Blaine

by Katie Dowe

  Chapter 10

  It was much later before he scooped her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom. They hadn't bothered to put on any clothes but he pulled the comforter over her naked body as she snuggled on his chest, her fingers splayed against the light hairs there. That was when he told her.

  “When I came back from the war I suffered from a deep and dark depression,” he told her quietly. She lifted her head and looked at him. His green eyes met hers and held as he continued. "I was in a very bad place. I was injured and I'd come back to a country where I wasn't sure I belonged. It wasn't like I had loved ones waiting for me or anything like that and I had no idea what I was going to do. I went to check out my knee and I was referred to some therapist who diagnosed my problem as being the after effect of war and being displaced by it. I told her a little about my childhood and she gave me medications to take for what I was feeling. Combined with the medication for my knee it started to make me able to get out of bed each morning and I came to rely on them heavily. When the prescriptions ran out I found ways to get anything I could get my hands on. I did construction work for people in the area I as living and I stole medications from their cabinets to feed the habit.” He avoided her eyes, using his lashes to shield his eyes. “I was heading into the path of self-destruction when I came upon that old house, the first one I bought.” He looked at her. “It saved me. Along with my next door neighbor. I started to go to meetings and I kicked the habit eventually. I never took another pill after that. I've been feeling pain in my knee for some time now and I haven't taken anything for it. It got pretty bad today and I had to go to Michael, a doctor friend of mine and he gave me an injection.”

  She was silent for so long that he had to look at her. Maybe it had been too soon for him to tell her that. Maybe he should have waited until they were married or something like that. But he wanted to share everything with her.

  “Sky—”

  She put a finger over his lips. “I'm trying to figure out what and how I can make a difference in your life. How do I make up for what he's been through? That was what has been racing through my mind while you were telling me all that.” She brushed the tears away and took a deep breath. “You had no one and you came home after fighting for your country with no one to turn to. You had parents but you knew they didn't want you and you went through a very bad period and still managed to make something of your life.” Her throat worked as she tried to swallow the lump there. “You went through all that and it never stopped you from falling in love with me and I'm here wondering how on earth I will ever be worthy of the love you have for me.” Tears were streaming down her cheeks freely as she looked at him. She used her hands to frame his face. “Blaine,” she whispered. “Oh God! Blaine.” She was crying uncontrollably now and could not seem to stop. “I don’t deserve a love like yours but I love you so much.”

  He pulled her on top of him and his arms tightened around her as he held her to him tight. His eyes closed as his body shuddered. He was going to be fine. They were going to be fine!

  *****

  “Okay Deloris Wright!” Skylar called out as she took off her coat the minute she got into the foyer of her friend’s two-story house late in the afternoon. “Where's the fire? I left work early and I'm supposed to go home and cook my man a fantastic meal. I had to tell him that he should order takeout instead so this had better be good. Where are you?”

  “In the kitchen and stop complaining. I get it that you're in love and everything is rosy but I'm still your friend so I deserve some of your time.”

  “That was the only reason I came.” She walked into the kitchen and saw she and Angela seated at the counter. “What’s going on?’

  “Sit,” Deloris gestured to one of the chairs around the counter.

  She got up and poured her friend a glass of wine. “What are we celebrating?”

  “We never got to have an engagement party for you and we should have,” Angela told her.

  “That’s why I'm here? Guys, I told you it was okay,” Skylar told them.

  “That’s not why you're here honey,” Deloris told her. “Devon and I are back together.”

  “Honey that’s wonderful and something to celebrate,” Skylar exclaimed.

  “I have cancer,” she continued.

  “What?” Skylar stared at her friends blankly.

  “They caught it early but it's spreading. I'm due to go into the hospital next week,” Deloris emptied her glass and put it onto the counter. “I've known for the past two weeks and I didn't know how to tell Devon or how to tell you guys. I didn't tell Devon because I didn't want him coming back to me out of pity.”

  “He loves you,” Skylar said slowly.

  “I know.” She twisted her fingers together. “It's times like these that you realize how short and uncertain life really is. We spent a lot of years fighting and for what?” She shrugged. “The good thing is that we're closer now than ever.”

  “Oh honey, I'm so sorry,” Skylar reached for her hands. “The kids know?”

  “Not yet,” Deloris said with a small smile. “They're due back for spring break so we'll tell them then. I'm going to need your help to get some kick-ass wigs to cover the baldness,” she added ruefully.

  “We're here,” Angela told her.

  “What else can we do?” Skylar asked her.

  “Continue being my friends. They said they'll be able to get all of it but I'm as scared as hell, you guys!”

  “We're here,” both women assured her.

  *****

  He was propped up on pillows in the bed when she got home. She'd stayed longer than she'd told him she would but she hadn't wanted to leave Deloris until Devon got there and he hadn't gotten home until after eight.

  “Did you eat?” she asked him as she took off her boots and came over to sit on the side of the bed. He wasn't wearing a shirt and she put her hand on his muscled chest automatically.

  “I got hungry so I did.” His dark green eye searched her face. “What’s wrong?”

  “I want us to get married right away, this weekend,” she said quietly.

  “Okay,” he said slowly. “Why?”

  “Life's too short for us to waste any time. I could be dead by next week or something could happen to you—” She broke off as he eased up and gripped her arms.

  “Talk to me.”

  She crawled into his arms and buried her face in his chest. He waited for her to tell him what was going on.

  She lifted her head and stared at him. “Deloris has cancer.”

  “Oh Jesus! Baby, I'm so sorry. How bad?”

  “She's going in next week to have the operation. They caught it in the early stages but you never know.”

  “Hey.” He tilted her chin up. “She's going to be fine. Which hospital?”

  She told him. “They have the best oncologists there. She'll be in good hands.”

  “I still want us to get married this weekend,” she told him.

  “I want whatever you want, but are you sure?” he asked her.

  “I'm going to be fifty-two in two weeks, Blaine. I'm not some blushing bride who needs the glamorous ceremony and the flowing white dress. I'm past that stage. I just want to be with the man I love and to spend the rest of my uncertain life as his wife.”

  “Sounds good to me.” His eyes searched hers in obvious concern. “But I think we can do a little better than city hall. The apartment building is finished and we happen to have full occupancy but the tenants won’t be moving in until the end of April. We could get a minister and invite your friends and a few of mine and your family and have it there. What do you say?”

  She stared at him and then to his obvious surprise burst into tears. He pulled her into his arms and waited until she'd finished. She lifted her head and looked at him. “I think that will work.”

  “I'll make the arrangements,” he wiped her cheeks. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  *****

  Sh
e found the perfect dress. In her purchases she'd picked up the stunning champagne colored lace and hadn't unpacked it yet for some reason. It was made of the most beautiful hand stitched lace she'd ever seen and had cost a lot of money but she knew she would have no problem selling it back to one of her customers. But now she took it out of the box carefully and stared at it, knowing that it was going to be her wedding dress. It was cut high at the neck and had a dip at the back that ended at the waist. It had a narrow skirt and ended with a little flare at the ankles. It was more of a cocktail dress but it would make a great wedding dress for someone like her.

  “Claudia, I need to try this on. Could you close the doors for a few minutes?” she asked her assistant.

  “Of course. It's stunning.”

  Skylar nodded and went into the fitting room. She stared at herself in the full-length mirror, her breath caught in her throat. It fit her as if it had been made especially for her. She smoothed hands over the rich lace and turned to look at the back of it. “Definitely this,” she murmured as she opened the door to step out.

  “Oh my Lord!” Claudia clapped her hands over her mouth as she stared at her employer, her eyes round.

  “I take it that you like it?” Skylar said with a grin.

  The woman didn't respond as she kept staring. “He is going to be completely bowled over,” she whispered.

  “That’s the plan,” Skylar said with a smile.

  *****

  But the wedding was more than just a few friends and her family. He'd invited several of his friends from the club he was a member of and the amount had increased to more than fifty people. Skylar stared at the list in horror. “Babes, this is not what we signed up for,” she told him on Tuesday, a few days before the wedding.

  “I know,” Blaine said with a sigh as he took the list from her. “I invited a few friends from the club and then realized that I had to invite some associates and their wives as well. I've asked my secretary to handle the decorations and the catering part of it. I've also gotten in touch with the table and chairs people and they will be delivering them on Friday. I swear it won't get out of hand, baby, and I'll handle everything. It’s just that it occurred to me that I'm getting married for the first time in my life—and the only time—to the woman I love and I started getting excited.”

  She walked into his arms. “So am I.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “It will be the only time for me too and I want it to be perfect. Aunt Grace knows a great catering company so she'll deal with that part of it.” She pushed him back onto the bed. “How's the knee?”

  “As good as new.” He grinned at her. “Honestly.”

  “No secrets,” she reminded him.

  “No secrets,” he said softly as he took her hands in his. “You're my life,” he told her solemnly.

  She took his hand and placed it above her left breast where he felt the beating of her heart. “You're my heart. You're my best friend and my love. I can't do this without you. I love you so much that it comes through my pores. We're in this together for always.”

  He felt his heart thundering inside his chest at her words and for a moment he couldn't say anything. He pulled her into his arms and held her tight against him. “I feel the same way,” he said thickly.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and held on, closing her eyes. “Good. Then we're on the same page.”

  *****

  “You know I cost a fortune, right?” Mark said as he looked at his friend.

  “I want the friends discount,” Blaine told him as he sipped his cognac. He was at the club on Thursday where he'd asked Mark to meet him to discuss what he had planned. “I'm getting married to this amazing woman after thinking that it would never happen to me. Besides, I'm extending an invitation to you and Latoya and your wife is excited to be there. I'd hate to tell her that because of the fact that you are haggling over money you have no need for, I had to take back the invite.”

  “You play dirty,” Mark said with a glint in his eyes.

  “When it comes to pleasing the woman I love I will do anything,” he said soberly.

  “Welcome to the club man. You have a deal. I'll see what I can do in terms of getting Diana to perform. It's to be a surprise, right?”

  “Yeah.” He continued sipping the drink. “There's something else.”

  “Of course,” Mark said dryly.

  “I want to be a part of the song.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I want to sing to her.”

  “Man, can you even sing?”

  “I have quite a voice,” Blaine said with a grin. “I used to sing when we had down times after a particularly hard day when I was in the army. I idly thought of going professional but I didn't have the discipline.”

  Mark stared at him in surprise. “Diana does not perform with amateurs,” he warned.

  “Just get her to say yes and I'll do the rest.”

  *****

  Blaine excused himself as soon as the ceremony was over and the vows repeated. He'd watched her come through the doors and had felt his heart skip so many beats that he'd started feeling faint. She couldn't possibly be more beautiful, he'd thought faintly as he stared at her coming up the aisle towards him. Her hair was brushed to the side and the curls tamed with the help of gel. A single white rose was pinned to the side and she had a smile on her face as she walked towards him. He'd had eyes only for her, not for the many people who were seated there or for her friends who had come in before her. As far as he was concerned, she was the only one there.

  The ceremony had ended and the guests were gathered in a large hall waiting on the reception. He'd timed it perfectly. Diana hadn't been there for the ceremony but she had arrived a few minutes earlier. A keyboard had been put onto the raised dais and Mark was seated, ready to begin. From his position at the head table with his wife, Blaine nodded and the musical interlude began.

  The guests turned to look at the man but when they saw the beautiful singer coming out with a mic to her mouth and singing the words to one of her well known hits, they got to their feet. As they'd rehearsed Blaine took the mic from the table and, turning to his wife, he started singing. The guests gasped as his rich baritone belted out as he sang about the healing power of love and how renewed he felt to be love like this.

  Skylar stared at the man she had just been married to and couldn't tear her eyes away from him. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it before he turned and went to join Diana on the stage where they sang the poignant chorus together, speaking about everlasting and unending love. Their voices blended so perfectly together that there was a hush in the room that continued even when they were finished singing. The applause came some minutes after and they both took bows. Diana held up a hand for silence. “When Mark approached me about singing at the wedding of his friend I flat out refused. I mean, I owe the guy a lot but come on! I'm a big star and I don’t sing at weddings.” She waited until after the laughter had abated before continuing. “Then I agreed because who says no to Mark? But when he said that the guy wanted to sing along with me I told him an emphatic no! Then I heard Blaine’s voice and I said heck yes!” She turned to look at Blaine. “I know you don't need the money Blaine but if you ever consider a career in the music industry please let me know.”

  “Thank you Diana,” he smiled at the woman and turned to look at Skylar who was staring at him in wonder.

  “I thought about the best way to show my love to a woman that came into my life and changed me in ways that I cannot even explain and couldn't think of anything and then I remembered that I can sing.” He laughed as the guests did. “I can sing and I wanted to surprise her and do this for her. She makes me want to do things I never thought possible before.” He left the stage and approached her. “Skylar Mallory, my wife, my heartbeat, you make me want to sing and dance all night long. I thank God for the day I went to that really lousy dinner and saw the reason for my living. Everything I went through over the years pales into comp
arison to what I feel when I met you. It doesn't matter: the lousy childhood, the war, and the suffering after that. If it was what led me to you, to this life with you, I would do it all over again.”

  *****

  Skylar couldn't get the words past her blocked throat. She'd heard his voice and had felt as if she'd been transported. He sang as well as a professional. “You are certainly full of surprises Blaine,” she finally said, her eyes bright with tears. “I thought we said no more secrets?”

  “This was a good one,” he told her softly.

  “I can't hold a note like my husband,” she turned to face the guests. “I actually said husband and I just realized that I'm married to the best man in this room, heck the best man in the world.” She looked at the wives of the members of his club for a moment. She had met Latoya, Hailey, Leesa, Eva, Kelly and Imani and Monique and had become friends with them in a very short time. “I've met some very wonderful women who I have read about and before I met Blaine I never could understand that such a love existed. I read articles about their famous love affairs and I didn't really believe it. I'm a believer now,” she said with a smile to the women. She turned to her husband. “Blaine, my love, I'm going to try and spend the rest of my life loving you unconditionally. I want to say that I will take the good with the bad but I haven't seen any bad. You're my perfect man and I love you with all my heart and everything in me. And you will never have to doubt that, no matter what.”

  Chapter 11

  “You do realize that I'm going to require a private performance practically every day right?” she asked softly as she threaded her fingers through his. They were at the apartment after a particular heavy bout of lovemaking which had them trembling long after they were finished. They'd decided to put off the honeymoon until after Deloris’ operation as she wanted to be there for her friend.