All Our Next Times: Fallen Brook Series: Book 1

by Jennilynn Wyer

  Elizabeth’s curtains pull back and I see her shocked face looking at me as she unlatches, then pulls up her window.

  “Ryder, what the hell?”

  “Hey, Elizabeth. Do you mind waiting to yell at me until I get inside? I hate to admit that I’m a little terrified up here.” My stupid eyes decide at that moment to look down and I go green, stomach rolling like I’m about to puke. Yeah, not the best idea I had coming up here. Elizabeth must see the color drain from my face.

  “Ryder, aren’t you afraid of heights?”

  “Yep,” I croak. One might find it a bit ridiculous that someone like me, a guy who races cars and bikes – bikes he does backflips and tricks with – would be afraid of heights, but I am.

  “Oh, crap. Oh, ok. Here, take my hand and inch forward just a bit.” She guides me on what to do and I breathe a sigh of relief when my feet touch her bedroom floor. My body slides down to follow. Elizabeth sits cross-legged in front of me, rubbing my legs and arms vigorously.

  “I don’t have hypothermia.”

  “Just shut up. I can’t believe you did that.”

  “You do it all the time.”

  “I also don’t have acrophobia.”

  I have no comeback for that.

  Her hands slow their rubbing when she notices my busted knuckles. Without saying a word, she gets up and goes into her bathroom. I can hear Hailey’s voice faintly before a door closes and then sounds of rummaging around. Elizabeth comes back out with a first aid kit and sits back down grabbing my right hand.

  “Here. Let me take a look at that.” Her fingers ever so gently feather across where scabs have formed over my middle three knuckles. She takes out a square packet from the kit and tears it open. “This may sting a little.” Elizabeth takes her time wiping away the old blood and applies some ointment. She repeats it all again on my other hand.

  “Do I get a lollipop for being a good patient?”

  Her light green eyes trail up to my golden ones. She lifts my curled hands to press a soft kiss on each one, then blows. All the blood suddenly rushes to my crotch.

  “I’m out of lollipops. Will that do?”

  No, I want to say.

  I lean back against the wall at her window needing the extra space between us before I do something stupid to make this shitty night go from bad to worse. “Elizabeth, I came here to see how you were doing and to tell you about Jay. You didn’t answer any of my or Julien’s texts or calls.”

  “I turned it off. We’re not talking about him right now.”

  “No, you don’t understand, Eliza-”

  “I said, we are not talking about him right now!” she snaps at me and then immediately backs down, exhaling loudly. “Sorry. I’m not mad at you. I shouldn’t be yelling at you. You did nothing wrong.”

  “I understand. But I really need to tell you-” she slaps her hand over my mouth to shut me up.

  “I said no, Ryder. I just can’t right now. Please drop it. For me.” Since her hand is over my mouth, I nod yes.

  Elizabeth removes her hand and gets up to pace back and forth in front of me. “What if I made a mistake, Ryder? It’s something I think about all the time. It’s something I thought about tonight. God, this is all so crazy. So insane. My thoughts are all jumbled and I’m angry. I’m confused.”

  “Elizabeth, you’re not making any sense. And I really do need to talk with you.”

  She stops pacing. “What if it was you that came through my window that night?” she says at the same time I say, “need to talk to you.”

  “What?” we say at the same time again.

  She’s the first to continue. “That’s what I think about sometimes. I think about you. What if it was you that night? There’s always a part of me that wonders what if.”

  My brain is malfunctioning at her words, what they mean. I need to stop this. I need to tell her about Jayson, how he was drugged and is in the hospital, how he needs her there with him. But I just can’t because my mouth won’t cooperate with what my brain is telling it to do. So I sit back and listen.

  “There’s a part of me that knows that no matter what, no matter how much I love him, I will always love you, too,” she confesses. “He ripped my heart out tonight, Ryder. He destroyed me. I gave him everything. I chose him over you, and he destroyed me. It hurts so much, so, so, much,” she cries, huge silent tears tracing down her face. “Part of me wishes that I never said yes to him that night. That I said yes to you instead. You would never hurt me like that, would you Ryder?” Elizabeth’s liquid verdant eyes bore into me, begging me to ease her pain, make it go away, give her promises that I know I won’t be able to give and still live with myself without a heavy burden of guilt weighing me down.

  I decide to once again be the better man. I lift myself up and go to her, taking her in my arms. “Sweetheart, I know you’re upset and angry and confused. I know you’re feeling hurt and want that hurt to go away. I wish I could be the one to give that to you. I wish things were not what they are between us, between you and Jay. But they are. I have loved you for years. I have loved you enough to let you go and find your happiness. I told you I’m not going anywhere, regardless of if we’re together or not. Perhaps, one day, we’ll get our chance. Fuck, I wish that with everything in me. But today,” I kiss her temple, “today, you need to be with Jayson.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she cries into my chest, shoulders shaking, her hands gripping the front of my shirt wet with her tears. “You must hate me for saying these things to you. I’m so sorry. How could you love someone like me? I’m screwed up. I’m selfish.”

  “Not selfish, Elizabeth,” I tell her. “Just wishing for something right now that’s not possible. And after you truly understand what happened, you would hate yourself if we allowed things to happen between us tonight.” I lift her chin, cup her face, needing that small contact before I say the words that will cement my future by letting her go once again to be with him. “Jayson is in the hospital. He needs you Elizabeth. I came here to bring you to him.”

  Her voice cracks with grief. “Oh my God. What? How? Why?”

  “I think we need to sit down for this.” I pull her to sit on the side of her bed. We don’t let go of each other yet, our souls craving that physical bond holding the threads of our disjointed hearts from flying away into night. She and I will forever be tied together, just like she is with Jayson and Julien. I meant what I said, believing the words my dad told me the day my world fell apart and I lost her to Jayson. She needs to experience life and love, the good parts and the bad. And I will continue to hope that one day she will be mine to love, be free to love. Hope that all of this, the things we feel and do and say right now, will be worth it in the end.

  “He didn’t do it, Elizabeth. He told you the truth.”

  Her eyes go wide, then she frowns. “How do you know for sure? We saw the same thing. He and,..” she swallows hard. “They were half naked, wrapped around each other. I know what I saw!”

  “He was drugged, Elizabeth. He didn’t know what he was doing.”

  “Drugged?” she almost shouts before lowering her voice. “What the hell do you mean? How do you know?”

  I fill her in on everything. How he was acting, the dizziness, vomiting, memory loss. As I explain it all to her, she goes from worried to furious to murderous. “The bloodwork confirmed it. He had GHB in his system. I looked it up and everything he did, the over the top way he went after Marshall, the dizziness, vomiting, not remembering stuff, even winding up with Jacinda, it was because of it.”

  Elizabeth grabs her tablet and looks GHB up on the CDC website to confirm what I’m telling her. “How can we be sure that he didn’t take it willingly?”

  “I talked to Maria on my way over here. He was never out of her sight even when she went to grab the bottles of water. She saw Jacinda and Samantha give him the red cups. That’s the only thing he drank before they came outside.” Elizabeth growls when I say Jacinda’s name. “It’s not his fault, Elizabeth
.”

  I cup her head between my hands and force her to look at me. “You also didn’t see him after. He’s torn up and kicking himself knowing that he hurt you. He’s broken inside, blaming himself, wanting you to forgive him. He needs you, Elizabeth. Will you let me take you to see him in the morning?”

  She bites her lip and nods slowly.

  “I’ll pick you up at seven. If everything's good overnight, they’ll discharge him in the morning.” I stand up and wipe my hands on my jeans. “Is it alright with you if I exit through your front door and not the tree?”

  Her hand on my arm stops me from leaving. “Will you stay with me? Or just hold me until I fall asleep?”

  “My beautiful Elizabeth. I would do anything for you.” She looks so lost at that moment, like a butterfly whose wings have been damaged and it struggles to keep flying, to keep going. She reaches out and takes my larger hand in her smaller, more delicate one, and leads me back to her bed. I remove my shoes and climb on top of her comforter, leaning back against her headboard with my legs outstretched. She joins me and snuggles into my side laying her head in the crook of my shoulder and closes her eyes. The smell of her jasmine body lotion envelops us.

  “Would you rather,” she begins in a soft cadence as her voice turns husky with sleep. “Would you rather be rich and feel somewhat content, or poor and be extremely happy?”

  “That’s easy,” I say. “I’d rather be poor and happy.”

  “Me too,” she replies, eyes fluttering down in exhaustion. She’s had a very long, hard night. “You make me happy, Ryder.”

  “As do you, sweet Elizabeth,” I murmur back but she’s already asleep.

  Jayson

  Mom, dad, and Julien just left to go home and eat and take showers. They stayed in the waiting room all night until visiting hours started up again this morning. The doctor on rotation came in not long ago and said I should be discharged later today after they do one more blood draw to make sure things look good. The hospital staff have been nice, but the food is god-awful. I check my phone again. Still no word from Ryder or Liz. I text Julien.

  Me: Bring me back two sausage biscuits. Hospital food sucks. I’m starving.

  Julien: Got it. I’ll even throw in a side of hash browns. See you in an hour.

  To pass the time, I pull up my Netflix app and decide to watch Patriot Act with Hasan Minaj. I hear my hospital door open, more than likely a nurse coming in to check on me. At least the blood pressure cuff isn’t going off every fifteen minutes anymore.

  “Hey,” a soft voice says. My head whips up so fast I see flashing lights behind my eyes. Or maybe they are caused by the sight of my girl standing in front of me looking like a gorgeous fairy princess in a rose blouse and brown skirt, her long platinum hair hanging loose around her shoulders. She is a fucking sight to behold and my eyes devour every inch of her. I have missed the hell out of her.

  Ryder steps in behind her. “Hey, man. How are you this morning?”

  I don’t care how he did it, but she’s here. She’s really fucking here, and I owe him so damn much for this, for convincing her to come, for bringing her here. “I’m good. They’re letting me go home today.” I lick my lips which have suddenly gone dry as a desert and reach for the cup of water with the bendy straw in it. Liz rushes over to hand it to me and puts it back when I’ve taken a couple of sips. She looks nervous as hell to be here.

  I look to Ryder. “Does she know?”

  “Yeah, she knows. I told her everything.”

  “Baby. I’m so sorry.” I reach out to her, but she steps back and drops her head. Panic once again rises up inside me. She’s decided she doesn’t want me anymore. We’re done. She’s leaving me. It’s all my fault.

  I watch helplessly as Ryder leaves the room and closes the door, leaving me alone not knowing what to do or what to say to Liz to make things right with her. The room is so silent, only the sound of the hospital equipment and tiny rhythmic plops like raindrops hitting the sidewalk can be heard. I look down and see little puddles on the floor at Liz’s feet and my heart drops. “God, baby, don’t cry. Please don’t cry,” I choke up.

  “Did you have sex with her?” she asks, her voice broken and barely audible.

  My answer is loud and strong, leaving no doubt. “No. I would never do that to you. I would never want to.”

  “Did you kiss her? Touch her?”

  “I wish I could say no, but I honestly don’t know. I don’t remember. God, I would give anything to remember, to be able to tell you with absolute certainty no. I pray that I didn’t. Wish it with all my heart. The only girl I want to touch, to kiss, to be with, is you, Liz. No one else. Only you. I love you so fucking much. So much, Liz. Please come here. I need you to come here. Please let me hold you,” I beg.

  We reach for each other at the same time and I pull her over and on top of me in the hospital bed. I shower kisses all over her wet face, drinking up her tears. She wraps her arms around my neck, and it doesn’t take long for her to kiss me back, her tears infusing a salty flavor to our kiss. Our mouths move energetically over each other’s faces before finally coming together in an all-consuming meeting of our lips. My tongue tangles and dances and takes as I make love to her with my mouth. I try to tell her with this kiss that her lips and her body are the only ones I want against mine. I am forever hers, only hers. She owns every part of me.

  I murmur against her delectable lips, “If we weren’t in this hospital bed, I would tear your clothes off and fuck you senseless. I missed you so much.”

  My heart soars when I feel her smile. “They do say make-up sex is the best sex.”

  “Damn straight. And I plan on proving that theory with you as soon as I can get out of here.”

  Liz kisses me one last time and pulls back. “We do need to talk, Jayson. I am still so mad right now. Did Jacinda really do it?”

  “We won’t be able to prove anything. I mean, yes, they handed me the drinks, but they could have been their drinks and someone else could have put the stuff in them before. Maybe that shit was meant for them, or as a prank at the party. Who the fuck knows?”

  “What about the fight? Ryder explained to me on the way here that it’s a strong possibility that Marshall will bring assault charges against you.”

  I roll her to my side and allow her to get comfortable, which is hard as the bed is narrow, but I’m not letting her go any time soon. “We’ll just have to wait and see and hope for the best. If it comes down to it, I can prove I was not responsible for my actions because someone slipped me a roofie.”

  “And you have me and the guys. I’ll make an official statement about how Marshall instigated the whole thing by provoking the fight if I need to.”

  “Do I Liz? Do I have you?” I link our hands.

  “Yes, Jayson. You have me. I’m yours. I love you.” I feel a huge weight being lifted, releasing the stranglehold on my heart, and I can breathe again.

  “Thank fuck. Thank you, Liz. Thank you for believing in me and trusting me. I promise I won’t be that stupid ever again. You have my word.”

  “I’m just glad you’re ok. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around what happened. I thought my world had ended when I saw you and... her.”

  “No, Liz. Never. I love you, princess. Only, forever, you. I would never do something like that to you.”

  “Ryder helped me see things more clearly.”

  I kiss a trail down her cheek until I reach her neck where I nuzzle in close, breathing her in. Liz and I stay snuggled together for the rest of the morning, to the nurses’ amusement. Julien and my parents come back, and I’m finally discharged. I text Ry a heartfelt thank you for bringing Liz back to me, thinking I wouldn’t see him the rest of the day.

  So imagine my surprise to see him, his parents and sisters, along with Liz’s parents and Hailey, all sitting in our living room when we get home.

  “Mom?” Liz questions, her confusion apparent.

  She releases my hand and goes ov
er to where her mom and Hailey are sitting on the couch. Hailey and Liz start talking in hushed voices to each other. Julien joins me and we just stand at the entrance of the room not knowing what to do. Our parents, however, know exactly what they’re doing.

  “In light of everything that happened and everything we learned about last night,” my mom begins, “we thought it best for all of us to sit down and talk.”

  “Talk about what?” I ask.

  “Drinking, drugs, and sex to be more specific,” my dad says. “Boys, please have a seat.” We do as he asks, knowing now is not the time to argue.

  Ryder’s and Liz’s parents stand up to join my parents, so they are all facing us, serious expressions plastered across their worried faces. I take a seat next to Liz on the sofa, while Ryder and Julien sit on the floor in front of the couch, and Brea and Jamie occupy the armchairs on either side of us. I reach over to take Liz’s hand, and at first, she pulls away but then stops. Her unsure reaction to my touch breaks my heart all over again.

  The room grows tense as we wait. Everyone looks to my mom.

  “I think it’s safe to say that we are all very disappointed in you.”

  Jamie is the first one of us kids to speak up. “Hey! Wait a minute! I didn’t do anything. I was at work.”

  “For brevity’s sake,” Faith responds to her oldest daughter, “we will be using the ‘royal we.’ So regardless if you were at the party last night or not, we feel that what we discuss today is important for all of you to hear.” Faith motions for my mom to continue.

  “Like I said, we are all disappointed. To find out our children are attending parties where there’s underage drinking and drugs, concerns us greatly. It also scares the hell out us. Look what happened,” she aims her silver gaze directly at me. “We are so thankful that you are alright, but things could have turned out much, much differently.”

  Liz’s mom’s breath hitches. It could have been Liz that got slipped the date-rape drug.

  Liz notices her mom tear up and immediately gets up to go to her. Hailey follows and they form a tight circle, arms around each other. Liz’s dad is out of town again, and my guilt skyrockets a thousand-fold knowing Ann is having to deal with this all on her own without her husband here to lend support.