To Begin Anew (Blue Jay Romance) (17 page)

Eric loosened the tie at his neck as he sat down next to Debra, and as he kicked off his dress shoes, he sat back on the couch and sighed, feeling exhausted in the kind of way one does when they’re content.

Debra, happy that she thought to stop back at her place to get some more comfortable clothes on, pulled her legs up to her chest as she smiled at Eric’s tired expression. At this moment, he looked too boyish to be a man. Of course, that was only when his eyes were closed.

“What did David drop into the collection basket?”

Debra blinked. “He had something special he wanted to put in there. If I told you, he would be upset, I think.” She frowned, “Kids are like that. Imaginative like that. He gave what he thought was the best thing he had to give. They didn’t want you to know - maybe because you might have stopped them.”

Eric sighed. “They’ve been distant with me, I‘ve noticed. That, and I couldn’t figure out why they were so desperate to be in church.” He paused, exhaling slowly, his voice taking on a nostalgic tone, “I never used to mind it - the never telling me secrets thing. Not when I could watch them talking with their mother, whispering and giggling with her and that smile of hers would crack her face.” He chuckled, “They loved to conspire against me, I think.”

Debra shook her head. “I don’t think they’re being distant, not in the way you think.” She looked at Eric, stared directly into his eyes. She continued, “They tell me a lot of things, but the one thing I know for certain is that those boys love you.” She smiled to herself as Eric’s lips twitched. She added, “They want you to be happy.”

Eric let his head roll so that he was facing Debra, and he took her hand in his. “I
am
happy. It’s weird that it could happen so fast, but maybe sometimes the best things happen to us like that.” Eric gave Debra’s had a squeeze. “When I met you, I thought you were the quirkiest person I’d ever run into and even before I knew who you were, I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

Debra gave Eric’s hand a last squeeze herself before she took her hand back and folded her arms around a pillow. She could relax better when she wasn’t so distracted by Eric and the feel of his warm hand in hers. She said, “I tend to have that effect of people.”

Eric noticed, and had been noticing, that Debra - while she seemed to reciprocate the beginnings of their mild physical relationship - would pull away after only a moment or two and seem as if she were trying to shield herself from something awful. His mind begged him to ask the questions that were burning in him to ask, but he didn’t know if they were at a point in their relationship that he could ask those types of personal questions. What if he prodded too much? What if his questions pushed her away from him?

Eric thought that now was the perfect time to tell Debra about the run in with Julia he’d had at work, about the rumors that were flying around about him and what trouble that might bring to them both, but the moment was so calm and perfect that he didn’t have the heart to disturb it.

Debra exhaled, thinking that it was the nicest thing in the world to just sit and loaf around with someone you were beginning to care about and say nothing at all and know that was just the right thing to do. Except, she did have something to talk with him about.

Debra began, “There’s a state fair coming to the next town over, and I sorta promised the boys I’d take them if they were good in school.”

Eric shook his head and chuckled. “If they put their minds to better use, they could be President together at the same time. Those boys are dangerous, you know that?”

Debra shrugged. “I love to go every year myself and I can’t help but think how much fun it’ll be now that I have those two to share it with. I didn’t realize how much they’ve wormed themselves into my heart before now, but there it is. I love those monkeys.”

Eric smiled, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes. He desperately wanted to know if Debra loved him too, since he knew in his soul - without a doubt - that he loved her.

Eric felt desperate, felt as if he were swimming in a vat of glue and struggling to keep his head from being sucked under. He supposed the feeling was coming from the fact that it had been nearly three weeks since the thundering realization he’d had on the couch. It had been nearly a month of frustrated bliss with Debra, of sneaking kisses when the boys weren’t looking, of small talk that really wasn’t talk at all, and all the while knowing that he loved a woman who seemed about as clueless as a fish on a hook.

He could muse over things like this while his children were occupied, and now was as perfect a time as any, since the pair of them were busy getting ready for their day trip to Gilded Creek, where they were going to spend the entire time at the only fair that hit the area each year.

Eric had to admit that he was looking forward to the excursion himself, since it was the first time in a long time that he’d done anything with the boys that felt like spending time with his family as a whole. He knew that the person who was responsible for making all this possible was Debra, that when she’d become a part of his life and his children’s lives, that she was the last stitch in the healing fabric that wove them all together.

“We’re ready!” Danny yelled from down the hall.

Eric had to smile at him as he ran through the house, even if it was against the house rules to do so, since he could see all the wonderful changes that had occurred in him over the past month.

Danny spoke more - in fact, often times more than his eager brother - and he smiled more, always talking about how much fun he had with Miss Brown in the afternoons, about what his day was like in school. Any one with eyes to see it could tell that the child was responding well to having a constant feminine influence in his life. Also, anyone with eyes could know that to lose such an influence would be to the detriment of Danny altogether.

When Debra told him that she wanted to stay on as the boys’ nanny, he’d wondered at the wisdom in it, but as he saw how much his kids loved her, how much they needed her, he understood the reasoning behind it. Debra was his girlfriend, but she was so much more than that. Especially to the twins.

Eric looked to Danny as he watched the boy tie his shoes. “Where’s your brother?”

“He’s hunting for his sneakers, Daddy,” Danny said.

Eric looked down the hall, didn’t hear a thing, and wondered just what in the world was taking his son so long. He’d told Debra they’d be at her house to pick her up by ten, and as he took note of the clock, it was bordering ten-thirty as it was.

“You stay here while I go wrangle your brother, okay? Eric said to Danny, who was nodding as he cinched the last loop on his left foot.

Eric was down the hall and peeking his head in through his sons’ bedroom door in the time it would take a angel to beat it’s wings twice and as he opened his mouth to ask what the hold up was, his eyes took in David whispering to himself as he knelt in front of his bed. Eric had to strain to hear what David was saying, but when he did, he was speechless.

“I know You have things You need to do that takes lots of time, but if You could really make my wish come true, I’d be so, so happy. Please, please find my Daddy a Mommy so he can be happy again.”

~*~*~

Debra swished through her house as if she was one of those big rubbery brushes in a car wash, stopping only to nag at her sister and push her out of the way. She didn’t want to leave the house a wreck while she was away having fun - somehow the idea of it rankled in her thoughts - and she knew that leaving her sister and the baby alone in her house for as long as she was planning to, when she came back she would have to do it all over again. The difference was that she would know it was Nikki’s doing, and she’d be able to get the girl working like a stock horse pulling a hay wagon.

As she finished cleaning the house, getting dressed and putting a lunch together for Eric, the boys and herself, she found Nikki and made sure she had her attention before she began speaking. Nikki looked at her as if she were a cow in the middle of the road being poked at to move out of the way.

“Nik, I’m trusting you with a lot here, so please make sure you don’t do anything reckless while I’m gone, okay?”

Nikki sighed. “Come on, you’re only going to be gone until tonight, and even given that, what do you think is gonna happen? I don’t have any special plans to burn the house down.” Her sarcasm wasn’t warranted, Debra thought, but that’s the way Nikki had taken to communicating in the last few years.

Debra eyed her sister. “Just make sure you do what you need to do. I made up some bottles for Annie - they’re in the fridge. All you have to do is heat them up, got it? There’s emergency numbers on a notepad by the telephone. I left Eric’s cell phone number there too, but only call it if there’s a real emergency or if you can’t find something you desperately need.”

Nikki waved her hand. “Yeah, I got it. Don’t mess up the house, look after the kid, blah, blah, blah.” She picked up the remote to the television and flipped through a few channels before she settled on a talk show. Without looking, she reached out to a bowl in front of her, and grabbed a handful of dry cereal which she then proceeded to shovel into her mouth.

Debra rolled her eyes at her sister, but felt satisfied at least that Nikki wasn’t going to do anything drastic while she was away. She was somewhat confident due to her sister’s continued improvement towards taking care of Annie, that the baby was safe with just Nikki around to look after her. What life was like with Robert was anyone’s guess, since the near month Nikki had been with her, Debra knew she’d plucked at least ten grey hairs. What Nikki was thinking and the true nature of her problem was anyone’s guess as well.

Debra was glad that she’d gotten dressed before she gave her sister a talking to, and glad that the housework was done, since as soon as she took a moment to sip some coffee and grab a couple muffins, Eric was honking his sedan’s horn from the driveway.

“See you later, Nikki!” she called out as she almost literally flew toward the front door.

Debra was certain her sister muttered something underneath her breath as she made her way through the door, but it didn’t matter to her. As soon as she saw Eric’s grin as large as the Cheshire Cat’s along with the twins’ bright faces, her spirits soared into outer space.

~*~*~

“Wow! Look at that!”

Eric smiled brightly at his oldest son, watching as he tugged on his brother’s shirt.

“Look at the Ferris wheel! There’s so many people!”

Eric chuckled at Danny, noting the way his round eyes looked as if they were bulging out of his face. They had been to plenty of public events, but for some reason, the feel of this particular fair had something all of its own attached to it. He supposed it was because the fair was important to so many locals, and when something like this was funded by people who truly cared about it, then it was even more spectacular.

He let his eyes roam the crowd, thinking that looking for one person in particular in a sea full of people was like sitting down in front of that famous haystack to find the infamous needle.

“I think we should have brought leashes. There’s so many people here - what if they run off and we lose them?”

Eric directed his eyes to Debra, giving a moment’s thought to what she’d said. He was worried about the same thing, but David and Danny were good about staying put and not walking off to explore their curiosity. He’d lost them once, a long time ago, but that was a different story. He’d thought Tina had taken the boys in their carrier to the car, only to realize that she’d thought he’d done the same thing. It took him all of five minutes to make the connection that he’d left his infants at the mall.

“That’s a fun idea,” Eric replied, “but I think they’ll be fine. Once my mother gets here, we’ll have three sets of eyes to keep track of them with.”

Debra winced at the mention of Eric’s mother. He’d neglected to tell her about it until they were in the car and on the way to the fair and honestly, she should have guessed that Eric would have invited her along. After all, they were so close to where she lived.

She winced for another reason altogether, but voicing that reason - even in her mind - caused a spike of pain to pierce straight through her. There was a large part of her - she wasn’t certain how large - that envied the fact that Eric had his mother to invite anywhere. Debra could not remember a time she’d been with her mother to the fair.

All right girl, get a grip on yourself
, Debra forced her brain to say to herself. She was here to have a good time, to enjoy the pleasant afternoon and eat herself sick with cotton candy and funnel cake. She only hoped that her thoughts didn’t show on her face.