Taking Chances(146)

“Brandon, I –”

He brushed his thumb over my lips and slowly shook his head, “I was stupid.” His voice was soft but rougher than usual, “So stupid. I missed fighting, and hated that people thought I stopped because I was scared. When he called –” his eyes briefly left mine as he tried to search for words, “it was like what happened last year was nothing, just another minor injury. I felt like I needed to prove something to myself, to Scarecrow, to Demon…everyone. I knew leaving was about the worst thing I could do, and I knew you would hate me when I got home, but I couldn’t stop. I had to go, I had to fight.

“I felt sick as soon as the fight was over, I knew I’d fucked up. I should have felt that the minute you stepped away from me when you realized what was happening, but I’d been too wrapped up in it all to even absorb what you were saying to me until it was done. I got here as fast as possible, ready to get on my knees and beg you to forgive me for doing that to you…it never occurred to me you’d be gone.” The pain in his eyes was tearing at me and he had to take a few deep breaths before continuing, “We tried calling you dozens of times, Jeremy went to Mom’s house to look for you, the rest of us went to Robert and Claire’s. Claire lost it when she realized she’d let both of you just leave. No one had any idea where you would have gone. God Harper, I thought I’d never see you or Liam again. You, Liam and the baby are my world. I don’t know how to live without you. I know I messed up, I know I hurt you, but please don’t do that to me again. I love you more than my own life Harper. I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

I studied his face as I spoke, “I felt like you didn’t care about us enough, if you would go and do something like that, without a thought as to how it could hurt our family.”

Brandon’s eyes shut tight and he dropped his head into the crook of my neck, breathing in deep. “That couldn’t be fur–”

“Brandon? Harper?!”

We sat up at Bree’s shrill voice and were off the bed before she got to the room. Taking four long steps toward us, her palm connected with my face before I even registered her hand swinging back.

“Breanna!” Konrad yelled and reached for her.

Brandon cupped my cheeks gently, his eyes wide with shock, fear and anger. Before he could say or do anything, Bree was pulling me into her arms for a too-tight embrace.

“You can’t do that.” She cried and clutched me even tighter, “You can’t leave. We thought – we thought you were gone for good. You made me go so you could leave! Why wouldn’t you tell me? You’re my sister, you can’t just leave. I’ve been going crazy looking for you, Mom and Dad are so upset –” She continued to ramble until her body was shaking.

“Shh.” I ran my hand through her short hair, “It’s okay Bree. I’m not going anywhere.” After sitting both of us on the bed, I rubbed small circles on her back and let her cry. Looking at Konrad and Brandon, I realized how much every one of us in our ever-growing, mismatched family needed each other. There was so much loss for everyone that we all clung to each other for one reason or another. Anything we did immediately affected the rest of us, something I should have taken into consideration before trying to avoid my husband for a little over a day.

Bree sobs turned to hiccups not long after and she pulled back to look at me, “I’m sorry for slapping you, I can’t believe I did that.”

The corners of my mouth tilted up, “I think I deserved that one friend.”

“Okay, yeah. You really did.” She made a weak attempt at laughing, “When did you come back?”

“About half an hour before you showed up. Sorry for worrying all of you.”

“Oh! We have to call Mom and Dad!” She started scrambling around for her purse.

“I let them know.” Konrad said from the doorjamb where he was talking to Brandon.

“Mom and Jer know too.” Brandon added, “I’m guessing we have another twenty or so minutes before they all start getting here to talk to you. Would you two give us a minute?”

Bree took Konrad’s outstretched hand before turning back to look at me, “Where’s Liam?”

“He’s napping.” Brandon answered and said something low to Konrad, who nodded and led Bree from the room.

Walking to me slowly, he brushed his fingers across the cheek that still stung and pressed his lips there softly. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Are you?”

“You’re back, so yes I am.” His fingers gently tilted my head back so I was looking into his eyes, “I love you Harper Taylor, and I love our family. Please don’t ever doubt that again.”