“We’ll take you to a room to rest up a bit more, and then you’ll be discharged.” The nurse started unplugging his IVs from the wall sockets and unlocking the wheels on his bed.
“Is my brother still here?” He couldn’t imagine that Gunnar would have gone anywhere unless something had happened to their mother.
“Waiting for you in the room.” She pushed him down the hallway until she reached a room at the end. With careful precision, she got his bed into the room and against the wall without hitting anything.
“Hey, big guy.” Gunnar stood and patted Gideon on the shoulder. “How are you feeling?”
“No pain right now.” Gideon smiled. “None physically.”
“Hope I can help repair your heart.”
The female voice he heard sounded familiar. He knew it didn’t come from Janelle. Whenever she spoke, his heart drummed a wild beat. It didn’t sound like the nurse who had moved him to the room.
Gideon turned his head and had to blink a number of times to register the view. “Hilary?”
The blonde bombshell smiled. “In the flesh and here for you, dear.” She leaned over for a kiss.
Gideon had enough strength and the wherewithal to turn his head so that her lips landed on his cheek. “What are you doing here in Virginia?”
She peered up at Gunnar, who stood on the other side of the bed. “Maybe we can talk a little later without the crowds.”
The nurse plugged everything back in and checked Gideon’s vital signs before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
“Okay, the nurse is gone. Why are you here?” Gideon asked again with a little more bass to his voice.
She tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced at Gunnar again. “Do you mind giving us a little privacy?”
“No.” Gideon grabbed his brother’s wrist. “Anything you can say to me, you can say in front of him. He’s family. Last I checked, we weren’t a couple anymore.”
Hilary pursed her lips and cleared her throat. “I’m here as a favor to Scot.” She looked at her nails like this whole conversation bored her.
“Scot? What does he have to do with you being here?” Gideon found the controller for the bed and lifted his head a bit more.
“He told me that to get people interested in you again, I should show up and be by your side during this difficult time. It’s perfect. You’re hurt. You’ve gone through this surgery, which could drastically affect your career. And I’m here to nurse you back to health. Besides, if the Portland Coyotes see that you have more ties to the West Coast than the East, they’ll be inclined to sign you.” She put her hand to his chest. “Then maybe we can start over. Pick up where we left off.”
Gideon had to shake his head a few times while he digested her words. “Where we left off was me finding out that Scot was the one who’d sent you to me in the first place so that we could date and become a couple, and me finding out that you were never really interested in me.”
Hilary rolled her eyes. “That’s the business part of show business, baby. If you didn’t talk so much about plants and flowers all the time, we probably could have lasted a bit longer.”
Gunnar snickered. Until then, Gideon had forgotten his brother stood in the room with them.
“I apologize for boring you. I promise I won’t do that anymore.” Gideon felt his face go tight the longer he looked at her.
Hilary smiled, showing off her expensive dental work. “See, that’s the spirit.”
“I don’t suppose you have some movie about to come out soon, do you?”
She beamed even more. “As a matter of fact, I do. Not Oscar gold but it could be a blockbuster at least.”
“Good. I’m happy for you. I really am. But if you think you’re going to walk out of this hospital with me, holding my hand or pushing my wheelchair while a bunch of photographers snap the shot, you’re crazy.” Gideon pressed the Nurse Call button as he watched his ex-girlfriend’s smile turn into a scowl. “We’ve been broken up for months. I’ve moved on. I’m sure you have also. I have no reason or desire to use you for some publicity. That’s your deal, not mine. Had I known then that the only reason you wanted to be with me was to up your star status, I would have steered clear of you. I’ve met someone.”
She snorted. “Who? The flower girl? What does she have that I don’t have? I can get you into A-list parties. You could have the best of everything.”
“With her, I have the best of everything.” Gideon had hoped her face would be the first one he would see after his surgery.
Hilary snatched up her purse. “Fine. I hate Virginia anyway. J.T. warned me this was not a happening town.”
“J.T.?” Gunnar asked.
“Justin Timberlake. Duh.” She rolled her eyes. “Good luck wherever you go.”
Before Gideon could respond, she stormed out of the room.
Gunnar put his hand on Gideon’s shoulder. “Let me get this straight. Your agent set you up with an actress to be your girlfriend?”
“Didn’t find out until I heard her talking about me over the phone one day. I knew she wasn’t into the football thing. I didn’t realize she also wasn’t into me.” Breaking up with Hilary had been hard. Rebuilding his shattered ego had proved to be even more difficult.
“Wow. No wonder you didn’t want Mom setting you up.” Gunnar rubbed his hand over his eyes.
“Yeah. I don’t want to experience another woman using me.” Gideon shook his head.
“Did you get the impression that Janelle wanted to use you? She didn’t come off that way to me.”
Before Gideon could answer, a nurse appeared at his door. “Are you okay, Mr. Wells?”
“I think I’m ready to go now.” Gideon wanted to be home. The shock of seeing Hilary had reminded him that his heart mattered.
“Yes, sir. I’ll see if the doctor has prepared your discharge orders yet.” She disappeared down the hall.
“What the hell is that?” Gunnar picked up the remote and turned up the TV volume.
Gideon had to blink a few times to focus. Once he did, he caught Janelle’s image on TV.
“An exclusive interview with the modern-day Eliza Doolittle herself will be posted on the ZMT celebrity tabloid site sometime today,” a news anchor said with a big smile across his face. “Reports say she’ll reveal secrets about her tryst with none other than Super Bowl MVP, Gideon Wells.”
Gideon felt his blood boil as he watched the telecast. “Can’t be.”
Gunnar squeezed Gideon’s shoulder. “Shit, man.”
“Supposedly, she’ll talk about how they met, his football career, and if there are wedding bells in their future. I know this station will be watching out for that interview. We’ll feature clips as soon as they become available. In other news—”
Gunnar turned off the TV. “That’s got to be bullshit. She wouldn’t do that to you, would she?”
Gideon rubbed his wrist where his cherished watch used to be. “I don’t know.”
If she had betrayed him, he would be done. No more love. He could take a lot. The pain of having his heart broken again would drain him.
Chapter 23
Janelle paced in her apartment while Penny sat at the kitchen counter with Janelle’s laptop in front of her. Janelle had hoped after all she’d done, her plan would work.
“Well?” She wrung her hands together.
“The jerk’s video is out.” Penny looked up from the computer. “As we thought, he did a hatchet job on it.”
Janelle put her hand to her head and groaned. “I knew I shouldn’t have done it. I shut my business down all day today because of this. I knew I would get more questions than sales. If Gideon or his family sees his video, they’re going to hate me.”
“Not after I do this.” Penny did a couple of clicks on the laptop. “Done.”
Janelle ran to Penny and peered over her shoulder. “Are you sure my original video will go as viral as Jules’s? I wan
t the truth to be out there.”
“It should. Every time I posted a picture of you and Gideon, they took off. I have a lot of friends on social media.” She smiled.
“And you don’t think this guy has a leg to stand on to sue me?” Janelle chewed her lower lip.
“The one good thing about watching all of those episodes of Judge Judy and Law & Order—”
“Along with having parents who are both attorneys.”
“Yeah, and that. I learned a lot about loopholes. This guy is good, but if he tries to sue you, we can throw it back in his face that he has in his contract about editing your content. It’s a good thing we hid that camera in the office while you did the interview.” Penny tapped her temple.
“It’s a great thing for me that I have a really, really smart friend. My ride-or-die chick.” Janelle hugged her from behind.
Penny leaned her head toward Janelle. “Now call your man, or better yet, go see him.”
“I won’t be able to get by the guard at the gate.” Janelle shook her head. “He probably won’t want to see me.”
“Won’t know unless you ask.” Penny held up Janelle’s phone.
Janelle paused before accepting the phone from her friend. “Although I’ve shared with you everything that’s happened between me and Gideon these past few weeks, I’ll need to make this a private conversation.”
Penny held up her hands in surrender. “Fine. Be that way. I’ll be out here after you’re done talking. I’ll be the one with the two glasses of wine.” She nudged Janelle toward her bedroom.
Janelle paced in her room for a moment. Her video hadn’t been out long enough for Gideon to know what she had done. The other video had been out all day. It had gained legs and been picked up by several media outlets. Janelle had become famous for all the wrong reasons.
She took a deep breath and dialed Gideon’s number, hoping beyond hope that he hadn’t changed his number.
The phone rang once. Janelle’s heart pounded as her pacing slowed. It rang a second time. Sweat covered her hands despite her having to lower the temperature in her apartment to save on her electric bill. On the third ring, she knew he wouldn’t answer. She would leave him a voice-mail message and hope he would listen to it one day. Before the fourth ring, she heard a click.
A heavy sigh sounded after the click. Janelle sat on her bed and waited for the screaming to commence.
“Hello?” She decided to start the conversation when no one else spoke.
“You have some nerve calling me.” Gideon sounded tired but reserved.
“I know you’re angry.” She kept her speaking voice low and stretched out her words, hoping to lower the tension between them. “Please let me explain. I didn’t tell Jules anything about your family or your football career. He asked and I avoided the subjects.”
“That’s not how it looks. I watched a snippet of the video.” Gideon growled.
Janelle didn’t know if his growling came from anger or pain since he’d had his surgery. “How are you doing? How’s your knee?”
“Oh, no. You are not going to jump off topic with me. If you truly cared about me, you would have done what you promised and showed up to the hospital,” he said. “I guess you had better things to do, like that interview.” He cursed, but quickly apologized. “I will never learn my lesson. I will always be the one with his heart on his sleeve.”
“Gideon, please. I want you to listen to me. That guy lied to me. He edited the video so it looked like I said things that I didn’t. He made it seem like I was angry with you, and I’m not. I asked you to stay away from me because I was trying to protect you. I thought the media would leave you alone if we weren’t together, but I was wrong, and I hated being away from you.” She balled her free hand into a fist. “You probably won’t believe me, but I’m going to say this anyway. I love you. I love you so much. It hurt me to ask you to leave. I was so afraid that if you went to that other team, you would pick up and leave and I would be here.”
“Rooted,” he whispered.
“With my store.” She wiped under her nose. “I know you hate me. I understand. I really thought I was doing a good thing for you because it angered me so much to read all those lies about you. People were saying you hit that cheerleader and that you assaulted me, and I knew that wasn’t true. They were calling you a coward, and I know the man who is so strong and so brave who would never back down from a fight. All I wanted to do was let the world know the man I know, the man I fell in love with. The man who has my heart forever.”
He remained quiet. Janelle hoped Gideon hadn’t disconnected the call.
“Penny actually had a good idea.” Janelle sniffed.
“Yeah? What was that?”
She breathed a sigh of relief after hearing his voice. “She suggested I hide a camera while I did the interview and post the full interview after this guy posted his so that everyone can see the truth. I don’t hate you. I never meant to hurt you. I mean it when I say I love you.”
Before anyone spoke, Janelle heard a knock at her door.
“I’ll get it!” Penny called from the other room.
“Never, ever talk to these tabloid guys.” Gideon sniffed. “Unless it’s Oprah or Barbara Walters, everyone in the media lies. They have to in order to sell themselves.”
She smiled through her tears. “Good to know.”
“We can talk about it more if you want to come—”
Penny appeared in the doorway, looking as white as a snow-covered orchid. “Janelle, something bad has happened.”
“Gideon, hold on.” Janelle stood.
“What? What’s going on there?” Worry filled Gideon’s voice.
“It’s the flower shop. There’s been an accident.”
Janelle put her hand to her stomach while keeping the phone pressed to her ear. “What?”
“The police are here. They said there was a fire.” Penny shook her head. “Everything is gone.”
Janelle remained frozen in her spot as though her muscles had stopped working. She dropped the phone from her ear as she stared at her friend. “No.”
“We, uh, have to go.” Penny put her arm around Janelle’s shoulders. “I’ll drive.”
* * * *
Gideon grumbled as he hobbled toward the garage. He’d never expected to hear from Janelle after what she’d done. After she’d explained her reasoning behind it, he could understand what she’d thought.
Then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. He thought he’d heard someone say the word “fire” before the call ended. He’d tried calling her back but got nothing. Now he needed to see her.
When he’d gotten home from the hospital, Gunnar had set him up in the spare bedroom downstairs. It took a while for him to dress himself. He’d taken some drugs for the pain, which left him feeling a bit woozy. The white compression stocking around his knee hid the bandages underneath and prevented him from seeing the full swelling around his leg.
“Eboni and I were about to head out since Mom is sleeping now.” Gunnar stood in the doorway. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Gideon slipped on some bedroom slippers since he couldn’t bend his knee to put on anything with laces. “I need to go.”
“No. You need to rest. You had surgery earlier today and you’re on a lot of medication.” Gunnar put his hands on Gideon’s shoulders and tried easing him back to bed.
Gideon held onto Gunnar’s arm as he hopped to prevent going down on the bed. “No, I have to go. Janelle called me.”
Gunnar dropped his hold and shook his head. “You talked to her? Did she apologize for selling you out? She’s got some nerve calling you after she—”
Gideon cut off his brother. “I think her store burned down. I have to go and make sure she’s okay.”
“You can’t leave.” Gunnar went to the closet. “Not with those shoes. Mom won’t let you out of the house with slippers on.” Gunnar helped him switch his gym s
horts to track pants and then got down on the floor to put on Gideon’s sneakers. “I remember helping you get dressed as a kid. Who knew I would still have to do that now?” He laughed.
“You’re hilarious.” Gideon slipped on his jacket. “Come on. We have to go.”
Gunnar handed Gideon the cane he needed to help him get around. As soon as they hit the front door, Eboni appeared.
“I thought we were going back home.” She split her attention between the two men.
“Gideon thinks Janelle’s store was burned down.” Gunnar put on his coat.
“For what she did to Gideon, I wouldn’t be surprised. Fans are loyal.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Do me a favor.” Gideon put on his coat, a feat with the cane. “Janelle said she uploaded the full, uncut interview. Will you find it and look at it for me? Tell me if the two match.”
“Sure.” Eboni nodded.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Call me if anything happens here.” Gunnar kissed his fiancée. He helped Gideon to his Hummer and drove as quickly as he could to Flowers Galore.
Gideon remained quiet the entire ride there until a few blocks away from her store, when he caught the sight of red, twirling fire-engine lights.
“Oh, no.” He sat taller and pressed his hand against the dashboard as though trying to push the Hummer to go faster.
When he arrived at the scene, Gideon took in the full damage. The entire strip mall where Flowers Galore sat in the center now looked like a black kindling. Smoke from the smoldering ashes wafted in the air.
Gunnar barely parked the truck before Gideon opened the door.
“Hold on, man. Let me help you or you’re going to fuck up your knee.” Gunnar jumped out his side and raced over to the other to help Gideon, who had managed to get his good foot down to the ground already.
He staggered over to the scene that had been blocked off by police and fire trucks. “Janelle! Janelle!” He scanned the area.
Forget Me Not Page 28