Slow Burn (43 page)

I smile at the thought, and when I pull my head from the
memory, I realize that my hand is worrying the charm on my new necklace back and forth. The necklace that appears to be interlinking chains with a heart-shaped padlock for a charm. The one I received two days ago with a card that said
Clank, clank
.

I guess I’m just like my mom after all, worrying my charm over my chain, but
my shadow
has been stomped out by Becks, so all I have left to cling to, besides hope, is this—my love and all of the people who love me.

As I begin to laugh into the empty silence of my house, I realize that for so long I feared how lonely Lexi must have felt facing this battle. It was her body against this terrible disease … but after these past two weeks, after letting Becks in so he can love me, I realize that she was anything but alone. She had an army of supporters who loved her dearly, just as I could if I let people know—and the thought comforts me to no end.

First the surgery and then telling people. Baby steps.

I’ve found peace for the first time in a long while with my sister’s death. Maybe it’s Becks’s presence, maybe it’s tomorrow’s surgery—I don’t know—but I do know that there is a sense of calm now within the painful tumult in my soul that had been missing.

I hang my head down and just let the laughter come freely.

“Now, that’s the best sound in the world.”

I lift my head up to find Becks leaning against the doorjamb of my bedroom, jeans on and a shirt unbuttoned at the collar and with the cuffs rolled up. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the sight of him standing so comfortably in my bedroom, nor will it ever get old. And I’m so used to my relaxed and casual man that I forget how stunning he looks when he’s out of his beloved board shorts. Although I quite like the lack of shirt that often accompanies the shorts, this look also gets my motor running. I scrape my eyes at a leisurely pace up his body and take in that disarming smile of his before meeting his eyes.

“I forgot how nice you clean up, Country.” My smile widens as he steps forward and squats down on his haunches in front of me.

“And there’s no chance in hell I could forget how beautiful you are.”

“Smooth, Mr. Daniels, very smooth.”

He leans forward and presses a soft kiss to my lips in a move that awakens the other five percent of my body that his presence alone didn’t spark to life. I slide my tongue between his lips and bring my hands up to the base of his neck when he drops to his knees to deepen the kiss.

“Hmm,” he hums in protest as he drags his lips from mine. “I’d love to continue this, but we have somewhere we need to be right now.”

I shake my head and meet his eyes, confusion flooding through me. This is my last night before surgery, and we’d agreed to spend it snuggling together, eating junk food before my midnight cutoff time and then staying up to talk before leaving for the hospital.

“I thought we’d agreed—”

“We did,” he says with a smirk before pressing a kiss to my forehead and then standing up. He reaches a hand out to me to help me stand. “But I lied. Stand up, pretty lady. You’ve got twenty minutes to get ready so that we’re not late.” I look up at him, our hands clasped and hearts joined, and I see so much more than a handsome man.

I see my future.

He pulls me up off the ground. I lean in for a kiss and am handily turned so that he can swat me on the backside. “No funny stuff, Montgomery. There’s plenty of time for that later. Hurry that fine ass of yours up,
Your Highness
. Your chariot awaits you.”

I roll my eyes and snort at the regal tone he uses. “I’m the furthest thing from a princess you’ll find,” I say as I walk toward my closet, our hands remaining in each other’s until our arms stretch so far, they slip apart.

“I beg to differ,” he says, his eyes following me like he doesn’t want to take them off me.

“Well, then, that makes you my knight in shining armor.” I raise an eyebrow at him, knowing he’ll argue immediately.

His mouth curls up at one corner, and he laughs. “Wanna see my sword?”

“Only if you know how to use it, sir.”

“Oh, I like the sound of that”—he raises his eyebrows at me—“and we both know I can use it.”

I can’t help laughing as I cross the distance and press a kiss against his lips, way too happy for a girl who’s going in tomorrow for a mastectomy. But Lex’s parting words echo in my ears.

Time is precious. Waste it wisely
.

And I waste very little as I get dressed, not wanting the night to slip away too quickly since tomorrow is D-day. I’m not sure what he’s up to, but I’m secretly excited. As much as we’d agreed tonight was going to be low-key, a part of me is grateful that whatever Becks is doing, he’s trying to make my last night as a
whole me
special somehow.

Just as he’s tried to make every moment of the entire past few weeks count.

Or maybe I’m wrong. Is Becks really making things special just because of what’s happening tomorrow or is this just how Becks is in a relationship? Either way, I’m the lucky one on the receiving end of it.

When I’m finished, I go into the family room to find it empty and him nowhere in sight. “Becks?” I call, but there’s no answer.

I look in the kitchen and then turn the corner when the fading dusk through the open front door catches my eye. I walk toward it, curious what the heck is going on. When I step through it, my hand flies to my mouth to cover a gasp that can’t be muffled.

I have to do a double take to make sure of what I’m seeing is real.

Yep. Sure is.

Becks is standing beside a carriage, complete with horses and a coachman, a grin plastered on his face. “Your carriage awaits.”

I notice neighbors out on their lawns, admiring the sight as I walk toward him—more than flustered—trying to process what in the hell he’s doing. “What are you …” My words trail off as one of the horses neighs.

“If you’re going to fight the fight, City, you need to arrive in style.” I can see the pride in his eyes over thinking this up, and I immediately melt at his thoughtfulness.

“Princesses don’t wear boxing gloves,” I tease him as I take his outstretched hand, still in awe.

Becks tugs on my hand and pulls me into him so that our bodies connect. “This princess does.” He presses a soft kiss to my lips. “Hearts and heels, Montgomery. Hearts and heels.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Becks taunts before brushing another teasing kiss on my lips like he’s been giving me here and there. I’m snuggled up next to him, his arm pulling me in close, as we cruise under an entirely different horsepower from what we’re used to.

The occasional silence between us is comfortable as we both get lost in our thoughts about tomorrow. My curiosity is also in major overdrive, considering my hospital bag sits in front of us, telling me we’re not returning home, but at the same time where we are going is unknown. Becks knows the suspense is killing me, and he’s quite enjoying watching me squirm.

The sky fades to black as we travel, passengers in nearby cars staring as they pass us, but I don’t notice the fast-paced Los Angeles world because I’m so busy noticing the man at my side.

Because this girl’s learned that slow and steady is most definitely the way to go.

“We’re here!” he announces unexpectedly as the carriage turns into the driveway of an unassuming business park. I glance around at the empty office buildings complete with industrial roll-up garage on one side and a small front office with an entry door right next to it.

“Becks?”

“No questions,” he says with a raise of his eyebrows and a devilish grin on his face. “Let’s go.”

I
narrow my eyes at Becks’s back as he rattles the key in the door, unlocking the dead bolt of the tinted glass door at the office side of one of the buildings.

“Are you starting a new company?” I attempt a guess for the twentieth time in the past three minutes.

“Will you shush and be patient?” Becks drops his hands, leaving the keys in the lock, and turns to take my face in both of them before pressing a chaste kiss to my lips, which does the job easy enough.

I just bite my bottom lip and nod my head to try to hold back the next guess, which is already on my tongue.

Becks turns back to the door, and the click of the lock sliding open breaks through the night around us. The only other sound is the clicking of hooves as the horses shuffle their antsy feet. He ushers me into the darkened office, his hand placed on the small of my back to urge me forward. We clear another doorway when all of a sudden I’m hit with a tsunami of sound and fluorescent lights.

“Happy boob voyage!” The room of people erupts in a chorus as I stumble backward into Becks, staggered from the sheer shock of the surprise. It takes a second for me to process the scene in front of me.

We are in some sort of warehouse where blow-up inflatables are skirting the perimeter of the space—huge slides and bounce houses—and one in particular that sits in the middle of the room makes me laugh and shake my head. It’s a huge blow-up boxing ring, complete with oversized inflatable gloves—in
pink
.

I laugh—my cheeks hurting from smiling so wide—but it’s once I finish looking at the large scale of the room that I’m able to focus on the details. My heart swells so full of love that even though Becks’s feet stamped my shadow out, it full on evaporates when I see everything in front of me.

Everyone that I could want to send me off is here: my parents, Rylee and Colton, Danny sans Maddie, Rylee’s parents, Lexi’s friends, colleagues from PRX, old college pals…. I’m stunned speechless at the sheer number of people standing here, all cheering and clapping at such an oxymoron of a party.

And all of them are wearing a bra somewhere, somehow on their person. Men have tie-dye bras on their heads, wrapped around their arms. Women have them over their clothing on their chest or wrapped around their waists so that the cups attempt to cover their butts.

I scan the crowd, unable to move as I take them all in, and then I meet Rylee’s eyes. Hers are full of tears as she stands there completely motionless amidst everyone else moving about. We step toward each other instantly and pull each other into a hug. We cling to each other, words spoken through actions and understood from the pure test of time between us.

“I was so worried you’d be angry at me for telling everyone,” she murmurs in my ears as we rock each other back and forth, “but I couldn’t let you think you were doing this alone.”

I pull back and look at my best friend,
my go-to girl
, and with tears filling my eyes, the smile comes so easily that I know this was meant to be. “Do you think I could ever be
mad at you?” I bring my hands up to frame her face and wipe her tears away with my thumbs. “You’d never do something to hurt me.”

I pull her into me for one more quick squeeze and swipe away my own tears, unexpectedly completely okay with this party because it’s like a switch has been flipped in me all of a sudden. Between Becks over these past two weeks and Rylee and all of this love and support, I realize I feel like the old me again.

I finally got her back just when I need her the most.

“Now, quit crying.” I tell her, “It’s time to kiss these ta-tas good-bye in serious style!”

I hear her laugh as I release her only to be turned around by hands on my shoulders so that I face Colton. I burst out laughing when I find her tattooed bad boy with a lacy pink-and-black bra wrapped around his biceps.

“Colton! I think I want to keep that bra for when I get me some new tits,” I say as he wraps me in his arms for a big bear hug.

The timbre of his chuckle fills my ear. “Sorry, Had, but Ry promised me she’ll be wearing this later tonight. You get through this, and you and Ry are going on one hell of a shopping spree for bras, okay?”

I laugh at him as he releases me, but it fades off when I meet the intensity in his green eyes. “You’ve got this, Montgomery. And we’ve got you, okay?”

I clear the lump in my throat, the ever-stoic Colton Donavan showing just a tad of emotion to someone other than his wife. The notion touches me deeply, and I squeeze his biceps and mouth,
Thank you
, as I’m spun around in another direction.

I land squarely in the arms of my mother, who pulls me in and squeezes me so tight, I can’t breathe, and my tears have nowhere else to go but to leak from my eyes. “I love you so much, my Haddie,” she whispers through her own tears. “We’re going to beat this. No question.”

I nod my head, unable to speak from the emotion clogging my throat. We stare at each other for a moment when she looks down and notices my new necklace. “Wow, so beautiful,” she says to me, and I can’t help the smile that pulls at the corners of my mouth as I think of Lex and our jokes about Mom’s damn necklaces.

For the next thirty minutes, I feel like I’m on a constant spin cycle, being pulled from one pair of arms and well-wishes to the next. My dad, then Danny, and so on.

My cheeks hurt from smiling, and my heart overflows with the love and support surrounding me. Love and support I thought I could do without but now realize how much I need it.

I hug an old friend from PRX when I turn around and come face-to-face with Becks, his arm around the shoulder of an older woman. When she looks up, there is no mistaking the resemblance between mother and son.

She’s beautiful, with hair the same color as him, tall in stature and graceful in her movements. When Becks nods my way, she turns her face so her eyes meet mine, and the smile that spreads on her lips is so full of warmth and welcoming that the nerves I’d normally have meeting his family are nonexistent.

“Mrs. Daniels?” I ask, holding my hand out.

“Oh shush,” she says, stepping forward and pulling me into her arms. “I do hugs, so get used to it.” She squeezes me tight and keeps her hands on my shoulders when she steps back. “So nice to meet you, Haddie. She’s so beautiful, Beckett,” she says, looking over to her son with an approving smile, which makes him roll his eyes and me laugh at his discomfort.