Feel Like Makin' Love (Rock and Roll Trilogy #3) (3 page)

“Still figuring my way around this damn place,” he laughed.
 “Some friggin’ bridge…”

“Well that narrows it down,” she laughed.
“You can’t get anywhere without crossing a bridge in this town!”

“I
’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“I
’ll have something ready,” she said.

“
No, let’s go out. I’m craving seafood.”

“I have tuna,” she said and laughed, that
humor that he found himself enjoying more and more.

~ ~ ~

They enjoyed a weekend with her family popping in and out to visit, and shared a big chaotic family dinner on Sunday. Geni was in her glory. Sunday evening, after everyone was gone Andy suggested they have a glass of wine, and they went to the porch. He sat in the rocking chair across from where she was, so that he could see her. He found that at times, just the sight of her made him smile.

“I’ve gotta go home in the morning
. Got some things to take care of, and Marco has a new client he wants me to meet with, someone Nigel put on our radar. I need to go look into that.” He paused and added, “I’d like to come back later in the week, but I don’t want to wear out my welcome.”

“I’d like that,” she said looking over the rim of her glass watching him as she sipped.
  She didn’t want him to leave, but she knew they both needed time to think, and thinking about a relationship apart from each other seemed a little easier.

Chap
ter Two

For the next several days, Carlee seemed fine, but the worry lingered in Matthew’s mind. After the fainting spell at camp, everyone pretty much agreed that she was hot and hungry; ‘dehydrated’ the nurse at the camp had told them. But then the dizziness and nausea had started on their flight back to London after their summer visit. She saw the doctor when they got home, and he’d been treating her for vertigo, but Matthew still worried.

Thursday morning
, Carlee woke with a headache again. “I don’t like this, Carlee. I think we need to get you back to the doctor,” Matthew said.

“Let’s wait. It’s just the weirdest thing.
After we changed the patch thing I felt OK. Maybe it needs a few more days to really sink in. But it kinda sucks waking up like this. My head is kinda swimmy. I’m just gonna lay here a while. Don’t worry - I’ll call you.”

He left
, and when he called between classes she sounded good. But he still didn’t like it. On his way home, he made a call.

“Hello! I’m happy to hear from
you this morning,” Geni said.

“
Hey, Mom, how’s things?” he asked.

“Good,” she said.
Andy had just arrived, and when she heard a worried tone to Matthew’s voice, she mouthed to him that she needed to go to her office a minute.

“
What’s wrong? Something’s wrong, I can tell,” she said when she got there. She didn’t want to alarm Andy if there was nothing to be alarmed about.

“Not sure
. Carlee’s had a couple of mornings where she woke up with a really bad headache. The two times it’s happened she seems fine by mid-day, but she’s really out of sorts in the morning. Today she said she was feeling the swimmy-head thing again. We changed the patch the other evening; it was due, but I thought it was supposed to be continuous - no gap or delay in the absorption or whatever.”

Geni thought a minute
and asked, “Have you made a follow-up appointment with her doctor?”

“Not yet…”

But before he finished his thought Geni was asking, “Why not, Matthew?”

“
Because she blew it off…”

Again she interrupted him, “This hesitation to go to the doctor may be because she’s scared. You need to take the lead
on this and gently force her to make that appointment, and make sure she goes.”

Matthew thought
for a moment and suddenly he understood; if it was something bad Carlee didn’t want to know.

“No other symptoms?” s
he asked.

“Not that she’s mentioned
, but I noticed no appetite when she wakes up, but she ate a good dinner last night, said she was ‘starving!’” he laughed.

“Does she seem depressed or sad?”
Geni’s mind was racing, thinking of questions to help Matthew, as well as Carlee.

“No
, not really; I called a while ago, and she was up and sounded better than when I left this morning.”

“Maybe
it’s a pressure thing, the weather I mean,” she said, explaining.

“Yeah, maybe
. I’ll see how she is in the morning. What’s been going on there?” He knew; he had messages from both of his brothers that Andy was coming to town every few days.

“Lots, but
we’ll talk more about that soon. Call me later and tell me how she’s feeling. I love you both.”

“
Love you, too.”

He hung up and dialed Carlee
.

“Hey beautiful,
feeling better?” he asked when she answered.

“Much!”
she replied.

He listened,
and she really did sound better. “I’m here by the market. Can I bring you anything special?”

“Yes!”
she said her voice full of merriment. “Oh! I’m so glad you asked!” He loved hearing the excitement in her voice. “There’s something I’ve been wanting all day. I think it’s there.”

“Name it…”

“Well, I’ve seen it there before, so let me describe it. It’s something de’lish, tall, dark, and luscious…” she laughed.

“One of those chocolate torte things?”
he laughed.

“No,
you!” she laughed. “Please just come home. I’ve got something already cooking for dinner. I’m missing you, just come home.”

“Five minutes…”
he said.

~ ~ ~

She’d showered and slipped into the blue pair of the satin pajamas that he’d gotten her. When he entered, he put his things down, and she came from the other room. She stood on tiptoes and wrapped her arms around his neck. He lifted her off the floor, and she wrapped her legs around his waist as she kissed him. He put his hands under her bottom to support her and shared her kisses. Walking to the kitchen, he set her on the kitchen counter.

“Wow, this is a nice surprise,
” he said.

“I feel so much better! Wait
‘til you see what’s for dinner!” she said with a happy voice.

“
With you in those PJs,” he said kissing her again, “I’m far more interested in dessert.” 

After dinner they were on the
sofa snuggling,
I really do feel much better,
she thought.

Her phone rang. “Hello,” she said
and was happy to find that it was Geni. “How are you?”

“Actually, I’m calling to see how
you
are,” Geni said.

“I’m good
; I guess you talked to Matthew,” she smiled.

“Is he close
-by, because I want to ask you something… a couple of things actually,” Geni asked.

“Yes,” but as she said it, Matthew’s phone rang. “Hang on a sec.”
She whispered to Matthew that she was going to go in the other room.

“He had a call too, so I came in the bedroom. What’s up?”

“I want to talk about you first, and then I have something else. This headache thing, it’s new, right?”

“Yes,” Carlee replied.

“And you don’t have any other symptoms? Matthew said something about a swimmy-head.”

“I know
what you are going to say. If it happens again, I will make a doctor appointment. It’s just in the morning, and by around noontime it’s kinda gone. I really think I just have too much on my mind. I know I can tell you this - all of a sudden, I’m struggling about school. I think I’m dreading the whole idea of going back,” Carlee told her.

“Why the struggles? You can talk to me
, Carlee.”

“I know that, I’m not sure I can explain it
, though. It’s become a dread that I keep trying to push aside. I’ve got my schedule pretty much set – just can’t seem to put my finger on the button to submit it.”

“And you aren’t depressed or sad?”

“I don’t think so; I feel happy! I think that’s the problem,” she giggled. “I love being here waiting when my husband comes in from work. I’m so happy being married to him!”

Geni
smiled,
newlyweds
. She thought a minute and finally said, “OK, I want to preempt this with the ‘I am not a meddling mother-in-law,’ speech, but I called a friend who’s a physician’s assistant a little bit ago, and she had a question I couldn’t answer. I haven’t, and won’t mention this to anyone else; it’s between us, but I’m asking, and you can tell me to mind my own business or whatever, but I’m asking,” she said again.

“OK,” Carlee responded cautiously.

“When was your last period?” Geni asked.

Carlee
started to laugh. “It’s not that it’s funny, it’s the whole speech before-hand,” she said still snickering. “I already thought of that, and we took another pregnancy test last week. Geni, I’m not pregnant.”

“You know you can be pregnant while you are on
birth control, even if you’ve taken it correctly, even if you’ve had a period.”

“I know, but…”

“
You need to make a doctor’s appointment and find out what the heck is going on, Carlee.”

“
I’m not ready to think about that again,” she started to cry.

“Don’t cry
; listen to me, something is going on. I believe I know your fears. Go find out what this is and get it behind you. I haven’t, and I won’t say a word to Andy, but it’s important to find out so that you can figure out how to fix it,” Geni told her, kicking into Mama Bear mode. “This is between us.”

“Thank you,” she walked into the bathroom and washed her face while they were talking. “What was the other thing?”

“I know Andy has already talked to you, but I want to talk to you now. Just us,” she said. “Just you and me, heart-to-heart… Are you OK with him and me seeing each other?”

“Yes
,” Carlee said quickly. “Geni, it’s been a very long time since my mama passed away. He may never stop loving her; they shared so much, but it’s time for him to move forward. He should have the company of a woman in his life. I know why he hasn’t all these years - he thought he was being loyal to both her memory and to me. But I would have been OK with it if he’d dated, even if he fell in love - as long as he still loved me, and there’s not an inch of my being that doesn’t believe that he would ever not love me.” She started crying again.

“He gave me so much
, Geni. I want him to be happy. I’ve watched you two any time you are together, and it makes me smile each time I observed it. I saw you dance at our wedding, at the ball, and I saw you hug at camp. I saw you when you were here, and I liked it. You should explore it and see where it goes. Matthew thinks so too.” Suddenly, Carlee was giggling, and hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop.

“What’s so funny?” Geni asked.

“Well,” Carlee tried to regain her composure, unsuccessfully. “I was trying not to go there, but after our earlier conversation, when I just said ‘you should explore it,’ all I can think of is that I need to tell you to practice safe sex!”

She was lying back on the bed, no longer giggling, she was laughing and Geni was laughing
just as hard on the other end.

“No wonde
r Matthew fell in love with you,” Geni said.

Carlee heard a voice in the background and said through her laughter, “If that’s my Papa, put him on the phone!”

“It is, but before I do I want to tell you, I love you. Figure out this thing with your health, Carlee. It’s important” Geni said.

“I love you
, right back!” Carlee said. As Matthew came in the room, she held up a finger to quiet him.

“Well, h
ello Papa!” she said in a teasing ‘you’ve been caught’ tone.

“Busted…” h
e said and laughed. “What on earth were the two of you laughing about? Geni is laughing so hard she has tears in her eyes!”

“That
,” Carlee said emphatically, “will be our secret! Hey, do you know that in three weeks I will be 21? Twenty-one. Papa! You’d better plan to take me out to a nice place to eat where I can legally consume alcoholic beverages when we come home for Christmas!”

“It’
s a date. I’ll call you Saturday. I love you sweet girl.”

“
I love you right back,” she said and hung up.

Matthew joined her
, stretching out beside her on the bed. “What was so funny?” he asked, caressing her arm as he asked.

Carlee rolled to face h
im. She put her arms around him, fingers lightly rubbing his back, she moved in closer. Nibbling his ear, she kissed him, “If I tell you, I won’t be able to concentrate on this,” she said. “And I want to concentrate on this…”

~ ~ ~

After he hung up, Andy told Geni he’d talked to Matthew - now he’d made the rounds with Geni’s family. Geni shared part of what she and Carlee discussed. So now, the two of them were ready to explore a new path, but Geni wasn’t ready to explore too quickly. She didn’t think Andy was yet either, so they just enjoyed being together.

They sat in the quiet a moment. The windows were open
, and evening filled the senses; the rustle of leaves from a light breeze, the sound of the river lapping the bulkhead, and the sun, just below the horizon cast a soft golden glow in the room.

“Carlee gave me a piece of advice,” Geni said, finally. She leaned toward him, put her hand on the back of his head and drew him near. She braced herself and leaned closer to kiss him.
This was the first time that she’d initiated a kiss; she’d hugged him, but this time it was a kiss. His arms went around her, and he kissed back.

“She said that I should explore. I’m not too advent
urous so that’s enough. For now.” She smiled at him and backed away.

“No, wait,” he said and pulled her back. “Just one more.”

“Good night, Andy,” she said as they rose from the sofa, knowing his kisses would be on her mind the rest of the evening.