Lovestruck Forever (31 page)

His
eyes searched my face. “I…I just thought, when you
didn’t answer your phone…I figured you saw the pictures
and were pissed. Or that you decided you had enough of all this media
bullshit, whether you believed it or not.”

I
shook my head. I couldn’t believe this. He had crossed an ocean
to assure me that he loved me. Didn’t he know that I could
never doubt that?

I
placed a hand on either side of his face, and he closed his eyes, as
if he had been sure he’d never feel my touch again. “Thomas,
I know you didn’t cheat on me. I know Franny is a liar. I
know
you
. You would never
do that to me.”

Another
tear slipped from under his closed eyelids. “You didn’t
answer your phone. I’ve been calling for twenty hours.”

“My
sister had her baby last night, silly.”

His
eyes flew open. “Laura had the baby?”

I
nodded. “Right after the shower. We had a little scare at
first, but things turned out okay. I left my phone at her house in
all the excitement. That’s why I didn’t answer.”

“You
weren’t…you weren’t mad at me?”

“I’m
slightly irritated that you didn’t tell me that you’ve
seen Franny around London.” When he started to argue, I held up
a hand. “I know you have, Thomas. Those pictures had to have
come from somewhere. And Lola mentioned it in San Diego.”

“Lola?”
he cried. “Lola told you that I’d been seeing Franny and
you never mentioned it?”

I
shrugged. “I knew she was just trying to stir the pot. I don’t
have enough time with you these days to waste any of those precious
minutes entertaining her bullshit. I figured if there was anything to
say about Franny, you would tell me yourself.”

He
closed his eyes again. “And I didn’t. God, when you heard
about her story you must have been furious with me.”

“I
was furious with everyone else,” I insisted, wondering why he
was having such a hard time with this. “I was furious with
Heidi for making it out like the pictures of Jackson were the
problem. I was furious with Sofie and Callie and everyone else who
hinted that there might be truth to the rumors. But I wasn’t
furious with you. Why would I be?”

He
shook his head, staring at me like he couldn’t quite believe I
was real. “You really believed in me, after all of that?”

“Thomas,
I don’t get why this is so hard for you to understand. I love
you. I trust you. I
know
you. Of course I didn’t think you would do something like that.
I knew there must be an explanation. Was it hard to wait to hear from
you? Of course. But not because I thought you stopped loving me.”

He
grabbed me again, hugging me so tightly, I could hardly breath. “I
do love you. I love you more than anything. I swear to God, I’m
ready to walk away from all of it if that’s what you want.”

“Why
would I want that? Don’t you get it, Thomas? I was fine with
you taking this role, even though it required you to move back to
London, because I knew the distance wouldn’t change anything
between us. I listened to Lola’s bullshit and promptly ignored
it because I knew nothing she could say would change anything between
us. And when Sofie told me about the interview and the pictures, I
was upset, but not devastated. Because I knew that this stupid gossip
wouldn’t change anything between us, either. I believe in us,
Thomas. We’re getting married and nothing can stop that—”

He
cut me off by pressing his lips against mine, kissing me so hard it
took my breath away. “I love you so much,” he murmured
against my mouth, lifting me from the barstool into his arms. “You
are everything to me.”

“I
know that, silly.” I leaned back in his arms, smiling up at
him, glad that he finally got what I was trying to say. Glad that he
was here, even if the trip had been unnecessary.

It
didn’t matter who or what tried to come between us. My family,
his job, the press, Lola, Franny. None of it could affect who we were
and what we were to each other. I was going to love him the same way
I did right now tomorrow and every day after that, whether we were
here or in London or even separated by an ocean.

And
that was never going to change.

***

Thomas
wanted to go see the baby right away, but I convinced him that I
really was way too tired to head back. “I have to get some
sleep.”

“I
can’t believe you were in there for the whole thing,” he
said, sliding onto the bed next to me and wrapping his arms around
me. “That must have been pretty intense.”

“It
was crazy. Like, Laura is a super hero, I swear to God. I can’t
believe she could do that. They kept saying they were going to take
her into surgery if she didn’t go faster, because of the
complications. But then, suddenly, there was a brand new person in
the room. A person who hadn’t existed a minute ago.” I
shook my head. “Crazy,” I repeated.

“Do
you think you might be willing to have our own crazy brand new person
moment soon?”

I
snuggled in closer. “I don’t know about soon. We
definitely need to get Sofie through her pregnancy first. Oh, that
reminds me. Guess who’s reunited now?” I told him about
Sofie and her parents and their moment bonding over Maia. By the time
they left the hospital that morning, they had convinced her to come
home with them so they could talk out the details. “So I don’t
know if she’ll be staying here when you get back, to be honest.
I have a feeling her mother is going to lure her home with the
promise of home-cooked food.”

He
laughed. “I’m glad to hear things are looking up for
them. Didn’t I tell you they would come around?”

“You
said might, mister. And you clearly didn’t believe it.”

“What,
uh, about your family? I take it they heard about the, uh…”

“Yeah,
they did. But I told them there was no way we were discussing it
after the shower, and then all the drama went down with Laura. Sam
threatened to kick your ass, but my mom did tell me that she was sure
you wouldn’t do something like that.”

I
could hear the smile in his voice. “She always was the first
one to give me a chance.”

“They’ll
be fine, Thomas. I promise. I’m not going to let them give you
a hard time for something you didn’t do.”

I
felt a little kernel of doubt. I was being completely honest with him
when I said I believed his faithfulness without question. But that
belief wasn’t quite enough to eradicate the pain that he hadn’t
been completely honest with me.

“What
did
happen with Franny?” I asked, my voice very soft. “Why
were there pictures of the two of you together?”

He
sighed. “To be totally honest, she was helping me to do
something for you. Which only highlights the fact that she’s an
evil monster—that she would go from supposedly helping me to
selling a fucking exclusive…” he trailed off, his
breathing heavy. There was pure hatred in his voice, and I didn’t
think I had ever heard him talk that way about anyone before.

“What
could she have helped you with?” I asked. “And why did
you
want
her help, after the way she treated you?”

He
was quiet, as if battling something. “Lizzie, there’s
something I’ve been planning for the wedding. If you really
want me to, I’ll tell you what it is, but I’d rather
wait.”

I
couldn’t help but feel slightly exasperated. “Thomas, you
don’t have to plan these elaborate surprises all the time. I’m
marrying you for you, not because you plan romantic bombshells for
me.”

“It’s
not like that, Lizzie.” I could tell he was frustrated. “It’s
something from your entire family—all your siblings, your
parents, Sofie. It’s…I think everyone would rather I
wait to tell you until we’re all together. But if you feel like
it will help you deal with the Franny thing—”

I
sighed, wondering what in the hell he could be planning that involved
my entire family. “Fine, you don’t have to tell me. But I
still don’t understand why you would ask her for help. You knew
she was an attention-seeking evil bitch. She ditched you for Jackson
Coles, for God’s sake.”

“I
love you for still being so outraged about that,” he said. “I
didn’t ask her for help. She just happened to…work at
one of the places I visited to arrange your gift. It was completely
unexpected. She told me that she could help do…something.
Jesus, this is hard without you knowing all the details. She offered
to help me with something, and since she seemed so friendly about it,
I figured there was no point in hanging onto old grudges.” His
voice tightened. “Obviously, I should have held on a bit
longer.”

“You
swear that’s all it was?”

He
nodded. “I swear, Lizzie. I ran into her unexpectedly. She
offered me help with this project and I stupidly accepted. Then our
picture was taken together. I didn’t think much of it; it’s
not like she’s famous or anything. I figured whoever snapped
the pictures just couldn’t sell them—they were all from
that same week, by the way. They’re months old.”

I
relaxed against him. Maybe I was naive, but I believed him. I knew
how much Franny had hurt him, how she had made it difficult for him
to trust people, to have relationships. I just couldn’t fathom
a situation in which he would forget about all of that. If he said he
ran into her by accident and it was only circumstance that had them
photographed together, I knew it had to be the truth.

“I
believe you.”

I
could feel the tension ease out of his muscles. “Thank God for
that.”

“So…about
this surprise…”

He
laughed, tightening his arms. “No way, miss. You’ll never
get it out of me.”

I
pouted. “I totally should have pretended I was mad, really milk
the situation for all I could get.”

The
rumble of his laugh below my cheek made me smile.

“I’m
glad you came home. Even if it wasn’t necessary.”

“I’m
glad, too. I wish it could be for longer.”

“It’s
fine,” I assured him before yawning hugely. “We’ll
be married in no time, and then there won’t be any more of this
separation nonsense.”

For
a long moment, I concentrated on his breathing, the in and out that
raised and lowered my head gently. As my eyes were starting to drift
closed, I heard him ask one more question. “We’re really
okay, aren’t we?”

“Of
course we are,” I murmured sleepily. “
Everything
is going to be okay.”

The
day of my wedding shower was one of those perfectly clear, warm
autumn days that makes you wish summer could stick around forever. I
spent a long time choosing my outfit, wishing I had taken Sofie up on
her offer to come over and help me get ready.

“How’s
it going?” Thomas asked, leaning against the doorway to our
large walk-in closet—which was really more like a room and
contained much more space than any two people could ever actually
need.

“I’m
having some difficulty,” I told him, pulling another dress from
the rack.

“You
can wear anything, love. You’ll look perfect.”

I
managed not to roll my eyes in his face, but only barely. I took the
three dresses in my arms out to the bedroom and laid them across the
bed. “Pink, yellow, or white?” I asked, staring down at
the bed with my arms crossed.

“Hey,
isn’t that the dress you wore when we first met?” he
asked standing behind me and pointing at a brown shirt dress I had
discarded over the back of the rocking chair in the corner of the
room. I squinted at it. Gauzy material, pink flowers. I grinned.

“How
did you remember that?”

He
slipped his arms around my waist, stooping over to rest his head on
my shoulder. “I remember thinking that you were the most
beautiful girl I’d ever seen.”

I
snorted. “Thomas, you work with literal movie stars and models
on a daily basis.”

“And
I am telling you the God’s honest truth that not a single one
of them has ever been as beautiful to me as you are.”

I
tilted my head so our cheeks pressed together. “You’re
sweet.”

“And
then,” he continued, still reminiscing about the day we met,
“you went off about how awful Jackson was, and then I knew it
was true love.”

I
smirked. “That was terribly rude of me. You should have run
away at your first opportunity.”

He
smacked my butt as he pulled away. “You’re absolutely
right.”

“Thomas,
none of this is helping me figure out what to wear.”

He
ran his fingers across the white dress. It was made of eyelet lace
and cut in an empire waist with a scooped neck and an A-line skirt.
Very sweet and simple. “I’ve never seen this.”

“It’s
new. I bought it for today, but then I thought maybe it made me look
too girlish, so I left the tags on.”

He
held the dress out. “Try it on for me.”

I
shrugged, taking the garment from him and slipping off my robe so I
could step into the dress. “What if you skipped the bridal
shower?” Thomas asked, an eyebrow raised as his eyes ran over
my body.

“You’re
incorrigible.”

I
pulled my arms through the cap sleeves and turned for him to fasten
the zipper. “There.” He leaned down to kiss the base of
my neck. “All done.”

I
turned to face him, holding out my arms. “What do you think?”

His
eyes flicked up and down over the dress. “I think you look
perfect.”

“Yeah?”

He
took my hands, pulling me closer. “Yeah. All in white…it’s
almost like a wedding dress.”

I
laughed, pulling away to go finish my hair. “My wedding dress
is a lot fancier than this, mister.”

He
followed me over to my vanity. “But that’s probably the
next time I’ll see you dressed in white. It’s really
almost here, Lizzie.”