Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian (9 page)

Brian scooped a chip into the bowl of salsa and popped it in his mouth. As he crunched down on his salty snack, he realized that he needed to talk to Becca about all of this. If he didn’t, he would damage their relationship. There was no doubt in his mind.

Before today, part of him—all of him—had been holding out hope that his newly discovered feelings for her would just fizzle out. But after today, he knew that wasn’t going to happen.

Brian’s stomach flipped with nervous energy as he thought about how Becca would take the news, but deep down, he knew that they would be okay. They were Becca and Brian. Even unwanted, unrequited, unwelcome love couldn’t erase a lifetime of them being
them
.

Yep. He simply needed to lay his cards out on the table so they could deal with this. Maybe, once he said it out loud, it would take some of the power away from it. Maybe facing the issue head on, would snap Brian out of this love-spell he’d fallen under. Maybe they’d even laugh about it…someday.

With the decision made, he felt lighter than he had since he’d walked onto the dance floor a year ago. A weight lifted from his chest—one that he hadn’t even realized he’d had since the moment he’d pulled his best friend into his arms at her sister’s birthday party. Since the moment his body hadn’t responded to Becca as his sidekick, his buddy, his pal—instead, it had responded to her as a woman. Need had shot through him with so much force that his knees had actually buckled beneath him. Luckily, Becca had thought he was just playing around on the dance floor.

Nope. That had not been the case at all. He’d almost fallen flat on his ass from the power of his desire for her.

Honest to God, Brian’s first thought had been that he must have been horny. Because come on. It was
Becca
. But he’d quickly discarded that theory because he’d been with Skylar at the time, having sex on a regular basis. He remembered his mind being flooded in confusion as he’d tried to process the fact that he’d been so hard that he was sure that he was going to have a permanent imprint of his zipper on his shaft as Becca’s soft curves had molded against him while they’d swayed to the music together.

He’d thought it would pass. That it was just a phase his body was going through. Possibly just hormones. It wasn’t. She needed to know what was going on before he damaged things between them.

Brian stood, rolled the bag of chips up, popped the lid back on the salsa, and moved to the kitchen to put them away. As he walked up the stairs, he yawned, and when his chest expanded without the weight of keeping a fairly important secret from the most important person in his world, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that telling Becca was the right thing to do.

Now, he just needed to get a good night’s sleep, and tomorrow, he’d call and see if she wanted to go to breakfast at The Diner, which was a staple in their small hometown of Harper’s Crossing. Also, it was kind of ‘their’ place. They’d gone there more times than Brian could count. They even had ‘their’ booth. It was the round booth in the far left corner.

As he reached the top of the stairs, a slideshow of Becca sitting across from him in that booth over the years played through Brian’s mind. Starting with them in grade school, her hair in two braids as she smiled a toothless smile and they drank malts after school. Then middle school, her mouth filled with braces, her hair in curls because she’d permed it. Then in high school, her hair straight and shiny as she stuffed french fries—her junk food of choice from ages fourteen to eighteen—into her mouth.

While thinking about those times—or any time he’d spent with Becca—Brian realized that those were the happiest moments of his life. She was his happy place.

Had he
always
loved her and just been too blind to see it?

Brian felt like someone had reached into his chest and squeezed his heart like it was a lemon and they were making lemonade, like it was in wedged between a vise and someone was turning the crank.

No
. He shook off that thought. She’d just been his friend. He never even cared when she dated other guys.

A small voice piped up in his mind pointing out the fact that maybe he’d never cared because he’d always known that he’d held the number one place in her life. If things had gotten serious with any of them, he was not so sure he would have been so
okay
with it.

Stepping into his room, the room he’d grown up in, he immediately moved to his window to open it and get some fresh air. He wanted to try to clear his head, and the heat in his room, from being closed up all day, was stifling. He lifted the brass lock on the glass pane and was sliding it up when he heard his mom’s voice sounding more than a little distressed. He couldn’t see her, but he figured they must be out on the small patio off the master bedroom, which was directly below his room.

He was just about to run downstairs to make sure that everything was okay when the words she was saying registered in his consciousness.

“No, Frank. I forbid it. You are not going back full time. Dr. Corbin said that you need to retire and you are going to retire. There has to be another way. We’ll sell the house.”

“Even if we sold the house, it wouldn’t pay off the second mortgage, much less a semester of tuition. I’m fine, Maggie. I’m strong. This is the only way.” His dad’s voice sounded resolute.

From what Brian had observed over the years, most of the time, his dad backed down if his mom was really upset. But there were a few times when, no matter how upset his mom got, his dad had remained unmoved. If the tone he’d just heard was any indication, this was going to be one of those times.

“She doesn’t
have
to go to Harvard. She can just go to a JC like Brian did. And we’ll figure something out with Brenden. Maybe he can get financial aid.”

“No. If we made too much for Brittney to qualify then it will be the same story with Brenden. And Brit’s not going to a JC. She’s worked too hard. I’m going back to the shop. Full time.”

Brian heard the metal legs of the patio chair scrape against the concrete slab and then the loud swoosh of the screen door that led into his parents’ room. He slumped into his desk chair, thinking that both his mom and dad had gone to bed, or at least were in their room, when he heard the muffled sound of his mom crying.

Brian’s heart broke into a million pieces. His parents were good, hard-working people who’d been dealt a shitty hand by life. But they hadn’t folded. No. They’d sacrificed and worked themselves to the bone, no matter what hardships they’d had, all for their kids.

There was no way that Brian was going to let the burden of his younger siblings’ tuition force his dad to come out of retirement. He didn’t know how, but he did know he’d find a way. If it meant forgoing his return to NYU and staying here to run the shop with his cousin, then so be it. He might have to get a second job to make ends meet, but he was young, healthy, and able. He couldn’t say the same for his parents.

As much as he wanted to go downstairs and comfort his mom, Brian knew that’s not what she would want. Both of his parents were proud people, and the last thing they’d want to do would be to accept more of his help.

He’d have to figure out a way to convince them that he wasn’t sacrificing his dreams, his goals, his life to stay here. Brian stood and removed his jeans. As he grabbed a pair of sweats that were lying on the floor next to his bed and slipped them on, his mind was already working on a strategy to approach his parents.

Lying down on his back, he rubbed his hands over his face. So much of his life was confusing, and he had no idea what his future held. The only thing that he knew was that, right now, all he wanted to do was call Becca. His best friend.

* * *

Becca stared at her reflection in the mirror as she ran a brush through her thick, dark hair. Deep circles lay beneath her eyes. Her skin was naturally fair but actually looked several shades paler than usual. Of course, it’s not like the fluorescent overhead lighting in the bathroom was doing her any favors, but still. She would be the first to admit that she wasn’t looking her best.

It had been a long day, she reminded herself. Since she and Brian had left the airport, Becca felt like she’d been strapped into an emotional roller coaster that had done flips, turns, and drops at high speeds. The audition had been some serious flips and turns, and then the big drop of the day had been when she and Brian had been sitting in the jeep and they’d almost
kissed
. Becca knew that it had really happened, that it had not been her overactive imagination.

Even thinking about it now made her stomach feel like an atrium filled with butterflies flitting around. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel the warmth of Brian’s sweet breath fanning across her cheeks. She could smell the clean scent that was uniquely Brian. She could still hear her heartbeat pulsing rapidly in her head in anticipation of feeling the soft fullness of Brian’s lips against hers.

Reaching up, Becca ran her fingers along her bottom lip. For some reason, she
knew
what kissing Brian would feel like. It was as if a phantom kiss was imprinted on her psyche. Her body had a stored memory of Brian’s kiss. Becca just wasn’t sure if it was a drunken fantasy memory or if it was a reality memory.

She did know that, if Krista hadn’t knocked on the window tonight, whether or not her abstract remembrance of a kiss that may or may not have taken place were real would have been irrelevant because a very real, very sober kiss would have taken place inside Brian’s Jeep parked outside her sister’s house.

As much as that little factoid excited Becca, it also scared the living daylights out of her. Sure, she’d been fantasizing about that (and more!) happening between her and Brian for the better part of a year, but fantasy and reality were two
very
different things. Tonight, as she’d sat beside Brian during dinner, her mind had been speeding down the what-if highway, swerving around logic-cars and putting the pedal to the metal in the holy-crap-it-could-happen fast lane.

After mentally coasting on jumping-to-conclusion-fumes before finally running out of panic-fuel, she’d decided that, even if by some miracle Brian wanted to take things to the next level, it would
not
be worth it.
Maybe
they’d have a shot at happily ever after if they lived in the same state. But she was in school in California and he was either going to be in Harper’s Crossing or New York for the next few years. Becca might not have that much experience in the romance department, but she did know that long distance was a recipe for disaster.

So, inevitably, they would not work. Then what? Would they just go back to being friends? She seriously doubted that that would be case. Sure, they might still talk, try to pretend that nothing had changed, but things would be different…strained. Which, sadly, they already were. But at least, now, she could still fix it. She just had to stop being weird around him.

No more pulling away from him because a thrum of need was running through her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, which was what had happened when he’d hugged her goodnight. No more almost kisses. No more longing gazes. No more mental drives down the what-if highway of love.

She heard Cher’s voice giving sage advice from
Moonstruck
saying, “
Snap out of it!”

Yes, Cher. That was exactly what she needed to do; because if she didn’t, the alternative was more than Becca could bear to think about.

Basically, taking things to the next level—no matter how badly her body and soul wanted to go there—was not worth losing Brian for. Nothing was worth losing Brian.

Becca knew that—in her mind. She just needed to convince her heart and hormones that it was the right decision.

Once she’d set her brush down, she grabbed her dirty clothes and opened the bathroom door to find Krista and Haley standing on the other side. After jumping about a foot in the air and almost dropping her clothes, Becca asked breathlessly, “What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you,” Krista said cryptically.

“Yeah, I got that. Why?” Becca’s eyes darted between her sisters.

“Why don’t we go sit on the couch and get comfortable,” Haley said, always the consummate nurturer.

“Okay,” Becca agreed, her shoulders shimmying as she tried to shake off her startled nerves.

As she followed her sisters down the stairs, it hit Becca that everything was changing and changing fast. Haley and Krista used to live in this house together, but since Haley got married, she’d moved across the street with Eddie and her stepdaughter Emily. Two of her sisters were already married and Krista would be married in a little over a month. She was so happy for all three of her sisters. She really was.

Unfortunately, deep down, Becca had a feeling that she wouldn’t have the same luck in love, especially considering her current predicament. Even if she met someone that was
perfect
for her, she knew that, most likely, it wouldn’t work. For one reason and one reason only—that person wouldn’t be Brian.