Running Away

by Jen Andrews

  I was surprised by the sudden turn the conversation had taken. We didn’t know each other well, but the time we had spent together felt like it truly meant something, and we’d also had fun together.

  “What should we do?” I asked. “Everything is so complicated at work. What if I can’t handle it?”

  “I understand.” He started to slide off my papa’s ring. “Here, you need to take this back then.”

  “No, leave it on. You misunderstood me. We can have us here in your house, but until I find another job, I need to make sure that what we do isn’t going to cause more problems at the hospital.”

  “So what you’re saying is you’ll be my girlfriend, but I get to be your dirty little secret while you’re at work?” he asked, smirking.

  I didn’t think that was funny. In fact, it made me feel terrible that he’d even thought it.

  “That’s not it, Jeremy. If the girls at work find out we’re together, I have a feeling they’ll try to get me in trouble again. One more strike then I’m out on my ass—and I need my job. I live at my parents’ house, and I’m too old to be doing that.”

  Sighing with frustration, I rolled onto my back. My mind bounced all over the place, thinking of all that could go wrong, but every time I glanced over at the man lying next to me, the more I wanted to take a chance with him.

  But I was scared. Scared to risk myself, scared that it wouldn’t work out, scared that deep down, he would see my insecurities as weaknesses. My biggest fear was history repeating itself. Cheating and betrayal from someone who should love me was not something I wanted to go through again.

  “Teagan, can you put all this Cammie crap aside and trust that I won’t let them hurt you.”

  I wanted to. I really did. I do. “Jeremy, I want to trust you, and I do, but you have to try to understand what I’ve been going through at work. You can’t save me there. Between Cammie, her friends, and Jared, I’m in a really tough spot.”

  Jeremy ran his fingers through his hair then interlaced his fingers behind his head. “Is Jared the doctor in the picture? The one you dated?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  I told him about the incident in the residents’ room and that Jared had met up with Tiffany later that day.

  Jeremy slid his arm underneath me, and the next thing I knew, he’d rolled me over on top of him. I rested my cheek against his bare chest as he wrapped me in his arms. I didn’t want to be anywhere else.

  “I’m so sorry about everything,” he said. “I want to make it stop. What do you want me to do? Do you want me to call Cammie and see if I can convince her to leave you alone? I’ll do anything you ask.”

  If Jeremy talked to Cammie she’d know about us, which would only make matters worse. “Jeremy, I don’t want you to talk to her.”

  “Why not?” He loosened my hair then untwisted and arranged it so it spilled over my back and his arms.

  Loving the way he played with it, I decided I would wear it down when I was with him from now on. He stroked my back as his fingers combed over my hair. I’d never felt as close to anyone before, as I did right then.

  “I don’t want her to know about us. All she’s going to do is cause more problems.” Taking in a deep breath, I let it out and said. “I’m so sorry, Jeremy. I don’t want you to be a secret, or go back to work there, but I have no choice. I need to move out and quit freeloading off my parents. In the meantime, I’m looking for a new job.”

  At that moment, I wanted so badly for Nanna to be right. I loved the self-imposed bubble Jeremy and I were in now, and I didn’t want to leave it. We had our white picket fence surrounding us, holding us safely inside.

  “I think I’ll try to catch her before or after work and try to talk to her. If the conversation goes bad, I’ll walk away,” I said.

  “Please, will you let me call her? I don’t want you to get in trouble at work, Teagan. I hate the fact that my previous actions are affecting you,” he said softly.

  I heard the guilt in his voice and raised my head slightly to look him in the eyes. “It’s not your fault, but I can’t help but feel animosity about it. I hate that, but it’s how I feel. Can you understand that?”

  “I can, but it still doesn’t make me feel any better. I want her to leave you alone. I want to tell everyone who will listen that I’ve finally found the woman I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life with, Teagan. I don’t want to hide us, but I understand the need to for now.”

  His confession briefly rendered me speechless. “Are you serious, Jeremy? Do you really feel like you want to spend the rest of your life with me?”

  He nodded his head shyly, never taking his eyes from mine. “I don’t want to be without you now that I’ve found you.”

  I felt my eyes fill with tears. No man had ever spoken to me the way he did, and I never wanted him to stop. Right then, I also wanted to tell everyone I’d found the person I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with, but there was still that annoying doubt in the back of my brain. It was inescapable. For weeks, Cammie and her friends had been pounding stories, rumors, lies, and truths into my head and my heart.

  I wanted to trust every word he said to me. I wanted to believe he was the man for me.

  “Teagan, say something, please. I’m spilling my guts here for the first time in my life, and it scares the hell out of me,” he said, squeezing me a little tighter.

  “I’ll try to speak to Cammie on Monday. The sooner she leaves me alone, or the sooner I can find a new job, the better. Can we try it my way first and see what happens? Then if that doesn’t work, we’ll go from there?”

  He smiled and let out a quiet chuckle. “Yes.”

  He had the cutest smirk on his face, so I knew something was up. Like there was a story behind his short response.

  I laughed. “After all that . . . all I get is a yes? Nothing else?”

  “You get a yes, and one of these.” And he kissed me.

  I’ll take as many of those as he wants to give me.

  After the kiss, I had to go back to the whole yes thing, though. I sat up and straddled him, then pinned his hands up over his head.

  “So, my boyfriend, what’s this yes crap? Not that I’m opposed to you telling me yes all the time, but you need to let me in on the joke.”

  He grinned mischievously and shook his head. “No way, my girlfriend, it’s a man thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Oh, are we back to doing it the hard way, Jeremy? I see how it is.” I laughed as I kissed and nipped his neck. In between kisses, I whispered, “Tell me,” but it didn’t work. I let go of his hands, and he tangled his fingers in my hair, to pull me into a kiss. Things were escalating quickly, when he abruptly stopped.

  “We need to get off this bed before I mess up, Teagan.”

  We were both breathing heavily, and I didn’t want to get up. I was perfectly comfortable lying on my new favorite spot.

  “Come on, let’s go finish lunch and get back in the pool to cool off,” he suggested.

  He was really taking this seriously. And I appreciated that. I eased off him and stood from the bed.

  After lunch, we walked hand in hand to the patio.

  “Are we really doing this?” Jeremy asked, shooting me an expectant glance.

  “Officially, you’re my boyfriend?”

  “Yes, if you’ll have me.”

  “I will. How about my better half?”

  “Sounds perfect, but I think you’re the better half of us.”

  An uncontrollable grin spread across my face and I giggled. “Do you wanna be my sidekick? A dynamic duo like Velma and Shaggy from Scooby Doo?”

  He laughed. “I’ll be whatever you need me to be, Teagan. Just say the word. But, I am not smoking weed and driving that ugly-ass Mystery Machine.”

  I nodded with a satisfied grin on my face. We were doing this. We are really doing this. “Got it. No marijuana, no ugly van. I can agree to that.”

  “Then let’s take this plunge toge
ther, shall we?” he offered.

  I laughed heartily because I loved the idiom he used. We gripped each other’s hands tighter, ran to the deep end of the pool, and jumped.

  Sunday came, and we went running again. This time, when we got home, I made breakfast and we lounged around the pool.

  “Will you go somewhere with me later?” Jeremy asked out of the blue, as we were sunning ourselves on an enormous two-person hammock.

  I let out a quiet giggle before responding, because I needed to ask him another question. “Yes, I will go with you, but you owe me an explanation about something first.”

  He opened his blue eyes and glanced over at me with an inquisitive expression on his face.

  “Tell me about Yeats.” I’d been completely blindsided when we’d visited Nanna and she’d asked him to read to her. Most men would have opened the book and read the first poem they found. Not Jeremy, though. He’d known exactly what he was reading.

  He smiled bashfully, and his cheeks flushed slightly. “That’s an easy answer,” he said. “Remember the picture I showed you from my wallet?”

  I nodded, thinking back to our matching chubby pictures.

  “Well, I was quiet and shy back then, so I found other stuff to do with my time. Don’t laugh, but I worked in the library all through high school. I read every book I could while I was there. I excelled in all my classes and had enough credits to graduate a year early.”

  I was in utter disbelief. “Not only is my boyfriend handsome, he is also very intelligent. That is a perfect combination.” Carefully, I rolled to my side so I wouldn’t flip us over in the hammock, and kissed his bare shoulder. “Where are we going later?”

  “I want to take you to our weekly family dinner,” he said as if he thought I was going to say no.

  “That sounds great. Should I make anything to take over there?”

  He smiled and shook his head.

  Four and a half hours later, we were on our way to his family’s dinner. He had plugged in his iPod, but left the volume barely audible. I didn’t want to go messing with his stereo, but I wanted to see what music he liked.

  “Can I check out your music?” I asked.

  He handed me his iPod.

  I scrolled through his playlists, finding a wide array of music. Most of it was music I listened to already. The rest was music I hadn’t heard before. I scrolled until I saw a band I loved, selected the album, and pressed play.

  When the music started, Jeremy glanced over at me with an enormous grin on his face. “I don’t even know what to say right now,” he said and shook his head.

  “What?”

  “This is my favorite band.”

  He turned up the volume, and drove all the way to his parents’ house listening to my favorite band, In This Moment.

  When we entered his parents’ house, I was suddenly nervous to meet Jeremy’s family. What would they think of me? Would they like me? I’d worn a cute, dark green sundress, and a pair of wedge sandals. I’d left my hair down, but tamed my long, loose curls with a smoothing serum to keep them under control, and applied a minimal amount of makeup.

  We walked through a very colorfully painted house and out a large sliding glass door to where his family congregated. Apparently, we were the last to arrive at the house. Several surprised expressions greeted us from around the patio.

  Eventually, I spotted a face in the crowd I recognized. Zoey smiled brightly and lifted herself from Andy’s lap to jog over to us. She slammed into Jeremy and hugged him tightly, saying nothing. After releasing him, she turned to me.

  “Teagan, it’s great to see you again.” She gave me a quick hug.

  “Hello, Zoey. It’s good to see you, too. There are a lot of people here.” I glanced around again, taking in all the unfamiliar faces.

  Zoey laughed. “Don’t worry, everyone will love you. I promise.” She looked over at Jeremy and smiled.

  I sensed a silent conversation happening between them.

  Finally, she gave him a sisterly punch on the arm, “I’ll let you two make the rounds with the rest of the family,” then went back to her husband.

  Jeremy took me around and introduced me to everyone. His family was fantastic, and treated me as if I was a part of their family.

  When dinner was ready, we sat down at the largest outdoor dining table I had ever seen. I sat next to Jess, Jeremy’s sister-in-law. She had quite the baby belly going on, so we chatted about her pregnancy. She and Noah had wanted to start a family right away, and less than eight months after their wedding, she’d become pregnant.

  Jess was very sweet, and we got along great. I found that Angie, Adam’s girlfriend, was hilarious, and Heather, Jason’s wife was all of the above. That woman could multi-task like nobody’s business. Between taking care of her three children, she also helped prepare the food and made the rounds conversing with each person throughout the day.

  While we were eating, I noticed Luisa, Jeremy’s mom, watching us closely from the opposite end of the table. She smiled and said something to Jeremy in Spanish. Everyone at the table erupted in giggles and laughs.

  “Jesus Christ, Ma! Did you have to say that in front of everyone?” Jeremy had a huge, embarrassed grin on his face, so I figured she was teasing him about something.

  Looking around, the only other person who looked as confused as me was Andy. He smiled and shrugged. We were out of the loop, not knowing Spanish.

  Jeremy scrubbed his hands over his face and whispered to me, “Please tell me you don’t understand Spanish.”

  I shook my head.

  “Thank God.” He said something to his mom in Spanish, which made her laugh.

  “What did she say?” I asked curiously.

  “Nothing,” he replied, but he was still smiling, which made me even more curious.

  Adam leaned across Angie to talk to me. “She said that you and Jeremy will make pretty babies someday,” he said, with a face splitting grin, that I knew was meant to poke fun at Jeremy.

  Oh, my . . .

  “Seriously, bro?” Jeremy said to Adam. “I was going to tell her later, and not embarrass her in front of everyone. You are such a prick sometimes.”

  Adam grinned mischievously at his brother.

  Angie held her hand out to Adam, palm up. “Give me your phone and your wallet.”

  He did as she said.

  A moment later, Jeremy pushed his chair back, and Adam was running across the patio. Jeremy caught up with him, threw him over his shoulder, and chucked him into the pool. I was surprised, but everyone continued eating as if nothing had happened.

  “Don’t worry,” Angie said. “My poor boyfriend doesn’t know when to keep quiet sometimes. You’ll have to forgive him.”

  I agreed, and we laughed as we watched Adam climb out of the pool, and take off his shirt to squeeze the water out of it.

  “I always bring him a change of clothes, just in case.” She laughed, but didn’t get up to help Adam.

  Right after I returned to my chair next to Teagan, Adam bellowed at me. “Jeremy, get over here. Hurry!”

  When I looked over at him, he was frantically digging in the pockets of his wet shorts. It wasn’t like Adam to panic about anything, so I knew something was up and jogged over to him. “What’s wrong?”

  His face paled and he dropped to his knees, searching for something on the patio around us.

  “It’s gone. Oh, my God, it’s gone!” he snarled. “You need to help me find it, now.”

  I took a hold of his shoulders, forcing him to calm down and look at me. “What’s missing? I can’t help you look if I don’t know what I’m looking for.” I was really getting worried about him. Adam didn’t freak out about anything. Ever.

  He leaned in close so only I could hear him. “Angie’s engagement ring was in my pocket. I was going to ask her to marry me when we sat down for dessert, so it was out of the box already. Oh, God. It’s gone. What am I going to do?” He scrubbed his palms over his face.

&
nbsp; Shit . . . I had to find the ring. It was my fault it was lost. “Try and calm down, we’ll find it.”

  Adam and I searched the ground around the pool area, but it wasn’t there. It must be in the pool. Like a moron, I’d dumped him in the deep end, where the water was twelve feet deep.

  Fuck me.

  I hadn’t brought swim shorts, but I wasn’t about to ruin my brother’s big day. I pulled off my shirt, stripped down to my boxers, and jumped into the pool. Adam jumped in right behind me, and we submerged ourselves to search along the bottom.

  When we both surfaced for air, our entire family was standing at the side of the pool asking what we were doing.

  “Something fell out of my pocket, and we’re trying to find it,” Adam muttered. He was glaring at me, and most likely plotting how he would murder me.

  Shit, he was really pissed at me. I felt horrible and would do anything to find that ring. I dove back down to the bottom.

  Adam joined me again, and we dove repeatedly for thirty minutes straight trying to find the ring.

  On my last trip up for air, I had a hard time breathing from holding my breath for so long, and held on to the side of the pool to calm myself. Jess, Heather, Zoey, Angie, and Teagan were sitting at the shallow end of the pool soaking their feet and watching us.

  All of the women were talking, except for Teagan. She caught my eye. Leaving her hands folded on her lap, she pointed to the area directly in front of her and tipped her head toward where she had pointed. I cocked my head to the side because I wasn’t sure what she was trying to tell me. She spun the ring on her right hand and then casually pointed at the water in front of her again.

  It finally dawned on me that she was telling me the ring was in front of them. I didn’t know how the hell Teagan had seen it, but I nodded once, then dove back under and got Adam’s attention. I pointed toward the shallow area of the pool where the girls were. We surfaced and I thanked God that we didn’t have to search any longer.

  “It’s in front of the girls,” I whispered to him. “Teagan can see it and showed me where it is.”

  “Your girlfriend is a life saver,” he said as an extreme wave of relief washed over his face. “You better not fuck things up with her.”