Rendezvous (Renegades 5)

et that zipped up the front, a white tee underneath. The sight of him made her feel like electricity arced through her body.

“Oh my God.” Her gaze jumped from Keaton to Tammy, registered her well-you-don’t-get-a-choice-now-do-you look, and back to Keaton. “What are you…? How did you…?”

She forced her mind to stop spinning, but that made her heart ache and yearn and hope. And God, that terrified her. What added to that fear was his expression, one she couldn’t read. He didn’t exactly look angry, but he definitely wasn’t happy. Sober? Serious? Edgy? She wasn’t quite sure, and that alone dragged Brooke’s feet back to the ground—like a rock.

Regrouping, she dropped her gaze, and noticed something in his hand. A rectangular box about the size of a book, wrapped in bright paper.

A gift. For Justin.

Of course.

She’d almost forgotten about Justin’s continued communication with Keaton until the science fair project had been completed. One that had brought Justin stardom throughout the school and earned him an A plus.

Brooke swallowed the lump of disappointment, set her soda on the window ledge, and crossed her arms.

“I…um…” Tammy said, lifting her can of soda, “…think I need some ice for this. Text me if you leave or if Justin wakes up, but he should be out for another couple of hours.”

On her way out, Tammy closed the door behind her. For a long moment, Brooke and Keaton just looked at each other. She swore she had a magnet the size of a football lodged beneath her ribs drawing her toward Keaton like a steel rod. And her chest ached with the effort it took to stay put.

She was just about to tell him how great he looked when Keaton’s gaze slid toward Justin, and he asked, “How’s he doing?”

The sound of his voice, lowered for Justin’s benefit, moved something inside Brooke. It brought back memories of his voice beside her in bed from their short but intense time together and thickened her throat.

“He, um…” She took a steadying breath. “He was only awake briefly after the procedure, just about an hour ago, but they say it went great. Aftereffects of the surgery are minimal, and side effects of the new medications are manageable.”

She realized the clinical approach wasn’t going to work. Not when he was just two steps away. Not when she had to dig her fingers into her arms to keep herself from taking those two steps and throwing herself at him for the sheer relief of feeling his arms around her, feeling him supporting her again.

“So…” She took another breath, slow and deep, trying to keep her emotions from spilling over. “He’s doing really, really well.”

Keaton’s gaze returned to her, still veiled. “Then it was all worth it.”

His response hammered her composure. The answer was yes and no, but she didn’t begin to know how to convey the depth of what seemed like such a simple answer on the surface into something sufficient to mend the rift she’d caused between them.

Only now did she realize why it had taken her so long to contact him again—because no matter why she’d done what she’d done, she’d still hurt Keaton in the process. And she knew in her heart there was nothing she could say to make that go away. It had happened. He’d felt it. The break between them had been made.

Words would not turn back time. Words would not change reality.

And the heaviness of that exhausted her.

“Is that for Justin?” she asked, weary and heartbroken over the potential of what they’d lost. “I’d be happy to give him the gift when he wakes up. You don’t have to stay.”

“If I just wanted to give him a present, I would have sent it in the mail. I’m here because Dupleaux returned to the set. I’m not working on the movie anymore.”

She lowered her arms and pressed one hand to the foot rail of Justin’s bed, trying to clear her mind enough to think straight. “I don’t understand how that relates to—”

“Neither do I. At least not anymore.” His jaw ticked. “I thought that was part of the agreement you made with Jillian—not talking to me while I was working on the set.”

Oh shit. He knew?

He moved to the tray table against the wall where Tammy had piled her textbooks to study while Justin slept and set the gift on top of the stack. Then he met her eyes again.

“I’d planned on coming find you so I could tell you how sorry I am for fucking things up between you and Jillian. Because you were right. When I thought about it, I realized I did defend you a little too hard that day. And even though I tried to cover, Jillian saw through it. So that was my mistake, and staying away from you so you could abide by the agreement you made with Jillian and get the care Justin needed was my payment for that mistake. I almost ruined that for both of you once. I wasn’t going to chance it again.”

He wandered to the far wall, leaned his back against it, and crossed his arms, his gaze roaming the room. “But when I called Troy and Ellie to find out where you were, I heard about your new job. The one that’s making this treatment possible and the one you had within a week of being fired. His eyes narrowed in consideration, or maybe discomfort; Brooke couldn’t tell. “I didn’t want to believe that you would stay away from me when you didn’t have to. I didn’t want to believe that you wouldn’t contact me to tell me about the procedure and how Justin was doing when there was nothing stopping you.”

He cut another look around the room, and there was no mistaking the raw hurt in his expression “But it looks like that’s exactly what you did.”

Her breathing hitched, picking up speed. Her mind started another spin cycle. “You…waited?”