Two mornings later, Justin got home from a trip to Starbucks to get some coffee. He balanced both full cups and the bakery bag in one hand as he unlocked the front door and went inside. He slipped off his shoes and then went upstairs to Brenna’s room. He transferred everything to one hand again and opened the door quietly.

The room was still dark, only a little sunlight coming in from the closed blinds. He was about to step further into the room when his eyes completely adjusted to the light and he realized that while Brenna was still sleeping, she wasn’t alone in her bed. As he stared, he could make out Drew in bed with her.

He quickly backed out of the room and shut the door. He went downstairs to the kitchen and set the coffee cups and bag on the counter and then braced his palms on the counter and leaned forward, dropping his head. He knew Brenna was getting closer to Drew but were they THAT close? They had only been dating a couple months and it was Brenna. He was just so unused to seeing her with a guy.

He raised his head when he heard someone coming downstairs and a second later he saw Brenna appear, dressed in a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt. She gave him a strange look.

“Were you in my room?”

“Uh, yeah, sorry. I thought you might be awake.” He handed her the coffee and bakery bag. “I got you a cappuccino and an apple muffin.”

Her face brightened. “Thanks, Justin.”

“Did I wake you up?”

“When you shut the door it woke me up.”

“Sorry.”

She shrugged. “I needed to get up anyways.”

He took a ship of his coffee and watched Brenna as she broke off a piece of the muffin and ate it. “So I didn’t know Drew was here. I didn’t see his car.”

She stopped chewing and swallowed. “Oh, yeah. I picked him up last night and we were watching movies and I was too tired to drive him home so he stayed here.”

He stared at her face as she had another bite of her muffin and he realized that nothing had happened to the extent to which he had thought. A bit of relief went through him and immediately he questioned the emotion.

Where the hell did that come from?

“So how was the blind date?”

He uttered a laugh. “Remember how I told you about the psycho girl she set me up with a while ago?”

“Uh huh.”

“Yeah, it was her sister.”

“What?” she laughed, setting her coffee cup down. “Are you serious?”

“I’m so serious. And psychotism runs in the family.”

“Oh no…”

“Oh yes. Damn, Bren, she knew every single detail about me. She was freaking me out.”

“How long did you stay?”

“I went to the bathroom and called Mike and got him to help bail me out. Then we went to a club.”

“Maybe you should stop letting Kate set you up on dates.”

“After last night you better believe I’ll be finding my own dates from now on.”

“Yeah.”

Justin glanced at his watch. “I’m going out to meet someone for lunch but I should be home before that contractor gets here to look at the garage. If I’m not though, can you just be out there with him? He knows what he’s supposed to do but I just want to make sure he doesn’t mess up my cars while he’s working.”

“Okay.” She finished the muffin and crumbled up the paper bag. “I should go wake up Drew. He has a class to teach at eleven.”

He nodded and watched her leave, a weird feeling that he couldn’t identify still going through him.

A couple days later, Justin arrived home to a silent house. He searched through it for Brenna for a few minutes before going into the kitchen and seeing her sitting outside by the pool. He went upstairs and changed into his swimming trunks before going downstairs and outside.

Brenna was stretched out on her back on a lounge chair in her bathing suit, her eyes closed. She never moved or opened her eyes and he smiled as he realized the perfect way to wake her up. He went right over to her and stood silently for a minute, making sure she was still asleep. Once he was sure, he leaned down and put one arm under her knees and one behind her back, scooping her up, and ran the few feet to the pool. She woke up fully as he picked her up and managed to get out a “Justin!” before he jumped into the pool, taking her with him.

With any other girl, he wouldn’t even try to do something like that, knowing they would be pissed off. But he knew Brenna wouldn’t care and he proved to be right when they both emerged from the water and she was smiling.

“Thanks.”

He grinned. “No problem. How asleep were you?”

She pushed her hair back from her face. “Half asleep. The water’s cold.”

“That’s just because you’ve been laying out in the sun. You’re getting all brown.”

“I’m still lighter than Kate.”

“She fakes and bakes though. That doesn’t count.”

Brenna shrugged and swam into the shallow end. He watched as she did a handstand in the water.

“You know I’ve never been able to do those,” he said when she came up.

“A handstand?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re easy. You just go down and stick up your legs.” She did it again. “Try it.”

He swam to the shallow end and dived under, trying to do one. As he stuck his legs out of the water, he felt her arms circle his legs and straighten them in the air. He opened his eyes under the water and saw her standing in front of him. Letting go of the bottom of the pool, he grabbed her ankles and gave them a yank, pulling her feet out from under her. She let go of his legs and sank under water. He let go of one leg and began to swim to the deep end, pulling her behind him by her other leg. She tried to kick at him but he avoided her foot and put both hands on her shoulder and pushed her down further in the water. Swimming up, he broke the surface of the water and caught his breath. Looking down, he saw Brenna swimming up.

“That is the LAST time I help you with anything,” she said when her head was above the water. “You’re a horrible person.”

He laughed as she began to swim back to the shallow end. He quickly swam after her and halted her by putting his arms around her stomach. “Aww…don’t be mad, Bren.”

“You suck,” she huffed.

He grinned and began to swim backwards towards the deep end. She had just stopped kicking her legs against him when he let go of her and dunked her under the water again. She came up more quickly this time and glared at him.

“You better run.”

His smile grew. “Don’t you mean swim?”

She growled out something and started towards him. He laughed and ducked under water, swimming away form her. He avoided her for a minute before she corned him in the deep end. She came up behind him and jumped up on his back, putting all her weight on his shoulders. As he sank down in the water, he pulled her down as well by her waist and it all started again.

After about ten minutes, he was so out of breath that he had to stop. He stopped in the shallow end, leaning against the side. “Truce,” he said, grabbing Brenna’s as she came at him. “Damn, aren’t you tired?”

“Not overly. You’re tired? Mr. ‘I work out seventeen times a day’ is tired from swimming for a few minutes?”

“I don’t’ work out seventeen times a day. You’re out of breath too.”

“Not as bad as you. I guess my workouts are just more effective than yours.”

He scoffed. “Give me a break. You do the girly workout.”

She pulled her wrists away from his hands. “I do not.”

“Oh yeah, Bren,” he smirked. “You’re pink five pound weights aren’t girly at all.”

“Oh, shut up. At least I’m not panting.”

He grinned and spread his arms out on the ledge of the pool. “You’re always so mean to me, Brenna. What is up with that?”

She rolled her eyes and pulled over a raft that was in the water. She rested her arms on it and let the rest of her body float out behind her. “You bring it on yourself.”

He laughed and leaned his head back, tilting his face up to the sun. “So what’re you doing this weekend while I’m gone?” he asked, shutting his eyes to the bright sun.

“Drew watned to go see this local band at a club on Friday. And he wanted to do something Saturday too.”

Justin didn’t bother responding and instead yawned. “Damn, I’m tired.” He lifted his head and then hoisted himself out of the pool and grabbed a towel. “I’m gonna go inside and sleep. Are you staying here?”

“For a bit.”

“Okay.”

“I was thinking of making pizza for supper. Are you home?”

He smiled. “If you’re making pizza I’ll definitely be home. What time?”

“I don’t know. Six, I guess.”

“Awesome. I’ll be up by then.” He ran the towel over his hand to dry it a bit as he walked toward the house. A few minutes later, he was asleep in his bed.

Justin sat up in his room a few days later, door open and waiting for Brenna to get home from her meeting with Johnny. He tapped his fingers against his thigh as he waited. Before she had left that morning he had been passing by her room when he heard her on the phone with Drew. They had been talking about that weekend and from Brenna’s side of the conversation, he had heard that they were going to some fancy restaurant on Saturday night and then to his apartment ‘for a movie or something’ as he had heard Brenna say.

His tapping ceased as he heard someone coming upstairs. He saw Brenna pass by his open door and he stood up.

“Bren.” He went into the hallway where she had stopped and turned towards him.

“Yeah?”

He raised a hand to rub the side of his neck. “Uh, I just found out that I’m really gonna need you in Miami with me this weekend.”

“You do?”

“Yeah…it’s gonna be a lot more than I realized and I need you there.” He saw her face fall a bit and quickly said, “I’m sorry. I know you had plans and I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need you there but…” He trailed off.

“No, it’s okay. If I need to be there I’ll be there. I can cancel my plans. Or reschedule or whatever.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Justin. Do we leave on Friday?”

“Friday morning. Ten o’clock.”

“Okay. I’m gonna call Drew and change some plans.”

“Thanks, Bren. I owe you.” He watched her go to her room and then turned around and went back to his, shutting the door behind him. He laid down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling.

“Shit, I’m such an ass,” he breathed out.

Truth be told, he really didn’t need Brenna with him in Miami at all and he honestly didn’t know why he was doing this to her. He knew it wasn’t fair to her and he felt guilty and yet he had no desire to go find her and tell her she didn’t have to come.

He raised his head when there was a knock on the door. “Yeah?”

Brenna opened the door. She was holding her cell phone at he rear and had her hand covering the mouth piece. Another wave of guilt surged through him when he saw the slightly upset look on her face.

“Do you know what time we’ll be back on Tuesday?”

“I think the flight arrives at four in the afternoon.”

“Thanks,” she said softly before leaving his room and shutting the door behind her. He leaned his head back on the bed and let out a sigh.

“I’m such an ass.”

Brenna slid her sunglasses over her eyes as she laid in a lounge chair by the outdoor poll at the hotel she and Justin were staying at in Miami. They had been there for two days and she was starting to wonder why she was there. There didn’t seem to be an awful lot for her to do and she had spent a lot of the time at the hotel or shopping while Justin was out. That morning she had planned to ask him why exactly he had needed her to come but then decided against it, figuring he must have a reason for her being there. Besides, a trip to Miami was nothing to complain about.

Her cell phone rang and without opening her eyes, she reached down to the ground beside the lounge chair and found it in her bag.

“Hey, where are you?” Justin asked when she answered.

“By the pool.”

“Okay. I’ll be down in a minute.”

“Okay.” She put the phone back in her bag. About five minutes later she heard Justin’s voice.

“Relaxed?”

She opened her eyes and saw him in his bathing suit, putting his things down next to hers. “Mm hmm.”

He sat down on the lounge chair beside hers. “It’s so nice outside.”

She yawned. “Yeah. How was recording?”

“Good. About half done. It’ll be finished by tomorrow. Hey, I was thinking that before Trace leaves for San Francisco we should throw him a farewell party. I could rent out a club somewhere in the city. It’d be awesome.”

“Sure. When does he leave?”

“August twenty seventh.”

“Yeah, sounds like fun.”

Justin leaned back in his chair. “Yeah. I’m gonna go to a club tonight with some friends. Want to come?”

“No, that’s okay. I think I’ll just stay here.”

“Are you sure? It’ll be fun.”

“I told Drew I’d call him tonight.”

“Oh. Okay. Can you go over those papers Johnny faxed over? I don’t know which I need to keep and which are just junk.”

“Yeah. I’ll do that tonight.”

“Thanks.”

Brenna shut her eyes again and tilted her head up, the sun warming her face. She and Justin laid out there for the next hour before he woke her up from her light sleep and insisted they go down to the beach. She complied, figuring that while she was in Miami, she might as well enjoy it.