Broken Dreams (Broken 2)

I smiled as I looked out in the hallway. “Oh yeah, something pretty damn big happened.”

Layton let out a small chuckle. “Well, are you going to fill me in or make me stand here and guess?”

I slowly took in a deep breath and let it out. “Court and I wanted to know if you and Whitley…if y’all wanted to…” Fuck, I can’t breathe.

“If Whitley and I want to what? Reed, what in the hell is going on?”

Shit. What if I hurt her? What if I can’t make her as happy as she makes me? I closed my eyes and thought back to just a little bit ago and how amazing making love to her had been. I would do everything in my power to never hurt her—ever. From this point on, my goal was to make Courtney happy and keep her safe.

“Reed? Are you still there?” Layton asked.

“Yeah, um…Court and I want you and Whitley to go with us to Lake Tahoe,” I blurted out so fast that I was sure he would need me to repeat it.

“Oh, hell yeah! I’d love to take Whitley to Lake Tahoe. When are y’all thinking of going?”

I looked down at my watch and said, “In about five hours.”

Silence.

“Layton?” I practically whispered.

“Five hours? Holy shit…is this what I think it is?”

I nodded my head and slowly said, “Yeah…and I’d like nothing more than for you to be there when I marry the love of my life.”

“Son of a bitch. Reed, what in the hell? Y’all are eloping?”

I heard Whitley let out a small scream.

“What? Oh my God. I want to talk to Courtney! When? Where?” Whitley was yelling out.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I imagined Whitley running for her phone to call Courtney.

“Uh…Whitley is calling Courtney right now,” Layton said.

Not even thirty seconds later, I heard Courtney scream from upstairs.

“I think Court is talking to Whit now,” I said with a chuckle.

“Reed, are y’all sure? You don’t think you’re moving too fast? Courtney doesn’t want a wedding?”

“Layton, I know I want to spend the rest of my life with Court. It was her idea to get married as soon as possible. I want to spend the rest of my life with her, and this feels so completely right. I mean, I’m scared as hell, but at the same time, nothing has ever felt so right in my life.”

I wished I could see Layton’s face right now.

He let out a small breath. “What airline? And what time does the flight leave?”

I jumped up and did a fist pump. “Thank you, Layton. Shit, you don’t know what this means to me to have you there.”

He let out a laugh as I heard Whitley yelling something about packing a bag.

I gave Layton the flight information and told him that we would meet them at the Austin-Bergstrom airport. By the time we were done talking, I turned around to see Courtney standing there. She was dressed in a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt that had a green alien holding a gun in one hand and a book in the other with the words Take Me to Your Reader written in black under the alien.

I let out a laugh and shook my head. Damn, I love this girl.

She tilted her head and gave me that smile of hers that had my stomach doing that damn flipping thing.

“I like your T-shirt, baby,” I said as I walked up to her and pulled her to me.