Well, actually. I could use some help getting everything situated. Like I said, I’m a bit bedridden at the moment.”
“Absolutely,” Kent agreed. “I can be up there just as soon as the show’s over tomorrow night. If you can manage till then.”
Charleigh laughed, “And if I said no? What would you do?”
“I’d find the nearest helicopter and land on your front yard within the hour, girl.” Kent laughed as well, but she knew his words rang true. He was a good guy. No matter what Charleigh asked for, he would find a way to get it to her.
“It’s not quite that urgent, but I’m glad to know you’d jump if I asked you to.”
“You just tell me how high.”
After Charleigh hung up with Kent, she went over to the dresser and took out one of Jamie’s white cotton undershirts and pulled it on over her head. No matter what, she’d never been able to get the smell of Jamie’s cologne out of the fabric. No matter how many times she washed them. Soaked them in bleach or anything else.
Charleigh knew some of the more expensive colognes used the thiols from skunk spray to make the scent last longer on the body. She wondered if this one did, too.
Inhaling deeply, Charleigh climbed into bed and pulled the covers up around her body. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. As always, her dreams were happy ones. They would always be happy because Jamie would always be there waiting for her in dreamland.
Chapter Fifty
The sunset was so beautiful. Like nothing Charleigh had ever seen before as she walked through the waist-high weeds of the pasture. Smatterings of deep purple, burnt orange, and a rich carmine painted the sky. It was the kind of sunset that took your breath away.
The ringlets of Charleigh’s hair were tied back in a low ponytail on the back of her head, though, the breeze pulled several strands loose from the elastic band that secured it there, and cascaded down over one shoulder. She was wearing a pair of old, faded overalls. The legs were cut off just below her knees, and they looked like they’d been through the shredder. Her feet were bare, and Charleigh could feel the cool Earth between her toes as she walked.
The scent of Magnolia blossoms wafted through the air. Stopping for a moment, she leaned her head back, closing her eyes, and breathed deeply. She held her arms straight at her sides, and the grass tickled her fingertips.
Charleigh found Jamie sitting on the glider when she reached the house. He looked even better than she remembered. Wearing simple pair of blue jeans and a blue t-shirt he looked polished yet still slightly scruffy, with a five o’clock shadow of a beard, like a model from the Abercrombie catalog.
“I’m dreaming again,” Charleigh said, stepping up onto the front porch. She went over and sat down next to Jamie.
“How do you know?” he asked, holding a cup of steaming coffee out to her. Charleigh took it and drank. Dang, the coffee was good. Just the right blend chicory. And it was sweet, but not like from any kind of sugar or sweetener Charleigh had ever tasted. She took a second sip.
“How do you know?” Jamie asked again. He touched a hand to Charleigh’s leg.
She felt the pressure of his body against her own as they sat side by side. He felt real. The cup was warm in her hands. More than anything in the world, Charleigh wanted to believe that Jamie was really there with her. She wanted the last seven months to have been the dream, though, Charleigh knew in her heart that it wasn't. Besides, Doctor Emerson had put her on bed rest, and she wouldn't have been able to walk across that pasture the way she just did without difficulty. It was a feat to make the short trip from the bed to the toilet these days. And anyway, Charleigh wouldn’t have risked her babies that way, and she said so.
“Good point.” Jamie nodded with a smile.
“So, what brings you to my neck of the woods?” Charleigh asked, leaning her head against the back of the swing.
“Nothing. Just thought I’d stop by to say hello,” Jamie replied, with a hint of playful sarcasm.
Yeah, right. She raised her head up to look at him. There was always a reason when Jamie came to Charleigh in her dreams like this. Any other time, she was just reliving certain moments shared with Jamie. The first had been when she was still contemplating ending her pregnancy. Why had he come to her this time?
“Gavin still loves you.”
Oh, no! Charleigh was afraid where this was headed. Gavin said that he still loved her. Whether he actually did love her or he just didn’t want her with anybody else, she just couldn‘t decide yet. But the feeling was not reciprocated, so it didn’t matter.
“He’s there and I’m not. Or Cordell. You have every reason in the world to marry one of them and give them his name. Caleb and Jacob are going to need a father.”
Charleigh pretended not to hear the first part. “Caleb and Jacob? Is that what I name them?”
“Yeah, I like the names. Cal and Jake. One will be more like you, and the other one like me. You‘re going to need someone to help corral them,” Jamie told her, reaching over to run his fingers through her hair.
“I’ll do just fine,” Charleigh declared. “Besides, they have a father.”
“Charleigh, it’s…”
“I don’t want to hear this, Jamie,” Charleigh interrupted him, putting her hands over her ears as if she were a child. She couldn’t stand to hear him talk about her being with any other man but him.
Jamie pulled her hands away. “And I don’t want you to be alone for the rest of your life.”
“I won’t be alone. I’ll have our sons.” She sighed, turning her face away. Charleigh looked out toward the field just beyond her property, and on the other side of the highway.
“You need more than that. You can’t live off memories, Char”
“You’ve barely been gone seven months,” she said no louder than a whisper. Tears rimmed her bottom lids, threatening to fall. “I just can’t treat everything that we had like it was nothing and move on to someone new. Not Gavin. Not anyone else.”
“Well, it’s not going to happen tomorrow or even two years from now, but mark my words that it will happen.” Jamie put an arm around Charleigh and pulled her close against him. His body was firm and didn’t give. Unlike before, it was warm. “It’s inevitable. I’ve seen it. I can even tell you his name, if you’d like.”
“No,” Charleigh exclaimed, wiping moisture away from her cheeks. “I loved you. I still do, and nothing you say will change that.”
“I know that. But eventually that bed is going to feel awfully lonely. You’re going to need someone to keep you warm in the middle of the night. I just want you to know that it’s okay with me.”
“Okay,” Charleigh said, putting an end to the discussion.
The only thing that she wanted was for Jamie to hold her for the remainder of their time together. How she missed those strong arms holding her in the middle of the night. The scent of sweat and cologne after he’d just finished making love to her. His breath on the back of her neck. The way he used to murmur her name in his sleep.
As if Jamie had read her mind, he stood and helped Charleigh to her feet. He led her up to the bedroom that they used to share.
“I’ll stay until you wake up,” Jamie whispered in her ear as they laid together on the bed.
Charleigh only nodded. She closed her eyes and sighed with contentment. Jamie’s arms encircled Charleigh. His palms rested on her bulbous belly. Fingers spread widely apart.
He just chuckled softly in Charleigh’s ear. “I love you, but sometimes, you are so stubborn. Even in your dreams.”
“I love you, too,” Charleigh replied. “And I’ll take that as a compliment. But don’t worry about us. When, or if, I ever decide to get married, it’s going to be for the right reasons, and not because our boys need a male role model in their lives.”
“Exactly.” It was all Jamie said, but Charleigh could hear a smile in his voice. He’d heard just what he had needed, she supposed. Which meant that she wouldn’t be marryi
ng Gavin anything soon to remedy her loneliness. Or anyone else for that matter.
“And if I get cold, I’ll just cuddle up with an electric blanket.”
When Charleigh woke up the next morning, she found an indentation in the pillow on the side of the bed that Jamie used to sleep. At first, she dismissed it as though she’d rolled over there in the middle of the night. But logic got the better of her. Charleigh knew that she never tossed and turned in her sleep.
Propping herself up on an elbow, she pulled the pillow towards her face and sniffed. It was that familiar scent of sweat and cologne. Just like… Jamie? Charleigh sat up and looked around the room. There were dirty footprints on the area rug just inside the room. Weird.
Chapter Fifty-one
The mural was beginning to take shape. Left unfinished because Charleigh was unable to work on it, her cousins decided to pitch in and do their parts to help.
Armed with diagrams, Liz, Brian, Kyle, Connor, and Garrett, along with Liz’s BFF Ben, Kevin and Jenna set out to do it for her. And she had every bit of faith that they’d do the job right. Charleigh knew that they were going to take the project seriously, after all, the majority of the kids were Randalls, and they’d all been brought up with the same work ethic to complete a job the right way the first time around.
Charleigh was absorbed in an episode of ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ and didn’t hear the doorbell ring. But a few minutes later, Garrett appeared wide-eyed in the open doorway of her bedroom with the visitor.
“Hello, Charleigh,” the person said, stepping around her cousin and into the room.
Charleigh had just taken a sip of water and almost choked at the sound of the woman’s voice. She jerked her head in that direction.
“What are you doing here Claudia?”
“I came to see my children. And you.”
“Me? You’re not supposed to come anywhere near me, and you know it.”
“I was hoping that we could change that.” Claudia’s face distorted in what Charleigh thought was a smile. “I was thinking that we could come to some sort of agreement over the custody of my grandchildren.”
Here we go again!
“Didn’t we go through this before, when you tried to get me to break off my engagement to Jamie? You couldn’t pay me off back then, and you sure as hell can’t buy my children now.”
“Mother?” Jenna exclaimed, coming into the room with Kevin and Brian on her heels. “Why are you here?”
“I’ve come to make amends with this incessant fool, but she starts screaming her head off about how I can’t buy her babies.” Claudia’s face was frozen, showing no emotions. Too much Botox, Charleigh assumed.
Jenna looked from her mother to Charleigh and back again. She didn’t know who to believe. The troubled look on Charleigh’s face versus the nothingness of her mother.
“She’s lying,” Garrett said loudly from the doorway, where he’s seen the entire scene play out. He pointed at Claudia. “That woman started it!”
“Can’t you leave well enough alone, Mother?” Kevin asked. “After everything that you’ve said and done to Charleigh, and everything that she’d been through, why do you have to keep antagonizing her?”
Claudia turned her fiery eyes on the young woman who remained in bed. “You’ve turned my own children against me. First the dead one, and now these two.”
Charleigh was flabbergasted. Couldn’t she even bring herself to say their names? Jamie. Kevin. Jenna. Was she really that self-absorbed? Was it a possibility that she’d even gone so far to forget their names?
“No, Mother. You did that all by yourself. It happened a long time before she ever came into the picture with Jamie.”
To add insult to injury, Jenna added, “I’m moving here. To be closer to Charleigh and my nephews. And to be with Brian.”
Claudia sent the boy a hateful look and laughed. “You want to come to this hellhole for that? What about school?”
“I turned in my application to Southeastern back in December,” Jenna said, defiantly. “I’ve already been accepted for this coming fall.”
“You’ll stay in New York, if you know what’s good for you,” her mother replied. “I’m not going to pay for you to get uneducated at some third-rate institution of redneck.”
“I don’t need your money. I have what Daddy left me to pay for school, and I… I’ll get a job to pay for everything else.”
“And uh, I’m coming to do my residency at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City,” Kevin added.
Charleigh watched Claudia as all the blood drained from her face. Without another word, the woman stomped from the room. Garrett, poor kid witnessed the whole fiasco, almost melded into the door to keep from touching her. As if she would burn his skin with her poisonous attitude. Charleigh’s eyes followed Claudia down the hallway until she disappeared around the corner. She listened until the sound of the front door slamming came from downstairs and then breathed a sigh of relief.
Turning back to the group, she laughed, still a little nervous. “Oh, my God,” was all she said.
Jenna looked stunned. Her eyes were wide. She had stood up to her mother. Something she had never done before, Charleigh knew. Because face it, Claudia Davidson-Matthews was one scary woman.
“It’s okay,” Brian whispered, wrapping his arms around his girlfriend, and kissed her ear. She only nodded.
“So, when was this move decided on?” Charleigh asked, swatting at Kevin as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “And why wasn’t I told before now?”
“You’ve had so much on your plate already,” He replied with a shrug. “We just didn’t want to add to it.”
“Where are you going to live? Dorms? Apartment?”
“I’ll be in Oklahoma City most of the time. I already have an apartment there, and Jenn’s going to live with Gram and Aunt Lenore.”
“Already have everything figured out, then.” Charleigh smiled, but it instantly evaporated as a thought entered her mind. Claudia wasn’t going to let them go so easily. They could try to wash their hands of their mother, but the woman would still do everything in her power to stay in the fold, and Charleigh said so.
Jenna came over to the bed. She sat down next to her brother and leaned over to hug her friend. Her sister.
“It doesn’t matter what she does because our family is here. You and those precious babies.” She put a hand on Charleigh’s belly and felt them move. “I can’t wait until they’re here and I can hold them.”
A little more than a week left.”
“Well, I’ll be here rooting you on,” Jenna assured her.
“What about school? Finals?” Charleigh reminded her.
“Done. Did them all last week before we headed down here. Just waiting on my grades now, with fingers crossed.”
Charleigh held up her own hands with twisted fingers. “You’ll do fine, I’m sure,” she said, scooting off the bed.
She wanted to see how the work on the mural was going and forget about Claudia. The woman was a loose cannon, but at the moment, she didn’t even cause a blip on Charleigh’s radar screen.
She was just excited to have Jenna and Kevin moving to Oklahoma, that way Caleb and Jacob would have their aunt and uncle close by.
And speaking of Caleb and Jacob, they would made their grand appearance in just a matter of days. Charleigh could hardly wait. To hold them and count their fingers and toes, and to make sure there were ten of each on both boys. She ached to feel them in her arms and to look into their eyes, even if she had to be split half-open just to get them here. It was a small price to pay for healthy babies.
“Looking good,” Charleigh said to her cousins as she came into the nursery and saw the gorgeous array of colors that covered the walls. It was going to be the most perfect room for her two perfect children.
Chapter Fifty-two
Everything was falling into place. Thanks to her cousins, the mural was finished, and it looked amazing. It couldn’t have looked better if Charleigh ha
d done it herself. The only thing left to do was arrange the nursery furniture. That’s how Cord, Kevin, Keith, Dillon, and Kent were spending their Monday evening.
There were only six days left until the scheduled C-section, and the anticipation was making everyone anxious. Especially Charleigh, as she sat in the rocking chair in the middle of the room, directing all five of her handy men.
Kent was at one end of the crib, and Kevin was at the opposite end as they debated the perfect location. Dillon and Cord were leaned against the second crib, while Keith sat on the floor folding t-shirts and onesies and put them into dresser drawers. Charleigh had to smile at the sight of this huge man with bulging muscles taking so much care with the tiny pieces of clothing.
“I think I’d like this crib along the wall, just this side of the windows. The other crib can go on that wall, “Charleigh explained, motioning both hands together to form an ‘L’. “Just don’t have them touching. Make sure there’s enough room each way to fit this table.”
“You don’t want the crib in front of the windows,” Cord replied. “It could be drafty.”
Charleigh shook her head. “I don’t want it in front of the window. I want it next to the window. And those windows better not be drafty. They’re brand new.”
“Ok,” Kent agreed, and pulled his end of the first crib toward the corner. “Like this?”
“Exactly.” She pointed to the second crib. “Now, put this crib along that wall. About the same distance away from the corner.”
Once the guys had the baby beds positioned how Charleigh wanted them, Kevin took a small square table and put it in the corner. He took a small white lamp, with a racing scene painted on the shade, from Charleigh and place it on top.
“Thank you, boys,” Charleigh said with an appreciative smile then stood up. “The chests of drawers can both go against this wall. And the changing table will fit perfect next to the closet.”
“Then, that’s it? Are we done?” Dillon asked, astonished. He had thought there would be a ton of stuff to do and furniture to put together. He’d been surprised to find that it had already been done.
You're Gone (Finding Solid Ground) Page 37