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Chapter or Story
Part 11: The Light Strengthens
Jarod laughed and put the glass back down on the table, raising his eyes to look at Nicole as she ate the last mouthful of the main course he had ordered for them both and which he had already finished.
"Well?"
"You do it better," she told him.
He raised a dubious eyebrow. "You're sitting in a high-class restaurant staffed by chefs who have learnt the secrets of culinary skills for years and you still tell me that I do it better?"
"Only because it's true." Nicole wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin as the waiter came over and collected the plates before looking up at Jarod as the man walked away. "Do you know something? I would almost swear that he's only serving our table."
Jarod grinned. "Maybe he's trying to crack onto you."
"Well, he's wasting his time."
"Sure?"
Nicole smiled. "Positive." She lifted the napkin from her lap and placed it on the table. "I'll be right back."
Jarod watched as she walked away, his heart pounding so loudly in his ears that he was sure she could hear it. The instant that she went through the door, he took the box from his pocket, opened it and arranged the napkin around it so that she would only see it when she sat down. He met the eye of the man who was serving their table and grinned nervously in response to the wink that he received.
"Did you order dessert yet or do I actually get a say in that?"
He looked up as she approached him, her voice light, and he was about to give a response when she slid into her seat and looked down.
The jewels sparkled as she picked up the box and looked at him. "Jarod, d... does this mean what I think it does?"
He nodded, reaching out to take the box from her hand and extracting the piece of jewellery. "You said we should wait and see what happened before we made any decisions that would affect our whole lives." Jarod took her left hand in his, using the right to slide the ring onto her finger. "And I want to ask you this because, if you say yes, it will."
Raising his eyes to her face, still holding her hand tightly, he leaned towards her. "Nicole, I know this is a surprise, but..."
She looked up from the hand on which she had been focusing to meet his gaze, the tears slipping out of her eyes and down her cheeks as she smiled at him. His own eyes lit up.
"Is that a yes?"
Speechless, Nicole nodded, and Jarod stood, leaning across the table to kiss her. As he reseated himself, the customers in the restaurant broke into applause, and Nicole turned to look out over a room full of familiar faces before glancing back at Jarod, one eyebrow raised.
"Did you organize that?"
"No,” he grinned. “Ann did. And she only told me what was planned while you were showering, so I couldn't even try to talk her out of it."
She laughed, wiping the tears from her eyes, and turned to find her friend at her elbow.
"I should be angry right now..."
"No,” Ann told her, offering a bunch of roses. “You should be happy right now. I wasn't letting you keep this engagement a secret."
"Does the whole hospital know?"
"Yes. Well, any of them that read the notice board after you left. And the rest will when they read the notice board tomorrow. But I've been dropping hints since yesterday morning."
Nicole took the flowers, raising an eyebrow. "What happened yesterday morning?"
"I made the fatal mistake of taking her along to find out if you’d like the ring," Jarod laughed as he picked up the empty box and returned it to his pocket.
He watched her as they walked home hand in hand, her new ring sparkling in the glow thrown by the streetlights they went under and her other hand clutching the flowers.
"I didn't think you were capable of keeping secrets from me."
Jarod smiled. "You'll have to look harder."
"I will, in future," Nicole laughed, moving nearer to him. He put his arm around her shoulders and she passed hers around his back. Her eyes bore a curious expression as she looked up at him. "How long have you been planning that?"
"I looked at rings about a week ago, ordered that one and it came in yesterday. I took Ann along to be sure you'd like it and I organized everything at the restaurant this morning while you were at work, though I made the booking last week. But I've been planning it for a lot longer, even before I could see again."
She laughed. "So that waiter was only serving us."
He nodded. "He came in especially to do so."
"What was he - somebody else you helped?"
Jarod choked back a laugh as he nodded. "Now that you mention it, yes."
"You know something?" She turned her face up to his and he smiled at her.
"What?"
"We never had dessert," she laughed.
"Hey, I planned for that too," he protested.
She raised an eyebrow. "So what did you make?"
Jarod grinned. "Be patient."
He carried the bowls to the table where she sat with a mask over her eyes and her hands lying in her lap. Carefully and silently Jarod set one down in front of her and then, placing his own dessert down, plucked the bottle out of the ice bucket and took off the foil.
"Okay, you can look now."
As she removed the mask, he eased out the cork and then poured the first of the champagne into her glass, waiting until it settled before he filled both it and his own. Then he looked at her.
"You're quiet."
"I can't take it in." Her eyes looked at the blooming red and white roses in a vase on the table and at the candles, giving a gentle light in the room. Finally she looked down to see another jewellery box lying on the table between her and the dessert, raising her eyes to meet his.
"What's this?"
"An accompaniment for the ring," he told her.
Nicole eased it open and gazed at the gold necklace with a cluster of white diamonds before she glanced at him again. "Are you broke?"
He grinned. "Didn't anyone ever tell you that it's impolite to ask about money?"
She laughed, picking it up. He took it out of her hand and put it around her neck, fastening it and removing the plain gold chain she was wearing. As he took his seat, she looked at the dessert he had prepared.
"Chocolate mousse?"
"A little birdie told me that it was your favorite."
Nicole giggled. "I won't ask for this birdie's name."
"No, don't," Jarod smiled. "Because I'm sure you'll be able to guess and, having set everything up here after we left, she's intruded enough into our evening."
She laughed before tasting it. "Wonderful. As everything you make is."
"I thought about making dinner instead of going out,” Jarod told her. “But I've done it often enough now and I want tonight to be special."
Eyebrows raised, she glanced at him. "You make it sound like you aren't going to be able to do it again."
He picked up a piece of paper that lay beside his plate, his eyes serious. "I might not, at least not after a while. I'll assume that you've heard the rumor about Peter Richards’ retirement."
"Of course,” she agreed. “That piece of gossip's been flying around the hospital for weeks but I’m not sure how you know."
Jarod eyed her, unable to help wondering how she’d react to the news. "It isn't only ‘gossip’. He’s retiring at the end of June. As head of the board, and based on the recommendations of, among other people, Doctors Ann Stevens, Phillip Barnard and Chris Evans, he offered me his position last week. I've accepted."
"You mean... you...?"
Her eyes shone as she fixed her gaze on him. He reached over, entwining her fingers with his.
"I'm going to be your husband - and your new boss."
Ann looked over as she made her way across the reception area of the hospital, her eye caught by that of the woman sitting behind the desk.
"Excuse me, Dr. Stevens."
"What can I do for you today, Lauren?"
The woman smiled. "There are some people here making enquiries about Jarod."
Ann raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"Yes, and as you're probably better acquainted with him than I am, I thought..."
The doctor laughed. "You want to be saying that to Nic, not me. But I do get your meaning." She looked around. "Where are they?"
As Lauren indicated, a group rose and made their way over. Ann turned, a smile on her face.
"My name's Dr. Stevens. Can I help you with something?"
"It would be wonderful if you could. We're hoping to get in touch with Jarod and I understand that this is probably the best place to begin."
Ann looked at the group carefully, her ready tongue halted by the remembrance of warnings she had received so many months earlier.
"Well, as there are a number of patients here with that name now I’ll need a little more information before I can..."
"Oh, it's not about a patient." The older man reached into his pocket and extracted a photo. "From what we found out, he's a staff member. Or very soon will be."
Ann nodded slowly as she eyed the picture. "And may I be so bold as to ask why you want to see him?"
"It's... a personal enquiry. We haven't seen him for some time."
"So you're old friends."
The woman nodded. "I think you could say that, yes."
"Nicole?" Jarod looked up sharply as he heard the front door quietly close and Charlie jumped to his feet. "Is that you or are we about to be robbed?"
She laughed and walked into the room. "I'd pay a lot of money to see you fight off the intruders."
He grinned and got out of the chair, putting his notepad down on the table in front of him.
"What are you doing?" she asked, dropping her things on the sofa.
"Planning."
"Great." Nicole rolled her eyes as she took off her sweater. "Like to be a little more vague?"
He laughed, following her into the kitchen. "I just spent an hour on the phone with Peter and I was making notes as a result of the call."
"Ah, so you were planning."
Jarod took a jug of juice out of the fridge and handed it to her with a grin. "Funny, but I could have sworn that's what I said."
"So what are we doing this afternoon?"
Jarod looked out of the window at the sunshine that was streaming into the room as they finished lunch. "We could go to the park. I haven't been there in days."
She raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"
"Studying. I tried to work but then kept getting distracted by all the things there were to see." He smiled. "Not that I minded it too much."
"So the last exam's over?"
He rolled his eyes. "Thankfully."
Nicole laughed. "Yes, I could see how terribly tense they made you."
"Hey, I'd never done anything like that before!"
"Mmm, and that explains why you finished in under sixty minutes an exam that takes most people more than three hours."
He grinned, dimples forming in his cheeks. "Well, maybe…"
"So you're qualified now?"
Jarod carried the plates into the kitchen. "We won't know until I get the results."
She snorted derisively. "Yes, I can really see you failing, too."
Nicole packed several books and several bottles of drink into the backpack they took with them to the park, looking up as he walked back in through the doorway.
"Ready?"
"If you are," he told her with a smile.
Jarod slipped the bag onto his back and offered her his arm. She slid her hand around it, smiling as the two people and a dog made their way out of the house.
Jarod rested his hand on Nicole's head as she sat with it lying on his leg. "Now this is nice."
"And familiar too,” she smiled, remembering the early days of their engagement.
"We could make it a weekly tradition," he suggested as Charlie settled on the ground against his feet.
"I wouldn't object."
He smiled down at her. "Sure?"
"Positive," she told him.
"Should we call it a family tradition or wait until we have a family?"
"What, it can't be a family with just the two of us?"
"Ah," Jarod picked up her left hand, eyeing the single, diamond-studded band on it, "but we aren't 'the two of us' yet. That's still two weeks away."
"Not developing any regrets, are you?"
"Only that we waited this long. And that it took me that long to finally summon up enough courage to kiss you."
Nicole laughed. "I always knew you were a coward at heart."
"Might I remind you,” he protested, his eyes twinkling, “I wasn't the one shaking."
"I was cold!"
"Yes." He bent down to kiss her. "I noticed. I’ve always thought that that was the only reason you invited me to share your bed - you really wanted the human equivalent of an extra-large hot water bottle."
Jarod turned a page and pushed his reading glasses more firmly on his nose, looking up to where Nicole was chatting with one of her patients. He smiled and looked back down, his fingers running over the raised dots. Most of the books in normal print that he had read since regaining his vision had been textbooks but, now that the exams he had taken were over, he was considering reading some for pleasure as well. Jarod shook his head with a wide grin, about to continue reading when he heard a male voice from behind.
"If you want people to believe that you're really dead, son, then it's probably not the best idea to get your picture in the paper."
Slowly, painfully slowly, Jarod turned. His glasses slipped down his nose and he impatiently tore them from his face, the book falling from his lap as he got to his feet. His voice, when he spoke, was a faint whisper.
"Dad?"
"Hi, Jarod."
Sidestepping the seat, Jarod threw both arms around the man and felt himself firmly embraced in return before pulling away slightly and staring at him.
"But... how did you...?"
Charles reached into his back pocket and pulled out a recent edition of the local paper, opening it to show the photo of Jarod and Peter Richards on the third page.
"Like I said, publicity makes it hard to fake your death."
"So… you've been living around here?"
"No." Still smiling, his father refolded the paper. "But there’s a few people around here who know us and had heard about the tragic death of our eldest son. They were, therefore, a little surprised to see his photo in the paper last week."
"Our?" Jarod caught the word immediately. "You mean you...?"
He felt the two arms as they wrapped themselves around him from behind and turned to look into the face of the woman he could never forget. His voice was an even fainter whisper than when he spoke to his father.
"Mom..."
"Yes, Jarod." She blinked the tears out of her eyes as she looked at him, raising a hand to brush away those that were on his cheeks.
"I don't… I don’t believe it..."
"If you don't believe that, Jarod, then you'll probably also find it pretty difficult to accept the fact of our existence."
He looked over to see that his sister and the younger image of himself had come up behind their father.
"I... I don't..." Jarod's voice was almost inaudible but he kept both arms firmly wrapped around his mother. "How?!"
Nicole glanced up as the discussion with her patient was ending and caught sight of Ann standing near a group of people, of which Jarod was obviously the central figure. She made her way over to her friend.
"What's going on?"
"Family reunion."
"What?" Her eyes widened. "Ann, what do you mean?"
"What I say." Ann took Nicole's arm, leading her a short distance away, Charlie following. "They turned up at the hospital asking for Jarod. I remembered the warnings you gave me and guessed that you’d both be taking advantage of today being Saturday and also the glorious weather, so I thought I’d bring them here. I figured that, if they were from the Centre, it’d give Jarod a chance to escape."
"We told you that that place was gone," Nicole reminded her.
"Yes, but if any of its competitors had..."
"Okay, good point." She looked back. "But they're not..."
"Hardly." Ann laughed. "They told me who they were as we came here and you can see that they were telling the truth."
Nicole looked over to see the emotional tears in Jarod's eyes and nodded slowly, a smile curling the corners of her mouth. "Yes, I can definitely see that."
"I've heard a lot about you."
Margaret Crawford laughed. "I think we'll hear a lot about you, too, Nicole."
"Hmm, I guess that could be possible." Jarod stood up, kissing the top of his fiancé's head before picking up the pile of plates in front of him and carrying them into the kitchen.
"Jarod talked about you all a lot,” Nicole continued. “It was his biggest regret – knowing that you’d believe he was dead and he couldn’t get in touch without giving the game away."
"And that reminds me." Jarod reappeared with a tray on which sat six glass bowls. "How did you first learn about it? I can't believe Miss Parker simply called..."
"Actually," his father interrupted, looking up, "it wasn't her at all. Sydney found us two weeks after they got the report and showed it to us." He swallowed hard. "It was rather a shock."
"I can imagine that it would have been." Nicole stated gently. "But if we hadn't done it, there was a good chance of the Centre finding him. It's hard to hide when you're totally blind and also not able to walk properly. Not to mention that it makes running somewhat difficult."
"And I thought my son had a devious mind," Charles Crawford grinned.
Nicole laughed. "His worst habits are the most contagious."
"So Sydney somehow managed to find you,” Jarod put in. “And then what?"
"He said that the Centre was increasing the focus on looking for the rest of us and suggested that there was only one way for us to stop it: that, if we worked together, we could all destroy it before it killed anybody else."
"And you did,” Jarod finished for his father. “All five of you."
"We had a little help," the boy put in.
Jarod raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me that Miss Parker..."
"Okay, we won't tell you," the young woman interrupted.
"Gee, thanks Em." He grinned at his sister. "I take that back. Do tell me."
Nicole laughed. "Do this, do that, or do the other thing. Can't you ever make up your mind?"
"You're asking for trouble,” he retorted quickly. “You know that, don't you?"
She smiled. "No, that's not right. If you're going to quote me at all, you could at least quote me correctly."
"I think my family would be rather shocked if they knew that you had threatened to turn me out onto the streets to beg."
"But that wasn't what came next."
"It was close enough." He picked up her spoon, placing it in her hand. "Now stop talking before you get into more trouble than you can get out of."
"Knock, knock, anyone home?"
"Dad!" Jarod jumped up from the outdoor sofa as his father walked up the path, the dog leaping around him. "I didn't expect to see you today."
"Well, it's been a whole five hours since we talked on the phone," Charles smiled. "I was missing you."
His son laughed. "I believe it, too." He waved towards the sofa. "Have a seat."
"Where's your soon-to-be-wife?"
"Working hard." Jarod laughed. "I can torment her about it now because I figure that she'll do the same to me when I start working again."
"I'd say that's more than likely." The older man looked down at the papers that were spread out in front of him. "So what are you doing?"
"Planning."
Major Charles rolled his eyes. "For?"
"The honeymoon." Jarod looked up. "I'm trying to make money go further than it realistically will."
"But what about that account you set up, leeching off the Centre?" the older man protested.
"That paid for the rings and dress as well as a couple of other bits and pieces but didn't leave that much else, particularly after somebody suddenly and mysteriously cut off my source of funds." He met his father's eye and laughed. "So I'm trying to be creative."
"Well, you should be good at that."
The younger man laughed again before suddenly narrowing his eyes. "I've seen that expression before."
"On my face?"
"No, on mine, when I'm about to tell someone something they aren't expecting to hear."
"Impressive that you can see your own face without a mirror." His father leaned back against the sofa and folded his arms, a smile playing around the corners of his mouth.
"So, what is it?" Jarod demanded, stroking the dog’s head as it rested on his knee.
"You don't let go, do you?"
"Hey, I'm tenacious. Probably a trait I inherited from my father."
"Well, maybe..." Major Charles hesitated for a moment and then reached into his pocket, pulling out a thin piece of plastic, which he put into his son's hand. "I thought it might be nice if we gave you your wedding present now."
Jarod looked down at the bankcard and then back up at his father. "But… are you sure?"
"Oh, it's not just from us."
"Who then?"
"Consider it payback - from the Centre."
"The Centre?" Jarod's eyebrows lifted and he let the card fall on the table in front of them as if it had burnt him. "I don't understand."
Major Charles shook his head in disbelief. "I never thought I'd hear you say that."
"You won't, often. Only when it's strictly necessary. And it is now." Jarod stood up but his father remained silent. "I'll make you coffee if you tell me."
"Now there's an offer I can't refuse."
"So, I'm waiting," Jarod stated impatiently.
Major Charles sipped his drink and relaxed back against the sofa. "First, I want to know how you knew that the Centre had been destroyed."
Jarod reached over to the bookcase and pulled out a photo album, opening it to show his father an article that was pasted inside.
"Nicole read it to me one day and I had to keep it." He smiled. "There are no names mentioned, of course, but I can make very good guesses."
"Okay." Major Charles nodded at the card that lay on the table and smiled also. "Well, this comes from that time. When everything was finished and the last deal was struck, we sat down and took stock. Suddenly we found that there were a whole lot of bank accounts, with substantial sums of money, that a non-existent place had no need for, so we felt it would make nice compensation for everything that we'd suffered and, umm, commandeered them."
Jarod laughed. "Yes, I can see you all sitting around one day and thinking 'Gee, there's millions of dollars here in various bank accounts and we'd hate it to just lie there forever gathering interest. It would be much kinder if we found homes for it all'. Your generosity is boundless."
"Well, it wasn't too far off," his father laughed. "When we received that article, and I think it was a bit careless of you to let yourself get so much public attention considering you wanted people to believe..."
"Hey, I didn't want to!” his son protested indignantly. “The hospital wanted it!"
"Hmm, sure." Major Charles raised an eyebrow skeptically before continuing with what he’d been saying. "Anyway, we were sent that article, realized that you had to be still alive and came to find you. When we finally left your house that night, we talked on the way home and decided it would be suitable wedding present if we divided what we as a family got from the place and gave you an equal share." He nodded towards the piece of plastic. "That's what that is."
"And… you're sure?"
"Jarod, you suffered as much as any of us at the hands of that place, or maybe even more. Don't you think that you deserve it?"
"I don't want to be depriving any of you."
"Well, I'm not sure how you go about spending money, son, but it'll take a long time to get through the eight figure sum that fell to my share once we’d included you in the divisions." Charles leaned forward over the papers lying in front of them, a broad beam appearing on his face. "Still, let's see just how fast we can get through some of it now, shall we?"
Nicole looked through the Perspex as the plane approached the group of islands and felt Jarod's arm on hers. His voice sounded strange through the headphones.
"We'll land on Oahu, but I'll charter this again so that we can visit the other islands if we want."
"You still haven't told me how much time we've got here. My secretary wouldn’t even tell me how long I was going to be away for."
He grinned and focused on the instruments, keeping an eye on the landing strip. When the plane was on the ground he turned to her, taking off his headphones.
"Welcome to Hawaii. Warmth as requested and, if the Centre still existed, then they’d certainly be broke by the end of our time here with all the things I have planned for us."
He followed her down the stairs to where the small group waited for them, giving them traditional welcomes before ushering along them to the limousine that was waiting outside the airport. Still stunned, Nicole finally turned to the man on the back seat of the car beside her, his eyes fixed on her face and his arm around her shoulders.
"Jarod, I can't believe this."
"You aren't meant to be able to. I thought I'd set up a dream vacation - one you'll never forget - because I don't know when we'll get the chance for more." He gave her a gentle kiss. "Besides, this has to be special, doesn't it? After all, it's our first as a family."
Nicole rolled over to look at her husband as they lay, side-by-side, on the sand. "We've been here for two weeks, Jarod. How much longer do we have?"
He grinned. "I'll give you a hint. We have to be back home in time for me to take up my position at the hospital."
Nicole laughed. "Strange as it may sound, I had guessed that. But that's still three weeks away."
The man relented. "We have another two weeks. This uses up the annual leave you saved for the last few years but I didn't think you'd mind too much."
"And after the two weeks?"
"We have a week at home to get used to the few small changes there..."
"What now?" She stared at him and he laughed.
"Well, I thought it might be helpful if I could actually fit my clothes into the room where I sleep, for a start."
Her expression was demanding. "Where?"
"Only one way to go," he reminded her with a grin.
"Up?"
"Right. I drew up the blueprints almost a month ago, but you get a say in what goes where, once we get home."
"How truly kind." She smiled. "And how big?"
"Three rooms, and a bathroom."
Her jaw dropped. "You do like surprises, don't you?" Suddenly her expression became thoughtful. "And I don't know how we're paying."
Jarod reached into the pocket of his shorts and took out his wallet, extracting a bankcard, which he handed to her.
"Mom and Dad's wedding present to us."
She eyed the smooth plastic and then the man beside her. "Should I ask - how much?"
"Well, let's just say that the honeymoon and renovations aren't making much of a dent in it." Jarod grinned somewhat wickedly. "Haven't you always wanted to marry a multi-millionaire?" He picked up the conversation from where it had left off. "Then, after the week in our newly renovated home, rearranging the furniture, I need to start finding out how to manage the hospital."
"I'm sure there's a book somewhere on that," his wife remarked.
He laughed. "I've been looking, but for some reason 'How to Run a Hospital the Size of St Luke's in Helena, Montana' doesn't seem to be a popular publication."
Nicole giggled softly. "Only you could make a joke out of something like that."
"Oh, not only me,” he admitted. “But I probably do it better than a lot of people."
She rolled her eyes. "Modesty isn't in your dictionary, is it?"
"Is it supposed to be?" He grinned. "I went over the hospital with Peter the week before we got married and he gave me a lot of tips then with the promise of a lot more to come."
He looked over as a figure approached across the sand and got up.
"I think dessert is served."
She rose, slipping her hand into his. "You've really gone the whole way with this, haven't you?"
"I don't like only half-doing things. I thought you knew that by now."
"Hey, there has to be a few surprises still to find out about you."
Jarod grinned. "I can think of one or two right now."
"I'm guessing that asking you what they are wouldn't be particularly helpful."
"And I'm guessing that you'd be right," he agreed.
They walked up the steps and were directed by the waiter to a table that jutted out over the water. As they sat down, Jarod glanced at his watch and Nicole raised an eyebrow.
"Are you worried about being late for something? Here?"
"Not anymore."
She smiled and then looked up as the waiter placed the platter of fruit in front of them amid the increasing darkness, which rush-lights and candles lit to perfection.
"Did you pre-plan all of the meals for this trip,” Nicole demanded. “Or just most of them?"
He laughed. "You've had a choice of breakfasts."
"It's a buffet, Jarod,” she retorted. “There are certain difficulties in pre-planning a buffet."
"So you know that that's one meal I didn't organize." He grinned. "But I have had a little to do with most of them. It seemed easier when I was organizing the days anyway."
"And what do you have planned for tomorrow?"
"I thought you might want some nice photos, so we're going up in the plane over the islands and taking a photographer - not me, incidentally - with us. We might stop off at one or two nice spots along the way."
She was about to reply when he touched her hand, nodding in the direction that the sun had set some time earlier. She was just about to ask him what he wanted when the sky seemed to come alive in a burst of color and light as fireworks shot up from a pontoon far out in the ocean. Nicole could hear the pleased sighs of other diners, but knew that Jarod had arranged this just for her.
She walked into the bedroom of their suite and looked around with a rueful sigh. The holiday was almost over and they only had the flight home to enjoy before life got back to some semblance of normality. As she looked around, however, the sight of a book on her pillow drew her attention and she walked over, sitting on their bed to glance through it. It was filled with photographs of the last four weeks, starting with the wedding ceremony and, at the back, showing scenes from only that morning. Under each scene, in Jarod’s distinctive handwriting, was the date, place and some special fact or humorous remark. Few of the photos had been set up and that added a degree of spontaneity that was lovely to look at.
Reaching the last page, she saw that it contained no photo but instead a slip of paper. Curious and smiling, she drew it out and unfolded it, her eyes running over the words. Look Right. She did and was momentarily blinded by the flash of the camera that he held in his hand.
"I just needed one more shot." Jarod explained, handing the apparatus to a man standing behind him and then coming to sit down on the bed beside her.
"We've had a lot of fun, haven't we?" She rested back against his chest, her eyes turned up to his face, and he smiled, gently touching her cheek.
"We sure have. But it doesn't stop now. We have our married life ahead of us and that will be a lot of fun too."
As the plane rose into the sky, Jarod loosened his hold on her hand and reached into the pocket of his cream sports jacket, handing her an envelope before relaxing back into his first-class seat and smiling at her.
"What's this?" his wife demanded.
"The last item to go into the album."
"You know," she began conversationally as she took it and picked up the album, opening the first pages before looking at him, "I don't understand how you managed to get the wedding photos in there when you haven't received mail for the last four weeks."
Jarod laughed. "Actually, that was pretty simple. The photographer had a darkroom set up in the hotel where we had the reception. After taking a few photos, he took them up and his 'assistant' processed them while he came back down and took a few more."
"Who was his assistant? You?"
"I was there with you the whole time, remember? I'm good, but not even I can be in two places at once." Jarod laughed as she rolled her eyes. "No, it was my little brother. He's been interested in photography ever since he got out of the Centre and loved the chance to do that, even though he missed the party. Dad went up a few times and found him happily sitting in there among the fixing fluids, processing the photos and putting the best ones into the book so I could bring it with us. It all went on from there. And yes, before you ask, I had planned for it a long time in advance."
Laughing, Nicole opened the envelope, taking out the photo and looking at it. "How long had you been standing there?"
"Pretty much the whole time you were looking through it. It took that long to set it all up, get the focus right and everything. But it worked out well."
She nodded. "The photographer has a lot of skill."
"The model has a lot of beauty."
Nicole smiled as she slid it into place and then reached into the envelope again, pulling out the small piece of paper that accompanied it. Reading on the slip the same sentence that he had just uttered aloud, she laughed.
"Very clever, Jarod."
He grinned. "It was totally by chance, I assure you. But it worked out rather well, I think."
