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IVY
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AFTER THAT ROUND OF lovemaking, there is no doubt left in my mind that he loves my new curves. I feel guilty about lying and not telling David about Adam, but I know in my heart it’s for the best. It would only make these next four years even worse for him.
“What do you want to do, beautiful?” he asks me while rubbing his hand over my belly and hips, tracing the stretch marks. There aren’t too many. I put on minimal weight and exercised like crazy during my pregnancy and after. I used lotion and stretch mark cream religiously.
“I want to see you perform at a concert. I’ve seen some videos, but I want to see the real thing.”
“Done. I’ll talk to my manager in the morning. I have to talk to my lawyer anyway, so I’ll head out and take care of that tomorrow morning. You stay here with Mom and Dad, and after the concert, I plan to take you to a cabin I bought in the mountains for a week. I’ll tell Anna I have to work, and you are going home. She comes here way too often for my liking.”
He does just that. The next morning, he is gone for a few hours and comes home and insisted I fill him in on everything he missed over the last year. We stay in the TV room, and I tell him about Brian and Kevin’s wedding and them agreeing to stay with me, the remodel of the basement, and our hunt to find a way to bring him to me and cover up his death.
“Oh, and to give us both a light at the end of the tunnel,” I say. “September 11, 1965, is when your divorce will be final, and I will be here.”
Then we hear a bunch of doors slamming and footsteps stomping down to the TV room. David tenses, and I have a feeling it’s Anna. “You shouldn’t be scared in your own house,” I whisper.
Anna appears and doesn’t hide the rage on her face when she sees me. “You went through with the prenup?!” she says to David.
“Yes, you will learn I mean everything I say, especially since my gut tells me you and your family are nothing but a bunch of gold diggers.”
She has the audacity to look like she’s been slapped.
“The day after tomorrow, I have a last-minute show here in town, and then I have to go away on business for a few days, few meetings to take,” he tells her.
“So close to the wedding?” she whines. God, I can’t stand this girl. I want to grab David and run away with him. I can’t help but feel I am causing this pain, and not for the first time, thoughts run through my head of what if I changed history. But I know in my heart I can’t. So much would change and not for the better.
“Yes, the world and my career don’t stop because of you. Now, I have company. I will call you when I get home from my trip, so I suggest you have the prenup signed and filed by then. I don’t wish to see you until you do.”
Her eyes water, and she runs out of the room. We sit still and listen to her leave the house.
“I don’t even feel bad about what we did to her bed,” I say, then I climb over to him, and we do the same thing on the couch.
It’s the day of the concert, and he says he has a surprise for me, and I can’t wait. He says the show is almost sold out, which is crazy for how little notice they gave. We get there, and he takes me backstage. I meet his manager, and he introduces me as simply his family. It’s true, and no one needs to know the details. He sets me up with a member of his security team and a chair at the side of the stage so I can watch him play.
Just before the show, he comes over and kisses me.
“Now, I want the full experience. Don’t you hold back, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He gives me a devilish smile.
He goes out and sings three of his more upbeat songs, then he dedicates one to me. But he does it in a way his fans could think he’s talking about his soon-to-be wife by saying it’s for the woman he loves and holds his heart. Yet he looks right at me when he says it.
After that song, he says he has a surprise, and if I hadn’t been sitting down, I might have fallen out of my chair when Johnny and June Cash walk on stage. Well, I guess she is still June Carter right now.
I have tears in my eyes. He remembered. They all sing a few songs before Johnny takes the stage on his own for a few songs.
When the show is over, I get to hang out backstage with Johnny and June and David. If anyone understands that the road to love is a difficult one, it’s them, and they don’t judge us for what is currently going on. They are fighting their own uphill battle.
I have to be careful about the questions I ask to make sure they are in line with the year, but it was great to talk with them.
After a few hours, David whisks me off to his cabin, but when we get there, I stand in open-mouthed shock.
“This is not your cabin.”
“Yes, it is. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“This is the cabin Brian and Kevin bought and spent their honeymoon in!!!”
“No way.” He looks at me with wide eyes.
All I can do is laugh; it’s just another sign that fate brought us here. If only fate could take care of Anna, then life would be perfect.
For the next week, we don’t leave the cabin other than for our nightly walks down to the stream at the far end of the property.
Our last night here on our walk, our talk turns serious. “You know what you are asking of me is unfair,” David says.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Well, you asking me to be unfaithful to you while you get to remain faithful.”
I can’t help but laugh. “I think you might be the only man ever who is upset your wife is giving you permission to be with another woman. Four years is a long time, and I won’t be upset if any of the rumors of women you are with are true. Just be honest and tell me which ones are.”
He looks upset. “I will not be sleeping with anyone except Anna, and I plan to do that only once.”
We walk a bit in silence. “Do you plan on dating over these four years?” he asks quietly.
“No, believe me, I understand your statement of the thought of it makes you sick. Just, I know I sound like a broken record, but no drugs, please. Brian’s and my plan is contingent on that, okay?”
“I promise, beautiful. I will not break any promise I have made you, ever!” He pulls me to him in a fierce and passionate kiss.
That night, we make love so sweet we both cry, then he takes me so hard and rough, saying he wants me to feel him between my thighs for days. He doesn’t let me sleep. Anytime one of us gets tired, he slams into me again. We both get a few hours of sleep before waking up to our ritual shower.
Before we get in the car, I hand him a stack of letters.
“Don’t open these until the date on each envelope. This is my way of being there for different events in your life, okay?”
“I promise, I also plan to write to you every day.”
“So do I. I will keep a journal, and I want to know everything. Every detail. And I’ll do the same.”
We sit next to each other in the car holding hands on our way to the stones.
Walking through them this time will be the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.
Four years and counting.
