Torn (11 page)

 

“Okay, now!” He said pulling my hands down.

 

“Caleb, where are we?” I asked looking at a beautiful two story home.

“This is my new place! I saw it the other day with my realtor. This was our first stop AND my last stop, I
fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I put an offer on it and they gladly accepted it the same day.” He
said excitedly. “I am certain it was fate.”

“Oh Wow! That is awesome!” I reached up and gave him a hug. He was grinning ear to ear.

 

“Wanna go see inside?” He enthusiastically asked. He jogged up towards the front door. The front yard
was magnificent in size.

 

“Of course!” I said running after him.

 

After showing me each room of the house, we headed to the backyard. It had the most amazing view of
the city off his wooden deck. This by far was my favorite part of the house.

 

“Caleb, this is breathtaking!” I said in admiration.

“I think that’s why I bought the place, the view and the deck to go along with it. I instantly thought of
barbeques and watching the sunset from out here.” He took a look around. “I didn’t want to pass up the
opportunity on this house so I jumped on it. I get to move in a couple weeks, the owners already had
another house that they had lined up.” He was enjoying the views; all the while I was enjoying him.

He leaned in and began to seductively rub his fingers down my back as we both enjoyed the view. We
both turned into face each other. I wanted so bad to taste his lips on mine once again. I could feel my
pulse racing as he pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. As we began to lean into each other we were
rudely interrupted when my phone began to ring in my pocket.

It was Courtney. I quickly tried to catch my breath.

 

“Hey Court, what’s up?” I huffed.

 

“Oh Lord, I’m not interrupting something am?” She asked embarrassed.

 

“No! We’re just looking at a house.” I suddenly flushed. I looked over at him, to find that he was giving
me the ‘who are you talking to’ look. I rose up my index finger and bit my lip.

“Okay, good. I didn’t want to be talking to you while you are all naked.” She joked. “So…I have some
gossip! I got home and totally ripped into Jason. He spilled some news, wanna hear?” She asked
anxiously.

“Well, yeah!” I turned to Caleb, “Do you mind if I talk to her for just a second? I will be right back.” He
shook his head and kissed my cheek and went inside. “Okay Court, spill!” I whispered.

 

“So, apparently Jason said he knew about one time. He…” I interrupted her.

 

“Wait! ONE time? As in there is more than this time!” I could feel tears building, but I was seeing red and
I couldn’t let my tears get the best of me.

“I’m so sorry Ryleigh. He told Jason that he’d gotten drunk one night and messed around with this girl in
his office. He swore Jason to secrecy and that he would find some way to tell you and make it up to you,
but apparently he never did any of that.” She said solemnly.

“Thanks Court. Did Jason happen say when that was?” I asked biting my nails, once again.

 

“Quit biting your nails, I can hear it in the phone! He said this was last year in September. Why? Do you
have an idea of when it was?” She asked inquisitively.

“Yeah.” I said quietly. “That entire month he kept sending me flowers, just about once a week. We had a
fight Labor Day weekend. I don’t even remember what the fight was about, something about us trying
to take a vacation but he was unsure if he was going to land this account. So he snapped at me.” I
paused replaying the fight in my head. He was so mad that I brought up a vacation when he was so busy.
“I thought that the flowers were making up for the fight. We ended up going to a bed and breakfast in
Breckenridge in the beginning of October.” I sat in the patio chair just shaking my head.

“Oh! I remember that! You had told me that you guys had a fight but things were better. So what we
know now, every little gesture is not of kindness, but rather of guilt? What a dick.” I could tell she was
angry as hell.

“Thanks again Court, hey I better go. Caleb is waiting for me and I should probably head back and get
my car so I can go meet Liam for dinner.” I was upset at this point, the fact that nothing that my
husband seemed to do, was out of love.

“Love ya. Text me after dinner and let me know how that goes. Good luck!”

 

“Love ya, too. I will.” I hung up and went to find Caleb. He was in the living room looking at the
bookshelves that were built into the wall.

 

“Everything okay?” He asked with a worried look on his face.

 

I shook my head and started for the front door. I needed to get out of here.

 

“Ry, what’s going on? Ryleigh, wait! Talk to me!” Caleb chased after me.

“Caleb I am so sorry, I just, look… I just found out that what I saw Liam doing the other night, well it isn’t
his first time and I need to head back. I don’t know the hell I am going to do!” I began crying into his
chest.

“What do you mean this isn’t his first time? Like he continues to cheat on you?” He was tensing up
under me.

 

I nodded as I wiped my eyes.

“Ryleigh, you need to get out of there! God he is not good for you!” He lifted my head so he could look
directly at me. “You deserve so much better. I can give that to you, I promise that I would never, EVER
do anything to hurt you. I want you to know that you deserve to be treated with the upmost respect.”
He kissed me. It was the softest kiss, so sweet and short but still made my heart skip a beat.

“I know you can give that to me. I want that, but I’m still married to him. What do I do? Just pack my
things and leave? I have to give him the chance toexplain himself. Let me at least do that. I’m meeting
him for dinner and that way I can talk to him and find out what is going on.” I began to pull away.

“I get it. I just want you to be happy.” He went toopen up the truck door for me.

The ride back to the spa parking lot was quiet. There was so much that I wanted to tell him, but I just
was so caught up in my thoughts that I just stared out the window. I could hear him sigh every so often,
as if he had so much to say to me, but didn’t even know where to begin.

We pulled up next to my car and I sat there for a little bit, just looking down at my feet.
“Caleb…”

 

“Look, I understand, I do.” He didn’t seem to look at me; his hands were on the steering wheel.

 

“I just don’t know what I am going to do…” I could feel those damn tears begin to flow again.

“You don’t know what you’re going to do? What’s so hard? Your husband is CHEATING on you and you
don’t know what you are going to do? C’mon Ry, you can’t honestly believe that we don’t have
something going on here.” He said solemnly. “Things aren’t going to just magically get better if you talk
to him.”

“Caleb, I don’t expect everything to be better the moment we talk. I do need to know what is going on
and even if I do leave him; I need to get things sorted out and find myself a place, figure out the split of
the house, you know all that fun stuff. I just need you to understand that this isn’t going to just be fine
and dandy over night!” The anger just poured out.

“You know damn well that I didn’t think that your life was going to change overnight, Ryleigh! I just,
God, I don’t know. I just want you to be happy andso far everything that I have learned about him and
the way he treats you, I just want to beat the shit out of him!” He smacked the steering wheel.

“Look, everything works out for a reason.” I paused for a moment and grabbed his arm. “I need to go,
but I will call you or text you later. Okay?” I leaned over and kissed his cheek and he pulled me back to
him and kissed me. Hard. He cupped my face, pushing his tongue into my mouth. I felt my breath hitch
as his hands made their way into my hair.

As we pulled away, struggling for air, we didn’t say anything. We just kept our eyes locked on each other
and sat in silence for a moment longer, we both had so much we wanted to say, but couldn’t find the
words. I got out of the truck and walked over to my car. I watched him drive off, without even saying
goodbye. I opened my car door and sat in silence before I started my car.

Chapter Eleven

I pulled into my driveway a short time later. Liam’s car was already in the garage, which made my
stomach turn knowing that I had to face him right away. I stayed in my car for a few more minutes,
stalling.

I got out and walked up to the door and headed inside with a deep breath.

 

“Hey, there you are! I thought you ladies were buying out all the stores in Denver. I was going to have to
send in a search and rescue party.” He was lounging in his recliner flipping through TV channels.

“Court was looking at all sorts of baby clothes. Ihad to hold her back because she doesn’t know the sex
of the baby yet. I didn’t seem to find anything worthy of my buying powers today.” I was a horrible liar,
but apparently passed the test.

“That kid is going to be spoiled even before it is born. But don’t worry; I think our kids are going to be
just as spoiled.” He said with a smile reaching formy hand. My stomach cringed. He pulled me down on
top of him to sit on his lap. “You smell amazing.” He whispered into my ear as he breathed in my hair.

“Funny, I was just thinking that I have yet to shower all day and I thought that the homeless people were
walking away from ME!” I joked.

 

“Nah, they would wanna follow you around all the time.” He kissed my ear and down my neck. I could
tell that he was hinting at having sex, but the thought of being in bed with him just made me nauseous.

“I should go get in the shower if we’re going to make our reservations.” I said pushing myself out of the
recliner. “I’ll be ready to go in about an hour.” I jumped up and headed upstairs. I was very thankful
when he didn’t follow me to our room.

I went into the closet and grabbed the blue dress that he had mentioned at the spa. I hated this dress; I
don’t know why he even thought of this dress. I hadworn it to an event at his work. It is really low cut,
which normally a little cleavage is fine but this was a little excessive, and short. I felt slutty in it. Maybe
that is what he wanted me to look like, one of hisskanks.

I laid it out on the bed and headed into the shower. I made sure I locked the bathroom door behind me
so I wouldn’t have any surprise visitors. I stood under the water noticing it wasn’t nearly as luxurious as
the hotel shower. I quickly washed up, shaved my legs and got out.

I decided to straighten my hair and leave it down. I kept thinking of ways to not have all the attention on
my boobs, even if they weren’t all that glamorous or big, however, this dress made them stick out like a
sore thumb.
I put on my makeup and got dressed. I headed down the stairs and noticed at some point he got
changed, he was waiting in the kitchen for me. He had a beer in his hand and had poured me a glass of
wine.

“You read my mind, thank you.” I took the glass and took a long sip.

 

“You look amazing! Where is your bracelet?” I went into my purse and dug out the jewelry box.

 

“Do you mind helping me?” I asked holding it towards him.

 

“Of course not.” He clasped it around my wrist and kissed my hand. It really was a beautiful bracelet but
knowing there was a motive behind it made me sour. “Shall we head out? I am starving!”

“Yeah, let me finish this wine and then we can go.” I took another sip. “I’m starving too. We just had the
brunch this morning and it filled me up all day. Court had a few snacks while we were out but I couldn’t
think about food.” I was an amazing liar. I quicklyguzzled the rest of my wine down and we headed
towards his car.

My phone beeped in my purse, the beep that let me know that I had a missed call, shit I had left it on
while I was upstairs and there were messages from Caleb. I hope to god that Liam didn’t decide to snoop
after my phone had rung.

It was just Courtney. Thank God. She had left me a voicemail, so I put my volume down so it wasn’t
within listening distance for Liam.

 

“I heard your phone ring but I couldn’t find where it was coming from to get it up to you. Who called?”
Liam asked.

 

“It was just Courtney.” I dialed up my voicemail and switched ears to listen and walked away.

“Hey Ryleigh, it’s me. Umm, at some point did you by chance give Caleb my number? I just got a
call from him, he wanted to know what restaurant you were going to and well umm I accidently
told him… please don’t hate me! He just sounded so smooth and sexy on the phone and I lost my
nerve! You are probably mad at me, but text me and let me know you got this. Sorry again.”

SHIT!!

 

“She okay?” Liam asked grabbing my hand.

“Oh yeah, she just wanted to say, ‘have fun tonight, behave, text her later’ you know she lives off
gossip.” So much for being an amazing liar, I was really frazzled. How did Caleb get her number? Why did
Caleb want her number?

“You girls. If we guys did half the gossip, we would never get any from you ladies again!” He laughed.

 

I tried to laugh back, instead it sounded forced.
“You okay baby?” He asked concerned.

“Yeah, I’m good. I am just really hungry and am beginning to think that I should have had something in
my stomach before having that wine.” I said grabbing my stomach. I thought I really should have
grabbed a snack to eat before chugging that wine. But at the same time, I was worried about why Caleb
wanted to know where we were going.

We pulled up to the restaurant just in time for ourreservations and we were seated right away. I didn’t
feel as beautiful with Liam as I did with Caleb. Caleb managed to always make me feel like I was so
beautiful, with Liam I felt as if I was trying to compete with the beauty of every other woman; even if he
didn’t even look twice at them. He didn’t need to, he saw them right away.

Liam ordered for the both of us and we began to snack on the bread and sip some more wine. I almost
felt as if I was on a blind date, with my own husband. We didn’t have much to say to each other and we
didn’t seem to make much eye contact. So I decided to break out the small talk.