Wet: Part 2 (7 page)

“He attacked me, remember?”

“But
he
would never have killed
you
.” Their eyes locked.

“I don’t start anything I’m not willing to finish.” Her observation surprised him.

“Dobbs is your friend! And he’s my friend. He’s just looking out for me because he cares . . . and poor Claire. Why would you hurt her like that?”

“Pfft!” Paul rolled his eyes. “I’m not a
kind
, bleeding heart type of soul. I don’t have empathy for everyone and everything.” He made it sound like the traits were offensive.

“Don’t. Don’t run yourself down like that,” she said quietly.

He rolled his eyes. “There you go again. You’re hurt right now because Claire is hurt, and maybe Dobbs too. They’re hurt because of me,” he laughed unconvincingly. “But you still stand there and tell me not to say anything mean about
myself—
that doesn’t sound crazy to you?”

In his irritation, he leaned in at her when he spoke, maybe to intimidate her a little. He felt bad about it as soon as he did, but found it easier to lead her to believe his anger pointed at her, not himself. She shouldn’t have taken the blame for something he wanted the blame for. Tracy’s observation wore on him as well.

“You know what? Dobbs was right. You’re too gullible. We
all
thought you were smarter.”

The look on her face made him wince. She turned and started to walk away, but he grabbed her arm. By reflex, she turned and slapped him, catching the same side of his face that Dobbs had hit. Her hands flew to her mouth in horror at what she’d done.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Of course not.” His smirk reflected the angry edge in his voice. “That’s probably the first
honest
thing you’ve ever done, but you still won’t own it.”

She scowled at him and walked off again.

“You’re not walking home by yourself.”

“Leave me alone! I don’t want you anywhere near me,” she yelled. “Just leave me the hell alone!”

“Watch your mouth, young lady,” he mocked her. She didn’t stop. He half grimaced, half smirked and then followed her, keeping his distance until she made it to the yard at Oceanside. He stood by the path entrance and watched until she reached the top of the stairs, and he saw her get safely inside. He exhaled his frustration and finally left to go find a bar where no one from the party would find him.

Chapter 6

T
racy and Regina walked in ten minutes after Rhees. She ran to the door to greet them.

“Paul?” She wilted with disappointment. “Did you see Paul? Do you know where he is?”

“How should we know?” Regina sounded cold. “He left with you.”

“We had a fight.” Rhees ran to the kitchen window and tried to look out at the road again, hoping to see him, but the view didn’t face directly to the street. In the dark, she couldn’t see anything.

“I never would fight with Paul. He can do whatever the hell he wanted, and I would not never care as long as he found his way back to my bed at night. That man should realize what he is missing out on me.”

Rhees heard Regina ranting to Tracy about Rhees’ intelligence or lack of, and her inability to appreciate what she’d let slip through her fingers.

oOo

Rhees heard scuffling on the porch. In her half-sleep state, she panicked and reached for Paul, wanting to snuggle up to him, trusting he would calm her. Her hand came up empty, and it stirred her back to reality, as did the loud bang on the door. She checked her clock, two thirty in the morning. She’d only been asleep for a little while.

“Damn it Danarya! Open this . . . fucking door!” Paul stood outside on the porch, drunk. Not just normal Paul drunk, but sloppy, word-slurring, falling down drunk, and he still sounded angry, so she didn’t move, and planned to ignore him, though she found herself relieved to finally know where he was.

She heard the girls in the next room moving about. She jumped out of bed and raced to her bedroom door, threw off the lock and opened it just as Regina reached to unlock the front door.

“Don’t open it!” Rhees pushed Regina out of the way and checked to make sure the lock still hung secure.

“It’s Paul. He would like to come in.” Regina sounded incredulous.

Rhees glared at her. “Paul is
my
problem, not yours.
I
get to decide how to handle this, and right now, I don’t want to talk to him.” Regina ignored her and reached for the lock on the door again. “Regina, I swear, if you open this door . . .”

Rhees glared, teeth bared, daring Regina to see what would happen if she didn’t walk away.

Regina looked torn, but finally gave in and went back into her room. She slammed her door. Rhees shuddered, knowing Paul had probably heard them. She laughed to herself, realizing he had to know she was home. Where else would she be? She went back into her bedroom and plopped herself down on her bed. She worried what he would do when he realized she didn’t plan to let him in.

“Open this door, wo-man!” She heard him snicker to himself. He pounded again. 

She tried to ignore him as he made one attempt after another to talk her into letting him in, like, “Honey, I’m . . . home. Never fear, Paul . . . is here. Home is where your Paul is.” After a while, he stopped banging on the door and called to her through the small, open window facing the porch. She knew he couldn’t see her with the curtain closed.

“Danarya. Let me . . . in, pleeease.”

“Go home Paul. Leave me alone.” She finally gave up trying to ignore him. “Someone is going to call the police if you don’t go home and stop making so much noise.”

“I can’t go home . . . I can bare-ly walk.” He laughed. “Let me in, I just want to sleeep.”

His tone sounded calmer and it grew harder to ignore him, but she reminded herself how mean he’d been.

“Little pig, little pig, let me come in,” he sang quietly through the window. He began amusing himself with his inebriated cleverness. “Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin,” he sang in a false, high voice and then he laughed, still amused at his personal joke. His voice dropped to a low growl. “Then I’ll hufff, and I’ll pufff . . . and I’ll ba-looow your house in.”

He fell silent for a minute, and Rhees wondered if he’d fallen asleep leaning against the wall on the porch or something. She didn’t have to wonder long before she heard him mumbling, but it sounded like he was talking to himself now.

“But the big baaad wolf couldn’t blow the house in . . . he hufffed, and he pufffed, but
Rhees
lived in a house . . . n
awt
a house made of bricks . . . oh, no, no. She lived in fucking Fort
Knawx
! . . . with a mm-moat.” He clicked the T sound with emphasis. He paused. “Filled with hungry alligators . . . and pi-rrraw-nhas . . . and
zommbbies
. I hate fucking zombies.” He paused again. “A category five hurricane . . . couldn’t blow herr house down.”

She threw her pillow to her mouth to stifle the giggles. He might be acting funny and cute, but she still didn’t think the situation was humorous. 

“Dani Girrrl,” he cooed. It shocked Rhees to hear him call her Dani Girl. Of all the stupid nicknames he had tried to give her, he finally found one she didn’t mind. “Pleease let me in. I don’t l-like to sleep alone. I’ve never liked sleeping alone.” He sounded so sad, even through his slurs. “I used to sneak into my little sister’s room. I always told my mom that Mary was the one who was afraid, but it was really me.” He paused.

“She wet the bed sometimes. It was
sooo
gross.” He sighed loudly. “But . . . I still . . . I still preferred getting peed on than sleeping in my big ol’ room . . . all by my—s-self. I’d wake up awll wet, clean both of us up, and I’d carry her to Pete’s rooom so we could all sleep together—just like old times—before things went to shit. But then Pete started to
ne-ver
be in his rooom anymore.” He paused again. “When I got older, I found out why.” Silence again.

“That’s when I figured out that
I
could get girrls to sneak me into their rooms, too.” He laughed at his cleverness. “My parents ne-ver knew I wasn’t home . . . or they just didn’t fucking care.

“I’d spend the night with the girls. A few times . . . parents walked in on us . . . just sleeping—well one time, we weren’t
sleee-ping
. . .
yet.
” He laughed quietly. “After getting the
shhi-it
beat out of me by an angry father—I didn’t fight back. I could have, but . . .” He stopped to think. “If I found some dickwad like me in Mary’s bed, I’d beat the shiiit out of him too.”

Rhees listened to his story. He so rarely shared his past and he’d never opened up this much before.

“I got pa-ritty fast at grabbing my stufff and getting out. I’d go home and crawl into my own bed, all by myself—and
nawt
sleep. But you see . . .” His voice got louder, trying to make sure Rhees heard him. “Sleeping with you is like sleeping with my siss-ter. Or the
just
sleeping with girls—aff-ter the sex.
It-snot
so much the sssex—the sex isn’t bad, don’t get me
wrawng
. I like it—a
lawt
! Just not as much as I like the company.
Pleease
, don’t make me sleep alone.”

Rhees pressed her hands to her face. She felt almost guilty knowing so much about him, understanding that if he wasn’t so drunk, he would’ve never made such a detailed confession. She couldn’t stay mad at him, and decided to let him in. She unlocked the doors, but by the time she got outside, she found him asleep in one of the Adirondack chairs.

She worried about the way he sprawled out. His head hung over the side of the chair to his left, his mouth open and his jaw cocked to one side. His right leg propped over the opposite arm of the chair. He’d wake up sore in the morning.

She returned to her room and grabbed two sheets and all three pillows. She tucked one under his ribs so the wooden chair wouldn’t dig into him, trying to fix the pillow to give his head some support too. She tucked another under the leg draped over the arm of the chair. She covered him with one of the sheets and watched him for a minute.

“He’s sleeping off a drunken stupor for crying out loud! How can he still look so beautiful?”
She put the last pillow on the floor in front of his chair and sat down. She wrapped the other sheet around herself and rested her head against his left leg.

oOo

Paul woke and it took a while to figure out where he was, but he couldn’t remember how he got there, or why he felt anchored to the chair. Rhees had wrapped her arms around his leg, her head rested against his thigh. 

“Rhees?” Paul’s voice came out deep and hoarse. “Rhees.” He leaned forward in the chair and rubbed her back with his hand. He nuzzled her hair with his nose, inhaling, feasting on her scent.

He tried again to remember how they got there.
This isn’t right.

“You don’t have to sleep alone,” she murmured.

“Rhees? Hey, wake up.” He wondered what she meant.

“Ow. I have a kink in my neck.” She stirred.

“Why are you sleeping like that? Why am I?” A few memories started coming back to him. “Aw shit!”

“Hmm? What time is it?”

He checked his watch. “Damn, I should have been at the shop half an hour ago.” He wanted to jump up and get going, but she hung on to his leg, still groggy. “Come on Rhees, wake up. You’ve got me pinned down. We need to get to the shop.”

“I’m sorry. Oh . . . my neck hurts.” She put her hand to her neck and tried to rub the kink out. He reached down and helped her, massaging her neck and shoulders before taking her face in both hands and studying her.

“Is that better?” He kissed her on the temple.

Her memory of the early morning events returned and she sat up straighter, releasing his leg. She looked at him, afraid of what mood he would be in this morning.

“What’s wrong?”

She stood up, avoiding meeting his eyes. “Nothing. I’ll get ready.” She headed toward the screen door, but before she made it into the house, he asked again, right on her heels.

“What did I do last night? Did I do something—anything I shouldn’t have?”

“Not after you finally came home. I need to change.”

He rubbed the stubble along his tensed jaw and felt the leftover soreness from Dobbs’ punch. More and more of the events of the night before were coming back to him. He remembered everything, up until he followed Rhees, making sure she got home safely.

He remembered going to an obscure bar north of his shop, one, no one he knew well, ever frequented. He remembered Nicole. She showed up right after he did. He remembered realizing she’d followed him. He remembered buying her a few drinks, thinking she looked better than he’d originally thought . . . he hated himself. The thing is, he couldn’t remember if he needed to or not.

“Rhees! I need to go. I need to get to the shop.” He looked visibly harrowed about something. “Make sure you walk with Tracy and Regina. I’ll see you later.” He took off down the stairs.

“Paul? Wait for me! I’m almost ready. I only need a second.” She’d already changed into her swimming suit. She rushed out of the bathroom, threw on a T-shirt, grabbed her pack, and ran into the living room, ready to lock her bedroom door, but he’d already left.

She walked out onto the porch, looked down at the street and caught a glimpse of him running away. Turning to the chair where he’d slept, Rhees sighed, wondering if now that the alcohol had worn off, he was still mad at her. She sighed before gathering up the pillows and sheets and taking them to her room. She threw everything on the floor and sat down on the bed. She didn’t really cry, but she could have.

oOo

Dobbs and Claire didn’t show up for work, giving Paul even more to do after racing around all morning, playing catch-up for being late. Rhees showed up, not too long after him, and did all she could to help. With the work done, she stood on the boat as it pulled away from the dock without him, watching him wave. He never told her he’d opted not to dive, leading her to believe he still planned to. The look on her face made him feel even worse.

Paul had told Randy he had some urgent business to attend to. As soon as the boat headed off, he ran. He’d arranged to have Ignacio’s taxi waiting for him, out of view on the street, so Rhees wouldn’t see it. He hopped in, knowing he’d just left his shop unattended, but the odds that no one would show up before the boat returned were in his favor.

“Get me to the landing strip, and hurry.”

“You picking up guests?” Ignacio asked.

“Seeing one off.”

“I don’t think you’ll make it.”

“That’s why I said to hurry.”

Paul stared out the side window to let the driver know he wasn’t in the mood for conversation. Ignacio knew how to get through the pedestrian crowded streets fast, and luckily, the plane was late. Paul jumped out of the van before Ignacio had come to a full stop.

“Wait for me,” Paul yelled as he ran to the crude lean-to covered waiting bench that the islanders called an airport. The college students waited for their flight, surprised to see him, but no one seemed more surprised than Nicole.

“Can I talk to you, please?” he asked. Nicole gave him a dirty look, but she agreed. Paul took her aside. “Did we . . . um, my memory of last night is a little fuzzy. Can you remind me what happened?”

“What, it wasn’t enough to put me through that once? You want me to relive it again?” Nicole huffed, angrily.

“That bad, huh?” He drooped.

“Yes, it was.”

“I’m so sorry. It shouldn’t have happened.”

“Right, you son-of-a-bitch.”

“I know,” he agreed. “But please. It’s important.” He did his best to smile the way that seemed to warm most women’s hearts. He wasn’t in the mood so it was hard to do.

“Don’t look at me like that. That’s how it all started.”

He almost panicked that she was on to him, but he turned up the eye power instead of turning it down as she’d requested. He had to know. He wasn’t above fighting dirty to get what he wanted.

“All right,” she agreed. He wanted to sigh in relief but didn’t give himself away. “I was tired . . . and a little depressed, so I decided to go back to my room and pack. Those guys—” she pointed at her friends, “—wanted to party up to the very last minute, so I headed back to the hotel on my own. That’s when I saw you wandering around by yourself.”

He must have appeared impatient because she smirked and started filling him in on every single minute detail. He wanted to scream at her to just get to the important part but she was already unhappy with him about something. He had no choice but to count his blessings she hadn’t started the story from the day she’d been born.

“It confused me to see you alone because of that whole violent scene at the party—I saw you leave with your
girlfriend
—you know, after three days of diving with you guys, I didn’t even know you and Rhees were an item, but there you were, all alone.”