by E. Ayers
His hand found her breast and she moaned, “You do things to me.”
He grinned, showing off his slight dimples. “I like doing it. Nothing like a woman who swoons when she's kissed. Maybe I should kiss you again.”
***
In the early dawn, Trent drank his coffee, gave Cassie a quick kiss, and left. At home, he tiptoed past his son’s bedroom door and quickly changed into his uniform before making a pot of coffee. He had just taken his first sip when his mom appeared.
“You didn’t come home last night.”
He ignored her comment.
“You’re not supposed to sleep with a woman if you aren’t married.”
“Where are my wedding photos, and what did you do with everything that belonged to Colleen?”
“I gave her clothes to a charity, and the rest is boxed in my closet.”
“I want that box.”
“Top shelf.”
He grabbed the box and took it to his room. At least now he had it. Knowing he’d deal with the contents later, he stuffed it under his bed before going into Shawn’s room to awaken him.
He never would have admitted it to anyone, but his shoulder burned with pain, and the lack of sleep was producing a wicked headache. He kissed his son and went to work.
***
Cassie crossed her arms on her desk and took a quick catnap. It was the phone that jarred her awake. “Dr. Jones. How may I help you?”
“Why don’t you and I go out to dinner tonight, so we can discuss your latest budget overage as mature adults.”
“Hughie, stuff it where the sun doesn’t shine. I’m not going out with you, even on the pretext of it being official business.” She hung up the phone and then looked at her briefcase. Her biggest problem was buried in there, and she wasn’t certain how to sort it out. She looked at the phone, picked it up, and called Tate.
“Tate, I have a financial nightmare on my hands. I need to get it condensed and into something manageable. Will you help me?”
In less than a half hour, she was sitting at Tate and Ari’s kitchen table, passing them the info she had on the museum’s finances.
“Cassie, you look like hell. What did you do, spend half the night awake over this?” Tate asked.
“I guess so,” she lied.
“Come with me.” Tate beckoned.
Cassie followed Tate up the back stairs to the guest room. "Oh, I can't do this to you."
"Yes, you can. Why stare at us. We're going to be crunching numbers, and you need some sleep," Tate said as she walked away. "Sweet dreams."
Cassie looked around the cozy bedroom as she sunk into the soft bed and pulled the lightweight coverlet over her. She really did need this nap. She closed her eyes, but her mind spun with images of dinosaurs, books, mummies, paintings, pages of accounting, Hughie, Trent, and Shawn.
“Cassie.” She heard her name, but was completely disoriented.
“Cassie, wake up,” Tate said from the doorway.
“Oh, I really did sleep.” She stretched her arms over her head.
“I know. You’ve been sleeping for almost four hours.”
A few minutes later, Cassie joined Ari and Tate at the kitchen table.
“Are you up to this?” Ari asked.
She nodded and listened to Ari go over the figures with her. It was obvious that the museum had been a drain on the city’s coffers for quite some time, but they told her that when she took the job.
“These are the figures since you’ve been there. December and January were total losses. He passed her a small graph he had printed. February you had better attendance, and this coincides with your Rock On exhibit. March - your attendance doubled. What was going on these days?” Tate asked.
“Loony Luners, a star gazing event. I really need a domed ceiling to do this again, but we managed. There’s a projector that throws the constellations onto the ceiling. We borrowed it and several telescopes from another museum for two weeks. Markie Williams came and did a presentation on Friday and Saturday nights. We packed the place.”
“I can see that. Now look at April’s figures.”
“May I write on this?”
Tate answered, “Of course. I can print as many as you want.”
Cassie wrote down each event under the income.
“Here’s your Dino Tread.” Ari passed her another graph. “I was able to break down the ticket sales from the general attendance, because you had those figures.”
“I’m not sure if this is accurate, because you don’t have the actual bills for these different events. But here’s the kicker. According to the papers you brought me, the city is charging the museum with an enormous rents and property taxes. That’s why you can’t climb out of the hole. You’re set up to fail.”
Every fiber in her body seemed to twist into an angry knot. “How dare they!”
“Want some advice?” Ari raised his eyebrows.
She grimaced at him.
“Don’t shoot the messenger. You need powerful help on your side. We need to take this to the mayor. I’ll go with you.”
***
Cassie barely had enough time to get back to the museum before the teens began to arrive. Ari had given her a thermos filled with soup, and two freshly baked rolls. While the teens munched on hot dogs and popcorn, she found a quiet spot to eat her food. She had just put the first spoonful into her mouth, when her cell phone rang.
“Hi,” Trent said. “As much as I want to see you tonight, I can’t. I’m beyond exhausted.”
“I got lucky and caught a nap. Tomorrow?”
“Are you working?”
“I’ll have to come in for a few hours. May I stop by your house when I’m done?”
“Yeah, I’ve got to mow the lawn in the morning. Mom will be home, so Shawn can stay here, if you’d like to do something.”
“Let's do something with Shawn. I’m game for anything. Call me in the morning.”
“Night.”
“Goodnight, my mutant from Death Star Three Sixteen.”
The strands of a chuckle came through the line before the call ended. Closing her eyes, she remembered his lips on hers, and his breath across her neck. A loud whoop from across the hall brought her back to the moment. In two seconds, she was at the door, surveying the teens and their fun. Assured everything was under control, she went back to her meal.
The evening progressed without a hitch. The kids watched a documentary on a dig, and had a chance to actually touch dinosaur bones. Three seniors from Drake Magnet School for Gifted Students worked as disc jockeys, and kept the young crowd happy with music. She had to laugh as one of the high school seniors got a group together and taught them the Electric Slide. Right foot, right foot, rock, rock, turn. Soon most of the young teens were participating. Joining the fun, she realized that Jim from River Lights who was acting as a chaperone, was also snapping pictures of the crowd. They were on their third line dance of night, when she bailed out and found a seat.
“This is great,” Jim said as he sat beside her. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this for this age group. You need to do this once a month.”
“Uh! I’m not up to it.” She laughed. “Getting the chaperones to volunteer is hard enough, besides the city is all over me about funding.”
“The museum had to have made money tonight.”
“Oh, the museum is making money, but the city is charging me rent and making the museum pay property taxes.”
“What?”
“Yep, you heard me. Jim, I need help. Would you consider going with me to the mayor’s office? I’ve got a bone to pick with the city that is larger than any dinosaur's.”
“That’s not my beat, but I’ll give you someone who would love to sink her teeth in such a story. Andrea Jenkins.”
“Tell her to call me Monday morning. I’ll give her the details.”
***
Trent looked at the box he had shoved under his bed. Knowing he was overly tired, and probably shouldn’t, he
opened it and began to sort through the items. Unwrapping a small glass heart box sent a flood of memories through his mind, starting with Colleen's smile on her sixteenth birthday, as she opened the glass box filled with chocolates. Now it contained her jewelry, including her wedding band. The tiny band wouldn’t fit over the first knuckle of his pinky finger. Her gold crucifix that hung on a delicate gold chain, he had given it to her when she turned eighteen. Holding her earrings, made with pearls and the tiniest diamonds, choked him with emotion, and tears began to flow. My beautiful bride, I miss you.
He opened his eyes and realized he’d been sleeping for hours. His fingers were still wrapped around the frame of Colleen’s photo. Carefully, he sat up and began to pack her things away. He scooped the diamond and pearl earrings from where they had scattered in the sheets and put them in the glass box. Holding the glass heart, he realized he had no desire to put it back with the other items, so he left it out on his chest of drawers.
Wide-awake at two twenty-three in the morning, he made a pot of coffee and checked on his son. The child was sleeping peacefully. My little piece of Colleen. He went back to his coffee and sat at the table. His mind was clear and alert. Colleen is gone. Cas is real and the exact opposite of Colleen in so many ways. Colleen…all rounded and soft.
The image of Cassie appeared. She had a slender, boyish figure, but she was pure female. She excited him.
Feelings past and present jumbled though his mind as he drank his coffee. The need to sort everything was overwhelming. He poured what was left of his cup down the drain and went back to his room. He grabbed the box under the bed, added the glass heart that contained Colleen’s jewelry, and took it to his car.
Pulling into Sweet Grandview’s parking garage, he punched Cassie’s cell phone number into his phone.
“Hello,” a sleepy voice answered.
“I need to talk to you. Will you let me in?”
***
She focused on her clock with glowing blue numerals. “Trent, it’s four fifteen in the morning.”
“I know. Will you let me in?”
“Yes. Give me a moment. Where are you?”
“In the parking garage.”
A few minutes later, he was in her kitchen with his box on her counter. “I need help, Cas. Every feeling and emotion is a jumbled mess.”
“Are you talking about last night?”
“And my past and future.”
“What’s in the box?” She began to fix a pot of coffee.
“My past.”
“So, why is it here?”
“I asked my mom about Colleen’s things, and she had them. Well, not everything. There are a few things missing that I wished she had saved.”
“So, why is it here?”
“I thought…maybe you’d want to see it.”
She shook her head as if to clear the cobwebs. Why would I want to see them? “They're your memories.”
“Will you look?”
“Yes. But I’m not sure why you want me to do this.”
He glanced at the gurgling coffeepot and then at Cassie. “I don’t know either, other than Colleen is my wife.”
“Well, there’s one thing. Let me guess. You are feeling guilty because we had sex last night?”
***
He turned his gaze away from her. She collected his hand into hers and brought it to her lips. Warmth spread down his arm and right to his heart, where it masked all his other feelings for a moment. Yes, guilt.
“Coffee is ready. How do you like it?”
“Black and sweet.”
She giggled. “One more thing we have in common.”
“I doubt we have much in common.”
She fixed two cups and passed him one before opening the box. “Curiosity is killing me.”
~~7~~
Cassie leaned into Trent’s shoulder and he wrapped his arm around her. He felt too good. His warm muscular body was lightly scented with a natural musky smell of male. She planted a noisy puckered kiss on his neck, as she ran her fingertips over his unshaven face. She forced herself away from his body.
“Do you want my opinion on what to do with the contents of this box?”
He shrugged.
“Give the glass heart box to Shawn. He can keep it in a drawer. It’s not crystal or anything very special, but it was his mom’s. He can keep little things in it. The jewelry needs to be kept for him. With luck, his bride can wear the earrings on her wedding day. It’s called family heirlooms.”
“You’re assuming he’s going to live that long.”
“Yes. And you need to start to think about him surviving and becoming a man.”
“Right now, I can’t think past the surgery.”
“And between now and June first, you could be killed. We don’t know what is in store for us. You never in your wildest dreams thought you’d lose Colleen during childbirth.”
“You’re right. I thought we’d always be together.”
“Give him the picture of his mom. You don’t have to hang it in his room, but at least he should have it so he can look at it. You can hang it in his closet, if you don’t want to look at it.” She grinned and stared deep into Trent’s eyes. “I thought he looked like you, but I can see he looks more like his mom.”
“He has her eyes and her smile. I see her in him all the time. He’s that little piece that lives on.”
“Yes. He is.” She ran her hand down his arm. “The rest of this is…I don’t want to seem insensitive, but it’s junk.”
He nodded. “I’m not ready to dispose of it. I just got it back.”
“I understand. Give me a second. I think I have a better box for these things.”
She found a small pretty box in her closet. Reaching into the box she removed the contents and set them on her bureau. A thought flashed through her mind, and she fished through a drawer before returning to the kitchen.
“Here. And this is better for holding her jewelry. I never use it.” She put the various items into the tiny padded velvet sachet, meant to hold jewelry while traveling. Then she handed it to him, as she packed the other things into the pretty container.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
He put the jewelry into the box and placed the lid on it. “This does seem more appropriate for her things.”
“I can’t tell you what to feel, but maybe I can give you some insight. If I had been married to you and died, I’d be delighted if you found someone such as Colleen to love. I wouldn’t want you spending the rest of your life alone. What you had with Colleen was special, and you’ll always hold that love you had for each other in your heart. But what if you had two sons? Would you love one more than the other?”
“Of course not.”
She ran her fingers through the hair on his forearm. “Because we always have the capacity to love another?”
“Maybe.”
“What do you feel towards me?”
Trent shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“I appreciate your honesty. I’m rather uncertain of my feelings towards you at this moment in time.” She poured what was left of her now cold cup of coffee down the drain and refilled it. “I know what I feel when you touch me, and it’s not ho-hum.”
“Whatever I’m doing to you, I like it.”
“So do I.” She grinned. “You’re special and so is Shawn.”
“I’m not ready to jump into a heavy relationship.”
“I agree. Shawn’s surgery and opening old wounds with Colleen’s things, makes it a difficult time for you. I’m in a new job with lots of problems. These things are not conducive to building a relationship.” She sipped her coffee and stared into his gray-blue eyes, obviously filled with pain. “One step at a time. I know what I feel when we’re together.”
He took her hand and attempted to smile. “I do have feelings for you, but they don’t make any sense to me.”
“Why?”
“You’re a doctor.”
�
�I have my PhD. That means I have huge college loans that I’ll be paying on for the next ten years. By the time I deduct my loan payments, you probably bring home more money than I do.”
“I doubt that.”
“If you are really curious, it’s a city job, and my salary is public. Go check the city’s website. The sanitation manager makes more than I do.”
He looked at her askance, and she nodded.
“It sucks. I’ve got a PhD in ancient history. That, and a couple of bucks will buy you a good cup of coffee.” She took a sip from her cup and smiled at him. “At least, you have a trade and a skill.”
His thumb lightly stroked the back of her hand and she curled her fingers tighter around his.
“It’s not just the income,” he said in almost a whisper.
“Then what is it?”
“I’m just a guy who finished high school. Who has a job working for a local company. I’m living with my mother, and praying my son will live long enough to reach maturity.”
“There’s nothing wrong with living at home. It’s obvious that your mom loves you and Shawn. I think the whole city is pulling for him.”
“I’m not giving up hope, but it’s a tiny thread. I’m realistic enough to know that his chance of survival is slim, and if this surgery doesn’t work--”
“No. From what Tate has told me, this surgery will work. He’s got the best possible team of doctors. If he doesn’t have this surgery, he’ll die. We’re all going to die eventually, but I don’t think we’re supposed to bury our children. Hold tight to the hope of a normal life for him.”
He shook his head as he picked up his coffee, then drained the cup. “I am. It’s hard, and I try to make every minute I have with him count.”
“Let me take him to the beach. We can build sandcastles and collect seashells.”
“You don’t understand. I don’t have money to repay you or even pay a portion of the expense.”
“Aside from gas and food, there won’t be much expense if we stay at the Makowllen’s. They aren’t wealthy people, just comfortable, and they want to do this for Shawn. Karen Makowllen was honestly upset that she wouldn’t be there to provide for us. She loves children and playing hostess.”