Chapter 6
***RYAN***
Aaron didn’t say a word until they were in the car with the doors closed. “What’s wrong with you?” he demanded. “I was just getting somewhere with Paula, and you had to drag me out of there.”
“That’s the woman,” he said, starting up the car. “You need to stay away from her.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” Aaron asked, turning to face him. “What woman?”
“The woman who ran out of gas the other night,” he explained, a little slower. “That’s her, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s here; it can’t be.”
Aaron was silent for a second. “It could be, I mean, there are a lot of students on this campus. It’s a good job, and she’s got the right kind of experience,” he finally said. “Besides, I thought you said she didn’t see anything; she wouldn’t be snooping around if she didn’t see anything.”
Caught in his own lie, he concentrated on driving for a few minutes, hoping Aaron would change the subject. “Did she see something?” his friend finally asked, breaking the silence. “That could be really bad, Ryan, she could expose us all.”
“Only if she can find someone to take her seriously,” he said, shaking his head. “She doesn’t have any proof, and I’m not sure she saw anything, but she might have.”
Aaron let out a little curse. “We have to tell someone,” he said. “The clan is pretty strict about this kind of thing.”
“We don’t know that she saw anything, so there’s no sense jumping to conclusions,” he said. “Let’s just keep a close eye on her and see what happens.”
“I’m all for that,” Aaron said, a big grin on his face. “I’ll be happy to keep a very close eye on her, maybe even put a hand or two on her.”
“Back off, I wasn’t talking about that kind of eye,” he said. “She’s off limits, at least until we know she’s not out to expose us or something.”
“Oh yeah, who made you the boss?” Aaron challenged. “I know how to handle myself; I won’t tell her any of our deep, dark secrets.”
“This isn’t a joke,” he said, shaking his head. “Someone could get hurt or worse if we don’t handle this right.”
“I wasn’t treating it as a joke, I was just joking about it, you should learn the difference,” Aaron said, crossing his arms over his chest. “If I didn’t know better, I might start thinking that you like her.”
When he didn’t deny it right away, Aaron looked over at him, a frown on his face. “What the hell, man?” he asked. “You could have told me that you were into her before I made a fool of myself.”
“I didn’t know that’s who you were talking about,” he said, before giving himself a chance to think. “Not that I’m…that is, I don’t…I haven’t…”
“Well, I guess that settles it then, you’re next,” Aaron said, shaking his head. “That’s just going to leave Gabe and me; it’s getting lonely being single around here.”
“Will you stop that? I don’t want to hear that kind of talk,” he said.
“I’m not looking to get involved with anyone, so don’t go there.
I don’t think anyone should get involved with Paula; she’s dangerous.
We need to get rid of her, not bring her in closer.
I’m going to do a little digging later, find out what her story is.
If she’s here to spy on us, I’ll send her packing before she can cause any trouble. ”
“Count me out of the whole thing, I’m not going to risk getting in trouble with the clan,” Aaron said, throwing his hands up in the air. “My advice is to report this. If she didn’t see anything, she’ll be perfectly fine, and if she did, the clan knows how to handle these kinds of things.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” he said, frowning at Aaron. “They’re not exactly known for being gentle.”
“You do like her, don’t you?” Aaron asked, then elbowed him in the ribs. “You can tell me; I know how to keep my mouth shut.”
“It doesn’t matter if I like her or not, that has nothing to do with the situation,” he said, not willing to voice what he was feeling inside. “Besides, I’m engaged to be married, remember? I don’t think Erin would appreciate me chasing after another woman.”
“But you don’t love her, she doesn’t count,” Aaron said. “I still don’t know why you’re going through with it. Is what your parents think about you really that important to you? Don’t you want to live your own life?”
“It seemed like the easiest thing to do at the time and the wedding seemed so far away. I just wanted to be able to go to school without causing a major crisis,” he said, then let out a long sigh.
“I really don’t want to talk about this right now.
I try not to think about it anymore than I have to; it makes it easier to forget about what I agreed to do. ”
“You could back out,” Aaron said. “It’s not too late; the engagement hasn’t been officially announced to the council.”
“I couldn’t do that, my parents would never talk to me again,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve been trying to talk my mother out of this marriage for years; she just won’t listen. All she can think about is having our names linked to the Van Housen’s. Nothing is going to change her mind.”
Aaron was silent for a long time. “I’m sorry, man, being rich is harder than I thought. It makes being poor not look so bad,” he finally said, looking over at Ryan. Then a grin spread across his face. “You are still buying dinner, aren’t you?”
***Paula***
When Paula walked in the back door the next afternoon to report for her first day of work, the last thing she expected was to see every surface of the kitchen covered with sugar cookies.
Pausing in the doorway, she inhaled the scent of cinnamon and sugar, then quickly took off her coat and hung it up by the door.
Hattie was grinning at her from across the room, a pastry bag in one hand, a tub of decorations in the other.
“It looks like you’ve been busy,” she said, walking over to the kitchen counter. “Where should I start?”
“The reindeer are going to take the longest,” Hattie said, handing everything over. “Let’s do those first, then the trees next. If there’s time, we’ll finish up with the snowmen.”
“Sounds good,” she said, grabbing a cookie and getting to work. “Don’t you just love Christmas? All the food, the decorations…”
“Don’t forget the presents,” Hattie added, a grin on her face. “My Sam, he’s not the best gift giver, but he always goes all out for Christmas.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” she said. “I didn’t know that you were married.”
“Over forty years, last June,” Hattie said, with a sigh. “Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday. Sam is the groundskeeper. I’m sure he’ll pop in soon; he usually likes a cup of coffee about this time of day.”
They worked in silence for a little while.
Then, the back door burst open, and an older man came walking in, followed closely by Ryan, who scanned the room until he found her.
He narrowed his eyes at her, giving her the same look he had the last time they ran into each other and she knew that he thought she was up to something.
The problem was that he was right; she was trying to uncover the truth about what she saw, and she had a gut feeling that was the last thing he wanted.
His reaction to her presence was telling, reinforcing the feeling that what she’d seen was real and that Ryan, along with the rest of his friends, had something to hide. “Wow, it looks like a cookie bomb exploded in here,” Ryan said, heading for the coffee pot. “That’s a lot of cookies.”
“Twenty dozen, enough to get us through the entire season with a few to spare for emergencies,” Hattie said, picking up an unfrosted tree. “With Paula’s help, these will all be stashed in the freezer by tonight.”
“I don’t suppose there are a couple of rejects with our names on them,” Sam said. “I’d kill for one of those with this cup of coffee right now. It’s cold out there and they’re talking about more snow.”
“We’re on target for a white Christmas,” she said, plucking up a tree and adding white icing to the green to imitate snow on the branches, then held it up. “I love snow this time of year, but then it needs to go away.”
They all laughed. “I think I’ll take my coffee and cookie into the study and sit by the fire for a bit to defrost,” Sam said. “I don’t suppose I can talk you into joining me for a few minutes, Hattie.”
“I’d be honored,” Hattie said, getting to her feet. “I’m due a break, just let me grab a fresh cup of coffee.”
Silence fell over the kitchen as soon as they were gone and Paula found herself shifting restlessly in her chair as a mixture of guilt and attraction sent confusing messages to her body.
The longer they sat there in the quiet, the only sound the ticking of the clock and her pastry bag rustling, the worse it became.
She finally had to take a break when her cookies began to look sloppy.
“What are you doing here?” Ryan asked, just as she started to get up. “I know who you are. I did a little research. I don’t believe for a second that this is a coincidence. You’re here for a reason.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, getting up and walking over to the coffee machine so she could turn her back on him. “I needed to make some money during the break, that’s all.”
“I’d believe that, but you pretended not to recognize me when you saw me the other day,” he hissed suddenly right behind her.
“That seems a bit suspicious. Maybe you were hoping I wouldn’t remember you, that I’d forget you were the damsel in distress that night.
I’m warning you right now, there’s not a story here, there’s no mystery, just a couple of idiots doing stupid things and if you try to turn it into something else… ”
“I’m not here because I’m writing a story, there isn’t anything to write a story about, unless you count stupid frat boy pranks,” she said, turning to look up at him.
She was instantly sorry when her body began to tingle with desire.
“I was just doing what you told me to do, pretending that night didn’t happen, but if you’d rather, you can admit that there was something strange going on that night and we can have a nice long talk about it, right here, right now. ”
After just a short pause, he stepped back and she let out the breath she’d been holding.
“There’s nothing to talk about, I think we’ve established that,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re wasting your time, princess, you won’t get a juicy story around here.
Go back where you came from and leave us alone. ”
“Don’t call me that, I have a name, use it,” she snapped, then marched back over to the table and sat down again. “I’m just here to make some extra cash for the holidays, and Hattie is depending on me now, so you’ll just have to figure out a way to control your paranoia until the job is finished.”
“I’m going to be watching you, don’t think for a second that I’m buying this innocent act of yours,” Ryan said, putting his coffee cup into the sink. “It would be much safer for both of us if you walked away and left this alone, unless you’re exactly where you want to be.”
When she didn’t react, he let out a grunt, “Have it your way then, but don’t say I didn’t warn you, there’s only so much I can do if you keep pushing,” he said, then walked out of the kitchen, the sound of his footsteps echoing down the hallway.
Any thoughts of letting the mystery go fled her mind in the next breath.
Anyone who was that desperate to hide their secrets must have something good to hide, and there was nothing she loved more than digging for the truth.
What she did with it when it was hers might take some careful thought, but if anyone was being hurt, she’d do the right thing, no matter how attracted she was to Ryan.