Always You: A Sweet Romantic Comedy (ABCs of Love Collection Books 5-8)

by Brenna Jacobs

  Savanna held Nick’s hand in both of her own. “She is. She’s waiting for you. Hang on,” she added, letting go of Nick’s hand and pulling a scrap of paper out of her purse; she scrawled a few words on it then folded it up. She motioned Fletcher to come to her side of the room, and he navigated machines and another nurse who was keying something into a computer.

  Savanna took Fletcher’s hand and pressed the folded paper into his palm. She folded his fingers over it and pointed to the door.

  Fletcher stopped in the hallway right outside Nick’s room and unfolded the paper.

  Need looks different on each of us.

  He had no idea what that meant, but he hurried back to the waiting room, eager to share a piece of good news with Hadley. Eager to be in the same room with Hadley, even after their weird little walk down memory lane earlier. Not a walk, exactly. More like a stagger. But even if she had misremembered every component of the way their relationship had ended, he wanted to be where she was. Even if she continued to blame him for her past choices, he could live with that as long as she was nearby.

  He pushed the button and the door buzzed open. He knew he’d see Hadley right away. He’d always seen her first in a crowd. Even without her fiery red hair, she was always instantly recognizable, as though a giant cosmic arrow was pointing to her, as though a spotlight shone on her.

  But she was nowhere in sight.

  Fletcher walked the perimeter of the room just in case he’d somehow missed her. He knew, however, that he hadn’t. Couldn’t.

  He walked the room again, this time looking into every face, wondering if somehow these people who were hurting, waiting, wondering and frightened were experiencing these feelings in the same way he was.

  When the door swished open, he looked toward the entry and saw Hadley hurrying into the warm hospital. As difficult as it was to stop himself from running to her, he kept his pace normal, but she could be in no doubt that he was heading for her.

  Had she done something to her hair? And maybe reapplied lipstick? He couldn’t be sure what she’d done, but she smiled at him with a radiant glow. She stood in the doorway of the ER clenching her hands together. There was enough worry in her smile that he grew in his own confidence. If she was nervous, maybe he didn’t have quite so much to fear.

  Fletcher closed the distance between them. “He woke up,” he said, not willing to let her hold her worry for Nick any longer than she had to. “He gave Savanna his goofy grin and slipped right back to sleep, but waking up is such a good sign,” he said.

  Hadley stepped into his arms, and even though he had not let himself think too much about holding her, had not let himself remember this sensation, it didn’t matter. Years of memories flooded into his mind—memories of standing exactly like this, his arms around Hadley, and her cheek pressed into his chest, listening to his heart.

  He hoped she’d listen to his heart when he told her what was in it.

  She said something into his chest that he couldn’t hear. He wanted to know what she’d said, but not enough to let her go. Not nearly enough.

  In a minute, she pulled back, her arms still around his waist. “Do you want it?”

  “Want what?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “Never mind, it’s okay.”

  “No,” he said gesturing to his shirt where her words had gotten lost. “I just didn’t hear what you were asking about.”

  She shrugged, as if she thought her offering might be silly. “I said I made you a sandwich. It’s a roll and some turkey because that’s what I had in the car. But I thought you might be hungry.” She handed him the bundle wrapped in a take-out napkin he was sure she had pulled from her glove box.

  He looked from the sandwich to her and back again. What had she said to him about not being the kind of girl who makes a sandwich for a man? Was there some kind of message here? He didn’t dare hope so, but he smiled and thanked her all the same.

  “It’s not very pretty,” she said. “Anyone else would have done a better job, but I…” She didn’t finish, and he only nodded and smiled. She was nervous. This could definitely be a good thing.

  “Want to sit?” she asked. Her voice was quiet, and he couldn’t tell if that was out of respect for the room they were in or for some additional reasons.

  A guy could hope.

  As Fletcher sat down, he remembered Savanna’s scrap of paper. Still holding it in his hand, he took a bite of the sandwich. He watched Hadley, who was openly staring at him.

  He swallowed and said, “What?”

  She shook her head and motioned to his food.

  He shrugged and smiled as he took another bite. If she wanted to sit this close to him and watch him eat the food she’d put together for him, he wouldn’t fight with her about it.

  When he was done, he wiped his fingers on his pants and handed her the paper he’d been clutching.

  “What is this?”

  He shrugged. “Savanna gave it to me.”

  She unwrapped the paper. “It’s a receipt from Taco Cabana.”

  He made a turning gesture with his hand. “I think she left you a message on the other side.”

  Hadley read the scribbled message and immediately blushed bright pink. “I don’t think that’s for me,” she said, but she shoved the paper into her coat pocket.

  Holding his hand out for it, he said, “Does that mean it’s for me?”

  She didn’t say no, but she didn’t give it to him, either. He thought about what he’d read. Need looks different on each of us. He wondered if Hadley understood Savanna’s message. He was pretty sure he did.

  “Fletcher, I have something to say to you,” Hadley said. “Actually, a couple of things.” She looked around, and he felt a pull toward her with every fidget and nervous glance.

  She unzipped her coat and then zipped it back up. She looked at his hands. Finally, she faced him again.

  “Fletch,” she started again, and he knew he would never grow tired of hearing her say his name.

  “If I tell you I’m sorry for some things, will you believe me?”

  “When have I ever not believed you?” he asked.

  “That might be part of the problem. You’re too quick to trust me. And sometimes I say things that I think are true, even when they’re not.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry that I haven’t been very nice to you since you got back. To say I’m glad that you’re home is a huge understatement.”

  He wanted to reach out and touch her, to reassure himself that he was hearing correctly. But she sat with arms crossed tightly in front of her. He wasn’t about to interrupt her, so when she snuck a glance at him, he gave her a small smile of thanks.

  “So that’s the easy one.” She looked down at her shoes.

  “It’s possible that I’ve been mad at you for a while now,” she said, her eyes never meeting his. He didn’t laugh, at least not aloud.

  She kept talking. “And it’s also possible that you didn’t deserve every ounce of that anger.”

  She unclasped her arms and rubbed at her cheeks. Still looking at various things in the waiting room that were not Fletcher, Hadley sighed. “I’m not very good at this. Turns out that apologizing is something a person can get rusty at.”

  “You can start small if that helps,” he said. When she looked at him, he caught her grin and could tell that she knew he was kidding.

  “Start small? Okay, so I’m a little bit sorry that I let you take the blame for that one time we were late for French our senior year because I ran out of gas on the way to school.”

  “Forgiven,” he said.

  “And I’m kind of sorry that Sadie Hermansen wanted to ask you to the girls’ choice formal the year before we started dating, but I accidentally lost the package she asked me to give you.”

  He laughed. “She was scary. We’ll call that one a favor.”

  She laughed too, but her laugh quickly turned to tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t come to your dad’s funeral. I wasn’t ready to s
ee you, so I managed to need to be out of town.” She wiped her eyes on her sleeve. “But that was really selfish, and I regret it all the time. I loved your dad.”

  He leaned on his elbow on the back of her chair, close to putting his arm around her, but not too close.

  “He loved you, too. He always had good things to say about you,” he said, watching the way she smiled through her tears.

  Now her eyes met his and held his gaze. “And while we’re talking about the ways I’ve really messed up, I’m sorry I made you think I was going to be fine without you.”

  Was he really hearing this? Did she mean it? Looking at her face, he couldn’t doubt it.

  She sniffled and her breath hitched, but she collected herself enough to make the next words clear. “I was okay, but I was never all the way fine. Fletcher, I have missed you. I have missed us. And when I tried to grow up into who I was supposed to be, a real person with real work in the real world, I ignored the very thing that made my life truly meaningful.”

  She reached for his hand, and a surge of energy ran from his fingertips all the way to the back of his neck. “I may not need you to open my door, and I may not need you to kill spiders for me. I may not need your help with running my store, but Fletch, I will always need you to make me the best version of myself. I will always need you to make me feel whole. I will always, always need you to love me.” Her voice shook with tears and emotion.

  “Can you?” she asked, and her raw need was clear in her eyes. “Can you try to love me again?”

  Tears clung to her lashes, and he gazed into her eyes.

  He shook his head. “Impossible,” he said, his voice a husky whisper. “Because I have never, not for one minute of one day, stopped loving you.”

  Chapter 20

  Fletcher stood up from the seat in the drafty, busy ER waiting room and stepped toward Hadley. She gazed up into his eyes, those deep chocolate eyes ringed by black lashes that had always, honestly, made her a little jealous. But she had little room for thoughts of eyelashes now. His eyes never left her face as he moved directly in front of her and pulled her to her feet; he slipped his hands over her shoulders and down the length of her arms.

  Every inch of her body sang out at his touch. Her skin vibrated where his hands landed, and each nerve signaled to her brain that this was right, this was true.

  He bent his head and brushed the tip of his nose across the tip of hers, a hint of a memory in his playful touch.

  She reached her hands to cradle his face and their lips met.

  Her body responded to his kiss as if no time had passed at all. Her mouth remembered the shape of his, the warmth, the pressure. She felt every part of herself, body, mind, and soul, snap back into place from a disconnect that she hadn’t fully recognized.

  Standing there in the crowded waiting room, Hadley saw clearly what she had been missing; not only had she lost Fletcher, she had lost a crucial part of herself. In his arms, her lips pressed against his, she rediscovered herself in relation to him.

  Fletcher Gates kissed her back home.

  *****

  Hadley felt herself come back to reality when she heard Edison barking at the ER doorway. She pulled back from Fletcher’s kiss but stayed close in his arms.

  “Your dog is watching us,” Fletcher said.

  “Your mother is watching us,” Hadley added.

  “Which one do you think is happier to see this?” he asked, tucking her more tightly in the circle of his arms.

  Hadley laughed. “You really have to give Rose credit for being smarter than Edison. She definitely had the foresight to see this coming.”

  “You think?” Fletcher asked, leading Hadley over toward the doorway.

  “Pretty sure.” She took his hand in hers and squeezed his fingers.

  “Well, I’m almost as sure that Edison could tell that we belong together.”

  Hadley smirked up at Fletcher. “You and Edison? You two were definitely made for each other.”

  He leaned down and whispered toward the top of her head, “Don’t be jealous. We’ll make room for you.” She felt the heat of his breath in her hair and her heart pounded.

  Think about the dog, she told herself. Focus on the dog. It didn’t help. As she stepped outside and took Edison’s leash from Rose, she felt the cold air touch her face, her lips, her neck and wished for Fletcher’s hands to warm her as they had only a moment ago.

  “Nick woke up for a minute,” Fletcher told his mom, never letting go of Hadley’s hand.

  “That is exactly what I hoped would happen,” Rose said, nodding her head. “That’s my cue to say goodnight. Edison and I have worn each other out. Who wants to take me home?”

  Fletcher turned to Hadley. “I’ll take my mom home. You go drop him off. Meet you back here in twenty minutes?”

  Hadley didn’t think she was being competitive when she suggested fifteen. Or over-eager. Reasonable. It was definitely sensible to get Edison home and be back here in Fletcher’s arms in fifteen minutes.

  Oh, and to check on Nick.

  Him, too.

  She wrangled Edison into the car, and he gave her a slurp of gratitude all over her face. Pushing his giant head to the other side of the car, she said, “Don’t be gross. If I smell like drool, Fletcher won’t kiss me again, and just between you and me, I’m not sure I could survive Fletcher not wanting to kiss me again.”

  Delivering Edison and her Thanksgiving dinner home and checking Edison’s water bowl, she gave him a last scratch behind his floppy ears and told him to go to bed before hurrying back to the hospital.

  When she arrived, Fletcher’s truck was not yet in the parking lot. She felt a vaguely familiar tug in her heart. It didn’t take her long to realize that she missed him.

  They’d been apart for sixteen minutes, and she missed him.

  A small chuckle escaped her at the thought, and she began to panic—what if she went on another out-of-control laughing jag?

  But it occurred to her that the inappropriately timed giggling fits hadn’t happened at all lately. Maybe her mom was right. Maybe they were a symptom of something crucial that was missing from her life. Or that had been missing until very recently.

  As she pictured Fletcher’s face, he walked in the door. He saw her waiting and hurried to her side.

  “Hi,” he said, and every aspect of the shy fifteen-year-old was visible in the man.

  “Hi, yourself,” she said. “You weren’t in much of a hurry to get back here,” she teased.

  “Well, that’s where you’re wrong, but I had to fix something before I came back.”

  Hadley sat in a chair, and when Fletcher sat beside her, she found that he was not quite near enough to her. She pulled his arm into both of hers and held his hand.

  “I know how you love to fix things,” she said. “Were you successful?”

  He smiled at her. “Depends,” he said.

  “On what?” she asked.

  “On how you’d feel about coming with me to the Fireman’s Ball next week.” He gave her a look that suggested that he worried she might say no. She loved that vulnerable look.

  “I seem to recall that you already have a date,” she said, remembering the ill-fated plan of Nick’s to get the four of them together. The thought of how Nick would smile to see them now, sitting so closely together with their arms entwined, made her hope yet again that they’d be able to visit with him tonight. That he’d be able to talk with them.

  “Well, I do have a date,” Fletcher said.

  “But you’re man enough for two?” Hadley wondered if it was too soon to tease him like that.

  Apparently, he was ready for it. “I am when one of them is my mom.”

  “You’re taking your mother to the Fireman’s Ball? Isn’t this the big fancy social event of the year?”

  Fletcher leaned close to Hadley’s ear. “You are aware, aren’t you, that there are very few people I like as much as I like her?” Something in the way his words traveled throu
gh her ears and into her heart said more than “like” to Hadley.

  “I am,” she said, feeling her heart thump in her throat.

  “She needs to come to the ball, for reasons I am not at liberty to share. But I can’t picture myself dancing more than one time with my mom. I mean, I have a little bit of pride. But this isn’t really about pride. It’s about you. Because if you can imagine, I can’t stop thinking about having an excuse to hold you close for hours at a time. So how about you come along, too?”

  “And be your backup?”

  “And be my girl.”

  Hadley felt the simplicity of his words slip directly into her soul.

  “You’re really willing to give me another try?” she asked, unable to suppress her grin.

  “I’m willing to give you everything,” he said. “Anything you need, and maybe a few things you never even thought you needed.”

  When he leaned across the seat and kissed her again, she understood that Fletcher Gates knew exactly what she needed.

  Epilogue

  Hadley took one last look at herself in the mirror before answering the door. She’d put Edison behind the closed door of her room so she could stay relatively fur-free. The emerald dress set off her complexion perfectly, and her hair, always on the brink of running away from her, looked elegant and careless at the same time.

  She opened the door.

  Her breath stopped.

  Fletcher Gates was handsome. He’d always been handsome. But Fletcher Gates in a tuxedo was truly a sight to behold.

  “Wow,” she said. “You look amazing.”

  He didn’t respond, but she thought—from the awestruck look on his face—that this might be a good development.

  “Mr. Gates,” she said, a teasing lilt in her voice. “Have I, by any chance, rendered you speechless?”

  If he didn’t know what to say, that didn’t mean he was unresponsive. He placed his hands gently on Hadley’s hips and drew her close to him. Their lips met, and a sound of pleasure escaped him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and moved her mouth close to his ear. “Should we skip the party and just stay in?” she asked.