Good Morning Heartache (5 page)

There was not a chance in
hell Riley was going to touch the steering wheel of the Porsche. Right there,
Alexis decided she was going to keep her keys locked in the wall safe in her
closet. She figured there was a fifty percent chance Riley would get into a car
accident that summer and a zero percent chance it was going to be in the
Porsche.

As they sped through the
rest of the loop, Alexis was reminded of the time she spent on this campus.
Mostly good memories came back to her, and she felt a longing for the innocence
she possessed when this was her school. Before she met Frank. Before her
parents died. When the only thing she worried about was a midterm or whether or
not Henry Jacobson saw her fall in volleyball.

God, she had been naïve. She
looked over at her sister, who had pulled out her cell phone and was texting
someone. Riley never got to have that innocence. Not really. A sense of shame
washed over Alexis for not better protecting her from the world. It wasn't like
she could tell her that her parents were on a much extended vacation. Alexis
found it impossible to lie after Frank left (though she could fake a smile if
needed), and besides that, it just wouldn't be fair. She could have done
something
,
though. She could have been a better sister, a better guardian. She just didn't
know how. And now, she figured, it was too late.

Riley had just finished her
junior year of high school. She was going to be eighteen in a few months and
with that birthday came the responsibility of managing herself and her own
trust. Alexis knew it was wrong, but she would be happy to shed the
responsibility. This, after all, was not what her life was meant to be. To be
free of the little responsibility she still had for Riley was exciting, and she
anticipated Riley’s eighteenth birthday more than she had anticipated her own.

The sisters drove in silence
for the hour or so it took to get to Alexis's house. Riley spent the entire
time engrossed with her phone's beeps and buzzes while Alexis failed to think
of anything to say. It was probably for the best. Even when she wasn’t doing it
deliberately, almost everything Alexis said to Riley provoked her.

After Riley started school,
Alexis sold the house they grew up in. It was painful being in Weston. Everyone
knew about her parents. Everyone knew about Frank. And everyone gave her the “poor
dear” look. Alexis was sick of it. She built a beautiful, smaller house in
Maple Field. It was hers, and she’d much rather people look at her with the
fear that she was going to seduce all the men in town. As an attractive single
woman in her twenties, it hadn't taken long to build that kind of reputation in
a town of about 3,000 people, even if she hadn’t done anything to earn it—yet.
They wanted to know all of her business, so she returned the favor and butted
in theirs whenever possible. This was how she spent most of her time.

Alexis would never sleep
with another woman's husband on purpose, but it was fun making them think she
might. They deserved it for labeling her before she gave them any real reason
to or before she really started having fun with men. For a while she thought
men were good for nothing. Eventually, she recognized what they were good for:
manual labor and sex. She could handle pretty much everything else without
them, and she preferred it that way.

This was another reason she
hated summertime with her sister. The dry spell. Alexis had to set some sort of
example. She couldn’t stay out all hours of the night and leave a teenage girl
sitting alone in her house, and she didn’t feel right bringing men into her
home—she didn’t do that even when Riley was at school.

Ryan would likely be the
last until she could sneak one in, and that probably wouldn't be for a while.
She tended to feel obligated to spend some time with Riley for at least the
first week. At least she'd try to build the semblance of a relationship; the
brat rarely gave her the same courtesy.

Ryan's hard body and
scratchy beard had left a very good impression on her, and for the second time
she wished she had taken him up on one more that morning. He'd be good material
for her fantasies, regardless. It would be difficult to forget a lay like that
for a while, and the dark love bite on her hip that wouldn't fade for a few
days would help.

Alexis felt a heat rise in
her as she remembered how he marked her, and she bit her bottom lip to bring
her concentration back to the road ahead of her. The man’s sex appeal was
practically lethal.

Alexis pulled onto the
laid-brick driveway. The pattern of the different colored pavers created a
simple square modeled on a quilt her grandmother had made. She was sentimental
like that, but it wasn't something she shared with people.

The white house sat on three
acres of land, and the back of the property butted up against a small pond. She
had the entire property fenced off with a six-foot tall wooden dog-ear fence.
The front of the house was very unassuming. The people of the town believed it
to be a small house, perfect for a small family, though they considered it much
too big for Alexis, who was all by herself most of the time. The street side
appeared to be two stories with a room above the two-car garage and a
triangular roof. To the left of the garage, and set back a bit, was a small
porch that led to a bright red door. There were a total of three windows on the
front of the house, not including those at the top of the front door and lining
the top of the garage doors.

What the people of Maple
Field didn't know was they were seeing about a quarter of the whole thing. In
all, the house was three stories and had top of the line everything, including
hardwood floors, marble tile and countertops, and custom cabinets. It was
almost 4,000 square feet, and Alexis regarded it as just big enough.

Weekly, she would bring in a
maid service and a landscaper, and otherwise only her closest friends and Riley
had been inside. Before the house was finished, and after her parents’ house
was sold, she rented a tiny cabin nearby. She had brought men there a few
times, but it made her feel too vulnerable. And once this house was finished,
she never considered inviting one inside.

The garage door ticked up
its track, and Alexis pulled her car into the relatively empty garage. There
was no reason for her to have the things one would normally find in a garage,
so she didn't bother to buy them. The only thing besides the Porsche was the
Volvo, and most of the time Alexis forgot it was there.

Without saying anything,
Riley pulled herself from the car and walked into the house. Alexis started to
yell after her to grab her bag from the car but decided it wasn't worth the
fight. When Riley wanted the bag, it would be where she left it.

Alexis grabbed her own
garment bag, which was lying folded in the trunk, and moved into the house.
Everything was as she left it two days ago. The sunlight streamed through the
window into the small living room. She turned and walked down the hallway, past
the staircase, and into the real living area: a great room, dining area, and
kitchen. A woman with a family would love this part of the house, but Alexis
generally had little use for it.

Riley had already planted
herself in front of the 65-inch flat screen television that hung from the wall.
At least someone was using it. It only depressed Alexis to see how quickly and
frequently someone could release a new story for television when not a single
idea had struck her in years. She debated not getting a TV at all, but she had
to watch the Red Sox and Patriots games, and she wanted to feel like she was on
the field with all of those muscular men.

Alexis slung the garment bag
over the white and gray marble of the breakfast bar as the doorbell rang. Riley
jumped out of her seat and over the couch and ran to the front door. Alexis had
never seen her sister so excited before.

The front door slammed, and
Riley shuffled back into the kitchen holding a long box. She tossed it on the
counter. “It’s for you.”

Alexis pulled out the card,
which was always her favorite part of the delivery, and read it. “‘There is no
remedy for love but to love more.’—Richard.”

Richard Dunn was a loser. He
always used a quote in his card to tell her how he was feeling. This time it
was Thoreau and super lovey. It was starting to get annoying.

It dawned on Alexis that
this was the first time the flowers had been dropped off when she was at home.
She looked up at her sister who was back on the couch with her eyes glued to
the television. “Who brought these?”

Riley shrugged. “I don’t
know.”

“Did you see the guy? Was it
a flower delivery person or someone else?”

“How the hell am I supposed
to know? Do you mind? I’m trying to watch this.”

“What did he look like? Was
there a car in the driveway or the street?” If it was Richard, he broke the
restraining order. It would make her day if she could call the police on him.

Riley glared at Alexis and
pointed at the TV. What a brat.

Alexis opened a drawer and
pulled out a pair of scissors. She removed the lid to the long-stemmed red
roses, pulled them out of the box, and began chopping them into pieces with the
scissors over the box, as she always did, before having it picked up and delivered
to Richard’s house.

“Are you hungry?” Alexis
tried to be causal.

“Yes, but don't make me
anything,” she replied dismissively.

Alexis knew not to take it
personally. She had more take-out containers in her fridge than cans from the
grocery store. Her cooking left something to be desired, and that was being
nice.

“I don't have to make it. We
can order something.” Alexis remained calm and attempted not to be dismissive
in return, but she seriously struggled.

“I'm going out,” she said.
Not once had Riley looked up at Alexis to talk to her during this conversation,
and it was really pissing Alexis off.

“With whom?” Alexis was
surprised. Many of the kids at her school were from out of state, and for the
first summers of high school, Riley had spent her vacation in her room or on
the couch. She had never mentioned friends before now. Not that she would.

“Jimmy.”

Riley loved to be
purposefully vague. She knew it ticked Alexis off, and she pushed that particular
button frequently. Alexis took a deep breath to keep from yelling. Alexis
rationalized that if she stopped giving her a reaction, Riley would stop doing
it. She had yet to be successful.

“Who's Jimmy?”

“My boyfriend.”

“Are you still on birth
control?” Alexis didn't care if her sister was having sex. She expected she
would be by now, but she didn’t want a baby to take care of, which is what
would happen if her sister was stupid enough to get pregnant.

“God, why do you have to get
into my business?”

Riley managed to deflect
both questions, and Alexis was beginning to feel the red heat of anger in her
face.

“Screw whomever you want,
Riley. Just don't get knocked up.” She shouldn't have said it. She knew from
the first word she should stop, but she couldn't. There was something about
this girl with the same hazel eyes and long, thin nose that raised hell in her.

Riley's phone beeped, and
she flicked the touch screen before she stood up and looked at her sister for
the first time since they got home. Glaring at Alexis, she said, “You're such a
bitch.” She grabbed her small purse off the back of the couch and then
announced, “Jimmy's outside,” and walked to the front door.

Alexis had neither the
patience nor the desire to go after her, and when the door slammed, she was
just happy to have some peace for the first time all day.