Another Shot At Love (40 page)

What was wrong with me? I’d known I would have to make some kind of public speech. I probably should have practiced in the grocery store in front of strangers or something. I swallowed and worried about how sweaty my underarms were all of a sudden.

Using the back of my chair to steady myself, I flashed a big ole fake smile and said, “Hi…everyone.”

And then Brent was on the move. I gripped the back of the seat so hard, my knuckles turned white. When he passed behind Lexie to reach me, Lexie whispered to Jeremy, “I’m going to kill him.”

Brent didn’t hear—or didn’t care.

I was very aware my forehead had begun to perspire now, too, but the rest of the room was foggy. If I went face forward, it would be into the pretty china on the table. I concentrated on standing.

“And most of you know Gen and I were together for two years before I made the worst mistake of my life and she left me,” Brent said, and his girlfriend gasped.

It would really suck to be considered the worst mistake of anyone’s life. If I didn’t hate her, and if I weren’t going to pass out, I’d send her a sympathetic smile. And I couldn’t look anywhere but at the flower bouquet in the middle of the table. Except the flowers all blurred together into color blobs.
That can’t be good
, I mused to myself.

A hush had fallen over the room and I a chill ran down my spine, and…
Why are my arms numb?

Damn Brent and his bad timing.

“Jeremy, do something
right now
,” Lexie hissed.

To me, her words sounded as if they were being funneled in from another room. And it was so
hot
in here. I sucked in air like a fish out of water. This didn’t feel right. My feet also felt a little numb.

Brent must have sensed his speech was running on borrowed time because in my foggy state of mind, I noticed him glance furtively over my shoulder in Lexie’s direction. He was so dead; screwing up the engagement party. Didn’t he have any idea how much Lexie had stressed over this night? Of course not; Brent didn’t think of anyone but himself. If I knew Lexie, she was red with rage.
Stupid, stupid man.

I snickered as my knees wobbled.

“I almost ruined everything, but Gennie-Bear here has forgiven me. Last night we shared the most amazing, magical kiss I have ever experienced in my life,” Brent said and I blinked at him, trying to keep him in focus. “I’m just so happy you still love me and it’s so adorable you’ve been going to all this trouble to make me jealous and win me back. It worked. You and I can be together again, always.”

“Son of a bitch,” Matt breathed just as Brent dropped to his knee and took my hand in his, holding it like a vice.

Suddenly, there was a little black box in his hand and my mind screamed,
Oh God, what is he doing?
He flipped it open and said, “Gennie-Bear, say you’ll marry me. I promise to never screw things up again and I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you. Be my wife.”

“You
jerk!
” Lexie said followed closely with a growl that sounded a bit like a rabid animal. “Why the hell would you think you could
propose to her
after
what you did to her?
At my
engagement party.
”

Brent’s girlfriend cursed and bounded around the table, her big boobs stuffed into an impossibly tight, low-cut bodice. Stripper Barbie ripped the flower arrangement from the crystal vase in the middle of the table and lunged at Brent, attacking him with it while she screeched about what a bastard he was. I was too busy being amused by it to pay much attention to anything else until I realized Lexie had joined the fray and now Brent was wearing one of the pretty cupcakes from the cupcake towers behind the head table. And to think, I’d almost pulled the “I’m sick” card to get out of seeing Brent tonight.

Matt’s hands encircled my waist, pulling me from the fray as all hell broke loose in the dining hall. I couldn’t even separate the voices and words; I was still worried about my wobbly knees and churning stomach.

“
Holy shit
,” I breathed against Matt’s suit jacket and peered over his shoulder. He’d turned his back so I wasn’t anywhere near the flower attack.

My slightly stupefied mind thought,
What a gentleman.

“Ow! Claire, what the hell,” Brent said as he held his hands up to ward off his girlfriend’s attack. Or was it his ex-girlfriend since he’d proposed to me? I giggled hysterically and stumbled in my heels when someone bumped into Matt and we slid into a mess of smashed cupcakes and frosting and broken flowers scattered around Brent.

“Jeremy, get your fiancé
under control
,” Deborah Buchanan ordered, her eyes on the cameras flicking, and suddenly my tunnel vision cleared.

Suddenly, I had a target, a purpose.

I whirled around Matt to face the woman with the too-perfect makeup, the too-perfect French twist and the fake smile trying to keep composed in front of the guests and what she knew would be plastered in the local section of the newspaper. Deborah wasn’t worried about her son or her son’s fiancé, or the fact her son’s best friend had caused this scene. Instead, she cared about her image, her family’s image, and placed the blame squarely with Lexie.

“Under control?” I snapped and planted myself right in her face. It didn’t matter she had a good four inches on me; my heels put me almost nose to nose with her. “She’s not a dog, Deborah.”

Deborah bristled and lifted her nose in the air, but I wasn’t moving. “Well, she’s certainly acting like it.”

Lexie gasped from beside her future mother-in-law and I felt my chest seize along with hers.

“Don’t you talk to my girls that way, you
bitch
,” Mom said, and Deborah stepped back at the menacing tone in her voice.

“This is all your fault,” seethed a familiar voice from behind me and I turned to see Brent’s mom looking as if she wanted to strangle me. “I told him not to date trash like you, but he wouldn’t listen. You and your – your – your nose ring!”

Brent’s dad had Stripper Barbie pinned in his arms; she’d finally calmed down, but was panting like a heat-exhausted St. Bernard.

“Don’t speak to Gennie like that!” Brent said and struggled to push himself to his knees. His suit was covered in cake and frosting and some of it was mashed into his hair. “I love her. She’s going to be my wife.”

He tugged me to him before I could move out of his reach and my heels slipped on the floor. He caught me in his arms, then leaned down and kissed me smack on the lips, hard. As I shoved my hands between us to push him away, Catherine cried out, “Oh my God, my water just broke.”

And then all hell
really
broke lose, worse than it already had. Tony was yelling, Mom was yelling, Dad told Brent to get his sorry ass out of the way, and Matt helped clear a path for Catherine, flushed and swollen with wide, frightened eyes.

I was exhausted when Matt and I finally made it back to the hotel. Mom said it was a miracle—Catherine had pushed out the first baby in under two hours after only four hours of labor. And then the second baby came, and we all scurried around, shocked at the surprise of twins. Catherine and Tony had kept the twins a secret, but now the huge bulge of her belly throughout her pregnancy made sense, and so did her state of mind. She’d been nervous about having two babies without any practice, and Tony’s late hours with their drug sting had put her on edge. But the police department had bagged and tagged the bad guys and he would be on maternity leave alongside his beautiful wife to help take care of the twins, a boy and girl.

I collapsed into a lounge chair facing the windows, but was too tired to open the curtains for a view. Instead, I closed my eyes and a flashback of the events for the last two days replayed in my mind.

The sound of a suitcase being zipped had my eyes snapping open and I whirled to see Matt stuffing clothes into his suitcase and my heart dropped into my stomach.

“What are you doing?” I asked and stood, clutching my crossed arms at the elbows. He didn’t stop to look up at me and panic set in. “Matt?”

He zipped his suitcase shut and turned to face me, the lines of his face tense, his eyes hard.

“I don’t have time for games, Gen. Not with you. I just can’t do it. I don’t want to fight over you with an ex-asshole who doesn’t deserve to be in the same room with you.” He turned back to the bed where his suitcase was full, ready to be carried away, leaving my empty heart behind.

I grabbed onto him, my grip so tight it must have hurt. But I couldn’t let go. I was too afraid he’d leave if I did. He couldn’t carry me out and his suitcase, too.

“I don’t want that either, Matt. This isn’t a game to me.
I’m not Sarah
,” I said, pleading with him to believe I’d never treat him the way his ex-wife had. “I’m me. Just me. Please, don’t leave. Brent is nothing to me, he never will be again! Don’t leave. Please don’t leave me.”

My heart was racing so fast in my chest, I thought it would explode. I was crying, I felt the tears come, washing over my cheeks and down my chin. And I clung to him. I could feel my tears soak through his collared shirt.

“Hey,” he said, his voice gentle now. He tried to loosen my hold on him, but I wouldn’t budge, I couldn’t. “Gen, I wasn’t saying any of this is your fault. I’m sorry if it came across that way. I’m just so
pissed
right now. I wanted to punch him in the face, I was so angry. You have no idea what kind of self-control it took for me not to. He knows you’re here and I don’t want him coming by again. I don’t want to see him. I don’t trust myself not to hit him if he shows up again.”

It wasn’t his words that calmed me, it was the way his body had relaxed into mine, how he embraced me, all around me, instead of standing like a board I’d nailed myself to. I sniffled and wanted to look up, but didn’t want him to see me like this, a hysterical mess.

“You’re not mad at me then?” I asked.

“Of course not. You were honest with me—and you’re right, Brent’s delusional. But I don’t blame him for loving you.” He managed to put some distance between us, only enough to force my chin upward so that I would have to look up into his smiling face. His lips were quirked into the smile that I’d never be able to resist. “And he made me realize something tonight—
I
am in love with you.”

I wasn’t worrying anymore about my tear-stained face anymore, or what my makeup must look like. My heart sang, my body felt as if every nerve was on fire. “You are?”

“Yes, I am,” he said and placed his hands around my face, staring intently into mine. “I love you so much, it scares me.”

He dropped his forehead to mine, his thumbs stroking my wet cheeks, and he said, “I have loved you for awhile now, but I was too much of a coward to admit it, or to tell you. I loved you every time I looked into your beautiful blue eyes. Every time you laughed. I loved you the moment I saw the picture you painted of us and instead of showing you how I felt, I left. I wasn’t looking for this—I wasn’t ready for it. But here it is, just the same. I’m not even sure I deserve you, but I’m selfish enough that I’m begging you to let me love you.”

I leaned up on my toes, pressing into him before placing my lips, still wet with tears, against his. I whispered, “Matt, I will never hurt you. I want to be with you, forever if you’ll let me. I love you.”

He kissed me then, deep, full of yearning and held nothing back. I was breathless when the kiss ended. The insides of my body were as warm as the smile on his lips.

“You make me happier than I’ve ever been, Gen,” he said and I wondered how I could have gotten so lucky as to find him. He kissed the tip of my nose. “My heart feels like it could burst. I worried I might never find this, and I stopped caring about it. Thank you for showing me differently.”

And then he swept me up into his arms. I laughed when he spun us around and pressed my face into his neck and whispered, “Another shot at love.”

Epilogue