by Kimball Lee
“I’m exhausted, I’m bitchy and I’m pregnant,” she said.
“I know, my love,” he said, and he raised his head and smiled down at her.
There was a handprint on his face, but it was barely visible, and also such happiness in his eyes that she stopped holding her hormone laden emotions back. They all spilled out and she sobbed as he scooped her up and sat on the stairs, holding her and whispering that he loved nothing more than he loved his little hell-cat.
“I slapped you a little bit,” she said, touching the print on his face that was only slightly pink and fading fast.
“Yes you did, and I might have to spank you because of it,” he said, and she kissed his gorgeous mouth as the fever for him rose up, hot and wild, inside her again.
“Let’s go dance on the beach,” he said, when they’d fucked a second time and he realized her pregnancy hormones would probably be the death of him, but it wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
“Now?” she asked, still basking in the afterglow of sex, the sheets tangled around her on the mattress on the bedroom floor. “Okay, if that’s what you want, hand me my panties.”
“Really now, do you honestly think you need them?” he asked, and they both knew she had no use for underwear. She couldn’t keep them on, not with her fucking sexy husband around, anyway.
*
The first piece of mail to arrive at the new house was an invitation to Bly and Maddie’s wedding. Charlotte ran her fingertips over the engraved names, Madison Genevieve Newland and Alexander Sebastian Bly. It was to be the first wedding held under the wild-grape arbor at McCall House since her grandparents had married there years and years before. She was happy for Bly and Maddie, to meet your soul mate wasn’t always easy, and life was so strange with all its twists and curves. She’d met Maddie because of Bly, and Bly had met Maddie because of her, and there was a brief period of time when she had considered marrying Bly herself. It was all just big tangle of destiny, or maybe just chance.
All that mattered to her was that Bly marry Maddie and that Maddie have a baby, because she knew that would change him. It would stop the goose-bumps from rising on her arms when she felt his heart aching for her. She struggled every day with the constant pull toward him. She loved Finn with an unquenchable and mighty love, but she loved Bly, as well. He didn’t know and he wouldn’t ever know, as far as she was concerned.
In life there were choices, good, bad, and hard choices. The choice between Bly and Finn had been a hard one, and so had shooting the ice under Natalie’s feet, knowing they would both probably die in the frigid water. The results of the paternity test were only given to Charlotte, and the choice to leave that envelope sealed was the hardest choice of all.
“Are you Charlotte Christiansen?” a man holding a clipboard asked.
She looked up from the wedding invitation, she was still standing on the front porch with the mail in her hand, and the man wanted her to sign for the delivery.
“Nice car, you’re really going to put your son’s car seat in that?” Amanda asked, stepping out of her BMW and hugging Charlotte.
“Hell no! Finn’s coming home later and we’re trading it on a mommy car, that fast little Mercedes is from my former life,” Charlotte said, she was glad to see her friend, and she gave her a quick tour of the house and then they drove to Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn to buy furniture.
Life fell into a pleasant pattern in the new house, actually it was an old house, and Charlotte had a weak spot for quirky old houses. Mostly her son’s toys and books served as decoration, covering every surface and littering the floors. Amanda helped her choose slip covered furniture and recycled wood tables that were sturdy enough to stand up to busy little hands. Charlotte covered the walls with a collection of framed, antique drawings from the Curiosity Shop in Surrey, and with a few pieces of art leftover from the loft.
Atticus was walking at last, they’d just celebrated his first birthday with a sandcastle building party on the beach. He was growing fast, and tall for his age, and his looks were changing every day. His eyes were still as blue as Charlotte’s, eyes they had both inherited from Charles Tremont. Of course he had that wide, full, red mouth, and she knew he was going to break a lot of girl’s hearts someday. Charlotte could happily stare at him for hours, his little face was such a miracle of beauty, he simply looked like Atticus and no one else, she decided. He played on the ground as she finished unpacking the artwork, and he laughed delightedly when she pulled out a bright, framed Gaugin print. She studied it for a moment and then handed her son a toy to play with, and put the print away in a closet.
She traded the Mercedes she’d kept in storage for a Volvo SUV, Finn said it was an extremely safe car, as he secured the baby’s car-seat inside.
“We’ll need another car-seat soon,” he said, “I’m really hoping it will not be a girl, two Charlotte’s… the world can’t handle it! I don’t even think I could handle it.”
“You can handle anything, my love,” she said, kissing his enticing mouth, “so you changed your last name back to Hale, what brought that about?”
“I don’t like to hide, and it’s who I am, who we are. Finn and Charlotte and Atticus Hale. Your father has someone working on Atti’s birth certificate now, before he leaves his post as ambassador. Are you okay with that, my love?”
“I’m very okay with that, I’m Charlotte Hale, at last,” she said.
Charlotte set up an office on the top floor of the house, and also at Sheppard and Sheridan. Delivery men struggled up the second set of stairs to a dormered attic bedroom with her Pottery Barn desk and book cases and wooden swivel chair. The deeply sloping ceiling of the wide dormer formed the walls of the space, and she had them covered in linen-covered cork. The walls formed a giant display space so she could pin family photographs and articles ripped from magazines and be surrounded by images of dreams come true and those yet to come.
She would work two or three days a week and spend most of that time in court, the place they all agreed she belonged. She was ready to stretch her muscles again in the courtroom, to look into the faces of the jury and kick a little ass, legally. Jack Sheppard said that Alexander Bly had rehired their law firm after the unbelievable mess with the woman who’d tried to take over his life. He was sure that Bly would want her handling all of his cases, and Charlotte said to forget it, that wasn’t even a remote possibility.
Finn and JP were in their element as attorneys fighting for veterans rights. Former soldiers with physical and emotional trauma came to them for help with claims against the government. Finn was great at working one on one and assembling facts with clients, and JP loved to go to war in court as much as Charlotte did. They took every case personally, and made a difference in the lives of men and women who had been good soldiers and served their country. They didn’t make a lot of money, but they did a lot of good.
CHAPTER NINE
Bly and Maddie were excited about their upcoming wedding, and they were happy with each other. Bly went to his office every day and made changes for the better. He was good at what he did, he realized, somehow along the way he’d forgotten that. He retired several aging publications and created new ones. He hired more people with fresh, relevant, innovative ideas to take his publishing empire into the future. A son, that’s all that was missing to make his life complete, someone to carry on as he had for his own father. His most fervent wish was for a child to love and cherish, and he knew Maddie would give him one, and he hoped it would happen soon.
He and Maddie had their one and only argument the night before. He thought maybe he should have given in, but it was the only thing he’d asked for in the entire, gargantuan wedding gala. Spencer Beck had called and offered to take the wedding pictures. Bly had hired him years before straight out of art school, and he’d become famous working for Bly International. Now he was a highly sought after fine-art photographer, and his work was prized in galleries and private collections around the world. He was also Maddie�
��s ex-boyfriend, and although it bothered her, it didn’t bother Bly, so he told her not to be petty about it.
He left his office and went home to an empty house, Maddie was already in Pass Christian with her mother and assorted family members. The wedding was three days away and Bly would fly out the next morning to meet his mother and West in New Orleans. He’d asked West to be his best man and they’d both choked up, and then laughed about it, and West said he’d be honored.
The empty house loomed around him and the dogs were whining to go for a run, so he took off his shoes and his tie and jacket, and rolled up his sleeves. He put leashes on the dogs, and with Billy Kipling trailing behind him, he ran along the beach. It was an early June evening and the beach-goers were packing up for the day and going home. He could see a lone figure in the distance, a woman walking along the edge of the water, she was tall with a sleek black ponytail, and his heart turned over in his chest.
Bly stopped in the sand and the dogs and Billy Kipling went on ahead of him. He heard her musical laughter as she and Kipling hugged, then he lifted her and twirled her around. It pissed him off at first, caused a sharp slash of jealousy to cut through him, then he remembered how they knew each other, and he felt terrible for his reaction.
“Charlotte, hello,” he said when he reached her, and for a split second he saw something familiar in her eyes.
“Bly, congratulations on your upcoming wedding, and you have dogs, and Billy is watching out for you! Wow, things have changed,” she said, and they moved to hug each other at the same time and bumped foreheads.
They both laughed, and Billy did too, and they managed a peck on the cheek. Bly asked Billy to take the dogs back to the house, he said he would be along in a while, and not to worry with Charlotte to guard him.
“Very funny,” she said as they walked, and she almost reached for his hand as they watched the sun disappear into the blue ocean. “So three more days and you’ll be an honest to goodness married man, all the single girls out there dreaming of Alex Bly will be heartbroken.”
“Amanda told me you bought a house nearby, I have to admit, I’ve driven down your street a few times. Where are Finn and the baby?” his voice was smooth and calm, so she kept walking with him and answered.
“Finn has gone to L.A. for a court case, he’ll be back tomorrow. Atticus is with Finn’s mother, I should go now and pick him up.”
“She can keep him for the night, can’t she?” he asked. “I saw it in your eyes, Charlotte, when you were standing with Billy and you looked up at me. You love me,” he said, and his voice was so full of hope, it tore her very soul.
“I did once, and it was wonderful, but I was never what you needed,” she said. “You’re getting married to the woman you love now, and she’s great. Amanda tells me how happy you both are, and that Maddie adores you. We’ll be at your wedding, how weird is it that you’re getting married in the house my mother grew up in? What about West and your mother? I think it’s wonderful and amazing, life is crazy, Bly, nothing stays the same.”
They had stopped walking, and she looked around and realized they were standing outside a little beach bar much like the one where she’d danced with him in Malibu. It all seemed like a lifetime ago. Another Don Henley song was playing, and she closed her eyes and he pulled her close to him suddenly. His face was against her hair and he broke the band holding her ponytail, and the thick, silky mass tumbled against his hands and her smell floated up to him.
The words of the song hung in the night air, and brought hot tears to her eyes so that she backed away.
“Lay your head back on the ground, let your hair fall all around me, offer up your best defense, but this is the end, the end of the innocence.”
“I always believed you were my destiny,” Bly said, looking into the sapphire blue eyes he knew would never truly release his heart.
“Well, that’s the thing about destiny, it’s always a surprise and it never turns out the way you expected. I know that everything is the way it’s supposed to be. Be happy, Bly, please,” Charlotte said, and she walked away, toward her home.
CHAPTER TEN
It was a dreamy wedding at ten o’clock in the morning on a Saturday in June. Hundreds had been invited, and everyone came, they all wanted to be present to witness the marriage of Alexander Bly. The McCall House overflowed with flowers; roses and orchids and sweet-peas and delphinium and dozens of other varieties, all of them white. Fragrant bunches tied with pale blue ribbon seemed to float from the handrail of the resplendent curving staircase and along the porch railings, upstairs and down. More flowers and ribbons decorated delicate white chairs arranged on the lawn and lining the walkway from the porch steps to the grape-arbor, and white rose petals were scattered on the ground.
A string quartet played Handel and Pachelbel and Brahms and Bach as guests were seated. Charlotte sat between Evangeline and Finn, with her father, JP and Billy Kipling filling up the rest of the front row. Amanda was to be Maddie’s only attendant, her matron of honor, although Amanda pronounced herself “princess of honor,” rather than matron or maid. She said the terms “maid” and “matron” were dowdy, and she was not.
West stood next to Bly, who was front and center and was so tall and astonishingly handsome in his perfectly cut tuxedo, that the guests gasped and murmured when he took his place. The shirt he wore was blue, rather than white, and the color made his startling sea-glass eyes look even more extraordinary than usual. He clasped his hands behind his back, although she could tell he wanted to brush away that errant lock of hair that fell across his brow. He looked anxious, but happy, Charlotte thought, he turned to look at her only once, and a sweet smile passed between them.
She held tightly to Finn’s arm, hard and muscled under the smooth fabric of his suit. She looked up into his eyes, and she saw her love and her world, and she prayed with all her heart that Bly and Maddie would share such love for each other.
“Alexander looks glorious, don’t you think, Charlotte?” Evangeline said, “So very handsome, and of course West is just irresistible, I do think I’ll go straight away and marry him. Heaven knows, he asks me often enough.”
“Now darlin’ you don’t want to rush into anything,” Charles Tremont told Evangeline, reaching over to squeeze her hand.
“I assume you’re married, Ambassador. I must say, it surprises me that your wife isn’t more… watchful over a virile man such as yourself,” she said, and smiled at him knowingly.
“My wife and I have an understanding,” he said, in his slow southern drawl, and Charlotte could feel trouble brewing, for sure.
The guests quieted as the music became more somber and Amanda walked down the aisle. She was lovely in a pale periwinkle-blue dress, her auburn hair piled high above her heart shaped face. She glanced at JP and they smiled at each other, and she lit up like a firefly.
As she reached the arbor and turned, the music stopped for a moment, then Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major began to play. The guests rose, and Maddie walked down the rose-petal path on her father’s arm and Charlotte’s tears flowed from the beauty of the occasion and the music and the radiant bride.
When Bly stepped forward and took Maddie’s hand, he looked so much in love that Charlotte knew he had finally surrendered to happiness. The couple recited vows they had written, and they were sweet and sentimental. Bly kissed his bride and the quartet played Mendelssohn’s triumphant wedding march as they walked up the aisle hand in hand, glowing like the sun.
All the trappings of a traditional wedding were in place, Maddie’s mother had three sons and one daughter and she had planned the wedding of a lifetime. Luncheon was served under white canvas awnings, and they were hung with chandeliers made from branches and lit with small white candles. A parquet dance floor had been laid beneath the trees, and there was dancing to both Cajun and rock bands. The bride and groom posed for pictures and Charlotte was speechless to see the famous photographer Spencer Beck. Finn asked why she was so surprised, that
obviously Bly would want the best of the best. Charlotte informed him that Beck had achieved fame when he shot the photographs of her and Jorgen for American Jock, and he was also Maddie’s ex-boyfriend.
After cutting the mile-high wedding cake and toasting their happiness, the men gathered around while Bly tossed the bride’s garter.
Charlotte joined Maddie and Amanda and they made their own toasts for a long, happy marriage. They all clicked their glasses but not one of them took a sip of champagne.
“You’re not drinking champagne at your own wedding?” Amanda asked, arranging the flowing skirt of Maddie’s gown and straightening the pale blue sash at her waist.
“I can’t, I’m pregnant! I haven’t even told Alex yet,” Maddie said, and her hand fluttered to her flat stomach, “I’m due in December.”
“So am I. I’m due in December too,” Amanda squealed, “we just found out, JP is nervous as hell, but we’ve been trying nonstop, so we’re thrilled!”
They both looked at Charlotte who hadn’t said a word, she stood quietly, and there was an odd look on her face, as if she were in shock.
“You, too?” Maddie asked, with a huge grin, “no way, all of us are having babies at the same time?”
Charlotte looked down at the goose-bumps on her arms, “Yes, December,” she said, and the three of them stood with their hands on their soon to be growing bellies, “three babies the same age? This is going to be nothing but trouble,” Charlotte said, and she began to smile, “believe me, I can feel it!”
*
Charlotte danced with her husband, and then JP, and even West, but she avoided Bly. She wanted his new life to go forward without any thoughts of the past. At last she stood looking up at the grand house that belonged to her, and she could still see her grandmother hurrying down the steps to hurl such horrible, nasty words at her mother.