Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 (28 page)

“
Wow, really?” Sandy asked.
“Are you sure you won’t get in trouble?”

“
I have to call at each
stop and go in again tomorrow morning. I figured it was worth it,”
Aden said. “Jill said she’d be happy to take care of Nash and
Noelle. Is that okay with you guys?”

“
Sure,” Noelle said. “It’s
so romantic!”

“
Will you ask Mr. Jake…?”
Nash started to ask.

“
I’ll ask him,” Sandy
said.

“
What?”

“
Nash wants to play some
X-Box 360 game with Jake,” Sandy said. “Jake said he would play
with Nash but he hasn’t had a lot of time.”

Aden gave her an infectious smile. She
smiled in return.

“
I need to change and pack
a bag,” Sandy said.

“
I’ll take the kids down to
dinner,” Aden said. “And do the same. Meet you back here. Fifteen
minutes?”

Sandy nodded. She gave Aden her stack of
warm tortillas. Following Nash, Aden and Noelle carried their
tortillas down to dinner. Standing in the little apartment, Sandy
spun in place with joy.

Her
husband
was taking her to dinner
tonight. Her
husband
was taking her to the gorgeous Hotel Teatro. She ran to her
bedroom. After a two-minute shower, she slipped into a dress she’d
bought to entice Aden before the awfulness took away her joy. Even
pregnant, she knew she still looked great. She flew through doing
her hair. She put on just enough makeup to cover the bruise under
her eye without looking too fake. Into the stilettos
and…

“
Oh my God,” Aden said.
“You’re a vision.”

Sandy turned around to see that he’d put on
one of his good suits

“
So are you,” she
said.

He kissed her and held her close.

“
I’d planned on giving you
the earrings as a wedding present but you already have them.” Aden
touched the dangling diamonds. “I owe you one.”

“
Tonight is enough,” Sandy
smiled.

“
Come on, my love,” Aden
said. “The night awaits us.”

Aden took her travel bag from her. Taking
her hand, they hurried from the apartment to start their night.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday night — 8:37 P.M.

“
You’re very quiet,”
Valerie said.

She came around their couch to sit next to
him. Mike smiled at her and took her bare foot in his hands. He
began rubbing her foot.

“
How was fishing?” she
asked.

He smiled at her.

“
How was Beaujos pizza?”
she asked.

He nodded. She wrinkled her nose.

“
How was the green
chili?”

He nodded.

“
Are you going to say
something?” she asked.

“
I’m waiting to see how
many questions you’re going to ask,” he said.

She punched him. He gestured for her other
foot and she complied.

“
Let’s see,” Mike said.
“Fishing was good. We were in the water for about two hours before
Jake returned to normal. This crap with that secretary has really
gotten to him.”

“
Jake’s never cared what
anyone said about him,” Valerie said.

“
Yeah,” Mike said. “I guess
this is different. He feels stupid at getting trapped by her.
Mostly, he’s terrified he’ll lose Jill over this.”

“
He told you
that?”

“
Over pizza,” Mike said.
“Even when he was the high school heartbreaker, he’s always had
such integrity in his relationships with women. It’s important to
him. This is something he would never do and has never
done.”

“
Poor Jake,” Valerie
said.

Mike nodded. He tugged on Val’s feet. She
scotched over to sit on his lap.

“
The green chili was
awesome,” Mike said. “I love that Delphie had the chilies ready for
roasting. That’s different.”

“
I like the new Delphie,”
Valerie said. “Where’d you go this afternoon?”

“
Fishing?
Pizza?”

“
Jake roasted the chilies
for me,” Valerie said. “He said you had to take care of
something.”

Mike buried his face in her hair.

“
I love the way your hair
smells,” Mike said.

“
You’re not going to tell
me?”

“
I’m trying to increase the
anticipation,” he said.

“
Of what?”

“
I made something for you,”
Mike said.

“
You did?”

He nodded.

“
Can I have it?”

He gave her a taunting smile. She laughed.
He patted her hip and she got off his lap. He went to his large
leather canvas bag and pulled out a medium sized frame. The frame
and painting were wrapped in brown paper. Valerie popped to her
feet. He held the painting out to her. When she reached for it, he
pulled it back. She put her hands on her hips and he laughed. He
gave her the painting. She ripped the paper off.

Before her were two chubby toddler boys
sitting in a field of red poppies. The boys wore blue denim
overalls. As if to give the flower to someone, one boy held out a
white Shasta daisy. The other boy was laughing so hard he’d fallen
over. The painting had an infectious bright light to it.

Confused, Valerie looked up at him.

“
Our boys,” Mike said. “The
ones we lost.”

“
Oh… Oh…”

Her sole focus on the painting, Valerie
dropped down on the couch. Her eyes reviewed the blue eyes of the
laughing boy and the darker eye of the boy holding the flower. They
were an even mix of Mike’s Prussian and Valerie’s American mutt
features.

“
I paint cherubs of
people’s soon to come babies for Jake’s rehab business,” Mike said.
“It’s one of our special services. The babies look like the cherubs
most of the time.”

“
Which one is which?”
Valerie said.

“
The laughing boy is the
one we lost when your mom died,” Mike said.

“
Why is he laughing?”
Valerie asked.

“
Because he was your
secret,” Mike said.

“
He’s beautiful.” Valerie
reached out her hand to touch the oil painting. “Why is Jack giving
me a flower?”

“
He has a sister,” Mike
said. “I think it’s kind of like, you don’t have me but you have my
sister. I don’t really know. I just paint what I see in my
head.”

“
It’s perfect,” Valerie
said. “Do you mind if I…?”

“
Go ahead,” Mike
said.

He sat down on the couch. She sat down next
to him and he put his arm around her. Valerie’s focus returned to
the painting. She cried for a while. She laughed a couple of times.
She sat and stared for over an hour. And Mike held on until she
fell asleep with the painting in her arms.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday night — 10:37 P.M.

“
I was thinking…” Jacob
said.

He was sitting on the side of the bed
waiting for her.

“
Shh,” Jill pulled the door
to their bedroom closed. “I just got Noelle to sleep. If she hears
you she’ll be up again.”

“
When did she get so
hyper?”

“
She’s very excited about
getting a Mom,” Jill said. “She wanted to know everything about
being a daughter. What do daughters do? What happens if she doesn’t
do it right? What do mothers do? Fifty billion
questions.”

“
Poor Noelle,” Jacob
said.

“
We had it hard but at
least we had Mom,” Jill said. “Noelle’s never had a mother. She and
Nash have always wanted one. Nash is more subtle but Noelle is over
the moon.”

“
They have a great mom in
Sandy,” Jacob said.

“
Sandy’s one of the most
loving people I’ve ever met,” Jill said. “When do you leave for
hockey?”

“
In about a half hour,” he
said.

“
Hmm… what would you like
to do in the next half hour?” she asked.

“
It’s more like where I
would like to do it,” he laughed.

“
Again? I’m liking the
non-Lipson Construction Jacob.”

Standing, he pulled her into his arms. He
gave her a hard kiss.

“
I was thinking we should
take our honeymoon,” Jacob said.

“
Six months
later?”

“
Ok, it’s a little
unconventional,” Jacob said.

“
After next week, I’m off
school for a couple of weeks,” Jill said.

“
I know,” Jacob
said.

Jill rested her head against his
shoulder.

“
Where were you thinking of
going?” Jill asked.

“
I was thinking we could go
to Mexico. It’s not too hot yet,” Jacob said.

“
Mexico?”

“
Actually, I was thinking
we could spend a night at that hotel in Santa Monica. You know the
one where…?”

“
We conceived
Katy?”

“
Had the best, most amazing
sex I’ve ever had in my entire life,” he said. “That’s what I was
thinking.”

“
Better than nap time?”
Jill asked.

He laughed. She smiled at him.

“
Everyone will say you’re
doing it because of that awful woman,” Jill said.

“
They may,” Jacob said.
“But you and I will know that I’m doing it for the sex.”

Jill laughed.

“
You asked if we could go
back there,” Jacob said.

“
I did.”

“
Then what?”

“
I was excited about
spending time with Katy while I was off school,” Jill said. “I feel
like she’s growing up so fast and…”

“
Katy! Jill! When will we
get time together?”

Jill pushed away from him.

“
Jacob Marlowe, you have no
right…” she started. Looking up she saw he was teasing her. “Well,
you might have been serious.”

“
Yes, I transformed into
Trevor while we were fishing,” Jacob said.

“
Could happen,” she
said.

“
Come back.” He held out
his arms and she tucked herself into them again.

“
You already have a plan,”
Jill said.

“
I do,” Jacob
said.

“
Do I get a say?” she
asked.

“
If you’d like,” he said.
“I thought you and I could go to Santa Monica for a night. Val and
Mike agreed to take Katy to Cabo San Lucas. We’ll meet them there
the next night.”

“
Val will be done with the
movie,” Jill said.

“
She wants some beach time
before she gets huge,” he said. “Her words, not mine. So don’t get
mad again.”

“
I like your plan,” Jill
said. “When do we leave?”

“
Two weeks,” he said.
“Delphie and Dad might join us.”

“
Delphie?”

“
It’s part of her ‘whole
new Delphie’ campaign,” he said. “She wants to visit Mexico. If
Val’s there, Delphie will want to be there.”

“
We’re honeymooning with
your entire family? Really Jacob. That’s not very
romantic.”

He laughed. She looked up to see that he
knew she was teasing.

“
It sounds fabulous,” she
said.

“
Are you sure you don’t
want a trip with just us? A cruise to Fiji or Greece or Thailand
or…”

“
This suits us better,” she
said.

“
I’ll try to make up for
the lack of romance,” he said.

“
You already
have.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and
SEVEN

Out of doors

Sunday morning — 6:25 A.M.

“
You don’t mind?” Aden
asked.

They were riding the Hotel Teatro elevator
down to the lobby.

“
No, I’ll get the car,”
Sandy said. “You have to be there by eight, right?”

“
Sorry about that,” he
said.

“
I’m not,” Sandy said.
“Last night was…”

Unable to find the right word, Sandy
sighed.

“
Yeah,” he said. “Totally
worth today’s bullshit.”

The elevator stopped at the Lobby. Taking
her hand, they walked to the front desk.

“
I’ll be right there,” Aden
said.

Nodding, Sandy walked through the lobby. She
gave their valet ticket to the doorman. Because Aden was on house
arrest, he needed to check in and check out of every location. He
would pay the bill and check out of this location. He was then
given an hour of travel time. He had to get her home and get back
to the Department of Corrections by eight. If he was late, even one
minute, they could arrest him and he’d go back to prison. Neither
Aden nor Sandy wanted to take that risk. Sandy gave him a little
wave and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

The morning was cool but not cold. The air
was moist with spring expectation. The street was deserted and
quiet. A cab drove by in front of her to see if she needed a ride.
Sandy blushed. Did she look like a prostitute after a long night?
She pulled her overcoat close and turned away from the street.