Matt & Brooklyn: A Standalone in the "Again for the First Time" Family Saga (AFTFT Book 2) (12 page)

“Brook, can we talk for a second?” The sound of Matt’s voice startled me when he approached from behind. I was hoping he’d realize that I needed a moment to myself, that I needed to sort things out, but here he was. I should have expected that, though. Whereas I prefer to take a step back and evaluate, Matt is more of a
‘strike while the iron is hot’
kind of guy.

“I can’t.” My voice sounded so weak, frail as I stared at him, feeling so many things all at once. “There’s nothing—”

“There’s
plenty
to talk about,” he countered, finishing my thought. His long fingers touched my wrist, lightly at first, and then his entire hand consumed mine. He took a breath and I wanted to look away from him. I swear I did, but I just couldn’t figure out how. He had me under his spell again and I wished there was a way to break it. “Don’t shut me out.”

It felt so surreal having this conversation with him, mostly because we never acknowledged this side of our relationship. I wasn’t ready to face this head-on, though. It didn’t matter that not even two minutes ago I was about to ruin everything by kissing him. What mattered was that I had a clear head now and I wouldn’t let my guard down again… because I was beginning to accept that he’s my weakness.

It felt strange even admitting that inside my own head.

“I’m not shutting you out,” I rebutted quietly, not wanting anyone to overhear, although we both knew that was a lie.

He said nothing, just broke me down with that damn stare of his.

“Can I get you a drink, sir?” the bartender asked.

“Rum and Coke,” Matt answered without looking away from me.

I was trapped, a prisoner of his gaze. Heat rushed up my body, my neck, my face. The tension was growing, making my skin tingle as I waited for whatever was building in the atmosphere. I could literally feel it. Something was coming. Something big; a change.

As soon as Matt’s lips parted to speak, I interrupted, knowing I wasn’t ready to hear whatever he was getting ready to say.

“Not here,” I insisted, halting him. “When we get back to your place later, we’ll talk about it.” I legitimately did not want to have this conversation in a public place, in front of all these people, but this was more of a stall tactic than anything. Maybe by then, I’d think up an excuse for my behavior a moment ago, a way to explain away the fact that I almost kissed him.

He was unsettled; I could see it in his body language—shoulders squared, jaw tight. I understood his frustration, but…

“That’s fine. I’ll just let Mara and Dean know we won’t be hanging out with them,” he concluded, not wanting to put this off any longer than we already had. The next second, Matt let my hand go and was on his way to inform the newlyweds that we wouldn’t be joining them, but I didn’t want that either.

“Don’t,” I insisted, stopping him before he walked off. “They invited us and I think we should go,” I added, stalling again. “When we get back tonight, if it’s not too late, we’ll pick this up.”

Matt was shaking his head before I even finished speaking. “It doesn’t matter how late it is. We should talk regardless.”

There was no more sand left in the hourglass. He was finally putting his foot down, which meant my days of hiding from my feelings had come to an untimely end… and I was woman enough to admit that I was afraid of where that would lead.

I knew that waiting until the end of the night was the best I’d get out of him, though, so I nodded and accepted my fate. “Okay… tonight then.”

Chapter Six

Brookly
n

Wetness against my toes.

Something scratchy against one cheek.

Heat against the other.

Where the hell am I?

I squinted my eyes and it dawned on me that I’d at least identified the source of heat—the sun. I was outside.

Why
was I outside, though?
That didn’t make sense.

The wetness touched my toes again and this time I recognized the sound of waves accompanying it. The scratchy substance I had my face pressed against was sand—ugh… I’d have fun washing that out of my hair.

I groaned when I braced my hand on the ground, planning to pull myself up so I could figure out what was going on. However, when I went to do so, a throbbing in my head stopped me and so did a heavy arm draped over my waist. Startled, I glanced behind me, only partially relieved to find that the arm belonged to Matt; relieved because at least I knew it wasn’t a stranger; alarmed because I had absolutely no recollection of how we ended up out here. Nor could I recall anything that happened before or after that.

We were both still fully clothed, so that was a plus. And judging by the way my head hurt, I knew a ton of alcohol was to blame for my nonexistent memory. The last thing I remembered was drinking in Mara’s and Dean’s limo—a lot, hoping to settle my nerves about me and Matt’s impending conversation. That was all I managed to hold on to, though.

“Matt… wake up.” I croaked sleepily, nudging him. I only managed to rouse a low moan out of him. “Matt!” I said louder, shaking him hard this time.

“What? Yeah? I’m up,” he stammered, sitting up suddenly when I managed to wake him. He wiped his hand down his face before realizing his fingers were covered in sand.

“Aww, what the hell?” he asked groggily, spitting grains from his lip.

“My sentiments exactly,” I sighed. “Do you remember how we got out here?”

He shook his head, unable to clear things up for me. I looked down at my bare, wet feet, then my sandy dress and legs. We were a mess. Both of us. When my eyes went back to Matt, he was trying not to laugh. Of
course
he’d find humor in this. That’s Matt…

“Don’t even,” I warned. Despite how disgusting I felt at the moment, he made me laugh, too.

“Dude… you’re filthy,” he pointed out, as if I didn’t already know that. “You look like Pig-pen from
Charlie Brown
.”

I scooped up a handful of sand and flung it at him as he stood. We both wreaked of whatever liquor we’d been drinking, so it was nothing short of a miracle that we even made it back to his house. When he offered his hand, I took it and stood, too, feeling my head spin when I did.

“Remind me never to party with you and your friends again,” I mumbled, matching his slow steps toward his deck. None of this made any sense.

“Depending on whether or not I can get this tux clean again, they might not even be my friends at this point,” he joked, attempting to pull the French doors open; however, they didn’t budge. He felt his pockets for his keys.

“Oh come on…”

I let out a breath, realizing we were locked out. “This just keeps getting better.”

We followed the porch around to the front to check that door, too. No luck, but I did find my purse and shoes beneath the swing. Apparently,
drunk
me thought that was a good place for them.

“No chance you have a spare, is there?” I asked.

He shook his head like I expected him to. “No, but maybe I left a window unlocked by accident, though. Couldn’t hurt to check.”

I followed him around as he tugged each one. None of them budged.

Frustrated, he let out a breath. “Damn.”

“Maybe you left them on the yacht.”

He shook his head. “No, I think I put them with my equipment when I loaded it up in the limo last night.”

Realizing that Matt was also missing his phone, I fished mine out of my purse so he could call Dean, hoping that he had Matt’s things. I also hoped he could shed some light on the night before.

I handed the phone over to Matt, but dug inside my purse again. The sun glinted off something shiny, something I didn’t recognize—a DVD with yesterday’s date on it. Confused, I pulled it out, trying to remember where it’d come from.

“Hey… hello?” Matt said into the phone when Dean answered. “Dude, wake up. Please tell me you have my things,” he added desperately. When he breathed a sigh of relief, I knew the answer. “Thank you. We’re locked out,” he explained. “All right… cool. See you in a few.”

He hung up and handed my phone back, also noticing the disk I held. “What’s that?”

I shrugged. “No idea. I guess we’ll find out when we get inside and watch it,” I reasoned.

We took a seat side-by-side on the swing. While most of the night was a blur, I did, however, remember what had taken place on the yacht deck.

Stupid…

Thinking about it, I lowered my head. We had a premier to go to tonight, but with all the hours in between then and now, there were sure to be several awkward moments between us.

What was I thinking? What would possess me to try to kiss him?

If it hadn’t been for Dean stepping outside and stopping me, I would’ve made a huge mistake, one I couldn’t take back. Following through with that would have been the death of me and Matt’s friendship. Everything I’ve been fighting to hold together would’ve fallen apart in an instant.

I felt so guilty that I barely said two words to him when he started a conversation with me. Eventually, he stopped trying and we just sat in silence while we waited. Dean came and left, returning Matt’s tux jacket and the bags with his equipment inside. He found his keys in the pocket of the jacket and opened the door. I stepped in first and set my shoes aside in the foyer, still clutching the DVD in my hand.

I gestured toward my room. “I’m um… I’m gonna go shower and… and get myself cleaned up,” I stuttered.

The picture of confidence, Matt nodded. I knew he hadn’t forgotten that I owed him a talk, so I wanted to make myself scarce to avoid it. Chances are he knew this was exactly why I was rushing off.

He replied with a casual, “Okay,” and then let me head to my room with what little dignity I still had left. Behind my closed door, I slipped out of my dirty, sandy dress and eased into my robe before gathering what I’d need to take to the shower. I took a step toward the door, preparing to head to the bathroom, but my eyes went to the DVD instead. It was just sitting there on the dresser, begging to be watched, and curiosity got the best of me.

I took a seat on the floor and powered up my laptop before opening the clear, plastic case the disk was packaged in. While it loaded, that guilty feeling crept up my spine again. It stemmed from not wanting to lead Matt on. I’d been so adamant about not confusing things and now here I was, doing all the confusing myself. It wasn’t fair to play with his emotions like that, although that had never been my intention. There was also the small detail about me leaving for Johannesburg in the coming weeks. That was a reality and while I hadn’t yet made up my mind, I was definitely leaning toward going. How would he feel about us getting closer and then finding out that I’m leaving? Like I said, it wasn’t fair to him.

Cheesy music began to play when the DVD started and I abandoned all other thoughts, focusing on the white, animated flowers that fell from the top of the screen.

I frowned, folding my arms over my chest while I watched. “What the heck is this?”

The screen went black for a quick second, and then…

Oh…

My…

God!

*****

Matt

I’ve had some strange things happen to me, but waking up disoriented on the beach was a first. Now I also had the killer headache and queasy stomach to make this morning even more stellar. It didn’t help that Dean had no recollection of the night before either.
How much had we all had to drink?
The liquor in the limo was fully stocked and I know we all had a few before leaving the reception, but I’ve never blacked out like that before. Not even in college.

I set my house keys on the dresser and was just about to get undressed and shower when…

“Matt!”

Brook called out for me at the exact moment I discovered a small box and an envelope in the pocket of my tux jacket. I hadn’t opened either yet, but there was no time because she yelled my name again. I rushed down the hall to her bedroom door, not bothering to knock before opening it. There she sat, in the middle of the floor in a robe, holding her laptop. The look on her face was a mixture of shock and… and I don’t even know what else. I didn’t know what to think.

She said nothing, just stared with this cold, blank look in her eyes.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” I asked, taking a step toward her.

“Tell me this isn’t… I mean… we…” she stammered.

Low-spoken words came from her speakers, but I couldn’t make them out. So, instead of guessing why I’d been summoned so urgently, I went over to her and looked down at the screen myself.

And there we were… the two of us… in what looked like a cheesy wedding chapel.

Brook looked down at her quivering hand at the same time I did because, onscreen, I’d just eased a ring onto her finger, during a ceremony neither of us remembered. However, the ring wasn’t there now. Suddenly remembering the small box in my pocket, I pulled it out.

At the sight of it, Brook’s hair fell forward when she buried her face in her hands, muffling the words, “Oh my God, Matt.” There was a loaded silence between us as the video droned on without us paying it much attention. There was no need to at this point; I think we were both pretty sure we knew how it ended. “Just… open the box, please,” she whispered.

There was so much tension in the room and I couldn’t recall a time I’d been more confused in my entire life, but this video gave us undeniable proof of how we spent our evening. Slowly, I opened the box and confirmed what we already knew would be inside.

The ring.

“Oh my God, oh my God,” Brook chanted, somehow getting to her feet without me seeing her do so. She paced a small section of the floor with both hands pressed to her mouth.

“There’s no way this is legit,” she insisted. “We were clearly drunk and out of our minds.”

I took out the envelope, too, eyeing it, knowing that whatever documents were inside would contradict her statement. Although, I still didn’t remember the details myself, I was starting to piece things together. Our adventure with Mara and Dean had clearly landed us at a chapel, and at some point Brook and I… well… yeah.

She moaned and gripped her hair. When she did, about a handful of sand fell from it. I almost laughed out loud, but I knew this wasn’t a good time. Instead, I held a hand over my mouth to suppress it. She was freaking out, but to me this was an easy fix, so I didn’t get bent out of shape about it.

“What are we gonna do?” she asked, sharply.

She wasn’t being rational, so I knew I’d have to be the voice of reason. “Brook… calm down. All we have to do is have it annulled first thing Monday morning.”

She glanced up and looked me in my eye for the first time since I walked into her room. “Monday? You’ll be in New Mexico, remember?”
Damn… I wasn’t even thinking about that.
“It wouldn’t be a big deal for me to change
my
plans, but yours aren’t as easy to rearrange.”

She was right.

“It’ll be fine,” I assured her. “You can just come back and we’ll take care of it then.”

She sat on the edge of her bed and buried her face in her hands. I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned against the wall. To me, this was something we’d look back at and laugh about later, but she was really upset. People do crazy things all the time when they’re drunk. This was clearly just one of those things.

“I can’t believe—”

“Relax, Brook… we’ll work it out.”

She didn’t look up. Didn’t speak.

Taking a chance, I closed the distance between us, moving closer to the bed. When I sat beside her and draped my arm around her shoulders, she was still silent. I squeezed her tighter and brought her against my chest, wanting to lighten the mood a bit.