The Running Series Complete Collection: 3-Book Set plus Bonus Novella (42 page)

“You want to go there?  OK, then.  What the hell were
you
thinking?  You knew we had our suspicions about Derek.  But rather than do the responsible thing and actually
tell
someone where you were going, you just disappeared.  For
hours
!  How about
you
apologize to Derek for putting him in this position in the first place?”  His arms are crossed on his chest and he’s waiting for my response.

Auggie actually takes Marcus’ side.  “Jette, you promised all of us you wouldn’t be alone with Derek.  How were we supposed to know you’d willingly break that promise?”

With her hands on her hips, Emmy begins to lecture me.  “You literally disappeared for hours.  We were worried sick.  Do you have any idea how upset Evan was?  He came to the bar to surprise you and you were gone!” Great, now Emmy’s ganging up on me, too.

Evan explains, “I thought you were abducted.  I pictured you stuffed in the trunk of his car ... or worse.”  He is breathing hard.  There is an unfamiliar icy tone to his voice and his face is hardening with a stony expression.  “I need to get out of here,” he said bitterly.

“This is bull shit.  I’m going to bed.  The hell with
all
of you!”  I storm off into my room and slam the door shut.  No one comes to me this time.  I hear Evan’s car pull away first.  That’s when the tears start flowing again.  I cry until I have no tears left to shed.  How could everything get so out of control?

W
hen the sun rises, I find the strength to get up and leave my room.  I’m physically and emotionally exhausted.  I tossed and turned for hours, constantly checking my phone for messages or calls from Evan that never came.

I open up my dresser drawer looking for something to wear and the first thing I spot is Evan’s UMD sweatshirt.  I lift it up to my nose and inhale deeply.  It still smells like him.  I pull it over my head and wander into the kitchen to make myself some coffee.

Marcus’ last words are playing over and over in my mind.  He told me that I owe Derek an apology.  I swore to myself that Derek would get the apology he deserved, and I suppose that apology should come from me. 

I really want to go right over to Derek’s house and talk to him face-to-face, but it’s way too early.  They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, so I use the time while I wait to bake cookies.  I make a double batch of chocolate chunk cookies. There are a lot of people I need to make amends with.

As I measure the brown sugar and white sugar, I weigh the choices I made last night and wonder what I could have done differently.  I can think of several things I would change if I could have a do-over.

The simplest thing would have been to simply let Derek answer the phone when Emmy called.  Thinking back, I realize that it was my selfish desire to avoid confrontation that fueled my decisions. 

I also could have let Derek take me home like he wanted.  What was I so afraid of?  Seeing reminders of Evan may have been the smarter thing to do rather than hide at the diner feeling sorry for myself.

As I place my cookie sheets in the oven to bake, my mind drifts to Evan.  He’s certainly right about one thing – I momentarily lost faith in him.  That’s something I cannot take back.

Aside from yesterday’s trip to the city, Evan has spent almost every waking moment with me.  I know intellectually that there’s no way he’s had the opportunity to rekindle a relationship with anyone else, much less Averee De-Ho.

However, if all I had was that bitch Averee’s word for things, I never in a million years would have been swayed.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t just faced with her words, Evan himself brought this upon us the moment he set foot in her loft, knowing that his movements would be documented and broadcasted by the paparazzi.

As much as it pains me, I’m going to give Evan some space and time.  I can only hope he comes to the same conclusions I did, we both brought this on ourselves. 

While the cookies cool, I take a shower.  I have a small collection of cake boxes in my closet, which I fish out and prepare to fill with chocolate chunk cookies.

I go online to search for donkey clipart and print four copies onto crisp, white paper.  I dust off my art supplies, pen a proper apology, and hand-decorate each card.  It contains a simple message, “Sorry I was such an ass.  Please forgive me.”  I fill four boxes of cookies for Emmy, Derek, Marcus and Auggie.

I leave Auggie’s cookies on the counter for him to find when he wakes up. 

My first stop is to Marcus’ house to drop off his cookies.  His house is dark and quiet.  I can only assume he’s still sleeping, so I leave his cookies on his front porch.  I’m sure either he or Camilla will find them soon enough. 

Next, I drive to Emmy’s house.  I’m not surprised when I find an empty driveway.  She must have spent the night with Grant.  That means I can kill two birds with one stone, so I head directly to my final destination, Derek’s house.

When I pull up in front of Derek’s house, Emmy’s car is parked in the driveway.  I can tell that someone is up.  The front door is open and I can hear chatting.  I knock softly so that I don’t wake anyone who might still be asleep.  Derek appears at the front door, looking well rested and freshly showered.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” he says dryly. 

I hand him his cookies and ask him for his forgiveness.  “Derek, I really screwed things up badly last night.  Is there any way you’ll ever forgive me?”

“Jette, I know you never meant for things to snowball the way they did.  I could have insisted we call someone, too.  I knew there was some crazed person out there, and I let everyone worry unnecessarily.”  He’s quiet for a moment, and then adds, “I need to learn how to say no to you.”  I didn’t think it was possible, but now I feel even worse.

I follow Derek as he takes his cookies to the kitchen, and sitting at the table are Emmy and Grant.  I walk straight up to Emmy with her box of cookies in hand.  “Looks like you’ve been busy this morning,” she says. 

“Emmy, I’m so sorry I made you worry last night.” 

“Jette, Derek explained everything.  I made some pretty big mistakes, too.  If Derek can forgive me, I can forgive you.”

“Yeah, I guess we all screwed up big time, didn’t we?  What the hell happened last night?”

I get the entire, horrible story.  First, Emmy tells me about how she and Marcus panicked when they found out that I left with Derek, fearing the worst.  They wanted to believe Jack when he told them that I went home sick.  They waited an hour and called Auggie to check on me.  Just as Auggie was telling them that I never showed up, Evan arrives at the bar to give me a ride home.  It doesn’t take much convincing for them to persuade Evan that Derek is my stalker and abductor.

Then Grant tells me how Evan and Adam showed up here and demanded to see Derek’s room.  He tells me how they trashed his room, looking for clues that would tell them where Derek might have taken me.  Apparently, that’s what they were doing when Camilla called Evan.

“Oh, Derek, I’m so sorry.  Can I help you put your things back together again?”  I hate to think about Derek having to clean up more of the mess I created.

“No need.  Evan came by last night and apologized.  He and Adam made things right, Jette.  Like I told you last night, he’s really a good guy,” he reminds me.  “We talked and came to an understanding.”

“About what?” I wonder.

“You.  Let’s just call it a gentleman’s agreement.”

“Oh. Ah, OK.” 

“Did he call you this morning?” Emmy questions me.

“No,” I utter softly, wiping my eyes. 

“Give him time.  He’ll call.  I’m sure of it.  He loves you, Jette.  He’s just upset, too, you know,” she states confidently.

“I hope you’re right, Emmy.  Why did I have to turn on that damned television last night?”  I sulk.

“You could call him, you know.”

“Yeah. I know.”

I apologize one more time to all three of them, and head back home to get ready for work. 

F
or once, my night at work goes by uneventfully without any complications or drama.  I still haven’t heard from Evan.  I know that tomorrow I will see him.  The night of the big Restore the Shore Benefit has finally arrived.  I miss him so damned much, it hurts.  For the second night in a row, I cry myself to sleep.

It’s still pitch black out when I’m startled awake by the slow creaking of my bedroom door opening.  A dark figure is standing in my doorway.  I sit up and wipe the sleep from my eyes.  Am I dreaming or am I awake?  “Evan?”

Softly, he mutters, “I couldn’t sleep without you.”

“Are you really here?” I ask skeptically.

“Shhh ... go back to sleep.”

He slips off his shoes and climbs into bed beside me. Wrapping his arm around my waist, he pulls me close.  He smells so good and feels even better.

“I’m still mad,” he whispers.

“Me, too,” I reply.

“I love you, Juliette.”

“I love you more, Evan.”

I can actually feel him smile.  Another tear falls, and Evan wipes it from my cheek.  Together, we drift off to sleep wrapped in each other’s arms. 

I wake up hours later.  The sun is up, shining brightly, casting a warm glow throughout my room.  I turn over, and my bed is empty.  Was it just a dream?  Did I want him to come back to me so badly that I fantasized the whole thing?  God, I hope I’m not going crazy.

Folded neatly on my dresser is Evan’s UMD sweatshirt that I wore yesterday.  Perhaps wrapping myself in him, enveloped by his scent, swathed in his warmth, caressed by his soft touch, is what brought about last night’s dream.

I slip his sweatshirt over my head again.  If I can’t have the real thing, this will have to do. 

Auggie must be up because I smell fresh coffee brewing.  Knowing that I look like hell, and not really caring right now, I wander into the kitchen. 

The sight before me stops me dead in my tracks.  “Evan?” I ask.  “You’re really here?”

I can’t stop what happens next.  I fall to my knees and cry deep, bellowing, unladylike sobbing.  I have no idea why I’m crying, but now that I’ve started, I cannot stop.

Evan drops to his knees and looks me straight in the eyes.  “Baby, why are you crying?  I’m right here.”

“I thought . . . I lost . . . you.”  It’s all I can get out in between the sobs.     

He stands up and lifts me into his arms effortlessly, as if I were a rag doll.  I wrap my arms around him and bury my face in his neck.  Closing my eyes and concentrating as best I can, I try to slow my breathing and calm my emotions.  I can feel the tears slowly subsiding.

Gently, he sits on the couch and places me on his lap.  I don’t want to look at him.  I hate that he’s seeing me like this.  I hate everything about this situation.

There’s a box of tissues on the table beside the couch.  I grab one from the box and give my nose a really good blow.  I grab another to wipe my eyes and place both wadded up tissues on the table.

“Are you ready to talk about what happened?”  Evan moves loose tendrils of hair from off my faces and places them behind my ear.

I nod.  “You first.”

“Thursday night was the worst night of my life, Juliette.  Not knowing where you were or if you were safe was pure torture.  I thought I might never see you again.”  Evan’s face looks tormented.  He runs his hands through his hair and continues.  “My worst fears almost came true – that you were in danger and I couldn’t protect you.  I’ve had nightmares ever since.  I had to come over early this morning just to make sure you’re safe.”

“How did you get in?  Wasn’t the house locked?”

“Adam left your keys with me, along with the alarm code.  We both thought it would be best if I had access to the house in case of an emergency.”

“Oh.”  I’m glad he has keys to my house.  I hope he has an opportunity to use them again.  I hope he wants to use them again.  “I’m so sorry.  I wasn’t thinking clearly when I took off with Derek.  I thought you left me.  I believed that
my
worst fear had come true – that you realized you needed more.  That’s what
I
have nightmares about, Evan.”  I feel like my heart is breaking all over again.