Chapter 63: Jenna

“Wait, Laura. Don’t say something that you might regret later,” Roland told her. “Instead, step back and look at the situation objectively. Two ordinary people thrown into an extraordinary situation which was not of their making. An eighteen-year-old young man who’s life balance, and hormones, and who knows what else, were jumbled and confused by a lightning strike, and then he’s shipped halfway around the world with no one to care for him or serve as his ground, his rock, if you will.”

“But a baby! He’s still a boy!” my mom cried.

“And then there’s a young doctor,” Roland continued without acknowledging her. “ ... who accepts the young man into her home for the sake of her husband and old family obligations. She’s unsure, but she’s also a nurturer and a professional healer, so it’s not unusual that she reach out to care for this wayward orphan with special needs and special talents. And then when he heals her daughter, it’s like he had become one of the family and she welcomed him as such, not knowing that he was already falling for his caregiver. Add what happened on the boat, almost from the very start, and it’s no wonder that you want from him what I can no longer give you.”

This last part, he addressed to his wife as he took her hand and smiled.

“But he’s too young to have a baby,” my mom cried.

“Laura, you can’t do this,” said Roland. “Alex is a man in every sense. He’s old enough to father a child, but as I told Carina, my name will go on the birth certificate and he will bear my name. This is to protect the child. I can assure you that if there is such a child, we’ll make sure he wants for nothing.”

“But ... but I’m too young to be a grandmother!” she said as she started crying. Carina immediately went to her and began to comfort her. I just looked at Roland and sighed. This was not the reaction I had expected. She seems to have forgotten all about her original question.

“Why don’t you head up to the bridge and help Alfred. I’ll stay here for a while,” he said.

So I did exactly that. I did give Captain Alfred a brief synopsis of the morning’s conversation, but his only comment was “You sure have made life interesting around here.”

When Kelly Ann and Jenna turned up, she looked much better. “You okay?” I asked her. She just smiled and nodded her head.

“What’s going on, you two?” Jenna asked.

So I recapped mom’s question and what Roland and I had determined.

“So because of the lightning strike, you’re giving off some kind of super pheromones that women can’t resist. Especially when you touch them or heal them?” Kelly Ann asked. “I don’t believe that! I wanted you before you were ever struck by lightning. I wanted you before last night!”

“Last night?” Jenna asked as she homed in on her sister. “Just what happened last night?”

Kelly Ann looked at me. I just shrugged. I wasn’t ashamed and I wasn’t concerned about incest. It was like Alex had really died and the person I was now, wasn’t really their brother anymore. I was going to have to talk to Roland about this sometime.

“Jenna, Sweetheart, Alex and I spent the night together, last night,” she told her softly.

“Kelly Ann! How could you?” she cried and burst into tears. Kelly Ann just sat beside her and held her and let her cry.

“I’m the one that loves him. I’m his twin!” Jenna said fiercely. “When they first told us you were dead, I cried and cried for days. Somehow, in my heart, I just couldn’t believe you were really dead.”

I handed her the box of tissues that they kept around.

“I love you, Alex. I have always loved you and no lightning strike, or moving to France, or even the government, can keep us apart from now on,” she cried. “And I don’t care if your pheromones are working triple time on me, I know what I felt before you were ... hurt. And I know what I felt when they said you weren’t dead, and I know how I feel now. I just wish sometimes that we weren’t related so you could take me to your bed like you do the other girls. I want to feel your love, Alex. I want to die in your arms.”

Kelly Ann was holding her before I could get to her, but Jenna smoothly slipped into my arms when I sat down beside her. I didn’t know what to say, so I just held her as I ran my fingertips up and down her spine.

“Jenna, why don’t you go down to the cabin and clean your face. You’re a mess where you’ve been crying,” Kelly Ann told her little sister.

After she left, Kelly Ann looked at me.

“Well I certainly don’t want to die in your arms!” she said. “Get your ass down to that cabin and don’t come out until she’s as happy as you made me last night!”

“But what about...?” I started to ask.

“We could all die soon. If we survive this crazy trip, we’ll sort it all out then, But for this moment, she has suffered enough. Jenna needs you, Alex. Go to her. Love her!” Kelly Ann demanded.

So I did.

Jenna was already wet when I stepped into the shower with her. Although she had left her shoulder-length hair dry. I’ll say this, Alfred and Archara’s yacht had good sized showers. She was facing away from me and didn’t turn around. I turned off the water and poured some of her body wash in my hands then I started rubbing them over her shoulders and down her back. My hands tingled as I caressed her pert little bottom.