by L. D. Davis
Celeste glanced around. She’d stayed by my side the entire time. “I don’t know, but interestingly enough, I haven’t seen Adam lately, either.”
“That isn’t so unusual. He always disappears during these events.”
There was a little bit of ice in her forced smile. “I’m suggesting they’re together somewhere in the house. They seemed rather chatty at dinner.”
I frowned but did not respond. I didn’t like the surge of irritation I felt when I considered Celeste could be right and Lydia might be with Adam. In the past, when a woman I was involved with spent time with other men, I hadn’t cared. I played second fiddle to no one and easily removed myself from those situations without a backward glance. Jealousy was a foreign concept to me. It was not in my programming to be possessive and overly emotional for a woman, until now.
For another ten or fifteen minutes, Celeste and I canvased the house, opening closed doors and peeking into open rooms. With each passing minute, I became more annoyed that she just wandered off without a word. I even tried to call her cell, but it went to voicemail every time.
“Why does this house have to be so big?” I grumbled as we walked through one wing.
Celeste laughed softly. “You’re the one who sold it to them.”
I only grunted in response. As we neared the mini theater at the back of the west wing of the house, I heard the unmistakable sound of laughter above a movie or television show playing in the background. One voice sounded remarkably like Lydia’s, but I had only heard her laugh that hard, that openly, a small handful of times. With me, even when she was amused, she seemed to always be on guard, always holding back some part of herself. The woman who was laughing on the other side of that door, however, laughed without reservation. It was a beautiful sound that I normally loved to hear, but I wasn’t the one who had pulled it out of her.
I stood in the doorway for a moment, watching her have a good time, seeing her face alight even in the dimly lit room.
I called her name twice. Neither of them heard me, or saw me, so fixed on each other as they were. “Lydia!”
The laughter cut off suddenly and her head whipped around to face me, eyes and mouth open wide in surprise. At that point, the jealous, possessive, and unreasonable side of me I had not known existed reared his macho head.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lydia
If I ever magically became a billionaire, I would have to have a theater room built into my home like the Herringtons. There were about two dozen plush recliners in a stadium setting. A fully stocked bar was situated in the right back corner. In the left corner there was a fully stocked snack bar, complete with an industrial popcorn popper and pumps for hot butter. There were sodas, juices, and water in a refrigerator with a glass door, and there must’ve been every flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in a freezer that also had a glass door. Blankets and pillows were stacked neatly in a hidden closet, and there was even a bin of 3D glasses.
I sat down in a chair, dumbstruck. “I need one.”
Adam chuckled. “Need one of what exactly?”
“A room. Like this. This room exactly.”
“You haven’t seen the library yet. Most of the women who have come through this house have preferred the library. Aiko likes to serve tea in there, and during the summer, it opens up into the gardens.”
“I’m not like most women.”
He laughed quietly again. I really did like his smile. Women must’ve gone nuts for it.
“I’m quickly beginning to understand that. What would you like to watch? I said eighties sitcoms earlier, but there are hundreds if not thousands of different shows and movies we can choose from.”
“The Facts of Life?” I questioned, hopeful.
He slapped a hand over his heart. “You must be my soulmate.”
Adam, as it turned out, was good company. Laid back, down to earth, and quietly sarcastic. After our initial conversation in the sitting room, it had become easier to talk to him. I hadn’t had a friend I could just chat with in too long. My relationship with my sister was better, but with all the unspoken words between us and our dramatic history, I was never quite at ease with her. I liked talking to Marco, but it was different with him. Our feelings for each other were a hinderance. It was good to have someone I had no history with and no complicated feelings in the way.
“Tell me what you would do if you had full functionality of your limbs,” Adam said as we exchanged the pints of Half Baked and Cherry Garcia we were sharing. Episode four in the first season of The Facts of Life was playing on the big screen. My legs were covered with one of the blankets, but Adam had leant me his tux jacket when the ice cream made me shiver.
I considered his question for a moment. “I used to run. I used to run all the time. Sometimes it was the only way for me to clear my head and mentally and emotionally escape. I would probably wear out a pair of sneakers in a week if I could run now.”
“What else?”
I felt my face soften. “I would play with my kids more. I’d chase them through the park or teach them how to ride a bike. I would love to be able to take them on long walks, or to make it through the zoo without having to sit down every fifteen minutes. The beach has been out of the question, because walking on sand just seems impossible.”
He nodded with understanding. “Tell me more. What else would you do?”
I shrugged and shook my head. “Does it matter? What are the chances I’ll recover the full functionality of my leg at this point?”
“I like to know my patients’ goals.”
“They’re not goals. They’re…wishes. Stupid dreams. Having any expectations of them coming true is silly and will only leave me disappointed and feeling like an even bigger failure in the end.”
Adam patted his shirt pocket, then his pants, his forehead creased in confusion as he seemed to search for something. “Oh damn,” he whispered as his wide eyes settled on me. “I must’ve lost my tiny violin at some point tonight. The thing is so small, it can easily slip out of my pocket without notice.”
I stared at him as I frowned. “I’m not sure if you’re a dick or simply hilarious.”
“I am simply hilarious. Listen, Lydia. It’s not that I don’t care about your feelings. I do. How you feel emotionally plays a very large part in how you feel physically, how you recover, and how well you do with any physical therapy, but you need to change how you think. You may be fully physically capable of reaching every goal you have, but this”—he tapped my forehead with one finger—“may hold you back. Mind over matter is a real thing.”
“What if it won’t get much better than it is now? I’m not being a Debbie Downer, but I am being realistic.”
Adam shrugged. “If you can have even a little progress, it will be better than none, but you need to have goals, something to look forward to. Now, tell me more. What else would you do with a fully functioning leg?”
I sighed and took another spoonful of ice cream. “I would…learn the Tango,” I whispered as my face bloomed with heat. “Wear high heels, maybe go to a party without having people stare at me.”
Adam chuckled. “People will still stare at you. You are an attractive woman. What else would you do?”
Good grief, I was blushing like a teenage virgin.
“Um, I would drop kick a few people in the face. Like Chuck Norris. In fact, when I first met Marco, I wanted to kick him in the face so bad.”
With that, Adam burst into quiet laughter. It probably wasn’t really that funny, but I began to laugh, too, until we were both laughing hysterically.
We were still suffering from fits of giggling a few minutes later when I heard Marco’s voice.
“Lydia!”
I turned my head and watched as Marco walked purposefully toward us with Celeste following not too far behind.
He stopped in front of us, face pinched in a glower. “I have been looking everywhere for you for over an hour.”
When Adam saw Celeste sidle
up next to Marco, he quickly put down his pint and got to his feet.
“It seems that we’ve missed the other party,” Celeste said, her smirk seemingly a little colder as she eyed us.
Adam jammed his hands into his pockets and appeared to be uncomfortable under the striking woman’s scrutiny. “Hey, Celeste. Hi, I mean. Hello.”
I stifled a giggle. It was clear he had it bad for her, though I didn’t know why. He was so nice and she…wasn’t. The only time I’d seen him not be cool all night was in her presence.
Celeste simply raised an eyebrow and spoke to Marco as her gaze drifted to me.
“I will see you tomorrow.” When he gave her a short nod without taking his eyes from me, I watched as she lightly touched his arm and planted a kiss on his cheek before she turned away.
I no longer found anything funny.
“It’s time to go.” He roughly grabbed me by one arm and pulled me to my feet. When he saw that I was wearing Adam’s jacket, he took his own off with such force, I thought he’d tear it in half. “Return his jacket. Now.”
I recoiled at his hardened voice and rough handling but removed Adam’s coat anyway. As I passed it to him, I offered him a sincere smile.
“Thank you, Doc.”
“Anytime. Talk to you again soon. Remember what I said.”
Marco tried to put his jacket on me, but I shrugged it off and shook my head. He sighed through his nose and draped it over one arm. “Good night, Adam,” he said sharply without looking at his friend.
He grabbed my hand and practically dragged me away. We walked through rooms and corridors of the house that must’ve been off limits to the guests, because we saw no one besides a maid in one room and one of Brodie’s younger brothers pacing back and forth in a hall on the phone. Marco walked so fast I was barely able to keep up, but I would be damned if I admitted it to him. Then I stumbled. Only Marco’s quick reflexes kept me from faceplanting on the polished wood floor. I fell against his body instead, and his strong hands held me up.
Frustrated, angry, and hurt, I shoved away from him and turned away. I just wanted to get the fuck out of this house, get my kids, and go home.
I took in my surroundings and realized we were in yet another sitting room. I’d seen several of them already between my walks with Adam and Marco. How many different places did Aiko and Brodie need to sit their asses down?
“What the fuck, Lydia?” Marco said behind me, his voice strained as if he was just barely keeping himself under control. I knew that to be true, because he wasn’t one to curse outside of the bedroom, and he’d never cursed at me.
Fuming, I faced him. “I don’t know, Marco. What the fuck? Why are you dragging me through this fucking castle like a caveman?”
He took several angry steps toward me and jerked a finger in the direction we’d just come from. “I just spent over an hour searching for you and I found you in a secluded room sharing ice cream and flirting with another man!”
I almost laughed. It really was funny, but I refrained from hysterics. “Flirting? It was called laughing, and yes, we were sharing ice cream. It was a nice and appreciated distraction.”
“Clearly, you were very distracted. You didn’t even hear me come in at first. I called your name twice before you finally heard me.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry that I was having a good time. I’ll refrain from doing so at the next party you parade me to.”
He put his hands on his hips and glared at me. “You had a good time with him, but couldn’t have a good time with me?”
“It was rather difficult to have anything with you, Marco. You were too busy dance-fucking Celeste all over the dance floor!”
Shock made his face freeze for several moments, and all he could do was stare at me. Finally, his gaze dropped, and he shook his head.
“It was just dancing, Lydia.”
“Then why can’t you look at me while you say that?” I questioned bitterly.
His eyes snapped up to mine. Blue fire burned into me as he snarled. “It was just dancing, Lydia. You could’ve taken her place at any time.”
I did laugh this time, and shook my head, disbelieving that I had to point out the obvious. “No, I couldn’t have taken her place at any time, Marco. If you haven’t noticed, I cannot do the fucking Tango. I can’t Rumba. I can’t Waltz. I can’t. Fucking. Dance.”
His eyes closed for a beat. “I would have been happy to just hold you out there, Lydia.”
I let out another laugh and rolled my eyes. “You think I would’ve joined you in front of all those people after you and Celeste just grinded all over the floor? I do have some dignity left.”
“So, did you decide to get back at me by running off with my friend?” His voice was low but harsh.
“No, you ass. I went with him to avoid feeling any more humiliated than I already was, and for the record, you may have only been searching for me for an hour, but it has been more than two hours since I saw you sexing up your friend in a Tango. So, don’t pretend that you were thinking of me or even remembered I was here that whole time.”
We stared hard at each other for a minute or so before Marco released a long breath and rubbed his jaw. “I am sorry. After the dancing, I was hung up in conversations and didn’t realize how much time had passed before I started to look for you, but I didn’t expect to be apart from you tonight, Lydia. It is not how I imagined this night going.”
“I suppose you expected me to be on your arm all night.”
His body went rigid again as he glowered at me. “That was the whole point in bringing you as my date, to be with you all night.”
My hand was on my hip, and my fingers drummed a patient rhythm on my dress.
“So, besides your whole Dancing With the Stars episode with Celeste, what else did you do? Walk the rooms? Stand around and talk? Maybe take a mini tour around the house and admire the art and sculptures?”
There was a leery hesitation before he answered. “Yes. I did do those things.”
I nodded and raised a shoulder. “Reconnect with old acquaintances? Forge new friendships or new business relationships over drinks at a cocktail table or while standing at the bar?”
Again, he hesitated before he answered. “Yes.”
“Did you…happen to sit down at all tonight? Maybe with a cup of coffee or some dessert, or to chitchat?”
He had to think about it for a moment, but then he shook his head. “No,” he said tiredly and drew a hand over his face. “Lydia, please, make your point.”
My response was quiet but smug. “You just did. You’re upset because I wasn’t proper arm candy tonight, but you have just confirmed that you have literally been on your feet for hours. How would the evening have gone for you, Marco, if I had been with you and you had to stop a million times throughout the evening so I could sit down? How would the dancing thing have worked? Would you have just left me sitting at a table while you took the most beautiful woman in the universe onto the dance floor, or would you have sat glumly by my side while you watched everyone else dance? Tell me honestly, how disappointed you would’ve been when we had to leave early because all the walking and standing would have brought me nothing but excruciating pain?”
I shook my head again as I limped around him toward the door that would release us from the maze of rooms, but I turned halfway and looked at him over my shoulder.
“Don’t try to pull the guilt trip shit because I wasn’t with you tonight and spent my time with Adam. I spared you from the frustration and embarrassment that I would’ve brought with me. I did you a favor by not being around, and deep down, you know it.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The ride back to the city was mostly silent. The pressure in my chest had all but gone away when I was with Adam, but it had returned, and I didn’t know what to do about it.
Back at Marco’s apartment, I stripped out of the dress and pulled all the pins and clips from my hair in a matter of minutes. Every step was agony, but I didn’t utte
r a peep as I put on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts to sleep in and went into the bathroom to wash the makeup off my face. Marco stood in the doorway and watched me the entire time, arms crossed, face blank. I learned in our weeks together that a blank face was never good. It meant he was hiding some intense feelings under his mask.
I half expected him to refuse to move when I needed to close the bathroom door for a few minutes of privacy, but he did so without a word. I had no idea how the rest of the weekend was going to go. We were supposed to spend most of Saturday in the city and head back to the cabin in the late afternoon so we could have dinner with the kids and spend all day Sunday together. Since Gavi and Cora had a four-day weekend, we were going to visit with Lily and Kyle for a couple hours Monday and fly home that afternoon.
If things were going to be tense, though, maybe it would be best to go to the cabin earlier. I couldn’t fly home any earlier, but at least we would have other people around us and it wouldn’t be as hard to ignore each other. That was one of the reasons Gavin and I had dinner every Sunday with his parents throughout our marriage, though neither of us actually said it. If we had to spend time together, at least there were others there as buffers.
I exited the bathroom and came to a sudden stop when I saw Marco standing in the middle of the bedroom, one hand extended to me in invitation. The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” was playing from the living room stereo.
“Will you dance with me now, Tesoro?” he asked, his voice soft. “It is only you and I now, the way it should be.”
My heart tripped, stumbled, and fell all over itself. The intensity of his gaze made my body tingle, from the very top of my head down to my painted toes.
I cursed under my breath when I took a step toward him and remembered my pain, but Marco came to me and lifted me. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, feeling silly, but overwhelmed with emotion as he began to sway back and forth in a slow dance.
Our eyes were locked together, mouths almost touching, breaths mingling. I felt his heart beat against my own chest as he softly sang the lyrics. My anger and bitterness were replaced with that feeling you have when you’re on a roller coaster, that moment when you’re teetering on the edge, and then you’re falling, and your stomach drops, and your breath is ripped from your lungs, and you’re so, so afraid. So scared. Yet so exhilarated. And you’re having the time of your life, even though you kind of want the ride to stop because, even though it feels good, it’s so terrifying.