Page 23 of Yours to Conquer

“Yeah, I’m just tired. Let’s go home. Let’s relax in front of the television.” He goes to retrieve my bags over by the wall.

“I can get those.” I reach to take the bags, but he pulls them out of my way.

“I’ll grab these,” he says as he places all the bags in one hand. “Do you mind grabbing something for us to eat on the way home? I have to make a few phone calls. I’ll meet you at home.” He leans over and kisses me. It’s not a passionate kiss, but one you give out of habit.

We walk to the garage together and enter our cars. As we exit, he turns right, and I turn left. This is the first time I’ve noticed Anthony and I going in different directions.

I pullinto the garage and park next to Anthony’s Vanquish. My car smells of baked chicken, Cajun rice, garlic butter greens, biscuits, and the peach cobbler I brought for dessert. I balance all the containers and make it into the kitchen without dropping anything.

The house is quiet, and everything is closed up. Usually, Anthony walks into the house and throws the doors to the deck wide open. I walk over and open the doors myself, then go to work plating up our dinner.

Once the food is ready, I search for Anthony and find him in his office. His back is turned to me, but I can hear one side of the conversation he’s having with the person on the other end.

“Okay, so they forced her, is what you’re telling me. What else have you found out? Uh-huh. Okay. We can go over it in depth next week. Certainly. Goodbye.”

I make some noise, so he knows I’m enteringhis office. He swivels his chair around and looks in my direction. It’s nice to see he still has a smile for me.

“I have dinner ready. I went to the Cajun place and picked up chicken and rice. Do you want to join me on the deck?”

He reaches out and grabs me around the waist, pulling me to stand between his legs. He buries his face into my stomach and lets out a groan.

“What can I do to help? It sounds like you’ve had an awful day.”

“It’s been okay. I have a lot of things going on at once. I feel like my hair is on fire. How was your day?” He leans back and looks up into my eyes.

“Good. While I was playing hooky from work, your day was going to shit, but hey, I have a magnificent dress for tomorrow,” I tease. “But I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“Emma, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

“All right, but you don’t have to carry the weight of this on your own. Let’s eat and then watch aLethal Weaponmarathon.” I tug him up from his seat and push him into the kitchen. We take our plates and walk out onto the deck. The ocean has a way of calming his nerves. We sit in relative silence and eat our food. My thoughts are running amok, with most of my attention on the current Ahz crisis. I keep playing plausible scenarios in my head, but nowhere can I come up with one in which they served a minor alcohol.

“Do you think that having an ‘eighteen and over’ night is a good idea? I’m just wondering if you and Damon should reconsider your position on that.” I take a bite of chicken and wait for his reply.

“We might have to rethink that. We wanted to have an all-inclusive club. The eighteen to twenty crowds are our regulars for tomorrow. If we reel them in now, we won’t have to target them later.” He takes in a deep breath and looks out over the water. “It was a great marketing idea; however, who would’ve thought a drunk driver with a stamp from our club would plow through a crowd of bystanders? Ijust found out that they’ve upgraded the one person in critical condition to stable, which is fantastic news.”

“That’s excellent news. Was that who you were talking to when I came into your office?” I gather both of our plates and stack them in front of me.

“No, that was the investigator from Texas. He was getting back to me on his findings. Your mom was forced to marry your dad after getting caught in a compromising position. He has a lead on someone who was friends with your mom and plans to meet with them tomorrow or Monday.” He wipes his mouth with a napkin. “And I plan to meet with him while I’m in Dallas.” “I appreciate your dedication to uncovering my past. It’s turning out to be exactly as we thought. She was pregnant and had to marry him. I feel so sad for my parents. If they had to marry each other because of an unwanted pregnancy, I could understand why they wouldn’t have a loving marriage. That in no way justifies the violence, but I can understand the frustration. No one should have to marry because of that.”

“I’m so sorry, baby. I wish I could change it for you.”

I shrug. I wish I could change it too, but that’s a wish that will never come true. What’s done is done.

Finished with our dinner, we both enter the house. I take the dishes to the sink to rinse them and place them in the dishwasher. Anthony gets the TV ready for our Mel Gibson marathon. I curl up next to him, and we both relax. I must have fallen asleep because the last thing I remember was watching the scene where the house on stilts gets pulled off its foundation by Riggs.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The churning in my belly sends me racing to the bathroom. I barely make it to the toilet before I spill the contents of my stomach. The spicy foods from yesterday come back up with a vengeance. My esophagus and stomach are on fire. I lie on the cool tile floor, in my T-shirt and underwear, waiting for the nausea to subside.

“Are you okay?” Anthony asks from behind me. “Let me get you a damp washcloth.”

All I can do is groan. I feel like a train wreck. I sit up and lean against the wall. In the next second, I’m back praying to the porcelain gods. With nothing left in my stomach, the dry heaves take over.

Anthony pulls my hair back into a rubber band. These are the days I’m happy that so many women came before me. He places the damp cloth against my forehead and carries me back to bed.

“You’re pale and clammy feeling. Let me get the trash can in case you feel sick again and can’t make it to the bathroom. I’ll call Katarina and Damon and tell them we won’t be going to the festival today.”

“No, let’s wait. I ate that sushi yesterday, and then the spicy food last night. I think my stomach probably couldn’t handle both. Thisused to happen when I was a kid. If I ate too much spicy stuff, I’d get sick. Wasabi is not my friend.”

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