Runaway Love (11 page)

“Grace, relax. He only called me out of concern for you. He wanted to know if I hurt you! I was shocked by the call as well.”

“Scott, you must leave. I don’t know what’s going on, but you must go. Now.”

He takes his time walking to the door. “Grace, if I leave, you still hold the cards, but you need to come to me to deal them. You need to email me or call me and let me know what you want me to do. I’m leaving tonight.”

He backs me into the wall and kisses me passionately. I open my lips to invite his tongue into my mouth, and I moan when I feel his hands roaming my body. God, he feels so good! I feel his body against mine, and then I push away. “Okay, Scott, you must go now. I’ll email or call you when I’m ready.”

He looks like he doesn’t want to leave. “I love you, Grace. You will always have my heart.” I watch him walk out the door and close it behind him.

I fall to the floor and think of everything he just said and put my fingers to my mouth. Oh God! Why did Scott have to come back now? My mind is all over the place, but I need to focus on what Tony knows about Scott. I get up and turn the music on and clean the house. It always clears my head.

I’m dancing and singing as I turn around and jump when I see Tony leaning against the wall in the hallway.

“Well, I see someone is in a good mood,” he says happily.

He walks over and tries to kiss me, but I pull away from him. He gives me a
what’s-going-on
? look. I walk away and finish cleaning the house.

“I’m going to pick up Scottie in a little bit, but before I leave, I’m going upstairs to relax, and I’m turning the music down.”

I don’t even turn around. I allow him to turn the music down, and I finish my cleaning. I have this nagging feeling like I need to go and confront Tony. Yes, fuck it. If he knew about Scott, did he marry me because he felt sorry for me or because he wanted to control me or to keep me away from Scott? I can’t even make sense of all the jumbled questions in my mind. I walk upstairs and see my husband lying down.

“TONY?”

He jumps up like something’s wrong.

“Grace, are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay! HOW THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SCOTT?”

He rubs his eyes and sits up in the bed.

“What are you talking about, Grace?”

“YOU KNOW WHAT THE FUCK I’M TALKING ABOUT, ANTONIO!”

He’s shaking his head and laughing. “Are you serious, Grace? This is why you’re trying to start a fight? Because of your fucking ex?”

“He’s not just any ‘ex’, Tony! In fact, he was never even my ex – he’s my first fucking love!”

“Okay, Grace what you want me to say? YES, I FUCKING KNOW ABOUT SCOTT!”

“Okay, that’s all I wanted to fucking know. Take care of Scottie until I come back.” I turn and run down the stairs with Tony chasing after me. I grab my keys off the table and make it out the door before Tony can reach me.

He stops at the door and yells, “Grace, you better not do anything FUCKING RECKLESS! YOU BETTER COME HOME TONIGHT, OR I WILL FIND YOU AND DRAG YOUR ASS BACK HOME TO WORK THIS SHIT OUT!”

I get in the car and roll the windows down before yelling back, “FUCK YOU, TONY! I DON’T EVEN KNOW IF THIS WHOLE MARRIAGE WAS REAL FROM THE BEGINNING!” I back out of the driveway and speed to Scott’s hotel to catch him.

For some reason, I feel so free that I scream at the top of my lungs. My phone keeps ringing from calls from Tony. I’m not answering him. I think I’m going to go to England for the weekend with Scott and come back and deal with Tony afterward. Yes, that’s my plan. I check my purse, and I have everything I need. I pull up and see Scott putting his things in the trunk of the limo town car.

“SCOTT! I’m coming with you! Wait!” I’m surprised by my carefree excitement I hear in my voice.

Scott looks around to see who’s calling him and then his bodyguard jumps in front of me as I’m running toward him.

“No, let her pass. That’s Grace.”

I smile. “Wow, do you tell everyone about me?”

“Of course! Well, not everyone. So, what are you doing here?”

“I’m coming to England with you!”

“WHAT? Umm…What about your husband? Your son? I don’t like this, Grace.”

“Listen, I’m a fucking adult, and I want to come with you. Only for the weekend! Tony and I got into a fight over you, and I need this trip to figure everything out. Please, let me go”

He runs his hands through his hair before he simply says, “Get in the car.”

I’ve never been to England, but I’ve always wanted to go. We take Scott’s private jet, and even though I want to relish every moment of its grandeur and luxuriousness, I end up falling asleep shortly after take-off. That’s probably for the best since Maxine’s also on this flight, and she won’t stop giving me ugly looks. Scott wakes me when we arrive at London Heathrow Airport to get off the plane and into a car that’s waiting for us.

I take in all the new sites as we drive to Scott’s English home. I’m speechless when we arrive - it’s beautiful! I get out of the car with Scott. I look back and notice that Maxine isn’t joining us.

“I’ll allow you guys some time alone to have some fun.  Stop by later, Scott. Grace, welcome to West Greenwich.” I admit that I’m quite taken aback by Maxine’s change in demeanor toward me. Maybe Scott was telling the truth when he said they were just friends. Maybe she was just trying to look out for him like any good friend would do by being nasty to me.

I look at Scott as he grabs my hands and guides me inside his house. It’s absolutely magnificent inside! He gives me a tour, and I fall in love with a Victorian style bathtub. I can’t wait to take a relaxing, hot bath in there. He shows me his master bedroom, and it’s bigger than my entire house. Okay, maybe not that big, but it’s a massive and impressive room that fits Scott perfectly. Yeah, I think this is going to be an awesome weekend!

“So, I have four bedrooms… I’m going to sleep in one the guest rooms while you sleep in here.” 

“No, you don’t have to sleep in a guest room! This is your home! Besides, I want you in your bed with me so we can cuddle and watch some British telly.”

“No, Grace. I’m not going to do this right now with you. I’m going into my study to clear my thoughts. I love you, Grace, but I don’t want you making the wrong choices because you’re too emotional. Besides, you still have Scottie to worry about.”

I watch Scott leave the room before I sit on the bed and start to cry. Now Scott has me second guessing myself. But he did say he’d give up everything for me and come to the States. We could have Scottie with us.

I cry as I try to fall sleep until I feel Scott lying next to me.

“I’m sorry, Grace. I just love you so much, and I want everything to work out in a way that’s best for everyone involved. There have been too many tears shed and too many hurt feelings over the past ten years. This never-ending cycle of blame and mixed emotions needs to stop before irreparable damage is done.”

I don’t even turn around to face him because I know leaving the fucking country was wrong. But it’s not my fault. It’s Tony fault because he knew about Scott and how much I missed him. Tony lied to me, and I don’t know how I’ll ever get over that. Scott’s right. I need to just use this weekend to relax and figure out what I want from this whole situation.

I’m alone on my flight back to Tony. I have to be an adult; I can’t just up and run away when things don’t go my way.

I learned so much from talking with Scott. I told him everything that happened to me before Tony, before my son and after. Scott told me Tony really loves me and only called him out of concern for me. I don’t care about that – Tony still should’ve told me. I know I want Scott in my life, but after we talked, he decided he’s going to continue with soccer and visit me when he can.

My major triumph of the weekend, besides a new English wardrobe, was talking Scott into having one more night of mind blowing sex before I left. I close my eyes and envision our passionate tryst in the shower…

I wake up to the sound of the tires of the jet hitting the runway. I adjust myself and grab my things from the overhead. As I’m walking out of the airport, I immediately spot Tony leaning on his motorcycle. I take in his unshaven face and messy hair. I’ve never seen him looking so unkempt, and my heart pings with a little guilt. Just a little. He looks up and locks eyes with me. I’m taken aback by all his hurt staring back at me. I did that to the man who has done nothing but love me since the moment we left. God, I’m fucked up! I look closer and notice the darkness around his eyes. He must’ve been drinking a lot and not gotten much sleep. Okay, now my heart feels even more guilt.

I walk toward him, and he looks like he’s uncomfortable and doesn’t know what to say to me.

“Hey, Grace. Umm…” He coughs. “Scott called and said you were on your way back home, so I figured I’d come to get you since your car was delivered back to our house.” He runs his fingers through his hair and looks down to the ground and back up to my eyes.

“Oh, okay. Well, let’s go home, then.”

Tony fastens my new travel bag to the back of the bike, and I climb on behind him. Tony hands me his helmet, and we ride in the most uncomfortable silence back to the house.

Tony helps me off the bike and smiles as he hands me the house key. I open the door and my breath is taken away from me. There are rose petals covering the whole living room floor and up the stairs. I take a closer look and realize there are white petals arranged to form the words “I’m Sorry” in the middle of the living room.

The tears start rushing down my face, and I turn around and see Tony on one knee holding a ring.

“Grace, I know I lied to you, but I was just trying to protect you. I married you the first time because I loved you and wanted to share the world with you. So, I’d love to continue showing you how much I’ll always love you… Will you make me the happiest man in the world and marry me again?”

I’m crying so hard that I can barely see. I drop to the floor and close the ring box. “Oh, Tony, I’m sorry! I was a bitch. I’ve been wrong about everything. You were always there for me and when Scott came back in the picture, I just needed to get the answers I’ve been looking for. I finally got them, baby, and I’m finally ready to move on with my life. I love you, Tony! And yes, I would love to marry you again!”

Tony grabs my hand to pull me up and kisses me like a mad man. I know I can’t have sex with him today because I was just with Scott, but I’m not going to tell Tony about what happened between me and Scott. I’ll come up with an excuse just like I always do.

Once I’m able to catch my breath, I notice
I Love Lucy
is playing on the television and my favorite bottle of wine is on the floor. I lie down on the floor with the rose petals and smile. I can’t believe Tony had the time to do this! He lies down next to me and we cuddle as I rest my head on his chest while he plays with my hair.

“I’m honestly sorry, Gracie. I only started digging and looking for Scott when you would come home drunk and cry yourself to sleep while screaming his name. I had to know who was causing you all this pain.”

I didn’t realize I screamed Scott’s name. I had wanted to drink to put Scott in the back of my mind, not to have him invade my sleep.

“I’m sorry for that, Tony. I didn’t know what I was doing in my drunken haze. I never wanted to hurt you, but it seems like that’s all I end up doing. I’m fucked up, Tony. You know that, yet you love me anyway. You accept all my flaws, but at what cost to you? I want you to be happy, and I want to try to be the one who makes you happy, but I don’t know how to let go of such a big part of my life.” I sigh and look at Tony shyly because I don’t know how to handle this situation.

I still have so much to learn about truly loving someone and putting others first. But, I want to figure it out.  I want to be a good wife and a good mother. Not just good – amazing. If being with Scott the past couple days taught me anything, it’s that it’s time for me to grow up and stop being so selfish. I can’t keep letting my past and my insecurities run my life. I need to take control and appreciate and value the home and life Tony has given me. I need to give Scottie the love and family I never had.