Taking Chances (22 page)

“HARPER!”

“She's in here
Bree.” Adding softly, “You're in trouble.” He left my side with a parting wink.

“Do you have
any idea how scared I was? I thought you died!”

I burst into
laughter, and laughed even harder when she narrowed her eyes at me. “Really
Bree? You thought I died?”

“Well okay, I
thought you were in the hospital but you always answer your phone, and no one
could get a hold of you. What was I supposed to think?”

“Uh...I didn't
feel good, you didn't ever consider that maybe I just fell asleep and had my
phone on vibrate?”

“I thought you
said it was in the other room.” She deadpanned.

“It was, and it
was on vibrate.”

“Oh, well
then...No.”

I rolled my
eyes at my friend, “I'm sorry I worried you both, and I'm really sorry that you
all had to come back a day early.” I shot my eyes over to Brandon, “Well maybe
not you.” I teased.

“You should be,
and I'm going to kill Chase.” I tensed at his name, “This could have all been
avoided if he wasn't off screwing some chick last night.”

Dear Lord my
cheeks better not be bright red right now. “Bree, it's not his job to babysit
me. You can't be mad at him.”

“Just don't
scare me like that again, I love you.”

“Love you too
friend.” I reached out to hug her, “And as much as I love you, I really need
time with my man.”

She snorted and
smacked my arm, “Be good. We brought Chinese home if you guys are hungry.”

Brandon sank to
the bed and I crawled onto his lap. “So what would you say to grabbing some
food, bringing it back here and just be alone the rest of the night?”

“I'd say it's
exactly what we need.” He hooked an arm under my knees and carried me out to
the kitchen.

“Brandon!” I
hissed, “I'm not wearing pants put me down!”

He dropped my
legs quickly and tugged on the shirt I was wearing so it was longer than most
the skirts I wear. When your boyfriend is over a foot taller than you, his
shirts practically become a dress. We looked through the takeout boxes and
picked two of them when Chase walked through the living room. He slowed and
looked at us, his eyes went wide and pain flashed through them before he could
compose his face and gave us a hard nod. My jaw had dropped when I saw him and
I forced it shut right before Brandon looked at me. I turned to grab silverware
and chastised myself for standing here laughing with my boyfriend wearing
nothing but his shirt. It was normal and needed for me and Brandon, but the
exact opposite of what I wanted to do to Chase. Taking a calming breath, I
walked back over and gave Brandon a playful nudge so he would follow me back to
his room.

“How was the
rest of your vacation?” I asked Brandon who was sitting with his back against
the headboard, while I leaned against the side wall with my legs crossed onto
his lap.

“Good, I really
wish you would have stayed, but it was good to catch up with friends.”

“I'm glad you
got to. Thanks for taking me, I loved meeting your mom.” I smiled to myself,
remembering her bubbly personality, “She's great.”

He nodded and
swallowed some food, “She loves you already.” He took the bite of chicken off
my fork and pointed at my hand. “Where'd you get that?”

I looked at the
ring and itched to hide it, not that it would do much good now. I shrugged as
nonchalantly as possible and answered around a bite of food. “Chase.”

His face fell
and it took a few seconds before he continued chewing. “Chase gave you a ring?”

“It's not a big
deal.”

“A ring.” He
raised an eyebrow at me.

“Everyone in
the family gave me a few things Brandon.”

“A few? What
else did he give you?”

Crap. I took my
time chewing and swallowing that next bite, but forced my eyes to stay glued to
his. “My tattoo.”

“Chase did your
tattoo? You didn't think that was something I'd want to know?”

No, I just knew
you'd be mad. “I didn't know it mattered that much to you. Would you have
rather me gone to someone you didn't know?”

“At least that
guy wouldn't have a history of trying to take you from me.”

“Babe, that
never happened, and even if it had, he didn’t succeed. You need to get over
it.”

“Not li–”

“Can we not do
this please? I just got you back and I want to enjoy my night with you.”

“Fine. But next
time, I would really appreciate if you didn't let him touch you for four
hours.”

My cheeks
flushed thinking about Chase's touch. Think about something else, think about
something else, think about something else. “Brandon you're not – are you
jealous?”

“Extremely.”

“Well take it
down a notch Hulk.” I giggled and rubbed his arm, “Whose bed am I in?”

He continued to
glower at the ring, “Mine.”

I crawled off
the bed and gathered up the empty Chinese boxes, hating the fact that I had
just turned that around to his jealousy issues with Chase. Leaning over to
press my forehead to his, I held his gaze and spoke slowly before heading to
the kitchen, “Then you have nothing to worry about.” I lightly brushed my lips
against his, “I love you Brandon.” I vowed right then to spend forever making
up for the biggest mistake of my life. But how do you make up for something,
when the other person doesn't know about the mistake in the first place?

***

Life went back
to normal as school started again and Brandon and I continued our relationship.
It had been almost two weeks since he had come home from Arizona, and we were
doing better than we ever had. Chase had begun avoiding me at all costs, and
though it made me sad, I was extremely happy I didn't have to see him all the
time. I don't know how I would have dealt with seeing his miserable face when
Brandon and I were together, which was most the time.

It had been one
of those days where Brandon and I couldn't keep our hands off each other, and
it had been absolute torture waiting for his last two classes of the day to
finish. As soon as they were done, he picked me up from the dorm and drove me
to Chase's house. Our lips hadn't left each other as we made our way from his
Jeep to his room, and his shirt, followed closely by mine, was on the floor
before his door was shut and locked. Desire for him shot through my body as he
lowered me to the bed and pulled my pants off before climbing on top of me. I
reached down for the button on his pants as he pushed a bra strap off my
shoulder and kissed where it had just been. I slid the zipper down and he put a
hand behind my back, lifting my body off the bed. Planting his knees on either
side of me, his other hand went to unhook my bra. He laid me back down on the
bed and slowly started pulling it away when his phone rang.

“Every freaking
time.” He growled and snatched up his phone, “What?” After a few seconds he sat
up quickly and smiled, “No way! Where? Yeah I'll be there.” He jumped off the
bed, pulling me with him, “Come on baby get ready, there's a fight.”

“Are you
kidding me?!” I hooked the bra back together and planted my hands on my hips,
“You're going to stop in the middle of that to go to a fight? Tell Scarecrow to
find somebody else!”

“Don't be like
that Harper, this fight could easily win me three grand.”

My hands paused
with my shirt halfway over my head. Holy hell. “Three grand?!” I still had
never heard an amount until now. The wads of cash were usually pretty big, but
they could have been ones for all I knew.

“Yeah, I
haven't had that high of a night in almost a month.”

“In a month?
How much do you normally make?”

“I don't know
it changes every time.” He shrugged as he pulled me out of the house, “Average
is usually sixteen or seventeen hundred.”

I was so
shocked I stopped walking. Brandon fought anywhere from one to three times a
week, and his average was
that
? “What do you do with all
that money?”

He sighed and
picked me up as he continued outside since I wasn’t moving, “Other than some
bills and buying my Jeep, I've saved all of it.”

Crap. I
seriously would have never known. Brandon wasn't one to talk about his money,
and he didn't come across as someone that had a lot of it either. He didn't
appear poor, just seemed like your normal college student, so this was blowing
my mind. “Well regardless,” I said with a huff and crossed my arms after we
were on our way, “I can't believe you stopped that just for a fight.”

When we came up
to a red light he looked to me and ran his fingers over my jaw, “I'm sorry
sweetheart, I didn't mean to offend you like that. I promise after this fight
we can go back and not leave the room until Monday.” He started driving again
and reached for my hand to kiss my palm, “Besides the call came at a good time,
I had been trying to force myself to stop. I would've had to soon.”

I frowned and
looked out the window, I was glad he kept the top up during the winter so it
wasn’t too cold, but I kind of wished it was down so we couldn't talk right
now. “I hadn't been planning to let you stop this time.”

Brandon's hand
tightened around mine and he cursed, “Harper I didn't know, I'm sorry. I swear
if I had I wouldn't have taken that call.” He cursed again, “I shouldn't have
taken that call even if we were about to stop. That was our time together.”

“I get you to
myself all the time, it's fine.”

“No it's not. I
really am sorry, please don't be mad at me.”

I smiled but it
felt wrong, “I'm not. Let's just finish this and go back to the room like you
said.” Honestly, I wasn't trying to be rude, but I had finally decided tonight
was the night. I know he hadn't been aware of that yet, but the fact that I was
ready to go there with Brandon and it got interrupted set me on edge. Like
maybe I still shouldn't have sex with him. I wish I'd kept my mouth shut and
not told him that I had been wanting to. How did we go back to stopping
ourselves after I just said that? Even though I knew I was, I wasn't trying to
make him feel bad, I was just mad at myself.

He was quiet
the rest of the drive, instead of his happy energetic self before a match. He
held my hand and silently walked with me through the labyrinth of halls in this
place. When we got to the doors that would put me in the room he kissed me
softly and walked away to meet with Crow. I felt awful, he'd been so excited
about this fight, and I'd put him in this sullen mood. Walking into the
basement with the loud music and crazed atmosphere felt wrong after the last
forty minutes, but I stood next to the box Scarecrow would be on, like I did
every other fight so Brandon would know where I was.

Scarecrow gave
me a big hug and started the fight, he noticed Brandon wasn't his usual
carefree self but soon forgot when a seriously pissed off Brandon went to town on
whoever this other guy was. I hadn't been paying close enough attention before
they started. It looked like this was an oddly matched fight since the other
guy wasn't doing much, and I didn't understand how it could bring in so much
money. All of a sudden the guy grabbed Brandon's left hand and twisted it
behind him, fully outstretched and planted a hard kick in the middle of
Brandon's back. I screamed when his hand was dropped and his arm was left
hanging out of socket. He slammed Brandon to the ground, his head bouncing off
the extremely thin mat covering the concrete and Scarecrow had to hold me back
from running to him. The last thing Brandon needed was me running out there,
but it was instinctive to go to him.

Brandon's leg
came up around the other guy’s chest and he slammed him down to the ground as
well. Using both legs now, Brandon was choking the guy and I knew he would pass
out soon. After a few tense moments the other guy tapped out and Brandon
released his hold on him, slowly bringing himself to his feet. Without
acknowledging the crowd screaming and cheering, he shuffled to me and Crow,
grabbed my hand and pulled me to the room he'd waited in before the fight. When
we got in there, he fell into a chair and gasped in pain as he unsuccessfully
tried to put his shoulder back in place, I sat there covering my mouth in shock
as I watched him.

“I need you.”
He gritted his teeth and huffed, “To take me.” He huffed again twice.

“Stop talking
baby, I know, I'll take you to the hospital.” I grabbed his shirt and sat on
the floor against his legs, “Do you want to put this on at least one arm, or
leave it completely off?”

“Try to get it
on.”

I pulled the
shirt over his head and got his right arm through the hole, I pulled it around
his left arm so at least it wouldn't swing everywhere and kissed his forehead,
“Is your head okay?”

“I'll be fine,
I can't believe that even happened, I was just too distracted.”

 “Oh my God
Brandon, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have talked to you about that before a
fight. I wasn't upset with you, I promise. I was just mad at the whole
situation.”

“It's fine
sweetheart, this isn't your fault.”

“Brandon,” I
gently kissed his cheek, “I love you, I'm sorry.”

“I love you
too, come here.” He kissed my lips hard and I helped him out of the chair.

We started
walking out when Scarecrow came running in, “Hey man, are you okay? That looked
rough, you need to get checked out.”

“She's taking
me, I'll let you know how it goes.” Brandon handed me the wad of cash he'd just
received and shook Scarecrow's hand.

Five and a half
hours later, we were finally getting back to Chase's house. Brandon had a
slight concussion and had torn some ligaments when his shoulder dislocated, he
was supposed to be wearing a sling, but he'd taken it and the wrap off as soon
as we'd gotten back in his Jeep. I'd had a mental freak-out when they showed us
the X-Rays of his shoulder and explained he'd eventually need to have surgery
on it, but kept my mouth shut. Which probably was just as bad as vocalizing my
rant, because Brandon took one look at my wide eyes and clenched jaw and knew I
was flipping out.