Room 212 (27 page)

“Hey, I’ve seen a picture of you.” He jogged over to me and I heard the SUV that was idling go silent.

“Hi. I’m Laura.” He was so beautiful and looked just like the picture Seth had shown me. He had on his backpack and khaki shorts and a white t-shirt. I was trying my best to keep my watery eyes at bay, to keep from scaring his beautiful son.

“My dad loves you. He told me so, said you were his solid mate.”

“That’s soul mate, Paul. Go get in the car,” Rebecca corrected him as she quickly made her way to me.

“Paul?” I felt my stomach drop and quickly rode out the pain. A wave of nausea hit me and I bent over slightly to keep it from surfacing.

“Nice to meet you, Laura. I’ll see you later?” Paul said uneasily at the tension between his mother and me. He looked back and forth between us, a curious expression on his face.

“I think so.” I wiped the fresh waterworks from my eyes as Rebecca scoured my appearance from head to toe. She was just as beautiful as she had been years ago. She had a white pant suit on and was perfectly made up, similar to the way Marcia Barbie had been all those years ago. I could see a slight contempt in her stance and her eyes were guarded.

“Laura. Wow, how I have wanted to get a hold of you more than once over the years,” she whispered under her breath as Paul made his way to the back seat of her SUV.

“Is this going to be cut throat? And if so, will you do it quickly? I’m really tired.”

“That’s the funny thing about time, it heals all wounds. It never worked for my ex-husband, though. He loved you our entire marriage.” She crossed her arms and took another step toward me.

“I never, we never… spoke or did—”

“I know. I don’t blame you anymore. I really never did. I saw the chance to get him back and I took it. I was too late.” She let out a heavy breath and then her eyes found mine again, this time they were guilty.

“Look, it’s a little early for me to have this conversation. Can you please tell me where I can find Seth?”

“At his office off Stemmons. It’s on the right when you exit. He should be packing it.”

“Packing it?”

“Yeah, if he’s moving to Colorado, he’ll need his things.”

“What about Paul?”

“He’ll see him. It’s only a state away. We worked it out. He’s a good father. And he was a good husband. I wish you both the best, Laura.” She turned to walk away and I felt my chest heaving with my tears. Fuck, would the water works ever stop? I was so emotional lately, and with everything going on, it was becoming so much worse.

“Rebecca?”

“Yes,” she turned to me with a smile on her face—a genuine smile. “Go, Laura, he was always yours.”

I jumped into my truck and slammed on the gas. It was 8 A.M. and it was bumper to bumper on I-75.

I started mimicking Seth’s boasting about Dallas talks as I raged through traffic. “Move back to Texas, Laura, the great Lone Star, blah, blah, blah, bullshit!”

I looked for the speed limit sign and there were three at three different speeds. Come on really? I finally exited the cluster fuck of cars honking their usual Tuesday morning chorus and sped down Stemmons looking for his building. I cut off a car when I found it and pulled into the spot closest to the building. I rested my head in my hands and tried to wrap my head around what Rebecca had just told me. He has always felt the same for me. I didn’t trust it, didn’t believe it.

He was moving to be with me, he wasn’t letting go. It had only been two days and he was ready to cave. I took a deep breath trying to figure out what words to say, some grand gesture I could make for him. It was pointless. Seth would always be better when it came to that. I saw him walk out of his building with a box and got out of my truck. His head was down and he seemed to be thinking about something. He finally looked at me as I ran toward him. The expression on his face quickly turned to relief and his eyes swam as he dropped the box and ran to meet me.

We chocked on our emotion as our lips met and he lifted me to kiss him. He gave me the kiss that only Seth could give. We pulled apart, both of us openly crying in public at his building as people passed by. I laughed at him as he twirled me around in an exaggerated cheesy motion.

“You are such a romantic…idiot.”

“You love it.”

“Okay, Seth. I’m back in Texas. Now what?”

“Okay you two, knock it off!” I separated the girls as they desperately tried to cling to the Barbie they were fighting over and laughed as they gave me the look of defiance I knew matched my own.

“Dallas, this is not your Barbie. This belongs to Rose.” Dallas lifted her chubby hand and swatted at me. “Little miss, get your butt into that corner. Time out!” I saw her face crumble as I took the Barbie and handed it to her younger sister. I was
that
mom, the one who bought her babies Barbies. I laughed out loud as Rose, all of eighteen months old, took her prized Barbie and shoved the head in her cereal bowl before throwing it down on the kitchen floor while her sister cried in the corner.

“Looks like a fun day already,” Seth said as he sauntered into the kitchen toward the fridge. “When they are bad, they are yours. That was the deal.” Dallas cried harder in the corner when she heard her father’s voice, peeking her head around to make sure he saw her. I smirked at her, a little manipulator, like her mother. I was onto her. “Dallas, count to twenty, tell Rose you are sorry and you can go play.”

I saw Seth laugh as his four year old stumbled through her numbers, correcting herself until she got them right, and turned around with a look of satisfaction. She had my brown hair with Seth’s curls and green eyes. I was pregnant with her when I left Colorado. Dallas was a little surprise for Seth and me as we made a home for ourselves together. I fell in love with Seth’s house immediately. He had designed and built the most beautiful home I had ever seen. It was a large Spanish style two-story and was nothing short of spectacular with tons of natural light streaming through the skylights, solid dark wood floors, tall ceilings and copper fixtures throughout. It was surrounded by beautiful landscaping and intricately set stones around the front and back. We were perfectly nestled on a huge lot enclosed with story high brick fences. He claims he built it for me and just didn’t know it and I argued the point until I saw it and instantly agreed.

I smiled at Seth as he leaned in to give me an exaggerated kiss over Dallas, making a smacking noise. Our little girl, instantly jealous, leaned in on him for hers. I felt Rose nudging her way in for his attention and knew I had lost the battle. He sat down at the kitchen table and pulled both girls on his lap, laughing at them and pulling them close to him. I got jealous.

“Well, that’s all the hint I need.” I turned on my heel and ran like hell to get in my morning shower, passing a handsome Paul on my way up. “Morning,” I smiled at Paul, who looked exactly like his father did when he was younger. His curly hair cut short and a twinkle in his green eyes.

“Sup.” It was his usual greeting, and it didn’t bother me.

We had become close over the years and I knew it was a term of endearment as far as Paul was concerned. Squirt had been retired on his insistence. “I’m going to take a shower, can you please help your father with the hellions?”

I saw a smile on his lips. He was the perfect older brother to his sisters. “Uncle Dave called. He and Aunt Krista will be here tomorrow night.”

I winked him a ‘thank you’ and ran to the bathroom, giving myself the usual ten minute indulgence Seth let me have before the girls destroyed him. My babies. I smiled at the idea of spending the day at our park. I was sure with those two we would be exhausted by noon. It was nothing short of normal for them to be screaming at nap time. Freshly bathed and excited to spend the day with my family, I opened the bathroom door to see Seth, the ever doting father, with both girls raising hell and clinging to him, a helpless look on his face. I laughed at him and took Rose to the bed for a diaper change, her red hair still barely visible on top of her head. She waved her diaper around furiously. “Dada wis me and dis for dada, not you mama.”

“I always win,” Seth smiled, eyeing his daughter and laughing at her banter.

“Seth.”

“Yeah, baby?”

“You put her pants on backwards.” I laughed at him in his attempt to dress Dallas. He let out a sigh as his daughter ran away when he pulled her pants off to correct them.

“It was the sex.” I taunted as he chased her down the hall. I heard him reply as he caught her out of breath. “We may never have it again, Laura.”

“Well, you said babies. I hope you meant only two!”

“Lady, I will never touch you again.”

“Good luck with that.”

We piled into our SUV minus one Paul, who had better things to do with his girlfriend, and headed to our park. It was a sunny spring day and we let the girls run wild as we chased them around and they tortured an old and cranky T2 and pulled his tail.

“Twetwis, no,” Rose said, swatting his butt as he barked at her. I lay on the blanket and closed my eyes, soaking up the sun for all of two seconds when I heard Rose screaming bloody murder. I quickly looked up to see what she was screaming about and was relieved when her squeal turned into laughter. I looked for the source and saw two younger kids playing with a red Frisbee. I looked immediately to Seth who was just as shocked as I was. We watched Rose again to gauge her reaction to the next toss and she was more excited, flailing her hands in the air, begging the kids for a chance to hold her new fascination.

“Seth, are you seeing this? She never reacts like this to anything!”

Rose let out another howl as her father quickly headed over to the kids and bribed them with twenty dollars apiece for the Frisbee. Rose jumped with so much excitement when he was on his way with it to her that she stumbled and fell, quickly pushing herself up to sit as her father brought her the red disc. She kissed her father repeatedly and I saw a look in his eyes full of love for his little girl. Dallas immediately snatched the Frisbee and world war three began. The girls finally lay down for their nap and the cool breeze played through the trees as Seth and I mused at our sleeping babies.

“I can’t believe she reacted like that, and to a Frisbee, in this park, isn’t that crazy?”

“Laura, for us, things like that happen, I guess, to let us know how lucky we are.”

“I guess, maybe we were supposed to be together for them. Maybe I gave birth to a future president or peace leader?” I smiled at the babies, watching their chests rise and fall.

“Which one?” He grinned. “Plus, she gets it from her dad. When she see’s something she wants, she has to have it.” His smile radiated through him and he stroked Rose’s back with his fingers.

“Laura, what if you hadn’t come, you know, to Texas?”

“You would have come for me and Dallas was coming no matter what. Our fate was sealed when you showed up at my motel.”

“God, we are so lucky. How is Linda?”

“She’s good. She said the motels are fine and my house sale closes next month.”

“Are you sure you want to sell it?”

“All I wanted was the rose bushes and we have them here.”

“So this is home?”

“This is home, Seth.”

He stroked my cheek with his fingers and leaned in to kiss me. His kiss was deep, we both reached for each other, needing more. We spent most of our nights covered in some sort of baby goo and were in dire need of personal attention. It went with the territory, but a lack of alone time was started to catch up with us. I leaned into his kiss, careful not to rouse our sleeping babies, and put my hands in his hair. He let out a throaty moan and pulled his head back.

“And there is absolutely no way we can have sex right now,” he stated and hung his head.

“Don’t blame me. It was your idea to stay at the park through nap time.”

“Yeah, I know. I love you, Mrs. Whitaker, so much,” he said connecting our fingers, our heads on the blanket facing each other.

“I love you, Seth.” I breathed in his beautiful eyes and the love they held for me, and only one thing came to mind.

Very few people get a chance to spend their lives with their first love. It’s a gift.

Karma wrapped its arms around us, my mother winked, and God smiled.

Thank you for reading Book I of the Lightning Strikes Series. Look for Krista and Dave’s story in the companion book titled Vinyl coming Fall 2014

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