Back To You (In Tune Book 1)

by Jessica Ruddick

  Tamara made a tsking sound. “You don’t even know. Ask me again tomorrow after the stupid project is turned in. Thanks, girl. You can keep the tips they leave.”

  “No way. Covering the last thirty minutes of your shift is the least I can do after running out on you the other night. That was a really shitty thing to do.”

  Tamara waved off my apology, as she’d done the first time I offered it. “I get it. Trust me. If my ex showed up, I’d run for the hills too, and he’s just an ordinary man.”

  Her statement insinuated that Gabe was no ordinary man, and well, I couldn’t disagree with her. Even if he wasn’t a rock star, Gabe would still have been extraordinary.

  After Tamara left, I checked in on her tables then leaned against the counter, surveying the nearly empty diner. Tuesday nights were the worst. I preferred it when the diner was slammed because I made more money and time went by faster. I would study during the down time, but Sharon was strict about us not doing personal things while on the clock. I grudgingly understood—it was a slippery slope.

  Bracing my hands on the counter, I stretched my aching calves. I definitely should have gone to Richmond to buy new shoes or at least made the time to order some online. After years of pinching pennies, spending money even on necessary things didn’t come easily.

  The bell chimed, and I tensed. When I saw who had come into the diner, I cursed. Dear old Dad. I hadn’t seen him in months, and I preferred it that way.

  I crossed over to him, blocking his way. “What are you doing here?”

  He smiled, his lips curling back to reveal nicotine-stained teeth. “Table for one, please.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be serious? This is a restaurant, ain’t it? And it’s dinnertime.”

  A couple came in behind him, so I angrily grabbed a menu. “Is the counter okay?”

  “I’d prefer a booth.”

  “Fine.” I stalked to the least crowded part of the diner and slapped the menu down on a table. My dad being there couldn’t have been good news, and I didn’t want anyone to overhear any unpleasantness between us. “I’ll be back.”

  “Take your time,” he drawled.

  Asshole. I hated that I was going to have to wait on him, but it was my job.

  I seated the other couple then got the check for another one of my tables before returning to my father. I made him wait longer than other customers, partly out of spite and partly because I was trying to figure out what the hell he was up to. As an unspoken rule, we stayed out of one another’s way.

  I went back to his table and eyed him warily. “What can I get you?”

  “A cheeseburger. Medium.”

  “Are fries okay?”

  He nodded.

  “And to drink?”

  “I don’t suppose you could get me a beer?” He smiled like he was trying to charm me or something.

  I narrowed my eyes at him, taking in his bloodshot eyes. It looked like he’d already had a few. “You know we don’t serve here.”

  “Then Coke. I can doctor it up myself.” He opened his jacket to show me a flask tucked in the inside pocket.

  Great.

  Other than delivering his order, I ignored him. At one point, he raised his glass and shook it obnoxiously. Gritting my teeth, I retrieved it to give him a refill, turning up my nose at the faint scent of rum coming from the cup. If Sharon had been there and caught him spiking his drink, she would have kicked his ass out. But since she wasn’t there, I let it go. It wasn’t worth getting into a confrontation. I hoped he’d finish his meal quickly and leave. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d get picked up for a DUI.

  I slammed the full glass on the table, and some of the liquid sloshed over the sides. I yanked my order pad out of my apron and ripped off his ticket. “You can leave the money on the table.”

  I was walking away when he said, “I heard your boyfriend is back in town.”

  I whirled to face him. “I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Sorry. Your ex-boyfriend. It doesn’t matter either way.” He nodded toward the empty booth across from him. “Why don’t you sit?”

  “I’m working.”

  “You can make time for a conversation.”

  Shit, shit, shit. Where is he going with this? Dread pooled in my belly. Despite wanting to throw his drink in his face, I sat. “What do you want?” At least he was finally getting around to the point of his visit. I wished he’d done that an hour ago.

  “I seem to remember some pictures you sent me years ago. Do you recall them?”

  He knew I did.

  When my mom had still been around, she’d sometimes have to call in sick to work because she couldn’t cover the bruises. She took off when I was sixteen, leaving Lacey and me behind. I could still remember her explaining things to me before she left, her words garbled because of a split lip: “Just stay out of his way, and you’ll be okay. He’s never hit you girls. I’ll come back for you.”

  Some of her words were true—he hadn’t hit me or Lacey at that point. But most of her words were wrong because we weren’t okay, and she never came back for us.

  For the first year, things weren’t exactly fine, but he hadn’t been abusive. It helped that he’d taken a job as a long-haul trucker and wasn’t around much. It was actually a pretty good arrangement until he got caught drinking on the job and was fired.

  Things went downhill from there. It started small—he’d shove me if I was in his way. He’d scream at me and squeeze my arms so tightly he left bruises. The first time Gabe saw them, he nearly lost his shit, and it was all I could do to keep him from going after my father.

  I learned to hide the marks better after that. He’d never touched Lacey, so I figured I just needed to bide my time until I could get the hell out of there with Gabe.

  God, I’d been so stupid. I went on a senior camping trip, and when I came home, I found marks on Lacey’s arms. I realized the truth then—no one was exempt, and he was never going to change. I was a substitute for my mom, and as soon as I was gone, he would turn to Lacey.

  I had to get her away from him. Turning to the authorities would only land her in foster care, so that wasn’t an option. So I waited until my father came home from a night of playing poker. He’d lost everything he’d brought to the table, which was to say every last dollar we had. It was the perfect opportunity. Instead of shying away from him, I confronted him for his irresponsible behavior. The first backhand seemed to come out of nowhere. After the first few hits, I grew numb. It took weeks to recover, but there was no permanent damage.

  But I’d gotten what I wanted. I’d documented the whole ordeal then made a deal with him—I wouldn’t turn him in to the cops if he let Lacey move out with me. Considering he already had a record, he agreed. I didn’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t. I was only nineteen at the time. There was no way social services would have given me my sister. The only thing I was certain of was that my sister and I had to stick together.

  The arrangement was in the best interests of everyone. It was not as if my father actually wanted his daughters—we were just convenient punching bags.

  I crossed my arms. “What about the pictures?”

  “I saved them, you see. It was a mistake, letting me have copies, because now I have evidence.”

  I ground my teeth. “Evidence of what? That you beat me? That was kind of the point.”

  “No, not me. Your boyfriend.”

  “What? That makes no sense. Gabe never hit me. Besides, he had already left when those pictures were taken.”

  “I know that, and you know that, but I’d like to see you prove it.”

  “That’s crazy.” But a sick feeling settled in my stomach. It wasn’t really all that crazy. In a sick, twisted way, it was a decent plan. My father might have been the scum of the Earth, but he wasn’t entirely stupid.

  “He and that stupid cop friend of his used to get in all kinds of trouble,” my dad said. “It’s not t
hat far of a stretch.”

  I leaned on my elbows. “No one will believe you.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Is that something you’re willing to risk?”

  No, it wasn’t. And he knew that. Damn it. “Gabe and I aren’t together. We haven’t been since before he left town, so I don’t know what you’re trying to do here.”

  “I thought you were smarter than that, Leah. This is a simple business arrangement. You can pay me for my silence.”

  “I can barely pay my rent!” I protested. “I don’t have any money.”

  “No, but Gabe has loads of it. I’m sure if you explain things to him, he’ll give you what you want. He always had a soft spot for you.”

  I shook my head. “I won’t do it.”

  “Fine. I came to you first as a courtesy, since you’re my daughter and all.”

  Where the hell was this courtesy when he was beating the shit out of me? “First?” Oh, shit. Is he going to Gabe next? Oh no. This is bad.

  “The tabloids would love a juicy story like this. No one seems to know much about Gabe Gable’s past. I’m sure they’d be happy to pay handsomely for a glimpse into Gabe’s troubled relationship with his high school sweetheart.”

  I should have realized he wouldn’t go to Gabe. Maybe Gabe would pay him. I hoped not, but I honestly couldn’t say anymore. It was about more than the money, though. My dad wanted to hurt me. He knew I still had feelings for Gabe, and he was using that against me. He wanted revenge for how I’d blackmailed him. I’d gotten the best of him, and he couldn’t let that stand. Vindictive son of a bitch.

  “How much?” I ground out.

  He smiled, and it rankled to see how genuine it was. He was enjoying himself. He slid the check I’d laid down earlier across the table. “You can start with this.” He stood and adjusted his jacket. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Gabe

  Tyler’s advice that I should talk to Leah kept running through my head long after he’d dropped me off at Aunt Rose’s house and continued to the dreaded dinner with his step-grandparents. I sat on the porch, fiddling with the loose brick.

  And yes, brooding. I was brooding like a son of a bitch.

  Why do I want to talk to Leah? She’d betrayed me in the worst way possible at a time when I needed her the most. I wasn’t one to hold a grudge, but some things were unforgivable.

  Yet even five years later, I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Leah was my everything, my world, and I was pretty sure she’d felt the same way about me. No, I knew she’d felt that way about me. She was the most genuine soul I’d ever known. The pain etched onto her face as she confessed her betrayal had been real. I didn’t know how it was possible, but she’d been hurting just as much as I had been.

  Standing, I put my hands behind my head and paced the length of the small porch. Normally, working on my music was my stress relief, but Aunt Rose had gone to bed early to get a good night’s rest before her surgery tomorrow, and the walls in the house were paper thin.

  It had nothing to do with the fact that the music wasn’t calling to me. Keep telling yourself that.

  I walked down the steps and took off down the street on foot. I’d spent a lot of time walking those streets as a teen. Tyler’s mom’s house was about a mile east, and Leah’s house had been another half mile past that. I had no idea where she lived now.

  But I knew where she worked, and without meaning to, I found myself heading in the direction of the diner with no clue about what I was going to do when I got there.

  As it turned out, I was going to be a creeper. I stood in the darkened parking lot, staring through the large front windows. I watched as she refilled drinks with a fake smile plastered on her face. I wondered why it was fake, if she was upset about something. The familiar urge to fix whatever it was filled me. It was once my mission in life to make her happy, to take all her problems away. My music was going to get us both out of that dead-end town.

  I’d been a fool. Still was, apparently, if my current behavior was any indication.

  I’d never bought into the “closure” bullshit that some people talked about. She’d cheated on me, so our relationship ended—I left her, both figuratively and literally. I’d told myself that was closure enough. I wasn’t so sure anymore.

  God, she’s gorgeous. Other than the weariness that lined her features, she hadn’t changed much. She still wore her dirty-blond hair long and wavy. Dark brows accentuated her big brown doe eyes. And those lips were—Christ—full and somehow permanently positioned in a pout. Leah didn’t try to be beautiful, unlike every woman I’d dated since her, yet she still surpassed them in every way that mattered.

  The final pair of diners left, and Leah followed them to the door to lock it behind them. I should have ducked out from under the streetlight, but I stayed, wanting to get a better look at her. Pathetic. She saw me, her eyes widening in surprise as they locked on mine. She closed them, took several deep breaths, then stepped out of the diner. She crossed the parking lot to meet me, stopping several feet from me and saying nothing.

  Though I’d seen her the other night, I hadn’t truly seen her, not that way. If I had taken a step toward her, I could have touched her, run my hands through that sun-kissed hair. I wanted to do just that, to cradle her head in my hands, tilt it back to give me better access to her mouth. I wanted to claim her, to make her mine again.

  But I knew that could never happen. She’d made sure of that when she’d given herself to another man, and the real pisser had been that she’d never told me who it was.

  Her eyes were laced with pain. “What are you doing here?” she asked softly.

  “Why did you do it?” I hadn’t meant to ask that, but then again, I didn’t know what I wanted to say. I guessed I just wanted to know how she could live with herself after gutting me because damn it, we’d been young, but our love had been real.

  Her lower lip trembled, and I immediately regretted asking.

  Even now, all I wanted to do was protect her from hurt. I steeled my heart against her. This was her fault, not mine. It wasn’t my responsibility to care for her anymore. “How could you do that to me?”

  She wrapped her arms around herself, and her eyes glistened. “I did what I had to do.”

  What she had to do? She’d slept with someone else, for fuck’s sake. “The last I checked, cheating is exactly what girlfriends aren’t supposed to do.” I didn’t bother trying to keep the bitterness out of my voice.

  She shook her head, a single tear falling down her cheek. I hated myself for wanting to wipe it away. “You don’t understand.”

  “Then make me understand,” I pleaded. “Explain it to me. That’s all I ask.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Try.”

  “Why? There’s no point. I said everything I needed to say years ago.”

  My jaw worked, and for the first time since seeing her, my pain turned to anger. “Who was the guy? Let’s start with that.”

  “No.” Her voice hitched.

  “I think I deserve that much.”

  “Why do you want to know? What good would it do?”

  My hands balled into fists. “Why are you protecting him? You’re not even with him, and you’re still loyal to him after all this time? What happened to your loyalty to me? Did I mean nothing to you?”

  Chuckling softly, she looked at the ground. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Suddenly, she was the angry one, her eyes darkening. “You need to let this go.”

  “I need to let it go?” I asked incredulously. “You ripped my heart out, and you don’t even give a shit.”

  “Then let it go!” she yelled. “I’m a horrible person. I never deserved you in the first place. So let it go.” She took a step back and started to turn to go back toward the diner.

  I grabbed her wrist, the first contact I’d had with her since she confessed her betrayal. My fingers burned when I touched her skin. I studied her face, which she struggled to keep neu
tral. I wanted so desperately to see something there, an indication that it was all an act.

  Her lips twitched, giving me what I wanted. Something wasn’t adding up, and I deserved the truth. “That’s what I don’t understand.” My voice was soft. “You’re not a horrible person, and you deserve so much more than me.”

  Tears spilled over her cheeks, and a sob escaped her lips. “I didn’t. I don’t. Please, I can’t do this now. My father stopped by tonight and”—letting out a shuddering breath, she wrenched free from my grasp—“I can’t do this now.”

  “Tell me who it was, and I’ll never ask you about it again.” I didn’t know why I was so insistent. Perhaps knowing would bring me the elusive closure, but I doubted it. “Tell me. Leah, please.”

  “It was no one,” she blurted out. “There was never anyone else. It was all a lie. There’s never been anyone but you.”

  Stunned, I took a step back as if her words had shoved me. “What?”

  She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m sorry.”

  “What are you saying? What do you mean, there was no one else? Leah, I don’t understand. You said—”

  “I know what I said,” she choked out. “And I’m sorry. I’m just… I’m so sorry. You were never supposed to find out.”

  “Find out that you didn’t cheat on me?” I asked incredulously. I didn’t understand anything about this conversation.

  “I can’t do this.” She shook her head, refusing to look at me.

  I stepped toward her, and it wasn’t until she’d taken another step backward that I realized my arms were outstretched, that I was trying to wrap them around her.

  “Please, Gabe. I can’t.” She ran back into the diner, leaving me to stare after her in disbelief.

  Chapter 6

  Gabe

  “I’m sorry for staring, but has anyone ever told you that you look exactly like Gabe Gable?”

  I suppressed a grin as the unassuming woman continued to stare at me. “Actually, yes, I get that all the time.”

  “It’s uncanny. You could be his doppelganger.”