by L. Wilder
“No, but I have been watching you,” he confessed, “and you have been watching him. You seemed fine with him until half an hour ago when you glanced out at the balcony and saw him talking to that guy. What are you running from and what does Gage have to do with it?”
Dillon was way too perceptive for his own damn good. How can I explain that I think I saw no-neck Lester at my best friend’s wedding and that, if it is Lester, it spells really bad things for me? Or that the love of my life broke me by betraying me and is out there on the dance floor yucking it up like it never happened? I wish I could. How I wish I could talk to someone, but I couldn’t because if I did…he’d hurt them, and that I could-not-have.
Squaring my shoulders, I took in a cleansing breath and repeated, “I felt sick and thought this was the bathroom. Now I feel better.” I hated lying to him. I hated lying to everyone, but what other choice did I have? I felt around for the doorknob and, when I had my fingers securely wrapped around it, pulled it open and stepped into the hallway. “Thanks for checking on me D,” I shot over my shoulder as I melted into the crowd.
My best friend in the entire universe, Ellison Elizabeth Davis, married the love of her life tonight. Ellie fell in love with Max McLellan the first day of our freshman year in high school, but it was not until the summer before our senior year they finally got together. Just as everything was finally working out for the two of them, Max disappeared. For five years Ellie was a broken shell of her once beautifully vibrant self. A little over seven months ago Max reappeared. After encountering drug dealers, a psycho ex-girlfriend and an unplanned pregnancy, they were getting their forever and I could not be happier for them.
Peeking around the corner, I searched the ballroom for signs of Gage or Lester. Ellie and Max were on the dance floor slow dancing to Bon Jovi’s (You Want To) Make A Memory. She looked so beautiful with her long blonde hair twisted up into an intricate knot. Long pieces of it cascaded around her face, which perfectly framed her golden eyes. Her elegant, white dress fit her like a glove. Even pregnant, the girl is a knock out. Then there was dark and dangerous Max…in a tux. The man was simply mouthwatering. The love in his eyes as he danced with my best friend made me smile.
Seeing neither hide nor hair of Gage or Lester, I lifted the bottom of my bridesmaid’s dress and darted across the room to where Joss and Kurt stood talking to Max’s little sister, Sarah. Sarah was a mini Max in that she, too, was tall with chestnut colored hair and blue green eyes. She had grown up to be a stunningly beautiful young woman, something that constantly worried Max. She was in her final year of University in Scotland. Max had sent her overseas to keep her safe, but little did he know that she would love it so much that she wouldn’t want to come home. She was returning to Scotland tomorrow and he was not happy about it. Right as I reached them, the opening notes of Sweet Home Alabama rang out and I watched the dance floor fill.
“Where have you been?” Joss asked as she tapped her foot to the beat of the music. With each tap, her white blonde curls bounced up and down on top of her head. “You just missed the bouquet toss and the garter fling! Yummy Gage caught the garter and can I just tell you….” her voice faded out when she caught the scowl on Kurt’s face. “What?” She cocked her eyebrow at him. “I’m married, not blind.” He shook his head at her and resumed his conversation with Sarah.
“I have to go,” I interrupted. “Will you tell Ellie that I wasn’t feeling well and that I’ll talk to her next week after her honeymoon?” Joss’s eyes cut from Kurt to me. This time I got the eyebrow raise. “Please? I’ll owe you one.”
“Does this have something to do with him?” She tilted her head toward the balcony.
I glanced over her shoulder and scowled. Why does he always have to look so damn good? Even with shorter hair, which I still haven’t gotten used to, he looks sexy as hell. And that suit? Holy flipping cow, that suit. The boy was all man. Just not my man. Gage was standing on the balcony where I had spotted him earlier. A little over three months ago we stood in that exact same place and argued. Of course it just happened to be on the same night that Joss and Kurt got married and Max proposed to Ellie. Leave it up to Gage to ruin a perfectly wonderful moment. My mind wandered back to that night.
“Why did you leave, Princess? After all we had together, you couldn’t have called or left a note?” He actually looked hurt.
I stared at him in disbelief. “You didn’t need a note to know what was happening, Cowboy. We both know it was all a lie.”
His eyes darkened with anger. “Not to me, it wasn’t.”
What the hell? “Why are you here Gage?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” The confused and hurt look on his face made me want to scream. His eyes drifted down to my hand, which I was nervously rubbing back and forth over my aching chest.
Jerking it to my side, I asked, “Does Dooley think I’m an idiot? For that matter, do you?”
His jaw clinched as he leaned in. “Cold and cruel maybe, but an idiot? Far from it.” He held up his hand to stop me from speaking. “Before you bust my balls any further, I’d like for us to get on the same page and, in order for that to happen, I need you to explain.”
Enough was enough. “I know everything you sanctimonious jack-ass! I lived through it! I survived it! You had me, hook, line and sinker. I was yours and you threw…me…away!” I shouted.
He reared back as if I had physically slapped him. “What the fuck, Piper?”
“Take out your camera, Gage. Here’s one for you, Dooley, and Selina!” I flipped up my middle finger and before he could say anything else, turned on my heel and bolted back inside.
Joss shook my arm and I snapped back to the present. “Hey? You okay?”
My emotions were all over the place. I was unraveling and it was starting to scare me. “I’m fine. Are we good here? Will you explain to Ellie why I had to leave?”
She let out a dramatic sigh. “Go now, before I change my mind. I’ll bring coffee over in the morning.” I gave the three of them quick hugs and bolted for the door.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Ellie and I met Max McLellan and Kurt Greenfield our freshman year in high school. They were a year older, super popular, and total players. Max was swarthy and mysterious whereas Kurt was fair and friendly. Joss Speilman appeared on the scene the summer before our junior year after I left for boarding school. Ellie befriended her and introduced us when I came home for Christmas break. She reminded me of Tinkerbell in that she was tiny and fairy-like with a head full of long, curly, white blonde hair. That is, until she opened her mouth. Then she was more like Melissa McCarthy from the movie Bridesmaids. We had all three been best friends ever since. If Ellie was my soul sister, then Joss was my partner in crime.
Kurt and Joss started dating the summer she moved to Charlotte and had been going strong ever since. A year and a half ago he bought a seedy looking bar on the south side of Charlotte, named it Dragonfly, and spent months revamping it. He and Joss were married a little over three months ago and, in order to spend more time with her, he let Dillon purchase half of the bar. This and MMG, Max’s garage, is where we now spend most of our free time. The week before Kurt and Joss tied the knot he bought her a killer house with a swimming pool and a one bedroom pool house. The pool house is where I now lived.
You are not running away. You are simply going home because you are tired. Yeah, right.
I turned off the alarm, tossed my purse on the chair and stripped off my coat and heels before dropping down onto my bed. Ugh! If that was Lester then Dooley is not done playing games. The sleepless nights and lying was taking a toll on me.
Trying to focus on something other than my pending doom, my mind wandered back to Gage. Will I ever get used to seeing him and not being able to touch him? Probably not. Whoever said that time heals all wounds is full of shit. My scars may have healed, but deep inside where it really matters, I was still as raw and bloody as the day it happened. How do I get past this? Maybe I won’t. Maybe I am m
eant to spend the rest of my life in a sexless, depressing funk.
Growling in frustration, I jumped off the bed and headed for the fridge. I pulled out one of the two bottles of champagne I had stolen from Kurt’s truck this morning, popped it open, and flipped on the radio. On the way back to bed, I almost tripped over my own feet when J.T.’s Sexy Back blasted from the speakers. Immediately I thought of Ellie’s bachelorette party and giggled.
Two weekends ago Joss and I threw a bachelorette party for Ellie at Dragonfly. Since I drew the short straw, I was responsible for the G rated part of the night. Joss had the fun part, but the little cow wouldn’t tell me her rated R plans for the evening. This infuriated me, to say the least. That night was so much fun…until it wasn’t.
As soon as we finished dispensing naughty gifts and copious libation, the gifts were loaded in the back of Max’s truck. Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ roared from the speakers, announcing that the party had officially begun. Ellie clapped her hands and squealed in delight. When she began shaking her pregnant ass and singing along at the top of her lungs, Joss and I both joined in. It was great seeing her having so much fun. After everything she and Max had been through, she deserved it.
As the third song was ending, four policemen barged through the door. A chill of fear ripped through me and I frantically searched the room for a place to hide. Please don’t let this have anything to do with me and what happened in Texas.
Someone turned the music down so we could hear what the policemen were saying. “We are looking for an Ellison Davis,” the officer in front announced and my heart dropped.
Shit! This has something to do with Max, not me.
“She’s over here occifer,” Joss slurred, waving her hand back and forth in the air. I wanted to hit her.
I scooted closer to Ellie in case she needed my support. Just as the officers reached the tables in front of us the volume shot up and Justin Timberlake’s Sexy Back filled the room.
I took a chug of champagne and laughed. Just thinking about the look of horror on Ellie’s face when that song came on… and the policemen stalking across the room …with hand cuffs…was priceless.
Joss stuck out her hand and shoved Ellie toward the policemen. “Here she is occifer, take her!”
“Joss!” Ellie shrieked and dug her heels into the floor as she attempted to stop Joss from flinging her into the policemen.
Officer number one stopped and pulled out his gun. “Put your hands up now!” he shouted.
Everyone in the room threw their hands in the air right as J.T started singing about shackles and being someone’s sex slave. This would have been hysterically funny if we weren’t all being held at gunpoint. My lungs started doing that clinching thing that normally signaled an incoming panic attack and I seriously debated whether or not I was going to hurl. Suddenly, officer number two stepped up beside officer one, who I had mentally deemed as Gun Toting Gus, and lowered his hand to his gun. Oh god! He’s going for his weapon! He’s going to kill us all! Instead of grabbing his weapon, both policemen lifted their heads to the ceiling and howled like wild animals. Then they reached down and yanked their pants off. Yanked-Them-Off! My chin hit the floor right along with their discarded pants, and Ellie? The poor girl just stood there with her hands over her mouth. Before I could form a coherent thought the twosome ripped off their shirts and posed for us… in leopard printed G-strings!
“Welcome to your party, Ellison!” Gus shouted. “We are your entertainment for the evening!” The other two policemen ripped off their clothes and joined their fellow comrades on the dance floor. The girls went wild.
“Holy shit,” Ellie whispered. Our eyes met and held for a second. Then we both burst into laughter.
When I caught Joss’s eyes, she blew me a kiss and curtsied.
Well done, Josselyn.
I will never forget Ellie’s look of shock and then delight as the men began gyrating their bare asses all over the place. The night was a hit and the strippers were seriously hot. In fact, they had so much fun that they threw on civilian clothing and hung out with us off the clock. Gus and I were deep in conversation about the merits of stripping when Max and the guys rolled in. It was just my luck that Gage was with them. My stomach soured just thinking about him.
Gage Blackwell
How could something so perfectly right turn out to be so horribly wrong? I had been banging my head against a brick wall for months now, trying to figure out why things happened the way they did, but I kept coming up empty. He was it for me and I thought he felt the same. How could I have been so wrong? My unshakable belief in myself had taken a big hit. I had lost my heart, my way, and was mentally spinning out. This must be what Ellie felt like when Max disappeared and she had no answers. Hell, I have answers and it still doesn’t make sense.
I took another chug of champagne and drifted back to my conversation with Gage that night.
“Hey Princess, you gonna introduce me to your friend?”
Like always, he looked yummy, except now, instead of his usual shoulder length hair that I loved so much, he was sporting a short cut. It wasn’t that it looked bad or anything. It just didn’t look like the Gage I once knew. At least he still had his signature facial hair. I wasn’t really a fan of facial hair. That is until I experienced Gage Blackwell. He had trimmed his usual beard down to an incredibly sexy goatee. Over all, the good boy edge look really worked for him.
He snapped his fingers in my face and smirked as if reading my thoughts.
Angry that he had caught me staring, I feigned disinterest. “No, I’m not going to introduce you.”
His smirk formed into a breathtaking smile as he turned to Gus and held out his hand. “Gage Blackwell.”
Realizing that he was standing in the middle of something not-so-pleasant, Gus threw me an uncomfortable look. “Uhhh, Alvin Allen,” he said, shaking Gage’s hand.
I wanted to melt into the floor. Alvin? Chris or Mark maybe, but… Alvin?
Gage chuckled and I wanted to kick him. “Nice to meet you, Alvin. He nodded his head in my direction. How long have you and Piper known each other?”
I could see this train wreck coming from a mile away and needed to head it off at the pass. Reaching out, I latched on to Gage’s hand and turned to Alvin. “Will you excuse us for a minute, please?” Not giving him a chance to respond, I yanked Gage across the room and into the storage closet. Shutting the door behind us, I started in. “Go back to Texas. I’ll give you the keys to the car, but whatever else Dooley wants you to accomplish here isn’t going to happen.”
His long sleeve black Henley conformed perfectly to his chest and arms and his jeans hung just low enough on his waist that when he reached up and wrapped his fingers around the top of the baker’s rack, I got a glimpse of his ripped abs and the mouthwatering V that led down to…heaven.
“I’m not going anywhere, at least not until you explain why you ran…and, why would I want the keys to your car?”
I wanted to slap the confused look off his face. I wanted him to explain, to tell me why. I wanted us back, but then I remembered that none of it was real. There never was an ‘us,’ at least not to him. “Seriously, you can stop playing me now. Other than the car, why are you still here? Is Dooley threatening you?” The thought of Dooley hurting him made me sick.
He dropped his arms and leaned in. “This is the third time that you have mentioned Dooley Shane in reference to what has happened between the two of us. I am well aware that he is not your favorite person, but what does he have to do with you-running- away-from-me?” He stressed each word as if I was hard of hearing. “Also, I repeat, why would I want your car?” Wondering what angle he was playing, I hesitated. Sensing my momentary weakness, his arm shot out and hooked around my waist. He pulled me in and, for a second in time, I let myself forget. A shiver of desire danced down my spine and curled around my toes. I tilted my head back and was immediately trapped in his blue gaze. “You are mine, Piper. I knew this the
second I laid eyes on you. You are it for me. I love you. I am hurt and confused, but I love you. Please… talk to me.”
His words snapped me back to reality and I hated it. I knew that I would give anything in the world for his love…his real love, not the fake shit he kept dishing up. As much as it pained me to do so, I jerked out of his grasp and took a step back. His hurt expression made me angry.
“I don’t know why you insist on playing me, Gage, but whatever,” I shrugged, acting as if it didn’t matter. “I told you this before and you didn’t believe me, but you need to. Dooley is not who you think he is and regardless of how things ended between us, I don’t want to see you get hurt. You can take it or leave it, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”
“Princess, I can honestly say that I have no idea what you are babbling on about and until you tell me…in complete sentences…that make sense…I won’t.”
His smug tone went all over me. I stepped in to where our bodies were almost touching, tilted my head back so I could look him in the eye and through clinched teeth let him have it. “I loved you with every fiber of my being and it was real and pure and true. I would have done anything for you…anything. Now? Now, I just wish I had never set eyes on you. You have caused me nothing but fucking misery and heartache.” Tears stung the backs of my eyes, but I held them. I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of seeing me cry. Instead, I opened my mouth and lied through my teeth. “You don’t have to pretend anymore, Cowboy. It’s time to let it go. I have.”
What he said next gutted me.
“You want me to let it go? You got it. I’m done wasting my time. Because that’s what you are, Piper, a waste of my fucking time. Have a nice life, bitch.”
I dragged myself home that night and barely managed to keep it together. Nothing made sense anymore. Gage didn’t act like someone who was pretending. He acted genuinely hurt and confused. If this is all part of Dooley’s evil plan, then I’ll give it to him. Hiring Gage Blackwell was a brilliant move because the boy has steller acting skills.