Three Days Later
Jack flipped to a new page. "Are you sure that's where we left off?" he asked. "I didn't think we'd gotten that far." He read the first paragraph to himself in a quiet murmur. "Does seem familiar," he said.
"That's because we stopped at the top of the next page," Rose said.
"We don't usually stop in the middle of chapters," he said.
There was a smile in her voice. "We got distracted."
The meaning of her words wasn't lost on him. "Oh, did we?" he asked, affecting an upper class accent. "It's curious that I can't seem to remember it. You wouldn't care to remind me what we were so distracted by, would you, miss?" His grin widened as she leaned forward, letting her hair fall around her face. Their lips were inches apart; her body hovered over his lap.
She smiled coyly. "Jack?"
"Yes?" Even after twenty years, he still had trouble keeping his voice steady.
She brushed her lips across his. He shivered. Just as he was about to loop an arm around her waist, she said, "Finish the book."
"Yes, miss." He pulled her into a kiss before she could move away.
She giggled into his mouth. "Jack, no!"
His grip was loose; slipping out of his hands would have been easy. But instead, she wrapped her arms around his neck. He fell back on the couch, pulling her down with him. The kiss deepened as he helped her move so she was straddling him. He pushed up her dress and held in a groan when his hands met her bare thighs.
"You don't want me, do you?" she murmured.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" he asked. She undid the button on his pants and slid a hand in. His breathing quickened. "Rose," he gasped.
"I think I just answered my own question," she said. She leaned down and kissed his neck. He squirmed beneath her. "I need you to do something for me," she whispered.
"You didn't have to go to all this trouble," he joked weakly.
She pressed her face against his neck and breathed deeply. He smelled wonderful; for a moment, she forgot where she was and what she was doing. "No trouble," she murmured. "Now, finish reading."
*****
Jack paused at the bottom of the page. "You're going to kill me," he said.
Rose snuggled closer to him. "You're in no danger of dying," she said. "And you can even try and get me back later if you feel so inclined."
"Try?"
"Well, there's no guarantee you'll succeed, is there?" She kissed his cheek.
"You're not getting any sleep tonight," he promised, tilting his head to catch her lips with his own.
"Maybe that was my plan all along," she teased.
"Is that so?"
The sound of footsteps cut off her reply. "Dylan and Eva are back," she said. "And Lily is with them."
The trio burst through the living room door. "What are you doing inside on such a beautiful day?" Lily demanded.
"Playing games," Rose said. She didn't need to see Jack's face to know exactly what look he was giving her.
"And reading," he said. "Lots of reading."
Dylan and Eva, their faces flushed with happiness, dropped into the nearest chair. They giggled as they tried to make themselves fit.
"That could be avoided if you each sat in your own chair," Lily said mildly. "But I know separating for that long is anathema to you two."
"You joke now," Dylan said, "but when it happens to you—"
"Who said anything about it happening to me?" Lily lit a cigarette. "I don't have time for something as trivial as love."
"Love doesn't necessarily keep to our schedule," Rose said. "Nor does it take the form we expect. Except in your case," she added, giving Jack a squeeze. "You were exactly what I wanted."
Lily fought the urge to roll her eyes. That her parents were deeply in love, she didn't doubt. It was the conviction that she, too, would one day end up like them—and now Dylan and Eva—that she couldn't quite believe.
"It would take an awfully extraordinary man to make me act like any of you," she said drily.
"I expected nothing less," Jack said.
"Where did you go?" Rose asked, turning to face the direction Dylan's voice had come from.
"We didn't actually go that far," Eva admitted. "Only across the city." Her mouth tensed. "My parents asked about me, didn't they?"
"A few days ago," Jack said. "But we didn't have anything to tell them."
"I'm sure they weren't happy about that."
"Your mother just asked that we let her know when you came back," Rose said. "In fact, why don't you call her now?"
*****
Deirdre was overjoyed when she heard Eva's voice. Without waiting to consider the potential consequences, she said, "I'll come and see you. Wouldn't that be better?" Eva didn't have a chance to respond. "Yes, I think so," Deirdre said. "Expect me in ten minutes." A dazed Eva hung up the phone.
"What happened?" Dylan asked.
"She's coming to visit," Eva said. "I just hope she doesn't bring Father."
Fortunately for Eva, her hopes weren't very high, so when Deirdre arrived accompanied by Cal, they didn't have far to fall.
Lily scowled as she watched them through the window. "Must we really keep being civil to him? I know he's your father and all, Eva, but he's a terrible human being."
"He doesn't try very hard to endear himself to anyone, that's for sure," Eva said. "I suppose that's what happens when you never have to try to gain anyone's affection."
"Yeah, maybe." Lily kept the rest of her thoughts to herself.
Jack's voice could be heard from the hallway. "I'm not feeding him," he said.
"No one asked you to," Rose said. "I asked you to feed me." Their voices petered out.
"I think we're not getting dinner," Dylan said as he came in.
"Oh, he'll make something," Lily said. "He always does."
"For Mom, maybe. The way they're acting in the kitchen, I'm not sure they even know we're still here."
"You know, we should probably go soon," Lily said.
Eva darted across the room and into the hallway just as the knock came. She gave her hair a quick pat and opened the door slowly, remembering all the lessons in deportment she had suffered through as a child.
Deirdre, her lessons forgotten, immediately enveloped her in a hug. "Well, don't you look lovely," she said when she finally released her. "Marriage suits you already."
Cal stood stiffly next to her. He nodded. "Eva."
"Come inside," Eva said, smiling as graciously as she could. He's your father. He's your father.
The visit went better than any of them had dared hope. Cal didn't insult anyone, though it wasn't for lack of trying. Jack and Rose stayed in the kitchen until they left, leaving him without his favorite targets. Lily smiled at whatever he said and threw a barbed comment of her own right back. Dylan didn't seem to notice or care about anything but Eva. The worst moment was when Deirdre asked about the ring and Eva had to admit she didn't have one.
"What do you mean, you don't have one?" Cal demanded. "Are you honestly telling me you married her before you could produce a ring?"
"A piece of metal hardly seems worth considering where marriage is concerned," Dylan said calmly. "After all, it isn't the ring she married."
In that moment, he looked like the perfect blend of Jack and Rose. Cal grunted a reply and fixed his eyes on the wall behind him. It was full of Jack's drawings. He hasn't amounted to a thing, he thought. No one but her has ever given a second look to those drawings of his. Yet that didn't make him feel as good as he expected it to.
"Are you planning to stay in California?" Deirdre asked.
"No," Eva said. "We're going back to Wellesley—for a while, at least. In fact, we were just beginning to talk about when we might go back."
*****
"I think we should move into the apartment above your sister and complain about all the strange people she lets in," Eva said.
Dylan laughed. "She'd kill us. You know that, right?"
Eva tore off a hunk of bread and popped it into her mouth. "But it would be funny until then."
"I thought Lily was your friend."
"She is; she's my best friend, really. And if it weren't for her, I wouldn't have met you."
"And that's when your life truly began."
"It was," Eva said, looking into his eyes. "I didn't realize it for a long time, though." She laughed softly. "I loved you for a long time."
"You say that like you stopped," he teased.
"I will if you keep making jokes when I'm trying to be serious," she said. "And if you don't start drawing again. Don't think I haven't noticed."
He hung his head in mock shame. "You'll have a new drawing by morning."
They went back to Wellesley two days later. Lily went with them, but she only stayed long enough to pack her things and find someone else to take on her share of the apartment.
"The real movement is out west," she said. "That's where I'm supposed to be."
Dylan wanted to argue with her, but he knew it would be a waste of time. "Be careful," he said with a sigh.
She hugged him. "Of course."
Dylan and Eva settled into a two room apartment. It only had a bed, table, and one chair. Fortunately, as Lily had already observed, they didn't mind sitting close together. Cal and Deirdre went back to living almost exactly the way they had been before, except now they talked to each other about something other than the good old days. Most of the time.
*****
"Tired?"
Rose shook her head. "Wide awake," she said.
Jack hugged her to him. "Good." He leaned in and kissed her. "You'll want to be awake for this."
"Oh, really?"
"Uh-huh." He was already working his way through the buttons on her dress.
"I hope you aren't trying to be subtle," she teased. "Because I think I know exactly what you want."
"You do?" He swung her up into his arms. "You sure?"
"I—did we just go outside?"
"I thought you knew what I wanted."
"I thought…" She gasped with excitement. "We're going to the ocean!"
"Well, well, well, looks like you didn't know." He stopped when the water was up to his ankles. "I'm setting you down," he said. "Don't go running off again. Okay?"
"I won't."
Rose took his hand. The water was cool, but the breeze was warm. She took a deep breath. "It smells nice here," she said.
"But?"
"I didn't say but."
"I thought there was a but coming."
"I wasn't going to say it," she admitted. "But...we're not staying here forever, right?"
Jack hesitated before answering. "It scares me a little to think about wandering off right now," he said. "Not just because of what's going on, the Depression, but…"
She lifted his hand and laid it over her eyes. "Because of this?"
"I don't want anything to happen to you," he said. "I couldn't protect you from that. And I know," he added before she could reply, "that no one could've. I—"
"Jack, I know how you feel. You stopped drawing, remember?"
"Because you couldn't see them." He caressed her cheek. "Why draw if you couldn't see it?"
She put her hand over his. "But you're drawing again. And you're taking me swimming in the ocean."
"I'm holding your hand while we swim," he said.
"Fine," she said, grinning. "Hold it while we see the other half of the world, then."
The End.