Chapter 5
JUSTIN
Silence followed Justin and Garrett into the workout room. The clanging of metal couldn’t even drown out the tension that stretched taut between them.
It wasn’t Garrett’s fault that Caroline had shut Justin down faster than a light switch plunging a room into darkness. It was Garrett’s fault that she’d seen the viral social media post. Everyone in the country had seen it, if the climbing number of views could be trusted.
That post wasn’t the first impression Justin wanted to make with Caroline after more than ten years apart. He might only have one shot to set things right with her. Had he already blown it?
The buzz of the energy in the gym pulled Justin out of his own head as he stormed through the room, ignoring anyone and everyone on his way to the back.
“Come on, man. I apologized already. Why are you still giving me the silent treatment?” Garrett tossed his towel and water bottle on a bench.
He had apologized. That was about all he could do. He’d removed the post, but that hadn’t squashed it.
Too many things were spiraling out of control. He’d wanted to meet Caroline on his own terms, but the social media had taken that chance away. Instead of a preplanned meeting with the right words to smooth things over, his hand was forced after women chased him into her bakery.
He’d thought the circumstances of the meeting would work in his favor, but he couldn’t have been more wrong.
She was even more beautiful now than she’d been when they were young, but the distraught look on her face would haunt him now. A million memories stabbed at him like needles.
Justin planted his feet shoulder-width apart on a mat and stretched one arm across his chest, holding it taut with the other arm. “It’s fine. Leave it alone.”
“It’s not. I didn’t know, and now I feel like a jerk.”
Justin had given Garrett the heated and abbreviated version of his history with Caroline and what happened with the women downtown.
In truth, Justin should have told his friend from the start, and none of this would have happened.
It wasn’t easy putting into words how thoroughly he’d messed things up.
It was all his fault. At the time, leaving Redemption Ridge was the right thing to do. His grandparents wouldn’t have been able to afford the care they needed if he hadn’t quickly worked his way up to the pros using his God-given talent for baseball.
Justin switched sides to stretch the other arm, hoping and praying Garrett would move on to a different subject so he could get the awful meeting with Caroline out of his head.
Who was he kidding? Having her back in his arms should have been the happiest moment of his life. Instead, his blood ran cold at the wounded look in her stormy gray eyes.
“If you wanted to get back together with Caroline, you should have said something to start with,” Garrett pushed as he followed Justin through the stretch.
Justin lowered his arms and glared at his friend. “I need her to forgive me first.” He pushed a hand through his short hair before reaching for the hand wrap and strapping it around his knuckles. “Then maybe she’ll let me be her friend, and I can earn her trust back.”
Garrett snatched the tape from Justin to wrap his own hands. “I’m your guy. Operation Christmas Romance is officially off to a rocky start, but don’t give up yet.”
Justin flexed his hand against the constraints of the tape. “For the love of all things good, please stay out of it.”
Garrett pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No can do. I messed things up, and now I have to help make it right. Cindy will help too. She’s good at romance stuff. She taught me all I know.”
Cody Adams waved as he walked into the gym and joined Justin and Garrett on the mat, offering an out on the subject that grinded Justin’s nerves. “What’s up?”
“Justin is having woman problems,” Garrett said, tossing the tape onto a bench.
So much for a change of subject. “No, I’m not.”
Cody stretched his arm behind his head. “I saw the post. Chief is low-key fired up about it.” Chief Adams was Cody’s dad, and the two had a precarious working relationship. They didn’t have anything on Justin and his own dad, but things between the two men were clearly strained.
“Lovely. I’m already on the chief’s radar,” Justin grumbled.
“Everything is on Chief’s radar.” Garrett stepped up to a punching bag and extended his arm, testing the distance. “It’s not like the post was getting hateful comments. In fact, every single woman between eighteen and sixty volunteered to keep you company this Christmas.”
A chill rolled through Justin, making him shudder. “That’s disgusting.” He would never get used to the female attention that followed him around since his name and face started showing up on televisions across the world.
“I bet. I can’t imagine how awful that is,” Cody joked.
“How awful what is?”
Neenah Casper joined them on the mat, flipping her dark ponytail over a shoulder and pulling her neck to one side. Neenah and Cody had been friends for ages and worked out at the same time in the afternoons.
“Being chased around downtown by female fans,” Cody said, making air quotes around the last word.
Neenah chuckled. “Oh, I heard about that. Tough day.”
Justin rolled his eyes and placed his feet into the fighting stance. “Well, I got away from them, but butchered my chance to….”
“A chance to what?” Cody asked.
“A chance to win back the love of his life,” Garrett finished.
Neenah’s eyes widened. “Do tell.”
Justin’s head rolled back, and he stared at the white ceiling. “It’s a long story.”
Cody bounced on the balls of his feet, warming up for his workout. “We just got started, so there’s plenty of time.”
“You know Caroline Taylor?” With the way things were going, he needed all the help he could get if he was going to patch things up.
“Yeah. I’ve met the Taylors,” Neenah said. “I think everybody knows them, now that Alicia Carver married into the family.”
“She’s Alicia Taylor now,” Cody corrected.
“I think it’s cool that she changed her name, even though the whole world knew her as Alicia Carver.” Neenah stretched one arm over her head, bending her body to one side.
The pop star had certainly shaken up the town when she gave up her high-profile career to settle down in Redemption Ridge. Justin had read about it in the news right around the time he found out his dad was charged with assault for beating Caroline’s dad to a pulp.
“Wait a minute,” Cody said, narrowing his eyes at Justin. “You said this was a love story, but… Caroline Taylor?”
The pieces were coming together. “Yep. That’s the one.”
Cody put both hands on his head and turned in a slow circle as the news hit home. “But your dad and her parents—”
“That’s part of the problem.”
“Wait. I’m confused,” Neenah said, glancing back and forth between Cody and Justin.
Cody stopped in front of her to explain. “Justin’s dad is Chuck McKinnon.”
Neenah’s eyes widened. “Oh!” She hadn’t grown up in Redemption Ridge like the rest of them, but she’d been around long enough to hear about the dirty history between the families.
Law enforcement in Redemption Ridge was all too familiar with Chuck McKinnon. He had a rap sheet that could give Al Capone a run for his money.
“So you like Caroline?” Neenah asked.
Justin let the first jab fly, connecting with the canvas of the punching bag.
He more than liked her. She was the star of the best years of his life.
She was his first and only love, and he’d struck out.
His grandparents had died a few years ago, and the decisions he’d made so he could care for them didn’t matter anymore.
Sure, he loved baseball, but if the choices were baseball or Caroline, she won by a landslide.
“He loves Caroline,” Garrett corrected.
Neenah covered her cheeks with her hands. “This is so Romeo and Juliet.”
“Try more like Hatfields and McCoys,” Cody added.
“They had a secret fling when they were young!” Garrett said.
Justin let everything out with his fists. Each time his knuckles connected with the bag, another memory got shot down. “It wasn’t a fling, and are you telling this story?”
Garrett held up his hands in surrender. “Sorry. Your turn.”
“Our parents would have hated it. Caroline was really close with her family,” Justin explained, breathing through the adrenaline and sweat.
“Still is,” Cody added.
Knowing Caroline was still on good terms with her family was all Justin needed to hear to justify the leaving. It wouldn’t have meant anything to Justin if his dad was mad about who he dated. It would have crushed Caroline’s family if they’d found out.
“We kept it a secret, but she kept holding out hope that eventually we’d be able to tell them. Then I got drafted to the Marlins the same week her brother, Dom, was accused of murder.”
Cody hopped onto the treadmill beside Justin’s punching bag and started his warm-up. “Man, I forgot about Dom Taylor.”
Caroline was close with all of her brothers, but Dom was the eldest and the one she’d always worked hardest to form the relationship she wanted.
Whatever the circumstances behind the murder, Dom had confessed.
It was almost as if he wanted to rush the sentencing.
He hadn’t fought back against any of it.
When Caroline heard the news, Justin held her for hours while she screamed through tears. He’d never felt more helpless in his life, either before or since.
Justin hammered the heavy bag, letting the strain in his muscles chase away the doubts.
“When the Marlins drafted me, it was all I’d been working toward for years.
My grandparents were in assisted living, and they never had much to begin with.
Dad didn’t help them, and I needed more money. That meant leaving Redemption Ridge.”
“And Caroline,” Neenah whispered. “That’s rough.”
“They wanted me to relocate to Miami immediately. She understood and wanted to do the long-distance thing.”
When Dom went to prison, Caroline’s mom took it hard.
Caroline was trying her best to be there for her mom, and her own grief had probably been shoved aside.
Between workouts, team meetings, press events, and managing sponsorships and endorsements, Justin didn’t have nearly enough time to be there for Caroline.
“I’m guessing that didn’t work out well,” Cody said.
“You let her go for her own good. She has to see that, right?” Garrett’s question was quick and full of urgency before he focused back on the bag.
Justin increased the speed of his punches.
He’d worried about her all the time but felt like she tried to be available for him in the brief moments he had for her.
That meant she’d been sitting by the phone instead of being with her family when they needed each other.
“I’m not sure she understood it that way. ”
“What are you going to do?” Cody hopped off the treadmill and headed toward the free weights.
“I’m not sure.”
“You want to win her back?” Neenah asked.
Justin lowered his arms as the bag swung like a pendulum, but the grip on his lungs didn’t release. “Yes.”
“Operation Christmas Romance,” Garrett said.
“Start with an apology.” Cody held up a hand. “I get that you both had your reasons for the way things ended, but she probably feels like you abandoned her.”
Cody was right. Justin had lost many nights of sleep knowing Caroline probably hated him more than she loved him now. “I know.”
Garrett pulled out his phone and started typing with his thumbs. “What’s the plan?”
Justin glanced between his three friends. All of them wore equally thoughtful expressions.
“You should start with flowers,” Cody finally said.
“Or a grand gesture,” Neenah added.
Garrett leaned low over his phone. “Lots. Of. Flowers.”
Justin had a long way to go to win back Caroline’s forgiveness, and flowers weren’t a bad place to start.