Champagne Romance (Romance Novel) (14 page)

It took about 30 minutes to return to shore.
By that time, the storm was in full swing. The boats in the cove
were bobbing up and down as the wind and rain pounded fiercely at
each one. It took some expert maneuvering, but Slater soon had “The
Mystic” in her slip and anchored securely. Swan was ordered to run
ahead and take cover at the back of the restaurant that they had
patronized earlier in the day while he finished adjusting the
sails. By the time Slater and Swan entered Pepe’of Paris again,
they both were severely damp.

Swan managed to redress into her plum suit,
but she still continued to shiver a little. Slater had slipped into
a blue Cambridge shirt, which now was more than a little soggy. He
slung his arm over Swan’s shoulders for body heat as they winded
their way through chairs and tables to a cozy fire in the bar.

Swan soon excused herself for the ladies room
in hopes of finding a hand dryer that would double as a hair dryer.
She was not disappointed. Turning the dryer’s nozzle upward, she
soon had her hair fluffed and dried. It was a little wild looking,
but that could not be helped. She was surprise to find Slater
outside the door tapping his foot.

“
I thought that you might be sick or
had climbed out the back window. What took you so long?”

“
I was drying my hair and warming
up.”

“
Well, you took your sweet tushy time
about it.”

Swan was about to disagree, and fire back,
but thought better about it. He seemed to be snarling for an
argument---again.

“
Hot buttered rum is on the table.
Drink it. It will warm you up.”

Swan obediently followed another order. By
the time the storm had passed, she was indeed feeling quite
cozy.

It was getting near the supper hour and Quinn
would soon need to be fed and put to bed after being at preschool
all day. Swan and Quinn would follow their usual routine of bathing
and making bubbles in the tub. Then, nursery rhyme songs would be
played while she got him ready for the night and before she read
him a story. Quinn’s sleepy eyelids would begin to shut long before
the story ended.

Insisting that it was time for her to go,
Swan picked up her bag and started out the door. Slater was in step
right behind her making sure that she was safely in her car before
closing the door. Indicating that she should roll down the window,
he reached in, took her chin in his grasp, and planted a soft short
kiss upon her lips.

“
Drive safely.”

Slater got in his black jag and he began to
reflect on the day’s events. He hadn’t gotten to a chance to make
his move yet, but he was satisfied that it was on the horizon.

Accelerating down the highway, Swan was soon
at her condo. She got Quinn ready for bed and tucked the covers
around Quinn. She kissed him “good night” and turned out the lights
thinking how much he reminded her of his father. Putting on a DVD
of Mozart and pouring herself a glass of red wine, she walked out
on her balcony and also reflected on the day’s events.

CHAPTER 32

The next week passed without incident. Slater
and Swan were involved in their own job, but each was not far from
the other’s mind. Swan jumped every time a door slammed at Global
Genetic Research Inc. thinking that she was not up to any more
confrontations or interrogations. Fortunately, it hadn’t
happened----yet.

Swan had twisted and rung her hands all week
trying to decide when it would be the most appropriate time to tell
someone that they were a father. There didn’t seem to be any
manuals to follow that mammoth and gloomy decision.

After an apprehensive and dreadful
twenty-four hours, Swan decided to tell Slater about Quinn on
Saturday night over dinner when there would be lots of people
around. Hopefully, he would not make a scene, but he was such a
complex man she knew there were no guarantees. She could just
picture him standing up, leaning over the table, and picking her up
by the collar. His style would be getting two inches from her nose
and saying very distinctly, “I’m a what?!!!”--- Perhaps, it would
be smart to wear something that he could not easily grab hold of
clothing wise.---- That was not exactly however the whole scenario
unfolded, but close.

Saturday night soon arrived. Swan had
twittered all day about the evening events and how Slater would
react. He was taking her to a bar called Skyes in Hollywood. It was
an exclusive bar and restaurant that many of the movie stars
patronized. The bar was outside under the stars. In the middle of
the bar and under the stars, there was a sort of huge mattress that
couples could lay down on together for a semi-private interlude and
count the galaxies. Each couple had their own private secluded spot
with votive candles. It was difficult to tell who was who, which is
probably why it was so popular with the Hollywood crowd.

Swan had decided on a scarlet power dress
with four-inch heels, peek-a-boo toes, and sling straps for her
date this evening with Slater. The four-inch heels would make Swan
close to being nose to nose with Slater when they were standing.
That was a comforting thought. She always felt that looking up gave
her a decided disadvantage, perhaps because that didn’t happen very
often.

Swan’s strapless crimson dress clung to her
figure with three floaty/flouncy tiers. The top was a low-cut
sweetheart strapless version with an added touch of cleavage she
could at least mellow Slater to the point of reason.

Swan’s hair was French braided on the sides
with the back tucked under low on the neck making it look like a
pageboy style. It gave her an elegant and sophisticated look.

CHAPTER 33

Slater rang the doorbell promptly at 6:30
P.M. Swan was almost ready, but still needed a few more minutes to
put finishing touches on her ensemble before she slipped into the
ruby red dress.

Excited for company, Quinn ran to answer the
doorbell that Maria had already opened. Taking his thumb out of his
mouth he asked, “What’s your name?” Apparently, he had not been
awed enough to remember Slater from a week ago.

Slater squatted down and said, “Troy, but you
can call me Slater.”

Slater was impressed that he stuck out his
hand for a handshake even if it were the one with the wet thumb
before he ran back to finish building with his Lego blocks. Slater
looked at the little dark head bent over the pile of blocks
concentrating on building a small animal. He watched him for a few
minutes as he assembled his stack before he decided to join him on
the patterned rug. He thought that this was the perfect time to
pump the little guy for information. He did not feel the least bit
guilty as he sat down and began fiddling with stray blocks.

“
What’s your name?”

“
Quinn,” (which sounded like “win”) the
small boy answered after removing his thumb, “but you can call me,
Ace.”

A grenade went off in Slater’s head. Trying
to appear calm, he asked, “Who calls you, Ace?”

Quinn frowned at being interrupted from his
toy Logos. Somehow that frown seemed familiar to Slater, but he was
too focused on getting some answers to objectively evaluate
why.

“
Mommy, she said it’s my daddy’s
name.”

Slater jerked from his frozen position on the
floor and headed for Swan’s bedroom door with three angry strides.
Quinn was oblivious to the turmoil that he had created, but
Cleopatra sensed the storm and disappeared under the couch. Slater
yanked open Swan’s bedroom door and slammed it so hard that it
almost came off the hinges.

Swan had one leg on the bed and had just
finished hooking the sheer red nylon to the red ribbon garter belt.
She stood almost naked in a red strapless bra and red thong bikini.
She had color coordinated her underwear with her outer attire as
fashion would dictate, but at this point it was totally lost on
Slater.

Swan wrapped her arms around her body in a
protective gesture as Slater stormed over to her, grabbed her by
the shoulders, and lashed out, “When were you going to tell me?
Next week, next year, never!” he fired at her.

Swan knew he was barely holding his anger in
check and that she was probably toast. Although she was not afraid
of him, he certainly had her attention. She tried to put some
distance between them so that she could compose herself and hope
that he would calm down. That didn’t work as she soon found herself
thrown on the bed and his body holding hers in place with his nose
two inches from hers asking again, “When? Damn you! When?!”

Swan bit her lip; she didn’t pretend to
misunderstand him, “Tonight.”

Slater rolled onto his back, slung an arm
over his eyes, and was totally silent trying to curb the anger that
raged inside him.

The bedroom door quietly swung open and a
concerned little boy with big gray eyes asked, “Is Mommy ‘kay?”

“
Absolutely, darling, we’re only having
a little discussion,” Swan reassured him, lashing angry eyes of her
own at Slater and indicating the need to “back off”.

Knowing that Quinn would be a buffer between
them and knowing that the time had arrived for introductions, Swan
opened her arms, “Come here, sweetheart, I want you to meet
someone.”

Quinn ran on his little stubby legs eager to
climb into his mommy’s open arms and sit on her near naked lap.
With her arms around him and facing Slater, Swan said, “This is
your daddy.”

Quinn stared soberly at Slater through his
long sooty eyelashes so much like his mom’s before climbing onto
his lap and giving him a slobbery kiss. All the anger went out of
Slater like a puff of smoke.

“
Maybe Daddy would like to read you a
bedtime story while mommy finishes getting dressed. Would you like
that?” Quinn bobbed his little head up and down. “You’ll need to
show him your room and books.”

Taking Daddy’s hand, Quinn led this now
docile hunk down the hall; however, as they left the room, Slater
turned with a glare and mouthed the words, “You’re not off the
hook, yet.”

As father and son walked out the door, Swan
slumped against the side of her dresser. She was somewhere between
relieved and apprehensive about the unscripted Scene I that just
unfolded in the bedroom. She knew that Scene II would be unscripted
as well and she felt that she needed to get Slater off her family
territory before the explosive atmosphere erupted in front of
Quinn. She would protect her son at any cost. She hoped that Slater
would do the same.

Swan stepped into the neon red dress, tided
her hair, and slipped on the four-inch heels before she knocked on
Maria’s door to inform her that they were leaving. Then, she
quietly tiptoed down the hall and peeked in on father and son. The
two dark heads were close together revealing how much the two
resembled the other. She stood there for what seem like an eternity
and watched with churning emotions.

Slater was very patient with the toddler’s
questions. He listened with interest as he said his prayers and
snuggled under the covers. As he turned to go, Quinn asked, “Daddy,
will you be back tomorrow?”

Slater looked directly at Swan as he
answered, “I’ll be back for the rest of your life,” daring Swan to
challenge that statement. He kissed Quinn on the forehead and
tucked in his covers before heading for the mother of his child
silhouetted in the doorway.

Slater’s calmness was only temporary. Swan
could feel his contempt and imagined that she saw smoke emanating
in a curl from the top of his head. He none too gently put her on
the passenger side of the sleek jag and climbed in under the
steering wheel. He reached in the glove box for a package of
cigarettes. She realized that she hadn’t seen him smoke since she
had been a part of his life again. She suspected that this was his
emergency cache.

Rolling down the window, Slater slipped a
cigarette between his lips and lit it. Taking a deep drag and
exhaling he snapped, “Let’s hear it! What excuse do you have for
depriving me of my son for the past three years?”

Swan gnashed her teeth together and tried to
answer with “lady like” words, “Because,” she enunciated, “you
Neanderthal Ape, by the time I understood that I was pregnant, I
didn’t know where you were, who you were, or even what you looked
like!” She took a little breath, “I didn‘t even know your name,”
she confessed in a deflated quiet voice. “I would never have kept
something like that from you or from our son. I didn’t expect to
ever see you again. The only part of you I knew to share was
‘Ace’-- that’s his middle name.”

A somewhat calm reply of, “I know,” explained
a lot to Swan as to why the evening had unfolded as it did.

Slater watched Swan bow her head and wrap her
arms around herself. He could only imagine the difficulties that
this single mother must have had to endure. He tried to picture her
pregnant, blind, totally on her own, and accepting life as it had
been given to her.

He asked the question that had been eating at
him for three years, “Why didn’t you let me help? Why did you just
leave Breckenridge without a word?”

She answered without hesitation, “I couldn’t
ask a handsome young man to give up his life for me. So, when the
doctors told me the blindness could well be permanent, I felt that
for all concerned, it would be better if I split.”

“
What made you think I was handsome?”
he asked with a cocky grin.

His question, as usual, threw her off center.
Her eyes flickered up to his.

“
All the nurses said so.”

Slater threw out the half smoked cigarette
and reached over to rub her neck, “I want to hear more details
later. Let’s go eat.”