Colt's POV
"We only have a week left," Brooke whines, bouncing onto the bed next to me. "Let's do something fun!"
"Maybe a little later, but I've got work to do." The keys on my laptop clack away as I revise a contract.
"C'mon, Colt." She pokes my side, and I exhale my irritation.
Brooke has been a vacuum of my attention since the party a few days ago, hardly letting me stray five feet away from her and jumping into any conversation I find myself in, even ones over the phone with my father or even Tommy, where she'll demand he be put on speakerphone so that she can talk to him too. June and SueEllen even asked her to go shopping with them a couple of days ago, and she didn't accept until she was positive that I was going to stay in all day and work.
The only word I can think of to describe it is clingy. I tried to talk to her about it after we got back to the bed and breakfast that night of the party because that's when it started, but she insisted that she didn't know what I was talking about, and I stopped trying to push her when I realized she wouldn't say anything without an argument. And every time I tried to bring it up with her since, she passes it off and gets offended that I would call her "such nonsense."
"You've been working for two hours already," she persists, pointing to the analog clock hanging on the wall across from us which reads ten in the morning. Little does she actually know that I've been working since five this morning. Her other hand squeezes my bicep, and I'm all for physical contact, trust me, especially with my fiancee, but I need a break.
I bring my legs up from being stretched out in front of me to cross them, forcing Brooke to back off a tiny bit. Her grip loosens around me, and I feel like I can breathe again.
"I know it's not exactly favorable, but I really have to get this done. You know that. I've already put it off long enough as it is, and Baker is starting to get up my ass about it." And he really has been. My boss has been calling me first thing in the morning for the last couple of days wondering when I was going to start getting on these cases.
"I know," she sighs, "But I brought us down here so that you could show me your home town, not sit on the bed all day with your dorky glasses and draw up contracts and do legal stuff."
I push my "dorky" glasses further up my nose. "Yes, and I'm doing that, but please, Brooke. You bought the tickets without giving me any warning or the time to take off work. I'm sorry, but I have to work today. Why don't you call June and see what she's doing? You two really seemed to hit it off the other day," I suggest.
I squint at the screen. What the hell is a title abstract doing here? This is a misdemeanor case. Jesus Christ, I've already spent an hour more than I should have on this. My ass is grass if I don't get this in to—
"Because I want to stay with you," she answers simply, and I glance over to see her shrugging her shoulders.
"You're acting like a child," I say in an amused tone, but I feel like I'm actually scolding a child. "You want to go out, I have work to do. Go out with June."
"No."
I'm about to respond to her when the ringing of my phone cuts me off, but I have no plans of answering it until we resolve this.
"Are you going to answer it?" Brooke snarks, and I make no effort to hold back an eye roll.
I answer my phone without checking the caller ID.
"Hello?"
"Geez, grumpy. Who pissed in your Fruit Loops?" Tommy answers.
I sigh and rest the back of my head against the headboard with a thump.
"Nobody." I clear my throat, glancing at Brooke who's playing on her phone. "What's up?"
"Am I on speaker?" he jokes.
I snort. "Nah." I take my glasses off and toss them onto the nightstand beside me before rubbing my sore eyes.
Tommy laughs and continues. "The boys and I were planning on getting a few drinks later tonight. You in?"
I look at Brooke and exhale, shaking my head. "I'm sorry, but I've already got plans tonight."
"You sure?" he persists, undoubtedly picking up that something's wrong.
"Yeah."
"Well," he breathes, "if you decide you want to join us later, we'll be meeting at Soda Pop at seven. Bring Brooke along too if you want, don't matter to us none."
I smile at his offering and lighten up. "Okay. Thanks for the offer."
"No problem. Tell Brooke I said hi."
"I will."
We say our goodbyes and hang up.
"Who was that?" Brooke asks, not looking up from her game.
"Tommy."
"What'd he want?"
"To know if I wanted to get a drink with him and Bobby and Wes," I answer.
Her hands fall to her lap, and she looks up at me, scrutinizing my gaze. Her face crinkles into confusion. "And you said no?"
I nod, shrugging. "I told you we'd do something after I finished up."
She doesn't answer me, returning her attention to her phone.
"I'm almost done with this revision. Give me another hour to finish up and then we'll do something, yeah?" I coax, putting on a light smile.
"Listen, Colt. You should go out with the boys. I'm not going to stop you."
My smile dampens as I take in her words. She doesn't even look up at me.
Is this how she feels when I work?
"Maybe, but I said no so that we could do something."
"Maybe, but I might call June up," she says passively, but I can hear the accusation underneath her words. She's looking for a fight.
It's not her words that sting, but her tone.
"If you really want to. You two really hit it off," I encourage. She and June really did get along. I want her to be friends with mine, and I'm going to encourage any relationship she forms with them.
She slams her phone down on the bed and whips around to face me, hair swishing as it comes to a rest over her shoulders, and I recoil in shock at her behavior.
"You really don't know what the fuck you want, do you?" she seethes. Her dark eyes burn with rage, and if it could, her burning glare would set me on fire. Her mouth is pressed into a small, thin line, and her whole body is tense, rigid.
I open my mouth to attempt to calm her down, but she cuts me off.
"Don't even try to deny it! You've been messing with my mind ever since we got here! I don't know what you want me to do or what you want me to say! You've gotta work, you've gotta work, and you want me to go out with June, but then you want us to do something? You get annoyed with me, don't want me touching you, get annoyed when I want to talk to Tommy on the phone, too," she rants, all in one breath, and I can't help the surprise flickering over me. "I don't even know who you fucking are anymore—if I ever even did—even though the whole reason we're in Georgia is so that I get to fucking know you better!"
She pants as she regains her breath, as she waits for my mind to come up with an articulate response. The wheels of my brain spin and turn on overtime, trying to figure out exactly what she's saying beneath her accusations because there's something else there. Something else beneath the surface that she's hiding.
But what?
My eyes flit back up to her intense chocolate ones, and I exhale.
"I'm sorry that you feel this way," I apologize sincerely, "I never wanted to make you feel like this, and I wish that you would have talked to me about this sooner instead of brushing me off when I tried to ask what's wrong. We could have figured this out sooner."
Her eyes blaze, and she leans forward, pointing at her chest with every syllable. "This is not my fault."
"I didn't say it was," I counter calmly. "I'm asking you to talk to me next time you're upset with me. I don't want to fight with you, ever, but you aren't being fair."
"I'm being plenty fair considering what you've done to me," she scoffs darkly, and I can't believe that this ruthless woman in front of me is Brooke.
"Yes," I continue, "and I know you have been better than anyone. I'm very grateful for it, but some of your accusations aren't fair. I know why you're being so clingy, Brooke. I know how you saw my reaction towards Josie when she walked in, and if the roles were reversed, I imagine I'd be doing the same as you, but I'm not going anywhere, Brooke. The tighter your leash is on me, the harder I'm going to pull it out of your hands. I understand it, I do, I promise, but it's more annoying than it is an effective tactic to make me stick around. Yes, I was annoyed with your actions, but not with you."
Her gaze drops to her hands as she fiddles with them, rubbing them together, and she brings her focus back to me.
"You know I have to work while I'm down here, too. I can't just drop my job and clients, and you know I've worked long and hard to get where I'm at in my career, which you know is important to me. I have shown you all over Oak Bend. I've taken you to childhood sites and opened myself up more to you in this week alone than in the last few years, and I truly want you to form relationships with my friends, which is why I encouraged you to call up June. I wasn't saying to call her to pass you off to someone else. I've opened myself up to you more than any other person in Boston.
"I'm sorry for my mistake. I'm sorry for belittling your feelings, but I'm trying, Brooke. I'm trying to be the man you need me to be. I know I stumbled, and I don't know how to make it up to you other than to show you and tell you that I'm sorry, and that I'm trying."
There. I said it. I laid the truth, my thoughts, everything out for her. If she doesn't accept this, I don't know what she will.
She's quiet, calculating for a few moments too long.
"You said more than any other person in Boston."
I let out an indignant snort and turn away from her, leaning back against the headboard of the bed and letting out a disbelieving chuckle. "Everything I just said, and that's what you focus on."
"Well?"
She's got to be fucking kidding me. It's like she's trying to pick a fight, trying to pick on all of my screw-ups.
"What do you want me to say? That the truth is a lie? I don't want to fight with you on this Brooke. You're nit-picking and trying to twist my words around." I drop my hands and twist my head so I can look at her.
Her expectant expression tells me nothing that I don't already know.
"I want you to tell me the truth."
"I just did!" I stress, my voice straining against a shout, which would certainly make this worse.
"What about down here?"
"I'm not doing this," I protest.
"You're not helping yourself."
"I cannot believe you. right now."
"What about here, Colt?" she persists, a new edge to her tone. She scoots closer to me on the bed with every sentence until she's right in my face, and it's too much. "What about here, Colt?"
I shake my head in indignance as I gaze up at the ceiling, trying to think of a way to get her off my case, but I'm over the conversation. Her insecurity in our relationship is honestly dragging it down, and I know that I'm not exactly innocent, but I tried to tell her my piece and apologize. I'm trying to help her get over her insecurity with our relationship, with fitting in down here, with me. We're engaged for fuck's sake, and I've shown her off proudly to my friends and family. If she doesn't see that she's the one that I want, will she ever? Of course I didn't expect her to accept it all—my apology, I mean—but I wasn't expecting her to be so...
I'm over being nit-picked and having my words twisted around. I'm damned to hell with a one-way ticket on a runaway train anyway.
My steeled eyes drop to hers, and a humorless chuckle escapes my mouth. "You said it yourself, remember? You don't fucking know who I am."
--
This chapter was super hard for me to write for one of two reasons. One, I had to get back into Colt's headspace. Two, I wanted to show the interworkings of their relationship without being obvious about it, and I really had to remember how to use my brain XD. I think I did get a little obvious at the end, probably because I got lazy even though I wrote the ending for this chapter first because I had a goal, but I needed to figure out how to get to it. Idk, doesn't make sense to me either.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this chapter.
What do you think about Brooke's outburst and clinginess? Do you think it's justified or should she just stop being a bitch(my sister's words not mine lol)? Colt's reaction? Colt's last reaction lol (that was fun to write, I'm not gonna lie)? What about their relationship as a whole?
I'd also love to hear your theories about where this is going and how it's going to end because believe it or not, we're almost at the end. Maybe 10 more chapters, give or take a few.
Also, where are you guys from? Do I have any readers outside of the US?
Anyway, that's all for now. Comment and vote if you liked it!
XX Blondie XX