Hand-Me-Down Love (23 page)

“
Congratulations!”
Sean said. “This is good news. Let’s get a bottle of champagne.”
He caught the waitress’s eye and ordered a bottle of champagne.
When they had their glasses, Sean raised his. “To Jada and
Derrick,” he said. They clinked their glasses and drank the golden
bubbly liquid.

“
To Sean,”
Derrick said, raising his glass. “The prodigal son returns.”

When the
champagne was gone, they got up and left the restaurant. Arm in arm,
the foursome walked back to the shop.

“
We’ll see
y’all later,” Jada said.

And then it was
Sean and Marla, really alone for the first time since Sean had walked
back into her life. He took Cody out for a walk and Marla worried
that he might not return. What if he didn’t come back? Why was he
here, anyway? Why had he come back?

But Sean did
return with Cody at his heels. Lucy was in the kitchen and reared her
back and hissed when she saw Cody. “I guess it’s going to take
Lucy a while to get used to Cody,” Sean said, leading the dog away
from the kitchen. “I’ll put him in the spare bedroom,” he
called over his shoulder. “He’ll be alright.”

Marla stood in
the kitchen and waited. Her heart was thumping hard. She had wanted
to touch Sean all night, and he
had
touched her. Under the
booth, he put his hand on her thigh and rubbed it back and forth. It
drove her crazy with longing. She wasn’t sure what was happening,
but she was going with it, whatever it was.

Sean walked
back in the kitchen and put his arms on her shoulders. He smoothed
her hair before leaning down to kiss her. She put her arms around
him. He moved his hands down her back, pulling her closer, before
reaching down between her legs. He rubbed her through her jeans. If a
person could have died with desire, Marla would have died on the
spot, right there in the kitchen.

“
Let’s go
to the bedroom,” Sean said. He took her hand and they walked into
the bedroom where Lucy had already staked out her spot. She jumped
down as soon as Sean and Marla lay back on the bed, still kissing.
Sean put his leg between her thighs and pressed and rubbed. She
unzipped his jeans, and pulled on them, releasing him. When they had
finally undressed completely, they reached for each other hungrily,
kissing, kissing. Sean moved into her. “I love you, Marla,” he
said.

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

As Marla came slowly
out of her sleep, she smelled bacon. Ummm, she thought drowsily. Then
it hit her. Sean was back and he still loved her. She looked down at
the bed, but it was empty of Sean and Lucy.

When she walked
into the kitchen, Sean was standing at the stove turning strips of
bacon and Lucy and Cody were sitting at his feet, waiting patiently
for their next bite. The animals seemed to have made some sort of
truce since last night, maybe due to their common love of bacon.

Sean turned
when she came in and smiled at her. He looked so vastly different
from how he used to look, but he looked more like himself than ever.
He was a man who had been stripped emotionally and come out the other
side. Marla loved him.

She sat at the
table while Sean cooked, giving the animals pieces of bacon, first
one, then the other. Marla heard her phone ringing inside her purse
in the living room. She didn’t want to answer it but wanted to see
who it was. It was Michael. He seemed so far away from her now.
Before Sean came back, Marla had planned to tell Michael that she
couldn’t see him anymore. Just as soon as he got back from the
Keys, she was going to tell him that. Because she realized she was
still in love with Sean that day in Diane’s office. As much as she
cared for Michael, it wouldn’t be fair to him for her to be in love
with someone else. He was starting to make permanent plans, and Marla
couldn’t let him do that.

“
Who was it?”
Sean asked when she went back in the kitchen and sat down.

“
I’ll tell you
after breakfast,” she said.

“
Oh?” he
said, but didn’t press her. She wasn’t trying to sound
mysterious. She just didn’t want to lie to Sean and she didn’t
want to talk about it yet. That was reasonable. “I need coffee,”
she said standing up to get a cup.

Sean made
plates of eggs and bacon and toast and sat down. He reached across
the table and took Marla’s hand. “I’m glad I’m back,” he
said.

When they had
finished breakfast, Marla said. “I guess we need to talk.”

She and Sean
sat on the couch. “I know we’ve been through a lot,” Sean said,
taking her hand. “I can deal with whatever you have to tell me.”

Marla told Sean
about her feelings after he left. She told him about the group
therapy. She told him about her loneliness, how she had finally come
to believe that he was never coming back. She told him about Michael.
And then she told him how their relationship had become intimate.

Sean rubbed her
hand hard when she told him that. He didn’t say anything. He would
have to tell her about Crystal, and he would just as soon as they
were finished talking about Michael. He didn’t want to tell her,
but he knew he had to. Things had to be honest.

He looked at
her. “Are you in love with him?” he asked. He was prepared to
fight for her, was going to fight for her if Michael stayed in the
picture.

“
No.”

Sean’s body
relaxed immediately and he realized how tense he had been as Marla
talked.

“
I’m in
love with you, Sean. I tried not to be when I thought you were never
coming back. I was so lonely. That’s when I became intimate with
Michael. But last week I admitted to myself that I still love you.”

Marla’s cell
phone started to ring and she knew without looking it was Michael.
“I’m going to have to talk to Michael and that’s going to be
hard. He’s been good to me and I know it’s going to hurt him.”

“
I feel bad
about that,” Sean said.

“
I had
already planned to break it off with him when I realized I was never
going to be able to give my heart to him. I would have already told
him but he’s been in the Keys.”

Sean leaned
over and kissed Marla. She put her arms around his neck. Her phone
started ringing again.

“
I’m going
to have to deal with this,” she said.

“
I know. I’ll
take Cody out for a walk so you can call him back.”

“
I’m going
to have to see him, I guess. I think I should do it in person, don’t
you?”

“
Yes. But I
don’t want you to see him. I really don’t.”

He got up and
called Cody, who was lying on the kitchen floor where it was cooler.
“I’ll see you in a few minutes,” he said before closing the
door at the top of the stairs.

Marla was
filled with dread about calling Michael.

“
Marla, where
have you been?” Michael asked when he answered his phone. “I’ve
been calling you since last night.”

“
I’m sorry,
Michael. It was a busy day yesterday and I went out with Jada and
Derrick and didn’t even look at my phone.”

“
Didn’t you
think I’d be calling you?”

“
Michael,
where are you? I need to talk to you.”

“
That doesn’t
sound good,” he said.

She didn’t
say anything.

“
I’m
sitting in the parking lot. I just saw a man with a beard come out
with a dog. I know you’re not open right now. So who was that? Is
that what you want to talk to me about?”

“
I’ll be
right down,” she said. She quickly put on her jeans and a t-shirt
and went downstairs barefoot. She hoped Sean wouldn’t show up while
she was talking to Michael. When she got into Michael’s car she
could tell that he was stricken. It was painful to see how hurt he
was. He knew what was coming, but it wasn’t going exactly as Marla
had planned. She had hoped to leave Sean out of it, but now she would
have to explain it.

“
I’m sorry,
Michael. This is hard for me to say.”

“
Probably not
a hard as it will be for me to hear it,” he said.

“
No, probably
not. While you were gone last week I realized something that changed
everything for me.”

“
What was
that?”

“
I realized
that I couldn’t fully give myself to you because I was in love with
someone else. Am in love with someone else.”

“
That guy
with the dog?”

“
Yes. But he
had been out of my life for a while and I didn’t think he was
coming back into my life, ever. That’s why I held off on things
with you for so long. But then I went ahead and tried to convince
myself I didn’t love someone else.”

Michael just
sat there staring through the windshield. “This really sucks,
Marla,” he finally said. “I thought we were going somewhere with
this.”

“
I’m sorry.
I feel terrible that I’ve hurt you. But I would have done this
whether he came back or not. I would have had to do it in fairness to
you.”

“
Me? That’s
funny.”

Marla looked
out the car window and saw Sean walking back toward the door. Dammit,
why did he have to walk up right now? Michael looked over too.

“
Wait a
minute,” he said. “Isn’t that your sister’s husband? He looks
different but I remember how tall he was. That’s him,” he said
decisively.

This was going
very badly.

“
You mean
you’re in love with your dead sister’s husband?” he asked
incredulously. “I’m sorry, but that seems kind of sick to me.”

“
Michael, you
don’t know what you’re talking about.” She opened the door.
Sean, who was opening the door to the building, turned at the sound.
She got out of the car and Sean started walking over. “I’m sorry,
Michael. You’ve been a good friend to me and I’ll never forget
it.” She closed the door and Sean was standing beside her. Michael
pulled his car out so fast it fishtailed around. Sean looked at Marla
and they both looked back at Michael. He rolled his window down and
said, “That’s just weird,” and he sped off.

“
He was
parked down here when he called. He saw you come out with Cody. It
didn’t take him long to put two and two together.”

“
I’m
sorry,” Sean said.

“
It’s not
your fault,” she said. “It’s my fault. My instinct told me not
to get involved with him but I ignored it. The worst thing is that he
recognized you.”

“
I remember
him,” Sean said. “You were still dating him when Meredith and I
got together.”

Back inside,
Sean put his arms around Marla. He pushed her hair away from her eyes
and kissed her. “It’s going to be all right,” he said.

“
This day
isn’t going well,” she said. “Michael is only the tip of the
iceberg of what we have to deal with.”

“
And we’ll
deal with it,” Sean said.

They stood
another minute. “It must be a hundred degrees outside,” Sean
said. “I got pretty sweaty just taking Cody out for a few minutes.
Let me take a shower and then we’ll talk about everything, okay?”

Marla sat on
the couch, wondering why everything had to be so complicated. It was
a simple matter, really, two people who love each other. Very simple.

A phone started
ringing but it wasn’t hers. It was Sean’s, which sat on the
coffee table. She picked it up and looked at the screen. Crystal. Who
was Crystal? As she sat there, Marla began to realize that she knew
nothing about what Sean had been doing in the seven months he’d
been gone.

When Sean came
out of the shower, he had a towel wrapped around his waist. Before he
could say anything, Marla said, “Who’s Crystal?”

Oh, shit. His
heart dropped to his stomach where it formed a lead weight of dread.
This day not only wasn’t going well, it had taken a detour straight
to hell.

“
She’s a
bartender up there.”

“
Up where?”
Marla said, her eyes never leaving Sean’s face.

“
In the
mountains. Where I was. She worked at the bar.”

“
Why is her
name in your phone?” Marla asked.

“
I don’t
know,” Sean said. And he didn’t know. He had never even gotten
Crystal’s phone number. He didn’t need to. They always hooked up
on Saturday night after she got off of work. It didn’t require
phone calls.