CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A few days after vising Milly, Lucy was watching a movie in her apartment when someone knocked on the door. When she went to answer, she saw Jamie through the peephole. He’d called her last night, telling her he missed her already and was going to fly in the next day. His flight wasn’t supposed to come in until later that night, but his early arrival was a wonderfully pleasant surprise. With a delighted laugh, she threw open the door. He was carrying a big, heavy-looking basket and a white blanket was draped over one of his arms.
“Hi. Why are you here so early, and what’s all of this?”
“I got done with business earlier than I expected and I couldn’t wait to see you. Since it’s not quite five, I thought you might be hungry so I brought you some dinner.”
“I am hungry,” she said. “Is there really food in there?” she asked, her eyes on the basket.
“In here?” he asked, holding up the basket. “No, this is my new purse. I just brought it in to see if you thought it went with my shoes.”
She laughed and said, “Well, if you have any food in that purse you better feed me. I’m about to chew off my own arm.”
As he spread the blanket out on the floor of her living room and sat the basket down, he said, “Why didn’t you think there’d be food in here?”
“I don’t know. I though maybe it was just utensils. Plates. That kind of thing. And that you’d want to order delivery.”
“Don’t think I can put together a picnic?”
She shrugged. “No. I just didn’t think you’d…”
“Go to the trouble to put a picnic together?” he asked.
She frowned and shook her head. “Never mind. I don’t know why I asked. Now what do you have there?”
Lucy sat down on the blanket and watched as he unpacked the picnic basket. He took out a white candle and set it in the middle of their blanket and lit it.
“Hmm. You seem to be setting the mood. What else do you have in there? And if it’s anything like I’m thinking—what would the folks at your country club think?”
“Why, are you going to snitch me out?”
“Depends. I’ve been thinking of your visit all day. I’m hungry for food and sex,” she said. “Both of those appetites have to be satisfied or I might just sing like a canary.”
“Good to know,” he said.
He finished setting the food out. He had green olives, ham, salami, bruschetta, a fresh loaf of French bread, assorted cheeses, condiments, and chocolate mousse pie. He’d also brought sparkling cider and two plastic champagne flutes.
“Wow, this is an incredible spread,” she said, already fixing her sandwich.
“Will this buy me silence for the candle and whatever else I might have in this basket?” he asked.
“Between this and what I got from you the last time we were together, I think you’ve bought my silence for at least a year.”
They ate and chatted and then Jamie said, “How do you feel about baseball?”
“I don’t have any strong feelings about it either way. Why?”
“You’re not a Giants or Angels fan?”
“Wouldn’t know a Giant or an Angel if they hit me in the face,” she said.
“We don’t need to go if you’ll be bored, but I have a couple of baseball tickets for tomorrow night. I was wondering if you’d like to go.”
“Sure,” she said. “Who are we going to see?”
“The Yankees,” he said.
“Who’s the home team?”
“Ah, so you do know some of the lingo.”
Lucy held up her finger and thumb with a small space between them. “Just this much.”
“Cool. But the Yankees are the home team.”
“What? I don’t…Oh! You want to fly us to New York for a baseball game?”
“I’d like that, yes,” he told her. “If we have time, I’d also like to have dinner in SoHo.”
She was shaking her head, “You’re crazy, you know that?”
He had just taken a bite of his sandwich, but she could see his eyes dancing as he said, “Why? I just want to spend more time with you. Before…well before this has to end.”
She swallowed hard. “I’d like to spend more time with you, too.”
The next day, they ended up taking his jet to New York and having dinner at an amazing little Sushi restaurant in SoHo. They watched the Yankee’s game from a private skybox. Then they flew back home, a little bit tipsy from the few beers they’d had.
Lucy confirmed that Jamie’s jet had a bedroom. They made love throughout the entire flight home. It had been the perfect ending to a day filled with taking silly pictures in baseball gear they bought in the gift shop, singing “Take me Out to the Ballpark” during the seventh inning stretch, and eating foot-long hot dogs (even though she spilled mustard all over the front of her shirt, thus leading to them visiting the gift shop in the first place).
But when she was back in her apartment, alone, she started to worry.
She was falling hard for Jamie.
It had nothing to do with him flying her in a private jet to a ball game, and everything to do with how much fun he was to be with when they got there.
She didn’t want their time to end.
And she didn’t know what to do about it.
* * *
Two days after flying Lucy to New York, Jamie was in his office when his father called.
“Well, I got a call from Tom Landry over at the EPA offices today. At your request, we’ve been checking into the practices of the old auto-manufacturing plant in Summitville, and it looks like your suspicions were correct. Even though its distillation system technically met EPA standards, the runoff from the plant significantly diminished the quality of the land around it. That includes fields that were previously used for farming and are now lying empty.”
“Right,” Jamie said. “And that means even though our distillation system is environmentally friendly, there’s going to continue to be reduced plant production and profit for those nearby farms. Can we rehabilitate the land before we begin operation—assuming that we’re even granted that right by the town council?”
“We could, but that would be expensive. Very expensive. I’m not sure I’m willing to spend that kind of money on a project that may or may not get off the ground. If the town council commits beforehand, maybe, otherwise…”
“You know this project is important to me, Dad. My goal isn’t just to profit our company, but help the residents of Summitville. I’d like to explore repairing the land that’s been damaged.”
“Before we’re guaranteed a presence in the town?”
“That’s right. It’s a calculated risk. But it’s also something I feel strongly about.”
And his father knew why. After only a brief hesitation, his father said, “You do what you think is right, Jamie.”
“Thank you, Dad. That means a lot to me.”
“You mean a lot to me, son. It’s good to be working with you again. I’m proud of you. Proud of what you stand for.”
After ending the call with his father, Jamie finished packing up his things, then called Lucy. “Hi. I’m about to catch my flight and should be at your apartment within the next few hours. How does shrimp scampi and rice sound?”
“Fabulous.”
“Great. The restaurant’s close to the airport. Do you want me to send a driver over to pick you up and drop you off at the restaurant?”
She chuckled. “I let you fly me across the country to one ballgame, Jamison, and suddenly you think you need to send a car to drive me to a restaurant? I can get there myself, but thank you.”
Glad she hadn’t really been offended by his offer to send a driver, Jamie said “I’ll meet you at the restaurant at seven.” He couldn’t wait.
* * *
On her way to the restaurant, Lucy stopped at her favorite bakery and bought some cookies and a can of whipped cream, which she secreted in her purse. She knew she and Jamie would drive back to her place together, and she didn’t want him catching on to her plans.
As always, dinner with Jamie was fun and relaxing. They filled their dinnertime talking about work and Lucy’s niece. Lucy was already looking forward to another visit with Milly the following weekend. Thanks to Jamie, Diana had agreed to let them take the baby to the zoo for their visit. Lucy couldn’t wait.
As the waiter cleared their table, Jamie asked, “Lucy, would you go to Summitville with me this weekend?”
Lucy’s eyes widened in surprise. Jamie had told her a little bit more about the factory Whitcomb Enterprises was seeking to open in Summitville, a small town in Michigan. But the last time he’d spoken of it, he’d said his meeting with the town council wouldn’t take place for several weeks. “I thought your meeting with the town council wasn’t until next month.”
“Something unexpected came up that I need to take care of and I’d really like your company.”
Good thing she had no plans for the upcoming weekend. In fact, the only plans she ever seemed to have involved Jamie, and she’d been enjoying that immensely. “Well, sure. You’ve been there for me, so I’m happy to do anything I can to help you. Though I really don’t think you need me. You’re wonderful. I’m sure the people from Summitville will love you once they get to know you better.”
“Now that’s a nice thing to say. I think it deserves a kiss.”
He leaned over and lightly touched his lips to hers. When he lifted his head, she barely stopped herself from pulling him back down.
She knew the fact that he kept flying up from Los Angeles to see her was something she should call a halt to, but they’d both agreed that as long as they were pretending to be engaged, they had free rein when it came to sex. And even though what she felt for him was way beyond sex, and even though she knew the same was true for Jamie, she loved being with him too much to protest.
After dinner, they took a cab back to her place. Once they were safely inside, she poured him a glass of wine and they sat on the couch.
“Dinner was nice, wasn’t it?”
“Wonderful,” she said.
“I like it that you love to eat.”
“Yeah, I guess I should be more worried about gaining weight. It’ll happen someday…”
“Even if it does, you’ll never be anything less than gorgeous.”
“Why, Professor, what a nice thing to say.”
“Just stating the facts,” he said.
“Hmm. Well, I’m interested in what you’ll think of this.” She produced the cookies and whipped cream can from her purse and set them on the coffee table.
He stared at them for a minute, then picked up the cookies, handed her one, and said, “I think we should eat these damn cookies so we can move on to that whipped cream.”
He took a huge bite of his peanut butter cookie, then held it out for her to try. She did the same to the white chocolate macadamia. After the cookies had been devoured, he said, “Nice, but I’m still hungry.”
“Me, too,” she whispered.
“Where do you want to have the rest of our dessert? In the bedroom or on the dining room table?”
The thought of being spread out on her dining room table and covered in whipped cream made Lucy moan. “You’re turning into quite the little sex fiend,” she breathed out.
“Only with you, Luce. Only with you.”