“Fuck off, you broody bastard.” I stand and hug him.
It has been a while since I saw him. At Christmas, I wasn’t all there because I was using at that time. I don’t like how it made me when I wasn’t trying to be out partying. All it did was numb me, which was what I needed at that time.
Losing Dad and going through this with Cora has just shown me that I don’t want to be numb. I would rather feel all this than feel nothing like I used to.
“Good to see you.” I release my little brother and look him over. He is one handsome motherfucker, we all are. I ruffle his hair like old times before he shoves me off.
I laugh and hug Mia. I didn’t get to talk to her much when we met, and I regret that sometimes.
“Hi, Brant. You were great. And I love the new songs.”
“Thank you.” I hug her. She is so tiny that I really have to bend. I kiss her cheek and ruffle her hair the same way.
“Hey!” She rushes to fix it right away. “I thought that was just a brother thing.” She makes a funny face.
“Nah, a sibling thing. But I haven’t had a little sister until now. Speaking of, when the hell is the wedding?” I lead them over to the couch and bring waters from my fridge. I only just had time to shower and change after my set. Autographs and backstage time got pushed back from a mosh pit fight. I hate when those happen, but it isn’t like I can stop them.
“June first.” Mia beams. It’s two weeks before my last tour date in Connecticut.
She twists her ring over her finger, a huge rock on her small hand, and leans into Alec. He has his arm around her ready to pounce on anyone who comes too close. He’s always been that way, protecting what he loves. He had this cat none of us were allowed to touch, and when she ran away, he cried like a baby. But he was only eight, after all.
“Shit. Less than a month.” I down my water. I need hot tea too, so I get up to make that. I think I sang harder than I ever have tonight.
“Yeah.”
“And the bachelor party will be crazy.” I laugh, and he gives me a look. Mia nudges him, her face saying she doesn’t care.
“You’re having a bachelorette party, right?” I ask Mia when I come back with lemon and honey white tea. Alec flips me off just because, and I smile. I still miss the dude.
“Just my best friend and me.”
“Hmm. Tame.”
“Not really. She is crazy.” She giggles.
We chat a little more about the wedding and some logistics I would forget. I’ll just have it passed onto my assistant. Even though I’m famous now, I would still have an assistant if I wasn’t.
“I’ll be right back.” Alec kisses Mia before he stands to leave.
I smile at her and finish my tea.
“I don’t want you to think I’m an asshole cause of how I acted when we first met.”
She smiles, “I don’t think that.”
“Really?”
Mia nods. “I was also very nervous about meeting everyone, too, so I didn’t have much room for worrying.”
I chuckle. “Yeah, the family is intense.”
“At first. But now, I feel comfortable with everyone. Plus, I get free health screenings from Jeffrey.” She giggles.
“He just likes to show off.” I laugh.
“You seem tired. Well, of course, you’re tired.”
I chuckle. “Yeah. It takes a toll. Plus, I am a lot older now.” I roll my eyes, and I swear I feel creaking.
Alec comes back, and Mia asks where the bathroom is. I show her to it and come back.
“What’s on your mind?” Alec asks me. I knew it was a matter of time.
I shake my head at myself and lean back on the couch just as Julia knocks with five minutes to go until backstage time.
“When you and Mia broke up, how did you get her back?” He has told us their whole story, and I never thought I would need it. Not until now that I am so lost, and I don’t know what to do.
Alec nods to himself slowly, his dark eyes and brows mixing with each other. Now that I look at him, he looks a little different than the rest of us—darker, harder features. But he still looks like Mom, we all do. After a little bit, he smiles like he has a secret.
“I just told her the truth. That’s all you can do.”
Man, this wedding is beautiful.
Mom went all out, and I have no doubt Alec had nothing to do with it. The lot of us went to a night club downtown for a simple bachelor party for him. Until the stripper Carson hired, he is relentless. Alec was glad to find out Carson’s best friend—who he also denies being in love with—helped Mia celebrate her bachelorette party too. He worried himself to death about the family accepting her long after we already had.
Now we really have.
All us brothers stand behind Alec and watch him say his vows that even I couldn’t be able to write. He doesn’t talk much, but when he does, he really means that shit. The way he looks at Mia like she hangs the stars in his sky… it is so beautiful to watch. Mom cries so much she probably didn’t even see it, but it is still amazing.
She decided to have it here on the family estate. It’s all decked out in flowers, white everything, with purple and fuchsia accents. The photographer can’t get enough of us together taking photos at every moment. I guess that’s what we paid him for.
When I start my set as their wedding singer, I work from a few old ones to one of my new singles. Yeah, it’s about Cora, but it’s like a blanket love song. And it’s for their first dance. Mom cries again, and Fletcher pretends he didn’t. Grayson came just in time last night and wore a suit today for the first time since he joined up. Mom looks so happy that we are all here, but she will always be missing a part of her smile that I haven’t seen since Dad died and Isaac left.
I finish my set and let the band just play out. I take my turn dancing with Mia too.
“How many men have you danced with today?” I smirk down at her. We do a simple two-step to the light jazz beat. My smiles dies when I remember my jazz club date with Cora. I still text her every day and get no response. It still kills me.
“I don’t even know. Your family is so big.”
I laugh. “Yeah, Mom has brothers and lots of nieces and nephews, too.”
She smiles up at me, and I spin her.
“You look beautiful.” Her dress is elegant, the long, white Cinderella type gown fits her perfectly. Alec always said she is a fairy-tale type.
“Thank you. It took forever to get ready.” She rolls her eyes, her purple eyeshadow glittering on top. I keep imaging how it would be to marry Cora, and I have to shut it down before I lose it.
“Well, you did well.” I grin.
“Thanks.”
“No problem, sis.” I joke about moving to ruffle her hair, and she wiggles away with a laugh. She seems so happy like the happiest in the world. All for marrying my brother.
I release her, and she is swept back into Alec’s arms. The rest of the evening goes just like that. Dancing, smiling, laughing. Mom requests one more song, and I have to oblige. Mia says goodbye to her parents, and her bridesmaids start helping her get ready to leave for the honeymoon. Alec asks us to his room while he gets changed. Seriously, a wardrobe change. I don’t even do those.
“Fuck you all for not getting married first so that you could give me advice.”
We all laugh in response. He is such a broody man—a broody, married man who wears his ring now like a shield of armor. He tugs on his jeans and dress shirt before fixing his hair. Grayson jumps on his bed like a fucking two-year-old.
“It will be fine,” he says.
Jeffrey agrees. “Yeah. Just don’t ever start scheduling sex. That’s the end of your marriage.”
Fletch punches his arm. “How the fuck would you know?”
We all laugh and each chime in. They look at me like I’m supposed to say something now. I guess I am.
I smile at Alec and parody his own words.
“Just always tell the truth.”
/> 24
Cora
Brant only has one week until his tour is over. I wonder if he will even come back here or go to his family estate like he once mentioned.
It’s all I think about because I have nothing else to do. I no longer get up and go to work every day. Even after my six-week probation ended, I still had to go through a performance review. It was only made worse by my probation, so I was stuck with another six weeks of leave. Still paid, but it still sucks.
I just drop Damien off and come home to clean what has already been cleaned. I got so bored over the past few weeks, I ended up volunteering at his school. And now I’m a chair person for the PTA. I hate everyone on there, pretentious and bored with life. Maybe it is extreme of me to think that, but I have tried getting used to them.
Just like I have tried getting used to life without Brant, and that isn’t even going very well. Every night is the same sad routine of reading old messages coupled with new ones. He still wants me to reply to him, he still wants to talk to me, but I feel like I have done too much wrong to deserve it.
Avoiding him is easy, and I am taking the easy way out. Damien chides me for it every chance he gets. I wish he were like a normal teenager who sulked all day and avoided everyone. Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
“What do you want for dinner?” I ask Damien. We have come home from the grocery store, and he has finished his video game playing. I spent the day in my office pretending to work mostly searching up Brant again. I remind myself that his tour is over in a week. What will he do then?
“Anything.” He shrugs, not looking up from his phone. “Can Jude come over?”
“Did they run out of food at the mansion?” I snap. I get so irritable these days. For the past few months, I have just been so mad about work and Brant, and how I handled everything. Sometimes I’m okay and can get through the day without snapping at Damien or throwing something across the room.
But I always, always cry. Sometimes out of frustration. Other times out of sadness and a mix of regret and everything else.
“No. His parents are out of town.”
I sigh and finish putting food away. A box of cereal refuses to fit, and I end up smashing it into the cabinet and slamming it shut.
“Chill out, sis,” Damien huffs.
I turn and glare at him. “Don’t tell me to chill out. I am chill. Telling me to chill out makes me unchill.”
He frowns and rolls his eyes. “Whatever,” he murmurs.
I curl my lips as I frown and recycle the grocery bags.
“You can do whatever, Damien. I’ll be in my room.” I rush back to my bedroom and shut the door behind me.
Once inside, I drop onto my unmade bed and get under the covers despite it being only three in the afternoon. I’m tired, more like fatigued. I want to go to sleep until my phone rings with our doctor’s number. I must have forgotten something.
“Hello?” I answer.
“Hi, Cora, it’s Dr. Helen.”
“Hi, is something wrong?”
“No, I just expected your blood work to be back by now. I have Damien’s from last year when he got his vaccinations.”
I groan internally. We decided to go for ice cream instead because I didn’t want to go to the doctor that day.
“Oh. I can do it another time, I doubt I’m sick.”
She laughs once. “It’s good to be sure. Can you come today? I am leaving the office for the week.”
I sigh. “Sure. I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
“Wonderful, see you.”
I get dressed and walk out of my bedroom. Damien is where I left him, and I feel bad for earlier, so I go over to him and hug him.
“I’m sorry. It seems I’m doing that a lot.”
“Yeah. It’s fine.”
He faces me and turns serious.
“You have to go to him, Cora.”
“Who?”
He makes a ‘duh’ face.
“Damien, I don’t know where he is…”
He pulls up his phone screen to show his final tour date next week in some arena in Connecticut.
“I have an idea.”
“And what will I say?”
“That you’re an idiot. That you’re sorry. And that you love him.”
“When did you get like this?” I whisper to him cocking my head to the side.
“After a lot of Lifetime movies. And my speech class with these senior girls.”
I giggle at him.
“That sounds too movie for me.”
“It’s perfect for you. You’re dramatic as hell. Come on, he wrote songs about you. At least go see the damn show. See, last-minute tickets on this site. And I know you have savings for a plane ticket.”
I open my mouth to speak but fall short. I don’t have any objections. Brant is… I made a mistake letting him go and lying to him.
He is so much more than I gave him credit for. So much more than I bargained for that ordinary day in the parking garage. But it all doesn’t matter because right now, I know I love him. And I have to tell him.
Brant needs to know.
A last-minute economy ticket has me uncomfortable and wanting a shower. But I have no time for that as I have two hours before show time. I found the cheapest ticket at the most reasonable time. The problem is getting backstage even to see him. I know Rick will be there, and I might have to ask him. I shiver at the thought. At this point, I know I don’t want to do entertainment law anymore. For my job to rely on flaky people—not Brant—and an industry that I don’t even fully support doesn’t make much sense.
But enough about that now. I get a cab to take me right to the stadium. Jeans and a plain purple t-shirt have to be presentable enough. I at least take my hair down and fluff it up and put lipstick on. I only flew with an oversized purse.
“You okay here?” The cab finally makes it through an hour of traffic. Thirty minutes have gone past, and the show has already started.
“Sure.”
Except I wasn’t.
I end up circling the stadium to find the right entrance, and I finally find it.
Inside, the music is blaring. I have already gone deaf. But it’s Brant’s music, and I smile immediately. It takes me back to that night in the bedroom when he sang to me. How long has it been since I heard his voice? Too long.
I walk inside standing at the top of my platform seats, second to floor seats, I think. The concert is loud, the lights shifting, and his band is lost in the music. He has his acoustic guitar strumming along down the stage. I recognize the songs as one of the older ones from his album. I take my seat and relax for the first time since I bought these tickets.
Is this even a good idea? How will I get to him?
All that is silenced when the end of the show comes on. I’m hot even though I have been sitting, and everyone is screaming. He has this entire arena on their feet, and when I hear the familiar tune start to strum on his guitar, I’m standing too.
This song is about me, and all I can think is that he is really still singing it. He… God, I love him.
When the show ends, I pretty much fight tooth and nail to at least get to the front of the line outside trying to get him to sign something as he moves to his dressing room. I literally see him feet away, and my voice freezes. I couldn’t overpower the thousands of other people even if I tried. It doesn’t take long for me to realize I’ve lost this battle.
The crowd dissipates, and I see people walk in either direction—some with backstage passes, some without. I came way too far to fail. I have to think.
Press passes.
I find the crowd of people covering the concert and single out the first one I think may work—a young woman, maybe younger than me. I somehow manage to convince her to give me her press pass. I don’t think she wanted to do it anyway. I thought about telling her the truth but decided against it. I needed an easy, good lie—it’s my first coverage, and I lost my press pass. She must relate to it because she hands me
hers, and I am on my way to his room.
“We aren’t taking press yet.” A blonde woman stops me outside the door. She is super gorgeous, and I wonder who she is.
“I’m not press, I just need to talk to Brant.”
She nods obviously to my press necklace I only needed to get past security.
“I only stole this.”
“That’s helpful.” She twists her lips.
“Please, I just need to talk to him, and I am not in the mood.” If I had the energy to argue like a lawyer, I would. But I don’t. I could almost cry from how tired and frustrated I am.
“Look, I don’t know what he may have told you, but he doesn’t want to be involved with anyone. You should go before he tells you the same thing. And I have to watch.”
I want to slap her. “Brant isn’t like that,” I say.
She continues to look at me, and her expression starts to shift. “Oh wait, are you Cora?”
I stand up straight. “How do you know me?”
She laughs. “You’re the one he wrote the songs about.” She smiles and laughs. I give her a funny look.
“Sorry, just… I’ve worked for Brant for years. He’s never had a muse. Hold on.” She turns and opens the door to try and shut it behind her, but I step through anyway and force my way in.
She gapes at me but knows she can’t stop me.
She knocks on another door at the end of the hall.
“I still have ten minutes, Julia.” Brant. It is so good to hear his voice. My palms go cold and warm at the same time, my heart racing. It’s worse than the first time we were together. I am so afraid of what he might say to me.
“I know. Open up.” She grins at me, and I try to smile back. She is doing me a favor after all.
Seconds later, he does. Oh God, shirtless, naked in fact, with only a towel around his waist. It takes him a second to look past her and get to me, then he looks like he’s seen a ghost.
“Cora…” he calls out my name, and it makes my breath hitch. His deep, velvety voice and soft eyes meet mine, and I nearly come apart right here.
Wilde About Brant - The Brothers Wilde Series Book Two Page 17
