Love is the Best Medicine

Chapter 16

The next couple of days went by pretty fast for Don and Meryl.  The family started arriving in car loads leaving Don and Meryl very little time to talk or process. Meryl could tell that it helped to be around his family, even though they were a constant reminder of the anguish his father put him through. Don was the typical first born taking care of everyone and making sure their needs were met; while Meryl tried to take care of her husband. The kids arrived the night before the funeral.  Meryl and Don felt complete once their kids came.  They loved spending time with their nieces and nephews but it made them miss their children even more. During the days leading up to the funeral, Don and Meryl would take care of the family and funeral preparations and at night they would fall into an exhausted sleep in their hotel suite in one another's arms. Meryl felt like she barely had time to talk to her husband, and that made her worry about him all the more. She remembered the advice her mother gave to her after his Grandfather Walker died and he was dealing with his grief and his father's bullshit-to love him, and she did, with everything she had.

***

It was the morning of the funeral and they were laying in bed. Don's hand was running up and down Meryl's arm as he held her in his arms. He just wished they could stay like that forever, a wish that Meryl shared as well. Meryl looked up and could tell he was deep in thought.  She just wanted this day to be over for all of them. "We should probably get ready, Don Man." She said placing a kiss on his neck.

"I don't know if I can do this Meryl.  Pretend to be the apple of my father's eye?  Being the good son, when we both know how he really felt, that he hated me. Then again most people there probably don't even know I exist." He said, his voice laced with bitterness and hatred.

Meryl propped herself up on her elbow and drew lazy circles with her other hand on his chest.  Her heart breaking. "Don, I will be there every step of the way.  Right there with you." She said as she leaned down and placed a slow kiss on his lips. "I will be there to intercept when people you don't want to talk to approach you, I will be there holding your hand; in whatever way you need me baby, I will be there, I will always be there." She said as she kissed him again, letting her tongue play momentarily with his.

He rolled her over on her back and laid on top of her. "I need you to love me."

"Done.  You know I love you, handsome." She said as she ran her hand over his cheek.

Don pushed her hair off her face. "No, now. I need to bury myself inside of you.  I need to feel the love that we share.  I need to know that whatever the ghosts tell me, I am not a waste.  That you love me.  That I have this connection with a beautiful woman who is always there for me." Meryl's eyes grew shiny with love as she placed her hand on his neck and brought his lips down to hers.  

"I love you Don, I love you." She kept mumbling over and over into his mouth as their tongues danced with each other.

Meryl's hands moved under her husband's shirt moving them up and down his muscular back as she stayed in a passionate lip lock with him. She needed his shirt off.  She ached to feel his naked back and chest.  She wanted to feel his naked chest pressed hard against her naked chest.  Her hands went to the bottom of his shirt and their kiss broke so she could take it off him.  She pushed him on his back and straddled him.  If he wanted to feel her love she could do that.  She started kissing from his neck to his chest, running her tongue wildly from one nipple to the next, down his taut stomach to the waist band of her boxers. "Can you feel how much I love you?" She mumbled as his hands got lost in her hair.

"Oh God, yeah, baby." He moaned as she pulled his boxers down kissing down his left leg and then up his right.  When she got to the place where he wanted her most he held her off and flipped her over on her back.