Page 19 of The Night Ride
I didn’t react and kept my head down.It was easier than confronting her or speaking up for myself.I tried that once, and it was horrible.
The food’s flavor turned to sawdust, and I wanted to vomit the few bites I’d been able to choke down.Throughout the meal I kept quiet while Evan and Aiden told stories, and Mom and Nora laughed.When I was finished, I rose with half my plate still full.But I couldn’t eat another bite.
It was part of my problem.I didn’t like eating in front of my mother.So I tried not to eat too much because she would comment about it and make me feel awful.I felt like such a failure and unworthy somehow because I couldn’t seem to be how she wanted me.But later, I would wind up starving and would binge part of the small stash of food I kept hidden from her.
Because if she knew, she would berate me, usually publicly.
It always made me want to crawl in a hole of shame and die.And I had never understood why she targeted me, but both Evan and Nora weren’t targeted the same way.All I could figure was there was something wrong with me.
While everyone finished their meal, I began putting the leftovers away and cleaning up the kitchen.I carried the plate of desserts over to the table for everyone.
“What do we have here?”Evan asked with an endearing grin.He didn’t look at me like there was something wrong with me and I loved him more for it.
“Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with Reese’s pieces.I know how much you love the chocolate and peanut butter combo.”
“It looks delish, sis!Thanks for such an awesome homecoming dinner!We’re going to be the envy of our unit when we return to base.”
“He isn’t lying.This is the best meal I’ve had in ages.Ever think about being a chef?”Aiden asked and bit into a cupcake, moaning in ecstasy.“These are phenomenal.”
“Thanks.”I flushed at the unexpected compliment, unsure how to accept the praise from such a hot guy because it had never happened before.
I avoided taking a cupcake myself under my mother’s scrutiny.She would only make more comments about my weight in front of our guest.And I wanted to float a while longer on his compliments and not have to deal with her.She would only make me feel bad about myself.At times I felt like she hated me, and I didn’t understand why.
As dinner concluded, I stood at the sink rinsing dishes and putting them in the dishwasher.
“Here’s this.Again, thanks for such a great meal and including me tonight.”
I glanced over my jaw agape, stunned.Aiden smiled with a disarming grin.Butterflies flew in a riot through my belly.My throat felt dry.I opened my mouth to reply but nothing came out because my brain wasn’t functioning at higher levels.
A knowing smirk filled his features, but his eyes were kind.He knew I thought he was hot.“I’ll just set this here.”
He laid his empty plate and utensils on the counter beside the sink with a wink before heading off with my brother to look at our backyard pool and the surrounding land that butted up to a forest on the outskirts of the redwoods.
The rest of the weekend flew by.Far too fast for my liking as I watched the activity from the sidelines, refusing to get in a bathing suit, preferring to watch the activity from the kitchen window while I cooked for everyone.
By the end of the weekend, I had fallen in love for the very first time, with the kind man who always complimented me and listened when I talked about my dreams.He left back east with my brother and took my young, tender heart with him.
Chapter six
PresentDay
The guys followed me home after I locked the bakery.It infuriated and depressed me that someone I trusted had stolen from me.On the drive home, I mentally went through every single person I employed, trying to figure out if they were the culprit.But I couldn’t decide which one it might be.
The sun was setting as we turned down my street.Their motorcycle headlights shone in my rearview mirror.
What had my brother asked them to bring?
I wasn’t sure.Evan and I hadn’t been in the best spot.Ever since we had the big blowout over the kiss I shared with Aiden, things had been strained between us.
After I parked, I glanced in my rearview mirror at the motorcycles parking behind my Mazda and the van in the driveway.Or really at one man.The only man I’d ever really wanted.
But he was just another man who had walked away and left me floundering.
I wanted to curse him.Yell at him to go find a motel.But deep down there was a part of me rejoicing, because he was here, and was still in the land of the living.
Exiting my car, I spied Mrs.Olivia Newman peering through her front window.The old biddy with the short mop of curly gray hair was nice enough.Yet the woman was the busy body of the neighborhood, always sticking her nose in where it didn’t belong.By morning, news that I had three men who drove motorcycles staying at my house would be the neighborhood gossip.
I loved my house.It had three moderately sized bedrooms and was an older home with roughly twenty-one hundred square feet.But it was mine.I used some of the inheritance I received from my mom’s life insurance policy after she passed away as part of my down payment.
