My mind was racing with a thousand thoughts as I sat in the car, tears threatening to start pouring out once again. I wanted to Brian to meet my mom, but I never thought it would make me react this way. My hands were shaky and my face was warm. Off to the side I heard a door close and then footsteps. I lifted my head and saw Brian walking down the pathway to the car. He climbed in and closed the door and looked at me.

"Are you ok?" He asked simply. I shrugged and wiped a tear and took a choppy breath.

"I knew this trip was a bad idea. I never thought it would end up like this." I said between breaths.

"Ever, it's ok. Your past was terrible and you can't blame yourself for that." He rubbed his hand on my leg and started the car. I just looked out the window as we started our way down the road.

"We should go out for dinner, since it is five." I said after a while and he smiled.

"Where?" He asked. I shrugged and pulled out my phone to find a good place to eat. After a few minutes I found this restaurant called Tanen's Grill and Bar. We got to the building and got out of the car and walked inside. Almost immediately we got seated and got our drinks. I decided to get a Vodka and cranberry juice mixer. Brian got a beer. He's boring.

"So what exactly happened in that bathroom?" He asked. I looked at him for a while before thinking of answering.

"Well, my sister tried to make excuses for my mother on how she's a changed woman and I reminded her that our mother beat the shit out of us when we were kids, that was part of the reason my parents got a divorce." I revealed and took a drink. The waitress walked over and smiled at us.

"What can I get the two of you?" She asked. I looked at the menu and scanned it quickly.

"Can I get the Pub burger with bacon, cheese, onion, and lettuce? And steak fries." I ordered and she wrote it down and turned to Brian.

"The Spicy Chicken grill with steak fries." He said and the waitress grabbed our menus.

"I'll be right back with some bread for you." She walked away and I sighed.

"Your mom beat you?" He asked. I nodded.

"For about three years. It wasn't so bad that the school got worried, but she had a temper and if she got angry with you, you knew. She would usually just slap us with a spoon, or spank us, or yell at us. But to a seven year old it was traumatizing." He just looked at me as I spoke. I smiled and looked back at him.

"What?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Nothing, you just don't seem like you were ever abused." He said. I smiled.

"That's because my brother got most of the beating. He has a scar on his face from where our mother burned him with hot, hot water when she was drunk." My fingers played with the glass as I waited for Brian to respond.

"Jeez, and I thought my life was rough." He chuckled and took a final drink of his beer. The waitress came back over with the bread and walked off to get a refill of beer for Brian. I grabbed a piece of bread and tore it before taking a bite.

"I have a question." He said suddenly. I looked at him.

"What?" I asked.

"How would you feel about moving in with me?" He asked. I just looked at him with a blank expression. Did he really just ask that? I smoothed out my dress and took a drink.

"Um, I don't really know. I would love to live with you, but I don't exactly know if I am ready to take that step." I confessed and he nodded.

"As long as you have thought about it, I am happy." He smiled a cheeky smile and leaned over and held his lips out. I rolled my eyes and leaned forward and connected our lips.

"I was thinking of moving out of the house I live in now and getting a semi smaller house, since the one I am in me and Michelle bought and it's just too weird." He mumbled.

"Well if you move you should let me help you choose, maybe then I will be more willing to move in with you." I grinned slyly and he chuckled.

"Ok fine, when I look for a house I will call you." I heard a noise coming from his pocket and I looked at it.

"Brian, your phone is ringing." I said. He got this dumb look on his face and grabbed his phone, hit a button and held it to his ear.

"Hello." He said. Someone was talking loudly to him and his face was getting irritated. I put my hand on his hand that was resting on the table.

"Dad, I'm going to be in Florida for the rest of the week." He asked. An angry huff of air escaped his lips and he looked pissed off.

"Why do I have to explain myself to you? I am 32 years old." He almost yelled. I squeezed his hand and he looked at me.

"I've gotta go." He said and hung up. I gave him a questioning look and he sighed.

"My dad wanted to know where I was, even though I told him where I was going to be like a week ago. I swear that man is going crazy." He chuckled and the waitress appeared with our food.

"Can I get you two anything else?" She asked. I pointed to my empty glass.

"Can I get another one of these?" I asked. She nodded and looked at Brian. He politely declined getting anything and she walked away. I looked down at the food that was steaming in front of me. It made my mouth water just looking at it. My fingers wrapped themselves around the burger and pulled it up to my mouth and I took a bite. The taste was amazing. It may have been because I was slightly buzzed and when I have alcohol anything tastes good.

"Enjoying the burger?" Brian chuckled and I smiled.

"We should go hang out at a bar tonight." I suggested but he shook his head.

"I was thinking we stay in the room, watch a movie, order some room service wine, relax while on vacation, maybe go midnight swimming in the ocean, then after all that, we're gonna have lots of fun." He got this mischievous look on his face and I laughed.

"So a romantic night? I'm up for that. But tomorrow we are so going to the beach and to the shops on the boardwalk thing." I stated and he nodded.

"Alright, I planned tonight, you can plan tomorrow." He paused for a second to take a bite and a drink and then he looked at me again.

"What?" I asked. He sighed and just looked at me.

"Are you going to go back to see your mom sometime later this week?" He asked. I looked down at my plate almost immediately and stared at my food.

"I don't know. Maybe, I just need to think about it." I said quietly. He nodded and we sat in silence while we finished our food and drinks. Shortly after the waitress walked back to us and handed Brian the bill and he made a surprised face.

"What? Was it overly obnoxiously expensive?" I asked as I stood and smoothed my dress.

"Nope, a lot cheaper than I thought it would be." He smiled and we walked to the front hostess stand and paid for the meal. Brian laced his fingers between mine as we walked out of the building and back to the car.


When we got back to the hotel we walked up the stairs and entered our room. I laid down on the bed as Brian walked around the room looking for stuff.

"Why don't you go shower, or bath, which ever is more relaxing, while I do some things out here?" He asked. I leaned up on my elbows and watched him as he walked around.

"I think I'll take a bath, are you sure you don't wanna join me?" I asked halfway seductively. He stopped what he was doing and looked at me. Slowly he made his way over to me and leaned over my body and looked at me.

"As much as I would love that, no, I want to do things out here, so go and take a bath." He said and kissed my nose.

"You did not just kiss my nose." I gasped.

"Yes I just did." He smirked as he stood by the TV. I walked over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck and looked up at him.

"I am going to miss this when we get back to Cali." I pouted and he smiled. I leaned up and kissed Brian quickly before walking to the bathroom and closing the door. I don't know what he is doing out there, but I hope it is worth it.


A half hour later I climbed out of the tub and wrapped a white towel around my abdomen and another in my hair. I slowly made my way back out and saw Brian was messing with something with the TV and there were candles lit every where and the room smelled amazing. The lights were dimmed and soft music played.

"Brian, what are you doing?" I asked. He turned to me and smiled.

"Making the room more romantic. I ordered the wine and champagne and we are going to watch The Notebook, The Last Song, Dear John, The Vow, and Safe Haven." He smiled sheepishly and I walked over to him.

"You are going to sacrifice your man pride to watch chick flicks all night?" I asked. He nodded and I held my hand on my chest.

"Of course I would, I love you and I know you love these movies." He said simply. But it wasn't that simple. We haven't really ever told each other 'I Love You'. I wrapped my arms around his waist and looked at him.

"You love me?" I asked and he looked at me, realizing what he said.

"Yeah, I do. I love you Everleigh." He said and put his forehead on mine.

"Good, cause I love you too, Brian." I smiled and connected our lips. It was as if our bodies decided to turn into horney teenagers because we soon were on the bed, my towels were on the floor and we were both naked. I stared into Brian's brown eyes and bit my lip.

"You know biting your lip drives me crazy, right?" He smirked.

"Why do you think I do it?" I laughed and kissed him.


Two hours later I was cuddling into Brian's chest, one leg draped over one of his and his arm was around my shoulders. He held up the remote and turned on the TV.

"Maybe we did things backwards, but we can still watch the movies." He looked down at me and I nodded. Right now, in this moment, I was completely and utterly in love with this man and no one is going to change that, ever.

Notes

Oh my gosh guys, I am soo soo soo soo soo soo soo sorry for the long wait!! I feel really bad, but a lot of things have been happening all at once in my personal life. But here is a nice long one, haha that's dirty.

This chapter is a huge accomplishment, I got two and a half hours of sleep last night and I worked tonight, and I think it came out pretty damn good!

So there are gonna be two more chapters of them in Florida. Hopefully the next chapter is gonna be them on the beach, shopping, and hanging out at the bar with a few people Ever knows. And then the next next one maybe Ever tries again with her mom?

**Important announcements:
1. Apparently Matt and Val's son is named River, so I will go back into the story and
change it eventually, thanks Val_6661 for that info. :P
2. I have another story I will be working on, it's called It's My Messed Up Reality and
stars Brian. If you want more info just ask me and I will give it to you, I don't know when I will be writing in that one, but I will try.
3. There might not be updates as frequently as I like, lots of personal issues going on right now, and my internet sucks ass, so yeah, but I will try. I promise!!!

Thats all folks.

~Dallas