“I’m really sorry, Daddy.”
Just when it seemed he wouldn’t respond, Derek sighed. “I know you are, munchkin. But this is one time that sorry just won’t cut it.”
Athena stepped into the room and stood just inside the door. Elizabeth wore a hurt pout while her father constructed a clumsy braid down her back. He glanced at Athena before continuing.
“You scared your mum and me today more than you could possibly imagine. And your grandparents, and aunt and uncle, too. You know you’re not to leave without an adult, but you did it anyway.”
“But I was looking for you,” Elizabeth protested. “I wanted you to come home.”
“I know that.” Derek turned his daughter to face him. “But it doesn’t excuse what you did. It was wrong, and you’ll be punished for it.” Before she could respond, his face grew solemn and he leaned closer. “But I did something wrong, too, and I need to apologize to you. I didn’t explain about what happens when I go to work. I don’t come home every evening like your mum or your grandparents or your uncle Walt. I go far away, and sometimes I don’t come back for a long time.” He took a deep breath. “If I’d told you this before, you wouldn’t have thought I was still at the motel. It was still wrong of you to go there alone, but I know you thought I was there.”
“Why did you go there?” Elizabeth demanded. “You and Mommy had a fight, and you went to the motel instead of staying here.”
Eyes wide, Derek glanced at Athena. Shocked, she shook her head to indicate Elizabeth hadn’t mentioned it before. After a few seconds, it was apparent that Derek was at a loss for words, so she stepped in.
“Mommies and daddies fight sometimes, Elizabeth.” She put the plate and glass down on Elizabeth’s little tea party table. “And I can pretty much guarantee that your dad and I will fight again sometime. But the next time it happens and you get upset, you come and talk to us about it instead of trying to do something about it yourself, got that?”
“Okay.” Elizabeth studied the floor for a minute or two, but then her brows drew together and she crossed her arms over her chest. She shot a glare of blue anger at Derek. “But you kissed that other lady.”
There was no other word for his expression than flabbergasted, and Athena didn’t feel too steady herself.
Elizabeth took advantage of the silence to press her point. “I saw you. I stayed awake so I could see you when you came home.” She pointed toward the front of the house. “I went to that other bedroom, and I looked out the window and saw you kiss that lady. That hurt my feelings and made me sad. And Mommy cried.”
“What?” Athena’s voice cracked.
“I went downstairs to tell you, and you were sitting in the kitchen at the table, and you had your hands like this.” Elizabeth demonstrated by putting her hands over her face. “And you were crying.” She transferred her ire back to her father. “That was mean, Daddy. You’re not apposed to kiss anyone but Mommy, and I’m mad at you!”
Without responding, Derek got to his feet and walked to the window, clearly shaken. Athena watched him for a minute, and then beckoned to Elizabeth.
“Come eat your supper. I think Grandma made the sandwiches because the crusts are cut off the way she does it for you.”
As she’d hoped, it distracted Elizabeth. The little girl sat down, checked under the bread to make sure it was something she liked – bologna and pimento cheese – then dug in.
Athena kept an eye on Derek; his daughter’s accusations obviously stung. He leaned against the wall next to the window, his hand over his eyes and his back to the room. Elizabeth had started on her second triangle of sandwich before he turned around and came to where she sat.
He knelt on one knee next to her and put a hand on the back of her little chair. “Elizabeth, I’m very sorry you saw that. I’m even more sorry that I did it.”
Startled, Athena glanced at him, but he kept his eyes on his daughter. “I never want to hurt you, and I don’t want to ever make your mum cry. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Elizabeth chewed in silence, a thoughtful expression on her face. At long last she nodded. “Okay. But you can’t ever do it again, and you have to come back here to live when you’re finished working.”
Forehead knotted, Derek closed his eyes tight. “We’ll discuss all that later. Right now you need to finish eating so you can brush your teeth and get into bed.”
“Can we talk about it tomorrow?”
Derek sighed. “We’ll see.”
“That means ‘no,’” Elizabeth muttered, but finished her supper anyway. After her teeth were brushed and she was tucked into bed, Derek paused before her small bookcase.
“I don’t want a story,” Elizabeth told him. “I just want to go to sleep with Mr. Bunny.”
While Derek fetched the tattered rabbit from the dresser, Athena perched on the side of the bed and smoothed Elizabeth’s hair from her forehead. “Do you want us to stay with you for a while?”
“No.” The little girl took the rabbit and hugged it to her chest.
“Okay.” Athena pressed her lips to Elizabeth’s forehead at the same time Derek kissed the back of the little girl’s head. “I love you, munchkin,” Athena whispered.
“I love you, too,” Derek added.
After a moment, Elizabeth’s small body relaxed. “I love y’all.”
Athena turned on the Minnie Mouse nightlight as Derek extinguished the lamps, and then together they left the room. It was harder than Athena thought to leave her child alone, but she followed Derek downstairs to respect Elizabeth’s wishes, fighting the urge to camp outside the bedroom door to keep her safe.
Once in the kitchen, Derek walked away from her and rested a forearm on the doorjamb between the kitchen and den. He leaned his head on his arm, and Athena was alarmed to see his shoulders shaking.
Hands over her mouth, Athena stood in indecision. She wanted so much to comfort him, but his manner made it clear he didn’t want that. She could only watch him, her heart hurting as he dealt with it on his own.
Some time passed before Derek drew in a deep breath. He wiped his hands across his face several times, but still kept his back to her.
“Why did you cry?” he asked in a thick voice.
“Wha-at?” That was unexpected; she thought he was upset about Elizabeth.
“You obviously saw Barbara kiss me. Why did you cry?”
Oh, no. She did not intend to get into that, and was trying to think up a plausible lie when he turned to face her. All her excuses fled when she saw his red-rimmed eyes and wet lashes accentuating the pain etched on his face.
“Why?” he persisted.
Her arms rose to cross over her chest, and her palms cupped her elbows as she tried to make herself as small as possible. Uncomfortable, her gaze darted around the kitchen, but kept returning to his intent face. The tension built until she couldn’t stand it anymore, and she blurted out the truth.
“Maybe I agree with Elizabeth, okay? You shouldn’t be kissing anyone but me.”
“Athena.” He took a step toward her, but she stumbled back and shook her head. To her horror, tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped off her chin, but she couldn’t stop them.
“I’m sorry, Derek. I know you don’t want to hear this.” Now she had to speak around deep sobs, her breath catching in her throat. “But I thought that maybe after that night when we…you know. I thought maybe things would change.” Her eyes closed in remembered pain. “But the next morning you wouldn’t look at me. And then the next thing I know you were going out on a date.” Part of her mind screamed at her to stop talking, to retain at least a little bit of dignity, but the events of the day left her too weak to resist the impulse to finally get it all out.
“That killed me, Derek. To know that you had to get rid of my touch with someone else hurt so much.” She wiped the tears from her face with shaking fingers. “All I could think of is you with someone else, and I wanted to die. Then I saw you kiss her.” Her head shook in nega
tion. “No more. I can’t take any more. Especially because…because....”
“Especially because what, angel?”
His gentle tone and the fact that he called her “angel” calmed her a bit, and she managed to get her breathing under control. She looked up to meet his inquisitive gaze, and firmed her shoulders. This was it.
“Because I love you. And because I’m pregnant.”
For several ticks of the clock it didn’t appear he’d heard what she said, and he continued looking at her with a question in those blue, blue eyes. Little by little his expression changed; his eyes grew round, and the muscles in his face all seemed to relax at once, leaving him gaping.
“You’re…you’re…” His chest hitched as he gulped in quick, shallow breaths, and Athena steeled herself for the nuclear meltdown she expected. “How did…how…?”
“Remember those two days in New Orleans when you wouldn’t let me leave the suite and I didn’t have my birth control pills with me? You told me then I was going to need them, and you were right.”
His gaze dropped and fixed on her belly, and Athena had to resist the urge to cover it with her hands. There wasn’t much to see, but his scrutiny was like a spotlight trained on the small bump that was barely visible under her shirt.
“We’re having a baby.” The life came back into Derek’s face, and the hint of a trembling smile moved his lips. “We’re going to have another baby.”
“Derek, I…”
“A baby.” Derek strode forward with glistening eyes and pulled her into his arms. “When?”
“January,” Athena told him, confused by his reaction.
“A little late for Christmas, but still a damn fine present, don’t you think?”
“Wait; you’re happy?” She pulled against his arms, but he didn’t let her go.
“My God, Athena,” he laughed. “I’m overjoyed!”
“Damn it, Derek. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too, you know. You knock me up, and then you just gallivant off into the sunset going on dates with other women?” She slapped his chest with the flat of her hand.
He looked down at her and shook his head. “I didn’t want to go out with her.”
Whether it was hormones, or because she was fed up with everything that had gone on since he walked into Stax of Wax in April, Athena snapped. “No one was standing there holding a gun to your head, asshole! No one forced you to pick up that phone and call that bitch who probably sat there and gloated that she was going to go out with you while I sat at home babysitting our daughter.” Her hand folded into a fist and she hit him a little harder. Tears were falling again, but this time they were tears of anger. “And not only did you go out with her, you made sure to come over here and strut around in front of me so I could see firsthand how good you looked for your little date!”
Derek’s brows rushed together in a frown. “I thought that was what you wanted.”
“Me? Don’t you dare try to put this on me! I stood right there in that room…” She pointed a shaking finger toward the den. “…and took off my clothes because I wanted to be with you more than anything else in the world. How the hell can you stand here and tell me you interpreted that as my desire to have you date other women?”
“I thought it was just the alcohol,” he protested, tightening his hold on her as she tried to squirm away. “The next morning you kept looking at me like you were afraid I was going to jump on you again.”
“How would you know?” She ceased her struggles to get away, and stood rigid in his embrace. “You wouldn’t even look at me. And you came out of the bedroom fully dressed, so it was clear you didn’t want a repeat of what happened.”
“Christ, Athena! I had the worst hangover of my life, and that’s saying a lot. I looked at you; I just couldn’t get my eyes all the way open.” He ducked his head in an effort to catch her gaze that kept skittering away. “I woke up in your bed with a pounding head, and jumbled memories of making love to you everywhere but the middle of the road. I knew you’d been drunk, so I wasn’t sure what you were feeling that morning. I didn’t think it best to be parading round half naked until I was sure. And then I came in to find you huddled on the couch, refusing to meet my eyes or say two words to me. What was I supposed to think? So I called that horrid woman and went to dinner so you’d know I wouldn’t bother you again since you so obviously didn’t want me to.”
“You are completely out of your mind. If I didn’t want you I wouldn’t have stripped for you, and I certainly wouldn’t have let you bang me on the kitchen table.” Her lips started to tremble no matter how hard she tried to firm them. “And the next thing I know you have a date. I really thought that was going to kill me, Derek. We made love and then you didn’t want me.”
“Christ, Athena, I do want you. You’re the only one I want.” He leaned his forehead against hers, and she felt his grimace against her skin and his tears warm on her face. “After you left Los Angeles, I realized that you’re everything I’ve ever wanted. I’ve been so happy with you and Elizabeth these past months. I just didn’t want to push you too fast after the way I behaved. But I want you. I want you and our children.”
Hope and happiness surged through her as the truth of his words penetrated the sadness surrounding her heart. Even though it was night, she felt as if the sun had come out, bathing her in warmth and chasing the shadows from her life. With trembling fingers she wiped away the traces of tears from his cheeks. “You didn’t push me. How could you? I love you. I always have.”
“I love you, angel.” Derek drew in a deep breath and his voice became firm. “And I don’t want to be without you again.” He released her and reached in his back pocket with one hand, the other scrubbing over his face.
In confusion, Athena watched as he took his wallet from this pocket and opened it. He removed an object from behind the bills, and she caught a flash of purple right before he lowered himself to one knee in front of her.
Taking her left hand, he rolled the circlet of purple string up her ring finger. “I still want to marry you, Athena, as much as I did seven years ago. Will you?”
This time she didn’t even try to stem her tears. “Yes,” she told him. “Very much yes.” Dropping to her knees, she pulled him to her just as his mouth closed over hers, warm and familiar and very much welcome.
After a thorough kiss, he drew back and looked into her eyes. “I won’t let anything or anyone stop us this time, Athena.”
With shaking fingers, she traced the beloved lines of his face. “Good. Neither will I.”
“Are you fighting again?”
They both turned at the small, forlorn voice and saw Elizabeth standing at the doorway to the kitchen. Her face was twisted with worry, and her tattered rabbit hung by his ears from one trembling hand.
“No, munchkin. We’re not fighting.” Derek held out his hand. “Come here, love.”
Elizabeth rushed across the room and burrowed between her parents. “You sounded like you were fighting.”
“We’re not.” Athena smoothed the hair from her daughter’s forehead. “I promise.”
“Then why are you on the floor?”
“Good question.” Derek laughed under his breath. “And here’s another. Would you like it if your mum and I got married?”
The little girl’s head popped up, and she looked back and forth at them with wide eyes. “You’re getting married?”
“Yeah, we are.” Athena smiled. “Is that okay with you?”
“Yes!” Elizabeth threw her arms around her parents’ necks. “See, Mama? I told you that your name would be Athena Marshall.” She looked sideways at Derek. “Now we’ll be a whole family, and that means I need to have a little sister to play with.”
Derek bit his bottom lip, eyes shining. “We’ll see.”
His daughter rolled her eyes. “That means no.”
“Actually,” Athena said, sharing a secret smile with Derek. “This time it means yes.”
###
&n
bsp; Also by Juli Page Morgan:
CRIMSON AND CLOVER
Under Katie Scott’s flower child exterior beats the heart of June Cleaver. Though she digs her bellbottoms and love beads, she longs for the idyllic family life she was denied as a child.
Laughed out of San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury after the Summer of Love for believing rock ‘n roll and white picket fences can coexist she decides to try her luck in the bohemian neighborhood of Ladbroke Grove in London.
When she discovers her new friend Adam is starting a band with Jay Carey, she’s ecstatic. She’d admired the British guitar god from afar for years, and when she and Jay finally meet the attraction between them is instantaneous.
But life with a rock ‘n roll star doesn’t lend itself well to white picket fences. And when Katie tells Jay the secret she’s carried for two years it may end the dream before it begins.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Crimson and Clover!
He leaned forward and his chest came into contact with her shoulder. “Katie? Why won’t you look at me?”
Her gaze stayed glued to the toes of her shoes even as her shoulder ignited with a fire that spread with speed through her body. “Maybe I’m embarrassed,” she whispered.
“Don’t be; you’ve no reason to be. I don’t have a problem looking at you.” His hand rose into her line of vision and hovered close to her cheek. “Touching you, however…”
Katie swallowed as she watched his hand trace the lines of her face, remaining just above her skin. It seemed a trail of light followed its path and she held her breath, waiting.
“Actually,” he continued, “it’s the not touching you I have a problem with.” His voice was low and husky, just above a whisper, but Katie heard every word as if he’d shouted it in her ear. “Every time I’m with you all I can think about is…touching you.”
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