Beautifully Unbroken (30 page)

“It’s okay, Jo. Calm down; it’s just a car.” Cooper’s hand rested on my shoulder, causing my body to shudder.

I shrugged his hand off me and turned to face him, scowling. “It is not just a car, and someone has done this to me on purpose,” I said shakily.

“We will find out who did it,” Cooper said firmly.

“How?”

“I don’t know yet, but we will, I promise.”

Marcus began giving the attendant a piece of his mind.

I watched Cooper as he walked slowly around the car, weighing up the damage. Anger flared inside me as I took the few long strides to him that separated us.

“You did this,” I said angrily, trying to keep my voice low as I poked at Cooper’s chest. “You had no reason to be here today, and yet you stayed all day so as this wouldn’t look like it had anything to do with you. But I know you, I know what you are capable of, and I know that you did this.” My whole body was shaking with anger. I so wanted Blake right now. I wanted him to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be okay. Cooper took my arm and guided me away from the onlookers.

“Jo, I know what you think, but I swear to you, hand on my heart I swear, this has nothing to do with me.”

“Bullshit,” I spat out.

“Why would I do this? Huh? Why would I want to hurt you? I have no reason to hurt you, Jo. I want us to be friends. I
need
us to be friends. I swear to you, on my mother’s life, I had nothing to do with your car being vandalized. I haven’t been out of sight all day; you know that.”

“So you got someone to do it for you,” I replied.

“No,” Cooper said quietly. “Come on, Jo, please,” he said quietly as his hand took mine. I pulled my hand away and walked back to Marcus.

“I’m so sorry, Jo; this should never have happened. Turns out idiot here was taking a break; someone was obviously watching and waiting for the window of opportunity.”

“But why me? Why my car?”

“I’m sorry,” Marcus said again. “Look, I can have someone pick this up for you, on me. I’ll get it repaired and delivered back to you.”

“You don’t have to do that; it’s not your fault,” I said, rubbing my brow frantically.

“I’m supposed to be watching out for you; Blake isn’t gonna be very happy when he finds out.”

“Don’t tell him,” I said quickly. Marcus looked up at me in surprise. “I don’t want to worry him when there’s nothing he can do.”

“I don’t like lying to him, Jo,” he said, unsure.

“Look, I’ll tell him when he gets home, but if I tell him now, he will worry about something that he has no control over. Please.”

Marcus took a deep breath. “You tell him when he gets home – no excuses.”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully.

“Still up for dinner?”

“No.” I smiled sadly. “I just want to go home.”

“Sure.” Marcus took his phone from his pocket and started calling someone; I assumed it was someone to come and take the car away.

“I’ll give you a ride,” Cooper said from behind me.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ll be fine, but thank you.”

“What would Blake rather you do? Walk or get in a cab?”

“Probably, if the third option involved you, yes.” I nodded.

“I’m trying to help, Jo. I really just want to make things right between us. All I’m doing is offering you a ride home, nothing more. Just please get in the car,” he said as he opened the passenger door for me.

Wanting desperately to say no, but knowing that if someone had damaged my car they may want to damage me, I allowed myself to give in and climbed into Cooper’s Audi.

We didn’t speak as we drove the short distance back to the apartment. I was already weighed down with guilt for allowing myself to get into the car with him. He had been right when he asked if Blake would prefer me to get a cab or walk home, but he would have also rather I got a lift with anyone except Cooper.

“Thanks for the lift,” I said as I unbuckled my seat belt. “And I’m sorry for what I said to you too.”

Cooper smiled. “No problem. I meant what I said, though; I want to make things right between us. I understand that Blake doesn’t want you around me; I’d be the same. But I would never hurt you intentionally, Jo. I miss you; I miss what we had, and if I can ever just get a tiny bit of that back, I’ll take it.”

“Bye, Cooper.” I smiled as I climbed out of the car and headed into the building. Day one done, only thirteen left to go.

Casey bounced into the apartment the next morning at seven thirty a.m.

“Tell me you have a couple of spare hours, please,” she begged, clasping her hands together.

I rolled my eyes and placed my empty cup into the dishwasher

“Don’t tell me you changed your mind about the boathouse.”

“Nope, all systems are a go on that front, but we need to sort dresses, and I think I may have found the perfect place that can do them at short notice. Well, your dress that is; no one will get their eyes on mine until exactly three weeks and four days, not that I’m counting.”

“Give me an hour and I’m all yours.” I headed past Casey towards the hallway. “Oh,” I said, turning back to face her. “I have a flat tyre; can you drive?” Keeping what had happened from everyone was going to be tough, but if I told Casey, she would tell Alex; if she told Alex, he would tell Blake. I hated that I was lying, but keeping it to myself would be the best option for now.

“You have had that car five minutes,” she replied in disbelief.

“I know, drove over some glass or something,” I lied. “So Alex took the news about the speedy wedding okay then?” I said, diverting her attention back to the wedding.

Casey shrugged and gave me a nervous smile. “He seems okay with it. He wasn’t as excited as I had hoped, but he has a lot going on with the new club so …” She shrugged and looked down to the floor.

“Men,” I joked, but Casey’s smile only saddened. “He told me all about Angela, you know.” Casey’s eyes shot up to me in surprise. “The night he came over here and told me off about Blake. I suppose he’s just nervous, scared of history repeating itself,” I said, knowing exactly how that felt.

“Suppose so,” Casey said quietly.

“Right,” I said breaking the awkwardness that had suddenly appeared. “Let’s get this show on the road.” I smiled as I headed down the hallway. I felt sympathy for Alex even though I loved Casey dearly. I could definitely imagine that being sprung with the news of his own wedding in less than four weeks after what had happened to him with Angela would only bring up all of the bad memories that he held. Maybe I would have to pay him a visit and repay the pep talk that he had given me when I was being stubborn about Blake. I, for one, could definitely relate to how he was feeling.

There was nothing quite like the feeling I got every time Blake’s name lit up my phone screen. But that feeling was bittersweet. I looked forward to every time I spoke to Blake, but mixed with that was the guilt I felt for not telling him about the car being vandalized and the fact that Cooper had then brought me home. I hated lying to Blake, and I knew how I would feel if it were Blake lying to me, but the truth was, I didn’t want Blake worrying about me when there was nothing he could do from Miami to help me. I also felt stupid. Had I not been such a child over him hiring Christina, maybe my car wouldn’t have been damaged and I wouldn’t have ended up going home with Cooper. I just hoped that that was the only thing I would have to tell him when he returned and found that the damage was just the result of mistaken identity. After all, I had only just been given the car; there was no way that it was common knowledge already that I had it.

The deep breaths I took repeatedly during his calls only partly stemmed the emotion that tried so hard to spill out. I hated lying, and I hated myself for doing it, but I knew it was all for the right reasons and that Blake would understand once I told him the truth.

Two hours after we had arrived at Annabelle’s boutique, Casey was still undecided on both the material and the design of the dresses. She seemed too distracted to even think about what to choose. “Had I stuck with the winter wedding as Alex wanted, I would have picked the colours and designs no problem. But no” – she sighed – “I had to jump the gun, didn’t I.” She shook her head whilst flipping through the samples for the hundredth time.

“What do you recommend, Annabelle?” I asked, hoping to take a bit of the stress from Casey.

“Well,” Annabelle replied carefully, “do you have a colour theme? Flowers, invitations, the groomsmen’s ties perhaps?”

“Oh God,” Casey said, burying her head in her hands. “I’ve rushed into this way too quickly, haven’t I? I haven’t even given a thought to any of those things. This wedding is going to be one big, fat disaster, and it will serve me right, won’t it?”

I stepped over to Casey and crouched before her. “We can do this,” I said firmly.

“How?” Casey asked, deflated.

“I’m going to ask you a question, and you say the first answer that you think of, okay?” I stated.

“This isn’t a game, Jo,” Casey said, slightly annoyed.

I smiled. “Trust me.”

“Okay,” she sighed.

“Straps or strapless?”

“Strapless,” she said straight away.

“Knee length or to the floor?”

“Floor.”

“Chiffon or silk?”

“Chiffon.”

“Your favourite flower.”

“Roses.”

I sat back, smiling and feeling very pleased with myself. “Okay, Annabelle, we want a red floor-length strapless chiffon gown please.”

Casey’s face lit up for the first time since that morning. “How did you just do that?”

I winked as Annabelle stood and headed off to fetch the suitable material. We had made progress.

“I’m telling you, that tape measure must be wrong; it looked as old as Annabelle, so obviously isn’t the same as what we use these days,” I moaned as we pulled out of the boutique’s car park.

“All tape measures are the same, Jo,” Casey laughed.

“Well I have never been a twenty-six inch waist before, never,” I said, horrified. “It’s Blake’s fault, force feeding me bloody breakfast every morning. I knew this would happen; I’m getting fat. He is going to go off me, and I’m going to end up big, fat and alone,” I whined.

“Stop being such a drama queen,” Casey laughed. “You’re just content now, that’s all.”

“I am not content with being fat,” I said in horror. “From now I am eating healthy and exercising.”

Casey snorted. “Anyone would think you were the one getting married.”

I frowned. “I just don’t want Blake to go off me.”

“That is never gonna happen,” Casey laughed.

I made it to the rehearsal just in time. A black SUV that had followed me the distance from the boutique to work hadn’t gone unnoticed. Knowing that Blake had hired someone else without my knowledge to look after me while he was away was comforting. Even though I had made him call Christina to cancel the job he had employed her to do, I was glad he had employed someone else regardless. As I stepped out of the car on the studio’s car park, I noticed the black SUV slowing at the gates before driving off.

“Do you want me to pick you up later?” Casey asked.

“No, thank you,” I said firmly. “I shall start as I mean to go on; these legs need some exercise.” I smiled. “See you later.” I closed the door and watched as Casey drove away.

We were well ahead of target to be ready for Friday’s live show, so Marcus decided to call it a day early, and we all left by six. Marcus informed me that my car would be back at my apartment when I got home. He really was looking out for me as he had promised Blake he would. I struggled at convincing him that I wanted to walk home, and even though he put up a good fight, I won over in the end and walked the short distance home in less than an hour.

By the time I stepped into the apartment, my feet were sore and my head hurt. Walking home in heels and not eating all day wasn’t the best decision I had ever made.

“You look peaky,” Casey observed. “You not feeling well?”

“I didn’t realize walking was such a challenge,” I said as I flopped down onto the sofa and removed my shoes to discover the numerous blisters that had appeared.

Casey squirmed. “Ouch. You need to have a long, hot soak in the bath and get some decent food inside you. Shall I order us a pizza?”

“Pizza sounds great; I’m starving. Can you ask for extra jalapeños on mine please?” I said as I dragged myself from the sofa.

Casey smirked at me as I headed past her. “The diet starts tomorrow, right?”

“You’ve got it,” I replied.

Blake called while I was soaking in the bath. It was great to hear his voice; I hadn’t spoken to him since that morning, and it had been a good day, so I didn’t feel as though I was betraying him in any way. I didn’t, however, mention that I had walked home; he would want to know why, and then I would have to explain the car to him. He told me that they were working flat out to be finished in time, as they hadn’t had a very good day of filming. As long as it didn’t mean he would be later arriving home than planned, I didn’t mind.