Broken (Brown Eyed Boy book 2)

Just You and Me (Jessie POV)

I looked into his eyes and could see how badly he wanted that; another weekend of peace. And who knows, if we could make it through the next few days without worrying about my stupid feeling than maybe we could go the next few weeks of the semester too. “Okay,” I answered. “This weekend will be completely worry free. No thinking about anything but you and me and the wedding.”

“Or just you and me,” he corrected.

“Carlos,” I said reproachfully.

“What?” he said. “There’s going to be like fifty other people here who can worry about the wedding. And there are only two of us here who should be thinking about me and you. I think it’s only fair that that’s what I focus on.”

“Even though you’re supposed to be up there with your cousin?” I asked.

“Especially then,” he answered. “I mean, I think it would be just a little weird if I’m thinking about his wife at his wedding don’t you think?”

I laughed and shook my head at his logic, knowing he wasn’t going to change his answer. And if I was being honest, I liked it. “Okay,” I said. “Just you and me then.”

He smiled my smile at me and as usual I seemed almost dazed by it for a few seconds. “That’s what I like to hear,” he said and leaned over to kiss me. “Now we should go over there before Cassie drives herself crazy.” He turned back to the steering wheel and I looked out the window back to the house. Bouncing up and down happily on the front steps was Cassie, eagerly waiting our arrival.

Carlos had barely pulled into the driveway, parked the car and go out before Cassie came running at him. She threw herself at him excitedly, arms instantly going around his neck as he picked her up and hugged her to him. As much as he talked to her on the phone, it was clear that he missed being able to hug her when he wanted.

“You’re here, you’re here, you’re here!” she squealed happily.

“I told you we would be,” he laughed and put her down.

“I know,” she said. Then she turned to me and hugged me tightly too. “Hi Jessie!”

“Hey sweetie,” I smiled and hugged her back.

“I missed you,” she said, looking at both me and Carlos. “When are you guys coming back home?”

“Sooner than you think babe,” Carlos smiled. “You just have to wait a little longer and then we’re all yours for a month.”

“Really?” she asked excitedly.

“Promise,” he nodded. “Now unless you want to help me and Jessie with our bags…”

“No way!” she said and stuck her tongue at him before running back to the house.

“I didn’t think so,” he laughed.

*          *          *          *          *         

Much to Cassie’s delight, and probably her doing, I ended up sharing the room with her. She bounced excitedly up and down on her side of the bed, singing about it being another sleepover. Fifteen minutes after getting there and settled a little, Carlos showed up to bring me to meet his cousin and his soon to be wife.

It was quiet as we moved through the house and instead of being calming, it made me nervous suddenly. Besides Cassie and their mom, I hadn’t met any of his family. Even though they seemed to accept me so easily, part of me worried that his cousin wouldn’t. As we came to the back door of the house and they came into view, I panicked and grabbed Carlos’ wrist to stop him.

“Wait,” I said. “What if he doesn’t like me?”

Carlos gave me a look like I was crazy. “Not possible,” he said seriously as he tried to keep walking.

“Maybe not for you,” I said, pulling on his wrist again. “But there is a possibility that other people don’t like me, you know.”

He looked tame and sighed as he pulled his wrist from my hand and entwined our fingers. “Jessie,” he said, looking directly at me. “There is absolutely no reason why my cousin wouldn’t like you. And even if he didn’t, I wouldn’t care because I like you and that’s all that matters, okay? Just you and me remember?”

As usual, his brown eyes seemed to take away my ability to disagree and I nodded at him, still nervous. He smiled reassuringly at me and kissed me before walking us outside and to the soon to be married couple. The woman turned to us first and smiled. Carlos told me they were both twenty eight, but she looked as though she could be our age. She tapped on her fiancé’s shoulder and as he turned around I could almost immediately see a resemblance. They both had the same nose and same shaped eyes. His eyes were brown too but they didn’t seem to compare to Carlos’ eyes to me.

“Well it’s about time you got here,” he told Carlos.

“Yeah, well there’s this thing called college,” Carlos responded. “You remember that don’t you?”

“Ah, good to see the sarcasm hasn’t left you,” he laughed and then turned to me. “You must be the amazing girlfriend I heard so much about. Most of which I have to say came from Cassie.” I felt a blush come over me as I nodded. Carlos gave my hand a squeeze as though to remind me he was still there at my side.

“Jessie this is my cousin Alex and his almost wife Phoebe,” Carlos said.

“Nice to meet you,” I said, managing o not sound awkward even though I felt it.

“Wow, she has manners,” Alex smiled. “What exactly are you doing with Carlos again?” I involuntarily went tense and Carlos leaned over to me.

“Relax,” he whispered. “He’s just joking. Nothing but me and you, okay?” I managed to not and tried to push away my nerves.

“Alex, they just got here,” Phoebe said. “Stop acting like a kid and picking on your cousin.”

“I can’t help that he brings it out of me,” he said.

“I couldn’t bring it out of you if it didn’t already exist,” Carlos smirked.

“Touché little cousin, touché,” Alex said. Then he turned to me and smiled warmly. “I’m glad I get to meet you, Jessie. When Carlo insisted that I let you come or he wasn’t going, I had to admit I was curious. None of his other girlfriends could get him that worked up. You must be pretty special to him.” I felt Carlos’ hand heat up in mine and when I looked at him I forgot about trying to make his cousin like me or even that there was anyone else there. It was just me and Carlos.

“Well, he’s pretty special to me,” I said without thinking or looking away from Carlos. His smile turned into his usual nervous free one as he squeezed my hand and I squeezed his back. We didn’t say anything else and probably could have just stood there staring at each other for a while but Alex spoke.

“I can see that,” he said, all amusement gone from his voice but it wasn’t hard to hear the happiness for his cousin. “I’m glad that the both of you can say you have that. Or at least one of you has admitted it…”

“Of course you’re special to me,” Carlos said directly to me. “You never have to question that.”

“I know.” And for the first time in a while, I could honestly believe it.

“Well, good,” Phoebe said. “I think you two make a cute couple. What do you think Alex?”

“I think that if they can make each other that happy together,” he said. “Then they’re perfect for each other.”