by Mari Carr
“Then you ran away from Phillip on the football field in September,” Laura added, putting the pieces together.
Georgie nodded. “By then, Nick was dating a college professor named Giselle.”
“So you just stayed friends?” Shelly asked.
“Yep. I was seeing Leo when Nick and Giselle split. And by the time May rolled around and Leo and I stood each other up at the courthouse, Nick was with Cheryl.”
Kristen leaned forward. “Wait. What? Leo stood you up?”
Georgie laughed lightly, feeling better simply by talking. “Found Leo today. Turns out he didn’t go to the courthouse either.”
Zoey clapped her hands with delight. “Hooray. Bet that made you feel better.”
“Loads.” And it had. For about an hour. Until the confrontation with Nick.
“So how long was Nick with Cheryl?” Shelly asked.
“A couple months shy of a year and a half. He dumped her one night after a charity fundraiser in September and showed up on my doorstep. One thing sort of led to another.”
Shelly’s eyes widened. “You hooked up with him the same night he broke up with his girlfriend?”
“Yeah. I think the attraction between us had always been there, but our timing had been off.”
“How long did you date Nick before the wedding?”
Georgie blew out a long breath. “Three months. It was insane actually. I’m usually the impulsive one, but that was all Nick. He insisted we weren’t moving too fast because we’d known each other for so long.”
Laura topped up Georgie’s wineglass even though she’d only had a couple of sips. “You didn’t feel the same way?”
“I love Nick. I’ve always loved him. It’s just, at the time, I was sort of resistant to that.”
“Why?” Shelly looked completely perplexed. Georgie recognized her friend’s confusion. Shelly had spent her entire life looking for, wishing for love. Shelly clearly couldn’t understand why Georgie would deny something that was so obvious now.
Georgie looked down at her hands, and then admitted something she’d never said out loud. “I’d never been in love before Nick.”
Zoey sighed. “Oh, Georgie. No wonder you were freaking out.”
“It was so easy when we were friends. Then the dynamic changed and I started imagining everything that could go wrong. I realized how much I stood to lose.”
“So you ran,” Laura said.
Georgie nodded. “And then I lost it all anyway.”
Kristen took a sip of wine, her too-knowing gaze locked on Georgie’s face. “What was your real goal this year, Georgie? Your plan for a second chance? What would make you happy?”
“Nick.”
Kristen tapped her glass against Georgie’s. “Then it’s time for us to put our heads together, girls. Let’s make this happen.”
Chapter Eight
September’s flower is the Aster, symbolizing love, faith, wisdom and valor.
Nick waved his razor under the running water, and then placed it beside the sink. He splashed his face with the hot water to get rid of the last traces of shaving cream, blotting his cheeks dry with a clean towel.
He slapped on his favorite aftershave, a gift from Georgie, and ran a comb through his hair. He glanced at his watch. He needed to hurry up if he was going to catch Georgie before she left for the shop. He’d called his secretary at first light to tell her he wasn’t coming in today, and then climbed into the shower.
The two Advil he’d taken before bed last night seemed to have warded off the worst of the hangover he should have been suffering from. Mercifully. He was already tense enough about what he was facing. He was grateful he didn’t have to do it with a killer headache.
Towel wrapped around his waist, he’d just entered his bedroom to get dressed when there was a knock at the door. It was seven in the morning. No one with an ounce of sense would knock on his door this early.
Which meant…
Nick grinned as he walked down the hallway toward his front door. A peek out the side window confirmed his suspicions.
Georgie was standing on the stoop, a bouquet of flowers in her hands. She’d come here, on her own, even after he was a total jackass yesterday. That had to be a good sign. He hoped.
He opened the door, enjoying the way her eyes widened when she saw him.
“You’re naked,” she said.
Nick glanced down. “I’m wearing a towel.” Then he studied her appearance. She’d taken some pains, donning a tight T-shirt that accentuated her breasts and made it obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra. She’d also put on a sexy short skirt. Jesus. He was a sucker for a girl in a miniskirt. Her hair hung loose on her shoulders, wavy and totally grabbable. His fingers itched to tug it.
The thought had his cock stirring and rising fast.
“I don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d be willing to throw on some clothes. I can wait here while you do it.”
Nick leaned against the doorjamb. “I’m fine like this.” He wasn’t, but there was no way he was going to try to put a pair of pants on over this hard-on. With his luck, he’d get stuck in the zipper.
Georgie’s cheeks flushed and there was no mistaking the sudden appearance of her nipples, poking at the material of her cute little T-shirt.
“Here.” She thrust the bouquet of flowers toward him.
He accepted them. “Pretty.”
“They’re asters.”
He nodded. “Let me guess. They mean something.”
She grinned. “The aster represents love, faith, wisdom and valor.”
“Wow. Busy flower. And which one of those attributes is this particular bouquet supposed to signify?”
“All of the above.”
“All of them?” Nick was certain love had been listed. He held his breath as she nodded.
“I brought this too.”
He frowned. “What’s that?”
“A toothbrush.”
Nick narrowed his eyes. “I’m familiar with the object. Why are you giving it to me?”
“It’s mine. I was hoping you’d let me put it in your bathroom.”
“Ohh-kay,” he muttered slowly, completely confused. Had he missed a step somewhere?
“Can I come in?”
Nick shifted, gesturing for her to enter. When he’d closed the door behind her, he leaned against it. Then he opened his mouth to apologize.
Georgie beat him to the punch. “I’m sorry, Nick. For everything. For running from the church, for not calling you after, for letting a whole damn year go by, hiding from you instead of telling you why I left.”
“I don’t need to hear you say you’re sorry, George. You understand I’ve forgiven you, right? I don’t know what these past few months have meant to you, but—”
“They’ve meant everything to me. You’ve never been third, Nick. God. The truth is you’ve been the only one. My reasons for seeking out Leo and Phillip were completely separate from my relationship with you. I wanted to give Phillip the ring back because it was the right thing to do. And I wanted to make sure Leo was okay, that he was happy because he was a really cool guy. You weren’t a part of that list. Ever.”
Nick wasn’t sure how long he stood there letting her words soak in, warming parts of him that had been frozen.
When he could finally find his voice, he asked, “Where’s the ring I gave you?”
“What?”
“The ring, George. Where is it?”
Georgie reached for her neck and tugged out the silver chain she always had tucked beneath her shirt. The ring he’d given her dangled from the end of it.
“You’ve been wearing it all this time?”
She nodded slowly.
“So let’s go through it all. Just this once, so there are no more misunderstandings. Why did you ru
n?”
“You’re the first man I’ve ever been in love with.”
Of all the responses she could have given, that was the one Nick would never have guessed. Mainly because it didn’t make a damn bit of sense. Which meant in Georgie-speak, it probably made total sense. “You want to expand on that?”
She laughed quietly. “I think that answer is pretty self-explanatory.” She was teasing him. Nick worked hard to school his features, though at the moment he was hard-pressed not to pick her up, toss her over his shoulder and carry her to his bedroom. She was too adorable not to touch.
With that thought, he dropped her bouquet on the floor and grasped her hand, leading her to the couch. He sat and then tugged her down on his lap. The towel had fallen open and Georgie wasted no time sneaking a peek. Nick grabbed the end of the cotton and tried to cover as much of himself as he could, though that task was harder now that there was more to cover. His cock didn’t seem to need any more explanations.
“You ran because you were in love with me,” he repeated, the response making even less sense when he said it aloud.
Georgie wrapped her arms around his neck. “All I have are a million stupid excuses, Nick. None of them on their own was a reason to run, but somehow when I put them all together…”
Her words drifted away.
“I’m saying this all wrong. A whole lot of truths crashed in on me the first night we slept together.”
“More than the fact that you loved me?”
She nodded, rattling off every fear she’d ever had. “Yeah. I loved you and I was terrified of losing you. Afraid you’d wake up one day and realize you’d made a mistake in picking me. That you’d decide you didn’t want someone who shoves all her clothes into random drawers based on space, not organization. Someone who never seems to have milk in her refrigerator that isn’t spoiled. Someone who doesn’t really understand law, never watches the news and who didn’t go to college. I didn’t even really go to high school. I have a GED.”
Georgie had never seemed to suffer from insecurity. She always walked into every situation with confidence and humor. “I didn’t make a mistake, George.”
She kissed his cheek softly. “We fell into bed and within weeks you were planning our wedding.”
Nick gave her a rueful grin. “I did get a little carried away. I was afraid you’d wake up one day and figure out you’d saddled yourself with a pretty boring, set-a-watch-by-him guy.”
“God, we’re a pair of pathetic sad sops, aren’t we?”
He chuckled. “Apparently.”
“I went to the church, Nick, with every intention in the world of walking down the aisle. I want you to know that.”
“What stopped you?”
“All those truths I’d been worrying about sort of ganged up on me. Your mom invited Cheryl to the wedding. They both stopped by the room when I was dressing and tweaked that part that didn’t feel smart enough to be a lawyer’s wife.”
Nick’s temper flared. “They did what?” Nick turned toward the end table in search of his phone. “I’ll fucking kill them.”
Georgie grabbed his hand as he reached for the cell. “No, wait. I didn’t run because of that. I know they were just being bitchy and catty. It’s not their fault I had a weak moment and sort of fell for it.”
“Even so, George, I’m not going to let that go without comment. I’m tired of my mother trying to control my life.”
“I don’t think you’re ever going to break her of that habit. But seriously, I didn’t run because of that. Or at least not just because of that. My parents sort of contributed to the cause too. Right after Gladys and Cheryl’s visit, my mom flounced in with Geraldo, my dad traveling in their wake. She was gushing about how beautiful the flowers were and how hot you were in your tux. She was funny and flighty and—”
“And acting like she always does.” Nick didn’t understand why that would bother Georgie so much.
She nodded. “Yeah. Then she and Geraldo left and my dad hugged me. Told me how beautiful I was and how much I reminded him of my mother. He said he was glad I’d gotten her good looks and zest for life. The thing is, he didn’t look happy. He looked like a man with a broken heart. And I got scared because all anyone has ever told me is how much I’m like my mom and even though she loves my dad, I could see how much she was hurting him.”
“You’re like her in some ways. But not all the ways, George.”
“I know that now. Anyway the air in the room got really thick. I asked Dad to give me a minute alone and I opened the window thinking that would help me breathe, but it didn’t. My chest was tight and I was suffocating. So I climbed out the window and paced around in the grass, but I still couldn’t breathe.”
“You had a panic attack.”
“Yeah. I guess. So I started running. I ran all the way from the church to home.”
Nick frowned. “That’s nearly eight miles.”
“Luckily the weather was pretty mild for early December. I was barefoot.”
“Jesus.”
Georgie grinned ruefully. “I got home, changed my clothes, packed a bag and headed to the airport.”
He snorted. “Airport? Impulsive much?”
She gave him a look that said she wasn’t going to answer such a silly question.
“I was on a plane halfway to Mexico before I realized two things.”
Nick had attempted to keep up with her story. After all, the whole thing was so Georgie. He’d just managed to move beyond the fact she was running barefoot in December when she hit him with Mexico. Finally, he asked, “What two things?”
“One, I’d left my cell phone at the church and two, I could breathe again.”
“How long were you in Mexico?”
“A week. I spent most of it ugly crying on the beach. I was sort of like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. You know, that part where she calls Billy Crystal over and she’s sobbing uncontrollably. And loudly.”
It was Georgie’s favorite movie. And she’d made him watch it. Several times. “I remember that scene.”
“I’m pretty sure the people vacationing there thought I was insane.”
Nick had been so consumed with his own feelings after she jilted him, he’d never stopped to consider what Georgie had been going through. Apparently she hadn’t fared much better than he had. Then he asked the question that had haunted him for weeks after the wedding. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“When I got home, I found my phone on my kitchen counter. My parents had brought all the stuff I’d left in the church back. There were a million missed calls. But none of them were from you. Not one. And I thought maybe you were relieved that I’d left. All those insecurities I’d felt suddenly seemed justified.”
“I picked up the phone to call you a thousand times, George, but I was hurt and angry. All I kept thinking was I wasn’t any different than the other guys. I really thought I was different.”
Georgie wiped her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I could say it a million times and it’ll never be enough to make up for what I did.”
“You’re wrong. It’s already enough.” He wrapped his arms around her and tugged her into a tight embrace. “I’m sorry too. Sounds like we wasted a lot of time.”
For a long time, they simply sat, letting the confessions sink in, settle. Then Nick’s gaze landed on the bouquet of flowers he’d dropped by the door. “Tell me again what the aster means.”
She lifted her head and smiled. “Four things. Wisdom. I went to the wine girls last night and they talked me off the ledge, told me I’d been silly to keep all these feelings from you. They were the ones who wisely advised me to come see you first thing this morning.”
“Smart friends.”
“It also stands for valor, which I needed. I was so afraid I’d pushed you away once and for all yesterday.”
Nick cuppe
d her cheek. “Never going to happen.”
“The last two things are faith and love. I love you, Nick. So much so it apparently makes me even more of a head case than I already am. You have been warned.”
“I love you too, George.” He kissed her gently. Now that the silence had been broken, he was in no hurry to rush to the next part. Nick was determined that all the walls would come down. “And the toothbrush means?”
She laughed. “That night after Blue Moon, when you tucked me in after all the vodka, you made a list of reasons why you thought I ran.”
He remembered. He’d been grasping at straws for so long.
“I’ve spent the last few months trying to prove to you that I’m different now. I’m not going to fight my feelings and I’m not going to let the voices in my head that say I can’t do this win.”
Suddenly all the pieces began to fall into place. Georgie calling him to ask for help when she got a flat tire. Calling to tell him she missed him or to talk about her day. Leaving little things like shampoo and T-shirts at his place. He’d been so wrapped up in his own anxiety he’d failed to notice she was giving him exactly what he’d always wanted from her.
He reached for the hem of her shirt and tugged it over her head. His gaze narrowed in on the chain with his ring hanging from it. She’d never stopped wearing his ring.
He traced the silver where it lay against her skin, loving the way Georgie shivered at his touch.
“Should we move this party to the bedroom?” he asked.
Georgie shook her head as she flipped his towel open. “We’ll never make it that far.”
Before Nick could reply, Georgie twisted, straddling his hips. Her short skirt rode higher as she spread her legs. When he reached for her ass, he realized she wasn’t wearing any panties.
“Dirty girl,” he whispered as he leaned forward to kiss her neck.
Georgie lifted slightly, grasping his cock and guiding it to her pussy. She was clearly intent on skipping straight to the good part.
