Unexpected Destinies. Constance Ruth Clark
side of the highway, telling her she’d gone too far to the right. She’d managed to get back on the road but her head was pounding from the effort of driving in a blizzard.
Thank God she’d listened to her father and had the snow tires put on her car. She thought about the last time she’d seen him, a week ago. For such a big man he’d looked surprisingly small in the sterile hospital bed. He’d told her he was fine and not to worry, but it was hard to see him like that and not think the worst. According to her mother, they’d taken off the heart monitor this morning but they hadn’t proclaimed him out of danger yet.
She’d made the decision to come down for the weekend after speaking to her mother that morning. She’d said her father was resting comfortably now and the doctors were expecting him to make a complete recovery, but Jayne was still worried she hadn’t been told everything. Her mother told her to wait until morning before leaving but she hadn’t listened. She’d been too anxious to see her father. Now she was stuck driving in the worst snowstorm of the decade.
Slowly inching her black Mercedes along the highway, Jayne strained her eyes to see if there was sign or mile marker coming up to tell her where she was. Finally, she spotted a sign through the swirling snow and slowed even more to read it. She recognized the town as being one close to where she had grown up. She wasn’t far from the hospital. If it weren’t for this snowstorm she could have been there in less than an hour. The way things were now she’d be lucky if she made it at all. She wasn’t used to driving, much less in a blizzard since she’d been chauffeured everywhere she needed to go for the last ten years. She needed to stop and wait out the storm, but where? There weren’t any motels close by, another hazard of driving in Connecticut.
Thinking quickly she realized she knew people who lived nearby. Nick’s family. She’d become very good friends with his younger sister and parents while they’d been dating. She still kept in touch with Nicole, although it had long ago ceased to be about Nick, and more about being friends with Jayne. She was sure they wouldn’t mind if she dropped in on them in the middle of a blizzard. Jayne loved his mom, and had always thought she was a sweetheart. She couldn’t help that she had a cheater for a son.
Stopping by the side of the road carefully, her hazard lights flashing, she found their number in her iPhone. No sense trying to drive in a blizzard and talk on the phone at the same time, even with Bluetooth.
“Jayne.” Elaine Graham’s voice was warm and cheerful over the storm. “Of course you can stay here tonight. You can stay as long as you need to.” Jayne sighed with relief.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can find my way through this storm,” she told Elaine and drove carefully back onto the highway after the call ended.
Almost an hour later Jayne stopped her car in the driveway of the rambling, spacious farmhouse and said a little prayer of thanks that she’d made it. Then she grabbed her overnight case from the backseat and struggled through the storm to knock on the front door.
“Come in, dear, come in” Elaine pulled the weary girl inside and shut the door. “Oh you poor child, you look exhausted!”
“Yes, I am a little tired” Jayne admitted. “Do you have a room where I can just go and crash?”
Elaine laughed and took her coat. “Well, Nicholas isn’t here yet, and with this storm I doubt he’ll make it until tomorrow, so you can have his room for the night.”
“But...”
Sleep in Nick’s bed? She couldn’t.
“It’s really all I have right now, dear, if you want privacy. The girls and their children are everywhere else.” Elaine frowned with concern.
“Okay, as long as he never finds out,” Jayne gave in. She really was too tired to do anything else. Driving in a blizzard could wear anyone out.
“Jayne!”
“Nicole!”
The two girls hugged enthusiastically.
“It’s been ages,” Nicole said, pulling back with a smile. “I’ve missed you.”
“Me too,” Jayne admitted. Nicole was the one person in the world who she had always felt she could be herself around. No matter how famous she might get or how many celebrities she knew, Nicole had a way of bringing her down to earth again and reminding her of her roots.
“We have so much to catch up on. Thank goodness the girls are asleep and we can talk. Let me take you up,” Nicole offered and Jayne followed her up the stairs and into Nick’s bedroom.
Jayne put her suitcase down, and Nicole showed her the adjoining bathroom.
“There are fresh towels too,” Nicole said, pulling them out of the linen closet in the hall. “Let me know if you need anything else.” Setting them out on the bathroom sink, she led Jayne back into the bedroom and sat on the bed with a little bounce. “Now come over here and let’s catch up. I’m dying to hear about your photo shoot with Jack Black.”
Laughing at the memory, Jayne sat next to her friend on the bed, forgetting for a moment just whose bed it was.
“Is he really that funny in person, or does he save it all for the stage?”
“Oh he doesn’t save it,” Jayne said. “He’s a sweetie, but I almost peed my pants laughing at his antics!”
An hour later Nicole left Jayne alone to get ready for bed. She’d almost fallen asleep while they were talking, and couldn’t hide her large yawns.
“Good night, Jayne,” Nicole said getting up with a grin. “I’ll see you in the morning and we can finish catching up then.”
“Good night.” Jayne grinned back as Nicole closed the door behind her.
Ten minutes later Jayne sighed with pleasure as hot water ran over her tired body. It felt good to take a shower after all those long hours cramped inside her car. Turning off the water, she stepped into a thick terrycloth towel and dried off. Running a comb through her wet hair, she towel-dried it and then left it to dry. She’d worry about it tomorrow. Right now, she just wanted to sleep.
In Nicholas’ room, she dropped the towel and put on her emerald green satin lingerie gown, which barely reached her knees. She’d planned to stay in a hotel nearby the hospital, and hadn’t expected to be around company when she’d impulsively packed for this trip. Now she wished she had brought something a little more modest to wear. She would have a hard enough time not thinking about him as it was, especially after seeing him at the Vanessa’s Closet show a few weeks earlier. She had tried for fifteen years to forget him, only to have him turn up at the most revealing runway show she had ever done. The entire time she’d been walking she’d wondered if Nick had liked what he’d seen. God, she was pathetic.
Giving a sigh, she pulled back the covers and slipped into Nick’s bed, exhaling with relief as she relaxed. Driving in a blizzard was really stressful, not to mention worrying about her father. Jayne was very aware that it was Nick’s bed, his smell was everywhere and in spite of her fatigue, when she inhaled his scent, her belly tightened with arousal. She might hate him, but she’d never gotten over him. She would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit he still turned her on.
As she turned out the light, she pulled one of his pillows to her face and breathed in deeply. There, alone in the dark in his bed, his scent surrounding her, she could admit to herself that she’d never gotten over him. She still wanted him as much as she had when they’d first kissed. She wondered again what it would have been like if she’d given him her virginity on prom night like she’d planned all those years ago. Thinking of him with a smile, she closed her eyes as the memories engulfed her.
* * * *
Ten Years Earlier
Jayne bit her lip nervously as her father called up the stairs. She was back in her old room, about to see Nick for the first time in months and she was really hoping he’d like the new her. Her braces and glasses were