“Baby?” Steve whispered. He woke up when Kayla’s alarm went off, but she’d continued to sleep. It had been such a long night filled with so many emotions, her mind just wouldn’t let her wake up yet. Steve could have used several more hours, himself, but he kept his groggy eye open anyway. “Sweetness, 1987 is calling, baby.” When she didn’t respond to his gentle hand caressing the hair off her forehead he decided to let her keep sleeping instead.
Steve had assumed that Kayla was expected at the Emergency Center today and decided very quickly that waking her to figure it out was not going to be happening this time. So he snuck downstairs, called over there, and told Adrienne that Kayla wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be coming in today. He had to admit, it was really nice to hear his sister’s voice. It wasn’t the first time since they’d started jumping, but these times were rare, so he smiled when he heard her on the other end of the phone. He could tell something was going on with her, probably about Justin, but he wasn’t sure what. That was going to have to wait for his attention, because he just wasn’t ready to start investing yet. It was hard enough dealing with his brother and that bitch of a stepmother of his the night before. And she was really something else, too. When they’d approached Steve’s room together hand in hand, it was a very different dynamic than it had been the first time. This time there was a ring on her finger. This time there was a marriage bonding them. Jack was not going to be getting any chance to mislead himself into believing that he could possibly win over Kayla, because they didn’t let him. Only Angelica didn’t know any of this and was hopping mad when they’d arrived too late for her liking. Which made sense, as they’d taken their time getting there. They were sexually and emotionally spent and hadn’t eaten anything yet when Angelica’s call came in, so rather than rush over like Steve had insisted they do last time, they took care of themselves first. They showered quickly, and dressed in something a little less formal. Steve was happy to find a pair of jeans there and a few shirts that had accumulated over the past few weeks. “Whaddya know, baby, I got clothes, here!” Then Steve made them something very quick to eat while Kayla cleaned up the unfortunate pork chops. “What happened there?” Steve asked as he reached over her to get two plates.
“Burned the pork chops while you were proposing up there.” Steve got a melancholy look on his face, and Kayla hurt for him as he’d nodded with understanding. If Kayla could have wished the memory into her husband she would have.
It was well past visiting hours and very well past Angelica Deveraux’s acceptable margin of responsiveness when Steve and Kayla had finally arrived outside Jack’s hospital room, upon which Angelica immediately began laying into them.
“I’m not sure why you’re here, Mr. Johnson, especially when you blew off a meeting with my husband. If it weren’t for you, Jack wouldn’t have collapsed in the first place!”
Steve bristled, but Kayla spoke up first. “Really? How do you figure?”
Angelica stuck her nose in the air. “I figure, Kayla, because Harper had waited quite some time for Mr. Johnson to show up, then Jack helped him upstairs when he gave up and deciced to retire for the night. The effort of helping him upstairs caused him to collapse!”
Steve wanted to put her in her place, but he kept his cool. The woman just didn’t matter, she’d become insignificant to him. “I have it on pretty good authority that the Hodgkins Disease was going to relapse whether I’d shown up tonight or not.” Angelica narrowed her eyes at him, clearly off-put by his … unruffledness.
“I don’t have time to debate this with you. Kayla,” she turned toward her and said with an ingratiating tone that was only uncharacteristic because it was driven by genuine fear for Jack’s life and not political smarm, “if I might have a word with you please?”
Kayla took Steve’s hand in hers. “What is it?”
“Alone, if you don’t mind?” her patience quite thin.
“I mind,” Steve said, now slightly ruffling.
Angelica was not doing a great job of keeping it together and let a small cry of frustration escape her lips before finding enough control to go on. “I don’t know how to say this. I know that you consider yourself Steve Johnson’s girlfriend.”
Kayla had been expecting this. “Angelica, Steve is—”
“—not a man whose attraction I understand, but it’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s not,” Steve said, sqeezing Kayla’s hand as she started to fume.
“What is my business, however,” Angelica continued, ingoring him as Kayla rolled her eyes, “is my stepson’s life. And right now he’s lying in a hospital bed fighting a losing batte. And I don’t have to tell you that I would do anything in my power to increase his chances of survival. And i think you can make a diffrerence. Now, please, Kayla, a word alone.”
“No. You don’t get to bully me this time. Anything you have to say to me can be said in front of my fiancé.” She held up her free left hand and wiggled her fingers slightly to show Angelica the newly occupied ring finger. A charge ran through Steve with the word fiancé. Ridiculous that the demotion in status made him feel excited, but for some reason it did. The stunned look on Angelica’s face did nothing to diminish the feeling.
“You’re joking,” she insisted.
“No, I’m not,” Kayla said.
“Kayla, you – your timing is just atrocious, Jack needs you!”
“Jack needs chemotherapy not me. I’m not in love with him.”
“I don’t care who you’re in love with! You’re a nurse, you know how important a patient’s state of mind is to his recovery, and Jack wants you! Why would you hitch your wagon to his star,” she sneered at Steve with disgust, “when you could commit yourself to that boy in there, a senator’s son, and push the odds in his favor!”
Steve held on to Kayla’s hand a little tighter and used his right hand to rub at the headache he was getting. This was the very argument he’d made with himself back in 1987, and it was making him sick to hear it again. “Baby, let’s just go see Jack and—”
“No! No, you will not go in there, Mr. Johnson, and tell my stepson that his reason for living is gone, no! Now, I must insist that you leave!”
“Angelica, he’s not going anywhere. I’m sorry, but I won’t lie and tell him I love him. He doesn’t need me to beat this, I know for a fact that Jack will be ok.”
“You don’t know that! I don’t care about lies, and I don’t care about the truth. The only thing I care about is that boy’s life. And the only person he wants to live for is you.”
Kayla looked at her husband and was … not happy to see the look on his face. This was bringing things back for him that he just didn’t need. Neither of them did. She could see him remembering why he’d given her up in the first place. Because Jack did love Kayla. Because he did devote himself to getting better so that he could marry her, even when she’d been telling him that she was in love with Steve. The last thing either of them wanted to hear was that very argument in that shrill voice. The two of them knew that Jack was going to pull through, but it didn’t make this argument roll off their backs any easier. Kayla’s stomach turned over as the original memory of this night and all that came after it hit her uninvited, and she knew that it had hit Steve, too. Oh, how she wanted that look off his face.
“Angelica,” she said irritably while still looking at Steve, “I’m tired and want to go home. You asked me to come, so I did.”
“I asked you, not him,” she threw back.
Kayla let go of Steve’s hand crossed her arms in front of her with a tilt in her hip. “What part of the word engaged do you not understand, Angelica?” Kayla said incredulously.
“Look,” Steve said with a finality that made Angelica reel, as if he had any right to speak so commandingly, “we’re done running our mouths on this. So you best stop harassing my wife, before I have something to say about it.” Angelica was such an insignificant pebble in his shoe that he didn’t even bother to be careful with his words. He just wanted to get this overwith and get back home, and her arrogant tirade was standing in his way.
Angelica stared at him, her proper reserve gone. “The gall you have to speak to me like that is unbelievable. How a nice girl like Kayla Brady could denigrate herself to sleep with you I have no idea.”
Kayla slapped Angelica before either of them knew what hit them. The three of them were so stunned that it happened that no one moved or reacted other than to stare in silence. Then Angelica reared back on her heels, cast her eyes downward to meet the floor, and stormed away, leaving the two of them with the visit to Jack that lay ahead.
Steve placed a kiss in Kayla’s palm, replacing the lingering connection it had made with Angelica’s face with his loving support. “Took her down a notch I think, Sweetness.”
“I don’t believe I hit her,” Kayla whispered.
“She had it comin’, now come on,” he replied as he coaxed her toward Jack’s door.
“Wait.” Steve was losing his own patience and wanted to go, but he stood with his hands on his hips waiting for her. Kayla reached up and put her arms around Steve’s neck. “The memories are getting to you,” she said softly. “I know that look you’ve got on your face right now, Steve, being here is upsetting you.”
Steve relaxed into her arms. “Yeah, they are. Last time at this exact moment, I wasn’t standing here with your arms around me, baby.” He rubbed his palm up and down her back. “I was already giving you up.” Kayla tensed, and Steve pulled back to look at her. “I’m not the only one these memories are getting to, Sweetness.”
Kayla nodded. “Hearing Angelica actually say what we … did the first time.”
Steve almost lost it. “We, Kayla?” he whispered loudly. “There was no we, just me. I’m the one who did all that to us. I’m the one who gave you up! You’re the one who was beggin’ me!”
“Steve, don’t do this.”
“Then somehow you took me back when I nearly got you killed sticking you with those people in that house!” Steve’s guilt had ratcheted back up, and this conversation wasn’t helping.
“Steve, I’m not a saint. Not sure if you remember, but wasn’t I the one who married Jack?”
Steve took her hand and put it over his heart. “I pushed you to him. Don’t pretend I didn’t.”
“It’s true you did. You led me to water, yes, but you did not make me drink. I did that all on my own. To hurt you. I did hurt you, right?”
“Because I’d hurt you.” Steve pumped his jaw and looked away from her. “Worked.”
“I know. These hard things in our lives that we have to repeat are going to devour us if we let them. None of it matters anymore. Sometimes I think of this time and it still hurts me, I admit that. But we’re not this time’s Steve and Kayla, we’re us.” Her brow furrowed momentarily as she remembered their previous conversation about being with their destination version’s counterparts, and she stared off when she said her next words. “I am upset and insecure about—”
“Kayla,” Steve gasped incredulously, “God could appear before me right now and tell me that if I don’t give you up to Jack that he’s going to die tomorrow, and I’d still never ever do it again! How could you be insecure?!”
Kayla closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She hated that she was so all over the place that she’d just made him think that she doubted him. “That’s not what I meant. I was talking about … before. Jumping to ourselves.” Steve let out a breath and rolled his eye at himself. He adjusted his patch and played at the strap over his eyebrow with anxiety. “I was just going to say that I think a lot more is upsetting us right now. And it’s making the memories worse.”
He looked up and nodded at her, clearly distraught. “Come here,” he said. Kayla kissed her husband sweetly, then he held her to him. They were still standing ouside of Jack’s door while the nurse at the nurse’s station politely pretended not to eavesdrop.
The conversation with Jack actually went a lot better than the one with Angelica. At first he wasn’t remotely fazed by the fact that there was now a ring on Kayla’s finger. He told her that it didn’t matter and that he’d win her affections fair and square, she’d see. Steve was about to interject, but Kayla told him no and that she would handle this. So, Steve remained standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders as Kayla sat in the chair facing Jack’s bed.
“Jack, listen to me. Some things in this world are meant to be, and some are not. Steve and me are meant to be. Your soul mate is out there. I have a feeling she’s from right here in Salem, and if you look hard enough, you’re going to find her. There are a lot of things you can find if you look hard enough and open your heart to them. You can have a wonderful life, Jack. But it’s not going to be with your ring on my finger. I won’t be sharing a life with you. I have my own life to live with Steve. Steve is not your rival; he’s more of a friend to you than you can possibly know. He and I will be your friends as you fight this disease. But we will not be anything more than that. Now you fight this, you have chemo in the morning.”
“I … I do?”
“Yep. So you go concentrate on getting better and living for that soul mate of yours. You think about her, not me. Ok?”
“But, Kayla, I lo—”
“But I don’t love you. I love Steve. And we’re getting married. I’m sorry.” Jack held up his left hand to her, but she did not take it. She’d reluctantly done so many times in the real timeline, which only encouraged him to continue his pursuit; that would not be happening in this timeline. Instead she stood up and directed her next statement to her husband. “Steve, I’m going to check on the chemo schedule with the nurse.” She gave him a knowing look that said it was ok to spend time in here with his brother.
“Sweetness, you don’t have to go,” he said very softly, and he meant it, there was nothing he needed to say that she couldn’t hear.
But Kayla laid her hand upon Steve’s chest, smiled warmly, and said, “Go on. I’ll be right outside.”
When she was gone, he took her place in the chair, and Jack scowled at him. Steve wasted no time.
“Dude, I’m not your enemy. I can be if that’s how you wanna play it. But I know how something like that turns out, and I think you’re gonna need a lot more friends than enemies pretty soon, so I wouldn’t.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jack said weakly.
“Kayla’s my wife. Don’t need a wedding to make it true, she’s my wife in here,” he tapped a curled finger to his heart. “I won’t give her up. You gotta stop pursuing her.” Jack cast a defiant eye upon the man he didn’t know was his brother and proceeded to say just the exact wrong thing in that moment.
“I can make her love me, you know.”
Now Steve’s eye darkened, and the air in the room chilled. Jack had no idea how prophetic those words were in another time. “You’re not making anyone do anything they don’t want to do. You hear me, Junior? Kayla does not love you.” Steve was seething, and Jack shrank down into his pillow just a little, his bravado having peaked and now plummeting back down “Leave her alone. Stop pursuing her,” he repeated dangerously. Jack glared at Steve with some humility. He didn’t back down, but he didn’t say no, either.
Steve stood up roughly, the chair making a rough sound as it skidded back on the floor. He exhaled loudly and looked upon the young kid that was still so innocent, and the anger drained a bit. “You’re gonna love me one day, Junior, you’ll see.” Steve patted his shoulder and got up. When he turned around he saw Kayla chatting with Mike Horton through the window. She caught his eye and clearly communicated that he needed to get her out of that. “We’ll check on you later in the week if we’re still here, dude.”
“If you’re still here? Where are you going?”
Steve chuckled. “Honeymoon.” Then he left, collected his wife, and headed home.
Neither of them said anything as they made the short trip to his apartment to pick up a few things. Kayla noticed that he packed up his pool cue, cookbook, and shoebox of cherished items, along with the bundle of clothes, all of which she held on her lap in the passenger seat. On the way home Kayla opened the shoebox. Steve noticed her do it but didn’t stop her. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her spend time with that shoebox on these jumps. In fact, he’d seen her do it at home since his return, too.
“What is it about that thing that fascinates you so much?” he asked her. Kayla ran her fingers lovingly along the burned train car, then moved on reverently to the Polaroid photo that had been taken of them so many years ago. “It’s you. These things have always been precious to you, so they’re precious to me, too.”
“Baby.” He caressed her cheek with his right hand as he steered with his left.
“I kept it all those years.”
Steve thought for a moment. “I thought you said you got rid of all the things that reminded you of me.”
Kayla nodded. “I did. Most things. Not this, though. Never this. I couldn’t bear it. I’d go to the box and open it so carefully, I didn’t want it to get worn. And I’d take out each of these things and just hold them. Especially your patch. And this picture of us.”
“This patch?” he flicked it with his nail.
Kayla smiled up at him and got very quiet. “Actually, no, the other one. That one I …”
Steve glanced over at her. “This one you what? Don’t say you buried me with it, we both know that didn’t happen.”
“I kept it under my pillow.” Steve’s heart silently broke for his wife. “There were months on end I wouldn’t touch it other than to change the sheets, but it was always there. Once I … got hold of myself … when Shane broke up with me and I left for LA … I always—kept it—there with me.
Steve couldn’t say anything. Kayla closed up the box and took his hand while she watched him fight the lump in his throat.
They pulled up to the loft, but neither of them got out of the car. They just sat there staring out the front window. Eventually, Kayla said, “Is it cheating?” She was barely whispering. Steve knew she had picked up where they left off before Angelica’s phone call. They were still holding hands.
“I don’t know,” he said. Kayla felt his pulse quicken. “How will you feel if that happens? If I’m with you before you get there?”
I’ll be devastated,” she said. Steve swallowed hard. “What about you? Will you be jealous?”
Steve shot her a look. “I’m already jealous, Sweetness.” Then he turned to her and answered her first question. “I don’t think it’s cheating. I think it’s survival.”
Kayla reached up slid her finger down Steve’s patch and shrugged in resignation. “I love you.”
Then Steve replied very quietly, “I want to get married.” Kayla perked up slightly as an idea occurred to her. “Is there a reason to wait?” Kayla shook her head, and a smile played at the corners of her mouth.
“Nope. I have one of these,” she held up the back of her hand,” so I think we are good to go.” Then she laughed. “Well, that’s it, we’re definitely not staying here too long. Every time we plan to get married we jump. Remember the courthouse a while back, we were just gonna go quick? Then back at the dinner table. Now that we’re planning it again, I think this jump is doomed!”
“You always manage to find something to be hopeful about, baby. How do you do that?” He leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. “Let’s see if we’re here next week, then make plans if we are.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said. “Who knows, maybe it’ll be just like 1979 and we’ll be here for another four or five months.”
“At least we’re both here.” Not ten mintues later they were both out like lights,
Now back in bed with Kayla after having made his call to Adrienne at the Emergency Center, Steve was out of sorts. 1987 was a complicated time with interwoven relationships all around them that they were a part of, and he wasn’t sure what to do next. He knew he had to call his mother and talk through Jack with her, because she didn’t know he knew about him yet, and she was beside herself with worry. He knew something was wrong with his sister, and then there was the fact that Harper Deveraux was a serial killer. It would be months before that came to light, and he was sure as hell not going to wait to pull the trigger on exposing him. Only he knew when he did that Jack was going to be shattered that the only father he’d ever known was being accused of such a heinous thing, and there was no guarantee that it could be proven at this point. He also remembered that he was being nagged to help the ISA, and there was no way in hell that was happening for more reasons than one. Steve shook that away and turned to Kayla in bed beside him. It was after 9:00 AM, and sleeping in this late was very unlike her. A moment of panic came over him that maybe she wasn’t in there anymore. But then he knew she had to be, because he was still here, so unless she’d jumped in the last ten seconds, she was there.
They’d been there together for about 14 hours, Kayla without him for an hour longer. And already they’d changed the entire course of their lives and Jack’s. They’d showered, eaten, been in the car, slept. Made love.
They had kicked off the comforter in the August night, and now the sheet lay bunched up at their knees. Steve saw the evidence of last night’s lovemaking as the morning sun washed over Kayla’s fair skin. She had two slightly curved bruise lines opposite each other on her neck where it met her shoulder. He traced a gentle finger over each horizontal, magenta bruise where his teeth had bitten her in a carnal, possessive need that had driven him mad. “Took you kind of rough last night, huh?” Steve whispered. He hardened with the memory and tucked her hair behind her ear. “We were on fire, baby.” He looked, again, upon them and knew he had to put his lips on them. “I just love you so much.” The look on his face was so gentle and loving. He pressed his body up against hers and lowered his soft lips to the bruises. He kissed the spot on her neck gently, then blew on it. “I just want to love you, Sweetness.” Kayla stirred at the sound of the name meant only for her being whispered into her neck. “I only want to love you.” Steve felt her stir and bent his head to kiss her. Her sleepy lips responded by kissing him back.
Kayla felt Steve’s loving lips and firm body, and it gave her immense security in his presence. She didn’t wake up confused or upset, she greeted this morning in the arms of her husband and felt overwhelming safety and trust in them. Despite the conclusions they came to last night, and knowing that they could jump in a second or in a month, Kayla felt such a sense of contentment in Steve’s arms. When Kayla opened her eyes and greeted her husband’s for the first time that morning, his gaze was mesmerizing.
“I don’t want to think about what if’s, Sweetness,” he said, cutting right through Kayla’s morning fog. He realized that he’d been waiting all night and morning to say this to her, even if he didn’t know it until this moment. “It will eat me up if I think about it too much.” Kayla nodded and touched the pads of her fingers to his tattoo. “I love you, Kayla.” He ran his warm palm over her bare breasts and belly. “I trust you.” Kayla reached up to touch his face. “I need you.”
Like so many times before this, without the need for words, Kayla positioned herself just right, and Steve gently slipped inside her warm home. They each gasped softly with the joining and didn’t move for a moment, holding each other’s gaze.
“I love you so much, Steve,” she whispered. “I love you so much.”
Steve enveloped her in his embrace as she enveloped him inside her. Then they began moving together in perfect unison. She rolled her hips into his thrusts, as he trailed wet kisses down her neck to her clavicle. But he couldn’t look away from her eyes for too long. He didn’t want to blink or miss any moments looking into her eyes while he moved within her. The connection was so intimate, so healing from the previous night’s revelations. Kayla saw the look of steadfast devotion in her husband’s eye as she glided her slick sheath over him. She felt him hold her so tightly and wanted to stay there in his arms forever.
“Sweetness,” he whispered before kissing her again. This time he couldn’t leave her lips. His tongue demanded entrance, and she welcomed it with hers. They both started to moan as the heat started driving Kayla into faster motions. Steve moaned into their continued kisses, and he knew he would not last much longer. They finally broke the kiss and Kayla buried her face into Steve’s neck. She inhaled his scent and sighed with how good he felt. Steve loved it when she did that, and could feel how loved she felt whenever she did. That she just did it while he was inside her made his heart burst. The same heart that broke last night when she told him that she used to keep his patch under her pillow now felt healed and whole with how much the act of feeling him so intimately against her made her feel so loved. It wasn’t anything he even recognized with that level of understanding, he just knew that when she bonded with him like that it was breathtaking.
They never let go of each other. They didn’t change position or speak anything but declarations of love. And as Steve felt the very outside edge of his climax begin, he gripped his wife’s hand, cried out her name, and poured his seed into her with every bit of love he’d ever had for her. Kayla stroked his thigh and kissed him lovingly as he pulsed his white essence inside of her, urging her toward her own pleasure. Nearing the end of his orgasm, Kayla whimpered, and Steve knew his wife would finally join him. She looked him in the eye with coital need, then finally released intensely. Her orgasm set off one final, powerful stream from him, and Kayla felt his seed hot inside of her while she continued to tremble her climax.
“I love you,” he whispered after her womb contracted and made her shake. “I love you,” he said when she jerked in his arms again. Kayla’s muscles clasped her huband’s sated penis over and over again, and with every single one, Steve told her he loved her. Until finally, there was nothing left inside of Steve to give her, and there were no tremors left within Kayla.
They held each other a little more loosely as they caught their breath, their recovery blooming in their bellies, but they never broke eye contact. “That was beautiful,” Kayla murmured in the quiet room. “That was so beautiful, Steve.”
He stroked the hair back off her face. “I couldn’t help myself, I had to feel you in my arms. Make love to you.”
“I’m glad you did.” Then she purred contentedly and burrowed her face into his chest. The sound of her contentment as he felt her soft cheek against his tattoo made him so happy.
“I love when you do that, Sweetness.”
“What, this?” she asked repeating the action, unconsciously inhaling, but sighing just the same.
“Yeah, baby, that. When you burrow into me like that. Makes me feel good.”
Kayla cooed. “Makes me feel good, too.”
“So, is that how you’re feeling now, baby? You feel good?”
“Loved. I feel so loved, Steve.”
Steve turned on his side to face her. “You’re the only person I ever let myself need, Kayla. I told Mama that once, back the first time we did this. But it’s still true. You’re the only person in my whole life, baby, that I’ve ever let myself need love from.”
Kayla touched her fingers to his lips and he puckered gently to kiss them. “And Stephanie and Joey.”
Steve nodded. “They’re part of you. Part of us. People we made … because we love each other. I need them in a whole different way.”
Kayla asked the next question with a sincerity that she rarely spoke with. “Do you think we’ll ever see our children again, Steve?” She meant back at home in 2009, not on a jump, and he knew it.
Steve paused, but then nodded. “Yes. I do. Because if I didn’t believe that, then I really would lose my mind. We’re not losing our kids, Sweetness. They’re home in our real time, waiting for us. We’re gonna get back there and be their mama and papa.” Kayla blinked in the silence. “We are,” he repeated, this time in a whisper.
They kissed and held each other for a little while longer, then they got up for the day and got down to the now very familiar business of figuring out what they should be doing. That they were going to have to do. But this time neither of them were very keen on figuring out where everbody was. Right now they just wanted to lay low and decided that if they were here in another week that they’d start paying more attention.
They spent the entire rest of their day deciding how to spend just this week while being on high alert for the jump. Kayla checked her schedule at the Emergency Center and found that she was to work most days next week, including tomorrow, which was Saturday, but then she’d be off on Sunday. Adrienne asked her how she was feeling, and she played her role well saying she was just coming down with a little bug but she’d be fine. They talked through what Steve would do while Kayla was at the Emergency Center. He really wanted to go with her and play the same role he had on an earlier jump, but that was Adrienne’s job now, and he didn’t want to take that away from her. So, he decided he’d spend some time with his mother instead. Kayla was happy about this, she knew how much he’d wanted to find her in 1979 but chose not to. This would be good for him.
Right as Steve’s stomach was starting to get hungry for dinner, Kayla got a smile on her face. Steve looked at her like she was a little devil. “What are you thinking, Sweetness?” he asked.
“Well, it’s a surprise. But I want you to do something.”
Steve’s eyebrow raised. “Baby, whatever it is you want me to do to you, I promise you won’t be sorry.”
Kayla folded her arms in mock offense. “Not everything is about sex, Steve.”
“Aw, Sweetness, come on, the mystery is makin’ me all tingly now.”
“Patience,” she said with a sparkle in her eye. Now, come with me.”
Kayla took Steve upstairs and handed him the nice outfit he’d bought in Washington that he’d worn last night and told him to put it on. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but complied without too many questions. “Baby, this double-breasted thing is awful, do I really have to wear this?”
“Yes, you were very proud of it last night.”
“Last night I didn’t know any better.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you looked very handsome.” Then she told him to leave the loft and stand outside the door until she opened it for him. Now he looked at her funny.
“What? Baby, come on, I don’t wanna leave the house.”
“Yes you do. Trust me.”
“Ok, ok.” He knew that clearly this was some kind of date, so he shut up and did what she asked. He opened the door twice to ask when she was coming down in the ten minutes he was out there waiting, and on his 2nd one she told him that if there was a third he’d be sleeping there.
When she finally slid open the door, Steve was stunned. Slowly a smile crept across his face, and he knew what she was doing. Kayla was wearing the dress that had lived on in his mind for so many years that he’d never seen again until he spotted it on the floor last night while they were arguing. She held her hand up to him and showed him that her finger was now bare of his ring. She then took the ring box and put it into his jacket pocket.
“Steve,” she said softly. “Come in.”
“Oh, Sweetness.” He cupped her face in his hand and loved her so much for what she was doing. He walked in, she shut the door behind him, and then she went to him and laid her head upon his chest.
“I want you to have this as much as I want to have it myself.”
Steve nodded. “So, what happened next?”
“You said you were going to see Harper, but I convinced you to stay. Then you said the most beautiful words to me. You’d said them before, too, but now it was different. You said that you didn’t have the words to tell me how much you love me.”
“It’s true, Kayla. I still don’t have the right words. Then what?”
“I think you can take it from here.”
A charge ran through Steve, and he felt a sudden need to do exactly that. Without blinking an eye, Steve took her by the hand and led her up the staircase. “Is this what I did?”
“We kissed a few times, but yes.”
Steve stopped halfway up the stairs and kissed her passionately. Her hair was rolled just like it had been that night, though not quite as expertly as she’d once had the mastery for. All he knew was that she was beautiful.
The night was beautiful, and the stars shone just as brightly as they had yesterday. Steve brought her to the spot they’d first made love, and Kayla didn’t have to nod for him to know he was spot on. Only he wasn’t trying to repeat last night’s actions, he was making his own. And because they were from the very same heart, they were almost exactly the same. Kayla noted this with a wonder that took her breath.
“Sweetness, you’re so beautiful.” He took her hands and held them in his. “You taught me what love is. I never had real love until there was you. When he got down one knee this time, a tear descended with him. “God, baby.” Kayla was crying, too. He put her palm to his lips, then layed his cheek in it so that he was holding it to his cheek. Kayla waited patiently, and Steve took the ring out of his pocket. “I don’t want to spend another day in this time or any other time without you. I love you so much my heart hurts when it’s not beating next to yours.” He didn’t know why he was so nervous, he’d already proposed to her other times, and they were already married. But something in him trembled with the knowledge that this was the road not taken that should have been. When he next spoke, his voice betrayed him, and his voice broke. “Kayla Caroline Brady, will you marry me?”
Kayla cried, exactly as she’d done last night, the feelings no less intense within her.
“I don’t mean to rush you, here, baby, but please tell me what you said next.”
Kayla let out a gleeful laugh. “Yes! I said, ‘yes, Steve, yes, I’ll marry you!’” Then Kayla dropped to her knees and held his face in her hands as she’d done last night. “’Every day,’ I said. ‘Every day, any day, in any time.’”
“You said any time?”
Kayla giggled euphorically then kissed him. “Yes, I did.” Steve chuckled back and took the ring out of the box. “Go ahead,” she encouraged. So, he slipped the ring on her finger.
“I do, Kayla.”
She smiled and wiped her tears. “I do, too.”
They kissed as they had last night, and the passion ignited them both. They caressed and whispered their love, and Kayla told him that this memory was now theirs together. Steve held her so close.
“Thank you, Sweetness. Thank you for giving this to me.”
“You did the same for me … sang me The Rose. Danced with me in your bedroom.”
“Somehow this seems a little bigger.” He stroked the back of his hand down her face, then he gave her a crooked smile. “Baby … did we start making love up here?”
“No, just downstairs. Why?”
“Well … I had planned for us to make love up here like we did for our first time. Ya know, hoping you’d say yes first.”
Kayla grinned. “You knew I was going to say yes.”
“Baby, of course, I knew. I was still terrified.”
“Well, we never got the chance to do that up here, because the pork chops started burning and we had to go save the building from going up in flame.”
Now a very naughty smile broke out on Steve’s face. Kayla felt that smile in the pit of her belly as it began tingling with arousal. She unbuttoned Steve’s jacket and undid his tie. “Mr. Johnson, are you about to make a whole new memory with me?”
“That’s the plan, baby. Now if you don’t mind Nurse Brady, I’d like to make love to my fiancée now.”
She didn’t mind a bit.