part four
Warning: this part contains sexual situations and innuendo
"Roger Baxter used to walk your mother home from the hospital." Gregory explained patiently as Caitlin paged through the dressmaker's portfolio open on the desk in his study. "She worked nights and neither Bette or I felt safe with her walking home by herself. Luckily Roger was able to change his schedule to keep an eye on her."
"Weren't you jealous daddy? Mom said he was an incredibly charming young man." Caitlin wondered as she started arranging her favorites in front of her. The various sketches held lightly in dainty fingers.
"Oh no. I never had anything to be worried about between Roger and your mother." Gregory replied with a quiet smile. "Roger, Del and I had an understanding between us."
Caitlin looked up from the dresses with great amusement. "An understanding?"
"We were quite a boy's club back then." Gregory went to the door and shut it before turning to the bookcases in search of something. "Now, none of this gets back to your mother, but I have some pictures if you'd like to see us."
"I love to!" She announced enthusiastically and then put a finger across her lips and smiled impishly. "I promise I won't say a word."
"Good. I know I can trust you to keep a secret Caitlin," He ran his finger across the rows of old law books until he found his quarry. "Here it is."
Caitlin looked at the dusty volume skeptically. "Harvard Law Review from 1974?"
"That's what it says it is." Gregory blew dust of it and shook his head nostalgically about his old cleverness. "However-" He felt along the pages on the side for the hidden catch. The book clicked open softly and Caitlin raised an eyebrow at her father. "Never judge a book by its cover."
The large book opened to reveal a carefully hidden hollow inside. Old black and white photographs almost filled the box, but a smaller wooden box lay in the bottom right corner. Caitlin's attention went right to the pictures and Gregory grabbed and stuck the old box into his jacket without her noticing.
After a few shots of cars and women in expensive old dresses, she found one of three young men in tuxedos, posing debonairly on the pier. The wickedly grinning man with the top hat was obviously Del Douglas. Ever since he had died, Del had been a subject of quiet hatred from her father, so she looked quickly away. Gregory was obviously the young man on the right, the one who seemed to be looking through the camera at something else far away without a trace of humor. That left the center man as the mysterious Roger Baxter. Unlike his dark-haired friends, he was nearly blonde and smiling in a way that suggested he knew her deepest secrets.
"You were all so handsome!" She announced with delight as she looked through the stack of photographs. "But you look so serious daddy. Look at this," she pointed out as she searched through the stack, "You only smile a few times in all of these pictures, but Del and Roger seem to be always laughing."
"They were always finding the fun in everything." Gregory admitted with a gentle smile. "I'm afraid I was rather dull when I was young. Roger used to joke that they just kept me around to remind them to have fun."
Caitlin studied her father, holding up the old picture for comparison. "You're still handsome daddy. There's something sweet behind your eyes," She smiled, but looked at her father as if she were seeing him in a new light. "But something sad as well." She searched his face, finding the quiet of his youth lost to the newer lines of his face. Reaching up, she messed up his hair and looked for the young man in the picture.
"I think you look sadder now daddy."
He took her hand and held it gently for a second, before releasing her and pointing to her neat array of dress patterns. "That's enough of boring you with old stories. Why don't you tell me which dress you've picked out for the party?" As Caitlin switched easily into a debate between her three favorites, Gregory's hurt surprised him as it insisted on making its presence known in the stinging of his eyes.
He paid little attention to Caitlin's decision making process and instead let her talk it out by herself. Thoughts of Olivia's hand-embroidered silk teased him momentarily, she would look ravishing. Maybe that would be the moment to seduce her, tomorrow when she tried the dress on for the first time. After all, tomorrow was the third day. Her second dose had been mixed in with her tea after dinner, but so far none of Roger's list of tell-tale signs had occurred. Gregory would need to keep her close tomorrow.
Preventing her from going to the Radio station would be an obvious goal. Maybe he should offer to take her down the shore, or up into the mountains. Just the two of them…
"I think this is it Daddy," Caitlin set all the other designs aside, and lifted up a pale blue-green chiffon. "It looks like a fairy made it."
He patted her shoulder and nodded appreciatively. "I'll send you with your mother to the dressmaker, and she'll get it done before the party."
She kissed his cheek in cheerful gratitude. "Thanks daddy. I'll look forward to it." Caitlin put all the dress patterns away and looked at the old photographs once more as Gregory stacked them up to put them back into their hiding place.
"There are a lot of pictures of mom in here too." She remarked mischievously. "Mom and Del, mom and Roger, mom and Bette-" Caitlin had go all the way to the bottom of the pile to find a picture of her parents together. "How long did it take you to ask her out?"
His chuckle held honest surprise. "She avoided me for a long time. It took me quite awhile to get her to talk to me."
"It seems just like mom to play hard to get." Caitlin decided as she set the pictures back into the old book. "Can I keep this one of you?"
Gregory nodded, touched that she wanted to keep his picture from 25 years ago. "Your mother thought I was too good for her. I was a hotshot in law school. All I thought about was my work, the next big case, the next big break-" He sighed and shut the book to hide it away again. "Your mother saved me from that. From the time I first danced with her, she became everything I thought about. Olivia and the family we'd have someday."
"What went wrong?" Caitlin asked softly, her face entirely sympathetic.
"We grew apart." Gregory explained as he wondered if the regret he portrayed for Caitlin's sake actually had a real place in his heart. "We stopped helping each other, and started doing as much damage to each other as we could."
Her heart ached for her parents. In the earliest of her memories her parents were epic and wonderful in their love for each other, but everything after that was a nightmare of drunken fights and screaming. "It was awful when you two fought." Emboldened by her father's new honesty, Caitlin asked the question she had asked herself for years. "Why didn't you just get divorced?"
Gregory shrugged, sinking into his desk chair and pretending to be on the verge of tears. "Sometimes, even though you can't stand to be with someone anymore, the thought of being without them is still unconceivable. Even though I couldn't look at her without wanting to tear her apart, not looking at her ever again was too horrible to bear."
Caitlin's hug was warm and full of loving sympathy. Gregory relaxed into it, reminding himself that Caitlin's devotion would only increase as he stitched his relationship with her mother back together. "You should tell her what you told me." She suggested finally as they drew apart. "Mom needs to hear that from you."
Gregory reached in his pocket for his handkerchief and made sure Caitlin saw his tears before he hid them away with a perfectly performed tender smile. "Maybe someday I'll tell her. First, I have many years of mistakes to make amends for. My distance from you and Sean when you were children, the way I've always hidden my feelings from Olivia-"
Caitlin hugged him again, "I'm so proud of you daddy."
He patted her back and allowed himself a moment of happiness before he slipped back into the act. "I hope I can earn your faith in me Caitlin."
A gentle rap on the door surprised Caitlin and she turned to open it. Gregory silently rejoiced, Olivia's timing couldn't have been better. As Caitlin opened the door, he made an weak effort to again dab false tears from his eyes before folding away his handkerchief.
Olivia was surprised nearly speechless to see Gregory trying to hide his tears. Gregory didn't cry. It wasn't in his nature; he would never allow himself that weakness. Not in front of Caitlin, and most definitely not in front of her. At least, Gregory as he had been before two days ago. There seemed to be no end to this Gregory's surprises.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, I was just going to wish you goodnight." Olivia explained when she found her voice. Caitlin hugged her mom and quickly planned her escape. She had seen the way they were looking at each other tonight, and she couldn't help thinking that a little time alone together might be just what they needed.
"We were just talking about the party. I'm going to go with you to the dress shop tomorrow and I'll tell you all about it then. I've just remembered I'm going to the movies with Sean and I don't want to miss him at the Deep." Her words tumbled out in a rush, and both of her parents caught the transparent lie. Neither of them let any of their suspicion show as they wished her goodnight.
Caitlin grabbed her purse and headed for her car. She had to find Sean. He would never believe that their dad would actually cry over mom. He didn't even believe dad could have feelings at all. Maybe now she could get through to him, to finally help him believe that even their family had a chance at being happy.
Gregory read the play of Olivia's emotions on her face as she watched Caitlin pull away from the house. She was confused, deeply so, and his performance had been just convincing enough to bring another layer of the wall between them crashing to the floor. He reached out to her, startling her as he pulled her close enough to kiss her cheek. "Thank you for coming to say goodnight." Gregory started to duck back into his study, but she caught his arm.
"I-" She struggled for a moment internally, and finally she had to look away from his face entirely. "I had too." Olivia admitted softly. "I wanted to thank you."
"Thank me?" He looked utterly perplexed. "Thank me for what?"
Olivia ran her hand through his hair, hundreds of old sensations racing through her fingertips as she did. "For spending two whole days with me."
"I thought it was longer." Gregory remarked as he stared at her lips hungrily. "Besides, it isn't over yet, I got Ben to move our meeting back to next week so I don't even have to go to work until Monday."
He took her hand and then tilted his head towards the kitchen. "I was just going to go for a late-night snack. Care to join me?"
She resisted slightly. "I was just going to go to bed. Unlike you, I've a morning meeting at 8 o'clock."
Gregory laughed and pulled her along anyway. "Well if that isn't ironic…" Her turned back and fixed her with a pleading look. "I won't take long. You don't even have to eat anything if you aren't hungry."
Her eyes softened at his insisting, but she wasn't quite ready to acquiesce. "I might be hungry. What were you going to raid from the kitchen?"
Gregory imagined her undressing in the moonlight of their bedroom and licked his lips. "Caitlin's ice cream."
"How do you know about that?" She wondered with a giggle. "I'm not even supposed to know about Caitlin's secret stash."
He gave her a playful smile, "I have my ways, Olivia. The real question is whether or not you want to join me." Gregory watched her resolve melt away in her eyes and knew he was winning. "I missed you." He admitted gently as he looked through to the soul behind her blue eyes.
With that, Gregory had won. Even her body language opened up to him and he saw victory as the rise and fall of her breasts quickened.
Olivia fought the urge to beg him to kiss her with a laugh. "How could you miss me? I spent all day with you."
His hand was like fire as he rested it on her side. Olivia's breath caught in her throat. Gregory congratulated himself on how easy it was to seduce her, as he tried to convince himself that was all he wanted. "It wasn't enough." He whispered, passion making his voice deep. He moved his hand up to her rib cage, and stopped with his thumb just beneath the curve of her breast.
"This isn't about ice cream any more." She confronted him, knowing that the sudden tightness of her stomach had nothing to do with food.
Gregory pulled her closer, wrapping both hands around her hips before sliding them up to the first button of her blouse. As he nimbly undid it, he whispered in her ear. "To be honest Liv, I'm not sure it ever was."
Olivia reached for his head again and pulled it down to devour his mouth. "I'll forgive you." She promised as she reached for his tie. Years of practice had it free in seconds. Not to be out maneuvered, Gregory made steady progress down the line of buttons on the front of her blouse. He reached up to cup her breasts with his hands, but Olivia pulled away from his urgent demands.
"We can't in the living room." She insisted breathlessly. "Caitlin and Sean-"
Undaunted, Gregory pushed her back to the wall by the stairs and started to tease her breasts through the fabric of her bra. She put both hands and his shoulders and tried to sneak away. Desperately, she looked to the second floor. "Upstairs?"
He ran his tongue over her collarbone until a shiver ran up her spine. Gregory followed the line of her neck up to her face and paused while he stared into her liquid eyes. "Want to use the guest bedroom and pretend it's not our house?"
She ran her hands across the waist of his pants until she found his belt buckle. "I think we've done bored lonely housewife and her husband's dashing lawyer enough." Deftly removing his belt and wrapping it around the back of his neck, she kissed him again and slipped from his grasp to head up the stairs. Disappearing into the darkness of the hallway just long enough to finish removing her blouse, Olivia took the advantage and threw it at him. He was a few steps behind her when the silk struck him in the face.
With a playful growl, he balled it up in his hand and took the rest of the stairs two at a time. The door to the master bedroom was shut when he reached it. He fumbled a moment with the knob before bursting in. Olivia's clothes made a neat trail to the bed, one leg of her pants still inside out from her hurried escape.
Gregory's eyes went wide and he dropped her blouse to the floor as he saw her smile seductively up from the pillow. "Don't just stand there." Olivia admonished with her heaviest proper British accent. "Drop your knickers and join me. It isn't polite to keep a lady waiting."
He fumbled with his shoes, and then dropped his pants, belt and tie on the floor next to her clothes. Gregory melted into her with the sheet still between them. Consuming her mouth as his last meal, Olivia broke away from his kisses just long enough to ask him the last question.
"How much do you like your shirt?"
He sat up to rip it open with the satisfying pop of the remaining buttons. Olivia sat up meet his lips again and let the sheet fall away fall away from her nude body so nothing else was between them.