Taylor was on his knees sweeping the papers into a pile with his hands, but he stopped and looked up to see what she was referring to. When he saw what it was, he sat back with his hands casually on his legs. “It’s our house.”
“When did you finish it?”
“Last night, after you fell asleep.”
She walked over to him and sat down on the sturdy coffee table. “Will you take me through it?”
He took the papers from the floor and stood up with a grin. “Yeah. I’d like your thoughts and suggestions.” They walked to the drafting table and he set the other drawings aside, then centered the blueprint he took from her hands. “I have a bigger one.” He eyed her suddenly feeling a bit shy on the subject.
“Yes, I want to see every detail. Get the big boy out.”
“Are we still talking blueprints?”
She knocked him on the arm. “Silly, horny man.”
While laughing, he pulled out the rolled-up, tube-shaped plans from a holder next to his desk, flattened them and clipped the corners down. “Where do you want to start?”
“At the front door.” Jude settled into his lap and with his arms wrapped around her, he walked her through the entire design. The house included the extra large closet he promised her, the large tub—just for them, and a built-in window seat in the library for her to sit and daydream or curl up with a book.
They sat there for over an hour, the time slipping away, as they planned their future. For dinner, they went out. In a little Italian restaurant a few blocks from the apartment and after a bottle of Chianti, Taylor asked, “Where were you going to live in California?”
Jude was surprised by the question, only having spoken of it one time in what seemed like another life. “Somewhere in Los Angeles, anywhere we could afford, I guess. Since Ryan wanted us out of New York and he couldn’t attend NYU, he wanted to go to USC. But he only got an academic scholarship to cover one year. And it’s not like I could live in his dorm.”
“If you could live anywhere, where would you live?” He picked at the noodles in front of him much more interested in her answer than the pasta.
“Anywhere but here.” Sadness overcame her and he reached across the table to hold her hand. She looked up, her eyes meeting his, and said, “I love what’s us about New York. I hate what’s them, which is a lot. Even if they are locked away in upstate New York for what is considered a white-collar crime, too many reminders remain, my memories threaded together with a past I want to forget.”
“So if you could live anywhere, it would be the opposite of here?”
“I want to live near the ocean. If I could live anywhere, I’d live perched above the water and walk the beach every evening with you.”
Taylor loved that she saw their futures entwined. For him, it was from the moment he met her. “We should move to California.”
Her eyes went wide, this time in a good way. With a gentle smile, she squeezed his hand. “You’re more New York than California, Hazel.”
“I would be California for you.”
It was that moment, that moment right after the other 6,385,629 moments they had shared that defined their future and also defined them.
THE LOS ANGELES Dodgers were down in the third to the New York Mets, but Jude and Hazel were still on cloud nine two years later, still going strong. It was the very beginning of September and they sat at a Dodgers game, their home team now. Lacy and her boyfriend, Troy, sat next to them. It was her second time visiting them in California, the two friends talked daily, but their visits were the best.
But Jude really loved going to baseball games with Hazel. Every time they came out to the ballpark she saw the spark return that New York had dulled. So she bought him tickets to his favorite season of all—baseball.
He turned to Jude, and said, “You never told me about Rayleigh scattering.”
“You just want me to go on about your impossible eyes, don’t you?”
With a smirk, he bumped his shoulder against hers. “Maybe.”
“Before we were married, you weren’t so self-assured. What happened, Mr. Cocky?”
“Before we were married, I was very self-assured. Trust me. All the ladies loved me.”
“How did we get from Rayleigh scattering to ‘all the ladies loving you’?”
“Simple. My impossible eyes.” He was starting to sound a lot like Jude in the way his thoughts circled. That made her smile. He took a sip of his beer that left a little beer-stache above his upper lip. She watched as his tongue dipped out and wiped it away. Her body stirred in reaction.
“And why are they so impossible?”
Jude wrapped her arm through his and leaned her head on his shoulder. With a smile as they watched the Dodgers finally score after two innings, she tilted her head up, and said, “Because I never stood a chance. They were impossible to resist, like you.”
Taylor smiled, enjoying his day out, smiling because the Dodgers, his new favorite team had scored, and loving that his life with his pretty wife felt complete.
Or so he thought…
JUDE’S EYES WERE closed as she lay on the large balcony that overlooked the ocean in the short distance. She loved this time of day—when day was turning to night, when the stars swallowed the sky, and she could hear the waves crashing. This was Heaven. This is what Ryan would have loved. This is what she did love, and Hazel gave her this Heaven on Earth with no strings attached. Well, one string was attached—from her heart to his. It might have been invisible, but it was mighty, and was strong.
Taylor walked outside and leaned his hands on the ledge. “I don’t think I ever appreciated California until I lived here.”
“Laguna is beautiful; more than I could have ever dreamed,” she said, opening her eyes to see her husband haloed in the last of the day’s rays. Her breath stopped in her chest, just short of release upon seeing how stunning he was as if it were the first time she’d ever laid eyes on him. This time, he might not have been wearing a suit. He had changed clothes already, but he was just as handsome as he was standing in the middle of that party on a cold winter’s evening.
He offered her a hand up and she happily accepted, landing firmly in his arms. He asked, “I missed you today. How are you?”
“Gloriously happy.”
“Are we allowed that much happiness in one lifetime?”
“I sure hope so or I’m going to burn through it fast.”
He chuckled, understanding exactly what gloriously happy felt like, and kissed her head. Taylor’s hands trembled less on the West Coast though he still aged. Maybe it was the weather or the laid-back lifestyle they chose to live. He had very strong suspicions it was the little brunette that gave him something to hold on to, something worth fighting for. He shared his bed, his house, and his life with her and it all became…
Their bed.
Their house.
Their life together.
And they cherished every minute.
She led him by the hand inside the house; the house he’d designed and had built for her. One hundred percent of the guilt money had been given away to various domestic abuse and child abuse charities, but the money received from her family for her “troubles” more than paid for the beautiful home. It felt like salvation—all light and sunshine, clean lines like he liked, bright colors like she loved, except for pink. She hated pink bedrooms. This house was Hazel and Jude inside and out. “My mother arrives tomorrow afternoon.”
“I’ve hired a car to pick her up. She’ll meet us there. Be prepared. She sounds excited.”