The Truth About Fairy Tales (9 page)

             
“What time do you have to be at work tonight?” he asked me sometime later, after we’d both drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.

             
“Mmmm, what time is it now?” He told me and I let him know that I still had a few more hours before my shift began.

             
“Good, I’ll drive you over. And since there’s absolutely nothing in your fridge to eat, we either go out or order in.”

             
“I usually get pizza…”

             
“That stuff will kill you. Let me handle it, okay.” He was dressed and had the food ordered by the time I emerged from the shower.

              He’d ordered Chinese, another one of my favorites, from a restaurant I’d never heard of before.

             
He closed the door and held out the bags to me.

             
“One of
your
routines?” I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking him if he'd shared this routine with any of his other women.               Instead, I concentrated on the seafood medley on my plate, because I didn't trust myself to look at him.

             
“It’s good, I promise. Try it.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek.

             
“I know, and it just so happens I love Chinese food almost as much as pizza.”

             
We spent the rest of the day holding each other and doing little else until it was time for me to leave for work.

             
Jackson parked beside my little car and waited to make sure it would start. For some reason he had his doubts. I didn’t tell him I’d had that car since high school. A hand me down from Lee. It might be a relic, but it had gotten me through quite a few difficult situations.

             
Jackson didn’t appear to be in any hurry to leave, which had me wondering what Miss Monday night might be thinking.

             
“What time do you get off tonight, little bit?” When he asked that question, I forced myself to squelch my happiness. I wasn’t going to wait around, and hoped he’d get around to calling me.

             
“Eleven.”

             
“So late? Then I’ll call you to make sure you get home, okay?”

             
Everything about Jackson thrilled me including his thoughtfulness.                            

It was unbelievably hard to say good-bye to
him and I was more upset with myself, because I’d let Jackson mean too much to me. I’d probably never see him again and if I did, it would only be for Saturday or possibly Sunday nights. I wouldn’t be anything more to Jackson than just another rotation in his schedule. Was I willing to settle for so little?

             
My shift that night seemed endless. All I wanted was to be alone with my thoughts. I’d been with Jackson since my last shift ended and I needed time to think.

             
I was desperate to get the old, focused Maggie back, but she seemed to have softened into one of those foolish little girls that could no longer concentrate.

             
I spent most of the evening dropping things, screwing up orders or simply forgetting why I was there in the first place. By eleven, everyone around me wanted the evening to end.

             
I’d just turned off the lights and climbed into bed when Jackson called.

             
“Hi there—you made it home okay, huh?”

             
I couldn't remember being this aware of another human being. Every single pitch in his voice was seductive and I tried to analyze the meaning of each of them.

             
“You weren't sleeping were you?” Oh, my God, did he have any idea what the sound of his voice was doing to me? I prayed not.

             
“No,” I somehow managed to get words to come out.

             
We talked for a little while, but I couldn’t remember anything he'd said because I was just listening his voice and getting lost in remembering things.

             
Somehow, through it all, I fell asleep. I awoke to the sound of someone ringing my doorbell and the dial tone blaring next to my ear.

             
I hung the phone up and went to answer the door only to find Jackson holding an overnight bag in one hand.

             
“Hi. You fell asleep on me.”

             
I couldn’t say a word. I still wasn’t convinced I wasn’t dreaming this whole thing.

             
“Do you want me to go?”

             
I shook my head and he closed my door, tossed the bag on the sofa, and took me back to bed.

             
It was still very early when he got out of my bed. I was exhausted physically as well as emotionally from the crazy range of emotions Jackson brought out in me.

             
He showered and dressed and then he came back to kiss me one more time.

             
“Go back to sleep, Maggie, it’s still early.”

             
Once he’d closed the door I wondered how he thought sleep would be possible without him there beside me. When I opened my eyes again, it was light out and Sidney was sitting on the bed barking at me.

             
“I’m sorry, baby…I’m sorry.” I threw on some clothes and took him for a walk. I’d just unlocked the door when my phone began to ring.

             
“Maggie, guess what?” This was Genna. It was always the same with her. No ‘hi, how are you,’ just straight to the heart of the matter.

             
“You’re pregnant?” Her silence confirmed I’d guess the truth. “You are? Really? Oh, Genna, that’s great! When did you find out?”

             
“Yesterday! Isn’t it wonderful? I’m so excited and you should just hear Layne. He’s positively euphoric. I can’t wait to start picking out baby clothes.”

             
I smiled to myself. Genna’s dreams were all coming true.

             
“Have you told Serena yet?” I knew the answer already. I’d been the first she’d called.

             
“No, I’m going to call her next. I can't wait for lunch tomorrow. We have so much to talk about and plan.”

             
“That’s great. She’ll be thrilled as well. How far along are you?” For the first time in my life, I was actually jealous of Genna. This wasn’t like me. I’d been replaced by 'pod girl' and 'pod girl' was crying.

             
Genna caught onto this about the same time as me. “Maggie? Are you all right? You sound, well strange, like…” Now she couldn’t actually say the words, because frankly, she hadn't seen me cry. She simply dismissed it as something else. “Are you sick?”

             
I grabbed at the excuse she offered like a lifeline. I’d all but forgotten that technically I was still suffering from the effects of a cold.

             
“Yes. I have a cold, but I’ll be fine by tomorrow. I’ll see you then."             

“Oh, course.
Ooh, I can’t wait to see you both.”

             
I hung up feeling a hundred percent better.

             
There wasn’t anything wrong with me. I'd been sick. I wasn’t going soft because of Jackson. There was no way he of all people was going to be the one to change my dreams.

             
I'd actually begun to feel quite cocky when the object of my confusion called, and the newer, softer Maggie returned to fill the old girl with doubts.

             
I closed my eyes and tried to steel myself against the sound of his voice.
Don’t let him know, don’t let him know,
my conscious screamed, but it was so hard not to be thrilled just by the sound of his voice.

             
“Hi…” I whispered in a softer more feminine voice. Who was this woman?

             
His laughed quietly. Had he seen the change in me?

             
“Okay, little bit, if you’re going to answer the phone like that then I’m probably going to forget I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes.”

             
I smiled and was so glad he wasn’t standing there in front of me. I didn’t want him to know that I was blushing all the way to my toes and back.

             
“Sorry…” Gees, what was wrong with me? I sounded like…like Genna. Dear sweet, soft, optimistic, full of nice thoughts Genna.

             
“Oh, don’t be. Because when you talk to me like that I remember last night and the night before and the night before that…”

             
I could only imagine he was also picturing my embarrassment as well because he was laughing again and I was blushing.

             
“Shouldn’t you be going to your meeting?”

             
“Probably.” But he didn’t seem in any hurry to do so. “What time do you get off work tonight, little bit?” The old, confident, don’t-let-anyone-sway-my-course Maggie would have cringed at being called little bit by anyone. Coming from Jackson, well, I couldn’t get enough of it.

             
“Same time as last night, Mr. Riley. That hasn’t changed.”

             
He said something under his breath. “I’m going to have to have a talk with Frank.”

             
“No…” Too late, I realized Jackson was only teasing me.

             
“Relax. I would never come between you and Frank. That’s not to say I’m happy he's keeping you so late. Anyway that was only part of the reason I called. I want you to have dinner with me tonight at my house. Let me make you dinner.”

             
I grinned with sheer happiness and tried to hide it by asking, “Can you even cook?”

             
He made a sound that was half shock and half pain that I doubted his talents in the kitchen. I didn’t really. I’m sure he was good at whatever he chose.

             
“Did you forget I was the one making you breakfast the other morning?”

             
“No…” I stammered my answer, embarrassed again. I hadn’t forgotten anything about that time, including all the things I’d told him that I shouldn’t have told to him.

             
“Good, then why don’t you come over to my place when you get off work? I’ll be waiting for you, little bit.”

             
Tell
him no. Tell him you have to study,
my conscious screamed all the while the new Maggie was readily agreeing to anything he cared to suggest.

             
“Look, my assistant is giving me the evil eye so I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tonight. Don’t stand me up, little bit, because I know where you live now.”

             
For the rest of the day, I floated on a cloud, oblivious to the world around me.

             
I took the test I’d been dreading for days, and didn’t care what my grade might be, which should have sent the old Maggie squirming like crazy.

             
For the rest of the day, I argued with myself right up to the time I rang his doorbell at half past fate, and he opened it. Fate sealed. Old Maggie forgotten.

Chapter Six

              Jackson possessed none of the same uncertainties I’d struggled with most of the day. He knew what he wanted, even though I was still a little confused. It wasn’t Saturday or Sunday night, but here I stood. What was up with that?

             
He took my hand, brought me close, and kissed me with more self-control than I possessed. Then he led me out onto the deck and to the most beautiful candle-lit dinner, I’d ever experienced.

             
The old Maggie would have had a field day with this sappy stuff, but this new girl was eating it up. I wanted to cry, another first for him and for me.

             
“You went to an awful lot of trouble…” I tried to sound unmoved, but I think he’d figured me out.

             
There was a certain gentling in him as well. “You’re worth it and so much more.” He took my clenched hands in his, easing them apart. Oh, yeah, he was quickly figuring out all of my little quirks.

             
“Come sit down.”

             
As I was quickly learning, Jackson was just a little bit old fashioned. He held out my chair, his fingers lingering against my shoulders before he reached down to kiss the nape of my neck.

             
I found out Jackson most certainly could cook and definitely more than just pancakes. The meal and the wine were perfect, but having him all to myself was the best part of the evening.

             
After dinner, he put on some slow music and asked me to dance. Seductive, sexy, he knew all the right things to do and say to melt my cranky little heart and shatter my self-control.

             
At the thought of the other women who shared the rotation cycle with me, I felt my softer side harden. I didn’t know where I stood here, but I didn’t want to be one of those ladies waiting for my turn.

             
“I should go,” I told him when another slow song began.

             
“No. Don’t go. Spend the night with me, Maggie.” He didn't let me go. We were no longer dancing. He stood looking down at me with that expression in those blue eyes that made me want to do anything for him.

             
“But I have class tomorrow.”

             
“And I have work.” He watched as I let go of all the arguments the old Maggie wanted to throw in his face and then I was in his arms and somehow in his bed and we were in a race to see which of us could get the other’s clothes off first.

****

              I had no idea whether or not Jackson actually owned an alarm clock, but it didn’t go off the next morning.

             
I awoke sometime just after eight to the bright sunlight streaming through his bedroom windows.

             
I sat up in bed and then remembered I wasn’t wearing a thing.

             
“Where do you think you’re going, Miss Monroe?” Jackson said as he reached for me.

             
I pushed his hand away and got out of bed. Was he crazy? We were both late…for something. “Did you forget to set the alarm last night?”

             
“I don’t happen to own an alarm.”

             
“What?” I looked at him as if he’d suddenly grown two heads. Who didn’t own an alarm clock?

             
“I don’t need one. Well, at least I didn’t until you came along. Now, I’m not so sure I’m going to see my next birthday.”

             
“Do you realize what time it is?” I ignored his references to health entirely and grabbed my watch. “I have to go home and let Sidney out, and you have to go to work.” I added the last part as an afterthought out of sheer desperation when Jackson kissed my bare shoulder and my determination started to slip a bit.

             
“I’m the boss. I can do whatever I want. Right now I want you.”

             
The sexy growl in his voice would have made me do just about anything he wanted.

****

              “Are you going to stay in bed all day?” I asked Jackson some time later after I was fully clothed and trying to ignore his bare chest and chiseled body as he lay in bed watching me.

             
“Maybe…what are you up to today, besides letting Sidney out and going to class?”

             
“I have lunch plans.” Okay, it’s a habit of mine to keep things to myself. I’m not the kind of person to share, well, very much of anything for that matter. This trait had become ingrained in my psyche since childhood as sort of a copying mechanism.

             
“Lunch plans, huh? And who exactly do you have lunch plans with, little bit?” Jackson had taken my hand and was slowly pulling me closer while I tried my very best to keep my eyes averted from that bare chest of his.

             
“No…no one. No one that you’d know anyway.”

             
I really wasn’t trying to be coy. In fact, I didn’t have a clue what I’d just said. He gave my hand a final tug and I was back in bed with him. I glanced up and found him looking almost angry.

             
“Who are you having lunch with?” This time, he let his lips do the persuading.

“Just a couple of girlfriends from back home
. You don’t know them.”

             
“Umm.” This was the only response I got for my honesty. His mind and his lips were already moving on to more personal things.

             
“Jackson, I have class.”

             
“What time?”

             
Okay, so I’d deliberately lied to him last night by letting him believe I had an early class, mostly out of self-preservation. I’d planned an early escape. In truth, my class didn't start until much later.

             
“Two…” the more accommodating Maggie offered willingly and heard him laugh.

             
“Then we have all morning. We can take our time and do this right.”

             
Two hours later, after we’d 'done it right' several more times, I tried very hard to convince myself I should be angry with Jackson. Anger would be a good motivator to get me past my desire to repeat what we’d been getting all too good at doing.

             
When we said good-bye, it was so hard not to ask him when I’d see him again. The question was so close, right there on the tip of my tongue and almost out, but somehow I bit my lip and clenched my hands and tried to be strong.

             
“Maggie, you’re not going to cry are you?” Jackson, who was becoming far too good at reading my little telltale give-away gestures stopped dead in his tracks when he saw this.

             
I tried to smile and failed, so I clenched my hands tighter and got into my car.

             
“For your information, I don’t cry, Mr. Riley, and I’m late for my lunch date.”

             
I drove away as fast as my car would allow me before he figured out another little thing about me. I was still that frightened little girl in Santa Anna who didn’t know what the future held for her.

             
There was no time to change before meeting my friends. They'd know something was different about me. After all, I had that freshly well…you get the picture, and I was actually not wearing jeans for once. I had on a dress. This had them all but floored. I rarely dressed up for any reason. They practically had to force me to wear the silly bridesmaid dress for Genna’s wedding.

             
Yet here I was in my best albeit casual dress all for Jackson’s benefit, which they of course didn’t know.

             
Serena was alone when I arrived. When she spotted me she let out a low whistle. “Look at you. What’s up with the dress?” She wasn’t even trying to disguise the fact that she was both shocked as well and intrigued. She couldn’t wait to get to the bottom of this change in me. Serena knew something very interesting had to be behind my sudden transformation.

             
“Nothing…what do you mean?”

             
“Since when do you wear dresses? That’s what I mean. Not that you don’t look nice in them, it’s just that I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually seen you in a dress over the past five years.”

             
“Well, I decided to try something different for a change. What's the big deal.”

Serena was even more curious.
“Uh huh. Well it’s not just the dress, Mags. It’s the whole glow thing you’ve got going there! You’re practically sparkling. What have you been do…” Right about then it hit her just where she’d seen the glow before and she smiled.

             
Before she could ask what I'd been doing to bring about the glow, Genna arrived.

She smiled and waved at us then slid into the booth next to Serena

"What’s up? Maggie? You’re actually early and you’re wearing a dress?” Genna’s shocked gaze went from me to Serena and then back to me. Her jaw slowly dropped. “And something is different about you. Don’t tell me you and Ben…”

             
“No…God no!” I shuddered at the thought. “No me and Ben nothing. He’s gone to Paris remember? He left last Saturday. There’s nothing new, so drop it—both of you—okay? There are no secrets here. I don’t want to talk about me. I want to hear about the baby…” I practically gushed the word which had both of them staring at me even harder. “What?”

             
“Okay, something’s up with you, Mags, and I intend to find out what, but you’re right. This is Genna’s party today. Don’t think that lets you off the hook one little bit, because it doesn’t. I’ll get the truth…don’t you worry about it.”

             
Of course, she was right. Serena might be the happy go lucky one, but she could be a stinker when it came to finding out the things that no one wanted her to know. She was like a dog in search of a bone. I knew I hadn’t heard the last of it, but I had absolutely no intention of ever letting either of them find out about Jackson.

             
I couldn’t, because I didn’t believe it would last.

             
So why did the thought of walking away from Jackson hurt like hell?

             
I stopped that terrible argument going round in my heart before it could threaten to overtake me with sadness. When I glanced up I found my friends watching me silently.

             
“The baby?” I reminded Genna.

             
For the rest of the lunch, until I had to leave for my class, we listened to Genna’s baby news.

             
While she was just a little more than three weeks along, she’d had the baby’s nursery planned since high school.

             
Genna loved Winnie the Pooh growing up. It had been her favorite cartoon character and she was determined whether she had a girl or a boy the baby’s room would have a Winnie the Pooh theme.

             
So we listened while Genna told us all about the morning sickness, which surprisingly enough she hadn’t noticed until she’d found out she was pregnant. All the while, Serena and I rolled our eyes at each other.