Wet Part 3

by Rivera, S. Jackson

  She shrugged, but her cheeks suddenly felt a little warm. He reached to touch her hair but she flinched and he pulled his hand back with a frown. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—I should have given you more warning.”

  “No. I’m the one who’s sorry.” She closed her eyes and summoned the courage to speak. “I’ve been thinking about things, about all of it,” she said, quietly. “What Keene said.”

  Paul wrinkled his forehead with concern. “The doctor said a lot of things.”

  She forced a smile and changed her mind about the subject she’d tried to approach.

  “I’ve been watching you sleep. Wondering how you can possibly look so dang good, even with your mouth all hanging open, the drool dribbling onto your pillow—”

  “I do nawt drool.” His brow creased as he flashed her cautioning eyes with a cocky smile.

  She smiled for him again and took his hand, pulling it to her face. She tucked it under her cheek, hoping he’d forget how she’d just rejected him seconds before.

  “Did you come to any conclusions?”

  “About how you can look so good when you drool?” She almost laughed.

  “Watch it!” he growled, pretending to be angry.

  “I don’t want to talk to Keene today.” She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. She’d wanted to lighten the mood, but she just couldn’t with so much running through her head.

  “Okay, um . . . that’s good—” She’d surprised him. He hadn’t expected to have to tell her so soon. “I mean, since he told me, just before he left last night, um, he has to get back to the States to check in on his other patients,” Paul lied. He’d told Keene they wouldn’t need his help anymore. He was still stewing about the doctor suggesting he give up on Rhees. Annul our marriage—like hell I will. “We’ll find a new doctor. There’re other doctors.”

  “I don’t want a new doctor.”

  “Okay.” Paul tried to hide his disappointment. “We can call him—talk to him on the phone if you need him—the hotel phone. We’re going to have to buy new phones at some point.” Paul thought of all the things he still needed to do since the hijackers had taken their phones, their wallets, their lives. He’d been so worried, he hadn’t thought about taking care of anything except Rhees.

  “I don’t want to talk to Keene anymore either.”

  He reached over and gently pulled her to face him, suddenly more worried about her reasons for not wanting to see Keene than his own. “Why don’t you want to talk to him? He’s supposed to help.”

  Rhees couldn’t tell him she didn’t want to continue working with the man who’d conspired with her husband, in any way—she didn’t hear the conversation so she didn’t know to what extent, but she’d heard the word annulment. He and Paul had discussed ending her marriage. She shrugged. “I’m tired of talking about it. I’m just tired of talking, period.”

  “Okay.”

  She watched as his tongue slipped across the inside of his cheek and then flicked over his lips. They puckered a few times. He was nervous.

  “How about today, I do the talking then?” he finally offered.

  “That’ll take all of three minutes.” Her smile returned—a genuine smile.

  “Oh, yeah?” He gave her another warning glance, which made her smile spread even wider.

  She nodded, very deliberately, letting him know she didn’t think he could do it.

  “You’re going to have to tell me to shut up, because I won’t stop talking until you beg me.”

  “I can’t wait to see this, or hear this, I should say.”

  He winked, but then he just watched her for a while, taking her in, stalling.

  “I thought you meant you were going to talk, with your voice, not just your beautiful blue eyes. I know they speak volumes, but—”

  “Okay, okay.” Paul chuckled. “So the story, as I’ve heard it told many times over the years, and as I grew older, I started inserting a few of my own opinions about what might have really happened, goes like this.” Paul took a deep breath.

  “I told you, my dad, Laird, was the stereotypical surfer from L.A., and Caroline Sutton, my mom, was a wealthy, old money girl from Boston. She’d graduated college and was about to start medical school when she and some friends took a trip to California, and that’s where my parents met.

  “Dad worked at Universal Studios running one of the rides when she and her friends showed up at his station. He always said she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen. She took his breath away. Well, he put my mom on the ride, told his co-workers he was taking a break and jumped into the seat next to her, separating her from her friends, and off they went. He followed her around the rest of the day.” Paul had taken a strand of Rhees’ hair and twirled it around his finger as he spoke. “Said he didn’t care he wouldn’t have a job to come back to the next day, because she was worth it.”

  “They were from completely opposite worlds, but they ended up in Vegas, married. How’s that for a love story, huh?” He sounded a little cynical.

  Rhees nodded, listening carefully, thinking how romantic it did sound. “We’ll have to make something up. I don’t want our kids to know what you thought of me the first few weeks.”

  “You mean lie?” His brows furrowed in mock offense. “You think I would lie to my own kids?”

  “Mr. Compulsive Liar? Yes.” She giggled and then noticed the warm expression on his face when she did.

  “Only every time the opportunity presents itself. Duh.” He chuckled but then he rolled onto his stomach and rested his chin on his crossed arms, staring at the headboard for a few seconds. He glanced back at her from the corner of his eye.

  “We won’t need to lie,” he said solemnly. “They’ll know you as well as I do, so they’ll understand completely how the magnitude of your greatness just scared the shi—crap out of me.”

  “Oh, gosh.” She rolled her eyes, not convinced his plan was better than hers. “Sorry, I interrupted. Please continue.”

  “Well, you might have guessed, but my mom’s parents weren’t terribly happy about the surprise their daughter brought back to Boston with her. They agreed to pay for med school, you know, so the little hiccup in her life called a bad marital choice, a manifestation of her apparent temporary insanity, wouldn’t derail her entire life, but they pretty much disinherited her. They’d hoped she’d miss the lifestyle and come to her senses, divorce him—but they didn’t know my dad. He doesn’t go down without a fight—he doesn’t go down, period.”

  “Mom got pregnant with Pete right away.” Paul rolled onto his side and gave Rhees a knowing look. “I suspect dad had something to do with that.”

  He’d made Rhees laugh. “Of course he did, silly.”

  It took Paul a second to catch up—he didn’t really hear himself, but mostly, he’d been mesmerized by her laughter.

  “Well, yeah, that too.” Paul chuckled and actually looked embarrassed. “I meant the strategy of how it happened, not the basics of human reproduction,” he said, still laughing at himself to keep her laughing. He couldn’t believe how good it felt to hear it.

  “Dad jokes about poking holes in all the condoms—he jokes about it, but if he thought mom had doubts about the kind of life he could give her? If he thought there was any chance she’d give in to the pressure her parents put on her to annul the marriage or divorce him—he wanted to keep her, and dad always gets what he wants.

  “He knew how much medical school meant to her, bragged to everyone about the smart girl he’d married. ‘Beauty and brains’, he always said. Mom countered by telling people dad was the smart one, that she was just smart enough to recognize a smart man when she saw one. Mom was—is very intelligent.” Paul paused. “Most of the time.”

  “That’s where you get it from then.” Rhees lightly tapped his temp
le. “You’re smart like your mom.”

  Paul blinked a few times. “Mm, maybe—I don’t know.” He exhaled loudly, frustrated. He’d never had to explain it. “I used to tell myself it was more like mom and dad, added together, and then some. Rhees, I don’t talk about this. No one knows.”

  “Pfft. It’s obvious. You’re freakishly intelligent.” She smiled at him, beaming with pride.

  “It’s not obvious.” He narrowed his eyes. “That’s the point. I work too hard to make sure people don’t notice. I guess I am intelligent, and I may even be a freak, but I learned a while ago, not to put too much stock in myself.” He made a few more faces, suddenly agitated with himself.

  “It’s hard to turn it off, to think about normal, good—not worrisome, problem solving shi—stuff . . .” He paused and closed his eyes. She let him have a minute to his thoughts. She was so good about that, as if she knew when he needed time to try to slow it all down. Thinking of her was definitely one of the good things to think about—most of the time. Lately, thinking about what she was going through, not so much.

  “My family has an idea, I guess. I think my dad knows more than anyone.” He thought about it. “Since I didn’t speak until I was older, people underestimated me. It didn’t take me long to figure out I preferred it that way, so I only gave as much as I wanted them to see. Every teacher, anyone else who started to suspect, I allowed them to know I was the smartest kid in school, but at the same time, things got weird whenever they started to suspect I might be the smartest kid in the world.” Paul’s eyes flashed to Rhees. “I’m kidding. I wasn’t—I’m not.” He got quiet again.

  “So you’d do something to throw them off your scent. Have sex with girls under the bleachers, intimidate people in the halls, get suspended from school, hop freight trains.”

  He grinned, amused she remembered, but ashamed as well. He nodded.

  “Something like that, but you see through me, always have.” Paul averted his eyes, uncomfortable with the idea, but then grinned self-consciously again. “You know me better than anyone. How did I possibly convince you to marry me?”

  She made a face, teasing him, as if to say she wondered the same thing, but then she smiled warmly. “That is exactly why I married you—because I see all the many, wonderful talents and qualities that make you, you. I love everything about you, almost everything.”

  He glanced sideways at her, waiting for her to qualify the last part of her statement.

  “I love you because of what’s in here.” She placed her hand over his heart.

  “You like big, empty holes where hearts should be, huh?” He frowned, and she mimicked his expression, positioning herself to make sure he’d see how he looked. She was so cute, even when she was about to scold him—especially when she was about to let him have it.

  “You are ninety-eight percent perfect, but the last two percent is absolute bull-arkey.”

  “Bull-arkey?” He pursed his lips, trying not to laugh.

  “Yeah.” Rhees tried to ignore him in favor of getting back to her point. “I love you anyway, but that is definitely one of the things I could live without.”

  His brow arched, questioningly.

  “Your refusal to see any good in yourself.” She slapped her finger over his lips to hush the smart-mouthed retort he was about to make. “—And don’t e-ven try to tell me there is no good. I know better.”

  He pursed his mouth and licked his lips, thoughtfully. He conceded—to save an argument. She smiled because of her small victory and it made him smile too.

  “You’re the boss,” he said, making her giggle. He watched her, enjoying the smile on her face.

  “So, what comes next?”

  He rolled onto his back, raised his good arm over his head and rested on his palm.

  “So, dad stayed home to care for the baby while mom worked away at medical school,” Paul jumped back into his story where he’d left off. “I came along two years later, fast for someone as busy as she was. Then Mary came along during mom’s residency. Mom had to be gone a lot, but ole Laird was a great dad, just a big kid himself. We had so much fun together—even more fun on the rare occasion mom could break away and spend time with us.”

  Rhees smiled, watching Paul’s eyes sparkle at the fond memories. So many times, she’d thought of Paul as a big kid too. With each passing minute, listening to him, watching his expressions, she knew why she’d fallen so hard for this man. She wondered how she’d wound up afraid to love him, again—well she knew how, but looking at him now, being next to him—she longed to have those feelings back. She made up her mind. She’d do whatever it took to get that desire back as soon as possible.

  “Whenever mom had time off, dad would drive us to the beach, and we’d hang out all day. I think that’s how I developed my love of the ocean. It fascinated me. I never grew tired of our beach days.

  “Sometimes we’d have to go to my mom’s parents’ house for these parties. ‘The Big-Ass House’, as my dad called it. Dad hated them, but mom . . . didn’t. They were the one way she had to stay connected to what she’d lost, and I think dad felt threatened. I remember my parents fighting about it.

  “I didn’t talk until I was older, the end of kindergarten. I could have, I just didn’t want to, and when I did, I regretted ever starting. As soon as I opened my mouth, the girls realized there was nothing wrong with me, after all. That’s when they started chasing me.”

  “Why did you decide to talk? If you always could, but chose not to, what made you change your mind?”

  “Mmm.” A cute smile spread across his face. “I just got so freaking tired of Taye doing the talking for me.”

  “You’ve known Taylor that long?”

  “Yeah. I know he’s obnoxious, rude, and crude, but he’s always been there for me in a way that never demanded anything I didn’t want to give, in return. I never had to work at that friendship. Taye was just there, no matter what. Rhees, his madcap antics kept me sane when nothing else made sense. The way my head works, sometimes I get . . . I don’t want to get into that.

  “Suffice it to say, Taylor never got tired of me. He treated me like shit when I needed it, which I did, too often. My brother Pete, my sister, they were my world, but the older we got—things changed. I don’t know what would have happened if it weren’t for Taye—David and Bryce too. I didn’t know them until junior high, but my friends kept me . . .” He paused. “Now you do, even more.”

  “More what?”

  “Nothing.” He winked and flaunted his crooked smile. “You just do.”

  She let it go. She’d grown used to letting him have his secrets, and if today was any indication, he’d get around to telling her someday. That is, if he didn’t plan to annul their marriage. He’d kept her mind off of it, made her forget the unpleasant memory of hearing him talk about annulment with Keene. She didn’t understand why they talked about it. Now he was finally opening up to her. They were talking about kids, a future together, she felt confused, but hopeful she’d just misunderstood.

  “Pete had always done the talking for me, always telling people, ‘Paul wants this, or Paul thinks that’. It never bothered me when my brother did it. He got it right most of the time, but then, there I was, a shy, quiet is an understatement, kid, trying to adjust to being in school, being around all those strangers. It really stressed me out.

  “And suddenly, there’s this loud-mouthed, screwball kid who, as the year went on, for some reason thought he knew what was on my mind. Taye was always getting me into trouble, saying things I never would, making me look stupid. My teacher already thought I had some learning disability. She talked to my parents and the principal about her concerns, right in front of me—as though not talking meant I didn’t understand what she was saying. She pushed to have me put into Special Ed because of my ‘developmental challenges’.<
br />
  “I hadn’t figured out yet that I wasn’t normal, but more and more, I scored better than anyone in the class, the school, but that teacher knew there had to be something wrong with me, or I’d talk.” He gave Rhees a comical look. “But that was later. You made me jump too far ahead.”

  “Sorry.” She pretended to zip her mouth shut.

  “At home, back to before I started school, dad got sick of my grandparents treating him like the worst thing that ever happened to their daughter, and maybe it came from his fear of losing her, but instead of being the best dad in the world, he started talking on the phone all day. He’d go down the list of all of my mom’s friends, looking for anyone who’d listen. Mom had no idea.

  “He called my grandfather’s friends too.” Paul laughed and shook his head at the memory. “Oh, grandfather was pissed, but by the time he found out, a few years later, all the right people were falling all over my dad, clamoring for his attention, not wanting to be left out.

  “But before that happened, mom would be at the hospital for, sometimes it seemed like days. Dad had business to attend to, and I think he grew frustrated, being stuck with the kids all day. He took to locking us in our room, for hours—sometimes felt like days.” His voice trailed off as though talking about it made him feel like he was back there again.

  “We lived in a small two-bedroom apartment at the time, so the three of us shared the same room. Mary slept a lot, but I’d keep her entertained when she wasn’t. I’d feed her the bottles dad left in the crib. I didn’t do so well trying to change her diapers, though.”

  “You were only, what, three years old?”

  Paul shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. He’d only done what was necessary. “Pete would cry and bang on the door. It didn’t help. Dad never came until he was good and ready.” Paul seemed to take a second to think about it and made one of his angry faces. “So I’d distract him by showing him how much fun we could have, playing with the toys. Pete really loved his trucks. I tried to keep them happy, but I’d go stir-crazy. When they didn’t need me, I’d climb up on the dresser and watch out the window, wishing I could be outside.”