She lifted her head to see if Brian had noticed, and when she did, her lips almost touched his. Her eyes widened and she froze. They were a breath away from each other. Her eyes locked with his caramel-colored stare, and she felt that now-familiar pull deep in her belly. Her chest was rapidly rising and falling as her heart raced like it was on the Indy 500 track.
"Becca," Brian growled, and the shiver she'd felt from his touch intensified to a full spasm rocking through her as a small whimper escaped her mouth.
A loud pounding shook the Jeep, breaking the spell, and Brian sat back in his seat. Turning, Becca saw Krista standing on the other side of the window.
"You auditioned for a reality show?" she asked loudly, her arms flying up in the air.
Becca smiled and held up her finger for her sister to hold that thought. As she turned back to Brian, she saw that he was raking his fingers through his hair and his head had dropped back against the headrest. He did not look happy.
"Are you coming in for dinner?" Becca asked, feeling like her world was being turned inside out and upside down. She wasn't sure what had just happened, if it was in her head or real, but she knew that, right now, she didn't want Brian to leave. He was her anchor, her safe place.
When he opened his gorgeous, amber-colored eyes and looked at her, the corner of his mouth turned up in the most adorable lopsided smile. "Yeah. Of course."
She smiled. She might not know how to handle this whole thing with Brian, but she knew she was happy that he was staying for dinner. Very happy.
Chapter Six
Brian opened the front door to his parents' dark house as quietly as possible. He felt like he was a teenager again, sneaking in the house, as he slipped off his shoes so that he could walk soundlessly across the hardwood floors trying not to wake anyone. His dad was doing a lot better, but he still needed all the rest he could get. The last thing Brian wanted to do was wake him up if he'd just fallen asleep.
As the floor creaked beneath his feet, Brian still couldn't believe that this was his life. Being back in Harper's Crossing, working at the shop, caring for his parents and little sister. Not that he would want it any other way. His family needed him, so he was here. But there were definitely moments that his reality seemed surreal, like he was sleepwalking through a bad dream.
He'd worked so hard to transfer as a true junior to NYU and had only been able to spend one year there before life had cruelly ripped his dreams away from him. A part of him wanted to believe that he'd get back there. His dad was getting stronger every day. Actually, aside from working at the garage, Brian hadn't really done all that much in the way of caring for his parents in months. His sister was about to leave for college, so his parents would have an empty nest. No little birdies to keep track of.
Maybe he'd be returning to New York in a few months. Maybe not.
Honestly, that sounded so far in the future that Brian really wasn't going to pin any hopes and dreams on it. What he needed to do now was figure out how he was going to make it through this summer and still have his best friend come fall.
Once he'd opened the refrigerator, Brian pulled out a bottled water and opened it. After taking a swig, he grabbed a bag of tortilla chips and some salsa. He was still pretty hungry. He hadn't eaten much during dinner with the Sloans. He'd been too busy freaking out. All Brian had been able to think about was how close he'd been to kissing Becca before Krista had interrupted them. And not just how close he'd been but also how close Becca had been. He'd seen the look in her eye, heard the catch in her breath.
Or maybe he'd just imagined it. It had happened so fast. He was so confused. And his go-to move was useless considering the source of his confusion and his sounding board was one and the same.
His life had had a lot of unexpected detours, but through it all, he'd had one constant … Becca.
He pulled out the oak kitchen chair and the legs scraped against the tile flooring. As he sat down and opened the bag of chips, he thought about the same thing that had been dominating his thoughts for the past year-his feelings for his best friend.
After spending the day with her, he knew that he had to do something or he was going to seriously jeopardize the most important relationship in his life.
What would have happened if he had kissed Becca in his Jeep?
Would she have kissed him back? If she had, would she have regretted it since this lip lock would have happened when she was stone-cold sober?
Yes. They'd already kissed, but Brian would bet money that Becca didn't remember it. If she had, things would be different between them. Except … things were different between them. He knew he wasn't acting like himself and figured that it was making Becca act differently.
When he'd hugged her goodbye tonight, her body had stiffened and she awkwardly patted his back. That had been a first. They'd always had a fairly affectionate relationship. When they'd watched movies together when they were growing up, Becca would always cuddle up next to him. When she'd been cold at high school football games, he'd given her his jacket and she would scoot as close as possible to him, hanging on his arm for hours.
Tonight, she pulled away from him as soon as his arms had wrapped around her and he'd felt her shiver like his touch had given her the creeps.
Which meant that she must know how he felt, even if just subconsciously. That blue-eyed girl knew him better than anyone. Why Brian had thought that he'd be able to keep her in the dark about something as important as the fact that he'd fallen in love with her, was ridiculous. They were too connected-too in tune-to think that she wouldn't notice his odd behavior.
Brian scooped a chip into the bowl of salsa and popped it in his mouth. As he crunched down on his salty snack, he realized that he needed to talk to Becca about all of this. If he didn't, he would damage their relationship. There was no doubt in his mind.
Before today, part of him-all of him-had been holding out hope that his newly discovered feelings for her would just fizzle out. But after today, he knew that wasn't going to happen.
Brian's stomach flipped with nervous energy as he thought about how Becca would take the news, but deep down, he knew that they would be okay. They were Becca and Brian. Even unwanted, unrequited, unwelcome love couldn't erase a lifetime of them being them.
Yep. He simply needed to lay his cards out on the table so they could deal with this. Maybe, once he said it out loud, it would take some of the power away from it. Maybe facing the issue head on, would snap Brian out of this love-spell he'd fallen under. Maybe they'd even laugh about it … someday.
With the decision made, he felt lighter than he had since he'd walked onto the dance floor a year ago. A weight lifted from his chest-one that he hadn't even realized he'd had since the moment he'd pulled his best friend into his arms at her sister's birthday party. Since the moment his body hadn't responded to Becca as his sidekick, his buddy, his pal-instead, it had responded to her as a woman. Need had shot through him with so much force that his knees had actually buckled beneath him. Luckily, Becca had thought he was just playing around on the dance floor.
Nope. That had not been the case at all. He'd almost fallen flat on his ass from the power of his desire for her.
Honest to God, Brian's first thought had been that he must have been horny. Because come on. It was Becca. But he'd quickly discarded that theory because he'd been with Skylar at the time, having sex on a regular basis. He remembered his mind being flooded in confusion as he'd tried to process the fact that he'd been so hard that he was sure that he was going to have a permanent imprint of his zipper on his shaft as Becca's soft curves had molded against him while they'd swayed to the music together.
He'd thought it would pass. That it was just a phase his body was going through. Possibly just hormones. It wasn't. She needed to know what was going on before he damaged things between them.
Brian stood, rolled the bag of chips up, popped the lid back on the salsa, and moved to the kitchen to put them away. As he walked up the stairs, he yawned, and when his chest expanded without the weight of keeping a fairly important secret from the most important person in his world, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that telling Becca was the right thing to do.
Now, he just needed to get a good night's sleep, and tomorrow, he'd call and see if she wanted to go to breakfast at The Diner, which was a staple in their small hometown of Harper's Crossing. Also, it was kind of ‘their' place. They'd gone there more times than Brian could count. They even had ‘their' booth. It was the round booth in the far left corner.