“Really? Then why haven’t I seen you with any of them lately?”
Marci didn’t have a good answer for that, so she did the next best thing and kept her mouth shut.
Ronnie was about to say something else when there was a knock at the door. She stood and stretched out her back. “I’ll be right back. Don’t think we’re done with this conversation.” She wagged a finger at Marci as she padded over to the door on bare feet. Ronnie pulled open the door, and for one heart-stopping, wishful thinking moment, Marci thought she saw Owen on the other side of it.
She realized as her heartbeat slowed to a normal rate that the hair was too short and too light in color. The person was also too short—taller than her but too short to be Owen.
“Jeremy,” Ronnie said, her tone both surprised and wary. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Can I come in?”
Ronnie stepped aside so that Jeremy could enter the apartment.
He approached the couch, swinging himself forward on crutches. “Hi, Marci.”
“Hey.” She started to get up.
“No, stay,” he said. “If you don’t mind. I want both of you to hear this.”
She sank back into the couch, and Jeremy slowly took a seat next to her and put his crutches to the side. Ronnie sat where she’d been before, which was on the other side of where Jeremy now sat. Jeremy sat forward, rested his elbows on his thighs, and locked his fingers together in a way that reminded her so much of Owen, it pained her heart.
“I’ve been thinking. A lot,” Jeremy said.
Marci bit back a retort. Jeremy was obviously trying to be serious, and whatever he had to say seemed very important to him.
“I want to apologize,” Jeremy said, looking over his shoulder at Ronnie. “And to you, too,” he said, turning to look at Marci. “Especially for the way I acted at Thanksgiving. That was completely uncalled for.”
This was new. And this quieter, more mature Jeremy unsettled her in how he continued to remind her a little more of Owen at every turn.
“I have to do better,” Jeremy said. “The fact that you could have been seriously hurt because of me really drove that home.” Jeremy grabbed Ronnie’s hand, and Ronnie put her other hand on top of his. “I need help. Will you help me?”
“Of course.” Ronnie gave him a hug.
“I don’t want to burden my brother anymore. I’ve burdened him enough. I’ve burdened you, too, but—”
“Hush. Of course I’ll help,” Ronnie said.
The mention of his brother made Marci sadder than she had any right to be.
“How’s your brother these days?” Marci asked in what she hoped was a casual tone. She avoided looking at Ronnie because she didn’t want to see any sort of infuriating expression on her face. Instead, she looked down at Jeremy’s scuffed black boots.
“I don’t really know.” Jeremy pulled back from his hug with Ronnie enough to look over at Marci. She looked up to see he was giving her a sheepish grin. “We don’t see each other much since he got back with Kristin. She never liked me that much.”
“Seems like a total bitch to me,” Ronnie said.
Jeremy nodded. “I agree completely. I have no idea what he’s doing with her. He could do so much better.”
“I have no doubt about that.”
Marci jumped up and turned toward the kitchen as heat prickled the back of her neck. She knew Ronnie was staring dead at her. “I’m gonna make us tea. You guys want tea?” She made a beeline for the kitchen before either of them could answer her.
#
When Owen got home from New York with Kristin late Sunday night, he walked into his apartment to find Dante and Brynn there. He hadn’t seen much of Dante since their fight, and he hadn’t seen Brynn at all since breaking it off with her. He could feel Kristin tense next to him. She might not have considered Marci competition, but he was pretty sure she considered Brynn to be. Brynn could almost be Kristin’s sister they resembled each other so much—in looks only and except for the height. And Kristin had one hell of a jealous streak.
It seemed like no one wanted to speak first. Brynn got up from the dining room table, her face beet red, and grabbed her bag. She didn’t start repacking her things, though. Dante sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest.
Owen took Kristin’s hand and led her to the dining room. He practically had to drag here over there. “Kristin, this is Dante’s friend, Brynn. Brynn, I’d like you to meet my fiancé, Kristin.”
Although Kristin held her right hand out to shake Brynn’s, she made sure to hold her left hand out in an, nothing-subtle-about-it way, ostentatiously shoving the diamond ring Owen given her under Brynn’s nose. Financed, actually. Unlike Justin, he couldn’t just shrug off a few tens of thousands. Owen’s ring had cost less than Justin’s had, but the thing had still set him back half a year’s salary. He didn’t make much at his two jobs. Kristin had assured him in what she probably thought was a comforting way that it was a good “starter ring.” She was sure happy to flash her starter ring at Brynn.
“Hi,” Kristin said with the fakest of her arsenal of fake smiles as she shook Brynn’s hand limply. “Owen’s never mentioned you.”
Brynn gave a small, uncomfortable smile. “I’m not sure why he would.” She avoided Owen’s eyes.
“What is she doing here?” Dante said, addressing his question to Owen and treating Kristin like she wasn’t in the room. There was certainly no love lost between those two. Kristin’s ice blue eyes shot daggers into Dante.
“She’s taking some time off from her internship in New York so we can catch up on this wedding stuff,” Owen said.
“She’s not staying here,” Dante said. “Is she?”
“I’m subleasing a place that’s much nicer,” Kristin said. “Not that you could stop me from staying here with my Owen if I wanted to.” She clamped on to his arm. Oh, now he was her Owen even though they’d barely said a word to each other all the way back to Virginia.
“Well, Brynn and I are working on a project,” Dante said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
“It’s okay. We can finish later.” Brynn started grabbing books and stuffing them into her bag with trembling hands. “We’re not meeting with those potential investors for a couple weeks.”
“You don’t have to leave because of them.”
“I’m not.” Brynn grabbed her laptop from the table, and it started to slip through her fingers. Owen leaned forward and grabbed it before it could crash to the floor. He handed it to her, and she took it firmly in her hands this time. “Thank you,” she murmured without looking at him.
“You’re welcome.”
Brynn stuffed the laptop into her bag and hurried out of the apartment after muttering her goodbyes to everyone.
“Brynn wait.” As Owen jogged toward the door Brynn had just closed, he called over his shoulder to Kristin, “I’ll be right back.”
He sprinted down the hall and caught Brynn before she could get on the elevator. He grabbed her arm. “Brynn, I need to talk to you for a second.”
She stopped and turned to face him. Holding on to the strap of her bag, which was on her shoulder, she said, “Really?”
“I’m sorry,” Owen licked his lips and ran a hand through his hair. “I wish things could have been different. If Kristin hadn’t come back... Kristin and I were together four years. I would have asked her to marry me last fall if we hadn’t broken up.” He shook his head. “I never wanted to hurt you. I had no idea Kristin would just show up at my doorstep one day. Literally.”
Brynn looked toward the elevator and tugged at the strap to her bag. “You don’t owe me anything. You were always up front with me. You never lied about anything.”
Owen winced inwardly at that. He hadn’t always been actually. He’d told her about Marci but not from the beginning. Marci. He felt a pang in the pit of his stomach when Marci crossed his mind as she did all too often these days. Not that it mattered now. Still, he hadn’
t always been honest with Brynn, and that bothered him. “I just want you to know that I’m truly sorry. I never meant to lead you on or anything.”
“No.” She continued to look away from him. “You didn’t lead me on. I led myself on. I wanted to believe so badly something was there that wasn’t.”
“When you’ve really loved someone, I don’t think you ever stop. You give that person a piece of you that you can’t get back. But if you’re not completely masochistic, you find a way to move on after that person has left you,” Owen said. He added to himself, Especially when you realize that because of the stubbornness of the person you fell for, it can never work.
“And sometimes they come back to you,” Brynn, who would’ve naturally assumed he was talking about Kristin, said.
Owen smiled sadly. “Sometimes.”
“Speaking of which, you’d better go. She can’t be too happy about you being out here with me.”
“You’re better off without me. I’m a mess,” Owen said. He beat back thoughts of Marci once again. “You’ll meet someone ten times more worthy of you, I’m sure.”
Brynn stepped over to the elevator and pushed the “down” button. “She better realize how lucky she is this time.”
Owen gave her a small wave. “Bye, Brynn.”
The elevator bell dinged, and the doors opened. “Goodbye, Owen.” Brynn stepped inside.
Owen went back to his apartment and realized he’d walked into a hornet’s nest as soon as he saw Kristin’s face.
“I’ll be in your room,” Kristin said to Owen before flouncing across the apartment to the door to Owen’s room. She stopped at the door and called back to him. “Don’t keep me waiting.” With that, she walked inside and slammed the door after her. With a sigh, Owen walked over to the dining room where Dante still sat, meaning to tell Dante he’d apologized to Brynn. He needed to apologize to Dante as well. Whatever this tension was between them was nonsense, and it needed to end.
“Not demanding at all, is she?” Dante asked.
For some reason, this struck Owen as insanely funny. He started laughing. Once he got started, he couldn’t stop. Eventually, Dante joined in. Then Owen laughed harder. Between gasps of laughter, Owen got out a few choice details about his weekend in New York.
After the laughter died down, Owen said, “I’m sorry I hit you, man. That was out of line.”
“No more out of line than what I said. You were right. Your business is your business.”
“No hard feelings?” Owen held his arm out, bent at the elbow.
“No hard feelings.” Dante grabbed his hand, and patted Owen’s shoulder with his other hand in a half-handshake, half-hug. Owen was glad to have finally called a truce with his friend. Now if he could only do the same with his brother.
#
Owen’s mother called him out of the blue during the middle of the week. He stopped by the house between the end of classes for the day and the beginning of his shift at the coffeehouse. He was more than happy to do so, though, because that gave him a way out of that day’s wedding planning adventure. Not so for the weekend, however. That weekend, they were going back up to New York to meet with the wedding planner. Horrible. But he would deal with that when the time came. In the meantime, he had to go see his mom.
It was a beautiful day in early April; the freezing cold of the spring so far had abated for the time being. So he took the top off the jeep and drove to Mom’s house with the wind blowing through his hair. He took the long way because it was nice to have a few moments to himself. No wedding planning, no responsibilities, just him and the jeep.
When Owen walked into the house, he had to do a double take. Mom and Jeremy were sitting together on the couch, laughing about something. Jeremy looked cleaner and more put together than he had in weeks. He wore a white button down shirt with black slacks and black shoes. It almost looked like some sort of uniform. Could it be? Could Jeremy possibly have a job?
“Owen!” Mom jumped up and grabbed him. “So glad you’re here!”
“Yeah. Your message sounded urgent.”
“It is. Your brother has excellent news.”
“I’m moving back in,” Jeremy said. “And before you get all worked up over it, Ma and I have worked out a plan. I’m going to be paying rent.” Jeremy grinned. “Ronnie got my old short order cook job back at the restaurant for me.”
Owen walked over to his brother and hugged him. “Excellent news. I’m so happy to hear that, bro.”
“I finally got some sense talked into me, I guess.” Jeremy pulled back from the hug. “Now if only we could get some talked into you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know about this wedding, man,” Jeremy said.
Mom nodded her agreement. “That girl is stuck up, and she doesn’t treat you well at all.”
“You’re my mom,” Owen said. “You’re not supposed to think any girl is good enough for me.”
“Then why do I like Marci so much?”
Owen’s heart staggered under the weight of the unexpected mention of her name.
“Yeah, I saw her the other day,” Jeremy said.
Owen looked over at his brother sharply.
“When I went over to see Ronnie. Funny, when I said your name, she got that kind of funny, crumpled up look on her face that you had just now. And she tried to hide it right away just like you’re doing.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You wish I didn’t.”
“So when did you start back at the restaurant?” Owen asked.
Jeremy just laughed and shook his head. Yeah, Owen couldn’t blame him.
Chapter Thirty
Marci paced the length of her room Thursday night. She had to do something with all this pent up energy, or she would go insane. Lil had come into class earlier that evening, looking like she’d been crying. Lil had signed up for her TA section for the second part of the intro to philosophy class that spring. Marci had gone over to ask if everything was okay and see if there was anything she could do. Lil had a fight with her boyfriend, and he moved out.
Of course, comforting Lil made her think of Owen. Owen and Lil were friends, she knew. Lil had brought Owen to class with her once last semester for a makeup session. She’d replayed that class over and over in her mind all evening after that. Every time she looked in Lil’s direction, she thought of sneaking glances at Owen on that rainy night last fall. Wondering what he’d be like in bed. And now, fortunately or unfortunately, she knew. And that was done.
Marci was supposed to be deciding now if she was going to go out with Ronnie and Sadie tonight. If she went out, she could try to get some from some ready and willing guy she was sure to find. Or she could stay home, throw herself into her work, and finish the semester strong—maybe have her best semester ever and she wasn’t ever a slouch in these things. Then she could go out to Cali, see her mom and put in some obligatory face time, see Tyler who she definitely missed, and then find some guy out there to take care of her needs all in one fell swoop.
Marci’s phone vibrated against her desk while she was still deliberating. She walked over and picked it up. “Speak of the devil,” she murmured. Putting the phone to her ear, she said, “Hi, Tyler. How are things going with the show?” She jumped right in, hoping that he would get too busy talking about himself to quiz her.
“Hello my darling Marci,” he said. “Things are going well with filming the first few episodes, and I’ve heard it’s generating buzz on social media already.”
“That’s because you’re in it, superstar.”
Tyler laughed. “You’re always good for an ego boost.”
They talked about the show for a while, and then the conversation turned in the direction she’d dreaded.
“You can’t stay caged up in that room forever,” Tyler said. “Ronnie says you hardly come out of there.”
“That’s not true.”
“Where are you right now?”
> “I’m working.”
“It’s Thursday night after your class. You rarely if ever work on teaching nights. Or at least that’s the way it was before.”
“Don’t start.”
“I’m worried about you. So yes, I’m going to harass you until either tell me what’s wrong, admit I’m right about Owen, or go out and start living your life again.”
“Okay, fine,” Marci said, making her decision at that moment. “I’ll go out tonight. Happy?”
“I will be once I have a report from a reliable source that you actually did.”
“Okay. Deal.”
He dragged out an exaggerated sigh.
“What is it now?” Marci asked with a laugh to cover up the exasperation she felt.
“Life would be so much easier if you’d just admit you’re in love with that boy.”
“Love?” Marci shrieked into the phone. “Who in the hell ever said anything about love?”
“Everybody can see it but you, and the only reason you can’t is you’re blinding yourself to it.”
“I have to go,” Marci said. “If you want me to go out so badly, I have to get ready.”
“Bye, sweetheart.”
“Bye.” Marci swore softly as her phone slipped out of her hands and landed on the floor. She was fumbling around, all clumsy, and for what? She bent down to retrieve her phone and saw a corner of something gray under her bed. She peered closer, trying to figure it out. That’s when she remembered that she’d kicked Owen’s sweatshirt under her bed a few weeks ago.
She looked down at the phone then over at the sweatshirt. Back at the phone. Then she scrolled through her contacts and tapped on one of them without looking at the screen. She couldn’t watch her idiocy in action. Damn her poor impulse control.
She held the phone to her ear, taking shaky breaths as she listened to it ring. She could hang up now, but he’d know who it was and might call her back and that would be embarrassing. Even if he didn’t, he’d know she tried to call. So the damage was done. She might as well see if he’d pick up. But what would she say if he did? Maybe she’d let the words rush out, not think about it. The way she’d dialed his number without allowing herself to think about it. Okay, this was a bad idea. She promised herself that if the call went to voicemail, she would hang up without leaving a message.
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