No Regrets (Live Today #2) (16 page)

“Oh God, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I think,” she chokes. “I think I lived in a state outside my body for those few days. When you two were at school, I ran to the bank and paid the house completely off, and set your father up with enough money to last you some time without worry. Then I had lunch with Patty and Viv. I told them both what was going on. They weren’t very supportive of me, of course, but they didn’t get much of a choice. Either way, they both agreed to take you two under their wings. I kept tabs with them often. They would send me recent photos of you both. That day was the hardest day of my life. That’s when I had a little chat with Jenna. And told her about the future I wished for her.” She stops and sobs. After she takes a few moments to compose herself, she picks up where she left off.

“The next ten years was pure torture for me. Yes I had Paisley to keep my mind off of things, but she looked so much like you both. It was too hard for me to see her and not see one of you two in her. That’s probably why she has so much anger inside her. Once my mother passed and we had my father in a nice home, I wrote to your father. He met me a week later. As much as I loved having him back in my arms, I have to admit, he was different. He missed you two so much…” She looks up at him. “It truly killed him to be away from you. I think I was losing more and more of him each day. He tried to be a father to Paisley, but she wouldn’t have it at first. Then when she realized she could have her way with him, she would use him.”

Paisley sobs from her chair listening to the ugly truth about her life. “She took advantage that he was hurting. Eventually, he had enough and snapped, but by that time, it was too late for her. She resented him for not being around, she hated me for always comparing her to you two. Brennan, Jenna, I’m sure you’ve heard this from your father probably a dozen times, if not more but… I am so sorry. So very sorry for everything we did to you. I wish that with my death, you can reunite with your father and try to make up for lost time. Please love each other. Try to push past the negative. Despite everything that’s happened to you three, I can proudly say that I have three of the most beautiful and caring children in the world. They are strong, smart and have so much love to give, they don’t know what to do with it. My children have so much to give to the world, but unfortunately I won’t be able to see what more they have to offer.”

She sits up and stares right into the camera. “Brennan and Jenna, inside your boxes are your own personal videos and letters written to you from before I left those years ago. It’s up to you whether or not you want to open them. Paisley already received hers. Robert, I have left instructions with Todd as to where your box is. Now don’t get angry with me, I know I said I wouldn’t make one for you, but you know I had to.” She wipes her face and smiles secretly, I look at Brennan and we both smile. I have that exact same look when I get what I want. “I know you promised me already, but I want you to promise me in front of our kids that you will do everything in your power to take care of them. Love them unconditionally, and never stop fighting for what’s right. I love you. Forever and always.” She glances up at to whoever is behind the camera and nods. Suddenly the screen goes black. We remain silent for some time.

“Paisley?” Brennan’s voice is shaky. “I’m fairly certain that she had no idea that you had any involvement the night we were in the accident. Jenna and I have a lot to deal with right now, but I want you to know that as of right now, I don’t trust you for as far as I can throw you. However, I do understand that you are hurting just as much as my sister and I am. So for now, I think we should take this one day at a time. Not just for your sake, but for dad’s sake as well.”

“I don’t, I don’t know what to say.” She sniffles.

“Well, for starters, how about saying sorry.”

“I said it yesterday on the plane.” She answers.

“Not to Jenna or me.” He snaps. “How about saying sorry to dad. If what mom said was true, and you were hard on him, then you need to apologize to him for everything you’ve done wrong. And don’t just say it because I’m telling you to. Say it because you mean it.”

She stands and kneels at our feet. She rests her hands on dads knees. Her eyes meet his and she begins to cry. “Daddy, I’m so sorry for being so cruel to you. I didn’t realize how much it was hurting you.” She sobs. He places his hands on hers.

“Paisley, I…” His voice shakes. “Thank you darling.” He pulls her up into his arms. Gabe has his arm over my shoulder. I look up at him and his eyes are glossy.

“Mr. Gonzales, is that a tear I see on your face?” I try to lighten the mood. He cups my face with his palm before leaning down and kissing me tenderly.

“So what if it is?” He murmurs against my lips. “Your mother was a beautiful woman. I’m blessed to know that my wife will be drop dead gorgeous when she grows old with me.”

I smile and bring my hand to his face in return. “The feeling is mutual. Your dad is quite a handsome man.”

He smirks, “Has the future Mrs. Gonzales been checking out her future father in law?” he winks.

“I couldn’t help it. The Gonzales gene is strong.” I kiss him softly. “Thank you Gabe. For everything. I love you.”

“Ditto baby.”

We spend the remainder of the hour chatting about mom. Dad has seemed to relax a little. When something special would get brought up, a new series of tears would fall. Dad asks me about the final message she gave me, so I explain my dream with everyone. Her memory was almost an exact duplicate of my dream. I explain how the next day, I thought I had done something wrong. I share the feelings I had as a little girl and then as a teenager when dad left us as well. Brennan broke down a few times while I shared those feelings. He stayed quiet most of the time, but chimed in when he felt necessary.

Paisley shared with us her thoughts and feelings about how she was always compared to us. Apparently it hurt her more than imaginable. She always felt that she would never live up to their expectations. After hearing her share her memories, I can relate more to her now than I ever imagined I would. Dad apologized more times than worth counting. There was one thing we all could agree on. That the past was to remain in the past and even though it was a hard, long road ahead of us, our future is what we had to focus on. Brennan and I signed the documents that were needed and with Ashley by his side, and Gabe holding me, we left his office feeling a little better about the situation.

Once we make it to our wing, we hear Danika laughing. As we near the couch, there she is on the floor with Matt and Willow.

“What the?” Brennan asks looking at Willow. “How’d she get here?” Gabe and I hug ourselves and smile. Matt laughs while Willow blushes.

“Ask your sister, bro.” Matt stands and walks toward us. “Apparently, Willow sent Gabe here a text asking to pick her up, but since he was occupied with you and Jenna, he sent Drew instead.” He pulls Gabe into a “man hug” then lifts me up in his arms in one of his traditional Matt style hugs. “Thanks guys for doing that. You could have told me though, Dani and I would have gone to get her ourselves.”

“Nah, she wanted to keep it a secret. I wouldn’t even have told Jems but she uh, kinda attacked my phone this morning.” I smack him on the chest and he chuckles

“I didn’t attack anything.” I argue as Gabe winks. “And you’re welcome.” I kiss his cheek. “Hey Wilz, how was your flight?” I make my way to their little play area.

“It was good. Thanks.” She smiles and we hug quickly. “Oh hey, I hear there’s a wedding in the works, yeah?” She looks down at my hand. “Ooh, let me see.” She takes my hand and inspects my engagement ring. “Damn Gabe, you picked it out yourself?”

“Yep. I know, I know. I have an eye for beautiful things.” He laughs when Brennan pushes him.

“Shut up man. God, you’re so stupid sometimes.” He laughs. “Hey Wilz, what’s up?” He says wrapping his arm around Ashley’s shoulder. “Willow, this is Ashley, Gabe’s sister. Ashley, this is Willow, uh Matt’s…” He pauses quickly. “Danika’s mother.” He corrects himself not to offend anyone.

Ashley laughs and steps forward offering her hand to Willow. “Hello, it’s very nice to meet you. Your daughter is beautiful and so much fun to be with.”

“You should have seen her during her early teething days.” Willow laughs, shaking Ashley’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

The rest of the day is spent poolside with the family. Paisley took Justin, Stephen and Alex out to show them around her hometown, but she said she would be back. Dealing with her is one thing, but having the other three present is a whole new can of worms. But for the sake of my father, I promised I would try.

Gabe

“Let’s see.” I slide into bed. “I began the day with a very, and I mean very impressive treat,” Jenna giggles shifting to my side. She rests her head on my chest. Immediately, I begin to play with her hair. “Then I got to see what my beautiful,” I kiss the top of her head. “Funny, talented and kind hearted fiancé will look like when we are old and married and hopefully enjoying grandchildren or great grandchildren of our own. We got to see just a glimpse of what Paisley’s true colors are.”

She rests her chin on my chest looking up to me with her beautiful blue eyes. “And we got to see Matty and Willow together. Did you see the way they were looking at each other?” Her smile alone brightens my soul.

“I wasn’t paying any attention.” I admit.

“I’m serious.” She smacks my chest. “They love one another.”

“They do. I always knew they did. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t have bothered picking her up from the airport. Sometimes it takes a few hurdles to get to where you truly belong.” I tap her button nose with my finger. “Don’t you agree?”

“Yes. But I always knew I belonged with you.” She cuddles to my side again. She sits up immediately. “Oh, I almost forgot.”

“What?” I ask as she slides off the bed and grabs her laptop from the table and comes back to sit beside me.

“Matt said something about the website and it exploding with rumors about us.”

“What about us now?” Now, I’m curious.

“Some were saying they saw us in Vegas. Some say there’s no way we would get hitched. Some said they saw Justin getting on the same plane as we did, so they think something’s going on. I was thinking of doing a little video and posting it to clear it up.” She finally gets the laptop up and running and as she begins to open the web page she asks. “Do you think it would be okay?”

“Whatever you want Angel.”  I rest my head on the headboard and wait for her to do her thing. She gets the program set up and after a few hits and misses, I can’t help but chuckle. “Jenna, don’t worry about making mistakes. Just be yourself, and say whatever you want.” She huffs and rolls her eyes at me before pushing record again. She is a perfectionist if not anything else. Once the light begins to flash on her laptop, she sits back so she’s in the center of the screen.

“Hey guys, Jenna here. Uh, I guess I just wanted to send this out to all of you to clear some things up before stuff got out of hand.” She seems nervous. “Um… Okay, so where do I start. One, just a little shout out to Miss Emily Gonzales for making us this wonderful fan page. We got a chance to really look at it a few weeks ago, and it is awesome! So Thanks Em.” She waves at the screen and smiles.

I decide to poke my head in so the camera show’s my head to say, “Thanks sis.”

Jenna looks at me with a goofy grin before turning back to the camera. “Anyway, let’s begin with the real dirt. Yes, the Live Today crew is in Florida. Yes, there was a death in the family and since we are all considered family members, we do things together. Some of you mentioned that you saw Drew and me in Tennessee.” She nods. “That’s true too, we actually left a few days before the rest of the guys did to get a jump start. But no, there’s nothing going on with Drew and me. I can promise you that. He’s my best friend. That’s all.” She tucks some hair behind her ear and continues.

“So that leads me to the rest of the news. Now, I know there are some pictures out there with Gabe and I, and there are controversial rumors about us being married or us not being together at all and the band is going to fall apart.” Now this I find as a complete shock to my system.

“What? Are you kidding me?” I whisper. She sets her hand on my thigh and her eyes turn to my direction, warning me to be quiet. I decide to pay close attention to how she’s going to respond.

“Someone just now jumped on the rumor bandwagon.” She laughs. Not funny Jenna. “I just want to get one thing straight. Live Today is just as strong as we have ever been. Yes we’ve been silent for a few months, because we have been busy making a new album and mourning the death of our brother William. So yes, I admit, we have been utilizing some downtime since the accident. For those of you who saw us in Kansas, thanks for coming out. Gabe’s family was so nice to ask us to fill in last minute. We were more than happy to help.” I can’t help but stare at her beautiful face in the screen. That smile is mesmerizing.

“Which leads us to the biggest rumor of all. One that I plan on putting to rest now, I hope.” She picks up the laptop and extends it in her hands. The screen shows her in the bed, under the covers. Then suddenly she shifts the screen over so the camera shows me sitting beside her. Shirt off, hair messed up, but under the covers as well as I lean against the headboard. There I am right next to Jenna. She lowers the laptop again to her lap, but also rests half of it on mine keeping me in the shot.

“I hope you got the picture.” She smiles and leans in next to me. “Let me make it official. On our way to Kansas, Gabe and I decided to make our relationship a go. Meanwhile,” She leans in and whispers into the camera. “This is where those nosy pictures come in.” Leaning back, I take my arm and drape it around her shoulder. “Since then, on the night those pictures were taken, Gabe and I decided to make it official.” She holds her hand up to the camera, showing her ring. “No, we are not married. Yes we were in Vegas, and yes we were planning on doing it. But we realized that we wanted to do it in the presence of our entire family and friends.”

“So to answer your questions.” She rests her head on my shoulder. “Yes, Gabe and I are officially engaged. No we haven’t set a date yet, and we probably won’t anytime soon.” I decide to smile at the camera and kiss the top of her head. “Please be happy for us. Gabe and I couldn’t be more happier than we are right now.” She turns to look at me with love in her eyes. God, I still can’t believe this woman is mine. I kiss the tip of her nose, not just for the camera, but she is just so damn adorable. I can’t help myself.

I turn to the camera and interrupt her message. “Sorry guys, I love each of you to pieces, but you’re kind of taking some of my Jenna time away from me.” I smile into the camera before turning to Jenna. “Say good night Jenna.” I demand.

Jenna waves at the camera and giggles. “You heard the man. Bye guys! Love you!” She continues to wave while I shut off the camera.

“Next time you do that, let me know I’m going to be in it please.” She giggles as she uploads the video.

“Oh, you looked just fine.”

“It would have been nice to have a shirt on at least.”

“Are you pouting?” She teases.

“No.” I begin to pout dramatically. She sets the laptop on the side table before shifting so she’s sitting astride me. “I just don’t want anyone seeing my chest.” She giggles when I cover my nipples with my hands. She places her hands on mine and moves our hands to her hips.

“No, we don’t want anyone seeing your chest.” She leans down and kisses the top of my peck. “I’m sorry, forgive me?” She asks softly. My fingers trail along the rim of her panties.

“Well, I am glad they didn’t see your chest.” She kisses the peck on the other side. “I think I can forgive you.” I smirk.

“Oh, you’re so kind.” She shifts closer to me and presses her lips to mine. I pull her close to me so our bodies are flush.

“Well, you know.” I murmur. “I do my best.” I take her face between my hands and bring her lips back to mine.

~~~

              Waking up with an arm over my stomach and a slender leg resting against mine is definitely one of the best feelings in the world. Jenna’s head rests peacefully under my arm. She didn’t stir one bit last night. I have peace of mind knowing that she’s finally found some form of peace with either her mom or dad, or both. Slowly and gently I slide out from under her, trying not to wake her. Silently I make my way to the living room.

“Morning.” I pat Ashley on the shoulder making my way to the coffee pot. She has always been an early riser.

“Good morning little brother.” She says. “Sleep well?”

“Actually yeah, I did. Jenna didn’t move one bit. She slept solid.” I rub my neck. Actually I think we stayed in the same position all night. “How ‘bout you?”

“The same. Once his head hit the pillow, he was out.” She smiles. I sit beside her and she lays her legs over me. “Yesterday was pretty emotional, huh?”

I take a deep breath before answering. “Yeah, it was. Honestly, I was surprised that Jenna held it together as much as she did. You should have seen her Ash, she was dead set against any form of reuniting with her father.”

“I gathered that from the conversations we had on our way here. She’s such a strong woman. I know there’s no way I can be that strong.” She shakes her head.

“She didn’t have much of a choice.” I take a sip. “Being strong is all they know. It was either that, or lose what little that they had left of their family. I joined them not long after their dad left. She was past the hardest part I think, but there were still rough patches. Will helped her out a lot. Then when I came along, we just clicked. We spent every minute we could with each other. We shared our deepest secrets and then some.”

“I wish I could have met Will.”

“Ashley, you would have loved him. He was so funny. But in a cool way, you know? He’s a lot like Brennan, but different. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.”

She smiles softly. “I get it. Sounds like he was a little bit of everything.”

“Yeah, he was.” Matt and Drew come walking in from the main hall. “You two are up bright and early.” My eyes meet Matts. “Did you get today squared away?” He nods.

“Yup. Sure did. Mind if Willow tags along too? She’s in the shower now.”

“The more the merrier.” I say before taking another sip. Drew comes and sits next to me.

“Mornin’ man.” He nods his good morning toward Ashley. We both say good morning in unison.

“Uh, what’s going on today?” Ashley asks.

“Well, yesterday I asked Matt to schedule a fun day with the family.” I answer.

“And I did just that. I figured since Jenna loves the water so much, we would go to Sea World.”

“That’s perfect man.” Drew says.

“I hope it is. We only have a few more days here I think. When’s the service?” I ask Drew.

“I think tomorrow. Dad spent most of yesterday getting everything finalized. I’m not sure though. I can ask later. You sure you want the family to go? I mean, what if Paisley and her group want to go too.”

“Go where?” Jenna rubs her eyes as she makes her way to the coffee pot. We all stay quiet looking at each other. Just when I was about to answer her, she turns and makes her way to my lap. She snuggles up close and drinks her coffee. “Gabe. What about Paisley? And go where?”

“What do you think about going to Sea World?” I ask wrapping my arm around her waist, kissing her cheek. “Mornin’ Angel.” She leans into my kiss and smiles.

“I love Sea World.” She responds excitedly. “But what about Paisley? Were you wanting her to go too?”

“Not intentionally. I had Matt plan a day of fun for you and Bren with the parents.” I make eye contact with Matt as I continue. “Willow of course is coming too. It’s completely up to you if you want your sister to come.”

“That sounds weird doesn’t it? Having a sister?” She rests her head in the crook of my neck. “I guess it’s up to Brennan. I really don’t care if she goes. Just as long as she stays away from me. Justin too.” Her voice is agitated.

“Don’t put the pressure on me.” Brennan walks in, leans down and kisses my sister on the cheek, before turning to kiss his own sister. “Good Morning my gorgeous girls.” I cough dramatically and tap my cheek. Ashley giggles when he leans down and kisses my cheek as well. “Good morning my beautiful Gabe.” He teases.

“Good morning Brennan baby. Sleep well?” I bat my eyes at him just before he shove’s my head to the side. Ashley looks at us in both shock and amusement.

“Oh my God, are you guys always like this?” She asks laughing.

“Worse.” We all say simultaneously and end up laughing our asses off.

~~~

We spend the morning running around getting ready. Thankfully, Jenna is a no fuss kind of girl. All she needs is her black Converse Chucks and her hoodie and she’s all set to go. I usually hold anything important of hers if she doesn’t keep it in one of those little shoulder bags girls use. Today, she’s given me her ID and of course, I hold the money. We’re sitting in the main room waiting for everyone to come down.

“What’s going on?” Paisley asks noticing the commotion. I look into Jenna’s eyes as she stares directly at me. With a heavy sigh, she turns to her sister.

“We are all going to Sea World today for some relaxation.”

“Oh.” She replies, looking anywhere but at us. Knowing Jenna, and the fact that she hates to let anyone down, no matter who it is, I know she will crack and end up inviting the whole God damned group of them. I raise my brow at her, suddenly she narrows her eyes.

“Do you have plans for today?” Bingo. I can’t help but hide the smirk that’s forming on my face. Since she’s sitting next to me and my leg is draped over hers, she reaches down and pinches the inside of my thigh.

“Careful Angel, it’s not too late to take you in to the bedroom for some punishment.” I whisper grabbing her hand and forcing her fingers off of my thigh. She’s the one smirking now.