Chapter 28 #2
“No.” She snorted and shook her head. “I was there, though. I saw what you did.”
I swallowed hard. “What is it that you saw?” Weirdly, I wanted to hear another attendee’s perspective.
“It was his first big panel. It was the first time I was going to meet him.”
I nodded to encourage her to continue.
“You took over everything. You made fun of him.” Her glare was icy cold. “You called all his readers nerds.”
My smile was flat. “Not my finest hour. Would you believe I was nervous?”
“No. You didn’t stop talking. You weren’t nervous about anything.”
“Some people show their nerves in different ways. I was definitely nervous. Unfortunately, I decided the best way to settle my nerves was to make fun of Brody.”
“That wasn’t fair,” Blair snapped. “He didn’t do anything to you.”
“He didn’t,” I agreed.
“You have no idea what it’s like to be nervous and the butt of everybody’s jokes.”
“That happens to you a lot, doesn’t it?” I realized, rolling my neck. “People make fun of you.”
“They say I’m too intense.”
Something I’d said to her. “They make fun of the lists,” I said.
Her eyes narrowed so thoroughly I wondered if she could even see through them. “Like you.”
I swallowed hard. “I wasn’t making fun of your lists—”
“Don’t tell me what I know!”
“I wasn’t making fun of them. I was just trying to save Brody. You were really hurting his feelings, and it’s something he would have never said to you because he’s too nice.”
“I was trying to make him better. I wanted him to see that if we worked together, his books would be better than anybody’s books.”
“Ah,” I said. Her plan, while out there, likely made sense in her busy brain. “Well, I’m really sorry I said what I said. Brody had helped me with a problem, and I just wanted to help him.”
“You’re dating him. You stole him from me.”
Blair was in her forties, maybe even older.
It was hard to tell with her because she dressed beyond her years.
Brody was in his early thirties. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t date an older woman of course.
But there were no circumstances where I believed he would mesh with Blair.
He just wanted somebody who got him. Blair, despite all her efforts, was not that person.
She was critical of his books because she had a picture in her mind of how things were going to turn out.
Brody couldn’t live a relationship like that.
He needed to be nurtured. He also needed to do some nurturing.
Blair was not the sort of person who wanted to be nurtured back. She just wanted to be in control.
“Blair.” I had no idea what I was going to say next. I just knew I had to say something.
Before I could find more words, however, a flashing light appeared. Not one but two police cars had arrived on the street, approaching from different ends. They stopped in front of my house, facing one another.
I kept my eyes on Blair because it seemed like my safest option. If this was where she was going to melt down, I needed to keep my wits about me.
“You called the police!” Blair was incredulous as she glared at me.
“Not personally,” I replied. “My friends inside did.”
“I just wanted to talk.” Blair’s eyes sparked.
“Well, I think maybe it’s best if you talk to them.”
“I don’t want to talk to them.” She took a step toward me, and I remained seated. This situation required that everybody remain calm. Her. Me. Definitely my mother.
“Blair.” My voice was soft. “Just do what they say.”
She turned away from me and focused on the police officers, who did not have their weapons drawn. That was a relief. They were calm as they approached her. I didn’t even register their words. I just watched in sadness as Blair began to lose her mind.
She screamed that she wasn’t doing anything and they couldn’t arrest her for not doing anything.
Then she insisted she’d just come here to deliver a gift to me.
Once the officers had her under control, she wouldn’t stop talking about the gift.
I started in her direction at that point, no longer worried. If I could help, I would.
“What did you want to give me?” I asked when I was about ten feet away.
She jerked her eyes to me, calculating, then her hand extended from inside her sleeve. I held my breath until I realized she was holding a small notebook. It had a dragon on it.
“What’s this?” I asked, seeking permission from the police officers with my eyes before taking it.
They nodded.
When I opened it, I had no choice but to press my lips together to keep from laughing. She’d outlined all her grievances about Brody’s books.
“If you’re going to be the one spending time with him, you need to know how to help him,” Blair said.
I closed the notebook and nodded. “All I want to do is help him,” I assured her.
“That’s not all you want.” Blair made a disgusted face as the police officers delicately placed her in handcuffs. “You want to do naughty things with him too. You forget, I’ve read your books. You’re obviously a whore.”
“Well, I’ll try to find some balance.”
On the other side of the police car, I recognized Brody coming to a skidding stop in his golf cart. He looked as if he was about to lose it. We snagged gazes, and the relief on his face blew through me like a spring breeze, warm and welcome. At that moment, I knew that there was no turning back.
I’d spent my whole life determined not to become my mother. My biggest issue had been that I believed there was only one way to manage that. I was wrong. There was another way.
Brody stood there for several beats, collecting himself, then started toward me. He looked at Blair long enough for confusion to register. Then everything he had was for me.
“I was so afraid when I saw the cop cars,” he said, pulling me into his arms and burying his face in my hair. “When Hayley called, I didn’t understand what she was saying.”
“We assumed it was Joey,” I said. “It never occurred to us that it could be Blair.”
“But … why?” He pulled back far enough to look into my eyes.
“She wanted to make you the best author ever.”
He wrinkled his nose.
“She didn’t realize you could do that on your own,” I added.
His expression went dark. “We’re going to talk about you leaving your house when you knew a dangerous individual was on your lawn. Not right now but eventually.”
I smirked. “She wasn’t dangerous. She was just … misunderstood.”
We looked back at Blair as she was loaded into the police car. I had no idea what would happen to her. I hoped she got help, though.
“I need to tell you something,” I said when he turned back.
“Yeah? Does it involve us having ice cream in bed for dinner?”
I smirked. “I think that can be arranged. But that’s not what I want to tell you.”
He waited, not speaking. He always gave me the space I needed to figure out my thoughts. That was his greatest superpower.
“I love you,” I said before I could think better of it. If I waited too long to say it, fear might take over.
It wasn’t that I needed to hear him say it back. For me, this was the hard part. I needed to be the one to open myself up to him. That was my true journey. It had never been about him loving me.
He broke into a wide grin. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
He leaned close, his lips hovering over mine. “I love you too. I think I have from the start.”
“Not from the very start,” I teased. “You hated me back then.”
He shrugged. “Hate is a strong word for what I felt.”
“I didn’t hate you either.” We kissed. It was intense, but it wouldn’t lead anywhere. We had an audience. When I pulled back, everything felt right in my world. “What do we do now?”
His grin told me everything was going to be okay. “We figure it out. Together.”