Loving Siblings: Aidan & Dionne (18 page)

Dionne had always been so hard for him to
read. One moment, she was all sweet smiles and cuddles, and the
next; she’s quiet, somber, contemplative, and unapproachable. So he
wasn’t all too worried when she seemed less jovial when she came
back downstairs that afternoon.

But when it looked as if she were braced to
run the moment he had walked up to her by the stairs, it began to
dawn on him something was really, really off. It still didn’t sink
in completely, but he had gotten a nasty gut feeling.

Then she ended up getting picked up by
Hel
gut
!
That
day of all days. He couldn’t sleep that
night, waiting for her to come home, but she had dealt him another
surprise blow when she’d spent the night at Hel
mutt
’s parents’ house!

Then, making lemonade out of lemons, he had
thought she just might take this opportunity to tell her boyfriend,
and his parents, it was over between them.

That didn’t happen, either.

Since she wasn’t home all day the
following day, he didn’t get a chance to ask her if she had finally
kicked the guy to the curb. But when she arrived home later that
night, with Hel
mutt
in tow,
he knew for a fact she hadn’t.

Okay. So she needed more time. She needed to
get used to her new daily schedule, what with classes three times a
week, doing her internship—the noc shift at Santa Teresita Hospital
in Eagle Rock—and, of course, her part-time job at that the video
store.

Not to mention, she also needed to come to
terms with the change between them. It must be hard on a girl as
shy as she, he had surmised, and he didn’t want to put undue
pressure on her. He had wanted to take things slow; prove to her he
was mature enough to be patient, and that it was his love for her
that had given him the strength to give her the room she
needed.

Now he was sure exerting patience was a
fool’s errand. It had killed what he should’ve fought harder to
nurture. He should have had a clue and immediately got to work to
strengthen what was growing between them the moment he’d noticed
her changed demeanor that afternoon. But he didn’t. And now he
missed his chance. Now he wondered if it was still even
salvageable.

He recalled how his heart lurched when she
descended the stairs that afternoon. He recalled thinking she
looked really sexy and beautiful. And although she always looked
sexy and beautiful in his eyes—ever since he could remember
noticing things like that—she looked doubly so after she’d sent him
to heaven and beyond with her gentle seduction and . . . skill.

She had looked stunning in her sleeveless,
round-collar white cotton top with delicate button front and eyelet
cut-outs. Her hips and legs were further complimented by her
stonewashed, Capris-style jeans, but even if she wore a gunnysack
with cut-outs, she couldn’t look more breathtaking to him than she
did at that moment. Her figure had always been, to him,
dick-hardening sexy no matter what she wore, but she’d looked
absolutely amazing then.

Although her clothes were always
simple, lacking the more lavish cuts and designs most girls
preferred in the era of innerwear as outerwear, Dionne always
looked beautiful in all her simplicity,
especially
when he spotted how her simple,
somewhat cropped top billowed a bit to show a little of her smooth,
soft waist.

Although her skin was a pale ivory color,
her clothes had somehow made it seem as if she’d been airbrushed to
perfection. Then again, Dionne has always had good skin . . .

He damn well knew he wasn’t being
objective, and that he was seeing her through the eyes of a lover,
but that was
his
prerogative
simply because Dionne has always been
his
girl—even though she still didn’t seem to
understand that.

He’d just exited the basement when he saw
her descend the stairs that fateful afternoon. It was after her
shower, long after their shared experience by the poolside. He
recalled how his heart thudded with silent idolization. He’d
stopped in his tracks as he watched her take the stairs with swift
feet, knowing she hadn’t yet noticed him below.

Her long golden-brown mane was swept and
held back by a wide, white elastic hair band. She nearly hopped
down the stairs, playfully jumping the last steps, and she made him
smile when he saw that rare, carefree side of her.

With a hand on the newel post she’d swept
around, but she’d abruptly stopped when she finally noticed him.
She really did look like a doe caught in the headlights. He had
quickly produced a smile, and she had returned a shy and somewhat
flustered one, but he loved seeing the color in her pretty face
when he came over to her and slipped an arm around her waist.

He was captivated by her, enjoying the
sensation of feeling the soft, warm skin of his sister’s waist
against his bare arm as he pulled her closer to him. Her shyness
only endeared him that much more, compelling him to try for a kiss.
And he gave in.

But she stopped him.

“
Aidan stop. Someone might see,” she
had told him.

“
Good point. Let’s go downstairs,” he
had whispered back. He had bent his head, making her giggle
uncomfortably, as he kissed her cheek, moving his full lips along
the side of her neck. He swore she tasted like warm
honey.

“
I don’t think that’s a good idea,”
she had said, putting hands against his chest and gently pushing
him back.

He recalled being confused. “Why? There’s
more privacy in my room—”

Then the doorbell rang, and everything went
to hell from that moment forward.

He hadn’t heard it at first. He was too busy
trying to seduce his sister into coming with him to his room
downstairs. But she had heard it, and when his lips reached for
hers, she suddenly pulled back as she frowned up at him.

“
What?” he had asked.

“
I have to answer it,” she
answered.

His head was spinning being so close to her
that he was absolutely dense, and he must’ve looked it because she
had laughed softly.

“
The
door
, Aidan. I have to answer the
door—”

“—
No, you don’t,” he had cut in.
“C’mon Dionne, let’s go downstairs to my room,” he had said, and
was already busy corralling her to the basement door, but she shook
her head and even set her hands on his arms before she pushed them
firmly down, freeing herself.

“
Cut it out, Aidan,” she had giggled,
and he sighed. Loudly.

She had laughed softly before she turned and
went to answer the door. He recalled looking longingly at the
basement door for a moment before he turned to watch her rush to
the door; his gaze sweeping down her body paying extra attention to
her nice tush.

But his smile had vanished when he
realized who it was at the door. Dionne had opened it to reveal his
arch rival, tall, tawny-haired, and dorky—his take—standing on the
doorstep. He never hated a guy more than he had hated
Hel
butt
at that
moment.

“
Hey Helly!” Dionne had said in
surprise. Her cry had a giggly quality to it.

He had felt himself burn with
jealousy, but he got outright
furious
when he saw she had pulled herself up on
her toes with heartrending intent—heartrending for him, and what
had him see red.

As if to prolong the agony, he
recalled seeing everything happening in slow motion. He had watched
how her lips pressed a kiss on Hel-
shit’s
pathetically thin lips before she dropped
back while that blond gorilla whispered something that had her
fluster, and him, seething.

His blue eyes had sparked and burned
as he stiffly watched how the future doctor-to-be wrapped an arm
around
his
Dionne. His fists
had balled tightly when he watched as dorky-boy pulled his sister
against him for a real kiss while Dionne had put fingers against
his chest to stop him.

“
Oh wait! I forgot to tell Mom I won’t
be home for dinner tonight!” she had said, and wrestled out of
Hel
butthead’s
one-arm
embrace. She had turned to go into the living room, but paused when
she saw the anger in his face; one he couldn’t and
wouldn’t
, hide. She must’ve seen he
was on the verge of doing something really stupid—which he
was--because she quickly moved to defuse him.

Behind her, Hel
clueless
had closed the door as he sent him a
smile and nod as greeting. But he wasn’t feeling the least bit
charitable toward the intruder. He had merely glared back with,
what he hoped, was the most chilling look he could muster. It did
the trick. Hel
mutt
had
stopped in his tracks and blushed in discomfort.

He had been so caught up with glaring down
and intimidating his rival, that he hadn’t noticed Dionne had come
up to him.

“
Stop it, Aidan!” she had admonished
beneath her breath. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He had looked down at her concerned face.
She wasn’t angry or upset. She was concerned. It was then when he
knew the painful truth; that she damn well knew what she was doing,
although his heart and head wouldn’t allow him to see it because it
would mean she had a change of mind.

At that moment, he knew, it was the start of
the worst week of his life. And as he returned to the here and now,
listening to her angry feet stomping down the stairs, he knew it
was going to finally come to head.

**~~**

Chapter Ten:
Dionne’s Dilemma Unfolds

It’s been little over a week since that
Saturday, and Dionne was bone-tired by the time she exited her
maroon Prelude. But tired or not, the moment she saw her brother’s
sporty black CRX parked in the open garage, she forced herself to
stand straight, scraping every ounce of energy and courage she had
left in order to put up her façade.

She had to keep up the charade, one she’d
been playing for the past week, but it was really starting to
negatively affect her. She was stiff all over, aching like you
wouldn’t believe, and tired enough to sleep for a week, but she’d
be damned if she’d show how much she’d been suffering.

Jesus! Why did he have to be
home
now
? She just couldn’t
catch a freaking break, and she didn’t know how much more of this
she could handle before she’d finally crack under the pressure.
Maybe she should take Dad up on his offer to pay her an allowance
so she wouldn’t have to work for a measly $3.25 an hour plus a
meager 10% commission.

It really wasn’t worth banging herself up
over anymore.

Yeah, she was feeling sorry for
herself. Although that wasn’t really her style, she believed
current circumstances gave her that right. The pressures left her
lethargic, even stressed out. She was positive it was more of a
mental than physical condition since she usually had the
constitution of an ox, and she normally didn’t have
this
much on her head.

Apparently, her little brother was
suffering the same affliction. He was, much like her those days,
listless and tired all the time. But she darn well knew why. She
felt bad about it, too. She should’ve never put this kind of
pressure on him. How could she be so stupid, so immature, and so
callous? All because of vanity? Was she really
that
pathetic? And selfish?

“
Yeah,” her conscience whispered in
her head. “You sure are.”

When she finally entered the cool house, she
found her normally energetic brother practically lying down in one
of the big leather armchairs in the living room. And that wasn’t
happy she saw on his handsome face, either.

He was zapping through channels, pretty much
keeping true to his newfound habit of ignoring her. It hurt her
since he had no problem lavishing everyone else with his stunning
smiles, laughter, and tease. She had to admit it. She missed it. A
lot.

Normally, when she’d enter the house and saw
him home, she’d go straight up to her room to avoid him and the
uneasiness she’d been feeling when she was around him. Although
that uneasiness stemmed from a self-inflicted problem, it was still
pretty unbearable.

Now, however, she thought it was time they
resolved this matter. Enough was enough, and she knew this really
couldn’t go on any longer. It would tear them both apart. It wasn’t
good for the rest of the family, either.

So she paused in the main hall thinking it
was time to bury the hatchet, and she made her decision. They
needed to talk, and although she darn well knew he’d seen her come
home, he didn’t even look up when she entered the living room. And
although the volume to the television was up high, she was sure he
knew she was there.

“
Hi, Aidan,” she greeted as chipper as
she could, but he didn’t even flinch. She felt an overwhelming urge
to just turn tail and head for her attic room, but she made the
decision to make things right, and she would see it through. Or, at
least, give it her best shot. She knew how stubborn her younger
brother could be, but things really had to change.

“
How was your day?” she tried
again.

No answer. She felt a lump in her throat,
and cleared it.