Patrick

He stood there staring at her for a moment and then turned and walked away. They had welcomed the news about their first grandchild being a son during the afternoon and that had fueled his desire to tell her the truth even if it meant messing up his family. He could not do it anymore.

Linda collapsed back against the cushions in abject misery and spent the time in tears!

*****

Carrie had decided that she was going back into their suite that night. They had eaten dinner in their sitting room, and he had gone into his den to get some work done.

He stopped inside the doorway as he watched her curled up on one of the sofas, her head buried down in her laptop. He had seen her trying to figure out an advertising campaign for one of their slow-moving software and had left her to it. His heart stuttered within his chest as he watched her with a frown on her usually smooth brow and her hair loose around her face. She had changed and showered and had on a light blue nightgown with a matching robe. The emotions that had gone through him at the news that they were having a son was indescribable, and he had felt like picking up her petite frame and spinning her around until they were both dizzy! He came into the room, and she looked up and saw him, eyeing him for a moment before going back to what she was doing.

He marched over and took the device from her firmly. “I am actually working,” she told him coolly.

“Not anymore,” he told her arrogantly, putting it on the table out of her reach. “I want you to stop ignoring me.”

“I am not ignoring you, I am just not talking to you.”

He sighed as he knelt in front of her. “How many times do I have to say I am sorry?”

“Until I am sure you really mean it,” Carrie told him but her resolves were weakening as she looked into his blue eyes. His hair was mussed as if he had run his fingers through the thick jet black strands. His eyebrows were so thick that they were dense and looked so good against his almost olive skin. He had a growth of hair on his strong jaw, and she knew he had to shave every day because his hair grew so fast.

“I mean it,” he went on, his knees in front of her, and pushed her hair back from her cheeks, his touch lingering. “This is supposed to be a joyous occasion, and we are supposed to be celebrating.” His fingers traced her high cheekbones and came to her full bottom lip.

She moaned a little bit and closed her eyes.

“Tell me you forgive me,” he whispered, putting a finger inside her mouth.

“Patrick.” She used her teeth to graze his finger, sending the fire straight through her.

With a groan, he picked her up and carried her to their bed!

*****

They were all in the living room late Sunday afternoon when William’s phone kept ringing insistently. It had been two days since the rift between himself and Linda, and it was not getting better. Sophia had been calling him nonstop, but he had not been taking the calls which had apparently gotten her agitated. It had rung for the third time when Linda got up and answered it.

“I am not going to stop calling until you answer me, William!”

“This is not William, Sophia, it’s Linda, and I am going to put a stop to this right now!” she said coldly. She put down the phone when she heard the dial tone in her ear as the girl hung up the phone.

“Sophia, as in the one you were seeing before us?” Carrie looked at her husband in shocked surprise. William was rooted to the sofa he was sitting in, his gaze on his wife’s face.

“The same,” Patrick said coldly. “Dad here seems to have gotten himself in a situation where the only thing left for Sophia to do is to boil his rabbit and break into our home.”

His father stood up and without a word he left the room. “Mother, how did you find out?” Patrick asked Linda as she sat there with her hands clasped together. William had left his phone on the table, but he had two more that he used for business.

“He told me,” she said faintly.

“Shouldn’t someone go and have a talk with the bi*ch?” Carrie demanded, her eyes flashing. Mother and son turned to stare at her. “Fine, I know I sound ghetto, but vigilante justice always seems to work in cases like these. Go over to her fancy apartment and thrash her rich ass.”

Linda stared at her daughter-in-law for a moment and then burst out laughing, feeling better for the first time in a few days. “Darling, we are too contained to act like that.”

“And that’s the problem,” Carrie muttered. “If it was me in the situation, you would have to come and bail me out of jail,” she added looking at her husband. “And don’t think you would be spared a fine thrashing as well.”

“I am scared of you,” Patrick told her wryly, his expression unreadable as he looked at her. No matter how he tried to fight it, he was falling in love with her, and she was changing the way he thought about marriage and relationships. “Mother, what are you going to do? Aside from the fact that we are going to ignore what my wife just said.”

Carrie poked her tongue out at him, and he pulled her into his arms. Linda watched the look on her son’s face and marveled at what she saw there, feeling a little envious at what was unfolding before her eyes.