Had To Be You (29 page)

He wandered away, down the hall as he listened and talked, not so much because he was worried about maintaining his privacy but because he couldn’t seem to stand still. Not even five minutes later, he wandered back into the living room, holding the phone in hand with a mixture of surprise and confusion on his face.

“I take it that was her?” Kevin asked.

Matt nodded slowly.

“What did she have to say?”

“She says it’s fine, all is forgiven. She’s over it. Wedding is still on,” he mumbled absently. He glanced at his brother again. “What were you starting to say before?”

Kevin smiled somewhat sadly, and rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Nothing—it was nothing. I’m just glad it all worked out.”

***

Outside his bedroom window, sunset burned smoky streaks across the summer sky, the light fading in gradual increments to creep slowly from the room. He heard his brother trudging up the stairs and a moment later Kevin walked in.

He dropped his cell phone onto his dresser before unbuttoning the short-sleeved navy uniform shirt he wore to bag groceries down at the town market.

“Are you still here?” He narrowed his gaze. “I saw Murph downtown earlier. I thought you guys were going out on his dad’s boat?”

Matt only shook his head. He was reclined sideways across his comforter, bouncing an old tennis ball against the bedroom wall to catch it in one hand, lost inside the drumming beat of a song on the radio.

“Rory said she might call.”

Kevin hesitated. “But wasn’t that, like, this morning? You’ve been sitting here all day? Did you even go to your game?”

Matt heaved out a dejected sigh, finally sitting upright to rub at his sore eyes. Reaching over, he turned down the volume on the music.

“I can’t get her on her phone. She doesn’t return messages. She’s never home. Tell me what else to do,” he said miserably.

“I don’t even really know what’s going on with you guys.”

Resting elbows on his knees, Matt lowered his gaze to the polished wood floorboard. “Yeah, well, that makes two of us.”

“I know she hasn’t been around at all. Is this about the fight I overheard last weekend?”

Matt nodded his head, needing to pinch at the bridge of his nose and close his eyes as he felt the watery sting begin again.

“Friggin’ Murph…” he muttered and sniffed, fighting to regain some composure. His dignity was pretty much shot by this point. “He picks me up last Saturday night, claiming we’re just going to the arcade on the pier to waste a few hours. Rory was working, I figure why not? Then we get there, and it’s like these two girls are already waiting for us. I didn’t even really hang out with them. I did my own thing. He offers them a ride home, and we stop for like five minutes to grab a couple of milkshakes at that place off the beach road. Yeah, okay, maybe one of them was kind of into me or whatever, but I certainly wasn’t into her. And who pulls in next to us but Bobby and Lindsay. Of course she couldn’t wait to tell everyone—including Rory—all about it.” He dropped his head again, feeling sick. He hadn’t even been able eat, without an appetite for days now. “I should have just left,” he said. “I should have walked home from the pier the second I saw them and got myself out of there, and out of that situation. I don’t know why I didn’t.”

“But you didn’t really do anything wrong…right?”

“Doesn’t matter.” He shook his head grimly. “I made her doubt me. If she thinks she can’t trust me, forget it. It’s over. Maybe it’s already over.”

He couldn’t help but remember the way Rory decided she was done with her dad and how she basically ended all communication with him. It had been nearly a year, and she hadn’t budged. Given the right set of circumstances, her determination could be a formidable thing.

Just thinking about the possibility of her shutting him out like that made Matt sick all over again.

“You two over? I seriously doubt that.”

Any attempt to reply to his brother was lost when words and breath suddenly deserted him. She appeared out of nowhere at the top of the staircase, her hand resting on the wood banister. Their eyes locked through his bedroom doorway in wary acknowledgement.

Her long, light brown hair was brushed back into a neat ponytail, and he couldn’t help but notice how her fitted powder blue tank hugged her gentle curves and the taut tummy earned from all those years of gymnastics. She was in clean white running sneakers and the rest of her was all long legs, glowing with a summer tan.

His weary eyes had never seen a more beautiful sight, but still it hurt to look at her.

“Guess it’s my cue to leave again,” Kevin mumbled under his breath. “I really gotta get my own room.”

Rory smiled in faint acknowledgement as he passed by her on the staircase, briefly touching his hand to her arm. Then she moved towards the doorway, careful not to step all the way inside.

“I saw your dad in the driveway,” she explained. “He said you were up here.”

Her voice was soft, calm and steady, giving nothing away, exhibiting no evidence whatsoever of the same tumultuous storm of tortured emotions he himself had endured over the last several days. Not a good sign.

Then her voice lowered even more. “I thought maybe we could go for a walk.”

He blew out a quick, sarcastic snort of breath. “Not if you’re just gonna break up with me.” At this point, he didn’t even care that his eyes were probably red.

She released a slightly pained sigh. “Matt…”

“What do you think, Rory?” he burst out in frustration, his feelings getting the better of him. “That I’d wait years to go out with you, months and months to have sex with you, only to immediately turn around and screw it all up? That nothing I ever said to you means anything, and I’d just throw it all away for the first random girl who comes along?”

“She may not be from town, or go to our school, but she’s not so random. I know who she is—thanks to the wonders of social media,” she drawled sarcastically, folding her arms across her chest. “She has a big crush on you. She’s the same one from that party a few months ago. Don’t pretend you don’t know it.”

He hunched his shoulders. “What difference does it make?”

“Apparently she was ‘all over your stick’—if I have the correct verbiage,” she continued somewhat drily. “At least that’s the story going around.”

Matt bit out each word in slow, steady succession. “I didn’t do anything.”

She pursed her lips into a small frown. In that moment, he could sense a brief and wavering uncertainty, and jumped at this small opening.

“Rory, please…you know I didn’t,” he said, standing from the bed.

He attempted to gently ease her into a tender embrace, guiding her out of the doorway and into his room, hopefully into his aching arms. She only shoved him off and squirmed out of reach. He tried again, moving his large hands down to rest on her small waist, desperate to hold her in some way. She just backed away, backing herself right into a corner.

“No!” she protested. Pressed flat against the wall, she pushed him off again. Her eyes flashed. “Tell me the truth! Did she offer you anything, Matt? A little lip service, perhaps? Anything you forgot to tell me about?”

He bowed his head low, placing his palms flat against the bedroom wall on each side of her. Leaning in to rest his weight on his arms, he held her there with his body, as close as humanly possible without actual contact.

“Yes,” he admitted painfully. “Okay?”

She stilled, stunned to have him actually confirm it. But he refused to lie to her.

Then, just as suddenly, she snapped back.

“I can’t believe you!” she gasped, outraged as she shoved him, this time right in the center of his chest. He stumbled back a step. Her cheeks flamed to red, and she swung at him. Matt winced, ducking slightly and backing up as she hit him twice, then once again, hard. “Did you have a good time? Huh? Tell me!”

She continued to hit and push him, the force of her fury sending them both tumbling to the bed.

“Rory—no, listen to me!” Matt finally got hold of her arms, grasping her tight at the wrists as he rolled her, pinning her to his bed as he swung a leg over to straddle her body in case she resorted to kicking. “Listen to me, will you? Nothing happened!”

She tried to struggle against him but finally collapsed back onto his comforter, scowling up at him.

“I told her I had a girlfriend!” he explained between labored breaths. “I told her that I wasn’t interested. Nothing happened, okay?”

Her expression relaxed slightly, eyes searching his face. Matt held her there, breaths mingling as their chests rose and fell together to the tentative beat of their hearts.

“I’m sorry any of it ever had to happen, but you know I didn’t do anything,” he whispered, shaky with emotion. “I would never do that to you. You know me, and you know I love you, Rory. Even if you wanted nothing to do with me, I still wouldn’t want anyone but you.” He lifted the wreckage from his blue eyes, forcing her to see what was in there, refusing to let her look away. “Tell me you know that.”

He released his hold on her wrists, and her hands went flat to his chest, almost as if to push him away again. But gradually, tentatively, her fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt to hold on instead.

“Tell me. Please, Rory.”

She closed her eyes, and her reply finally floated out on a whispery sigh. “Okay…I know.”

Matt released a trembling breath of relief, but Kevin picked that exact moment to walk back in, his hands held up to shield his eyes like blinders.

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” he said. “I just left my cell phone in here.” He quickly snatched it off the dresser and turned to go, keeping his gaze averted as he steered clear of the bed.

Matt’s gaze remained locked on her, though he addressed his brother.

“Did Mom and Dad already leave to go out to dinner?”

“Yeah, just a minute ago.”

“And are you going out tonight?”

“Wasn’t really planning on it. My friends are headed to the movies, but I don’t get paid until tomorrow.”

Matt inclined his head. “There’s twenty bucks in my top drawer.”

“Then, yes,” Kevin grinned, cheering up a bit. “Yes, I am.” He opened the drawer and plucked the bill out with finesse before disappearing out the door again. “See ya.”

“Bye, Kev,” Rory said.

Matt swallowed, that tight knot in his chest loosening, and a tentative smile twitched at the corners of his lips once they were alone again. He eased off to the side, dropping next to her on his bed with a weary grunt, like a soldier returning from battle.

After a moment of recovery, he shifted his gaze towards her.

“Are we going to be okay?”

Rory only nodded.

He leaned in a fraction of an inch closer to nuzzle her hair, brushing his cheek against her silky softness. She tilted her chin up, just the bottom corner of her plush lip grazing his. Even that slight, fleeting touch left him weak.

Her thick lashes fluttered against her cheeks, and her gaze met his in the silent evening shadows of the room. His heart clenched painfully inside his chest as he sank deep into those eyes.

Without a word, he lifted his hand to her face, tenderly caressing her cheek as he lowered his lips. This time her mouth molded to his in a perfect fit, the kiss warm and sweet and soft. After a long while, he pulled back to gaze into her face.

Her eyes glistened in the dim light.

“The song,” she said quietly.

Matt tilted his head, pausing to smile as he listened to the familiar low notes drifting out. He didn’t really need the cosmic universe to confirm for him that this was right and perfect, but it was nice to know someone out there agreed. Reaching over, he edged the volume back up a notch. Rory eased closer, curling into him on the bed.

He grazed a soft caress down her arm and then, propped on one elbow on his side, traced small circles over the warm strip of exposed skin where her tank top rode up on her tummy. Bowing his head, he eased it up even further as he planted a succession of gentle kisses across her flat stomach.

Her soft, full lips parted in a silent sigh, her ponytail spread out across his pillow as she brought her hand to the back of his head, threading her fingers through his short hair.

Moving back over her body, he sat back to rest on his knees. Lifting a slender leg to prop it on his, he untied and removed one running sneaker, then the other. Easing off her white socks, he slid the palm of his hand up her tight calf muscles to caress the smooth underside of her toned thigh. Rory watched, holding him in the shimmering heat of her gaze.

He leaned up to kiss her lips, his fingers curving into the waistband of her running shorts. Without a word, she lifted her small hips off the bed to assist in getting them down and off. He hooked a finger inside the silk of her panties, taking them down as well.

Returning to her, he dropped a tender kiss between the sweet hollow of her breasts, pushing up her tank top even higher before his lips glided back down the soft skin of her quivering stomach, dipping inside her belly button. His hand drifted up the outside of her slender thigh until he reached her knee, then he slowly slid it back down the inside in a smooth caress, applying a light pressure to gently ease her legs apart. She opened to him with a shivery gasp.