The One Left Behind (The One Series) (23 page)

He smiles when I walk through the doors then turns and says, “Thanks for showing her in, Vanessa. Please hold all my calls for the next hour.” She nods and leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

“My day just got ten times better,” Pierce says as he strides toward me. His face is lit up like a kid on Christmas, removing all doubts I had on whether this was a good idea or not. It’s amazing how a simple smile from him can make my stomach erupt with butterflies.

I flash him a smile of my own as I hold up the food. “I brought lunch. Pizza and calzones.”

“My favorite. Woman, you know the way to my heart,” he says with a sexy grin.

We both laugh and he takes the food away from me and places it at the side of his desk. He wraps his hands around my waist and pulls me in for a kiss. He slides one hand up to the back of my neck and I can feel his tongue against my lips waiting for permission to enter. My body is flooded with warmth as I feel every place his body is touching mine. I eagerly open my mouth to let him in. Knowing the response I will get, I run my hands through his hair and grab a fist full of it. In return, Pierce groans and I can feel him harden against me. He pulls away just enough to break our contact.

“As much as I would love to continue this, I have a meeting in an hour and will not make it if you keep doing those things to me,” he whispers against my mouth before nipping at my lower lip.

I give him my best innocent face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just came to drop off lunch.”

He takes my hand and leads me over to a rectangular table that has eight chairs around it. He pulls out a chair for me to sit before bringing the food over so we can dig in. He fills me in on his day and I do the same, even though mine seems uneventful compared to his. He is talking about how he hates doing business with the last client he just met with, but the account he manages is too big to let go of, or at least that’s what Jimmy tells him. I remember my run in with Max at the lobby and wonder if that was him.

“So does your last client happen to be someone by the name of Max by any chance?” I take another bite of my calzone.

Pierce stops mid-bite and puts his food down as if he is no longer hungry. “As a matter of fact it was. How did you know that?” His eyebrows draw in as he looks at me questioningly.

“Well, I was wondering where to find you when Max asked if I needed help.” I shrug my shoulders. I see his jaw clench and his nostrils flare slightly so I tell him the rest hoping to put him at ease. I’m a little confused by his reaction and I wonder why he’s becoming angry suddenly. “He was actually quite a douchebag. He thought I was with a delivery service. I mean, who the hell delivers food in a dress and heels?” I shake my head still insulted by his assumption.

I notice Pierce’s face start to relax a little and then he laughs,” A douche he is.”

Seeing him calm down helps put me at ease and I feel comfortable enough to pry a little to find out why the hostility toward Max. “So why don’t you like Max? And, if you don’t like Max, why do you do business with him?”

“I don’t like Max because he was my best friend who slept with my girlfriend of four years. And I do business with him because he represents his father. And Jimmy said I shouldn’t punish his father for his son’s sins.” His eyes go completely cold as he tells me this.

I don’t really know where to go from that. “I’m sorry to hear that,” I say quietly.

Pierce comes around the table and kneels next to me so that we’re at eye level. “I’m not. It’s in the past and if it didn’t happen I wouldn’t be sitting here with you.” He leans forward and places a kiss on my lips. When he pulls back he continues, “Besides, I want to take you on another date, and I wouldn’t want to do what I have planned with anyone else.” The coldness in his eyes from earlier is gone and replaced with a warm, tender expression.

“What is it?” I ask.

“I’m not telling,” he says as he walks back around the table to his chair, seemingly in a better mood once again.

“So how am I supposed to know—” Pierce cuts me off before I can finish my sentence,

“Wear jeans, a T-shirt, and put your hair up in a ponytail.” I sigh knowing he will not give in so I agree.

Our hour is up and Pierce has to get ready for his next meeting.

***

The weekend is finally here and I am ready for my date with Pierce. I did what he told me and dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and have my hair up. I hear the bell ring and rush to the door to open it. Pierce is standing there with another bouquet of calla lilies, this time they are a peach color. I grab the flowers and pull him by his t-shirt so he’s close to me before greeting him with a kiss.

“Let me put these in water,” I say before I turn toward the kitchen.

As I am walking away Pierce says, “You need to change your shoes.”

I look at my cute peep toe wedges and frown. “What’s wrong with my shoes?”

“Nothing. You just have to wear sneakers for what we are doing. Trust me, you will thank me once we get there.”

I change my shoes and we go out to Pierce’s car. Smiling, he hands me a blindfold. “Turn around so I can tie this around you.”

“I’m not wearing a blindfold, Pierce.” He has got to be kidding me.

“Oh, come on. I want you to be surprised. There are signs everywhere that will give it away if I don’t blindfold you,” he says with pleading eyes.

Reluctantly, I agree and he places the blindfold over my face and helps me into the car. We drive for what seems to be about thirty minutes singing along to the music on the radio. Pierce parks the car and turns off the engine.

“Can I take this off now?”

I feel Pierce lean toward me and place kisses up and down my neck as he takes off the blindfold. By the time I realize it’s off, I’m squirming in my seat trying to relieve the building pressure in my center. I calm down and squint for a minute because the sun is so bright. Pierce hands me my sunglasses and I put them on. I look around and see we are by an airfield loaded with planes, but I’m still confused.

“Um, are we going somewhere?” I say rather perplexed.

Pierce laughs as he walks around the car and takes my hand to help me out. “You can say that.”

We walk into the building and I read the sign.

Cloudy Skydiving.

You have got to be fucking kidding me! Sky diving? No chance in hell am I going sky diving!

I look to Pierce who is silently examining me. “Absolutely not. No way. I am
not
jumping out of a perfectly safe airplane. Not happening.” I keep shaking my head hoping it’ll help drive the point home that there is no way this is about to go down. Just thinking about it is making my palms sweat and my heart rate accelerate.

Pierce gives me his sad puppy dog eyes and a nervous laugh escapes my lips. “Don’t you puppy dog eye me, Pierce. This,” I point to the skydiving sign behind me, “is not safe. You should know by now I like to play things safe. You don’t get hurt that way.” I’m trying to contain the internal freak out that is threatening to explode to the surface.

He places his hand on my face and rubs my cheek with his thumb. “Sweetheart, you did play it safe and you still got hurt.”

I know he is talking about my accident and his words sting a little. He is right, but that doesn’t mean I have to jump out of a plane to prove it. The mention of the accident makes me wonder if Colin ever pushed me to do things out of my comfort zone.

“Pierce, I don’t know,” my voice is slightly shaky from the apprehension and anxiety I feel spreading through my body.

He hugs me and whispers into my ear, “You can trust me. I will be right there with you the whole way. Remember surfing? You didn’t want to do it and now you love it.”

I am still hesitant but I cave in. “Fine, but if I die I’m going to kill you.” I say as I jam my finger into his chest.

“It’s going to be hard to kill me when you’re already dead. Don’t you agree?” He’s so smug.

I hit his shoulder and we start walking to the desk. We have to fill out a lot of paper work, mostly consent forms for choosing to jump out of a perfectly functioning plane. My hand gets a little shaky as I am signing the forms and Pierce places his hand over mine.

“Hey, we don’t have to do this if you’re scared. I will never force you to do something you don’t want to do.”

Those words are enough. I squeeze his hand back.

“Let’s just hand this paper in and start our briefing class before I change my mind.”

We’re sitting with the jump instructors that we are going to be attached to as they explain to us how the jump is going to go. It actually sounds exhilarating and I am a little excited for it. That is until we are in the plane. Once we reach the correct altitude to jump, the green light shines bright in the plane giving us the go ahead. On the way up, we agreed that Pierce would go out first. He is walking up to the door to jump when he turns and looks at me. Since the door to the plane is open, Pierce has to yell when he speaks to me so I can hear him.

“I just wanted you to know that every day I’m falling more and more in love with you. I love you, Addison.” And then he jumps. I can’t believe what I just heard. My mouth is hanging open as I turn to the guy who I am attached to just to make sure I’m not hearing things.

“Did I hear that right? Did he say he loves me?”

The guy laughs in my ear and says, “There’s only one way to find out.” The next thing I know we are out of the plane and free falling through the sky. I scream for a minute scared out of my mind. Once I get over the screaming, I can see Pierce just below me. They are doing flips in the air and I want to try it too. Hell, I might as well since I probably won’t be doing this again. I point to Pierce and tell my guy, “Let’s do that!” He nods and we spin around. I am so lost in the moment and feel so free. This is an adrenalin rush like no other. I hear the guy yell “smile!” and a picture is taken of us on our way down. As we start to get lower and lower, he prepares us for the landing which isn’t bad at all.

Once I get my bearings and my body comprehends that I am on solid ground again, I spot Pierce shaking his instructor’s hand. They landed before us so he is unhooked already. I wait impatiently as the guy unhooks me from him. I’m about to just drag him to Pierce with me. I think he can sense that I’m anxious to run over to him because I can hear him trying to stifle his chuckles. When I am finally unhooked he smacks my butt the way athletes do and says, “Go get him.”

I run to Pierce like my life depends on it. When I finally reach him, I jump into his arms and wrap my legs around him and kiss him with everything I have. When we break apart, I am still trying to catch my breath as I tell him, “I love you too.”

I’M HANGING OUT on Jeremy’s couch just relaxing. Morgan came over to “keep us company,” but I really think it was just an excuse to come over and bitch at Jeremy for random things. The bantering is entertaining, so I just sit back and enjoy myself. Eventually, things shift as Jeremy eyes Morgan. I think to myself, ‘Uh, oh.’ I’ve seen that look on his face before. He sees her as a challenge and I think he’s going to pursue. Unfortunately for him, I am pretty sure Morgan is immune to his usual come-ons and games. Even so, the sexual tension is so thick, you could cut it with a knife. And thinking about that sort of makes me uncomfortable. I need to change the subject or engage in the conversation so I can shift their gears to a more platonic zone.

I go to the kitchen and say, “Hey, anyone want something to drink while I’m up?”

“I’ll take a water,” Morgan replies.

“Nah, I’m good,” Jeremy shouts to me.

I grab two waters out of the fridge. I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of alcohol I consume. It has been brought to my attention a couple times, once when I overheard Addison ask if I was an alcoholic at her party, and then Jeremy’s staged intervention, that I’ve been using it as a coping mechanism. I suppose they’re right. Jeremy cornered me at my house about a week ago and told me to “stop being a pussy and deal with my shit.” Yeah, real eloquent that guy is. After some reflecting, I realized that I had been spending about every other day at Docs and drinking while I was at home too. I hadn’t been hitting up any hard liquor, just beer, but I was consuming so much of it I might as well have jumped over to whiskey so I could’ve gotten drunk quicker.

Whenever I’m feeling down, I’ve been turning to more productive activities, like running. I run every morning now. It feels good to expel that pent up frustration to start the day fresh with a new mindset. I’m usually pretty wound up again by the time I’m ready for bed, but I go to sleep knowing I’ll feel a lot better in the morning after my run.

We’re all sitting around watching TV, not really talking, when Morgan’s phone beeps. Suddenly she exclaims, “Oh my God! I can’t believe she did that! Is she insane? What has gotten in to her lately?!”

Jeremy and I both look at each other and shrug our shoulders. He speaks up first, “What are you talking about?”

Morgan holds up her phone to his face and says, “Addison. She went skydiving! Can you believe it?”

I am completely stunned. She would have
never
done something so risky before. I’m assuming she went with Pierce since I know Morgan didn’t go, and I’m guessing Colby didn’t either, although that is more her style than Addison’s.