Breaking Brandon (Fate) (32 page)

Regina smirked. “Ah huh.”

“Never mind that,” Bell said, coming around the table, and took Regina’s hand in hers. “Are you engaged?”

With a giddy smile, Regina nodded. “We weren’t going to make a big formal announcement, but I was waiting for you to be done with all the formalities and sitti
ng down to relax to tell you guys and Mom.”

Pat hugged her first, congratulating her, then Bell, which caught the attention of Valerie and Sofia, who were walking by. “What’s going on?” Valerie asked.

“Gina and Brandon are engaged,” Bell nearly squealed.

“
Oh wow! Congratulations,” Valerie said, reaching out to hug her.

Next came Sofia, who smiled big. “I’m so happy for you. You two are such a sweet couple.”

Regina barely had a chance to smile and thank them when both Pat and Bell whisked her away. They walked over to Brandon and practically tackle-hugged him. Then they rushed over to where Regina’s mom sat with her aunts eating cake. Within minutes, it was all everyone was talking about, and Brandon and Regina were besieged with hugs and well wishes.

~*~

Brandon

“
¡Ay qué guapo!
” Regina’s elderly Aunt Benny held Brandon’s hand in her fragile little hand, nodding with a big smile. “
Bien venido a la familia—”

“Tia Benny.”
Regina smiled and glanced back at Brandon. “
Brandon no habla Español
.” She turned back to Brandon. “She’s says you’re very handsome and welcomes you to the family.”

“Oh,” Brandon said, turning to her aunt with a smile. “
Gracias
.”

He was grateful he remembered one of the few Spanish words he
knew. He wasn’t sure what Regina had said to her aunt, but he was fairly certain she’d once again reminded her he didn’t speak Spanish. Regina had warned Brandon about her aunt ahead of time. “No matter how many times I reminded her Ryan didn’t speak Spanish, he’d had to sit and listen to her long stories in Spanish many times. She’s probably worse now since she’s gotten older. Ryan always just smiled and nodded.”

Brandon did the same thing now. He smiled and nodded as her aunt nodded back and smiled then s
he glanced back at Regina. “¿
Le dieron pastel
?” She then turned back to Brandon with a concerned look. “¿
Comio pastel? Está muy bueno.
”

Again Brandon smiled and nodded. Regina smiled at him and shrugged. “She wants to know if you had cake.”

“Yes,” Brandon smiled, touching his stomach. “It was very good.”

Regina’s mother came over, and the three women began talking way too fast for Brandon to keep up with his very limited Spanish. Casually, he walked away over to the big aquarium in the next room. This was h
is first moment alone since they arrived, and he took a deep breath then exhaled slowly. These visits with her family with the Morenos around were getting a little easier. It was always a bit tense at first, but after a few minutes, he’d begin to feel more comfortable.

“Congrats.”

Brandon turned, surprised to see Sofie smiling at him. “Thanks,” he smiled, trying not to look as uncomfortable as he felt.

So far all the other times he’d had to be around her, especially since he’d been busy consoling Regina at
her father’s services, she’d been the only one of the Moreno clan he had yet to speak to. He figured it’d happen eventually. He just didn’t think it’d happen when they were alone.

“Gina’s a great girl. You two should be really happy.” She glanced in the di
rection where Bell and Romero sat with her brother Art and his wife. “Her family really likes you too, as they should.”

Brandon smirked, nodding. “Yeah, Aunt Benny says I’m handsome.”

Sofie laughed sweetly. “Aunt Benny knows what she’s talking about.”

Feel
ing the smirk diminish, he took a sip of his beer, not sure how to respond to that. Sofie glanced around, a bit guarded.

“Listen, Brandon,” she said, lowering her voice a bit. “I didn’t think I’d ever get a chance to, but now that I have it I want to make
sure I apologize.”

He stared at her confused. “For what?”

“Everything that happened in the past. It wasn’t fair that you took the blame for it all when I’d willingly gone along with it. You have no idea . . .” She stopped and smirked. “Well, actually you probably do have a
very
good idea what it was like to deal with my brothers.”

Brandon couldn’t help but smirk either. “Yeah, I have a pretty good idea.”

“I want you to know I did try to explain to them that it wasn’t all you. I even tried explaining it to Eric, but after everything that happened and given the history they had with you, it was impossible to get them to think objectively. They just weren’t seeing it. As far as they were concerned, no matter what I said, I was being naïve and it was all you.” She rolled her eyes. “I gave up trying to convince them, and after you left, I figured it didn’t matter. Even though that was a long time ago, I’ve always felt bad about it.”

Of course, he’d never tell her how much she’d affected him and for how long. In hi
ndsight, he knew now it wasn’t so much what happened between them but
when
it happened. The timing couldn’t have been worse. Aside from the horrific incident he’d gone through with Regina, that year was one of the most devastating of his life. Because things had gone down with her that same year, he just always associated her with the worst period of his life. He’d been swept up into that memory, but really, the memory of the first girl he thought he had feelings for and didn’t reciprocate shouldn’t have been so tragic.

He’d since come to another conclusion, and
that
he would tell her. “I was angry about that for a long time, but you know what? I’m glad things happened the way they did.”

Smiling, he thought about the tattoo on his abdomen, and for one very f
oolish moment he considered lifting his shirt and showing it to her. He almost had to laugh, knowing that, while seemingly no one appeared to be paying attention to them, if he did, he’d be tackled on the spot.

“Shakespeare said it first, but then a very w
ise woman said it to me later. ‘What’s past is prologue.’”

Her eyes widened, and she seemed almost embarrassed. “I’m still no good at deciphering poems or whatever things that deep mean.”

“It just means my past set up my present, and I’m presently one very happy man.”

Regina walked up to them suddenly, slipping her hand into his. “And I’m one very happy woman.”

Sofie smiled genuinely. “And I’m very happy for you both.”

A crying baby got Sofia’s attention, and she excused herself. Regina turned to look at hi
m, squeezing his hand and lifting a brow with a smirk. “I was jealous for a moment there when I saw you two chatting alone,” she whispered, poking him in the ribs with her elbow. “You don’t even know how lucky you are I walked up at just the right moment. You would’ve had one crabby brat to deal with for the rest of the night.”

“Crabby brat?” He grinned. “Not my princess,” he said, leaning his forehead against hers. “And trust me. I know just how lucky I am.”

~*~

Regina

“I’d say your family’s excited.” Brandon smiled, kissing Regina as he opened the car door for her.

Regina was still walking on air. She couldn’t believe what a difference a few months made. The first couple of weeks after her dad’s death had been incredibl
y depressing—something she’d never thought she’d get past. Luckily, she had Brandon to help her through it. With each day that passed the world got a little brighter.

She was even beginning to deal better with knowing Janecia was now also engaged to a man
who owned a motorcycle—one she’d been on more than once. Though secretly she knew her dealing better with it had everything to do with the fact that Janecia was pregnant now. Not only had she told Regina there was no way she was getting on a motorcycle while she was pregnant she’d also mentioned Clay had been the one to bring up trading in his “Hog” for a better suited family SUV. It wasn’t a done deal yet, but Regina had her fingers crossed.

She turned to Brandon and took his hand between both of hers then
leaned her cheek against it, feeling so blessed to have him in her life. Brandon glanced at her and smiled. “Chocolate for your thoughts.”

“Deal!” she said, smiling big.

“Chocolate-chocolate-chip waffles?” he asked, switching lanes suddenly. “They serve them all day.”

“Yes,” she said quickly with a giggle.

That made her even more excited. She’d never been into carrot cake and that was the kind Bell had gotten for Romero. Regina had barely touched her slice.

“Okay, so let’s have it,” Brandon said. “What’s t
hat dreamy smile about?”

She didn’t want to kill their happy moment, but she wouldn’t lie either. “I truly believe you and I were meant to save each other.” They came to a stop, and he turned to stare at her but said nothing. She immediately felt choked up
, but she had to continue. “I never told you this, but that day you found me in my bathroom hysterical, I had every intention of putting that gun against my head. My heart felt so hopelessly broken it literally ached with every beat. But it wasn’t until I heard your cries . . . It wasn’t until I
felt
how much I’d be hurting you in the process that I instantly regretted having so much as thought of doing something that would devastate you like that.”

Brandon was staring straight ahead now, his own eyes teari
ng up. “I’ve had some bad days in my life,” he whispered. “But that was by far the worst one ever.”

“Medication or not, I can promise you this with absolute certainty. Those thoughts will
never
cross my mind again. It’s not about just me anymore. I live for you, Brandon. And I’d never do that to you.
Ever.
”

She kissed his hand and he pulled her hand to him gently. “Good,” he said, kissing her hand too. “Because I don’t know about
me
saving
you
, but I
know
you saved me.” He shook his head as a single tear slid down the side of his face, and he leaned in and kissed her. “I live for you too, baby.

Epilogue

Mrs. Billings

My wife

My princess

My love

My world

Lost for a moment, still staring at the tattoo he’d gotten on his upper
arm just over a year ago, Brandon’s train of thought was derailed as Regina gasped and Buddy, their six-month-old beagle, barked.

“Artie baby, not so fast!”

Brandon glanced up at the tall slide his son was now rushing up the ladder of. He tugged on Buddy’s leash to calm him then smiled. “He’s all right,” he assured her, wrapping his arm around her from behind and rubbing her pregnant belly.

“He wants to keep up with all the other boys, but he’s the littlest one,” she said.

Brandon watched as his son effortlessly climbed the ladder and reached the top, holding his hand out for him to see. He gave his son the thumbs up and smiled. A few years ago, having a family of his own was the furthest thing on his mind. Now here he was with a wife, a son, another one on the way, and a dog.

Artie grabbed hold of the pole on top of the slide and swung himself out over the open slide, laughing and making Regina gasp again and pull away from Brandon.

“Arturo Stephen Billings, don’t you dare do that again!”

Brandon made eye contact with Artie and shot him a warning look. His son sat down on the slide and slid down hands in the air. He came down so fast he flew into another boy at the bottom and they both fell into the sand. The other boy, at le
ast two years older and twice his size, got up then shoved Artie back into the sand. Artie rolled around, laughing.

Regina started to charge. “Hey! That’s not nice!” she said to the other boy who’d already started walking away but turned to look at her.

“Relax,” Brandon assured her again. “He loves that shit. It’s just horseplay, baby. It’s what boys do.”

Artie was already running back to climb the ladder of the slide. One of the other boys pushed him aside and climbed up before him.

“No pushing!” Regina yelled out, glaring at the other boy.

Artie didn’t even flinch as he rushed up behind the other boy, laughing. Brandon watched, chuckling and calming Regina the whole time. It was the same thing every time they came to the park. By the time they packed thing
s up, Brandon could see his son wouldn’t even make it out of the parking lot awake. As usual, he made Dad proud, playing hard and keeping up with the big boys the entire time.

Brandon chased him down and tackled him on the grass. Buddy joined in the fun, j
umping all over them both. This was something he’d never had the pleasure of doing with his own dad, and it was something he knew Artie loved. It was now one of his most favorite things to do with his boy—wrestle and see how much Artie enjoyed their time together.

“Time to go,” he said as Artie tried to squirm away, laughing hysterically, and Brandon tickled him. “I said it’s time to go. Hey,” he said as his son continued to squirm. “Who loves you?”

“Mommy!” Artie laughed.

“Who else?”

“Buddy!”

This was a ga
me they played, and Artie loved teasing him. “Wise guy, huh,” Brandon tickled him even more making him squeal loudly. “Who else?”

“You!” he finally screeched. “You love me, Daddy.”

“You bet your butt I do,” Brandon said, standing up and pulling him up with him. “You have fun today, champ?” He asked him as he sat him on his shoulders.

“Yeah, fun!” Artie said, and Brandon felt him kiss him on the head.

“Next time maybe we leave Momma Bear home,” Brandon said with a smirk, and Regina peered at him menacingly. “She doesn’t get it.”

“No, Mommy come too.” Artie said.

“All right, all right,” Brandon said with a conceding smile in Regina’s direction. “I guess she can come with us next time.”

Once they had Artie in his car seat and they both sat up front, Brandon che
cked his rearview mirror and could see his son was already having a hard time keeping his heavy eyelids open. When he saw Brandon looking at him, he opened up his eyes wide in an effort to fight the inevitable slumber. His big blue eyes stared at him for a moment before the lashes came down again slowly.

“I don’t know why he tries to fight it.” Brandon smiled as he pulled out of the parking lot.

“I don’t know why he tries so hard to do
everything
those other boys do.” Regina frowned. “They’re all so much bigger than he is. Maybe there’s a park somewhere else for just little kids his age.”

“No way,” Brandon said, smiling. “He loves it. Besides, if we go somewhere with little kids, he’ll be doing all the pushing. Then you’ll have to hear it from all the other
momma bears.”

“He’s not a bully!” she said.

Brandon laughed. “I know, but he doesn’t know his own strength. He just bulldozes through a crowd of kids, so it’s better that it’s a crowd of bigger kids than smaller ones.”

“That’s your fault for always wrestli
ng with him. It’s all he ever wants to do, even with my brother and sisters—
girls
.”

Again Brandon couldn’t help laughing. “Well, we’ll just have to teach him some manners with that. It’s not okay to push girls around, but with boys, it’s fine, even bigger
ones.”

Regina sighed, rubbing her swollen belly, then groaned. “I can’t even imagine two of them.”

“Yeah, that’s gonna be fun,” Brandon agreed with an even bigger smile.

Regina’s brother had given up trying for a boy after three girls.
Regina mentioned it would’ve been nice if her brother had had a boy and they’d named him after her brother and her dad. So when their son was born, Brandon insisted she name him after her dad. She then insisted if they were doing that his middle name would be after Brandon’s dad. Now that they had another boy on the way, she’d already told him this one would be named Brandon. He’d agreed, though she’d balked at the suggestion that if they ever had a girl she’d be named Princess.

“No way,” she’d said. “Girls
are evil. She’d probably have a miserable time in school with all the other jealous girls hating on her just because of her name.”

As much as Brandon had talked shit about families like the Moreno’s who were way too overprotective about the princess in th
eir family, he already knew he was going to be a total hypocrite about it. He made no apologies. How the hell was he supposed to know what it felt like to love someone so much you’d be ready to kill if anyone messed with him? He felt this way about both Regina and Artie already, and he was damned sure it’d be even worse with a little girl.

Now that they were going to have two bulldozing boys, maybe if their third was a girl, he could convince Regina that, with brothers like Artie and little Brandon, no one
would pick on their daughter, not even girls. Brandon still had time to work on her.

They got home and started their nightly ritual. Regina finished changing their half-asleep little boy into his jammies, saying she didn’t have the heart to put him in the
tub now as sleepy as he was.

“He can take a bath in the morning,” she said. Artie stood a little wobbly, holding on to Regina with one hand and rubbing his eye with his other. “Say goodnight to Daddy.”

“Goodnight, Daddy,” Artie said.

“Goodnight, champ.” Br
andon smiled, his heart swelling as it always did when his little boy smiled at him. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Artie said as he took Regina’s hand and they began to walk away.

Brandon waited to see if his smartass kid would ruin the tender moment like he always did by saying something to take from it. As young as he was, Artie already knew how to make a funny, but Brandon thought he might be too sleepy. Just when Brandon thought he was home free and he’d gotten an “I love you” from his son with no follow-up wisecracks, Artie turned and smiled.

“And Buddy too.”

Brandon jumped from the sofa, making Artie squeal and take off running to his room. He heard Regina groan as he ran past her to catch Artie.

“Brandon!” she whined. “He was almost out for the nigh
t. Oh my God, I
already
have two of them.”

Brandon laughed as he tackled Artie on the floor, shushing him because he was suddenly wide awake. “I think we’re in trouble,” he said as Artie scrambled to his feet.

Just seeing his son’s bright smile as he leaped into the air to make a flying tackle onto him had him smiling big. Artie landed on Brandon’s stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of him, but he still had to laugh. “Good one!” he said with a groan.

Maybe they would be in trouble, but this was totally w
orth it.