Winter's Role, page 29
“Good morning, Kat,” she said quietly, smiling down at the little girl. “Can you give Aunt Stephanie and Aunt Jessie a few minutes to get ready, Sweetheart?”
The little girl looked up at Stephanie with big green eyes. Shaking her head, she said, “No, Aunt Steph’nie, Kat want you to come see what Santa brought.”
“Kat, Jessie and I aren’t even up yet,” she said, attempting to reason with the girl. “Give us a few minutes, and we’ll be down, okay?”
Katherine thought about the request for a moment before finally saying, “Okay…but hurry.”
Stephanie smiled again. “Thanks, Kat. Is Grandma up yet?” she asked, not wanting the girl to be up running around the house without some adult supervision. At the little girl’s nod, she said, “Okay. Why don’t you go on downstairs and get some breakfast. Jessie and I will be down in a while, okay?”
“Okay, Aunt Steph’nie,” Katherine agreed, turning and walking slowly back toward the stairs.
When Stephanie was sure she was headed back downstairs, she shut the door and locked it again. Taking the few steps required to reach the bed, she crawled back in and pulled the covers over herself, curling up next to Jessie.
“Is she gone?” Jessie asked, her voice muffled by the pillow still covering her face.
Stephanie laughed. “Yeah, for the moment.” Pulling the pillow away from Jessie’s face, she leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Good morning.”
“Morning,” Jessie mumbled, still just barely awake. “Do we have to get up, now?” she grumbled.
“We probably should,” Stephanie answered, smiling because she knew how much Jessie hated mornings. “I have a feeling she’ll be back soon if we don’t get down there.”
“Probably,” Jessie agreed, sighing.
“Are you sure you want to have kids? You’ll never get another peaceful morning, you know?” Stephanie occupied herself watching the expressions on Jessie’s face as she slowly traced her jaw line with one finger.
Opening her eyes and looking straight into Stephanie’s green one’s, Jessie answered. “I’m positive, Sweetheart. I wanna do it all with you. The kids, the little league, the two cars…everything.” She shrugged. “Besides, we have two sets of grandparents and a whole pile of friends we can talk into babysitting.”
Stephanie blew out a deep, contented breath. “God, Jess…we’re getting married!”
“I know. I love you,” Jessie answered quietly, still looking into her eyes. Reaching up with one hand, she pulled Stephanie down until their lips came together in a long, slow kiss.
“I love you too,” Stephanie said when she finally came up for air. Slapping Jessie playfully on her bare leg, she said, “Come on. We’d better get down there before she comes up here looking for us again.”
Jessie caught her for one more kiss before grumbling and rolling out of bed. “All right, but I better get a chance for a nap later on.”
Stephanie just laughed as she got up and headed into the bathroom to take a shower and brush her teeth. She was joined moments later by Jessie, who decided that sharing the shower would be the ‘environmentally and politically correct’ thing to do. Unable to argue the logic, she gave in to the request. The truth was she didn’t care about the reason. She just wanted to spend as much time with Jessie as she could. Still, it was a struggle to take the shower and not get caught up in her need to touch and be touched. She just couldn’t seem to get enough of Jessie this morning. And, truth be told, Jessie wasn’t faring any better. Her hands roamed continuously during the shower, washing every part of Stephanie’s body she could possibly touch.
By the time they finished their shower and made it downstairs, everyone else was in the kitchen eating breakfast, including JD, Julie, Theresa and Brian, who had all stayed in the guest house out back.
After the breakfast dishes were cleaned up by Rachel, Stephanie and Jessie, Nancy corralled all the ladies in the kitchen to help make Christmas dinner. “We have a lot to do, so let’s get started,” she said as she re-entered the kitchen, pulling on an apron. As she spoke, Julie, Theresa, Gina and Lisa all entered the kitchen, as well. Within moments, Nancy had the chaos of so many people working in the kitchen organized. They talked as they worked, and eventually their conversation turned to ideas for the upcoming wedding. By the time everything was cooking on the stove or baking in the oven, Stephanie and Jessie had already received numerous suggestions about everything from the wedding cake to who should be bridesmaids. Needless to say, Jessie was relieved beyond measure when she was finally able to escape to the relative safety of the basement. She didn’t really care for football, but she’d take that over all the wedding talk any day.
Opening a beer, she flopped down in a recliner in the basement and took a deep drink. JD noticed and leaned over toward her. “All the wedding talk getting to you already?”
“It’s a little overwhelming,” she agreed, nodding and taking another drink.
“It’ll be worth it, though,” he said, taking a drink of his own beer.
She looked at him with an odd expression. “You think it was worth it…Marrying Mom, I mean?”
“Jess…your mother and I loved each other very much. Just because we had some problems we couldn’t work out, doesn’t mean the love was gone.” He moved a little closer so they could hear each other over the noise of the big screen TV and surround sound of the game. “I still love your mother, Jess. We just couldn’t agree on things. Besides…if we hadn’t gotten together, we never would have had you.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Dad.” A sudden thought occurred to her and she licked her lips before asking, “Uh…Dad? Grandpa said something at Thanksgiving I wanted to ask you about.”
“He did?” JD asked. He had an idea what Michael had told Jessie, but he waited for her to bring it up.
“Yeah. He said that Mom ran off with you and didn’t come home for a year.” She took another drink. “He said she had me in her arms when she came home.”
“Well, that’s true,” JD said in answer. He wouldn’t lie to Jessie about it. “She did run off to follow me around on tour. We were both young and stupid. I mean, I was nineteen and she was only seventeen. When you were born, it just got too hard to tour with a baby. We weren’t getting enough sleep and it wasn’t good for you, either. So, I sent her back to your grandparents and I came home two weeks later. We got married at the courthouse by a Justice of the Peace.”
“So…I was illegitimate?”
“You’re our daughter, Jess. There’s nothing illegitimate about it. I’m your father and Julie’s your mother. We just weren’t married when you were born,” he took another drink. “We love you, and that’s all that really matters.”
Jessie sighed. “I know, Dad. Thanks for telling me the truth. I didn’t really want to ask Mom. You know how she can be.”
He nodded in understanding. “Oh yeah, I do.”
She laughed at the expression on his face and finished her beer. Shaking her head, she said, “I can’t imagine the two of you when you were younger.”
“Try not to, it’s for the best.”
An hour later, Stephanie joined her in the basement, squeezing in next to her in the recliner. “You don’t mind if I join you, do you?”
Jessie shook her head and slid over to make some room for her. “Not at all, Babe. Did the wedding talk finally get too much for you?”
Stephanie nodded and smiled crookedly. “A little, but it’s all right. I don’t think anyone really thought we’d be getting married. It’s exciting for them.”
“Is it exciting for you? That’s all I care about.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes at the question. “I’m more excited than I ever thought I could be. But…if we’re not careful, they’ll have the entire wedding planned for us.”
“That would make it pretty easy on us though, wouldn’t it?” Jessie asked, smiling at the way Stephanie scrunched up her face.
“You just really like to tempt fate, don’t you, Jess? You do realize that if we leave it up to them, we’ll end up with some crazy colors for bridesmaids dresses, don’t you? You have seen ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ haven’t you? That’s what we’d probably end up with,” she said, letting Jessie’s imagination do the rest.
“They wouldn’t do that to us,” Jessie replied. When Stephanie didn’t answer right away, she said, “Would they?”
Stephanie shrugged. “You never know what they’ll come up with…especially with Rachel involved.”
Jessie groaned into her shoulder. “Oh God…”
Stephanie laughed and kissed her lightly on the neck. “You know…we have a few hours before dinner. I seem to remember you mentioning something about a nap?”
Jessie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she said, “That sounds great. I think I could use a nap, right about now.” She was tired. Two hours of sleep just wasn’t enough. Getting up out of the recliner, she grabbed Steph’s hand and pulled her out of the chair as well. Then, arm wrapped around Stephanie’s waist, they headed upstairs to lay down for an hour or two before dinner. When they got to their room, Stephanie locked the door once more and they both fell onto the bed fully clothed. Within minutes, both women were curled up fast asleep, oblivious to Katherine knocking at their door.
Eventually, Rachel had come to take the little girl to her own room for a nap, leaving her sister and Jessie in peace. She was all too aware of how little sleep they’d gotten the night before.
Christmas dinner was served at exactly 6 o’clock. Absolutely everything, from the huge turkey, to the casserole dishes full of green beans, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy and baby carrots, was cooked to perfection. From the food, to the good China, to the candles lit in the center of the table, Nancy, Julie, and the other women had outdone themselves. Everyone had eaten until they were stuffed, and then the desserts were brought out.
Stephanie, looking over the table at the mouth watering selection of desserts, couldn’t make up her mind. On the one hand, she was so full she didn’t think she could eat anything else. On the other, she still wanted a piece of the apple pie that Julie had made from scratch. Chewing on her cheek in indecision, she finally opted for a small piece of the pie.
“That’s all you’re going to have, Sweetheart?” Nancy asked, watching her daughter cut a very small piece of pie and put it on her plate.
“Mom, if I eat anything else, I won’t be able to fit into any of my clothes.”
“You have ten months until the wedding,” Nancy said, teasing her. “You have time to lose any weight you might gain from this one meal.”
“Mom…” she started to protest, but her attention was caught by Jessie, who reached over at that moment and helped herself to not only a piece of pie, but a huge slice of the double chocolate fudge cake that Gina and Lisa had made, as well.
Jessie, noticing that Stephanie had stopped talking and was now staring at her plate, looked at her innocently. “What? It all looks so good…I’ll just have to run a couple extra miles this week to make up for it.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes and sighed. “Jessie, I swear. I don’t know how you can eat like that and never gain a pound.”
“I guess I just got lucky,” she said, taking a bite of the cake and groaning with pleasure when the flavor hit her taste buds. “Man, that is really good,” Jessie said, complimenting Gina and Lisa. “You two are going to have to give me that recipe.”
Stephanie rolled her eyes. “I give up,” she said playfully, laughing.
“She’s your fiancée,” Steve said, biting into his own piece of cake and licking his lips.
“I know,” Stephanie said, reaching over and rubbing Jessie’s back. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Aw…thanks, Babe,” Jessie said, smiling over at her. With her fork, she scooped up a bite of the cake and held it out for her. “Here, at least give it a try. I promise you’ll like it.”
“I know. That’s why I didn’t get any. I like it too much,” Stephanie said. She’d had the pleasure of sampling the cake numerous times over the years. Nevertheless, she gave in and took the offered bite, adding her own groan of pleasure to the conversation.
“Uh huh, I knew you’d like it,” Jessie said with a self-satisfied smirk. She held back on her desire to tease Stephanie some more when she finally caved altogether and helped herself to her own slice of the cake.
Katherine chose that moment to climb up on Jessie’s lap. Looking at her very seriously, she asked, “Is it okay to call you Aunt Jessie now? I don’t want to wait ‘til you’re married.”
“If you want to Kat, that’s okay with me,” Jessie smiled at her and then looked at Steve and Gina. “If it’s okay with your Mom and Dad?” Katherine had been referring to her as ‘Aunt Jessie’ since she’d proposed, so she knew Steve and Gina had told her to ask before continuing.
Gina smiled at her daughter, totally aware of the fact that the girl was taken with Jessie and pleased that she had done as she’d been told. She didn’t want Katherine overwhelming Jessie already. “Since Jessie said you can, it’s all right with us, Katherine.”
The little girl beamed and hugged Jessie around the neck once more before hopping down to go play with her brothers and cousins in the living room. Julie watched her go and smiled mysteriously. She’d never really believed that Jessie would find someone, let alone someone like Stephanie. Watching her daughter with Katherine, she caught herself realizing that Jessie was going to make a really good mother. The thought took her by surprise, and she sniffed, holding back a tear. Who would believe that her intensely private, wild child daughter would ever be here…In love and engaged to such a beautiful woman?
Across from her, JD noticed how Julie was looking at Jessie and he smiled. It was about time she finally started to realize what a great kid they had.
* * * *
Stephanie looked around the living room at the mess. After dinner, everyone had moved out here so they’d have more room to talk. Toys were strewn across the living room floor where her nieces and nephews had left them when they were sent up to bed. Gina and Lisa were going to make them clean up, but Nancy told them to leave it for tomorrow. Yawning, she leaned her head back on the couch and closed her eyes.
“Why don’t you go on to bed?” Jessie asked quietly, noticing her yawn.
“I shouldn’t be tired. It’s not like we did a lot today. And, we took a nap…”
“We didn’t get much sleep last night,” Jessie reminded her, playing with her hair. “I was actually thinking about heading up to bed, myself. Why don’t you come with me?”
She nodded and held out her hand for Jessie to pull her off the couch. “All right, since you’re so convincing.” They said their goodnights to the others still sitting around the living room and went upstairs. As they went past Rachel’s door, Stephanie noticed that her sister’s light was still on.
“Jess…would you mind if I talked to Rachel for a while?”
“Not at all.”
“I don’t want you waiting up for me,” she said, moving into the circle of her arms and wrapping her own arms around Jessie’s waist. She knew Jessie well enough to know she’d wait up for her, not wanting to go to sleep without her.
Jessie held her tight, kissing her on the nose. “I can doze without you next to me. Take your time and enjoy your talk.” She knew Steph wanted to talk to Rachel about what she’d heard last night. Stephanie had been more embarrassed than she wanted to admit when she realized that Rachel had overheard them. Then, to say something in front of the family this morning…that had just about caused Steph to explode, she’d turned so red.
“All right, but you promise me you won’t sit up waiting for me?” She kissed Jessie on the mouth and knocked on Rachel’s door.
“You have my word.” Sighing, she went into their bathroom and got ready for bed. When she came back into the room, she crawled into bed and turned out the light. She hadn’t been kidding about just dozing while Steph was gone. She’d never fall asleep completely until Stephanie crawled in next to her and she could wrap herself around her for the night.
As it turned out, she tossed and turned for a half hour before she finally gave up and went downstairs for a glass of water. As she made her way through the house, she was surprised to find that everyone else had apparently turned in for the night, too. Entering the kitchen, she flipped on the light and grabbed a glass out of the cabinet. Filling it with cold water from the pitcher in the fridge, she sat down at the table and relaxed.
She was surprised a few minutes later when the back door opened quietly, admitting Theresa. “Hey,” Theresa said, stepping into the kitchen and taking a seat at the table across from her.
“You’re up late.”
Theresa nodded, her blond hair glistening with snow. “Yeah…I couldn’t sleep and thought I might sneak in and grab something to drink. Why are you still up? I thought you went to bed a while ago.”
Jessie shrugged. “It’s not all that late for me…not since I’ve been off work, anyway. And Steph decided to talk to Rachel before going to bed.” She took another drink and waited for Theresa to go on. She knew she would. She couldn’t imagine that Theresa had come all the way from the guest house in this snow just for something to drink. Besides that, she distinctly remembered Brian mentioning that they had a fully stocked fridge out there.
Right on cue, Theresa looked over at her and said, “So…you finally asked her to marry you?” She shook her head. “Jesus, Jessie…I never thought you’d do it. I mean, I know you love her. I’ve known since she stepped into our office, but…”
