I Call Him Brady (19 page)

He leaned his forehead to mine, gently grazing the tip of my nose with his.

“Then don’t. Don’t ever.”

I
was holding her and it was the best feeling in the entire world. I couldn’t stop myself from touching her, kissing her, breathing in her scent every chance I got. She smelled sweet of peaches and orange blossoms mixed with a hint of salt from the ocean air and faint traces of paint.

Everything was exactly as I had remembered it. The tender curves of her body. The softness of her skin. The way her eyes closed halfway and her lips fluttered with pleasure when I kissed the sweet dip in the side of her stomach just below her hip.

I had lived without this. Had thought I might never have it again. I was never going back to that. Nor would I ever take so much as an ounce of her for granted ever again.

Lying there entangled in her, with her face on my chest and my hands in her soft hair, all I could do was think about everything life suddenly had in store for us. There were a million things to do. For starters, we’d have to move. My place was nice, but it was a bachelor pad through and through. We needed a place we could make our own, together. A place with a yard for Jessa and a studio for Embers.

I would have to be more selective about the parts I chose for work. No way was I going to spend all of my time jumping from set to set anymore. Not now. Now that I had a family. Holy shit. I was a family man. Fucking weird, but in a way that made me want to jump in the air and kick my heels together. Not that I’d actually ever done that.

Moira, my parents. They’d all have to meet. We could wait on that though. At least for a year…or maybe five. Well, Moira could meet them. Mom and Dad, they’d have to wait.

I was still running through my mental list of life changing to-do’s when I felt Embers begin to move.

Her lips gently pressed to my chest in a soft kiss before she lifted her head to meet my gaze. God she was gorgeous.

“Marry me.”

             
Had he really just said that?

             
“You don’t have to do that, Brady. I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”

             
He smiled warmly. “I know that. Marry me.”

             
“You’re insane.”

             
“So are you. We’re perfect for each other. Marry me.”

             
How many times was he going to say that? More importantly, how many times was I going to put off giving him an answer?

             
“Are you serious right now?” Apparently at least three.

             
“Yes, I’m serious. Marry me.” There it was again.

             
“Brady, we’ve only known each other for like three months. Over two of those months, we weren’t even together.” And we were on to four.

             
“So what? Marry me.” So what? What kind of an argument was that? So what? So what that I had courted shoes at the mall longer than I’d known him before making a commitment? So what that our day to day lives were separated by three thousand miles? So what that I’d never met his parents? Then it hit me. So what? It didn’t change anything. It didn’t change how I felt about him. About us. Or about the life I wanted with him.

             
“Okay.”

             
His eyes lit up. “Okay, like yes you’ll marry me?”

             
I laughed out loud as sheer joy erupted from within. “Yes! I’ll marry you!”

             
“Embers Fillios, you are not going to regret this.”

             
“No, but you might.” I giggled as he lifted me and rolled us over until he was on top of me.

             
His eyes were alive with the heat of the moment. “Never.” And then he was kissing me. Deep, raw kisses that pulled me in until I belonged entirely to him because he had given himself entirely to me.

             
Busy making up for lost time, Brady and I didn’t leave the house for almost three days. Hell, we barely even left the bedroom. If it hadn’t been for the fact that his scarcely stocked pantry had been cleaned out completely by the third morning, we might have stayed in even longer.

             
As it was, we had burned off way too many calories not to require some sort of sustenance. So we ventured out.

             
Of course, food wasn’t the only thing I was having an increasing need for. I was missing Jessa like crazy. In her whole five years I’d never been apart from her this long and I couldn’t wait to see her.

             
May and Marshall were flying in with her and I was bugging Brady all through breakfast about what we would do once they got there.

             
“Are you sure you won’t mind having everyone at your house?” I took another small bite of my omelet. Eating while the paparazzi was snapping pictures of you left and right through the window was nothing if not a bit unnerving. Talk about feeling self-conscious.

             
Meanwhile, Brady didn’t even seem to notice. “Why would I mind? In fact, they can stay in my vacation rental.” The sarcasm was indisputable.

             
“Oh yeah? What part of your house will you be renting out?” I played along.

             
“Crisco’s room. Well, it’s like his man cave or something. I’m not really sure. He noticed I wasn’t using the space and just sort of claimed it. But don’t worry. He has excellent taste. Loves dark colors and Pamela Anderson…the Baywatch era.”

             
I nodded, pulling my lips together tightly. The only room I hadn’t been in yet. And now I probably never would be. “Yeah, sounds like it’s about equal to the room she stuck you with.”

             
He was chewing, but even so, the corners of his mouth curled up. “Well, she definitely deserves it, but no. They can stay in the guest suite off the living room. We should go and grab a bed for Jessa though. Something we can just throw together in our room. Don’t want to freak her out by sticking her in a room by herself in a big strange house.”

             
I dropped my fork in my plate and it made a loud clanging sound. I hardly noticed. Nor did I pay attention to the people who turned to stare as I threw myself half across the table to wrap my arms around his neck and smother him with kisses. I even became oblivious to the cameras.

             
“Have I told you lately that I love you?” I placed one more kiss directly on his soft and welcoming lips before I sat back down in my seat and regained a more lady-like composure.

             
“You about ready to get out of here?” His plate was still half full, but I got the distinct feeling he was no longer craving eggs and pancakes.

             
“Yes, yes I am.” Neither was I. We practically ran out of there.

             
Thirty minutes later and we were lying naked on his living room floor wrapped in a skimpy little throw blanket that had clearly been more for looks than practicality.

             
“You really need to learn a little more self-control.” He poked me in the waist playfully. “At this rate we’ll never get anything done.”

             
“I can’t believe you’re blaming me for this.” I feigned total outrage over the accusation. “At least I still had a shirt on when we walked in the door.”

             
He leaned over, letting his fingers dance across my skin, starting at my shoulder and working their way down. “You’re saying that like it’s a good thing.”

             
“Well, it was definitely the more respectable thing…” I was losing my argument and fast as his lips followed the trail of his fingers. I was about to give in completely when I heard my phone ringing from somewhere across the room.

             
I crawled over to where I saw my jeans laying in a crumpled mess on the floor and dug through the pockets, locating the phone just in time.

             
“Hello?”

             
“Mama, there’s a phone on the airplane!” I could literally hear the smile in her voice. It was awesome.

             
“Jessa that has got to be the coolest thing ever. What else is on the plane?” I slowly made my way back to Brady where I curled up in his arms under the scrap of blanket we had.

             
“Well, there’s a TV. I got to pick my movie. And they have chocolate muffins.”

             
I loved hearing about the world from her. Most people never took the time to get excited over muffins anymore.

             
“Think you can save me one?”

             
“Yes. I already did. But don’t tell Aunt May. She really wanted it,” she said sneakily.

             
“Okay,” I whispered back. “I can’t wait to see you.”

             
“Me too, Mama. Okay, I gotta go. My movie is starting.”

             
“Bye, baby.”

             
I held the phone to my chest. Four days without her had been way too long.

             
“She digging the private jet?” Brady’s grip loosened as he moved around to get a better look at me.

             
“Absolutely. You do realize you’re creating a monster, don’t you? She’s five and now she’ll never want to fly coach again.”

             
Brady made a face. “And who could blame her?”

             
“Stop it,” I chided. “You can’t go around spoiling her. Well, not all the time anyway. A little spoiling would be fine.” Truth was, I adored the fact that he enjoyed making her happy just as much as I did. I’d never been able to share that with anyone other than May.

             
May. I had so much to tell her.

             
“You know, May is going to flip when she finds out that you asked me to marry you. And then of course she’s totally going to take credit for it. Just so you know, so be prepared to lose all your glory. She’s a glory hog. Steals the glory right from under ya.”

             
He chuckled. “How are you going to tell her?”

             
“I have no idea. I keep having the conversation in my head, but the words ‘I’m engaged’ just sound too weird. It’s all so formal. This doesn’t feel formal. It just feels…real.”

             
Brady was doing the thing with his jaw again, a sure sign he was about to speak. Then he shook his head, biting the inside of his cheek and staring at me ominously. I was about to tell him to spit it out already when he stood up and walked out of the room.

             
A second later, he strolled back in and came back to sit beside me.

             
“Maybe this will help.” He held out his hand to me. “I was going to wait and do everything again properly since the first time wasn’t exactly planned. But really, I can’t imagine a more perfect moment than the one we had when you said yes, so…“

It wasn’t until he slowly peeled back his fingers to reveal his palm that I understood what he was talking about. It was a ring.