“How do we do this now?”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I know that I don’t want to let you walk away again.”
As Nick went to respond, Bree’s name was being called out from the hedges behind them. Scurrying to stand up, Bree was the first one to come face to face with the smiling face of her mother. Trying to shield him and their predicament from her mom, Nick smirked as Bree stood in front of him as he struggled with the buttons of his pants.
“Hey, mom.” She smiled brightly. “What’s up?”
Nick recalled that Bree never was a good liar, which was strange considering that she wanted to be an actress. Pretending was always different to her than lying; especially when it came to people she loved. It was just another quality that Nick checked off on his list of why he cared about her so much. But he also recalled how quickly she thought when it came to a situation which begged for a sly retreat. When the two of them used to put their heads together for some sort of adventure or plan, everyone would brace themselves. And now here they were, years later, needing desperately to rev that ability back up. It was horrible enough what had just happened without them figuring out the implications of it all, but to bring an outsider in would be hell. Trusting Bree, Nick tried to smooth out any indication of what had just gone down in his appearance when he caught her mom, Lynn, sneaking a peek at him. “Is that Nick?”
Nick reacted by opening his arms for a hug and giving a cheesy smile. “It’s meee!”
As Nick took Lynn into an embrace, over her shoulder he witnessed Bree trying to stifle amusement and shaking her head. He shot her a helpless look, rusty at the ‘who me?’ act he used to be so damn good at.
“Where on earth did you come from? Is your mom here? What about your sister, Angel? She’s gotten to be the prettiest thing on the earth. Next to Bree, of course.” Lynn reached out and patted her daughter’s cheek with pride.
“Nope, the family is scattered all over the place.” Nick nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets.
“I’ve been saddened to hear about all the things that have happened with your family,” Bree’s mom began and Bree stepped in to interject.
“Mom, let’s not bring that up tonight.”
Nick felt Bree take a hold of his hand firmly. They needed to escape this situation. They needed to turn back the past – what had it been? Minutes? An hour? Nick had no idea. But he did know they needed to sort out the blurry mess and try to find solid ground to stand on. They couldn’t do this here, not anymore. Images popped into his head of a sit down catching up conversation with Lynn, tonight, because he knew that she never did like to wait. Nick had always looked at her as a second mom, until she left Bree, and then he had his reservations. He was happy for Bree when her and her mom reconciled their estrangement, but he still couldn’t help but half question her character sometime. He failed to see that type of resemblance in Bree. She had fought the scary statistics of inevitable genetics and won. He caught himself smiling at the thought of her while Bree talked their way out of staying the rest of the night.
“Nick and I have a lot of catching up to do, Mom – I think I’m going to head on over to his hotel and hang out with him awhile.”
“Okay, but it’s getting late. I don’t want you driving all the way back here yourself.”
“Oh, it’s okay.” Nick spoke up. “I can drive her. And if it gets too late, I have a pull out couch I can sleep on in my room and she can take my bed.”
Nick noticed Bree out of the corner of his eye take a second to digest that suggestion. Nick didn’t even know what he was saying until it had tumbled out of his mouth. The prospect of spending the night in the same room as her seared his insides with anticipation. Could he seriously handle that?
“Okay.” Lynn smiled. “Just send me a text or something when you get there, so I know you made it okay.”
“Alright.” Bree smiled at her mom, and Nick saw that she was satisfied with the results.
Her mom said her short goodbyes and after Nick promised to stop by for lunch soon, they both remained silent until they were sure Lynn was completely out of ear shot. Nick turned to Bree and took both hands into his, letting out a short breath of air.
“Let’s just get out of here and away from that…tree.” Nick pointedly glanced at the Oak, and what had just happened under its strong branches flashed back to him. “I think it’s got some sort of magical power or something.”
Bree lit up with laughter as she shook her head at him. “You’re funny. Come on.”
“What?” Nick asked, feeding off of her smile. “I’m serious.”
Nick examined the changing of moods coming over her face – they had taken a small fragment of time to pretend like they hadn’t altered their future as friends. Nick felt her place her palm on his cheek and trace his cupid’s bow with her thumb. She looked up into his eyes and smiled at him reassuringly.
“We’ll figure this out, Carter.” She said to him softly. “We always do.”
Nick fought the urge for the tenth time to take her and kiss her. He had to take that and put it behind it now. He had, in an extreme moment of impulsiveness, taken what he wanted and purged that wanting. He couldn’t be greedy anymore.
He did find it odd and strangely comforting that, after what had just occurred, there wasn’t any tangible tension between them. As much as Nick hated to admit it to himself, and he would never say this aloud, but it was as if making love to her was completely natural, not some spur of the moment regret. He changed his mind about keeping it to himself – he expected later on to bounce it off of AJ to see what he thought. But for now, half an hour in a car with Bree and the stretch of road was the only thing on his mind. They linked elbows together and began the trek to his car, dodging any sign of life that would distract them from their mission. Was what the mission? Nick wasn’t sure. But he did know he had a dull aching need to spend more time with her. She would be back in New York soon, and what he did absolutely know was that he wanted a pact between the two of them to be set in stone. He was not; he repeated internally, was not going to let her slip away from him again.
When they arrived at Nick’s car, it was noticeable that some of the other vehicles had departed, leaving an easier exit route for them. The minute that they climbed in, Nick looked over and saw a pink blush begin to spread out over the apples of Bree’s cheeks.
“Uh, oh.” She turned to Nick and flinched.
“What is it?” He asked with concern.
“I forgot something.” She bit her lip.
“What did you forget?”
“My underwear.”
Nick paused for a second before bursting out into a fit of laughter. She gasped and reached out and smacked his arm. Although her palm had stung, he still couldn’t stop his giggles.
“It’s not funny, Nick!” She protested, albeit with a smile. “What if someone finds them?”
“What, do you write your name on them or something?” Nick asked in between breaths of laughter.
“No,” She dragged out her ‘o’ with distress. “But Mom knows that we were over there and she may be a little crazy but she’s not stupid.”
“A little?” Nick was able to contain himself, finally, and could see a grin starting to come out of the girl in the passenger seat.
“Shut up. Just hold on, okay?” She said. As she went to open the car door, she glanced back over her shoulder. “How can you be so happy about this right now?”
Nick took a moment to think, and then said,
“I guess I just can’t picture it happening with anybody else but you. This is very typical of us, you have to admit.”
“I’ll never admit anything that pertains to you being right, Carter.” She replied with conviction and then exited the car.
Nick sat, without the radio on, and watched through his windshield her return back to the path they had taken. Even in the dark, he swore that she had looked back, only for a second, and flashed him a knowing smile.
Bree took her time to carefully weed her way though her mom’s flower garden that lined the stone path. If someone heard her, or saw her, well, that’d be the end of that. She tried to think of some excuse quickly, but when she reached the dock again, she found it void of anyone. Squinting in the dark, she only had the dim light from the dock house to aide her. It had happened extremely fast, but she had a pretty good idea of where she lost her item. Her heart automatically began to race as she touched the bark of the Oak with her fingertips. She closed her eyes and relived the feeling of Nick’s skin on hers – after tonight, it wasn’t going to happen again.
She hunched over and started to search around the bumpy roots of the tree, knowing that they would be hard to miss. She tried to remember if maybe Nick had stuffed them in his pocket, but that’d be too weird. She circled the tree once, then twice, and finally let out a sigh of frustration.
“Where the hell did they go?” She wondered into the night air. This did solve her problem, because if they weren’t there, then her mom wouldn’t find them. That would be a never ending inquisition and Bree could already hear the questions resounding in her mind:
What were you thinking? How did it happen? What does it mean? What about your fiancée?
And if she did not need anything right now, it was her mom into her personal life. At twenty-seven, the suffocating fear of becoming more and more like her mother with every birthday made Bree want to keep her problems to herself desperately. Her mother could always get into her head, twist things around, and in the end, completely screw up whatever Bree was dealing with. Times flooded back to Bree of when her mom would butt into her relationships and even take it upon herself to fix them. It started when her mom went away. Bree always concluded that the overcompensation her mom exhibited was to make up for leaving her when she was so young. But it still didn’t stop her from invading when she was not welcome. When she was younger, parents of the friends Bree would have a juvenile fight with would be called. Sometimes, even worse, her mom would confront the actual friend. Whatever the problem was, her mother wanted to fix it for Bree. Her father would get a phone call, and yelling and misery would ensue. Bree finally resorted to cease confiding in her mom via phone or any other way, and just kept it an arm’s length relationship, wondering the whole time if she would ever do this to her future children.
Bree would not take the chance of her mom prying her way into this situation with Nick. No, as silly as it was, the most intimate piece of laundry Bree owned could not be found. This was too close for comfort to her mom's garden that was tended daily. A pair of Victoria’s Secret underwear could destroy her entire friendship with Nick. It was sad, so very, very sad – but true.
“Looking for these?”
Bree’s bubbles of thoughts were burst as she looked up from the ground. In horror, she saw her step-brother Josh holding her thong with his thumb and index finger, out away from him. He had come out of nowhere, but he was here none the less. She moved to snatch the pink panties away from him, but he jerked them back and shook his finger at her.
“Oh, no,” He grinned maliciously. “This is too good to let you have them.”
“Shut up, Josh.” Bree snapped. “Just because you haven’t seen any of them in awhile doesn’t mean you have to keep mine. They’re your step-sister’s, too, you freak.”
“I know, that’s why I’m so weirded out at the fact that I am revolted by them, but yet, I can’t let them go.” Josh produced a pack of Marlboros from his pocket and took a fresh cigarette out with his teeth. He offered the pack to Bree, who stood with her arms crossed. She kept her eye on his hand that managed to still contain what she came for.
“No, thank you.” She said through her teeth and attempted to grab her underwear back when he lit his cig. “Damn it, Josh, don’t be an ass.”
Josh inhaled and then let the smoke loose through his nose. He stood there, smug and arrogant, and Bree hated him for it. She didn’t usually feel this way towards her step-brother. Most of the time she found the banter and the play fighting entertaining – when she was an only child, she had always wanted an older brother. But right now she wished he would just go away - without what was hers.
“Don’t you love August?” He asked as he took another puff. “It’s the end of summer, with the bittersweetness of it all.”
“Extremely touching. Give me my damn underwear back.”
“Do you know what I think is really touching?” Josh wrapped the arm that held Bree’s thong around her shoulder. She followed his hand with her eyes, wondering if he was going to actually let her take them back.
“The fact that my mom lets you stay here for free even though you are a useless slacker?” Bree said with bright sarcasm.
“Ouch, sis, that hurt.” Josh feigned a knifed through his heart. “No. I think it’s touching that you and Nicky are back together. After what that douche did to you in Tampa, though, it's really nice you want to give him a second chance."
He retracted his arm back and tossed Bree her thong. She caught it gratefully, but eyed Josh with suspicion. “Why did you just do that? That was so easy. Too easy. What do you want?”
“I don’t want anything from you. I want him to promise me that he’s not going to mess with your head again.” Josh bent down to put his cigarette out and then looked at Bree with his steely green eyes. “I will kill him, you know.”
Bree let out a smile and loosened her body language. “We’re not together. We’re just friends.”
“Friends lose their underwear when in the presence of another friend?” Josh rubbed his stubbly chin.
“What happened is none of your business.”
“You’ve been my step sister for about sixteen years, so doesn’t that make you my real sister by common law or something like that?”
Bree couldn’t help but smile. “Something like that.”
“Then I want to look out for you.” Josh draped his arm over her shoulder once more. “Listen, I know you’re not happy with the dude you got back at home. What’s his name? Mark or something?”
Bree rolled her eyes. “You know his name, doofus.”
“Mark. Like Marky-Mark, another idiot.” Josh rubbed the stubble that was forming on his cheek as well. “Anyway. I can see why when Nick came back into town today, you would throw yourself at him to…”
“Excuse me?” Bree interrupted in offense. “I did not throw myself at anyone, nor have I ever.”
Josh grinned at getting a rise out of her. “You know what I meant.”
“No, please clarify.” Bree leaned back into Josh’s arm and waited impatiently, knowing Nick was sitting alone in his car.
“I may be a ‘useless slacker’, but I do know that even though we may not have lived together as a family, you had it bad for your friend Nick way back in the day. And now he shows up here, and I don’t know if I trust his intentions. What if he’s just at an impasse in his life and he wants to use you to find some sort of answer he’s looking for? I don’t want him taking advantage of the love you have for him and then leaving you behind again once he’s done with you.” Josh punctuated his speech with the affectionate tapping of Bree’s nose. “Like I said, I’ll kill ‘em.”
Bree looked at her brother in name only with sheer appreciation. “Thank you. I really do love you for saying that. But I can take care of this. I’m going to go back to New York and break it off with Mark. And then I’ll have to move on, with Nick as only my friend. I missed him. And he missed me. Now there’s no reason why we can’t be as close as we were before, no matter how many states are between us.”
“Are you sure?” Josh looked at her with question, and Bree began to grow anxious at considering that he was more than likely right. “You don’t have any feelings like that towards him anymore?”
“No.” Bree answered, a little too quickly. “Any feelings I had left for him were just disposed of, over at that tree.”
“Oh, Jesus!” Josh exclaimed and threw his arms up in the air. “I didn’t ask for the details, alright?”
Bree began to laugh as she watched him squirm into a dramatic presentation of disgust. She looked down at her palm, slightly mortified that she still clutching her undies. “Like I’ve never walked in on you before.”
“Oh, but that’s different.” Josh stood up and covered his eyes with his hands. “I’m your brother; you’re my sister!”
Bree snickered and patted his shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”
“No it won’t, I can see part of that tree from my bedroom.” Josh balled up his fist and lightly punched Bree in the stomach. She mocked pain and then did the same to his jaw. They both dropped their sibling antics and hugged one another. After a second or two, Josh said, “Bree?”
“Yeah?” Her voice was muffled in his shoulder.
“Get your panties off my shirt.”
“Sorry.” She released herself from his grasp and tucked them behind her back with one hand. “I should probably go now.”
“Do I need to come talk to him?” Josh pursed his lips in thought.
“No, I’ll be okay.” Bree smiled. “Thank you, though. Really. If I need some emotional support, I’ll let you know.”
“You let me know if you need some physical support.” Josh curled up his left arm, flexing his bicep and pointing it. “Right there, sis. Right there is all the support you’ll need.”
Shaking her head, Bree gave him another quick hug. “Love ya, weirdo. Thank you for not ratting me out to Mom. You know she would never leave me alone.”
As Bree left him standing behind in the yard, Josh called after her: “And put some panties on, will ya?!?”
Fighting the urge to run back and slaughter him, Bree could only chuckle to herself. When she had reached the half way point between the car and Josh, she slipped the now notorious pair of underwear back on and hauled herself to Nick.
“Interesting time?” Nick inquired once she had her seatbelt on.
“Josh had ‘em.” Bree stated casually as the engine roared onto the gravel road.
“Typical.” Was Nick’s only reply as he pulled out onto the two-laned road back to the hotel.
Chapter End Notes:
Boring, right? I had to give you something, though.
:)
:)
