by Kelly Wood
Peyton continued. "You are a control freak. Just let loose and go with the flow."
"Go with the flow? I quit my job and have no home. I never know what city I'm going to be in more than a few days in advance. I don't think I could go with the flow any more than that."
"You always know where you are going to be, where you are going to stay. I know you plan that out. I know you plan out bus routes and flights. I know you. I bet you spend hours figuring out a path to take and how to take it, or reading about a place and then hoping it lives up to that dream, so you won't be disappointed," Peyton said.
The only thing I could think to say was “So?” So, I didn't say anything. Peyton had a valid point. I did spend hours mapping out where we would go and where to stay. I might not actually book a room, but I was aware of the options when we pulled into a town. I read the history of every country we visited and had a list made up of the things I wanted to see in each one. I was a planner by nature. Other than the actual act of getting married. Marriage wasn't plannable.
"Your opinions are duly noted," I said.
"Duly noted? Cute. Are you running for president now?" Mom said.
"That's all I can give you right now. I'm sorry. I need time."
"That’s not much giving. Apologize to Gray, not us," Mom said.
“Why are you always on my case? You never hound Harry like you do me?” I threw my little brother under the bus. In mom’s eyes, he could do no wrong. She’d babied him his whole life.
“Harry is finding himself. He just needs a little more time to get his feet under him.”
I snorted in response. Yeah, right, a little more time. He was twenty-three and still partying his way through college on my parent’s dime. At least I paid my own way.
Mostly.
Peyton and I rose from our seats. She needed to get the kids back home, and I needed to go back to the city. I helped her load them up and buckle them in. I would be seeing Mom and Peyton again on Friday. They were coming into the city for Jax's show. I headed back inside to get my things.
"I love you, kid. I just don't want you to make any mistakes regarding marriage. Peyton and I are both worried you will regret not giving it a chance," Mom said. I hugged her goodbye.
"I know. I love you, too." If they were this worried that I wouldn't ever try out marriage what were they going to do when they realized I meant it when I said I didn't want kids?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Wednesday morning arrived rainy and cloudy, but I didn’t mind. Jax and I planned on spending the day in her storage unit picking out paintings. I loved seeing her work. The day would be fun, even if it involved us fighting over which pieces were good enough to show. Like any artist, she was extremely critical of her work. I couldn't fault her for it. When I wrote my first book, I was more than halfway through before I even told anyone I was doing it. Gray knew, but I didn't count him. He was always supportive.
Always supportive. Logical point for marriage. I thought that would be a good trait in a husband.
I picked up Jax at the pub. She and Peter were there planning an after party for the show. We chatted in the office about our plans for the day before heading out. Peter sent us on our way with a bag stocked with lunches for us. He assured me that they were peanut-free. His new assistant was busy on the computer next to us, learning her new role. We said our goodbyes and headed north to Jax’s unit. She rented one of the storage units in a big warehouse, with long rows of orange doors against bare white walls. The space was temperature-controlled so the artwork wouldn't be damaged.
Until recently, Jax had always been reluctant to sell her artwork. A piece of her fell in love with each one, and the thought of selling it hurt her heart when she was finished. Under the excitement of the show and the fear that the paintings wouldn't be liked, I'm sure there was a terror for the opposite outcome as well. As scary as a bad review would be, a scarier outcome would be if every one of her paintings sold. It would leave a hole in her heart. I didn't think she had realized that yet, though. She was still worried about bad reviews. I didn't fear the reviews; I knew they would be great. I didn't have any evidence for why I felt this, I just knew it.
"Gray is excited to see your show. I talked to him last night," I said.
"You’re bringing him as your date?"
"Why wouldn’t I?" I took offense to her question. Jax unlocked the door to her unit. It rolled up with a loud clanging noise.
“Why would you? What is even going on with you two?"
“I don’t need this from you, too.” I stepped into the space, putting my back to her. My shoe scraped along the cement floor. I peeked at the underside and found a small stone wedged in the tread. I pulled it out and dropped it by the door, using the distraction as an excuse to ignore Jax.
“I’m not trying to pick a fight with you. I just want to know what’s happening. You’ve never even filled me in on what happened in Mexico.” I could hear the hurt in Jax’s voice. I hadn’t told her anything, and she was supposed to be my best friend. I relented and played nice.
“I’ll fill you in on all of it while we work. I’m sorry.” I tried to lighten the mood. “How’s your mom? Is she excited about your show?” Jax’s face relaxed at my apology.
“Yes. I told Mom I would take lots of pictures. She wished she could be here, but since it is so last minute, she doesn’t have the money to fly up.”
"I know. I'm sorry. We'll take lots of pictures for her because I know you will be too busy to even think about it." I turned my back to her again, preventing her from seeing my smile. Gray and I wanted to get Jax a congratulations present for the show. While I was driving home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to fly Jax's mom here as the present. We were keeping it a secret. She would fly into Midway Friday afternoon. Gray would pick her up from the airport and drive her to the gallery, surprising Jax there. I would spend the day with Jax, hopefully keeping her calm.
The room was roughly twelve feet by twelve feet. Multiple paintings leaned against every available wall surface. Jax installed shelving at waist height around the room. They, too, were filled with paintings of every size.
"Wow. I didn't realize you had so many." This was going to take forever.
"Once I quit bartending and started painting full-time, the art just happened. Some weeks I’ve been able to paint a piece a day. The art has just flowed out of me," Jax said. “Don’t get overwhelmed, though. A lot of these I painted when I was in high school and college. They won’t even be contenders, they’re so bad.”
"If you say so. Where do we start?" I asked.
"I thought that I would like to use a skateboard series in blue. Since I only paint naked women, I could use that as my show theme, but I think I want to use the color blue to tie them all together."
"Let's start with those, then." We pulled out all of the skateboards she had. The wheels had been pulled off, leaving just the flat board. This way the art could be hung flush to the wall while still being recognizable as a skateboard.
She had thirty boards painted that we needed to whittle down to six for display. We laid them all out on the floor, evaluating each one. The whole time I was catching her up on where Gray and I stood.
Four were clear winners. Not only was the blue present for the theme but the women on them were stunning. Each one had a flowing theme like the women were rising out of the mist. The edges of the boards were painted with abstract lines and striping that came together in the center. The lines became more defined, creating the lines of the woman's face and body, but leaving the edges soft.
"I like that you used skateboards. It gives them an edge," I said, holding up my favorite one.
"Thanks. A friend asked me to paint his board once, and it took off from there." Jax bent over the artwork, pulling aside the four to be used. “I started buying old boards from garage sales and thrift stores. It was way cheaper than canvas.”
Next, we pulled out the obvious losers. They were all equally good
but just didn't stand out the way the four we chose did. That left us with eight. Next came the hard part.
“I suggest we put these to the side and start on the paintings. Our eyes will naturally go to the best ones. We choose the ones that emerge throughout the day. Then, bing, bong, bang, Bob’s your uncle,” I suggested.
“I don’t even know what that means, but, okay.”
It was after lunch when we finally decided on the remaining two pieces for the skateboard series. While eating our sack lunches, we admitted to focusing on two skateboards in particular. Even while looking at dozens of other pieces, both of us kept sneaking glances at the boards. I hoped we were noticing the same ones, it would save us time later if we didn’t have to argue the merits of each one. Footsteps echoed down the hallway, pulling me from my thoughts. Someone must be near us going to their unit. I’d almost forgotten we were at a business, it had been so quiet.
"It’s already one-thirty. I need to leave at three. Gray and I are supposed to have dinner, and we haven't even made a dent in the regular paintings," I said.
"I'm never going to get done. I keep second-guessing myself on every choice, and all of these have to be delivered to the gallery first thing tomorrow. I'm screwed." Jax threw herself down on the ground, reminding me of a cranky toddler.
“We’ll get it done. Come on. Stop being a complainer.” I pulled on her arm, helping her to stand. “Think positive. You could sell out and become an overnight success.”
I laughed at the look of horror on her face. I was right. The thought hadn’t occurred to her that she might do well.
“I wouldn’t see these pieces again.”
“Stop being dramatic. You don’t see them now. How often do you even come here?”
“That’s not the point! I love these. I’ve put my heart into each one.” She slowly spun around, taking in each painting. “How would you feel if you never saw Gray again? You’ve put your heart into him.”
I couldn’t have been more stunned than if she had slapped me.
“Let’s just finish this,” I said.
We were so lost in our own thoughts we didn’t register the footsteps growing louder. Gray always chastised me for not paying attention, and this was a perfect example. The rolling door came crashing down behind us. I spun around at the sound, tripping over one the skateboards.
I lunged for the door but was unable to lift it. Outside we heard the lock being put into place and snapped shut. The footsteps started up again, growing fainter as the person walked away.
Jax and I banged on the door, hoping someone, anyone, would hear us. Not that it mattered much, we had the key inside the storage unit with us.
"Phones. Grab your phone." We both raced back to our purses. My phone showed one bar but wouldn't make a call or send a text. The calls wouldn’t connect, and texts kept saying undelivered. Jax's phone didn’t show any bars. No Service flashed whenever we tried to use it. We were too far inside the metal building to get any reception. Our spat had been forgotten as we tried to figure a way out.
As far as being trapped goes, this wasn't such a bad place. The light seemed to be working fine. The temperature was controlled, so we didn't have to worry about freezing or sweltering. We even had some food and water left over from our lunches. Our only concern was trying to get out. Eventually, the guard should do a patrol. We only needed to pay attention to the sound of footsteps so we could alert him.
"Does that security guard do rounds throughout the building?" I asked.
"I don't know. He’s supposed to." Jax sat down in the corner. She cupped her phone in her hand, hoping it would work.
"Does anyone know we’re here? Gray will wonder why I don’t meet him, but that won't be for hours." I sat down, leaning against the door. “Who am I kidding? He’ll probably think I made up my mind and instead of telling him, just took off again.” I put my face in my hands. I felt like the boy who cried wolf.
"Liam knows we are here. He's supposed to pick me up at seven for dinner. But, that’s hours away, too."
We sat, brooding in silence, neither of us moving. I tried to send out a few more texts to people, but all I was doing was wasting the battery. It was draining quickly, searching for a signal.
"We might as well be productive and continue to pick out paintings," Jax suggested. “It’ll help the time pass.”
"Okay. But, we need to make sure to listen for footsteps. I don’t want to miss someone hearing us.”
We spent the next three hours picking out the requisite artwork, yelling for help and banging on the metal door. Other than being locked in a cement cell, the afternoon was very productive. We made decisions on all of the pieces plus organized the rest for prospective future shows. Being locked in had made us more focused. Now we were back to sitting on the floor by the door, hoping for rescue. From whom, I didn’t know.
"My date is in an hour," Jax said.
"I'm sorry. So, you really like Liam?" I threw a pebble I found in the air and caught it. Repeating the toss again and again. I just needed something to keep my mind off the feeling of being trapped.
"I do. He's very sweet." Jax drew shapes into the dust on the floor with her finger.
"I’d be happy with a rescue right now. He could come riding up in a shiny white cop car instead of a horse.”
"Gray could rescue us,” Jax said.
“Gray is probably sitting at the airport waiting to board his flight and get as far away from me as possible.”
“You know that’s not true,” Jax said.
“No, I don’t.” My voice snarled.
“Why are you mad at me? I didn’t cause this.”
“I know, but you were the one to make me think.”
“About what? You’ve been hashing this same stuff over in your head for days. You’ve already been ‘thinking.’” We yelled back and forth at each other.
“Because you made me think the right way!” I threw my rock across the room.
“You don’t make any sense!”
I took a deep breath to calm myself. I wanted to claw through the door. I could barely keep myself together. I wanted to cry and scream. I wanted to smack myself for being an idiot. I settled for talking it through with Jax. “When you asked how I would feel if I never saw Gray again, it made it all click into place. There would be a huge hole in my heart.”
“You didn’t realize that before?”
“No. I always approached it as Gray being with me as a husband. I never thought about what life would be like with him not with me at all.”
“So, you’ve made your decision?”
“Not that it matters. He’s going to think I stood him up. It’s my MO. He’s going to think I left.” I leaned my head against the cool metal of the door.
“Are you so sure about that?” It wasn’t Jax’s voice asking me, but Gray’s. I perked up at the sound. The door rose behind me. Once I lost the support, I fell back through the opening. Lying flat on my back, I looked up into Gray’s eyes.
“We’re making a habit of this.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“So, let me hear more about how you can’t live without me,” Gray said.
“I can’t live without you. Is there more to be said?”
“I think so.” Gray reached into his pocket and pulled out a small band. It glistened in the bright lighting of the hallway. He grabbed my hands, pulling me into a sitting position. Gray was on one knee next to me. My heart sped up, but not in a scary way.
“Regan Christine Harris, I have put a lot of thought into getting to redo this moment. I didn’t factor in your personality or our relationship the last time. I tried to go big. Big ring, big view, big moment.” Gray paused. He looked into my eyes before continuing. His were a soft gray. For the first time, I wondered if that was where his parents got his name.
“You and I have never been about creating those big, movie moments. We are about living and experiencing life. We have never needed showy.” I got a closer look at the ring h
e held between us. It was delicate and small. There weren’t any jewels on it. Only three strands of gold intertwining and braided together. The design was accented by the strands being different colors. Rose, yellow and white gold running around and through each other.
“I want to spend my life with you. Whatever that entails. We can travel. We can find a spot and make it our home. We can move to the moon. As long as we decide together.” Gray’s eyes never left mine. “What do you say, good-lookin’? You up for the challenge?”
This was my moment. I sent up a quick prayer, thanking God for giving me another chance before I answered. “Yes. Are you?”
“I have been. I’ve just been waiting for you to catch up.” He grinned at me.
“I’ve heard I can be stubborn.” Gray broke into a full smile.
“That is an understatement.” He lifted my left hand, sliding the ring into place. The fit was perfect.
Jax broke the moment by sniffling. I noticed her and Liam for the first time since the door opened. Liam’s arm was around her. Jax wiped her eyes. They were standing a few feet away watching Gray and me.
Jax and I had been locked up for roughly six hours and came out the other end of our ordeal starving. What was left of our lunches, we had eaten hours before. A double dinner date salvaged the evening for all of us.
“How did you guys find us? And how did you end up together?" I asked. I was extremely interested in the answer to the second question.
"I texted you all day about picking me up, but you never answered. I assumed you were busy with Peter at the restaurant and just didn't have your phone on you. I decided to stop at the pub," Gray said.
"That's where he found me. I’d stopped in to ask about Jax. I’d been texting you,” Liam said while pointing his finger toward Jax, “all day about tonight, and you never answered."
"Who told you we were in the warehouse?" Jax asked.
