The Running Series Complete Collection: 3-Book Set plus Bonus Novella (41 page)

“Did Evan say that himself?  Did he break up with you?  I saw pictures of him with her today, but that could be for a lot of different reasons.”

“Derek, it’s not just the pictures.  She’s telling everyone and bragging about it on national television.  I never thought you, of all people, would be sticking up for him.  Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“No, I never wanted to see you like this.  You know that, Jette.  I’ve seen how he is with you.  He loves you.  I just find it hard to believe that only twenty-four hours ago, he was a man passionately in love with you, willing to throw away his career for you.  Now, you’re convinced he’s tossed you to the side and gone back to some diva.  It just doesn’t make sense.”  Derek hands me another tissue so I can blow my nose.

“I thought so, too, at first.  But then Averee confirmed it on T.V.  She says they are seeing each other again.  Why would she say it if it’s not true?”  I can feel my heart breaking again.

We sit there for nearly two hours, just talking.  My head hurts.  We keep going around in circles.  I don’t know what to think anymore. 

When we ran into Averee at the Knicks game, Evan seemed fine.  Actually, he seemed annoyed and embarrassed by her behavior.  He was attentive to me.  He stayed with me.  He left with me.  God, I’m so confused.

Derek reminds me of a few important things.  For one, I only know Averee’s side of the story, and she is
not
someone I find trustworthy. 

And two, I’ve never dealt with paparazzi and celebrity gossip.  I guess I’m not very good at it.  I’ve always known that you can’t believe everything you read or everything you see on T.V., yet I accepted this entertainment gossip as fact.  How could I be so gullible?  Maybe that’s exactly what Averee is banking on.  That I will just give up and roll over, freeing up Evan for her.

Then I remember a promise I made to Evan.  I swore that I would not believe everything I see and read about him without asking him or Adam about it.  I broke that promise tonight. 

Deep down inside, I know he loves me.  Everything he does and everything he says proves it.  But why is Derek working so hard to keep us together?  If what Auggie suspects is true, Derek should be in his glory right now, seeing me suffer.

“Derek, we’re friends, right?” So many thoughts are swirling in my head right now, I need to get at least one thing straight.

“Of course we’re friends.  Why would you ask?”  He’s looking right at me, waiting for me to explain.

“Do you ever wish things worked out differently?  You know, that maybe if I never met Evan, we would ...” I trail off.  I don’t know how to ask him what I want to know.

“Well, sure we all have regrets, Jette.  I’ve never hidden the fact that I had feelings for you.  But you already knew that.”

“Derek, I’ll just come out and ask you. Are you the one who’s been torturing me?  Did you follow me that night in your car?  Did you break into my house?  Did you hack my e-mail and put up a fake Craigslist ad just to get back at me for choosing Evan?”  There.  I said it.

“Seriously?  You think it was me?  You really do believe the worst in everyone, don’t you, Jette?”

“No!  I
don’t
think it’s you.  I never did.  But Auggie and Emmy, they think it could, that you could, oh, I don’t know.”  I’m not even making sense at this point.

“Jette, it’s not me.  I swear! I could never do that to you, or to anyone.  Why would Emmy and Auggie think that?”  I’ve hurt him.  That’s not what I meant to do.

“They said you look sad when you look at me.  That maybe you’re really more hurt than you let on.  Besides, we don’t really know that much about your past.  Why don’t you ever talk about your family or growing up?  How come you have no high school friends?”

“I don’t like talking about my past.  My parents were killed in a car accident when I was a freshman in college.  I quit school to take care of their estate.  They had a lot of debts to clear up and personal property to get rid of.  I wasn’t a lot of fun to be around for a long time.  Most of my friends got tired of waiting for me, and slowly they went about their lives.  About three years ago, I moved here and started over.  Want to see my family?  I have pictures of my parents on my cell phone.”

He pulls up some pictures and hands me his phone.  There are Christmas pictures and images of them together at Disney when Derek was little.  He was really a cute kid.  But there are no recent pictures.

“Derek, I’m so sorry.”  I take his hand in mine.  “They look like they were great parents.  Will you ever forgive me?”

“There’s nothing to forgive.  I can’t really blame you for wondering.  But I swear to you, I would never do anything to hurt you.”

“I know.” 

“Now, are you ready to go home?  I really think you should talk to Evan.”

“Do you really think I should?  How will I know if he’s telling me the truth?” I ask.

“You’ll know.  Trust yourself, Jette.  If he’s moved on, then the worst has happened and you survived.  If it’s a big misunderstanding, then you’ll be glad you gave him a chance to straighten things out.  You can’t run away from your problems.  They always catch up to you in the end.”

“You’re right.  I’m ready.  Take me home.”

Hanging on by a Thread

I
t’s a quick drive back to my house.  I’m so grateful that Derek found me and helped me see things clearly.  I’m more convinced now that there’s no way he could be my stalker.

“Thank you, Derek.  You really are a good friend.  I was in pretty bad shape when you found me, wasn’t I?”

“I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance and have you taken away to a rubber room.  You were laughing, crying, hyperventilating, and making no sense.  You scared the crap out of me, young lady.”

“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 OK?  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!”