by Piper Page
I shuffled my feet wanting to ask Adrian what had happened, but wasn’t sure if I should. People knew about my parents—it had been headline news when the accident happened, and being that my father was a big figure in the “doings” of certain “activities,” it was big news on the streets in New Jersey. “My parents passed away in a car accident. They were run off the road by a man with some real mental issues. He thought they were following him, even though they were in front of him. Drove them off the side of an embankment, they were both killed instantly.”
I watched as Adrian ran his fingers through his hair. Maybe I had explained too much. Oh god, what if his brother also died in a car accident or was mentally unstable? My stupid stream of conscious mouth never shuts up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.” I said in a meek tone.
He wrapped me in his arms and kissed the top of my head. “That must have been so difficult for you. I’m the one who’s sorry, Mallory.”
I closed my eyes and inhaled the scent of his freshly showered skin. “Alex died from alcohol poisoning. He started drinking when he was a teenager, and no matter what we did, he couldn’t stop. Even when his liver was compromised and he was hospitalized, he just couldn’t stop. My parents tried to save him, got him treatment, made promises, gave him ultimatums. The disease was stronger than all of us.”
I looked up in his face and those glorious, green eyes were shadowed and wet. I stretched up on my tip-toes to get as close to his face as I could and I kissed his cheeks. “I’m sorry. You didn’t have to tell me that. It must have been difficult for you to deal with, seeing your brother destroy himself when you can’t save him.” I knew that feeling. I held him close and could feel his heart beating in his chest.
“I forgave him a long time ago. I know he tried, he just wasn’t strong enough. The flowers you arranged for me that first day, those were for Alex. I hope he knows I forgive him, and that he actually contributed to my success. His death is what drove me to clean up my act and get serious about my career. I wanted to be able to support my parents after all they did—not just for Alex, but for me as well.”
I thought I was going to cry. Adrian was a compassionate, caring man. How could I have ever thought he would use me? People only saw the media image of him. I had to believe this was the real Adrian. And that’s when I knew he was what I wanted. “I should head back. I haven’t been home since,” I felt the heat rise in my cheeks as I thought about the last time I was home, perched up on my kitchen sink. “Well, since you were there this morning.” I felt the timid smile playing on my lips.
“Okay. I’m going to stay here a bit longer, but can I call you later?” he asked in a thoughtful tone that was oddly weird for his usual alpha demeanor.
“Are you okay?”
Adrian nodded and cupped my face placing a feather light kiss to my lips. “With you, I am perfect. I just need to think through a few things before I leave. Okay?”
I nodded my head in his hands, not wanting to leave him or feel his fingers lift from my skin. “Here, before I forget, let me put my number in your phone.”
I waved to him as I walked down the slight slope to my car. Through my window, I could see him, with his back to me, his head hanging low as he talked to Alex. My heart ached for us both as I pulled away from the curb and started around the curve towards the exit of the cemetery.
“What the hell?” I yelled in the confines of my car, once I had rounded the corner. Standing in front of me, directly in my path was my brother, Giovanni.
I slammed on my brakes, inches from running my bumper into his kneecaps. My knuckles were white with the death grip I had on my steering wheel. I sucked in a lungful of air and let a moment pass as I traveled out of the shock of what nearly happened.
“Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, Giovanni! What the hell are you doing? I could have killed you!” I screamed, getting out of my car and leaving the driver’s side door open in the middle of the cemetery road. “You asshole.” My small fist struck his chest beneath his leather jacket.
Giovanni’s hands gripped my forearms, and he shook me. Nice family reunion. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
I looked at him, astonished, taking a step back. “I’m visiting our parents. Did you forget they’re buried here? If you took one fucking moment out of your selfish life and paid them a visit, you might remember that.” I yanked my arms out of his grip and rubbed at the bruising skin. “You think they’d be proud of you running around with Luca and Nick every damn day, and me not knowing if you are dead or alive or dumped in the fucking river? Pops would kick your ass.”
He ran his hand over his face and took an aggressive step forward. “I meant, what the fuck are you doing with Adrian Maxwell?”
I opened my mouth to lay into him again, and then I registered the words that were coming out of his mouth. “What? What are you talking about? Oh my God, you fucking jerk, did you tap the house?”
Giovanni’s eyes were on fire. “He’s been in our house?”
I drew back and opened my mouth indignantly. “My house, Giovanni, it’s my house.”
My brother paced back and forth, clenching and unclenching his fingers into fists. “No more, Mallory Rosella Basso.” He used my middle name, my mother’s name, trying to intimidate me, but it only added to my fury.
“Screw you Giovanni, you aren’t Ma or Pops. You can’t tell me what to do. I’m not your ward anymore. I’m twenty-one, and I’ll damn well see anyone I want, when I want, where I want, and when I want.” My voice was on full volume, and my frustration frazzled my brain enough to make me repeat my words. “My life is none of your goddamned business anymore, and you’ve made no effort to be around or even let me know where you are. So don’t you dare stand there and tell me what I need to do or who I can see, Giovanni.”
Giovanni took a menacing step toward me, and I backed up to the opened door of my car. He gritted his teeth and spoke through his clenched jaw. “Mallory, this is too deep even for you to understand. You need to stay out of it and stay away from Maxwell, he…” Giovanni pounded his fist on the hood of my car. “He isn’t any good for you. Do you hear me? You are not to see him again.”
Hot tears were streaming down my face, and in that moment I hated my brother for making me cry, for taking away a moment with our parents, and for dictating to me what my life was supposed to be, but most of all, for taking away Adrian. I knew what I’d said, that he couldn’t tell me who or where or when, but I knew that wasn’t true, even after I spewed the words out. Normally, I’d try to press my luck, but the way he looked at me scared me this time.
I didn’t know how far Giovanni was in this time around, and in the time it took for him to pound his fist into my hood, I saw Mr. Alika, Leslie, and Robbie. I knew full well what could and most likely would happen to Pushing Daisies if I didn’t watch my step. Giovanni would have no choice, and it would be my fault. Right now, my employer and his business were safe, unlike a lot of other shops and business in this part of Elizabeth. I couldn’t risk it, and that fact hit my heart like a bulldozer. I drove home straining to see through my tears.
Chapter Ten
Adrian
Three small velvet boxes of different colors and ages laid in a row on my unmade bed. A forth was in my hand. I opened the lid and heard the squeaky brass hinge. It moaned at having been unmoved for years. In its belly, on a bed of silk, I found what I was searching for. I let the delicate, dainty silver chain dangle from my fingertips. A white sapphire pendant glittered in the dim light of my bedroom lamp.
I could remember my mother wearing the necklace when I was younger. She wore it to Alex’s high school graduation. She wore it to my high school graduation and my first college football game. After Alex passed away and before I moved out on my own, she pulled me aside and gave me the velvet box that held the necklace. She told me she had intended to give it to Alex in hopes that he would give it to a special girl, fall in love, and share it with her, but she was afraid he would sell it at
a pawn shop for liquor, so she held on to it for the day he got better. I recalled wiping away her tears with my fingers.
I sat there with the necklace and rubbed my fingers together, remembering the sound of her sniffing. She wanted me to take it now. Maybe one day I would meet someone special enough to love it for as many years as she had. As I looked at it, I could think of no one more special to me right now than Mallory.
Our relationship was new and fragile, but my heart was certain about her, and I wanted to prove it to her with a visible symbol. One that meant a lot to me, one that would be witness to anyone looking at her that we were an item; we had a commitment to one another, no matter how new it was.
I cradled the necklace back in the silk lining of the box and snapped the lid shut, placing the box on my nightstand. The other three boxes, which contained pieces from my grandparents and my own high school ring, went back into the top drawer of my bureau.
The tension in my body was demanding a release. It had been a hell of a day. I decided to take a hot shower to relax, and then I could call Mallory and let her voice lull me into a peaceful sleep.
The steam from the shower filled the bathroom that was right off my bedroom. I could hear the low tones of the music that were coming from the miniature speaker attached to my iPad. I stripped off my jeans and boxer briefs, slipping my t-shirt over my head and dropping it into the small pile at my feet. I could see the lines of my chest through the steamy film that was coating the bathroom mirror. Looking at my reflection, I watched my own hand running over my chest, but in my head, it was Mallory’s fingers stroking my skin, bringing me a fresh rush of sensations. I felt the surge of blood rush downward.
Opaque plastic crinkled, and metal loops and hooks scraped against the shower rod as I drew back the curtain and stepped into the high-pressure beads of hot water from my showerhead. It was almost perfect. The only thing that could make this moment better would be to have Mallory naked in here with me.
I felt my muscles twitch at the thought. If she lived here, she could join me every day. That was a thought I’d never entertained with another woman. I scrubbed my hair with a rich, tingling, invigorating shampoo. I could make her breakfast in the mornings. She would have dinner ready after practice. I would buy her a flower shop of her own so that she could always be creative, without any hindrance from other people. I knew she would be an amazing business woman.
A fresh-scented body wash coated my skin and left bubbles at my feet as I woke up the nerve endings in my skin with a rough cloth. We’d climb into bed and be in one another’s arms every night. I’d hold her and feel her mouth on mine. I could touch her and draw out a multitude of pleasures from within her. Hearing her whimper and moan in my head had me rock-hard under the flow of the water.
I took up the bottle of conditioner and slicked it through my hair. It was silky smooth, like the insides of Mallory’s thighs. My hands slipped down the ripples of my abdomen, and my fingers encircled the swollen trunk between my own legs. My hand slipped over the taut skin with ease. I imagined Mallory’s lips making that same motion. My free hand lay flat on the tile of the shower wall, holding me up while I kept my eyes closed. I could feel my knees tremble as I envisioned her whispering from on her knees how she loved the way we fit together, how she needed me every day, and when we were apart, all she did was fantasize about us making love. The surge built fast, and I didn’t hold it back. I called out her name at my release and stood there shaking until the water started to turn cold. I couldn’t wait to get out and call her.
With a towel swathed about my hips and my hair toweled dry, my cell phone was in my hand and I stretched my lengthy form out over my bed, pushing the tangle of blankets and sheets aside so that I could be comfortable on the mattress. I punched at and propped up a few pillows behind my back and head, and when I was fully situated, I lit up the screen of my phone and scrolled for Mallory’s number.
It rang a few times and went to voice mail. I could feel the corners of my mouth turn down in disappointment as I hung up. I hadn’t been prepared to leave a message. I wondered where she was. It was past ten. Did she go out? Maybe she was with her friend Leslie.
The thought reminded me that I wanted to ask her if Leslie would be interested in double dating with us as Emmet’s date. I dialed her again, ready to leave her a sexy little message for when she got back and went to bed for the evening. In my fingers, I toyed with the necklace I had extracted from the velvet box again. It was soothing to know it would soon be fastened around her neck and sparkling in her lovely cleavage.
“Hello?” The soft tone of her voice on the other end of the line caught me off-guard.
“Oh hey, it’s Adrian. I thought you were out. You didn’t answer the first time. I was going to leave a message,” I babbled. “Hi,” I finally said with a laugh, sighing and smiling, even though she couldn’t see me.
“Hi.” I could hear heaviness in her voice, and I wondered if she had been sleeping.
“Did I wake you up?”
“No,” she sniffled. Was she upset? My heart ached to think something was wrong. Should I broach the subject? Maybe she needed to talk to someone who answered back. She was at the cemetery, like myself, talking to people who couldn’t answer anything for us in reality. That said, there had been something concerning in her face then. I wondered if it had escalated.
I went with, “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” She whispered.
“I really enjoyed being with you last night and this morning. I was hoping we could go out again, maybe tomorrow? I have something I’d like to give you.”
The line was silent.
“Mallory?”
“I’m here.”
I wondered if she were reconsidering our time together.
“Well, what do you think? Would you like to go out with me tomorrow?”
I heard an audible swallow. “I’d love to….”
My heart jumped in my chest.
“But I can’t.”
I was silent for a few moments as that hit me. “Oh.” I felt the letdown like a rock in the pit of my stomach.
She sniffled again.
“It’s okay, kitten.” I wanted to hold her desperately. “You know you can tell me anything you need to. Listening is another one of my many talents,” I joked. “If not tomorrow, maybe the day after, we can get sushi, no expectations. How does that sound?”
“Adrian,” her voice was shaking. “I don’t think so.”
I heard a sob, and then the line went dead. I sat there, staring at my screen, dumbstruck. What the hell had just happened? Did we not have an amazing night and emotional morning together? Weren’t we just kissing in the cemetery sharing some very personal details? My mind was a haze. Did she or didn’t she have feelings for me? I thought they were coming through loud and clear, nothing mixed. Had I read her completely wrong?
I let my fingers dial her back. The line went straight to voice mail, and I hung up. What could have happened?
Chapter Eleven
Mallory
My eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, not even a good base of concealer and makeup could hide the fact that I had not slept and had cried away most of the night. My hair was a fright of tangles and knots that I scooped into a bun at the top of my skull, and I think I might have put on the same clothes from yesterday. I was a mess, beyond death warmed over, surpassing the walking dead—I was my own special kind of zombie.
My fingers fumbled over my phone for the fifth time since I arrived at the flower shop, and it wasn’t even noon yet. I was dialing Adrian, listening to his voicemail introduction and hanging up before it beeped. What could I say? “Hey, I think I’m falling for you, but my estranged older brother has forbidden me from ever seeing you”? He’d think I was crazy, like I belonged to some weird cult of betrothed Vikings or something. I told myself he was at practice, and that was why he wasn’t picking up…or maybe he saw my number each time and decided I was too much work to deal with. I
swiped at my puffy eyes with the back of my sweater sleeve.
“Hey Mal.” It was Leslie, perky, perfect, I can sleep with anyone and not be phased, have no brother to write out my life’s plan Leslie.
“Hey.” I turned away so she wouldn’t be able to see the tears that were sliding down my cheeks again, smearing what makeup I managed slather over my haggard face. How many tears did I have left? I sniffled.
“Hey, hey,” she pressed, her voice became low and concerned as she instantly picked up on my vibe. “What’s the matter? Did something happen with Adrian?”
I shook my head.
“Is it Giovanni?”
My shoulders shook as I heard his name.
“Oh my god, Mallory, is he okay? Is he hurt?”
My anger came to the surface. “No he’s fine, he’s just a complete asshole.”
She clutched her chest. “Don’t scare me like that, Mal, I thought he’d been hurt or killed.”
“I’d like to kill him,” I snapped with pure, honest anger.
“Aw, honey, it’s going to be okay. You’re family—family fights, that’s the natural order of it. I’m sure that whatever he’s done, he only did it for the best.”
This pushed me over the edge, and I turned on her. “Leslie, he’s not looking out for me, it’s not for the best, and it’s not going to be okay,” I yelled, then stormed past her out of the shop and into the street. My car was parked around the corner, and I ran to it. I wanted to go home and curl up in a ball and sulk without having to think about Leslie or Robbie or the shop and what would happen to them if I tossed out everything I knew about my brother and just went for what I wanted, what I damn well deserved. They had no idea what would happen if I turned on my brother, and that was the only thing I really wanted to do at the moment. Didn’t I deserve to be happy for once?
I hit the gas pedal and heard the rubber of the tires scorch the pavement beneath them. It gave me little satisfaction to hear the destruction I was leaving behind as I drove off. My intentions had been to go home, but when I got to my street, I drove right by the house and kept going out towards the river. I knew exactly where I was headed, and the closer I got, the angrier I got, until my fists were curled up so tight around the steering wheel that my nails were digging mercilessly into my own palms.