Obsessed With You (15 page)

“
The first thing I’m going to
do as soon as I get home is cancel the Valentine’s date with
Zachery,” she said. “I can’t go through with it.”

“
You could text him,” Lindy
suggested helpfully.

“
I’d love to just text him,”
Cathy said, “because I’m a coward. But I’ve got to do it more
personally.”

Both women turned their heads at
the sound of the shop door opening.

“
Lindy?” Neil called.

“
We’re over here,” Lindy
said.

Neil walked into the Mad Men
vignette and sat on the chair Lindy had occupied earlier.

“
What are y’all doing?” he
asked.

“
We’re trying to figure out
who set Cathy’s ex-fiance up,” Lindy said matter-of-factly.

“
Oh,” he said. “Find
anything?”

“
Not much, except that he’s
hot,” Lindy said.

Neil grinned. “I guess that’s
something,” he said.

“
Have you been at the Laughlin
place?” Cathy asked, hoping to change the subject.

“
Yeah. When I got there, it was
locked up and his car was gone. Then I got the bright idea to check
my emails. He said he had to leave for a few days and to make my own
choices about paint colors.”

“
Are you serious?” Lindy
said.

“
He left the key under the mat
for me. Said to go on in and do what I want. Weird.”

“
He’s a tormented soul,”
Lindy said.

“
That’s it!” Neil said.
“I’ve been trying to find the right word to describe him.
Tormented.”

“
I wonder why,” Cathy said.

“
I don’t know,” Neil said.
“But if I had my guesses, I’d say it involves a woman.”

“
Like I torment you?” Lindy
asked playfully, getting up to give Neil a kiss.

“
Yeah, just like that, babe,”
he said with a laugh.

“
I need to get back home,”
Cathy said standing up from the yellow sofa. “I haven’t seen my
grandfather in a couple of days. I need to pay him a visit. Plus,
I’ve got that phone call to make.”

“
What phone call,” Neil
asked.

“
I’ll tell you later,”
Lindy said to him. “Call me if you need to talk,” Lindy called
after Cathy as she left the shop.

Chapter
Fifteen

Aaron knocked on Sherry’s door
and heard shouts from inside. Sherry opened the door.

“
Come on in to the madhouse,”
she said.

His niece, Ragan, rushed at him
and grabbed onto his legs before he could even get in the door. He
picked her up and smiled into her four-year-old face.

“
Hey, Ragdoll,” he said
giving her a kiss on her chubby cheek.

“
That hair on your face feels
funny,” Unca Ron Ron,” Ragan said.

She put her arms around Aaron’s
neck. He felt loved by another human for the first time since Cathy
had left him. Three-year-old Jimmy had his arms wrapped around
Aaron’s legs, so he picked him up in his other arm. He carried both
children into the great room, stepping on a toy that squeaked loudly
in the process. Ragan and Jimmy screeched with laughter. He set them
down.

“
I was hoping to get them down
soon,” Sherry said. “They’re too wound up now with Unca Ron Ron
here.”

“
Oh, come on, Sherry,” he
said. “Aren’t you glad to see Unca Ron Ron?”

She gave him a hug. “Yes, of
course I am.”

The television screen was filled
with bright colors and characters talking just to children. Aaron had
no idea what the show was. The kids settled down on the floor in
front of the TV and Aaron sat beside them. Sherry brought the kids a
snack of cookies and milk.

“
The carbs will knock them out
soon,” she whispered to Aaron. “Then we’ll have our snack.”

Ragan and Jimmy sat on either
side of him, leaning into him. He wrapped his arms around each as
they watched the show. Jimmy stuck a cookie to his lips and pushed on
it until Aaron opened his mouth and accepted it.

“
Good,” he said to Jimmy
while he chewed the cookie. Jimmy laughed and Aaron laughed for the
first time in months.

He watched the kid’s show with
his niece and nephew, and then another one. During the second one, he
felt both of their little bodies slump limply against him.

“
They’re down for the count,”
Sherry whispered. “We’ll just leave them here on the floor. If we
try to move them, there’ll be hell to pay.”

“
You’re such a good mother,”
Aaron said sarcastically.

“
You bet your ass I am,”
Sherry hissed. They smiled at each other.

“
Come on,” she said grabbing
his arm. “I’ve got our snacks in the kitchen.

In the country-style kitchen, a
bowl of chips and a smaller bowl of cheese dip were on the round
table in the breakfast nook. Aaron sat down and began to dip. Sherry
brought him a beer and opened one for herself.

“
So what’s going on, Bubba?”
she asked after taking a long draw of her beer.

“
The good news is that I’m
fixing that house up. It’s a good investment no matter what
happens.”

“
What’s the bad news?”
Sherry asked.

“
The bad news is that I’ve
turned into a stalker.”

Sherry took another drink of her
beer. Aaron gave his sister a long look. Her curly brown hair was
pulled back into a scrunchie. She wore sweat pants and a T-shirt that
had University of Georgia splayed across the front. She looked
bedraggled, but still very pretty. Pretty in a tired way.

Aaron told Sherry about spying on
Cathy from the woods.

“
That’s a little creepy,”
she said. “But I know you did it out of love.”

“
She won’t respond to me when
I try to contact her,” Aaron said. His voice sounded as desperate
as he felt. “And now she’s hooked up with her high school
boyfriend.”

“
How do you know that?”
Sherry asked.

He explained that, due to his
spying, he had seen a painter’s truck at Cathy’s house. That he
had hired him to paint the Victorian.

“
The painter and his girlfriend
are friends with Cathy. They told me about it one day when the
girlfriend came by to look at the house. They had no idea that I know
Cathy.”

“
You’re a regular James
Bond,” Sherry said.

“
I know you think I’ve lost
my marbles,” Aaron said. “Believe me, I’ve thought the same
thing plenty of times while I was standing out in the woods. And I
was going to stop doing it, I swear I was. But then I saw him kissing
her.”

“
Kissing her?” Sherry said.
She sat up a little straighter and looked excited. Her face said
“tell me more!”

“
Yeah,” he said. “Out by
his truck when he was leaving. His hands were all over her. It drove
me crazy.”

“
I guess so,” Sherry said.
She got up and brought two more beers from the fridge.

“
That’s when I decided that I
need to get more proactive about the investigation into all of this.”

“
Investigation?”

“
I hired a detective the firm
used sometimes to check out potential clients. He’s been working on
it, but he’s not getting anywhere. He has managed to track down
everyone I’ve dated in the past decade.”

“
That must’ve been a long
list,” Sherry said laughing.

“
Longer than I would’ve
liked,” Aaron said. “Anyway, they all seem to have moved on with
their lives. There’s no reason to think any of them had it in for
me.”

“
So what’s your plan?”
Sherry asked. She had always been very pragmatic and straight to the
point.

“
I’m going to meet with the
investigator tomorrow and go over every detail of everything. I don’t
know what else to do.”

“
And what if you find out who
did this to you? Do you think Cathy will take you back? Sounds like
she’s gotten involved with someone else. Her high school boyfriend,
for shit’s sake! How are you going to pull her out of that?”

“
Thanks for your confidence,
Sissy,” Aaron said, irritated at his big sister.

“
I’m just saying that I know
what a pull an old boyfriend can be. Look at me. I got back with
James after college, and that was quite an aphrodisiac, to get back
with my old lover. The good ole days and all that. Reminiscing and
everything. Like going back home or something.”

Aaron didn’t say anything right
away. He knew that what Sherry was saying was the truth. Cathy was
back where she grew up, involved with her old flame. The odds weren’t
in his favor.

“
I know,” he said finally.

“
Just keeping it real, Bubba,”
she said.

“
Thanks for always keeping it
real, Sissy,” he said morosely.

“
But I also know how much you
love Cathy and how much she loves you,” Sherry said in a softer
voice. “I can’t believe that a love like that could be gone, even
if a high school boyfriend did show up. Her love for you was so
obvious. It was real.”

“
And that’s what keeps me
going,” Aaron said.

“
I’m behind you,” Sherry
said.

They sat together for a while
longer, talking about their parents and the farm they had grown up
on. Ragan and Jimmy woke up after an hour or so and started calling
for Sherry.

“
Here we go,” Sherry said
throwing her beer bottle in the trash under the sink.

“
Hey, don’t forget Unca Ron
Ron’s here,” Sherry shouted into the den as she went in. She
looked back and gave Aaron a snarky smile.

*************************

Aaron took the kids outside and
swung them on the swing set for a while, giving Sherry a chance to
get supper going. When the sun went down, he sat on the grass with
them and looked up at the night sky. He pointed out the Big Dipper
and the Little Dipper. That was about all he knew of the
constellations and found himself wishing he knew more. If he ever had
kids, he would learn a lot more about it. He hoped he had those kids
with Cathy.

Sherry called them all in to
supper. James had come home and Aaron shook his hand.

“
Thanks for giving us a few
minutes,” James said. “That’s rare around this crazy house.”

Sherry brought a bubbling dish of
lasagna to the table.

“
How’d you manage to make
that?” Aaron asked.

“
I didn’t,” Sherry said.
“Mom made it. She cooks every Saturday and brings me casseroles and
stuff. I love her for it.”

“
Me too,” James said dishing
up a piece of lasagna. Melted cheese strung all the way from the dish
to his plate. He broke the connection with his fork.

“
Okay, Mr. Piggy,” Sherry
said. “Let’s get some food on our children’s plates first.”

Sherry dished out two pieces of
lasagna and put it on the kids’ plates. “Be careful!” she said
sternly to the children. “It’s too hot. Let it cool down.”

Sherry passed the salad and James
and Aaron filled their bowls. Aaron put some in the kids’ bowls and
squirted ranch dressing on top. Ragan and Jimmy ate the salad while
their lasagna cooled. Sherry handed them each a piece of garlic bread
and they chewed it hungrily.

“
They love Grandma’s lasagna,
don’t you kids?” Sherry said smiling at her children.

“
Yuh huh,” Ragan said around
a mouthful of bread.

After supper, Sherry bathed both
children and put their pajamas on. Afterward, they ran into the den
where James and Aaron were enjoying scotch on the rocks.

“
We’re having pie for
dessert,” Ragan said climbing into Aaron’s lap.

“
Apple pie,” Jimmy said. He
started swirling around and around in a circle, repeating the words
“apple pie” over and over. He finally stopped, dizzy, and plopped
onto the carpeted floor. When he stopped being dizzy, he got up and
climbed up on the couch beside Aaron.

Sherry brought in a big tray with
plates of apple pie with ice cream on top. She spread a large towel
on the floor in front of the TV.

“
Come over here,” she said to
the kids. “You can watch some TV while you eat your dessert.”

Ragan and Jimmy unglued
themselves from Aaron and sat on the towel. Ragan began to eat her
pie with her fork, putting each piece precisely into her mouth. Jimmy
tried to eat with a fork, but gave up and picked the pie up with his
hands. The ice cream dropped off the piece of pie and onto his plate.

“
Whatcha gonna do?” Sherry
said looking at Aaron and laughing. “That’s why the towel’s
there.”

After James corralled the kids to
take them to bed, Aaron got up from the couch. He was beginning to
nod off. “I’m going to bed, too,” he said. “It’s been a
long day.”

“
I’m right behind you, Bro,”
Sherry said. “What time is your appointment tomorrow?”