The worst part about this whole hormone-twisted state of affairs was that the person Becca would normally talk to about this kind of ‘situation' was totally out of the question-since he was the source of her current lust-addled condition. Brian. Her best friend.
She was close to her sisters, but the idea of talking to them about her predicament did not appeal to her in the least. Maybe it was because she was the baby of the family, or maybe it was because she had never had anything-other than scholastic achievements-that was even in the ballpark of personal to share before now. It wasn't like they wouldn't listen to her, and she was sure that they would be more than happy to share their advice on the subject. Still, thinking of starting off a conversation with, "Yeah, soooo … You know how I've always said that Brian and I are just friends, and that nothing is going on between us? Well, guess what? I can't stop thinking about seeing him naked," made her feel nauseated.
"Do you know him?" Stella's light-gray eyes were wide with excitement.
"Yes," Becca replied, her brow knitting. She'd already told the woman that she and Brian were ‘just friends' and that they'd met in pre-K. Of course she knew him.
"Have you ever been to one of his concerts?"
Oooh, right. That makes a lot more sense. Just because Becca's mind was all Brian, all the time, did not mean that he was all anyone else could think about.
"Um, yeah. I have. Once when he was in Midnight Rush and once since he's been solo," Becca explained.
When she'd gone with a few of her friends her freshman year to see Midnight Rush, the seats had been nosebleed. She hadn't told Chase that she was going because he and her sister had been broken up for years by then. But when she'd gone and seen him this past fall with Krista, they were front row in the VIP section. Becca was probably the most low-key, low-maintenance, no-frills, no-fuss girl she knew, but even she had to admit that, although both concerts were amazing, front-row seats and backstage passes were a lot better.
"Is Chase going to be picking you up from the airport?" Stella asked, hope brimming from her eyes.
"No, Brian is," Becca explained, pointing to his picture once again.
"Oh, right." Stella nodded and patted the back of Becca's hand again. "That makes sense as to why you're not dressed for paparazzi pictures, sweetie pie."
Becca looked down. She was wearing jeans, a white V-neck T-shirt and Converse tennis shoes. Stella was right-she was definitely not dressed to have her picture taken. Now that she really looked at herself, she started to question whether or not she was dressed to see Brian for the first time in six months.
Why hadn't she put more thought into her appearance before leaving this morning? It wasn't like she hadn't put thought into the fact that she'd be seeing Brian again. That's all she'd thought about for months.
Shoot. She couldn't even apply some makeup to sexy herself up a bit. All of her beauty products were in her suitcase.
Nerves bubbled up inside of her like a volcano ready to erupt at the prospect of Brian seeing her like this. For the last two weeks, she'd been lucky if she'd even gotten three hours of sleep a night. She hadn't plucked her eyebrows since … since … crap, since Christmas, which was the last time she'd seen Brian.
It doesn't matter, Becca reminded herself. They were just friends.
"Are you okay, dear?" Stella asked, looking genuinely concerned. "You've gone as white as a ghost."
Becca had always had extremely fair skin, but whenever she got nervous, upset, or scared, it was as if any skin pigmentation she did possess drained out of her completely.
"I'm fine. Everything's fine." Becca wasn't sure if she was assuring herself or Stella. Probably both.
"So, who are all of these other lovely people?" Stella asked, her voice sounding a little high in forced interest.
Becca appreciated the woman's not-so-subtle attempt to distract her, even though she knew that Stella had no idea what was weighing on her mind. "These are my sisters. The bride is Haley. She's the oldest, and behind her is her husband Eddie. Then the redhead is Krista. She's the second oldest. And you know her fiancé Chase. Next up is Jessie, and that's Zach, who is her husband now, but at the time this pic was taken, they were just ‘pretending' to be a couple."
"Ooooh, that sounds like fun." Stella's eyes sparked with excitement as she rubbed her hands together conspiratorially.
"It was certainly fun to watch." Becca smiled, thinking back on watching her extremely private sister have to ‘pretend' to have a very public relationship. "So that's all my sisters. Then these guys"-she pointed to the back row of Sloan men-"are my cousins."
"My, what a good-looking family you have," Stella said with appreciation.
"Thanks." Becca hadn't really given it much thought before now, but looking down at them all together, she guessed Stella had a point. They weren't a bad-looking group. "This is Seth. He's the oldest of the five boys. And that's his wife Amber."
"She is stunning," Stella breathed.
"She is," Becca agreed. She remembered the first time she'd met Amber. She'd thought that she was the most beautiful person Becca had ever seen in real life. That was ten years ago and she was still the most beautiful person Becca had ever seen.
"And who is that?" Stella asked, pointing to Riley. He stood out among her cousins as being the only blond. Also, all of her cousins were in amazing shape, but Riley looked like he could be on the cover of a fitness magazine.
"That's Riley. He's the second oldest, and next to him is his wife Chelle, who is Haley's husband Eddie's little sister. Also, fun fact, Riley and Eddie have been best friends since grade school-"
"Oh boy," Stella interrupted. "How did Eddie take it when Riley started making moves on his little sister?"
Becca laughed that Stella had picked up on that. This woman might be up there in years, but she was still sharp as a tack. "From what I heard, not well. But they worked it out." Then Becca continued. "Next up is Jason, and that is his wife Katie. Then there's Alex and his wife Jamie, and the baby of the family is Bobby, and that's his wife Sophie."
"And then you and Brian," Stella said, her eyes glimmering with affection.
Yep. And then me and Brian.
* * *
"Oh come on!" Brian hit his palm against the steering wheel. He could not believe that traffic was this bad. It also didn't help that people were driving like idiots because of it. He'd just been cut off for the fifth time in less than twenty minutes.
Normally, he was not a road-rage guy, but he hated being late under normal circumstances and today was not normal circumstances. He would be seeing Becca for the first time in six months. His nerves had been shot for the last couple of weeks leading up to this day, and they weren't improving while he was sitting here, trapped, in bumper-to-bumper gridlock.
He'd even left for the airport an hour earlier than necessary to give himself some extra time to arrive and then prepare himself before he laid eyes on her again. He wanted to have time to try to set the scene of their meeting in his head so he could mentally rehearse acting like the guy he'd always been to her, like the guy she depended on, like the guy he was-her best friend. Nothing more. He had to make absolutely sure that Brian-the man who'd realized that, sometime over the last decade, he'd fallen madly, totally, completely in love with Becca-did not make an appearance.
Usually, Brian was a ‘what you see is what you get' type of guy. He'd never tried to be something he wasn't. In grade school, when kids would tease him about his best friend being a girl, Brian hadn't cared. His best friend was a girl. In middle school, when the guys from his baseball team had given him crap about being in the school play, Brian had shrugged it off. In high school, when he'd had to break the news to his parents that he, their eldest son, didn't want to stay in his hometown of Harper's Crossing and take over the family business or accept his full-ride scholarship to play baseball at Ball State, but instead was headed to New York because he had been accepted into NYU's film and television program, it had been hard but he'd done it because he knew he had to be true to himself.
Brian had known that he would have been miserable staying home and running Scott Automotive Repair Shop. Unfortunately, his younger brother Brenden had had no interest in it either and had accepted his baseball scholarship. The kid had been doing well too, up until he'd torn his Achilles' tendon. Brian didn't know what his brother's plans were now.