Athena's Daughter (25 page)

“Um…” Derek stared past his daughter at the
wall. “Actually…”

“There’s a guest house behind the pool,”
Athena cut in. Her better judgment reared back in outrage, but she
slapped it down. “That’s where your daddy will live.”

“Cool! Can we go see it?”

“Absolutely.” Smiling, Derek helped Elizabeth
down and handed her a key ring. “Go see if you can find the correct
key.”

“Stay away from that pool,” Athena shouted
after her as she bounded out the door.

“Don’t worry. The gate’s locked and the key
isn’t on that fob.” Derek ran a hand over the back of his neck.
“Thank you, Athena.”

“You’re welcome.” She sighed and shook her
head. “I still think this is a bad idea.”

A half-smile brought out the dimple in his
left cheek. “I don’t think it will be bad at all. In fact, I’m
willing to wager some of it will be very, very good.”

“What’s in these boxes?”

Athena peered out the arched kitchen
pass-through to see Andi scooting across the tile floor of the den
on her butt, headed for a stack of boxes next to the fireplace.
Narrowing her eyes, she assessed the containers in question. They
were darker with age than the others scattered around the room, and
she could see a thin layer of dust adorning the top of one.

“I have no idea,” she told Andi. “Those are
the things I had stored in Mom and Dad’s basement.”

“Hmpf. I still can’t believe they won’t come
over here and help you unpack.” Andi glanced around her. “Crap.
Where’s my knife?”

Unperturbed, Athena finished smashing a box
that once contained kitchen utensils. “I’m not surprised at all.
After all, not only am I uneducated, divorced and a single mother,
now I’ve compounded things by living in sin with the father of the
child everyone now knows is illegitimate.”

“Who’s living in sin?” Andi demanded.
“Derek’s in the guest house, and you and Elizabeth are in
here.”

“You know Mom and Dad,” Athena said by way of
explanation. “Doesn’t bother me, though. I gave up on them a long
time ago. At least they love Elizabeth.” She carried the now-flat
cardboard to the breakfast nook, and tossed it on top of a pile of
others. Dusting off her hands, she descended the step into the den
and stopped to watch Andi with a grin.

Her sister was lying stretched out on her
back, her fingers reaching over her head for the pocket knife that
sat just out of her reach.

“Geez, Andi. How lazy can you get?” Athena
picked up the knife and joined Andi at the stack of dusty
boxes.

“It’s all Derek’s fault for buying a
split-level,” Andi shrugged. “I’m tired from going up and down
those stairs all day.”

“Yeah, now I know why he wanted to live in
the guest house. No stairs.” Using the knife, she made a quick
swipe through the duct tape holding the box closed. “Let’s see what
I thought was important enough to keep all those years ago.”

“Ooh, high school yearbooks.” Andi snickered
as the lid fell back and she got a look inside. “Remember how we
thought it was so important that we get these, and now…”

“What a waste of money.” Athena lifted out
the annuals from her freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years
and plopped them on the floor. “I’ll probably never look at these
things again, but I hate to throw them out because they cost so
much.”

“Closed cabinet under the bookshelves?” Andi
asked.

“Sounds good to me.” Athena slid the stack to
her sister who pushed them next to the built-ins. “What else is in
there? Prom corsages?”

“Please tell me you didn’t save your
corsages.” As the next record dropped onto the turntable, Andi
burst into laughter. “Did you plan this?”

“What?” Confused, Athena frowned at her
sister until she realized what she was talking about. Her laughter
joined Andi’s as she looked at the stereo where Chicago’s “Old
Days” was spinning on the turntable. “No, I didn’t plan that. It’s
just one of the new records I brought home from the store. Although
it is pretty appropriate.”

“Trust you to have a soundtrack for unpacking
old memories, intentional or not.” Andi reached in and lifted out a
faded P.F. Flyers shoebox. “Aha! A box within a box.” She flipped
off the top. “Hey! It’s all your stuff from when you went to
England.”

“Really?” Athena leaned closer to see. “Cool.
I thought all that got lost a long time ago.”

“Well, here it is. Boarding passes, a little
Union Jack.” She paused to wave it around before returning to the
contents of the box. Pulling out a faded pink sheet of paper, she
squinted at the writing on it. “What’s this? Oh, it’s a flyer for a
performance Wolf did. July 8, 1967.”

“Probably a lot of those in there. I tried to
keep all the ones we had left over. Derek might like to have them.”
Athena looked up from examining the boarding passes in time to see
Andi pull a plastic baggie from the recesses of the box.

“What in the world is this thing? String?”
Andi regarded the bag’s contents with bemusement. “You must have
thought it was really important since you preserved it in
plastic.”

Heaviness settled in Athena’s chest as she
looked at the little purple circlet in the baggie. “That’s my
engagement ring.”

“Oh.” Andi pushed a lock of hair behind her
ear, and handed over the bag. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. No wonder
you saved it.”

A wistful smile curved Athena’s lips. “Yeah.
It was pretty romantic when he got down on one knee and put it on
my finger.” She turned the bag back and forth, examining the
contents from all angles. “It’s still the prettiest ring I’ve ever
seen.”

“And here’s photographic evidence that you
wore it.” Andi pulled a picture from an envelope and waved it at
Athena.

“Hey, my pictures!” Her smile grew wider.
“I’m so glad those weren’t lost.” She took the photograph from
Andi, and shook her head. Just looking at it brought back the
memory of how the early morning chill was chased away by the fizz
of excitement that heated her blood. In the picture she and Derek
wore matching smiles of elation, so certain that they were about to
start their happily ever after. “God, we were so young.”

“Horny, too.”

Startled, Athena looked over at the photo
Andi held, and blushed at the soulful kiss it depicted. “Give me
that.” She snatched the picture and held it against her chest.
After a moment, she had to give it another quick peek. Man, they
meant that kiss.

“Photographic evidence of when you got
pregnant, maybe?” Andi joked.

“Shut up.” Athena studied the photo,
remembering the feel of Derek’s lips on hers, and the warmth of his
body. “Paul took this. The other one, too. It was right before we
went off to the Register Office to be told I was unsuitable to
marry a British subject.” She cleared her throat and cut her eyes
at Andi. “I’m pretty sure I was already pregnant by then.”

Andi’s lips twitched with amusement. “Maybe
you should have told the registrar that.”

“Like it would have made a difference, even
if we’d known.” Athena snorted and replaced the photos in the
envelope. “Put all this back in there and put it with the
yearbooks. I’ll go through it when I have time.”

Mouth turned down in a pout, Andi began
replacing things in the shoebox. “I wanna look at them now. I like
seeing pictures of young nineteen-year-old Derek.”

There was no way she could look at her sister
without bursting into laughter, so Athena kept her attention glued
to the rest of the junk in the larger box. It had been a revelation
to watch her no-nonsense sibling turn into a starry-eyed fangirl
upon meeting Derek for the first time. Matters weren’t helped by
the fact that Derek was beyond nervous at meeting his daughter’s
extended family, and when he got nervous he tended to ramp up the
charm levels to DEFCON 1. Before the initial meeting was over,
Athena fully expected Andi to dissolve into a puddle of goo at
Derek’s feet, and she had been mooning over him ever since.

“Oh, hell, forget the pictures.” Andi’s awed
voice intruded on Athena’s thoughts. “I’ll just sit here and look
out the window.”

When Athena looked into the back yard, she
couldn’t fault her sister a bit. A shirtless Derek stepped out of
the guest house with a bunch of boxes, and was encouraging
Elizabeth to jump on them to flatten them out. The bright May
sunshine glistened on his hair, and accentuated the play of muscles
in his bare chest and arms. As if that wasn’t distracting enough,
he turned around, bringing into view the most beautiful back Athena
had ever seen. Her greedy gaze roamed over it, coming to a halt at
the low-slung waistband of his jeans. A tantalizing strip of
lighter skin was revealed, and Athena’s mouth went dry as she
thought of what else might come into view if those jeans dipped
just a bit further.

“I don’t know how much more of this I’m going
to be able to take.” She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until
Andi responded.

“Anything you want to talk about?”

Pressing her lips together, Athena reached
into the box and pulled out an untidy stack of brightly colored
paper. “Won’t do any good,” she mumbled. “What the hell are these?
Oh, my God; they’re old posters from
Circus Magazine
.
Where’s the trash can?”

“Over there.” Andi gestured behind her. “Tell
me what’s going on with you and Derek.”

“That’s just it – I don’t know.” Glad for an
excuse to move away from Andi’s curious stare, Athena got up and
carried the old posters to the trash. “He’s driving me crazy and I
don’t think he even knows.”

“You still love him, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” she admitted with a sigh. “More than
ever. That’s why I don’t think this living arrangement is a good
idea even if he is out there in the guest house. It’s hard enough
having him around all the time, but every now and then…” She shook
her head.

“Every now and then what?” Andi leaned back
on her hands and regarded her sister with sympathy.

“The whole situation is so schizophrenic,”
Athena burst out. “Most of the time we have a very civil, very
friendly thing going on. To watch us, you’d think Derek was my
brother instead of Donnie. But a couple of times out of nowhere
there have been these…these…moments.”

“I do hope you aren’t talking about Donnie
now.”

“God, Andromeda!” Disgusted, Athena grabbed
the posters from the top of the trash and flung them in her
sister’s direction. “Eww! I can’t believe you said that.”

“I know, I know!” Andi hunched her shoulders
and grimaced in chagrin as the images of rock stars floated down
around her. “But you know when things get serious I start making
jokes.”

“Well, that one was just gross.” Athena
shuddered. “Perverted twit. You’re not allowed to look at Derek
without his shirt on any more.”

“I’m sorry.” Andi pulled her knees up and
wrapped her arms around them. “You don’t know how sorry. But,
c’mon. Tell me about these moments with Derek.”

With a sigh, Athena started gathering up the
posters again. “There have only been a couple, and they come out of
nowhere. But they’re very intense. When they happen I could almost
swear he wants me, too. But then they’re over, and he goes back to
treating me like…” She was about to say ‘his sister,’ but after
Andi’s crack she couldn’t do it. “Like his friend.”

“Hm.” Andi tilted her head to one side. “Why
do these moments end? Do either one of you do something to end
them, or…?”

Athena came to a halt and frowned. “I don’t
remem…Wait, yes I do. Both times Elizabeth interrupted us.”

Andi barked a humorless laugh. “Welcome to
parenthood, sweetie. So why don’t you send Elizabeth to my house
for a night and see what happens when you don’t get
interrupted?”

“I can’t do that.” Crushing the posters into
a mangled blob, she shoved them into the large galvanized metal
trash can. “I think if he really felt anything more than just a
passing lust then he’d have already done something about it. After
all, he’s never been one to hold back.” Heat washed into her cheeks
when she thought about the way he’d backed her against the wall in
that New Orleans hotel room and scorched her with a kiss. “If he
felt the same way I do I’d know it by now.”

“But if he was interrupted by a child…”

“Andi.” Athena cut her off and shook her
head. “I’ve had my heart broken twice, and both times Derek
Marshall did it. I don’t even want to think what it would feel like
if he did it again.”

“This is stupid.” Andi got to her feet and
scowled. “You can’t just continue this way with him. You have to
know if there’s even a chance that he might feel the same way. I
say you need to go for it.”

“And I’m telling you I can’t take it if he
doesn’t.” She straightened with a deep, cleansing breath. “The
subject is now officially closed, all right?”

“Fine,” Andi groused. “If you’re going to be
all stubborn and ignorant then you can just finish this room by
yourself, because I just want to grab you and shake you until your
teeth rattle.” And with that pronouncement she stomped from the
den.

Athena stared after her, shock giving way to
anger. She knew Andi was right. After all, she was only twenty-five
years old, much too young to declare celibacy and spinsterhood. But
at the same time, she wasn’t kidding when she said she couldn’t
take it if Derek rejected her.

So was she just supposed to stay quiet and
watch him strut around in front of her with his shirt off for the
rest of her life?

With a growl of rage, she kicked the trash
can over and watched as the contents skidded across the floor.

Hot, humid air wafted through the den, and
Athena looked up from her paperwork with a frown. Elizabeth stood
at the open French doors staring out at the back yard.