by A. C. Arthur
“You did your job, Del. Don’t let them make you doubt that,” Lance insisted.
Del nodded as he approached the door. “I know. I did my job and I stood up for what I thought was right. I can live with those facts. Thanks, man,” he said before opening the door and heading out to the bar so he could go home.
Lance didn’t say anything in return. There was nothing else to be said. They were always there when the other needed them. Del hadn’t told anyone about the phone call, but Lance had known something was wrong and had come to assist. For all the times he’d done that, Del would love his brother eternally. He just wished that none of the things that had happened to him and Lance while they lived in D.C. had ever happened. But the reality was that if those things hadn’t happened in their lives, neither of them would be here in Providence now, running this bar with their friends.
And Del wouldn’t be sleeping with Rylan. He couldn’t explain why that was also a plus to being back in Providence, or why he took his phone out of his pocket as he climbed behind the wheel of the second SUV he’d rented, and sent her a text inviting her to his place for dinner tonight. Nothing involving the two of them made sense but being with her made Del feel good. He hadn’t felt that way in far too long and he wasn’t yet ready to give it up.
10
“This will be so much better than grilled cheese. Did you smell that onion gravy?” Rylan asked as she and Del walked out of Margie’s carrying their bags full of the dinner Margie had prepared for them.
They were almost to their cars when Rylan heard her name being called. She turned so fast, thinking instantly that someone was seeing her and Del together. Camy already knew about them, that didn’t mean Rylan wanted to risk anyone else finding out. She also didn’t want Del to be angry that someone was seeing them together.
“Hey!” Naomi said as she fast walked across the parking lot. “Mom’s been calling you. We need to schedule a date and time to go look at dresses and to think about Christmas dinner. Aunt Belle is bringing her new boyfriend and he has four kids.”
“I’m spending Christmas with Dad and Uncle Larry.” Rylan had planned to tell her mother and Naomi this in the next few days, but that announcement certainly wasn’t planned to take place in the parking lot at Margie’s.
Now, she moved until she stood directly in front of Naomi, hoping to block Del from Naomi’s view. Her sister never could focus on more than one thing at a time, and the one thing Naomi loved to focus on was herself.
“What? Why? Neither of them can cook. And you barely cook without Mom’s help, so what do you plan to eat Ramen noodles?” Naomi asked, her tone tinged with sarcasm.
Naomi wore a houndstooth coat with black leather gloves. Her hair was neatly curled this time, her make-up light and natural. Rylan gripped the bag she was holding in her hand and tried not to feel like a bum wearing her work boots, jeans and sweatshirt beneath a coat that looked as if she were ready for the next snowball fight. Normally these things didn’t bother her—okay, well they did a little—but now that she was with Del, she sort of wondered if he thought about women who dressed and looked like Naomi as more his style.
“He’s our father,” Rylan said. “I don’t want to take sides and you shouldn’t either.”
“He’s a thief,” Naomi snapped.
Rylan was just about to respond when Del touched her arm. She hadn’t realized he’d come up from behind to stand next to her. She also hadn’t told him to go on to the truck to wait for her while she talked to her sister. So, looking over to see him standing close with a smile already in place shouldn’t have been a surprise.
“Hi Naomi,” he said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”
“Oh. Del. Hello,” Naomi said and looked from him to Rylan and then back to Del. “What’re you doing here? Did you just come from Margie’s too? Thursday’s smothered pork chops and onion gray. It’s the only night that I bother to eat any kind of take out.”
“It’s the night Mom works late at the school so she’s not home to cook dinner,” Rylan corrected her sister.
Naomi shot her a quick, heated glance.
“Anyway, I haven’t seen you in a while either,” Naomi said to Del.
She’d already switched from the slightly irritated look she’d been given Rylan to the sweet and sultry look she was now giving Del.
“I heard you and your little friends opened a bar. I just haven’t had time to get over there,” she was saying.
Del just nodded. “It’s okay, we plan on sticking around for a while.”
“Oh, I know! Do you book private parties?” Naomi asked, her brown eyes now alight with glee.
“Yeah we do. We have an upper level called The Skybox especially for private parties. You havin’ a party?” Del asked.
Naomi nodded and with one hand snatched the glove off her other. She thrust the left hand into Del’s face so fast it was a wonder he didn’t get scratched by her long pink-painted nails.
“I’m engaged!” Naomi said and did a little happy dance right there in the parking lot.
Rylan rolled her eyes, but she’d turned her head so that nobody would see that’s what she was doing. Her mother had sent her text two days ago announcing Naomi’s great news. Rylan had, in return, sent her sister the obligatory congratulations. It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy for Naomi, she was. Her sister deserved happiness just like everybody else, even if Naomi wasn’t good at making people feel particularly happy herself. But the tone of her mother’s message had implied that once again, Naomi was doing so much better than Rylan.
“Really? That’s fantastic! Congratulations!” Del told her. “We’d love to host your engagement party. Just stop by the bar in the next couple of days and we’ll give you a tour of the Skybox and you can confirm your booking.”
“I’ll have to see when Ellis’s next game is,” Naomi said. “But thinking about it now, it’s really perfect. Announcing our engagement at a sports bar is genius. Ellis is going to love it and his teammates can come and any of those other players he wants to invite. What’s the capacity in this Skybox area? We may need to rent out the entire place.”
For a moment Del looked confused.
Rylan, irritated that they were standing in the very public parking lot while her food was getting cold, decided to help him out.
“Naomi is engaged to Ellis Colby, the top scoring point guard in the NBA this season.” She could’ve seemed a little more enthusiastic about that especially since she enjoyed basketball, but Naomi was working her nerves with this impromptu interruption.
The quick and lethal glare Naomi cut her seconds after she finished meant her sister wasn’t pleased with her at the moment either.
“Damn, Ellis Colby? Well, hell yeah, we’ll rent the whole place out to you for the engagement party. I’d have to go over some things logistically with the guys but we can definitely make this happen,” Del said, excitement clear in his tone.
Rylan felt guilty at that point. Why hadn’t she thought about suggesting the engagement party be at the bar? Naomi was right, it was a genius idea. That didn’t mean she cared anymore about this wedding than she had ten minutes ago.
“Okay, I’m going to go right home after I get my pork chops and call my event planner. We’re going to start working on this ASAP. Do you have a card or something?” Naomi asked.
“The bar is a ten-minute drive from the house, Naomi. You can drive over and speak to Del and the guys just like he suggested,” Rylan said. “And why don’t you plan to do that tomorrow or the next day. Whenever. I’d like to eat my food before it gets cold.”
Naomi looked unbothered. “Well, you can run along. Del and I are discussing business.”
When Rylan hesitated, Del stepped in. “It’ll be better if you come down to the bar, Naomi. That way you can get a look around and make sure it’s what you want. Talk to your planner and then we can schedule a time for the tour.”
“Sure,” Naomi said. “But you really should get some c
ards, Del. If you guys are running a business, you need to run it correctly.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Del told her. “I’ll get right on that.”
“Goodnight, Naomi,” Rylan said and went to her car.
Del moved when she did, walking her to the door of her car and waiting while she got in. “I’ll be right behind you,” he said as he leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips.
The act shocked the cold out of Rylan and she sat there blinking at him for endless seconds. She knew that Naomi was still standing there because she’d heard her sister gasp. And since she wasn’t sure what to say to Del at the moment and definitely didn’t want to hear anymore of Naomi’s comments, Rylan closed the door and started the engine.
Rylan thought she’d lost her appetite, but once she was inside Del’s house and he told her to have a seat while he heated the food and fixed their drinks, she realized she was still hungry.
And she was still annoyed. Not so much at Naomi anymore, because her sister was just being her usual self-absorbed self. Even when she’d texted Rylan asking if she could get a discount on renting out the bar since Rylan was obviously sleeping with Del. Rylan hadn’t even bothered to respond. She had considered how Del was going to feel about someone else in town knowing about their little fling. Secrets never stayed secrets for long in Providence.
She was walking around the large living room admiring the modern décor mixed with pieces that she knew had come from his mother’s house when it dawned on her that Del had actually kissed her. Right in front of Naomi, as if he didn’t give a damn who saw them. The thought made her smile as she stood at the bay window looking out to the dark street.
“There are some TV trays over in that corner. Bring two over and we can eat here in front of the television.”
She hadn’t startled at Del’s voice, but Rylan did turn to look at him first. He’d taken off the Game Changers shirt and now wore only a white t-shirt and jeans. Even that looked scrumptious on him. Or was she just thinking about food?
“What?” Del asked.
When she realized she was still standing in the same spot while he was holding two plates of steaming food, she shrugged. “Ah, I was thinking that this is a great spot for a Christmas tree. When do you normally put yours up?”
She could’ve just asked him about that kiss. Why he’d done it? What it meant that he’d done it in front of her sister, or anyone else who’d could’ve been walking by? But she didn’t, instead, she moved to the other side of the room, past a curio cabinet that held over fifty bells inside. She recalled his mother had collected bells. There’d been three shelves full of them in the house where Camy now lived. Obviously, the siblings had divided them so they could all have something of their mother’s.
“I wasn’t going to put up a tree,” he said once she had the trays set up and he’d put down the plates. “I’ll get the drinks. Find something on television.”
Rylan found the television remote on the glass table beside the light gray couch. That was a good place for them. Instead of between the cushions on the couch, or under the pillows in her bed. She turned on the sixty-five-inch flat screen that was mounted above the natural fireplace. When she found a holiday favorite, she set the remote back on the table and sat down. Del came in with glasses of iced tea and groaned.
“I thought you weren’t into those holiday movies like Camy,” he complained as he sat.
“This is a classic, just like Christmas Vacation. I usually watch it at least once a season, if not more,” she said.
“It’s ridiculous,” Del said. “Who gets on a plane and leaves their kid at home? Even though she has a bunch of kids, it’s still a little far-fetched. And then to make a sequel where the parents do the same thing, but this time the kid ends up in another state. Unreal.”
“Um hmmm,” she nodded and gazed at him.
“Um hmmm, what?”
“You’ve watched this series more than once, haven’t you?” she asked narrowing her eyes at him.
“I lived with Camy,” he replied.
Rylan chuckled. “Enough said.”
They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes, until Kevin’s parents realized they overslept and the entire house full of people begin to get ready to leave for the airport.
“How come Kevin didn’t hear all that hoopla?” Del asked before forking another scoop of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
“He’s a heavy sleeper,” she replied and listened to Del laugh. “It’s not funny. I’ve always been a heavy sleeper, which is why Naomi always got downstairs to open her gifts on Christmas morning before me.”
Del shook his head. “My mom made us all wait to go down at the same time. Lance used to take forever in the bathroom washing his face and brushing his teeth. Camy would whine and lay on her stomach at the top of the stairs to see if she could see anything down in the living room.”
Rylan smiled at the thought. Things had always been different at the Greer house. That was one of the reasons she’d always wanted to stay there.
“Camy’s still like that, you know. Two years ago, we went to a ski resort for the holidays. You and Lance weren’t able to come home and she was feeling really sad that she’d be alone. Because my family’s a little more dysfunctional, I had no problem scheduling a trip for us. We partied on Christmas Eve and drank so much I thought I was on another planet.” Rylan laughed at the memory. “But early the next morning, even before the sun rose, Camy was in my room, jumping on the bed telling me to get up so we could exchange our gifts. I was like, girl you are outta your mind. But she was dead serious.”
Del continued to laugh. “Yeah, that sounds just like her. Camy’s always loved Christmas. So did my mom.”
“And that’s why you and Lance can take it or leave it,” she said and watched Del put down his fork and sit back on the couch.
“I’m sorry if that’s too personal,” she told him. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”
He waited a beat before shrugging. “Not talking about it doesn’t make it better.”
Rylan chewed the food she’d just put into her mouth slowly.
“My mom loved Christmas. She loved all of us being happy together. After my dad died, a big chunk of that happiness went with him. Lance and I didn’t handle that very well,” Del said somberly.
“You got into some sort of trouble each time you left the house,” Rylan said then clapped her mouth shut.
He nodded. “That’s accurate.”
“But that last time, when the principal wanted to press charges against us and Mal’s dad was all for the idea of sending fifteen-year olds to jail, it was just too much for my mom. At first, Lance and I were pretty pissed off that she sent us to The House, but then we realized we probably deserved it. We were hellions and it wasn’t fair when my mom was trying to do everything by herself. Then I broke Mal’s nose a few months before I was supposed to come back home and they decided to add more time to my stay at the House instead of sending me to juvie.” He shook his head, a mixture of shame and sorrow marring his face. “I hated that I kept disappointing my mother so much.”
“She was proud that you graduated from high school and then went off to college,” Rylan told him because she’d been there to see his mother smiling gleefully when she found out her son was going to be a college graduate.
“More like relieved,” Del said.
Rylan shook her head. “No, Del. She was definitely proud. I remember hearing her tell Mr. Penning one Sunday after church that her boys were going to do great things. That they were independent and smart and confident. Of course, she was taking jabs at Mal who still hadn’t decided if he was going to college or staying here to work in the office with his dad.”
“Which he did.”
“He did. Because he was too chickenshit to try anything else,” she replied.
Del laughed. “You never were one to mince words.”
Rylan shook her head. “No, I wasn’t. Which is
why I’m going to tell you that we need to get you a Christmas tree, put it right in front of that window and then get out there and decorate that great front yard you have.”
For a minute he looked as if he were going to say no, but then he smiled. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.”
He leaned across the couch and took her hand. “You were a good idea,” he said softly.
“I was a mistake, remember,” she replied when an unexpected pang registered in her chest.
Del shook his head. “Nah. My mom always said that things happened for a reason.”
He was rubbing her hand, threading his fingers between hers and Rylan was thoroughly enjoying the feel and the look of their entwined fingers. She was enjoying sitting here after work having dinner in front of the television with Del. More than she’d ever enjoyed anything else before.
When he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed each one of her fingers, that pang in her chest shifted to what felt like her heart plummeting full speed to the pit of her stomach. Oh no.
“Come here,” he whispered.
She hesitated, or at least in her mind she did. Her body, on the other hand had already begun leaning over until her face was aligned with his.
“Make no mistake that this is intentional,” he said quietly. “Everything from this moment on is exactly what I want. Understand?”
Rylan nodded. “I understand.”
The word had barely slipped from her lips when Del’s touched hers in a whisper-soft kiss that sent warm tendrils soaring through her body. With his free hand, he touched her cheek as the kiss went from a soft touch to a thorough exploration. Then his hand was in her hair, his blunt-tipped fingers scraping along her scalp as he held her face close to his. Rylan made the next move. She broke the kiss just long enough to move across the couch, pushing Del up to a sitting position before straddling him.
“From this point on, everything I do is intentional,” she said, tossing his words back at him.