It was nearly a month since our visit with Candace and Grayson before I heard from my sister-in-law. I had just gotten in from work and was sorting through the mail when she rang me on my cell phone.
“Hey, sis,” I greeted her, shoving the envelopes aside to finish looking over later.
“Hi, Morgan, I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“Not at all.” I took a glass from the cupboard and filled it with ice from the door of the fridge. “I haven’t been home from work long enough to get into anything for you to interrupt.”
She chuckled. “Good. So, how have you been?”
“Pretty good actually. Work’s going very well and keeping me busy, but I can’t complain.”
“And, how’s Alex?”
I couldn’t contain my grin. “He’s wonderful. Though at the moment we don’t really see each other ‘cept for at night; he’s been working with his group again and staying pretty busy and I’m gone during the day.”
“Oh, well I hope you’re still able to get to spend some time together.”
“We do.” I took out the pitcher of lemonade from the fridge. “We have the weekends and nights. It’s definitely different cuz I’m used to seeing him whenever I’m out of work, but we’re adjusting.”
I could tell she was smiling. “I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you.” I poured myself some lemonade. “And how are you?”
She sighed and I knew it wasn’t good news.
“Candace?” I tucked the lemonade pitcher back into the fridge and glanced to the phone. “What’s going on?”
She sighed again. “Grayson’s been offered a job in London.”
I paused. “London? As in England?”
“Yes, London, England. As in…Europe, the other side of the world.”
“I…” I was speechless. Taking up my glass, I sank down onto a stool. “Is this what…his attitude has been about?”
“I think so. He finally told me what was going on the other day. What am I going to do, Morgan? He really wants to take the job; he’d be president of the firm out there. It’s such a great opportunity, but it’s in England.”
“And you just got your promotion there in Arizona.”
“Exactly.” She sniffed and I pouted at the tears.
That was a tough situation. New York to Arizona was long distance enough but trying to maintain a relationship where both lived in different countries; that was something else entirely. “What has he said he wants you to do?”
“He won’t tell me. He said I have to make the decision myself.”
“Well, that’s not very fair. He should at least give you his opinion. You’re his wife; he should let you know if he wants you to move out there with him.”
She cleared her throat. “If he goes out there, I have to go with him. I can’t…let our relationship fall apart over a job.”
“It’s not just a job, Candace, these are your careers. Has he said he’s going to take the job? He should at least ask how you feel about it.
She sighed over the line. “No, he hasn’t said for sure, but he’s leaning pretty strongly toward accepting. How can I hold him back from an opportunity this wonderful for him?”
“You’ve gotten a pretty wonderful opportunity for yourself.”
“I know, but I can’t be as stubborn as he has been. I could at least look for another job out there. I have some connections and I’m sure I could find something similar to what I’m doing now.”
I peeked my eyes toward the phone. “You are a much bigger person than I could be.” I paused. “So, you guys are really gonna move all the way to London, England.”
She gave one of those teary laughs. “I guess we are.”
“How do you feel about it?”
“Scared.”
“I’ll come visit you as often as I can. And you guys will be a lot closer to Aunt Lindsay and her brood in Germany.”
“True,” she sighed and cleared her throat, “my mom is going to be so upset.”
“Aww, she’ll have to go visit you too.”
“She will, but she was so excited about us being closer to them in Arizona. Now we’ll be oceans apart.” Candace’s parents lived in New Mexico and I imagined now that their daughter was in the next state over; they saw each other fairly often.
“I imagine so.” I made a little face. “At least now you know what Grayson’s problem was. I was half afraid he was having an affair or something.”
Candace laughed dryly. “I was too; I just didn’t want to admit it to anyone.”
“But he’s not, right?”
“No, it’s just been this job offer. At first, he said he wasn’t sure if it was going to be offered to him, so he didn’t want to say anything and then he had to do an interview with the London branch and the last few weeks he’s been mulling it over.”
I frowned. “I still say he should have told you about this from the start. Please tell me you chastised him.”
“You bet I did. And he knows now to tell me everything from the start.”
“Good.”
She sighed some. “Well, I won’t keep you. I just wanted to let you know what was going on. I know you were concerned.”
“I’m glad you did. And I want you to keep me updated. If you truly do decide to go over to London, then we’ll have to have a big get together to send you both off.”
“I’m sure once your mother finds out about it, she’ll plan one.”
I laughed. “You know my mother.”
“I do.” There was a pause. “I’ll talk to you soon, hon. Take care of yourself and tell Alex I said hello.”
“Will do. You need to talk again; you know where to find me.”
“Thank you, Morgan.”
I smiled. “Anytime, sister.” Then after giving a goodbye, I finally set down the phone. Geeze, what a decision to have to make. Though it wasn’t really a decision of staying together or not, but one of which job to stay with. And Grayson had already made it clear he didn’t want to work in Arizona, so if Candace could be the bigger person and agree to quitting her job, then the two of them would be moving to England. I had a feeling that’s where they would end up. Candace was really a wonderful wife and I hope my brother realized how truly lucky he was.
And I was grateful I wasn’t in her shoes. Though her situation made me wonder what I would do if Alex were to come to me and tell me he wanted to move to another country, or even another state. I didn’t have any real ties to California except for Dianna and now the babies. I could get a job anywhere and honestly, I wasn’t really hurting for money. I’d miss my friends, but there’s always emails and airplanes.
But I didn’t think Alex had any intentions of wanting to go anywhere else. He had an album he was working on and the boy toured around so much he probably feels like he’s from all over anyway. Which was good on my part, because than I wouldn’t have to worry about saying goodbye again.
I chuckled then looked to my dog as she trotted into the room. “Well there you are. Where have you been hiding?”
She padded her way to me then nosed at my leg and shoved her head into my lap, forcing me to love on her some.
“I hear ya. You hate being alone here while I go to work, don’t you?”
Her response was a whine and then she licked at my hand.
I chuckled then rose from the stool and headed for the living room where the French doors stood. “You wanna go outside? I bet you have to potty something awful.”
Daisy answered me with a soft bark then raced out into the backyard to freedom.
“Don’t you dare leave the yard,” I called out after her and slid the doors shut all but a small enough space for her to slip back inside. Then I made my way back to the kitchen, laughing low at myself for talking to her like she was a child.
After spending the next few minutes going through my mail and sorting the bills from the junk mail, I tossed what could be tossed then put the credit card applications through the shredder. I tucked the bills into a drawer on my desk to be paid on Friday and told myself I really needed to go paperless and pay everything online. Everyone else seemed to be.
The sound of the doorbell pulled me from my thoughts and a frown creased my brow. I wasn’t expecting anyone and Alex was supposed to be in the studio until about nine. He might have gotten out early, but he had a key and wouldn’t ring the bell.
Curiously, I went to the front door and peeked out the peep hole and my blood ran cold. Sarah Martin stood on my doorstep. How did she even know where I lived? She didn’t look angry and the thought passed through my head to pretend not to be home. But my curiosity at her being there won out and I unlocked the door and slowly pulled it open. There was no way she was coming into my house though.
“Can I help you?”
She smiled at me, but I could see the hatred brewing in her eyes despite the grin on her face. “Hello.”
I arched a lone brow at her. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought we could talk.”
Not likely. “How did you find where I lived?”
“You’re in the phone book,” she said simply with a shrug of her shoulders.
I frowned. “What do you want?”
“To talk.”
“What could you possibly want to talk about that I would be interested in hearing?”
Her eyes darkened even more. “Is it necessary to be a bitch?”
“After the way you behaved, yes. Now please leave, because I don’t have anything to say to you.” I started to close the door but she slapped her hand against it and pushed it open some, putting her foot into the doorway.
“I wanted to come over here and talk nicely,” she spoke low with a slight menacing tone. “I wanted to tell you to be careful before you committed too much to your precious boyfriend. I wanted to warn you that he’s going to fuck you over and leave you heartbroken just like he has every. single. woman. he’s dated. But you don’t seem too interested in hearing that.”
I frowned, trying not to look swayed by her words. “I think you wanted to come over here and stir up trouble. You don’t have any intentions of warning me like a good hearted person. And you don’t have anything to warn me about. You got shit and all you want to do is cause trouble between us because you’re pissed off he isn’t paying your way through life anymore. Face it, it’s over and you have no chance, zero chance of having him back. And I don’t think you are able to accept that. You’ve had him wrapped around your finger for so long, but guess what? Alex finally got a backbone and he’s dating someone who actually cares about him and his life. So you need to leave now before I am forced to call the police and report you as a trespasser.”
Sarah’s eyes darkened and her body stiffened. “Listen, you little bitch, you have no idea what Alex and I have been through and you have no idea the kind of things he can do to fuck everything up for you. He did it to me. Has he told you why we never got married? I bet not, but you should ask him…it’s a good story, I’ll tell you that much.”
“What happened between you and Alex years ago is not my business or concern. I know about his past and his drinking and drug problems and I don’t care; that was then and this is now and he’s not that person anymore. Now if you’ll kindly remove your foot, I’d like to close my door.” I motioned toward her foot which was still in the doorway.
“Well, when he starts screwing a dancer from their tour behind your back, or proposes and makes a wedding date then freaks out and leaves you standing at the aisle, don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.” She pulled her foot back, her hand still pressed to the door. “Maybe you should ask him why he had all his failed relationships and what it was that ended them all.” With that she turned and stalked off the porch and back toward her car.
I watched her go with a deep frown in my brow. Who the hell did she think she was that she could come to my house and say those kind of things to me? She had no right and chances were she was talking out of her ass just trying to disrupt our happy life. Well, she could take all those words and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine because it wasn’t going to work.
And to prove that to her and probably myself, I brought Daisy back into the house, fed and watered her then grabbed my keys, locked up and was out the door on my way to the studio. I needed to see my boyfriend after that incident. I wasn’t trying to let it bother me, but Sarah had definitely rattled my cage so to speak. And I knew he was the only one that could make me feel better.
~*~*~*~*~
“Hey, hey, what’s going on, are you alright?” Alex greeted me once I was past security and into the studio. I had found him hunched over the sound board with one of the sound engineers while Brian worked on laying a track down in the booth.
I shook my head, afraid if I opened my mouth the tears would come. Why was I so upset? The entire drive over I was trying to convince myself that Sarah’s words had been just that; words. There wasn’t any truth behind them and she had only been trying to upset and anger me. She wanted our relationship to fail so she could have him back and so she’d try anything.
I had mostly convinced myself of that until I walked into the room and saw him. And then the tears were threatening my vision and I was flinging myself into his arms the minute he rose and came toward me.
“Hey, what is it?” He smoothed a hand over my head and peeked down to me.
I sniffed and held him tight, pressing my face into his chest. He was going to think I was over exaggerating and had no reason to be so upset. And I didn’t, which made me feel so foolish. I was letting Sarah get under my skin and doing exactly what she wanted me to do.
“Morgan?” Alex rubbed my back then I heard him tell the others he’d be back. He then gently guided us from the room and into the empty lounge.
Once seated on the couch, I pulled a tissue from my purse and wiped my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I croaked out around the lump in my throat.
“Sweetheart, what is it?” He took my free hand in his and dipped his head some to see my face. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head and cleared my throat before speaking again, “It’s nothing really, I just got myself all worked up.”
Alex frowned some at that. “Well, it has to be something if it’s got you this upset.” He brushed some tears from my cheeks with his hand.
“It’s Sarah.”
“Sarah?”
“Yeah, your ex.”
Something flashed in his eyes. “What’d she do?”
I fiddled with the tissue in my hands. “She showed up at my house telling me how she was just trying to warn me about you and how you were going to screw me over and leave me heartbroken.”
Alex’s back stiffened at that and his frown deepened. “She did what?!”
I nodded and sniffed again. “Yeah, she said…she said that she was trying to warn me. She said you were going to mess everything up and that I should ask you why you guys didn’t get married and why all your relationships ended.”
Alex rose from the sofa at that. “That little bitch! I can’t believe she’d do something like this; no, no, I can. I should have known.” He clenched his fists and I shrunk into the back of the sofa at the anger in his voice.
“I don’t know why it got me so upset, I mean, I know what she’s trying to do. I handled myself really well, and even told her a thing or two.”
He sank back down next to me. “What’d you say?”
So I relayed the confrontation starting with her ringing the bell all the way up to her last words before she flounced off the porch and headed to her vehicle.
Alex listened intently, doing his best to hold his anger in until I was finished with my tale. Then he pressed a kiss to my head and slipped his arms around me. “I’m sorry, baby,” he soothed. “If I had any idea she would have tracked you down, I would have warned you or something.”
I settled into his embrace. “You couldn’t have known. But the idea of her showing up again kind of worries me.”
He sighed and rested his cheek against my head. “Well, you can bet I’ll be calling her about this. She’ll know never to show her face to you again.”
“Good.” I snuggled against him for a moment then pulled back. “But her words were just that, right? Words and nothing more?”
He was quiet and it was then that I knew there had to be some truth to them. Pulling back, I pushed some hair from my face and met his eyes. “Don’t tell me she was being for real.”
His shoulders sagged and he ran a hand over his face. “Not with everything. You were right to tell her that I’m not the same person I was then.” He reached a hand and smoothed it over my cheek. “I was never a great boyfriend until I met you and even now I know I’m not the best. I mean, look at all the shit I caused you.”
I didn’t respond to that and he continued. “But you’re the one person that I want to be the best I can be for. You make me want to do what I can to make this work between us. And I’ve never felt that way about anyone.”
Tears shone in my eyes and I used the tissue to wipe them away. “So, what part was she telling the truth about?”
Alex sighed at that. “When I proposed to Sarah, I was just out of rehab and I shouldn’t have done it, but it was like…okay, well I just overcame this huge drug and alcohol dependency so what’s next? And she had been there for me every step of the way, so I just thought it was what I was supposed to do.”
“But you didn’t really want to?”
“I don’t think I was ready to. I was scared at having to live a clean life and not have the drugs or alcohol to fall back on and so I substituted Sarah for them. So she became my life line and I clung to her instead of getting out there and becoming independent and capable on my own.” He took my hand in his and squeezed it. “And as the wedding drew nearer, instead of talking to her about it, I began to freak out and I self sabotaged me and our relationship.”
I wet my bottom lip and asked the question I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to, “What did you do?”
He looked to our hands at that. “I slept with someone else a couple weeks before the wedding. I was scared and knew I couldn’t marry her, but I didn’t know how to get out of it.” His eyes met mine again. “I wasn’t man enough then to really face my problems and fears, but I don’t want you thinking that’s how I am now, because I’m not. I’m really not.”
I nodded my head and touched his cheek. “I know you’re not. I won’t lie, it does freak me out a little bit, but I know you’re not the same person you were back then and I know I’m not Sarah. I’m sure she didn’t make it easy to try to talk to her and if she’s anything like she is now, she probably took over and controlled everything about your relationship and life.”
He chuckled low. “She really did. It wasn’t a healthy relationship whatsoever and I guess when it comes to her, I feel like she still has a little control over me. She’s so deeply rooted in my sordid past and there while I got better and I was vulnerable and latched out to whatever was familiar to me. After what I’ve been through, it’s hard to let go of something like that.”
“I get that. I really do. But you know that you don’t need her anymore, right?” I took his hand in both of mine and held it in my lap. “You have me and I’m never going to do you the way she did. What we have is real and very healthy and there’s no pressure to make it anything more or to take the next step because you think it’s what you’re supposed to do. When we do take the next step I want it to be because it’s where our relationship is headed and we’re both ready.”
He smiled then moved a hand to the back of my head and drew it to his. The kiss was tender and loving and spilled his soul. I fell into it and into him and knew that whatever drama Sarah would try to bring our way wasn’t going to tear the two of us apart. We were stronger as a couple and nothing could change that.
When we finally separated, my lashes were damp. I wanted to grab him close and take him home to have all to myself for the rest of the night, but I knew he was needed back in the recording room. “You have to go, huh,” I whispered softly.
“I do.” He smoothed his fingers through my hair. “Do you want to stay and watch?”
I knew I didn’t want to go home alone right now. “Can I?”
“Of course.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead then drew back and took my hand. “Come sit, watch and be amazed at the talent.”
I giggled low and allowed him to tug me up from the sofa. “Okay, let me just visit the little girl’s room first and freshen up, then I’ll be right in. I’m sure I’m a sight for sore eyes.”
“You’re beautiful.” He kissed my cheek then squeezed my hand and let it go. “I’ll be in the room when you’re ready.”
I smiled at that and watched him, my heart swelling with the love it held for him. Then with a smile on my lips, I gathered my purse and headed off to find the restroom.
Author's Chapter Notes:
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Chapter End Notes:
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