Kelsey’s mother let out an exasperated sigh.
Although Damon had no interest in meeting Loretta’s gaze anytime soon because of their impromptu hug, he had a difficult time getting a feel for her as a person because she seemed more detached than her husband. He could tell that she cared deeply about her children, but something about her relationship with Kelsey told Damon that they’d had a falling out more recently than Loretta’s statement about a disconnect occurring when Kelsey turned five. Then again, when two people were upset with one another, they either ignored each other, pretended as if nothing had happened and appeared overly friendly in a passive-aggressive way, or they overreact. But whatever prevented Kelsey from having the type of relationship her mother had with Alex seemed like a mutual misunderstanding, at least from what he could tell. After all, they both seemed like loving women filled with too much pride and stubbornness.
Hearing Kelsey’s voice, Damon shook off those thoughts and set his attention on the game, surprised that she had chosen a card.
“Okay,” she said, tightening her lips. “First clue: kneeling.”
“Priest,” said Paul. “Confession.”
“Think: tradition. Custom. Man and woman.”
“Couple,” said Loretta. “Romance. Relationship. Marriage.”
“You’re close.” Kelsey looked at Paul, encouraging him to guess by nodding at him to continue guessing.
He looked at her and squinted, perplexed.
“Couples do this when they’re committed to each other.”
“Monogamy,” said Loretta, now on a role. “Sacrifice. Childbirth!”
Paul shook his head. “Kneeling,” he said, repeating Kelsey’s clue. “Custom. Man and woman.” He glanced at Loretta. “Romance…relationship…marriage,” he said, repeating the words she’d already chosen.
“It’s one word,” Kelsey said, irritated. “Come on. Think grand gestures.”
“Kneeling,” he said once again. “Marriage.” Then his face brightened. “Oral sex?”
“Oh, my God!” Kelsey shouted as she threw up her arms, squirming in her chair and turning away from her parents. Her cheeks blazed bright red.
Clueless to her discomfort, Paul said, “But it’s one word, so it has to be…fellatio. That’s it: fellatio! Fellatio!”
With raised eyebrows, Glenn stared at him, aghast and appalled. “Propose,” he blurted out. “Sweet Jesus, the word is ‘propose’”
Kelsey pointed at him. “That’s it!” She grabbed another card, but the sand in the hourglass hit bottom, ending their team’s turn.
Damon exchanged a dazed glance with Cassandra. Far from wanting to laugh at Paul, he felt sorry for him. How embarrassing! Then he looked at Kelsey.
She had draped a hand over her eyes.
Paul’s disastrous turn intimidated Damon a little; he’d never played Taboo before, and he didn’t want to end up making a fool of himself like Paul had done. Damon felt ill-equipped to begin describing terms to his teammates, but Cassandra insisted, so when it was his team’s turn, he took the first card and couldn’t help but grin. He loved the word: fake. He couldn’t use the words: false, counterfeit, imitation, forgery, or phony. It should be all too easy to get his teammates to guess this term.
Alex turned over the hourglass.
Damon knew exactly where to start. “Milli Vanilli.” After his teammates said “liar,” “pop duo,” “dancers,” and “lip-synching,” he countered with, “insincere.”
Paul, who looked apprehensive, looked at Damon with a hesitant stare. “Deceptive.”
Damon grinned at him. “Let’s not make this about you. Besides, only my team can answer. But you’re close.” He glanced at Kelsey, who obviously loved this game, because she didn’t catch his blatant putdown and couldn’t sense the underlying current of combativeness between him and Paul, who now set his jaw and glared at him. Damon said, “Wrestling. Silicon breasts. Hair extensions.”
“Dishonest,” Glenn said.
Damon shook his head while glaring at Paul. “The answer is…fake.”
Alex clapped. “Take away a point from their team for giving away the answer.”
“Excuse me?” Paul asked, easing forward in his chair with an intense expression.
“First, I agreed that you’re deceptive. Then just a second ago, I called you a fake.” He traded the card he held for another one. He had no intention of getting into a fight, even though he would love nothing better than to step outside and give Paul a lesson in humility. But doing so would hurt Loretta’s feelings and cause friction in her home. Besides, she already had her doubts about him…and for good reason, even if she misperceived their awkward greeting – not that he’d even bother touching on the subject. (He couldn’t imagine how creepy that conversation would sound.)
This time, clarifying his feelings caught Kelsey’s attention, and she frowned at him then turned back to Paul, who replaced his petulant expression for one of displeasure as he looked at her.
Damon decided to leave the insult behind, knowing full well that Paul wouldn’t forget it. He glanced at the next word: flaccid. He had to stop himself from chuckling. He couldn’t use the following words: soft, flabby, weak, soft, or limp. Only one word came to him, but he didn’t want to use it because of the sexual undertones. So he decided to work around that topic, but that one expression refused to leave his mind, and as the seconds ticked by, he tried but couldn’t come up with a different phrase.
“What are you waiting for?” Cassandra shouted.
Glenn said, “Spit it out, son.”
Hearing that endearing term, the same one Glenn had used with Alex, made it difficult for Damon to concentrate, so he settled on what came naturally. “When a man can’t get it up, he is…”
Kelsey’s eyes shot up in surprise.
“Wow,” Cassandra said. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“He doesn’t get erect, he is…”
Loretta sniffed at him. “Obviously not you!”
Now Alex started laughing.
“What the hell does that mean?” asked Glenn, turning to her, lips pursed with aggravation.
Damon couldn’t keep the color from reaching his cheeks. They felt as if they’d baked in the summer sun for hours. He should have passed on this card and selected another. It would have cost his team a point, but it would have prevented Glenn from thinking that Damon had made a pass at his wife.
Kelsey analyzed him, searching for answers, but they appeared beyond her grasp, so she shook it off. “Not in the mood.”
“Disinterested,” said Cassandra.
Damon glanced at the sand slipping down the hourglass: he had another twenty seconds, at least. His head pounded. It felt like a hand had clutched his throat.
Glenn pounded a fist on the table, making the board game bounce half an inch off the table. But he didn’t say a word. He simply glared at Damon and a grunt erupted from his mouth.
Shocked by the abrupt reaction, Damon said, “The opposite of a hard-on.” He couldn’t believe the words had slipped out of his mouth – not exactly appropriate conversation following Thanksgiving dinner!
“Ooh,” said, Cassandra, “most of the guys I’m interested in.” She put a hand to her chest, startled by her admission. “Okay, too much information.” She glanced down, looking as if she wanted to slink under the table. “Sorry, Damon.”
Damon had no idea how this game had gone south so quickly. Looking for a way out of this nightmare, he glanced around the table to find Paul, who sat back with both arms folded across his chest, wearing a triumphant smile.
“Time!” Alex shouted. He gestured with both hands as if to ask “What’re you doing?”
Damon cocked his head to the right, indicating that they should talk outside.
Alex got out of his seat. “Time-out.” He went over to Damon. “We’re going outside to discuss…strategy.”
“You’re not even on the same team,” Paul said with a snicker.
Damon stood
up and headed for the front door.
“There he goes again!” Marisa said. “What’s so fascinating outside? It’s like forty degrees out there.”
The moment Damon opened the front door and felt a gust of cold air hit his face, he felt the tension subside. It became easier to breathe, to concentrate.
“What was that in there?” Alex asked.
“Well, first off…that whole issue with your mom? Before she came out to greet me, I was looking at a picture of your sister in that cheerleader uniform.”
“That’s disgusting. She was sixteen.”
“I wasn’t thinking about her wearing that outfit then. I was thinking about her wearing it now.”
“Too much information, dude.” Alex held out his hands, trying to shake the image from his head. “First, we’re never talking about this topic again. Ever! Second, why the hell are you busting on Paul?”
“Because he’s a dick.”
“And Marisa finally told me this morning that you were the one who decked him last month. What was that about?”
“I’d bumped into him at a club when he was on a date with Kelsey.”
“So?”
“He thought I didn’t know her. He was talking about…look, you don’t want to know what this douche bag was saying. Just know that I have your sister’s best interests in mind. Trust me on that.”
“So you clocked him.”
“Oh, hell yeah. That fucker deserved it. And best of all? It felt fucking great!”
Deep in thought, Alex reflexively put his hands on his hips and circled Damon. “So what are you saying? He’s using my sister?”
“He has to be. From what he said—”
“Wait. You either know that he’s using her, or you don’t. It’s one or the other.”
“He is. Definitely. I just…don’t know how. Yet.”
“You aren’t making any sense. You realize that, don’t you?”
“Only to you because you don’t know this guy. I wasn’t kidding when I said he’s a fake. Trust me. You don’t want him getting mixed up with Kelsey.”
“Okay, how about giving me something to go on.”
“It’s not something you’d want to hear.”
“You’re probably right. But it’s something I need to hear.”
“No. It feels wrong.”
“I’m just trying to understand things. And you’re making it difficult to believe you.”
Damon grasped his friend by the shoulders. “A couple months ago, you placed all of your trust in me. And what happened? Now you’re with Marisa. Don’t I deserve your trust?”
Alex searched his friend’s eyes.
Damon saw misgiving there, but the longer they held eye contact (and since doubt didn’t flicker on his face), Alex’s apprehension soon drifted away.
“Okay, fine.” Alex stood up straight, looking more demanding, more unrelenting. “But you and my sister…you two won’t be a couple. I don’t have to remind you of that, do I?”
Only now did Damon realize what he needed…a woman to believe in him. And he wanted—no, he needed—that woman to be Kelsey. “Just trust that my intentions are good. You’re all I’ve got, I can’t…” Once those words escaped his mouth, he couldn’t take them back, and he couldn’t stop lying to himself anymore: Damon was lonely.
He didn’t have parents. He didn’t have cousins. He didn’t even have any friends. Except for Alex. And he wanted what his best friend had: a connection. People who cared about him. And people he could support when they were down. He needed that more than he’d ever needed anything in his life. Perhaps Alex had sensed this at the table when he covered for him when he’d gotten teary-eyed.
Alex remained quiet for a stretch of time. He swallowed. “Okay.” He drew closer and waited a long beat before Damon finally looked him in the eye. “I’ve got your back.”
* * *
After Damon returned briefly to collect Cassandra and take her home, Kelsey walked Paul to the front door. She didn’t know what to say to him, now that she felt a little…uncertain about where they stood in terms of a romantic relationship. She didn’t want to seem too interested or too disinterested.
She hadn’t been in this situation since high school, when she had told an interested guy, Chester Abbingdon, exactly how she felt. Rebuffed, he cursed at her, calling her a tease, a bitch, and a lousy lay – even though they hadn’t even gotten to first base. She presumed based on the way his neck turned scarlet that his embarrassment made it difficult for him to control his emotions.
That didn’t stop him from telling his buddies that they’d had sex. Until that development, Kelsey had given him the benefit of the doubt, considering that he nursed broken pride. But when he lied and the rumors circulated, she tore into him, telling her friends what really happened. It surprised her that the rumor mill actually believed her tale, which resulted in Chester getting ostracized…for one day, until he scored the winning touchdown, capping an undefeated season for their school’s football team. And then, of course, plenty of girls had forgotten that he’d lied and tried to publicly humiliate a girl who wanted to slow things down because she couldn’t gauge her feelings. It turned out that at least eight other girls, over the course of the next two months, didn’t have similar reservations.
Paul stepped through the threshold and turned back to her. “It was great meeting your parents.” He struggled to maintain a buoyant smile. “Your father is…”
“Intimidating? Sometimes obnoxious? Full of pride?”
He shook his head. “I was going to say interesting. I haven’t met anyone like him before.”
“He’s one of a kind, that’s for sure.”
“And your mom is really nice. One day, when you’re ready, I’d like to hear what happened between you two.”
Kelsey couldn’t help glancing back to the dining room, where her mother laughed with Alex and Marisa about something or another. She wished they had a stronger mother/daughter bond, but they lacked that rapport for reasons she didn’t understand. She turned back to Paul and just nodded. “I wish we were closer.”
“You will be,” Paul said, sounding all but certain. “I have a feeling you two will work it out.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“There’s sadness in her. And I think it might have something to do with you.”
Having such an intimate relationship broken down by a stranger made her stomach clench. The feeling left her feeling on edge, irritable.
“I didn’t mean to sound so—”
“Disruptive? Annoying? Rude?”
“I was going for intrusive, but…okay.” He raised both hands in surrender, walking backwards without turning away from her. “I get the hint. I’ll leave now.”
“Paul,” she said, calling after him. She didn’t mean to sound so grating, so…hurt. “I didn’t mean it.”
“Yes, you did. You can lie to yourself, but I won’t let you lie to me.” His expression crinkled into disappointment. “Happy Thanksgiving, Kelsey.” Then he spun around and walked away. He didn’t look back.
A moment later, from behind her, Marisa said, “That didn’t sound good.”
Kelsey shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“What do you mean?”
“Paul has been nothing but kind, and I just…”
“Don’t feel anything for him?”
“Shouldn’t I? It’s been three dates. I invited him because he isn’t pushy or creepy or judgmental. I wanted to see how he’d be with the family. I thought that would help tell me how I should feel about him. But I’m even more confused now than before. Obviously, my dad doesn’t care for him. My mom, on the other hand—”
“Has already gotten wedding preparations under way?”
Kelsey didn’t fall for the attempt at humor. “No, but she liked him. And she’s never liked any of the guys I went out with.”
“Neither has your dad. So why do you think your mom likes him so much?”
“Because he has good manners. No other guy has offered to clear off the table. I wonder what they chatted about when they were in the kitchen.”
“You, of course. What else would they have in common?” Marisa grabbed her coat from the wooden peg mounted to the wall and retrieved Kelsey’s coat as well and handed it to her. “Let’s take a walk.” They started down the sidewalk, watching Paul’s silver Ford Explorer speed away.
Kelsey gestured toward the vehicle as it turned down another street, out of sight. “That’s interesting. Does Paul seem like the kind of guy to drive an Explorer?”
Marisa shook her head. “I’d peg him for a Toyota Corolla. Maybe a Hyundai Sonata. Or how about a—”
“So you get my point. Now, that type of mystery would normally catch my interest. But something feels off. A few dates usually give me enough information to figure out if I want to spend more time with someone. But I can’t get a get a handle on him.”
“In what way?”
“I can’t tell if he’s sincere.”
“Example?”
“Okay, did he look like he wanted to say grace?”
“Yes.”
Kelsey threw up her hands. “See? That’s what I’m saying. But how about helping my mom with the dishes?”
“I didn’t buy it.”
“Neither did I. But it seems like something he’d actually enjoy. Yeah, I know; doing dishes: what woman wouldn’t appreciate that? I pass by the kitchen a couple dozen times a day at both of my restaurants combined, and I would be happy to never see a dirty dish at home. But that’s why I’m having such a hard time. Am I overreacting? Am I overthinking this?”
“No. I’d be just as confused. How about the heat factor? Is there anything there?”
“You’re the one who told me I jump too quickly into relationships, so I’m following your advice to go slow with things.”
“How’s that working for you?”
“Better than scripted. I don’t feel much passion – on my side, anyway. As for Paul, I’ve seen him lingering on the Boobsey twins: Natasha and Lucinda.”
One Last Promise (A Bedford Falls Novel Book 2) Page 14
