Chapter 11
Best Laid Plans
Once Angela was out of earshot, Raylan picked up his wine glass and raised it in the air. "Happy birthday," he smiled.
She picked up hers and lightly clinked his glass. "Thank you."
As they each took a sip, their eyes were fixated on each other with Raylan drinking in the image of her along with the wine. In the candlelight, her eyes sparkled as the sapphires dangling from her earlobes. She literally took his breath away.
"What?" she spoke softly, self-conscious at the intensity of his gaze.
He took in a deep breath. "You … are … absolutely… stunning. Always have been, always will be." At times like this, all their troubles and differences seemed to melt away.
"Raylan, I …," she stopped, taking a quick drink of wine.
"You what?" he asked.
She glanced over at Willa who had resumed teething on the biscotti. "You always say I'm beautiful." She looked down and then back up at him. "After having Willa, I'm not exactly the same as I was."
"Are you okay? Is there somethin' wrong?" He became concerned, wondering why it never occurred to him to ask her this before.
She averted her eyes down into her plate. "Oh, it's not that," she assured him. "Physically, I'm all healed, except for a stretch mark or two and the extra seven pounds I'm still carrying." And then, under her breath, she added, "And this meal is not helping with that."
Her skin glowed. Glancing down at the tops of the mounds of her ample breasts, enhanced by the clinging silk dress, he said, "Trust me. Those seven pounds are in all the right places."
Her gaze again locked with his as she took another sip from her glass, but there was distress in her eyes.
After taking a bite of the ravioli, this time it was Raylan who laid down his fork and reached across the table, placing his hand on top of hers.
Winona searched his eyes in the flickering candlelight. "Raylan," she swallowed her hesitation. "It's been a very long time since I've had … sex." She paused and took another sip of wine. "In fact, the last time was over a year ago… with you."
He squeezed her hand tight in his.
"I just don't want to …," she trailed off.
"You don't want to have sex with me?" Raylan finished her sentence, his face expressing confusion and alarm.
"No," she immediately corrected him, endeared by his reaction. "Trust me. I want to have sex with you. I almost jumped your bones last night." There. I said it. Picking a piece of asparagus out of the risotto with her fork, she noticed that after a few glasses of wine, she was feeling pretty good.
"Good," he looked relieved. "Because I'm not gonna hurt you," Raylan said softly in a reassuring tone. "I've wanted you ever since I laid eyes on you in the hotel lobby."
Carefully choosing her words, she said, "I don't want to screw things up with you … again."
There. Once again, I said what I meant.
Raylan shook his head. "You're not. We're not. We can't." And he nodded his head towards Willa, who was letting out a sleepy little yawn. "We owe it to her."
The air became thick with their desire for one another. With a table full of food between them, Winona downed the rest of her wine out of frustration. Moments later, she reached across the table for Raylan's glass and downed his, too.
Stunned, he watched her with wide eyes.
"Do you think we could ask Angela to box all this up 'to go?'" she asked in a pleading tone.
"Absolutely." Raylan looked around the room and signaled for a waiter who, after checking with them, promptly left to retrieve some boxes. Winona began to quietly gather Willa's things and place them in the diaper bag. "I can nurse her in the backseat of the car." She was thinking ahead, out loud. "I'll be discreet."
"Great idea," Raylan answered, sharing her growing impatience. The sooner they could be alone, the better.
"Is everything alright?" Angela asked, approaching the table with restaurant paper bags and boxes. "It the bambina alright?" She was worried perhaps something happened with the biscotti.
"Um, yeah," Winona said. "Everything is fine. I think the magic worked really well." She smiled an almost apologetic smile.
Boxing up the risotto, Angela said, "I knew it. Soon, the bella bambina will have a little brother or sister. I can tell these things." She winked at Raylan, who flushed. At the moment, another baby was the last thing on his mind. Good thing there were condoms in the glove box.
Winona helped Angela move things along by holding the plate as the restaurateur scraped the meat sauce on top of the raviolis in a foil covered container. They repeated the ritual with the shrimp and the salad and placed the sealed containers inside the paper bags.
"This food is just as delizioso reheated for a little romantic late night snack," Angela went on and smiled at Winona. "I have some chocolates for you, too." She pulled wrapped, hand-made truffles from her apron pocket and placed a handful of them in the bag.
In the meantime, Raylan pulled out his wallet to retrieve a credit card.
"No, no, Mr. Marshal," Angela shook her head. "Mr. Mullins has already paid for everything. He was emphatic that you two have a lovely evening, and he even included a very generous tip. He wanted you to have musica, flowers, vino flowing."
Winona winced, really wanting to get this show on the road.
"Don't worry," Raylan assured the older woman. "I'll personally make sure Mr. Mullins knows we had the best night ever … thanks to you, Angela." This time, he winked at her.
Angela smiled, approvingly. "Grazie," she said. "You come back soon. Don't be such a stranger."
Raylan picked up Willa's carrier with one hand and the largest bag of food with the other. The baby was beginning to nod off. Winona flung her handbag and the diaper bag over her shoulder, and picked up the other smaller bags of food.
"Thank you," she smile at Angela. Wanting to make a quick getaway she promised. "We will come back soon." Truth was, she had no idea when they would be back.
Outside the restaurant, Raylan's hands were full. He asked Winona to pull his wallet out of his back pocket. She did so and looked through the bills slot and found the claim ticket. She handed it to the valet, and the young man left his station to retrieve the Lincoln. Finally alone, she faced Raylan and reached around him, placing the wallet back in his pocket. Gazing into his eyes all the while, she moved closer to him. She wrapped her free arm around his waist and pressed herself against him, feeling his instant response. As she balanced herself up on her high heels he leaned his head down and kissed her.
Their kiss quickly became deeper, igniting that familiar fire between them. Too soon, they were interrupted by the sound of the Lincoln, and it was Winona who abruptly released the embrace. Raylan opened the back passenger door and carefully locked Willa's carrier into the car seat base, and Winona climbed in beside her.
Raylan tipped the valet and hopped into the car, unloaded the food on the passenger seat, placed the car in drive, and headed for the hotel. Reminding himself of his precious cargo, he resisted the urge to drive with a lead foot.
In the rearview mirror, he watched Winona gently take a drowsy Willa out of her carrier and put the baby to her breast. She rubbed the baby's cheek to encourage her to nurse, and it worked. As he wove the car through the familiar streets of downtown Lexington, he continued to periodically glance into the mirror. Winona had never looked more beautiful.
Just as they pulled into the hotel parking lot, his cell phone rang. Raylan glanced at the screen and saw it was Alison. He dialed down the volume after the first ring and let the call go to voice mail.
Raylan found a parking place close to the front and backed the Lincoln in. Picking up the food from the seat beside him, he opened the door and slid out. "The drive back here was longer than I remembered," he joked, opening the back door for Winona.
The sight that met his eyes was sweet, but not what he was anticipating. His two beautiful ladies were both fast asleep.
-o-o-o-O-o-o-o-
The most sorrowful cries he'd ever heard came from the crib, waking Raylan. Rolling over, he glanced at the clock – it was 7:17 a.m. - and looked around the room. Winona was nowhere to be seen. His bare feet hit the carpeting and he made his way to the crib and pick up his little one.
"Hey, hey, now," he said soft, raising the tiny girl to his shoulder. "What's the matter with Willa?" He did a quick diaper check. "Well, that's not it."
He walked over to the kitchenette. As he neared the bathroom door, he could hear the shower running. He opened the door and poked his head into the steam filled room. "Winona? Should I heat Willa a bottle?"
From inside the stall she said, "I nursed her a little while ago. She went back to sleep." She couldn't help but hear the baby's sobbing and a moment later, she said. "You can try her on another bottle.
"Okay," he mumbled. Yawning, he stumbled into the kitchen with his crying baby. With one hand, he turned on the faucet to very warm water. Then, he opened the freezer and found the next to the last packet of breast milk and placed it under warm running water.
"It's comin', it's comin'," he tried to convince the non-verbal baby, jostling her in his arms. She was inconsolable, her bottom lip trembled, and big fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
After what seemed to be an eternity, the packet of milk seemed to be at body temperature. He opened it and placed it in a clean bottle and screwed on the nipple.
"Here you go," Raylan said. He sat on the edge of the bed, cradling Willa in one arm as he offered the bottle. She pushed it out with her tongue and continued to wail. Setting the bottle down, he lifted her back to his shoulder, pacing around the room and patting her back. Just when he thought the wailing was going to split his aching head in two, she stopped fussing and shoved her fist in her mouth, drooling.
"Are your teeth botherin' you again?" He glanced at the bourbon on the dresser. "Normally I'd say it's a little early for alcohol, but I think even your mama might make an exception under the circumstances." He poured some into a nearby glass, stuck in a finger, and rubbed it on Willa's enflamed gums. In a split second she grabbed his finger in her tiny fist and chomped down. Something sharp dug into his skin.
"Ow!" He pulled his finger out and Willa grinned. "Well, I'll be damned," he said, spying a sliver of white on her bottom gum. "You're gettin' one in there. And it's sharp! That's gotta hurt. No wonder you were fussin'. Wait until your mama sees this."
The spray of the shower cascaded over Winona's pounding head. This was the worst hangover she'd had in years. She stretched her neck back, letting the warm water flow over her face as she rubbed her temples. God, she needed coffee, but first she something to settle her churning stomach, toast, maybe, or a muffin.
What had possessed her to drink that much? She didn't even remember how she got into the hotel room, or undressed, or if they... She reached for the shower nozzle and hesitated, running a hand over her once flat belly. Certainly she would remember if they'd made love, wouldn't she? And if they did, did they remember to use contraception?
Oh, no, she thought to herself, and cradled her face in her hands, submerged under the spray. She stayed there for a good long time until the water began to cool. That was her signal to turn off the water and grab a towel from a nearby shelf. She wrapped it around her body and tucked in the end in her cleavage, and she grabbed another to towel dry her hair. The bathroom was so steamed, she couldn't see herself in the mirror, so she opened the door.
"If you can watch Willa for a minute," Raylan said as Winona slowly emerged, holding her aching head. "I'll run down and get you some coffee and an English muffin from the breakfast buffet."
Raylan remembered how she took to a hangover.
"Bless you," she said and slowly made her way back to the bed. "You didn't happen to find any aspirin did you?"
"'fraid not," he said. "They probably have some at the front desk, I'll ask."
By now, Winona had buried her head under a pillow. "I'll take them with the muffin," she said. "How's Willa?"
"She's quiet now, have you noticed?" he said still holding her in his arms. She was still a happy girl. "Seems the edge of a bottom tooth busted through the gum. That's why she was fussin'."
"Really?" Winona said, softly so as not to amplify her headache, peeking out from under the darkness of her pillow. "I'd come over and look if I could move."
Raylan winced at the site of his lady love. He could relate to hangover. He didn't drink as much as Winona and could hold his liquor a hell of a lot better, but his stomach had also seen better days.
"You want me to take her with me?" He wasn't sure how he would manage the baby, plus two coffees and breakfast for them, but he was willing to try.
"Would you?" Winona moaned.
"Yeah, but hold onto her here while I throw on some clothes," he said, laying Willa on her back, next to her mama.
"Okay," Winona mumbled, brushing her daughter's blonde tresses with her fingers.
"Raylan, how am I going make our flight today? I can't even move."
"So don't go," he said. Not yet showered, he stepped into the slacks he wore the night before. "Stay another couple of days. You could get to feelin' better, and we could go see Gayle, or take Willa to see your daddy. You mentioned wantin' to see him. I can change your tickets for you."
Raylan thought that he would love to have another opportunity to make love to Winona. The way the night before ended had been quite a disappointment to him.
"It would be nice to see him and introduce him to Willa. Gayle says he's not doing that well since he moved to the assisted living place after his last heart attack. I told you they think he has Alzheimer's, didn't I?"
After pulling a Henley over his head, he pulled his socks over his bare feet and stepped into his boots. "You mighta mentioned it." Truth be told, while he was avoiding them, what Winona said in their infrequent conversations had gone in one ear and out the other.
"I'd like him to at least meet his granddaughter," Winona murmured. "Maybe changing my flight isn't a bad idea, if it doesn't cost too much."
"I'll look into it when I get back. Come on, Miss Willa, let's go get your mama some food." He picked up his baby, shifted her to his shoulder, and picked up the key card from the dresser. "We don't even have to leave the room for lunch," he reminded Winona. "We've got all the leftovers from Giuseppe's."
(To be continued …)
