Standing By: A Knight's Tale #2

by Burgoa, Claudia Y.

  “You want it harder, baby,” he said.

  My sister only moaned in response, as he went faster on her. Great, live porn in the comfort of my home, I thought in disbelief.

  “Out,” I yelled as my heart shrank. I attempted to glean the situation and perhaps made an excuse or two for my sister’s behavior. My sister. “How can you do this to me?”

  “It’s not what you think,” Kevin turned around holding my sister. I deviated my gaze because I didn’t want to see her bare ass. The same one she displayed against my window to the rest of New York only seconds ago.

  “So you’re not fucking my sister in my apartment?” I asked, then looked back at them and waved my index finger in the air. “Because I think that’s exactly what you’re doing.”

  Paige unhooked her legs from his waist and straightened her mini-skirt. Her narrow eyes and pinched expression made my blood boil.

  “I want the two of you out.” My voice was firm.

  “My house is under construction, Hayley,” Paige crossed her arms. “As usual you’re being unreasonable.”

  “You have got to be kidding,” I sauntered to the door and opened it. “Get out or I’ll call Dad. No, better yet, I’ll call Parker. He’s in town.”

  She gasped, uncrossed her arms and headed toward the guest room, within a few seconds she came rushing out with her purse and headed to the open door with Kevin following.

  “You’ll be sorry, Hayley,” she warned me.

  After she had left, I called Parker, her older brother a.k.a. my older half-brother. He promptly arrived at my house to nourish my broken heart and cook us dinner.

  “He’s not worth your time, Hay-Bear,” he said while grating cheese. His lasagna was one of the best I have ever had. He looked up; those dark brown eyes that are almost the exact color of his hair were staring at me. “You shouldn’t waste a second glance at a guy like him; we told you he was a scumbag.”

  “These tears aren’t about him; it’s Paige. She didn’t care about my feelings, Parks.” I sipped the glass of wine I held. “Actually, she gave me that narrowing gaze that says I’m going to eliminate you. Why can’t she be more like a sister to me?”

  “You know her, Hayl,” He covered the baking dish with foil, opened the oven and set the dish inside. “I told you not to let her stay at your place but you didn’t listen to me. For what’s it’s worth, it’s their loss. Not yours.”

  “I lost my boyfriend to my sister,” I reminded him.

  “Sadly, Hayl, I know the moment she snaps her fingers, you’ll forget about today, and do whatever she wants. You’re too nice.”

  “Hayley, Hayley. You know I love you, right child?” Mom doesn’t wait for me to answer but continues with the bomb she’s about to drop. I wish for once she said… “You know I love you.” And stop right there.

  “When I say different,” she says with some exasperation as she points to me with her index finger. “I mean your appearance. Don’t you agree, Augustine?” I stare at Dad holding my breath because I fear he was going to agree with her. “She needs to change those baggy clothes, use some makeup, the list is infinite. Who’ll want to date you?”

  I eye her Louis Vuitton purse and wonder if she has a hidden binder with a rigorous diet to slim these curves of mine she hates, the ones she swears look hideous with my midget like height. Oh, and don’t forget the list of approved outfits that I should wear along with a new and improved hairdo of her choice. Yes, a complete makeover to land the guy.

  “She’s perfect,” Dad tells her and I let out the breath I was holding. “Stop harassing our child, Caroline, she’s fine the way she is.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Augustine.” Mom turns her attention to me. “If you go to Vegas, you might want to catch a man there, Hayley.” She uses her long perfectly manicured nails to scratch the glass of my display case. “At this pace, your biological clock will run out before you lose that virginity of yours.”

  “Why do I continue to keep trusting you with my private information?” I gasp, and she gives me her infamous warning death glare. Yet, I add more. “Dad, get your ex-whatever out of my shop.”

  “You’re impossible today, Hayley, I taught you better than that,” she yells, sounding like a howling hyena. “Augustine, when or should I say if, Hayley marries, you’ll pay as we agreed. A big wedding fit for a princess. Bigger than the one that girl from England, what’s her name?” she snaps her fingers. “Yes, Kate. Bigger and grander than hers. Just because the other one is eloping to Vegas of all places, it doesn’t mean you should expect the same from this one, and especially after what your spawn did to our little girl.”

  Little girl, spawn, eloping… there are so many things I can say, such as, “You can’t insult me and then call me your little girl.” or “Paige is your best friend’s daughter, how can you call her a spawn?” But I refrain and watch her slam my glass door; the one she has yet to break with one of her theatrical exits.

  “Mom should learn that eloping is when people fly away to be married without planning or telling anyone,” I tell Dad.

  “I’m proud of you,” Dad pats the hand I have resting on top of the showcase. His light green eyes crinkle as he says that. “For not feeding the fire.”

  “I never feed the fire, Dad.” He doesn’t acknowledge what I say, so I ask. “What is wrong with her, Dad? The only reason she came to see me was to find out about the wedding.”

  “She’s searing about Kevin,” Dad tells me. “On Saturday she came to my house claiming that Paige stole Kevin from you; I should do something. What am I supposed to do?”

  “Mom did the same thing Paige did to me, but with Ted,” I remind Dad.

  Ted, my first serious boyfriend, slept with my mother after a couple of months of dating me. Do you see the trend here?

  Instead of apologizing about it, Mom lectured me about how I should change my appearance and lose that virginity to anyone that would dare to touch me. Mom, the one that keeps my self-esteem down, some of her best hits being:

  “You’re too short, Hayley wear high heels.” I’m five-two exactly like her, and I work on my feet. I don’t think so.

  “You’re fat.” I don’t think so; one-fifteen is a healthy weight for my curvy frame. I have boobs and hips.

  “You need makeup to highlight those eyes.” I have a lighter olive skin tone than hers, and I think it highlights the pale green eyes I inherited from Dad perfectly.

  “Dye your hair, blondes are more attractive.” Who’d notice? I tie my maple brown hair into a bun, braids, pony-tails or I simply use hats.

  I rub my hands against my thighs to wipe the sweat from them and try to work on stabilizing my breathing, hoping my stomach settles soon.

  “Are you okay?” I don’t respond and busy myself fixing the pastries for the second rush. “Hayley, you need a life outside the shop; this is your job, not your life.”

  “Mom still thinks this is a hobby,” my voice is about to crack from the frustration and anger but my composure remains intact. “One day I’ll run away from her, leave her with Bridget and Paige. Who we both know couldn’t care less about her.”

  Dad lifts his shoulders in a non-committal shrug.

  “Caroline Roth is the craziest member of the family, and I’m so lucky to have her as my mom,” I continue sarcastically. “Our family tree is a bunch of twisted branches held together with Crazy Glue; it’s all your doing.” I wave my arms up in the air. “There’s no point in rehashing your past, is there? Why are you here, to ask about the wedding too?”

  “Paige called me,” I refrain from rolling my eyes. What else does she want from me; I agreed to be her maid of honor. “You know her job doesn’t pay well; she wants me to give her a job in the company…but I can’t. My firm is no place for an eco-friendly fashion designer.”

  “Please don’t tell me, you want me to give her a job.” My blood freezes along with my entire body. “We’ll be killing each other, Dad, remember the time she came to help during Christm
as two years ago and she ended up destroying four cakes and … Dad… what is it?”

  “Paige is pregnant.” He mumbles.

  “Mazel tov and yes, I know we’re not Jewish.” Why is he telling me this? “You don’t have to worry about me. Dad, I don’t care about Kevin or Paige’s new addition to the family. As I said before, what hurts is that she’s my sister and didn’t care one bit that he was my boyfriend. Kevin and I may have only gone out for a couple of months and things may not have progressed much, but he was my boyfriend.”

  There are things I don’t say, like: “She snatched him right before we had sex. I seriously thought we were there… close to the x date where we decided to take the relationship to the next level.” The images of Kevin and my sister having sex against my window continued to linger inside my head, which is why I moved to the studio located above the bakery. Thanks to the joy of having a… stepmom or half-mom—Mel. She owned the building and rented it out to me at a fair price. Mel, Dad’s first wife, died a couple of years ago, and now the building belongs to her son Ben, my oldest half-brother. God, I miss her.

  “Are you going to help them?” I ask him and then offer, “What can I do to give them a hand? Organize a baby shower?”

  “I’m buying them a house,” he says as he scrubs his face with both hands. I narrow my gaze, because that’s like giving them an award for their bad behavior. It’s just like giving them a fish as a gift, instead of teaching them how to fish, as he taught us at an early age. “In New Jersey, so they don’t have to worry about rent and they’ll be away from Manhattan.”

  “Thank you?” I spit the words in the form of a question because I have no idea how to take this information or why is he telling me. Then I change the subject to one I can handle. “Do you know anything about Willows; is Parker definitely selling?”

  Willows is a trendy, organic restaurant down the street from my bakery shop. My brother, Parker, owns it but he can barely take care of it since he moved to Washington State. I provide them with fresh muffins, cupcakes and some pastries making him my number one customer. If he sells, and the buyer doesn’t care much for my bakery, my production will diminish by fifty percent, and I’ll be in trouble… the bank will now breathe down my neck and bye, bye dream.

  “Yes he is finishing the deal today. Are you going to be okay at the wedding?”

  “I guess so, why aren’t you going?”

  “They don’t want parents involved,” Dad shrugs, as though he isn’t bothered by the fact that he’ll miss Paige’s wedding. “And I know my children, Hayley, this isn’t her first and only marriage. She’s like her mother.”

  Her mother—who is searching desperately for husband number five.

  “Are you telling me I’m like my mother?”

  “No, never.” He pursues his lips. “I loved Caroline but thankfully you’re not like her.”

  “You loved her?” he bows his head and I take that as a yes. “Then why didn’t you marry her?”

  “Because I didn’t want to divorce her,” he answers with a flat tone. “Certainly you know she’s not an easy person to live with, and in truth, I’m not easy either… this way worked best for everyone.”

  “What way? Who is everyone?” I don’t let him answer. “I could have used a buffer while growing up, and I can sure use one now. Instead, you decided to leave me with your first wife—Mel—while you and Mom escaped to some strange destination for weeks or months on end didn’t help me much. Mom complained bitterly that you didn’t want her; that she wouldn’t put her body through another pregnancy to end up with someone like me. Which I thought was something I’d understand when I got older, yet the only translation I come up with is that she doesn’t like me. I love you, Dad, but I also don’t like you seventy percent of the times.”

  “I know, Pumpkin, I’m not a very nice person.” He pats my hand again and heads to the door. “However, I love all my kids, and you the most.”

  I stare at him not knowing what to say back, because there are days when he’s this loving man that I adore but then there are others where he also barges in and lists my flaws and failures.

  “You’re too hard with Caroline, Hayley.” Dad stops mid-way through the threshold. “You’re her only family. Perhaps you should try to be a better daughter to her. Consider getting an online degree. Small businesses don’t always stay afloat. Remember, I could always use a paralegal at the law firm.” He lifts a shoulder, watching me with an empty stare and set jaw. “It’s not a hobby, but it isn’t a long-term career either, Hay-Bear.”

  He departs without giving me a second glance. Though he did not slam the door, he shattered me. Each time I look at the empty space next door and think about expanding the bakery into a café, I remember what he said: “You can only go so far.” “Don’t take unnecessary risks…” The twinge of disappointment pinches my heart, and the pain magnifies as it spreads through my body, the need to expel it increases and I run to the bathroom. One small cut a tiny one to numb me and help me get through the rest of my day. I pull the case from under the sink, extract the razor, slice it into the flesh of my belly and in a matter of seconds whatever they said or did slowly melts away. My chest expands, and the light-headedness grabs me, taking everything away. For now.

  Chapter 3

  Mitch

  My phone rings for the third time in a row and I finally pull it out of the nightstand drawer. The screen shows a picture of a good-looking guy with a shitty haircut. Jake, my twin.

  “This better be good,” I answer the phone after the third ring “It’s five in the freaking morning asshole, what do you want?”

  “Morning, sunshine. Meet me at the gym in twenty.”

  “No.” I hang up, rub my face, push myself out of the bed and head to the bathroom.

  No is a word that we Knights have a hard time following. If I try to ignore him, he’ll call me until I concede or he’ll come to my apartment and bang on the door until I join him. I change into a pair of running shorts, a shirt and my gym shoes, then throw some clean clothes in my gym bag and head to the Piers where the sport center is located. On the way, I text Jake.

  MAK: This better be worth the wake-up call.

  JAK: It is for me, Liam wasn’t as rude when I called him.

  MAK: Because Liam lives in London time, no matter where he physically stays.

  JAK: Truth. See you in a few.

  It takes me twenty minutes to arrive, the automatic doors slide open and I cross the threshold. I pull out my phone, open the gym’s app and scan my digital membership card through their scanner. The perky blonde behind the desk looks at her computer and smiles.

  “Good morning, Mr. Knight,” she squeezes her chest with her arms and licks her lips. “I think your brother just stepped inside a few minutes ago.”

  “Thank you,” I look at the ID card between her breasts and read her name. “Stacy, see you around.”

  She’s hot but I don’t think our relationship would go any further from a flirting smile.

  “Mitch,” I pivot around and spot Liam entering the building, he is going through the same process I just did but ignores Stacy as he passes through. “What’s wrong with your twin?”

  “I think he said you were singing at the top of your lungs with happiness when he called you,” I tell him as we head to the locker room.

  “Are you kidding me, Mitch?”

  The frustration in his voice makes me want to go back home and forget I’m related to these two for at least the next few hours. It’s Monday and I’m fucking tired.

  “I was working. I don’t have time for a trip to the gym. Not today.” he growls. “This was a bad week to visit New York.”

  “Mom’s birthday was yesterday, Liam, don’t complain,” I remind him. “That’s why you came to visit. Are you leaving sooner than expected?”

  “Yeah, my plane is scheduled to leave,” he looks at his watch and then turns to looks at me. “In four hours. This better be worth it…” Then he stares at me, mo
re precisely at the top of my head, the scrutinizing look makes me want to check for bugs. “Have you ever thought about using a comb on that hair?”

  I shake my head and use a hand to ruffle my dark blond hair to antagonize him. My little brother looks a lot like us—Jake and I. We are all a half inch shy from six four, have the same straight nose, square chin and broad shoulders. If you see us together, you will think we’re triplets. Except, instead of dark green eyes like Jake and I; Liam’s are amber. Then there’s the hair. Jake wears a buzz cut, Liam’s is always perfectly combed and I… I don’t give a shit about it.

  “Took you long enough, ladies. If your delay is because you tried to look beautiful, let me tell you, you failed. You two still look fucking ugly,” Jake says as we reach the locker room he’s about to exit. “I’ll see the two of you on the track. Liam, we’re leaving at eleven if you don’t mind. I’m piloting the plane. I’ll head to one of my training facilities right after I drop you. I have a job in Cameron.”

  “He knows we all look alike, right?” Liam’s eyebrow arches and then he shakes his head. “I swear he needs to stop trying to be funny.”

  “Give the guy some points for perseverance.” I open my locker, shove my gym bag in and lock it back up.

  We both make our way to the indoor track, the terra-cotta lanes circle around the boxing ring and a designated area where the punching bags and dummies are. Before we step inside, we stretch and join Jake as he passes close to where we stand. While the three of us workout on a regular basis, my brother, who owns a security company is huskier and stronger than us. I hate to accept it but at the same time, I don’t mind because my job doesn’t require me to kick bad guy’s asses and bulk up the muscle to look scary.

  “She said yes,” Jake finally speaks, his breath steady. “And she set a date.”

  “Emma?” I want to make sure I understand correctly since he has proposed at least seven or eight times—I lost track. “You’re seriously marrying? I mean, I know you want to marry her but after so long I just thought it would never happen.”