Page 79 of Student Seduction
23
Emersyn
After Aiden left, I remained outside, sitting on the deck and realizing I didn’t have a plan for the day.
I didn’t have to get my little brother up and ready and off to school or baseball. Dad and Deb had already handled it. Didn’t have to fix my mom breakfast, help her to the shower or use the bathroom in any way. She had Kat for that now.
I still had another two weeks until spring semester classes started at the Santa Barbara Art Institute.
I didn’t have anywhere in particular to be.
It should’ve felt like freedom. But it didn’t.
It felt overwhelming, much like the vast body of water before me, and as if my life was suddenly an unimportant, unregulated free-for-all severely lacking in direction and purpose.
I knew what Aiden would say. “Embrace it.” He’d encourage me to explore the area, to eat in diners off the beaten path, to hike and meditate, to find a quiet place to center myself. I could practically hear him as if he’d somehow become the voice in my head.
I was in the midst of contemplating how he’d managed this when I became aware of a presence beside me.
I could smell her expensive perfume wafting on the breeze.
Deborah.
Not exactly my first choice of companion at the moment, but it was her house, so there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“You okay?” She asked softly, her voice barely carrying above the steadily crashing waves.
I shrugged, keeping my eyes on the ebb and flow of the ocean.
“Aiden seemed nice. Different than I expected.”
I turned my head, lifting my brows in question. “And what did you expect, exactly? Some creepy old pervert?”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, Emersyn. What did you expect the first time you met me?”
Bimbo, teased the tip of my tongue.
When my mother told me my dad had left us for his assistant, I’d pictured the cliché from the movies. Bleach bottle blonde with big fake boobs wearing stripper heels and leopard print everything.
I could admit I’d been wrong.
Deborah was blonde, but lean from being a distance runner and everything about her was natural. She even looked like a native Californian sitting on the beach at sunrise. Crystal clear blue eyes reflecting the ocean above a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her petite nose.
“It’s okay,” she said gently. “I know how it sounds. And I know some of the women who fall in love with their bosses are in it for superficial and even nefarious reasons, like money. Or blackmail. But I hope you know, after spending time with us here, that it wasn’t like that. Ever.”
I thought about how sweet they were to one another in the kitchen every morning. How my dad’s eyes softened every time he looked at her, as if she were an unexpected gift he still couldn’t quite believe was his.
“I can see that,” I admitted.
“I am sorry for what your mom is going through,” Deb offered. “I hope the in-home health professional is improving her quality of life somewhat.”
Kat and my mom cuddled up watching 80’s movies on the couch flashed behind my eyes. “She is,” I said. “A great deal, I think.”
“Well, that’s good.”
When I didn’t make an attempt to continue our conversation, Deb shifted as if she were about to stand and leave. But then she stop and tilted her head at me in a way that reminded me of Drew.
“For what it’s worth, Emersyn, I never intended to hurt anyone. That’s why I left. When your mother got her diagnosis, I ended things with your dad. Immediately. He’d been planning to leave long before me but was working with attorneys on custody arrangements for you and your brother. It was complicated and I won’t bore you with the details, but I didn’t expect him to follow me here. I let him go and decided to focus on finding what happiness I could in a life that didn’t include him.”
