A Trade For Good (9 page)

"I didn't know that." Sera looked at
her sister-in-law and suddenly began to worry. "You wouldn't move
far would you?"

"No, it would still be in the same
school district, it would just be a little bigger to handle the new
baby..." Deb added quickly with a huge grin.

"A baby! Deb, you didn't tell me! Oh
my God!” Sera had gotten up and stretched over the table to hug
them both. "This is so exciting! When were you going to tell
me?"

Deb and Chad looked at each other with
a love that was obvious to anyone in view. "At dessert." Deb
laughed. “I hoped you'd approve.”

"The more the merrier. I always wanted
at least a dozen, but then after Emma was born, I decided a third
of that was fine..." they all laughed at that comment, knowing Emma
made even the most hearty doubt their desire to parent, "not to
mention I lost the sperm donor,” she said and then turned a deeper
shade of pink looking quickly away from Jeff, “but honestly, I'm
really jealous, I always loved having kids, and although four isn't
shabby," she added with a grin, “it's kind of sad knowing that I
won't have any more."

"Who says you can't?" This time it was
Jeff who asked the question.

"Let's just say things aren't looking
good right now." Sera told them sadly. "But enough of that. I may
just win the lottery one of these days and adopt a school in Africa
and have all the kids I want."

"Or," Deb answered slowly, "you may
find someone decent who will love you and your kids and realize how
lucky he is." And with a note of mischief, "Maybe someone
established, someone who owns his own business and can create his
own hours to spend the time you deserve with you."

"Maybe... although I
believe that in order to get married, you're supposed to
not
be married already."
She offered smiling at her family and Jeff. "Anyway, this is about
you guys. No, actually it's not about you guys, it's about me. I'm
gonna be an Aunt again!" she clapped merrily.

They were laughing when Jeff's food
came in and at the same time, Deb's cell phone rang. It was the
baby sitter, and she said she thought Eric, Deb and Chad's four
year old, had swallowed a shoe from one of his sister's Barbie’s.
What followed were questions to the baby sitter, and Jessie, the
sister who was now short a Barbie shoe, getting on the phone and
complaining about her brother always getting into her stuff. The
fact that he might choke on something was irrelevant.

Chad told Deb Eric would poop it out
in a few days... he was ready for dessert, but as tempting as that
sounded, despite the fact that he mentioned dessert right after
mentioning Eric's bowel movements, Deb was not so concerned about
choking at this point, as she was of Jessie killing her brother, or
Eric needing some help to more easily 'poop' it out.

In any event, Deb apologized and said
she was ready to go just as Sera grabbed her purse to leave with
her family.

"You don't have to go Sera," Deb said
pointedly eyeing Jeff as she said it, "Jeff just got his food, and
you don't want him to eat alone do you?"

"That's all right, I don't mind, but I
also don't mind driving you home." Jeff told Sera with what seemed
like genuine interest. "Unless, of course it's time for you to be
back with the kids..."

"She can stay," Deb threw in, "I'll
just send the baby-sitter off unless we need to go to the Emergency
room. Unfortunately, they know us well there, but I think he's
fine, I just want to check for myself, and make sure his sister
doesn’t kill him. Sera stay here, if I need you, I'll
call."

Chad and Deb waved a quick good-bye
and didn't give Sera a chance to leave with them. Sera looked at
Jeff who was still sitting next to her on the restaurant booth, and
asked him, "Would you like me to move to the other
side?"

"No," he smiled, "this is quite cozy
actually."

Sera wondered if Jeff was flirting
with her now. He knew she was still married and wondered why he
would bother. He seemed too decent to try anything just to get in
her bed.

"Tell me about your kids." He suddenly
asked.

Obviously, he was not trying to get
her into his bed, but it would definitely win her over. She loved
talking about her children. She told him their names, their ages, a
little about their personalities, and what they enjoyed doing most.
She paused after a long winded recitation of their virtues and
laughed.

"I'm sorry, but it's all your fault.
You should never ask a mom about her kids unless you really want to
know about them."

Jeff looked at her seriously and said,
"I'll remember for next time, but in your case I really wanted to
know. I'm also curious about your husband, but I don't want you to
tell me unless you are okay with it. I mean, I can't understand why
a man would ever leave his family, and if it was someone else," he
shook his head, "I can't see how he could find anyone better than
you as a woman, and from what I've heard, you’re an incredible
mother too."

Sera looked away and her eyes suddenly
filled with tears. Jeff was so kind to her and seemed really
interested. It was embar5assing to have been left by her husband,
but more than anything she worried about her kids and trying to
keep things balanced at all times, it was beginning to cause a
strain and she was afraid she might not be as strong as she'd like
to be. Life had to go on, but she was the only person to lead the
way.

Jeff must have misinterpreted her
teary eyes and immediately apologized for upsetting her, but Sera
was quick to set him straight.

"Please, don't apologize. You've been
the best thing that could happen to me and to my family since Peter
left us. I don't know why Peter left and it doesn't really matter.
At first I blamed myself, but then I looked at my kids and became
so, so angry at him for leaving them. I don't care what his
differences were with me, but for a man to abandon his family, drop
off the face of this earth, and disappear on his children, he has
to be scum. I may be covering up my own faults, but I know that if
I had ever been the one to leave, I would never have left my
children."

Sera caught her breath before
continuing. "It was partly my fault, I'm sure, that he left. I saw
the signs, some 'friends' even pointed them out to me. He was
impatient with me and with the kids, and the more impatient he
became the more I withdrew the children and myself from his life. I
had no problem with that. It was the kids and me. He provided
financially for us, we had a home, and when I wanted another child,
he was always willing to help me with that. Not that he was
interested in the end result, but the process was
enjoyable."

Jeff put his hand on Sera's and held
it in his. He rubbed her fingers with his thumb in a steady and
soothing motion. Sera's eyes went down to her hand and kept them
there. It felt good to be held. It felt good to be soothed, but she
wasn't done.

“I don't know where he is. One day he
didn't come home. I've wondered if I'm a bad person because I
didn't worry about him. I waited three days before letting his
family know, and a week before filing a missing person report. Five
days after he left his mother received a note dated two days
earlier and letting her know that he had forwarded a check to her
before he left to pay for the pre-arranged transport of some of his
things to a pre-arranged address. The letter gave very few details
and was mailed from his office, where he no longer worked. His
mother didn't pay the transportation company, instead she gave the
check to me, apologizing as if she had anything to do with her
son's horrible behavior. I haven't heard anything since. The police
call occasionally, but they have nothing and only want me to give
them leads. At one point they questioned me regarding his
disappearance and wondered if it was foul play." Sera laughed at
that. "I should have thought about it, but I never thought to get
rid of the guy until the police suggested I might have."

Jeff sat there, listening and shaking
his head. Sera looked at him and appreciated the outlet and the
fact that he didn’t get up and leave. It was a great outlet, and
probably her first. Peter's family had been extremely supportive in
every way possible, but they were his family after all, and she
didn’t want to burden his mother who had probably aged ten years in
the few months since her son left.

Sera asked Jeff about his family, if
he had ever been married, and about his nieces and nephews who he
needed little prompting over to talk about. They were having a
great time, and Sera was surprised at how comfortable she was and
how good it felt to sit back and talk with no
interruptions.

As if on cue, Sera's phone rang and
made them both jump. It was her mother in law. Poor thing, Emma had
been going for a while now and she wasn't sure if Emma had a fever
or was just overheating from screaming at the top of her
lungs.

Jeff picked up Sera's purse from the
other seat across from them and left enough money to feed an entire
family on the table. "Let's go." he said without waiting for her to
answer.

Sera was still on the phone when Jeff
was already standing up and holding his hand out to help her up.
She mouthed a thank you while still listening to her apologetic
mother in law, and got up to leave.

Chapter 10

Jeff led Sera to his car after waving
good byes to the waitress and hostess who were conspiratorially
smiling, and opened the door and helped her in. The waitresses were
probably hoping they were going home together.

He asked her where her mother in law
lived and realized he was very familiar with the area because of
two houses they had completed a block away this past
month.

The trip to Marion's house was not
filled with the conversation they had shared at the restaurant over
dinner. In fact, they did very little talking, except for a few
directions from Sera to her mother in law's house as they got
closer. Jeff only spoke when he was asked a question, and Sera
wasn't asking much.

Jeff's problem was that he had had a
great time with Sera. In fact, he couldn't remember having such a
good time just talking to a woman or being with a woman without
planning on sleeping with her.

The concept was confusing to him. He
enjoyed talking to his sisters and his mother, as well as the wives
of some of his friends, but he knew this was not the same. He truly
enjoyed Sera's company. He had laughed, had been understanding and
sympathetic, he had been upset for all of what she was going
through. However, he also knew damn well that when he was sitting
there talking and listening to her, absolutely no brotherly
thoughts had crossed his mind.

The woman was trouble. She
was drop dead gorgeous, she was smart, funny, efficient, mature,
great company, and had he mentioned
drop
dead gorgeous?

Those were the positive attributes. On
the other side of the coin there was the fact that she was married,
had four children, her situation with her husband emotionally and
financially was completely unstable, and she worked for
him.

There was no way in the world he could
or even wanted to get involved with a woman like this.

Jeff turned his eyes away from the
road for a moment just to convince himself that he should stay as
far away from this woman as possible. He turned to see her profile
as she looked out of the passenger window even though at this time
of the night there was very little for her to see.

She had put her hair up with a
makeshift knot somehow, that showed off the smooth white skin of
her neck. The contrast in the color of her skin and the bright red
of her silky sweater top made her even more appealing.

Who was he kidding? Baggage or no
baggage, this woman was someone he could easily fall for, but
couldn't and shouldn't; he wouldn’t.

Four kids? Jeff loved kids, but they
had to kind of grow on you. It was almost like working out at the
gym, you start out with a couple of pounds, you don't start off
with the 200 lbs. barbell. You have to work your way up. Besides,
if the relationship didn’t work out, there was much more at stake,
too many people hurt along the way.

I guess Lydia isn't that
complicated,
he thought as he
shuddered.

Sera had noticed Jeff looking her way
and had no idea how to react to that. She realized she was very
rusty, but she didn't think she had imagined that the look that
Jeff gave her was not that of a boss, or even just a friend. In
fact, she wasn't sure how she even felt about him. It was so
strange to even take that route if only in her mind.

This is ridiculous. I'm a
32 year old woman with four kids, a husband who has gone A.W.O.L.,
which says a lot about me, I'm broke, I meddle, I'm a loony - he
said so himself - and I'm 'entertaining' thoughts that he might be
interested? I really am crazy.

Sera decided to risk taking her eyes
away from the passenger window for a moment. She couldn't see
anything anyway, but she felt awkward and inexperienced sitting in
the front seat of the car, and being alone with a man, a real man,
one who was nothing but kind and generous, a perfect gentleman, and
as Deb had pointed out – and as if she had needed a reminder - this
man was hot.