Finding Happily-Ever-After

by Marie Ferrarella

  Unable to hold himself in check any longer, Chris drew his body up along Jewel’s until his eyes were looking down into hers.

  And then he took her.

  Or she him.

  He wasn’t certain of the order, all he knew was that he couldn’t ignore the demands of the rhythm that had taken him prisoner, holding on to him tightly. The rhythm echoed faster and faster until, suddenly, he was propelled into another world where two people became one and nothing else made sense but that.

  He was vaguely aware of her crying out, and the sound vibrated in his head even as the heated embrace of euphoria receded inch by cooling inch from around his body.

  Chris became aware that his arms were wrapped around her, as if that sole act could stave off the onslaught of reality. He wanted the feeling of euphoria to remain forever.

  But even as he thought it, the feeling was breaking up, expiring like the bubbles in a bubble bath after their time was past.

  “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she heard him ask, his warm breath brushing up against her skin. Heating it all over again.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “This is the first out-of-body experience I’ve ever had.” And she fervently hoped it wasn’t going to be the last. She wasn’t naive enough to believe that this was the beginning of the rest of her life, but she was hopeful enough to pray that there were a few more moments like this left for her before she and Chris went their separate ways.

  Raising her head, she leaned her arm across his chest and then rested her chin against it.

  Her eyes danced as she deadpanned, “Was it something I said?”

  He’d been afraid that he’d gone too far, presumed too much. Hearing the teasing question brought a sense of relief to him.

  “No,” he answered honestly. “It was something you did.”

  If she’d somehow triggered this wondrous experience, she needed to know. That way she could do it again. “What?” she pressed.

  “You were,” he replied. When she looked at him, puzzled, he repeated, “You just were.”

  Jewel needed more of a hint than that. She ran her fingertip along his lips. She was arousing him. She could see it.

  “Were what?” she pressed.

  “You. You were you. And magnificent,” he whispered just before he drew her head down to his. Her mouth down to his.

  The lovemaking began all over again, with even more pulsating excitement this time because each knew what was waiting for them just around the corner. And because time, ever an enemy, was growing short. Life was waiting for them just outside the door.

  They made the most of the moment.

  Late that afternoon, when Chris arrived to pick Joel up from Cecilia’s house, he saw that Jewel’s car was parked at the curb.

  She was here.

  A dozen or more feelings instantly sprang up, assaulting him from every angle. It had been difficult enough to keep his mind on his lesson plan as he stood at the front of his classroom. If he forgot a word or two, or missed a beat, he knew it would be attributed to his having lost his sister. All his classes had been informed by the substituting professor why he hadn’t been there for the past few sessions.

  But how was he going to pretend that nothing monumental had happened between the two of them when he walked into Cecilia’s house and caught his first glimpse of Jewel?

  And his second glimpse and his third?

  How was he going to pretend that he wanted to do something other than sweep her into his arms and start the lovemaking process all over again?

  He felt as if someone had slipped into his body and transformed him.

  Jewel could feel the pulse in her throat going haywire—or at least it seemed that way—the moment she saw him take command of the room.

  She did her best to appear nonchalant when Chris walked into the living room after her mother had opened the front door to admit him.

  Her best was not good enough.

  Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she should have gone straight to his sister’s house to give him a progress report. Encountering him here, under the watchful eyes of her mother and her mother’s fellow yentas, the same day that Chris had made the earth move for her might not have been the smartest thing she had ever done.

  Even if she could exercise steely control over herself, her mother, bless her, had a sixth sense when it came to the vibes given off by a man and a woman.

  And Maizie was even worse. The only one who wasn’t as tuned in to those things—and was more thoughtful about making her suspicions public—was Theresa. Although, Jewel reconsidered, not to hear Kate tell it.

  She forced a smile to her lips and tried to sound as distant as possible as she told Chris, “I just wanted to let you know that I think I might be onto something.”

  The look on Chris’s face told her that he wholeheartedly agreed. That, as far as his opinion went, she most definitely was onto something.

  She was quick to set him straight. “About the location of Joel’s father,” Jewel stressed, lowering her voice.

  “Oh. Good.” The first word reflected that he was still somewhat stunned to see her. The second word so lacked feeling and enthusiasm that she thought he hadn’t really heard her. That was why he’d hired her, wasn’t it? To find the boy’s real father.

  “I have to follow it up,” she continued, “but it seems to be the first solid lead I have.”

  He remembered her saying something about tracing the man through his IRS filings. Was that what she’d done? And why didn’t he feel a sense of relief or happiness at the thought of locating Joel’s father? This was what he’d wanted. To pass the obligation of taking care of another human being onto someone else.

  Had his wiring gone so far off-kilter today that nothing made sense to him?

  “Well, that’s good news, isn’t it?” Theresa asked slowly, looking from Jewel to Chris and then back again. It was obvious by their expressions that neither of them saw this as particularly good news. Theresa smiled as she exchanged glances with Cecilia.

  “Yes. Of course. Good news.” Chris was parroting the words. Who would have ever thought that such a small woman could upend his world? And at his age. It just didn’t seem possible.

  And yet, it was true.

  He looked strange, Jewel thought. As if all four cylinders of his engine weren’t firing correctly. “Is something wrong?” she asked him, concerned.

  “No, nothing,” he assured her a little too quickly. “I’d better get Joel home,” Chris said suddenly. “He’s got a big day tomorrow.”

  Apparently oblivious to the conversation going on around him up until this moment, Joel’s head snapped up. His small eyes darted from his uncle to his new—and only—best friend.

  “Jewel?”

  There were so many things she heard in Joel’s small, reedy voice. It didn’t take much for her to know that what he needed most was reassurance. “Sure, I can come with you tomorrow to drop you off.”

  He didn’t look the least bit surprised that she had read his mind. “And pick me up?”

  Chris looked on, somewhat surprised by the exchange.

  “And pick you up,” Jewel confirmed with a wide smile. “And in between, you’re going to have a great time,” she promised the boy, putting her arm around the small shoulders. She slanted a look toward his temporary guardian. “Isn’t he, Uncle Chris?”

  Chris’s eyes met hers over the boy’s head. “Absolutely.”

  One glance at the boy’s face told them that Joel was far from convinced.

  She had her work cut out for her, Jewel thought. But she worked best under pressure. “Want me to come over tonight?” she asked the boy.

  Both Joel and his uncle said, “Yes,” their voices overlapping.

  Jewel grinned. Her eyes went from the grown man who’d lit up her world to the little boy who lit up whenever he saw her. She deliberately avoided looking in her mother’s direction—or the direction of either of the other two women. She wasn’t up to dealing with th
eir knowing expressions.

  “You got it,” she told the two males in the room.

  Unable to avoid it, out of the corner of her eye she glanced toward her mother and saw the smug, satisfied look. It was enough to make her want to shout, “It’s not what you’re thinking!”

  But, unfortunately, it was.

  It was exactly what her mother was thinking. And that, truthfully, was the only fly in the ointment for her because, although she dearly loved the woman who had given her life, Jewel knew what Cecilia Parnell was capable of. If she grazed the ball just once, it encouraged her to take a thousand swings at bat. And even though they might all turn out to be misses, her mother would keep on swinging until she had another hit, however minor, to her credit.

  Her only salvation, Jewel thought, was that once Chris was history, as he surely would be, she would tell her mother that there was nothing between them except for Joel.

  But even as she thought it, she had a feeling her mother wouldn’t believe her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Before the week was out, Chris felt that he had, in essence, reclaimed his life. He was back teaching at the university and he was once again working on the college textbook. But life was not without its surprises.

  He discovered, much to his amazement, that what had once sustained him and given him purpose now just wasn’t enough. He looked back over his years in the academic world and was mystified that he had ever thought that his life was full. It wasn’t. There was an emptiness at the core, an emptiness that he now realized he had unconsciously tried to ignore by filling his time with work. Perpetual work.

  He published papers, did research and occasionally volunteered to take over classes for vacationing fellow science professors. All, he now knew, in order to avoid coming face-to-face with the truth: Man could not live by job devotion alone.

  There was a need for balance that could only be arrived at by filling that all-consuming hole with family. With the fulfillment that being needed on a personal basis brought. Providing a home and emotional support for his nephew had made all that clear to him.

  But even being both mother and father—temporarily, he reminded himself—for the boy did not sufficiently fill up the hole. For that to happen, there had to be something more.

  There had to be Jewel.

  She completed the unit.

  Completed him.

  Even as he thought that, Chris turned to face Jewel, silently warning himself not to get too attached to any of it. That at any moment, everything could change in a heartbeat. The way it had with Rita’s death. Except that this time, it would be Joel’s departure that would bring about the change. The boy would be leaving if his father were found. As would Jewel, because finding Ray was what she’d signed on for. There would be no reason for her to keep meeting with him once that was accomplished.

  Unless she wanted to.

  Chris sighed, staring up at the darkened ceiling. He was a novice at this, at keeping the fragile pseudo–family unit together, alive and well. One misstep and it would all be over, shattered beyond repair.

  He now knew what a tightrope walker had to feel like, trying to inch his way from one end of the rope to the other without falling. Without losing everything. The very thought made his gut tighten. Almost to the point where he couldn’t breathe.

  Chris shifted in the bed he’d commandeered—Rita’s bed—and slowly turned back to the woman beside him. The woman, partly to present her reports verbally, partly in response to Joel’s perpetual requests to see her, had taken to coming over every evening after five o’clock. They would all have dinner together and then they would take turns, when he didn’t have papers to grade, helping Joel with his homework.

  Chris smiled to himself. The first time that happened, he’d expressed surprise that there actually was homework in kindergarten, but obviously the school believed in working with young minds right from the start. And that was a good thing.

  So one of them would help the boy with his homework and thus a pattern was created. First they’d all spend time together, then after Joel was tucked into bed and read to until he fell asleep, Jewel and he would carve out their own private heaven, making love with a passion that said things that neither of them had yet ventured to voice aloud: that they knew this was just temporary. That they were making the most of the time they had together. Storing memories for the time when they would no longer be together.

  She could feel Chris looking at her. Studying her. Jewel turned into him, her naked body brushing up against his.

  Odd how quickly she’d grown so comfortable around him, she thought. There was no awkwardness in the silences that occasionally occurred between them, no sense of urgency to fill the air with conversation.

  But even though there was no awkwardness, she sensed that there was something bothering him. Something he was having difficulty putting into words.

  “Something on your mind you want to talk about?” Jewel coaxed softly.

  He was beginning to think she was a mind reader. She always seemed to know when he was holding things back. “What makes you say that?”

  Jewel raised herself up on her elbow and ran her fingertips lightly along the furrow that had formed between his eyebrows. The same kind of furrow that Joel had when he was thinking.

  “You’re pensive,” she told him. “As if you don’t know how to phrase whatever it is that you’re wrestling with.”

  That was as good a summation as any. Chris sighed. “Maybe I don’t.”

  “Just spit it out,” she encouraged, then teased, “There won’t be any points off for bad grammar, I promise.”

  He wasn’t getting anywhere silently chewing on this. Making up his mind, he plunged in. “You haven’t found Ray yet.”

  Was that what this was about? That so far, despite her best efforts, she hadn’t been able to produce Joel’s father? She hadn’t given up by a long shot.

  “We’re not out of options yet,” she told Chris. “One of the people I know is putting me in touch with—”

  “Maybe we should stop looking.” Now, that surprised her.

  She didn’t understand. Chris had been so adamant about locating Joel’s father when he’d first hired her. Not that much time had gone by. What was going on? Why had he changed his mind?

  “Why would we do that?”

  He gave her reasons, going about it as if he were proving a theorem. “Look at it logically. If Ray had wanted to be part of Joel’s life, he would have found a way to stay in contact with him. Phone calls, birthday cards, postcards if he’s traveling. Something,” he emphasized. “After all, Joel’s his son. That’s supposed to mean something. Instead, there hasn’t been anything in three years. Three years. For all intents and purposes, it’s like Ray just dropped off the face of the earth. Maybe he doesn’t want to be found.”

  It made sense. But all this was true when he hired her. She had a feeling that there was more.

  “What else?” she prodded.

  Chris slowly blew out a breath before answering. One hand under his head, he tucked the other around her and brought Jewel closer to him.

  “Bringing Ray back after all this time will just toss Joel’s life into chaos again. Ray may be his father, but he’s a complete stranger to Joel. It would be like putting him into a foster home. I can help supplement his education and, in case you haven’t noticed, the kid lights up like a Christmas tree every time he sees you. Joel’s happy now, possibly for the first time in his life, and I don’t think I have the right to spoil that for him. To shake things up for him by bringing his father into it.”

  He paused. Was he being selfish or altruistic? He wasn’t really sure. All he knew was that he didn’t think that changing things again so soon after Rita’s death was a good idea.

  “Maybe we should just let sleeping dogs lie,” Chris said.

  “Maybe,” Jewel acknowledged. She knew he didn’t want to hear this, but it had to be put out on the table. “But what happens if that sleeping dog
wakes up and wanders into your lives?”

  Puzzled, he turned into her. “What?”

  She spelled it out for him. “What if Ray comes back on his own for whatever reason and finds out that Rita’s dead and his son’s being raised by the brother-in-law he’s always felt inferior to?”

  Her assumption caught him off guard. He looked at her, confused. “What makes you think he felt inferior to me?”

  “Things I picked up on while trying to locate Ray.” Jewel sat up to look at him, ignoring the fact that she was nude from the waist up. “We might never be able to find Ray, but we have to continue trying as long as there are still avenues to pursue.” She didn’t go into details, but she was fairly sure that she was on the right track. “Because if we just call it all off, I guarantee you’re going to spend the rest of your parental life looking over your shoulder, expecting Ray to just show up one day and take Joel from you, maybe just out of spite. Trust me. You don’t want to have to live like that.”

  Chris slowly shook his head. “No. You’re right. I don’t.”

  And because it was the middle of the night and nothing could be done about it one way or another right now, he set the matter aside and focused on her. On the lightly bronzed beauty sitting up next to him and looking like a goddess.

  He felt his gut tightening all over again. Tightening out of need and radiating far-reaching fingers of desire all through him.

  “How did you get to be so wise?” he wanted to know, slipping his hands on either side of her waist.

  She grinned. “Dumb luck most of the time. Instincts make up the rest of it,” she added.

  Chris was now lightly skimming his palms and fingers along her waist and inching his way up to the sides of her breasts. Desires and needs flooded through her, making her ache for him all over again, even though they had already made love, not once but twice. And only a few minutes ago she’d thought she was too exhausted to breathe.

  But from out of nowhere a fresh, new burst of energy emerged, drenching her and energizing her all at the same time.