by Grouse, Lili
Ford thought he was pretty clever, putting Annabelle in his room and Kristen in his daughter’s room, thereby making it impossible for him to imagine getting into bed with Kristen once Annabelle was asleep. Instead, he lay wide awake on the couch in the living room, listening for creaking steps on the staircase, fantasizing about Kristen sneaking downstairs to straddle him on the couch.
Kristen clearly had more self-control than he did, because she never came. Eventually, sleep overtook him and the next thing he knew, it was morning.
Ford listened for sounds from upstairs, and when he couldn’t hear anything that suggested anyone else was awake, he went into the kitchen and started breakfast. Blueberry pancakes with maple syrup and some fresh fruit on the side. Since Kristen moved in, he’d found a new appreciation of fruit… and also canned whipped cream, but that was a different story.
The first one drawn to the kitchen was Annabelle. She walked in, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, and plunked down on one of the chairs without as much as a ‘good morning’. Ford put a couple of pancakes on a plate and set it down in front of her.
“Thanks,” she mumbled and grabbed a fork and knife.
Within a few minutes, Ford could hear another set of footsteps approaching, and he grabbed a mug from the cupboard to pour Kristen her morning coffee. She, unlike his daughter, managed a ‘good morning’ and ‘thank you’ before taking a seat at the table, but he knew that came out of sheer willpower to be polite and gracious in front of Annabelle.
Had Annabelle not been there… well, he’d be kissing Kristen good morning and then handing her a coffee without expecting her to speak to him until she’d had at least one drop of caffeine to restore her balance.
“So… how did everyone sleep?” Ford asked as he served Kristen a stack of pancakes, drizzled with syrup and topped with extra blueberries. He felt like he was playing a part, and in a way, maybe he was. He was making an effort to be friendly but not too friendly.
“Great,” Kristen responded cheerily while Annabelle chewed on, apparently lost in her own world of thoughts. “You?”
“Fine.” Ford replied, a little surliness creeping into his voice. She didn’t have to be so happy about sleeping alone. “I was thinking… if you wouldn’t mind the inconvenience… I could probably put in a heater and a cot in the office trailer at the building site. I’ve stayed there a few times when I’ve worked late on locations out of town.”
“Actually, I did go online to check for places to stay in the area last night,” Kristen said, putting her coffee mug down. “There’s a newly opened B&B not too far from here. No cats allowed. I made a reservation.”
“Oh.” He really shouldn’t be this disappointed. It was what they both had agreed would be the right thing to do, after all. “Well, if that’s what you feel most comfortable with…”
“It is,” Kristen cut him off, refocusing on her plate.
“Hey,” Annabelle suddenly spoke up and Ford looked over to see she had a confused look on her face. “Aren’t you going to visit your family over the holidays?”
“Um… no, I’m staying in this area,” Kristen said evasively.
“Why?”
“Annabelle, don’t be rude,” Ford admonished.
“I’m not being rude,” she huffed. “I’m just asking a question.”
“Sometimes people don’t want to talk about their personal lives with people they don’t know.”
“Well, how do you get to know ‘people’ if you don’t ask them questions?” Annabelle fired back.
“You’re right,” Kristen cut in. “The best way to get to know someone is to ask them questions. And no, I don’t think you’re rude.”
“See?” Annabelle said, looking at Ford triumphantly before turning her attention back to Kristen expectantly.
“That doesn’t mean I have to answer every question,” Kristen said with a cheeky smile.
“Oh, come on,” Annabelle whined. “That’s just mean.”
Ford was just about to scold his daughter when Kristen laughed. “Fine. Fire away.”
“Why aren’t you spending the holidays with your family?”
“Well, my parents are divorced, and they’re both spending the holidays with their new families. Besides, I’m busy with this project and the sooner I can complete it, the sooner I can take a nice long holiday,” Kristen added with a big smile.
“My mom’s going away with my stepdad this year. She doesn’t want me around,” Annabelle admitted in a low voice.
Ford was on the verge of emphatically telling her that wasn’t the case, even though he’d thought the same thing when Suzy suddenly offered to let Annabelle stay with him this year, when Kristen stepped in and said exactly the right thing – at least if the look on Annabelle’s face was any indication.
“You know what? Us single girls have to stick together. I know we’re only starting to get to know each other, but what do you say we hop on that awful flight to JFK and have ourselves a proper shopping splurge in New York this weekend? Your dad can come, too, if he behaves,” Kristen added with a wink at him.
“Seriously?” Annabelle’s eyes were almost busting out of their sockets with excitement.
“I have a couple of friends that work in the city,” Kristen nodded. “I’m sure they’d hook us up with a couple of sample sale invites.”
“You’re kidding? That would be so awesome! Dad, we’re going, right?”
Ford hadn’t seen his daughter beam with joy in years, and the idea that he could perpetuate that state for even the duration of a weekend was too tempting to refuse.
“Okay. You’ve got some shopping money, though, right?”
“Mm-hm,” Annabelle nodded.
“By which I don’t mean your mother’s credit card,” he added, his brows furrowing.
“Dad!”
“You’re not going to New York with a stolen credit card in your bag,” Ford said firmly. He had to draw the line somewhere, after all.
“Yeah, the cops will totally catch you,” Kristen interjected sympathetically. “It’s pretty embarrassing being driven home by a mall cop without those cute Manolos you had your heart set on.”
“Did you ever do that?”
“Mm-hm,” Kristen nodded. “And let me tell you, it is so much better when you get your first paycheck and you can hand over a credit card with your own name on it. Totally worth the wait.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Annabelle sighed and rose from the table, presumable to go get the card she stole.
“I hope I didn’t overstep,” Kristen looked up at him, nibbling her bottom lip. “I just know how embarrassed I’d be if my parents called me out on something in front of a stranger, and I just wanted to distract her… I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. I don’t think you should make a habit out of it, though. I can’t exactly support this kind of lifestyle on my income, and I wouldn’t want to.”
“Oh. Damn, I didn’t think,” Kristen ran a hand through her hair. “I guess I got all my conflict resolution skills from my parents. I meant I was footing the bill, of course, but-”
“You’re not buying my kid anything, and you’re certainly not paying for a hotel,” Ford said sternly. He had some pride, after all.
“Ford, I didn’t mean to-”
“We’re not together,” he cut her off again, his voice rougher than intended. But he couldn’t let Annabelle get attached to Kristen when she wasn’t staying around for the long run. He also couldn’t get the picture of them sharing a hotel room out of his head.
“Okay,” she swallowed. “You pay for the room for yourself and Annabelle and her shopping spree. I’ll pay my own way. Don’t worry, I know where the bargain places are. It won’t cost you a fortune.”
“By whose standards?” Ford muttered but Kristen’s reply was saved by Annabelle’s reappearance.
“Here,” she said and handed the card over. “And I talked to Mom. She said I can charge up t
o 1,000 dollars on the card.”
Ford bit back a curse. Suzy had expensive habits, and he couldn’t match them without stretching his budget beyond the edge of reason, which to Annabelle made him out to be a scrooge. He had no doubt Suzy was going to claim the money from him as child support, even though her new husband could easily cover her expenses.
“Okay. I’ll book us a room,” Ford said. “Kristen, do you have any good hotels you know of?”
“Yeah, I have a few ideas. We can talk about that later. For now, I need to get to work.” Kristen rose from the table and put her empty plate in the sink. “Thanks for breakfast. See you later, Elle.”
“Bye, Kristen,” Annabelle said, the grin back on her face, no doubt thinking of her shopping weekend ahead. Ford couldn’t help thinking that between those two in his life, he was in big trouble.
“I thought I would find you here,” Ford said as he opened the door to the office trailer to find Kristen making herself a cup of coffee. She turned towards him with a sigh. “I know, I know, I’m a vapid, spoiled little princess who doesn’t know the first thing about parenting and I should learn to keep my mouth shut.”
“Are you hearing me saying any of those things?” Ford frowned.
“Only a matter of time,” Kristen shrugged. “I figured I’d get it out of the way. More efficient that way, don’t you think?”
“You can’t just walk into my life and make my daughter think you’re the coolest person on the face of the planet and then walk back out again.”
“Okay, first off, in no way would Annabelle think I was the ‘coolest person on the face of the planet’, and second, she lives in L.A. We could, hypothetically, hang out once in awhile.”
“Why would you do that? She’s no-one to you.”
“She’s your daughter.”
“And? That only means something if I mean something. Which we both know I don’t.”
“That’s not-”
“Don’t, Kristen. There’s no point pretending that a couple of hookups mean we’ll be spending the foreseeable future even remotely close to each other. Once you’re done here, you’re moving on. I’m not complaining,” he added, putting his hands up before she could interrupt, ”just stating facts.”
“Fine.”
“Fine, what?”
“You win. You’re right about everything. That’s what you want to hear, isn’t it?”
“What I want is…” Ford ran out of words and steam at the same time. What did he want? He knew what he didn’t want. He didn’t want Kristen to disappear from his life. But he couldn’t say that to her.
“What? What do you want?” Kristen challenged him, stepping into his personal space and tipping her head up to look him in the eye, daring him to reply.
“You,” he practically grunted and pulled her flush against him, fusing his lips to hers. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear welding jobs being carried out, but the flames inside burned much hotter. He was desperate for her, and he didn’t care how pathetic that made him. Instead, he pulled at her clothes in an attempt to reach soft, warm skin and when he struck gold, he lifted her onto the table.
The table wasn’t equipped to handle the weight of one person, much less two, so it caved, making Kristen shriek until he clumsily caught her before she hit her head on the shards of wood now littering the floor of the trailer.
The technical fail diffused the tension and Kristen laughed as he helped her stand and she rearranged her clothing. “We really need to stop breaking furniture.”
“I for one hope we never do,” Ford chuckled, and then the sincerity of that hope set in and his good humor faded. “So, this weekend…”
“I forgot. I have miles. We can use them for the hotel, too. Don’t worry, Annabelle will never know.”
“I’m going to sneak out when she’s asleep.”
“Really? What are you planning? Catching a late night game at the Garden?” Kristen teased.
“You’re getting a room on the same floor.”
“Oh, I am, am I?”
“On the opposite end of the corridor.”
“Why not the room next to yours, or across the hall?”
“No way,” Ford shook his head vehemently.
“You don’t think I can keep it down?” Kristen raised her eyebrows at him.
“Oh, trust me, you’re going to be screaming,” he said with a wicked gleam in his eyes as he pulled her close.
“You have a thing for hotels, do you, Mr. Hamm?” she teased, sliding her hands under his jacket.
“It’s a rare luxury.”
“Hm. We’ll have to change that. Maybe I’ll skip the B&B I was looking at and just get a hotel room. You could come.”
“Not the worst idea I’ve ever heard, Miss Barnes,” he grinned at her. “I’ll make sure to return the favor.”
Kristen blushed prettily as his words hit home and he would have gone back for a second taste if it hadn’t been for one of his crew members demanding his attention. Suddenly, he was feeling much better about their weekend away.
THIRTEEN
Kristen was exhausted. It was a good exhausted, stemming from a full day of day shopping and eating, but she was still exhausted. Annabelle, on the other hand, was on the exhilarated side of exhaustion. She was currently sitting on Kristen’s bed, holding up piece after piece of designer wear she’d gotten at a crazy discount at a couple of shops where friends of Kristen worked.
What Ford didn’t know couldn’t hurt him, Kristen had told herself when she’d called ahead and given the shops she was bringing Annabelle to her credit card number and asked them to put 50 percent of whatever Annabelle Hamm picked out on that card instead of on the one presented to them.
The sample sales she couldn’t do anything about, but at least the merchandise there was discounted enough that it wouldn’t put too big of a dent in Ford’s finances.
She’d let him pay for lunch, snacks, and she was going to let him pay for dinner. She was going to make it up to him later, after all. The thought of rolling around in the soft bed all night with Ford over and under and beside her made her lips stretch into a grin, even though she was technically too tired to do anything with her mouth but drool. She was determined to challenge herself on that front, though.
“This is so awesome,” Annabelle said for the umpteenth time since they’d landed in New York. Kristen was relieved that they were having fun together. Kristen was young enough – and Annabelle old enough – for them to connect as friends, but there was no telling what would happen if Kristen’s relationship with Ford ever came into the light.
“Do you come to New York often?” Annabelle asked, her eyes alight.
“From time to time, yeah. I travel a lot.”
“So, what other places have you been?”
“For work or for holiday?”
“Both. No, wait, where did you go on Spring Break?”
“Have you been watching one too many college movies?” Kristen teased.
“Oh, come on, college students go on Spring Break. It’s like common knowledge.”
“Yes, I went on Spring Break. One year, it was Daytona. Another, Cancun. Third, the Bahamas.”
“So cool,” Annabelle practically sighed.
Kristen shrugged. She’d had a great time, but she’d also been pretty irresponsible. Not exactly something she should highlight with Ford’s daughter.
“Is it…” Annabelle started, then clamped her mouth shut.
“Is it what?” Kristen asked.
“Never mind.” Annabelle’s cheeks were rosy and she looked a little flustered.
“Oh, come on, you can ask me anything. I won’t guarantee I’ll answer, though,” she added with a wink.
“Is it as crazy as you see on TV?”
“It can be. Some are very responsible, though, and just take the opportunity to get some sun and relax, de-stress.”
“Did you?”
Kristen took a deep breath. Honesty or prudence?
; “No.”
Honesty – 1. Prudence – 0.
“Do you regret it?”
“Parts of it,” Kristen replied, deciding to ride the honesty trail all the way. “Especially the parts I can’t remember.”
Annabelle stayed silent for the longest time, seemingly processing what Kristen had said. Kristen wondered if she’d been too candid. Maybe Annabelle would use it against her someday. But she couldn’t change who she was – much less who she’d been. Ignoring it wouldn’t lead anywhere but a dead end.
“I went to a party at this friend’s house…” Annabelle started, her voice low and guilt-ridden. Kristen felt a hand close around her heart, both from being the person Annabelle chose to entrust what was obviously a secret to, and from knowing she’d have to keep whatever Ford’s daughter told her in confidence from him. “He’s in college. My best friend is dating his brother, and so we’ve hung out a couple of times.”
Kristen nodded silently, her mind working overtime behind her hopefully calm façade. College guys messing with high school girls? That equation never spelled success.
“He’s going on Spring Break to Cancun next year, and he invited us along. We’re going to be sharing an apartment. I haven’t told Mom yet.”
“Okay…”
“The thing is… he’s really hot and all, but I just… I don’t know if I want to… you know?”
“Mm-hm.” Oh, boy.
“So we were at this party, and he said he needed to make sure I was going to enjoy myself in Mexico, and not drag everyone down. He said you need to be able to drink shots like water, so I should practice with him. I did one shot, and it was so gross. I was coughing so bad, but he said practice makes perfect and poured me another. When he tipped his head back to do his shot, I threw mine out over my shoulder.”
Kristen stopped herself from saying ‘good girl’ and simply listened.
“He started slurring and sat on the bed, telling me I should take my clothes off so he could look at me. I didn’t want to, but he was impatient, so I went really slow, unbuttoning one button at a time. Before I got to the last one, he’d passed out. I buttoned up and ran out of there. I don’t know if he still wants me to go to Spring Break with him, but-”