A Humble Heart

busy. “Damn it.” He called Deana to find her phone busy as well.

He tried again and this time Dana answered. “Hello?”

she answered. He could tell she’d been crying.

“Dana, are you okay?”

“Hey, Edward, yeah I’m fine,” she answered quietly.

“I want to come over and see you.”

“That’s not a good idea tonight. I

.I have to go. I’ll see you Monday.”

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Can we talk Monday?” she asked softly.

“Of course,” he said reluctantly and hung up.

********

The weekend dragged. He spent the entire weekend inside his house watching television, reading and cleaning.

His cell phone and house phone went with him everywhere in case she called. It was pretty pathetic.

He drove to the beach anxiously this morning. Thankfully it was closed down for public use because of production.

Most of the day would be spent waiting for everything to be set up. Most of his day would be spent waiting for the sun to hit the beach at a perfect angle.

He made a bee line for Dana’s trailer only to find it empty. After a few minutes he managed for find Amy. She was by the food trailer, speaking with the director. “Where is she?” he asked Amy.

“She’s not here yet,” Amy said.

“Who? Dana?” one of the cameramen asked. “Damn, did you see that photo spread of her? I knew she was hot before, but damn!”

Edward ignored him and walked back to the trailer in time to see the door close. He opened the door and stepped inside to find Dana sitting on the couch with her head in her hands.

He sat down next to her and put an arm around her. “I missed you,” he said softly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call you this weekend. It’s been pretty bad,” she said.

“What happened?”

She sighed heavily and looked at him. She looked tired, he noted. “Well, first that lovely television show rocked my world, exposed things about me I wanted kept personal.

Then the calls began. That was soon followed by people coming to my house and snapping pictures from the sidewalk, followed by a naked man trying to break into my bedroom window at three in the morning.” Every muscle in Edward’s body tightened. “The cops took him away. The next morning I received calls from Playboy, Hustler and several porn companies. Oh, and to top it off Jeff called and begged me to take him back.” She turned to look at him with faux bright smile. “So, how was your weekend?”

“Hell.” He gently pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

“But it sounds like your weekend was worse. I’m sorry, Dana. I wanted to be there, but you wouldn’t let me.”

“I know.” She leaned into him. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t want to drag you into that.”

“I want to be there for you, Dana.” He kissed the top of her head. “I want to be with you.” He kissed her cheek and worked his way to her mouth. He devoured her mouth on contact.

He couldn’t remember kissing a woman like this before.

Her mouth was pure heaven for him. It provoked more passion in him than he’d ever experienced. He sat back and pulled her onto his lap, making her straddle him. His hands moved down her back until they were firmly placed on her backside. He gently squeezed her ass.

Dana caressed his face, his hair, his neck, and shoulders while he held her tightly against him. She moved her mouth to his neck, kissing it until he dropped his head back and closed his eyes. Her hot mouth moved over his Adam’s apple, making him moan.

If she kept it up he was going to take her right then and there. She wanted to go slow and he wanted to make her happy no matter what his body was screaming for him to do at the moment. “Dana, can I ask what happened Saturday?”

She pressed one more kiss to his throat before she sat back on his lap and looked at him. “Sure.” She ran a finger over his jaw. “What do you want to know?”

“Who won?” he asked, giving her a lopsided smile.

She rolled her eyes playfully. “I did of course,” she said dryly, earning her a tickle from Edward. “Stop! Edward!”

she begged through giggles.

He stopped tickling her, but he didn’t stop touching her.

His hands moved gently over her thighs. “What else happened?”

“What are you writing a book?” she teased.

“Yes.” He laughed.

“Well, I told you what happened. What specifically did you want to know about?”

“Jeff.”

“Oh.” She extracted herself from his lap and moved across the trailer. Dana leaned against the kitchenette wall, looking lost. “There’s really nothing to talk about when it comes to Jeff,” she said, looking at the floor.

“What happened?” Edward asked. He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms. “Baby, what happened?”

“Apparently he wants to give us another go, as he put it.

He says he didn’t realize what a bitch Bea was until he saw her reaction to that television show.”

“What about the kids?” Edward asked.

“That’s the kicker, when I refused him he wanted to know about you, and then he tried to threaten me with suing for the kids, out of their best interests of course,” she said dryly.

“It will be okay. I promise I’ll stand by you no matter what,” Edward said, pressing a kiss to her neck because he really could help himself.

“That sounds sweet, Edward, but that’s a lot to ask anyone,” she said softly. He was turning out to be her ideal man, strong, confident, caring and unbelievably sexy. If she wasn’t careful she was going to fall completely in love with him, not that she wasn’t already half way in love with him.

He cupped her chin firmly and looked at her. “I want to.”

He stopped any protests with a kiss. As the kiss started to get out of control she gripped his shirt and pulled herself tightly against him as he pushed her against the wall. She moved her mouth to what she was already learning was a favorite spot for him, his Adam’s apple, and licked and kissed it. He moaned while he ground himself against her.

She loved the way he moaned.

His hand reached up between them and cupped her breast through her shirt. “Fuck,” he groaned. He moved against her harder making her moan. He claimed her mouth again as he grabbed her leg and hitched it over his hip so he could grind his erection hard against her center.

She whimpered loudly into his mouth.

“Dana-whoa, sorry!” Amy said.

With one last kiss Edward stepped back from Dana, smiling sheepishly.

Dana felt herself blush ten different shades of red before settling on beat red. “It’s okay, Amy. What’s up?”

She tried to sound casual, it didn’t work. Amy grinned as she started going over the problem at hand.

“There are about fifty people on the set waiting to see you, Dana. Let’s see, your ex-husband is here with his lawyer.” Edward put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

“It will be okay, baby,” he said against her hair.

“I have to call my lawyer

oh no, he’s in Boston.” Her hands began to shake.

“Whoa relax, you’re covered. Mom’s here.” Amy grinned hugely.

Dana looked confused.

“Mom’s a lawyer. Her nickname is Barracuda. You’re in good hands,” Amy explained.

“Mom’s here?” Edward asked. Amy nodded. “Good.”

He stepped out of the trailer, leaving Amy and Dana to talk.

“Okay, there are about twenty guys here demanding that they are your boyfriend and want to see you.” Amy seemed to enjoy the horror on Dana’s face. “Don’t worry security already sent them away. Let’s see, Rick is here, also several reps from magazines are here and Eric from Rascal Productions is here to talk to you.”

“Great. So I have a full day of stress and humiliation to look forward to,” Dana said, dropping into a chair. “Bring on the fun and games. Where should we start?”

As if on cue the door flung open, hard. Dana and Amy looked over to see Jeff and his lawyer walk into the trailer.

Jeff stopped and looked around. “Nice, Dana. I see you’re really moving up in the world.” He lowered his eyes to Dana’s kiss swollen lips and glared at her. “Last chance to reconsider.”

“Is this a joke, Jeff?” Dana asked. She leaned back in her chair and looked Jeff over. How the hell had she ever settled for such a creep? She thought she’d freed herself of him a year ago. That apparently hadn’t lasted very long.

“Mr. Mathews is very concerned with the safety of his children. He has a court order allowing him to see his children. By refusing to allow him to see his children you are in violation of a court order and we will be pressing charges,” his lawyer said.

Dana jumped to her feet. “What? No one refused to let him see the kids!” she yelled.

“Mrs. Mathews, if you don’t calm down I’ll be forced to have this moved in front of a judge.”

“First off, it’s Ms. Mathews. Secondly, you have no case and he knows it.” She pointed to Jeff who was smiling smugly.

“Counselor, I know you’re not harassing my client,” a beautiful older woman said, stepping into the trailer.

Edward stepped inside behind her. She held her hand out to Jeff’s lawyer. “Eleanor Pierce,” she said.

Jeff looked uncomfortable. No doubt he thought she would be without aide.

“I’m sure we can clear this matter up very quickly,”

Eleanor said confidently.

“Thank god,” Dana mumbled. Edward moved to her side and took her hand.

“Dana, do you have the papers he presented you with on Friday?” Eleanor asked.

“Yes.” She released Edward’s hand and made her way to her laptop bag. Edward watched as Jeff checked her out. The bastard actually licked his lips. His hands clenched into fists. Amy put a hand on his arm and squeezed gently.

Dana handed Eleanor the thick envelope. His mother quickly looked it over. Her mouth tugged up into a triumphant smile. “Counselor, did your client inform you that as of last Monday he has forfeited all rights to Elizabeth and Cole Mathews?”

Jeff’s lawyer threw him a furious look. “No, he did not.”

He reached out and took the document. After several minutes he handed it back to Dana. “I’m very sorry for wasting your time.” He looked at Jeff. “Expect a bill and don’t contact us again.” He stormed out of the trailer, leaving Dana and Jeff staring each other down.

“Can we have a moment? I think we need to have a talk, something we should have done a long time ago,” Dana said, keeping her eyes on Jeff.

“I’ll be outside, Dana. I hope you don’t mind, but Amy has arranged for me to sit in during your meetings,” Eleanor said.

“Thank you for everything,” Dana said, unable to stop her voice from breaking with emotion.

“Don’t worry about it,” Eleanor said, smiling warmly as she walked out of the trailer.

“I’m not leaving,” Edward announced.

She sighed. “Edward, I need to talk to him.”

Edward walked over to the couch and sat down. “I’ll sit right here and I won’t say a word, but I’m not leaving. I don’t trust him.”

Jeff shrugged. “It doesn’t bother me, he can stay.”

“Fine,” Dana said, too emotionally strung out to argue.

“Jeff, why did you do this?” she asked, bringing her hands up in the air and dropping them.

“I miss you, Dana. I miss us, the kids, I miss making love to you, kissing you and falling asleep with you in my arms,”

Jeff said softly.

“Oh my God, Jeff! Are you kidding me?” Dana said, unable to believe the nonsense he was shoving at her. She folding her arms over her chest, hoping the action would stop them from shaking.

“You can’t tell me you don’t miss me. I remember what my touch used to do to you,” he said, grinning the way he used to when they first started dating. He reached out to take one of her arms. She pulled back out of reach.

“Jeff, the key word is used to. Like nine years ago.

Things have changed, I’ve changed and you’ve changed.

We haven’t so much as kissed in four years so where is this all coming from?”

He dropped his hand. “Sweetheart, I screwed up. I’m so sorry. I cannot believe what I did. It was my fault. I didn’t appreciate what I had until it was too late.”

“Jeff, where did this come from? You’ve been with Bea for the majority of our relationship and you just married her.

What are you doing? Are you even thinking?”

His face contorted into anger. “You cut me off. What the hell was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know maybe try, you should have tried, damn it!”

She covered her face with her hands and tried to calm down. “Jeff, what we had wasn’t a marriage. We were two people legally stuck together. We weren’t in love, we weren’t even friends. It was wrong to get married, but I’ll never regret it because I got two great kids out of the deal.”

“You wouldn’t have them without me. You owe it to me to try now,” Jeff stated.

“No,” she simply said.

Jeff gestured back to Edward. “Is it because of him? I can guarantee you if my screwing around upset you, this will damn near kill you. The guy is world famous, thousands of women want him, models, actresses, women a hell of a lot better looking than you! He’ll cheat on you, too!” he yelled.

Edward waited until Jeff stopped yelling before he spoke. “I would never cheat on her and she is without a doubt the most beautiful woman I have ever met inside and out. So maybe you should keep me out of this and talk to her.”

“Jeff, your cheating on me didn’t hurt. I’m sorry, but I didn’t feel betrayed, I feel beyond annoyed that you weren’t man enough to duck out of our marriage before you did it. I didn’t feel that way about you. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry? That’s just great! I wasted eight years of my life on you, you bitch!” Jeff said.

Edward shot to his feet. “You raise your voice or call her that again and I’ll step in.”

Jeff ignored him, but Dana noted that he took several discreet steps away from Edward. “Dana, please I’m begging for our kids’ sake to give us another chance.”

“No.”

“If he wasn’t in the picture would you give me a chance?”

“No, Jeff. I am saying no because it wouldn’t work. I don’t love you. I don’t like you. We are two completely different people. You moved on a long time ago. You’re only pulling this nonsense now because you don’t want anyone else to have what you can’t have, plain and simple.”

Jeff glared at her for another moment. Finally he left, slamming the door closed behind him.

Edward put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. “Damn you must be great in bed to make a man act like a psycho,” he teased, hoping to ease some of her stress.

Dana laughed weakly against his chest and playfully smacked his arm. “Smart ass.” He held her tightly in his arms for several minutes.

“I was wondering

.,” Edward mussed.

“Yes?” she asked, pulling away from him.

“Well, I was wondering if you were free tonight,” he asked.

“You’ll have to check with one of my assistants,” she said, smiling.