CHAPTER NINETEEN

BRYAN

Stepping out into the heat of the day only added to his already high blood pressure. “What do you want, Courtney?”

“No hello? Or how have you been?” she asked, slipping a loose tendril of dark hair behind her ear. He exhaled.

“Hello. How have you been?” he asked without blinking. “Happy? Moving on, what the hell do you want?” he asked seriously, trying like hell not to let her get to him.

“I…” she started to say but looked away, worrying her lower lip as she looked behind him. “You have a new girl?” she finally asked. He wanted to groan. I don’t have time for this shit. He looked toward the house, thinking he wanted to be with everyone in there.

“That’s none of your business.”

“I saw Donnie the other day,” she shared, twirling her hair with her finger, a nervous habit she’d always had.

“I heard.” His jaw clenched. Courtney and her big mouth.

“I didn’t mean to tell him. I promise,” she said, her voice slightly too high pitched as she took a step toward him. He put his hand up to stop her. He didn’t want her anywhere near him.

“I’m not going to ask again, what do you want?” he warned, hearing her overly dramatic sigh. He saw guilt swimming in her big blue eyes. Eyes he had known over half his life. Eyes that did nothing for him anymore. Have I ever really loved her?

“We need to talk.”

“Does your husband know you’re here?” he asked her, wondering what she was up to.

“We’re getting a divorce,” she shared. He was far from surprised.

“Shocking.”

“I… just trust me, okay? There is something we need to talk about.”

“Courtney,” Nicola’s voice rang out, and with his eyes shut, his head bent to his chest. This is all I need.

“Nicola—“

“Now, child, I’m an old, old woman. I don’t get to enjoy my family as much as I would like,” Nicola started up her guilt-trip, and his eye started to twitch.

“I—“

“I think you should get going. You’ve interrupted our family enough. Don’t you think?” This was his grandmother. Blunt, to the point, and fiercely protective. He loved her for it, but he was a grown man; he didn’t need her to protect him.

“Grandma—“ he started to interrupt, but Nicola was always five steps ahead of everyone.

“Valerie probably needs a refresh by now, sweetheart. It’s rude to leave your woman waiting and thirsty. I know your mom taught you better than that.” His lips twitched. Nicola wanted to make it clear to Courtney that not only had he moved on, but he had done it with Valerie.

“She is your woman?” Courtney asked with something that sounded like disgust.

“I’ll be right in, Grandma.”

“Five minutes,” she told him. Nicola might have had a sugary sweet smile on her face, but the tone in her voice warned him she would probably be timing those minutes. “Courtney, I wish I could say it was nice to see you.” Sarcasm dripped from her voice. He looked at the ground, trying not to laugh at his beautiful grandmother’s crazy antics. “But I was never one to fib,” she finished before stepping away and back into the house.

“You moved on?” The surprise in her voice irritated him.

He had told her he wasn’t in love with her anymore before they had been divorced. They had grown apart way before they had started trying for a family. Instead of reminding her, he stayed silent, watching her, his irritation building.

“So, you and the blonde, huh?”

“Look, Court, I don’t have time for this shit. You heard Nicola. Val needs a refresh.”

“Val?” The disgust in her voice dripped.

“Court.”

“She drinks a lot, huh?” She scowled, but he wasn’t going to give in to her crap.

“Why are you here?”

“I wanted to apologize.”

“For?” Something like worry flashed in her blue eyes, but she shook it off. “For talking to Donnie. I was tipsy.”

“You mean you were blitzed?” he clarified.

“I wanted to say sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything,” she ignored him and kept talking. “Back when we did all that testing and the results came in and I…”

Not this shit again.

“Had to tell me. It was hard for you. I get it. Whatever,” he said, trying to ignore the old feelings he usually felt he let himself remember.

But as he stood there looking at her, he didn’t feel anything other than tired.

“You don’t understand.” Her eyes flashed with something familiar. But he wanted to sweep whatever it was under the rug. He wanted to get rid of her, so he could go back into the house.

“There is nothing to understand,” he told her. Looking at her, he could remember the girl he had once loved. He could see the girl he had first met who had turned into a beautiful woman. The epitome of the girl next door.

Brunette, sweet with a little side of sexy with an angelic face.

They had been together for so long by the time they’d graduated college and found themselves still together, they went with the motion of getting married.

He hadn’t even proposed.

After the wedding, things had been okay. Then they started going through the motions of trying to have a family. Month after month, test after negative test. Then they decided to go to a specialist. He had held her hand, while she had been poked and prodded. And at the time, it hadn’t felt fair that all he had to do was cum into a damn cup.

After everything was said and done, they waited.

And waited.

The waiting had been horrible.

That was when his eyes opened wider to whom he had promised to spend his life with. He noticed things that he never admitted to anyone. It had been like he had suddenly woken up and he knew he didn’t want to have a family with her.

Looking at her, he could still see her that day.

He had been in the living room watching a Lakers game, peeling the label of his beer. The phone rang out and she had stepped out of their room, where she had been doing whatever she had been doing.

It rang twice again before she picked it up. The soft tone in her voice when she had said ‘hello’. She had told them to tell her, and a knot formed in his throat when he looked away from her. She looked down at the ground as the doctor told her their results on the other line…

“Bryan?” she repeated, and he looked at her, really looked at her. His heartrate started to pick up as something clicked into place.

Something that didn’t settle well with him. She is hiding something.

“What did you wanna talk about?” A sick feeling hit the pit of his stomach. His dad had always joked he was a natural-born detective, but he had never looked at Courtney with those eyes. Until now.

She wouldn’t look at him. She was worrying her lower lip, and she was pale.

“We should go somewhere else and chat or maybe meet up…” she started to suggest. His eyes narrowed, not liking what he was seeing.

“Court,” he prompted, hoping she would get to the point.

“It’s not something we should talk about out here,” she whined. He rolled his tongue over his teeth.

“Fine.” He pulled a card out of his wallet and handed it to her. “Text me a time and place.” His head was hurting, his temples throbbed. He just wanted his ex to leave.

“So, the blonde?” she asked, bringing Valerie up again.

“Is none of your business,” he bit, wondering why she hadn’t left yet.

“She isn’t your type,” she barbed, and he ran his hands through his hair.

“Oh, yeah? And what’s my type?” he asked. She tilted her head and blinked slowly at him.

“Who do you think?” she asked, raising her hands toward herself.

“You are too much.”

“Please! Bryan, seriously—”

“I don’t have time for this.”

“You know it’s true!” She laughed shaking her head.

He was done. His hands clenched and unclenched as he tried to keep himself under control. “Look—“

“It is. You know it. She isn’t your type. She’s too—“

“Too what?”

“Too…”

“Too?” he pressed, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Vampish.”

“Vampish? What are you? Nicola’s grandmother?

“You know what I mean!” She stomped like a child. If this weren’t happening to him, he would have laughed at how childish she was acting.

“I don’t. And we’re done here.”

“You like good girls, Bryan,” she clamored. “You like the ones you can take home to Mom and Dad!”

“Wake the fuck up! My parents are right in there, Courtney! She met them. She met my grandmother. My brothers.”

“You like the kind of woman who can revolve her life around you.”

“You don’t know shit about me,” he hissed, and she smirked, narrowing her eyes. He knew she thought he was challenging her.

“Now who doesn’t know what they’re talking about?” she laughed. “I know you! We both know it. And come on, Bryan, look at her!”

“I do. I look at her—“

“And I bet you really like what you see, right?” He shook his head, his jaw clenched. “Just like every other man who lays eyes on her,” she pointed out. He was losing his grip on his control.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Come on, open your eyes and get out of whatever tangled web she’s caught you in…”

“You are—“

“She doesn’t belong in a group like yours.”

“You don’t—“

“It’s obvious! She isn’t like the all mighty-holier-than-thou Wrights. You can see it the way she carries herself.”

“STOP!” he roared taking a step toward the woman who had pushed every imaginable button. “Let me make this crystal fucking clear for you, Courtney. You’re right. She is nothing like my usual type.”

“Well, thank God you see that!”

“But that’s why we work,” he shared, shaking his head. “My type”—his voice was laced with disgust—“obviously didn’t work for a very good reason. Get the fuck outta here. You think my family worshipped the ground you walked on? Hell, no! They hated you!”

“That’s not—“

“It is. Now, you need to get the hell outta here, and if you wanna meet up for whatever reason, you better watch your mouth when you talk about Valerie or I won’t entertain you. I’ll turn and walk the other way.”

“You know you miss me!” She was grasping at strings.

“God! Back to this? What is it, Court, huh? Your new guy lets you go and you try to go fishing back in the old pond?”

“It’s not like that. I—“

“It is. If I ever hear you disrespect my woman again, I won’t be happy.”

“Your woman?”

“Yeah.” Bryan stood tall, his gaze never wavering. “She’s mine.”

“She’s trouble.”

“If she is, I will handle it. I will handle anything for her. Because. She. Is. Mine. You don’t get it because of how you are! All your fucked-up mind games and toying with people—“

“I don’t play—“

“You twist shit to serve whatever scheme….” His voice faltered as he pinned her down with his narrowed stare. The floor felt like it was wiped out from under him. Like two puzzle pieces clicking into place.

That phone call replayed in his head. How she had reacted. The guilt he had seen but never really understood. She hadn’t been the problem. It had been him. The fertility issues were all on him. At the time, he had chalked the guilt up as pity.

But now it was all clear.

She would never budge on alternative routes. Adoption was always too much paperwork, too risky. And when he’d gone as far as to suggest asking for his brothers’ help, she hadn’t even listened. Never budged. Not for one second. She had been adamant. But if he really looked back, it was after that phone call when she’d started putting walls between them. And he had let her. He had already realized they had grown more into friends than lovers by that point.

“Bryan—“

“What did you do?” he asked her, his heart beating furiously in his chest. She wouldn’t have…

“Lunch. Tomorrow.”

“No,” he snapped “Now.” Fear flashed in her eyes as he stepped toward her, seething anger flowing through his veins. “What. Did. You. Do?”

“Bryan,” Garrett’s deep voice timbered, and somehow Bryan found the strength to step back, his nostrils flaring, his hands clenched. “Courtney, he asked you a question.”

“I think you and I, we should talk about this alone,” Courtney said softly. Intensity and tension radiated around them.

“Answer him,” Garrett calmly pushed, but he didn’t look back at his brother. His eyes were trained on her, and he saw the moment she broke.

An almost calculated tear rolled down her face. “You would have left me.”

“You lied,” Bryan guessed, feeling slightly lightheaded.

“You would have left me,” she repeated.

“You lied to me.”

“You would have left me and then—“

“We ended anyhow!” he shouted, not knowing exactly how to feel.

I’m not sterile.

He could have the family he always wanted. He could have everything he ever wanted.

He could have that with Valerie.

“I didn’t mean to,” she cried. “It just came out. You would have left me and…” she rambled, fake tears rolling down her faux-angelic face. It was all for show. He knew that.

“You can go now,” Garrett ordered in his stone-cold voice.

“Garrett, I just—“ She took a deep breath. “I have to make him understand.”

“If you aren’t gone in the next two minutes, police and TMZ will be here so fast it will make your head spin, Courtney. Now, we all know you’re a money-hungry, gold-digging liar. What I don’t know is if you want the entire world to find out. I doubt you’re that stupid. But if you wanna wait around to see if I’m bluffing, which I’m not, go ahead and stay,” Garrett warned just as Bryan turned, still feeling more than shell-shocked.

She lied to me.

The woman he had married had lied to him.

Making him believe he couldn’t ever have the one thing he had always wanted. The woman he trusted. God, he hadn’t gone back to the doctor after she had told him everything.

It’s you. He could still hear her telling him.

The shock of the results so deep he had blocked whatever else she had said. He hadn’t wanted to deal with it. And she hadn’t pushed him to go back. She didn’t suggest they get a second opinion. Or a third. Only shooting down other alternatives.

Now I know why.

“B,” Garrett called out to him,

“I gotta go,” he said without thinking, needing to get his thoughts together.

“Bryan, don’t do that, man. Look, just—“

“Can you take Val home?” he asked. He knew himself. He would seem indifferent or broody as he thought about what had just happened. Bryan just needed some time. Some space to clear his head.

“What?”

“I just… I… need some time to think.”

“Bryan—“ Garrett’s face shined with his concern.

“Did you hear what she just—!“ Bryan shouted pointing toward where Courtney stood just moments before.

“I know.” But he could tell Garrett didn’t want him to leave.

“She finally gone?” Donnie asked, popping his head out of the front door, closing it behind him just as Courtney drove off in her tiny little red Nissan Z.

“Don, take Val home for me.” If Garrett wouldn’t, he could find someone else to do it.

“Don, don’t say yes,” Garrett sternly told their lifelong friend. Bryan shot him a glare.

“What’s going on?” Donnie asked, feeling out the tension in the air.

“Hey, she gone?” Marcus asked. Bryan’s head was going to explode.

“Take Val home,” he pleaded as Marc’s blue eyes were trying to read the situation.

“No,” Garrett pointed at Marc.

“What’s going on?” his brother asked, clearly confused, but Bryan just stood still. He felt like all his blood had rushed to his toes. The space around him was starting to spin around him.

“What’s he doing?” Marcus asked, frowning, and Bryan tried to breathe in deeply but couldn’t. He couldn’t breathe. How could Court have lied to him about that? Had she felt how their marriage had been deteriorating?

“He looks like he’s going to have a stroke,” Donnie added.

“Bryan, just take a deep breath,” Garrett calmly suggested, patting him on the shoulder, but he couldn’t.

“What’s going on?” Donnie asked.

“What did she do?” Marc questioned, both Don and Marc obviously concerned, but he couldn’t find the strength to spill his guts.

Especially not when he had no clue what to do or say.

“I gotta go.”

“I’ll take her home.” Marc sighed.

“No! Not you.” He shook his head, imagining how uncomfortable Val would be with him.

“Why not me?” he asked, sounding slightly offended.

“You make her nervous.” Both Marc and Donnie frowned, and Bryan shook his head. Couldn’t they see he was on the brink of losing his shit?

“You need to take her. It has to be you.” He pointed at Garrett. “She likes you. Don’t ask me why. It’s not like you’re Mr. Sunshine, but she does. It has to be your grouchy, sad ass that takes her—“

“No need.” Bryan’s eyes snapped to his girl standing there. He couldn’t read her and had no idea what she had heard. He winced, hoping she didn’t think he was trying to get rid of her.

“I’ll get us home.”

“What?” Garrett beat Bryan from asking.

“You see him. He can’t drive. He can hardly breathe,” she pointed out calmly.

“Val.”

“Come on.” She smiled slightly. “Let’s get you home. Okay?”

“You guys don’t have to go,” Marc started to argue. “We’re going to cook. I have a big spread planned. Please stay. We haven’t fed you…” Marc started to tell her, but Bryan watched his beautiful girl shake her head politely.

“How about we take a rain check? Next time?” she graciously offered.

“No. Please. My mom and grandmother will kill me if you guys leave without eating—“

“They actually understood.” Her smile faltered. He took a step toward her wondering what the hell had gone on inside while his own world had been rocked out here. “Plus, I was called into work,“ she shared. He frowned. “They are short staffed and offered an incentive I couldn’t refuse. I’m sorry.”

She shook Donnie’s hand and returned Marc’s a half-hug he insisted on giving her. Garrett stood by Bryan’s side like a sentry.

“Garrett.” She nodded, and Bryan watched his oldest brother, a man who had changed dramatically in the last couple of months, bend and hug Valerie gently, his face soft.

“Bye, kid.”

“Ready?” she asked. He did a double take. Their hands had only met for a couple of seconds, but a bad feeling sank into him. “You’re going into work?” he stupidly asked.

“Once we get home,” she shared. Silence fell between them until they reached his car. “Keys,” she asked, putting her hand out, palm up. He looked at her.

“I can dri—“

“I know. But I would rather drive. If that is okay with you?”

“Sure,” he muttered, handing her the keys. Slipping into the car, a tense silence fell over them. He watched her fix the seat and mirrors before reversing the car and waving good-bye to the three guys, who were still standing there.

They drove in that same silence, tension only growing between them, and he tried to think of what to say. What could he say?

“I didn’t know she was going to show up,” he finally mumbled and winced.

“I got that,” she mumbled back.

“Val…” he started to say, but he had no words. He had no clue what the fuck had just happened.

“I think we shouldn’t talk right now,” she said before turning the radio on to some top forty radio station. He let her.

 

They rode in silence while everything inside of him was raging war. Relief and anger swirled with uncertainty. It took over his thoughts until the car stopped and he realized there were home.

Valerie got out of the SUV and walked right to the front door, not once glancing toward him.

His eyes were on her as she opened and went in through the front door. Slipping out of the passenger side door, he walked toward the house. Once in the door, he felt dread about what she must think about him, figuring she might have heard him trying to pawn her off to one of the guys.

Stepping in and closing the door, he was surprised she wasn’t in the living room. His feet took him to the kitchen, where she was making a sandwich.

“Want one?” she asked over her shoulder, not meeting his eyes. She is making a fucking sandwich?

“Val—“ She turned to him, and he saw the weariness in her eyes.

“I get it.”

“You get it?” he repeated. She nodded and turned back to the slices of bread in front of her.

“Yeah.”

“I don’t, so how about you clear it up for me. “

“I’m not your type.” Her left shoulder slumped down. “And that’s fine. You went slumming, had your fun, and now it’s time to go back to your perfect, pretty little ex. I’m going to be late if I don’t go now…”

“Val…”

“People leave me. I’m used to it. But this, with you, Bryan…” He watched her hold on to the countertop tightly before turning. “I think it’s better if I end this—“

“It’s not what you think, Val,” he stepped in, closing the space between them, caging her body against the counter.

“Bry—“

“You’re not my type.”

“I heard,” she shared, and he wondered how he could have missed her overhearing that.

“I did say that. And I thank the stars up above you’re not, Blondie.”

“Thanks,” she bit back. His hand reached up to touch her cheek, but she flinched. He sighed.

“My type, if that’s what we are calling my ex, was all wrong for me.”

“Whatever. I don’t need you to give me some kind of story time.“

“You do. See, seems my ‘type’ was manipulative and so fucking conniving I’m surprised my head didn’t explode.”

“Bry—“

“And if that wasn’t enough, she was a liar, too.”

“What?” she frowned, pouting her lips. Bryan wanted to kiss her. Goddamn Courtney and the shit she’d done.

“We were trying to have a family and when it didn’t happen, we both went in to get tests run—“

“I don’t need to know.”

“We got the results and she told me it was me,” he shared. “She said I was sterile. It was my fault we couldn’t have a family.” His voice cracked and his teeth ground together. Who the hell does Courtney think she is! Anger started to swirl inside of him at what she had fucking done.

“What?” Val’s entire body froze, but a moment later, her hands clenched the hem of his shirt and he kept talking.

“All I ever wanted, and I know this is going to sound weird as hell, for as long as I could remember, baby, was a family.”

“What?”

“I wanted a wife and kids. My friends wanted to be firemen and astronauts, baby. I wanted to be a dad.”

“Bryan.” Her hands started to move up his chest. Her touch soothed him.

“When she said that to me… I thought I had failed somehow.”

“But even if you were, there are other ways…“ Her voice tapered off, and he liked that she thought that. He fucking loved it. Mine, his mind growled again.

“I know. And I suggested them. But every suggestion I made, she shot down. She always had an excuse. If we had gone any other route, I would have found out the truth.”

“How could she have done something like that? I mean… who does that? Why…” Her cheeks started to flush with her own fury. Fury she was feeling for him. She cared about him.

“I don’t know,” he told her, not knowing what the hell Courtney had thought she was doing telling him such a malicious lie.

He felt anger start to bubble up through his body, when Valerie surprised him, catching him off guard and tilting his world on its axis once again. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she slammed into him and held on to him tightly.

Just like that, she saved him from getting lost in his anger.

Just like that, he fell deeper in love with his little goddess.

VALERIE

“Who the hell does that?” I whispered into the crook of his neck. Anger and regret that I didn’t slap the bitch swirled inside of me just as his arms held on to me.

“My ex.”

“Maybe she was scared you would leave her?”

“I think she knew as well as I did our marriage was headed down a bad road and that’s when we started to try for a family.”

“Why would you try to have a family if things weren’t good between you two?” I asked, and he shrugged.

“We were young, didn’t know better,” he admitted. I could understand that.

I pulled away from him, my hands cupping his face, making him bend to me. “Why were you trying to pawn me off to your brothers?” I asked, knowing we needed to lighten the conversation, too many questions rolling through my head.

“I thought I needed space,” he answered. My mouth parted, unable to utter a word. It made sense. If someone dropped a bomb like that on my lap, I would probably need a moment to myself.

“I was wrong,” he added, snapping me out of my thoughts, making me look up at him. “I didn’t need space. I didn’t need time.” I swallowed hard. The air between us felt like it was being sucked out little by little as I let myself drown in the honesty that reflected in his eyes.

“What did you need?” I asked softly, closing my eyes as one of his massive hands cupped my face.

“You,” his voice rumbled, his lips close to mine, making me open my eyes. “This,” he continued with a stroke of his thumb. “What we have is good. No. It’s fucking good, and we are not going to let Courtney’s goddamn bullshit leak into us.”

“Bry—“

“I am not going to leave you,” he confidently answered, melting away the dregs of whatever doubt I had. “And just saying, Blondie, whoever the fuck has left you or let you leave were idiots.”

“They—“

“If they didn’t see the goddamn treasure they had in their lives just by being blessed to have you breathe next to them, they weren’t worth shit, baby.” His voice deepened with emotion. I pressed my lips together, biting away tears, my nose stinging before he pulled me into his arms.

“I love you,” I whispered into his skin, unable to stop those three words from coming out. I froze for a second and realized that panic didn’t strike. As crazy fast as I had dived into this thing with him, it didn’t make it any less true. He needed to know the truth, and I needed to give that to him.

“Fuck,” he growled, lifting me up, my arms wrapping around his neck, my legs in his arms like a groom carries his bride.

“What are you doing?”

“You can’t do that!” he gruffed. I looked at him, utterly surprised at his response. I can’t tell him I love him? I wondered as he took us to his bedroom and settled us into his bed, both of us on our sides facing one another.

“When she told me I was sterile, I felt guilty,” he admitted.

“Why?”

“I knew she wasn’t who I wanted to have a family with, and a small part of me was a little relieved when it didn’t happen right away. I thought, maybe it was a bump in our relationship, you know? Something we could work out.” He shook his head. “Then she told me that, and I… I felt like I was being punished.”

“Bryan.” My heart ached for him.

“I didn’t question it… Why didn’t I question her?”

“Because she was your wife. Your partner. You should be able to trust that person.”

“I was an idiot.”

“You were human, Bryan. No one’s perfect.” I stroked his arm trying to somehow help.

“That’s why I said you and I couldn’t happen.” His words made me freeze, not fully comprehending what he meant.

“Why?”

“You deserve everything, baby, and I wouldn’t have been able to—“

“Okay, stop right there, handsome.” I covered his lips with my fingers. “Family is more than blood.”

“Val—-“

“I knew it. With Vaughn. You know it with Donnie and Lexi.”

“Donnie’s like a brother.”

“He is a brother to you.”

“Lexi?” he asked, something playing behind his eyes. I smiled, pointing out the obvious.

“Yeah. How you all dote on her and—“

“She’s hard not to dote on.”

“I know, honey, but anyone hanging out with your family would never know that Lexi isn’t Marc’s. You treat her like she’s been a part of your family from the day she drew her first breath. She calls your mom grandma.”

“I know, I just—“

“And didn’t you tell me that that they haven’t even been together for a year?”

“Yeah.”

“There are all kinds of love, Bryan. All a child needs is love,” I told him, hoping I made sense. His eyes closed, and when they opened, I didn’t know what was reflected, but it was breathtakingly beautiful.

“How do you love me, Val?”

“I should have probably kept my mouth shut about that. It wasn’t the right—“

“Because the way I love you is for keeps,” he said. My heart whooshed to my toes. Thankfully, we were in bed.

“What?” was all I could whisper.

“I wasn’t looking for someone. I didn’t want anyone. I looked toward the future and it all seemed bleak,” he confided, and I watched him blink and his face transform into a small, almost shy smile. “I watched Marc and Grace and how he was with her. How he was after he met her. And for the first time it was like… he was really living. And I wanted that. I was tired of my life being on hold. Is that weird?”

“Not at all.”

“I got off my ass and did something about it. I ended up here, and that morning when I walked into the kitchen…” His grey-blue eyes made it hard to look away. “And there you were. I think I fell in love with you that first morning.”

“You’re crazy.” I laughed, trying not to cry like a huge weenie.

“Crazy about you.” He grinned, giving me the sweetest featherlight kiss known to man. His lips hovered over mine. “I love you for keeps, Valerie Duncan.” The sincere tone of his voice washed over me as his arms wrapped around me.

Any doubt I had been holding on to was squeezed out and blocked out by Bryan’s body and heart.