Nick
"What did she say to you?"
"What did you say to her?"
I was like a rabid dog. I was about ready to put Brian in a strangle hold if he folded one more pair of boxers without answering me.
Which is exactly what he did.
I had been hounding him for three days about Lauren, but he wasn't giving. He either ignored me or said something smartass like 'You told her to go away, why should you care? You're an engaged man.' It was exactly what I had been throwing at him...
Until Leighanne became a lesbian. Paybacks were a bitch.
I lifted my arm, still rank from spending an hour on the treadmill and yanked it around his neck. He staggered back from the collapsible drier, gagging slightly.
"Tell me!" I demanded. His fingers dug at my sweaty arm flesh. Finally, his sneaker kicked back and hit me in the thigh. The sting made me loosen my hold.
"Why do you care?" he snapped.
My jaw tensed. I couldn't even begin to tell him how much I cared. Telling Lauren (to her face, no less) that I loved Heather, the end, had been like torture. I think it would have been easier to be buckled into a stretching rack and just torn limb from limb.
Even another day and a half of dolphin sex hadn't helped. Heather wasn't Lauren. She actually thought about other things during sexy time.
Like what Chris had told Brian. Which as far as I knew, Chris hadn't told Brian anything.
My forged letter had said it all.
"I just wanna know that she's okay," I said quietly. Brian turned around and grabbed another pair of boxers. Whereas I recycled mine if at all possible until they could stand up by themselves, I knew Brian actually changed 'em every day.
Sometimes I wonder how we ended up best friends.
"She's a big girl. Of course she'll be okay," Brian said. His fingers slid down the sides of the boxers, tucking one side, then the other in. He made an absolutely perfect square out of them. I had a feeling he had perfected the technique because he used to be Leighanne's resident shirt-folder. Now I had this mental image of a harem surrounding the queen, mass folding before getting down and dirty.
AJ was so rubbing off on me.
"In fact..." Bri drawled and my heart stalled. "She really is a lovely girl."
My eyes widened. He wasn't even touching me, but all of a sudden I felt like he had a choke hold on me.
"Whatsthatmean?" I asked, my words spilling out over themselves in a jumble.
"Sometimes life has a funny way of working out," he said cryptically. He yanked out a shirt and studied it. All of a sudden, he whipped a Tide white pen from out of his back pocket, stretched the shirt out on a box, and began to press down. My brain snapped. I slapped it out of his hands.
"Stop talking like a Hallmark card!" I yelled. "Don't you even think--"
Bri didn't seem phased. He looked up, his eyes sparkling. And I don't mean their normal sparkle. No, this was some type of half-crazed possessed 'I'm gonna saw you in a half and pig roast you' look.
"Think what?" he asked. Before I could respond, he held up his hand. "No, scratch that." He placed his folded laundry neatly into his basket. "I don't care what you think."
My eyes widened as he hoisted the basket, gave me a punch in the shoulder...
And walked away humming what I thought was 'Quit Playing Games with My Heart.'
Heather
"Holly," Eric said, his voice trembling. "I can't let you do this."
Holly's eyes widened as she clutched the bouquet of red roses to her chest. "Do what?"
"Make the biggest mistake of your life. Eric's hand pressed against her face, his eyes bottomless pools of perfect sapphire. "I have something to tell you."
Holly's heart began to pound. She couldn't imagine that he would actually say it - say the magic words she was dying to hear.
Brian's lips--
"Crap," I muttered. For the fiftieth time I erased Brian's name. Hitting the backspace with a little more gusto than was necessary, I removed the five letters that meant so much and rubbed my eyes. I was at a scene I had been dying to write ever since I had started revising. Absentmindedly, I reached for another Keebler Chocolate Fudge cookie and slid it between my teeth, holding it in place and just letting the cookie part get soggy and fall into my mouth. I had been repeating this pattern for the last two hours. The almost empty package of Fudge Swirls was living proof.
Eric's lips moved closer and Holly thought she would weep, not from the emotion of a bride on her wedding day, but as a little girl whose knight in shining armor would--
"You know, I kinda wish I was that cookie right now."
I let out a shriek and slammed the lid of my computer just as Nick slid his ass onto the table, moving the cookies dangerously close to the edge.
"Did I scare you?" he asked, an impish grin lighting up his face. I took a deep breath, my chest rattling as little unchewed bits of cookies seemed to settle into my lungs. I yanked the unchewed half out of my mouth.
"A little!" I gasped. "I was working."
"Can I read it?" he asked. His foot pressed against my chair and swiveled me slightly back and forth. I flushed.
"It's not done."
"So?"
I couldn't let him read it. Admittedly, I wasn't sure how many 'Nick's' and 'Brian's' still filled the pages that I hadn't caught. I reached out and stroked his hairy knee, my lips curving into a smile. My new ring sparkled back at me. It was a huge improvement over the old, small and simple. Yet, I still didn't love it (but I didn't want to delve into the why). "I need a break," I said. Nick's eyes lit up. "Well, in that case--"
"HEATHER!"
My hand fell from Nick's leg and I caught Baylee just as he ran right into me. My chair rolled back a few inches.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Dad wantsta talk to you!" he said breathlessly.
"About what?" Nick asked suspiciously.
"Dunno!" Baylee chirped.
Nick's eyes narrowed. "Well, tell your dad--"
"Oh yeah!" he cried. He pulled the waistband of his basketball shorts (Baylee was quickly adopted the same fashion sense as his dad - Brian was back to his mismatched golf shorts and t-shirts) and pulled out a box. "Wanna play?"
It took a couple seconds for me to see the box as Baylee waved it back and forth, but when I did I knew that it was a distraction ploy. Nick's face grew excited as he yanked the still-sealed package out of Baylee's hand.
"Duke Nuke'em Forever," he whispered breathlessly.
"Dad just bought it for me and he said to ask you if you wanna play," Baylee said sweetly.
Nick's fingernail was already working at the wrapping. "Get the 360 turned on," he said. "I'll show you how it's done."
The two boys (because really, that's what Nick had suddenly become), raced back into the living quarters. I flipped my laptop back on just to save my Word Document and shut the PC down correctly. I thought about the scene that I had just been about to write and I wondered...
What did Brian want to talk to me about?
Brian
“Baylee, go get Aunt Heather for me.”
“Daaa-aad, c’mon I’m winning.”
I was not unprepared for this argument. I waved Duke’em Nuke’em in his face. “I’m pretty sure Uncle Nick has a 360 on his bus.”
My kid was all but salivating.
I was so excited. I checked my cell phone like twelve times for messages, to make sure nothing was being cancelled and I adjusted the flowers that I’d bought for her that morning when Larry had first emailed me back. I felt like I was on cloud freaking nine. I was ready to putz I was so excited.
See, this was something I’d had in the works for a very… very long time.
Heather inched onto the bus looking scared and confused. “Brian?” she called tentatively.
“You came!” I turned. I could feel the blood rush to my face when I saw her. She looked amazing - as always, but extra this time. She had on little pink sweatpants and a tank top and her hair in this kinda floopy, loopy pile that was half falling out of the knot she’d tied it in. “You look great,” I said.
She glanced down and gave me a seriously? look.
“I need to talk to you.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “You do?”
“Yes,” I said. I stepped forward quickly and snapped her hand into my own. “Heather, it’s about your story.”
“My – my story?” she asked.
“Yeah, the novel you’ve been writing forever?”
She stared at me, alarm on her face. “Brian,” she said, “I –“
“I told my friend Larry about it,” I blurted out.
“What?” Heather blinked in surprise, confused surprise. “Who?”
“Larry,” I said, “Larry works at Anchor Books.”
“The publisher?” she stammered.
“Yeah.” I guided her to the table and set her down. “I told him about your story, kiddo, the one about Bruce and Holly and I told him how you’ve been trying to get it published, and that you’re working on revising it and he thought it sounded really interesting and he wants to look at it.”
Heather stared at me, wildly.
“Do you have a copy of what you have so far by any chance?” I asked.
“He wants to read it?”
“Yes! He wants to publish it, actually.”
She stared at me, incredulous. “Brian I –“
“I’m so happy for you kiddo,” I trilled.
Heather grabbed my hands. “Are you serious?”
I grinned, bending low to look her right in the eyes. “Heather, I’m so serious right now.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Oh my God. I have to go get the manuscript-I - the – oh my God.” She stood up. “Oh my God.”
I grinned, “Congrats, baby.” The moment the words had tumbled out of my mouth, I froze.
Heather stared at me. “What?”
“Congrats, k-kiddo,” I whispered.
Our faces were nearly touching. I was leaning over her at the table, my heart thumping in my chest. I stared down at her, she stared up at me. Did I dare to even try to kiss her? I hovered. Waiting… wishing… Before she pulled away, ducking her face to the side and slipping away from me.
“I gotta get the manuscript,” she said and she disappeared out the door.
