Old Flames

Old Flames: Chapter 17

Old Flames: Chapter 17

As the week passed, Aaron saw little of Lainie and the kids, but that was not because he shied away from the fearful, startled look in her eyes when he returned Chris and Chloe to their mother.  He knew he loved those children, and he knew that it showed...and maybe he could be better at hiding his expressions and emotions, but did he really want to?  Wouldn’t that be the same as lying to them?  

However, he wasn’t up to hearing another one of Lainie’s lectures on how she “wasn’t ready,” and she only wanted to “be friends.”  So, he worked extra shifts as the dreaded Halloween gradually approached, giving her time to forget all about that fleeting moment in time when he’d let his true feelings show.  But staying away completely was too difficult.  On Thursday, he popped in to return Chloe’s plastic bracelet from the day he babysat them, and he explained that the hectic work schedule during this time of year was normal for him.  He worked steadily the week before Halloween, and he’d stay at the station the whole weekend, just in case he was needed.  And since he had to train his new EMT, his free hours were limited.

“What happened to Dusty?” Lainie asked as she offered him a glass of tea, and he followed her into the kitchen.  Something spicy and yummy filled the house with an enticing aroma.  His stomach almost growled.

“Her husband broke his leg,” Aaron sighed.  “This new girl is good, but training her for the Halloween weekend is exhausting.  I guess I’m just used to everyone knowing what to do...and the guys are grumbling because she can’t cook worth a damn.”  He smiled and shook his head as he sipped from his tea.  “They’re a bunch of spoiled babies,” he finished, “but we’re managing.”

“And what about you?” she asked, stirring a giant pot of chili.  “Are you managing?  You look tired.”

Aaron leaned against the doorway to her tiny kitchen, took in her rolled up blue jeans, her light pink sweater and the sloppy knot of hair on top her her head. Fascinated that she owned nail polish that matched the color of her sweater, he smiled at her bare toes wiggling on the linoleum floor.

“Aaron?”

He jerked his eyes up.  “What?”

She wiped her hands on a towel.  “You really must be tired...I offered to bring some chili by the station tonight and you’re staring at my feet.”

“Sorry,” he said, having the grace to blush.  Exhaustion wasn’t his problem at this point.  See...he knew this very attractive woman with two adorable kids, and somewhere in the past weeks, he’d fallen in love with her -- and not that teenager, idealistic kind of love -- this love hit him in the solar plexus, and here she stood, barefooted in the kitchen, offering to feed his crew as though she’d done this a million times...

And Heaven help him, he couldn’t walk away from her this time.  Their eyes met, and he knew.  This woman was it for him.  She may not know it, and she may not be ready to hear it, but it was still a fact.  She was the hidden reason he stayed single all these years.  As though fate refused to give up on the two of them just yet.  The seconds ticked by.  Lainie looked away, nervously smoothing her palms down the fronts of her jeans and then reaching up the play with the wisps of hair that fell along her neck.

“Are...are you hungry?” she asked, stepping away to grab some bowls from the top shelf of her cabinet.  She stretched up to her tiptoes, her back to him, arching and craning to reach the bowls.  He set his tea down and reached over her to pull them down.  The length of his front pressed along her back, half pining her to the counter.  Her exposed neck was inches from his face, and he heard her breathing kick up in speed and depth.

Cue the second part of his problem...he risked their friendship if he pressed her for more...and he wanted more.  Aaron would drop to his knees this instant and beg her to marry him, if he thought he’d have even a sliver of a chance that she’d say yes.  Right now, this friendship was the only thing that kept him sane when he was around her.

Lainie turned her head, and her hair tickled his nose, and he thought...To hell with it, I’m going for it.

“Where are the kids?” he asked, handing her the bowls.

“Play Date with Hope and Reese Swagger,” she answered, scooting along the edge of the counter to get away from him.

He watched her with hooded eyes.  “Chad and Reemie’s kids?”

She nodded, but he saw the stain of pink on her cheeks, complimented nicely by that sweater.  “When will they get back?”

Lainie peeked at him from under her eyelashes as she ladled chili into both bowls.  “I have to pick them up in an hour...I was hoping to get some writing in,” she said.  She took the chili into the dining room, and as though led by a chain tied around his heart, he followed her.  

“Have you written more?” he asked, half interested in her writing, mostly interested in how she creatively avoided sharing the same bubble of space and evaded making more eye contact than necessary.

She smiled, a happy smile.  “I have...I couldn’t sleep the other night, and I have about six chapters now.”

“That’s wonderful,” he said, truly meaning it, but he used it as an excuse to get closer to her.  She smoothly backed away to get spoons and cheese from the kitchen.  He followed her in there, too.  When she turned around, spoons in hand, her feet left the ground accompanied by a startled gasp.  He stood right behind her, almost touching her.

“Aaron!  You scared me...what are you doing?”  

He gently pried her fingers off the spoons, easily backed her into the counter again, and bent to hover just above her lips.  “Lainie...I’m sorry,” he said, and kissed her.

He tried to be gentle...letting her know that he never wanted to hurt her, he cared for her, he was willing to take it all slow...but as soon as lips touched, Lainie let out a strangled gasp and threw her arms around his neck.  She pressed her body against his and devoured him.  Aaron stood stiffly for a moment, never expecting this kind of reaction from her.  But then he groaned and drew her up in a crushing embrace and he enjoyed the feel of her mouth on his, her tongue lapping against his, her taste mingling with his.

Her lips detached themselves and traveled brazenly across his cheek to his jaw, down his neck to the exposed skin above the collar of his t-shirt.  He felt every little kiss as though she branded them into his skin.  He’d been dreaming of something like this since the last time he kissed her, but if she didn’t slow down soon...she’d be late picking up the twins.

His fingers locked onto her hips, afraid to do more than tremble and clench at her.  “Lainie...”

A heartbeat later, Lainie jumped away from him, her hands covering her mouth in horror.  “Oh, God!  I’m so sorry!  I don’t know what overcame me...”  She whirled around, hiding her beautiful face from him.

“Lainie...it’s okay,” he said, swallowing thickly.

She hastily shook her head.  “No, it isn’t!  I shouldn’t have done that...it’s just that...”  She didn’t finish, and he calmly -- well, relatively calmly since his pounding heart was making his limbs shake -- set his hands on her shoulders, drawing her back to rest against his chest.

“It’s just what?” he asked, massaging the tension from her arms and burying his nose in the silky bun of hair.

She slapped her palms over here eyes.  “Nothing...it’s silly...and I've made enough of a fool of myself.”

He turned her around and pried her hands away from her face.  “Lainie, no matter what happens between us, I’ll never think you’re a fool.”

Glassy eyes looked up at him.  “It’s just that...”  Her bottom lip trembled and her skin turned an alarming shade of red.

Aaron couldn’t help himself.  He kissed her again, feeling that quivering lip against his.  She sighed faintly and relaxed in his arms.  “I haven’t had sex in four months,” she blurted out as soon as their mouths parted.  Then she gasped again and slapped her hands over her mouth.  Aaron smiled...tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear.  

“It’s been seven months for me,” he admitted, “but that’s not why I kissed you, Lainie.”

She squeezed her eyes closed.  “I know!  I’m sorry!”

“I’m not,” he replied, removing a hand to place a soft kiss on the fingers.  

Lainie blinked her eyes open.  “Aaron...what are we doing?  We’re supposed to be just friends.”

Aaron exhaled slowly.  “I know, but I’m afraid that isn’t going to work for me anymore.”

She studied his face, taking in the fervent glint of his eyes.  “Yeah, I can see that.”

He let her go and stepped back.  “I have to get back to the station...can we talk about this in a few days?  Will that be enough time for you to think about what you want?  I know what I want, Lainie, and it’s you.  I want you and Chris and Chloe, and I want us to be together.”

She stared up at him, boldly expressionless.  “I know, Aaron.  I figured that out a while ago.”

*****

Lainie stared at her computer screen for almost twenty minutes before giving up.  Aaron shouldn’t have kissed her.  Shoot!  She shouldn’t have kissed him back.  Obvously, they had gone far beyond friendship at this point, but did she want to see him romantically again?  Her husband had only been gone for a few months.  As the father of her children, he deserved to be mourned properly by his wife, regardless of Gary’s divorce intentions before he died.

She dropped her head onto her folded arms and groaned.  What would the kids think about her and Aaron dating?

The kids!

Lainie glanced at the clock and exhaled with relief.  She wasn’t late.  Gathering her purse and keys, she hurried to the front door, opening it to find her landlord, Joseph, on the porch, knuckles raised to knock.

“Oh, Ms. Moon,” he said, “I was hoping you were home.”  He eyed her purse.  “Um...have you got a minute?”

Lainie blinked.  “Oh...sure.”

Joseph fidgeted for a second, slapping a white envelope on his thigh.  “Well...I wanted to personally give you notice of the sale of the property...”

“Sale?”

“Yes, um...I have sold the house and property to another party...”  Joseph trailed off, averting his gaze to the peeling paint around the front window frame.

Lainie’s breath caught.  No...she couldn’t uproot her children again so soon.  “I can still finish my lease, right?”

“Yes,” he said slowly, glancing at her again, briefly scanning her face and then looking into the open doorway.

“I sense a ‘but’ in there,” Lainie replied, shouldering her purse and closing the front door as she stepped out onto the porch.  

He sighed and handed her the envelope.  “Inside you will find the official notice of sale, and your first notice of possible eviction.”

Lainie’s fingers froze as they touched the envelope.  “Eviction?  Why?”

He pleaded with her with his eyes.  Lainie realized that this was as hard for him to say as it was for her to hear.  The few times she talked with him in the past, he seemed like a very nice man...a little weird in the Momma's Boy kind of way, but nice.  “Ms. Moon, I normally don’t do business this way...especially with tenants who are obviously good people and, of course, single parents, but my hands are tied.  The property is no longer mine, so in accordance to your lease agreement, you receive one notice of failure to comply, and then on the next offence, you will receive your eviction notice, your lease terminated by the new owner.”  He puffed out the rest of his breath in one swoop, then inhaled deeply, a ruddy blush stealing up his pale skin.

A dull headache formed in the back of Lainie’s eyeballs.  “I’m sorry...did you say I failed to comply with my lease agreement?  When?”

“Your rent was late this last month,” he said sadly.  

“Only two days late,” Lainie argued, a panicky sensation making her knees wobble.  She’d never been late with a payment for anything before.  Her credit was impeccable, but somethings just couldn’t be helped.  To think two days could make such a difference.  

The problem in the back of her head was that it might happen again.  Finances had been finicky lately with the sale of her own house still on hold and her work-from-home job paying only as she accepted assignments, which she had not done many of since that last non-fiction fiasco.  

“If I still owned the house...well, I try to give all my tenants a grace period on their rent.  But the new owner isn’t so lenient.  He’s biting at the bit for your lease to expire. I’m sorry, Ms. Moon.  I don’t like the guy, but I’ve been trying to sell this property for years now, and he’s the only one who has made a reasonable offer.”

Lainie rubbed at her temples.  “It’s okay, Joseph.  You don’t have to explain.”  She smiled politely at him.  “But I can’t move my children again so soon.  Maybe if I talked to him...what is his name?”

Joseph gave her a grateful look.  “I appreciate your understanding.  My Ma would have a fit if she thought I was treating you bad.”  He nodded toward the square blue house sitting next to Aaron’s.  Lainie didn’t know his landlord’s mother lived across the street.  That explained a lot of things, actually.  He tapped the envelope in her hand.  “The new owner’s contact info is on the sale paper.  His name is Richard Dozier.”

She dropped the envelope like it burnt her fingers.  “Richard Dozier?”

He nodded.  “Yeah, his son lives next to Ma,” Joseph explained, pointing at Aaron’s house.  “Maybe you’ve met him?”  Lainie didn’t answer.  “Well...if you need anything, just give me a call.  I may not own the house or your lease any more, but you’re still my tenant.”

Lainie thanked him as nicely as she could, barely muttering above the roaring of sound in her ears.  Richard Dozier now owned her house.

And he wanted her out of it.

Did this have something to do with her mom...or was it something else?  Did he even know she lived here?  Or was he this difficult with all his leasers?  One thing was for sure, she won’t be begging for his clemency.  She’d just have to tighten her belt and make sure she followed her lease agreement to the letter.

Lainie was not moving her kids out of another house so soon, and that was that.

Her eyes shifted over to Aaron’s house.  He wasn’t home at the moment.  Did he know about his dad buying her rent house?  Aaron as much as admitted that he didn’t talk to his father much.  Shaking her head, she pushed the matter aside.  She had to pick up her kids.  The last thing they needed was to see their already-struggling mother suffer more distress.