As the days went by, Steve worked each day with half his attention on waiting for the jump. Filet a halibut, devein some shrimp, count out the drawer, wait for the tug. Kayla did the same, sure that as she studied microbiology with David by morning and handled cash, checks, and MasterCharge cards in the afternoons that she’d be feeling the telltale pull at her diaphragm any minute. They’d accomplished so much here. They found a calm. They weren’t able to live publicly as husband and wife, but they were able to love each other openly without hiding or pretending that they meant anything less to each other than they really did. It became apparent very quickly to everyone in the house that Kayla was in love with Steve and that he loved her just as much, and that was ok with everyone involved. It should have been a strange sort of existence, but the late ‘70’s grew on Steve and Kayla like a warm blanket that enveloped them in safety, familiarity, and simplicity. They probably could have found what this time gave them in any number of other destinations, but this was the one they were in, and it felt good. It felt so good. Life was kind to them. Love was all around them. And the wounds of Alamain’s boat, the pier, killing his father, Stefano’s prison, and the turmoil of their emotional separation healed. Scars would remain, but like all wounds, time – in this easy and comfortable year – did heal them.
They’d been to the house several times since Steve had bought them the car, and they’d made love in almost every room. They laughed remembering how they’d done that the same thing the first time, then went ahead and did it again. Over and over, they satiated their every sexual desire. Every emotional bond they sought they achieved. They screamed their ecstasy and sashayed around naked and explored every inch of each other’s young bodies in almost every room of their home. It had been weeks, and the basics were the same: Kayla felt like Kayla in Steve’s arms; Steve felt like the man she’d know anywhere when she made love to him. But neither of them could get over their awe. It was such an impossible paradox, being with each other like this, at this age. More than once they’d debated whether it was a gift or a curse.
“Both, I think,” Kayla had said as she traced a lazy finger across Steve’s sculpted abs. They were feeling sleepy while recovering from the orgasms that had just overcome them moments ago as they picked up the conversation where it had left off before she had taken his hardened flesh inside of her. “They took us away from our family – our children. But they gave us these opportunities that have been miracles.”
“And nightmares,” Steve added softly.
Kayla held him closer as she brushed her lips gently across the chest her cheek was laying upon. “That, too,” she said. Then she asked solemnly the question she’d been asking herself for weeks. “Were the nightmares worth it for the miracles?”
Steve was silent for a long time. Then he said in a somber voice to match his wife’s, “I don’t know. Laying here with you in our house right now, being given your virginity, being part of your family like I am now, knowing how it could have been … I feel like it was. But remembering the hell before that … Kayla, I don’t think if I put the big picture together that I would say the same thing. The feelings I had on that pier I never want to have again. The feeling in my heart as I pulled that trigger and killed Duke …”
“Steve, shh,” Kayla soothed while continuing to lay her head upon his chest.
“Waking up dead. Thinking you were dead.”
She kissed the memory of his nightmares into submission and willed her own to stay at bay, as well.
They snuggled silently for several more minutes before Steve spoke again. “Do you think he’s walking yet?”
Kayla felt her eyes instantly mist over and let the tears come. “Cruising.”
“That’s when they hold on to couches and walls as they toddle around?” Kayla nodded. “I’m missing it again.” It was one of the few times they let the circumstances of their existence here in this happy place settle the sadness upon them. They both wept, missing both of their children so much. “I miss my baby boy, Sweetness,” Steve cried into the back of Kayla’s neck as he held her to him. “He’s out there without a papa, just like I did to Stephanie.”
Kayla wanted to say for the hundredth time that he didn’t do anything and that his absence was done to him, but she let him have his say. When they went back to their separate beds in their separate bedrooms that night, neither of them slept particularly well.
But most of the time, life in 1979 was as close to blissful as they had yet come to since their jumps began. Brady family dinners were filled with laughter, secret visits to their home were heavenly, and both school and work filled their days with some kind of meaning. They knew it was all for nothing and that when they left this jump the whole thing would cease to exist for them, but having meaning while they were here was important to both of them. So they lived in the moment and did so genuinely. They were so content here, so happy that they both dreaded the jump they knew was coming.
Only it didn’t come.
Days turned to weeks, and by the time their second month had come and gone they’d fallen into a very comfortable routine. Kayla loved working at the car lot. Not exactly the best fit for the surgical skills that pumped through her veins, but the simplicity of her job and the happiness around her was contagious. People paying for a car generally did so with smiles on their faces. For many it was their first car, and the excitement that came with that made Kayla smile every time. The Gold family was very good to Kayla, and they were very good people, too. Manny’s prices were fair, and more times than she could count, now, Kayla had seen him take so little profit off a car that he could see someone truly needed that it made her heart weep a little. On slow days David would hang out behind the cashier’s window and study with his partner, and on the busy ones he’d help his father in the lot. Sometimes Steve would stop by during a delivery and loiter.
“Mr. Johnson. Does this look like the Emergency Center to you? Do you see sick people outside my window, here?” she teased him one day when he showed up for the second time that week.
“Why, Nurse Brady, you expectin’ some?”
“As a matter of fact, I’m not, no,” she smiled. “There are no patients here waiting for arms to reset or chicken pox to be diagnosed, and there are no hypochondriacs for you to tease.”
“Aw, baby, maybe I can be your hypochondriac for a change.”
Kayla giggled. “Well then who’s going to do the harassing if you’re the prospective patient?”
“I’m going to do zee harassing if he doesn’t get his tuchus out of my lot,” Manny admonished with a smile that told them how he really felt about them.”
Steve let out a huge laugh, stole a kiss from his wife, and headed back to the fish market. When he was gone Manny looked at the lingering smile on Kayla’s face and gave her a smile of his own. When she blushed Manny said, “I sink you should marry him.”
“Yeah, what makes you say that, Mr. Gold?”
“Because love like zat only happens vonce in your life, zat’s vhy.”
Kayla smiled knowingly. “You’re a very wise man. I think I will do just that. Do you Yenta with everyone or just me?” Manny looked upon her with shock that she would use the Yiddish term properly, and Kayla chuckled. “Hey, I’ve seen Fiddler enough to know what that means.”
“Vell, I shouldn’t be surprised, smart girl like you. Alright already, enough viss ze yakking.”
That was the kind of place Gold’s Premiere Used Cars was. Happy, kind, and easy.
Not so kind and easy were the conversations she had with Kimberly and Roman on two separate occasions about a week apart from each other. She was shocked at just how little they’d chosen to communicate. She knew why Kimberly had become distant, and it was so very hard for her to not bring it up and try to get her sister home. Now that Steve was an integral part of the fish market, Kayla understood on a much more realistic level just how dire the business finances had become, and they really, really needed her back home to help.
It was wonderful talking to her sister, though, such a close relationship they’d had all those years ago. But Kayla knew the pain that Kimberly was trying to hide from. The molestation by their uncle Eric had damaged Kimberly so much that she’d become a prostitute and was living as one right now as they spoke. A few times Kayla tried to out her knowledge of this to Kimberly in an ill-thought-out attempt to force her to acknowledge it; as if that might make her say, ok, I’ll come home. But ultimately, Kayla wasn’t really sure how to say it and just pretended that she had no idea Kim was lying through her teeth about photography sustaining her.
Roman was a different story. Kayla hadn’t seen Roman in some time, and this version of him whose voice rang of sadness and emptiness was not someone she remembered well. Apparently, Anna’s supposed death had only happened relatively recently, and he was still grieving. It was interesting just how much Marlena had given him to live for. Kayla really felt that if Stefano hadn’t meddled so deeply in their lives that Roman and Marlena would be together to this very day. She wasn’t sure where John would be, and she loved him, too. But she was sure that without having bonded with John, Marlena would never have fallen out of love with Roman. She couldn’t help but wonder somewhere in the back of her head as she talked with Roman if this timeline would continue the same way once they jumped away from it or if it would stop and where that would leave him, Marlena, Carrie, and the rest of them.
It was also very awkward talking with both of them, their disembodied voices tinny over the long distance lines giving her few cues to help her along. Both of these conversations happened on separate Saturdays at her grandmother’s house while Steve was back home with Bo manning the fish market. Telling him about them later gave Steve a faraway look that she knew all too well. He wanted very much to reach out to his mother. Adrienne would be a teenager right about now, and his mother would be enjoying daily beatings with Duke. It was a night they couldn’t get to the house, and they were sitting on Steve’s bed studying the list that Kayla now had fully memorized. She reached a hand out to his and squeezed.
“Do you want to call her?” Steve took a breath and looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t see a reason why you can’t, really. If you want to … if you miss them …”
“And what would I say, baby?” Steve asked gently. She could tell he was resigned to not connecting with them; it was not a voice trying to convince himself. “I’d have to explain how I’d found them and how I knew about Adrienne. Make something up that would, ya know, make sense. I’d have to deal with that animal. She wasn’t ready to leave him back then, anyway.”
Kayla wanted to push a little farther. She knew that he wanted to see his mother and sister, but whatever was holding him back was something she was willing to sit on for a little while longer. Considering how long they’d been there, she wasn’t so sure they would be jumping anytime soon, anyway. Or maybe even at all.
On March 2nd, Steve turned 24 years old. Again. That Friday night dinner was truly spectacular and dedicated to celebrating his birthday. A complete surprise, Steve was a bit overcome. Kayla smiled with glee as they all yelled “surprise!” when he’d come up the stairs after his very busy day in the market, Shawn having silently followed behind him up the stairs. Dinner was delicious. No meat, as it was Friday during lent, after all, but the full on Italian meal starring a lasagna to rival that of any so-called celebrity chef of the 21st century was a thing to behold. Caroline also baked a carrot cake with the most delicious icing Steve had ever tasted. There were 24 little carrots iced on top and 24 actual candles lining the perimeter, plus a 25th in the center that Caroline insisted on, because you always needed one to grow on. Steve was expected to blow out every one of them in one breath, and he didn’t disappoint. Caroline reminded him to make a wish, and when he did, no one asked him what he wished for. The look on his face was evidence enough that there was something very serious on his mind that had manifested itself within that wish. Kayla was the only one who knew what that wish was – to go home – but they didn’t need to know it to know that whatever it was, he wanted it very badly. The seriousness of the moment passed quickly, and smiles and laughter filled the room once again.
Steve was floored when he saw four gifts sitting on his place setting at the dinner table after they’d cleaned up the dishes.
“Presents?” he asked incredulously. This was a big deal; none of them had much money to burn. And they’d chosen to spend some of the precious amounts of it on him.
“Of course there’s presents,” Kayla laughed. “Everybody deserves presents on their birthday!” The infectious excitement in her voice made Steve giddy. Just then Shawn caught his eye. The look on his face was one that couldn’t be described, but Steve knew what was going through the man’s head. That this was something Steve didn’t have a lot of, or maybe any of, prior to this birthday. Growing up without parents, not having a family to love you and give you the special attention that tacitly came with that one day of the year that you came into the world. And Shawn was right. Steve had precious few celebrations like this, as his years with Kayla were truly few. Steve returned Shawn’s look with acknowledgment and gratitude, and the older man nodded back to him.
Steve unwrapped his gifts with genuine happiness, and Caroline snapped a couple photos. Kayla looked up as the anachronistic sound of the square flash bulb going off atop the small 110 camera gave her chills. No one had taken their photo since they’d begun jumping. Steve felt it, too. The moment of significance in having their picture taken here in this time struck them both. Then it passed quickly.
Bo gave Steve the Blues Brothers soundtrack … on vinyl … (oh, how Steve wished he could take that with him to the next jump), Caroline gave him a tin of cookies she’d made the night before, and Kayla gave him a beautiful harmonica that she’d gotten from the small music store in the town square. It was inscribed – he had no idea how she’d pulled it off, but in flourished script were five simple words. We’ll always find each other. Steve was a bit self-conscious when he felt his eyes water, but he managed to look up at her. He held the harmonica to his heart and nodded at her as a smile played on his lips. Then in front of all three of the Bradys, Steve whispered very quietly to her, “I love you.”
It was the first time any of them had heard him say it out loud, and the hush that fell upon the room with his bold profession was broken when Caroline dropped her head in her hands and cried in bittersweet happiness. Her little girl was all grown up and loved by a man who was man enough to say so in front of the people he knew would judge him most.
“I love you, too,” Kayla replied with dry eyes and a smile that lit up the room. Then she leaned over and kissed him chastely on the lips. “Happy Birthday, Steve. After all, it’s not every day you turn 24.” With that Steve let out a guffaw that no one in the room but his wife understood, and the moment lightened.
When Steve opened Shawn’s gift, however, it was hard to keep from feeling more depth of emotion. Shawn had gotten Steve a book of Gaelic poems called, “When Water Runs Thick.” The title poem was about an older boy adopted into a family of six children that clearly didn’t need yet one more mouth to feed, yet took in the child anyway, loved it as their very own, and thrived forevermore. It was an old book, the front was tattered, but the gold leaf lettering was crisp. Shawn had picked it up at a used bookstore. It was one of the most meaningful things he’d ever been given. Steve went to shake Shawn’s hand in thanks for the beautiful gift, but rather than meet the boy’s hand in his, Shawn pulled him into an embrace and simply said, “Happy birthday to ye, son.”
Steve and Kayla had understood for months now that their emotions were much harder to control on these jumps than they’d ever experienced. They didn’t know if it was a side effect of their jumps or if it was just their psyches finding a way to cope, but that night was no different for them. The poignancy of the evening, Kayla’s gift, the statement of her father’s book, and Steve saying “I love you” in front of her parents for the first time made the tears leak from his eyes. Their conversation was very introspective that night. They weren’t able to get to their house this time, but they spent hours talking, laying together in bed, and being with each other. Turning 24 for the second time wasn’t just better this time around, it was the best birthday he’d ever had.
Kayla turned 19 five days later, and the celebration happened all over again. This time the meal was classic Irish, the cake was chocolate, the icing was chocolate, and the ice cream was … Neapolitan. Steve had picked up her gift on a whim actually even before his own surprise party the week before. He was making a delivery and saw a display of stuffed cows in a toy boutique’s window and knew he’d be buying one for her. And that’s exactly what he did. This one did not moo, but the meaning behind it was not lost on her, and she could not have been any happier when he gave it to her. Her parent’s didn’t really get it, of course, and Bo thought it was weird. Kayla, however, was beaming. She brought it with them to the house that night, where Steve made love to her for hours in their beautiful four-poster bed. While there he played any song she requested by ear between their lovemaking while the cow sat at the foot of the bed listening along with her.
Steve loved playing the harmonica for her, but he stopped short when she asked for him to play the theme from Sesame Street.
“Say what?” he said with a look of amusement on this face.
“It was Stephanie’s favorite. She could not get enough of that Big Bird.”
“Must be a pre-requisite to being a Johnson, gotta love yellow.”
Kayla giggled. “I think it is. To this day I hear Sesame Street, and I think of her.”
So, Steve played it, and he loved seeing the smile play at her lips as he did.
“Finally in the wee hours of the morning he and Kayla went back and slept in their separate beds.
Sleeping apart, frankly, sucked. After 16 years of sleeping alone, there was nothing that made Kayla feel more secure and loved than falling asleep with the warmth of Steve’s body beside her, and waking up with that same body surrounding her. She had to admit, though, sleeping in her childhood bed in the room she grew up in was a novelty that hadn’t worn off even nearly two months into her stay. Sleeping alone wasn’t great, but being there in the first place was.
Steve didn’t like sleeping alone, either. He especially didn’t like waking up with a steel rod between his legs with the torturous sight of his wife 20 feet out of his grasp. Going to their house was a Godsend for them, and it wasn’t that they didn’t appreciate the chance to go there. But it wasn’t the same as going to bed and waking up day in and day out with your spouse beside you where they belonged.
One Sunday in April on the way home from church Steve threw out an idea that had been in his head ever since Kayla joked about it weeks earlier. “Mr. and Mrs. Brady, when was the last time you took a vacation?”
Caroline chuckled. “No rest for the weary, Steve,” she said and the actual weariness in her voice was not made up. “It’s been hard since the kids ran off to Europe, no one to watch the market.”
Bo had been dozing in the back seat but now lifted his head in a bit of a stupor and said, “What about the Grand Canyon?”
“That was almost ten years ago, Bo,” Caroline chuckled, “go back to sleep.” Then she sighed. “It really has been a while.”
“Well … now that you have me there to help, maybe you two should go somewhere.”
Shawn stopped at the red light just a little too hard as he plowed his foot down on the brake. They all jerked forward slightly, and he and his wife looked at each other like someone had just given them the secret to the lost city of Atlantis.
“I-I-I don’t think we could both get away like that, we can barely get to my mother-in-law’s house every Saturday.”
Steve didn’t want to push so hard that it seemed like he was desperate to get rid of them, which he was, so he just let the seed take root and said, “Oh, ok. Well, if you change your mind, now that Bo is back and I’m working the fish market, seems you’d be covered.”
Kayla carefully stayed neutral, Bo snored as his head tipped back against the back seat, and Steve looked out the window pretending to watch the world go by as he silently squeezed Kayla’s hand. Two full minutes passed.
“Who would make the chowder?” Caroline asked out of nowhere, the conversation clearly continuing to go on in her head during the time they’d all quieted.
“The chowder?” Steve asked. “When?”
“If we went on vacation? Who would make the chowder every day?”
Steve fought control the smile that wanted to badly to spread across his face. That was some seed. “Doesn’t Kayla know how to make it?” He knew she did.
“She’s got school.”
“It’s just the chowder.” Kayla couldn’t stay silent. “I can make it and go to class if you want to have a vacation, it’s ok with me. Not like I’m going anywhere,” she added for good measure, but it sounded a little odd in this context, so she hoped they’d just gloss over it.
“There’s … dishes …”
“Dishes?” Steve thought that was a very odd worry and was really struck by how hard they really had worked for so long. Everything that got done in that market was a result of just the two of them and sometimes Kayla before he’d come along. What had once been a family business with six helping hands had dwindled to two full timers and the occasional hand of a third. They were exhausted and didn’t know how to get unexhausted. Even if they could find the money, which they really didn’t have, they had no resources to rely on. A vacation was, pure and simple, never an option.
“What about the other food on the menu?”
This was actually something neither Steve nor Kayla really wanted to do, kitchen duty. But for guaranteed time alone with his wife, he’d do it.
“I’ve made dinner twice a week in this house for a month, Mrs. Brady, and the only thing on that menu I can’t make is the chowder.”
“But I can,” Kayla chirped.
Bo was snoring loudly, completely oblivious.
“You could even make the chowder ahead of time and freeze it,” Steve offered.
Caroline gasped. “Absolutely not!”
Kayla closed her eyes and took a deep breath. That was not a suggestion that went over well in the time of the Obama administration, let alone the Carter. “Mom, I can make it,” she smoothed over quickly.
“But Easter is next week … and the receipts … who will make dinner?”
Did he not just point out that he’d been making dinner? Steve laughed and tried hard not to sound as annoyed as he was truly feeling. “You’re right, nevermind, that’s a lot of work. I’d be happy to do it, though, I am living here. I already do my own laundry, Kayla and Bo can handle the receipts—“
“The lad does just fine with the drawer, Caroline,” Shawn finally piped in after having been very quiet since the word “vacation” had first been uttered. He’d already made up his mind without having spoken a word. Shawn believed that God brought you challenges and rewards, and this was the latter the minute he heard the idea come out of the boy’s mouth.
Caroline wrung her hands in her seat, the idea of getting away both exhilarating and terrifying to her. Shawn, however, had a gleam in his bright blue eyes. Steve saw that the seed had not only grown but had fully broken ground. The conversation was now over, and Steve and Kayla now just laid low to wait for it to truly bloom.
One week later on the Monday after the best Easter Sunday dinner Steve and Kayla had ever shared together – ever in their whole lives – Shawn and Caroline left for the first vacation they’d taken alone together in not just years but decades. They knew they were leaving their hormonal daughter alone with a man that was obviously not just holding her hand in the movie theatre on the dates he took her on at night, and Caroline was more hesitant about that factor than her husband was. But they knew he loved her. And there was something about Steve that Shawn couldn’t but his finger on. Something that instilled a borderline irrational trust in him. He knew to the bottom of his stomach that Steve was there to do right by all of them and nothing less. And the fact was that Shawn needed this break. He needed it more than he’d needed anything in his whole life. The man was bone tired, so was Caroline. Steve gave them an opportunity and Shawn insisted they take it. Not that it was going to be anything fancy. A week in Eagle River, Wisconsin. Shawn’s brother, Eric, owned a cabin on the lake, so their only expenses were going to be gas money and food. Caroline forbade her husband to fish while he was there (“we’re not leaving the fish market so you can go out and fish some more!”), and that was fine with him.
It wasn’t quite as fine with Bo at first, because that meant he was going to be stuck doing the fishing half the time. Nothing said long day like waking up at 3am to go fishing on the river. But when the reality of his parents being gone really hit him, he changed his tune. A solid week? Over Spring Break, no less? Really? Yep, that was perfectly fine with Bo. The first thing he did was arrange for Ted and Bart to come over and party, which Steve put the kibosh on like he was the dad. He hated feeling like a parent in his relationship with Bo, it felt wrong and annoyed him. But there was no way in hell he was going to let Bo party when Shawn was trusting all three of them.
“Steve, you really are acting like a sh*thead, man! Come on, stop acting like my chaperone all the time!”
“I’m not, Bo, you’re just being an idiot!”
“When did you become the grown up?” Bo volleyed back making air quotes around “grown up.” “No one said you’re in charge of the house, just the market. So, don’t tell me who I can and can’t have over in the house minding our own business or I’ll start telling you who you can and can’t sleep with in my brother’s bed at night, which I know you’re dyin’ to do the minute they walk out that door.”
Bo had him there, and Steve rubbed the back of his head in frustration. “How many people you tryin’ to have over?”
“Just the guys, man, come on.”
It was Spring Break, and so there was no school to contend with, Steve relented, and the very night that their parents walked out the door, Ted and Bart walked in it and proceeded to get very, very drunk with their friend. Ted tried hitting on Kayla as she prepared the chowder for the following morning (what Caroline didn’t know about what may or may not be stored in a freezer wouldn’t hurt her) while Steve was in the living room having a beer with Bo and Bart.
“Y’know wha’you are, Kayra,” Ted slurred.
Kayla rolled her eyes as she eyed him over the huge stockpot. “I’m sure you’re about to tell me.”
“You’re a hot little piece o’vass, mama.”
“Am I now?” she said with utter boredom.
“Wanna suck my dick?” he asked as if it were a random inquiry into what time it was.
“Ah, no, actually,” she said.
“Aw, c’mon, pure protein.”
“Not going to happen, now get out of my kitchen.”
“Will y’go t’prom wih me?” He made a lewd gesture with his hand then narrowed his eyes that immediately made Kayla see Jack standing in front of her. She shook her head clear of the image and said “I’m old enough to be your mother, you idiot, now OUT!”
“Come on, why won’ you suck my dick?!” Ted whined like only drunk idiots can, and that’s when Steve burst in through the door and grabbed him.
“That would be because she’s already spoken for, pencil-dick,” Steve seethed, “and also because you’re a cocksucking motherf*cker.”
That was the last any of the Bradys would see Ted for the remainder of this timeline. Bo and Bart, sober enough to get how stupid a move their newly-former friend had just made, wisely took Ted home and then continued the party at the house without him.
The entire week the Brady’s were gone, Steve, Kayla, and Bo worked like fiends in the fish market. Cooking was awful, it was true. Neither of them liked it, and Bo didn’t do the kitchen. Kayla made the chowder every night, Steve stuck it in the cooler, and then she re-heated it the next day; everyone vowed silence on that one. But it was more than worth it for a sweet week straight of making love in Kayla’s bed, going to sleep in each other’s arms, and waking up the same way in the morning. They never once got to sleep in, but they did sleep, and it was together. It was heaven. Pure and utter heaven. Steve had a hard time keeping his moans to a quiet decibel level, and more than once they were sure Bo could hear them, but nothing was said the next day. One morning they overslept their alarm and Bo had to go in and wake them. It did not escape him that they were naked beneath the comforter, but to his credit, he didn’t say a word and looked at the ceiling as Kayla turned crimson and dipped under the covers.
On Thursday of that week the fish market received a most unexpected visitor. It was late afternoon, and the place was completely empty for a change. The little bell rang with the opening of the door, and Steve turned around from behind the counter. Kayla hadn’t looked up, she was inserting another paper roll into the cash register. Steve did, however, and he was thrown for a real loop.
“Sweet Thing!” Steve gasped incredulously.
“What did you just call me?” Hope looked at Steve with a mixture of disgust and attraction. He was the most handsome blonde man she’d ever seen, and she didn’t know if she should be flattered or insulted.
Kayla’s eyes shot up at the endearment Steve always used on Hope, and her eyes almost popped out of her head. She knew Hope right around this time – maybe a couple years down the road from now. Yet, she couldn’t quite remember Hope looking like this. She was so young it positively blew her away. All Kayla could do from her position behind the register was stare, which is just what Steve was doing, too.
“Uh … Noth … nothing,” Steve stammered. “Sorry, you – you’re just the sweetest thing to walk in this door today is all.”
That was when Bo walked out of the cooler. “Oh. Hi,” he smirked, clearly unimpressed.
Steve was utterly amused. “You two know each other, Beauregard?”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“We do?” Hope asked with genuine confusion. “Where?”
Bo rolled his eyes. “Typical. Rich girl walks around the hall with blinders. Kids like me are invisible, Steve, didn’t you know that?”
“We go to school together?” she asked.
“Study hall, little girl.”
Hope was fascinated. The blonde guy was handsome, but the dark-haired boy that she figured had to be a senior was drop dead gorgeous. She raised her eyebrow at him in an attempt to flirt, but Bo shook his head and crossed his arms. “Did you need something little girl?”
Hope crossed her arms with an air so arrogant that Kayla had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. “I need all the salmon you have for my father’s restaurant,” she said conceitedly. “His shipment didn’t come in and they’re in a bind.”
“Manual labor, running errands for Daddy? Didn’t know the rich girl knew how to get her hands dirty.”
Kayla looked upon all this with fascination. She wanted to hug Hope close to her and tell her everything that had happened to them. Tell her what would happen to she and Bo. But it wasn’t to be. So she remained rooted to her spot and just watched whatever would unfold like a storyline in a soap opera.
“I’m not a child,” Hope retorted. “Now do you want to sell me the salmon or should I go down to your competition?”
“Keep your pants on, Sweet Thing, I’ve got ya covered.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“Ok, little girl,” Bo muttered.
Steve handled the order while Bo clicked his tongue, rolled his eyes, and headed back to the fish market’s kitchen. When Hope left, Steve and Kayla pumped Bo with all kinds of questions about Hope and if they knew each other and suddenly Bo was wondering what was with all the questions about the bitchy rich girl. Steve and Kayla laid off, but they had to admit, it was a hell of a treat seeing Hope interact with Bo at this age. Hell, seeing Hope at all, period.
The second to last night before the Bradys were due home Steve took Kayla out for a very nice dinner before spending the entire night at their house. They had their minds on only one thing from the moment they left, mainly because Kayla had finally put on that red dress she’d found in her closet. Steve so horny he could barely keep his hands off her, and he hadn’t even started the car yet.
“Steve?” she said, low and sultry. Steve made the mistake of turning his head toward her. It was a mistake because she had very purposely pulled the skirt of her dress up over her thighs, and it was the last time ‘til the following day that his dick would be soft, which was going to make dinner at the restaurant very interesting. She kept hiking up her dress until Steve saw what she was trying to show him. When he looked back at her she was licking her lips.
“Baby, you’re not wearing any panties?!”
Kayla shook her head. “I hope you’re taking me somewhere with a pool table,” she said with the sexuality dripping from her voice.
Steve hit the brake hard, threw his wife a look, and pulled her hard toward him with his right arm. Kayla whimpered, and Steve inserted his finger inside of his wife, making her gasp.
“Ah,” she moaned. “Make me come, baby.”
“Is that what you want?” he asked lasciviously as he continued driving them toward the restaurant. “You wanna squeeze that tight p*ssy around my finger?”
“Yes! Yes, Steve!” He moved his finger back and forth inside of her while firmly rubbing her clitoris with his thumb.
Kayla’s face was contorted with anticipation when Steve slowly removed his finger. She opened her eyes and looked at him questioningly.
“Well, that’s exactly what you’re gonna do, then. But we’ve gotta eat first, baby. Big date.” Then he slowly licked his finger, and Kayla groaned. “Mm. First course.”
“You’re evil,” she said with her eyes creased to slits.
“You love me.”
Then Kayla nodded. “Forever.”
After dinner, which they ate very quickly, Steve drove them to the house. Kayla was no less aroused now than she was when they arrived at the restaurant. They were almost there when Kayla looked out all the windows, giggled like a naughty teenager, then leaned over and began teasing her driving husband’s crotch with her teeth.
“Kayla …”
“Mm?”
“Oh, baby, what are you doing?”
“Well, I guess if you don’t know then I should probably sit up and explain the mechanics of it. That way you’ll understand when my lips start sucking you long and hard.” She started to lift her head, but he gently pushed his right hand back down on her head.
“I think I get it, Sweetness. Now where were you?”
Kayla smiled up at him like a little devil. She undid the button on his pants, carefully unzipped, and released his naked penis from its tight confines as he lifted up a bit to make it easier for her. Kayla began licking immediately. She hummed around him, and he groaned trying to keep his eyes on the road. Her hair was up in a ponytail, and he wound the long, gathered tresses in his hands. The full control he had of her head and where that mouth of hers went hardened him to steel, and Kayla gasped at how aroused his reactions made her.
Kayla sucked him hard as he controlled her head with his right hand, the cum beading out of his tip in pearly white drops that Kayla licked up. Her head bobbed in his lap, and although it was dark, Steve was still thankful that high-framed SUVs and minivans weren’t much of a glimmer in 1979’s automotive eye. He tried not to thrust his shaft into his wife’s mouth, but her lips felt so good wrapped around his cock that he had a hard time controlling his hips.
“You gonna make me come, baby? Is my Sweetness hungry for a little dessert?” He was gripping her ponytail gently but firmly. Kayla answered him by swirling her tongue over the taught skin of his tip. Steve had pulled up into the long driveway of the house and parked in their usual, concealed spot near the back of the house, turned the engine off, and moaned loudly at what Kayla’s mouth was doing to his cock. “Ah … Sweetness … God, I wanna feel you, Kayla. I wanna bury my fingers in you while you suck me!” He was panting heavily as Kayla gave him a final hard suck, then released him, lifted her head and fixed him with seductive, half-lidded eyes.
It was Steve’s turn to whimper.
“Please, baby?”
Kayla slid over and leaned her back against her door, spread her legs slightly, and said, “If you want me, you’d better come get me.” Then she licked her lips, opened her door, and ran around the car to the broken window.
Steve wasted no time. He didn’t bother to hide himself or zip up, the entire back and side of the house was secluded, but he did have to hold his pants up as he ran to catch up with her. When he did she hadn’t made her way into the window yet. He grabbed her swiftly, pushed her up against the side of the house, and leaned his body heavily into hers. “You’re teasing me, Sweetness. It’s not nice to tease your husband.” He reached under her dress and felt her wetness drenching her curls.
Kayla smiled. “I think it’s very nice to tease my husband,” she cooed suggestively.
Steve lifted up the window as he reached around her and squeezed her left breast. “I don’t have a pool table on me just now, baby, but I’m still gonna f*ck your brains out, anyway.”
Kayla turned in his grasp to face him and kissed him as she lifted her leg to hook it around his thigh. “I wish you would, I don’t know what you’re waiting for.” With that she turned and climbed in the window with Steve right behind her.
They peeled off every stitch of clothing between the window and the front stairway. They never made it up the stairs, however. Desperate with the drunken sex coursing through their bodies, Steve and Kayla kissed with carnal fervor. Kayla’s legs were shaking, and Steve held her securely in his strong arms. In only seconds he’d settled her down onto a step near the first landing, unable to wait the additional moments it would take to get to their bed. Steve spread her legs open as she propped herself up on her elbows and feasted on her. He was neither gentle nor slow, and he felt himself leaking cum as he licked at her wet lips and sucked hard on her clitoris. Kayla screamed her husband’s name as her orgasm started to peak, but then he stopped and kissed slowly and wetly from her crotch straight up to her neck.
“Uh! Why did you stop?!” she moaned.
“Because I’m not done with you yet, that’s why,” he leered, biting her nipple and eliciting a yelp from her. The ecstasy on her face was tempered with desperation to come, and he couldn’t wait to make her.
“Then f*ck me!” she cried out.
“Tell me again!” His cock teased at her opening, but he hovered there without entering as he looked her right in the eyes. “Tell me! Tell me again!”
“Go on!” she glanced down at their nearly joined centers, then back up into his piercing green eyes. “F*ck me!”
Steve lifted her up with his strong arms, turned her over, and felt the unbelievable pleasure of her tightness when he sunk himself into her from behind. Kayla moaned out her sexual pleasure as he pushed himself into her to the hilt of his erection.
“Oh … god … Steve! Hard! Faster!”
Kayla on her knees a few steps above where Steve stood with his hands on her hips, he pumped into Kayla hard and fast. The sound of his balls slapping up against her ass was heady, erotic.
“So good!” Steve moaned. “So f*cking good, baby! I’m gonna f*ck you all night!”
“Promise?” Then she felt her orgasm start to crest within her. Steve read all the cues immediately, pulled out of her, and smiled when she swore.”
He flipped Kayla back over again and plunged himself right back into her. “I just wanna see your face, baby. I wanna watch this time.”
“Make me come! Don’t stop again, dammit!”
“Not this time, baby!”
Kayla screamed his name as her orgasm finally ripped through her. Steve held her as her core contracted around his throbbing penis. Then he felt his own orgasm crash through him. He poured himself into her as Kayla held his face in her hands while love and lust and pure bliss passed through him.
“Beautiful, baby. You’re so danmed beautiful, Kayla.” He went in for another tongue-filled kiss and Kayla held him tightly.
“I love you, Steve.” He was still inside her as they both let their orgasms radiate deep within them. “I love you so much.”
Steve buried his face in his wife’s neck as his penis started to soften. He pulled out of her gradually, and their orgasms leaked down onto the stairwell. After a moment, Steve started kissing her collarbone. Slowly, gently, he suckled on her delicate flesh. They didn’t engage in conversation, as this time Steve sat on the stairs and pulled his wife on top of him. He sucked her breast into his mouth and caressed the nipple of her other breast with his thumb.
“Again,” he whispered. “Take me.”
Kayla lowered herself onto her husband’s newly hardened erection and gasped, as her clitoris was still slightly stimulated.
“Not ready for me yet, Sweetness?”
“I’m always ready for you.”
“Oh, baby,” he whispered.
Kayla glided gently over his hard cock.
“Tell me you love me, Kayla.”
“I love you, Steve.”
“I love you, too, Sweetness.”
The sound of his voice telling her he loved her as he continued to stroke her already swollen clitoris made Kayla come without warning. “Steve,” Kayla whimpered out a sigh as she shuddered on top of him. It took Steve a little bit longer, but soon he came again, too.
They collapsed into their bed, their clothing forgotten a floor below them, and slept deeply for the rest of the night.
Kayla was the first to awaken in the morning before the sun was up. It was Sunday, so the market wouldn’t open until the afternoon. Steve rolled over and reached for her in his sleep, settling her into his arms. She felt his chest rise and fall beneath her cheek and closed her eyes to savor the feeling. When she opened her eyes again she turned her head to watch him sleep, and kept watching him for several minutes. He was the most beautiful man in this world. There was nothing she wouldn’t give him. Nothing she wouldn’t do for him. There was no version of him that failed to turn her on, and no matter what year it was, Steve was the first thing she thought about in the morning and last thing she thought about before she fell asleep. He’d given her two children so beautiful, so golden, that just thinking of them made her glow, too.
“I’ll always find you,” Kayla whispered so softly that it was barely audible in the silent room. “And I know you’ll always find me.”
She fell back asleep, just as the sun had begun to poke above the horizon. When she woke up, it was to the very familiar feeling of Steve’s moist lips on her breast and his tongue flicking across her nipple. No words were spoken, but Steve knew the moment she came awake and moved his mouth from her breast to her lips. His kiss was sweet and loving. Kayla moaned sleepily as his hands molded her breasts to his palms. Slowly, Steve rolled Kayla over to her belly with the length of his naked body. He parted her thighs with his knee, held one of those thighs in his strong hand while still kneading her breast with the other, and pushed himself gently into her.
This time it was Steve that gasped at the sudden sensation of being surrounded. Her warm wetness milked his erection as he thrust into her. Steve’s breaths were rapidly becoming pants, and the tingle at the base of his spine made him feel the need to come just around the bend. Kayla didn’t seem close, so he did what he could to get her there. Gently he rolled her nipple in his fingers. “Come on, baby. Come with me,” he whispered.
Kayla moaned softly. He sucked her earlobe between his lips, and she moaned a little louder.
Steve was past the point of no return and was about to come when he pressed his body against her and bit at the sensitive skin between her neck and her shoulder. Kayla cried out as he sucked hard. He knew he might be leaving a bruise, but he couldn’t help it and let himself continue to bite and lick and suck as he impaled her.
The sound of Kayla’s moan put him over the edge, and he exploded within her. Finally as the last of his seed pulsed into her, she stopped writhing beneath him for a moment. Steve smiled knowing she was about to feel the pleasure of her own climax and gently kissed the back of her neck as it coursed through her.
“How do you do that?” Kayla asked when she finally found her voice
“Do what, Sweetness?” Steve tipped her chin toward him and kissed her gently. She turned back over completely and snuggled up against him resting her chin on her hand to look at him.
“Know my body so well. Make sure I always feel so good.”
Steve chuckled. “Sometimes I miss the mark, baby.”
“Can’t think of a time.”
“The night you finally got here. You let me come but didn’t take any for yourself.”
“Hmm,” Kayla pretended to forget. “Not ringing a bell.”
“Selective memory.”
Kayla grinned and kissed his chest. Then she reached up and traced his left eyebrow with her fingertips. She looked into his eye so deeply, as if she were memorizing it.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever jump away from here. Or if we do that we’ll ever jump back to this time.” Kayla was very solemn. “But I’ve decided that this one was a gift.”
Steve looked at her for a long moment then nodded. “Ok. This one was a gift.”
Bo and Kayla worked the fish market that afternoon, and Steve took a very long nap. He had a whole week of work ahead of him, and Kayla insisted that he take a well-deserved day off. She had a wonderful time working with her brother. It was a very slow day, and the receipts were not good, but on the upside it meant that the two of them could really enjoy their time together. It really is a gift, Kayla thought to herself. This one is.
That night was the last night she and Steve would be able to sleep together at the house, as Shawn and Caroline would be returning Monday afternoon. They closed up the market, ordered in pizza for dinner, and went to bed early so that Steve could fish and they could open up in the morning. Spring Break was over, and Kayla was skipping class that day so that Steve wasn’t the only one doing all the work.
Bo sweet talked some girl on the phone that wouldn’t matter in the long run, and Steve and Kayla motioned goodnight to him as he was mid-flirt. The two of them made love quietly and sweetly, and slept as husband and wife in Steve’s bed for the last time of this very long and exhausting week. It had been worth every minute.
Kayla drifted off, and Steve followed shortly thereafter. Just before sleep took him, he glanced over at the desk where he often saw the image of Joey sleeping in the crib that was there in 2009. He told his son in his head that he loved him and hoped that Stephanie knew how much he loved her, too. Will I ever see my kids again? It was the last coherent thought he had as the lump formed in his throat, but sleep took him before he could lose his control over it.