The Contingency Plan (The Lonely Heart Series) (19 page)

“No. I want to see every inch of you,” he said, more serious than before.  He clenched his jaw tight and reached for the top button of her shirt.  Grabbing both sides of it, he tore it off her body.  Buttons flew onto the bed, and ripe brown skin emerged. 

Her rigid nipples pointed out towards him, be
g
ging to be kissed.  Cupping them in his palms, he leaned over her, placing the tip of his rock-hard penis at the opening of her soaking vagina.  “Do you want me?” he asked, pulling her hand down to make her feel him. 

“Yes,” she panted, trying to move closer towards him.  “Now.” 

“How badly?” he asked, watching her eyes roll to the top of her head.  He bit his lip, ignoring his own desires for the moment. 

“More than I’ve ever wanted any man,” she co
n
fessed. 

Sully kissed her lips softly, sucking at her tongue.  “More than you want Alex?”

“Yes,” she said, going crazy.  “Please, Sully,” she begged. “Make love to me.”  The temperature of her skin singed him.  His cool breath fanned against her as he bent to her breasts and licked at her nipples. 

Arching her back more, she wrapped her legs around him.

“Shit,” he gasped.  Her wetness transferred on to him as the lips of her flower pushed up and down his shaft.  A breath caught in his chest as he tried with all of his might to simply kiss her. 

“Now, Sully,” Charlie pleaded.  “Now.”  She und
u
lated under him harder.

Sully moaned.  “Not yet,” he said, slipping a finger down in between them to sate some of her excitement, but it only made her wilder.  

She felt his deft fingers, eager to please, slip inside of her deep right before she exploded.  “Sully!” she screamed as silk ran down his fingers. 

“Look at me,” Sully ordered, pushing against her mound.  He breathed hard.  His chest pushed up against her breasts.   

She opened her eyes and stared into his.  Moaning and pulling at the covers, she watched him.

“I love you,” Sully said, with tears running down his face.  “I love you with everything that I have,” he said, burying his face into the crease between her shoulder and neck. 

Arching her body upwards, she felt him finally thrust his body into hers. 

They both screamed out, holding on to each other.  Like the perfect key for the lock of her heart, he opened her.  Every emotion, reservation, dream, hope and secret came barreling out as they moved into each other rhythmically. 

“Never let me go,” she whispered.

191

The Contingency Plan

Chapter 12

When Charlie got off the plane at LaGuardia ai
r
port on Monday evening, Frank was there to pick her up.  Quietly, he helped her load her bag of keepsakes from the kids and Sully into the back of black Cadillac SUV along with her overnight bag and then jumped inside with her. 

She was still wiping tears from her eyes as the driver pulled off into the late evening traffic.  Dusk was on the horizon and with it the haunting pain of leaving her
other
family back in Norfolk. 

Nothing prepared her for how she felt when she separated from them.  It was like a death sentence to walk down the terminal from their loving face.  Still, she knew that she had to go. Her other life was wai
t
ing on her. Her husband.  Her beautiful children. Her job.  They were all anchors that kept her grounded to New York and New Jersey, hours from the place that she wished to call home.

The only bright thought she had about going back was her boys.  She missed them now, strangely, more than ever.  She wished that they could have exper
i
enced their older sister and brother for themselves.  She wished that the reunion could have lasted longer. 

Then thoughts of Sully assailed her.  They had made love all night, woke up bright and early and cooked for the children and spent all day together as a family.  It was like a dream, so surreal, so pleasant.  The beauty of it all made the pain just that much worse. 

Frank looked over at her and offered her a napkin.  “I brought these because I was certain you would return this way,” he said sincerely.  She had been on his mind all weekend and he quietly hated her for not calling him while she was there to give her the skinny. 

She took the napkin gratefully, pulled off her shades, and wiped her bloodshot red eyes.  “Thank you,” she said, sniffling.

“You poor thing.  Did you cry all the way?” he asked. 

She nodded yes.  Her voice was weak and cracking.  “They were so sweet.  Each of them had a gift for me when I left and Sully…” She swallowed hard. “He gave me a box of pictures from the kids’ births’ up until now.”  She took a deep breath and looked out of the window.  “What am I going to do, Frank?”

Frank’s brow rose in confusion. “Isn’t it obvious?”

She looked over at him and took his hand.  “It’s going to break Alex’s heart.”

“Well staying with him
just because
is going to break yours, dear.  It’s survival of the fittest at this point.”  He patted her gently.

“I just want to go and see the kids before I do this.  He won’t be home until tomorrow, but I think that I’ll go down to the firehouse and talk to him alone t
o
night.  It can’t wait any longer.  We need to talk.”  She straightened up as she said the words, as if confessing it made her stronger. 

Frank nodded. It wasn’t his place to tell her what to do, but he couldn’t agree more with her decision. They had been fighting for years now, and every year things only got tenser.  It was clear to see from the outside that they simply were not meant to be. 

Of course, they had given it a good try and tried to be as good to each other as possible, but in this life, one needed more than a good try. They needed full, unconditional love.

***

Thankfully, Hanson and Hunter were still up when Charlie finally got home.  After Frank and the driver pulled off, she quickly made her way through her red front door.  Home. Sweet. Home.  Everything was in its place and the smell of home-make cooking permeated the entire house.  Warm bread.  Hot meats.  Sweet treats.  Dropping her bags at the front door, she ran up the stairs as fast as her feet could take her up to their room to greet them both. 

They jumped up from their toy soldiers and tackled her with enthusiastic hugs and kisses. 

“Where have you been?” Hunter asked.

“Did you bring us anything?” Hanson probed.

She looked at her darling boys, caramel-skinned, heavy set giants with chubby cheeks, big brown eyes, curly locks of jet black hair, pink lips and dimpled chins and felt herself literally go to mush. They were her pride and joy.  Her perfect pair.  Only now, she was blessed to have two sets. 
That couldn’t be a bad thing.
 

“Yes, I missed you,” she answered, kiss
ing them
both. “Yes, I brought you something back,” she said remembering her bag downstairs. 

Sitting on the chair in front of Hanson’s desk, she grabbed them both and hugged them tightly by their waists.  “Were you good?”  She willed herself not to cry anymore, but she was definitely on the verge. 

“They were boys,” Maria said, walking through the door.  She gave Charlie a welcome home smile as she knitted a scarf.  “They asked about you every hour on the hour.”

Charlie laughed. “Yet they ignore me when I’m home.” 

“That’s a man for you. He only appreciates you when you’re gone,” Maria said with a grin.

Charlie raised a brow.  “And the man of the house, is he still at work?”  She looked up into Maria’s eyes.. 

“Yes. He’ll be there until tomorrow morning.”  Maria noticed the red puffiness around Charlie’s eyes.  “Is there something wrong?”

Charlie smiled at her boys and nodded. “No. I just need to go into town and talk to him, if you’re going to stay the night.”

“For you two to talk…,” she flicked her wrist.  “I’ll stay all year.”

“Thanks, Maria,” she said, getting up.  Looking back down at her boys, she clasped her hands toget
h
er.  “Who wants a story after a hot bath?”

“Can we just read a story?” Hanson asked with a bit of a whine in his raspy voice. “I took a bath last night.” He loathed baths all together and preferred to stay dirty all week, but his mother would never let him, and Hunter felt the same but would never speak up.

“That’s the thing about baths. You need to take one every day,” Charlie said, glad to be back with them.  She had missed them so  very much. 

***

When the kids were sleep a few hours later after much coddling and kissing and a few bedtime stories, Charlie slipped out and headed to the firehouse to see Alex.  There was so much muddled up in her brain until she felt like she would have an aneurism.  How would she explain everything?  How would she even broach the subject?  Would he immediately ask if she slept with Sully and if he did, would she tell the truth?  So many questions.  Her hands were literally tre
m
bling. 

Turning on her radio, she slipped on a smooth jazz CD and tried to calm her nerves. The sounds of Kenny G came through her surround sound. 
Ahh, that’s better
, she thought to herself. 

After a few more minutes of quiet driving, she b
e
gan to gather her thoughts and her head.  Honesty had always been the best policy for her in the past. There was no need to start being dishonest now. 

Still, there was nothing she could do to prepare herself for what she was about to do.  Break it off with her husband. Break his heart.  That was a hard pill to swallow.   

“God, give me strength,” she said as she turned onto the street where his firehouse was.

Alex loved ice cream from the old timey shop on the corner, right beside his work. So, she pulled over and parked and decided to grab them both a pint of mint chocolate. 

She went in quickly and got in the short line, ho
p
ing that her gesture would take some of the edge off. 

After she had paid the young woman behind the counter, she walked slowly in the dark under the nightlights to the firehouse.  The sound of her boots echoed off the hard pavement. 

With every step, she felt her nerves ripping at her.  Butterflies began to flutter in her stomach again and her hands became clammy.  Pulling her black wool coat to her closer to her face, she took a deep breath and eyed the couple on the side of the house talking.  She saw the man dip in and kiss the woman gently on her lips, then run a hand down her backside.

“I wish,” she said aloud. 

However, as she got a little closer, she recognized the man’s frame. 

“Alex?” The bag dropped from her hand.  Unable to move, she stopped in her tracks. 

The woman pulled herself from his embrace after one more kiss and then walked away, leaving him on the side of the firehouse, where he pushed his head up against the cool bricks. 

When he was alone, Charlie was certain that it was Alex.  His frame.  His head.  His stance.  He stood with his eyes closed and his hands buried down in the pockets of his blue cargo pants. One foot was propped up against the wall and the other held him up. 

Even though she thought that she had said his name loud enough for him to hear it, he had not.  Thank God. 

Charlie felt sick to her stomach, like she would throw up on the pavement below. 

Turning around, with her hands over her mouth, she willed herself to quietly walk back to her car.  If she stayed, she would only make a scene, and norma
l
ly it would be appropriate, but considering that she had just made love to Sully the night before, she hardly had room to talk. 

Still, it stung down deep in her core. Seeing it hurt so badly inside until she could barely breathe.  Feeling betrayed, no matter how hard she tried to reason with herself, she began to cry.  How long had this been going on?  How long had she played the fool?

***

As Alex opened his eyes, he saw a woman walking away from him under the nightlights headed away from the firehouse, but he had no idea who it was.  Besides, everyone looked like Charlie lately.

Every time he saw a black woman, he swore that he was caught, swore that someone had recognized him.  In a few short days, he had gone from just a regular married man able to live his life freely to Jason Bourne, running and hiding, ducking and dodging.  Honestly, he was getting tired of it and the way that it made him feel.  Guilt was eating him alive, and yet he could not stop being around Lola. She made him happy, made him feel alive again.  She was like some illicit drug that he craved on a daily basis. 

Tired of hearing himself think, he went inside of the firehouse and passed his friend Mason as he entered the kitchen.

“Outside seeing Lola again?” Mason probed.  His furry brow knitted. 

Alex huffed in sheer irritation. “Please don’t start with that shit again,” he said, grabbing a bowl out of the cupboard.

“At least tell me that you thought about what I said,” Mason said, opening the bottle of Dayquil and downing it.  “This fucking cold is killing me.”

“Don’t give it to me.  I’m off for four days starting tomorrow, and I don’t want to spend it in the bed.”  He threw up a finger before he could get the words out. “Make a crack and I’ll kick your ass.”

Mason shook his head and grinned. “That’s just your conscience wearing your ass thin, dude.”

“Well, Charlie gets home sometime tonight and I get home tomorrow.  So I plan on talking to her then, Mr. Doubtfire.”

“Good,” Mason said, shrugging his large shou
l
ders. “Not really any of my business anyway.”

Alex huffed.  “Yeah right.”  He licked his lips and raised a brow. “I could have sworn that I saw her just a minute ago. There was this woman walking who looked just like her. I think I’m losing my mind.”

“Didn’t you say that she was home tonight?  Ma
y
be it was her,” Mason said, blowing his nose into a waded up ball of tissue.

Alex frowned. “Nah…”  His mind turned over like a motor that wouldn’t start.  Grabbing his cell phone, he dialed home.

His mother answered quickly.  “Hello.”

“Hey, Ma.  Is Charlie home yet? I was just chec
k
ing to see if she had a good trip.”

“She headed to see you,” Maria answered.  “Said that she needed to talk to you about something.  Sounded important.” 

Alex held his phone for a minute, unable to blink or breathe. Shit! Shit! Shit!  He had fucked up bad.  That was Charlie outside, and she had seen everything.  He knew it without knowing it and the feeling that overcame him was immediate and sickening. 

“Is everything alright?” Maria asked.

“Oh, yeah.” He blew out a hard breath as he lied and almost pooped his pants. “Everything is cool.  I just…gotta call you back.”  Hanging up before she could say another word, he looked over at Mason. “It was Charlie.  Ma said that she came down here to see me.”  Looking at his watch, he shook his head. “Shit. Man. I gotta go…”

Manson put up a hand to stop him.  “You’re on duty. You can’t go anywhere. You’ll lose your fucking job.”  He knew that his friend wanted to go, but there were rules that superseded his personal interests.  Leaving during a call could cost lives, starting with fellow firemen. 

“Maybe I can reach her and get back here without any calls. Hell, we haven’t had one since this mor
n
ing,” Alex said, knowing that it wasn’t a good idea.