Drawn To You (Paloma's Edge)

by Shaw, Robin

  When I pivoted around, Brody said, “Good morning, Cindy.”

  “Hello, Brody.” Her laser-sharp blue gaze pierced through me. She was Beth’s mom. Pierce had informed me of Cindy staying at the Paloma. She didn’t look a day over thirty and Beth had taken after her mom’s curvy figure. They did share the same pair of eyes and brown hair. Unlike Beth, Cindy was very aware of her beauty and appeal. I loved that Beth knew she looked good, but she didn’t know that she how good she looked. Maybe she’d act differently if she knew.

  “Ms. Pruitt. I am Chase.”

  Whistling, she inched towards me. “Beth doesn’t like flowers.”

  “Are those for me?” Pierce said as he walked out of an elevator. “Man, I like lilies and daffodils.”

  “Too bad,” I said.

  He regarded Cindy. Brody had put the white and red roses in a porcelain vase. “She’ll like it ’cause they’re from you, even though flowers die.” Pierce eyed his aunt pointedly. “Beauty fades in many forms. ” He strode towards his dad’s office.

  “Beth’s finally taken my advice and gotten herself a real man.”

  I walked past her a little and I cocked a brow at her comment. I raised my chin to Brody and strolled out of the Paloma.

  ***

  Bethany

  Hunter: We didn’t argue or brawl.

  Me:  Are you guys gonna see each other again?

  Hunter: Slim Chance. But we had a civilized convo. That’s somethin’. I’ll be seeing you in the fall. Got into UM.

  Me: Congrats! What class are you?

  Hunter: Gonna be a sophomore like you.

  Me: And you and Chase may cross paths.

  Setting my cell phone on the table, I leaned forward on my desk table to finally smell the roses Chase had gotten for me earlier today while I was at work. Most of the ladies, even Mrs. Clark, had come by my cubicle to see it, and they’d all known that they’d come from him.

  After two taps on the door, I said, “Come in.”

  Uncle Anton and Aunt Deborah came into the room. I moved from the desk to the bottom of the bed. Aunt Deborah sat down by the chair and he stood by her with his hand on her shoulder. They looked like they were more in harmony than they’d been in weeks.

  “We didn’t think you’d want to see Cindy. We were going to ask you first,” Aunt Deborah said with a sad smile. “But when she came out of the cab minutes before you came into the kitchen, I couldn’t ignore the state she was in.”

  Uncle Anton huffed. “Your Aunt Debbie thought Cindy had had a change of heart and realized that now’s a better time to be a mother than never. But she came back because the man had dumped her and she has nowhere else to go.” He sounded embarrassed. “I just don’t understand. Mom and Dad didn’t raise us like this. They must be turning over in their graves.” Aunt Deborah settled her hand over the one Uncle Anton had on her shoulder. “I thought you needed a night to process her arrival after the mess she’d made. If you don’t want her to stay at the Paloma, I’ll have her leave.”

  “Please,” I said, clearing my throat, “don’t do that.”

  Aunt Deborah came over to me. “We support whatever you want to do with regards to your mother, and we’ll do our best to stay out of it.”

  ***

  “Hunter designed my tattoo!” Millie said after we just informed her that Chase had a twin brother who worked at Lasting Impressions Tattoo Studio. “I wanted him to do my tat, but he wasn’t there and I didn’t wanna wait more months to get it done. This took five sessions. And a lot of hand-holding from Jared.” She ran her hand over her head.

  “Are you getting any more tattoos?” Brianna asked as she nursed her piña colada. Millie’s blush made Brianna and I giggle. “Milagros Ross! What kind of tattoo does Jared want you to get and where?”

  “Yeah, where?” Joel wiggled his eyebrows and sank down next to Brianna. We hadn’t seen him coming.

  I folded my arms. “I thought you couldn’t make it tonight,” Millie said, a rosy hint still on her face.

  “Me too. Change of plans.”

  Rylan finished talking with Emilio at the counter and danced with some girl when one of Tainted Virtue’s newly released songs came on. The professional studio recording changed their sound a lot. Made it too perfect. Nevertheless, they were still enjoyable. I’d danced with Joel, Rylan, Brianna, and Millie. We’d ordered two platters of chicken tenders and tostones. We were all sleepy from eating so much.

  “Where you going after this?” Rylan asked.

  “Why?”

  “Why not ask?”

  I walked through the door that Joel was holding for all of us. “Chase and I are very much together,” I clarified for him.

  Rylan whirled his head around as if he was looking for someone. “Where is he now?” he challenged me.

  “That’s none of your business,” Joel interrupted with a scowl, glaring at his friend. “And I think you’re being real shady right now.”

  Rylan sighed heavily. “Come on, Joel. You’re giving me the third degree? Like you didn’t think about hooking up with Beth.” He jerked his gaze to me. “I haven’t seen you and Chase together.”

  Joel’s face reddened. “And that was for five seconds. If I wanted Beth, Chase would know. Pierce would. Everyone would.”

  “Got it. Forget I asked,” Rylan told me.

  “I’ll forget that you asked,” I replied.

  Brianna and Millie paused for a few seconds with confused expressions. After telling them that everything was fine, we went to our cars.

  ***

  “Hey,” Cassidy said as I walked into the kitchen and she walked out.

  “Hey.” I didn’t know what to think about her greeting. She’d been ignoring me and I didn’t have a problem with that. But she was the least of my concerns when I saw Uncle Anton, Aunt Debbie, Cindy, and Nancy in the kitchen. I sat beside Cindy and greeted everyone.

  “See you at work,” Uncle Anton told me, and I spread my arms to meet his embrace. He kissed Aunt Deborah before he left. He hadn’t said anything to Cindy.

  “How’s it going, Cindy?” I sipped my orange juice as Nancy handed me some waffles and a bowl of fruit.

  Cindy grinned at me. The weary look she’d had two days ago had evaporated. “I heard that you start work at twelve today. We should go for a drive around here in your new car.”

  I kept my tone even. “Well, we could, but I have plans. You should’ve called me instead of assuming that I’d be available.”

  Aunt Deborah and Nancy moved around in the kitchen.

  Cindy placed her fork down and swallowed. “Do your plans have anything to do with Chase?”

  Of course she’d found out about him. “Yes, we’re meeting this morning.” I pursed my lips. “I’ve learned from you to make the men in my life a priority.”

  ***

  Waves lapped loudly on the sand as I walked toward the middle of the beach. Chase was on the sand with his long, thick, muscular legs stretched out before him. He must have known someone else was near him because he immediately he locked eyes with me. He shifted his position, but I gestured to him to stay where he was.

  When I reached him, I sank down and wrapped my legs around him from behind. I placed the side of my face on his strong, broad back, scratching him through his fine cotton t-shirt.

  “Hey, babe.” He grasped my other hand and kissed the front of it.

  “The roses were beautiful.” I missed being close with him.

  He expelled a disgusted sigh. “I am sorry for how I came at you,” he said. “Have you spoken with your mom yet?”

  I shook my head against his back and the vibration of his laughter made me giggle. “Did you finish your project?”

  “I sent it off to them at four this morning. Doesn’t mean that I am done yet, though.” Quickly, he spun around so that his legs wrapped around my waist, my feet pressing against his taut butt. I laid my arms on top of his.

  “Since Hunter and I were young, he was the studiou
s one and I was the brawny one. Gerald Lovell arranged it that way. We were too young to see that he wanted us to compete with each other.” He wet his lips and searched my face. “Mom always told us that we were both great and could try to succeed at whatever we wanted to do in life. They had different parenting approaches, but at the end of the day, everything was about whether I was in a game or not, and whether Hunter was doing well in school. When I turned fourteen, I spent as much time away from home as I could. I became a major pothead, drank some, and when I was fifteen I tried a line of coke. I didn’t like it.”

  “Okay,” I prompted, my heart pounding in my chest.

  “When my high school coach randomly tested me with a home drug test, I freaked the fuck out. I’d been flushing since I started smoking pot and never got caught. Coach Johnson gave me a verbal warning, which he wasn’t supposed to do. He shoulda told the principal that he suspected I was drugging and randomly had me tested. My parents agreed to this when I became a part of the team. Coach warned me that if my THC levels didn’t go down in three weeks and if I tested for anything else, or he still thought I was drugging, I’d be off the team. No potential scholarship. And no recommendation to the scouts.

  “After that confrontation, I hung out with my friends a few times, but they didn’t wanna hear that I wasn’t smoking a blunt, or going to try blow again. They offered all of that to me, and I bounced. I couldn’t be their friend and on the football team. My team needed me. If we lost a game, I would’ve been responsible. I’d been letting down the whole team, despite our wins, because I was using. I put us in jeopardy,” He paused for several minutes. His jaw flexed. “I found out that Hunter was in one of my old friend’s houses and got high. He never even hung out with them, but I am sure they got him to hang out with them just to fuck with me. Everyone knew Hunter and I weren’t tight. I used to tell him that he needed to chill out and smoke a blunt.” He gave a sharp shake of his head and exhaled noisily. “I got him. Hunter said he wouldn’t do it again. And then, some months later, I noticed that he was amped up about everything. It was like he never slept, and because he didn’t, he was flying off the handle about everything. Mom and Dad thought he was just burnt out from maintaining an excellent transcript and extra curriculars, but when his grades plummeted, that’s when they recognized that I was right. He was using coke.”

  The aching knot in my stomach tightened for Chase and Hunter.

  “I told Mom and Dad everything, but they only focused on how I abused drugs and could’ve been expelled. Not that Hunter was an addict.”

  I clasped his big hand in mine. “Did he cut you when he was high?”

  “When he stopped going to classes, Mom and Dad kicked him out. Changed the locks, the phone number. They were punishing him. Not getting him the help he needed. The neighbors knew about Hunter. Colleagues at Dad’s law firm knew. And that’s what I think they cared about: how everyone perceived them because their kids were fuck-ups.”

  I shook my head. “You weren’t fuck-ups, Chase. You got mixed up and you’re lucky you got out. Hunter was really lost. For him to go from a straight-laced kid to an addict… They didn’t even ask him why? Consult with a professional?”

  “Not that I know of. One day, Hunter came home when Mom and I were there. He broke in and demanded money from her.” His voice became thick with emotion. “Babe, that wasn’t my brother. He was a complete stranger. He was high and just wanted money. I pulled him away from her and threw his ass through the front door.” Pain radiated in Chase’s eyes. “In the middle of the night, I woke up to a blade cutting into my face. I kept a stash of my own cash from the little jobs I did over the years in my room. Mom and Dad were linked to my bank account and they watched every penny I had and always asked what I spent my cash withdrawals on. And that was since we first opened our accounts. I told Hunter where to get my two thousand dollars; in a hidden slit in my closet wall.”

  He gave me space to move and I sat on his lap, winding my arms around his neck. “And what happened after that?”

  “Mom found out that Hunter came back. She hollered when she saw him leave through the front door. Dad called the police. The courts put him in a drug treatment program for sixty days. When he came out, he relapsed. Big time. One of my old friends called me because he thought Hunter might’ve overdosed. I went to the house they were at and Hunter was barely conscious. I was gonna take him to the ER but the police swarmed in.”

  I shook my head. “They checked me. Someone slipped a packet of coke in my back pocket, and I was arrested with everyone there.” He reached for his bottle of water and gulped most of it down, his expression darkening. “Dad got me out of it. I was tested and came up clean. And Coach Johnson confirmed that I was in study hall most of the evening. I was at the party for less than ten minutes when everything went down. Dad convinced them that someone put that shit in my pocket. At home, however, Dad accused me of partying with Hunter. The next morning, Mom packed some clothes for me and told me to leave. She gave me five thousand dollars and said that she was washing her hands of Hunter and I.”

  “How old were you and Hunter by then?”

  “Sixteen.”

  “And your parents could just do that?”

  Chase gave me a small smile and rubbed the palm of my hands. “Dad was smart. He knew that I didn’t want the juvenile court system to assume responsibility over me. Mom was afraid for her own life. You know? I think if I had a son who cut his brother, I’d try to prevent that from happening to me from either of them.”

  “But you wouldn’t do that.”

  “If I was strung out, who knows? In my right mind, I wouldn’t do that to anyone. Hunter was responsible for what he did, don’t get me wrong. I am not minimizing it. The coke, however, did make him violent.”

  I studied his face and I realized that I’d held in my breath. No words could give him comfort for how he and Hunter had been torn farther apart as brothers. Chase didn’t seem to want to strengthen his relationship with his parents, but he did with Hunter. He loved Hunter like I loved Cindy, but acknowledging it meant that something had to be done about it. He could possibly be rejected but I knew in my heart that Hunter wouldn’t reject Chase. Hunter was as desperate for Chase to be in his life again as I’d been for Cindy to come back to me.

  “To outsiders, it looked like my parents were showing us tough love. I rented a room with some college students and I couldn’t believe how fast the five thousand went. I worked at a local fast-food joint. Did a lot of carpentry. God must’ve been looking out for me, ’cause I always made enough for the rent. And when I got into UM, I paid for one flight, took one suitcase with me, and didn’t look back.”

  I pushed him down on the sand and I held his broad face in my hands. “I love you.” I squeezed the tip of his nose. “And don’t think you can ever stop me from saying it again.”

  Chapter 17

  Bethany

  “I know one other lady who drinks a morir soñado.” Nico arched one pale brow.

  Brianna was serving tables. We’d started carpooling to work this week. We saved money on gas. Plus I liked having the company to and from work. Chase was knee deep in his current project and we’d stayed in his guestroom. Since we hadn’t been able to keep our hands off of each other, he had to work in the living room.

  “And she likes her ice blended in. I like mine crushed or regular,” I said.

  He started making Cindy’s drink when her lilac perfume wafted in the air. As she looked at me, she beamed. It reminded me of the good times we’d had when she pushed me on the swing in our former backyard, and the time she’d made a sand castle with Jake, Mariska, and I in the park.

  Nico gave Cindy her morir soñado.

  “I was beginning to think you’d keep ignoring me, Bethany.”

  “And I’d begun to accept that I may never see you again, Mom.”

  “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to go—”

  “Bullshit. You were gonna stay in our old house if yo
u and Mr. Baxter hadn’t run off into the sunset together. I would’ve found work and paid all of the bills, like I did in high school. Like a dummie.” I opened my satchel and took out the note she’d written me and dropped it on the counter. “What is this? The sixtieth or seventieth time you’ve gone after”—I made air quotes—“‘the one’?”

  “John couldn’t make it with me through thick and thin,” she said with an edge to her voice. “No, he wasn’t the one.”

  I put my hand on my hip. “I bet he decided that keeping his job and his family mattered more than his affair—”

  Cindy interrupted me and pointed her finger at me. “Don’t go judging me or making assumptions.”

  I drank some of my morir soñado and heaved in a breath. “I tried not to judge you. Really. I did. But you made the judgment that I wasn’t worth a simple explanation. Some respect. Would I have tried to change your mind? Hell yes. If Uncle Anton and Aunt Deborah hadn’t taken me in, what would you have done if Mrs. Landry, Mrs. Cox, or Mrs. Muldoon didn’t take me in? I gave up a great summer job because I wanted to be with you.”

  She twisted her lips and rolled her eyes. “Those are all what-ifs. None of that happened. And perhaps I am mistaken, but things ended up real good on your end.”

  I gave a dry laugh. “And what about your judgment that what you wanted was more important than Mr. Baxter’s family?”

  “They haven’t slept together in a year,” she replied with a look of disbelief racing across her face. “They were just living in a home together. Not as husband and wife.”

  I slapped my thigh. “Is that all that you think a marriage is about? Why’d he go back to his family, then? Huh?”

  She sipped her drink slowly, feigning composure, but I saw the fire in those dark blue eyes. Minutes had passed when she said, “I want you to move back to Franklin Parks with me. We can get an apartment if— ”