The Naughty One

by Michelle Love

  “Are you coming back to me, West?” her words caught him off guard.

  Was he?

  Or was he seriously considering what Hayley was offering? “We can talk when I get back,” that was all he could say.

  He knew he was keeping her dangling on the end of his line. While fishing off the other side of the boat too. But he didn’t know what else to do. He needed to be true to himself too, didn’t he?

  It wasn’t anyone’s fault the women coincided in his life on the same damn night. Was it?

  “I love you,” he said. “I’ll call you tomorrow when I get back.”

  “I love you too,” Aullie said then ended the call.

  Her heart was so heavy, she couldn’t think. She went to the back, took off her apron and hung it up then put her heavy coat on and left the bar without clocking out or saying a word to anyone.

  Chapter 6

  The jet’s interior was small. But the leather chairs and the granite table tops made it seem much more glamorous than it really was. Weston took the last step into the cabin, finding Hayley already seated with a glass of wine in her hand. “Hi,” he said with a weak smile.

  Her smile was just as weak as she patted the seat across the aisle from hers. “Are you ready to go?”

  He nodded and took the seat. The pilot came out of the small cockpit. “Are we ready to go, Mr. Calloway?”

  “We are,” he told him.

  The plan was to get to L.A. that night. He’d already reserved them two hotel rooms and in the morning, they’d go eat breakfast then go to visit their son’s grave. They’d leave him some flowers then jet back to New York. But he could tell that Hayley wasn’t going to let the opportunity to get to him go by.

  She licked her lips and placed the empty glass in the holder next to her. The liquid courage was already coursing through her system and the door to the bedroom in the back of the cabin was open. She’d already been in there and it made him nervous.

  “I talked to someone this evening while I waited for you to get off work,” she said.

  The engine started and the plane began to move. And, for some reason, Weston’s heart began to ache. “You talked to someone? About what?”

  “About you and me and what we lost and how I have to take a lot of the blame for that,” she said.

  He hated when she did that. “I’ve told you countless times not to say that. You and I were damn kids, Hayley. You were only nineteen, for the love of God. You’d just lost your first born and you lost him while I was at the wheel. I can’t fault you for how you felt about that.”

  Her hand moved over his and he let her hold his hand. “I left you to grieve alone and not only over your son but over us as well. We’d been together for a year and a half before our son came along. I was your first love, Weston.”

  “And I was yours,” he said as he looked into her violet eyes.

  He’d looked into those eyes so many times with nothing but love. Some of that love was still there but most of it was just gone. Ten years is a long time to try to keep something up that was completely thrown away.

  “You were,” she said as the plane began to ascend into the night sky. They held hands as it went up and Weston had to confess he felt something.

  When the plane leveled off, he got up and poured himself a Scotch and refilled her wine glass. “I’ve been keeping secrets, Hayley. And I think it’s time to make a confession.”

  “You have a girlfriend,” she said as he handed her the wine glass.

  She’d surprised him and he nodded then sat back down. “And I love her.”

  “More than the love you have for me?” she asked then sipped her drink.

  He nodded again and he felt bad when she closed her eyes. “But she and I aren’t nearly ready to get married and start a family.”

  Hayley breathed out a sigh of relief. “And we are.”

  He shrugged and took a long drink. “But I love her. So, you can see my quandary.”

  “I can. Believe me, I can. The young woman I talked to helped me to see the other woman’s point of view a bit better. You see, I’ve thought you had another woman in your life.”

  “I wouldn’t call her another woman, Hayley. She’s really been the only woman. Your husband hasn’t been dead a month and already you’re looking to get hitched to me again. That’s cause for concern, don’t you agree?”

  “No,” she said and placed her wine glass back in the holder. “Look, we’ve wasted ten years. I don’t think we should waste any more time. We know we have love for each other.”

  He held up his hand to stop her. “Listen, there is love between us. Maybe there always will be. But I talked to you based on finding out who it was that killed your husband and for no other reason. I had no intention of rekindling our relationship.”

  “About that,” she said, looking a bit sheepish. “You can call off your spies. My husband was involved in an organization that you nor your spies need to get involved with. I knew the risks he was taking. I don’t want you to take any more risks and find yourself or someone you hired, dead.”

  “Shit! Are you fucking serious?” Weston stood and paced in the tiny cabin. “Hayley, how could you?”

  “I’ve wanted you back for the last few years. I just didn’t know how to get out of my marriage and get back to you,” she confessed.

  “How selfish! How God damned selfish!” He went to the back and saw rose petals had been spread all over the bed. A thing he’d done for her when they first made love.

  He picked one of the pink petals up and rubbed it between his fingertips. His heart felt warm and when he felt her arms go around his waist and her head lay against his back, he felt something. He wasn’t sure what but he did feel something.

  “I miss him,” she mumbled.

  “I’m sure you do. He was your husband for ten years. You’re bound to miss him.”

  “No, I mean that young man you were. I miss him. I miss that guy. That guy who’d take me to the beach and we’d play in the waves then make out in the sand or inside of an empty lifeguard tower.”

  He chuckled then stopped as he thought she should be missing the man she’d had a life with for the last ten years. He turned around and held her then kissed the top of her head.

  “Hayley, you should be thinking about your husband, not me.”

  “You are my husband. When I think of you, I think that. You were my first love. My first husband. The first man I had a baby with. The first man I lost a baby with. You were my first everything.”

  “Including your first divorce,” he reminded her.

  “Can’t you forgive me for that?” she asked as she looked up at him.

  He took her chin in his hand. “I forgave you for that the moment you left me. But I can’t forget that and I can’t stop thinking how you say you’ve been thinking about me for the last three years while you were with the man you were married to. That’s more than a bit off-putting.”

  “You want me to lie about how I’ve felt?” she asked him then reached down to pick up a pink rose petal. “I remembered all these years how you covered your bed in these that night we first made love in your bedroom. I want us to climb under that blanket and go right back to that night. I swear to you, if you don’t feel a thing, we can end it right then and there. But if you do, then I want you to give us another chance.”

  “You do realize that I have an idea you’re on no birth control. If I did such a thing and felt nothing close to what I’d need to feel to start over with you, then I’d have run the risk of getting you pregnant and ending what I have been building with another woman, right?”

  She nodded and smiled. “If I did get pregnant then it would mean this is meant to be. Don’t you think?”

  He looked at her and wondered how her mind worked in such ways. He couldn’t deny they still had some chemistry. Nothing nearly as strong as what he shared with Aulora, though.

  Weston sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Hayley down to sit next to him. “I can’
t do this to you. I can’t tell you what it is you want to hear. I love another woman.”

  “Who isn’t ready to invest in you the way I am,” she added.

  “That said, what if we did have another child and lost that one too. You’d leave me again, possibly. We both know you can get right back into that mindset if the worst happens. And I’d have lost a true love. Not that you weren’t one because you were back then. But I’d have lost a future with someone wonderful. Maybe someone I was meant to be with.”

  “Am I a fool?” she asked him as she laid her head on his shoulder. “The waitress at the bar told me I wasn’t being a fool to go for what I wanted. She told me to go for it. And now that I have, I feel kind of foolish. Maybe taking the advice of Aullie was a mistake.”

  He blinked a few times then asked, “Aullie? That’s an odd name.”

  “I know it is. And the young lady it belonged to was kind of a contradiction if you ask me. She introduced herself as Aulora then when I pointed out her name tag, she changed it. And she was this kind of hippy chick but I could see she had something regal to her too. An air of wealth. You know how the aristocrats have that air about them? Well, she had that but it was only slightly covered up with a veil of aloofness. She was an odd girl. I realize now she had a sadness about her. Perhaps her heart had been too freshly broken to give me any good advice.”

  Weston knew all too well just how freshly broken her heart must’ve been. She’d found out his secrets and not from him. What would he find when he returned home?

  Unexpected Wealth Part Six

  Chapter 1

  Weston and Hayley watched the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean while they sipped on coffee. The steam flowed around the brims of their cream colored, tall cups as they stood, in silence, remembering the baby they’d shared and how much they’d loved him and each other ten years earlier.

  “If she was out of the picture, then would you consider giving us another chance, Weston?” Hayley asked him as she continued to stare out at the brightening sky.

  “I’m not sure, Hayley. You see, it’s not that I don’t forgive you for leaving me, it’s just that I can’t forget it. I was left all alone to grieve. My father was a thorn in my side at that time. Anytime he saw me looking even the slightest bit sad, he’d say that I was much better off and that God made no mistakes. It was meant to ease my sorrow but it did exactly the opposite of that.”

  “I bet it did,” she agreed then turned to face him. “I am sorry. I can’t say that enough.”

  “And I know you are. But I was at my lowest, a time when a person needs the person they love to be there for them. You left me at my weakest moment. I loved you. I never saw it coming. While I can forgive you, I cannot forget about it.”

  She nodded and sipped her hot beverage. “Shall we go to his grave?”

  He took her hand and led her to the car he’d rented. Slipping into the driver’s seat, he couldn’t help but look at his cell that he’d left on the console. Even though it was nine in the morning in New York, Aulora had still not responded to the urgent text he’d left her the night before. He’d tried calling and she didn’t answer, which he’d figured she’d do. Then he left her a text, reminding her how they were in a committed relationship and simply ending things by shutting him out was not an option.

  But his silent phone let him know Aulora might not follow that cardinal rule. He tapped the screen and checked his social media to see if she’d been on any of that and found it was void of her dry humor style jokes she’d post each day.

  “She hasn’t responded to you, huh?” Hayley asked when he sat his phone down. “If I’d have known her name, I would’ve never told her all I did, Weston. You should’ve told me about her and what her name was and where she worked.”

  He pulled away from the curb and headed to the cemetery. “Ironically, I thought if you knew about her and where she worked or went to school that you’d go to her and tell her exactly what you did.”

  “That is ironic,” she mumbled. “And sad. I wouldn’t have done that to you. I feel bad that you think I would. I’m not some sneaky, underhanded bitch, Weston.”

  “I don’t know you anymore, Hayley. How was I to know what kind of person you’ve turned into in the last ten years? Hell, you told me you’d been thinking about me for the last three years of your marriage. I had no idea what you would be capable of.”

  Sadness spread over her face, making him feel bad for doing that to her. “I don’t think you’ll ever fully trust me again.”

  “I can’t,” he said, even though he knew that too was hurting her. He had to be truthful.

  As he slowed the car to turn into the cemetery, his heart froze. It always did when he came to see his son on the anniversary of the day he died. He went back in time. He was the nineteen-year-old kid, there to bury his baby.

  The tears had already begun to sting the backs of his eyes as he followed the narrow road around the many graves until they were near the back of the huge place. When he parked the car, he looked over and found Hayley was already crying.

  Getting out of the car, he came around and let her out, helping her out of the car. She leaned into his side as he ran his arm around her. So much like the day they had to lay their two-month-old down to rest in this place. A place that was never meant for babies or children.

  “Do you think he really went to Heaven, Weston?”

  “I know he did. Never doubt that. He was an innocent child. God welcomed him right back.” He gave her shoulders a squeeze and kissed the side of her head to comfort her.

  She was shaking as they approached the grave and she saw the tombstone. “It’s been about five years since I’ve come here,” she confessed. “I never came here with my husband.”

  “Did you tell him about our son?”

  “I did. But I didn’t elaborate on us or how much we loved one another. I was still blaming you, so I left out things like that. I only hated you back then. But I still should’ve come and left flowers on his grave. It was wrong of me not to.”

  “He’s not here,” Weston said in an attempt to absolve some of her guilt. “You probably thought about him now and then. He knows that.”

  “I have to admit that I pretty much blocked him out of my mind. Up until three years ago, when he entered it quite suddenly. And that’s when I started thinking about you again. And how great you were to me.”

  “I was pretty great, wasn’t I?” he asked with a light chuckle.

  “You were,” she said then turned her head and before he knew what was happening their eyes locked and their lips soon followed.

  Chapter 2

  Staring at her cell with the text from Weston on it, letting her know their relationship trumped her running away from him or shutting him out, Aullie blinked back the tears. Tears had flowed from her burning eyes several times throughout the long and nearly sleepless night.

  Weston was in Los Angeles with the mother of his dead baby. His ex-wife. And he never felt the need to tell her a thing about either of them. She was numb and felt lost for the first time.

  Love hurt like hell and she finally understood the angst in some people’s art. The blackness of hell made sense to her in that moment. She felt like an empty abyss. And she hated it. She hated it so much more than she’d ever hated what her father had done to her and her mother.

  Weston Calloway was a liar!

  She felt sorry for him in a way. Because he was going to force her to talk to him and what she would say would hurt him. Aullie didn’t want to cause the man any more pain than he was suffering from the loss of his baby. But she couldn’t be with him. He’d lied to her about something important. And he was off with his ex-wife.

  That was unforgivable!

  Aullie tapped out a text to him to give him a chance to get out of the fight they’d surely have if he forced her to talk to him.

  -Weston, I know you want to talk but I can assure you, you will not like to hear what I have to say to you. So, here it goes; go b
e with your ex-wife if you want to. I don’t want to see you anymore. I can’t trust you. I knew this would end, badly. Thanks for the heartache, it’ll make some really dark artwork. Peace.-

  When she put the phone down on the table, she got up and a loud sob came out of her, unexpectedly. Running to the bathroom, she tripped over Bruce when he ran to her to see what the hell was wrong with her.

  She fell in a heap onto the floor, crying from sorrow, heartbreak, and some pain in her left ankle too. Bruce purred as he walked back and forth, rubbing her as he seemed to be trying to sooth her.

  “Mommy’s just breaking down, Bruce. Don’t worry,” she murmured between sobs. No reason for the cat to be brought into the shit she’d invited into her life.

  When her cell rang, she ignored the chiming that it made. She didn’t want to talk.

  Not to anyone!

  Chapter 3

  As if the Heaven’s had suddenly opened, rain began to fall on Weston’s back as he kissed his ex-wife at the end of their son’s grave. The water was nearly ice cold, rare for California rain, even in January.

  He took her hand and they ran back to the car, getting in and breathing hard, they looked at one another. There was heat in that kiss. Both had felt it.

  Weston panted then picked up his phone. Hayley shouted, “No! No, don’t do that! You know you felt something. Forget about her. I know you can forget about her if you give me a chance to remind you how much we loved one another. I know it! So, put the damn phone down. Delete her number!”

  He sat, staring at the woman he’d once loved. The only woman to ever carry his child. He weighed it all in his mind as he looked at her. Hayley wanted to get to it. She wanted a family, the same way he did. Aulora was not only a wild card but she assured him there would be a pretty good amount of time before she’d be ready for kids.