When Love's at Work (21 page)

He helped her up off the bed and walked her
to the steaming tub, then eased her gently into the soothing water.
As the heated liquid enveloped Purity’s body, she let out a deep
sigh of release followed by body-wracking sobs.

Alex kicked off his shoes and then climbed
into the bathtub fully clothed. He held her while she struggled to
put the day’s events into perspective. “Let it out,” were the only
words he said. It wasn’t just one day of fear and uncertainty, it
was all the wrong choices she had ever made and all the times she
had let someone else choose her future for her.

It all came pouring out in Alex’s safe arms.
She knew she would never be able to explain all the thoughts
swimming around in her hand. And, even better, she knew she didn’t
have to, that Alex understood that it was about so much more than
Derek Worthington.

Pure didn’t know how long they had been in
the bathtub, but the water was turning cold and her fingers were
looking wrinkly. Alex turned the hot water on and the temperature
went from cool to warm again.

Purity’s tears had stopped. Her
uncontrollable shaking had stopped. The look of love in Alex’s eyes
had not stopped. Would he ever know how grateful and thankful she
was to have found a man like him?

“
I’m going to go get some
coffee,” Alex said when he realized she was more stable. He kissed
Pure on the forehead. “Would you like some tea?” he
offered.

“
How about a vodka on the
rocks?” Pure asked, with a hint of a humor in her voice.

“
Your wish is my command,”
Alex replied, attempting to get out of the bathtub without dripping
too much water on the floor. Pure’s humor was reassuring. They
would get through this mess together.

“
Then I take my wish back.
I want a million dollars.”

Alex reached for a towel and said, “You got
it.”

“
A million dollars?” Pure
asked, her eyes widening in surprise. She knew Alex had money, but
not that much money.

“
I’m filthy
rich.”

“
Well, then, I’ll have the
million dollars and the vodka on the rocks.”

Alex leaned down and kissed Purity tenderly
on the lips. “I love you.”

“
I love you,
too.”

After Pure downed her drink and finished
bathing, Alex suggested she take a nap. Pure insisted she wasn’t
tired, but for Alex’s sake, she’d attempt to get some rest. She was
asleep seconds after her head hit the pillow and she stayed that
way for four and a half hours.

When she awoke, she felt renewed. She liked
waking up in Alex’s bed. The pillow smelled like him. She wanted to
snatch the shirt he had been wearing today and take it home with
her so she could breathe in his scent whenever she wanted. Too bad
it got drenched in the bathtub.

Alex had laid out a white terrycloth robe
and a t-shirt for her. She ignored the t-shirt, since it was clean
and didn’t smell like her fiancée, and put the robe on and headed
down the stairs. Alex was sitting in front of the fireplace with a
cup of coffee in his hand.

When he heard her descent, he got up swiftly
and met her at the bottom of the stairs. “How are you feeling?”

“
Much better,” she said as
she wrapped her arms around his waist and held him close. “Thank
you, Alex,” she whispered into his chest. She was finding it
impossible to be near him and not have her hands on his
body.

She eased back so she could see his face.
“I’ve been thinking about something and I want to run it past
you.”

“
Shoot,” Alex replied, as
the duo made their way over to the fireplace and sat on the
floor.

“
You have a lot of money,
right?”

“
Yes,” Alex answered, not
quite sure where she was headed with her question.

“
So, how much do you care
about me having a job?”

“
Not at all. I mean if you
want to work, then work. If you don’t want to work, don’t work. I
find it a bit hard to imagine you just sitting around all day,
though.”

“
Well, I wouldn’t be
sitting around all day. I have tons of things to keep me busy, but
I’ve been thinking a lot about Sheila Martin.”

“
Your assistant,” Alex
confirmed.

“
Yes. She does at least
half the work of putting on events, sometimes more. She should be
getting credit. So,” Pure paused, “I’m thinking that maybe we could
job share the position. Maybe 50/50 or even 75/25, depending on
what her needs are and what she thinks of the idea. If I don’t need
the money, since you’re rich and all, then I think it would be the
perfect opportunity for Sheila to get the chance to strut her
stuff. She’s really amazing.”

Alex didn’t think he could love Purity any
more than he did at this moment. “You have the biggest heart of
anyone I’ve ever met,” he said, caressing her cheek with his
thumb.

Pure leaned closer so their lips met. His
tongue was warm and inviting and she suddenly became aware that she
wasn’t wearing any clothing under Alex’s robe. She ended the kiss,
but didn’t move away.

“
You are too damn sexy,
Alex McCallister,” she said playfully, trying to lighten the mood a
bit.

“
I could say the same
about you,” he said in a voice that was just a bit too raspy. Pure
needed distance or her morals were going to be drowned in a sea of
desire.

Pure leaned back so several feet were
between her and Alex. “When does your divorce become final?”

“
About three months,” Alex
stated, reaching for his coffee cup to take a sip, as much to
divert his attention from Purity’s bare legs peeking out from under
his robe as to give himself time to get his breathing under
control.

“
Have you thought about a
wedding date?” Pure inquired.

“
Yes, I have. You thought
I was going to say no, didn’t you?”

“
I didn’t know if men
thought about that kind of stuff. I could never get a straight
answer out of any of the men I used to date.”

“
Well, I’m not those men
and I was thinking that an early December wedding would be
wonderful. Not too far into the month so it gets all tied up with
the hoopla of Christmas. Just far enough in that there might be
snow on the ground and that frosty chill in the air.”

“
And we can have greenery
with little Christmas tree lights everywhere,” Pure added, her eyes
shining with delight.

“
Sounds
perfect.”

“
It does, doesn’t it?”
Pure asked, but she didn’t need an answer, she already
knew.

Chapter Eleven

The Back-To-School Carnival ended with a
flourish of fireworks at 9:00pm on Labor Day. Purity and Sheila
couldn’t have been happier that the event was over. The kids had
had fun and the whole shabang had even raised a bit of money. Pure
spent hours pouring over spreadsheets hoping they would break even,
since the event was not intended to be a fundraiser, rather a
celebration.

“
Dinner’s on me,” Mark
Watterson generously offered, including Purity’s friends in his
invitation.

“
The boss is paying, order
the lobster,” Alex quipped.

After the last straggler had left the area,
the gates were locked and the clean-up crew began their thankless
job, as did the employees of Sammy’s Entertainment, Inc.

Courtney had her booth packed up and her
supplies in her car in record time. Pure almost missed being able
to thank her for all her hard work.

“
Hey, Court, wait up,”
Pure half-yelled over the sound of drills and metal hitting metal
that dismantling the rides caused. She hurried over to Courtney’s
side. “Thank you so much for all your hard work and creative
juices. The kids had a ball. Your booth was the most popular spot
all weekend!”

“
It was fun,” Court said,
continuing to walk to her car, avoiding Purity’s gaze.

“
Are you okay?” Pure
asked, wondering why Courtney was acting distant all of a
sudden.

“
Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just
tired.”

“
Mark invited everyone to
dinner. I’d love it if you’d join us,” Pure said, keeping pace with
Court’s gait.

“
No, really, I’m just
going to go home and get some sleep.”

“
It’s 9:30,” Purity
remarked, knowing full well that Courtney never went to sleep
before midnight.

Courtney seemed to increase her pace.
“Court?” Pure hurried forward and put her hand on her arm. “What is
wrong?”

Court couldn’t avoid her eyes now, since
Purity was standing directly in front of her, blocking her way.
“Talk to me,” Pure implored.

Courtney looked Purity right in the nose and
lied. “I’m tired, that’s all. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Courtney
maneuvered around Pure’s body and practically ran to her car.

Purity frowned, but let her friend escape.
What would make Courtney act so odd?

Meg was worried about Courtney. She hadn’t
heard from her friend in three days. While this wasn’t uncommon
when Court was working on a project, Meggie didn’t remember her
mentioning anything about a new endeavor. And, on top of her
strange behavior the last night of the carnival, an uneasiness was
beginning to settle in her gut.

Meg called Purity and they decided to join
forces and show up on Court’s doorstep with ice cream and
Twinkies.

Meg had only been to Courtney’s apartment a
few times. It was a kaleidoscope of colors and shapes. Court
insisted that there was a rhyme and reason to all of it, but Meg
could never decipher any kind of pattern in the disarray.

Pure knocked on the door and the two women
waited for Court to answer. Purity knocked again.

“
Do you suppose she’s not
home?” Pure asked.

“
Hmm… I hadn’t thought
about that,” Meg replied. “Knock again. Maybe she’s just taking a
nap or something.”

“
Court doesn’t take
naps.”

Meg pulled out her cell phone and called
Courtney’s number. It went to voice mail, so she left a
message.

“
I have a key,” Pure told
Meg. “Court gave it to me when she went to visit her folks in North
Dakota a few years back so I could check her mail and stuff. I
don’t really want to use it, though. It feels
intrusive.”

Meggie thought for a moment and then said,
“What if she fell in the shower and hit her head or something?”

“
Oh crap, you would have
to say that.” Pure hadn’t thought about anything bad happening to
Court. She had left her several messages since the day after the
carnival, but Courtney hadn’t called her back.

Purity sighed and reached in her bag for the
key. Once she found it, she used it to open the door and said
loudly, “Court, it’s me and Meg, are you in here?”

Her words were met with silence.

Meg walked quickly to the bathroom and then
came back out shaking her head no, Court wasn’t in there. Meg
headed for Court’s bedroom and Pure headed for Court’s work room.
It took a bit more time to survey the work room, with its piles of
textiles, canvases and other supplies. Meg joined her and said,
“She’s not in the bedroom.”

“
Well, at least she’s not
injured and lying around here somewhere,” Pure said.

“
Yeah, I guess,” Meg
concurred, feeling more out of sorts than before they entered
Court’s apartment.

They both heard the sneeze and their heads
turned instinctively toward the sound.

“
Court?” Meg inquired as
Purity headed toward the noise. Courtney was scrunched up in the
far corner under her drawing table. Purity bent down, so they were
on the same eye level. “Court, what’s going on?” Purity asked. Meg
followed Pure’s lead and joined her on the floor.

All they could hear were Courtney’s
sniffles. Meg had never seen Courtney cry before.

“
Courtney, it’s okay, it’s
us,” Meg encouraged her friend.

“
It won’t be us for long,”
Court said through tear-filled eyes and a cracking
voice.

“
What are you talking
about?” Purity asked. “We’ll always be us.”

“
You have Alex and Meggie
has Bobby. You don’t need me any more,” Courtney wailed, hating the
way her voice sounded too high and how very much she loved these
women who were tossing her aside for the men they loved.

“
Court, just because we
have men in our lives doesn’t mean we don’t need you any more,”
Purity explained.

“
If anything, we need you
even more,” Meg added. “Men can be so stupid and I don’t think I’ll
ever understand them. I need to be able to get away from Bobby and
spend time with my girls.”

“
Absolutely,” Purity
agreed. “No one could ever replace you in our hearts and in our
lives, Court.”

“
You say that now, but
just wait, you’ll see. You’ll all get busy with your lives and days
and days will go by and then our friendship will just fade away,”
Courtney said with such sadness and despair in her voice, it made
it hard for Meg to breathe.

“
Things are going to
change,” Pure acknowledged. “But that doesn’t mean that our
friendship will fall apart. We’ve always worked hard at making sure
we kept in touch and were there for each other, both in good times
and challenging ones. That isn’t going to change. Meggie and I will
still be here for you, Court, we promise.”