Running Back to You (The Running Series, #1) (44 page)

“I know.  I completely panicked, but I see things more clearly now.  I
don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you.”

“Listen, I don’t know why you have such huge trust issues, that’s your
business.  But give McGuire a chance.  I think he deserves it.”

“Yeah, I do, too.”

It’s a little after three in the morning when we get to my house.  All
the lights are on, and there are cars everywhere.  As soon as we pull up, Emmy
comes running out of the house shouting, “She’s here.  Somebody call Evan.”

I barely get both feet out of the car when Emmy and Auggie are sweeping
me up into their arms.  Marcus is here, too.  He walks directly to Derek, grabs
him by the shirt, and shoves him hard against the car.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, you sick son of a bitch?!”  Marcus uses
the full force of his size and strength to seize Derek in a very menacing
hold.  I watch in horror as Marcus continues to intimidate Derek viciously. 
“Answer me.  Did you think we wouldn’t figure out that it was you?”  He shoves
him hard against the car again.  “God help you if you laid one hand on her. 
You’re lucky it’s me here and not McGuire.  You’d be dead by now!”

“Get the fuck off me.  I didn’t do shit.  Ask her ... go ahead ... you think
you know what’s going on here?  Fucking ask her!” he growls, trying in vain to
free himself from the strong hold Marcus has on him.

“You’re not going anywhere until we straighten this shit out,” Marcus
barks at him, giving him another hard shove into his car.

“Marcus, stop it!” I shout.  “Why are you doing this?”  I can’t believe
this is happening. “This is all a big misunderstanding.”

Emmy tries to divert my attention away from Derek and Marcus.  “Jette,
where have you been?  You disappeared.  You never came back from your break.
Why would you just leave like that, without your phone or ID?  What are we supposed
to think?”  Emmy is visibly upset with me.

“You’re not supposed to think that Derek kidnapped me!” I shout. 
“Marcus, let him go.  NOW!”

“Not until you tell us what happened.  And talk fast.  Evan will be here soon,”
Marcus warns.  “Camilla, did you call him?”

I didn’t even see Camilla.  She’s standing on my front porch, staying far
away from the pandemonium.  “Yeah, he’s on his way.”

Auggie takes my hand and speaks to me with his kind and concerned voice. 
“Jette, baby girl, please tell us what happened.”

“Oh, Auggie.  Derek found me in the staff room.  I was hysterical.  He
couldn’t get me to calm down.  There was no way I could possibly go back to
work after I saw Evan on T.V. with Averee DeVeau.”  Saying her name aloud
leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

“Evan didn’t say anything about that, Jette.  Are you sure about what you
saw?”  He doesn’t believe me. 

“I know what I saw and I know what I heard, Auggie.  He was with her
TODAY!”  My stern look and tone seem to have had an impact.  Auggie’s eyes open
widely and I can actually see him considering my explanation.

Marcus loosens his grip on Derek, but not completely.  “That was hours
ago.  Where have you been this entire time?”

Derek tries to explain.  “At first, we just drove –“

Marcus cuts him off.  “Not you,” he gives Derek another good shove.  “Her.” 
I can hear the air escape Derek’s lungs as his back collides with the car.  “Jette,
where did he take you?”

“We were at the diner the whole time.  Marcus, it’s my fault!  Derek
wanted to take me home, but I wouldn’t let him.  You have to believe me.  Derek
didn’t do anything wrong.”

Emmy chimes in with questions, too.  “I don’t understand why neither one
of you called.  Derek, you have a phone.  Didn’t you get any of our calls? 
We’ve been trying to find you for hours.  None of this makes sense.”

“Don’t talk to me,” he snarls at Emmy.  “You want answers, ask Jette. 
None of you would believe me, anyway!” 

I need to get control of the situation before Evan arrives.  If he gets
anywhere near Derek, I don’t think he’ll be asking a lot of questions.  He’ll
be taking matters into his own hands, literally.  It’s obvious that Auggie and
Emmy have everyone convinced that Derek has been stalking me, and now they all
believe he kidnapped me.  First, I need to get Derek safely out of here, and
then I need to get this chaos moved inside.

“Marcus, listen to me.  Let Derek get out of here.  I can explain
everything.  But I’m not doing any more talking until you let him go.”  I start
begging.  “Marcus, please.  It’s not safe for Derek to stay here.  Do you want
to be responsible if this gets out of control?  You know it will the minute
Evan gets here.”

Emmy, at least, seems willing to listen to reason.  “Marcus, she’s right.
Besides, we can’t stand here in the street in the middle of the night screaming
at each other. Let Derek leave before someone calls the police.”

Even Auggie is being rational.  “All we have are our suspicions and
assumptions.  If Jette says he didn’t hurt her or force her to leave with him,
I think we should believe her.”

Marcus looks directly at Derek and gives him a warning.  “Get your ass
out of here.”  He lets go of Derek and steps away.  “The only reason I’m
letting you go is because I don’t want to see McGuire go to jail tonight.”

Without a word, Derek gets in his car, slams the door, and speeds away. 
I owe it to him to straighten this out.  He’s going to get the apology he
deserves if it’s the last thing I do.

As soon as Derek is gone, Auggie releases his grip on my hands and I’m
free to go in the house.  The others follow me silently.  I go straight to the
refrigerator and pour myself a big glass of wine.

I get two good gulps down when Evan comes bursting into the house with
Adam following directly behind.  He pushes everyone to the side and grabs me. 
“Juliette, are you okay?  What did that motherfucker do to you, baby?  Tell me,
please.”

“Evan, the only person who hurt me tonight was you.”  All the blood
drains from his face and he releases his hold on me.  “I saw you on television going
to Averee’s loft today.  You’re still wearing the same clothes.  I thought you
were leaving me.”  That, I’m sure, is the last thing he expected to hear coming
from my lips right now.

“Juliette, is that what you believe?  That after all this, I would just
dump you and go back to
her
?”  I hate having this conversation in front
of an audience.

“Averee seems to think you would.  She’s telling the whole damn world you
two are back together again.  I guess I’m just supposed to pretend I didn’t see
you going into her apartment and I didn’t hear her say on national television
that you’re dating again, right?”  I’m not backing down.

“Is that a ‘yes’?  You believed her, didn’t you?  And I supposed Derek
just
happened
to be there when this all happened?  Am I supposed to
believe
that
?”  Evan looks at me with an expression that I’ve never seen
before, anger and disappointment.

“Yes, Derek just happened to be there.  He just happened to be the only
one who listened to me cry my heart out; he just happened to be the one who
stood up for you; and he just happened to be the one who convinced me to come
home and talk to you!”

Marcus interrupts us.  “Listen guys, I think it’s best if we skip outta
here now.  You two have a lot to discuss and we should give you some privacy.”

“Don’t you dare leave, Marcus.  I haven’t even started with you yet.”  He
looks at me, stunned.  “I expect you to drive straight over to Derek’s house
and apologize.  You let Auggie and Emmy convince you that
your friend
did some very horrible things.  What proof did you have?  Absolutely none!”

“You want to go there?  Okay, then.  What the hell were
you
thinking?  You knew we had our suspicions about Derek.  But rather than do the
responsible thing and actually
tell
someone where you were going, you just
disappeared.   For
hours
!  How about
you
apologize to Derek for
putting him in this position in the first place?”  His arms are crossed on his
chest and he’s waiting for my response.

Auggie actually takes Marcus’ side.  “Jette, you promised all of us you
wouldn’t be alone with Derek.  How were we supposed to know you’d willingly
break that promise?”

With her hands on her hips, Emmy begins to lecture me.  “You literally
disappeared for hours.  We were worried sick.  Do you have any idea how upset
Evan was?  He came to the bar to surprise you and you were gone!” Great, now
Emmy’s ganging up on me, too.

Evan explains, “I thought you were abducted.  I pictured you stuffed in
the trunk of his car ... or worse.”  He is breathing hard.  There is an
unfamiliar icy tone to his voice and his face is hardening with a stony
expression.  “I need to get out of here,” he said bitterly.

“This is bull shit.  I’m going to bed.  The hell with
all
of
you!”  I storm off into my room and slam the door shut.  No one comes to me this
time.  I hear Evan’s car pull away first.  That’s when the tears start flowing
again.  I cry until I have no tears left to shed.  How could everything get so
out of control?

W
hen the sun rises, I find the strength to get up and leave my room.  I’m
physically and emotionally exhausted.  I tossed and turned for hours,
constantly checking my phone for messages or calls from Evan that never came.

I open up my dresser drawer looking for something to wear and the first
thing I spot is Evan’s UMD sweatshirt.  I lift it up to my nose and inhale
deeply ... it still smells like him.  I pull it over my head and wander into the
kitchen to make myself some coffee.

Marcus’ last words are playing over and over in my mind.  He told me
that I owe Derek an apology.  I swore to myself that Derek would get the
apology he deserved, and I suppose that apology should come from me. 

I really want to go right over to Derek’s house and talk to him
face-to-face, but it’s way too early.  They say the way to a man’s heart is
through his stomach, so I use the time while I wait to bake cookies.  I make a
double batch of chocolate chunk cookies. There are a lot of people I need to
make amends with.

As I measure the brown sugar and white sugar, I weigh the choices I made
last night and wonder what I could have done differently.  I can think of
several things I would change if I could have a do-over.

The simplest thing would have been to simply let Derek answer the phone
when Emmy called.  Thinking back, I realize that it was my selfish desire to
avoid confrontation that fueled my decisions. 

I also could have let Derek take me home like he wanted.  What was I so
afraid of?  Seeing reminders of Evan may have been the smarter thing to do
rather than hide at the diner feeling sorry for myself.

As I place my cookie sheets in the oven to bake, my mind drifts to Evan. 
He’s certainly right about one thing, I momentarily lost faith in him.  That’s
something I cannot take back.

Aside from yesterday’s trip to the city, Evan has spent almost every
waking moment with me.  I know intellectually that there’s no way he’s had the
opportunity to rekindle a relationship with anyone else, much less Averee De-Ho.

However, if all I had was that bitch Averee’s word for things, I never in
a million years would have been swayed.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t just faced
with her words, Evan himself brought this upon us the moment he set foot in her
loft, knowing that his movements would be documented and broadcasted by the
paparazzi.

As much as it pains me, I’m going to give Evan some space and time.  I
can only hope he comes to the same conclusions I did, we both brought this on
ourselves. 

While the cookies cool, I take a shower.  I have a small collection of
cake boxes in my closet, which I fish out and prepare to fill with chocolate
chunk cookies.

I go online to search for donkey clipart and print four copies onto
crisp, white paper.  I dust off my art supplies, pen a proper apology, and
hand-decorate the card.  It contains a simple message, “Sorry I was such an
ass.  Please forgive me.”  I fill four boxes of cookies for Emmy, Derek, Marcus
and Auggie.

I leave Auggie’s cookies on the counter for him to find when he wakes
up. 

My first stop is to Marcus’ house to drop off his cookies.  His house is
dark and quiet.  I can only assume he’s still sleeping, so I leave his cookies
on his front porch.  I’m sure either he or Camilla will find them soon enough. 

Next, I drive to Emmy’s house.  I’m not surprised when I find an empty
driveway.  She must have spent the night with Grant.  That means I can kill two
birds with one stone, so I head directly to my final destination, Derek’s house.

When I pull up in front of Derek’s house, Emmy’s car is parked in the
driveway.  I can tell that someone is up.  The front door is open and I can
hear chatting.  I knock softly so that I don’t wake anyone who might still be
asleep.  Derek appears at the front door, looking well rested and freshly
showered.