The Long Way Home (28 page)

Luce laughed, "Guilty as charged—and the Kennedys.
He held a hand out for Phil, "Pleased to meet you." Phil's wife
couldn’t take her eyes from his face. I looked up at him and smiled, "Phil
is my ex-fiancé and his wife Ashley was the neighbor girl at the home we bought
together."

Luce pointed at the young girl, "Red Jimmy
Choos
and a cape?"

I slapped his chest, "Yes. That is the story."
Ashley's face was bright red and my mother was confused. Phil looked furious
but before he could speak, I cut him off, "Ashley, I owe you big time. I
might have married this giant asshole if you had not let him fuck you like a
dog on my bed, in my shoes. For that, I will be eternally grateful."

She gasped and my mother started to laugh. Phil leaned into
me, but Luce stepped in front of me. "I think it's time for you to leave.
Your being here is disturbing my fiancé."

I was nervous, giggling into Luce's back when my mother
grabbed my hand, "We are going to be the laughing stock from the Upper
East Side all the way to the Hamptons."

I shook my head, "Who gives a damn? You have all of
Daddy's money, Mom. Have fun with it."

I kissed her on the cheek and sauntered back into the kitchen
with Luce. Daniela
raised
her eyebrows, "Well,
how did it go?"

I shook my head, "You really are a crack team of evil
people. I thought the girls I grew up with were bad, but damn. I think, besides
the girl who once tossed a full milkshake in my face, you have redeemed me to
everyone I know."

Daniela winked at me, "I owed you one."

Tex wrapped his arm around her shoulder, "She really was
a mean girl in modeling. This is her stage and these people are her
props."

Daniela kissed his cheek, and I had no idea how they made
their relationship work, but they did. The cheating and the weird drama
was
like foreplay.

Tex gave me a grin, "Well Jack, we better be heading to
the hotel. This has been really fun and all, but we have an early flight."

I hugged the four of them hard, "Thank you so much for
coming."

I hugged Daniela, "Thank you for not making me a prop
any longer."

She whispered, "You have always been one. That'll never
change. You are fun to play with, Jacqueline."

I gasped, “You are awful.”

She shrugged, “I detest being bored.” She waved and let Tex
lead her from the room. I shook my head and looked around to find the kitchen
was nearly empty. Will had vanished, no doubt upstairs to see my sister. So
when the four of them left, it was Luce and I in the kitchen with the staff. I
didn’t know where Mike had gone. I turned to go and find him but Luce walked
towards me. He wrapped his arm around me, "There is something I want to
talk to you about."

I shook my head, "No. Don’t ruin it. Just wait and see
if it happens. You never know and I like the surprise of it."

Mike came walking into the kitchen, looking exhausted. He put
the dishes he had picked up into the sink. He cleaned like he knew how, because
he did. He was the only one who had grown up cleaning and cooking. He glanced
at Luce and I. The look was the most painful thing I had ever seen or felt. I
could see the defeat on his face and it broke me inside. I looked up at Luce,
"I better start cleaning up as well. Thank you for everything."

He bent and kissed my cheek. I heard Mike growl something.
Luce grinned from ear to ear, "See you tomorrow, buddy. I'll get your
mother to see me out." He waved and left the room.

When he was gone, I walked up and shoved Mike, "You have
something you need to tell me?"

He leaned on the huge sink, "I have a lot of
somethings
I would like to tell you."

I poked him in the ribs, "About Tex's wife, by any
chance?"

He turned around and pinched the bridge of his nose,
"Jack, what in the ever-loving hell? Are you bugging me?"

I folded my arms, "She told me you two hooked up.
Spill."

He shook his head, "It's not what you think. She came to
my place in Jersey, I wasn’t there. A friend was staying there. He called to
let me know she was there. I drove out to end this, once and for all, and never
have it come up again." I could see the guilt all over his face.

I winced, "So while I was sleeping and depressed, you
were doing Daniela?"

He shook his head, grabbing my hands, "NO! I swear. She
attacked me, started undoing my pants and kneeling and…"

I put a hand up, "
Ewwwww
.
Stop. Okay, look—this is who you are—I get it. I don’t want you to
feel bad about yourself. I just don’t want to hear any more details. I want to
go upstairs, and pretend my house isn’t full of a bunch of people I don’t like,
and sleep. Will you come with me?"

"I never touched her. She tried and I ran away like a
little girl, I think I even screamed."

I laughed, "Okay. Sleepy time?"

He sighed, "You don’t believe me, do you?"

I shrugged, "It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change the
way I feel about you. You’re my best friend, Mike. You have slept with far
worse than her."

His eyes grew heavy, "I know. But
I
didn't this time
,
I swear it
. All I thought
about this whole time was you. I’ve been here all along." He wrapped
around me and steered us to the back stairs where no one would see us slipping
to my room to hide.

We stripped to our underwear, locked the door and climbed
into the bed.

I curled into the crook of his arm. He kissed the top of my
head, taking in a deep smell of my hair, "What did Phil's face look like
when Luce and you went to talk to him?"

I smiled against his chest, "He looked humiliated. Luce
made him look like a giant tool and I made Ashley look like
a
ho
. I am going to try to feel bad for it tomorrow, but I don’t think I
can. It was so evil, and yet, so fun."

He kissed my head again, "Those people deserve
everything they get. If you mess with them and make them think you and Luce are
getting married, then good."

I nodded, "I know. They do deserve it. Especially
Phil."

"I told you he was a douche."

I nodded again, "Shawn too."

"You
gotta
start listening to
me, Jack. I know assholes when I see them. I spent a lot of years trying to
blend into that fucking school. It was a nightmare."

I nodded, “I know. You always spot the guys, and yet, somehow
end up with the wrong women.”

He laughed, “I can’t always be right.” He held me closer to
him, “If this is all we ever are, it’s okay with me. I’m sorry I let you down
so much, Jack.”

But he hadn’t, not really. He was the only person who had
made my father’s funeral possible. He was the reason my house had functioned.
He didn’t even see what he had done. He didn’t have to be asked. He just came
and did it because he loved me. I could have cried but I didn’t. I just let him
hold me.

I had changed my mind a thousand times on whether I should go
or not. It seemed like an adult decision and he was the choice I would make, if
I freed myself to make one. If I got my fifteen-year-old heart back from Mike,
it would tell me Luce was the right choice.

I got out of the cab and walked along the ancient street to
the front of the building. I didn’t go inside. It was exactly 7:00. The sun was
getting ready to set and the romance of Rome was starting to hit. The city was
stunning in the evening.

I walked to the place we had agreed to meet—the
pillars. He wasn’t there yet. I leaned against them and wondered for a second,
if I had made a mistake. My love for Mike was never going to go away. No matter
how much I fell for another person. I pushed the thought away and leaned my
back against the pillar. The marble and stone arches were stunning with the
cobbled road.

The smell of flowers starting to bloom wafted by me on a warm
breeze. May in Rome was warm.
Far warmer than December.

I closed my eyes and imagined how it would happen. He would
come around the corner, and I would see him there, waiting for me. We would run
into each other's arms and finally kiss. The kiss I had wondered about many
times.

The warm wind was gone as quickly as it had come, but I still
felt something. Suddenly lips brushed against mine. My instinct was to open my
eyes, but I didn’t. I let the kiss be frightening and exciting.

Hands grabbed at my arms, pressing me into the pillar. Lips
caressed and sucked, massaging mine slowly. The stranger’s tongue brushed
lightly against my lips, as if asking permission to go farther. I could feel
the intensity of his body against mine. He vibrated as if he wanted to go
farther but forced himself to remain controlled.

I caught a scent I would know anywhere and smiled against his
face, still not opening my eyes, "France?"

"Hi, Jacqueline."

My arms shot up, wrapping around his neck. He lifted me up
into his arms but pressed me against the ancient pillar. His body against mine
was familiar, and yet, exciting and somehow new.

His tongue still never made its way into my mouth; he still
teased with the kiss, regardless of the fact our bodies were begging for
everything all at once. He stopped kissing and pressed his forehead against
mine, breathing ragged breath against my chin, "You aren’t
disappointed?"

I shook my head.

It was odd but
true,
I was excited
it was him. It was the sweetest thing he had ever done and it made him the
person I wanted him to be.

He put me down and took one of my hands in his. We were
shaking with need and excitement but he did the unexpected. He led me to the
door of the art gallery.

He paid and pulled me through the familiar surroundings. He
pulled me to the picture with the guy staring into the reflection of
himself
.

He stopped and stared at it, "This is my favorite. I
don’t see it the way everyone else does. I think he's looking at himself and
seeing all the mistakes he's made and all the regrets in his life, and he's
stuck there, trying to find the point where it all went wrong. He doesn’t see
perfection, he sees regret and mistakes."

My eyes filled with tears.

He looked back at me, "The day I left your parents’ house
like a chicken shit after Phil proposed. That was the day it all went wrong. I
should have walked out of that room, punched Phil, the douche, in the face,
thrown his ring at your father and dragged you out of that house. I should have
married you and made you happy every day. I think I've been like this guy here,
just stuck staring at the reflection and trying to find a way to fix it
all."

My lip quivered.

He wiped my tears, "I am so sorry it took me so long,
Jack." He got down on his knee, stunning me. He pulled something I never
imagined from his pocket, "I'm not going to rush into a wedding and a
relationship, I expect to win you over the right way. You deserve that. But I
wanted to give you this as a symbol of my love." He handed me the deed to
the vineyard in North Carolina. The paper shook in my hands. "Sometimes
you just need something good to happen to you. You're the good thing for me and
I want to be your good thing." He reached up, drying my tears. I was
frozen.

He smiled, "Stop doing that freezing up thing and say
you love me."

I dropped to my knees too, in front of him, "I don’t
deserve you. I should have said no to my father and Phil faster."

He leaned over, kissing my face, "Jack, I always knew
we'd find our way here, eventually."

I sniffled and leaned into the kiss. "You've always been
home, France. Always." I realized then, that home wasn’t so much a place
as it was a feeling. I had never felt at home in my house. I had never felt at
home in my life. But with him, I had always felt at home. The only time I ever
truly slept was when I was with him. The safety wasn’t strength, it was the
comfort of being loved and accepted, regardless of the flaws.

I nodded, "I will pay you back every dime."

He chuckled, "Stop being a pain in the ass and come home
with me."

I nodded, "Home." It was wherever he was.

"Somehow we always take the long way home, Jack."

I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him lead me from
the Gallery of Ancient Arts and out to the car he had waiting.

"What's the rush? We could stay overnight."

He shook his
head,
"I have a
playoff game in fourteen hours. It's eight and a half just to fly back."

I frowned, "You came here between games?"

He sighed, "Yeah, when me and Luce worked this out, we
didn't take into account playoff games. Not smart."

I scowled, "He told you about the meeting?"