Pretty Packages (29 page)

Giada giggled all the way to the bed. The giggling abruptly stopped when the moaning began. Oh no, nothing was funny now.

Chapter Twenty-Five

On Monday night,
Kentucky
called Giada to tell her about a new assignment he’d just been offered. This assignment entailed him protecting a renowned celebrity photographer named Jamie Benedict who was giving up chasing the rich and famous around for a more meaningful mission.

Jamie was going to various war-torn regions in
Africa
to document the effects that recent civil wars had had on the land and its people. This assignment also required
Kentucky
to leave within the week and be gone for a month.

“That sounds too dangerous, baby. I don’t know if you should take this assignment,” Giada said once she’d heard all the details. “Plus, you just got back home from a two-month job. I’m not ready for you to be gone for another month.”

“I know, and I don’t want to leave so soon either, baby, but the pay is too tempting to pass up. With this client offering to pay me triple my regular fee, plus extra for the risk factors, I could afford to give you the wedding you want and take the whole summer off if I wanted to.”

Kentucky
left out the fact that he could also afford to compete with Fabian financially after this job. Especially after receiving another piece of news today from the school’s administrator, who told him that the first repayment check was in the mail.

“Wow. That much, huh?” Giada said, sounding very impressed by his earning potential before the deeper emotion of fear stepped back in. “Even still, I’m not comfortable with you putting your life at risk like this. Not for a wedding. Not for anything.”

Kentucky
chuckled. “Baby, I put my life at risk all the time for my clients. That’s what bodyguards do.”

“That might be right, but I don’t think you’ve ever put your life this much at risk before. Or have you?”

“This will be my riskiest assignment to date, but I can handle it, baby,”
Kentucky
said self-confidently. “I’m gonna handle it . . . for us. For our future.” And just that quick, he’d made his decision.

“Kenny—”

“I’ve made my decision, Giada,”
Kentucky
interrupted. “I’m going to
Africa
. Now what I need for you to do is pack up three days’ worth of clothes and come over here so we can spend the next few days and nights together.”

“And what if I refuse to come?” Giada countered, revealing a bit of temper in her words.

“That’s your prerogative, baby, but a month is a long time to be without good loving. You might want something to tide you over until I return. I know I could use something to tide me over,” he replied, trying to appeal to her logic, sense of reasoning, and outright sexuality.

“I’ll be there in an hour,” Giada replied, conceding once again to his will.

* * * *

As Giada traveled to
Kentucky
’s house that night, she couldn’t help but wonder if there would ever come a time in their relationship when she finally got
her
way. She had also decided to enlist his stepmother’s help with changing his mind about the upcoming trip. Something about it just hadn’t sat right with her.

Unfortunately for Giada, Hannah couldn’t change
Kentucky
’s mind no more than she could. He was a man who was used to following his own mind, the same way his father had been. Giada just hoped that
Kentucky
’s strong will didn’t lead to his destruction like it had his father.

Hardy Jones died trying to prove that he could still perform the duty of a wiper with speed and precision, even though he had been promoted to yardmaster years ago. The day Hardy accidentally slipped, fell, and hit his head while packing the internal moving parts of a train’s engine with grease was the day Hannah thought she would die. She honestly hadn’t wanted to live when her husband died.

Giada remembered Hannah’s account of that incident well. That account included the fact that Hardy had been her life, her everything, and how no human love had been greater. That was the main reason Hannah remained a widow to this day, refusing to remarry or even date anyone.

Despite Giada’s best efforts, that same pattern started to manifest in her life during
Kentucky
’s absence. Though she still got dressed and went to work and school, something about her just wasn’t alive anymore. She only felt alive when the phone rang, often beating Hannah to it in hopes that it was
Kentucky
calling to check in.

Kentucky
called to check in every day during that first week away. The second week only three calls were received. The third week, they only heard from him once. Even then, Hannah only got to speak to him because Giada had class that night and wasn’t home at the time. Attempts to reach his cell phone in those deep regions of
Africa
were unsuccessful.

Yet it was the fourth week that really put Giada on edge. Even Hannah became worried. That was the week they didn’t receive any calls from
Kentucky
at all. Calls to his cell phone were just as fruitless as before.

When
Kentucky
did not return on the fifth week as planned, they knew something was wrong.

That’s when they received . . . the letter.

That same fateful letter almost sent both women over the edge of insanity.

Sadly, that letter was not from
Kentucky
, but rather about him. It was from Jamie Benedict, stating that
Kentucky
had been killed trying to protect him during an uprising. Jamie offered his condolences and told the grieving women that he would see about getting
Kentucky
’s ashes transferred immediately.

“Ashes?” Giada exclaimed after reading the letter aloud.

Hannah had been too emotional to finish it past the word “died.”

“They didn’t wait to contact us first before cremating his body?”

“Us?”
Hannah shrieked with wild eyes of pain. “Don’t you mean contact
me
? I’m his next of kin, not you. He never married you, remember? Matter of fact, it’s because of
you
that he took that job in the first place. You and your materialism. My son would be home and alive today had he not been trying to give you some fancy life that you don’t even deserve! You’re the reason my Kenny is dead!”

Giada gasped in shock. No words fell from her lips in response as Hannah hurried from the room in tears. What could she say?

Giada
was
the reason
Kentucky
had taken this assignment. Her and her need for things, the high life, everything that no longer mattered now that
Kentucky
was dead.

Dead.

Giada still couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that her beloved
Kentucky
was gone. Had his giant body really been reduced to mere ashes? Was he never to be held again? Never to be kissed again? Was he truly gone?

Doing the only thing she could think of at the moment, Giada went to the bedroom she occupied, packed up a few things, got Mercedes, and left. She thought about going to a hotel, but since she didn’t want to be alone right now, she called Velicity and asked if she could crash at her place for the night.

Tomorrow . . . well, Giada would deal with that when it came.

* * * *

Kentucky
’s funeral was held a week later. It was a simple funeral, held at the small church Hannah was a member of. Yet for all of its simplicity, the funeral was attended by important people not just in
Miami
, but from all over the world. Some of those people
Kentucky
had protected over the years. His
Georgia
and
Kentucky
relatives were there as well.

Even though Hannah had apologized for her emotional outburst the other day, Giada did not sit by her on the front row of the church. She sat all the way in the back where Velicity was.

In Giada’s mind, she didn’t deserve any position of prestige. She barely deserved to attend the funeral of so wonderful a man. She definitely didn’t deserve the large engagement ring on her finger, which is why Giada sold it and gave the money to
Kentucky
’s school in his memory.

Giada also sold her house on
Wilmington Street
for two times what it was worth. She would have liked to have sold it to the nice family who had been renting it for the last year, but they were not prepared to buy yet.

However, Giada did make provisions for her former renters by including a clause in her contract insisting that the new owner honor the current lease agreement she had with the Devines. This gave the tenants at least another year to rent at the current rate.

With that money, Giada was able to move out of Velicity’s place. That was where she’d been staying after moving the rest of her things from the Joneses’ house.

Instead of buying another house, Giada leased a modest apartment and put the rest of her funds in a high-interest-bearing account. She’d learned a hard lesson about the dangers of materialism. Being materialistic had cost her too much. It had cost her everything.

Thankfully, Giada’s specialty business was growing, and her educational expenses were paid for from now until she obtained her law degree. It seemed that the anonymous benefactor of her scholarship was so pleased with her 4.0 grade point average that he/she decided to offer support for her remaining matriculation in law school.

As for her relationship with Hannah, though Giada called to check on
Kentucky
’s stepmother at least twice a week, she had yet to see her again. She couldn’t. Guilt and shame prevented her from going anywhere near the Jones house ever again.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Three months later

“Giada, are you going to finally put that man out of his misery and go out with him?” Velicity asked over lunch that breezy September day.

Giada shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just not feeling Fabian that way anymore. I’m really not feeling any man. Not since . . .” Her voice trailed off. Her eyes watered.

“
Kentucky
,” Velicity finished for her.

Giada nodded and blinked away her tears.

“But wouldn’t
Kentucky
want you to be happy? From what I can see, Fabian is willing to make you more than happy. He’s sent you flowers every day since . . . since it all happened.” There was no need for Velicity to mention what “it” was. That would only cause Giada to start crying again. She’d cried enough over the last three months.

“Kenny would love for me to be happy,” Giada replied. “But not with Fabian. He despised the man and his effect on me. He particularly hated how Fabian catered to my selfish side.”

“Has Fabian been catering to your selfish side lately? From what you’ve told me, he’s been a great comfort to you over the last few months. How he calls just to check on you and how he’s always willing to listen to you, even if it’s about
Kentucky
.”