No Ordinary Romance (14 page)

Jimmy whistled. He couldn't take his eyes off
the sexy woman in the picture. Ain't no way in hell this classy
woman was Crystalline's daughter. "She's one fine piece. You never
told me that you had a sexy daughter like this roaming around. Damn
I would love to make her acquaintance. I wonder if she's as good
between the sheets as her momma."

She jumped at him knocking Jimmy Lee out of
the chair. She was doing her best to scratch his eyes out of his
head. "Don't you ever compare me to her, not ever. Do you
understand me?"

Jimmy Lee tried to shield his face;
Crystalline could be vicious when she got in one of her tempers.
"I'm sorry!" He grabbed hold of her wrists and pushed her onto the
floor, holding her down with his body. "What in the hell has gotten
into you? Crystal you're becoming more trouble than you're worth.
If I let you go, I want your promise to stop attacking me."

Crystalline forced herself to calm down; she
couldn't afford to lose Jimmy Lee at this stage of the game. He was
a decent lover, he allowed her to move in with him when she had
nowhere else to go. "I promise to behave. It's just that seeing
Tina living so well that pissed me off."

Jimmy Lee helped her off the floor, both of
them taking seats at the table. "Why don't you just explain what
happen between you and your kid?"

Crystalline picked up the can of unfinished
beer before responding. "I had two children a precious little boy
named David and Tina. I left them alone to go to work, Tina set a
fire, and David died. I rushed back to the house only to see
firemen carrying out their bodies. I took off when the police
questioned the crowd about my whereabouts. I didn't know what to
do, I couldn't turn myself into the police, they would have
arrested me for child neglect, probably more since my children
died, or so I thought. My fiancé convinced me to run off with him
and start a new life.

At first, everything was perfect, my fiancé
made a good living. We got a cute little house in Des Moines, and
the pain of my losing children was becoming a faded memory. That is
until the police arrested us for the distribution of drugs. I knew
my fiancé was dealing, but I never thought he'd be caught. I was in
jail when I found out that Tina was still alive."

"So that's why you did time in Polk County,
drug sentences even as an accessory are really stiff in Iowa."

"Well lucky for me the prosecutor cut me a
deal for testifying against my fiancé and gave me a bonus to sign
my parental rights away for Tina. She was caught up in the Nebraska
foster care system, and I was angry that she survived the fire. I
got a sentence of 3-5 years, and I never saw Tina again until I saw
her picture."

"How did you recognize her? She would have
been a child when all this happened."

She finished off her beer, "I didn't
recognize her at first. Her name that caught my eye; Tina's full
name is Constantina. I took a closer look at her features and
recognized her as my kid Tina."

Jimmy Lee began rubbing his chin; he was
always looking for an opportunity to make money. Crystalline's kid
was like a godsend. "Well what do you intend to do about your
kid?"

"What do you mean?"

"If she's as rich as you say, she wouldn't
appreciate her momma hanging around gumming up the works. How much
do you think she'd be willing to pay to keep you quiet?"

"I'm sure she would give me money because I'm
her mother not to make me go away."

"When is the last time you saw your
daughter?"

"Tina would have been around seven or eight.
Why?"

Jimmy Lee gave her a sardonic smile, "she's a
grown woman now, and she doesn't have any allegiance to you. As far
as she knows, you dumped her into foster care. A classy woman like
this is not going to appreciate her trailer park momma showing up
and ruining things. She owes you for setting that fire; let's find
out how much she's willing to pay to keep you quiet."

Crystalline opened another beer and pondered
her options. She was tired of living like some homeless person
screwing any man that comes along for a place to lay her head. Tina
did owe her, she owe her for taking her baby and ruining her life.
"Okay, I think fifty thousand is a good amount to start with."

Jimmy Lee whistled, "fifty thousand is a nice
chunk of change. Okay let's set a plan in motion, I have a few more
scores, and then we'll head to Omaha. I have some relatives we can
stay within Carter Lake until we make contact with your daughter."
He pulled Crystalline out of her chair into his lap. "It's been a
long day, and I'm in need of some loving."

Crystalline played along with Jimmy Lee;
she'd known many men like him. Men who treated her like a whore
then discarded her when they were done. She would go along with the
plan to blackmail Tina, but once the money was in her hand she
would take off to start a new life.

***

Connie had second thoughts about agreeing to
meet Chad this morning. It was zero degrees and all the melted snow
from yesterday had turned to black ice. She had her phone out to
call him when his car pulled in behind her car. She rolled down her
window as he approached her car. "I'm sorry Chad we could have
rescheduled this viewing."

"Don't worry about it, there's no reason for
you to get out the car. Just tell me where the markers are."

Connie pulled out a schematic of the property
and showed it to Chad. "It's five blocks North and West to the
orange property markers."

Chad took the schematic from Connie and took
out his field glasses. "Wow! This is a nice piece of property. How
did you manage to secure this location? You must have an angel on
your shoulder."

"A friend helped me with a land swap,
remember the property we were trying to build a group home."

"You mean the one where the neighbors and
shop owners grabbed their pitchforks, garlic, and burning crosses.
Yeah, that was pretty hard to miss."

"Well a friend convinced me to swap that
property for this one. It was a great move for the foundation, a
great move."

Chad lowered the field glasses and glanced at
the area. "This is a good balance of commercial and residential
property in this area. You can make your own neighborhood now;
whoever this guy was that convinced you to swap has keen
insight."

Connie gave Chad her brightest smile, "now
what makes you think it was a man?"

Chad smiled at Connie in return, giving her a
knowing look. "I'm not an idiot, you've been seen around town with
Thomas Galvin, and the picture of you two in last Sunday's paper
confirmed my suspicions."

"If you must know Thomas did bring the land
swap deal to me on behalf of a client. I ran it by my lawyer, and
we both agreed the deal was too good to pass. The foundation will
do extraordinary things out here Chad and I'm thankful for Thomas
for providing an opportunity."

"You might not want to hear this right now,
but Thomas cares for you a lot. I could tell, by the way, he was
looked at you in the photo. I think you could do a lot worse in the
love department, but that's just my opinion". When Connie didn't
respond to his observation, he figured it was time to move on. "You
don't have to wait around Connie; I'm going to look around some
more before I leave."

Connie smiled to herself, Chad was lost in
his own world right now, and she could see that he was already
visualizing his designs. "Okay call me later and tell me what you
think."

"Sure Connie. I'll call you later."

"See you Chad." Connie waved good-bye to
Chad, but he didn't even notice. She couldn't wait to see the plans
Chad had for the property. Chad also brought something to head that
she'd considered herself. Did Thomas bring her the land swap deal
to help the foundation or gain a place in her life? "Wow! It's too
early in the morning for such heavy thinking.

***

After a long tedious day, Connie decided to
go to bed early. Unfortunately, she was still awake hours later.
She was flipping the cable channels when the phone rang. She picked
it up without looking at caller ID, thinking it was Jenna or Mike
with news about the baby. It wasn't uncommon for Jenna call if the
baby's movement deterred her sleep. "Okay, are you on the way to
the hospital or is junior keeping you awake."

"Neither. I just wanted to hear your
voice."

Thomas's throaty purr buzzed in her ear,
quickly taking her mind back to their weekend together. "Thomas!"
She hadn't heard from him since he left town.

"Were you expecting someone else to call this
time of night?"

"I expect a lot of things, but I rarely get
them. To answer your question, my good friends are expecting their
first child. Junior's been really active lately, and sometimes
Jenna calls me when she can't sleep."

"You seemed really surprised to hear from me.
Are you mad at me for not calling you sooner?"

Connie sighed into the phone; she hated "us"
conversations. "I don't have the right to be mad; I figured you'd
call if you wanted something or when you got back into town."

Thomas wasn't used to answering to anyone
else, and he had to tread slowly to keep from messing up. "I'm
sorry I didn't call sooner, I've been working long hours trying to
secure contracts with influential partners."

Connie snuggled down into her bed. "You don't
owe me any explanations Thomas, I enjoyed our time together. I'm
not a needy woman who wants to be in constant contact with her
lover."

Thomas started to sweat, was Constantina
giving him the boot. "Hey what's going on, are you giving me my
walking papers?"

"Thomas I haven't had a lot of affairs, but I
know when a man is giving me the brush off. No hard feelings okay.
The weekend was explosive; you sure know how to make a woman feel
desired."

Thomas was relieved. "Good, it's a feeling
you're going to have whenever I'm in your presence. This business
trip came up unexpectedly; I know I probably moved on you too soon.
The Valentine's Day dance was the perfect opportunity to let you
know that I want you in my life. So save the brush off speech for
someone else."

Connie was rendered speechless, "Thomas I
wasn't trying to give you the brush off..."

"It seems that way to me as the song says,
we've only just begun. Quit looking for an escape clause. I wanted
you for too long to let you go now. I still plan to take you to
dinner tomorrow night, wear something sexy because we're going to
do the town. Then we'll come back to my house for dessert."

"All that masculinity focused on me will go
to my head. I accept your dinner invitation, I dare not refuse you
might try to spank me or something equally distasteful."

"Oh baby. It will be my pleasure to spank
that fine ass of yours. You should have told me sooner that you
were into kink. Believe me when I say that I'm a willing
participant. I'm sure you have a big day tomorrow so I'll say good
night. Dream of me Constantina until I can be with you in
person."

Connie thought about her conversation with
Chad this morning, and she had to know why Thomas got involved with
the land swap. "Thomas."

"I'm here honey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong I just wanted to know why
your brought the land swap deal to me?" She chewed on her lips
nervously waiting for his response.

"Do you want the truth?"

"Yes."

"The idea first came to me when I saw your
name on the City Council's agenda. You see I knew that you were
fighting an uphill battle with the proposed group home. So, I
thought that you would show your appreciation to me if I brought
the land swap deal to a close."

"So the land swap deal was just a means to
get into my bed."

"You said you wanted the
truth and the truth was
that
I thought the
land swap deal would guarantee me a place in your bed. I just knew
that you would be so grateful that you would give yourself to me as
a consolation prize. The more I got to know you, I realized that
you would never make love to me for a stretch of property, but you
might come to me if you knew how much I desired you."

"So what are you saying Thomas?"

"I did it for you
Constantina, not for the quick road to your bed. In the
process,
I fell hard for you. Believe
this;
I wanted you to have that property because it
would make you happy. You have a beautiful heart Constantina, the
land will go to good use, and whatever you establish will change
the lives of
many
young people.

"Thank you Thomas. I'm looking forward to
seeing you tomorrow."

"Goodnight baby."

"Goodnight Thomas."

***

Chad was pulled out of a deep sleep from the
incessant ringing of his cell phone. He picked up his phone and
check the caller ID. "Oh no! Grandma! How's Papa!" Fully awake now,
he sat up in bed mentally preparing himself for the worst.

"Oh sweetheart I hate to call you so late.
The doctor told me your grandfather doesn't have long if you want
to say good bye you better hurry."

"I'm on my way." Chad jerked his clothes on
while continuing the conversation with his grandmother.

"He's holding on for you Chad, I would have
called you sooner, but his decline just happened so fast."

"It's not your fault Grandma! I should have
stayed home instead of going to school this semester."

"Your grandfather wouldn't have allowed that,
you know how important your education is to him."

Chad slipped his shoes on and grabbed his
jacket. "Grandma I'm leaving my apartment now, is Papa at the
hospital or should I head straight home."

"Come on home sweetie, your grandfather wants
to die in the comfort of his home. Drive carefully son."