I See...Love (A Different Road Book 1) (25 page)

“I thought…” I begin.

“I know what you thought. Joss, I’ll do everything in my power to make you happy. Just please remember that most things are not in my power and know that I don’t do them to intentionally hurt you,” he says, and gently places his forehead on mine.

I don’t know why he keeps saying that he’ll hurt me. So far he’s been nothing but a gentleman and treats me like I’m a princess.

“Are you completely dressed?” he asks, bending down to pick up the condom off the floor after he searched for it with his foot.

“Yes,” I reply, and watch as he goes behind his desk and tosses it into the trash.

Well, that answers that question. I wondered how they disappeared. He feels the top of his desk for the phone, and then feels over the bottom row of buttons and pushes one.

“Yes,” Josh’s voice calls through the phone’s speaker.

“I need you to come in here,” he says, then pushes the button again to disconnect.

I pick up the items off the floor that I knocked over while we were making love, and place them back where I remember they were. Josh knocks on the door, and then opens it. River walks around the desk, picks up the file and holds it out.

“There have been some changes to this contract I need you to look over,” he says, and hands it to Josh.

Josh reads his own name on the file, and then looks at me. I smile, and then shrug my shoulders at him. Grasshopper was patient. Good things come to patient grasshoppers. I really need to stop watching 70’s television.

Josh opens the file and fingers through the pages until he comes to the amended portion. His eyes come to mine again and they sparkle. If he were to blink, I’m sure a tear would fall down his cheek, that’s how happy he is.

“River, I don’t know what to say,” Josh says.

River extends his hand and Josh places his in his hand. River’s other hand comes over Josh’s hand and he smiles.

“You don’t have to say anything. Just go and get your girl. We’ll work out all of the details later,” he says.

Josh comes to me and kisses me on the cheek, and then he rushes out the door no doubt to my house to tell Nina the good news.

“Stay with me tonight,” River says, walking over to me.

“Alright,” I say, and then we walk hand in hand to the elevator.

When we walk out of the building, I see my catering van parked cock-eyed with a not so special piece of paper under my wiper blade.

“Oh no, I got a parking ticket,” I say, removing the paper.

“I’ll take care of it,” he says, holding out his hand for the ticket.

“No, it’s alright. I parked illegally, I’ll just pay it,” I say.

He gets another smile on his face, and I think he’s pleasantly surprised that I just won’t give him the ticket so he can fix it for me. I’m not with him for his money or his fame. I’m with him because he makes my heart sing. I’m not sure he’s had very many people in his life who want him just for him and not his money.

“I can’t leave my van here. How did you want to get home?” I ask.

“Let’s take your van,” he replies.

“Really!”

“Sure. Why wouldn’t we?” he says.

I hold open the passenger door for him and he gets in. I’ve never driven River anywhere. This will be fun. Once he’s seated, I close the door and I walk around to my seat.

Once I’m buckled, I look at River and I see him take in a breath, and then he smiles.

“What?” I ask, taking a sniff for myself. Maybe something spoiled in one of the bags.

“Smells like every smell that describes you,” he says.

Well, that earns a blush.

“I should stop at home first and unload some of these ingredients before I lose them all,” I tell him.

His smile stays on his face the entire ride to my house. As I turn down my street, I see one of River’s cars in my driveway. I pull next to it and turn off my van.

“Did you want to come inside while I unload?” I ask.

“Is Josh here with Nina?” he asks.

“I assume so. Your car is here,” I tell him.

“I’ll wait here,” he says.

“It’ll only take me a few minutes. I’ll be right back.”

The second I have the front door open, a half-naked Nina comes barreling down the hallway on a collision course towards me. She’s wearing the dress shirt I saw Josh in only a half an hour ago unbuttoned down to her belly button. She crashes into me and wraps me in the tightest bear hug I’ve ever been in.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she repeats, over and over again.

All I can do is smile and hug her back. I’m so happy for her. I knew it was killing her not to be with Josh. She releases me from her death hug, and then buttons a few of the buttons on Josh’s shirt.

“Did you need help with those,” she asks, looking at my cooler bags as I set them on the counter.

“No, you go back to Josh. I’m going to stay at River’s house tonight. I’ll be back bright and early for our morning meeting, though,” I tell her.

“You have a good night,” she says, then hugs me one more time and skips down the hallway back to her room.

I quickly unload the perishable ingredients, and then walk down the hall to our office. I pull up my schedule on my computer and take a look at what clients I have. I get an idea of how early I need to be back here so I can prep for my day. I grab a small bag and some clothes, and then head back to the van. River is standing outside the van talking on his cell phone.

“I’ll be home in a little bit, we can talk about it there,” he says, and then hangs up.

“Everything alright?” I ask.

“It’s Kate. She’s having a hard day. I think you should get Josh and have him take me home,” he says.

“I have a better idea. How about I cook the two of you dinner and we have a nice quiet evening in?” I tell him.

I really don’t want to pull Josh away from Nina when she just got him back. That would be cruel and unusual punishment. She’s just so happy. I couldn’t imagine ruining her evening.

“Are you sure? Kate can be a handful sometimes,” he says.

“Absolutely, I’m sure. I’d like to get to know Kate better,” I tell him.

“Alright, home it is,” he says, and then he gets back inside my van.

I can tell the entire ride to his house that he’s nervous about Kate. I wish I knew more, so I could understand and maybe help.

I pull into his driveway and Kate is waiting just outside the doorway. She has expensive looking headphones draped over her neck and she looks like she’s been crying. She’s nervously biting her nails and runs to River the second he’s out of the van. As they walk toward the house, she threads her fingers between his and leans her head on his shoulder.

I stay back by the van to give them some privacy. River has a brief talk with her at the doorway, and then he turns to me.

“Are you coming, Joss?” he asks.

“Yes,” I reply, and walk toward them.

Once Kate saw River, you could tell that she immediately calmed down. And whatever he told her calmed her down even more. I go to the kitchen to see what River has left of what I brought him earlier in the week. I take things out of the refrigerator and set them on the counter, and then get to work heating them up. River walks up behind me and cages me into the counter. I remember the first time he did that when I thought that Kate was his new girlfriend.

“I told Kate I’d do some yoga with her before dinner. Trust me, it will calm her down and I promise we’ll have an enjoyable dinner,” he says, in my ear.

“Alright,” I reply.

He kisses me on the cheek, and then leaves my side. I turn around to see Kate again thread her fingers in River’s. I find myself getting a little jealous at the way they seem to connect, and a little hurt. What if I wanted to do yoga? Oh, who am I kidding, I’ve never done yoga a day in my life. I shake it off, and then feel bad that I was jealous of his sister.

Since the meal was already cooked, it doesn’t take long to reheat. I make a fresh salad, and then set the table. River and Kate still haven’t come out of the room that they went into twenty minutes ago.

I quietly walk over to the room and look inside. It looks like a high-tech gym. There are weights and workout equipment, and even some wooden thing that looks like the thing I see in the karate movies I watch. River and Kate are in the center of the room, each in a pose that if a gust of wind blew through here, it would knock them both over on their ass. Kate has her headphones over her ears and River looks deep in a trance. Kate’s slender body is very muscular. You can see the great control it takes for her to keep her body steady in the pose.

As River moves from pose to pose, I find myself thinking of ways I could wrap my own body around his. His muscles are taut and a slight glistening of sweat covers every inch of exposed skin.

Kate moves one leg in front of her bent at the knee with the heel of her foot almost touching her pubic bone. Her other leg is straight out behind her. She bends that knee upward and reaches behind her head, and then grabs her toes. Her foot is literally just behind her head. Her face and her toes turn upwards and she holds the pose perfectly still. It’s absolutely beautiful. I wish I knew the name of the pose. I wish I had the strength and stamina to do such a pose, it’s absolutely beautiful.

I watch River’s body move into his next pose. He plants his feet, then leans backwards until his hands rest on the floor and his body is in a backbend. He raises one hand and stretches it outward. Again, I think about doing something sexual and I giggle.

River’s head turns toward me and a half smile creeps up his face. He lowers himself to the ground, and then touches Kate on the shoulder. She removes her headphones, and then turns them off.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt. Dinner is ready,” I tell them.

“It’s alright, we were done,” she says, sweetly.

I head back to the kitchen to get bottles of chilled water and place everyone’s plates on the table.

“Smells good, Joss,” Kate says, then cracks the top off the water bottle and takes a large drink.

“I didn’t mean to spy on you guys doing yoga. But, Kate, that last post you were doing was just beautiful. What was it called and how long did it take you to learn it?” I ask.

“That was a one-legged king pigeon pose, and it only took me about a year of faithful practice to learn advanced yoga poses. I can’t tell you how much yoga has saved my life,” she answers.

“Well, it was beautiful,” I tell her, again.

“If you want, I can start showing you some basic yoga poses and in no time at all you’ll be doing the one-legged king pigeon,” she says.

“Sure, I’d like that,” I tell her with a smile.

“Well, I was doing the wild thing pose and I don’t hear anyone saying what I did was beautiful,” River teases.

Kate reaches across the table and lightly smacks River across the arm, and then digs into her meal. I wasn’t thinking what River did was beautiful. I was literally thinking of attacking him and taking him on the mat if his sister weren’t in the room.

“Joss, maybe we can exchange favors. You teach me how to cook like this, and I’ll show you everything I know about yoga,” she says with her mouth full.

“Deal,” I agree, and dig into my own meal.

Kate told River and I to get out of the kitchen after we ate dinner. She said she’d do the dishes and clean everything up. River takes my hand and leads me through the house and outside. He continues down the deck and leads me out to the beach. It’s another beautiful evening, but this one without a cloud in the sky. As I hold River’s hand, I tip my head up toward the heavens, and look at all the majestic stars.

“What do you see?” River asks.

“I was just looking at the stars. There’s not a single cloud in the sky tonight. It’s pure black with millions of stars splattered across the sky. When I was a little girl, my grandmother told me that each star in the sky is a window. And through that window the lost souls of our loved ones can keep an eye on us. I had lost my grandfather only the year before and I had started to panic. I told her that was impossible, there had to be millions of stars in the sky. How was I supposed to know which star grandpa was looking through? What if I couldn’t find his window? Tears streaked down her face and she said it didn’t matter. She said that whichever star caught your eye first was the star he was looking through. Whenever I raise my face to the night sky, the first star that catches my eye I smile and say, ‘hello, Grandpa.’ It’s stupid, I know it’s just silly little girl stuff,” I tell him.

River stops walking and leans his head back. I step in front of him, and then I wrap my arms around him. His warm arms wrap around me and he holds me tight. I rest the side of my head over his heart and I listen to his breathing.

“If only I could see the stars,” he says.

I gently pull away from him and look at him. His face slowly looks from the heavens down to mine. Softly his lips come to mine, and then he threads his hands into my hair. I can’t help but think Grandpa is looking through his window down on me with an approving smile.

We make our way back to his house, and I see the pool house lights on and Kate moving around inside. We walk into the house and River leads me directly to his room and into the bathroom.