The Running Series Complete Collection: 3-Book Set plus Bonus Novella (147 page)

The best I can hope for is a phone call, and the chance of that happening is slim to none.

“We may as well leave,” I tell the boys.  “I’m not going to see him, and after the game they’re going to all get on their plane together and go home.  We’re just wasting our time here.”

Auggie and Derek agree, so as soon as we finish our meal, we check out of the hotel and head straight for the airport.  For the first time, luck is on my side, and we’re able to purchase three seats on a direct flight that leaves in forty-five minutes.  We will be home in New Jersey before his game even begins.

A
uggie agrees to stay the night in the guest room, and Derek is right next-door in his new home.  It’s nice to know he’s close by, particularly now that he knows all my deepest, darkest secrets.  There’s nothing left to hide from him or from Auggie.

I get up early and turn on ESPN as I begin to brew a pot of coffee.  The Sentinels lost last night, and by all accounts it’s solely because of their missing starting quarterback.  They air an interview Evan gave after the game, where he claimed his injury was minor, but they didn’t want to take any chances that he might turn a fracture so close to the playoffs.  When asked how the injury occurred, Evan stated, “It’s just one of those things.  You take a hit the wrong way.  Normally I’d play through it, but we have a big game coming up, so we decided to play it safe.” 

Listening to his voice and seeing his face is agonizingly painful.  His injury is because of me.  The team lost because of me.  He looks tired and tortured, and I only have myself to blame for all of it.

Auggie comes wandering into the kitchen, searching for the coffee mugs.  “I’ve missed waking up to your freshly brewed coffee, Jette my pet.”  I hand him a pint of caramel coffee creamer and his sleepy eyes light up.  “You’re a mind-reader.”

I’m grateful to have him here with me.  The restaurant is closed today and he’s a welcome distraction from the reality of my present situation.

I hand him the remote and the newspaper.  I know he likes to start his day with a cup of hot coffee and reading the news on his iPad.  “What’s this?” he asks, looking at it like he’s solving a riddle.

“It’s called a newspaper.  I know you don’t have your iPad, and I thought you’d like to have something to read while you have your morning Joe.”  He shrugs his shoulders and begins flipping through the pages. 

“I’m going to take a shower.  Make yourself comfortable.  I can take you home whenever you’re ready.”  I place my empty coffee mug in the dishwasher and slip away. 

After my shower, I take my time getting dressed.  There’s no rush.  The sooner I finish, the sooner Auggie will leave and I’ll be left alone.  When I do emerge, I find Auggie completely absorbed in a crossword puzzle.  “Isn’t it a little early to be torturing yourself like that?” I ask.

“It’s called stimulating your intellect, Juliette.  You should try it sometime.”  Auggie looks up at me and smiles.

“Ouch, that hurt,” I tell him, swatting him on the shoulder.  I pull up a chair and sit beside him.  “So, how’s it going?”

“Not bad,” he answers without looking up.  “I’m stuck on this one word.”

“Tell me. Maybe I can help.”

“Sure, why not?  The clue reads,
A stringed keyboard instrument. 
It has eleven letters and ends with
RD
.”

“Why don’t you just take out your phone and Google it?” I suggest.

“That would be cheating, my pet.  The only word I can think of is clavichord, but that has ten letters,” Auggie laments.

“Just look it up and move on.  It’s not cheating if you only look up one word,” I tell him.

“The word is harpsichord, and it’s still called cheating, even if you only do it once.” 

Auggie and I turn toward the voice, and standing in the entrance to the kitchen is Evan.  He’s freshly showered and he smells heavenly.  My body recognizes him as its other half, and I feel a strong urge to run up to him and hug him.  Auggie must sense my discomfort, because he places a strong hand on my leg, holding me firmly in place.

Auggie tries to break the ice. “Good morning, Evan.”

Evan returns the gesture. “Auggie, nice to see you.” 

Evan says nothing to me. He walks over to the cabinet and finds a mug so he can fix himself a cup of coffee.  “They make terrible coffee at the Hilton,” he grumbles.

He keeps his distance, but again speaks around me.  “Auggie, if you don’t mind, Juliette and I have a lot to discuss.”

I get up and walk over to the foyer, grab my keys, and hand them to Auggie.  “Here, take my car.  I’ll get it from you later.”

Auggie leans in to hug me and whispers in my ear, “I can stay if you like.”

“No,” I tell him.  I look at Evan when I tell Auggie, “I’ll be okay.”

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

O
nce Auggie leaves, Evan brings his coffee into the living room and takes a seat on the sofa.  I take that as a cue that I’m supposed to follow him.  I sit directly across from him, point the remote at the television, and hit mute.

Neither of us says anything right away.  I can’t help but stare at his hand, still tightly bandaged from the sprain.  God, how I wish none of this ever happened.

Evan speaks first. “I’m here because I believe in second chances.  Our entire relationship is built on second chances.  I know I didn’t really give you an opportunity to explain, so here I am.”

“Well, I guess I should start at the beginning, then.”  I hurry into the bedroom to gather up the only evidence I still have, the second photo David sent me.  The same one Adam discovered nearly three weeks ago.  I place it on the table, still in the envelope, and tell Evan to open it and take a look.

He swipes the envelope from the table, opens the flap, and slides the glossy photo out of its sleeve.  His eyes grow wide when he realizes what he’s holding.  He looks at me, then back at the photo.  “Turn it over,” I tell him.  He reads it and I can see him seething. 

Evan places the picture back in its sleeve and tosses it onto the table.  “I’ve seen this before,” he tells me.

“That’s not possible.”

Evan gets up, leaves the room, and walks silently into his office.  I hear drawers opening and closing.  Moments later, Evan comes back with an envelope of his own.  He tosses it onto the table and my heart actually stops.  The writing on the front is identical.  The address is written in scratchy uppercase printing that I recognize immediately.

“He sent you one too.”  It’s not a question, it’s a statement.  I already know the answer.

Evan shakes his head.  “How many did he send you?”

There’s the one I gave to Auggie and the one Derek found.  “This one and two others,” I tell him.  “And you?”

“Just this one,” he tells me.  “But he said he had more.”

The tension in the room is so thick you could cut it with a knife.  Evan sits quietly, considering my disclosure.  I want him to run to me, wrap me up in his arms, and tell me it will be all right.  As he gets up from the couch, my hope quickly fades when instead of moving toward me, he walks away, pacing around the room with his fingers tangled in his hair.

Evan stops and looks at me, showing no hint of expression.  I can’t tell if he’s angry, upset, or calm.  It’s unnerving. 

“Did you pay him?” he wants to know.

I nod.

“How much?”

“Ten thousand the first time, another ten thousand the second,” I admit.

He’s taking deep breaths.  His mouth is pressed into a hard line and his hands are balled into tight fists that he flexes over and over.  Slowly, he looks up at me and speaks, choosing his words very carefully.  “Where did you get the money?”

“It doesn’t matter,” I tell him.

“Everything matters,” he blurts out.  “The smallest details matter.  If I’m going to fix this, I need to know everything.  You know I’m going to find out, so you may as well just tell me.  Where did you get the fucking money?”

“For the first ten thousand, I sold my earrings – the diamond teardrop earrings from Tiffany’s.”

He nods over and over. “You sold
my
earrings, Juliette.  The ones I bought for you, that you wore to our grand opening.  The same ones you wore to the Snowflake Ball.  The very earrings I hoped to see you wearing on our wedding day.  Do you have any idea how much those earrings meant to me?  And you threw them away, just like that?”

“I know.  I screwed up.”

“And the second pay-off?  Where did that money come from?” he asks, beginning to pace again.

“Derek,” I tell him.

He stops dead in his tracks, turns and looks at me again.  I want to disappear, melt into the cushions and hide. 

“I’m sorry, but did you say Derek?” he repeats.

“Yes.”

“You confided in
him
.  You trusted
him
.  You turned to
him
when you should have turned to me – again!”

“I’m sorry,” I tell him, hoping he can see the desperation and sincerity in my eyes.  “I didn’t go to him, he found out.  I never wanted him to find out.  I never wanted Adam or Auggie to find out either, but they did,” I shout back.

“Adam knows all of this?” Evan asks.

I can’t betray Adam like this.  It’s not fair.  I don’t know how to answer him honestly and protect Adam at the same time.

“Just tell me, Juliette.  I’m going to find out one way or another.”

“Yes.  He went with me to make the trade in Denver.”

“Of course he did.  And neither one of you thought it might be a good idea to tell me about any of this?  Did the thought ever enter your mind?  You had to know I was going to find out eventually.”

“I’m sorry.”

“And the third? You said there were three.” He pushes for an answer.  “How much did you pay him for the third?”

“I couldn’t pay him.  I had no more money.”

He doesn’t respond right away.  After what feels like an eternity, he asks the question at the heart the problem.  “He made you pay in another way, didn’t he?”

“Yes.  I mean no.  He wanted me to, but I didn’t.  I swear Evan, I didn’t.  I couldn’t do it.”

“It was his hat I found in your room.  You invited him into your bedroom.  Did he touch you?”

“Yes, but ... ”

He picks up the ceramic vase holding the amaryllis flowers he gave me and sends it flying across the room, smashing it into tiny pieces. It frightens Maddy and she runs to the bedroom to hide.  “God damn it, Juliette.  You should have told me.  It’s my job to protect you.”

His tone changes to one of disgust.  “I can’t be here.  I can’t pretend that what you did is okay, because it’s not.  You had so many choices.  So many opportunities to do the right thing.” 

He doesn’t understand.  He’s not even trying to see it through my eyes.  My voice cracks as I hotly defend myself.  “I didn’t ask to be blackmailed, Evan.  I didn’t ask to be videotaped without my permission.  I didn’t want this. I didn’t want any of it.  I’m sorry if I didn’t handle it the right way, but I thought I was doing the right thing.”

“The right thing?!” he shouts at me.  “You thought keeping secrets from me, lying, and inviting your perverted maniacal ex-boyfriend into your bedroom was the solution?  You turned to Derek once again, when it was me you should have come to.  Explain to me how that makes any sense, because right now, I’m having a lot of trouble understanding.”

Maddy slinks slowly out of the bedroom and places herself between us.  She senses the growing hostility and anger and she doesn’t like it any more than I do.

“Remember how you reacted when you thought Ryker and I were ... you know?  I was afraid of your reaction.  I was afraid you might ... I don’t know ... do something.”

“So this is my fault now?” he challenges.

“No, I’m not saying that.  What I’m trying to say is that I was afraid.  I was afraid of your reaction if I told you.  I was afraid of what would happen to your career and my restaurant if he went public with this.  I was afraid that you wouldn’t be able to look at me the same way after seeing those videos.”  As the tears begin to flow freely, I tell him by biggest fear.  “I was afraid you would look at me the way you’re looking at me right now.”