Always and Forever

by Harper Bentley

  He continues making love to me so slowly, so sweetly, his eyes never leaving mine, and right before he comes, his lips cover mine and his whisper against them echoes mine.

  ~~~

  When we go down the next morning for breakfast, the place is actually all a-bustle with people walking around the lobby and a few at the counter checking in. I glance toward the front and see the snow has stopped. Hm. Guess with all the great sex I was having I hadn’t noticed.

  Brody and I are seated at a table and after we order our food, I take a sip of coffee then announce as I look across at him, “Maybe we can go out snowmobiling today.”

  He grimaces with a shake of his head takes a sip of coffee then sets his cup down. “My plane flies out in a couple hours.”

  I blink at him.

  “Babe. Gotta get back to work.”

  “What?” I’m stunned and I just stare at him. I know it’s dumb, but it’s been so nice being in our own little world, all our problems out of sight that this work thing never even entered my mind.

  He reaches a hand over and cups my jaw. “Baby. You know I’m two on and four off. Go back in tomorrow.” He drops his hand when the waiter brings our plates.

  We eat in silence for a few minutes before I look up at him. “I’ve still got two days left and just thought… I mean… this has just been so…” I’m at a loss for words and shake my head as I stare at him.

  “Nice?” he offers. “It has. I’ve loved having this time with you and can’t wait for you to get back so we can be ‘us’ again.” He shoves a big bite of pancakes in his mouth. What he says makes me frown. Through his chewing he asks, “What?”

  I put my fork down and look at him. I know it’s not right but it’s what’s in my head right now. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

  His brow comes down. “Do what?” He picks up a piece of bacon and chomps on it.

  I suck in a breath. “Be… ‘us,’”

  He stops chewing and looks back at me, confused. “What do you mean?”

  I shake my head again. “I’m not sure what I mean. I mean, I do, but I don’t know how to put it.”

  He takes a drink from his water glass and sets it down, his eyes narrowing on me. “Explain,” he says and it comes out sounding a little dangerous.

  I throw up my hands. “We’ve been apart for over a year, Brody! We just can’t waltz right back into town and pick things up as if nothing happened!”

  His eyes go cold. “Why not?”

  “I don’t know why not, we just can’t!”

  I know it doesn’t sound right, but it makes perfect sense to me. It’s like if we were to just be back together all of a sudden it’d almost be embarrassing. Yep. That’s what’s going through my head.

  “You saying we’re not together then?” He’s glaring now. Ugh.

  I drop my eyes to the table. “I—I don’t know.”

  He stands so quickly his chair almost falls over and my eyes dart up at him as I gasp. He glares down at me, which makes me swallow roughly then in the name of propriety (ugh) I look around with an apologetic smile at the people around us who’ve turned to see what the commotion is. Brody pulls his wallet from his back pocket, yanks out two twenties and throws them on the table then leans down putting his hands on it and looks me in the eye. “Fucking came up here to beg you to forgive me. Told you how I feel, how goddamned miserable I’ve been without you.” His hazel eyes have flashed to a dark golden brown and are steely on mine. “You wanna take that away from me now, you fucking go for it. But don’t expect me to be around when you get back.” Then he turns and leaves.

  Well, that went great.

  I sit there embarrassed because I know people are looking at me but decide it’d be even more humiliating to get up and leave at this point, so taking a breath I pick up my coffee mug, have a drink then finish my breakfast acting as if everything’s fine and dandy.

  While I eat, I think about what just happened and how what I’d said had actually made sense to me when it came out of my mouth. It’s not like I was saying we couldn’t be together; I was simply suggesting that we needed to ease back into it. I mean, here at the resort where there were no prying eyes and nobody knew about our past it was easy. At home everyone was well-versed in pretty much everything about us, another amazing advantage of living in a small town, and I think what I really meant was that I wanted it just for us without all of Serenity Point’s prying eyes on us.

  When I finish, I sit at the table for as long as I feel is necessary before I can get up and leave with a bit of dignity, not knowing why I give a shit about what these people think but whatever. I finally get up and walk out and at the top of the stairs, go to Brody’s door and knock but he doesn’t answer.

  “Brody?” I call. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. What I meant was that we’d be together but we’d have to ease into it gradually so we wouldn’t look like we’re jumping into things.”

  I stand there waiting for him to open the door, again wondering why the fuck I care what anyone thinks, then knock again and holler, “Brody?”

  When he still doesn’t answer, I sigh and give up then walk the six feet to my door pulling out my card to unlock it.

  “Were you looking for the gentleman who was in this room?” a woman asks.

  I look over to see the tall, middle-aged woman who’d been at the desk checking people in earlier. “Yes.”

  “Oh, he checked out about ten minutes ago. You just missed him.” She smiles then swipes a card in the slot and goes inside as I stand staring as the door closes behind her.

  He left? Shit!

  I turn and sprint down the stairs, through the lobby and out the front doors to see if I can catch him. There are tons of SUVs in the parking lot so it takes me a while but when I don’t see the one he rented I choke out a sob. I call him but he doesn’t answer. I text him telling him I’m sorry and ask if he’ll come back so I can explain. As I wait for him to answer, I dance back and forth from foot to foot because it’s freakin’ cold outside. But after several minutes when he doesn’t respond, I turn and go inside. When I get in my room, I crawl into my favorite chair and stare at the fireplace.

  Then I cry myself to sleep.

  Chapter 14

  “I know I’m an idiot!” I hiss into my phone. “You don’t think I think that already?”

  After I’d woken up in the chair an hour later, I’d tried calling Brody again but got sent straight to voicemail. I’d left what I thought was a heartfelt, apologetic and explanatory message hoping he’d understand and now I’m talking to Greer.

  “Let me get this straight. He takes the time to find out where you are, books a resort that costs four-hundred dollars a night, probably more since he hadn’t booked in advance and they always jack up the price in such cases, flies six and a half hours just to see you, in the middle of a blizzard, no less, and you tell him you can’t be with him? What the hell were you thinking, Piper?” she semi-screams at me.

  Jeez.

  “I didn’t tell him we couldn’t be together. I just said we couldn’t be together right now. And this place costs four-hundred dollars a night? Oh, my God!”

  “Yes, but he probably had to pay at least six hundred.”

  “Jesus. I need to marry an optometrist,” I throw out there.

  “Piper,” she warns.

  “I know, I know. Like I said, I’m an idiot, but can you at least see a little what I meant?”

  I hear her sigh. “I do, but, sweetie, it’s Brody. It’s not like it’d be some big scandal if you guys were back together. And since when did you start giving a shit about what people think anyway? Huh?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know. I guess I’ve heard so much bullshit about us over the past year, all the gossip and speculation, I just didn’t want to have to deal with more of it.”

  “That bullshit applies only to Peyton and her idiot clique. As fa
r as I know, everyone else in town has been sad for you two and would probably throw a friggin’ party if they knew you got back together.”

  I rub a hand over my forehead suddenly exhausted even though I just woke up. “You’re right. I’m so dumb.”

  “You’re not dumb but what you said to him was dumb.”

  “There’s a difference?” I tuck my knees closer to my chest and rest my chin on the top. “You think he’ll take me back?”

  Talk about turnabout being fair play. He’d risked a lot coming up here and trying to make amends with me. Now I was going to have to do the same with him. I just didn’t know if he’d be as amenable to my pleas as I’d been to his. Well, I hadn’t been on board at first, but throw not having sex for over a year into the mix and it’d led to my listening and giving him a chance to explain. I just hoped he’d do the same for me. Listen, that is. And be horny. Being horny helped, too.

  “Probably. You two belong together. Everyone knows it. You two even know it deep down. But right now I’m sure he’s gonna have to lick his wounds for a couple days, but in the end I’m willing to bet he’ll forgive you.”

  That gives me some hope. “Thank you,” I mutter. “Maybe I should leave now so I can talk to him?”

  “No, I don’t think that’d be smart. He’s mad. Give him a couple days to cool off. Look, you’ve got two more days there. Use them to relax and take some time to clear your head then when you get home, you can go talk, okay?”

  “Yeah. Okay. And I don’t know how I’ll ever pay you and Clay back for this. Can you set up a payment plan for me but with zero percent interest?”

  She laughs. “Don’t worry about it. You know we were happy to help. But if you screw things up even more when you get back, I just might have to set that plan into motion. And believe me when I tell you that Clay’s not above charging you the current APR.”

  “I’ll give you my firstborn, how about that?”

  “You don’t make amends with Brody you might not get a firstborn for some time,” she says with a snort.

  “Gee, thanks. Glad he’s my only option.”

  “You know he is.”

  My turn to sigh. “I know. Thanks, Greer. Give Addie a big, fat, slobbery kiss from Auntie Piper for me.”

  “Will do. Talk soon.”

  We hang up and I call Mom to tell her I’ll be home on Friday. I ask about my store and she tells me everything’s still going well.

  “Mom? Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course, Piper. What is it?”

  She knows Brody was here but I haven’t told her about my latest screw up. “I’ve never seen you and Daddy fight. You’ve had arguments, I know, but nothing major. How come?”

  She chuckles. “Oh, honey, believe me, we’ve had some knockdown dragouts over the years.”

  I frown. “You have?”

  “Of course.”

  This shocks the hell out of me because I’ve never heard them even raise their voices to each other. “When?”

  “Just over the years. The worst one was when you were about three. There was a recession and Daddy thought he was going to be laid off at the bank. That was before he became the branch manager. He was so upset, so angry all the time and nothing I did made it better. Then he just shut me out. Wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say. It got so bad that one night I told him to take what was his and leave. You know what he did?”

  “What?”

  “He picked me up and went out the front door.”

  Oh, my God. Oh, my God!

  “Mom,” I whisper as tears sting the backs of my eyes. Wow.

  “I know. After that, I knew we’d be together forever.” I hear her sigh the same time I do.

  “That’s so romantic,” I say.

  “Yes, it is. Your father can pull out all the stops when he wants to.” She chuckles. “Our last big fight was when you and Brody broke up. Daddy wanted to go set him straight but I told him to stay out of it.”

  “He did? You did?” I had no idea.

  “We didn’t talk for almost a week but he finally understood that it wouldn’t have done any good. He was just being protective of his little girl,” she explains.

  “That probably wouldn’t have gone too well.”

  “That’s why I didn’t let him go. So what’s this all about?” she questions.

  I tell her what happened.

  “Well, that’s to be expected. All of it,” she states about his reaction to my ridiculous decree. “Honey, that boy loves you. Over the years, I’ve learned that the time to worry is not when you’re arguing. That means you think there’s still something there to fight for. No, the time to worry is when you stop fighting. That’s usually when it really is over.”

  “God, I’ve so screwed things up,” I announce dejectedly.

  “It’ll be fine,” she soothes.

  “You think I should come home early? I mean, if I stay, won’t it look like I don’t care?”

  “Well… I don’t think it’d hurt to come home sooner,” she points out.

  “Then I’ll check out tomorrow. Thanks, Mom. You’re the best!”

  We say our I love yous and hang up so I can call and arrange for my flight then I go down to the front desk and let them know I’m leaving in the morning. I feel much better about things now. By tomorrow night, hopefully everything will be fixed between Brody and me and we can go about starting our future together once again.

  ~~~

  The earliest flight I can get is at one, which is disappointing because I wanted to get home sooner. After booking it, I call Greer again to see if she’ll pick me up and she argues that I should stay the two days I have left. When I pull out the big guns and tell her that Mom thinks I should come back, she concedes saying she guesses Mom knows what she’s talking about since she and Daddy have been married for almost forty years. Next I call Darby to see if she’s still good with running the store for another day. She’s says she’s happy to and is excited because this is the first time in twenty-five years that she’s had a chance to get out of the house regularly. I thank her and tell her we’ll get a schedule made for her when I get back. I call Ryan last who almost bursts my eardrum when she screams in excitement at hearing I’m coming home. And then she threatens that if I ever leave her alone for almost two weeks in The Point again she’ll hurt me.

  I decide not to tell Brody I’m coming back early because I want to catch him off guard thinking maybe he’ll be so surprised he’ll forget to be mad at me. And during the flight, I come up with a big speech I’m going to give him. One of the things I’ll say—after apologizing profusely, that is—is that I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks. Then I’ll tell him I love him and that nothing else matters as long as we’re together, that he’s my always and forever too. Yep. That should do it.

  When I walk into the concourse, I see Greer waiting for me and wave but as I get closer she holds a finger out to me making me stop.

  I watch as she puts Addie down on her feet and says, “Go see Auntie Piper!”

  I smile huge and squat down watching as Addie gives her little girl chortle then smiling crookedly at me, her two bottom teeth showing so adorably, she toddles to me where I catch her up in my arms.

  “That’s so good, Addie-dabbie-doo!” I hug her to me, breathing in her sweet baby smell. “I’m so proud of you!” She slaps me in the face with her sticky hands and I have to laugh remembering Luke’s line about jam hands from Gilmore Girls. I stand and put her on my hip walking over to Greer. “She’s getting good at this!”

  “She walks everywhere now! Everything’s on lockdown in the house,” she replies with a snort. “And, God, who knew my daughter would be fascinated by the toilet?”

  “Ew,” I say scrunching up my face then hold Addie under her arms away from me toward my sister. “I thought she had jam hands but now I know they’re potty hands. Gross.”

&nb
sp; Greer laughs as she takes Addie. “We put locks on them, dummy. It’s not like Clay and I looked at each other and said, ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do about it, so splash away, kid!’” She puts Addie on her hip then rubs her nose against her daughter’s tiny little button one. “Isn’t that right, pumpkin face?” Addie babbles in agreement, clapping her hands against Greer’s cheeks.

  “Gonna start calling you Potty Face,” I mumble, looking over and giving Greer a silly face as we walk to get my luggage. She rolls her eyes. “Thanks for getting me. I know it’s almost past Addie’s bedtime,” I say.

  “You’re welcome. I would’ve sent Clay but he’s at a conference, so you’re stuck with us.”

  As we walk to the baggage claim area I play “Peek-a-Boo” over Greer’s shoulder with my niece. Talk about a hoot. I’ve got her giggling up a storm and smacking the hell out of my sister’s face with her palms.

  “Enough. I’m gonna have a black eye if you don’t stop,” Greer mutters and I give Addie a high five as if that’d been the plan. When we approach the carousel I immediately (and luckily) spot my suitcases and retrieve them.

  Once on the road and headed to her house Greer asks, “So, what’s the plan to win Brody back?”

  I shrug. “I guess apologize all over myself?”

  “That’s probably a good start but watch it. He’s stubborn just like Kade. I don’t know if you remember, but Kade’s the one who, when we were seniors in high school, led the walkout protesting the school lunches. He didn’t go back until they changed the menu.”

  I snort. “I remember. And Brody is just as bad. Cassie said when he was little he used to hold his breath until he passed out if he didn’t get his way.”

  “I can see that. Let’s hope he doesn’t employ that trick tonight,” Greer says with a chuckle.

  We get back to her house and she makes me come inside to eat some of the leftover lasagna she made for dinner the night before. She puts Addie to bed while I heat a plate then eat quickly because I’m eager to get home to make amends.