The Way to Yesterday (14 page)

The lower level of the house was in shadows, but she thought she felt a
draft on her bare feet as she moved through the rooms. Surely a door had been
opened, but where? More to the point, she should be asking herself why?

'Daniel?"

She held her breath, waiting for an answer that didn't come. She continued
through the house, her anxiety growing as she looked in every room. She hurried
into the dining room and tested the French doors on the off chance that he'd
gone out the back, but they were still locked.
 
Anxiety changed to panic as she paused in the living room, trying to focus.
What was she missing? He couldn't just disappear. While she was debating about
where to look next, she felt cold air on her feet again and realized the front
door was ajar.

Thunder rumbled. As she moved toward the window, another slash of lightning seared
the air, momentarily lighting the dark. In that brief moment, she saw someone
standing beneath the portico. Another f l ash of lightning came and went, and
in that moment she recognized the set of Daniel's shoulders. Almost weak with
relief, she dashed outside and into his arms.

He'd been out here for what seemed like hours, still troubled that his
daughter's safety had been breeched and that she was now involved in a police
investigation. Mary had cried herself to sleep in his arms and it had been all
he could do not to cry with her. His heart ached, he felt sick to his stomach
and he was afraid to close his eyes. He was not a violent man, but he didn't
want to think about what he'd do if he came face-to-face with the man who'd
messed with his child.

The approaching storm mirrored his angry emotions. Turning his face to the
wind, he lifted his chin. The force of it almost took his breath away. The
first droplets of rain were just starting to fall when he heard the door open
behind him. He turned just as Mary burst from the house. The storm was upon
them now, and even though he had been somewhat sheltered by the portico, the
blowing wind and rain immediately plastered their clothes to their bodies as
she threw herself into his arms.

'Mary, darling ... what's wrong?"

"I thought you were gone."

He turned her in his arms, using his body to shelter her from the storm, and
ran with her toward the house. Once inside, he shut and locked the door behind
them. Almost immediately, she started to shake. "Sweetheart ... talk to
me...tell me what's wrong."

'I woke up and couldn't find you. I thought it was over. Just like
before."

Daniel frowned. She wasn't making any sense. "Over? You thought what
was over? And what do you mean ... like before?"

'Nothing. Never mind. Just love me, Daniel.

Don't let me go."

'Come here to me, baby... never doubt me, Mary Faith. Never."

Daniel picked her up and carried her up the stairs.

By the time he got to their bedroom, she was shivering from the cold, her
nightgown wet and clinging to her body. He set her on her feet and then shut
the door behind them. When the tumblers turned in the lock, he took the hem of
Mary's gown and lifted it over her head. She sighed, shuddering slightly from
the chill, as well as from want. Her breasts felt heavy, throbbing with a
longing echoed low in her belly.

'Daniel..."

'I know, baby...I know."

Rain splattered against the window as Daniel laid her on the bed. When he
crawled in beside her, she lifted her arms and pulled him down to her side.

'I love you, Daniel. You will never know how much."

'I love you, too, baby."

"Show me."

Daniel brushed a kiss across her lips and then did as she asked. Mary
watched Daniel's head dipping toward her, saw his lips parting slightly,
smelled the rain on their bodies, then closed her eyes and waited to be swept
away by passion.
 
It didn't take long.
Without foreplay. Without warning. Daniel was on top of her and then in her.
Mary parted her legs and arched to meet him, and when he started to move, she
met him stroke for stroke.

Outside, the storm was passing, but inside, it had just begun. Daniel had
long since lost focus on anything but the feel of being inside his Mary Faith.
Her sweet heat wrapped around him, pulling at every nerve ending on his body,
making him crazy with the need to let go. Harder and harder, faster and faster;
the mating had gone beyond passion to madness. Mary clung to his shoulders with
a feral intensity, focusing on the building heat between her legs. Her
heartbeat pounded against her eardrums, deafening her to everything but the
uneven sounds of her own breaths.

In their need to reaffirm their faith in each other, they had taken their
fear and desperation and turned it into passion. Using the mind-blowing
pleasure of sexual release for an antidote, they had created an emotional fire,
and they were burning right down to the bone. One second Mary was with Daniel
stroke for stroke and the next she began to shatter. The rush from the climax
all but pulled her off the bed. With an inarticulate cry, she wrapped her legs
around Daniel's waist and held him deep inside her. In that instant, his own
control finally snapped. A guttural groan ripped up his throat as he spilled
himself into her. Still shaking from the adrenaline rush, he collapsed.

'Oh, Daniel..."

'Oh, yeah," he said softly, then pulled her head on his chest and just
held her, using her for the anchor that would keep him from complete
disintegration.

'Mary ...my Mary."

Shuddering slightly as the last convulsions of her climax rippled through
her body, Mary lay without moving, savoring Daniel's warmth and strength, as
well as the pleasure that only he could give her.

'Go to sleep, darling," Mary whispered. Daniel was uneasy about letting
down his guard, but his trust in Mary Faith was complete, and so he tunneled
his hands through her hair and closed his eyes. A short time later he had
fallen asleep, his breathing in perfect rhythm to hers.

Howard Lee clocked in at
Savannah
Memorial
Hospital
and then proceeded to the basement where the employees' lounge was located. He
put his lunch in the refrigerator, along with a sixteen-ounce bottle of pop,
then took off his jacket, shaking off the raindrops before hanging it inside
his locker. He took out a pair of coveralls and pulled them over his street
clothes, then exited the lounge and headed toward the storage room. A few
minutes later he had filled his cleaning cart and was ready to begin his shift
on the third floor pediatric ward.

He had always planned on furthering his education, but taking care of his
mother in her waning years had ended most of that. And he'd never been able to
channel his loneliness afterward into anything substantial. Now, since he'd
embarked upon the quest to create his own family, his lifestyle precluded any
long-term commitment to getting a degree.

Besides, Howard Lee was of the belief that manual labor was good for the
body. His father had been a drywall contractor and he'd grown up watching men
make a living by manual skill, as well as physical strength. He did not consider
it beneath him to clean floors and toilets, and besides, the job was
perfect-low-key and virtually anonymous. He was counting on the fact that the
people who push the brooms were all but invisible, and when it was time to move
on, he would not be missed.

He moved from room to room on the floor, doing what he'd been hired to do
without communicating with anyone else. Only now and then did a nurse address
him, and when they did, it was impersonal. Yesterday he'd overheard two nurses
talking and only after he'd listened for a moment, realized they'd been talking
about him. They thought he was slowwitted. Retarded, his mother used to say.
But he wasn't. He knew because people who were slowwitted couldn't take care of
themselves, and he'd been taking care of himself and his mother almost all his
life. He started to tell them they were wrong that he not only took care of
himself and his two daughters-but he also drove a car. Then he discarded the
notion. He didn't care what they thought. He picked up a handful of new trash
bags and looped them on his belt, then moved into the next room. Only a few
more hours, and he could go home to his girls.

Chapter Nine

It had been a long night and it was just after 7:00 a.m. when Howard Lee got
home. He was tired and in desperate need of sleep, but first, he had to feed
his daughters. He reminded himself it was a sacrifice that every good parent
must make-tending to their children's needs before tending to their own. In
lieu of the hot food he normally served, he filled two bowls with cereal, got
cups and spoons from the cabinets, plucked a couple of bananas from a bowl on
the sideboard and set it all on a tray, then headed for his room. Kicking aside
the throw rug, he set the tray on his bed, lifted the cellar door and called
down to the girls.

'Good morning, my darlings... Daddy's home." He thought nothing of the
fact that they didn't answer, but when he got to the bottom of the stairs and
realized they were still in bed, he frowned.

'Girls ... breakfast. I brought your favorite Crunchy
Crispies
."

One of them moaned as he set the tray on the table and turned toward the
twin beds. He lifted the covers and started to shake them awake.

'Girls ... wake up. Breakfast is ready." Justine whimpered but didn't
open her eyes. Amy Anne rolled limply beneath his touch. He frowned. Something
wasn't right. They'd never behaved this way before. Then he noticed the bright
red flush on their cheeks and laid the back of his hand against Justine's
forehead. It was hot to the touch. His heart skipped a beat as he did the same
to Amy Anne. She was even hotter. He panicked.

Oh Lord. Oh no.

This hadn't been part of the plan. His babies were sick and taking them to a
doctor was out of the question. The authorities would find out that the
adoptions weren't final and then they would take them away from him. But what
could he do?

Mary woke slowly, coming from a deep, dreamless sleep to total consciousness
in tiny increments, remembering the panic of thinking Daniel had disappeared,
then finding him standing out in the storm, like a soldier on sentry. She
shivered, reliving the abandonment of their lovemaking and remembering that she
had barely existed when she'd lost him before. She could hear the shower
running in their bathroom and closed her eyes, picturing his big, beautiful
body all steamy and wet. Before she could follow up on the thought of joining
him, she heard the door to their bedroom open. She rolled over and smiled as
Hope peeked inside. Seeing Daniel in the child she'd given birth to made the
love she felt for her even more intense.

'Hey, little girl... you're awake awfully early."

'Mommy, can we have waffles?"

Mary grinned. "May we have waffles." Hope's little brows knitted
in confusion. "That's what I asked you. I thought you would know."

Mary laughed, and pulled back the covers. "Want to get in bed with me
for a while?"

'Am I getting waffles?"

'You bet," Mary said.

'With peanut butter and jelly instead of syrup?" "If you can eat
them like that, I can cook them," Mary promised.

'Goody," Hope said, and crawled in bed with Mary, dragging her
one-eared bunny as she went.

'Why don't kids ever sleep late on Saturdays?" Mary muttered, more to
herself than to Hope, as she scooted her close to her side. Hope looked at her
mother as if she'd suddenly lost her mind for asking such a dumb question.

'Because we'd miss the best cartoons," she said, and pointed toward the
television mounted on the wall. "Can I watch cartoons until Daddy is
through taking his bath?"

'If you'll say may, and not can." Hope grinned. "May."

'May what?" Mary asked.

'I don't know," Hope said, then she suddenly smiled. "Oh! I know!
May I watch cartoons and may I have waffles! Right, Mommy?"

Mary wrapped her arms around her daughter as she laughed aloud.

'Yes, that's right, sweet pea." She reached for the remote and turned
on the TV, then searched the channels until she found the Disney channel.
"Okay. Two cartoons, then down to breakfast, okay?" Hope nodded, her
focus already shifting to the cartoon characters appearing on the screen.
"Hey," Daniel said, as he exited the bathroom in a pair of
dilapidated gray sweatpants. "How did I get so lucky as to find my two
favorite girls in my bed?"

Before Hope could answer, he pounced, sending her into fits of shrieks and
squeals.

Mary escaped, grabbing clothes as she headed for the bathroom. She washed
her face and brushed her teeth, dressing quickly before pulling her hair up
into a ponytail, shifting her focus from wife to mother with ease, as if she'd
done so many times before. She paused in front of the mirror, giving herself a
quick glance before turning away. Her hand was on the doorknob when something
made her hesitate. She stood there a moment, staring down at her fingers,
absently noting that she'd broken a nail, and then closed her eyes and took a
slow deep breath. There was no earthly way she could explain what she suddenly
felt or how she knew it-but she knew it just the same. She turned around and
faced herself in the mirror, curious to know if she looked any different.

But her appearance was still the same-hair the color of dark caramel that
barely brushed her shoulders, bluish-green eyes in a too-slender face, and lips
slightly bruised from the passion of last night's love making. And still a
little too thin. But she knew that would change. She reached toward the mirror,
laying the flat of her hand against the glass, then against her belly. Last
night had been magic. She and Daniel had made love-and also a baby.

She shivered suddenly, uncomfortable with the strong feeling of precognition.
Even though another child with Daniel would be a true blessing, there was too
much going on now to let herself lose focus. Hope's safety had to come first.