Surrounded (Unsettled Series Book 2) (7 page)

“The event is
fabulous
, Logan, and I love the color scheme this year” Sam gushed. Whatever. I could’ve cared less about the color scheme. I had nothing to do with picking it. “We’re glad we could be a part of it again” Sam said, lightly swatting at my arm.

Who told women that little move was cute? It only made them look like they were swatting flies.

“Thank you” I said, tossing out my most fake smile, the one I knew made ladies swoon and open their checkbooks. At that moment, as much as I tried, I couldn’t help but be thankful that Brooklyn didn’t fall for the same old shit. The flowery words or the money. When I ran into her on the street that first day, she wasn’t wearing the googly-eyed expression that I saw on Samantha and Morgan’s faces at that moment. In fact, she seemed almost put out that I’d even spoken to her. I almost laughed at the memory, and then I remembered how she’d hauled ass out of here. I struggled to keep my smile from slipping.

“How’s everything else going? Liz told us she ran into you in Seattle. We’re really excited for her, with the ba—.” Just then Morgan discreetly jabbed Sam in the side and gave her the glare of death. The mention of Elizabeth’s name took me back to my short trip to Seattle. Not because I saw her, but because of the conversation me and Brooklyn had that night after I’d left Elizabeth downstairs. The conversation about Herman. How had things changed so quickly?

Samantha and Morgan’s squirrely giggles brought me back to the present. If they’d been talking, I surely hadn’t been listening. “Well, ladies if you’ll excuse me, I have a few things to attend to.” With a nod I left them to their whispering.

I stopped just short of the valet booth and pulled my phone out of my suit pocket. Trevor picked up on the third ring, “L, what’s up?” My relief that Trev picked up was palpable.

“Hey man,” I replied. “What’s going on? Are you still at the Block?” Trev had been spending a decent amount of time at his sports complex to make sure everything was is order for opening day. 

“Yep, still here. Trying to get through some stuff before next week. You know how Melissa gets if the numbers aren’t done, and I don’t want to hear that madness. I got more than my fair share last week.” If I didn’t know Trev’s girlfriend first hand, I would assume she hassled Trevor daily. In reality she was super nice and funny.

“Cool, well I need to let off some steam. You okay with me coming by to hit a few rounds?”

There was a pause. “Everything good?”

“Man, it’s a long story and my head’s still spinning trying to figure out what the hell happened.”

“Uh oh, sounds like trouble in paradise.”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Alright. The beer is already in the fridge, so head on over.”

“Be there in a while.” I was more than ready to get out of the stuffy hotel and unwind for a while. Tonight wasn’t shaping up anywhere near how I thought it would. I’d planned on taking Brooklyn down to the trail behind the house so she could take photos in the moon light. Now it was just me and Trev, as usual. “I’m going to go home and change first, and then I’m headed your way. I’ll be there soon.” I hung up the phone and shoved it back into my suit pants pocket.

“You ready to smash them out of the park, L?” Trevor asked, as I walked into the brown trailer currently serving as his make shift office. He pushed away from his keyboard and came around the desk.

“Always” I said, giving him a pound.

“Good, let’s get to it.”

I followed him outside into the spring night and was amazed how clear the sky was. Stars were everywhere. I couldn’t shake the thought that Brooklyn would love to be here with her camera. I followed Trev to the back side of the complex, where the batting cages were lined up. Of course he already had a couple bottles of beer against the retaining wall.

“So what’s up?” Trev asked, pulling a bat and a bag of balls from a neatly organized pile on the ground. He handed the bat to me and headed over to the ball machine.

“Man, I don’t know what happened. But whatever it is, I’m pretty sure she isn’t going to be talking to me anytime soon.” Even if she answered her phone—which I highly doubted she would—I knew the conversation wouldn’t be pleasant. Not that that had stopped me from trying to call twice. “Why the hell do girls do that shit?” I asked, kicking at the plate while I waited for Trev to turn on the rest of the field lights.

“What shit?”

“You know,” I swung the bat back and forth to warm up. “Running off before explaining what the hell they are so pissed off about.” It had been a long ass day. First my dad showed up at my place unannounced, then Brooklyn flipped out on me and I was still left in the dark. I lobbed the bat behind my head and began to pull it from side to side to get a good stretch.

“Don’t know. Mel is always more than happy to point out what I do to piss her off. So how long are you going for tonight?” Trev asked, walking back towards me. The hum of the pitching machine warming up filled the air.

“I don’t know yet. What’s my record?”

“I think your last session went for three hours, and man, I’m pretty sure you had a thousand hits. Do you want to try to go for longer?”

I remembered that day. That was last fall when I’d showed up to his house drunk on the anniversary of my grandparent’s death. Not one of my finest moments. That was not a good day. Not a good day at all.

“I don’t know. We’ll see.”

“So what happened with Brooklyn?” he asked. I heard Trev pop the cap off the first bottle of beer for the night. “Beer?”

“Sure.” Trev handed me a bottle of Shock Top as the first ball flew into the fence. “Dude, I’m telling you, I don’t know. All of a sudden she just wanted to bail. I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that she bailed, or feeling like I’d done something horrible to her to make her act that way.”

“Have you called her?”

“Stupid question” I said, digging my foot into the dirt. “Of course I’ve called her. Before I even dialed her number I knew she wouldn’t answer, but I thought it would be worth a shot.”

He took a pull from his bottle. “Well give her some time—some space. That’s what Mel always tells me when I piss her off. She’ll be back.” He sounded so confident. I wasn’t buying it, though. I knew Brooklyn wouldn’t come looking for me. If I wanted any answers, I’d have to look for her, and I wasn’t ready to do that yet. I absolutely refused to go running to her like a lap dog. I’d already called her and now the ball was in her court.

I set my beer down on the wall and walked into the cage, pulling back to take a swing. I’d maneuvered my body into this position many times through the years. Scott and I were very competitive as kids. Who could hit the hardest, who could hit the furthest; you name it and we probably competed for it. After Scott lost his leg, I think he felt like he had something to prove. He never admitted that, but it was there. He never wanted pity and he made sure he didn’t give people a reason to feel sorry for him. I respected his drive. His determination.

“So what did happen?” Trev asked, taking a sip of his brew.

“There isn’t much to tell. Her and her friend, Alex, went to the restroom and when they came back, Brooklyn was ready to go. There was no talking to her. No nothing. Just her dismissing me, and I still don’t know why.”

“That’s fucked up. But I gotta ask, why is she so special Logan?
What makes her so unique that she has you out here throwing a shit-fit and tossing 'em back?”

“She’s just…different. When you meet her” —because I was determined it would be
when
— “I guess you’ll see why. She’s not all pretentious. She’s just normal. She doesn’t see the money, the flashy lifestyle, any of that.” There was no real way for me to express how Brooklyn made me feel. How everytime she spoke, her voice grabbed my heart. On some level I knew she was it for me.

I shook myself free of my internal thoughts to finish answering Trev’s question. “
She’s a complete 180 from Ash.” I turned to look Trev in the eye. “And I really needed her to be, too.” On the outside, she was broken…damaged. But I was too. Brooklyn didn’t care what other people thought about her because she would always remain true to herself. She wouldn’t let anyone else win or take that away from her. She was grounded in herself. I would rather have the grounded and beaten version of Brooklyn than a plastic or fake variation of another woman any day.

“L, you’re getting mushy right now. You’ve got to get a grip. You guys are just in an argument. This is all normal. This shit will pass. The day she starts hating the sound of you breathing, you know you have a problem” he said, laughing, “But It doesn’t sound like you’re there yet man, so I wouldn’t worry. She’s just throwing a hissy fit.”

“I hope to hell so, man,” I replied.

“So L, other than that, how did everything else go in the land of the
rich?”

“You’d know if you actually attended the fundraiser event once in a blue moon” I said, pointing the bat at him. But I was just giving Trev a hard time. He absolutely hated charity functions just as much as I did. The difference was that he wasn’t in my shoes. He wasn’t trying to atone. He just did whatever the hell he felt like, no boulder of guilt crushing his shoulders. There were many days I wished we could change places for one day, so I wouldn’t have to walk around with the guilt, the burden.

“L, you know that’s not my scene” he said, bringing his bottle to his lips. Another ball came flying out of the machine, and I wacked it. “So that makes your third ball of the night?” he said from behind me.

“If you stop interrupting me maybe I’ll actually get some hits in,” I retorted.

“Shall I remind you of the great championship of 2004? Who won, again? I can’t seem to recall.”

“Ahhh...we’re back to that” I laughed. “We all know that you pulled that win out of nowhere.” Trev slammed his hand on the gate in an attempt to distract me while I took another swing.

“Where’s Mel?” I asked, as the bat connected with the ball.

“She isn’t feeling all that great, so she went home early. I had to make sure everyone got paid next week so I stuck around.”

“So that means you’re staying out all night then?” I asked with a laugh. We both knew the likeliness of that happening was slim to none. Mel didn’t play that shit. And there was no way he was trying to work his way into sleeping on the couch.

He slanted his eyes at me as if I were crazy. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a no. But I like being out here though, it’s chill. Me, you and a good brew.”

“Well you know how to lock up, right?” Trev asked.

“I’ve got you covered. Fill the machine up for me before you leave, would ya?”

“Always trying to make me do more work,” Trev groaned. “I just got done working.”

I stood under the stars swinging for another hour before I finally stepped away from the plate and headed over to turn off the machine. I pulled my phone out of my pants, pulled up Brooklyn’s number, and hit
call
.

You’ve reached me
…

The same message that made me smile a few days earlier now just pissed me off. I blew out a low breath and sighed, “Brooklyn, where are you?” I pressed end on my call and put my phone back in my pocket. She had to answer at some point. She couldn’t ignore me forever.

Brooklyn

“What do you want Damon?” I sniffed into the phone. I thought I had made it perfectly clear we were done. Apparently Damon had suffered some type of hearing loss. That was the only thing that could explain yet another unsolicited phone call from him.

“Brooklyn? Why do you sound like that? You sound weird. Are you crying?”

Of course he would call at the exact moment I was lying in bed, licking my wounds. One thing was for sure though—there was no way in hell I was going to tell Damon me and Logan were on the rocks. Just a couple days ago I had no problem informing Damon that Logan was the best thing that had happened to me since he’d decided to exit my life.

“No” I lied, sniffing again. I willed the tears to stop falling from my eyes. “What do you need, Damon?”

“You were on my mind. I guess seeing you brought back a lot of memories and I just decided to call.” Why did the universe hate me so much? I had heard and seen Damon more times in the last two weeks than I had my own family. It was overkill. After all,
he
was the one who dumped
me
. Damon had to know that he was the absolute last person I wanted to hear from.

I turned over, holding the phone to my ear, and cleared my throat. “You’re wasting your time. And mine” I said
flatly. When it came to Damon, even if he still cared about me I couldn’t stand the thought of him. I wanted any memory of him erased from my mind forever.

“Brooklyn, I know—”

“Get over it, Damon. I have” I interrupted. Okay, that was a lie. I’d just barely started to get over him when I met Logan. Not that
that
had turned out in my favor either…but I wanted my harsh words to cut him as deep as his had cut me the night he’d ended me and ended us. “Listen, I don’t miss you. I don’t love you. Actually, I want nothing to do with you. I’m getting off the phone now and I would absolutely love it if you didn’t call me again.”

As I pressed the end button on the phone, I knew that every last one of those words was true. I didn’t have any room in my life for Damon. And as devastated as it made me feel, I now had to admit to myself that maybe I didn’t have room for Logan either.

For once, couldn’t I just pick the right guy? Why was I always the one being betrayed?

The sun crept through my curtains early Sunday morning. I had barely slept the night before—unable to stop my racing mind, still reeling over what happened with Logan. He was having a baby. After what seemed like forever, I finally gave up on trying to sleep through my heartache and turned to look at the clock only to realize it was still too damned early. It would be forever before I would be able to escape back into a sleepy black fog.

I thought back to last night again. Maybe my running off like that had been a bit melodramatic. Logan had certainly looked confused. But after the fiasco with Damon cheating on me and dumping me when I was pregnant, I swore I’d never be played by a guy again. I didn’t want to have to sit through another lame explanation. If Logan was still carrying on with another woman behind my back—had gotten her
pregnant
—I could fill in the blanks on my own. Which was the biggest reason I hadn’t confronted Logan last night: I didn’t want to ask questions I wasn’t prepared to hear the answers to. I guess it’s the same reason a lot of women look the other way when their men cheat…they just don’t want to stare the truth in the face. Maybe that made me a coward, but if I could spare my heart just a little bit, I’d take it.

Hearing Elizabeth Drexel’s friend blab on about how she was pregnant with Logan’s baby…that hurt. Badly

I wished I wasn’t so affected by the situation. As I lay there, I tried to give myself a mental pep talk.

You weren’t dating long. If anything, you should be smiling right now. You dodged a bullet. You walked away with the upper hand this time.

None of those thoughts made me feel better. Men lied. I knew that from experience. But even though I knew all those things, I lied to myself too. I hadn’t really walked away before it was too late. I was in love with Logan and now there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it but wait for the pain to subside.

I pulled my phone off my nightstand.
Great.
I’d forgotten about the voicemails I had from Logan. I came so close to answering the phone last night, but I didn’t. I wasn’t ready to deal with the chaos.

Just then the gurgling noises from my stomach vibrated off the walls. I needed to eat something—especially if I was going to face the badgering I knew Alex probably had planned for me. I figured I could make breakfast for everyone since I hadn’t been home much lately, plus I was pretty sure I owed Alex and Jay some sort of apology. They seemed to be having a good time until things went to hell and I dragged them away from the benefit. Nothing says
I’m sorry
like food. With any luck, focusing on cooking a meal would help distract me from the fact that Logan and Elizabeth were having a baby.
Together.
I stretched one last time before getting out of bed and dragging myself down the hall.

As soon as I made it into the kitchen my eyes landed on the bright orange roses Logan had given me last week. I’d left them in a prized spot on the window sill for me to admire every time I came in and out. Of course, that didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore. The only thing the flowers reminded me of now was how much they’d made me smile yesterday morning.

I pulled out the carton of eggs, bacon, onions, and potatoes for hash browns and placed them next to the stove top. When I began chopping the onions, my eyes started to burn. Or maybe that was just what I told myself. Mid-slice I heard my phone began to vibrate on the counter.

“Thank God.” My stinging eyes needed a break. I wiped my hands with a towel before grabbing my phone. Even if I couldn’t count on a man being a part of my life, I could always count on my mom and her earlier-than-absolutely-necessary Sunday morning phone call.

To my dismay, my mom’s face wasn’t flashing across the screen. Instead, there was yet another voicemail from Logan. As soon as I saw his name my mood sunk another five degrees. If I pretended Logan didn’t exist, maybe he wouldn’t.

I only lasted ten minutes before my resolve crumbled completely. As much as I tried to fool myself, I wanted to know what Logan could possibly have to say for himself. I abandoned preparing breakfast and grabbed my phone, making a bee line for the backyard for privacy. Still in my pajamas and a pair of flip flops, I plopped down on the wooden stairs of the porch and let the cool morning breeze play in my limp hair. The last time I sat out here Logan had wrapped his arms around me and assured me that everything would be alright. That he would be the one to pick up all the pieces that Damon had left behind.
Liar.

After stalling for a few more minutes, I plucked up the courage to slide my thumb over the voicemail icon on my phone. I placed the phone to my ear and waited for Logan’s voice to come through the speaker. What made me think that hearing his sexy voice was a good idea?

Brooklyn, where are you? What is going on?

Brooklyn, call me! Don’t ignore me!

He’d shouted his last message. I pulled the phone away from my ear.

“Wow,” I muttered. I sat my phone on the wooden plank.

Logan had never raised his voice at me so that surprised me a little bit. If anything, he was the more level-headed of the two of us.

I knew there was a reason why I’d prolonged avoiding a relationship. Loving someone pretty much sucked.

Just then I heard the sliding glass door open. I turned around to see Alex standing in the doorway wearing one of Jay’s oversized shirts and her infamous flannel pajama pants.

“Hey B, you quit on breakfast?” she asked, smoothing out her bed head. “What are you doing out here?”

“Just checking voicemails” I replied.

“It’s kind of chilly out here. You aren’t cold?” she asked, surprised. I was usually the one who wanted the heater on eighty in the car. She was right. It was slightly breezy out. My brain had ignored the chill since the only thing registering right now was Logan’s voicemails.

“I guess I’m telepathically channeling next week’s eighty degree weather,” I offered as an excuse.

“Weirdo. Be right back” she said, as she ducked back into the house. A few minutes later she reappeared with a sweater draped over her arm and two steaming mugs topped with whipped cream in both hands.

“I come bearing gifts,” she said with a weak smile.

I pulled the sweater out of her grasp and slid it on. “Thanks.” She handed me one of the cups.  “Here.”

“What is it?” I asked, accepting my mug.

“Dark chocolate.” She took a seat next to me. My stomach growled again as I blew the steam away from my face.

“Hungry much?” she commented in response to the noise. 

I took a small sip from my cup, “I know. I was in the middle of cooking breakfast, but lost my urge. Not really feeling it. You might have to settle for cereal.”

“Really, Brooklyn? You think that’s what I’m wondering at the moment, where the scrambled eggs, hash browns and orange juice are hiding? Someone needs to get real,” she huffed, pulling her knees close to her chest. I let out a low exhale.

Here we go.

“Are you going to tell me what happened last night?” she asked. I guess there was no warming up to the topic, just jumping in head first. Typical Alex style—face the beast head on; no finesse necessary. “One minute we’re dancing, looking glam, the next we’re on the George Washington with you curled up in a ball in the back seat of Jay’s car. What happened in the bathroom?”

I knew I owed her some sort of explanation for my dramatic Cinderella exit, sans the glass slipper.

She sipped her cocoa as she waited for me to speak. When I didn’t say anything, she continued. “Jay wants to know if he needs to kick Logan’s ass. Although Logan doesn’t strike me as the fighting type.” I didn’t know if Jay was all that great of a boxer either. I loved him, but he seemed to be more of a marketing guy. I think it was just his six five frame that intimidated people more than anything.

“I doubt Logan would be intimidated by Jay. They have quite the budding bromance.” I caught myself smiling at that thought until I realized what I was doing. My smile melted. It was hard to stay mad at him when all I was really doing was missing him.

I took a deep breath, “Logan has a kid on the way.” The words still sounded foreign as they hovered in the air. I took a huge gulp of hot chocolate. The liquid burned as it went down, like a strong whiskey. Too bad I couldn’t get drunk on chocolate.

I peered over at Alex, to gage her reaction to the breaking news.

“What? Are you serious?” she balked, a slight scowl on her face. “What do you mean;
he has a kid on the way?
” Her facial expression said the same thing I was thinking.
Jackass.
“Did he tell you this himself? I mean, I’m not Logan’s BFF, but he doesn’t seem like the type to plant the flag without some type of backup. He might be a millionaire, but he’s definitely not stupid.”

I turned away from her, staring at the back of our neighbor’s brownstone. Suddenly my mouth was full of sand.

“Yeah, well, I might have said the same thing before last night” I huffed.

“What happened in the bathroom?”

I shrugged. “Two girls came in after I was already in my stall. They started talking about Logan, you know, how handsome he is and all that shit. So of course I eavesdropped on their conversation.”

“What did they say?” I could tell she was trying to put together the puzzle without all the pieces.

“You know who Elizabeth Drexel is, right?”

“Of course I do, who doesn’t know her” she replied, as if I had two heads.
Right.
Who didn’t know who one of the most beautiful women in the acting world was? I rolled my eyes.

“What does Elizabeth have to do with you and Logan?”

“Everything,” I said. “Logan told me that they were just friends.”

“So what makes you think that he lied about that?” I glanced back at Alex and took in her confused expression.

“Gee, I don’t know? The fact that she’s carrying his baby?” I could hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice. Uttering those words made my stomach turn. Was this really happening?