A Year of You

by A. D. Roland

  “You lie,” Justine growled.

  Mattie stared down at the vivid stain, shocked. She touched it with the tips of her fingers and looked up, tears sparkling in her eyes. Enough was enough. He got up and circled the table. Pulling her chair out, he helped her stand. “Mr. McKendrick, thanks for your hospitality, but I think we’re going to be going.”

  Mattie gasped and bolted out of the room. The door to the half-bath tucked under the stairs slammed shut.

  “She’s not feeling real well,” he said, as startled as the rest of the family.

  “Is she pregnant?” Emeline yelped, horrified. “Oh my God, West, you better not have gotten her pregnant! I will not raise her kid.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he said, scowling.

  “And no, she’s not pregnant.”

  Emeline balked. “If she has a kid, and then leaves it with you, and me and you get back together, I’m not dealing with it.”

  “That’s not even an issue, Emeline,” West said, shaking his head. “Me and you, it ain’t happening.”

  Emeline burst into noisy dramatic sobs and fled the table. Justine grabbed McKendrick’s arm. “Put a stop to this now, James, or I will! I will not see my hard work ruined by that—that usurper.” McKendrick pushed her away and met West’s gaze. He knows something, West thought. The light in the older man’s eyes was too bright, too intense. His gaze left West feeling unsettled and off- balance.

  Something huge is going to happen. No, something huge has already happened.

  Justine swept out of the room, regally. McKendrick sagged into his chair. West hadn’t ever seen that side of him before. Tired, he gestured for West to move further down the table.

  “Tell me truthfully, Brant,” he said. “Who do you think Matilyn is?”

  “I don’t know anymore,” West answered honestly. It had been a long time since he’d felt a kinship with the man he’d considered a second father through most of his childhood. “And...I’m starting to not care anymore, either.”

  “Don’t get too attached,” the other man said simply. “I’ve learned some things that will hurt deeply.”

  “Tell me,” West said. “I need to know. I’m as involved as you are.”

  Sighing heavily, McKendrick shook his head. “Next Tuesday, there will be a meeting with the lawyers, you, and Matilyn. Everything will come to light. Things I’ve tried to keep secret for almost three decades.”

  She’s not Elaine, resounded in West’s skull. Next week he’s going to tell me she’s not Elaine. “You’ve got the results already.”

  The older man nodded, a slow, sad nod. “I…it’s not what I expected.”

  “Is she Elaine?”

  McKendrick looked up. On the far wall, a massive portrait of the family hung over the fireplace. McKendrick, Karen, baby Emeline, and a very young Elaine watched over the table. “Tuesday. Eleven A.M.”

  “West.” He turned around at the sound of the weak, croaky voice. Mattie clung to the doorway, shaky and pale. “Can we go? Sorry, Mr. McKendrick, but I’m not feeling all that well.”

  The man who might or might not be her father nodded his head silently, his eyes tracking Mattie from her feet to the top of her head.

  West gave the man a meaningful glance and went to his wife’s side. He looped his arm around her waist. She leaned into him.

  He closed his eyes as he kissed the top of her head. Her hair was soft against his lips, redolent of her lavender-vanilla shampoo.

  In the truck, she stretched out on the seat and rested her head on his thigh. As he drove he played with her hair and decided he couldn’t care less who the DNA test results said she was.

  She was his, and that was all that mattered.

  ***

  “You sure you’re okay?” West asked, frowning down at Mattie as she puked into the toilet for the third time that morning. “This is the fourth day you’ve been like this.”

  “Shut up for a minute,” she groaned. After one more heave, she flushed and forced herself to her feet and stumbled to the sink. Vigorously, she brushed her teeth and washed her face. “I’m fine, West. Jose’s wife said she had some nasty virus the other day, and I guess I just picked it up.”

  “You sure?”

  Irritated with his hovering, Mattie clamped her mouth shut on the antagonistic remarks that threatened to pop out. “Why are you so worked up? I just picked up a bug. You’re probably going to get it next.”

  West still looked troubled. “Um, Em said something at the dinner the other night...”

  Mattie pantomimed projectile puking at the mention of her sister’s name, accompanied by graphic sound effects.

  Rolling his eyes, West sighed. “Seriously. It’s bugging the crap out of me.”

  “All right, all right. West, what did she say?”

  “She asked me if I got you pregnant.” Mattie’s stomach went hot and cold at the same time. She laughed it off. “No way. West. We only did it a few times without a condom that one day, and it was at an okay time of the month.” Her mind zipped through the dates, trying to remember the last day of her period. She would have to look at a calendar to know for sure.

  “Maybe we should buy one of those tests, just to be sure.”

  “We’re fine, baby.” Mattie looped her arms around his neck. He hugged her tight. “I’m going to go crash on the couch. I feel like I ran a mile.”

  The second West left for work, she took the calendar down again and sat at the kitchen table, red pen in hand. Day by day she crossed off the little squares, starting at September sixth. Every pen stroke made her sick to her stomach. Her period should have started already. She’d marked the wrong date, months back, corrected it, but gotten the marks confused.

  She had miscounted the days. The first time they had sex would have been the perfect day to get pregnant. Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. This is turning into the Lifetime Movie Channel feature from hell. Forced marriage of convenience, trust funds, and now, pregnancy?

  Mattie bit her bottom lip hard enough to hurt. How would he take it if they turned out to be pregnant? West made her whole. Life with him was turbulent and wild and sometimes a little painful, but it was all she could ever want.

  The lawyers were dragging their asses. McKendrick told her they still hadn’t gotten the results from the DNA tests. They lost the samples, had to find them, had to make sure they weren’t contaminated, yadda yadda yadda.

  Mattie didn’t care. It meant more time with West. And more time to find Elaine. She’d visited with Ruth Ellen a couple of times, but the woman refused to say anything more than “Find my granddaughter.”

  West didn’t seem to mind her tagging along whenever he went anywhere. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it. They both enjoyed working together.

  He’d really enjoyed taking her to the clothing outlet store before she’d begin to get sick. He was getting into the newlywed thing. His hands were on her constantly, touching, teasing, groping. Once they’d gotten into the store, he pulled her through the partitioned-off back half of the store, telling a clerk he was showing her where the bathroom was.

  The way to the bathroom was a long, twisted walk through the unused space crowded with old sales fixtures and crates of stock, and down long hallways lit by flickering fluorescent lights. The bathroom itself was a sin upon all humanity, but it didn’t change the way it felt when West flipped the lock on the door and leaned her over the counter, taking her hard and fast. Gasping against the mirror from the near-pain and the incredible sensations tearing her body apart from the inside out, Mattie almost started crying. He’s already part of me.

  That had been three days ago, and she still had a faint bruise across her lower belly from the edge of the counter. His violence made her feel weak and fluttery inside. The hurt made the sex so good, made her feel so alive! It made her feel so close to him, when she cried out from something he did and he would stop and comfort her, or when he would react to her biting or pinching too hard and she would be the one to k
iss the pain away.

  The tiny bruises from his fingertips or his mouth or his teeth bruises were a roadmap of his affections. Neither had said anything about love, but whatever was between them was strong enough to eclipse everything else.

  Even the threat of K.

  When she got scared, West was there to comfort her, even if he didn’t have the faintest clue why she was pale and shaking and needing to be held.

  West came into the kitchen, hot and sweaty and dirty. Grass particles and clods of dirt fell off his jeans and his boots. He grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. Suddenly realizing he’d guess something was up, Mattie shoved the calendar across the table, into the pile of bills and papers that always sat in the middle of the table. West stepped behind her and massaged her shoulders gently. She winced when he hit a sore spot on her shoulder. “That still hurts? That happened over two weeks ago.”

  “Yeah. You did practically grind me into the hallway wall there, though.” She laughed and shivered when he pulled the strap of her tank top aside and kissed the sore spot.

  “You weren’t complaining.”

  “Didn’t even think of it. I love it when you get mad at me.” He paused, nuzzling her ear, her neck, nipping lightly as her skin. “Want to get grinded again? You don’t even have to make me mad.”

  “Grinded? Is that a word? Don’t you have an entire acre of fern to cut? You actually have orders that need to be filled this week.” He shrugged and wrapped his arms around her from behind, cupping her breasts, thumbing her nipples.

  “I got an order right here to fill. Bedroom, now.”

  “You’re acting like a caveman. You’re dirty and you’re sweaty and--ow!”

  He bit her neck hard enough to leave a mark. “Come on, Mattie. Please? You’re making me feel like a horny teenager here.” The smell of his sweat, of sunshine and green things, was intoxicating, in its own way. She wrapped her arms around his sweaty neck and kissed him like he liked her to.

  Arms around her waist, he lifted her up and spun her around she he could backwards-walk her to the bedroom. “I won’t touch you anywhere with my hands,” he murmured into her ear. “My tongue, definitely.”

  Mattie forgot about the calendar, K, everything except West. He pushed her pants down and sat her on the edge of his dresser. Dropping to his knees, he pushed her knees apart and delved into her eagerly.

  She leaned back against the cold mirror and laced her hands through his hair. The strokes of her tongue carried her higher and higher until she exploded, gasping, squeezing his head between her thighs. He laughed and stood up once she’d relaxed. “My turn,” he growled, shoving his pants and boxers down. He grabbed her hips and pulled her closer to the edge of the dresser.

  “Hurry, West,” she murmured, reaching for him. He smirked.

  “Are you telling me what to do?”

  She tilted her chin defiantly. “Yes. I want you inside me, now.”

  “I’ll let it slide this time.” He paused long enough to tear open a condom wrapper and slide it on. He thrust inside her. She clung to him, starving for his touch, for the way he filled her up. It was more than physical, and that was the best part. It didn’t take him long before he growled her name in her ear and clutched her tight.

  ***

  Late in the night the phone rang, dragging her out of warm, happy dreams. West groaned and rolled over, an arm over his eyes. “I’ll get it,” Mattie grunted. “And if it’s one of your friends, I’m tearing them a new one.”

  “Go for it.” He was snoring again before she even got out of bed.

  Hurrying down the hall, she caught the phone on the last ring. It’s K. It struck her like a lightning bolt, the sure knowledge that it was him. His pure evilness oozed over the distance, out of the phone like oil.

  “Hello?” she said in a whisper.

  “Hi, honey. When ya coming home?” Her stomach dropped like a bowling ball when she heard his voice.

  “Why’re you calling me here?”

  “Where’s my money?” Mattie took the portable phone to the couch and sat on the very edge of the cushion. “I need more time, K.”

  “No, you’re running out of time. I’m not very patient, Matilyn. You are out of time.” He paused and his voice turned sinister. “Now, listen, Mattie. Time to quit playing whore and get busy getting my money!”

  “I told you, K. It’s a lot more complicated than that.” Mattie kept her voice at a low hiss, one eye on the hallway. She kept her ears tuned for the sound of the bedroom door creaking open. “I don’t have a cent of it now. I have a little bit longer before the legal stuff clears up. You can’t just waltz into a family and expect them to fork over the cash!”

  “That’s a load of shit, Mattie. We both know it. I’m warning you, bitch. You don’t have much time before I come down there myself. You think Logan was rough? Wait’ll I get there. It won’t be just you that suffers either. Don’t get too close to that loser you’re shacked up with. It’ll hurt too much when something nasty happens to him.”

  In an effort to hold back her anger and fear, she bit her bottom lip so hard she tasted blood.

  “I’m sick of waiting around, Mattie. You don’t have much longer.” The connection was severed abruptly. After a moment of silence, the off-the-hook signal blared harshly in her ear. K really wanted the money. He must be gambling again. The last time he’d been in such a fired-up-hurry for money was after he lost a fortune in Vegas. He’d sworn off gambling when one of the loan shark’s money broke his arms. That had been years ago, when she was barely eighteen. He hadn’t gotten the money from a con very similar to the one he had her working now, but she and Isabella had ended up in jail for nearly a year for grand theft and fraud.

  The phone rang again. “What?” she hissed into the handset, knowing it was K.

  “You look real sexy in that nightgown.” The call ended. It took Mattie a second to absorb what K had said.

  Nightgown.

  She looked down at her short feminine nightgown. She hated the things, but West loved them. It was the only reason she wore them. He loved it when she rode him wearing ‘em, or when he could flip it up over her back and take her from behind.

  K said she looked sexy in the nightgown. He could see inside! He could see her! Mattie flew to the window and yanked down the blinds. The sliding glass doors didn’t have anything except a queen-sized sheet jury-rigged on shower curtain rings, hanging from an expandable shower curtain pole jammed into the doorframe. It was pulled all the way across, but gusts from the window unit air conditioner made it shudder and wave.

  When she was sure the few windows were securely closed, she forced herself to stand still and breathe deep. Calm down. Calm down. Chill out. If he could see her, she could see him, right?

  She padded to the window and peeked out through a crack in the blinds. The single streetlight next to the trailer lit the sandy front yard but not much beyond it. Nothing moved outside, and Scruffy was sleeping on the front porch.

  “He’s not out there,” Mattie whispered softly. Scruffy would be going nuts if there was someone on the property. The dog had developed some pretty intense paranoia after the attack. Jose couldn’t even walk into the immediate yard without the dog working himself into a frenzy. Forget any of the other employees trying to come to the office for anything!

  K knew saying something like that would scare her. “Bastard,” she murmured. He knew she was terrified of stuff like that. He was just manipulating her.

  But how did he know she’d be wearing a nightgown?

  Logan! The day he’d ransacked the house, he must have seen the ones she had hung up to dry around the room.

  She heard the bedroom door open and saw West’s silhouette. He scratched his head. “You coming back to bed?”

  “Yeah. I’m coming.”

  She turned in a circle, checking and rechecking all the windows before she headed down the hallway to the bedroom. She had to force herself not to look over her shoulder.

&n
bsp; Damn it, K.

  Now she had something else to be afraid of.

  “Who was it?” West asked through a yawn. He slipped a warm hand beneath the back of her nightgown. The contrast of his warmth against the chill of her skin made her sigh and cuddle closer for more of him.

  “I don’t know. Some drunk idiot.”

  When West got up the next morning, Mattie had the calendar out again, counting days. “A little obsessive, are we?” he asked. “What is it with you and that damn thing?” He helped himself to a gulp of milk straight from the jug. “You’ve got like another month or so before the lawyers are done doing whatever the hell it is they’re doing, or so McKendrick says.”

  “McKendrick’s making them go over the papers with a fine-tooth comb. He doesn’t want to give me the money. He had the papers rewritten when they declared me dead so that Emeline would get everything.”

  Hmm...That made a lot of sense. Pieces began to fit together. Ruth Ellen swore Elaine was killed because she was an illegitimate child. What if it was just because McKendrick wanted his flesh and blood to get all the money promised to Ruth Ellen’s children?

  What would happen to her if it ever came to light that she was indeed Karen’s biological child?

  Justine was overprotective when it came to Emeline. She made it very clear that what Emeline wanted, Emeline got. Would the woman have gone as far as murder to make sure Emeline got the contents of the trust funds, rather than her measly three million?

  Maybe it was time to go talk to Ruth Ellen again.

  West nibbled her neck. He slid one hand around her side and patted her belly. “You sure you’re not worried about something else?”

  Irritated, Mattie shoved his hand away. “No.”

  “I still think we need to buy a test.”

  “I’m not going to, because I know I’m not pregnant, West. It would screw everything up if that happened.”