Riding Curves (8 page)

"Hey daddy, everything okay?" I walked
over to my dorm window and pulled back the curtain.

"Sure, sunbeam."

He made a little noise at the end that
meant he was holding back. I straightened. "I hope you don't plan
on trying that fib out on mom, she'll bust you in a
heartbeat."

He laughed, soft but
troubled.

With no further response, I realized
my dad was going to make me play the elimination game. "You worried
about the surgery?"

"Unh…doc says I'll be off work for
almost a month." He shifted nervously in his seat, the creaky
office chair he should have replaced last year audible over the
phone.

"The shop will be fine, dad." Truth
was, Aiden ran the shop better than my soft-hearted father. "And
you'll have time to work on designs. I'll get Aiden to fix you up a
drafting table that'll fit on the bed."

"He did--"

"Oh," I laughed. "There you go. Try to
enjoy the down time. There's nothing to worry about."

His silence told me I wasn't done
playing the elimination game. "Come on, daddy. What's wrong? Do I
need to ask mom or Aiden--"

"No!"

My chest started to constrict at his
hasty response and its timing. Dad was worried about something to
do with Aiden. Had my father figured out what had happened between
the two of us?

Only one way to find
out.

"Daddy, tell me what is bothering you
about Aiden." I made my tone as firm as I could without bossing him
around.

"He's having relations…" The chair
squeaked then the line went silent for a full ten count. "With an
employee."

"Daddy," I laughed. "There aren't any
women at the--"

I stopped, realizing I was wrong. I
had tried my damnedest to stay out of the shop this last summer,
hoping I could wean my love sick heart off Aiden and finally get on
with growing up. In the process, I had forgotten all about the
bookkeeper/receptionist they hired at the start of summer. Some
early thirties blonde with an amazingly large rack for someone who
was no bigger than a size four everywhere else. Peggy or something
like that.

"Daddy, didn't you say your
receptionist was married?" Mom had said the guys at the shop were
teasing Aiden about running around with a married woman. Talking to
my dad on the phone, I wanted very badly not to put two and two
together.

"That's what's killing me,
sunbeam."

"No." I shook my head hard enough to
grow dizzy. "Mom said the guys at the shop were talking
trash."

"Pamela told me herself,
Cece."

"Did you maybe misunderstand what she
was saying?" I prayed this was the case, like maybe she mistakenly
thought Aiden had flirted with her or something and was dancing
around a direct accusation.

"She said they had relations at the
office and once at his place this last week, Cece. She was all torn
up about it, wanted my advice." His voice choked at the end and I
wanted to cry right along with him. "I noticed there's been a lot
of closed doors with the two of them."

Everything went quiet again. I sank
onto Joe's bed by the window, my fingers almost too numb to hold
onto the phone.

"Have you talked to mom
or--"

He cut me short again. "No, and I
don't want to until after the surgery. Pamela begged me not to, and
I want to give him time to come clean with me."

My dad's voice was raw, doubling my
hurt. He loved Aiden like a son, so much so I had a spot or two of
jealousy growing up that only my own deep affection for Aiden had
managed to erase. It wasn't like he loved Aiden more than me, but
that he could love him almost as much when he wasn't
blood.

"Promise me you won't say anything,
sunbeam. Not to anyone." He scratched at his chin and offered
another long sigh. "I just needed to talk to someone about it, ease
my mind before the surgery. You won't say anything,
right?"

"No, daddy," I choked. "I'll keep
quiet."

********************

Another hour and a half passed before
Aiden's arrival. My brain spent the whole time walking circles,
crossing over the same questions with no answers. Could Pamela be
lying? Why would anyone lie about adultery, especially in a smaller
town like ours?

What if she was only lying about them
having sex after my weekend with Aiden? Could she just be doing
this because he told her it was over? Still, that meant he had sex
with a married woman who was an employee, and that wasn't the Aiden
I knew.

By the time he arrived, I could barely
walk. I had a boulder, sharp and heavy, in my stomach and another
in my throat. I hadn't cried yet, but that was only a matter of
time. I was still too frozen to cry. When I thawed, there would be
a flood.

I crossed the lawn to where Aiden
waited next to my parked car. I kept my eyes on the ground, trying
to figure out how to keep my mouth shut so I wouldn't break the
promise I had made to my father.

When I finally looked up, the sight of
Aiden broke my heart.

"Baby, what's wrong?" He didn't move
from where he stood outside the car on the driver's side. My keys
were in his hand, his knuckles white from the grip he had on
them.

I shook my head. I had to pretend
nothing was wrong, or that something else -- something that would
end our relationship -- was wrong. Right, I would have to tell him
I had found someone else or just stopped loving him.

"Get in the car."

He didn't quite growl the words at me,
but I knew it was an order. I slid into the passenger seat and
directed my gaze out the window. He got in, jabbed the keys in the
ignition then tried to cover one of my hands with his.

I pulled away. If I let him touch me,
I was lost. I would ask him about Pamela, probably beg him to tell
me it was all a lie and believe every last word.

"Cece, whatever has happened, just
tell me." His hand landed lightly on my shoulder, just the
fingertips making any contact.

I flinched, my skin recoiling with the
heartbreak that tightened my chest.

"Did that boy hurt you? Did he say
or…"

His voice strangled on whatever he'd
been ready to add. It took me a few seconds to realize he was
talking about Harold and worried that something had gone horribly
wrong on my date last night.

"No." I turned my head and looked at
the key in the ignition so I wouldn't have to look at Aiden. He had
no right to be concerned over what was wrong with me, not when he
was the one hurting me. My mouth screwed tight, the accusation of
his love affair with a married woman trying to batter its way past
my lips.

I jabbed a finger in the direction of
the steering column. "Are you going to drive or should
I?"

Without another word, he started the
car and pulled away from my building. He had picked a discreet
hotel some thirty minutes away, the room at the far end and
invisible to the nearby roads. Before the phone call from daddy,
the location would have been perfect. Now it just sank the knife in
my heart another inch deeper.

Aiden put the car in park and yanked
the keys from the ignition, speaking for the first time since we
pulled away from my dorm building. "You're not leaving without
talking to me."

He got out of the car, taking my keys
with him into the hotel room. He left the room's door open as a
silent command for me to follow. I waited a good ten minutes,
telling myself he would get tired and bring me my keys.

Except there's no one I know who is
more obstinate than Aiden. Before, that stubborn streak had been a
positive quality. It got him out of the trailer park, into college
and an ownership interest in my dad's shop. It grew the shop's
reach, taking the business from a regional reputation to a national
one.

Sitting in the car, waiting for him to
cave first, it meant I would have to give him another opportunity
to walk all over my heart if I wanted my keys back. I got out, feet
dragging, and entered the room.

I stopped just inside and left the
door open.

Aiden stood in front of the dresser,
one hand resting on it, the other cupping one of the cream-colored
roses in a vase. On the dresser, near his hand, were two boxes. The
bottom one -- rectangular and white with a ribbon – looked like the
boxes my mom puts gift clothing in. The other was smaller and
didn't come from a store -- it was etched metal, the design
unrecognizable from the distance, but I'd received similar boxes
from Aiden over the years.

He seldom bought gifts for me. He made
them instead, each gift one of a kind.

I shook my head, forcing myself not to
care that he'd brought me gifts and flowers. He probably had done
the same for that woman. Hell, maybe the gift inside the box had
been made for her and I was getting it second hand.

Telling myself I would not cave, I
closed my eyes and folded my arms across my chest. I intended to
stay that way until he gave me my keys and I escaped back to my
dorm room where I could cry myself into next week.

"I guess you enjoyed your date more
than you expected."

The sadness in his voice forced my
eyes open. I met his gaze and saw my own pain reflected. It hurt
too much to look at him, so I closed them again and shook my head.
The date had been painful and awkward. I had expected to spend
today in this room, Aiden's hands on my body, his declarations of
love in my ear. He had talked about children and forever, not
adultery and sex behind office doors and breaking my heart and my
father's.

"Cece, what is it?"

The rumble of irritation made me
squeeze my eyes more tightly.

His tone gentled. "I thought I heard
happiness in your voice last night, baby girl. That you wanted to
come here today, to spend time with me…"

"I know about Pamela," I
whispered.

Sorry, daddy. I couldn't
keep it in. So, so sorry…but I won't let him know you told
me.

"Pamela…at the shop?"

He sounded confused. I opened my eyes
to see his face slowly hardening. I nodded.

"Know what?" He stopped stroking the
rose, his entire body frozen except for the shallow rise and fall
of his chest.

"You're fucking her," I bit
out.

His grip on the rose tightened, the
petals breaking from the strain. "And you know this
how?"

God, he wasn't even going
to deny it!

I rolled my lips, anger seeping in to
replace the hurt. "You can't keep the fact that you're fucking a
married woman in daddy's shop secret. Everybody knows!"

I sucked a breath in. That wasn't
true. No one knew but Pamela, Aiden, daddy, and now me. But I
couldn't have him knowing daddy told me.

"So
everybody
knows." He released the
rose, the rest of its petals littering the dresser. His hand fell
to his side and he took his first step toward me. "And you
believe
everybody
despite my telling you how crazy I am about you."

I closed my eyes again and wrapped my
arms around me in a hug.

"Tell me, Cece. Why would I say and do
those things with you if I was fucking Pamela Marks?" His voice was
nearer, maybe half the distance from the dresser to me.

I hugged my body harder, my fingers
denting my disgusting flesh, flesh I'd been stupid enough to think
Aiden desired. I shook my head, trying to communicate that I didn't
have to understand or explain his motivation.

The door shut next to me and then I
felt his chest press lightly against the barrier of my
arms.

"Why, baby?"

God, his voice was so gentle. Gentle
and hurt, but the ache was my own, a quality I was projecting onto
his tone because I didn't want to believe what that woman said was
true.

"You're not getting out of here
without an answer." His arms moved until I could feel that he
blocked me from moving on either side.

I sucked a huge breath in, knowing I
would need every last molecule of oxygen to spew the venom that had
built inside me and that I would be speechless afterwards, no fire
or fight remaining.

"Maybe you're just like the guys in
high school who wondered what Kevin saw in me, what I was hiding
under my skirt. Maybe you wanted to push me toward other guys so
I'd stop crushing on you or maybe the moment overtook you. Maybe
you're nothing more than a selfish, manipulative
asshole."

I sucked another breath in, surprised
that I could, but the words didn't want to stop once they started.
I'd spent every minute from my dad's call until that second with
Aiden's big body bearing down on me pondering why he had
lied.

"I'd like to think it really was that
the moment overtook you or you were trying to help me in a
misguided, fucked up way, and, hey, it worked. I went on two dates,
I'll go on more--"

Aiden stopped me for a heartbeat with
a growl that went straight to my pussy. I shook my head, denying
the power he had over me.