Treading Water (28 page)

“
You did this, Jill?” Jack
asked, clearly stunned.

She walked over to him. “I’m sorry, Dad,”
she whispered as she hugged him. “I know I’ve been awful. I’m
willing to try this for you.”

“
Thank you.”

Overwhelmed with relief, Andi caught his eye
and sent him a warm smile. “That cake looks fabulous to me, Jill,”
Andi said. “How about I help you serve it?”

Once they had consumed the cake, they gave
considerable discussion to what they should have for dinner and
agreed on pizza.

“
Can I do anything to help
you get settled, Andi?” Frannie asked after dinner.

“
I just have to make Eric’s
bed and find his pajamas, but that’s all I’m doing
today.”

“
Maggie and I made his bed
yesterday after it was delivered.”

“
Thank you,
Frannie.”

“
I knew you’d be tired
tonight. I was glad to be able to help.”

“
I’m going to like having
you around,” Andi said.

“
We’ll be spending a lot of
time together since you’ll be working at home for the next few
months, and I’m still using my studio here while our house is being
built.”

“
I wonder if we’ll get
anything done?” Andi asked as she topped off their
wineglasses.

“
You’d better hope so,
since most of what I’m doing right now is for your commission,”
Frannie said with a grin.

She and Jamie got ready to leave a short
time later.

“
Thanks for all the help
today,” Jack said as he and Andi walked them to the
door.

“
It was our pleasure,”
Jamie said. “We’re all glad to have you here to stay, Andi,
especially him.” He poked Jack. “I don’t know that we could’ve
stood him for much longer.”

“
What? I wasn’t that
bad!”

Frannie and Jamie shared a look.

“
I was not!”

Andi laughed and put her arm around Jack.
“I’ll take it from here, guys. Thanks for the help.”

Shutting the door behind them, Jack turned
to hug Andi. “I feel like a kid on Christmas.”

“
Speaking of kids, let’s go
find mine and get him to bed. He’s got to be exhausted after
staying out late last night and all the excitement
today.”

Eric was delighted by him his new room,
which had been painted the same pale blue as his room in Chicago.
He was also surprised to find his bed from home waiting for him.
They all laughed when he asked if it’d been on the airplane with
them.

“
Whew,” Jack said on the
way downstairs with Andi. “I hope they’re not going to be that
wound up every night.”

“
They might be for a
while.”

“
Maggie’s so thrilled to
have him here. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad she’s happy, but it
kind of surprises me, since she’s always loved being the baby of
the family—and played the part to the hilt.”

“
She’s never had anyone to
take orders from her before,” Andi said.

“
True. What else do you
need for tonight?” he asked, gesturing to the pile of luggage in
the foyer that they planned to deal with in the morning.

She pointed to a small bag. “Just that
one.”

“
Give me five minutes and
come on up.” He kissed her and took her bag with him.

“
What’re you up
to?”

He held up a hand on his way upstairs. “Five
minutes.”

She locked the back door and flipped the
front light on for Jill and Kate, who were babysitting. On her way
upstairs, she stopped to check on Eric. He’d fallen asleep right
away and was on his back with both arms thrown over his head. She
covered him, picked up his stuffed dog off the floor, and put it
back in bed with him. When she looked in on Maggie, Andi found her
also fast asleep and uncovered. She tucked the girl back in and
went up the spiral stairs to Jack.

On the way upstairs, Andi felt some of the
tension she’d been carrying for weeks drain from her shoulders. Now
that she and Eric were finally here and the move was behind them,
she gave herself permission to start hoping that everything might
just be okay.

The newfound hope in her heart grew and
expanded when she entered their bedroom, which was alight with
candles. He’d also lit the fire, and Andi felt its warmth when she
entered the room. The furniture she’d sent from Chicago was
arranged in a way she would’ve done herself, and the room had taken
on an entirely different atmosphere than it had the only other time
she’d been up there.

“
Hello?”

Jack came out of the master bathroom wearing
just jeans and a big smile. “Hi there.”

The sight of him in the
candlelight sent a wave of desire charging through her. She ran her
hands over his chest and leaned into him, still wanting to pinch
herself to believe she now
lived
with
the love of her life.

He hugged her. “How about a soak in the
Jacuzzi?”

“
I’d love that.”

He led her into the spacious bathroom, and
she gasped at the two-dozen red roses he’d left on the counter for
her.

“
I was going to put a card
with them, but I figured I’d just tell you what it would’ve
said.”

She breathed in the fragrant roses. “And
what’s that?”

“
Something like, ‘Welcome
home. I’m so glad you’re here.’” He stole a lingering kiss and bent
to start the tub.

“
They’re wonderful, thank
you.”

“
I have something else for
you.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys.
“The three silver ones are for the house. The others are my office,
the boat, and Haven Hill. Oh, and this one’s for my
car.”

“
The keys to your kingdom,”
she said, touched by the gesture.

He handed her the ring. “Everything I
have.”

She put the keys on the counter. “Thank
you.”

“
Let’s soak.”

The pulsing water soothed away the strain of
the last few weeks. “Jill was so sweet to get the cake and the
balloons,” Andi said as she relaxed against his chest.

“
I couldn’t believe it. She
really surprised me.”

Andi closed her eyes and sighed with
contentment. To finally be with him without a time limit was
nothing short of a dream come true. After they’d soaked a long
while in silence, she said, “I’m turning into a noodle.”

“
That sounds serious.” He
helped her out and wrapped her in a huge white towel and tied
another around his waist. He picked her up so fast, she never saw
it coming.

Lowering her to their bed, he leaned in to
kiss her. “Don’t move.” He reached down to where he’d hidden a cold
bottle of champagne and two glasses. “I thought we needed to
celebrate tonight.”

“
I couldn’t agree
more.”

He popped the cork, poured the foaming
bubbly, and handed a glass to her. “Here’s to you and me and the
rest of our lives together.”

She touched her glass to his. “I’ll drink to
that.”

Part III

The Butterfly: To burst forward through the
water by the simultaneous up and down movement of the arms and
legs.

Chapter 21

Andi made good use of her two weeks off to
unpack and get settled. She was careful to make changes only to the
room she shared with Jack and left everything else in the house
just the way it was, which she felt would be important to the
girls.

She made them a fancy, candlelight dinner
for Valentine’s Day. The kids enjoyed the dinner and the silly
gifts she got each of them. Jack surprised her with a pair of
enormous diamond earrings that sat in a box on her pillow at
bedtime. She gave him a new watch to replace the one he’d broken
the week before.

The next weekend, he took her to shop for a
car and talked her into a midnight blue convertible BMW, the
four-door version of his. When he tried to buy it for her, she
protested and let him know she was capable of buying her own car.
He put up an argument—and even created a bit of a scene in the
dealership—until he finally got that he couldn’t win this one.

“
Andi…” He reached for her
hand as they drove home in his car. Hers would be delivered the
next day.

She tugged her hand away and looked out the
passenger window.

“
What did I do?”

“
You know what you
did.”

He pulled the car off the road. “Look at
me.” Using his finger to turn her chin, he seemed shocked to find
tears in her eyes. “Talk to me. What’s wrong?”

She looked down to study her hands. “I
totally overreacted. You were just being generous, like you always
are. I’m not used to that. No one has ever wanted to take care of
me the way you do.”

“
I
do
want to take care of you—and
Eric.”

“
Since Alec left us—and
even before then—it’s been up to me to take care of us. I can’t
stop that now. I make plenty of money, and I want us to have an
equal partnership.”

“
I make plenty of money,
too,” he said with a pained expression. “In fact, I
have
plenty of money.
Well, tons of it actually, and that doesn’t even include the money
from my father, which I’ve never touched. It’s been years since
I’ve worked because I had to. I want be able to do things for you
and Eric without upsetting you.”

She knew he was successful, but to hear him
use the words “tons of money” made her laugh. “Tons, huh?”

He winced. “You don’t even want to know.
What can I say? The business does well. Really well.”

He was so embarrassed that she loved him all
the more for his humility.

“
Can we compromise?” he
asked.

She thought about it for a moment. “I’ll
allow the occasional indulgence, but I pay for the big things—my
car, Eric’s school, anything he needs. I don’t want to spoil him.
And my salary goes into the household pot. Fair?”

“
We’ll go to the bank
tomorrow and open a joint account. We’ll pay for everything out of
that, okay?”

She nodded. “Will you do something else for
me?”

He kissed her hand. “There’s absolutely
nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

“
Don’t get mad when I won’t
let you pay for something.”

“
I’ll try.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“
What? I
will
try.”

“
I’ll believe it when I see
it.”

Grinning, he leaned over to kiss her. “Did
we just have our first fight?”

Laughing, she said, “When we fight, buddy,
you won’t have to ask.”

On her first day back to work in early
March, she drove Eric’s carpool and stopped for coffee on her way
home to her new office in Jack’s study. He’d made room for her to
work from home during the final months of construction when she
would oversee hiring, publicity, and the opening gala.

Frannie worked every day in her studio while
she waited for construction to be completed on their new home. Andi
looked forward to their daily chats and often walked with her to
pick up Maggie at school. They’d begun to notice crocuses nudging
their way through the still-frozen ground, a sure sign that spring
was on its way.

One afternoon, Frannie came in from the
studio looking frazzled.

“
What’s wrong?” Andi
asked.

“
My stomach has been a mess
all day.”

Andi took a closer look. “You’re kind of
green.”

“
Ugh! I can’t afford to be
sick right now with so much left to do on your
commission.”

“
Are you sure it’s a bug
and not something else?”

“
Like what?”

Andi made a pregnant-belly gesture.

“
No way. That ship has
sailed for me. I’m sure of it.”

“
How sure?”

“
Sure enough that I haven’t
been doing anything to stop it.” Frannie’s face went slack with
shock. “You don’t think… I mean really…”

Andi roared with laughter.
“You are
so
pregnant. I hope it’s not triplets.”

“
That’s not
even
funny! I’ve got to
go get a test. Do you mind going for Maggie?”

“
Not at all. Are you coming
back here?”

“
I guess so. I’ll need
reinforcements if it’s positive.”

“
I’ll be here,” Andi said,
laughing again at the shell-shocked look on Frannie’s
face.

Andi walked to Maggie’s school and arrived
just as the students poured out the front door of the elementary
wing. She waved to Maggie when she saw her come running out.

“
Hi, Andi. Where’s
Frannie?”

“
She had something she had
to do, so you’re stuck with me.”

“
That’s okay.”

Andi smiled at her. She still sometimes felt
that Maggie put up with her because she was part of the package
that came with Eric. But Andi was making a concerted effort not to
push herself on the girls, hoping a relationship would develop over
time.

“
Did you have a good day?”
she asked Maggie.

“
It was okay. Bobby Denton
puked at lunch. It was
so
gross.” Maggie shuddered with fifth-grade
revulsion.