Page 82 of The Publicity Stunt

It's the last thing Bri intended to do when she came out here, but it needed to be done. Now, she just needs to figure out how to get through this funeral in one piece. What else could possibly go wrong?

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Kace

Kace walks up to the church with his father, both dressed in suits, and they find themselves stopped by Bobby, of all people.

"No," Bobby says.

"We're just here to show support. That's all," Kace says. "This is my father, Victor. Dad, this is Bobby. The guy who threatened to end my career."

Victor nods to him. "We don't want any trouble, but Bri doesn't have family here with her."

"And you're not family."

"But we're here. We'll stand at the back," Kace says, hoping this compromise will earn him entrance to the funeral. If Bri can see he and his father are here, maybe she'd understand how big of a misunderstanding this whole situation is. That he cares so much about her.

Bobby looks over to Nia, and Kace catches her subtle head nod. "Fine, but keep a low profile."

"He really doesn't like you, does he?" Victor asks as they make their way to stand along the back wall.

The small church is almost filled to the brim, and he spots Tessa sitting with who he assumes to be her parents near the front of the room. Bri is nowhere in sight, but if she's singing, she's probably in a back room preparing. Or hyperventilating. God, he wishes she would just let him be here for her without having to force his way in.

Kace sighs. "Not at all. I can't blame him, though. No one believes I had nothing to do with that interview, and I don't have a reason to give them to tell them otherwise. I should have never said a word to Brett."

"He's your best friend. You wouldn't have thought he'd go and blab to anyone else, especially Rudy."

"Speaking of, it was his idea to have the team come out and help with the cleanup efforts. He even agreed that we shouldn't give the media a heads up that we were coming. And the way he backed me with Bri's family when they started threatening her made it feel like things were back like they used to be."

"Do you think you could forgive him?"

That's the question Kace has been wrestling with for a week now. "We'll never be friends like we used to be, but I do kind of miss him. The real him, not the, uh... jerk version he's been for a year," Kace says, remembering he probably shouldn't swear in church. "But I don't know that I can actually consider it fully unless Bri forgives him. She was the one hurt the most when this all exploded."

His father's hand rests on his shoulder. "I know this is hard for you."

"I love her," he says, his voice low to avoid being overheard. "I hate that I waited to tell her until it was too late. That hurts even more. Maybe if I'd said it when I felt it, she wouldn’t have been so quick to believe everything was the way it looked. All I want is her to listen to me. Really listen. She'd know I would never hurt her, and I was never with anyone else. It was all real."

"Did you get a new suit?"

His eyes look over at his father with confusion. He just poured his heart out, and he asks about the suit? "What?"

"You're huge," he says and grabs his bicep. "Bigger than you were. Did this have to be custom made?"

"Not custom made, but altered, yes. I may spend most of my free time lifting. I guess it's made more of a difference than I thought."

Music starts, and Kace looks towards the front. Tessa cries silently, and the older man, whom he assumes to be her father, wraps his arm around her shoulder while her mother takes her hand. Moments like this make Kace miss his mother. He's been thinking about her a lot more than normal lately, and he wonders what she would have told him about the Bri situation.

Bri walks up to the front, and while she's never been someone who wears a ton of goop, her makeup is understated even for her. Kace can't get over her natural beauty. Moving behind the microphone, she pales even more than she seems to be lately. All he wants to do is run up there and wrap her up in his arms and say everything will be alright.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming. As most of you know, Mr. Hanks didn't have family, but that didn't stop him from becoming family to so many of us." She pauses, swallows, and takes a step back.

Catching her breath, she steps back up and continues. "For anyone who doesn’t know me, I'm Brianna Waters. Mr. Hanks has been such an important part of my life, and he was an unabashed supporter of everything I did. Lifted me up when I was down. Cheered and shared in my success. Cried with me when I went through my losses. No matter what, he was there, no questions asked, and he never expected anything in return. And he was just like that with every single one of his students."

Victor pulls a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes his eyes. "She really has lost so much, hasn't she?"

Kace nods. "Yeah, she has."

"She reminds me so much of your mom."

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