Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian (33 page)

“Well”—Grandpa J shook his head slightly and looked up at her—“as long as you have a smile on your face, that’s all that matters to me, young lady.”

Becca didn’t know if it was all the stress of the past few weeks, the stress of what was going to happen tomorrow and the next year, or just the fact that she felt Grandpa J’s unconditional love and it was overwhelming, but whatever the reason, his saying that all that mattered was the smile on her face caused tears to start rolling down her face.

“Come here, young lady,” Grandpa J said as he scooted over on the cooler so she could sit down.

When she did, he put his arm around her and she laid her head on his shoulder and just cried until she didn’t have any tears left.

“Now what were all those waterworks about?” he asked, sounding gruff. But there was so much love in his voice that Becca almost burst out crying again.

She sat up, and he pulled out a clean, crisp handkerchief from his pocket. He always carried them around, and she’d seen them come in handy more than once. After she wiped her face and blew her nose, she took a deep breath.

“I just… I don’t know how everything is going to turn out and I just… I just wish I knew how to fix something I don’t know how to fix.” Becca knew she was rambling and not making any sense.

“Well now, best as I can tell,
nobody
knows how
anything
is going to turn out. Things tend to have a way of working themselves out, even when it doesn’t look like there’s a way. Sometimes you just have to have a little faith.” Grandpa J patted her hand.

Becca nodded. When she looked up, she saw Brian walking down the path towards them with purposeful strides. Her heart skipped a beat. He was wearing a white shirt that was just snug enough that it pulled taut against his broad shoulders and strong chest, and his faded blue jeans were a little too baggy, but somehow, on Brian, they looked just the right amount of sexy.

“Now,
that’s
someone you can have faith in. That boy has loved you since before he knew what to do about it. And it’s the sticking kind,” Grandpa J smiled.

“‘The sticking kind’?” Becca asked.

“Yep.” He nodded his head, “When me and my buddies would get shipped out, all our sweethearts would come and see us off. All the girls cried and declared their love for their sailor, but I could always spot the ones that would stick. Stick through war. Stick through losing jobs. Stick through kids. Stick through illness. Stick through everything. The sticking kind.”

Becca smiled. “Like the kind you had with Marie?”

Grandpa J winked as he stood. “How do ya think I knew how to spot it?”

“Colonel,” Brian said warmly as he reached them.

Becca stood, hugged Grandpa J, and whispered as she felt tears pricking her eyes again, “Thank you.”

His words had made her feel better. She still didn’t know what was going to happen, but she did know that he was right. The love she and Brian had was the sticking kind.

* * *

Brian noticed that Becca had been crying as she hugged The Colonel. But she was also smiling a real smile. All Brian wanted to do was keep that smile on her face for the rest of his life.

“All right now,” The Colonel said as he patted Becca’s back. “I better get back to my walk.”

“You’re not gonna watch the fireworks?” Becca asked as she moved next to Brian. He immediately wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Nah. You seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all,” The Colonel said as he started down the hill. “You kids enjoy ‘em.”

Brian would have offered to walk with him, but he didn’t think that would have gone over so well.

As they watched The Colonel go, Becca wrapped her arms around Brian’s waist and he threaded his fingers in her hair and pulled her head against his chest. Leaning down, he inhaled the sweet smell of vanilla and citrus and kissed her on the top of her head. She hugged him tighter and buried her head against him.

Damn, he loved how she felt in his arms.

“You okay, baby?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said, looking up at him, her blue eyes still glimmering with unshed tears.

Frustration flooded through him. He wanted to take all of her pain away from her, but he didn’t know how to do that when he was the one causing it. All week, he’d been trying to figure out how to fix everything.

Other than winning the show, he had no idea how to save his parents’ house and their business and put his siblings through school. He could get four jobs and still not scratch the surface of what he needed.

A loud popping sound exploded behind him, and he and Becca moved to the blanket and sat down to watch the fireworks. He sat down first, and she snuggled between his legs, leaning back against him as she rested her hands on his thighs.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her even closer to him. When he did, the soft skin of her neck was exposed, and he pressed his lips to it. She breathed out and tilted her head to give him better access as he felt her fingers digging into his legs. Opening his mouth, he ran his tongue up her neck and nipped the sensitive skin right beneath her ear, which he’d discovered she liked. A lot.

“Brian,” she moaned as he kissed the spot he’d just bit. Between labored breaths, she said, “We need…to talk.”

He wanted to ignore her. To keep kissing her until talking was the last thing she wanted to do. But he’d been doing that all week, and he knew that he was just being selfish. Trying to steal every moment he could and fill it with pleasure and memories.

He knew she was right. They needed to talk.

“I know,” he said as he settled back against the cooler and tucked her head beneath his chin.

They were both silent for a moment, watching the fireworks before she said, “I don’t care what happens tomorrow or the next year. All I care about is you and us being together when this is all over.”

He knew that she believed what she was saying, and he knew that she meant what she’d said, but he didn’t think she was really taking into consideration the way she’d felt after she’d seen what had ‘looked’ like him having sex with Brooklyn.

Yes, they’d worked it out. But that’s because they’d been in the same city. In the same house. Face to face. If things like that came up—and he was pretty sure things like that would come up—and they were states away and not actually ‘together,’ he knew it wouldn’t turn out with having hot sex in the shower.

“Becca, it’s not that simpl—”

“I’m serious, Brian.” She sat up and turned around so she was facing him. After taking a deep breath like she was trying to build up courage, she said, “I’ve been thinking about this all week. And one of us winning the show is the only way that we’ll have enough mone—”

“One of us?” he interrupted. “
We’ll
have enough money?”

No way in hell would he take her money if she won. She could use that for school or to start her own practice. Or whatever she wanted—but he was
not
taking it.

“Yes,” she said calmly, and she set her hand over his pounding heart. “We have a sixty-six percent chance at winning this. And from what Jessie keeps texting me, with the way all the voting is going, it’s even better than that. So if you win, great. You’ll have the money you need. But if I win, that’ll be great
too,
because you’ll have the money you need.”

This situation was shitty enough. He was not going to add her having to pretend to date a guy to the pile of crap. If she wanted to do it for her, then great. But no way was he going to take the money like a pimp.

Brian didn’t want to fight with her, but he wanted her to know how serious he was about this. So he said firmly, “No, Becca. I’m not going to take your money. That is not happening. I’ll figure something out. You don’t need to worry about it.”

He saw the look of fire spark in her eye as she crossed her arms. “Do you love me?” she asked—more like demanded an answer.

Trying to stay calm, he said, “You know I love you. It’s not about tha—”

“Do you think I love you?” Again, she demanded more than asked.

“Yes, I know you love me, but—”

“So if the situation were reversed… If I were the one who had to figure out how to help her family, you
wouldn’t
give me the money?”

“Becca—” Brian heard the warning in his tone. She, however, ignored it or didn’t heed it.

“Answer. The. Question,” she said, evenly spacing her words, her blue eyes boring into him.

Brian scrubbed his face with his hands and then raked his fingers through his hair. He knew where this was going and he didn’t like it, but he answered honestly anyway, saying, “You know I would. I would give you anything, do anything for you.”

Her hands flew up in exasperation. “Oh, so
you
are allowed to love
me.
You are allowed to always be there for me. To take care of me. To worry about me. To never let me down. To be
everything
to me.” Her eyes started filling with tears. “You are allowed to sacrifice for your family. To put your life on hold for the people
you
love. You are allowed to put everyone else’s needs before yours. But
I
can’t?”

The tears were now flowing from her face as she said, “I love you, Brian.
You
are my family.
You
are everything to me. Nothing makes sense in my life without you. If you’re not okay, I’m not okay. Let me put you first. Let me take care of you. Let me love you.”

His chest felt like someone had just punched it. It killed him, put him in physical pain, to see Becca this upset. And it was his fault. He was so mad that they were in this situation. He was so frustrated that he had no idea how to get out of it, take care of his family, and be with the only person who made
his
life make any sense. His head was pounding and his heart was racing.

Not knowing what else to do, he pulled her into his arms and held her, burying his head in her neck.

Her arms wrapped around him as she whispered, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

He smiled against her neck. That was the same thing she’d said after she’d told him off about smoking weed in the park. She’d asked him if he’d understood what she’d said, and when he’d just stood there silently staring at her, she tilted her head and said, “I’ll take that as yes.” Then she spun around on her heels and stomped away.

This situation was a lot worse than when he was getting high in a park, but he sure liked having her in his arms better than her stomping away from him.

Now, he just had to make sure that’s where she stayed.

T
his is it.
For better or worse, at least they’d know what their future held.

Becca tried to remember to breathe and not squint as she sat on the stage. For some reason, the lights seemed brighter than the last time she’d been on this stage. When she walked onto the set twenty minutes ago, she’d been relieved to see that they had switched things up for the finale. Instead of standing, they’d all be seated for the show, which made sense because, instead of a half hour, this show was an hour long. She’d been worried about staying on her feet that long. As it was, she was shaking in her chair.

They were all seated in a semicircle with Lance positioned in the center. The girls were all on one side and the guys were on the other. Becca was in the middle with Brooklyn closest to Lance and Madison at the end. Brooklyn had leaned over and whispered that the seating was an indication that Madison and Jax were getting eliminated first.

They’d been instructed that, fifteen minutes into the show, they would be eliminating the couple with the least amount of votes. Becca figured that Brooklyn could be right—her logic made perfect sense. But Becca also knew that Brooklyn also might just be saying that because, if you followed that logic, it would mean that Brooklyn and Brian would win because they were in what she called “the number one seats.”

That’s what Becca should’ve been hoping for. And part of her was. That would be the easiest resolution to this mess. If Brian could earn the money his family needed, that would be the best outcome. Becca wasn’t kidding herself into thinking that he’d actually agreed to what she’d proposed last night, even though she’d said that she’d taken his silence as a ‘yes’. He would come around. He just needed time. But he would never be
okay
with it. And she didn’t want their relationship forever tainted by this.