Cheat Sheets

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Brae parked his truck at a forest walk on the otherside of town and now he’s stalking ahead of me, apparently having words with himself in his head as he fumes silently. The car ride was rife with tension and I’m pretty sure that the good mood we’d been building up at prom has been decapitated.

Following Braeden down the beaten path, I stretch forwards and grab the cuff of his shirt, giving it a quick tug so that he’s not walking so fast. “Please, Brae, I don’t like seeing you like this.”

He harrumphs and turns around to give me a sorrowful smile. “Yeah, well you’ll just have to get used to it; because this is the me without you. If you don’t like it, don’t look.” And with that he continues through the moon dappled forest until we reach a clearing that’s bathed in the moon light.

“Stop being like this!” I spit at him, giving his back a rough shove as he freezes in the centre of the clearing and takes a cleansing breath. “I don’t deserve to be treated like this; stop shutting me out!”

With a growl, he turns around, grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me in his grip. “You made it this way, Keira. I told you I loved you and you just… You cast me out like a freaking leper. I’ve apologised so many times, tried to explain over and over, but you’re the one with all the cards and I can’t force you to understand. Do you know how much it hurts to bare your soul to someone and then to have them knock you down? Because I’m fucking aching inside. I’m numb.”

“You lied to me.” I implore, searching his eyes for something, anything to reassure me that the love he proclaims he has for me isn’t lost. “How can you love me and lie to me? You played me like a fool, Braeden; and I fell so hard for you that it seemed like nothing could get me out of the darkness.”

“I’m an idiot. I swear if I can turn back time and not make that bet with Josh, I would. Hell if I had the power of time travel, I’d have strode up to you in the corridor on our first day of high school and made you my girlfriend then and there with your girly fishtail plaits and your cute Star Wars Jersey’s. It’s always been you, Keira, since I spotted you in that hallway and my heart skipped, it was you! And the only reason I took the bet was an excuse to get close to you. I’m sorry, okay.” A choked sound leaves his throat as he plugs me to his chest and strokes his hands through my hair. “It was never my intention to hurt you.”

With a sob, I run my hand over his chest and to wrap over his shoulder. “I know it wasn’t. I know you’d protect me with your dying breath. I’m sorry we’re so screwed up and confused. All I know is that I’m miserable without you; like it or not, Braeden Reigns needs to be a permanent fixture in my life.”

All the breath rushes from him in one foul swoop as his hand clasp to my head and he brushes his nose against mine. “I want to give you the world, Kee. Please don’t give up on me.”

I shake my head and feather my lips slightly over his. “I’m not.” I whisper. “I want you; I’ll never give up on you. Just promise me that every time you do something idiotic and Braeden like, you’ll tell me about it so that we don’t end up in this sort of mess again.”

“Deal.” He agrees without any of the preamble, slanting his mouth down over mine and sealing it with a kiss. “I’m just a boy, standing in front of girl, asking her to love him.”

“Notting Hill.” A hiccup leaves my throat and breaks our kiss. “You know I love that quote.”

“I know.” Placing a warm kiss to my forehead, he gives me a shaky smile. “So does this mean I’m forgiven, and that we’re back to where we were? That you’re my girlfriend?”

I nod up and down, giggling as Braeden rushes to me and throws me up into his arm before spinning us around in a giddy circle. “Oh Keira, sweetheart, I’m going to make you so happy. Thank you for giving me a second chance, thank you so much. If I’m ever an idiot again, I want you to slap me back to reality until I come around kicking and screaming. I don’t deserve you, Kee, but thank you for at least letting me try.”

He sets me down and beams at me for a solid minute before dropping to the floor on one knee before me, his eyes beginning to glisten with the tell-tale sparkle of tears.

“Braeden” I murmur shakily, staring down at the knee he’s got set in the soft grass underneath us as he holds his hand in mine “stand up. What are you doing?”

He runs his thumb over the backs of my knuckles in warming circles whilst smiling up at me. “No, I need to do this. And it’s really not what you’re thinking, so relax.” He tries to calm me whilst removing a tiny black box from his back pocket and holding it out towards me.

I shake my head in astonishment. “Braeden, what the heck?!?”

Chuckling slightly, Braeden shushes me. “It’s a promise ring, Keira. I don’t think we’re ready for that step just yet, but eventually, yeah. Though for the meantime I want you to take this ring as a promise of my pure devotion to you. I love you something crazy, Kee, and I’m an idiot a lot of the time, but only for you. I’m your idiot. You make me a fool, sweetheart, but I’m your fool.”

My lower lip begins to wobble to see him like this, his heart on his sleeve and his hopeful eyes locked on mine. Nodding mutely, I throw myself against him and tackle him into the grass. “Yes. Only my fool. I love you too Braeden. And you know what; I’m going to hold you to this promise!”

“I couldn’t ask for anything less.”