“Okay, so let’s have it,” Brandon said. “What’s that dreamy smile about?”
She didn’t want to kill their happy moment, but she wouldn’t lie either. “I truly believe you and I were meant to save each other.” They came to a stop, and he turned to stare at her but said nothing. She immediately felt choked up, but she had to continue. “I never told you this, but that day you found me in my bathroom hysterical, I had every intention of putting that gun against my head. My heart felt so hopelessly broken it literally ached with every beat. But it wasn’t until I heard your cries . . . It wasn’t until I felt how much I’d be hurting you in the process that I instantly regretted having so much as thought of doing something that would devastate you like that.”
Brandon was staring straight ahead now, his own eyes tearing up. “I’ve had some bad days in my life,” he whispered. “But that was by far the worst one ever.”
“Medication or not, I can promise you this with absolute certainty. Those thoughts will never cross my mind again. It’s not about just me anymore. I live for you, Brandon. And I’d never do that to you. Ever.”
She kissed his hand and he pulled her hand to him gently. “Good,” he said, kissing her hand too. “Because I don’t know about me saving you, but I know you saved me.” He shook his head as a single tear slid down the side of his face, and he leaned in and kissed her. “I live for you too, baby.
Epilogue
Mrs. Billings
My wife
My princess
My love
My world
Lost for a moment, still staring at the tattoo he’d gotten on his upper arm just over a year ago, Brandon’s train of thought was derailed as Regina gasped and Buddy, their six-month-old beagle, barked.
“Artie baby, not so fast!”
Brandon glanced up at the tall slide his son was now rushing up the ladder of. He tugged on Buddy’s leash to calm him then smiled. “He’s all right,” he assured her, wrapping his arm around her from behind and rubbing her pregnant belly.
“He wants to keep up with all the other boys, but he’s the littlest one,” she said.
Brandon watched as his son effortlessly climbed the ladder and reached the top, holding his hand out for him to see. He gave his son the thumbs up and smiled. A few years ago, having a family of his own was the furthest thing on his mind. Now here he was with a wife, a son, another one on the way, and a dog.
Artie grabbed hold of the pole on top of the slide and swung himself out over the open slide, laughing and making Regina gasp again and pull away from Brandon.
“Arturo Stephen Billings, don’t you dare do that again!”
Brandon made eye contact with Artie and shot him a warning look. His son sat down on the slide and slid down hands in the air. He came down so fast he flew into another boy at the bottom and they both fell into the sand. The other boy, at least two years older and twice his size, got up then shoved Artie back into the sand. Artie rolled around, laughing.
Regina started to charge. “Hey! That’s not nice!” she said to the other boy who’d already started walking away but turned to look at her.
“Relax,” Brandon assured her again. “He loves that shit. It’s just horseplay, baby. It’s what boys do.”
Artie was already running back to climb the ladder of the slide. One of the other boys pushed him aside and climbed up before him.
“No pushing!” Regina yelled out, glaring at the other boy.
Artie didn’t even flinch as he rushed up behind the other boy, laughing. Brandon watched, chuckling and calming Regina the whole time. It was the same thing every time they came to the park. By the time they packed things up, Brandon could see his son wouldn’t even make it out of the parking lot awake. As usual, he made Dad proud, playing hard and keeping up with the big boys the entire time.
Brandon chased him down and tackled him on the grass. Buddy joined in the fun, jumping all over them both. This was something he’d never had the pleasure of doing with his own dad, and it was something he knew Artie loved. It was now one of his most favorite things to do with his boy—wrestle and see how much Artie enjoyed their time together.
“Time to go,” he said as Artie tried to squirm away, laughing hysterically, and Brandon tickled him. “I said it’s time to go. Hey,” he said as his son continued to squirm. “Who loves you?”
“Mommy!” Artie laughed.
“Who else?”
“Buddy!”
This was a game they played, and Artie loved teasing him. “Wise guy, huh,” Brandon tickled him even more making him squeal loudly. “Who else?”
“You!” he finally screeched. “You love me, Daddy.”
“You bet your butt I do,” Brandon said, standing up and pulling him up with him. “You have fun today, champ?” He asked him as he sat him on his shoulders.
“Yeah, fun!” Artie said, and Brandon felt him kiss him on the head.
“Next time maybe we leave Momma Bear home,” Brandon said with a smirk, and Regina peered at him menacingly. “She doesn’t get it.”
“No, Mommy come too.” Artie said.
“All right, all right,” Brandon said with a conceding smile in Regina’s direction. “I guess she can come with us next time.”
Once they had Artie in his car seat and they both sat up front, Brandon checked his rearview mirror and could see his son was already having a hard time keeping his heavy eyelids open. When he saw Brandon looking at him, he opened up his eyes wide in an effort to fight the inevitable slumber. His big blue eyes stared at him for a moment before the lashes came down again slowly.
“I don’t know why he tries to fight it.” Brandon smiled as he pulled out of the parking lot.
“I don’t know why he tries so hard to do everything those other boys do.” Regina frowned. “They’re all so much bigger than he is. Maybe there’s a park somewhere else for just little kids his age.”
“No way,” Brandon said, smiling. “He loves it. Besides, if we go somewhere with little kids, he’ll be doing all the pushing. Then you’ll have to hear it from all the other momma bears.”
“He’s not a bully!” she said.
Brandon laughed. “I know, but he doesn’t know his own strength. He just bulldozes through a crowd of kids, so it’s better that it’s a crowd of bigger kids than smaller ones.”
“That’s your fault for always wrestling with him. It’s all he ever wants to do, even with my brother and sisters—girls.”
Again Brandon couldn’t help laughing. “Well, we’ll just have to teach him some manners with that. It’s not okay to push girls around, but with boys, it’s fine, even bigger ones.”
Regina sighed, rubbing her swollen belly, then groaned. “I can’t even imagine two of them.”
“Yeah, that’s gonna be fun,” Brandon agreed with an even bigger smile.
Regina’s brother had given up trying for a boy after three girls. Regina mentioned it would’ve been nice if her brother had had a boy and they’d named him after her brother and her dad. So when their son was born, Brandon insisted she name him after her dad. She then insisted if they were doing that his middle name would be after Brandon’s dad. Now that they had another boy on the way, she’d already told him this one would be named Brandon. He’d agreed, though she’d balked at the suggestion that if they ever had a girl she’d be named Princess.
“No way,” she’d said. “Girls are evil. She’d probably have a miserable time in school with all the other jealous girls hating on her just because of her name.”
As much as Brandon had talked shit about families like the Moreno’s who were way too overprotective about the princess in their family, he already knew he was going to be a total hypocrite about it. He made no apologies. How the hell was he supposed to know what it felt like to love someone so much you’d be ready to kill if anyone messed with him? He felt this way about both Regina and Artie already, and he was damned sure it’d be even worse with a little girl.
Now that
they were going to have two bulldozing boys, maybe if their third was a girl, he could convince Regina that, with brothers like Artie and little Brandon, no one would pick on their daughter, not even girls. Brandon still had time to work on her.
They got home and started their nightly ritual. Regina finished changing their half-asleep little boy into his jammies, saying she didn’t have the heart to put him in the tub now as sleepy as he was.
“He can take a bath in the morning,” she said. Artie stood a little wobbly, holding on to Regina with one hand and rubbing his eye with his other. “Say goodnight to Daddy.”
“Goodnight, Daddy,” Artie said.
“Goodnight, champ.” Brandon smiled, his heart swelling as it always did when his little boy smiled at him. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Artie said as he took Regina’s hand and they began to walk away.
Brandon waited to see if his smartass kid would ruin the tender moment like he always did by saying something to take from it. As young as he was, Artie already knew how to make a funny, but Brandon thought he might be too sleepy. Just when Brandon thought he was home free and he’d gotten an “I love you” from his son with no follow-up wisecracks, Artie turned and smiled.
“And Buddy too.”
Brandon jumped from the sofa, making Artie squeal and take off running to his room. He heard Regina groan as he ran past her to catch Artie.
“Brandon!” she whined. “He was almost out for the night. Oh my God, I already have two of them.”
Brandon laughed as he tackled Artie on the floor, shushing him because he was suddenly wide awake. “I think we’re in trouble,” he said as Artie scrambled to his feet.
Just seeing his son’s bright smile as he leaped into the air to make a flying tackle onto him had him smiling big. Artie landed on Brandon’s stomach, nearly knocking the wind out of him, but he still had to laugh. “Good one!” he said with a groan.
Maybe they would be in trouble, but this was totally worth it.
A Note to My Wonderful Readers
To all my wonderful readers, I hope you enjoyed reading Brandon and Regina’s story. Please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon.
Breaking Brandon is the second in my series Fate. Fate is a spinoff series of my first series, The Moreno Brothers. Also in the Fate series and now available!
Fate (Fate #1)
Still to come in the Fate series are Sydney and Lorenzo's stories.
The first four books in the 5th Street series, Noah, Gio, Hector, and Abel are also available.
In case you're wondering if Felix will get his own story the answer to that is . . . yes! Stay tuned! If you haven’t already read them, please check out the books in my first series, The Moreno Brothers!
Forever Mine—Angel and Sarah’s story
Always Been Mine—Alex and Valerie’s story
Sweet Sofie—Sofia and Eric’s story
Romero—Romero and Izzy’s story
Making You Mine—Sal and Grace’s story with a bonus Angel and Sarah short story.
Will there be more Moreno’s coming? YES! Stay tuned for that as well!
Acknowledgments
As always, I need to thank my family first: my husband Mark and kids Marky and Megan. Thank you for your continued love and support. Without you guys, none of this would mean anything to me .I love you all and appreciate your patience when I go into “the zone” and hear nothing of what's going on around me. Thank you for understanding it's not something I do on purpose. It just happens.
To my beta readers, Dawn Winter, Judy DeVries, Emily Lamphear, and my commadre Inez Sandoval, you’re all just an amazing group of women, and I feel so blessed to have you all on my team. I thank you for continued dedication and for not having gotten tired of my endless questions. I look forward to working with you on all my other projects!
I'd also like to thank the many bloggers out there who have supported me and pimped, reviewed and participated with my cover reveals and announcements. You guys have been a HUGE part of my success, and I thank every single one of you from the bottom of my heart!
To my one-stop superhero beta reader/editor/formatter and listener to all my whiny rants/vents and obsessive worrying Theresa (Eagle Eyes) Wegand, you have truly been God sent, and I’m so, so glad I found you. As always, your work is impeccable, and I can’t say enough about it. I hope to be working with you for years to come! Thank you so much!
I want to give a special shout out to “my girls,” my very special group of incredibly talented and superstar authors. Without you, I think I’d be insane by now. I'm so glad our bond has withstood the test of time. You really are the only ones who truly, truly get it. Thank you for the support, love, and always being there, ready to say the perfect thing when I need to hear it most. I hope to be including you all in my acknowledgments even when I'm on my 50th book! I love you all!
I'd also like to thank my new cover artist, Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations. From finding the models, to putting together the photo shoot to creating the beautiful cover of Breaking Brandon, you're awesome, and your work speaks for itself. I'm so excited about working with you on future projects!
And, of course, my incredibly awesome readers! Thank you so much for your continued support, emails, messages, and comments, which always seem to come at the most perfect time, making me smile and sometimes even tear up. I've had the enormous pleasure of meeting and chatting with many of you, and I really hope to meet you all one day! I love you guys, and I can’t wait to get the next one out to you!! I wish there were more ways I can show you all my appreciation. I hope to have a few surprises for you guys in 2014 just to show you that I really am listening and reading ALL your messages and comments!
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author, Elizabeth Reyes, was born and raised in southern California and still lives there with her husband of almost twenty years, her two teens, her Great Dane named Dexter, and one big fat cat named Tyson.
She spends eighty percent of time in front of her computer, writing and keeping up with all the social media, and loves it. She says that there is nothing better than doing what you absolutely love for a living, and she eats, sleeps, and breathes these stories, which are constantly begging to be written.
Representation: Jane Dystel of Dystel&Goderich now handles all questions regarding subsidiary rights for any of Ms. Reyes’ work. Please direct inquiries regarding foreign translation and film rights availability to her.
For more information on her upcoming projects and to connect with her--she loves hearing from you all—here are a few places you can find her:
Blog: www.ElizabethReyes.com
Facebook fan page:http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elizabeth-Reyes/278724885527554
Twitter: @AuthorElizabeth
Email
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She enjoys hearing your feedback and looks forward to reading your reviews and comments on her website and fan page!
Elizabeth Reyes, Breaking Brandon (Fate)
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