Cold Feet

How Will Things Be: Part I

Savannah’s POV
Brantley used his shoulder to shut the front door then turned heading up the stairs taking a left as I quietly watched him. With the house being unfamiliar to me, I wasn’t sure where he was going but the few glimpses I was afforded, I saw aspects of what we both wanted when we built a house one day. Stepping through the doorway of what I was assuming to be his bedroom he kept walking until he reached the bathroom then slowly lowered me to the tiled floor as a shiver racked me from being soaked paired with the air conditioning. Smoothing a big hand along my bare arm feeling the goosebumps he shot me a soft smile.

“Let me turn the water on to let it heat up,” Brantley said stepping over to the walk-in shower turning both of the rainfall showerheads on. He stepped towards his closet coming back out a moment later with two shirts and what looked like a couple pair of sweatpants. He laid one set of clothes on the counter nodding at the towels. “Take as long as you need sweetheart. Know you have to be cold even though it is mid-June. I’m going to get out of these wet clothes myself. Just come downstairs and find me when you are ready.”

“Okay,” I murmured softly as he kissed the crown of my soaked hair walking away. Glancing down at the folds of my dress and thinking about the hard-to-reach zipper in the back I whirled around almost tripping over the now heavy dress. The sound of my stumbling feet caused Brantley to pause at the doorway looking back over his shoulder at me. I bit my bottom lip hesitant for what I needed to ask. “Umm…can you…uhhh…. I need you to get the zipper please. I can’t reach it.”

“Sure,” he murmured as I turned around putting my back to him biting my bottom lip closing my eyes. The gentle feel of a knuckle grazing across my exposed back sent a tremor through me that had nothing to do with the chill from the rain. Slowly the zipper eased down revealing the back of the see through lace corset I was wearing underneath. Meeting his eyes in the mirror across from us, I gasped the unabashed desire reflecting there as the dress pooled to the ground. Lowering his head, Brantley softly trailed his lips against the smooth skin along the curve of my neck then backing away striding to the door like the house was on fire making me gasp. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

After hearing the door to his bedroom shut, I quickly shed the corset and matching underwear stepping out of the pile of clothes padding to the steamy shower. Stepping underneath the cascading water, I braced my hands against the cool tile feeling the fight go out of me sending me tumbling to the shower floor.

Tears that I thought were dormant spilled over hidden underneath the water. I covered my mouth as the sobs spilled out. Fear of what I had done set in. I was leaving behind a good life in Birmingham because of my actions today possibly. Hurting a good man who had never been anything short of perfect when it came to me. Probably embarrassed my whole family in front of everyone they knew. Fuck! What was I thinking? The bulk of my business, the storefront I was considering buying, my clothes, everything was there. And oh God what Connor must be thinking about me right now. I cried harder wrapping my arms around my naked torso letting out deep, deep sobs. When I felt like I was all cried out and the water grew cool, I finally drug myself out drying off, braiding my hair into a side braid making a knot at the end, then slipping the t-shirt and sweatpants on.

Wandering my way downstairs, I found Brantley standing with his back to me in front of the low burning fireplace. While it was out of place in the summer, he must have remembered me always enjoying the flames at bonfires when we were younger. Hearing my soft footsteps, he turned around sliding his hands into the pockets of the sweats he was wearing studying me for a moment. I almost chuckled at him standing there in sweatpants, a t-shirt, barefoot, but that black hat backward.

“You okay?” he asked me walking a little closer a sheepish look coming over his face. “I came to grab a dry hat out of my room and could hear you Savvy. You sounded pretty upset.”
“Did I make a mistake?” I whimpered feeling another tear slip down my cheek. I raised a trembling hand up to my face. “What did I do?”

“Come here Savvy,” Brantley sighed walking over to wrap his arms around me tucking my face into his chest as I sobbed. “Shh…..shh…” I twisted my fingers into the back of his t-shirt clinging to him. “Sweetheart, I don’t have the answer to that question for you. I wish I did. But from where I am sitting, you are right back where you belong.”

“Oh,” I sniffled feeling a finger lift my face up to see a soft smile on his lips. For the first time I fully saw the clarity in those green eyes making my heart race because it felt like decades since I had seen it. Something in that moment clicked in the back of my mind that maybe I hadn’t made the mistake I was afraid I had. That I was just worried about the unknown. Looking over his shoulder I noted the guitar resting against the chair near the fireplace making me smile. That thing was familiar. Pulling out of Brantley’s arms, I walked over trailing a finger over the worn wood looking over my shoulder at him. “You still have it?”

“Yea,” he said with a quiet laugh resting his chin on my shoulder looking around at me. I remember buying the secondhand guitar for him for our first anniversary and the awe on his face. Man could buy any guitar he wanted to now, and he still had this one I’d picked up in the pawn shop in Athens. “It is my favorite one to play at home. Seen a many of a songwriting session over the years. I’ll take you to your parents’ house if you want me to. It is your call Savvy.”

“Or,” I drawled ducking away from him, grabbing the guitar pushing it into his hands. I settled down cross-legged on the floor with my back to the fireplace nodding my head at the chair. “You could play me one of those songs you claimed to have written about me.”

“Oh it’s like that huh,” he said with a laugh settling onto the edge of the chair winking at me while strumming the strings. I lifted my legs up to rest my chin on my knees watching him. That soft smile making my heart flutter like a million butterflies. The opening chords to a song began to take shape as he quietly stared to sing. “She says look baby I’m a rockstar, grabs my old guitar, playin it upside down, dancin around in front of our TV. I can’t see the ballgame, so I just wave my lighter around and say rock on baby, I’d rather watch you anyway. But when you’re done, can I come backstage? And get you to sign your name on that Zeppelin shirt of mine you’re wearing, I’ll never wash that thing again. Yeah, but she’s my kind of crazy, the little game she plays. Lord they’ll never get old. She’s too cute to get on my last nerve. The way she throws her little fits, pokin or her lip and bitin mine when we kiss. There ain’t a fight she can’t win. That’s my baby, and she’s my kind of crazy.”

“So, I’m crazy huh?” I teased wiping at the tear slipping down my cheek. I reached over lightly smacking his leg hearing that husky laugh driving me crazy. “Ass.”

“Baby,” he snickered idly strumming chords leaning down blowing a kiss at me. The idle banter between us felt like it had just picked up where we left off. “I wrote that shit after we broke up hoping to make you jealous. Or just to piss you off if you ever heard it. I knew you would recognize the scenario.”

“Hmm consider me pissed,” I teased winking at him then let out a quiet yelp as my stomach growled. I blushed looking up because it was loud enough to sound like a full grown man. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sweetheart,” Brantley said with a laugh pushing to his bare feet holding a hand out for mine pulling me to my feet. “I am going to bet you hardly ate due to nerves today. Come on and let me see what we can find in the kitchen.”

“You cook now?” I teased letting out a yell when a big hand landed across my sweat pant clothed ass cheek. “Dammit B! That hurt.”

“Good sassy ass,” he chuckled giving me a gentle shove towards the kitchen. “I can man the grill very well now, do more than boil water, but Mama also makes me these handy meals to freeze and heat up because I am gone so much. I also think there are some frozen pizzas in there.”

“Mmmmm,” I said my eyes lighting up. “Please tell me there is some of your mama’s lasagna in there. I feel like it has been a lifetime since I have had it. Lord she and my mama always made sure we didn’t starve during finals week after we moved in together because I was too busy studying and between working and you on the road it was hectic.”

“That is was baby girl,’’ he chuckled pointing at a bar stool near the kitchen island. “That it was.”