Piquant Chapter 4

“Mom!” I cried as I threw my arms around her. She was almost crying as she returned my hug. My mom? Crying? This I got to see. I pulled back enough to see tears streaming down her face. I laughed and she slapped my shoulder as she pulled me in to hug again. I helped her carry in her luggage before the butler came by to take them to her room. She took in the view of the house and turned to me with her jaw dropped open.

     “Honey, I don’t know why you were complaining. This is hitting the lottery ticket.”

     “I never complained. I said I wasn’t sure.”

     “Being unsure is as good as complaining. It ends up with no real answers. God, this place is huge! I’ll need a map to get around.”

     “Hello Mrs. Jones,” Garrison said as he came down the stairs dressed all in black. He came to kiss her cheek before settling his arm around my waist.

     “Thank you for having me over,” she said.

     “You’re family now. Our home is your home. I’ll have Mrs. Potter take you your room. Let’s have some lunch outside.”

     The lunch that Mrs. Potter had prepared was steamed fish, roasted red potatoes, and a salad. My mother’s eyes nearly dropped open when she saw the backyard view. She immediately reached out to me and steadied herself on my arm. My glorious husband noticed it and smiled silently as we took out seats at the table.

     “I trust your flight was good,” Garrison said as he poured wine for all of us.

     “Yes, thank you. I’d never flown first class before.”

     I smiled and began cutting up my fish. I watched as my mother very slowly and politely tried to eat without making a mess. I laughed and she caught my gaze.

     “What?” she asked.

     “Mom, there’s no need to try to be delicate with eating. Garrison doesn’t eat prim and proper.”

     Garrison smiled. “Mrs. Jones, I love eating and believe one should take the pleasure to indulge as much as possible. Please don’t feel obliged to be polite in front of me when it comes eating. Fulfill, please, it will make me happy.”

     My mother let out a breath. “Thank the lord!”

     After lunch, Garrison left me and my mother while he went to pick up his father to join us for dinner. My mother had been eyeing me all afternoon long and when we were finally alone together, she took me to the guest room she was residing in and blurted the question on her mind.

     “Is he always this amazing?”

     I laughed and settled down on the large bed. The room she was in was still large enough to fit another four people. She liked the color gold and I had mentioned that to Garrison. He had taken note and decorated the bed in shades to lift her spirit. I was thankful for that.

     “Mom, he’s…he’s got his moments.”

     She sat down on the bed beside me. “Oh come on, Peyton! The man is a walking God! He obviously adores you like crazy. Did you see the way he was staring at you during lunch? I thought you were his lunch instead of the damn fish!”

     My cheeks flushed and I shook my head. “Mother, please refrain from using such language. It leaves me feeling emotions I can’t begin to describe.”

     She laughed and crossed her arms. “Darling, the right man will always leave you feeling emotions you can’t describe.”

     My smile faded. “Did you…did you ever feel any of that with my father? I mean, I know that you don’t like to talk about him much, but sometimes I just wonder if you were ever happy.”

     I watched as the spark from her eyes faded and regret constricted my chest. My mother had never really spoken about her relationship with my father to me. I think a part of me believed that she was afraid it would damage the relationship I had with him. I knew him as a father. She knew him as a husband.

     “Peyton, my life with your father wasn’t always bad. I have had many wonderful memories with him and he was the first man who really made me understand what being in love was like. I loved him, deeply and truly. We were good together for however long it lasted for. I don’t regret my marriage to him because I have you to show for it.

     “I hope that you remember the good times of us too and not just when things began to turn sour. Your father wasn’t always a bad man. He just lost sight of what he wanted and that was me. It was never you. I want you to know that. And I want you to stop comparing all the men you meet to him. With Jake, you were so afraid he would leave you and you tried to do everything to please him. And by doing that, you forgot who you were. In the end, you lost him regardless, not your fault, by the way. Now with Garrison, seeing you today, seeing how truly happy you are, I want you to remember that Garrison isn’t your father. He’s not Jake either. So don’t give him their baggage to carry.”

     Tears filled my eyes and I reached over to hug her. Her arms comforted me and I thought back to all the lonely nights where I spent listening to her cry when she thought I had been asleep. She had been the pillar for me. She had tried to conceal all the negative and wanted me to see how strong she was. I felt guilty for all the hardships I had given her to endure.

     “I’m sorry,” I whispered.

     Laughing, she pulled away and cupped my face. “Don’t start with those sappy apologies, Peyton. You were a teenager and you were just living life. I did it once upon a time ago too. I want you to remember that life isn’t as you pictured it. But it doesn’t mean that you’ve done something wrong. It’s just that you found something else along the way. Make the most of it.”

     I nodded and hugged her again. “Thank you so much for being here for me. I almost thought I didn’t need anyone to care for me anymore.”

    

     Andrew arrived a little after five and amazingly, he and my mother got along quite well. She was afraid he was going to be a high and mighty white horse riding man, even though I had tried to convince her otherwise. Seeing him in person finally settled her thoughts. We spoke about the wedding, which Andrew stated that he wanted to happen in the next six months. It would give us enough time to put everything together. My mother would fly back for that time being.

     “I’ve put together a guest list for our side of the family. How much are we expecting from your side?” Andrew asked.

     My mother took a drink from her wine. “It’ll just be me.”

     Andrew’s face broke into confusion and he cocked his head. “Just you?”

     “Her father isn’t in the picture. It’s always just been the two of us.”

     He nodded. “That’s understandable. I’ll be sure to have flight arranged for you by that time.”

     “Thank you, but I think I can handle those.”

     “I’ll take care of it,” Garrison interjected. Then he looked at my mother. “And you’ll accept.”

     She smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

     Mrs. Potter entered with a tray of coffee and tea. She set placed it between us on the table and left. Garrison took the liberty to pour each of us a cup of tea.

     “I want you to know that I appreciate everything you’ve done for my daughter,” my mother said.

     Andrew looked up at her. “She’s like my daughter now too. Please understand something, Mrs. Jones. I take family matters quite serious. When someone tries to harm anyone I call family, I don’t let them get away. I make them pay for the damage they’ve done.”

     Andrew left after dinner and my mother retired to her room. My head was juggling with thoughts of my mother’s conversation this afternoon. I still held onto the guilt cloak and it hung over me quite heavy. Garrison sensed something was wrong because he didn’t speak to me all through dinner and when we were finally alone, he offered me comfort by simply holding me. But I knew he was curious.

     “I’m sorry,” I said. We were in bed in each other’s arms. The only light on were the candles he had burned.

     “Don’t apologize.”

     “I wasn’t myself tonight.”

     “You were quiet. Was it something I said?”

     I looked up at him. “No. It was…,” I left it hanging. I got up and moved away from him. My legs were swinging off the bed and I felt a huge wave of emotions wash over me. Tears consumed me and I tried to stifle my sobs. He immediately hugged me, but I stood up and moved away from him.

     “You won’t hurt me, will you?” I asked.

     He moved off the bed and toward me. “I think I’ve been over this topic before.”

     Tears burned my cheeks. “I’m sorry. It’s just a little hard to get it into my head after seeing my father leave my mother and seeing Jake leave me. I know you’ve said you’re not Jake, but the feeling of being left is still there. It’s part of the damaged ghost in me. This afternoon, my mother, she spoke a little about her life without my father, and I realized how horrible I’ve been as a daughter.”

     He reached for me. “You’re not a horrible daughter. You’re the most perfect person I’ve ever met.”

     “Why do you want me so much? I’m so messed up! I had a husband who didn’t even want me enough to try to fix things. He had to find someone else to love.”

     Garrison’s hand reached for my cheek and his fingers caressed me lightly as his eyes gazed into mine. With his other hand, his fingers hooked into the band of my pants and pulled me closer to him. “Why do I want you? I want you because for the first time in my life, I’ve met someone who has completely turned my world upside down. You are like no one I’ve ever known. You make me dizzy with your crazy smile and I ache for the taste of your lips. I want to mark you with my scent so that you can reek of me wherever you go. So other men know you’re mine. I want you because each time I look into your eyes, the innocence still lives in you and I yearn for that. The world is full of a lot of indecency, but one look into your eyes, and it makes everything worth living for. Why do I want you? Simply because you’re built for me.”

     His words made me tremble and when he bent down to capture my lips, the fire inside of me exploded. My head spun and my heart pounded. God, this man can kiss! He can do everything and it made me want more. Was it even humanly possible to want more? I pulled away from him breathless. He stared at me and then ran his thumb across my lower lip.

     “If you’re going to look at me like that, we are not getting a wink of sleep tonight.”

     Love was something I thought I knew. It was something I thought I could figure out quite well. Garrison hadn’t said he loved me. But truly cared for, wanted to protect, and yearned for, he had mentioned countless times. The feeling inside of me was growing and each day that I spent with him, I was beginning to smile like an idiot. At night, in his arms, I was lost in an exotic world where I didn’t want the morning to come. I woke up every day and planned the wedding with three different wedding planners who spoke with such thick British accents, I barely understood them. I simply nodded and hoped that it turned out well. Garrison was thrown into political meetings during the morning since he was now married. My mother’s visit kept me sane and it kept me from missing my husband. But things were about to go sour.

     It began on the day my mother returned to the states. I was in the limo coming back from dropping her from the airport. Our driver, Seth, an elderly man with graying hair, was at the front seat. I was in the back dressed in a pressed black suit, one Garrison had picked out for me. I thought it was fitted to wear when bidding one good-bye. Garrison was already visiting with his father at his home, thirty miles from ours. I instructed Seth to drive me over. I hadn’t been to Andrew’s home. Garrison hadn’t mentioned it and Andrew hadn’t sent an invite. So being the daughter-in-law, I thought I’d drop by to see how son and father were doing.

     Andrew’s home was twice the size of Garrison’s. It was situated on ten acres of green lush grass. I saw my husband’s car parked in front. Seth parked the limo and opened the door for me. I thanked him and began walking up the stairs when I heard tires on the gravel. I turned in time to see a dark car pulling up. It stopped short of me and the door opened. A very beautiful woman with dark hair stepped out wearing a dark navy blue suit. She had on a pair of dark sunglasses. Her lips were painted a deep crimson. She closed the door and walked around the car and when she reached me, she removed her glasses. She was an older woman with the bluest eyes I’d ever seen. Her slender fingers were decorated with rings and her nails were done in a French manicure style. She eyed me and then she walked in without saying a word. I followed her and the butler, an older man without any hair, dressed in a black and white number looked at us. His eyes glazed wide open and he stepped backward. Who was this woman? He very quietly excused himself and rushed off. A moment later, Garrison and his father appeared before us. His eyes fell on me and then went to the woman. The color drained and I watched as Andrew’s face broke into a hatred expression.

     “What the bloody hell are you doing here?” Andrew asked.

     “Is that any way to greet your wife?” the woman replied.

     I swung my head toward her and my jaw dropped open. Garrison’s mother?! I watched as she walked toward Garrison and Andrew with a light sway to her hips. The woman was downright sexy as hell. She was breathing sensuality as she walked. She came to Garrison and when she reached for him, he stepped away from her. He walked toward me and took my arm.

     “Who is that?” she asked.

     Garrison turned around. “She’s my wife.”

     The woman’s face melted into an unbelievable expression. “Wife? That’s your wife? I thought she was an exchange student your father had living here.”

     That hurt more than I expected and the tears pricked my eyes. I turned and walked out as Garrison followed me. When I reached the limo, Seth came out to open the door. Garrison slammed the door shut and turned me around. His eyes turned dark when he saw the tears. His hand pulled me into his arms.

     “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

     Pulling away, I looked up at him. “What is she doing here? I thought you said she left?”

     “She did, years ago. I’m not sure what she’s doing here. I’m just as shocked as you. It must not be good that she’s here. Look, I’m going to be here and see what’s going on. Are you going to be all right heading home?”

     I nodded and he bent down to kiss me. He headed back inside and I got in the car. My head swarmed with thoughts of his mother and what she had labeled me with. The insult still stung and suddenly I didn’t want to go home. I wanted to go somewhere I could be alone.

     “Seth, can you take me someplace where I can get a drink?”

     “Mr. Remington would prefer it if you were to go home, milady.”

     “I need to be alone. Just send the security team to where I will be.”

     “Right away, milady.”