True North
Page 21
Her face grows serious, but she smiles to hide her concern. And my heart sinks to my stomach, because I know the answer is yes by the look in her eyes. “He told you about the seizures.”
“Oh. Um.” Huh? I shake my head and explain, “I was there. For the last one. Just a couple of weeks ago.”
Her eyes widen with worry that she tries to mask.
“He didn’t tell you?”
She presses her lips together and shakes her head. “No, he didn’t tell me.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I just thought—”
“They’re happening more often. He hides it from me because he knows I worry.”
“What do you mean, more often? He said they’re usually a few months apart.”
She shakes her head. “They used to be. But he’s getting them more frequently now. He had one just a few weeks before you returned.”
My mouth suddenly feels dry.
“The only reason I even know about it is because I was with him when it happened. Who knows if there have been more.”
I swallow hard. “Um. Okay.” My heart is racing, but my mind immediately goes into fix-it mode. “So, the only way to stop them is to have the surgery, right? He should have the surgery.”
“He thinks it’s too risky. Remember what I said about him being stubborn?” She rubs her forehead.
“Can’t you and Danny just make him?” I realize how desperate I sound.
“He’s a grown man, Liv. He barely listened to me when he was still under my roof. What makes you think he’ll listen to me now?”
“There must be something you can do.”
She shakes her head. “Not me. You.” She smiles softly and points her finger at me. “It’s your turn to take care of Gabriel now. You love him. Talk to him. He’ll listen to you.”
I’m most certainly going to ask him about the seizures, but I’ll have to tread lightly.
“Okay. I’ll talk to him.”
I glance up at the clock on the wall. Crap. I have ten minutes to get to work. “Jackie, I’m so sorry, but I have to go to work.”
“Okay, you better run then.”
“It was really good talking to you. Thank you for the coffee.”
She gives me a quick hug and kisses my cheek. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”
I smile. “I won’t. I promise.”
Chapter 18
Liv
It’s one of the busiest shifts I’ve worked at the diner. I’m thirty orders in and I still have an hour to go. I’ve definitely gained a solid appreciation for the physicality of waiting tables. I’m exhausted...and sweating. But I’m making good tips.
“Liv, I need you behind the bar,” Lou shouts. “Audrey can take your tables.”
The breakfast bar bumps right up to the kitchen. That means more heat...and more sweating. I’m already looking forward to taking a shower when I get home.
“Sorry, Liv,” Audrey says with apologetic eyes. No one likes to work the bar because it’s the front line for all the hot plates. If you work the bar, you have to pass the plates to the servers.
“It’s okay.” I smile and wipe my forehead. I slide behind the bar and tend to everyone seated at it. Their drinks are filled, their ketchup is plentiful, and they all have napkins and silverware.
“Order up,” one of the cooks calls.
I spin around and grab the two awaiting plates, practically dropping one on the counter because it’s so hot. “Ow!”
“Careful,” a vaguely familiar female voice says from behind me. “You wouldn’t want to hurt yourself.”
I turn around and see Stacey McGillis seated at the bar across from me. She crosses her skinny arms and leans over the counter on her elbows, pushing her giant boobs together.
Well, somebody got a boob job. Gabe has seen those ridiculous things? My mind involuntarily conjures up images of the two of them together, and my stomach twists into a sickening knot.
“What do you want, Stacey?” I ask, unable to hide my contempt for her.
“Well, hello to you too.”
“Do you want something to eat?” I ask in a monotone voice.
“A Diet Coke would be great,” she says, smiling like the conniving snake she is.
I fill up a cup and place it in front of her.
“Can I have a straw?”
I grab a straw out of my apron pocket and hand it to her.
She tears the paper with her long, painted finger nails and drops the straw into her cup.
“Anything else?”
“You know, I thought things could be different between us now,” she says, twirling her straw around in her cup. “Since we have someone, I mean, something in common.” She pushes her thickly glossed lips together and smirks, and my heart pounds inside my chest.
“Order up.”
I ignore the call from the kitchen.
“Miss?” A diner calls from down the bar.
I ignore him too.
Stacey leans over the bar again so that she’s just inches from my face. “I don’t blame you for coming back for more. He tasted so...damn...good,” she whispers slowly.
My chest rises and falls with labored breaths and my ears feel like they’ve filled with water. My brain struggles to process what she just said to me through the waves of fiery heat that are consuming me.
“Liv. Order up!”
“Miss? Can I get a refill?”
The room starts to spin and I have to hold onto the counter so that it doesn’t swallow me whole. In the center of the vortex is Stacey McGillis. I’ve never inflicted physical harm on anyone in my life, but I want to kill Stacey, right here in the middle of the diner.
Seeing as how I’m surrounded by witnesses, I choose a less violent approach. I lean across the counter, causing her to fall back in her seat, and say quietly, “I feel sorry for you, Stacey. You got a taste of a real man and now you’ll spend the rest of your life craving what’s mine.” I press my lips together and smile sweetly at her.
She glares at me, and when I don’t back down, she spins on her stool and leaves. I keep my eyes on her back as she marches out of the diner.
When she’s good and gone, I sneak away from the bar and find the nearest exit. I stumble outside and take a deep breath of the warm summer air, but it’s too thick to calm me down. I’m not one for confrontation, but I couldn’t let Stacey think there was any chance for a reunion with Gabe.
After a few more deep breaths, I head for my car. I need an air-conditioned minute alone to get my thoughts back in order. I stare at the gravel as I stomp across the parking lot, still sick, still shocked, still fuming, until I’m stopped by a wall of...polished brown leather shoes, rolled khakis, and a fitted navy blue sports coat that’s casually open over a white button-down.
Travis?
“Liv.” He puts his hand on my arm.
“Travis?” I look up at him through the blinding midday sun, and he smiles down at me. “What the hell are you doing here?” I ask, shocked.
“Hi to you too.”
“Sorry, but you shouldn’t have come here. You have to go.”
His face falls. “What? No. I just got here. I’m not leaving.”
“Travis, I told you that it’s over. I’m with Gabe now. What else do you want from me?” I know I’m being harsh, but he’s as stubborn—and quite possibly as dense—as a damn ox. And I’m still reeling from my altercation with Stacey. He’s not catching me at my best.
“Liv, please, just hear me out.” He pauses for a moment, then says, “I forgive you, okay?”
“You forgive me? For what?”
“For this other guy,” he says, exasperated.
I have to suppress a shocked laugh. “Travis, I broke up with you. And then I moved on. In that order.”
He puts his hands on my shoulders and says, “I know.”
“Good.”
“But I haven’t moved on. And I’m willing to forgive you and give us another chance.”
“I don’t wan
t another chance!” I close my eyes and let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m sorry that this has been so hard on you, Travis, but it’s over between us. There’s nothing left for me to say.” I glance over my shoulder at the diner. “I have to get back to work now.” I no longer have the mental capacity to worry about what happened with Stacey. I have a much bigger problem out here in the parking lot.
Travis drops his hands and shakes his head. “So you’re a waitress now?”
“Yes.”
He nods, but I can see the disapproval in his eyes.
“I have to get back to my customers, okay? Bye, Travis.” I turn around to walk away, but he grabs my arm.
“Liv, please.”
“No,” I say exasperated, “I don’t love you, Travis. I’m sorry.”
He pulls his dark eyebrows together over his piercing blue eyes. “Well maybe you will, in time.”
I give him a disbelieving look. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Then how does it work? Explain it to me. Please. Because I don’t understand how you would rather serve food to a bunch of country bumpkins than have a real life in Dallas with me.”
“A real life?”
“I can give you everything you need. I can take care of you.”
“No. You can’t.”
“Liv.”
“I’m sorry, I have to go.” I begin to walk away, but he grabs my arm again.
“Liv, wait.”
“Let go of my arm.”
“Don’t do this. You’re making a mistake.”
I try to twist my arm out of his grip, which only tightens. “Let go of me.”
His face is a mix of frustration and determination.
“Travis, you’re hurting me.”
I hear the scuffling of heavy feet on the gravel.
“Get off her!” Gabe shouts, knocking Travis backward into a parked car.
“Gabe!”
“Are you okay?” he asks, standing between me and Travis.
“I’m fine,” I say, stepping around him. “Travis, are you okay?”
“Travis?” Gabe says, and my chest tightens.
“Is this him?” Travis asks, eyeing Gabe, from his sawdust-covered work boots up to his old, tattered baseball cap.
“Travis, please, just go.”
“This is why you want to stay here and act like a servant to a bunch of rednecks? For him?”
“Travis, you need to get in your car. Now.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“I think it’s time for you to go,” Gabe says, standing two inches from his face.
“I’ll go when I’m good and goddamn ready.”
Oh, here we go.
Gabe closes the last inch of space between them and says, “I said leave. Now.”
“I’ll leave when my fiancée gets in the car and comes with me.”
My heart screeches to a stop.
“Fiancée?” Gabe says, like he’s been hit in the chest. He steps away from Travis and looks at me.
“No.” I shake my head, but I see the doubt in Gabe’s eyes. “I’m not his fiancée,” I say urgently. “I’m not your fiancée,” I say to Travis.
“You were.” He looks at Gabe and says, “She was mine for the last two years.”
Gabe’s chest rises and falls like he’s priming for an explosion.
“That’s right. Just ask her.” Travis pats his chest and says, “I’m the one who took care of her in Raleigh. I gave her everything she wanted. And I made her scream until she forgot about you.”
“Travis!” I shout, swallowing down the sick feeling in my stomach.
Gabe’s fist flies through the air and hits Travis square in the jaw. I duck out of the way as the two of them begin to scuffle back and forth, ignoring my screams for them to stop. Travis charges Gabe, wrapping his arms around his waist, and pushes him back several feet across the gravel. He gets a swing in and pops Gabe across the cheek.
“Stop it!” I shout, reaching for Travis’s arm, but I end up getting an elbow to the face that knocks me on my ass.
Gabe’s eyes flare, and his already red face flames even hotter.
“Gabe, I’m fine,” I say from beneath my hand, which is pressed to the aching spot on my cheek, worried that he might kill Travis. He assesses me for a moment, then grabs Travis’s collar and punches him hard across the face, before shoving him down onto the ground.
I stand up and wipe off my shorts and the backs of my bare legs, which are dotted with tiny pieces of gravel. Several people are standing next to their cars now, watching the whole ordeal, including Audrey, who must have come outside to find me.
“Liv, what’s going on?”
I can’t answer her. I just shake my head.
Gabe wipes the blood from the corner of his mouth with a heavy hand and looks at me. His face is a mix of anger, disappointment, exhaustion, and pain, all wrapped up into one devastating look. “Did he hurt you?” he asks me calmly.
I touch my face. Ow. Yes. My cheek feels like it’s on fire. “No, I’m okay.”
He holds my stare, chewing the inside of his lip, conflicted and contemplating, but he doesn’t take a single step toward me.
“Gabe, please. We weren’t engaged. Not for very long, anyway. Just let me explain.” But he doesn’t give me the chance. Travis was quite convincing. Gabe gets in his truck and drives away, dragging my heart behind him.
“Liv,” Audrey says, placing her hand on my back, “are you okay?”
I clutch the hole that has ripped wide open in the middle of my chest, tearing through the scar tissue I thought had sealed it. “No.”
“Liv?” I look up and see Travis staring at me like the cat that ate the canary. He has a bloody nose and the early makings of a black eye. He runs his hands through his dark hair and laces his fingers together behind his head. “Jesus, Liv.” He drops his hands and reaches for me. “You know I didn’t mean to. I would never hurt you.”
“Don’t touch me.” I glare at him. “You couldn’t begin to understand how much you’ve hurt me.”
“Liv, that wasn’t me, okay? I’m sorry.”
I close my eyes and say, “Just go.”
“Liv...please.”
“Goodbye, Travis,” I say for the last time. I look at Audrey. “I can’t go back inside.”
“I’ll tell Lou you got sick. Don’t worry about it. Do you want me to drive you home? I can tell him that you need me to.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“Okay. Well, call me later. You know I’m here for you if you need me.”
I force a small smile. “Thanks, Audrey.” I catch a glimpse of Travis’s taillights when he tears out of the parking lot in his BMW and I watch his taillights fade from view, praying that I never see him again.
I fall into my car, thankful that I put my keys and phone in my apron pocket, and drop my head to my steering wheel.
I have to talk to Gabe. I leave the diner and head straight to his apartment, ignoring the speed limit as I go.
I pull onto the Norths’ property just a few minutes later, relieved to find Gabe’s truck in the back by the garage. I park beside it and listen for the usual sounds that he’s working, but I don’t hear anything coming from the garage. Instead, I hear a loud cracking noise coming from somewhere nearby. It sounds like wood splitting apart.
I follow the sound behind the garage and find Gabe swinging an axe at an old, gnarled tree trunk. I dodge a rogue piece of wood that comes flying at me. I don’t know if he sees me or not, but he doesn’t look up.
Roxy runs over to me and circles my feet, and I pat her numbly.
“Gabe.”
He keeps swinging the axe.
“Gabe.”
He swings it again.
“Gabe!”
He slams the axe down hard, leaving it wedged in the wood, and looks up at me.
“Gabe, please.”
“You should have told me.”
“Told you what? You knew we were together.”
“It was casual. I don’t understand why you’re so upset.”
“Because I can’t believe you were engaged to that asshole!” he shouts. “I know you were messed up after we... after I... I know it’s my fault, okay, but did you really lose yourself that much that you would turn to a guy like him?”
I stare at him, mouth agape, shocked by his accusation. He doesn’t know the half of why I was with Travis. And, as angry as I am with Travis, I feel suddenly defensive of him.
Gabe picks up the axe and starts swinging it again. “How could you agree to marry that jerk?”
I try to control my wild heartbeat long enough to explain. “We were not engaged. Yes, he proposed. I told you he wanted to get married, and technically I did say yes, but—”
He slams the axe down again, startling me with the loud crack, and I wonder who he’s truly angry with. Me, Travis, or himself. He leaves the axe wedged in the wood and looks up at the tall pine trees towering over us. “I feel like I don’t even know you right now.” He pulls his hat off and runs his hand through his hair. “Maybe he does.”
“You know me. Travis never did.”
“You expect me to believe that? You were together for two years.”
“I know, but I never gave myself to Travis.”
“Oh, it sounds like you gave yourself to him plenty. So much for protecting your virtue.”
I screw up my face and huff. “Seriously? Is that what this is about? You’re mad because I slept with him?” My chest tightens as I recall the rejection and loneliness I felt after we broke up. “I didn’t have physical touch for five years. Five years,” I cry. “I was desperate just to be held again. And no, I didn’t love Travis, but he was nice to me, and he made me feel safe and wanted.”
“Do you know what it’s like to have another man tell me he made you scream?” I know that cut him deep. And I hate Travis for saying it. But I do know what it’s like.
“Kind of like when Stacey McGillis told me that you tasted good? At least Travis wasn’t some trashy one-night stand.” I shake my head, which is completely clouded with anger now. “I cannot believe you had sex with her! God only knows how many people she’s screwed.” I cross my arms and glare at him. “The thought of you touching her makes me sick.”