Part Ten
She was out of her mind.
Her hand moved fast against the canvas before her, paint splattered against her cheek. What was she thinking? She wasn't thinking. That was what the problem was. It had been two months since she was released from jail and left Lucky. It had been two months since she decided that she was going to play it safe and give up on hope.
But now she was acting all crazy again.
Damn emotions and… and feelings, she thought disgustingly. Her hand moved faster.
They always got in the way and made her think crazy things.
Dropping the paintbrush on the workbench next to her, Elizabeth covered her face with her hands, unintentionally rubbing more paint across her cheek and forehead.
She was finally moving past everything that happened. Being framed for the murder of her ex-husbands wife, and getting another divorce was stressful and hard on her. But she was finally coming to a place where she could move on from that, move past it.
It had been hard and trying and Lord knows she shed many tears since she was released, but she got through it.
And all because of Jason.
He was always her rock, the one person she could lean on the most. When she needed him, he was right there if not a phones call away. He was the one person who helped her make it through these past two months with her head held high.
And now he was driving her out of her mind.
Well, she sighed, deciding to be honest with her self. He wasn't driving her out of her mind. Jason was wonderful. But it was the fact that he was so wonderful that was causing her to go nuts. She wasn't supposed to be feeling these things, she had warned herself against that when she walked away from Lucky. Being with anyone was no longer an option for her. Her heart couldn't take it anymore.
Which was why she was out of her mind for constantly thinking of Jason.
The more she spent time with him, the more he came to her rescue and just listened to her or held her when she needed him, the more she started to see him in a new light.
He was so wonderful with Cameron. When he wasn't there, Cameron would ask her for him. At one point she was grateful that her son was asking for Jason, this way she had an excuse to be around him and not make it seem like she was pathetic and needed him near.
Looking at her painting with a frown, Elizabeth decided that this one was just not worth saving. It had been a while since she painted in her old studio, but with all the pent up emotion after leaving Lucky and being set free, she had decided that she needed something to help her work through her problems… other than crying. So she had rented out her studio again and picked up a paintbrush for the first time in years, and it had worked.
Canvas after canvas stood propped up against the wall in her studio. She was really doing some amazing work.
Until she started to realize she was out of her mind.
Great, she groaned, it always went back to Jason.
Why did he have to be so damn wonderful?
As if she was being punished by someone up above who was getting great pleasure in seeing her suffer—she bet it was her great Aunt Cathy from her mom's side; that woman never liked her—there was a knock on the door and Jason poked his head in.
"Am I bothering you?"
"No." Elizabeth reassured with a smile, "Not at all. I was just deciding to trash this."
Jason stepped fully into the studio. He squinted and when he still couldn't tell what was on the canvas, he shrugged. "You've been up her for a long time and I thought you could use a break. Do you want to go to Kelly's and get some lunch?"
"That sounds great."
She quickly began to clean up her work area and when she was finished she straightened to see Jason looking at her with an amused grin.
"What?"
"You've got some paint," he gestured to his own cheek, "on your face."
She laughed. "I tend to get messy when I paint while thinking." She used the back of her hand and started to brush away the wrong side of her face as she rambled on. "I paint to forget, but I couldn't stop thinking today and so my painting turned out to be a disaster and now I'm a mess."
Jason was still smiling at her.
"There's still some on my face isn't there?"
"Just a little," he lied. It was all over her right cheek and forehead. She went to swipe at her face again when he grabbed a damp towel. "Here," he said softly. "Let me."
Elizabeth stood as stiff as a board as he gently cupped her chin and began to wipe the paint away. His eyes were watching his hand, but he finally looked into her eyes and stopped moving.
Elizabeth stopped breathing.
His hand holding the towel moved away from her face, his gaze lowered to her mouth. Swallowing, Elizabeth closed her eyes when she saw Jason's head dip towards hers. She waited a breathless moment before his warm mouth settled on top of hers.
In the back of her mind she was yelling at herself that this was crazy, she was crazy. But she didn't care. Not when one simple kiss was making her feel so good.
Jason tilted her head to the side and was about to deepen the kiss when a grumbling noise caused him to pull back slightly. He looked down at her and saw her cheeks quickly turning red.
Her gaze locked with the floor when she whispered. "I'm really hungry."
His laughter caused her head to snap back up. His thumb caressed her cheek as he once more placed a kiss against her mouth. He pulled back, smiled. "Let's get you something to eat."
Jason couldn't stop thinking about their kiss. It had been two days since he kissed her and for two days he couldn't think of anything else, which really sucked since he was doing a stake out for Sonny.
When he glanced around him and saw that no one was coming, he allowed himself to think about the kiss some more. Lunch that day had been as normal as ever. When they left the studio and walked to Kelly's holding hands, he thought that he had just made things awkward. But he was wrong. They talked and laughed and basically had a good time during lunch.
There was only an uncomfortable moment when Lucky walked in and spotted them. Elizabeth had lost her smile for only a brief moment but then looked back at Jason and continued her story about Cameron. Her smile was still sincere, she hadn't been faking.
Lucky had walked by there table without saying a word, it might have been due to the glare Jason had given him that basically said come near her and die, but that was neither here nor there.
It was during lunch that Jason got the call that Sonny needed him to leave for a couple of days to 'tie up some loose ends' and after being reassured by Elizabeth that she was going to be ok several times, Jason left.
Saying goodbye was the awkward part. He had walked her back to her studio and made sure for one last time that she was going to be fine. They stood there for a while, looking at the other. He hadn't known what he should have done. He stared at her for a bit wondering if he should kiss her goodbye.
It finally came down to him nodding once, her nodding once, a polite goodbye and then Jason leaning forward and kissing her on the cheek. If he hadn't walked away so quickly then he would have seen the disappointment on her face.
Scrubbing his hands over his face, Jason checked his phone for the fourth time in under an hour to make sure that Elizabeth hadn't called. He knew he couldn't accept any of her calls because he was working, but he was still disappointed that she hadn't called.
He had gotten so used to being around her and Cameron that when he wasn't around her he needed to be. For the past two months, they had spent almost every day together and for the first time in a long time Jason was truly happy. He looked forward to her calls, even if he only spent the evening holding her while she soaked his shirt with her tears. At least he could be there for her.
But what he loved the most was spending time with her in the studio, or being with her and Cameron playing in the park. Cameron was really growing on him and if he wasn't careful, Jason was sure he was going to become really attached to the kid.
Ah hell, who was he kidding, Jason was already attached.
To the both of them.
He honestly didn't think that this was going to happen or so quickly, but he was realizing that it didn't matter. All that mattered was being around Elizabeth and Cameron.
Jason was so caught up in thought that he almost missed the man going into the warehouse. This was it, he thought; time to get some much needed revenge.
Seven minutes later, Jason quickly left the warehouse dialing Sonny's number. The phone was picked up on the first ring as Jason drove away. "It's done; Escobar's no longer a problem."
Elizabeth watched as her son played with the new remote control car Jason had gotten him. Ever since Cameron watched the move Cars he was obsessed with everything and anything that had to do with the cars from the movie. After mentioning to Jason how much Cameron loved the movie, the wonderful man came the next day with a remote controlled Mater truck. He was going to spoil her son.
One look at the joy on Cameron's face as the bucked tooth truck drove all over her living room and Elizabeth decided that she didn't care. Hearing her sons beautiful giggle was all that it took to make Elizabeth's heart melt. They were both going to spoil her son.
Turning her attention away from Cameron, Elizabeth looked at her phone again. Should she call him? He told her that he most likely wouldn't be able to answer her call, but she could always leave a message and he would call her as soon as possible.
But what would she say? She didn't really need him for anything. Would 'Hey Jason, this is Elizabeth. I just wanted to say… hey and that I miss you and I figured that hearing your voice on your voicemail would help me get through until you were back' be a good message?
Yeah, she rolled her eyes. Because hearing 'This is Jason, leave a message' was enough to hold her over.
Nuts. She was going absolutely nuts.
Picking up the throw pillow next to her, Elizabeth slammed it against her face and silently screamed into the pillow.
A knock on the door had her dropping it quickly, like she had done something wrong. Standing up from the couch, Elizabeth glanced at her son and smiled when he jumped out of the way and laughed as Mater drove straight at his feet. She straightened her shirt and opened the door.
Her heartbeat quickened when she saw Jason standing there, one side of his mouth hooked upwards.
She stared at him for a moment, not knowing what to say. A simple 'hey' just didn't seem right at the moment. But as it turned out, she didn't need to say anything.
Jason's mouth covering hers kind of made saying hello quite difficult.
She heard the door close as he wrapped his arms around her, slanting his mouth over hers again and again. She tugged on his hair when his tongue slid past her lips and touched hers.
Oh yeah, he really knew how to say hello.
Elizabeth was all but melted in his arms when he pulled back and smiled down at her. "I missed you." He said.
Before she could say anything in return, she heard the remote control truck stop.
"Jason!" Cameron yelled as he dropped his remote and ran to the man who had now all but set her aside to catch Cameron.
"Hey buddy." Jason scooped him up. "You playing with your new toy?"
Cameron nodded enthusiastically as he wiggled to get down and grasped onto Jason's hand to lead him to his car.
Elizabeth watched with a frown on her face, practically glaring at Jason's back. How dare he? First, he kisses her at her studio and they spend yet another wonderful afternoon together eating lunch. Then he leaves her—which she was ok with because she knew he needed to for work—but he only kissed her on the cheek. She had spent the last three nights worrying if he had regretted the spur of the moment kiss and was trying to let her off easy by kissing her cheek.
And then this? He comes to her new apartment and kisses her senseless and acts like everything is a-ok?
What the hell was he doing to her?
She was just deciding to act like nothing happened, to act as nonchalant as he was when he looked up at her and winked. Oh who was she kidding? She couldn't act like it was just a normal kiss. Not when he winked at her and gave her a look like there was more kisses to come.
Well, he could wink at her and kiss her all he wanted, she gave herself a mental nod, she was still going to play it safe. It wouldn't hurt to kiss him, she liked it so much. But she was not going to give her heart out again. She had to protect herself.
"Mommy, look!" Her son's gleeful laughter caught her attention. Elizabeth walked towards her two men, one little and one so sexy and smiled as her son showed her another trick he could do with Mater. It consisted of the truck running into the wall over and over.
She laughed and looked at Jason, who was kneeling near Cameron, helping him with the controls. He looked up at her, a sparkle in his eyes.
Dammit, she thought. He was going to make it real hard for her to keep in her safety zone if kept looking at her like that.
He stood, wrapped one arm around her waist and kissed her softly on the lips.
"Hell," she muttered under her breath but knew Jason heard her when he smiled knowingly at her.
Jason already had her heart.
The End
A/N: I just want to thank all of you for sticking with me through this story. When I first started this, I had all the chapters planned out and knew exactly what I wanted to do, but with each chapter I wrote, something got changed and I realized that it wasn't going to be an easy story to write, or as easy as I wanted it to be. So thanks for sticking with me while I figured it out. :)
Those of you who have replied, I thank you so so much. At the risk of sounding really cheesy, your feedback has been my driving force to continue to write. So I thank you again.
I realize that there may be some unanswered questions, like what happened with Manny, and how long Sam was convicted for and so on. But I did that on purpose. It gives me the opportunity to leave this story open for a sequel. I really enjoyed writing the suspense (if there was much) of this story because it is really different from my other stories and some time in the future, I would like to tap into that again.
I hope you have all enjoyed this story and I thank you again for sticking with me!