The Denver Cereal (13 page)

When the bath water
cooled, they migrated to soft blankets in front of the fireplace.
With his head on her lap, he told her about the one thing that got
him through — the unbreakable love in his heart for Valerie, for
her.

When the sun peaked over
the horizon, Mike slipped Val’s original wedding ring from her
right hand. His eyes held the question, which she answered with a
nod. He slipped the ring where it belonged, on her left ring
finger.

And they began
again.

~~~~~~~~

Jill woke when the early
morning light hit her eyes. Stretching in Jacob’s comfortable bed,
she smiled. The sheets smelled like Jacob. She turned toward the
warm body next to her to find Sarah. Sarah licked her face and Jill
laughed. Hearing the odd sound that woke her, she sat up to see
what was going on.

She wandered across the
open loft toward the sound. Passing the sagging couch, she saw
Jacob sitting at his round dining table. Wearing only his white
boxer briefs, he spoke quietly into a Bluetooth device connected to
a cell phone. He was also texting someone on his Blackberry. The
sound that had woken her was his fingers blazing across his
Blackberry keys.

Unsure of what to do, she
stopped walking. Her eyes darted across his muscular legs, flat
belly, and round, muscular shoulders. Her hand moved instinctivey
to hold the rising heat in her belly while her eyes settled on the
dark line of hair that ran like an arrow from his belly button. In
that moment, Jill noticed something she hadn’t allowed herself to
see.

Jacob was a
hunk!

Embarrassed, she turned to
go back to bed when Jacob smiled and winked at her. She smiled at
his greeting. She waved her hands to indicate she didn’t want to
interrupt. But Jacob walked over to her. Without breaking the
conversation, he kissed her lips and hugged her.

“
Good morning,” he
murmured.

She sighed. She melted
into his embrace.

“
Okay, you know where to
find me if you need me,” Jacob said. “Right. I’ll be
there.”

Jill moved to step away
from him, but he held her in place.

“
Thanks,” Jacob said. He
pulled the earpiece from his ear and tossed it onto the table.
Returning his attention to Jill, he said, “How are you
feeling?”

“
Really good,” she said.
“You’re a balm for any insomnia.”

“
I’m glad. Katy is doing
very well. They’ll release her to our care this morning. Rest,
quiet, stuff like that. I was able to cancel most of my day, but I
have to attend a meeting at eight-thirty. I shouldn’t be too long,
but I have to go,” he said. “I thought Mike could take you to the
hospital. That way, you can be there when Katy wakes up. I’ll come
and get you when I’m done. Will that work?”

“
I know you have a company
to run,” she said.

“
Help my father run,” he
said. He kissed her nose. “The company runs itself. I mostly run
interference for my father. That’s what the meeting this morning is
about — one of my father’s messes.”

Jill smiled. “I’ve never
been with anyone who had a job, so I don’t
really . . .”

Jacob laughed.

“
How about some cereal?”
Jacob asked.

“
I understand it’s the
house specialty,” she said. “Crunch Berries?”

“
Mike finished them
yesterday. I was going to get more at Walgreens but I talked to the
pharmacist for too long. I can go right now.”

Jill shook her head.
Wandering to the table, she saw Jacob’s Blackberry vibrate. She
flushed with guilt. She shouldn’t distract this important
man.

“
You have a phone call,”
she said.

“
I also have an assistant.
If anyone really needs me, they text,” he said. Jacob pulled the
boxes from the cabinet. “Would you like me to get some Crunch
Berries or can you choose something from my vast
selection?”

Jill’s pierced brow
relaxed. She laughed. “I love cereal.”

“
See! I knew you were a
girl with taste.”

“
What are you working on?”
Jill asked. “Oh, I probably shouldn’t ask.”

“
No, it’s okay. We have a
group that estimates jobs. They estimate what we’ll spend down to
the gallon of gasoline, what company resources will be required,
and how much we’ll make from each project. It’s a hard job — really
hard. We have some talented people who keep us in
business.”

Jacob sat down in his
chair. He turned the laptop for Jill to see.

“
They send me these
projections and I look them over. I run the numbers, double-check
their work, look at the work schedule, stuff like that. If it seems
reasonable, I send the entire thing to my father to see if he wants
to do the project. Pretty boring. I get a bunch of these every
Monday morning.”

“
Can I see?”

“
If you sit on my lap,”
Jacob said.

Jill plopped down on his
lap.

“
Mmm.” His hands stroked
her legs.

“
I’m pretty good at
budgets and numbers, so this is interesting to me. I never knew how
companies did this kind of thing.”

Jacob kissed the back of
her neck while Jill pretended to study the spreadsheet.

“
You have beautiful skin,”
he said.

Jill turned her head to
look at him. “Jacob.”

“
Hmm?”

“
You have a busy morning,”
she said.

“
Mmmm,” he
said.

She leaned away from him
to catch his eyes.

“
Yes, busy morning,” Jacob
said.

Jill stood up from his
lap. “I don’t want to get in the way of
your . . .”

Their eyes caught with a
jolt.

Jacob lifted Jill off her
feet. Jill wrapped her legs around his hips. Their lips caught and
he carried her to bed. There was no hesitation, no sadness this
morning. Jill was hot, relaxed, and ready for him. He pulled off
her T-shirt and panties at the same time she dragged down his boxer
briefs. They joined with fast, rising heat. Jacob kept a slow, easy
rhythm, but Jill pulled for him. They rose in fast union. In one
blinding flash, Jill stopped moving.

“
Oh,” Jill
said.

Jacob pulled back to see
if she was all right. He smiled. She began to release in waves of
pleasure. Patient but insistent, he continued the pace until she
began to rise again. Caught in her rising heat, he gave in to his
passion. Together, they slipped over the cliff. They held each
other tight through the rise and fall of blissful
sensation.

“
Stay right
there.”

He kissed her lips, her
nose, and then rose to attend to the condom. When he returned, she
held her arms out to him. He dropped into her arms.

“
How are you?” he
said.

“
Really, really good.
Thanks. You?”

“
I feel amazing. You don’t
feel funny or sad or embarrassed . . .” He stopped
talking when Jill laughed.

“
Oddly, no,” she said. “If
you do that again, I’m your slave.”

He laughed. “I hate
leaving you, but I need to take Sarah out for a bit before I get
ready to go. Would you like to come with us?”

“
I think I’d like some
time to myself,” Jill said. “Is that all right?”

“
Of course. I washed your
clothes from yesterday but they aren’t quite dry. I have sweats
that might fit you.”

“
Sweats are
great.”

Getting up from the bed,
he began to dress in running gear. He gave Jill a pair of sweats.
She rolled down the top to make them work. In the T-shirt and
sweats, she had a charming sexiness that almost dragged them back
to bed. She smiled at the look he gave her.

He scooped her up in a
hug. His lips found her mouth. With effort, he broke from the
kiss.

“
This is so not how I
wanted to do this,” he whispered.

“
Regrets?”

“
Only that I have to keep
moving,” he said.

Jill stepped back from him
to help him gain some control. He smiled his thanks.

“
Delphie would love to see
you. When you’re ready for company, just open the door to the
house. I’ll be back soon.”

He brushed her lips with
his mouth. He picked up Sarah’s leash and Sarah waited at the door
to the stairs. Opening the door to the stairs, he turned to look at
her one last time.

“
I love you, Jill. I
always have.”

He closed the door before
she could respond. Jill went to the windows to watch Jacob and
Sarah, but the iron-fenced perimeter of the Castle front yard was
surrounded by paparazzi photographers. She saw Jacob whistle for
Sarah and then head around the back. Unsure of what to do, and not
wanting her picture taken, she plopped down in the sagging
armchair.

Yesterday, her mind was
consumed by her Trevor-screwed-up life. Today, she
was . . . She smiled. Happy.

In a burst of emotion, her
fear and guilt returned.

What would Trevor
think?

She heard Trevor’s
screaming voice telling her that she was a worthless whore. Jill
pressed her hands against her ears. But the voice in her head
continued its rampage. She was almost in tears when she heard a
knock on the door to the apartment. Without thinking, Jill walked
across the apartment to open the door.

“
Don’t let that man steal
your happiness, sweetie,” Delphie said.

Jill dropped into her
arms.

The business of life

“
Are we ready?” Jacob
asked. “We can get past the paparazzi through the
tunnels.”

Standing by a locked door
in the main Castle kitchen, he looked from Valerie to Mike. Even
after years of preparation, he had no idea if they could get away
from the photographers that stalked his sister. Today would be the
first time they tried the tunnels.

Jill slipped her arm
around him. He smiled at her.

Today was a first for a
lot of things.

“
Mike and I have cleaned
the tunnels, but they are old coal tunnels. There’s only so much we
could do,” Jacob said. He pointed to the long, hooded overcoats
that hung on hooks by a locked beadboard door. “As long as Delphie
isn’t going out, there’s one for each of us.”

“
I’ll stay here, Jake,”
Delphie said. “I don’t like those tunnels. Too many sad spirits
down there.”

“
I’m so sorry.” Valerie
hugged Delphie. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t let the driver
take me home, the paparazzi would have never found us.”

“
Honey, I’d rather be
stuck here because you and Mike are back together than be stuck
here because it’s snowing, or the doors won’t open, or Jake blew
something up, or I’m sick, or . . .”

“
Thanks,” Valerie said.
“I’ve missed you.”

“
We’ve all missed you,
Val,” Delphie said. “It’s nice to have you home.”

“
We need to
go!”

Jacob’s impatience and
worry echoed through his voice. Delphie made her usual cutesy face
at Jake’s frustration.

“
Is he always like this?”
Valerie mock-whispered to Delphie.

“
YES. I’M ALWAYS LIKE
THIS!” Jacob said in a terse voice.

Mike looked from Delphie’s
smile to Jacob and burst out laughing. Everyone laughed. Even Jacob
gave in to a smile. Jacob passed out the overcoats.

“
If Val’s staying, we’ll
have to get some more of these coats.”

“
Just one?” Jill
asked.

“
Well, Katy too.” Jacob
beamed at her.

“
Sheez, now who’s wasting
time? Explain the locks,” Mike commanded.

“
There are two locks.”
Jacob pointed to a modern deadbolt and a refurbished antique lock.
“You can unlock this deadbolt with a key from both sides of the
door. This old lock can only be opened from the inside.”

“
Which is why I have to
stay,” Delphie said.

“
We usually leave the old
lock open when we go out through the tunnels, but with all this
attention,” Jacob pointed toward the growing crowd and paparazzi
outside the Castle’s metal fence, “I don’t feel comfortable leaving
it unlocked. There are two locks at the workshop. Those are regular
key bolts. There’s also a security system in the tunnels that’s
connected to both doors. You can turn off the system from inside
the Castle or inside the workshop. It goes back on when either the
door is closed at the other end or after thirty
minutes.”

Jacob opened the door.
Pointing to the lockbox, he said, “This box has the key to the
deadbolt in it. It will open to each of our birthdays. Our
birthdays are the security code as well.”

“
Except mine,” Jill
said.

“
Right, but you know
Mike’s, right?”

Jill nodded.

“
We’ll add yours,” Jacob
said. Jill kissed his lips.