by DW Cee
“Baby, I want to tell you something.”
“What?” I asked while shamelessly wrapped around him.
He pulled us apart a bit, and gave me that serious Max look.
“I love you, Jane. I love the way you make me feel—happy, joyful, grateful for life, and even the crazy, ugly, bitter feelings, too. You make me feel alive. We could be together daily and I’d still crave you. I’d truly move heaven and earth to spend a moment with you, my precious gem. I love you.”
Before I could respond, he put both his hands on my face and gave me a kiss that made me think, “Ana Steele, eat your heart out!” The kiss was raw, sentimental, and filled with affection. Not only did this man love me as a woman, but he also liked me as a person and as a friend.
“I love you too,” was the last thing I remembered saying, before I dozed off in the morning.
“You’re late!” Jake scolded with a chuckle as we shuffled to the brunch table.
“What are you, the time keeper?” Max retorted while giving Emily a squeeze on the shoulder, and kissing my grandmother and mom on the cheek. His attention eventually went to Ellie because James was already playing on the grass with Laney.
Ellie used her only word, “Uh!” and got Max to pick her up and take her with us to our spot at the end of the table. Surprisingly, Kate was seated, without Donovan, chatting with Gimpy.
“Emily, by the mound of food on your plate, I see you’re feeling better?” I asked, showing that I do care about my sister.
“I’m back!” She answered with a grin. “I’m sure you were too occupied to notice last night, but I did eat every bite of what the chef sent out.” She grinned some more.
Shoot! Were we that obvious? I looked to my boyfriend and he had the same silly grin. Whatever.
“Were you ill?” Kate asked in that same sexy voice. I guess morning, noon or night, she sounded sultry.
“My wife is almost five months pregnant, carrying our third child,” Jake proudly announced.
“Almost five months?” I asked super surprised. “When did all those months pass by, and how did you not know till just recently?”
“I was still nursing the twins and my body wasn’t back to normal, so I didn’t notice any of the signs till I got sick. And maybe because I’m not carrying twins this time, my morning sickness died down earlier than before.”
“Are you sure it’s not twins again? You’re eating for twins and then some.” Perhaps that wasn’t the most sensitive thing to say to a pregnant woman, but I knew my sister wouldn’t mind. “And if you’re almost five months prego, where’s the belly?”
“Right here.” She traced her burgeoning belly over her dress. Even pregnant, Emily looked darling, and by that stupid grin on my brother’s face, he too knew she looked darling.
“Since you already have a boy and a girl, is there a preference?” Kate was more interested in our conversation than I expected her to be. She looked to me like a glam woman who would never sacrifice her gorgeous figure to have babies.
“No preference. I would eventually like a sibling for each child, but beyond that, I’ll take healthy.”
“Good morning, everyone.” Geez Louise! Donovan was in workout shorts, a fitted top, and he was sweaty. His wavy hair was wet, sloppy, and curly, and he was still slightly panting from a run or whatever he did. Hey, just because I have a boyfriend doesn’t mean I can’t look and appreciate. I’m taken, not blind and dumb!
Whatever I thought or felt didn’t matter. After greeting my grandmother, my mother, and then Emily, he went straight to Sea-foam and gave her a longer than we’re-just-friends kiss. Uh-huh! I guess someone else got some last night as well. He finally got around to saying hello to me.
“Foreign pasture?” I purposely asked ambiguously, referring sarcastically to his grand statement of “...you know where I stand. Don’t know how long I’ll be standing here, but until you give me the green light, or until I move on to another pasture...” Still standing, my ass! He ran faster than Usain Bolt when Goddess showed.
“Wasn’t welcomed on home soil...” was his riposte. Jerk!
I was about to make another unnecessary comment, but Ellie interrupted us when she screamed her one word and jumped from Max to Donovan. She then pointed to her brother, and Donovan carried her over to James and Laney.
“Everything good?” Max asked, bringing me back from watching Donovan symbolically walk away from me.
“Everything’s great!”
Right??? What else can it be but great? I’m with the man I love, the man who adores me, and the man who can give Christian Grey a run for his money. If there are some of you who have no idea what I was talking about when comparing my man to Ana’s man, I guess you’ll have to go look up that book that starts with the number 50. Oh brother, just what E. L. James needs...another book sale!
March 7, 2013 Quote(s) of the Day
The rest of the week was really quiet at work, but home life was thrown into a complete tizzy. Gram and Gimpy decided to get married this weekend rather than waiting till June. From the words of my sagacious grandmother, “At our age, we could be dead tomorrow...so why wait?” Of course, Gimpy put a romantic spin on things as he said, “I’ve lived without your grandmother my entire life, minus those few blissful months in Paris. We’ve wasted enough time apart. I want my forever with her now.” My Gimpy was the epitome of HAWT for a senior citizen.
Mom, all four aunts, Emily, and a few cousins were busy planning the wedding. It was to be a small affair in our backyard with mostly family, a few friends, and some work colleagues. The rehearsal “dinner” was set for an English Tea Party theme on Friday, and a wedding breakfast would be served after the wedding on Saturday. If you’ll all recall, Aunt Babs is fond of themes. I say “dinner” because it’s actually a late afternoon tea. Since Gram and Gimpy don’t stay up too late, a 4:00 p.m. tea was the compromise. To quote Aunt Babs, “Come in your finest English Tea attire!” Boy, there was a lot of English in my life these days.
“You ready to marry my grandmother?” I asked Gimpy over lunch.
“My dear Janey, I was born ready. She is my sun, my star, my moon, my everything.” Damn, that was smooth!
“Gimpy, you make all men, young and old, look bad.” We laughed together. “Speaking of young men, where’s Donovan these days? I haven’t seen him in the office all week.”
“Donovan is doing some work for us in Orange County.”
“New client?”
“You could say that...”
“Gimpy, you holding out on me? What’s going on?”
“Donovan is trying to woo Kate Beauvais to come work for us.”
He’s still with her??? Woo my ass. He’s not wooing her, but I’m sure he’s doing something that rhymes with wooing!
“Who is this woman? Why do we want her with us? Is she a lawyer?”
“Not exactly. She started with a law degree, but went into hedge funds instead. She was a successful hedge fund manager for a while, then set up her own company with two partners and has done extremely well. She just sold her share of the company and is in a semi-retired state.”
“Isn’t she a bit young to be retired?”
“Yes, she’s only forty. She shouldn’t waste that kind of brilliance lounging at the beach.”
“She’s forty???” Damn, I knew she was older than I, but I thought she was maybe mid-thirties at worst. How can someone her age look that young? “What’s the story with her and Donovan?”
“I’m not sure, but from the looks of it, if anyone can get her into our office, it’s him. I gave him a week to bring her in.”
“Shoot, that means I gotta see her every day.”
“Be nice, Janey. You have a wonderful young man in Max. Don’t covet what you don’t really want.”
I didn’t realize I’d said that aloud. “I’ll be nice...” I murmured.
Max and I planned to have dinner tonight, so I rushed home and primped before meeting my man.
“He
llo, my precious gem.” He gave me an open-mouthed kiss as he sat next to me at the bar. “Should we just dine here or do you want to get a table?”
“We can sit here. They’ll serve us dinner at the bar. How was your day?”
“Uneventful. Not much happened. How was yours? Is the house in an uproar with the wedding?”
“Yeah. Mom and all the aunts have now forbidden us from helping because all of us have too many opinions on everything. Emily’s the only one who can help, but she’s got the twins, and the aunts won’t let her do much of anything because of the pregnancy, so it’s basically the five daughter-in-laws.”
“What do you get for a senior citizen couple who have more money between them than all of us combined?”
“They are not accepting gifts. They have asked for a donation to the hospital instead.”
“Ok. So I’ve been thinking...”
Uh-oh. What have I done lately that may get me into trouble? With Donovan gone wooing Miss French-English, I’d been a good girl, or better said, I hadn’t had a chance to be bad.
“What’s going on in that head of yours? It scares me whenever you say, ‘I’ve been thinking...’”
“After the Montage, I can’t get you off my mind, not that you were ever very far,” Awww! “and I can’t come up with too many ways for us to be alone, so...”
“...so...?”
“My lease is up in June at the apartment. I have one year left in med school, then I’m unsure where I’ll be after that. If we...”
“Just spit out your damn thought!” This native was restless!
“You want to get an apartment together? I’d love for us to live together that last year, then we can decide where this will go once I finish med school and...never mind. I’m getting ahead of myself.”
“Never mind the getting an apartment together or never mind the thought after that?”
“I told you this weekend that I love you, and I mean every word. I have these visions of seeing you asleep in our bed when I come home in the wee hours of the morning, or of making dinner together then doing the dishes, and I definitely have vivid images of coaxing you into morning sex when you’re still drugged with sleep. Do any of those thoughts sound tempting to you?”
Yowza! That was freakin’, freakin’ hawt!!! I’m going to frame that last sentence, “...and I definitely have vivid images of coaxing you into morning sex when you’re still drugged with sleep,” and put it on my nightstand.
“Um...”
“You don’t have to answer now. Think about it and tell me later. We still have a few months before looking for a place together. But...” he went for the kill and put both his hands on my neck, thumbs by my ear, nose touching nose, “I’d love to fall asleep and wake up to your beauty every day,” and of course he kissed me—hot, heavy, and in public. There was another quote I’d put on my nightstand! “I’d love to fall asleep and wake up to your beauty every day.” Goodness, I was dating a modern-day Shakespeare.
After that kind of kiss and those tender but erotic words, there was no need to think about whether Max and I should be roommates. I wanted to say yes immediately, but thought it wise to sit on it for a few days. We had some time before apartment hunting happened.
“Hannah!” Max dropped his hands from my face, and called out in surprise.
“Max!!!” This cute, redheaded college senior, cheerleader-looking girl ran over and hugged Max like he was her long lost brother. “I can’t believe you’re here. I was going to call you tomorrow to see if we could meet.”
“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in Michigan?”
“I got tired of the cold and I just got laid off, so I’m staying at your house for the time being till I can get my life together. Mom and Dad, I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Davis have generously offered to put me up, or better stated, put up with me for a few months.”
Hello???
“I’m sure Mom and Dad will love having you in the house. You were always the daughter they wanted but couldn’t have.”
“Your mom and dad are going to be here any minute now. We’re meeting here for dinner.”
Um...earth to Max...your girlfriend is being ignored...and oh my gosh, I’m about to meet your parents...why haven’t I met your parents in all these months???
“There they are,” this Hannah girl pulled Max off the barstool, and they both left me, with not even a second thought, to greet his parents.
I was a bit taken aback by the way his parents looked. Max was about six feet tall, well-built, and very good looking. His parents were both short, a bit heavy, and stern looking. They didn’t break into a smile when they saw their son, nor did his mother hug him or embrace him as a greeting and show of love. Max wasn’t kidding when he said his parents were not the touchy-feely type. Their conversation was brief and Max soon brought everyone my way.
“Jane, this is my mom, dad, and Hannah, a family friend. Mom, Dad, this is Jane, my girlfriend.”
“Hello!” I did my best Emily welcome. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
All I got was a brief, “hello” from his parents. Hannah was a bit more welcoming. She acted as the spokesperson for the Davis family.
“Hi Jane. It’s great to meet you. Mom and Dad didn’t tell me Max was dating someone.”
Why did this girl call Max’s parents Mom and Dad?
That was a question for later.
“We didn’t tell you about Max’s girlfriend because Max hasn’t really told us about her,” his mom stated matter of factly.
“It’s not as though you showed any interest....” The tone of Max’s voice changed to a mixture of anger and hurt. I got a glimpse of how he must have grown up all these years. My heart broke a little when thinking of Max making every life decision without the approval and support of his family. My family and I’d have to give him some extra attention to make up for all his lost years.
“Well, if that’s what you think, why don’t we change that then?” His mother gave Max a stoic and harsh look, then softened a bit as she faced me. “Jane, would you and Max like to have dinner at our place this weekend? Does Saturday work for you?”
“We have a family wedding on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday is all right, if it’s all right with you.”
“Sunday is fine. We’ll see you at 6:00 p.m.?”
“Sure. Thank you for the invitation.”
There was a brief nod, and that was that. They invited me to dinner, I accepted, they nodded, and then they left for their table. No goodbyes, no nice meeting yous...only a nod.
Hannah put her arms around my boyfriend’s waist, her head on his chest and hugged him longingly. “I’ll see you Sunday,” her words trailed, and she eventually let go. I got chills watching her turn back to take one last look at Max. To misquote Marcellus from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “Something is rotten in the state of California.”
March 11, 2013 (Almost) Shocking Confession!
What a weekend—a rehearsal tea on Friday, an English wedding breakfast on Saturday, and dinner with the monster-in-laws on Sunday! The secrets revealed to me this weekend could be classified as shocking!, shockinger‼, and shockingest‼! Of course I know that last two aren’t words in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, but by the time you read about these confessions, you will agree that no girl should receive these kinds of surprises without any warning. Just to give you a glimpse into what’s to come in the next three, maybe four, posts—Max confesses a deep dark secret to me after the tea party, Donovan confesses an even deeper, darker secret to me after the wedding, then the deepest darkest secret to rival the deepest darkest secrets, awaited me at Max’s family home on Sunday.