“What’s wrong?” He asked, pressing a kiss to Charleigh’s forehead.
“Nothing,” she lied. “Just tired.”
Jamie gave her a once-over. It was Wednesday evening and she wasn’t ready for church. “Long day at work, huh?”
“Yeah. What about you?”
“It was good. The plans for the Thailand project are coming along well. We’ll be ready to break ground by the middle of next year, at the very latest.”
“Really? That’s great,” Charleigh replied. “You’ve never told me what they do, though.”
“Manufacturing.”
“Manufacturing what?”
“Stuff.” Jamie shrugged. He wasn’t really sure. “So, what do you want to do tonight? Since you’re not going to church.”
“Oh. Uh…” Charleigh looked down at her clothes. She was still dressed in her scrubs from the clinic. After the phone call from Claudia, she hadn’t even bothered to change before heading out to Madie’s ranch. And when she got home, Charleigh sank into her seat and stayed there. “I don’t know. What do you have in mind?”
“Pizza and a couple of videos on the couch sounds just fine to me.”
“I was hoping you’d say pizza. I’ve had a hankering for a large Supreme and some chunky chocolate fudge ice cream all day.”
Jamie eyed her suspiciously. Charleigh saw it, and she instantly knew what he was thinking. She waved the thought away. There was no possible way that she was pregnant. Not again. It was too soon. They weren’t ready for it. Besides, ever since the miscarriage, she’d been diligent about taking her birth-control every day.
It wasn’t possible. She was just hungry and tired, and in need of a nice, long soak in the tub. There were other symptoms of being pregnant besides tiredness and hunger cravings. There was morning sickness. Heavy, tender breasts. Neither of which she had.
After the wicked witch called with her outrageous antics, Charleigh had been so twisted in knots that she’d skipped lunch. That had to be the explanation, the only explanation. For crying out loud, she’d just had her period!
“I’m tired. That’s all, Jamie.” Charleigh scrubbed the heels of her hands over her face and stood up. “And I’m hungry!”
“What did I say?” Jamie threw his hands up defensively.
“Nothing. It was that look. That look that asked, ‘Do you know something I don’t?’” She ran her fingers through his hair. With a handful of thick brown hair, Charleigh gently tugged Jamie’s head back so she could look him in the eye. “Believe me, if I knew anything— and I do mean anything— I’d let you know in one way or another.”
“Well then, okay.” He put an arm around her middle, drawing her close.
“Okay, then. I’m hungry.” Charleigh smiled, wriggling her eyebrows. “Race me to the truck?”
She was already gone by the time Jamie got to his feet.
“Cheater,” he laughed, heading toward the door.
Chapter Sixteen
“I am not. Stop saying that,” Charleigh screamed between intervals of retching. She sat on the floor in her bathroom. Her head leaned against the cool porcelain of the toilet.
“Are you sure?” Jamie knelt down beside her, holding a wet wash cloth to the back of her neck. He was still a little anxious that they might be hearing the pitter-patter of little feet in the near future.
“Of course, I’m sure. The test was negative, wasn’t it?” She pushed him away when another wave of nausea swept over her.
Charleigh gagged, but nothing came up. Her stomach was empty only her brain was saying otherwise. Gripping the edges of the bowl, she could feel the veins on her neck bulging out. Beads of sweat dotted her forehead.
It was the worst feeling in the world. She hated being sick, and she hated Jamie seeing her that way.
When the dry-heaves finally subsided, Charleigh closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Water, please,” she whispered. Her throat was dry and her voice was raspy.
“Here.” Jamie held the glass up to her lips. He pushed sweaty curls away from Charleigh’s face while she sipped.
She took a drink, swished the cool liquid around in her mouth for a while before spitting it out in the toilet. Taking another, she swallowed slowly because it burned her throat. Some of the water dribbled down her chin, and Charleigh used the hem of her nightgown to wipe it away.
It was like there was a lump, blocking her from swallowing or breathing, and it took Charleigh a few tries to clear it.
“Feel better?” Jamie asked, holding the wash cloth to her forehead.
She could only nod. He pressed a kiss to Charleigh’s ear. He picked her up, as if she weighed nothing at all, and carried her back in to the bedroom.
When she was lying on the bed again, Charleigh reached over on her bedside table for a spoon and a bottle of nasty, pink stomach reliever. Because she was still weak and trembling, Jamie took the two from her.
“Open up,” he said, holding out a spoonful of the pink goop. Charleigh complied before lying back on her pillow and closing her eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine,” she tried to reassure him. “It’s just a stomach thing. Or nerves, that’s all.”
“Did you get this way when you married Gavin?” Charleigh shook her head. “Why not?”
“His mother doesn’t hate me. Linda didn’t want to sabotage the wedding.” She cleared her throat.
Jamie sighed. He’d finally been able to pry out of Charleigh what was wrong, but barely. Although he shouldn’t have been surprised about his mother trying to pay her off, he had to admit that he was.
Now, Claudia decided that she was going to come to the wedding, mostly because she wanted to cause a scene. Jamie was certain that she wasn’t coming just to see her oldest son marry the love of his life.
And then, there was a problem with the place where they were renting the tables and chairs for the reception. They had called the day before to inform them that there might not have enough round tables.
“Well, can’t we have square tables, or even rectangular ones?” Charleigh had asked.
“That’s not what you ordered,” they told her.
“Can’t you change the order, then?”
“Um, no. There’s a four-week minimum pre-order date.”
Oh, no! They couldn’t have people sitting on the ground.
As if they didn’t have enough to worry about, Charleigh was sick. In Jamie’s book, that trumped everything. Anything else was moot until she was well again.
“Are you sure?” He lay down on the bed beside her.
“Yes, I’m fine. No, I’m not pregnant.”
“It would be nice, though, don’t you think?”
Charleigh opened her eyes to see Jamie smiling at her. Nice to have a miniature version of Jamie, with the same cocoa-brown eyes, running around and driving her just as insane? Yeah, she had to admit it sounded wonderful, but there were still a lot of things she wanted to do before having a family.
There were still a lot of things, she was sure, that Jamie wanted to do in life before settling into the monotony that came along with raising children. The 2:00 a.m. feedings. The endless diaper changes. The constant crying, and uncertainy of not knowing what was wrong.
The horrible, rotten smell of spit-up formula. The mere thought of that made Charleigh gag.
“Are you okay?” Jamie asked, already headed into the bathroom for the wastebasket before he’d finished the question.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” Charleigh called after him, but he still came back with it.
Those were all the bad points, and of course Charleigh knew there was an upside. The lullabies that went along with those 2:00 feedings, and whenever the baby cried. The bedtime stories. The giggles. The first words and the first steps and all those other cute firsts.
“You don’t think it’s a little soon to be starting a family?”
Jamie shrugged. “I can’t say that I’d mind. Having a little baby around
that I could teach stuff to, it would be pretty cool.”
“Pretty cool,” Charleigh echoed. “There are still a lot of concerns, though, that go along with having a baby so soon after marriage. They say that first year is a doozey. With the added stress of a baby…”
“But we don’t have anything to worry about, right?” He cut her off. “Because we’re not pregnant.”
She liked the way Jamie said ‘we,’ but now, with all the talk about babies, it made her wonder if she wasn’t in fact pregnant. Pregnancy tests could be faulty. They might’ve done something wrong. What if, by some strange twist of fate, she really was pregnant?
Chapter Seventeen
Jamie was met at the front door by a blinding flash. Big, bright, colorful spots distorted his vision, making him feel wobbly. Caught off guard, he dropped his jacket and briefcase to the floor and put a hand out to steady himself.
“What was that?” He asked, squeezing his eyes tightly shut.
“It was me. Sorry about that,” Charleigh said from somewhere Jamie couldn’t see.
Her voice sounded very close, though, and he reached out for her. His hand closed around Charleigh’s forearm, and Jamie felt her leading him. His vision slowly cleared, well enough that he could see the sofa. Jamie took the last few steps on his own and sat down.
“What were you doing?”
Charleigh plopped down beside him. “I was taking your picture.”
“The bright flash was my first clue, but why?”
“I want to paint you, but you work late, usually. And you’re tired when you get home,” she explained. “Sitting for a long time like that is really boring. It’s time-consuming. Besides, your bottom would start to hurt…”
“So, you decided to ambush me as I came through the door?” Jamie absent-mindedly massaged Charleigh’s thigh.
“Pretty much.” She looked through the viewfinder of the camera and snapped another quick picture.
“Stop that!” Jamie covered his eyes with one hand and snatched the camera away with the other.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll stop.” Charleigh kissed him on the lips. “Some of the best photographs I’ve ever taken were when I caught the subject in candid moments.”
“Not in my case. I’ll look like a nerd.”
“No, you won’t,” she assured. “You’ll look like my sexy fiancé, who greatly resembles a GQ model.”
“Yeah,” Jamie laughed, getting up from the sofa. He still held the camera, not wanting any more embarrassing snapshots taken of him.
“Really, you do, but if you’d rather sit for me, I could take some awesome photographs to work by.”
Jamie was halfway toward the dining room when Charleigh made the suggestion. He turned around, expecting to find her smiling. She was serious, he realized.
“What do you have in mind?”
Coming over to take the camera, Charleigh considered the question. She took time to wind the film, studying Jamie with an artist’s eye. She’d worked hard over the years to hone the skill to perfection, and it had paid off.
“I see you in a serious pose. Hands on your hips. Head down. Eyes on the ground. Pretty sexy in my opinion.”
“This is ridiculous,” Jamie said. “I cannot believe I agreed to this.”
“But you did,” Charleigh answered. “Too late to turn back now.”
In the greenhouse that she’d transformed into her studio, Charleigh set up the camera and tripod. Jamie watched as she worked with a few other gadgets he didn’t know the name of until finally she looked up at him.
He saw her smile, knowing what she was thinking.
Shirtless, he stood a few feet away in the pose Charleigh had described. His jeans were slung low on his hips to show off his sculpted lumbar muscles. There was more to it, though, than what she had bothered to mention. Like the baby oil she’d smeared all over his torso. It made him feel like a muscle-bound beefcake. Like a piece of eye candy, and not in a good way.
“This is embarrassing. I’m not sure I want to go through with this, now that I’ve thought about it.”
“Too late to turn back,” Charleigh repeated, adjusting the lens. “Look down.”
Though Jamie didn’t want to, he obliged, sighing deeply. She snapped the first photo, then a couple more of the same pose for good measure. Charleigh continued to give him directions, which Jamie followed as if he were a pro.
She stopped to look at him. If she hadn’t known any better, Charleigh would’ve thought he was embarrassed.
He was more aggravated with himself because he’d agreed to do it.
“That’s good. Now strip.”
“What?” Jamie cried.
“Not completely. Just to your boxers.”
“What are people going to think when they see these pictures?” He shook his head. “They’re going to think we’re into some kind of kinky sex rituals, or something.”
“Pish. Nobody’s gonna see them, except for us.”
“What about the photo lab guy at Wal-Mart?”
“Who said anything about Wal-Mart?” Charleigh asked, switching out the film in the camera. “I’ve got all the stuff here at the house to develop them. Like I said, nobody’ll ever see them but us.”
He eyed her doubtfully. “Promise?”
“Scouts honor,” she answered, holding up two fingers.
“Fine, but why do you want a picture of me in my boxers?” Jamie started to undo his fly.
“Blackmail. To post them on the Internet, what else?”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I’m not. However, I am enjoying that look on your face. Classic,” Charleigh laughed. She went through a door into the other half of the greenhouse.
After they’d taken it apart at the clinic and reassembled it in the backyard behind her home, Charleigh added the partition wall that had come with it to make two separate rooms. One half of the glasshouse she still used to grow plants. The other was air-conditioned, where Charleigh had stored all of her easels and painting supplies after redoing the sunroom into a den and another office for Jamie.
Underneath one table, milk crates were neatly stacked. Charleigh grabbed one and headed back to the other space. Jamie was in his shorts, standing behind the camera as he peered through the viewfinder. He was holding a towel, and she noticed that he’d wiped away most of the baby oil. Not that she could blame him. It was kind of a cheesy in a Playgirl photo spread sort of idea.
Jamie backed away when he saw Charleigh. He didn’t want to mess up any of the fine-tuning she’d made to the camera.
“What’s that for?” He pointed to the crate.
“For you.” Putting the crate where she wanted it, Charleigh patted it as a signal for Jamie to sit.
He did so and began to chew on his cuticles. Charleigh realized this was something her fiancé had just started to do. It annoyed her, but she chose to ignore the urge to snap his hand away from his mouth like she would to a toddler.
“Kind of lean forward and rest your chin on your hands. Like this.” She showed him the pose. Looking through the viewfinder, Charleigh saw it wasn’t exactly what she was looking for. “Here, stand up and kick that aside. Now, kneel down and look pensive.” She took another look. It wasn’t quite right.
“Look pensive,” Charleigh repeated.
“I’m trying.” Jamie glanced up at her, irritated.
“Well, you look like you’re constipated. Try to relax.”
She came over and knelt down behind Jamie. Massaging his neck, Charleigh felt his body begin to relax under her touch. She leaned forward to kiss the back of his ear. When she did, her breasts pressed against Jamie’s back. The slight pressure of her body next to his own sent a chilly wave down his spine.
***
Later, in the darkroom Jamie watched in silence as Charleigh worked to develop the photos. He examined the ones hanging from clothespins in a far corner, and he had to admit that Charleigh had a good eye. Expecting to look more like an idiot, he
was surprised to see himself in such poses. Jamie thought he looked poised and self-confident.
He turned around to look at Charleigh, who was busy pouring more fixer into the tray.
He had no idea there was a darkroom in the house. Taking its entrance at the top of the stairs for granted, Jamie could have only assumed that it was a linen closet. Charleigh’d given him the grand tour of her house that day he brought her home from the hospital after a bout of pneumonia but had never shown him this.
It made Jamie wonder if there were any other secret features to the house they now shared. A smile spread across his lips as he came over to stand behind her. He rested his chin on Charleigh’s shoulder as she worked. The photo slowly started to appear, and she turned slightly to smile up at him.
“Wow, you have a great eye.”
“No, I have great taste in good-looking guys,” she replied. “Well, at least one really great-looking guy.”
Chapter Eighteen
The corporate jet to take Jamie to New York City landed at Eaker Field right on time. Nervously chewing his cuticles, he sat in the driver’s seat of his Jeep with Charleigh beside him as the Lear rolled toward them on the tarmac.
A few feet away, a black, chauffeured town car was parked. Though he couldn’t see through the dark, tinted windows, Jamie was sure Daniel Crane was waiting patiently inside. They’d exchanged greetings earlier, but then his boss rolled the window back up and left Jamie and Charleigh to their privacy.
When the plane came to a stop, the door lifted and the small steps lowered to the ground. Jenna appeared there a moment later, stepping to the ground with the grace of a ballerina and the attitude of a runway model. Dressed in a tank top, a pair of designer jeans, and flip-flops, she also had the drop-dead gorgeous looks to match.
Jamie got out and pulled his luggage from the backseat. Charleigh did the same and went to meet her friend. A smile spread appeared on both women’s faces as they came together and hugged.
“Wow.” Jenna was left almost breathless with that single word. “I didn’t think it was possible, but you look even more glow-y than you did at the engagement party.”
You're Gone (Finding Solid Ground) Page 13