Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian (19 page)

B
rian yawned for at least the tenth time since he’d sat down at the table for breakfast. Every time he did, Brooklyn got a hurt look in her eye. The last few, she’d even started sighing, crossing her arms, and—hand to God—stuck out a boo-boo lip. What grown woman stuck out her bottom lip like she was a petulant toddler?

He’d ignored her behavior for a couple of reasons. One, he wasn’t a morning person and dealing with someone pouting was not the thing that would suddenly convert him and put him in a good mood. He could just explain that he’d had a bad night’s sleep, but that would inevitably lead to questions. Brian didn’t feel like making up a reason that he hadn’t slept the night before. And there was no way he was going to tell her the truth—that he’d tossed and turned because of the all-night showing of the Becca-and-Colton movie playing in his head. And he’d witnessed enough real-life interaction to have a large pool to fill his mind with. Last night, during dinner, he’d seen them whispering to each other, laughing. Hell, once he’d even seen her tear up.

What could that guy have
possibly
been telling her to incite that reaction?

Becca might be putting up with the cameras and forcing a smile or two, but he knew her. There was no way that she had been faking those tears or the smiles Brian had seen her shooting the cowboy.

“Did you hear me?” Brooklyn asked, interrupting his thoughts, sounding not too pleased.

He would think that she was just trying to play it up to get more airtime, but they weren’t filming right now. No one was mic’d. Everyone was just eating breakfast, which meant she was really trying to connect.

Shit.

Brian picked up his mug of coffee and saw that it was empty. That wouldn’t do. Not at all.

“No. Sorry.” Scooting his chair back, he held up his mug. “I’m gonna go get a refill, and then, when I get back, I’ll be all ears. I promise.”

That got a little smile from her. “Okay. If you promise,” she said in a baby voice.

A baby voice
.

Seriously. Pouting. A baby voice. How was he going to last through breakfast, much less the rest of the week or even the next few weeks?

Coffee. He was going to need a lot of coffee.

He stepped up to the breakfast buffet the show had set up at the far end of the dining hall and was just reaching for the handle of the coffee pot when he heard, “If you take the last cup of coffee, I will kill you.”

He turned to see Becca staring up at him. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and it looked like it was still wet. Her skin was clean and fresh, not a drop of makeup—unlike the half inch Brooklyn had on—and instead of the booty shorts and shirts (if you could even call them that, since they looked like bras to Brian) all the other girls were wearing, Becca had on a pair of blue jeans and a white, ribbed tank top. She looked so fucking beautiful that it broke his heart.

“That’s a promise. Not a threat. I
need
that coffee.”

“Rough night?” he asked as he poured the remaining java into her mug.

She’d lifted her mouth before he’d even had a chance to set the coffee pot down. She moaned as she tilted the cup and sipped the hot contents with a look of absolute euphoria on her face.

Damn. He wished he were the one putting those looks on her face. Not a cup of coffee.

After a few seconds of enjoying her cup o’ joe, she let out a loud exhale and said, “You have no idea.”

And just like always, when it came to Becca, every cell in his body went on protective alert. He felt his posture stiffen as he asked, “Why? What happened? Did someone do something?”

“Whoa. Slow your roll there, RoboCop.” Becca smiled up at him and patted his chest.

And just like that, his world righted itself. One smile, one touch, from Becca Sloan was all it took to make everything right. Just like that, snap, his bad mood was gone. She was his sunshine that instantly made all the gray clouds disappear.

“It’s nothing like that, just…” She looked around them before stepping closer and lowering her voice. “These girls were up all night. Madison was upset because Jax is her prince. Leah and Natalie were crying—I still don’t know what that was about. And Brooklyn, well… I don’t know what she was doing, but she was on her iPad until four a.m.”

“Sorry, Beckles.” Brian palmed the top of her head like he’d been doing since he’d grown a head taller than her in middle school and pulled her to his chest before kissing the top of her head.

Usually, she’d wrap her arms around him and just stay there for a minute, leaning against him. Today, she pulled away and looked up at him with a worried expression on her face.

“You can’t do that here,” she whispered through clenched teeth.

“Why not?” Brian asked. He heard that his tone was defensive, but he couldn’t help it. His mind had passed go and immediately jumped to the space that said she was saying that he couldn’t hug her because of Colton.

Her bright, blue eyes widened like he’d officially lost his mind. “Are you serious?” she asked as she cut her eyes towards the table.

He followed the direction she’d indicated and saw that Brooklyn was staring right at them, and she looked so mad that he half-expected steam to be coming out of her ears like a cartoon character.

“You need to remember why you’re here,” Becca said with a look he couldn’t quite place but was definitely in the ballpark of sad in her eyes.

Then, without another word, she turned on her heels and headed to her assigned seat. Which was next to Cowboy Colton. Colton stood when he saw her and leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

And just like that, his bad mood was back. It was bad enough that he knew he couldn’t be with Becca, but seeing someone else get to touch her, talk to her, flirt with her—it was torture. Pure torture.

“What were you two talking about?” Brooklyn asked as she stormed over on her six-inch heels.

Heels.
Booty shorts and six-inch heels. Classy. This chick was a class act.

“Well?” She stopped right in front of him, fuming.

She could not be for real. They’d met yesterday.

He didn’t owe her an explanation, but Becca was right. He needed to remember why he was here.

“Nothing. She’s just my friend. I was seeing how she was. That’s all.”

Brooklyn’s brown eyes narrowed. “She’s
just
your friend?”

“Yep.” Brian was done with this conversation. He turned, and as he pulled out a coffee filter to make a new pot, he looked over his shoulder and asked, “Do you want some coffee?”

She looked at him not unlike Becca had—like he’d lost his ever-loving mind. “There are people to do
that.”

“Do what?” Brian asked.

“Make coffee,” she said slowly as if she were talking to someone who didn’t speak English.

In fairness to her, after the few conversations they’d had, Brian was pretty sure they didn’t speak the same language.

“I don’t mind,” Brian explained.

“Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes as she spun and headed back to sit down.

He had to say one thing for that girl. She could spin and stomp on those heels like a pro.

“Can I have everyone’s attention please?” Jennifer spoke loudly as she walked into the dining area. Her voice filled the space like it was being broadcast through speakers. “We’re going to need everyone dressed in their active wear with makeup and hair ready in two hours.
Two
hours,” she repeated as she held up her hand, her fingers in a peace sign, signifying the amount of time they had, before she turned and hustled out of the room.

Several girls, Brooklyn included, shrieked at this announcement and jumped from her seat. Apparently two hours was not ample time to get ready to do something
active.
She and Leah rushed to each other and started talking animatedly about their plan of how they could possibly be camera-ready in two hours.

Brian shoulders relaxed at the thought of having two Brooklyn-free hours. He realized his relaxation was a tad premature when his ‘princess’ popped up like a whack-a-mole in front of him.

“I hate to leave you, my prince, but I have to go get beautiful for you,” she purred. Then, she lifted up on her tiptoes and shocked the hell out of him by pressing her lips to his and kissing him before rushing out of the room.

Brian had to stop himself from reaching up and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Her lips had been sticky, and she’d tasted like that pink medicine he’d had to take when he was a kid. What could have possibly possessed her to do that? There were no cameras rolling.

He looked around the room to see if she’d done it for their cast mates’ benefit. But no, it looked like no one was paying a bit of attention to anything but the food in front of them. Except Becca.

She was paying attention to Colton. In fact, she looked like she was hanging on to every word he said.

Damn. Brian just lost his appetite.

B
ecca’s heart was pounding so loud that she was sure the sound guys could hear it since her mic was taped to the middle of her chest, right between her lovely lady lumps. Her palms were not just sweaty—they were drenched—and her vision was a little blurry.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Colton asked.

“What?” Becca looked at him, processing what he’d said. She’d heard him, but at the moment, it was taking her a minute for her brain to figure out what the words people said meant. And if she needed to come up with a response, well… That took at least another minute.

Luckily, in this case, a mere head nod would do.

He looked down at her with a crooked smile. “Has anyone ever told you you’re a really bad liar?”

That question she didn’t need to process to answer. “Yes. By my sisters. Actually, it’s kind of a family joke.”

“How many sisters do you have?” he asked.

“Three,” she answered as she felt a strap tighten around her thigh. Looking down, she saw a kid who could not be more than twelve kneeling in front of her. “How old are you?” she heard herself asking not as nicely as she probably should have.

“Huh?” he asked as he looked up at her.

Seriously?!
Surely he couldn’t have been having the same issues processing questions as she was.

“I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley,”
Leslie Nielson’s voice from
Airplane
played in her head.

She gave herself a mental shake. ’80s movies quotes were not going to make her feel better in this situation, but she did appreciate her inner voice trying to lighten the mood.

One more tug on the nylon strap and “Huh” Boy just stood up and walked away.

She wanted to tell him to come back, not to leave, to check her harness again, but she didn’t. Mostly because she knew that the kid could check it a hundred or a thousand times and it would not instill even an ounce more confidence in her.

“Here. Do you want me to look at it?” she heard Colton’s deep voice ask.

Her voice was shaky as she asked, “Do you know what you’re doing?”

He stared at her for a moment, and she was surprised that she did actually feel some butterflies from it. Or maybe it was just stomach acid flitting around that had been agitated by the blinding fear she was experiencing.

Either way, it was a nice distraction.

Colton took a step closer, and she had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact. His low timbre rumbled as he assured her, “Yes, darlin’. I know what I’m doing.”

“Oh,” she said, suddenly feeling like those winged creatures fluttering around in her belly just might be Colton-inspired after all. She nodded as she agreed, “Okay.”

He lifted his hands and ran them along all of the straps of the harness, even the one that ran along her inner thigh. She had to admit that it wasn’t a bad thing having Colton’s hands on her. Truth be told, it was
nice
. And he didn’t look half bad in basketball shorts and a gray T-shirt. As a matter of fact, he filled both out quite nicely. His chest was broad, and she could see the lines of his muscles as he moved around her making sure that all of her equipment was secure.

After readjusting two of the straps, he straightened and announced, “You’re all good.”

Becca felt a little spark as she looked into his eyes. True, it wasn’t the massive Die-Hard, building-blowing-up explosion she felt when she looked into Brian’s eyes, but it was…nice.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling.

Jennifer came over to talk to them about the shot and what they would be doing, but Becca was having a hard time concentrating on anything the girl said. Her mind was filled with confusion. She should be happy that she was feeling something for someone other than Brian. Even if things didn’t go anywhere with Colton, at least this experience was teaching her that she wouldn’t have to be pining away for Brian for years with no hope of happiness. She might be able to meet
someone
, to open her heart to someone, to love someone.

All of those things were good news, but instead of jumping for joy and doing a little victory dance, all Becca really wanted to do was cry, which made no sense. But having feelings—even small, insignificant ones like she’d just felt for Colton—made her feel sad. And that was
irritating
.