EIGHT
The sun was too hot.
At times like this, Carla would wonder how she came to be here. The sun was so hot it felt like her skin was on fire even though she was wearing a pair of shorts and the lightest silk material, sleeveless top. Her trek from the hospital was becoming tiring and she wished she could just get in a car and drive off. But the doctor had said the exercise was good for the baby.
Now, he didn’t say you needed to walk in the sun, did he?
Of course, the doctor had said no such thing, but Carla knew that as soon as she got home, she was not going to come out of the house again. Her six-month pregnant body was making her so lazy that it was a battle to get out of bed in the morning. She had even had to go on an early maternity leave from her teaching job in one of the private schools last month since she kept getting to work late. Sharon had helped with the appointment letter as an English teacher at her boyfriend, Romlos’s private school and with it, her visa application had been smooth.
Except for the hot weather, Carla would have loved Kenya. She loved that people still found the time to greet each other with smiles and that the young still respected the old. Though the country had its own issues, Carla loved that there were still many untapped opportunities for her students. Her visa was for two years but Carla was already thinking of an extension.
Carla couldn’t wait to get the twins out of her. An ultrasound had shown that she was carrying twins – a reason her belly was so huge, she could barely see where she was going. Even now, she was sure that a snail would win a race against her.
“Hey Carla!”
Carla smiled at the police officer on the road. Leon was a Kenyan American and she was sure that the officer liked her. He always stopped vehicles for her when she wanted to cross the road and sometimes when his colleagues were there, he saw her off to the house three lanes ahead.
“Hi Leon,” she greeted. She mopped at the sweat beading on her upper lip as she did.
“I can see you are not loving this heat,” Leon said sympathetically.
“I feel like someone unplugged the AC and left me to suffer.”
“When I was newly arrived from the US, I felt that way too. But the heat is almost gone now,” Leon consoled. “The rain will be here soon.”
Indeed, Carla had arrived in Kenya in the rains and she had loved it, thinking it wasn’t so bad here. But the heat had soon followed.
“I can’t wait,” she said. “I am going to bath in the rain buck naked.”
Leon’s eyes widened slightly, and she could see that he was imagining her naked. She wondered if his imagination ignored her pregnancy because if it didn’t, his vision would be nothing short of unappealing.
“See you some other time, Leon,” she said to him. “I need to get out of this heat.”
Carla knew that Leon would have loved to walk her home, but he was the only one on duty today and for that, Carla was grateful. She preferred to suffer her sun burns alone.
She was turning the corner into the street where she shared a house with Sharon when her phone rang. It was Sharon.
“Hi Sharon. I’m almost home…”
“No, don’t come home, Carla!”
Carla frowned at the phone in her hands. What was Sharon talking about?
“I was on break at work now and was about to boil some eggs for you when someone knocked. I thought you were back early and I just opened the door without checking. I’m sorry Carla, I wouldn’t have if I had known it was him!”
Carla still had no idea what her friend was blabbing about.
“Who was it? And what has your visitor got with me not coming home now? Listen, if you want to have sex with Romlos in broad daylight, it’s fine. I can’t hear you all the way from my room downstairs anyway.”
“Carla, you’re not listening to me! It is not Romlos; it’s Jackson, your Jackson!”
“Jackson?” she asked stupidly. Sharon must have no idea who she saw and what she was saying.
“Yes, he was just there, and I had no idea who he was, and he asked if I was Sharon and if I knew a Carla Thornton and if she lived here. I was so stupid, I should have known! When he revealed who he was, it was too late. I had him leave but he might still be hanging around in his car – it’s white, if you see it, Carla, hide!”
Carla’s heart was beating thunderously in her chest as she listened to Sharon. Not even once had she imagined that Jackson might come looking for her. She had fantasized many times about him, even having sex with him and building a family with her twins and him. But she had never expected to see him again, never.
Frantically, Carla disconnected the call and searched around the neighborhood for a white car. Her house was still at the end of the next street and if Jackson was hanging around, it was dangerous to proceed. Her eyes caught the glint of a car racing towards her and she turned back the way she came from.
It was a white car!
Hurriedly, she began walking away even as she heard the car drive up to her. Carla began to pray that it wasn’t him, but somehow, she knew it was. Then, she prayed that he hadn’t seen her. She was wearing a black scarf and dark sunshades to protect her against the sun. She had a shawl around her shoulders too and she was considerably fatter due to her pregnancy; he shouldn’t recognize her.
“Carla?”
So much for her prayers. It was really him, she would recognize that honey drawl anywhere. She didn’t answer but continued to walk as fast as her pregnancy-laden legs could carry her.
“Carla!” The car continued alongside her. “Come on Carla, I know it is you.”
She still refused to answer but kept on walking, thinking of what to do. She wondered how long she was going to keep up the charade. She heard the engine of the car stop, and in the time it took him to park the car and get out, Carla wished she could just disappear or run away. However, she knew that the game was up. She wasn’t going to outrun Jackson.
She stopped at a tree and sat on a slab of stone in its shade. Quickly, she gathered her shawl around her before Jackson joined her.
“Hi,” she said quietly.
****
In all those times that Carla had dreamt that she was with Jace, she hadn’t imagined that he would be looking at her with so much anger in his eyes. She had imagined that he was as in love with her as she was with him and that there were no babies involved and he had proposed to her. As soon as she said yes, she saw her stomach grow big and they lived happily ever after. In other dreams, she was simply having hot, wild sex with him; he hadn’t been angry in those dreams either.
The reality was different however. Jace’s blue eyes were a stormy shade of blue as he stood above her. In a white shirt, blue jeans and blue Nike shoes, he was still the handsome devil that he always was, and her heart did a wild dance just seeing him.
“Do you know how long I’ve searched for you? Do you know what hell you’ve put me through?”
“Keep your voice down, Jackson,” Carla gritted out. “You’ll attract attention.”
Carla was grateful that the neighborhood was a residential one where mostly politicians lived; the children were at school and parents at work at this time or else she and Jackson would make a fine spectacle right now.
“I don’t care about anybody,” Jackson screamed. “I want answers!”
Really, she didn’t know why he was so angry. He had been the one who left for weeks before she traveled.
“I didn’t ask you to search for me, did I? And why are you searching for me, I left you a proper resignation letter, didn’t I?”
“Resignation letter!” he roared. “Who’s talking about a resignation letter? And do you call that a resignation letter? You wouldn’t even say why you were leaving and where you were going!”
“I didn’t know I needed to disclose that to you; it was private information.”
Every word she spoke to him hurt. The last time she had seen him had been at the airport when they came back from Seattle and she had missed him so. Now, he was standing right in front of her and she couldn’t even hug him. She couldn’t even tell him about her babies.
His eyes burned a bright blue flame at her words. “What do you mean it was private information?” he asked in a deadly voice.
“Look, Jackson. I was your employee for what – one month? I don’t owe you an explanation,” she said tiredly. “I wanted to go, and I left a letter. That should have been enough. And I got you a good replacement and even helped her with a draft proposal for the EPE project. It wasn’t my fault you took so long coming back to know of the changes.”
Jackson hadn’t come back in the two-weeks-notice she gave to the company and she had begged the manager not to let him know until he arrived back.
“Oh yes, the company is fine,” Jackson answered in a sarcastic drawl as he glared down at her. “Clegg and Hyde is fucking fine, but what about me? What about me, Carla? Did you care to know if I was doing okay? I thought our weekend in Seattle meant something to you!”
He was no longer screaming at her, but she could still see the anger in his eyes. There was some other emotion in his eyes too, but she couldn’t say what it was. In answer to his question, she wanted to say, “Yes, Seattle meant the world to me” but what she said was, “I knew you would be fine. You had your businesses, your houses and all your women fighting over you. Why would you be anything otherwise?”
She had meant for her words to be calm and unaffected, but they had come out shaky and hurt. She hoped he didn’t notice.
He looked taken aback by her statement. “You think all of that mattered to me?” his voice was now dangerously low. “I had to leave my house on Manhattan Beach to Adrian in exchange for you – the only thing we have ever agreed on and you think I cared about my women and company?”
Carla had no idea what he meant but suddenly, she was angry.
“Yes, you bargained for me like a piece of furniture…” just then, his words sank in. “You left your house to Adrian? You inherited it from your grandmother!”
For a minute, the anger seemed to leave him as he sheepishly admitted, “Yes, the thief knew it was the only direct inheritance I had from Gran, but he still wanted it. The rest, she would have us divide up ourselves without taking one another to court.”
“I want to understand you, Jackson,” Carla was shaking her head. “You gave up your house in exchange for me to come and work for you?”
“Yes, it was the only thing he was willing to accept,” he responded slowly.
“Of all the craziest things… Why on earth would you do that?”
“Because I was starting to fall in love with you and I wanted you with me.”
“What?” Carla was shocked to her very core. Of course, she hadn’t heard that right.
“Of course, I wasn’t aware of what I was feeling at the time, but I think I fell in love with you the first day I came to Adrian’s office,” Jackson ran a hand through his hair and then began to bounce on his feet. He looked like he was talking more to himself than to her. “There is no other explanation – or else, why would I always go to Adrian’s office only to end up disagreeing to all the terms and conditions we set? Of course, it was to see you! Why else would I break up with Mia over nothing apparently? Perhaps, I already knew I wanted to be with you. I wanted to bring you closer to me, to study you, to know what I found in you that made me dream of you at night. I loved you even then, Carla.”
And for the first time in all of Carla’s life, her head was completely empty. Carla had no idea what to say, think or do. All those times she imagined a life with Jackson, she had told herself that she was asking too much. Now, that she heard him confess his reasons to her, she didn’t believe him; she couldn’t believe him. It would devastate her, no, completely destroy her if this was a joke.
“Stop saying nonsense, Jackson,” she said. “You couldn’t wait to get rid of me as soon as we left Seattle. You even ran away just so you wouldn’t see me in your life and office again!”
Jackson took a step back, surprise in his eyes. “Is that what you think?” Carla kept stubbornly mute. His confessions still rang in her head and the hope in her heart fought to get out. He sighed and added, “Of course, I didn’t give any explanation, you must have thought the worst of me.”
Carla said nothing. With bated breath, she waited for him to tell her why. She had spent all those weeks agonizing over the assumption that he couldn’t bear to see her again. Now, she would like to know what really happened. “The truth was, I was so confused about what I felt for you. Sex with you was not what I was used to; I felt it to my soul and I was scared. My sister knows about these things, so I called her at dawn to explain to her – and it was perfect timing. She was all alone in the house and in labor. I called the hospital for her and left the next morning. I got there to learn that she had complications; she wasn’t due another month. In between fighting for her life, soothing her distraught husband and trying to sort out my feelings for you, I lost track of time. By the time Kayla was on her feet again, I was obsessing over you and ready to come back. But I wasn’t used to that kind of feeling, so I made a terrible decision instead; I decided to cut you off completely to see how I would cope without you. I didn’t do well. It was hell Carla. Kayla noticed, and she was the one who told me what I was feeling. By the time I got back, you were gone…”
All through his speech, Carla tried to sort out her feelings, to determine what she was feeling at the moment. She was sorry about his sister and was glad that she was alright now, but it was tough accepting what he told her. Here was Jackson telling her he had been in love with her while he let her suffer the aftermath of their weekend in Seattle alone. Suddenly, she felt so angry with him.
“And now that you’ve found me, what? You idiot! Do you have any idea what I went through waiting to hear from you? Do you know how much I beat myself up for everything? What? You liked me, and you couldn’t even tell me right from the beginning? You had to bribe Adrian instead of simply asking me out? That would have killed you if it made the news – the handsome, rich millionaire asking out his brother’s ugly secretary!”
“Now, you’re the one talking nonsense,” he retorted. “You’re not ugly, you’re the most beautiful woman I know, and I only wanted to be sure of my feelings.”
“Oh, that’s rich!” Carla pulled at her hair, angry beyond words. “While you were sorting out your feelings, I was going through hell for daring to fall in love with you and carrying your babies alone in Kenya’s hot sun!”
Jackson’s mouth closed with an audible click.
“You love me? Wait, you, you’re carrying my baby?”
The look on his face was one of such wondrous discovery that all the anger drained out of her. She could see the love in his eyes now as his gaze lowered to her belly. The shawl was on the floor and her baby bump couldn’t be more obvious.
“Babies,” she corrected. “There are twins in there – and yes, they are yours. And yes, I do love you.”
Jackson looked terrified. His eyes flew from her eyes to her stomach and then back again. He took a step forward as if to hug her and then he stopped as if he didn’t know what to do. The confusion in his eyes was comical.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he finally asked.
“Because I didn’t want you to feel obligated to propose to me – I know you would have because of your childhood. I don’t want to tie you into marriage with a child when you already said you never want to get married.”
“And when did I tell you that?” he was still looking so confused yet so happy, the mixture of both looking at war on his handsome face.
“I read it in…”
“The Manhattan Rich,” he sighed.
Carla nodded. “I actually started to read the paper because of you. I guess I was already more than half in love then too.”
Both of them fell silent. Carla was thinking of all the time they had wasted and all the suffering they had both endured. She wondered if he loved her still. Looking at Jackson however, she felt hope flutter in her heart. He wouldn’t have traveled across continents to reach her if he didn’t love her.
“All that time wasted,” Jackson said, echoing her thoughts.
Suddenly, he dragged her to him and hugged her so tightly, she couldn’t breathe.
“I love you, Carla,” he whispered into her ears.
The words were like a balm to her soul. She felt so renewed, so complete. The joy spread from her heart to all parts of her body and the babies kicked; one first and then the other. Jackson felt them and leaned away from her to stare down at her stomach in wonder.
“Was that the…”
“Yes, the babies,” she nodded happily. “They must have felt their father’s love.”
Reverently, he placed a hand on her stomach, his eyes widening when the twins kicked again. His lips opened to form the biggest ‘O’ and the light in his eyes could lighten up the darkest tunnel.
“Marry me, Carla,” he said suddenly. “I want you – and the babies in my life. I want you by my side every day. I want to go on adventures with you, so you can tell our babies that you really started living when you met me. Please don’t say no.”
Carla did not need to think on his proposal. “I won’t say ‘no’ silly,” she said. There were tears in her eyes and she sniffed as she said, “Yes.”
He lifted her in his arms with a delighted warrior cry.
“We’ve got to tell your friend now,” he said, still carrying her in his arms.
“Why?” she asked, smiling.
“When I told her who I was, she looked like she didn’t like me; I want to rub it in.”
Carla laughed happily as he carried her toward his car. She thought Sharon and Jackson would actually get along just fine.
“And what were you doing walking in this sun anyway?” he asked, a frown on his face.
“The doctors said it’s good for my babies,” she giggled at the fierce expression of protection on his face.
“Our babies,” he corrected.
“Our babies,” she accepted.
“And you’re not walking without me again,” he ordered.
“I didn’t think billionaires like you liked to walk, Mr. Daniels,” she teased.
“Oh, this one does,” he countered easily, “as long as the wife is right beside him, loving him as much as he loves her every step of the way.”
“And what would rich, handsome playboys know about love?”
“A lot…”
As they bantered back and forth, Carla remembered a different time when they used to do the same. It was really a shame she hadn’t known about his feelings for her then.
But it wasn’t too late. She was going to spend the rest of her life loving him.
THE END.