Sliding (The Stone Series)

by Kitty Berry

  The theater is packed and I am nervous, it’s not a feeling I’m used to having at my performances. It’s the story of this workshop that’s making me nervous, I know that even though Tate will not be here tonight he’ll know what I’ve done within minutes of its finish. It will probably be the end of our working relationship and it will make our divorce get a little uglier. Even though I may be having second thought I know that he deserves all he gets. While I’m having that thought and sneaking a peek out of the curtain I spot him. Tate is sitting not very far from Mac with a redhead who looks like she’ll tip over if he lets her go, her boobs couldn’t be bigger or pushed up higher if she tried. In the back of my mind I knew he’d pull this, I was actually waiting for it.

  The lights flick and the dancers are in their place but I can’t go out on the stage and introduce the workshop. I can’t let Tate see me pregnant for the first time on stage. I tell Heidi to stall and then to get Tate for me. I know Mac is going to be on his heels when he sees Tate following Heidi backstage.

  I am sitting with my arms folded over my stomach when Heidi comes backstage with Tate, Mac as I knew he would be is not more than three steps behind them but Tate doesn’t take notice. Tate leans in and kisses me hello, asks how I am. I tell him that I’m surprised to see him and ask him to sit down.

  “There’s something I need to tell you before the workshop begins, two things actually. Um, the first is that this workshop tells the story of our relationship. I started it when I made you that playlist I sent you. I choreographed most of it then, I’ve added some songs and tweaked some routines but for the most part this was done when I was at a much different place than I am right now, then we are right now.”

  Tate looks at me with sad eyes but a smile. “I figured it would be baby. Why do you think I’m here tonight? I didn’t want to hear about it from someone else; I had to see it for my own eyes. I deserve everything you’re about to throw at me and then some.”

  “You might not think that after I tell you the next thing.”

  I pause for a long time, unable to bring the words to my mouth. I never find the words, instead I move my hands and stand up, facing him sideways so he has a clear shot at my growing belly.

  Tate’s eyes almost pop out of his head before he asks, “What the fuck, Brooklynn? How the fuck are you pregnant?”

  That’s when I hear his voice and Tate turns noticing Mac for the first time.

  “Taylor” Mac says in greeting.

  “Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You mother fucker.”

  Tate lunges at Mac who steps out of the way with ease then grabs Tate in a head lock and tells him to settle the fuck down before he upsets me. He slams Tate back into his seat and tells him to stay there and shut up and listen to me. I tell Tate the whole story about Mac and I and by the time I’m done Tate and I are both in tears. He’s holding my hands in his, Mac tried to step forward when he reached for them but I put my hand up and he froze. When I’m done talking Tate stands and kisses my forehead.

  “I’m happy for you, baby. It’s what you’ve always wanted. I just wish I could have been the one you had it all with but I guess I had my fair chance didn’t I?”

  Tate approaches Mac and extends his hand.

  “You are a lucky man, Mac, don’t fuck it up. Take it from me, I did and I hate myself for it every day. She’s the best thing you’ll ever know. Losing her is the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Be good to her or I’ll come find you.”

  Mac nods and shakes Tate’s hand.

  “I still love you, I always will, baby. Good luck tonight. Everything you touch has always turned to gold and tonight will be no different. The media will eat up the story and I’ll admit to it all being true. I brought some of the evidence with me to add to the media hype. Redhead, big boobs, young.”

  He kisses my cheek again and turns to leave but then he stops and turns back. “I’ll make sure my lawyer gets the paperwork done on time, I’m sure you’ll want to be divorced before the baby comes. Maybe even remarried?” Tate looks at Mac and raises his eyebrows not waiting for an answer.

  The workshop is a huge hit and as Tate and I both knew the media eats it up. It’s all they can talk about for weeks. I have more offers coming in for work then I know what to do with. Taylor Studios is on top as always.

  My divorce was finalized a month after the workshop and Tate agreed that we can continue to work together. The music portion and proceeds will be his, the creative portion and proceeds mine. Tate decided to purchase a home in California and we sold our Connecticut home. With the proceeds from that sale Mac and I bought our own home in Connecticut.

  Mac proposed when I was ten centimeters dilated and about to have our baby girl, Toni. She is a perfect little angel. She’s already daddy’s little girl but when she’s cranky the only thing that calms her down is the CD of music that Tate sent her.

  It’s funny how one decision, something as small as answering a phone or letting it ring can change the course of your life and so many others. That morning so long ago when I stood looking at myself in the mirror hearing the phone ring I remember thinking to myself that it was the parallel tracking of two possible destinies, essentially the what-if scenario staring me right in the face. I knew I was entering into the center of two significantly different trajectories but I couldn’t have known what they were. I still don’t. I guess they were a life with Tate or a life with Mac but is that all it really boils down to?

  That day I figured everyone had those little moments in time when they question which decision is right and which is wrong, both can change your life forever, leading you down different avenues. How do we ever know if we have made the right decision? Times like the one that stared me in the face that are impossible to go back and change.

  Epilogue

  Brooklynn Taylor wakes up dazed and confused. Her mouth is dry, her head is throbbing and she feels like she’s been asleep for a year. As she scans the room she realizes she must be in a hospital bed. She’s hooked up to a heart monitor and various other machines. Her first thought is of her husband, Tate. Where is he, it’s not like him not to be here if she’s been hurt. Was she in a car accident? Are other people hurt? Where is everyone? What disturbs her the most is that she’s alone. But she hears the familiar songs of her life. She thinks Tate must have made her a playlist to listen to. She closes her eyes to try to make some sense out of the situation and strange memories start to flood her senses.

  That’s when the door opens and a man wearing a tight fitted black t-shirt and gray dress pants walks in. He has some kind of microphone piece on his shoulder and a gun at his hip. Brook looks at him confused for a moment. She feels like Dorothy when she woke up after her trip over the rainbow. It takes her a while but she recognizes him as Mac, an ex-Marine who owns the security team Dominick, their head of security works for. Mac is well over six feet tall with quite a set of muscles on him. She remembers thinking about setting him up with Tate’s cousin, Drea, talking to him about her and telling him it would be their little secret because she knew Drea’s brother, Damian who flip if he knew what she was up to.

  Brook blushes when an image of running her hand down Mac’s abdominal muscles and into his pants comes to mind. “Where the fuck did that come from?” she wonders. Mac has brown eyes and when he looks at Brook they make her feel like he has seen into her soul. His Marine close cut brown hair and piercing blue eyes once again assault Brook with a bewildering image, this time of rubbing his head and lacing her fingers on it while they make love on a beach. He has cocoa colored skin and plump lips that bring yet another image to mind, those lips kissing and sucking parts of her body, private parts. It’s as if she knows him from another life and the confusion forces a sigh out of her mouth.

  When Mac hears her moan and realizes she’s awake he rushes to her side. “Brook, you’re awake. Don’t worry I’ll call Tate and the doctors. You’ve been asleep for a long time but you’re safe, everything is going to be oka
y” Mac soothingly says as he presses the call button to obtain the nurse and punches a number into his cell phone.

  “Tate, she’s awake. Yes, I’ll tell her. Don’t rush, be safe. See you in a few.”

  Mac hangs up and smiles kindly at Brook. He tells her that her husband is on his way and won’t be long. He also says that her best friend is at the cafeteria getting a coffee and should be back any minute.

  “I…I don’t remember. What happened? Why am I here? How long have I been here?” Brook asks.

  “You were in the shower getting ready to leave for California. Tate and Bobby left a month before to meet with an important new client. You were flying out to meet Tate the morning you had the accident. You had stayed on the east coast because you had to finish up a project first here. Dominick was with Tate and Bobby so I had stayed here with you. On the day of your flight you were running late and sent me to get your dress at the cleaners that you forgot about and wanted to wear on the trip. I took longer than expected, there was an accident on the Post Road and I got held up. When I got back I called your cell a few times and when you didn’t answer I called the home line. Again when there was no answer I got concerned. I came into the house and when you didn’t come out of your room when I called you I knocked but you didn’t answer. I finally kicked down the door and went in to check on you. I found you on the bathroom floor. I assumed that you must have fell and hit your head. You were bleeding and unconscious for a while before I found you. I called 911 and started CPR. When the paramedics arrived to take you to the hospital I called Tate and he rushed back here from California as fast as he could.”

  “I don’t understand what happened though. Did I pass out? Fall?” Brook asks but Mac tells her she’ll have to wait to speak with the doctors. He doesn’t want to divulge too much, she’s still looking so fragile so he changes the subject onto one he knows she’ll enjoy.

  “You’ll be happy to know that when Damian and Drea came to visit you I struck up a conversation with her and you were right, she’s great. We’ve seen each other a few times since your accident and I’ve spent hours here telling you all about our dates. Did you hear me talking to you? I shared some pretty juicy details” Mac says with a smile spread across his face.

  “Does Damian know?” Brook asks.

  “God, no. He’d flip. We’re keeping our relationship just between the three of us.”

  “What do you mean the three of us?”

  “Drea and I have been spending time together in here with you. I hope we didn’t bother you. She’s kind of hard to keep your hands off of if you know what I mean?”

  “That might explain some of what I’m remembering” Brook admits.

  “Why, what are you remembering?”

  “Nothing, it doesn’t matter. Where’s Tate? I need to talk to him; I’m confused by all of this.”

  The door to Brook’s room opens again and in walks her best friend, Asia carrying a coffee that she drops when she sees her oldest and dearest friend finally awake after all this time. Her red hair is tied up in a messy ponytail and her face is a mess of red rimmed eyes, dark circles and blotches but she’s still as beautiful as ever. She notices Brook awake and alert in her bed and tears begin to stream down her face. Asia rushes to Brook and wraps her arms around her. Brook inhales her familiar scent and another flashback hits. She remembers dreaming of Asia and Tate together, having sex then a feeling of deep remorse fills her mind and she remembers that she dreamt that Asia was killed in her home with her husband, Ted. Brook gasps at the memory and Asia looks at her quizzically. Brook reluctantly tells her about her dream, Asia laughs and lets her know that Ted is safe and sane and they’re not having money problems.

  “I can’t imagine Ted getting involved with the mob. Where would he even meet them? At his tennis club?”

  Brook and Asia laugh together hugging each other on the hospital bed.

  “I told you a few stories of mine while you were asleep. It sounds like you may be remembering them” Mac admits.

  Brook tells Asia she dreamt that she liked kinky sex and was having an affair with Tate. She tells her that she dreamt she was killed by a drug lord. Asia has a good laugh over the dream and assures Brook that she and Tate have never been together.

  “It was probably your mind doing something weird like turning things all around after hearing Mac’s Marine stories. Or maybe, I don’t know? Remember how we used to laugh about me being with Tate and you with Bobby? What was that song that we used to sing that made us think of that?”

  “Secret Lovers. I heard it in my dream or at least I thought I did. Maybe it was playing here. Did Tate make me a playlist?”

  “It’s been playing nonstop for weeks, honey. He probably remembered us singing it and included it. The songs were meant to bring you back to him. They’re all the ones from the time you guys met till now that meant something to you. He is the best husband Brook. You are so lucky to have him and to have had him forever. Tate is a mess. Bobby has him at your house now to clean up. We had to force him to leave just for an hour. He hasn’t showered or eaten in days. It was the first time he left since getting here. Damian sent his private plane to rush him here when he got the call about you. He was here within hours and was on his cell with one of us the whole time he was on the plane.”

  The door opens again and a medical team comes in and makes Mac and Asia leave before Brook can understand anymore of what she’s been remembering. Asia promises to come back in as soon as she’s allowed and Mac says he’ll bring Drea by as long as Brook promises to keep their secret.

  Brook is poked and prodded for what seems like forever. She tells them about her miscarriage but they assure her the babies are fine and that she’s never had a miscarriage. All she wants to do is close her eyes and think for a minute. She can’t seem to wrap her head around everything. Things are so confusing right now. She can’t understand why she has all these different things in her head. Everyone she looks at brings back a different what? Memory? Dream? She can’t be sure.

  When she saw Mac the images that came to mind were all erotic but when she saw Asia she was filled with relief, an overwhelming feeling of dread and anger had come over her at the sound of her name, like something terrible had happened to her. But when she saw her standing there in her hospital room she was relieved and happy to see her.

  The doctors who entered her room explain to Brook that she had a life-threatening condition, a serious complication of preeclampsia brought on by high blood pressure. Brook’s blood pressure must have risen to a very high level causing her to pass out. She suffered a head injury when she fell and hit the side of her vanity before crashing on the floor. And in her case, her blood pressure got so high that it reduced the amount of oxygen delivered to her brain. She was lucky to be alive and out of the coma she’s been in for weeks. It’s amazing the babies survived but they are healthy and safe.

  The doctor’s inform her that she delivered twins, a boy and a girl, shortly after she arrived and they are fine. The names Zach and Zoe come to mind and she smiles. One of the doctors leaves to ask a nurse to bring the babies into Brook’s room. This day keeps getting more and more confusing.

  The medical team opens the door to leave and Brook looks up to sees him standing there in the doorway crying. It’s Tate and he looks like a dream come true. Tate is wearing a black t-shirt and worn jeans. He looks exactly like he did when they first met at that dance at the start of high school only hotter if that’s possible. He has strong muscular forearms and his black t-shirt is stretched tight across his sizeable chest. His black silky hair is long and his face has two day old stubble on it that gives him his trademark bad boy sexiness. He is a sight for sore eyes. He looks shocked, like he can’t walk.

  Brook blinks her eyes. Tate thinks she’s trying to focus on him after being asleep for so long but it’s because so many conflicting images are flashing in front of her eyes and she can’t process where they’re coming from. She sees Tate young and sexy in his hig
h school football uniform, then in his UNC basketball uniform, then he’s with Asia and they look like they’re whispering about something funny. The next image that comes to mind is Tate on a beach with her having a massage but it’s followed by an image of him with a young girl popping gum in her mouth then a large breasted redhead. What does it all mean? And then Tate is finally walking towards her and his lips are on hers. They feel soft and moist and like…home.

  Brook hangs her head and Tate takes his index finger and uses it to lift her chin so she’s forced the look at him. She’s still so confused.

  “Don’t ever fucking do that to me again, do you hear me? I can’t lose you. I was scared out of my fucking mind. And our babies need their mommy” he pleads.

  “Ah, Tate so you’re happy about the babies? I didn’t remember I was pregnant. Were you always happy about them, you seem happy” Brooklynn reluctantly asks her husband.

  “Of course I’m thrilled about the babies. I would have liked to have started with just one but we’ll manage. I think you’ll feel better about it now. You had an awful time pregnant. You didn’t feel well, you were light headed and sick to your stomach all the time. You stopped eating and I thought you were relapsing into your eating habits.”