Page 104 of Heartbreaker
“No, I’m not,” Amara says over her shoulder, walking down the hallway to answer the unexpected knock at the door.
“Wonder who that could be,” Mamá says, coming up behind me in the mirror. She re-fluffs my hair, letting it fall into the perfect curls down my back. I was surprised when I met my parents for breakfast this morning that neither one of them brought up the bombshell I’d dropped on my mother last night. She hasn’t said much about Brooks at all today, and I’m not sure how to feel about it, but that’s a conversation for tomorrow. I need to get through Wrestlefest before I worry about whether she told my father or not, and how well he’s handling it.
“Probably Rae,” I say, checking my makeup one last time. I’m supposed to meet her and Brody downstairs in the lobby in five minutes. Normally, I could be ten minutes late and they’d have no idea, but maybe Brody has finally been able to break her of her bad habit.
“You’re joking, right?” Mamá laughs. “That girl will be late to her own funeral one day, and you think she’s running ahead of schedule to something like this?”
I offer her a grin over my shoulder before applying a final layer of lipstick.
“Oh!” Mamá gasps, her eyes wide as they look past me down the hallway. “Well, don’t you look handsome?”
When I turn, I expect to see Brody standing there in his monkey suit, as he called it last night, ready for the night ahead of us, but it’s not Brody at all.
Brooks stands in the door, dressed in a full suit and tie, face freshly shaven and hair styled to look like it hasn’t been styled at all. There’s a red tie that coincidentally matches the color of my dress in the center of his chest beneath the deep navy blue suit jacket. Handsome is one way to put it, but a few other words come to mind. His eyes trail down the length of my dress and back up before he lets out a soft breath, and I don’t even realize I’ve taken the steps to shorten the distance between us until my sister-in-law inches past me.
“Hi,” I say, my eyes never leaving his.
Brooks smiles. “Hi.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came to see if you needed a ride. I figured we could go…together.”
“Together,” I repeat, and he nods. For such a small word, it carries a lot of weight. What doestogethermean? “As friends?”
His throat swells with a hard swallow before he nods again, a tight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “Friends.”
“I’m supposed to meet Rae and Brody in a few minutes, but I don’t think they want me going as their third wheel anyway,” I say, and he laughs. I’ve only been a thorn in their side for the last three weeks. I’m sure they’ve been happy to get some alone time since we’ve been in Indianapolis, where they’ve had their own space. “Let me grab my—” My mother stands behind me with my clutch in hand, ready and waiting. “Purse.”
“You two just look breathtaking.” She swoons. “Don’t they, Amara?”
“Best looking couple there,” my sister-in-law agrees. I give her a pointed look, and she only giggles behind her hand, turning on her heel to pick up the mess we’d created in my room.
“Go! Before you’re late.” Mamá pushes us out the door without a chance to say goodbye, and as soon as the door slams behind us, I can imagine the shit-eating grin on both of their faces. I’m sure Amara has already told Crew, and the news is spreading like wildfire amongst the Williams family.
“Shall we?” Brooks asks, offering me his arm. I adjust my purse in my right hand, threading my other arm through his, and he leads me down the hall. The elevator doors open immediately when he presses the button, and we part to stand on either side of the car.
“Running behind?” Brooks asks from across the elevator, and I give him a knowing look. I’m not shocked my best friend is, in fact, running ten minutes behind. If she weren’t, I’d think the world was coming to an end, but tonight, I find myself feeling a little extra grateful for her bad habits.
Brooks leads me out of the elevator and through the side door of the hotel, where a car awaits. Our ride to the stadium is filled with a comfortable silence, one that draws us close as our fingers brush on the seat between us. Slowly, his hand envelops mine, and his fingers thread through my own, thumb tracing a pattern on the inside of my palm. He doesn’t let go when we get out of the car, instead using the connection to draw me in close, leaning in to whisper in my ear, “You are the most beautiful woman here.” The words are simple, and my insides clench at the familiarity. When I meet his stare, Brooks smiles before bringing the back of my hands to his lips.
All eyes are on us when we walk in. While I can’t help but notice, Brooks ignores them. He kisses my temple and pulls me onto the red carpet, where we talk to members of the media. They ask a flurry of questions, and I’m relieved they don’t ask the same one we were bombarded with at LNX Upfronts in New York: “Does this mean you guys are back together…liketogethertogether?” I can see the question on the tips of their tongues, but they never ask. I wonder if that’s an Amos thing or a Brooks thing.
Never-ending vibrations come from my phone, which I shoved inside my clutch before we started with the media. I can guess who it is, and when I catch Raelynn’s stare across the room, she swims through the crowd until she reaches me. She waits impatiently for us to finish our final interview, and I guarantee her foot is tapping beneath the length of her plum-colored gown.
“I know you said you found a ride, but I wasn’t expecting this,” she says, looking between us when we’re finally released.
Brooks shrugs. “I knew you’d be late, and I knew she wouldn’t want to be.”
Rae narrows her gaze up at him. “I take offense to that.”
“Well, if you guys weren’t the talk of the town before, you are now,” Brody says, joining us and slapping a hand on his best friend’s shoulder.
“Nosy fuckers,” is Brooks’s only response as he slips his hand back into mine. “They put you by us?”
“I haven’t been inside yet.” Something catches Brody’s attention across the room, and his smile falls. “Don’t look now, but your best friend is on his way over.”
Before I can ask what that means, none other than Miles Drake steps through the crowd with a dainty blonde on his arm. I wonder where he picked her up. Somehow, I’ve been fortunate to avoid much interaction with Drake since my return. Now that I think about it, I can’t remember seeing him at all. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite group of people?”
