Chapter 17---Here's the latest chapter of this you like it, thanks for reading and the comments
C.J. looked up from where she sat at the table as Matt returned having made his phone call. He looked quieter and she hoped it hadn't been bad news about his business.
"What is it," she asked.
He shook his head.
"Nothing serious," he said, "Uncle Roy just had some advice for me."
She smiled at that, knowing that his uncle always looked out for him and that his return into Matt's life had yielded great benefits for both of them. For years, Roy had been estranged from Matt's father after the loss of his wife and the disappearance of his only son. Not too long ago, Matt had rescued Will from a prison camp and reunited father and son for the first time in years. Recently, Roy had begun introducing his son to Matt's investigative agency and the two of them were picking up the slack since Matt's "death" and his journey to Cicely to find and bring C.J. back.
He sat down with her and Maggie who had begun to do some serious damage to her omelet, one of several made by Adam who had kicked Dave out of the kitchen and had just taken over.
"This is delicious," Maggie said, "It more than makes up for Adam's prickly nature."
C.J. agreed that the food tasted great. Matt watched her eating her meal so enthusiastically. He noticed that it had already added weight to her figure which was a good thing.
"What are you looking at," she said, holding onto her fork.
He shook his head.
"It's just good to see a woman enjoy a good meal that's all."
She raised a brow at him.
"It gives you some idea of her other…appetites," she said, "When you should already know."
Oh he did know, the thought of them made his throat suddenly go dry which he covered up nicely by taking a drink of his juice. Freshly squeezed by Dave, one of the few culinary chores that Adam had placed in his more than capable hands.
Maggie looked at Matt and shook her head.
"You know you remind me of my last boyfriend…"
"One of your former boyfriends who died," Matt asked.
Maggie frowned and he hoped he hadn't brought up a painful memory. But then she brightened suddenly.
"Actually I think it was when he came back as a dog…"
Now Matt looked confused and C.J. almost broke into laughter seeing the expression on his face.
"Came back as a…what?"
"A dog," Maggie continued, oblivious to the confusion she had caused, "Oh everyone said it was just some mutt running around loose and sure enough, some woman did come back and claim him but he loved green peppers like my boyfriend and he liked a certain bar stool here…that."
"Your former boyfriend liked," Matt guessed.
"Well yeah," Maggie said, "and he bit Joel. Twice."
Matt had a feeling that had won the mutt a few extra points in Maggie's book. He could never figure out this love-hate deal between the uptight doctor and the free spirited pilot. In his mind, if you wanted a woman, you just went after her. Simple as that, he thought. But then he thought, had that been what he had done with C.J.?
Not exactly. When they had been flying off in his Lear Jet to the Bahamas, he had been thinking the entire time about the week that lay ahead of them to be spent on that tropical island. Oh sure, there would be business meetings to attend, power luncheons and a tour of one of the most exclusive resorts but in between? Six days and five nights spent together by the beautiful crystal clear ocean and sun-bleached sand by day and under a sea of stars and moonlight by night. He had studied her curvy figure sitting in the co-pilot seat of his airplane inside the cramped cockpit and had been imagining what it would feel like to run his hands over her soft skin. She had engaged in comfortable banter with him during the long flight and had gazed out over the endless sea of sky around them as he sat there wondering how she would respond if he swept her in his arms.
Of course that never happened. After some silly joke he had made about the Bermuda Triangle so he could focus on his navigating, she had passed out in her seat and he had left his seat to revive her before he realized that his plane had been sabotaged. He woke up later sitting in a jeep with C.J. being driven at gunpoint to an estate that turned out to be the home of the previously believed to be dead, Marquis Duval, sr. His demands had been simple, his son in exchange for C.J.'s life. Matt had tried to escape and when Duval punished him for that by threatening to have C.J. shot by a firing squad, he had felt the life flow out of him until he agreed to go and bring back Duval, jr.
They had come through that crisis safely as they ultimately did all the dangerous situations they had faced. Often with the help of one of their close friends, in that case a currently retired police lieutenant named Vince Novelli who had seen through Matt's façade and demanded to be allowed to help him liberate C.J. and bring down the Duvals for good.
C.J. looked at Matt who seemed pensive this morning. She wondered if he had been thinking about what almost happened between him the previous night, what would have happened if she hadn't applied the brakes. She knew she had no choice, she couldn't resume her physical relationship with him without telling him the truth and the words to do that still eluded her. She wanted so much to force them from her lips but…the fear still filled her at the thought that she would tell him and it wouldn't be enough the next time an adventure rolled around that had the potential to take him from her permanently.
She shook her head at herself inwardly for being so needy when it came to Matt. Like some of the other girlfriends he had relationships with in the past. She had always thought that Matt needed a lover that he could take care of, take under his wing to protect but the opposite had turned out to be true because she hadn't wanted that protection. She had wanted to be on equal footing with the men in her life and that had been too formidable a challenge for quite a few of them. That's of course not including the men she had dated who turned out to be killers like Robert Tyler. When he had reentered her life and swept her off of her feet, she had seen that her feelings had threatened to get away from her despite her attempts to be sensible and rein them in, until she knew him better. Her heart had broken when Matt had told her that Robert had tried to kill him when he found out that Robert had staged a couple of kidnappings to further his own television career.
C.J. had threatened to resign from Matt's company and walk out of his life and he had just stood there stunned as she walked away. She had sat in the back patio of her home for hours reliving that moment and wondering if she would ever see him again.
Matt watched C.J. and saw her brow furrow in deep thought, not that it detracted from how gorgeous she looked in her outfit. He saw that the faint bruising beneath her eyes had disappeared and she looked happy in her skin, sipping her juice and taking in the ambience around her. Looking back, he knew that this past year even before this latest episode of it had been very difficult for her. Having her heart crushed by their former college buddy, Robert and him having to play a role in causing her such pain. She had forgiven him for that and then promptly had gotten shot by a gunman while they were trying to spring a young heiress of a prominent family from a religious cult out to steal her money and kill her in that order. The bullet that had hit her had nearly killed her but she had survived two days and nights being held captive while Matt had kept her alive by sheer will until he and another man could escape and take her to a hospital.
Then she had gone off on her infamous road trip to a business conference in Santa Fe and had wound up crashing her car, getting amnesia and involved in some prostitution junket involving female inmates at the county lockup. He had tracked her down and had crashed the jail and then the party being held by a prominent state politician to free her. She had begun to keep to herself after that, while he and his Uncle Roy went on one adventure after another, including the one that sprung his cousin and brought him home for the first time in over a decade.
Then her dear friend Julia had finally succumbed to cancer and she had become more withdrawn and focused on filing legal cases and appearing in court while he met and nearly married another heiress to a fortune, Elizabeth.
At the last moment, she had brought to a halt their wedding which naturally had been crashed by an uninvited psycho with a grudge against Matt and decided she couldn't handle what he did with his life. After the haze of what he had thought was the great romance of his life had faded, he had looked up and realized that he needed his friends and family back in his life.
"I really enjoyed dinner last night Houston," she said to him.
He looked up at her and saw her smiling at him.
"You look like you were some place nice," she said.
He blinked.
"I'm some place much nicer right now."
Maggie looked at the both of them and decided it was time to go prepare her plane for her day-long sojourn.
"I'll see you at spa night later on," she told C.J.
Matt raised a brow after saying goodbye to Maggie.
"Oh it's just that Ruth Ann's getting a shipment of beauty products," C.J. said, "And Shelli's volunteered us all to be test subjects. It sounds like a lot of fun."
"To sit around and talk about us men," he said.
She chuckled.
"Not so much," she said, "Actually Eve's thinking about starting a book club."
"That sounds…tame."
"Depends on the title," C.J. said, "You don't know Eve."
He hesitated, trying to find the right words and settled for something simple and direct.
"About last night…"
She looked away.
"What about it?"
"You pulled away," he said, "but I think I understand why."
Her brows knit as she looked at him.
"I'm not ready to jump into bed with you," she said, "My body might think so but it's more complicated than that."
"I know," he said, "and I would never push you to do anything you didn't want."
She sighed.
"It's not that I don't want you," she said, "I just need some time to know you're not going anywhere."
He knew that was true. She had wanted him as much as he had wanted her and if she hadn't stopped him, they would have made love. And then what? She would have done so keeping the truth about her pregnancy from him and when it came down to it, she just couldn't do that. She couldn't slip between the sheets with him with that huge secret between them.
"I'm not planning on leaving you," he said, "I wish you would believe that."
She desperately wanted to take his word and chastised herself for being hesitant at giving him a chance to prove it. But she still hedged. She had someone else to think of besides herself.
"I do…at least I want to more than you know," she said, "but the past couple of months were so hard…"
He nodded.
"Uncle Roy reminded me of that on the phone."Matt said, "He also said you had your reasons for coming out of your grief and that I needed to respect that."
She looked at him, wondering what he was thinking.
"My reasons are my own," she said, "as much as I want to believe you."
"I do understand what I've done to you," Matt said, "But I also understand that I want what we had that night."
C.J. closed her eyes, remembering but she had to remain firm…for now.
"So do I," she said, "but it takes more than both of us wanting it to make it work."
Matt knew that but he also knew that he had never wanted anything in his life more than the future that awaited them if they could just build from the past.
Joel came by the table and handed C.J. a paper bag.
"I just had these filled," he said, "Follow the instructions on the bottle."
She didn't look inside the bag but set it on the table.
"Thanks," she said, while Matt watched them both.
Joel noticed Matt sitting there.
"Having a nice breakfast together," he said, "That's great. Well, I'll see you at your appointment in a couple of days."
She nodded as he left them back to their conversation. C.J. had to remember where to pick it up.
"I want to build something with you," she said, "I just want to make sure it's the best thing for me. I can't face that kind of pain again."
He picked up a trace of it in her face even as she smiled at him.
"That's not going to happen," he promised.
She so much wanted to believe him so she just nodded slowly.
"We'll see," she said simply.
Ed stopped by the table and told them that Maurice wanted C.J. and him to come to his home for an impromptu meeting on the film. C.J. rolled her eyes but prepared to get her things to take with her, hoping that Maurice wouldn't be attempting to commander the process away from the young filmmaker again.
"We'd better get going," she said to Matt.
He reached for her and embraced her close.
"I'll see you later…"
"I've got spa night," she said, "I promised to bring some snack food."
He nodded.
"Then I'll make sure you get home safely after."
She chuckled but she agreed and that caused his heart to lift as he watched them walk out of the Brick. He prepared to pick up his belongings and then his eye caught the small bag that Joel had given to C.J. that obviously contained something very important for her health. He picked it up, to see if he could catch her before she left. He got outside but couldn't see either Ed or C.J. and he guessed they must have taken off in Ed's truck to Maurice's house. He'd have to give it to her later on, he decided and then curiosity about the bag's content got the better of him and he pulled out a large prescription bottle.
His heart skipped quite a few beats when he read the writing on the bottle.