Tapped (Totaled Book 2) (21 page)

            Experiment failed, mark it off the list. I was more pissed off now than when I was before we started.

            “Would you be open to her ever coming to a session with you?” he calmly suggested. “If Pat allowed it, of course, and she consented? It may be helpful.”

            Just when I tried to shut the door on hope for good, the doc and his optimism reared their ugly, confronting heads.

            “Like marriage counseling? We aren’t fucking married,” I retorted, hating the way those words tasted coming out of my mouth. “And we never will be.”

            “Why do you say that?”

            “How could I ever be a decent husband to her when the fear of me dreaming and lashing out at her again would always be there?”

            “Plenty of married couples sleep in separate beds.”

            “Well, that’s not the kind of marriage I want to have. That’s not the kind of marriage she deserves.” I sat, feeling sorry for myself until I couldn’t sit there any longer. I got up and walked toward the door to leave.

            “I don’t want her here, Doc. She’s not the problem.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

BREE

            It’d been two days since I saw him on the beach and I still couldn’t get the image out of my mind. The entire scene was branded in front of my eyes. He was too far away for me to see his face closely but everything about his posture suggested that he was torn apart inside. Any other just-dumped girl would’ve found some satisfaction in that, but I found it tormenting. I had buried myself deep in my room at home for the past forty-eight hours claiming that I didn’t feel well, which wasn’t exactly a lie. It was more of an emotional health issue—one that neither my father nor my brother were very sympathetic to. I’m confident that they both knew how difficult this whole situation was for me but they weren’t the best at letting me whine and cry on their shoulders about boy trouble. Truth be told, they hadn’t really ever had to. They certainly didn’t know about the note and I hoped it stayed that way.

            Dad had been on my ass about getting some things done at the gym and I finally felt ready to go in and do it. My face had completely healed of all the bruising and swelling and the only trace of evidence that remained was the half-inch crescent scar under my left eye. Just a thin pink line to remind me of that terrible night. Permanent. I would never rid myself of it or of Drew.

            Feeling self-conscious about the scar, I decided to put some makeup on. Nothing heavy or dramatic, which would’ve assuredly drawn more attention than I wanted. Just enough to cover the line and even everything out. I wanted to look better on the outside than I felt on the inside, so I even applied a little mascara. It was time to put my big girl panties on and face the day.

            The drive was short and the unpaved lot next to the gym didn’t look too crowded, so I took a deep breath, grabbed my things, and approached the side door. The sudden onslaught of noise that roared out of the gym once I opened the doors was actually music to my ears. I sort of missed the stupid place. I certainly didn’t miss the smell, though. I resolved to give this place an extra bleach wipe down when we closed for the day. The sweat and testosterone crept all the way down the hall into my office; it wasn’t exactly the most pleasing aroma.

            My office was much like I’d left it with the exception of a few papers for new memberships that I needed to add into the database. And piles of mail. I got to it, booting up the computer and checking umpteen voicemails, writing down all of the important information that I needed to make return calls on later. One of the membership packets was missing some information so I ventured out into the main gym area to try to find either the client or who’d enrolled them.

            As I walked down the hallway, my eyes still cast down on the paperwork, I almost ran into someone. Brock Woods.

            “Well, look who’s alive!” he yelped obnoxiously, with an even higher level of douchebaggery in his voice than I remember. “We’ve been worried about you, Bree. Where’ve ya been, anyway?”

            “Oh, I’m sure you were really worried,” I bit back sarcastically. “I’ve been around, just busy,” I casually said as I tried to step around him. He stepped quickly to the side, coming in front of me and prohibiting me from passing. I looked up at him, annoyed at his insistent presence. “What?”

            “Some time away did you good. You’re looking pretty fine today,” he complimented with a sleazy look as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “Even put on a little makeup for a change. Were you hoping you would see me?” He raked his gaze over my body from head to toe, taking an extra couple of seconds at my breasts.

            “You wish.” I dismissed him with a roll of my eyes. Was this guy serious? “You
know
I would never give you the time of day.” I kept trying to sidestep and move around him, but he continued to move in front of me.

            “Aww, c’mon, Bree. I know we haven’t seen eye to eye in the past, but now that Drew’s out of the picture, how ‘bout you give me a turn?” he asked brazenly. He had the audacity to lift my chin with his fingertip, demanding that I look at his cocky face.

            I backed up a step, attempting to gain more space and firmly let him know that his poor excuse for an advance was not welcome. Before I could catch myself, the words escaped my mouth. “What do you mean, now that Drew’s out of the picture?” I hated that I just asked Brock Woods, of all people for any information, especially about Drew. I knew full well that what he was about to say would be inaccurate and surely piss me off.

            “Well, I just figured,” he quipped with a shrug of his shoulders. “Nobody’s seen him around for weeks. We all assumed you kicked him to the curb. I’m just happy to see that the rumors aren’t true about
you
.” He moved into my space again, with a creepy, hungry expression, biting his bottom lip as he undressed me with his eyes. I felt violated and disgusting, drastically regretting my choice of spandex workout pants. He reeked of sweat covered in cheap body splash and the hallway seemed narrower than ever, trapping me in.

            “Pshh, please! What
rumors
are you even talking about?” I challenged, not wanting to care but dying to know.

            “Oh, the usual. Drew knocked you up so your dad fired him and sent you away.”

            I scoffed at that ridiculous fabrication, gesturing with my hand that I was obviously not pregnant.

            “Or there was the one where Drew had a drug problem and got fired so you were hiding out all depressed and lonely. Some even said you were doing drugs with him.”

            I chuckled at that.

            “Then there were a few whispers that you actually ran away with him and got hitched, but I knew that couldn’t be true. You’d never leave that stupid ass brother of yours.”

            Rage.

            I slapped Brock Woods across his face so quick and so hard that my hand stung, his face jetting to the side from the impact. The sound of the smack against his cheek echoed in the halls despite the fact that we were an MMA gym and sounds of hits and pounds were commonplace.

            When he turned to look at me, an expression of shock and anger on his face, I was seething. “You listen to me, you son of a bitch! Don’t you
ever
talk about Liam like that again. Ever!” I screeched, pointing my finger into his chest. “And you can run and tell the gossip mill of Fernandina that I’m not pregnant, married, or a junkie. Drew and I are just fine, not that it’s any of your business.” I bolted around him, shaking my head from side to side in disgust. My face felt like it was on fire and I knew I wore the redness of my anger on my skin. I refused to turn around and look at Brock. I refused to look at anyone’s face right then; I could crumble at any moment. 

            I found the guy I was looking for over by the hand bags and interrupted his exercise to get the missing information I needed. He looked at me with concern when I spoke, my broken sentences clipped and breathless, welcoming him but needing more data for his file. He even asked if I was feeling all right. I brushed it off and hightailed it out of there before anyone else could ask any more questions, or, God forbid, make another inappropriate comment. I could’ve snapped at any moment.

            I sat in my office for a few minutes trying to compose myself and get a few more things done but I couldn’t think straight. What an asshole Brock was, and I let him get under my skin. I stood there and took it—the eerie way he was staring at me, the sinister look in his eyes, even allowing him to touch me when he moved my hair out of my face. But when he insulted Liam…that was it. I would always go to bat for him, any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Brock knew that and chose to say it anyway. He intended to get under my skin and it pissed me off that I let him. The rumors didn’t surprise me, even as absurd as they were. I expected nothing less from this small town community, ravenous for any juicy details they could get a hold of.

            After listening to some music to calm my nerves and get back on track, I efficiently got everything handled and accomplished multiple projects I knew my dad wanted done. Feeling quite pleased with myself, I smiled at how easily I was getting back into the swing of things. It was still early afternoon and instead of leaving for lunch with plans to return, I decided I would duck out for the day completely and get the cleaning done the following morning. As I was locking the office door, about to head out the back to my car, someone said my name from down the hallway.

            “Bree?” Liam called. “Someone’s here to see you. Can you come out here? I’m in the middle of a drill with Barrett.”

            I exhaled in annoyance at the interruption but nodded and sauntered down the hall to see who needed me now. To my surprise, it was Alan, standing just inside the entrance looking a tad uncomfortable as his hands fidgeted. He lit up when he finally saw me approaching and smiled.

            “Alan! What are you doing here?” I questioned as I went in for a hug.

            He hugged me back, patting my back twice before letting go and pulling away. “I came to check on you. I’m actually driving to Savannah today and thought I’d make a little detour to say hi. Sorry for the unexpected visit.”

            “No, no, not at all. What a nice surprise. I’m glad I was here, I was just about to leave.”

            “Yeah, I didn’t have your number and Sue isn’t answering. She’s probably in clinicals or something,” he fumbled, looking embarrassed. “I’ll let you go. We can catch up some other time.”

            “Please! Don’t be silly. It’s so good to see you. How long do you have before you have to hit the road?” I felt everyone behind me watching our interaction, all eyes on me, the noise in the gym drastically lower than it was when I walked out of the office.

            “I have some time. If you’re not too busy, maybe we could go somewhere and eat? Have you had lunch yet?”

            “Nope, and I’m starvin’ like Marvin. Although I’m not really dressed to go anywhere nice,” I warned, gesturing to my workout clothing and pulled back hair.

            He smiled with kind eyes. “You look great. We’ll avoid the Ritz Carlton Amelia Island.”

            “Yeah, I think that’s best,” I agreed, chuckling with him. “My car is out back,” I said, holding up my keys while pointing back down the hallway I came out from.

            “I’ll drive and bring you back to your car after, if that’s cool with you.”

            “Perfect!”

            He held the door open for me, his hand just slightly grazing the small of my back as I passed through. We drove to a little seafood shack that was a favorite of mine since Alan insisted he didn’t care where we ended up. The oceanfront scenery was enough to make up for their sub-par hush puppies.

            We sat on the deck and quickly got engulfed in conversation, him filling me in on all of the most recent crazy paramedic calls he’d been on and me trying but not succeeding to avoid all talk about myself and my saga. I hated that I knew him only because he pretty much saved my life that night.

            “I notice, ya know,” he commented. I met his eyes with confusion, tilting my head in question. “You aren’t talking about yourself at all. Every question I ask, you answer with one or two words and turn the question around on me. Are you okay?”

            “Busted, huh?” I was pathetic. “I guess I’m just embarrassed. And I’m a mess, which I’m sure you don’t want to hear about.”

            “Nonsense. I care. I
do
want to hear it. All of it.” His brown eyes were sincere and attentive. “I’m a good listener, Bree.”

            I relaxed into my seat and exhaled a breath heavy with shame. Maybe it would be nice to unload on someone neutral and not in my normal bubble. And a
guy
at that. Maybe I could use a guy’s perspective on the whole situation. And I trusted Alan. I didn’t know him well, but owed him so much. And for whatever reason, I trusted his discretion and his opinion. So I began.

            After what felt like twenty straight minutes of only me talking, Alan had the whole story. He knew much of what led me to need him that awful night already through Sue, but everything after was just released all in a ramble before I could stop myself. I told him about my father’s reaction to me and to Drew, and his restriction on our contact. How he banished him from town to live with friends of ours while getting therapy and how he isn’t supposed to return until he’s “fixed” and no longer a threat. Alan rolled his eyes at that but continued to listen without further judgment. He couldn’t help the pity that showed itself when I told him about the letters—first mine hidden in the dinner bag and then his recent reply. It
was
pretty sad, so I wasn’t put off by the sympathy I saw in his eyes.

            When I explained my bizarre encounter seeing him on the beach the other day and how I ran the other way, it piqued his interest even further.