Always and Forever (12 page)

After putting the load in, I walk back through the lobby to the pool noticing the
place is like a ghost town. I’d seen a few people checking out this morning when I
came down and thought they must have four-wheel drive vehicles if they planned on
leaving. It seems as if I might be the only one here now, which I can’t say really
bothers me. I’m not here to mingle anyway. I enter the pool area and set my towel
on a chaise lounge, stepping out of the flip-flop sandals I’m wearing. I shrug off
the cute white crocheted cover-up I’ve got on throwing it onto the chair before going
to the huge pool and walking down the steps in the shallow end.

The water feels great and I sit down on one of the steps, leaning back on my elbows
on the step above it and look out the big windows at the snow. It’s so beautiful here
and I think I wouldn’t mind living here forever. I smile at that then sit up and pushing
off the steps, dive in and start swimming toward the deep end.

I’ve always liked swimming, actually competed in it in high school and did well, but
the whole becoming an adult and having to pay bills thing has kept me from it for
years. Now I revel in it, swimming several laps and loving how the water feels sluicing
over my body, how my shoulders feel so strong, the muscle memory coming back as they
power my arms to slice through the pool smoothly propelling me forward easily.

I stop my strokes in the middle of the pool and turn to float on my back, kicking
lazily every so often to keep myself moving. As I glide along for a couple minutes,
I suddenly have an uneasy feeling as if someone’s watching me and come up quickly
to tread water, spinning around toward the door then choke on the water I suck in
when I see Brody standing in the doorway, arms across his chest as he leans a shoulder
against the jamb smirking at me.

“Always loved you in that suit,” he says as I stare at him in shock.

Our stare down lasts for at least thirty seconds as every possible emotion one can
have hits me at once making my entire body shake as tears sting the backs of my eyes
and I feel my heart racing in my chest, but I’m not sure which emotion to attribute
these reactions to. If I had to take a stab at it, I’d guess ragey pissoffedness.

I dive under immediately, my mind racing trying to figure out what to do. I finally
settle on cool, calm and collected even though I feel anything but. I swim to a ladder
and climb up, getting out of the pool and as I walk to the chaise, I see he’s not
leaning against the door any longer and has dropped his hands to his sides. Keeping
my eyes on him as I walk I grit my teeth because, damn it, why do I have to notice
how good he looks standing there, his sandy brown hair in its usual messy style, the
scruff he’s sporting (damn that scruff) and his hazel eyes that are giving me an appreciative
up-and-down as I walk. I try to keep myself from looking back at him in the same way,
aka ogling him, but fail as I take in the cool faded blue t-shirt he wears, his biceps
stretching the sleeves of it a bit, his pecs are clearly defined underneath. His faded
jeans sit low on his narrow hips, a brown belt laced through the loops, and I can
see his powerful thighs outlined in them. Brown lace-up boots bring everything together
and it astounds me that after everything he’s done, after everything I’ve heard he’s
done, I’m still madly attracted to him.

Yep.

The man can cheat on me.

He can make a baby with another woman.

I want to hate him.

And yet I’m still in love with him.

Clearly, I’m an idiot.

So practicing pseudo self-control, I bend to grab my towel and use it to dry my hair
a little before bringing it down to wrap around my body then with counterfeit calm
slip my feet into my flip flops and grab my cover-up. Without a word, I walk toward
the door where he’s standing and pass right by him and out.

Well, that was easy, or so I think. It’s not until I’m on the stairs that he speaks.

“You just gonna ignore me?”

I spin around and see he’s right behind me and at that moment I hate that I’m so short
because even though he’s standing a step down from me I still have to look up at him.

“What am I supposed to do, Brody? Ask how your baby momma’s doing?” I state more casually
than I’m feeling and I’m proud of myself for remaining in control.

I watch as his brow comes down and hurt flashes over his face before he recovers.
He nervously runs his hand over the back of his neck before responding, “I thought
we could talk. That’s why I’m here.”

“I don’t know how you found out where I was, I didn’t ask you to come and I really
don’t want to talk right now.” I face the stairs again and continue climbing. When
I approach my room I can feel that he’s still at my back. Shit. I dig my keycard out
of my cover-up’s pocket and before passing it through the slot, I take a deep breath
then turn and look up at him. “Go away, Brody.”

“Pipe, can we please just talk?” He gazes down at me hopefully.

Damn it. I guess the least I can do is hear him out, so going with Ryan’s advice and
against my better judgment I answer, “Fine. I can meet you in the Oak Lounge at two
for lunch.”

He now gives me his gorgeous smile then leans down getting all in my space which makes
me back up against the door almost in a panic as his lips go to my ear and he whispers,
“Thank you.” He lingers there for a second and I close my eyes, breathing in his scent,
all woody and herby and manly. I hear him chuckle and open my eyes to see him standing
tall again, amusement dancing in his eyes. “See you at two.”

I watch as he goes to his room (
the room right next to mine!),
pulls out his keycard, gives me a wink and goes inside.

I now rush inside my room to the nightstand where my phone’s been charging and pick
it up to call Ryan but see I have several missed calls and texts from her already.
Pulling up my voicemail I hear her scream, “Pipe! I think Brody might be on his way
there! Or he might already be there because I think he left yesterday morning! Fin
called me and told me she accidentally told him where you were. Call me!”

Why didn’t I take my phone with me to breakfast?
Why?

Fate, you fucking asshole.

I unplug my phone and sit on the floor because I’m still wet from the pool and call
Ryan who answers, “Pipe! I think Brody might be there!”

“Ya think?” I bite out. “I can’t believe Fin told him where I was. Never trust a reporter,
God!”

“So he’s actually there and you’ve seen him…”

“Yeah, just did. And, boy, was it fun. We chatted about old times and then made plans
to get a facial this afternoon. I can’t wait!” I throw my head back against the bed
and stare at the ceiling. “Ry, I don’t want him here.” A tear slips down the side
of my face which pisses me off and I use the back of my hand to flick it the fuck
off my face.

“Oh, honey, I actually think this is a good thing. You’re on neutral ground and you
can talk. Yeah, it’s a good thing,” she points out.

I close my eyes and sigh. “You’re right. We can get it all out here and move on.”

“That’s right. See? It’s a good thing he’s there.”

“We’re supposed to have lunch and talk.”

“Good. Don’t hold anything back, okay? Make him explain everything.”

“Oh, I will, believe me. It might hurt like hell to hear how in love he is with Hannah
but at least I’ll know,” I reply with a wince. “Damn. That’ll
really
hurt to hear him say that…”

“I still have faith in him.”

“Can’t believe this is where we’re at after twelve years. I want to have faith in
him too but after all this time and from everything I’ve heard I don’t think I can.”

“I know. It’ll be okay. I feel it. Just be strong,” she offers. We sit quietly for
a moment then she says, “Oh. I talked to Mike.”

Uh oh. She doesn’t sound happy. “And?”

I hear her snort. “He wants me to clean the mats in the gym for him, as in mop the
entire floor. With some bleach concoction, no less. Can you believe that? And you
know that place is huge like a warehouse. He’d better have a good ventilation system
or I’ll freak out on him.”

“I was so hoping he was gonna ask you out. Jerk move,” I declare.

“It gets better.”

“Great. What else?”

“He came by the salon last night to tell me. Guess who he was with?”

“Who?”

“Stacia Mackie.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Came in right at closing time and they were holding hands. She was all dressed
up in her typical outfit, short dress, boobs and ass hanging out, hair out to there,
looking really hot, the hag. So, yeah, they were on a date. She got all bitchy and
shit demanding that I fix the nail I ‘screwed up’ from the manicure I gave her a week
ago, just stomped right up to me and stuck her hand in my face to show me it was cracked.
Of course, I didn’t screw shit up, so I asked what happened. You know she works at
the Shop and Bag, so she says it broke on the register when she was ringing up a customer
and that’s my fault how? That’s just regular wear and tear, but you know I always
fix that stuff for free for any of my customers, but she was so rude and accusatory
as if I’d done something wrong that I just wanted to tell her to fuck off. But because
I’m a business owner and have to play nice, I redid it while Mike sat and waited on
her. Oh, my God, Pipe, I had to listen to them flirt the entire time and I wanted
to puke.”

“Wow. I’m sorry,” I remark.

“Thanks, Pipe. So I finished her nail and she inspects it for, like, five minutes
making sure I did it correctly. Then they’re ready to go and as they’re going out
the door, that’s when Mike tells me about the floors and to come by this afternoon
if I’m free. You know what? Fuck him. I’ll just pay him the thirty bucks he spent
and tell him where he can shove his mop and mats and bleach.”

“Can’t say that I blame you.”

“Okay, I’ve gotta go pick up Joss and Carly from Mom and Dad’s. Let me know how your
talk goes, all right? Remember, it’s all gonna work out the way it’s supposed to so
stop worrying about it. All that does is give you wrinkles.”

“Surprised I don’t look like a prune by now. Give the girls a hug from Auntie Piper.
I’ll call you tonight.”

We hang up and I remember I’ve got laundry downstairs, so I throw my cover-up back
on and run down to put the load into the dryer then head back to my room where I shower
and get ready for lunch.

Chapter 10

I jump when Brody knocks at my door. I’d been staring out at the snow still coming
down and remembering some of the times we’ve had together like our second date when
he’d taken me to the park for midnight movies and it’d started raining. He’d picked
me up and carried me to his 1972 Bronco, running so I wouldn’t get too wet then we’d
driven to his house and got stuck on one of the country roads. Neither of our cell
phones would get reception, so we’d ended up having to walk a half mile to his house.
The rain wasn’t coming down too hard by then but because of our numerous stops to
make out, we were both soaking wet by the time we got there. His dad had given us
a funny look when we walked in and asked if we’d fallen in the pond that was on their
land.

Or our first year in college when I’d gone to Old Dominion which was close to home
and he’d gone to the University of Virginia which was two and a half hours away in
Charlottesville and we’d decided that since we’d be apart that maybe we should break
up. It’d been horrible. I was miserable the first two weeks until the second Friday
when I left to go to class and saw him waiting for me outside my dorm. I ran and jumped
on him, wrapping my legs around his waist, the tears pouring down my face as we kissed
each other silly promising never to break up again. After that first year, we’d both
transferred to VCU in Richmond so we could be together. We never lived with each other
and we both did our own thing over the next three years, but it was just better knowing
he was there.

But the main thing I think about is all the fun we had when we were together. Brody
has made me laugh more than anyone I’ve ever known and I’ve missed it a lot this past
year. He did things like write me little poems, some of them sweet, most of them funny.
My favorite was the haiku he’d taped to my bathroom mirror two months before we broke
up:

“Five syllables is

Not enough to say how much

I love you… oh, duh”

Now his knocking brings me out of my thoughts and I get sad again thinking there’s
really no way we can repair our relationship so this will probably be goodbye for
us.

“Hey,” I say when I open the door.

“Hey.” He looks down at me as if I’m the best thing he’s seen in years. And that doesn’t
suck. He reaches a hand out and runs a knuckle over my cheek and it’s too much.

I pull away from him and ask, “Ready?”

I see his jaw muscles bunching and then he nods. I move out into the hallway and pull
my door closed then we walk silently to the stairs and down and across the lobby to
the restaurant. There’s one other couple inside eating and I think we might be the
only four people left here.

“Good thing I made a reservation,” he mumbles which surprisingly makes me snort. I
look up at him and get a wink back.

God. God! I’ve missed him so much and I hate this. Hate that in a matter of minutes
we’ll be over for good.

The one server working walks up and tells us to sit wherever we want, so we head to
a small booth next to the windows and she gives us menus.

Brody looks out the window. “Can’t believe this snow. I wasn’t sure the SUV I rented
would make it here.” He looks back at me, his eyes soft on mine. “But nothing was
gonna stop me from getting to you.”

Everything about this troubles me. “Why now, Brody? Why’re you talking to me after
all this time?”

He purses his lips and looks around the place for a moment then back at me. “I couldn’t
do it any longer, Piper.”