Amy peeked in. “Shh! He’s still asleep. He sleeps so much.”
“Poor guy,” said Julia playfully. “I’ll grab my purse and we’ll leave him a note.”
I stretched and opened my eyes. “You two weren’t planning on running away without me, were you?”
Amy jumped onto the bed. “Daddy! You’re just in time to go shopping with Mom and me. We’re going to explore the island.”
“That sounds great. Why don’t you see if Grandma can make me some coffee?”
Amy was off in a flash, and I smiled at Julia. “We didn’t mean to wake you. You looked so peaceful sleeping that I thought I would let you enjoy yourself,” she said.
“Well, thank you for that, but I think I’ll enjoy myself more getting to spend the day with you guys,” I said as I found some clothing. “How did you sleep?”
She shrugged. “Pretty good, why?”
“Do you remember talking in your sleep last night?” I asked carefully.
Julia looked confused. “No. I didn’t know I did that. Did it happen before I left too?”
“No, it’s what you said that has me worried though. Why didn’t you want Amy to visit you?”
“This again? I thought we agreed that we weren’t going to talk about it,” she said quietly as she looked away.
“I know, and I promise if you just answer that one question, I will drop it for the day,” I said.
“Why is it so important now?”
“Because of something you said last night. Were you worried about her safety?”
Julia nodded. “Yes, but there is nothing to worry about now, okay? I am here, and I’m not going anywhere. We can work out the details and parenting later. I just want to enjoy the time that I have with her.”
I took her hand. “Julia. I’m sorry for whatever you went through with your mother. I hope that someday soon, you’ll be able to talk to me about it, but I understand that you need time. I need time too, and that’s okay. We have a lot to talk about, but you’re right. Not now.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, but I know that you need answers. I didn’t want Amy around her, ever. She was dangerous.” She paused and pulled back her hand. “You know my seizures came back when I moved home?”
“What?” I said. “How is that possible?”
When we’d first met, Julia suffered from frequent seizures. The doctors diagnosed her with a form of epilepsy. After we eloped, though, she started to get better. In the entire time I knew her after we moved, she’d never once had an episode. I had a sneaking suspicion her mother had something to do with it. But it wasn’t until now that I put the pieces together and realized that Julia had her own fears about the woman. This entire time, she had done nothing but protect Amy and keep her safe, even though it meant she could never see her.
“So there you go,” she said, quickly shutting down on me again. “I think we have a very excited little girl about to beat down the door if we don’t get out there.”
I couldn’t help but smile at her. “Well, let’s not keep her waiting. And Julia? I’m sorry for what you had to go through. I’m happy you told me about some of it. You know Jenny went to juvenile detention for what she did?”
Julia nodded. “I know. I followed the case from my mother’s house. Aaron, I know you never did anything with her, but it was that lie, that first deception at not telling me she’d come over, that started the tailspin.”
“Just tell me how to make things better, to repair the damage that I’ve created.”
“I don’t know if there is a way to fix things now. It’s been a long time. We both made mistakes, but we have Amy together. Maybe we should just focus on that.”
“All right,” I agreed.
It didn’t take long before we were milling around the quaint tourist town. After a few misadventures in getting our currency converted, we rented a golf cart and took Amy to the resident castle for a tour. It was easy to get lost in the daydream of a happy family as I watched the two of them running and hiding behind different structures, pretending to catch other spies and follow clues. My mother had been surprisingly absent since our arrival.
I had yet to meet her new boyfriend, but she said he was ‘a young, tasty thing’, which gave me all the more reason for concern. She wasn’t rich, but my mother had done modestly well for herself by painting and selling her work. She was something of a star in her hometown, but it made her an easy target for conmen looking to take an elderly woman for everything she had. It had happened once before, but I’d caught him just in the nick of time before she lost everything.
Still, it had instilled a vigilance inside me to keep close watch of her finances and my own. Teaching never paid much, and I had needed her help from time to time, but it was a two-way street. She knew that she could come to me at any time and I would help her. My father had died when I was young from a heart attack. I could only ever remember a life with my mother. I thought about Julia’s mother and how different the two grandparents were from each other.
Theresa would sacrifice anything for Amy, and so would Julia, whereas it was quickly becoming clear that Margarete would do anything to hurt Amy if it meant that she could once again get her talons into Julia. A surge of rage washed over me as I protectively watched my family. I wouldn’t let that crazy old woman hurt Amy. I would protect her and Julia with everything I had. Neither of them would ever live in fear again. Somehow, I would get my family back together, and Julia would see just how much I cared about her.
Julia
“Are you sure about this? We really don’t mind keeping her,” I said for the fourth time in under ten minutes.
Theresa smiled and patted me on the shoulder. “You and Aaron should have a little fun on this vacation too, you know. Plus, my new friend is spending time with his sister tonight. She came on the cruise with him so it’s just little old me. You’re saving me from boredom. Amy is always such a delight.”
“All right,” I muttered, still unsure about how it felt to be away from Amy. “Well, don’t hesitate to wake us up if she has a bad dream or anything.”
“Don’t worry, honey. We’re going to be right next door.” She took ahold of the doorknob and gently pulled it out of my hand. “Aaron and you need some time. Amy isn’t the only one who has missed you, my dear.”
The small bungalow door shut, and I turned around and smiled at Aaron who was sitting in a large recliner. “Well, I guess it’s just us now.”
“So what do you want to do? We can go see some more sights, hang out on the beach? Maybe grab an early dinner and just stay in for the night?”
I was so nervous my hands were almost shaking. This was it. This was the time we’d both been waiting for. The options for the night were endless, but I could sense the tension in the air. One of us would need to start talking about the past, but I didn’t want to be the one to go first. He stood up and took my hand, leading me to the door. The second our hands touched, though, I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and kiss him passionately.
“Julia?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No more talking.”
I tilted my head up to him, and no more words needed to be spoken between us. He leaned his head down and the moment I’d been waiting for came. Our lips found each other and I crushed myself to him, wrapping myself up in the desire between us. His tongue carefully pried my mouth open, exploring areas that no one else had touched since he last had. I copied his every move in a game of cat and mouse. The memories of our long nights together came flooding back to me.
I heard the noise before I saw the door crack open. I leapt away from him just as Amy peeked her head into the room.
“Sorry,” she muttered. “I forgot my sunscreen. What are you guys doing?”
Aaron cleared his throat. “We were just talking about what we’re going to do today.”
He turned away from us and sat back down in the chair. He crossed his legs as he looked at me and I knew what was going on.
The kiss had turned him on just as much as it had me. I turned to Amy and led her back through the door where Theresa was waiting with a grin.
“Sorry, we won’t interrupt again,” she said softly.
I smiled. “It was no problem. She’s got everything she needs now.”
“Then we’re off! Enjoy your time.”
Gently shutting the door behind me, I took a deep breath. Amy might have broken us apart, but I would have done so eventually, anyway. Sex was one thing, but sex with my husband was a whole new game.
“Where were we?” he asked playfully.
I stepped away from him. “We were about to talk about everything that’s happened. I know what my body wants.” I paused and looked down the length of him, his erection still begging to be freed. “And I know what your body wants. I don’t think that’s a good enough reason, though, to just put everything behind us. You have questions, I have questions, and we both want answers.”
He groaned but sat back down. “I know you’re right, but I can’t help myself. There hasn’t been anyone since you. It’s hard dating as a single dad.”
“Really? I would think one soccer mom or another would swoop you up.”
Aaron grinned. “They tried, but it just wasn’t right. Nothing has been right since you left.”
“And that’s one of the reasons we need to talk. Things can’t just go back to the way they were before. You know that.”
“The only thing I know is that something happened to you while you were at your mother’s place and I want to know what. How can I help you if you won’t let me in?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I wish I could tell you something different, but that’s the God’s honest truth. I know what I think, but I don’t have any proof. Why would I? She is my mother. Aren’t they supposed to protect you from things?”
“You’re an amazing mother to Amy because of how you protected her. Your mother isn’t right in the head. I doubt that she ever was. Whatever she did to you and to your dad, you can grow from it, but you have to let me in.”
Let him in—that was the lynchpin. How could he still care about me after knowing what I did? There was no way that anyone could love a monster like me. I knew what my mother was doing. If I’d only listened to my gut earlier, maybe I could have saved my father, but now he was dead and the blame rested securely on my shoulders. I’d failed him as a daughter. I wouldn’t fail my own daughter as a mother.
I sighed. “What if you don’t care about me anymore after I tell you everything? What happens when you see just how damaged I really am?”
Aaron took my hand and sat next to me on the bed. “Nothing like that could ever happen, Julia. My feelings are the same as the day I met you.”
“How can that be true when I left you and our daughter? I abandoned you.”
“Julia,” he pressed uncomfortably. “When you left, there had to be a reason. Something happened that pushed you away. You never gave me any details, so I got angry and lashed out. Its why I went through with the divorce. I was trying to get your attention but it didn’t work. You never came back to fight for me or Amy,” he said. “Now, I’m starting to wonder if you left for another reason.”
I was trying to find the words but it was so hard. Each time I tried to speak, the dam inside me threatened to break and sweep me away with the tide of emotions. I shook my head, looking at my hands folded in my lap as they started to gloss over from the tears. Aaron shifted on the bed before sliding off and kneeling in front of me, forcing me to look at him. His strong hands took my face and he kissed me gently on the cheeks. I knew he could see the tears and taste their salty truth. I couldn’t hide in the past any longer.
“It wasn’t safe for Amy to come visit me. I knew that as soon as my mother saw how much she looked like me and my father, the cycle would start again.”
“What cycle?”
“She was always so controlling, so manipulative,” I whispered. “I didn’t tell you before, but when she reached out to me when my father got sick, I told her I wouldn’t come. She got so angry. She said that my father was going to die because of my stubbornness.”
“You had nothing to do with his death, Julia,” he whispered. “It was a fluke, okay? Nature sometimes just pulls the wrong person’s card early. You did everything you could for him and your mother. He turned you down at every opportunity. He pushed you away.”
“I know that he did,” I said bitterly. “He never wanted anything to do with me, and when I left with you, the only contact I had with him was when he found out I was pregnant.”
“I never knew that.”
“No.” I snorted. “Why would you? I never told anyone. Do you know what he said to me? He said, ‘don’t bring that girl around here.’”
“Yeah, well, it was his loss,” Aaron said through gritted teeth. “He didn’t want to be a part of our lives, and your mother didn’t want to stay out of them. I guess that’s love for you.”
“You’re wrong,” I said. The truth would set me free. I knew it would. It had to. “My father wasn’t trying to push me away. Rather, he was, but not because he didn’t care about me. He pushed me away because of my mother.”
“Controlling, manipulative, and borderline insane? Why not just divorce her? He had to know that you cared about him.”
“He knew, but I didn’t until he was already gone. It was the only way to keep me safe, but when he died, my mother started trying to control me all over again.”
“Julia, I hate to say it, but it worked. You left us behind and went to her. I was mad at first, but even after that, when I tried to repair our marriage, you wouldn’t even see me.”
“What would I have done?” I asked him. “Fix things and let Amy come over where she could watch me get rushed to the hospital when I had an episode? Or worse, I could leave her with mom and she would end up right there beside me?”
“You talked about her being in a hospital,” he said carefully. “It’s a mental hospital, isn’t it?”
I nodded and let the tears finally flow. “I didn’t have any choice. She was poisoning me to keep me with her.”
“My God,” Aaron said. “You should have come to me.”
“I didn’t know that you would want to see me again. I thought that you had moved on, and it wasn’t until I knew she wouldn’t be getting out that I felt safe calling you. I always wanted to be a family, but with her hovering over my shoulder, my options were limited.”
“It’s okay,” he whispered as he pulled me to my feet. “None of that matters anymore. She is never going to get out, and we’ll make sure that our daughter is safe for the rest of her life, okay? We’ll get through this.”
His lips found mine again, and I gave myself over to him entirely for a brief second. When footsteps passed by outside, I pulled away, but only long enough to close the curtains and lock the door.
“No interruptions this time,” I said softly.
“I like the sound of that,” he whispered to me as he pulled me closer to him. “I just have one more question for you, if that’s okay?”
“Yes,” I said carefully. I had already opened the gates of honesty and I didn’t want to close them again. I’d felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders with each new piece of information that I gave Aaron about my life when we weren’t together. It was good to share things with him.
“I understand that you think she poisoned you, and I see now why you never let Amy go back there, but something is missing. There is a part of this story that you’re leaving out. What finally got her locked away?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said.
“No medical doctor would have a patient’s rights taken away unless some compelling argument or evidence came to light to push them beyond the shadow of a doubt.”
“Well, she’s locked up for now, but I don’t know if that will last forever. I have a theory but I don’t know if I can prove it.”
“What?”
“Aaron, I thin
k she killed my father.”
Aaron
I swallowed hard as I froze and looked Julia in the eyes. “That’s a pretty serious allegation. Why do you think that?”
“There are half a dozen reasons, but mostly just the way she talked, like she had done something terrible to him.”
I shifted uneasily. “Can you tell me more?”
The last thing I wanted to do was talk. My cock throbbed to feel her flesh against it, but this was so much more important than sex. If she was finally ready to open up, then I wasn’t going to stop her. I’d been waiting so long for answers, and now I finally had a chance of getting them. Now that she was ready, the rest of the night could wait.
She sighed. “I don’t know where to start. When I first got there, everything seemed so normal. It was almost eerie how much everything still seemed the same as when I had left. It had been four years, but to her, barely a day had passed.” She shuddered but didn’t stop talking. “It’s like a strange dream. She sat down at the table with me and slid me a smoothie.”
“A smoothie? That’s strange,” I muttered.
“No. Not really. She used to give them to me all the time as a kid. She told me they would help to make me strong, but something was wrong. Of course, I didn’t know that until after I drank the first one and my guts started to churn.”
“You think she put something in them?”
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. I got sick whenever she gave them to me before, but she said it was my body trying to heal. I’m not a child anymore. I know the difference in what my body is telling me.”
“What did you do?”
“After the first smoothie and subsequent hospital visit, I stopped drinking them. That was when it started to go downhill rather quickly. I’d notice a bitter taste in my coffee at first, then I would switch brands but it would still be there. Then it started to seep over to my food.”
Second Chance Draft: A Second Chance Sports Romance (Pass To Win Book 6) Page 30
