Heavy Traffic Ch. 09

"I can see how that would work," said Hale. "How soon are you thinking of opening Prestonwood to this new role?"

"Tonight," said Amanda.

Before anyone could comment on her statement, Sean added, "Amanda's right, the girls need to be moved from their current location tonight, and we want them moved to Prestonwood. Amanda and I drove by there on our way here, and judging by the lack of vehicles and people, the facility appears to have enough vacancy to be able to accept the girls and their supervisors from I.C.E. I have already made arrangements for a security team to be in place by this evening just as a precaution."

Seeing the shocked look on Jim Hale's face, Mrs. Askew spoke, "Let me make this easy for you Jim, you figure out what is needed to make the relocation of the girls a reality and I'll make certain that you have everything by tonight. If we need to hire nurses to act as food service workers or maids, we will do it. There are lots of alternatives to any problem you foresee. Get the word 'can't' out of your vocabulary."

"Secrecy is going to be important," said Sean. "The gang that tried to sell them is still out there and may want to get them back. Gather what is needed, but don't let it be known that the arrangements are for these girls. Understood?"

Sean didn't wait for anyone to answer. He stood and took the hand of both his grandmother and Amanda, then led them around the table to the door. "I am taking these lovely ladies to lunch now, but Pastor Steves knows how to get in contact with me if necessary. Let's go forward and do God's work for these girls gentlemen."

Sean, Amanda and Mrs. Askew left the three men discussing how they would present the foundation and Sean's expectations for Prestonwood to their local council, and then to the Church leadership in Nashville. Mrs. Askew called back over her shoulder, "I'll be back in a couple of hours, Brandon. If you and Jim want to sit down and work out more of the details, or need me to make any phone calls, we can handle it when I return."

Both men just nodded as the trio continued out of the building towards the parking lot. As they exited the building, Amanda glanced once again at the name above the door.

"I'm sorry that I never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Askew," she said.

"I am too," said Mrs. Askew. "I know that he would have been very proud of you, as I am. You are a very brave and considerate young lady, and I consider myself blessed to have the opportunity to help you and Sean with this project."

Amanda stopped, forcing Sean to stop beside her, which in turn made Mrs. Askew stop. Stepping around Sean, Amanda embraced his grandmother with all the pent up affection she had been building for this woman since they had met.

"You have no idea what your words mean to me, Beth. Thank you."

As Amanda began to pull away from the embrace, she was pulled back by the surprisingly strong arms of Elizabeth Askew. "It is me who should be thanking you, Amanda. You brought me back my grandson, and you did so in a manner that tells me his wandering days are over. I can never repay you for that act."

Smiling across at Sean's grandmother, Amanda said, "Beth, I think you and I are destined to become wonderful friends."

Seeing the confused expression on Sean's face, both women laughed as they each took one of his hands and continued out to his car.

Sean and Amanda followed his grandmother as she drove the few short blocks to her house. Technically, Sean owned the house that he had lived in with his mother when it was her turn to have custody of him, but after the death of Mr. Askew, his grandmother had moved in. After the death of Sean's parents, Sean had kept the house as a home for his maternal grandmother and as his formal place of residence. It was a large, but unpretentious two-story ranch style house on about a quarter acre in a moderately mature subdivision.

Sean explained that the majority of the houses in the neighborhood still had the original owners living in them, but recent years had seen more and more of them retiring, waiting for the property market to recover before selling their homes to fund their dreams.

Sean parked his car in the driveway next to his grandmother's and they all walked into the house together. Entering through the side door from the driveway, they walked through the mudroom into the spacious kitchen area. Amanda and Sean offered to help Mrs. Askew as she pulled their mostly prepared lunches out of the refrigerator.

"I made Sean's favorite Kielbasa and au Gratin potato casserole last night and it will only take about twenty minutes in the oven to reheat it," Mrs. Askew said. "Sean, why don't you show Amanda around the house while I get things ready here?"

"Are you sure you don't want any help Beth?" Amanda asked.

"I'm sure. You can help me clean up after lunch and we'll have some time to talk then."

Amanda thought she knew what the subject of this talk would be, but Sean couldn't figure out what his grandmother meant by her comment, so he decided to ignore it for the time being. "Follow me," he said to Amanda as he took her hand and led her out of the kitchen.

***

Kimberly Morris had just crossed into Tennessee from Georgia on interstate 75 when her cell phone rang.

Answering without checking the caller ID, she heard her husband on the other end. "Where are you at?" asked Mark Morris.

"I'm just south of Chattanooga, about to transition onto interstate 24. I should be at my office in a few hours, why?"

"Is Tom with you?"

"No, why?"

"The FBI came by his office looking for him this morning so I wanted to give him a heads up. I thought you two were together. What happened?" asked Mark.

"I don't want to discuss this over the phone Mark. I'll be at my office in a few hours."

"Yeah, yeah okay. Anything new on Sean or Amanda Wallace?"

"What part of 'when I get to my office Mark' don't you understand?" Kimberly barked.

"Jeez, alright. I thought you were talking about discussing Tom, not every subject there is. See you when you get here." Mark disconnected the call.

Kimberly returned to her thoughts about DeMarcus and what he had told her. She spent several minutes recalling DeMarcus telling her that she could divorce Mark, and after just speaking with her husband, she found the prospect of ending their charade of a marriage uplifting.

Her relationship with Mark had never been more than a smokescreen for their families and the world. She had used Mark to help hide her interracial relationship with Tom, and Mark had used her to hide his homosexuality from everyone except his lover. Mark stood to inherit millions from his grandfather, but if his sexual orientation ever became known, the inheritance would be history. Tom had discovered Mark's secret years ago, and had been manipulating him with the knowledge ever since.

While Mark still had to worry about people finding out his secret, Kimberly hadn't cared what her parents thought of her seeing someone of a different race since she had left home. It had been Tom and his concern over what his parents would think that had kept her in agreement with hiding their relationship, but with Tom now apparently out of her life, she had nothing to hide any longer.

DeMarcus' confession also made Kimberly consider her true feelings for Tom over all these years. Was it the man she loved, or the situation that the relationship created? She had kissed him for the first time as payment for a bet she had lost, and she realized now that she had pursued and then expanded their relationship because of how excited it made her feel to be doing things that the society she lived in would consider decadent, sinful, and immoral. It was this same desire to do things that went against the mores of her parents and most of her friends that allowed her to willingly agree to whatever Tom had asked her to do.

After DeMarcus had surprised her with his admission of love for her, and she had allowed him to have sex with her for the first time, her thoughts had never wandered far from what her future might hold. DeMarcus had been tender and gentle with her, almost to a fault. While he had definitely pleased her sexually, she wasn't sure if she wanted to be his lover under the terms he had mentioned.

Kimberly knew that Tom Folsom had used her in ways that most people would find disgusting, but she had always done his bidding of her own free will, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that she usually liked it. Kimberly knew she was what most people would consider a slut or a whore, but it's what she enjoyed and she wasn't sure how DeMarcus would accept her wanting to do things that he thought were demeaning to her.

Then thoughts of Sean Wallace crept into her head. Before they had fallen asleep, Tom had told Kimberly that he didn't think Sean and Amanda Wallace were married, just two people teamed up who happened to share the same last name and allowing everyone to assume they were husband and wife. Tom said that as far as he knew, no one had ever heard Sean state that Amanda was his wife, or Amanda say that Sean was actually her husband.

If Sean Wallace wasn't really married, that opened up another possible future for Kimberly. She had felt genuine affection for Sean, and while she couldn't say that she ever loved him, she did remember thinking about their future together and how content that prospect had seemed to her at the time, and it wasn't just because of Sean's money. Maybe she should give Sean another chance before she made a decision on DeMarcus?

***

Amanda couldn't take her eyes off the large framed photo of Sean that held a place of obvious honor above the fireplace. He was dressed in his Marine Corp dress blues and Amanda knew that she had never seen a more spectacular picture of a man in her life. The picture told the story of this man in so many ways. His bravery, devotion to duty, patriotism, and strength were naturally evident, but there was so much more that she saw in the picture, especially in his eyes.

"Sean, do you know one of the major reasons I like being known as Mrs. Wallace?" Amanda asked as he was leading her back to the kitchen.

"No, why?"

"Because Mr. Wallace makes me so proud to be his wife, even if it is only pretend."

"Pretend to be proud or pretend to be his wife?" Sean teased.

Amanda kissed him on the cheek and said, "Pretend to be his wife. The pride is very genuine."

Pulling her into his arms for an embrace, Sean responded, "Mr. Wallace is proud of Mrs. Wallace too, and he's finding it harder and harder to pretend."

At the end of the hall, Sean opened a door to what was obviously the master suite that had once belonged to his mother. The large four-poster bed still had linens on it that reflected a woman's taste, as did the window coverings and the rest of the décor.

"This was my Mom's room," he told her as they entered. "I thought that you would like to see it to give you some insight into her that you won't get anywhere else."

At first, Amanda was confused by this statement, but as soon as she was fully in the room where the scene of all four walls could be captured in their entirety, she started to grasp the context of Sean's words. Every wall held dozens of photos - each depicting a sunrise from a different location. In some of the pictures, the location was obvious, such as a sunrise over the skyline of New York City or behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Where the sunrise over a tropical beach or other setting was not recognizable to her, the pictures were just as beautiful, but the location was not identifiable.

"Did your Mom take all these pictures?" Amanda asked as she walked around the room studying each one.

"She did," admitted Sean, "as well as the 'partner' photo that goes with each."

Amanda turned to him for an explanation, and he provided it; "My mom would photograph sunrises and sunsets everywhere that her and my father travelled together. She kept the sunrises here in her room, and he kept the sunsets in his room. The first thing my mom would do on mornings when they were apart was to call my father and share her description of one of the sunrises with him. The last thing he would do every similar evening is to call her and share one of the sunsets with her. Whenever they were together, the always made a point of taking the time each day to share the sunrise and sunset. Some of my fondest memories are how they would bring the entire world to a stop and put everything else on hold in order to insure that they shared these daily experiences."

Amanda remembered the words that Beth had spoken to her earlier, "anyone who knows Sean will be able to tell in an instant that his sun rises and sets with you." Pulling him into her arms, she buried her head against his chest and whispered, "That's the life I have dreamed of Sean, and I want it with you more than I can say."

Sean hugged her tightly and replied, "Me too, Amanda. However, I don't ever want us to have to share sunrises and sunsets through pictures. I want every day of my life to begin and end with you beside me."

Taking both of her hands into his, Sean dropped to one knee and asked, "Amanda Wallace, will you marry me?"

Dropping to her knees to join him, Amanda kissed his lips and said, "Just say when. We've already decided on where."

"Amanda, I am already married to you in my heart. I hope you know that. The formalities are not urgent for me, but I definitely want them. I also want your one wedding to be everything you have dreamed it to be, but I don't want you to feel rushed. I'm already yours Mrs. Wallace."

"Those are my sentiments exactly, Sean. However, I dearly want Beth to know that a wedding is in our future."

"Then I leave the honor of announcing our engagement up to you," Sean said as he stood and helped Amanda back to her feet in front of him. "Now, what type of engagement ring would you like?"

Shaking her head, Amanda replied, "I don't want an engagement ring. My mother never had one, and I share her opinion that they are silly tokens that contribute nothing to the love between a man and a woman."

"Well the offer stands if you ever change your mind," Sean said as he led her down the hall towards additional rooms in the house. He showed her through the remainder of the rooms, and then back into the kitchen where his grandmother was just finishing a telephone conversation. While this house was definitely more of a 'home' than the cabin in South Georgia had been, Amanda could not ignore the obvious fact that it didn't appear to be a home for Sean. Every possession of his and every indication that he resided in this house at some time spoke to the transient nature of that time in residence. Amanda supposed that this could be due to him sharing his time between his parent's two houses, but she wasn't convinced this was the case.

Seeing them enter the kitchen, Beth Askew said, "Perfect timing. I just turned off the oven. Sean, I was just talking to Carol and she said some former Secret Service agents have come to her house to protect her. Do you know what that is all about?"

"Yes I do Grandma, and your own detail should be arriving here shortly. The gang that brought the girls here knows that Amanda and I have them, and may try to use you or Grandma Wallace as leverage to get us to return what they feel is their property. Kirby and I felt that you and Grandma Wallace should have some protection until this matter is resolved."

Beth Askew simply smiled at her grandson and said, "If you feel it's necessary Sean, you'll get no argument from me or Carol." Turning to Amanda she said, "Did Sean do well as a host?"

"Most definitely, Beth. The last part of the tour when he proposed to me set a standard for hospitality that will be hard for anyone else to match."

Amanda was disappointed by Beth Askew's lack of surprise or excitement at the announcement of her engagement. Seeing this on Amanda's face, Beth said, "I am ecstatic for both of you, but by no means surprised. I suppose the formalities need to be dealt with, but it was clear from the first time I saw you two together that you being husband and wife was a foregone conclusion, and your playacting the roles was a self-fulfilling acceptance of this reality by each of you. Did Sean show you the pictures?"

"Oh yes Beth, he certainly did!" Amanda kissed Sean on the cheek. "If I hadn't been head over heels in love with Sean before, that would have certainly sealed the deal."

"So when is the big day?" asked Beth.

"Yet to be determined," said Sean. "We want to get married in the Chapel at Prestonwood, but I don't believe either of us feels any urgency as to when it has to happen."

Amanda added, "I am a lucky girl to already have Sean's name, so now that I have his heart, the formalities as you call them are of little significance to me. Although, I will definitely want them taken care of before we have children."

"Do you plan on retaining your Australian citizenship?" asked Beth as she took plates from the cupboard. Amanda came around the island in the kitchen to help her.

"I haven't given it any thought," admitted Amanda. "I'm not even sure what my status in the United States is right now to be honest with you."

"That reminds me," said Sean. "We haven't heard from Mickey today. Let me give her a call and see what her plans are. She was trying to get back to Atlanta this afternoon." He walked over to the breakfast area to place the call, but was back in a few seconds. "No answer. I left her a message"

Beth Askew said, "Food's hot, so let's have some lunch while you two tell me your plans to make me a great grandma."

Kissing Sean, Amanda said, "Beth, the prospect of giving you great-grandchildren with this man brings me more joy than I ever thought possible." Beth Askew and her grandson were both beaming as they sat down at the table.

They had finished their lunch and were chatting about plans for the foundation when the doorbell rang. "I'll get that," said Sean as he rose from the table and headed for the front door.

Amanda stood and began clearing their dishes from the table. Beth joined her by taking the left overs to a counter and preparing the dishes for the refrigerator. Sean reappeared a few minutes later, followed by a man and a woman.

"Grandma, Amanda I would like to introduce you to Jordan and Taylor Zorn. They are the protection detail that Kirby has assigned to you Grandma."

Beth wiped her hands on a paper towel and then walked over and shook hands with the couple. Amanda stood back and just observed the couple. Jordan had shoulder length brunette hair tied in a ponytail, an infectious smile, and the tanned toned body of an athlete that participated in several outdoor sports. Amanda had seen women like her at the Olympics, usually standing on the center podium receiving a gold medal. Her husband, Taylor was a handsome, yet intimidating presence in his own right. He was six foot six inches in height at least, had black hair cut short in a style common to military officers, and a muscular physique that seemed more natural than developed through effort or exercise. As soon as he smiled however, any intimidation factor disappeared. If Jordan's smile was infectious, Taylor's could only be described as "fatal". Amanda thought this couple could make a living as models or actors in movies, and wondered just how good they were at protecting people with looks like they had.

Jordan and Taylor both greeted Beth warmly as Sean described their background and qualifications, "The Zorns are with the Secret Service. They are part of the protective detail for the First Family, but since the President and his family are at Camp David until the end of next week, Kirby was able to borrow the Zorns for a few days."

Amanda stepped over and also greeted the Zorns, relieved to know that Beth was indeed in good hands.