Arden stood and tugged at her shirt, trying to get it to cover more of her legs. She squinted at her parents. "I thought you guys were staying in St. Louis until tomorrow," she said.
"Yes, well," Mark said, "Marge Stanton called us and told us there was a strange car parked in front of our house. We tried to call, but you didn't answer."
Arden shrugged. She had turned off the ringer in her room and figured the answering machine could take care of any calls they might be getting. "I'm sorry you came all the way back for nothing."
"For nothing?" Laura shrieked. "We just saved you from making the biggest mistake of your life!"
Arden suppressed a grin and glanced back at Travis. He was leaning back against the counter, eating ice cream and enjoying the show. "It's not a mistake, Mom," she said. "I broke up with Nick three days ago."
"You what?" her parents shouted in unison.
"I can't be with him," she said. "I don't love him. And he's not a good person. Look what he did to my face when I told him I wanted to break up." She pointed to her cheek.
Travis slammed down the ice cream container. "I knew you were lying."
Arden turned to him, pleading with her eyes. "Not now," she growled.
"Travis," Mark said. Then he stopped and looked to Arden. "I assume this is Travis?"
She rolled her eyes. "Yes, daddy."
Mark looked back to Travis. "Mr. Lanier, I hope you don't think I'm being rude, but I'm going to have to ask you to get yourself dressed and leave my house. We have some things to discuss with our daughter."
Travis bobbed his head once. "Of course." He grabbed Arden's shoulder from behind, leaned down to her ear and said, "I told you." Then he disappeared out of the kitchen and upstairs.
Arden faced her parents. "You're totally out of line, here," she said. "Nick stayed over plenty of times."
"You and Nick were in a serious relationship," Laura said.
"Yes, and now I'm in a serious relationship with Travis."
"Three days after you break up with your fiancé you're sleeping with another man?" Laura said. "I don't call that serious. I call it reckless."
"Regardless...this is my life and you've no right to barge in and send him away." Arden stood taller, keeping her dignity as best she could in a t-shirt that barely covered her ass.
Mark held up his hands. "Go on and get yourself dressed, Arden. We'll talk about this once we've all settled down."
Arden huffed, stamped her foot, and then stormed out. An echo of her childhood self whenever she was told she couldn't have something she wanted.
Travis already had his clothes on and was shoving into his boots when Arden came in. "Look at you," he said. "Holding that head up, trying to act like your hair isn't a mess and you're not half-naked."
She just lifted her chin and raised one brow. "I don't want you to leave. You just stay right here and I'll work things out with my parents." She reached in her dresser drawer for a pair of pajama pants and slipped them on. Then she came over to Travis, who was sitting on the edge of her bed, and sat on his knee.
He just wanted to hug her and thank her for acknowledging his existence, let alone having him in her bed. He couldn't recall a time in his life when he'd felt this ridiculously happy. He delighted in the fact that he could touch her anytime he wanted. Talk to her about anything. Rest his head between her breasts and fall asleep. It all seemed too good to be true.
She kissed him and he swung her back down to the bed, feeling her up one more time and tickling her so he could hear her laugh again. He'd heard her laugh while they were snowed in together, but not the way she had tonight. Tonight she'd been relaxed. She'd let go of her need to control her emotions and just let things happen the way they needed to. Now, lying beneath him, she was warm and pliant. He dipped his tongue into her mouth and felt her respond to him. He touched her breast and then felt his way down her side and the curve of her waist and hip.
He couldn't have her right now, though. It would be wrong. But she was touching him, now. Her hands slid down his abdomen. She reached into his jeans and took hold of him.
"Christ, Arden," he murmured. "I have to go."
"No," she pleaded. And he knew she was doing it on purpose, putting that pleading into her tone. "Don't go, Travis. I want you so much!"
He moved further onto the bed. His mind screamed for him to stop but his body just wouldn't listen. Their mouths were occupied with kissing, but he tried to protest. "I can't...your folks...We have to stop."
"No, Travis! Don't stop. Please!" This time the pleading was genuine. She wanted him. The thought kicked his hormones the rest of the way into gear and he forgot all about her parents.
She wanted him. She was begging for him. This beautiful creature he'd pined for now couldn't keep her hands off of him. He sat back and yanked her pajama pants and panties off. Then he unzipped his jeans and shoved them down, just enough. Then he plunged inside her and smiled as she gasped. "Hurry!" she cried.
"No problem," he said.
He shoved his hand beneath her hips and tilted her up to meet him. She arched her back and cried out his name. She grabbed his free hand and held it to her breast. Her throat was long and bare and he kissed it and felt her pulse throbbing faster and harder and faster and harder until her legs suddenly tightened around him and she gasped sharply. Her body went rigid a few seconds and the excitement overwhelmed him so that he pulsed inside of her one final time, giving himself up to insanity and groaning with relief afterwards.
They lay there a few seconds, breathing and coming back to themselves. He pushed off her, pulled his pants back up and fastened them. He looked toward the open door of her bedroom and then back to where she lay. She had curled up and pulled a blanket over her.
"I feel terrible," he said.
She was smiling contentedly. "Why? I feel pretty damn good."
"Your old man asked me to leave. Not to fuck his daughter one more time."
"Hey," she sat up. "I don't appreciate the language. I asked you to stay. That's all that matters. Now come lay down. I'll go talk to my parents and you'll spend the night and..."
"No." He grabbed his coat off the footboard of the bed. "I'm going. But when can I see you again?"
It looked, for a moment, like she might decide to be angry with him. But at last her expression softened into resignation. She smiled. "Tomorrow would be fine with me. If you aren't too busy or anything."
"Too busy? You've got to be kidding. Tomorrow it is."
They kissed one last time and then Travis bounded down the stairs. He made it to the front door when Mark showed up.
"Travis, would you join me in the den for a few minutes," he said. And then he turned and walked to the den without looking back.
Travis followed, hoping he wasn't about to have to apologize for what he'd just done with Arden. It had only taken a few minutes, surely Mark wouldn't have known about it.
Mark gestured toward the couch and Travis sat in the place he'd been, not an hour ago, sleeping soundly. Mark went to the bar on the far wall and grabbed a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.
"Hope you like scotch," he said.
"Thank you, sir. I don't drink."
Mark turned, his brows raised. He replaced one of the glasses, filled the other one and then opened a drawer and pulled out cigars. "Tell me you at least smoke," he said.
"Occasionally."
Mark snipped the ends off the cigars. He sat in a chair opposite Travis and handed him a cigar. Travis had his own lighter so he lit his up while Mark sat his whiskey down and lit his. Travis puffed a few times to get the smoke going and then inhaled deeply. He leaned back and exhaled slowly. This was the best cigar he'd ever tasted.
"May I ask why you don't drink?" Mark asked.
"I'm a recovering alcoholic, sir. I'll be five years sober the end of January."
Mark nodded. "That's a good long time. I guess Arden knows about all of that."
Travis nodded.
"May I ask what's going on between you two? Is it serious? Or just getting started?"
"For me, it's serious. I want to marry her. But I've got some things in my life I need to take care of first and besides, I don't think she feels the same about me yet."
Mark frowned. "She's pretty young. What're you going to do if she changes her mind and doesn't want to date you any more."
Travis went cold inside. "I try not to think about that. This was our first date. I'm just happy she wants me at all."
Mark smiled sadly. "My concern, Travis, is that Arden isn't usually impulsive. I've never seen her make a decision that wasn't well thought out. So I advise caution on your part." He took a sip of his whiskey. "I'll be honest, Travis. I don't know you, but I can tell you for a fact I wouldn't have ever picked you for my daughter. Both because you don't seem her type and because I'm not certain of your background. But I do trust Arden's judgment and if she says you're a good man, well then, that's that."
"Thank you, sir," Travis said, not entirely sure whether a thank you was appropriate or not since he may have just been insulted.
"You wouldn't mind telling me a bit about your father, would you?"
Travis laughed, leaning forward and tapping his cigar on the edge of an ashtray. He sat back and took another puff of the cigar. "I reckon you already know all there is to know. It was all the papers wrote about for weeks."
"So it's true, then? He murdered those two people?"
Travis shrugged. "He says he didn't. But I'm inclined to believe he did."
Mark frowned. "Do you keep in contact with him?"
Travis nodded. "I send him a note once a month. I visit him every year around Christmas. I guess that's about all you can do. I'd go see him more often, but, I don't know, time just gets away from you."
"I wonder that you see him at all? No one would blame you for cutting him off."
Travis shrugged. "He's my old man. The only one I've got, for better or worse. What can be the harm in keeping in touch?"
"I suppose. And you're close with your brothers?"
"Yes, sir. There's only one troublemaker in the bunch. And I'll figure out how to handle him before I bring Arden into my life. She's made very clear she doesn't want anything to do with my family problems."
"Mm-hmm," Mark said, nodding. "And it doesn't bother you? That the woman you profess to want to spend your life with won't be involved in that aspect of your life?"
Travis stared at him in shock. It would have been a lot easier if he'd held a gun to his head and told him never to see his daughter again. "What are you saying?"
"Travis, I'm saying that when I look at you, I see the real world. And when I look at my Arden, I see a young woman who isn't ready for the real world." He set his cigar in the ashtray and leaned back with his whiskey. "Contrary to what you might think, my concern, here, is actually for you."
Travis sat up straighter. "I think I can look after myself, sir," he said, a nervous laugh escaping his lips.
"You can? How well do you know Arden?"
Travis cleared his throat and looked down at the floor. "She talked to me about breaking up with Nick. I know what it's gonna look like if she ever decides to break up with me." He looked up at him. "But I can make her happy. She won't have to break up with me. I'll give her everything I can."
Mark smiled sadly. "I'm sure you will. My concern is that she won't do the same for you."
"Again. Thank you. But I'm willing to risk it."
"Well," Mark polished off the last of his whiskey and then stood. Travis followed suit. "Since I can't talk you out of dating her," Mark said. "Why don't you come for dinner Sunday after church. So the wife can meet you. My sister-in-law and her family will be down, as well."
Travis tried with all of his might not to grin like an idiot. He shook Mark's hand. "Thank you, sir. I'll be looking forward to it."
Mark walked him out and Travis drove home feeling good about his life.
Dustin sat behind the wheel of his car in the driveway of the parsonage where Emma lived with her parents. This was their sixth date. Way too soon to be having dinner with her parents. He'd tried to tell her so, but she just brushed off his concerns.
"It will be very informal," she had said. "You don't even have to think of them as my parents. Just treat them like two regular people. You can even call them by their first names."
But Dustin would be calling Roy and Susan by the more formal, Pastor and Mrs. Harris. He just couldn't do it the other way.
He took a deep breath. His knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. He should have had a drink to calm his nerves, but he was afraid of everyone smelling liquor on his breath. One more deep breath. He stepped out of the car. He was wearing jeans and a button-up shirt which was about as fancy as he got, except on Sundays when he put on a tie. Sometimes.
He raised his fist to knock on the door, but Emma was there before he had the chance. She beamed up at him and he would have loved to have a moment to bask in the glow of her sweet smile, but she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him inside. He caught glimpses of the foyer and the living room off to the left before he was swept into a quaint dining room off the kitchen and plopped into a chair at one end of the table.
Emma stood behind him with her hands on his shoulders. Pastor Harris sat at the other end, a healthy looking man in his fifties, hair mostly gray. Susan Harris stood next to him and Dustin wondered whether it was standard for the women to stand while the men sat.
"Mom, Dad, you know Dustin Lanier," Emma said, her voice chipper and not the least bit distressed.
"Of course," Pastor Harris said. He stood and extended his hand. Dustin leaned over the table and shook it. "We're glad you could come, Dustin."
"Thank you sir."
Emma patted him on the shoulder. "We'll just leave you two to visit while we get dinner finished."
Dustin turned to try to catch her, but she was gone. A split second later, her mother had disappeared into the kitchen behind her. Dustin turned back to face the pastor. Somehow, there was a cup of coffee in front of him and he picked it up and took a sip.