“I don’t know what to tell you, there is nothing going on.”
“So you don’t like my mom then?”
“Your mom seems great, as I said I don’t know her very well.”
“It’s been a while since mom introduced me to anybody, I just guessed you were into each other. I think you should ask her out on a date,” she smiled a big silly smile like her moms when she said this, and turned her head at an angle looking at him, like she was trying to see into his mind about what his feelings were.
“Well, we will definitely see each other over the summer, I mean I don’t have any friends out here, so it would be nice to meet up when I come to the mainland once a month.”
“Once a month! That’s not enough, you need to come over, like every weekend!”
“I’m here to work Adeen, I need to get this book written, or my editor and publishers will take me to court! You wouldn’t want that now would you?”
“No, but how long will it take you to write the book?”
“Well so far I have not written anything, so it’s going to take me quite a while.”
They finished up in the kitchen, with Adeen telling him her ideas for the book she would write in camp this summer, she wanted to set it in space and have the astronauts on the space station getting highjacked by an alien spaceship and towed back to their own planet with them, where they were going to be held for ransom of some sort. Meanwhile the aliens grew to love the astronauts who tell them stories of earth and sang them songs, which to the aliens was amazing as they had no musical instruments and didn’t sing like us earthlings. Guy had told her that that was a great fantastical idea for a story and to make sure she wrote everything down, so as not to forget what she wanted to say, as loosing a good idea is one of the worst things that can happen to a writer, because you will never know if it would have been better than what you ended up with.
Guy brought everyone their bowls of ice cream out on the back porch. The back garden on the house led down to a river, which was fenced off. Adeen told him tales of growing up and seeing birds swooping down for fish and coming back up with small fish in their beaks for their young. Her mom had bought her binoculars at the age of five and she had been following the birds as best she could, seeing them feeding their babies in the trees and the birds then getting bigger and leaving the nest. Her neighbours had a cat and sometimes she would find dead birds on the porch. That upset her, as she loved both cats and birds, but would ignore the cat for a week after each dead bird visit.
Guy couldn’t help but laugh at Adeen and her stories, not in a mocking way, but in a gee this kid sure has spunk, kind of way. He hadn’t been around kids much, just his nieces and nephews, but he saw them less often than he liked. He promised that when this book was done, he would spend some time visiting each of his siblings families, wether they liked it or not. This kid was showing him kids could be fun and smart and not a complaining pain in the ass, like how they mostly seem to him when he’s at the airport or the occasional visit to the mall, but then thats how he feels at the airport and the mall.
He never thought of himself being a father, but he has also never outright said no to kids in his mind. Adeen was a great kid and Darla was a pretty great woman too. She was pretty and funny, why didn’t he make a move on her at the cabin? It had felt too awkward he thought to himself, like it wouldn’t have been right to try it on with her, having been brought there on a job. But now they were out of the storm, the emergency was over, the seal had rescued itself and she was no longer being hired, in a way, by him. It would be perfectly natural for him to ask her out on a date. But would he? His thoughts were broken by Monika asking Adeen if she wanted to have a game of badminton. Adeen said no, at first, but when Monika winked at her and nodded her head outside with a stern face, Adeen followed her onto the grass and they began a game.
Darla moved to the chair next to Guy, that Adeen had vacated.
“She’s a little spark of fun isn’t she?” she said, looking out at her daughter.
“Yeah, she’s a keeper al lright.”
“Hey, mister, that’s my kid you’re talking about.”
“I’m serious, she’s a great kid. I don’t think any of my nieces or nephews would be able to have a conversation with an adult. But she’s not annoying like those movie kids you see, where they end up turning you off the film. Adeen has the goods to back up what she says, she’s only eleven, so I think she’ll grow into a very fine young woman.”
“Well, thank you. It hasn’t always been easy. Having no male role model around is a tough one for girls, just as much as it is for boys. It’s not like Monika is another mother to her, so she doesn’t get the two parent balance.We’ve tried to instil in all the kids, that we love them and their fathers love them too, just sometimes love isn’t enough to keep a relationship together and sometimes the mom or dad has to leave. In Adeens case, of course, with her father dying, it’s been even harder. My brothers and my ex’s brothers all have families of their own, so they can’t really be surrogate fathers for her, although she does get along with them all very well. She has taken a shine to you though I can see, the fact you are a writer means the world to her, to see that you are a real person, and not just a name on a book cover.”
“You know she was bullying me in the kitchen earlier, insisting we were secretly dating. I told her that no such thing was going on, but then she informed me that you don’t take guys home to meet her unless you have dated them a few months. Which I then remembered you telling me yourself. So why did you invite me over?”
“Well.. I don’t really have a clear answer for that one, only that Adeen definitely caught me off guard on the phone when she asked me to invite you over, it happened before I really thought about it, but it didn’t seem like a bad idea. I mean we aren’t dating and you already knew that Adeen existed, so I felt there was no harm.”
“Ah, so it wasn’t secretly that you have the hots for me and wanted to lure me in with your amazing cooking skills. Bowl me over with all them spices you use, eh?”
Darla laughed quietly.
“Well, I wouldn’t say I don’t have the hots for you. What about you? Why did you take up the offer? Surely it wasn’t because you had the hots for me, a single mom of a nine year old, that lives with her sister and her kids?”
“Well, I would be lying if I said I didn’t fancy women in overalls. Especially when they fit in all the right places.”
They both blushed at that.
“I’m sorry,” Guy gushed, “I can’t believe I said that, it’s so cheesy! That’s so not me,” he laughed.
They looked into each others eyes. He noticed her brown eyes had flecks of yellow and red through them, subtle enough that you would only notice as you were going in for a kiss.
Their lips were about to touch when Darla’s cell phone rang. She looked down at it and it said, “MOM”.
“I’ve got to take this, I’m so sorry. Hi, mom? Sandra? What are… Okay. Okay, I understand. I’ll be right there. No, don’t worry. Don’t worry. I’m on my way.”
“Is your mom okay?”
“No, that was my cousin Sandra who lives by my mom. She went by for a visit after work to find my mom on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. She was unconscious, and breathing heavily. Mom is in the hospital now being looked over. No idea if she fell down the stairs, if somethings broken, or she just dropped to the floor where she was walking.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
She looked at him.
“I’m so sorry too. We have to leave now to get to the hospital. It’s the next town over, you know St. Mary’s Catholic? It’ll take us about an hour and a half I think.”
“Sure, sure I understand. If theres anything I can do.”
Darla stood looking at him, then looking out to her sister and her daughter.
“I’ll take you up on that offer if needs be.” She ran out to the garden and he could see her animatedly explaining to them both what was going on. Th
ey all rushed into the house, grabbing things from everywhere.
“Oh, Guy, all your food is in our freezer! Okay, you can just shut the door behind you. It will lock. One of us will probably come back tonight anyway.”
“Ok, thanks”, he said, as they ran out to her car. He didn’t even get to say goodbye. He understood, family comes first. He remembers rushing himself to the hospital the first time his mother went in. You don’t have time to think at all. Not even time for a single goodbye kiss. He walked into the kitchen and started bagging his stuff. He heard something from behind him. He barely had time to recognise her face, when Darla put his face in her hands and kissed him. She let go of him and smiled.
“Okay, I really gotta go this time.” She ran out the door and into the waiting car, where Adeen had her smiling little face pressed up to the back seat window. He smiled back at her and watched them drive away.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Guy placed his mug of coffee down on his desk, almost missing the coaster. That was his fourth mug today, and it was only 2p.m.. He had got himself into a good writing streak now these last few weeks. Get up at 6a.m., go for a swim if the weather was good - which it had been since he started - breakfast and shower, then sit down to write from 8:30 until lunch, occasionally getting up for coffee and stretching his body. He worked then until 4p.m. and had dinner, checking his email and the news and reading, then he worked until 8p.m. and tried to be in bed for 9:30 at the latest. It was a good routine, similar to the one he had used for his first book. He found he had to stick to it or he got nothing done and would sit on the net all day long, making excuses for himself
He had heard from Darla once since he left her that night at her house. Her mother was very ill and the situation was not looking good for her recovery. He had asked her if he could help in any way, but she said there was plenty of family around and way too many casseroles at her house, but thank you. He didn’t want to push it with her, so he just told her he was at the end of the phone line if she wanted to talk. He had asked about Adeen and how she was coping and Darla had replied that she had given up on the idea of going to camp now, she didn’t want to be away if her grandmother died. Guy had felt very sad at this as he knew how much the camp meant to her.
He stared off into space for a while then got back to writing. He had already gotten half way through and without any self editing, sent it off for his editor to have a read through. He was pretty hungry and couldn’t help thinking about what he was going to have for dinner that evening. He had made up a batch of chilli and was thinking of having some in a burrito. His stomach was growling. He had only eaten a small salad for lunch, it was the last of a bowl he had made up a few days ago and needed eating today. It was good, but certainly not filling enough for a grown man. Thats it he thought, I’m being a rule breaker and going to make dinner now.
After dinner, he sat fully satisfied with his chilli burrito and had a beer. He was allowed a beer after dinner, but no more than two on a weeknight. It just messed up his writing too much. He will have time for some drinks in a week when he goes to the mainland. He is taking his tent and is going to sleep over, so no rushing back and attempting to steer a boat over the limit! He was unsure whether he should call Darla when he got to town. Her mother is probably still ill and she would want to be on call for her if something went wrong, but on the other hand she could probably do with a break from the stress. Monika could look after Adeen, they’d go out have a few drinks, maybe come back to his tent for some ‘snuggling’. Who was he kidding, he thought. It’s been over a year since he went to bed with somebody. He was not the groupie type, there were women and some men, who would very openly flirt with him at book signings and readings he was forced to go to for book promotions. He never slept with anybody from those events. They were all involved in various fan groups online, he would die if a story about him sleeping with a fan got out like that. He’s not that type of guy, as tempting as the offers always are. The last woman he slept with was a girlfriend, albeit a very short relationship. They met at a bar when he was visiting his brother, he had had to escape the kids excessive fighting, so he had gone to one very far from the house. She had been with some friends and approached him at his table. He had ordered a steak and fries and was drinking an old fashioned. She had introduced herself as Margaret.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Hi, my names Margaret, is it okay if I sit down?”
“Sure, but I hope you don’t mind if I just eat my meal here.”
“No, go ahead. I just had the same. It’s delicious. What’re you drinking, I’ll order you another.”
“Old fashioned, thanks.”
She had ordered the drinks and they both quickly finished off the ones they had going. They had chatted about her job, she was a pharmacist at the local store. She lived alone, she was intrigued but not starstruck when he told her what he did for a living. They talked for a while and she invited him back to her place. They had listened to some records and then made love. He had left the next morning, with no intentions of seeing her again, mostly as they lived in different states. Margaret had other ideas though, she said that they could see each other on weekends, that they could take turns driving down to each other. He agreed, it was nice to be seeing somebody again and of course sex was nice once in a while.
The weekend dating had gone on for over two months, but Margaret was fed up. She hinted a lot that she should just move in with him, but he wasn’t interested in that yet and told her it was too soon, that they were only dating a short while. So one day, Margaret showed up to his house and handed him a bunch of keys.
“These are for my new apartment. It’s only the next street over, in Golden Leaves Estate. Number 42.”
“You moved here? What about your job?”
“I got a new one here in the pharmacy in the mall. I applied a month ago, just in case, but you never asked me to move in, so I had to initiate the move myself. At least now we can see if the relationship is worthwhile.”
Guy was stunned. He never thought she would just move here without saying anything, but then he calmed down and started to think that maybe it was kind of cute? Either way, she was here now and he had to put up with it. He did like her, he just didn’t love her yet, but as she said, with more time to spend with each other, maybe that would happen.
The first month or so of them living close by each other went all right, they had to fit their new schedules together. Guy was out of town a lot with his mom being ill and then at home working on finishing up his first novel. She was very jealous with him being away on his own, but he told her he never went anywhere other than his hotel and for food with his siblings. They mostly spent their time together watching horror movies, which Mags was a huge fan of. They cooked together often too, she taught him the best pizza recipe and he taught her how to bake a good loaf of bread. It wasn’t marital bliss, but they were feeling more comfortable together and now everything didn’t revolve around making sure they had sex, as they had plenty of time for that.
One Sunday night about five months into the relationship he arrived home from a two night stay in Toronto where he had had a meeting with his publishers about book covers and titles. He was pretty tired from the flight and just wanted a bath, a whiskey and bed. He did not expect to find Mags sitting on his sofa eyes red from crying.
“What’s the matter?” he asked hoping nobody had died.
“You bastard. You and your, ‘I’m a one woman man’ business.”
“What are you talking about? Let me sit down and tell me what’s happened”
“Tell you whats happened? Oh I know all about what you’ve been up to pal, it’s all over your groupie blogs. Here take a look.”
She shoved her laptop in his hands, on the screen was a page of one of his fan sites, ‘Guy’s Gal’s’ it was unfortunately called. Even though he was not a published author of a full novel yet, he had written many short stories that had been published and his publishers had made him start a website
, so he had a couple of fans now. The title of the post was, The Best Night of My Life. There was not much to the post, someone saying they had met Guy after a book event for another author at belonging to the same publishers that he had attended, he had hung out with the author and some of her fans after the event, this fan had been the last woman there and he signed her book for her as pre-fame joke, giving her a big hug. They walked out together and he kept his arms around her as they did, giving her a final hug as she left to join her friends. On another tabloid blog, the photos the paparazzi got just happened to be all the ones that made it look like they were going in for a kiss. But NOTHING had happened!
He had tried to explain to Mags that it was completely innocent, that the photos were just at the right angle to show it looked like they were kissing, but he was only hugging her goodbye. She was only 19 anyway! Much too young. None of this helped. Also the fact that all the bloggers friends were talking about the photos from the tabloid blog and how it looked like they kissed made it look true. She shouted at him that he was an asshole, how could she ever have trusted him and more like that. He let her vent, but then when she ran out of steam, he just said. “I know nothing happened, if you want to believe those fraudulent photographs on a crappy tabloid blog, then you can just leave my apartment now and come back when you’ve had a break.”
She made a disgusted face and stormed out of the house.
It was three days before he heard from her and she told him she believed him after all. He asked her what changed her mind and she told him she contacted the girl from the photos and asked her straight out what happened, without letting on she was his girlfriend. She told Margaret that he had hugged her, signed her book and then they walked out arm in arm, it was very sweet she said. He gave her a hug as they left and thats what the photographs captured. The girl added she was getting a lot of grief from the other fans as they know he has a girlfriend and they all thought she was having an affair with him!
Love Revealed: A BWWM Sweet Romance Novel Page 6
