Hurricanes in Paradise by Denise Hildreth (web ebook reader .TXT) 📕

the edges of her shoulders, her hands on the hips of her red dress, and her black eyes blazing. Her voice, however, was completely calm. “I don’t owe you any explanation, to be honest with you, Riley. If I decide to change my mind, I decide to change my mind.” She could tell by Riley’s expression that didn’t register well.

“I have other guests I’m responsible for, Ms. Fulton.” Now she was Ms. Fulton. “Guests who appreciate my service and attention. So, forgive me, but yes, if you’re not going to show, I would appreciate a phone call. A common courtesy. I don’t care where you’re from; decency is decency.”

Laine felt her own anger rise but maintained control. “You know what, Riley? I simply don’t like you.” There. She said it. And it felt as awful as it sounded. “You and your little perfect life, flitting around here as if you are doing the world a favor.” She motioned with her hand. “With your senator daddy and your fancy name.”

“Perfect? You think I’m perfect? You’re mad at me because you think I’m perfect?” Riley’s rage seemed to escalate with each rhetorical question.

“I believe that’s what I said.”

Riley moved in closer to Laine. She invaded her space to an uncomfortable level, but Laine refused to move. She could see the tears that now lay at the edges of Riley’s eyes. Laine wouldn’t let her face betray her, holding her glare steady.

“Okay, Laine, since you know me so well and are such a discerner of people, just tell me what exactly made me so perfect. Huh?” Her anger was palpable now, and her words were engorged with passion and furor.

“Was I perfect when the car I was driving ran over a little boy, Laine? Was I perfect when I snuffed out the life of a three-year-old right in front of his mother? a little boy who was doing nothing but chasing a ball out into the road? Was I perfect then, Laine?”

Laine sat there, stoic. She wouldn’t even let herself blink.

“Or, no, wait; oh yes, I know.” She watched as Riley slammed her hands together. “I was perfect when I became so depressed that I consumed enough alcohol to drown my self-loathing and destroy my family. Was that perfect woman the one you were talking about? Or was I perfect when my husband left and had full custody of my child because I didn’t have a waking moment that was sober? Was I perfect then, Laine? Tell me, because I really want to know. Is that the perfect woman you were talking about? the one you—oh, how did you say it?—‘simply don’t like’?”

Laine’s jaw pulsed as she clenched her teeth.

Riley’s tears were free-falling now. “Was I perfect when even my own daddy—” she all but spat the words—“knew it was best for my husband to raise my baby? Was I perfect then, Laine? Or no, maybe it was when I stole from my own parents just to have another bottle of booze, and they finally had to kick me out of their house too.” Her hands shot up to the heavens. “That has to be when I was perfect!”

Riley swatted at her tears and appeared to gain control of herself. Her voice was now almost a whisper. “You have no idea, Laine. You want to talk about perfect, let’s dissect your life. But don’t you dare—and I mean, don’t you dare—ever judge me again. And I don’t care if I lose my job. Because I’d rather lose my job than be treated with the level of disrespect you have shown me over the last couple of days. But you can rest assured it stops here.”

She turned and walked out through the lobby, leaving a wake that all but took Laine under.

* * *

Laine refused to move until Riley was no longer in her view. Then she bent down slowly, picked up her bag, and walked to her room. It wasn’t until the door was closed neatly behind her that she collapsed onto the floor. She was now officially everything she hated. Which seemed fitting for a person who hated herself so completely. Her tears fell on the plush taupe carpet with abandon. She didn’t care what stain they left because it would pale in comparison to the stain that rested on her soul. To the A that was sewn on her chest. To the demons that clawed at her mind. She had been mean. She had been cruel. She had been downright evil. She had hurt Riley to her core. It was evident. And she had deserved every ounce of Riley’s anger.

She’d had no idea. She had no idea what Riley’s past looked like. Riley saw the contempt Laine had for her. What she didn’t see was the contempt Laine had for herself. Riley had never been anything but kind. Not once had she judged her. Not once had she avoided her, even when Laine treated her with complete disrespect. The crying started from her gut and the wails grew until her body shook with sobs. There were no words, just groans from someplace so deep and dark and broken that the intensity of it would have dropped her to the ground had her face not already been buried in the carpet.

Tears rushed down her face in such rapid tandem that the carpet beneath her was wet against her cheek. Her body lurched forward and back with each gushing wave that rolled through her. And with each surge of unleashed regret, the groans crescendoed. In her entire life she knew she had never been more desperate or more completely vulnerable than she was this moment. It felt unavoidable and emptying. And somewhere in the middle of it, a whisper penetrated her cries and traveled straight to her heart.

“You’re never so far that He can’t find you.”

They were Mitchell’s last words to her the day she had moved out of the house. Those words had driven her crazy for the last year and a half. His faith