Isn't It Time (28 page)

The tears started again as Jack dropped to his own knees in
front of me and wrapped his arms around me. “Angie! Honey, what’s going on? Are
you okay?”  I whimpered when my cheek made contact with his shoulder and pulled
back. 

“Jesus,” he whispered, getting a good look at my face. He
released me and ran his hands down my upper body, looking me over, trying to
locate injuries. “Baby, are you hurt anywhere else?”  I just continued to cry.
He squinted at my neck and tilted my chin up gently as he looked at the knife
wound there. “Jesus,” he said again.

I could feel Finn standing at my back and Jack looked up.
“Did you get him?” he asked.

There was a short pause before Finn replied. “He’s dead.”

Oh, God. I had killed him.  The hysteria came back and I
tried to push Jack away and get up. “Oh, God,” I sobbed. “Let me go!”  As
ridiculous as the thought was, all I wanted to do was run. “I have to go. I
don’t want to go to jail!” I tried again to break away.

“Angie! Calm down. It’ll be all right.” He held my upper
arms firmly and looked back up at Finn. “I’m taking her to her mother. Call the
police.”  He rose to his feet and he and Finn helped me to stand.  I took as
deep of a breath as I could and tried to settle myself.  Being hysterical
wasn’t going to help anything.

“You’ll be okay,” Finn assured me, squeezing my shoulder
gently. “The police will see it was self-defense during a home invasion. I
promise you won’t go to jail.”

“Okay.” I took another deep breath and repeated it.  “Okay.”

“Honey, can you walk to the car?” Jack asked me, taking hold
of my hand.

“Yes. I’m fine. I’ll be okay.” Focusing on staying calm was
helping to keep the scarier thoughts out of my head - for the moment.  But I
already knew I was going to have to deal with what had just happened and do it
soon. I had learned my lesson about not facing head on the things I didn’t want
to think about.

Jack pointed out my parents’ house to Finn, directing him
where to send the police, and they each took one of my arms and led me slowly
to Jack’s Jeep.

Then Jack took me to my mother - and I never stepped foot in
my house again.

I emerged smiling from the bathroom on a Sunday morning, and
returned to the bed where Jack was still sleeping.  He was lying on his back
with one arm cocked behind his head and the other stretched out to where my
body should be.

I had returned to Jack’s house the night of “the incident,”
as we now referred to it, and never left.  We were married one month later in
front of a Justice of the Peace, with just our parents as witnesses.  Jack had
wanted to go through with our original plans to do it right away, but I
convinced him to wait until my face healed. I didn’t need that reminder staring
out at me from our wedding pictures.

Two weeks later, we were in Ohio where Jack stood as best man
for Nate when he finally married Kayla, whom I found to be every bit as lovely
as Nate had said she was.

I had come to terms with the fact that I had taken a life,
but it wasn’t easy. I knew Steve would have killed me if I hadn’t killed him
first, but it wasn’t something I took lightly. A life had ended and I was
responsible for that.  For the first time in my life, I took the initiative and
immediately arranged several sessions with a therapist to help me deal with my
conflicted feelings.  With the therapist’s help and Jack’s support, I felt able
to put it behind me and move on with my own life.

Heather also hadn’t fared well.  When the police went to her
house to question her, they found her in her bed, badly beaten and unconscious.
They got her to a hospital, but she died within hours, the result of a broken
rib that had punctured her lung.  I had moments where I would catch myself
feeling sorry for her, then I would remember her laughing at the casino as she
spent Jack’s money; the picture of Frank’s granddaughter she kept on her desk
as a way to keep Frank living in fear; and the way she was so sweet to my face
while she was out there trying to destroy my life - and then I just couldn’t
muster up any sympathy at all.

And now, still smiling, I climbed on to the bed and
straddled Jack’s waist. His eyes opened and his hands came up to grasp my hips.
“Morning, baby,” he said, giving me a sleepy, sexy smile.

“Morning, Daddy,” I replied.

His smile widened and his fingers flexed on my hips. “You
took the test without me.”

“Yes.”  Even though I had warned him that getting pregnant
might take some time, he had been so disappointed when my period started the
previous month that I had decided to take the test while he was still asleep -
giving me time to figure out how to break the news to him if it was bad. 
Fortunately, it wasn’t.

“Do you think it’s accurate?” His expression was so hopeful
that my heart melted a little and my own smile widened.

“I think so. But I’ll call the doctor first thing tomorrow
morning and make an appointment.”

He curled up to a sitting position and wrapped his arms
loosely around my waist. “What’s a bigger word than love?” he whispered into my
ear.

“I don’t know,” I said, running my fingers lightly through
the back of his hair. “Why?”

He pulled back and looked into my eyes. “Because whatever it
is, that’s how I feel about you right now.” 

Then he kissed me and I didn’t think there was any way I
could ever be happier than I was at that moment. 

And this time when he made love to me, the words he
whispered into my ear were words that spoke of love and gratitude – and I found
I liked that very much, too.

I was lying in the hospital bed, my body exhausted, but my
mood exhilarated. Our very excited mothers had just left the room, wanting to
give us a few minutes of privacy after witnessing the birth of their first
grandchild.  They hurried off to share the news and a few pictures with two
anxious grandfathers - who had been rightfully relegated to a waiting room.

Jack stood next to my bed, cradling the baby in his arms and
smiling the same smile that had been on his face for the past forty-five
minutes.

We had elected not to learn the sex of the baby in advance,
preferring to be surprised.  And although Jack had spent the past eight months
blathering on about “my son this” and “my son that,” while offering up
ridiculous name choices, I appreciated that he was with me every step of the
way. Sometimes I thought he was a little
too
with me. From the time he
first heard the baby’s heartbeat, his hands were on my stomach so much I
started to feel they were a permanent appendage.

The whole pregnancy had been uncomplicated and exciting, the
delivery relatively easy, and now we had our first child.

“Are you disappointed?” I asked.

“Oh, hell no! Are you crazy? I’m in love.”

“Don’t curse in front of your daughter, Jack.”

He looked down at the beautiful face of the bundle in his
arms and then back up at me. “My daughter,” he said with a tinge of wonder in
his voice.

“Yeah,” I said.  We took a moment to exchange sappy smiles
and then I asked, “Do you think I could hold your daughter for a few minutes?”

He pretended to consider that, then laid Ava gently in my
arms. “Well, okay, but only for a few minutes.”  He kept one hand on the baby
as he leaned forward to kiss my forehead. “Thank you, honey. I couldn’t be
happier.”

“You’re welcome.  Although I really couldn’t have done it
without you.”

“True.” He sat down carefully on the side of the bed and
brushed the back of his finger across the baby’s cheek. “One down, three to
go,” he said, lips twitching.

I gave him a look. “In your dreams, maybe.”

“Hmmm. We’ll see.” He leaned back in and kissed me with the
slightest hint of tongue at my lips. “I think we should get started on number two
right away.”

“Oh, please, Jack. Not tonight. I’ve got a headache.”

We were both smiling when four new grandparents bustled into
the room, eager to get their hands on our daughter.

Kate and Mike entered Jack and Angie’s house through the
front door and walked into the kitchen.

“It’s awfully quiet in here,” Kate said as she set a platter
of cupcakes down on the counter, amidst the other piles of food waiting there.
“I wonder where everyone is.”

“Hello!” Mike called out, squeezing the second platter of
cupcakes in next to the first.

“We’re in the basement,” Al called back.

Mike led Kate downstairs, carefully stepping over a
miniature car track that was partially looping out on the floor at the bottom
of the stairs. Kate skirted around the track and bumped her hip against a hard
plastic kitchen set, reaching her hand out to stop it from tipping over.

They rounded the corner and saw Al behind the bar and Peggy
perched on a stool with a beer in front of her.

“Hey,” Mike said as he bent over to pick a pacifier up from
the floor. He tossed it to Al, who caught it easily.

“Hey.” Al turned to run the pacifier under hot water, asking
over his shoulder. “Can I get you two a beer?”

“Sounds good,” Kate said.  She removed a doll from the stool
next to Peggy’s and set it on top of the bar before sitting down. “Where is
everyone?”

“They’re all out back,” Peggy told her. “We’re taking a
quiet moment before we go out there.”

“Good idea,” Mike said, taking his seat next to Kate.

Al pulled two beers out of the refrigerator, opened them and
set them in front of Kate and Mike. “Drink fast before one of them finds out
we’re here.”

They all laughed and then chatted for a while, savoring
their beers and the relative peace.

“Well,” said Peggy. “I guess we’ve enjoyed the quiet for
about as long as we can.”

“One for the road?” Al suggested.

They all agreed and Al passed out the beers before they
stood and walked together to the patio doors.

“Wait.” Kate, who was feeling sentimental, stretched an arm
out to the side to prevent Peggy from opening the door. “Just look. Look at
what we did.”

When the four of them were alone together, they took full
and total credit for all that they saw before them now. When other people,
specifically Jack or Angie, were around, they kept their mouths shut.

Jumping on a trampoline that was set low to the ground for
safety reasons, seven-year old Ava, her dark blonde curls contained in a long
braid down her back, was holding hands and giggling with the identically
coiffed Megan, Nate and Kayla’s daughter, who was a mere two months older than
Ava.

Five-year old Adam, a miniature version of Mike from head to
toe, was playing catch with Nate and his two sons, fourteen-year old Michael
and twelve-year old Matthew.  Adam was thrilled to be in the company of boys
and his smile was wide as Matthew patiently showed him how to hold his glove and
Michael got ready to send the ball his way.

Angie stood to the side of the grill, talking animatedly
with Kayla, who was holding one-year old Olivia, Jack and Angie’s youngest (and
according to Angie, final) child.

Next to Angie, Jack was squatting down, engaged in
conversation with three-year old Emma. Her dark brown hair was in a messy,
curly ponytail at the top of her head and her mouth was running at its usual
rate of a mile a minute.  Suddenly, Emma stomped her foot and punched Jack’s
arm. Jack responded with a stern face and a wagging finger as he tried (again)
to correct that kind of behavior.  Emma pouted and stared at the ground, but
nodded several times as she listened to his reprimand, then moved forward to
offer her father a conciliatory hug.

The grandparents watched as Jack stood up with Emma in his
arms, her cheek against his shoulder and her thumb in her mouth. He turned to
Angie and they didn’t have to be able to read his lips to know what he said. He
said it all the time. “Just like her mother.”

They heard Angie’s laugh and Jack grinned as he pulled her
into a sideways hug and kissed the top of her head.

“We did good,” Kate said, squeezing Peggy’s hand.

“Yes, we did. It got a little hairy there for a while, but
it all turned out exactly the way we planned it,” Peggy replied.

“To happily ever after,” Kate declared, raising her bottle.

The four of them repeated the toast, and were clinking
bottles all around, when they heard a loud squeal. “Grandpa!”  Adam had spotted
them and was running in their direction.

“Grandma! Grandma! Look what I got!”  Ava’s voice was in the
screaming range as she hopped off the trampoline and, waving something about,
joined her brother in the run.

Never one to be left out, Emma squirmed out of her father’s
arms and leapt into the fray, alternating her screams between “Grandma” and
“Grandpa” as her little legs churned in a vain attempt to reach them first.

Even the baby, who couldn’t possibly know what was going on,
was caught up in the excitement around her, squealing and flailing her arms
about as she wiggled in Kayla’s arms.

“Good God! Steel yourselves,” laughed Mike as they all
stepped out on the patio and were engulfed in the beautiful chaos that was
their family.

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