Callahan's Fate (29 page)

Some of her contentment curdled.
 
This is
the moment to tell him.

She sighed. “I’ll be here, Callahan.”

His fingers teased through her hair. “I
know you want to be, doll, but I don’t want to cost you your job.”

After a moment,
Raine
decided to just say it. “I quit.”

“What?”

“I quit my job.”

He stilled. “Why?”

Her words tumbled out in a rush. “After
what happened, I decided I couldn’t take any more stress, going to three or
four different places every day, from one borough to another, riding subways
and buses, and always looking over my shoulder.”

Callahan said nothing.
 
Raine
waited but
when he still hadn’t responded, she turned her head to look over at him.
 
He wore a sad expression, mouth compressed
into a tight line.
 
Alarmed, she said,
“What’s the matter?”

“I thought you liked it enough here now
to stay,” he said. His voice crackled. “I thought you loved me enough to be
here, but if you want to go home, then I’ll figure out how to be a small town
law enforcement officer or something.
 
Whaddya
call them—deputies? I would hate leaving Pop and my
nephews, but if you
gotta
go, I’ll follow, unless you
don’t want me anymore.”

The misunderstanding loomed large
between them.
 
In her haste to tell him,
she had forgotten he remained weak in body and more than a little emotionally
fragile.
 
Raine
sat up and changed position to face him. “Callahan, you’re taking this
wrong.
 
I’m not planning to go anywhere,
and I want to be here with you.
 
I don’t
want to go back to Missouri.
 
I resigned
this job so I could apply for a permanent position at one of the high schools.
There’s four hundred, I think, so hopefully somebody needs a teacher.
 
I want a classroom to call my own and to
report to the same place every day.
 
New
York is home, honey, and wherever you are is where I want to be.”

When she began talking, Callahan shut
his eyes as if he didn’t want to hear what she said. Already paler than normal,
his complexion had whitened even more.
 
As
Raine
spoke, a faint hint of color came
back into his cheeks and he blinked.
 
He
cocked his head the way he did when he was intent on something, and when she
finished, Callahan reached out his hand.
 
She took it.

“Doll, you can’t imagine how glad I am
to hear that,” he said. “I was
gonna
wait but since
we’re talking about it, I got something for you, if you want it.
 
Let me go get it.”

“I can find whatever it is.”

He shot her a sharp look and shook his
head. “Not this time, baby.
 
I want to do
it myself, and I got to start walking around to get my strength back.
 
Where’d you put that bag we brought my stuff
home in?”

“It’s on the kitchen table.”

Raine
watched as he
swung his legs over the edge of the bed.
 
He rested for a moment,
then
stood up, and with
his slow gait, Callahan walked to the kitchen.
 
She ached to help him, to put her arm around his waist for support, but
she respected what he’d said and knew he was right.
 
So she waited, wondering what he could
possibly have in the bag for her.
 
Maybe
he’d bought her some trinket in the gift shop, she thought, or purchased a
stuffed animal.

“I’m going to brush my hair,” she told
him.
 
She needed to pee, too, so she
ducked into the bathroom.
 
When she
emerged, Callahan stood there with something behind his back.
 
He had a funny expression, sober yet tender,
and looked like he might grin any moment.
 

“What is it?” she asked.

“I hope I don’t fall on my ass when I do
this,” he said.
 
“Come stand over here by
the window, would you?”

“Sure, but what are you doing?”

“
Sh
!” Callahan
bent his knees and lowered himself onto the floor, kneeling.
 
He rocked a little but remained upright.
 
He brought his hands around and opened them
to show her a small, vintage ring box.
 
Her heart sped up and she caught her breath,
then
held it. “I love you, and I want more than anything to make you my wife.
 
I’d like to get married before New Year’s, so
will you?”

Tears filled her eyes and overflowed
down her cheeks as joy rushed through her body like a flooding river. “Yes,”
she told him. “Oh, yes, Callahan.”

“
Gimme
me
your left hand please.”

She held it out for him, and he opened
the box to reveal a beautiful ring set.
 
Callahan removed the solitaire diamond ring with clumsy fingers and held
it out toward her. “This belonged to my grandmother,” he said. “Pop brought it
to me early this morning, before you got to the hospital.
 
He thought I might have a need for it and I
told him, sure, I do.
 
They were engaged
in 1942, right before he shipped out to the Philippines and the Pacific theater
of the war, World War Two.
 
I don’t
remember her—she died when I was about two—but I could always tell how much he
loved her.
 
I’d like you to wear it to
continue the tradition, but if you’d rather have something new…”

“No,” she interrupted. “It’s perfect.”

Callahan slid the ring onto her finger
and it fit.
 
Raine
tilted her hand to catch the light and watched the diamond sparkle.
 
The way the ring had been designed, the Art
Deco style offered an illusion of other diamonds, but there was just one.
 
She didn’t know a lot about gems, but this
one glittered with white clarity.
 
“Now
give me a hand before I fall over,” he said.

Raine
grasped both
his hands as he pulled himself upright.
  
He grasped her in his arms and kissed her hard, yet with a gentle,
lingering caress.
 
Desire kindled deep
within but she resisted.
 
It’s too soon,
she thought,
he won’t be able to or be strong enough.

Moments later, he debunked the thought.
“Love me,
Raine
,” he said. “You be on top, doll, and
let’s mark the occasion,
whaddya
say?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, yes.”

Somehow they managed to sprawl across
the bed, Callahan on the bottom.
 
Raine
removed his pants and her own.
 
Without taking off anything else, she scooted
into position and grinned to see his cock had come to full attention.
 
She mounted it, easing onto it with a gasp of
pleasure as his stick filled her box.
 
He
grabbed her hands and held tight as she rocked back and forth.

“Harder,” he said. “Deeper.”

She obliged him, picking up speed until
she bucked like a rodeo cowboy riding a crazy bull.
 
Callahan made a low groan of pleasure and
encouraged her to keep on.
 
Raine
wanted to kiss him but she couldn’t reach, and right
now the release just ahead mattered more.
 
They could snuggle and kiss later, she thought, as she worked it.
 
Her pussy melted within from the building
heat, and every time she bounced her ass, delightful, intense spasms of
pleasure expanded through it.
 
Her
nipples beneath her sweater hardened but she ignored it, building the intensity
until the sensual pleasure spiraled to almost unbearable levels.

“Come with me,” she cried.

Raine
came, hard and
fast in an explosion of fever and brilliant light.
 
Her body convulsed, and his dick penetrated
up into her as far as possible.
 
They
rode the lightning together, seared and sated, pleasured and fulfilled.
 
After she shuddered one more time, she lifted
away from him and collapsed beside him.
 

Callahan grinned, his teeth bright
against his flushed face.
 
“Oh doll,” he
managed.

She lacked enough breath to answer.
 
Raine
lay beside
him, basking in the aftereffects of an incredible coupling.
 
Once she could think, she propped up on one
elbow. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” she asked.

“You almost killed me,” he said with
laughter. “I’m fine, nothing’s bleeding, and I didn’t pass out.
 
I thought there for a few minutes I might.”

“I’m glad you didn’t. You would have
scared me to death.”

“I
gotta
rest
now, for sure,” he told her. “Getting engaged took a lot of energy.”

Her fingers twined around his. “I
noticed.”

As she moved to get up, he grasped her.
“Don’t go anywhere. Stay here.”

“What about making dumplings?”

“We’ll eat chili tonight, and you cook
tomorrow.”

“Deal,”
Raine
said.

****

On the last day of the year, at nine
o’clock in the morning, Lorraine Teasdale walked down the aisle at Holy
Innocents on her father’s arm.
 
She wore
a vintage wedding gown she’d found at a boutique in the Village, and her
mother’s pearls.
 
Her family filled one
side of the church and the other teemed with a sea of New York City police
blue.
 
Pop, in his best brown suit, stood
with Callahan at the altar, serving as his grandson’s best man.
 
Raine’s
twin
sisters were the bridesmaids, escorted by two of Callahan’s nephews as pint-sized
groomsmen.
 
The youngest walked in tandem
with
Raine’s
niece as ring bearer and flower
girl.
 

Aloysius Callahan II watched as she
walked down the aisle, and
Raine
smiled back at him
through a mist of joyful tears.
 
After
their vows were said and the Nuptial Mass ended, they cut a three-tiered cake
covered in roses.

They made an early exit, pleading
Callahan’s continuing recovery as the reason, which no one believed.
 
As soon as they got back to the apartment,
they changed into their jeans and headed for the subway. They rode down to
South Ferry, hands linked and eyes locked on each other.
 
Despite the cold temperatures, the day was
sunny and bright as they set out on their honeymoon cruise, a ride on the
Staten Island Ferry.

At the rail, Callahan had his arm around
her, and she leaned against him as they watched the skyline of Manhattan
recede.
 
As they sailed past Lady Liberty,
he leaned down.
 
“Doll, this is what I
knew I wanted that very first day.
 
I
love you.”

Raine
cupped his
cheek with her hand. “I think I loved you even then,” she told him. “I thought
I must be crazy, but I knew.”

“Kiss me, doll,” he said.

And she did, long and sweet, the first
kiss of their forever.
 

The End

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Other Books by Lee Ann
Sontheimer
Murphy:

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