Dream Runner

by Gail McFarland

  “It wasn’t like that, Marlea.”

  “What was it like, AJ? And if it was so innocent, why didn’t you say something to me?”

  “Marlea, Bianca’s twisted…”

  “She has a point, AJ.” Steeped in satisfaction, Bianca crossed her long legs and arranged herself more seductively on the velveteen love seat.

  “Bianca.”

  Her name on AJ’s lips sounded flat and bereft of emotion, but still more than Marlea could take. “What kind of fool do I look like to you, AJ? I wasn’t smart enough to see the player in you, but I’m not entirely stupid, even if I did trust every word you said to me.”

  “And now here you are,” Bianca said softly.

  “Bianca, could you shut the hell up?” AJ said, standing between the two women. “Marlea, I don’t want her. What do I look like to you?”

  “You look like someone with no interest in a whore, and I understand that, ’cause I’m not interested in whores either, AJ.”

  “Marlea…”

  Her raised hand and tightly drawn face stopped him. “This is my room, and neither of you are welcome here. You both need to go.”

  Bianca had the grace to follow AJ and then flinch when Marlea slammed the door behind them.

  “Possessive, isn’t she?” Bianca sniped.

  “Why did you try to make it sound like something happened between us?”

  “It might have. Besides, you were the one who didn’t tell her, and it’s not my fault if her imagination got the better of her.” Looking into AJ’s furious eyes, she smiled slyly. “Besides, I would cheat on her with me, if I were you. Better still, I would marry me and keep her on the side—if that’s what you want. She’s low maintenance, no threat.”

  AJ paced in agitation. “You know what? I…I’m not even sure why she let you through her door.”

  “AJ, please. I told you before that I was tired of you playing the innocent victim. You know she let me in for the same reason you always do—to see what would happen.”

  He blew hard air. “With you, I always know what’ll happen.”

  Dismissive, Bianca flexed her fingers. “It’s the man in you that does it. It’s always the same with men. I figured that out a long time ago. You know, now that I think of it, it was the first time I showered with a man. There I was, all set to be in love, and brother was looking good and saying all the right things. It should have been romantic, but just before we stepped out of the water, I looked down at my nails. They were filthy: dirt and oil, all kinds of gunk under them.

  “He caught me looking and turned up his nose when he saw what I was looking at. ‘Ugh,’ he said. ‘You sure are dirty.’ But it never occurred to him that I hadn’t touched myself, only him. Turned out later that he was as dirty on the inside as he was on the outside, and he only wanted to be with me to see what would happen.”

  “That’s a sad story, Bianca, but I don’t have a role in it.”

  “Maybe not that one, AJ. But think of it as an illustration of sorts. You’re kind of like him. You look at her, and all you can see is what you want to see—a chance to be noble.” She shrugged. “Okay, maybe she’s got some kind of party trick she can do with what’s left of her foot, and the sex is…exotic. But you really are like him. You’re taking what you want from her because you want to see what happens, and then afterwards, you’ll be blameless because you did the right thing.”

  “You’re talking crazy. I don’t have it like that with her.” He paced again. “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Whatever.” Bianca planted a hand on his chest to stop him. “Where’s your room, AJ? Let me remind you of what I have to offer.”

  “I’m about sick of you, Bianca.” Gripping her wrist, AJ moved her hand. “There’s a name for the kind of woman you are, and you’re counting on my being too kind to use it. Marlea was right; you’re a whore, but you’re not my whore.”

  Her fingers curled over his, and she drew their joined hands to her lips. “AJ, you don’t mean that. You can’t.”

  “I mean everything I’ve said to you.” Pulling his hand free, AJ frowned. “I’m not going to stand out here and trade insults with you, Bianca. But while I have your attention, let me break it down for you: I know you’re having money problems, but we don’t have the kind of relationship that would allow me to step in any further. You haven’t earned any brownie points with me, and I’m not in the market for what you’re selling.”

  “You know?” Her suddenly savage eyes raked his tall figure. “You arrogant son of a bitch. You put me through all this, and you knew? You could have saved me from this humiliation, and you didn’t? When did you know?”

  “When you forged my signature to sell the condo.”

  Bianca’s mouth opened and closed as she gulped air.

  “Capital City Bank called when you emptied the account there, too. They wanted me to know that your forgery was a federal offense because you used a wire transfer over state lines.”

  Disbelief forced her to take a step back. “You pressed charges against me?”

  “I don’t want to see you in jail, Bianca, but I do want you out of my life.”

  “I don’t have to take this from you, AJ,” she said, tossing her hair back. “I have friends, true friends that I can turn to.”

  “Yeah, you probably do. But I’m not going to discuss it any further. You need to go on to wherever you were headed before you came here. I have something else to do.”

  The Coach bag hung heavily in her hand, but she had to ask. Lifting her chin and posing bravely, she faced AJ’s back. “Have you told anyone else about this?” Her voice quivered almost as much as her lips.

  He turned slowly, the expression on his face unreadable. “Not yet, but I could give Taurean a call. He might prefer to hear it from me instead of someone from the credit-card companies. What do you think?”

  Bianca’s eyes fastened on her feet, and her lips folded into a tired, defeated line. When she looked at AJ again, she was resigned. “So it’s finished, then?”

  “It’s finished. I made Marlea a promise, and it doesn’t include you.”

  On her side of the door, Marlea pressed her eye to the peephole. She could see AJ’s back, and Bianca’s face. First sure, then bitter, and finally crushed, emotions rushed across the woman’s finely defined features. Marlea could see the ex-lovers clearly, but hearing was harder. But she did hear AJ’s final words, and she lost the battle with her tears.

  I made Marlea a promise, and it doesn’t include you.

  “I guess that promise came with an expiration date.”

  There was a tap at her door. “Silk…”

  Shaking her head and choked by anger, Marlea backed away from the door. “Don’t call me that. You don’t have the right any more.”

  “Silk, come on, please open the door…”

  Going back to the door, Marlea took another look at him. She put her back to the door and wished she couldn’t hear him. When he called to her again, her knees failed and she slid to the floor, weeping for what was lost.

  Chapter 29

  Martha Baldwin’s glare was heavy with unspoken threat. “Boy, you done messed up now. That girl is in there packing her bags. She’s moving back to Marietta. What did you do?”

  “It’s more like what I didn’t do.” AJ dropped the Vuitton tote at the housekeeper’s feet and kept moving. Not to be outdone, she stepped over the tote and followed him.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? She leaves here with you and Rissa and Dench. Y’all call back here screaming that she did so well in her race. Next thing I know, a lone cab comes screechin’ up to the door, and she tears through here talking about going home. Do you know it’s danged near one in the morning? What kind of foolishness is going on up in here?”

  Outside Marlea’s door, AJ stopped and faced Martha. “Tell you what, I’ll let you know when I know.”

  “Don’t you take that tone with me, boy.” She wiped her hands on her robe, then pointed a sharp fing
er at him. “Whatever your problem is with her, it’s not with me. I live in this house, too, and whatever affects y’all, affects me. You love that girl enough to walk through fire for her, and yet you’re out of this house, out of this city for two days, and look at the mess!” The wagging finger was joined by four others, forming a fist, which she didn’t hesitate to shake at him. “Whatever you did wrong, you get in there and fix it!”

  Martha huffed and started back down the long, moon-dappled hall. She stopped briefly and looked back at AJ. “I’m not playing with you, boy. Git through that door and do what you have to do.” She flapped her arms at him. “Git!”

  Behind, Rissa and Dench came running.

  “Are they here?” Rissa lowered her voice and stopped running when Martha raised a finger to her lips. “They are here?” Her hand on his arm slowed Dench when Martha nodded.

  “So what was the rush? Why did they leave us?” Dench whispered to Rissa. She gave him a look that made him wish he had kept the question to himself.

  “They left before us,” Rissa tried to explain when Martha Baldwin crossed her arms across her chest. “We wouldn’t have known if we hadn’t spotted AJ running from the hotel. We thought Marlea was with him, so we followed.”

  “Yeah,” Dench nodded. “Good thing Delta has about a gazillion flights to and from New York.”

  Rissa heaved a sigh. “We saw AJ jump in a cab and heard him tell the driver to head for the airport. He went to Kennedy. Not thinking, we went to Newark.”

  “And got here just in time for the fireworks,” Martha finished, shoving her hands into the pockets of her robe.

  Rissa looked confused. “Why is he standing at Marlea’s door like that? We all flew back to Atlanta as though something earth-shattering was going on here, and he’s standing there.” Cupping her hands around her mouth, she asked, “Why!”

  “Shush!” Martha hissed, waving her arms. “Back up. Leave him alone.” She turned to Rissa and Dench. “You two come on in the kitchen with me.” When they were slow to move, she waved her hands again, shooing them down the hall. “He made the mess; let him clean it up.”

  Knowing the bait that would draw Rissa away from the door, Martha smiled. “Come on in the kitchen,” she said, “I’ll tell you all about it.”

  Still, Rissa was reluctant to move.

  “It was a real mess before you got here.”

  “He made a mess? Oooh…” Pulling Dench along, Rissa walked toward the kitchen. “What happened? What did we miss?”

  AJ was grateful for the small reprieve, but it didn’t last long. “Silk?” He tapped at the door and was rewarded with the sound of slamming drawers. “Silk…Marlea, it’s AJ. Could you open the door? I think we should talk.”

  More slamming, a closet door this time.

  “Marlea?” He knocked at the door again, harder this time. “Marlea, open the door, please.”

  The slamming stopped and AJ waited. Just as he raised his hand to knock again, the door jerked open. Marlea stood in the doorway, her eyes darkly furious.

  Her usual ponytail had come undone in her frenzied packing. The clip hung low, freeing her thick hair to form a halo around her head and shoulders. A dark smudge arched across one cheek, and the remains of her lipstick stained her lips. She had pulled her cotton sweater off and knotted it at her waist. She stood barefoot and glaring.

  “I thought we should talk,” AJ began, letting his hand fall to his side.

  “Great. Your house, your rules.” Stepping back, she let the door fall open. When he entered the room, she stayed by the door, standing in the shadow. “What do you think is left to say, AJ?”

  He looked at the bed they had shared. “Why did you run away, Silk?”

  “Don’t call me that, and I didn’t run.” Moving out of the shadow, Marlea returned to the box she had been packing. Shoving a handful of books into the box, she refused to look at him. “What did you need me for, AJ? A witness?” She flattened the books, then grabbed two more. “Whatever you did with Bianca is your business. You’re grown; you get to have business. It’s okay. I just took what I thought we had way too seriously. Maybe it’s because I’ve been alone for so long. Hell, you save up all that want and need for a lifetime, and any man starts to look good. I guess you’re just lucky I didn’t rape you or something.”

  “What did you think we had, Marlea?”

  Wordlessly, she raised a hand and shook her head.

  “And you think I would risk that by playing around with Bianca?” AJ sat on the edge of the bed and covered his face with his hand. “Marlea, I didn’t say anything about seeing her because there was nothing to tell. I was in New York on business; you knew that. I did what I had to do, then got in after a long day and planned nothing more than talking to you, dinner, and a good night’s sleep. I ordered room service…”

  “And they delivered her on a silver platter. Nice hotel.” Marlea ripped a length of packing tape off the roll and sealed the box.

  “Close, but not quite. I was in the shower when they delivered dinner, and she walked in with the waiter. She was there when I talked to you, and now you’re hurt. I understand that.”

  “You don’t understand anything, and my being ‘hurt’ doesn’t have anything to do with it. You talked to me with her in your room, and you didn’t say a word.” Marlea stopped folding the flattened cardboard to form a new box and looked at him.

  “Wait a minute. It’s almost two in the morning. Where did you get boxes from?”

  “Not that it’s your business, but I kept them when my stuff was moved here. I never planned to stay where I wasn’t wanted, AJ, and it seems I’ve overstayed my welcome.” She slapped tape across the bottom of the box.

  “Silk…Marlea, you’re wanted here.” Standing, his arms opened wide, entreating. “I wish I could explain Bianca.”

  “I wish you could, too, but you can’t.” Marlea ignored his arms and refused to let the tears fall. “You waited too long, AJ. You let her tell me what you should have.”

  “And if I had?”

  Marlea sniffed hard enough to make her head hurt. “I wouldn’t have liked it. I would have had questions, but I would have at least had to respect you for respecting me enough to be honest with me.”

  “You’re right,” AJ said simply. “I should have said something, but would you have believed me? Especially when I told you that I didn’t sleep with her, no matter what she implied when she talked to you.”

  “Okay, you say you didn’t sleep with her—fine.” Knowing that she was losing the battle with her tears, Marlea tried to answer around the lump in her throat. “Does it matter?”

  “It does to me.” Moving his head to see her face more clearly, AJ’s eyes probed. “Do you believe me?”

  “I don’t know, AJ, probably not.” Dropping her tape, finding a reason to hide her face long enough to brush away the errant tears, Marlea bent and took her time retrieving it. “Hell, if I had been a man, I would have slept with her. No, to tell the truth, if I were a different kind of woman, I might have slept with her.”

  “Well, I didn’t.”

  Her accusing eyes were bright with unshed tears, saying what her lips didn’t, and she tore another strip of tape from the roll.

  AJ smoothed a hand over the bed’s comforter. “You remember when you first moved in here? I wasn’t all that sure you even liked me, let alone trusted me. A time or two there, I thought I would have to hog-tie you. Yet, you stayed and we made progress together. I liked that, Marlea. I liked working with you. When we got closer, I liked what we had together, and I can’t believe it’s so easy for you to pack it away in those boxes of yours.”

  She hung her head low and mumbled something.

  “What?”

  “I said, I liked it, too.”

  “Then why are you leaving?”

  “Because I feel like I have to.” Marlea pushed at her box before looking at AJ. “You know, Bianca once told me that you needed a pet, that it was no wonder that you took
me on. She said that you’d always had a soft spot for the underdog.” Marlea could almost hear Bianca’s voice as she repeated the words. “She said that it must be hard to be treated like a pet by a man I could never have. She figured it would be nice for you to have a pet, even if it couldn’t perform.” Marlea pressed her fisted hand to her chest. “That’s what she said to me, AJ. Then I find out you didn’t think enough of me to tell me that she was in your room.”

  “You never told me that.”

  “I didn’t think I had to. It was humiliating enough to hear it from her, and you wanted me to repeat it to you? How would that have changed where we are right now?”

  “You’re right, I guess. Telling me that would have only made me think a little less of Bianca than I already did.”

  Marlea flipped the top flap of her box a time or two, then closed her fingers around it.

  “Look, Marlea, the thing Bianca wants with me is all about money, and I’m better than that. I deserve better than that. She’s a manipulator, and you got caught in one of her schemes. Maybe I should be used to it, though. Back when we were together, it was all about, give me, get me, buy me, and me, me. What she wants with me now is to pay her bills and finance her business.” His broad shoulders lifted and fell. “It’s always about pulling strings. That’s all it ever was and ever will be with her.”

  “And I guess I’m different.”

  “If you’re not, you’ve fooled the hell out of me.”

  Lines creased Marlea’s forehead. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that the reason I care about you is that you’re the kind of woman I can imagine children and a family with. Man, I can even see us collecting Social Security together.”

  “That’s a touching picture, AJ, but my trust…” She shook her head. “I don’t know…”

  “I’m just puttin’ it out there, just so you know.” AJ lifted his hands, placating and trying to keep hope alive. “How about this, in the meantime? Don’t leave. I know how much the 400 means to you. Will you at least stay and trust me enough to train with me?”