Facial Recognition

by Jennifer Peel

  “At his conference.”

  She sneered at me. “Of course; his career is everything to him.”

  Okay, the tiny shred of sorry I’d felt for her went out the window. “Yes, he’s very dedicated to his clients.”

  “You would do well to remember that.”

  “Thank you.” I was so done with this conversation.

  Unfortunately, Morgan wasn’t going to let me go without another slight. “I know him better than anyone, and believe me when I say, he might have some romantic notion about being with the girl next door, but it doesn’t align with his goals. You don’t fit into his plans.”

  I refrained from grabbing my gut. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of knowing she had hit me where it hurt. That she had flooded me with insecurity. “Plans change.” I turned on a dime and hightailed it away from the liars. Yet, I couldn’t deny she’d hit a nerve. Perhaps she did know him better than I did. They had been lovers. Intimate in ways Brooks and I never had been.

  Colette and Lorelai rushed me.

  “We saw you with the hag,” Colette growled.

  “Sorry we couldn’t get to you sooner, darlin’,” Lorelai drawled. “We were having a minicrisis. The caterer forgot to set out the pigs in a blanket. No Texas buffet table can be complete without them.”

  “Thank you for rectifying the situation.” I was struggling to hold back my tears.

  Colette wrapped an arm around me. “What’s wrong?’

  I took some deep breaths in and out to stave off the tears. No way was I letting Morgan ruin the bang-up makeup job June had done on me. “Morgan,” I hissed her name, “shoved a knife in my heart, is all. No big deal.”

  “Please tell me you don’t believe anything coming out of her flapper.” Lorelai narrowed her eyes at the prima donna parading her date around like he was a show dog now that more people were showing up. It was almost as if she had become the unofficial greeter.

  I shrugged. “Unfortunately, she didn’t say anything I hadn’t already thought about. Brooks and I are very different.”

  Colette squeezed me tight. “Honey, that’s where the beauty of most relationships comes from.”

  “I suppose. Yet I wonder how I’ll know for sure that Brooks feels about me the way I’ve always felt about him. Or is that even a possibility?”

  Lorelai opened her mouth to say something when the music suddenly ceased. My first thought was that there was a technical difficulty and a fire I would need to put out. Then I heard a heavenly voice that changed everything.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “I apologize for interrupting.”

  We all whipped our heads toward the stage. There Brooks stood, tall and maybe a little nervous, looking fine in a designer suit, holding on to the mic. My heart started to violently beat out of control. Lorelai and Colette each grabbed one of my hands.

  “I know I’m not part of the program, so I promise not to take too much of your time tonight,” Brooks pledged. “However, I do need to thank Grace Cartwright for stepping in and taking over my responsibility in regard to the reunion. She’s done an amazing job, as you can all see. I think she deserves a round of applause.”

  People looked my way and clapped, making me blush. Yet I stayed fixed on the man who owned my soul.

  Brooks stepped toward the edge of the stage and looked out, searching for me. When he zeroed in on me, standing toward the back behind the tables that surrounded the dance floor, he flashed me a crooked grin.

  I squeezed my friends’ hands, not sure what he was up to but thrilled all the same.

  “Hello, Grace,” he crooned. “I see you now.” That was full of double meaning.

  My stomach fluttered.

  “I’m giving you fair warning that what I’m going to say next may embarrass you, but I promise that it comes from my heart and I have the best of intentions.”

  I bit my lip, nervous.

  Brooks took a deep breath in and out before beginning. “Grace, twenty years ago, I stood you up on a night very much like this. Looking back, it was one the biggest mistakes I ever made, but not the worst one. Failing to recognize the way you loved me, loved everyone around you, was my biggest failure. I know if we asked everyone here tonight, they would be able to tell of a time Gracie Cartwright touched their lives for good.”

  Several people murmured their agreement and nodded their heads. It made my cheeks burn. This wasn’t supposed to be the Gracie Cartwright tribute night. Though I was so touched by Brooks’s words.

  “Not only,” Brooks continued, “did Grace help me get elected as student body president, but she cheered me on in anything I decided to do. She cheered us all on. She was the first person to sit by the new kid or the lonely kid. And though she suffered the tragic loss of her mother during high school, she always managed to smile through her tears.”

  He was making me smile through my tears now. His momma’s makeup job was toast. Thankfully, she’d used waterproof mascara.

  Brooks unexpectedly jumped off the stage, mic in hand, and deftly landed on his feet. His dress shoes made a loud slapping noise against the tile floor. People immediately parted, creating a pathway from him to me. He slowly sauntered my way. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I recognize what a fool I’ve been. And I’m asking you to give me the chance to love you, like you’ve loved me. I know I don’t deserve it, but, Grace, I want to prove your theory right. To show you, you were right about me.”

  Colette and Lorelai leaned into me and in unison said, “I think you have your answer,” before pushing me toward Brooks. Picking up his pace, Brooks rushed toward me and wordlessly enveloped me in his strong arms.

  I was home.

  I clung to him, resting my head on his chest. His heart was beating erratically, matching my own. The crowd around us began to applaud, and Lorelai snagged the microphone from Brooks.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, I think this calls for a dance,” Lorelai drawled. “Mr. DJ, what do you say?”

  “I already received a request for the perfect song. This one is for you, Gracie.” In seconds, “Affair of the Heart” began to play.

  I looked up at Brooks, who smiled at me with such adoration it made my heart sing. “How did you know this was our song?”

  “Because I know you.” He lightly brushed my lips. “Dance with me.”

  I nodded, hardly believing this was happening. It felt like a dream. The one I’d been having since I was fourteen years old. I heard the voice say, I told you so.

  Brooks took my hand and led me past our grinning classmates to the empty dance floor. There he took me in his arms and whispered in my ear, “I don’t know how to dance.”

  “That’s okay, just hold me close and don’t let go,” I managed to choke out through my tears.

  He pulled me to him. “I’m never letting you go again.”

  “Perfect. We’re on the same page.”

  Several couples joined us on the dance floor, though I hardly noticed. I only had eyes for Brooks.

  “That was some speech you gave.”

  He gently wiped some tears from my cheek. “I figured I needed a grand gesture to show you I was in earnest.”

  “There you go using fancy words again, but I like it.”

  “I’m happy to hear that.”

  “I’m sorry you had to miss your presentation, though.”

  “I didn’t. However, I would have. I convinced them to change it to this morning, and I caught the first flight I could. The entire time I was gone, I was kicking myself for not asking you to our reunion. For not placing you first, as I should have. As I plan to do.”

  I rested my hand on his stubbled cheek. “I missed you, Brooks, so much.”

  He leaned in to kiss me as Carly and Dillon came to dance by us. “It’s about time, brother,” Carly interrupted, punching Brooks’s arm. “Now carry on.” She winked.

  Brooks didn’t need her to tell him twice. His lips landed on mine, and all felt right in the world for two seconds. Th
en Morgan reared her beautiful-yet-ugly head.

  “I didn’t expect to see you here,” she spewed.

  Brooks’s lips slid off mine, and we both groaned in frustration before turning toward her and Olivander, who she held on to with an iron grip as if he might escape.

  Morgan’s face almost matched her wine-red gown. “How can you choose her over me?” she whined like a child. “She still lives at home, and she gives facials for a living. Not to mention she doesn’t share our goals.”

  I might have been offended except it all sounded like sour grapes, plus I knew what a liar she was. Besides, I was proud of who I was.

  Brooks smiled at me. “Thank God for all those things.”

  Morgan didn’t appreciate his response. She dropped Olivander’s hand and clenched her fists. “You’re going to regret this.”

  Brooks narrowed his eyes at Morgan. “I regret many things in my life, mainly my relationship with you. I suggest you leave now before I make another speech about how our valedictorian isn’t as perfect as she would like everyone to think. You are deceitful and manipulative, and you have no business being here.”

  Wow, was he sexy when he got all authoritative.

  Morgan tchted but uttered not a word. Instead she blinked several times, as if she couldn’t believe Brooks had talked to her in such a way. That someone had stood up to her. When she realized she no longer had any control over him, she melted away like the wicked witch that she was. Like all bullies, she needed to be stood up to, and once she was, her power was stripped from her.

  Brooks breathed out heavily, as if he were relieved to finally be rid of the thorn in our sides, and gave me his rapt attention. “Now, where were we?” he sexily whispered.

  “I think you were about to make me blush in front of all our classmates.”

  “Deeply blush.” His lips hovered above mine, teasing them and making me ache to touch his. “You are beautiful. Thank you for not giving up on me.”

  “How could I? You are the one,” I cried.

  “I was made for you, Grace.” His lips crashed into mine, and, not caring who was watching, he parted my lips and followed through on his promise. I blushed deeply while his tongue swept my mouth and he pulled me flush against his body. Man, could he make me sparkle and pop. People hooted and hollered, but I paid them no attention. I was finally recognizing what I had always known to be true—Brooks was mine.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I smiled down at the chart in my hand before I opened the door to treatment room one. I had no plans to knock. When I opened the door, I found a smug-looking Brooks sitting on the edge of the table smirking at me, though I hardly noticed, as I was distracted by his glorious bare chest. “What are you doing here?” I closed the door behind me and leaned against it. I had to hold myself back from accosting him. I internally argued with myself, We don’t treat our customers like sexual objects . . . But he is technically my boyfriend . . . No. No. In this room, I swore to be a professional . . . But, oh, I want to touch him.

  “You did offer me a free facial massage before I decided how to review your spa online. And I wanted to make sure I looked my best for our first date tonight.”

  I wouldn’t consider the Rick Springfield concert our first date. Maybe it was going to be our best date so far, though that might be hard, too, considering all the make out sessions my couch had seen the last few days. And how much I loved when he would climb up the fixed trellis that could now hold his weight. Not to mention our all-night talks, listening to our favorite records. Lately, for Brooks, it was Mac Miller. He was deep and soulful, a lot like Brooks.

  I stepped toward him. “Listen here, my friend, if you know what’s good for you, you better give us five stars.”

  Brooks seized my top and pulled me closer to him. “I’m not your friend.”

  His sultry tone made me almost lose all reason. I had to keep the clipboard between us or I was going to be breaking all the rules soon. “What are you?”

  He grabbed the clipboard and tossed it to the floor before pulling me into the danger zone. Stay strong . . . But his lips look so inviting and the door is locked.

  He nuzzled my ear, making me shiver with delight, before whispering, “I’m your person and you’re mine.”

  I loved that. A lot. “Good answer,” I stuttered out. He was kissing my neck now and driving me wild. “Brooks, we shouldn’t be doing this in here.”

  “Why?”

  “We aren’t running a brothel.”

  “I’m not paying you for any services.”

  That was true. My hands landed on his beautiful, defined chest. Oh momma, was it nice.

  Brooks’s lips skimmed my jaw.

  “Really,” I breathed out. “We shouldn’t do this.”

  “You win,” he groaned. But he stole a kiss before letting me go.

  It took all I had to step away from him. “I promise we will pick up where we left off very soon.” Only five more hours until Rick Springfield. I couldn’t wait.

  “Not soon enough.”

  “I know I’m irresistible,” I teased, “but the more we resist, the better it will be tonight.”

  He ran a finger down my cheek. “You make my life better.”

  My eyes welled with tears. That deserved a kiss on the cheek. I let my lips linger on his warm skin, breathing in his amber scent. “For that,” I whispered against his skin, “I won’t use lavender or the stinging cleanser.”

  He chuckled.

  “Now lie down, but this time you can keep the sheet off.”

  His brow quirked before he obeyed. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “You almost sounded like a Texan there. Keep hanging around me and you might be saying momma and daddy before you know it.”

  “We’ll see.” He wasn’t convinced. “Speaking of my parents, though, they wanted me to invite you and your dad to dinner this weekend.”

  I picked up the clipboard from the floor. “Sounds great. I can bring dessert.”

  “Save dessert for me.”

  I swatted him with the clipboard. “Stop saying things like that or I’m going to have to fire myself after I accost you.”

  “Accosting me sounds good. I would definitely give you a five-star review for that.”

  “Stop it,” I laughed.

  He closed his eyes. “I’ll behave. Maybe.” He smirked.

  I walked around to the head of the table. This man was going to be the death of me, though I couldn’t think of a better way to go. “By the way, how are you feeling about your parents officially getting back together? We haven’t really discussed that.”

  His eyes popped open. Turmoil swirled in them.

  I ran my hand over his tousled hair. “I know it’s hard, and that’s okay.”

  He let out a deep sigh. “I can’t deny that my mom is happier than she’s been in a long time, and that makes me happy. Still, in my line of work, the odds aren’t good for couples who remarry, especially when infidelity was at the root of it.”

  “I can’t imagine how betrayed you must have felt. I won’t even pretend to. Just know I’m here if you want to talk about it. I’m on your side.”

  “I thought you wanted me to forgive my dad.”

  “I do, because I know it will bring you peace and I want you to be happy.”

  “Grace. Thank you.” He reached up and smoothed my cheek. “You make me happy.”

  I leaned into his hand. “I’m glad. Now close your eyes because I’m about to make you ridiculously happy.”

  “Mmm,” he groaned. “Are you sure you don’t want to join me on this table?”

  “Believe me, I do, but first I’m going to earn that five-star review the right way.” I ran my hand over his eyes, and they closed. I took a moment to stare at his beautiful face. I loved him. I always had.

  I reached for a bottle of essential oils. I probably shouldn’t have, but I chose the sandalwood oil. It was a sexy scent. As if I needed more help being turned on. However, it fit my mood, and I kne
w Brooks would enjoy it. I rubbed a small amount in my hand, then cupped my hands in front of Brooks’s beautiful face. “Breathe in slowly and relax.”

  Between the scent and his warm breath tickling my hands, I almost broke all the rules. I decided to lighten the mood before I did something I would more than enjoy but probably feel bad about later. Maybe.

  “You know, the last time you were here, I thought about smothering you with a towel.”

  His eyes peeked open, and he took my hands and kissed them. “I don’t blame you. I’ve thought about that day a lot. Wondering why I didn’t recognize you.”

  My hands couldn’t resist, and they slid down past his shoulders and landed on his chest, where they dug in and stayed. “Any conclusions?”

  He nodded. “I think deep down, I knew it was you, but I wasn’t ready to recognize you. To face the truth.”

  “And what truth is that?”

  “That I was in love with you, Grace,” he said it so easily, like he had said it hundreds of times.

  “What?” I faltered back toward the counter. I must have heard him wrong.

  Brooks sat up, his legs dangling over the side of the table, and turned toward me.

  “You said you only thought of us as friends when we were growing up.”

  “Grace.” He reached out a hand to me.

  I took it, and he tugged me toward him. I landed between his legs, gazing into his earnest eyes. I thought back to all our conversations and my observations. “Brooks, you told me you weren’t sure if you’ve ever been in love with anyone. And you made love to Morgan. And,” I was on roll, “she excited you. I never did.”

  He pulled me closer and wrapped his legs and arms around me. “Grace, I had sex with Morgan; there is a difference. And no woman has ever excited me like you do, even back in high school. Why do you think I climbed up to your room so many times?”

  I shrugged. “Because I was the only person who appreciated your taste in music.”

  He shook his head slow, steady, and sexy. “I don’t think so.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I know it was because I couldn’t wait until the next day to see you. To hear you laugh or see your eyes light up when you came up with the perfect cheer routine or campaign poster. Even now, I’m distracted at the office because I’m counting down the hours until I get to see you. No woman has ever had that effect on me. No woman has affected me like you. I meant what I said when I told you that you made everything better. I was just too young to understand what that meant.”