“Hi Megan, how’ve you been?” Matt asked as he poured a glass of Bourbon. He normally didn’t drink at the office but after the week he had, he deserved one glass.
“Good, I’ve been good. Just busy with the kids. What about you, are you still working yourself to death?”
“Yes, but I think I’ve finally finished most of it. I know I haven’t been able to talk to you very much, and I’m sorry about that. Hopefully, I won’t be as busy now.”
“It’s okay Matt, and I understand. You’re trying to grow your business and that’s important.” He smiled, not many women would be this understanding.
“I feel like I’ve neglected a lot though. My poor mother probably thinks I’ve abandoned her.” She laughed.
“I’m sure she understands. What are your plans for tomorrow? Do you have to be at the office early?” she asked.
“I’m so tired right now. I don’t have much to do so I thought I’d rest a little and then go in around 10. Tomorrow evening I plan to go see Mom.”
“I bet she’ll like that.” She was silent and then he heard the words that made his heart race. “I can’t wait to see you. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too. I can’t wait until Thanksgiving.”
They talked for about thirty minutes, before hanging up. It was 7 pm, and he was ready to grab some food and head home. Rest sounded good.
He threw his arm up and hailed a cab, once inside he gave the cabbie his address. On the ride home, he kept thinking about Megan and what she said. She missed him. Who would have thought those words would make his soul feel light after the week he had. It made him feel as if anything was possible. With so much finished at the office, he was actually thinking that he might surprise her one weekend. Maybe visit her before Thanksgiving.
When he arrived home, he had to do a double take. What was she doing here? It looked as though she had been waiting for a while. She had a suitcase setting next to her by his apartment door. When she spotted him, she smiled the biggest smile, jumped up, and threw her arms around his neck as she whispered, “I’ve missed you.”
Matt hugged her back, before extracting himself from her embrace. “What are you doing here?” he asked, a little confused by her presence.
“I just needed to see you. I thought about calling, but I wanted to talk to you in person. I’ve made a huge mistake, Matt. Can we go inside and talk about it?” she asked with pleading eyes.
He nodded and then unlocked the door. Matt waved her inside and then followed behind her, locking the door before taking a seat in his favorite recliner. She walked over and plopped down on the brown leather couch. He studied her for a moment. She looked the same but also different somehow. Maybe it wasn’t her, maybe it was just him. He didn’t feel anything, except maybe a little angry.
“Carly, why are you here?” He could tell she was a little hurt that he wasn’t happier to see her, but she left him over six months ago and he hadn’t heard anything from her since. It’s as if the two years they spent together meant nothing to her. She threw him away and never looked back… until now.
Tears welled up in her eyes, and she replied, “I’m so sorry, Matt. I made a huge mistake and I want to try to make it work.” She looked at him with pleading eyes and for a brief, flashing moment, he felt sorry for her. She looked like his Carly, the one he fell in love with. Of course, it didn’t last long.
“So, it took you six months to realize you made a mistake?” Matt could feel the anger rising.
“No! It took me six months to gather my courage to come back.” He knew that things changed while they were still dating, he could feel it as she pulled away from him, long before she moved back home. He always suspected she was seeing someone else, but he couldn’t prove it.
“Tell me that you weren’t dating someone while you were with me? Tell me that’s not why you moved away?” He half asked, half accused while his eyes narrowed on her.
She looked away, and he knew that he had guessed right. All the anger he thought he let go of the past six months came back in a rush, almost staggering him.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, still not meeting his eyes. “I met him when I went home to visit my family. I could say that it was an accident, or that I had been drinking, but that would be a lie.”
Matt sat there clinching and unclenching his fist, while his jaw tightened. When it seemed as though she was finished talking, he growled, “Go on.” She glanced up and caught his eyes before looking away.
“After that, we started talking on a daily basis. He would call me or I would call him, and before I knew it, I started making more and more trips home. And then six months ago, I moved back to be with him.” She hastily wiped the tears away. “Anyway, he didn’t ask me to move back and when he found out, he ended it. I found out later that he was married. He liked the long distance relationship because it was easy to hide me from his wife. It was too late to come back and I felt like such a fool. So for the past six months, all I’ve been thinking about is you… and us. We were happy and I ruined it all. I thought about calling you a thousand times but I didn’t know what to say. So here I am. I love you Matt, and I want to try to make things work. We were happy once, and I know we can be happy again,” she begged.
Matt dropped his head to his hands as he sat with his elbows resting on his knees. He knew he still had feelings for her. He wouldn’t feel all this anger if he didn’t. He sat there silently working through everything she had told him.
Yes, he thought he loved her and at one time he wanted to marry her, but she left. She left him and their relationship behind. She cheated on him and there was no way he would ever be able to trust her again. Then there was Megan. They hadn’t made any promises to each other but he really wanted to make things work with her. It’s funny, now that he thought about Megan, all his anger melted away. It didn’t matter that Carly left, or that she cheated, because they just weren’t meant to be.
“Sorry, Carly,” he said, looking her in the eyes. “I’ve moved on. You need to go home.” She cried harder.
“Please, Matt!” she begged, “Please give us another chance!”
“I can’t. I’ve met someone else and I’ve moved on. I don’t love you anymore, Carly.” He wasn’t trying to be cruel, just honest.
She stood and headed toward the small bathroom at the end of the hall. Matt heard her blow her nose before coming back and plopping back down on the couch. After a few minutes of silence, she said, “I can’t go home tonight. It’s too late to drive. Can I stay here tonight and I’ll leave in the morning?” She noticed his hesitation and hurried on. “I don’t have any money for a hotel. I’ll sleep on the couch…please, Matt!”
“I’m sure one of your friends will let you stay with them.” She looked at him with sad eyes and his heart softened just a little.
“I don’t have any friends here. Melissa moved back with me and she’s still living there. Everyone else was more like acquaintances. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Matt stood, and started pacing the living room. He didn’t want her here but he couldn’t just throw her out. He was at war with himself, not knowing what to do. Oh, he knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to tell her to leave and never come back, but that wasn’t him or how his mother raised him. He also knew that if something happened to her, if she was injured trying to get back home, he’d never forgive himself. He finally stopped pacing and looked at her, ran his hands through his hair before he said, “You can stay on the couch, but I want you gone before I leave for work in the morning. Don’t come back here anymore, Carly.” She just nodded her understanding.
****
The plane circled the airport before landing. Megan felt excited and so nervous! She couldn’t wait to see Matt again but worried about how he’d take the news. She also couldn’t wait to see Lana. It felt like a new beginning somehow.
Grabbing her bag from the overhead compartment, Megan followed everyone else off the plane, slowly making
her way to Lana. She spotted her friend standing there scanning the crowd for her. “Lana, over here,” she called, and when Lana spotted her, she squealed, rushed over and threw her arms around Megan.
“I can’t believe you’re here! I’ve missed you so much.” Lana gushed as she stepped back to look at Megan with a sappy smile on her face. Lana had always been the emotional one, crying at the drop of a hat. Happy or sad, it didn’t matter.
Megan didn’t bring any luggage, only her overnight bag so the two of them headed for the exit. She stopped and just stared when she noticed the car that was waiting. “Surely, this is not our ride?” Lana looked at her funny and then grabbed her hand and pulled her forward.
“What did you expect, Megan?” Lana said as some man opened the door and they crawled into the back of a black limo.
“Well, certainly not this.”
“I’m so happy you’re here. So tell me, what’s going on?” She looked at her expectantly but Megan needed to tell Matt first.
“I promise to tell you everything but I need to stop by Matt’s place first. Is that okay? You do know where he lives, right?” She had an odd expression on her face, but nodded and then gave the chauffeur Matt’s address.
“I don’t think he’ll be there though, it’s 8:30 and he works as much as Colin. He probably went to the office around 7 this morning.” She was counting on the fact that he would be home til’ 9 or 10, but she kept that secret.
Pulling up in front of a large apartment complex, Lana told her that he lived in 205. She waited in the limo while Megan briskly walked to his apartment, her hands sweaty and heart pounding. She was secretly praying that he would be happy to see her and that she wasn’t making a huge mistake.
Every time she talked to him, she felt like he was still interested in her and if it wasn’t for the distance between them they would be together. She tried to let him know that she felt the same way. He had asked her when she could come for a visit, she just didn’t tell him it would be today. She kept thinking about how she could break the news to him. She couldn’t say, Surprise! Oh, by the way, you’re going to be a daddy! All she thought about was how to tell him but she still didn’t know the right way to do it. Oh God!
She stood in front of his door wringing her hands while she gathered her courage. With anxious anticipation, she took a deep breath as she nervously lifted her hand to knock. She bounced from foot to foot as emotions warred inside her body. She had them all at once.
It seemed like forever before she heard movement on the other side; the sound of the chain as it slowly moved, the sound of the deadbolt turn. It seemed to take forever and she thought she burst before he finally opened the door. Come on Megan, calm down! The door slowly opened and there stood…a half-naked woman! She had on a T-shirt and a pair of panties. Her hair was messy and it looked like she had spent the night. “Can I help you?” she asked, and Megan could only swallow hard as she stood frozen in place.
Of all the things she imagined, this never once crossed her mind. He never told her about any other woman, or women. Why would he? She wanted to laugh at the absurdity. Every man she met turned out to be like this, why did she expect Matt to be any different. In the back of her mind, she heard a small voice saying, you never made any promises, but she ignored it.
This woman had no idea that Megan’s world came crashing down around her while she just stood there looking at her. The only thing she knew for sure was that she was NOT going to cry in front of this…this floozy. She felt horrible but was not going to give her the satisfaction of seeing her fall apart, even if she felt like someone had ripped her heart from her chest, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it. She had to remember to pick it up and take it with her when she left. Realizing she stood there silent like an idiot, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Trying again, she croaked out, “Is Matt here?”
The half-naked woman looked at her with suspicion, and then hesitatingly said, “He’s in the shower. Can I help you?”
“No, I’ll just come back later.” She turned and fled down the stairs with no intention of ever coming back!
Rushing back to the limo, Megan climbed inside as Lana turned to her, a question on her lips. As she opened her mouth, Megan just shook her head. Lana knew her well enough to know she couldn’t talk about it right now. She was not a crier, but that was because she could hold it all inside. Right now if she tried to speak, she would break into a blubbering mess. Lana instructed the chauffeur to take them home. They rode in silence, Lana watched her while she stared out the window.
Arriving at Lana’s house…her penthouse…she looked around. Everything was gorgeous and she would have been impressed if her world hadn’t just shattered all around her.
Sitting down on the leather couch, she dropped her head to her hands, effectively covering her face as a tear made its way past her well-constructed barrier. Now that one broke free, others followed which just made her angry. She hadn’t cried since she found James with his whore, even when they got a divorce.
She wasn’t even dating Matt, and she was crying over him? Hell No! Megan realized a long time ago that she didn’t need a man…any man! Then the little girl in her knew that she just wanted one. She wanted someone to love her, talk with her, make her laugh and just be her everything. She knew it was a fairytale but she didn’t care. As the little girl in her won, her anger fled and she cried like she hadn’t cried in years.
Lana pulled Megan to her and cradled her head to her chest, and rocked her as if she was a child in need of comfort. She cried until she felt better, grateful for Lana’s silent support. At last, she sat up and accepted the Kleenex Lana was handing her and blew her nose. She knew she needed to answer the questions that Lana had not yet asked.
“After your wedding, I showed Matt around town.” Lana quirked an eyebrow and Megan laughed with tears still in her eyes. “I know, there’s not much to see.” she swiped her eyes. “We really hit it off and I invited him back to my place where he spent the night.” She could tell Lana was surprised, but thankfully she kept quiet. She didn’t have one-night stands. “He’s been calling me every night and we even made plans for me to visit him on my Thanksgiving break.” She swallowed hard, knowing what she needed to say next. “When he was there, I’d been taking antibiotics for a sinus infection and I didn’t realize that it would render my birth control ineffective.”
“Megan, are you pregnant?” Lana shouted as she jumped off the couch.
“Yes,” she whispered, letting out a deep breath.
“Oh, Megan, what happened with Matt?”
“The woman in the tee shirt and panties said he was in the shower.” More tears slipped out, as Lana’s face turned angry.
“What?!” Lana shouted.
“Her hair was all messy like she just woke up.” Megan gulped, needing to accept the facts. She watched Lana’s face turn from anger to confusion now that the initial shock was over.
“That doesn’t make any sense, Megan.” Now, Lana was pacing. “Matt is not like that. Colin has told me several times that he doesn’t like one-night stands and he doesn’t stray. He used to get mad at Colin for the way he lived.”
“That’s what happened, Lana.” She was proud that she pulled herself together.
“Let’s talk to Matt. There has to be another explanation.” Lana pleaded.
“No! It reminded me of the time I found James with his whore and I will not put myself in that situation again. I have too much to think about and too much going on right now. Please don’t say anything to him.” Her voice was strong.
“Oh Megan, what are you going to do?” Lana plopped back down on the couch beside her.
“I’m going to have a baby,” she grinned. Lana knew that she always wanted kids.
Lana took her hands and said, “I’m happy for you, Megan.” They sat there in silence, and then she asked, “What else is going on?” Huh, she hoped Lana had missed that little slip.
She collected her thoughts as sh
e wondered what she should tell her friend. Then she thought, Screw it! She’s my best friend, and if it were reversed, I’d be pissed as hell at her if she kept things from me. “I started receiving flowers about the same time you got married.” She scrunched her nose. “No wait, it was before you got married.”
“From whom?”
“I don’t know, but at the time I assumed they were from James. Whoever sent them left the flowers on my doorstep. This had happened at least once a week. I thought it was sweet and it made me feel kind of good, you know. Now I remember, it was definitely before your wedding. They started coming about the time school ended last year. After Matt’s visit, someone left flowers with blood sprayed on them. If it wasn’t blood, they sure made it look like it was. Now I get half-dead flowers and even black ones. It’s creepy.” She shivered.
“What did the police say?” She looked so concerned.
Megan smiled sheepishly and answered, “I never called them.”
“What the hell, Megan! If that had been me, you would have called the police yourself. Promise me you’ll call them the very next time this happens,” she glared, “Promise!”
“Okay, okay, I will. Eric said the same thing.” That seemed to help as the tension left her shoulders even though the concern remained.
“We need to talk to Colin about this. He might know what to do about stalkers.”
“This isn’t a stalker, Lana.”
She looked incredulous when she slowly said, “Oh, yes it is, Megan.”
“Okay, but please tell Colin not to let Matt know I’m here. No offense Lana, but it’s going to be hard enough to stay here until Sunday. All I want to do is go home and crawl into bed.”
Lana looked sad and then her expression changed to one that said she was forming a plan. That made her nervous. “I’ll talk to Colin and see if he’ll send you home if that’s what you want to do.”
“What do you mean?” Now Megan was confused.
“Megan, you do know that Colin has his own jet, right?” Oh, yeah, she forgot about that.
Finding Megan (The Kiser Series Book 2) Page 6
