by Marla Monroe
“From you two. You’ve been gone a lot and clam up anytime I walk into the room like you don’t want me to know what you’re talking about,” she said, moving away from Roy now that he’d quit coughing.
“Honey. We’re perfectly happy with everything. There’s just a lot going on with the farm and making plans for spring,” Aden said, standing up.
“Normally you talk to me about what you’re doing, but anytime I’ve asked, you’ve just brushed me off and said it’s nothing or don’t worry about it,” she pushed.
“You’ve been so busy with the new online store and decorating for Christmas that we figured you didn’t need to have to think about the day-to-day things that go on with running it. We’ve got that part, baby.” Roy looked stricken.
“So the fact that I’ve kept my house even though I’m living with you guys doesn’t bother you?” she asked.
Aden stumbled, trying to answer her. “Well, um, we understand that you feel more secure keeping it right now.”
Cynthia sighed and shrugged. She was pretty sure she had her answer. They were tiring of the arrangement and didn’t want to end it right there at Christmas. At least they were being considerate about it. Well, she would make it easy on them and not pursue the subject anymore. She could slowly move her things back to the house a few bags at a time so that when Christmas was over, there wouldn’t be much left to move.
She tried to ignore the pain in her chest as her heart cracked. The idea of being without them hurt so much Cynthia wasn’t sure she would be able to pretend that everything was fine. It felt as if she was preparing to bury them. She’d known this was going to happen, but somehow, a small part of her had hoped it would work. The reality of losing them was far worse than she’d ever imagined.
The next few days dragged by as she tried to pretend that everything was normal. Inside, she was screaming and crying at the unfairness of it. Why had she fallen in love with both of them? Why couldn’t they love her back just as much? If they truly did, they wouldn’t be giving up on making it work so soon.
The next Saturday night, Cynthia came home to a dark, empty house. At first she worried that something was wrong, but they would have called if one of them had gotten hurt or anything. More than likely they were out somewhere and had forgotten the time. Once, they wouldn’t have done that. They would have been there waiting on her or would have come to pick her up or follow her home.
She couldn’t stop the tears that slid down her cheeks as she undressed and ran a tub of water. She added her favorite bath oil then cried harder because it was the scent that Aden had used to flirt with her and ask her out that first time.
Once she had settled into the tub, Cynthia leaned back and let her heart finish breaking as she soaked. She couldn’t stay here any longer. She’d pack up her things in the morning and move back to the house. She couldn’t even call it home anymore. This had become her home. Only soon it wouldn’t be any longer.
When the water cooled off and she’d finally managed to stop crying, she climbed out of the tub to dry herself off. Something she hadn’t used to do for herself when she’d first moved in. Refusing to allow herself more tears, Cynthia dressed in a pair of loose fitting PJs and dragged out a suitcase to start packing. She’d put it back in the closet when she finished. She doubted the guys would even notice her missing clothes anyway.
Twenty minutes, and a thoroughly sloppy packing job later, she closed the lid and zipped it shut. Then she slid it back into the closet just as the sound of a door opening then closing reached her ears. She sighed and climbed into bed. It was late enough that she could plead a headache and skip dinner. She couldn’t help but wonder where they’d been.
It was still several minutes before the men walked into the bedroom. She could tell by the sudden pause in the doorway that they were a little shocked to see her already in bed.
Footsteps crossed the floor, and then the bed sank on either side of her as both men sat down.
“Hey, honey. Do you feel bad? Are you sick?” Aden asked in a soft voice as he gently rubbed her shoulder.
“I think I’m just tired. I had a headache earlier, but it’s better,” she said.
“Do you want me to bring you something to drink or eat, baby girl?” Roy asked.
“No thanks. I’m just going to go on to sleep. I’ll feel better after a good night’s rest.” She knew better, but they didn’t.
“We’ll try not to wake you up when we come to bed, sweetness. You just get some sleep,” Aden said as he stood up.
She felt Roy do the same. Then their footsteps echoed down the hall as they walked away. She felt a little guilty for not saying anything about leaving, but she just couldn’t go through it with them right then. She was exhausted from crying, and she hurt all over with the knowledge that her dreams were gone.
The suitcase in the closet seemed to mock her while she lay there trying to sleep. Maybe she needed to go ahead and talk to the guys about what she was going to do. She wasn’t going to get any sleep and feel any better in the morning anyway. Cynthia threw back the covers and climbed out of bed. She slipped down the hall only to find the kitchen and then the living room empty. When she heard the murmur of voices coming from the office, she headed in that direction. The door wasn’t closed all the way. She started to push it open and go inside when Aden’s words stopped her.
“Do you think she knows what’s going on?” Aden asked.
“I don’t know. She’s sure been acting odd though,” Roy said.
“I don’t like the idea of her wondering, Roy. Maybe we should go ahead and talk to her now. She’s obviously worn out. We don’t have to wait, do we?” Aden asked.
“I don’t guess so. I had wanted to drag it out a little longer though. If she already knows, then it might be kind of fun to make her wait.”
Cynthia barely managed to keep from making a noise. She hurried back to the bedroom and burst out crying. Afraid they would hear her, she stumbled into the bathroom and closed the door, turning on the water in the sink to mask her sobs. They were jerking her around. She never would have believed it of them if she hadn’t heard it with her own ears. How could they do this to her? She thought they cared if nothing else. Pain and anger warred inside of her as she struggled to regain control.
Finally, she managed to stop crying and washed her face with cold water to soothe the swelling from her tears. Then she climbed back into bed and prayed that she would be asleep by the time they made it to bed themselves. If she were lucky, they would be up and gone early and not wake her up. She doubted she was able to totally hide the evidence of her crying jag. She didn’t want to talk to them first thing in the morning.
The last thing she thought about as sleep finally claimed her was that she’d been such a fool to believe they had ever loved her in the first place. They’d started out playing a game with her to begin with. No doubt it had all been a game all along. The stalker had thrown a wrench in their plans and everything had dragged out longer than they’d planned was all. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Chapter Twenty
The next morning Aden and Roy awoke early and decided to get an early start on their surprise for Cynthia. She’d been wiped out the night before, so they didn’t wake her when they left the house.
“I sure hope she isn’t coming down with something,” Roy said as he nailed the shelf into place.
Aden paused as he picked up another piece of wood. “She looked sort of pale from what I could see of her.”
Roy had thought her eyes had been swollen when he’d looked at her that morning. It worried him that she might have been crying for some reason. He knew with women that they often didn’t need one, but it worried him just the same.
“We’ll see how she feels at lunch. Maybe we should stick around the rest of the day and treat her to a couch day. We can watch a movie and just veg on the couch with her,” Roy suggested.
“That sounds like a good idea. We’re almost finished with this a
nyway. Probably have it done in another few days.”
“I sure hope she’s surprised. I’d hate that we’ve snuck around all this time and she knew about it all along,” Roy said.
“Doesn’t matter. It will really help her and Denise with their online store to have a bigger place to store a ship out their things. It’s just about gotten bigger than their store front sales already,” Aden said.
“They both need to hire managers for the shops in town and work out of here. I’d sure like it a lot more. She’d be closer to home that way.”
Roy couldn’t wait to show her what they’d been doing. He and Aden and some of the other workers had built them a store house complete with a place to wrap, box up, and prepare for shipping. It had an office with two desks and a kitchenette so they could relax and eat their lunch there. It even had a full bathroom complete with a shower for when they got dirty and wanted to rinse off. The best thing of all about it was that it was on their property within walking distance when the weather was nice.
By the time lunch rolled around, they were both eager to check on Cynthia. They drove back to the house and quickly pulled off their hats, coats, and gloves as well as their boots. When they didn’t find her in the kitchen or living room, Roy began to worry. There was no sign she’d even fixed coffee. He hurried behind Aden to the bedroom, running into the man when he stopped just inside the doorway.
“Son of a bitch!” Aden roared.
“What?” Roy pushed passed him and took in the sight.
The bed was made, but there was evidence that something had been lying on it. When Aden pulled open Cynthia’s closet door, it was obvious it had been a suitcase. Not only was it missing, but so were her clothes. He pulled open the dresser drawers and found them empty as well.
“She left. Why did she leave?” Roy whispered to no one.
“I guess she decided she didn’t love us after all,” Aden said without a hint of emotion.
“Bullshit! She loves us. You could see it in her eyes when she looked at us. Something’s wrong.” Roy paced back and forth trying to figure out what had worried him the last few weeks.
Aden merely walked out of the room leaving Roy alone trying to think. No way would he believe that she had changed her mind. She’d been preoccupied lately. What was bothering her? Then he remembered the conversation not long after Thanksgiving. Why had she brought up her house?
He heard the phone ring but ignored it. Nothing mattered but why Cynthia had left. It continued ringing for the longest time. Finally it stopped. A few minutes later his cell phone started ringing. He started to let it go but pulled it off his belt and checked the number. It was Denise’s.
He answered it, but she’d hung up. He started to call her back, but her heard Aden’s phone ring next. Roy took off running toward the office where he was sure his friend was sitting behind the desk trying to act like nothing was wrong. When he got there, Aden was just about to throw his phone across the room.
“Answer it! Now!” he yelled.
Aden frowned but answered it without looking to see who it was. “Hello? Denise?”
Roy poked at him. “Put it on speaker.”
He pressed speaker, and Denise’s harried voice shouted from the speaker.
“…like she’s a ghost. What did you two do to her?” the other woman demanded.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. She moved out. Didn’t say a damn word to us, just packed her things while we were gone and left,” Aden shouted back.
“Don’t you yell at me! You’re the ones who’ve been gone all the time. She probably thinks you’re cheating on her or that you just don’t want her anymore. Every time I’ve talked to her you haven’t been around and she’s made comments that you don’t seem to be as interested as you were,” she fussed.
“That’s not true. We love her. We’ve been working on a gift for her. Why would she think we weren’t interested anymore?” Roy asked.
“Well, for one thing, you haven’t insisted that she get rid of her house. She figures you weren’t sure and wanted her to have a place to go when you changed your mind. I told her she was crazy, that you weren’t going to change your minds, but maybe I’m the one that was crazy. I can’t believe you’d string her along like this and break her heart.”
Aden looked stricken. Roy didn’t feel much better himself. “We weren’t stringing her along. We just thought she’d move in with us if she still had somewhere of her own when she needed it.”
“Why would she think we were cheating on her? We’ve never even looked at another woman,” Aden sputtered.
“What was she supposed to think when you’re gone all the time and don’t tell her why or where?” Denise’s ranting had calmed down some. Now she sounded sad. “If you couldn’t work it out, why didn’t you at least talk to her about it? She tried to talk to you and you assured her everything was fine.”
“We didn’t know what she was talking about at the time. I never dreamed she would think we were tired of her or anything,” Roy said as he sat down.
Aden leaned against the corner of the desk holding the phone out. Roy was sure he looked just as shell shocked as his best friend did. Thinking back over the last few weeks, he could see where she might have begun to think they weren’t interested anymore. They hadn’t been around as much, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d picked her up from work or just gone to follow her home.
“Where is she, Denise?” he asked.
“She was at the store when I stopped by. I saw the light on and found her working. When I asked her what she was doing there on a Sunday, she said she’d neglected the place for too long and needed to get it back into shape. I stayed with her until she finally kicked me out.”
“We’re going to straighten this out, Denise. She’s ours. We aren’t going to let her go,” Roy told her.
“If you aren’t sure about this, don’t do it, Roy. Her heart is broken. I can’t stand to see her hurting like this. Just leave her alone if you’re not positive you want her.”
“The hell we will. She belongs to us. You don’t understand, she’s our world. I can’t even begin to imagine life without her in it.” Roy stood up and snatched the phone out of Aden’s limp hand. He pressed the end button and all but threw it back at the man. “Get your head out of your ass. We’ve got to go get her back.”
“Are you sure, Roy? Are you sure she really wants to be a part of a threesome with us? What if this is her way of backing out?” Aden asked.
“What is wrong with you? Didn’t you hear a word that woman said? She’s crying and walking around like a zombie. Does that sound like a woman who’s looking for a way out of a relationship to you?” Roy demanded.
Aden shook his head but still didn’t move. Roy could tell he was slipping back into how he’d been before he’d met Cynthia. He wanted to hit him but didn’t want to take the time to get into an all-out punching match with the man.
“Aden, think about it. We damn near smothered her at first, making sure she was never alone, especially after the attack. Then all of a sudden we’re never there anymore and don’t show up at night to see her home safely. What is she supposed to think? Why would we suddenly stop checking on her during the day and bathing her at night? We neglected her, man. We promised to always be there for her and listen to her. Then we left her alone and brushed her off when she tried to talk to us. We fucked up!”
Aden finally looked at him, really looked at him. “I just wanted to surprise her and make things easier for her. How did it get out of hand?”
“We both did, Aden. Now we have to make it right,” Roy said.
Aden rushed around the desk and pulled back the rug under his chair. He knelt down and opened the safe where he pulled out the box they’d wrapped up for Cynthia for Christmas. Roy smiled. They’d get her back. One way or another, they’d convince her to come home again.
* * * *
Cynthia stepped out of the tub and dried off almost on autopilot. When sh
e pulled on her favorite pair of faded pajamas, she felt almost like she had before them, almost. She walked into the kitchen and fixed a cup of coffee. She would sit up and read a while before trying to go to sleep. Leslie was opening the store in the morning anyway, so she didn’t have to be in till lunchtime.
She felt stiff and sore all over from all of the cleaning she’d done at the store and then again there at the house. She still needed to dust and vacuum, but the kitchen and bathroom were livable and she had fresh sheets on the bed.
The first taste of coffee was wonderful. She carried it into the living room and settled into her favorite reading chair and covered up with a quilt to read. She’d downloaded several new books from Amazon and wasn’t sure which one to start with. Did she want something suspenseful or something totally different like a shifter book? It didn’t take her long to settle on the paranormal one, hoping it would keep her mind too busy with the strange world to think about her life.
She’d just gotten into the first chapter when her doorbell rang. She ignored it at first, figuring it would either be Denise or the guys, and she didn’t want to talk to either one of them. Then she figured they would eventually get tired of waiting and leave, but after fifteen minutes of listening to it ringing over and over, Cynthia finally got pissed off and stomped to the door. She unlocked it and threw the door open to find Aden and Roy on their knees in the snow looking at her.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
“Freezing our knees and our asses off waiting on you to have mercy on us and let us in,” Roy said.
“Roy!” Aden growled. “Can we come in and talk, Cyn?”
“Get up. You’re probably soaked through,” she fussed. “Come in. I’ll get some towels.”
She stepped back as they stood up then hurried into the bathroom to grab some towels. What were they doing? Were they wanting her to forgive them for cheating on her? Why else would they be on their knees?
When she had returned, they were standing just in the doorway but had closed the door behind them. She handed them each a towel then stepped back and wrapped her arms around herself. The room had grown cold from the door having been open.