Big Tex (20 page)

After a fitful night of sleep, Willow finally got up and packed her stuff.  Thankfully, the dress shop gave her a huge garment bag that covered her whole dress.  She met the other girls in the lobby and they took off for the airport.

When they landed in Texas, Willow started to get anxious.  She couldn't wait to see Brody, and hug and kiss him.  Luckily, the flight attendants let her take her dress on the plane and they even hung it up for her, near the cockpit so no one stepped on it.  She grabbed her dress and her carryon bag and was the first to get off the plane.  She ran out the gate to see Brody standing there with Micah, both of them holding roses.

Willow ran into Brody's arms, and when he swept her into a hug, she yelped in pain.  Brody dropped her and got a very worried look on his face.  "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?  I guess I just miss you so much I don't know my own strength."

"No, it's fine.  I'll tell you about it later.  I'm fine and as much as I want to be in your arms right now, it's going to have to wait.  I will take a kiss though."  Willow said as the pain subsided.  She took his hands and put them on the sides of her waist, then kept a little distance between them as their lips molded together.

The rest of the girls finally made it off the plane and all piled into Brody's SUV.  They dropped Maggie and Brighton off first, bringing Willow's dress into their house for safe keeping from Brody.  He tried to peek at it once or twice, but kept getting his hands slapped by the girls.

When Brighton got out of the car, she gave Willow a big hug, careful not to touch her lower back or stomach.  She whispered into Willow's ear, "Thank you so much for letting me come with you.  I can't even tell you how much it meant to me.  I love having you for a sister!"

"It meant a lot to me, and I couldn't have asked for a better little sister!"  She said and tweaked Brighton's nose.

They dropped Micah and Sierra off at their house, then headed home.  Willow was sitting in the seat funny, and Brody couldn't figure out why.  He thought he had hurt her when he hugged her in the airport and maybe he had done something to her back.  He felt horrible about it and promised himself he would make it up to her.

At home, Brody brought Willow's bags up to their bedroom.  Willow followed behind him, wanting nothing more than to sink into the bed in Brody's arms.  Brody kept looking back at her as they went up the stairs to make sure she was ok, and not falling down the stairs.

Finally in their bedroom, Brody put her bags down and took Willow's hand.  "Did I hurt you in the airport?"  He looked so worried, and felt even worse.

"No, I did something.  I wanted to show you how much I care about you, and when I went to do that, your sister talked me into something else.  It was all too much for me, and now I'm in a little bit of pain."  Willow said.

"Ok, you just completely confused me.  Slow down and tell me what happened."  Brody said, leading her over to the bed.

Willow looked longingly at the bed, knowing that it would put her in a world of hurt to lay down.  Brody sat on the edge of the bed while she stood in front of him.  "Ok, first, I'll tell you about the foolish thing I let your sister talk me into.  Or maybe I'll just show you."  Willow told him and started pulling up her shirt.  She stopped when the bottom of her shirt was at the middle of her stomach.

"Wow, that's hot!  I can't believe you got a belly ring.  My little rebel fiancée!"  Brody said excited.  "So, I bumped into it at the airport?"  Brody asked, feeling bad.

Willow nodded as Brody softly kissed her piercing. She took the bottom of her shirt in her hands and lifted it completely over her head.  "But that's not all."  Willow went on.  "I told you that I wanted to do something for you to show you how much I care.  Well, I know this may seem silly to you, but it's big for me."  Willow unbuttoned the top of her shorts and folded the waist down.  She spun around so her back was facing Brody.

Brody's hands lightly touched Willow's back on each side of her new tattoo.  He looked at the fresh markings and it brought tears to his eyes.  He ever so lightly ran his fingers over the ink, sending a shiver up Willow's back.  He spun her back around so that she was facing him.  Brody saw that Willow had tears in her eyes too.

"You did that for me?"  Brody asked, choked up.

"Yeah.  Do you understand now how much I love you and how much you mean to me?"  Willow asked.  "You have been showing me since the day we met, and I just feel like I don't show it enough.  So I had to do something, and I knew you'd understand why I got this tattoo.  Do you like it?"

"Willow…I don't know what to say.  I love it.  I love you!  I can't believe you did this for me!"  Brody said through tears.  "I understand!  I understand.  I feel the same way!"  Brody sobbed as he took her lips with his.  They shared a passionate kiss before Brody broke away and went to the bathroom.

He came back with a tube of gel that he dispensed onto his fingers.  He lightly spread it over Willow's new tattoo, immediately cooling her burning skin.  He had used the same thing when he got his tattoo, and always kept some around the house because it was good for burns too.

Brody set the tube onto the table beside the bed and pulled Willow back over to him.  He lowered the zipper on her shorts and slid them to the floor.  "I promise I'll be gentle, but I need you now.  I've missed you so much."  Brody said as he kissed Willow all over her stomach.  "Please don't leave me anymore.  I felt so lost without you."

"I felt the same way honey.  I'm here now and always."  Willow said as she stripped Brody out of his clothes.  He picked her up and sat her on the bed.  He rolled her onto her side and got behind her, laying on his side, his upper torso far enough away so that he wasn't touching her new tattoo, and he had a clear view of it.  He made slow, deep love to Willow, only to be spent hours later.  He finally had her in his arms again, and to him, that was heaven.

Chapter 16 Lisa's Return

After a fun-filled weekend of shopping in New York, Willow found herself back at work Monday morning.  It was a typical Monday so far, between meetings, paperwork, and project updates, but that all changed with a single package that arrived just before lunch.

Willow was sitting in her office finishing up some paperwork when the receptionist Joanie knocked on her door.  Willow waved her in and Joanie handed her a package.  "This just arrived from a courier, told me to get it to you immediately."  Joanie said then walked out of the office, shutting the door when she left.

Willow looked at it curiously, noticing that it was in a large, blank envelope, with only her name hand-written on the outside.  She grabbed her letter opener and tore at the seam.  As Willow pulled the contents of the envelope out, her stomach felt as if it dropped to the floor.

Willow stared at the pictures in her hands, a shock to her system.  Each picture was taken in her bedroom, in the bed that she shared with Brody.  Each one showed a naked Lisa, having sex with a man with dark hair, but none of them showed his face.  In all of the pictures, Lisa was looking directly into the camera with a satisfied smirk on her face.

Lisa had written a message to Willow on one of the pictures saying "Thanks for leaving town this weekend, I had a great time with your fiancé.  I warned you, I always get my man.  Love, Lisa".

'No!  It couldn't be!  Brody wouldn't do this to me.  I don't believe it, there has to be some mistake!'  Willow thought.  She needed to get to the bottom of those pictures.  She picked up the inter-office phone and rang Brody in the Think Tank.  She had to ask him if the photos were real, and if it was him with Lisa.  She was praying that he would tell her it was a set-up.

When Brody picked up the phone, Willow said, "Brody, you need to come to my office right away."  Her voice sounded very cold and detached.

"Willow?  What's wrong?  Is everything ok'?"  Brody asked.

"Just hurry up and get in here!"  Willow snapped.

Brody was worried about Willow's tone.  She never sounded that way, so he jumped up from his desk and ran to her office.  When he walked in the door, he saw worry written all over Willow's face.  She was standing up at the window, looking outside but not focusing on anything.  She was in a daze and barely noticed that Brody had come in.  He walked over to her to see what was wrong, but she held her arm stretched out straight so that he couldn't get too close to her.

"I'm trying to be objective here, and not jump to conclusions, but I'm in shock right now and I'm not exactly thinking clearly."  Willow said in a distant voice.  She handed the photos to Brody for him to look at.

Willow watched his reaction as he looked through the pictures.  She immediately knew that it wasn't him in bed with Lisa.  She rushed over to him and wrapped her arms around him.  Brody jerked when she touched him, and be backed out of her embrace.

"You actually thought this was me?  You thought I'd do something like this?"  Brody asked, very hurt that his fiancée believed the accusations Lisa made.

"Brody, look at it from my point of view for a minute.  The guy does kind of look like you from behind, and it's clearly our bedroom.  I told you I wasn't thinking clearly…I was totally caught off guard."  Willow cried in frustration.

"What about trust?  You don't trust me enough to believe it wasn't me?  How about giving me the benefit of the doubt?  You automatically accused me of this.  Look at the pictures Willow.  First of all, this guy is the same height as Lisa.  You know I'm almost a foot taller than her…that's a big difference.  Second, this guy doesn't have 'Big Tex' tattooed on his shoulder.  You just jumped to the conclusion that it was me before you even thought about it."  Brody yelled, his face red with anger.  "That's just great.  Glad you trust me so much.  I've got to, I'm taking the rest of the day off."  Brody said, threw the pictures back on her desk and tore out of her office.

Willow stumbled over to her desk and fell into her chair, feeling as though she had been punched in the stomach for the second time that day.  She knew that Brody was partially right.  She had jumped to conclusions, but not because she didn't trust him.  Willow was sure that if Brody had been put in the same position, he would have done the same thing, wouldn't he?  Willow put her elbows on her desk and buried her face in her hands and let the tears roll down her cheeks.

After a few minutes, Willow heard a knock on her door.  Sierra stuck her head in, and when she saw Willow crying, she came in and shut the door.  "Will, what's wrong?  Are you ok?"  She asked as she came around Willow's desk and began rubbing her back.

Willow handed the pictures to Sierra.  Sierra gasped when she saw the pictures and yelled "That bastard!  I can't believe he did this!"

"No, Sierra, it isn't Brody.  It's just a guy who looks like Brody from behind."  Willow said, eerily calm.

"Oh, that's good then, but it's really sick that Lisa was in your bedroom doing this!"  Sierra said.

"Yeah, I could kill her right now.  But what's worse is that I showed the pictures to Brody and he thinks I was accusing him of being with Lisa.  He thinks I don't trust him."  Willow began crying harder.  "I just didn't know what to do when I saw the pictures, and I needed for him to confirm that it wasn't him.  He got so mad, I've never seen him that angry.  He stormed out of here and I don't know where he went.  I've really messed up this time, all thanks to Lisa."

"I'm sure he just needs some time to cool off.  Come on, I'll take you home. You're in no shape to work."  Sierra said.

Willow agreed and got her purse.  Sierra got her stuff out of her office, then drove Willow home.  She went inside the house with her, and there was no sign of Brody.  They went in search of Stella to see if she had heard from him.  Stella said hadn't seen him at all since the morning.  As Willow turned to leave the kitchen, she remembered the pictures.

"Stella, can you please take the bedding in my room and get rid of it?  I'll get something new delivered, but just throw all the old stuff away.  Also, if you could clean the bedroom really well today, I'd appreciate it."  Willow told their maid.  Stella told her she would get right on it and offered to call for the new bedding herself.  Willow thanked her for her help and went to the game room with Sierra.

Willow and Sierra spent the next few hours watching movies and talking.  By 7:00, Brody still hadn't come home.  Sierra called Micah to see if he was with him, but Micah hadn't seen him since Brody stormed out of the office earlier.  Willow really started to worry that something had happened, or that Brody didn't want to be with her anymore.  She began pacing around the room, not quite sure what to do.  She just couldn't sit still, thinking about her current situation.

Finally at 7:45, Brody walked in the house.  Willow ran to the front door to see him, and stopped when she got to the edge of the foyer.  Sierra hugged Willow and told her she's talk to her later, then left out the door Brody had just come in.

Brody kept his eyes focused on the floor as he leaned against the wall.  Willow kept searching his face to give her some kind of clue as to what he was feeling.  She didn't know what to say or do, so she softly said, "Hi."

Brody finally looked up with tears in his eyes and rushed over to Willow and embraced her in his arms.  "Oh baby, I'm so sorry.  I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier, and I'm sorry for being gone so long, and I'm sorry for making you worry."  He hugged her tight, careful not to put too much pressure on her new belly ring or tattoo.  "I know that you trust me, and if I would have gotten the same pictures, trying to make it look like you were having sex with someone else, I would have reacted the same way.  Will you please forgive me?"

"Only if you forgive me for being an idiot and letting a shadow of a doubt cloud my thinking earlier."  Willow said, sobbing.

"Of course.  Oh Willow, I love you so much.  I don't know what I'd do without you.  I've been doing nothing but torturing myself for the past few hours.  I'm so sorry!"  Brody said, then placed kisses all over Willow's face.