Unraveled (Love in Salem, book 2) (14 page)

“I
really
don’t like that woman.”  Atayla stated with vehemence.

Aidan readily agreed.  “I’m sorry about that.  I was trying not to be rude, but I was ready to dump her on her ass if she leaned over onto my lap one more time.  I don’t know why Jasper puts up with that.”

Score points for Aidan.  “I love you.”

His smile could still melt her panties.  “I love you, too.”  He gave her a quick smooch.

“Can I get some of that sugar?”

Atayla smiled as Paxton walked up to them and kissed her on the cheek.  Surprisingly, he had Hayden with him.  This was only the second time Hayden had been with his father during her brief courtship with Aidan and the first time wasn’t because his
ex had allowed him visitation.

No, that particular time was because she was too irresponsible to pick her son up on time from the neighbor’s house and her neighbor, Journey, had no idea where she was.  Because of that, Journey had to drop the little guy off at Skinz where she knew his father would be.

There was quite the uproar over that whole situation.  Paxton was pissed, understandably, about her negligence of their son and for not bringing Hayden to him in the first place.  Cassie was pissed because she didn’t want Paxton to have Hayden for any reason whatsoever.

She was a piece of work that was for sure.  A nasty, hateful, spiteful piece of work and Atayla hoped she would get her comeuppance sooner rather than later. 

Paxton plopped down in the chair next to Aidan and pulled his son up to sit in his lap. Hayden had a baggie full of snack rings in his hand that he eagerly tried to share with his uncle.  Aidan politely declined after realizing they were all slightly soggy from being in Hayden’s mouth at one point or another.

“So how did you get so lucky to have Hayden today?” 

Paxton snorted.  “Cassie dumped him off on Journey again.  Journey knew I would want him so she called me and I went and picked him up.  I’m keeping him overnight and taking him back tomorrow before noon.  I don’t want to make things hard on Journey, so I’m going to take him back before Cassie knows what’s going on.”

“At least Journey is on your side.”  Atayla remarked.

“Yeah, she doesn’t care for Cassie all that much.  She would avoid her if weren’t for Hayden.”  He stroked the kids head as Hayden gave his father a questioning look. 

“
Jorey?”  His eyes lit up.

Paxton laughed.  “No.  Journey isn’t here, little man.  She is probably home sleeping since it’s her day off.”

As everyone filled their plates the table quickly became occupied with friends and family alike.  Jasper and a guy named Greg carried out a large screen plasma TV and attached it to a mount on the side of the house.  Using the outdoor outlet just beneath, Jasper plugged in the TV and hooked up a set of cables. 

The crowd cheered when he turned it on and the Pregame show started.  The volume remained low so the group could continue to talk until the game started.  Jasper pulled over an empty chair and sat down at the corner of the table.  Chloe perched on his lap with a wine cooler in hand.

With Jasper there, she maintained a respectable distance when talking to the other men, but it didn’t stop her from leaning forward enough to allow them to see straight down her shirt.  Yeah, the woman clearly had issues.  And everyone but Jasper seemed to know it.

Greg came out of the house with another woman trailing behind him.

“Hey, Jas?  There is someone here to see you.”

Jasper looked over and smiled at the newcomer.  Chloe, on the other hand, didn’t seem too pleased with the interruption.

“Paige!  What brings you here?”

“I called your phone, but you didn’t answer.  Sorry, I didn’t know you were busy.  I can talk to you another time.”

Jasper waved it away.  “You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.”

She hesitated for a moment, taking in all his guests.

“The water is backing up in the drains at home.  I tried chemicals thinking there was a clog somewhere, but it’s still happening.  I didn’t know if you could fix it or if I needed to call a plumber.”

“I’ll be out tomorrow morning to take a look at things.  Hopefully, whatever it is, it will be an easy fix.”

“Okay.”  She nodded.  “I’ll see you then.” 

Just as she turned to walk back in the house, Jasper stopped her.  “Do you have the kids with you?  Would you like to stay and have a bite to eat before you leave?”

Paige glanced quickly at Chloe, and her lips twitched.  Jasper may be oblivious to Chloe’s hostility towards the woman, but Paige wasn’t.

“We were on our way home from the grocery store when I decided to stop by here to talk to you.  I need to get home and get things put away.  Thanks anyway, though.”

With a wave, she left.

Jasper didn’t do a very good job hiding his interest in Paige, which was probably why Chloe disliked her so much.  Or her dislike could just be because she was a woman.  Jasper didn’t have any designs for Atayla or vice versa, but Chloe openly disliked her anyway.

“New tenant?”  Seamus asked.  He had sat down on the other side of Atayla.

“She started renting off of me a couple of months ago.  She’s in the process of a divorce and her bastard husband sold the house out from underneath her leaving her and the kids without a place to stay.  Paige works with my dad at the school so he sent her to me and I showed her a couple places that were vacant.”  He shrugged.

“Why would he sell the house?”  Paxton asked.

“I guess to keep her from gaining anything in the divorce.” 

“It won’t matter in the grand scheme of things.”  Atayla piped in.  When she realized everyone was staring at her, she added, “He will be forced to give her a share of the equity regardless.  She is entitled to a portion of everything including the equity of the house, or in this case the sale of the house.  The judge should render judgment based on the appraisal if one was done, or the final price at sale.”

“Good.”  Was Jasper’s only reply, but by the fierce look in his eyes he hoped the man paid dearly.

“Well, that was interesting.”  Atayla commented as she tossed her purse in the armchair in her living room.  They had opted to stay at her house that night since she had spent so much time away from home lately.  She wasn’t complaining.  There was nothing better than sleeping in Aidan’s arms.

There were things she needed to do, though.  Walking into the kitchen, a streak of gray fluff about tripped her in a mad rush to get to the food bowl.  Poor kitty.  She had put food out for Jake the other day, and it should have been enough to last him, but obviously he had different ideas.

Aidan reached out and helped keep her on her feet, laughing.  “You think he may be hungry?”

“He probably thinks he is starving.  After all, if a centimeter of the bowl’s bottom is showing then he thinks it’s empty.  Not to mention the fact that if it has set there overnight then it is stale and isn’t worth eating until fresh is placed on top of it.”  She chuckled.  “It’s amazing how fresh food miraculously makes the old food fresh again.”

Atayla frowned.  “I can’t keep neglecting him like this.”  She filled his food and water bowls then went about cleaning the litter box.  It was actually an automatic litter box so all she had to do was empty the receptacle.

Throwing a load of laundry in the washer, she added detergent and fabric softener before closing the lid.  She then gathered the articles of clothing that needed dry cleaned and readied them to be dropped off at Warner’s Cleaners the next day.

Walking back into the kitchen she saw Aidan putting her dishes away.  She was always careful to clean the dishes as soon as she used them so she wouldn’t have to worry about them setting out for too long.  Putting them away was another story and she had quite a pile of them in the dish drainer.

“You don’t have to do that.”  She protested.

Aidan shrugged.  “I know I don’t have to, but I don’t want you rushing all night to get things done, either.  If I help then you get done faster.  It’s already late as it is.”

Not bothering to argue, Atayla went into her bedroom and stripped the sheets from her bed.  After remaking the bed with clean linens, she took the soiled ones into the laundry room for washing.  She decided to sift through the mail next.  She had bills that needed paid, and she could do that online while the washer cycled.

She had tried to talk Aidan into going home so he wouldn’t have to hang around her house while she caught up on her tasks, but he insisted he wanted to be here with her regardless of what she was doing. 

He just smirked and said he could catch up on his talk shows.  That wasn’t what he was doing, though, as she heard him moving about in the next room. 

Shutting down her laptop, she closed the lid and stretched.  What she really wanted to do was go to bed.  She had a big day ahead of her tomorrow.  Sunday dinner at Aidan’s parents’ house.  Tomorrow she will finally meet not only them, but his two youngest siblings as well.

Pushing away from her desk, she went in search of Aidan.  She found him flipping her laundry over into the dryer.  She leaned against the door and admired the view.  He had taken off his shirt and pants, standing there in only his boxer briefs.  Muscles bulged and rippled with his movements, making her forget how tired she was a second ago.

“Thank you.” 

He turned and grinned.  “I wasn’t doing anything besides lying in bed wishing you were there with me anyway.  I might as well be productive.”

Finished throwing the last of the clothes in the dryer, Aidan turned it on and turned towards Atayla.  “So, I’ve been thinking.”

“That’s a scary thought.”  She chuckled.

“I’m serious.”  Smiling, he asked, “How well do you think Pete and Jake will get along?”

She thought about that for a minute.  “I think Jake would tolerate Pete.  Why?  You need me to ferret sit?”

“No, actually, I was thinking maybe you could move in with me.”

Her expression blanked.

Walking up to her, he ran his hands soothingly up and down her arms.  “I don’t mean right now.  I meant when your lease is up, or something.  It would be more practical since there wouldn’t be any more running between houses in order to keep things up.”

“And then what?”  She shot back.  “You can start telling me what to do, how live my life?  Been there, done that.  No thank you!”  She was angry, beyond angry.  She knew she shouldn’t be, but scenes of her life with Randall were playing in fast forward through her mind.

She saw his hurt flash loud and clear before he controlled it.

“I’m sorry.  That wasn’t fair to you.  You caught me off guard and I started having flashbacks.”

“It’s okay.  I understand, but you need to understand that I’m not him, and I would never intentionally do anything to make you unhappy.”

Properly chastised, Atayla nodded her head.

“Let’s go to bed.”  Aidan suggested.  “It’ late and you have a lot to do tomorrow before we go to my parents’ house for dinner.”

She may have fallen asleep in Aidan’s arms, but she felt the distance between them even in slumber.  The distance was even more oppressive when she woke up alone the next morning.

Dinner at the Aiello’s house was a bustle of activity that was quickly wearing on Atayla.  Or it could have been the fact that Aidan was obviously still upset with her.  He had barely spoken two words to her since he arrived at her house early that evening to pick her up.

After a quick introduction to his mother and father, he left her to help his brother add extra leafs to the dining room table.  He never came back.  Currently, she was standing in the kitchen listening to Colleen prattle on the way mothers do.  At least Atayla assumed that’s what mothers do since hers was so seriously lacking.

She hadn’t really listened much to what the woman was saying.  Her mind was too engrossed in self-recriminations to focus on much else.  Coming here tonight was a very bad idea.  Being around his family when Aidan clearly didn’t want to be around
her
was hard to endure.

Fighting back the tears was becoming harder to accomplish with each passing moment.  She didn’t blame Aidan for being upset with her.  She had been out of line.  He didn’t deserve the backlash of her past which was why she wanted to be open with him about it.

Jordyn wobbled up next to Atayla and grabbed on to her legs, breaking her from her contemplations in time to hear Colleen say “Atayla?”

Atayla looked up quickly, catching the odd look directed towards her from Aidan’s mother.  Great, what else could possibly go wrong tonight? 

“I’m sorry.  Did you say something?”  She asked as innocently as she could.

“I asked you if you met Jase and Jaiden.”   She waved at her two youngest kids.

How long had they been standing there watching her wallow in her misery?

“No. I haven’t, but it’s nice to meet you both.”  Said with a smile she didn’t feel.

Colleen cocked her head to the side.  “Everything okay, dear?”

“Yes.”  Nodding vigorously.  “Yes, everything is fine.  Would please excuse me for a moment?  I need to…”