Barstowe - Passion Never Sleeps

By M. H. Sebastian

(Cover censored by eBook distributors!) “Passion Never Sleeps,” continues the story of the passionate lives of Aaron Barstowe & Douglas Channing. As their journey continues, they are met with yet another tragedy involving Aaron’s mother which begins to consume them as they are drawn into the drama that comes with it all the while having to balance that with taking care of their newly adopted daughter Amanda. However, as that chapter is drawn to a close for Ms. Barstowe, Aaron and Doug return to their home & daughter making an enormous effort to start living a more normal, less extravagant life so that they can instill certain values in Amanda who also comes to a new revelation about her own life after she starts her junior year at a new high school. Making a new start at school year brings with it another whole set of issues; new friends & new challenges. Unfortunately whatever curse follows Aaron & Doug worked its way into Amanda’s life as well. Read on as your heartstrings get tugged in all directions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 23, 2016
• ISBN: 9781365133374

Book preview

Barstowe - Passion Never Sleeps

BARSTOWE

Passion Never Sleeps

A Novel by

M. H. Sebastian

Sebastian Global Publishing LLC

© 2016 Sebastian Global Publishing

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

ISBN 978-1-365-13337-4

Preface

Passion Never Sleeps, chronicles the continuing story of the passionate love and lives of Aaron Barstowe and Douglas Channing.  As you may recall from A Life with Aaron, the couple had a very rough first couple of years together with Doug having survived a near fatal mugging and a brain tumor while Aaron was shot in the chest which left to question if he would even survive.  They had a rough recovery from the shooting as their roles were somewhat reversed with Doug stepping up and becoming the alpha male between the two of them for a short while.

As their journey continues, they are met with yet another tragedy involving Aaron’s mother which begins to consume them as they are drawn into the drama that comes with it all the while having to balance that with taking care of their newly adopted daughter Amanda.  However, as that chapter is drawn to a close for Ms. Barstowe, Aaron and Doug return to their home and daughter making an enormous effort to start living a more normal, less extravagant life so that they can instill certain values in Amanda who also comes to a new revelation about her own life after she starts her junior year at a new high school.  Making a new start for her junior year brings with it another whole set of issues; new friends and new challenges.  Unfortunately whatever curse appears to be following Aaron and Doug also now works its way into Amanda’s life as well.

After things on that front come to conclusion, ‘Passion Never Sleeps’ continues to dish out more extravagance and tragedy which takes the couple and some friends down a path of potential devastation.  You’ll have to read forward to find out if everything comes to a grinding halt or if they can manage to get through yet another setback, though this one is a whopper.  So read on as your heartstrings get tugged in all directions.

For other novels by M. H. Sebastian, please visit:

www.mhsebastian.com

or www.lulu.com/spotlight/Barstowe

CHAPTER ONE

It was an amazing and beautiful day.  Aaron and I are out in the pool.  I started kissing him when he put his hands under my arms and lifted me as high out of the water as he could and began to spin me around with the happiest smile that I’ve ever seen on his face.  He lowered me back down into the warm Caribbean-like blue water of our pool, held me tight in his arms and gave me an enormous wet kiss.  As I opened my mouth ever so slightly, our tongues began to dance about between our lips.  Aaron with his perfectly plump lips continued kissing me without hesitation; our tongues sliding back and forth between our open mouths while lip-sealed tight to each other.  As Aaron relaxed his firm embrace, I pulled away and lowered myself further down into the water up to my neck.  We enjoyed the warm relaxing waters only a few minutes further when Amanda came out into the back yard at the same time that we all heard the doorbell ring.

Aaron and I got out of the pool, threw on our robes and the three of us quickly made our way to the front door.  With Aaron standing directly behind me, I opened the door and saw a slightly older and petite women, probably in her mid-sixties, when she looked up at Aaron and said, My Lord; thank God I finally found you.  It has taken me months to track you down.  Just as I was about to ask who she was, Aaron quickly jostled his way in front of me and said, I can’t believe it’s you, please come in.  Now, I’m totally lost with what’s going on.  I had no idea who this lady was and didn’t recognize her at all when I asked Aaron, You know this lady?  Who is she?  This small framed woman said, Forgive me, you don’t know me but I am the lady that you helped directly after a car accident about six months ago.  Aaron said, Yes, I know."  Then her face quickly became somewhat familiar to me.

We invited her into the house and sat down in the hearth room with her.  She sat between us but very close to Aaron with them angled slightly toward each other.  She grabs Aaron’s hands, held them tight and said, I had mentally prepared myself with what I planned on saying to you, but now that I’m here I’m more or less at a loss for words.  Aaron said, Well, why don’t we all start off with names?  She said, Oh I know you are Aaron Barstowe and I am Mary Parker.  She turned to me and said, I’m sorry, but I do not know your name.  I replied, I am Doug Channing and this is our daughter Amanda.  Aaron asked, How did you know my name?  She said, From the police report but it had no phone number or address on it.  Since you were the first responder on the scene and rendered medical attention to me, your name was on the police report.  And I have to tell you, after reading it, you have no idea how touched I am; that someone would go to such lengths for a total stranger.  Aaron said, Well, Ms. Parker, I just did what any decent person would do and besides I was trained as a field medic when I was in the military.  She said, Please… call me Mary.  And I suppose that explains the great care that you gave to me.  The doctors at the hospital said they assumed you were a doctor as well because of how prepared you were in stopping the bleeding and patching me up."

Mary and Aaron continued to talk more about that night but only for a few more minutes as it was apparently difficult for her to relive the incident.  She then reached out to hug Aaron and softly said, I just had to see you in person and say thank you.  The doctors informed me that the immediate attention that I received from you likely made the difference in my being here today.  Aaron replied, Mary, don’t give that another thought.  God’s plan for all of us needn’t ever be questioned.  You were at a specific time and place as were we that evening and I supposed you could say that I was meant to be there for you.  She said, Well, that makes sense because you are an absolute angel.

The four of us continued talking for about another half hour when Aaron asked, Mary, we were out in the pool when you arrived, but we need to take a quick shower and get dressed.  Would you mind giving us about twenty minutes to get cleaned up?  We would be honored if you would join us for lunch.  Mary said, Oh I just couldn’t.  I’ve already shown up unannounced and unexpectedly taken up your time.  Aaron replied, Nonsense, we would be offended if you do not accept.  Mary said, Well, I would not want to offend anyone so yes and thank you.  That would be lovely. 

While Amanda stayed with Mary, Aaron and I headed back to our bathroom, dropped our robes at the shower door and hopped into the shower.  I think we made record time getting cleaned up and then dressed as we were back out with Mary in only about fifteen minutes.  Aaron reached out his hand to Mary; she grabbed it and rose to her feet.  We went out to the garage and all climbed into ‘Ranger’, Aaron’s truck.  As we made our way out and toward the gate, it just donned on Aaron when he asked, Mary, by the way, how did you get in past the gate and where is your car?  She said that she parked in the street outside the gate which was slightly ajar and was able to enter; that she didn’t ring us at the gate as she just wanted to surprise us at the front door.  Aaron then had her pull her car down into the driveway before we actually got away from the house.  But we made a mental note to start watching the gate as well.

As we drove away I asked, What sounds good to everyone?  Nobody seemed to have any preferences so we drove over to a local restaurant that Aaron and I both like.  It has quite a varied menu so there’s always something for everyone, not to mention a rather large and extensive wine menu.  Aaron asks, Mary, do you drink?  Should I get a bottle of wine?  She said, Oh that sounds lovely, please do.  When the waiter got to our table, Aaron asked for a bottle of 2008 Pahlmeyer Red which I believe is about one hundred twenty five dollars a bottle.  Hearing Aaron order this particular wine, I knew that he intended to just kick back, relax and spend an exuberant amount of time with Mary into the afternoon.

The waiter returned with our wine, popped the cork and said, Mr. Barstowe, I suggest we decant this and allow it to breathe for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Will that suffice or should I go ahead and pour?  He handed Aaron the cork which he sniffed and said, No please, allow it to breathe.  The waiter already had a decanter in hand and poured the wine slowly into the vessel and placed it on the table then asked if we were ready to order.  Now, since Mary had never been to this quaint little bistro, she relied upon us to help her order.  While Aaron always gets the ten ounce filet mignon, I like to mix things up a little and order a variety of things.  I suggested to Mary the pork tenderloin which is outstanding, as well as the stuffed chicken breast flambé.  We each ordered one of those and decided to share that way she could have a bit of both while Amanda ordered a simple spaghetti with meat sauce with a Dr. Pepper.

After our orders were turned in, the waiter returned about ten minutes later, quietly grabbed the decanter and poured a small taste for Aaron.  Aaron sampled the wine and ok’d our waiter to pour away.  Mary took a sip of the Pahlmeyer and made a comment as to how incredibly smooth it was.  She exclaimed, This wine is absolute heaven.  I’ve never tasted a red wine so delicious.  Normally I expect a red wine to be so dry that I cannot easily detect any other nuances, but this one has a hint of espresso and spice, yet it’s so smooth.  It’s just delicious.  Aaron said, Well done, Mary.  You sound like you know your wines.  She replied, Oh, not really.  I just know what I like and what I don’t.  I’m far from an expert.  Aaron then confessed, Well me either but we’ve been here before and the manager once recommended this to us so I’ve always remembered this particular wine and vintage.

We sat about and gabbed as though we’d known each other for years; yet all the while we were actually getting to know each other albeit quite well.  After leaving the house, the subject of Mary’s unfortunate accident never returned to the conversation other than Mary explaining that it became much easier to locate us once she’d seen the news conference with the mayor and senator.  It was then that Amanda asked, Does that have anything to do with Todd’s dinner blessing that he gave giving thanks for your recent tragedy and being watched over; keeping you here with us?  Aaron said, Yes sweetie, I was shot in the chest by a man who got away after the mall shooting and massacre earlier this year.  Amanda said, Oh my God, I remember hearing about that on the news.  You were involved in that?  Aaron replied, Well, not at the mall, but I ran across the man camping out on our back wooded area when he shot me.  Amanda started to get a little choked up over that and said, I am so glad that it all turned out alright for you so that I was able to have y’all as my dad’s.  Then we enlightened Mary as to our recent adoption of Amanda.

Once our meals were brought to the table, the conversation slowed down considerably as we all enjoyed the scrumptious entrees.  We ate and we drank with Aaron having the waiter decant another bottle for us.  After our meals were finished, we sat about the table for another couple of hours just talking.  It turns out that Mary is a widow with a daughter who lives in Albuquerque.  Her husband was a managing partner for a large law firm and did quite nicely for the two of them.  Although Mary did go to college and had a degree, she never really worked again after giving birth to her daughter, Shelby.  Needless to say that Mary is a person of sufficient means.  Her husband left her wealthy enough that she can travel as she likes and never have to work; though her primary concern is not to overindulge in her golden years, but to grow her sizeable nest egg even larger for Shelby’s inheritance.

Once we had noticed that we took up over three hours of our waiter’s time and table, Aaron asked for the check.  I noticed that Mary caught a glimpse of it by the expression on her face when she saw the tab totaled out at $366.74, mostly because of two bottles of wine.  Of course, Aaron being Aaron tabbed us out at $500.00 while he apologized to the waiter for us having selfishly taken up a table that he could have made more money off of.  However, when the waiter saw his $133.26 tip, he graciously thanked us and said to come back anytime and stay as long as we like.

When Mary saw the $500.00 total, she said, Oh my, please let me help with that.  That was way too much money for a stranger who just showed up on your doorstep.  Aaron said, Stranger?  Hardly!  Mary, I’ve had your blood on my hands and that usually speaks of an intimate relationship; not to mention how much we actually do know about each other now.  I’d hardly call us strangers; at least not anymore.  Mary replied, Well, then I must insist that next time will be on me.  Aaron just chuckled and said, We’ll see.

We meandered outside, got into the truck and started back toward our house.  On our way home, we asked Mary if she’d like to stop somewhere, get a bathing suit and enjoy the pool with us.  She advised that her house is actually very close to us.  She’s only a few miles away from our house so we drove over to her place on our way home so that she could pick up her swimsuit.

With Mary’s bathing suit in hand, we pulled into our garage and all made for the bedrooms to get changed.  We met Mary out on the back porch where we found her donning a very nice but simple black one piece bathing suit.  It was quite appropriate for her age, though she’s so petite that I don’t think she would look bad in anything.  For a woman in her early sixties, she looks phenomenal.  She and Aaron first got into the pool slowly at the steps.  I on the other hand went to the side and dove into the deeper end of the pool with Amanda jumping in right behind me.  I swam back and forth a few times before slowing down.  I looked over at Aaron and Mary noticing that the two behaved as though they’d been lifelong friends.  There was a degree of comfort between them; almost like kindred spirits, but I suppose that given the night of the accident, they do share a special bond between them which is rapidly growing stronger by the minute.  They each displayed a warmth and happy smiles on their faces which conveyed nothing short of utmost joy.  I think that I could have sat back forever just quietly watching the two of them go on with each other with them never having given a second thought to me or Amanda.

However, after a few minutes I swam over to the two of them and asked, What are you two talking so intently about?  Aaron said, Doug, Mary’s just been telling me about her dancing in the ballet before she married and had a daughter.  Mary said, And Aaron has been filling me in on his passion for flying, not to mention, a whole host of things centered on you.  What? I asked.  Mary continued, Doug was telling me about how you two met in the gym, became workout partners for a couple of months before he finally got up the courage to ask you out.  I think it’s such a beautiful story and then marrying after only a couple of months together.  Though I gotta say, you two make for a very handsome couple and family with Amanda.  I can tell that you both are very happy together.

After Mary finished talking about all that she had learned so far, I got the chance to cut in and said, Okay, you know about Aaron’s being shot and nearly killed from the televised press conference; right?  But did he tell you about a near miss we encountered in St. Lucia while on our honeymoon?  No, she exclaimed.  What happened in St. Lucia?  Aaron started in with that story stating, While we were in Castries, the capital city, Doug was snatched from my side quicker than you can snap your finger.  A man drug him into an alley where he was about to stab him.  As Doug yelled out for me, I lunged into the alley over the guy’s head, tackled him and then proceeded to beat the bloody pulp out of him.  I then picked it up from there stating, And when this guy pulled me backward, my head hit the ground hard enough to create a gash a couple of inches long.  Arron picked me up and carried me back to a taxi while blood was flowing down my neck.  Aaron took his shirt off and applied pressure to my head wound while the taxi took us back to the resort.  We then took a boat back to our yacht.  Mary interrupted, Your yacht?  Yes, I said, Aaron had chartered a private yacht to take us from Miami to St. Lucia.  Mary said, Well, that must have been some trip.  I’m so sorry to hear about this bad part of your honeymoon.  Aaron picked up again where I left off stating, Well, Doug was hurt pretty bad, but he didn’t tell me the worst of it, his massive headaches that continued until we were back home.  I said, I didn’t want to ruin our honeymoon.  Aaron said, Well, as it turns out, Doug getting injured like that was a hidden blessing because when we got home he told me about the headaches and I immediately took him to the emergency room.  A cat scan revealed a brain tumor that would have otherwise gone undetected until stage four that more than ninety nine percent of people do not recover from.  So, Doug had brain surgery and then subsequent rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.  However, we are glad to say that everything appears to be okay now.  Amanda jumped in asking, Okay, how do you both afford to travel like that?  I just said, Amanda, we both worked very hard for the first twenty years of our lives and invested well.  That seemed to satisfy her for the time being.

Mary took a deep breath, let out a sigh and commented that the whole ordeal sounds rather ominous.  I explained that we all have certain obstacles that we are confronted with in this life and we just have to take the punches as they come and do what we can within our power to get through them.  Aaron said, Mary, just like your having had that horrible car accident that you had to recover from.  Mary replied, Well, that’s quite a bit of bad stuff we’ve talked about so how about we focus on our blessings from here on out?  I said, That sounds like a great idea.  However, Amanda not wanting to be left out said, Yeah and I was abused and molested by my dad as a young child, so I guess we all have our stuff to deal with huh?"  I quickly explained to Mary that she is referring to her natural father as we had just recently adopted Amanda.

But the longer we talked, the more time got away from us.  Though we had already gotten out of the pool and were sitting on the lanai, we went back indoors to get changed.  Time really had flown by and it seemed like we’d just had lunch, but that was more than five hours ago so I headed for the kitchen to see what I could throw together for the four of us.  As I was scurrying about the kitchen, Mary and Aaron came in about the same time.  Mary wanted to know what I was doing.  I told her that I was just looking around to see what I could put together to snack on or even prepare for dinner.  She said, Wait a minute.  I know we went out for lunch, but how dinner on me for you all?  Knowing what we spent on lunch and that Mary was insistent that the next one was on her, we graciously accepted.  However, we were all worn out and decided to simply order pizza’s to be delivered.  Mary asked if we liked supreme pizzas or what else we’d like.  I told her that we both loved supreme but without mushrooms and we also liked pepperoni and Amanda suggested a ham and pineapple pizza.  Mary thought they all sounded good so she picked up the phone and called in an order for a medium one of each.

In the meantime, I went over to the bar asking Mary what she would like to drink.  She asked, Anything?  Can you make a martini?  I replied, Of course, that’s not a problem, but what kind?  Would you like a traditional dry martini with gin, a dirty vodka martini, an appletini, a chocolate martini or a cosmopolitan?  Mary said, Wow, I had no idea and they all sound so good that I don’t want the same old boring drink now.  She said that she loved chocolate so I decided to make her a scrumptious chocolate martini; make that two as I wanted one as well.  As I was pouring them, Aaron said, Hey that sounds pretty good.  Can you make it three?  So I whipped up three fantabulous drinks for us.  (And yes, that’s a word, at least in my world and that credit goes to Q)

As we sat about on the sofa enjoying our decadent drinks, it wasn’t long before the pizza delivery man was at the gate calling us to let him in.  Mary said, You two just sit right there, this is on me.  So we sat like a couple of lazy bums while Mary and Amanda answered the door, paid the man and grabbing three boxes of pizza.  She headed to the kitchen to grab some paper plates and napkins which we’d already set out.  She and Amanda then brought everything over to us on the sofa.  Mary said, I’m famished, as she grabbed a slice of each.  Amanda, Aaron and I followed suit and did the same.  We continued enjoying the hot and fresh pizza until we were down to the last three slices.  Mary said, I’m done and cannot eat another bite.  Amanda and I said the same, right when Aaron grabbed the last three for his plate.  One thing I can always count on is Aaron’s healthy appetite.  But at six feet five inches and two hundred forty pounds, he can out eat any of us anytime.

It was getting a bit late and the sun had just set creating another beautiful sunset with warm orange hues along with some light purple and a touch of yellow.  It’s one of those sunsets that make me wish I always had my camera nearby.  However, with the darkness fast approaching, Mary said that she’d better get on home and that she’d far outstayed her welcome but glad she did.  Aaron stood up with her and said, Nonsense.  Today has been one of the most enjoyable days I’ve spent with someone other than Doug in a very long time.  Mary, ever since that night I’ve often wondered what happened to you.  But that’s a question that I no longer have to ponder as I have the answer which is that Doug, Amanda and I have made a new and very dear friend.  Would you like to do something with us this coming Friday?  Mary said, Oh I couldn’t possibly monopolize more of your time as I have done today.  Monopolize, he questioned, that’s ridiculous.  Today has been a blessing and we would love to plan on spending Friday with you if you have no plans.  And do what? she questioned.  I said, Oh Mary, there’s one thing you should know about Aaron right now.  Everyday should be lived like it may very well be your last.  Aaron has a way of just coming up with surprises that I learned long ago to accept as a gift and never question.  She would only say, Then it would be my absolute pleasure.  We walked her to the door and watched as she got into her car and drove off towards the front gate.

I looked at Aaron and said, You are consumed with happiness right now aren’t you?  He asked, What do you mean?  I told him that one of his question marks in life has just been answered today; the question about the woman in the car accident.  He said, Yeah, I’m happy.  I’m happy that things turned out good for her.  I’m happy that she walked into our lives today.  And I’m happy that we made a new and special friend.  I grabbed Aaron’s hand as I lead him back to the bedroom so that we could turn in early and get a good night’s sleep.  Amanda also went upstairs and retreated to her room as well.

We got undressed and, in our usual fashion, climbed naked into bed.  I laid down on Aaron’s left side with my head to the side of his chest and my left leg over on top of his thunderous thighs.  As I let out a sigh and looked up into his deep chestnut brown eyes, Aaron said, You know I’m horny.  I replied, When are you not?  He stayed on his back and pulled the covers back so as to suggest that I head south again.  Of course I obliged and took care of my treasure of a husband.  After enjoying a three-course snack of Aaron’s warm creamy goodness, I made my way back up to his side where he held me tight and whispered, That was awesome.  I love you so much.  After