In Love by Design (The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod)

by Ellen, Tracy

  Chapter XXIII

  “Respect” by Aretha Franklin”

  “When A Man Loves A Woman” By Percy Sledge

  Sunday 12/09/12

  4:14 PM

  Most personal-themed bridal showers with women attending of all ages last for the respectable two hours allotted. Usually, everyone was slightly relieved to leave when the time was at an end. There’s a little social kibitzing around the punchbowl, you play a game or two for a chance at winning a prize, the blushing bride-to-be opens presents to the gentle titters of some rated PG teasing about marriage, and you nibble, but don’t really get to enjoy, a piece of pretty cake held on a plate precariously balanced on your lap, along with a cup of punch in your hand, while you’re stuck sitting uncomfortably on a folding chair.

  Not Anna Lynn Johnson’s bridal shower. We may have thrown it, but she’s been planning this party down to the last tiny detail since her first two permanent, and adorably cute, chipmunk front teeth grew in.

  Looking around Mac’s lower level party room packed wall-to-wall with dancing, shouting, and laughing women, I was grinning like an idiot.

  That’s okay because right now I have so much to grin about that I could burst with happiness and splatter several, semi-digested desserts all over Mac’s bouncy laminate floors that were perfect for dancing.

  My grin turned into a laugh of delight when everyone parted to circle around Anna, Pam, Jazy, Kenna, my fake godmother, Jamie Wade, and my new fake mother, Damaris Drake. They’d started a disgustingly filthy, bump and grind conga line. My sister Kenna loves dancing even more than me. She’s been on her best behavior today. At this point, I could relax my vigilance that she would get drunk and do something awful to ruin Anna’s shower, especially now with Jamie Wade holding her hip in a death grip.

  Seeing them all shaking one of their fists to the ceiling while hanging onto the woman ahead and gyrating their pelvises faster than jack hammers, I screamed encouragement like the rest of the women clapping and shouting.

  When Jamie Wade called out to Mac, “I apologize if I’ve accidentally pissed on the floor because my bladder can’t take moving this fast anymore!” I had to struggle to stop the sudden tears amidst my laughter.

  These are the special, unexpected moments in my life that make me want to cry like a baby--surrounded by the people I adore, as they have a ball doing what they love to do.

  When Anna’s surprise guest, who’d actually surprised us all, danced her way a few steps to the front of the line and rightfully claimed her place as the head nasty girl, I started sniffling.

  When Anna showered my grandmother, NanaBel, with hugs and kisses, as all the women shrieked their approval and the conga girls kept shaking it up, I lost the struggle and burst into tears.

  Slipping away unnoticed amid this wild pack of howling women was easy and I went down a short hallway to the bathroom. Crying like a baby-crawl-along will never come easy for me or be something I would ever do comfortably in public, and I thank the Heavens for that small break. Everyone who knows me knows that I love being an ultra-feminine girly-girl but crying, even tears of overwhelming joy, made me feel like total crap.

  Carefully wiping the traces of my tears away, Sparky blazed in comforting empathy.

  I looked at the ring frosted in sparkling, icy-cold diamonds with flaring bursts of blue fire and I whispered, “Thanks, Sparky. I knew we were meant to be together the nanosecond Luke didn’t offer you to me, too. Everyone thinks diamonds are sharp and cold, and they are on the outside. But man, you are so hot on the inside; I think you might burn my finger off sometimes when you do your sparkle thing.” I patted the ring with a finger. “I love you.”

  I gave a little smoochie to the Italian poison ring on my left hand and ate the hidden breath mint. “Ti Amo! I appreciate you’re old enough to be mature and not be jealously acting up like Lady Liberty has been because I love our truck now, too. Hey, when you’re right, you’re right. I guess I should let Lady Lib know that I’m not trading her in. It’s not like I don’t have a double garage! Geez, I can be such a dumbass sometimes.”

  ‘You’re acting like a nut! How much of that spiked punch did you have, anyway?’ demanded the mean mommy voice suspiciously.

  Laughing at the image of my pink cheeks, red nose, and shining reddened eyes in the bathroom mirror, I grinned because I was punch drunk with happiness.

  I held up a hand and ticked off my reasons for being the happiest woman on Earth. Not in any particular order of importance, but only as the thoughts raced across my brain.

  First, and most obvious, I was still alive.

  Second, NanaBel was here! I’ve missed that white-haired woman more than I ever thought possible over the last few weeks.

  Third, Anna’s shower was a rousing success. The women in my family will all be able to bask in the glory of this afternoon for many years to come. I will unhesitatingly use this as leverage whenever Anna brings up that damn missed sleepover party from grade school again.

  Fourth, Pam’s and my dance that we titled “SUFFRAGE” on the music video we recorded live about thirty minutes ago went over well. We introduced the gift to Anna by telling her that it was our artistic interpretation of the preparation a woman needs to make when beginning the longest, hardest battle she will ever fight to the death in her life.

  Yes, that’s right. Her marriage.

  We then danced part of our routine to “Respect” by Aretha Franklin. After all, when you get right down to it, a little ongoing respect is what it takes to have a blissful commitment—whatever that means to each of us. I said we danced part of our routine because it wasn’t one minute before the other women jumped in and started dancing to the song, too. Anna should have a lovely music video to commemorate her bridal shower.

  Fifth through infinity, I love my man and have not misplaced my faith in his abilities to achieve miracles.

  Last night, I’d gathered up my camping gear and went right to my bedroom after Luke left. I locked the dead bolt behind me, stripped to my pretties, and climbed into the welcoming, cool comfort of my own bouncy bed.

  A few minutes later, I ignored the sounds of Pam moving around and using the bathroom. I sighed with impatience when she knocked on my door and called my name.

  “What do you want? I’m sleeping!” I called out, knowing I was being rude, but not caring.

  Pam called back through the door, “Uh, Bel. Open the door a second; I need to tell you something.”

  “Just tell me from there!” I didn’t want to leave my cocoon of comfort to hear about more suffering Pam has in store for John-Joe.

  Pam’s voice rose to a shout and she was excited. “I can’t! I promised to tell you to your face. Come on, open up!”

  Cursing, I swung off the covers and stalked to the door, unlocked the dead bolt, and threw open the door. “This better be…”

  Pam was standing next to Luke and she was grinning, but he had his arms crossed and his fingers were drumming furiously.

  His eyes raked up and down my body taking in my pretties, but his voice was cold. “That was not practicing situational awareness.”

  “Holy Moly!” I moved behind the door a little to protect my modesty while uttering, “What the…Pam?”

  This was about all I could get out before Pam jumped up and down in place, waving a plain white business envelope in the air back and forth. PAM is scrawled in bold letters across the front.

  “He fixed it, Bel! He fixed it, fixed it, fixed it, oh my God, did he fix it!” She glanced up at Luke and her thin face was aglow with happiness.

  He kept his eyes on me, but Luke’s cruel lips relaxed at Pam’s bubbly effervescence invading his air space up on the Mongolian steppes.

  “No way. Not that fast. How is he making you do this?” I disputed, squinting at her.

  “He said you’d say that! Luke’s not making me do anything, I promise.” Pam laughed giddily and wiggled a warning finger at me. “Oh, Bel, remember how you kept telling me to decide
things for my own life?” I nodded warily and she continued with that blend of flighty, but practical commonsense she possessed, “Well, you can’t have it both ways. I’ve decided Luke’s fixed things and he’s suffered enough. I am one fixed Pammie!”

  I don’t dare look Luke’s way when Pam said the word “suffered”, but answered with a growing smile, “Okay, Pam, if you’re sure Luke has made up for the hurt he caused, then who am I to argue. I am so happy this is resolved. What’s in the envelope?”

  Smiling expectantly, I looked back and forth between Luke and Pam as they shared a glance, Pam’s inquiring and Luke’s shrugging slightly.

  I rolled my eyes. Already Pam was deferring to Luke’s commanding presence. It will be no time at all before she’ll gang up with Anna and be plotting with him against me.

  Pam smiled tremulously. “Luke came to apologize for using me as a pawn and said it was wrong of him. As we talked, I sort of told him about my life recently.”

  Pam’s a little dazed by this admission. She’d been grilled by an expert and this was the after effect. With a small smile, I nodded encouragingly for her to go on.

  Pam smiled back and blushed. “I told him about Joe and me, and how I’m waiting to get that condo in Burnsville. Umm, I hope you don’t mind, but Luke has offered his Chicago condo.”

  My eyes flashed to Luke, but his face was unreadable. He was leaning a shoulder against the wall and staring down at the floor, as he patiently waited for Pam to finish. Looking closely, I shivered since he wasn’t staring at the floor, but at my pretties. He’d maneuvered his position to better see my body in the rosy pink, stretch lace bustier and matching skimpy boy pants.

  I turned my body slightly in his direction to give him a better view, since Pam has proclaimed he’d fixed things and I no longer needed to suffer. I love when Luke looked at my body this way. “Offered for you to stay there?”

  Pam’s laugh was loud. “No!” She patted Luke’s arm and exclaimed, “This guy has signed it over to me, lock, stock, and barrel! Luke said this way I can be near John while we get to know each other better. I won’t ever have to worry about having a place to live or how to afford a mortgage payment after leaving Carter, and it’s convenient for flying!”

  I stared at Luke with my mouth dropped open and then I snapped it shut. “That is unbelievably great and I don’t mind at all,” I glanced pointedly at my boyfriend, “since I’ve never seen this condo, but I have heard it’s a popular place for women.”

  Luke stood up straight and chuckled. “Thanks, Pam, for telling Anabel that things are fixed between us and I’m sorry to have woken you up.” He returned my pointed look and added, “Apparently, I have been very lacking in the boyfriend department with Anabel, so if you’ll excuse us, I have some suffering to alleviate.”

  “Good God, you can wake me up anytime! I’ll leave you two to your suffering.” Waving goodnight and cracking up, Pam walked down the hall to her room. She called over her shoulder, “By the way, Bel, love the lingerie!”

  Luke had the bedroom door closed and locked before Pam was finished speaking. This was rude, but I forgot this discourtesy when he spun me around. My arms were stretched up high over my head and my hands were flat to the door. Luke’s weight held me against the wood while he stripped off his clothes.

  Luke pulled down my rosy pink, stretch lace boy pants with one hand. When the tiny panties were on the floor, his knees spread my legs. Both hands reached up and pulled down the same stretchy lace of my short bustier until my breasts spring free and the bustier bunched around my waist.

  Luke breathed into my ear, “I love the pink thing, too, but I hope you’re still wet for me because either I do this,” he entered me from behind and thrust up inside me, “or I do this.” He smacked my left butt cheek with a resounding slap that caused me to cry out at the unexpectedness of the sharp, painful sting where I was still tender from the splinters.

  His hand palmed my ass and soothed before slipping around my hip and cupping between my legs. Luke made a deep noise in his throat that drowned out my own fast moans when he felt how he excited me. Fingers moved against me at the same time he thrust. He bent his legs to penetrate deeper.

  His other hand ran up my body, squeezing and rubbing over my breasts and nipples. He wrapped his arm around my chest and held onto my shoulder with his big hand. Using my body as leverage, he pulled me down onto his cock, as he moved his hips up and I arched my ass down.

  He was rocking me steadily. I was delirious against the door. My body pushed back and down in countermotion to his, at the same time I was writhing on his fingers.

  I was shocked when he threw back his head and warned on a roar, “If you ever pull a gun on me again, I’ll make you shoot me and that’s a promise!”

  I leaned my mouth down and bit his forearm. “Don’t you ever choose to make me because I’ll die before I shoot you, I swear!”

  Luke’s answer was to pull out of me and turn me around until my back was against the door. He lifted my legs over his arms and held me pinned to the door with his hands gripping my ass. He penetrated me with one, long smooth motion and found my mouth with his in the dark room. Our breathing was coming in loud gasps as we kissed hungrily. I ran my hands all over his chest, arms, back, and through his hair, as his arms held my legs open farther to receive his thrusts. His muscles strained hard when he increased the tempo of his hips grinding against me. Within a few seconds, my first orgasm consumed me, at the same time I was chanting “Yes! Yes!” repeatedly in his ear. Luke captured my mouth on his own groan and we slowed down, moving slower and slower while enjoying soft kisses and murmurs of love

  Throughout the long night, we talked openly. I felt there were no shadowy walls between us for the first time since I’ve known him.

  Luke talked about Tommy and their friendship, his years in the army and the years of plotting revenge. When I asked about the condo gift to Pam, he laughed. He told me it was the only property he owned free and clear, but it was a small price to pay to fix what he’d done to her.

  He added dryly, “Plus, I had to immediately end your suffering, Princess.”

  I only hugged him tight. I figured Luke’s had enough of me giving him commands, so I didn’t tell him that he’d also hurt his friend John by encouraging his dark side. Luke had some fixing to do there as well, but that could be a conversation for another night.

  Luke voluntarily brought up his finances and explained he’d invested not only his time, but his money into bringing down the Ogelbachen’s. He shared much of the same information that James Byrd reported, except with Luke doing the telling, I understood what his plans for the future were now. Luke may be broke on paper, but he’s got huge reserves of illegal cash from playing poker all over the country for years. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised to learn he’s an expert card player that could be a pro, but he wasn’t interested in that way of life. We had a lively conversation about putting his money to work. Luke was interested in meeting with James Byrd when I told him about his expertise in finance. I did not tell him of James’ investigation, as that was part of my own personal finances that was nobody’s business but mine.

  When we weren’t talking, we loved each other and it was wonderful in a different way. Our new level of closeness made every word, gesture, and touch fraught with a new meaning that was almost too much to bear. But I’m an Axelrod, so I squared my shoulders and loved Luke until he passed out at dawn. For Luke, it had been an emotional few days. He’s had very little sleep and my needy man was exhausted. I soothed him to sleep with a rubbing massage and gentle words that he didn’t need to worry, I’d have his back.

  I was the happiest woman on Earth at that moment when my Delta Force badass motherfucker went off to sleep with a sweet smile on those cruel lips.

  Smiling at my image in Mac’s mirror, I was thinking maybe it’s the Universe and not just Earth, when I heard the women chanting Anna’s name in the other room.

  Wondering what she’s up to, I starte
d to leave at the same time there was a rap on the bathroom door. Damaris was waiting in the hall.

  She smiled, and her normally cool and calm demeanor was flushed and pink from dancing.

  “Come on, dear. Everybody’s waiting for you. Some of the women need to leave soon and the men are starting to arrive.”

  Now I can hear that the name was not “Anna” that was being chanted, but “Anabel”.

  “Well, crap, Mama D,” I griped, following her down the hall. “I thought they’d forgotten by now.”

  “You promised,” Damaris replied, and then shot me a dry look over her shoulder. “Your NanaBel is leading the chant.” She grinned, and I responded automatically because I still can’t get over how she and Luke shared similar expressions, their grin being my favorite. “Although, I must admit that I’m very interested, too, since this does involve my family, as well.”

  I laughed ruefully and shrugged my acceptance of the inevitable, knowing I was trapped.

  Reaching the crowded room, all the lights were on now. The large screen TV was playing a local station over in the corner where a few husbands and boyfriends sat with Diego and shot the breeze. They appeared to not be paying attention, but their eyes were casually looking over the crowd of women mingling in the open space. They were probably wondering what rites and rituals we performed at these types of gatherings when they weren’t around.

  I waved at Diego and he grinned broadly in return. We haven’t had a chance to talk today, but Mac assured me that Diego knows nothing about what I’d been involved at his store with Mia.

  NanaBel was sitting in a comfortable chair that had been pulled into an open area. There were two empty folding chairs next to her. NanaBel was surrounded by my family and friends, and was gesturing with strong hands wearing many rings, as she chanted my name and whipped up all the other women.

  When Damaris and I entered the room, a cheer went up. Stella ran over and grabbed my hand, and Anna grabbed Damaris’. They led us to the two empty chairs, and I gave Damaris a wry look, nodding to Anna holding onto her hand.