The Unexpected Series (Unexpected #1-3) (73 page)

Her stare is deep, unmoving, like she is fighting on whether or not to finish her thought.

“I can’t. I want to go,” she says, her green eyes contradicting her words.

“Let me call you a cab. It’s my duty to make sure you get home safe.” I stand up with her. “We can share. Your house is on the way to mine.”

Pulling her jacket over her shoulders she motions toward the door. “Braden is here to pick me up.”

My heart stops for a brief moment. I plaster a fake smile on my face. “Think he can give me a ride too?” I joke.

She snickers while she fastens the buttons her coat. “That would be something.”

“Well,” I say fingering the last shot on the table. “Sudden death?”

Her gaze falls to the door and then back to me. “What does that mean?” Her hands find her hips.

“One more question.”

She points to the glass I’ve now picked up. “There is only one left, Ryder.”

I love when she says my name.

“I know,” I say stepping towards her. She doesn’t back away. “I ask a question. You don’t answer you take the shot. If you do then I’ll take it.”

A slow smirk presents itself. “Okay, shoot.”

With my free hand, I lift her chin up so that I can look deep into her eyes and find the truth. “If not for that asshole outside waiting for you...would you have let me kiss you tonight?”

I need to know. I need to see how serious she is about this man. Is their relationship so broken that she would have risked it for a kiss with me? But the Hadley I know, that I remember was faithful and trusting to a man she loved.

She blindly grabs the shot from my hand and tips her head back to take it before turning away, her eyes never leaving mine.

I fall back into the booth, my head down, swimming in a sea of tequila and unanswered questions. More than I had before I walked in her tonight.

“Ryder.” Her beautiful voice calls me from a few feet away. I look up and she is smiling. A true genuine smile. One I haven’t seen on her since I found her again. “Yes. I would’ve let you.”

My heart starts to beat faster. I want to jump up and grab her and slam my lips to hers but before I can even think straight she is out the door.

T
he door of the bar slams shut as I approach Braden’s car. When I don’t immediately open the passenger side door he rolls the window down.

“Get in the car, Hadley.” He growls. I stand there, unmoving.

After another command to get in I place both hands down lowering myself so that I can see into the car.

He looks over, the green of his eyes have grown dark with dread. I can see he is upset. “Please,” he asks. “Get in the car. I’ll take you home and we can talk.”

I sigh before relenting and getting into the car. “Nice of you to show up, Braden,” I comment once my seat belt is secure.

I watch through alcohol infused eyes as Braden’s jaw clenches and unclenches. His knuckles are pure white from the tight grip on the steering wheel. It almost makes me giggle. He has the audacity to be pissed and has yet to even explain where he has been for the past–taking a glance at my watch–two hours?

A growling sigh comes from between his teeth. “What’s funny, Hadley?”

Maybe I laughed out loud. I don’t give a shit. He has no right to be mad at me. I’ve done nothing but reach out to him all week!

“This relationship!” I yell letting him know how truly angry I am come through. “This relationship is such a fucking joke, Braden, that it makes me laugh.”

I’m not even sure it makes sense to him, but to me, right now, it does.

“Obviously.” He snorts, flicking the turn signal on. “Obviously you think it’s a joke, Hadley.”

I roll my eyes in disbelief.

Is he kidding?

“Me? Are you serious?” I screech pulling the door handle as, minutes later, he parks in the parking lot of my complex. I look over at him, my eyes forming into slits. “I’m not the one that checked out this week. I’m not the one cheating!”

After slamming the door I grab onto the hood of his car when I slightly slip on a small patch of ice, I push off and stomp my way up the stairs. Just as I push they keys in to open the door Braden’s hand wraps around my wrist.

“Let me go!” I yell ripping my hand away from him and pushing my way into my apartment.

He’s quick to stop the door before I slam it in his face, striding in like he pays the rent here.

I point my finger into his chest. “Get out!”

He body stands firm but his eyes scream vulnerability. “I’m not cheating on you, Hadley. What the hell?”

Ignoring that lie I walk into the kitchen making myself a glass of water. When it quenches the parchness of my throat, I throw my purse and jacket off towards the table.

Braden hasn’t moved an inch, and when I look at him I see a different man. The difference a week makes. It’s sad, and I feel not only hurt but disgusted.

“Where the hell were you then, Braden...and not just today? All fucking week! I told you this morning that you needed to meet with me to figure all this out and you didn’t show up. Didn’t call. Didn’t text until you were in the damn parking lot two hours late. Dammit! I feel like we’re just falling apart!”

He flinches. I’m not sure he has ever been the recipient of my anger. As he steps closer he uses careful movements like he is confronting an angry animal. His eyes find mine, and his teeth snatch up his bottom lip.

Immediately remembering Ryder and what me biting my lip does to him. Guilt instantly creeps in when I think of how close he was to kissing me. How I almost let him and how Braden, who was just outside in the parking lot, could have just as easily walked in and seen how close we were.

My knees start to go weak at the thought of hurting Braden even just a sliver of what I felt the night Ryder betrayed me so long ago. Even though Braden has done nothing but hurt me this week he doesn’t deserve to feel that pain like I did, even if he might be cheating on me. I don’t know how I will be able to move on after another blow like that. I silently pray he isn’t stepping out on me...and then I try to imagine how I would feel if I caught Braden in a bar, his lips just a fraction away from another woman’s. It makes me sick.

I feel like a hypocrite saying it makes me sick to think of Braden doing what I almost did.

“I could never cheat on you, Hadley. I’m so deeply in love with you that I can’t even imagine getting to know another girl.” He reaches out for feelings of guilt. I can feel myself climbing back up the hill of the roller coaster that is our story.

He pulls me into him, his arms circling around my body, and my head falls into his chest. It feels warm and comforting. He smells like home and I just want to curl up with him and have him caress my back and tell me everything will be okay, but I have to get some answers.

My voice is muffled into his jacket. “What happened, Braden? Where were you this week?”

His chest rises and falls with a deep breath. “Right now, baby, I’m just dealing with some stuff and I’m trying to figure out how to deal with it the right way.”

I pull away, looking up into his now distant eyes. “Talk to me, Braden. We’re supposed to be a team. We should be able to tell each other anything.”

Every muscle in his body tenses up as the shade of his irises turn darker. “We should, huh?” he asks seemingly baiting me.

I take a hard swallow and try to see what he wants me to say. I just nod and he pulls away, disgusted.

“So if we can tell each other anything, tell me who Ryder is, Hadley?” he yells, his voice booming off of my patio door, shaking the glass. “Who is he to you?”

Time stops. The world comes to a halt and all I can do is just stare at Braden. Watch as the vein in his neck becomes prominent. Watch it flicker with each beat of his heart and watch as he steps closer to me, daring me to answer.

“How do you know about Ryder?” I ask trying to avoid the question I don’t know how to answer, when I finally find my voice.

“How do I know abo...” He stops mid-sentence, shaking his head and pulling his hair through his fingers. “Are you sleeping with him?”

“No!” I deny instantly.

“Then why did you lie?” His voice grows more heated than before, if that’s even possible.

I sway for a brief moment, the final shots of tequila reaching my system. I lean up against the couch to keep my balance. “What did I lie about?”

He picks up a pillow, throwing it across the room. “Your cousin didn’t help you fix your car, Hadley. Ryder did! Now, do you want to tell me about him? No fucking lies.”

Thoughts race through my mind. I didn’t tell anyone about Ryder’s help except for my cousin, who hates Braden with a passion, and Noelle. Neither would say something to him. Then it hits me.

“You and your damn friends are such stalkers! Don’t you have anything better to do at work? So, you ditch me on Sunday and have me followed?”

“Yea, Hadley,” he says sarcastically. “Because that is the worst of the two issues here.”

“Wait!” I stare him down wanting my own answers. “That all happened after you hightailed it out of here on Sunday and then refused to answer my calls, and why the hell didn’t you say anything when I came to your work on Monday?”

More things come into focus as others become more confusing.

“I wanted you to tell me the truth!” he yells. “I wanted my girlfriend of two years to tell me some other man helped her. A man who I have never even heard of before!”

I stalk towards the kitchen to get more water. I suddenly feel like I need it. “Are you kidding me? He had to help me because you wouldn’t answer your damn phone.”

As water from the faucet fills up the glass Braden continues, “No one else could help you, Hadley? It had to be some guy you’ve never mentioned before?”

“He stopped by.” I realized my slip up when the drink is halfway to my mouth, but he seems unaffected like he already knew he’d been here.

“What happened Sunday that you couldn’t bother to answer my calls in the first place?” I say before he can dive deeper into that last admission. “Is it the party? The fact that I’m planning it or the fact that I’d like to go and you seem dead set on not going?”

“We’re not going.” He slams his hand down on the counter, shaking my spice rack “You’re not going.”

“I don’t have a choice!” I yell throwing my hand up. “I’m the event planner! Don’t you want to go?”

“I do want to go,” he confesses, his face turning a dark shade of red, before walking back into the living room and sitting on the couch. His hands go straight to cover his cheeks as his elbows rest on his knees. He looks ten years older right now, stressed beyond his years.

“So what’s the problem then, Braden?” I ask not being able to hide the annoyance in my voice. It’s not working.

He jumps up, pointing a finger in my direction. “I don’t want YOU to go!”

My jaw drops to the floor.

And there it is.

“Me?” I point a finger into my chest. “You don’t want me to go? Are you going to take the woman you’re cheating on me with? Is it Janie? Huh? Who is it, Braden? Who would you rather take than your own girlfriend?”

“You’ve lost your mind, Hadley!” His voice rising to a level I’ve never heard before. “I’m not cheating!”

The volume of his voice causes me to jump.

“We’re not going,” he continues. “You’re not going. I’m not cheating and I won’t tell you again. End of discussion.” His voice is low, like he is trying to fight a losing battle, which he most certainly is.

I walk to the door and open it, letting a cold breeze filter through the apartment. “Leave.”

He strides to the door, slamming it back shut. “No! I want to know about Ryder. Now.”

I bring my chest to his, looking up to show him how pissed off I am. “Tell me where you were tonight then.”

His eyes drift down to my lips and I think he may kiss me, until they meet mine again and I see hurt. Anguish.

I swallow the lump down in my throat. I suddenly feel bad but we both want answers and neither of us wants to give in. However, if there is any chance of making things right I have to talk to him. If his avoidance of me this week was because of my lie about Ryder, and if I have any chance of fixing this, I need to be honest.

“My ex from high school,” I say starting up the conversation we need to have. He needs to know what happened.

We make our way to the couch to sit down and I tell my story first. How Ryder and I met and kept it a secret. How I got hurt in the process and left without telling him. I tell him that Ryder’s and my parents hated each other and how Ryder, a few months ago, showed back up in town. He says nothing, but just listens to what I have to say, taking in each and every word. When he hears about the sledding incident and how it all happened with my car his body tenses and stays that way until I finish. I don’t dare tell him about seeing him tonight. When I’m done he just looks at me, expectantly, like he wants more.

“Is that it?” he asks.

I deflect his question by asking his whereabouts this week. He breathes out a sigh but his only response is, “I was trying to figure out what to say to you. I was thinking. I needed some space.”

I shift on the couch, pushing myself back into it and away from him. “Don’t you think that you should have clued me in on that, Braden? We were fine Sunday until the mention of the party.”