Second Chances (66 page)

The next morning they awoke to squeals of glee.  The kids were putting on...costumes?  “What do you have?”  Isabella asked Kyle as he wandered over wearing a black hat accented with a gold buckle.

“It’s a costume,” he said excitedly.  “Can I wear it?”

Rebecca walked over, fully clad in Puritan garb, even down to the clunky black shoes.  “How do I look?” she asked twirling around for her mother’s approval.

“Like you walked out of
The Crucible
,” Isabella commented.

Rebecca accepted that as a compliment, and trotted off to grab some pastries from the tray on the table.  Kyle struggled to pull on his pants.  Gabriel climbed out of bed to help him.  Isabella sat in the bed, watching everything happening around her, feeling warm and happy, despite the frost on the windows.

They arrived at Plimoth Plantation in time to tour the exhibits before the New England Thanksgiving Buffet began.  The entire experience could have been likened to taking a walk through history.  Rebecca loved being part of it, asking questions, attracting pleasant looks from other visitors.  Kyle just tried to keep up with his sister, and balance his antique replica rifle on his shoulder.  They were quite the pair.

When they finally returned to the boat that evening, the kids were exhausted, and happily accepted going to bed.  They didn’t argue about having to take off their costumes, since Gabriel had Puritan night clothes crafted to complete their experience.  Giggling, they climbed into bed in their billowing attire.

Isabella and Gabriel sat outside and gazed up at the autumn sky, until he realized that she happened to be half asleep sitting up.

“Come on, darling,” he whispered into her ear.  “Off to bed.”

“Hold me tonight,” she murmured into his neck.

“Don’t I hold you every night?”  He asked gently, drawing her closer to his chest.

He helped her undress, and offered her a pair of the warm Victoria’s Secret jammies he bought her for this occasion.  At the time, she had laughed at finding more pajamas.  Tonight, however, she felt grateful that she had such nice sensible bed wear.  She appreciated her down comforter that felt as light as air, but kept them toasty.  And above all else, she was thankful for Gabriel, who had entered their lives and enriched them in every way imaginable.  Then suddenly she felt terrible.  What had she to offer him?  How could she ever repay him for all of his kindnesses, not to mention the inconceivable amount of money he spent on them?

She must have been morose as she fell asleep.  So often, her feelings were reflected in her dreams.  Tonight she found herself on an island, a dark, deserted, lonely island.  Her first thought involved finding her children, but they were nowhere to be found.  Then, she decided that must be Jack had them.  If that should be the case, then Gabriel must be around somewhere.  He never left her for long.  He always spent time with her when she had to be apart from Rebecca and Kyle.  She began calling for him, but the sky grew increasingly dark.  She stumbled around rough terrain now, fumbling along with arms outstretched.  She kept grasping, reaching out, and only finding air; emptiness and cold chilly air. 

Isabella struggled and thrashed about in their bed.  She grappled through that hazy place between wake and sleep, that heavy fog.  In her mind, she knew that if she could only reach out and make contact with Gabriel’s reassuring warmth, then she would be fine.  Yet, the more she thrashed about, the more alert she became, the more apparent that she really lay there alone.  She sat up in the bed abruptly.  The room was dark, barely illuminated by the moon and some light from the wharf.  As her eyes adjusted, she could vaguely see the outlines of her children sleeping peacefully in their bed on the other side of the cabin.  Yet, to her dismay, the more her eyes darted wildly around the room, the more evident it became that Gabriel wasn’t in it.

Throwing back the covers, she checked the bathroom first, only to find it empty.  She rushed out to the deck.  There she found him speaking on his cell phone.  He heard her before he saw her standing there in her two piece cotton knit pajamas with the cuffs of the pants dragging on the boards.  The evening air had grown somewhat crisp, nothing too frigid for a girl raised in the Adirondacks, but still she stood there shaking almost uncontrollably. 

Isabella quickly rushed from his seat without missing a word of his conversation, gathered her in his arms, and carried her to bed.  He lay beside her, holding her so tightly that she could scarcely expand her ribcage enough to take in the deep, soothing breaths she so desperately needed.

“It’s my father.  Business,” Gabriel explained in a whisper with his hand over the mouthpiece.  “I hope you weren’t worried.  I didn’t want to wake you.”

Isabella shook her head numbly, eyes wide.  It was true, she wasn’t worried.  She was scared, maybe even terrified.  And it wasn’t just the dream that scared her, or the waking up to an empty bed.  No, Isabella was scared of the fact that she was scared.  In one moment, she was made painfully aware of how much she cared for Gabriel, how much she relied on him, despite her past experiences, and how much she truly feared losing him.  All of that was far worse than some silly nightmare.

Nestled into his chest, Isabella listened to his heart.  She began to relax, slowly, felt her muscles loosen, focused on regulating her breathing.  Then she heard Gabriel close his call and snap the phone shut.

“There,” Gabriel said to her.  “I’ve been on the phone numerous times in the middle of the night before.  You’ve never woken up then.”  He rubbed his hands up and down her arms to warm her.  He scowled for a moment, dissatisfied with the results, then hopped from the bed and yanked off all his clothes, except for his underwear.

Reaching out to Isabella, he helped her sit for a moment as he removed her top, then laid her back down.  He untied the bow that secured her pajama pants around her slender waist, bounded to the end of the bed, searching for her feet then finding what he was looking for, pulled her pajama pants off.  She didn’t resist, but instead asked, “What...?”

“When a person is very cold, the best way to warm him or her is to lie together naked.  This is as close as I dared get with the kids so close by.”  He lay on top of her for a moment and pulled the blankets and comforter over them.

Burying his head in her chest, he murmured, “At least your heart rate is normal.  Bet I can change that.”  Smiling wickedly, he crawled up to her face, caressed her cheek, and pushed her hair away from her face.  “You are so beautiful,” he whispered.  He gazed deeply into her eyes, searching for some sign.  She was uncertain what he found in her eyes, but suddenly his lips were on hers, kissing her with a passion she hadn’t experienced since their trip to Aruba.

Instinctively, her hands flew to the back of his neck, one hand pulling him closer, the other running through his thick hair.  Slowly her legs opened and wrapped around his pelvis.  Both of them were surprised by this response to Gabriel’s hungry kisses.  He paused for a moment and Isabella laid there, glad that they both had a healthy layer of cotton separating them.  

“You know,” he said seductively.  “I do know of one other way to warm the body.  It has a ninety-nine percent success rate.”

Isabella swallowed hard.  “Well, if it doesn’t have a hundred percent rate of effectiveness, then I’d rather not risk it,” she said shakily.  Her body reacted to his in ways she never imagined, but she didn’t dare give in to him now.  She feared looking into his eyes, afraid to see the disappointment, or worse, anger.

Instead, she couldn’t tell what she saw.  “You are right, of course, my Bella,” he began quietly.  “You are right for many reasons, the best of which would be that I would never do anything around your kids.  Remember, we have all the time in the world, right?”

Smiling and nodding, she wrapped herself in his arms and happily fell back to sleep.  It wasn’t as easy for Gabriel, however.  He was haunted by the image of Isabella on deck.  She had been more than cold, of that he was certain.  What was it he had seen in her eyes?  Dare he hope that she was afraid of losing him?  He knew she liked being around him, spending time with him, even when it didn’t cost a dime, but he found himself in unfamiliar territory.  Suddenly he wanted more.  He had surprised himself last night.  He, the consummate playboy, found himself wanting children with Isabella, and marriage.  He had planned on settling down eventually, but that was many
many
years into the future, once his appetite for women had faded, once he was certain he could be faithful to just one.  He had never expected that to happen so soon, especially not with Bella.  Smiling, he knew he had no regrets.

The morning was hectic, as they had to depart immediately for the airport to catch their flight home.  From there, they dropped the kids off at Jack’s,
then Isabella and Gabriel drove to Montreal.  By now, Isabella felt as though she could make this trip in her sleep.  Today she did.  “Wake up, darling,” Gabriel murmured quietly into her ear.

Stretching, she asked, “Why didn’t you wake me?  I was terrible company this trip.”

“I love watching you sleep.  You are going to need it.  We have a big weekend planned,” he commented mysteriously.

“Do I finally get to meet your friends?”  She asked eagerly.

“Better,” he answered with a smile.  “My mother.”

Gabriel’s parents, though both in Montreal, lived worlds apart.  As elegant and spacious as the Charmant Estate was, his mother’s place was equally as small and dingy.   He must have sensed what her reaction would be since, on the drive over later in the afternoon, he began telling his mother’s story.

“After my parents divorced, my mother was given a very beautiful apartment in a fine neighborhood.  All the bills were paid for by my father as part of the settlement.  That arrangement was to continue as long as my mother remained single.  Once she remarried, she was on her own.

“Well, I’m certain she was very lonely.  My father was granted custody of me.  She had infrequent visitation.  We talked on the phone much more than we ever saw each other.  One day she met a man, a very suave man, who no doubt saw the way she lived and believed her to be well off.  He courted her feverishly.  She grew afraid of losing him.  She didn’t speak to me, didn’t call, and didn’t accept my calls.  I no longer went over to her place; instead, we would meet on occasion after school at a coffee shop for an hour or so.”  At this point, Gabriel stopped talking and looked out the window.  This period in his life obviously affected him very deeply. 

“Okay, so anyway, my father reads the paper one morning at breakfast and storms out of the room, leaving the paper on the table.  I can hear him on the phone in the study.  He is furious at someone.  He is screaming, ‘You are cut off.  Do you hear me?  I’m calling my lawyer, so you best figure out how to pay for all of that yourself.  Understand?’ I walked over to his place setting, and there it was, a wedding announcement.  My mother looked so happy.  She had run off and gotten married, had been for over three months by now, during which time my father was still taking care of her bills.  And I wasn’t even invited to the wedding.

“Her new husband knew nothing about me or her financial situation.  As soon as he found out about both, he left her high and dry.  She expected my father would start taking care of her again, but obviously that was not legally the case.  She had never really worked, had no skills.  Her jobs in the past were more of a hobby than a means for support.  So here we are.”  Those words not only signaled the end of his story, but their arrival at his mother’s meager dwelling.