The Running Series Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 14

  “I’m sure you were so hurt when I walked out on you, and then to mistakenly think that I was with Olivia at the gala. She wasn’t my date, we didn’t arrive together, and we certainly didn’t go home together. The chairman of the foundation was the one who seated us together because we both came without a date. That’s what I was trying to tell you at the gala, but Cooper stopped me from seeing you.”

  “Grayson, this is more than I can possibly process right now. You’ve given me your version of the story, but why should I take your word for it? Not after I know your family pulled some strings behind my back to get me a job with PMC.” I hated to admit his words actually made sense, and there was a part of me that wanted to throw myself into his arms and declare his story to be the gospel truth. But I couldn’t let myself get hurt again.

  “Yes, I knew Harrison had interests in PMC, which is exactly why I avoided business dealings with them, regardless of their product and regardless of how impressive their sales rep was. When I found out his partnering with them was over, I asked to see you. I swear I didn’t know until the night of our dinner meeting that he had helped you get the job because he knew your father. I didn’t know until I walked into the dinner meeting and saw him that he was reestablishing himself with Phillip, your CEO, and PMC.

  “The night we spent together was such a beautiful night, and one that I will never forget. I’m not ready to think that I won’t spend more nights with you. But we have so much to work through that we need to spend time together and get to know each other, to learn to trust each other. Please come back with me to Dallas. I really believe there is something great between us, and I know we can start over.” He pleaded with me with his stunning eyes, but they hid the very real pain that he carried with him.

  But I wasn’t going to be won over with stories of mix ups and missed opportunities. I had come home to Chicago to start over fresh, and that meant standing up for myself, too.

  “Your five minutes are up. Grayson, I wish you well, but you need to go back home and build your own life. Please, I’m begging you, just let me go.”

  With his heart exposed, I sent Grayson Brooks out of my life.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Harrison had been patiently waiting in his car, like he knew this moment would come, the time when Grayson would let me down. For some reason I couldn’t quite understand, he seemed determined to be there to help me pick up the pieces.

  On his way to the waiting cab, Grayson exploded when he saw Harrison sitting in his car. “Stay away from Alexandra! This is not your battle, and you are certainly no good for her. Leave her alone! Go home!”

  There was so much anger between the two of them, I couldn’t begin to make sense of who was angrier at whom. One thing was for sure; together, they exhausted me.

  I waited for Grayson’s cab to leave and walked out to Harrison’s car to let him know he should go home. I needed time to process everything.

  “Get in, Alex, and we’re going to rip what little fun is left from this evening and enjoy ourselves, even if it kills us. You game?”

  “Sorry, Harrison, I’m not going to be good company to anyone right now. If you’ll excuse me, there are a few calls I need to make.” I turned toward the house, but Harrison stopped me.

  “Alex, don’t let a silly argument and a misunderstanding ruin your evening. Come on, how about we just go grab a bite to eat? Seriously, no pressure. We’re just two new friends who happen to be eating in the same restaurant. I promise we won’t talk about anything that isn’t fun.”

  He did make a valid point. The last thing I needed right now was to crawl back into my hole and wallow in self-doubt. But my heart just wasn’t into putting on a good face for someone else right now.

  “Can I take a rain check on the fun for another time?” I asked, making no promises, but not shutting the door completely on a chance to spend some time around other human beings.

  “Absolutely, Alex. If you’re up for it, I have tickets to the Bears game tomorrow. You’re free to come with me, just give me a call in the morning.” He stopped, then looked like he wasn’t sure he should say anything else. “Alex, people move on from hardship to become stronger for the next chapter in their lives. Whatever I can do to be a friend to you, please let me know. I’m here for you, but I’m not going to crowd you.”

  I nodded silently before stepping back inside and closing the door. I was finally free from the Brooks boys and their drama, at least for the evening anyway. That didn’t make me free from my thoughts or the emptiness that I felt, though. Any other time I would be jumping up and down cheering to be attending a Bears game, but my heart was breaking for that which was lost. The empty look in Grayson’s eyes as he left was a physically painful reminder of a now-abandoned relationship that had only been beginning to bud. Just when I felt I could trust someone and move forward enough to enjoy a physical relationship, it all came crashing down.

  I poured myself a glass of wine and curled up in my bed, just wanting to disappear into a pleasant dream when my iPhone beeped with Cooper’s text.

  Hey Al, catch me up. Hugs.

  I scrunched myself up in my bed, thinking about all the information Grayson had dropped on me. There was so much to process—they were engaged, she cheated, they weren’t engaged, they slept together, she was pregnant, then she wasn’t…

  And I had sent him home.

  I didn’t feel like talking to anyone. I couldn’t quit crying, and my eyes swelled almost shut from the effort. How could all of this be happening? I could feel the familiar hateful anxiety taking over me. It was all too much. I turned on my iPod, and finally drifted off into an exhausted sleep. I didn’t even hear Dad and Gretchen when they came home.

  The sun was shining brightly in my room when I woke up, my head still pounding from all of yesterday’s emotional flood. Maybe too much wine, maybe too many tears, or a combo of both, but the feeling left me stumbling. The tension in my neck was so strong that both of my arms were tingly. A morning run would do me good.

  I grabbed my workout clothes, and as I dressed, I thought of Cooper with his great compliments whenever I put my workout clothes on. Today, I couldn’t even muster a smile thinking about it, just the pain of missing him and the new life I almost got to have, dwarfed by the pain of Grayson and all that he made me feel.

  I grabbed my iPod and I left.

  I had no idea where I was going. I was just running. It felt as close to good as I could expect to feel at that moment, and I was actually doing okay until Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” swirled through my ear buds. My feet suddenly forgot what they were supposed to be doing, forgot that their one job was to help me run until I had no energy to cry over what I was losing. I melted onto the sidewalk in a ball, overcome with anguish. All the love, the torment, the hysteria came out in uncontrollable sobs I could no longer hold back.

  I don’t know how long I was there, but I felt the warm comfort of strong arms picking me up off the pavement, asking me if I was okay. Grayson… Harrison… Hell, I couldn’t tell the difference.

  His arms were so strong around me, his shoulders so broad, even his scent called to me with promises of safety and comfort. I suddenly felt protected, and that was all I needed to know as I snuggled into the rescuer whose shirt I clung to with both hands.

  “Harrison?” I asked, taking a chance that Grayson had actually done what I wanted for once and left Chicago. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came by the house to see if you might have decided to go to the game with me today. You need a fun diversion, Alex. They said you were out for a run, but you’d been gone a long time, so I was headed home to give you a call.”

  Oh, good, it was Harrison. He called me Alex, not Alexandra, and I could see the crooked smile that instantly set him apart from his evil twin. I could also see he was slowly steering me toward his car, which probably wasn’t a bad idea, considering the humiliating state he’d found me in. Once I’d crumpled on the sidewalk, the pretense of going for
a run was pretty much over.

  “I’m okay, Harrison,” I stammered as I lowered myself carefully onto the leather passenger seat, trying not to get sweat and grime all over the freshly buffed interior. “I, uh, just kind of got overwhelmed for a second. I’m much better now. I really appreciate you rescuing me from my public display of weakness, though.” I couldn’t look at him, and not just because of my utter embarrassment. Looking at him made me think of his mirror image.

  “It’s not weakness, Alex. You’ve been under considerable stress. If you still want to see that Bears game, we need to get a move on. You up for it?”

  “Thanks so much for the invitation, Harrison, but I don’t think I’d be good company. I’m in a funky mood, if you haven’t noticed. I mean, I was just practically face down on the sidewalk, in case you forgot.” What was I doing? An upstanding guy who wasn’t freaked out by having to pick me up off the cement was inviting me out for a friendly afternoon of sports, and I was shutting him down? Maybe in the back of my mind, I was trying to distance myself from him. After all, he was a genetic tie to Grayson.

  “Alex, what kind of Bears fan do you think you are?” he teased, nudging me playfully with his elbow. “And besides, you need to lose yourself in something besides drama!”

  I sighed. He wasn’t going to take no for an answer, but I also heard a tiny voice in the back of my mind shouting at me to take him up on it. By no small coincidence, Harrison turned onto my father’s secluded driveway as he pressed for a yes, desperate to get my final answer before letting me out of the car.

  “Okay, okay, you’re right. It’s a perfect diversion. And I’ll have you know, I’m a huge Bears fan! I can be ready in thirty minutes.”

  “Great!” he said, that devilish grin of his only getting more pronounced. “While you shower and change, I’ll let your dad know you’re okay and you’ll be spending the day with me.”

  I grabbed a quick shower, but my hair, a silky tangle that had finally adjusted to the Dallas humidity, only to be thrown full-on back into the heat of a Chicago summer, was full and unruly. It made me think about Cooper and his styling expertise, but also that I hadn’t returned his calls or texts. I would do that on the way to the game.

  I grabbed my jeans and favorite Bears tee shirt, and I was ready to enjoy a Grayson-free, drama-free day.

  On the way to the game, I skimmed over so many texts from Cooper I decided it was easier just to give him a call.

  “Hey, Coop. I know I have you worried. I’m so sorry,” I began, heading off any scolding that may have been heading my way.

  “Alex,” Cooper half-shrieked in his panic, “what’s going on and don’t leave anything out!”

  “I sent him packing last night. All of it’s just too damn much to take in the last twenty-four hours. The last eight weeks have been a revolving door with him. I just want to step away from it for a while. I don’t know when I will be back in Dallas. It’s just too painful right now.” I looked out the window, turning my shoulders toward the passenger door as if that would somehow keep Harrison from figuring out who I was talking about.

  “Alex, he loves you. You know that and I know that. You need to come home and face this. You can’t run forever!” Cooper sounded almost angry, like he was fighting as hard for Grayson as Grayson was for me.

  “I can’t talk about him anymore right now. I’m on my way to the Bears game. I just want to think about something else for the day. I love you. I promise I’ll call you later, and we’ll really talk, okay?” Hanging up, I realized just talking to Cooper wounded me all over again.

  If Grayson did love me, he couldn’t allow himself to say it for whatever reason. And whatever that reason was, that would never be enough for me.

  Oddly enough, even though they were identical, being with Harrison didn’t feel at all like I being with Grayson. His smile and piercing eyes were still heart-stopping, but the chemistry wasn’t there. I felt comfortable with Harrison, as if we were old friends with none of the drama.

  Obviously, Harrison had heard my side of the conversation with Cooper, but he was tactful enough not to say anything about it for the longest time. He was probably full of all kinds of questions.

  We talked the rest of the way to the stadium about anything other than the elephant in the room—well, the car—focusing instead on the upcoming game. Harrison was surprised I could name some of my favorite games and plays from past seasons. He was as much a fan as I was; although, we didn’t exactly agree on coaching.

  Harrison’s season tickets were in a prime spot just off the 40-yard line. As we took our seats, I noticed some of the surrounding fans taking a long hard look at me.

  Of course. Season ticket holders would always sit in those same seats, so this late in the season they must be friends with him. At that moment, I was seized by a horrible thought. If the fans around us thought this was a date, did Harrison look at this as a date, too? I froze.

  Harrison was a mind reader. “Alex, I’m so glad you changed your mind and decided to join me. I’ve been missing someone controversial to argue with during the game for some time,” he said with a chuckle in his voice and a twinkle in his eyes.

  “Controversial?” I hedged, stealing a glance at the die-hard fans around us.

  “Well, you and I don’t see eye to eye on the coaching, and I’m sure today’s game is going to be decided by some risky calls, so it might be controversial bringing you here today.”

  “Well, if you knew you were going to behave like a whiny brat over your team today, you shouldn’t have brought me,” I said with mock seriousness, “so I accept your challenge. Game on!”

  We enjoyed the game, no thanks to the referees and some completely idiotic calls, but I ended up winning a friendly wager Harrison and I made during a tense drive in the third quarter. The fans around us also provided some great fodder, egging him on when he seemed about to back out on our bet following a late-game interception. My team actually won, despite their best efforts. It was exactly what I needed to put some color back on my outlook.

  “That was a close game,” Harrison said, exhaling a breath he’d probably started holding during the second quarter. “I’m starved. You want to grab something to eat?”

  “Absolutely, I’m starving, too. Besides, you owe me dinner for losing the bet, anyway.” I taunted him for just a second before he interrupted.

  “For the record, I didn’t lose the bet. The coaching cost me that bet, but you’re on for dinner.”

  Harrison pulled out his phone and checked some messages as we shuffled along with the dense crowd to the stadium exit. He had plenty of time to make a few calls before we worked our way out of the tunnel and into the parking lot. He sounded a little secretive, like he was arranging some aspect of a corporate merger, so I tried to do the polite thing and turn away, interested in anything other than his private business affairs.

  Once we reached his car, he hung up the phone and settled in for the drive to whatever post-game dinner joint he had in mind.

  Right away, I was struck by the difference in the two brothers. Where Grayson would have kept me in the dark and tried to impress me with romantic music and candlelight, Harrison was probably on his way to the nearest burger joint. No, there were no tingles and fireworks, but he was comfortable to be around. He also hadn’t pushed to find out answers about his twin and held back from being nosy about all the drama. He truly just seemed interested in getting to know me.

  “So, how do you know my dad?” I asked, striking up a conversation as he merged onto an exit ramp and finally put some distance between the rest of the game day traffic and our car.

  “We met about ten years ago. I was just starting my practice and getting my feet wet with corporate mergers. At the time, there was a group that was interested in buying your dad’s newspaper business. It wasn’t the right buyout for your dad, and even though I brought their interests to him, I was honest about him telling him what I thought of the deal. He respected me for my transparency,
I guess, and we’ve been friends ever since. We’ve even partnered on some business dealings and been on opposite sides of other deals.”

  I laughed. “It doesn’t hurt that you’re both fierce on the golf course, does it?”

  “How did you know about that?” he asked in surprise, not taking his eyes off the road, but focusing now that I’d mentioned the g-word.

  “Uh, because your clubs are still in the back seat and all of the grass from your shoes in the floorboard? You have a sticker on the back glass from the same country club as my dad, so I just figured you two did battle on the greens from time to time.” I smiled as Harrison looked at me for a moment, obviously impressed.

  “Alex, I may not know you that well, but I do know your dad. He is so proud of you. He and Gretchen both would do anything to see you happy. I hope you don’t hold it against any of us that I greased the wheels a little to get you your position with PMC. I may have opened the door a crack, but you have to know that your impressive resume is what actually got you through that door. Nothing else and no one else. You did that.” Harrison stared straight ahead at the road as he spoke.

  I didn’t say anything, but let his words float around in my head for a few minutes.

  Sometime later, we pulled into the private parking garage for the Legacy at Millennium Park, and I quickly gave Harrison a questioning look.

  “Relax, Alex, I’m not looking to get in your pants. Well, not that they aren’t great-looking pants. I’m just not sure they’ll go with my shirt,” he joked. “I have a penthouse here with a breathtaking view of the harbor, and I have a chef who prepares meals on the fly, that’s all. I thought you might enjoy hanging out without all the fuss of going anywhere. But it’s your call if you don’t feel comfortable.”

  “No, it’s fine. It’s a great idea, and a simple evening just to relax and forget about the rest of the world for a change would be nice.”

  We made our way up to the penthouse level in the parking garage’s elevator, and Harrison was right. He opened the door straight into his apartment, where the view through the floor-to-ceiling windows was magnificent and breathtaking. The penthouse alone was exquisite and modernly sophisticated with charcoal grey marble floors, large pieces of art scattered on the walls, and elegant furnishings. It was artfully decorated with a very neutral appeal, neither feminine nor masculine, the kind of design that made it difficult for me to tell if a gal pal had decorated it or not.