Breathless Awakening (The Breathless Series) (9 page)

“I’m over James. He hurt me–he was an ass, that’s that. The past is that, the past. I don’t want to get back into the scene, wondering if the guy is sincere or if he just wants in my pants.”

“You know an easy way to fix that? Wear a skirt.”

“Ha ha. Very funny. I don’t want to make it easier on them. I don’t know why I can’t find a guy without looking and going through all of that. Why can’t one just fall in my lap like Ryan and Celeste?”

“You don’t want that. You said it yourself‐you don’t want someone that only wants to get in your pants. Their relationship may turn into something more eventually, but we both know that is all he wanted to begin with. The difference is she’s fine with that. You’re a bigger person. Now, I’m not complaining since I got to enjoy that monster of a dick in his pants, but I’ve already got something working towards serious with her.”

“Damn, girl, you keep talking about his cock… Is it really that big?”

Just then, Ryan decided to stick his head in the doorway. I don’t think he knew what we were talking about, but I still felt the heat rising to my cheeks. “Hey, Amber, I thought I heard you in here. Didn’t expect to see you this early, thought I would say hi. I need to get back to Megan though, she really knows how to crack a whip and make a guy work.”

Amber looked at me with the biggest grin on her face. “Let’s just call it a butternut squash and leave it at that.” I felt like my jaw was about to hit the floor, and Amber’s grin grew even bigger. “You need to open up a little more if you want a chance of it fitting, Rhylie.”

“I don’t need anything quite like that. I’d like to walk the day after.”

Aileen

Walking back into the Great Room to talk to my sister, I made a point to look where I was going to avoid her wrath. Between almost stepping in the roller pan earlier and just about running into Tucker in the garage, I was wondering if I needed to get my eyes checked.

“Wow, Meg, you were right. That color looks amazing in here. I really didn’t care for it, but with all the natural light coming in, the stone of the fireplace, and the color of the hardwood… It all really does come together just like you said it would.”

“Do you know how many years I have been waiting to hear those words out of your mouth? Well, maybe not those exact words, but that message. Go on and say it for me, just this once.”

“Oh, alright. You were right, Megan.”

“Did you hear that, Ryan? I hope so because she won’t ever repeat it, and I need a witness. Is it about time to figure out lunch, or do I need to go get another bagel to snack on?”

Ryan looked down from the step stool he was using to trim the paint around the ceiling. “Lunch, huh? Oh, sorry, what did you say, Megan?”

“What is it with men, Aileen? All they ever hear is when you are talking about sex or food.”

Just then, Terry walked into the room. “Anything interesting going on in here? I hear you wanted to talk to me about something, my dear.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head and grin at my sister. “Yep, they can hear you talking about those two things a mile away, but ask them to do something and it’s like you don’t even exist.” I walked over to Terry and put my right arm around him, leaned up, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Honey, I think we need to buy some more stuff for the house.”

“What do you mean we need to buy some more stuff? We already have ordered a ton of furniture that will be delivered tomorrow. Why do we need to buy them more?”

“You saw how little Luke has. And the few things he does have aren’t really in that good of shape. Maybe we should donate it or something.”

“We are not getting rid of any of his things. I know he doesn’t have a lot, but why don’t we let them pick some things out when they get back. They have everything they need so it won’t matter if they have to wait a couple days for the new things.”

I started to pace around the room. “Terry, what can I do around here? Nothing. Don’t start to interrupt me, and you stay out of it too, Megan. We’ve all been through this today and I am tired of bringing it up as much as you two are tired of hearing it. Shopping is one thing that I would actually be able to do with one hand. And you really should think about donating some of his things. That recliner is horrific! It doesn’t match any of the décor, it has holes in it, and I think that might be where the smell was coming from when I was in the garage.”

“You want me to get rid of a man’s recliner? That’s crossing a line no man can cross. I’ll let you Febreze it if you want to, but that’s all you are doing to it. And you don’t have to worry about it matching the décor. We’ll just put it in his man cave.”

“Are you trying to live vicariously through him Terry? It sure seems like you are giving him everything you have never been able to have. Now that Cailyn is moving out are you going to turn her room into your man cave? Maybe you should just keep her bed in there then and you can sleep there for a while.”

Megan set the roller down in the pan and walked over to Ryan. “Come on, hot stuff, why don’t we go check on Celeste. I think you two have been apart long enough. Maybe I’ll even let you two sneak off for a few minutes since you’ve been so helpful today.” Ryan just about skipped out of the room.

“Aileen, calm down. I know you want to have everything perfect for them when they get home, but did you ever stop to think that they might like to pick out some of their own things? They are the ones that are going to have to live with it every day, not you or me. Why don’t we figure out what we are going to do for lunch, and then you can go with someone to pick it up. You can get out of here for a little while.”

“Fine, but once we get that furniture delivered, and we see how empty this place is, we are going to revisit this conversation.”

Terry

That woman was going to be the death of me. She always worried about my heart, making sure I always ate healthy, didn’t overdo anything too physical, and she was always on me about the stress at work. The one thing she never paid much attention to was the stress coming from her.

As I walked through the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of Celeste and Ryan walking down the hall. I would have called it sweet if I didn’t think they were going to get into some trouble if left unsupervised. I figured I could go check on them after I met Tucker in the backyard.

It took me a minute to figure out the lock on the sliding door, and then the thing was almost impossible to open. I jerked and pulled, barely getting it cracked enough to step through. A pain shot up my arm as I stepped out onto the deck to see Tucker hooking up the water hose to the faucet. He looked like a kid on Christmas morning, just waiting to run to the tree and see what Santa had left for him.

He looked up at me as he heard me fighting to get the door closed. “Mr. Donnelly, are you ok? You don’t look so good.”

“Yea, I’ll be fine.” I started to stretch my arm out a little bit to try to work out the muscle that must be shooting that pain down my arm. “I don’t know which one is more unpleasant, Tucker, getting old and out of shape, or just dealing with things that don’t work like they should. This damn door doesn’t want to open or close. I’ll have to let Luke know it needs replaced, or maybe he can do something with it. I never was as handy as he seems to be.”

After taking a few steps towards the stairs, I got a little lightheaded and stumbled toward the railing. I put up my hand to catch myself before I fell down the stairs, but as my hand went up to catch myself I felt a sharp pain run up under my fingernail. “Son of a bitch!”

“Are you sure you are okay, sir?”

A dog started barking a couple houses down. “I told you, son, I’m fine. I must have tripped over a loose board or something.” I looked down to my hand and there was a splinter about a quarter inch wide sticking out almost an inch past my thumbnail. “Damn, this hurts, and I’m sure it is going to hurt more when I pull it out.”

Breck and Jeremy stepped around the corner just then to see what all the commotion was about. As Breck took another dip from his flask, Jeremy looked at Tucker. “Hey man, what’s going on? Is everything ok?”

“Mr. D. tripped and got a splinter up under his nail. I can’t even look at it, it’s making me nauseous.”

“You think you are nauseous? I feel like the world is spinning and I’m going to pass out. Would someone be so kind as to go get me a Band‐Aid? No, not you Breck, I think I need that flask of yours for some liquid courage before I yank this thing out.” He may be drinking too much, but right now, I couldn’t help but think how handy it was to have him here with that flask.

Jeremy started to run off for a Band‐Aid before I could tell him not to say anything to Aileen. I could see it now; she would be out here in no time trying to baby me over all of this. Breck walked up to me with his flask out for me to take. “Here you go, Terry. Maybe it will bring some color back to you. You look a little pale.”

I tried to reach up with my left hand, since the splinter was sticking out of my right, and I couldn’t raise my arm up high enough to grab it. Breck had a concerned look on his face, but I could tell he didn’t want to step over any lines. He leaned down a little more to hand it to me. I was just barely able to lift my arm enough to get a sip out of it before Breck turned and walked away. Unfortunately, the flask was almost empty.

I could see him pull his phone out as Zane started around the corner with Jeremy and a Band‐Aid. Breck put his arm out to Zane to stop him and whispered something in his ear before putting the phone up to his ear. Zane turned and ran back inside with a panicked look on his face while Jeremy came over to sit next to me.

“Mr. D., I got you a Band‐Aid, but I think Zane went to get Mrs. D. so that she can take a look at your finger.”

“I don’t need her coming out here to coddle me boys. I’m a grown man; I think I can pull a splinter out.”

“Well, sir, I’m sure you can, and I understand that you don’t want to have her watching over your shoulder. But sir, put yourself in our shoes. Do you think we want to hear it from her about not letting her know you were hurt?”

“I suppose you have a point there. I wouldn’t wish her bad side on any of you boys.”

The nerve of the kid. Here I am with a splinter sticking out of the end of my finger, a pulled muscle in my arm and chest from fighting that door, and he has the nerve to smile at me. I could tell that it was completely fake, but that made it worse. I never thought trying to open a door would have caused me this much pain.

Jeremy sat there talking to me like he was trying to keep my mind off the situation. “I bet you have experienced it a few times over the years, haven’t you, sir? How do you usually get back in her good graces?”

Aileen came out of nowhere and was beside me, looking down with the most concerned look I had seen since Cailyn fell off her swing set and busted her chin open. “My God, Terry, are you alright? You are sweating up a storm.”

“I’ll be fine, dear, it’s just a little splinter.”

“A splinter, who cares about a splinter? Zane said you were having a heart attack.”

No sooner did the words come out of her mouth than the sirens started to scream their way through the neighborhood. Several others, including what sounded like a few beagles trying to match the melody of the ambulance, now joined that one dog that had started barking earlier.

As Breck walked up with the EMTs, he was spouting off information to them about my situation. Zane took Aileen by the hand and pulled her to the side. “Mrs. D., come on let’s step out of the way and let them get him checked out and taken care of.”

“Get your filthy hands off of me! I am not going anywhere. That is my husband and I am going to be right here with him.”

“Ma’am, I know that. I’m not asking you to leave, let’s give them a little room.”

Rhylie walked over to help calm Aileen down, and Megan was trying to get everyone else off to the side and out of the way. Looking around the only two I didn’t see were Celeste and Ryan, but I couldn’t think too much on that as the EMTs were asking me questions and hooking up monitors.

“Guys, I swear I am fine. I pulled a muscle in my arm, which pissed me off, and I wasn’t watching where I was going. I tripped over a board and lost by balance before getting this damn splinter stuck under my fingernail.”

Aileen turned to look at Rhylie as she stepped up into the ambulance, “My purse is inside. Could you have Megan bring it for me?”

The look that everyone had on their faces as they put me in the ambulance and the doors shut made it all sink in. I really thought I just pulled a muscle, but every single one of them looked as if they had just seen death step in behind me, and then I suddenly felt like an elephant had sat on my chest.

Chapter Eleven

Luke

As we snaked our way through the resort, I wondered where exactly we were being led. We left the lobby, walked out by three different bars and two pools, before finally reaching a path leading into a secluded portion of the resort. The young Isabella that had led us here smiled before handing a key card to me.

“We would like to congratulate you once again, and thank you for entrusting us with making these memories worthy of the love you share for one another. I am sorry that your bungalow is so far from the rest of the activities, but it is to ensure that you have as much privacy as possible. If you would like a tour later, please do not hesitate to ask.”

Cailyn grabbed my hand and started tugging me up the path. I couldn’t help but wonder if the privacy was for us, or so they didn’t have to deal with complaints from other guests being kept up all night. I wasn’t completely sure how we were supposed to have an ocean view when we had to walk into the jungle before we could get to our room. Cailyn was giggling like a little schoolgirl, pointing at the different flowers and funny looking plants that were growing along the path.

Everywhere we looked, we saw butterflies flittering around. I looked up as we heard chittering above us, and I saw a few Capuchin monkeys scampering up a branch. Grabbing Cailyn’s arm, I quickly pointed at them before they could disappear. She looked to see what I was pointing at and we saw a total of about fifteen of them watching us. I’m not sure who was more curious, them or us.