Darren reflected on the interview. Sherry answered the questions pretty professionally, even though I know she must’ve been thinking about that night. Wondered what happened at The Blue Ivy? Seemed like it was something out of the ordinary...not a run-of-the-mill getting fired. Her reaction to me having adopted a child was pretty mild… She didn’t ask a lot of the questions a lot of people so far.
Gabriel started to wake up, pulling Darren’s train of thought off of its track. The father comforted the baby, hoping to ward off crying as he rose up and headed into the bedroom. Darren gently placed the Gabriel back down into his crib. He looked at him for a moment while standing at the doorway. Darren’s smiled as he thought about how his life had changed in ways he would’ve never imagined.
After standing in Gabriel’s doorway for several moments more, Darren finally turned away. As he headed back downstairs, he thought more about Sherry. Why did she react that way when I told her Gabriel’s name?
Darren went on with his evening, pushing today’s strange and very unconventional events to the side as he went on to answer emails and get in touch with the property management company.
Chapter 8
“Oh, Gabriel,” Sherry said, rocking the baby slightly as they walked back into the nursery from the bedroom. For the better part of the last thirty minutes, she’d been sitting at the side of the tub while giving Gabriel a bath. A couple of days ago had passed since she spoke with Darren about possibly needing to get a different kind of soap. Reddish rashes started popping up on Gabriel’s soft skin. “It’s okay, it’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”
Sherry, now having been a live-in nanny for Gabriel for nearly a month, did as she always did when the baby would get into a fit after a bath. She would sing random melodies to him, rocking him gently at the side of the crib. The winter had come and gone with shivering, icy temperatures and a few snow storms. When Sherry officially started her job, she would walk Gabriel over to the window, open the curtains quickly, and the sudden burst of ice cycle-filtered lighting commanded the baby’s attention in a way Sherry had never seen before. Now, as Spring rolled up to the curb with premature warm temperatures, she simply rocked Gabriel until he relaxed enough to finally fall asleep. She checked his diaper before walking away from the crib.
Shortly after pulling Gabriel’s door up to where it was ajar a few inches, the front door opened then closed downstairs. She leaned over the banister and saw the top of Darren’s head. He had been gone most of the day, supposedly going to meetings as usual. Sherry still hadn’t gotten a full gauge of what all this guy did, but she certainly felt it would be out of place to ask. Aside from this, she still wondered why this good-looking, seemingly accomplished guy would adopt a child and raise him alone. Sherry wasn’t sure if she’d ever even heard of such a thing. She’d gotten to know him even better over the last month or so and thought there was no way he would have a problem getting a wife.
Sherry stopped by her bedroom to get her phone then headed downstairs. Her downtime was always a bit odd, as it was unpredictable to say the least. She figured she’d go ahead and finally have the snack that she was putting off since lunch time. As she headed into the kitchen, she heard Darren moving around in the kitchen. “Hello,” she said as she stepped over the threshold.
Darren smiled and said, “Hello,” then watched Sherry put a lunch meat sandwich together on the kitchen island. He couldn’t help but to notice her how body had been getting in better shape consistently over the last several weeks. Sherry’s demeanor and spirit had obviously become more positive. Some of the glow she’d lost somewhere along the way since their one-night stand was slowly coming back. Still, since her moving into his house and officially taking the role as nanny, he wondered what she’d gone through. If he didn’t know any better – and with the sheltered, privileged life he’d had, he very well could not know better – he would’ve thought she was losing weight after having a child. Even if such were the case, it still wouldn’t explain the wear and tear in her face. Sherry’s eyes were still colder than Darren remembered...and he still looked for segways in conversations where he might be able to get a little more insight into how her life had really been before she got this job. A price couldn’t be put on her seemingly natural bond with Gabriel.
“So, how was he today?” Darren asked.
This question had become a regular occurrence for Darren to ask when he got home. And Sherry noticed this. “He was alright,” she answered, nodding her head. “You remember how I was mentioning a rash he’s getting now that I’m noticing when he gets out of the bath tub? I’m noticing that more and more...but mainly it only looks flared up when he gets out of the bath.”
“The soap,” Darren said. He spoke with a pediatrician over the phone already who advised that if trading out the baby’s soap for something more sensitive could very well solve the problem. “Okay. Thanks for keeping me up to date on that. Can you just go and get something more sensitive for his skin?”
Darren and Sherry went back and forth for a few moments more about Gabriel’s skin rash then the conversation fell flat. Sherry went back to putting her sandwich together. Darren, who had come into the kitchen to get a glass of lemonade, wandered over toward the French doors. He looked out for a moment then pulled one door open. A strong whisk of warm, humid wind whipped into the dining room then rushing into the kitchen. When it collided with Sherry’s shoulder, she closed her eyes. Literally the perfect temperature.
Darren stepped out onto the terrace for a moment. He slipped his jacket off and tossed it over the back of a chair. His eyes fell on the grill shortly after looking up at the sky. This night was particularly warm for a night in early march. If that had been any other year, there could’ve very well still been snow on the ground. Smiling, Darren nodded his head. And he truly believed he had just what he needed in the refrigerator already.
Sherry had just turned toward the French doors. With her sandwich in hand, she’d just been about to take a bite when she noticed Darren rush back into the dining area. He zigzagged around the furniture then made a beeline for the refrigerator. Sherry smiled. This guy is really a character...in his own kind of way.
Darren ransacked the refrigerator then worked his way to the freezer. Seconds after he got a glimpse of the box, he repeated “yes” at least twenty times as he pulled the box of Omaha steaks out of the back of the freezer than grabbed a bag of jumbo, deveined shrimp he’d picked up a couple of weeks ago. It only took him seconds to pull at least a dozen seasonings and marinades out. By the time he’d gotten peppers, tomatoes, and an onion out of the fridge and bunched them on the table with everything else, he noticed Sherry. She’d been standing at the other end of the kitchen island.
Darren smiled, feeling a bit silly. “Tonight would be a great night to grill out,” he said. “Why not? I caught up on just about everything I had to do today. Don’t anticipate much going on tonight. It’s so warm outside for march.”
Sherry smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I sat out back with Gabriel for a little bit earlier. It’s totally warm for this time of the night. I got a glimpse of the news earlier and I think that maybe a storm might be coming, but I really wasn’t paying attention.” She looked past Darren and out at the backyard then up toward the clouds. The clouds did look heavy and gray; however, anything severe looked a little far off at the moment.
“You want some?” Darren asked. “I’m going to grill these steaks, some shrimp. Vegetables. Back in Chicago, I used to grill out a lot while I was in college. Something about grilling all your food...it just seems healthier.”
Since about a month before starting the job, Sherry had been working more adamantly about losing the baby weight. And she was seeing success. In just six months, she lost twenty pounds and it showed. She’d been eating lighter foods as well as drinking more water. She looked down at her sandwich and figured she could go ahead and have some grilled steak and shrimp. I can’t turn something like this down.
Sherry shrugged her shoulders then set her sandwich down on the counter. “Sure,” she said.
Darren chuckled under his breath and looked into Sherry’s eyes for a couple of seconds too long. “Okay, let’s see.”
Sherry poured a glass of lemonade then walked over to the dining area. She sat at a dining room chair and watched as Darren boiled, then seasoned or marinated the meat. Giggles sporadically slipped out of her mouth. Darren was a good businessman who clearly had been working his way up in the world in his new city. The fun part of him seeped out at times – at times where maybe he felt a little freer to be himself and not have to represent a certain look to be taken serious.
“So, I can’t take any part in this?” Sherry asked, raising her eyebrows.
Darren had gotten so carried away. He paused and looked down at the vegetables. He’d been waiting on the gas grill to warm up. Sherry cooked for herself as well as small things for Gabriel; however, Darren really hadn’t seen her do anything major.
“Do you grill?” Darren asked, playfully squinting his eyes.
Sherry walked back into the kitchen and stepped up to the other side of the kitchen island. “Did it all the time growing up,” she said. The words came out so naturally – effortlessly – however, it came with a bit of a sting. As the days had gone on and she was more and more used to caring for a baby, she found her family on the line. “I was the princess of barbecue in my family. People would come to family events at our house because they knew I was going to be grilling.”
Darren’s head leaned back as a playful gesture of disbelief. He then looked at Sherry for a good, long moment, up and down. This chick looks like she’s telling the truth. “Oh, yeah?”
Sherry nodded and came around to the other side of the island. “Yeah, seriously. I always liked my meat grilled, so my dad would do it for me all the time. Then, when we started having hard times when I was a teenager, he had to work a lot more. Well, he was a trucker, so he gone at a lot longer times than usual. So, I learned how to do it and liked doing it. The men in my family hated my guts.”
Darren nodded his head, trying to not smile. “Okay.” He set one steak in front of her then pulled grilling supplies out of the cabinets. “Let’s see whose steak comes out better.”
Sherry giggled. This job became more and more interesting everyday. She took the steak, looked up into Darren’s eyes then smiled. “Okay, time for me to show you how to do it.”
Darren and Sherry went on with preparing their steaks, each using their own techniques for pre-cooking, tenderizing, and marinating. When Darren offered Sherry some vegetables to make her own creation, Sherry playfully scuffed as if she were insulted. “Grilling vegetables is for lightweights.”
Darren laughed out loud. Once he and Sherry went on about preparing their food, the silence was too loud for either of them. Darren poured a glass of wine to accompany the warm wind rushing into the house from the opened french doors. He quickly made his way around the kitchen and dining area and opened every window – every French door. Breezes at time pulled curtains up into the air. Darren looked over at Sherry. With every passing day since her arrival, he wanted to know her story. So many times, he chose to bite his tongue rather than open up a wound. He watched Sherry take a sip of her wine then put it down.
“Do you miss your family?” Darren asked.
“Uhh,” Sherry said, collecting her thoughts. “At times, I do. At times.”
“Oh, I see,” Darren said.
“You?” Sherry asked.,
Darren shrugged his shoulders, going on about getting his vegetable skewers prepared as he explained. “Sometimes, I do, but not often.”
Sherry chuckled. “Wow.” She imagined his family to be the kind of people someone would want their family to be. This guy sure didn’t come from a shabby background. “Why do you say it like that? What could be wrong with your family?”
Darren looked up at Sherry with serious eyes then smiled, breaking his mean stare. “My family….my family.” He clicked the back of his teeth with the tip of his tongue. “They’re a bunch of snobby people who only want to be friends with people because of what they can do for them. Some of it is okay, but sometimes it just seems wrong. It’s hard to explain. I was always the one out, I guess you could say. There were just certain words I didn’t want to be in.”
Sherry nodded, translating Darren’s explanation in her mind. “Oh, okay.” Badly she wanted to ask specific questions about this guy’s background. Still, even after three weeks, Sherry noticed Darren’s word choices and how he was never too revealing. “Well, my family are...are...conservative, let’s say.”
Darren nodded, but wasn’t surprised to hear Sherry’s response. Growing up in Chicago and going with his parents to political events and meetings over in Indiana at times, he was very aware of the cultural and social differences between Chicago and a place like rural Indiana. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“No, it’s a little worse than you probably would imagine, actually,” Sherry said. “They’re like conservative to the max. On steroids. They’re not bad people or anything like that, but they can be kind of controlling.”
Darren nodded. He picked up on how Sherry looked for a moment as she explained. Obviously, her relationship with her family brought about a bit of anguish to think about. Darren’s relationship with his family wasn’t so tense, per se. Now that he adopted a child without getting married, his name certainly came up more. On top of that, Darren didn’t go for being mom’s pawn in Chicago’s corrupt, political world. He rarely made an event like his other cousins or his brother John.
“Okay, so when people say conservative, what do you really mean?” Darren asked. “Like are they super religious.”
Sherry giggled – a giggle which disrupted the flow of the conversation by turning into an outright laugh. “That’s funny.” You can tell this guy is from a place like Chicago. “Well, that’s one thing. They do go to church every Sunday, but it’s not like they go around knocking on peoples’ doors early on a Saturday morning.” She chuckled. “It’s more like they believe you should live a certain way...by a certain formula. Daughter should be married and settled by thirty. Having baby’s out of wedlock? They will smile in your face, but just know it’s not all smiles when they’re back at the house, congregated in the living room, talking about you with a cold drink in their hand.”
“I see,” Darren said then chuckled. “Mine is kind of the same way, but they just pay the way out of it.”
Sherry nodded then looked down, reminiscing about some of the hard times they had growing up. “How you figure that then?” she asked, smiling.
Sherry listened to Darren talk about his family wanting to rule the world and do anything to get to that point. His mother kissed any important ass she could; has worked for twenty years as a kick-ass attorney who Darren believed probably took kickbacks. His father was basically a slumlord, even though that “enterprise” wasn’t his only source of income. He owned more than a hundred low-income properties around Chicago and in Northern Indiana. Fixing stuff for people? The man shrugged and said, “Whatever the law says and work down the list by how much their rent is.”
“Oh, wow,” Sherry said, getting a mental image of a top heavy guy in a trench coat with a devious look on his face. “That’s intense.”
Sherry and Darren continued on finishing up their talk about their families. Much to the others surprise, they each were the “black sheep,” so to speak, of the family. Sherry had become virtually estranged because she didn’t want to play by her family’s rules. Darren was “in touch,” but it was certainly easy of to not keep in contact for years at a time with anyone outside of his brother, mother, and father. He missed three cousins’ wedding, an uncle’s funeral as well as an aunt’s, and several family functions and trips. When he did come around, his family often bombarded him about his “adventures” – travels, incidents in bars, as well as questionable women that sent his mother straight to the phone so she could call somebody and get a background report.
Sherry laughed out-loud imagining a tall, stern woman on the phone waiting for information. “Your mother sounds like...like...like a real character.”
“Yeah,” Darren said.
Darren asked Sherry to join him out on the terrace when they put their meat on the grill. She picked up her glass then followed him outside. They sat out on the section that reached away from the back part of the roof. Every time Sherry sat out here with Gabriel, she felt like she was in a new world. This yard is so beautiful.
And now here Sherry sat, across the table from Darren. She noticed how content this guy seemed to be with being a single father. Still, she hadn’t figured out why this guy would opt to adopt rather than get married. Shortly after a warm breeze whipped across the terrace once again, an idea was left behind in its aftermath. The trees shading this corner of the terrace rustled their leaves as Sherry turned toward Darren.
“Your mother sounds like she probably wouldn’t be happy with any woman you brought home,” Sherry said.
Darren chuckled and sipped his wind. “Well, she was always nice...and she always wanted to know what their parents did for a living. Everyone of them is the enemy and could potential take everything.”
“Yeah, my dad used to run off every boyfriend I ever had,” Sherry said. “Well, not literally I should say. There were a few that stuck it out, but my dad was something that certainly came up if we were close to breaking up.”
Darren shook his head and laughed. “Yeah, one day Darren will be dealing with that.”
“Yeah,” Sherry said. She noticed again how Darren deflected from talking about his love history to the extent she wanted.
Darren and Sherry looked at one another for a second too long then looked away. Neither had anything to say. Sherry glanced over at Darren. Her perception of him had really changed tonight. For some reason, she would think back to when they were dancing. At the time, Darren wasn’t even her type of guy, but when they danced, everything went in sync.
Darren glanced over at Sherry when she would look over at one of the rose gardens on the south side of the yard. She crossed her legs as if they were delicate. Her personality seemed to genuine – the total opposite of the world he came from. This woman was just trying to survive as herself and even her family had been cold to her. Darren could relate. The wine kicked in and the breeze felt perfect.
Sherry noticed Darren clear his throat. Her head started to buzz a bit; her blinks lasted a little longer. First, she smiled then Darren did. She took another sip of her wine, savored the taste, then jumped up. She made her way over to the grill. “Let’s get a good look at the greatest steak in the world.”
Darren laughed out loud. He then jumped up and rushed over the grill. “Yup, let’s see what mine is looking like.”
For the next couple of minutes, Darren and Sherry could hardly contain their laughter. They insulted the others steak then complimenting their own. Sherry said he needed to tenderize his meat a bit more; Darren insisted that Sherry’s would probably wind up a bit burnt. “The grasshopper will learn,” she said.
Darren laughed. Then, as the backyard trees above them rustled with another breeze, Darren turned and looked at Sherry. He didn’t turn around. Sherry noticed, turning away from her steak and setting the fork down. Before she knew it, Darren had gripped her chin and leaned over. He looked into her eyes for a long moment then they embraced one another in a passionate kiss. Sherry melted. The tension she had from her own hectic life, as well as finding herself working as a nanny to come out of a major slump – a nanny of a precious baby boy who was the exact same age her own baby and with the same name would be.
Darren kissed Sherry passionately for a long moment. It had been a long time since he kissed a woman like this. He struggled to finally pull his lips apart from Sherry’s. They smiled, Sherry biting her bottom lip as she looked up into his eyes. Admittedly, she was taken aback by the kiss. However, like the warm breeze rushing across the yard every couple of minutes, she couldn’t turn it away.
Sherry, this time, pressed her lips into Darren’s. They kissed passionately once again, getting lost in time while Darren positioned his hands on Sherry’s lower back and held her closely. Sherry eventually threw her arms up around Darren’s broad shoulders. She leaned forward a bit; Darren “caught” her, holding her in a slight suspension.
Darren broke the kissed, looked around deviously, then grabbed Sherry’s hand. Sherry giggled as she jumped up the step to keep up. Before she knew it, she lay back on an outdoor sofa between two of the sets of french doors. Darren leaned over her, his tall body overbearing her in just the way she liked. Sherry wrapped her legs around his back.
Sherry enjoyed the deep embrace then leaned her head back to breathe when Darren started making his way down her knees. Tickling sensations at times made her to laugh out loud. Darren laughed harder then kissing his way down to her chest. He pulled his head back and admired Sherry the same way he had back when he went to her place. He liked the size; the natural thickness of her chest. Kissing them softly was a great pleasure for Darren. And he could tell Sherry enjoyed it herself.
For the first time in a long time, Sherry felt like her old self. She rubbed Darren’s head and looked down every so often. He now made his way down her stomach. She shuttered when he would go too far over over to the sides. Darren chuckled sometimes in return. Of the hookups he had since Sherry, something about this one was different. Rarely did he connect on a personal level with a woman. He had gotten a dose of this feeling with Sherry when he’d gotten up the next morning and headed to the airport. The more time she spent in his presence, the more he had been wondering why he didn’t keep in touch with her.
Seeing Sherry loosen up in a way she hadn’t in a long time, Darren tugged at the waist of her pants. “You serious?” she asked.
Spontaneously was the name of the first ten years of his adult life. He shrugged his right shoulder and smiled. “Why not?”
Sherry smiled and giggled, remembering Darren from that night in her bed. For him to be a businessman kind of guy, he certainly was fun to hook up with. Fond memories came to mind when he thought about Darren after he went back to Chicago, but she never really saw herself as the kind of woman who would catch this kind of man’s interest.
No more persuading was needed. Sherry lifted her body up as Darren slid off her pants. He threw them to the side then lowered his own pants. The breeze felt so relaxing to their legs. This particular area of the terrace was not only covered by the protruding roof, but also by a thick row of bushes bordering the stone siding. At the front of the terrace were large corkscrew bushes, but spaced apart. The likelihood of the neighbors seeing was pretty slim. Neither Darren or Sherry cared. Certain anxieties and frustrations they both had been carrying on their shoulders recently slid off like boulders slipping over the edges of a cliff.
Sherry looked over at Darren as he stood up and took off his shoes then pants. “Somebody looks happy already,” Sherry said. She brazenly reached over and grabbed Darren’s bulge, much like the night at her apartment. His strong eyes turned to Sherry, then glanced down at her grabbing his bulge. Something about this chick. He looked down at her bare legs then ran his fingertips along the insides of her thighs. Watching her quiver then smile made his cock throb.
Darren lay back over Sherry and pressed his lips into hers. This time, he put his fingers in her hair and rubbed the top of her head. When they parted lips, he could see the weariness she battled started to dissipate from her eyes. After chuckling deviously, Darren smiled then Sherry watched his head slowly disappear from her vision as she looked up at the protruding roof. Vines slithered up the posts.
Sherry moaned from feeling Darren’s tongue slash about between her legs. It had been so long since she enjoyed this innate pleasure. She bit her bottom lip, sometimes closing her eyes for long periods of time. Every so often, pressure built up and she would feel her legs tensing up. When Darren slashed his tongue back and forth on her clit for nearly a minute straight, almost with perfect rhythm, Sherry’s jointed popped loud enough for both of them to hear then she started panting.
Darren took a big whiff; his jaws became sore. Sherry’s scent was just how he remembered it; whatever kind of soap she used mixed with her natural fragrance in such a way that created this pheromone Darren found hypnotic. Usually, he might be a little hesitant to give oral to a woman. But this was different. It seemed so natural – no debate, no going back and forth in his mind.
Several minutes later, Sherry’s urges overcame. This man had her back tingling in ways it hadn’t since her first love in high school. She squeezed the sides of Darren’s head with her inner thighs for a long pause then leaned down and pushed him back. Going with the flow, he sat up right on the couch with his legs spread apart. The rest of the world – the houses on either of his own as well as those across the alley – slipped away. Thick clouds rolled over Fort Wayne, but there was no place he would rather be than doing something so courageous out on his terrace...and with a woman like Sherry.
Darren leaned back as Sherry slid down onto her knees, between Darren’s legs. He chuckled, looking down at her in this position for the first time as it wasn’t something they did when they first hooked up. She is so hot.
Sherry maintained eye contact with Darren as she slowly lowered her head. Hidden by the protection of the bushes, vines, heavy shadows, and a privacy fence, Darren’s head fell back. His eyes rolled back into his head. “Fuck,” he said, the bass in his voice so low it nearly mimicked a faint whisper.
Darren moaned while running his hands through Sherry’s head as she orally pleased him. She grabbed the base then ran her tongue up and down the shaft. Her looking up and into his eyes turned him on in ways he’d never be able to describe if he were asked. The passion was real – intense. The connection, albeit not necessarily under the typical conditions – felt more genuine than with any other either of them had ever experienced. Darren relived the feeling of being young with the first girl he liked, free of the stressed and expectations of his elite family. Sherry’s felt as if her chest was lifted of a major burden, like she could breathe again. She felt like her first time making out in the back of her parents’ car with her boyfriend when they were gone to Indianapolis. This was spontaneous – daring, maybe even a bit risky. And that’s why she loved it.
“Damn,” Darren said. He gently pulled Sherry’s head up and looked into her eyes for a moment before pressing his lips into hers. They kissed then smiled at one another. He chuckled.
Sherry looked into Darren’s eyes and felt as if their hearts were speaking to one another. She lifted herself up onto the couch and planted a knees into the cushion on either side of Daren. Darren, like the frat boy he’d famously been known as in his college years, pressed his face into Sherry’s chest and laughed as he slammed the sides of his face in the middle. The warmth contrasted so well with the warm breeze. When he pulled his face out of her bosom, he positioned his mouth over Sherry’s nipples then flickered his tongue. Sherry’s gasped, rubbing the back and sides of Darren’s head seductively.
Sherry giggled from Darren’s playful ways when it came to bouncing his face around in her chest. Just when he pulled her head down to his eye level so they could kiss again, the rain tapped on the porch roof. They both looked up then out at the rest of the yard. The sky had darkened; heavy clouds gradually swelled. Lightning flickered in the distance, beyond the high-rises downtown. The breeze had intensified. Trees visibly swelled. Within a split second, the light taps on the roof turned into thumps. Rain poured from clouds; thunder roared in the skies. The three sides of the porch looked as if they were bordered with a wall of water. Darren smiled, getting Sherry’s attention by smacking her ass, then going back to kissing her neck. With the storm as their background music, they kissed passionately until Sherry pulled away and looked down. She wrapped her hand around Darren’s cock then lifted herself up.
Curse words slipped out of Darren’s mouth as Sherry lowered herself onto his shaft. Her insides felt better than he remembered; he still smelled her scent around his nose, tasted it in his beard as well as at the corners of his lips. Ever so casually, Darren positioned his hands on Sherry’s hips. She winced a bit from feeling her insides stretch, but the slight pain felt so good.
Breathing in sync with the other, Sherry leaned forward gently as she got used to Darren being inside of her. He kissed both of her breasts delicately then leaned back and looked up at Sherry’s cocked head, her face toward the ceiling. He guided her to bouncing until she eventually collapsed over top of his head. She moaned as they caught on to the others rhythm. Soon enough, she was rising up Darren’s just enough to where his head almost slipped out then all the way down, where she would grind a bit. She could tell it drove Darren crazy.
Darren’s buzz carried his mind in places it hadn’t been in a while. After pressing his face into Sherry’s chest and motor-boating one again, he locked his arms around her back and pulled her close. Sherry enjoyed the closeness, but was then took by surprise when she felt Darren rising up. A sudden nervousness came over her. Heavy rain had long suppressed whatever anxieties she harbored.
Before Sherry knew it, Darren stood all the way up and held her up in mid-air. He turned his back – his bare butt – toward the wall of water running off the sides of the porch. A powerful lighting bold struck in the distance. Sherry kissed Darren passionately. It’d been so long since she’d been turned on this way – since a man picked her up and made love to her while holding her. This sort of safety was a feeling she needed with the life she’d been having lately.
Using his strength carefully, Darren leaned back a bit and bounced Sherry up and down on his cock with her face toward the back yard. He lifted her up and out as far as possible without slipping out; they both sighed from the wind slipping between their bodies. A warm jolt, a bit humid, yet comforting, whisked across the terrace.
Darren held Sherry up for several minutes, pummeling her so hard he felt her behind swaying with each thrust. Her moaning slipped into his ears with how her head rested on his shoulder. Every so often, Sherry would open her eyes, feeling nearly numb from the pleasure, and look out at the storm wreak havoc on the backyard. Just as Darren had backed up toward the couch once again, positioned to lower Sherry onto her back, a branch flew up onto the terrace. The startled feeling disrupted their passion – their release of pent-up lust – as it crossed the terrace, scraping against the concrete.
Darren looked back, stroking Sherry’s blond air. “Let’s go inside,” he said then bit his lip. He leaned over and kissed Sherry briefly before guiding her by the hand back into the house. The enthralled lovers fell into a locking embrace on the couch, Sherry on her back. The warm storm wind rushed into the now-dim house. It wasn’t long before Darren aggressively positioned Sherry on the couch with her legs open and spread wide. He pressed in the middle then pushed inside of her.
“You are so beautiful,” Darren said, leaning in to kiss her.
Sherry wrapped her arms around Darren’s back while he stroked into her with so much precision – concentration. Her moaning turned into sudden groaning outburst. Darren kept going, never letting up, eventually causing the pressure to build in Sherry. Her whimpers became loud-pitched; his breathing was the only thing she could hear as her wine-induced buzz alleviated her in ways she hadn’t felt in a long time. Sherry gripped his back as hard as she could as he pounded her with all of his body weight.
“I’m about to come,” Sherry announced. She then squealed. Lightening lit up the sky just as Darren licked the rim of her ear. “Darren, I’m about to cum.”
Darren leaned up to kiss Sherry. He then straitened his back, pulling his head up and looking down into her eyes. “Yeah?”
Sherry nodded, her stomach tensing up as she tried to catch her breath. “I’m about to come...I’m about to come.” She repeated herself several times, the pitch in her voice rising slightly each time. The pressure was almost unbearable, but she wouldn’t want it to stop.
Darren focused extra hard as he stroked in and out of Sherry’s insides. Her body started trembling; uncontrollable squeals slipped out of her lips. When Sherry’s eyes rolled back into her head, he leaned over and rested his head on her shoulder. Listening to his grunts turned her on even more.
Sherry announced that she was about to erupt, so Darren made sure to keep up with the thrusting. He wiped away the sweat building up on his forehead as he too felt himself getting closer. This had to be the best sex he had in a long while. The aroma of their sex blended with the storm smell of the breeze coming in front outside. Neither had the rain nor the thunder and lightening lightened up.
Sherry panted as she finally started to come down from her orgasm. She looked up into Darren’s face and started rubbing his pecs. He’s definitely good in bed, she thought.
Darren kept his stroke up for another couple minutes. Then, his body started twitching; his balls tensed up. A heavy bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face as he looked down into Sherry’s eyes with such a concentrated look. He groaned. “Here I...I’m...”
Darren didn’t even get to finish his words before he felt himself cumming. Struggling to catch his breath, he collapsed into Sherry’s body. She was pleasantly surprised to feel his delicate kisses tickling her chest. The storm never seemed to stop, acting a the perfect backdrop to their lovemaking. A clump of her hair stuck to her forehead. Sherry slid it out of the way then rubbed the top of Darren’s head.
Several minutes passed where the two simply enjoyed laying on top of one another before Darren finally got up. Gabriel’s crying had slid down the stairs and now into the dining area. Darren stood up then headed over to the french doors. He quickly gathered his and Sherry’s pants and shoes from the terrace. His buzz had gone with his orgasm; the frustration that had built up inside of him was suddenly relaxed. What did we just do? Hope the neighbors didn’t see. Feeling like a teenager who pulled something off while his parents were gone, he rushed back inside as if he didn’t want to be seen. He pulled the french doors shut then headed over to Sherry where they dressed themselves. Sherry then rushed upstairs.
“Oh, Gabriel,” Sherry said, lifting the child out of his crib. “Did the storm scare you? Huh? Is that what it was? Did the storm scare you?”
Sherry rocked Gabriel in her arms, wondering if maybe God had been trying to tell her something. Truly, what were the chances she’d be working as a nanny for a guy from Chicago who came from an affluent family? Who would’ve ever thought she’d be taking care of a baby the same age as the one she’s recently given up for adopting? She enjoyed taking care of this child, as well as the perks that came with it. In many ways, she felt a natural connection to the child – a connection she didn’t anticipate when she saw the job and decided to investigate what it was really like to work as a nanny. She did chuckle, though. “And who woulda thought I would be outside during a storm, banging his father?” she murmured under her breath.
Darren came to the top of the stairs and smiled a few minutes later after taking their meat off of the grill. He looked into Gabriel’s room. Sherry gently rocked the baby at the side of his crib. His lips parted so he could say something, but instead he stopped. Almost moving in silence, he crossed the hall and stepped into the darkness of his own master suite.
It took Sherry ten minutes to calm baby Gabriel. She lowered him back into the crib then stepped up to the window, looking out. The storm didn’t look as if it were going to stop anytime soon.
Sherry headed over toward the staircase and paused as she looked down. Did Darren and me really just have sex?
Before Sherry got two steps down, Darren stepped out of his bedroom. He stood there, silent, but Sherry heard exactly what he was saying without speaking any words. She crossed the hall and stepped into his room. After some flirtatious words back and forth, Sherry succumbed to Darren’s arms. They never turned on any lights; thunder rumbled and rain showered the city. Sherry and Darren slowly drifted in an early, deep slumber.
***
By the morning, the storm had moved on, leaving Ft. Wayne soaked with a few inches of water. Darren slid out of bed gently to where he didn’t wake Sherry. She slept hard as a rock. He got his pants and shit out of his closet then used the bathroom in the hallway to get ready instead of in the master suite. It was nearly 9 o’clock before he finally got out of the house; he pulled up at his insurance agent’s office around 9:30, barely making it on time because of getting caught by the last car of a train.
When Darren stepped out of Mr. Perry’s office, he checked his phone. The MISSED CALL alert popped up. His brother John had called.
“Hello?” John answered when Darren climbed back into his car and called back. He’d been thinking about last night, on the terrace, anytime he wasn’t directly interacting with his agent. Even though he had a busy day ahead of him, he’d probably still stop in the house. He vividly remembered how Sherry had been sleeping so beautifully before he pulled his bedroom door up and got moving with his morning.
“What’s going on?” Darren asked. “I saw you called.”
“Yeah, I was just calling to see how things were going,” John said. “I was seeing on the news that you all got hit with a big storm last night. They’re showing a bunch of power outages, some trees and shit down. Some river...don’t remember the name...is flooding.”
Darren had been daydreaming about the wall of water that surrounded his love making session with Sherry and how it made it all the more erotic. “Yeah, man, it was pretty bad. But I can’t really complain. I mean, it was pretty cool for banging the nanny out on the terrace.”
“What?” John asked. He then chuckled. “What the hell are you talking about, Darren? Banging the nanny out on the terrace? You can’t be serious?”
Darren reminisced for milli-seconds about Sherry’s scent down between her legs. “Man, best experience of my life.”
“Oh, God,” John said. “Dude, this already sounds like a bad idea. You can’t really be banging your nanny. And she lives in your house, too? Dude, what are you thinking? I mean, seriously.”
“Oh, calm down, John,” Darren said. “You probably wish you could be banging your nanny.” He chuckled loudly, knowing his brother was probably getting the most repulsive mental image – a 65-year-old woman who wore huge glasses, was overweight, and didn’t particularly look well-preserved.
“Man, too much,” John said. “Mental image, mental image.”
John scolded his brother further about sleeping with his nanny. Darren never backed down from his position. He explained how he and she started talking and that he truly felt a connection with her. Darren made sure his brother was aware of Sherry’s genuine and natural care for Gabriel. Their grilling competition was cute, to say the least.
“Man, here you go,” John said. “Getting involved in some scandalous kind of stuff.”
“Scandalous kind of stuff my ass,” Darren said. “Dude, you act like we’re famous or something. It’s not that serious.”
“Well, maybe you’ll fall in love with this one...finally,” John said then chuckled. “The nanny...and you, a single guy who adopted a baby. I swear, you really do always have the most interesting stories.”
Darren’s eyes slanted toward the phone. “Here you go, again.”
Chapter 9
In the days following their wild, spontaneous lovemaking on the terrace during the storm, things got a bit hectic for Darren. For that reason he’d been home much less for at least three or fours days afterward. When he did interact with Sherry, the lust was definitely there; however, the both of them were deep in their own thought processes as they adjusted to how their boss-nanny relationship had changed. After all, this situation was strange for all parties involved – not typical at all. Conversation had been tense, but in a good way; their stares were a little too long, but never felt uncomfortable. Neither knew what to really say. Whatever little flame went on between the two of them would be pushed to the back burner the following week. Darren’s mother Joan and her sister, his Aunt Carol, were coming to Fort Wayne to visit Darren and see the baby.
“Gabriel is finished with his bath!” Sherry yelled down from the top of the steps. “And this soap works a lot better.”
“Good deal!” Darren responded. He then turned his attention back to Rosa. It was 9:30 in the morning and she’d just arrived, ready to work extra hours to get Mr. McWaters house ready for his mother’s arrival. Thirty minutes had passed since Darren received a call with her ETA. The plan was he would meet his mother downtown and they would probably start off with a walk in the park with Gabriel. The spring weather was still unbelievably warm. From there, they would just see how the day wound up. When he finished giving Rosa her list of duties, Darren climbed the steps so he could see how getting Gabriel ready was going.
Sherry was a bit startled by Darren’s sudden tap at the door. “Oh, I thought you were downstairs.”
Darren nodded as he looked Sherry up and down. He couldn’t help but to admire her shape as she nurtured Gabriel. A few seconds lapsed before he finally spoke. “How close is he to being ready? Looks like my mom will be showing up at the restaurant maybe in a half-hour… and I wanna be there first so I can be sure we got the table I specifically requested, you know...with the view.”
“Yeah, he’s almost ready,” Sherry said.
Badly, Darren wanted to wrap his arms around Sherry’s waist. For the first time in a week, they had a rather long chat down in the kitchen. Darren had been looking over some papers on the dining room table with the french doors open. He wondered what had been on Sherry’s mind. Sometimes he found himself avoiding eye contact. Even though John’s advice rang through his head every so often, but he couldn’t regret that night. The sex was too good; he clicked with Sherry in a way he hadn’t clicked with a woman in so long.
Sherry finished up with getting Gabriel ready then handed him to Darren. She then followed him downstairs where he grabbed the baby bag, his wallet, and opened the door. Sherry grabbed the handle, saying she would close it. Just then, Darren, without even realizing it, turned around with an expecting face and leaned down toward Sherry’s. It took Sherry a second too long to realize he’d turned around for a kiss. By the time she processed it, he snapped out of it and went on down the walkway. She stood in the doorway and watched the single father load his child into his MKZ. Her heart throbbed for this guy in ways she wondered if he picked up on. Still, she couldn’t deny that she was dying to know why a guy like him would adopt a child rather than get married first then start a family.
Sherry closed the door then climbed the steps, returning to her own room. There, she sat on the edge of her bed in thought. Did I make a mistake? This is a job, Sherry. Why did you do that? Mental images of their teenage-like lovemaking on the terrace flashed in her mind. Even it was wrong, and of course inappropriate from a job standpoint, it felt so right. She looked up and out of her window, at the Watson Residence across the street. Her eyes closed as she bit her bottom lip and reminisced on it all.
***
Sherry went on with her day eventually. It took her a while to figure out what to do with herself, but she wound up running some errands then simply enjoyed being back at Darren’s house alone. The deal had been once Rosa left, she would have the day to herself. No sooner than the woman pulled off, Sherry came out and jumped into her own car then zipped off. Now, as she lay in her bed, she vividly remembered the way she was frozen in time at a rose bush she passed on a trail when she stopped by the park before coming back to the house. If you would’ve said I would be having this kind of live five years ago, I wouldn't have never believed it.
Sherry called Chrissy and they chatted for a while. As to be expected, Chrissy was eager to hear about how it was going. Sherry spilled on the experience of taking care of another person's child...especially when that somebody comes from a wealthy background. Chrissy had already heard about Darren being a one-night stand from a couple of years ago. This fact made her all the more anxious to hear what was going on between him and Sherry. Early on, Chrissy had been the one to label such an interview “freaky” because it was just that unbelievable.
As Sherry approached the final part of the story about she and Darren’s lovemaking session out on the terrace that stormy night, she heard the front door opened. She jumped up off of her bed and peered through the curtains, down toward the street. There in front of the house, she saw Darren’s MKZ. Parked behind it was a Rolls Royce. Everything about the vehicle dripped with money. Sherry then turned toward her bedroom door. Talking in the foyer drifted up into the rest of the house.
“Chrissy, I’ll have to call you back,” Sherry said, quickly.
“Huh?” Chrissy said. Sherry’s long pause had been enough suspense. Her friend had just gotten to the part where Darren was looking at her with eyes that made her melt. “You didn’t with him, did you Sherry?”
Sherry giggled. A brief wave of guilt came over her, but she too was anxious to share the details with Chrissy. “Really, Chrissy… I gotta go.”
“Just say yes before you hang up,” Chrissy said. “Sherry, tell me you didn’t sleep with the guy...the guy whose child you’re taking care of. Sherry?”
Sherry stared down at the floor for a moment, in thought. At times, the connection she had with Gabriel seemed so natural that she forgot to look at this like a job. It certainly didn’t feel that way. “Chrissy, I’ll call you later and finish.”
Sherry hung up as Chrissy was pleading for more details. She looked over her makeup – teased her hair a bit – then stepped out into the hallway. Feeling invisible, she stood at the top of the steps and listened to Darren interact with his mother and aunt. A grin formed on her face when Gabriel started crying out just after Darren said something about him waking up in a roar any given moment. Based on what Sherry heard, it sounded like Darren handed baby Gabriel to his mother. The woman who Sherry heard talking after Darren saying ‘Mom’ then changed her voice to that of baby talk. She shook her head as she thought back to Darren’s description of his mother. Even though the woman was clearly trying to be affectionate, she sounded so stiff—so corporate. “I see what he’s talking about,” Sherry mumbled to herself.
Sherry listened to their discussion for a few minutes more. It amazed her how much someone can read a person just by listening to them talk. She reflected back to working at The Blue Ivy… a thought which then turned the corner and circled the block to somehow wind up back at Darren.
Just as she built up the courage to head downstairs, a broad-shouldered shadow suddenly reached out over the staircase. Sherry stepped back, startled at first. She then realized it was Darren, only moments before he shouted up, “Sherry! You here? Sherry?”
Sherry glanced away for a moment, trying to think about whether or not she wanted to be here. Darren had said she would be free of her duties until 8:30ish – a little less than an hour from now. Glancing back down the hallway, her bedroom door represented her opportunity to be invisible. Feelings for Darren were becoming so strong she knew guilt would eat her up if she were to reject coming down. Does he want me to meet his family?
Darren started climbing the steps before Sherry could decide her response. She spoke up quickly. “Yeah, I’m coming.” She headed down, meeting Darren on the half-way landing. He looked her up and down and smiled. She looked flustered, maybe even a bit anxious. Darren chuckled, said hello, then explained, “I was thinking maybe you could come down and meet my mom and aunt. They were asking about you, since...you know...you’re Gabriel’s nanny. If you don’t want to, I understand. It’s not that big’a deal. They’ll be leaving soon so you could just come down then and get Gabriel.”
Sherry nodded quickly. “No, no, that’s okay, Darren. I can come down and meet your mother and aunt.” She smiled then added, “Mister McWaters.”
Darren chuckled then grabbed Sherry’s hand. He lifted it up, held it for a moment as he looked into her eyes, then turned around. Sherry looked at the back of his head as she followed him out to the terrace. “They went out back.”
Sherry giggled as she wondered if the two women were going to sit in the same place where she’d been riding Darren’s cock. Only seconds before Darren approached the french doors, he looked back over his shoulder. He looked into Sherry’s eyes – a look which said so much while never opening his mouth.
“Mom,” Darren said, walking out to the table next to the rose bushes. “This is Gabriel’s nanny, Sherry. Sherry, this is my mom, Joan, and my aunt, Carol.”
Sherry took a deep breath then stepped forward. She shook each woman’s hand, her own trembling slightly. Quickly, Sherry discovered the thought of a moment like this was much more than the reality. Darren’s mother Joan, who was just as Darren described her – tall, hair cut short, and definitely a pantsuit kind of lady – greeted Sherry graciously. However, Sherry could feel her eyes judging her. Her sister Carol was a bit more down-to-earth, but clearly came from a life of money and privilege. A strange feeling brewed in Sherry’s stomach during the long pause after their introduction. Darren came from these kinds of people… They’re so stuck up.
“Have a seat, Sherry...Have a seat,” Joan insisted.
Darren pulled the fourth chair out and allowed Sherry to sit down. When Darren sat down next to her – the way he sat down next to her – things seemed to get even more awkward. Sherry went along with it, though, and only speaking when spoken to.
Darren led the conversation then filled Sherry in on what they’d done for the day. First, was the tiny water park in Headwaters Park downtown. They then had a picnic in another section of the park. Darren willingly showed the photos they took on his phone. She smiled, of course, as they were beautiful in their own right and certainly something the single father would cherish. However, as the conversation had moved on, Sherry’s mind dwell on this strange feeling she’d gotten from looking at the photo. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what she was feeling, but a strong feeling that she was missing from the picture came over her.
Sherry followed Darren and his family back into the house then into to the foyer. After saying her goodbyes to his mother and aunt, they said their farewells to Gabriel then the baby was handed to Sherry. She stood in the foyer in such a way where she stood in a shadow, looking out the window once again as if she were invisible. Sleeping baby Gabriel purred in her arms as she watched Darren’s mother talk his ear off from the door to the sidewalk. She couldn’t help but to giggle at how the stiff woman would say Darren’s name if she wanted to make sure she got a point across. Bet she has her impression about me.
Darren stepped out onto the sidewalk next to his mother while he did everything he could to keep from rolling his eyes and sighing the way he did when he was a teenager. His mother had been going on and on about a judge’s event she was trying to make it to because she thought the man would be a good connection. “Oh, Mom,” he said, shaking his head.
“What, Darren?” Joan asked, shrugging it off. “I’m only trying to tell you how to play the game. Are you doing it here? Seriously, Darren? I hope you’re making good connections here. I think you could definitely shine in a city like this. Meet some judges, some other investors. Bank Presidents are good to know if you’ll be needing help with financing. Look at some of the more prominent, older churches. You remember what I used to always tell you when you were kids and you wouldn’t listen then you wonder why your brother gets opportunities in life you let pass by.”
“Yeah, yeah, Mom,” Darren said. “I know. Churches are where the old money is.”
“Absolutely,” Joan said. She nodded her head confidently. “I’m glad you were listening.”
Darren sped up the conversation to the point where both his mother and aunt Carol felt they were being rushed off.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Joan said, pushing her son’s chest. “How have things been going with her...the nanny, Sherry...so far?” She nodded toward the house. “I just wanted to ask. You know, I’m a grandmother, so I need to know these things.”
Darren snickered then nodded his head. “She’s doing good, Mom.” Their stormy night came to mind. “Really good, actually. She’s good with Gabriel and is even easy to work with and responsible. It’s like she’s naturally good at it.”
Joan nodded, looking back up toward the house while she recalled her first impression of the young woman. “Oh, how many children does she have?”
Darren shook his head. “No. She watched her nieces and nephews when they were babies. You should’ve seen the first time she took Gabriel from me and fastened him into the car seat. It was snowing, windy and she just did it so naturally. That was the same day as the interview.”
“Oh, she doesn’t have any children?” Joan said, clearly processing the information. “Well, that’s interesting.”
“She seems like a nice girl,” Carol said, butting in. She’d been admiring the neighborhood’s architecture. “And in a lot of ways, as crazy as it sounds, but it’s a coincidence too, but Gabriel looks a lot like her to me. When I saw her then looked at your mother holding the boy, I thought they really looked like. You know, we didn’t have a nanny when we had Harrison and Kenner. We went ahead and did it ourselves, but you know, I’ve never really thought about what it must be like to be virtually raising someone else’s child.”
Joan nodded. They hadn’t used a nanny either, but rather her mother filled in the gap. A resemblance between John and Gabriel and herself was to be expected. She then nodded, recalling Sherry’s face as Gabriel was handed over to her in the foyer. “Yeah, I see that too. Really, he definitely looks like another of you when you were a baby.”
“Hmph,” Darren said, nodding his head. “I guess I never noticed it.”
“Yeah, well,” Joan said. She looked at her time. “We better get back on the road. I wanted to stay longer, but you know the prosecutor’s daughter has a drunk driving case coming up. If I get her off, that would certainly make it easier for your father to pull off a couple things we’d been thinking about doing.”
Darren’s eyebrows furled as he shook his head disappointingly and hugged his aunt Carol. Joan stepped up to take her hug then headed out into the street. “Oh, Darren...Would you calm down? You act like we have dead bodies buried under the house or something.”
“You could, Mom,” Darren said. “You very well could.”
Joan lowered Carol’s window and talked across her. “Darren, you should know me better than that. You know me and your father wouldn’t have them buried under the house.” She smiled. “That would be too obvious.”
Darren turned away, playfully, heading back up the walkway to his porch. He waved at his mother, she honked, then he stepped back into the house. He paused in the doorway, looking up toward the top of the staircase. The light from either Sherry’s room or Gabriel’s nursery shined toward the landing. His mother’s words simmered in his mind as he climbed the stairs, his destination already in mind.
Darren stepped up to Gabriel’s bedroom doorway and peeked inside. Sherry sat in the wooden chair on the other side with Gabriel in her lap. Ever so affectionately, she looked down into the beautiful baby’s eyes and calmed him by singing a soft melody. Whatever song it was, Darren didn’t know; however, after the tune looped around, he too found it a bit entrancing. Sherry’s low, singing voice was so lulling Darren himself could very well drift to sleep thinking about it. The light whining Gabriel had been doing faded into soft giggles with his tiny hands reaching up for Sherry’s necklace.
With a slight grin on his face, he stepped away from the door and headed down the hall to his bedroom. He pushed the door closed softly then crossed the room and through the french doors of his tiny sitting room. There, he approached his bookcase and pulled a couple of family albums he’d held on to since leaving Chicago. Sitting down in front of the window, he looked through them. The man gazed at photos of himself as a baby. Certain poses were funny while others were too embarrassing at this point to show people. He couldn’t help but to take in how youthful and almost nurturing his mother looked with him in her arms. And to no surprise, the woman wore pants in every single picture.
“Hmph,” Darren said. Gabriel really does look like me. He then envisioned Sherry’s face, thinking of his mother’s and aunt’s comments. I see Sherry in him too. That’s crazy...really crazy.
Shortly after closing the albums then placing them back on a lower shelf, he stopped in the doorway. He vividly replayed his mother’s reaction to Sherry not having any children. Oh, she’s never had a child? That’s interesting. Darren wondered what she meant by that.
Darren leaned out into the hallway and looked down toward Gabriel’s room. He still hadn’t had his question answered about Sherry. He badly wanted to know what it was that she’d been through because whatever it was had obviously changed her since that night at her apartment.
Chapter 10
Darren hung up the phone Sunday afternoon relieved. What started off as supposedly going to be a busy day suddenly got a lot lighter. This morning, he’d gotten up to go deal with a tenant who was moving out quickly so he could get back to Indianapolis. He then rushed across town to the apartment complex, let himself into the office, and collected some documents he needed for banking. By the time he finished, it was nearly three o’clock and the weather outside was wonderful. Sherry had just been getting the baby bag and heading out when he walked through the front door.
“Where are you headed to?” Darren asked.
“Oh, I was just going to take Gabriel to the park,” Sherry explained. “We were just out back after he had lunch and the weather is great, so I thought about taking him to, you know, that park downtown where the people walk their dogs and they play with each other.”
“He loves dogs,” Darren said, rubbing the side of his son’s head.
“Yea, that’s just what I was thinking,” Sherry said. “And I’m sure a lot of people will be out with theirs today.”
“Hmm,” Darren said. He then said he needed to make a phone call and he’d be ready to go. Ten minutes later, he met Sherry with Gabriel out on the porch. He insisted on driving then they walked down to his MKZ and climbed in.
At Headwaters Park, Gabriel’s face lit up like a child on Christmas when he saw puppies. He laughed when tiny, ankle bitter dogs, as Sherry called them, came close and barked. His eyes filled with terror and he clung to Sherry desperately when big dogs came nearby. A playful Saint Bernard got to close to Gabriel that the baby screamed. Darren sitting next to her, they both comforted baby Gabriel until he called down. Soon enough, the baby drifted off to sleep in Sherry’s arms. Darren and Sherry both leaned back and gazed out at the green grass, rolling over the slope then descending into a thick wooded layer separating the park’s open space from the rushing St. Mary’s River. A chilling breeze whipped by.
Oh, she doesn’t have any children? Interesting?
“So, Sherry,” Darren said, bravely. “I don’t know if we ever talked about it yet, but I don’t think you ever told me if you want any kids one day.”
Sherry turned away from Darren and stared off toward the walking trail coming out of the woods. Within only a matter of seconds, a young mother pushing a stroller walked into view. “Uh, well….” she said, thinking of her own baby. The memory of walking into that adoption agency with Gabriel popped into her mind with a vengeance. She had long dealt with the guilt, but it still was sharp enough to sting her, even if only momentarily, like a needle pressing into her skin.
“I don’t know,” Sherry said, turning toward Darren. “I really don’t know at this point.” She chuckled. “Sometimes you don’t know what you want until it comes to you, I guess.” She felt one of her eyes swelling up, so she wiped it quickly and held her head high as she tried to show as little emotion as possible.
Darren nodded, looking into Gabriel’s sleeping face then at Sherry. Mom and Aunt Carol were really on to something. Gabriel’s eyes were strikingly similar to Sherry’s. In fact, Darren was amazed he had never noticed before his mother and aunt pointed it out. His eyes were then drawn to the dip above Sherry’s upper lip. This too was similar to the one between Gabriel’s lips and nose. This is strange, he thought. Gabriel looks just like Sherry. Throughout his life, Darren had been in many households where nannies were the primary caretakers to their employers’ children. Sure, it wasn’t strange for a nanny to be close to their boss’s children almost like mothers; however, much like he noticed before, such as when Gabriel woke up in the night, the bond between his adopted son and Sherry seemed far stronger than one would expect.
“I see, I see,” Darren said, accepting Sherry’s answer. “I just wondered. You seem like you would be a good mother.”
“I do?” Sherry asked, turning her head quickly. “You really think so?” She still envisioned herself as the woman working at various bars throughout her early twenties. If a guy was looking to have a fun time, she was available and ready to go. Hooking up with a guy from Chicago only visiting for the night was better than getting with a local guy who might be a little too clingy and be looking to settle down.
“Hell yeah,” Darren said, staring out at a dog jumping to catch a Frisbee. “My mom and aunt liked you...if that means anything to you.”
Sherry laughed out loud. She imagined Darren’s mother Joan walking down the walkway and out to the street sidewalk. Just before she’d gone upstairs with Gabriel after standing in the shadows of the foyer and staring out the window, she imaged a much more toned-down version of Cruella Deville.
“Your mother was….was… She’s interesting.”
Darren’s eyes cut to Sherry. “Is that how you would describe her?” His head shook. “There’s a lot of ways to describe her. She was going to stay longer, like she talked about weeks ago, but she has her corruption to get back to, so she has to run.”
A giggle slipped out of Sherry’s mouth. “Darren, you don’t have to say that.”
“What?” Darren asked, holding his hands up. “It’s the truth.” He chuckled. “But, that’s Mom. She wants me to join one of the older churches.”
“Really?” Sherry asked. “Um, your mom didn’t exactly seem like a church-going kind of lady. No offense…”
Darren dismissively waved away the subject. “She’s not. She just wants me to go so I can make certain kinds of connections. Growing up, she always told us that church was the best place to find old money.”
Sherry’s face fell flat from disbelief. “You can’t be serious.” At that very moment, she realized how small-town-from-Indiana she really was. She shook her head, snickering. “That is...is...”
“My mother,” Darren said, confidently. “Yup, that’s Mommy. She’s off to do something about a judge’s case then defend some prosecutor’s drunk driving daughter so she can get some favors done for my dad.”
“What in the world?” Sherry asked. “Your family sounds like the mafia.” She playfully squinted at Darren. “I wonder who you are really? Why did you come to Fort Wayne? Are there about to be dead bodies coming up floating in Chicago?”
Darren chuckled then looked away devilishly. “No, I brought them here to a place where nobody will find them.”
Sherry looked at Darren then away, once again feeling her heart beat for this man in ways it hadn’t been for any man in quite some time.
Darren and Sherry eventually got up and walked the park for about thirty minutes before loading back into the car and heading back home. Sherry updated Darren on how Gabriel’s day had been. Once Sherry finished up explaining, he couldn’t help but to notice how Sherry looked back at Gabriel. It was as if Gabriel represented more for her than a job. Darren finally felt the courage to ask her something he’d been wanting to know since meeting her. “Have you ever had a child, Sherry?”
Sherry’s head quickly turned toward Darren. “Huh? Why do you ask that?”
“Because,” Darren said. “I just have a strong feeling. If I’m wrong or asking something too personal, then please forgive. It’s just...it’s just...I sensed something. I could tell you were getting over something when I hired you. Again, if it’s too hard to open up about, then you don’t have to answer.”
Sherry turned toward her window, looking at the convention center as Darren drove passed it. She sighed, realizing that it would probably do her some good to open up about it to Darren. They connected so well, even though the nature of their relationship was anything but ordinary.
“Yeah,” Sherry said, never pulling her eyes away from the window. “I did. I had a son.”
“Oh, okay,” Darren said, He noticed her unwavering, blank stare. “And may I ask what happened to him?”
Sherry sniffled then held her head up. “I...I...I had to give him up for adoption. I just wasn’t ready to be taking care of a child… I just couldn’t. I got my diagnosis when I was pregnant and then everything in my life seemed to go downhill from there. I did the best thing I knew to do. Look at me… I’m a nanny and that was really out of desperation, at least at first. I wasn’t fit to take care of a child...or so I thought.”
Darren decided against asking about the diagnosis part as they continued the way home. He listened to Sherry open up about giving her son up for adoption and how it was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She admitted she wondered some days where her child wound up. Had he been placed with a good family that would indeed give him a better life than she could?
When Darren pulled up out front of the house, the conversation had long transcended into other things. Sherry suddenly felt more like a human-being when she revealed her secret to Darren; yet, she did feel as if she were being judged. Shortly after putting Gabriel back into his crib, she stepped out into the hallway and was surprised by Darren’s presence. He quickly rushed up to the thought-consumed woman and wrapped his arms around her waist. Sherry closed her eyes and melted into his embrace.
“Darren, we...” Sherry began saying. Her words were cut off by a passionate kiss.
“Come on,” Darren said. He wanted to be with her tonight. “Just come with me.”
Sherry turned around, her eyes practically glowing in the dimly-lit hallway. With a smile on his face, Darren led her into his bedroom and gently pulled her into the bed. Sherry lay on top of Darren, kissing him passionately. There was no place in the world Sherry would want to be right then; whatever anxieties Darren harbored inside suddenly disappeared. Neither one of them ever spoke.
Several minutes of passionate kissing passed by quickly. Darren chuckled then helped Sherry lift her shirt over her head. She giggled as well, knowing exactly what this meant. With everything she’d been through, as well as all the changes it brought to her body and personality, Darren was a guy who clearly was genuinely interested in her regardless. Sherry looked down at the man, smiling as she lowered her chest into his face. Like his frat boy days during college he talked about, he pressed his face into her chest.
“Okay, okay,” Sherry said, pulling back. “You seem to have a little too much fun with that.”
Darren smiled and nodded. He then placed his hand on the back of Sherry’s head and ran his hands through her silky hair. They locked eyes and smiled. Both wanted to say so much, but neither could form any thoughts.
Before they knew it, Sherry and Darren rolled around kissing on the bed. When Sherry had finally gotten Darren locked down under her weight, she undid his shirt. The man laughed at how she wildly Sherry had gotten, commenting on her feisty ways.
Once the lust between the two of them became too great, they rushed to get all of their clothes off. With the late afternoon sun penetrating the windows, Sherry anxiously climbed on top of Darren. Once again, she watched his eyes roll back into his head; felt his warm hands grip her waist. She grinded at first to get used to him; rising all the way up then going down slowly. Curse words slipped out of Darren’s lips while he enjoyed every single moment.
“I can’t take anymore, I can’t take anymore!”
Before Sherry could even process Darren’s words, he had already leaned up. In one quick move, he moved his arms up to her mid-back, flipped her over, then gently lay her on her back. He leaned in and pressed his lips into hers. Never did his cock slip out; he kept his stroke steady until he got into his rhythm. Sherry’s squirming legs and her soft moans drove him crazy; the concentrated look in Darren’s face made her lose track of time.
Their sweaty bodies pressed against one another as Darren made love to Sherry with so much passion. She rubbed his back; he licked her ear. Every so often, like a hound dog, he would lean down and kiss all over her breasts fanatically. Sherry bit her bottom lips as she rubbed the dome of Darren’s head.
“There’s somethin’ I wanna do,” Sherry said.
Darren slowed down, looking into Sherry’s eyes. He raised his eyebrow suggestively as he pulled out and leaned up. He rested on his knees while watching Sherry turn over, lift up onto her knees, then arch her back as she looked up toward the window. “Hmm,” Darren said under his breath. “I like the view.”
“I’m not done yet,” Sherry said. Her hair flung over her shoulder as she turned and looked back into Darren’s eyes. She then reached back, grabbed his shaft, and positioned the head at the entrance to her pussy so that when she pushed back, it slid inside. Darren gripped her waist as she did just that and watched Sherry thrust back. He kept his back straight as he enjoyed the sight.
Sweat trickled down Darren’s face then dripped down to the comforter. Sherry moaned, almost so loud they worried about whether or not baby Gabriel would wake up. However, this worry soon dissipated into the bedroom’s funky air. Darren couldn’t hold back anymore. Like a beast, he gripped Sherry’s waist so hard she felt locked in place then pounded her with every muscle in his body. Shortly after Sherry screamed out that she was going to come, Darren felt his balls draw up closer to his body. “Damn,” he said.
The two lovers had their orgasm nearly simultaneously then Darren leaned over, lying over Sherry’s body. Soon enough, with the orange hued of sunset penetrating the windows, they lay next to one another. Their breathing was in unison as their eyelids fluttered. Darren held Sherry close as they drifted to sleep.
***
Two Nights Later
The week had gotten off to a hectic start once again. A tenant in Darren’s apartment complex was involved in some sort of raid where the police had to kick in the door to enter the unit. A contractor dealing with a major plumbing issue at one of his investment properties finally got back with him about an estimate...and the dollar amounts weren’t exactly pleasing to Darren. His mother called with her usual crap about wanting him to think about getting into a committed relationship then get married. By the time Darren had gotten home that night, climbing into bed and sleeping like a bear was the only thing he could think to do.
Sherry had been sitting out on the terrace, in thought, when she noticed Darren’s shadow reaching out onto the brick. She turned around and found him coming down the couple of steps separating the kitchen area from the dining area. He closed the front of his robe, tying a loose knot in the front.
“Hey,” Darren said. This morning, when he’d been on his way out the door, Sherry was feeding Gabriel in the kitchen. Unlike last time, when he instinctively leaned over to kiss Sherry, he didn't stop. They both smiled at one another as he headed for the foyer. “You doing okay?”
Darren plopped down next to Sherry then propped his leg up on a concrete flower bed between themselves and the banister. Sherry smiled, appreciating how legitimately concerned this man was about her well-being. She smiled, touching his arm then looking away so she could utter the question that had been wearing on her mind. “What are we?”
“What are we?” Darren asked. “What do you mean?”
Sherry turned and looked at Darren. “Well, let me ask you first. I’ve been wanting to ask this. Why did you decide to adopt a child rather than get married and stuff?”
Darren’s happy smiled suddenly flatted. This was going to come up eventually, he thought. And the feelings he had for Sherry were so real, he didn’t mind revealing a bit. “I didn’t want to get married….kind of weary of it, to be honest. So, I decided I was ready to have a kid and everything and just went ahead and adopted.”
“I see,” Sherry said, turning away once again. She figured commitment issues could’ve been Darren’s problems. He had everything going for him a woman could want in a man, but she had no doubt anxieties about losing everything in a divorce were probably first and foremost on the guy’s mind. “Okay.”
“Okay what?” Darren asked. “You asked what are we? Why did you ask that? What is it that you wanna be? I can tell something has been on your mind all day, Sherry. What are you really getting at?”
“I’ve just been doing some thinking about what all this is telling me,” Sherry said. “And I’m starting to really think about some things in ways I didn’t before.”
“Some things like what?” Darren asked.
“I wonder how you see me,” Sherry said. “And what me getting this job might really be trying to tell me.” Sherry continued on, propelled by Darren’s questioning face. “I have a reason I’m asking you.”
Sherry listened as Darren divulged the feelings he had toward her. Some comments she took with a grain of salt. This is the kind of guy who would probably be okay with being a friends with benefits kind of situation. Her mind had been racking all day; her heart had been heavy. When Darren finished up by saying that it’d been a long time since he had these kinds of feelings for another woman, Sherry pushed the words out of her mouth: “You’re the last guy I slept with.”
Darren’s eyes bugged. “Yeah, well, I would hope so.” He chuckled. “We just slept together a couple of nights ago, so I would hope so.”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying, Darren,” Sherry said. “I’m talking about since I had my baby I gave up for adoption. I found out I was pregnant a couple months after we hooked up and you were the only guy I slept with before then. Before you, it had been a while.”
Darren’s confused face was too hard to ignore. Eventually, intense thought made him rise up out of the seat. He paced around for a moment. “So, what are you trying to say?”
“What I’m trying to say is that with each day I’m here with Gabriel, I think about that baby boy I gave up for adoption,” Sherry said.
“Wait a minute, that’s not what I mean.” Darren’s tone became defensive. He thought about what Sherry’s revelation could really mean: that he had a child all along. “I left my card with you. You could’ve called.”
“I didn’t know what to do,” Sherry said, getting emotional. “You don’t know what I was going through.”
“So, do you really think the child was mine?” Darren asked. Sherry’s silence and avoiding eye contact was enough for him to get what she was saying. He nodded. “And so you’ve been thinking this ever since you came here for the interview?”
“No, no,” Sherry said. “I’ve just been thinking about it, and some other things, more and more lately. Sometimes...you know...the guilt of being a woman who gave up her newborn child. Then I started to think about some things. I mean, I thought about you back when I had the child, but you weren’t the kind of guy I usually hooked up with like that. I guess… I guess what I’m trying to say is I felt like you were out of my league...probably wouldn’t remember me, much.”
Darren shook his head. Mental anguish set in from the thought that he could’ve gotten her pregnant that night. He hadn’t used a condom; drinks from the bar then the dancing blurred his memory. Had Sherry said anything about birth control? “So, how would I ever find out if it was my child or not? Why didn’t you call me and tell me then? I mean, did you call any of the guys you hooked up with to see? Did you even try to find the father?”
Sherry’s eyes swelled with tears – the shame – and she looked away as that painful chapter in her life rushed back into her heart like liquid ice. “No, I didn’t look for the father… I wasn’t even sure if I was going to get to be a mother.”
“You didn’t have to give a child up without at least first seeing if the father would take it,” Darren said. He thought about how he could’ve had his own flesh and blood, if it had already been on the way into the world, rather than go through the gruesome adoption process.
“You don’t understand, Darren,” Sherry said, being a little more forceful. “Five months into my pregnancy, I found out I had cancer….well, what could’ve become breast cancer. I got fired from my job, my car broke down, and I had to do treatments while I was sleeping on my best friend’s couch. I was so scared, I was… And now Gabriel…. I… I…” She gulped. “I feel like he’s mine.”
Darren watched as Sherry quickly rose up from the couch then rushed through the french doors and into the house. He called her name, rushing behind her in attempts to grab her hand and express his regret in his delivery. However, his efforts hadn’t been enough. He stopped at the edge of the kitchen island and watched as Sherry, sobbing from the guilt and shame only a mother who gave up her child could understand, rushed toward the staircase then disappeared into the dark.
Darren sighed then poured himself a glass of wine. He returned to his seat on the terrace and sipped the wine in thought. Little did he know, there was another inclination that had been brewing in Sherry’s mind for much of the afternoon...one that would rock a man’s heart and soul to the very core.
“I feel like he’s mine,” Darren said, repeating Sherry’s words as he analyzed them. “I feel like he’s mine.”
Chapter 11
Through the middle of the week, the relationship between Darren and his son’s nanny had gotten to its coldest since she started the job. Aside from updates on Gabriel’s days, their evening chats were rather short. Darren was a bit reluctant to join her out on the terrace when he found her sitting out there with Gabriel; Sherry would often put Gabriel to bed in the evenings just as she heard Darren coming into the house. It became a regular occurrence for her to look down the staircase and listen to the man move around downstairs. She would then pull herself away retreat to her room.
Friday evening came sooner for Darren than he thought. He finished up a meeting with the property management firm around 5 o’clock then came straight home. Upon arriving, he found Sherry sitting in the old maid’s quarters off the side of the dining room. She rocked Gabriel gently, rubbing his head. She then mentioned to Darren that he’d just been burping.
Darren smiled, wanting to say so much to Sherry, but knew he needed to go about it the right way. He pulled a small chair from the corner and sat down next to Sherry. After several moments of silence, with the words “I feel like he’s mine” echoing in his mind still, Darren cleared his throat. “So, where did you give your son up for adoption? I wasn’t on that end, so I don’t really know about this, but can you look him up since he’s only still a baby? Do you even know if he’s been adopted yet? He could still be, you know, in one of those homes waiting or whatever.”
Sherry sighed, leaning over to bless Gabriel’s head with a motherly kiss. She then looked at Darren. “Well, I can’t be sure. I don’t remember exactly what the case worker said at this point, but I think it would be extremely difficult for them to unseal the records...at least for my reasoning, since it’s not a criminal case. Look,” she glanced down at Gabriel’s head, “I wanted to ask you did you adopt Gabriel in Chicago or when you got here?”
“When I got...” Darren said, his words trailing off. His face was flushed with confusion. He sighed, trying to process it all. Gabriel slept so peacefully in Sherry’s arms. “What are you trying to say, Sherry? Really, what are you trying to say?”
A tear strolled down the side of Sherry’s face. “I think...” She leaned forward, not being able to push the words out. “I think this beautiful child might be the child I gave up for adoption, Darren.” She sobbed briefly. “Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I can’t be sure, of course, but there’s something about this kid. And he’s the same age as my baby boy would be by now.” She turned toward the window, looking out at a street light. “I could be his mother and I can’t even say for sure if I am or not. That’s sad… It really shouldn’t be that way.”
Darren’s shook his head as he stood up then turned toward the bookcase. “How old was the child you had when you gave him up for adoption?”
Sherry sniffled. “Three days old.” Her head dropped. “My life was messed up and I walked into a adoption agency and just handed him over. I mean...really. I just handed him over. How could I do that?” She looked down into Gabriel’s precious face then turned toward Darren. “I really think he is the little boy I gave birth too.”
Darren looked at Gabriel. He saw things in his son’s face he hadn’t seen before. Reminiscing through the family photo albums and looking at his baby pictures was still fresh on his mind. Just like his mother and Aunt Carol said, baby Gabriel did indeed look like Darren. Quickly, the confused men approached Sherry. She stood up, cradling Gabriel in her arms.
“It’s okay, Sherry,” Darren said, hugging her. “Really, it’s okay. We can have paternity and maternity tests done to find out. Come on, let’s go put Gabriel up in his crib then we can talk about it.”
Sherry agreed then the two of them headed upstairs. Once Gabriel had been softly set back down in his crib, Sherry turned around and faced Darren. He wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her closer, kissing the side of her head as she sobbed into his chest. Darren pulled his eyes away from the window and looked down into the crib. Could Gabriel really be my son? He then glanced down at Sherry’s head. And she’s the first woman I really ever loved.
When Sherry finally pulled her face away from Darren’s, she thanked him then turned around and looked into the crib. Darren’s arms were still wrapped around her mid-section. His holding her so closely made her feel safe at a time when she felt so vulnerable. Processing the events of her life in recent months, she didn’t think she’d feel so right after divulging everything. Then again, she sure as hell didn’t think she would coincidentally becoming the nanny to a baby boy that may very well be her own son.
“Since I started this job, there’s been something about this baby, Darren,” Sherry confessed.
Darren sighed, a light chuckle slipping up out of his throat. “Since you started this job, there’s been something about you.”
Sherry turned around to face Darren. “What do you mean?” She forced a smile, finally getting her emotions together. “Huh?”
Darren smiled and grabbed Sherry’s hand. “I mean the reason I hired you is because of the way you held Gabriel and cared for him from the very beginning. Ever since then, I’ve been watching you and it looks so natural...you treated him like a mother would treat their child, even though as far as I knew, you didn’t have one.”
Sherry chuckled. “Oh,” she said, smiling. “I only took care of him for three days, not to say it wasn’t an experience during those three days, but still...”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Darren said. “Then there was you.” He pushed some of her hair behind her ear. “Everything about you...a lot of the stuff I saw when you at the bar that night. The coincidence of it all, really, was probably what made me look a little closer. I’m looking int your eyes and then Gabriel's. My mother and Aunt Carol were right?”
“Your mother and aunt were right about what?” Sherry’s heart thumped. “You didn’t tell them how you originally met me, did you? I only met your mother that one time, but I can see how she would react already.”
Darren laughed. “No, no. She and Aunt Carol mentioned to me how much Gabriel looked like you.” Darren decided to leave his mother’s foreshadowing words out of the discussion. “At first, I didn’t see it. It was just odd they would say the baby looks like you then me.”
Sherry cried a bit more, stepping up to the crib. She reached in and pulled some blankets over Gabriel's tiny body. “The more I think about it, Darren, I feel like it’s my child. I really feel like this my little boy.”
Darren had never cared about a woman’s emotions and feelings the way he cared about Sherry’s right then. He felt his own heart breaking at just listening to and witnessing Sherry’s strife, even if it was well over a year after she gave the child up for adoption. He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulder while her head dropped and she cried. “We will find out, Sherry. And I hope...” He paused and smiled, thinking about the great conversation he had with Sherry – how he loved to spend time with her, their competitiveness in cooking, their nights sitting out on the terrace. “I hope Gabriel is yours...ours.”
Chapter 12
Love blossomed in ways Sherry and Darren would never imagine in the days following that afternoon where Sherry divulged that she felt deep in her heart Gabriel was her child. The very next day, Darren made some calls to find out where to go for paternity and maternity testing. By the middle of next week, they had an appointment set for April 17th at 1 pm. No matter how busy life got for Darren, he always made time for Sherry. They made passionate love every few nights, and Sherry had gotten so used to sleeping in Darren’s room. And he liked her there. He enjoyed waking up out of his sleep to find Sherry creeping into the room then climbing into the bed with him.
“Even if this child isn’t mine...” Darren began, realizing what he was going to say wouldn’t make sense. He drove the MKZ, curving with the road as it rounded a bend then crossed over a river. “I mean...”
“If it’s not mine,” Sherry said, looking down at her twiddling thumbs. “Then nothing changes, I guess. I still won’t know where the baby I gave up for adoption is. And that’s okay, if that’s the case. Maybe that’s for the better.”
As the MKZ turned off of the road and into the parking lot wedged between two generic looking, glass office buildings, both Sherry’s and Darren’s stomachs turned a little bit. If one was excited, the other was nervous. Should Sherry’s guilt come flooding back into her heart, Darren’s mind wrestled with the idea that this woman he hired to be the nanny to his adopted son may not only be the child’s mother, but the child may also be his as well. He parked then they headed inside. Their silence was so loud.
Darren smiled then sighed when they got back out to the car. Sherry shuttered, the situation seeming so surreal. The test results came back within forty minutes. Darren’s adopted son Gabriel was not only the little boy Sherry had given up for adoption a little over a year ago, but he was also Darren’s child. He pulled out of the parking lot. He felt as if he were in some crazy dream and trying to make sense of it. Glancing over to Sherry, he could only imagine what she was thinking.
“I had a child all his time?” Darren asked, talking to himself.
Sherry looked over at Darren. She wondered what was going through this guy’s mind. “You all right?”
Darren smiled. “What are the chances of adopting a child that winds up to be your own child that you didn’t even know existed?”
“Hmph,” Sherry said under her breath. “What are the chances of getting a job as a nanny and it just so happens to be to the baby you gave up for adoption?” She looked down at her fingers, nervously fidgeting with her nails. “Never thought my life would turn out like this.”
“Are you happy?” Darren asked. He wanted to hear about Sherry’s feelings before he voiced too much of his own. “I mean, what are you thinking about it? I can tell you’re excited, but...”
“I don’t know what I am, really,” Sherry said. “Sometimes I wonder if I'm dreaming of something. But...to answer your question...Of course, I’m happy… I would think I’m supposed to be. I love Gabriel more than anything in this world, but...”
“But what?” Darren asked. The moment of silence at the end of Sherry’s statement lasted too long for him. “But what, Sherry?”
“Still doesn’t change the guilt I feel,” Sherry finally admitted. “It’s not like I found my child by searching for him because the guilt got to be too much. I just sort of...sort of...”
“Stumbled upon him?” Darren asked, finishing the statement.
Sherry turned and looked into Darren’s eyes. “Yeah, basically. I was looking for a job...not looking for my child.”
Darren nodded, pulling up to an intersection and turning after making sure the coast was clear. “I can imagine.”
“What about you?” Sherry asked. “I mean, I know you might feel some kind of way about me now. I know how guys look at some women...at least, the guys around here. I probably could’ve looked around for your card or something, but I never did. My life was just so...so devastating then. I had just gotten that diagnosis and was scared for my life.”
“Yeah, well I was coping with having this gnawing void,” Darren said. “Not that that’s anything compared to what you were feeling, as I’m sure it’s not. For me, it just blows my mind to know that all this time I’ve had a child and didn't even know it.” He thought back to the day where his own adoption case manager had showed him a few babies for him to basically pick from One of the requirements for Darren was that the child look somewhat like him. He wondered what it was about Gabriel that spoke to him. “How did I know without even knowing that I know?”
Sherry listened as Darren explained the adoption process. Her heart went out to some of the stigma he faced trying to adopt a child. She admitted that a single, handsome man of means adopting a child with no wife certainly was a little strange. She scoffed. “If you were back in my hometown, people all over town would be talking about you. They would probably be staring at you when you come out of the post office on Main Street.”
Darren laughed at Sherry’s sense of humor even in this emotional situation. He looked over Sherry. Of course, how he saw her changed at this point. She went from being the nanny he hooked up with one night a couple of years ago to the mother of his own child – his own flesh and blood. “Yeah, I could see that.”
The sense of riding down the street like a couple rather than a boss and his employee was uncanny, but comfortable.
“So, you never answered my question from a couple weeks ago,” Sherry said.
“What question?” Darren asked. He turned off of Broadway then drove slowly down the brick street leading back to his part of the neighborhood. “What are you talking about?”
“Well, I was waiting until we got the results to bring it back up,” Sherry said. “I mean, I think the results probably do affect the answer.” Deep down, she wondered if maybe Darren didn’t like the idea of her being the mother to a child that happened to also be his. Some of his comments about marriage and relationships certainly weren’t very optimistic. After all, this guy did go and adopt a child rather than get married and have one of his own. That must say something. “You never answered me when I asked you what are we?”
Darren nodded, remembering the question very well. He turned toward Sherry and smiled. “Well, what do we feel like to you?”
Sherry shrugged. “I don’t know.” She wished she could know what answer Darren was looking for. It had been so long since she’d been in the game when it came to dealing with men that some of her skills when it came to reading them needed to be sharpened up.
“Why don’t we just be what we feel like?” Darren asked.
Sherry then noticed Darren park out in front of the house. The last several minutes had been so lost in thought she hadn’t even realized the brick street they’d been driving down as the one where they lived. “Um, aren’t we gonna go get Gabriel? From the daycare? You didn’t forget, did you?”
Darren chuckled, undoing his seat belt. “Remember when I used the bathroom once we came from getting the results? Well, while I was in there, I called the daycare and told them I wanted Gabriel to stay until later on. You know I’m good friends with the owner, so they agreed and I’ll just have to pay the balance later.”
“Oh, okay,” Sherry said, having planned her afternoon as she would normally.
“I figured it could be just you and me,” Darren said, raising his eyebrows. “And we don’t have to worry about a baby suddenly crying.”
Darren led Sherry into the house. This time, their walking in together felt different. The results changed everything and neither of them wanted to derail the train. Quickly, Darren slammed the door shut then pulled Sherry close to him. They kissed, one confessing their love to the other. They kissed all the way down the hall until Darren’s lower back leaned into the kitchen island.
Soon enough, Sherry dashed away to open one of the sets of French doors. By time she turned around, she discovered Darren was chasing her. A shrill slipped out of her lips and she jerked away. Darren unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off, tossing it to the side. He barely missed Sherry’s shirt then rushed around the other side of the kitchen island so he could cut her off.
Sherry realized that Darren was probably going to catch up with her regardless. She stopped, grabbing her stomach in laughter. Darren rushed up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He laughed and squeezed then leaned Sherry’s head back so he could get a kiss. Sherry obliged, her emotions taking over inside. When she would look into Darren’s eyes, everything leading up to today clicked.
When Darren finally let go of Sherry then leaned against the counter with interested eyes, Sherry put her hand into his. “Interesting how everything in life happens for a reason.”
Darren stood straight up, putting his free hand in Sherry’s hand. He ran his fingers over her head. The silky texture of her golden blonde hair slipped through his fingers so easily. “Yeah, I think the same thing sometimes.” He looked away for a moment. “Well, a lot really.”
A nice breeze whipped in through the french doors. Sherry closed her eyes for a moment then looked back into Darren’s eyes. The numerous events leading up to this day flashed through her mind like a slide show. It was unreal – unbelievable. Almost as if she were floating on thin air, She allowed Darren to pull her by the hand down to the dining room table. With an animalistic passion, Darren moved a dining room chair out of the way. Sherry giggled uncontrollably as Darren lifted her up onto the table. It seemed nearly effortless.
“I love you,” Sherry said. The words slipped out of her mouth, almost as if she had no control. She chuckled nervously. What is he gonna say in return?
Darren smiled and never broke eye contact with Sherry. “I love you too.” He kissed her. “I love you too, Sherry.”
Sherry admired Darren for the man he was then commenced to finish kissing him passionately. They chuckled. Their embrace turned into playful wrestling at times. Darren overpowered Sherry, forcing to her to lay back when he pinned her down by her wrists. He then leaned over and pressed his teeth around her shirt collar, pulling it back then quickly sticking his chin under.
“Just take the shirt off!” Sherry suggested then laughed.
Darren slapped Sherry’s ass then did just that, lifting her shirt up over her head then tossing it to the side. Per usual, he pressed his face between her breasts, took a deep breath, then moved his head around. In the heat of the moment, he and Sherry then rushed to get all of their clothes off. Pants, shirts, and underwear flew in various directions. Sun rays reached into the dining room and spread across the carpet. Within minutes, Sherry lay on her back with her legs up. Darren positioned himself between her then pressed the head of his manhood toward the entrance to Sherry’s insides.
The two lovers locked eyes for a long moment. Speaking wasn’t necessary, as their eyes said enough. Darren then smiled, slid his hand up to her neck and gently wrapped his hands around it. Sherry then winced, feeling Darren enter her. The initial stretch was just as powerful as it’d been the first time as well as every time since then. And Sherry loved it.
“Darren,” Sherry said.
Darren leaned over and kissed Sherry as he pressed all the way into it. Both his and her chests pumped as the pleasure overcame them both. Darren kissed Sherry’s forehead then closed his eyes, grunting softly before turning toward the french doors. New emotions he had never felt before flowed through his veins. He stroked deeply into Sherry; her warm thighs pressed against his sides.
Sherry squealed and screamed as Darren worked his way up to vigorous pounding. With a good grip on Sherry’s neck, he thrust so wildly that her body jolted back and forth on the dining room table’s surface. Seeing his bouncing chest made his cock throb. When he finally slowed down, wiping the sweat on his forehead with his forearm, he stepped back. He could tell Sherry was ready for a new position. With his manhood standing tall in front of him, the 6’2”, in shape man helped Sherry down off of the table. I wonder where she’s going.
Sherry looked back at Darren and smiled, telling him with her eyes that she wanted to do something they hadn’t don before. Neither of them paying any mind to the open French door, Sherry gripped the edge of the dining room table. She then arched her back, sticking her behind out as far as she could with her legs spread about. A wince slipped out of her mouth when Darren slapped her ass. He walked up, gripped her waist tightly, then pushed deep inside.
The sound of Darren’s pelvis slamming against Sherry’s backside filled the room. It was methodical; the rhythm was perfect. Sherry had two orgasms and Darren was still holding his own. He looked into Sherry’s eyes when she looked back over her shoulder. Finding out that Gabriel is really his son, and that this wonderful woman he met in such a strange series of coincidences was his mother, has his heart filled with emotions that made Sherry the only woman he saw. This almost seemed like unbelievable dream. But Darren didn’t want to wake up.
“I’m close,” Darren announced, breathing heavily. “Damn! Whew. I’m close.”
Darren worked up to a steady, fast stroke then his body stiffened. He closed his eyes so hard that when he opened them, there was an unexplainable blurriness to the room. The warm breeze was the only thing he could process; the world outside didn’t matter. Darren held Sherry tightly in place until he too had his orgasm.
Darren leaned over and wrapped his arms around Sherry. He licked her ear, telling her how much he loved her. Once he calmed down, he stood up and grabbed a kitchen towel to wipe his forehead. Before he could pull the towel away from his face, Sherry had pressed up against him. She kissed him while simultaneously fondling his softening manhood. Darren chuckled as he looked into her eyes again.
“I’m happy with the results,” Darren said. He then opened his eyes a bit wider, indicating he wanted some sort of response from Sherry.
Sherry nodded and smiled. Suddenly, for a variety of reasons, the guilt she felt from giving Gabriel up for adoption was masked by the ultimate outcome. “Yeah, I am too.” She giggled. “Who would've thought applying for a job would lead to this?”
Darren chuckled. I have a child and didn’t even know it. “Yeah...and who thought one night of hot sex would lead to this? I’m a father… a father.”
“I have my son,” Sherry said, glancing down at the floor. A stray tear rolled down her cheek. “And didn’t even know it.”
***
Darren and Sherry went upstairs and enjoyed a nap in Darren’s bed. She was pleasantly awoken by his head as he wedged it between her legs. His tongue thrashed about, making Sherry to wake up and look down with confusion. She too wanted to take part in the festivities. As the sun descended out of the sky for the late afternoon, Sherry sat on Darren’s face. She then leaned forward and orally pleased him.
Sherry lay in bed for nearly twenty minutes after their post-nap foreplay. Darren’s phone rang, him hearing it all the way from downstairs. He rushed to answer it, held a conversation, then climbed the steps looking down into his phone’s screen. Sherry watched him approach the bedroom doorway and pause.
“Everything alright?” Sherry asked.
Darren looked up at Sherry and smiled. “Yeah, I guess.” He bit his bottom lip in thought. “You know what we could do?”
Sherry listened as Darren explained he was invited to a charity fundraiser up at the Wayne Banquet Hall and Conference Center. He knew it was a last-minute invitation, but he certainly wouldn’t mind going. Today’s events were so impacting that both he and Sherry admitted they would need time to process it – to come to grips with it being so real even though everything seemed so unreal. Darren proposed that he arrange for Gabriel to have have daycare this evening. He wanted to take Sherry to get a dress then they attend the event...as a couple. Sherry’s eyes bulged as Darren described what kind of shindig to expect. She quickly slid out of the bed then rushed into her room so she could throw on some clothes. “Sure, I’ll go… I’ll go.”
Within less than thirty minutes, Darren held the door open at Vivian’s for Sherry as they walked inside. Like most men, he gave his quick input on what he would like to see his woman wearing. He then stood back and checked over emails while Sherry worked with the staff to get the perfect dress. Price limit? There wasn’t one. Sherry stood in front of the mirror as one woman measured her waist then another one her shoulders. Watching them pull out color pallets to see what hues went best with her specific skin tone seemed unreal. Having six dresses all worth more than $2,000 each laid out in front of her and being asked, “Which one do you think you would like the most, Sherry?” wound up being liberating in ways Sherry would’ve never imagined. Usually, her budget determined what she wore. Going purely off of her preferences was something she’d never done.
Sherry almost teared up when she tried on the first dress then stood in front of the mirror. Darren had successfully arranged for the daycare to watch Gabriel into the night, so her mind could rest at ease. The two women frantically fluffed the small frills at the bottom of the dress. Not having changed anything else but how she was dressed, she looked like a totally different woman. Through the mirror, Sherry watched Darren step up behind her. He looked her up and down as if she were the Queen. Sherry smiled then her eyebrows dipped. Today had been a day that she would forever remember for the rest of her life.
Darren stood back as Sherry tried on all six dresses. He stomped his foot playfully, playing up on the stereotype that men hated to wait for a woman to try on clothes. Sherry giggled and sped up a bit to figure out which dress she wanted more. Once she finally made up her mind, Darren paid then they stepped back out into the night air. Luckily, Sherry had some white heels she’d only worn once, back before giving birth to Gabriel. Tonight, with this dress, would be a perfect time to wear them. Darren made sure Sherry knew he didn’t plan on being there into the night. “I want to get home to my family,” he said as he pulled into a parking spot downtown.
Sherry’s heart swelled with love as she unfastened her seat belt. She looked over at Darren, who finished parking, put the car into PARK, then gathered up his phone and wallet. He just said that without even thinking, Sherry thought. Suddenly, Darren’s eyes turned to Sherry’s. Sherry grabbed his baby blue tie and pulled his head over to her. They kissed, the street curving beyond a cluster of houses in the distance. The moon set in the sky, it’s glow penetrating the windows. A strong wind rushed down the narrow street as Sherry stepped out onto the sidewalk. For the rest of the block, she walked carefully with her arm wrapped around Darren’s as they pressed against the wind, laughing from the struggle but feeling like there was nobody else they would rather do it with than the other.
***
As Darren said, they didn’t spend too long at the event. He introduced Sherry to a few people then cordially played the part while being introduced to other people through Charles. The night turned out to be a blast for the both of them. Darren joked about how he should get ass-kissing lessons from his mother; Sherry’s sarcastic puns made the event all the more enjoyable. She said a few things only Darren could pick up on. Some of her eye contact said it all without having to say anything at all.
Walking back in through the foyer at home, with Gabriel in Sherry’s arms, Darren pushed the door closed. They then stepped into the living room. Darren turned on the lamp light. Gabriel had woken up during the car ride, but somehow refrained from crying. His mother and father – Sherry still teared up from just thinking about it – walked on egg shells anticipating that any moment Gabriel would start screaming at the top of his lungs. Darren joined Sherry on the couch. They looked at one another then down into Gabriel’s smiling face. Neither of them ever thought this would happen to them. And neither of them were mad it did.
Chapter 13
“Darren, really,” Sherry said, getting Gabriel’s bottle out of the microwave, “we don’t have to go anywhere. Seriously. You said you were tired, and I might be too. Gabriel was a handful today. You know he’s up more and anxious to get out of the crib. Really, we don’t have to do it tonight.”
“Yes we do, yes we do,” Darren said, nodding his head. He placed his hands on Sherry’s shoulder. “I know I had some stuff come up suddenly and all that, but when I get done with this little meeting, I still want to go out to eat then to the movies.”
Sherry smiled. She admitted to herself she had been looking forward to her first official “date” with Darren. Since finding out the DNA results a month ago, their relationship flourished even more – like flowers anxious to thrive again after a strong Spring frost. “Okay, okay,” she said, rushing back over to the high chair in the dining room. “Just let me know when you’re done. I’m about to give Gabriel this bottle then I’ll start to getting dressed.”
Darren quickly kissed Sherry on her forehead then turned around and headed for the foyer, where the head of the property management company waited. She and Darren discussed local regulations that would be changing how they handled certain disputes with tenants. Shortly after Darren saw Ms. Newman out then closed the door, his phone rang. Sherry had just gotten to the top of the steps. He stepped back into the foyer to take the call. It was his brother John – a call which coincidentally came on the same day Darren and Sherry had been talking about ways to go about telling their families. They both anticipated different reactions, and neither of them were anxious to see them. They were rather content with their secret relationship since finding out the results. Darren knew, though, that sooner or later, he would definitely have to tell his family. His mother Joan was already planning another trip down to Ft. Wayne. And this time she would be bringing his father, who still hadn’t seen Gabriel.
“Hey, wassup man?” Darren asked.
“Hey, Darren,” John said. “What you up to tonight? I was texting you yesterday, but you got busy or something.”
“Yeah,” Darren said, looking up the steps. He specifically remembered that he hadn’t been answering John’s texts was because he and Sherry had a picnic out in the backyard with Gabriel. Time slipped away; Darren enjoyed not being accessible to the outside world even if only for a few hours out of the day. “Yeah, we were out back having a picnic kind of thing, man. Sorry, but I wasn’t trying to ignore you or anything like that.”
“Oh, okay,” John said, as if he were confused. “Having a picnic out back? Who is we? You and Gabriel?”
Darren glanced back up the stairs, knowing that since sooner or later he would have to tell somebody in his family, he might as well start off by telling his brother John. Whatever his reaction was, his father’s would be twice the force; his mother ten times. “Me, Sherry, and Gabriel. Man, me and Sherry have a thing going. Well, it’s more than the thing. We found out that Gabriel is actually our child from the night be hooked up after meeting at that bar downtown.”
“What?” John said. “Dude, what the hell are you saying? It’s you all’s child? You went and adopted that child, Darren. And you hired her as a nanny. She was a bartender before this, you said.”
Darren paced around the open space in his living room as he explained the sequence of events leading up to finding out such a thing. He started with the one-night stand, which John had already been let in on, then continued on to hiring her as a nanny. He revealed the words of their mother and Aunt Carol; he talked about Sherry’s seemingly natural bond with Gabriel had his mind going crazy. “I even pulled out a picture from the photo album and Mom was right. Gabriel really does look like me...but definitely has some of Sherry in him. Dude, I can’t believe this stuff.”
Darren finished up by talking about how he and Sherry had gone to get DNA testing done. He was the father to Gabriel, and Sherry was the birth mother. By the time he finished with the story, he’d been sitting down in the foyer. Sherry called down saying that she was getting dressed. Gabriel’s baby bag was already prepared, sitting at the bottom of the steps. Darren got up to pull the bag closer to the door. Dressed in brown pants and a button-up white shirt, he made his way down the hallway and turned into the kitchen. John opened up about how he felt about the situation.
“Man, I can’t freakin’ believe this,” John said, rather sternly. “You cannot be serious, man. You banged some bartender one of the nights you were in town and got her pregnant? Didn’t ever find out about it. Then you move there, adopt a kid, then hire a nanny and it happens to be her.” He groaned. “And now, come to find out by some freaky coincidence, she happens to be the mother who gave the kid up and you’re the dad? Man, am I getting this right?”
Darren stood just inside of the kitchen and stared off into the distance, blankly. Gabriel, who’d been making laughing noises while smearing some kind of sauce around on his high-chair table, faded into the background. The positivity Darren had been riding on since he and Sherry came back from getting the results suddenly dimmed. He picked up on his brother’s discontent. “John, man… What are you saying? What are you trying to say?”
“I’m not trying to say anything,” John said. “I’m only saying that it sounds like you’ve gone off and done some dumb stuff….like you always have. It would always be you. You know after a while, that chick is going to start thinking and probably take you for everything you got.”
Darren’s heart thumped in his chest as he took in his brother’s words. In some ways, it was hard to believe and to hear coming from him. After all, his very own brother had been the main person saying that considering marriage wasn’t a bad thing. Instantly, Darren recalled sitting across from his brother in the winery and how much of their conversation centered around the idea of getting married. And now he was talking like this? Sure, his relationship with Sherry hadn’t exactly started off in the most conventional way, but he certainly didn’t have any regrets about it. Darren approached the high chair and forced a smile at Gabriel, sticking his finger into the baby’s tiny fist.
“Man, you know that’s how I was thinking,” Darren said. “But this...this...man, this is something different.”
“You don’t even know her like that,” John scolded. “So now what? You think you’re going to go and have a nice little family with this woman. Is that what you’re thinking, Darren? Really, man, I hope you’re not that stupid. Look at why she’s there...how she even came across her son to begin with.”
“Huh? What do you mean, John?” Darren asked. “Man, why don’t you just come out and say what you have to say.”
“What I’m saying is,” John started, “that I think you’re crazy if you think this is the woman you’re going to marry. Did she even try to reach out to you when she found out she was pregnant? You said that she admitted to getting pregnant shortly after you guys hooked up.”
Darren resented John’s insinuations toward Sherry, who he didn’t even know himself. “Man, well, no. I know I gave her my card and stuff, but maybe she lost it. She went through some hard times and has been trying to get back on her feet.”
“Hmm, hmm,” John said. “Well, now she’s definitely found her meal ticket. Look man, I don’t think you should be trying to go any further with this chick and build anything with her. I mean, look at the situation. She gave up her child for adoption, to wind up only God knows where, and didn’t even bother to try to get in touch with any of the possible fathers, it sounds like. Then, she applies for a job as a nanny and just so happens to find her child. Before this job, was she even looking for him?”
“Man, Sherry’s really been through a lot,” Darren said to his brother. “I know she’s made some mistakes, but man, when I look at her everyday with Gabriel, I know how she feels. You should see the way she looks into his eyes. You should’ve seen the way she came to me and confessed that for days she’d been thinking Gabriel could be the baby boy she’d given up for adoption. It eats her heart up, trust me.”
“Darren, see here you go,” John said. “Making excuses again about somebody who clearly isn’t in your best interest.”
“In my best interest?” Darren asked. His nostrils flared. “Man, I’m an adult and just because you’re finally happily married after two failed attempts,” he coughed, “doesn’t suddenly make you some kind of relationship guru, man. Seriously, I was just thinking that I should let my big brother know.”
“Man, you need to be careful,” John warned. “Sometimes, you do things like you’re not a man of means. You know women target us more. And now that she knows she is the mother, she might start playing certain games. Darren, it’s not like this chick has anything to lose.”
Darren balled his fist and paced around the kitchen. He’d done practically three laps around the island. At times, he looked up toward the ceiling while presenting his defense; other times he leaned over the island, struggling to believe the level of anxiety and suspicion his brother John threw over Sherry’s name. Darren had just been about to open his mouth when he heard Sherry step off of the last step in the foyer. Tonight would be their first official date night...and Darren wasn’t going to let his judgmental brother ruin it. The bond between he and Sherry was something probably nobody else in the world would ever understand. After all, the circumstances under which the two met one another were unlike any to probably ever happen anywhere in the world.
“So, have you told Mom and Dad, Darren?” John asked after finishing part of his rant. “You know Mom is going to flip. You have a...a baby-mama.”
Darren slammed his palm onto the kitchen counter, grinding his teeth. Soon enough, he realized he had nothing more to say to John. He held the phone away from his face, looked at the screen, then pressed END CALL. The screen went dark as he pressed the phone down into his pocket.
Sherry approached the kitchen doorway. “Everything okay?” She noticed Darren looked a bit flustered.
Darren nodded then smiled. He looked into Sherry’s eyes – into the eyes of the first woman in a long time to really steal his heart and hold it delicately in her hands. “Yeah, everything is just fine.” He walked over to her and kissed her softly on her lips. “Really, just fine.”
Together, they pulled Gabriel out of his seat. Darren carried the bag and called the daycare to make sure the staff would be ready for Gabriel when they arrived as they headed out the door. Within twenty minutes, they had dropped Gabriel off. Fifteen minutes after that, Darren pulled his MKZ up in front of Valentina’s, an Italian restaurant in a hip, cultural neighborhood. Little did his brother John know, much less Sherry, Darren had been giving some serious thought to his relationship with Sherry since finding out the results. Whatever it was about her laid his anxieties about marriage to rest. Taking the risks that come with marriage? Sherry sure seemed like a good bet.
Sherry glanced over at Darren when he pulled into the parking spot. Life seemed so different now...in ways she just couldn’t come to grips with and understand. The way Darren looked at her made her heart melt. Even though they came from two different worlds, their souls seemed to beat to the same music. There were moments Sherry would have to sit in the small sitting room attached to the master bedroom and think about what kind of dream she’d been living in. Now, she had the chance to be with the baby she gave up for adoption and look into his eyes everyday. Darren, his father and her boss, strangely, turned out to be everything she ever wanted in a man.
As they walked down the block to the restaurant, Sherry’s glanced at her reflection in closed-up, dark storefront windows. She couldn’t help but to smile. Who would’ve thought this would ever be me? Walking down the street, going to some Italian restaurant, arm in arm with a man like Darren with Gabriel being presented with a life that would’ve been out of reach for herself. Pushing through emotions only a woman wasn’t easy, but she was moving passed it. Sherry held her head high as she stepped into the restaurant, Darren holding the door. I just gotta focus on looking forward...not behind.
***
“Oh God, you cannot be serious,” Darren said, shaking his head as he and Sherry stepped back out into the night air. “Sherry, I don’t know about that.”
“No, seriously, Darren,” Sherry said, wishing Darren would take her seriously. “That’s something I really wanna do. Seriously. Ever since I was like a teenager, I wanted to drive all the way to Alaska.”
Darren rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Yeah, well, not me. I didn’t even like driving from Chicago to here. It was so flat and boring. So many corn fields. It’s amazing corn isn’t free in Indiana. There’s so much of it.”
Sherry playfully shoved Darren toward the curb and laughed.
“Hold up, are you trying to kill me?” Darren asked, smiling. “Look at how women treat men. I take you out to a nice dinner then we get outside and you’re trying to push me out into the street.”
“Oh calm down,” Sherry said, wrapping her arm around Darren’s arm. “And don’t go trying to change the subject. Seriously, you asked me what is one thing I’ve always wanted to do...and that one this is drive to Alaska.” She took a deep breath and smiled, tilting her eyes up toward the starry night sky. “Just imagine what you would see. The different cities you would pass through...the mountains, the lakes. Maybe even stop by Yellow Stone or Mount Rushmore or something like that.”
“You’re crazy,” Darren said. “When I think about a drive like that, I think about all the dead zones where you won’t be able to use your cell phone. Going through all those areas of nothing...just nothing and nothing and nothing and more nothing, mile after mile after mile.”
“Don’t think about it like that,” Sherry insisted. “It’s not nothing you’re passing through. It’s nature. It’s beautiful.”
Darren scoffed. “Oh God… You’re one of those people. I don’t mind nature, Sherry. I really don’t. But to go driving through it for several days, ‘cause once you get that far up north and out west, those cities start getting further and further apart.”
“Exactly,” Sherry said, leaning the side of her head into Darren’s shoulder. “And you get to see the virtually untouched parts of nature. Wow, so you really don’t wanna go to Alaska?”
“Hell yeah, I would go to Alaska,” Darren said. “I have no problem with that part...But I’m just not driving that far. You have to be crazy.”
Darren and Sherry walked arm and arm down the block. Sherry had started to pull away from Darren when they came up on his car. Much to her surprise, Darren continued on walking straight, as if his car wasn’t parked right there. “What are you doing?” Sherry asked. “Darren, the car is right here.”
“I know where the car is,” Darren said, “but who said I was ready to run home so quick. You wanna go on a walk?”
Sherry shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, why not,” she said, looking into Darren’s eyes. “I guess so.”
Sherry continued walking down the block with her arm wrapped around Darren’s. When they came to the corner, Darren led them to the right. They were now heading north, only four or five blocks from the river. Sherry looked up at Darren and giggled. He held his head so high and confident as he guided her down the sidewalk.
“What are you laughing at?” Darren asked. “What? What happened?”
“Oh nothing,” Sherry said. Again, she leaned her head against Darren’s shoulder. “I’m just noticing how mighty good you’re getting at getting your way around. You’ve been here a while, but not that long. You’re walking around here like you’re from here.”
Darren laughed. “Okay… Well, I guess I’ll take that as a compliment. I guess...”
“It is,” Sherry said. She felt safe in Darren’s company...safer than she’d felt in a very long time.
“Yeah, I guess I am learning my way around here kind quickly,” Darren said. “Then again, this place isn’t that big like that.”
“I bet it’s not to you,” Sherry said. “I could only imagine having to learn my way around Chicago and how long that’s gotta take. I couldn’t imagine having to do somewhere like that. Fort Wayne was enough me…. It’s the big city around here, especially compared to my town.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Darren said.
“So,” Sherry said, looking forward as the street dipped under a viaduct. A train chugged along, the track passing between office buildings, “where are we headed?”
“Up this street right here,” Darren said, nodding forward.
Sherry turned and looked ahead. The street dead ended after the next stoplight at a parking lot for a government building. The park was beyond that. If he’s going to the park, why don’t he just say we’re going to the park?
Darren did just what Sherry thought he was doing. Within a few minutes, they walked into Headwaters Park. The trail curved away from the street and deeper into the park. The tranquility of it all, mixed with the perfect night air, was so relaxing. Rushing sounds of the nearby river soothes their minds and mixed well with the few glasses of wine they had at Valentina’s. Crickets and other bugs chirped and buzzed in the background.
“So, do you think you’re going to stay here permanently?” Sherry asked.
Darren bit his bottom lip in thought. “Depends,” he said, glancing back at the high rises sticking out above the trees and shorter buildings.
“On what?” Sherry asked. “What does it depend on? How business goes here or what?”
Darren shrugged. “Well, I don’t know, really. I’ve always been so conscious of how I answer questions like that. There’s a big difference now of course… We have Gabriel to worry about.”
We? Sherry thought. He said we even though, technically, I’m still just the nanny. Sherry recalled signing over her rights at the adoption agency. “Yeah, that’s definitely something to think about,” she admitted. “Once he gets to a certain age, you definitely don’t want to keep uprooting him and having him learn somewhere new. I had a cousin growing up whose parents were in the military. We were kinda close...or at least as close as we could be for someone who always moved around. When she would come to town, we would hang out and talk and all that. And she would talk about how she felt like she never had a home. I couldn’t really relate, but now I can kinda see why.”
“Yeah, absolutely,” Darren said. “I like Fort Wayne, I do. But there are some other questions that would have to be answered before I would actually decide to live here permanently.”
“Yeah, you have property and that kind of thing here,” Sherry said. “I imagine you would have to live close by a place if you’re trying to do the landlord thing.”
“Well...actually,” Darren said. “Not necessarily. My dad has properties he’d probably only seen once, if that. I remember when we would go on road trips growing up and stuff, we would stop in these odd little towns in the middle of nowhere and not necessarily close to the highway or whatever major road we were on. We would always be asking Dad why in the hell we were going out of the way to those places. Next thing you know, we were sitting outside of properties in tiny towns we’d never even thought of while Dad was inside or walking around the outside. So, not really. It’s ideal to be nearby, but you don’t really have to be. Plus, if I were to move, it would probably be in the Midwest. A lot of my family’s business is in Chicago and I really don’t wanna be too far away from that.”
“Okay, I get it, I get it,” Sherry said, nodding. “So, then, what question would have to have answered?” The trail slopped down a bit, lights winding at its sides. When Sherry glanced back, traffic on the street disappeared beyond the trees and bushes. Ahead, the trail came close to the river. Two benches, on either side of the trail, popped into view “So, then what questions would have to be answered for you to decide if you want to stay here or not? Come on, spill. Don’t hold back.”
Darren chuckled, glancing down at Sherry suggestively. Sherry couldn’t help but to wonder what was going through this man’s mind. “Well,” he said, “actually one is one that you would have to answer.”
“Me?” Sherry asked, surprised. “What do I have to do with you and your business and whether or not you’re gonna move and all that? You’re not gonna have to ask me what I think you should move to. I’m just a small-town girl myself… My biggest move is coming here when I was ready to break free or whatever from my family.”
Darren chuckled. He then startled Sherry by stepped in front of her then turning to face her. They stood only a few feet away from an illuminating lamp light. A breeze whipped by; the canopy of trees spreading over the park’s trails raddled. The sound was easily comparable to a light applause. In the distance, beyond the dark shadowed areas of the park, rollerbladers and runners made their way around.
Darren pressed the side of his finger into the side of Sherry’s face. “You are so beautiful,” he said. “I really do mean that.” He looked into her eyes as if he were looking into her soul.
Sherry smiled. “Thank you,” she said. The way this man looked at her nearly paralyzed her. If she even wanted to run off, her legs wouldn’t allow it to happen. Her feet would drag like heavy anchors caught in rocks and scraping against the bottom of the sea.
“I love you, Sherry,” Darren said, grabbing her left hand. “I really do.”
Sherry let out a deep breath then responded. “I love you too, Darren.” She giggled. “This really has been a crazy thing to happen.”
Darren chuckled. “Yeah, I think about that sometimes. But you know what they say…. Everything happens for a reason.”
“Yeah,” Sherry said. She knew with time and love, some of the feelings she’d been dealing with would become easier to manage and morph into motivation. “I guess everything does happen for a reason.”
“So, you asked me what is the one question I need answered before I could ever decided if it was going to stay in Fort Wayne permanently?” Darren smiled then his eyebrows raised.
“Yeah?” Sherry said, squinting a bit.
Sherry lifted her hands to cover her mouth as she watched something she certainly hadn’t been expecting anytime soon in her life. She nearly fell back as Darren got down on one knee and pulled a velvet-looking black ring box out of his pocket. Sherry’s eyes swelled with tears of joy. Never in a million years did she think her life would take the kinds of turns it’d been taking lately. This was a like a long dream – an entrancing fairy tale – that kept getting better.
“What are you doing, Darren?” Sherry asked, not believing her eyes. “Darren? Darren?” She didn’t know what else to say; she felt like she had to say something. “Darren, really?”
Darren got comfortable on his knee then tilted his head up and looked into Sherry’s eyes, all while holding her left hand firmly. She wiped tears from her eyes and sniffled. “Well, this is the question I need an answer to before I decide if I’m gonna stay here or not, Sherry.”
“Okay,” Sherry said, struggling to breathe. “Okay...okay. Yes, what is the question?”
Darren took a deep breathe. The wind rustled his hair a bit; the lamp light caused his eyes to glisten. “Sherry, I know we didn’t exactly meet in the most conventional way. Honestly, this has been one hell of a ride for me too. And if I had to do it all over again, I would because of where we got to.” He looked at Sherry nodding. “Ever since meeting you at the bar, I saw something in you that I hadn’t seen in any woman in a long time. I love you Sherry, I really do. And, yes, I had to deal with other kinds of anxieties. I admit I did, but I didn’t get this far in life without taking any risks. So, I wanted to know… Would you do the honor of being my wife?”
Sherry’s heart thumped. Her disbelief had gone to another level. She sobbed with tears watching Darren open the ring box. When he held the ring up and out, toward Sherry, the diamond sparkled in the light. Sherry held her hand out even further as Darren lifted the ring out of the box. She spread her fingers, expectantly.
“Oh my God,” Sherry said, nodding her head. “Oh my God, oh my God.”
Darren still looked into Sherry’s eyes. He chuckled. “So, are you gonna answer my question or not?”
Sherry’s giggled, realizing that she’d been frozen not only in time, but also in thought. “Yes, Darren,” she said, jumping up and down. “Yes, I’ll be your wife. I’ll marry you. Yes.”
Darren chuckled then slid the 22-carat ringer onto her ring finger. He leaned forward and kissed Sherry’s hand as he lifted up off of his knee. Before he could stand completely upright, Sherry fell forward. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she kissed him like a waiting woman kissed her husband upon returning from being deployed. There they stood, in a passionate embrace, in the park and next to a glowing light. A strong wind whipped through the park. The tree branches and leaves applauded emphatically while the river cheered on their love, rushing downstream with noisy waves crashing the rocky banks.
Chapter 14
That night, Sherry and Darren picked Gabriel up after their iconic moment in park then headed home. Luckily, for the both of them, their beautiful baby boy went right to sleep the moment he lay in the crib. His mother and father waited in the doorway for several minutes, looking at their greatest creation, before slipping into Darren’s bedroom. They made love into the night, lost in emotion and lust they’d never seen.
Their lives ramped up in the following months more than they ever expected. A week after proposing to Sherry, Darren finally bit the bullet. He called his mother and filled her in on everything that happened. Needless to say, Joan wasn’t the happiest camper. Yes, she admitted to liking Sherry; however, her liking Sherry was in fact based on her capacity as Gabriel’s nanny. Joan was shocked beyond belief that the young lady would wind up being Gabriel’s real mother. And what were the chances that her son Darren would just so happen to have adopted a baby boy who was a product of a one-night stand he had with Sherry?
Joan was adamant about her dislike for the two getting married. During the conversation, she named off several of her own associates, both in the business world as well as in Chicago’s elite political system who had daughters she saw more suitable for marriage. “What about Donald Decker's daughter? You remember her, don’t you Darren? You two met at that gala we went to with your father up in Milwaukee. Or what about Sarah White’s niece? You know? She worked on Huckabee’s campaign down in Arkansas before he went to Washington D.C. You know she inherited quite a nice amount of assets from her aunt on her father’s side. She’s not bad.”
Darren loved Sherry so much and was so ready to take the marriage risk that his family’s warnings about marrying a woman like Sherry went into one ear then out of the other. When his father finally got around to calling, he admitted he had to call from his office as calling at home with his mother walking around in the background griping was out of the question. His father expressed his feelings about the situation, bringing up that his son was trying to marry a woman neither his mother or father had yet to get to know. Once this sentiment was out on the table, Darren’s father congratulated him and wished him the best of luck. “Marriage is going to be harder than you think.”
Sherry, on the other hand, had a different battle when it came to her family. She kept her engagement a secret for nearly two months, or until she and Darren decided that the wedding would be around Christmas. Unlike Darren, she’d been estranged from her family for years. Nobody knew she had a child and had given it up for adoption, nor did anybody in her family know she had won a battle with cancer. Now, with so much to catch up on, her drive out to her hometown, Goshen, was a thought-consumed couple of hours. Darren had arranged for the daycare to keep Gabriel all day rather than just a half-day. He was leaving the house at the same time as Sherry. They kissed in the foyer and he looked into her eyes, stroking her hair, telling her to be strong and keep calm. “Everything is going to be alright.”
Nearly back at her post-baby weight, Sherry looked over her makeup as US33 turned a bend then descended into Goshen. Sherry look out from the slope. From this view, she could look out over her hometown in its entirety. As she crossed over the Elkhart River, she vividly remembered growing up here. She and her friends found an old trail winding along the river for miles when they were just eight or nine years-old. She looked upstream as she slowed down on the bridge. I wonder if it’s still there. The world seemed so simple then.
Sherry rolled through town, down Main Street. The town literally had retained its character – the epitome of staying the same. However, this stillness of the town was also symbolic of something else: her family. How will they react to seeing me after all this time? Should I have brought Gabriel with me? No, Sherry. You don’t even know how they’ll react to you, much less you pulling up with a baby that they didn’t even know existed...and by a man you’re not even married to...yet
Sherry zigzagged through town until coming to Chester Street, where she turned right. The ride through the next few stop signs was trippy in many ways for her. So many houses looked the same; a few had been repainted. She looked at Mr. Johnson’s house and wondered if Mrs. Johnson was still living. Billy Carson’s house was overgrown with weeds, but looked as if someone lived in it still. Karen Carpenter – this girl Sherry would get into occasional fights with while growing up – and her family lived in a big house on the corner that had a wrap around porch. Sherry was a bit surprised to see the house had burned down. And it didn’t look as if it had happened all that long ago.
When Sherry pulled up in front of her parents’ house – in front of the house where she’d grown up – her stomach sunk a bit. Her heart thumped. It’d been such a long time since she was this nervous. So many questions swirled around in her mind. There were even moments where her nerves had gotten so shot that she contemplated turning around and heading back to Main Street so she could get the hell out of town before anyone saw her who would recognize her face.
“No, Sherry,” Sherry said to herself. Her hand gripped the steering wheel as she turned and looked up at the house. “You came all this way. If they’re not happy to see you, then that just tells you to go on back to Fort Wayne and continue your life with Darren.” Life with Darren….Wow, that sounds strange. Who would’ve ever thought this was coming?
Sherry climbed out of the car and headed up the sidewalk toward her parents’ porch. Just as she was about to step up onto the first step, the screen door two porches down swung up. Sherry spotted Maria, a church girl who probably would never move out of her parents’ house, stepping out. She smiled for the brief moment they made eye contact then stepped up onto the porch. Sherry didn’t realize the effect it would have on her to have to knock at her parents’ door rather than just pulling out a key and letting herself in. She rubbed her palms together in anticipation.
The lock turned then the door swung up. Sherry looked inside, but the glare on the screen glass made it difficult to see into the dim house. Not to Sherry’s surprise, curtains were still closed and the house still shut off from the world. In a matter of seconds, a set of eyes came forward, toward the glass – eyes she knew so well, but hadn’t seen in so long.
“Sherry?”
Sherry forced a smile. “Mom?”
Sherry’s mother, Donna, pushed the screen door open then Sherry walked inside. The 50-year-old woman looked her estranged daughter up and down then hugged her, albeit coldly. The thin, graying woman, whose hair lay down on her shoulders, stepped back, holding Sherry’s left hand. She looked up into Sherry’s eyes, her own eyes demanding questions a mother would never allow her daughter to leave the house without answering.
“Can we talk?” Sherry asked. Even though she’d fallen out of touch with her mother for so many reasons, the look in her eyes made the drive over to Goshen worth it. Sherry followed her mother to the kitchen at the back of the house. As they made their way through the house, Sherry took in the house’s condition. She couldn’t help but to compare it to when she’d gotten into a cursing rage with her mother to run out to her car then drive off to be sight unseen for several years.
Donna sat down across the table from her daughter and listened as Sherry lay the events of her life out in recent years out on the table. The Christian woman in Donna made her reach out and hug Sherry tightly when she teared up while revealing having a child then giving it up for adoption. Donna managed to look passed the part about having a child out of wedlock and saw the situation for what it was. Then, to hear her daughter faced cancer and she hadn’t known about it all this time broke the mother’s heart. Donne was truly shocked hearing that Sherry just so happened to get a job as a nanny for the child she’d given up for adoption.
“Wow, what an unreal coincidence, Sherry,” Donna said, shaking her head. “And now you’re engaged?” she then asked, looking down at Sherry’s ring.
“Yeah,” Sherry said, blushing. She held her hand out so her mother could see the ring.
Donna chuckled under her breath then smiled. “Well, congratulations, baby. This ring does look nice, I must say.”
Sherry laughed, sniffling a bit and pulling her hand back over to her side of the table. She then twisted her ring, in thought. “Yeah, a lot has changed, so I figured I would come back to town and fill you in. I’d been thinking about you, Mama. I don’t want you or Dad or anybody else to think that I wasn’t thinking about them all this time… It’s just...It’s just...”
“It’s okay, Sherry,” Donna said. “I understand. So, tell me about this guy who is supposed to be marrying my daughter and I haven’t even seen him yet.” She laughed, shaking her head. “Wait until your father hears about this. He’s probably gonna want to follow you back to Fort Wayne and sit the guy down. Ask him questions all day long. Your father hasn’t changed much.”
Sherry giggled, so very vividly recalling how her father would run certain boyfriends off. Even though he’d never been in the military, he tried to run his house as if he was a Sargent. Even his son’s girlfriends were put under scrutiny. Mr. Calhoun was notorious for wanting to make sure his son didn’t marry a skanky woman.
Donna listened as her estranged daughter talked about Darren and how their relationship bloomed. Sherry admitted to having met Darren one night when he’d originally visited Ft. Wayne. She couldn’t concern herself with what her mother thought. Rather, she knew she would just have to lay the facts out on the table and that would be that.
Donna glanced away when Sherry finished telling the story. Her own eyes then swelled up as she looked across at her baby girl. She processed her having gone off for all these years and now coming back, having had a child, beaten cancer, then now engaged to a guy who sounded pretty well off. If she were younger, Donna would be jumping down Sherry’s throat. However, over the years, she and her husband both reflected on some of the mistakes they made with their daughter. And it looked like now would certainly be the time to make amends.
Much to Sherry’s surprise, her mother stood up and motioned that she too do the same. Sherry did just that, coming around to the side of the table and stepping up to her mother. The mother and daughter looked into each others eyes then hugged. “I missed you, Sherry,” Donna said, breaking into tears. “Really, I mean that. I’m sorry about how we were toward you. Believe me, me and your father talk about you and think about you all the time and we really are truly sorry. I love you, Sherry… We love you and hope you knew that we always did, regardless.”
Sherry couldn’t let go of her mother. With everything she’d been through in recent months, she wondered for a moment how things would’ve turned out if she had her mother around. This guilt she lived with at this point could’ve very easily been avoided if Sherry had been opened to rebuilding the bridges she helped to burn when she was much younger. “I love you too, Mom. And I missed you guys too.”
***
The rest of the summer then well into the fall was hectic for the both of them, but especially Sherry. Her life seemed to be wind up like a fairy tale, but she was certainly going to enjoy the ride. She felt she deserved it and wasn’t afraid to accept whatever blessings fell into her hands.
By the time August rolled around, Darren went through the internet process again and an older woman to be nanny to Gabriel. This left Sherry with a lot more free time so she could plan their wedding with a wedding planner Darren contracted. Together, she and Jeanette – an older, perky woman who loved working with bright-eyed brides – rode around Ft. Wayne for a couple days looking at churches. Sherry hadn’t yet ever belonged to a church while living in town, so she basically had to start from scratch. She wanted a nice, quaint church. Her family was small and she still wasn’t officially back in “touch” with all of them, so she wasn’t expecting a big turn out. Plus, she didn’t want the all the hoopla and extra-ness.
After riding around for a week, they decided on a historic church downtown. As it was one of the city’s oldest churches, the architecture was by far something that would be hard to find in this day and age. Sherry fell in love with the inside. Not only was it laid out perfectly to have a kick-ass wedding, but also had a small building built on to the side that would be perfect for a reception.
Halfway through the planning, when Sherry was deciding her color scheme as well as what kinds of dresses she wanted for herself and her brides maids – Chrissy and her sister Leah – there was a knock at the door. Sherry excused herself from the meeting with Jeanette to go and answer the door. “It’s Darren’s mother,” she had said to herself.
Joan took a deep breath and held her head high, realizing that even though she didn’t prefer this particular situation when it came to her son getting married, she was just going to have to accept it. Sherry greeted the woman then welcomed her inside. After telling Jeanette to go ahead and continue brainstorming some of the things they already discussed, she walked with Joan to the kitchen then out to the terrace. Sherry picked up on Joan’s efforts to be a bit more warm toward her this time around.
Joan looked over at Sherry as they sat next to one another on a bench. She started the conversation off with a congratulation then a kiss on the cheek. “I remember when I was getting married,” the woman said, smiling as she wiped her pants. “I was about your age. Just graduated with my B.A., about to get my masters and Darren’s father proposed to me. My mother and father were pissed for months...and I loved every moment of it.”
Sherry laughed. Even when being humorous, Darren’s mother Joan still remained stern in a sense. She crossed her legs like a woman who had seen the world. “Sherry, I’m going to admit something to you. I’m still having a hard time processing this. And not because it’s you or anything like that, so please, please don’t think that. But, as you probably know, Darren explained to me the...the...um...sequence of events that led up to all this.” She nodded, signaling that she was coming to grips with it all. “And, okay...I get it.” She looked over at Sherry and smiled. “And I think it’s a good thing.”
Sherry looked at Darren’s mother with surprised eyes. “Yeah?”
Joan placed her hand on top of Sherry’s then smiled. “Sherry, I really do mean this. I’ve been dealing with my son and his, um, love interests for such a long time at this point, as you can imagine.” She chuckled then shook her head. “And I have to say, I wanted to say to your face I should say, that as his mother I feel like he actually made a good choice this time around.”
Sherry covered her mouth; her eyes swelled with tears. Since she started planning the wedding, she just wasn’t all that convinced that Darren’s mother Joan would be all that opening to a woman like her marrying her son. Now, however, hearing that Joan was happy about it truly made a difference. “Thank you, Misses McWaters. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
Joan smiled, looking into Sherry’s eyes. I can certainly see what he sees in this young woman. She’s beautiful inside and out...truly. “Well, I just thought I would share that with you before things got too far along. I know we haven’t exactly had a chance to really get to know one another….and that’s alright. We’ll certainly have plenty of time for that now. That’s just the first thing I wanted to share with you.”
“Well, I appreciate it, Misses McWaters,” Sherry said. “And I must say I’m looking forward to having you as my mother-in-law. Maybe you could come and stay for a couple months.”
Joan scoffed then shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Yeah...right. If I came and stayed for a couple of months, my son Darren would probably pack up in the night and run for the hills… Well, I guess I should say cornfields. Aren’t many hills in this state like that.”
Sherry laughed. Flatness was certainly the middle name for Northern Indiana. “Well, maybe a couple week then.”
Joan giggled. “Yeah, well, we’ll see. But there’s just one more thing. I must say I kind of have a bone to pick with you, young lady.”
Sherry tensed up. What did I do? Would she judge me for having given my child up for adoption? Was she about to insist that she agree to a prenup, if Darren was even thinking of such? “Yeah?” she said, hesitantly.
“I hope you don’t think you were going to plan this wedding to my son without any input from me,” Joan said. “I really hope that’s not what you were trying to do, dear.” She looked over at Sherry, sternly but playfully. “Please say that isn’t so, Sherry.”
Sherry looked away, trying to not smile. Only a few seconds later, she jumped up off of the bench then headed for the door. “Actually, I was just about to get Darren to give me your number so I could call you and get you in on things.”
Joan smiled and playfully squinted at Sherry as she stood up, clutched her purse, then followed Sherry back into the house. She joined her future daughter-in-law and the wedding planner and got caught up on everything that had been done up to this point.
***
Light snow showers spanned across the Ft. Wayne metro. Nearly a week ago, children were let out of school for winter breaks. Christmas tree lights tangled around the branches of trees lining downtown streets. Malls had been packed with shoppers, snatching up gifts at a good prices. The jingling of Salvation Army bells and the clanking of coins landing in donation buckets could be heard in front of basically every grocery store. With the Christmas spirit seeping into everyone’s hearts for the end of the year, Sherry’s own heart had swelled in new ways. Her wedding day approached faster than she thought. And with the help of Joan, the wedding planner Jeanette, and mother nature, this day was shaping up to be something any woman would have dreamed of as a little girl...and would remember fondly for the rest of her life.
Make-up artists and hair stylists swarmed around Sherry in her dressing room shortly before the ceremony was due to start. Guests shuffled into the church, placing their gifts down on the table in the entrance way to making their way to the sanctuary. Sherry worked to block out the noise and focus on the woman in the mirror. She held back tears, as to not mess up her makeup. Periodically, she would have to fan her face to keep it dry.
Shortly after the stylist finished with Sherry’s hair, it now lying back with curly at the ends, the dressing room door opened. Chrissy jumped over to make sure it wasn’t Darren. The last thing they wanted was for the wedding to start off on a bad foot. When she saw it was Darren’s mother Joan, she smiled and graciously welcomed the woman into the room.
When Joan pushed the door closed, she stopped in her tracks and smiled. “Sherry,” she said, practically gasping from the sight. She looked at her future daughter-in-law in the mirror. “You are so beautiful, Sherry. Truly, just stunning.”
The makeup artist backed away from Sherry for a moment so she could hug her guest. Sherry then sat back down in the chair and looked straight ahead, at the mirror. Joan, having shed her cold business persona, pulled up a chair and plopped down next to Sherry. “Okay, so I was thinking,” she began. “You’re going to be marrying my son, Darren. So, I figured it would be best if I give you a little guide on how to deal with McWaters men.” She chuckled. “And I only say that because I had to figure it out… Nobody ever told me a thing, even though I think my mother-in-law, may God rest her soul, was clearly holding back.”
Sherry laughed and looked ahead into the mirror as the stylists and makeup artists worked their magic. She listened to her mother-in-law-to-be spill as much marriage advice as she could. They laughed together in ways Sherry would’ve never imagined when meeting this woman. There were moments Sherry would look down at her hand and twist her engagement ring. She thought about Gabriel as well, who was supposed to be out in the sanctuary, cradled in his other grandmother’s – Donna – arms. She had come into the dressing room early when Sherry first started getting ready for the day of her life.
Jeanette buzzed around at the last minute trying to make sure everything was done and that everyone was ready to fulfill their roles. She even went as far as putting Darren up at the alter and telling him he had better not go walking off. By the time she got back to the dressing room, Darren’s mother had been finishing up her lesson on marrying a McWaters man. The woman kissed her son’s choice for a bride on the forehead then told her that she would see her out in the sanctuary.
When the door opened for Sherry to walk out then head to the alter, her heart pumped in her chest. She clenched her flowers in her hand so nervously that Jeanette had to rub her shoulders then tell her there was nothing to be nervous about. Everyone around remind her of just how beautiful she was.
The music started; the crowd stood up and looked on anxiously. With the train of her dress dragging against the red carpet, Sherry felt as if she were floating down the aisle. The sun, seeming extra bright from the snow-covered buildings and houses up and down the street, illuminated the sanctuary. People smiled and nodded; cameras flashed from every direction. No matter how many times she practiced this aisle walk during the rehearsal, she was still overcome with fear that she would be that bride who would trip and fall flat on her face just seconds before stepping up to the groom.
Sherry nearly sobbed from seeing her sister Leah up at the alter, waiting next to Chrissy. Seeing her family sitting out in the pews to her left was just unreal. The seats were packed. So much more of her family turned out than she would’ve ever imagined. Sherry then looked ahead and into Darren’s eyes. She smiled; he smiled. It wasn’t long before he extended his arm to help her up a couple of steps then into the alter. Sherry handed her flowers to her sister Leah then turned toward Darren. The groom pulled the vale from over Sherry’s face and smiled. It took every bit of his strength to keep from leaning forward and kissing the bride prematurely.
Time slowed as the minister expressed his happiness in seeing this couple wed. Joan had arranged of his childhood priest to come to Ft. Wayne and perform the vows, so there was also some sentimental value to the situation as well. For Sherry, responding to each vow was nothing like seemed on television or in the movies. She felt the eyes watching her, but she only had eyes for Darren. Even though they hadn’t kissed yet, she could feel their souls already floating out of their chests and embracing one another in the foot of space between the two of them.
Darren was the first to repeat after the priest. “I, Darren McWaters, take you, Sherry Calhoun, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.”
Sherry’s turn then came about. She wanted to jump up and down with excitement, but knew she would probably fall over because of her heels. “I, Sherry Calhoun, take you, Darren McWaters, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, until death do us part.”
The priest finished the vows and officiated the ceremony then watched as Darren slid the official wedding ring onto Sherry’s ring finger, pressing it up against the engagement ring. “...And you may now kiss the bride.”
Darren leaned down and kissed Sherry as if he’d been waiting years to do so. Sherry threw her arms up around his shoulders as she practically fell into their embrace. The crowd roared with applause. Finally parting lips, the new husband and bride turned toward their guests and smiled. People rushed up for congratulations, hugs, and pictures. Donna walked up with Gabriel. Both with new leafs in life, Darren and Sherry looked into their smiling sons eyes.
“Come on, I got a idea,” Sherry said, pulling Darren’s hand toward the aisle.
Before Darren could say anything, he found himself being dragged down the aisle by the bride. The guests looked onward, wondering what was happening and where they were going. They crowded into the aisle and watched as Sherry pulled her husband into the church’s foyer. She then pushed the door open and people followed, pulling their phones out.
“What are we doing out here?” Darren asked. His cheeks stung from the cold air.
Sherry laughed and, holding her train, walked over into the snow. She had never looked or felt so beautiful in her life. She picked up a handful of snow, formed a snowball, then threw it at Darren. He barely ducked in time, but knew he could give Sherry a taste of her own medicine. The groom jumped into the snow himself and partook in a snowball fight with his wife. Baby Gabriel laughed from the entrance, in his grandmother’s arms and anxious to get down on the ground and run over to his mother and father. Darren and Sherry played out in the snow until they eventually toppled over, kissing one another in the snow while cameras flashed.