Derailed (5 page)

“And Liefie likes the idea?”

“Loves it. Both she
and
Vlad love it.”

“Mm.” Lucky Liefie – how could she not love the idea of having access to her kids all the time? Ritchie’s being really unselfish here.

After a while, Ritchie takes my hand and leads me to the grassy patch separating both houses, where a sea of daisies sway in the gentle breeze.

“This is a great idea, Ritchie,” I say. “And it’s great that both of you put your kids first.”

“Thanks.” He drops on the grass and pulls me down. For the next few minutes we lie on our stomachs and go over the sketches Ritchie’s done.

“Girly’s really excited with the idea of a lockable little granny flat.”

“I’m sure.”

“And I want to add a TV room on the landing here, so they kids can have their space, and…over here is your study where –”

“
My
study?” I pull back to look at him.

“–I’m installing a fireplace…and here, I’m going to have a chaise lounge for you to put your feet up...” He pauses to kiss my smiling lips. “It’s gonna be light and airy to inspire your writing and…I think I should put in a skylight here to provide more light? What do you think?”

I’m at a loss for words. What exactly is he saying?

“You’re included in my plans, baby,” he says when he notices my confusion. “All of them. Whachusay?” 

My heart tumbles at his words. “You asking me to move in with you, boy?”

“No, no, no.”

Ouch
! My smile vanishes.

Carefully, he puts down his pencil and looks at me. “I’m not asking you to move in with me.”

“Mm.” I lower my eyes. Awkward. Embarrassing.

“I’m asking you to
marry
me.”

“Wha…?”

He turns his whole body to face me. “I love you. I wanna marry you. Will you marry me, Rival?”

Stunned, my hand flies to my mouth.

“Please say yes. I don’t want to live without you, and my life plan, as I said, it includes you.”

I am still too shocked to answer.

“I mean, like, I know I should get a ring and stuff, and I will, soon. I’ve just been so busy with um…all of this, but…” He shrugs. “Sorry.”

When I don’t answer, he scratches the back of his neck, his demeanor suddenly one of uncertainty.

I grab him by the neck and pull him down to me. “Yes! I will marry you, yes!”

He grins, plucks a yellow daisy and wraps it around my ring finger. “For now, please wear my daisy.” He kisses the daisy.

I look at the precious daisy on my finger, my heart overflowing with light and love. Then I raise it to my lips and kiss it. “This will be the most precious flower to me,” I whisper. “And yes, I will
always
wear your daisy.”

“Awesome,” he says before he plucks another daisy and sticks it behind my ear. “Mrs. Rival MacMillan.” He nods. “Got a ring to it. Huh?”

“For sure.”

We grin at each other before he takes me in his arms and kisses me among the yellow and white daisies.

After a lot of cuddling and kissing, he says, “I’m really excited.”

“So am I.”

We kiss again.

“Let’s plan our bedroom,” he says. “That’s where all the action is going to be, right?”

“Right!”

“I’m thinking, walk-in dressing room on one side, bathroom on the other. Oh, and a bathroom with twin shower heads so we can shower together. And his and her sinks? What d’ya think? Good idea right? If you like it, that is. I’m thinking…”

As he rambles on, I’m thinking,
I’m going to marry Ritchie. I’m going to be Mrs. Rival MacMillan.
I’m thinking,
I really love daisies.
I’m thinking,
wow, life is just perfect!

“What?” Ritchie asks, his eyes dancing all over my face.

“I love you, Ritchie,” I say in a voice that threatens to crack. “I’m so happy to have met you. I’m happy to spend the rest of my life with you.”

He smiles and takes me in his arms again. “Good, ’cause I plan to grow old with, you, Rival. Really, I do.” We share a hug and seal our premature vows with a kiss.

Chapter Four

RITCHIE

“Nervous?” Rival asks.

I blow out my cheeks as I look at Rival’s expectant face. “Fuck, yeah! Arena’s gonna lay into me when I tell her about us. I just know it.”

“Why? I mean, I think she likes me, but…like, you seem
so
nervous and I’m wondering –”

I lunge to give her a hug. “Baby, baby, baby! Of course she likes you. She was just worried that if things didn’t work out between us, then you’ll like, be hurt. She doesn’t want that
because
she likes you.” I peck her several times on her lips. “Chill, okay? I’ll handle my sister.”

She chews on her bottom lip. 

“C’mon, don’t stress about it. One of us stressing is enough. I need you to be my cheerleader and say, “Goooo, Ritchie!”

She smiles. “Goooo Ritchie!”

“Good. Now maybe shake your arse while you say it. And your tits.”

She laughs, then I laugh. 

“Go on, you can do it!” I say.

She steps back, takes a deep breath and says, “Goooooooo, Ritchie!” She shakes her arse and jiggles her tits.

“That’s it! Do it again.”

She does, and we both crack up laughing.

When I arrive at my sister’s place, they’ve just finished lunch and are busy doing dishes. 

“What’s wrong?” Arena asks, her eyes dancing all over my face, curiosity combined with concern in them.

“Wanna talk to you. Both of you.” I look at Bear, who is carefully and artfully packing the dishwasher.

“What have you done now?” Arena asks, folding a dishtowel.

Bear, only too eager to abandon his chore, pauses to look up to me. “Do I …?” He jerks his head toward his bar.

I bob my head. “It’s a whisky moment, bro.”

“Ah.” He winks, then raises his index finger. “Got it.”

With a frown creasing her brow, Arena folds her arms across her chest and looks at me. “
Boet
?”

I take a seat at her dining table. “Um…you know when you asked me if there was…” I pause to accept the drink from Bear. “Thanks.” I take a long sip of my drink. “Before you say I told you so –”

“Oh, God!” she mutters, her hands clasped tightly under her chin.

“There, see? Now that kind of reaction, I don’t –”

“Okay, okay, I won’t!” She quickly unclasps her hands. “Shoot.”

In an endeavor to kill time, I smack my lips and look at Bear. “This is good shit, bro.”

“Riiiich!” Arena hisses.

“Okay!” After another gulp, I look at her. “You know when you asked me if anything was going on with Rival and…me?”

“Ye…ah?” Suddenly, her back stiffens. 

Slowly, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, put on my invisible crash helmet, and brace myself for the explosion. I know my sister. I know what she’s going to say. 

Rich! How could you?

“Oh, no, no, no, Ritchie! I warned you…how the hell could you do this?”

She’s ill, she isn’t able to think straight!

“She’s not well enough to make such decisions, Rich. She’s sick, mentally fragile, not capable of thinking straight. Don’t you get it? ”

You have taken advantage of her vulnerability, Ritchie.

“I know you won’t deliberately do this, but to an outsider, Ritchie, it looks like you took advantage of the situation. Her vulnerability.”

My sigh is long and I keep my eyes fixed on my drink. Arena is a lot like my mother – she needs about sixty-two seconds or more to tell me off, let off steam. Never interrupt her ranting, for she will start from the beginning. Just wear a pound-puppy look and hope for a natural disaster to occur anytime soon.

I think Bear has caught on too, because he doesn’t interrupt her tirade.   

“You owe Bradley, Ritchie. He confides in you. He thinks you’re his friend.”

That’s when I look up at my sister. “See, now, that’s what I’m struggling with. I am Bradley’s friend, and
yes
, he can trust me. But Rival and me, we entered into this…this…
relationship
long before he decided he wanted her back, Arena.”

Her shoulders sag with the weight of it all. “How far is it?”

“Whachu mean?”

“I mean like…” She looks up at the ceiling. 

Bear lends a hand. “She means, are you banging her?”

“N…no...”

“Big!” he says in a baritone voice.

“Well...” I shrug. “K…kind of.”

My sister darts to punch my arm.

“Aaawww!” I whine like a girl. “What’s that for?” I rub my arm and act wounded.

“I warned you about this!” she hisses.

“Hey, you must understand; we’re both adults and we’re…” I lift and drop my shoulders. “Think about you and Bear, Arena; if someone told you,
instructed
you not to  be with Bear any longer, would that stop your feelings for each other?”

She lets out a long, exasperated sigh before she answers. “No.” She shakes her head. “No. It would only serve to make us care more about each other.” She looks at Bear with soft eyes.

He mirrors her smile, and for a moment or two, it looks like they’ve forgotten about me.
Whew
!

I am wrong. My sister turns to glare at me, her eyes glinting, her smile gone. “The last time we spoke, Ritchie – I mean, how long has this been going on? You denied it, rem –”

“Around
that
time.”

“So you
lied
to me!”

“Hey, it just happened around
then
. I didn’t plan it, Arena. I was lonely, she was lonely, we spent a lot of time together, and it just…” I turn out my palms. “Gimme a break here, Arena.”

Arena blinks hard before she places her hand over her eyes. “Ritchie…” She shakes her head and a short silence follows. 

Feeling bad at my sister’s distress, I say, “I’m sorry. I wish it wasn’t this way. I fought it, okay? I tried really hard not to because I know the situation – piss Bradley off and he’ll pull away our clients, and then I’m solely to blame for our losses. Business losses. But I also know that dating your friend’s ex is just not on. Especially when he lied for me, pulled strings to help Girly and me. I owe him and I’m in big shit here, okay?”

Slowly, Arena peels her hand from her eyes. “He can do that to you guys? Take away business?”

I shrug.

She looks at Bear, my business partner.

“Yep,” Bear says.

I fall silent. What can I possibly say?

“He can be pretty ruthless when he wants to,” Bear continues. “He’s a changed man these days.”

Arena stands up really tall, looks at me, then at Bear. “Really now?”

Bear nods, then turns to me. “Big, how deep is this? I mean, you know the score, right? Mentally she’s, well, let’s just say, she can’t be messed –”

“Bear, I love her. I…I wanna
marry
her. I don’t care about her mental issues. I’ll stand by her. I love her. Very much. I’m scared of what the future brings, sure. She’s scared too. Bradley could accept us, or he could make life really hard for her. Stop her from seeing her kids. Then there’s the business –”

“Fuck him!” Bear says in a steely voice, to my surprise. He turns his whole body to look at Arena. “Fuck him. He dumped his wife, cunted her around, didn’t give a shit about her, didn’t even care that she was broken. Didn’t care that she had nobody to help her when she left Dunhill. If now, when things are not working out with this new wife, he sees how good Rival is looking, how well she’s doing, and suddenly he wants his wife back, then he doesn’t deserve her.”

Okay.

“Providing,” Bear shakes a huge finger at me, “and this is important, Big, providing Rival feels the
same
way as you do.”

“She does, she does.”

“I’m saying this because she was very vocal in her determination to get back her home, her family, Bradley…”

I nod. “In the
beginning,
Bear. Things have changed with her. Seriously.”

Bear looks at Arena, who stands with her thumbnail in her mouth, eyes to the floor.

“Arena,” I say, in a voice filled with disappointment. “What?”

She flings her arms to her sides. “Ritchie, I want you to be happy. I love you so much, and I hurt when you went through that…that
mess
– Olga, Cruikshank…Liefie. I walked that walk with you. I hurt the same as you did. More, in fact. And when you did the DNA…” She shakes her head hard as if to dispel those unpleasant thoughts. “God! Ritchie, I just worry, that’s all. You’ve been through a lot and yes, you deserve happiness. You’re a damn good guy who…will make some woman really happy, but Rival, I don’t know. She’s so vulnerable, you’re so vulnerable…and I have to ask if you really want Rival, warts and all? Or are you just wanting to win this
game
with Bradley? You know, he wants Rival, you want her and…Rival is the prize?”

“I find the last bit offensive, Arena.  I’m not a jerk, okay?”

“Ritchie, it’s my job to ask questions. Hard ones.
Pertinent
ones. It’s your job to answer them. I don’t mean to hurt you or offend you, but look me in the eye and tell me that you really love her, and that you won’t have a change of heart when things go south, because it could. In her condition, you don’t know what tomorrow brings, Ritchie. Just…just think long and hard, because my fear is, my
greatest
fear is that if you leave her, she may crumble and it’s back to Dunhill. I will
die
if you do that to her, because Ritchie, she struggled. It was hot coals. White hot. All the way. I swear.”

Even though I am mad at my sister for questioning my integrity, I understand where she’s coming from. 

“Big, you don’t have to answer those questions,” Bear says, jerking his head toward Arena. “Just think about them, that’s all.”

I nod.

“We’re with you, mate. Right next to you.” He walks over to me and slaps me on the back.

“Thanks, Bear,” I say in a voice strangled with appreciation and emotion. I mean, we’re talking loss of business, and yet Bear is okay with it. What a man. Another name to put in my gratitude journal. The one I plan to keep someday. Mental note to self: buy a
big
journal.