Unbroken (28 page)

THE MINUTE MICHELE WALKS IN to the cabin, I know trouble is afoot. Sabrina and I are kissing in the middle of the kitchen. Her arms are wrapped around me as we lose ourselves in each other not for the first time since we’ve arrived.

A throat clears behind us and Sabrina turns around, releasing me and positioning herself in front of me immediately. It’s sexy really, seeing her automatically come to my defense, but of course she doesn’t know that Michie’s not after my blood. She’s after Sabrina’s.

What Michie doesn’t know, though, is that she is setting herself up for failure. She won’t win a fight against Sabrina if she had three people fighting beside her. My girl is a force to be reckoned with.

Mich looks good, but not nearly as good as Sabrina does. Her hair’s cut short and she’s wearing a sky blue dress. She stands with her legs shoulder width apart, her arms crossed over her chest. She juts her chin out, likely trying to prove that she’s not going to back down. Sabrina, however, places a hand on her hip, and stands taller than Mich by at least four inches.

“You must be Sabrina,” Michele says, a smile on her face.

I try to warn her away with a look of my own, but she doesn’t budge. I place my hand against Sabrina’s lower back as she prepares to face my ex for the first time.

“And you’re
clearly
Michele,” Sabrina spits out. “How can I help you?”

Michele looks momentarily stunned, blanching a bit and straightening to make herself look taller.

“I just wanted to see who Brody’s so taken with.” She gives Sabrina a onceover, like she’s assessing her in her head. She can’t find anything wrong with Sabrina if she tried.

“Brody’s not really your concern anymore.”

Oh, man, Sabrina’s a fucking angel. I’ve never had someone defend me like this, or act all territorial. Michele fought for me, sure, but when her place was threatened, she never fought to
keep
her place in my life.

“I just don’t want you to hurt him.”

“Seems to me
I’m
not the one you need to worry about,” Sabrina shouts.

Mich walks forward and Bree walks forward, and all of a sudden they’re toe to toe and I know exactly how this is going to end. Mich is going to throw the first hit because that’s what she does. She starts fights she can’t finish 99.9% of the time, and everyone else is left to clean up her mess. Sabrina, however, is going to finish the fight, and we’re all gonna be shit out of a spring break vacation.

Before either of them can say another word, I grab Sabrina by her waist and position her behind me. She struggles against me, but I hold her in place. She needs to stay behind me because I want to give Michele a piece of my mind once and for all after what happened last summer. Sabrina should know by now it’s best if she doesn’t fight me.

I turn my head marginally and shoot her a look, so she stops struggling and she steps back. I place my hands out to the side, trying to keep her from going anywhere or trying to blind side me. She relaxes, her arms coming up to encircle my waist and her face pressing between my shoulder blades. God, it feels so good to be held by her.

Michie’s eyes widen at my stance, I’m sure she’s surprised by how serious Sabrina and I appear to be after being together for such a short amount of time.

“You don’t need to protect her from me, Brody,” Michele whispers, her eyes wide.

“I don’t know what I know anymore. Leave her alone,” I bite out, suddenly irritated.

Sabrina suddenly pipes up from behind me. “I can take care of myself, Brody.”

And now, we’ve added more people to the party. Hayden’s come into the kitchen, taken one look between Mich and me, and decides to wrap his arms around her. She doesn’t move, though. Hayden looks irritated, like he was hoping our drama had ended when we last encountered each other in Big Springs. I sucker punched the mother fucker in a moment of weakness, but he got a few good hits in. I don’t have any hard feelings against the guy. The only problems I had were with Michele stringing me along when she knew good and well she wanted to be with Hayden.

If she had told me that from the beginning, I would have bowed out gracefully instead of making a complete fool of myself.

But that’s behind me now. And my hopes are that we can someday be friends again like we once were, but if that’s not possible, I’m not going to continue to waste my time.

“Michele. Michele, come on, love,” Hayden whispers just loud enough for me to hear.

I shake my head, interrupting him before he can say anything else.

I need Michele to know that whatever this is she thinks she’s doing, she needs to stop it. Sabrina is my girl, and she has to accept that I’ve moved on.

“I know you’re perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, Sabrina. You proved that the first night we met. But the point is, you shouldn’t have to. And I’m not going to let you.” I glare at Michele and jerk my head in Hayden’s direction. “You chose
him
. You’re with
him
now. I’m with Sabrina. Take the target off her back or I swear to fucking
God
Michie…” I trail off, trying to compose myself. I’m so tired of her happiness and well-being being threatened by the people from my past. I’m done with having to deal with it, and I want her to know she’s not going to deal with it alone. If it comes down to me and Hayden again, I can deal with that. But Sabrina is not going to continue to fight the ghosts of my past. That’s my job. “If you mess with her again, whether we’re on this trip or not, I promise, we’ll
never
be friends again.”

“Don’t talk to her like that!” Hayden exclaims.

All heads turn in his direction and I shake my head. I turn and point at him, angry. “
You
shut the fuck up! She put herself in this position, sticking her nose where it’s not fucking wanted! I’m not going to let her antagonize my girl. Ever. Make yours mind her own Goddamn business, and everything will be fine.” I turn in Sabrina’s direction, grabbing her hand. “Let’s go to our room.” She follows as I walk away, and I turn to face Nic. “Call us when it’s time to cook dinner, and we’ll help.”

She nods, and on that note, I drag Sabrina back into our room where I deposit her on the bed. She sits cross-legged and opens her arms for me. I climb on top of the bed and lie down, resting my head in her lap. She starts running her fingers through my hair and humming at the same time. I stare up at her with a smile on my face.

She doesn’t smile back. Her gaze is transfixed on mine, and she sighs after a few moments.

“Your ex is still infatuated with you,” Sabrina says, finally.

I shake my head, sitting up and crossing my legs. I grab her hands and place them in my lap. “Dove, I don’t care. Whether she is or not, it’s not
her
I’m infatuated with. It’s you. You’re the only one I see when I’m in a crowded room. So don’t worry about her or how she feels. Whatever it is, that’s
her
damage to sort out with
her
boyfriend.”

She nods, but she doesn’t seem convinced. I don’t want her to feel like Michele is a threat to our relationship, because she isn’t.

I can practically see the wheels turning in Sabrina’s head. I tip her chin up. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?” I ask.

Narrowing her eyes at me, she shakes her head. “Don’t you find it weird that she’s here on vacation with
her
boyfriend and the first thing she does is come after me? You know I can handle myself, but like you said, I shouldn’t have to. It’s not my fault she let you go.”

I nod, because she’s right. Sure, in the beginning it was me who let our relationship fall by the wayside, but in the end, it was Michele who chose to let us go. And it’s not fair to subject Sabrina to the repercussions of someone else’s decision.

“Exactly. It’s not your fault, so don’t worry about it. Let’s enjoy our week, and hopefully the sounds of you screaming my name through the thin walls in this place will scare her into leaving.”

She raises an eyebrow in amusement, then lets out a laugh as I push her onto her back.

“Let’s get started right now,” she says with a grin.

…

“HOW DO I LOOK?” I ask, running my fingers through my hair.

I’m standing in front of the mirror, trying to put myself together.

“Like you’ve just been fucked by the guy you love,” Brody replies, kissing my shoulder. “Leave it. Happy looks good on you.”

Meeting his gaze in the mirror, I smile. I can’t even help it. I smile so much when I’m around him, and even more when we have moments together like the one we just shared. Maybe it was in poor taste, but I don’t feel I should have to hold anything back or hide anything about my relationship just to appease someone else.

“It looks good on you, too.” I turn around and, up on my tiptoes, I give him a quick pop kiss. “Let’s go before we’re late for dinner.”

I can tell he’s not too enthusiastic about having dinner with his ex and her current, but I’ve given him no choice. We came here for a getaway and to spend time with friends. We can’t do that if we keep ourselves cooped up in our room. So I’m trying to pull him out and get him to enjoy himself, even if it’s just pretend.

“Maybe we can order in,” he suggests.

I shake my head. “Or maybe you can stop being a coward and accompany me to dinner so I don’t end up stabbing your ex-girlfriend with a steak knife.”

He laughs, but clearly he’s forgotten how I can be when I feel threatened. Michele came directly for me earlier, and I have no problem going for her throat if she tries that shit again. I’m not afraid of her. If she’s smart, she should be afraid of me.

How bad can dinner be, anyway?

When we enter the dining room, everyone’s already seated and waiting for us to join them. There are two seats left at the table, but the way everyone’s set up, Brody and I would have to be on the opposite ends of the table, instead of side by side like we should be. I glance at Michele, and she shrugs her shoulders even though I’m sure she had everything to do with this.

His hand at the small of my back, Brody leads me to my seat. I’m momentarily thinking of forcing him into my seat, and just sitting on his lap to see if it’ll make Michele squirm. But I decide against it and take a seat. I wonder if Brody’s seat is too far away for us to play footsies under the table. He pushes my chair in for me, and he gets ready to walk to his own seat. Before he has the chance to take a step, though, Colin and Nickayla both move to the left, leaving an empty seat beside Nickayla’s sister Naomi. He mutters a quick
thank you
to Colin and takes a seat beside me.

Twining our fingers together under the table, he gives my hand a gentle squeeze.

“Bree, you look…different. What’d you do to your hair?” Nic asks.

Shooting a quick glance in his direction, I smirk. “It wasn’t me. It was all Brody. He’s got skills, kid.”

Halfway through taking a sip of his soda, Brody forces back a cough. I take a moment to look at Michele and she’s bright red. She looks like she’s ready to storm out of the dining room right this second, but Hayden keeps her rooted in place.

Nickayla suppresses a giggle, and I notice the gleam in her eye as she regards Brody and I sitting beside each other. Maybe Brody was right last week. Nickayla does feel some type of sense of accomplishment from seeing us together. I wonder what all he’s told her about us.

“Well, I just wanted to say thank you to all of you guys for being here. I’m sure we’re in for a wonderful, relaxing, drama-free week,” Nickayla says, glancing pointedly at Michele. “I guess we can welcome the newbies to the group. Hayden, Trey, and Sabrina, I’m glad to have you all here. I hope next year we can do something like this again.”

Her comment sounds sad and hopeful. It’s understandable, because she and Colin are moving to Big Springs after graduation. Michele is moving there, too, but I can tell already that Nickayla is the core of this group of people. Brody’s already expressed to me that he doesn’t want to leave California until Cason and Dalis have both graduated from high school. And me, I know there’s a world far beyond Harlow, but as for right now, I want to be wherever Brody is.

It’ll be difficult for all of us to get together again once a year, what with adult responsibilities finally coming into play for everyone else. But I’m not above trying, as long as it means I get to see Brody shine again when he’s around his friends.