“Have you tried talking to her about it?” Aaron asked.
Myles threw up his hands. “Who can talk to her about anything?” There was sheer pain in his eyes. “Aaron, I haven’t even seen my kid in a week and it’s just killing me!” he declared louder than he had intended.
Several pairs of eyes turned in his direction, but Aaron could tell that his cousin didn’t notice. The younger man was locked away in his own personal world of misery.
“I’m on the verge of making partner,” he confided. “This is supposed to be a really exciting time for me, and I’ve never been so miserable in my whole life.” He shook his head. “I told Faith I wanted to try to have a second baby, and her answer was to pack up, take Jackson out of the house and move in with her mother. Why would she do something like that?” he cried, looking at Aaron.
“Damn it, Aaron, we’ve been together since high school. We didn’t even date anyone else in college. The minute we graduated, we got married. I figured we’d be together forever, and now...now I just don’t know anymore.” He looked like he was desperate to understand why this was happening in his life. “Why is she doing this to me?”
“I wish I knew, Myles,” Aaron told him honestly. “I really don’t know what to tell you. Do you want me to talk to her?” he offered, although the idea didn’t make him feel all that comfortable. He liked both Myles and Faith, but he didn’t believe in butting in to people’s private lives.
Myles shook his head. “No, she’d probably tell you that everything is just fine.”
“But you said that she moved back in with her mother,” Aaron pointed out. “That doesn’t exactly point to things being ‘fine.’”
Myles dragged his hand through his hair, sighing. “I know. But her excuse is that I haven’t been home all that much lately. The job took me out of town a lot,” he confided.
Aaron couldn’t help wondering if perhaps his cousin being gone so much was part of the problem. He considered bringing it up with Myles, then decided not to, at least for now. This came across like a sticky problem and heaven knew that right now he had more than his share of far more pressing things on his mind. Since Myles hadn’t specifically come out and asked him for his help or advice, and was here for just the use of his gym, Aaron decided to keep out of it for now.
“Look, I’ve got to get back to working with Joey. He still has a lot of rough edges that need to be addressed,” Aaron told his cousin. He patted Myles on his back. “But feel free to stay here and work out your anger for as long as you need to,” he said just before he began to go back to Joey.
Myles didn’t reply. Instead, he strode over to the nearest punching bag and began swinging at it aggressively.
Aaron stopped walking away just for a moment to observe him. For a man his size, Aaron thought, his cousin’s punches didn’t exactly pack all that much of a wallop. Most likely, he was out of shape because of all the extra work he was putting in at the firm. If he was working with Myles, he would have had to seriously address that problem. He had a feeling it could be easily resolved.
But, all things considered, Myles wasn’t going for some championship. He just needed and wanted to knock off some steam, and as far as that went, what Myles was doing was good enough.
“Okay, Joey. Your time-out is officially over,” Aaron told the young man he was training. “Let’s get back to turning you into a champ.”
Joey looked positively eager as he abandoned the punching bag and got back to the ring.
* * *
“Is it my imagination, or are these workouts getting longer and longer?” Nicole asked.
Finally finished, she lay down and stretched out on the workout table. Felicia placed a cold pack on Nicole’s hip. Wrapping it into place, she set the timer for ten minutes.
“It’s not your imagination,” she assured the older woman. “Are you acquainted with the saying, ‘No pain, no gain’?”
Nicole laughed softly under her breath. “I’m aware of it, yes.”
“Well, it’s a little known fact that it has its roots in physical therapy,” Felicia said with a wink. “And I have to say that you have been progressing a great deal faster than my usual patients. I’ve even had to step up the whole program to keep up with you, so that’s probably why it might seem as if we’re just racing along,” she told the woman with a warm smile.
“To be honest, I really wouldn’t know,” Nicole said. “This is the first time since I was in high school that I’ve done any sort of regular exercise. I’ve always been too busy making a living as well as a life for my boys to spend any regular time on myself.”
“Haven’t you heard, exercise keeps you young.”
That was exactly what Nicole was talking about. “Exercise was always something I would get to when I had the time,” she confided.
“Well, guess what?” Felicia gave her a wide smile. “You just got the time.”
“You know, I do have to get that dinner prepared.”
“But you also said it was tomorrow,” Felicia reminded Nicole.
“Yes, but I don’t like putting things off to the last minute.”
“But you’re not,” Felicia countered. “What you are doing is taking care of your body—pampering it so that it’s ready to use when you need it.”
“You’re beginning to sound like a drill sergeant—but a kindly one,” Nicole remarked.
Felicia considered that for a moment, then nodded. “As long as I get you to listen to me, I’m willing to sound like anything I need to.”
Nicole allowed the compress to do its magic and got comfortable. “Felicia?”
“Yes?” she asked as she readjusted the compress.
“How long have you been doing this?”
The question caught Felicia off guard. “Why? Do you feel like I’m neglecting something with your hip you need addressed?”
“No, no, that’s not what I’m saying at all,” Nicole assured the young woman she was beginning to look upon as a daughter. “I’m just curious about you. You really don’t talk much, do you? I’m just trying to get to know you.”
“Not much to know. I got a degree in physical therapy and immediately started working in the field. That’s been the last four years.” The timer went off much to her relief. Saved by the bell. “Okay,” she announced. “You’re free to get back to your catering.” She unwrapped the compress. “And I have to get back to making notes,” she said, walking out of the room quickly.
Leaving Nicole sitting up and watching her go, perplexed.
Chapter 11
Felicia sat on her bed, willing herself to calm down. She took in a long, deep breath, then held it before slowly exhaling.
She really needed to calm down, she told herself again.
Wrapping her arms around her knees, she rocked a little, doing her best to comfort herself. She had been warned about this. Abby, one of the women she had met at the shelter when she finally got enough nerve to leave Greg for good, had told her this might happen. PTSD. It wasn’t just soldiers who were afflicted with the disorder. Women in abusive relationships had been known to suffer from it, too.
At the time, she had just thought it was an exaggeration, or maybe even a myth. Yet here she was, convinced that someone was following her. It had happened today, when she went to the store to pick up a few things.
Believing someone was there, she had turned around repeatedly to look, and she’d found no one each time. If that wasn’t PTSD, she didn’t know what was. It had got to the point that she felt as if her mind was bent on torturing her.
The last time had been just as she was about to get into her car. Her heart had started hammering like a kettledrum. She was positive that she’d caught a glimpse of a telltale shadow.
But again, when she really scanned the area, there had been no one there.
Felicia felt as if she was losing her mind
.
She needed to come to grips with this, she thought fiercely. It was a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation. No one was going to want to have her around if there was someone stalking her. Because if there was, it meant that she represented some sort of danger that could materialize at any moment.
Nice as he seemed, Aaron Colton would quickly send her packing if he thought that having her on the premises might endanger his mother. And she certainly couldn’t expect anyone to take up her cause. She had no proof that the person who seemed to be stalking her was Greg.
At the very least, Aaron would think she was crazy. Best-case scenario was that she was telling the truth. But that just meant, as she’d already thought, she’d be endangering his mother, and that was definitely a reason to terminate the verbal contract with her and send her packing.
And if there wasn’t anyone stalking her, it meant she was losing her mind, and why would he want to employ her, then?
Felicia sighed.
No, this was something she needed to ride out. She just had to pray she was imagining things—even though something deep down in her soul told her that she wasn’t. That this was all too real.
Playing it cautiously and wanting to be prepared, Felicia kept her things packed up in her suitcase—just in case she needed to leave quickly. She felt that she couldn’t afford the luxury of being complacent and relaxed.
The threat felt too immediate.
Even though she had left the last place she lived in the dead of night and was fairly certain that Greg had no idea what her final destination was, she had learned the hard way not to underestimate her ex-husband. To do that would be tantamount to swimming next to a shark wearing a necklace made out of chum. The results could very easily be deadly.
Okay, she told herself, she just needed to remain calm—and be ready to take off at a moment’s notice.
With that, she went to find Nicole. It was time for their second physical therapy session for the day.
* * *
Aaron arranged his schedule so that he wound up having the afternoon to himself. That way, he could check on his mother’s progress—and coincidentally, also have an excuse to see Felicia. After leaving his assistant in charge at his main gym, Aaron drove over to the house where he had grown up.
When he rang the bell, he was only slightly surprised to find that it was his aunt Vita who came to answer the door.
Vita’s face broke out in a wreath of smiles as she greeted her nephew with a huge hug.
“Well, hello, handsome. Looks like we both had the same idea. And, before you ask—” she knew how his mind worked “—no, nothing’s wrong. I’m just here to check on your mother’s progress—and to help out with that catering delivery she has for later today,” she said.
He knew that his aunt wouldn’t lie to him.
He also trusted Vita’s assessment of the situation. She didn’t sugarcoat things.
“So, how is my mother doing?” he asked as he closed the door behind him and flipped the lock. Luckily this was still a nice neighborhood, but it never hurt to be extra careful.
“More energetic than I’ve seen her in years,” Vita answered. “Which is saying a lot, considering what a ball of fire that woman has always been. But even so, it’s easy to see that Felicia has made a world of difference in her life. There’s a certain kind of sparkle about your mother these last couple of weeks that I have to confess I haven’t seen in years.”
Aaron knew that Vita wasn’t given to exaggerations, either, which was why the observation she had just made pleased him quite a bit. Not for the first time he found himself really thankful that he had been overridden that first day about Felicia and that she had wound up staying on despite all of his objections.
“Where is Mom?” he asked, then before his aunt could answer, he guessed, “Up in that bedroom that she’s turned into a gym, right?”
“Yes,” Vita confirmed. Then, as he turned to go upstairs, she put her hand on her nephew’s arm. “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
His aunt was still smiling, but something in her tone alarmed him. She knew she could always talk to him. Why was she even asking? Something was up.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her.
Vita bit her lower lip. “That’s just it. I’m not sure—but I think that something might be.”
He immediately jumped to a conclusion. “With Mom?” he asked.
“No.” She paused, then said, “With Felicia. Have you noticed her being a little...how shall I say this...jumpy, of late?”
He thought back to the reason he had taught Felicia those self-defense moves. “Well, now that you mention it, I did,” he admitted. Out of courtesy to Felicia, he had kept that to himself. Needlessly, it seemed now. “She displayed a lot of the signs I’ve seen in some of my at-risk kids. The ones that had been abused. That was when I decided to show her a few self-defense moves she could use so that she’d feel more secure.”
Vita thought that over and then shrugged. “Maybe she is feeling more secure and I’m just reading things into her actions that really aren’t there.”
And then she switched subjects. “The good news is that your mother is better than ever.” She flashed him a smile. “Maybe I should just quit while I’m ahead. Rick says I worry too much,” she said, referring to her second husband. Not a day went by that she didn’t thank her lucky stars that she had married Rick Yates.
Aaron raised his eyebrows, feigning shock. “You, Aunt Vita? Never,” he told her with a broad grin. It was followed by a quick wink. And then he decided to press on and ask his aunt something. It couldn’t hurt, right? “Let me run something by you.”
“Go ahead,” Vita urged, waiting.
“What would you think if I offered to take Felicia out to dinner? You know, just to thank her for everything that she’s been doing for Mom—and to apologize for giving her a hard time about her background to begin with.”
Vita smiled. She didn’t have to think about her answer. It was automatic. “Well, I think that would be very nice. Quite honestly, I don’t get the feeling that she has very many friends here. As a matter of fact, I’m not sure if she has any. Felicia doesn’t talk very much about herself. This might be a good way to loosen her up.
“I hear that one of your ‘other set of cousins’ runs a really popular restaurant and that the food is excellent—not as good as what Nicole is capable of whipping up on her own of course, but still good,” Vita said. “And this way, Felicia has an opportunity to go out on the town, so to speak, with a very nice young man escorting her.”
Aaron grinned. “I was the one who thought of taking her out, Aunt Vita. I don’t need to be sold on the idea.”
“I know, dear. I’m just going the extra mile.” She patted his cheek affectionately. “Now go upstairs and do what you do best—spread some sunshine.”
“What are you going to do?” Aaron asked, curious. Since her main reason for visiting was to check on his mother’s progress, he assumed that she would accompany him.
“I’m going to go and check on that meal that your mother was working on, make sure that it’s all packed up and ready to go,” Vita told him cheerfully, as she left the room.
Aaron made his way over to the stairs and hurried up to the second floor. His mother had temporarily converted the second bedroom there. It was slightly larger than the other three—only the master bedroom on the main floor was larger. Under Felicia’s watchful eye it had been converted into the gym that was now being used to get her to do her physical therapy exercises.
The door was open, allowing, among other things, the unobstructed flow of air. Rather than verbally announce his presence, Aaron decided to stand back for a moment and observe both his mother and Felicia in action.
As he watched, he realized that his aunt was right. His mother seemed to not just be as good as new when she move
d, but she seemed to have actually reached a new plateau.
He had to admit that in all honesty, it was watching Felicia go through her paces that really captured his attention. Her movements seemed to be almost lyrical. Aaron couldn’t help being slowly drawn in.
It was like watching poetry in motion, he thought.
And then the words replayed themselves in his head, and he grinned. Wow, talk about being corny, he chided himself.
Felicia was utterly and completely wrapped up in what she was doing. So much so that when she finally finished a set and turned around, she was surprised to see that they weren’t alone the way she thought they were. Not only that, but that the person in the doorway observing them was not Vita.
A small shriek escaped Felicia’s lips. It would have been larger, but somehow she managed to stifle it at the last moment.
The sound startled all three of them—but only Felicia looked as if she was ready to jump out of her skin.
Concerned, Aaron was quick to hurry into the room. “Are you all right?” he asked her, doing a quick scrutiny of the young woman from top to bottom.
Felicia took in a covert, deep breath, willing her heart to settle down as she tried to hide her embarrassment.
Unsuccessfully.
She waved away his question. “You just surprised me, that’s all,” she said, trying hard to cover up her reaction. “I didn’t expect to see anyone standing there watching—except for maybe Vita,” she allowed. “And you’re not Vita.”
Nicole felt bad for Felicia. “Not that I don’t love seeing you, Aaron, but you should know better than to sneak up on people when they’re in the middle of doing something.”
Nicole blew out a deep breath as she picked up her towel and began wiping away the perspiration along her forehead.
“Sorry,” Aaron apologized absently. At this point he was really concerned about Felicia. Why was she so exceedingly nervous? It wasn’t right. There was definitely something going on here and he intended to get to the bottom of it for Felicia’s sake.
Colton 911: Secret Defender Page 10