Feel Like Makin' Love (Rock and Roll Trilogy #3) (32 page)

“You look beautiful just as you are. If you’d feel more comfortable with a scarf,
that’s fine, but to me this is your crown.” He ran his hands playfully over her head and then leaned to nuzzle her neck. As he did, he felt a shiver run down her spine.

“OK then,”
she giggled, “the crown it is. Where are we going?”

“It’s someplace new to Paris that a friend of Cook’s just opened -
Tous les Aliments de Bonne. The English translation is ‘all good food.’ Are you ready?”

“I’m always ready for you,” she said
, slipping her hand into his, and Matthew understood the innuendo.

~ ~ ~

They were seated across from each other, and Matthew reached for her hand. “Happy Anniversary.”

“What a year,” she said
, and it was a bittersweet thought. “Thank you.”

“Thank
you
,” he replied. “Thank you for choosing me to share your life with. I am a lucky man. I love you, Carlee.”

They dined on crepes and
sweet white wine, but Matthew noticed that she was barely sipping her glass. “Is the wine OK?”

“It
is. It’s very good, just worried about drinking it.”

“
Tamara said it was OK. I went over everything with her as I planned the trip.”

She took a sip and asked in a sultry voice,
“Do you have any plans for later tonight?”

“I believe later will be about spontaneity, unless you have something specific in mind.”

She blushed when he looked at her. “I do, but we’ll wait ‘til later. I just wanted to make sure you were free.”

They shared lemon thyme crème
brulee for dessert, followed by a drive through the city. The driver turned on Avenue Montaigne, toward the fashion district. Finally the car stopped, and the driver stepped out and opened the door. Matthew stepped out and took Carlee’s hand. As she was smoothing her dress, he turned her toward a shop window.

“Oh my
goodness!” she exclaimed as the driver looked on with a smile.

“I figured since we couldn’t get to Time Square to see the big billboard, this was close.” The entire window was filled with the ad image of Carlee for Scarlet Poppies. “When I was talking with
Manny Conti, Diego’s PR rep, she told me it would be here. And then when I was talking with Carlo, he told me the same.”

“It’s gorgeous. I still can’t believe it’s me,” she laughed, tossing her head back as she did
, and Matthew kissed her neck.

“Wait!” she said suddenly. “Why were you talking to the attorney?”

He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to her with a big grin. She skimmed the contents of the document and looked at him with her mouth hanging open. “Oh my,” she said once more. 

“Carlee, this is huge.”

“I can see that,” she said. “But what I see that moves me even more is that they respect what a woman in radiation treatment goes through enough that they want to show that image as well as the long red locks.”

“Will you do it?”

“Of course, but we’d better be quick; my hair is growing back!”

“He pulled another piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it. “This is what drove the whole idea.”

It was one of the pictures with her shaved head. “Diego saw it as he was looking through my portfolio and ‘begged’ me to use it. His mother is a breast cancer survivor and went through her own battle with radiation and chemo. He said this was important to him.”

“Who knew?” she laughed.

~ ~ ~

Back at their room, Matthew removed his jacket and tie and met Carlee on the sofa. “Now tell me what you had in mind when you asked about plans for the evening.”

She sat quietly a moment, gathering h
er thoughts. “I talked to Tamara about something after my last tests, and I was waiting for the right time to bring it up.”

“What is it?
Is everything OK? She didn’t mention anything to me when we talked,” he said anxiously

“
Calm down, and let me talk,” she said with a smile. “Remember the night a couple of weeks ago when I woke you in the middle of the night to make love?”

“How could I forget
?” he laughed. And then the memory of the encounter hit him. “Carlee…”

“Remember how we couldn’t wait
, and before we knew it we were deep in the act before we remembered the condom?”

He couldn’t speak; he didn’t know whether to be elated or scared to death. “I remember.”

“Remember how incredible it was?”

“I remember,” he said again
, nervously.

“Well, it was a little more incredible than we even knew.”

“Does this mean…?”

“It does
,” she said and waited for him to process what this meant.

“And it’s OK?”

“I think it is. I hope you do. Tamara wishes we would have waited a while, but she’ll hook us up with a good OB/GYN to monitor progress because we’re considered high-risk.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment
, because he was afraid he’d cry. “Matthew?”

“Carlee, we made a baby…
”

“We did.
” She smiled and placed a tender hand on his cheek. “I don’t want to tell anyone for a while, OK?”

“Well then
, I need to go to the top of the Eifel Tower to shout it out to this part of the world because I want to tell everyone! I’m so happy!”

“Do we have to do it tonight?” she laughed.

“Can we still…?”

“Yes.
I asked,” she said with a grin.

“Oh my gosh, Carlee, there’s nothing better you could have told me tonight. I’ve watched you with Kyliejo
, and this was all I could think about. You will be an incredible mother.”

He picked her up from the sofa and carried her to the bedroom
, where they made sweet love.

~ ~ ~

They spent three more days in Paris talking about their future. Over breakfast on their last day, Matthew shared some ideas.

“So with the new contract with Diego Aceveda and that money, do you
still want to go back to school now that you’re pregnant?”

“
I can’t do much else at this point, and if I take this on-line class and one over the summer, there will only be two classes left in the fall to graduate. I think we can work it out. We won’t be due until around the end of October. What do you think?”

“I think I’ll help you so you can get it done. Now, there’s something else. I tried to bring this up once before
, and you kinda side-stepped the conversation, but I think it’s important…”

“I want to go home,
” she interrupted. “Jacksonville.”

“Are you sure
? Because I can work from anywhere.”

“I’m sure,” she said, and
a new plan for their future was ahead of them.

~ ~ ~

Andy and Geni arrived in London the evening before Carlee and Matthew returned. Geni had dinner ready for the four of them when they returned. They sat at the dining room table in Andy and Geni’s flat and talked about their trip and their plans.

“You need to go to Paris before you head home for good. It was incredible when I was there with Papa, but this trip was even better. I have so much to be
thankful for and to appreciate,” Carlee said as they ate.

Matthew showed
them the pictures of Carlee by the giant ad. “Since we couldn’t get her to Time Square, this was a close second.”

“I love that you wore your hair natural. No scarf,” Geni said.

“They get hot sometimes, and well, this is what I’ve got, so why not flaunt it?” Carlee laughed.

“You flaunt it well!”
Geni noticed that she seemed to glow more now than she ever had and not fussing over her appearance made her even more beautiful.

“That brings me to something else,” Matthew said, and
he told them about the new picture deal. “We have to hurry to get a couple of pictures soon, because her hair is growing back, and we want to catch stages, starting with this one.” He placed one of the shots on the table taken of her after they’d shaved her head.

Andy listened as they talked about the ads.
He knew this meant more money and career options for Matthew. Finally, when there was a break in conversation he asked, “Then what?”

“Then who knows?” Carlee said.
“We can’t travel more than two and a half hours away by rail or automobile for a while yet, so we’re just going to play it by ear.”

Matthew watched her
. She wasn’t ready to talk to them about home just yet.

“Well, we have some news too,” Geni said. “I already talked to Brian and Thomas and made them swear to let me tell you.”

“What is it? Matthew asked.

“I’m selling the house. I haven’t done anything about it yet, because I wanted to talk to you before I did. We’re going to look for something
in the area that’s smaller, but still on the river. I don’t need that big house anymore. It was a great place to raise a family, but my babies are all grown now, married and planning families of their own.”

Carlee looked up, catching Matthew’s eye, and
she knew he wouldn’t be able to keep quiet now. He asked her. “Carlee, what do you think about this news?”

Geni and Andy looked at each other
, and Carlee smiled. “He can’t keep a damn secret!”

“What secret?” Andy asked.

Carlee decided to continue through the door that Matthew had just opened in her own way. “We might need a bigger home when we can come back to the states. You know, we hope to have a family someday, and I know I want to stay in Jacksonville.”

“So are you saying we should buy the house?” Matthew prodded.

“Well, like Mama Davis just said, it seems like a great place to raise a family.”

An
dy watched and noticed that Carlee and Matthew appeared to be talking in some kind of code, and then it hit him.

“Carlee?”

“Yes, Papa,” she said, answering a question he hadn’t asked yet.

“Yes, what,” Geni asked. She looked at Andy and saw the smile on his face. “Oh my!”

“Yes,” Carlee said again.

“Yes, you’re pregnant?” Andy asked.

“Yes,” she said and saw Matthew grinning from ear to ear. “I wanted to wait a while to tell you, but someone is too excited to keep it to himself for just a little bit longer,” she laughed and Matthew rose from his seat to hug her.

“I am excited! I can’t wait!”

“Me too!” Geni shouted.

“Papa?”

“And Tamara is OK with this news?” he asked, his concern evident.

“
Yes. She wishes we’d have waited but it happened so she’s setting me up with a high-risk OB/GYN. I told her you’d be worried and Matthew would be over the moon!” Carlee laughed.

“I’m
excited too, I just want to make sure you’ll be OK.”

“Be excited, Papa, there’s gonna be a baby around her
e in about eight months, and with all you hawks watching over me, I’ll be fine!” She rose from her seat and went to Andy’s, and he pulled her onto his lap, and she put her arms around his neck. “You can be excited,” she whispered.

“Grandpapa?”

“Just Papa works,” she said and hugged him tighter.

“Papa!” he laughed as Geni was hugging Matthew.

~ ~ ~

On Monday, Matthew returned to work
, and Geni had errands to run, so Andy went to have coffee with Carlee. She had the laptop set up on the table when he arrived and poured coffee for him.

“What do you have going on here?” Andy asked seeing the pad and pens.

“School work!” she replied.

“Do you have five minutes before you start?”

“I have no time-table,” she told him, closing the lid on her laptop.

“I have a couple of things I wanted to talk to you about. First of all, I hope my reaction about the baby didn’t throw you. I’m so happy I can hardly contain myself! I was just…”

“Worried, I know, Papa. I was too when I found out. It definitely wasn’t planned, but nothing these last few months has been.”

“I wanted to talk to you about Geni and me. I went to the island before I went to Jacksonville because I needed to put some things where they belonged in my head.”

“Mama?” she asked and he nodded.

“I love Geni
, and when she took off, I needed to get my head right before I went to her. At first, I was mad. I was angry - pissed off, but then I was just confused…”