Reye's Gold (37 page)

She stopped in her food preparation, waiting for his
answer. He cleared his throat. “Actually, your daughter is
the reason why I’m here. Reye and I were in a relationship
last year, and after law school ended I broke up with her.”

“I see. So you’re telling me that this relationship
ended because you had to go home to Dallas?”

“Yes and no.”

She was looking at him the way his old schoolteachers
did when they knew he’d done something, waiting for
him to tell them the truth. It took all of his concentration
not to squirm. He looked into her eyes. “Honestly, Mrs.
Jackson, at the time I felt that maybe the differences in
our races would be a problem. I hadn’t dated outside of
my race before, so it kinda took me by surprise. I didn’t
do a very good job of dealing with it. It wasn’t just her race that confused me, she confused me, and I wasn’t
ready and didn’t handle it well. But she captured me, and, in spite of all I knew, I fell in love. It took me a while to
come to terms with it. I’m sorry for the hurt I caused
her.” He hadn’t broken eye contact with Mrs. Jackson
through his diatribe, surprising himself with his heartfelt plea. “Sorry for the long explanation,” he said, smiling
sheepishly.

S
he smiled in return. “No, I appreciate your candor.
Reye is my only daughter, and I only want the best for
her. She pushes against me sometimes, most times, in
fact, but I love her and don’t want to see her hurt. Thank
you for explaining.”

“Mom, where are you?” Reye’s voice alerted them to
her presence. She walked into the kitchen and stopped,
looking over at Stephen, surprised. “I thought that was
your car parked in the drive.”

“Hey, Reye, let me pour you some coffee,” her mom
said.

“Reye,” Stephen said, taking a sip of his orange juice
and giving her a smile.

“Uh, good morning, Mom. I didn’t know we were
having company.”

“Your dad invited him, and I didn’t want to spoil the
surprise.”

“Have a seat, I’m almost done. Stephen was just
talking about his reasons for returning to Austin,” Mrs.
Jackson said, turning her back to them, finishing her
breakfast preparations.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” she said to him, not
knowing what to make of her mother’s comment.

“Well, your dad invited me, and I hadn’t met your
mother, so I accepted the invitation. You look great,” he
said, giving her a thorough once-over, causing her tem
perature to rise just a little.

“I’m going to go to church after breakfast.”

She looked gorgeous in a tailored black suit that
hugged her curves. She had on pumps that put her at eye
level with him. He loved her hair, which always made her
look sexy to him. He wished he could pull her over to
him now, kiss her, hold her; he’d missed that.

Mr. and Mrs. Jackson both called them to the table,
where they talked about the changes that Stephen and
her dad were able to complete to the house on Friday
night and what repairs were remaining.

“If you need any help with any legal work, I’m avail
able. Our firm works with lots of charities and founda
tions. Maybe next weekend I could take you to dinner
and we could discuss it,” Stephen said. Reye smiled at his
attempt to book a date with her.

After breakfast, Stephen thanked Reye’s folks and said
goodbye to them. He and Reye walked out the front
door. He was heading back to Dallas and she was going
to church. Reye followed him to his car and stood nearby
as he opened the door but didn’t get in. He turned to her.
“So, your parents have been having breakfast every
Sunday morning before you and I met?”

“Yes.”

“Did you miss most of them when we were together?”

“Not all of them, but the bulk of them, yes.”

“You never asked me to go.”

“Honestly, I didn’t think you were interested, and I didn’t want to push for fear of scaring you off,” she said
and gave a fake, half-hearted laugh. She turned to look
off down the street.

“I’m sorry,” he said, bringing her eyes back to his.

“No worries, mate,” she said and smiled at him, a
smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes nor camouflage the
hurt he saw in them.

H
e leaned in and touched his lips softly to hers, let
ting them settle there for a moment. He’d surprised her
with his kiss. He heard it in her intake of air, the tensing
of her body. He pulled back slowly and smiled. “Thanks
for letting me hang out with you this weekend. Can I call
you this week?”

“Sure,” she said, more than a little flustered. “Give me
your phone,” she said, holding out her hand to him. He
pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Just like
old times,” she said, remembering their first meeting at
the airport. She programmed her number into the phone
and handed it back to him.

He leaned in and kissed her again.

“I’ll call you this week, and see you next weekend.”

“Okay,” she said as she watched him get into his car
and drive away.

* * *

The following weeks took on a routine for Stephen. He would put in long hours at the firm during the week
in compensation for his time spent in Austin on the
weekends. In Austin he would help Reye with soccer
practice and her games. He’d had gotten to know the kids
on her team and their parents, who teased him, calling
him the coach’s boyfriend. He took heart from the
knowledge that Reye never corrected them. He spent most Friday nights and some Saturdays working with
Reye’s dad over at the new house.

S
he was slowly coming around to having him in her
life again. So far, though, she’d mostly watched him, but
she was beginning to smile and act more spontaneously
around him, be less guarded. But it was clearly going to be on him for a while. How long, he had no clue. She had been surprised to find him staying at her parents
home. They treated him like their long-lost son, putting him up in Reye’s brother Frank’s old room, giving him a key for when he was late getting into Austin, and neither
of them had told Reye of his living arrangements.

She found out, though. It happened on his fourth weekend in Austin, at the end of a month of trips. As
usual, he’d helped her earlier that Saturday afternoon
with her team’s game. And, as usual, she continued to
refuse dinners, lunches, or any other outings with him.
She thanked him as always for helping with the game and
sent him on his way. He’d spent some time in the city
with some of his friends from law school for a couple of
hours and then drove over to her parents’ home.

Saturday nights were movie nights at the Jackson
household. They would rent several movies for the three
of them to watch together. Mrs. Jackson would make
popcorn and margaritas, a combination he wouldn’t have
put together but that actually worked. The Jacksons sat
in their recliners that were reserved for TV watching and
he’d taken the floor. They agreed to watch a thriller, and,
about halfway into the movie, Reye entered, needing to
pick up something from her dad. She’d found the three
of them engrossed in their movie. He’d seen her enter,
remaining quiet as he watched his presence register on h
er face. He watched her taking in the scene; her eyes
moved to look at him, laying on his back, head propped
and resting on a pillow, popcorn bowl sitting on his
stomach, margarita in hand, watching the movie.

“Oh, Reye, we didn’t hear you come in,” Mr. Jackson
said, pausing the movie and acting like having him here
was an everyday occurrence. They all looked up at her. “I
don’t know if I told you, but Stephen is staying with us
on the weekends now. There’s no use in him wasting all
his money on a hotel. I thought this way he could get to
know us and we could get to know him.” Stephen
watched her drop down into a chair, looking over at him
again, speechless. He gave her a large smile, tears in his
eyes as he fought against laughter.

Her family had somehow become co-conspirators in his quest to win her back. He had met all of her older
brothers and their families. Most of her brothers had
made their way to Austin to check him out. It was subtle
at first, but that usually gave way to full interrogations by first one brother and then another. He understood their
need to meet and assure themselves of his commitment
to Reye. He had gotten to know and like her family very
much. He wanted her to get to know his.

He was starting into his third month of making the
trek to Austin to see Reye. He pushed aside any worries
that she might not ever forgive him, or risk herself for
him again. He didn’t want to contemplate a life without
her in it, wasn’t anywhere near ready to give up on them.

He was sitting in his apartment, looking out the win
dows at the cityscape, contemplating the upcoming
w
eekend. Tomorrow was Friday and he would be leaving
later than usual for Austin. He had a meeting in Dallas
that he had to attend in the late afternoon, so he wouldn’t
be getting on the road until after eight, at best. He pulled
out his cell to call Reye and let her know. She answered
on the first ring.

“Hey.”

“Hey, yourself,” she responded, her voice low and
sexy. Listening to her on the phone was one of the high
lights of his life, and yet also one of the hardest experi
ences for him. Staying with her family hadn’t allowed for
much of anything physical happening between them,
and he hadn’t pushed it. He wanted her to know that
although he loved her body and the physical part of their
relationship, he loved other aspects of her as well. But he
paid a price for it. He needed lots of cold showers and
long runs to reduce his longing for her body. Hearing her on the telephone left him constantly hard. He forced his
mind back to their conversation. “How was your day?”

“Fine, and yours?”

“Long, as usual,” he sighed.

“Poor baby,” she said, and he heard a smile and
teasing in her voice.

He chuckled. “Listen, I’ve got a meeting tomorrow
in the afternoon at the office that I have to make, so I won’t be leaving until late. In all likelihood, I won’t see
you until Saturday morning at the game. I made reser
vations at a hotel instead of staying with your parents. I
didn’t want to disturb them again. What time is the
game?”

“Twelve, but I was thinking that you could stay here
with me this weekend instead of at my parents.”
He sat up, snapping to complete attention.
“Stephen, did you hear me?”

“Yeah, I did. Are you sure? Be sure, Reye, because if I
get anywhere near you, alone . . . I’m not sure of the con
sequences. Is this what you want?”

“Come and stay with me, Stephen. I know what I’m
asking you to do. The last few weeks have been murder
on me, too. But I needed to be sure.”

“And are you?”

“Yes, I am.” He was quiet for a long time. “Stephen?
Are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here, and yes, there is a God.” He heard her
laugh on the other end. “It’s been so long.”

“I know, for me, too. Call me when you get on the
road?”

“I will,” he said. “And get some rest. You are going to
need it.”

“I hope so. Love you.”

His breath caught. “Reye,” he said and paused. “Did you just tell me you loved me?”

“Yeah, I did. I never stopped, really.”

“I didn’t think you would ever say that to me again.”