Her plan was set in stone when she pulled into the driveway. She’d slide down to Patrick’s place, even if it meant driving all night. And when she got to Nashville she’d dress in her tightest, shortest, low cut black dress, hit some clubs downtown and flirt until it hurt.
It still isn’t going change your feelings for Brian, a voice in the back of her head said as she got out of the car. “To hell with Brian,” she mumbled.
She heard the door across the street open. “Paige,” Gabrielle called out. “Paige, Brian’s looking for you.”
“Tell him to keep looking!” she shouted back as she slammed into her house.
When she entered the house, Paige picked up the phone and called Patrick.
“Hello, Paige,” he said.
“I’m coming to Nashville,” she announced.
“Why? I thought you had your hands full with Kelvin.”
“His name is Brian and he’s a piece of sh—.”
“Paige,” Patrick said, cutting her off. “What happened?”
She sighed as she recounted what she’d seen in the hospital. “And don’t tell me that I’m overreacting this time.”
“It doesn’t sound like it. But I don’t want you to drive tonight. Get some sleep and come when you are a little less emotional. The first round of drinks at Lava Lounge is on me,” Patrick said.
“Thanks,” she said. “And I am driving today. You forget, I live across the street from this man and I don’t want to look out my front window and see him and his wife playing with their son. It would just hurt too much.” Tears sprang into her eyes and she blinked rapidly to keep them from falling. “Look, I have to go pack. I’ll call you from the road.”
“Paige, I’m sorry,” Patrick said. “I actually thought this was going to work out for you.”
“So did I,” she said before hanging up the phone.
Paige walked into her bedroom and turned her stereo on as she packed. The smooth sound of Boney James filled the air but the sound of his sax made her think of the slow and sensual love making she and Brian had shared. Snapping the radio off, she began stuffing clothes into her suitcase. “How could I let myself fall for that man?” she muttered. “His divorce was still new and he wanted to have a whole family for his son.”
Zipping her suitcase, she resolved to find another place to live as soon as she returned to South Carolina. Just as quickly she changed her mind. She wasn’t going to give up her quiet neighborhood just to run away from Brian. Damn him.
Paige picked up her overstuffed suitcase and headed outside to her car. As she looked across the street, she saw Brian pulling into the driveway. Then another car pulled in behind him, a black Nissan Maxima with a Georgia license plate. Paige knew that was Olivia. She slammed the trunk of her car and headed for the door. She heard Brian when he called her name, but it didn’t matter. He had made his choice.
“Paige,” he called out again.
She decided that her leaving wasn’t a sign of defeat. She wasn’t some crushed schoolgirl who had lost the star quarterback to the head cheerleader. Grabbing her Ray-Ban sunglasses, she confidently walked outside to face Brian and his wife head-on. No one played with Paige Grayson’s emotions and got away with it. Yes, she was angry and they were going to know about it. Finding Brian standing in her driveway didn’t surprise her because she’d known he’d try to pass off some lame excuse as the truth.
“Paige,” he said. “I know what that looked like back there, but—”
“But what, Brian?” she snapped, cutting him off. A deep scowl darkened her face, causing her eyes to narrow like a cat’s before springing on a mouse. “You don’t know what you want and I’m not going be a part of your funky little triangle.” Paige’s voice was like a hissing cobra. “Why don’t you take your ass back over there to your wife and maybe the two of you can finish what you started last night.”
“What are you talking about?” Brian asked. Confusion clouded his handsome face.
“What am I talking about?” she repeated. “Do I look like a fool to you? You want your wife back, go get her, but leave me the hell alone. I don’t want to see you, I don’t want to hear your voice. I want anything to do with you!”
“Paige, there’s nothing going on with Olivia and me,” he attempted to explain. “What happened in the hos—”
“What happened in the hospital was you got caught. I wasn’t supposed to see your little reunion with Olivia. Well, go kiss her and welcome her back into your life.” Paige’s rage, disappointment and hurt feelings exploded in her voice. “Better yet, just kiss my ass.” She opened the driver’s door, got in and started the car up. Brian stood behind it.
“You’re not leaving until we talk,” he said, placing his hands on the trunk of the car. Paige revved her engine, imagining Olivia standing across the street, laughing her head off.
“Move, or I swear I will roll right over you,” she hissed.
“I understand you’re angry and you have a right to be. But this isn’t the way to handle this,” Brian said, reminding her of the days when she thought of him as Robocop. He was talking down to her and he was the one who was wrong. It wasn’t as if he were chastising her because she was speeding again. She was the one who’d caught him about to kiss a woman he said he was over. A woman who’d walked out on him and left him heartbroken. A woman who he said had no chance of coming back into his life. Paige turned the ignition off, got out of the car and stalked over to Brian.
“You’re right,” she snapped. “This isn’t the way to handle this.” She hauled off and slapped him as hard as she could. “Now I feel so much better.”
Brian grabbed her arm. “Paige, don’t do this. You’re giving Olivia what she wants. I wasn’t with her last night. I don’t know where Olivia was last night. That’s why I went to get my son. That’s why he was with me at my house this morning. I told you that I want you and I’m over her. But she is the mother of my child and she’s going to be a part of Mickey’s life. I know I was wrong, but I’m not going to take this,” he said.
Paige snatched her arm away from him. “So what do you expect me to do? Sit on a fence until you decide what you want?”
Brian shook his head. “Do whatever the hell you have to do. I’m not trying to keep another woman in my life who doesn’t want to be here. But let me ask you this. Have I ever lied to you or given you a reason not to believe in me?”
Paige looked away from him, knowing the answer to that question was no. Brian had always been up front with her. Why would he stop now? He was going to kiss her and I walked in on that. To hell with him, get in this car and leave.
Paige turned to Brian. “Move,” she barked, then got back into the car and started it up. Brian stepped aside and she tore out of the driveway, leaving black tire marks in her wake.
A cold feeling settled in the bottom of Brian’s stomach as he headed across the street to his house. Olivia leaned against the car, looking at him with a smug look on her face.
“Why are you here?”
“I came to get Mickey some clothes and such,” she said casually. “Does it hurt?”
“What?”
“Your jaw. She smacked you kind of hard. Isn’t that against the law or something, assault on a police officer?”
Brian absentmindedly rubbed his cheek. Paige’s blow did sting, but the pain in his heart was much more pronounced. Why didn’t she believe him? What had Olivia said to her? “What did you say to Paige in the hospital?” Brian demanded angrily.
Olivia feigned a look of innocence. “I only told her that I was Mickey’s mother and she could never take my place,” she said.
Brian narrowed his eyes at her. “This not a competition between you and Paige. If you came back here for your son, why are you so worried about my personal life? Didn’t you say you had a life in Atlanta?”
Olivia folded her arms across her chest. “Do you love her? I mean, how can you love some one you barely know? I’ve dated a few guys and learned that I shoul
d have never left what I had”
Before Brian could reply, Gabrielle interjected. “Why don’t you stop worrying about my brother and go sit with your son!” She jumped off the edge of the porch and got in Olivia’s face. “What kind of mother thinks toys and phone calls make up for her being there for her son?”
“You don’t know a thing about motherhood or being in love,” Olivia snapped.
Gabrielle put her hands on her petite hips. “Neither do you, because you suck at both, bitch.”
“Look!” Brian said. “I don’t need this right now. Olivia, Mickey shouldn’t be alone at the hospital. Go there and I’ll bring him his overnight bag. Gabrielle, go home.”
As Gabrielle and Olivia exchanged ugly looks, Brian walked into the house and closed the door. He held his throbbing head and released a sigh as he plopped down on the sofa. This was too much to handle.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Paige sat beside the pool, her mind as empty as her glass. The Nashville sun had tanned her brown skin over the past three days. Patrick was rarely at the condo because his girlfriend, a Tennessee State University graduate student, kept him busy. She had changed him, Paige noticed. Patrick looked as if he’d dropped thirty pounds and he dressed more stylishly. She wanted to meet this mystery chick and find out what her secret was, but right now she was more content watching sweat roll down her flat belly. She wished it were Brian’s tongue running across her body. Quickly she stood and reproached herself for thinking of him.
Brian isn’t thinking about you. He’s rekindling his romance with Olivia.
Paige walked into the condo and fixed herself another rum and cola. She’d been drinking for three days, but the alcohol didn’t take her mind off Brian. If anything, it made the longing for him worse. She dreamed of him at night, so she stayed up late watching old movies and eating marshmallows and then she would get up and run six miles. By mid-afternoon, Paige would be lounging in her bikini at the community pool, dozing off as the afternoon crept by. Patrick would wake her up before heading out with his girlfriend and then Paige would get up and fix herself a sandwich, return to the pool and drink some more.
As she walked over to her chaise, someone whistled behind her. Paige turned around and smiled at the young man. She hoped he would stay where he was, but he took her smile as an invitation to come over. “How you doing, ma?” the boy asked, revealing a gold tooth and his youth.
“Not too good,” Paige said as she took a sip of her drink.
“Really? What’s wrong?” he asked as he looked up and down her body. “‘Cause you look great.”
Paige sloshed her drink around in her glass. “Well, my man is getting back with his ex-wife. I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in three days and the last thing I want is to talk to some gold tooth playboy coming over here to try and pick me up because he likes the way my ass and breasts look in my bikini.”
He threw up both of his hands as if she were holding a gun ready to shoot him. “Damn, ma, it’s not like you’re all of that.”
Paige rolled her eyes. “I must be some of that, otherwise you wouldn’t have ambled your ass over here.”
The boy walked away as if his pride had been destroyed. Paige rolled her eyes. It was obvious that she was back to her old abrasive self. She plopped down on the chaise, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep. After what seemed only a few minutes later, Patrick was waking her up. She’d actually been asleep for an hour and the deep tan lines on her shoulders told her that she needed a new type of sunscreen.
“Still living the lush life, I see,” he said as he took her empty glass from her hand.
Paige sat up. The pool seemed to be spinning. “What else do I have to do?”
“Go take a shower, you’re coming out with me and Caron tonight.”
Paige ran her fingers though her hair. “Who is Caron?”
“The woman who is probably going to have my sons.”
Paige stood up and wrapped a towel around her waist. “I don’t want to be a third wheel,” she said as she walked a few steps ahead of Patrick. He grabbed her elbow.
“Paige, I know you’re nursing a broken heart, but life goes on and rum and Coke isn’t going to do anything thing but make you fat.”
She laughed, but it was hollow, like the look in her eyes. “All right, I’ll go,” Paige said. “Besides, the best way to get over an old man is to get underneath a new one.”
Patrick shook his head as he watched his friend walk into the house.
A few hours later, Paige, Caron, and Patrick were sitting at a table at one of Nashville’s newest hot spots. Paige thought Caron was a lovely woman. But the last thing she wanted to see was how much in love these two were. Watching them feed each other and finish one another’s sentences was pure torture.
“So,” Caron said. “Patrick tells me that you guys were roommates.”
Paige nodded as she sipped her water. As a favor to Patrick, she was skipping alcohol. “Patrick is a great man. I wish I could clone him,” she replied.
Caron smiled, causing her dark brown eyes to twinkle. Paige had to admit it. This was the kind of woman she’d seen her friend ending up with: tall, deep brown skin that looked like chocolate milk, and a positive attitude. Basically, the total opposite of herself.
“How did you two meet?” Paige asked. “Some people keep you out the loop when you move away.”
Patrick and Caron looked at each other. “We met in the grocery store,” they said in unison.
Gag me, Paige thought as she forced a smile.
“He ran into my cart and made me drop my eggs. Patrick was so nice. He offered to take me out to breakfast. It was love at first sight.” Paige looked away from them as they shared a quick kiss. She thought about the first time she’d seen Brian. He was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen. She wondered if Caron felt the same electricity that she felt when she saw Brian. Love sucks, she thought. Love? Am I in love with Brian? There’s no way I could’ve fallen in love with that man. Even if he’s caring, gentle and passionate, he’s confused!
“Earth to Paige,” Patrick said, snapping his fingers in front of her face.
“Guys, I’m sorry. I’m just not good company tonight,” she said.
Caron nodded. “Honey, if he can’t see how beautiful you are, you don’t need him.”
Paige furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”
“I know that look,” Caron said. “The blank stare means you’re thinking about him.”
“Am I that transparent?” Paige asked as she picked up her glass of water, wishing it were something stronger.
“Yes, you are,” Patrick said. “And instead of you trying to have a good time here and drinking yourself into a stupor, you should go back to South Carolina and find out if you should be spending your precious time worrying about him.”
Paige rolled her eyes. “Can’t I have a vacation? Who cares about Brian? He and his wife are probably planning their second wedding by now.”
Patrick shook his head as he waved for the waiter. “There’s no talking to you when you’re like this,” he said as the waiter made his way to the table.
Paige smirked. “If you know that, why do you try?”
Brian and Mickey sat on the front porch eating Popsicles. Mickey’s allergic reaction to his grandmother’s cooking had kept him out of commission only for a day and a half. Brian was happy to see his son up and running around, happier than he had been in months. And to Brian’s dismay, it was because he was seeing his mother every day. Olivia was back in their lives and it seemed as if Paige was gone. And in the midst of all of the drama, Brian’s vacation had ended and it was time for him to start traffic duty.
“Daddy,” Mickey said. “Where’s Miss Paige?”
“I don’t know.”
“I miss her. Why hasn’t she come over and cooked dinner again?”
Brian sighed. “I think she’s just really busy.”
“Is Mommy coming back to live with us? She said she wanted too,”
Mickey said as he slurped his frozen treat.
“I don’t know what your mother is going to do,” Brian said as he stood up. He looked wistfully across the street. He would give anything to see Paige flying down the street in her Mustang. Why had she listened to Olivia? Brian cared about her and he prayed that wherever she was, she was safe. He turned to Mickey. “All right, champ, I have to go to work, so you’re spending the night with Mommy.”
“Okay,” he said a little dejectedly.
Brian kneeled down and looked at his son. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, Mommy leaves me alone with grandma and she smells like smoke,” Mickey said. “Can I stay with Aunt -?”
Brian frowned. Why was Davina smoking around his son? That woman was incorrigible. And they wonder why I don’t want my son over there. “I tell you what. I’ll call your auntie and we’ll see. Okay?”
Mickey nodded happily. A few moments later, Olivia was pulling into the driveway. “How’s my boy,” she said as she got out of the car.
“Mommy!” Mickey called out as he leapt off the porch and ran into her arms.
“Guess what. I just got a call from my boss in Atlanta. She found a house for us.”
“But we have a house here,” the little boy said in confusion.
Brian walked out on the porch. Olivia looked at him, her eyes cold. He knew why she was giving him the evil eye.
The night that Paige left, Brian had gone back to the hospital where Olivia was sitting with Mickey.
“You can leave now,” he told her.
Olivia stood up and looked at Mickey. “I’ve missed him so much,” she said.
“So much that you left him alone with your mother the other night. So much that you just walked out on him and me six months ago.”
Another Chance to Love Page 12
