“Wake up, Crash.” Jon whispered.
“Mmm... Did I sleep the whole way home?” Ari asked as she opened her eyes.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Ariana opened her eyes wider as Jon got out of the car and made his way around to the passenger side. Offering her his hand, Ari intertwined their fingers and slipped from the car. Bracing herself against him to shield off the cold air, they walked hand in hand up the stairs into the house.
They stood in the hallway and Jon helped slip her coat off her shoulders and hung it on the hook. She felt the warmth of his breath through her hair as he nuzzled against her.
“In case I forgot to tell you tonight, you looked amazingly delicious.” He nosed away her hair and nipped at the base of her neck.
“Mmm. You might have mentioned it a few times.” Ariana titled her head to the side giving him better access.
With his hand, Jon moved her hair aside and peppered her neck with soft butterfly kisses, his hands rested at either side of her hips. Ariana moaned as her eyes filled with desire.
“You should wear your hair like this more often.” He combed his fingers through the silky, chestnut locks that reached just above her waist.
She pressed against him, slowly rolling her hips, “Maybe we could move this out of the hallway and into someplace more comfortable.”
His hands travelled up and down her sides until they found her ass, squeezing, he whispered huskily into her ear, “Not tonight, I’m beat.”
“What?” Ariana turned, pushed her hands into his chest, causing him to fall back, giving him enough space between them to scoot past her and make his way down the hall. She caught up with him just before he entered the living room.
“You! Little! Tease!” She punctuated each word with a finger poke into his chest.
“Ahem.” Awkwardly, Stephanie cleared her throat, hoping to get their attention.
Thankfully, it worked and both their eyes turned her way. Stunned, Jon looked at his daughter who was sitting in the living room.
“Steph, what are you doing here? Is something wrong?”
“I had a fight with mom.”
“Does she know where you are?” He asked sternly.
“Sorta. She thinks I’m at Sam’s house.”
“Stephanie Rose. You need to call and tell her where you really are. I will not be caught in the middle of this.”
“But, dad....”
“No buts. Call her, now. Then we will sit down and talk.”
With a grumble and huff, Stephanie stomped past her father and Ariana and went into the kitchen. Running a hand through his hair, Jon shook his head in disbelief. What could have possibly had happened that his daughter felt the need to run to him? How did she get out here in the first place? From the worried look on his face, Ari lead him to the couch and directed him to sit. Curling her leg under her, she sat down next to him, smoothing her hand across his tensed shoulders.
“Hey, don’t jump to conclusions. Hear what happened first.”
“She’s never done anything like this before.”
“I’m sure she will explain it all. I’m going to go to bed and let you two talk.”
“Not yet. You might as well meet my daughter first.”
“Okay! Fine! I got it. Here’s dad.” Stephanie emerged from the other room, her worrisome blue eyes identical to her father's told Ariana that, that phone call didn’t go so well.
Jon rose and accepted the phone. Shifting his weight impatiently from one foot to another, he listened as Dorothea rattled on. He thought it is best not to say anything, so he just listened except for a few yesses, I will’s, and an, I knowor two, but, it was the I’m not doing this right now! That finally ended the conversation.
Rubbing the palms of his hands against his face in frustration, Jon tossed the phone onto the end table. Stephanie sat in the oversized loveseat with her arms wrapped around her knees, and Ari was in the same spot he left her. The two were discussing Ari’s outfit and the store in town where she bought it.
The conversation halted when Jon plopped down on the cushion next to Ariana. Lazily laying his arm on her bended knee, he smiled a little smile at her.
“I see, you two have met.”
“We have. Now, if you'll excuse me, I will let you two talk.” Ariana tapped Jon's arm as she stood, “It was nice to meet you Stephanie.”
“You too.”
His eyes followed her as she disappeared around the corner. He returned his glance back to his little girl.
“Stephanie...”
“Dad, wait. Before you say anything, I know what I did was wrong on so many levels and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied, or even come here, I was just so angry. I was gonna go to Sam’s, but when I called her, she wasn’t home.”
“So, you came here. Did you even consider if I’d be here?”
She opened her mouth to answer.
“I’m not done.” Jon stopped her.
“Your mother and I may not agree on things lately, but this, this is not one of them. What you did was wrong and we will ground you. I leave that up to your mother. Do you understand?”
“Yes”
“Now, why don’t you tell me what happened?”
Pushing herself up off the chair, Stephanie straddled over the ottoman and walked over to the couch. Kneeling on the cushion, she sat back on her heels, rested her elbow on the back of the couch and propped her head in her hand.
“We had a fight.”
“I gathered that much. What about?”
“You.”
“What about me?”
“We could see something already upset her when she came home, so after dinner, the boys went upstairs and I went to talk with her. As usual, I got the ‘I’ve had a rough day’ answer. That’s when I asked if it had to do with you or us meeting Ariana.”
Jon’s eyes widened, “I hadn’t mentioned it to her yet.”
“Yeah, well, I know that now.”
“I’m Sorry. Was that what you argued about?”
She adjusted her position and was now sitting crossed legged facing him.
“Sorta. Basically, we fought about her never being honest when I ask her something. This situation is new to us too, it’s only normal we have questions. Every time I ask her something, she won’t answer. She gets so defensive that Jesse is afraid to ask her anything.”
“I didn’t know he felt like that.”
“Yeah, he says he’ll just wait for you or mom to tell us something. But you know that’s not me, I need answers.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“Don’t I know. I need a drink; do you want something?” He asked as he stood.
“Yeah, water, please.”
Jon slipped into the kitchen, laughing at what she just said. Of all his children she seemed to be the one to inherit his determination, persistence, his need to get it done no matter what. He opened the refrigerator, a bottle of wine stared up at him, and though he’d prefer the wine, he pulled out two bottles of water instead.
He toed off his shoes before sitting back down while handing her a bottle of water.
“I’ve told you before, if you have questions you can ask me.”
“That’s exactly what I told mom. And you’re always honest.”
“Steph, I’m sure your mother is honest.”
“No, dad. She’ll either change the subject or tell me I’m too young and wouldn’t understand.”
“What exactly did you ask her?”
“I asked if Ariana was the reason you are splitting up.” Jon’s astonished expression made her sit up, look him in his eyes and bluntly ask, “Well, is she?”
Jon knew he had to answer her, he had promised he wouldn’t lie, but there were some things that they didn’t need to know, not now anyway. He placed the bottle on the floor and reached for her hands.
“Yes, and no. Your mom and I already had problems, we’ve been growing apart for some time. We should have been honest with ourselves a long time ago. Ariana and I happened to cross paths again recently.”
“What do you mean by again?”
“Ariana and I have been friends for a long time. We first met when her father started working for me.”
“When was that?”
“1984.”
Stephanie hesitated for a moment. Trying to process what she heard, at the same time not sure she wanted to hear anymore but having more questions. She did the math. That was a very long time ago. Did her mother know? Did she have someone too? Twisting the cap off, she took a long sip.
“Have you been in love since then?”
“Love comes in many different forms. You will learn this as you get older. But to answer your question, no, we have not been in love since then. We were friends, for a long time.”
“Was she the only one?”
Jon could see the confusion in her eyes. The last thing he wanted was to confuse her more.
“Baby girl, listen to me, this is a lot for you to take in at once, not to mention a little much for you to understand completely. I told you I would never lie to any of you and I won’t, but I think we should stop for now."
“But...”
“No buts, its late and you have school tomorrow. I promise we will finish this conversation.”
“Okay, but daddy...one more thing.”
“What?”
“I can’t say that I understand why you did what you did, but it never affected me, so I’m not mad. I don’t really understand why you and mom stayed together for so long though either but, this explains why mom has been so mad lately. No matter what, I want you and mom to be happy. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen either of you actually were. Right now, I just want my Daddy back.”
By this time, Jon’s eyes were shining and Stephanie was outright crying. Launching herself forward into her father’s arms, she squeezed him tightly.
Sniffling into his shoulder, she whispered, “I love you Daddy, more than anything.”
Swallowing thickly, Jon stroked a hand over his daughters’ hair and choked out, “I love you too, baby girl. Always.”
They walked hand in hand wearily down the hall to the spare room, stopping at the door Jon placed a soft kiss on the top of her head.
“Good night, princess.”
“Good night, daddy.”
No comments:
Post a Comment