A Beautiful New Life (21 page)

She could not resist him ever. She was like butter in his arms. She moaned softly as he caressed her, moving his lips to her neck breathing ever so lightly sending chills throughout her fevering body.
“Well, Mr. Kohl, if that’s how you want to play
, then I will get
my way after all and we get to stay in
after all
.”

“For now.”
With
that,
he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom.

As they lay, spent from the pleasure they had given each other, Louise knew her plans were not going to
happen,
not today anyway
,
b
ut what better way to spend a beautiful day then with the one she loved. They dressed and headed for the door. Megan picked up the basket,

“Hey it’s
empty;
I thought we were going on a picnic.’ She tossed the basket at him.

“Well as you know, I’m a gourmet cook.” He gave her a smirk.

“Okay, okay, so are you expecting me to cook my own food now for the picnic you planned for me?” She stood with her hands on her hips showing she was going to challenge this request.

“No, I’m going to cheat like I usually do. This time though the food
wasn’t
ready yet so I’ll have to pick it up on the way to the park. See I knew I had to be here early enough before you actually got busy or there would’ve been no convincing you to come with me.”  He stood proud that he had thought of everything, he hoped.

“You know me too well.” She grabbed his hand. “What are we waiting for?” They headed out the door.

On the way to the
park,
they stopped at Patsy’s Diner. “You stay here; I’ll be back soon.” He gave her a quick kiss and grabbed the empty basket.

He was not gone long and when he did
return,
it was under the struggle of a weighted down basket. Patsy sure did like Jordan and always took care of him.  He had told Louise that Patsy reminded him of his grandmother.

He put the basket in the back seat and slid back behind the steering wheel. Louise slipped out of her seatbelt and leaned across the seat to take a peak but
Jordan playfully
slap
ped
on her
butt
. “No peeking, you need to wait.”

“Fine but we better hurry, it smells good and I’m starving.” She held her stomach as it growled in agreement.

They arrived at the park and went to their favorite spot on top of a little knoll overlooking the lake. In summer
,
a 25-foot maple tree would comfortably shade the spot
. The lake still had a film of ice over it. The slight breeze blowing in their direction from across the lake was chilled but Louise was all warm inside as she watch Jordan lay out the blanket and the goodies he had picked up from Patsy.

There was fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans, and a variety of fruits
lay
out on the red and white checkered blanket. After he had carefully laid out each item he turned and reached for Louise’s hand and pulled her down on the blanket.

“You know how I feel about you right?” He held her hand and stared into her deep green eyes.

“Yes,” Louise stammered. A lump suddenly form
ed
in her throat.

“Good cause I’m starving and didn’t want to have to convince you again that you made the right decision to come with me today.” He raised his arm to defend himself from her hand swatting at his chest.

After devouring the chicken, salad, and beans, Louise laid resting her head in Jordan’s lap as he gently brushed her hair with his hand and feeding her grapes.

“Has the treatment helped your hair any?” He stopped brushing her hair knowing he was treading on sensitive territory.

“No!” She hated when he would talk about her hair. She hated wearing a wig but
she
would not
be seen
without it. “Why are you bringing that up? You know I don’t like talking about it.”

“I know but you never told me if it helped and I care about you.” He pulled her up so he could look at her.

She was on the verge of tears, “Well it didn’t work. In fact I think it made it worse.”

He hated what he was about to do but knew he had no choice. “Can I see it?”

She jolted back as if he had just slapped her in the face. She just stared, speechless. He knew this was off limits. “Why are you doing this? I put off my plans to spend a nice day with you and now you want to be mean. What’s your problem?”

“You know why and if you don’t, well that is more of a reason to do it.
” He said sternly.
“
You need to face the truth that for some reason you have been pushing away all winter long.”

“What truth? That I love you and I thought you loved me too.” She was raising her voice now, something she never did with Jordan.

“This truth!”
Jordan ripped the wig from her head, grabbed her hand and made her feel what hair she had. “Do you remember who did this? Do you remember who put you here? Most importantly do you remember who you are trying to get back to?”

Daggers darted from her eyes. “You DON’T need to remind me of what I’m trying to get back to. I think about them every day.  Every day I wake up wondering what they are doing today, what did they do yesterday. Did they have a good baseball season? What did they get for Christmas? Did they have cake for their birthdays? Do they remember me? How dare you
!?
”

“Really I wouldn’t have known that. It would seem to me that the fire in your eyes that burned from the day we vowed to get out of here and do so no matter what it took has gone out. It’s not only gone out but it’s been replaced with something else.” He was baiting her. He wanted her to say it; not have to
be told
it.

“You’re wrong.  I want
,
more
th
an anything
,
to get out of here and back to my kids. But you said yourself it would be best to wait until spring or summer.” She was calming down as she remembered the conversation they had. She had not given up.
No,
she would not believe what he was saying.

“Really do you remember what else I said? What about what might happen if we
are
caught and even if we
aren’t
caught
,
we may not be able to stay together. We would have to go our separate ways to protect you. Do you remember any of that?” He was begging her to remember it all not just the parts that were not going to hurt.

“No.” She was pleading. “We can change our plans. They would expect us to separate. Maybe it would be best…”

“Louise, no, we talked about this. As hard as it is for me to have to leave you it’s the only way it’ll work to get you back to your kids.” He tried to reach for her but she pulled back.

“You don’t love me or you wouldn’t want to leave me.” She was praying she was wrong. She loved him so much. Maybe he was right; had she forgot
ten
what she was to be fighting for
by growing
too close to him
. No she would not believe it, she still wanted to get home but she did not want to lose him either.

“I love you Jordan, I don’t want to lose you. Please there has to be another way?” She reached out to him this time.

“I was worried about this; us getting too close and forgetting what we needed to do.
But
it just may not be a possibility
for
us to stay together. I don’t know maybe we can think of something.” He had to hold her back as she grabbed at him. He could see she still had a lot of convincing. He could never live with himself if she gave up her kids for him.

“Maybe I said; I need you to understand that.  I also want you to know that if we
can’t
work something out once this is put behind us and these animals are locked away I’m coming for you. I love you Louise and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. But we need to get out of here first.”

“Maybe if they see us together as a couple they’d just let us leave?” She knew she was talking nonsense but she was not ready to give him up.

“No, Louise, you know that’ll never happen.
You’re
supposed to be dead. How do you expect to walk back into your old life and claim your kids?
” His voice was so tender but pleading for her to se
e this is the way it had to be,
begging her not
to
give up her fight.
She broke down in tears and he
held her as she cried. She cried for the life she had lost, cried for the life she will lose, and cried for the life she hoped she could still have.

Chapter
Twenty

“Hey Megan,” Jordan walked up to her desk.
“You almost out of here?
I thought
we’d
take a drive. It is a beautiful afternoon.”

“
Ya
, just give me a minute so I can shut down my computer.” She closed her files and waited for her computer to shut down completely. She had gotten in trouble a few months ago because she had not made sure it shut down and in her
hurry,
she forgot to push the last button. “So where
are
we going?”

“I don’t know
.
I heard there’s a waterfall south of here I thought we’d take a drive to.” He had his devilish smile and Louise wondered what he was really
planning
.

“Okay all ready. Let’s go.” She grabbed
the
jacket draped on the back of her chair and they headed out holding hands as they walked through the office.

When they reached Jordan’s car he filled her in on his plans. “You know as long as I’ve been here and have actually had the ability to drive around freely, I’ve never been able to leave this place.” They got in the car and drove off toward the center of town. “I’ve a suspicion and want to confirm it now rather than on the day we leave. There are five roads out of the center of town
,
f
our of them leading to the four different housing developments. My suspicion is they all circle back on to each other and lead back into town.”

“And the fifth road, where does that go?”

“
A place you don’t want to go to again.”

They headed east out of town and ended up at a dead end at the park and lake. They turned around and drove though some of the housing developments on that side of town, each road only leading back to the main
one, which
would lead them back to town. They now took the road heading south toward the mountains. He knew where this road led, to a waterfall that she would love and he wanted them to enjoy it before the sun set. As they pulled up to the picnic
area,
there were already several people parked and unloading their cars for
an
early season picnic. Jordan parked the car, leaned over the back of the front seat and grabbed the picnic basket from the back. They both got out of the car and walked around meeting each other in the front of the car. He grabbed Louise’s hand and they walked off into the woods down a
well worn
, yet still snow covered path. The tall trees, even though bare did
n
o
t leave the light or warmth of the sun in to melt the snow. They walked in silence, holding hands until they came to a small river where they turned east. Following the
river,
the roaring got louder and Louise squeezed Jordan’s hand a little tighter. As they came around the bend there it was, a waterfall cascading down the jagged face of the mountain. Here the sun
shined
and the snow
,
held captive above
,
was now free to flow down to form
a
river.

Jordan pulled a blanket out of the basket and laid it down on the moist, cold ground. The blanket was thick and well insulated and the cold of the ground
was held
at bay. Jordan sat down, pulling Louise to him. “So what do you think?”

“It is beautiful, how did you find this?”

“This is a big party hangout and before I met you I would come here with the guys. I still do occasionally. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought about bringing you here sooner.”

“Well it’s beautiful and I’m glad you brought me now.” She turned to him now allowing the thundering sound of the waterfall to block out everything but the two of them. She took his face in her hands. “Don’t ever leave me, Jordan. I love you so much. Make love to me
,
right h
ere
,
right
n
ow.”

She pressed her lips to his and kissed him with all the pent up energy from the hectic
workweek
and the preparations of them leaving. He returned her kiss with the same fury. He pu
lled away just long enough to ge
t another blanket out of the basket
and
wrap it around them. It was cold but their love wrapped them, shielding them from the elements. In the mist and thundering of the
waterfall,
they made love. They stayed there until the setting sun was low enough that the trees no longer allowed in any light. They gathered the blankets and basket and walked hand in hand back to the car.