“Wait, what do you mean?” Aaron asked, turning to face him. “What woman?”
“The woman who ran out of gas the other night,” he explained, a little slower. “That’s her, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that she’s here; it can’t be.”
Aaron was silent for a second. “It could be, I mean, there are a lot of students on this campus. It’s a good job, and she’s got the right kind of experience,” he finally said. “Besides, I thought you said she didn’t see anything; she wouldn’t be snooping around if she didn’t see anything.”
Caught in his own lie, he concentrated on driving for a few minutes, hoping Aaron would change the subject. “Did she see something?” his friend finally asked, breaking the silence. “That could be really bad, Ryan, she could expose us all.”
“Only if she can find someone to take her seriously,” he said, shaking his head. “She doesn’t have any proof, and I’m not sure she saw anything, but she might have.”
Aaron let out a little curse. “We have to tell someone,” he said. “The clan is pretty strict about this kind of thing.”
“We don’t know that she saw anything, so there’s no sense jumping to conclusions,” he said. “Let’s just keep a close eye on her and see what happens.”
“I’m all for that,” Aaron said, a big grin on his face. “I’ll be happy to keep a very close eye on her, maybe even put a hand or two on her.”
“Back off, I wasn’t talking about that kind of eye,” he said. “She’s off limits, at least until we know she’s not out to expose us or something.”
“Oh yeah, who made you the boss?” Aaron challenged. “I know how to handle myself; I won’t tell her any of our deep, dark secrets.”
“This isn’t a joke,” he said, shaking his head. “Someone could get hurt or worse if we don’t handle this right.”
“I wasn’t treating it as a joke, I was just joking about it, you should learn the difference,” Aaron said, crossing his arms over his chest. “If I didn’t know better, I might start thinking that you like her.”
When he didn’t deny it right away, Aaron looked over at him, a frown on his face. “What the hell, man?” he asked. “You could have told me that you were into her before I made a fool of myself.”
“I didn’t know that’s who you were talking about,” he said, before giving himself a chance to think. “Not that I’m…that is, I don’t…I haven’t…”
“Well, I guess that settles it then, you’re next,” Aaron said, shaking his head. “That’s just going to leave Gabe and me; it’s getting lonely being single around here.”
“Will you stop that? I don’t want to hear that kind of talk,” he said. “I’m not looking to get involved with anyone, so don’t go there. I don’t think anyone should get involved with Paula; she’s dangerous. We need to get rid of her, not bring her in closer. I’m going to do a little digging later, find out what her story is. If she’s here to spy on us, I’ll send her packing before she can cause any trouble.”
“Count me out of the whole thing, I’m not going to risk getting in trouble with the clan,” Aaron said, throwing his hands up in the air. “My advice is to report this. If she didn’t see anything, she’ll be perfectly fine, and if she did, the clan knows how to handle these kinds of things.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of,” he said, frowning at Aaron. “They’re not exactly known for being gentle.”
“You do like her, don’t you?” Aaron asked, then elbowed him in the ribs. “You can tell me; I know how to keep my mouth shut.”
“It doesn’t matter if I like her or not, that has nothing to do with the situation,” he said, not willing to voice what he was feeling inside. “Besides, I’m engaged to be married, remember? I don’t think Erin would appreciate me chasing after another woman.”
“But you don’t love her, she doesn’t count,” Aaron said. “I still don’t know why you’re going through with it. Is what your parents think about you really that important to you? Don’t you want to live your own life?”
“It seemed like the easiest thing to do at the time and the wedding seemed so far away. I just wanted to be able to go to school without causing a major crisis,” he said, then let out a long sigh. “I really don’t want to talk about this right now. I try not to think about it anymore than I have to; it makes it easier to forget about what I agreed to do.”
“You could back out,” Aaron said. “It’s not too late; the engagement hasn’t been officially announced to the council.”
“I couldn’t do that, my parents would never talk to me again,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve been trying to talk my mother out of this marriage for years; she just won’t listen. All she can think about is having our names linked to the Van Housen’s. Nothing is going to change her mind.”
Aaron was silent for a long time. “I’m sorry, man, being rich is harder than I thought. It makes being poor not look so bad,” he finally said, looking over at Ryan. Then a grin spread across his face. “You are still buying dinner, aren’t you?”
***Paula***
When Paula walked in the back door the next afternoon to report for her first day of work, the last thing she expected was to see every surface of the kitchen covered with sugar cookies. Pausing in the doorway, she inhaled the scent of cinnamon and sugar, then quickly took off her coat and hung it up by the door. Hattie was grinning at her from across the room, a pastry bag in one hand, a tub of decorations in the other.
“It looks like you’ve been busy,” she said, walking over to the kitchen counter. “Where should I start?”
“The reindeer are going to take the longest,” Hattie said, handing everything over. “Let’s do those first, then the trees next. If there’s time, we’ll finish up with the snowmen.”
“Sounds good,” she said, grabbing a cookie and getting to work. “Don’t you just love Christmas? All the food, the decorations…”
