Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian(36)

Becca's fingers felt like they were as big as sausages. She had  absolutely zero dexterity as she dug clumsily through her bag. She had  to make sure that Frank was okay, that Brian was okay.

"Here. Use mine," Krista offered.

Becca grabbed it, relieved to see that Krista had already placed the  call and it was ringing. After putting the phone to her ear, she waited  as she heard it ring once, twice …  She could hear her heart pounding in  her chest. Three rings …

"Is Becca okay?" Brian answered. Becca heard more than a hint of panic in his voice.

"It's me. I'm fine. I was calling to see if your dad was okay, if you're okay."

"Oh my God. When I saw Krista's number, I thought …  I mean, she's getting married today. Why would she be calling me unless … "

"I'm fine," Becca assured him again.

She felt tears forming in her eyes. She wasn't sure if it was because  she'd missed him so much and just hearing his voice made her feel things  she didn't want to think about or the fact that, even though he was  dealing with a family emergency, he would still be worried about her.

"Is everything okay with your dad? Are you at the hospital? I can be there in ten minutes."

"No, don't do that. He's good, considering," Brian said, suddenly  sounding exhausted. "He had another attack-mild this time. They're  keeping him here for another night, but he's already doing a hundred  percent better."

"Okay. Are you sure you don't want me to head over?" Becca felt like she should at least stop by to see him.

"Yeah. I was just actually leaving to get ready for the wedding," Brian  said, and Becca's heart skipped so many beats that you would have  thought it was in a double-dutch tournament.

"You're still coming to the wedding?" Becca heard her voice crack as tears fell from her cheeks.

"Of course I am," Brian said as if that were obvious.

"Oh … good." Becca knew it was selfish to want Brian to go to a wedding  when his dad was in the hospital. But she couldn't help it. More than a  hot shower, more than a bed to sleep in, more than a hug from her mom,  Becca wanted to see Brian. Just Brian, with no crew or cast around.

"Beckles." Brian's gravelly voice sent a chill skittering down her spine.

"Yeah?" she breathed.

"I miss you," he said with both sadness and, if Becca wasn't mistaken, something really close to desire in his voice.

Her body definitely thought it was desire. Tingles of awareness spread  through her, and she was barely able to speak as she whispered, "I miss  you, too."

The line went dead, and Becca sucked in a shaky breath. She lowered the phone from her ear as tears still poured from her face.

"Wow." Krista's voice startled her, and Becca looked up seeing all three  of her sisters staring down at her. Haley's mouth was hanging open.  Jessie had a knowing look on her face, and Krista was wide-eyed.

Becca had actually forgotten that her sisters were even in the room.

"And I thought my wedding was going to be the most romantic thing I  witnessed today," Krista said as she shook her head. "That was intense."

Becca didn't know if it was because she was exhausted or if she just  finally couldn't hold her feelings in any longer, but whatever the  reason, she started crying even harder. Her sisters all surrounded her,  hugging her and telling her that it was going to be okay.                       
       
           



       

They weren't Brian. They weren't her mom. But Becca sat on the tile  floor surrounded by love and felt so lucky to have her sisters. No  matter what happened, she knew they were right. It would be okay.

* * *

"Hey. How's Sleeping Beauty?" Becca's cousin Alex asked as he walked up and slapped Brian on the shoulder.

Brian just smiled and shook his head. Since he'd gotten home yesterday,  all anyone wanted to talk about was the show. Even his dad's doctor, Dr.  Corbin, had asked him about it. His mom was over the moon that he'd  gotten as far as he had.

Apparently, the show was a runaway hit. Even in the airport, he'd had  people coming up to him, asking him for autographs, and wanting to take  pictures with him. It had taken him almost an hour just to get to his  Jeep in the parking structure.

Alex tilted his head as he leaned back on the fence that Brian had been  posted up against for the last half hour. The wedding reception was  being held on the riverbank. When Brian had first heard that that's  where Krista and Chase had chosen to have the ceremony and reception,  he'd thought that it was kind of an odd choice, but he could not have  been more wrong.

The wedding had been small and had a very intimate feel. And short-the  entire thing had only lasted for about fifteen minutes. But it had been  breathtakingly beautiful. They had timed it perfectly so that the sun  was setting behind them, the water flowing majestically beside them, and  there were twinkle lights strung through the tree they'd said their  vows under.

It had been magical.

"Man, that Brooklyn's a piece of work, huh?" Alex said after a few minutes.

"You have no idea," Brian replied flatly.

Alex let out a forced laugh. "Yeah, I think I do. The second I saw her,  that manic-slash-crazed look in her eye, I started having nightmare  flashbacks of some of the crazies I used to waste my time with before  Jamie." Alex's voice was filled with love as his eyes locked on his  wife, who was tearing it up on the dance floor with her son Joey, Alex's  stepson.

Brian figured that, if anyone knew what he had been dealing with when it  came to Brooklyn, it probably would be Alex. He'd been quite the  ladies' man before he'd met Jamie. And if memory served, some of the  girls Alex had messed around with had actually made Brooklyn look tame.

Alex turned back to Brian. "So, when's the show over?"

"The finale is in a week and then the winner has to do a month of promo.  Also, they offered an additional bonus if the couple agrees to let the  show document the first year of the relationship for a spin-off." Brian  didn't mention that they got an additional bump if they actually made it  a year.

"Wow. Well, I would say good luck, but since you're competing against  Becs, I have to roll with family on this one," Alex said good-naturedly.  "I am firmly Team Becca and Colton."

Brian smiled, trying not to show how Alex's statement affected him. And  it did affect him. Not because they were his competitors; obviously, he  had mixed emotions over whether or not he actually wanted to win this  thing. It was just that, every time he heard someone refer to Becca as  ‘Becca and Colton,' it seriously felt like someone had kicked him in the  balls.

Yesterday, when he had some downtime at the hospital, he made the  colossal mistake of going online and reading the tweets, threads,  comments, and posts about the show. Some of them had been funny and  really entertaining. Some of them had been unfairly cruel in Brian's  opinion. Not anything that had been directed towards him-he would have  taken it in stride if they had been-but he felt protective of his other  cast mates. And not just Becca either. He even felt protective of Jax,  Madison, and-he hated to say it-Brooklyn as well. They were just people.  Sure, they had issues, and Brian would never, willingly, choose to  spend his time with any of them, but they didn't deserve to be ripped  apart and villainized.

Becca, Brian, and Colton had gotten off rather easily. Most people only  had good things to say about them. But the part that killed Brian was  hearing how much everyone thought that Becca and Colton were ‘the  perfect couple.' It seemed that was the popular opinion, and as much as  Brian wanted to say that all of those people were wrong, he knew that  the only reason it bothered him so much was that he saw the truth in it.

"It's so weird to see you guys on there," Alex said casually. "I think  it would probably be less weird if you guys had been paired up together.  I think everyone has always assumed that you and Becca would end up  together."

Yeah. That wasn't news to Brian. It seemed that everyone had seen for  years what he'd been blind as a bat to-that he and Becca belonged  together.                       
       
           



       

"Hey, how's your dad?" Alex asked, thankfully changing the subject.

"He's doing better. They think he'll be released tomorrow."

"Oh, that's great, man." Alex held up his beer and clinked his in cheers with Brian's.

Then they both turned as they heard Alex's name being called. His wife  was standing in the middle of the dance floor, her hands held up like  she didn't know what happened. A huge smile was on her face as she  called out, "I got ditched!"