Page 50 of Brand
Maybe it was best to just sever ties. Cut it off right then and there. Live with the perfect memory of what I’d gotten a taste of for a split second.
“They wanted to ship me off to live with Aunt Hillary,” I said and because I was pretty much drunk at this point, I started laughing hysterically. “Can you believe that?”
“No,” she gasped as her hand flew dramatically to her chest. “They wanted to send you toThe Farm? Like some unwanted animal?”
I laughed, short, choppy and loud. That was exactly what it felt like.
“Yes,” I said with a frantic nod.
“I knew mom was hard on you, but I never knew it would get like that.”
There was a long moment of silence as we both got lost in our thoughts.
“So,” I said, needing to change the direction of everything. “How is the wedding planning going?”
“You sure that you want to talk about this?” Her voice was soft and full of uncertainty.
“Yes, please. I want to see you happy and I’m here for you, for whatever you might need.”
That was all it took. She rattled on about everything. Every single thing. I didn’t mind, in fact, I welcomed the distraction. I could tell she was avoiding anything that had to do with our mother and I was grateful.
We polished off a second bottle of wine and she uncorked a third. I was way past drunk at this point, and pretty sure that I’d drank way more than her. But I didn’t care. The alcohol flowed through my veins and made me forget everything that was sitting heavy on my shoulders and weighing down my brain.
“You do want this, right?” I asked out of nowhere. I hadn’t meant to put doubts out there, but I think I might have anyway.
Her face went flat as she looked down at the invitation options that she’d pulled out to show me.
“Brice is perfect. He understands how things are and fits into my world. He’s caring and sweet. And he wants nothing more than to take care of me.”
Her answer seemed to be lacking something but my swimmy mind couldn’t make any sense of what it might be.
“Does he, you know, rock your world?” I asked, my cheeks heating because this was definitely something we’d been brought up not to talk about.
“Did you just say ‘rock your world,’ Cami?” She laughed. “That’s it, I’m cutting you off. Maybe you should try to sleep a bit and hope that you don’t wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck.”
She continued to laugh but didn’t move to take the wine glass out of my hand. Boy, I was going to feel this tomorrow.
“Brand,” I said, nearly choking on his name. “He is just, wow. I can’t describe it. He touches me and I get goosebumps. I feel warm and shaky inside. His smile sends shivers down my spine. And the way he looks at me…I feel like I’m the only person in the world. Oh, and the sex, I mean, it only happened that one time, but it was nothing short of mind-blowing. Like, I left the earth for a little bit.”
I came out of my glazed-over gaze to look at her. With her fingers pressed against her lips and her eyes wide, she remained silent. I wondered if I’d said something wrong.
“That’s…really beautiful,” she whispered.
Then she was moving, taking our empty glasses and the half-empty bottle of wine into the kitchen. I didn’t know what was going on, but as the silence surrounded me, my lids grew heavy. I was pretty sure my eyes closed before my body slumped to the side to lay down on the couch.
