Chapter 21

(Rylan) 

A bright light shines through the windows the next morning, causing me to throw my arm over my eyes. My head is pounding with a horrible headache, and my entire body is sore. Memories of last night float through my mind as I just lay where I am.

There is a warm arm across my stomach, which makes me crack an eye open as I turn my head to the right. Aaron’s face is relaxed as he sleeps. Thick, dark lashes fan his sculpted cheeks, hiding his beautiful brown eyes from me.

I reach over to brush his hair off his forehead. He has let his hair grow out, which looks nice on him. I never really liked the buzz cut that he kept after leaving the army. It made him look too severe, almost threatening. 

With it longer, he looks vastly more approachable and sexier than ever. Now he can do that shaggy, right-out-of-bed style that is always popular. I have also noticed how he runs his hands through it more when he is irritated or stressed out.

I know for a fact how soft his hair is, and I want to run my fingers through it right now.

“Like what you see?” His gruff, sleepy voice startles me.

“I do, actually. I was just thinking about how I like your longer hair.” 

He smiles at me, then runs his fingers through his hair. “I was thinking of cutting it again. I’m not used to it being this long anymore.” 

I give him my best pouty face, which earns me a chuckle. When he removes his hand from his hair, I roll over so I am facing him, then reach up to run my fingers through those silky locks of his. He closes his eyes when I start to massage my fingers into his scalp. 

“Okay, I won’t cut it if you promise to do that any time you want.” 

“Deal.” 

His eyes pop open when I stop. He looks like he is going to protest, but the sound of knocking makes him grab his phone instead.

“Shit! We have to get dressed. Our flight leaves in an hour.”

“That must be Rosalie. I will go let her in real quick while you get dressed. It will take me a bit longer since I will have to find the clothes that I wore yesterday before we can leave.” 

“They are probably in your sister’s room. You came back wearing nothing but a bathrobe, not that I objected one bit.” 

I snicker as I remember what I said to Rosalie before I left her room last night. She was the one who made sure I got across the hall to my room last night. I was so drunk that I am surprised I had enough energy to make it to the couch, where I was thoroughly fucked by my very sexy boyfriend. 

After wrapping a blanket around myself, I rushed out of the bedroom to let Rosalie in. She has her bag in one hand and my clothes from yesterday, along with the pajamas that I never put on, in her other hand. She looks as tired as I feel.

“Come in; I will go get dressed as fast as I can.” 

“It smells like sex in here,” she laughs.

I laugh as I rush back into the bedroom after scooping up my bag. We had a lot of sex last night. On the couch, in the shower, and in the bedroom after sleeping for an hour. I woke Aaron up with my mouth on his cock when I laid back down after getting up to pee.  

If we make it through the flight home without taking a nap, I will be very surprised. 

An hour later, after making a hasty exit out of the hotel, we hightailed it to the airport. We could have delayed our flight, but after what happened with my mother yesterday, there was no way I wanted to stay in South Carolina for one second longer than I had to. Rosalie shared that exact sentiment as we were boarding the jet.

Our mother has called her seventeen times since she left Rosalie’s house yesterday. Seventeen times is one too many for me, and I am glad it was not me she called. I told her to block our mother’s phone number for a while, at least until she was ready to speak to her again. 

“What are your plans once we get back home?” Aaron asks once we are in the air. 

"Well, the first order of business is for me to get some sleep. Then I guess we will wait for the U-haul to arrive.” I tell him after I yawn. 

“What about you? What are your plans for the rest of the day?” I ask him as I lay my head on his shoulder. 

He is quiet for a few moments, then he shrugs his shoulders. “I am not sure. There are some things I need to arrange for my parents when they come back in a few weeks. The house they will be living in is already set up, and I bought the house and will rent it out to someone once they leave.” 

“If they leave,” I say with a laugh. 

“They will. My father loves living in a small town way more than he loves living in California. I asked him about all that before they left.” 

I envy his relationship with his parents. My relationship with mine is, well, rocky at best. I now know that my mother resents my birth. I always knew it, but hearing it straight from her was an eye-opener. It was also more painful than I expected. 

When I found out about her affair with my father, I wanted to go live with him to get away from her. The reality of my father was far less than what he was really like. I have no doubt that he loves me in his own way, but knowing it and feeling it are vastly different things.

I have more in common with Quinn in the department of parents than I do with Aaron. Knowing that there are parents out there who actually love and support their children is sometimes a foreign concept to me. I have seen it, but it makes me uncomfortable at times. 

Spending time with Tori and Vivien while I helped Annie plan her wedding was fun yet painful. It was painful in the sense that I got an up-close look for weeks on end at how mothers should treat their children. My mother was never like that. She never really showed her approval of my accomplishments; it was always what I had done wrong. 

From an early age, I was put into private schools and given etiquette lessons so that I could be a proper southern lady. When I was ten, she signed me up for riding lessons. Those I really enjoyed and excelled at. That was the only time I received any inkling of praise from her.

My father was better with his praise than she was. He rewarded me for my high academic scores, bought me a car when I graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA, and sent me on a backpacking trip through Europe before I went off to college for pre-med.

He was actually proud of me when I joined the army to help pay for medical school. To me, that meant more to me than I will ever tell him. He may have never told me how much he loves me, but in his own way, he has shown me.

If only he had stood up for me more against his wife, we could have had a closer relationship. Now that I am older and more independent, he has made more of an effort to defend me against Eva. A little too late, but whatever. 

*Dream, Rylan, at thirteen. 

After slamming the car door, I rushed into my dad’s house, then straight to my room. I was crying because of what Eva said and did to me. She had been picking on me all morning while we were all out shopping for school clothes.

She called everything I picked out trashy and said she wasn’t surprised considering that my mother was a whore. She said it quietly so that my father couldn't hear her. When my father went to go get the car, I spoke up for myself after she called me a little bastard brat.

She slapped me across the face, then lied to my father when he asked why my cheek was red. That wasn’t the first time she slapped me, but it was the last time I was quiet about it. I told my father the truth later that day, while I was waiting for my mother to pick me up. 

He was not happy with what I told him; I knew that was going to happen, which is why I never told him about all of her shitty behavior before. He was too soft on her because of his past mistake. The one that resulted in my existence.

I was standing in the foyer, glaring at him, while we had what I think was our first major fight as father and daughter. He stood with his hands on his hips while I screamed at him. His face was impassive at first, but the longer I screamed and cried about everything I was feeling, the angrier he looked. 

“I am not spending another day in this house with her, only to be verbally and physically abused!” I screamed at him with tears in my eyes. 

“Eva has never harmed you, Rylan. You are making all this up just because you didn’t get your way.” 

I stared at him in shock. That was the story Eva told him when we got home. Of course, he believed her over me. He always did. 

“The fact that you don’t believe me speaks volumes. I am not safe here unless Andrew is around. She acts like an angel for him, her son. I am just your whore’s bastard bitch.” 

He stares at me with a disappointed expression on his face. Thankfully, just before I grab my bag off the floor, Andrew comes down the stairs. He steps up to my side and pulls me into a hug. 

“I got you, Rys.” He lets go, then turns to look at our father. “You are either blind or just don’t care how mother treats Rylan. I have seen and heard a lot of it. You are not going to like what I am going to tell you when she goes back to her mother’s.” 

With that, he grabs my bag off the floor, then grabs my hand to lead me outside. I say nothing more to my father as I slam the door behind me.

End Dream *

I jolt upright when a loud banging noise sounds somewhere nearby. A hand lands on my back, making me look to my left. Aaron is sitting next to me, and it looks like I was lying with my head in his lap. He is running his hand up and down my back in a soothing manner. 

Rosalie looks at me with an apologetic expression. She is standing near the small table close to her seat. She looks down at the floor, and that is when I notice the mess on the floor in front of her. A tray with what looks like crackers and cheese is scattered on the floor at her feet. 

“I tripped over my own feet. Sorry to wake you.” 

I give her a nod, then stand up to go to the small restroom at the back of the plane. After the dream I had, I really need a second alone. After closing myself into the restroom, I take a look around. It is surprisingly roomy and elegant. It is unlike any airplane bathroom I have ever seen.

There is even a small corner shower. I noticed another door between the sink and toilet. Wondering where it leads, I try to pull it open but realize it opens into the room beyond, so I push. I feel around for a light on the wall just inside; turning it on reveals a rather large sleeping cabin.

Why that surprises me, I have no idea. Of course, there would be a place to sleep for the CEOs while they travel the world for business. I turn the light off, close the door, and then turn to the sink to splash my face with some cold water. 

I look at myself in the mirror as my dream flashes through my mind. That was a shitty day, and it was the catalyst that prompted my father to require a middleman between him and my mother for custody handoffs or any other issues with their shared custody of me. My mother went ballistic when I told her what Eva did and that my father didn’t believe me. 

I was shocked she had that kind of reaction, but I was kind of relieved. Because of the way she reacted, my father agreed to let it be my choice on where I wanted to spend the summers and holidays. He was surprised that I chose not to spend the entire summer with him after that.

For holidays, I chose to spend them with my grandparents, like I did for the first part of summer vacations. It was a nice change of scenery compared to either of my parents' places. It was also comforting to be wanted somewhere without needing to be on guard all the time. 

A knock on the door shakes me from my thoughts.

“Are you ok in there?” Aaron’s voice comes through the door.

When I open it, he is just standing there, looking at me with concern. With a nod of my head, I signal to him that I am fine, but he gives me a skeptical look. I am not really okay, and he can tell. This man knows me well, and it is times like this that I sometimes wish he didn’t. 

“I will be fine once we are home,” I tell him, even though I know it is a lie. From the look on his face, I can tell he knows it too. 

“I won’t push for now, but when we both settle back in at home, we can talk about what happened in South Carolina.” 

He opens his arms for me, and I step into them so he can wrap me in those strong arms of his. I press my face into his chest as he holds me. This, the silent comfort, is what I needed. My heart flutters as he kisses the top of my head. I love him more just for being here for me like this. 

“Come on, let's get settled back into our seats; we will be landing in about thirty minutes.” 

I follow him to our seats with his hand firmly in mine.