Chapter 99

Both Jon and Sara had managed to keep themselves occupied enough that the separation was just an intermittent ache, no longer the crippling sadness of their last morning together. Sara had managed to concentrate - more or less - on her job as she photographed another hunt, including an unexpected, and unpleasant, encounter with a group of hunt saboteurs. She took some photos of the disruption caused, then the guy who’d been tasked with driving her around caught her arm gently, pulling her toward the Land Rover as some of the saboteurs looked in their direction.

“Come on. These people are very brave behind their balaclavas, but they don’t like having their picture taken. Time to go.”

Sara didn’t argue, just got into the car and shut the door as the driver started the engine, and they drove away before any trouble could come their way.

The hunt was pretty well over by then, anyway, so he just dropped Sara back at the hotel, and she took the case of cameras up to her bedroom.

First priority was to switch on the coffee again, then Sara turned her cellphone back on, laying it on the table where her laptop was already plugged in. She glanced at her watch, seeing it was just a few minutes before five pm, but she didn’t feel hungry, so she decided to upload the photos before thinking about dinner. When the coffee was done, she poured a cup and took it over to the table, finding that most of the photographs were okay, though the ones showing the masked saboteurs harassing the huntsmen were disturbing, as the hatred seemed to come through so clearly. She shivered at one of the photos, the last one she’d taken, where a small group of saboteurs were staring directly at her, beginning to approach. Whatever their reasons for being there - because she knew from some research she’d done that some of them were genuinely opposed to hunting, a lot of them were just there for the violent potential of these meetings - it was certainly intimidating, and Sara quickly closed down the picture with another shudder.

She thought again about dinner, but she really wasn’t hungry, and the memory of the meal she’d had the previous night made her even less inclined to take the short walk to the pub. Instead, she filled the bath, then organised herself for a lovely long soak - coffee, chocolate, book and, after a second’s thought, her cellphone all went through to the bathroom with her, and she stepped into the luxuriant bubbles, the water hot enough to make her sink slowly into the tub.

After a deliciously long bath, she curled up in bed with more coffee and switched on the television, surfing through channels until she stopped suddenly, seeing Jon’s face on the screen! She was sleepy and contented enough that it didn’t upset her, though, but it was more of a comfort seeing and hearing him, even though she didn’t know what the movie was. A commercial break came up, first flashing up the movie title. Okay, so she wasn’t the biggest fan of vampire movies, but Jon certainly looked good, and she giggled to herself as she thought that, if she was a vampire, she’d sure as hell bite him! She watched the movie to the end, startled but turned on when Jon’s eyes turned black in one scene, and she wondered vaguely if he still had the black contacts at home.

Movie over, she settled into the pillows with her book, fortunately setting her alarm clock first, since she woke at the beeping sound the next morning to find the lights and television still on, and her book buried underneath her somewhere. Silencing the alarm, she got out of bed and stumbled to the bathroom, then when she came back into the room, she took the coffee pot and filled it at the basin. She was just carrying the pot of water through when she heard Jon’s voice coming from her phone, and water sloshed over the brim as two long strides took her across to the bedside where she grabbed the phone.

“Jon?”

“Hey, darlin’. How’s my girl?”

“Better now I’m talking to you. I thought you were going to call me this afternoon?”

“I was. I will. But I just thought if I left it until about now, you’d be up so I wouldn’t be disturbing you this time.”

“Jon - you can disturb me any time you like.” Sara looked at the clock. “What time is it there? Three am or something?”

“Yeah. Almost three.”

“Couldn’t you sleep?”

He sounded slightly embarrassed as he replied, but his answer put a huge smile on Sara’s face.

“I could, but I thought if I waited up, I could talk with you before I went to sleep.”

“Aw, baby!” She filled the coffee machine one-handed as she spoke. “I actually fell asleep reading last night. I watched one of your movies first, though! It was on TV. Made me dream of you.”

“You did? Which one? Do I even want to know what you were dreaming?”

“Well, you bit me. Again. But this time you did break the skin. And you had the coolest eyes, too.”

“Vampires?” He sounded doubtful. “You liked that movie?”

“Uh-huh. I loved it, babe. I really loved the black eyes.”

“I’m glad you liked it - not many did.”

“Well, I did.” The coffee machine gurgled loudly, making Sara jump, and she moved away from the noise, back over to the bed.

“Hey, I spoke with Richie yesterday. He sounded really excited about Linda coming to visit.”

“I think he was.” Jon yawned suddenly.

“Jon - go to sleep.”

“Don’t want to. I want to keep talking to you. Hey - does your cell have video calling?”

“Uh…..nope. I do NOT need people seeing me when I’m on the phone! I’d have to make sure I was decent every time I made a call. No thanks.”

“Soooo…….does that mean you’re not decent now?”

“Well,” Sara looked down, “define decent.”

“What are you wearing?”

Her only reply was a throaty chuckle, and Jon grinned, his grip on the phone tightening just a little.

“Does that mean you’re naked?”

“Mm-hm. I just got out of bed, Jon. Now you need to go and get some sleep.”

“I’m supposed to sleep with visions of you naked in my head? Well, I guess I’ll be having some good dreams anyway.” Another yawn. “Sorry, darlin’.”

“Bed. Sleep. Now!”

“Yes, ma’am. I like it when you’re bossy.”

“Good night Jon!”

“Yeah, baby. Goodnight, Sara. I’ll call you later today.”

“Okay baby. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

They both hung up, and Sara was smiling as she laid down the phone and went across to pour some coffee.

Jon shook his head as he clicked his phone off, astonished at how desperately he was missing Sara. He didn’t remember ever missing Dot this much, even years ago when they’d only just got together, but maybe he had and the years were just dimming the memory.

He dropped his clothes in a semi-tidy pile on a chair then fell into bed, the contentment from talking with Sara spreading a weariness through him. Sleep came quickly, and he woke late - almost ten in the morning before he surfaced - and even then it was only because the kids decided he’d slept long enough, barging into the room in a noisy rabble to wake him.

Once the boys had badgered him awake, Stephanie stepped forward with a steaming mug of coffee, which Jon took from her gratefully. As he took a long drink, the kids arrayed themselves on the bed around him, and Jon realised from their serious expressions that they had something on their collective minds.

“What’s up, guys?”

In unison, the boys looked at Stephanie, who seemed resigned to her role as spokesperson.

“Well, Sara, dad.”

“Yeah. What about Sara?”

“I told the boys you had a girlfriend.” Steph was watching him carefully, alert for any signs of anger, but Jon just smiled at her.

“Thanks, Stephy.” He looked at his boys. “Are you guys okay with that?”

Three blond heads nodded vigorously, and Jon felt a huge sense of relief.

“Do you want to meet Sara?” He asked carefully. More nodding.

“Well, let’s see if mom’ll let you all come to the next show. Sara’s going to be there, and you can see the guys, too.”

The kids seemed to love that idea - they were always happy to see their adopted uncles - and they all hugged Jon then trooped away happily, leaving him alone with his thoughts.