A Slice of Heaven (23 page)
Authors: Sherryl Woods
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Romance, #Contemporary
She was wearing an unadorned white bra, and her nipples were already hardened peaks beneath the material. He closed his mouth over one and heard her cry out in pleasure, then moan as he sampled the other one. She didn’t protest when he unhooked the front closure and removed the bra, then gave her full breasts more attention. There’d been a time when she could come just from that—from his mouth teasing and taunting her sensitive nipples. Even now, her hips bucked against the mattress.
He shifted until he was covering her, her instinctive movements making him even harder, but he waited to reach for the snap on her slacks, waited until she was all but pleading before he slid down the zipper and reached inside to touch her hot, wet core. This time when she bucked, he felt her coming with an orgasm that ripped through her and almost shattered his own self-control.
Grinning, he met her gaze. “Now we can take our time and do this right,” he teased, sliding her slacks and panties off, then lingering to caress her rounded hips and thighs so there would be no question that she still turned him on, that he still found her everything a woman should be.
Only then did he stand and shed his own clothes, coming back to her in less than a heartbeat, burying himself in her with a thrust that felt like coming home after a long, long absence. Locking gazes with her, he began to move, slowly, watching her eyes darken again, feeling her body respond to him, knowing the precise moment when control was about to slip away, and what to do to make it happen.
“I love you,” he told her, even as he felt the waves of another climax wash through her, setting off his own.
And for the first time in two years, with Dana Sue wrapped in his arms, Ronnie finally felt at peace, as if his life made sense again.
Ronnie was still asleep when Dana Sue scrambled out of his bed and yanked on her clothes with jerky movements. She’d finally done it. She’d finally lost her mind and crawled back into bed with her ex-husband. And she’d done it wide-awake, stone-cold sober and in the middle of the day. That left her with no excuses, not a single one.
That was not the way this reconciliation was supposed to go. She’d figured they’d date for a while, maybe he’d spend some time at the house with her and Annie. Then, after weeks and weeks of reassuring herself that he was a changed man, she’d take that final leap of faith and let him back into her bed.
It had been a foolish notion, she realized now. This afternoon had been inevitable from the second he’d shown up at the hospital. For two people who were supposedly mature adults, they never had possessed an ounce of restraint, not when it came to sleeping together. The only reason she’d still been a virgin up until graduation from high school was that Maddie and Helen had hardly ever left her alone with Ronnie, knowing she had absolutely no willpower when she was around him. That and Maddie whispering in his ear that the way to keep Dana Sue was to never let her get the upper hand, she remembered ruefully. He’d done his part to keep her at arm’s length, at least until graduation night, when they’d come to this very motel room.
Sneaking out the door now, she closed it quietly and all but ran down the block, hoping to avoid any prying eyes.
How could she have been so stupid? She’d promised to give him a chance, not an invitation back into her bed, or his, to be more precise.
Maybe she was being ridiculous, she thought. Why not admit the man still had the ability to make her toes curl? And it
had
been reassuring—more than reassuring—to see that nothing had changed, even though she no longer saw herself as being sexy. Still, she’d had high hopes that they would put off this step till she’d lost weight and firmed up.
Instinctively, she headed for The Corner Spa. “That’s sort of like closing the barn door after the cow is out,” she muttered as she marched past Maddie’s office and dragged on her workout clothes.
This time, instead of the treadmill, she headed for the weight machines. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the slightest clue how to work them properly. She’d probably wind up pulling a muscle instead of toning it, she decided.
Frustrated, she looked around until she spotted Elliott, the only male allowed to cross the threshold of the women-only spa. A personal fitness trainer with abs like steel, dark hair and chocolate-brown eyes, he worked individually with quite a few of the spa’s members and provided eye candy for all the rest. Until this moment, Dana Sue had been part of the latter contingent.
Crossing the gym, she waited until he’d finished instructing his current client, a white-haired woman of seventy who was curling ten-pound weights as if they were feathers. He winked at her when she’d finished the assigned repetitions.
“Nice work, Hazel,” he said. “See you next week.”
Hazel, bless her heart, pressed a little kiss to his cheek and rubbed her hand down the hard muscle of his forearm. “Elliott, you make me feel like a girl,” she teased. “I swear if I were forty years younger, I’d be beating down your door.”
Elliott laughed. “And what would your husband say about that?”
“Oh, that old coot,” she said dismissively. “His cataracts are so bad he can’t even see what’s going on right in front of his nose. He’d never know a thing.” She turned to Dana Sue. “You watch out for this one, honey. He is pure temptation.”
Dana Sue grinned at her. The only man who tempted her was back in a motel room sound asleep. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she promised anyway.
Elliott turned his attention to her. “What’s up, Dana Sue? You finally going to let me spend some time working with you?”
She knew he was teasing, because she’d already turned down every offer he’d made to give her free personal training as thanks for the spa recommending him to its clients.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” she said, clearly catching him off guard.
“Now?” he suggested with an eagerness that amused her.
“You afraid I’ll change my mind if we wait?” she asked.
“It wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Then let’s do it,” she said. “Remember, though, I have no muscles to speak of.”
“Thus the need for my help,” he responded. “Let’s start with free weights. Pick up a couple of different weights and tell me what feels comfortable.”
She automatically reached for the two-pound weight.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he scolded. “Try for five pounds at least. You saw that Hazel was working with ten. Are you going to let a senior citizen humiliate you?”
“I’m not proud,” Dana Sue said, but she picked up the weight he suggested.
Thirty minutes later, she’d decided she hated Hazel and Elliott, as well as Helen and Maddie. Every muscle ached, including ones she didn’t know she had.
“Why do people do this to themselves?” she moaned, sitting on a bench and mopping her brow with a towel Elliott handed her.
“To shape up and live longer,” he said. “It’ll be easier next time.”
“Maybe there won’t be a next time,” she responded.
He sat down on the opposite end of the bench, his skin taut, his muscles bulging. “What brought you in here today?” he asked. “I’ve been after you since this place opened its doors, and you’ve blown me off every time.”
She thought of the shame she’d felt when Ronnie had seen her naked for the first time. Not that he’d shown even a hint of revulsion, but she’d felt her own self-loathing deep inside. Only Ronnie’s kindness and her own grim determination not to bolt had kept her in that bed. Okay, and the need that had been burning inside her, too.
“I just decided it was time,” she said eventually.
“I heard about that contest you have going with Maddie and Helen. I know regular exercise was on your list of goals. Maddie let me sneak a peak. Have you decided you want to win?”
Dana Sue thought of the convertible she could claim if she did, then shook her head. “Actually, that’s the least of it.”
“I see.” Elliott gave her a knowing look. “New man in your life?”
“Old one, if you must know,” she said, knowing the news would be all over town in no time, anyway.
“One motivation is as good as another, as long as you don’t give up,” he said. “It would be better, though, if you were doing this for yourself, to make you healthier and more fit.”
“Maybe I’d better focus on Ronnie for the time being,” she retorted candidly. “Because if it were up to me right this second, you’d never see me again.”
“Okay, then,” he said briskly. “It’s all about Ronnie. I can live with that. See you on Monday, same time?”
A thousand excuses came to mind, but she shoved them all back down. “Sure,” she said grudgingly. “Is it okay if I hate you, though?”
“You won’t be the first,” he assured her. “Just know that I live for the day when that attitude changes, and it will, Dana Sue. It will.”
“In this lifetime?” she asked doubtfully.
“Give it two months,” he said. “By Christmas you’re going to think I’m the best thing to happen in your life since Annie was born. And I’ve seen you with your daughter. I know how you dote on her.”
“Right now, I have to tell you that the pain you’ve inflicted on me is more comparable to childbirth.”
“Two months,” he repeated. “I’ll take you shopping for a slinky new dress myself.”
Dana Sue’s skepticism didn’t fade, but once again she thought of the bet she had going with Helen and Maddie. If Elliott was right, maybe that convertible wasn’t as far out of reach as she’d thought. An image of her skinny new self driving around town with the top down and Ronnie by her side came to mind. Yeah. Maybe she could do this, after all.
W
ith Annie much improved and about to go back to school after taking six weeks off, the kitchen at Sullivan’s became Dana Sue’s safe haven. Grateful to be back in a familiar routine, she was spending more and more time there, when she wasn’t at the gym working with Elliott, or meeting with Helen and Maddie. The three friends got together for coffee or tea, and an update on the progress each was making toward their goals, at least three mornings a week. Sometimes Maddie’s new baby came along on the days when she couldn’t bear to leave Jessica Lynn with a sitter.
So far, all of them were doing better with meeting their exercise goals. Dana Sue had lost five pounds and Maddie had toned up her abs.
On this late-October morning the focus was on Helen, who’d just announced she had turned down a client in Charleston because the case would have taken too much of her time.
Maddie and Dana Sue stared at her in astonishment before toasting her achievement with tall glasses of unsweetened, caffeine-free iced tea.
“Way to go, Helen!” they chorused.
“How did it feel to say no?” Maddie asked.
“It made my stomach hurt,” she admitted. “What if word gets out that I’m not taking new cases, and I wind up with no clients at all?”
“What if it enhances your reputation that you are now taking on only a select few clients?” Dana Sue retorted. “People in need of the best will be clamoring to see you. You’ll be able to charge a fortune.”
“I already charge a fortune,” Helen said, the corners of her mouth twitching upward.
“Still, this is very, very good,” Maddie told her. “We’ll help you come up with exactly the right marketing spin to use.”
Then, before Dana Sue could get too comfortable being out of the spotlight, Maddie turned to her. “And you—how many pounds have you lost?”
“None since last time,” Dana Sue confessed, trying to hide her disappointment at the scale’s refusal to budge beyond the five pounds she’d lost fairly quickly. “But speaking of spin, I
am
toning up. Elliott keeps reminding me that muscle weighs more than fat and inches are what count. My chef jackets are getting looser. Pretty soon, they’ll be too big. I’m going to have to take up sewing.”
“Just buy new ones when you need them,” Maddie said. “I remember the disaster you made of that skirt in home ec back in high school. I recommend you not even pick up a needle and thread.”
Dana Sue laughed. “Mrs. Watkins said she’d never seen a more crooked hem, and I never could get the zipper aligned so it would close.”
“My point exactly,” Maddie said. “You need a professional jacket to impress your clientele. You look great, by the way! I imagine Ronnie’s very excited about the new you.”
Dana Sue blushed. “He seemed to like me well enough before.”
“Any talk about what happens next with you two?” Maddie asked, then looked away when Jessica Lynn whimpered in her carrier. Maddie picked the baby up and patted her on the back.
Dana Sue shook her head. “It’s like a twelve-step program in reverse. We’re taking it one day at a time, but instead of trying to live without something, we’re trying to see if we can live
with
each other.”
Helen gave her a penetrating look. “If it’s going all that smoothly, why are you hiding out at Sullivan’s all the time?”
“I own it. I’m not hiding out there,” Dana Sue said, immediately defensive. “I relied on Erik and Karen too much for too long. Now that Annie’s a little better, I need to get back on the job. Besides, Karen seems to keep having little crises with her kids. I know that’s the risk of having a single mom on staff, but her repeated absences are starting to worry me. Erik can’t handle everything on his own, so I really do need to be there.”
Helen shook her head. “Not buying it. I think you’re avoiding Ronnie. What I don’t understand is why.”
“Maybe he’s avoiding me,” Dana Sue said tightly.
“Hold on a sec,” Maddie said, looking from one to the other. “I thought things were working out. The whole town knows you’re back together.” She paused and raised a brow. “Well, except for Mary Vaughn, but she tends to be delusional when she has a man in her sights. As long as Ronnie’s your ex and not your husband, she’ll see him as fair game.”
Helen frowned. “Gee, that must be reassuring for Dana Sue to hear.”
“Sorry,” Maddie said. “But we all know how Mary Vaughn operates. Including Ronnie. I don’t see him falling for it.” She turned back to Dana Sue. “Besides, for a couple of weeks there you and Ronnie were inseparable. What changed?”
Dana Sue blinked back unexpected tears. “I have no idea. All of a sudden it’s all about his new business. He’s at the hardware store for hours and hours every day. Annie’s in there helping him, now that she’s back on her feet. When he’s not painting and cleaning and going through wholesale catalogs, he’s running around with Mary Vaughn.”
Maddie and Helen exchanged a look.
“I knew that’s what this was about,” Maddie said. “You’re jealous. You’re terrified that Mary Vaughn will sink her claws into Ronnie, and instead of protecting your turf, you’re walking away from the fight. Why don’t you just let him move back in?”
“It’s too soon,” Dana Sue said, then sighed. “Besides, that won’t solve anything. Every time I lay eyes on the two of them with their heads together, I lose it. If I’m in the kitchen at Sullivan’s, I don’t see what’s going on.”
“How’s that working for you?” Helen asked. “Are you any less jealous? Any less scared? Hasn’t it occurred to you that if there
was
anything going on between those two, it wouldn’t be happening right under your nose? Ronnie may be a lot of things, but he’s not stupid. After what occurred two years ago, he’s not going to be in your face with some other woman. I may not be his biggest fan, but even I can see this has to be innocent, at least on his part. Besides, you said yourself that Annie’s over there with them. Do you honestly think he’d flaunt a relationship with Mary Vaughn around her?”
“You could have a point,” Dana Sue conceded grudgingly.
“Maybe you should just march over to the hardware store and ask what you can do to help,” Maddie suggested. “Make yourself part of his dream.”
“I don’t know the first thing about hammers and bolts and toilet-repair kits,” she said.
“You could learn,” Maddie said. “I doubt that Mary Vaughn gets all warm and fuzzy at the thought of tools, either. But she obviously gets all turned on by your ex-husband.”
Helen shot a warning look at her. “Not helping,” she said. “Next thing you know Dana Sue will be over there with a carving knife.”
“Believe me, I’ve been tempted,” she admitted.
“What’s held you back, aside from the law?” Helen asked.
“Just like you said, Ronnie has sworn to me that Mary Vaughn means absolutely nothing to him, that she’s just helping him to make some business contacts. I might be white-knuckling it, but I am trying to trust what he says.”
“Trust is all well and good, but I’d want to see the evidence for myself,” Helen said. “I’d be in their faces twenty-four-seven if that’s what it took to reassure myself that those two aren’t collaborating on anything besides business.”
Dana Sue shook her head. “I have to start trusting him sometime or it will never work between us.”
But even as she said the words, she realized that she simply wasn’t there yet. Not wanting to dwell on her insecurities for another second, she turned to Maddie.
“How are you feeling? It looks as if you’ve lost a few pounds of pregnancy weight.”
Maddie shrugged. “It’s very slow going, but I’m trying not to let that discourage me. I keep reminding myself that chasing after a toddler will take off whatever weight I haven’t lost in the meantime.” She held Jessica Lynn up in the air. “This is the only weight-lifting I do, right, baby girl?”
The baby gurgled happily.
“I always thought I’d be chasing after a couple of rug rats by now,” Helen said, her expression surprisingly wistful.
Dana Sue shot an I-told-you-so look at Maddie.
“You’ve never talked about wanting children before,” Maddie stated. “Not in all the years we’ve known you.”
“What was the point?” Helen said. “Everybody knows I’m married to my career. It’s too late now.”
“It most definitely is not too late to have a baby, if you want one,” Maddie told her gently. “Look at me.”
“But you have a man in your life,” Helen responded. “I have a client list in mine.”
“If you want a baby, you can make it happen,” Maddie insisted. “There are lots of options. You could find a willing partner, you could have artificial insemination or you could adopt.”
Helen shook her head. “I always thought I’d do it the old-fashioned way, but time just got away from me.”
Dana Sue could relate to that. She covered Helen’s hand with her own. “Don’t give up yet. The right man could be just around the corner. Your situation’s not like mine. Ronnie and I couldn’t have another baby even if we wanted to. It would be too dangerous.”
“Because of the diabetes,” Maddie said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
“It was always there,” Dana Sue admitted. “Even when I had Annie, there was some concern. My blood sugar spiked then, but they figured it was gestational, and we kept it under control. Now that it’s a real threat, there’s no way I can risk another pregnancy. And with everything else going on—Ronnie’s new business, keeping up with Sullivan’s, keeping an eye on Annie—another baby simply isn’t in the cards.”
She hadn’t realized until just now how much she regretted that. She held out her arms. “Give me a turn with that sweet little thing.” She cradled Jessica Lynn and was carried back sixteen years to when she’d held a freshly bathed and powdered Annie. “God, this brings back memories.”
“My turn,” Helen said, reaching eagerly to take the baby, and cooing at her. Jessica Lynn, her blue eyes wide, gurgled happily back at her, then grabbed for a chunk of Helen’s hair and tugged. Helen patiently extracted the little fist.
“I want this,” she whispered, her face filled with raw emotion. “Why didn’t I know before now just how badly?”
“Because you haven’t let yourself think about anything except your career for years,” Maddie told her. “Now that you’re trying to get some balance into your life and you’ve opened yourself to other possibilities, there it is.”
She reached out and patted Helen’s hand. “Don’t give up. A lot of us had dreams when we were young that we put on the back burner, only to wake up one day and realize it may be too late. I went to college and got a business degree, but it was nothing more than a piece of paper for nearly twenty years while I spent all my time supporting Bill’s career and raising a family.” She gestured around them. “Now, thanks to the two of you, I’m a part of this. It’s not the same as realizing you want a baby, but I get where you’re coming from.”
Helen returned her sympathetic look with a wounded expression. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why weren’t the two of you all over my case before now?”
Dana Sue could barely swallow the laugh that bubbled up. “What would you have done if we’d tried?”
“Which we did, by the way,” Maddie added. “How many men did we try to get you to take more seriously, or at least to go out with more than once?”
Helen sank back in her chair. “I told you to butt out, didn’t I?”
“About a thousand and one times,” she confirmed.
“Sometimes you’re kind of hardheaded,” Dana Sue commented.
“Kind of?” Maddie said.
Helen regarded them with a faint spark of hope in her eyes. “You really think it’s not too late?”
Maddie gave her a wry look. “I just wouldn’t spend the next year doing a pros and cons analysis, the way you usually do. However you decide to approach it, this is a project that needs to be on the front burner, okay? Make an appointment with Doc Marshall.”
Helen looked horrified. “I can’t talk to him about this. He’s still freaked about my blood pressure. He’ll just tell me no.”
“If that’s an issue, any other doctor will tell you the same thing,” Dana Sue said reasonably.
Helen’s jaw set determinedly. “I’ll consult a high-risk-pregnancy specialist,” she said at once, handing Jessica Lynn off to Maddie. She dragged out her day planner and jotted down a note. “I’ll do it as soon as I get to the office.”
“Do you actually
know
a high-risk-pregnancy specialist?” Maddie inquired tactfully.
“No, but I can find one. In case you haven’t heard, research is one of my specialties.”
Dana Sue grinned at Maddie. “She’ll know the medical malpractice records of every ob-gyn in the state by noon.”
“And have references on the rest by midafternoon,” Maddie added.
“Mock me if you must,” Helen said, taking a final sip of her iced tea. “I can still tell it’s decaf,” she said, making a face, then sighing. “Remind me tomorrow that I’m giving up caffeine completely, even the one cup of coffee I’ve been allowing myself in the morning. It’s probably not good for babies, right?”
“You could be getting a little ahead of yourself,” Dana Sue said, but at Helen’s daunting look, she held up a hand. “No more caffeine. Got it. It’s not good for you in any case.”
After Helen had breezed out of the spa like a woman on a mission, Dana Sue exchanged a glance with Maddie. “Do you think she’s really serious about this?”
“I think she hit the biological clock panic button this morning,” Maddie said, a worried frown on her face. “Knowing Helen, the alarm will keep going off till she’s solved the problem to her satisfaction.”
“And that means taking a bouncing baby home from the hospital,” Dana Sue concluded.
“Seems that way to me.”
“Maybe we should remind her that a few weeks ago all she could talk about was going on a wild shopping spree in Paris,” Dana Sue suggested.
“I think maybe we just need to stand by and support her in whatever she decides,” Maddie said. “That’s what she’s done for us.”
Dana Sue nodded. “You have a point, but I keep envisioning a two-year-old with a briefcase in one hand and a cell phone in the other.”
The disconcerting image made both of them smile.