Jenny (Babysitter's Club 5)

He just nodded his head, and I was beginning to feel like I was part of some drama where everyone knew their lines but me. This must be the strangest freaking conversation in the world, and I wasn’t quite sure he wasn’t fucking with me. I started to question him further, but then my phone rang with a tone I don’t hear too often but know very well.

“Excuse me a minute. Hello?”

“Mr. Masters, the silent alarm at your home has been triggered. An incorrect code has been attempted twice; the police are on their way.”

I was up and out of my chair before the person on the other end was finished talking. I probably should’ve told her dad what was going on, but I was more interested in getting back to her than taking the time to explain.

I had a pretty good idea who was trying to break into my house. I forgot all about the weird conversation I’d just had as I bolted for the door with my heart in my lungs. I heard him calling out to me as I ran down the stairs and out the front door but didn’t turn around. My mind was focused on one thing, getting to Jenny and the girls.

Jenny

I was just vaguely aware of him leaving as I gave in to the sweet languor that always follows after we make love. My body was filled with an inexplicable warmth, and it felt so light except for the joy that filled me up, that I just might float in the air; if I wasn’t too tired to move.

I’ve never experienced anything like this feeling, and maybe that’s why I’m so greedy for more. Making love with Derrick when I’m so in love with him makes every little detail stand out. Every touch, every word he whispers in my ear as he moves inside of me, tingles against my nerve endings like a live wire, and my body hums for hours afterward. Like now!

As I heard him moving around the room, that sweet warmth pulled at me, sucking me under, and I gave in without much of a fight as the day’s events played through my head. Today has truly been one of the happiest days of my life. The only thing that made it even better was the fact that there would be more days like it to come.

Life was finally turning out the way I’d always imagined it would be. Though I can’t put it into words, and won’t even try, I always knew that Derrick and I would be combustible together and I’m not just talking sex either. I only hope I give him as much joy as he gives me.

I felt the heaviness of his ring on my finger as I drifted off, and suddenly my head was filled with what our life together was going to be like in the future. I know everything isn’t going to go the way I see it or the way I’d planned, but it would be close enough. I’ll see to it.

We’d already jumped the first hurdle as far as I’m concerned, and the worst of it was behind us. I no longer felt guilty about what had happened with his marriage, no longer see our first time together as tainted. It was just a situation beyond our control, and no one is to blame.

The fact that Derrick had already made up his mind by then somewhat to dissolve his marriage to the woman who’d yelled about cheating on him just moments before threatening to kill his children only to follow it up by running him over went a long way to helping me overcome any lingering doubts I might’ve had.

And more importantly, for me anyway, is the fact that the man I spent the day with was a far cry from the one I met months ago. That Derrick was just a mere shell of the person I fell in love with all those years ago. So in my mind, I see his time with her as part of that past, as part of the person he’d made himself into after that accident that had turned his life upside down.

Now it’s as if he was coming out from under that dark cloud that had hung over his head for the past eight years or so, and I was the one here waiting for him. It’s as it should be because even if the whole world doesn’t understand, Derrick has always been mine and I his.

With that thought, I felt a warm smile tug at my lips as I fell asleep to dreams of happily ever after. It seemed like I’d barely fallen into slumber, and was still between sleep and wake when I heard a strange beeping sound.

I didn’t know what it was; at first, it seemed like part of a dream, but as the sound persisted, I realized that it was not in my head. It sounded like some kind of timer going off, but the cadence was all wrong.