Chapter 12
Blaine and I spent the next five days on the road. We would have gotten closer to home if he hadn’t been stopping every chance he got.
I had called my mom every day. She was starting to wonder when I was getting home, although she was excited that I was hanging out with Blaine. She liked Blaine, a lot. It was strange when my mom and I were talking on the phone, and she would suddenly tell me to put Blaine on the phone.
Blaine and my mom would start joking around, and he laughed at every single thing my mom said, even when I thought her jokes and comments were a little on the lame side. He charmed his way into my mom’s good graces. It was weird.
I hadn’t questioned our relationship lately, but I could tell that Blaine knew it was constantly on my mind. I wanted him to define what we were. To me, Blaine acted like if I was his girlfriend.
One day, Blaine and I had been walking in the city. We’d had dinner in a nice restaurant, and Blaine had wanted to go out on a stroll after that. While he’d taken a break to take a phone call, I had been standing over a bridge, overlooking a nice manmade pond down below.
A guy came over to talk to me. We exchanged a few words. He was on a business trip in the city. I didn’t think anything of our conversation, until Blaine joined us shortly after, and he practically had a pissing match with the poor guy.
Since that day, Blaine had hardly left my side when we were out and about. He held my hand, or kept his arm either around my waist or over my shoulders. It surprised me how possessive he was, especially when he had such trouble answering my questions about our relationship.
I hated how attached I was growing to him. I hated it more because he never gave me a straight answer. It made me feel insecure, and I wasn’t used to that.
When we were about a state away from home, we made our last stop. Blaine owned a cabin near a lake. Every time I found out something new that Blaine owned, I now simply shook my head. It was all too much.
He didn’t own as much property as I first assumed. He had the cabin we were going to, the Island he apparently owned, the house he lived in in the city, and an apartment in New York. It was still way too much. He’d shared that piece of information on the drive to the cabin.
It was something that I’d noticed had been happening between us in the last five days. Little by little, Blaine was sharing more about himself. I wouldn’t have minded if he shared a bit less about his wealth. I didn’t like to be reminded that he was in a really different category than me.
That was the main reason I hated that Blaine couldn’t define what we were. But he didn’t back off. He couldn’t define our relationship, but he wanted to be hugging, holding, and kissing me.
“Do you like it?”
As soon as I stepped out of the car, I looked around. The place was beautiful. We’d arrived late in the afternoon, but the sun was barely setting. The water was shining beautifully from where I was. Blaine’s and my definition of cabin was completely different. The ‘cabin’ was two stories. It was very well taken care of, so I imagined it got maintenance regularly.
Blaine only grabbed one of the duffel bags, and he started walking me inside. I wanted to stay there, to contemplate the water. It was very tempting. The sun was still warming the area, but I could feel light winds making the air fresh. I had no doubt that once it got dark; the area was going to get cold.
“So far, I gotta say I’m impressed,” I told Blaine, following him up the stairs.
“My mom used to bring Alex me here when I was little. I have good memories of this place.”
He said the words like if they were nothing, but his expression had grown serious. It happened each time he brought up his mom, which he rarely did. Even when it came to his brother, Blaine was careful with what he shared. I wasn’t sure if that was because he was a very private person, or because he thought I wasn’t going to be sticking around for long. It was the second option the one that worried me.
I followed him into a large room in the second floor. It was spacey, although I liked the homey feel of it. A lot of the things throughout the cabin appeared to be handmade, and most of it was made out of wood. It helped a lot to make the place feel comfortable.
“We’re sharing a room,” Blaine quickly said when I settled the backpack I was carrying over the bed.
“Seriously?” I asked.
Blaine nodded, and took the backpack. He walked over to the closet, opening the door for me to walk in. “I only had one room cleaned up for the stay.”
“Why?”
“It was more work to have another room ready, and there were no guarantees it would be done in time.”
“Right,” I said, shaking my head at him.
“It’s true.”
I rolled my eyes, and proceeded to unpack. He could have gotten another room.
The first thing Blaine did was set up his laptop. He had signal there, which was surprising to me. His phone started beeping nonstop as soon as he turned it on. He had kept it off because it wouldn’t stop ringing.
While I settled on the floor, unpacking the duffel bag and my back pack, Blaine started taking calls. I ended up making two trips out to the car to bring the rest of the things in. Blaine hardly noticed. He was too busy with his face in his laptop and his phone over his ear.
I decided to ignore him as well. The last few days had been great. I couldn’t deny that Blaine and I had a lot of fun. His attention was always on me, and I enjoyed being greedy with his time.
But whenever his phone was around, it was a different story. I knew he had work. Blaine had things to take care of. His brother was basically handling Hale Industries while Blaine was out with me, taking a break.
That didn’t mean that whenever he took a call, I didn’t feel slightly jealous, because I did. I almost resented his phone or his brother whenever he went away to take a call. I knew that meant he was going to have to take the rest of the calls he’d been ignoring.
I was more than glad that Blaine’s assistant was a guy. I didn’t like feeling jealous, but that was still how I felt whenever I thought about Blaine talking to another girl.
The first assistant he had was a woman, a few years older than him. His brother, Alexander, had gotten rid of her. The assistant had gotten obsessed with Blaine it seemed, and he had allowed it. They had a thing for a while, and then he broke it off and thought things would be just fine. The assistant ended up messing up schedules and important information. Not only did she get fired, but Alexander had pressed charges against her.
The story, not too surprisingly, was online when I looked it up. It was crazy. Whatever Blaine hadn’t told me, I filled it in with the articles written up about it. After that, the assistant had gone through several media magazines and leaked stories, but not all of them were true. It had been a huge messy deal that got Blaine in a lot of trouble with Alexander.
Blaine had been nineteen at the time, and he had just started getting involved in the company. He’d been distracted with his studies as well, and Blaine seemed to blame a lot of what had happened with how distracted he’d been at the time.
I simply blamed his hormones.
When I finished putting things away and Blaine was still not done, I left out to the lake. It still wasn’t cold out, but it was getting there.
Blaine joined me almost an hour later. He had slipped on a jacket, and was carrying a blanket in his arms.
“You should have waited for me.” He gave me the thin blanket, and took a seat beside me.
“You were taking forever. Did you finish what you were doing?”
“I did. Alex was catching me up with some new deals we’re making.”
“That’s good,” I said, distractedly.
I was focusing more on the scenery in front of us. If anything, after the trip, I was going to be thankful to Blaine for all the new places I’d seen.
“I have a few more days off. He isn’t expecting me back until next week.”
“More road trip or can we spend the rest of our time here?”
“What do you want to do?”
Blaine lied down, with his back fully on the ground. He didn’t seem to mind that his clothes were going to get dirty.
“I want to stay here. This place is by far my favorite.”
And it was. I had enjoyed our trip to the lake, with all of the people surrounding us. We had already passed through a few cities, and that had been fun as well. I didn’t mind the hotels at all, because I got to order in and their beds felt like heaven. But we had been at the lake for two hours top and I’d enjoyed it a lot more. I liked how secluded we were, and I finally felt like I had Blaine’s full attention, even if he’d just been on the phone and on his laptop for an hour.
I was hoping he would take more time to concentrate on me, and I would finally get an answer from him.
“I want to stay here too.”
Blaine squeezed my waist, and tugged on my arm so that I was lying down beside him. Unlike him, I actually had the blanket to lie over. I wiggled closer to him, and cuddled on his side.
“I don’t even know how you can leave this place.”
“I have an empire to run,” Blaine replied, smiling teasingly.
I had made fun of him with that same phrase before, mainly accusingly, because he spent so much time on the phone taking care of business.
I slapped his chest playfully, but Blaine didn’t even flinch. It was more annoying, because I knew he hardly even felt my hits.
“I like being here. It brings back good memories.”
Blaine tightened his arm around me, squishing me closer to him. His embrace felt like a protective shield for some reason, even though there was just him and me there, and I wasn’t in any danger. Either way, I liked the feeling of warmth Blaine gave me.
“How come you always get serious when I mention the things you share with your family?”
I was careful with my words, and I wasn’t sure if Blaine noticed. In the end though, it was pretty blunt.
“You have to know everything, don’t you?”
Blaine’s harsh tone threw me off guard. When I tried to sit up, he tightened his arm around me, and I faintly heard him mumble an apology.
“You always get defensive when I say something you don’t like. But when I stay quiet, you get mad. Isn’t that unfair?”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, it’s unfair.”
I waited for him to continue, but it seemed like that was all he was going to say.
“So you know it’s not fair for you to want to know everything, but I can’t ask you whatever I want.”
“Exactly.”
I sat up, even though he tried to keep me beside him. Blaine ended up sitting up right after I did. I was glaring at him, which had little effect on him. The stoic expression was back on his face.
“I won’t divulge what you share with me,” Blaine stated, picking out his words carefully.
“But you think I will?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
Blaine remained silent. His eyes were on me, getting harder, and his expression very serious.
“You think I will, don’t you? You think I’ll tell people things about you,” I said, more than asked.
I got my answer when he remained silent and still. His grayish blue eyes were hard, intimidating. I didn’t wait around for him to give me an excuse. I got up, and made my way back inside.
Blaine didn’t follow me. He stayed out there, staring off towards the lake. By the time I went in, it was already dark and the air was chilly.
I went to the kitchen in search of water, and found the fridge not only working, but fully stocked. I took a grape juice and made my way upstairs.
I was still waiting for Blaine to go after me to apologize. He wasn’t much of an ‘I’m sorry’ kind of a guy, but he usually tried to apologize to the best of his abilities. He usually bought me something, or shared something about himself. He rarely went the route of actually apologizing.
I made it to the room, changed into sleeping wear, grabbed a book that I’d bought in a bookstore in the last city we were in, and jumped into bed. Blaine didn’t show up.
He told me we were going to be sharing a room, so I knew he was going to be walking in at any moment. The part of me that actually wanted to get back at him for his comment was what made me wear smaller shorts and a silky tank top. It was a huge difference from the baggy t-shirt I usually slept in.
I waited for him to show up until I finally drifted off into sleep out of boredom.
I woke up the next morning alone. I usually kept to my side of the bed, knowing Blaine was sleeping with me. He was the one who ended up on my side, smothering me and with his arms around me.
I took my time getting ready. I was still mad about Blaine’s comment, or lack of comment, from the day before. But I was more bummed that Blaine didn’t even appear in the room.
I finally found Blaine downstairs, in what appeared to be an office. I’d been looking for him all over the place. I even went outside and walked around the area, until I gave up and went back inside the cabin.
When I walked into his office, Blaine looked up for a couple of seconds, before he turned back to his laptop.
“I’m going to make breakfast,” I told him.
He nodded, but still didn’t look up. I was getting irritated with his detached behavior. It was another thing I couldn’t get used to. It was so easy for him to disconnect himself from me. It almost felt like he didn’t care whether I was there or if I simply decided to take off. So I decided I was going to do just that.
“You can drop me off at the airport after I eat,” I told him, emphasizing the part where I was only making breakfast for myself.
“What?” Blaine asked, finally deciding to grace me with his attention.
“I’ve already packed my things,” I lied. “You can just drop me off. I’ll give you money for gas,” I said, knowing that would surely bother him. He hated when I offered to pay anything. I didn’t know if that was because he was filthy rich or because he wanted to be chivalrous.
“I’m not taking your money, and I’m also not taking you anywhere,” Blaine said, defensively. He got up from behind his desk and walked over to me. “What are we having for breakfast?”
Just like that, he grabbed my hand and started dragging me towards the kitchen.
“I can only make simple stuff,” I told him.
“I’m fine with scrambled eggs,” he said.
“If you have biscuits, I can put some in the oven,” I offered.
“There should be some in the fridge. I made sure the staff stocked up the kitchen before we arrived.”
“Yes, but they couldn’t take time to prepare a spare room for me?” I asked, because I honestly couldn’t stop myself.
Blaine ignored my remark, and he started taking out the utensils to cook. He seemed mostly lost, so I had to make him sit down. He was bothering more than he was helping.
“I didn’t get to show you last night, but there’s a pool out back. I’m not sure if you saw it,” Blaine commented.
I was in the middle of sticking the biscuits in the oven. Although Blaine had taken out the eggs from the fridge, it was just about the only thing he’d been able to help me with.
“That’s cool. You should swim there after I’m gone. I know you like to swim,” I said, casually.
“We can get in the pool or in the lake,” Blaine said, instead, completely ignoring my comment. “Half of the pool is four feet. It shouldn’t be a problem for you. I’m not going to push you to go any deeper.”
I blushed at his soft tone. I couldn’t help it. He was looking at me with that soft look he had, whenever he was trying to convince me of something but didn’t want to outright ask for it.
“We can go out into the woods after that. There is a small waterfall not far from here. It’s hidden, but I had a small track made that leads straight to it. You’ll like it. You can take more pictures there.”
“I’ll think about it,” I said.
I didn’t turn back to face him again. I was sure he was going to convince me to stay simply with the way he was looking at me. Blaine had a problem with words and feelings and with trusting people.
I took a seat across from Blaine. He had been quiet for the most part. He mainly added a few things we could do after we finished eating. It was all in efforts of convincing me to stay, yet he couldn’t just ask me to stay. No, he was too complicated to make it easy for me.
“I stopped talking to my father after he married Eleanor, my step-mother. My mom hadn’t been dead for long, and I resented him. Alex and I ran away. We came here. We spent about two weeks hidden here before my father came to pick us up.”
I looked up to find him staring down at his plate. He was thinking about something. I assumed it had to do with what he was telling me. Blaine looked vulnerable, and it was both strange and unnerving to see his emotions so open to me.
“He found you?”
“He knew we were here the entire time. He was giving us space. It helped.”
“You were young.”
“We were, and he kept an eye on us. But he left us alone for the most part.”
“You didn’t like Eleanor?”
Blaine chuckled humorlessly. He’d been holding the fork, even though he wasn’t eating. When he dropped the fork over his plate, it made a clanking noise. It sounded too loud with the silence that had settled around us.
“Eleanor was my mom’s best friend. That was how I knew Justine. My father wasn’t fond of Eleanor before my mom died, and then he married her. It didn’t make sense to Alex and me.”
Now that Blaine was opening up to me, I was too shocked to say anything useful. I wanted to say something that would make him feel better, but I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“They married about four months after my dad told my brother and me that they were dating. Eleanor and Justine moved into our house, that he had shared with my mother, right after that. Eleanor took my mom’s place almost like if she’d always been my father’s wife.”
“You’re fine with it now?”
“Eleanor is okay. She isn’t a bad person, and she’s kept my father company. She’s loud for the most part, and likes to get into people’s business, but she’s harmless. I don’t mind her now.”
And that was all he said of that.
Blaine started talking about the day ahead. He made sure to distract me whenever I talked about him taking me to the airport.
Blaine didn’t say anything else about his family. I didn’t know if he’d shared that piece of information to keep me happy, because I kept asking questions about his family, or if he simply wanted to talk about it. Whichever it was though, I was glad that he had shared it with me.
It was probably better to get into the lake. The water was nice, and it wasn’t as cold as I had imagined it would be. It was crystal clear. Blaine told me that he made regular maintenance on the entire place. The cabin was where he went to whenever he was having stressful days.
Instead of getting in the lake though, I opted for the pool. It was mainly because it was huge, and I knew the areas I could be in. The deepest part was only six feet deep, and that was scary enough.
“I thought you said you were getting into the pool?” Blaine asked.
I was sitting by the edge, dipping my legs in the water. I had been mainly staring at him do laps. He was quick in the water. I already knew that from the time we’d been at the lake. But since I was beside the pool, and could clearly look at him swim from one end to the other, he amazed me.
“I am. I just want to catch some sun right now. It’s a nice day. Let me enjoy it.”
I stuck my tongue out at him when he splashed water at me. He only grinned, and continued swimming. He must’ve known how great he looked. Blaine’s body was amazing. I’d seen it before, but that didn’t make me stare at him any less. It was easy to tell that, unlike me, Blaine actually enjoyed outdoorsy things and working out.
About fifteen minutes later, Blaine forced me to join him. We stayed on the four feet end. Even though I could touch the ground, and wasn’t scared of drowning, Blaine was still holding my hand. He kept asking me every few moments if I was okay.
“I already told you I’m fine.” I pretended to be annoyed with how much he asked the same question, but I secretly enjoyed that he worried.
He hadn’t tried to drag me to the deeper end, and that was more than enough to keep me happy.
“You can swim a few more laps. I’ll stay on this side,” I told him. I didn’t want him to get bored of babysitting me in the pool.
“I don’t mind. I still don’t get how you didn’t learn to swim.”
I laughed, and sprinkled him with some water. He smiled at me, and wiped his face, even though we were in the pool and there was water all over the place.
“Not all of us have the luxury of owning a pool. I think I can count with my fingers the times I’ve been inside a pool.”
“I don’t understand that either.”
“I don’t like getting tired,” I shrugged.
My words made him laugh. “Right, you like being lazy.”
“Pssht… I am not lazy. I simply enjoy doing other things. Not all of us are adrenaline junkies.”
“I’m an adrenaline junkie?” he asked.
“You tell me.”
“I’m not.”
“Right,” I said, teasingly.
“So if my count is right, you don’t like planes, swimming, or chewing gum?” He laughed at me, which made me stick my tongue out at him once again.
“If you keep making fun of me, I’m going to stop telling you these things.”
“I still don’t understand what’s wrong with chewing gum.”
“I’ve never seen you chew gum….”
“I don’t habitually do it, but I don’t mind it. I’ve chewed gum before, and it doesn’t make me feel like I’m choking on it,” Blaine said, smirking at me.
“You’re evil.”
I ended up getting out of the pool again when I noticed Blaine wanted to start swimming around. He didn’t want to leave me alone in the pool because he thought I would get scared and start drowning… on my own… out of panic. His paranoia was even worse than my fear of drowning, so I simply decided to get out.
He seemed like he was enjoying the water too much, and I didn’t want to ruin that for him.
I left Blaine outside when I got hungry. He obviously wasn’t going to cook for us, so I left him in the pool while I made us lunch. It seemed like he still hadn’t gotten enough of being in the water.
On my way to the kitchen, I made a detour to Blaine’s office. I had seen him drop off his cell phone in there just before we left outside. I wanted to burrow it to put on some music while I cooked.
I walked into his office in the middle of his phone ringing. The screen read ‘Paul’. I didn’t think much of it when I answered it.
“Hello?”
“Who is this?” Paul, or whoever was on the other line, sounded surprised that I answered the phone.
“You’re the one calling, buddy.”
“This is Mr. Hale’s phone?”
“Yup, and he’s busy right now. Do you want to leave a message?”
“Is it you, Ms. Madeline?”
I couldn’t see Paul, but whoever he was, he sounded really serious, even more so than Blaine whenever he was in one of his moods.
“Yes, it’s me. Did you need anything? Blaine is going to be busy for the rest of the day, but if it’s important, I can give him a message.” I didn’t want anyone to be bothering Blaine unless it was actually important.
“It’s about Vitaly.” The way Paul was cautiously speaking made me nervous.
“What about Vitaly?” I asked, sharply.
“I’m not authorized to tell you,” Paul said, although from his tone, I could tell he was treading carefully.
“What aren’t you authorized to tell me?”
“I should really talk to Mr. Hale about this. I can leave him a message.”
“I already know what’s going on. I simply want to know what happened now.” I knew lying about it was bad, but the way Paul was speaking really got to me.
“You know?” Paul asked, sounding like he didn’t really believe me.
“Yes, I know.”
“What exactly do you know?”
“I forced Blaine to tell me everything.” I had no idea what Paul was talking about, so I was trying to keep my words broad. I didn’t want to slip up, but I was already getting angry at Blaine. Something was obviously going on with Vitaly and Blaine had kept it from me.
“Ms. Madeline, I still think I should talk with Mr. Hale,” Paul said, trying to be polite.
“Fine, wait around for him. But I’m turning off his phone. Blaine said he isn’t going to be taking calls for the rest of the day, so you can wait to talk to him until tomorrow.” I tried to sound as casual as I possibly could, but it was difficult given that I was already imagining the worst.
That finally got Paul talking.
“We doubled the security detail parked outside your house, Ms. Madeline. No one is going to get to you.”
“You did…?”
“Vitaly hasn’t been around anymore after this last time, but he did send more men again today. We’re taking good care of your mother. I simply wanted to know when you two were going to be back. Vitaly is leaving tomorrow, instead of next week. You’re in the clear to come back.”
“Does my mom know you guys are following her?”
“No… she doesn’t. Are you sure Mr. Hale had told you-” I hung up on Paul before he finished speaking.
Vitaly was there. He was looking for me. A part of me wasn’t surprised. But another part, the part that hadn’t really thought he’d come searching for me, was scared.
Blaine walked into his office when I was putting the phone down.
“Vitaly came after me?” I asked.
I only did it because I was still hoping he would tell me no. I would have rather him lie to me and say that Paul was an idiot and he didn’t know what he was talking about.
When Blaine gave me his usual blank expression, hiding away all his emotions, I knew Paul had been right. Blaine hadn’t even explained anything yet, and already he was shutting himself out from me.
“Why didn’t you tell me he came after me?” My tone sounded accusing, and I didn’t realize I had raised my voice, until I faintly heard it echo in the room. That might’ve been my ears, ringing back my words. I couldn’t be too sure.
“Who did you talk to?”
He walked over to me. I thought he was going to embrace me and apologize. He didn’t. He picked up his phone, checked it, while he was creating some distance between us.
“Paul told you?”
“I told him I knew everything.”
Blaine closed his eyes, and sighed loudly. “You weren’t supposed to know.”
“You have guards watching my mom? And you’re telling me I wasn’t supposed to know?”
I closed the distance between us. When I raised my hand to slap him, Blaine stopped me before it got anywhere near his cheek. I was gritting my teeth. I was still confused on why I was so angry, more than I should have been.
“It was for your own safety, Madeline. If I told you that Vitaly was back in town, you would have wanted to go back. That’s what he wants. To have you there so that he can take you back to Russia.”
“What about my mom?” I yelled. “What if he had taken her? Did you think of that?” I slapped his chest before he could stop me.
Blaine looked at me impassively, not at all moved by my words or accusations.
“I had men watching her. He wouldn’t have been able to take her.”
“But she was still there, at his reach!”
“He wants you, not her. He didn’t even approach her. He’s kept his distance,” Blaine tried to reassure me.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” The question was directed at him, but my words were mostly mumbles.
I was starting to feel sick to the stomach. I felt weird, nervous, disappointed. I couldn’t pin point it, but something in me felt seriously wrong.
“You would have overreacted. Vitaly has to be back in Russia next week. He-” I interrupted him before he got to finish.
“That’s why we were going back home next week?” I meekly asked.
Blaine still heard me. He nodded his head, and took a step closer. To him, I probably looked like I’d calmed down. At least I wasn’t yelling at him anymore.
The truth was, I was screaming on the inside. I was finally able to tell why I felt so strange, and why there was a certain pang in my chest.
Blaine hadn’t taken me on a road trip just for fun. We were there because Vitaly wasn’t in Russia. He was looking for me.
I was there to be protected from Vitaly, because Blaine probably felt guilty with how much I blamed him for getting kidnapped in the first place.
And it finally sunk in why Blaine couldn’t define our relationship. It was because there was no relationship to define. Blaine was simply trying to protect me from Vitaly. That realization… it hurt.
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