A Love Story
24)
"Hi!"
Tad continued to stare at the young woman who stood in the open doorway of the Martin household, staring right back at him with large blue eyes and her black hair in a bun that had come partly lose. A dusting of flour decorated a cheek; more liberal amounts had apparently been thrown into her hair, a jarring contrast of white against black.
And she was wearing Mom's apron like she owned it, something that made Tad glare at her as soon as he recognized the pattern of ducklings and tulips. He had no idea who this crazy lady was and, striding past her angrily, he focused the glare back on her, the migraine and the stress from the last two or three days getting the better of him.
"Who are you?"
"Amy." When he continued to glare through his glasses, she grinned and grabbed his hand, shaking it so hard that he half-expected his arm to fall out of the shoulder socket. "Amy Cohen, solitary Wiccan, newbie to Pine Valley! Mr. and Mrs. Martin are letting me have one of their empty rooms."
"Why?"
"Because this maniac broke into my hotel room and tried to attack me and/or kill me. At the hospital, Mr. Martin said that he had some empty rooms because his herd had moved out and I decided to take him up on it."
He looked her over again, paused, and then pulled off his glasses, studying her for a full sixty seconds before asking, "Were you attacking the flour in my mom's kitchen or did it attack you?"
"No, no." She flicked a bit of white hair away from her face, grinned again. "Mrs. Martin has decided to teach me to cook because I'm waiting for my boss to get here and see where I'm now living. However, trying to teach Amy Cohen to cook is like trying to teach Micaela Kincaide to drive. It's not completely good."
"Mom!" he yelled and headed to where the slight smell of smoke was coming from, heading to the kitchen. Bursting in, he found Ruth tossing cookies that were impersonating pieces of charcoal into the trashcan; the oven, still smoking, was open, as were the windows. "Mom, was she trying to stuff you in the oven?"
At his back, Amy Cohen gave an angry huff and a flounce of hair, snapping, "Don't listen to the Brothers Grimm… they gave us and wolves a real bad rap, buddy and we have yet to recover."
Ruth let out a laugh at that, setting down the pan and passing Tad to set a hand on the young woman's shoulder. "Oh, Tad, don't be so silly. She's an absolutely darling girl and we just got too deep into our conversation." She ran a hand down a flour spotted arm, patted it with another, softer laugh. "I never knew there was so much symbolism in 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves'. We just got too involved."
"Mom—" He stopped, went stock still as he shared at both women, once again remembering why he had come rushing back home like he had. Immediately, Ruth caught the way his face drained of color and the bags under his eyes grew even darker. She took a step forward, put fingers on his arm. "Tad?"
"Do you think we can have some privacy?" he asked roughly and the young woman watching the two Martins immediately nodded furiously. "I'll go up to my room and do a few things. Maybe we'll try this cooking thing tomorrow?" At Ruth's nod, she rolled her shoulder, pulling the apron off and setting it on the kitchen counter before leaving the two alone in silence.
"Tad? What's wrong? You look horrible."
"Gee… thanks, Ma." His tone, a rather sarcastic one, simply made her roll her eyes and she stepped back when he squirmed under her touch. "Where's Pop, huh?"
"At the hospital… what's wrong, Tad?"
"It's about Dixie… I went to Switzerland—"
"Oh, Tad, you didn't…"
"I found her."
Complete bafflement on his mother's face, a frown. "The car? They found Dixie's car… oh, god… why don't you bring JR over here when you tell him? Maybe it'll be easier on him."
"She's alive. Mom, I went to Switzerland—I followed JR to Switzerland and he had found Dixie. He found her and… she's coming home, Mom… with our daughter."
He was aware of his mother's eyes on him, her book forgotten in her lap, her blue eyes studying the small body snoring at his side, and how, every so often, Cady blew a spit bubble. JR had always fallen asleep when he was young in the car and Dixie had more than once been forced to put him in the car and drive around the block.
This plane flight was affecting him the same and he sat in silence, chin on his chest, and his leg going numb from the small body flopped across it. The silence of the flight was a lull and he found his eye lids drooping every so often, fading into blankness for a few moments before jerking back to attention.
Why shouldn't he sleep? His mother would protect him… yet here he was, the idea of leaving himself open to attack making his stomach turn. And there was an enemy aboard, wasn't there? A deceptively delicate little thing with too much life in her eyes and too much heat in that sashay she worked so hard to keep going.
And, lo and behold, as if the thought had summoned her, there she was, stalking out before him in that new skirt of hers. She'd shed her blazer and as she passed, she shot him a sideways look with big brown eyes, and the glint there made him fight back a grin of delight… he'd forgotten how much fun a good flirtation could be.
And that was what they were doing, both of them. A Chandler courtship could be a tricky thing, just ask Brooke and Erica… JR was beginning to get the feeling that a Kincaide courtship was just as tricky, just as complicated and confusing. Still, he was enjoying how much she was doing to get his attention.
Micaela Kincaide strutted before him, in her skirt and her blouse and, lowering his eyes, he caught sight of her stilettos, stepping quickly across the lush carpet of his plane. She got to the back of the plane and stopped, opening the fridge and pulling out a beer… and then she stopped.
He watched, in interest, as she tugged off her heels, holding them between her fingers as she settled her bare feet into the carpet, stretching out her toes before getting her beer and turning and then stopping when she caught his gaze. Goddamn, she was good… she grinned, arched an eyebrow and, turning, she headed back to her corner, leaning back and going back to her own business.
JR, for his part, simply enjoyed the sight of her bending down to get off her heels. Now, JR was not some womanizer; his mother's teachings ran too deep, even at his darkest moments, and he couldn't help but respect women as more than just sexual objects. But the simple fact was, he was a man and when a man saw a woman like Micaela Kincaide, that man tended to revert to his uncivilized roots, the kind of uncivilized roots that would make a man go "ugh" when she walked by.
And, of course, that's what he did as she strutted by… sure, it was very quietly, but she heard it and he found her grinning even broadly, crossing fine legs and opening her beer. It was an interesting twist, the sight of a woman like that chugging a beer in his plane. Still, it was an extremely hot interesting twist and he enjoyed it…
Until his mother made an off noise and he suddenly remembered that she was watching their game. He looked at her, finding her eyes on Micaela with a look of deep annoyance in their depths. JR grimaced when her eyes shifted to him, narrowing and sharpening in the same second.
He felt, for some reason, extraordinarily guilty and looked away from her gaze, feeling heat rise up his neck and into his face as the full realization of what he and Micaela had been doing in front of her sank in… he'd flirted with an archenemy in front of her… what was she supposed to with that?
Well, it didn't matter because, once again, he caught Micaela Kincaide's look on her side of the plane, a broad grin and laughing eyes as she leaned back more and, hey, she looked extremely good without shoes on…
And all Dixie Cooney could do was roll her eyes up at the sky, thoroughly wishing JR didn't have Adam libido and courtship tactics… damn Adam's virile genes and JR's getting them!
Edie watched him, head cocked and amused as he tapped the end of his pen on the papers, face closed off and emotionless and attempting to pretend like something wasn't hurting him. Edie wasn't really all that worried, not with how well everything was going in the Study.
"Boss?"
He simply mumbled something and if he was as frazzled as he looked, she needed to book him a vacation quickly. The thought brought to her mind an image of him and his beloved wifey sitting on a beach in Hawaii, sipping drinks from coconuts… well, if things kept going well, it would happen well enough!
"Are those more papers for Mrs. Hart-Slater?"
Another mumble, this one affirmative, and she bit back a bad feeling that continued to grow… no, the Study was going fine… wasn't it? Beating back the nagging bad feeling with a mental stick, Edie stepped closer, and he raised his head, eyeing her with a slight wariness that she hadn't seen since he'd run back to Vegas with Hart.
"Would you like me to take them to her, boss?" Ah, there it was, at least to judge by the way Zach immediately leaned back, shrugging in his chair and avoided her gaze.
"Edie… I wouldn't want you forced into—"
"Don't be a smartass," she laughed lightly and nodded to the stack of papers with her chin, dark eyes filled with amusement. "Get it all together and I'll go drop them off so she can sign them." And figure out what the hell was going on with her Study…
Kendall could feel his eyes on her and she fought the urge to look back at him, look at him where he sat against Greenlee's desk, picking at the plate of Chinese food with a fork and watching her. Once she would have taken the moments they had alone to curl into him, curl into his side and try to meld herself to him.
Now? Now she was too afraid of him to enjoy their moments alone and that hurt more than anything else. She'd made love to him, loved him, had let him deeper into her than anyone else and now, when he got too close, she found herself shrinking back, found herself flinching when he raised his voice.
She wasn't supposed to be afraid of Ryan; this was just so wrong and painful and she was so tired of it. She wished everything would just stop and Ryan would stop looking at her like this, looking at her like he wanted her again… he hadn't wanted her and he'd drilled that into her head enough that she'd finally gotten it.
He'd shaken his happy, simple marriage to Greenlee in her face and told her how much love they had and how much trust and how happy they were and he'd screamed at her, screamed that she didn't matter, had never mattered, and she'd known better. He'd always looked at her and even while he'd looked at her with all that love, he'd said those things to her…
When he moved away from the table, stepped closer to where she was working, she started focusing even more on her work, focusing on words and numbers she had to organize. She heard him wheel another chair over, caught the movement out of the corner of her eye of him taking a seat, carton of Lo Mein in one hand and picking at it thoughtfully.
"Want some?"
"No, no… I'm not hungry." She shifted a paper, struggling to make her hands to stop shaking, but it wasn't easy with him sitting so close to her that she could reach out and touch his leg, slide into his lap and lay her head on his shoulder and just feel safe… but she didn't feel safe right now and that hurt.
She was so tired of not feeling safe around Ryan.
"Kendall?" She didn't answer and he leaned forward, setting down the carton and grabbing her wrist and she jerked back in her chair, flinching out of his hold and folding her arms around herself, staring at him with wide eyes and mouth half-open in protest. "Kendall…"
She just shook her head, standing and darting away from him, trying not to care about the hurt in his voice. "No, Ryan."
"Kendall… please don't look at me that way… don't look at me like that…"
How was she supposed to look at him when he touched her now? What, was she supposed to jump in his arms and tell him she loved him? Get naked and have sex with him on the roof again? Let him treat her like she wasn't worth even the slightest amount of respect? No, she was tired of that, tired of this and she tried to ignore the feel of him at her back.
"Kendall…" A hesitation, a long pause before, with a sigh, he muttered, "I would never hurt you like that, touch you like that… never and you have to believe that… you do, don't you?"
"Please go…" she snapped and she hated the way her voice wavered, cracked on that second word. "Ryan… please leave me alone…"
When he put his hand on her back, her instincts twisted hard, memories of nights in his arms and safety at his side and those new fears of this man she once loved more than any other clashed hard inside her, causing pain to roar through her and her muscles to tighten. "Please… we need to talk about everything that's going on… everything that's so messed up with us."
"I'm married."
"And so am I," he snapped and she flinched again and he sighed again, more pain in his voice but not taking his hand from her back. "Kendall… this marriage to Slater that you came up with? Kendall, it's wrong, it's twisted and it's… it's just wrong and I know you know that. You knew my marriage to Greenlee was a scam and you know that this is no different… it's wrong, Kendall."
"Ryan—"
When the elevator suddenly popped up, she shrieked, twisting away from his hand and spinning to meet Edie's rather chilly gaze, a gaze that settled on Ryan and grew absolutely hateful. "Kendall… you," she snapped in his direction. Striding forward, she slid herself between Ryan and Kendall in a swift movement, eyeing him darkly and shoving a stack of papers in Kendall's hands.
"Mr. Slater sent papers to Kendall," she stated to Ryan, arms crossed over her chest. "Kendall Hart-Slater. Mr. Slater's wife… legal wife."
"Edie—"
"Come on," the older woman snapped, grabbing Kendall's arm and yanking her towards the elevator, not caring about the way Kendall nearly fell on her face trice. "We have things to talk about away from Mr. Lavery. Besides," she added more loudly over her shoulder, "Mr. Lavery, your wife probably misses you tonight. Maybe you should go home and renew that happy connection!"
AN: I'm very involved in dealing with hurricane Wilma right now and I hope to get a lot of reviews for this chapter! I'm glad everybody loved the dream sequence and I think everybody got the symbolism of a clucking Ryan in a Superman costume trying to make Kendall take an ugly fake heart!
We're going to have Ryan going after Kendall actively very soon, trying desperately to get her back and not realizing he's the big old jackass who drove her off… except some more angst for poor Kendall but the next chapter of 'As You Are' is going to be coming in just a day or two… I promise!
Hope you enjoyed this little chapter!