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~Cora~
I TENSED. He couldn’t be thinking... After Mark’s ultimatum, I wasn’t sure I could take any more declarations...even positive ones. I put a hand on his chest and pushed off him. “Dixon, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way before, either. Actually, I know I haven’t. I never connected with someone like I do with you. But things are so messed up right now...I’m messed up right now. I don’t want you to say something that you might...I don’t know...not regret—but maybe it’s too soon to say anything serious. I know it feels right to be with you, to be in your arms. No one else has ever turned me on like you do. I can’t imagine anyone else in my life but you. And I hope you feel that way too.” I looked at him, trying to gauge how my words were hitting him.
“I do feel that way. Nothing has ever felt so natural and right as being with you. I’ve never had that. I’ve never done relationships before...not real ones, where someone is a part of my life, a part of my heart. And part of that scares the hell out of me, but then I see you and all that goes away. Then it’s nothing but the need to be with you—just you. To be your sun and your moon.” He pulled my hand to his lips and gave it a soft kiss. “I’ll take whatever you’re willing to give, and give you everything I have.” He grinned. “Of course, I hope that includes a whole lot of what we just did.”
I laughed. Happy little bubbles percolated throughout my body. “Yeah. Definitely lots of that.” I kissed him quickly. “But we’d better get some sleep. It’s gonna be a busy day tomorrow, and I need you rested up to provide all the muscle needed to move me to Wendy’s place.” I wrapped a hand around one of his biceps.
He flexed. “Oh, gum drop, I’ve got plenty of energy for you and the move. Don’t you worry about that at all.” His grin only grew as he shimmied down, dipping his head between my legs.
And then he proceeded to prove his point.
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THE NEXT MORNING, IT was a whirlwind of boxes, clothes, belongings, a few furniture pieces and me, Wendy, Dixon, and Ryan loading it all up into Ryan’s truck. There was a stop at the storage center, where I was now the proud lessee of a 10 x 10 corrugated steel locker. After leaving the big items and not-needed items there, we headed to Wendy’s apartment.
I could never repay Wendy for her help. Only a true friend would let you move into your apartment on a day’s notice and never ask for rent or demand something in return.
“Wendy, thanks again. I know this is a big inconvenience.” We were in Wendy’s car, leading Dixon and Ryan in the truck. I looked over at her in the driver’s seat. “And I promise to not have gentlemen callers stay overnight.”
Wendy glanced at me and wiggled her eyebrows. “So, how is that going, anyway? I’m guessing that you might not be staying overnight at our place that much, if a certain ‘gentleman caller’ has his way.” She stopped at the light and gave me a longer look. “Give me the short version before we get to the apartment. Is it serious? Should I start prepping my maid of honor speech?” She hummed the Wedding March and then switched to Darth Vader’s theme. “Or am I going to have to go all Jedi on Dixon’s ass and squeeze the life out of him?”
I laughed. “No, no Jedi mind tricks or powers needed. And no maid of honor speeches. Not yet anyway. I’ve got a lot going on, sure, but Dixon and I are good. Better than good. But I’ve got some things to figure out.” I sobered up. “And top of the list is finding out if my father can really sell my grandmother’s house. It doesn’t seem right that he could do that, but he’s the trustee of the estate until my birthday. It’s less than a year from now, but if he can do anything until I take control of the estate, then I’m pretty much fucked.” I blew out a breath. And there was Mark’s marriage demand to figure out, too. How could I prevent him from buying the house and making good on his threat to tear it down if I didn’t marry him?
“And the other thing I’ve got to get under control is the fundraiser. The last thing I want to do is sit at the same table with my father, Mark, and his parents. I can fake a broken leg. What do you think?” I looked at Wendy, only half joking. The words about Mark hovered on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn’t force them out.
She looked back at the light and hit the gas when the light turned green. “I’m sorry to say that I don’t think that solves your problem. Broken legs don’t heal overnight...you know, like twisted ankles do.” She laughed. “A-ha! That’s it. Bring Dixon with you. He can distract you from anything your father or Mark tries at the dinner. And you’d have the satisfaction of making your point that neither of them are in charge of your life—you are.”
She had a point. Dixon would be a good distraction, and a definite move forward in living my own life on my own terms...if I told Mark a wedding definitely wasn’t going to happen. Mixing Dixon and Mark at the same function would only spell trouble, with Mark thinking he had the upper hand on my future. But the charity was important to me; the people it helped were people like me—people who’d lost loved ones to senseless violence.
“If I asked Dixon to go, it might be uncomfortable for him. I mean, I love my father and even I don’t want to be at his table...imagine how Dixon’d feel sitting there with him and Mark making snide comments. Or Mark’s parents...God knows how cruel they would be.”
“Could you just make an appearance? You know, show up, get a drink, mingle, and then get the hell out of there before the dinner?” Wendy glanced over at me and then turned in to the driveway to her apartment complex. “Home sweet home.”
“Well, I guess I could. I’m supposed to help out for the silent auction, but most of that is before the event opens up. I could excuse myself after that gets going...there are some other committee members who could cover for me.” I straightened up in my seat and took off the seat belt as Wendy parked. “Yeah, that could work.”
As we got out of the car, Dixon and Ryan pulled up next to us.
“Alrighty, let’s get this done!” Ryan slammed his door closed and walked to the truck bed to lower the tailgate. “Hopefully it’ll only take a few trips to get this last stuff taken care of.”
Once everyone had something in hand, we followed Wendy into the building and to my new living space.
After we’d gotten everything out of the truck and the boxes in my new room, along with minimal furniture in the space, I offered to take the group out for lunch. It seemed like the least I could do.
“Well, I wouldn’t turn down a beer and a burger at Jake’s.” Ryan clapped Dixon on the back. “And a little friendly bet on the game this afternoon.” He grinned at his friend.
Dixon laughed. “Yeah, right. A beer and a burger...but no bet. I’m tired of losing to you, bud.”
“I can’t help it if your team sucks.” Ryan pushed Dixon out the door. “But at least your taste in the ladies is improving!” He looked back at me and winked. “And she’s offering to pay for the beers, so let’s get a move on before she changes her mind.”
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AFTER AN AFTERNOON hanging out at the bar with Ryan, Dixon, and Wendy, I stopped worrying about my father, Mark, the inheritance...there was only room for happiness. And love.
If I’d been toying with the idea earlier, it was no longer just an idea. I had fallen—head over heels, like the sun into the sunset, like a feather to the ground, and like a drop from the tallest roller coaster—in love with Dixon. All those feelings surrounded me. The tumbling, stumbling excitement of finding him. The sinking into his welcoming arms. The softness of his touch. The pounding heartbeat just being near him.
“Hey there, gum drop. Where’d you go?” Dixon danced his fingers over my shoulder as we sat next to each other. Ryan and Wendy had left earlier, and it was just us two in the booth.
I looked at the mesmerizing eyes focused on my face. I traced his jawline. “I...well, I guess you caught me daydreaming.” My cheeks heated.
“Oh really? Daydreaming? Is there anything I can do to make those dreams come true?” He leaned in closer, brushing against the side of my neck. “Are those daydreams about night things?” A light growl seemed to echo, and I shivered against it. “In the middle of the afternoon?”
I laughed, recognizing the old country song lyrics. “Busted. But now I’ve got a roommate, so it’ll have to wait, I guess. Or...” I swallowed. “Maybe we could go to your place.” Suddenly, that was the only thing I wanted: to be alone with him, to cocoon with him in a bubble, and keep the world at bay. Reality would knock on the door soon enough; grabbing this magical time together was a luxury I wouldn’t turn down...and one I was becoming determined to chase after, regardless of the roadblocks.
“Best offer I’ve had all day. ’Course, any offer from you would be the best offer of the day.” He kissed me.
What was supposed to be a light, teasing kiss turned fiery-hot, burning up any anchor to the reality that we were in the middle of his brother’s bar. I couldn’t get close enough, and all these damn clothes were in the way.
I broke the kiss. “Then we’d better get out of here before Jake kicks us out for causing a disturbance. I’m pretty sure me peeling off your shirt is bound to get noticed not only by him, but by every woman in this place.” I scooted out of the bench seat and held out my hand. “I am a bit of a spoiled brat...I don’t like to share what’s mine.”
He took my hand as he stood and pulled me closer. His intense stare looked deep into my soul. “I like the sound of that...as long as you remember you’re mine, too.”
The rest of the world blurred away. All I could see was his face; all I could feel was his hand in mine. “I like the sound of that, too.” Happiness that couldn’t be contained spread across my face, and mirrored in his.
“Then let’s get outta here.”
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LIFE AS AN UNEMPLOYED person with no direction was a startling change. No office hours to get up for. No errands to squeeze into the day or spill over into the night. And even though we’d never spent time together at the office, just knowing my father was down the hall was reassuring in a way.
Of all the things I missed that first week, that was the biggest surprise. Maybe it shouldn’t have been. After all, he was my father. But then I’d think about how he and Mark talked about me that last day in the office, as though I were a mirror or some other inanimate object they were deciding how to showcase to make themselves look better. Maybe what I missed was my delusion that my father cared about me, not the reality that he apparently was fine with marrying me off for a business deal.
And there’s nothing like a day of no responsibilities to let your mind wander. By the third day, I’d cleaned every inch of Wendy’s apartment, organized every cupboard and closet, tossed all the old cosmetics in the bathroom, and perfected my vacuuming technique so I could leave those directional marks the hotel maids did in my old place.
Wendy humored me. After all, now she had a maid, she joked. But worry lurked behind her eyes when she looked at me.
“Okay, spill. I can’t tell if you are trying to plot your revenge against your father and Mark, or whether you’ve suddenly become the queen of organizing, ready to be the next Martha Stewart or Marie Kondo.” Wendy bumped my hip while we stared at each other in the bathroom mirror, her getting ready for work and me getting ready for...nothing.
“I don’t know either. I mean, there’s an appeal to being the next Martha Stewart...I can buddy up with Luke Combs like she did with Snoop Dogg, and we’ll get a show on cable.” I laugh-snorted. “Of course, I’d skip the jail time that Martha did.”
Wendy laughed. “Yeah, you can totally skip that. Although, maybe there’d be a cute prison guard I could, you know, distract when I came up to visit you at the minimum-security lockup. I could promise him all sorts of things so he’d make sure you had an easier time in jail.” She wiggled her eyebrows and swiveled her hips.
I sighed. “I don’t think I’m cut out for Martha’s life, even with famous singer friends. I guess I’ll have to start figuring out how to make sure my father and Mark don’t get their way.” I blew out a breath and my hair fluttered in my exasperation. “I just have no idea where to start.”
“Well, you need to figure out whether the trustee of your grandmother’s estate can sell the property. If the answer’s no, then you are good to go. If the answer’s yes...” She turned to face me directly. “Well, you could buy it, right? I mean, I know that’s not what you planned, but it’s an option, right?”
I chewed my lip. “It’s worse than that. There’s something I haven’t told anyone yet.”
Wendy stared at me. “Now what? What could be worse than you having to buy the house you were supposed to inherit?”
“Mark...he told me that if I don’t agree to marry him, he will buy the property from my father, and then tear everything down. Everything. Not a stick left of my grandmother’s home.” A tear slid down my face. “And I have until the night of the fundraiser to give him my answer.”
“Who the fuck does he think he is? I can’t believe he’d actually think you’d agree.” At my garbled gasp, Wendy calmed down a bit. “What are you going to do?” Wendy rubbed my arm. “And what about Dixon? Haven’t you told him yet?”
“Nope. I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud to anyone, especially Dixon. He’d tell me that I shouldn’t give up my dream for him. He’d expect me to kick him to the curb and marry Mark.” I looked down at the floor. “If I married him, Mark promised he’d ‘let’ me renovate the barn and run it as an exclusive guest house. We’d live in the main house, and I’d be in charge of his social calendar. He thinks that’s some kind of compromise he can live with.”
When I looked at Wendy, her eyes were narrowed, her eyebrows pulled down.
“Well, I think you need to find out exactly what your rights are as the beneficiary of the trust. Maybe you can find a lawyer who’ll find a loophole or something. ’Cause I think the last thing you want to do, Cora, is marry Mark to only have half of your dream, especially when anyone can see it’s Dixon you belong with.” Wendy puckered her lips and fixed her lipstick.
With a final adjustment to her hair, she walked out of the bathroom. Over her shoulder, she said, “But first, take a damn shower and put on some real clothes. No house chores for you today. Today, you conquer the first step to your future...whatever the hell that step is.”
I stared in the mirror. Wendy was right. Today was the day to stop wondering and to start doing.
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“THANKS, GAIL. I APPRECIATE you following up.” I hung up the phone and stared out the window. Any slight hopes I had of the law being on my side disappeared like the petals of a flower in the wind. Submitted to the cruel winds of nature in her glory. My high school friend Gail worked for a firm in town and she’d made a few inquiries with her law firm’s trust lawyers, and the trustee of an inheritance had authority to sell property, without any input from the beneficiary. The only thing a trustee couldn’t do was sell to a company they owned, or benefit from the sale of property. Considering it didn’t seem like my father was trying to sell the house to the hotel or any of its subsidiaries, he was within his rights to sell. And selling to Mark didn’t qualify as benefiting, even though it was exactly what my father wanted.
He’d just not be honoring the intent of my grandmother. Or keeping faith with me.
I hung my head. A single tear welled up in the corner of my eye, and I let it hang there. If I could control that one tear, I could control them all. Gravity won, and it slid down my cheek. And another, and another. Like my dreams, my tears slipped away. With each tear, a fire started to burn. It was unfair. It was mean-spirited. It was petty. It was controlling. What started as a small flame grew into a bonfire, fed by the last remnants of love I had for my father, and contempt for Mark. These two men thought they could mold me into what they wanted, but the energy of that growing inferno would only make me stronger.
And more determined to find a life and a love of my own.