Always You by Crystal Hubbard

Author:Crystal Hubbard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-58571-560-2
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Published: 2010-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Chiara and John had an early dinner with Cady before seeing her off in a taxi for a flight to St. Louis out of Midway. At Chiara’s insistence, Cady had agreed to fly home instead of spending one more night on the air mattress and then climbing into Chiara’s Mitsubishi and riding with her and John to St. Louis.

After dinner, John had suggested dessert at the Park Grill Restaurant, which was housed in the McCormick Tribune Plaza and Ice Skating Rink in Millennium Park, one of their favorite parts of the city. Bundled in a thick, voluminous wool cape she’d picked up in Japan, she’d held John’s hand as they’d strolled around the rink after dessert, watching the skaters. “Feel like taking a spin on the ice?” John asked.

“It’s on my personal list of no-nos until after the baby is born,” Chiara said.

“Add climbing Cecile Brunner to that list, would you?”

“I wish it were summer,” Chiara said. “We could stay for a concert at the Pritzker Pavilion, or go to Navy Pier for fireworks.”

“You sound like you don’t want to go home tonight.” John put an arm over her shoulders and pulled her closer.

“I don’t. I feel safer out here in the moonlight than I do under my own roof. What used to be my roof.”

“I’m surprised Mr. Hopkins let you out of your lease so easily.”

“I’m not,” Chiara laughed dryly. “Once his doorman went on the record saying that he let in strange men in the middle of the night, Mr. Hopkins was agreeable to anything I asked of him. He’s not even holding me liable for the physical damage to the apartment, not that he could anyway. None of it was my fault.”

“It’s not, you know,” John said. “None of it.”

They walked back to Chiara’s car passing Cloud Gate, Anish Kapoor’s dazzling, stainless steel “Bean.” The 110-ton elliptical sculpture looked like a gigantic drop of mercury, and it reflected Chicago’s skyline and Millennium Park. It was Chiara’s favorite element in the park, along with the brushed stainless steel ribbons that made up the headdress topping Pritzker Pavilion. As she and John walked away from it, Chiara imagined what it would be like to watch her child’s face the first time he saw the Bean for himself.

At the car, John took the wheel. “Could you take the scenic route?” Chiara asked him.

He obliged, driving past many of Chiara’s favorite sites, places she and John had shared. He took her south, to Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, before doubling back north. The fountain was off for the season, but Chiara had no trouble picturing the fountain in its summer glory, when its center jet, surrounded by over one hundred smaller jets, shot a pillar of water 150 feet into the air. As lovely as the fountain was by day, it was positively breathtaking at night when its lights were lit.

John took South Lake Shore Drive to East Balbo to get to North Streeter Drive so he could drive her through Navy Pier.

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