by Taylor Brent
Her father shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Well… your mother was a twin, so… yes, I knew.”
Jill and Rose both gaped at him.
“How did I not know this?” Jill cried, throwing her hands in the air.
“I was going to tell you,” Niyol defended.
“What happened to her twin?” Jill asked. “Is she still out there somewhere?”
“She died when they were teenagers,” Niyol answered. “A drunk driver. It’s why your mother had such a hard time with the depression. She never really got over losing her sister.”
“Who would?” Jill muttered. “I can’t believe I didn’t know this.”
Niyol reached over to take her hand. “I’m sorry, Jill. I should have told you sooner.”
“It’s fine.” Jill sighed and squeezed his hand. “Really, it is. I’m tired, so I’m going to go lie down.”
Rose and Niyol watched her leave, frowning after her.
“I haven’t spent enough time with her,” Niyol said guiltily. “She should have known that about her mother. She should know so many more things about her mother. Maybe I should cancel my date with Margery.”
“Nonsense,” Rose snapped, jerking the phone out of his reach although he hadn’t even glanced at it. “Jill said herself that she’s tired and wants to take a nap. Knowing her, she’ll sleep for a few hours, at least. And she isn’t mad at you for not telling her. She’s just tired, uncomfortable, and hormonal. Not to mention, a little shocked about having twins, but she’ll be fine. You don’t need to cancel your date or feel guilty. The two of you just found each other. It will take time for these things to work themselves out. Jill knows that.”
Niyol hesitated.
“Go,” Rose urged him. “Or I’ll bring Jill down here to tell you these things herself. Won’t that be fun?”
Niyol glared at Rose but stood up to leave.
Smiling, Rose busied herself making a cup of herbal tea for Jill. Hopefully, it would relax her enough to fall asleep. Jill needed rest, and Niyol needed to let go of his guilt.
It seems my work is never done, Rose thought to herself.
Chapter Nine: A Date to Remember
Margery felt sixteen-years-old again. She had tried on over a dozen outfits before deciding on the one she was wearing now. The reject outfits lay in a heap on her bed, and she knew she’d need to put those away later, but right now, she gazed in the mirror, turning this way and that.
She was wearing a soft, flowing black shirt that ended at the top of her thighs. It had an off-the-shoulder neckline and long sleeves that flared at her wrists. She had paired it with dark skinny jeans and knee-high black boots. Her flaming red hair flowed freely down her back, but she had pinned back the strands around her face with a jeweled clip.
Margery didn’t often wear much makeup, but she had added a little shimmer to her cheeks and had put on eyeliner, eyeshadow, and mascara—just enough to enhance her features. It had brought out the green specks in her eyes, giving them a sparkle she hadn’t seen in years.
Or maybe Niyol had put that sparkle there. Either way, she was happy with the effect although not too happy about her freckles. She shrugged. There was little she could do about those. They weren’t going anywhere, and since Ainsley had the same ones, Margery had begun to appreciate her own.
Thinking of Ainsley made Margery smile and glance at her nails. It had been a long time since she had painted her nails due to her work at the diner, but last night she had taken a couple of hours to paint her fingernails a dark burgundy color that looked almost black. Ainsley had also wanted her nails painted, so they had made a night of it.
Thankfully, her daughter was too young to notice that her mom was preparing for a date. Margery was fine introducing Niyol to Ainsley, but she didn’t want to tell her they were dating so soon. Margery wasn’t even sure if dating was what they were doing. Niyol had asked her on a date, but that didn’t mean they were dating.
Margery had forgotten how difficult dating was. Sighing, she slipped a silver lariat necklace on over her head and gave herself one last look in the mirror. She would have to do.
A sharp knock on the door carried through her small cottage, and she bounded down the stairs to answer it, the butterflies in her stomach fluttering the whole way.
Niyol waited patiently outside Margery’s front door after knocking a few times. She didn’t have a doorbell, and he hoped she could hear his knock. He really didn’t want to bang on the door.
Not for the first time, he wondered if he was doing the right thing. Margery made him happy, and he loved spending time with her, but Jill’s outburst this morning had brought up a lot of old feelings. He wondered if he deserved to be happy when he had never made Haseya happy enough. Did he deserve happiness when he had failed his wife so completely?
Before he could think on it any more, Niyol heard footsteps approaching on the other side of the door before it swung open to reveal Margery smiling up at him. Her beauty hit him like a punch to the stomach, making it hard to breathe for a few seconds, but he recovered quickly. With a warm smile, he took her hand and pulled her into his arms.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered, cupping her jaw with his hands and trailing his thumbs across her cheeks.
“Thanks,” she purred. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”
Smiling, he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her with a hunger that surprised him. Margery responded feverishly, and Niyol forced himself to break the kiss after a few moments because he knew they would never make it out of her house otherwise.
“Ready to go?” he asked, grasping her hand in his and lacing his fingers through hers.
“Hmm?” she asked, still a little dazed.
“Are you ready to go?” he repeated, smirking.
“Oh. Yes,” she said, blinking the lustful haze from her eyes. “I’m ready.”
She turned and grabbed her purse from a small table just inside her door, then closed the door and locked it. Niyol led her over to his car, opening her door for her and helping her up into the passenger seat. As he pulled out of the driveway and turned onto a road leading toward the center of town, his thoughts turned to Jill.
“Is everything okay, Niyol?” Margery asked, noticing the way his brow had creased in concern.
He glanced at her and, sighing, told her about the morning’s events.
“You and Jill only just met, Niyol. It will take a little while for the two of you to build a relationship, but Jill already thinks the world of you. I can tell. Everyone in this town can tell. Finding out you’re carrying twins is not only shocking but scary as hell. Jill is hormonal and scared, but I don’t think for one second she blames you. Give your relationship time and trust her a little. Jill is a level-headed person. She knows you’re trying.”
He smiled at her, feeling a little better about it all. “Thanks,” he murmured.
A few minutes of silence passed while Niyol digested her words.
“Where are we going?” Margery asked, breaking the silence.
Niyol smiled and grasped her hand in his again. He didn’t know why, but when she was near him, he had to be touching her or he felt lost. “Ice skating at the local rink.”
Margery’s face paled a little.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know how to skate,” she croaked.
“How do you not know how to skate when you were born and raised in Utah?” Niyol asked incredulously.
“I had an… incident when I was little and was too terrified to learn after that. I never bothered to learn as an adult. Mitchell was a good skater, but he didn’t have the patience to teach me.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Niyol muttered darkly. “What was the incident?”
“My older brother took me skating on a pond with a bunch of other kids. He was supposed to be teaching me, but he got distracted by his friends, and I fell through the ice. I probably would have drowned if Rose hadn’t jumped in after me. She saved my li
fe, but I refused to go back out on the ice again.”
“We can do something different,” Niyol offered, squeezing her hand.
“It’s okay,” Margery said. “If we’re going to the public rink, there’s no risk of me falling in. Now, falling down is a whole other matter.”
“I played hockey when I was younger,” Niyol said, chuckling. “I have enough experience for the both of us, and I won’t let you fall.”
“I’ll hold you to that,” Margery said. “But I thought you grew up in Arizona.”
“Oh, I did. They had an indoor rink near the reservation, and I got to play for a few years when I was younger before the rink closed down.”
“So, I take it you liked playing?”
He nodded. “It was and is my favorite sport.”
They pulled up to the town skating rink a few minutes later and rented skates, and Niyol helped Margery put hers on. Grabbing her hand, he pulled her to her feet, steadying her when she wobbled. They scrambled over to the edge of the rink, and Niyol stepped onto the ice and skated a few feet before gliding back around and extending his hand to Margery. She hesitantly took it, and he pulled her onto the ice. She flailed a little before falling forward, but he caught her in his arms and pulled her upright. He wrapped one arm around her waist, resting his hand at her hip. He used his other hand to grasp her arm.
“Now, watch my feet and copy me,” he breathed into her ear, taking the chance to inhale her sweet floral scent.
Margery studied his feet and did her best to copy his movements. She wobbled and flailed a lot, but Niyol kept her upright.
He put on a little more speed, pulling her with him. Her hair flew back from her face and the wind bit at her nose, but she didn’t care. She was skating, and it felt wonderful. Laughter bubbled up and out of her as she clutched Niyol’s arm. Joining in with her laughter, he removed his arm from her waist, grasped both of her hands with his, and skated backward.
Margery laughed harder and squealed as he twirled her around. It was almost like dancing, and her heart sped up with excitement and adrenaline. Niyol was incredibly graceful on the ice. He looked weightless as he flew around her, his hands never leaving her body as he held her up and kept her from falling. She felt as if she was flying through the sky with him, and as long as he was touching her, she wouldn’t fall back down to earth. As long as he held her, she would be safe.
Niyol twirled her around him again before pulling her into his arms and doing a complicated spin while holding her close. The world around them blurred with the speed of the spin so that the only clear thing was his handsome face smiling down at her.
His eyes drew her into their fiery depths, hypnotizing her with a promise she couldn’t put a name to. She barely noticed their bodies slowing down as his head lowered toward hers, his mouth ready to capture hers in a passionate kiss.
Margery closed her eyes and tilted her face toward his. As his lips brushed hers, explosions danced behind her eyelids. She surrendered herself to him, allowing him to possess her, giving in to the need pulsing through her body. Niyol kissed her like no one else had kissed her before, exploring every corner of her mouth, claiming it for his own. Her heart skipped as the world fell away and she forgot where she was.
But then, her foot slipped out from under her, and she fell toward the ice. Niyol yanked her back but lost his own balance in doing so. At the last second, he rolled himself under her, taking the brunt of the fall as she landed on his chest. His breath left him in a soft oof.
“Are you okay?” she asked, reaching up to touch his face.
He grabbed her fingers and kissed them. “I’ll live,” he said, smiling.
She returned his smile. “I thought you weren’t going to let me fall,” she teased.
“Technically, I didn’t. I caught you before you hit the ice.”
Margery rolled her eyes as he scrambled up. He reached down and pulled her up easily laughing at the shriek she let out when he twirled her around again.
Chapter Ten: A Knight in Shining Armor
After another half hour, Niyol skated them to the edge of the rink.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
Margery nodded. “Starving.”
“Rose told me she would have dinner waiting for us at the inn if you would like to go there to eat. The only other place in town to eat is your diner, but we could go there if you prefer.”
“I like Rose’s cooking,” Margery said. “Let’s go to the inn.”
After removing and dumping their skates onto the used counter, they made their way back to Niyol’s car. He helped her into her seat before jumping into his own and pulling out of the parking lot. As he steered the car toward the inn, he laced his fingers in hers.
They ate a quick but delicious dinner at the inn, then joined Rose and the others down in the bar. Margery stayed away from Rose’s home-brew, deciding instead to try Danny’s root beer. Niyol spotted Jill and excused himself to go talk to her. Rose and Margery watched as he leaned over to speak to her. Jill frowned at him before throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly. She broke away from him and leaned her head closer to talk to him, squeezing his arm as she did so. It looked as if she was confirming what both Margery and Rose had told Niyol: she wasn’t mad at him.
Margery turned to Rose, but before she could say anything, Cathy marched up to them.
“I don’t see how you can guilt Mitchell into spending the whole weekend with his daughter, forcing him to cancel our date night, and then you show up here with a man—on a school night, no less,” Cathy hissed.
“Cathy,” Margery said with forced patience. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. I didn’t force Mitchell to do anything. All I told him was that instead of hiring a stranger to watch our daughter, he could bring her home to me.”
“So, if he wants to go out on a date with his wife, he has to bring his daughter to you? I don’t see why you always make him choose between me and Ainsley.”
Margery scowled. “What the hell are you talking about? He only has Ainsley every other weekend. Plan date night on the weekends she isn’t there. How hard is that? Why don’t you stop making him choose between you and his daughter? You’ve never cared one bit for Ainsley, and you never will.”
“She isn’t mine,” Cathy retorted. “I don’t have to be her mother, Margery. She has you. I put up with her for Mitchell’s sake, but I refuse to work my whole schedule and life around one little girl.”
“That ‘one little girl’ is your husband’s daughter, Cathy. If you refuse to ‘work around her’ then you are the one forcing Mitchell to choose. Not me. Back off and let them have a relationship. Ainsley sees him a handful of days each month while you get him all the time.”
“He is my husband.”
“And Ainsley’s father,” Margery bit back. “Do you realize you’re jealous of a child? Stop acting like a spoiled toddler throwing a tantrum and grow up, Cathy. Mitchell may say I’m the bitch, but you’re the one acting like a bitch right now.”
“What did you just call me?” Cathy snarled, taking a step forward.
“Play nice, Cathy,” Rose interrupted in a sharp voice, making Margery jump; she had almost forgotten Rose was there. “Or I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
Cathy turned toward Rose who raised one eyebrow.
“Whatever,” Cathy spat and stomped off.
Before Rose could say anything, Niyol walked up and sat down next to Margery. Noticing Margery’s mood change, he gave her a questioning look. “Is everything okay?”
“I’m fine,” Margery whispered.
Niyol looked at Rose who shrugged and gave him a pointed look. He would have to figure this one out on his own, but she was silently urging him not to give up. Sighing, Niyol turned to Margery to try again, but an angry Mitchell interrupted him.
“What did you do to Cathy?” Mitchell demanded, scowling at Margery.
She glared back. “I didn’t do a damn thing to Cathy.”
&nb
sp; “You got your friend here to threaten her.”
“Excuse me,” Rose snapped. “I told your wife she needed to behave herself and not start any fights in my bar, or I would throw her out. That is the same rule for everyone, Mitchell, and you know that.”
Mitchell glared at Rose, then glanced at Niyol who still had Margery’s hand clasped in his own, and his expression turned furious. “You are such a hypocrite.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Margery snapped.
“You give me a hard time and force me to spend time with Ainsley. You threaten to take her if I leave her with a babysitter so I can go on a date with my wife. But you can leave her with a sitter to go on a date with some guy you barely know.”
“First of all,” Margery said, “Ainsley is with my mother, who is making her costume for the pageant, not with a babysitter neither of us knows well. Second, you do not know who my friends are or how well I know this man, and you don’t get to know those things, Mitchell.
“You can throw words like ‘wife’ around all you like, but we all know you found that wife while you already had one—me. I didn’t have the luxury of finding someone while we were still married. I was at home raising our child while you fucked every girl in town who would have you. So, what I do now—on my own time—is none of your business, Mitchell.
“Oh, and I did not threaten to take Ainsley away from you. You have her every other weekend. You can date your wife on the weekends you don’t have your daughter. Don’t throw your guilt over Ainsley back on me. I am not married to you anymore, and I do not have to take it. Now, leave me alone.”
“Why do you always have to be such a bitch?” Mitchell hissed.
Before either Rose or Margery could answer, Niyol stood up. He towered a good six inches over Mitchell, forcing the angry man to look up at him.
