Max Load’s Brendan Powers is having a difficult time staying away from Misty Waters. GlamLife Magazine recently came across these pictures of the two hidden out at The Waverly Hotel in Beverly Hills. Brendan is looking relaxed in a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a form-fitting, grey muscle shirt with flip-flops. Although he’s wearing his trademark ballcap turned backward, the look on his face is anything but relaxed as the camera snaps away.

Unbeknownst to Powers and Waters, when he escorted her to the limo waiting outside the hotel for her, another arriving guest was able to capture a few photos of the two hugging and looking pretty close just before she escaped in her limo. Our source of these pictures is a staff member here at GLM, but we had it on good word that Brendan had checked in. So, we sent in our secret agents to camp out and wait. Just as our staff was switching out surveillance detail, the two walked out of the exclusive hotel.

What say we now? Brendan has had ample opportunity to dispute the allegations of an ongoing affair. But rather than take the chance, he pulls a fiancée out of the blue and waves her in our faces. Well, where is said fiancée now? Somewhere crying a river? We’ll keep you posted.

“What were you thinking, Bren? Was all this in vain?” Keith furiously thumped the tabloid onto the table, after he finished reading it. A muscle clenching in his jaw and the reddening of his face were tale-tell signs of his anger.

As soon as he arrived back in Atlanta to Keith’s house, there was a welcoming committee sitting in the kitchen waiting for him. Keith, Roxanne, and Drew all seemed to be upset with him. Ava was conspicuously missing.

Brendan’s face was red, heated in anger. He didn’t care what anyone thought. He wanted one thing: Ava.

“Where’s Ava?” he asked, over the lump in his throat.

“Why?” Those were the first words Roxanne had spoken since his arrival. She had only glared at him.

“I need to speak with her.”

“Don’t you think you’ve done enough damage?” Roxanne asked.

“What’re you talking about, Roxi?” Keith asked.

Drew chuckled, but Brendan saw nothing funny. “You have got to be the only clueless one, Keith. My brother’s in love with your sister, and she’s in love with him. Has been since we were kids.” Drew’s eyes never left his brother.

Brendan frowned, his chest heaving with emotions churning inside of him. “Look, you guys can think whatever it is you want to think, but I just need to see Ava. Please, tell me where she is.”

Roxanne shook her head. “She asked me not to, Bren. And I’m respecting her wishes.”

Brendan turned towards Keith, as Keith said, “Look, dude, all I know is she was upset. She flung this paper at me and left the house earlier, and I haven’t heard from her since.”

He turned a sorrowful glance towards Drew. “Bren, you know if I knew I’d tell you. Just get it together, big bro.”

Brendan jogged upstairs and plopped on the bed. He tried to let his brain recall every little tidbit of what she had said to him. Was there any specific place she went when she was upset? Were there friends she was closer to than others that she would run to? Was she…?

Brendan shot up from the bed like a ball fired from a cannon. Running back downstairs he found his brother sitting in the same spot in the kitchen with Keith and Roxanne. The hushed whispers that had preceded his approach trailed off when he made his presence known.

Watching everyone warily, he approached his brother. “Drew, can I borrow your keys, man?”

“Sure,” Drew said, reaching into his pocket and grabbing the keys, he readily gave them to his brother.

“Bren, where are you going?” Roxanne asked, getting up from her chair.

He glanced in her direction, shook his head, and left the kitchen. He heard the footsteps behind him as he neared Drew’s vehicle. He ignored the shouts to his name, as he hopped in the BMW, powered up the engine, and roared down the driveway.

Punching the dial on the dashboard, Brendan turned the radio off. He didn’t need any distractions. Purely concentrating on the drive, he hoped his instinct didn’t steer him wrong. Twenty minutes later, he pulled up to a serene little area and parked. He sat there for a moment, scared that if he moved, he would disturb the tranquility of the area.

A carpet of lush, green grass rolled out before him, sloping down to a small incline. Large sugar maple trees provided comfortable resting spots to hide from the glaring sun. Brendan pushed the door open, leaving the cool recesses of the car behind as he made his way down one of the hills. At the edge of the slope, sparkling water glistened in the afternoon sun.

Brendan slowly made his way down the slope towards the water’s edge. There was one particularly large tree that offered shade with a bench underneath. Walking in the direction of the bench, he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans, shoulders hunched. The sound of the water rolling by and the soft wind blowing through the treetops gave the area a placid feel.

Reaching his destination, Brendan dropped onto the bench, leaning forward with his hands clasped.

“Roxanne told you where to find me.” It was a statement and not a question.

He looked at her tossing oats on the ground a few feet away where a family of ducks was gathered.

“No. You did.”

Reaching into a small paper bag at her feet, Ava pulled out more oats. “Not sure how that happened when I haven’t spoken to you.”

Her voice was calm and detached, her face expressionless but slightly pinched.

“You’re a history teacher starting this fall at the middle school. You’ve always loved history. Roxanne wouldn’t tell me where you were. I was on my own, and I tried hard to figure it out, but honestly, it didn’t take long. You reminisce about the past. I realized, you would come back to the one place you always loved, the place that held such good memories from our past. Here. Here is where deep friendships were formed among all of us, where you first learned to fish, and where you would always come when you were troubled as a little kid.”

She released a soft, humorless laugh. “Why are you here?”

“I needed to talk to you.”

Ava released a large sigh and tossed a handful of oats to the ducks, before brushing her hands together to rid them of any crumbs.

“Do you know why I knew you loved history? And why I know you love reminiscing about the past?”

She shook her head.

“Because you’re important to me. And all the things that make you Ava are important to me, too.”

He sighed when she showed no reaction to his words. Brendan made a career of singing about love, emotions, and all the changes of life that were impactful to a relationship. He had written many of the songs the band sang, including a couple of their number one hits. But now he was before the woman he loved, and he couldn’t find the right words to draw her to him.

“Bren, your life is so different than anything I could ever imagine, and I tried with all my heart to protect you from the onslaught that was coming your way. But no matter how hard I try, you seem to throw yourself back into the fire. I can’t protect you if you don’t want to be protected. But what’s worse? I can’t protect myself from you.”

He reached out and grabbed her hand, and when she tried to pull away, he held it tighter. “Why would you need to?” he asked, his heart thudding loudly and creating a loud rushing sound in his ears.

“Because, this fairytale we put on to protect your reputation was a game to you, but it was real to me, Bren. I couldn’t protect my heart from you—no matter how hard I tried. The more time that I spend with you, the more I want to be with you. All these feelings I have bottled inside are overwhelming and I don’t know what to do with them.”

“Let them out.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “What do you mean, ‘Let them out?’”

“Like this.”

He pulled her to him, caressing her face with his thumbs. Searching her eyes, he wondered if what she felt for him was as strong as what he was feeling for her. Her face softened, and Brendan took the opportunity to kiss her gently, exploring the softness of her plush lips. His nostrils filled with the scent of her strawberry lip gloss and the aromatic fragrance that clung to her.

Pulling her bottom lip gently with his own, he suckled savoring the sweet nectar of her mouth. Ava’s hands went up and rested on either side of his face, and casually, she opened her mouth, and returned his kiss.

A slight moan slipped from Ava before she pulled away, turning away from him.

It had not escaped his notice that this was the first time he had initiated a kiss between them. She had always been the one to lead the way, except for the photo shoot. But all those times had been in public. This was the first time they had kissed, simply because one of them had a desire and not because it was expected, or simply for show.

“Ava? What’s wrong, love?”

“What are you doing, Bren? I’m not one of your groupies, or some inexperienced girl looking to be taken advantage of.”

“That’s not what I’m looking for, Ave. All I want is you. Those women come a dime a dozen, but you? I had to leave home, travel around the world and return before I found what has been right before my eyes all along. The day we were traveling to the studio, I realized being with you is like coming home. It’ll always be like coming home again. And that’s what I want in my life.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying to me, Bren.”

“I know you were angry because you thought Misty and I were involved. Nothing could have been further from the truth. She was going through a divorce, and she had no one she could trust. I was comforting my friend. A woman who’s like a sister to me. The tabloids took those pictures and twisted it into something ugly. Ave, I want this thing with you. I want to explore a relationship with us, not some façade conjectured for the public. I already know everything there is to know about Ava—the person. Now, I want to know Ava—the woman. Can I have that?” He gently rubbed his thumb at the corner of her lips.

Ava bit down on her lip and nodded.

“Good,” he whispered, leaning in again to get another taste of her sweet, addictive kisses. He found that once he started, he couldn’t stop.

“I know you’re probably upset about the latest tabloid, but you have to know what they’ve conjectured isn’t true. Misty came to my hotel—”

“Shh,” Ava said, pressing a finger to his lips. “I trust you, Bren. I know you’re not who they’re making you out to be. I’m just upset because you keep giving them a reason to do what they do to you. I warned you not to go out there, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”

He sighed. “You’re right. I wouldn’t, but I have no regrets. Going out to see Misty was what she and I both needed. I was able to give her some ideas about what to do to reconcile her marriage and help her to see what her husband has been trying to get her to see all along.”

“So, they’re not divorcing?” Ava asked, a hopeful tone in her voice.

Shrugging, Brendan replied, “I don’t know. I can only hope they don’t, but I haven’t heard from her. It’ll take some time for them to work through their problems, but if they both heed my advice, I think they’ll be all right.”

“And what was in it for you?”

“Being able to help my friend. But I did get an unexpected bargain in the deal,” Brendan confided, reaching up and sliding his hands into her hair, pulling her forward until their foreheads touched.

“What was that?” she whispered.

“She helped me realize that not only do I love you, but it was okay to let you know. She helped me to see that I just might lose you, before I even had you.”

“You…you love me?” Ava asked startled.

“Yes, I love you. Don’t you see how easy you make it?”

She looked down shyly, before he slightly moved his head, forcing her head back up. They kissed again; this time taking their time to enjoy the beauty of what they were discovering between them. There was no rush, for they had nowhere they needed to be. No pressure to do things according to someone else’s expectations. Instead, they lingered in their kiss, finding the new beauty of a love so pure and fresh and unblemished. And when the kiss finally ended, it ended with a sigh from her and smile of smug satisfaction for him.

Pulling her into his arms, he turned, and they watched the ducks as they trekked back to the water, stirring up a cacophony as they went.

“Bren, I’ve always loved you, but we have two different ideas about our futures. Your world is on the road, and mine? Well, it’s here at home, making a difference in the lives of our youth and one day starting a family of my own.”

“And you don’t think I want those things, too?”

“You said you didn’t. That day in the car.”

“No, I didn’t say I didn’t want those things. I said, I didn’t see myself settling down right now. I didn’t want to bring the craziness of my world into someone else’s because it takes a lot. I said that one day I did see that for myself. But you know the one thing I’ve learned on this journey, Ave?”

“No. What’s that?”

“That there are no guarantees in life, and you never know where love will lead you. You can’t pick and choose whom you love or how, you just grab it when it finds you. I wasn’t out looking for a relationship, Ava, and definitely not love. But you have this funny way of bringing all these crazy emotions out of me I don’t recognize, or even know what to do with. You have no idea how many nights I’ve spent lying in that bed at your brother’s house trying to figure out what was happening to me. Or how I couldn’t wait to come down in the morning to see you. All these events we’ve gone to? Most of them were conjectured just so that I could find a reason to have you by my side again. A reason to hold you and hope that you would coax another kiss out of me.”

She laughed. “Coax? I didn’t coax a kiss out of you. You seemed just as willing as I was.”

“That, I won’t deny, beautiful. Matter of fact, you weren’t doing it enough. But now that I’ve broken that cycle, you just might get sick of me,” he said, leaning in for another one.

Ava willingly gave him what he was looking for.