Chapter 14
Jeanie winked at Sean. Nick was
rolling around on the floor with Madi…playing. Jessie, Regina and Amber looked
like three innocent angels sitting side by side on the sofa. They didn’t speak.
They just sat and watched Nick.
Nick would occasionally shoot
Jeanie a small “can’t you help me?” pleading look and she would shrug her
shoulders and turn her attention back to Sean. Finally, Jeanie rescued him.
“I know a baby with pizza
head…come on, Miss Madi.” She picked her up. “Nick, want to learn how to bathe
a baby?”
He gratefully scrambled to his
feet. As they left the room, the girls broke into hysterical giggles. Once
inside the bathroom, Nick quietly closed the door. Before she could protest, he
bent down and kissed Jeanie softly on the mouth.
“Nick! You’re going to traumatize
my daughter," Jeanie laughed and scolded.
Madi, sandwiched between them,
looked up then latched on to Nick’s gold necklace.
“Make her let go,” he tried to pry
her sticky fingers off.
“No…Madi snatching jewelry from
company is what pays the bills around here!” she laughed. Nick wasn’t as amused
as Jeanie was. “Fine…” She peeled Madi’s fierce grip from the gold medallion.
“Here, you hold her while I run her bath.”
Jeanie and Nick, on their knees
and hanging onto the side of tub, quietly talked as Madi splashed her way
through her bath. “I’m glad you’re here, but I’m not sure why you’re here.”
“That makes two of us. I just
wanted to be with you. That okay?” Nick pushed a wisp of blonde hair from her
face.
“Yeah…it is okay, thank you.”
“So, when will the Three
Musketeers go to bed?” He nodded toward the door and grinned.
“With you here? Never.”
“Great. What do they do when
Kevin…was…” Nick was sure he’d blown it. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re okay, babe. They spy on
Kevin. They spy on everyone. It’s their job, I think,” she laughed.
“You realize that I WILL sleep
with you tonight and that it WILL cause a scandal if they catch us?” he scooted
behind her, pressing firmly up against her as she leaned over the tub.
“Actually, I do. We can’t do
anything that stupid, Nick. We both know that…” she groaned, feeling a stirring
deep inside as he rubbed seductively against her.
“I’ll be careful…promise…please?”
His voice was barely above a lover’s whisper, throaty and provocative.
“Um…we’ll see,” she moaned and
stifled a tiny gasp as his large hand slid inside her shirt, slipping around to
the front to her breast. “Um… let me get Madi down…and Sean, oh my God, I left
Sean out there with the Three Stooges!”
Nick broke into laughter. “He’s probably
on his way back to Los Angeles by now.”
***************
Kevin sat alone on the leather
sofa in his den. The signed divorce papers lay on the table in front of him. He
couldn’t believe that she signed them. Just like that. No questions. No tears. No
fighting.
The next step was his. The signed
papers would go back to his attorneys and they would file them. Even though
logically he knew it was right, it didn't feel right. Set her free…let her find
someone who wouldn’t be tempted or distracted or lonely. Jeanie needed a full
time husband…and Madi needed a daddy. The thought of another man raising his
daughter made him sick.
And Nick…what the hell was going
on with Nick. Kevin grew up with Nick. He’d seen him around women. Nick was
coming on to Jeanie.
“Kevin? Are you coming to bed?”
Roxanne, blonde with green eyes and bearing a remarkable resemblance to Jeanie,
stood naked in front of him.
“Yeah,” he mumbled as she knelt
down in front of him and he spread his legs for her. ‘Yeah…”
****************
Love should be easy, but it isn’t.
It has many faces and effects everyone in different ways.
For A.J., it was a learning
experience. He learned how much he truly loved Lindsay and how easily you can
lose everything. He would never take her love for granted again. He thanked God
that she loved him enough to take him back.
For Lindsay, it was growing up.
A.J. had been the only man she’d ever been with or loved. She now realized that
he wasn’t a god. He was human. She also realized that she loved him enough to
forgive him and rebuild their lives together.
Nick’s love for Jeanie was naïve
at best. She was an older woman with a gentleness and passion Nick had never
experienced before…not with the young girls he was accustomed to dating. He
knew it was unrealistic, but willingly took the ride knowing it wouldn’t last
forever, but also knowing it would live forever in his young heart.
It was always easy for Kevin to
find love, but he was finally beginning to realize that as much as he needed
the steady stream of adoration and affection from countless women, he only
wanted one woman. He knew he was paying the consequences of his infidelity.
He’d set in motion a chain of events that, for the first time, he couldn’t
control.
When Jeanie Kirkpatrick lost
Kevin’s love, she temporarily lost her self-worth. For so many years everything
she did, she did with Kevin in mind. The rejection was almost unbearable except
for one tiny thing: Madison. Madison didn’t care if Mommy was overweight or a
failure. Madison didn’t care that Mommy wasn’t twenty-one and a super model.
Madison loved her unconditionally. When Jeanie finally realized that, she began
to look around. Even without Kevin, her life was full of love. She had Madi and
Jessie, her friends. She had A.J. and Lindsay. She had precious Nick who tried
so very hard.
She prayed that someday, when
Kevin least expected it, the love he and Jeanie shared would come back. If and
when it did, she’d be waiting for him. She loved him.