Here at Last (47 page)

I
stepped forward so that our bodies pressed together and
in
haled hi
s scent
.
“I love you, too,” I purred.

He kissed my neck and began to unbutton my blouse. “This is to make up for our weekend in Chicago.”

He removed the rest of my clothes before taking off his own.
We hadn’t made love in more than six weeks
, and
I’d forgotten how beautiful he was in the flesh
.
We climbed
into
bed,
and I lay down. S
traddling me
, he
slid his forearms up along both sides of my head
and lowered his body until it was
just
inches above mine. H
e
looked
like a leopard
waiting
to pounce.
I had never seen such a look of love mixed with animalistic passion.
He was tender and primal
.

“
I want to spend all weekend in bed together,” he told me
afterward
as he caught his breath. And that’s exactly what we did.





First, however, was the interview on Friday, which N
icholas felt had gone well. He wa
s a strong contender
for the position
, but the University had one more interview
that
it needed to
conduct
the following week before it would make an offer to someone. Having liked the faculty that he’d met, Nicholas hope
d
that offer would be made to him.

When they did make the offer, he was back in Chicago and called
me at work
to tell me about it right away. I could tell from his voice that he was excited. He hated to give such short notice
to
the University of Illinois but also knew that it might be a while before something else opened up
that was close to me
. He decided to take the Rutgers job
, which would begin in January.

Both of us knew that this was our chance to make things work between us. There was quite a lot to do, such as planning his
move
. He also needed to decide
whether to rent or sell the townhouse. Given the state of the economy, he decided to rent it for a while
until home values rose again
. Lydia and Darrell already owned a rental property and offered to take care of his place for him
, too
.

Of course, there was the matter of Hannah.
S
he
expressed mixed feelin
gs about their impending move. Understandably, s
he was concerned abo
ut having to make new friends,
particularly in the middle of the school year
, and s
he didn’t really want to leave their townhouse. On the other hand, she was only six; if
they
were
going to move, this was probably a good time to do it.
In addition,
she knew that he
r father
missed me
and
wanted to see
him
happy again
.

Since they were moving here to be with me,
I suggested that
they
live at my house. There were great schools in the area for Hannah, and
I knew
that
it
would be
expensive
for Nicholas
to
rent
an apartment or townhouse
here
while still paying
the
mortgage on his place in Chicago.
He agreed that it made the most sense, and we were excited
at
the prospect of living under the same roof. We just hope
d
that
Hannah would feel the same way
.

Chapter
43

Moving ahead with our Thanksgiving plans, Nicholas and Hannah arrived the weekend before Thanksgiving.
I picked them up from the airport
on Saturday afternoon
where Hannah was sporting brown pants and an orange shirt
and had gotten a
short
new haircut that made her look very chic
.
We all hugged, and it was great to see them again.

As we drove from Newark to Morristown
,
Nicholas kept his hand on my knee
while
Hannah looked out the window at the neighborhoods that we passed.

Attentive to her surroundings, she repeatedly asked,
“Are we almost there?”

I promised her that I’d tell her when we were about five minutes away. When I did, she perked up, her eyes glued to the crowded suburban streets with beautiful old wooden homes and trendy shops. It was
as
busy
as
Chicago’s suburbs, and she
spotted
many
familiar places, most
of which were
retail shops
and restaurant chains.

When we pulled into the driveway, fall leaves covered the lawn
, and the large trees in the yard were mostly barren.

“Is the yellow and white one your house?” she asked excitedly.

“Yup. This is it,” I told her.

Hannah
jumped out of the car and stood staring at the
house, which sat back a suitable distance
from the road
. It had a
big
white
wraparound porch and sat on
nearly
an acre of land.

Nicholas glanced over at me, and I smiled. He and I had barely gotten out of the car by the time she was up on the front porch. We pulled the luggage out of the back and
walked to the house, opening the
front
door and entering
the foyer. Hannah walked in ahead of us and stopped.

“Hannah, please
move
,” Nicholas laughed.

She moved forward two steps and looked around. “W
ow
,” she said
slowly
before turning
to
face
me
.
“Do you live here alone?”

“I sure do,” I told her.

“
I
t’s so
big
,” she said.

I asked, “Hannah, do you want to see your room?”

“Yeah!”

“I’ll carry her bag up if you want to show it to her,” Nicholas said.

“Okay. Come on, Hannah, let’s go on up.  You’ll have your own bedroom and your own bathroom,” I told her.

“Which room is she in?” Nicholas asked.

“The pink room,” I said.

“The pi
nk room?” she squeal
ed.

I nodded and glanced back at Nicholas, who was
still
smiling. The three of us walked up the wide carpeted steps to the large second floor where I gave Hannah a brief tour.

“This is the blue room,” I told her showing her a large
bedroom decorated with antiques,
“
a
nd here’s the study,” I said, referring to the middle room.
When I pointed
to the full bathroom
i
n the center of the upstairs
, I said, “That’s the guest bath.” Turning to the right and opening the door, I said, “This is
the pink room.”

Hannah’s eyes
grew wide
as she walked into the dusty rose and cream bedroom, which measured about twenty feet by twenty-five feet.
It was filled with my grandmother’s French provincial furniture, and a canopy bed stood in the center.
“Is this my room?”
she
asked
excitedly
, and I nodded.

Nicholas put Hannah’s suitcase down while I showed her the private bathroom. She’d had a long day and was
over
due for a nap.
B
oth of us knew better than to expect that she’d sleep a wink
, but we cajoled her into trying
by suggesting that she see how the canopy bed felt
.
She put on her pajamas and climbed in, and we kissed her before stepping out of the room and closing the door behind us.

Nicholas and I walked downstairs together. When we got to the l
iving room, he turned to me and wrapped
both arms around my waist
.
"Thank you for everything."

"She seems okay," I said.
Feeling
h
is heart beat against my chest,
I was relieved to have him in my arms again.

He pulled back a little
and rested his hands
just behind my hips.
Looking into my eyes, he said, "I love you, Sophia.”

I
wrapped
my arms
around his neck,
and
we kissed. 

“Come on,” he said. Stepping back
,
he took me by the hand and led me to the bedroom
where h
e closed the door and locked
it
behind us. Very slowly and tenderly, he re
moved my clothing one article
at
a
time. I reached up and pulled his shirt off over his head, and we kissed as I unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans.
I slid them down his legs, and he stepped out of them. After removing the rest of this clothing, we lay down on the bed and proceeded to make love. Afterward, we lay on our sides facing one another.

“Nicholas," I said.

He reached for my hand and held it between his hands and kissed my fingers.

“Thank you for being here.”

He
smiled
. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be."

I
grinned
before becoming
more serious. “I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you're willing to uproot your entire life in Chicago and come here just to be with me.”

He reached up and ran his finger along my cheek. “Sophia, if we’re going to make this work, we both have to try.
You
already did so much when you were in Chicago. You
came to
our place three nights a week, and a lot of that time was spent
focusing on
Hannah, not
us
.
We haven't had a lot of one-on-one time, especially since you moved. You’ve been very patient with the fact that it's not just me but that Hannah is part of the package.

“It was never that hard, Nicholas. I love Hannah
.”

"I can't tell you how much I’m looking forward to our living in the same house. Neither of us will have to get up in the middle of the night
to
go home,” he smiled.

I laughed. "That will be nice.
W
e can have all of our meals together."

“I know that you've got a long commute so I’ll be glad to do
most
of the cooking."

Smiling at him, I shook my head.

"What is it?" h
e asked
with
a curious look.

"We can share the cooking.” I grew more serious. "Nicholas, aside from the fact that we’ll be together a lot more, this also means that I can help you with Hannah. You don't have to do this on your own anymore."

He nodded, and his eyes
filled with tears
.

I ran my hand down his arm and held his hand in mine. “You
’re
not
alone anymore."

Wrapping his arms around me, he kissed my cheek and buried his face in my neck.
I held him in my arms, and we stayed like that for a very long time.





W
hen
we
went out for dinner that evening
,
Hannah was excited to see more of the area so I drove Nicholas and her around Morristown and some of the surrounding communities. On our way home, we drove past the school that Hannah would attend. She would be
gin
halfway through
the school
year, which wasn’t ideal, and we knew that she was a little nervous about making new friends and starting over again.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before
she
made her first friend. On Sunday morning, when
the three of us
went outside to walk around the backyard,
she
spotted a
young
girl next door.
Jessica was the same age
as Hannah, and it turned out that they would be in the same school. They
became
fast friends and played together
over
the
next few days
.