“Let the torture begin,” she says with a laugh, grabbing a towel and covering herself from my view.
“Witch,” I say with a forced glare and she waves me off.
“There will come a day when that word is a different version and it is the only way you’ll refer to me.”
“Never,” I tell her climbing out and walking toward her.
“I’m not sunshine and rainbows, Aaron.”
“That’s a good thing because I hate sunshine and rainbows,” I say as I lean in and kiss her lips softly. “I would never ask you to be anything you’re not, Kendall. This you, the one I know, it’s the one I want. I like your attitude, sarcasm, and resistance.”
“So you’re the kind of guy that enjoys the chase.”
“No, I’m the kind of guy that knows the best things in life don’t come easy.”
“I promise you, I am going to do this so badly,” she confesses and I encircle her in my arms and pull her body close to mine. Rocking side to side, I wait to feel her give in and relax.
“We’ll learn together,” I whisper near her ear. “But we have to be willing to try.”
Her body shifts as she takes a deep breath. She doesn’t fight me, but instead for the first time she relaxes and allows me to hold her.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kendall
“You should really come for a visit,”my mother says. Her voice is low and drug out and I know it’s because she’s spent her entire day by the pool sipping cocktails.
She is the kind of woman that needs a man to take care of her. She seeks it, and when she feels like that man she is with isn’t pampering and catering to her enough, she moves on to the next one. She is dependent on attention, always needing to be at the center of it.
“You would love it here, Kendall,” she adds and I am pulled back to the conversation I wish I could avoid.
I love her, I do. But we are better at loving each other from afar. Emails are nice, but the face to face, the phone calls when I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying what I truly mean, those are the worst.
“Maybe soon, Ma,” I say. It’s what I always say.
“Richard’s house is amazing,” she adds and again the words are slow and drawn out, almost whiney. “He owns a real estate company, selling million-dollar homes all over the coast. His house is extravagant, really. A kitchen that if I cooked would be a dream, a living room that is bigger than any home I’ve ever had. The sprawling staircase is like something you’d see in a fairytale movie. It’s incredible sweetheart, you must see it.”
This goes on for at least another ten minutes. I guess I am supposed to be impressed. I am supposed to feel jealous maybe, but the truth is I’d hate that kind of life. Stuffy and expensive dinners with gowns and sipping pricey wine. It sounds awful to me, but she is so wrapped up in being someone that she will pretend to be anything just to fit in. Each man she dates she becomes a new version of herself. A version that best suits the current fling.
Last year she met a rocker and started a new love with leather. It was leather everything, and she even shipped me a leather jacket care of her new beau. It’s still hanging in my closet with the tags on it.
“Listen I should get going to work.”
“Just another reason why you should move out here Kendall, my goodness still driving that tow truck.” She scoffs. “How will you ever meet a man wearing grey clothes and towing cars around Montgomery. Men don’t find that kind of thing sexy.”
“I don’t need a man, Mother.” And here we are full circle right back to the same things we are always going through. Her thinking I need to find a man to take care of me. “I take care of myself, Mother. I don’t need nor want a man to do it for me.”
“A spinster, you’ll be living in a house full of cats.”
“I prefer a dog.”
“Kendall, I am being serious.”
“Me too, I don’t find anything appealing about cleaning out litter boxes.”
“Can’t you be serious for one minute.” I picture her rolling her eyes and pursing her lips. I don’t respond, knowing what I say will only make her carry on more and even longer. So I let her lecture me. “A good man, they are hard to come by, but they are out there. A man that knows how to treat a lady. But right now I guarantee any man sees you pulling up in that big truck is probably scared of you.”
I smile but keep my mouth shut. I truly don’t give a shit.
