Chapter 45

Meredith was particularly giddy as she and Brock carried their luggage through the door of the house they would share for the next seven weeks.

The house was much smaller than the one they shared in Beverly Glen and the neighborhood in Glendale was far less exclusive. Still, there was something about the place she liked. She smiled broadly as she spun around in the living room. Brock was bringing the last load in from the SUV and she greeted him with a warm hug, pulling him down to kiss him.

"This place is so cute!" she said enthusiastically. "Look at it! Randi said there is a hot tub out back, too."

"I'll probably need it after I start conditioning," Brock said with a laugh.

"Oh, we'll use it well before then," Meredith told him with assurance. "In fact, we'll use it right after I put some sheets on the bed. You get some towels out for us."

Brock went out to make sure the hot tub actually existed and to figure out how to make it work if it did. He found the tub and it appeared that the rental agency had done a fine job in keeping it cleaned and ready to be used. In fact, he turned on the jets and the heater. He figured he had a little time before it was fully steamed.

Meredith was humming to herself as she made the bed. He stood in the doorway and watched her as she went about tucking in the corners and smoothing down the wrinkles. She saw him as she shifted to the far side and beamed at him.

"I'm glad you're here with me," he said. "Last year was weird. I had just gotten used to having Chastity around and suddenly I'm in a sterile hotel room in a strange town surrounded by people I didn't know. Now, a year later, I'm in a house with the woman I've lived with for six months and probably loved for nine years."

"That's what I was thinking about as we drove down here," Meredith said. "The past six months have been better than I ever expected. At first, I was so worried about doing something stupid. Then even when I would do stupid things, you were still there. We got through some pretty rough spots in just a short amount of time. I'll admit, there were times I wasn't sure we'd make it."

"But we have," Brock said.

"Yeah," Meredith told him. "We have. The past couple of months really have been wonderful. I don't know, once I got the situation with Randi figured out I guess, it was so much better."

"She helped," Brock pointed out.

"She helped a lot," Meredith agreed. "I wasn't sure how it would work, you know, having her live with us. I was a little leery when you offered to let her live there but I knew it was for the best. Well, I didn't know it but I trusted you to know what was best. Turns out I was right."

"I'm not always going to know," Brock replied.

"I realize that," Meredith said. "And even when you do we usually discuss it anyway. That's what I like about us. I get everything I want from one person. I feel protected but I also feel like I'm an equal."

"You are an equal," Brock said. Meredith gave him a half smile.

"It's a strange dichotomy," Meredith sighed, taking a seat on the freshly made bed. "I need both things. I need to feel like I'm in control of my life. At the same time, I need to feel like I have someone to look out for me. I've always been that way. I think it's why the situation with Leah hit me so hard. I think it's why I felt so strongly about you from the outset. I still remember the day I first saw you."

Meredith stared past Brock as she remembered her life in high school, almost a decade earlier.

"I had no idea who you were," she told him. "I'd heard about Brock Miller, of course. I mean, the football team was horrible and suddenly we were good. I didn't go to the first game. I didn't go to games as a freshman either. My Mom was ridiculous that whole summer. I just wanted to be left alone, you know. The things Leah had gotten into scared me. I thought she was perfect. I used to love her so much. I used to want to be just like her. That used to be the greatest compliment I could hear: You're just like your sister. I knew I could fall into that trap just as easily as she did. I had no real friends. The two or three people I'd spend time with at school were as socially awkward as I was."

"But Mom wanted me to go out and meet people – to be a social butterfly. She had agreed to a date for me with Wes Mansfield but I put my foot down. I had heard about him and I didn't want any part of it. But my Mom and his Mom were on the same committees so she kept making plans for me. I kept telling her no. He had asked me out that first day and I told him the same thing. I had no intention of having anything to do with him or his friends."

Meredith shook her head as a frown creased her face. She nervously began to smooth down the wrinkles in the bedspread beneath her.

"He managed to catch me alone one afternoon during the first week of school," she continued. "I always managed to stand up for myself when others were around but I was really scared. I had heard he would sometimes just take a girl to the parking lot if he wanted. The soccer coaches let him get away with anything. I was almost positive he was going to drag me outside and I would have no choice in the matter. The next thing I knew, you were there. One minute I was trembling, wondering what was about to happen. The next I was looking at the back of your head. You just interposed yourself between us. You weren't so much taller than me then. Now I'd be looking at your butt, probably."

"I still had no idea who you were until I saw you at school wearing your jersey. Jen was hanging on your arm like she owned you so I just kept to the background. I missed some time because I got sick and because of stuff for my sister. But I would see you and you would always smile at me. You didn't know me. You had no idea who I was. Still, you were always so nice. I remember standing in line at the cafeteria. My card didn't have enough money on it and I was trying to get to my purse for some cash. Just as I was about to embarrass myself by dumping my tray on the floor, you showed up again. You asked if you could hold my tray or if I needed to use your card. You said it so quietly that no one else heard it. The only thing you worried about was my embarrassment. I wanted to invite you to join me for lunch. Hell, I wanted to invite you to join me in finding an abandoned classroom. Instead, I think I walked off without even thanking you."

"You thanked me," Brock cut in. He joined Meredith on the bed and put his arm around her shoulder. Instinctively, she nuzzled her head against his chest.

"Well, at least there is that," Meredith replied with a wry smile. "The next time I got the chance to be close to you was in the parking lot at school. I had watched TV the night before. Believe me, I was no stranger to the criminal justice system at that point. My young adulthood was filled with courtroom appearances and meetings with judges. If my family wasn't in the courthouse we were talking about when we would have to be there the next time. I couldn't fathom what had happened to you. I just couldn't figure out how someone was able to pervert justice so easily. It took me some time to realize that my family had been doing the same thing with Leah for the past few years. We bought her way out of anything she'd do. She'd get 90 days in rehab because we could afford to buy justice for her. The people she was with spent years and years in prison for doing the same things she was doing. But at the time, it didn't occur to me. I saw the crowd of people when I first got to school. I knew they were waiting for you. I'd seen the same thing at my old school when word got out about my Dad winning the lottery.

"I couldn't believe I had the nerve to just walk up to you and speak to you. I still hadn't heard about all the crap with Mansfield yet but I was already knee deep in hero worship. Then you acted like we'd known each other all of our lives. When we sat together at lunch, I was amazed I was even able to put together a sentence."