Chapter 19 #2
“I know, love.” She took him up to bed and held him close until he drifted into peaceful sleep, but she lay awake for a long time hoping she wasn’t about to make another huge mistake.
The phone woke them early the next morning. Jack fumbled to pick up the bedside extension.
“Jack?”
“Fran? What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. What’s the matter with you?”
“Other than it being six in the morning?”
“Oh, crap. I can’t figure out the time thing. Sorry. Is everything okay there?”
He was finally awake. “Everything’s fine. Are you already bored with your new husband?”
Andi smiled at his question, and he wrapped his free arm around her.
“I heard that,” Jamie said.
Frannie laughed. “I’m definitely not bored.”
“Spare me the details. How’s Fiji?”
“What I’ve seen of it seems pretty nice.”
“I told you to spare me the details.”
“Are you sure everything’s okay, Jack? I had the strangest dream about you, and it really bothered me, so Jamie told me to call you.”
“I’m fine,” he assured her as Andi’s hair brushed against his cheek. “Enjoy yourself and don’t worry about anything here.”
“Okay. I’ll see you next weekend.”
“See you then.” He clicked off the phone, ran his hand through his hair, and yawned.
“Everything all right in Fiji?” Andi asked.
“Sounds like it. She said she had a crazy dream about me and needed to call. My heart almost stopped when the phone rang. I thought of the girls on that cruise ship.”
“Funny that she sensed something was up with you.” Andi turned to study him. “You look better.”
He rolled over so he was on top of her. “I was having an amazing dream myself, and I woke up to find it wasn’t a dream at all,” he said, kissing her lightly at first and then more intently. “You know what I want to do?”
“I have an idea,” she said with a dry chuckle as she lifted her hips against his erection.
“Well, that, too.” Laughing, he left a trail of hot kisses from her ear to her collarbone. “But you know what we’ve never gotten to do?”
“What’s that?”
“Stay in bed all day.”
“And pretend we’re in Fiji?”
“Why not? How many times will we find ourselves without any kids underfoot for a whole day?”
“I can’t argue with you there. Don’t you have to work?”
“Don’t you?”
“You got me again.”
“Hearing no objections… All in favor? Aye and aye, and the motion passes.” He kissed her before she could render an objection. “Unanimously.”
“This is utter decadence,” Andi whispered hours later after they’d devoured a box of leftover Christmas chocolates, taken a bubble bath, and made love again. “I’ve never been so lazy in my life.”
“We should make this a monthly event. One day a month, Jack and Andi will be absent from life—definitely on a day when the kids are in school. All in favor?”
“Aye,” they said together.
“And another motion passes unanimously,” he said. “I love this governing system we’ve established.”
“It goes back to you getting your way all the time, which, I’ve come to realize, is one of your many gifts.”
“So, if I’d let you be in charge—only for this one day, mind you—what would you have changed about it?”
“Not a damned thing.”
“I have to go home tomorrow, you know,” she said as they ate Chinese takeout in front of the fire downstairs.
“You are home,” he reminded her.
“Let me correct that. I need to wrap things up in Chicago, so I can get back home to you.”
“Much better.” He fed her some of his lo mein. “I’m still coming on moving day, right?”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to. One more month…”
Gazing into the fire, she said, “I know.”
“What’s wrong?”
She turned to him. “Are you sure, Jack? Really sure you’re ready for all this? It’s not too late to put it on hold for a while—” The expression on his face stopped her.
He put the Chinese carton on the table and reached for her hand. “Andrea, you’ve saved me in every possible way. I thought my life was over, and then there you were. Remember when you said you were worried I was upset yesterday and everyone was gone?”
She nodded. It was the first time all day he’d mentioned it.
“No one else could’ve helped me the way you did. You’re my first thought in the morning and my last thought at night. I can no longer imagine my life without you or Eric. I don’t want you to have a single doubt about my love for both of you or my commitment to you.”
She caressed his face. “I don’t.”
He leaned in to kiss her and gathered her close. “I won’t let you down.”
She closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest to listen to the strong beat of his heart, knowing for certain it belonged to her.
Jack flew to Chicago two days after the moving van pulled away with the last of the things Andi and Eric were taking to Rhode Island.
The rest of her furniture was in storage, and her new tenant was moving in next week.
With the apartment empty, she reserved a suite at Infinity for their final night in the city.
Eric was at his last day of school when Andi took one of the company cars out to O’Hare to meet Jack.
Buying a car was first on her to-do list when she got to Rhode Island.
She was leaning against the limo when he emerged from a lower-level door into a freezing, gray February day.
“Hey, sailor, need a ride?” She smiled as he came toward her, looking sexy in jeans and a black wool coat.
He dropped his small bag on the curb and swept her into his arms, lifting her off her feet and kissing her as he brought her slowly back down.
“Well, hello to you, too,” she said, thrilled to see him after a long month apart.
He leaned her back against the limo. “You know what my first thought was this morning?”
“Hmm, was it ‘damn, I have to get my butt out of bed early to make this flight’?”
“No, you’re way off. That was my second thought. Want to guess again?”
She pulled him close enough to kiss again. “I’m stumped.”
“My first thought was that last night was the last night I’ll ever spend without you.” He kissed her as a policeman blew his whistle, warning them to move the limo.
They didn’t hear a thing.