The Stern and Wild Ones (The Seeker Series) (14 page)

I watched Jack sink down in his chair and put his head in his hands. It completely floored me to see a tear
slip down his cheek. He wiped it away quickly and stood to shake his lawyer's hand. Then he turned toward me. I was in his arms in seconds, not caring who was watching or who was in my way.  He just held me as we rocked gently. "It's over," was all he said. I could only nod. We realized we couldn't stay like that, not with his family waiting. "Come on," he said and wrapped my hand tightly in his as we turned to greet his jubilant family.

Shelley gave us both a hug, her eyes streaming. "Damn contacts," she said as she turned away to wipe her face.

"Jack," Manny approached with a cellphone outstretched. "Trina wants to talk to you."

He took the phone with a smile. "Hey, Trina. Yeah, I am, thanks. Um, yeah she is. Wait, I'll ask her." He took the phone away from his ear and looked at me. "She wants you to come to dinner. It's more of a command than an invitation." I could hear Trina squawking from the phone, "It is not!"

I laughed, "Of course I'll come. Tell her thanks."

He picked up the phone again. "Let me talk to Megan, please." I squeezed his hand as I listened to him. "Yeah, mija. I'm done. No more probation. I love you, too." Another tear began to slide down his cheek. I reached up to wipe it away quickly before anyone could see. "See you in little while. Yes, I'm bringing her. Of course I'm bringing her," he smiled down at me.

Jack's extended family finally cleared the courtroom and began to disperse, heading to what was beginning to sound like quite the celebration at Manny and Trina's.

Jack loosened his tie as we walked to his car amidst the congratulatory well wishes of his relatives. I was dying for just a few minutes of alone time with him and heartily wished them all to a very far-off island. We finally reached his car, parked on a different level of the downtown parking garage, and found a blessed moment of solitude. I waited for him to open my door for me, as I had
begun to become accustomed, but instead he turned me around and backed me against the side of his car, gently taking my face in his hands.

He looked intently into my eyes. "After everything you heard about what I've done, do you still want to be with me? I swear that part of my life is over, Ally, but I can't change what I did and I can't make myself any younger. I'm still two years older than you."

"Yes," I whispered. "I still want to be with you, Jack."

"Ok, then no more pretending," he whispered back. And then he was kissing me. He was kissing me with all the pent-up feelings of these last few weeks and I was kissing him back with every bit of longing and love I could possibly put into a kiss. Our lips moved against each other, our mouths opened and his tongue
slipped into my mouth. I met him stroke for stroke, loving the taste, the feel of him. I couldn't get close enough.
Finally, finally,
my heart was beating against his. My hands were in his hair and his were making a wreck of my cheerleading ponytail. "God, Ally," his forehead rested against mine as we finally broke for breath. "Do you have any idea how long I have wanted, needed to do that? I don't want to be 'just friends'."

I put my hands on each of his cheeks and looked as deeply into his beautiful almost-black eyes as I could. "Neither do I," and I kissed him again. This kiss was as soft and sacred as the last was frantic and frenzied. It was a promise, almost a vow
, and I felt the last part of my heart click into place. We belonged together and I felt like so much of my life had been building up to this moment. We broke apart and I said against his lips, "Let's go. Your family's waiting."

****

I convinced Jack to swing by my house so I could change out of my cheerleading uniform and into regular clothes before meeting his family.

"You look fine, querida. You've already met most of them, anyway."

"Not as your girlfriend, Jack." I hesitated, unsure if I had assumed too much. "I mean, if that's what you..."

He laughed briefly and took my hand in his as he drove. "Of course you're my girlfriend, Ally. If that's what you want to be, I mean."

"Yeah, I do," I whispered. We just looked at each other and smiled.

No one was ho
me yet when we got to my house so I told Jack I needed about 15 minutes and left him on the couch with my cat. I rushed upstairs to change into one of the outfits Tara had helped me choose. As I looked through my closet, I pulled out the muted teal ruched t-shirt dress she had found for me on sale at Anthropology. Did I have the guts to wear the clingy jersey dress? Would Jack like it? Was it too much? I compromised by pairing it with black capri leggings so as not to look like I was trying too hard and added a sweater shrug since it was chilly outside.  I brushed out my hair and removed the glitter from my eyes, trying to replicate the subtler 'smokey-eye' look that the magicians at Sephora had created. I wanted to look sophisticated for him, yet appropriate for his family. I added a long necklace and then headed downstairs to Jack.

He had removed his suit coat,
loosened his tie, and rolled up his sleeves. Wicky was purring on his chest as Jack rubbed his ears. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, hesitant, unsure of myself. He looked up, saw me, and put Wicky aside to stand up and walk over to me, never breaking eye contact with me.

"My God, Ally. You are so beautiful." Then I was in his arms and we were kissing
again. Our height difference made it somewhat challenging, with Jack having to bend down quite a way, but we managed just fine. I would never get tired of this.

When we paused to take a breath, I asked, "What does 'querida' mean? You called me that in the car."

He leaned back in to kiss along my jaw line, making my eyes flutter closed in pleasure. "It means ‘darling’ in English," he captured my earlobe gently between his teeth, which sent shivers all through me. "Is it ok to call you that?"

"To call me what?" I had completely lost track of what we were discussing. Why were we discussing anything? This was definitely
not
the time for talking. I felt him smile against my face and then his lips were back on mine, his tongue seeking entrance to the warm depths of my mouth.

We were so
absorbed in each other that we didn't hear the door open. My mother clearing her throat finally penetrated and we broke apart, Jack still keeping his arm around me. In all the weeks we had been hanging out together, Jack and my mother had yet to meet. This was probably not the exact way I had pictured that meeting.

"Ally?" She just stood there with her eyebrows raised, holding a bag of groceries.

"Hey, Mom," I resisted the urge to wipe my lips. "Um, well, this is Jack. My, um, my b-boyfriend," I ended weakly.

"Ma'am, it's a pleasure to meet you," Jack held out his hand to her. She held her hand out automatically.

"Jack? Well, yes. It's a, um...a pleasure to meet you, too." How did one act in these circumstances, when one has walked in on one's daughter in an intense lip-lock with guy? Awkward doesn't begin to cover it.

"So, we're going to Jack's house. His
aunt is having a party for Jack," I attempted to fill the silence.

"Oh, what's the occasion?" My mother wanted to know.

Well, this just kept getting more awkward. "So, he's no longer on probation. Um, his aunt is having the whole family over. You know, to celebrate." It sounded so lame, saying it aloud.

"Oh, congratulations, Jack. Well, have a good time. Be home by curfew." We had never even discussed a curfew. It had never been necessary before.

“Yes, ma'am. Of course I'll have her home by then," Jack said.

"Yeah, mom. Of course we will," I didn't even know what time this supposed curfew was. "Let's go, Jack."

We got in his car and just sat for a moment, both of us still in shock or something. Then we looked at each other and slowly smiled. Then we started laughing.

"So," said Jack still chuckling. "Do I know how to make a great first impression, or what? Please tell me my hands were not all over your rear end."

"I think they were fine. She was probably paying more attention to the fact that your tongue was in my mouth. That was incredibly awkward.”

“
So, what time is your curfew? I don’t want any more black marks against me.”

“
I have no idea. I’ve never had need for a curfew before. I think she was as flustered as us and just made that up on the spot.”

****

The spread of food waiting for us at Trina and Manny's was impressive; it looked like everyone had brought something. This was no last-minute, thrown together party. They knew, like I did, that Jack would be finished with his probation today. There were many more friends and relatives here than had gone to his hearing, so Jack took me around, introducing me as his girlfriend, which thrilled me every time he said it. I had just met a Mrs. Flores, a long-time friend of the family, when Shelley approached, holding a baby in her arms who looked to be somewhere between 1-2 years old.

"Hey, Ally. You look fantastic tonight, by the way. Where did you get that dress? This is my son, Nathan. Can you say hi to Ally, son?" The little boy hid his face in Shelley's neck.

Jack turned from talking to Mrs. Flores. "Hey, little man," he addressed the baby, who looked up from his hiding place and stretched out his arms to Jack. Jack took him from Shelley and began tickling him, which Nathan apparently loved, judging by his giggles.

Shelley smiled at them fondly and put her arm around my shoulders, leading me away. "So, it's official now, huh? You guys are going out? I heard Jack introducing you as his girlfriend."

"Yeah. I guess so." I wondered where she was going with this.

"Well, it's about damn time. I never thought he'd grow the cajones to ask you out." She stopped and turned to me, serious for a moment. "I'm glad, Ally. You're good for him. He's been happier since that day you showed up at the shop. He even smiles once in a while. Come on, while I have a break from my son, let's get some food."

About an hour and a half into the party, after managing to eat part of a plate of food and visiting with more relatives than I could ever imagine, I found myself looking around for Jack. He was nowhere to be found.

When I asked Trina, she said, "I think he just needed some time alone. This has been a big day for him. I think he went up to his room. He probably fell asleep. Poor boy hasn't been sleeping well for weeks. Why don't you go see if you can wake him up?" As I began to walk away, she touched my arm and said with a knowing look, "Don't be too long." Well, that's not embarrassing. I flushed as I went to find Jack.

I opened his bedroom door carefully and found him lying on his back on his bed, his arm over his eyes. I stood looking around his room, this place where he slept, studied, and dreamed. Of me? Maybe. It was exceptionally neat, filled with mismatched, obviously hand-me-down furniture. A bookshelf overflowed with well-worn paperbacks, a mix of bestsellers and classics, evidence of how well read he was. He seemed to favor thrillers and spy novels. His suit jacket was folded neatly over the back of a desk chair, his tie draped over it.

"I'm awake," he said quietly.

I quietly shut the door behind me and tiptoed over to the bed. I crawled up beside him and laid my head on his chest. "Are you ok?"

He put his arm around me. "Yeah. It just got a little overwhelming down there. They mean well, but..."

We just lay there for a few minutes silently before I raised my head to look at him. I smiled into his eyes and then we were kissing again, not as frantically or as intensely as earlier, but rather lazily, like we had all the time in the world. I could just lose myself in his kisses. We broke apart and just smiled at each other again.

“God, Ally. I am so happy right now. I can’t believe that you’re here with me like this, that you want to be with me.”

“I love being with you like this.” I said as I kissed him again. "I never knew kisses could be so different," I whispered.

"Am I the first guy you've ever kissed, Ally?" he asked, gently pushing my hair behind my ear.

"No, the second," I admitted.

"Who was the first? I probably need to kill him tomorrow."

I laughed softly, "I don't want you to kill Travis."

"Travis!" he exclaimed, sitting up. "The Travis that eats lunch with us? The guy is gay! Why
the hell were you kissing him?"

"Well, apparently kissing me helped him decide to switch teams."

Jack called him a name I will not repeat here. "Well, his incredible idiocy is my gain. I can't believe that guy had you in his arms and ever let you go."  He lay back down. We just held each other, not kissing, but just being together. After a while, Jack stirred and said, "We better go back down. I wouldn't want my aunt to walk in on us. That would be awkward."

"Been there, done that. Don't worry. I locked the door." I began kissing him again.

He kissed me back for too brief a time and then pulled back, saying, "Jesus, Ally. Don't tell me stuff like that. I don't have the willpower tonight to stop myself." He kissed me again. Then he rolled back onto his back, laughing ruefully. "And apparently I'm too exhausted to do anything about it."