Brett and Hannah (Soul Mates 101 Series) (6 page)

The day before Hannah’s parents were leaving to go on tour they had a dinner party for their closest friends and family. Lorna and Todd were going to be on the road for three months.

Hannah became extremely
lonely in the massive home when her parents were away. It was always bitter sweet. She missed them, but she also enjoyed feeling more like an adult. Hudson had his own wing of the home to watch over things, and the Masons added night security to the property when they were traveling.

After
dinner, everyone mingled on the large back patio. Hannah was enjoying the comfortable, breezy weather as she sat with her parents who were chatting with their friend Jim.

“Lorna, the yard is looking great
,” Jim said.

“Thank you, we have a new landscaper working on the
whole backyard. He’s doing a fine job, and we think Hannah has a crush on him,” Lorna said, smiling.

“Mom!”

“Well, sweetheart, it’s the truth.”

Hannah felt the knots forming in her stomach. She’d tried to bury thoug
hts of Brett, but to no avail, and her mother speaking of him crushed her once again.

She stared toward the back of the property and saw that it
was coming to life with color from the work of Brett’s hands, and so was she. She imagined how every touch awakened her, a firework of colors exploding from her core, spreading outward and filling her completely.

Tears filled her eyes
, so she went inside and used the restroom in the hall. The lighting was dim when Hannah came out, so she was startled when she saw Jim standing in the hallway.

“Jim, you scared me,”
she said, holding her hand to her chest.

“S
orry, Hannah, I was just waiting to use the restroom.”

She
saw an intense darkness in Jim’s eyes she’d never seen before.

“
You know there are plenty of them in this house if you ever don’t want to wait,” she said before walking away.

Jim grabbed her by the arm
and pulled her up against him, putting his mouth to her ear. “I have to tell you, Hannah that you look stunning tonight in that little black dress. I think you take pleasure in teasing me with your sexy outfits.”

She
felt her body start to tremble with fear. His menacing voice gripped her while his greasy, dark hair and whiskey breath made her shiver, chilling her to her core.

“Let go of me now,”
she said with an aggressive whisper. “I won’t tell my father about this, but you better never touch me again. You need to find someone your own age. I’m not interested.”

She yanked her arm from Ji
m and hurried down the hall, staying close to her mother the rest of the party. The incident with Jim only caused more memories of Brett to come rushing back to her, and she knew from his previous behavior that he would’ve broken Jim’s arm off if he’d witnessed him grabbing her.

Hannah missed him. She’d never missed anyone the way she missed Brett.

It was the beginning of June, and with the mild temperatures Nashville was receiving, the pool was warm enough to swim in.

Hannah’s parents left early that morning, so she de
cided to host a pool party, inviting all of her closest friends. It was three weeks to the day since she’d been at the bar with Brett, and she was sick of moping over him.

She
put on a shiny, teal bikini with a cover and walked outside. Her girlfriends arrived soon after to help her set up. Hannah grabbed her stomach and froze when she saw Brett working.

“Hannah, when are you going to talk to me about
you and Brett?” Chelsea asked.

“I d
on’t need to talk about it, he’s a jerk.” Hannah was so hurt that she’d shared few details about their interactions.

“W
hen you went to dance with him at the bar, Austin told me you’re the first girl Brett’s ever liked who was younger than him,” Chelsea said.

“Maybe that’
s why he rejected me.” Hannah gazed his way.

By o
ne o’clock, at least fifteen of Hannah’s friends had arrived. Nick was Hannah’s closest male friend and had just returned from a month long visit with family.

“H
annah!” Nick yelled in a deep voice.

“Nick, I’m so glad you’
re back.” She gave him a tight hug. He picked her up and spun her around.

“My folks are gone, so it’
s party time,” she said as he lowered her back to the ground.

“Chelsea, Jasmine,
Morgan, how are my girls? Have I missed anything exciting the last few weeks?”

“Um … how was your trip, Nick?” Chelsea asked.

“It was great, but I know you’re holding out on me. I’ll let you by right now because it’s time to jump in this pool.” He ran and did a cannon ball, splashing them in their chairs.

“Nick!” Chelsea yelled.

“He’s going to flip when he finds out about Brett. I know he’s going to be jealous. He’s been trying to get with Hannah for almost a year.” Morgan said.

After the pool party was in full swing, Brett went up to use the restroom. Hannah was on Nick’s shoulders playing volleyball with her back to Brett. He wanted to punch something seeing her that close to another man.

He wondered if this jealous part of him was always there buried just waiting to come out, or if it was only brought on
due to how bad he wanted Hannah. When he reached the pool, he could see that Chelsea, Morgan and Jasmine were watching him from their chairs.

“Hi, Brett,” Jasmine yelled as she smiled and
waved.

Brett glanced over to the pool and saw Hannah whip her upper body around to see him, only to end up underwater when the guy she
was sitting on dropped her.

He
went on to the bathroom finding the event quite satisfying. Hannah came up out of the water coughing.

“What were you doing, Hannah? I think you ripped half the skin off my shoulders.”

“Sorry, Nick. I have to get out for a minute.” Hannah grabbed a towel and went inside the house.

Brett exited the bathroom and co
uldn’t spot Hannah. He figured she went inside, not wanting to be anywhere near him. He walked back by her friends.

“Brett, what’s Austin up to today?” Chelsea asked.

“I have no clue. You want me to give him a message?”

“No, I’ll call him
.”

“I’m glad you two are working out,
” Brett said.

“I wish I could say the same for you and my
friend
.”

Br
ett heard the frustration in Chelsea’s voice. As soon as he began walking away, he heard Jasmine call his name. When he turned around, she was running up to him.

“You should say so
mething to Hannah. We’re tired of her moping around.”

“She looked pretty happy when I walked u
p here, and I can’t if she isn’t around.”

Jasmine tilted her head a
nd shifted her hip to the side.

“Real funny, Brett. You know what I mean. Anytime will do.”

“It’s not that simple, Jasmine. I have to get back to work.”

“It is to
that simple. I know you like each other, so what’s the hold up?”

“I’m sure Hannah filled you in on that.”

“No, she hasn’t. That’s why I’m talking to you. Hannah usually tells us everything, but she’s too hurt to talk about you. Quite frankly, it’s pissing us off, so will you fix it already?”

Brett
felt physically ill after Jasmine told him Hannah was hurting that much. “Fine. Will you ask her to come see me when she gets a chance?”

“Of course.”
Jasmine gave him a big grin, flipped her shades down and walked back to her chair.

B
rett went back to working. He couldn’t come up with anything to say to Hannah to make things better. He’d hoped being away from her would lessen his feelings, but the time had made him miss her more. 

College girls equal drama. I don’t do drama.

Hannah a
pproached Jasmine. “I saw you speaking to Brett. What did you say to him?”

“I just told him he needed to say hi to you.”

“I don’t want his pity, Jasmine.”

“It was very obvious from talking to him that it wouldn’t be out of pity.”

“Why? What did he say?”

“He seemed sad. I can tell
he misses you, and he said for you to come talk to him.”

“He did?”
Hannah began chewing on her thumbnail.

“Yes, so go, chick,” Jasmine ordered.

Hannah paced barefoot on the concrete around the pool.

Nick looked at his friend in the pool. “J.T., did you hang out with Morgan while I was gone?”

“Yes, and it awesome,” J.T. said, grinning.

“Did she mention anything happening with Hannah?”

“I remember her rambling on about Hannah and some older guy, but I was too busy having my hands on Morgan to remember what she said.”

“You’re a lot of help.”

“Go ask her yourself if you’re so worried about it.”

Brett felt the racing of his heart when he saw Hannah walking his way. He thought she was sexy in the t-shirt she was wearing over her bikini. He could see some of her bottoms hanging out and loved the flushed look on her face from the heat.

“Hi, Hannah. How’
ve you been?”

“Not good, actually.” She stared nervously at
the ground.

“Why? What happened?” he asked protectively.

“You happened, Brett. You. I thought I could do this, but I can’t.” She started to turn away.

Bre
tt groaned loudly.

“Hannah, don’t leave
. I’ve wanted to talk to you, but I haven’t known what to say.”

“Are you pushing me away because I’m younger than you?”

“That’s part of it.”

“That’s a ridiculous reason. I
’m going.”

Brett yanked his gloves off and took hold of her shoulders. He stared do
wn at her with desperation.

“Hannah, I’m sorry for hurting you. I never meant for all of this to happen.”

“It shouldn’t matter that I’m younger. What should matter is if you care about me and missed me. Did you miss me at all?”

He felt a tightness in his chest. He wanted to show her how much he’d missed every part of her. “Yes, Hannah. I missed you ... every
day.” Brett saw the same yearning in her eyes that haunted him for weeks.

“If you truly felt that way
, you wouldn’t be able to push me away because of my age. I want someone who wants me just as bad, and I definitely have opportunities to find that. There’s a guy trying to get a chance with me almost daily.”

He couldn’t stand the thought of her with someone else. He cupped both sides of her face and ga
ve her a soft kiss on the lips. When his lips left hers, he saw the most beautiful smile stretch across her face.

Shit. I just gave her exactly what she wanted—again.

He grabbed both sides of his head. “Shit, Hannah. You need to go.” He saw the hope in her eyes turn to fury.

“Oh, we’re back to this again are we? I’m not a pet. You can’t just order me around, especially in my own damn yard!

“How am I so different than older women? Am I not mature enough? If you’d stop acting like a jerk, I could show you some maturity. I bet this has something to do with who my mother is.”

“I’ve never dated anyone younger, Hannah, not even in high school. The younger girls my roommates have mes
sed with were spoiled, immature and brought drama with them. I don’t want to deal with that kind of bullshit.”

“N
ot every younger woman acts the way you described. I’m not a spoiled bitch. What else? What’s your other reasons, Brett?”

He heard the anger and hurt in her voice and knew he should just shut up, but his brain was doing everything it could to override his heart.

“I don’t want any part of the celebrity scene. I’m a quiet, private person. I don’t deal well with change, and your life is too different from what I’m used to. I could never give you what you’ll expect. I’m never going to be famous or wealthy.” Brett became more frustrated, trying to deny Hannah and his heart what they wanted.

“
Look, Hannah, I care for you too much to have sex with you and walk away, and I know you think if I sleep with you, it’ll change my feelings about us dating, but I won’t let that happen. I don’t want a relationship with you, so you need to stay away from me. I’ll just end up hurting you again.” He ran his hands through his tousled hair and back down his face.

“
That was really cruel.” Hannah started tearing up.

He
went to touch her, but she jerked away.

“Don’t. You don’t get to touch me anymore.” She wiped her tears and stood up straighter. “
You need to take a hard look at yourself, Brett. I’ve tried to walk away from you, but you keep stopping me. You’re the one creating the drama. You don’t want me, but you don’t want anyone else to have me, and I’m not putting up with it anymore!” Hannah clenched her fists and stomped her foot.

Bre
tt grabbed her arms and seized her mouth with his. He felt her trying to pull away, but desire screamed from him to escape, controlling his unyielding grip. He released her lips.

“No, I’m not letting you go, Hannah.”

She finally jerked free from his torrid hold as tears streamed down her cheeks. “It’s too late, Brett,” she said before running toward the house.

“Hannah, listen to
me. I’m sorry. Please talk to me.”

She
quickly spun around.

“What
you keep doing to me is more hurtful than anything those guys you were supposedly protecting me from did. Are you just trying to stomp on my heart? You made it very clear that other than your attraction to me, I have no quality you find appealing, so leave me the hell alone!”

“Hannah, I don’t just like you for your looks. I know what I’v
e been doing is wrong, but you haven’t made it easy for me to keep my hands and mouth off of you.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t throw my slutty self at you
r self-righteous ass ever again!” She turned and ran to the pool.

Brett picked up hi
s shovel and threw it. He sat on the bed of his truck, trying to calm down before he went home.

Not wanting her friends to see how upset she was, she tried to walk past them.

“Hannah, stop,” Chelsea said as she stood up from her chair. Hannah turned around, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“What the hell did he do to you? We could hear the screaming,” Morgan said.

“He doesn’t want me. All he wants to do is
hurt me.”

The next thing she
knew, Nick was standing in front of her. “You need to sit down with me, and tell me who the asshole is,” he said, grabbing her hand.

They walked to the patio table and sat under the umbr
ella. Hannah told Nick about Brett, but left out the intimate details.

“I c
an’t leave you alone. I hate that I wasn’t here. You need to forget about him, Hannah. He doesn’t deserve you.”

“I’m going to forget about him, and I’m not letting him ruin my day. I’m going to that party with everyone tonight, and I’m determined to have a good time. Let’s go swim,” she said as she wiped the last tears away from her cheeks.