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The Tessarae Inn |
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Dreams In Amber Refrains
PART I EVANESCENCE OF SUNSHINE
CHAPTER 1 Blair stared out at the water that really was at least five shades of blue as the ocean stretched out to meet the horizon. The air was warm and fragrant with the sweet smell of flowers and the beach just beyond the house was filled with sand so white that it was almost blinding. She filled her lungs and tried to exhale all of her worries. Everything in her world was fine. Fine. Maybe that’s what was putting her slightly on edge. Although there had been highs in her life before, this experience was turning out to be so exquisitely sensual, so nurturing to her soul and so emotionally sweet that she didn’t have a way to classify it. “Blair, come on back to bed. I miss you.” When she glanced over at Todd, he took her breath away as usual. He hated being reminded of how gorgeous he was but that was simply a fact. After several days in the sun, his skin shimmered with a golden glow and his hair was streaked with tiny amber hints of the sun. Just looking at him made her tremble with the memory of what it felt like when he touched her and the possibility of what was still to come. “Blair? Are you coming or what?” They needed to rename this island Aphrodisiac. Ever since they stepped off the plane, he had been insatiable. It was as if he finally felt free to make up for all the time they were apart. And she was not complaining. She smiled and walked slowly to the bed. “I guess it is kind of hard to have a honeymoon alone.” He watched her with half-closed eyes that couldn’t hide what he was thinking. “Near impossible. And I don’t intend to waste even one minute. I want you as close to me as possible all the time.” “What has gotten into you?” “Remember that this is our honeymoon times three.” Blair laughed then slipped under the covers. She laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes as he circled her with his arms and moved his body to perfectly align with hers. “The children are fine, Blair. They are living with tighter security than the president. They just don’t know it.” “Do you think I will ever get rid of this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach? It’s been months.” “Yes.” “How can you be so sure?” “Because we’re together and we have gotten through worse. Because I love you. And you love me. And that’s nothing short of a miracle. So I’m a believer. ” Blair stared at the ceiling for a moment as she took a deep breath. “Do you ever get scared of how much you feel when we’re together? Seriously scared?” “Not anymore. Loving you used to scare me to death. I was scared of what you made me feel. I was scared of loving you then losing you. I was scared that you wouldn’t love me. I was scared that you were this gift that I couldn’t keep. But the fear didn’t count because when the worst did happen it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was the time I spent loving you.” She stretched her body along his so she could look him in the eye. “I love you too. And this has been as close to perfect as anything I ever dreamed of. I’ve never felt more loved and more cherished than I have for the last week.” He smiled at her as his gaze drifted along the outline of her face. “You are loved and cherished and I’m going to make sure you never forget that again.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She exhaled slowly as she opened her eyes. “No one would believe that you talk to me like this.” “I don’t care what they believe. I care about you and what you believe. The rest of the world be damned. No one knows what’s between us. Never have.” She moved down and laid her head on his chest again. “It’s as if we came through a really, really bad storm and finally we are on the other side of it. I feel the way I did in the beginning when everything seemed possible because I knew you loved me.” “Anything is possible if you’re with me.” She moved her hand along his chest and let her fingers weave in and out of the silky hair. She could feel the rhythm of his breathing change and feel the rippling tension of his muscles. She moved her hands slowly along his thighs and heard a sharp intake of breath. She smiled up at him. “I think I’m going to sleep for a little while.” She felt the pitch of his breathing change. “In about twenty minutes maybe thirty or forty minutes,” he said in a deep rumbling voice that he seemed barely able to control. “And stop teasing me. You know I don’t like to be teased.” She laughed. “Yes you do. You love it.” He rolled over and pined her under him. She tried to pretend to resist but her body had a will of its own and thrust upward to meet him. ========== Starr stared at the framed picture of CC, Clay Cutter, and wondered if all babies were such lumps of clay. It had taken Jack months and months to get interesting. She had just thought it was Jack but now she saw that most babies were like that. She walked over to the large window that looked out on the north pasture and smiled. She knew for a fact that her mommy and daddy were not having as much fun on that island as she was having here. She loved the ranch and Emily and Sheri and Wes and even CC wasn’t too bad, especially since he stayed in town most of the time. Jack stayed with Sheri and Wes a lot so that left she and Emily together most of the time. Emily made her work. She cleaned stalls and collected eggs and fed the pigs. It was so much fun but mostly she loved riding with Emily. Sometimes they went out early in the morning so they could see the sun rise over the ridge. Then on the best days they’d go into town and eat at the diner. Maddog treated her like royalty and Dottie made her a special embroidered jeans. She missed Jason, Susie and Jeremy but it was only for a few more days. Starr took a deep breath then turned toward Emily who standing a few feet away. “Is it okay with you if I call you Nana Em like Aunt Sheri is trying to get CC to say?” “Would make things simpler wouldn’t it.” “Yep,” said Starr and grinned. When Emily pulled her close, Starr wrapped her arms around her waist and sighed. She was happy here and safe. She felt really safe. Emily…Nana Em would never let anyone hurt her. Never. “Get your jacket, Constellation. We’re going to let Maddog feed us this morning.” Starr whopped and laughed at Emily’s joke at the same time. Emily told her once that she was too much to be a single star that she was at least a whole constellation. Starr had pancakes and bacon for breakfast and Emily let her sneak a sip of coffee. When she saw Claire dart into the diner her morning was complete. She waved at her and Claire scurried over. “I was scared I missed you,” said Claire in that breathless way she had of talking. She had her thick black hair in a single braid and had jammed her chubby body into a pair of overalls that had been worn too many times already. But that was just Claire. Starr sighed loudly as she made an overt gesture of studying her. Claire was a project and a half. “What happened to your new jeans?” Claire looked down at her body for a second then shrugged. “I just grabbed the first thing I could find.” Starr was about to explain what was wrong with that when Belle Hastings loomed up behind Claire like a giant strawberry—scarlet red hair, a red pantsuit with white accents and a honest to God cape attached at the shoulders, green in color. “Goodmorning, Emily…Starr,” said Belle Hastings in her usual melodramatic but surprisingly quiet voice. Mrs. Hastings taught drama at the high school and she always talked with an exclamation mark at the end of her sentences as if everything was some shocking new development in her life opera. “Starr, guess what?” said Claire pushing into the booth next to her. “Mrs. Hastings is going to….has started a Children’s Theatre! And…and…and we are going to put on a play in a few weeks…a PLAY! Cinderella!!!!!!!!” “How nice, Belle” said Emily looking up at her. “What a treat for the whole town.” Belle nodded then bent slightly at the waist and made a sweeping gesture with her right hand. Starr had always sensed that Emily didn’t like Mrs. Hastings but she couldn’t figure out why. Mrs. Hastings was pretty neat and now there was this play thing. Suddenly her heart sank as she realized that she would be long gone before the play’s opening night. Maybe she could come back to see it. Getting her mommy to come would be easy but her daddy would take some persuading, yet he had been pretty happy lately, so maybe he'd be easy too. “I’m sorry that you will not be here for the entire production, Starr, but you are welcome to join us for as long as you can. What part would you like to have played if you were here longer?” “The Wicked Stepmother and I’d have her keep pet spiders.” Belle threw her head back and waved her hand then laughed dramatically. “I should have guessed that. You are such a superbly creative child. Probably get that from your mother.” Starr beamed at the compliment. “The spiders would be a nice touch, I will admit,” continued Belle. “Are you interested in joining us during the few days you have left here?” Starr glanced at Emily. She didn’t want to do anything that would upset her. If Emily didn’t like Mrs. Hastings then she didn’t like Mrs. Hastings either but she really liked the idea of the play. Emily shrugged and winked at her. “Well, I guess I could do that,” said Starr slowly. She didn’t want any of them to know how excited she was. “I do have good ideas and stuff.” “Yes, you do,” said Belle. “Glad you’ve agreed to join us.” She turned suddenly and smiled. “Oh, look, here comes our Prince Charming.” Starr and Claire flipped around in unison and both looked over the top of the booth just in time to see Lance Thorpe stroll to the counter. Starr’s heart went thump but it was Claire who summed everything up when she said in a stage whisper, “He’s so totally cute.” ============ “What do you want to do tonight?” asked Todd as he finished off the last bit of crab leg. “You mean you’re interested in something other than going back to bed?” “Not really but I figured you want to be able to tell Viki and them we went somewhere other than that bungalow and one seedy beach bar. So you have a half-hour to do something else.” “Anything else?” “Within reason. See, I’ve learned about blanket agreements.” Blair smiled at him. He leaned toward her. “Want to walk down to Mallory Square and watch the sunset with the rest of the town?” “I want to stay here and dance with you.” “Nope.” “That’s reasonable.” “No, it’s not. I don’t want to be that close to you swaying and such in front of a room full of people. There’s no telling what will happen.” Blair glanced around the sparsely populated restaurant bar. “You can control yourself for a few minutes, can’t you?” “I don’t know, Babe. This is my body pressed against yours with music in the background and no children around. Asking a lot of me but if that’s what you want. I’ll give it a shot.” “Thank you.” “No problem. This is the cherish part. Get it? I’ll do anything for you, Babe.” “Within reason.” “Exactly.” It always surprised her what a good dancer Todd was. She knew it wasn’t one of his favorite activities but being in his arms moving in rhythm to music that seemed to encircle them in a womb of intimate connection was sure one of her top five. When the music was just right and she could hear his heart beat, it felt as if nothing else existed in the world but the two of them and the music. Still Todd had his limits so at exactly the thirty minutes mark she was surprised when he went to the jukebox and selected another song. “This one is for you,” he said as he made a dramatic gesture of sweeping her into his arms. He pressed her close to him then circled her waist with his arms so that she folded her arms behind his neck. She didn’t care what the song was. What mattered was that he played it for her and she was in his arms but when she heard the first notes of the song and Luther’s voice she felt her heart surge. He played this song for her before but now he was bearing his heart for everyone to see—he loved her and he wanted everyone in that room to know it. She kissed him. She couldn’t help herself even though she knew that he didn’t like public displays of affection. He didn’t pull back but instead returned her kiss then held her tighter as the music drifted over them like a whispered promise. “Love has truly been good to me,” sang Luther. “….miracles are happening everyday. I hope you know I’d gladly go anywhere you’d take me. It’s so amazing to be loved, I’ll follow you to the moon and the sky above.” “I love you,” whispered Todd. A shiver swept down Blair’s spine and her knees buckled slightly. What was the possibility of them ending up here like this? There had been so much pain and ugliness between them only months ago. How could she trust what was happening? How could she not? “Got to tell you how you thrill me,” sang Luther. “…happy as I can be…You have come and changed my whole life. Bye-bye sadness…it’s wonderful…I could stay forever…here in love forever and leave you never because we’ve got amazing love.” When the song ended Blair grabbed Todd’s hand and led him toward the door. It was time to go back to the bungalow. She needed to make love to him in the worst way. He smirked at her. Okay, he knew what she was thinking. She had less control than he did but self-control was really overrated. “Ya’ll come back, hear?” called the bartender. “Need to remind these cynical hearts around here what love looks like.” And in that instant all of Blair’s lingering fears evaporated. Someone suggesting that she and Todd show cynics what love looked like! Maybe life had extracted every last ounce of payment it could demand for any sins they had committed. Obviously she and Todd now had a balance in the bank. Enough to live the rest of their lives in love, in peace, in sheer happiness and in… Blair would never know if she saw her first or if Todd did but they both stopped simultaneously. She was sitting at a far table to the right. Her drink had a huge pineapple chunk in it and there were three umbrellas and a bright red straw. Her hair, an endless mass of curls, hung well past her shoulders and was free of any restraint. She was dressed in a simple white sundress with small roses embroidered on it and her shoulders were partially covered by a delicate pink shawl. When she looked up and saw them her eyes widened and she blinked then a slow, lovely smile drifted across her face. She bent her head slightly as if ashamed of the pleasure she was experiencing at seeing them…them…him…the pleasure she was experiencing at seeing him. Todd moved toward her but then stopped when he realized his hand was still entwined with hers. Blair swallowed and released his hand then reminded herself that a lot had happened in the intervening years. He had been married several times, had two children and a current wife, who he loved…but here once again was the catalyst, the Helen who launched a thousand ships, and she looked as beautiful and innocent as ever. Life sure had a funny sense of humor and really bad timing.
Chapter 2 Dreams In Amber Refrains FAN FICTION
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