Bad for You by Weston Parker
38
BRITTANY
Lou and I were at home having lunch when I heard the distinctive sound of a brass band outside. He jerked up straight, excitement taking over his features as he cocked his head to listen.
“Is there a parade going by?” he asked. “Parades are awesome. I’ve always wanted to be in one.”
Despite the sounds traveling into the house, I couldn’t imagine it was a parade. “I don’t think so. If it is, it’s not a usual one. There aren’t any I know of scheduled this week, and they don’t come past here normally.”
He turned his head toward the window, his eyes narrowing in question. “Maybe not, but there’s definitely something going on out there.”
I followed his gaze, doing a double take when I saw the familiar uniforms of the high school marching band in my front yard. There was a brief break in the music, and then they started playing the song Tristin used to tease me about. The very same one we’d been reminiscing about on our way to the coast.
As I watched, the band parted, and Tristin himself came moving through them with a loudspeaker in his hand. He was dressed in his old rugby uniform. I knew it was the same one because the white shorts and green-and-yellow jersey still had the same permanent grass stain on them from a tackle I remembered him making during one of his games.
My breath caught in my throat at the sight of him in that uniform, throwing me back in time as I watched that same cocky smirk I’d known so well form on his lips. It was the one he’d always given the crowd after he’d scored, but it had always turned into a warm smile and a wink when he made eye contact with me.
As if he’d known exactly where to look, our eyes met through the open window, and I watched the smile and wink follow the smirk. “I’m going to need you to come out here, Brit. I don’t know if you want what I’m about to say broadcast to the whole neighborhood, but I’ll do it. I’ll shout it from the rooftops if that’s what it takes to get you to hear what I need to tell you.”
Lou jumped up from the table and was out of the door like a shot, leaving it hanging open for me behind him. I was glad one of us could still move fast, because I certainly couldn’t. I moved like I was walking through a haze, through the veil that separated the past from the present and right back into the giddy girl I used to be.
“What’s going on?” I asked when I finally stood in front of him, seeing his dark hair glinting in the early afternoon sunlight and his honey-gold eyes lighting up when they met mine.
His full, bow-shaped lips maintained their smile, but the size of him now was a reminder that this wasn’t, in fact, high school. “What’s going on is that I wanted to remind you how good we are for each other. A band nerd and a jock, people who fell in love seventeen years ago, if not longer. I know it’s been longer than that for me. This jock lost the band nerd once fifteen years ago, and I don’t want to lose you again.”
Tears sprung to my eyes, and his expression softened as he bent over to place the loudspeaker on the ground and then took both my hands in his. “I want you to fall in love with me again, Brit. To build a future with me. To spend the rest of your life with me.”
His eyes broke away from mine to seek out the boy standing beside me. “You and Lou.”
“Are you proposing?” I whispered furiously, drawing a chuckle out of him as I took in the entire band—and Archer, strangely enough—standing behind him. “In front of all of these people?”
“Uh, no.” He frowned for a minute before the smirk was back. “I could be. I mean, I don’t have a ring because I didn’t want to be presumptuous, but if I am, will you say yes?”
“You’re crazy,” I whispered again, but I couldn’t deny that my heart was thumping in the best possible way.
When I glanced at all the people around us again, Archer stepped forward and motioned to Lou. “What do you say you come march with us, buddy? I think the audience is getting Brittany a little nervous.”
He winked at me, but Lou glanced up at me with pleading eyes. “Please can I march with them?”
“Of course you can.” With him looking at me like that, I’d have given him pretty much anything he asked for, but more than that, he’d just told me not five minutes ago that he’d always wanted to be part of a parade.
Tristin and I needed to talk anyway, and it might be best if he didn’t hear what we had to say. He beamed at me, and I heard Archer mentioning something about a burger and a movie after, but I was too focused on Tristin to listen properly.
I trusted Archer, and I knew Tristin did too. He’d keep Lou safe. The band marched off again like nothing had happened, going back in the direction of the high school.
Tristin’s warm hands enveloped mine, his grip tightening marginally to draw my gaze back to his. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry. I never meant to hurt you, and my mother won’t be a problem anymore. You have my word. I want—no, I need—another chance to prove we’re right for each other.”
Then, right there on my front lawn, standing there under the blazing hot sun in his old uniform, he told me what he’d done after leaving my house that day. His words wrapped around me, stunning me but also allowing me to breathe again.
If what he was saying was true, could it be possible that we could finally, fucking finally really be together?
“You better come inside,” I said once he finished by telling me about the visit he’d received from his father just yesterday.
He nodded, not releasing my hands as he followed me inside. When the door was safely shut behind us, he pulled me to him, breathing me in with his heart hammering against my chest.
“I’m so, so sorry, baby. I should’ve done so many things differently. If you’d just give me another chance, I promise I can do better.”
“We can both do better,” I whispered, holding him for another second before taking a step back to look into his eyes. “I’ve missed you so much. You have no idea how much I want to just tell you that all is forgiven and that you can have as many chances as you want as long as you promise me the same, but I just don’t know if I can trust you.”
Letting go of me with one arm, he reached behind his back and pulled out a folded set of papers from his waistband. “I had a feeling you might say that, so I’ve worked on something with my lawyer. You can read through it for yourself, but the gist of it is that if you ever decide to divorce me, you get ninety percent of my assets. You and our children, including Lou.”
I stared at the papers in his hands but didn’t take them. “You’re crazy. It’s official. Absolutely, batshit crazy.”
“I am crazy. Absolutely, batshit crazy about you,” he said. “What do you say? One more chance to give us both everything we’ve ever wanted?”
“Selena’s scheming is really out of the picture?” I asked, searching his warm honeyed-colored eyes and seeing nothing but truth when he nodded.
“What about her disapproval? That couldn’t just have disappeared.”
“It hasn’t.” He gave my ponytail a gentle tug to keep me looking at him when I started lowering my head. “My father and I had a long talk yesterday. When I told him what my plan was, he insisted on being a part of it. He wanted to march with us, but that’s where I drew the line.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead, his lips brushing against my skin when he spoke. “While we were putting this plan together, I asked him what he’d said to my mother when they talked.”
“And?” I breathed, too afraid to look him in the eye again.
“He reminded her of a lot of things, but one of those things was that while you might not have been born into money, his father hadn’t been either,” he said. “My grandparents on her side hadn’t been either. In fact, when my parents met, her family was ‘new money.’”
His warm breath feathered across my skin when he chuckled. “It seemed she needed that dose of reality. While she doesn’t wholeheartedly approve of our relationship, he assures me that she’s promised to work on it. What’s more is that he also reminded her you’re a teacher, and then of the fact that without teachers, none of the business people she’s always so eager to please would even have been able to read the contracts they hold so dear.”
I pulled away from him then, glancing up in complete surprise. “What did she say?”
“Let’s just say she’s coming around to the fact that you might be worthy after all.” The line of his jaw hardened. “But let’s be perfectly fucking clear about it. I don’t give a damn if she ever comes around. I love you, and you’re the only woman whose opinion matters to me. Got it?”
“Yes.” I smiled slowly, standing up on my tiptoes to press kisses to his jaw until it started relaxing. “You had me with the rugby uniform, the marching band, and the song, but I had to make sure, didn’t I? I had to make sure that those kids you reminded me of with all that weren’t about to make the same mistakes all over again. The band nerd and the jock haven’t always made the smartest choices.”
“Maybe not, but I’d like to believe the teacher and CEO can do better,” he teased, his hands coming to a rest on my hips as he yanked me closer to him. “Those kids might still be inside us, and they’ll always be where we started, but from this day forward, I’m making the promise to choose you. Every fucking day of my life, I’m choosing you, Brittany. Forever and ever. Amen.”
I curled my fingers into the smooth, worn, yet still-thick fabric of his rugby jersey. “Together, we can overcome anything. As long as we actually stick together this time. No more dealing with stuff on our own? No more secrets, secret dinners, secret parties, or anything like that?”
“No more,” he promised, his fingers digging into my flesh as he held me to him. “Whatever we do from now on, we’re doing it together.”
“That’s what I like to hear.” I used my grip on his jersey to pull him down, his head bending so his mouth hovered just above mine. “Now, do you think that I might finally, after all these years, get to be the one to take this off you?”
“Please.” His lips crashed into mine, kissing me as he started walking me backward toward my bedroom. “Archer will keep Lou with him until I call him. Might be a while, but he promised to take good care of him.”
Reaching down, I cupped his hardening bulge and stroked him softly, teasing him as I pulled back enough that he could see my eyebrows waggling. “Since you’re not actually a teenager anymore, it might not really be that long. The time it takes to get a burger and movie should do the trick.”
His laughter rumbled against me, but then I spun out of his grip and ran down the hallway, feeling freer and more playful than I had in a long time as I turned to watch him over my shoulder. I laughed when he suddenly dropped his shoulders and came at me like he was about to tackle me.
“We’ll see about that,” he growled between bursts of laughter, then kicked the bedroom door shut behind him and caught me when he really did tackle me. Gently and to the bed, but I had to admit, I suddenly understood the allure of rugby so much better when his big body settled over mine.
Best. Tackle. Ever.
