by Lori Bell
“How is she doing?” Sydney asked him. “Is she feeling up for visitors?”
“You’re not a visitor. You’re her sister. And I wish you two would act like it sometimes.” Tate was still hurting from their argument this morning.
“Yeah, me too,” Sydney agreed, because what else could she say? “Is there something bothering you? You seem miffed? Did she do something?”
Tate smirked a bit before he replied. “She miffs me a lot, but I get past it. Because I love her.” Sydney felt her insides crawl. “Plain and simple, right? For me, it is. But why in the Sam hell is it so hard for her? Have you ever heard her say those words?”
“I love you?” Sydney was quick to form those three little words into a question because what was rolling off her tongue was a truth she carried in her heart for him. She instantly felt her cheeks flush. “Edie doesn’t say it. At least not to me,” Sydney clarified, but she had assumed Edie had poured her heart out to Tate. She would be a fool not to.
“I wish you two were closer for many reasons, but most of all I need to talk to someone who can get inside of her head. She’s smart, she’s beautiful, but she’s so distant most of the time. I want to break through that.” Tate was easily confiding in Sydney, but that feeling of having his trust and wanting to be his confidant was bittersweet because she didn’t want to hear how badly he wanted her sister.
“I wish I could say that I will talk to her for you,” Sydney stated, “but we both know I’m pretty useless in Edie’s eyes. I’m the sister who isn’t as bright and beautiful. I have no clout with Edie.”
“Back up, little lady,” Tate told her. “You need to take a good, long look in the mirror. Appreciate those waves in your hair and those bright eyes.”
Sydney felt entirely too happy, hearing Tate compliment her. So much so that she wasn’t embarrassed and hadn’t blushed. “You must not be seeing the body fat,” Sydney replied, immediately regretting that she had cut herself down when Tate had just lifted her up.
“Some guys prefer a handful of a woman,” Tate responded, and he winked at her. That look. That wink. The attention Tate Ryman was giving her was making Sydney swoon. Everything she had done to get to this point was working. And so worth it.
Tate may not have seen what he was doing, and how what he was saying affected Sydney, but Edie had. She was standing in the kitchen, against the counter top, listening and watching. She could only see the back of Tate, but she had a clear view of her sister. Sydney never noticed her. The lights were off in the kitchen and the cloudy day in Camden had kept the room dark.
Edie had always recognized her little sister’s crush on Tate. She just never paid any mind to it. Not until now. Now she recognized how dangerous her sister’s feelings were. Would a crush…unreciprocated love…or an obsession… lead her to want me out of the picture that badly? Enough to kill me? Edie’s thoughts raced. She wanted to confront Sydney right this instant. But she knew she could not. She would further infuriate Tate. And without any proof, Sydney could deny it all and get away with it.
So Edie chose to claim what was hers. She walked through the kitchen and she stood in the doorway directly behind Tate’s back. He was still seated on the step below her feet. When Sydney looked up, that forced Tate to turn around. This was the closest he had been to Edie all day, following their heated argument this morning.
“Hi Syd…what brings you by in the middle of an important work day?” Edie just could not resist slamming her sister with every comment she made.
“My sister, of course,” Sydney responded, and Edie felt like saying, Could have fooled me, you’re drooling over my man. And now it was time for Edie to reclaim Tate. She knew that if she had any power over Sydney and her crazy mindset right now, it was Tate.
Edie placed her foot on the step that Tate was seated on and he moved aside for her. She sat down close, beside him. “We could go inside,” Edie suggested, “but I need a change of scenery. This is always a good spot out here.” Tate thought how the mudroom and that top step was his preferred spot, not hers, but he humored Edie with a wide smile as she slipped her arm inside of his. She was wearing a white v-neck waffle-knit thermal shirt and a pair of flared gray sweatpants. Her feet were bare, and now cold out there, and her well-manicured toes were painted dark purple. Her long blonde hair was still in a messy knot on top of her head. She wore no makeup and the bruise on her forehead was a mixture of blue, purple, and red, coloring.
“Syd was just telling me how some of the community bank’s online accounts were hacked,” Tate turned to Edie as he spoke.
“Are you serious?” Edie asked. She must have walked into the kitchen after the two of them were well into their conversation because she definitely missed that topic.
“Yep, I got the call earlier today. Just a warning that some of our accounts could be screwed up for a few days, you know mismatched numbers and such,” Sydney explained. “No need to panic if the withdrawals and deposits do not quite add up.” Tate sighed a little and shook his head and stated something about how when you’re dealing with millions that would be a reason to panic. Edie was well aware of how much money Ry’s Market was bringing in. She didn’t care concern herself with it though. She made her own fair share of money. What she was focused on now was how Sydney kept biting her upper lip as she spoke. That, as Edie remembered from far back into their childhood, was a sure sign Sydney was lying. As Edie sat there, she tried to chase away the memory that surfaced. She could hear her mother’s voice, “Sydney Elizabeth! You tell me the truth. I know you’re fibbing when you bite your lip like that.”
Edie took a deep breath as she continued to stare at her sister. Her mind was racing, and soon she was in the midst of a flashback on the parking lot. Was it real or not? That man was demanding a large sum of money from Sydney. She said she only had half of it. Where else would Sydney be able to come up with what Edie assumed was thousands of dollars? Sydney was stealing from Ry’s Market. That was how she would prove her sister’s guilt.
Sydney now caught herself biting her upper lip. She also saw how Edie was staring at her. They were not at all close, but they did know each other well. Mannerisms and all. “I should go!” Sydney spoke abruptly and somewhat nervously.
“Already? You don’t wanna come inside for awhile?” Tate asked her as he stood up on the step now, and Sydney backed up toward the door to leave.
“Not today, maybe tomorrow. Good to see that you are healing, Edie.”
“Thanks…” Edie all but mumbled under her breath as Sydney left abruptly.
Tate giggled as she watched her leave through the window. She made a U-turn on the driveway in her compact hybrid and sped away so fast down the lane road that the rocks flew from underneath her small tires. “She’s a piece of work. Always so high-strung.”
“That she is,” Edie said, standing up to almost meet his height on the step. She felt invigorated. Once Tate was asleep later, Edie planned to find a way to log into the bank’s website, and hopefully the Ry’s Market’s account. Getting the password was her next step.
“Are you hungry?” Tate asked her as he stepped up into the kitchen and then pulled her by the hand to help her up as well.
“Maybe…” Edie said, looking at him, and he recognized that fire in her eyes, as he took a step back and put his hands up.
“Baby, not yet… you have some healing to do.” Even though he said those words, he could feel himself harden. This woman, no matter how angry he could be with her, he wanted her. Always.
“I know a way to speed up the healing process…” Edie took a step toward him and slipped her hands underneath the front of his flannel shirt where ends of it overlapped the button fly of his jeans. She opened one button at a time and then she reached for him. It didn’t take much for his manhood to spring into her hands.
“Come on, E…” he tried to object.
She giggled and let her hands do the work. Tate pulled her close to him in the dark kitchen and he kissed her full an
d hard on the mouth. His tongue found hers. She heard him ask, are you sure, and then one thing inevitably led to another. His jeans and boxers were at his ankles. His chest was bare. Edie was only in her white bra and matching thong. He pulled her bra over her head without undoing the clasp. He pinched both of her nipples and felt them harden to his touch. He helped her slip off her panties, and he kicked off his jeans from his ankles. They kissed with a mounting passion, they touched with a desire as deep and as curious like if it was their first time. Neither one of them could take another moment of this fore-play. Edie reached for the back of a kitchen chair. She bent her body forward, over it, and Tate came from behind her. She gripped the wood on the back of the chair tightly as she could feel his hands between her legs. He then spread her legs further apart and entered her. His thrusts were more gentle than usual, because he was concerned about thrashing her around too roughly so soon following the accident. The way he was taking his time on her –so slowly– further aroused her. In and out with the full length of him. Repeatedly. Edie could feel how wet she was between her legs when she cried out his name after she came explosively with him inside of her. Two more, much harder thrusts later, and Tate was a man satisfied. Again.
Chapter 11
Their clothes were still scattered on the kitchen floor, and the two of them were back in the bedroom, lying naked on their bed. The sheets and duvet were not pulled back. It was just their bodies, entangled, keeping each other warm.
Tate again had his hands on her, and she laughed at him. “I thought we already did that in the kitchen,” she reminded him.
“Come again for me,” he said to her as he touched her with two of his fingers between her legs. “I want to help you do that again…”
Edie’s mind was not on sex, not more of it right now anyway. She had forced herself to completely focus on what they were doing in the kitchen earlier. She enjoyed sex, and Tate was beyond desirable, but her mind was on Sydney and had been ever since she left their house. Edie wanted to talk about Ry’s bank account. She wanted Tate to be relaxed, and she knew sex always did that for him. But, now, he wanted to please her again. Edie obliged. She would do anything at this moment to find the proof that she did not have just a dream while she was unconscious. She was not out of her mind to pursue this. Things were beginning to add up, and Edie believed her sister was the crazy one to think she would get by with this.
Edie’s head was hurting and she wanted to rush this. She placed her hand on top of Tate’s between her legs, and moved it aside, and he knew what she was doing. He stopped, and he watched her take over. She started to pleasure herself, and as Tate often did at this moment, he grabbed his cell phone off of the nightstand on his side of the bed. And he recorded a video of Edie. It was a high and pure arousal for him to replay it later – and then he would delete it. At the moment, Edie felt like Meg Ryan in the restaurant scene from the movie, When Harry Met Sally. She totally put her all into the moaning, the motions, and in the end she had faked an orgasm for Tate.
*
They were in the kitchen, eating pizza that they had delivered to the house. Edie forced herself to stop after having one piece and taking two bites of another. She needed to maintain her figure and this recovery was not helping as she had not been working out or counting calories.
When she pushed her plate forward, Tate glanced at her. “Full already?”
“I’ve had more than enough, thanks babe.” Edie replied. And then she brought up what was on her mind. The hacking crisis at the bank. “So, do you think Syd is right? Does the bank have everyone’s money where it should be by now?”
“Oh I hope that will be the case eventually,” Tate replied. “I’m just relieved that Ry’s money wasn’t stolen.” The idea of little old Mrs. Ryman having millions of dollars in her own personal bank account and more millions in the market’s account was fascinating to Edie. If she were Mary Lou Ryman, she would start to enjoy that money at seventy-five years old. It was now or never. Take trips. Buy an expensive wardrobe. Live in a mansion for God’s sake. Have houses in other states, or countries. Mrs. Ryman was just not the type of woman to enjoy anything too extreme. She never flaunted. One day, Tate and his sister would see that money in their names. Edie knew Tate’s sister, Kathy was greedy for it. Tate, on the other hand, preferred to live simply. He had a nice house on a decent piece of land, an expensive truck, and nothing else, material-wise, mattered to him. He was happy wearing denim, boots, and flannel shirts.
“Exactly, me too,” Edie replied, not feeling all that certain it wasn’t.
*
After Tate fell asleep, and she was sure he was sound, Edie took his cell phone off of the nightstand on his side of the bed. Earlier, she had reminded him to delete the porn off of his phone and he commented slyly about the possibility of keeping that one. Edie was going to take care of that decision for him. She swiped his screen, retrieved the video and then trashed it. She unintentionally swiped the screen again and noticed the most recent photograph Tate had taken. It was like hitting the jackpot, winning the highest lottery. Exactly what she needed was right there in her hands. Edie sent the photograph containing the password to the market’s bank account to her own cell phone. And then she deleted the evidence of that from Tate’s phone. She left his phone on his nightstand and walked quickly around their bed to grab hers off the nightstand on her side of the bed. She immediately went into the living room, sat down on the sofa, and powered on the laptop that was placed on the coffee table. She had attempted to work from it earlier in the day, but had to stop when a headache persisted.
She felt nervous. Tate would be so angry with her if he caught her, if he knew what she was doing. Her hands were clammy, and her heartbeat had quickened. The password, T-REX, was immediately accepted and Edie found herself staring at a lot of numbers. She hated math, she struggled with the ins and outs of understanding a statement like this. She only knew
she was looking for a large sum of money going out. It would have to be a lot, considering the market had bills to pay that were hardly minimal. She couldn’t believe that Tate had put Sydney, of all people, in charge of something so dire in a successful company. And she had betrayed him, and his family. The family that she claimed to care about.
Nothing caught Edie’s eye as she scrolled through every withdrawal in the past month. And, then, when she reached the third page, she froze. Fifty thousand dollars. And, in the memo column, there was a blank. Who was the recipient of this large sum of money? If Tate had seen this transaction, he would have instantly been alarmed, Edie thought to herself, and Sydney knew that. That was why she made up that lame excuse about the bank’s accounts being hacked. Or maybe the bank was aware, and still looking for the culprit? Well, Edie knew who the culprit was in this. Her hands were shaking now. And, she could have cried if she would have allowed the tears to surface. If she doubted herself at all, if she wondered even the slightest bit about her experience following her accident being factual, she was completely certain now. Sydney had hired someone to kill her. And, now, Edie was going after her. The idea that she was her sister, her only family left in this world, mattered none. And why should it? Sydney had gone too far. She was out of her mind.
Chapter 12
Just as it happened all day long, Sydney heard someone come into the cramped office space when she was punching the keys in front of the computer at Ry’s Market. She assumed the person behind her would get what they needed and leave again. That’s exactly why Sydney preferred to work late at night, alone, after the store’s closing hours. She was a classic introvert and anti-social for sure.
After at least a few minutes, or more, had passed, Sydney was overcome with the feeling that someone was staring at her. She spun her chair around, and then looked behind her. Her eyes widened immediately. This was the last person she would ever expect.
“Oh, my, Mrs. Ryman, hello,” Sydney all but stuttered. “I had no idea it was you who came in. I would not have kept you waiting. Y
ou should have made your presence known.” Sydney had always been kind to this woman. She was, after all, her boss. The only superior in the workforce, along with Mr. Ryman, that Sydney had ever known. Sydney liked her. And, Mary Lou, in turn, had been nothing but cordial.
Mary Lou stood there in a pair of gray slacks and a pale pink sweater. Her black wool peacoat was draped over her arm, and she was wearing black Mary Janes with thick natural colored nylons on her tiny feet. She was a petite woman who had aged considerably, Sydney thought, in the past decade she had known her. Maybe most of that aging had taken place in recent years when she cared for her ailing husband. A husband who was six years her junior.
“Hello, Sydney, dear,” Mrs. Ryman replied. “I hope you have a minute for me? I know my son tells me how hard you are working for us…”
Sydney smiled. Tate had been talking about her to his mother? That was such a high for her right now, to hear that, to know that. Sydney’s smile was wide and Mrs. Ryman never took her eyes off of her.
“Do you want to sit down?” Sydney offered, but before she stood up to retrieve that one metal chair folded up against the far wall, Mrs. Ryman stopped her.
“No, thank you, I am fine. I will stand while I tell you what I came here to say.” Mrs. Ryman was calm and stoic, as most people only saw her. Even at the funeral for her husband, she remained entirely composed. Sydney nodded her head.
“I have good friends who work for me in this store,” she began. “And it is my store now. My husband wanted Ry’s Market to be in my name only after he was gone since both of my children are not interested in owning the family business. That saddens me, sure, but it is what it is as my grandchildren have taught me to say.” Mrs. Ryman smiled, but it faded as quickly as it surfaced. “Anyway, as I mentioned, I have good friends who work for me.” Sydney remained quiet, just sitting in her chair, with her hands on her lap. She wondered if Mrs. Ryman was there to thank her, or if she was implying that she was one of those good friends. If so, Sydney would be nothing but honored to know Mrs. Ryman felt that way. “Tommy Kampwerth, who stocks shelves on Mondays and Thursdays, is very dear to my heart. He’s my age, seventy-five, and we went to school together. He actually took me to homecoming, years before I started courting Rex.” Sydney smiled. Mrs. Ryman was rambling, and Sydney really didn’t have all the time in the world to listen, but she remained respectful. She almost wished Tate would walk in at this moment and see the two of them together. She was sure to gain points with him then. She was also certain Edie never exchanged more than a few meaningless words with Tate’s mother.
