Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

  “Donovan?”

  “Yes, Gram?”

  “Would you be a gentleman enough to pick up our Laney in the morning on Wednesdays? None of us like seeing her coming home late at night by herself. Perhaps you could drop her off at school, go to work, then bring her home after your game?”

  Incredible! What was my family up to? It was as though they were in matchmaking cahoots with one another, but it couldn’t be since they had no idea that I had an interest in Donovan.

  “What a great idea,” Emily joined in the conversation.

  I saw my grandfather smile and nod in agreement.

  “I would be honored to take your granddaughter to school and back home. You hear that Little Girl?” He turned to me, “I guess you and I will be Wednesday carpooling buddies for a while.”

  Was this good news or bad? I couldn’t decide whether I liked this change of events masterminded by my family.

  When dinner was done, I tried to catch a ride home with my family, but once again, they thwarted me.

  “How did you all fit in this car, and why would you come together?” Incredibly all eight of them came in Emily’s minivan. My only way home was to ride in Donovan’s Porsche.

  “Get in, Little Girl.” Donovan commanded. I could’ve sworn I saw everyone in the minivan smirking at me while it passed us. This was one strange night.

  “You mind if we stop somewhere and grab a cup of coffee? Those ribs aren’t sitting very well with me. I need a strong espresso.”

  “Not at all. You’re the driver. I’m just grateful to have a ride home since my family didn’t see fit to bring me home with them.”

  Donovan laughed at my comment. “Who would’ve thought that such sarcasm would drip from such a sweet looking face? You definitely have a way with words. I guess you’ve always had a way with words.”

  “Speaking of words, I don’t know quite what to say about the bag of dresses you left in my room.”

  “You finally found them, huh?” He had on a cute grin. “I expected at least a thank you text the moment you found them. Most women would’ve done that or come over and said thank you in person.”

  I was at a loss for words. How did I reply to a statement like that? Should I have just been happy that he bought me dresses? Should I have been sad that he lumped me with a group women he casually purchased clothes for? What was the right response in a situation like this?

  After a bit of silence I answered, “I didn’t respond because I didn’t think you would like my response via text.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “When you drop me off at home, if you could wait a little bit I’d like to return the dresses to you.”

  “Dammit Delaney. Why is everything so difficult with you? Think of it as a gift, as an apology for what happened between us in Hawaii. Think of it as me supporting my aunt. Think of it in any damn way it makes you comfortable. Or just stop thinking.” He was frustrated, he rushed his hand through his unruly hair several times, and stupid me found it adorable. I was such a goner where this man was concerned!

  In all seriousness, though, how would I explain to this man that him giving me gifts out of pity, or as an apology, or flippantly, did me no good? Who would understand that those kinds of gifts were unwanted, no matter the type, size or price?

  I thought very carefully through my answer before giving it. “I…there’s no reason to accept so many generous gifts from you. The ticket to Hawaii alone was over the top. You didn’t ruin my dress, and I’m not upset about what happened at Spago the other night.” And I really want to ask you about the three Louis Vuitton gifts I received in Hawaii but that was such a ridiculous thought, I couldn’t bring it up—no matter how much I wanted to.

  “Could you just accept the dresses without any complaints? Just think of it as Doug giving you a present. I’m definitely old enough to be your older brother.” A rebuttal was on the tip of my tongue, but he cut me off. “Just know that this will be the end of our friendship if you return those dresses to me or to Bee. You got it?” He smiled his devastating smile. What could I say? “Let’s go grab some dessert and a cup of espresso.”

  Ounces of sweet and cups of bitter—a fitting description for our “relationship.”

  April 19, 2013 Happy Birthday, James & Ellie!

  For the twins, it was a perfect day until they wigged out at the very end from utter fatigue. For me, the day didn’t start too well, but ended in a promising way. It all started with the beautiful dresses Donovan had left for me. I put the prettiest one on, knowing I was going to see Donovan later today at Ellie and James’ birthday party. Since I wasn’t successful in returning them, I decided to enjoy them and show Donovan that I appreciated his gift.

  “I see you chose to wear the dress?” Donovan surprisingly stopped by to wish the twins a happy birthday, first thing in the morning. We spoke while each entertaining a twin.

  “I did. Thank you very much. It really wasn’t necessary for you to have given me all these dresses, but in any case, I won’t complain anymore and am very happy to have them. Dare I ask one more time if I can pay you?” His surly look was answer enough.

  “Are we good? And I’m not talking about the dresses...you know, with what happened again the other night? Though, I do still have one more question,” Donovan whispered.

  “All is good. No need to mention what happened the other night, or better yet, Hawaii.” I gave him a bit of an exasperated look. I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. I was done with what had happened a few nights ago since I knew it meant absolutely nothing to him. “But if you must ask…”

  “I just want to hear from your lips that I am not a terrible kisser.”

  That made me crack-up. He thought I had accused him of being a bad kisser when I was only blaming my own kissing abilities, or lack thereof. “All right Mr. Taylor, I’m going to blow up your ego this morning. Yours was the best kiss I’ve ever had, hands down! There’s no comparison.”

  “Really?” He had the grandest, most ridiculous smile on his face.

  “Truly,” I answered with a wink and walked away. I couldn’t stop chuckling at the fact that what I said was meant in the most literal sense, since I had no one to compare him to.

  Roland, my new grandfather, convinced me to catch a ride to school with him, Jane and Donovan after we were done loving the twins this morning. I absolutely adored Grandpa Jerry, but Grandpa Roland was something else. He’d been in love with my Gram since he was twenty-something, and his love only grew with the years. Grandfather Roland was as brilliant and charming as Grandpa Jerry, and I loved the fact that he would be with Gram the rest of their lives.

  “Young lady, let me know when you plan on leaving. I’ll get the plane ready for you.”

  “Grandfather, I already purchased my ticket. You and Gram should use your plane allotment, not me.”

  “Your mother and grandmother are planning to travel with you and get you settled, so you need to take my plane. You can use the ticket you purchased, next time.”

  “Grandfather,” I paused and thought through what I wanted to say. “I’m leaving very soon, and as much as I love Mom and Gram, I don’t want them to come with me in the beginning. It’s a large inconvenience to them, and I need to stand on my own two feet. I’d like to try and do this on my own.”

  “Young lady, has anyone ever told you your appearances are deceiving?” That comment brought a smile to my face.

  “Thank you. I’ve never been thrilled with the way people perceived me.”

  Once our private conversation finished, the four of us had a nice chat about the twins’ birthday party and about my move when the first spoiler of the day happened. Donovan asked me a very personal question about whether or not I’d ever been in a serious relationship. I told him I hadn’t, and that’s when he made this condescending remark. “No man has swept you off your feet and wooed you like a fairy princess from a Disney movie? No glass slipper at midnight..
.Prince kissing Sleeping Beauty awake from slumber...Beauty kissing the Beast into a prince...?” Donovan couldn’t hold back his guffaw as he said this.

  If that remark didn’t hurt enough, Jane joined in the snickering, and made me feel like a moron for never having had a relationship before. Was it my fault that I hadn’t found the man I wanted to share my life with? Did I want my first real kiss to be with Donovan at age twenty-two? Well...Donovan—yes. At age twenty-two—no. I was mad that they were laughing at me, but I was pissed that I’d waited and waited this long to get into a relationship with any man because I’d put Donovan Taylor on such a pedestal. If I was a moron for any reason, waiting for Donovan to notice me would be it.

  The rest of the morning passed without anyone else upsetting me, and when I got to the party, I noticed Josh on the other side of the tent. Josh was sweet and funny and perfectly my age. Why couldn’t I find him more desirable? Maybe Josh was right. I hadn’t given him enough time. We needed to get to know each other better before I could make a decision.

  “You’re here.” Emily greeted me with a hug and kiss. “Everything all right?”

  “Yeah. I was just thinking about Josh.”

  Emily gave me a funny look. “Really?” She giggled soon after. “You think about men whose initials don’t start with DT?” Now she was just plain making fun of me.

  “Donovan is not the only man I think about. In fact, I’ve decided not to think about him anymore. As of today, I’m going to make a concerted effort to get to know Josh, and see if I can learn to like him.” There. I said it. I meant it.

  Emily outright laughed at me. “Laney. This is only the 100th time you’ve given up on Donovan Taylor, and I don’t want you leading poor Josh on if you’re not truly interested. He’s a sweet boy and he’s smitten with you. Don’t encourage him if you don’t have feelings for him.”

  “But how will I know if I have feelings for him if I don’t hang out with him and get to know him? I may grow to like Josh. Right? Didn’t you grow to like someone...ever?”

  “Nope. I was smitten with Max the moment I saw him, and I was blown away with Jake’s attention when we met at the supermarket. Your cousin was mesmerizing.”

  “Did I hear my name being called?” Jake walked over with each kid in hand, and gave his wife a kiss on the lips and me a kiss on the cheek. “Hello, Cousin. Want a child?” He handed James to me.

  “Hello, Handsome!” I kissed my beloved cousin, once removed. “Hi Beautiful!” I gave Ellie a kiss as well before she yelled at me. She only had one setting—LOUD!

  “I think I’ll take James over to Josh and see if we can convince Nick to get into the dunk tank.”

  “Josh, huh?” Jake gave me a dubious look. “My buddy just walked in the tent. You don’t want to go say hi?”

  “You can tell him I said he and his insensitive words can go to h-e-l-l!” I had to spell that last word because I didn’t want to curse in front of the babies.

  Jake and Emily busted up, and I beelined for Josh as I saw Donovan walking toward us. It wasn’t that I was scared of talking to Donovan. What I was feeling was pure—ANGER! I was still angry from this morning.

  “Can we join you?” I asked Josh, who was watching the contortionist do her weird...contortions.

  Josh smiled a sinful smile. This man looked so much like Max, but with delinquent twist. I loved it. He had fun written all over him.

  “Of course you can join me. Does this mean we can hang out?” He asked with uncertainty.

  I decided to be upfront with him and see where this might take me. “Josh, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not attracted to you, but I’d like to get to know you. If you’re OK with that, and you’re OK knowing this may turn into nothing more than a great friendship, let’s hang out.”

  “Shit! You just made my day. I never thought you’d give me a chance.” Josh breathed a sigh of relief and stole a quick kiss from me. That kiss so startled me, I actually had to laugh. Josh laughed too, after he got over looking like a frightened bunny, wondering about my reaction.

  “This must be steal-a-kiss-from-Laney week. I’ve been kissed more times this week than...” I stopped myself from revealing my lack of experience. Josh didn’t seem like the type to make fun of a girl because she was inexperienced, but after this morning, I didn’t need to find out.

  “Who the hell’s been kissing you this week aside from me?”

  “No one of importance.” I moved Josh along. “James is expecting to be entertained, and all he’s done is stand here staring at us.”

  “Master James, what shall we entertain you with? How about the bottle toss? Maybe I can win you both a prize.”

  Josh tried his toss at the bottle, I took a turn, and even James threw some rings, but that was a difficult game. We all came out losers. Next we moved onto the “throw a ping pong ball into a fishbowl,” and it was James who ended up winning a fish. Of course, he didn’t exactly throw a ball into a fishbowl. Josh held him out and he accidentally dropped the ball into the bowl. Whatever...he won! I held onto the stuffed animal for him, and we went to face my father in the “shoot water into a clown’s mouth and pop a balloon” game. James watched as I did my best to beat my dad and brother. No such luck. Dad, who shot rifles as a second hobby, beat us by several seconds.

  “Here you go, Grandnephew. I don’t think I need a SpongeBob stuffed doll in my bed. Your grandaunt may get jealous,” Dad laughed at his own joke, and handed James the doll. “You having a good time?” Dad asked James while relieving me from kid duty. “Let’s go grab a beer together, Grandnephew.”

  “Your dad is cool,” Josh spoke.

  “He is,” I answered. “He’s always been a lot of fun. All the kids used to love coming over to our house. Between the crazy parties Mom threw and Dad’s lively personality, my friends and Doug’s friends had a ball whenever they came over.”

  “Delaney?” I stopped and made myself refocus so I could go another round with Donovan. Life was a battle with Donovan Taylor.

  Turning around, I saw the man who hurt me this morning. I expected him to show penitence but instead, he had the gall to emanate anger. What the hell did he have to be angry about?

  “Yes?” I answered, gritting my teeth.

  “Can we talk?”

  “Again? Haven’t we talked enough?” I stared back at his beautiful blue-green-gray eyes. He expressed his dissatisfaction with tight lips formed into a semi-pout. If I weren’t so perturbed with him, I would’ve smiled because he looked as darling as James when he didn’t get what he wanted.

  “We need to talk, NOW!”

  Did he really believe he ruled the universe? He was under the assumption that all he had to do was crook his finger and I’d obey his every word. Well, he had a hell of a surprise coming to him.

  If I read his demeanor correctly, he was still upset, but he knew yelling at me was not going to get him what he wanted. He was about to say another word when I simply walked away. Josh walked in step with me, and we left a flabbergasted Donovan standing in the same spot.

  “You want to go eat?” I asked Josh as though nothing had happened. “I haven’t eaten all day. I’m starving and I know for a fact Mom brought in a corn dog vendor. She batters and fries these huge corn dogs, like the ones you get at Disneyland. Let’s get one of those with fries and wash it down with a Diet Coke.”

  “Sounds good to me.” Josh and I were getting along well and it was an enjoyable time for the both of us.

  “Delaney.” This time it was a plea more than a demand.

  “Can I meet you in line? I’ll be only a few minutes.”

  “Sure,” Josh answered with a squeeze to my shoulders and a glare to Donovan.

  “How can I help you, Mr. Taylor?”

  “Why the hell...” he started off angry again, but decided to change tactics. “Why is Josh kissing you on the lips?”

  I rolled my eyes and walked away from him again. Perhaps it should have pl
eased me that Donovan wasn’t happy with another man’s lips being on mine, but after all the words that were spoken this morning, and the laughing at my expense between him and Jane, I didn’t feel one bit pleased with his “jealousy.”

  “OK. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Mr. Taylor...” I felt my heart split so I took a second to control my emotions. “You couldn’t begin to understand the truth to those last five words. You’ve made your intentions clear to me. I know I don’t mean anything to you, but I’m tired of being your punching bag. Just because I don’t show it on the outside, doesn’t mean I’m not black and blue on the inside.”

  With those truths spoken, I hurried over to the picnic table where Josh had our meals waiting for us.

  “Everything OK?” He asked carefully.

  “All good!” I smiled the best smile I could give under the circumstances.

  “Should we go pick up James again after lunch?”

  “Nick,” I asked. “Will you go in the dunk tank, and Josh and I’ll bring the twins over?”

  “Aw, come on! Why me?”

  “Because you’re their uncle, and they’ll love seeing you fall into the tank.”

  “They’ll love watching anyone fall in.”

  “You start, then Doug will be next up.”

  “Hell no! You go in, little sis, if you’re that intent on watching the twins laugh.”

  “Fine!” I got upset with both guys. “I’ll do it.”

  Josh stepped in and tried to help. “If you lend me a suit, I’ll go in. You don’t have to do it, Laney.” This guy was truly a nice guy, and I appreciated him trying to help me.

  “How about if you get a suit on, I’ll join you. It’s big enough for the both of us.” I figured what the hell? I’d do it for my favorite twins.

  “Love it! Let’s do it. Which one of you can lend me a suit?”

  Nick motioned for Josh to follow him, and they walked over to Nick’s home to get suited up.

  “So you giving Josh a chance?”