Broken Series (3 page)

I bit my lip and his eyes flicked to the movement. When he looked back to my eyes, his were even hotter and I thought he might kiss me. He leaned in closer and I closed my eyes. His fist slammed into the concrete wall next to my head and my eyes flew open, surprised to find him leaning away.

“This is stupid, Mal. We need to stay away from each other,” he whispered. He looked at his hand and not at me. “Come on, I’ll take you home.” He turned away and went back into the hallway.

The tears fell, unhindered and unbidden.

Chapter Four

Luke

I didn’t bother looking back to see whether she followed me. If I were honest with myself, for even a second, I would admit that I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to push her against that wall and kiss the breath right out of her. It was out of the question, though, no matter how much I wanted to. Not only was she the girl who’d broken my heart three years ago, she was the daughter of the man I’d come to think of as a father.

Joe Wells had been my rock when Mallory went to college. I had been beyond lonely and Joe reached out, inviting me to dinner and out to batting cages.

Joe was gone for the weekend to take Mallory to college. I felt nothing but emptiness in the cavity my heart used to occupy. My apartment was on the second floor of the building and full of treasures from my relationship with Mal. She’d been an expert at helping me make the place feel more like a home. There wasn’t a single thing inside that didn’t remind me of her.

She’d convinced her dad to buy new living room furniture last fall so I could have their current set. The dishes were a mismatched set she found at a yard sale last summer. The rug in my bedroom was found when we went into a second-hand store downtown. The place was full of her.

I couldn’t escape her presence in my life. Everywhere I went, I saw her, a smile plastered on her face. She seemed genuinely happy about going to Boston and leaving our relationship in the dust. It tore my heart to pieces every time she pretended not to see me. Eventually, I just started getting up at six so I could get my errands in town done first thing in the morning and have less of a chance to have a run-in with her.

But news in a small town spreads fast, and Baker had come over that morning to fill me in.

“She’s on her way to Boston, dude,” he said, taking a long drag off his cigarette. “Her dad drove her down himself.”

No matter how many times I told him I didn’t want him smoking in my apartment, he ignored me and did whatever he felt like doing.

I hadn’t said much and eventually Baker left me alone with my thoughts. She was really gone. For the first time in my life, I cried. I welcomed the release of tears, vowing never to tell a soul about it. I needed to mourn her and our relationship.

It was about a week later when my phone rang and her familiar number flashed on the screen of my cell phone. My heart stuttered.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Luke, it’s Joe Wells. Do you have some free time this afternoon?” he asked.

I agreed to meet him but never had any suspicion that he was about to change my life.

I stopped at the main entrance of the hospital and turned around, expecting Mallory to be right behind me. She was nowhere to be found. I walked back to the room I’d almost kissed her in and found it empty. I thought maybe we’d missed each other, so I went back to the main entrance.

I barely made it to the wide glass doors when I saw her car tear through the parking lot. She must have snuck out a side entrance and gone straight to her car, hoping to avoid me. She wasn’t getting away that easily. I ran to my truck and turned the key. The engine roared to life and I was out of the parking lot in seconds.

There was a trail of dust down the road to her house, so I knew I was on the right track. I whipped into the driveway and turned the wheel, coming to a stop just a few feet away from the porch where she stood. A cloud of dusted erupted as I slammed on the brakes. I jerked my door open, climbed out, and slammed it shut.

“What the hell are you doing?” she shouted, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

The dust flew around her. Her eyes were fiery and narrowed at me. I stopped at the hood of my truck, not wanting to get too close. I wasn’t sure I could trust myself where she was concerned.

“Me? Am I the one who snuck away like a thief in the night and drove like a maniac on back roads they haven’t driven in years?”

“Don’t act like you give a shit about the way I drive, or the fact that I didn’t want to ride with you. You wanted us to stay away from each other, remember?” she blurted.

Her cheeks turned red and I knew I must have struck a nerve.

“Mallory.” I started forward.

Her words stopped me.

“No, Luke. You don’t get to just be the victim and keep blaming me for everything. I am not about to take responsibility for the failure of our relationship. We were
both
accountable. Not only me.” Her voice faltered. “So just stop.”

She turned away and I took the porch steps two at time. I pulled her into my arms, consequences be damned.

She didn’t push me away, though. She buried face in my chest and cried. The heart-wrenching sobs had my heart clenching for her. Her tears soaked my T-shirt but I didn’t mind. She needed to let it all out. I stayed silent while she sobbed, recognizing her need for silence.

After several minutes, she pulled away, her hands swiping at the lingering tears. “Thank you,” she said with a sad smile. “You want a beer?”

“Sure,” I said.

I opened the screen door for her and she pushed the main door open and let me follow her to the kitchen. She pulled two beer bottles out of the fridge and handed me one. She leaned her hip against the counter and took a long swallow.

“I didn’t think city girls liked beer,” I said with a chuckle.

She grinned wickedly. “I picked up a thing or two in college.”

I sucked in a breath. If ever there was a double entendre…

“I don’t doubt it,” I said.

She raised her eyebrow at me but didn’t respond. She drank more of her beer instead. Her hair was messy and her makeup smudged, but she was still beautiful. I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

“I know you care about my dad, Luke, but I’m here now and I am perfectly capable of taking care of him. I’ll hire a contractor to come fix the porch. You don’t need to work on this house for free anymore,” she said, and then paused. “My dad doesn’t need you anymore.”

Those were the last words I expected her to say. She didn’t understand. Joe never needed me. I was the one who needed him for the last few years. Joe held out hope that one day Mallory would come to her senses and come back to me, but I was more realistic. She was only here now because of her father’s cancer. She hadn’t come back for me.

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, she was right. I didn’t have any business being around Joe anymore. Mallory was more than able to take care of him. So why was I still bound and determined to hang around? There was only one answer: I was still in love with Mallory Wells.

I swallowed hard, trying to make the thought go down with the bile rising in my throat. Mallory waited for me to say something, anything. Her eyes bore into mine and I worried I would say something crazy.

“I have to go,” I mumbled.

I drew my eyes away from hers but couldn’t help but pass a glance over her body. She wasn’t the young woman she’d been. She was a much more grown-up version of herself.

“No way, Luke. You’re going to explain what you meant before, about my dad being sick for years,” she demanded.

“There’s nothing to explain. Joe’s had cancer since you were seventeen,” I said.

Her face fell. “He’s been suffering for
years
?” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “He never told me, Luke.” Her pretty blue eyes begged me to believe her. “He called me earlier this week and said it was a new development. All this time, I’ve been gone and he’s had cancer.”

I didn’t know what to say. I had thought she was selfish and only concerned about herself all this time, but Joe hadn’t even told her about his cancer. I could almost understand why he didn’t tell her. He wanted her to live a full life in Boston and not be plagued with the need to come home and take of him. He didn’t want her to have to see him when he went for his chemo treatments and watch his body all but disintegrate. But she had deserved to know, to make the decision herself.

Instead, he left the job of telling her the truth to me. He let my heart break over losing her and then break all over again when I realized he was going to die. Neither of them were going to be in my life once Joe died. Anger filled me; I wanted to kill Joe for putting Mallory through this hell now and for putting me through hell over the last few years. Lucky me, I wouldn’t have to kill him—the cancer would take care of that.

My thoughts were mean and hardened, but I couldn’t find room to care right away. I was furious with Joe. All this pain—his, hers, mine. It wasn’t fair. My heart broke as tears slipped down Mallory’s cheeks. She made no noise, though, and I was helpless to do anything but stare as the tiny saltwater drops made their way down her face. I couldn’t move; I was frozen in place by my own bitterness. Joe would be the one who escaped this mess. He was the one got to embrace death while Mallory was going to have to live with the guilt she felt for the rest of her life.

And it was all because of me.

“I’m sorry, Mallory. I thought you knew,” I said softly, still unmoving.

Her head whipped up and her eyes flashed. “
You thought I knew
? You thought so little of me that you believed I would leave my
dying
father alone for all these years? You thought I was just some spoiled little girl running away from Daddy’s cancer? I didn’t know, and if I had, I would have stayed. I hope, though, that I would have had the good sense to dump you, even if I
hadn’t
gone to Boston. You’re a nothing, just like every generation of deadbeats before you. Get out of this house,” she demanded.

“Mal—”

“No! Just
get out!
I don’t want you anywhere near this house again! Stay away from us!” she screamed.

Her voice faltered and I made a move to give her a hug. I knew she was hurting and just lashing out at me. It was a ‘kill the messenger’ scenario.

“Get out!
Now!”

She pointed at the door and I realized she needed some time to cool down. I turned away and made my way back to my truck. Tomorrow she would come to her senses about having me around. She would change her mind. I was sure of it.

Chapter Five

Mallory

The house phone rang an hour after I kicked Luke out of the house. I sat at the kitchen table feeling sorry for myself and spiraling into a depression about my dad, who apparently had been sick for a long time. It wasn’t fair. I missed out on so much time with him. I figured he wanted to protect me, but I should have known, damn it! I deserved to know. I sighed. My anger wouldn’t help him now. Or me.

“Hello?” I said into the receiver of what had to be the very last rotary phone in the whole country. My dad sure liked antiques.

“Mallory? It’s Gabriella Peterman,” she said in a high-pitched voice.

“Hey, Gabby. How are you?” I asked politely. I sniffed and looked around impatiently for a tissue.

“Oh, you know, living the life of a small-town gal. But I wanted to check in on you. I know you and your dad were close,” she said as though he were already dead.

“We still
are
close,” I stressed, though given the fact that he hadn’t told me about his cancer, it might not be as true as I hoped.

“Of course! I didn’t mean any disrespect. I was actually wondering if you wanted to go get a beer with me at The Landing?”

The Landing was the local bar, a place I’d only been to once when I tried to sneak in with a fake ID. It had been an interesting night. I wasn’t exactly in the mood for a night at the bar, but I also didn’t want to be alone. Gabby was the lesser of two evils.

“Sure, what time do you want to meet?” I asked.

“The band starts at nine, but if we get there early, we won’t have to pay the cover charge,” she said with a laugh. “How about half past eight?”

I glanced at my watch. That gave me almost an hour to get ready. “Perfect. I’ll see you there,” I said.

Maybe a night of indulgence would help ease the pain my whole body experienced today.

I took a quick shower and managed to make myself not look too bad. My jeans were snug and the blue tank top I threw on was perfect for a night out. I put on some light makeup, including waterproof mascara, just in case I had a mental breakdown and started to cry again. It was entirely possible. My hair was wavy and long, in need of a cut. I found some black pumps in my duffel and strapped them on, determined to look like I hadn’t just been given the worst news of my life. After a quick glance in the mirror, I grabbed my purse and headed to the bar.

Even a half hour before the band was supposed to start, the place was packed. I had to park in the parking lot across the street. There were a number of people loitering on the outdoor deck of The Landing. Most of them had a cigarette attached to the end of their fingertips. I steered away from them and toward the bouncer checking IDs.

The muscled guy at the door looked me up and down before asking for my ID. I handed it to him and couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew him. I couldn’t place him, though.

“Mallory Wells?” he said in awe.

I must have known him at some point. His blonde hair was cropped short and his gray eyes were eerily familiar.

“Yes.” I raised my brow at him, hoping he would clue me in.

“I’m Chris Baker!” he exclaimed.

I was shocked. Gone was the lanky twenty-year-old kid and a hot, older, more beefed up version of him stood before me.

“Baker!” I said, not certain if I was happy to see him, given he’d been best friends with Luke three years ago. I wasn’t sure how he would feel about seeing me, either.

When his arms wrapped around me in a bear hug of epic proportions, I figured he was glad to see me. He lifted me off the ground and swung around in a full circle before he set me on my feet again.

“It’s so good to see you, Mal.” He smiled and handed me back my ID and then led me into the bar to a tall table in the back.

Gabby was already seated. She shuffled off her stool when she saw me and gave me a huge hug. “Mallory! I can’t believe you’re back,” she crooned. “You look absolutely fantastic. Boston has been good to you.”

“Thanks, you look good too,” I said.

It was true. Gabby had been head cheerleader in high school and how she and I ended up being friends, I never really knew. One day she was just there and she didn’t leave. I wasn’t complaining, though. Once upon a time, I’d been a perky, high-spirited girl, too. Reality had changed me.

“Sit down, you have to tell me about Boston,” she declared, shooing Baker away.

He made a face at her and I laughed but he mumbled under his breath and then walked back to his post at the door.

“What do you want to drink?”

“Umm, whatever. I’m not picky,” I said. I wasn’t that comfortable, not in the bar, and not with Gabby. I needed liquid courage to face talking with someone I hadn’t seen, or even thought about, in years. “Whatever you’re having.”

“It’s a Bahama Mama. Jimmy! Two more Mamas,” she shouted to the bartender. “So! How’s life in Boston? Is it glamorous?”

Glamorous?
Not a word I would use to describe my crazy world. But I didn’t want to dash her hopes for a life outside of Casper.

“It’s pretty amazing. The nightlife is insane. On my twenty-first birthday, a bunch of the girls at school took me out to bar hop. I don’t think I’ve ever been that hung over,” I laughed.

She raised her brow at me. “Really? More hung over than Sam’s house party junior year?”

I’d forgotten about that night. “Oh, man, if we’re going down memory lane, I need to have a drink first,” I said.

Like magic, Jimmy appeared at our table and handed me my Bahama Mama. I sucked down a bit and murmured my thanks.

“As I recall,” Gabby started, “You were all by your lonesome that night, since Luke was visiting his grandparents up north. You drank an entire bottle of tequila and then threw up all over Sam’s bathroom. Baker had to take you home and when he called Luke, you were pissed.” She laughed and I joined in, remembering that night.

Luke had given me hell and forbade me to ever drink alcohol again. Even though thoughts of Luke made me feel a little down, the memory was one of our good ones. We laughed so hard we were nearly crying. I remembered now why I was friends with Gabby. She was hilarious.

“Okay, let’s get down to business,” she announced, her words only slightly slurred.

I was almost ready for my second drink and feeling the effects. It had been awhile since I’d had a drink, probably since my birthday, several months back.

“‘Down to business?’ Is this an official meeting?” I asked as Jimmy brought us another round.

“Kind of. Everyone knows Luke had dinner with you and your dad tonight. Did anything happen?”

She wanted gossip. The joys of a small town.

“No. I guess he’s been hanging out with Dad a lot, so it was only natural for him to keep that up. But I’m here now, so he won’t be around,” I said.

“It’s a small town, Mal.”

“Yeah. And I have made myself perfectly clear to him. He needs to stay away from Dad and me. Can we talk about something else?” I was dying to change the subject. “Why haven’t you married some local and settled down with babies yet?”

“I was married two-and-a-half years ago, Mal,” she said, her voice drenched with sadness. “We’re in the process of a divorce.”

“I had no idea, Gabby. I am so sorry,” I said. Apparently I wasn’t the only one drowning my sorrows in liquor. I raised my glass. “To divorce!”

Our glasses clinked but before we could drink, another voice joined ours.

“Don’t tell me you girls are already hammered without me! And toasting Gabby’s impending divorce, no less,” the woman said.

I took in her dark hair and eyes, her high cheekbones and shimmering smile. It took me a minute to place her.

“Rainey?”

I was shocked. Not only was she no longer the chubby high school girl I remembered, she was the hottest girl in the bar. Her waist was slim and she had on a summery dress that revealed her long legs underneath. Her eyes were caked with makeup, though, which indicated dark circles.

“You didn’t think I wouldn’t show for your homecoming party, did you?”

She gave me a hug and went over to the bar to discuss her drink selection with Jimmy. She returned with a Bahama Mama and sipped it as she sat.

“I thought you were living in LA,” I said numbly.

My two best friends from high school were both in town celebrating …
My homecoming?
I hoped they didn’t think this would become permanent.

“I’m on vacation. Mom’s been pressuring me to visit, so when she mentioned you were coming home, I figured I should make an appearance. Get the whole gang together, you know,” she remarked.

She was a far cry from the shy girl in my memories.

“Wow. It’s so great to catch up with the two of you. But I should tell you, I’m not here forever. My roommates are holding my bedroom in our apartment.” I didn’t want them to get too excited about my presence.

“Well, yeah, we figured. But if you’re here for the summer, it’s good enough for me,” Gabby said.

“No kidding. I’m only here for the weekend, but I am thinking about moving back to town on a more permanent basis,” Rainey whispered.

Gabby perked up. “Ooh,
gossip
! Why are you coming back?”

“Oh, you know, tired of the city life. I need to get back to who I really am. Everyone in LA is so fake. It’s hard to take sometimes,” she admitted.

I raised my glass again. “To Gabby’s divorce and Rainey’s move back home!”

I clinked my glass against theirs and felt true happiness and friendship for the first time in years.

My roommates in Boston were great. They were considerate and clean, but they weren’t my best friends. The truth was, I didn’t have a best friend anymore. There wasn’t anyone I could talk to about my father, about my past with Luke, about anything. As I sat there listening to Gabby and Rainey go on about their lives, I realized how much I missed the small-town life. I never thought I would, but the ache for being a part of this world again hounded me.

I sipped my cocktail and stayed silent, happy not to draw attention to myself. Gabby and Rainey rambled on about what had been going on in town and who was dating whom for nearly an hour. I listened intently, certain the conversation would eventually turn back to me. Around ten, the conversation turned to our love lives.

“So, Rainey, do you have a guy back in LA?” Gabby asked.

“Uh, that’s a no. Aside from buff Hollywood movie stars, of whom I haven’t met a single one, by the way, men in LA are kind of … feminine. And I don’t just mean the gay ones. It’s weird,” Rainey replied.

I laughed. “Guess you’ll be looking for the strong, silent type once you’re back for good.”

Her shocked expression was priceless. “You think I’d rather have some small-town hick? No thanks. For the time being, I am perfectly happy being single,” she said. Her eyes met someone else’s across the bar and I turned around to see whom. She put a hand on my arm to stop me. “You don’t want to do that, Mal. It’s Luke.”

I groaned.

“I thought he was staying away from you?” Gabby asked.

“It’s not like I posted a sign that I would be here. He probably just came to see the band,” I said, unconvinced.

News traveled fast and Luke could have easily found out that the girls and I were at The Landing. I was already on my fifth drink and I was pretty sure I wasn’t even sitting on my stool straight. It was hard to tell.

“Just ignore him. We’re having a good time and hopefully he’ll leave us alone,” I assured them.

“Oh, shit!” Gabby exclaimed, her eyes glued to the place I figured Luke was standing somewhere behind me. “He’s got Carrie Williams with him.”

“Who’s Carrie Williams?” I asked as I tried to push down the pang of jealousy that ripped through my chest.

“His girlfriend,” Gabby informed me.

Girlfriend?
The guy who almost kissed me
just that
afternoon
had a girlfriend? Oh, I couldn’t wait to rub it in his face. What a two-timing asshole. I knew exactly how to get under his skin, too.

“Did I mention Luke almost kissed me today?” I asked Gabby and Rainey with a smirk.

Time to kick up some of my own gossip
, I thought. The drinks made me bold. And reckless.

“What?” they both exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was at the hospital. He pulled me into an empty room and came
this,
” I spread my thumb and forefinger apart less than half an inch, “close to kissing me. It was crazy.”

“What an ass,” Rainey said.

“Someone should tell Carrie who she’s getting involved with,” Gabby muttered with a slight slur. Her buzz was affecting her judgment.

“We should tell her!” Rainey blurted.

“Carrie!” Gabby waved her arms at Carrie across the bar and gestured for her to come to our table.

I didn’t turn around, afraid that if I saw Luke’s expression, I might burst out laughing, so I sipped more of my drink and stayed quiet.

“Hey, girls,” Carrie said as she walked up to our table. “I just love this band. Oh, hi,” she said to me. “I don’t think we’ve met.” She stuck her hand out to shake and I could barely contain my drunken humor.

I shook her hand but didn’t get a chance to tell her my name.

“Carrie, why don’t you sit with us for a while? I’m sure Luke wants to chat with Baker at the door,” Rainey said.

Carrie pulled up another barstool and sent Luke packing. I still hadn’t turned around to face him, but I was betting he was pissed.

Rainey introduced us. “I’m Rainey, and this is Mallory. I remember you from high school. I think you were a few years ahead of us.”

I didn’t remember the woman at all. Of course, I’d been too wrapped up in Luke to notice anyone else in high school. Not to mention Carrie was kind of ordinary. She had the girl next door thing going for her, but that was it.

“Right, I remember you now. What have you girls been up to?” she asked politely.

I couldn’t help but notice how old she was. Granted, she couldn’t be more than three or four years older than our group, but she looked at least ten years older. Time had not been good to her.

“We were just talking about Luke,” Gabby said with a giggle.