Chapter 6

Bryan

T he funeral home is crowded when I arrive after work. My feet take me straight to Jaime, needing my arms around her now. Two weeks away from her was pure torture. No matter how much I swore I was doing the right thing for her by staying away, I hated every minute of it.

The second I got her text Sunday, I wanted to head straight for her, but I still had hours of work left. I couldn't ignore that message, not when it hit me that she thought I wasn't responding because I was having problems with work, rather than that I was trying to give her space to see if that Chase person was who she wanted in her life.

We haven't had a chance to discuss him, not with everything that happened with Jennie's husband, and it's the only thing keeping me from rushing forward now. My heart nearly hit the ground when I saw the car involved in the crash I was headed towards was registered to Troy and Jennie Lawson. I knew that was Jaime's sister's name, knew she lived on Meadow Lane from things we'd discussed and the note that there was one fatality had me hurrying there as quickly as I could.

Finding it was Jaime's brother-in-law, while still not a good thing, was far better than if it'd been her sister, or even her nephew, because Jaime loved all of them immensely. Having to break the news to her was hell, let alone breaking it to her sister that she was now a widow, and to Zack that his father was dead.

I can't walk away from her again. I don't want to in the first place, and second, I don't think I could do it. So I'm going to keep her as close as she'll let me, for as long as she'll let me, and just pray that it'll be forever and not just a few months.

I slip up next to Jaime as she's talking to someone, pressing a kiss to her cheek, loving how she sinks into my hold. "Hi princess."

"Hi," she says, looking up at me with a soft smile.

"I didn't know you were married, dear," the woman she was talking to says looking between us with a smile.

"We're not," Jaime states a little blush in her cheeks as I look down at her.

"Not yet, at least," I add and the light that fills her eyes tells me she's willing to let me have all of her and I'm damn happy about it. I'd take and make her mine tomorrow if it wouldn't seem insensitive to Jennie right now.

"This is Ms. Russell, she was Johnnie's housekeeper originally and now she keeps the place clean for Jeffery when he's there," Jaime says, and I give the woman a nod. "This is my…"

"Boyfriend if you ignore the fact that I'm not much of a boy anymore," I offer for her, putting another blush on her cheeks. "Bryan Taylor," I add shaking the woman's hand gently.

"You girls seem to pick good ones. It's so sad what happened to Jennie's husband. I don't want to intrude any but please let her know if she needs any help around the house to give me a call. Jeffery's rarely at the condo so I don't have much to do."

"I will. She and Zack have been staying with us at Mom and Dad's, but it might be a good idea to make sure her place stays clean for when they're ready to go back," Jaime assures her and I wait until we're alone to pull Jaime even closer, holding her tight for several long minutes before we're interrupted.

I'm heading back towards her a bit later with a cup of hot tea when the chief steps into my path and I stop, giving him a nod of greeting.

"Bryan, I didn't expect to see you here," he states, and I realize I'd already left the house with Ethan and Jesse before he got there on Sunday. We'd stopped by the morgue for them to do the official id that was merely a formality, and get Troy's personal effects, including his work laptop that Ethan said he'd return to the office so Jennie wouldn't have to worry about it.

"Well, I'm actually…" My words trail off as Jaime slips up the other way, settling into my arms not seeing Aaron there.

"Ah, now I know why you weren't so eager to do the Heart Ball assignment," he states looking from Jaime to me with a smile. "How are you doing, Jaime?"

"Better than Jennie by miles right now," she says gently, and I hand over the tea getting the sweetest smile from her that fills me with more than just the immense desire that's always there when I'm with her. "Thank you for getting me this. Uncle Aaron and Chase just got here so I stopped to talk to them for a minute."

I try not to tense hearing the man's name. I don't need to make a scene at the visitation. That's likely to send her running from me—especially after being an ass and ignoring her for two weeks.

"How is your uncle?" the chief asks and I chuckle silently realizing they have the same name. It makes sense now why even Annie called the chief, Chief Davidson rather than Aaron, when we spoke.

"Good, Chase just started a new position at Brannigans so he's back home, which makes Aunt Nora happier than ever, even if he is still single," Jaime adds and my brow lifts in surprise as I look down at her.

"Chase is your cousin?" I question, and a little smile slips onto her lips as she nods. "So at the ball…"

"He wanted to surprise us with the news all at once, so he used Jesse's invitation to get in the door since he and Maddie were at home with Tabby. He ran into some delays due to roadwork and was too late to surprise Uncle Aaron and Aunt Nora the dance, but he still wanted to let us know before he stopped by to see them. Victor came by asking me to dance again so Chase cut in to help me out because he always hated the guy," Jaime says, and an immense sense of relief floods me.

"No wonder you were so annoyed at having to take Ms. Elliott to the hospital to ensure she was just drunk that night, let alone why you raced over to the house to let Jennie and her family know about the accident instead of having me do it."

"I didn't want anyone else breaking the news to them before we could," I state as Jaime leans further into my hold. "If Ms. Elliott hadn't passed out at my feet, I certainly wouldn't have stuck around that night. Not when I knew I was going on night shift come Monday."

"Well, I'll make sure to not ask you to work any major events around holidays…or Sundays," he adds with a wink at Jaime, and I can't stop the slight chuckle as he walks away, leaving me with my girl who's looking up at me curiously.

"Were you jealous of Chase?" she asks, and I hate having to admit it, but I nod. "I told you he was family."

"Yes, but I didn't realize you meant blood family, princess. I saw how relaxed you were with him, how he fit right in, and how your dad accepted him…"

"Accepted…" she says breaking in as her brow lifts in surprise. "Bryan, what are you talking about?"

I guide us out of the middle of the room, over to the side so we don't draw attention, especially not negative attention. "I'm talking about the fact that I'm nowhere near being in the same circle as you and your family, princess. Not in social standing or wealth. I don't fit with your family as much as I wish I did so they would accept me as yours because it's the only thing I want, Jaime. You as mine—us together."

"Are you crazy?" she asks quietly, her eyes wide as she stares at me in shock, and I feel like a bit of an ass seeing that in her eyes. "Let's put aside the wealth thing for a minute and focus on the first ridiculous thing you just said."

"Okay," I agree waiting for her to try and make me feel better because I've learnt that's who Jaime is. She's sensitive to others' feeling and I pretty much just made an idiot out of myself.

"For your information, my dad has no problem with you. In fact, it's the opposite. He likes you and thinks you're a good man, Bryan. The only thing negative he might say is regarding the fact that you basically ignored me for two weeks making me feel like crap."

It hurts me to hear she was upset but part of me is relieved by it as well. "I'm sorry about that. Between thinking you deserved someone that fit into your world better, seeing you with Chase, and covering the night shift, let alone covering the night shift for the traffic division, I was an ass I know and I'm sorry, princess. I promise, I won't ever push you away again."

"Good, because the truth is, I don't like ninety percent of the men from that social circle. The only ones with money I've ever been comfortable around are those that are related to me, Bryan. Mom and Dad never wanted us to grow up thinking we were better than anyone else just because they had money. It's why we went to public school. Why Dad made us work at least two summers during high school for the company. Why he pushed us to go to college even if we didn't wind up using our degree in the end. He wanted us to know what it was like in the real world, to see how others had to or even just wanted to work to appreciate the fact that if we really didn't want to, we didn't have to, and see that it was a privilege not our right.

"He's never looked down on anyone coming into the family with nothing to their name," she adds, and I lift a brow at her in surprise. "You've seen Dad with Natalie and Maia, does he act any differently with them than the rest of us?"

"No," I admit, "but it's different with accepting women into the family versus men. You're his daughter he wants to protect while he's raised your brothers to be strong and do the protecting."

"And if my brothers, especially Jesse, thought you weren't good enough for me, they would have come to you directly after we had our first true date. Which yes they all knew about the second we had it, because Jillian brought it up at Sunday dinner that week asking about what we had to eat at the theater. And that's after her already mentioning that we had dinner at Gilbert's together to everyone that was there the Sunday before," she adds, surprising me that they knew that long but not one of them said a word about it.

"None of them called me to say a thing."

"Because they trust you with me and they just want me to be happy, Bryan," she states and I pull her into my hold, unable to resist having her closer. "As far as the guys coming into the family thing, the only one that's had money, is Adam."

"What?" I ask, holding her gaze and she nods sending my brow up a bit.

"Ethan was working for the same company he's currently with when he and Jackie got together. He was in Sherman where she going to school, and he transferred to the office out here so Jackie would be closer to all of us. The only reason they have the house they do is because Ethan knew Jackie wanted a big family and to be close to us. The house they found was perfect, except for the fact that it cost more than he could afford. He didn't want Jackie to use her trust fund on it, because then it would mean less to use for the kids out of it. So, Dad offered him a loan that had very little interest with payments he could afford with just his salary," Jaime says and I'm not surprised Jake would do that for his daughter but it's a little shocking that Ethan would agree to it. "Ethan wanted to take care of his family himself, so he and Jackie agreed that most things would come from a budget that he could afford. Jackie's trust covers the big things but for the most part, beyond the house itself being grand, they live a very normal life. Dad didn't care whether or not Ethan could pay off the house in his lifetime. He just wanted to know that Jackie was taken care of, and she is with Ethan. He loves and adores her and makes her just as happy as Mom is with him."

"She looks just like your mom," I muse and Jaime nods.

"She always did and it's why out of all of us, she's the only one that didn't finish college, and he never argued it. Jackie fluttered her lashes at him the day Jillian was born, telling Dad they were engaged and apparently Dad just accepted it. Troy worked with Ethan, but they didn't become friends until after Jackie had Andra. They invited Troy to dinner at their house and Jennie came to it, meeting him for the first time. They were married a couple months later. She was already pregnant with Zack," she adds on a whisper putting a light smile on my lips. "Jennie bought their place I'm pretty sure and uses her trust for what she needs and big things for Zack, but Troy kept working just like Ethan did. The only other girls in the family married are Jasmine and Julie. Serena didn't come from money. She finished high school living with her best friend because her parents kicked her out for being gay. She earned everything she has through her hard work.

"The only other person who's married into the family that grew up with money is Carly, but her father didn't let her use a lot of it, because there wasn't all that much left. Maddie was working herself ragged to get her and Kayla away from their parents. Eden was barely scraping by trying to care for her brothers and sister before Jesse moved her into the house she and Jude now live in to help her out because she kept Maddie from getting hurt while she was pregnant with Tessa," she tacks on and I smile at the look on her face, the determination there is sexy, and I love it. "So stop thinking the family won't accept you because you don't come from money and work for a living. All of my brothers do, even though they could just sit back and live off of interest their trust funds bring in. And as far as your line of work, Jamison's first and foremost a carpenter which is pretty ‘blue collar' not to mention the whole construction field is as well. You know what Jordan's favorite thing to do when he's not playing basketball is? Fixing cars."

"Okay, I won't bring it up again," I state, fighting to not laugh at how adorable she is right now. I don't want people thinking I'm being insensitive towards Jennie and the rest of the family by laughing, but it's damn hard to hold it back. "And since you pretty much already got into the money thing, I guess there's not much else to say on the subject is there?"

"Not really," she agrees giving me a soft smile. "I will say that I really like the way Ethan and Jackie do things and hope if I have a family one day, I can model it after them. Although I think I'll have to draw a line at having ten kids. I love my nieces and nephews, but they can be a lot of work."

"And where exactly would this line be drawn?" I ask, drawing her closer as I dip my head down towards hers. "After one or two, a couple more?"

"Three or four maybe," she says, and I like that idea, especially giving her those three or four.

"I could get behind that. I always wanted at least two kids, but my ex…" I cringe as her head pops up, her eyes widening staring at me in surprise at my slip. I didn't mean to bring it up with her, certainly not now and honestly, not ever really. Looking like a fool in front of her is the last thing I want.

"Your ex what?"

"Fiancée," I admit running my hand down her back calming her as her eyes widen even further. "We were eighteen, she was my high school girlfriend, and I thought I was in love. I was even more introverted back then, but she seemed to like me, so I gave her a ring with a little diamond chip in it before she went out to California for college while I stayed here. I went out to see her before we graduated college to convince her to move home and get married finally, finding her in bed with not one but two guys."

"What?!" she gasps her jaw dropping.

"I was disgusted with what I found. For the most part, I don't care what people do or want in bed as long as it's not illegal, but it was her attitude that really made me see her for who she was. She never wanted to stay in when we were in high school, always wanted to be out and doing things, partying. I realized that the entire time I was in college, staying faithful to the agreement we made that we'd wait until marriage," I state nodding as she stares at me, her eyes asking if I meant what I implied, "that she never was. Other than wanting me to take her to school dances, I learned afterwards that she didn't really want me to be with her, she just didn't want me to be with anyone else. One of her friends was going to ask me out, so she beat her to it then kept me dangling for when she wanted or needed me for something. She never wanted to just stay home to talk. She was always out with friends getting dinner or going to the movies or parties…"

"Which is why you hesitated to ask me out?" she guesses, and I nod. "You didn't realize Jillian drug me out to those things until we went to dinner at Gilbert's."

"As much as I wanted you, I knew I couldn't handle another relationship where the other person wanted to be out all the time. I wouldn't have lasted long enough to get to a point where I could trust that when you said you were going out with your sister or your friends that that's really what you were doing. Then I spent ten minutes with you and realized I was being an absolute idiot because you're nothing like Danielle."

"But the differences in our backgrounds still worried you enough to try and pull away?"

I give her a half-smile and nod adding, "I thought it'd be better for you to find someone your family would accept and who wouldn't embarrass you at events by constantly butting in when anyone else tried to dance with you or take you away from me. Someone who hated being there and would rather be at home to start since I don't know if I can fake being interested in most of the shit they go on about at the damn things."

"I'm pretty sure if Jesse and Maddie had been there you wouldn't have been worried about that for one second. He hates other women touching him still. Family it's one thing, but anyone else and he's likely to bite their heads off, but that's absolutely nothing compared to what he does to men that try and even talk to Maddie. Honestly, I'm surprised the police aren't called sometimes because he's pretty intense about it."

"So you're saying I can be as possessive and grumpy at events as I want until I can get you home with me?" I tease and she nods, her eyes sparkling my way, and I swear, I'm never letting her go. She's mine and soon, everyone will know it.