What You Do To Me (Unexpected Love) (48 page)

             
“I’ll be fine, go find him and stop back later to tell us what
’s happening
with him.” I look
ed at Steve and ga
ve him a
tight-lipped
forced smile.

             
“
Okay
and Abby, if you tell Alex the
truth,
I won’t be mad. You don’t owe Johnny
anything,
not after
the way
h
e has treated you.” Steve gave
me a quick hug before taking off towards the park.

             
I sa
t outside for a minute and decide
d
I had better
go
in,
since I
’d
been gone awhi
le. When I
got
to the
room,
I saw
Alex
pacing back and forth. He looked
at me and his mouth drop
ped
. “What the hell
happened?” He immediately held
my face in his hands.
“I knew I should have gone looking for
you.
You
were gone forever.” His eyes were burning into mine.

             
I still didn’t know what to say, but Steve was right, I knew I needed to lie about what happened. “I’m sorry; I got lost on the running trail.” That wasn’t a complete lie. I did get
lost,
due to not paying attention to what I was doing.

             
“That doesn’t explain your face.”

             
I looked
down, because
I couldn’t look into his
eyes,
knowing
that
I was lying about what happened on the trail. “I slipped and I face planted into the side of a tree.” I was hoping my voice sounded steady and not shaky. I knew my hands still were, so I kept them clenched by my sides. I brought my eyes back up to Alex’s.

             
Alex’s eyes searched mine, but I couldn’t tell from his expression if he believed me or not. He dropped his hands from my face and brought me in for a hug. “I’ll have room service bring up some ice. You need something on that, so it doesn’t bruise.” I nod
ded
my head
yes, and sa
nk into the hug.
I want
ed to cry, but knew if I
did,
he’d
know it wasn’t a slip and right
now,
I need
ed
him to believe
it,
not for me, but for him.

             
“I’m going to go jump in the shower. I stink.” I look
ed
up at him and force
d
a smile. I pull
ed
away and head
ed
into the bedroom towards the bathroom.

             
While
I was
in the
shower,
I start
ed
to feel pissed off that it happened and I
wondered
how Johnny even knew I was in the park. I didn’t understand how he could blame everything on me, but
I
knew the timing of everything made it look like I wanted Alex to quit or take a break.

             
Johnny’s voice still haunted
me.
What he said
about Alex not being able to stay faithful bugged me. I knew that Johnny was screwed up and what he was saying was more to hurt me and chase me away, but I figured there must be some truth to what had said. I heard Alex enter and decided to bury that thought for now. Alex gave me no reason to doubt him.

             
“You almost done?” I heard Alex over the shower.

             
“Yep, I’ll be out in a second. The water feels
too
good
right now.” I tried
to yell over the water.

             
“Well, I know something that will feel even better, but you have to get out for that.” I immediately
smiled
.

             
“I’m leaving some Motrin and water on the sink for you. Take them when you get out.” I heard the door shut. A few minutes
later,
I emerged from the shower and dried off. I walked over to the vanity
counter, picked up the Motrin,
and chugged the water. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was from the run. I refilled the glass and drank another
full glass
. I grabbed a hand towel and wiped down the mirror. I immediately saw my face and sucked in a deep breath from shock. I had a bruise forming and some
scratches
from the bark of the tree when I was first pushed against it. Then I saw there were a few bruises starting to form at my upper chest
and
throat area. I wasn’t sure how I would explain these to Alex and I didn’t want to admit I had been lying to him earlier.

             
When I left the
bathroom,
I was relieved that Alex wasn’t in the bedroom. I riffled through my bag and found a t-shirt that had a tighter neckline
that
covered the bruises. I wasn’t sure what I would tell Alex tonight when I would be in my
pajamas
or no clothes
at all,
for that matter.

             
When I walked into the
room,
I saw Alex and Steve talking. Alex looked at
me,
stopped talking and walked over to the
table,
grabbing ice from a pail and placing it in a towel.
Steve
looked at me, but didn’t say anything.
I walked over to the table where Alex was standing and
took
the towel from him. “I can watch
TV
in the bedroom if you guys want time to talk.”

             
“No, Steve was tel
ling me
that
he found Johnny. When we
went to talk to him while you were on your run, he wasn’t in his room.
” I
looked
over at Steve.

             
“So, what happened to your face?” Steve
asked
with an even tone.

             
“I got lost on my run, then I slipped and face planted
into a tree, clumsy me.” I kept
looking at him to see if there wa
s an expression on his face, but it
didn
’t change.

             
“You better keep ice on it and stay away from the
cameras.
Christ,
the paparazzi will have a field day with you if they see you all banged up, especially since
you’re
here with Alex.” I hadn’t even thought of that and now I
felt
panicked.

             
Alex stepped
in, wrapped his hands around my waist from behind,
and rested the top of his chin on my head. “I’m not worried about it.” He then bent his
head,
kissing me on the top of my wet head.

             
Steve looked at Alex, “I need you to get on this plane with me. He is completely out of his mind. It’s more th
a
n the booze this time. It’s going to take more
than
me to get him into rehab.” I could
hear the pleading in his voice as he spoke to Alex.

             
At
first,
Alex didn’t respond, but let out a sigh, “Let me talk to Abby first.”

             
“No,
there’s
nothing to talk
about.
You
need to go.” I turned to look at
him,
removing the ice from my face. “He’s your family and he needs you right now. I’ll be fine, plus I fly home in the morning.
Maybe,
I’ll try and get a
redeye
tonight.”

             
Steve remained silent, but I could feel his gaze on us as we talked. “I’m not ready to leave you, you just got here.” Alex grabbed the ice from my hand and placed the ice back on my face.
I winced as it touched my cheek. He leaned down and kissed my nose.

             
“When everything
settles,
we’ll figure things out, plus I need to get my classroom ready before school starts. We can text, talk, Face Time chat, you won’t miss me.”

             
“No, I will miss you and I promise when this is all
settled,
I’ll fly out to see you. I’ll have Sam stay with yo
u until you fly out.” Alex looked
up at
Steve.
“
Fine
, I’ll fly out with you, but can I have at least an hour?”

             
Steve
nodded
his head yes, “That shouldn’t be a proble
m.” He then changed
his gaze to me, “Thank
you,
Abby, I appreciate this, all of it.” I could tell by the look in his
eyes,
he meant it and I understood the last part, keeping it from Alex.

             
Steve left and Alex scooped me up and carried me to the couch.
He sat down with me on his
lap,
replacing the ice to my face. I pulled it
away,
as I was getting wet from it melting in the towel.
“I don’t have to
go.
If
you ask me to
stay,
I will.” Alex leaned in and kissed my good cheek.

             
I wanted to ask him to stay. It hurt to lie and have him help the man who hurt me, but I couldn’t tell him
and I knew he needed to help. If what Steve
had
said wa
s true, then the Johnny he knew
needed
to be found again.
“No, go he needs you more th
a
n I do. Plus
,
we would be separated again tomorrow anyway. It’s just a day earlier th
a
n planned.” I rested my head on his shoulder thinking about what we would do. We just kept telling ourselves we would figure it out, but
we hadn’t
. “Alex,” I didn’t wait for a response. “What are we doing? I mean how are we going to do this? We haven’t talked about it and we need to. I can’t fly back and forth, not with school starting
and my girls
.”

             
“I’ll fly out and maybe I’ll stay.” Alex wrapped his arms tighter around me.

             
“You can’t stay, you’ll hate it, some days I hate it. Everyone is in your business.”

             
“And how would that be different
from
now? Except where I’d be living, but everyone is in my business now anyway.”
I knew he was right, but it wasn’t the same.

             
“Alex I have to drive an hour just to go to a Wal-
M
art, could you really be happy in
a
place where you can’t buy anything. Where half the population moves once September hits.”

             
Alex
ran
his hands through my hair as he
spoke
. “Actually, that sounds good, but
honestly,
anywhere you are is where I want to be.
Listen,
we can try it and if it doesn’t
work,
maybe we can try my place.”

             
My heart
ached
because I had to tell him and it was the time. I sa
t up and look
ed
at him. “Alex, I can’t move the girls. They are stable where they are and I won’t ever move them. They have family and a support system that is there for them and for me. Moving is not an option for me.
If you think that you could come and make me fall even more in love with
you, and
then convince me to
move,
you’re wasting your time.”

             
“I’m not saying move for good. I’m saying when I’m back in the
studio,
you guys could move out with me and move back during the school year. It’s just
options;
we have lots.” Alex’s right
hand stroked
the left side of my face.