Save the Date (Modern Arrangements) (18 page)

Laughing, I headed up the stairs. Once
in his room, I took a quick glance around. I found a small picture frame that
held a photo of a woman about Lilli’s age; it was an older photograph. After a
few more minutes of examination, I realized this must be Lilli’s mother.
Another photo taped to the large dresser mirror was of a younger Donald. His
arms wound around a scrawny little brown haired girl. Immediately, I knew that
this was Lilli; it was all in the eyes. I could only assume that the older
woman was a grandmother or aunt.

Moving to the other side of the room, I
found photos of Lilli and Donald on fishing boats. However, Lilli is always in
the background with a book or cringing away from a fish that Donald was
holding. I put my hand over my mouth to hide the laugh. Once I started to feel
like a creeper for going through her father’s room I quickly changed into a
pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt.

Heading back toward the stairs I saw
Lilli standing in the living room with gray cotton pants and a t-shirt; her
hair pulled into a ponytail. She looked amazing. I shook that off and headed
toward her and Donald.

"Do you need anything?" I
overheard Lilli ask Donald. He was now in a hospital style bed that was in the
corner of the living room. He shook his head. "Well, I’m going to get you
some water for next to your bed." She turned around, evidently having not
heard me enter the room, and ran directly into my chest. Instinctively my arms
went around her to keep her from falling. She blushed and pulled away.
"Sorry," she mumbled.

I didn't want to let her go.

"No problem," I grinned.

She headed toward the kitchen, turning around
before reaching her destination.

"Did you need anything?"

I shook my head."No, why?"

"I just figured that you were going
to go to bed," she shrugged.

"Oh…uh…are you headed up too?"

"Um…that’s my bed right
there," she pointed to the couch.

"You’re going to sleep on the
couch?" I asked.

"Yeah, that’s—"

"Lilli, I’ll sleep on the
couch." I offered and meant it.

"Aidan, go to bed. I sleep near
dad," she turned away but then turned back. "But thanks." She
smiled softly and continued on to the kitchen.

I turned to Donald.

"Goodnight, Donald." He waved
me over to him and I walked to the side of his bed. "Yes, sir?"

"You care….for her?" he
breathed out raggedly. I was sort of dumbstruck. I didn’t know how to answer.

"Um...yeah." I smiled.

He nodded.

"You know…Dixon?"

I nodded before he could answer.
"Yes, I know Dixon, very well actually."

"Hurt her…I’ll…have…him—"

I hated to make him speak more than he
had to.

"Donald, Dixon already told me that
he would
rip off my balls and feed them to me
," I chuckled.

"Good," he croaked and smiled
large. "Take…care…of…her," he rasped.

 Lilli entered the room looking at
Donald and then at me, questions written all over her face.

"Goodnight," I said quickly
then headed toward the stairs.

"What was that about?" I heard
Lilli ask Donald in a hushed voice.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Lilli

Donald gave me an innocent look.

"Oh, I am so not buying that!"
I smirked at him. "Spill it!"

"Just…a…warning."

I shook my head.

"There's nothing to warn him about,
he’s just a friend," I shrugged.

Dad raised his eyebrow at me in
question. I sighed and sat down next to him.

"Can we wait till you are stronger
to talk about this?" I gave my best puppy dog eyes.

He shook his head and gave me the
now
eyes.

"Fine," I breathed.

I spared him the gory details of the
arrangement, however, I gave him the gist of Aidan and I marrying for financial
reasons for both of us. I could tell as I spoke that he was getting angry.

"Don’t….do this…for…" I
stopped him.

"I'm doing this for both of us, for
Aidan and his family and for the people that work for him," I sighed and
stood up. I leaned over Donald and kissed his forehead. "It will be
fine," I spoke to his forehead so that he wouldn’t be able to read my face
as I said it. He would see that I didn’t believe what I just said.

"Lilli…" he rasped.

"Dad, please don’t speak anymore
today," I brushed the hair from his face. "Get some sleep." I
smiled and then went to the couch and got comfortable. "Goodnight,
Dad."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next morning, snug in my flannel
pajama pants and long sleeved tee, I headed to the kitchen to make coffee. With
the coffee started, I began to make breakfast; French toast, turkey bacon and
strawberries. With everyone else still asleep, I placed the ear buds from my
iPod in my ears and turned it on while cutting up strawberries.

Thinking I was alone, I began to sway to
the sound of Maroon 5. Spinning with the strawberries to place on Donald’s
tray, I came face to face with Aidan.

 "Jesus!" I put the bowl down
and grabbed my chest, pulling out the ear buds. "Can you not scare the
shit out of me, please?" A laugh, mostly at myself, bubbled out of my
chest.

"I didn’t mean to," he
shrugged. He stood in the doorway leaning on the frame, arms crossed over his chest.
His hair was freshly mussed from sleeping but, if I hadn’t know better, I would
say he just went a few rounds in bed with some lucky girl.

"Hungry?" I asked quickly,
before he realized I was checking him out.

"A little, you need any help?"

"Ummm…no, no help needed." I
turned toward the cabinet, grabbed a couple of coffee mugs and sat them on the
counter. "Coffee?" I motioned to the mugs going back to finishing the
French toast.

"Thanks," he walked over and
poured some into a mug.

"Sugar is on table, milk in the fridge
if you need them."

"Is this where you grew up?"
The chair squeaked as he sat down to the kitchen table.

I shook my head.

"My mother left with me when I was
five. We moved across the country to Nevada until I was fifteen. I decided to
move in with Donald when my mother got divorced from John – husband number two.
Besides, it was around that time he started to get sick." Putting a plate
in front of him, I sat down across the table with mine.

"So, your mother is in Nevada?"

I shook my head, again.

"No, not anymore; after the divorce
she decided to move to Canada and
start over
. She wanted to take me with
her but I came here." Leaning over my plate, I took a bite. While chewing,
I noticed he hadn’t touched his food yet. "You not hungry now?" I
covered my full mouth as I spoke.

"Oh, no…I mean, yeah, I’m hungry. I
was just thinking…sorry." He picked up his fork and began eating.

I swallowed. "Thinking about
what?"

"I just don’t know if you mind
answering my questions, that’s all. You’re very difficult for me to figure out."
His brow furrowed.

"You can ask just about anything
you want." I shrugged. "So, what else do you want to know?" I
placed another bite into my mouth.

 "Do you have any other relatives,
like—?”

"Nope," A sip of my coffee
washed the food down. "I had a grandmother. She passed away shortly after I
moved back to Winter Harbor."

"I’m sorry," he mumbled then
took another mouthful of French toast.

"It’s okay," I smiled and then
took another bite.

"So, um…should we discuss…"

"Good morning, Millie." I
exclaimed over his shoulder, relieved for the opportunity to change the
conversation.

"Morning, dear." She patted my
back, on her way to the coffee. "Did your father wake at all last
night?"

"No, he slept straight through."

"Good," Millie sat down with a
plate and began to eat. We finished in silence.

Pushing away from the table, I stepped
to the sink and placed my plate in the basin. Loading up dad’s tray, I headed
to the living room. He was lying awake. Millie came in behind me and we started
getting dad out of bed. I didn’t even realize Aidan was next to me until I felt
his body against my side, scooting me out of the way. He wrapped dad’s arm over
his shoulder and helped him to his lounge chair.

"Thanks," Donald breathed.

Aidan massaged his shoulder.

"No problem," then he turned
to me "Do you mind if I go take a shower?"

"Not at all, it’s at the top of the
stairs."

He nodded and headed upstairs.

With Donald’s food before him, he ate
heartily. I was happy to see his appetite returning. He seemed to be feeling
better. I could only hope the medications would last and surgery would not be
necessary, at least for awhile longer.

Aidan stayed at my father’s until the Sunday
evening I was flying back. I’d avoided the conversation about our arrangement
just because I wasn’t ready for the finality of the deal yet.

"What are you doing?"

I snapped my head over to see Aidan
watching me at my father’s desk. "Printing my ticket."

"Cancel it, you won’t need
it," he walked over and grabbed the printed ticket.

"What—"

"We’ll take the jet," he spoke
like it was no big deal to just have a jet waiting, which, for him, I’m sure it
wasn’t.

"Jet?" I cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah, the AIS Jet. It’s waiting
for our arrival this afternoon," he pulled out his cell phone. Before I
could say anything else, he began to make a call. After about ten minutes he
snapped his phone shut. "Okay, your ticket is taken care of." He
ripped up the printed ticket.

"Excuse me?" I furrowed my
brow.

"What?"

"Can you at least let me decide if I’m
flying with you or not?" I rolled my eyes.

"Lilli, be reasonable, it’s stupid
for you to pay for a plane ticket when I’m flying out on the family jet to the
same location" he looked at me as if I had three heads.

"I don’t like decisions just being
made for me." Standing, I tried to exit the room. He grabbed my arm.

"I’m sorry," he looked into my
eyes. "I’ll try not to take charge of things but I was only trying to
help."

"I know." The words slipped
out quickly and I shook off his hand.

The pull of his touch was way too
tempting. I’d never had that happen to me before. Sure, I was instantly
attracted to some people and when guys in my past had touched me it made my
body react. However, this was a simple gesture of touching my arm. It wasn’t in
a romantic or intimate nature, yet I felt prickling heat flowing from that
point of contact. I grabbed my bags and headed toward the steps.

"Here let me help," I turned
to look at him "Please?" I handed over the bags and he headed down
the stairs. I took another long look at the house as I walked down the steps,
taking it all in.

Donald was sitting and waiting for me to
come tell him goodbye. I hated leaving him but knew that Millie would take care
of him while I was gone.

"I’ll miss you," I whispered
and kissed his head.

He smiled.

"Love…you…Lilli." His voice
was still raspy but it sounded better than a few days ago.

"Love you too," I smiled and
hugged him. I hugged Millie goodbye as Aidan said goodbye to my dad.

It wasn’t until we got to the airport
and were walking toward the plane that I realized that we would be alone the
whole flight. He was going to want to discuss things on the way there. I
groaned internally even though I had agreed to this of my own will. We climbed
onto the plane and I took a seat. I was still so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t
realized that Aidan had sat down next to me.

I snapped out of my thoughts at a loud
thud. A thick stack of papers sat on the small table in front of us. Aidan had
a nervous but determined look on his face.

"We have quite a few hours till we
get to New York. I was thinking we could discuss things before we get
there," he rubbed the back of his head. It was clear he was forcing
himself not to look in my direction.

I turned my gaze back to the stack of
papers before reaching out and picking them up.

"Ok," I barely answered in a
whisper. I took a deep breath and started to read over the documents.

Chapter Eleven
The Ring
Lilli

My eyes were starting to dry out as I
read through the thick stack that felt like it was made of cement rather than
paper. There were five different sections bound together for one contract.