Sibling Rivalry

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

AS AIMEE STEPPED out into the hall, she saw Miss Fowler standing in front of her own door about to enter, her little Dachshund panting hard in her arms as she held it with its belly up as if it was a little baby. Aimee gave a silent groan and would have ducked back inside, but it was too late. That seemed to be the theme of her day. Miss Fowler already saw her. Miss Fowler saw everything.

“Well, good morning, Aimee. Heading to the pool? I can’t say I blame you. It’s a beautiful day for it. Duchess and I just got back from our morning stroll.” At the sound of her name, Duchess rolled her head toward Aimee, stretching her neck out wanting some attention. “Stop squirming, Duchess.” Miss Fowler tried to shake a loose strand of her gray hair out of her eyes as she glanced down at the dog.

Aimee reached out and scratched behind the dog’s chocolate ears. “Good morning, Duchess.” She glanced up at the older lady. “And how have you been?”

“Good, good. Of course, I’m not having to try and sleep with strange men in the house. I saw your sister’s friend leave this morning. How can you sleep with someone you don’t know in your home?”

“How do you know he wasn’t my friend?”

Miss Fowler just gave her a “get serious” look and continued talking. “That’s the third man this week. Is she going for a record? It doesn’t help a girl’s reputation, you know.”

Aimee felt the heat flush her face at the older woman’s rebuke, even though it wasn’t directed at her, but at her sister. “Why do you assume she’s doing something wrong? She just has a lot of friends. Besides, I can’t do anything about what Karla does. She’s her own woman.”

“Well, she needs to take lessons from you. You’re a respectable young woman. You’ll go far, mark my words.”

“Thank you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get to the pool before the chairs are all gone.” Aimee felt like she was just insulted. While she didn’t want to behave like her sister, she didn’t want the possibility so easily dismissed as ridiculous. The fact that Miss Fowler, who saw the worst in everyone, didn’t think Aimee could have a man spend the night said too much about her prudish lifestyle.

Arriving at the pool, she noticed Clint Asher and his little three-year-old, Abigail, playing at the shallow end on the steps. Abigail had floaties around her upper arms and wore a fairy princess one-piece. Long, brown hair clung to the middle of her back, as she bounced up and down on the steps, splashing water in all directions. Aimee felt the blush warm her cheeks as she remembered her fantasies last night, and she felt her s*x stir. She would go into a coma if he ever found out she m*********d with his face on her mind for the past few months. Well, since she met him, actually. She wondered if he would be as good in bed as he was in her mind.

Clint was twenty-eight, just three years older than her, but his being a father made him seem so much more mature in her eyes, the whole being a parent thing adding years where there weren’t any. Responsibility will do that to a person. It makes you grow up. He was slender with just the right amount of muscle tone in his arms and chest, giving him a fit physique that she dreamed would be on top of her one day. His short, brown hair was cut in a no-nonsense business cut that brought out his hazel eyes, which always seemed to sparkle even on the worst of days. His life was his daughter, and he was all little Abigail had, the mother preferring money to marriage and running off with some guy in a fancy convertible. How a mother could just walk out on someone so precious, Aimee would never understand. Abigail was adorable and Clint did a great job raising her by himself.

That was actually how Aimee impressed herself upon him when he moved into the Sea Breeze Condominiums seven months back. Aimee helped keep an eye on Abigail when Clint’s company, a local construction firm that focused on flipping old properties, kept him working later than his nanny could stay or when his parents were unavailable. Aimee didn’t mind, as Abigail had inherited her father’s easy-going manner. Besides, it allowed Aimee to get closer to Clint, except he saw her as nothing more than the friend who babysat for him once in a while. Their relationship was all in Aimee’s head, just as her s*x life was all in her fingers.

“Aimeeeee!” Abigail waved her arm as she screamed. Clint glanced up from where he was sitting on the steps. He smiled at her and offered a smaller wave than his daughter had, his smile slightly bashful, but pleasant.

Aimee nodded and smiled back, her hands too full to wave. “Beautiful day for the pool. I hope you don’t mind me crashing your quietness.”

“Quietness? With a three-year-old?” Clint laughed, as he shot her a playful, imploring look. “Please. Save me with some adult conversation.”

“Aimee to the rescue.” She pulled a lounge chair close to where they sat, but not too close. She had experienced Abigail in the pool before and knew what the splash zone of a toddler was. Aimee wanted sun, not a bath. “How has your week been?”

“Busy and boring, just the way I like it,” he said, as he watched her get situated, his hands palm flat on the edge of the pool, holding himself up.

Aimee sprawled out on her towel-covered chair and picked up her book. She didn’t need stripes up and down the flesh she desired to darken. Zebra stripes were not a fashion statement on anything other than zebras. “No fun adventures, huh?” She already knew what his answer would be, but it was one of those questions she always asked. Clint was a homebody much like herself, which is part of the reason they always seemed to get along so well.

“You know us single dads. The most excitement we get is wrestling a tot into pajamas before bedtime. It’d be fun to hit a club once in a while, but I don’t feel she should be with a babysitter at night after she’s been with one all day. How about yours?”

“You know me, I spend most of my time trying to keep Karla in her pajamas.” They both laughed. Aimee regaled him quite often with her sister’s antics. Clint was one of the few men who had so far escaped Karla’s clutches. To the best of Aimee’s knowledge, the two hadn’t even met, which was odd as Karla had a way of sniffing out single men. Of course, the fact he had a child would have scared her away. She didn’t like responsibility. It wouldn’t have mattered, however. Clint wasn’t looking for a hook up. He only had eyes for Abigail and, when he wasn’t working, the little girl devoured his time. It was one of the qualities Aimee admired about the man. His parents helped out now and then, but Aimee knew he didn’t want to depend on them too often.

She settled back in her chair and allowed the rays of the sun to beat down upon her body. She held her book in her lap, unopened. Her mind was too full of distractions to concentrate on the pages. For one thing, she was still pissed at her sister. First, for bringing Brad home, and then for expecting Aimee to be grateful she screwed a bargain out of him for her. She was also annoyed at her mother for always being too soft on Karla and forcing Aimee to take over for their father, being the enforcer.

“If I don’t give in to her, Aimee, I’ll lose her.” It was the excuse her mother gave her the last time they argued about her sister.

Aimee just shook her head. “She’s using you, Mom.”

“She needs me. I’m not turning my back on her.”

“What she needs is a swift kick in the ass. You’re allowing her to manipulate you. She’s a grown woman, for crying out loud! She can take care of herself. Trust me. I’ve had the unfortunate pleasure of listening to her do just that, thanks to our thin walls.”

Her mother didn’t catch the insinuation or, if she did, she chose to ignore it. “You don’t understand. If I don’t help her, she’ll stop loving me. I’ll lose her.”

“If you have to buy her love with money or favors, then it’s not love. You need to make her stand on her own two feet. Stop letting her use you.”

As always, her mom never listened to her and Aimee found herself attending lunches and dinners she would have rather missed just to keep Karla from ripping their mother off. Karla was trouble all through school, driving their father crazy. Their mother always made excuses for her, bailing her out of trouble. Of course, with all that pent up frustration, she had to let it out somewhere, and Aimee was the puppy that was constantly kicked. Obviously, her mother didn’t think she needed to buy Aimee’s love, which was fine. Aimee didn’t want her to feel she had to buy it. Yet, it would be nice to be on equal footing.

“Long day?” Aimee opened her eyes, as Clint slid into the lounge chair beside her, “Stay on the steps!” He called to Abigail, as he settled back to rest.

Aimee smiled. “Just a typical day.”

“That bad, huh?”

“Karla brought home some guy last night and they kept me up late. My mom wants us to go over tomorrow night for dinner. My car needs major surgery. I think that’s about it for now. Fingers crossed.”

He gave a low whistle. “Wow. When it rains, it pours. Anything I can do to help?”

“Do you want my sister to live with you?”

“How about I help with the car, instead?”

“Chicken.” Abigail let out a scream, as she threw water up into the air and let it hit her in the face. The little girl giggled hysterically as it pelted her, and Aimee laughed watching her. “But you seem to have such a way with kids,” she said to Clint through her laughter.

“One kid. I don’t need two, right now.”

“I don’t even want one, at least not right now, especially one that’s twenty-five.”

“What you need is a break and I have the perfect idea for you. My parents are picking Abigail up after lunch. I have to work early tomorrow morning, so they are having her spend the night, as opposed to me dropping her off before the sun comes up. Anyway, I have to do a walk through on this old house we’re being contracted to remodel. You’ve mentioned how you want to take some pictures of old buildings. Why not come out and snap some shots, while I do my walk-through? You’ll get your pictures, and I’ll get some company.”

Aimee thought about it a moment. She loved old buildings, especially abandoned houses. Usually there were things left inside that would make for some great photos. She toured one back in Gainesville and was able to sell the pictures almost immediately. They would probably go well at one of the art shows in the future. “Sounds like fun. When do you want to leave?”

“My parents are picking Abigail up at one, so how about right after that? It’ll give you some daylight for your pictures, since there’s no power in the building.”

“Sounds great. Still leaves me time to lay out.”

He just smiled at her as he laid back in his chair. “Great. Should be fun.”

Aimee closed her eyes, her mind full of images of being alone in an abandoned building with Clint Asher. She already felt the tingling between her legs. If only he saw her the way her fantasies had him seeing her, she wouldn’t be taking pictures at that building. Or they wouldn’t be taking pictures of just the building. Maybe she could get a few shots with his shirt off to aid in her m**********n rituals at night. She’d never stop touching herself if that happened.

Aimee stared up at the pale blue sky and forced her legs not to touch each other. She could feel her breathing becoming heavier as the images passed through her mind only to settle in the slick passage of her s*x. It was going to be a long afternoon of her thoughts torturing her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Oh boy, my sister, alone, in an abandoned building with a man. And you’re just planning on taking pictures? I bet that’s not what he has in mind.”

“Not the things you have in mind, I assure you,” Aimee said, as she slipped a T-shirt over her head. “I told you. He has his hands full raising his daughter. He doesn’t see me that way. I don’t think he sees anyone that way.”

Karla just shook her head at Aimee’s comment. “You have so much to learn.”

Aimee slipped on a pair of old jeans and slid her feet into a pair of dark sandals. “You’re not wearing that, are you?” Karla gave her a tsk-tsk tone, as she looked her sister up and down. “That’s not very enticing.”

Aimee gave herself a once-over. “It’s an old building. Besides, I’m not trying to be enticing. I’m going to be taking photographs.”

“What a waste of an abandoned building.”

The doorbell rang and Aimee grabbed her camera case and headed for the door. “Not everyone sees things as you do, sister dear. Sorry.”

“You’re the only one that doesn’t see the opportunities that I do,” her sister called after her.

Aimee was shaking her head when she opened the door. Clint just stared at her, his sparkling smile pushing his cheeks up. “Everything okay?”

“Karla is just being Karla.”

“Ah.” He gestured down the hall toward the elevator. “You ready?”

“Lead on.”

As they started walking toward the elevator, Miss Fowler opened her door and stepped out into the hall. She started to say something, but Clint ushered Aimee quickly past the elderly woman. “The way she likes to talk, we’ll be trapped there for hours,” he whispered once they were out of earshot.

Aimee just giggled. She couldn’t argue with him.

The ride over was filled with chitchat as Clint weaved through the Sunday after-church traffic. He drove a small, dark blue Toyota pickup, the bed of which was filled with his tools under a topper that he could keep locked. Abigail’s car seat was strapped in the back behind Aimee, so that he could glance over and see his daughter if necessary and reach her with his right arm. “Hard to do if she’s behind me.”

The house was nestled into a wooded area on River Road, surrounded by massive oaks and towering pines. As he drove down the winding driveway, Aimee felt as if she actually stepped back into another time. The giant branches offered shade over the drive and hid the house from the road and passersby. It would be easy to get lost in the scenery. The grass needed cutting, but the overgrowth added to the atmosphere of the house. Her gaze remained glued outside the truck, taking in everything they passed as he drove down the drive to the main house. She would have to walk back down the driveway, she told herself. It was like a nature trail all unto itself and the photo opportunities were terrific.

Clint parked his truck in front of the house, thanks to the circular drive, and they both stepped out into the humid afternoon. Clint held a clipboard in one hand and a pencil in the other. Aimee’s Nikon D3100 hung from the strap around her neck. She stared at the ancient Old West house, absorbing the nuances in the architecture and the faded, chipped paint.

“It should be safe, but I’d still be careful. You never know when a floorboard or step could be loose or rotted out. Just step gingerly until you’re sure. I need to wander around and take some notes. Holler out if you need anything.”

She glanced over at him, and his smile warmed her heart. “Thank you. I appreciate this.”

“My pleasure.”

She watched as he walked off toward the back of the house, his jeans snug around his ass, his shirt sliding across the muscles in his back. She would rather be exploring the old house with him, but she would take what she could get. After he rounded the corner and disappeared, she turned her attention back to the house in front of her. It seemed to be a completely wooden structure, with three steps leading up to a wraparound porch. The railing had some sagging boards and a section of the front steps had surrendered to the dank ground below, but it still looked pretty sound. Still, she heeded his advice and took soft steps, testing the wood beneath her feet. A creak gave her warning, but the wood held. She finished climbing the steps and entered the house.

An old, musty smell filled the air, a mixture of mildew and age. The first room was a giant living room with faded lemon paint, some of it peeled away. A dark molding trimmed the floor and ceiling, accenting the walls and drawing out the wooden floor. A broken rocking chair lay on its side in the corner, a leftover remnant proving someone once dwelt there, that the house knew life at one time. Newspapers, dating back a dozen years, littered the dining room floor. Dust covered everything, free of footprints and handprints, a testament to the abandonment of the house. Tattered drapes hung in front of a missing window.

Aimee took several photographs from all different angles of the paraphernalia that littered the home. She changed lenses, filters, zoomed in and zoomed out. She heard Clint moving about, but as soon as she started clicking away, she only had attention for what she saw through her lens. She abandoned herself to what spoke to her. Others saw a broken chair or trash. Aimee saw beauty that reached out to her from the past. Art was about what you could make others see and feel. If the piece spoke to her, she could make it speak to others, and that is what she wanted, to speak to people.

“How’s it going?”

She jumped, almost tumbling backwards at the sound of Clint’s voice. She clutched her chest with one hand and protected her camera with the other. She tried to ignore his laughter, but she couldn’t blame him and soon was laughing as well. “Other than a racing heart right now, I’m doing pretty well. I think I have some great shots. This has been fantastic. I can’t thank you enough.”

“I’m glad you were able to get some photos.” He stood with his clipboard dangling by his side. She could see his cursive writing all over it along with measurements and symbols. “I’m about finished up, so whenever you’re ready, we can go. No hurry, though. Take your time.”

“Thanks. Maybe just a few more shots. I really owe you for this.”

“Do you now? Well then, how about paying me back by not making me eat alone tonight?”

Aimee stopped, her finger still on the button of the camera, and looked up at him. “Are you asking me out?”

He shrugged. “Nothing wrong with friends catching a meal together. Besides, I owe you for all the times you’ve babysat Abigail. I figure a meal is cheaper than an extra babysitter. See, I’m really cheap and just using the meal to get out of another payment.” He grinned at her, and Aimee just shook her head.

She looked down at herself. She was covered in dirt, and her outfit was not chosen for dinner out, but rather to get down in the dust and grime of an old house. “I can’t go out like this.”

“Really? Why not?” His grin was bigger as he stared at her. “I’m just joking. We can go back, both clean up and change, and then head out. It would save me from having to heat up a frozen dinner and downing a bottle of wine alone.”

“Well, I guess we can’t have you suffering in isolation, now can we?” She finished taking her photograph, and then stood up. “Dinner sounds good to me, but you don’t owe me for babysitting Abigail. I love that little girl. She’s one of the sweetest kids I know. Plus, she’s easier to babysit than Karla.”

“Well then, I’m rescuing you.”

“How about we rescue each other?”

His eyes sparkled as he watched her. “I like that.”

She felt the warmth between her legs burst into a flaming heat, as her heart pounded a rapid beat. She wished she could say it was a date, but she would settle for a dinner out with a friend. She had an active fantasy life. She could always pretend.

And she would. A lot.

Besides, as Clint said, it was better than eating alone.

After a few more shots, she told him she was ready to go. Stepping back out into the humid night, the sky already started to be swallowed up by dusk. Crickets were heard singing their song from the shrubs that bordered the property, as squirrels leaped from branch to branch in a fast game of tag. She tried to catch a few in mid-leap before she slid into the passenger seat of his truck.

“All set?” He turned the ignition and his truck roared to life.

“Yes. A shower sounds good right about now. Thank you again. These should go over well at the art show.”

“Anytime I can help. Besides, it was nice having company who didn’t squeal and beg for piggyback rides.”

“Wait, I could have had a piggyback ride? Why didn’t you tell me? I would have squealed.” As soon as she said it, she blushed at the thought of him making her squeal. He probably could make her do much more than that. The truck hit a bump in the drive, jouncing her a bit, and it sent electric shivers through her body, causing her to focus on her passion. She took a deep breath, as he pulled back out onto the road. Glancing over, she saw the smirk on his face. Her comment obviously sent the same thoughts into his head, as well. It was going to be a long night.