Brian hadn’t raised his voice. It was totally calm, but not in a passive-nice-guy way. Oh no, no, no—Brian’s deep baritone voice had been deadly calm.
Becca couldn’t see around Brian to what Hulk Junior was doing, but she could feel the same alpha-like strength radiating off Brian he’d had when they were in sixth grade and they’d seen about five high school guys—who were on the varsity football team—throwing pebbles at a developmentally challenged kid in a wheelchair as they walked to school. Brian had stepped in front of the bullies and told them to leave the kid alone. One of the teenagers had laughed and thrown another rock. It bounced off of the sidewalk and hit Becca in the arm. Brian saw what happened, and the next thing Becca knew, there were fists flying and three of the five football players were laid out on the cement. The other two were yelling out threats as they ran away.
She was scared that the older boys were going to make good on their threats, but as it turned out, she’d had nothing to be worried about. As soon as her cousin Riley had found out about what had happened, those guys were taken care of. As a matter of fact, from then on, if they saw her and Brian walking down the street on the way to school, the guys, who had been acting so tough when they’d been throwing rocks, would quickly cross the street and walk on the other side.
Becca knew that the guys were doing that because of her cousin, but she remembered being in awe of Brian still. Overnight, he’d replaced Dr. Corbin and had become her personal superhero. Defending the defenseless.
The same feeling washed over her now.
Hulk Junior grunted and headed towards the door to leave. Becca heard him say, “I bet you’re a cock tease, too,” under his breath.
She ignored it. Brian didn’t.
“What did you say?” Brian moved with ninja-like speed and was standing in front of Hulk, blocking his exit.
“Brian, it’s fine.” Becca stepped in front of him.
She heard Hulk Junior behind her saying, “Nothing, man. What’s your problem?”
“Is there a problem out here?”
They all turned and saw Mary standing in the doorway that led down the hall.
“No,” Cherry said quickly. “No problem.”
“I’m ready to see you now,” Mary said to Becca.
“She’s not—” Brian began.
“I’ll be right there,” Becca interrupted him, placing her hand on his arm.
This whole thing had gotten completely out of hand. She didn’t want to ruin this opportunity for Brian. So she decided that the fastest way to settle things down would just be to go in and get this over with.
“You don’t have to do this. We can just leave,” Brian said as he placed his large hand over hers.
Becca squeezed his arm and tried not to swoon as she felt his muscular forearms beneath her touch. “It’s fine. Seriously.”
His light-brown eyes stared into hers, and the rest of the crowded waiting room melted away. That had been happening a lot over the past year. Every time Brian looked at her, the rest of the world just disappeared.
He stared, searching her eyes to make sure that she was, actually, okay. Finally, his jaw tensed as he nodded. “Fine. I’ll be right out here if you need me.”
Becca smiled up at him as brightly as she could. She hated seeing him worried or stressed. She wanted to be the thing in his life that put a smile on his face, not the thing that made him make that tense face.
“I got this, B,” Becca said with a cocky gangsta nod. It was an inside joke between the two of them. They always said that to each other whenever one was worried about the other.
Brian shook his head slightly as the corners of his mouth turned up into a smile.
Seeing that Brian was smiling again and not looking stressed, Becca turned and quickly made her way across the waiting room. Best to leave the waiting room debacle on a good note. Plus, she just wanted to get this over with.
As Cherry began walking beside her, she handed her the same paperwork Brian had been given to fill out when they’d arrived. “Fill this out.”
Becca nodded as she looked down at the questionnaire. She tried to focus on the words in front of her eyes, but she was having a difficult time. She needed to get over this—whatever this was that she was feeling for Brian—but she had no idea where to start. Taking a deep, cleansing breath hadn’t seemed to help in the least.
Her mind was swimming with not-so-innocent, Brian-related thoughts. Her body was flooded with sensations. Her heart was filled with emotions she didn’t want to qualify. Her hormones were all present and reporting for active duty.
How was she ever going to find her way through this Brian-forest of desire, need, and love that she had found herself smack-dab in the middle of, with no compass and no map? She felt like she’d been hit directly in the heart with Cupid’s arrow, and she wanted to pull the sucker out and give it right back to the chubby cherub with a note saying, “No, thank you.”
Obviously it was true that you didn’t get to pick who you fell in love with. Even if she could, it was too late for Becca to stop it. That ship had sailed, and now she just needed to figure out how to navigate through the choppy waters of the Brian-love-sea she was getting thrashed around in. Her only hope was that maybe, just maybe, she could control who she fell out of love with.
When they got to a green door at the end of the hall, Cherry handed Becca a pen and turned the knob. Before Becca stepped inside the small room, Cherry stopped her.
“So you and Brian? Are you really just friends?”
Becca wasn’t sure if Blondielocks was asking for a personal reason or if she was concerned because this was a dating show, so ideally, they would probably be looking for the contestants to be single. Either way, the answer was the same.
“Yes. We’re just friends.”
Chapter Five
Brian’s finger pressed the button on the console to turn the radio station to Becca’s favorite, which happened to be oldies. He hoped that it would inspire one of Becca’s infamous sing-alongs. She definitely didn’t have the voice of an angel. Honestly, Brian was pretty sure that Becca couldn’t stay on key if her life depended on it, but hearing her sing was one of the sweetest sounds in the world to him.
She’d been so quiet since they left the audition, and for the first time ever, he had no idea what to say to her. It was one of the most frustrating feelings in the world. He was really banking on the fact that the music playing through his speakers would break her out of the pensive shell she was currently residing in. When he heard the first notes of one of her favorites, Dion’s “Runaround Sue,” he looked over to see Becca staring out the window, seemingly oblivious to the fact that there was music playing at all.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Brian asked for probably the tenth time in the last hour.
He knew that it was the very definition of crazy to repeat the same behavior and expect a different outcome, so he must be crazy because that is exactly what he was doing.
“Yeah.” She sounded disconnected.
He looked over to see Becca nodding. He could only see her profile as she stared out the window. Becca might, physically, be sitting beside him in his Jeep as they drove down the freeway, but mentally, she wasn’t here.
Brian decided to go with a different tactic, since crazy wasn’t working. “What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing. I’m just tired,” she sighed, and her tone was flat.
Her voice did sound like she was exhausted, which would make sense. She’d had a crazy schedule for finals before she flew home, only to be whisked away to an audition that took hours. Even though that explanation added up, Brian knew Becca and there was definitely something else on her mind.
The distance between them was killing him. He hated feeling like they weren’t them. If he could just get her talking, then maybe he could get past the fact that he was in love with her and stop second-guessing every move, every word, every gesture he made. Talking. That’s where they’d always connect
ed.
He’d been trying without success, so since both tactics A and B had failed miserably, he figured C was up to bat. Hopefully, he would knock this one out of the park.
“So, did you get bit by the bug?” he asked, casually staring straight ahead at the highway illuminated by his headlights.
“What?” Becca asked. He felt her head turn and knew that he, at least, had her attention.
“The acting bug,” Brian explained. “Have you decided to abandon your career in medicine to pursue a life of auditions filled, of course, with assholes in the waiting room?”
Becca laughed and Brian’s heart expanded with so much love that it felt like it was going to burst out of his chest. Her laughter might just be his favorite sound in the world. He was sure it had magical powers. Even before he’d found himself head over heels in love with Becca, he’d maintained that, if they could just bottle her laughter, it would not only heal diseases, but also stop wars.
“No, I think I will stick to my day job, thank you very much,” Becca said, her voice sounding present and not like she was a million miles away. “Honestly, I have no idea why you or anyone would subject themselves to that. Not just the waiting room, which was…awkward, but the actual audition itself. I mean, just the lights, the camera, the talking—it’s all so…I don’t know, so not real.”
“You’re right. It’s not. So the challenge is making it seem natural, real. That is the hardest thing for most people to do.” Brian knew that they weren’t talking about what was bothering Becca, but at this point, he was just happy that she was talking at all.
“Do you like auditioning?” Becca asked. “I don’t remember you saying that you didn’t.”
“Yeah, I’ve always liked it. I guess because I have a little different take on it than most of the other actors I know. I’ve always just thought of it as not having anything to lose and a lot to gain. I mean, like today, this morning, I wasn’t part of the cast of Fairytale Love. So if I don’t get cast, then what did I lose?”
“That makes sense,” Becca said as she turned towards Brian and lifted her foot up, tucking it beneath her as she got comfortable in her new position.
Brian felt himself relax. For forty-five minutes, he hadn’t been able to get more than an “I’m fine” out of her. He’d wanted to kick his own ass for taking her to that audition. Not only had it taken significantly longer than he’d hoped it would have, but between Mr. Steroids and Becca’s practically being forced to audition, the entire thing had been a nightmare. All he wanted to do was put it behind them.
“So,” she said softly, sounding unsure as she spoke, and Brian glanced over to see her looking down at her hands, “what do you think your chances are of getting chosen to be on the show?”
“No idea. Honestly, I think it may just come down to what it usually does—looks.”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Becca nodding. “Yeah, I saw that they had stacks of princes and princesses that they were putting headshots in.”
“You did?” Brian hadn’t seen that. But he also hadn’t looked at the table Mary had been sitting behind.
“Yeah. When I handed over the questionnaire, I saw your picture in the ‘Phillip’ pile.”
“Which one is he from?” Brian had read a lot of the classic fairytales and also seen a few of the movies, but he definitely didn’t know them by heart—especially the princes’ names.
“He’s from Sleeping Beauty.” Becca’s voice sounded…sad.
Brian had a gut feeling that the show, or more specifically his being on the show, was what was bothering her, but he had no idea why. She’d been so supportive when he’d first told her about it. He could keep asking her if she was okay and try to get to the bottom of it, but Brian knew he wouldn’t get anywhere. Becca would talk to him when she was ready and not a minute before.
“What pile did you go in?” Brian asked.
“Snow White,” she sighed.
He should have known. For as long as he’d known Becca, people had compared her to Snow White. A smile spread on Brian’s face. He looked over at her and almost started laughing at her expression.
He didn’t want her dwelling on the Snow White of it all, so to change the subject, Brian asked, “So, what did they ask you?”
“Just basic…stuff. What did they ask you?” Becca asked, her voice going up an octave the way it did when she was nervous.
Why would she be nervous to ask about the questions he’d been asked in his audition?
“They asked about my goals, family, and past relationships mainly,” Brian explained.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much what they stuck to with me, too. Did you talk about Skylar?”
“Yeah.” Brian wasn’t sure why the energy in the cab of the Jeep had shifted. All he knew was that it had. This line of questioning was making the air crackle with electricity, at least from where he sat. “Did you tell them about Ethan?”
Ethan was the only serious relationship Becca had ever had. Brian had only met the dude once. He’d seemed like a nice enough guy, but he hadn’t been surprised when they’d broken up. The guy had no sense of humor, and Brian knew that was a deal breaker for Becca.
“I mentioned him when they asked me about my longest relationship,” Becca said. Brian wasn’t sure if she was being intentionally vague or if she really was just tired.
Before he could stop himself, he asked, “Did she ask you if you’ve ever been in love?”
When Becca didn’t answer, Brian looked over at her and saw that she was nodding.
Brian knew a lot about Becca. Even Becca, herself, had said that Brian knew her better than anyone. But, for all of the knowledge he had stored in his Becca-vault, that was a piece of information that was missing.
Brian’s heart was beating so loud that he could barely hear himself speak. He hoped that his tone was even and casual as he asked, “What did you say?”
Oh boy!
* * *
From the moment Mary had asked her the ‘love’ question while she was seated in front of the camera, that was filming her every move with a spotlight shining brightly on her face, she’d been worried that her secret would be revealed. Had she answered honestly? Yes. Had she answered specifically? No.
Why mess with what was working?
Clearing her throat, Becca hoped her voice wouldn’t crack as she spoke, “I said ‘yes’.”
Brian’s honey-brown eyes darted to hers. “You did?”
“Yep.” Trying to deflect any follow-up questions, Becca quickly asked, “Did she ask you?”
“What?” Brian’s brow knitted as he looked back at the road.
“Did she ask you if you’ve ever been in love?” Becca wasn’t sure if Brian really hadn’t understood the question or if he just didn’t want to answer it, but she asked anyway, turning the tables on him.
“Oh…yeah.” Brian shrugged as if it were no big deal.
Okay…
“What did you say?” Of course Becca figured that he’d said yes. Skylar had been his longest, most serious relationship, but Brian had had a few semi-serious relationships.
“Yes,” Brian said as if it were obvious.
If she didn’t know any better, she would think that she was irritating him. But that was ridiculous. He’d started this line of questioning. She’d been perfectly happy to sit quietly, looking out the window, contemplating how on Earth she was going to survive this summer when all she wanted to do was crawl over the seat, sit on top of Brian’s lap, and kiss him senseless.
He was the one who’d kept asking if she was okay and then started questioning her about the audition. A thrill ran down her spine as she thought about his voice when he’d told Hulk Junior that he’d needed to leave—now. Good Lord, how had she spent the greatest part of two decades being best friends with the man seated next to her and never thought of him like that!? Had she had some kind of lust-slash-love blinders on that had been removed last summer? Had she just been immune to his charms, his voice, hi
s appearance, his heart because she’d grown up surrounded by it every day?
Maybe that was it. Maybe the fact that they’d spent almost every day together from pre-kindergarten until senior year had caused her to develop an immunity to Brian. But then, going years without seeing each other on a daily basis, she’d had no anti-love serum stored up in her DNA. So, when she’d seen him at her sister Haley’s birthday celebration and he’d asked her to dance, the second his large hand had rested on her lower back and she’d laid her head against his muscular chest, she’d been exposed to lust and love that she was totally defenseless against.
Becca knew that there were some moments in your life that you remember forever. Her dad calls them ‘handful moments’ because every person only has a handful of truly special, life-changing moments. When Brian had pulled her into his strong arms a year ago and she’d felt her body explode with tingles, making it hard for her to catch her breath, she’d known instantly that she’d had a ‘handful moment.’
“So…” Brian’s deep voice vibrated through her as she sat beside him in the small, enclosed space. He didn’t continue immediately, and Becca watched as his long fingers opened and closed on the steering wheel. Her eyes flitted over the vein that ran up his forearm, causing her mouth to water. “You really loved Ethan?”
“What?” Becca’s eyes flew up to Brian’s profile.
Why would he ask that? As much as they talked about everything, love was, for some unknown reason, something they hadn’t discussed. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. They’d discussed the subject in an abstract, nonspecific way. So this question had kind of come out of left field.
Brian didn’t look at her. His eyes remained trained on the road in front of them. “You said you’ve been in love. Was it with Ethan?”
That would make the most sense. Becca seriously doubted that Brian would believe that she’d been truly in love with any of the guys she’d dated in high school. Not that they weren’t good guys and she hadn’t had good relationships with them—they were and she had. But they hadn’t been anything near serious.
Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian Page 5