The Flavor Of Love (26 page)

Making his way across the enclosed porch, he dropped onto the suspended porch-swing and gently pushed back and forth with a bare foot. Taking another swig of coffee, he sat in deep thought. In the shower, the sight of Etta’s slender body had aroused him unmercifully. Had she not been in such an emotional state, he might not have been such a gentleman and would have ruined everything before she was open to accept him.

Etta wasn’t like any woman he had met before. Her humor and vivaciousness was contagious and he took to it like a moth to a flame. A thoughtful grin came to Keigo’s lips as he relived the conversation with Etta in the courtroom and at the table. She had so many aspects to her character. His smile fade and was replaced by a solemn expression.

The woman that clung to him and cried in his arms was a contradiction to the bold female he first met in court. The question that bothered him most was if Etta loved him in return. As many times as they made love, he never heard her say the words. She came close but never said what he longed to hear. She also didn’t comment on his proposal. Should he take that as a “yes,” “no” or “maybe?”

Keigo believed he had swiftly discovered enough about Etta to keep and hold his interest. Her quirkiness, ease of laugher and intelligence thrilled him. However, his loving attachment to a woman so physically different from his wife surprised him. It wasn’t the first time he found himself attracted to a woman for all the wrong reasons. He was fortunate Carla continued to be his friend after the mess he made in dating her and breaking up with her. He lost his head and his heart to Claire after meeting her at a frat party and that was all she wrote. They became an item.

After that incident, as a young man he realized his physical desires for a certain “type” could outweigh his logical thinking, but those days were gone and if he had any doubt about his feelings for Etta, last night cleared them up for him. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her and that put him at a disadvantage because he could end up getting hurt by Etta’s uncertainty. Keigo swore aloud and downed the remains of his now tepid coffee and placed it the cup on the ground next to the swing.

Regardless of his dithering thoughts, there was no denying Etta was still scared of falling in love again or he should say she was scared to fall in love and lose the one she loves again to death. He had to make her understand death was a natural way of life and she could choose to have someone by her side while she waited for it to come, or not. He hoped for his sake it wasn’t the latter. He’d had his own personal experience with grief and he wished she would lean on him and allow him to help her pass it. Maybe if he told her what her mother told him, she would be more accepting that they were fated to be together.

“
Keigo?”

He looked up to see a beautiful disheveled Etta standing in the open doorway of the cabin dressed in one of his black sweaters that stopped above her knees and nothing else. He couldn’t believe all the time he had wasted worrying when all he had to do was look at her standing there in his sweater and the answer was clear. He loved her and he was willing to give her as much time as she needed. He just preferred her to do it while being married to him because the thought of waking up and not seeing her beside him made him feel very lonely.

“
Morning beautiful.” Keigo smiled as she strolled out onto the screened porch towards him. He took her hands and drew her on his lap into the shelter of his arms. “Let me warm you up. There’s still a chill in the air this early in the morning.”

“
Funny, but I don’t feel cold.” She looked at him with sleep filled eyes. “When I’m with you, I feel warm and comforted, like slipping on an old fuzzy bathrobe.’

“
Oh, old and fuzzy, huh? Is this a good thing?”

“
It is to me.” She kissed his mouth softly before tucking her head beneath his chin. “I was worried that you regretted everything that happened last night when I woke up and found you gone. I feared I disappointed you because I never gave you an answer to your proposal.”

“
Etta, I wish I had handled it differently, but whether last night or two months from now, I still would want you to be my wife,” Keigo admitted openly to her. “You and I both have been living in the past for some time now. I’m ready to move ahead to the next level of my life. I will never forget Clair and Miko, but I properly grieved their loss and no matter how angry I got or how much I cried or how lonely I felt, it didn’t bring them back to me.”

Etta didn’t say anything but he felt her head nod under his chin and knew she was taking in what he was saying.

“
Etta, if I haven’t learned anything these past few years, I’ve learned that I’m a patient man. I can afford to give you the time you need to come to the same conclusion that we were meant to meet and we were meant to spend the rest of our lives together.”

“
Are you finished?”

He nodded.

She tilted her head back and he looked down into her large eyes. “Let me start by thanking you again, Keigo.”

“
For what? All that screaming I made you do,” he winked and grinned.

“
Don’t go there or I won’t get out what I need to say.”

She punched him playfully in the chest and he pretended to be hurt.

“
I’m sorry, baby. Go ahead.”

“
I want to thank you for everything,” she began again. “God, I still can’t believe you drove that car by yourself to find me and in the rain of all times.” She shook her head. “I can’t even begin to know how difficult that must have been for you, but I realized more then ever what a coward I was being by thinking that I could go through the rest of my life never falling in love again.” She caressed the dark strands of hair at his right temple. “Thank you for comforting me while I cried in the shower and for keeping me from floating when you…well, you know.”

Keigo cut his eyes at her in a mischievous manner. “No, I don’t know. When I what?”

“
Okay, forget it. I’ll just go get my shower,” she pouted.

Keigo laughingly tightened his arms around her. “Okay…okay. I don’t remember you being so moody in the mornings at your place. I would have thought you would be purring my praises after all I did to that hot little body of yours.”

“
Forget it,” she huffed and struggled to get up causing the swing to sway gently.

This time he stilled Etta by putting his hand to her face tenderly. It felt good. She was where he knew she belonged. They could grow old together just sitting here like this and he would be happy. Hell, he was happy! Would others appreciate it if he woke them up shouting, “I love Etta” at the top of his lungs? None of his best friends had found love once. And here he was finding it twice in one lifetime.

He smiled at her. She leaned forward to press her mouth to his. His penis lurched and his heartbeat thrummed through his body. He tilted his head to the side to allow their mouths to fit perfectly and enable him to intensify the pressure of the kiss.

He stole her breath.

She gave it back.

“
Keigo,” she whispered hoarsely.

“
Etta,” he whispered back.

“
I love you.”

Surprised, Keigo’s lips went immediately pliant, opening for her. It was a gesture of complete surrender. His emotions felt so raw that it seemed to reach into his chest and put his heart in a vice grip. To hear her say the words when he was least expecting to hear them was more reassuring than if she had said them a hundred times while they made love. The personal relief he felt was…humbling.

Keigo felt his throat tightened and his heart sang with relief as he fell into a bottomless pit of peace and satisfaction. He saw that she looked a bit misty-eyed too.

“
Say something,” she urged.

“
Etta, marry me.”

“
Is that an order?”

“
No, it’s a request that you allow me to make you happy for the rest of our lives,” he stated.

“
Good answer,” she gave him a dimpled grin. “Yes, Keigo Kyou, I will marry you.”

“
Soon?”

“
Anytime is fine with me as long as we don’t have a big traditional wedding,” she informed.

“
Both our families will kill us.” His lips pursed in deep thought. He could hear Fay and Auntie Loo ranting at him about taking their
Little Etta
off and denying her a proper wedding. Big Bertha would shorten his
swizzle stick
for sure then. God help him. He hadn’t even met her brother yet. What if he opposed they being together? Also, his mother probably won’t be too happy that he chose to defy family tradition once again. Thankfully he had Jin to help her get use to the idea, hopefully before they married and not afterwards like she did with Claire. She didn’t soften to Claire until after Miko was born.

“
Uh, oh,” Etta groaned. “I can see those wheels turning in your head. You’re not upset about my not wanting a big wedding are you?” She asked.

“
Does this have something to do with that soiled wedding dress in the back of your guest bedroom closet?”

Etta nodded with a solemn face. “It was my wedding day when Neil and my brother Toby were on their way to the church and they were in a pile up on the causeway.”

“
I know,” he admitted.

Her eyes grew wide with surprise. “You knew what happened all this time and never said anything to me?”

“
No, I knew after meeting your mother,” Keigo quickly explained not wanting her to think he was intentionally being deceitful in anyway.

“
She told you,” Etta said flatly.

“
Don’t be upset with her. She felt there was something familiar about me, Etta. At first I thought it was because I was on television, but that wasn’t it at all. The day Neil was killed was the day my family was killed and I was brought by MedEvac into the emergency room.”

“
What?” she gasped. “The man that was covered in blood. I remember I thought it was Neil, but mother insisted it wasn’t. She told me it was an Asian man and that you would survive but had a terrible ordeal to face when you awakened.”

“
That is what Fay told me, too. She also told me she saw something…else.”

“
I remember she had the strangest look on her face. That is what made me think she was lying to me about it being Neil.” Etta’s brow crinkled with concern. “What did Mommy tell you?”

“
That she knew on that day that or destinies were intertwined and we were meant to find each other when the time was right,” he confided waiting for it all to sink in. He knew it took him a few days after meeting Fay to adjust to the supernatural state of it all.

All this time he and Etta had talked about losing the ones they loved, neither of them ever put two and two together.

Keigo released a long sigh, finally happy to let it out. He had wanted to tell Etta, but he didn’t want her to want him because she was a believer in the mystical, but because she loved him in return. He started to move the swing back and forth lightly and held her quietly until she was ready to speak.

“
So, knowing this, can you understand that I don’t want a big wedding?”

Keigo nodded against her temple.

“
Can we go to the courthouse and do it without telling anyone. Afterwards, we can plan a big party together for our friends, family and coworkers.”

“
Sort of like the Japanese way?”

“
Yes,” Etta reached out and placed her hand on the side of his face. “I don’t think I can take another church wedding where I’m sitting there waiting and wondering if you will show up or not.”

“
Etta, whatever makes you happy will make me happy,” Keigo assured her and he meant it. He didn’t care who was angry with him. This is their decision alone to make.

“
Okay then; after we return home, we go to the courthouse and make it official.”

“
Your mother?”

“
After what you told me, she will understand.”

“
What about your brother? Don’t you think I should meet the man and let him know my intentions are honorable in regards to his only sister?”

Etta worried her bottom lip. She moaned, “You may want to wait until after the wedding.”

“
No way, Etta. I draw the line there. If I’m going to be calling this man my brother for the next fifty years or more, then I have to insist on doing at least this much the traditional way,” Keigo said in a voice that wanted no argument.

“
What if he doesn’t approve?”

Keigo shrugged. “Then we won’t get married.”

“
Really?” She asked in a shrilled voice.

“
Hell, no,” Keigo chuckled. “I will just let him believe that when I talk to him, to make him feel as if his opinion matters.

Etta laughed. Her expression grew quiet for a moment before it turned outright wanton. He glared at her suspiciously wondering what she was up to or what foolish thing she was about to ask of him?

“
Keigo, would you think I was being too greedy if I were to tell you I wanted to make love with you again,” Etta spoke between pleasant little nibbles to his bottom lip.

“
Hell yeah, but who’s keeping count?”

“
Uh, Reko will be when he realizes he doesn’t have any condoms.”