Past her, at the driver side is a twisted mess of metal and tears leak from my eyes when I see Wes. His eyes are open, and he’s bleeding from his mouth. “Wes? Wesley?” I gasp out. “Hang on, buddy. Help should be here soon.”
“Dex, take care of her,” Wes rasps out. His hand reaches out for Meadow but falls right back down.
“Don’t talk like that, buddy…You’ll be fine.” I try to reassure him. I try to reassure myself. Though even in my haze, I’m not sure and my cheeks wet more, seeing my two favorite people so tangled up and hurting and I’m useless. “Wes, hang on. I think I hear sirens.”
“Promise …me. “
“I promise but hang on. Promise me that.”
I did my best to keep him talking, but after I made my promise his eyes closed, and he fell silent. No matter how much I yelled at him, he wouldn't answer. Meadow wouldn't wake either. Soon the cops and the ambulance came to rescue us...well, they rescued everyone but Wes.
If I hadn’t made him come pick us up that night. If I had only listened to him and not gone to that party, he would still be alive. I was being selfish as fuck because I missed hanging out with Meadow without them making out. It’s my fault he was on the road when that drunk driver, who was going eighty, hit us. Wes didn’t make it to the hospital. Meadow had a broken arm and a concussion that kept her under for two days. She still has no idea that Wes and I were fighting, or that he had asked me not to take her to the party. The memory fades when I see her GMC Terrain fly into the parking spot in front of the Garden City Restaurant.
I find a spot and slam the door on my Dodge, running after her before she can enter the restaurant. I grab her arm and spin her around. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
Fire flares out of her eyes to match the venom of my words. “Nothing! But something is about to be wrong with you and your balls if you don't unhand me.” She wiggles herself out of my hold, but I grip her tighter, making her smack me in the chest. “Get off me.”
“No, because you were speeding down the I-5. Were you trying to get yourself killed?”
“No, because believe it or not, I know how to fucking drive, asswipe. Your dad taught me. Remember? Just like he taught your dumb ass. Stop always treating me like I'm made of glass. I don't even get why you care. It’s not like you give a fuck about me anyway.”
I release her like she's on fire and she stumbles back.
“Now if you don't know why…then maybe it's you that needs to get their head out of their ass.”
Her mouth drops open, but before she can say anything back, I move around her and storm inside the restaurant. I’m steaming. Does she really think I don’t care about her? After everything? Talk about a fucking kick to the damn fucking teeth.
“Greene-Lexington Party,” I tell the hostess and she leads me to the table where my parents and Meadow’s mom await. My mom stands, engulfing me in a hug, followed by Meadow's mom, Valerie. “Where's my daughter? I thought for sure she'd be right behind you?” She peers over my shoulder and I look behind me, surprised the firecracker didn't come blowing in right behind me.
“She had to use the bathroom.” My finger brushes my nose as I make up an excuse that would seem the most accurate.
Valerie squints at me, the same way Meadow does when she knows I'm hiding something. “Well, sit. We can order and start talking when she gets here.”
I pull out my seat next to my father who pats my shoulder in a hello and asks me how work is going. I'm going on about this new building I'm designing downtown when the chair beside me scrapes across the floor. Meadow sits down, resting her elbow on the table, and puts her head in her hand, clearly avoiding looking at me. Her mother whispers something to her and she nods, and I make out the reply that she’s fine.
From the corner of my eye, I see my mom throwing me a questioning look and my father leans back over to me. “Is everything okay with you two?” he probes, and I turn to him, picking up the menu, burying my head in it. This is going to be a long fucking meal.
“Everything is fine.”
It wasn’t fine, and it only got worse when we started going over the seating arrangements. When I found out Julian would be seated between Meadow and me, that string I was holding onto days ago, finally snapped.
Hell, who am I kidding, it snapped a while ago.
If she loved me like she said she did, she would be going with me and not Julian. Plus, this was Wes’ parents anniversary dinner; she should be going with me or alone out of respect for Wes. Period.
So, fuck this. It might be stupid, and I might regret it later but there’s no way I'm going to be some third fucking wheel. What does she expect?
“I forgot to mention I have a date for the event and need an extra chair at our table.”
Chapter Nine
Meadow
As I watch Dexter storm inside the restaurant, I feel like the world around me has imploded. This last week has been one of the hardest I can remember since Pickle’s death. Every day has been like going through the normal motions in what feels like an alternate universe. The moment I saw Dexter and Kayleigh at my office with her arms around him, everything I knew felt lost. The person I trusted most in the world had betrayed me.
Even if in some fucked up way this was his plan to make me jealous or trying to one-up me, he'd had his chance to apologize by now. Or at least explain why he did that shit. He knew what Kayleigh was to me—how she made me feel—and yet because I was ‘dating’ Julian it seemed to be okay for him to ‘date’ her or whatever he was doing.
I mean after one lunch he was defending her to me. What the fuck?
Maybe it all didn’t matter anyway. I told him I loved him. This time I know he remembers it. I remember it, even if he doesn't think I do. When he told he couldn't love me and I didn't deserve him, I knew at that point, no matter what I tried to do I was never going to change his mind. Dexter Greene is one of the most stubborn men on this planet and once he's made up his mind, that's it. Not even this odd rage of jealousy was going to change it.
If Dexter Greene truly wanted me, he had his chance to make his move—instead maybe I thrust him into the arms of another woman—a woman I hated.
Hell, I don’t even know what he’s doing right now. I haven’t been able to look him in the eye all week. The morning after I drunk confessed—again—that I loved Dexter, I called Julian and ended the ‘plan.’ I couldn’t keep it up knowing he knew how I truly felt. It was out there. The ball is in his court. If he needed time to deal with whatever he was going through with Wes, I was willing to wait.
I only wish he could’ve seen that I wasn’t ever with him. That Julian never came to the house nor did I ever stay at his place. The only time Dexter even saw us kiss was because he had been spying that first night when we were out on the porch. That when we went Karaoke, we didn’t even hang out. Like it was the lamest and tamest dating ever.
Damn it, Dex. Why are you closing us out?
“Are you okay, hun?” A gentle hand touches my shoulder, and I peer down at a white-haired lady now standing beside me.
“Huh? Um yeah?”
“You don’t look so good. Here.” She shuffles through her purse and pulls out a tissue from a little Kleenex bag and hands it to me. That’s when I realized my cheeks are wet from crying. Shit, now I feel like an idiot.
How long have I been standing here?
“Thank you.” I take the tissue from her and wipe my face.
“You’re welcome, sweetie. Why don’t you take the whole thing.” She shoves the little plastic bag in my hand, and I giggle at her. “Now if this is about a boy, and you need me to give him a reason to cry, you let me know.” She winks, and holds up her walking cane, making me laugh.
“I might take you up on that.” I deserved what Dexter said to me moments ago, but I would pay good money to see this lady go after him for the hell of it.
“Mom, what are you doing?” An older gentleman with salt and pepper hair comes out of the restaurant and
spies me curiously.
“Just making a new friend.” She winks at me again and moves towards her son. “Are we all set?”
“Yeah?” he says unsure, still eyeing me. I wipe my eyes, having no clue if I look like a hot mess still. “You okay?”
“She’s fine, Gerald. She needed a good laugh. Right, hun?”
“Yes, thank you again for the tissues. I should get inside anyways to meet my family.”
“You take care, dear. Chin up.” She pats me on the shoulder before her son takes her elbow leading her away from me.
When I enter the restaurant, I head to the bathroom to clean my face off before any of my family can see me. I try to take the old lady’s advice of ‘chin up,’ but I'd much rather have her cane, which does make me chuckle. I splash a little more water on my face and dry it off.
I make my way to the table and see Dex making small talk to his dad. His mother, Joy, spots me and waves me over. Sadly, there’s only one empty seat available and that’s between Dex and my mother. I brush my hair to the left, so Dex can’t see my face as I sit down, and then scoot my seat in closer to my mom.
Not that I think Dex would care right now, but I don’t want him to know that I’ve been crying. He will be able to tell, even though I did my best to clean my face. I deserved his harshness when it came to my speeding. If anyone gets on me about it, it’s Dex. Five miles over the limit and the man has a coronary.
“Sorry, it took me so long,” I tell my mother and she takes my hand.
“Is everything okay?”
“Everything is fine.”
Beside me, Dex mumbles the same words to his father matching my enthusiasm.
Mom narrows her eyes and leans in closer to me. “Sweetie, you know you can tell me anything. I can tell you've been crying.” She brushes my cheek and my eyes close tightly.
Well, so much for trying to hide anything.
“Maybe later,” I whisper back. “But I'm okay for now. Really. Can we order now?”
She nods and I'm grateful that she drops it. We order our meals and go over the final arrangements for the anniversary party. At first, this was to be a surprise for Martha and Frank, but my mother and Joy aren't ones to keep secrets, so the couple knew about the party within a week after the idea was hatched. However, the five of us are still planning everything as if it were one.
“Okay, so I made up the seating chart last night. Look it over and tell me what you think. I figured ten tables of six, then the main table will have ten.” My mother hands me the seating chart and as I look it over, Julian’s name glares at me. Shit. He's now sitting next to me at the main table. What the fuck is this change? Dexter rips the paper from me and I lean over to my mother needing to know how she even knew I was going out with him. I haven’t told her anything that was going on.
“Wait, why is Julian between me and Dexter?” I whisper to my mother and she twists her eyebrows at me.
“Aren’t you guys dating?” I feel as if my eyes are bulging out of my sockets. I never wanted that to get back to our mothers because I knew it would be blown out of proportion.
“Who told you that?”
“Joy. She said Dexter told her. Are you not?”
My eyes close from the sudden throbbing inside my head. If I didn’t already have enough stress and weight on my shoulders now, I feel like one of Dexter’s buildings has been dropped on them. “No. We’re not, never were.”
“Oh.” My mom frowns.
Beside me Dexter clears his throat, grabbing mine and my mother’s attention. “I forgot to mention I have a date for the event and need an extra chair at our table.” He glares at me and my heart sinks into my stomach.
“You do? Why didn’t you tell me?” Joy asks her son, clearly shocked by the news. Her eyes flit over in my direction.
“It’s new. And who wants to be alone at one of these things, right?”
“Well, what’s her name?”
I know what’s coming. He’s bringing her so he can stick it to me when he’s the one who unexpectedly caused this whole mess. But it doesn’t mean I’m prepared the second her name leaves his lips. “Kayleigh.”
I toss my napkin on the table and turn to my friend who has twisted the knife in my heart deeper. “Dex, can I talk to you?”
He smirks at me and I’m so close to wanting to lay him out on this damn table. It brings back a fond memory of a time when I was eight and wrestled him in a Chuck E. Cheese for stealing all my tickets, but I digress. “Sure. Excuse us.”
We both rise from the table and I take the lead going outside. Once we make it past the double doors into the fresh air, I find myself walking to the end of the parking lot, away from any possible spectators.
I fold my arms across my chest, bracing myself for a fight.
Okay, I'm doing it in an attempt to not knock him out.
“You can’t bring Kayleigh to this party.”
“Why not? You’re bringing Julian.” He spits out the words and I roll my eyes. I’m so sick of this.
“Julian was already on the list along with all our friends before he was seated next to me, Dex.”
“He didn’t know Wes,” he argues and I want to scream—Scratch that. I want to strangle him and hopefully free the stupid man child out of him.
“He knows Frank and Martha and us. Stop this. I’m not the one who told your mom about me going out with Julian, you did that. Otherwise, he would still be at the table across from us. Stop acting like a damn child. It can be fixed. Instead, you invite Kayleigh, for what, to hurt me? Again?”
He shrugs. “Well, it’s done now anyway.”
I gape at him. He's unbelievable. This isn't my Dexter. My best friend wouldn't go out of his way to hurt me, to spite me, no matter how he was feeling.
This isn't us. Period.
“Where is my friend?”
“Where’s mine?” he hisses back. “You're the one who thinks I don’t give a shit about you right? Well, I guess I’m only proving that to you.”
My head drops to look at my feet, filled with my own guilt. “I’m sorry for saying that, but you still have no right to keep acting like this.”
“Like what?”
“A jealous Neanderthal,” I mumble.
“Excuse me?”
My head snaps up and his eyes squint at me like I lost my mind. If I didn’t feel so lost and broken hearted I would laugh. I only have myself to blame for most of this and now I’m coming to realize, I can’t do it anymore. I thought it would be easy because I thought he loved me and needed a push. But my heart has taken such a beating that if this keeps going on, it’ll be nothing more than dust by the time this is all said and done.
“You’re acting like a jealous Neanderthal and I can’t do this anymore,” I clarify and find myself folding, giving up on trying to win Dexter Greene’s heart. Completely. Accepting that I’ll only be his best friend and nothing more.
Well, that's if we make it through this.
“Can’t do what?” he whispers and for the first time since we got here, I see a crack in his bad boy act.
“I love you. Like I'm really truly madly in love with you.” His eyes grow wide and they dart around the empty parking lot. I don’t know why he’s taking my words as such a shock. He already knew this, but maybe he never expected me to say this out loud, especially here and now. “I’m in love with you, Dex,” I repeat to make myself extra clear because he appears to be oblivious to the words.
“Meadow…I um...” I hold out my hand to stop him.
“Before you give me your excuses to why you can’t ‘be in love with me,’” I snap, making him shift nervously on his feet, something he used to do when he was caught doing something wrong, “I have something I need to tell you.”
He nods and I take a steady breath about to lay all my cards on the table. Everything I’m about to admit will change our friendship forever. But at this point, our friendship has already taken the hit with all the secrets we’ve been keeping.
“I made up this whole plan about going out with Julian because I thought when you saw me with him you would realize that you are in love with me. That you loved me more than your best friend. Everyone around us could see it but you. I felt the change between us building for a long time and I had hoped that maybe you did too. I thought it would be easy. Instead, you turned into a jealous Neanderthal. And that was all fine and dandy for a while. Sometimes it was cute. But god damn you were so fucking blind not to see what was in front of you. That you couldn’t see that me and Julian never went out more than three times. We never kissed, except that one time when he knew you were looking.”
“I don’t believe this…” He turns away from me, covering his mouth.
“I didn’t know what else to do. I felt lost. I only did it because you told me you loved me on my birthday and then basically the next second you told me you couldn’t.” That grabs his attention and he turns back to me, gaping, but he doesn't say anything. “Before I brought Julian in, I flirted with you more. I came into your bed with sexy PJ’s and you treated me like I had a disease. You mentioned the thought of us as a married couple, disgusting. There wasn’t much I could do, outside of telling you I loved you again, that you wouldn’t find abnormal for us. So Mel thought if I started dating again you would see what you were missing because we both had stopped. Instead, you turned into a jackass, treated your friend like shit because he wasn’t you. Well, that's how I summed that all up. Then we had that moment in the kitchen...which yes, was ruined by Julian calling, but hey there was still a moment.”
He scratches his nose and looks away from me again.
“Are you going to deny it?” I holler, wanting to shake him so I can get anything out of him before I crumble to the ground in defeat.
The Love Plan Page 10
