Treading Water

by Marie Force

  “I, um, I cleaned out Clare’s stuff last night. It was a lot harder than I’d expected it to be. I’m sorry you were worried.”

  Andi ached for him. “You did that all by yourself? Why didn’t you wait to let someone help you?”

  “I wanted to get it done, and it seemed like a good idea at the time,” he said with a wry chuckle.

  “I’m so sorry it was tough for you.” She swallowed hard. “Do you want to put our plans on hold for a while to give yourself some more time?”

  “I don’t want more time, Andi,” he said with a desperate edge to his voice. “I want you here. I need you here.”

  “If you’re sure…”

  “I’m sure. Nothing’s changed. So how did it go with your mother?”

  “Just as I thought it would,” she said with a sigh. “She’s ‘very disappointed’ in both of us.”

  “I’d hoped she’d be more supportive of you.”

  “It was more or less what I expected, but it did hurt a little.”

  “I’m sorry, hon. I wish you were already here.”

  “Me, too. Are you lonely in that big house by yourself?”

  “Kind of. It’s way too quiet.”

  “I can imagine. Where are you now?”

  “On my way to the office.”

  “Will you be okay?”

  “I’m better now that I’ve talked to you. I’m sorry you were worried.”

  “I love you, Jack. You know I’m here if you need me, right?”

  “I know. I love you, too. Have a good day. I’ll call you tonight.”

  “Talk to you then.” She hung up but still felt anxious. Something wasn’t right. She thought about it for a few minutes and then picked up the phone again.

  As Jack opened a beer and put a frozen pizza in the oven, the doorbell rang, startling him. He wondered who was there at that hour.

  He opened the front door and was stunned to find Andi on his doorstep. Her long dark hair was in a ponytail and she wore jeans with a black leather jacket. He’d never been so happy to see her. “What’re you doing here?”

  “You were lonely,” she said with a casual shrug. “You gonna let me in?”

  He stepped aside. “Of course.”

  She dropped her bag in the front hall and reached up to brush the hair back from his brow, the loving gesture so familiar that he nearly swooned with need as she drew him into her arms.

  “How’d you know I needed you?” He rested his forehead on her shoulder and breathed in the scent he would recognize anywhere.

  “The same way you knew I needed you when Eric was sick.”

  He lifted his head to find her eyes. “How’d you get here?”

  “The slowest cab in all of Rhode Island. What’s burning?”

  “Shit!” He grabbed her hand and pulled her along with him to the kitchen where he retrieved the pizza just before it turned black. “Hungry?”

  “That’s what you’re eating?” She took in his old T-shirt and ratty sweats. “The situation’s worse than I thought.”

  He smiled and shrugged. “It was here, and it looked good.”

  “Don’t let me stand between you and your fine cuisine.”

  “Want some?”

  “I’ll pass.” She opened a bottle of wine and poured a glass as he ate the whole pizza. “That’s really gross.”

  “I ran six miles today,” he said as he finished the pizza and drained his bottle of beer.

  She got him another beer, opened it for him, and joined him at the table. “What’s wrong, Jack?”

  He took her hand and kissed it. “Nothing now.”

  “What was wrong earlier, then?”

  Standing to put his plate in the sink, he took a sip of his beer and turned back to her. “Let’s go in by the fire.”

  The temperature outside had dipped well below freezing, and the fire cast some welcome extra heat upon the family room as they sat together on the sofa. Waiting to hear what he had to say, Andi fought back panic. She realized she’d never seen him so disheveled or so undone. Whatever had happened the night before had clearly shaken him. His dark hair stood on end, as if he’d been running his fingers through it all day, and his face was scruffy with whiskers. It was the despondency she saw in his eyes, however, that was the most disconcerting. Loving him so much she ached with it, she had no idea what she’d do if he’d changed his mind about them.

  “I can’t believe you came all this way.” He twirled a curl around his finger. “Where’s Eric?”

  “My mom was happy to watch him. Her time with him will be limited, so she was glad to have him to herself for a little while.”

  “Just a little while?”

  “As long as you need me.”

  “You’d better get comfortable.”

  “Are you going to talk to me?”

  “I am talking to you.”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  He released a jagged deep breath. “I found some things of Clare’s, stuff I never knew she kept, old cards and letters… It just, I don’t know…it hurt,” he whispered.

  She held her arms out to him.

  “It was a pile of paper, but it brought it all back again,” he said, resting against her.

  She tightened her hold on him. “And you were all alone.”

  “I’m glad I was. I don’t want the girls to see me like that anymore.”

  Choking back the fear that lodged in her throat, Andi closed her eyes and breathed in his familiar scent. “It was pretty bad?”

  He nodded.

  She ran her fingers through his thick dark hair.

  When he looked up at her, the shattered look in his eyes brought tears to hers.

  “It scares the hell out of me to think there may be other things around here that could set it off. I can’t promise it won’t happen again.”

  “You don’t have to.” She guided his head back to where it had been resting against her chest and continued to caress his hair as a tear rolled down her cheek. “If it happens again, I’ll be right here with you, and we’ll get through it together.”

  “I’m so tired, Andi.”

  “I know, love.” She took him up to bed and held him close until he drifted into peaceful sleep, but she lay awake for a long time hoping she wasn’t about to make another huge mistake.

  The phone woke them early the next morning. Jack fumbled to pick up the bedside extension.

  “Jack?”

  “Fran? What’s the matter?”

  “Nothing. What’s the matter with you?”

  “Other than it being six in the morning?”

  “Oh, crap. I can’t figure out the time thing. Sorry. Is everything okay there?”

  He was finally awake. “Everything’s fine. Are you already bored with your new husband?”

  Andi smiled at his question, and he wrapped his free arm around her.

  “I heard that,” Jamie said.

  Frannie laughed. “I’m definitely not bored.”

  “Spare me the details. How’s Fiji?”

  “What I’ve seen of it seems pretty nice.”

  “I told you to spare me the details.”

  “Are you sure everything’s okay, Jack? I had the strangest dream about you, and it really bothered me, so Jamie told me to call you.”

  “I’m fine,” he assured her as Andi’s hair brushed against his cheek. “Enjoy yourself and don’t worry about anything here.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you next weekend.”

  “See you then.” He clicked off the phone, ran his hand through his hair, and yawned.

  “Everything all right in Fiji?” Andi asked.

  “Sounds like it. She said she had a crazy dream about me and needed to call. My heart almost stopped when the phone rang. I thought of the girls on that cruise ship.”

  “Funny that she sensed something was up with you.” Andi turned to study him. “You look better.”

  He rolled over so he was on top of her. “I was having an amazing dream myself, and
I woke up to find it wasn’t a dream at all,” he said, kissing her lightly at first and then more intently. “You know what I want to do?”

  “I have an idea,” she said with a dry chuckle as she lifted her hips against his erection.

  “Well, that, too.” Laughing, he left a trail of hot kisses from her ear to her collarbone. “But you know what we’ve never gotten to do?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Stay in bed all day.”

  “And pretend we’re in Fiji?”

  “Why not? How many times will we find ourselves without any kids underfoot for a whole day?”

  “I can’t argue with you there. Don’t you have to work?”

  “Don’t you?”

  “You got me again.”

  “Hearing no objections… All in favor? Aye and aye, and the motion passes.” He kissed her before she could render an objection. “Unanimously.”

  “This is utter decadence,” Andi whispered hours later after they’d devoured a box of leftover Christmas chocolates, taken a bubble bath, and made love again. “I’ve never been so lazy in my life.”

  “We should make this a monthly event. One day a month, Jack and Andi will be absent from life—definitely on a day when the kids are in school. All in favor?”

  “Aye,” they said together.

  “And another motion passes unanimously,” he said. “I love this governing system we’ve established.”

  “It goes back to you getting your way all the time, which, I’ve come to realize, is one of your many gifts.”

  “So, if I’d let you be in charge—only for this one day, mind you—what would you have changed about it?”

  “Not a damned thing.”

  “I have to go home tomorrow, you know,” she said as they ate Chinese takeout in front of the fire downstairs.

  “You are home,” he reminded her.

  “Let me correct that. I need to wrap things up in Chicago, so I can get back home to you.”

  “Much better.” He fed her some of his lo mein. “I’m still coming on moving day, right?”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I want to. One more month…”

  Gazing into the fire, she said, “I know.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  She turned to him. “Are you sure, Jack? Really sure you’re ready for all this? It’s not too late to put it on hold for a while—” The expression on his face stopped her.

  He put the Chinese carton on the table and reached for her hand. “Andrea, you’ve saved me in every possible way. I thought my life was over, and then there you were. Remember when you said you were worried I was upset yesterday and everyone was gone?”

  She nodded. It was the first time all day he’d mentioned it.

  “No one else could’ve helped me the way you did. You’re my first thought in the morning and my last thought at night. I can no longer imagine my life without you or Eric. I don’t want you to have a single doubt about my love for both of you or my commitment to you.”

  She caressed his face. “I don’t.”

  He leaned in to kiss her and gathered her close. “I won’t let you down.”

  She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest to listen to the strong beat of his heart, knowing for certain it belonged to her.

  Jack flew to Chicago two days after the moving van pulled away with the last of the things Andi and Eric were taking to Rhode Island. The rest of her furniture was in storage, and her new tenant was moving in next week. With the apartment empty, she reserved a suite at Infinity for their final night in the city. Eric was at his last day of school when Andi took one of the company cars out to O’Hare to meet Jack. Buying a car was first on her to-do list when she got to Rhode Island.

  She was leaning against the limo when he emerged from a lower-level door into a freezing, gray February day.

  “Hey, sailor, need a ride?” She smiled as he came toward her, looking sexy in jeans and a black wool coat.

  He dropped his small bag on the curb and swept her into his arms, lifting her off her feet and kissing her as he brought her slowly back down.

  “Well, hello to you, too,” she said, thrilled to see him after a long month apart.

  He leaned her back against the limo. “You know what my first thought was this morning?”

  “Hmm, was it ‘damn, I have to get my butt out of bed early to make this flight’?”

  “No, you’re way off. That was my second thought. Want to guess again?”

  She pulled him close enough to kiss again. “I’m stumped.”

  “My first thought was that last night was the last night I’ll ever spend without you.” He kissed her as a policeman blew his whistle, warning them to move the limo.

  They didn’t hear a thing.

  Chapter 20

  David invited Andi, Jack, and Eric to dinner at the hotel, and they were stunned to find the room filled with her colleagues and friends, some of whom Jack met for the first time. David even thought to invite several of Eric’s school friends. Andi was disappointed that her mother wasn’t among the well-wishers.

  She and Jack finally made it to bed at midnight after they tucked Eric into the suite’s other bedroom.

  “How’re you feeling?” he asked, drawing her in close to him.

  “Kind of sad. I’ll miss them very much.”

  “I don’t know if I’ve said this to you enough, but I appreciate all you’re doing, all you’re giving up.”

  “Do you know what I said to my mother when I told her we were moving?”

  “What’s that?”

  She turned to face him. “That I have more of a life with you in five minutes than I have here in a whole year. I’m not giving up anything compared to what I’m getting in return.”

  He kissed her softly. “That’s good to hear.”

  She snuggled into him, peppering his chest with kisses. “I’m so glad you’re here. I hate sleeping alone.”

  “I can’t believe we can sleep together every night now.”

  Trailing a finger over his belly, she wrapped her hand around his erection. “That’s not all we can do every night,” she said with a saucy smile.

  He shifted so he was on top of her. “Mmm, every night, huh? Promise?”

  “We have a lot of time to make up for.”

  He slid into her and sucked in a sharp deep breath. “God, is there anything better than this?”

  “Not that I can think of.” Her fingers caressing his back made him tremble. “Jack…”

  He pushed hard into her. “What, baby?”

  “Don’t stop.”

  Laughing, he bent to kiss her. “No chance of that.”

  David was waiting for them when they came down to leave the next day.

  Andi cast one last critical eye over the lobby, pleased to see everything where it belonged, even as her heart ached a little.

  The bellman had already loaded the last of her bags into the car that would take them to the airport.

  “Are you ready?” David asked.

  “You didn’t have to come in on a Saturday,” Andi said.

  “I wanted to see you off. Shall we?” David signed the last two words to include Eric, who rewarded him with a big grin.

  Eric had a backpack filled with things to do on the plane and wore his Chicago Cubs ball cap as they went out through the hotel’s revolving front door.

  While David guided Eric into the car, Jack waited for Andi to take a last wistful look at the hotel.

  “Ready?” he asked, putting an arm around her.

  “Yeah. Let’s go.”

  The ride to the airport seemed quicker than usual, and before she knew it, Jack and David were helping the driver load their bags onto a cart.

  When Jack had put the last of the bags on the pile, he turned to David with his hand extended. “Thank you, David, for everything. I hope you and your family will come see us.”

  “Count on it.” David shook Jack’s hand and folded Eric into
a long hug. “Take good care of these guys.”

  “I will.” Jack took Eric’s hand. “We’ll wait for you inside, Andi.”

  David held out his arms to Andi. “I guess this is it.”

  She hugged him hard and then stepped back to look at him. “I can never thank you enough for everything. I’ll do a good job for you in Newport.”

  “I have no doubt. But there’s something far more important you can do for me.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Be happy, Andi.” He kissed her cheek and hugged her again. “I’ll miss you.”

  “Me, too.” Tears rolled down her face as she watched him get back in the limo. When the car had driven out of sight, she went to find Jack and Eric.

  They arrived at home in two cars overflowing with people and luggage. Andi was delighted that Frannie, Maggie, and Kate had come to the airport with Jamie. She had been amused by Maggie’s sign, which had Welcome Home ERIC in big bold letters and her name added almost as an afterthought. Still, she was thrilled to know her son would be well loved in his new home. She could tell that Jack had been disappointed that Jill hadn’t come to the airport.

  After Jack and Jamie had lugged the bags into the house, they went into the kitchen, stopping short when they saw balloons and a large cake on the table, with “Welcome Andi and Eric” written on it.

  “I thought you might be hungry,” Jill said with a shy smile.

  “You did this, Jill?” Jack asked, clearly stunned.

  She walked over to him. “I’m sorry, Dad,” she whispered as she hugged him. “I know I’ve been awful. I’m willing to try this for you.”

  “Thank you.”

  Overwhelmed with relief, Andi caught his eye and sent him a warm smile. “That cake looks fabulous to me, Jill,” Andi said. “How about I help you serve it?”

  Once they had consumed the cake, they gave considerable discussion to what they should have for dinner and agreed on pizza.

  “Can I do anything to help you get settled, Andi?” Frannie asked after dinner.

  “I just have to make Eric’s bed and find his pajamas, but that’s all I’m doing today.”