Chapter Fourteen
Aaron
“You’re pushing her away.”
My hold tightened around the glass of seltzer water I held, while staring off into the distance. The voice had come from behind me, as I stood inside my home’s office. I’d just left a sleeping Patience up in our bedroom while I came down and locked myself in here to get some work done. I wasn’t going back to Townsend offices that day.
I turned to see the woman who called herself Emma standing by the door. She was dressed as always in a long, flowing white nightgown, her dark brown hair—which was greying at the temples—falling around her shoulders. She’d looked this way ever since I first saw her as a child.
“You’re achieving the opposite of what you want.”
I slowly brought the glass to my lips, taking a sip and swallowing before speaking. “And what is it that you think I want?”
“Your wife.”
“I have her.”
“No, you don’t. Not the way you want.” She smirked, moving closer. Though she had legs, she didn’t walk, she floated.
“You didn’t deny my existence just now. Know what that tells me?”
I grunted.
“You want my help. You’re just as confused about how to proceed with her as you’ve always been. Six years ago you were confused but went with your gut. You pursued her despite being out of your element. You still want her, even more now than before, but the history between you two stops you.”
“I’m not afraid,” I defended.
Emma nodded. “You are.” She smiled and my chest squeezed. She reminded me so much of my mother sometimes. My biological mother. “The man who’s not afraid of anything is afraid of his wife.”
I scoffed. “This is how I know you’re a figment of a child’s imagination. Why on Earth would I be afraid of my wife?”
“Because she has the ability to do what no one else on this planet can do.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What would that be?”
“Reject you.”
“She’s tried and has been unsuccessful thus far,” I reminded her.
“Oh, you can keep her close with your threats…at least until the children are eighteen. You can use your power and influence to make sure no man ever touches her again. But her heart? You’re going to have to win that all over again.” She smirked.
I paused, my top lip moving upwards on a snarl. “What the hell do you mean I can make sure another man never touches her again? I’m the only man that’s touched–” My statement cut off at the expression on Emma’s face. It was a look of amusement that pissed me off.
“Six years is a long time,” she sing-songed, “and Patience is a beautiful woman.”
I threw the glass across the room, liquid splashing all over my leather couch.
“Don’t get violent,” Emma tutted, folding her arms across her chest. “Listen to me, and you listen good. That high-handed nonsense works in business, and maybe in every other area of your life, but with her it won’t work. You want to win Patience and your children over, you’ve got to do more than bully them into loving you. Your father tried that, remember? See how that turned out?”
“Don’t mention him!” I boiled.
“I’m not mentioning him. I’m just reminding you of where throwing your weight around and bullying those who are weaker than you gets you. Your father tried it and he made you hate him. Not just him, but most other people also. Thank God for Robert and Deborah, they showed you what real love looks like. Anyway,” she waved her hands in the air, “we have time to sort all that out later. For now, you want to rebuild what you had with your wife, start with sleeping next to her at night. She needs it.”
I furrowed my eyebrows. There was something implied in Emma’s statement.
“What do you mean she needs it?”
“Just what I said. But don’t fret, more will be revealed. You just need to layoff the bullying and act like an actual husband instead of CEO and taskmaster of this house. Leave that at the office.”
And in the blink of an eye, Emma was gone. I was left staring at an empty office save for the furniture and work equipment. I went over to the cabinets that were pressed along the far wall, opening them to reveal the multiple screens. I hit the power button, turning the monitors on. Each monitor showed a different room in the house. I pressed the touchscreen monitor, zooming in on the screen that focused on our bedroom. I ran my finger lightly over the outline of Patience as she laid asleep in our bed. Each morning, I’d done the same thing. First checking on the children to see if they were asleep or not, savoring the idea of just having them under the same roof as me. Next, I let my spying linger on the master bedroom, watching Patience as she rose each morning and went about her morning routine of yoga followed by some journaling before going to check on the children. In the month they’d been there, I’d lost count of the number of times I’d jerked off to the sight of her first thing in the morning.
I hit the power button again, turning the cameras off and shutting the cabinet doors. I needed to get some work done. I went over to my desk, sitting down and preparing to work the rest of the afternoon, well into the evening.
****
Patience
“Mommy, let’s do ring around the rosie!” Kennedy giggled as we played in her bedroom. It was close to eight-thirty at night and I was playing with the kids for a little while before I put them down to bed. Aaron still hadn’t emerged from his downstairs office, even at six for dinner. I forced myself not to think about what that meant, though the twinge of rejection I felt from him still hurt, especially after what happened that morning between us.
“Join us Kyle,” I insisted, grabbing him by the hand as he sat on Kennedy’s bed. Though the two had separate bedrooms, they were always in one another’s rooms. They may have had very different personalities and likes but their closeness couldn’t be denied.
“I’ll start,” Kennedy began. “Riiing around the rooosie,” she sang and all three of us began moving in a circle, our hands clasped.
“We all fall down!” we all shouted in unison, falling to the floor and giggling. It was such a silly little game but Kennedy couldn’t get enough of it and seeing her joy always made me laugh.
“Daddy!” Kyle shouted, getting off the floor and running in the direction of the door.
“Daddy!” Kennedy squealed, following behind her brother.
I slowly turned to watch them as they ran up to their father, hugging his long legs, as they couldn’t reach his waist just yet. My heart caught in my throat when he stooped lower, enfolding his arms around both children and coming to stand with them at his sides. The scowl on his face softened as he stared at his children. I had to avert my eyes, hating the way it made my heart rate quicken, and the yearn in my body it caused to grow. Not just for his physical touch but for that look. There was a time I saw that same softening cross his face when he gazed upon me. I remembered the first time it happened.
****
Then
I hurried into my favorite bookstore, shaking off the snow that had accumulated on my hood, and stomping my feet. “Hi, Sam!” I greeted the ever-present bookstore clerk.
He lifted his head and smiled. “Hey, Patience.”
“Have you got it?”
“Your signed copy of a first edition Harry Potter?” His face slowly morphed into a grin. “You betcha!”
I laughed out loud, going over to the check-out counter. Sam lifted the book from the shelf behind him. The book had been earmarked especially for me. I’d ordered it weeks prior and was all too giddy when I got the phone call from Sam that it’d finally arrived.
I opened the front cover and smiled wide when I saw author’s signature.
“You’re going to enjoy reading that.”
I lifted my head, having half-forgotten all about Sam. “It’s not for me.”
His face contorted into one of confusion and surprise.
“It’s for the kids at the library where I tutor. One of the kids, actually. He had so many problems reading, that I promised him when he finished his first book, I’d get him an autographed copy. A little bribery never hurt anyone,” I laughed, as did Sam.
He stared at me for a few seconds.
I shifted from one foot to the other. “What’s the total on that?”
“Oh.” He jumped as if remembering he was at work. “That’ll be fifty-five even.”
“Really? An autographed copy of a first edition of Harry Potter, I would’ve thought it’d be more expensive than that. I’m not arguing though,” I laughed again. I dug out my bank card to pay for the book and just as Sam took it my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. Pulling out my phone, the widening of my smile and the fluttering in my chest at the name of the caller couldn’t be helped. “Hey,” I answered breathlessly, walking away from the register for a little privacy.
“Where are you?”
My neck snapped back at the curtness in Aaron’s tone. “I’m at the bookstore. I sent you a text.”
“I didn’t receive anything.”
I sighed. “I was letting you know I had to stop by here after my last class.”
“The bookstore on Sherman?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in two minutes.”
I pulled the phone from my ear. He’d hung up. I frowned, never having had him be so short with me. It’d been a month since the first time Aaron slept over my apartment after that dinner with my father. Just about every night since he’d been at my place. And though, we’d never so much as kissed, there was an intimacy there I’d never shared with anyone else. I sometimes wondered what he saw in me, or even what we were doing. Were we just friends? Were we dating? Was he falling for me? I didn’t need to ask that last question in reverse, I already knew the answer. I had already fallen for him, even with all his brooding and scowling. We spent many late nights just hanging out and talking. He let me tell him all about my day, my hopes for the future, anything and everything. On occasion, he’d even let me read to him whatever book I was reading for fun at the time. My latest read had been The Shack which I’d finished just the night before, reading out loud as he listened.
“Everything okay?”
I turned to see Sam looking concerned. “Everything’s fine.” I went back to the register, retrieving my card along with the bag that held the book in it. “Thank you. Stay warm in this weather,” I told Sam before waving and turning to leave.
I stepped out of the door, into the frigid air. It was the middle of March but Mother Nature had chosen to give us one last snow dump before spring, I guessed, tightening my hood around my face and head. Barely thirty seconds after I stepped out of the bookstore, a Lincoln Town Car pulled up directly in front, cutting off my path to cross the street. Aaron didn’t wait for his driver to get out and open his door for him. Instead, he got out, staring at me from the space between his door and the car, scowling.
I wasn’t perturbed by the expression on his face. “You’re not wearing a coat,” I chided, going over to him.
He looked up as if just realizing that it was even snowing, then back down at me. The same tingly feeling I got whenever his eyes fell on me occurred.
“Get in.” He stepped aside, wrapping a hand around my lower back and assisting me into the backseat of his car. He got in behind me, slamming the door shut and then knocking on the glass partition, signaling the driver to pull off.
“We could’ve met at the restaurant. I was only a few minutes at the bookstore,” I began.
He turned to me, staring. “You took the subway all the way over here, in the snow?”
I squinted, confused. “Yeah, so.” I shrugged.
“So?” His voice raised slightly.
I sighed. “What’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is that I had to leave work early to make it over here to the bookstore to pick you up.”
“You didn’t have to pick me up. That’s what I’m saying.”
“So, I was supposed to let you walk around in the snow?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve done it plenty of times before.”
“Not when I’m around.”
I frowned, not understanding what that even meant.
“I left a big meeting just to be able to pick you up.”
I furrowed my brows. “You only called me a few minutes ago.”
“And?”
“And your office is across town. How’d you get here so quickly?”
His jaw tightened. “Your text.”
My eyes widened. “You said you didn’t receive my text.”
He slowly blinked. “I lied.”
My mouth opened and closed, trying to figure out the words to express my bemusement. “You lied and then got mad at me because you chose to leave a work meeting only because you didn’t want me taking the subway in this weather?” I waited for an answer to my question, but it never came. Instead, the stopping of the car, followed by Aaron getting out and holding the door open for me, ensued. I took his hand and exited the car, to see we were in front of my apartment complex. “I thought we had dinner plans?”
“I changed them,” he informed me.
With my hand in his, I followed as he guided us to the door’s entrance and punched in the newly installed code for the front door. I’d given him the code weeks ago. We made it up the three flights to my apartment door in silence.
“Food will be here in fifteen minutes,” Aaron stated as he shut my apartment door behind us.
Angrily, I placed my hand on my hip. “What if I wanted to eat out?”
“You don’t.”
“How do you know?”
His scowl deepened. “Because I said so.”
“What the hell are you so angry about? I didn’t do anything to you. I told you where I was going and that I’d meet you at the restaurant. You chose to leave your meeting needlessly!”
“I did!” he roared, shocking me.
I took a step back.
“I left a very important meeting that my company has been preparing for, for weeks! My father has been away for a month and all of this going well rested on me to pull off, successfully. And it did, but I still left early. For you! Because I didn’t want you walking in the damn snow by yourself!” He breathed harshly, chest rising and falling quickly, nostrils flaring.
I wanted to lash out at him. Wanted to kick him out of my apartment and tell him to go to hell. But I couldn’t do it. I could see what he so obviously didn’t want to reveal. Behind the scowl and the harsh glare in his eyes, I could see it. I saw him.
Foolishly, instead of turning away, I walked up to him, closing the space between us. I curled my fingers around his forearm. He glanced from my hand on his arm to my face, the anger ebbing just a little bit.
“You want to talk about it?” I questioned.
His brows deepened.
“Work? The deal you’re working on? You don’t have to give me the details you can’t share but it might help to talk to a non-employee about the pressure.”
His eyes went back to where my hand rested on his arm. He examined it slowly, before covering it with his free hand. He looked back at me, his scowl released and my heart nearly stopped. He was so damn gorgeous. I’d never seen anyone’s eyes shine as they looked at me until then.
He led me to the couch and instead of letting me sit next to him, he brought me to his lap. A new level of intimacy in our relationship. I laid my head on his shoulder as he began talking about Townsend Industries’ merger with a natural gas company that would grow their company’s marketplace by a third. It was a risky venture, and one his father had let him take lead on. Success in this merger would guarantee Aaron a shot as CEO once Robert Townsend retired.
Even after the food arrived, Aaron continued talking and I kept on listening, hearing the range of emotions in his voice. They were all there —the excitement, anticipation, thrill, and yes, doubt and fear, though he did his best to mask those two. Well after midnight, we sat on the couch talking. He wrapped his arm around my waist tightly, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I sat up, peering down at him. I let my eyes fall to his lips and I licked my own. Lowering my head, I readied myself to feel his lips, but I was stopped. My chin was caught between his thumb and forefinger.
I looked him in the eyes. His had darkened to an unrecognizable shade. He shook his head slightly. It was a cautioning, of what, I didn’t know, but I heeded it…that night. I moved off of his lap and positioned myself at his side, laying my head into his chest, letting our breathing slow until we both fell asleep right there.
****
Patience
I came back from my memory to find Aaron’s eyes on me. I ducked my head, hoping my facial expression hadn’t revealed the memories I had been reliving. When I dared to raise my eyes again, I found his still stuck on me, even as Kennedy talked his ear off, as he tucked her into bed.
“G’night, Daddy. I love you.”
My heart squeezed at the same time Aaron turned to Kennedy, face in shock. I didn’t wait for his reply. I hurried out of the room, wiping the tear that tried to escape from my eye as I went into Kyle’s room. Aaron had already tucked Kyle in, and now it was my turn to say goodnight to our son.
“Hey, baby,” I cooed, going to Kyle’s side at his Spiderman decorated bed.
He grinned at me. “Mommy, did you know, my cousin, Diego, has the same video game as me?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yeah, and even though he’s in third grade and I’m in kindergarten, he still says hi in the hallway at school.”
I smiled. “That’s sweet. Your cousin loves you.”
“And Kennedy, too. He’s real nice to her.”
I nodded. “Good. You three are family now.”
Kyle’s smile grew even wider. “And Daddy’s our family, too, right?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
Kyle’s smile faded and he looked around the room, the way he does right before he prepares to tell a secret. “Mommy, did you know daddy has fairies around him?”
My face balled into confusion. “Fairies?”
Kyle nodded vigorously. “Yeah, Diego’s seen them, too. They’re like little lights all around him. Not always but sometimes.”
“That’s interesting,” I stated because I didn’t know what else to say to that. I knew children had always acted…oddly with Aaron, not put off the way most adults were, but strangely attracted to him. It was why I wasn’t surprised when Kennedy and Kyle kind of just took to him from the beginning. “Okay, sweetie. You go ahead and get some sleep, and we’ll talk more about this another time.”
“‘Kay. Nite, Mommy!”
“Nite, baby.”
I rose and went over to turn out the light before moving farther down the hall to the master bedroom. I’d long since picked up the clothes and the suitcase that had been strewn about earlier. Now the bed was made up neatly, hiding the events of earlier that day. I moved to the connecting bathroom, doing my nightly routine and putting on the silk shorts and strapless top I’d chosen to wear to bed that night.
Just as I was settling into bed, Aaron entered the bedroom, surprising me. Wordlessly, he went into the bathroom. I heard the faint sounds of water running and a few minutes later he re-emerged dressed in only a pair of plaid pajama bottoms. My heart started beating rapidly when he moved to the bed, climbing in. I stared silently as he settled into his side.
“You’re sleeping here tonight?” It was an odd question for a wife to ask her husband but an appropriate one given the circumstances.
He turned to me. “Is that a problem?”
I cleared my throat. “Not if you don’t make it one,” I retorted, trying to sound angry.
The left side of his mouth kicked up into what on a normal person might be considered a smile.
“Then I’m sleeping in my bed, with my wife tonight.”
I blinked, hoping the way my nipples hardened at his possessive tone didn’t show through my silk top. When I looked up at Aaron, I knew he’d seen it. His eyes were locked on my nipples, and I didn’t need to look down to know they were protruding through my shirt.
“Goodnight.”
The deep bravado of what I knew was his bedroom voice sent a shiver through me. It was going to be a long night.
****
Aaron
It was a long damn night. I woke up four-thirty the next morning, my usual time, but with a hand over my face and a soft, hairless leg stretched over my lower half. I turned my head to see Patience’s eyelids closed, mouth slightly opened as soft snores poured from it. She was still as reckless a sleeper as ever. Carefully, I removed her arm from my face and moved to exit the bed to do my regular morning workout in the downstairs gym. But after getting up I had to pause and stare down at the sleeping woman in my bed. I refused to think about the many nights, over the previous five and a half years, I pictured this very image. No woman has ever made me long like that before or since. Quite the opposite. Once I was done with a woman I was done, but Patience…there was no being done.
I let my eyes trail over her five-foot-four, curvy frame. Her body had changed since the pregnancy. I could see that but it only enhanced her beauty. The little pooch she’d obviously been self-conscious about, I found one of the most attractive parts of her body now. That pooch had housed my children, and will go on to house my future children. Before even consciously thinking about it, I bent down, slowly lifting her top, and pressed a light kiss to her belly. Stepping back, I took one last look before going over to my dresser and pulling out a T-shirt and shorts to work out.
I headed to the hallway to my next stop, which was to Kennedy’s bedroom, which was almost directly across the hall from ours. I opened her door quietly and something akin to a grin crossed my face when I saw her splayed across her Barbie bed in almost the exact same position as her mother. A few of her curly ringlets, fanned across her face and forehead. I couldn’t stop myself from moving closer to her bed to brush her hair out of her face. Next, I went to Kyle’s room, barely making it fully inside before noticing the hazel eyes that mirrored my own staring back at me.
“Morning, Daddy,” he groaned, wiping his eyes.
“What are you doing awake?” I whispered.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged, sitting up in his bed.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s time for breakfast.”
“But I don’t want to.”
My eyebrows dipped. “You don’t want to sleep?”
He shook his head.
I sighed. “Come with me,” I responded, plucking him from the bed.
“Where’re we going?”
“Shh,” I admonished. “Your mom and sister are still sleeping.”
“Where’re we going?” he questioned again, this time whispering.
“To the gym.”
He grinned as I took him by the hand and led him down the stairs to the main floor of the house and then down the second set of stairs that led to my home office, den, and the basement I’d turned into a home gym.
“Wow!” he whispered, loudly.
“You can use your regular voice here. Mom and Kennedy won’t hear you.” I’d soundproofed this part of the house when it was built.
“Are you a superhero?”
I squinted. “No. Why would you ask that?”
He shrugged. “Because of the fairies.”
I sighed and frowned. Kids.
“I don’t have fairies. In fact–” I stopped just short of blurting out that they didn’t exist, when those eyes so full of awe looked up into mine. I briefly wondered if I’d ever given my father that same look when I was Kyle’s age. I shook that thought loose. “I’m not a superhero, but I can teach you a few tricks.”
Kyle’s face exploded around the smile he gave me.
I led him over to the punching bag I had set up, showing him the small gloves I’d had laying around. Though they were still a little too big for his hands, he got the hang of it and had me teaching him the different types of punches—jabs, hooks, uppercuts, and more. I’d lost track of time, doing my own workout and having Kyle assist me by laying on my back while I did push ups, or sitting on my shoulders while I did squats. By the time we emerged from the basement, we both were sweaty and had worked up a good appetite.
As soon as I opened the door, my stomach growled at the smell of freshly cooked food.
“Pancakes!” Kyle yelled, running down the hall toward the kitchen. “Yay!” he squealed.
I met him to find Patience standing in the middle of the huge open-air kitchen, moving a pancake from the stove to a plate that had a stack of pancakes.
“Kyle, go wash up and get dressed in the clothes I laid out on your bed before breakfast.”
“’Kay. Thanks for the workout, Daddy!” he exclaimed as he ran past me to go up the stairs.
I leaned against the entrance wall of the kitchen, staring. Patience wore a pair of yoga pants and a T-shirt that stopped just at the curve of her ass. When she turned to place another pancake on the stack, I took my fill, feeling myself expand in the workout shorts I wore.
“Did you two have fun working out?”
I lifted my eyes to see her turn around, staring up at me.
“We did.” I nodded.
“Kennedy?”
She was back to staring at the stove, but her lips split into a grin. “Still sleeping. That girl–”
“Is just like her mama.”
She glanced my way, eyelids fluttering, before turning back to the stove.
“I’ll wake her up as soon as I’m done cooking.”
“I’ll do it.”
She paused.
I cleared my throat. “You start your job today.”
Her eyes widened, then a deep V settled between her eyebrows. “What job?”
“At the library. I called them again.”
“Really?” Her expression turned hopeful.
My hand moved to my chest, covering the tattoo that rested just above my heart, rubbing it. “The position’s still yours if you want it.”
Her hopeful look turned to one of apprehension. “What’s the catch?”
I nodded. “I deserved that.”
“So what is it?”
I gave a one shoulder shrug. “You just need to use your married name, Mrs. Townsend.”
She eyed me. “That’s it?”
“That’s a lot considering you neglected to use it on your application.”
“You know why I did.”
I stood erect. “No, I don’t, actually.”
Her shoulders sank. “Because the name Townsend opens doors everywhere in this city. I wanted the job on my own merit. Something of my own again.” She sighed. “You wouldn’t get it.” She waved the hand holding the spatula in the air, turning back to the stove.
“I wouldn’t get it? You don’t think I, of all people, understand the weight of my last name.”
She stiffened. “I didn’t mean that, Aaron.”
“Then what did you mean?”
She pushed out a gush of air. “Just that my entire life was flipped upside down within a few weeks. Everything changed and I wanted some sense of normalcy, of me.”
I moved fully into the kitchen, going to stand over her. “Let me take you to dinner. Tonight.”
She looked up at me, confused. “Where?”
“Buona Sera.”
She grinned as her head dipped. “Not fair. I can’t say no to Italian.”
I lifted her chin with my forefinger. “I know.”
“The kids?”
“Carter and Michelle will watch them. He’s off tonight.” My older brother and his wife lived right next door, so it wouldn’t be too difficult at all to get them to watch the twins.
“Okay,” she agreed.
I swallowed, and resisted the urge to bend her over the counter right then and there. I had to fight to remind myself there were children in the house. Thankfully, they made that chore a little easier when both Kyle and Kennedy came barreling down the stairs.
I took a step back and spun around at the exact moment Kennedy greeted me, wrapping her arms around my thighs.
“Morning, Daddy.” She giggled when I tickled her under her chin.
After helping the kids settle down into their breakfast chairs, I ran upstairs to take a shower, and then sent a text to my assistant letting him know I wouldn’t make it into the office until nine that morning—well after my usual seven-thirty arrival time. I was looking forward to breakfast with my family, and then dinner with my wife that evening.