An Unexpected Love Story (Love Story Book Two) (18 page)

Chapter Twenty

I met up with Emily, Elliot, Chris, and Ashley in the lobby shortly after John left for work. Because we hadn’t seen each other since Thanksgiving, and neither of us liked to admit we were feeling sentimental, Emily and I played our old game where we pretended we hadn’t seen each other since we were children. This gave us the perfect excuse to hug each other like mad and still keep our dignity under the guise of a joke. Elliot declared us crazy before hugging me as well.

After he released me, I went straight for Chris and wrapped him in a huge bear hug. He had been home briefly at Christmas, but his girlfriend Ashley was with him so we had little time to hang out. “You’re looking good, Chris,” I said, releasing him so I could look up at his face. “How’s it going?”

“Pretty good,” he said, his familiar eyes crinkling behind his glasses a little as he smiled down at me. “I’m excited to meet gorgeous man.”

“It’s Mr. Gorgeous, geez,” Emily said, shoving him. I laughed.

“Don’t let her turn you, Chris. You used to be such a nice guy.”

I turned to Ashley, Emily’s roommate and Chris’s girlfriend. “Hey, Ash,” I said, giving her a quick hug. “How are you?”

“Good,” she said, smiling almost shyly at me. I managed to not roll my eyes before I turned back to Emily and Chris. Ashley had a tendency of acting like she was terrified of me. Emily said it was because I intimidated her, a phenomenon I was quite familiar with. I tried to be nice to her, but she still looked at me like she was scared I was going to eat her. It got kind of old.

“Are you guys hungry?” I asked. “We could get lunch.”

We decided to walk downtown and see what we came up with. Chris and I walked arm and arm, catching up. “Work is good, Ashley is good, apartment is good,” he said, ticking each one off on his fingers as we walked.

“Good,” I said, laughing.

“How about you? What’s the deal with this guy? Em says she hasn’t heard you talk this way about someone. Like, ever.”

“Chris, have I ever told you that you sound like a girl sometimes?”

“Sorry,” he said, bumping hips with me. “I will try to man up to your exceeding standards. But seriously, what’s the deal. Is he a good guy?”

“He is,” I said. “I like him a lot. Things are kinda complicated, but we’re taking it day by day.”

“Complicated because of the kid?”

“Yeah. She’s been through a lot of upheaval since her mom left. New house, new school, new town—”

Chris snorted. “Yeah, moving up to Alpena would be a huge shock to the system. Poor kid.”

“Yeah, well, with all that, John doesn’t think it would be a good time for her to meet me.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Chris said. “It’s cool he’s trying to be a good dad.”

“I agree,” I said, more pleased than I thought I would be that John had Chris’s approval. There were few guys who I respected as much as my old friend.

“And it probably suits you pretty well anyhow,” he said, winking at me. “All the benefits of a relationship and you don’t have to be tied down. The perfect excuse to not get too serious.” He laughed. “It sounds like the perfect Brooke Murray scenario.”

I felt a little stung by that, though I wasn’t sure why. How many times had I complained to him that some guy I was dating was asking me to get too serious? It was usually the one thing guaranteed to make me run. In theory, my relationship with John should have been perfect for me. So why did his words send a little shiver of doubt down my spine? What he described was pretty much exactly what I had been telling myself ever since John had come back to town. Why did hearing it from Chris sound so different?

We found a diner that Emily recalled from a previous trip had good sandwiches. We ordered and crowded into a little booth, everyone laughing and talking easily. Even with the addition of Ashley and Elliot, it felt like old times. I wished, not for the first time, that Emily and Chris hadn’t moved so far away.

“So what’s this Elliot tells me about you hooking up with Paul Harting?” Chris asked. Emily took one look at my face and cracked up.

“Dear God, you are all the worst bunch of gossips I’ve ever met,” I mumbled, taking a bite of my sandwich so I wouldn’t have to talk anymore.

“Sorry,” Chris said, grinning. “Boys talk. So what gives? I distinctly remember you telling me once that Paul Harting was a man-whore. And now he’s your booty call? What’s up with that?”

“He is not my booty call,” I said, glaring at him as Emily and Elliot laughed. Ashley looked freaked out—by my expression, I’m sure. “We haven’t hooked up in months.”

“You say that like it’s such a success,” Emily said. “I’ve never hooked up with him, where’s my prize?”

“If you must know, the last time we got together, it was because I had just gotten into a terrible fight with
your
old girlfriend,” I snarled at Chris, wanting to divert the attention. Emily hooted.

“Oh God, I forgot you went out with Justine Marker.” She threw her napkin at Chris. “That is so much worse than Paul.”

“Yeah, well,” Chris said, looking at Ashley uncomfortably. “I was young.”

“You know,” I said, realizing something. “You dating her was right around the time she started being so awful to me.”

“That’s true,” Emily said, scrunching up her nose as she thought about it. “It was, what, sophomore year that you guys dated? I think that was the same year she started the rumor that Brooke slept with Mr. Castovas.”

I groaned. That was one of the low points of high school. There had been plenty of rumors about me back then, but the one involving me sleeping with my math teacher was probably the worst. My guidance counselor had even heard it, for God’s sake, and made me come in for a “chat.”

“She was probably jealous because I hung out with you. God, she was such a bitch,” I muttered. I grabbed a napkin and started shredding it into long strands.

“She was,” Emily agreed, gently taking the napkin from my hands. Then she smiled and pointed at Chris. “And you dated her. God, I totally forgot. Now I have ammo to throw back at you anytime you bug me.”

Chris stuck out his tongue at her and I laughed, feeling better.

We spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Traverse City. We found a pretty good bookstore and a record shop, which we had a hard time getting Elliot to leave. At five, we decided to head back to the hotel to start to get ready. John had booked a table for us somewhere, but he hadn’t told me where.

“All he said was to look nice,” I said. “So you’re gonna have to lose the hoodie, buddy,” I said to Chris. He scowled at me; Chris pretty much lived in cargo pants and a hoodie.

I was soaking in the bath when John came back to the room. “I’m cancelling dinner, he said, standing in the doorway to the bathroom. “It would be a crime against mankind to make you get out of that tub.”

“Sorry,” I said, batting my eyelashes at him. “I promised my friends they could meet you so we could gossip about you later.”

“Fine,” he said. “I’m gonna grab a beer, want one?”

“Sure.”

John came back from the mini-bar with a bottle of Miller Lite for each of us. He sat on the edge of the tub and told me all about his meeting while I drank my beer and finished my bath. John’s work sounded incredibly boring to me, and when he told me stories about it, I had a hard time keeping my eyes from glazing over. But he got all animated when he was excited about something; it was totally cute.

I dressed for dinner in a little black dress from bebe. Like all my best clothes, I had gotten it while visiting Emily downstate. I let my hair dry naturally, meaning it fell down my back in a mess of curls. “Will you fasten this?” I asked John, approaching him with my necklace. He frowned slightly at my dress. “What?” I asked. “You don’t like it?”

“No, I do,” he said quickly, moving behind me so he could do up my necklace. “It’s gorgeous on you. But you were wearing it that night you left my suite. Before I left Alpena.” He finished with my necklace and bent down to kiss my shoulder. “Bad memory.”

I looked down at my dress. He was right; I had completely forgotten I was wearing this dress that night. I wondered how he remembered. “I can change,” I said quickly.

“No,” John said, wrapping his arms around my waist and holding me to his chest. “You look great. We’ll just have to make sure we make some happy memories tonight, to replace the old ones.”

I turned in his arms so that I was facing him. “That sounds good to me.”

Chapter Twenty-one

We met the rest of the group down in the lobby. I introduced John to everyone, and he politely shook hands with my friends. Behind his back, Emily caught my eye and raised her eyebrows. “Oh my God,” she mouthed, and I felt the strongest urge to laugh. As we headed out for the cars, she linked arms with me and fell back slightly behind the group.

“Holy, crap,” she whispered. “You were not joking about the hotness.”

“He is not widely known as Mr. Gorgeous for nothing,” I agreed.

At that moment John turned to see where I had gone. He smiled at me and I grinned back. I had a feeling Emily was going to like him as much as I did. I couldn’t say why it was so important to me that she approved, but I found that it really was.

John had booked a table for us at Three Sisters, an Italian bistro outside of town. It was situated at a winery, and our table had sweeping views of the grape vines stretching off into the distance.

“This is nice,” Ashley said, smiling at John. “How did you find it?”

“I asked some friends at work what they recommended,” he said. “This place was universally praised.”

I could see why. We ordered wine and appetizers. Everything was delicious, and the room had a pleasant buzzy atmosphere. After we ordered, John fell into conversation with Emily, asking her about her practice and how things were going since she had become a co-owner the previous year. Watching the two of them, I felt a warm glow. I caught Chris’s gaze on me, and he shook his head slightly, grinning at me.

After appetizers, Ashley, Emily, and I did the obligatory girls’ run to the bathroom. No sooner had the door closed behind us did Emily grab my arm. “Oh my God, Brooke,” she said, her eyes wide. “I love him. Seriously. He is perfect for you.”

I laughed. “He’s not bad, huh?”

“He’s gorgeous,” Ashley agreed. “Like someone out of a magazine or something. The two of you look good together.”

“It’s more than that, though,” Emily said, watching me closely. “I don’t know if I’ve ever met a guy that I felt could keep up with you, Brooke. But he can. I don’t know, he like, matches you, or something.”

I smiled at her, knowing she would get it. “I like him a lot,” I admitted.

“Wow,” Ashley said, her eyes wide. “Since I’ve known you, I’ve never heard you talk like that about a guy before.”

I managed not to roll my eyes. “I just said I like him, not that I want to have his babies or something.”

“Yeah,” she said, not backing down, “but I’ve never even heard you say you like a guy. You’re usually all jokes about the guys you’re seeing. So this must be pretty big.”

Emily smiled at me knowingly. I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable. “Okay, are we done talking about my love life now? Can I go pee?”

“Oh my God,” Emily said. “Love life!” She put her arm around me. “My little Brooke is all grown-up!”

“Oh, shut up,” I muttered, slipping under her arm so I could get to a stall.

The rest of our meal was a definite hit. John appeared completely at ease talking to my friends, and seemed to genuinely enjoy their conversation, particularly with Chris and Emily. Throughout dinner, Em kept shooting me little looks, as if to reiterate what she had said in the bathroom. Part of me wanted to tell her she was over-reacting, but the bigger part was just so happy she liked him. Happy enough that I could even ignore Chris’s knowing smirks from across the table.

But nothing could make me happier than John did when we got back in the car. Before he had even started the engine he turned to me with a big smile. “Your friends are awesome, Brooke.”

I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face the entire ride back.

* * *

The next day, John had to work again. I woke up to the sight of him standing in front of the dresser mirror, adjusting his tie.

“Hey,” I said, moving to sit up. “You have to leave already?”

“Shh,” he said, coming over to the bed and sitting next to me. He gently pushed me back into the pillow. “Go back to sleep, it’s early.”

“I’ll get up and have a cup of coffee with you.”

“No way. You never get to sleep in. I’ll be back soon.” He leaned down and kissed me. “Have fun with your friends, okay?”

“I will.” I snuggled down farther into the blankets. “I wish you were coming, though.”

“I know,” he said, kissing me again. “But we’ll have the rest of the weekend, okay? Tonight and all day tomorrow. Sound good?”

“Sounds great,” I said, smiling up at him. “Good luck with your meetings.”

After John left, I managed to fall back to sleep for another hour. I woke up feeling refreshed and relaxed. I had almost forgotten what a good night’s sleep felt like. I ordered room service for three, then called Emily.