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Chapter 12
Daddy's Logic
Aiden
I wasn't sure about coming here until I got a look at her face. I thought maybe I should wait until we get back to classes and that maybe she needs a little time to think about things. I thought maybe I should work out everything I want to say better and see if she calls this week. But one look at her face, just the sound of her voice saying my name, I know... I don't know shit.
"Aiden?" Just by the look on Riley's face I know seeing me here is the last thing she expected.
Good or bad it's too late to go back now
I'm not sure if it's a good idea now that I'm facing her. I can't seem to remember anything I want to say. Riley looks around the diner like she's afraid of someone seeing us talking to her. Who would she be worried about seeing us? The only people in here are the old guys at the counter and the other waitress.
"What are you doing here?" Her voice stays hushed like knowing me is some kind of secret.
What the hell is she afraid of?
Standing up I reach for her waist and keep my hands on her when she tries to step back. I'm not afraid of being seen with her. Let someone try to tell me I can't speak to her. I'll make sure they know who I am and what pull I can have if I try to push it.
"I need to talk to you. I... look can we just go outside for a few minutes?" I look behind me at the guys now listening to every word we say. I'm not doing this in front of an audience. This is between Riley and me, no one else. Cupping her face I take a chance and press my lips to her. Just a quick reminder for both of us of this attraction between us. Stroking my thumbs along her cheeks I wait for her eyes to open again. "I've got some things to tell you, please?"
"I'm working." She looks towards the kitchen where a guy pulls off his glasses and watches us. Riley looks at him then back to me. "I'm working."
"Riley... I broke up with Leighton." Blurting it out before she can say no wasn't what I meant to do. Riley looks at Sawyer who confirms it with a nod.
"He did. I was there." Sawyer grins then when Riley looks back at me, the goof gives me a thumbs up.
"I'm working I can't..." Riley touches my chest and I think maybe that door just opened for me.
"We can wait. We're starving." Landon says louder than necessary. "I was checking out the menu online. I know what I want. Aiden, sit down we can eat while you wait."
"Yep, we got time." Harper agrees.
As if solving the problem he rattles off what he wants to eat for her. Riley nods, turning around slowly and moving for me to sit down and then takes our order. Once we've given it to her, she hurries off to get our drinks. Keeping my eyes on her, I make sure no one gives her an issue for talking to us.
My phone goes off, the ringtone loud and clear. Leighton.
"Told you she wasn't just gonna let it go with a message." Sawyer mutters,
Rejecting the call I tuck my phone back into my pocket. "I don't care. I'm done. I'm not going back to her, I'm not giving her a chance to talk to me. She lives on the other side of the country, it's not like she's gonna knock on my door or run into Riley on campus. It's over."
"We're talking Leighton, dude. That chick has the money behind her to fly out here just to get on your nerves about it. Be careful what you think she'll do, it could be just the opposite." Harper's warning is the truth. If Leighton thinks that she can talk me into taking her back she'd try.
"She'd make some calls first." I think this over for a while longer. "She'd go through mom or grandma thinking they won't know yet."
"She doesn't know this family very well, does she?" Landon chuckles. "Grandma knows when each of us lost our fucking virginity, I swear."
He's got a point. I remember that fateful night after I had been a little too anxious and embarrassed myself with my first time. I had a box of condoms on my dresser waiting for me the next day with a note from grandma to wrap it up next time. I was so fucking embarrassed I wouldn't go to her house for a month. I heard hell for that too.
"Leighton didn't take the time to really get to know us." I agree as my eyes stay on Riley while the guys keep talking.
"She got to know your parents just not the rest of the family and she knows Hunter well enough to fuck her over." Sawyer adds.
He gets my attention back on the conversation with this. I never did understand what happened to their friendship. "What happened with them? I thought Hunter got pissed because of me."
"Leighton set her up with some friend of hers. The guy was a total jerk off. Hunter won't tell us anything else about it." Landon explains what they know. Now I know I have to talk to Hunter when I get back to find out who this jerk was and what he did to her.
My eyes track Riley again over to the back counter. The old guy from the back comes over to her as she gets our drinks. Leaning casually on the soda machine, he talks to her but keeps his eyes on me. I know they're talking about us because Riley looks over her shoulder at me then says something to him that makes him laugh before turning around to head back into the kitchen but when Riley turns to bring us our drinks, the guy looks back at me points two fingers to his eyes then towards mine.
"Here ya go. Food will be out soon." Riley tells us, setting down the drinks. Reaching out I take hold of her hand, stopping her from running off.
"Who's the guy that was talking to you?" Still watching him as he starts cooking our food. Now I'm wondering if I'm going to be poisoned or something.
"My dad. He wanted to know if I knew you. He recognizes you guys from some sports thing. He took your picture when you weren't looking said it would be worth something when you get to the NFL." Rolling her eyes she walks away without explaining further.
"Hey, he knows talent when he sees it." Harper jokes taking a drink of his soda.
But I'm still watching her dad. Shit! What has she told him about what's happened? How much does Riley confide in her dad? I know they're close, she's told me that. Would she actually talk to him about all this or is this more something she'd talk to with a friend? Who are her friends anyway, Riley hasn't mentioned anyone.
It doesn't take long before the food comes out and I'm agreeing with Landon it looks great but my nerves are getting the best of me and I can barely swallow anything down. It doesn't go unnoticed by Riley or her dad. Next thing I know he's coming over to our table and looking right down at me.
"Is there a problem with the food? You aren't eating it." He says just as quietly as Riley had taken our order.
"No sir. I'm just a little nervous, is all. The food's great." I answer him with the guys nodding along with me, their cheeks puffed out like chipmunks. "You're Riley's dad?"
He looks over and sees Riley finishing with a table. "Yes and you're Blake Bradford's nephew. I watched him play for years and now some college ball too. You've got one helluva arm, reminds me of when I'd watch Blake play. He was a great quarterback."
"Yeah he was, a great mentor, too. I've got some big shoes to fill." I grin as I feel some eyes on us.
One of the young girls with her grandpa nudging her on comes over and asks for an autograph. Without a word I sign a napkin and pass it around the table for the others to sign then hand it back to her. With a giggle she hurries back to the older man who nods a thank you to us.
"It's not often we get celebrities in here." He smiles and nervously wipes his hands on the towel tucked in the back of his pants. I don't understand why he'd be nervous about meeting me. That should be, and is, the other way around. "Riley said you've been tutoring her. I appreciate it. She's worked hard for that scholarship she got from your foundation."
Is that the only scholarship she got? Christ!
I know what we do isn't enough to cover everything. It's not meant to but usually the school adds another scholarship or grants something else to supplement it. She can't live on just that. I'll have to have grandma look into it again.
"She does and she deserves it. It's really my grandma's foundation, but yeah I've been helping her." I feel like I don't have much to do with the foundation. Grandma makes the decisions there, her and dad have headed up that since so much of the family business has been turned over to the other family members.
"So what brings you boys to our neck of the woods? We're not exactly the Ritz." He rounds the question in a way that reminds me of more of asking what my intentions are with his daughter. A question I don't completely have an answer to and what I do have, no father wants to hear about their daughter's life. I've learned that from my own family.
"I owe Riley an apology and explanation, sir. I'd like to talk to her when she gets done working and hopefully work a misunderstanding out." I explain hoping he'll let us talk sooner than later. The longer this takes, the more nervous I get.
He glances over his shoulder at the girl in question who I see is trying to hurry her customer along. I can see he's debating on his choice. Sweating me out more like it but I can take the heat. I deserve it for what I did. I need to do this for once, get grilled over, I've never met any girl's parents besides Leighton's. That was only because our families knew each other. I don't know if I would have met them otherwise.
Riley's dad, I'd like to think I'd try to meet him if this hadn't happened. They're close so it wouldn't be impossible for her to share some information about me. I think he's the kind of guy who would insist on meeting the guy who wants to date his only child. I would if I were him. Then I'd make sure my daughter stayed far away from me.
Shit! This could be bad for me
"You boys are welcome to come back to the house. It's not much but it's home. You'd have some privacy too." Riley comes over and looks between us and I see she's concerned one or both of us have said something that we shouldn't. "Why don't you kick off when these boys are finished with their meal. Take them back to the house and hear Mr Bradford out. I'm sure he'd appreciate it."
Riley's eyes widened looking at me then back to her dad. "Dad, I said I'd do the schedule and the books..."
He leaned in and said just loud enough for me to hear. "They aren't going anywhere, sugar. They can wait. He came all this way, Riley. Just let him have his say." Giving her a kiss on the side of her head he turned to me and shook my hand. "It was nice meeting you. You boys have a good one. I'll be watching Saturday for you to win."
"Thank you, sir." I'm not sure if that was his approval or not but he got me a foot in the door. I'm taking it.
Riley
What are they doing here? Did I tell him where I live, where I work? I don't remember even telling him I'm from Arizona. I guess I must have. How else would he know, right? But I came home to try to figure out how to deal with my own feelings. I wasn't prepared to deal with him face to face this week.
Seeing him sitting there was such a shock. A part of me was giddy with excitement to see him and the other... it hurt to know what I said to him, worse that a part of me knows it was the right thing to do. I couldn't take being cheated on and have my heart broken that way.
Keeping my back to them while I get drinks for another table I see my reflection in the stainless steel machine and cringe. My hair is tossed up in a high ponytail, I've got no makeup on, the old light pink shirt and black skirt that holds as a uniform for the girls at the diner, mainly Fran and I, looks faded and frayed.
I don't look my best at all
"Who's the hottie who can't keep his gorgeous green eyes off you, honey?" Fran nudges my shoulder, wiggling her eyebrows at me.
"He's my tutor. I don't know why he's here." I mutter filling the next glass with ice. "And he's my roommate's cousin." Thinking about this I frown, hoping nothing is wrong with one of them.
"He's here for you." Fran bluntly informs me like it's the most obvious thing in the world, causing me to bobble the glass and send it crashing to the floor.
"Oh shit!" I grumble as I start to bend down to clean up my mess, I knock over two more glasses. "Shit! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, oh shit, I've made a mess."
The whole diner turns in unison to look at me. I can feel the heat rise into my cheeks and my heart begins to pound in my chest. I really don't like being the center of attention. The boys only laugh but Aiden's concentrated look forces me to duck down behind the counter to hide.
"Hey! Hey, it's okay." Fran grabs my hands stopping me from getting cut on the glass shards. "Honey, get a grip. He's just a boy. I'm betting you're dad talking to him made him more nervous than you are right now."
Meeting her eyes I can only hope what she says is true. I don't have the experience with guys to really know what to do or say. I haven't had a mother to talk to about this stuff. I should have asked Hunter or one of the girls when they called this morning to check on me. But then I didn't think Aiden would show up here to see me.
"Riley? He's come all this way for you. Hear him out." Fran encourages me. "You don't have to do anything but listen. If you don't like what he has to say then you send him on his way but you give him a chance to talk. You'd want the same chance if roles were reversed."
She's right, I know she is. He came all this way, on a holiday break when he could have been with his family. He could have just put it off until we got back to school. Instead, he came here to tell me what he has to say. Maybe he already did.
"He broke up with her." I mutter remembering more to myself than to Fran.
My head jerks up and I look over at the table and meet Aiden's bright green eyes again. He starts to stand up but Sawyer pulls him back down into the seat mumbling something to him he doesn't like. Aiden's head swivels towards his friend then back to me.
"What? Honey, did you say he broke up with... who?" Her question goes unanswered as I see dad coming around to us. His eyes look at the mess I've made and then to me and over to Fran. She must have felt me shrink back, not because my dad has ever raised a hand to me but because I know we can't afford to replace the dishes. "Can you believe I've gotten into such a habit of being here on my own, I forgot this one was here? I'll cover the cost, don't you worry about it, Ben." She gives my hand a squeeze covering for me. "I'll just go get a broom. Be right back."
Fran hurries to the back and I look at dad's face. I can't let her take the blame for what I did. "I dropped the glasses Daddy, not Fran. Don't let her take the fall for me."
"Oh, I know I saw it. Just like I know the reason for you coming home this week and for not talking to me about it has to do with that young man over there." Lowering my eyes to the floor, I avoid his eyes. I feel bad about not being honest with him. He always could figure out what I was up to usually before I even did a thing.
"I'm sorry, Daddy. I'll tell them to go..."
Stopping me, he pulls me into a hug and kisses the top of my head. "No, you won't. I got to meet Blake Bradford's nephew and quite possibly the next greatest quarterback going into the NFL. I'll be telling the boys this story for weeks. Now, you go on out there and you take that boy over to the house and hear him out. That's all you need to do, honey. You just let him tell you he's sorry for whatever he did to hurt you."
"Why do you think he hurt me?" Looking up with our arms still linked around each other, I see he knows more about me than I thought he did.
"There's only a couple reasons for a boy to come all this way for a girl. Either he's done something to hurt her and he really cares enough about her to face her father to apologize or he's gotten the girl pregnant and really has to face her father. The boy didn't sweat it out too bad talking to me so I'd say he'll live this time. Talk to him." Giving me a nudge towards the table just as Fran walks over to him. Dad takes the broom from her to clean up my mess.
Sawyer pops a fry into his mouth as I walk over. Aiden's eyes don't leave mine. I can't tell if he's scared I'm going to tell him to go or hopeful he is getting a chance to talk with me. Either way I have been given my marching orders.
"If you want to come outside to talk." I don't finish my sentence and Aiden is struggling to get to his feet. Sliding out of the booth at last he keeps his hand on the small of my back and guides me to the front door.
"You kids play nice now, ya hear?!" Harper calls just as we reach the door. Aiden pulls open the door for me then as I pass him, he flips Harper the finger and nudges me out as the guys erupt with laughter.
"I don't have a lot of time but Daddy said we should go to the house for some privacy." I explain taking the corner around the side of the building to the back alley then crossing the one way dirt road, I open the gate to our small yard and go into the house through the kitchen door. "We moved here when we bought the diner. It makes it convenient for him, us. Come on in."
Going to the fridge, I pull out two sodas and sit down at the table. Aiden sits across from me and just looks at me with this goofy expression on his face. It makes me nervous so as much as I want to shut up and let him talk, I can't seem to be able to and I just ramble.
"It's not much but it's paid for. I think just your room is bigger than this place but we don't need much. Dad works most of the time and really is only here to sleep but I think he's dating Fran now he might be here more but I don't know for sure. I didn't think I'd see you for a week. I thought I'd have time to figure out what to say to you. I haven't yet... figured out what to say. You broke up with her? Why did you break up with her? I didn't mean for you to... I'm sorry, I never should've said such mean things to you. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just can't get hurt that way. And it would... hurt me if you cheated that way you do. Why are you looking at me like that? Why did you come here?" Finally I take a breath and Aiden smirks knowing he's made me nervous.
"I like the kitchen." He grins at me making his eyes crinkle up. Then reaching over to take my hand he gets serious about my questions. "I broke up with Leighton because you're right. It's not fair to her. It's not fair for me when I want you." Opening my mouth to object, he shakes his head at me and goes on. "Let me finish, please. You gave me a wake up call. And you're totally right. But not about this." He wiggles his finger between us. "I felt something from the first time I saw you. I don't know what it is or how I feel about it but I know I want to find out. I can't do that if I'm with someone else. I don't want to be with someone else. I want you."
I can't breathe
I just can't think straight. If I wasn't already standing I'd be a puddle on the floor. Mush, I've turned into mush. Aiden doesn't say anything else and we just sit in silence. Every few seconds I can hear his phone beep but he doesn't move to check it, doesn't even look to see who it is. He just links his fingers through mine and waits for me to say something but I don't know what to say.
"Can you please say something, I'm not sure if you being this quiet is good or bad." Aiden asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
"Dad said I needed to hear you out. He said that either you really like me or I'm pregnant and I'm not.. pregnant." I correct myself awkwardly.
"That's good. And I do like you. Your dad's nice too, but he's not my type." His tease gets me to relax a little and I laugh. "I just want a chance with you."
"Aiden, I was wrong telling you that stuff before but I wasn't wrong knowing I don't want to be cheated on and you can't say you won't or don't do that. We both know you have." He looks down at our hands and sighs. "I'm sorry, if you wasted your time coming here. Maybe..."
"I'll prove it." He says with conviction.
Taken back, I'm not sure what he means. "What?"
"I'll prove myself to you. I can be the guy you deserve, the one you want. I'll show you I can be faithful and everything you're looking for. I can do it." He nods then stands up. Clapping his hands together he looks around the room then down at me. "I've got some plans to make but I'll see you later."
"Wait! Aiden..."
Leaning down he plants his lips on mine and in only the way Aiden can do, rocks me off my feet. At least I think I'm still sitting down. The way his lips slide over mine and the way his fingers wrap around the back of my neck keeping my mouth fixed to his just long enough for me to get lost. I don't know if I had been sitting or standing but I'm sliding out of my chair now.
"I gotta talk to your dad, but I'll be back tonight. Yeah." He nods like he's figured something out. "I'll be back soon." Kissing me once more, he hurries out the kitchen door leaving me sitting there alone in the quiet house wondering what just happened.
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