39. Chapter 39
Something was wrong.
After I came back from Houston, Sophia started to act strangely again. Not like before. She was more withdrawn. She stayed in her room and didn”t go out with friends as much as she used to. She didn”t want me to stay home either—she was fine with the housekeeper being there; and also indicated she didn”t mind being alone.
I hated that even for a moment, I wondered if something had happened between her and Aurora that has caused this, but I reined that thought in. I trusted Aurora. And Sophia had told me that she and Aurora had a great time. She talked about the baking they did, and all in all, it sounded like everything was fine. And yet, I knew it wasn”t.
During our weekly session with Dr. Ryan, Sophia seemed almost like herself and talked mostly about school and friends; studiously avoiding discussing her mother. After the time when Iris had run out of a session, Dr. Ryan agreed that bringing Iris into these sessions would do Sophia more harm than good. She”d also warned me to keep an eye out for Iris striking back now that Aurora and I were together again.
I was keeping Iris at arm”s length, but I had no choice but to let Sophia go to her every other week.
And every time my daughter came back from Iris”s place, she seemed more and more forlorn. It was killing me.
”She”s a teenager, and you”ve got to let her come to you,” my mother told me when I was there for Sunday lunch without Sophia because she was with Iris.
Before the shit had hit the fan, Iris used to come along to these lunches with Sophia regardless of whose week it was. But since I”d dis-invited Iris from all Rhodes family affairs, she”d said that she wouldn”t let Sophia attend the lunches during her weeks. This was what I”d been trying to avoid since we got divorced. This is why I”d set up our household the way I had so that we both would have our daughter without disrupting her life.
”I just know something is going on with her, I wish she”d tell me.”
I watched Aurora talk to my father and Rafe at the other end of the porch where we”d congregated for post-lunch tea and coffee.
”How are things with Aurora?”
I sighed. It was better, but I knew something was off there as well. ”All the women in my life seem to be giving only parts of themselves to me.”
”What do you mean?”
”She and I are together again. We have sex. And yet, I can feel she”s waiting for me to fuck up so she can end us.”
”She loves you, Gabe.”
Aurora wore a long black skirt with a sexy silk cream-colored blouse that covered her arms. The outfit was almost old-fashioned and looked chic on her.
”But she still doesn”t trust me.”
”Why do you say that?” My mother poured tea into her cup and squeezed some lemon into it.
”It”s a feeling. I promised myself that we wouldn”t have sex until she trusted me again.”
”And?”
I chuckled. ”And she came to Houston, and it seemed like we were back, really back again…but now I just don”t know what the fuck to do, Mama.”
My mother leaned back on the wicker sofa she was sitting across from me. ”From what you”ve told me about her childhood, this is someone who has had everyone who was supposed to love and care for her let her down. And I think she finally thought she”d found someone to lean on.”
”Me?”
My mother smiled. ”Yes, you.”
”And I fucked up when I dumped her ass because I didn”t trust her.”
”She forgives you for that because you trusted your daughter over her, and I”d do the same. My kids always come first.”
”Then what?” I asked, frustrated.
”But you broke her trust, and she”s gun-shy.”
”And what if she never learns to trust me?”
”Then…I don”t think you and she will work out.”
That sounded so final that it hurt. ”How do I make sure she trusts me?”
Aurora turned to look at me right then and gave me a bright smile.
”Keep doing what you”re doing so she”ll keep looking at you like that and you”ll get there.”
”How does she look at me?”
”Like you hung the moon, son.”
Aurora walked up to us, leaving my father with my brother. I held my hand out to her and when she slid hers in, I brought her close and pulled her onto me, so she”d sit on my lap.
”Gabriel.” Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
”I like having you close.”
She tried to get up, but I wouldn”t let her. ”Stay,” I murmured.
Rafe and my father joined us. Rafe sat on the armchair next to me while my father got comfortable on the sofa next to my mother.
”The hotel in Miami seems to be moving along nicely,” my father said. ”Aurora has been giving Rafe and me an update.”
”Aurora is an amazing architect.” My chest swelled with pride. She was a remarkable woman.
”Nina thinks very highly of you,” Mama added.
”You know Nina Davenport?” Aurora asked.
”Yes. For many years now. Her ex-husband used to know Atticus quite well.”
”Until he cheated on his wife with his trainer…I mean, the man is reduced to a cliché,” my father remarked. ”Nina got us in the divorce.”
”And her husband got someone nearly two decades his junior,” my mother commented dryly. ”What”s with men and need for a younger woman?”
”I don”t want a younger woman, darlin”,” my father drawled, ”I can barely keep up with you as is; a younger woman would give me a heart attack.”
”Depends upon the woman,” Rafe mused. ”I know several mature young women.”
”Please tell me you”re not sleeping with any of your students, Rafe,” my mother admonished.
”There is no school policy saying that I can”t,” Rafe defended himself.
”Oh god, he”s sleeping with a teenager,” my mother said in mock horror.
I hugged Aurora close as my family bickered in good humor.
”You okay?” I whispered in her ear, nuzzling what I knew was one of her erogenous zones.
She shivered. ”I”m good.”
”I”m getting hard, baby,” I murmured, low, just for her. ”I want you.”
She squirmed.
”What do you think, Aurora? You want to join us when we go to London next month?” my father asked, what felt out of the blue because we weren”t following their conversation.
”Ah…,” she managed to say when I interrupted her.
”If she can get time off. Right, baby?”
”Yes,” she replied flustered.
I smiled. She had no idea what she”d committed to. It was a wedding that we were going to London for, and it charmed me that she”d trusted me enough to say yes. Or maybe I”d gotten her so hot that she”d say yes to anything. Did I want that?
Fuck. This woman had me in knots, and I didn”t quite know how to unravel them.