AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jewell laughed. She scooted closer and pointed at the people in the array of pictures. "You've met my sister Ruby. This is my older brother Garnett. And the blonde-haired angel is our little sister Pearl."
"Your names are Garnett, Jewell, Ruby, and Pearl?"
Jewell nodded. "My mother's name is Opal. Daddy figures it was fate that we should all be named after precious gems. Garnett's legal name is just that. Put that with Mom's name and next thing you know, we've got a pattern forming. Daddy says it was providence because they considered us all to be extra precious gifts, so we needed extra special names. They had our names legally changed: myself, Ruby, and Pearl."
His expression softened and this time when his attention skimmed over her features, she didn't feel the heat of embarrassment. Her cheeks flushed under his gaze, but not from embarrassment, and she held her breath as he touched the feathery ends of her hair where it hung over her shoulder. "Jewell is a perfect name for you."
She touched her fingertips to her lips and lowered her hand, palm up. "Thank you."
Benjamin went back to the album, smiling at some of the photographs taken more recently. As the pages turned, Jewell explained who everyone was and when each snapshot was taken. One of the last was a picture from her father's sixty-third birthday party just two months earlier. She and her siblings stood around him, each of them kissing some part of his head. The funniest part was her brother, who had to push down Cecil Kincaid's thick hair just to be seen.
"Your parents couldn't have children?" he asked.
Jewell shook her head. "No. My mother had Reyes Syndrome as an infant. She nearly died. As a result, she couldn't have children. She's also deaf from it."
Understanding crossed his face and he nodded. "I wondered where you learned to sign so proficiently."
Jewell leaned into the back of the couch. It was amazing. The tension and stress of the last three weeks were gone in a matter of ten minutes. Once again, the comfortable camaraderie between them was back.
"I went to live with my parents when I was four. I don't think the actual meaning of deaf hit me until I was eight or nine years old. I was so young and felt so much love from them from the moment I arrived, it just didn't matter."
"You were four?"
Jewell nodded. "I bounced around in foster homes up until then and wasn't eligible for adoption until I was three. My parents adopted the kids no one else seemed to want. They took on challenges no one expected them to be able to handle. Most of us were older, which in itself is a disadvantage when you're in the system. My brother Garnett was six years old. His parents and four other siblings were killed in a car accident.
"Ruby was younger. She was two. But she came from an abusive home. She says she doesn't remember any of it, but I wonder sometimes. Pearl was almost two. She was diagnosed as profoundly Deaf at eight months old. Her mother was poor, and there was no father named, so Pearl's mother signed off all parental rights and put Pearl up for adoption. My parents got a call right away, and she was home with us within a week."
"It seems your parents were very open and forward about the whole thing."
She nodded. "It was never a secret. And really, it didn't matter."
He laid his warm palm on her bare knee when he finished his sign. She looked down and examined in awe the difference between their skin tones. Benjamin's flesh was darker and warmer, but something less than tan. Her skin was pale and translucent in comparison. Even after a full summer of sun, she remained fair and freckled.
His fingers pressed gently into her thigh. The pad of his thumb ran back and forth across the sensitive skin of her knee. A liquid heat stirred inside her, and spread out to her limbs. The heat worked down her leg as if seeking out the source of the ardor. She fought down the desire to reach out and test the wave of his hair. Was it as soft and thick as it looked?
"What about you?" he asked. "You explained about your brother and sister."
Jewell met his gaze. This wasn't something she spoke about often. Her memories before Cecil and Opal Kincaid loved her were fuzzy, but unpleasant all the same. Years after the fact, she realized how thankful she was to have a new name. The old name seemed foreign and mismatched. For that reason, she didn't tell anyone what it was. It wasn't her. Very few knew Jewell wasn't her birth name. What spurred her into telling Benjamin, she wasn't sure. She swallowed against the dryness in her throat
"My mother was a heroin addict when I was born, and Child Services took me away immediately. I bounced around in foster care until Mama and Daddy took me."
Although the smile never left his face, Jewell caught the slight tensing around his eyes, creating tiny lines fanning from the corners. His thumb stroked across the skin of her knee more rapidly, with just a little more pressure. "You were happy." It wasn't a question as much as a statement, something he'd decided.
Jewell nodded. "Very happy."
His hand left her knee so he could set the book down on the coffee table. "Show me another one. I want to find something I can use for blackmail later."
Jewell laughed and stood up to retrieve another album from the bookshelf behind the television. The early morning hours slipped away.
* * *
Benjamin's groggy mind acknowledged the stiffness in his back before he ever opened his eyes. When he did, he had to blink against the light coming from the lamp from just behind his head. For several seconds he remained disoriented, glancing around the unfamiliar room.
He looked down and drew in a sharp breath. Jewell curled against his side, sandwiched between himself and the back of the couch they both lay on. Her cheek rested on his chest and her fingers curled against his tee shirt. Waves of auburn hair cascaded over his arm that sat across her shoulders.
Then he remembered. He came here last night to apologize. Somehow the conversation extended late into the night. Benjamin recalled the heavy, dreamy look in Jewell's eyes around three a.m. After the fourth or fifth yawn in as many minutes, she didn't even argue when he touched her shoulder and silently urged her to lean into his side.
She fell asleep almost instantly. Amid a sign, her fingers slowed and rested on his chest. Benjamin remembered the deep breath that pressed her breasts against his ribs as she sank into slumber.
