The Perfect Solution-A Suspense of Choices (23 page)

"Do that." Linda nervously skirted around Austin. "I'll be waiting. And if you need me for anything...." She looked out of the corner of her eyes at Austin. "Just give me a call. I'm good at baseball." She called back as she ran down the steps.

Austin, always finding humor in any situation, laughed heartily at the implied threat.

"Do you need me to drop you to your home or anything?" Austin offered. "My car is parked right there," He pointed to the street. "It's late to be running around the streets on your own. I'm sure Catrine wouldn't mind riding with us."

"Uhm, no I just live right across the street in the first block of apartments. I.... I'll be fine." Not sparing a glance to the couple in the doorway, Linda ran across the street and into the unlocked door of her apartment.

"Look how you frightened that child." Catrine turned to face Austin after closing the door. "You could have come in here like a decent human being, but you stand there like some stony statue about to explode and scare the life out of an already terrified child."

"I didn’t mean to." Austin crossed the room and sat in the chair he’d sat in earlier.

Catrine massaged her temples and pointedly ignored him. She walked towards the sofa and stood behind Phalene's left shoulder.

Forget it, Catrine." Austin's glare seemed to touch her across the small space. "You don't have to have a long conversation with me. All I want to know is have you heard anything from the kidnappers? Any ransom demands...anything? You’re not keeping anything from me are you? I am his father."

Phalene looked from Austin to Catrine before answering.

"Nothing from the kidnapper, but Brhin did call."

"Listen, Austin. You can go to hell. Don't come here making threats. I am in no more of the mood than you are. Just remember that I didn't ask you to come here."

"Listen, Catrine I am hard put as it is to sit here and keep my hands off of you." he sat forward angrily. "Don't start anything and I won't finish it. Just tell me what the boy had to say."

“Hey, what happened? I thought you guys were feeling better about each other.” Phae jumped from the sofa and rewound the tape.

Catrine moved away from the sofa and went to stand with her back against the wall and studied Austin. He had not changed at all. His body was still in superb shape. More than likely he still worked out at his health club. His hair was always neat and well groomed. The man was as gorgeous as any Chippendale. The heritage of the Puerto Rican blood of his father stood out far more than the African-American blood of his mother. In comparison, he and Brhin looked a lot alike. They both had the cleft in the chin, beautiful skin tones, thick brows and lashes and curly hair. Brhin's light where his was dark. The biggest difference that showed in all of the pictures of Brhin that hung around the room, were Brhin's deep little dimples. The kiss of the angels she would always tell him. They were inherited from her side of the family. She had them, Phae had them and their mother had had them. Returning her eyes to Austin's face, she was both shocked and annoyed to see that he had been studying her as well.

"When did you cut your hair?" he asked.

Catrine fingered her short feathery-curls and self-consciously looked in the mirror on the wall. She wasn't used to the cut herself and for some ill-conceived reason his opinion still mattered."Just as soon as I got away from you, I only kept it long because you liked it that way."

"Well I like it this way, too. The color is nice. You look pretty good even though you are too thin. You're not on drugs, bulimic, or anorexic are you?”

"Hell freakin' no." She rammed her hands into her sweater pocket and pulled out a tissue. "I've just been ill." She blew her nose in one of the many pieces of tissue from her pocket as added proof.

"Please don't use those words around me Catrine," he admonished her as if she were a child. "I know you don't kiss my son with that filthy mouth."

Catrine put her head down in shame. Damn. The man could still do it to her. Profanity was something she had always had a problem with. As a child it made her feel good and in control of her world to shock people and as an adult, before meeting Austin, it had just been second nature. He hated cursing. Especially when done by a woman.

"I thought that you were going to give up cursing. Couldn't you stick to it? Does it still make you feel 'in control'?" he held up a single finger as she began to speak. "I'm not trying to insult you about your hair. You look beautiful. I just remember you the way you were. There was just a little bit more of you to hold four years ago. Shouldn't having a baby have put more weight on you nor should I believe you have you been pining away for me?"

Flabbergasted into silence, Catrine felt the heat rise in her face when he laughed softly before turning back to Phae. He had always enjoyed making her angry, saying that it did something to him to see her all pissed off. Watching his face as he listened to Brhin's little voice on the machine, she saw the same anguish and pain that was mirrored in her heart.

"He sounds strong willed. You would know that he was obviously afraid, but his voice was full of confidence. Do you think he is sure about the color of the house and its numbers? He is kind of young to know these things, isn't he?"

"Of course I'm sure. Brhin knows his colors and our telephone number. My son is no dummy."

"And that's the rub." Austin growled as he banged his fist on the arm of the chair. Standing, he walked to the largest picture of Brhin and tapped the glass with the nail of his pointer finger. "This is 'our' son, someone that you had no right keeping away from me."

Austin crossed the room to stand in front of Catrine. Ignoring the fact that her sister was present in the room he put the palm of his hands on either side of Catrine's head and successfully trapped her against the wall with his body before pressing his face close to hers, his lips almost touching hers as he spoke. The mint he had obviously eaten before coming into the apartment, tingled her nostrils while the heat of his breath warmed her lips, enticing buried memories to rise to the surface. Looking everywhere but at Austin's face, Catrine licked her lips nervously.

"And that is something that you will not be able to do again, Catrine." He threatened.

She put her hands up to push him away and pulled them down just as quickly when they contacted the solid wall of his chest. The odor of his cologne wafted through her nostrils and she remembered how she had once loved to snuggle close to him and smell it all over his body. Warily, she took a deep breath in awareness of her body's reaction to his nearness and pushed at him again.

"Back off me Austin you're too close." She strained to get the words through her teeth.

"You know, I…" Austin paused and straightened at the ringing of the telephone.

"I'll get that." Phalene hurriedly picked up the receiver before it could ring again. "Hello? Oh hi, Frank. No, we haven't gotten him back, yet. We're still waiting for the police to call us. What's the matter with Monique? Why is she screaming? What. How in the world did she do that? Oh, My God, I'll meet you in the emergency room. Yes, yes. I'm leaving here right now." She hurriedly hung up the receiver and grabbed her coat.

"Phae what happened?”

"Monique has practically cut off her finger. Frank called the paramedics and they are leaving for the hospital. I have to go, Cat. I'm sorry." She said in an apologetic voice.

"You have no reason to apologize. I understand. Hurry and go." stated Catrine firmly.

She helped Phae to put on her coat and walked with her to the door.

"What about you? I hate to leave you." Phae looked around Catrine's shoulder towards Austin. "Will you be okay?"

"Yes. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me." She looked over her shoulder at Austin. "It's no big deal." Shrugging her shoulders, she dismissed his attitude as insignificant. "I've been through this before. I can handle it. His bark is worse than his bite. As soon as I can, I will call you with whatever information I have and I want you to do the same for me."

"Of course I will." Phalene stepped out of the door and then turned back. "Be nice, okay?" She rubbed her right hand back and forth on her forehead and briefly closed her eyes. "God, I think I'm getting a headache. This has been some night."

"I know. Just take it easy. I love you. You drive extremely careful, try not to worry, and everything will work out fine. In the morning all of this will seem like a nightmare. We'll have our little family together and things will return to normal."

"I'll tell you one thing; I definitely can't wait for morning to come. You keep control of your temper, all right?"

"All right, drive carefully."

"I will." She promised before turning and running to her car.

Closing the door on Phae's disappearing taillights, Catrine pressed her forehead against the door and let out a deep sigh. She was now surviving on her very last nerve. Her head was splitting and she was beyond exhausted. Just the idea of moving a limb to walk back into the living room was making her tired. She knew there wasn't a chance in hell that she would be able to handle a confrontation with Austin and not turn into a simpering, blubbering idiot. The total humiliation would be great and she didn't want to take the chance of trying to live with the memory.

Turning, and retracing her steps to the living room, Catrine paused in the doorway and immediately felt discomfited at the sight of Austin sitting in the chair and dragging his hands tiredly across his eyes before pressing his face in his hands. He looked just as exhausted as she felt. The way his shoulders were hunched over brought back memories of the times she would massage them for him until the fatigue slid away to be replaced by other emotions. Shaking her head clear of the reverie, she cleared her throat and walked into the room.

"I'm going to go and lie down for a while. My head hurts," she said, not expecting or even caring whether he replied.

Taking slow steps to the liquor cart and grabbing a small bottle of water from one of its three shelves, she shook two aspirin from their container on the desk and tossed them into her mouth, drinking from the bottle of water as she walked to her room.

Stopping in the doorway of her room, she flicked off the forgotten light, dropped the empty water bottle to the floor, slipped out of her shoes and padded across the thick peach colored carpet to the bed. There was such a deep hole of sadness in her heart that it ached. Feeling like she could just lie down and die, Catrine collapsed onto the thick king sized comforter that covered the bed. She wiggled to its middle and pulled the smallest pillow into her arms.

It was Brhin's favorite. With her face pressed into its softness, her heart overflowed when Brhin's powdery baby smell wafted into her nostrils. Unable to hold back the tears, she sobbed in abandon. The thought of forever being alone flitted through her brain and she felt like dying.

"Oh, my God, oh my God," she repeated over and over. "How will I live without him?"

The tears ran unchecked down her cheeks and the misery she was feeling drowned out all sounds of Austin entering the room. Her back was to the door and she lay trembling in a fetal position. He stood on the side of the bed and watched her as she cried. Unsure of what action to take, he removed his shoes and lay on the bed beside her.

Pulling her into his arms he held her close and rocked her trembling form in comfort. Holding her in his arms felt so natural. She had always fit just right in his arms and he missed her. He turned her to face him and let her cry into his chest.

"Shhh, you'll make yourself sick," he murmured softly.

"I'm already sick," she barely whispered the words.

“You know what I mean." He pulled her closer and tightened his hold on her trembling body.

"How can I know? I don't know anything anymore." She whispered into the now damp material covering his chest. "I don't know which is worse. Losing the father or losing the son.”

Catrine put her arm around his neck and pulled herself further up on his body. Searching for strength in his arms, she pressed her face into his neck. She breathed in deeply in an effort to stop her tears. And for the second that her nostrils were cleared, Brhin's little baby odor was replaced with Austin's cologne and the masculine scent of his body.

A deep shudder of appreciation and recognition shook her body. She pressed the length of her own body closer to his and remembered how it used to be when they were together. She had missed him. She missed the way the smooth skin of his chest felt under her fingertips.

Putting her hands under the hem of his sweater she ran her hands around and across his stomach and up to his chest. Stopping to lay the palm of her hand flat on his chest, she trembled at the way the rate of his heart increased.

She remembered how he had loved it when she drew small circles between his breastbones. Slowly, knowing that it would be his undoing, she slid her index finger against the small indention in his flesh and intentionally drew soft circles around the tiny goose bumps that sprang up.

His hands trembled as they lifted her sweater and quickly unclasped the front opening of her bra. She gasped when his fingers closed around the nipple of her breast and he captured her mouth with his. For endless moments they forgot everything and became engrossed in each other. Like a slow moving fog, reality slipped in and they remembered. Shifting away from each other, they stood and adjusted their clothing, neither looking at the other.