Page 24 of Jilted

Chapter Twenty-One

“ F uck!” Brett dragged a hand through his hair. He turned back to Vanessa. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

“Is it true?” She took a step toward him. “What she just said...is it true?”

“Yes.” From the corner of his eye, he saw his parents and his brother standing on the front porch.

Looked like the secret was out, he thought as he took a deep breath.

“I’m in love with Amy, and she’s the woman I want to spend my life with.

I’m sorry if that hurts you, Vanessa, but I want you to know that I’m not angry with you for what you did. ”

Then he turned and ran after Amy, shouting her name.

Brett rounded the corner, but Amy wasn’t there.

Where the hell could she have gone? He fumbled to get his cell phone out of his pocket and called her.

It went straight to voicemail. He hung up and called right back.

Voicemail again. Brett continued to call as he walked back toward his parents’ house. All his calls went unanswered.

“Fuck!” he shouted again.

Not only did Brett have to make things right with Amy, he had to find her first, and he was now going to have to face his parents – alone.

This was not how he wanted to tell them.

This was not how he expected this night would go.

God, all he wanted was Amy, right here, right now.

He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her, tell her how much he loved her.

Christ, how did he manage to fuck this up already?

“Brett Matthew Hudson...what the?—”

“Not now, Mom,” he said as he opened his car door and got inside. Right now, he had to find Amy. He’d deal with his mother’s questions later.

Brett awoke with a start. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, trying to get his bearings.

He’d gone to Amy’s house – their house – and waited for Amy to arrive.

She never did. Brett stood and stretched.

It was almost nine in the morning. He knew she would be at the studio; they were resuming classes today.

Brett grabbed his keys from the coffee table and rushed out of the house.

He arrived at the studio fifteen minutes later.

Sure enough, Amy was there. He took a moment to watch her as she instructed the group of students.

She looked tired, sad, and her eyes were bloodshot, as if she’d spent the night crying.

The thought that she had, and that he’d been the cause of it, sickened him.

He would make things right. He had to because life without Amy wasn’t worth living.

“Dylan, you look like an overcooked noodle today,” Amy said, her heels clicking against the floor as she made her way toward the boy. Her voice snapped Brett out of his thoughts. “Do you need the posture bar?”

“No, Miss Amy,” Dylan responded, straightening his back. His arms were still all wrong.

Brett used the opportunity to his advantage.

He walked up to Dylan and repositioned his arms, putting his hand on the boy’s back to straighten him the proper way.

Then he locked his gaze with Amy’s. She looked at him for only a moment before averting her gaze, but not before Brett noticed the unshed tears in her eyes.

“Okay,” Amy said, “one more time. Five, six, seven, eight...turn, turn, turn...good. Nice job, Mindy, great lines.”

Brett stood next to her and watched the students dance. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“You’re late. Classes start promptly at nine,” she said without looking at him. “Vanessa keep you up too late last night?”

There was so much venom in her voice. “I wasn’t with Vanessa,” he said angrily. “I spent the entire night at our house waiting for you to come home.”

She still wouldn’t look at him.

He sighed. “Amy, please, just talk to me.”

“Nice job, guys,” she said, clapping her hands and smiling at the students. “Okay, take five, and then we’ll work on some new choreography.” Finally, she looked at him. “You want me to talk? Fine, I’ll talk.”

She ushered him into the corner and lowered her voice to an angry whisper. “I have spent my entire life loving you, Brett. You’re the only person in the world I have ever completely trusted, and last night you broke my heart and destroyed my trust in you. There’s no coming back from that.”

They stood in a silent battle of wills. He knew he’d hurt her, but he hadn’t realized how much. He also knew that if he didn’t do something, he would lose her forever. And that wasn’t an option.

Brett swallowed hard. “You’re wrong.”

He turned and walked away. He would come back from this, and he knew exactly how he was going to do it, too.

Amy sighed with aggravation when her cell phone rang again. This time, it was a text message from Brett. At least he’d moved on from calling every four seconds.

brETT: Emergency at the studio. Come now! Urgent! 911.

She didn’t even think twice about it. Amy was out of her sister’s apartment and rushing toward her car. Her thoughts raced. Was the studio on fire? Had it been vandalized? Burglarized? Why hadn’t she been notified? She was listed as the owner, too, so why hadn’t the police called her?

When she arrived, the building looked fine. There were no signs of anything bad. But the lights were on. She got out of her car and went inside.

Brett stood in the middle of the room. Why the fuck did he have to look so damn sexy? And why was her first thought to go to him and throw herself into his arms? She’d give anything to be back on that island with him right now.

“What the hell is going on?” she asked. “What’s wrong with the studio?”

“Nothing, I needed to get you here and this was the only way I knew how,” Brett said.

“I’m leaving.” She turned to do just that when something caught her eye. “Is that a pile of sand on the floor?” Her voice got progressively louder with each spoken word. “Why is there sand on my dance floor?” He knew how neurotic she was about a clean floor.

“I can explain.” He smiled, and she felt her knees get weak.

Amy crossed her arms over her chest and impatiently tapped her foot. “Well...I’m waiting?”

He licked his lips, and she cursed herself for watching him, wanting him. “Do you remember our last day on the island? We watched the sunrise on the beach?”

“Yes.” That was the day he’d told her he loved her, and then they made love. She would never forget that day for as long as she lived.

Brett walked up to her and gently rubbed his hands up and down her arms. The contact sent her body into a tailspin.

“In those seconds before I told you I loved you, I had a moment of perfect clarity. Everything suddenly made sense to me. Our relationship, my feelings for you, my life...” He shook his head.

Amy remained silent, knowing if she tried to speak, she would just end up crying.

“Remember prom?” Brett reached into his pocket and pulled something out. He pushed a button on it and a picture of them at prom popped up against the window shades.

That’s when Amy realized he’d set up a laptop that was projecting onto the closed shades covering the windows. “Yeah, I remember prom.”

How could she forget? She’d turned down two invitations, one from the most popular boy in school, because she’d been waiting for Brett to ask her. When he finally did, it wasn’t anything like she’d thought it would be.

“I gave you some lame excuse about not wanting to go, but my mom was making me. I asked you to go with me so that I didn’t have to take a real date.”

Yup. That’s exactly how he’d asked her, too, and it had hurt more than she thought possible.

“Then there was Jenna Lewis’ graduation party.

” He pushed the button again, and another picture of them popped up.

“Blamed this one on my mom, too.” Brett smiled and quickly clicked through several more pictures.

“Hundreds of frat parties in college. Craig’s college graduation.

Aunt Linda’s retirement party. My parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

Dozens of family reunions. That ridiculous Christmas party at my dad’s company that he made me go to. ”

Every time a new picture was displayed, Amy was bombarded with memories of each specific event. She’d begun crying after the prom picture and hadn’t stopped. She made no attempt to hide her tears, either. There was no point.

“And then, of course, there was my recent honeymoon.”

An aerial photo of the island filled her vision, and she lost it. She put her hand over her mouth and sobbed so hard her shoulders shook. Thankfully, Brett didn’t try to touch her, because that would’ve only made things worse.

He tucked the plastic button device back in his pocket and continued to speak. “I have a bad habit of giving you lame excuses to get you to go places with me. And I finally know why.”

“Why?” She wasn’t sure she really wanted to know, but the question had been asked.

“Because I was too damn scared to just ask you out. I’ve had so many opportunities, and I’ve missed every single one of them because I’m scared shitless, Amy. I’m scared of how I feel about you. I’m scared of ruining our friendship. I’m scared that you might not feel the same way about me.”

She didn’t know what to say to that. It’s not like they could go back in time and have a do-over. Nothing he said could change what had already happened between them. But the urge to grab him and tell him that he had nothing to be scared of was overwhelming.

“But this,” he pointed to the window shades as another picture popped up, “this is the moment I regret the most.”

It was a beautiful picture of that secluded beach where they’d watched the sunrise. Amy closed her eyes, not wanting to relive that moment. It hurt too much to know she’d been so close to having the life with Brett she’d always dreamed of and knowing she’d lost it.

Brett took her hand and laced their fingers together. “Go back there with me, Amy.” He pointed to the picture again. “Let me have that moment back so that I can say what I should’ve said back then.”

She never could say no to him. With a nod, she let Brett lead her to the pile of sand.

Just like that morning, she sat between his legs and rested her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and when she closed her eyes, she was back on that beach with him.

She could feel the light breeze on her face.

She could smell the remnants of the rainstorm from a few nights before.

She could hear the ocean as it rolled onto the shore.

She could feel his hot breath on her neck.

And she could feel his heart beating in his chest.

Brett nuzzled her neck and then kissed it.

A fresh wave of tears streamed down her face.

“You have spent your life loving me, and I’ve spent my life choosing you.

Every event that I could’ve taken a girlfriend to, I chose to take you.

Every girlfriend that ever said, ‘Brett, it’s me or Amy,’ I’ve always chosen you. ”

“Except for Vanessa,” she choked out the words in between sobs.

Brett clutched her chin in his thumb and forefinger and turned her face toward him. “Especially Vanessa,” he said.

Amy’s lips trembled. The look in his eyes was so intense, so full of truth it stunned her.

“Did you know that when the music started and everyone turned to watch Vanessa walk down the aisle, I was looking at you?”

“No.” Amy shook her head. If it was his goal to make her blubber like a baby, he was doing a damn good job. Every time he spoke, she would cry harder.

“I was. And I knew that I couldn’t marry her because it would mean giving you up. I’d made up my mind that if she had actually come walking down that aisle, I wasn’t going to go through with it. I couldn’t. I couldn’t give you up. I knew that I was going to choose you again.”

She desperately wanted to believe him. Was it possible he was telling her the truth? He looked like he was. But...what about last night? Why hadn’t he told Vanessa about them like he said he would? She opened her mouth to ask, but he spoke before she had a chance.

“I’ve always chosen you, Amy. Always. And now I’m asking you to choose me.

” He kissed her softly on the lips, and she whimpered a little when he pulled away.

Brett held a diamond ring in his hand. Amy stared at it for a moment, then looked at him.

“Choose me to be the man you spend the rest of your life loving. Choose me to be the father of your children and your husband.”

“Oh my God,” she whispered, turning around so that her back was to his chest again. Was this really happening? Was Brett seriously proposing to her? She needed a moment to collect herself.

“Amy, look at me, baby, please.” He turned her so that she had to look at him. Using his free hand, he wiped away her tears with his thumb. “I love you so much, and I don’t want to live a life that you’re not a part of. Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said before he even finished the question. “Yes, a million times yes.”

Brett slipped the ring on her finger and smiled. Amy held out her hand to admire the ring. It was simple, but gorgeous. And it was Brett’s ring!

“I wanted to ask you that morning on the beach, but I chickened out.”

“This way was so much better.” She laughed.

“I’m so sorry about last night.”

“It looked like you were kissing her.”

“I wasn’t. I swear. She tried to kiss me, but I wouldn’t let her. What you saw was me pushing her away.”

Amy flung her arms around Brett and buried her face in his neck. “I love you.”

He hugged her so tight it was hard to breathe, but she didn’t care. She was in Brett’s arms, and he was now her fiancé. He could do whatever the hell he wanted so long as he was doing it to her or with her.

“I love you, too, Amy, so much.” He kissed her neck. “Can we go home now? Together?”

“Yes.” She released him and looked into his piercing blue eyes. “Take me home and make love to me, Brett.”