With Love; Now & Forever (6 page)

“Yes, Austin captured her brilliantly. Hard to believe he did it from memory ten years ago. Ana, you don’t seem to have changed a bit, you are still so lovely.”

Ana didn’t hear any insincerity in her voice and accepted the compliment graciously. “Your husband was the one with the talent, not I. It’s him who should receive the credit, he was a brilliant painter.”

“Thank you, I thought so too.” Jennifer’s eyes misted. “So tell me what it is like in the travel industry? Jennifer has just told me a little of your occupation. Is it as wonderful as it sounds? Do you get to see the most beautiful and amazing places in the world, Miss Cassadine?” Rick gazed at her appreciatively.
“Please, call me Ana. Unfortunately no, I get to plan the most romantic and beautiful getaways but to date, I have yet to experience them. This is the first time I have been out of the States without being on business.”
“You must have an amazing talent, to successfully plan exotic trips for your patrons without ever having experienced them. How do you choose the correct destinations for your clients if you have never stayed at any of these places?” he inquired.
“I actually read a lot. I also learn the desires of my clients and line them up with the information I obtain through my books. Most clients have a childhood idea of the perfect, fantasy get away and after learning their idea, it’s just a matter of matching up the geography with the personality. It truly boils down to logic I’m afraid, nothing romantic about it at all.” Ana humbly explained.
“I have to object. You have to have compassion for that person and have the honest desire to fulfill their dreams and desires. You must be very in tune to people to be able to materialize their fantasies. And you have appeared to have done it very successfully. I commend you.”
Blushing from his compliments, Ana could only nod. “Thank you.”
After a few more moments of light conversation, Jennifer excused herself. “Please forgive me. I’m very tired and I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow, some disaster with one of the cars that Devon claims needs my immediate attention before any of the parts stores close. Please, stay and enjoy yourselves. I would like for the two of you to get to know each other better. Stavros, can you give me a hand with the dishes before retiring?” Without giving Rick or Ana a chance to object, Jennifer slipped from the room, quietly followed by Stavros.
“Well, that was as obvious as a white elephant in the corner.” Rick joked, hoping that she wouldn’t claim to be tired and depart for the evening.
“She’s not very good with subtlety, is she?” Ana laughed.
“No but she makes up for it in compassion and loyalty. She’s been a friend of mine for many years.”
“You seem to be very fond of her. She is a beautiful person, isn’t she?” Ana commented as she looked towards the door where Jennifer left, feeling affection for the woman who days ago had been a total stranger.
“You also seem to be a very compassionate person. You have not drilled me once since you met me and Jennifer already explained that she told you who I was and what I did for a living. She also explained your thoughts on my occupation.”
Ana blushed and felt her tongue knot up, uncomfortable with being put on the spot. “Jennifer tends to talk a little more honestly than what I am used to. I hope she didn’t make it sound as if I was going to burn you at the stake.”
Rick laughed and took another sip of wine. “I was actually looking for the matches when you walked in.”
“Oh God, I’m never going to live this down but since we are on the subject, yes, I do disapprove of what you do. I acknowledge that I don’t have all of the facts in your career choice but it seems a little dicey to me.”
“I appreciate the honesty and actually it’s easier to deal with the honesty than it is to deal with lies and deception.” Rick admitted. “I deal with skeptics every day in my life. Trust me, you are not the first.”
“If we are being honest, Mr. Montgomery, I have to tell you that I am worried about the influence you have on Jennifer. I realize that I’m a newcomer in her life and don’t have the right to judge her friends or her choices but I feel tied to her because of Austin and the more I get to know her, the more I feel a kinship with her and a protectiveness for her. She is a good person and is going through enough grief, I would hate to have her misled or taken advantage of. True love is precious and a once in a lifetime experience. Jennifer has just lost her husband, the man she loves and with whom she had planned on spending the rest of her life. That should not be taken lightly, or taken advantage of. In fact, we both have lost the love of our lives.”
Rick gave Ana a look that a patient parent gives a child when they swear they have seen a monster in the closet.
“Let me ask you, Ana, do you think a doting mother loves one of her children more than another? I ask this because I’m slightly surprised at your beliefs, especially in this day and age. An intelligent, worldly woman such as yourself, believing in the silly romantic notion of having
a
soul mate, the idea that there is that
one
special someone we are to spend our life with if we are lucky enough to find them. It’s truly outlandish and constricting to have the limited thinking of being destined for one love.”
Rick saw the confusion flicker across her face but she didn’t begin to argue with him, so he gently took her hand and earnestly looked into her eyes. Ana tried to ignore the spark she felt at his touch but was lost in his gaze.
“Think outside the box for a moment, Ana, it happens everyday. A car accident, cancer, heart attack. Everyday, a couple gets tragically torn apart, it happens to the old, the young and the in-between. Does that in turn mean that the living partner is doomed to live the rest of their life miserable and alone?”
“So, what, are you saying there is no such thing as a soul mate?” Ana asked, unable to keep the hostility out of her voice.
“No, I’m saying we all have soul
mates.”
he stated.
“I don’t understand what you are saying, Rick. I just told you that Austin was my soul mate and you started arguing with me.”
“No, you said you lost your soul mate, Austin. You indicate that you will never find true love again.
That
is where I disagree with you. I believe that we all come down to this earth to learn lessons that enrich our souls. People come in and out of our lives to help us learn those lessons and become richer, spiritually. Its different people who help us learn those lessons, good or bad, they can help us learn through positive and negative experiences. I also believe that we choose what lessons we want to learn before we come down to earth and which souls we are going to interact with. With that in mind, think of all the billions of souls that are here on earth and those that have not yet descended. Do you honestly believe that we pick just one soul to link ourselves with and huddle in a little corner of the Universe until we come down to experience that life lesson?”
Rick didn’t give Ana a chance to answer but shook his head as if she had. “What a limited way of thinking. What a limited way to love. Our love, as spiritual beings is limitless. You can see it with mothers and their children. The all encompassing and overwhelming love for their children. Do you think she loves one child more than another? Would she give her life for one but not the other?”
“That’s different, it’s with her children.” Ana countered.
“No, it’s not. Our
society
teaches us and we accept as parents to open up our hearts, to fully and openly love our children. With partners, we are taught to love guardedly, to protect our hearts and distrust the other person until they have proven themselves to be true. We go into relationships closed minded, some more than others because, as in your situation, you lost this relationship that felt so perfect, that was so comfortable and true that you believe you will never love like that again. Am I right?”
“No one can replace Austin.” Ana whispered, feeling the true pain of that statement.
“No one needs to or has to. Using the example of the mother and her children, the love she has for each one of them is different because each child is different, but the love isn’t any less for any one of them. It can be the same way with partners, the love is different because the person is different but it doesn’t have to be any less or not as intense.”
Ana was watching Rick’s face as he explained his reasoning. He was more animated when he talked and his expression held more passion, as though he were intimately familiar with this belief. She started to feel hope, hope that her life wasn’t destined to be solitary and loveless. She felt like she had been looking down a tunnel, long and dark and was finally coming out at the other side where sunshine and warmth was promising. She had to admit, he was very convincing. Experiencing these new emotions, she also noticed a change in Rick.
“You sound as though you’ve experienced this. Does your work allow you to see this?” she asked.
“It does, but I have experienced this personally in my own life. I have been there twice in my life.”
She noticed he looked a little wistful as he made this comment and questioned. “You’ve experienced soul mates
twice
?” Ana was amazed as she asked the question.
“I have. And both times were true, unhindered loves and friendships. I value both experiences and will treasure both women for the rest of my life, and I hope, beyond.”
Ana was now intrigued but was aware that this was a sensitive subject for him. “May I ask about them?”
At his hesitation, she felt she touched on a subject that maybe she shouldn’t have. “If you feel uncomfortable, I understand and you needn’t tell me.”
“I am being told that it would be very important for me to tell you my story, that it would help both of us.” He said gently.
“You’re being told?”
“Oh yes, I have several beautiful souls right now, whispering in my ear, guiding me. But that’s not what you want to know, you want to know about my soul mates. Let’s fill our wine glasses and get comfortable because it’s a long, painful and beautiful tale.”

fter filling their glasses and getting more comfortable on the velvet sofa in the den, Rick proceeded. “I met Joyce our senior year

of high school at a dance. It was so funny, two teenagers, kids really, that saw each other across the dance floor. There was only an hour left of the social when I finally gathered the nerve to ask her to dance. I still remember her smell, so sweet and she was so soft. I was a book worm, quiet and kept to myself so the idea that a girl would be interested in me was a dream come true. I knew right away that I would spoil her with romance, poems and songs. We were inseparable from that night on. She was a good eight inches shorter than I, petite with long brown hair and the most beautiful chocolate eyes that made you want to melt into them. On our graduation day, I asked her father if I could give her a promise ring, letting him know of my intentions. Because I had spent so much time with her family, he wasn’t surprised and seemed honestly thrilled. I promised that we wouldn’t marry until we graduated college.

Joyce was so happy when I gave her that little opal and diamond ring that you would’ve thought it was a five carat diamond. We did pretty good the first year of college, she was going for her business degree and I was going for my engineering degree, but then our anticipation and need to be married became unbearable and Joyce convinced her family that we could get married earlier and still finish school.”

Ana frowned, “What about your family? I haven’t heard you say anything about your family throughout this period”
Rick sighed and took a large swig of his wine. “My family was too busy with their own lives, so I went pretty much unnoticed and unbothered for most of my life.”
Sensing this was a subject she shouldn’t pursue, Ana let it drop.
“So anyway, we wed during summer break before our second year. We rented a little studio apartment near campus and made it our home.” Rick paused and took another drink. “It was all so unexpected. It was Christmas day and we were driving back from her parents having just had dinner with them. She just blurted it out, she was pregnant. I was so stunned that I couldn’t say anything. I pulled into the next parking lot I could find and cut the engine. She was sobbing by this time, sure I was furious, we had talked about starting our family after college. I can still hear the panic in her voice as she frantically explained that she took her pills faithfully every day and she didn’t understand how it could happen. She was so distraught! I remember gathering her in my arms and didn’t realize I was crying until I whispered into her hair that this was the best Christmas present ever. All of the tension and fear left her body as I spoke those words. We held each other and cried for twenty minutes before I realized we were parked in a Wendy’s parking lot and had started to gain the attention of the patrons. At their looks, we started laughing hysterically, tears still running down over our faces.
“I knew then it was a gift from God. Everything happens for a reason and we were going to have a baby.”
He looked at Ana and in his eyes she saw the love and the joy he had experienced that night and she thought it was beautiful. He quietly continued.
“I cut back my class schedule to part time and got a fulltime job at a production plant to help pay for medical bills. Joyce continued with her classes, her pregnancy proceeded wonderfully and at six months, we found out we were having a beautiful little girl.”
“Her family was wonderful, buying baby furniture and paying the difference between our studio apartment and the one-bedroom apartment that we moved to for our addition. Everything was heightened and exciting and although money was tight and our schedules were full, we were so happy.”
Rick stopped speaking and she could see the moisture in his eyes. He didn’t say a word, entranced in the memories that he was recalling and she didn’t want to interrupt him but felt he was trapped in the moment. Quietly she asked, “What happened?”
Looking at the fire, he seemed lost in the depths of the memories that seemed to be flickering in the fireplace.
“She was almost seven months along and things were going great. I remember it was the middle of the night and Joyce woke me up, she was crying, she said she thought her water broke but there was a lot of blood and the pain was unbearable. I got her to the hospital in less than five minutes, they whisked her away and I didn’t see her again for an hour. The longest hour of my life.” He trailed off to almost a whisper and Ana thought she was going to have to say something again when he continued.
“The doctor came out, he actually had tears in his eyes. He told me that Joyce’s placenta had torn. They had tried to save the baby but the umbilical cord had been around her neck and she strangled.” Rick choked on the words, trying to continue the story, the pain flowing through his body as if it had just happened. “One team tried to save the baby but they never had a heartbeat. The other team worked on Joyce, trying to save her life. It all went so fast, within sixty minutes, I lost my daughter and my wife.”
Ana found herself sobbing, reliving the moment with him. “Rick, I’m so sorry.”
Having forgotten the present by being lost in the past, he realized she was still there and he quickly composed himself and looked at her. “Thank you, I am too. I will never forget them or love my wife and daughter any less, even if I fall in love again.”
Ana felt suddenly angry and came to Rick’s defense. “Life is so shitty, why do these things have to happen to good people?”
“Oh, but Ana, you are so wrong. Life is beautiful and wonderful and these things happen to good
and
so-called bad people. It’s not discriminatory. These are the lessons we chose to learn before we came down to earth.”
Stunned, Ana looked at Rick. “How can you say that? You lost your family in one night!”
“But I also experienced true love. Love so pure and all encompassing. I experienced the true love of a woman, wanting to marry me and bear my children. So many people don’t get that chance because they are afraid to open up, not wanting to risk getting hurt.”
“But you did and you got hurt. How can you say it didn’t affect you?”
“I never said it didn’t affect me. For three years I shut myself off, I focused on school, work, anything that would keep my mind busy. I shut out everyone, including Joyce’s family, not realizing they had lost a daughter
and
a granddaughter. I was so engrossed in my own pain, I shut everyone out, including myself.”
Amazed at this revelation, Ana asked, “What made you change?”
“Joyce did, the night of my graduation. I didn’t even go to my ceremony. I was a home, feeling sorry for myself when she came to me as clearly as you are right now and told me that I was being selfish. I had a lifetime of love and lessons to offer and I was betraying my love for her by secluding myself. I have always been psychic, seeing the dead since childhood. She told me that I was to grab onto my gift, my calling, so that I could help others that have gone through loss like I had.”
“Is that how you got into the business of being a psychic?” Ana found herself being pulled into this intriguing man’s life story.
“Oh no! I chalked the experience up to being exhausted from the grueling schedule I had kept for myself, earning a bachelor’s degree in engineering and being completely wiped out. It wasn’t until two years later that I met a woman who needed an engineer to help design an art gallery she wanted to build.”
Ana couldn’t help interrupting. “You were attracted to her?”
“Oh yes, but not for the reasons you believe. She wanted to open this art gallery with part of the proceeds going for prenatal research and she wanted to call it the Ava Foundation Art Gallery. Ava was the name Joyce and I had picked out for our unborn daughter. Only Joyce and I knew the name we had picked out, we hadn’t told another soul.