Reunited

by Jodi Kae

  “Are you sure you’re ready.”

  This time there is no question of whether there will be a tomorrow or a next time. No worry of him leaving when he is done. An hour later our re-enactment is complete with a happy ending.

  “Come on, Beautiful, check out is in an hour.”

  He picks me up and carries me to the shower where he proceeds to take care of me as usual.

  Chapter Twenty

  Indulge:

  *allow oneself to enjoy the pleasure of. *satisfy or yield freely to a desire or interest. *allow someone to enjoy something desired.

  ~Olivia~

  Over the last week of settling in with Alexander, I have spent a lot of time with Ren and Tori at The Safe House. The two sisters have each told me of their horrible experience with their abduction and rescue, and I have told them of my life before and after Alexander. They oohed and awed over our explosive beginning but cried with me over our loss of two and a half years. They said Alexander or Troy is what they call him, was a mess for the last few years from what their husbands told them, but he never gave up hope of finding me.

  It is very strange how intertwined our lives were, and we didn’t even know it. I have suffered abuse at the hands of a man I thought I trusted but never really knew, but I can’t imagine surviving what they went through. Being on the run from Jerry is what brought me to the B&B where I met Derek and Ren, and they have been my life saviors ever since.

  As Ren and Tori sit around my dining room table to help me plan our wedding, you would never know that tragedy befell them. They are both radiant; glowing doesn’t begin to describe how these two sisters pull off pregnancy.

  “Oh my God, Olivia. You have to give us details. When he asked me to babysit, Troy wouldn’t tell me because I ask too many questions, but what he told Derek me of his plans had me melting.”

  “Yeah, and Jax was tight-lipped too. This is so unfair.” Tori whines.

  I can’t wipe the smile off my face, and my two new best friends know it was phenomenal. They have had some juicy stories of their own, so I guess I can share a little. “Okay, so you remember me telling you about the therapy we did in the Bahamas, where he would ask me what I see. Well, we do that often now but in a teasing sexual way. So we played that at the restaurant while he fed me champagne covered strawberries and teased me with his fingers under the table. All this happened with my eyes closed and then he slipped the ring on my finger and asked me to marry him. I had no choice but to scream yes, yes, yes.”

  They are both looking at me like I have gone mad, but simultaneously pick up their phones sending out a text. What the hell is that all about? Maybe I shouldn’t have shared so much of our intimate details. Just then both of their phones ding and they burst out laughing, showing each other and then showing me.

  Ren: I NEED you right now!

  Derek: I’m on my way, Baby!!!!

  Tori: I need to SEE you right now!

  Jax: Be there in five, Love!!!!!

  It is only noon and it seems as though our wedding planning will have to wait until tomorrow. I just know now that I can’t share any more juicy details. What happened in the hotel room will definitely have to stay private.

  “Okay, tomorrow same time and place, love ya! Ren yells.

  “Same here,” repeats Tori

  I laugh as they rush out the door to meet their husbands. Alex just went down for a nap, so I wonder what my savage is doing for lunch. I decide to send him a text too.

  ‘I would like you to have me for lunch.’

  I wait with bated breath, hoping he is not in a meeting. Nothing comes back to me, so I go to the kitchen and clean up a little before I start lunch. Strong muscular arms wrap around me from behind, scaring the shit out of me, then his aphrodisiac scent hits my nose, and I melt into his body. My phone dings and I look to the counter at his response.

  ‘Great minds think alike.’

  Neither one of us says a single thing as he lays me out on the kitchen counter. A half an hour later I return the favor and for the last hour of his two-hour break, he teaches me how to ride, not letting me have too much control. I love my savage man.

  “My Beautiful Savage. You know I’m not letting you go, right?”

  ~Savage~

  Driving back to work with a smile on my face will surely give me away, but right now I couldn’t care less. My life could not be better and I have broken the Alexander pattern. I am getting married in two months. I wish sooner, but Ren and Tori vetoed me on that plan. They said they needed time to prepare and put on a wedding to remember. The only part they let me plan was the honeymoon and they cried when I told them of my plans. Now I just hope they can keep a secret.

  I pull in just as Jax is getting out of his SUV, also with a big smile on his face. We just nod in each other’s direction and bust up laughing; life is good.

  I vent to Jax about the wedding date later that afternoon, hoping he will talk to Tori and Ren for me.

  “Mate, if you want to move up the wedding, then do it. You are just going to have to grow some balls and tell the women how it’s gonna be.”

  We have been arguing over this for the last hour and Jax thinks I should be the one to put my foot down. “They are yours and Derek’s wives, can’t you just say something? Both of you had whirlwind weddings in a short period of time, why are they so insistent that we wait.”

  “I am not about to ruin my surprise lunches anytime soon, so I am staying out of it.”

  Jax is so whipped it’s not funny. I type out a group text to Tori and Ren and cross my fingers that they see it my way.

  Dear Ladies,

  I want to discuss with you the issue of my

  wedding date. As you know I supported

  your husbands in their whirlwind romance

  of the two of you, so I would like your support

  for me as well. I have waited 2 ½ years to

  make Livvy my wife and really want to

  speed up the process so we can start adding

  to our family. Alex needs a brother or sister,

  and I plan to do this the right way. I am

  changing our date to three weeks from now

  providing that Livvy is okay with the idea.

  Thanks for your help

  Sav.

  Ren: Fine, August 16th it is.

  Tori: Awe :-)

  I drive home with another smile on my face. My vacation time was approved and I am getting married in three weeks to the perfect woman.

  I walk into the house to the best sound in the world, Alex giggling. Then Livvy laughs and I know why I fell in love with her in the first place. They are building Legos together then Alex knocks them down. Livvy tickles him until he squirms away and then he sees me standing by the door.

  “Daddy, daddy, daddy.”

  “Hey, Squirt. How’s my little guy?” I scoop him up and walk in to sit on the couch while Livvy is cleaning up Legos. “You should help Mommy clean Legos.” He jumps down, runs over and starts throwing Legos at the bucket, not into it. “Softly, Alex.” He slows down and gets a few into the bucket going at a slower pace. “How’s my Beautiful Girl?”

  “Perfect, now that you’re home. I’m really tired and I started my period today so can you take Alex while I take a nap?”

  “Sure, Beautiful. I’ll come check on you in a little bit.” She walks away, but I sense that something else is wrong. Maybe this is just how she gets at this time. She didn’t get the Depo shot when we came back from the Bahamas, maybe she was hoping she might be pregnant and is sad that she’s not. She has been spending a lot of time around two pregnant ladies and could be baby hungry; I could only hope. With moving the wedding up, it might be perfect timing and we will be on our honeymoon at the right time to conceive. I will tell her the news after I put Alex down. Right now he and I have a ball game to play in the backyard.

  At 8:00 p.m. I finally have my boy sleeping soundly so I sneak into my room, hoping I don’t wake Livvy. She is on her side wi
th her back to me, so I climb onto the bed and press my body into hers. She moans a little then sniffs. What the hell! Rolling her to her back I see the tear tracks that have dried on her cheeks. “Hey, Beautiful Girl, what’s wrong?”

  “I want to give you a baby and it was so easy the first time. Maybe something is wrong? What if I can’t have anymore? I’m so sorry Alexander. I was so sad today when I realized that I wasn’t pregnant.”

  I put my fingers to her lips. “Sssshhh, Livvy. Calm down for a minute.” I place my lips to one eyelid and then the other, then her nose, and then her mouth, lingering there for a minute. “You do not need to apologize to me for anything. Yes, I want another baby with you, but if that is not in the cards for us, then that’s okay. Keep in mind that sometimes it takes a little while for contraception to clear the body and for it to become fertile again. Which reminds me, I want to get married sooner, like in three weeks. I have already waited long enough for you to be my wife and I don’t want to wait any longer. Plus, in three weeks that should put you at the right time to conceive; we can try to make a honeymoon baby. What do you say?”

  “I love you so much, my Beautiful Savage.”

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Betrayed:

  *expose a person to danger by treacherously giving information to an enemy. *be gravely disloyal to.

  ~Olivia~

  My cell phone ringing brings me out of my daydream and I rush to the kitchen to grab it. Alexander calls me every day on his lunch to say he loves me and misses me, so I don’t bother looking at the caller ID. “Hello, Sexy Guy.”

  “Well, I would be flattered if I were him, but Olivia really?”

  My heart stops in my chest as my mother’s chastisement registers. I haven’t spoken to her since she kicked me out and not because I didn’t try. She refused to answer my calls anytime I would call to check on her and when I stopped by her house, she wouldn’t answer the door. She has no idea how my life has gone since the day I told her I was pregnant. Hearing her voice now is more than shocking. “Hello, Mother...H....how are you?

  “Honey, that stuttering isn’t flattering, you really should work on that. Do you still have the self-help tapes I bought when you were little?”

  I refuse to give her the satisfaction of putting me down, so I say nothing. Only a second of silence goes by before she continues her drivel.

  “Anyway Dear, I am in Boston and would like to come see you or we could meet for lunch. What time does your baby sleep? You could get a sitter and meet me for old time sakes.”

  It shouldn’t surprise me that she refuses to see Alex, but it hurts me that she couldn’t be like other parents or grandparents. “I don’t know, Mother. It’s short notice so I might not be able to find someone to watch him.”

  “They will understand once you tell them you haven’t seen me in a few years, won’t they? Come on, Olivia; I have news to share with you.”

  Regardless of how horrible of a mother she was to me or how unloved I felt, I still seek acceptance from her. Maybe we can view this as a fresh start and build a relationship from here. I hang up and call Ren who says she’ll be happy to watch Alex for a few hours. On the drive over to her penthouse, I call Alexander to let him know where I’ll be, but it goes to voicemail. I tell him I’ll be downtown at Café Letti for lunch but home in time for dinner.

  “Are you sure she doesn’t want to see Alex? That is so strange for a grandmother, especially when she has never even seen him. I could go with you and wait in the wings with Alex, so if she asks about him or changes her mind, we will be right there. Besides, I don’t think Troy will want you going to meet her alone.”

  “I appreciate your offer, but I don’t want to expose Alex to her kind of venom. She will have no reservations about hurting my son who she considers offspring of sin. I left Alexander a message telling him where I will be so he won’t worry and I shouldn’t be longer than an hour, two tops.”

  “I just don’t feel good about letting you go alone. Derek doesn’t let me go anywhere alone, nor does Jax let Tori. Maybe I should just ride with you and wait in the car.”

  “There is nothing my mother could do to hurt me any more than she already has. I will be fine; we are meeting in a public place, so maybe that will calm her poisonous tongue. Besides, it is Alex’s nap time and he really needs to sleep.”

  I hop in my trusty Honda and drive into Boston. A feeling of dread settles in my gut and I almost turn around, but I feel as though I need this closure to move on completely with my life. If my mother chooses to change and be a part of our lives, I will have strict guidelines of what I will allow. She misled me through my entire life; I will not allow her to damage my son’s thoughts and actions while he grows up.

  As I pull down the street, I see a car pull out from a metered spot and I easily move in and take its parking space. The café is across the street and I can see my mother sitting at an outside bistro table with a big orange sun hat to match her orange dress and dark glasses. She is always trying to warn me of sun damage, saying that I will age before my time, but my mother is fair skinned where I must have got my coloring from my unknown father.

  When she sees me approaching her table, she stands and holds out her arms as if we are long-lost friends. I am pretty sure an alien has taken over my mother’s body, or I am about to get punked.

  “Darling, it is so good to see you.”

  She air kisses both cheeks and sits back down while I stand there dumbfounded.

  “Sit, sit, Dear. You will draw unwanted attention. I’m glad to see you look healthy and other than wider hips you can’t even tell you had a baby. When I had you, it destroyed my body and took years for me to bounce back.”

  I haven’t seen her in years and the only thing she mentions is my hips. They happen to be the same size as when I was in high school. As a single mother, any spare money I had was spent on my son, so I still wear some of the clothes I had before I even had Alex. Not often anymore because Alexander has spoiled Alex and me both. We have completely new wardrobes and a completely new worry free life. I refuse to let her jabs affect me, so I just smile and sit.

  “So Dear, tell me of your life. How is that boy of yours? How did you end up in Boston?”

  Her questions bring another wave of dread, and my skin starts to crawl. How did she know I was in Boston? When she called and asked to meet me, I didn’t even question why she was here or how she was able to find me. My phone has been the same number for years and even when I was no longer on her phone plan I kept the same number, so that wasn’t suspicious. Why now, though? I glance around and see nothing that should cause alarm, but this feeling of being watched doesn’t go away. Just then, I remember her saying she had news to share, and I just want her to spit it out so I can leave and put her behind me.

  “Mom, what is your news you wanted to share with me? I really have to hurry and get back to Alex.”

  “Oh, right. You remember John, your old boyfriend. Well, he contacted me and wanted to see how you were doing. Since you no longer talk to me, I wasn’t able to tell him anything. It turns out he happened to know that you lived in Boston and paid for me to come here with him to see you. I thought a vacation is just what I needed. He even offered me vacation pay. To me, this was a win-win. I got to have an all expense paid trip to see my daughter and he will get to see you too and catch up on old times. He was such a nice boy. If you hadn’t screwed up and cheated on him with that no good loser and gotten pregnant, you may have had a future with him.”

  Panic hits me full force and I leap to my feet, toppling the small metal chair backward. I have no desire to catch up on old times with a man who is pissed that I didn’t sleep with him. A man who sent horrible, degrading, text to me the day he left me on a beach in Miami; the same man who screwed the receptionist at our hotel and threw my things in a garbage can. I can’t control the tone or the volume of my voice as I yell at this woman who is supposed to love and care for me. “Mother, what have you done? I am engaged to
someone that makes me very happy. I have no desire to see John or anyone else from my past for that matter.”

  “Oh Darling, quit being a drama queen. He only wants to see how you are doing. You are making a scene and embarrassing me. Sit down this instant.”

  My eyes scan the crowd, hoping to God that they don’t fall on the one familiar face I had forgotten a long time ago. All I have to do is make it to my car and I can drive straight to Ren’s and safety. John never hit me or hurt me, except emotionally, but my experience with Jerry has me leery of anyone’s moods that can change so quickly if they don’t get what they want.

  I don’t say another word to the woman who has become a stranger to me and walk quickly down the sidewalk toward my car. It is lunchtime and traffic is nonstop, so it takes me a minute to cross the street, but once inside my car, I breathe a little easier. I lock my doors, pull out into traffic and don’t bother looking in my mother’s direction as I pass the café. Glancing in my rearview mirror to change lanes, I see the face I had forgotten two and a half years ago staring back at me with malevolence in his eyes.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Nightmare:

  *a very unpleasant or frightening experience or prospect. *a frightening or unpleasant dream. *a person or situation that is very difficult to deal with.

  ~Savage~

  “Savage speaking.”

  “OhmyGodTroy, I’m afraid something has happened to Olivia. She asked me to watch Alex for two hours so she could meet with her mother in town but that was over five hours ago. She isn’t answering her phone or texting me back. I asked her not to go alone and even offered to go with and sit in the car, but she said she would be fine in a public place.”

  “She left me a message saying she was going to Café Letti but not with whom. I assumed it was you and Tori. When I called her around two she didn’t answer so I thought she left her cell phone at home and would call me back. I am on my way home now, would you keep Alex a little longer until I can figure out what is going on, and please have Derek call me right away.” I hang up and call Jax.