Following Me (11 page)

“Oh, alright,” he said, sounding
a bit disappointed.  “Have you told Hadley?”

“Yeah, she’s pretty messed up
though.  Just wanted to make sure you knew to take extra care of her.”

“I always do, but thank you.  Do
you need help getting home?  Need me to hail you a cab or anything?”

“No, I’m fine.  Brennan is going
to help me out,” she told him.

Garrett frowned at that.  He
clearly was more concerned.  “I think he’s pretty gone, too.  Are you sure you
don’t want me to help?”

She did want his help, but she
didn’t want to go back to the place he shared with Hadley.  She wanted to be
angry with Hadley for her stupidity, and she couldn’t do that if she were
surrounded by her hospitality.  She couldn’t face Hadley the next morning when
she would wake up and go about her life like she wasn’t destroying it.

Devon declined his help once more
and then left as quickly as she could extract herself.  Garrett was too nice,
too caring.  Devon had never once thought that someone would be too good for
Hadley…until this moment.

“I’m ready,”
she told Brennan when she reached him.

IT WAS A chilly night, and Devon
hugged herself against the wind as they headed to Brennan’s place.  He hadn’t
been lying when he said he lived right around the corner.  His apartment was no
more than two or three blocks from the John Hancock Center. They took the
elevator up to his apartment where it was thankfully warm.

She was surprised by the
interior.  She knew he probably made good money as a bartender in this part of
the city, but she wouldn’t have thought his apartment would be so nice.  It was
a one bedroom with a full kitchen with adjoined dining room, and spacious
living room.  The apartment was clean with relatively new furniture.  It wasn’t
what she would have considered Brennan to have, being a bachelor and all.

Devon set her purse on a side
table.  “Nice place.”

“Thanks,” he said, walking into
the kitchen and pulling out a beer.  “Want anything?”

“No, thanks.  I think I’m done.”

“You didn’t have much to drink
for being so done.”  He was clearly more comfortable in his own home than at
Jenn’s or the bar.

“Just a long night is all.”

“We left early.”

“Yeah.  Long in a different way
then.”

Devon sat down on the sofa and
got comfortable amid the throw pillows.  Brennan took a seat next to her and
flipped on the television.

“You want to talk about it?” he
asked, putting on ESPN as background noise.

“No,” she said instantly.

“Alright.”

The conversation ended, and Devon
sat there frozen, watching baseball highlights.  She felt bad for cutting him
off so abruptly.  Maybe she was being ridiculous.

“How do you afford this place
bartending?” she asked, hoping that the subject was neutral enough.

“Don’t like to talk about it.” 
He took a drink from his beer.

“Oh,” she breathed.

Brennan finished his beer in
silence and then placed the empty bottle on the coffee table.  Devon watched as
he stood and stretched out his lean muscles.  He wasn’t overly built, but he
was all muscle.  He raised his arms over his head, and her eyes darted to his
exposed stomach, then quickly away.

He left for a minute and then
returned with a bunch of blankets in his arms.  He tossed them onto the couch. 
“You taking the bed, Belle?”

“Couch is good with me,” she told
him.

“Whatever suits you, suits me,”
he said.  “Here’s the remote.”

“You can just turn it off.  I’m
going to pass out,” she said, averting her eyes.

He turned to go, but then he
seemed to think better of it.  He sat down next to her on the couch again. 
“You going to tell me what’s eating at you?”  He looked at her more intently
than ever before.

She shook her head.  “Nothing
is.”

“You pissed about Hadley?” he
asked, hitting on the most superficial problem.

“How did you know?”

“I pay attention.”

“So…you know what she’s up to?”
she asked carefully.

“That she’s snorting coke?” he
asked.  “Yeah, I know about that.”

“Does Garrett know?” she asked
quickly.

Brennan shook his head.  “No
way.  He thinks she’s perfect.  Could you imagine if Mr. Perfect found out his
Princess was a coke addict?”

“She’s an addict?” she squeaked.

“Depends on your definition. 
She’s done it more than a few times.”

He was being loose with his words
because he was drunk.  Devon probably shouldn’t have been taking advantage of
the situation in his state, but she wanted answers.

“How do you know all about her
problem if he doesn’t?” Devon asked out of curiosity.

“When you’ve done shit before,
you can see it in a person.  Once she found out that I knew, she stopped hiding
it around me,” he told her honestly.

“You do…coke, too?” she asked,
her heart sinking. 
Was that what was up with him?  But didn’t it normally
make them upbeat or fidgety?

“Nah.  Just once and knew it
wasn’t for me.  Mostly weed.”

Ah, that explains it,
she
thought.

“You could use some weed,”
Brennan told her.  “You’re too uptight, Belle.”

Devon frowned. 
Typical.
 
“I’m going to pass.”

“Suit yourself, but I think you’d
like it,” he said, turning to face her with a smile.

“I’ve done it before,” she said,
not wanting to admit how much she used to smoke.  For a long time, she had
thought she studied better high.  It had become a problem when she was pretty
much always studying.

“You?” he asked with raised
eyebrows.

“Yeah.  Surprised?”

“Wouldn’t have pegged you.”

“Oh right, square.”  Devon
gestured at herself with her hands.

“I dig square,” he told her
bluntly.

Oh damn, how messed up is he?
Devon wondered.

“Thanks,” she whispered, glancing
down.

She didn’t know how else to
deflect the conversation.  Brennan was nice…well, kind of, and he was very
attractive.  She needed to get out of this territory.  She was here for a place
to crash, and crashing sounded like a good idea right about now.

When Devon felt his hand reach
out and touch her cheek, her eyes fluttered up to meet his.  Before she had a
chance to react, he leaned forward and kissed her lips.  Her shock held her at
bay.  He did nothing more than hold his soft lips against hers.  They were
foreign and strange yet enticing.

She felt her body respond to his
touch.  His fingers moved and threaded through her hair, tugging on it slightly
in his haste.  She had too many thoughts swirling in her head to keep it all
straight at once.  The most prominent ones were how good this felt, how wrong
this felt, and how surprised she was that he was even doing this.

Had he ever given her an
indication that he wanted to kiss her before that last comment?
  She
couldn’t remember.

She didn’t know why, but tears
welled in her eyes.  They slid easily down her cheeks, mixing salt with the
taste of alcohol on his lips.

Brennan pulled back to look at
her and she gasped out, “I have a boyfriend.”

Brennan dropped his hands into
his lap.  “Oh.”

Devon bit down on her lip as she
waited for him to say something more.  He just stared at her, his eyes slightly
hazy.  She wanted him to say something, anything. 
Was he pissed?  Was he
shocked?  Did he expect something from her?

“Good night then,” he said
finally as he stood.

She stared up at him, her brow
furrowed with trepidation. 
Was that it?  He wasn’t mad?  He wasn’t going to
push the topic?  Didn’t he have more to say?

He made it all the way to his
bedroom door before turning back to look at her.  He seemed to be waiting for
something, but she didn’t know what it was.

“Good…good night, Brennan,” she
told him.

Whatever she was supposed to
say…that wasn’t it.

He hung his head a little and
then nodded.  “Have a safe trip tomorrow, Devon.”

As Brennan shut the door behind
him, she realized that was the first time he had ever called her by her name.

DEVON WALKED DOWN the dirt lane kicking
her cowboy boots against the small rocks in her path.  The day was approaching
dusk, and the sun was hanging heavy over the horizon, splattering the sky with
pink, orange, and yellow.  She finger combed her blonde hair down to her
waist.  She wished she had a hat because her hair was a rat’s nest.

She whistled her latest tune
recalling the lyrics she had sang for her parents earlier that day.  They liked
them the song so much that they wanted to send it off to a label.  They thought
their Dixie girl would be a star.  She didn’t know about any of that, but she
liked writing it all down.

Devon veered off the road, taking
a shortcut through an open field.  She was thankful for her boots as she
trekked through the waist-high grass.  It had been a warm day, but the night
was rapidly cooling the temperatures.  She shouldn’t have been surprised in the
least, but somehow, she would always forget her cardigan for the walk.

The wind whipped across the
grass, tying her hair in knots and matting it to her face.  She struggled to
keep it away, but there was just too much of it for it to make a difference. 
While she fought with her hair, her sundress flew up around her stomach.  She
yanked it back down to cover herself, but she was having little luck. 
Grumbling in frustration, she cursed the wind for its timing.

She and her brother, Dustin, had
taken this shortcut for years.  It was only a matter of time before Dani knew
about it as well.  That thought terrified Devon.

When she crossed the halfway
point between the road and the woods, she heard boots crunching against the
earth behind her.  Rolling her eyes, Devon turned back around.

Dustin better not be trailing
me again,
she thought.

Her eyes roamed the field, trying
to make out if someone was on the road.  She couldn’t really see anyone, but
out here, that didn’t mean no one was there.  Shaking off the feeling, Devon
turned and continued across the open field.  She had plans, and getting spooked
out in the open wasn’t going to stop her.

When her feet hit the tree line,
the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.  Devon swallowed and looked
around, her stomach sinking in apprehension.  She felt ridiculous for feeling
anxious like this, but her parents had filled her head with stories from the
news about girls getting abducted, being sold into prostitution, and then
getting killed.  Too many stories like that had happened recently.  She had
always told her mom that she was a worrywart, but now that her nerves were
getting to her, Devon was wondering if her mother worried for good reason.

She still didn’t see anyone
approaching, but she could feel eyes on her.  It was an obvious feeling, like
the way Matt had stared at her in the back of the classroom.  But this was
worse.