Another installment up, hope you can read this, lol! Thanks for reading and the feedback which is very helpful!
The two of them stood outside the motel looking out into the setting sun that cast the sky full of intriguing mixtures of oranges, yellows and rosy pinks accentuated by an occasionally passing puff of white to mar the perfection of the clear sky. C.J. loved sunsets, but she really didn't want to be looking out at this one, no matter how captivating its beauty.
Matt didn't look like he wanted to be there either even as he stood by her side. They had to drop everything on a dime this morning, cancel appointments, postpone a stakeout and put on hold a bridal shower for his fiancée Elizabeth who right now sat in his beach house awaiting his return.
He had just gotten off the phone with her, disappointing her with the news that he and C.J. couldn't catch a late night flight due to a bomb threat at Phoenix International Airport which grounded all flights.
"Who would want to blow up that airport," Elizabeth had asked him.
He just explained to her as patiently as he could that there was no rhyme or reason to people intent on terrorizing people. The airport had done the right thing by evacuating the airport and grounding all the flights until at least the morning. Now he gazed at the woman next to him, lost in her own thoughts because she had been so sure that she would have been testifying this afternoon in a courtroom about what had happened to her the last time she had spent time in a different corner of Arizona. But the prosecutor had told her at the courthouse that there had been a mistrial and they would be starting over in several weeks.
Which of course meant she had to drop everything at some point to fly to Phoenix and do all the emotional gearing up she had to do to prepare to walk up to the witness stand in front of those who had traumatized her and tell her story. She had prepared herself for this; she had written out parts of what she wanted to say and left other portions of her account inside her head unable to put them to paper. She had even practiced in front of her mirror several times, keeping her eyes straight and daring herself not to flinch even a little bit lest the men sitting at either table would view her as weak and ineffectual.
And she had packed her overnight bag this morning on a moment's notice and she and Matt had flown out to LAX on his helicopter to fly out on his Lear jet to where she needed to go to bring this chapter of her life to its close.
Elizabeth hadn't liked any of it of course. She had still lay there in bed at the beach house and asked Matt why he had to leave so quickly, even as he had showered and dressed. When he had been adjusting his tie, she had poured them both some coffee and asked when he would return.
He looked at her then and said when they were finished in Arizona. But even as he said that he knew that he and C.J. had left another part of them in that state already. Leaving pieces of their lives seemed to be quite ordinary for them these days, including the most important piece of all.
Brick, one of his top pilots on call, flew them both on the short jaunt to Phoenix International while both of them had sat in the cabin catching up on the work that they were supposed to be doing back in L.A. She read through some legal briefs marking them with her proofer and he sat using the onboard computer to finalize a contract to send back to Murray on the latest merger acquisition after C.J. had a chance to legalize it of course. They hadn't talked very much and when he had looked over at her, he had seen her head bent, haloed by her mahogany hair, her eyes intent on her work.
While watching her, he had been reminded of how things had been the last time they had been in Arizona and on the run, trying to sift through puzzling clues and a chain of bizarre events to solve a case that would set her free. That would bring them both back home to pick up their lives where they left off.
But things had been a little complicated because emotions had been overflowing and passion had erupted between them and they had shared that together instead of running away like they usually did right up to the night before they had left to go back to L.A. Their first night celebrating the end of their nightmare had led to one of the most wonderful times of his life, happiness had filled him while they came together but it had been etched with sadness when he had felt her begin to pull away from him even as they lay together spent.
And back in L.A. they had ended their affair and disappeared into their busy and increasingly separate lives. He had spent most of his time with Roy traveling all over solving cases, finding missing people including his cousin which had been so damn special, but it had broken his heart as well. He had flown home with his uncle from their harrowing adventure physically exhausted and emotionally so ripped apart inside, as the immense joy had intertwined with crushing pain.
And when she had picked him up at the airport, she had understood in a heartbeat how much he had needed her then. She had wrapped her arms around him, not minding the stale cigarette smoke that clung to him and a week of time spent in the bleakest of conditions. And then she had kissed him right there, channeling a week filled with worry, sadness over Too Mean and happiness to have three members of her family come back safely.
So they had gotten his things, rushed back to his beach house and spent the night in each other's arms forgetting the promises they had made to each other to put it behind them. It had only been that one night and in the morning she had made them both breakfast, he had kissed her tenderly that one last time and they had made plans for the rest of the weekend that fit the parameters of their relationship better.
But damn as he looked at her now, he remembered the intensity of the emotions that had exploded once they were behind four walls away from the rest of the world. He had never known the completeness that he felt in her embrace and the emotions and sensations they had shared still lingered.
Elizabeth had wandered rudely into the aftermath of that and he had fallen for her so quickly, he wondered now if he hadn't just been lost. He had mulled over that somewhat when she had gone back to sort out the mess with the tangled branches of her family tree.
And when she had come back, it had been easy enough to slip back into her arms and the headiness of her return had continued straight to him asking her to marry him. C.J. had been strangely distant and in the background when Elizabeth had returned but he hadn't really paid much attention to it at the time.
Not as much as he needed to as it turned out when he saw her now standing next to him, trying to draw her breath in to focus on the beauty of the sunset and not her own disappointment.
"I really thought this was going to be it," she said finally, "that I was going to go up to the witness stand and tell my story, maybe be cross-examined into trying to get me to take it back…but then we'd be home by nighttime."
He gazed over at her, that had been the plan but obviously some twisted mind out there had his or her own plans shutting the airport down, and leaving thousands stranded in this oasis in the middle of the desert.
Which right now felt anything but a place to relax, because the way he felt right now he was about to jump out of his skin.
She had swallowed up her disappointment at the prosecutor's news and they had picked up some food at a Tex Mex restaurant before heading back to the hotel where she changed into her swimsuit and dipped into the impressive sized pool to swim some laps to burn off her excess energy and frustration. After she had enough, she pulled herself out of the pool and lay on her towel to soak up some of the late afternoon sun. The beads of water drying off of her body while he had come out to check on her after spending an hour on the phone to Murray calming him down. The president of his conglomerate at busted a cog after being informed that Matt and C.J. would be a little late returning home which necessitated the postponement of an important meeting.
Then he had to deal with Elizabeth and disappointment proved to be too mild of a word to use when describing how she felt from the news. She asked him about the hotel, whether it was nice but one question remained unasked between them, which was the sleeping arrangements involving him and his best friend. Elizabeth didn't know about the brief affair they had before she came into his life and he felt no need to tell her. But he knew that she sensed the undercurrent that remained between them even as she had accepted his proposal and begun the wedding preparations.
"Houston, I think I'm ready for some dinner," C.J. said finally, drawing her light jacket closer around her.
It shaped her form nicely, the same one he had held onto when she shared that with him. She left him and went inside their suite into the bedroom she had staked out for herself to grab her purse. He followed and they left the room to go down to the steakhouse that stood just down the street on the strip.
The phone started ringing after they left.
Matt watched her as she ate her steak and potatoes, wondering if the threats that she had received had stopped. She had mentioned that she had received several calls very reluctantly after he had confronted her after she had received one at the office. She tried to water them down when telling him, he knew that but he had arranged for some men from his security arm to keep a close eye on her.
"The steak's delicious," she said, chewing it thoughtfully.
"Fresh off the range," he answered, "That's what the cook told me."
Matt had once owned a chain of hotels but had sold them to an international company before this one had even been built.
She remained silent for a while until he finally tried to break it by asking her what was up. She gazed at him thoughtfully before responding.
"I…I just hate having to come back here and then going home," she said, "I wanted this to be the last them so I could move on…just like you have with Elizabeth."
"C.J…"
She shook her head.
"No I am happy for you to have found someone so special like her," she said, "I'm glad that you'll have a good life with her, really but…"
He heard the catch in her voice.
"C.J. nothing's going to change for us…I'll still be your best friend…"
She shook her head again more slowly.
"Houston…how can you say that," she said, putting her fork down, "Everything's changed, you know that."
She meant what they had shared but she had been the one to decide to pack it up and leave it to their memories.
"I almost thought…"
Then she stopped in her tracks and even raising his brows to prod her to continue didn't work. He sensed she held something back from him, something important but she didn't seem to think she could share it with him. Was it due to his engagement and approaching wedding, or was it something else?
Something dragged at him too, digging deeply into his heart even as he counted down the days until his wedding. When they returned back to L.A. they would be making the final preparations. C.J. had agreed to stand by him in the ceremony though he could see the emotional cost of such a decision on her face. He knew that she was genuinely happy for him but her eyes appeared saddened as well. He wanted her so much to be happy like he had been since Elizabeth returned…but still something nagged at him, something jagged like a blade sticking straight into his heart trying to get his attention.
"What is it…C.J….why don't you tell me?"
She looked away, and then reached for her wine glass taking a long sip, slowly swallowing it. He watched her thinking, knowing she had dipped someplace deep inside of her even if he didn't know what.
Sighing, she looked up at him and her face looked troubled.
"I should have told you earlier…"
His blood froze.
"Is anything wrong, please tell me what's going on?"
She shook her head.
"No…everything's just fine really," she said, "It's just that…a few weeks ago…when you got that phone call from Elizabeth that she had settled affairs with her family…I…"
She hesitated and he pressed gently.
"What, you can tell me…"
She looked down at her hands before she looked up at him again.
"It was right after the night you came home with Will and Roy and without…"
"Too Mean…it still bothers me that we had to leave him behind…"
"He'd understand Houston…but when I saw you, everything I thought I knew and I had said…it went out the window…I just had to…well you know."
Yes he did, she had made the moves on him first back at the beach house but he had taken the ball and ran with it as some might put it.
"C.J. I don't regret that night at all…only that it ended."
She smiled at the wistful tone that still lived in his voice.
"Afterward…some weeks went by and I…well I was…late…"
His eyes widened as the realization hit him.
"Late…were you…."
She shook her head.
"No I thought maybe but I took some tests and they were negative," she said, "I'm not pregnant…and if I were, I would have told you…"
He knew that she would have done that but he wished he had been there with her before she found that out, knowing that it must have been difficult.
"I wish you told me…"
"There was no reason to tell you…the test was negative."
"Still I would have liked to know…so you wouldn't have been alone."
She smiled and reached for his hand, taking it in her own.
"I know that…but it all worked out…especially with Elizabeth coming back and you two getting married."
He knew he should have been thinking about that but all he could envision was C.J. carrying his child and wanting so much to share that with her…and then guilt filled him because he should be harboring those dreams with his fiancée Elizabeth.
"I just want us to always share what we have," she said, "To be best friends forever…I know that sounds sentimental but you matter to me more than anyone."
He squeezed her hand.
"You do too," he said, "and like I said, nothing will change…except we'll be even better friends."
She smiled at him, believing in the sincerity of his words and they finished dinner before heading back to the hotel to get a good night's sleep before returning to L.A.
And a wedding that would be taking place in a short time. But as it so often turns out, life had other plans.
