One More Time (30 page)

“Thanks for letting me play for you tonight. The truth is I’m not really playing for you. Here’s the thing…I met someone special and, after a rocky start, I fell in love with her.” The crowd cheered. “Then I went and messed it all up.” The crowd booed. “I’m here tonight to sing my way back into her heart because….well, because I’m in love with her and I’m willing to do just about anything to get her back.” The crowd cheered again. “Isabella, this is for you.”

I settled my guitar back in my arms and strummed the beginning chords to
Wasted Time
. Isabella loved The Eagles as much as I did. She especially loved this song. As I sang it to her, I watched her inch closer to the stage. I needed for her to know none of this was wasted time. Tears glistened in her eyes as I finished the song and rolled directly into
Love Song.
My version was much slower than The Cure’s. Tonight, I had completely stripped it down. It was bare-boned and raw. I didn’t take my eyes off of her the entire song. As I sang the last line, I could see her outwardly crying. She was also standing right in front of me and I felt like a million bucks.
Three more songs and I can take her home.
The next song I chose for her took a little more time and practice than the others. I quickly switched my acoustic for my electric guitar, plugged it into the amp and said,

“This next song is from one of my all-time favorite bands, INXS. It’s called
Don’t Change
.” Ibby slapped her hands over her mouth while tears poured from her eyes. The gal next to her asked if she was okay, but she shook her off.

Only two more to go.

As soon as the song was over, Sally scooted up to Isabella and wrapped an arm around her. Not wanting to lose Ibby’s attention, I switched guitars back and forged ahead.

“If ever there was a song to describe how I feel about you, Isabella Fisher, this is it,” I told her. I sang the opening lines to Led Zeppelin’s
Thank you
and she and Sally both burst into tears. I held back an amused lip twitch.
So damn cute.
At last, I was to the final song and going in for the kill.

“Thank you all for putting up with me tonight.” I stared down into Ibby’s blue eyes and my heart swelled with love. “I’m so sorry, baby. Please forgive me? I love you. I want to marry you. I want us to be a family. I want to move back home with you and Milly…where I belong.” As I told her this, I strummed the chords to Counting Crow’s
Sullivan Street
. When I was done, I launched straight into the song. About halfway through, I pulled her up on stage with me and the crowd went nuts. She buried her head in my chest and sobbed as the crowd finished the song for me.

“I love you. Please forgive me. I know I have a lot to explain and I will,” I said into her ear.

“It’s not that easy,” she tearfully replied.

I pulled her to the back of the stage where we could no longer be seen. “Hey, please talk to me,” I placed my hands on either side of her face and tilted her head so I could look into her eyes. Tears tricked down her face and I caught them with my fingers. “Talk to me,” I stressed.

“This…tonight, was amazing. You are amazing.” She let out a sob and I stifled it with my lips. She pulled back and let out another sob. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my whole life. I love you, Dillon. I just can’t be with you. I can’t let you back in to hurt me again.”

“I won’t,” I said, cutting her off. “I swear. I need you to hear me out, Ibbs. I need to make you understand. After that, if you want to walk away, I won’t like it, but I will accept it.”

“I can’t,” she sobbed. As she took a step back, I took one forward. Sweat trickled down my spine.

“Baby, please?” I whispered.

“I’m sorry,” she said. Then she bolted. I took off after her but was caught short by Max and Kurt.

“Let her go. She can’t hear you when she’s that upset, anyway. Give her the night to process,” Max said.

“She’ll come around,” Kurt agreed.

Max gave Kurt a knowing look before saying, “I suggest showing up first thing tomorrow morning before she’s awake. Slide into bed with her and show her who’s boss.”

“You can always get Piper or Joss to do your dirty work before you slide into bed with her,” Kurt mused. Max laughed. I had no idea what they were talking about and didn’t care. This was turning out to be a hell of a lot harder than I imagined.

“Whatever you do, don’t give up,” Max advised.

My eyes shot to his. “Never,” I snarled.

He patted me on the back. “Good man. Now, let’s go get a drink.”

After several shots, Max and Ellie said goodbye and headed home. After downing a few more, I was feeling it.

“Go home,” Kurt ordered.

“Got nowhere to go,” I replied.

He twisted a key off of his keychain and slapped it on the bar in front of me. “Use the pool house.”

“Thanks man, appreciate it”.

“I called you a cab,” he informed. “He’ll be around back in ten and knows where to take you.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled again. As I stepped out the back door, I almost tripped over my guitars. Hozier’s
Take Me to Church
poured loudly from the speakers above my head, which is probably why I didn’t hear the guys approach from behind me. As they jumped me, I lost hold on one of the two guitars. I heard it drop to the ground with a thud. I couldn’t tell how many there were. From the amount of punches and kicks, it seemed like a lot. Using my remaining guitar as a weapon, I swung out and nailed one of them in the head. He dropped like a sack of potatoes, but more were there to take his place. A sharp pain seared through my side and I dropped the second guitar and started punching. Isabella and Amelia flashed through my mind and I fought harder. A boot to my face had me screaming out in pain. As I dropped to my knees, I struck up with the palm of my hand and made purchase on some dickhead’s face. I heard him scream and felt a gush of warm liquid spray across my arm and neck. I was in bad shape. My side burned like a motherfucker and I could feel blood pouring down my face. One of the guys grabbed my arm and wrenched it unnaturally behind me, while the other slammed something across the back of my head. Stars burst like flames behind my eyelids and the image of Isabella holding our daughter flashed through my mind. Then my world went completely dark.

Isabella

‡

“S
ay it. You
think I made a mistake.” I wiped my sleeve across my wet eyes and searched around for a tissue to blow my nose with.

“I think you did what you needed to do in order to protect your heart,” Sally replied. She reached across my seat and popped open the glove box which was filled with all kinds of stuff, one of which was tissues.

“But you disagree?” Silence followed as Sally stared out the front windshield. “After what Jimmy did, I’m surprised you aren’t cheering me on,” I said before pausing to blow my nose.

“Dillon is not Jimmy,” Sally quietly replied. Her words brought on another wave of tears.

“I know that!” I wailed into my tissue.

She grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Hear me out for a second. From the moment you met Jimmy, you knew he was less than what you deserved. Hell, you didn’t really even like him at first. But, because he kept at it, you finally agreed to give him a chance. He was an ass to you your entire relationship and you took it, all because you were afraid of being like your mother and sister.” She glanced over at me. “Trust me, no matter who you date, you will never be like either of those bitches.” Focusing her eyes back on the road, she kept talking. “It took one night with Dillon to make you see what you had been missing all along with Jimmy. Your gut told you Dillon was a good guy and, when given a second chance, you jumped at it and so did he. It led you both to something neither of you had experienced before. You and I both know that man loves you to pieces, honey. He also loves Amelia. Something spooked him. In order for him to bail the way he did, I’m guessing that something was big. He seems to have worked through whatever it is. Otherwise, tonight would never have happened. You and I also know tonight was epic.” She held up her hand to stop me from interrupting. “I’m not saying you should have run back to him. I’m glad, for once, you used your head instead of your heart. It’s about time you learn to protect yourself. I’m just saying a love like you share with Dillon is rare. Now, we are almost home, which is a really good thing because I have hit my quota of words of wisdom for the month.”

I stared out the passenger side window and let Sally’s words sink in. Jimmy might be an ass, but he was a predictable ass. I knew his triggers and knew how to placate him when need be. He may have caused me to flinch in fear a few times, but at least he didn’t have me constantly twisted up in emotional knots. He also didn’t make my heart soar or my pulse race…or make angry enough to spit nails or sad enough to cry for days. My relationship with Jimmy just…was. The best and worst thing he ever did was cheat on me because, if I had stayed…

I wouldn’t have met Dillon.

Dillon gave me love and sadness, hope and happiness…
He gave me our baby girl
.

“What have I done?” I whispered to myself.

“You are allowed to second guess yourself, honey,” Sally said.

I began fumbling through my purse for my phone. “I screwed up,” I admitted. The need to call him stormed through me and I suddenly had to hear his voice, to hear him say it wasn’t too late.

Sally stilled my frantic hands. “Dillon is drinking with Max and Kurt at Dragonfly right now. Let’s relieve Sarah first and then you can call him.”

My phone rang as we walked through the door.

“Well that didn’t take long. Is it Dillon?” Sally asked with a smirk.

“No, it’s Kurt.” I pushed send and answered, “Hey Kurt, what’s up?”

“Thank God I caught you.” He sounded out of breath.

“Is everything okay?”

“No. Dillon’s been hurt, Isabella. The ambulance just left Dragonfly with him. They are taking him to the hospital in South Charlotte as we speak. I’m on my way there now.”

“What do you mean Dillon’s been hurt? I was just with him!”

“What?” Sally and Sarah asked in unison.

“Kurt says Dillon’s been hurt. They are taking him to the hospital now,” I told them. “What happened, Kurt?”

“He got jumped in the parking lot. I’m warning you, it looks bad.”

Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. Before I dropped the phone, Sally grabbed it. While she confirmed details with Kurt, I tried to gather my scattered thoughts.
Dillon’s hurt. Oh God, please let him be okay.

Sally ended the call and Sarah said, “I’ve got Amelia, go.”

Fifteen minutes later, Sally dropped me in front of the Emergency Room. As I rushed through the doors, I saw Kurt, Piper and Gage standing off to one side. Piper looked a mess and my heart dropped.
Please don’t tell me he’s gone. Please…

“Is he here?” I asked.

“Come sit down and I’ll explain what’s going on,” Kurt said.

I took a step back and covered my mouth with my hands to keep a scream from escaping.

I’m too late.

Before I could bolt from the room, Piper wrapped her arms around me and in a low, soothing voice, started explaining what was going on. “Dillon is here, Isabella. He arrived fifteen minutes ago. He had some internal bleeding so they took him straight back to surgery.”

“Do you know what happened?” Sally asked.

“From what we can tell, he was jumped in the back parking lot of Dragonfly. He was beat pretty badly and stabbed somewhere in the lower abdomen. He has a dislocated shoulder and a laceration on his face. They are operating on the stab wound right now,” Piper told us.

Oh God.
I was heart sick.
I left him there and someone hurt him.

“There were two guys unconscious in the parking lot when I found him. Neither was badly injured, just knocked out. It seems our boy went down fighting,” Kurt said with a smile. Not able to stand it any longer, I burst into tears. My guy was fighting for his life and the last words we had were me telling him I couldn’t be with him anymore. Piper and Sally held me while I cried my heart out.

Two hours later, we had a waiting room full of people and no news. I was going crazy. Ellie and Piper kept telling me no news was good news. I disagreed. No news was…no news, and it sucked. The police had come and gone. They had two of the four men who jumped Dillon in custody and that’s all they would tell us. I had called to check on Sarah who told me she would crash on the twin bed in Amelia’s room. She said Bobby and Cas had stopped by on the way to the hospital to make sure the alarm was up to snuff. When I asked what that meant, she told me to talk to them.
Great, something else to worry about.

Finally, after what seemed like days, the doctor appeared.

“Dillon Whitaker,” he announced and we all stood. He held out his hand to hold us off and said, “Just his next of kin for now, please.” I stepped forward and he ushered me through the swinging doors. “Are you Mrs. Whitaker?” He asked when we reached the hallway on the other side.