Dangerous Curves Ahead: A Perfect Fit Novel (32 page)

Now he had to return to her, his tail tucked between his legs, and beg her forgiveness. She was seated on the couch in her office, wearing the tight red sweater that made his heart leap into his throat every time he saw her in it. Her hand moved rapidly as she expertly stitched a delicate piece of white fabric. He watched her for a moment, waiting for her to say something, anything. It would be so much easier for him if she spoke first. He had no idea how to apologize, how to tell her he loved her, no clue how to explain why he needed time away from her to think.

Her smooth plump lips stayed tightly shut. It wasn’t going to be easy for him to take the cowardly way out.

“Ellis.” He got down on his knees, pulled the fabric out of her hand, and placed his face in her lap. She was warm and soft. She felt good. She felt like home. He waited for her to run her fingers through his overlong hair.

They stayed folded in her lap.

“Did you cheat on me, Mike?”

The question hit him like ice water.

“What?” His stomach flipped, then plummeted. Other women simply didn’t exist when she was around. “No, baby. I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

“It’s over, Mike.” Her words came out as a choked whisper. “I can’t do this with you anymore.”

“No.” He gripped her hands. She still wouldn’t look at his face. “I didn’t cheat. I just needed a little space to think. I’m not good at this, you know. I freaked out. I wanted to make sure I knew what the right thing was.”

“This is the second time you’ve done this. Things get real and you disappear. You got mad at me for not trusting you enough to share my life with you. Why is it okay for you to do it to me?”

“It’s not and I’m sorry but you don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand? Damn it, Mike! Of course I understand. You can’t handle this—us. I knew this was going to blow up in my face. You asked me to trust you, to let you in, and just when I did, just when I thought that we might have something good, you screw me over. I was right about you.”

“You don’t know anything, Ellis.” He stood, looming over her. “You’re the one who was dead set on ending things. You doomed us before we even started. You were the one who kept me at arm’s length. How the hell I am supposed to compete with that? I walked away for five damn days. You were never there to begin with.” He pointed an accusing finger at her. “You’ve been looking for a way out for weeks.”

“Don’t you dare turn this around on me.” She rose from her seat, poking him hard in the chest. “I was trying. And even when I was unsure about us I never not saw you. I never hid myself away.”

“No, you just did everything else to keep me at a distance,” he shouted. “You kept expecting me to treat you like he did. I’m not your fucking ex.”

“No? We were fine until you went away. What happened last weekend?”

“Nothing! I didn’t cheat on you.”

“Maybe not this time, but I know you. There’s a reason why you never had a girlfriend. There’s a reason you’ve gone through so many women. And no matter how much I care about you, I have to put me first. This is the first time in my life where I’m in control and I can’t—I won’t give you the power to make me feel like shit.”

A sharp bullet of realization dawned on him. “You’re never going to get over this, are you? You’re never going to be able to trust me.”

“I tried and look where it got us.”

“It was five days, Ellis. I didn’t see you for five days.”

“No, Mike it was more than five days. It was ever since you went away to Pittsburgh. One moment you were with me.” She touched her heart. “Here. And the next moment you were miles away.”

“I told you I needed to think.”

“Well, I need to think about me, too, and I’m at the point in my life where I don’t have the time or energy to waste on being unhappy.”

“Fine.” He felt heartsick and soul sick and sick to his stomach all in the same moment. “I’m done fighting with you. I guess this is good-bye.”

*   *   *

Ellis stood at her parents’ door for a long time. She didn’t have the energy to raise her hand to ring the bell. It was all spent trying to keep the tears at bay. She escaped her shop after Mike left. When Cherri gave her a curious look Ellis claimed a stomachache and flew out the door. There was only one person who could make her feel less wretched than she already did. One person who would put things in perspective and stroke her hair and make bad things seem not so bad.

Sometimes a girl just needed her mother.

Ellis wondered if she’d made the right decision breaking up with Mike. Was it worth the horrible heartache? She loved him more than she thought was possible. But what was love without trust? She didn’t trust him and it wasn’t fair to him to have to live with that.

Despite her best efforts she had started to dream of a life with him. A marriage. A forever. How stupid.

“Ellis?” Her father flung the door open, his expression worried. She gave him a wobbly smile. He had pumpkins on his tie and gray sweatpants that clashed horribly with his neatly combed salt-and-pepper hair and starched white shirt. “You took six minutes to knock.”

“Hi, Daddy.” She stepped inside. “I came to see Mom. Is she here?”

“She went jogging at five oh five.” He shook his head. “She usually runs anywhere from forty-five to sixty minutes.” He lightly touched her back, leading her to the couch. “Your eyes are glossy. You are upset. Yes?” He studied her face. “What has displeased you?”

She wasn’t sure what about his robotic words brought on the tears, but they started. Not elegantly, not quietly, but big loud sobs. Her father looked at her, his expression horrified.

“No. No. No. No. No. Oh, Ellis please do not cry.”

She wanted to stop but she couldn’t help it. She buried her face in his shirt, seeking comfort she knew he wasn’t capable of giving. “I broke up with Mike.”

He patted her head awkwardly as he tried to make sense of her words. “Has he done something to displease you?”

“Yes—no.” She wasn’t sure anymore. “I’m sorry.” She tried to compose herself. She hadn’t meant to break down. When she’d made the decision to end things yesterday she didn’t expect to feel so shitty. She knew going in that things weren’t going to last. Why was she crying now? “I messed up your shirt.”

“It can be cleaned.” The look of horror was still present on his face. “Tell me what happened. Michael told me he was committed to you. Your mother likes him very much. I thought he was much better than the last boyfriend.”

“He was. Oh, Daddy. It’s fine. I’m okay.” She wiped her still-leaking eyes. “I’m just hormonal.” She lightly kissed his cheek, understanding that receiving affection was difficult for her father. “Thank you for letting me cry all over you. Is there any chocolate?”

“I always have some here for you. It’s in the kitchen, in the cabinet over the sink.” He patted her head again. “Would you like to stay for dinner? Your mother took tofu out.” He frowned. “We could get deli. You like roast beef with pepper jack cheese and horseradish.”

“Yes, Daddy, I do.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “Can I sleep over tonight?”

“You can move back in. I don’t like it when you have a boyfriend.”

“I’m not moving back in. Can we watch
The Muppet Movie
?”

“Whatever you want.”

She smiled, feeling marginally better. Sometimes a girl just needed her father, too.

*   *   *

Mike stared at a spot on his living room ceiling for hours. There was a smudge, a gray imperfection in the white paint. Focusing on it helped keep his mind off Ellis and the burning anger he felt whenever he thought about how quickly he’d screwed things up with her. He had been in love a little over a week and he sucked at it.

His mother had called him earlier even though Sunday was two days away. Their conversation was stilted. She tried to bring up his father but Mike shut her down. He didn’t want to get into it with her. He didn’t want to argue anymore that day. Not with another woman he loved. So he asked about his sisters, the floral shop, anything that didn’t require many words on his part. His mother obliged, filling him in on all the happenings around his hometown. But that thread of conversation ended quickly, and his mother brought up Ellis.

He hadn’t known the two of them had talked. Ellis hadn’t told him, but he shouldn’t be surprised by that. He wasn’t around for her to tell him. Apparently his mother really liked Ellis. He heard the smile return to her voice when she spoke of their long conversation. This time he didn’t stop his mother from talking about a subject that pained him. He didn’t have the heart to tell Margie that Ellis had dumped him. And he certainly didn’t want to share that their breakup was 99 percent his fault.

He needed to get her back. Hours of introspection and solitude told him that. He knew she had trust issues. He knew her last boyfriend had been a dick. He should have been there to reassure her. He should have talked to her, but he was no good at talking about his feelings.

A brisk knock on his door shook him from his depressed musings. He hoped it was Colin, there to distract him. He wished it was Ellis there to forgive him, but he knew that was an impossibility. She wouldn’t come back. If he wanted her he was going to have to get her. But how?

He opened the door finding neither of the people he expected. “Walter?”

Before he could process that Ellis’s father was at his door a fist flew in his face, knocking him off balance, physically and mentally. It was a really good hit. “What the fuck? You hit me!”

“She was crying.” Walter’s face was red. His lips smoothed in a tight line. “You made my daughter cry. You told me you cared for her. I thought you were going to be good to her. I thought you were going to make her happy. But you made her cry and you deserve to be punished.”

Mike was at least five inches taller and thirty years younger than the angry academic before him. He could destroy this man if he wanted, but he knew that that wouldn’t earn him any favors with Ellis. Still, getting punched in the face royally pissed him off.

“You tell your daughter that I didn’t want this breakup. That I admitted I don’t ever know what to do when it comes to her. That she makes me so fucking crazy I feel like beating my head into a goddamn wall. That being with her is not easy but it’s the only place I want to be.” He shook his head. “Shit! Don’t tell her any of that. You and your whole family need to leave me the hell alone.”

Walter blinked at him for a moment. “Phillipa makes me want to scream sometimes. There are times I want to stuff a sock in her mouth to prevent her from talking.” His expression grew thoughtful. “But when she is silent I need to hear her voice. When it first happened I thought she had bewitched me. She told me that I was in love with her. You must be in love with my daughter.”

“For the love of God, I’m not having this conversation with the man who just punched me.”

“You’re going to have a black eye. I suggest putting ice on it.” Walter nodded. “My mother made me take boxing lessons in high school. She was afraid I was going to get beat up because I am…” He blinked at Mike again. “Dina calls me a freaky brainiac. Would you like to accompany me to a bar? I will buy you a drink. Please do not take it as an apology, though. I am not sorry I punched you. I do not like to see my daughter cry. I will punch you again if it happens.”

The whole Garret/Gregory clan was insane. Not a normal one in the bunch, and yet he was prepared to be saddled with them for the rest of his life.
Shit.
He was going to have to marry Ellis. Not want to, but have to. She was that missing piece for him, and he needed to think of a way to get her back.

“Yeah, let me get my jacket. I need to hear more about those boxing lessons.”

*   *   *

“Don’t be a putz. Men freak out all the time when they realize they are in love. Go tell him you’re sorry and get him back.”

Apparently Phillipa thought Ellis’s choice to end things with Mike was a bad idea but Ellis stayed firm with her decision. It was for the best. She wanted more from him than he was able to give her, and it was unfair of her to wish for things he clearly said he didn’t want. She deserved to be loved completely. It took her two years with the wrong man and a few weeks with the right one to realize that. Even though sadness made her heart heavy, she took her mind off it by throwing herself into her work. Before she knew it a week had passed.

Belinda’s mother came to the shop every day to help her with the tailoring that Ellis could no longer handle. Belinda and Cherri were doing a fabulous job running the shop. Thanks to her happy brides’ word-of-mouth advertising, business tripled. Clothes were flying off the racks and Ellis was getting offers to make more than just bridal gowns. One teenager begged her to make a gown for her Snowflake ball. The girl only had two hundred dollars and Ellis was swamped with work but she agreed to make it.

“See,” she mumbled as she stitched the sapphire-colored material, “you don’t have any time for men. Your career is booming. This is what you wanted.”

“Talking to yourself, Smelly?” Dina walked into her office, a pout on her pretty face.

“Hey,” she said, wondering why her sister was visiting her shop so early on a Saturday morning. “What’s up?”

“I broke up with him.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, about…” Ellis couldn’t remember the guy’s name at the moment. Pogo? Rory? Milo? She shook her head. “I’m sure you’ll find the right guy for you.” She had said that phrase so many times, the response had become automatic.

“I don’t know, Ellie.” She walked past Ellis and gracefully slumped onto the couch. “I’m going to be thirty-four next year. I think I might have already met the one and let him slip through my fingers.”

Ellis held in a long-suffering sigh. She was in no mood for Dina’s complaining. Ellis had been fighting back misery all week. Dina had no idea what it felt like to really be in pain, to really feel heartbreak.

“I should look up Mike.”

“Would you stop talking about Mike!” Something inside Ellis snapped. She was sick of hearing about Dina’s twisted fantasy of Mike, sick of her sister’s constant immature bullshit. “He dumped you nearly five years ago. Things would have never worked out between you two, and if he was so crazy about you he never would have left you in the first place. Mike Edwards does not want you. It’s time to grow up, Dina. It’s time for you to get a real job and stop asking Mom and Dad for money. It’s time you stop acting like a spoiled brat and behave like everybody else your age because at this rate you’re going to be forty years old and still hanging out in bars with kids half your age. And if you can’t see how pathetic that is, then God help you.”