Road Trips
CJ/Danny, CJ/OMC, Danny/OFC; all sorts of West Wing characters; alternative universe, total fantasy (or is it?)
Rating Adult -
Spoilers through end of series; possible spoilers for "Holding Hands on the Way Down"
My apologies to the good people of Moline, IL. I had to pick some place on I-80 with a Wal-Mart and you guys drew the short straw.
Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul
Feedback and criticism always welcomed
Late May, 2015; Kensington, CA
"Honey, I ran your ideas past Kenny, he's the chef at the Faculty Club. He likes the idea of the roasted red pepper soup and if you can get me a copy of your grandmother's recipe, he'll whip up a batch and figure out how to make it for 250 people. He suggested a different salad, romaine with avocado, poached asparagus, hearts of palm, and artichoke hearts. He said that with the soup and the tomatoes on the grilled veggie skewers, it would be too much red overall, you know how chefs are about presentation. He also suggested that in addition to the beef bourguignon, chicken piccata, and grilled tilapia, we offer the veggie skewers as a choice, in case there are any vegans in the group. He would put three skewers on the plate with the saffron rice instead of just one. The skewers would have cherry tomatoes, pearl onions, green pepper, and a quartered portabella mushroom. Margarita sorbet right after the meal. I told him that you and Tom had decided on the cointreau filling for the groom's cake but were vacillating between coconut and hazelnut for the main cake. Kenny said he could do half the layers in coconut and half in hazelnut."
CJ was multi-tasking, feeding Dansha and discussing wedding plans with Deborah. Luckily, her cell had a very good speaker phone.
"CJ, that would be wonderful! What about the wines?"
"He's going to talk with Randy and the two of them will pick the vintages, but there will probably be a dry sherry offered with the soup, a choice of white or red with the entrée, of course, and champagne with the sorbet, and with the cake."
"Derrick is still a little concerned about the finger stuff beforehand, or rather, the relative lack thereof."
"Honey, we're going to be feeding everyone a four-course meal. I really think that the cheese and fruit trays will be enough. Tell your brother that if he's that concerned about fainting from hunger, I'll make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to put in his tux pocket to eat between the church and the club," CJ laughed (Deborah joined in.)
"Mama!"
The door from the garage to the kitchen opened and Caitlin came tearing into the room. She wrapped her arms around CJ's leg.
Paul came into the kitchen, dropping two bags on the counter. He reached down to kiss CJ lightly on the mouth before realizing that she was on the phone.
"Talk to your oldest daughter and take your youngest." CJ handed the baby to her husband, adjusted her clothing, and lifted Caitlin into her arms. "So, sweetie, tell me all about your morning. What did you do?"
"Eat cookie. Swing. Fing-paint." Caitlin held up her hands, which showed the faintest indication that the little girl's color of choice was purple.
Paul burped Dansha while talking with Deborah. Deborah told her father that she had pretty much finished her packing, deciding what she would be sending to Alaska (most of her winter clothes, her microwave, her television, some of her dishes, a few small things), what she needed with her until the wedding (her other clothes, her computer, her research books), what she would be storing (most of her other books), and what she would be selling, giving to charity, or putting out for the trash collectors and scavengers (her furniture, such as it was, just about everything else). She and Tom had rented a U-Haul; she was going to drive with him to Fairbanks, with a stop in Columbus to pick up her mother's china, sterling, and crystal (and one in Seattle for Derrick's graduation, of course). She would spend a couple of weeks in Alaska with her husband-to-be, so they could pick out an apartment together, then fly back to New York in time for the Reeves' trip back East.
"Are you sure you don't want me to fly into Oakland and help you guys on the drive to Jersey?" Deborah asked.
Paul reassured his daughter that Derrick would be able to give them all the help they needed; he told Deborah that she needed to be working on her dissertation presentation, so she could get it approved and begin the final writing by August.
"Well, after tomorrow, I'll be out of this place and with Granddad." Deborah would be staying with Joe in the Princeton area until September, when she would be moving to Kensington until the wedding.
CJ was making a snack for Caitlin and Paul was letting Caitlin talk with Deborah for a few seconds when the land line rang. CJ picked up that phone.
"Hello?"
"No, I haven't changed my mind. It's impossible."
"Fine, have the Assemblyman call me. I'll have Governor Seaborn call you!" CJ hung up the phone. "Bitch!"
"CJ!" Paul looked at his wife, then at Caitlin. The toddler was absorbing words like a sponge and the child had already embarrassed them at both churches.
"I'm sorry, but that Bowden woman has got to be the pushiest female in the universe. She won't take 'no' for an answer. This is the third time she's tried to get me to let her have the club's rooms earlier in the day. She swears they'll be out by 4:00, but there's no way the staff can turn around everything, let alone do two separate menus. She thought she could throw around Blake Williams' name. Unfortunately, I took the bait and replied with Sam's."
As soon as Deborah and Derrick mentioned that they wanted a Christmas wedding ("but on Sunday evening, not Saturday, so folks don't have to travel on Christmas"), CJ called the manager of the Berkeley Faculty Club at his home. The man obligingly checked his bookings from his home laptop and told her that the banquet rooms were indeed available. CJ gave the man their credit card number to reserve the facilities from noon December 27 through noon December 28 and said she would be there the next day to sign the contract. Two weeks later, Mrs. Bowden started calling, wanting to use the rooms earlier in the day on Sunday for her daughter's wedding.
"Just stand your ground, sweetheart. Don't sink to her level." Paul kissed CJ then put Dansha back in her cradle carrier. "Oh, I forgot, while you were dropping off Caitlin this morning, Weezie called."
"Stop that, Paul! If I end up calling her that to her face, I will be so mortified!"
When CJ asked Tom about being teased for being named Thomas Jefferson, the young man asked them to imagine how much grief his parents took for being named George and Louise. Paul completely lost it. He laughed so hard, he teared up, saying that at least they didn't name their son Lionel. Tom joined in, mentioning his sister Tracy was glad she hadn't been named Florence.
When talking with Paul the next morning, Tom told Paul that he had already spoken with his parents of his intentions. Indeed, his father had gone with Tom to the jewelers to help him with the ring. That afternoon, when Tom called home to let them know everything had gone well, the four parents conversed politely and since then, CJ had spoken with Tom's mother several times, suggesting that the Jeffersons use the banquet facilities at the Durant for the rehearsal dinner. (CJ had also arranged for a block of rooms at a healthy discount for out of town guests). For some reason, Paul seemed to take delight in teasing his wife by using the nickname for Isabel Sanford's character when referring to Deborah's future mother-in-law.
Early June, 2015: Seattle, WA
"Well, I guess we had best get going so the rest of you can get on your way."
Deborah started her kisses and hugs for the family members gathered outside the house her twin would be vacating today.
"Granddad, Aunt Gwen, Uncle Ned, have a safe flight back to Columbus."
Her mother's sister gave her a big hug. "You be careful, honey. And remember, when you are looking for a place, the washer and dryer, or at least the hookups, in the apartment are non-negotiable. You can live without a dishwasher or a disposal if you have to."
"I'll see you in a couple of weeks, honey." Joe kissed his granddaughter. "I'm glad you'll be staying with me until September."
"You have David's direct number in case there are any issues at the borders, or flying back?" CJ had pulled strings and made sure that Deborah's and Tom's passports and other paperwork were flagged as being "special".
"We're fine," Deborah kissed her stepmother. "Thank you again for everything. I'll see you in a month or so."
Deborah hugged Derrick, Paddy, and Caitlin, kissed Dansha while Tom hugged CJ and Deborah's aunt, and shook hands with her uncle and her grandfather.
Finally, it was Paul's turn. He grabbed Deborah into a big bear hug. Then Paul put one hand on Tom's shoulder, sending the unspoken message to take good care of his daughter.
"Call us every night until you get to your grandparents' place. Or if anything happens. Remember all the stuff in the Al-Can handbook; keep the gas tank at least half-full. Don't wander off the main road."
"They should have shipped everything up there; they don't have that much. Then they could have flown. It's not just me; Alicia, Bernice, and Esther are concerned. You should have insisted on it," Danny told Paul.
"Damn it, I tried!"
"Daddy? Did you say something?"
"Oh, don't mind me, baby."
It was one thing to talk with CJ about the times that he thought he heard Danny or Alicia talking to him, and to find out that she experienced the same thing at times. However, he was not about to share that secret with anyone else, except maybe Danny's younger niece.
"But I still think that Derrick and I should follow you up to the border, make sure you get across okay."
"Sir, I've done all the research, and your wife's friends have assured us that everything is in order. We appreciate the concern and we will keep in touch.
"Darling, let's go."
And with that, Tom and Deborah got into Tom's 4Runner (a graduation present from his parents) and headed toward Canada and their Alaskan adventure.
Paul's phone rang.
"Okay, I'll pass it on. You and Eve have a safe flight, Alex. And thanks again for coming."
Paul told his sister-in-law, his brother-in-law, and his father-in-law that his brother called to let them know that there was a lot of backup at the security gates at Sea-Tac. Alex and Eve were in line for almost an hour.
"Well, then, we'd best get started." Ned started the second round of farewells, and then he, Gwen, and Joe took off for the airport.
"Hey, Derrick, I forgot I had these."
One of Derrick's housemates came running out with three CDs.
"Now, see, I was going to rag you about them when I came back in September for the wedding; say something about a federal judge's clerk stealing from his roommates."
Derrick was going to miss Gary, Carl, and Zach. The three of them were staying in Seattle.
"We should get started ourselves," Paul told his son.
"Okay. Are you sure you don't want me to drive us out of the city?" Derrick's car had seen him through four years at Oberlin and three in Seattle. When Joe and Paul told Derrick that they would be giving him a new car for his law school graduation, he decided to donate it to Volunteers of America and to wait until he got to San Francisco to replace it.
"No, I'm fine. I'm in touch enough with my feminine side to look at a map and CJ is a very good navigator," Paul laughed.
Derrick and Paddy climbed into the rear seat of the minivan and Derrick made sure that his little brother was safely fastened into his safety seat while CJ did the same for Caitlin and Dansha in the middle seat. Paul did one more check of the hitch holding the trailer with all of Derrick's belongings and the family took off for Interstate 5 South and their northern California getaway in Albion.
When they first made the plans, Derrick suggested that they make the twelve hour drive in one long day. He was used to it, Derrick told his father, and with the two of them doing the driving, it wouldn't be a hardship.
Paul told Derrick that with the children, especially Dansha, they really needed to break the trip into two days. Also, driving the coast road at night while towing a trailer was not the easiest thing in the world. Paul had made reservations at the Holiday Inn Express in Roseburg, about half-way between Eugene and Medford.
When they got to the hotel, Paddy was really excited. Instead of sleeping in the same hotel room with Mama and Papa and his sisters, he and Derrick would be in a room by themselves, with their own television. At first, Paddy was upset because he overheard Derrick asking Papa if Caitlin could stay in the room with him and Derrick, but Papa just laughed and said something about Caitlin being a sound sleeper.
There was time to go swimming before dinner, so Derrick and Paddy put on their suits. Paddy got to swipe the room key to let them into the pool and hot tub area.
Everyone was tired and, having feasted for the past three days, they decided to eat at the Denny's just down the street.
Everyone was looking forward to a quiet and restful week in the woods of northern coastal California, so they went to bed early, and managed to get on the road by 8:00 AM, headed toward Albion as if it were Mecca.
June 30, 2015; Millvale, NJ
"Come in! Come in!"
Well, CJ thought to herself, this George and Louise Jefferson could not be mistaken for their namesakes on the old television series. Tom's father was about three inches taller than she was, with the build of an NFL quarterback. Tom's mother was short and thin; with her native Alaskan features, she reminded CJ of the woman from the Stockbridge-Muncie tribe that third Thanksgiving in the White House, Maggie something.
Deborah took over, introducing Paul, CJ, Joe, Derrick, Paddy, Caitlin, and Dansha to Tom's parents, his sister Tracy, Tracy's husband Kim, and their little girl Tessa, who was Paddy's age. Tracy and Kim lived in Atlanta and had come up for the holiday.
"So, all eight of you drove across country? How long did it take you? And you didn't kill each other?" Kim laughed easily. Everyone had settled down on the backyard deck with beverages. (Tessa was showing the goldfish pond to Paddy and Caitlin.)
Paul explained that only six of them – he, CJ, Derrick, and the children drove across country; they took six days, with stops in Salt Lake, Cheyenne, Lincoln, Moline, and Cleveland, arriving in New Jersey yesterday. Except for the first day, when they left home at 4:00 AM, they only spent about eight hours on the road. With the children, it worked out better that way. Deborah had flown from Fairbanks to Newark about a week ago and was staying with Joe near the Princeton campus while she finished the initial work on her dissertation.
With that explanation, the conversation turned to Deborah and Tom. Deborah told them that Tom had leased a two bedroom townhouse apartment. It was closer to the university than to the hospital, but it had new carpet, the washer-dryer combination that Aunt Gwen said was most important, and two allocated parking spaces with engine heater blocks. For a reasonable fee, they could use the university sports complex, with its heated indoor pool, running track, and weight room. Tom's grandparents asked around and found them a used couch, two wing chairs, and a small dinette set. They bought a new mattress set that came with a free bed frame. They also got some self-assembly furniture at the local Home Depot.
"So, we're one step above the box spring on the floor, board and brick bookcase set," Deborah laughed.
CJ was busy with Dansha, but Paul caught the look that passed between George and his son-in-law.
"Tracy, Deborah, why don't you go pick up the barbeque while I show Derrick what Pop's done with the back yard?" Kim ushered the young adults out of the room.
"George and I are planning to give the kids a bedroom suite," Louise told CJ and Paul. "Do you have any idea what style Deborah might like?"
"Actually, I had been thinking the same thing," Paul confessed.
"Let us do it. It will be easier on me than on you, trust me. Buying them a bed to share, I mean.I still have a hard time thinking of Tracy as a sexually active woman, in spite of my granddaughter," George laughed.
Paul laughed along with him; then he and CJ said they would buy living room furniture for the couple.
Louise suggested that "if anyone asked", they should arrange to have the gifts sent to the kids in Fairbanks. She knew that Macy's, Nordstrom, Penny's, Sears, and Target would ship to Alaska. Paul reminded them, with just a little catch in his voice, that Deborah already had Alicia's and his china, sterling, and crystal. CJ and Louise decided that they would talk with Deborah about setting up a registry at several of the stores.
Dansha began to fuss and CJ asked Louise for a room where she could nurse the child, so the two of them went to one of the bedrooms.
"As I said earlier, Paul, I know what it's like to have a daughter marry. It's natural to be concerned; she'll always be your little girl. Believe me, my son will cherish Deborah. She'll be in good hands."
Paul told George that he had every confidence in that fact and let him know how impressed he was by Tom's respectful confidence and honesty when he asked for Paul's consent to the marriage.
"You have every right to be proud of your son."
"And you of your daughter. Deborah is a wonderful young woman."
"So much of that is due to her mother and her aunt."
"Perhaps. But I've seen her face when she talks of you. You have been a vital influence in her life."
Kim, Derrick, Tessa, Paddy, and Caitlin came in from the back yard. Caitlin crawled up beside Paul, curled up against his side, and promptly fell asleep.
George looked at Paul's hand absent-mindedly playing with the red curls spilling over his upper leg and smiled.
"So, how does it feel to be starting over again with a new set of kids? I know several men doing it, but they're either dealing with grandchildren, or great-grandchildren even, or with new wives that are the same age as their older children and are a bit touchy about the subject. I guess they think I think they're crazy."
"Well, I'm sure some folks have said that about me. But CJ and her husband started found each other late, started their family late. When Danny found out he was dying and he asked me to do this, there was no question in my mind about the children. Of course, Dansha was a total surprise, but a totally awesome one.
"But -- great-grandchildren? These men are your age?"
"Well, you figure a couple, lets say age 25 in 1975, had a daughter, she got pregnant at 16, then her daughter got pregnant at the same age, you're a great-grandparent at 60. Babies having babies," George shook his head.
"What about babies? Deborah has to finish her dissertation and Tom needs to get at least his internship and a year of residency under his belt." Tracy came into the room, followed by Deborah. The smells of barbecued ribs and smoky baked beans wafted from the packages the two women were carrying.
"When did we ever push?" George laughed.
"Yes, when?"
Louise and CJ entered. Louise took one look at sleeping Caitlin, carefully lifted her from the couch, and told Tracy to put the child in the same room as the baby. Then she went into the kitchen and turned on the burner under a large covered pot, telling her husband to go to the garden, pick some eighteen ears of corn, and shuck it.
July 1, 2015, Cape May, NJ; about 1:15 AM
CJ lay within the crook of her husband's arm, her eyes closed. She listened to the beat of his heart as it gradually slowed from the excitement of their climax a few minutes ago and played with the narrow triangle of tightly matted curls on Paul's chest.
Their roles were reversed. Usually it was he who gentled her after lovemaking, stroking her hair, trailing his fingers down her spine, making little circles on her butt, and whispering his love against the side of her face in a voice hoarse with emotion.
But this evening, when he turned to her in bed and said "CJ, sweetheart, I need - ", she looked into his eyes and knew that the rest of the unspoken need was "primal, intense sex".
And so it happened. Now, CJ needed to find out why.
Instinctively, she knew that she had to ease into the subject, so she chose to talk about other things first.
"That was sweet of Derrick and Deborah to volunteer to take over the kids' room duties." She remembered the look of pride on Paul's face from earlier in the evening.
When the Reeves contingent had arrived in Cape May just before sunset, Ginger, Rick, and Rick's mother met them at the steps of the front porch of the main house. Ginger cooed over Dansha, saying "And you, little girl, are keeping your parents out of the chaperone pool."
Seeing the puzzled looks from Paul, Joe, and the twins, Rick explained that because so many people were coming for the long weekend, they needed to use almost all the second and third floor bedrooms for adults. Ginger planned to put the babies in one large bedroom on the second floor with the au pairs (unless the parents preferred to have their infant with them). The toddlers through preteens would be split up on either side of the huge playroom on the third floor. The teenaged girls would all be in another large bedroom on air mattresses. They had rented a pavilion tent ("It's out back") for the teen-aged boys. All the couples except those with nursing infants, the expecting Zieglers, and the former First Couple had to take their chances to see who would have to sleep with the kids and keep the peace.
Brad, who was Cal and Graciella's son and a senior-to-be at Rutgers, would make sure that the boys in the tent didn't get into any shenanigans ("When we first told the guys, Sev started to plan a panty raid," Rich laughed.)
"Why don't you let Deborah and I do it?" Derrick immediately volunteered as his sister nodded her assent.
"Are you sure you don't mind? It would be the best solution, but I hesitated to ask, since you all are new to the group. So far, no one has drawn the short stick, as it were, so I'm sure that the Lymans, the Palmers, and the Faisons will thank you when they arrive tomorrow," Ginger said. "Charlie and Zoey were going to take on the duty tonight, until everyone else arrives tomorrow."
A lot of the gang had taken Ginger at her word about spending as much time in Cape May as they wanted. Nancy, Jesse, Bonnie, Jean-Luc and their daughters had been there for a week and would be staying until the 11th. Ed, Larry, and their families came in a few hours before the Reeves, but they were staying until the end of July. Toby, Andy, and the twins were there for the entire summer.
"Don't forget Charlie's sister Deanna and her Anthony," Rick reminded his wife.
"How many people are you hosting, Mrs. Vinick?" Joe was talking with Rick's mother.
"I'm not sure. Ginger?"
"Well, let's see," Ginger started counting on her fingers. "The President and Mrs. Bartlet. Liz. Ellie and Vic. Charlie and Zoey. Deanna and Anthony. The five of you. Sam and Morgan. Bonnie and Jean-Luc. Nancy and Jesse. The Hoynes', the Palmers, the Lymans. Sam and Morgan. Toby and Andy. Annabeth. Debbie. Nancy McNally and her guy (The former Secretary of State had surprised everyone when it was announced that she was seeing her widowed counterpart from the preceding Canadian government. The betting line on the street had always been that Nancy's preferences went in a different direction. It just goes to show, you never know, CJ thought. She never got that vibe from Nancy, which is why she had tried to foment something between Paul and her five years ago.) Kate and Will. Rina. Cathy. Ed and Larry and their wives (CJ wondered if Ginger ever thought about putting the four of them together and suppressed a giggle.) With the three of us, that's forty-five adults, not counting the Secret Service, Sam's security force, the au pairs, the lifeguards, Graciella, Cal, and Brad. And close to three dozen kids."
"Do you have your own zip code?" Paul joked.
"Just about," Mrs. Vinick laughed. "My father-in-law would have loved it."
"Anyone in the boys' rooms with the twin beds?" CJ asked. Looking at Paul's raised brows, she mouthed that she would explain later.
"We decided to put the two unmarried couples, the honorable Dr. McNally and her guy, Will and Kate, in them," Rick answered. "With Mom willing to give up her room to the Bartlets, we have just enough double beds for the married folk. The lifeguards are all guys this year; they're in the guest house. The singles are all on the third floor, except for you, Dr. Dawson. However, you are in one of the rooms next to the nursery. I hope the infants won't be too noisy."
"Call me Joe, and that's no problem. And thank you again for including me in your house party. I feel as if I'm living 'The Great Gatsby'. This is a beautiful place. For so many people, when they think ' New Jersey', they think of Hackensack or Newark. We aren't called 'The Garden State' for nothing."
"We're more than glad to have you with us. And will be a lot more laid back, a lot less fancy, than anything Fitzgerald wrote about.
"But come inside; let's get you introduced to everyone who's here."
CJ stopped her recollecting as the sound of young male laughter from the lawn came through the open window. Then she heard a slight sigh coming from her husband.
"Darling, was it Deborah talking about Alicia's things? The china and stuff?" CJ remembered sensing that Paul was not himself when Deborah was telling Louise and Tracy that she didn't need a lot of the "fancy stuff", just some fill in pieces of her mother's china (Lenox Rutledge), sterling (Reed and Barton's Woodwind), and crystal (Waterford's Lismore).
"It did bring back memories. Picking out those pieces was one of the first things Alicia and I did as a couple. I remember Bernice being so surprised that I would want to have any input on that stuff. Apparently, she was of the school that a 'young lady' usually had all that stuff picked out by the time she graduated from high school and had been disappointed that Alicia hadn't been interested when she was sixteen.
"But we did use it, two times a week at first, then maybe two times a month as the kids came along. I can remember, those early years, eating Skid Row Stroganoff and drinking cheap Gallo Chianti on a table that looked as if it belonged in the Ritz."
"Paul, are you sure you don't want to rethink about your being okay with her wearing Alicia's dress and veil?" When they were in Seattle, Deborah gave them the big box that had been stored, along with everything else, in Columbus with Gwen and Ned.
"I see Alicia, and now I see you, in every bride that comes walking down the aisle toward her intended and me. I'll be fine."
(CJ decided that just in case, when Hank came up to fit the gown to Deborah in September, she would ask him to check around with his prêt à porter connections for something nice that could be obtained at the last minute.)
Paul Reeves was no idiot; he knew what CJ was trying to do.
"Sweetheart, when Zoey mentioned the incident she and Charlie had on the Merritt Parkway, it reminded me of Moline. Delayed reaction, I guess."
Moline.
They needed a few things and had stopped at the Wal-Mart because it was a familiar quantity in an unfamiliar town. To make the shopping trip more efficient, they had split up, with Paul and Derrick taking Dansha for the baby and toddler supplies and CJ, Paddy, and Caitlin doing the grocery shopping.
CJ was in the produce section when another shopper recognized her from the White House days and was telling CJ how much she had admired her, had held up CJ as a role model to her own daughters, both as a career woman and as a working wife and mother.
CJ was just about to explain about Danny's death and her remarriage when the woman interrupted her.
"Honey, turn around and grab your purse (it was in the baby seat in the shopping cart with Caitlin). There's two of them with a little half-breed not four feet behind you."
Before CJ could react, Paddy saw the others and ran up to them. "Papa! We got a cantaloupe. They call them muskmelons here!"
If the chill in CJ's voice wasn't absolute zero, it was damned close to it. "I've remarried." She reached for Dansha. "Come to Mama, angel. Did you find everything? Let's get checked out. I'd like to reach Cleveland in time to swim before dinner."
Neither Paul nor Derrick gave any indication that they had heard the woman's comments, her assumption that the two of them should automatically be distrusted. Apparently, at least Paul had.
They had accepted the fact that their blended family would cause some reaction from strangers, both black and white. For the most part, it was just a millisecond of "oh!" as realization dawned, with no indication of any prejudice. This incident was only the second one she had witnessed. (Fortunately, if that was the word to use, the other one occurred without the children present, and Paddy was unaware of the tension today. She could just hear him now. "Mama! That lady is being a poopy-head, isn't she?")
But it gave her pause. Paul and Derrick were dressed as nicely as, if not nicer than, any other male in the Wal-Mart, in clean khakis, solid colored tee shirts, and sandals; they were more well-groomed than many of the others. With their advanced degrees, they could very well be the most highly educated men in the store.
She knew the people of western Illinois, had campaigned here twice. They were hardworking, caring, good people. And now all of that was tainted in her mind by one nasty little bigot.
After Derrick had returned to Seattle that first Thanksgiving after their marriage, CJ haltingly asked Paul about his experiences over the years.
Paul told her that he had known his share of distrust, of disdain, but didn't want to dwell on it. He had learned how to try to avoid potential trouble. For example, did she realize that they only stayed in major chains, only ate in national franchises when they were on the road outside of their immediate environs? Such places were more likely to have given their personnel diversity training, more likely to be sensitive to bad publicity. When he and she ran into each other in Dulles six years ago, it was no accident that he was wearing his clerical collar; it provided a sense of acceptance that many African-American men weren't given. He always carried copies of the documents she had signed giving him joint custody of Paddy and Caitlin. In fact, they should have something drawn up for Derrick and Deborah "just in case".
But, for the most part, he acted as if he was entitled to the same respect as any other human being, and most of the time, he was given it.
"It's going to happen, sweetheart. We'll deal with it when it does. But, really, there are so many more good people in the world than bad."
Remembering that, CJ gathered her husband in her arms, kissed him, and slowly seduced him into a more tender expression of their love.
Four hours later, CJ woke about two minutes before Jennifer, one of the three au pairs Ginger had hired for the summer, softly knocked on the door. Although CJ only had one bottle, Paul convinced her (and, really, she didn't need that much convincing) to have Dansha stay in the nursery with the babies born to Ginger, Ellie, Carol, Zoey, and Bonnie 18 months ago.
Paul slept through the knock, so CJ slipped on a robe and followed the young woman to the nursery. The night was warm, so she took Dansha onto the balcony outside the room. It was facing north, but she could hear the ocean lapping at the shore in the distance.
After Dansha had finished and she had pumped out the rest, CJ checked on the other babies.
Sam and Morgan's new son, Donald Leo, was in with his parents. He was still nursing every three hours and while Morgan has able to keep up with his needs, she didn't have any left to pump and reserve for bottle feedings.
CJ brushed the hair of the son to whom Rick and Ginger had given Danny's name. "You were named for a beautiful soul, little one. I hope you grow up to be just as wonderful as he was."
"I'm sure he will," Brianna told Caitlin Concannon as the two of them put a friendly side bet on the outcome of the rugby match between Scotland and Ireland.
Marilyn Abigail Young snored softly in the next crib. If you didn't know Charlie, you would think that the child's mother had cultivated a pale golden tan for the girl. CJ remembered Ainsley telling her that she and Charlie were "blood kin from back before the war". Apparently, those genes, long dormant, had come to the forefront in the namesake of Charlie's and Zoey's mothers.
Erica Marie, Bonnie and Jean-Luc's younger daughter, fussed a little, as if she were having a bad dream. "That's okay, I've got her," CJ whispered to Jennifer, who rose from her bed at the sound.
Sean Daniel Palmer, another Concannon namesake, slept the sleep of the innocent. CJ was so happy for her former assistant; Carol adored both her children.
She laughed at the sight of Collette Suzanne. Vic had given his daughter a stuffed toy in the shape of an amoeba.
With one more kiss for her daughter, CJ stole out of the room and back to her own. As she slipped into bed, Paul gathered her in his arms, kissed the top of her head, and went back to sleep. Sighing in contentment, CJ followed suit.
Later that morning
"Where's Derrick? I want him to go swimming with me."
Paddy came up to CJ and Paul, who were playing bridge with Nancy McNally and the former Canadian Foreign Minister.
"Derrick's studying with Uncle Sam and Uncle Josh," CJ told her son. With Derrick and Josh planning to sit for the bar exams in California and New Jersey, respectively,at the end of the month, Sam was helping the two men with review sessions each morning.
"But I wanted to go swimming in the ocean!" Paddy pouted. As in previous years, Mrs. Vinick insisted that small children be accompanied by an adult when at the beach, even with two lifeguards.
"Paddy, you know Derrick has to pass this test if he wants to be a lawyer," Paul told the child. "I'll take you down when we finish this rubber."
"I can take him down and watch him, Paul." Jesse Muñoz stood up from the lounge he was occupying. " Nancy is totally immersed in her romance novel, hopefully learning something that will be of benefit to me later," the dentist laughed.
Paul put both hands on Paddy's shoulders. "Do you promise to listen to Mr. Jesse and to the lifeguards, or to any of the grownups, for that matter?"
"Yes, Papa. Please?"
"Okay, go along. Thanks, Jesse."
CJ smiled at her husband and looked around the pool area.
Joe was talking with President Bartlet, Jean-Luc, and John Hoynes about teaching foreign language literature in America. From time to time, they slipped into French (of which Joe had a rudimentary knowledge) or Spanish (which the President, Jean-Luc, and Hoynes could manage.)
Bonnie and Carol were overseeing the toddlers at the kiddie pool and Caitlin was having a marvelous time with Giselle, Matty, Gemma, and Clarissa.
Debbie, Rina, and Donna came out of the house with Noah, the triplets, Celia, and Larry's five year-old daughter Hannah in tow. Rina told her son that she was going down to the beach; did he want to come? (He decided to stay in the pool with the older pre-teens; they were playing Marco Polo. She told him to listen to the other adults.)
Zoey, Deanna, and Margaret were discussing wedding and honeymoon stories with Deborah. Deborah explained that as an intern, Tom was getting very little time off; barely enough to fly down for the wedding. They were delaying the honeymoon until June, when they would be able to take two weeks.
Charlie, Ed, Larry, and Vic were engaged in a friendly game of horseshoes.
"Mrs. Reeves?"
CJ looked up; it was Tanya, another of the au pairs taking care of the babies.
"It's been four hours since you fed Dansha. She's still sleeping. Do you want me to wake her or let her sleep?"
"If she hasn't awakened when we finish this rubber, we'll wake her."
That evening
"Who needs another beer?"
The Honorable Samuel Norman Seaborn, governor of California, was acting as waiter; he set down the tray holding 8 glasses, put first one leg and then another over the picnic bench, and sat down. He reached into the pile of steamed crabs that had been dumped in the center of the table and grabbed the nutcracker from in front of CJ.
"Hey, I was just about to use that!"
"Okay, I'll start on the body first, although changing my routine could mean the end of the free world as we know it," Sam replied as he used a knife to split his crab.
"According to my wife, the end of the free world as we know it came on January 20th of this year at approximately 12:20 pm eastern standard time," Paul sat down on the other side of CJ and grabbed one of the beers.
"Is Paddy happy with the pizza?"
When Ginger told everyone that tonight's supper would be steamed blue crab, she also told them that there would be pizza for the kids "of all ages" who found the shellfish too spicy, or just too much trouble to eat.
Paddy didn't want any part of the pizza. He was a teensy bit tired of sharing Derrick with the other kids and wanted to be with his brother. Last night, when the grownups made the little kids go to bed, Derrick told them lots of ghost stories and paid a lot of attention to Hoop, who was really a baby and cried for his mommy. Then, this afternoon, when the big girls got all giggly and silly, Derrick took each of them for a surf ride on the rafts, making Paddy take turns with them for a whole half-hour. He wanted to sit next to Derrick at supper.
"Besides, Mama, I love crab legs!"
CJ tried to explain to him that Maryland crab was not like the Dungeness crab they ate at home, and it certainly was not like the Alaskan king crab they sometimes ordered in restaurants. But Paddy wasn't buying any of it, so they let him sit with the grownups.
However, when Paddy saw the whole crabs with their little legs, maybe four inches long at the most and a quarter inch wide, when he saw the grownups used their teeth to force out the miniscule amount of meat inside those legs, and when he saw how the adults would tear the shell off the crab's body, scrap out the icky red and green stuff, and then tear open the body to get at the succulent meat inside, he decided that maybe pizza wasn't such a bad idea after all.
Paul had taken the little boy around to the pool area where the pies were being consumed, made sure that Andy, who in spite of being from Maryland (Maryland!), found that crab didn't agree with her pregnant body and Ed, who said he just didn't like the taste, knew that they had another charge, and responded to Caitlin's command of "Papa! Kiss!" before returning to the primal feast.
"Ooh! Soft shells!" Joe exclaimed as Graciella came out with a platter of the fried delicacy.
When the plate was passed around, CJ didn't take any, and made a slight shudder.
"I guess it's an acquired taste," Alicia's father said.
CJ didn't tell him that her issue was not the fact that you were eating the entire crab. When she was in the White House, she enjoyed a good soft shell crab sandwich almost as much as a good crabcake sandwich.
But ever since Danny had told her about molting crabs and mating, had explained why their special love-making position resembled the floating bits of protoplasm, she couldn't stomach the idea of eating creatures that were taken when they were so defenseless. A hard-shell crab could fight back, could pinch, she reasoned; it was more fair situation, like hunting with a bow and arrow rather than with a semi-automatic rifle. (Not that she could ever imagine herself hunting.)
CJ looked over at the next table, where Derrick was talking football with Ed and Vic. At the table beyond Derrick's, Deborah, Ellie, and Jean-Luc were talking. CJ had no idea what the discussion was about, but the conversation was very animated.
"I'm so glad that the twins are having a good time," she told her husband.
"We all are, Deborah, Derrick, Joe, and me. Everyone is so accepting."
"That's because they know how good you are for me. Also, the twins are doing a marvelous job in the third floor dorm."
July 2, 2015; early afternoon
"Fantastic! I feel like we're reenacting 'From Here to Eternity', except for all these other people."
Paul and CJ came running out of the waves, holding hands. When they reached the blanket spread under the beach umbrella, Paul flopped down on his back. He was still laughing when CJ lay down on her stomach beside him, made a half-hearted attempt to smooth her wet hair, and then reached down to kiss her husband.
Deborah lifted her head out of the paperback she was reading and looked over at the couple. CJ was propped up on her elbows; she reached over with one hand and ran her fingers over her husband's mouth. Deborah smiled to herself as her father reached up to brush an errant lock of CJ's hair off her face and behind her ear. Then he reached down and pulled on his wife's bathing suit bottom; the waves had turned up one of the cuffs of the swim shorts. Deborah didn't know why that inch made that much difference to her father, but then she remembered being on Jones Beach with Tom in a similar situation and him draping a towel across her butt.
When Deborah was at Miami, her female friends and her sorority sisters told her that her widowed father was a "real hunk"; her freshman year, one of the seniors actually asked for an introduction and asked Deborah how she felt about a younger stepmother.
Deborah looked at Paul and CJ in an objective way, trying to think of them not as parents but as people. She had to admit that her father was an extremely handsome man, was in very good shape. Lying there on his back, his Dartmouth green swim trunks still wet, with only his slightly raised right knee to break the effect of clinging fabric and gravity on his – Oh God, girl, stop it, he's your father! she told herself, turning her suddenly very warm face toward Derrick and Paddy still playing in the surf.
And what was she doing reading this novel with some sort of sex act on every fifth page? She and Tom had figured out that they could afford at most two trips for her to fly to Alaska between now and right before Christmas, and both of those were from California, not New Jersey. She didn't need to be aggravating an already frustrating situation. Maybe she should stay with her grandfather for a couple more months instead of planning to move out to California in September when (hopefully) her dissertation outline will have been approved and it was all over except for the writing. Living with him, she wouldn't be exposed to a very happy, very much in love couple every day. But then, that would be putting a lot of work on CJ, and her stepmother was going to be balancing work, three children, a house, and her own education. Besides, it was her wedding, and she wanted to make sure it was what she wanted.
Yesterday, when talking with Zoey and Deanna, the three of them agreed that they couldn't understand the brides that let their weddings be planned by celebrity planners and television audiences.
"I'll let the American public vote on President, they did a good job in picking my father," Zoey laughed, "but I would have rather be married in something from a Chadwick's catalog than wear a $20,000 dress that I didn't like, use music I couldn't stand, or eat reception food I couldn't stand."
Deanna smiled in understanding. "I was lucky. Cousin Minerva made my dress for me. And your parents, Zoey, were so nice to help with the cost of the reception."
"Well, they think of you as another daughter."
"Deborah?" CJ's voice broke through Deborah's reverie. "Where's Dansha?" There was just the littlest bit of concern in the voice.
"Karen took her up to the house when Morgan decided that little Donny was getting a bit overheated." The Seaborns' son was about 10 weeks younger than Dansha. The two of them were the youngest children in the care of Jennifer, Karen, and Tanya. "You know, CJ, I think it would be very easy to get used to having all this help around with the children. Do you think that has something to do with the fact that Rick and Ginger just said 'who knows' when asked if their little Danny would be it for them?"
"Well, I'm sure that it plays a part, as does being able to afford six kids so far, but Ginger is by no means a hands-off mom, either with her three or with Rick's from before. I've seen her helping with homework, making costumes for plays. She told me she thinks of it as having a baby sitter on twenty-four retainer, just in case."
"Hey! Watch where you're running! You messed up the whole left tower!" Huck Ziegler's voice sounded rather mad.
CJ looked up to see the horde of four to six year olds spilling over the sand.
"Noah-Leo-Micah-Joanie-Paddy-Celia-Giselle-Matty-Clarissa-Hoop-Gemma! I said walk! " Donna shouted in her best marine drill instructor voice. The children sheepishly slowed down and headed toward the canopy that covered two big blankets. "Now sit!"
Donna went down the line with a wet washcloth, wiping off faces, supplementing with spit when necessary. Then she filled a pail with water from the cooler and made her little troop dip their hands in it and dry them on the towel she had tucked into the waistband of her rather modest bikini. Only then did she hand out the popsicles that had been packed in dry ice.
"Damn!" Kate said. "She belongs on Parris Island!"
The sound of crying rent the air and all the parents looked up to see who was making the sound and why.
"Don't cry, Caitlin. We can fix it. See."
Twelve year-old Huck Ziegler packed a small bucket, about the size of a Ben and Jerry's pint, with wet sand and turned it over on the site of the trampled construction. He refilled the bucket and carefully put the contents on top of the first pile, packing the two of them together to form a solid tower.
"Make window!" Caitlin commanded the tower maker and Huck obliged, using the narrow piece of driftwood to outline the opening, then to carefully scrap away some of the sand to leave a depression in the side of the wall. Then he filled tiny open boxes with sand to put the edging on top of the tower.
"Caitlin like!" The little red-headed image of Danny Concannon stood up and planted a loud kiss on Huck's cheek. No one saw the look, part happiness and part hunger, that crossed the boy's face as his eyes fleetingly turned older than time.
"It's beginning now, isn't it?" Alicia said as she and Danny looked down on the group from their perch on the moon.
"Actually, for Huck, it began when we baptized Caitlin. He told me that he would take care of her. But I don't think Caitlin knows anything yet."
"Well, Hoop has no interest whatsoever in Dansha," Alicia laughed. "He's just trying to keep up with the other little ones."
"Well, they aren't supposed to know, not the way Huck does, the way Caitlin will. Hey, Paul, fix CJ's suit again, will you? By the way, Lisha, what was that funny look you had a few minutes ago?"
"Just a little bit of jealousy when Deborah realized that her father has a certain animal magnetism. Funny, isn't it, I'm not jealous at all of CJ and all that she does with Paul, but the second my daughter realizes that Paul is handsome and has a set of genitals - "
"Well, I never got a chance to experience it, but I've been told that there is a little bit of latent rivalry between mothers and daughters. Ken Robbins talked about it with Laura and Jill and Frank said he was just beginning to see signs of it with Diana and Carmen right before I died. It's obvious that Joannie is already doing it with Josh. Even Caitlin seems to favor Paul over CJ at times." Danny tried not to let the little catch in his voice show. He would have loved to have been Caitlin's knight in shining armor.
"We never had it. From the first until you came here, I never had to share him, emotionally, with anyone. I think I really got to him that first night," she laughed.
Alicia remembered back to her wedding night. After she had surprised Paul, first with her choice of lingerie and then by undoing his trousers and being the first to sit on the bed, she continued to show him that only was she not worried and not scared, but that she appeared to be conquering her nervousness as well. When he joined her on the bed and began to kiss her mouth, her neck, and her shoulders, she felt the desperate need to feel his skin on hers, slipped her hands under his T-shirt and pushed it up and over his head. It was only because she sensed that he wanted to remove her garments himself that she didn't strip for him right then. Instead she let him ease the camisole straps down her upper arms, baring her breasts to his mouth. Then, pushing her arms over her head, he slipped the lace and silk over her head. She gasped as he moved down the bed, sat at her side and somehow managed to work his tongue up and under her right tap pants leg, playing with her most sensitive apex while pushing through the scarlet silk against the rest of her pubic region with his chin.
It was only when he had finally slipped the pants from her hips, removed his own boxers, and brought his body over hers that her skittish returned and became apparent to him. She was remembering the tightness and the pinching when the doctor at Student Health inserted the speculum and, apologizing for her discomfort, gently opened the instrument in order to examine her.
"Lissy, we can stop. Just tell me to stop this if that's what you want."
She smiled and put her hands to his shoulders. "What I want is you, husband mine." She shifted her body slightly, widened her legs.
But he went slowly, ever so slowly, taking almost two minutes from the time he first parted her folds until he was totally inside her. And there was no pain, no pinching. There was only the wondrous feel of warm, cushioned steel filling her, stretching her, touching her. She couldn't find the words to tell him how wonderful she felt, so she tried to let her eyes and her smile relay the message.
Later, he told her that sometime, he wanted to see if the wide legs of her tap pants could be pushed aside enough to allow him entrance to her without hurting her. He wanted to know the feel of being inside her and at the same time feeling her with that layer of silk between them.
"But not just yet. I've waited too long to touch you, to feel you, to bury myself inside you."
She sighed and she looked at Danny. He knew that she was thinking of Paul, but then, there had been times when he had been thinking of CJ. He smiled and pulled her toward Cassiopeia's Chair.
Andy came up to Paul and CJ; she lowered her pregnant body into the lawn chair Toby set down for her.
"I can't believe how fascinated Huck is with Caitlin! He's been playing with her all day," Toby told the three of them.
"Well, I think that part of it is because he's really a kind of fish out of water. He's too young for Sev and the other teenaged boys and too old for the grade school set. Bryce and Molly are experiencing puppy love and are telling him that 'three's a crowd'. The teenaged girls, Larry's stepdaughters and Ed's daughter, are all crushing over the lifeguards and Derrick. The pre-teen girls, except for Molly, are dreaming about Sev and Ed's sons. Also, I know that he is really wrapped up in the idea of being a big brother," Andy told the group.
When Toby and Andy went to talk with their doctors in January about trying for another child, the medical experts conducted their initial exams and were dumbfounded. None of them could figure out how the remarried couple had managed the impossible, at least for them – conceiving a baby "the old fashioned way". Toby and Andy just thanked God and continued to pray that she would be able to carry the baby to term. So far, so good, but they were trying not to be too happy, trying not to tempt fate. Only Huck was filled with exuberance about the event.("Don't worry, Dad. Aunt CJ's husband's niece, when they baptized the baby, told me everything was going to have a happy ending.")
"It's just so unusual to see such caring in a boy that age," Paul commented.
Andy looked up. "Are you concerned? Are you afraid that he might be – would you want us to ask him to cool it?"
"No!"
"Of course not!"
CJ and Paul spoke over each other, both of them blushing as they realized what Andy thought they were thinking about Huck.
"Caitlin adores him. Of course, sometimes I think she adores anything with a Y chromosome," CJ laughed.
"Molly went through that stage, too." Andy joined in the laughter.
Toby decided that he would have a talk with his son, to make sure that there was nothing about which to be concerned. Better safe than sorry, he reasoned.
"Toby, Toby, Toby. Please don't look for evil where none exists," Danny told the man.
"The hunters have returned!"
Josh led a group consisting of Sam, Rick, Hoynes, Will, Vic, Jesse, Ed, and Larry to the beach. Most of the adult men (except Paul, Derrick, Jean-Luc, and Charlie) had gone deep-sea fishing.
"Joe?" Paul asked about his father-in-law.
"He, our Canadian friend, and the President volunteered to clean the fish."
July 3, 2015; 1:30 PM
"Come and get it!"
President Bartlet was presiding over the hamburgers cooking on the oil can turned charcoal grill sitting about five feet above the high tide line.
Margaret filled a plate with several burgers, grabbed some ketchup and mustard, and carried the food to where CJ, Donna, Abbey, and Ginger were sitting in beach chairs.
Abbey asked Margaret how she was adjusting to ranch life in Texas. The tall redhead told them that it was different; even John felt out of place after having been in Washington for so long. However, they were determined to remain there at least until January, to give it an entire year before rethinking their plans.
"Hoop loves it," Margaret laughed. "He has his pony, and his dog."
Donna told them she had taken a telecommuting position with the DNC, but wouldn't be starting until September, when Noah, like Paddy, would be in first grade. She would be shepherding likely candidates for the '16 congressional elections, making sure that they were on track with fund-raising, appearances, and getting their names out before the public. Donna also told them that Josh would be setting up an office in Widewater Beach,("assuming he passes the bar"), but that he would also be affiliated with a firm in Fredericksburg.
"He's thinking about getting a motorboat, to go across the creek, rather than driving up to Quantico and then down the Jeff Davis," Donna laughed.
Abbey told Donna that she wanted a picture from Donna's graduation from Georgetown in May. CJ again apologized for not being able to come when Donna received her Master's.
"I really couldn't leave Dansha, and since we weren't coming back for Tom's graduation from med school - ". She left the sentence unfinished.
Donna told CJ again what she had told her when CJ phoned in April. Donna totally understood.
"But are you sure you all have to leave on Wednesday morning, that you can't come spend some time with us?"
A lot of the gang were staying through the next weekend.
"No, really, we want to get Derrick home in plenty of time for the bar exam on the 24th. Also. Paul wants to stop for a few days in Bethany and in Lexington; he wants some of his old friends to meet me, to see Dansha. We're going to need nine days to get home."
Well, you're always welcome in Virginia," the willowy blonde replied.
"And here," Ginger added.
"Papa! More!"
CJ heard Caitlin's voice a second before she felt the light sprinkle a seawater. Paul had taken Caitlin down to the water and held onto her tightly as he knelt in the shallow waters, letting her experience the waves without any danger.
"Maybe later, little one. Right now, I'm hungry." Paul plopped down on the blanket behind where the women were sitting.
"So am I." Derrick and Paddy joined them on the blanket. They had been further out in the water, with Paddy hanging onto Derrick for dear life when the waves came up to his shoulders.
"Paddy, go ask Grandpa Jed for some burgers for the three of us."
Paddy jumped up to do his brother's bidding.
"Where's Granddad?" Derrick looked around for Joe.
"Over there with Mrs. Vinick," CJ answered, pointing to the picnic table where Ginger's mom and Joe were sitting. "I think they're figuring how many slabs of ribs they'll need for Sunday." Joe had volunteered to cook barbecue for the group, using his mother's sauce recipe. Their hosts accepted the offer, but insisted on covering the costs. After some wrangling, Joe agreed except for the sauce ingredients. The recipe was a family secret, he insisted. He would buy the necessary things, and no one was allowed in the kitchen when he was mixing the sauce.
"Well, you be the one to tell Graciella that," Mrs. Vinick laughed.
"Mommy!"
Little Giselle came out of the water holding Ellie's hand and crying.
"She got wiped out," Ellie laughed. "Anyone seen Bonnie and Jean-Luc?"
"I think they were headed for the birch tree," Will replied and everyone started laughing.
"I'll explain later," CJ told her husband.
Much Later
Paul ran his finger absent-mindedly down CJ's spine as she slept in the moonlight. The light weight of her right leg across his groin was mildly erotic, and maybe, in a little bit, he would kiss her awake and seduce her into a second act.
He thought back on what CJ had told him about that first beach party five years ago. He was glad that no hurricane had destroyed any rooms this year, glad that Rick had decided that the unmarried couples would have to suffer the bunk beds. (Paul was also glad that neither Will and Kate nor Nancy McNally and her beau were aware that he was licensed to perform marriages in New Jersey.)
Paul was also glad there had been no hurricane because he knew, without CJ saying anything, that there was no way she could have made love with him in that little playhouse. It was something that would belong only to her and Danny.
He felt her stirring against him. When he looked into her face, her smile answered the question before he even asked.
July 4, 2015; 10:15 PM
It had been another wonderful day, just like yesterday, the day before, and the day before that. After enjoying another of Graciella's marvelous breakfasts ; after hours of lounging around the pool and down at the beach; after indulging in the hot dogs, baked beans, potato salad, and watermelon at lunch; after feasting on clams, lobsters, oysters, chicken, and corn baked in a pit on the beach at supper; everyone was seated on blankets and chairs enjoying the professional fireworks show that was capping Independence Day at the big house on Cape May.
CJ leaned back against Paul's chest, his arms wrapped around her, his legs around her thighs and under her legs. There was a bit of a chill in the air and she was still in the cutoffs and halter she put on after their afternoon swim; a she pulled a blanket up over her legs and their arms. Paul took advantage of the cover, the darkness, and the distraction of the bright lights in the sky to let his hands do some very interesting wandering. CJ was a little surprised; Paul rarely touched her intimately in the company of others. She didn't know if he had become more relaxed as he realized that her friends (and Danny's) had totally accepted his role in her life, if the beer he had been drinking all day (not that heavily, but it did add up) had loosened his inhibitions, or if the darkness and the blanket gave him a greater sense of privacy. And, she sighed to herself as his hand found its way under the cuff of her cut-offs, she really didn't care, she was just going to enjoy.
Dansha was gently snoring in her cradle carrier between Derrick and Paddy on the blanket in front of them. Caitlin was also sleeping, her head in Deborah's lap. Caitlin's twelve year-old knight errant watched from his place beside Toby, two blankets away.
"Mama! Mama!"
CJ snapped to attention at the sound of Paddy's voice.
"Wasn't that the most wonderfulest thing?"
"What?"
"That last one, Mama!"
CJ looked up to see the remnants of a multi-colored set of Catherine Wheels breaking apart in the sky.
"It was nice, sweetie."
"You didn't like it, Mama?"
"Paddy, your mama liked it," Paul told the boy, "but she's been spoiled. She sees fireworks just about every night."
"Paul!" CJ's squeal was partly because of the comment but also partly because of what his thumb was doing as it reached under the leg of her panties.
"We'll have our own private showing tonight," he whispered into her ear, keeping up the motion of his fingers.
July 16, 2015, 11:30 PDT; Kensington, CA
Paul eased off I-80 onto Cutting and then took the right onto San Pablo. In a few minutes, they would be home.
"Everyone is still sacked out." Derrick turned around in the front passenger seat to check on the others.
Just as they had pushed on the first day of the trip East, they had done so on this last day. When they left Cape May, they dropped off Joe and Deborah, then headed to West Virginia and Bethany College, where Paul showed CJ where he spent his first four years in ministry and teaching. Some of his former fellow teachers were still there and they were so glad to see the grownup Derrick, to meet the woman who had brought happiness into Paul's life after the loss of Alicia, and to marvel at the children, especially Dansha. After two nights in the northern panhandle, they drove to the Bluegrass, where again they spent two nights. In addition to having the same reception from his Lexington friends, they drove down to Shakertown and toured one of the horse farms. Then it was on to St, Louis, Omaha, Cheyenne again, and Salt Lake City again.
"Thanks again for everything, Derrick." Today, Derrick had taken the early driving shift plus the next to last one. Paul handled afternoon leg; then they had switched off as they neared home, since Paul was more familiar with the route.
Everyone else was still sleeping when Paul pulled into the drive, so he took Dansha into the master bedroom while Derrick carried Caitlin to her crib. Then Derrick picked up Paddy while Paul tried to rouse CJ. She stirred a bit kept falling back to sleep. Finally, Paul lifted her into his arms and carried her into the house.
Derrick was walking into the family room when he saw his father coming in the opposite direction, carrying his stepmother. Seeing the look of love on his father's face, he hoped that someday soon, he would find the woman who would move him the way CJ moved his father.
"I'll take care of whatever needs to be done tonight and lock up, Dad."
Paul grabbed at the sheet, set CJ down on the bed, removed her shoes, her shorts, her shirt, and her bra, and covered her body. He checked again on Dansha and then looked in on Caitlin. He could hear Derrick checking the locks and knew that the older brother would take care of the younger, so he returned to his room, stripped down to his boxers, and slipped into bed beside his wife.
The road trips of the summer were over. Tom and Deborah had made it safely to Fairbanks and his future son-in-law was starting the new life he would share with Deborah come Christmas weekend; Deborah was putting the finishing touches on her academic career and looked forward to being a wife. The trip to Seattle saw Derrick achieve another milestone in his young life and in a few days, he would take the test that would allow him to practice the career for which he had trained. The trip to New Jersey, to see old friends and to make new ones,to make each other a part of their past lives, to meet Tom's family, had been great fun, but it was good to be back. In another six weeks, the school year would begin; he and CJ would be back to work.
But until then, they would fill their home with love and laughter.