by Johnson, Ash
Chapter 27
One Month Later
Brynn
I open the front door to my house and let Becca, Tyler, Milo, Ryan, Riley and Harper walk in behind me. They all took a few days off work and school so that they could come out for a vacation and I couldn’t be more excited. We plan on going to the San Diego Zoo and Sea World over the next four days and Milo is super excited that I live so close to the naval ships or the “big bathtub boats” as he calls them. Since it is Friday, I have to work at the pub tonight, but Lillian, the bar’s owner, is letting me have Saturday and Sunday off.
“Finally, you ask for a day off!” Lillian said when I told her a few days ago that I needed the time off work. I smiled at the short, stocky woman with a graying beehive, and cocked my head at her, wondering why she was so excited that I asked for time off.
“What?” I finally ask with a smile on my confused face.
“Well, you’ve been working for me for over four years and you have never asked for time off to do anything. You’ve only called in sick a handful of times and if you ask me, it’s about time you got a life outside of this pub” she said, smirking at me.
“I have a great life outside of this pub, you jerk.” I say, looking into her shiny brown eyes with a mock offended look on my face. “Did you ever think that maybe I like my job and I like making you and your bartenders so much money? I can quit if you want me to, so that I can make some time for a life and all.” Lillian just shook her head at me and shooed me out of her office.
Before I left for work, I gave my car keys to Becca, even though they rented a van for this trip, and gave her a list of restaurants around me that deliver. I bought a bunch of kids’ movies for the little ones to watch and board games for everyone to play so that they weren’t bored while I was gone. I even made the kids a giant fort in my living room.
A few hours into my night at the pub and I’m getting restless. The night is going by a lot slower than I want it to, and things are still a bit awkward with Drew, but getting better.
I put down my tumbler of Crown and Coke when I finish singing “Raise your Glass” by P!nk and while everyone cheers and whistles, I make my way over to the request bowl. I pull out a crumpled up piece of paper and make my way to the microphone.
“Okay, this next request” I say, straightening out the paper and reading the name of the song to myself. When I see the song that has been written on the paper, my head snaps up into the crowd, looking for Ryan.
I see him in a white t-shirt and light washed jeans, sitting at a table near the back with Becca sitting across from him. Ryan smiles at me and mouths the words “I love you” to me and all I can do is tilt my head and smile. Finally, I get my head to clear and realize I need to sing the song.
“This next request needs no introduction and goes out to the person I love most in this world.” I look out to Ryan and blow him a kiss before I make my way over to my piano to play “Make you feel my love” by Bob Dylan. I pour my heart into the words, hoping that Ryan knows how much I love him and that I would do anything for him.
After I finish the song, I notice that the bar is silent for a moment and I wonder what is wrong. I glance at the rest of my band and all three boys are staring at me, slack-jawed and unmoving. Then I look into the crowd and see that all eyes are on me, then notice Kara at the bar with tears in her eyes.
Suddenly, the entire bar erupts into cheers, whistles and cat calls. I smile, stand from my piano bench, and take a small bow. The rest of my night goes by much quicker knowing that Ryan and Becca are there to see me.
I make it to the last song of the night and I’m standing on the stage by myself, trying to decide which song I should end the night with. I pick another upbeat, fun song telling the crowd I hoped they had fun, danced a bit, and will go home happy.
“Alright everyone, this last song” I say, strumming my ukulele, “is a fun little song that I want to see everyone dancing to. It’s called “First Dance” by a band called Never Shout Never.” I strum and sway my hips while I sing the song, trying not to laugh at all of the very drunk people left on the dance floor trying to boogie down. When the song is over, everyone claps and the house lights come on, jukebox music replacing people shuffling toward the exit.
I put my ukulele back in its case and grab my bottle of water before I make my way off the stage where Ryan and Becca are waiting for me. I jog down the stairs and give Ryan a quick hug and kiss, then move to Becca who has tears in her large blue eyes and her hands covering her mouth.
“Becca? What’s the matter? Are you okay?” I ask, concerned that something may be wrong with her. I look her up and down, noting her pink v-neck shirt and pedal pusher shorts, but I don’t see any blood or her holding an appendage tightly. She just nods and wipes at her eyes.
After a few seconds of waiting for her to tell me why she’s crying, she says “I’m so proud of you Brynn. You were incredible up there, big sister. I’ve never heard you sing like that and you’ve never looked so happy.” I smile and give her a tight hug. With that, we walk outside to where Ryan parked my car to make our way home.
As soon as we pull out of the parking lot, Becca taps me on the shoulder from the back seat, points to my wrist and says “By the way, I love the tattoo. Wish I had the guts to get one.” I’m a bit relieved that my Rolling Stones t-shirt and khaki shorts cover almost all of them because I don’t really want her to know how many I actually have, but Ryan picks this moment to chime in.
“Actually Becca, my lovely girlfriend here has thirteen tattoos.” He smirks at me and I smirk back and say “I don’t have thirteen tattoos, Ryan.”
His brow furrows and he tilts his head up and down like he’s mentally counting all of the places he’s seen them on my body. Ryan smiles and then shakes his head, shifting his attention back to the road and grinning before he speaks again. “You got another one, didn’t you?”
I smile and slowly nod at him. “Where?” he squints his eyes at me and I notice his grip on the steering wheel tightens. “You’re going to have to find it yourself.” I joke waggling my eyebrows and then bite my lower lip, teasing him. “Gross, forget I even asked about them, okay?” Becca jokes from the back seat. We all laugh and then go silent for the short ride home.
Ryan parks my car in the narrow drive way in front of my condo, behind the rental van, and we all get out. As soon as I walk around the car and take Ryan’s hand to go inside, he tugs on me and pulls me back to him.
“I’m not ready to go inside yet. Will you take a walk with me?” He looks down into my eyes and gives me a half of a smile.
I shrug and say “Sure, but do we need to tell Becca that we’ll be gone for a bit?” pointing at the now closed front door Becca just walked through. Ryan shakes his head and says “Nah, the kids and Ty are probably asleep and I’m sure Becca won’t be too far behind them. You know, we grownups who have kids normally get to bed before one in the morning.”
I smirk at him and playfully nudge him with my elbow as we start walking toward the pier. “No, old people go to bed before one in the morning. I have lots of friends with kids that stay up past one, like Kara. She has two kids and she works at the bar at least three days a week. She’s there long after I go home.”
After a few minutes of walking, Ryan decides to stop and I finally glance around to where we are. It’s dark, but the street lights are on, making it a bit easier to see our surroundings. We’ve stopped on the pier by all of the naval ships; where I nearly killed him with my bike a month ago.
I start to giggle and Ryan looks down at me and squeezes his arm around my shoulders. “What’s so funny, baby?” I shake my head and say, “I was just thinking about how I almost killed you with my bike right at this very spot.” I wrap my arms around Ryan’s waist and bury my face into his plain white t-shirt, then give him a little pinch on the butt of his jeans.
I smile and turn to look out at the ships, remembering that’s what I was doing before I hit him. I feel Ryan’s
arm leave my shoulders, so I turn my head back to him, but notice that he’s no longer standing. He’s kneeling on one knee and looking straight into my eyes.
He clears his throat and, after a deep breath, says “I always wanted to do this at the place where we met back home, but since that isn’t an option right now and I can’t wait any longer to do this, I figured coming back to the place where I met you all over again would work.” I gasp and bring my hands to my mouth when he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a big diamond solitaire ring.
“Brynn Marie Harris” he continues, his intense light blue eyes piercing me, “I have been in love with you since I first laid eyes on you in the third grade. You are my best friend and it would make my world complete if you would be my wife. Will you marry me?” I want to smile and scream because I’ve been waiting for this moment since I was a little girl, but my body won’t move. Then my brain goes completely blank and I just stare at him.
Chapter 28
Ryan
Shit. She’s just standing there with her hands over her mouth and tears running down her cheeks. I was already nervous to do this, but now I’m wondering if this was a bad idea. Brynn finally blinks after what seems like an hour, although I’m sure it was only a few seconds, and simply nods.
She moves her hands away from her face and barely whispers the one word I want to hear “Yes.” Holy shit, exhale. My nerves finally calm down and I stand up and place the ring on her finger.
She grabs the sides of my face and kisses me so deeply, I feel her love radiate down to my toes. I wrap my arms around her waist and pick her up, spinning her around a few times and smiling while she giggles into my shoulder.
When I finally put her down, I look at her and ask “Were you expecting that?” “Are you fucking kidding me, Ryan? I had no clue.” I chuckle at the excitement in her voice and twine her fingers with mine while we start to walk back to her house.
We get through her front door ten minutes later and notice that all of the kids are passed out inside the fort in front of the television that is standing on the bookshelves, and Tyler is asleep on the couch. Becca must have gone into the guest room to sleep, because she’s nowhere to be seen.
We tiptoe into Brynn’s room, shut the door, and strip down to nothing before we jump into bed. Just before she turns off the lamp on her nightstand, I remember she got another tattoo. “Wait, I still need to find this new tattoo of yours.”
I straddle her and start running my hands around her waist and up her breasts while she smiles and wraps her arms around my neck. “Well, I definitely didn’t get it there.” She giggles when I gently squeeze her breasts and then bend to quickly kiss them.
“Okay, sit up then. I’m guessing it’s on your back since you don’t have much room anywhere else.” I smile and grab her hand to help her sit up.
“Hey, that’s not nice. I have lots of room to paint my body; all of my tattoos are pretty small. You didn’t even know I had most of them until you got me naked.” Brynn tilts her head and smiles at me.
“You’re right, they aren’t very big, but I will admit I saw a new spot of black on your back when you took off your shirt that wasn’t there last time, so I’m guessing that’s the new one.” Brynn laughs and nods.
When she leans forward, I see her new tattoo just left of her spine, right in the middle of her back. In elegant, long black letters, the words Life is too short to be anything but happy are permanently etched into her skin.
“It’s beautiful baby. I love it, and I have something to show you, too.” Her brow furrows when she sits back to look into my eyes. I slowly lift up my left arm to show her the love bird that I had tattooed onto my ribs.
She gasps “Ryan it’s perfect. How did you remember what it looks like, though?”
I smile and then crinkle my nose before I explain. “I waited till you were asleep and took a picture of it with my phone. After you told me what it meant to you and how you wanted the bird to be with her soul mate, I wanted to be that for you. I just hope that I am.”
Brynn shimmies down the mattress until we are both on our sides and eye to eye on her pillow. “You have been my soul mate since I was eight. I am the luckiest woman in the world to have you. I love you more than you’ll ever know, Ryan.”
“I love you too, Brynnie, but now you’ve got me wondering who your soul mate was before you were eight. Do I need to kick someone’s ass?” I smile, just to show her I’m playing with her.
She rolls her eyes, but smiles and says in a sassy voice “I think it was one of the guys from New Kids on the Block before you, but since I have no access to them, I guess you’ll do in a pinch.” Her eyes widen along with her grin and I can feel her slowly leaning away from me because she knows I’m going to attack. I grab her quickly and pull her back to me.
“In a pinch, huh? How about this for in a pinch.” I say, grabbing her nipple and squeezing. Brynn gasps then closes her eyes and moans. That’s all the motivation I need before I’m standing at attention.
I lean in and capture her mouth with mine, licking her lips until she opens her mouth and brings her tongue with mine. I run one hand into her hair to keep it away from her face and my other hand down her side, until I reach her slick folds, rubbing them to see if she’s ready for me.
“Jesus Brynn. You are so damn wet and so fucking sexy.” She mewls when I start working one finger in and out of her. When I add another, she moans loudly.
“Shh, baby we have to be quiet. Your living room is full of innocent ears.” I say, smiling at her when she quickly nods and clamps her lips together, even though she can’t see me because her eyes are closed tightly.
I’m working my fingers into her faster, and I can tell she’s close because her back starts arching and she’s tightening around my fingers inside her. Before she comes, she leans into my ear and says “Good God, Ryan. You need to get inside me right fucking now.” Sold.
I roll over so that I’m above her and position my cock at her perfectly wet entrance, but before I push myself inside her, I wait until she opens her eyes to look at me and I say “I love you so much, my beautiful soul mate.”
Her eyes start to shine with unshed tears and she whispers “I love you, too.” Then, I enter her and we make quiet, slow, sweet love until we both come apart at the seams together. I roll off of her and turn her onto her side so that I can spoon her, but before she turns the light off she looks between us and asks me to raise my arm. We both lift our left arms up and look at our tattoos that align perfectly. Our birds are both sitting on a branch that connects between the two of us and the half heart below the branch connects to form one whole heart. “See, soul mates. We can get a tattoo that matches up perfectly when we’re in two different states because we fit together perfectly.”
Chapter 29
Brynn
It was three months ago that Ryan asked me to marry him and we made the decision that I would move back to my hometown to live with Ryan and the girls. It’s my last week in San Diego, and my last day at the bar is tonight.
Ryan got his parents to watch the girls since Becca said she has something planned for the weekend, and he made it into town yesterday to help me finish packing and square away the sale of my condo.
Tonight he decided instead of staying at my house and finish packing by himself, he was going to come to the bar with me and have a drink while I worked my last night. Ryan and I were both surprised when we walked into a big, crazy pre-wedding/going away party at the Pour House.
I was so upset on my way to the bar because I was quitting a job I truly enjoyed doing, but as soon as we walked through the door to the outdoor bar I was bombarded with a mixture of “Congratulations” and “We’ll miss you” from people I’d grown to call family.
Kara had called all of our sorority sisters into town for the party along with some of the friends I’d made in school. There were regulars of the bar that Lillian had invited to come celebrate and even my band mates were in celebration mode; Drew
and I eventually made up and he is now dating one of the girls I‘ve rock climbed with quite a few times.
Becca and Tyler are even at the party, which is very surprising because Becca got our mother to watch Milo so they could come out. Becca told her exactly why she was coming to San Diego and didn’t care if my mom liked it or not, telling her that if she couldn’t support Becca for wanting to be a part of her sister’s life, then my parents were no longer allowed to be in Milo’s life. It must have worked because Becca and Tyler were there and my parents even sent out a congratulatory greeting card- Ryan’s name was the only one on the envelope and there was nothing written inside, of course.
The night was a mixture of happiness and sadness for me and I think Ryan could sense it, because he rarely left my side. He seemed very interested to meet all of my sorority sisters and hear all of the crazy stories they had to share about me.
As soon as Kara told Ryan about the time I got really drunk and made out with another sister, Ryan was all about trying to get me to recreate that moment, saying he would never be jealous and would possibly be willing to video tape it so that we could analyze it to avoid future mistakes. He also unilaterally decided that the money we made from the sale of my condo would be spent on putting a pool in the backyard of our house after he heard about me starting a skinny dipping party after too much vodka. Boys.
I spent a good portion of the party on stage, singing my heart out. I knew that it would be my last time on the Pour House stage, doing exactly what I loved so I took advantage of it. The sisters that were in my college band, Ken’s Mistress, with me even came up and played a few songs with me before the boys took over again.
Six weeks later, I am settled back in my hometown for good and marrying to the man of my dreams today.
Ryan looks so handsome in his black suit with a light purple tie and Riley and Harper are absolutely beautiful flower girls, wearing knee length light purple dresses. Becca is my matron of honor and glows in her dark purple strapless dress and her hair pulled into a messy bun with curls hanging everywhere. I am so lucky to have a sister like her; that sticks by my side and does everything she can to be a part of my life, even when I tried to shut her out after I first moved to San Diego.