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I was hesitant, but I gave in after a moment. When I got inside, she glared at me for a moment before putting the car in drive and pulling away from the curb.
“What the hell happened to you?” she asked. “What, did you get drunk and get into some stupid bar fight?”
“What do you care?” I grunted. “Did you pick me up just talk crap to me? Because if so, you can drop me right back off and I'll call my own ride.”
“I picked you up because I saw a pitiful soul walking in the rain looking like a crazy person. But if you want to get out, be my guest.”
She didn’t stop the car for me to get out, she was just talking crap. So was I. The last thing I wanted to do was walk in the rain or have to wait on a driver to come get me. Besides, I wanted to talk to Mia. There were a lot of things we needed to clear up. Both of us.
“So, are you going to tell me what happened?”
I let out a sigh but prepared myself to tell her what happened. I knew she would put the blame on me and tell me to get my shit together, and maybe it was something I needed to hear from her. Truth be told, I was lucky to hear anything from her at all.
“I got into a fight with a coworker.”
“Didn’t Captain Beck tell you to stay away from the firehouse until you were cleared to go back to work?”
“Yep,” I said.
Mia shook her head and continued to drive. She was over me and my bullheadedness, and I didn’t blame her. I was over it myself.
Chapter Twenty-Six ~ Mia
I was so angry with Brayden, we argued the entire ride back to the cabin. My anger with him stemmed from a lot of places. Trent, how much of a hard-ass he was, the secret he kept all those years. My anger was everywhere. He didn’t seem to care either. I figured he was over me and my attitude just as much as I was over him and his attitude. I was over everything at that point in my life. I wanted to leave Big Bear for good, again, but there was too much work to be done, and too many things to be cleared up before I left. So, I stayed.
When we got to the cabin, of course, I had to help Brayden into the house. He was drunk and his legs were seeping through his bandages again from all the strain he put on them. I had an attitude about that too, but I didn’t refuse to help.
“You need a bath,” I said. “You stink. And your legs need to be cleaned. So, I don’t want to hear anymore from you about anything. Just go and get into the tub and I'll be there in a minute.”
My minute was way longer than sixty seconds. I wanted him to sit in the bath and sober up before he and I could say another word to each other. I was tired of fighting, and honestly, I wanted to relax.
After about twenty minutes, I went into the bathroom where he was, and he was already out of the tub. He looked better, smelled better, and had sobered up by then. I didn’t say anything. In fact, I was on my way out the door before he stopped me and asked if we could talk.
“What’s to talk about, Brayden? I asked. “We’ve already talked about things over and over again. Honestly, I'm just tired. I don’t want to keep talking about the negative aspects of this situation. I’m ready to move on from the exhaustion and get on with my life.”
“Yeah, so am I,” he said. “I’m tired of being angry and closed off all the time. I feel terrible about this shit with Trent, and I want to get over the hill already, dammit. But you make it so hard for me. Yeah, I should have come clean years ago, but it was all out of love for Trent. He wanted me to keep this quiet and because he’s my best friend, I did. End of story. If you can’t accept that, then we’re done here. We can both be free and move on with our lives, but I love you, Mia. Always have, and always will. Right here, right now, I'm prepared to either move on together, or move on alone but either way, I'm moving on. The choice is yours.”
He sounded completely over me. So much so, it made me afraid to lose him. Brayden had always been a stern man, but he never talked to me with such a tone. I heard how fed up he was and knew I had to make a decision once and for all.
I turned to face him and saw him standing there in his towel. His body was still wet from his bath and his muscles protruding in every which way. Seeing him there, looking like a perfectly sculpted statue, made me hot. I wanted to ignore the arousing feeling in my gut and speak my peace one last time, but I couldn’t. His sternness forced me into his arms with such passion.
Our lips locked and I felt the spark I had been longing to feel. The spark that electrified me so vividly, it was as if my memory of anger was wiped completely clean and my love for Brayden took over once again.
When he touched me, the feeling intensified. As he tore through my clothes to get to my naked frame, I got goosebumps all over my body. He wasted no time lying me down on the bed either. Instead, he lifted me off my feet and pushed himself inside of me on our way.
As we fell onto the bed, savagely kissing and groping each other, the moans that escaped my mouth were like the last of my anger seeping through me. I was head over heels for him again, and it felt so good.
“I love you, Mia,” he whispered into my ear as he stroked me gently. “I love you, and I'm never letting you go.”
With each word he spoke, my body craved for him more. My love came down and covered his shaft with my emotions. I even shed a tear as he stroked me and stroked me, until my legs shook from exploding over and over again.
“I love you,” was all I could muster.
I did love him. I loved him so much I cried after we finished making love. I felt foolish for it, but Brayden held me in his arms and comforted me all night. It felt great to be held and nurtured by him. Normally, I was the one doing the nurturing, but that night, it was Brayden.
“We’re done with the back and forth, Mia,” he said. “It’s obvious that we love each other, and we have something special. From here on out, I want us to take the time to explore our love more, instead of fighting about the past. We can’t change it. The only thing we can do is work through it.”
I agreed, and I felt the same way. I was tired of fighting with him. I wanted to love him, to grow our relationship into marriage someday. We talked about it when we were younger, so the only thing left to do was take the right steps towards getting there.
