Adrenaline

“Paislie, sweetheart, please call us Shirley and Paul.”

Progress. This was good. “Okay, Shirley and Paul. How are you both doing?”

Paul walked in and reached for a piece of celery. “Doing good, considering it’s the middle of August in Texas and I’m too old for this hot weather.”

I tried to hide my giggle but it slipped. Shirley hit him on the arm and shook her head. Janet came walking into the kitchen with a bright and cheerful smile on her face.

“Janet! I didn’t know you were in town!” I exclaimed. Janet and I had hit it off extremely well. She was the only person who really knew Malcolm and there were so many times I would talk to her about things. I really needed to talk to her tonight to ask her if she noticed something off with him like I had.

She tilted her head and gave me a look that asked, what did he do now?

“Where’s my son?” Paul asked. “There is bound to be a fight or something on we can watch.”

I peeked over to Clarisse and then over to Janet who slowly shook her head. No one knew where he was.

Oh God. I was going to be stuck entertaining his parents. “Where’s Autumn and Sophie?” I asked when I realized the house was too quiet.

“They were rushing out as we were walking in. Autumn said something about spending a few days in Dallas. Sophie’s father wanted to spend some time with her. Imagine that,” Shirley said with sarcasm dripping from her mouth.

I had to admit I was sad they rushed out without saying good-bye.

After Janet and I set the table, we all sat down to eat, including Clarisse. I had insisted she eat with us. “I can’t imagine where Malcolm is,” I said with a polite smile.

The conversation around the table was easy. I was surprised to see how much Shirley and I actually had in common. We both loved classic romance novels and Jane Austen was one of our favorite authors.

The table erupted in laughter after Paul had told a joke and then quickly fell silent. “Is that . . . a helicopter?” I asked, as the noise grew louder.

Clarisse and Janet exchanged worried looks as Shirley and Paul did the same.

“I guess we know where Malcolm was,” Janet said as she stood up from the table.

I looked around confused. “Wait. Malcolm has a helicopter?”

Clarisse excused herself as she gathered up a few plates. “I’ll go heat up some food for Malcolm.”

Shirley smiled. “He used it a lot when he was racing. He liked to come back to Texas a lot and it was quick and easy for him.”

Clarisse reached for my plate as she said, “Ashley used it a lot when she would come and . . . um . . . visit.”

My head snapped up to look at her as her face blushed. She must have known she slipped.

Oh. My. God. It never occurred to me that Malcolm had actually had sex in his house with other women. All of a sudden I felt dirty. How many women had h

e screwed in his bed? Placing my hand over my stomach, I felt sick. Why did that bother me so much? Why was I under the allusion he never brought a girl here? Hell . . . if he flew Ashley here just to fuck her, I’m sure there were plenty of other women he did the same for.

I jumped up, sliding the chair back, scaring both of Malcolm’s parents.

“Are you okay, Paislie?” Shirley asked, “You look white as a ghost.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry. If you’ll excuse me.”

Quickly turning, I bolted out of the dining room. I needed air quickly. This feeling of being jealous of women who were in Malcolm’s past was foreign to me and I didn’t like the way it made me feel. I hated it as a matter of fact. It was Malcolm’s past.

Before I made it out of the room I ran smack into Malcolm, who reached his hands out to stop me from falling over.

“Where’s the fire?”

My mouth parted open, but words wouldn’t form. What if he flew to her today? What if he had been and I didn’t know? I’d been here for two months and never even knew he had a helicopter.