Yes to Everything (49 page)

Becca was beside her, running her hands through her hair. “If anyone deserves love and happiness, it’s you, Brooke. You’re the best person I know.” She kissed her lips and smiled. “I am like Rex, Brooke. I break complex things down to their simple parts. We all loved him and we all miss him. But he’s gone and he can’t come back. He would want to know you still laughed, still danced, and still got hugs and kisses. It’s your guilt keeping you from moving forward. It isn’t Rex because he wouldn’t put up with this crap from you for five seconds.” Brooke laughed through her tears. “Yeah, he hated seeing you sad ever. He’d freak out if he knew you’d been in such pain for so long. You would be in so much trouble.”

“How the hell did you two get so smart?”

“Well, first and most importantly, we have you for a sister. You’re pretty bad-assed. Then, you were brilliant when you surrounded yourself with the most awesome people on the planet. Rex reminded us what it was like to have a dad around, only he was way better than Daddy because he was truly happy with who he was, what kind of man he was, and where his life had taken him. Jeanette’s smarts are contagious and she comes up with amazing ideas constantly. Sidney has taught us so many self defense moves I think I could take down the Marines. Well, one at a time maybe.”

Molly grinned. “Mack is so steady and calm no matter what we ask him. Buzz is always teaching us about the world market and they help with math homework like you would not believe. Logan and Decklan have Becca strong on guitar at last and helped me put two of my own songs to music. They’re always up to going riding or just hanging out. So, yeah, you rock.”

“We’re good, Brooke. Take care of you now. Oh, by the way, how upset would you be if we didn’t go on tour when you head back out this year? Jeanette found us summer sessions in Chicago for art and music. She and Mack made sure they’d be secure and a couple of the guys can go to watch us.” Becca stared at Brooke intently.

“Okay…okay, that will be good for you.”

“Sidney can take your bus with Buzz. You can travel with Logan and Decklan. Jackson will be along in Kyle’s bus. Jeanette and Mack will cover us in Chicago and keep you tracking remotely. What do you think?” Molly seemed to have it all figured out.

Jeanette added, “Brooke, I’ve hired an additional four men for your personal security, vetted by the guys. They’re the best at what they do, just like the team we hired here for you. After everything, we cannot leave you exposed. They’re going to travel in an SUV and secure the bus, the facility, and your hotel suite ahead of you. Kate will stay here with one guard to keep an eye on the place. Two will go with us for Molly and Becca. One will head up your guys on the road. You good with that?”

Brooke clasped her hands together tightly, “Will…will everyone come to the first show? I’m nervous. I mean really nervous. I haven’t appeared in public for a concert that size in so long.” They all assured her they would and tried to ease her mind.

The twins silently cheered that the issue of her traveling with them had been so smoothly handled. They wanted her with them on their tour bus, in their suite, onstage.

Jeanette brought Brooke to the large kitchen table and went over her itinerary. None of them were surprised Brooke had avoided thinking about the tour and hadn’t opened her emails. Jeanette explained which interviews she would accept for Brooke, which appearances she’d agree to, then showed her the camps they’d found for the girls.

The girls eventually bid everyone goodnight and headed to bed. After a couple of hours, several margaritas and cookies each, Brooke said with a tipsy giggle, “You’ve been keeping so much running behind the scenes for me. Thank you so much.” Logan and Decklan were sitting on either side of her, touching her casually, and she was loosening up with touching them in front of everyone.

The back door opened and everyone turned to see Jackson standing there. Brooke was up and running to him. He caught her up and whirled her around. “Sorry I’m late, Brooke.” She hugged him tight and he lifted his head to look at her carefully, “Honey, you look…better.” His eyes flicked to the table and settled on the twins then back at his sister, “Everything okay?” She nodded and hugged him again.

“You’re taller again, Jackson. I’ve missed you like crazy. Tell me everything.” With his arm around Brooke, he hugged up his little sisters who came running from their rooms when Kate told them he’d gotten home. He settled in a chair and they climbed on his lap. It wasn’t as easy as it had once been. Brooke went back to sit between the brothers and Jackson watched them closely as he caught them up. They hadn’t seen him in months.

It was late when everyone started drifting to bed. The girls crashed together and Jackson took Becca’s room. When it was just Brooke and the twins, they stood and Decklan picked her up, her body coiling around him reflexively and a little drunkenly. It made them laugh since no one had seen her drunk since the first tour.

In her bedroom, they locked the door and turned music on low. They worked together to slowly undress her. She stood in front of them and watched them strip for her. Leading her to the bed, they stretched out on either side of her and kissed her mouth in turns.

“Can you both come up here? So I can see you?” They leaned over her, their dark brown hair touching they were so close. She stroked their faces with a smile. “You’re like fallen angels, so perfectly gorgeous with a naughty side.” They grinned and she sighed at their boyish charm.

“I have a long way to go, for me, before I’ll be alright. I know that and I need you to know it. To be patient with me when I cry sometimes, or forget a memory was with Rex, not with you, or…God forbid…if I should ever say his name in my sleep I will die of mortification.” They were smiling and stroking her hair. “But I want you and I need you more than I thought I would and it scares me. I love you, I do. Please don’t break my heart.”

Their green eyes widened and then they were crushing her to them. “Thank you, Brooke. I love you so much. You won’t regret it. I love you and I won’t hurt you. Don’t be scared, please don’t be scared. We know there will still be pain and sadness but we’ll get through it together. We’ll love you so hard. I swear, no pain, only love. Only love for our beautiful baby, our girl we’ve wanted for so long. We’ll show you every day you’re making the right choice. Prove our love and how we’ve changed. Oh, Brooke, thank you, baby. Thank you for giving us your love and accepting ours. We’ll make you proud and we’ll be the men you need. Love and protect you always.”

Then they were all over her. Moving so quickly she couldn’t tell them apart, couldn’t separate them in her mind or on her body. They licked and kissed her as their fingers massaged her skin with oil. By the time they’d moved over every inch of her skin, she felt boneless.

Taking their time, they sucked her nipples, worked in tandem on her pussy with their mouths and fingers, prepared her ass with oil, and made her come several times before she lost count. They didn’t permit her to touch them, determined to be focused solely on her.

When at last they sheathed their cocks and positioned themselves over and under her, she was barely able to move. They loved her slow and well for a long time, whispering how they’d keep her safe, love her always and when she came hard between them, they released their control and joined her.

She was drifting to sleep when she thought, “I love you so much, Rex. Always. Goodbye, baby.”

So many studio sessions, interviews, and public appearances led up to the first concert of their fifth album and fourth tour that Brooke felt completely overexposed. Logan and Decklan were waiting for her in the living room of their suite as Sidney worked on her hair and makeup.

She put her in clothes that announced she was back and ready to work like she’d been that first day in Dallas for her unknown audition.

Their tour was opening and closing in Chicago. Travis and Jeanette had decided together to get the hardest show out of the way first. It was the first time she’d been back since a few months after Rex’s death and there were memories everywhere.

She’d gone to Corps Values with their gang of friends the night before their show. All of them had worried but she insisted she needed to know she could do it. To know she could face down the hardest memory for her, the place she’d fallen in love with Rex completely. Entering in jeans and a tank top, cowboy boots and hat, she’d been applauded and hugged. Welcomed and accepted.

Taking the stage with John and his band, Brooke asked everyone to have a drink in Rex’s memory and shots were passed around the bar. Holding hers, she said as clearly as she was able, “To Rex, one of the very best men I ever knew, who died the way he lived, strong and brave. He was loved and he is missed.” The entire bar shouted, “Hoorah!” and shot their drinks.

Then she sang Wanted Dead or Alive and the place went insane as her friends and lovers watched proudly with tears in their eyes. Song after song, everyone sang with her. She ended with Free Bird as a true goodbye to the man who’d given his all loving her and keeping her safe.

She broke down halfway through and her men joined her, leaping onstage to finish it with her, holding her hard between them. Afterward, they guided her away from everyone, holding her fiercely, whispering in her ears until she calmed with a small nod.

Throughout the night, Brooke talked to enlisted men and a few women, handing out her cards as she always had. It gave her a sense of closure with Rex that she’d needed but she was glad everyone had gone with her. There was no way she could have done it alone.

She visited with the attorney handling Rex’s estate and put his home in trust for her little sisters. His business would belong to Becca when she was old enough to take it over. In the meantime, she made sure Crush and the women who worked there were doing alright. She had the huge multi-pierced man add a space station to her original tattoo and the twins grinned, telling her it was perfect to symbolize Rex.

Her true test of success on her re-entry into the world would be the concert. Stepping into the living room, she waited nervously for her men to inspect her appearance. They stood and approached her, amazed at the retro Brooke standing in front of them. She wore a soft and snug white Farm Aid t-shirt, jeans, cowboy boots and a soft straw cowboy hat. Sidney had trimmed the back of her hair into a ‘V’ and straightened it. Her makeup was light, no more than eyeliner and lip gloss. She hadn’t wanted glamorous, she’d wanted to find the person she’d been once, to start from the beginning and try again.

“You look like you did the day we met you, baby. Oh my god, you’re so beautiful.” Logan stroked her cheek lovingly.

Decklan picked her hand up, “Simple and stunning. Like you were the first time we saw you. I love it, honey.”

A little while later, they headed down to the car and she took a moment to speak to reporters. They took note of her changed appearance and she told them she wanted to focus on the band’s music, not turn heads. One reporter laughingly told her she did that anyway, it didn’t matter what clothes she was wearing.

They asked about Rex’s death and how she was handling it. She told them she took it one day at a time, that she had good friends in her life to help. Logan and Decklan had been pivotal to her healing from the most traumatic event in her life. When asked what her relationship was with the Bradshaws, she offered a shy smile and said with a shrug, “We make beautiful music together.”

At the arena, she signed autographs and screamed when a car backfired behind her. She was shaking badly when the twins hustled her quickly into the complex and held her until she calmed down. “Brooke, no one is going to hurt you.”

“It isn’t me, oh god, it isn’t me I’m worried about.” They stared at her, feeling stupid for not realizing the fear she must have for them. They’d missed the signs, how she often moved to stand in front of them when getting out of the limo, how she’d been trying to keep them standing a little closer together if they were behind her as if to shield them with her smaller body.

Logan’s voice broke when he said, “Oh, Brooke, my pretty baby, nothing is going to happen to us. We have so much security around us now. Don’t worry, baby. We’re going to have many years to love you, honey.”

Decklan held her hard as he whispered, “You aren’t going to take a fucking bullet for us, Brooke. We’ll stay safe and so will you. We love you so much, please don’t worry.”

Onstage, after they’d done the first song, Logan had asked for a moment of silence for Rex Black, a dear friend and good man they’d lost. “He was the kind of man we should all try to be. He lived hard and loved hard. He gave his life to protect someone he loved and we owe him a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.”

The entire arena was still for a full minute as Brooke stood between her men with her head bowed, holding their hands, and crying silently. The brothers hugged her and launched into Rex’s song. The entire place loved it and the rest of the concert was pumped up.

The brothers changed the set list on the fly, carrying the first couple of songs while Brooke got back in the groove. When she picked up her fiddle and started moving then dancing around the stage, the audience stood and cheered her, singing along.

By the time they were halfway through, their fans saw the woman they hadn’t seen in almost two years emerge from the ashes of the broken woman she’d been. Logan and Decklan felt their hearts expand watching her come back.

They did several ovations and the crowd showed their thanks. Brooke took the mic after their last song and said, “Thank you for waiting. I needed some time and y’all gave me that. I’m glad you’re still here. We still have the best fans in the business and I haven’t forgotten that. Y’all have a good night.” They cheered her and she waved before slipping her arms around Logan and Decklan.

Everyone was surprised when she went to the edge of the stage and held out her hands to a young girl with blond braids wearing the same style cowboy hat Brooke was. “What’s your name, honey?”

“Maggie, Miss Brooke. I’m real sorry ‘bout your man.”