Persuaded (26 page)

“What?”

“Um, what did you think that day when . . . when—”

“When you ripped my heart out and stomped on it? That day?”

“Yes.” I winced and closed my eyes. Gregory took advantage and kissed each eyelid. “Will you stop?” I laughed up at him.

“No.” He grinned.

Have I died and gone to heaven, or what?
“Well, I guess I could live with that,” I said, peeking up at him from under my eyelashes.

He groaned and crushed me against his chest. “Dang, Andy! I told you to watch your flirting. I swear, it’s a good thing you’re mine right now, or I’d be going crazy watching you do that to someone else.” He paused a second. “You will promise me that you won’t look at anyone else like that, right?”

Good grief!
I smiled
.
“Gregory.” I pulled back a little from him. “No matter how I glance at someone else, whether intentional or not, my heart belongs to you. I’m not going anywhere. Besides, you’re distracting me from the main point. There’s something you need to know—something you need to understand.” All at once I was shy again, and I tucked my head back into the safety of his shoulder.

“Okay.”

His voice gave me courage, and I began, “I . . . after you left that day, well, I went to your house afterward. On that Sunday, and you were gone.”

“Andy . . . I had no idea.”

“I would’ve gone to you on Friday, but I—I didn’t. I thought it would be better to give you some time. I should’ve, Gregory. I should’ve. I’m so sorry. I’ve thought back on that day a million times and I take it all back. I take back everything I said to you. I was so horrible, Gregory. I was awful. I’m so sorry.”

“Shh.”

I shook my head against his shoulder. “I am. I am so sorry for what I did to you. I don’t deserve you. I know I don’t. But please understand that I love you. That I always loved you. And I knew it even then. Y–you were right. You were s–so right when you protested and argued with me.”

“Hey, stop.” Gregory brought his hand up to my chin and slowly lifted my face toward his. “Oh, Andy, tears?” Gently he wiped one from the side of my face.

“No, I don’t cry in front of people. I look ugly w–when I cry.”

He kissed the spot where the tear was. “You don’t cry? Ever?”

I felt his fingers gingerly erase the tear from my other cheek, and my eyes fluttered closed when his soft lips kissed the spot. “Only when I hurt the people I love.” His lips made their way up to the spot between my eyes and then down to capture my mouth again. It was a gentle, moving, love-binding kiss. A kiss that promised that no matter the past, we were now in the present—and the present was good.

My eyes flew open and I gasped as he pulled away.

I felt a little better when I noticed Gregory was having just as hard a time breathing as I was. “Andy, uh, for the record.” He took a deep breath. “You’re forgiven. I don’t know if you caught that just now—but, yeah, no worries.” He took another deep breath. “Man! I feel like someone has just knocked me out.”

“Uh, is that a good thing?”

He shook his head slightly and smiled down at me. “Yeah, oh yeah. It’s a good thing.”

“Oh, well in that case, I hope you feel like you’ve been knocked out all the time.”

Twenty-Four: Sweet Persuasion

Later that night, Gregory followed me to my house. We spent a lot of time talking and making up for the past three years. So many things had happened to each of us—so many things we wanted to share—that it was like catching up with a family member you hadn’t seen in forever. Eventually, we made our way back to the present, and for the first time I understood what he had been thinking during the past couple of months we had been friends again.

“I can’t believe I almost lost you to Sean,” Gregory said. “I can barely think about it. I have never been more jealous of any human being in my life. Honestly, I wanted to do bodily damage to my own cousin.”

I laughed and shook my head as I traced the fingers he had interlocked with mine while we snuggled on my family’s couch.
Hmm . . . Gregory jealous. Why does it make me so happy?
“You would’ve never lost me to Sean. I have always been yours and always will be.”

Gregory let out a ragged sigh and rubbed the top of my head with his jaw. “That night at the symphony, seeing you two so close together, you have no idea what went through my mind. I have never walked out of anything like that in my life, but I couldn’t take another moment. I thought I would destroy something. Listening to those women talking about you two like it was already set in stone nearly crushed me. I figured if I left your side, I would be able to handle it and feel better about the whole thing.”

“Did it work?”

“Ha! I wish. No, leaving made it much worse. I couldn’t bear to be away from you. It was so hard, actually, that I thought about just heading back to Phoenix that night.”

“What?” I sat up. “But couldn’t you—didn’t you see the way I felt about you? There was no one else I wanted to be near but you. You weren’t really thinking about leaving, were you?”

He smiled ruefully at me and traced my cheekbone with his thumb. “Yeah, really. But by the next morning, I remembered all the things you’d said to me—especially the night before—and it gave me hope, so I stayed.

I took a deep breath and wondered why I felt like smacking the guy. “Well, thank goodness something did! I’ve never been so unsure about anything as I was about how you felt towards me. It seemed like one minute you were crazy for me, and the next you would be flirting with someone else. Do you have any idea what you did to me? My poor heart couldn’t control itself.”

Gregory chuckled and pulled me down to snuggle with him again. “It was that way for me, too. When I first moved here and saw you at the party, I froze. Everything I had planned and prepared to say when I met you again flew out of my head. I found I was angry, too—angry at you for, well, it all came back to me. I thought I had gotten over what you’d said three years ago, but I hadn’t. I found myself worried you would do it again.

“So I decided to make you jealous by going out with any girl who looked at me twice. What I didn’t count on—what I didn’t prepare myself for—was how I would compare you to Sydney and then Kylie while I was with them. I couldn’t help wondering how you would react to the joke I had just told or the place we had just gone.”

“Really? You really thought of me while you were with them? But I don’t get it. Sydney and Kylie are gorgeous. And not just any gorgeous either—they’re like model gorgeous.”

“And?”

“And, well, I’m—I’m . . .” Not wanting to finish the sentence out loud, I pulled away slightly and peered up at him.

“Amanda Ellis, if you are trying to tell me that you have no idea how beautiful you are, I think I’m going to—well, I’ll kiss you, for one.” He smiled down at me and kissed me lightly on the lips, then looked at me seriously.

Feeling very uncomfortable, I watched Gregory search my face.

“What happened?” he asked. “Where did you go?”

“Go?”
I know, I know, I look different now. It’s okay, really, I’m okay with it.

“Where is the girl who knew how beautiful she was? Who shyly lowered her eyes but blushed because she knew it was true, not because she was embarrassed to be noticed. What have they done to you?”

“W–what?”

“Wow, I should’ve never left you. Ever.” He shook his head and closed his eyes before focusing on me again. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t see—I didn’t think this would happen. I should’ve thought of this. I should’ve realized.”

“Realized what? Greg, what are you talking about?”

“Your family!” he interrupted. “They’ve never told you, have they? They’ve only told Sydney. You’ve never had a chance.” He mumbled something under his breath and banged the back of the couch with his fist. “I should’ve never, ever left you alone with your family. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Greg, you moved—your family moved. You couldn’t have—”

“No.” He shook his head and wouldn’t listen to me. “I could’ve. I could’ve written you, called you, anything—anything but leave you alone with them.”

I rolled my eyes and pulled farther away. “They’re not that bad. I’m fine, really. I don’t know what you’re—”

Gregory quickly leaned forward. “There hasn’t been a day when your beauty hasn’t knocked me breathless. Don’t you know why I froze at that party? You were so beautiful—even more beautiful than before—and I barely recognized you. I couldn’t look away. That’s when I knew I didn’t deserve you. I figured you were more of a heartbreaker now than ever. All I wanted to do was to make you fall for me hard, and get away as fast as I could before you could burn me again.”

“Are you kidding me?” I asked quietly.

“You don’t believe me, do you? Come here. Listen to me.” He ran his hands through my hair and pulled me toward him. “They’ve lied to you. They’ve told you over and over how ugly you were until you believed them. It’s not true. You are the most beautiful girl in the whole world. You are! You always have been. And from now on, you’re going to hear it every day until you believe it again. You got that?”

“I am?” Mesmerized by his dark eyes, there was nowhere else I would’ve rather been.

Kylie’s engagement party was a hit. There were so many people at the Wentworths’ house, it was amazing. If I didn’t know better I’d say half of the city showed up for the event. Among some of the distinguished guests were the Andersons’ favorite son and his girlfriend, Chloe Hart. They had driven in from Arizona for the occasion. Taylor had to be the closest thing to a celebrity Farmington had. I was surprised to see him cross over the threshold, but what surprised me more was the loud shriek Madison gave at the sight of them. The whole party paused to watch her run across the room and fling her arms around Taylor’s girlfriend. Their animated chatter was the only sound for a couple of seconds until the general hum of the room began again.

Gregory and I had already caused a stir by entering together. Most of the group had known about us, but many adults were floored that one of the Ellis girls was able to snatch Gregory up so fast.

When Sean had called a couple of days before to ask me out, he had seemed a little shaken by the news, but he’d recovered quickly. He even showed up at the party and came up and said hello to us. His sister Lilly was on his arm.

“Well, Amanda, you look as pretty as ever.” Sean patted Gregory on the shoulder. “And I see you’ve let the best man win, eh?”

“What? You knew I was after her?”

“Not at first, but I would’ve been blind if I hadn’t seen what your feelings were halfway through dinner at that restaurant in Moab. I mean, I knew you saw her first and all, but I had to give you a run for your money.” He winked at me and grinned his handsome grin right at Gregory, before he leaned over and whispered near my ear, loud enough for Gregory to hear, “You let me know if anything changes between you two. I don’t think I could ever get over your adorable blushes.”

I could feel my face turn bright red. I rolled my eyes as he walked away.

“You know, it’s a real good thing that guy is my cousin, or I might be seriously tempted to strangle him,” Gregory said.

“Stop!” I swatted him playfully on the arm.

“Hey, if you saw the way he looked at you, you’d want to strangle him, too.”