Chapter 28
Bryson
“Everything will work out in the end, if it’s not working out, it’s not the end.”
~ Rowan O’Sullivan
“We meet again.” Beady eyes stared up at me from behind a cage.
I pulled out my phone to message the wrangler that I’d hired to safely remove this guy and tell him that he’d been caught. His service was my last hope after I’d raccoon-proofed the trash bins, sprayed ammonia, put up a scarecrow, motion activated floodlights, ultrasonic noisemakers, you name it and the little bastard continued to destroy my property and had started scaring off customers by walking right up to them.
Seconds after I sent the text, he responded he’d be there within thirty minutes to pick him up. He was going to relocate him thirty miles away so I hoped this was the last time we’d be seeing each other. The fundraiser was going to be starting in a few minutes and I was supposed to walk to the old Town Hall building with Jade, but I decided to wait with the little bastard. He looked terrified.
“You’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna go live somewhere else where you can spread your destruction to other people.”
“Hey!” Jade stepped out of the back door of the bar. “You coming? We’re gonna be late.”
“We got him!” I said triumphantly.
“Oh my god!” She clapped her hand over her mouth as she walked out.
“You look beautiful, sis.” It was still odd for me to see Jade as an adult. As a woman. Times like these, when she was all dressed up, I still saw the tomboy with scraped knees and dirt on her clothes who followed me around and kept up with all my friends.
“Thanks! You clean up pretty nice yourself, bro.”
Tonight wasn’t a black-tie event, but there would be guys there in tuxes. My dad being one of them. I was wearing a basic black suit, white shirt, and dark gray tie. I liked to keep it simple.
“What’s going to happen to him?” Jade asked, bending down to his level. “It’s going to be okay little guy.”
“The Critter Catcher is going to relocate him.”
“The Critter Catcher?” she repeated.
“Yeah, I think it’s supposed to be a play on the dog catcher.”
She stood and straightened her dress. “So, you ready to go?”
“I’m going to wait here with him. The guy said he’d only be about a half an hour. You go ahead.”
“Are you sure?” My sister looked between me and the cage.
“Yeah, I don’t want him to be scared.”
“You’re such a softy.” She grinned. “Speaking of soft, have you used Kelsi’s Coconut Cloud moisturizer? It’s amazing.”
I shook my head.
“My skin is so soft.” She ran her hands down her arm. “Kelsi’s skin must be crazy soft.”
It is.
“Do you know if she’s ever thought about getting a website? Selling her products online?” She asked.
“I think she has.” Kelsi had told me about having to drain her savings and I knew that she had been saving up to do exactly that, but that wasn’t my business to share. Even with my sister.
“I think I’m going to talk to her about me putting together a business proposal. I’ve met a ton of people in my post-graduate work that are looking for investment opportunities. Maybe she’d be interested in a partnership.”
Yeah. A partnership with me.
“You should talk to her,” I encouraged.
I wish I knew if I should talk to her.
Right after she’d given me the most incredible orgasm of my life, she’d noticed the time and needed to get home to Milo. As we’d rushed to get dressed, she’d reiterated that what had happened hadn’t changed anything. But, I wasn’t sure if she meant that we still couldn’t even be friends. All day it had been driving me crazy. I knew she planned on going to the fundraiser tonight and I hoped to get some answers.
“Okey dokey, artichokey, I’ll see you there then.” Jade waved.
I crossed my arms as I waited for the Critter Catcher. Normally, I’d sit on the crates piled against the building, but I didn’t want to get my suit messed up.
As I waited, I tried to think about anything other than Kelsi. My parents’ house was in the final stretches. Last week, I’d been about as useful as an expired coupon because I’d been so torn up about Kelsi. This next week coming up I needed to have my head in the game. I couldn’t let something slip through the cracks because I was lovesick.
“Women,” I sighed to my nemesis. “Am I right?”
“Depends on what you’re saying about us?”
I looked up and Kelsi was standing in the spot Jade had just vacated. She was wearing a strapless black dress that hugged her small frame, highlighting each and every curve. Her hair was falling loosely around her shoulders. Her lips were shimmering with a gloss that called to me like a beacon in the night. She had on the same high heels that she’d worn the night after Movie’s in the Park and they made her legs look a mile long.
She was naturally, effortlessly, breathtakingly beautiful. She was the kind of woman that improved any man’s street cred. She was the kind of woman that men wanted to take home to their mamas and also back to their beds. She was my dream girl but real and standing right in front of me.
“Damn, you look…hot.”
Her eyes widened. “I thought you were going to go with beautiful.”
“That too.” I grinned even as a little bit of jealousy surfaced. “Nice corsage.”
“Milo got it for me.” She beamed. “He got Sadie one, too.”
“Damn, he really does have game.” At thirteen I had charm, but this kid was really next-leveling it.
“I know, right.” She chuckled, then shifted from one foot to the other. “Um…we need to talk.”
Again. Shit.
I tried not to let my face show my disappointment. “Okay.”
“I was waiting for you at the fundraiser, but when you were late, I figured that you might be here. I saw Jade on the way, she said I could come back here and…” She waved her hand and I noticed that it was trembling.
I nodded as a knot that not even an Eagle Scout could untie formed in my gut. It wasn’t like Kelsi to ramble. She was a straight to the point kind of girl. Whatever this was had her nervous and shaking.
She blew out a breath and stood tall as she said, “First, I need to apologize for the things I said last week. I should never have said that you were a selfish asshole—”
“Technically, you just asked if I was,” I pointed out.
She smiled and the knot started to loosen. “Maybe don’t interrupt someone who’s apologizing.”
“Sorry.” I mimed zipping my mouth.
“As I was saying, you didn’t deserve that. I was upset and trying to push you away and I’m sorry.” She blew out another breath. “When I was growing up my mom dated a lot of guys. By the time I was ten I stopped learning their names because I knew they’d be gone in a few weeks, or a few months tops. There was no point. Then, when I was a teenager, I followed right in her footsteps. I dated losers that never stuck around. Until I followed the one that did and left Milo because I just had to get away from my mom. I never meant to stay away as long as I did, I just couldn’t face going back there.
“Then, when all this stuff went down and I ended up with Milo again, I didn’t want to make the same mistakes that my mom had. I didn’t want to have guys in and out of his life. I wanted to have stability and I wanted Milo to trust that I wouldn’t just take off again.
“I really thought that I was doing the right thing, the responsible thing. And I thought that he didn’t want me dating anyone either. But, it turns out that he just doesn’t want me to have assholes as boyfriends. Which should be a no-brainer, but you don’t know my track record.” She said flatly before shaking her head slightly. “Anyway, you told me last night that you love me. You said that you want me, all of me, forever. And I just wanted you to know that…I’m good with that.”
My heart felt like it had stopped beating. I was pretty sure I knew what she was saying but I needed to make sure I wasn’t misinterpreting things. Did that mean she wanted to date me? Did that mean she was okay with me wanting to be with her and us just being friends? “You’re good with that?”
“Yes, I am good with that because I love you, Bryson. I want you. All of you. Forever.”
“Say it again.” I didn’t need more clarification, I just needed to hear her say those words again.
The smile that spread on her would have started my heart again if it had actually stopped. Kelsi’s smile was stronger than any defibrillator ever could be. She took a step forward, closing the distance between us and lifted her hand to my chest, placing her palm over the heart that beat just for her. “I love you. I want you. All of you. Forev—”
I leaned down and captured her last word in a kiss that made me lose track of time and space. I didn’t know where I was, what day or time it was.
When I heard someone clearing their throat, loudly, Kelsi broke our kiss. I was dazed.
“Excuse me folks, don’t mean to interrupt.”
I looked up and saw a short, pudgy man with a shirt that said The Critter Catcher on the front.
“Whoa, you got yourself a big’un there.” He pointed behind me.
“Oh, my gosh!” Kelsi looked down at the cage for the first time. She knelt down, just like Jade had. “I didn’t even see you. Hi, little guy. What’s his name?” she asked as she looked up at me.
“Cupid.” If he hadn’t been breaking in I would’ve had the security company call the police and though I might have met Kelsi, it would have been under much different circumstances.
She stood to get out of the way as the Critter Catcher picked up the cage. “Cupid the Raccoon. I love it.”
I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her back against me. Snuggling into her neck I said, “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” She melted against me. “I love you, too.”
And in that moment I knew, she was mine and I was hers. Forever.