Finding Happily-Ever-After

by Marie Ferrarella

  He was wrong.

  “I did for about five minutes,” Jewel admitted. “But initially I didn’t think it through. Now that I have, I realize that you’re right.” Starting the car, she paused to look at him before she released the brake. “You’re probably speaking from experience, aren’t you?” The fact that he didn’t deny it spoke volumes. “How many grades did you skip?”

  Chris shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.” Then, as she pulled out of the parking spot, he decided that there was no reason to keep the matter to himself. He wanted her to understand. “Two.”

  She thought as much. There’d been a look on his face when he politely thanked the principal for the suggestion, opting instead for a normal scholastic route for Joel for the time being, that told her there was a reason behind Chris’s position. “Two different times, or all at once?”

  “All at once.” The laugh was self-depreciating, devoid of any humor. “Bad enough being the smartest kid in the class. When you’re also the youngest by a couple of years…”

  Chris didn’t finish. He didn’t have to. She had a vivid imagination and could certainly fill in the blanks.

  She didn’t attempt to hide her sympathy. “Must have been pretty rough for you.”

  There were times when pity and sympathy were difficult to separate. He wanted neither. He shrugged indifferently. “Could have been easier.”

  And he was trying to protect Joel from having to go through that, she thought. Rather than getting caught up with the academics of it all, trying to push his nephew to the outer limits of his abilities, Chris had wound up being more concerned with the boy’s adjustment to the situation.

  Well, well, well, Jewel thought, you learned something every day. Christopher Culhane was a good man. Better than she’d first guessed.

  Joel spoke up suddenly. “This isn’t the way home,” he observed, watching the streets that whizzed by his window. “Are we going to the beach like you said?” he asked hopefully.

  “Even better,” Jewel responded, sparing just a second to look over her shoulder at the boy. “I have a surprise for you.”

  “What is it?” Joel wanted to know, eagerness and excitement pulsing in his voice.

  “Well, if I told you, then it wouldn’t be a surprise, now, would it?” Jewel asked, struggling to keep a straight face.

  “No, ma’am. I guess not,” Joel responded solemnly. Despite his resignation, his excitement was evident just below the surface.

  Seeing life through the eyes of a child brought an optimistic sheen to everything, she thought. She’d almost forgotten what that had felt like. She had Joel to thank for reminding her.

  Joel didn’t have long to wait.

  Jewel pulled up in her mother’s driveway, and even before she turned off the ignition, her mother was coming out of the house, her arms opened wide in greeting.

  She had to have been watching at the window, Jewel guessed. Some things never changed. She remembered her mother keeping vigil like that when she’d first started dating.

  If the smile on Cecilia Parnell’s subtly made-up face had been any wider, she would have had to rent a body double to accommodate the rest of it, Jewel thought, turning off the engine. She got out of the car and opened the rear passenger door.

  “Remember the ladies who came to your mom’s funeral?” Jewel asked him as she helped Joel out of the restraining belts. “Well, they thought you were so much fun to play with, they asked me if you could come by so they could have a rematch.”

  Although the thought obviously appealed to Joel, the shift in his expression told her that he saw a small problem with that.

  “But I didn’t bring the video game,” he told Jewel in a whisper.

  Jewel struggled to suppress her grin as she pulled the handheld player out of her purse. “But I did.”

  Joel eagerly took possession of the game, his eyes dancing. “You think of everything!” he declared happily.

  The boy filled her with joy, Jewel thought, absorbing his happiness as it radiated out. She couldn’t help glancing back at Chris. “This is one great kid.”

  She’d get no argument from him. Chris was becoming convinced of the same thing himself. He watched as Joel ran up to the trio of women and each took her turn hugging him. Chris noted that his nephew no longer just stoically took the displays of affection as if he were afraid they would vanish at any moment, but returned them, as well.

  It looked as if Joel was set for the next few hours. Chris slanted a look toward the woman responsible for it all. “Does this mean I have time to go over to the university?”

  “That’s what it means. C’mon,” she beckoned, already reopening the driver’s side door. “I’ll drive you back to Rita’s so you can pick up your car.”

  “Take your time, you two,” Cecilia called after them. She already had Joel under her wing, literally and otherwise. “We want to enjoy Joel’s company. You do the same with each other.”

  Jewel shut her eyes for a second, gathering strength. Wondering if anyone had ever died from humiliation. “See you later, Mother,” she called out tersely.

  As Chris buckled up and she started the car, she debated about whether to let the matter go or to say something to apologize.

  Ultimately, she decided that the “hint” her mother had sent their way was much too blatant to ignore. “Sorry about that,” she murmured, starting down the road.

  He looked at her quizzically, apparently not following her line of thought. “About what?”

  He was just being polite. It was like saying that he wasn’t aware of the elephant in the room. “My mother and her parting comment.”

  It took him a second to make the connection. “Oh. That.” The smile on his lips was a tolerant one. To him the apology was entirely unnecessary. “From what I gather—and I have no firsthand experience with this—Cecilia was just being a mother. She wants you to be happy.”

  She wanted to ask him what he meant by saying that he had no firsthand experience. Was this referring to a meddling mother, or something else? But she decided that perhaps he wasn’t up to probing right now. She let it ride.

  “What she wants is for me to be married,” Jewel corrected.

  His broad shoulders rose and fell beneath his jacket. “Maybe to her that’s one and the same thing.”

  “Very astute of you,” she acknowledged, a smile playing on her lips. “My mother, bless her, grew up in a completely different generation when the words, ’til death do us part actually meant something. Now, if they mean anything, it’s only because one spouse has killed the other.” She bit back a sigh as she decided not to race through a swiftly changing yellow light.

  Chris studied her profile as they waited for the light to change again. “And I thought I had dark thoughts.”

  “They’re not dark thoughts,” she protested, shifting her foot onto the gas pedal. “That’s reality. I admit that, because of my line of work, I get to see a bigger share of disgruntled married couples who want nothing more than to be rid of one another than most people. But even if I didn’t see them, they’d still be there,” she pointed out. “If a tree falls in the forest, it still makes a noise even if there’s no one to hear it.” She used the familiar saying to make her point for her.

  “Marriage doesn’t mean what it used to. People don’t stick together through thick and thin anymore. At the first sign of unrest or trouble, they’re out of there, shedding mates like snakes shed skin.” She hated this particular fact of life, but that didn’t make it any less true. “My mother and her friends were a lot luckier. They didn’t just marry good men, they married ‘forever.’” Jewel blew out a breath. She was letting the subject get to her, and Chris was a captive audience. She shouldn’t be subjecting him to this. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to preach—or vent.”

  “I think venting probably fits the situation better. But you know,” he hypothesized, “statistically speaking, if fifty percent of marriages fail, that means that fifty percent of them succeed. You strik
e me as someone who’s pretty determined. If you were to marry someone, it would be forever. You’d make damn sure of it.”

  Whether he realized it or not, he’d just succeeded in raising her spirits. “That’s a very nice sentiment, Chris.”

  He didn’t like being thanked and that was where this was headed. He offered a disclaimer. “Just an observation,” he replied.

  She caught another red light. At this rate, it was going to take forever to get him to his car, she thought. “You have trouble accepting gratitude, don’t you?”

  He pretended not to know what she was talking about. “Was that what that was?”

  “That’s what that was,” she confirmed. The next moment, she turned a corner then pointed toward the house on the right. “We’re here.”

  He looked out. “So we are. By the way, what time am I supposed to pick up Joel?”

  “That’s entirely up to you. I’m sure the later you come by, the happier my mother and her friends will be.” Parking in the driveway, Jewel pulled up the hand brake. The engine was still running as she paused to let Chris out. With her free hand, she dug through her purse, searching for her cell phone in order to check something on her schedule.

  Except that she couldn’t. No matter where she felt around, she couldn’t seem to locate the phone. “Damn, I know it’s in here somewhere.”

  Chris paused by the car door. “What is?”

  “My cell phone.” She shook her purse a little, thinking it might surface.

  “You had it out in the house,” he recalled.

  Right. Now she remembered. Jewel sighed. “And left it there.”

  “C’mon, I’ll let you in,” he offered.

  Maybe it was her, she thought as she turned off the engine and got out, but for one moment, the words seemed to have the ring of a prophecy about them.

  Chapter Twelve

  The moment Chris unlocked the door for her, Jewel hurried inside the house.

  Her cell phone was exactly where she thought it would be. Right on top of the coffee table where she’d put it when Joel ran up to hug her.

  “Got it,” she announced, putting it into the zippered compartment of her purse.

  Slipping the purse’s strap onto her shoulder, she glanced in Chris’s direction, trying to gauge his thoughts. She didn’t want him to think that she was scatterbrained. If he thought she had trouble locating her cell phone, he might have doubts about her ability to track down Joel’s father.

  “In case you’re wondering,” she told him, “I don’t usually misplace my phone.”

  He shook his head. “Didn’t think you did,” he answered matter-of-factly. His eyes slid over her curves slowly. Right now, his thoughts were miles away from mundane things like misplaced cell phones. Or even getting back to work.

  Right now, all his thoughts were centered on her.

  On what it felt like to have her against him. That kiss the other day had set a great many questions in motion for him. Questions that would never have any answers, unless…

  Jewel shifted slightly, a restless feeling suffusing her mind, body and soul. It was time for her to leave, she told herself. There were a couple of resources she needed to tap before she could put out more feelers.

  Yet she wasn’t moving, wasn’t going out the door or even turning in that direction. Her eyes had met his and the moment they did, a nervous anticipation skittered around inside of her.

  Because silence was stretching out between them, swallowing seconds, Jewel searched for something to say. Anything, no matter how inane. “Bet you can’t wait to get back inside a college classroom.”

  He’d almost said “yes,” but that would have just been an automatic answer, not a truthful one. A week ago, it would have been, but not anymore. A week ago, the University of Bedford constituted his whole life and he’d been content with that. At least, he’d thought he was content with that.

  But now, completely against his will, his horizon had been expanded.

  If he said “yes,” then that would have been the end of it. She’d walk away to do whatever it was she was going to do and he’d drive over to the university, hours ahead of schedule.

  He didn’t want an end to it. Didn’t want her to walk away. Not even for a moment.

  “That’s not a hundred percent true,” Chris heard himself saying.

  She wasn’t quite sure she understood what he was saying. There were a number of conflicting signals going out, confusing the hell out of her. “I thought you lived and breathed teaching—when you weren’t writing,” Jewel tacked on.

  “So did I,” he freely admitted. He found himself taking another step toward her. And then another. It was almost as if he had no choice in the matter. “Looks like we both might be wrong.”

  “Oh?” She could feel her very breath backing up in her lungs. Or was she just holding it, waiting? “I don’t think I quite understand.”

  Chris laughed softly, as if the sound was only intended for him. “That makes two of us.” With effort, he tried to wall off his emotions, tried to back away. But he remained where he was, far too aware of her proximity, far too aware of her for his own good. Or hers.

  “I’m keeping you.” He was doing his best not to let this happen. “You have an appointment.”

  The words left her lips in slow motion. “Actually, I don’t.” She hadn’t been definite in her plans, telling her contact only that she would be dropping by some time on Monday. That left it wide-open, which was just the way she liked it. Free to come and go as she pleased. So why wasn’t she going? “But you have a class,” she reminded him.

  “Not until three o’clock.” He glanced at his watch, al though he was already well aware of the time. “It’s only ten forty-five.”

  The corners of her mouth curved slightly. “With that much time, you could walk to the campus.”

  “Or do something else entirely,” he countered quietly.

  Her mouth went utterly dry. So dry she was surprised that she managed to push the single word out. “What?” Her heart was hammering so hard, it was about to break the sound barrier. Cries of “Mayday” echoed in her brain.

  Chris gently cupped her cheek with his hand. Time froze and completely stood still. Nothing moved but her pounding heart, which was threatening to vibrate right out of her chest.

  As he began to lower his mouth to hers, she had the answer to her question. “Oh, that,” she murmured breathlessly.

  His lips were a fraction of an inch from hers when her response stopped him. Was he assuming too much? “I can back away if you—”

  Chris never got a chance to finish.

  He thought he heard Jewel warn, “Don’t you dare,” but he wasn’t sure because the next moment, her hands were framing the sides of his face and she was pulling him into a kiss.

  Pulling him into her space. Into her world.

  Her lips locked on his as she rose up on her toes so that they could both feel the full impact of the heated contact.

  When she finally drew back to allow them both to catch their breath, he did his best to try to keep the moment light, even while his head was spinning and his blood surged madly through his veins.

  “Is that because you found your phone?” Though he did his best not to show it, he ran out of breath by the next to the last word.

  “As good an excuse as any,” she told him, fighting back a grin. “I was always taught to celebrate the little things.”

  Damn but he wanted her.

  None of this was making any sense to him. He wasn’t acting like himself. But there was no going back, no pulling away.

  He took her into his arms, drawing her closer. “By all means, let’s celebrate.”

  And that was how it began.

  How her entrance into a brand-new, shining world she had never quite experienced before started. There’d been other men, although not nearly as many as she had pretended, but never once did the ground disappear beneath her feet, never once could she recall being filled with an anti
cipation she couldn’t really control.

  And never once, at the very end, when the magic and the starlight had passed and it was all over, had disappointment not been hovering somewhere in the wings, waiting to pounce and overtake her.

  Disappointment didn’t even put a toe into the water this time, didn’t cast a hint of a shadow.

  What was there was fire, heat, a dizzying sense of satisfaction even as the next bombshell had already begun to form.

  Again.

  She’d never lost her sense of orientation before, never felt so excited, so overwhelmed that she completely lost track of the sequence of events.

  Oh, she knew they’d started out fully dressed in the living room and wound up stripped, panting and sealed together, sweaty and passionate, in the master bedroom. But how was unclear.

  What she did remember were sounds and sensations and the feel of his hands, surprisingly strong, yet incredibly gentle, running along the length of her body. But if she were asked to verbally re-create what had happened, moment by moment, there was no way she could.

  Urgency had been her companion, cheering her on as she reached one plateau after another, always believing that this was the end of it, only to discover that there was more. More sensations to absorb, more crescendos to savor, each of them echoing hard throughout her entire body.

  With his hand on the Bible, vowing to speak the truth and nothing but, Chris couldn’t have said what had come over him. Why, when he should have been reaching for his worn briefcase, he found himself reaching for her instead. But suddenly, the need to be alone with her, the desire to make love with this woman who was so completely different from anyone he’d ever known, had been so overpowering that he knew that this was something he couldn’t even begin to ignore.

  Chris had never been one to seize hold of life before. Instead, he had gone along his quiet path, giving himself up to science. He liked things that made sense, no matter how long it took for him to arrive at the conclusion.

  This, this made no sense at all.

  But it felt wonderful.

  He couldn’t remember ever feeling this alive before. Or, he realized as he gave in to another surge of impulse and brushed his lips along the tantalizing length of her body, feeling this happy.