“I’m sure we can clean it up. Bring it in. I’ll give it a try.”
Shannon and I smiled at each other. She said, “This is so cool. I thought it would be chucked.”
“Me too.” I looked at Bruce who was eying me from different
angles with his nifty clippers in his soft hands. “Make me beautiful, Bruce.”
He sighed, and jutted out his hip. “When will you girls learn to leave your hair alone? Tch, tch! Come to me before, and then I wouldn’t be fixing, I’d be styling.”
When my hair was washed, Bruce used a chemical free henna rinse to deepen my natural auburn color. After it was dried and finger-combed, I looked in the mirror and laughed. “I don’t recognize myself. I have cheeks.”
“No, you have cheekbones.” Shannon said to me.
“My nose got shorter.” I looked at Bruce with his own blonde pixie cut. “Did you snip my nose?”
He laughed and pretended to look on the floor. “No, I don’t think so, but you never know. I go a little crazy sometimes. It happens.”
“My chin doesn’t look as sharp as it used to. People will think I’m a wimp.”
Shannon answered, “You look softer, prettier, and more approachable. People will like you better.”
“Are you telling me I wasn’t liked before?”
She shrugged for an answer.
We went out for lunch and after we ordered, Shannon asked why I hadn’t gone back to work.
I answered honestly, “I don’t want to go back. I have no interest in ever seeing a divorce court again. I’m sick to death of it.” I picked up my knife and pointed it at her. “Can’t anybody ever learn to get along?” My voice rose, “What’s wrong with people?”
Shannon put her hand over mine. “It’s okay. This is good.”
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“For what?” she grinned. “I’m delighted. But tell me, if you still practice family law, what other choices do you have?”
“I want to work with the children’s advocacy group.”
“That’s wonderful, Lydia. I’m so proud of you.”
I squeezed her fingers. “Yes, it’ll be a nice change. I sent my resume out and I have an interview next week.”
* * *
A few days later I had a call from Hal on my answering service. The partners were wondering how soon I could come back.
“Take your time if you’re not ready, but we miss you around here,” he told me.
I said I’d be back at the office on Monday morning.
I arrived in my best navy-blue pin-striped suit, my new short hair looked both classy and stylish and I had a spring in my step. My bruising had all but vanished, and my nose was better than normal.
All four board members rose to greet me.
“Lydia. Welcome back. You look amazing.” Hal’s smile was so broad he looked as though he’d swallowed a whale.
The others crowded around me and I started to feel uncomfortable.
“What’s up?”
“We have something to say to you. Something well earned and deserved. First, Marcia has left our firm. You were right that she was out to make trouble.”
One of the others spoke up. “Hannah Jacobs is on the ethics counsel, and she told us you were the best damned attorney in the district and that we were lucky to have you. Also, Mr. Harrison has asked us to be his legal representative for that new commercial development he’s undertaking. There was only one stipulation and naturally we were happy to oblige.”
She looked around at the men, and they were all smiling. “The Scribe research park? Doesn’t he have his own people on that?”
“He feels we could do a better job.” More smiles. “We would like to offer you a partnership, Lydia. It’s long overdue.”
I didn’t know what to say. It was all I’d ever wanted, but now the offer was too little, too late.
Funny thing is, six months ago I would have sold my soul for such an offer, but now I no longer cared if I ever saw this office or these people again. Mentally I’d moved on, and wanted what they couldn’t give me.
But since everybody was smiling, I smiled too. “I’m sorry but I will have to decline. I’ve been seriously considering a career change. I want to be a children’s advocate. I’m tired of divorcing people.”
I turned on my heel and walked out, leaving the four men staring at my back.
* * *
Jed called me up and invited me to see his new house, saying he needed a woman’s eye to help him accessorize.
“Hey, are you kidding me? I’d love to. But I thought it was a model?”
“Mm-humm. It is. All the furniture’s in place, but it lacks that female touch. You know what I mean. It looks like it’s supposed to. It shows well, has mass appeal, but it’s totally impersonal. It lacks personality.”
“I’m not that great with decor, but Shannon is. The two of us could probably put it together for you.”
“I’d appreciate that. And I’d like to see Shannon again. I think she likes me.”
“How could she not?” I said smiling.
He paused, “Does that mean…?”
“What do you think?” I flirted. “I think you promised me something that you haven’t delivered.”
“What was that?”
“On the boat. Your exact words were, “you’re going to get yours” and I’ve been wondering when?”
He chuckled. “Oh, you have, have you? How about tonight?”
“Tonight sounds wonderful. Come by for dinner.”
“Do I have to wait that long? I haven’t seen you in days. That’s a lot of hours that have gone by. Hours that I could have been looking at you, touching you, kissing you…”
“Jed, stop that. You’re making me hot.”
“I want to make you wet.”
“One hour?”
“I’ll be there.”
I jumped in the shower, brushed my teeth, blew dry my chin-length hair, and dressed comfortably in shorts and a tee. I was more than ready by the time I heard the knock on the door. I flung it open, and smiled invitingly.
“Hey, you. What took you so long?”
He grinned back, stepping toward me, and I slowly backed up. One step at a time, toward the bedroom. “Fifty-five minutes,” he said, “and every one of them seemed like an hour.”
“I never knew minutes were so slow.”
I was backed up to the poster bed. His hands reached around my waist, and he lifted me up onto it. Since I’m no light weight, this impressed the heck out of me. But he had biceps from working out, and was strong, and virile, and about as hunky as I could stand.
He had me on the bed and was lying half on top of me, his face inches from mine. “So what are we going to do about this physical attraction we have for each other?” I kissed the side of his mouth. “How are we going to get rid of it?”
He kissed me for a very long time before answering. “There’s only one way I can think of. We have to make love as often as possible and hope that it burns itself out.”
“I think you’re right.” My hands moved down his back and onto his rump, pulling him towards me. “I mean, since we’re both not into relationships we don’t want this to last.”
His eyes burned into mine. “I’m sure it won’t.” He kissed me as if he couldn’t get enough. “If we make love everyday, you’ll soon get sick of me.”
“Yes, I think that’s the only solution.”
“I think I better start now, don’t you?” His mouth was working its way gently over my tender breasts, to trail down my stomach. “The sooner we tire off each other, the sooner we can get back to our lonely lives, right?”
I smiled and shifted my legs. “Right. Why would we want to be happy and fulfilled, when we could be alone and miserable? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“I’m glad you see it that way.”
After that his mouth got too busy doing other things and he didn’t say anything more.
Sometime much later, while we l
ay in bed, happy, relaxed, spent from our love-making marathon, the phone rang. I was thinking about the logistics of untangling myself from his limbs to answer it, when the recording came on. I recognized Doctor Shelby’s voice and shot straight up.
“What is it, Lydia?” Jed asked, concerned.
“Shush.” I put my finger over Jed’s mouth and listened. My heart was beating so loud I could barely hear the words.
“Lydia, this is Doctor Shelby and I am calling with wonderful news. The end of the series of tests show the positives were false. It was an error in one of the earlier tests. It happens.”
I gasped, and dug my nails into Jed’s arms. “Did you hear that?”
Doctor Shelby concluded her message by saying, “You can start picking out a name for this perfect little baby of yours.”
“Jed, oh, Jed, our baby is healthy!”
He hugged me, and we both had tears in our eyes.
The testing had been a mistake. A false positive that indicated a fetal abnormality, but wasn’t. My heart was bursting with joy. Our baby was perfect!
* * *
The following day Jed gave me a tour of his new home.
He pulled up to a gated community and drove past palatial mansions to a sprawling Mediterranean styled villa on the waterfront. He parked his car in the driveway.
I climbed out of his Mercedes sedan, and tried not to gawk. “Wow. This is so beautiful.”
The entrance had twelve-foot glass doors, and once Jed had them opened he escorted me into a soaring living room with a coral stone fireplace and an incredible view of a fountain, an infinity pool and the water behind. It looked like something out of a Better Home and Garden magazine.
Jed gave me the full tour. His master suite was extremely glamorous, with an enormous king size pillared bed, huge armoire, a sitting area that included a comfortable settee, a writing desk, and a Juliet balcony. His bathroom was nearly the size of my entire apartment and had a Roman marble bath. There were three other bedrooms and a guesthouse next to the pool.
“Not too shabby,” I told him with a smile.
“It better not be. I built most of the homes in this section. And this was the model.”
“Well, it’s gorgeous. Lucky kids and lucky nanny.”
He looked at me curiously. “Want the job?”
I laughed. “As long as I don’t have to cook.”
He gave me a lop-sided grin. “I’d never ask anything of you that you didn’t want to do.”
My heart raced. What was I getting into? Not getting. I was into. Very much into. I could feel myself growing warm and tingly all over. I wasn’t scared anymore. For some reason, I knew I could trust Jed. And I could trust myself. Falling in love wasn’t as scary as I had thought.
“So when are you moving in?” I asked, feeling suddenly playful.
“A couple of weeks.”
“Let me help?”
We were out at the pool, looking out at the water and he was standing very close to me. I looked up at him and his eyes roamed over my face, lingered on my mouth, and then he kissed me.
He was probably the best damned kisser in the whole world, well, my world anyway. We kissed for a minute or two and then we broke apart, smiling goofily. I knew I was falling in love. I wondered if he was too.
“I have to pick up the kids from school but wondered if you’d have dinner with us?” He squeezed my hand. “Maybe after they’re tucked in we could do a little more of this.”
I ran my tongue over my bottom lip and watched his eyes follow the movement. “You’re not tired of it yet?”
“Not even close.”
“Hmmm. Guess we’ll just have to keep doing it then.”
EPILOGUE
A few weeks later we were all at the Candy Bar for a very special affair. Candy had needed someone to fill in for her “talent night” and we had convinced Susie to do it. Her paintings looked beautiful. Some were on the walls, others sat on easels with soft lighting directed at them. The tables and chairs had been removed to clear the area for the exhibit, enabling the customers to wander about effortlessly. A baby grand was set up in one corner of the room because, stupidly, I had promised Susie that I would play some concerto music while the art lovers browsed.
Candy’s job was to see the guests had the right amount of alcohol to appreciate the beauty and magic in Susie’s paintings, but fuzzy enough to think I was some kind of musical genius. It was a balancing act, but I was sure Candy would know when to stop pouring.
Fran was baking up a storm. She planned to join the cocktail waitresses in serving up the appetizers to the mingling guests. Invitations had gone out to a few art galleries around the South Beach neighborhood, and the owners were expected to appear.
All Susie had to do was relax, smile beautifully, and work the room. She hadn’t been able to choose which paintings she had wanted to exhibit, so Shannon and I had made the difficult selection, ultimately deciding to stick to the seascapes and sunsets that she did so well.
While we were busy setting up, Susie was running to the bathroom and throwing up. The second time I knew I had to do something.
I called Candy over, and Fran, and the three of us agreed on a plan. “Susie, get over here. We have an idea how to make tonight truly magical. Candy, the bar belongs to you. You tell her.”
Candy looked around at our faces and said, “Everyone knows that the Candy Bar was an old Spanish mission, but I did some research and found out that it sits on an ancient fossil site, a hole in the earth that was once home for the Paleo-Indians, back around 7500 BC.”
We all waited for Candy to get to the point.
“All I know is that sometimes the lights begin to flicker and glow a little funny, and the brick walls sweat, and…” Candy’s voice dropped to a whisper, “magic happens. Lives are forever changed.” She looked at all our faces. “Dreams can and do come true at the Candy Bar. I’ve seen it happen.”
I said, “I’d like to try a little experiment. Let’s form a circle and hold hands.” We did. “Okay, now what shall we do? How do we set this in motion? Should we chant or something?”
Fran spoke quietly, “Close your eyes and repeat after me. Oh, gentle spirits be with us tonight. We look to your wisdom, we look to your light, and humbly ask that you bestow on us gathered here, your magical gifts.”
We repeated the words, and I for one felt a little foolish.
Candy looked at all our serious faces. Breaking the circle, she smacked her hands. “There, that should do it.”
* * *
The sound of chatter and laughter carried as people drank and nibbled on Fran’s delicious canapés and circled the room. It was a sparkling affair, and I thought everything was going along better than we had imagined. Candy was receiving accolades for coming up with such a wonderful way to support local artists. Susie’s paintings were being admired, and Fran was happy to see her appetizers quickly disappear and each silver tray return empty.
I was in the corner playing a Mozart piece that I’d always loved and eyeing the guests. Susie looked gorgeous. She was wearing a simple black fitted gown that emphasized her perfect size two body, and her lovely long blonde hair caught the light and shimmered as she walked about the room, smiling as though her lips were permanently frozen.
I wished she could relax a little.
Fran came over and sat down on the bench next to me. “Want something to eat, kiddo?” she asked.
“Nope. I’m enjoying the moment.” I admitted with a grin.
Fran looked very nice, too. Her cocktail length dress was purple and shiny, but for some reason it suited her. Maybe it was the happy look on her face that made her beautiful, but I couldn’t imagine how I ever thought she was frumpy.
“Didn’t know you were so good,” she remarked, rubbing shoulders with me. “Look at your fingers fly. You’ll have to teach me that in exchange for cooking lessons.”
“Deal.”
Fran hummed to the music. “What’s it called?”
“She looks like she’s going to crack, doesn’t she?”
We both stared at her. “Yup.”
“I’m going to go see if I can get her to sit down and have a bite to eat. Try to get her to unwind.”
“Good idea.”
Candy was behind the bar. She was wearing some wild little dress in an animal print that barely covered her ass, cinched at the waist with a four-inch studded leather belt, and boots up to her thighs. She gave me a little wave and a thumbs up.
I smiled, nodding my thanks. She was serving up drinks and speaking with people, and it was obvious that people loved her. She could flip bottles in the air and catch them with opposite hands, blend drinks, fix cocktails, flirt with four men at once and never miss a beat.
Since I was watching Candy’s act, I missed Jed enter and sneak up behind me. I sensed him a moment before his fingers ran over the nape of my neck. I tilted my head back and was rewarded with a kiss.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered.
I smiled and moved over a fraction, hoping he’d take a seat next to me. He did.
“I’m glad you came. How’re the kids?”
“Great. They’re at Grandma’s for the night. I have the house to myself.”
“I see.” I smiled. “It must be lonely for you.”
“It would be. I was wondering if I might be able to convince you to spend the night.”
“Oh, you were, were you?” I felt him nibble on my shoulder and struck the wrong note. “Stop that,” I said softly, and turned to look him sternly in the eye. But there was something in his eyes that turned my so-called sternness into a pile of mush.
“Jed?” I could barely breathe. “Why are you looking at me like you’ve been on Atkins for a month and I’m your favorite carb?”
He grinned and something burst inside of me.
My fingers faltered and to cover my blunder, I changed the tempo and began the Chopin Polonaise. The thundering notes echoed the pounding in my heart.
I couldn’t keep this up forever, so I let it peter out. “What would you like me to play?” I asked softly.
The Candy Bar Complete - 4 book box set: Candy Bar Series Page 26