by Audrey Dacey
She shuddered. Alexis was pretty sure she was the reason Riley had turned into such a whiny, selfish teen. She had been all too glad to get rid of her when she finally reached high school. The Franklin School was where Alexis had attended high school, so she doubted her parents would disapprove. The problem was that once she dropped Riley off, Alexis ignored her completely. She had a life, and she wanted to live it. Shuttling a teenager to cheerleading practice and to the movies with her friends was not the life Alexis wanted to live then or now. Who would in their twenties?
She regained awareness of her surroundings just in time, nearly missing the turn into the school's entrance. She slowly drove the Porsche around the paved circle that surrounded the school and came to a standstill in front of one of the few people on campus. Before she could turn off the car the passenger side door opened, and Riley's blonde head popped in.
“It's about time,” she snarled. “Where the hell am I supposed to put my stuff?”
Alexis leaned toward the passenger-side door to see two huge suitcases sitting on the curb. She laughed under her breath. She paid the school a little extra money to keep Riley's stuff in the dorms over the summer. They were more than happy to do it, but Riley couldn't help but bring everything except the furniture.
“I have room for one of those in the trunk. You'll have to put the rest back in your room.”
Pure shock washed over Riley's face, and Alexis chuckled under her breath again. This was too easy.
“I can't put them back in my room,” Riley choked out. “Everyone's gone. They've locked me out.” She was acting like Alexis was making her abandon her puppy, and to be fair, if she had a puppy she’d probably make her leave that behind as well. Two dogs this summer was far too many.
Alexis looked around at the very green, very empty campus then spotted a solution. “Put one of them in that donations box. I'm sure someone will come around to pick up after all you guys are gone. We'll get you new stuff.”
Riley whipped her head around. Her face had gone from horror, to interest, to unabashed glee in a matter of seconds. She extracted the handles of one of the Louis Vuitton Epopée bags and ran it over to the box. As she walked back to the car, Alexis got out and opened the front storage compartment. Riley looked at Alexis and then her remaining bag.
“Go ahead. I’m not your chauffeur.”
Riley looked in the trunk, curious. “You can fit one more in there,” she pointed out, as she grabbed her bag off of the curb and stuffed it inside.
“But I won't.” Alexis closed the lid and moved back to the driver's seat.
“Can I drive? I passed Driver's Ed, and I have my license,” Riley pleaded.
“While that inspires all sorts of confidence, no. You can drive the Volvo.”
When the school sent the materials for Riley's driver's education course, Alexis decided she needed to have a very safe car for her sister to drive. The school didn't let her have a car on campus, to Alexis's relief, so she bought something that had a few good years left in it and no more. Alexis knew her sister well enough to know that the second she graduated, she was going to buy a car. She might as well not waste money on something that was only going to be driven for two summers. As it turned out, Riley was only going to be driving this summer because she failed Driver's Ed the previous year and couldn’t drive last summer.
There was not a chance in hell Riley was going to touch the steering wheel of the Porsche. Right there, Alexis decided she was going to keep her keys locked in the wall safe in her closet. She figured there was a fifty percent chance Riley would get into a car accident that summer and a zero percent chance it was going to be in the Porsche.
As they sped through the rest of the loop, Alexis was reminded of the time she spent on this campus. Mostly good memories came back to her, and she felt a longing for the innocence she possessed when this was her school. Before she met Frank. Before her parents died. When the only thing she worried about was a midterm or whether or not Henry Jacobson saw her fall in volleyball.
God, she had been naïve. She looked over at her sister, who had pulled out her cell phone and was texting someone. Riley never got to have that innocence. Not really. A sense of shame washed over Alexis for not better protecting her from the world. It wasn't like she could tell her that her parents were on a much extended vacation. Alexis found it impossible to lie after Frank left (though she could fake a smile if needed), and besides that, it just wouldn't be fair. She could have done something, though. She could have been a better sister, a better guardian. She just didn't know how. And now, she figured, it was too late.
Riley had just finished her junior year of high school. She was going to be eighteen in a few months and with that birthday came the responsibility of managing herself and her own trust. Alexis knew it was wrong, but she would be happy to shed the responsibility. This, after all, was not what her life was meant to be. To be free of the little responsibility she still had for Riley was exciting, and she anticipated Riley’s eighteenth birthday more than she had anticipated her own.
The sisters drove in silence for the hour or so it took to get to Alexis's house. Riley spent the entire time engrossed with her phone's beeps and buzzes while Alexis failed to think of anything to say. It was probably for the best. Even when she wasn’t doing it deliberately, almost everything Alexis said to Riley provoked her.
After Riley started school, Alexis sold the house they grew up in. It was painful being in Weston. Everyone knew about her parents. Everyone knew about Frank. And everyone gave her the “poor dear” look. Alexis was sick of it. She built a beautiful, smaller house in Maple Field. It was hers, and she’d much rather people look at her with the fear that she was going to seduce all the men in town. As an attractive single woman in her twenties, it hadn't taken long to build that kind of reputation in a town of about 3,000 people, even if she hadn’t done anything to earn it—yet. They wanted to know all of her business, so she returned the favor and butted in theirs whenever possible. This was how she spent most of her time.
Alexis would never sleep with another woman's husband on purpose, but it was fun making them think she might. They deserved it for labeling her before she gave them any real reason to or before she really started having fun with men. For a while she thought men were good for nothing. Eventually, she recognized what they were good for: manual labor and sex. She could handle pretty much everything else without them, and she preferred it that way.
This was another reason she hated summertime with her sister. The dry spell. Alexis had to set some sort of example. She couldn’t stay out all hours of the night and leave a teenage girl sitting alone in her house, and she didn’t feel right bringing men into her home—she didn’t do that even when Riley was at school.
Ryan would likely be the last until she could sneak one in, and that probably wouldn't be for a while. She tended to feel obligated to spend some time with Riley for at least the first week. At least she'd try to build the semblance of a relationship; the brat rarely gave her the same courtesy.
Ryan's hard body and scratchy beard had left a very good impression on her, and for the second time she wished she had taken him up on one more that morning. He'd be good material for her fantasies, regardless. It would be difficult to forget a lay like that for a while, and the dark love bite on her hip that wouldn't fade for a few days would help.
Alexis felt a heat rise in her as she remembered how he marked her, and she bit her bottom lip to bring her concentration back to the road ahead of her. The man’s sex appeal was practically lethal.
Alexis pulled onto the laid-brick driveway. The pattern of the different colored pavers created a simple square modeled on a quilt her grandmother had made. She was sentimental like that, but it wasn't something she shared with people.
The white house sat on three acres of land, and the back of the property butted up against a small pond. She had the entire property fenced off with a six-foot tall wooden dog-ear fence. The front of the house w
as very unassuming. The people of the town believed it to be a small house, perfect for a small family, though they considered it much too big for Alexis, who was all by herself most of the time. The street side appeared to be two stories with a room above the two-car garage and a triangular roof. To the left of the garage, and set back a bit, was a small porch that led to a bright red door. There were a total of three windows on the front of the house, not including those at the top of the front door and lining the top of the garage doors.
What the people of Maple Field didn't know was they were seeing about a quarter of the whole thing. In all, the house was three stories and had top of the line everything, including hardwood floors, marble tile and countertops, and custom cabinets. It was almost 4,000 square feet, and Alexis regarded it as just big enough.
Weekly, she would bring in a maid service and a landscaper, and otherwise only her closest friends and Riley had been inside. Before the house was finished, and after her parents’ house was sold, she rented a tiny cabin nearby. She had brought men there a few times, but it made her feel too vulnerable. And once this house was finished, she never considered inviting one inside.
The garage door ticked up its track, and Alexis pulled her car into the relatively empty garage. There was no reason for her to have the things one would normally find in a garage, so she didn't bother to buy them. The only thing besides the Porsche was the Volvo, and most of the time Alexis forgot it was there.
Without saying anything, Riley pulled herself from the car and walked into the house. Alexis started to yell after her to grab her bag from the car but decided it wasn't worth the fight. When Riley wanted the bag, it would be where she left it.
Alexis grabbed her own garment bag, which was lying folded in the trunk, and moved into the house. Everything was as she left it two days ago. The sunlight streamed through the window into the small living room. She turned and walked down the hallway, past the staircase, and into the real living area: a great room, dining area, and kitchen. A woman with a family would love this part of the house, but Alexis generally had little use for it.
Riley had already planted herself in front of the 65-inch flat screen television that hung from the wall. At least someone was using it. It only depressed Alexis to see how quickly and frequently someone could release a new story for television when not a single idea had struck her in years. She debated not getting a TV at all, but she had to watch the Red Sox and Patriots games, and she wanted to feel like she was on the field with all of those muscular men.
Alexis slung the garment bag over the white and gray marble of the breakfast bar as the doorbell rang. Riley jumped out of her seat and over the couch and ran to the front door. Alexis had never seen her sister so excited before.
The front door slammed, and Riley shuffled back into the kitchen holding a long box. She tossed it on the counter. “It’s for you.”
Alexis pulled out the card, which was always her favorite part of the delivery, and read it. “‘There is no remedy for love but to love more.’—Richard.”
Richard Dunn was a loser. He always used a quote in his card to tell her how he was feeling. This time it was Thoreau and super lovey. It was starting to get annoying.
It dawned on Alexis that this was the first time the flowers had been dropped off when she was at home. She looked up at her sister who was back on the couch with her eyes glued to the television. “Who brought these?”
Riley shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Did you see the guy? Was it a flower delivery person or someone else?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know? Do you mind? I’m trying to watch this.”
“What did he look like? Was there a car in the driveway or the street?” If it was Richard, he broke the restraining order. It would make her day if she could call the police on him.
Riley glared at Alexis and pointed at the TV. What a brat.
Alexis opened a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. She removed the lid to the long-stemmed red roses, pulled them out of the box, and began chopping them into pieces with the scissors over the box, as she always did, before having it picked up and delivered to Richard’s house.
“Are you hungry?” Alexis tried to be causal.
“Yes, but don't make me anything,” she replied dismissively.
Alexis knew not to take it personally. She had more take-out containers in her fridge than cans from the grocery store. Her cooking left something to be desired, and that was being nice.
“I don't have to make it. We can order something.” Alexis remained calm and attempted not to be dismissive in return, but she seriously struggled.
“I'm going out,” she said. Not once had Riley looked up at Alexis to talk to her during this conversation, and it was really pissing Alexis off.
“With whom?” Alexis was surprised. Many of the kids at her school were from out of state, and for the first summers of high school, Riley had spent her vacation in her room or on the couch. She had never mentioned friends before now. Not that she would.
“Jimmy.”
Riley loved to be purposefully vague. She knew it ticked Alexis off, and she pushed that particular button frequently. Alexis took a deep breath to keep from yelling. Alexis rationalized that if she stopped giving her a reaction, Riley would stop doing it. She had yet to be successful.
“Who's Jimmy?”
“My boyfriend.”
“Are you still on birth control?” Alexis didn't care if her sister was having sex. She expected she would be by now, but she didn’t want a baby to take care of, which is what would happen if her sister was stupid enough to get pregnant.
“God, why do you have to get into my business?”
Riley managed to deflect both questions, and Alexis was beginning to feel the red heat of anger in her face.
“Screw whomever you want, Riley. Just don't get knocked up.” She shouldn't have said it. She knew from the first word she should stop, but she couldn't. There was something about this girl with the same hazel eyes and long, thin nose that raised hell in her.
Riley's phone beeped, and she flicked the touch screen before she stood up and looked at her sister for the first time since they got home. Glaring at Alexis, she said, “You're such a bitch.” She grabbed her small purse off the back of the couch and then announced, “Jimmy's outside,” and walked to the front door.
Alexis had neither the patience nor the desire to go after her, and when the door slammed, she was just happy to have some peace for the first time all day.
Chapter 5
Water engulfed Ryan’s body, and he sank to the hard platform that held the mattress. Ryan hated waking up in a strange bed, especially a water bed. It was what he had done the day before, and if all went as planned, he would be doing it for the next two weeks and no more. If things didn’t go as planned, he would become Caitlyn and Michael's house guest. He was a terrible house guest.
As it was, he felt like he was intruding upon the newlyweds, and they weren't even in the country. Being in someone else's house, using their stuff, was unbearable. He had offered—even begged—to stay in a hotel while he was working on the remodel, but Michael had insisted that he stay in the extra room. Apparently he had some experience with the local motel and couldn’t recommend it. It would have been nice to know that the guest room had a water bed before he made any commitments.
Ryan rolled uncomfortably out of the bed and ran his hands through his hair. Now was as good a time as any, he supposed. Picking up his watch, he discovered that it was nearly 8:30. He overslept, though he wasn’t sure how. It didn’t feel like he slept at all.
He crossed the room, whipped open the bedroom door, and flew into the bathroom across the hall. He’d shower, but it would have to be quick. Daniel Montgomery, the contractor for the job and Ryan’s only real friend, was currently in transit to meet him at the house to start the job.
He was glad to get some company in this lonely town. The last real conversation he had was with the
mysterious brunette the previous morning at breakfast. While it was occasionally nice to have some time to one's self, her naked body writhing around in his head had made alone time nearly unbearable. He wondered what could make a woman so cold after a night that was so hot. He didn't understand her, and the more he tried the more confused he got.
Ryan turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He stood over the sink to brush his teeth, trim his beard, and style his hair. Again, he was just going to have to deal with the basics.
Ryan had given up trying to understand women a long time ago. Anyone who knew his mother understood that. She was acerbic, mean, and demanding. Most of his childhood, this abuse had fallen on his father, who took it silently. He hated his father for that.
Ryan had almost completely dismissed women from his life. Once the hormones started coursing through his veins, he realized that they fulfilled another need, but he didn't really want to have anything to do with them personally.
Ryan wasn't sexist. He didn't care what women did as long as they stayed out of his personal business. Of course, he kept as little personal business as possible.
As for his father, last Ryan knew he was still in that same old house in Middle-of-Nowhere, Iowa trying to drink away the self-pity. He could do that alone.
Ryan walked back into the bedroom and opened the closet door, where he’d hung his suits and dress shirts the night before. He grabbed the first things that matched and began dressing. He left the room buttoning his shirt.
When he got to the kitchen, Ryan leaned over the table to review the blueprint while he tied the noose around his neck. The plan was fairly simple. They were going to add a master suite to the main floor on the west side of the house. Then they would expand the tiny kitchen from the north side. While Caitlyn and Michael knew the basics of the design and chose the colors and textures, they would likely be surprised by the finished product. Pleasantly, he hoped.
