My Broken Soldier (Love Conquers Life Book 2) (2 page)

“Why don’t you guys do an event like this to raise some money for the veterans?” Bella suggests.

Derek tells her, “We’ll talk it over with the other directors. We’ll have to see what we would do with the money raised and if agreed upon, maybe plan the event on New Year’s Eve.”

“That would be so much fun,” Patty says, getting excited.

The waiters serve our dinner. As usual, the food is delicious. We had salad and soup, and for the main course we had a choice of, chicken, fish or roast beef. Patty and I both chose fish.

The night is going by quickly. Now that dinner has been cleared, they’re playing live music for dancing. I stand up, take Patty’s hand, and pull her onto the dance floor. I look into her eyes as we start dancing. “Thank you so much for being my date tonight. I normally hate these events, but you make being here so much easier.”

“I’m not usually a fan of them either, but I’m having a great time tonight. Your parents are really sweet. Although I haven’t gotten a chance to catch up with Bella, it seems their relationship is progressing nicely.”

“Derek hasn’t said anything to me, but we’re not as close as you and Bella. We talk at work, but not about personal stuff that much.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find out. If not, I’m sure they’ll tell us more next weekend, when they come over for dinner.”

I lean in to give her a chaste kiss, and when I pull away to reply, someone bumps into us. We both look. It’s Ben.

“Oh, excuse me,” he says rudely as he walks away. He’s dancing with some skanky looking woman. I shake it off and tell Patty to ignore him. As we start dancing again, the song comes to an end. I tell Patty that I’m going to the restroom before I go back to the table.

“I could use the ladies room as well,” she replies.

We both walk out to the lobby, hand in hand. I tell her I’ll meet her at the entrance to the room so that we can walk back in together. Upon entering the men’s room, I find it’s completely empty so I step up to the urinal to quickly do my thing. I wash my hands and exit to wait for Patty. Since Ben is here, I don’t want to chance her bumping into him alone again. Only God knows how much he’s had to drink tonight.

While I’m waiting, this female approaches me and says, “Excuse me, but aren’t you Carter Montgomery?”

“Yes, but I’m sorry I don’t know you.”

She smirks at me and says, “But you will. I’m Olivia, and I’ve heard so much about you.” She steps closer. “I adore a man in a well-fitted tux.” She giggles. This girl is a total ditz.

“I’m sorry, but I’m here with a date.” I take a step backward, but my back hits the wall.

“I know.” She chuckles. “Patricia Fitzgerald? Oh please.” She rolls her eyes. “I have so much more to offer you than she does.” She leans in and rubs her fingers down the collar of my tux jacket.

“Oh, you think so, huh? Well, I’m quite happy with Patty, thank you.”

She takes my hand and places it on her ass. “You look so hot in this tux. It makes me want you so bad.”

She grinds her hips against my cock, and her lips crash down on mine. She presses her tongue on my lips, begging for entry, but I want no part of her. Pulling my hand from her ass, I push her away. That’s when I hear Patty gasp, and I see the look of pure hurt on Patty’s face. She shakes her head and bolts out the door without saying a word.

I push Olivia away, but she grabs my arm, slowing me down. When I look back at her, she’s laughing. That’s when I spot Sandra standing off to the side. She’s leering at me as she nods. Her look screams,
yup that was me.
She chuckles and walks back into the ballroom to continue with the event. I run out after Patty, but I’m too late. The limo is pulling away with her in the back of it.

When I run back inside, Olivia’s there, waiting for me. “Come on, join me for a drink.”

“Screw you.” I run into the ballroom and head straight to the table.

My father says, “Son, what’s wrong.”

I sigh. “Bella, will you go check on Patty? I think Sandra just set me up. Some girl named Olivia hit on me. Patty caught her locking lips with me as she was walking out of the ladies’ room. I’m worried about her.”

Bella stands from the table and pokes her finger in my chest. “This better not be a bullshit story or you’re going to have to worry about me.”

“It’s not, I swear. I have no idea who this girl is. Besides, though I haven’t told her, I love her. I wouldn’t do that to her.”

Bella sighs and looks at Derek. “Will you get him home? I’m going to go after Bella and see if I can talk to her. She’ll probably shut me out until the morning, but I want to at least know she made it home safely.”

Derek stands, gives her a kiss, and says, “Text me later so I know you made it home, okay?” She smiles at him and nods as she runs out of the room.

Chapter 2

Patty

I wake up to the sound of my phone buzzing on my nightstand. I have a killer headache and no desire to talk to anyone. I spent the entire night crying because I can’t believe Carter did that to me. We haven’t been together long, but seriously, if I wasn’t making him happy he should have said so instead of embarrassing me by kissing some girl at a function, especially right after we’d announced our relationship to the public. I’m so glad I managed to keep it together until I got into the limo because some of the reporters were still lurking around, hoping for a drunken display, and I didn’t want to give them one. My phone starts buzzing again, and I notice it’s Bella.

“I told you in the text I sent you. I’m fine.”

“Oh really, you’re fine? You ran out of the event last night without even talking to him. You wouldn’t take my calls all night and I can tell you’ve been crying, but you’re fine.”

“Yes, I’m fine.” I raise my voice a bit higher than I mean to.

“Bullshit. I’m downstairs, buzz me in,” she demands as she rings my buzzer over and over again.

“Fine, I’m coming.” I crawl out of bed in my favorite cozy pajama pants and a t-shirt. I hit the button to let Bella in, and about a minute later she’s knocking on my door. When I open it, she walks in with two cups of coffee and a bag from my favorite little cafe.

She hands me a cup of coffee and the bag. I look inside and say, “You never eat muffins.”

“I do when my best friend needs me.”

That’s all it takes. I start crying all over again.

“Tell me what happened,” Bella says, walking me over to the couch with her coffee in hand.

We both take a seat, and I take a deep breath, trying to gain some control so I can speak. “We got up from the table to dance to a few songs when Ben purposely bumped into us on the dance floor. We both decided to let it go and walk off to the restroom to take a break. I went in to do my thing, and when I walked out of the stall I see the back of my mother’s head leaving the restroom. I washed my hands, thinking I was lucky that I avoided a confrontation with her.” I take another deep breath in an effort to stay calm. “Anyway, I stayed in there for another minute to make sure she was gone. When I walked out of the restroom, I find this woman with her hands all over Carter. Just when I’m about to approach them, she leans in and kisses him. I froze in my spot. I couldn’t move. I sat there and watched them kiss with his hand on her ass. He must have sensed me watching him because he finally pushed her away. I got out of there as quickly as I could. I didn’t want to hear his lame excuse for getting caught.”

“Patty, I don’t think he wanted to hurt you. As a matter of fact, he came running into the room all upset and worried about you.”

“Well, you can tell Derek to let him know I’m fine. I’ll get over him just like I did Ben.”

“This is different than Ben and you know it. You were not even half as upset when you left Ben. You were angry and frustrated, not sad and emotional. Two very different things,” Bella says as she places a hand on my knee.

“I don’t care. I won’t be made a fool of like that. I introduced him to the public as my boyfriend last night.” I look down at the floor. “Now I have to explain why we broke up.”

“Patty, don’t say anything to the public just yet. I think you should hear him out.”

“Whose best friend are you, his or mine?” I say, totally pissed off that she’s defending him.

She rolls her eyes at me and says, “Yours, of course. All I’m saying is, he has a side to the story and you ran off before he could even say anything to you.”

“I’ll think about it, and if he tries to reach me, maybe I’ll listen.”

“What do you mean if? He hasn’t tried to call you?”

I shudder as I start to cry again. “I guess I wasn’t enough for him. I should’ve known that he wouldn’t want to stay with a book nerd like me. I feel so stupid.”

She sighs as she sits on the side of me and holds me while I cry. “This has nothing to do with you not being enough for him. You need to talk to him.”

“I will, but I can’t yet. I need to calm down a little first.”

My phone starts to ring, and I’m partially hoping it’s Carter. At least if he’d call, it’d show me that he’s hurting as much as I am. To my disappointment, when I look I see it’s my mother. I decide to ignore the call, but she calls again. I realize that if I don’t talk to her she’ll only keep calling.

“Hey, Mom. What’s up?”

“Oh darling, are you okay? I saw you run out of the dinner last night. What did that awful boy do to you?”

“For starters, he’s a man. Second, I’m here with Bella and I don’t feel like talking about this with you right now. It’s not like you care. You didn’t like him anyway.”

“Patricia, just because I didn’t like him doesn’t mean I’m not upset that he hurt your feelings.”

I roll my eyes. “I’ll be fine, Mom. Like I said, Bella’s here with me.”

“Well, just so you know, Ben saw what happened too and he was worried about you. I told him I would find out what happened.”

“Why? So you can run off and tell him I’m single again? I’m not getting back with him.”

“I didn’t say you had to. I was just letting you know that he was concerned.”

“Whatever. I’ll talk to you later.” I cut the call, not wanting to hear anymore of her bullshit.

“What was that all about?” Bella asks as I throw my phone down.

“That was my mother calling. She wanted to see if I was okay because she saw me run out last night. Apparently, Ben did as well, and now he’s worried about me.”

She rolls her eyes. “That guy is such a loser. I really don’t know what your mother sees in him.”

“Me neither, but that’s why I hung up.” I sit up to sip my coffee and take a bite of my muffin. “I think what hurts is he hasn’t even called me. He sent you instead of facing this himself.”

“I think he wanted to let you cool down a little before he tried to explain to you what happened. I only heard part of the story because I got up to call you. I kind of knew you wouldn’t see me last night, but I wanted to at least try.”

“I took a shower and cried myself to sleep, but I didn’t even do much of that because I kept picturing this beautiful blonde with her claws and lips on my man. I wanted to rip her apart limb by limb, but I froze and then ran off, hurt. I didn’t want to cause a scene and make a fool of myself.”

“It’s probably good you didn’t make a scene. Can you imagine the phone call from your agent this morning when she saw the headlines? ‘Author P.A. Fitzgerald gets into fight with skanky blonde at fundraiser.’”

For the first time since last night, I laugh. The face Bella is making is hilarious, and so is the tone of her voice.

“Joan would have a heart attack trying to fix that,” I say as I sip some more coffee.

“What do you say we hang out today? We can eat takeout and watch movies. That way if he calls, I’m here for you and if he doesn’t, I’m here for you.”

“That sounds great. Thanks, Bella.”

We scroll through the movie options on Netflix and settle on
How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.
It’s a funny chick flick that we used to laugh at all the time.

We’re about halfway through the movie when I see the picture of Carter and me pop up on the screen of my phone. I hit the ignore button, but I pick up my phone to text him.

Patty: I’m not ready to talk yet. Bella is with me.

Carter: Please hear me out.

Patty: Not right now.

Carter: Please Patty, I’m begging you.

Patty: I’m not saying no, I’m just saying not now.

Carter: Fine.

“What’s up?” Bella asks as I put my phone back on the table.

“Carter wants to talk, but I told him not now. I told him I was hanging with you and that I’m not saying I won’t hear him out. I’m not ready yet.”

“Whatever you say, but don’t leave him hanging too long. I think he’s a good guy and you two clearly really like each other.”

I nod, and we go back to watching the movie in a comfortable silence.

***

After an entire afternoon of watching movies and eating takeout, I finally convince Bella that she should go home. I know she’s worried about me and I appreciate it, but I want to take a bath and relax a little. I still need to log onto my social media and see what’s going on. I’m hoping that there aren’t any bad photos of me floating around. I’ve been curious all day, but I was afraid to look at the same time.

I grab a glass of wine and amble into my bathroom. I fill the tub and soak my tired body for a few minutes. My phone chirps. It’s a text from Ben.

Ben: Hope you’re okay?

Patty: I’m fine and it’s none of your business.

Ben: I understand you’re hurt but that doesn’t mean you have to be mean to me.

Patty: I’m not trying to be mean to you, but you didn’t care when you hurt me with your backhand, so don’t care now that someone else hurt me. At least he didn’t do it physically.

Ben: Ouch! Will you ever forgive me? I’ve said sorry a million times.

Patty: Probably not.

It chirps again, but I ignore it and sink into the tub to relax. I’m starting to doze off when my phone rings, scaring the crap out of me, so I jump up, dry my hands, and answer it.

“Hello.”

“Hey, baby girl.”

“Hey, Daddy. What’s going on?”

“How are you holding up?” he asks me, sounding concerned.

“I’m okay. I’m tired of talking about it, to be honest.”

“Okay. Well, I’ll let you go, but I wanted to check in and let you know that he was a mess last night after you left. He and Derek only stayed for a little longer because he was too upset to stay. He said something about seeing your mother laughing at him. I have a feeling she’s up to no good.”

“She called me today too. She said Ben was worried about me, and then he texted me.”

“Has Carter called?”

“Yes, but I didn’t answer, and he texted me earlier too. I told him I wasn’t ready to talk yet, but I would hear him out soon.”

“I think you should, baby girl.”

“I’ll think about it, but listen, I’m really tired since I didn’t sleep last night, so I’m going to go get into some pajamas and try to get some sleep tonight.”

“Okay. Goodnight, baby girl. I love you.”

“I love you too, Daddy.”

I slip into bed, sip my wine, and open my Facebook app. I don’t see too much going on there, so I decide to do a Google search of my name. The first thing that the search engine lists breaks me all over again because it’s the pictures of Carter and I entering the event last night. There’s one of us looking lovingly into one another’s eyes, and the other is of us kissing. A lone tear escapes me, so I quickly close the window, down the rest of my wine, and lay down. I decide I’ll call Carter tomorrow so we can try to talk as I drift off into another night of restless sleep.