Dreamspinner Press Years One & Two Greatest Hits

by J. M. Colail

  “I promise that as soon as they make it legal, I’ll ask you again,” Jack whispered, his voice still a little unsteady.

  “No, it’s my turn to ask,” Lucas rebutted, a lazy smile on his face as he pulled his lover closer in his arms.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  LUCAS RAN across the central hall, blue briefing folder in his hand, to pick up a Hollywood director and his security man at the courtesy desk. Apparently the director had been given the approval to film inside the United Nations building, which was normally unheard of. Lucas had been asked by the Secretary-General’s aide to show both men around the “backstage area” as well as the General Assembly Hall and the interpreters’ booths. Since they were not in session today, both would be virtually empty.

  Lucas vaguely recognized the man, but couldn’t name any of his films off hand. His security expert was an old acquaintance, though.

  “Mark! It’s been… what? Four years now?” Lucas extended his hand and shook the rather subdued security man’s hand.

  “Mr. Carlton, if I remember correctly. Formerly of the British Embassy? And that would be closer to five years, sir,” Mark answered, barely letting a smile break his stern exterior.

  “United Nations now, and please, call me Lucas.”

  Mark turned to his employer. “Mr. Carlton and I go back to my Secret Service years when I was working for the American Embassy in Belgium.”

  “Ah yes!” the director answered, shaking Lucas’s hand and then turning back toward Mark. “Isn’t that where you got shot?”

  Mark chuckled. “Yes, sir. Thank you for reminding me.”

  Lucas gave them their visitor’s badges and took them through to the places they had been cleared to visit. He could tell Mark still had his eagle eyes. The bodyguard scanned his surroundings as if there were snipers on every overhang.

  The director explained what the film they were going to shoot was all about and then asked if he could meet with one of the interpreters on staff.

  “I think that can be arranged, sir. Why don’t I show you around some more and then I’ll make some calls and see what I can do?”

  In the General Assembly Hall Lucas explained what happened when they were in session and then let the director take a walk around by himself to, as he put it, “soak up the atmosphere.”

  Lucas stayed to the side with Mark and picked up one of the internal phones.

  “Jack? Are you really busy right now? No? Good. Can you come over to the General Assembly? I have some people here who’d like to meet you. Five minutes sounds good. Okay.”

  As Lucas sat down next to Mark, the man raised an eyebrow.

  “Did I just hear you say Jack?” Mark asked with more amusement than inquiry in his voice. “Would that be Jack Christensen?”

  “Yes. You know he no longer works for the State Department, right?”

  “Are you saying he works here?” Mark asked, as he nodded toward the hall.

  Lucas smiled. “Yes, as a senior interpreter. He’ll be here in five minutes for the technical advice you wanted, and then I figure you might like to have the chance to chat with him as well.”

  “Well, he did save my life,” Mark stated blankly.

  “Strange,” Lucas commented. “I thought it was the other way around.”

  “So the two of you are still together?”

  Lucas was a little surprised at Mark’s forwardness. “You don’t waste any words, do you?”

  Mark shrugged. “In tense situations, it’s best to be direct. I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable.”

  “No, it didn’t. Not really. I just didn’t think we were that transparent.”

  Mark looked at him sideways. “In my line of work, you learn to absorb any kind of information you can lay your hands on and use it to your advantage.”

  Lucas didn’t quite know how to deal with that statement and realized he was speechless, which was highly unusual for him.

  Luckily, Jack walked in at that very moment, nodded at Lucas and then grabbed Mark’s hand to pull him into a bear hug.

  Lucas watched a broad smile spread across the security man’s face and caught himself noticing the handsome man behind the stern exterior. The fact that he and Jack obviously shared a great friendship made Lucas feel like an intruder. He knew there was no reason to be jealous, though and gave the men some space, walking toward the movie director, who was taking notes and no doubt already planning the upcoming shoot.

  “SO YOU’RE doing security for movies now?” Jack asked.

  He and Mark agreed to meet that evening in a bar around the corner from the UN building. Lucas was invited, but Jack knew that he would want to be home for AnnElise and wasn’t surprised when his lover declined.

  “I got a medical discharge from the Secret Service so I had to do something,” Mark answered, taking another swig from his bottle of beer. “This isn’t too bad. A lot of it is consultancy work, you know, giving my opinion on who should be hired for what, securing movie sets and sometimes, like for this movie, I get asked to assess if the portrayal of Secret Service men is accurate.”

  “So who’s going to play you in this film?” Jack asked, slightly amused.

  “Sean Penn,” Mark answered flatly. “He’ll do okay. He’s a good actor.”

  Jack sniggered. “He doesn’t look much like you.”

  “Well, he doesn’t have to, because he’s not playing me, right? Besides, you know who’s going to play you?”

  Now it was Mark’s turn to be amused and Jack wasn’t sure if that was a good sign. He took a sip from his beer and shook his head.

  “Nicole Kidman.”

  Both men started laughing. It was absurd, of course, but it felt good to rekindle the friendship that had grown between them in the weeks Jack had spent at his bodyguard’s bedside after Mark’s near fatal injury and Jack’s career suicide.

  Jack had realized in those dire times that real friends were rare, as many of the people he had known during his diplomatic career turned their backs on him. So, afraid to fall into a black hole after being a workaholic for so long, he spent his afternoons supporting the man who had saved his life by taking the bullet that had his name on it.

  Mark had needed all the support he could get. The bullet had ripped through one of his lungs and nicked several large arteries in his chest. In fact, the doctors told him more than once that he shouldn’t have survived an injury like that, but he did anyway. Jack’s help in his recovery had been greatly appreciated, as both men knew that career-wise, they were facing an uncertain future.

  Now four years later, the friendship was easily picked up again.

  “I gather you and Lucas are still an item?” Mark asked glancing sideways.

  “Yeah,” Jack answered, surprised at his own hesitance.

  “Good,” Mark stated.

  “Good?”

  “Yeah, good.”

  Jack could tell Mark was having fun teasing him. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

  Mark drank again and took his time answering, which made Jack a little nervous.

  “It means that all those nights I spent in that cold uncomfortable car in front of his apartment were worth it.”

  “You…. You mean you actually stayed….”

  “Not to mention all the times I told your wife you were in a meeting while I was sitting there, freezing my ass off.”

  Jack chuckled nervously and looked at Mark, who was still gazing out toward the rest of the bar. “Why did you?”

  “It was my job to always know where you were. At all times,” Mark answered.

  Jack was confused, “I know that, but why did you lie to Maria? I’m sure it wasn’t in your job description to provide me with an alibi for my extramarital activities.”

  Mark looked him straight in the eye. “Did you think you were the only guy in your line of work who slept around?”

  Jack shook his head. “But I wasn’t just sleeping around, was I?”

  “I didn’t get paid to form
an opinion on whether it was worse that you cheated on your wife with another guy than with another woman. What mattered was that I knew where you were and that you were relatively safe. Plus, part of my job was also to protect your reputation and if that included lying to your wife….”

  Jack didn’t know what to say. “I’m sure you had your opinion on the matter?”

  “And you had your opinion on the crises you were asked to mediate. We talked about it in the car from time to time, remember? It didn’t stop you from defending something you didn’t believe in. And let’s face it, I wasn’t trying to change the point of view of world leaders, I was just trying to make sure you could do your job, so my opinion was inconsequential.”

  The discussion was definitely turning serious, so Jack was surprised to see a broad smile forming on Mark’s face.

  “There’s just one thing I’ve been dying to ask you, though.”

  “Shoot,” Jack answered, glad to switch to some lighter banter.

  “That day of the lock-down, when that madman was trying to blow up his car in the tunnels in front of the Embassy?”

  Jack nodded, remembering the day well.

  “Did you screw Lucas over your desk?”

  Jack choked mid-swallow and coughed on the beer caught in his throat. He was speechless. How did Mark know? And if Mark knew, Gertje must have known as well. God knows how many other people had passed by his office door that day and wondered at the strange noises from within.

  Mark was a good friend, even though they had lost contact after they both sought other employment. Could he just come out and say it? Could he just admit that the tense situation had made both him and Lucas horny enough to have a quick shag in his office?

  “I guess that’s a yes, then,” Mark stated as he emptied his bottle of beer and motioned to the bartender to bring them both another one.

  “How did you know? I didn’t think we were that loud,” Jack tried as he regained his composure.

  “Don’t worry about it, Jack. I should call Gertje though, she owes me a hundred euros.”

  Jack buried his face in his hands. This was embarrassing. Here he was thinking he was totally comfortable in his relationship with Lucas, but Mark and Gertje’s acceptance of that relationship almost five years ago made him blush like a school girl. The two of them had been relaxed enough about it to make a bet?

  “I can’t believe this,” Jack shook his head, trying to will himself to stop blushing.

  Mark laughed. “So you see, it’s good that you two are still together.”

  Jack began to relax. “Were we really that loud?”

  “Naah. I heard some, well, strange noises when I put my ear to the door, but what really gave you away was what I saw when you opened it.”

  Jack was almost afraid to ask. “What did you see?”

  “Both of you, flushed, clothes a little rumpled and shirts badly tucked back inside your trousers. Your desk practically cleared, but papers all over the floor and Mr. Carlton… Lucas looked like a school boy who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. You were calm and collected though, as usual.”

  Jack nodded. He should have known Mark’s eagle eyes would have been impossible to fool.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  LUCAS WAS on the phone to Liz, trying at the same time to clear away some of the toys thrown all over the floor, when he heard the doorbell.

  “Listen, there’s someone at the door. Hang on while I go see who it is.”

  With the phone caught between his shoulder and his ear, he stuffed a teddy bear and a Furby under his arm and looked through the spy hole. He didn’t recognize the woman with the blond ponytail standing with her back to the door, but since the doorman had cleared her, he opened it anyway.

  The petite woman turned around to face him and he gasped. “Oh my God, Liz, I’ll get back to you later.” Lucas ended the call and dropped the phone on the hall table.

  “Maria, I … I didn’t expect you here. Ehm, Jack’s not home yet; he told me you were meeting in town later tonight?”

  “Yes, we are. Can I come in?”

  Lucas moved away from the doorway to let her enter, not failing to notice that she looked amazing as she opened her warm winter coat to reveal tight jeans and a white turtleneck sweater.

  “I didn’t come here to talk to Jack; I wanted to see you.” Her voice was calm, but Lucas could hear just a hint of nerves.

  She looked around the apartment and smiled. “I like what you’ve done to the place. It feels very lived in. Not like when Jack’s parents were still alive and this was only a place to spend Christmas holidays.”

  Lucas was unsure how to react as he stood there, still hugging his daughter’s toys. “So why did you want to see me?” He was sure the coolness in his voice was clear to her. The last time they had spoken was at the hospital when she threatened to ruin Jack’s career if Lucas didn’t leave her husband alone.

  “Listen, Lucas, I’m sure I’m probably your least favorite person on the planet, but….” All of a sudden she no longer looked like the women he had hated so much in Brussels. She was standing in his living room in her parka and he was seeing her as Jack had described her all along: as a kind, but very determined woman, who had her heart in the right place. What harm would it do if he was nice to her? Jack had told Lucas he was meeting Maria and had reassured him that she wasn’t going to steal him back.

  “Why don’t I make us a cup of tea and we can talk?”

  He gestured to her to give him her coat and they made their way to the kitchen. A few minutes later, they both held steaming cups of tea, and Lucas was apologizing for the mess.

  “I was just clearing up around here. Three kids in the house doesn’t make that any easier.”

  Maria’s eyes went wide and as if by command, AnnElise darted into the kitchen, running behind the table and coming up behind Lucas’s legs. She pulled on his trouser leg and whispered. “Who is this?”

  Lucas smiled at her and picked her up. “AnnElise, this is Maria; she’s a very good friend of Jack’s.”

  “Is she coming to play with Jack?” The little girl asked seriously. Both Lucas and Maria had a hard time keeping a straight face. “No, she’s going out to dinner with him tonight, while I stay home with you and Emile and Charlie. Will you be nice and say hi to her?”

  AnnElise wiggled until Lucas set her back on the floor and then walked over to Maria, her right hand extended. “Hello, I am AnnElise Carlton. Nice to meet you.”

  Maria took the girl’s small hand in hers and shook it. “Hello AnnElise Carlton, I’m Maria Donnelly.”

  The little girl giggled, retracted her hand, and ran out of the kitchen.

  Lucas looked apologetic. “Well, she’s four, we can’t stop her giggling and running off yet.”

  “She’s gorgeous, Lucas. How’s Lucy? She is Lucy’s, isn’t she?”

  Lucas was a little taken aback by Maria’s reaction, but there was none of the reproach he had expected. “Yeah, she is. Lucy’s fine; she’s married to some heir to a supermarket chain, who doesn’t know she has a daughter. Lucy gave me a lovely little girl and I’ll always be grateful for that, but she wants nothing to do with AnnElise and as sad as that is, I can’t help feeling it’s for the best.” He didn’t want to elaborate on how Lucy had almost given his daughter up for adoption.

  “Well, there’s no mistaking her for anyone else but your daughter, she even acts like you. The way she introduced herself was just charming.”

  Lucas smiled softly. “Well, she’s crazy about Jack, too.”

  “I always knew he’d make an amazing father,” Maria stated enthusiastically, much to Lucas’s surprise. “But you said three kids? Did you adopt two more?”

  “No, no, they’re Liz’s sons. She’s a colleague from work. AnnElise is crazy about the boys and Liz needed a weekend without kids, so…. Well, she helped me out quite a bit before… Jack came back.” He didn’t know why he was so uncomfortable talking to her about the kids. Was i
t because he felt he had taken this part away from Maria? That if it hadn’t been for him coming along, she and Jack would probably have had kids by now?

  Maria looked up at him suddenly. “I’m glad you gave Jack the opportunity to be a dad. I never had the nerve.”

  Lucas looked away from her for a moment, trying to gather his thoughts. “You’re okay with this?”

  She nodded. “It took me a long time to really understand, Lucas.” She sighed. “I truly hated you. For taking Jack away from me. For pulling the rug from under my feet. In one swoop, you took away my husband, my career and the life, which I’d spent twenty years building up.”

  She looked at Lucas intently, making him uncomfortable. “It took me two years of living among people who didn’t know where their next meal was coming from to realize it was all superficial. To realize that yes, I loved this man, but he didn’t love me back, not the way he loved you!”

  “He loved you too, Maria. He told me how hard it was to tell you about us. He kept putting it off. I’m sorry.”

  “No, you’re not,” she stated matter-of-factly.

  Lucas couldn’t help but chuckle. “You sound just like Jack. But… I am sorry. Not for loving Jack, I’ll never apologize for that again, but I’m sorry that we hurt you.”

  Maria smiled softly. “I can’t deny that. It’s hard to see the man you’ve loved most of your adult life fall in love with someone else. It took me a long time to understand I could have a life beyond being his wife and to admit to myself that I liked seeing him happy, even if it was with you. It wasn’t until I found my goal in life that I could see beyond my own jealousy.”

  Although deep down he still didn’t trust her, Lucas realized he was starting to like her. “Jack told me you work for UNICEF?”

  She nodded, smiling broadly. “Yeah, I coordinate relief teams. I just came back from Darfur. Sadly it was becoming so unstable there we had to leave, but we were building schools and setting up classrooms. You know, Lucas, I used to be a pretty good organizer, which made me every ambassador’s dream, but it was all about the show. The perfect gala dinner, reception, luncheon. Show your face here; make a little speech there. Now I’m actually doing things in the field, things that actually change people’s lives for the better, and I don’t have to get all dolled up in expensive designer gowns with perfect hair and make-up. So I should really thank you for stealing Jack from me. I would never have realized what was making me unhappy if the two of you hadn’t toppled my world.”