28. The Hard Way
TWENTY-EIGHT
the hard way
I wake up next to Brianna, shocked to see bright sunlight breaking through the curtains. It’s late in the afternoon, the sun setting soon, and we’re still in the cabin.
I didn’t want to let her go after our confessions. After being so close to her. I needed to stay in our bubble a little longer, trying to hold onto every moment we had alone. She didn’t object, so here we are, still wrapped up in each other.
My arms wind around her as she presses herself against my back. I can’t get enough. I lean in to smell her hair, which I also can’t get enough of. The motion seems to stir her. Brianna twists around while stretching her arms above her head, then she brings them down to cuff my neck, caging me in.
God, I love this woman. My lips are only on hers for half a second before she pulls back, startled.
“What time is it?” she asks, shocked. She looks across to the window.
“Near sunset.” I kiss her cheek. “We’ll have to stay the night and ride back in the morning.” I’ve never been so excited to be stranded out in the back pastures before .
“But ... but ...everyone will wonder what happened to us. And your mom’s old-fashioned, remember?”
It’s cute she’s worried that everyone else will worry.
“No. They’ll realize we got caught in the storm and found the cabin for shelter. Happens all the time. And she’s old-fashioned in her house, but we’re not there.” I nuzzle her neck, which causes a little giggle. Score.
“Oh. Are you sure?” she manages to ask between giggles.
“Yup.” I silence her concerns with my lips.
Enough talking.
The ride back isn’t filled with the same energy as yesterday. I’m sad to be leaving our privacy behind, but we need to get back to the real world.
“How’re you doing?” I ask, wondering how Brianna’s handling the newness of everything between us. We’ve made declarations; claimed each other. I have no regrets, but I’m worried she does.
Brianna looks over at me with complete peace and contentment. “I’m fine. More than fine, actually. I’m happy, Zack.” And I can see it sparkling in her eyes. She’s breathtaking.
“I’m happy, too, baby.” On horseback it’s more difficult to grasp her hand, but I manage to do it.
“No one has ever called me that.” Brianna’s got the biggest smile on her face, almost laughing.
“No one? Really?” That shocks me. It seems like a go-to nickname for a girlfriend. But then I remember how many of her relationships were genuine. None. It makes sense none of those assholes would refer to her as their baby .
“Nope. No one.” Her head swings back and forth for emphasis. “But I’m actually glad, because now, when you say it, it actually means something.”
I smile at that, because it does mean something. “I’m glad too ... baby.”
We both laugh and continue our slow gait toward the house.
After a few hours of riding, the house comes into view. We stable our horses and go inside. I can tell Brianna is nervous, probably worried my mom will scold us for being gone so long.
“Ah, you’re back!” my mom calls as we enter the kitchen, starving after a breakfast of baked beans and a lunch of leftover mixed nuts and berries. I smell her handiwork baking in the oven, and my mouth starts to water.
“Is that apple pie I smell?”
My mom smirks. “Of course it is. It wouldn’t be right to have my boy here and not make a homemade pie for him and his girl.” Mom winks at Brianna.
I see Bree’s relief that my mom isn’t upset. Her shoulders have relaxed, no longer up at her ears like they were when we arrived.
“Do you eat pie?” Brianna asks me, the disbelief clear in her voice. “Doesn’t it have too much fat and sugar?”
I shrug. “Well, it’s my mom’s pie. I usually only eat a really little slice. Mostly the apples. Besides, a little homemade sweetness is the perfect way to end the day.”
“Well, now, I’m sure you two need freshening up after staying out in the pasture this whole time.” Mom starts to shoo us out of the kitchen. “Off with you now, and when you’re all clean, the pie will be ready.”
“Better be!” I call back as Brianna and I head to our rooms.
Before she goes into hers, I grab Brianna by the waist and pull her into mine. “You’re staying with me from now on,” I tell her. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go an entire night without holding you. My mom is just going to have to get over it. ”
The dent between her eyes tells me she’s worried again. I kiss her worry away to convince her without saying another word.
“Fine,” she whispers. “I’ll sleep in here, but my stuff stays in the other room.”
“Deal.” Whatever keeps her close.
I pat her on the tush before sending her back to her room. Mom’s orders were clear about getting cleaned up.
“I’ll come find you when I’m ready,” I tell her.
As I turn to grab a fresh set of clothes, I notice the telltale sound of a text notification. The buzzing hardly pauses for more than five seconds before it starts up again. I wonder how many notifications I missed while we were gone. I haven’t held my phone in more than twenty-four hours, and it really wasn’t the first thing on my mind. Brianna was. But now my girl is gone and my room is silent, I hear it.
I walk over to the phone quickly, wondering if Clinton has been trying to get a hold of me. When I scroll through one notification after another and see the subject of each text and headline, I nearly vomit.
This is too cliché. The timing is something out of a movie. Brianna and I literally just walked back into the house from our romantic getaway, and my phone has declared to me everything has turned to shit. I don’t know who, but some damn fool in this town has betrayed me.
“Dammit.” One stupid rookie mistake, and I don’t know how to fix it.
But I have to do something.
I unlock my phone and start scrolling through the headlines, staring at the gallery of pictures taken just a few days ago. Of me in the store with Colleen.
“What’s going on, Zack?” Brianna’s shaky voice sounds from my doorway.
I spin around to see her standing there, all the color drained from her face. I move across the floor and over to her in an instant, taking a hold of her shoulders and trying to get her full attention. But I can’t, because she’s got her eyes locked on her phone.
“Is this real?” she asks again, more demanding now.
“Well, yeah. I mean, I went to the Grab ‘n’ Go to get some extra snacks for our ride. The mixed nuts. I bumped into Colleen.” Shit , the whole conversation lasted less than two minutes, but the number of pictures posted make it look like I chatted with her for half the day.
“Colleen? The girl you went to prom with. The one you had a thing for. This is her?” Brianna scrolls through the pictures.
Something about the look on her face makes me want to smack the phone out of her hands. This should already be over. This should not be a conversation we’re even having. Not today.
“It’s nothing, Bree. Just bumped into an old friend. The tabloids are spinning it to mess with us. It’s exactly what you said they’d do—tear us apart the second we showed an ounce of happiness.”
And they’ve done a bang-up job. Because it’s the headlines that really kill me.
Trouble in Paradise?
Zack Bolts to Hometown; Rendezvous with High-School Sweetheart
The One That Got Away; Zack Marin Rekindles Relationship with Former Flame
“They can’t spin what isn’t there, Zack.” Brianna flips her phone around, shoving it in my face. All her emotion has vanished. She’s already detached. “You hugged her.”
“I hugged her goodbye. People have been known to do that after running into someone they haven’t seen in years.” I’m irritated I have to defend myself against this shit.
Brianna takes her phone back while turning away from me, scrolling through more pictures. “You don’t get a moony look on your face when nothing’s going on.”
I look over her shoulder to see what she’s talking about, and I can’t believe what I’m looking at. I do have a moony look on my face. I look like I was just struck with Cupid’s arrow. There are practically hearts in my eyes.
I rewind the conversation I had with Colleen and remember what hit me when she was talking. This picture is that moment. The moment I realized I was in love with Bree. The tabloids are spinning it as me being in love with Colleen.
“Baby—”
“Don’t call me that!” She cuts me off, daggers in those eyes I love.
Who is this girl? I haven’t seen this kind of fire in her—not even when Logan was manhandling her at the restaurant.
Brianna closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. I’m relieved she’s working on calming herself down. We need to talk this through. We can’t let the fucking tabloids ruin what we’ve found.
As I’m about to take a step toward her, to wrap her in my arms and pull her close, Brianna opens her eyes. In the split second it takes me to catch her gaze, I know. She isn’t calming herself down. She’s arming herself.
Brianna just turned on the diva—the version of herself that keeps everyone out and doesn’t trust a soul.
I feel sick.
“Bree, please listen to me. This is all a messed-up story. There is no romance, no rekindling. I’ve never been so happy to not be with a person as I am to not be with Colleen. I’m with you.”
“According to every news outlet in the English-speaking world, you’re unclear about your feelings for me. I’m sorry, Zack, but this deal we have doesn’t work if the papers tear us apart. And now, with allegations of unfaithfulness ... I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to end our contract.”
My heart races. This is not my Bree. This is the phony diva I’ve watched in videos and interviews. On the red carpet. And she’s turned it back on now so she doesn’t have to face this.
“Stop the act, Brianna. Talk to me. I’m being honest with you. I always have.”
“You told me you wouldn’t hurt me ... that you couldn’t hurt me. How true was that, Zack?”
“That’s not fair. I haven’t done anything to you.”
She sucks in a breath, bringing the diva back with it. “It really doesn’t matter what your story is. Our contract is void because your actions appear to the outside world as cheating. Even if it’s just circumstantial, I’ll no longer be known as America’s sweetheart. If we stay in this arrangement, and I keep you on as my plus-one, I’ll be known as America’s doormat. It’s not the image I want associated with my brand.”
Oh my god, she’s really doing this.
“Brianna, you’re not a doormat if I haven’t stepped on you. Nothing. Happened!” I take a deep breath, willing my panic to be replaced with calm so she’ll listen.
Brianna pauses, her diva persona firmly in place. The daggers in her eyes have softened, but she’s still glaring at me. How the hell did everything come to this?
“It’s in the media, Zack. You know the saying ‘pics or it didn’t happen’? Well, they’ve got the pics, so nothing you can say or do will erase their impression of what happened.”
Brianna doesn’t let me say another word before she turns and retreats to her room.
I stand in shock and confusion, the sick feeling in my stomach growing. I have no idea how to pull her back from her delusions. Is this the kind of relationship we’ll have?
Before I can clear up my thoughts, she walks out of her bedroom and marches to the kitchen with her bags. My panic grows, because I don’t think I can take two days on the road with her if this is her mindset.
“Mrs. Marin?” I hear Brianna call. “Is there someone who could take me to the airport? I’ve got a plane to catch. Kind of an emergency, and Zack isn’t ready to go.”
What the hell? A plane? She’s running away from this. From me. But I can’t seem to form words or get my feet moving after her.
“Oh dear, I hope everything is all right! Yes, I think Mandy can take you. I’ll watch the twins for her.”
I can’t even force myself to go after her. Suddenly, I’m back to that guy on the rooftop—the nobody trying to impress the pop star.
What was I thinking?