by BWWM Club
“Gerald has contacts in the media, and so do I. We’re going to try and kill it, but it’s a possibility. I’m sorry, Rebecca.”
Rebecca nodded, but her world was spinning. How could this be happening?
Chapter 12
“Don’t tell me you’re considering it again, Beck.”
“Considering what?” asked Phyllis.
Grace sighed.
“Every time something goes wrong, your mother breaks up with that poor man. I don’t think he’d take it very kindly if she did it again and honestly, I can see his point of view by now.”
“Really, mom?”
“I did it twice and I apologized and went back to him,” said Rebecca, distracted.
“You broke up with him twice? Damn, mom! You’ve only known him for a couple of months!”
“Well, it’s been a lot. I don’t know about this. What if it happens again? What if it’s all… What about Annabelle? It’s not fair to her that she has to handle this, any of this.”
“None of this is fair, but you don’t get to use my daughter to get out of this. You need to make a choice, it has to be about you. And you’d be an idiot to let this man go like that.”
“Don’t call me an idiot, I am your mother, Phyllis.”
“Sure, you’re my mother, and also an idiot if you’re even considering breaking up with him over this. It’s just tabloids, and it’s nothing bad. So what if they run a story? Let them run a story. Let Annabelle know that her gramma has fallen in love again. What’s wrong with that?”
“It will be upsetting for her. It will be upsetting at school.”
“And we will be there for her, and we will help her through it. Do you want to teach her to live her life by how other people will react and what they will say?”
“Listen to your daughter, Beck. She’s wise beyond her years.”
“Exactly,” declared Phyllis, refilling everybody’s wine.
Rick had picked up Annabelle and brought her home. Grace had picked up Lillian – apparently Tianna hadn’t been happy and was making noises about going to a commune or something of the sort, which wasn’t something Rebecca would lose much sleep over – and had come right over.
“You shouldn’t let go of love, Becca. Annabelle will be fine. Will you be fine?”
Rebecca sighed.
“I don’t… I never thought about any of this. I didn’t think that any of this was, you know, part of the deal. Who thinks about things like this? I didn’t even sign myself up for that dating app!”
“You need to delete your profile, by the way.”
Rebecca nodded.
“I did, it was the first thing I did. I don’t…”
Her phone rang. All eyes turned to her. Sighing, she took it, and saw that it was George.
“It’s George.”
She stared at the phone.
“Well? What are you waiting for? Divine intervention? Answer the phone!”
Rebecca nodded, and she took the call.
“Rebecca, I was wondering if you’d fallen asleep. Gerald is here with me. You’re on speaker.”
“Oh.”
“Rebecca, I talked to a few people, and I’ve managed to spin things a bit. There will be a few reports up, we can’t help that. There isn’t much we can do about that. This isn’t an interview, so we can’t kill it. Multiple reporters have the details. What we can do is offer an exclusive to the biggest one and make that the narrative.”
“What?”
“It will be out there. We can make it positive by giving an interview, and a photo shoot. I know this is not what you’d like, but this might be the best thing to do. It might be the easiest way – give them lots of material, so they don’t go digging into your family, and we’ll give them something completely unrelated to write about in a day. I have a friend who just eloped and has been waiting for the right time to drop the news. I can do that in 48 hours.”
“A photo shoot?”
“I’m afraid it’s the only real way out of this, Rebecca. I’m sorry, love.”
“Oh.”
Rebecca took a deep breath, and she made a choice. Grace was right. She couldn’t keep running away. When something was worth fighting for, you just had to fight for it, didn’t you? This was worth fighting for.
She wouldn’t let go of this happiness she had found.
“I’ll do it. I… I need to talk to Phyllis first and I need to make Annabelle understand, but I’ll do it.”
“Thank you. Rebecca, I…Hold on. You’re off speaker phone now. I think, by some miracle, what Phyllis and you said, and what Bethany said, got into Gerald’s head. He is doing everything he can to sort this out, Rebecca.”
“I should thank him.”
“No, that’s not what I meant. I thought it would make you happier to know that.”
“Yes. Yes, I’m sure it will, when I can think about it properly.”
“I’m afraid I can’t give you much time. We have to do this tomorrow. We’re doing what we can – legal notices to the makers of the app and the owners of the service – but there isn’t much we can do about the story itself except this.”
“I know. I understand,” she told him, and she did. But understanding was a long way from accepting. It was a long way from accepting even when her friends and her daughter assured her that she was doing the right thing, that this was the only thing she could do, that she shouldn’t give up on love because of this.
Grace spun into action, middle of the night or not, putting outfits together for the shoot. Lillian and Phyllis stayed up with her and talked her through what to expect, did what research they could on the reporters she would meet the next day.
Her support system kicked in, and they supported her.
George was there, too, talking to her, reassuring her, telling her that it would all be over soon, and then everything would be fine.
Grace and Lillian whisked her off to a salon to get her ready. Everything was moving so fast that she didn’t have much time to worry about it. Before she knew it, George was there to pick her up.
Once they were in the car, he turned to her.
“Rebecca. I know this is not the best time. I know that. But in another way… This is the perfect time. Things are not looking their best, but you’ve got what you wanted.”
“What?”
“You wanted our families to get together and get along. This is what it took, but they’re doing that now.”
“Oh!”
She hadn’t thought of it that way. That was a better way of looking at things – a much better way of looking at things.
“You’re right.”
“Of course I am. So in a way, this is the perfect time to ask. Will you marry me?”
She looked at his hand and saw that he was holding a ring – a ruby set in diamonds, elegant but not big enough to feel overwhelming.
“George.”
“You don’t have to mention this during the interview. Or you can, if you want to. It’s up to you, I leave it completely up to you. But will you marry me?”
There was only one answer to that question.
“Yes. Yes, of course I will marry you! Yes!”
She hugged him tightly, and he pulled away long enough to slide the ring onto her finger. It reminded her of that day, six years ago, when she had finally taken her wedding ring off. A new beginning – maybe everybody did deserve a new beginning at some point. Maybe that was the whole point of keeping faith.
Her second chance at love was as precious as the first.
“She said yes, Rick,” declared George, and Rick chuckled from the driver’s seat.
“Congratulations, Mr. Walters, Ms. Langston. I know you will both be very happy.”
“I insist on you calling me Rebecca, Rick. I’m going to get married. Oh, Phyllis is going to flip! Maybe we should wait until Bethany has the baby, she will want to be involved with the planning. She’s so good at it.”
George grinned.
“We can
have the ceremony and the party whenever you want, but I want us to make it legal as soon as we can. I want you to be my wife. I want to be able to call you my wife as soon as I can make it happen, Rebecca.”
Thinking about it gave her a warm glow. The thought of him calling her his wife. He kissed her, careful not to smudge her makeup because she had warned him, and her heart soared with happiness.
Maybe that was what gave her the confidence to handle the shoot and the interview, because she did choose to tell them that she was getting married – though she took a few minutes to call her friends and her daughter to tell them first, because they deserved to know first. She took a few moments to tell Roger about it, too, and she could’ve sworn that she could feel Roger’s presence beside her as she did so.
The interview and shoot should have been tedious and exhausting, but she felt as if she was floating on a cloud. She didn’t even mind that they made her change outfits for more photos. She even found the presence of mind to call attention to her career as a teacher, to how schoolteachers’ strikes should be seen as the last-ditch attempts of desperation that they were, how they should be supported with more funds and more policies.
If she was going to be written about, then she might as well give them something substantial to write about.
When it was over, she should have been absolutely drained, but she wasn’t. Every time she caught a glimpse of her hand with that ring sparkling on it, it felt as if her heart was shining even brighter than the gemstones.
Nothing could be brighter than George’s eyes when he looked at her, thought Rebecca. She wondered again at how lucky she was.
“Will you come home with me?” he asked, when they finally got back into the car.
She didn’t have to think twice.
“Of course,” she told him.
It was funny how the gates weren’t intimidating and sinister when she was with George. They were just gates, closing off their sanctuary, to people who would invade their safe space.
“Marry me as soon as I can get the license,” urged George, again.
“I want my friends and family there even for that. We can go down to city hall and do it whenever everybody is free. That includes Gerald, and Bethany. And you, Rick!”
“I’m in, don’t you worry about it. Who else will drive you?”
Rebecca grinned. She was quite sure now that Phyllis and Rick were tentatively something. Good for them. It would be fun to see Gerald’s reaction. It would show just how much he had actually grown.
They were inside when he grabbed her and spun her around.
“Do you know how magnificent you were today? You handled all those questions like you’ve been handling them all your… Oh!”
Rebecca laughed when he caught on.
“They’re not really much harder than teenagers. Or worse, teenagers’ parents.”
“I suppose so. I didn’t think of that. It will be fine, Rebecca. I promise you, it will be fine now.”
She smiled up at him, her hands linked behind his neck.
“I know. I trust you, George.”
He stilled, and then placed a hand on her cheek, a gesture of such tenderness that her heart filled with love for him.
“You trust me.”
“I do. It took me some time, but I do.”
He kissed her, sweetly, until the heat crept up on her, making her legs tremble, making her sigh against his mouth.
“You do that. You start so sweetly but before I know it, a need builds inside me, for you.”
“You need me.”
“I need you. Of course I need you.”
“Show me.”
This time, she took his hand and led him to the bedroom. She didn’t wait for him. He reached for her when they were in the bedroom, and she smiled, walked into his arms, and pulled his head down to hers to kiss him again.
She poured everything she felt into that kiss, until her head swam with the power of it, until she heard him groan her name against her lips.
“I want to make love to you.”
She undressed him, her fingers quick as she pulled at his buttons.
“You looked so good in all those photos. I wanted you there, I wanted you right there. I want you now.”
“Rebecca.”
He kissed her as she pulled his shirt off, undid the buckle, the button of his pants, pulled his zip down and pushed his pants down and off his hips. Her hands curved behind him, cupped his ass, still firm to her touch, and bit his lip.
He gasped in surprise and Rebecca grinned.
“Good,” she told him, as she slid her hands under the flimsy fabric, and used her nails on his ass, lightly.
He pulled her dress off, leaving her in a bra that was quite a feat of engineering and panties that rode high on her waist.
“Oh, you like that,” she observed, as his erection twitched at the sight of her. One, she thought, should never stop learning. She was learning a few very interesting things in her retirement. She hoped he would never stop teaching her all of those very interesting things.
She kneeled in front of him, wrapped her hand around his shaft, and looked up at him as she stroked him, almost lazily, despite the urgency pushing her on. She wanted to see him, to see what she could do to him.
“Rebecca. You’re driving me mad.”
“Good,” she told him, and stroked him again, lightly, this time using her tongue on his tip for a split second.
She cupped his balls and fondled them lightly, loving the weight of them in her hands. She pressed her lips to his shaft, kissed her way to his base, back to his tip and licked it again, making him twitch for her again. She felt his veins throb in desire for her.
“I can’t… I can’t keep standing, Rebecca,” he admitted with a hoarse laugh.
“Lie down. I’m not done.”
“Witch,” he accused her, and she accepted it with a jaunty smile.
She loved looking at him. He was beautiful to her. It was a revelation, and one that helped her accept that she was beautiful to him, too. It helped her feel beautiful, and sexy, and so very desired.
He had given her more gifts than he knew.
She slowly pushed her panties down and off , and left her bra on, as she moved onto the bed and over him, straddling him.
“I like how yoga has kept you limber,” he told her, making her laugh a little.
She kissed him again, used her teeth on his lips before licking her way down his neck, back up to his ear to nibble at it, making him wait, making herself wait for what they both wanted.
She kissed his chest, licking his small nipples until they hardened, nibbling at them like he loved to nibble at her own. She kissed her way lower, his belly still almost flat, still toned.
“I do love you, and your body, George.”
“Show me,” he managed to say, hoarsely, but he was so turned on that he was already leaking.
She was only human. How much could she resist when she needed him so much?
She reached for the lube, knowing where it was by then, and stroked him lovingly, knowing now how to make him groan just that way. She smiled at him before straddling him, and waited.
“Tell me.”
“I want you. Please, Rebecca.”
She smiled, and slowly sank onto him, rocking her hips, moving slowly and steadily, taking him inside her with gentle rocking thrusts until he was finally inside her, all the way inside her, making her gasp a little, making her moan in pleasure.
“George.”
“Please, don’t stop, Rebecca.”
“I won’t,” she promised him, and her ring gleamed on her finger as she braced herself against his chest and rode him, slowly, steadily, setting the pace she wanted, to torture them both.
She leaned down to kiss him, and he kept her there, holding her there, pressed against him, as he thrust up into her, urging her to ride him faster.
“George.”
“You feel so good,” he told her, and she moved faster, matching
his pace, holding on to him, until she couldn’t.
“I can’t,” she gasped, and he rolled her over onto her back smoothly, and he drove into her, steadily, over and over again, until all she could do was hold on to him and gasp his name, as if it was all she could say. He was all she wanted.
“Don’t stop. Don’t stop, please,” she begged, and he didn’t stop, not when her shudders slowly began, not when she held her breath and let the pleasure roll through her in waves that sent her tumbling in ecstasy.
“You’re amazing. You’re fucking amazing,” he told her, holding steady, kissing her, looking at her, before he finally let go, taking his own pleasure, using her body for his pleasure, just how she wanted him to. She held him close as he found fulfillment, as he climaxed deep inside her.
She knew how he moved. This time, she didn’t let go as he rolled onto his side, because she knew that he would want her to move with him. He kissed her softly, and smiled.
“You’re amazing. I love you, Rebecca. I’m so happy you will be my wife. You’ve made me so happy.”
“You’ve made me so happy, too. I didn’t know I could want anybody like this again, but I do. I didn’t think I would love again, but here you are.”
George smiled.
“Here we are,” he said, and kissed her again.
There they were, indeed.
Rebecca stood beside Bethany, who was, for once, glowing.
“I think this will be a lovely party,” said Bethany, glowing.
“Really? I don’t think you should be planning a party. You should be resting, enjoying your pregnancy.”
Bethany smiled serenely.
“You’re not getting out of this, Rebecca. We’ll go along with your plan on everything – your civil wedding in a month, a proper wedding after the baby is here – that’s all fine. But we are going to have an engagement party.”
“But Bethany…”
“Save yourself the trouble. When Bethany makes up her mind, that’s what’s going to happen. Might as well resign yourself to it and go along with it,” advised Gerald.
Rebecca smiled at the young man. It was still a little jarring that he was friendly with her. The impending miracle of fatherhood, and Bethany’s joy at being pregnant, had changed him if everything else hadn’t been enough.