“Before we proceed with the rest of the meeting, I’d like to take a moment of silence to remember all those who lost their lives in recent events, and in the bridge collapse some years ago.”

  She thought the room was quiet before, but it was dead silent now. Until she heard the sobbing.

  It took Jennifer a bit to realize it was her.

  When the time ended, Miller looked out and said.

  “We can take the rest from here. Ya’ll head home now. Stay safe.”

  Jennifer floated out to the car. Her colleagues kept the crowd away from her, mostly. She hugged a few students, exchanged words with a few others, but she was in a trance by the time she sat down in the front seat next to Jacob.

  “We can do this tomorrow,” he said.

  She shook her head.

  “No, tonight.”

  He nodded, and he drove.

  Across the bridge, and off to the right, up the short road to the parking lot. It was dark, and Paradise Falls, what was left of it, was a sea of light on the other side of the river, beyond the low stone wall and pillars that made up the memorial. Jennifer drifted over to the memorial and Jacob appeared behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

  Neither one of them spoke for a while. Jennifer watched the lights moving. Lamps in houses turning on and off, cars moving. Life. Life went on, flowed along just like the river below, casting its reflection on her darkness.

  “Mom,” Jacob said. “Dad. Candy.” His voice cracked. “This is Jennifer.”

  He put his arms around her and buried his face in her hair and sobbed. Jennifer leaned back against him, her eyes closed, until he calmed, drew in a breath and steadied himself.

  “I’m ready to go when you are.”

  She nodded. “I need a minute alone. I won’t be long.”

  Jacob released her, touched her shoulders and turned back to the car. She waited until he was out of earshot and walked to the wall, and leaned over, looking down the river under the new bridge. A blink and she saw it in her mind’s eye- the wreckage, the cars, bodies, Christmas presents floating on the river, sliding between chunks of ice. The whole weight of the past, damming up the river, stopping the flow of the future, leaving her in limbo. She sucked in a breath like breathing in ice water and squeezed her hand.

  Pressed against her palm was the ring. They cut it off her finger, snapped it and pried it open when they did the surgery on her left hand. She looked at it, the way the light caught the surface, reflected in it, like a tiny river of its own.

  “I love you, Franklin,” she said, “Goodbye.”

  She turned her hand over and the ring slid off her hand. For a moment she tried to catch it, seized with regret, but then it fell and she saw a flash as it danced off a bare rock and disappeared into the void, swallowed up like so much else by the river below. Then in her minds eye the wreckage melted away, the bodies vanished and the wrecked cars broke loose, slid away into the nothing, borne not into the future but the past where they belonged. She stood there for a while, looking at the bridge and for the first time it was just a bridge. The two lights glowed on top. The damage was being repaired and the whole structure was being inspected after Katzenberg’s embezzling operation was revealed to the world, so it could be fixed if it was deficient.

  Taking a step back, she paused. She looked behind her, expecting to see somebody. She looked out, wondering if she could somehow sense someone on the bridge or maybe the far bank, watching, but there was no one there. She stepped back between the pillars and looked at the names. Franklin’s, and a little further above, Jacob’s family.

  “Hi,” she said, fighting to keep her voice even. “I’m Jennifer.”

  The wind picked up, and carried falling leaves across the memorial. Jennifer hugged herself against the cold and walked back to the car, but inside she felt warmer than she had in a very long time.

  Jacob was waiting, leaning against the car. That strange thin look was gone. He looked much as he had the day she first saw him. Or first noticed him, anyway.

  “Let’s go home,” she said.

  15.

  Jennifer awoke with butterflies in her stomach.

  The first day. Again. Now, her fourth year of teaching.

  Jacob snored next to her. The alarm was set for five and it was four forty-seven, so she turned over and laid there, watching him. He kept his hair at a respectable length now, only because the vice principal insisted. It made him look a little older, less wild, but as Jennifer yawned and reflected on the fact that she’d only gotten about four hours of sleep, she realized it was clearly a facade. He was just as wild as ever.

  His eyes fluttered open five minutes before the alarm and he rolled over and slipped his arms around her, and she tucked up against him. Her hair was longer now, just past her shoulders, and he couldn’t keep his hands out of it.

  Or other things. His hand moved down her stomach and she grabbed his wrist and pulled it back up.

  “Hey,” she sighed.

  “Oh come on, we don’t have to be to work for two hours. We have plenty of time.”

  Sighing, she pressed her lips to his ear. “When we get home, hon.”

  Jennifer rolled over and laid in bed while Jacob showered, steam pouring out from the bathroom door.

  Mrs. Carmody’s duplex needed some work. Jacob acquired the plans from the county and rebuilt it. The old woman was asleep on the other side of the wall, or, at least, didn’t have her television on as she often did in the wee hours.

  Jacob emerged and Jennifer sat up and watched him cross the room. One thing that shocked her, at first, after the settled into their new home, was how casual Jacob was about, well, walking around the house naked. If she protested, all he said was “I built the damn place.” Not thats he particularly minded. She dallied about in the bed as he toweled off and laid out his clothes. She tucked her bottom lip under teeth and looked at him. He caught her eyes.

  “What?”

  “Come here,” she said.

  “Yes?” said Jacob.

  Jennifer snatched his wrist and pulled. He offered only a token resistance before he fell into the bed, on top of her. Jennifer sank back into the pillows and grinned at him, feeling the heat flush on her skin as she turned beet red. Jennifer ran her finger up and down his stomach, and bit her lower the lip the way she knew he liked.

  He ran his fingers through her frizzy hair and leaned down to press his lips lightly to hers, and she opened her mouth and kissed him back hard, deeper, the heat growing in her belly. Jacob rolled onto the bed and pulled her with him, drawing her over to straddled him. She settled on his legs and pulled back out of reach, took a deep breath, and grasped the hem of her shirt.

  The little flutter of anxiety never left her, no matter what, but it was more of a thrill now than a bitter thing, and she came to like it. Now her body boiled as she drew her top over her head and let it pool on the bed beside her. Jacob’s hands slid up her sides, under her arms, and he pulled her close.

  Jennifer hitched forward and ran her fingernails lightly down his chest. The newest scar, the one Blondie gave him, stood out from the others, but she traced them all, feeling the tiny ridges and puckers in the tough, pale flesh the knives left behind as a permanent mark. As always her fingers traced lower and lower, following the roadmap down. She could feel his arousal growing. After all, she was sitting on it. She leaned forward a little and his hands slid up to cup her breasts as she ran her nails over his arms. There was a newer, long scar on his right arm.

  Jennifer leaned forward, resting her hands on the bed on either side of his stomach. Jacob ran his finger down the scar on her left cheek. For a while, Jennifer covered it, usually with a lock of hair. Now it was just there, and it didn’t bother her as such. In some perverse way she liked that it matched the mark on Jacob’s own face. Better than a ring, almost. She took his hand and rested it on her hip, and he began working her underwear down. She laid on top of him and wriggled free, kicked them away and laid on top of him, her chin resting on her folded arms. She glanced at the clock.

  “Well?”

  Jacob caressed her back with one hand, with the other he reached for the nightstand. Jennifer caught his wrist.

  “Why don’t we skip those,” she said.

  Jacob blinked a few times and his lips curled into a smile. He nodded.

  “If you want to,” he said.

  “I want to.”

  The wait had been the hardest part. It took almost two months for Jacob to be ready after he left the hospital. There was so much damage to his body, it hurt her to think about it. His left shoulder looked worse than before, a twisted mass of scar tissue, though he was as strong as ever. She leaned down and pressed her lips to the rough skin, and though Jacob shuddered and gasped and wrapped his arm around her, he sighed.

  “You know I can’t really feel that.”

  “How about this?” she said.

  She worked her mouth towards his neck, and he sighed and buried his face in her hair, and smelled. Jennifer giggled in spite of herself and squirmed.

  “Hey, I stink. I need a shower.”

  “If this is what you call stinking,” he said, laughing softly into her ear.

  He tilted her head to the side, and his lips found her throat. The air conditioning was going full blast, but she was sweating as though she were in a sauna, hot pinpricks all over her back as the sweat started. She even felt a trickle between her shoulder blades, followed by Jacob’s finger following its path. She wriggled and made a delighted sound, and he sniffed at her armpit and she elbowed him lightly in the side, but her laughter turned into a soft sound when he shifted under her and his mouth closed around her nipple.

  Before him she had little experience, and she truly believed him when he told her the same. He was just a natural, she supposed. Not that she turned out to be hard to please. When he sucked on her nipple it almost hurt but she liked it too much, and showed him by tugging on his hair and holding him around the neck. He rolled and she was on her side, and she closed her hand around his hardness, thrilled by how hot it was.

  This was going to be different, feel different. They always used protection before- not that she felt she needed protection from him, but…

  She thought he would lunge and she would wrap her legs around him and he would take her then, but as usual she was wrong and he kissed a hot trail down her body, holding her hips in his hands. Jennifer spread out on the bed, let her limbs go limp and closed her eyes. The first touch of his tongue to her sex came as a surprise, and she squeaked and her legs jerked. Jacob laughed softly and then went to it, and in minutes her legs were wrapped around him, her back was arched and she had her fingers trying to knot in his hair. She decided she wanted him to grow it out again. It gave her a better grip.

  He pulled away from her. “What are you laughing at?”

  She was still giggling, and had a hard time squeezing out the words. “I want you to g-grow your hair out,” she stammered.

  “Okay?”

  “That’s it? You don’t want to know why? I want to pull on it,” she said. “While we, um, you know.”

  It was his turn to laugh. “Oh, really.”

  Now he began working his way up, and it only made her first burn hotter. Every touch sent a cold shock down her legs, made her shake with anticipation. In its own way, this was like their first time, only now she had practice. He always insisted on going down on her -sometimes he just did that, and then hugged her against him and went to sleep- and she was going to return the favor sooner or later. She had a feeling he wasn’t completely serious about stopping her. The thought made her feel strange and scandalous, but she wanted to try it. Maybe another day. No one had ever made her feel that way before. It was like every time they were together a new desire opened up inside her, ready to be filled.

  Speaking of being ready to be filled.

  Jennifer went quiet, held her breath as she always did. Jacob’s face went slack when he touched her, when she took him and guided him in, but there was something different in it this time. Usually he would be very quiet until they found a rhythm but as soon as she felt his girth and heat filling her he gasped out, “Oh God,” and pushed in deeper, faster than usual, faster than she was used to. Jennifer didn’t mind. She liked the suddenness of it, and squeezed his hips with her legs.

  Most of the time the banter never stopped, even as he was inside her, until they were close to finishing. Today they were both very quiet. Jacob never took his eyes off hers, and she draped her arms around his neck and moved with him, gasping and sighing but making no sound until she felt the pressure building inside her. Her arms around his neck tightened until he was clutching him to her, and his arms pressed into her back, their sweaty bodies gliding together as Jacob tensed and she felt him swell inside her. She arched and thrashed under him, overcome by pleasure, twisting the bedsheets with her heels as she raked her nails down his back, feeling them catch on the scars. Jacob made a soft shuddering sound in her ear as he spent himself.

  There was a hint of reluctance in him when he began to pull away. Jennifer, in a flash of boldness through her post-peak haze, put her hands right on his rump and pushed him down.

  “Stay where you are,” she purred.

  He didn’t mind. He shifted so his weight was on his arms and she could breath against him, and they stayed together like that, joined bodily. The clock ticked to five thirty before Jennifer finally wriggled, as she began to shiver. Jacob worked well as a living blanket, but she was sweaty and it was cold and she was freezing.

  “We have go to work,” he said.

  “We could call in sick,” she said.

  He sighed. “It’s the first day.”

  “I have accrued sick time,” she said. “I can take like a month off if I want.”

  Jacob snorted. “Well, I don’t. I don’t even have tenure for another year.”

  “We could call in sick,” she said, again. She smirked and gave him that smokey look she knew he liked, and bit her lip. “Then we could, ah, all day. If you want.”

  “That’s not fair. Tempting me like that.”

  “Fine,” she said. “Go get another shower. But give me the blanket. It’s freezing in here.”

  “It’s seventy degrees.”

  She smacked his backside. “Just go, damn it. Before I change my mind.”

  Jacob grinned and withdrew. He pulled the blanket over her and went to take a second shower, but was only under the spray for a minute before Jennifer slipped in with him. When he remodeled the house he upgraded the shower with half a dozen showerheads, so they could bathe together without Jennifer having to stand outside of the spray and get cold. She was always cold. Jacob scrubbed her back, and kneaded shampoo in her hair, and his fingers on her scalp sent tasty, teasing little shivers all through her body.

  They’d have stayed in there all day if she didn’t shut the water off and step out, her bare feet slapping the bath mat. Jacob wrapped a towel around her and took another and began vigorously drying her hair as she looked in the mirror, smiling softly when she met his eyes. The hairdresser had to cut it fairly short to make it presentable after her braid was hacked off and she liked it that way. Jacob brushed and combed out her hair until it shined, and after all that just ran his fingers through his own and flicked the water out. Jennifer scowled at him.

  She flexed her fingers. Her left hand was not useless, but she couldn’t do much more than awkwardly grasp with it. She could grip with her first two fingers and thumb and had some feeling, but the other two barely moved. Sometimes, she wore a glove on her hand, but lately had forgone that, just bearing the wicked puckered scar on her palm the way she did the scar on her cheek.

  Wrapped in a towel, Jennifer padded back into the bedroom. Jacob promptly yanked it off, and she yelped and covered herself with her arms, and began batting at his arm with her fists, laughing. Jacob caught her waist and started to pull her close but stopped.

  “You’re all wet. I don’t want to ruin my clothes.”

  Jennifer scowled at him, twisted out of his grip and sat on the end of the bed to finish drying herself. Jacob went quiet, watching her run her hands up and down her legs and over her chest, and she somehow managed not to stare at him the entire time. By the time she stood up to properly dress, her stomach was fluttering and she was flushed, not from heat. Jacob continued to study her as she put on her underwear, but jumped into help. He clasped her bra, pulled her pants up and tugged a polo shirt down over her head, and of course dipped in to kiss her before he let go.

  They ate breakfast together. In deference to Jennifer’s many first-day-of-school rituals, Jacob made up the gummy oatmeal protein shakes the night before and they stood next to each other in the kitchen, and gulped them down while standing. They finished at the exact same time, moved to the front door at the same time. Jennifer strapped on her messenger bag. Jacob shrugged into a backpack and put on his helmet and riding gloves. Jennifer strapped hers on, walked out to the porch and lifted her new bike down to the sidewalk.

  Jacob followed a moment later.

  “I had to make sure the door was locked,” he said.

  Jennifer sighed. “When we get home we’re having sex again.”

  “Yes, dear.”

  The old house that once stood on these foundations had a crawlspace basement- open dirt floor, full of water and bugs. Jennifer never used it, not even for storage. Before Jacob had the renovations done, he had the basement, ah, expanded. Rebuilt. The garage on Jennifer’s side of the house was new, too. The Toyota sat inside, unused most of the time. They rode bikes together unless it was raining or they were going to the grocery store after work. Of course, it was a two car garage. One side for the Toyota… and one for the other car.

  Jacob nudged her shoulder.

  “Race you.”

  He took off before she could reply. Laughing through a scowl, Jennifer took off behind him, and caught up quickly.

  The ride to the school was brisk, the breeze warm. Jennifer locked up her bike alongside Jacob’s, alongside all the student’s who’d already arrived, and headed into her classroom. It was not her old one but she’d only spent a few years there. She gave Jacob a kiss on the cheek as he headed to his classroom, and batted his hand away when he groped her butt. She gave him a smack on his and retreated, snickering, into her classroom. One she shared with Rachel, now that they were all pressed together into one school until No. 1 was expanded.