Wes Dalton

We had packed quickly, and I let her sleep as I made the plans. The senator had a private jet that his family owned and he used when he was traveling with his family. Knowing most of his schedule finally worked to my own personal gain. He confirmed it was unoccupied and could get a pilot for me within 12 hours.

I'd checked the fridge, cooked up omelets with the spinach, onion, ham, and cheese that was there. I knew we would be gone for more than a week. Without talking to Sarah or knowing exactly how she was feeling, I just knew that she needed time away from the stress and emotions that were connected to her job, the house, and anything else that was triggering her. She needed somewhere unknown but familiar to her.

When she strolled into the kitchen, she looked more rested than she had in months. Her lower lip disappeared into her mouth as her shoulders rose, and she rubbed her hands down her arms.

"Are you cold?" I asked, ready to take my shirt off to put it over her tank top.

She gave a quick shake of her head. "You cooked," she said through the last portion of her yawn.

"Are you hungry?"

She gave me a tilted grin and said, "Starved."

I knew that her hunger fluctuated as the babies got bigger, but I couldn't help but tease her. "You and your appetite," I said in my best girly-Sarah-impersonation.

It was our thing since I'd found her again. Food. Starving. Appetite.

With a tick to her jaw and a gleam of amusement in her eyes, she sat at the table. She let loose another yawn as I placed the plate in front of her.

"So, what's the plan?" She asked before consuming another mouthful.

"When we're all done, here, we can make our way north."

"What do you mean?"

My brows pinched momentarily and I said, "Because you wanted to go home, and I'm going to do that if I'm able to... and I'm able to."

She slipped on a sad smile as she moved pieces of her breakfast around her plate. "It isn't something that I can actually afford to do. It was more of me answering your 'what do you want' question without really giving it much thought."

"It's been handled," I said as I slid her fork from her hand, replacing it with my fingers.

"I don't understand."

"There isn't anything to figure out or understand. You need a break. You need home. I can provide you with both."

I pulled her in for a sweet kiss before standing to clean up the kitchen. "Go ahead and finish eating, we can leave whenever you're ready."

She looked so confused, in awe, and happy all in the same few moments, clearly processing her emotions. She didn't argue, which told me that she knew better than to fight with me about it.

Given our history, she couldn't be surprised by what I was able to pull off or make happen in a short span of time. It didn't matter where the help came from, I knew powerful people who would always have a reason to help me or mine.

She leisurely ate the remainder of her food before hand washing the few dishes and conceding that there was nothing else she could think to do to procrastinate further.

I helped her gather our phones, chargers, and a few snacks for traveling before getting us on the road. She seemed more shocked that I led us to a private airfield, but made no move to comment or protest.

When we were in the air, she snuggled into my arm and fell asleep. I asked the attendant for a blanket and knew as soon as we were covered, it was a trap.

Sarah was warm and cozy in my side, I was instantly relaxed. The trap was her warmth and quieted breathing that dragged me under with her. Naps with Sarah while she was pregnant was infectious. Even if it just meant to be close with her, I would take the time to lay with her. When her physical cravings stopped, I would still spend time curling my body around hers.

Feeling her body change under my hands was magic enough. Her breasts had gotten swollen and new stretch marks appeared. When I remember back to her complaints about it, I grabbed the lotion she favored and gently kneaded it into her skin, always kissing and complementing as I went. She was a work of art, a masterpiece, that I will worship for all of my days as long as she lets me.

The flight was smooth and even when we landed, Sarah was exhausted. I carried her from the plane to the waiting car and wrapped an arm around her as we made our way to my home.

Sarah woke as we pulled into my neighborhood and she looked around in confusion. "Wes?"

"Yeah, sweetness?"

"I thought you were taking me home. I don't recognize this."

As the driver stopped, I turned in my seat to look at Sarah and make sure she was looking at me before I spoke.

"You've gone through a lot. You are going through a lot. We are about 20 minutes from your mom, Laurel, and Cason. We are at my home," I paused when I saw her wanting to speak, but pressed a fingertip to her mouth. "Let me finish. With everything going on, I wanted to give you a safe place to take things at your own pace. The only suggestion I have is take twenty-four hours to just breathe and take it all in. If you decide you want to be with your kids, with your mom, then call her and arrange it."

Her eyes lowered as she absorbed everything I was saying. Chewing on her lower lip, she asked, "What if I don't want to go there?"

Smiling at her I said, "Then don't. Be here, be there. With me, without me," I continued as I watched her brows sinch together. "With them, without them. Inform them you're close, or don't. Baby, the choice is completely yours."

"And without you?"

"I'd find a place to stay until you were ready to have me close." It was the truth as much as it gutted me to think I may have to walk away from her, but I knew that if I was going to keep her this time, I needed to let her have the space... IF she needed it.

Cupping her cheek, I kissed her lightly. Hating to admit it I said, "I'd do anything for you, if you asked, including giving you space."

I may die, I wanted to add, but she didn't need my adage on top of her weakened mental state.

Tears welled in her eyes and it was the only warning I got before her strong foundations begin to crumble.

"Let's get inside, I'll make an UberEats order and we can stay in tonight. Okay?"

She nodded before pressing her head into my chest, taking a deep breath, and leaving the car.

I tipped the driver, pulled my keys as I got our bags from the trunk and led Sarah up the short walk to my home.

Watching her enter my space, a place I didn't bring anyone including family, was fascinating to me. I soaked her in as she looked around my home. There was nothing fancy or outlandish about my home, but the thing I thought would catch her attention... did.

Walking through the wide hall into my lounge area her eyes gravitated to a giant unframed canvas that hung on the tallest wall.

Sarah's mouth hung open at the intimate image. She didn't speak for a long while and I was anxious to know what was going through her head.

The canvas was huge. Something my mother had painted it towards the end of her life and it was too difficult for my father to keep. The base layer was a midnight blue with white, pink, yellow, and blue specks to signify a universe. Painted in brilliant detail over it was a naked woman, presumably my mother, in profile with an enormous swell of a pregnant belly. Next was the splatters, slashes, and thick impasto to exaggerate the pain she went through in her life. Like slashes to the canvas, she had obscured the base images so much that at a first glance, you'd think it was at random. There was so much emotion and pain in that canvas.

For the first time since Sarah had shared the news with me, I was starting to understand some of the fears she may be going through. Pregnancy destroyed my mother from the physical toll to the mental state she struggles to maintain. She would talk about how Jace and I were her proudest creations and how she would have done it all again, but I secretly wondered if she had changed her mind at the end.

"This is beautiful," Sarah whispered, catching my attention and refocusing on her. Her eyes glittered as they brimmed and I smiled at her, then the painting.

"My mother was an emotional artist who always managed to capture how she was feeling in multitudes of layers of paint." I took a pause as I noticed the white that was slashed with a dark red. "She would emerge from her studio covered in paint, smelling like turpentine, and smiling. I think it freed parts of her that she didn't have words for."

Sarah wrapped her arms around my middle, pressing her head to my chest. Running my hands over her arms, I linked my hands together behind her and bent to kiss her.

"Thank you," she said simply.

It took me a minute, but then I realized curiosity had me in its grips. "For what?"

"For everything. I know I'm not the easiest to handle, but you do it so well... Always have. Thank you for thinking to take me home, but not home. Thank you for it all."

I smiled at what she left unspoken and kissed her again for everything she vocalized.

The first night, she asked for space, so I set her up in my untouched guest room/office. Somewhere between midnight and two in the morning, she climbed in my bed, immediately slipping beneath my covers to find me how I always sleep... naked. She joined me in our lack of clothing and neither of us got much rest.

It took her a week to call her mom to let her know she was alright and close but needed another week before she met her for coffee.

Sarah was worried, at first about missing work, but there was no need. I told her she could return when she wanted, leaving out the part that I hoped she wouldn't want to return at all.

Here, Sarah had her family and most of her support system. It made more sense to stay, but it needed to be Sarah's choice.