Better for Us (12 page)

Chapter 20

R
yla had a whole day of events planned for them. After the massage, they went to the pool for a swim. Lunch was served to them poolside. And she enjoyed every minute of it, because Noel was once again on his best behavior.

“So, what’s on the agenda after this?”

“We have a few hours of free time, so we can read a book, or we can go to our room and take a nap together. What do you think?” As she said the words, she was leaning toward him, giving him ample view of everything her two-piece swimsuit didn’t cover.

“Free time sounds good.” Noel took a sip of his iced tea. “You go ahead and take that nap—I’m going to the business center to check my emails.”

“Noel, you’re on your honeymoon. Why on earth would you waste time checking emails?”

He put his drink down and with a stone face told her, “This is
your
honeymoon, Ryla. You made all of these plans, so I hope you enjoy them.” He stood. “I’m going to get a little work done.”

“Okay, but don’t be too long. We have an event-filled evening,” she called after him, trying to keep her enthusiasm up as he exited the pool area.

He waved his acknowledgment of her words, but kept walking.

Ryla slumped back into her lounge chair. She only had this night left to convince Noel that they should stay married. But he was not helping at all. Maybe she’d been wrong for assuming that Noel still loved and cared for her. Maybe she should give up before she made an even bigger fool of herself.

Ryla went back to her big lonely suite, took her e-reader out of her purse and began reading a romance novel until she drifted off to sleep. In her dreamland, she and Noel were walking on the beach, hand in hand. They came to the spot where they had left their blanket and Noel sat down and pulled Ryla into his loving arms.

He hungrily kissed her and Ryla kissed him right back, not caring who saw them on the beach. They were in love and they needed each other.

“Wake up, Ryla.” Noel nudged her.

Ryla shot up as if an alarm had gone off.

“You were moaning. You must have been dreaming something hot and heavy,” Noel said with devilment in his eyes.

“That’s for me to know and for you to want to find out,” she said as she scooted off the bed. “What time is it?”

“A little after five.”

Ryla became frantic. “I slept that long! Oh, my goodness. I need to shower.”

“What’s going on?” Noel asked.

“We have dinner plans. I need to get dressed.” She ran into the bathroom and jumped in the shower.
Don’t mess this up—this is your last chance with Noel
. She planned to walk out of this hotel, hand in hand with her husband tomorrow morning. So she needed to work it tonight.

When she got out of the shower, she put lotion over her body and then threw on a strapless lavender-and-black evening gown that accentuated her curves and complemented her honey-toned complexion. She just hoped she would be able to get Noel to take notice of her, since nothing else she’d worn this weekend seemed to do anything for him.

She entered the living room just as the doorbell rang. Noel was seated on the sofa, watching television. “I’ll get it,” he said.

“No, no. You just go and get ready. I’ll take care of everything out here.”

When he turned toward her, she noticed the appreciation in his eyes for what she was wearing. There was hope.

“So, I need to put on something dressy for tonight, huh?”

“Please, if you don’t mind.”

“Okay, I’ll be out in twenty,” he said casually.

“Make it thirty,” she said as she opened the door. Two waiters stood behind the door; one was pushing a cartload of food, and the other carried linens for the table. Ryla directed them to the dining room table, as if they hadn’t been there and done this a hundred times or more for other guests.

Three musicians stood directly behind the waiters. One carried a flute, one, a violin and the other, a cello. “Come in, gentlemen. And thank you for being timely.”

“It’s your honeymoon,” one of them said. “We would never make a bride wait.”

She wished Noel felt the same way. “Thank you for being so kind to us.”

She went back to the bedroom to give everyone time to set up. Noel was still in the shower. She noted the black suit and lavender shirt that he’d laid out on the bed. She smiled at his effort.

She wrote a note, asking him to meet her in the dining room, then left the note on top of his shirt. Ryla went back out to make sure the setup was moving along. She had ordered lobster, garlic potatoes and asparagus. The linen had been put on the table with a fresh bouquet of roses. As she leaned over and smelled them, she remembered how Noel had filled her aunt’s porch with rose petals the night he proposed to her.

She took the roses out of the vase and began sprinkling the rose petals in front of their bedroom door so that Noel would be walking on the petals as he entered the room. She continued sprinkling her trail of rose petals from the bedroom door all the way to the dining room table.

“Ah, madam, you are a true romantic,” one of the musicians said.

“Thank you,” she said, as the waiter handed her the vanilla-scented candles she had asked them to bring. Ryla set the candles in candleholders that she’d placed around the room earlier that day. As the waiter lit the candles, she dimmed the lights.

By the time she finished setting the mood in the room, the waiters were putting dinner on the table, and the musicians began to softly serenade her. The bedroom door opened, and Ryla turned and watched as her man sauntered over to the table and stood in front of her.

His eyes danced over the room. He swayed a bit to the music. “When did you plan all of this?”

“Right after you invited me to spend the weekend here with you.”

He stepped back, looked at everything again and then gave her another once-over. “You’ve done well.”

“I’m glad you like.” She grabbed her chair, getting ready to pull it out.

Noel removed her hand from the chair. “Excuse me,” he told her as he pulled the chair out, allowed her to sit in it and then pushed it up to the table. “I think this is my job.”

“What’s got you being such a gentleman?”

Noel sat, and the waiter put napkins in his and Ryla’s laps. “If you can go through all this trouble, the least I can do is be civil.”

No, the least you could do is love me like you once did.
She nodded and then asked, “Would you like to say grace?”

“Certainly,” he said as he grabbed hold of her hands and prayed.

They then ate their meal and enjoyed pleasant conversation, while the music serenaded them. Ryla was having such a good time with Noel that she forgot that she needed to try to win him over with this meal—rather, she found comfort in being herself. This was Noel, after all, and if anyone knew her, he did.

She had hoped that he would ask her to dance when they finished eating. But as they continued to sit and talk while the music played, Ryla thought she’d have to take matters into her own hands. “Would you like to dance?”

Noel peered over at the musicians and then turned back to Ryla. “I guess we should. I mean, we don’t want them to think we didn’t enjoy the music.” Noel stood and held out his hand for Ryla.

“Thank you, sir.” She took his hand and waltzed onto the makeshift dance floor with him.

As he put his arm around her and began to sway to the music, the song changed and suddenly they were dancing to the instrumental version of “At Last.” Noel leaned back and looked at Ryla. “Did you tell them to do that?”

“It is our song, baby.” Her hands were caressing his back as they continued to sway to the music. “We danced to this song last night in front of a roomful of people. But I want you to know, in the privacy of our room, that I’m glad that you are finally mine...
at last.
” She sang those last two words into his ear and felt him melt a little in her arms.

When that song finished, Noel held on to her as the music switched to the instrumental version of another love song. “This is nice. I wish I had thought of it.”

“You came up with some good dates, so I wanted to take care of the honeymoon.” Leaning her head against his chest, she felt his heart beat faster, and she knew that she was getting to him. He was beginning to see her as the woman he not only had married, but desired.

She lifted her head and asked, “Do you want me to send everyone away?”
Please say yes...please say yes,
she silently chanted.

He released her so quickly she had to grab onto the table or risk falling on her backside.

“L-let me get my wallet so I can give them a tip,” Noel stammered as he rushed to their bedroom. He came back out carrying several bills. He handed them off to the musicians and the waiters.

One of the waiters said, “We’ll clean this up before we go.”

“Oh, no,” Noel said, “just leave it. And someone can get it tomorrow.” He walked them to the door and quickly closed it behind them.

“Noel, don’t push the people out like that,” Ryla said while laughing at him.

As Noel turned back around and looked at Ryla, he knew he was a goner, but at that moment he just didn’t care anymore. He would wave the white flag, throw in the towel—whatever he had to do to be with Ryla tonight. His long legs carried him back to the middle of the room where she stood and he said, “I promised myself that I would never make love to you again. Loving you has taken too much from me.”

She reached up and gently stroked his face. “Noel, please believe me when I say that you don’t have to fear loving me. I won’t ever hurt you again. I promise.”

His head lowered and, before either of them knew it was happening, their lips met and, without any music, they slowly began the seductive dance of love. Growling his impatience, Noel swept her in his arms. With the precision of a soldier under military orders, he marched into their bedroom, where his strong arms released her onto the bed as if she were a precious stone. Then he seemed to release the male hunger within him as he tugged off his jacket and flung it to the floor. “God help me, Ryla, I tried to stay away from you, but I can’t. I just can’t.”

His voice sounded so tortured. Ryla lifted from the bed and pulled him down with her, wanting to love the pain away. “And I can’t forgive myself for destroying our love unless you forgive me. I need you to forget all the bad memories of the past, Noel. Let this night be about consummating our new love.”

Noel didn’t answer as he began to love Ryla as if it was the very first time for both of them. His caresses were tender and his kisses soft and unrushed. Then they experienced a night like no other, as husband and wife.

Chapter 21

S
tretching and yawning, Ryla woke to a new day. She and Noel had shared a wonderful night of lovemaking and she wanted to spend the morning doing the same. Even though she was waking up, she was still too tired to open her eyes. Reaching over to wake Noel, Ryla’s hand went farther and farther to the other side of the bed until she opened her eyes and saw for herself that the bed was empty.

She sat up, pulling the sheet with her. Noel was gone, but there was an envelope with her name on it on his pillow. Ryla was afraid to pick the envelope up. Why wasn’t Noel in bed with her? She hoped and prayed she wasn’t about to open that envelope and find cash and a thank-you note for a good time.

Against her better judgment, she picked up the envelope and pulled the notecard out of it. Noel’s handwriting was recognizable to her immediately.

Ryla, I need to get some things done back in Dallas. Please go to your house in Houston and I will contact you when the campaign is over so I can set up visitation with Jaylen.

Did Noel just break up with her? Did he really leave her a Dear Ryla card? She jumped out of bed and walked every inch of the suite in hope that Noel was still there. But the suite was empty.

“How could he do this?” she wondered out loud. “How could he just leave me like last night meant nothing?”

He’d told her that he didn’t want to marry her, but she’d gone through with her crazy scheme to win him back anyway. And what did it get her? A husband who didn’t even want her in the same city with him. She collapsed down on the bed and let the river of tears flow.

Was this how it felt for Noel when she left him? Yes, Ryla knew that she had wronged him by walking away as she had, but she had been a high-strung teenager, with issues. If she hadn’t been so young and naive, Ryla was quite sure that she would have seen that Noel was nothing like her cheating father.

After emptying a box of tissues, Ryla grabbed the toilet paper from the bathroom and blew her nose. She then lay back down and cried until she realized it was noon and she was supposed to check out an hour ago. She pulled herself out of bed, walked around the room, picking up clothes that had been discarded last night. She threw her suitcase on the bed and filled it with her things.

After zipping her suitcase, she checked the dresser to make sure that Noel hadn’t left any of his clothes behind. When she saw that the drawers were empty, Ryla’s eyes began to tear up again.

Her eyes were red and swollen, so she took her sunglasses out of her purse and put them on. She looked around the room one last time to make sure she wasn’t leaving anything, grabbed her suitcase and then left the beautiful suite, alone. Ryla tried her best not to cry as she exited the Four Seasons, but the tears came anyway.

She wanted to just go home and get in her fetal position in her bed and stay that way until her life made sense again. But she had to pick up Jaylen. So she drove to Danetta’s house to get her little girl. She wished she could just honk the horn and that Jaylen would come running out, but she knew Danetta wouldn’t go for any foolishness like that. So Ryla got out of the car and rang her friend’s doorbell.

Danetta answered the door, saying, “I see you and Noel took your sweet time leaving the hotel.”

Ryla stepped in and drily said, “I didn’t feel like leaving earlier. I hope I didn’t mess up any plans that you had.”

“Of course not, girl, I was just messing with you. Marshall went to work already. Jaylen and I were just hanging around the house.”

“Can you get her so I can get going, please?”

Danetta started to walk away, but then turned back to her friend. “Are you okay?”

Nodding, Ryla said, “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just ready to go home.”

Danetta hollered for Jaylen. “Your mom is here, so hurry up.” She then looked back at Ryla. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit down?”

Waving away the gesture, Ryla said, “No, I’m just ready to go home. I have a splitting headache.”

Jaylen came running into the foyer. She screamed, “Mommy!” but then stopped and began looking around. She turned back to her mother and said, “Where is Daddy? I thought we were going back to Dallas with him.”

“Not right now, honey. Daddy has some very important business to take care of.” She tried to sound like the normal, happy, chipper event planner that she was as she added, “He can’t very well entertain us while he’s trying to win an election, now, can he?”

With a dejected look on her face, Jaylen reminded her mother, “Daddy wants me with him. He said that the campaign wasn’t any fun until I arrived. I need to get to Dallas, Mommy, because my daddy is going to miss me.”

Chewing her bottom lip and rubbing her temple to relieve some of the stress and strain she was feeling, Ryla tried to think of an answer for her daughter. Maybe she and Jaylen should just go on back to Dallas. Who did Noel think he was, relegating her to one side of Texas while he took the other side?

Danetta put her hand on Jaylen’s shoulder and said, “Baby, go get all of your stuff. Auntie Danetta needs to speak with your mommy for a moment.”

Jaylen skipped her way to the stairs. As she climbed them, Ryla held up a hand of defense. “I can’t go through this right now.”

“Stop hiding behind those sunglasses.” Danetta reached up and pulled the glasses from her friend’s face. Danetta gasped. “What’s wrong, Ryla? Why have you been crying like this?”

Ryla pulled her glasses out of Danetta’s hand and put them back on. “Let’s just say you were right and I was way off base. Are you happy now?”

“You know I’m not.” Danetta continued to look her friend over and then asked, “Did you and Noel have a big fight or something?”

“No, Noel doesn’t fight with people who don’t matter to him.”

“What happened, Ryla? Talk to me.”

“I can’t do this.” Ryla rushed over to the door and grabbed hold of the doorknob. “Tell Jaylen to meet me in the car. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

Danetta nodded and then patted her friend on the back as she exited.

* * *

Like a firestorm, Noel blazed into his campaign headquarters ready to get down to business and put this election behind him. “Good morning.” He waved at his staff as he passed them on his way to his office. Before Noel could close his door, Ian had come into his office and closed the door for him.

“What are you doing here so early?”

Noel glanced at his watch. “I don’t know how getting here at ten in the morning is considered early.”

“You know what I mean. I wouldn’t have expected you to be out of bed so soon.” Grinning as if he had knowledge of a well-kept secret, he added, “I mean, you are a honeymooner.”

Noel sat behind his desk. “I’m a honeymooner with an election to win. So, if you don’t mind, I would appreciate it if we could get off my personal life and get back our focus on winning this election.”

Ian shrugged. “I’m fine with getting out of your personal business. But I have a little personal business of my own that I need your help with.”

Happy to talk about anything but the wedding, Noel perked up and said, “What can I help you with?”

“I need a phone number for one of Ryla’s bridesmaids.”

The wedding again
. “I was only introduced to Ryla’s friends a few times. But I do know that one is married.”

“I’m talking about Surry. I tried to talk to her at the wedding, but she sort of blew me off. But I figured I would give her a call and see where I stand.”

Noel wanted to tell his friend to run—don’t get involved with anyone associated with Ryla. But he wouldn’t let his own bitterness spoil it for Ian. “I’ll see what I can do. Now, can you tell me where we stand in the polls?”

“I had Cathy gathering that information. But since I didn’t think you’d actually show up today, I told her not to rush it.” Ian headed for the door. “Let me check on those figures.”

“And can you see if anybody has some Tylenol or something?” He put his hands to his head and rubbed his temples. “My head is killing me.”

Ian left the office and Noel was left with his thoughts of last night with Ryla. It had been a beautiful experience to be with her again. Ryla had been loving and giving, but as he woke early this morning and looked down at his sleeping beauty, his heart raced, his pulse quickened as sweat began to drip from his forehead.

He was having a panic attack. His only thought was to get out of that bed and as far away from Ryla as possible. They had too many issues to ever be able to make a marriage work. He threw his clothes into his suitcase and then wrote her a note. But as he was heading out the door of their suite, he suddenly felt like the runner he’d accused her of being.

As he stood by the door, thinking about going back to his wife, a vision of her one day walking out the door and leaving him tore at his will. Why was he in love with a woman who could so easily discard him? Noel had no answers for his weakness, but he didn’t have to succumb to it. He opened the door and left the suite. Noel wished he could say that he didn’t look back. But that wasn’t the truth. The entire way to his car, Noel kept looking back, wondering if Ryla would realize he was gone and try to stop him.

A knock on his door brought Noel’s attention back to the events of the day. “Come in.”

Cathy walked through the door carrying a folder in one hand and a bottle of Tylenol in the other. She set the folder on his desk. “Good morning.”

“Good morning, yourself,” he said, reaching for the pain pills.

She grabbed him a bottle of water from the top of his file cabinet, opened it and handed it to him. “You look stressed,” she said, as Noel plopped three pills in his mouth.

“You don’t know the half of it,” he said, and then pointed at the folder. “Is this the polling information from this weekend?”

“Sure is, buddy, and your numbers are up.” Cathy clapped and then added in a gleeful tone, “So I guess that whole marry-your-baby’s-mama stunt worked out for you, huh?”

Noel looked up from the poll numbers he’d been studying. “What?”

She winked at him. “You don’t have to pretend with me. I saw how you treated Ryla when she and Jaylen first arrived. So I knew that you didn’t want anything to do with her. And the fact that you’re back in the office so soon after your wedding speaks for itself, don’t you think?”

Ryla had been right about Cathy all along. She was one of those women who would stop at nothing to break up a family. He stood and addressed the issue. “I’m married, Cathy, and I love my wife. End of story.”

She stammered. “W-well, I—I just thought...”

“You thought wrong. And I think it’s time for you to go. I appreciate all the work you’ve done for this campaign, but Ryla feels uncomfortable with you being here. And I have to agree with her.”

With a look of astonishment on her face, she asked, “You’re firing me?”

Noel sat back down. “You can give your letter of resignation to Ian and then pack your things. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding another campaign to work for, because you were an excellent
employee
.” He stressed the word.

“Don’t worry, Noel. I won’t say anything to the media about how you planned your marriage to get your poll numbers to rise.” She sneered and then added, “And how pathetic Ryla is for going along with your scheme. You two deserve each other.” Cathy turned and huffed out of his office.

Noel didn’t know if Cathy’s statement about him and Ryla deserving each other was true, but he did know one thing. He needed a drink.