Riled Up (With A Kiss #2)

by Anie Michaels

“I love you too, and I hope you’re right.”

  I pressed a chaste kiss to her lips, then let her go. It looked as though her mother was one second away from pouncing down the steps of her porch if we didn’t make it to her soon. Riley met me at the front of the Mustang and we walked together to her mother, who was practically bouncing in her shoes.

  “Riley, my baby, I can’t believe you’re here,” she said, wrapping Riley in her arms and swaying back and forth. I watched as Riley allowed her mother to hug her. Her body was stiff at first, only returning the embrace out of politeness or obligation, but after just a few moments I watched her body relax. She squeezed her mother tighter and pressed her face into the crook of her neck. I stood a few feet away, silent, simply observing and letting them have a moment together.

  When her mother pulled away, it was only far enough to cup Riley’s face and smile brightly at her. “How are you?”

  “I’m good, Mom. Promise. I’m really good.” I could tell Riley wasn’t saying the words just to make her mother feel better—Riley believed them. A wave of warmth spread through me at the realization. I couldn’t take credit for all the good things in Riley’s life—she was responsible for most—but I knew our relationship made us both better, made us both happy, and hearing her say the words made me love her a little bit more.

  Riley’s mother’s eyes moved to me and I gave her my best smile.

  “Camden,” she said happily. “I’m so glad to finally meet you.” She walked toward me with open arms and I accepted her hug, glad to finally be meeting her as well.

  “Sorry I crashed your dinner, Mrs. Smith.”

  “Nonsense, you’re always welcome. I’m glad our first meeting won’t be at the wedding. And call me Nora, please.”

  “Well, thanks for having me, Nora.”

  Riley walked to me and slipped her arm around my waist, and I eagerly brought her to my side.

  “He surprised me too,” Riley said, looking up at me. “But I’m glad he did.”

  “Me too,” Nora said, her voice weepy. I noticed her eyes tearing up but didn’t want to call attention to it, so I tried to change the subject.

  “We’ll have to get my parents out for a visit soon, or you can come out to Portland. We’re all going to be family soon.”

  “Oh, that would be fun,” she said, turning away and trying to wipe her tears without us noticing. “Come on inside. I’ve got dinner almost on the table.”

  I waited for both women to enter and followed.

  Nora’s house looked just like any other typical middle-class house in America. It was warm and homey, with pictures hung on the wall, overstuffed couches that looked extremely comfortable in the living room, and knickknacks placed delicately on shelves. With a little observation it occurred to me that Nora and my mother had something in common.

  “You collect salt and pepper shakers?” I asked as I approached a cabinet with shelves full of them.

  “I do,” Nora replied, smiling. “I picked up a set at the Grand Canyon twenty years ago and it kind of took on a life of its own.”

  “I can see that.”

  “It sure made birthdays and Christmas easy for a while though,” Riley added.

  “I know exactly what you mean. A holiday never passes without a new set for my mother.”

  “I didn’t see your mom’s collection at her house.” Riley gave me an inquisitive look.

  “She keeps them at the beach house.”

  “Ah,” she replied. We hadn’t made it to the beach house yet.

  “Please, sit,” Nora said as we entered the kitchen. There was an attached nook with a round table, set for three. “What would you like to drink? I’ve got Guinness, but no Hef though, Riley. Sorry. Couldn’t find any on such short notice. White wine?”

  “Wine’s fine.”

  “I’d love a Guinness,” I said happily, smiling widely at Riley.

  “Ugh, don’t encourage him, Mom.” She turned her eyes to me and I could tell she was trying to look annoyed. “I hope you brought your toothbrush. I hate Guinness breath.”

  “There are other things I can kiss besides your mouth,” I whispered to her, fully aware her mother’s head was buried in the refrigerator and more than likely couldn’t hear me. I got exactly what I was looking for when Riley’s mouth dropped open in shock.

  “Camden,” she whispered harshly, then narrowed her gaze at me.

  I shrugged and then smiled at Nora as she set the beer down in front of me. Then, like Riley and I were royalty, her mother brought us enough food to feed an entire village.

  “Mom,” Riley laughed, “you did not have to cook all this food.”

  “It’s in a mother’s nature to feed her children, and I have a lot of time to make up for.”

  “Let her feed you,” I said, piling food on my plate. “This all looks delicious. Why don’t you cook like this, babe?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry I don’t cook enough. I’m just a little busy trying to build a career.”

  “You know I’m kidding,” I said, elbowing her lightly.

  “Besides, if I tried to cook anything more complicated than spaghetti, I’d burn the house down.”

  “Well then, let’s get you some lessons before we move into the new one.”

  “You’re moving?” Nora asked as she took the seat next to Riley.

  “Oh… yeah,” Riley replied, looking a little guilty. “We, uh, bought a house.”

  “You bought a house?” Nora replied. “Purchased a house? With a mortgage?”

  “Yeah,” I interjected when Riley seemed quiet. “It happened kind of quickly. I kind of sprung the house on her and then talked her into buying it. Just a few days ago.”

  “That’s so nice,” Nora said, her voice noticeably sadder than it had been just a moment before. “I’m so happy for you. I can’t wait to see it. You’ll have to send me pictures.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it to you. Like Cam said, it happened really fast. We weren’t even looking. Well, I wasn’t looking. And work’s been crazy. I was planning on telling you.”

  “That’s really exciting. I’m glad you’ll have a place you can call home.”

  An awkward silence fell over the table like a storm cloud. Nora was obviously upset that Riley hadn’t shared the exciting news with her, and Riley seemed both irritated at her mother’s reaction but also guilty for not telling Nora she’d purchased a house. And I had no fucking clue what to say to move us all past it. Luckily, Nora spoke again, saving us all from the silence.

  “So, what brings you to Paradise Valley? What kind of job are you working on?”

  “A wedding.”

  “I thought your promotion got you out of doing those? I know you didn’t like that part of your job very much.”

  “No, I didn’t. Weddings definitely aren’t my favorite, but the bride is a friend of my boss’s and she said she’d help. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I didn’t tell you,” Riley said, turning to me, suddenly amped up.

  “What?”

  “So Rose’s friend, Lily, is getting married. Guess who one of her bridesmaids is?”

  I had absolutely no idea who she could be talking about.

  “Who?”

  Riley looked back to her mother. “Penelope Price.”

  “What?” Nora said with a laugh. “Penny is in the wedding you’re helping with? What a small world.”

  “Yeah,” Riley replied with a scoff. “Penny is a bridesmaid.”

  “Who’s Penny?”

  “Penelope is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Price, the couple my mother works for.”

  Oh shit.

  “Well, that must have been fun catching up with her,” Nora said just before taking a bite.

  “Nearly as fun as that one time I got stitches in my knee.” Riley looked at me with a new expression in her eyes. She looked angry and hyper, like she might steamroll over anyone in her way. “Twelve stitches. Right knee. We were in gym class in ninth grade and Penelope tripped me while we were p
laying tennis.”

  “Oh, Riley, she did not trip you.”

  “She did, Mother. She tripped me and I ripped my knee open on the turf.”

  Nora rolled her eyes and Riley stabbed a piece of lettuce on her plate. I picked up my Guinness and took a very long, deep pull. Then I took another one.

  “Why in the world would Penny trip you?”

  “Um, because she hated me,” Riley responded, her words dripping with anger and indignation.

  “Stop it, Riley. I don’t want to have this argument with you again. I just want to have a nice dinner.”

  I carefully slid my hand under the table and placed my palm on Riley’s thigh. I had seen her angry before, but this was a whole different animal. I didn’t know why she was so upset, but I didn’t like it and I wanted to do anything I could to soothe her.

  “Babe, take a breath,” I said quietly, squeezing her leg gently. “It’s okay.”

  “No, it’s not okay. My mom spent all four years I lived here ignoring anything negative I had to say about the Prices. I don’t know why I’m even surprised right now that she doesn’t believe me—again,” Riley spewed, caring not one bit that her mother was only three feet away and could hear everything she was saying. “This is why I never come back here. Somehow, Penelope Price was always the perfect princess and I was always, always, the one in the wrong.”

  “You could never forgive me for bringing you here, for taking you away from your home, and you never gave anyone here a fair shot, Riley. You took all your anger at me out against everyone else. They all tried to make you feel welcome, but you shut everyone down before they could get through your armor.”

  “So making me feel welcome is physically harming me? Or spreading rumors about me to the whole school?”

  Nora’s hands went to her forehead and even I could tell she was exasperated, but I didn’t know what to do to calm either one of them.

  “Do you know how humiliating it was to stand out on that street every morning, waiting for the school bus to pick me up, while all the other kids from my grade drove by in their new BMWs? Or their Range Rovers? I watched them all drive by and laugh at me as I waited for a bus with only five other kids on it who didn’t have their own top-of-the-line vehicles. Every day, Mom.”

  “So now it’s my fault because I couldn’t afford to get you a car?”

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Riley took in a deep breath and then pushed it out, trying to calm herself down, which I was thankful for in the moment. I took her hand in my free one and brought it to my mouth, kissing her knuckles. There was no way for me to anticipate Riley getting into an argument with her mother. I knew there was tension there, but not to that degree. I’m not even sure Riley knew that was coming.

  Her eyes met mine and even though she was angrier than I’d ever seen her, they softened a little with my touch. I might not have understood her anger, might not have agreed with her method of problem solving at the moment either, but I would hold her hand and support her while she figured out whatever she was working through.

  “Not a week went by where something didn’t happen, Mom. Whether it was big or small, something happened every week to make me feel inferior to them. But you always took their side. You always told me I was being immature or irrational.” Riley’s voice cracked and I watched as she shoved her emotions back, forcing herself not to cry, not to let that last wall down. “Just once it would have been nice for you to take my side, to believe what I was saying, or even acknowledge what I was feeling.”

  Silence fell over the table again, but it wasn’t awkward that time—it was absolutely uncomfortable. Riley seemed to be waiting for her mother to say the words that might heal almost ten years of heartache, and Nora looked as though she was lost, as though she had no idea how to bridge the gap that suddenly exploded between them.

  “I am always on your side, sweetie,” Nora finally whispered, clearly overcome with emotion. She and Riley had matching tears tracking down their faces. “Always.”

  Riley nodded slightly, wiping tears from her face as she said, “I could have really used those words back then, Mom.”

  “And I probably should have said them to you, but I was busy being a single mom trying to give her kids a good life on her own, working a full-time job, trying to put food on the table and a roof over yours and your brother’s head, clothes on your backs, and not completely lose my mind. I might not have been a perfect mother, Riley Marie, but I did the best I could. Now, I’m sorry if you feel like high school was a terrible time for you, but you might want to just stow that away in the ‘you and everyone else’ category of life and stop letting it affect you so much now.” Nora placed her hand over Riley’s free one and said, “You are such a strong and capable woman. I admire that about you. I don’t know where you got it from, but I’m so happy and proud of how independent and self-sufficient you are. You’re smart and beautiful and funny, and I love you more than you’ll ever know.”

  I let out a breath of relief. I didn’t know where Nora was going with the first part of that tirade, but she pulled out all the stops in the end. If I knew Riley, I knew being called independent and self-sufficient was the way into her heart. She didn’t ever want to feel like she needed anyone, which was why I considered myself lucky that she needed me. I’d managed to break through that barrier she built around herself, and I sat there hoping she’d let her mom in too.

  Finally, Riley broke.

  “I’m sorry, Mom,” she said on what would have been a sob if she hadn’t been holding in so much. “I didn’t want to fight with you.”

  “I know you didn’t, sweetie,” Nora replied, patting Riley’s hand.

  I leaned closer to Riley and kissed her temple. I felt awkward sitting there while they had this mother-daughter breakthrough, but nothing could have torn me away from Riley in that moment. She so rarely let me see her vulnerable. And it wasn’t even that I wanted to see her hurting or broken, I just wanted the opportunity to show her that being vulnerable around me wasn’t a weakness, that I wasn’t going to run the other way when she showed me her imperfections. I wanted Riley, real and raw, and I wanted to see every facet of her, wanted to understand her to the very depth of her character, and watching her and her mother have a personal and long-time-coming conversation was weirdly gratifying.

  “I still don’t like Penelope,” Riley grumbled as she wiped away a few more tears.

  “I surely hope someone wouldn’t hold something you did as a teenager against you for nearly ten years. Why don’t you give Penelope the benefit of the doubt and try to forgive her? I know you’ve had your issues with her, but I think she’s grown into a wonderful woman, truly.”

  “Well, hopefully I won’t have to see her very often.”

  Nora let out a sigh and I imagined she was holding back some more words, but she kept them to herself.

  “How often do you think you’ll be in Arizona to help plan the wedding?”

  Riley shrugged. “As often as Rose wants me here, I suppose. It’s hard to tell. I don’t think we’re here in an official capacity. We’re not treating it as a regular job, but Rose is definitely offering her help and mine. So, whenever she needs us, I guess we’ll be here.”

  “Well, I’m selfishly looking forward to seeing more of you. I was worried I’d have to wait until your wedding to see you again. When is the wedding, anyway?”

  “Yeah, Riley. When is the wedding?” I asked her with a smile. She rolled her eyes at me.

  “I don’t know,” she sighed. “Now that we’ve got the house, planning a wedding seems like a lot of work. And a lot of money.”

  I hated that she was stressed out about anything wedding related, especially now that she was planning someone else’s wedding again. The only thing I could think of to alleviate her stress was to put the wedding off, but that made a tight knot form in my belly. I wanted to be married to Riley, and postponing the wedding wasn’t my favorite idea. But I also loved her more than anything,
so I carefully broached the subject.

  “We could always plan a date far enough in the future that you don’t have to worry about it immediately.” Even saying the words made me sick to my stomach. I wanted Riley tied to me in every way possible. I wanted my ring on her finger. My last name on her driver’s license. I wanted her. Period. And as barbaric as it might have sounded, I wanted to own her and feel as though she belonged to me. It was totally Neanderthal of me, but it was an honest emotion.

  “You want to put off the wedding?” she asked, turning to me with concern in her eyes. Shit.

  “No, not at all. I want you to be happy and not stressed. I’m not worried about the wedding itself, I just want to be married. To you. Whenever that happens.”

  Her shoulders dropped at my words, but she didn’t look any less worried.

  “We don’t have to think about it now,” I said, running my hand up her back.

  “Okay,” she agreed.

  “No, there’s no hurry. Besides, a long engagement might not be such a bad idea, seeing as how you’ve only been together for a few months.”

  I could almost feel Riley holding her words back. I knew how she felt. That was the usual consensus, that Riley and I couldn’t be ready for marriage after only a few months. Or that our marriage was bound to fail. We’d had a million discussions about it and we both agreed it was all bullshit.

  I ran my hand up her back again but continued up into the hair at her nape, tugging it gently but firmly enough to have her look up at me. I leaned down and kissed her gently. Nothing obscene—her mother was right there, after all—but it was enough of a kiss to erase the tension in her body and let her know I wanted her, regardless of when.

  When I pulled back, it was only far enough to look her in the eyes.

  “Whenever we get married, nothing about it will matter except that you’re there, and I’m there, and when it’s over, you’ll be mine forever.” I whispered the words, not caring for anyone except Riley to hear me, but if Nora heard, maybe that was better.

  “I love you,” she answered softly.

  I kissed her again, quickly, then pulled back and released her.

  “This is delicious, Nora,” I said, turning back to my meal. “You said this was Riley’s favorite?”