Her mother sputtered. “You can’t do that! Think about your job, your commitments…”
“Right now the only commitment I have is to me and to spending time with dad and if you don’t like that then it’s too bad. It’s not your decision to make.”
“Gina, be reasonable! After all these years and all I’ve sacrificed for you…”
“Sacrificed? Are you kidding me? I was the one that had to sacrifice! I had to leave my father and my friends and my school and everything that I loved to move to the other side of the country! You started up a whole new life and didn’t care about how you ruined mine!” Gina had no idea what had spurred this act of bravery on her part, but it certainly felt good.
“And this is why I didn’t want you spending time with your father; he’s poisoned you against me! You never spoke like this before…you are being highly disrespectful and I demand an apology.”
Gina laughed. It wasn’t a cheery laugh but one filled with disbelief. “You can demand all that you want but you are not going to get your way. I’m here and I’m not sure when I’ll be home.” Before her mother could interrupt, she added, “And as for my job, I’ll deal with that as well. I’m a grown woman and it’s time that you remembered that.”
They were silent for long moments. Finally Barbara Micelli cleared her throat. “Well, I guess that sums it all up, doesn’t it? If that’s what you feel you have to do, then fine; stay in North Carolina for however long you like. Just don’t expect to lean on me when you come home and have no job. As you pointed out you’re a grown woman; I won’t be supporting you.”
Gina rolled her eyes and took another long drink of wine. “I don’t believe I ever asked you to, but thanks for the reminder.” She pulled her now-cooled dinner from the microwave and looked at it with disgust. “Look, let’s just take some time to cool down. I’ll call you next week, okay?”
For a minute, Gina didn’t think her mother was even going to respond. Finally she said, “That’s fine. We’ll talk then.” Gina wished her mother a good night and then hung up. Carefully, she placed her phone down on the cool granite counter top and then walked to the center of the room and screamed. She screamed until she couldn’t breathe and then she took a deep breath and screamed again. Luckily no one lived close by or they’d probably be calling the police but right now that was the least of her problems.
She dropped to her knees and did her best to catch her breath. Why? Why did her mother have to make everything so complicated and why did Gina allow it for so long? It felt so good to get those things off of her chest tonight but now she worried about how long she would be punished for it. For too many years , Gina sat back and let her mother make all of her decisions because it was easier than arguing with her; but now that she’d had a little taste of freedom, she knew that there was no way she could return to that way of living.
Rising to her feet, Gina went back to the kitchen and bypassed her dinner and instead poured herself another glass of wine. With a grimace she noticed that once her glass was full, the bottle was empty. Walking over to the refrigerator, she pulled out another bottle.
The wine was making her more than a little tipsy and she couldn’t help but sway as she made her way to the stereo to turn the music back on. “Ooo…classic rock,” she said with a giggle and began to sing along to Elton John’s Crocodile Rock. “Hear that, Mom?” she called out into the room. “I’ve got the music on way too loud and it’s that rock n roll that you hate.” That made her break out into a fit of giggles. Then, in another act of rebellion, she turned on the TV at the same time and the play button on the DVD player and smiled at the beginning of “Say Anything.”
She danced her way across the room singing off key. A look around the room a little too quickly made her dizzy. “I really should eat something,” she mumbled but her dinner was no longer what she wanted. Rummaging through the cabinets she found a pack of Oreos and grabbed a few and sighed with how good they tasted. “And I’m not eating a balanced diet either, how about that?”
It didn’t take long for her to realize that Oreos and wine were not a good combination and put the last of her cookies down on the counter and went back to refill her glass. “I’m an adult, dammit! It’s my life and from now on, I am going to do what I want. No one is going to tell me what to do, no one is going to bully me into being where I don’t want to be and if I want to have wine for dinner, then I damn-well will!” She slammed the glass down on the counter and it shattered.
Gina cursed and made a feeble attempt to clean it up. The shards of glass cut her finger and she winced from the pain. Her finger was bleeding and she carefully walked over to the sink to rinse it out. Once that task was complete she wrapped her finger with a paper towel and was going to inspect how deep the wound was but she was distracted when she found another glass and proceeded to fill it. Stepping over the remnants of her previous glass that was spotted with blood, she headed back to her bedroom with her newly filled glass and the bottle. There was one small lamp lit and she started to sway to the now slow sounds of Rod Stewart. “Maybe I’ll order a pizza,” she said out loud and looked around the room for her phone before remembering that it was back in the kitchen.
Turning too quickly, she banged her knee on the bedside table and cried out in pain.
And then she just began to cry.
If anyone was there to ask, Gina knew she wouldn’t be able to put into words what the exact cause of her tears were. Maybe it was the pain from hurting her knee, maybe it was the fact that she was away from home and visiting her dying father; maybe it was because there wouldn’t ever be enough time for them to make up for all of the time they had lost. Or maybe, just maybe, it was because she knew deep down that she was never going to get her mother’s approval no matter how hard she tried.
She cried harder.
Gently placing the glass and bottle down on the offending table, Gina collapsed onto the bed and curled up in the fetal position. She was a mess. None of this was fair. She had done everything she could to please her mother and yet nothing ever did. She missed out on years with her father and now they weren’t going to have even one more together. She didn’t know who she was or where she belonged and right now Gina felt like she was completely alone in the world.
Turning her face in to the pillow, she cried even more.
****
Mac slammed the car door and cursed. All he wanted was some peace and quiet and to just have the final say in how he spent his time. Unfortunately, his father had called and found out that he was working late at the office and reminded him of their deal.
Dammit.
When William had asked how Gina was doing, Mac told him that he hadn’t seen her in days. Of course he didn’t elaborate on why he hadn’t seen her but his father had been livid just the same. “Her father is dying and she has no one there to help her through this!” William had lectured. “I expected a little more from you, Mac. I thought I could trust you to make sure that Gina was okay. Maybe your mother and I need to cut our trip short and come home.”
Mac groaned. True, they were due back in three days but he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he was the reason they had to come home. “That won’t be necessary,” he had assured his father. “I just thought that Gina might want a little time to herself and to not feel like we were watching over her like we were afraid she was going to steal the family silver or something.”
They had argued a little more and in the end, Mac had promised his father that he’d leave the office immediately and go and check on her. So here he was, in his parents’ driveway against his will, going to see a woman who he both dreaded seeing and yet couldn’t wait to feast his eyes on.
The first thing that he noticed as he approached the guest house was that all of the lights were on and there was music playing. He knocked on the door and waited. And waited. And waited. Trying the doorknob, he found it to be unlocked and cursed. Didn’t the woman ever lock a door? “Gina?” he called out with a sen
se of de ja vu. He stepped inside and took a look around the room. There was no sign of her.
Mac walked over to the paintings lined up against the wall he was currently facing and admired her work. He could clearly pick out his mother’s garden and the view of the sunrise coming through the French doors. He smiled at her abstracts and then turned to the easel and stopped.
It was him.
Gina had painted him.
Why?
He stood there for countless minutes staring at his own face and was in awe of her talent. If this is what she was like after not having picked up a paint brush in years, how much better would she be if she was allowed to do this all of the time? Mac pulled his gaze away from her paintings and scanned the room. The stereo was on and so was the TV. On the screen was a screen shot of the movie title while Peter Gabriel sang. “Say Anything”? Mac murmured. “What the hell is that? No doubt some sort of chick-flick.” Seeking out the remotes, he first turned off the television and then the stereo.
Upon further inspection of the room he noticed that there was a plate of food on the kitchen counter with a stack of cookies next to it. He walked over and jumped as he heard glass crunching under his feet. He saw the blood and felt a wave of panic begin to wash over him.
“What the…?” he muttered and took a closer look around the room. Something was wrong; he could feel it. “Gina?” he called out again and suddenly got nervous at where she might be. “This isn’t funny, dammit.”
He strode down the hall to the bedroom and stopped dead in his tracks. The lights were dimmed and there was wine on the night stand. Sprawled on her belly across the bed in a tiny pair of navy blue panties and a tight white tank top lay Gina. Her hair was fanned out beside her and one leg was bent and the overall view was spectacular.
“I can’t fight this anymore,” he said to her as he walked farther into the room. “I know I said that it couldn’t happen again, but I’m just not strong enough to resist you, Gina.” And the truth was that he knew it all along. Somehow, from the first moment he’d seen her in the airport, Mac had been drawn to her and it was only fitting that he finally admit to it and enjoy it. “I’m sorry for walking out on you the other night; I was wrong.” Mac was standing next to the bed and heard Gina’s shuttering sigh.
She was asleep.
Here he was thinking that she was trying to seduce him and the truth was that she didn’t even know he was here. He hung his head in disappointment and that’s when he realized that something was, indeed, wrong. There were tissues scattered on the bed and on the floor and some of them had blood on them. The bottle of wine was half empty. Stepping away from the bed he walked back toward the kitchen where he noticed that there was a second bottle of wine; it was empty. What the hell had gone on here?
Gina’s phone was on the counter and he didn’t think twice about picking it up and seeing if he could find out if she had maybe gotten a call from the hospital about her father. He scrolled and saw that the only call she had received today was from her mother. From everything Gina had shared with him, he knew that it was completely plausible that there had been some sort of argument that led to her being upset.
He just couldn’t imagine what could have possibly been said to make Gina this upset. Placing the phone back on the counter, Mac walked back to the bedroom and looked at the woman who was slowly working her way into his life, his mind and his heart. It angered him that anyone would upset her to this point and he couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this protective over a woman.
He sighed and went about cleaning up the space. He took the wine and the glass back to the kitchen and then cleaned up the mess out there. By now it was nearing eleven and while he knew he should leave, he had a feeling that she was going to be feeling like hell come morning after all of the alcohol she had consumed.
Back in the bedroom he gently moved her so that he could get her under the blankets. She sighed and he could only hope that she would simply sleep it off and not get sick in the night. There was a large chaise lounge in the corner of the room and Mac kicked off his shoes, removed his tie, unbuttoned his shirt and made himself comfortable. Whatever it was that had happened he didn’t want Gina to wake up alone – especially if she was sick.
With the lights off and only the glow of the moon coming through the windows, Mac let himself relax. He knew when he was driving over here earlier that he wasn’t going home tonight; he had just hoped that it meant that he also wasn’t sleeping alone. Or sleeping at all, for that matter. This was new territory for him and as much as he wanted to obsess about it and come up with a plan for how it was all going to pan out, he realized that he was far more exhausted than he had thought.
The woman was tiring as hell and all she’d done was pass out before he could get to her.
He could only imagine what she was going to be like once she was awake.
Chapter Six
Whoever was pounding on the door was going to get an earful. Gina slowly rolled onto her back and stretched and wondered who would be knocking on the door at…well, she wasn’t ready to open her eyes to see exactly what time it was but she was sure it was an ungodly hour.
Several things occurred to her at once; she didn’t remember crawling under the blankets, the pounding wasn’t someone at the door but going on in her head and the room was spinning. “Crap,” she mumbled and placed both of her hands on her head in hopes of making the spinning stop. “Crap, crap, crap…”
And that’s when she heard the chuckle.
Glancing in between the fingers that were now shielding her eyes from the light, she saw Mac standing in the corner of the room. “What are you doing here?” she asked, her voice raw and scratchy.
Mac stretched and walked to the side of the bed. “I came to check on you last night and found you passed out cold. I cleaned up the broken glass and threw out the uneaten food and figured there’d be a good chance of you not feeling so hot either overnight or this morning and I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”
She should have been touched by his considerateness, but she wasn’t. Right now it just pissed her off. He was here to babysit her. Again. He hadn’t come here because of the kiss the other night, he hadn’t come because he was going crazy without her; he was here because he was obligated to. That thought made her frown and frowning caused her head to throb even more. “Fabulous,” she grumbled and kicked the blankets off, heedless to the fact that she was half naked.
When she sat up too quick, she groaned and then almost punched Mac when she heard him chuckle again. Without opening her eyes she heard him leave the room and breathed a sigh of relief. Her throat was dry and her tongue felt like it was the size of her fist. Why did she even think drinking so much wine on an empty stomach was a good idea? That’s what she got for being rebellious.
Gina did her best to pry her eyes open and there standing before her in all of his bare chested glory stood Mac. He had a glass of water in one hand and held the other out toward her. She saw the Ibuprofen tablets and greedily reached for them. He handed her the water and she drank the entire glass down as if she’d been walking in the dessert for days. “Thank you.”
Mac helped her to her feet and she stumbled in to him. When her hand touched his chest she stopped and leaned her head against him and just waited for the spinning to stop. Well, that and she just really was a glutton for punishment who wanted to touch this man. “Are you okay?” he whispered.
Rather than answer or even look at him, Gina forced herself to move. Doing her best to focus on taking one step at a time, she walked away from where she most wanted to be and headed toward the bathroom to try and put herself back together again. Mac didn’t speak or follow and she didn’t look back at him. Gingerly closing the door behind her, Gina merely groaned at her appearance. Her hair was wild, her eyes were puffy and basically the only thing she had to be grateful for was the fact that she had already washed her makeup off before her crying jag because otherwise she was certain she’d look li
ke a hung over drag queen.
It was no wonder Mac had no trouble staying away from her; every time he saw her it seemed like she was a wreck of some kind. Refusing to let her mind go there right now, she did her best to start to feel more human again. The cold water on her face certainly had the desired effect to wake her up and brushing her teeth made her able to swallow without grimacing. They were baby steps but she’d take them. Her robe was back in the bedroom so she had no choice but to walk back out there in her underwear and hope that Mac had the decency to leave.
He didn’t.
She found him placing a cup of tea on the night stand and waiting for her return. As she approached, she refused to make eye contact with him. When Gina sat back down on the bed, she noticed the plate of toast beside the tea. “Thank you,” she said quietly and reached for the steaming mug first. The first sip was heavenly and she twisted around so that she was reclining against the pillows that Mac had stacked for her.
Why did he have to be considerate on top of everything else? And why wouldn’t he just leave? The last thing Gina wanted was an audience to her pathetic life. “As you can tell, I’m not going to be sick; I feel like hell but other than that, I’m fine. I’m sure you need to get to work so please don’t feel like you need to stay and babysit.”
He walked around the side of the bed and sat down beside her. He stretched out his feet and stacked his hands behind his head on the pillow, not looking at her either. “Want to talk about it?” he asked casually.
“About what?” Gina placed the mug down and reached for the toast.
“About whatever it is that had you on a binge last night?”
The toast tasted like sawdust in her mouth but she forced herself to finish the half slice before answering him. “How do you know I don’t binge every night?” she snapped at him and when he looked at her with disbelief, she decided to go for more snark. “Don’t worry, it wasn’t over you.”
Stay With Me (The Montgomery Brothers) Page 7
