“I’ve been better.”
The truth was she didn’t need any added drama in her life right now. Especially from her friends. The note on her desk at work that suggested she kill herself and save oxygen for the rest of humanity was enough to make her want to move to the middle of nowhere. Most days the threats rolled off her back and she filed the notes away for safe keeping, just in case. Today wasn’t one of those days.
Baby gulped back another sip and glanced at her friends. “Drink up,” she said, offering them each a glass of the Australian Shiraz.
Silence reined as they took their first sip. As was their weekly custom, they sampled new wines, jotted down notes on the special cards Gretchen had designed and talked each others’ ears off.
“As soon as you tell us what’s wrong,” JJ said.
Baby chortled. “We don’t have enough wine here to get through that.”
“Maybe not,” Gretchen said. “But you’ve got good friends.”
There was a sincerity in her voice that reminded Baby that she could share anything with these women. But she didn’t want to drag them into her issues. The note at the office was just another random annoyance that came with the position. And Joe… what could she say about that?
I want to bonk his brains out and he can’t stand the sight of me?
No woman wanted to think that, let alone announce it to the world. She just needed to get over him was all. Maybe she’d drive up to Fort Benning and troll for a Ranger to sooth her wounded ego. That’s all it was. Injured pride. Baby prided herself on going after what she wanted, doing the research necessary to obtain it and ultimately, having whatever her heart desired. Failure wasn’t an option.
Which was why Joe’s rejection baffled her as much as it stung.
“Just stuff at work. No biggie. What’s up with you guys?”
JJ gave Gretchen a long sideways glance. “My news isn’t as exciting as Gretchen’s.”
JJ’s smile was wide and mischievous.
“What did I miss?” She stared at Gretchen carefully, really looked at her for the first time since she’d walked in the door. That’s when she noticed the reddish sheen to her friend’s hair, and the sleek cut.
“Your hair!” And the curve hugging skirt that looked too posh to wear to a kindergarten classroom.
“It’s not just the hair,” JJ said.
“Oh hush.” Gretchen stuck out her tongue.
“Tell me!”
“There’s not much to tell.”
“She’s in love,” JJ gushed.
“With who?” Baby sat forward, eager for the details. While she never wanted to experience that gut-dicing emotion again, she was thrilled that her friends were finding forever men. That was the key…finding a man who would stick around when the going got tough. Trevor was certainly the type. The judgement was still out on Adam.
“My brother.” JJ beamed.
Baby rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Which one?”
JJ made a show of slowly turning her head toward Gretchen.
“Greg.”
“Hey,” JJ said, scooting closer. “I thought you were excited about this. Did something happen?”
Gretchen finished off her glass of wine like a woman dying of thirst. But everyone recognized it as the sign it was. Liquid courage. Baby rushed to refill the empty glass and JJ reached for Gretchen’s hand.
“I was. I am. I don’t know. We’re so different,” Gretchen said without taking a breath.
Baby thrust the glass into her hands.
“Different is good, right?” Baby asked. “If everyone was the same… boring!”
Gretchen sniffed and Baby could see that as happy as her friend was, there were serious demons lurking. “Easy for you to say. You’re gorgeous and outgoing.”
“Have you looked in the mirror today?” Baby shot back.
“It is easy for me to say, Baby. I saw you.”
“Saw me when?” Baby blinked at JJ trying to figure out what in the world was going on. She had the sneaking suspicion that whatever it was was tied to Gretchen’s moodiness lately.
“At the party. He picked you. It crushed me. I’d just decided that there was no reason to hold back any longer. I was going to tell him that day that I liked him. See if he wanted to get coffee sometime. It all sounds so silly now. And then you showed up and he walked off. Now he’s in my house and my heart and he won’t get out. And then he kisses me and it’s like the universe disappears and it’s just the two of us. And I keep thinking this is crazy. We can’t be carrying on like this. He was in a horrific car accident. A man lost his life. And we’re carrying on like teenagers. And he’s injured. I’m taking advantage of an injured man.”
Gretchen’s brown eyes blazed and flashed with emotion, imploring them to understand. To help her make sense of a crazy situation.
Baby was dumbfounded, which didn’t happen too often. Her job required a sharp mind and staying on level playing field in an office full of men required a quick tongue. But wow…it was a lot to process.
“I thought I could do it,” Gretchen said, glancing at JJ. She pursed her lips, shook her head slightly and then continued. “I was trying to get over him. And I thought it wouldn’t be a big deal to take care of him. And it’s not, not really―”
“Oh honey―”
“He makes me feel…wonderful. Complete. Beautiful. And last night…” She paused and closed her eyes. Baby was riveted. “My mother showed up out of the blue. Can you believe it? I haven’t seen her in years and she just shows up wanting to play house. She’s married again. This guy evidently is a big fish, from what Annie says. Greg was so sweet. He should have been running for the hills.”
“Why? We all have a few skeletons under the bed,” Baby said, knowing that better than anyone.
“Fairchild men are made of strong stuff, you know that,” JJ added.
Gretchen nodded.
“Have you told him how you feel?” Baby asked.
Gretchen shook her head. “No.” She took a few deep breaths and seemed to compose herself. “I was ready to this morning. I was going to lay it all out there. Not to pressure him but just to let him know how I feel.”
“How do you feel?” Baby asked, needing all the details.
Gretchen shrugged and stared into her wine glass. “Like I can’t breathe at the thought of him walking out of my life. Like I’d give anything to make him stay. Like he’s the one man I can be my dorky self around and I don’t want to lose him. Did I tell you he had his housekeeper come clean my house while I was at school today? He introduced my work to Lillith White. I’m―what if this isn’t going anywhere for him? What if I’m a diversion?”
Gretchen seemed close to hyperventilating or possibly breaking down. JJ wrapped an arm around Gretchen’s shoulders and Baby skirted her sleek, imported Italian coffee table and settled on her friend’s other side.
“You really are in love,” she murmured, bemused and at the same time, happy for her friend. Gretchen was one of those women who wanted to fall in love and deserved a great guy.
“So why didn’t you tell him?” JJ asked.
“I was going to but after last night...”
“When your mother showed up?”
Gretchen shook her head.
“What happened? Did he say something?” JJ asked.
“We can have Joe beat him up,” Baby added.
Gretchen shook her head again.
“I didn’t know sex could be like that,” she whispered, her voice breaking.
“Oh honey,” JJ said, tightening her arm and pulling their friend in for a hug.
Normally Baby would pester for details but not today. Not about this. Not with so many emotions involved.
Silence reined for several minutes. They sipped their wine and glanced at each other, each of them lost in thought. Baby knew as well as anyone how hard it was to admit to a man that you loved him beyond all reason. She also knew what it was like to have that love thrown back in her face
, dashing her hopes and dreams. No, it’d been worse than that. He’d crushed her heart like powder.
“For what it’s worth, Greg didn’t choose me.”
Gretchen frowned. “What do you mean?”
“If I’d known you liked him, I never would have done it. You have to know that, G.”
“Done what?” JJ asked.
Baby took a fortifying breath and prepared to share a moment she’d thought to take to the grave. But her friend needed to know the truth.
“I made Greg promise not to tell… At the party, I hit on Joe. He turned me down and he wasn’t nice about it. Before you say anything―“ she looked at JJ. “It was all me. Joe’s a great guy and I’m sure he’s a good bodyguard but it hurt. I guess I don’t hear no very often. I wanted to make him jealous and I knew that Greg wouldn’t say no if I told him I needed his help with something.”
Baby dared a glance at Gretchen and felt a little sick to her stomach. Her friend was wide eyed, hanging on every word.
She licked her lips and continued. “Greg thought I’d changed my mind about dating him and he was pissed when I made him promise not to tell anyone why I’d asked him upstairs. He left immediately and I waited another fifteen minutes or so to make it look like we’d been up to something.”
Baby slipped off the sofa and knelt in front of Gretchen’s chair. “Nothing happened, I promise.”
“Not at the Super Bowl party. But he liked you before. Last year.”
“I told him the score and he wasn’t interested.”
“You know Baby’s not the first girl he’s been interested in,” JJ said quietly.
“Besides, he only liked me because I flirt like a fiend.”
“I know that,” Gretchen said, glancing at JJ. Then she turned her attention back to Baby. “But I’m not like you. I’m not super outgoing and flirty. I can’t just say whatever pops into my brain. I’m not the life of the party and I’m not the least bit athletic.”
“Who said anything about athletic?” Baby asked.
Gretchen sighed and shrugged. “Tasha. Jenny. Wasn’t there a Harper in there who played volleyball or was it softball?”
“Who cares about anyone else? You’re perfect just as you are and I think you’re perfect for him,” JJ declared. Baby added a succinct nod for good measure.
“But what if he doesn’t think so?”
“All you can do is follow your heart,” JJ said.
“And tell him how you feel. You can’t punish the guy for something he doesn’t know is a problem. Men are incredibly dense about stuff like this,” Baby added.
The doorbell chimed again and Baby rushed to open it. Cindy breezed in and didn’t bother to take off her coat.
“Sorry I’m late. What’d I miss?”
JJ stood and poured Cindy a glass of wine. “Well, Gretchen’s in love with Greg. Baby had a crappy day at work, and Trevor and I set a wedding date.”
Ear piercing screams tore through her town house and Baby wasn’t the least bit shocked when Joe steam rolled through the front door, gun drawn.
Damn, could that man get any sexier?
27
The agony flooding the church sanctuary was thick enough to cut with a knife Saturday afternoon. To lose someone so young. So full of life...what a tragedy.
At least fifty people had gathered to pay their respects to Peter and she’d offered to go with Greg since she knew he was going to need the support. The pictures and the stories portrayed Peter as a young, hardworking, vibrant man, not unlike the man at Gretchen’s side.
Emotions assailed her and it would have been easy to give in to her sorrow, her fear. A singular thought took up residence in her brain and wouldn’t stop repeating itself.
That could have been Greg.
It could just as easily have been Greg driving the car, laying in that casket. These people, all those flower arrangements could have been at his funeral.
She never would have been able to tell him how she felt. He wouldn’t have needed rescuing from the hospital; she would have had a very different kind of Sunday dinner with the Fairchilds. And she would have mourned him. Perhaps not openly, but she would have mourned the loss just the same.
Her breath halted in her throat and she fought back a sob. She had to hold it together. Today was about those grieving family members and friends. Greg was still alive. Remote, but alive. Somehow she needed to focus on that.
Greg’s gut tightened as the six men hoisted the grey casket and carried it down the aisle. Peter had plenty of friends and family to do the job and Greg didn’t trust his knee to hold out under the weight. Not that anyone had asked him to be a pallbearer.
Quite the opposite. He felt people looking at him and knew what they were thinking.
He’d made it out alive. He was walking and breathing and worst of all, enjoying the company of a good woman.
What a bastard he was.
He shouldn’t be enjoying himself. A man had died an arm’s length away and he hadn’t been able to save him. Maybe if he’d been paying more attention he would have seen the truck in time to sound a warning.
The heavy floral scent hammered home the reality of the situation better than anything else. It swept him back in time to when his mother had died. The thick potpourri of roses and lilies was a scent he’d never forget.
He’d been kidding himself all week. Even though he’d known the gravity of the situation, his mind hadn’t wanted to believe the truth.
The truth was, Peter was dead. Heading out the door in a casket carried by his closest friends.
He would never taste home cooking or chocolate chip cookies again. He’d never dine out at a fabulous steakhouse or celebrate life’s little victories. He would never kiss his fiancé again or stare into her eyes or make love to her in the early morning hours just because he could. He’d never marry or have kids or become a grandfather.
As if sensing his distress, Gretchen reached for his hand and he returned to the here and now. But for some reason, her touch didn’t sooth him like it usually did. In fact, her warm, smooth skin was a reminder of what he’d been enjoying all week while Peter had lain on a cold slab in the morgue. His chest tightened as he glanced back at the closed casket.
Soft organ music played as people filed out of the church behind it. He searched the faces of the people crowding the aisle. They all wore a similar expression, one he felt to the depths of his soul. Life wasn’t fair. No one should die so young.
Peter’s fiancé choked back a sob and Peter’s father put an arm around her shoulders. She leaned against the old man and dabbed a tissue under her eyes. But then her gaze zeroed on Greg and he couldn’t escape the agony etched there. She stared at the space where Gretchen’s hand held his and he suddenly felt like he’d been singed. He let go of Gretchen’s hand and shoved his fists into his pockets.
“Greg?” Gretchen asked quietly as he stepped into the aisle.
He couldn’t answer her, not right now. Instead he forced several deep breaths into his lungs and followed the crowd.
“Are you okay?” Gretchen whispered when they were almost to the doors.
Why were people standing around? They were all saying the same thing, everyone was thinking the same thing.
A flush of heat scalded the back of his neck and then the hairs stood up. People were staring. He didn’t have to look to be sure.
A sob echoed through the space, which wasn’t unusual. There were lots of tears today, cries of injustice, tissue boxes being passed around. His heart ached. So did his head.
“Why?” The voice came from the back. And then in a slightly hushed tone, “I don’t understand. Why is he here?”
The words were broken and though he’d never heard her voice before he knew exactly who’d spoken.
And whom she was speaking about.
Gretchen must have heard too because she turned and surveyed the faces behind them. Before she could say a word he muttered several excuse mes and edged his way outside.
>
He’d never suffered an anxiety attack before but that had to be the cause of his pounding heart and the tightness in his throat. The overwhelming feeling that everything was going to hell in a hand basket gnawed him from the inside out like a piranha trying to pick his bones clean.
He skirted the corner of the building and bent over, bracing his hands against his knees. One thought after another flooded his brain until there was no making sense of them. And just when he thought that he might actually suffocate on the warm spring air, just as blackness seeped into the edges of his vision, warm strong arms wrapped around his shoulders.
She didn’t have to say a word to pull him back from the brink. Instead, she ran a soothing hand over his back, round and round until the darkness ebbed and his lungs didn’t burn quite so badly.
“She’s in a lot of pain. I’m sure she doesn’t know what she’s saying,” she said quietly, soothingly.
But that was the hell of it. “She’s right. What am I doing here?”
He straightened.
“Greg, no.”
He stared across the parking lot at the people getting into their vehicles.
“Why did I survive and Peter didn’t? She has every right to wonder the same damn thing. They were in love, getting married. Three months. I had no one. No one with a ring on her finger, no one to share my life with. They were supposed to have their happily ever after in three months, Gretchen. How is that fair?”
“It’s not, but you have to ignore her. You’re here to show your respect. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
She wrapped her arms around his waist but again, he felt minimal comfort from her embrace.
“We can’t change the past, but we can change our future. We can learn from this―”
“What could we possibly learn?” He already knew to wait for all the traffic to stop for a red light before he hit the gas. That hadn’t stopped this accident.
“Like the Pastor said, we live each day like it’s our last. We tell our loved ones we love them. We live the best life we can. We take our chances and make the most out of the time we’re given.”
Falling for His Fake Fiancée (Book 2, Girls' Night Trilogy) Page 23