Charisma snorted. "I'll just bet you could. Of course, for your own safety, you'd have to live in another country once it was published."
"Yeah, but imagine the made-for-TV movie it'd make."
"You are very, very bad."
"Thank you," Brianna accepted with a smirk. "I've been perfecting my technique for years."
"Well, if worse comes to worst, you can sell it on eBay."
"Oh no you didn't," Brianna stated flatly. Charisma laughed.
"Sure I did. It was easy." She reached for Brianna's coffee cup. "You want another?"
Brianna hesitated for a split second before she nodded. "I shouldn't, but yes, please."
"All right. It'll take a couple minutes. Why don't you go upstairs and grab your album then meet me at my office door? It's the room you found me in that night...." trailing off with a sense of relief when Brianna nodded her head in understanding. "Good... see you in a few then?"
"You betcha. Be right back."
Brianna left the kitchen and headed back upstairs slowly, still fascinated by the pictures that lined the wall. Many of them were of Adam, but there were a few of the three of them - posed studio pictures, but lovely shots nonetheless. Brianna smiled, though there was as much sadness in her heart as there was happiness. She was glad that Charisma was happy - she just wished she had been the one to put the smile on her face. With a shrug, Brianna straightened her shoulders and put her fruitless thoughts behind her. Then she entered the guest room she was using and claimed the photo album that held the memories she still held dear to her heart, and without a backwards glance, ran lightly down the stairs to meet Charisma.
Maybe she could finally lay these ghosts to rest.
************
Kent finished with his packing just as he heard Brianna make her way down the stairs once more. He wondered what was so important that she felt the need to break one of Charisma's cardinal rules and run down the stairs. He was a little surprised he didn't hear Charisma say something about it as even he had been admonished for it a time or two. Of course, Adam didn't seem to be around, so perhaps it wasn't quite as important to worry about setting a good example.
Regardless, Kent looked around the rooms once more, then nodded his head in satisfaction and zipped his suitcase closed. He hefted it with a bit of a grunt, and headed downstairs. With a bit of luck they would be engrossed in whatever and he'd be able to make a clean getaway.
They were neatly ensconced on the couch in Charisma's study, heads bent together over something he couldn't see but that obviously meant a lot to both of them. He stood off to one side of the doorway, realizing that once again Charisma had left the door open thinking she was alone in the house except for the company she was obviously sharing in her private space - bringing home again just how little of her life he actually shared.
He sighed as he watched them, seeing more than they probably realized they showed. There was amusement and adoration and love that flowed between them like a palpable thing, even though nothing untoward was going on. They weren't sitting too close or gazing too long - and yet it was clear to him that there was certainly more between them than simple friendship.
He wondered if he should fight for his wife... for their marriage and family. Then he saw a smile that hadn't graced her face once in the years they had known one another. And he picked up his bag and walked through the kitchen towards the garage. He had places to be.
Chapter LXVIII
Brianna accepted her coffee from Charisma as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs, eyebrows popping when Charisma put a key in the lock of her study door before opening it and ushering Brianna in ahead of her.
"Adam," Charisma said succinctly, leading the way over to the sofa. She set her mug on the table next to the album she'd moved downstairs the day before, prior to Brianna's arrival. Brianna followed her example, easing the thick book onto the table and placing her cup beside it.
"Adam?"
"You were wondering why the door was kept locked - Adam." Charisma took a seat and motioned Brianna to do the same, smiling when Brianna dropped onto the couch beside her. "When Adam was first learning to get around - crawling and walking - we discovered no place was safe from him." Charisma sighed. "I've always kept this room closed and Kent has always respected that. This is my space - I do a lot of work in here and before Adam was born, I conducted a lot of business with my colleagues here as well. Not as much anymore, but there was a time this place was utilized almost as much as my office on the Hill."
Brianna looked around and nodded. "I can see that."
Charisma laughed. "Oh it was much more pretentious at one time - very awe-inspiring," she added with a dramatic roll of her eyes. "But once Adam came along, I started changing it. I had to. There were times he had to be in here with me regardless of what else was going on around me. And then he started being mobile."
"I take it was a steep learning curve."
Charisma snorted. "I really hadn't thought about it - I mean... he was a baby, right? How much harm could he do?" She shook her head and smiled wryly when Brianna erupted into undisguised hilarity. "I didn't even realize he was big enough or coordinated enough to open the door on his own, but I completely underestimated the force of his determination."
"What did he get into?"
"Fortunately, nothing that could hurt him, and nothing that wasn't fairly easy to replace. It took a week to get all the ink off of his skin, and I did have to replace the carpet in here."
"Which is why it's a nice deep burgundy."
"And why my printer cartridges are currently in a locked drawer out of his reach."
Brianna chuckled. "Would you have believed this? If ten or fifteen years ago someone had told you we'd be sitting here having coffee together, laughing over the antics of your son, would you have believed them?"
"I'd have had them committed," Charisma returned dryly, though Brianna could see the latent pain in the back of her blue eyes. "For any number of reasons," she added as a belated afterthought. "I mean I wasn't even married ten years ago, and you KNOW what Mama would have done if I'd come home pregnant without a husband."
"It would have sucked to have been you," Brianna said sagely.
Charisma chuckled. "No kidding." She leaned forward, snagging her coffee cup in one hand and her album in the other. "C'mon... we need a starting place to begin catching up, and I think the beginning is probably going to be the best place."
Brianna took a deep breath and nodded, then followed Charisma's example - clutching her mug in one hand and grasping the book with the other. Then they leaned back and looked at one another, and as though touched by the same unseen hand, they opened the albums to the first picture... and sat looking in silence for a long moment before exclamations overcame them.
Not surprisingly, the first picture in both albums was similar - them at the airport, arms wrapped around each other waving wildly at the camera. They stared at the photographs, then looked at one another.
"Mama O gave it to me when I went to see her that first time after...." Brianna broke off and Charisma nodded her understanding. "I couldn't say no - especially since it reminded me how happy we'd been setting off on that trip of a lifetime."
"When did you put your album together?" Charisma asked suddenly, her curiosity overriding her prudence. Brianna frowned and pursed her lips in thought.
"Not long after I came home, I guess. I was at law school, and I was... truthfully, I was depressed. Now I'll admit that it was my own fault - I mean, I was the one who walked way, and I'm the one that decided I could suffer three New England winters to get my JD from an Ivy League school - but that knowledge didn't make me *less* depressed. It was after my first family holiday without you, but before Christmas...." Brianna closed her eyes and let herself travel back across the years she and Charisma had been apart. Those first had been the most painful, so they were harder to dredge up.