He laughed for a split second before all traces of humor vanished. "What?" he said.
"You heard me." She lifted her chin.
"You lie. You're not that good of an actress."
She tried not to grin, but couldn't stop herself.
He smiled, clearly relieved. "Don't scare me like that, okay?"
She shook her head and looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry. The sex is awesome. You're amazing."
She felt his arms go around her. He kissed the top of her head. She wrapped her arms around his waist and splayed her hands over his strong back. She loved the feel of him pressed against her, his body so powerful. She nuzzled her cheek against his chest and inhaled deeply the clean, musky scent of him.
"Arden," he said softly. She stepped back and looked up at him. "Don't ever treat me like that again. Like you did with your family earlier today."
She swallowed. It galled her to be given orders like this, but she knew she'd done wrong. She nodded. "I'm sorry," she said.
"You don't respect me, Arden."
"I treat you with respect..."
"That's not what I'm talking about. And by the way, no, you don't. But I'm saying, you don't have any respect for where I come from or what I do for a living or even just who I am. You were embarrassed to even be seen with me today and the fact that your family didn't treat me like the servant class upset you."
"I don't know what you're talking about..."
"I realize there's an adjustment period in any relationship. And God knows I'd forgive worse sins than this just because I love you and want you so much. But nothing for us will last unless you get this worked out. So please, please get through this. Because I want us to be forever."
Tears sprung to her eyes. "I want us to be forever, too, Travis."
He smiled gently and nodded. "Good." He brushed her hair back and rested his hand along her jaw. Every muscle in her body relaxed when his lips touched hers. They kissed passionately until they lost track of time.
"Ahem." Arden stood on tiptoe to look over Travis's shoulder. Mark was there in the doorway. "Not in my den, kids," he said.
Travis turned and grinned. "Sorry, sir," he said. Arden led him back to the family room where everyone had gathered.
For the rest of the day Arden kept quiet as Travis interacted with her family. He flirted lightly with her mother and aunt. He played a game of Sorry with her little cousins. He smoked cigars in the den with her father and uncle. Her father even promised to take Travis out for a round of golf when the weather got warmer.
As she drove him home that night, she was in awe of how easily he had fit in. And he hadn't had to change a thing about himself. She didn't stay with him that night. He had his hands full with the baby and she wanted to go home and reflect on her day in a peaceful, solitary hot bath.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Dustin sat stiff as a board on the couch in the living room of the Harris home. This was the ninth date. The ninth. And apparently everything he'd talked to Emma about on the sixth date had gone right out of her pretty little head.
The seventh date had gone well. Just dinner and a movie. Nothing fancy. But lots of talking and hand-holding. Just what he had wanted. No pressure. Just spending time with his girl, getting to know her. And then the eighth date came along and they went bowling with her parents and one other middle aged couple. It was horrible. Emma seemed perfectly at ease, but Dustin didn't know, nor care to know, any of these people. Not that they weren't nice. He just wasn't a social person and all he wanted was to be with Emma.
Now this ninth date. Family game night at the Harris home. They had just wrapped up a rousing game of Yahtzee and were now sitting back with coffee and fixing to watch
It's A Wonderful Life
. Emma handed him a perfectly prepared cup of coffee, cream, no sugar, just how he liked. And he wondered how the hell she already knew how he took his coffee. He set the cup on the table next to the couch.
Emma sat next to him and linked her arm with his. She was completely oblivious to his discomfort. Pastor Harris sat in his armchair with the remote. Mrs. Harris sat on the other side of Emma. Dustin felt like something was strangling him. Everywhere he looked there were bridal catalogs and parenting magazines laying on table tops or stuffed in the couch cushions like porn.
Dustin didn't know how he managed to sit through the whole movie, but after what felt like years, it was finally over. Emma was crying into his sleeve even though she'd probably seen the movie a dozen times. Mrs. Harris dabbed at her own eyes with a tissue.
"These women," Pastor Harris said to Dustin, "they cry at the drop of a hat."
Dustin forced a laugh. He started to put his arm around Emma's shoulders, but she had dried her eyes and was on her feet about to pour him another cup of coffee. "No, Emma...thank you, but no more for me."
She replaced the coffee carafe with a smile. "Would you like another piece of cake?"
"No, thank you. I think I'm going to head home." He stood before anyone could object.
Mrs. Harris stood with him. "I do hope you'll join us for our big family Christmas dinner. After all, you're practically family too, now, aren't you?"
Dustin smiled as politely as he could. "I'll see if I can make it," he said. Then he turned to Emma. "Would you walk me out?" he asked.
"Of course," she said.
Dustin couldn't believe the relief he felt getting out of that Stepford house. Everything was too perfect. Not that that was bad. He just couldn't figure it out. He needed to be able to explain it to Emma and he just couldn't put it into words.
He breathed in the cold winter air and reveled in the sting of it in his nose and lungs. It was so stuffy in that house. "Hey," he said, turning to Emma. "You want to go up to Rowdy's and have a drink?"
"To a bar?" Emma asked incredulously. "No, I don't think so. I don't think my parents would like that."
"Well I'm not dating your parents. I'm dating you."
"Yeah, but when you marry, you marry the whole family."
"Fuck, Emma!" he turned and shoved his hand through his hair. "I'm not talking about marriage. I'm talking about you and me going out for a drink and just hanging out. Like two normal people."
Emma stood there wide-eyed. "If you don't like my rules, then..."
"This has nothing to do with your rules. We'll go have coffee at Sweet Nothings, then."
"We can have coffee here...I don't understand..."
"I can't do this anymore. I can't date you if it's going to be like this," he said.
She stared up at him, those round, brown eyes filled with confusion. He saw, then, all of a sudden, just how young she was. Not just in age, but in maturity. She was sheltered. Inexperienced. And instead of leaving the nest, she was trying to bring him into it with her.
The realization hit him like a hammer to the chest and he lost his breath for a moment. "My God, Emma," he said. "You're not ready."
"What?" she asked. "Dustin, I don't understand."
"It's okay. I do. And I think we should stop seeing each other for a while," he said, his voice shaking.
She stepped toward him and took his hand. "I don't understand, Dustin. I thought things were going really well. I love you so much. And you say you love me."
He couldn't think of a way to explain to her why things weren't going well without insulting her. In the end he decided she would just have to figure it out on her own. "This just isn't working for me. I'm sorry."
Her eyes welled up with tears and her bottom lip quivered. He was still holding her hands.
"Oh, God, Emma," he said. "I'm so sorry."
"We've barely gotten started. You aren't even giving us a chance."
"I'm sorry."
"I was so sure about you. About us."
"I'm sorry, Emma."
"Stop saying that!" she said. She pulled her hands away and pressed the backs of her hands into her eyes, dashing away the tears. "Nobody's...nobody's ever broken up with me."
"Guess you've never dated an idiot like me before, huh?"
She just stood there, staring down at the ground, her eyes darting back and forth and her brow furrowed as though she were working out some complicated equation in her head.
"I've got to go, Emma."
She looked up at him, still confused. "Go, then."
God, he wanted to kiss her. Apologize and pretend like none of this had happened. But he turned and left, not looking back.
Travis and Arden knelt on the floor in his living room with Baby Emily laying on a blanket between them. Travis had thoroughly enjoyed playing house with Arden. They cooked dinner together, chicken enchiladas. And while that was baking, Arden had insisted she wanted to make a pie for him all by herself. So he'd sat on a stool at the bar and watched her make a huge mess of his kitchen. She wore jeans and one of his t-shirts, her hair back in a ponytail, covered to her elbows in flour with smudges on her face. All she had to show for it was a crust that was so crumbly she couldn't roll it out but had to pat it down into the pan. She'd done so without batting an eye as though that were the plan all along. Then she'd chopped up some apples, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and piled more crumbly crust on top.
Travis figured that had to be the ugliest pie he'd ever seen, but he knew as soon as he bit into it, it would be his favorite pie in the whole world.
Arden had been a complete mess, so with the baby asleep in her swing, they took a baby monitor into the bathroom and showered together. Since she was still on holiday vacation, he talked her into spending the night with him. She put on some pajama pants and a white tank top that left nothing to the imagination. So when Travis got done dressing and found Arden in the living room smiling at the sleeping baby, he couldn't help but tackle her on the couch.
This led to her squealing and giggling and him shushing her and both of them waking up the baby. So they took her out of the swing, gave her a bath, powdered, diapered and dressed her--and now they were watching her kick and flail on the floor.
"Look at her stick her little tongue out," Travis said.
"I know," Arden giggled. "She's so funny."
Emily's facial expressions changed rapidly. Sometimes a smile flickered on her face, sometimes a frown. She made little clucking and gurgling noises. Travis put his finger in her hand and enjoyed the feel of that tiny hand wrapping around one of his fingers.
Arden rubbed her tummy. "Wonder how long she'll play like this?"
"You wanna sneak off to the bedroom?" he asked.
She grinned up at him. "Yes. It's probably not a good idea, though. We could be interrupted."
Travis shrugged. "I guess we could make out on the couch until she gets hungry again."
Arden nodded and they raced to the couch to see who would get to be on bottom. Arden won and Travis climbed on top of her, immediately going for those breasts. He nipped at them through her shirt and she tensed all over. She wrapped her legs around him and he pressed himself hard against her making her writhe against him.
"Let's just do it here, Travis!" she gasped. Just then he took a taut nipple between his teeth and she cried out.
"I'm not doing it here," he said. "There's the baby."
"She's just a baby. It's okay."
Travis didn't answer. But there was no way he was doing it in front of the baby. He buried his face in Arden's neck.
"Let's go to the bedroom, then. She'll be fine."
He sat up on his elbows and grinned down at her. "You make me happy," he said.
"Okay," she said, smiling. "Let's go, then."
"No. She's already starting to get fussy. We can't leave her in here alone."
She grabbed the front of his shirt. "It won't take long," she whispered dramatically.
Travis glanced at the baby. She was just kicking and grunting a bit. He looked back to Arden. "How long?"
Arden answered by arching her back and moaning.
"Okay," Travis said. "Not long. Let's go." He hopped off of her and pulled her to her feet.
But then the sound of tires on gravel interrupted them. Travis leaned forward and peeked out the blinds. Then he dashed to the front door and opened it. Dustin stumbled in, followed by Russell Murphy. Travis caught hold of Dustin's arms and stared at him. "Are you drunk?" he asked.
Dustin gently nudged Travis out of the way and then stumbled through the living room and swerved down the hall.
Travis turned to Russell. Russell shrugged. "I don't know," Russell said. "I was having a drink with Vince at Rowdy's and he was already up there about to fall off the barstool. So I dragged him on home."
"Thanks, Russ," Travis said.
Russell nodded and then left. Travis turned to find Arden sitting on the edge of the couch with her cell phone pressed to her ear.
"I know, honey...I don't know...I'm so sorry...it'll be okay...," she said intermittently. Arden glanced up at Travis and shrugged.
Travis checked to make sure the baby was still happy and then went down the hall to Dustin's room. Dustin was face down on his bed, sort of diagonal like, his feet hanging off the edge. He still had on his boots and coat.
Travis bumped the edge of the bed with his knees. Dustin wobbled but didn't move. Travis reached down and shook him, which produced a low groan of protest. "Hey!" Travis said loudly. "What happened?"
Dustin mumbled something incoherent. Travis shook him again and this time he only snored. So Travis turned off his lamp and left him there.
Arden was in Travis's room getting dressed and re-packing her overnight bag. "Whoa," Travis said. "Where you going?"
"I'm sorry, baby," she said. "Emma's a mess. Dustin broke up with her, I guess he told you."
"No. He's out cold."
"Well, anyway." She finished buttoning up her shirt and swung around to face him. "I don't know any details yet. But she asked if I'd come over. I guess I'll probably spend the night."