The Publicity Stunt

17. Chapter Sixteen

Holding onto a bottle of wine with a death grip, Bri sits in the back of an SUV with Tessa as they drive through Brunsville. When Kace first invited them to spend Thanksgiving with his family, she jumped at the chance and offered to bring the salad that sits between them. But as she sits there, watching out the window at the slightly familiar town so close to her hometown, she starts doubting whether this was the right decision or not.

”Bri?”

”Hmm?” Bri asks, turning to Tessa.

Her hand falls on Bri”s lap. ”What”s wrong?”

”Nothing.”

”Liar.”

Sighing, she sets the wine bottle on the spot next to the salad and leans back in the leather seat. ”We”re not that far from Enderlin.”

Tessa nods her head. Only Tessa can fully understand. The last time Bri came out this way, she found herself bombarded with reporters and false claims made by her parents. She”d been run out of town before she could reach the hospital where Mr. Hanks stayed after having open heart surgery.

”I think I might be on the verge of a panic attack.”

”They”re not here,” Tessa assures her. ”And if they are, they”ll have to deal with me. And then Kace and his family will have to deal with me. You will probably have to bail me out of jail at that point, though.”

Bri forces a laugh, but she can”t get her parents out of her mind. All she”s wanted for years was her family. The one she had before performing, and it hurts how much they”ve soured what she loves at her very core. It”s a wound she doesn”t know will ever heal.

”Tell me about Kace.”

Turning back to her best friend, she lowers eyebrows. ”What about him?”

”Have you finally... you know?”

”Finally... what?”

Tessa glares at her. ”Really? You”re gonna make me say it? Fine! Have you finally let him take you to pound town?”

Bri doesn”t have to force this laugh, and she”s thankful for the divider between her security team in the front seat and the two of them in the back. She bends forward, holding her stomach, as she continues to laugh. ”What did you just say?”

Laughing right alongside her, Tessa slaps her own leg. ”It just came out. I don”t even know.”

She wipes her eyes as she sits back up. ”Oh, I needed that laugh. Thank you.”

”You”re welcome. But don”t think you”re getting out of answering the question. Have you finally let him see you naked?”

Biting her lip, she just looks at the floor. ”Maybe.”

”Oh my God!” Tessa shrieks. ”Really? When?”

”There have been multiple occasions,” she says and looks at Tessa. ”The first night was when he surprised me in Chicago.”

Her eyes widen. ”How could you keep this from me?”

”I know you”re still upset about Trevor and everything, and I didn”t want to rub my relationship in your face.”

”Wait, wait, wait. Does this mean you two are more than just fake dating?”

Nodding her head, she can”t hold back the smile on her face. ”The interview I gave saying we were together was real. We talked about it the night before. In bed. Naked. He said there was nothing fake about what we”re doing.”

”Is it big?”

”What?” Bri gasps.

Tessa tilts her head. ”He”s a freaking giant. Is it as big as you”d expect from someone so, you know, ginormous?”

Should Bri really talk about this with her? ”It”s not small.”

”Oh my God!” she giggles and stomps the floor. ”How big?”

”I didn”t measure it!”

”I miss sex, but based on the blush you have right now, this was better than any time you had with Easton.”

Looking away, she wills her face to stop giving her away any time she”s embarrassed. ”Mmhmm.”

”Brianna!”

Turning, she sighs. ”He makes me scream.”

”What?”

”More like cries of passion, but this last time, it was damn near a scream. He”s really, really good at it.”

Tessa fans her face with her hand. ”Okay, wow. Um... what all have you done?”

”Are we really talking about this as we”re about to meet his entire family? For a holiday?”

”You”ve gotten on your knees, haven”t you?”

”I”m not the only one. And he managed to pull off having me on my knees with him underneath.”

Her jaw drops as she blinks rapidly. ”You sat on his face?”

”I expected it to be awkward and weird, but everything with him feels so comfortable. And when we”re naked, it feels so much better than comfortable.”

”How many times have you done it?”

Bri feels like this conversation would have been had in high school if she stayed instead of going on the road. ”Every time we”ve seen each other since Chicago. I don”t really keep track of how many times we get intimate because it”s more than once each time.”

Using her fingers, she counts. ”You”ve had sex at least twenty times?”

Bri enjoys being the one with the stories instead of the one listening and trying to figure out the appeal like she used to. ”Define sex.”

”How many orgasms have you had?”

”Too many to count. The night before Atlanta, my legs were so sore that I almost couldn”t pull off the choreography.”

”I officially hate you right now.”

She giggles. ”If you want a pointless hookup, I know an athlete who”d be willing to help you out with that itch you want scratched. I have to say... definitely better than musicians. In my limited experience.”

The car stops, and Tessa bursts out laughing, leaning against the door just as Bobby opens it to let them out. He catches her. ”Woah, Tessa. You good?”

”Yeah,” she says as she continues to laugh. ”I”m fine.”

”She might be broken,” Bri says as Tessa grabs the wine and the salad.

Looking at the house, she feels the wave of nerves wash over her again. She hopes it”s everything she wants it to be.

Bobby walks around and stops her, placing his hand on her bicep. ”It”ll be fine,” he says, reading her mind. ”I have a buddy who just left your parents” place. They ain”t here.”

She stares in surprise as she hears the front door open. ”You had someone go by my old house?”

”If they weren”t there, we were gonna track them down. If they turned out to be here, we were turning around and leaving,” he says.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she hugs him tightly. ”Thank you, Bobby.”

”Uh, Bri? Your boyfriend”s on the front step watching you,” Tessa says.

”It”s nothing, Bri. You have a good holiday. We won”t be too far away,” Bobby says.

”What was that?” Tessa asks.

Bri watches Bobby walk to the car and nod before pulling out of the driveway. ”The best security guard in the world.”

”What”d he do?”

”He made sure my parents weren”t anywhere near here.”

”Wow. For a man who says very little, he seems to have a big heart. I might need to reconsider my stance on security guards.”

Turning to face her, she stares hard at her best friend. ”Don”t, Tessa. Please don”t put me in a position to choose between my best friend and my head of security.”

”I won”t!” she says. ”It was a joke.”

”Bri?” Kace calls.

Turning, she feels her heart drop to her stomach for a different reason. Performing on stage in front of thousands of people? No problem. Appearing on a talk show with millions of viewers? Piece of cake. Walking in and meeting the family of the man she”s fallen in love with? Shoot her now.

”Happy Thanksgiving,” she says and lets out a deep breath.

He walks up to her. ”Hey, what”s wrong?”

”Bobby made her heart ten times bigger,” Tessa says.

”I didn”t think it could get bigger,” he jokes and winks at her.

”He”s had someone keeping tabs on her parents to make sure they stay away from here. Did it all on his own.”

Nodding his head, he looks at the car parked on the street. ”I might have to reconsider my stance on Bobby after his threat to break my knees.”

”She”s also nervous,” Tessa says. ”But we brought wine and a salad, as promised.”

”Why are you nervous?” Kace asks as Tessa walks into the house, oblivious to the glare Bri shoots at her back.

”Because I don”t have a good track record with family gatherings. Part of me feels like I need to go and throw up in those bushes over there, but I don”t want you to look at me with pure disgust.”

His strong arms pull her to his body, and she wraps her arms around his waist. Letting his presence calm her settles her more than anything she”s ever found in her life before, and she wishes she had the guts to tell him she”s in love with him. It”s too early, but she can”t help feeling it.

”Trust me, my cousins are going to lose their fucking minds when they see you. We haven”t told them you”re coming, so I apologize in advance for the attention you”re about to receive. And I hope our eardrums make it out of this intact.”

”You have no idea how much I needed this.”

Pulling back, he looks down at her. ”Needed what?”

”A hug. Something about you can always put me at ease.”

His lips find hers, and he groans as she melts against his body. If only they were at a hotel instead of a house filled with family. Something about this man seems to have turned her into a sex fiend, but she”s not mad at him for it.

”God, I love how soft your lips are. As much as I”d like to pull you through the house and up to my bedroom, I don”t think I”ll be able to pull that off. So, let”s get prepared to be uncomfortable because it”s about to get loud. Really loud.”

”I”m kind of excited now.”

Once inside the house, Kace hides her behind his back and whistles. ”Remember how I said I had a surprise for everyone?”

”Yeah?” a bored teenager asks. ”Don”t tell us you want us to believe you brought Bri Waters with you. You know everyone online thinks it”s fake, right?”

He laughs and moves to the side. ”Well, that”s awkward. I guess we”re not really dating, baby. Laura”s not impressed with you, either.”

”Well, shoot. And I was having so much fun with you,” Bri says, playing along.

The teenager looks up, her eyes wide, before she starts screaming. ”Bri Waters is in this house! Everyone, oh my God, it”s Bri Waters.”

Bri stands completely still and looks around as the entryway fills to the brim with people, all screaming and talking to her at once. All she can hope is the initial excitement will wear off before she does, in fact, blow an eardrum.

”Oh my God, I love you,” Laura says once she stops screaming. ”Can I take a picture with you to put on my page?”

”Laura,” Kace warns.

”No, it”s okay.” Bri wraps an arm around Laura and smiles for the picture.

Kace whistles to get everyone”s attention again. ”Just so we”re all clear, if anyone takes pictures today, you must get approval before posting them online. If I catch anything that shouldn”t be uploaded, there will be hell to pay. And no one talks to the press about having her here, okay?”

Her hand takes his. ”It”s okay, Kace.”

”No, it”s not. The last thing I want is you feeling exploited by my family.”

If she hadn”t already fallen in love with the mammoth of a man glaring at his own family, she”d have fallen in love right then. She never wants this feeling to stop.

Everyone buzzed around her, asking questions, taking pictures, and having her sign things, but it settled down eventually. They pulled her into the living room where many shared stories, mostly embarrassing ones about Kace when he was younger, and she quickly felt at ease.

As soon as the football game started, Kace”s cousin, Brad, kicked everyone out who wasn”t there to watch the game, and she found herself alone with the man and his kids. He seemed uninterested in her compared to the television, and Bri found it oddly normal and relaxing.

After half an hour, Kace walks in and sits next to her as his three-year-old cousin sits in her lap reading a book. ”Do you need anything?”

”No, I”m good,” she says. ”We”re just hanging out watching football.”

”You know,” Brad says from the recliner, ”you”re a lot more chill than I expected.”

She laughs. ”Really? What”d you expect?”

”Yeah, Brad, what did you expect?” Kace asks and rests his arm on the back of the couch.

His fingers play with the ends of her hair while they both look at Brad. She looks forward to Kace joining her in her hotel room later that night and spending all day in bed together tomorrow.

”You know what I”m saying,” Brad says, and his wife, Mary, walks into the room.

”No, I don”t think we do,” Kace says.

Mary looks at them and sighs in exasperation. ”What stupid thing did you say now?”

”I didn”t!”

”He expected Bri not to be chill, but no one knows what he expected instead,” Cory, his oldest, says while his eyes never leave the television.

Mary’s arms cross. ”That was rude, Brad.”

”I wasn”t trying to be rude! I was just saying she”s chill!”

”No, you implied you expected her to be something other than chill,” Kace says. ”What was it you expected?”

”Okay, fine! I expected her to be a little more demanding. Scrunching her nose at the house because it”s not as fancy as hers or something. I don”t know.”

”You thought she”d be a bitch,” Cory says, his eyes still on the screen.

Mary”s jaw drops. ”Cory Travis Lyons, what did you just say?”

”Cory in trouble,” the three-year-old says, his r’s pronounced as w’s, and looks up at her. ”Normal.”

”Yeah, it kind of is,” Cory says and sighs, finally looking away from the television to his mother. ”Do I have to go and get the dish soap?”

”His father kind of set that up,” Kace says. ”I don”t think you can blame it all on him.”

Brad shakes his head. ”Don”t even think about it, Mary. I am not putting dish soap in my mouth. Not gonna happen.”

”Your family is fun,” Bri says, laughing.

This is what she remembered her family gatherings during the holidays being like. Having a large group of people gathered together to celebrate and eat with, just being and joking, is something she always tried to forget she missed. With Kace”s family, she might have a chance at it again. The thought makes her happier than she thought possible.

”You don”t have concerts over Christmas, right?” Kace asks, his mouth at her ear.

She shakes her head no. ”I give the team time with their families, so I made sure we have a two-week break over Christmas. Why?”

”Come here for Christmas. Dad would love to have you, and everyone else will be on better behavior because the shock will have worn off.”

”You really want me to spend Christmas with you?”

He kisses the top of her head. ”I”d spend every day with you, if I could. And it would be fun. If your team okays it, you could stay here. We could wear footie pajamas, make Santa”s naughty list in my bedroom, and wake up to a houseful of crazy kids hopped up on sugar and tearing open presents. It”ll be great.”

Her heart flutters at the thought. ”They make footie pajamas in giant size?” she jokes.

”Haha,” he laughs and tickles her. The three-year-old looks annoyed he”s disrupted them, and Kace takes him off Bri”s lap to fly around the air. ”You think you can take my girl? Huh? Is that what you think?”

The little boy laughs, kicking his feet in the air as Kace swings him around. ”More! More!”

Bri sits back and takes in the scene of everyone. Christmas with a family again instead of by herself. It sounds perfect, and she”s already picked out presents for just about everyone in her mind.