Dean, I want you and Aunt Blanche to come with me to the Heller party,” Kimberly told her uncle, sweetly
“Sure, why not? I would like to meet Max Heller,” Dean said happily
“Great. It would be nice to have you guys there,” Kimberly told them
“Yes. Dean, I was thinking that tomorrow we could go shopping in Cottonwood and if you want, we can go to that Mexican restaurant in Clarkdale that you love,” Blanche said
Kimberly could tell that her uncle recognized something was up by the look on his face
“Okay, Blanche, what’s going on? The only time you make dinner like this is when you have something to tell me. Are we moving somewhere?” Dean asked as he filled his plate.
Kimberly looked at her aunt, knowing full well that she wanted to wait until a little bit later to tell him about The Sedona’s Heart Cafe. Kimberly saw panic in her aunt’s face.
“No, we aren’t, Honey.”
“What? I told you to take that job!”
“A wonderful opportunity came up, Dean, that would allow us to stay here and not have to uproot ourselves and leave a place we have known for years.”
“So, what is it?”
“Do you remember that coffee house I always talked about,” Blanche began to say until Dean cut her off.
“What about it?” Dean said looking at his wife
“I have rented a place that’s perfect for a coffee shop,” Blanche told him, enthusiastically
“What, without talking to me about it first?”
“Oh, Dean, it just happened so suddenly, and the place was right, and the price was right, and I was afraid it would disappear before I could consult you. It just happened over the weekend. I would be my own boss and not have to worry about ever being laid off. Kimberly could see he was getting angry
“Uncle Dean, it is so cool that Aunt Blanche is opening up a business!” Kimberly said, putting her two cents in.
“What the hell, Blanche! What happened to that great job offer?” Dean said
“I turned it down. I really didn’t want that job, Dean.” I want to stay here
“Where’s the shop?” Dean asked
“Heller Plaza.”
“Could you repeat that? Heller like Max Heller?”
“Yes, Dear!”
“So that’s why we are invited to the damn party. Kimberly, did you put this thought into your aunt’s head? You didn’t want to move, Kimberly, did you? You wanted to stay with your friend, Heller’s kid,” Dean accused her
“It was not my idea, Uncle Dean!”
“It was my idea, Dean. Kimberly didn’t have anything to do with this. I met Max Heller at the high school’s fundraiser, and we got to talking. You of all people know that I have wanted to open a cafe for a very long time,” Blanche said, standing her ground. Kimberly was surprised at her backbone
“Great, where do you plan to get the money to open it, Dear? Heller Plaza comes with a very high price tag, I’ll bet. How can we afford it?”
“We have had money sitting in the bank for years, now. It’s time to use it.”
“No, you are not touching that damn money. It’s Bethany’s college money!” he yelled
“Dean!” Blanche said, falling back in her chair
“Uncle Dean, we all loved Bethany, just as I loved my parents, but she’s gone, and she can’t come back,” Kimberly said without thinking
“I don’t care! It’s still her money for college. I need a beer now,” Dean told her as he got up from the table
“Dean, wait, a beer won’t help! We can’t keep acting like Bethany is off somewhere. I understand that it is a hurt that will never go away. But, Dean, we have to live for today! I want to open my coffee shop, and I will. Dear, I can’t keep living like this!”
“Where’s my beer?” Dean barked at her, ignoring everything she’d said.
“I didn’t buy you any. I had hoped to make a new beginning,” Blanche said in a sad tone while Dean picked up his keys. “Don’t you want to stay here in town where Bethany knows to look down on us from heaven? Don’t you think it would make her sad to see us fighting and to see you drunk? Where are you going?”
“I’m not hungry now. I’m going to the bar,” Dean said as he moved toward the door, then turned and looked right at Blanche.
“To think my wife went behind my back, making a deal with Max Heller, using our daughter’s money. Since when does Max Heller help a woman without sex? I know that you won’t sleep with a man like Max. Blanche, you’ve changed since Kimberly moved in. Hell, I was thinking that we could all start acting like a family. We’d move to a new city and out of a house haunted by Bethany. Then maybe I could stop drinking.”
“I’m sorry, Dean, but I don’t want to leave Sedona.”
“What has happened to you? The Blanche I knew and loved in high school couldn’t wait to get the hell out!” Dean yelled. Blanche was speechless. After a minute Dean opened the door and let himself out. Halfway through the door, he turned back to Blanche. “You are not the woman I married.”
Blanche began to cry.
Kimberly heard his old truck start up and drive off. A few seconds later, Kimberly was the first to break the silence. “Aunt Blanche?”
“I’m sorry, Kimberly. For years now, I have lived with a shell of the man who was my husband. Now I have to break out of this nightmare. We are saving money to put a ghost through college. Acting like Bethany is away somewhere.
Since you came here, you have shown me that I am not the one who died. There is a life to be lived. I need to move on. Bethany would want us to. Moving away from Sedona won’t help at all. I just know it. Dean continues to live in the past. If he can’t have Bethany, then he wants to return to our lives and our dreams before Bethany. Sedona is my home. I was born here. I have developed friends and relationships here, and my family, including Bethany, are buried nearby at Sedona Memorial Park. I cannot go back to high school. I thought about accepting the job away from home because I could not see any other way to support our family. I panicked. Now I know that I can open a shop with Max Heller’s kindness. I don’t care what Dean wants, anymore. I will begin The Sedona’s Heart Cafe.”
Kimberly couldn’t have been prouder of her aunt. She looked at her searchingly, wondering what she could say
“I am happy that you are following your dream and won’t let anyone stop you.”
“Thank you for helping me see that all things are possible. Dean will come around,” Blanche said, smiling
“Uncle Dean resents me,” Kimberly told her. “I am not Bethany and cannot replace her. Bethany died while she was still ‘daddy’s little girl,’ who never gave him a second’s trouble. Our baby wasn’t old enough to be insolent or question his authority. She will always be his lost perfect child.”
The last day of school was finally here. Ms. Patella didn’t seem to be very happy about it. The day went quickly, and there were yearbooks to pass out and to sign for each other. Ms. Patella gave a speech on what high school would be like, and then it was time to say, “goodb
ye.” Ms. Patella spent the final half-hour talking about how wonderful the school year was to her. The speech made Kimberly sick to her stomach.
“I want you all to know how much I enjoyed all of you. This class has had some very high-spirited students who have made it difficult for me and some of our other students, but our star students, like Kelsey and her friends, have made up for it. I will miss many of you. Others not so much as she looked at Kimberly and Lexy.
As the class began to file out of the room, Ms. Patella took Lexy aside. “You, I will never forgive for costing me an excellent position at the boarding school and the opportunity to date your father. You are a selfish little bitch who wants to keep your father eating out of your hand.”
“You lost both when you slapped me at school,” Lexy shot back, “it was your own damn fault.”
The last group of students overheard the conversation and stopped, floored at what they were hearing
“I will destroy you, Lexy Heller,” Ms. Pattel sniped so quietly that only Lexy and Kimberly could hear.
Once outside the classroom, Lexy and Kimberly were aware of their classmates’ sympathetic looks. Ms. Patella had overstepped her bounds, and the lines of battle were being formed.
Kimberly, who had no idea that Lexy had attended a boarding school in flagstaff, looked to her for enlightenment. “Boarding school, Lexy?”
She watched Lexy roll her eyes as they walked to the next class.
“It’s in the past! Dad didn’t like how they treated me so, he pulled me out and got me into public school two years ago. That’s all.”
“I see,” Kimberly replied, knowing that this wasn’t the even the end of the story
Chapter 15
Blanche was unsure where Max was taking her as they drove up the road. As the weeks went by, Dean continued his hostility over Blanche’s plan to open The Sedona’s Heart Cafe’s doors. Blanche tried very hard to get him to
see the potential of opening up a café even showed him the shop at Heller Plaza. Dean made it clear that he didn’t want any part of her new business. She had hoped that Dean would embrace the café and move away from his job and drinking pals, but his drinking escalated. They couldn’t go to the party at the Hellers’ because of Dean’s drunkenness
She began to look at Max for solace. He made her feel beautiful inside and out. They started to meet and take long lunches together, and she found herself looking forward to their stolen kisses. The best part of her life was kissing Max. Even though they met far from questioning eyes, he never overstepped his bounds. They haven't had sex since that faithful night. He was a true gentleman, and she admired that about him
“Where are we going Max?” she asked him, intrigued “You’ll see soon enough,” he replied “I take it that you are not going to take me to see some of your favorite coffee shops in Flagstaff as examples of what I can do with mine?”
He chuckled at this in a way that made her heart beat faster. Blanche looked at him and smiled
“Who knows?”
“With you, I don’t,” she teased him
“I needed that as an excuse for Lexy and Kimberly, or they’d be hiding in the back seat right now.”
“Yes,” Blanche agreed, with a chuckle, knowing how mischievous and inquisitive they were, and betting they’d figure it out before long. She was just so thankful to have this time alone with him.
Sweet silence hung in the air between them as Max turned off the main road into one that wasn’t heavily traveled. They drove up a path to a cottage by a creek
“Is this a kidnapping, or are you preparing to ravish me?” she teased, suspecting what lay ahead and welcoming it. Max parked the car.
“I have a picnic planned and the cottage reserved for the afternoon,” Max said opening the car door
“Max…” Blanche was moved by the romantic surroundings. Max walked around to open the car door and offered her his hand
“Hope you’re hungry,” he said, leading her to an elegant picnic already set out on a blanket in the center of a flowered field. She could see and hear the creek, nearby
“Max, how did you pull this off?” she asked, looking at him in disbelief. This couldn’t be happening to her. Max made her feel so very special
“I have my ways.”
They gazed into each other eyes as she leaned into his body for a long, fulfilling kiss
As they cuddled on the picnic blanket, Max pulled Beluga caviar from the picnic basket. She had never tried caviar before. She knew it was exceptionally expensive. It was accompanied by minced hardboiled egg and shallots and placed in little dishes set on ice with mother-of-pearl spoons. He fed her a small spoonful, and she felt the tiny eggs burst with flavor. It startled her, and Max gave her a wonderful smile that set her heart afire. Artichokes appeared, and Max fed her the leaves one by one dipped in mayonnaise with black truffles. He held the leaves to her lips, and she pressed some to his
Blanche ate like a queen, indulging in guava, papaya, passion fruit, and coconut salad. She’d never tried any of these before. They were all new and exotic to her
“What an amazing picnic. I could definitely learn to eat like this
“You know, legend has it that some of these foods are considered to be aphrodisiacs.”
“Oh, really, Mr. Heller!” Blanche inched closer to him, and they kissed. “I think they are working.”
“We have cream swans for dessert,” Max tempted her. “They are my favorites.”
“Max, they are too beautiful to eat,” she said, appreciating the wings floating in mounds of delicious white fluff.
Max laughed. “Come on, take a bite. You’ll love them.”
She smiled at him, loving him seemed so right in her heart. They held the cream swans for each other to bite into. She was sated with wonderful, new foods and sensations. When their fingers touched as they held the swans, they could feel the electricity
Without a word, he lifted her in his arms, strolled with her over to the cottage. Inside in the small bedroom, while he laid her on the bed. He kissed her with a kiss that held the promise of much more to come. The room was adorned with red roses and candles. Soft classical music filled the air. As she languished in the deep-down comforter.
“We have all the time in the world, and I want to be soft and gentle with you, this time.”
“I would like that.”
Blanche unbuttoned her blouse, then Max’s shirt, and then he took over caressing her as he removed each piece of clothing. As he revealed her body, he covered it with kisses. His skin was soft and pleasantly scented. She, in turn, stroked, and kissed, and reveled in the masculinity and strength of his body—muscles undulating. They simply could not get enough of each other and settled into grand sex with gentleness and rhythm that proved they were meant to be together.
Chapter 16
Max and Blanche hadn’t realized how starved they were for the joy and fulfillment of mature, all-consuming love. They spent the afternoon exploring each other’s bodies, locked in each other’s arms. Thrusting his rock-hard penis in her as Blanche yell out moaning, climaxing with frequent orgasm. It was pure ecstasy that neither wanted to see the end. As the afternoon turns into the sunset, they had to put passion aside and return to reality. They dressed in silence, but their eyes for each other were eloquent. They drove back to Blanche’s car parked at the Plaza “Max, this afternoon meant more to me than I ever could have imagined.
You have awakened in me a passion I didn’t know existed,” Blanche said once his car was parked next to hers
“Blanche, I feel the same way you do. I don’t know where this will lead us, but I don’t want to give you up. I don’t think you love Dean, and we won’t be able to hide our relationship from the girls for long.”
Blanche didn’t know what to say. She retreated to a safe subject, telling Max she had to get home to shower and start dinner.
Max pressed her. “I have to know. Is this a fling, or can we move forward?”
Blanch
e turned toward him. Now, with the fabulous sex a memory, she was feeling confused and a little frightened. “Max…I don’t know,” she whispered softly. “Lexy has made it very clear that she doesn’t want a stepmother. I don’t want to upset you or her.”
“Blanche, the girls are bound at the hip. I’m surprised you haven’t noticed this. Perhaps it is because they are in my home and presence more often. They will be thrilled that we are together. Lexy likes you. Hell, you’re the first woman she’s taken a liking to.” He’d finally found the woman of his dreams, and he wasn’t going to let her walk out of his life
“Max, I have deep feelings for you. It is a wonderful new sensation. You have woken desires I’ve never experienced before. I need time to assimilate this new beginning—this rebirth. Do you understand? I yearn for your embraces. Can we keep our new relationship under wraps for now, and meet as secret lovers? We have plenty of time to decide what to do
“My darling, I do understand,” he said as she kissed his cheek. “We shall go slowly.”
“Oh, Max, you are my everything.”
“As you are mine.”
They looked at each other for one more sweet moment, not wanting to part ways.
“DAD! Did you hear anything I said?” Lexy asked, disturbing his train of thought while at dinner a few weeks later. Max couldn’t stop thinking about Blanche and did his best to hide it
“Yes, I was just lost in thought. Do you want Kimberly to go with us to Italy? It might interfere with her aunt’s plans to open the coffee shop.”
“Yes. Oh, Daddy, can’t you ask her Aunt Blanche if she will let Kimberly go with us?”
“Lexy, what if we invite Blanche and Kimberly to come with us to Italy?” Max suggested, thinking that this would be a great way to test the waters.
“Sounds like a good plan. God knows that Mrs. Burlington needs a vacation from that pig,” Lexy exclaimed before filling her mouth with mashed potatoes.
“When do you get off calling Kimberly’s uncle a pig?” Max demanded, “Well, he is. Do you know that he hurts them when he’s drunk? It’s
sad,” Lexy told him. Max had seen the scars on Blanche’s body during their lovemaking that he hadn't seen the first time. He had asked her about them, but she had brushed him off