Underestimated (11 page)

“No, we’re just friends. There is nothing romantic

between Dawson and me.”

“Why not? Dawson is a great guy.”

“I just got out of one mess. I am not interested in

another one. No thank you. I will see you Monday,” I said,

taking my purse from the hook.

“No, you won’t. You take the day off, take a

couple of them if you want. You deserve it.”

“I really would rather be here, Starlight,” I

admitted, not wanting to be home alone with my thoughts.

“Well, only if you want to be. Thank you so much

for all of this, Riley. I couldn’t have asked you to do half

of what you did.”

“I’m just glad you like it.”

“I love it. Have a good night.”

It was almost nine before I got the pizza in the

oven. Dawson came, and I told him to chill out while I

grabbed a shower. I didn’t care that he was there, and I

was putting on comfortable clothes, done with the whole

impressing somebody else situation. I put on a baggy

comfortable t-shirt and a pair of soft flannel pants. I

figured we would end up sitting on the deck, and although

the days were fairly hot, the evening ocean air was brisk.

“I brought a couple of movies,” Dawson said as I

entered wrapping my hair in a ponytail.

Lauren was there and sitting on the sofa.

“Hey, what are you doing? I figured you would be

with Joel tonight,” I said when I saw her.

“I am. Dawson answered your phone and said you

were making homemade pizza.”

I laughed. I don’t think the girl ever cooked. She

just came to my house and helped herself.

The three of us sat out on the deck and ate pizza

and drank beer. I tried to tell Lauren to invite Joel over to

my house, but they wanted to go to the bar because they

had a band. She tried to get us to come with them, and I

refused. She didn’t push it. My turning her down to hang

out in the bar was starting to catch on, and she didn’t

badger me about it as much.

She drank two beers, ate two slices of pizza and

left to meet Joel.

Dawson and I stayed out on the deck and consumed

more alcohol than I should have been drinking. I could feel

it, and knew that was my limit when I stumbled a little

when I went into the bathroom.

“Comedy romance or action romance?” Dawson

asked, holding up the two DVD’s.

Romance? Awesome.

“I don’t care. You pick.”

We sat on separate ends of the couch, and he

picked a comedy romance with Sandra Bullock. I had

already seen the movie but didn’t tell him and watched it

anyway. The wedding part took me back to my wedding

day, and I stared blankly at the TV.

I was looking out the small jet window when I

knew that we were descending. I saw one runway and

knew that we were going to land there. I remembered my

heart beating too fast and was trying to talk myself out of a

full blown panic attack. We landed the Jet and a black

limousine picked us up.

“Good evening, sir,” the man dressed in a black

suit nodded to Drew, opening the door for us. I didn’t

know where the other two men had gone that was on the

flight with us, but they didn’t get into the car with us.

Drew talked on his phone the entire time we were

in the limo, not that it was a long drive. We were pulling

up to the mansion of a house fifteen minutes later. I had

found out later that the runway was his own private

runway and was on the property of the estate. I couldn’t

believe what I was seeing. We drove through two stone

pillars with the numbers 41293. I remembered repeating

the number over and over in my head, just in case

somebody cared and needed to come and rescue me. I

wondered why the gate read, Callaway Estates, but

assumed he had purchased it from the Callaway’s or

something.

I could barely keep my mouth shut when we were

let into the house by a lady, maybe mid-thirties or so. She

smiled at me and could probably tell how scared I was.

Drew was still talking to someone on the phone, telling

whoever he was talking to that he couldn’t drop price and

to tell them that if they wanted it, the price was thirty five

thousand and to take it or leave it.

Wow, what could he be selling for thirty five

thousand dollars? No wonder he lived here.

Drew held my elbow and led me to his office

where two other men were waiting for us. He walked

around and sat in the oversized leather chair. I stood

awkwardly at the door. The one guy was the one who had

traveled with him to retrieve me. I wondered how he had

gotten there before us and why he hadn’t ridden in the

limousine with us.

“Let’s get this over with. I have a plane to catch.”

he told one of the men.

“You sign here,” the same man in an expensive suit

said, sliding the paper to him.

All three men turned to look at me, and I didn’t

know what I was supposed to be doing.

“Come on, Morgan, I don’t have all day,” Drew

said. I was still puzzled.

He got up and pulled me by the arm to his desk

when I didn’t move. He grabbed my hand and shoved the

pen in it.

“Sign!” he almost yelled, poking hard at the X

where my name was already printed.

My hand started to tremble when I saw the top of

the paper that said Secretary of the State, Nevada, and then

it said certificate of marriage.

What! This was my wedding? I couldn’t believe it.

What was his motive? Why was he doing this?

“Sign the Goddamn X, Morgan!” he yelled, and I

could feel the tears forming in my eyes. I didn’t want to

sign. I didn’t want to marry Drew Kelley.

He grabbed my hand and scribbled my name with

his.

“Witness it, Derik,” he demanded and the other

man signed as well.

I was speechless. What the hell was going on? I

was just forced to marry someone against my will. A very

rich someone that didn’t care about the law, or that we had

just gotten married illegally, I was sure.

“That isn’t real,” I stated boldly. “You have to

have a county of the clerk or a judge or preacher or justice

of the peace,” I was rattling on and on nervously. Drew

laughed.

“Don’t worry, Mrs. Kelley. Ronald is a judge. It’s

legal. Somebody get her the fuck out of here,” he said, and

the lady that met us at the door came to retrieve me.

“I will show you to your quarters, Mrs. Kelley.”

“I am not Mrs. Kelley. Stop calling me that,” I

demanded. She shushed me.

“That is what I am ordered to call you. Please

don’t make it difficult for me. I am just trying to do my

job.”

“But don’t you even care that I don’t want to be

here? I don’t want to be his wife. I don’t even want to be

in the same state as him. I hate him already.”

The lady shushed me again. “Everything that you

say Mrs. Kelley is heard by Mr. Kelley,” she whispered.

Great so now I am going to be spied on too.

“Do you have a name?” I asked.

“Rebecca,” she answered, moving me right along.

She opened the double doors, and I couldn’t help

but suck in a deep breath at the beauty of the room, my

room. It was absolutely gorgeous. The king size bed was

bigger than my whole bedroom in the trailer. I never saw

Drew again that night or for the next seven nights. Rebecca

explained to me that he had to fly to Africa on business,

and he would talk to me when he returned. I hoped he

didn’t return, and his plane went down in the African rain

forest, and he was eaten by a lion.

Rebecca showed me around, and I gasped again at

the bathroom. She told me to get cleaned up and to come

back to the kitchen after I was bathed. She explained that

she had a few things sent for me but not much, and I would

have a fitting the following day for more clothes.

A fitting?

I showered with shower heads hitting every part of

my body. I had to admit even though I was scared shitless,

wondering what the hell a good looking rich man would

want to marry me for, I couldn’t help but be just a little

excited. The shower gel scent was outlandish and left my

skin feeling soft and smooth.

I put on the pants suit that was left for me on my

luxurious bed and it was so pretty and soft, it made me

want to do my hair and put on makeup. I didn’t of course. I

didn’t have anything to do that with,
yet
.

I wanted to open every door that I passed as I went

to find Rebecca. I passed another younger girl that didn’t

speak or look at me. She was carrying a stack of towels,

and I assumed she too worked for Drew.

I didn’t sit at the massive table in the dining room.

I sat in the kitchen at the table that was still at least three

times bigger than my wobbly table back home. I had the

best meal I had ever had in my life. I had heard of shrimp

scampi from the magazines that I used to get from the

library and always looked at the recipes wishing that I

could try some of them.

I actually went to bed with a smile. I had the

biggest flat screen TV that you could possibly buy. I

stayed up so late watching all of the channels. We had a

TV back home, but it was an old console one, and we

didn’t have cable. We had an antenna and only got two

channels. You had to beat the side of it every so often to

make the lines stop rolling up it. I was so comfortable in

the massive plush bed with satin designer sheets. I

couldn’t believe that I was there. I think it was around two

in the morning when I finally turned off the television and

dozed off.

I had slept until almost eleven before Rebecca

finally came into wake me.

“Mrs. Kelley, it’s time to wake up. You have an

appointment at noon,” she said.

I remember thinking that it must have been a

dream. I felt so good in the bed, and the silk nightgown felt

elegant against my skin. I didn’t want to wake up. I liked

the dream.

“Mrs. Kelley,” Rebecca called again, waking me

from my dream that wasn’t a dream after all. “You have to

get up and get something to eat. You have an appointment

soon.”

“Appointment for what?” I asked sleepily. “Where

am I going?”

“You have an appointment here to have your hair

and nails done, and they are doing your fitting so that you

can get more clothes.”

This is not real. This doesn’t happen in real life.

I was going to put on the same pant suit from the

night before, but it was gone and a new light pink pants

and jacket were in its place. It was the softest material I

had touched in my life. I looked at the tag, and it said

100% cashmere. I didn’t want to put on the stockings or

the shoes. I loved the feel of the plush carpet under my

feet, but I did wear them. I had a feeling bare feet weren’t

quite acceptable around there.

I had fruit and coffee for breakfast. I was eighteen

and had never tasted coffee in my life. It was divine with

just a hint of vanilla.

“What does Drew do, Rebecca?” I asked, curious

about his business.

“That is a subject for you and Mr. Kelley,” she

replied. I had a feeling that she was pretty loyal to Drew,

and I wouldn’t be getting any information from her.

My hair was past my waist. I wasn’t upset at all

about cutting it. I had wanted it cut for a long time. I had

even tried to cut some of the length off myself, but the only

scissors that I could find in the trailer were too dull to cut

one strand. I was not as happy about dying it. I liked my

brown hair and wasn’t crazy about being a blonde.

“You can cut it, but I will decline the blonde,” I

said.

Rebecca bent down to my ear sitting in the chair.

“Mr. Kelley wants your hair lightened. Don’t be difficult,

please,” she pleaded.

I let them do my hair. I let them do my nails and a

pedicure that felt wonderful. I loved being pampered and

couldn’t believe that I had three people sucking up and

kissing my ass the way that they were. However when it

came to the bikini wax I was having no part of it. My hair

was down there for a reason, and nobody was waxing it

off, let alone one of these strangers, especially the guy. I