Chapter 18
Sophie was standing on the lounge looking out through the window waiting for Ryan to arrive. As soon as his car turned into the driveway she was out the door in a flash and down the few stairs so that as he stepped from the car he was hit by a flying blonde. He reached down and pulled her into his arms.
"Hey Munchkin. How have you been?" he asked lifting her and twirling her around.
The little girl squealed with delight and then as soon as he stopped she instantly pouted. "I been missing you."
"I've been missing you too." Ryan replied hugging her tightly and then moving her to his hip as he made his way to the passenger side where Marissa was now standing discreetly watching the interaction. Ryan had warned her that Sophie may be a little tentative so she intended to take things slowly, hoping that the little girl would accept her if she saw that Marissa was no threat to Sophie's relationship with her brother.
Sophie eyed Marissa up and down and then gripped Ryan even more tightly burrowing her face in to Ryan's shoulder. Her mother had explained that Ryan was bringing a friend with him and that she needed to be nice to her but Sophie didn't understand why. She wanted Ryan all to herself. She didn't want to share him.
Ryan tried to prise the small fingers from around his neck. "I've brought a friend of mine to meet you." he explained. "This is Marissa …" and he was about to say more when Sandy and Kirsten emerged from the house.
"Thank goodness you're finally here. She's been sending us insane waiting for you." Kirsten commented and then seemingly without even taking a breath she added. "And you must be Marissa. Welcome. We're so excited to have you here." She said pulling Marissa into a hug.
Marissa was surprised but went with it. It felt genuine. It felt right. Not something that her mother would have ever done, she was much too standoffish, so it won points for Kirsten right off the bat.
"That goes for me too." Sandy added as he trailed up behind. "I'm Sandy by the way and that's Kirsten." He said offering his hand and indicating his wife with a nod of his head. "I figure that you would probably like to know more than my name before I take you in my arms." He laughed teasing his wife.
Kirsten quickly let go of Marissa and distanced herself a little. "Oh Sandy. Don't be awful. I'm just excited that's all." Kirsten replied.
Sandy looked at Ryan. "It's been touch and go, who was the most excited, Sophie or your mother? Me of course …" he shrugged. "not so much … took it all in my stride. It's what I do." He explained nonchalantly.
"Right." Ryan said sceptically knowing that Sandy was always pleased to see him.
"You're just as excited as I am." Kirsten corrected Sandy. "Who was up at the crack of dawn trying to get the tree house sorted out so that Ryan wouldn't get to see how hopeless you are?"
"Oh. Now you've offended me." Sandy said wide eyed to Kirsten. "And in front of our guest no less?" he added.
Ryan glanced at Marissa to see her reaction to what was being played out in front of her and she had a smile from ear to ear obviously enjoying it.
"Marissa I'm so sorry for my wife's behaviour." Sandy said.
"Really. It's fine." Marissa replied smiling.
"Well come on through and let's get a look at you." Kirsten said now turning her attention to Ryan and taking him by the arm just above his elbow and leading him towards the door. She squeezed his bicep a little and asked. "Are you losing weight? Have you been eating well? You know, I think that you should come by more often so I can feed you up or I could get a courier to deliver some meals to you. You're probably studying so hard you don't have enough time to cook for yourselves. How's Luke? Does he have a girlfriend yet? …"
Ryan smiled. He was used to this. Whenever it had been a while since he'd last seen them, Kirsten would fire off a million questions at once. Fortunately she didn't even wait for answers so he just needed to wait until the batteries ran down and then he'd be able to get a word in.
He sighed, waiting for his chance. "I'm eating well. Luke's fine. He has a dozen girls although the one that he wants is playing hard to get." Ryan said glancing over at Marissa and smiling as they locked eyes.
It didn't go unnoticed by both Sandy and Kirsten.
"Don't tell me that he's after Marissa?" Kirsten asked aghast.
"No." Ryan corrected the misapprehension. "He's got a bit of a thing for Marissa's room mate."
"Oh I see." Kirsten replied as Sandy added. "Well if she's anything like Marissa then I can understand why."
"Sandy!" Kirsten said embarrassed by her husband's comment.
"What? It's a compliment." He shrugged.
Kirsten rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry. You're still number 1 on my list." He told her pulling her into his arms.
"What list?" Kirsten asked pulling away. "If you even have a list then I'd better be every entry." She replied smiling and then turned her attention to Marissa. "Sorry about that. But you see, when Ryan and Luke first met they were both interested in the same girl. It caused a few problems until they got past it." She explained.
Marissa looked at Ryan waiting for more information but he looked decidedly uncomfortable.
"That was a long time ago." He said wanting to move on to other topics. He didn't need information about his past to come out. Marissa already knew that he was no blushing virgin and he couldn't see that her finding out any more details would improve the situation. "So let's go and see what's going on with this tree house." He said putting Sophie down. "There isn't much light left and it looks like it could start to rain soon so we may as well get as much done as we can before it begins."
"Can I come and help?" Sophie asked.
"Of course." Ryan said. "You can be chief organiser."
"What's an or…gan..iser?" she asked stumbling over the word.
"She keeps the workers supplied with drinks." Ryan informed her. "It's very important. Without that, they stop working and everything grinds to a halt and nothing gets done."
"Can Mommy help too?" She asked, deliberately leaving Marissa out of the equation.
"Of course." Ryan replied. "And I've got a special job for Marissa." He said making eyes at her.
Marissa glanced at him, her eyes telling him that she appreciated his thoughtfulness in including her but that it wasn't really necessary. "What's that?" she smiled.
"You can wipe my brow." He suggested, smiling as he moved to give her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before heading out into the back yard.
---
It was already dark and a thunder storm wasn't far away, the occasional lightning bolt lighting up the sky. The wind was whipping up and making things difficult but Ryan insisted that he continue on. He wanted to get the roof fixed securely before the storm hit. Kirsten had long ago given up trying to make him see sense and had herded the girls inside out of the weather. Ryan had tried to get Sandy to join them but he had steadfastly refused, informing Ryan that he would go inside when Ryan did. And so he stood resolutely on the ladder passing Ryan whatever tools he needed as Ryan perched on the roof trying to fasten it.
Kirsten stood at the windows watching with concern. She wished that she'd just gotten the contractors to come and do it one day when Sandy was at work so that she didn't need to see Ryan precariously working on top of the roof in this awful weather. She should have known that once he started he wouldn't want to stop. Knowing that there was nothing that she could do to change his mind she started to prepare dinner hoping that it would get her mind off the fact that both her husband and son were flirting with danger. She knew that the few showers that they'd had so far had made the roof slippery and if Ryan wasn't careful he could fall at any moment. Plus even though she knew that it was unlikely, there was always the chance that they could be struck by lightning. None of these thoughts were doing anything to help her already anxious countenance.
Marissa was aware that Kirsten was on edge. I was obvious from her whole demeanour. She would have preferred Ryan to be safely inside too, but having watched him at work it was obvious that he knew what he was doing. And she couldn't help but enjoy the sight of Ryan with his shirt stripped off and just wearing a wife beater and jeans as he worked up quite a sweat. The sheen of perspiration, or maybe it was moisture from the light rain, either way she didn't care, was catching the outdoor light that they were working under and it made for quite a sight. She couldn't help but lust after him.
Sophie had been watching television since they'd come inside but she reappeared in the kitchen. "When's dinner. I'm hungry." She replied forlornly.
Kirsten glanced at her watch. It was way past when they would have normally eaten but she had been completely side tracked by what was going on in the back yard. "I have to make the salad yet so it will be a little while." she said. "But how about you go and have a bath and put your pyjamas on and I'll get dinner ready in the meantime." She said, wanting to pacify the little girl.
"But I want you to give me a bath." Sophie said. This day hadn't turned out at all how she had expected. Usually when Ryan came to visit he would spend all his time with her but he'd been too busy building her tree house to spend anytime with her at all. And even when he'd taken a short break to have a drink then he'd spent most of it talking to Marissa.
Kirsten rolled her eyes. "If I come and give you a bath then it will take even longer to get dinner ready and you don't want that. Maybe Marissa would be kind enough to help bath you." Kirsten suggested.
"Sure." Marissa replied. "I'd be happy too."
"I don't want her." Sophie said, glaring at Marissa. "I want you." She said turning to her mother.
Kirsten was mortified. "Sophie Cohen! Apologise this instant!"
"It's all right." Marissa said quickly trying to diffuse the situation. "Perhaps it would be better if I made the salad and you took on the bathing duties."
Kirsten looked at Marissa. "Are you sure?"
Marissa nodded. "I think that I can manage a salad, as long as you're not too fussy."
"Anything you do will be fine. My family put up with my feeble attempts at cooking for a lot of years before I learnt how to cook so they are pretty easy to please." Kirsten said looking at the young woman. "You should find everything you need in the fridge. Just call out if there's anything else you want."
Marissa nodded. "I'm sure that I can manage."
Kirsten then turned on Sophie. "As for you young lady, we need to have some serious words." She said as she marched Sophie out of the room and up the stairs.
---
A short time later Kirsten returned to the kitchen. "I'm really sorry about that. I know that she doesn't like to share her big brother but I'd never imagined that she would behave like that."
"It's okay." Marissa shrugged and then looking out the window to the scene in the back yard she added. "He is pretty great … so it's understandable."
Kirsten smiled watching Marissa watch Ryan. It was obvious to her that these two cared deeply for one another. "Yeah he is." She replied.
Marissa tore her eyes off Ryan and turned to Kirsten and asked. "Is she the same with Seth?"
"Not really. Don't get me wrong, she loves Seth. But she's grown up with Summer around so she's always had to share him." Kirsten explained. "Summer is Seth's girlfriend and they've been together since high school. Whereas, as far as she is concerned, Ryan has always been exclusively hers; even though he was with Taylor when she was born, they broke up soon after, and Sophie was too small to even remember her."
Marissa took it all in. She was surprised by the touch of jealousy that she felt coursing through her veins at the thought of Ryan with some other girl. "Were they together long?" she couldn't help herself. She had to ask. From the way that Kirsten spoke, Marissa knew that Taylor obviously wasn't a one night stand but a girl that he'd been serious about.
"Not that long. They'd known one another from school and they got together after graduation. Taylor was the one that he fell off the roof with." Kirsten explained.
"Fell off the roof?" Marissa queried.
"Didn't you realise? That's why I've been in such a state about trying to get him down from there. Back when we lived in Newport, Ryan was up on the roof putting up decorations and I'm not really sure how, but Taylor ended up there with him. Something happened and they both fell and ended up in hospital. It was one of the worst times of my life waiting at the hospital to see if he would regain consciousness. And not knowing how long it would take. That's why I just wish that he'd get off there before something else happens."
Now it was Marissa's turn to look out of the window concerned. For some reason Ryan had always appeared bullet-proof to her. She didn't like to think of the fact that he was normal and could get injured. Now she wanted him inside too.
Kirsten noticed the worried look on Marissa's face but she wasn't sure if it was for Ryan's current welfare or because she didn't like to think of him with another girl.
"Why did they break up?" Marissa asked softly, unable to keep the words to herself any longer.
Kirsten shrugged. "I don't know really know. It was quite some time ago, back when he was a freshman." She said and then wanting to reassure Marissa she added. "I think that they got together when they both needed someone and it burnt fairly intensely for a while there. But it burnt out very quickly. And you're the first girl that he's brought home since. Not that I believe that my son has been living like a monk. I know that he has a healthy sex drive. I first caught him making out with our old neighbour's daughter only a few weeks after he came to live with us." Kirsten laughed remembering back. At the time she hadn't been sure who was the most embarrassed. "She was the girl that Luke had been dating." She explained. "I'm not his biological mom so I guess its okay for me to admit that I know that he's hot. And I'm pretty sure that the girls at Berkeley are smart enough to have noticed. So I think that I can safely assume that he hasn't been lacking in female attention but we've never met any of them …. until you." She smiled at Marissa. "So he must think that you're something special."
Marissa blushed but couldn't help but be pleased by her words. "I don't know about that."
"I do." Kirsten replied smiling at Marissa's obvious discomfit. "But I guess that I'd better go and get madam out of the bath. I just wanted to check that you're under control here?"
Marissa smiled. She knew that Kirsten had only been trying to reassure her after mentioning Taylor but she appreciated it. "I'm fine. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Kirsten replied.
---
Kirsten and Sophie emerged a short time later to find Marissa setting the table.
"You don't have to do that." Kirsten commented. "You're supposed to be our guest."
Marissa smiled. "It's okay. Ever since you told me about Ryan falling off the roof, I've been thankful to have something to do. I just wish that they'd finish and come inside."
Almost on cue, the door opened and the two soggy men entered the room.
"You're finished?" Kirsten asked hopefully, she was scared that they were just taking a break and would attempt to go back out again.
Ryan nodded. "At least for now. The roof's secure so it won't go flying off in the storm. The finishing touches can wait until another day." He explained.
"Yeah. A FINE day." Sandy suggested shaking his head to get some of the water out of his hair. "I think that I might go and grab a shower and get into some dry clothes." He said and then turned to Ryan. "You should probably do the same." He suggested.
"I think that I might." Ryan answered looking at Marissa and drinking in the sight of her looking comfortable moving around his home. What he really wanted to do was take her in his arms and give her a thorough kissing but he guessed that that would have to wait a little.
"You should have plenty of clean clothes in your room." Kirsten said addressing Ryan. "But if you need anything else then just let me know."
"I'm sure that I'll be fine." He smiled. "And dinner smells great." He said taking in the aroma that was wafting around the kitchen.
"It's only lasagne but I know that you like it." Kirsten explained.
"Mmm. I do. I won't be long." He said as he started for the hallway only to switch directions and take the long way around so that he could pass Marissa and give her a kiss on his way by.
She smiled as she returned the kiss shyly, aware that they were in full view of his parents. "Go and have your shower." She said. "You're wet."
"How about volunteering to scrub my back?" he asked quietly, however Marissa was sure that his parents could over hear.
Marissa blushed. "Maybe some other time." She whispered back.
"I'll hold you to that." Ryan replied softly as he made his way out of the room.
Kirsten turned to Sophie. "Quickly young lady, we need to get that hair done in a hurry because the men are going to be back soon looking to be fed. I'm sure that they've worked up quite an appetite working on your tree house."
Marissa hesitated, thinking about it before opening her mouth and then offered. "I could do it." She suggested to Kirsten and then turned her attention to Sophie. "If you like?"
Sophie eyes were like large saucers as she looked from Marissa to her mother. She didn't want Marissa to do her hair but after the talking to, that her mother had given her earlier she knew that she really didn't have a choice. She HAD to be nice to Marissa. Kirsten was frowning at her waiting for her to reply. "I guess." Sophie said shrugging her shoulders making it obvious that she was doing it under sufferance.
"Okay." Marissa replied wondering what she had taken on. "Let's go and see what we can do." She suggested as Sophie climbed on to a chair in front of the television.
---
When Ryan returned to the kitchen a short time later, it was all Marissa could do to keep her hands to herself. He was freshly showered and had pulled on a pair of light grey sweats and a wife beater and was drying his hair with a towel. The sweats rode low on his hips and Marissa wondered how it was that he could look even hotter with clothes on than without. Not that he didn't look hot without, Marissa reminded herself but still …
She was momentarily stunned looking at him.
Just long enough for Sophie to throw herself at him. "Ryan, look at me?" she said.
He tore his eyes from Marissa and addressed the little blonde that was now wrapped around his legs. "Don't you look pretty?" Ryan suggested as he lifted her into his arms.
"Marissa made me into a princess." Sophie said turning her head from side to side so that Ryan could admire her blonde locks piled high on her head.
"Well she did a very good job because that's just what you look like. A beautiful princess." He confirmed.
"And I told Marissa that she could do my hair anytime." Sophie confided in him.
"I might let her do my hair too." Ryan suggested looking at Marissa. "What's my chances?" he asked.
Marissa smiled at him. "Are we still talking about hair?" she asked and then blushed as she realised that Sandy and Kirsten were watching the byplay.
Ryan noticed her reaction and then turned to see his parents watching them. He burst out laughing. "Don't worry about them. They taught me all that I know."
Sandy held up his hands in mock surrender. "I may have taught you a lot of things but I think that's something that you had down pat from the time you arrived from Chino."
Ryan blushed. "Maybe you're right."
Kirsten could see Ryan's discomfit and so she interrupted and said. "How about everyone sit at the table and I'll serve up."
Sandy turned to her knowing exactly what she was doing. "Sounds great. I'm starved."
---
After dinner the weather was wilder than ever. The rain pelted against the windows of the house and Ryan and Marissa were easily convinced to stay for a while and watch a movie. They hoped that the storm would pass and they'd be able to go home once things settled down.
Sophie was exhausted and fell asleep on Ryan's lap within minutes of them settling down in front of the television. He went and tucked her in bed and then joined Marissa back on the couch, pulling her close as Sandy and Kirsten settled on watching Ocean's Eleven, much to Ryan and Marissa's amusement, which didn't go unnoticed by the older couple.
"Is there a problem with our choice? You did say that you didn't care what we watched." Sandy asked.
"No." Ryan replied. "We just went to see Ocean's Thirteen last night." He explained.
"Was it any good?" Kirsten asked. "I thought that we might like to go and see that."
Ryan looked at Marissa and then they both burst out laughing. Ryan eventually pulled himself together. "We sort of missed a bit. So we're not really sure."
"'Missed' … as in you were late getting there? Or 'missed' as in you were otherwise occupied?" Sandy asked and then noticing Marissa's pink hue he added. "There's no need to answer that. I may be old but I still remember what it was like making out in the movies. Actually there's probably a good chance that it was the same theatre. When Kirsten and I were at Berkeley we didn't get to see the end of too many movies either."
Ryan couldn't explain why the thought of he and Marissa following in Sandy and Kirsten's footsteps meant so much to him …. But it did.
They all settled down to watch the movie but by the time that it was over the rain didn't seem to have let up at all. In fact, if possible, it was even worse.
"There is no way that you are going out in that." Kirsten remarked as they watched the credits roll. She'd had suggested earlier that Ryan and Marissa stay for the night but they had declined her offer, knowing that Marissa had work in the morning.
Ryan looked out the window at the fury outside and turned to Marissa. "What do you think? We could just get up early and get you back in time for work? But if you want to go now then I'm happy to do it."
Marissa looked out the window at the raging storm and hesitated. She hadn't really come away prepared to stay the night but in light of the weather it did seem like the safest alternative. "I'm on late shift tomorrow, so I don't start to 10, so I guess …" she shrugged. It was obvious that she was torn.
But before she got another word out, a newsflash came onto the television asking all people to stay off the road unless it was absolutely necessary. There had been power failures in some areas and with the traffic lights out there had been a number of traffic incidents resulting in the emergency services being stretched beyond their limit. Added to that there was flash flooding in other areas that was making road conditions extremely dangerous.
Kirsten took it all in and then stated definitively. "There's no question. You're staying. I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you. The bed's made up in Ryan's room. Just stay the night and you can leave as early as you like in the morning."
"I have to agree with her." Sandy stated. "There's no point in taking unnecessary risks."
Ryan looked at Marissa making it obvious that the call was hers. She shrugged and said. "I guess that it makes sense."
He smiled obviously happy with the result. "It does." He agreed. But he could still sense her apprehension. "As long as you're sure?"
Marissa nodded.
Kirsten stood up. "Good. Ryan, you know where everything is. If you need anything then just let me know." She turned to Marissa. "I'm guessing that you'll be happy to sleep in one of Ryan's shirts but if you'd rather borrow something of mine ..."
"She mightn't sleep in anything?" Sandy said, the teasing directed at his wife. "You shouldn't be so presumptuous."
Marissa blushed a fiery red. She could feel herself burning up and Ryan swiftly came to her rescue. "I'm sure that we'll be fine." He said as he took Marissa's hand and led her towards his room. "Good night." He offered up, as Sandy and Kirsten turned to wander off in the other direction towards their own room.
Kirsten was whacking Sandy as she went and saying. "Why did you say something like that? How do you think that she feels? She'll never want to come and visit us again …"
---
When Marissa entered Ryan's room it was obvious that something was amiss. She seemed fidgety and nervous and Ryan presumed that he knew why.
"If you don't want to sleep with me, then that's okay. You can have my bed and I'll go and sleep in Seth's room." He suggested.
"It's not that." Marissa said as she went to her hand bag that had been lying on his bed and started to riffle through it.
"Then what is it? And what are you looking for?" Ryan asked.
Marissa turned to him and sat down on the end of the bed. It was obvious that whatever she was looking for, she hadn't found. "I sort of need something." She said regretfully.
Ryan frowned. "Knowing Kirsten there will be spare toothbrushes in my bathroom." He explained, thinking that that was what she was probably looking for.
Marissa shook her head. "I'm afraid that I don't imagine that this is something that she'd keep spares of for you."
"What do you need?" he asked puzzled.
Marissa looked at him embarrassed. "Tampons?" she said and then added. "I only brought a couple of spares with me because I hadn't considered that we might stay the night." She said trying to explain and then added "I was sort of hoping that I might find a long forgotten stash in here somewhere." She said indicating her hand bag. "But I guess that I'm too tidy for my own good." She shrugged.
Ryan smiled. "You're right. I don't think that you'll find any of those in my bathroom. But I'm sure that Kirsten would have some that you could borrow." He could see how uncomfortable she was feeling and so he added. "Would you like me to go and ask her for you?" He didn't really want to go and ask Kirsten for tampons but he would do anything to make Marissa more at ease.
Marissa sighed. "You don't have to do that. I'll go. I guess that it's just not one of the conversations that I was planning on having with your mother." She moved towards the door. "I'd better go now before she goes to bed. The only thing worse than having to ask her would be to have to wake her up to ask her." Marissa said as she left the room and headed back the way that they'd come. But she got no further than the kitchen because Kirsten was still there tidying up.
She looked up as Marissa re-entered the room. "Hi. Did you need something?" she asked pleasantly. She could see that Marissa was uncomfortable and so she added. "I do apologise for my husband's earlier comments. Sometimes I just don't know where he gets it from? If you'd like to borrow anything please just let me know."
Marissa smiled her thanks. It was obvious that Kirsten was trying her best to make Marissa feel at home. "Thanks. I just … it's just …" there really was no easy way to say this. "I wondered if I might be able to borrow some tampons." She finally got out.
Kirsten smiled at the young woman. "Of course. I'm sorry that I hadn't even considered the possibility." She said as she realised why Marissa had been reluctant to stay the night. Kirsten moved towards the guest bathroom and beckoned for Marissa to follow. "I keep some spares in here if you ever need them." She said reaching into the back of the cupboard and placing a small box in Marissa's hand.
"Thank you. I'm sorry to be such a bother."
"It's no bother at all." She could see that Marissa was embarrassed and she wanted to reassure her. "In fact, it's reassuring." She laughed trying to put Marissa at ease. "At least we know that we'll get a good night's sleep and won't be kept awake all night by the sounds of your bedroom activities." She said, thinking about the times that they'd spent under the same roof as Ryan and Taylor, only to be confronted by Marissa's panic stricken face as the meaning of her words settled in.
"Oh no. We've never … I've never …" Marissa muttered out and then, completely mortified, she turned and fled.