ROMANCE: Romantic Comedy: Love in 30 Days - The Best Plans Don't Always Work! (Plus 19 FREE Books Book 13) (10 page)
Authors: Jane Keeler
“I gotta go” he said, “gotta take care of some things first.”
He put some boots on, took all his stuff and letf without another word. For an hour I paced around the house, too upset to even think.I had no idea if he was even coming back or not. I put on some makeup, went to the bank and withdrew my entire savings. I was going to leave that shitty town regardless. By 4 he had still not shown up, so I went online and looked when the last bus would leave town. I had an hour, so I packed up the clothes that I cared about and got ready to leave. At that point I figured that I would never hear from him again. My heat ached as did my pussy and ass a little, but the latter two were the good kind of ache. I was just about to walk out the door when he pulled up on his bike.
“Where have you been?” I said with a bit too much emotion “I was worried.” There were little tears in my eyes.
“Had to take care of some shit” he said” come on, we gotta go or we’ll miss the show.”
“You mean that you want to go with me?” I asked.
“Well of course” he said, “it’s not often you find what we have.” I was so happy that I actually did start to cry.
“We gotta go now” he said.
I really didn’t care about anything in the house, it was all just stuff that could be replaced. Most of the furniture belonged to the landlord anyway and he was a bit of an asshole. He never got around to fixing things that needed it. We walked out and got on Jamie’s bike, the now familiar buzz between my legs making me think of our ultra dirty night.
“I love you” I whispered in his ear before we drove away from my house for the very last time.
| wondered where the hell we were going as we drove down Maple street in the direction of Watson. We had only driven a mile or so when he pulled over and took off his helmet.
“See that car in the driveway there?” He was pointing to a shiny vintage Trans Am in a driveway about 200 feet up the road.
“Yeah, what about it?” I asked.
“That belongs to that stupid ass cop. He told me to leave, so I am….
we
are.”
Then he pulled a tiny box out of the inside of his jacket pocket, yanked a little antenna out and pushed a button.It looked like one of those remote control car things, which I think it was. Suddenly the car in the driveway exploded in a ball of flames. The blast was so strong that I could feel it from where we were.
“Just something that I picked up along the way” he said and smiled.
Very casually he put his helmet on, started the bike and put it in to gear. We drove away towards the interstate, the flames of Eric’s car at our backs. I had no idea where we were going but I also didn’t care. I was getting out of Merrillville and I was in love.
*** THE END ***
Book Three
BROTHERLY LOVE
By Jane Keeler
Chapter One
Alison had always wanted the perfect wedding – the white wedding dress that trailed behind her when she walked. A big chapel, lined with stained glass windows on either side. Friends and family watching on with tears of both joy and jealousy. A man waiting for her at the end in a perfectly tailored suit. A man so good looking that he took her breath away. Of course, everyone had told her that she was crazy – that life simply did not work that way. Of course, they had been wrong – because Alison always got what she wanted. Alison’s wedding had been all of that, and more. A day of absolute and utter perfection.
“You look beautiful my darling,” her mother had whispered to her the day of the wedding. Her mother had never particularly liked Harold for reasons that Alison could not fathom and she had half expected her to object at the wedding. But one look at Alison in her wedding dress had been enough to make her think otherwise.
When Alison had met Harold she knew that she would marry him. He was everything that she had ever wanted in a man, from his groomed sense of style to his devilish good looks. They had met at a business conference – back then she was just a secretary who had come in to take notes, and he had walked in with a barrage of men from another company. He was impossible to ignore and when Alison had listened to him speak she noticed that she wasn’t the only one leaning forward and hanging onto his every word. By the end of the meeting her boss had shaken hands with him and a deal had been struck, and when Alison looked down at her notepad she had been horrified to notice that she had not written one word down. She walked out, shamefaced, wondering how on earth she was going to explain herself. She was the last person to leave the conference room and the moment she turned the corner she was surprised to come face to face with Harold himself. He was smiling at her. “Dinner? Tonight? I see you didn’t take down any notes. Well maybe tonight can be your chance to get even more information from me.” Then he winked at her and shoved a piece of paper in her hand and walked off. When he was out of sight she had quickly unfolded the paper, which simply revealed the time of their dinner arrangement, and informed her that a cab would be at her house at 7pm to pick her up. She was so excited that she didn’t even wonder how he knew where she lived. This was a man that got what he wanted at all times. But she didn’t mind. It was exactly what she wanted too.
Alison had fallen in easily with Harold’s lifestyle and within a year of getting to know him she had crawled up the corporate ladder and walked around sporting a shiny and prominent engagement ring. It was the type of ring that was impossible to ignore and there was no denying the validity of its worth. Everyone at work had not been surprised that Harold had chosen Alison over all the other women in the office, even though at that time Alison had just been a secretary. Alison was undeniably beautiful and with a bit of money thrown her way she had grown into someone that looked simply perfect on Harold’s arm. She had blonde hair, long and curly at the ends, that made her look almost ethereal when she wore it down. The other times, she wore it in a high ponytail and when she walked it whooshed from one side to the next as if it had a life of its own. She had been blessed with good skin that didn’t need foundation to make it look smooth and blue azure eyes that were cool but comforting all at once. Once she had gained a bit of confidence in herself she simply had to blink her eyes at a man and she’d get what she wanted. Although all she ever wanted was Harold.
Back then Harold had a reputation for being quite the ladies’ man. He was a well-known and successful businessman who had no trouble with finding women. He told Alison that she had been the only woman that he had met that had made him want to settle down. The other women had been a part of his fun and flirtatious past but when he met Alison he realized he wanted more. What he liked about her was that she had the brains to go along with the looks. Nevertheless, despite his commitment to her, he still had women flocking to him at every event that he went to, and he still spoke to them as if they were the only women in the room. It was a part of who he was and it was a way of making sure he stayed well-liked by all. He was constantly juggling the act of keeping the men happy as well as the women – because both were important in his strive to become even more successful.
Sometimes Alison didn’t know what to do with all the money that they had. They lived in a six bedroom house even though only the two of them lived inside. They had hired someone to clean and someone to cook, and they even had their own driver on hand at all times. It meant that they did very little manual labor themselves. Once, when the cleaner and the cook hadn’t come in for a few days due to an illness in their family (they were related) Alison was left to take care of the house herself. Harold had insisted that they find a replacement but Alison would not hear of it.
“Don’t be silly darling,” she had placated him, “I can clean the house and make the food for a change. We’re only two people. How hard can it be?” But Alison was surprised at just how hard it actually had been, and how much she had taken them for granted. They might only be two people but they sure knew how to make a mess. Seemed they never cleaned up after themselves because they knew that there was always someone that was going to do it for them. Also, with a house that large there was always something to do. Even the rooms she barely went into needed to be swept of dust and kept clean. By the time the evening came she was exhausted and she still had to make dinner. Looking in the fridge she had been surprised at the lack of ingredients and then realized that the cook normally went shopping for supplies too. She had gone to the supermarket not knowing what to buy and by the time she had come home she was suitably confused. “What was I thinking?” she had said while all her ingredients were laid out on the kitchen table. When Harold came in he laughed at the two pizza boxes that were sitting on the living room table. While Harold had found the whole thing incredibly amusing she had actually been mortified. Since when had she turned into the type of woman that could do nothing by herself?
Growing up Alison had always been a part of the household chores. Her mother had never let her be the type of child that got what she wanted with a click of the finger. Instead, her mother had encouraged her to help her with the cooking and the cleaning. “I am very proud of my house, Alison,” her mother used to tell her, “And you should be proud of it too. Being proud of your house means being thankful for it and always making sure you keep it a fun, tidy and happy place to live in. Always remember that.” But, of course, Alison had easily put that thought aside. She wasn’t particularly proud of herself but it was hard to change back when life was simply so easy. She promised herself that she would stay true to herself by rather using her time to help out charities and those in need. Also, she would say more to placate herself than anything else, she was giving a job to two people by hiring a chef and a cleaner – so she can’t be all that bad.
Now, as Alison stood in front of the mirror, she admired the image staring back at her. Clad in a long black dress with a slit high enough to make someone do a double take but not too high that it’s considered slutty. Her hair fell long to her waist and she was in the process of applying her makeup. They had been invited to an end of year work function and Harold had been asked to speak. He had already told her that he would be bringing her up on stage with him so she wanted to make sure that she looked the part. There were times when this sort of lifestyle exhausted her, and the thought of plastering a smile on her face the entire night made her tired just thinking about it. Also she knew that Beverley would be there and that always made her a bit more jealous than she would like to admit.
Beverley had joined Harold’s company only six months ago. She was young, beautiful and incredibly ambitious. While she was only the receptionist, Alison could tell that she had her eyes focused on her prize and that she did not plan on staying in that position for long. When Alison had met her she had tried not to show her jealousy on her face, and instead told Harold that she seemed
just lovely.
There was something about Beverley that bothered her. And even though Harold hadn’t said anything she could tell just by the way that he spoke about her that he was a little enamored by her. Alison told herself that there was nothing to worry about and decided that tonight she would make an extra effort to show Harold that he had made the right the decision.
She was surprised when she saw Harold standing at the door in his underwear, clutching a phone in his hand. “Harold, why aren’t you ready? The driver is going to be here in ten minutes. Your suit is ready but you are going to have to be quick.” Then she looked at Harold again and noticed that his face had gone ashen. “Harold? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“My dad died.”
“What? How?” Alison knew that Harold and his father had not been close, and he had not seen his father in years. Nevertheless, his father had always seemed fit and healthy and this was certainly not at all something that they had foreseen.
“A stroke. That was Tristan. I guess they didn’t tell me that he hadn’t been doing well. I have to go sort out some family things. So, he’s asked me to come back to the island for a few weeks.”
“Oh Harold. I’m so sorry. Yes of course, we will both go. Come, sit down. Let me take off this dress. We don’t need to go tonight.” She was surprised when Harold looked at her and said, “No, I still want to go. I have to go this speech.”
Chapter Two
The event went well, which was surprising considering Harold had just found out about the death of his father. Alison wasn’t quite sure what to make of him that night and thought perhaps that he was just trying to keep his mind off everything. Every smile that he gave tore away at her and she wanted to scream, “WHY ARE YOU NOT MORE UPSET?” But she knew that everyone handled pain differently and that this might just be his way of getting through it all. Beverley had been on fine form the whole night and had barely left Harold’s side.
“Oh you look gorgeous,” she had said to Alison, “I love your dress so much. Oh you must tell me who made that for you.” Nobody had made her dress. She had bought it from a boutique shop. Beverley, of course, was wearing a customized dress, that showed off every part of her body. While Alison still tried to keep herself decent, Beverley was not afraid to show off her body and it was hard to not focus on her cleavage which was protruding out of her tight dress. Again, Alison simply smiled throughout the night and did her best to the perfect wife that she knew she was.
The next day Harold and Alison packed for their trip to the island. They had managed to get themselves on a flight that afternoon and they had planned to stay for two weeks. Alison was secretly looking forward to getting away a bit and she liked the idea that she would not have to think about Beverley for two whole weeks. She knew, however, that Harold would not take a full two weeks break and had packed his laptop and all his documents to take with. “Why don’t you take a break, Harold? It’s been years since you’ve had a proper holiday. You’re always working.”
“I can’t just stop working Alison. Also, this is not a holiday. My father died. So this is merely a chance for me to help my brother with the arrangements.” And there was simply nothing that Alison could say to that. So she just nodded and quickly packed in her bikini when he wasn’t watching.
‘The Island’ as Harold always referred to it was actually a seaside village in Corfu, Greece. Harold called it the island because he said it was so secluded from the rest of the world. A place where everybody knew everybody and where you could walk from one side of town to another in a day. He always crinkled up his nose when he said that, as if even just the idea of it was disgusting to him. “It was fun growing up there, simply because we had the beach on our doorstep, but when I got older I just felt so claustrophobic and wanted to get out. It’s the type of place where nobody amounts to anything, where nobody dreams big or has plans to make money or travel the world. There is no glitz and glamor on the island. It’s all bare feet and sand, everywhere you go.” This didn’t particularly sound all that bad to Alison but Harold was so adamant that she would hate it that she started to think that she probably would.
When they got onto the plane she sat back and reached out to take Harold’s hand. She squeezed it but he didn’t squeeze it back. She could see that he was a million miles away and that the thought of going back home depressed him. She knew that he had not planned to go back for a very long time. She wanted to speak more to him about his father, but she didn’t want to make him sad, so instead she decided to probe about his brother.
“So, are you excited to see your brother again? You haven’t seen in in what, ten years?”
“Hmmf.” Came the reply which she knew was the signal that he didn’t want to talk about it. So she leaned back and closed her eyes, wondering instead what his brother was going to be like. She didn’t want to tell him how excited she was that she was finally going to meet a part of his family. In all the time that they had been married she had never once met his family, and she’d been upset that Harold hadn’t even bothered to invite them to the wedding. She knew that this was one of the reasons that her mother had not liked Harold, because family had always been so important to her. Over the years she had tried to get him to open up to her and to tell her why he disliked them so much but he had remained quite tight lipped, telling her only that they were different to him. She didn’t have the best hope of getting on with his brother, but she was certainly interested to meet him and to see the place in which Harold had grown up. He hadn’t wanted her to come with but she had insisted and he had finally given in to her pleas.
When they landed they organized a cab to take them straight to
the island.
Normally, Harold told her, they would’ve taken a bus, but because it was so late in the evening already they had to find another way of getting there. “I’ll be honest though,” he told her confidentially, “I’m quite glad we had to take a cab. I used to hate those bus rides. No air-conditioning. People standing and talking loudly even though they are all right next to each other. The driver riding so fast you wonder how he ever got his license. No thank you!” Harold was in such a bad mood that Alison chose to rather not say anything at all, and to simply nod to everything that he complained about as if she agreed with him.
It was dark when they arrived and Alison walked with Harold to the house and waited while he knocked on the door. She had never seen Harold look so downtrodden and she was starting to worry that the place was as horrible as he always told her. The door opened and a gorgeous young man opened the door. Alison knew immediately that it was Harold’s brother. That dimpled smile obviously ran prominent in the Baxter family.
“Harold!” he exclaimed and came forward to envelope Harold in a huge bear hug. Harold held onto his bags the whole time so that he did not have to reciprocate it at all.
“Tristan. Good to see you again.” Harold’s voice was formal and terse. Certainly not the voice of someone who was excited to see his brother again after so many years.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were coming with someone,” Tristan said, looking at Alison, “Hi, I’m Tristan. It is a pleasure to meet you.” She was just about to thrust out her hand when he came forward to kiss her on both cheeks.
“Pleasure to meet you too. I’m Alison.”
“Come in, Come in. Oh dear, I only made up the one room though. I’ll be able to sort something out tomorrow, but it’s quite late now. I wonder, maybe you can take the couch then Harold, and Alison can get the room?”
“Oh. Uh… no, I’ll just sleep in the room with Harold.” Alison was incredibly confused. Tristan was speaking as if he didn’t know of her existence. As if he hadn’t known that they were married.
“Oh. Goodness, I’m sorry. Yes of course. Well that works out perfectly then. Wow, Harold, you hit the luck here.” And he slapped Harold on the back. Alison felt immediately at ease around Tristan, who seemed to be incredibly upbeat and happy.
I wonder if he’s always like this or if he’s simply putting on a show in front of them. He probably hated Harold just as much as Harold hated him.
“Well, I’ll leave you all to it then. It’s late and you must be exhausted. Here’s your bedroom. The bathroom is just outside, you can’t miss it. And I’ve left a plate of snacks in case you’re hungry. We can have a proper chat in the morning though. Harold – I still cannot believe you are here. This is crazy!” He walked out, laughing to himself as if he really were happy to see Harold again.
“He seems nice.” She said to Harold the moment they had closed the door. “Not at all what I had expected though.” Harold said nothing, and the two of them silently got ready for bed and fell asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow.
The next morning Alison woke to the sun shining through the curtains and pots clambering outside. She looked over at Harold who was awake and already dressed and she mumbled a good morning to him.
“Good morning Alison. Sorry I was so grumpy yesterday. It’s just weird being back here you know.” He was wearing dark jeans and a collared blue shirt, and while he looked very nice he didn’t look like someone that was on holiday.
Which he isn’t,
she reminded herself.
“I totally understand. Give me ten minutes, I just want to have a quick shower. By the sounds of things Tristan is already up.”
Alison showered and put on a yellow summery dress and flip flops. She had bought the dress the following summer when they had planned to go away for a week to a holiday resort. The plans all got cancelled when Harold got called into an important business meeting and she had packed the dress away for a future holiday. A full year later and she finally had the chance to wear it. After her shower she saw that Harold was not in the room anymore so she went to the kitchen to investigate. She stood for a few minutes watching the two brothers and she felt a pang that the two of them were not closer. Tristan looked to be the complete opposite of Harold. He was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, and now that she was seeing him in the light of the day she could see that he was incredibly tanned from hours spent out in the sun. He was only a few years younger than Harold and yet he looked even younger now that the two of them were sitting together. Alison assumed it was because of the lifestyle that Tristan led compared to Harold’s and, of course, the different clothes they chose to wear. Tristan was in the process of making breakfast and Harold was sitting at the table watching him strangely. She made a small sound and they both turned around and saw her standing there.
“Alison!” Tristan exclaimed, “I’m glad you could join us. I have bacon and eggs on their way. Sit down, let me pour you some coffee. There’s also juice on the table.”
“Thank you so much. It smells amazing!” As she sat down she noticed Harold looking at her and she smiled up at him.
“New dress?” he asked.
“Oh I got it for our last holiday. That one last year that we couldn’t go to. Didn’t seem like the appropriate dress to wear at home though. It’s more beach than city. It was still in my bag!”
“Hmm.”
She wanted to ask him what he meant by that but she didn’t want to have an argument in front of Tristan so she just left it. But she suddenly felt very uncomfortable and wondered if she had worn the wrong thing. Tristan placed the food on the table and told them dig in. Alison and Harold weren’t normally big breakfast people. They always ate on the go, grabbing a muffin or a fruit or anything that they could find and gulping down as much coffee as they could handle. It had been a routine that she had adapted to since being with Harold. Now, she couldn’t believe how much she was enjoying just sitting down and taking the time to eat a full meal and by the end she felt more satisfied than she had in a long time. Harold saw her empty plate.
“Wow. You were hungry. You ate it all.” His plate had hardly been touched.
“Yeah, it was delicious.” She felt herself starting to blush, embarrassed at how much she had eaten, but thankfully Tristan spoke up. “I’m glad you liked it. I’m a big fan of starting the day off with a big meal. I don’t know what it is about this place, but I’m always famished.” Then he dished himself up some more and smiled.
“Okay, so I think today we should enjoy the island. Later, we can talk more serious things. But right now, I want you both to enjoy yourselves. I’d be happy to take you on a tour, if you’d like?”
“Oh yes, that would be great.” Alison said, looking forward to a day out that didn’t involve spreadsheets and conference calls.
“No thank you. I’ve seen this place a million times and I doubt much has changed. I have work to do.” Alison felt her face fall, crestfallen at the thought of working. It was only day one.
“Well then, suit yourself. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. Alison, guess you’ll have to put up with me then! Are you ready to get going now?” Alison looked up in surprise. She had simply thought that if Harold was working that it would mean she would have to stay back herself. She looked to Harold for permission.
“You gonna be okay here by yourself? Do you mind if I go? I’ll stay in you need me to. But I’d love to go and see the place where you grew up.” She hoped the plea in her voice wasn’t too obvious.
