“Well.” Stephanie grinned and ignored the hand. “It’s good we got that out of the way.” She looked the woman in the eyes and was immediately reminded of how Phailin had described her: dark and mysterious. The intense, muddled red was clearly attached to anger and a strong will. And a very deep green represented fear, jealousy, and resentment. She could probably be incredibly self-absorbed and aggressive; but then, Stephanie didn’t need any aura to remind her of the phone calls.
Janine met Stephanie’s undaunted response with silence. Stephanie looked to their hostess and allowed her to continue with the introductions. The other women were Lillian, Pat, Sharon, Andrea, Donita, and Marcia. Sharon was making the rounds with a pitcher of margaritas.
“Is there anything I can do?” Stephanie offered.
“No, thanks. We’re pretty set until the men decide to bring in the meat. There are snacks on the credenza, side dishes in the dining room, and desserts and soft drinks in the kitchen. And of course, the liquor is on the bar in the corner. Help yourself.”
The game was to start at three o’clock. It was nearly two-thirty and the pre-game show was displaying the statistics of the key players from both teams. Stephanie hadn’t noticed the television on the patio until she heard cheering and booing from that direction—such raucousness just over the starting roster? More guests arrived and both areas started filling up. Chaz and several of the other men carried in trays of burgers, bratwursts, huge hot sausage patties, and what Paul described as his specialty: teriyaki chicken kabobs.
More introductions—men whose names Stephanie was equally as likely to forget. However, one man stood out because he seemed to be out of sync with the joviality in the room. Stephanie couldn’t quite figure out what his color might be. Brown? Maybe gray? But it only took her a moment to understand that she didn’t like the guarded way he was looking at her, as if he had a big secret that she was sure wasn’t in her best interest. She looked away.
“No wonder Chaz kept you a secret for so long.” A slightly intoxicated host winked at her and then ducked in mock fear of his wife’s reaction. “Hey—I’m just saying. . . .” The familiar phrase hung in the air.
Stephanie poured a shot of scotch, handed it to Chaz, and was rewarded with a kiss that was a bit inappropriate for the environment. But she understood his message—it was for Janine more than anyone; he was totally devoted to his new woman. The ex-girlfriend needed to be clear about that.
As the room got more crowded, the temperature indoors rose and several couples floated out to the patio where the air was crisper. Stephanie, having shrugged off her sweatshirt, was quite comfortable with the cool air that drifted in through the patio door and open windows.
“You don’t have to hang under me,” she’d told Chaz. But their eyes frequently found each other, just as had happened during Karen’s and Victor’s wedding reception. They felt that same sense of connection and comfort.
He came back inside and perched on the arm of the chair where she was seated. While he, and everyone else, was caught up in the cheering and good-natured commentaries, his hand rarely left her shoulder or her back. When he wanted another drink, she offered to get it, said she needed to stretch her legs anyway.
He slid into the chair. When she returned, he kissed her and pulled her onto his knees.
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head and stood. “You aren’t dumping me on the floor the next time everyone jumps to their feet.” But she did replace him on the side of the chair and allow his arm to stretch possessively around her waist.
“Isn’t that cute?” Stephanie heard Janine say softly and sarcastically behind them, so softly she doubted anyone heard except them.
“Yeah, it is,” Chaz answered without seeming to give her any attention. He let out a loud whoop and jumped up as UC made its third touchdown. The room was going crazy. In a slightly louder voice, Janine asked whether she could talk to him for a moment.
“Fine.” He glanced briefly at Stephanie as he turned to follow Janine, but the look was long enough for everyone to see his irritation.
Chaz held the door open for Janine to step through it so that they could talk privately on the front stoop. However, he didn’t close the door behind them, mostly because he didn’t really want to be alone with her theatrics but also because he wanted Janine to know that she wasn’t going to have his full attention. They could still hear all of the good-natured conversations and he could still see Stephanie.
“I never thought of you as mean, Chaz,” was how she started after wrapping her arms around her waist and glaring at him. “How can you bring her around all of my friends and act all lovey-dovey? How can you embarrass me like this?”
“There’s no reason for you to be embarrassed; you and I haven’t been a couple for a long time. Anyway, these are my friends too. I’m not going to stop hanging around them because you don’t want to accept the truth.” He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans and leaned against the railing.
“The truth?” She shook her head. “The truth is that you didn’t give us a chance. You always held back, and I thought it was just because your job makes you a little more guarded than most men. Well, you seem to be pretty open and carefree now.”
“I’m happy now.” He sighed and wished he’d chosen different words when he saw the tears build in Janine’s eyes. “I’m not trying to hurt you; but, like we already talked about, I’m in love with Stephanie.”
“Love? After all we went through, after all the ways I tried to support your career and fit into your life, you want to use that word for another woman?” Fire mixed with the moisture in her eyes. “Do you even know what it means, Chaz? I would have done anything for you, given you anything, and accepted almost anything. You knew that!” She sniffed back a sob. “You knew that and you still threw everything away.”
“What do you want me to say, Janine? I’m sorry that the feelings were so lopsided between us. Yes, you would have done whatever I wanted, but what we had wasn’t working.”
“I thought it was.”
“You were wrong.”
“And she’s Miss Right?” The soft chuckle that escaped her was laced with contempt. “We’ll see how long she lasts.”
“What does that mean?” Chaz’s eyes narrowed as he studied her. Janine’s chin jutted out in defiance—she was not going to answer him. “All right,” he nodded, “let me repeat what I’ve already said. Stephanie isn’t going anywhere because I’m in love with her and I won’t let her. I’m going to bring her everywhere and introduce her to all of my friends. Whatever she wants, she’ll get. Whatever I need to do to protect her, I will. Whatever I have to sacrifice, I’ll give up gladly. You need to accept that and figure out how to move on.”
“How can I when she came from nowhere and took everything I had?”
“Stephanie didn’t take anything from you. We were finished, remember? And, anyway, I never once let you believe that we had a future. I also never told you that I loved you, Janine, because that would have been a lie.”
“I don’t believe you,” she whispered as she angrily wiped at a tear.
“I’m sorry to be blunt, but that’s the truth.” He stood and looked through the glass door into the living room to give Janine a chance to compose herself. When he turned back to her, he saw the resignation in her eyes and said, “Someday, you’ll find a man who can be what you need, but that’s not me. It never was.”
Without saying anything else, he opened the door and went inside.
While Chaz was outside, a couple of the women had drawn Stephanie into a lighthearted conversation about barely being able to wait for the next day so they could watch their favorite professional teams. Their husbands dropped in jibes that their team was going to lose anyway and a spirited debate started about the Bengals vs. the Pittsburg Steelers.
“Are you kidding?” Stephanie contributed. “The Steelers are going to crush you.” So much for not rooting for the opposing team, she thought.
C
haz returned to her side, laughed at her comment, whispered into her ear that the problem was resolved, and complained as loudly as anyone else about a bad call the refs had just made. After the excitement died down, Stephanie noticed that Janine had left the party.
“You seemed to have had a good time,” Chaz teased later as they walked hand-in-hand to their car.
“It was wonderful. I like your friends and I’m really glad we came. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He kissed the side of her face.
“Gee whiz—get a room,” one of his friends teased as he honked his horn and drove by.
“It’s a good thing we already have a room,” Chaz smiled at her. The tenderness in his eyes was unmistakable. It reassured her that she’d never have to worry about Janine or any other woman.
“Chaz, do you think we’ll feel this way in ten years?”
“I hope so.”
“Me too.”
He held open the car door and was grateful for all the things in their life that had brought them to this point: the assignment to Erie, Karen and Victor coming into the billiards hall, and the dreams that had cemented their connection. She was the center of his world now.
The Pittsburg vs. Cincinnati game wasn’t until 7:00 the next evening. At the last minute, Chaz decided to have friends over: Donita and Raphael, Lillian and Patrick, Sylvia and Will. Donita and Raphael were die-hard Bengal fans, but the second and the third couples were split between the two teams. Chaz, having been raised in Pittsburg, couldn’t bring himself to root for the Bengals, so it was four vs. four.
A quick trip to the store for soda and chips. Ice and beer from Raphael. Apple pie and cookies from Lillian. A phone call for a half-time delivery of pizza and wings. They were set.
The gathering was almost as rowdy as it had been the day before.
“That was dirty!” Sylvia screamed. “The ref should have called him for pass interference.”
“Get serious,” came from Raphael. “Your guy couldn’t catch it anyway.”
Stephanie joined the argument and Chaz laughed. The phone rang and he handed it to her.
“Oh, yeah!!” She was laughing with Karen. “I saw that. . . . Was he crazy? . . . Hold on while I put on the speaker: we have a few Bengal Bums in the house.” The rest of the game continued with Karen and Victor commenting and cheering long-distance and Will pulling Victor into a debate on which running back had made the best play.
Stephanie answered the doorbell and brought three hot pizzas and four dozen barbecue wings into the kitchen. She set them on the counter, made a few well-timed comments about the previous play, and kissed the man she loved.
Karen got off the phone when the game went into overtime, but no one else left until nearly midnight.
After a full weekend, the couple climbed into bed and was asleep in less than fifteen minutes. But before Stephanie drifted off, she remembered thinking that she was blessed with a man who wanted her to be a part of everything in his life. Dramatic changes had happened with him.
Dramatic. That was how she would feel about the dream that woke her less than an hour later. Chaz was dressed in a suit, so she assumed he was at work. Also, she recognized a few of the coworkers she’d met the previous afternoon. That mysterious man she’d seen at the football party had been in the dream and he’d been whispering with Chaz who was tense and shaking his head in disagreement. Stephanie didn’t know what was being said, but she got a sense of anger and foreboding. She was afraid for Chaz, much the same way she had been when the evil man at the gambling club had made his statement about Chaz being shot. This time, though, there were no concrete words or even actions—just a feeling that she couldn’t shake. It was an impression that Chaz needed to be protected.
Her heart was beating wildly when she pushed the covers off of her and sat up. The dream would come to her again. Of that, she was certain. Next time, maybe she’d remember something more or be able to hear the conversation. Then, she’d be able to approach Chaz to find out whether it made any sense to him. She thought wryly that this was the second dream that she couldn’t yet tell him about. Too much was unclear. But what she did know was that her gift was trying to warn her about a future that was much more unpredictable than anything else she’d experienced with Chaz.
She went downstairs to get a drink of water and give her breathing a chance to settle. Chaz was still sleeping soundly when she climbed back into bed and snuggled tightly against him. His arm wrapped possessively around her and she had the feeling that she was the one who should be shielding him. It was a déjà vu moment, and that bothered her almost as much as the dream.
It took a long time for her to fall back to sleep.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stephanie was immediately excited and then baffled when she checked the mail early Monday afternoon.
She’d received a letter from the headhunter she’d selected to match her professional skills and experience to local job openings: he had two companies who were considering her for positions that would become available in January. He wanted her to review the information on the prospective employers and let him know whether she was interested. A quick glance at the papers gave her the impression that either of these companies could be a good match. That excited her.
What puzzled her was the envelope she’d received from Phailin; a letter taped onto a small package wrapped in dark blue paper. The note did little to end her confusion.
My Dear Friend Stephanie –
DO NOT UNWRAP THIS PACKAGE.
Place it somewhere Chaz would not normally look. He’ll find it when he’s meant to and you’ll know when he has come to his own way of accepting it.
Destiny will let each of you know when the contents of this package are supposed to be discussed. Watch Chaz’s auras and remember that they can reveal many things we aren’t easily or readily able to see.
Sincerely your friend,
Phailin
Stephanie frowned. Phailin wanted her to hide the package? Okay. She would trust the woman. She discarded the envelope, slid the package onto the bottom shelf of the bookcase that held her cookbooks, and tucked the letter under the tray in her jewelry box.
After spending half an hour looking over the job information, she retrieved a collection of Mediterranean recipes from the top shelf of the bookcase. She hadn’t forgotten about, and now wondered about, what she’d placed below it.
~ ~ ~
While Stephanie was planning what to serve for dinner, Chaz was in his office at FBI headquarters, staring at papers he was supposed be reading.
Stephanie was still a distraction; having her with him hadn’t lessened that fact. He smiled at the memory of the first time he’d admitted that: it was the night he’d met her. That time, he’d been heading to a world that needed to be kept separate from his interest in her. This time, she had become so entrenched in his world that he never wanted her to be separate from it again. The situations were totally different, but the impact was the same.
Tonight. He’d ask her to marry him. After dinner. He should probably think of a more romantic place and a more interesting way, but he couldn’t. He suddenly felt an urgency to pop that question. All he could think of was the fact that she was everything he wanted. Besides, she already knew this day was coming. He’d seen her awareness and the fact that she hadn’t been ready on the day they’d made plans for Thanksgiving. That had only been two weeks ago.
So what? If you started counting from that first date, they’d known each other for seven months. That was long enough: they’d been falling deeper in love since that first day.
“Hey, Lawson, are you done with those reports?” his supervisor’s voice broke into Chaz’s thoughts.
“Nope,” he responded lightheartedly. “I was sitting here daydreaming about asking Stephanie to marry me.”
“Ugh. Marriage. I’m not getting on that wagon again.” He laughed. “If she has any sense, she’ll say no.” Roy looked at the photo Chaz kept on his
desk. “She’s too beautiful for you, anyway.”
“Then, it’s a good thing she loves me, huh?”
“If you say so.” He laughed again. “Just don’t plan your honeymoon to happen in December. The date for the trial against Evan Moseley has gotten pushed back a bit, but it’s finally going to start on the 7th.”
“We hope.”
“Yeah. Well, on another matter, I need your recommendations on that case from Dayton by tomorrow afternoon. I’m not sure we should consolidate it with the one from Mansfield that the Cleveland office is handling. Because of my personal interactions with Cleveland, I’m not sure we can effectively coordinate with them. You might have more unbiased eyes.”
“No problem. You’ll have my input by noon—I just have a few things to check out.” Chaz glanced at the paperwork on his desk that had been faxed from the Mansfield office. So far, nothing had caught his attention; but then, his attention had been diverted.
Roy patted him on the back, called him a sucker, and left him to his fantasizing.
He smiled at Stephanie’s photo. A gorgeous distraction.
Chaz arrived home to exotic scents coming from the kitchen. He lifted the lid off a small pot of couscous flavored with parsley and cinnamon. Green beans sautéed in garlic and butter were still crisp and he stole one before Stephanie could return to the kitchen to attend to the lamb chops. They had obviously been marinated in lemons, onions, basil and oil before landing on the indoor grill; he could smell those ingredients in the wisps of smoke that swirled upwards.
It would be a perfectly timed meal. Of course, as usual, he’d called when he was about to leave the office. He was always in such a hurry to get home that Stephanie could probably predict exactly when he’d walk through the door. He turned when she entered the kitchen and was about to make some excuse for sneaking the green bean he was still chewing, but one look at her made him forget what he was going to say.
Premonitions: Dream Catcher Series ~ Book 1 Page 12