Page 21 of Once Upon A Valentine
“No.” Gibson was staring at him when he met his gaze again. “I didn’t know that. I thought you were… wait, you weren’t at the house when they left that night, were you?”
Bran shook his head, seeing the memories flash before his brothers’ eyes. He was starting to remember. It had been an overwhelming nightmare for all of them, but particularly for Gibson. He’d been thrust into adulthood that night, forced to step up and make decisions nobody should have to make. Bran didn’t blame him for forgetting the bits and pieces that had been Bran’s role in the whole ordeal.
“I was home by the time the police showed up to tell us but no, I wasn’t there when they left for the party.” Bran swallowed the lump that rose in his throat, “I’d come here, to the office, to talk to Dad earlier that afternoon. I thought if I showed up here, booked an appointment and everything, that he’d have to make time for me, that he’d have to hear me out.”
“Hear you out?” Gibson asked.
“I wanted to take a gap year before I started college. I was about to be 18 and I still had the spring semester of my senior year left but all my friends were talking about what they were going to major in and what Ivy league school they were going to attend. They had all these big plans for their future and I just… didn’t.” He shook his head. “I wanted to take a gap year, to travel, to work, to figure out who I was and who I wanted to be instead of funneling straight into corporate America like everyone else.”
Gibson gave him a soft, wary look, “But Dad said no.”
“Of course he did.” Bran snorted. “He had my life all plotted out for me and he wasn’t going to let me veer off course, as he put it. He wouldn’t even listen to me about what I wanted. He said I was being a spoiled brat, that I wanted to go globe-trotting on his dime instead of growing up. I tried to explain that it wasn’t like that but… you know how dad was. In his mind, it was school and then college and then work, no room for anything else.”
“You two fought.” Gibson didn’t phrase it as a question because he knew, of course he knew that the conversation had turned into a fight.
“Probably the worst we ever had. Definitely the worst because we never resolved it. I said things that day that I could never take back. He said things too. I ended up storming out of here and I went to Leanie’s house.”
“Leanie.” Gibson shook his head. “Leanne Leal. I’d forgotten about your high school girlfriend. What ever happened to her?”
“She married Erick Hempstead.”
Gibson’s eyebrows winged up, “Your Erick?”
“He was never mine.” Bran rolled his eyes. “But yes, I think they bonded over the fact I was fucking Leanie and Erick was fucking me so they could just cut out the middle man, or maybe not. I don’t think Erick ever actually admitted to being with me and now it doesn’t matter. He and Leanie have three kids and a house on the hill and the whole shebang.”
“Wow. Okay.” Gibson waved his hand, “Sorry I got distracted. You were saying?”
“Anyway,” Bran gave his brother a knowing look before continuing. “I went to Leanie’s and told her about how the first thing my dad asked when I walked into his office was what sort of trouble I’d gotten into now and how he was going to have to fix it.”
“Fix it? Like what I just said.” Gibson winced. “But you know I didn’t mean it that way, right?”
“I know.” He nodded. “I know, it just… for years that’s what I’ve made you do. Fix my mistakes. Cover up my exploits. Distance the company from my bad behavior. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me finish telling you about that night.”
“Okay.” Gibson nodded.
“Leanie was pissed on my behalf, which of course she was. She was my girlfriend. She had some weed so we got high and fucked around for a while. I fell asleep there and it was late when I woke up. I snuck out of her house and back into my room and I swear to God it wasn’t twenty minutes later the police were knocking on the door. I thought they were there for me. I was scared shitless when you yelled for me to come downstairs.”
“Your hair was wet. I remember that. I don’t know why but it always seemed so strange to me.”
“I’d jumped into the shower to try and wash the smell of weed and sex off me.” Bran rubbed a hand down his face. “I was terrified when I came downstairs, so much so that when the cops first told us there had been an accident with mom and dad’s limo, I was relieved. I was so damn relieved that it wasn’t about me.”
“Bran…”
“No. Don’t try to make that okay. I know it was a gut reaction, that I was a kid and I was scared of getting in trouble but, fuck I hate myself every single time I think about how I was happy I’d gotten away with getting high and missing curfew.”
“You didn’t know how bad the accident was yet.” Gibson pointed out. “They didn’t tell us Mom and Dad were gone right away. You had no way of knowing.”
“I know, but that doesn’t stop the guilt. Just like no matter how many years pass, every time I walk into this office all I can see is Dad sitting behind that desk, disappointed in me.”
Gibson pushed back his chair and came around to sit in the chair beside Bran, reaching out to put a hand on his shoulder, “Bran, I wish you’d told me all of this before now. It’s been a fucking decade and you’ve been carrying all of this pain around by yourself. You could have told me. I could have helped you.”
“I didn’t want help.” Bran admitted. “I wanted to wallow in my pain. I wanted to be mad at myself, at Dad, at the world. Dad died and I did exactly what he told me I couldn’t do. I veered off his path and fell off the damn cliff, Gib. I knew he’d have hated what I was doing but I did it anyway because some childish, hurt, part of me wanted to punish him for dying in the middle of our fight, as if I was hurting him instead of hurting myself.”
“Bran…” Gibson squeezed his shoulder but didn’t say anything else and Bran nodded.
He hadn’t expected Gibson to tell him that their father would have been proud of him. They both knew he wouldn’t have been. Not with Bran wasting his inheritance on booze and boats and blow for years. But he had to hope that Julian was right, that there was still time to become a better man, the man that Julian loved was a better man, a man that maybe even his father could be proud of.
“I’m trying to get back on course, Gib. It’s hard but I’m trying. Julian is helping me. He’s… amazing. I’m so lucky to have him but…”
