Tension (23 page)

She tore the silver paper off the gift and knew the jewelry store’s ring box when she saw it. Her eyes snapped to his. His face was blank, giving away nothing.
Oh shit
.
Is he proposing
? Hesitantly, she lifted the lid off the box. “Oh my God, George!”

He started laughing. “Do you like it?”

“It’s gorgeous,” she answered. “It’s too much.”

“You should’ve seen your face, Love.” George’s green flecks twinkled with mischief. “Are you that scared of marrying me?” He laughed at her scowl. He knew better than to surprise her with a marriage proposal. She wasn’t quite ready. “And it’s not too much, because it’s what I wanted to get you.”

Stella pulled out the solitaire diamond and secured the necklace around her neck. It sparkled under the light from the fireplace and matched the earrings that George gave her the Christmas after they’d broken up.

“I think you might have been made just for me,” Stella said, gazing into George’s eyes.

“I think you might be right.”

“Love, do you believe in fate?” George traced the tattoo on her back with his fingers, causing goose bumps to rise all over her body.

“No,” Stella said, her face smashed into the pillow.

“Why not?”

“I don’t believe in much,” she answered and turned on her back, the sheet just brushing her waist. She fingered the necklace he’d given her last night.

“God...you’re gorgeous.” George leaned in and kissed her, parting her lips with his.

After breaking the kiss, Stella stared into his eyes. “What?”

“You don’t believe that fate led us together?”

“No.” She ran her thumb down his chin. “Why?”

“I just think fate brought us together. I believe that things happen for a reason and eventually you end up where you’re supposed to be.”

“I believe you make your own way.” She shrugged. “Things happen to people all the time that don’t have a reason…child abuse and rape to name just a few.”

“Well, I think that fate gives you opportunities to pick different ways to go. You sat at my bar for two years before I finally asked you out. Then I let you go. Fate put you there.” He pointed out the window to the park in front of the Potomac where he’d found her the day she saw Jamie again.

“That was fate? I think it was just bad luck for you.” She chuckled at her own joke.

“I refuse to let you go, El.” George’s brows furrowed, suddenly serious. He couldn’t help but feel her pulling away from him for some reason.

“I’m just going to my parents’ house, George, nothing is changing between us.”

George shifted abruptly, grabbed a tennis ball off his night stand, and threw it out the door. Cooper jumped off the bed and ran down the hall. George leapt from the bed and shut the door.

“Coop has been messing with my fate of making love to you this morning and I just made it happen,” George said.

Stella’s head fell back, laughing.

“You may not believe in fate, but I do,” he whispered in between soft kisses to her earlobes. “Fate brought us together and I refuse to lose you again.”

George kept her in bed for most of the morning; they only took a break when he got hungry. They walked to Cosi, holding hands. While they ate, Stella wrapped her left leg around his right leg, afraid to not touch him. They gazed into each other’s eyes; it was evident to anyone who saw them they were totally in love. Putting off the inevitable, she pushed her chair out and sighed. “We’ve got to go,” she said.

“Stay.” He stood up and took their trash to the trash can.

“I can’t. I won’t be gone long.” Stella put her hand on his cheek.

“Love, I can’t explain it. I’ve got a really bad feeling.”

Stella tried to ease his fears on the way home. Cooper was waiting at the door when they got there, sitting next to her suitcase, refusing to be left. George ran his hand over Cooper’s head. He packed her bags in the trunk of the car, and looked at her as she stood in the doorway of the garage. She smiled a crooked smile and cocked her head to the side.

“I’m going to miss you,” Stella said from the doorway. Cooper stood in front of her, looking a little nervous that she was going to make him stay with George again.

“I love you.” George stalked over to her and gave her a careful bear hug. Cooper didn’t budge and stood in between them. They both laughed.

“I’ll text you when I get there.”

George watched her let Cooper into the car, where he sat up tall against the passenger seat. She smiled at him as she walked around the front of her car. He opened the garage door for her and held up his hand as she backed out.

He didn’t like it. Stella and Cooper had just left for Atlanta, where Jesse fucking McIntyre just happened to live.
He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t lose her
. He’d felt her putting up walls around herself. Some of the time, she seemed far removed from their relationship and he had no idea what she was thinking or feeling. The other part was great. Feeling his grasp on her loosening was the scariest feeling he’d ever had. His ringing phone pulled him out of his thoughts.

“Hey,” he answered.

“She leave?”

“Yeah, she just left,” George answered and walked out to his back deck. He sat in the chair with a groan.

“I need to give you some information you’re not going to like,” Patrick said.

“Why don’t you just come over?”

“Okay, give me a few minutes.”

“See you.” George disconnected.

He ran his hand through his hair and over the new stubble he’d probably let grow for awhile since Stella wasn’t going to be around. Walking back into the house, he wondered what Patrick would have to tell him that he wouldn’t like.

It’s always fucking something
. George had come to the conclusion long ago that it would always be something where Stella was concerned; he’d just have to suck it up and deal with it. Maybe he should’ve proposed last night; like his dad used to say, ‘fish or cut bait.’ George didn’t like to ask questions that he didn’t know the answer to and the truth of the matter is, Stella could’ve said no.

She and Cooper only had to stop once in North Carolina on the way to Atlanta. As she pulled in her parents’ driveway, she released a breath she felt like she’d been holding for a month. It was after 11:00 at night, but her parents’ house was lit up. They were waiting up for her. She sat in the car while she texted George.

Made it

George responded immediately.

Miss ur body underneath me

Stella sighed, she missed him too, but in order to move forward with George she had to do this.

Sext you later

Her phone beeped immediately with his response.

I’ll give you 5 minutes

She lay paralyzed on the floor of the makeshift FBI office. Clad in the suit she wore the day she was shot, her shirt was littered with bullet holes. She heard voices off in the distance and she turned her head to the left to hear more. She heard male voices yelling; she strained to hear, but she still couldn’t move. George. It was George’s voice. He was yelling at someone. Then there were rapid footsteps that got louder by the second.

“Stella!” George yelled and fell to his knees next to her.

“I’m okay,” she whispered. George scooped her up into his arms and began to walk. Shots rang out and George stilled. His arms begin to lose their grip on her. She screamed. “GEORGE!”

“I love you,” George whispered as he fell backward and Stella, still paralyzed, fell on top of him. His blood seeped into her suit and her hair.

“George!” Stella sobbed.

Stella felt hands around her arms, shaking her violently. She opened her eyes slowly. They were soaked from crying. Her mother’s frightened face appeared before her.

“Stella! Stella, you’re okay. You’re okay.”

She wiped her eyes with her sheet and turned away from her mother.

“Do you have these dreams often?”

Stella grunted. “About as often as I throw up,” she retorted. It was still dark outside; she got up and walked downstairs.

Her mother followed her into the kitchen and watched as Stella poured herself a glass of straight vodka from the freezer. Taking a gulp from the glass, she let out a hiss as it burned her throat. Stella smiled as her mother took a glass out of the cabinet and filled it with vodka as well. They clinked glasses and both turned their glasses up.

“You’re not okay,” her mom said softly.

“Not by a long shot.” Stella finished off her glass and poured another.

“What can I do?”

“That’s what I’ve been asking myself for the past three months, Mom.” Stella leaned against the counter.

“Stella, there has to be something I can do.”

“If I knew I would have already done it. I’m trying to be normal, trying to get through it.” She turned up the vodka and smiled sadly at her mom. “You know, my body was stitched up in the hospital, but what really needed to be put back together was the rest of me. You know, I thought losing Jamie was bad. I completely fell apart, but I put myself back together. It took everything I had to do it once. I don’t know if I can do it again.”

“But you are doing it.”

“Perception is 99 percent of everything, I guess.” She walked toward stairs to go back to bed. “I’m getting good at pretending.”