Once Upon Forever

by Becky Lee Weyrich

  “Your mom’s coming? Here?” Cluney couldn’t hide her stricken tone. She’d been nervous for months at the thought of meeting Jeff’s socialite mother.

  “I hope you don’t mind her helping with things, Cluney,” Jeff pleaded gently. “Mom can be a little pushy at times, but she means well. And I’d better warn you in advance, she’s big on theme weddings.”

  “Oh, not one of those black-and-white ones, I hope. Black is for funerals and sorrow. I’m a traditionalist. I don’t want anyone wearing black or feeling sad at my wedding.”

  Jeff laughed. He obviously knew more about the plans for their wedding than he was telling his bride-to-be. “I’m sure, you don’t have to worry about that, sweetheart. But, if Mom had her way, we’d be married in the Winner’s Circle at Churchill Downs—the perfect Kentucky-style ceremony. You see, she’s big on tradition, too. But don’t let her bully you. Our wedding should be the way you want it, and I’ll tell her that myself, if I have to.”

  “Oh, Jeff!” Cluney said suddenly. “I’ve missed you so much. I can’t begin to tell you. I’ll be so happy, and so relieved once we’re married, no matter how or where. This has been an awful month for me. I wish I could see you right now. If I could just hug you and kiss you!”

  “That’s what you’d do if I were there with you now, darling?”

  Cluney chuckled sexily into the phone. “For starters. I’m not sure I can go into all the details on the line, love. The phone company might discontinue my service.”

  “That good, huh?”

  “Wel-l-l…” she teased. “Do you remember the night before you left on deployment?”

  “Yes-s-s-s!” he answered in a husky, drawn-out sigh. “Do I ever!”

  “Where are you, by the way?”

  “Well, I’m not on the ship.”

  “I know that,” Cluney answered. “You’re ashore. But which port—Greece, Turkey, Italy, Crete?”

  Instead of answering her, he said, “Uh-oh! I have to hang up now, sweetheart. But I’ll call back in a little while.”

  Cluney grimaced. “Some of the guys came up, huh?” It seemed whenever Jeffs buddies put in an appearance, he had to dash.

  “No, it’s not the guys. Stay right where you are. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes. Hey, girl? I love you.”

  His words sent thrills all through Cluney and brought tears once more to her eyes. Such a short time ago, she’d never thought to hear his voice again.

  “I love you, too, Jeff. More than anything!”

  The phone went dead. Cluney sat for a time, cradling the receiver against her breasts. Married, she thought. To Jeff!

  “Mrs. Jeff Layton. Clair Summerland Layton. Cluney Layton.” She tried out all forms of her name, then added in a whisper, “Larissa Courtney Breckinridge Layton.”

  She picked up Jeff’s picture and stared at it. How very strange! Until this moment, she hadn’t realized how much he resembled Hunter Breckinridge. The bone structure of the face was slightly different, but their eyes … She could remember how Hunter had looked at her in those last moments before she crossed the moonbow, when he was telling her goodbye. Although Jeff always seemed to be smiling, at times she’d seen that same sweet-sad look in his gaze.

  “If I believed in reincarnation,” she began. Then she shook her head. “No, it couldn’t be? Could it?”

  The phone rang again just then. She snatched the receiver from the cradle and said, “Jeff?”

  She heard a woman laugh gaily on the other end of the line. “Close,” the bright voice said. “At least you have a member of Jeff’s family. Cluney, this is Andrea Layton, Jeff’s mother. I’ve tried calling you for the past two weeks, but there’s been no answer. Then I phoned your friend, Ms. Jackson, but she apparently took me for a crank caller and hung up on me. I always forget about the time difference between California and the East. I’m afraid I woke Ms. Jackson well after midnight.”

  “Mrs. Layton, it’s so nice to hear from you.” Cluney was sure she sounded as stunned and nervous as she felt. Jeff’s mother was the last person in the world she’d expected to talk to today.

  “Please, Cluney, call me Andrea. If we’re going to share Jeff, we need to be friends. Don’t you agree?”

  Cluney smiled. “Yes, Andrea. I do, indeed! Jeff just called a few minutes ago. We’ve set our wedding date—May eighteenth.”

  “Wonderful! That will work out perfectly for me. I plan to fly to Lexington in a few days to start setting all the wedding wheels in motion. I hope you don’t think I’m being too much the doting mother, Cluney, but it will be such a joy for me to do this for the two of you.”

  “Jeff mentioned that you were planning a surprise for us. That’s very thoughtful of you, Andrea. I can hardly wait to hear all about it.”

  “Well, I’m not going to tell you a thing right now, not until I see you and Jeff in person. Rest assured, though, I have everything under control, dear. I will need your guest list. As many as you like. Invite the whole college, if you wish.”

  Andrea’s expansiveness brought a smile to Cluney’s lips. She could think of a dozen names at the most.

  “I’ll get right to work on it,” she told her future mother-in-law.

  “Fine, Cluney! I’ll let you know my arrival plans. I’m so looking forward to meeting you. Jeff has told me all about you, dear. Do give him my love when you see him. I suppose I’d better cut this short. Now that you and Jeff have set the date, I have several calls I must make immediately, concerning the wedding plans.”

  “I’ll look forward to meeting you. Goodbye, Andrea, and thank you.”

  “I love doing this! You have nothing to thank me for, dear.”

  “Thank you for having such a wonderful son.”

  “Well, we certainly agree on that! And I’ll soon have an equally wonderful daughter. See you soon, Cluney.”

  Cluney hung up the phone and sighed. Reality was finally setting in. Andrea’s call had made Jeff’s seem all the more real. Suddenly, Cluney felt breathless with excitement.

  How could she ever have guessed last spring, when Lieutenant Jeff Layton came to the college to give a talk to the seniors about the Navy as a career, that they would fall in love almost on sight, that she would lose him forever, then have a miracle occur that would bring him back from the dead to make her his wife? It seemed too good to be true.

  When that thought crossed her mind, some of Cluney’s elation faded. She realized that she would not feel completely confident until Jeff was with her again and she could snuggle close in his arms and feel his heart beating next to hers. But he was still thousands of miles away. It dawned on her then that she didn’t even know exactly where he was. And she had no idea when he’d be home. He’d never told her.

  “Wherever he is, he’s a long way from here,” she said with a sigh. “And I won’t see him for weeks yet.” Then true panic gripped her. “What if he keeps flying? Why, history will simply repeat itself. There’s still a strong chance that I’ll never see Jeff again.”

  Cluney had worked herself into a true frenzy by the time she heard the knock at her door.

  “Oh, God!” she cried. “Who could that be? I look a mess!

  She cinched her terry cloth robe tighter, ran her fingers through her tangled hair, then headed for the front door. If it was a door-to-door salesman, he was going to catch it from her. She was in no mood…

  Cluney jerked the door open. Her eyes went wide. Her knees went weak. And a little strangled cry got caught in her throat. The next moment, she was in Jeff’s arms, sobbing her heart out.

  “When…? How…? Where…?”

  Jeff dragged his clinging lover into the house, kicked the door shut, and silenced her whimpers with a long, deep kiss.

  Cluney felt as if she were flying over the moonbow once more. But this time she wasn’t making the journey alone. Jeff was with her! Jeff, with his strong arms holding her, his hard torso pressing into her softness, his mouth
devouring her with a sweet, savage need.

  “Jeff,” she moaned between kisses. “Jeff, darling, you’re here? But, how…?”

  Again, he cut off her questions. She gave up trying to ask. The only answers she needed came with the taste of his mouth on hers, the feel of his hands on her breasts, the hard, strong beat of his heart, and the hot rush of his blood.

  Touching, kissing, fondling, they staggered around the tiny living room like two drunks. They were drunk—on their love and their need for each other. Suddenly, Jeff swept Cluney up into his arms. For a moment, he stared down into her lavender eyes as if he meant to devour her with his gaze.

  “God, you feel good to hold!” he moaned.

  Without asking permission—he needed none—he turned and headed for the bedroom. Cluney’s bed was rumpled, but still made up. Jeff never bothered with turning down covers. In a single, swift motion, he tumbled with Cluney still in his arms onto the spread.

  Her head was spinning, reeling. Jeff’s hands seemed everywhere at once as he tugged at her robe. The tie-belt slipped loose, tangling in Jeff’s watchband. He cursed softly and ripped it away. It slithered to the floor. A moment later, Cluney gasped as both his hands slipped inside the opening of her robe, parting it so that she lay naked before his dark, hot gaze. She stared boldly into his eyes, inviting him to have her, here and now.

  “My God, look at you!” he moaned. “Look at all this—all mine!” His hands played over her like a miser caressing his gold.

  Jeff was stradling Cluney, who lay on her back. He leaned forward, his gaze locked on her breasts, but the heels of his hands pressed lightly to her hips. His touch gave Cluney the wonderfully odd sensation of being his captive lover, unable to do anything unless he willed it so. When he leaned down and kissed her breasts, the sweet-hot sensation shot through her like sensual heat lightning. She arched her back and moaned.

  The minutes ticked away, but time stood still for Cluney. Jeff was here, and she was his—all his, now and forever.

  Somehow, she could never remember afterward, Jeff shed his khaki uniform. His tie, shirt, and shoes vanished first. Moments later, the rest of his clothes were gone. Now, they were a writhing tumble of hot human flesh—arms and legs and mouths and everything in between groping for a loving hold.

  Jeff touched her all over, as if he needed to know that she was really there and really his. Cluney was even more anxious to assure herself that her lover was real and alive and hers.

  Their kisses went from deep to light to playful, then back to seriously passionate. Cluney was surprised to hear her own voice in the room time and time again, begging him for more, then moaning or gasping when he complied. She was shameless and wanton; she was in love and in need.

  That need was something Jeff understood. When neither of them could wait an instant longer, he entered her. The long slide was pure delight for both of them. Jeffs first thrust was aimed with accuracy. He went only part way, then withdrew. The second time, he went a bit deeper, then deeper still. Each time he pulled back, Cluney would moan and beg, feeling as if she might die unless she had all of him. When that final, full penetration came, it might have been missile-guided. It touched the very spot, the spot that set off rockets of colored fire in Cluney’s brain to shower down over her entire body. She felt as if the moonbow were shining inside her—hot and silver and vibrant.

  “And you warned me not to fly,” Jeff gasped, letting his body drop heavily to cover hers. “If that wasn’t flying, sweetheart, I don’t know what it is.”

  He rested there for a minute before he rolled his weight off her. Lying on his side, he stared at Cluney, grinning. Then he chuckled, and then he laughed out loud.

  “Lord, darling, if we aren’t going to have some marriage! We’re going to have to take vitamin pills to keep up the pace.”

  Cluney traced one finger over his generous, smiling lips. “I think we’ll manage,” she answered.

  She kept staring at him—the brown shock of hair falling over his brow, the amber lights dancing in his brandy-colored eyes, the set of his wide shoulders, the wonderful line where his golden tan stopped, leaving pale, inviting wonders to be explored.

  Suddenly, Cluney propped up on one elbow and said, “You devil! What are you doing here? And where were you when you called me?”

  He gave her a low chuckle. “I just hit town. I phoned you from the pizza place. I was going to tell you I was here, but then I decided to surprise you. As for what I’m doing here, if you don’t know that yet, I guess I’ll have to show you again.”

  But when he reached for her, Cluney put her palms on his chest to keep him away.

  “Not until you’ve answered some questions, mister!”

  “Fire away!”

  He gripped her hand and began licking her salty fingers, distracting her. But Cluney was determined to find out why he was here and not somewhere off in the Mediterranean with his ship.

  “Back to my original question—what are you doing here, Jeff? How did you get leave to come back to the States?”

  “I’m not on leave. I’m out, a civilian. Or I will be as of March first.”

  Cluney stared at him, her eyes as wide as her smile. “You never told me…”

  “I didn’t want to get your hopes up before I’d decided. I knew you were hoping I wouldn’t make the Navy my career. After my last night at home, I decided that it might be a fine life for a bachelor, but not for an old married man. It tore me up to leave you, darling. I couldn’t go through that for years and years to come. So I resigned my commission. It took a while for all the papers to be processed. But as soon as my discharge came through, I hopped the first transport plane back to the States. Back to the woman I love!”

  He leaned over and kissed Cluney slowly and thoroughly.

  Moments later, she asked breathlessly, “So, you’re home for good?”

  “For good and always, sweetheart.”

  “Oh, Jeff!” Cluney flung herself on him, hugging with all her might. “What will you do? Where will we live? I can find a job wherever you want to go. California, maybe?”

  He smiled and fended off another loving attack. “Slow down, darling. Let’s take one question at a time. How would you like to stay here in Kentucky—live in Lexington?”

  “I love Lexington!” she cried. “It’s beautiful! It’s so … so horsey!”

  “Ah-h-h!” Jeff said, grinning one of his mile-wide grins. “Funny you should mention that. What would you think of living on a horse farm?”

  Visions from another time flitted through her mind—rides threw dew-damp fields in early morning, long evenings with fireflies dancing in the rose garden, a feeling of belonging, to the land and to each other.

  “Oh, Jeff, what a wonderful idea! I’d love it.”

  He let out a whistle of relief and wiped imaginary perspiration from his forehead. “Boy, am I glad you feel that way! You see, Mom’s bought us a house as a wedding gift. I nearly fainted dead away when she told me about it earlier today. I could just imagine you refusing to marry me, if that meant getting saddled with this huge, old mausoleum to live in and a farm to take care of. I haven’t even seen the place. I’m not sure Mom has either. I think she heard about it from one of her breeder friends over lunch, then bought the place by phone.”

  Cluney gasped. “She’d do that?”

  Jeff nodded. “Yep! That’s my mom! She’s an impulse buyer on a worldwide scale. She once bought a small island kingdom in the South Pacific. But the government made her give it back.”

  “You’re kidding me!”

  Jeff raised his palms before him. “Would I lie to the woman I’m about to marry and raise horses with?”

  “And children!” Cluney reminded him.

  He nodded. “Lots and lots!”

  “Well, not that many.” They kissed again, then Cluney said, “Tell me about the house, Jeff. I’m dying of curiosity.”

  “Well, from what Mom said, it was
once one of Kentucky’s showplaces. That’s been a while back, though.”

  “How long ago?”

  Jeff frowned, dreading Cluney’s reaction to his answer. “Back before the Civil War.”

  “It’s that old?”

  “Yes, it is, darling, but well-built, so Mom says.”

  “Of course, she hasn’t seen it.”

  “Not yet,” Jeff admitted.

  “How did she happen to buy such a place? I mean, it just seems a bit odd to me.”

  “Once you meet my mother, you’ll understand. She’s not only an impulse buyer and a racing buff, but she’s a sucker for historical landmarks as well. It seems this place was about to be leveled to make way for progress, and she couldn’t stand the thought of all that history being destroyed.”

  “I can certainly understand that. But still—a place like that must have cost her a fortune.”

  He chuckled. “Hey, money’s no object! I’m her only son and heir, remember? And I guess the cincher came when she heard that the house still had all the original furnishings locked up inside and the other prospective buyer meant to auction all that stuff off. She couldn’t stand thinking about the belongings of some Civil War hero being scattered to the four winds. She said she even had nightmares about it. She claimed the guy came to her in a dream and begged her to buy all his old stuff.”

  Cluney rubbed her arms. “You’re giving me goose bumps, Jeff. What’s this place called? Maybe I’ve heard of it. I do teach Kentucky history, remember.”

  He tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling as if he might find the answer there. “Aw, gee! What did she tell me? It had a color in the name. Graystone? Whitehall? Bluebell?” His face lit up suddenly. “Bluefield! That’s it!”

  Cluney could only stare at him. Her heart was pounding frantically. She felt hot and cold at the same time. “Bluefield?” she whispered. “It can’t be!”

  “That’s it, I’m sure, darling.”

  “But I thought it had been torn down to make way for a shopping mall.”