Breaking Hearts

by Melissa Shirley

  I dropped my mouth open. “No way. I get to use all my weapons the same way you’ll use yours.”

  “I have no weapons. I plan to use sheer force.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. The idea of someone built like Gatlin--tall, lanky, his muscle-tone mostly in his brain--producing enough force to badger someone like Simon into bending to his will, didn’t seem likely. Before I could respond, Simon strolled in. He dropped a quick kiss on my lips as Gatlin clucked his tongue. “That’s cheating, girlfriend.”

  I pulled back.

  “What’s cheating?” Simon tugged me in close to his side.

  I didn’t resist when he tilted my chin up and gave me the toe-curler. When we parted, I waved a hand toward Gatlin. “Ignore the diva. He just came over to do my hair, and he’s afraid you’re going to mess it up.”

  Simon chuckled and Gatlin shot me a narrow-lidded glare. He turned to shove his bottles and emollients into his bag. After a few seconds, he whirled and stared at Simon. “Let me put highlights in your hair.” His demand burst out loud and strong.

  Simon looked from me to Gatlin. “No.” His almost quiet reply lacked enough force to bring an end to the subject.

  Gatlin slammed his fists onto the counter. “Come on.” He spoke the words through clenched, pearly white teeth. If he thought pestering Simon into compliance would work, he’d forgotten how to win a bet with me.

  “No way.”

  “Come on.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” Simon narrowed his eyes but smiled. He ran a hand down my back to tuck a finger into my belt loop, pulling me even closer. He moved past Gatlin to fold his body into a chair at the table.

  I glided over to him--yes, glided--then straddled his lap. My chest rubbed against his as my hips shimmied a bit more than necessary. I plunged my fingers into his long semi-blond locks. “It would be kind of sexy.”

  His gaze honed in on my tongue as it ran along my lower lip. “You think?” His nose scrunched, but I had him.

  A surge of victory sweetened the words out of my mouth. “Oh, yeah.” I nodded, staring into his amber colored eyes. “Girls appreciate guys who put in that kind of time to look good.” I gave him the coyest look in my arsenal of sweat-inspiring gazes. “At least, I do, and when I appreciate something, I am very”--I leaned in close to glide my tongue along the shell of his ear before I whispered--“very grateful.”

  “Okay.” His voice squeaked out an octave or so higher than normal. He cleared his throat. “I mean, you know.” He found his natural tone once again as he relaxed his arms and slouched a bit under my weight. “I guess a couple of highlights would be okay.”

  “Sweet.” Gatlin pulled me aside as I climbed off Simon. He leaned down. “You cheated, you hussy. I’m not cleaning stalls.”

  “Welcher.”

  “Cheater.”

  We hissed insults back and forth before he started mixing color.

  Chapter 27

  The next night, my parents loaded up and took Kieran to Midland for dinner and a movie, leaving me home with nothing but the TV to keep me company. I crawled into bed early and had just fallen asleep when a clink-clink of rocks against my window woke me. After throwing the covers off, I pushed up the sash with one hand, wiping the sleep from my eyes with the other.

  Simon stood on the front lawn, smiling up at me. “Come out and play with me?”

  I could think of worse ways to be roused from a half-worried sleep. “I have to get dressed.”

  “It’s clothing optional.” He yanked his shirt over his head.

  I giggled like a schoolgirl--high pitched with a tinkle of giddy attached. “You’re crazy.”

  “Crazy about you.” He swirled his hips and flicked open the button to his jeans.

  “You getting naked out on my front lawn. What will Mrs. Hopewell think?” I propped my elbows on the window frame and my chin on my fists. If he wanted to get down and dirty, I’d never forgive myself if I missed a single hip gyration. “Ah, screw her. Take it all off, baby.”

  He laughed and took three running steps toward the porch. Using my mother’s heavy marble planter, he vaulted high enough to reach the guttering on the porch that ran parallel to my room. Using either momentum or his vast upper body strength, he made it to the gap between the roof and my side of the house. His muscles bunched and relaxed as he wind-milled his arms, preparing for the next jump. At least ten feet of nothing but air remained between him and my window. “I’m coming in.” He backed up to take a run.

  “Don’t! You’re going to fall, Simon. Just climb down and use the front door.”

  “Now, where’s your sense of adventure?”

  I covered my face, peeking through my fingers as he leaped through the air. His hands connected with my windowsill and he shimmied his way inside.

  “You scare the crap out of me.” My heart pounded in my ears as he wrapped himself around me, rolling me on top of him

  Instead of answering with words, he brushed the hair from my face, staring at me through half-lidded eyes burning with desire.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Sneaking into your room.” He rolled us again until his body rested almost on top of me. Then he leaned down and kissed the corner of my mouth. He moved to the other side as my fingers skimmed over his shoulder.

  His gaze held mine while he toyed with the exposed skin of my stomach.

  My breath caught. “You’re not very good at sneaking. You probably woke half the neighborhood.”

  “I wanted a good night kiss.”

  Even if I had a good reason, I wouldn’t have said no. Trembling with need, I yearned to feel his body pressed against mine, to let each of my senses absorb every Simon-detail I could. He kissed with his whole body, caressed with every piece of himself, and because of it, he swallowed the soft whimper that escaped my throat.

  When he pulled away, I savored the taste of him as he laid his head on my shoulder. “What am I going to do with you, Dani?”

  I slipped my hand on top of his, sliding both up my stomach. “I have an idea.”

  He lifted his head and smiled. “You dirty girl.” He nibbled on my earlobe. “I love you. It’s always been you.”

  A lump formed in my throat. I had to say something, tell him all the things I felt and the ones he needed to know, but I couldn’t make a sound. I couldn’t form a syllable. He kissed his way down my neck to my shoulder, took the strap of my tank top between his teeth, peeling it down my arm. With stealthy moves I could never have managed, he moved back up to my neck and across my collarbone as a thousand sensations vibrated over my body.

  I wouldn’t have stopped, wouldn’t have moved or breathed or done anything to break the spell around us had a loud bang not shattered the sensual haze around me. “What the hell?”

  Shoving him away, I stood as though my body hadn’t been reduced to a puddle of liquid passion. He pulled me behind him, grabbed my hair dryer, then tiptoed to the door.

  “What are you going to do, blow dry them to death?”

  He put a finger over his lips. Without a sound, he mouthed, “Stay here.”

  No way. I couldn’t stay in my room while he faced whatever danger lie ahead armed with only a blow drier and his own rousing sense of courage. I leaned in close, popping my arm through the strap of my shirt. “Do you see anything?”

  He turned and put his finger to his lips. “Shh.”

  As we made it to the landing at the top of the steps, the click of metal stopped me in my tracks. He smacked the intruder in the skull with the blow drier. Shards of plastic ruptured from the side of my very necessary piece of hair equipment.

  Luke grabbed the side of his head. “What the hell, Simon?”

  “You what the hell, Luke. What are you doing here?”

  “Mrs. Hopewell called. She said she saw someone climbing in the window.” He rubbed a spot on his scalp and extracted a tiny piece of plastic. “I’m the hero, here,
Einstein. You’re the prowler.”

  I chuckled at the absurdity my life had become. “Hero?” I pointed a finger at Luke, then shifted it in Simon’s direction. “Prowler? What does that make me? Should I be clutching my chest and swooning?”

  Luke pointed toward the hallway. “Go to bed, Mae West.” He holstered his gun and looked up at Simon. “Next time, use the front door.”

  Simon shrugged as though Luke wasn’t staring at the half-naked version of us. “I was going for romance points. Thanks for screwing with my mojo.”

  Luke turned and walked down the stairs. “Every once in a while, I forget you have some stuff wrong with your brain. Then you go and pull shit like this to remind me. You’re lucky you didn’t get shot. Again.”

  Simon held out his arms and completed a full circle turn. “Haven’t you heard? I’m invincible.”

  “Yeah, tell her dad when he sees the front door.”

  Chapter 28

  Monday morning brought with it a few thousand rays of sunlight and another day away from court. Cal had witnesses who were testifying in another case, so the judge postponed the trial for another day.

  My mother, who’d made arrangements for Kieran to join a playgroup, stood by, waiting for me to get him ready. When the house phone rang, Mom turned her attention from us to the jingle across the room. She spoke in angry hushed tones as I battled Kieran’s shoes. With a bear-like growl, she slammed the receiver down. “Hey, Big K.” She turned to Kieran with her brightest, toothiest, most fake smile. “Why don’t you go help Grandpa water the flowers while I talk to Mommy?”

  He looked at me, his eyes wide. “Did you do something wrong?”

  I shrugged. “I never really know, buddy.”

  “Well, if you get into trouble, I’ll stand in the corner with you, okay, Mommy?”

  I kissed his cheek. “I don’t think I’m in trouble, pal, but thanks.”

  He ran out the back door to chat with my dad about flowers and bees.

  I turned to my mother. “What’s up, Mom?”

  “The women in this town!” One hand white-knuckled the side of a dining room chair as she stared down at me. She made the word “women” into a swear word. “Those--those--women think Kieran should wait to join the play group until your trial is over. They’re afraid he might talk about you killing his daddy.” She glared once more at the phone as though the caller could feel her anger. “It would open up some uncomfortable questions for them.”

  My blood pounded in my ears. Tears blurred my vision. I stood up all in one motion and nodded slowly. “Really?” These women had been my friends once--the girls I grew up cheering next to, went to college with, and stood up for at weddings too tacky for words. “So they’re too good for my innocent son to play with their kids? I mean, whether I killed Sean or not, Kieran didn’t do a damn thing. He’s a victim no matter how you look at it.”

  Mom nodded.

  “You know, I kept their secrets. I lied for them. I helped them out of messes too ugly for this town to believe their golden girls could make.” And to prove my point…“Did you know Misty Cannell cheated on David last summer. She called me in California to brag about what a good lover her pool boy is. And Erica McDonald watched that Julia Roberts movie. Then she turned around and fed her husband poison last summer because he stepped out with Cassie Morgan’s nanny. And Cassie had a check-bouncing thing a few months ago. I lent her a thousand dollars to clear it up.”

  “How do you know all of that?” She stared at me openmouthed. “Never mind. We should run down to the beauty parlor and spill the dirt.”

  “Beans.”

  “What?”

  “It’s spill the beans, Mom, and don’t get all Harper Valley PTA on me, okay? There has to be a better way to deal with my friends.” Damn. I’d grown more than a little tired of turning the other cheek.

  She glared at nothing in particular and everything all at the same time.

  “Some friends I have.” For a minute, I envied the relationships Simon enjoyed with Keaton, Gatlin, and their whole crew.

  “I’m going to take Kieran to the toy store over in Midland. I think he needs a new toy.” She tapped her finger against her chin. “Collection.”

  I smiled at her.

  Finally, with a tilt of her perfectly coiffed head, she nodded. “When Simon gets here, I trust you can entertain him.” At my raised brows, she rolled her eyes. “Tell him I’ll call to reschedule his appointment.”

  “Sure.” I swallowed a lump in my throat, waiting until they were out of the driveway before I broke down. Collapsing onto the sofa, I hugged a pillow to my chest. This had been my childhood home, where I grew up happy and popular. Not that I could blame those women completely. My presumed guilt drew attention from an editor’s column, a front page photo spread featuring my high school glory-day photos and daily social media stories. The town divided. Some waved and smiled, others turned to walk the other way when they crossed my path.

  Simon arrived ten minutes later. Without question, he wrapped me in an embrace that comforted every part of my aching soul. “Wanna talk about it?”

  I shook my head and buried my face in his shirt. His aftershave tingled my nose with the sweet and spicy smell of heaven, and I breathed deeply.

  “Okay. Wanna make out then?”

  I glanced up and smiled through my tears. “If I said I wasn’t really in the mood, would you understand?”

  He chuckled. “Of course.”

  “Well”--I grinned and tinkered with the buttons of his shirt--“I’m not saying it, at all.” I pulled his head down for a soft kiss.

  After some intense groping on the couch, he pulled away and ran his hand through his long hair. “You tempt me, woman.” He took a deep breath, then released it slowly in a loud whistle of air through his lips. “I didn’t come here for this, you know. I have an appointment with your mother.”

  Flustered from the kissing, I couldn’t follow his whole train of thought. “I’m sorry.” I tried for contrite, but ended up sounding smug and arrogant.

  “I’ll bet.”

  “And you don’t have an appointment with my mother.” I spilled the entire story in a rush of run-on sentences. “So, she took him to the toy store to make up for an entire town blaming him for his bad luck in the maternal gene pool.”

  “Wow. Those bitches.” He licked his bottom lip. With him this close and still holding me, my troubles didn’t seem so big. “They were so jealous of you in high school. That’s what this is about.” He spoke with force.

  This time they had a way better reason than jealousy to hate me. “No, Simon, this is because they think I killed my husband so I could be with you.”

  “Hey, the only real memories I have are of high school. I remember them standing in front of my locker junior year telling Joss how you didn’t deserve Keaton. They were so jealous of you--especially Jocelyn, and these were her friends too.” He tucked me into his chest.

  It turned out evilness hid behind popularity. “This sucks, Simon. There should be a limit to the amount of hurt I can inflict on this kid because I married Sean. I deserve what I deserve, but he’s innocent.”

  With a curled finger under my chin, he lifted my face to meet his gaze. “Those girls aren’t worth your time. Even if you killed Sean, even if you did it in coldblooded anger, I will love you every minute until I die.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t kill Sean.”

  “Yeah. That was my point.” But his face lit up, eyes sparkling, cheeks dimpled.

  Chapter 29

  So many questions zoomed through my mind as I watched Simon and Kieran swim together and play with Kieran’s trucks on the patio.

  My mother, the eternal hostess, served lemonade and homemade chocolate croissants before whisking Kieran off to a nap he fought like a trooper. Finally, he settled on letting Simon tuck him in, and was sound asleep before Simon made the third step.

  When he returned, he sat acros
s from me, his hand outstretched, palm up. I slipped mine over top, and with his other hand he traced the veins leading from my fingers to my wrist. It took a while before he spoke. “I saw the scar on his back.”

  I nodded. “The doctor said it would fade with time.”

  “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  I pulled away and folded my fingers in front of my mouth. “Not really.” But didn’t he have a right to know? If we were going to really be together, shouldn’t he know it all? “Before that day, he never hit Kieran. He yelled at him, but he didn’t hit him.” I wished I could erase the pictures of that day from my mind, but I couldn’t. They haunted me even now with Sean dead and buried. I shuddered at the thought of all Kieran had been through. “It was so hard there. I never knew what would set him off or how he would punish me, but he never touched Kieran; I promise that.”

  Simon nodded and scooted his chair closer.

  “I wanted to leave so many times. I saw what the tension and the bruises on me were doing to Kieran, but I just stayed there like…” Like a fool? “I just stayed. Kieran was so quiet. He never talked anymore…barely said five words in a day if Sean was home, sometimes even if he wasn’t.” I’d thought I’d hardened my heart to the words, but my eyes burned and my throat closed as I wrestled with how to continue. “The day… The day it happened, I had a meeting with a department store. They’d offered me this huge contract a little earlier, but they lost a page or something. I didn’t want to bring my kid along to re-sign, you know, but I couldn’t leave him with Sean because he’d already run off with him once. I didn’t trust him. I took Kieran to a girl who lived down the hill from us.” I concentrated on the mundane details to avoid the ones I couldn’t stand to relive.

  “She hurt him?”

  “I would have killed her.” There was no doubt. If she would have touched Kieran, I would probably have ended up in jail way sooner. “Since things got so bad between me and Sean, Kieran saw things he shouldn’t have seen, heard stuff I can never erase from his memory. Because of it, he started wetting his pants. A lot. And I was in such a big hurry to leave that morning, I forgot his bag, but I thought since he was with her, he would be more comfortable. I didn’t think he would have an accident. I was wrong. She didn’t know Sean was home, and she took Kieran to the house for more clothes. When she got there, Sean knew I lied. He knew I didn’t take Kieran with me, so he kept Kieran.”