She shrugged. "Not sure. Kind of feels good, though."
He leaned towards her. "It's sort of hot," he said in his seductive voice.
Arden rolled her eyes. "I guess you want to have sex, now."
Nick's grin vanished. "No, don't do me any favors."
He got up and started walking away. Arden took a deep breath. She was being unreasonable. They'd just made up. Sort of. And it would be good to seal the deal. Besides, she hadn't been with him enough since they got engaged. And maybe that was part of the reason he had cheated on her.
"Wait," she said. He was at her door. He stopped with his back to her. "You should lock the door," she said. He turned and smiled. She got on her knees and started unbuttoning her pajama top.
"I love it when we do it in your parents' house," Nick said, rushing toward her. "Feels like high school again."
They undressed and rolled around a while. Nick finally pinned her beneath him. While he was doing his thing, she stared at the ceiling and thought about high school, since he had just mentioned it. He had cheated on her then, too. Of course she had forgiven him. They were just kids. But then again, maybe there was a pattern she should be paying attention to.
She closed her eyes and focussed on making all the right sounds in all the right places. When he finished, he rolled off of her and dozed off. Arden got dressed and went to sit in the soft chair by her window. She pulled one of Travis's romance novels out of the cushion and picked up reading where she had left off.
That day, Travis drove up to Jefferson City to visit the old man in prison, as he had every year around Christmas since he'd gone away. As usual, he invited Dustin and Neil and as usual, they said no. It was easy enough for them, Travis supposed. Sure, Travis had been the one to bear the brunt of the old man's violent outbursts, but he'd also been the one he spent the most fatherly time with. Did Beau Lanier kill those two people? Possibly. Probably. But to Travis, blood was blood, and he couldn't bring himself to completely turn his back on the old man.
Travis pulled his Cyclone onto the highway, turned on his police scanner, and pressed the accelerator to the floor. He loved the feel and sound of that engine. It felt good to drive fast. He hadn't done it in a while. He put all negative thoughts out of his mind and refused to even think of Arden. He just enjoyed the speed and the highway.
He arrived in the city in just under three hours. He went through the whole process of being admitted into the visitor's park at the correctional facility. And then he strolled casually to the table where his old man sat waiting for his visit. He didn't bring him anything, but every month Travis wired money to his father. He'd just written it into his budget as an indefinite expense.
Beau stood as a greeting gesture and then they sat opposite each other. The old man was as tall and broad as Travis, but Travis had inherited his mother's blue eyes. Beau's hair was thick and long and halfway to gray. His face was hard, the line of his jaw rigid, his body lean...leaner than Travis's.
"How's it going, Pop," Travis said.
"Oh, you know. 'Bout the same as always."
Travis grinned and nodded. "Got any Christmas plans?"
Beau narrowed his eyes slightly. "Yeah, me and my cellmate put together a choir from some of the guys on our cell block. I reckon we're going to sing carols for the guards next week."
Travis laughed and then Beau laughed with him.
"How're your brothers doing?" Beau asked.
"Good. Neil doesn't know it yet, but he's going to college next year, if you can believe it."
"Ha. No I can't. Didn't ever occur to me that boy even had a brain in his head, all them video games he was always playing."
"Yeah, well, it's that computer stuff. He wants to do some sort of programming. But he's having to work while he does school, so it's going to take him a while."
Beau nodded and Travis was never sure whether he was really interested or just so bored out of his mind that he was happy to keep the conversation going.
"What about Dustin. He doing alright?"
"Yeah. Real good. Finally asked a girl on a date the other day."
"Oh? Who'd he ask out?"
"Emma Harris. The preacher's daughter...you remember her?"
"I think so, though she'd have been just a young girl at the time."
"Well she's all woman, now, and Dustin's been wanting to ask her out for about two years."
Beau nodded again. "Duane?" he asked.
Travis folded his hands and leaned forward. "Duane's fucked up."
Beau grinned. "Like us, huh?"
Travis gritted his teeth. "Like you, you son-of-a-bitch. And it was you that done it to him." Travis waited for Beau's expression to sober. There was never any tip-toeing around the issues from the past. Beau knew what he'd been and how he'd treated his sons and he never once apologized. Travis wouldn't have accepted an apology anyway. "Everything I do to help him he just throws back in my face. I don't know what to do for him anymore."
Beau shrugged. "Maybe you don't do nothing. Maybe it's time to cut him loose...see whether he sinks or swims."
"Or gets drunk, gets behind a wheel and kills a bunch of people."
"I don't know, son. I guess I'm glad he's your problem now and not mine."
Travis wished he could punch Beau right now. "You just wait. Duane does something stupid and gets himself landed in prison, I'm making sure he gets sent here. Then he'll be your problem."
"Come on, Travis. Take care of the kid. He's your brother. Don't let him end up like me."
"I'm trying."
There were a few moments of silence while both men looked inside themselves.
"And how about you?" Beau asked. "How are you doing?"
Travis looked up at him. He wanted to spit in his face. Beau had a lot of nerve acting concerned for him when he'd all but ruined him for the first part of his life. "I'm good," Travis said.
"No college courses for you?"
"Hell, no," Travis laughed.
"Got a girlfriend yet?"
Travis hesitated. "No, unfortunately."
"What's her name?"
"Arden," Travis said, suppressing a grin.
"She cute?"
"Very. I'd send you a picture if I didn't think you'd do something obscene with it."
Beau chuckled. "What about the drinking. You still got that under control?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good for you. I'm proud of you for that. Not too many folks in this world got that kind of self-discipline."
Travis shrugged. "More than you might think," he said, not wanting to give his father permission to excuse himself from his own failings.
They chatted on for close to an hour. Then they both stood and Travis turned to leave.
"Thanks for the visit, son," Beau said.
Travis turned to look at him, this man he justifiably hated and inexplicably loved at the same time. He nodded and then left for home.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
"
She's going to cook for you? In our kitchen?" Travis asked. Dustin had a date with Emma and was trying to hustle him out of the house.
"Take Tonya with you," Dustin said. He was gathering up stray socks and straightening up magazines on the coffee table.
"You could have given me a little more notice," Travis said.
"Yesterday I said, 'Tomorrow I have a date with Emma. She's coming over to cook for me.' Did you not hear?"
Travis had just gotten home from work. It was nearly eight o'clock and he'd worked longer than intended on the widow Nettleton's transmission. She was alone in the world, though, and without her car, she had no way of getting around. So he'd gotten it running good and took it over to her. Then he came home to find Dustin kicking him out. "I guess I wasn't listening. How long do you want me to be gone? I mean, I don't want to walk in and find you and Emma doing stuff that I don't want to see."
Dustin laughed. "Don't worry about that. Just stay out for a couple of hours. You can go hang out with Neil or something."
"You sure? A couple of hours? I can take Tonya to a hotel if you want the place for the night."
"Not necessary. Thanks, though."
Travis watched him as he tidied up. There was something in the way he had laughed a second ago. "Emma's not making you wait for marriage, is she?" Travis said, mostly joking.
But then Dustin looked up in surprise and quickly covered his expression with a nervous laugh. "Of course not. Why would you even ask? Now get out of here."
Travis thought about it for a moment. Their dates never went past eleven. He never did more than hold her hand in public. Maybe. "She is, isn't she? She wants to wait?"
Dustin was holding a stack of car magazines. He hurled them onto the coffee table. "Yeah. So what? You got something to say about it?"
Travis put his hands up, palm out and stepped back. "Take it easy. I think it's great. Good for her." But he wasn't able to say it with a straight face and he thought Dustin might be about to punch him.
"It's none of your business, Travis."
Travis got control of himself and nodded. "Of course. I'm sorry."
Dustin glared at him another moment and then leaned down to straighten up the magazines.
"Have you tried talking her out of it?" Travis asked.
"What?" Dustin looked at him like he was crazy.
"You know. Just get her worked up. Flirt with her. Kiss her. Weaken her resolve a bit. Then tell her you love her and you'll always be with her and there's no need to wait. Or whatever you want to say." Travis shrugged. He was offering well-meaning advice because he genuinely felt sorry for Dustin.
But Dustin shook his head in disgust. "You want me to knowingly violate her moral code?"
Travis shrugged. "You're going to marry her anyway, aren't you?"
"Marry her? We've only been dating a couple of weeks."
Travis furrowed his brow in confusion. "So...you're not going to marry her?"
"Am I supposed to decide right now?"
"Don't you just...know?"
"No! Am I supposed to? I thought I had some time. You're freaking me the hell out, Travis!"
"Calm down," Travis said. "I guess you don't have to decide now. I'm sorry I brought it up. It's just...it's Emma. She's the kind of girl you marry. I figured that's what you had in mind."
Dustin looked terrified and lost. "I just want to be with her. I can't think about marriage now. It's too soon."
"Okay, man. Relax."
Dustin looked at him and shook his head. "I don't understand you, Travis."
"I don't understand you either," Travis said. Then he laughed. "Just relax and pretend this conversation never happened. Have a good evening with your girl."
Dustin smiled and nodded. "Thanks."
Travis went to his room where Tonya was watching TV and helped her to her feet. He called Duane, since he hadn't seen him in a while. The three of them went down to the diner to eat.
Arden hadn't slept with Nick since Sunday. She'd felt so empty inside afterwards that she couldn't bring herself to do it again. Tonight he'd called and she'd pleaded a headache again. Then he said something really nasty about how he might as well fuck a marble statue...it would be warmer and show more appreciation. After which she'd called him every bad name she could think of and hung up.
She wiped tears out of her eyes as she drove down the hill toward the café. She couldn't understand it. She never used to cry this much. When she arrived, she was told that Shannon had left Tara to close up. So Arden drove over to Shannon's house. Alice's car was parked there.
Arden climbed out and knocked on the door. She heard Shannon shout, "Come in!" She went in and followed the smell into the kitchen. She perched on the bar stool next to Alice.
Shannon turned to her and smiled.
Arden couldn't help but notice she looked a little worn. She glanced around and saw that the table had been set with candles that were no longer lit. Shannon was also wearing a very sexy dress. Arden's eyes widened. "Oh, Shannon. I'm so sorry. I forgot about your anniversary."
Shannon turned back to the dishes. There was an array of uneaten food in serving dishes on the counter. "It's alright. I shouldn't expect you two to step outside of yourselves and think of someone else for a change."
Arden felt like she'd just been slapped. "I'm so sorry. I'll go."
"No, wait," Shannon said. She braced her palms against the counter edge and closed her eyes. Her hair was immaculately done with little tendrils of red curls framing her face and neck. "I'm sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have lashed out like that. Please stay. This food should be enjoyed by someone. Truth be told, even before Alice got here the evening hadn't been going that well."
Arden looked at Alice who was staring blankly into a half-empty glass of wine.
"What happened, Shannon?" she asked.
"I should have waited until I'd fed him before bringing up the baby thing."
"You're pregnant?" Arden shrieked.
"No. I was going to push him...make him say yes to me. But he was being stubborn. And then Alice came by and Russ yelled at her and stormed out. I guess he's at Rowdy's. It doesn't matter. Let's eat. Alice, you too. I don't care how you feel...you're going to wither up and blow away, you're so frail."
Alice did look frail. Her skin, always fair, was paler than ever. Dark circles shaded her eyes. She went to the table and sat down. Arden helped serve the dinner.
After a few minutes, when they were well into their dinner, Shannon seemed to recover some of her good hostess demeanor. "So," she said. "It appears we are all in the midst of relationship dramas. Alice, let's start with you. Do you have anything new to share with us? Or is it just the same old thing?"
Alice glared up at her. "He didn't come home last night. Is that new enough for you?"
Shannon's smart-ass smirk was replaced with concern. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah. He says he slept in his truck."