Reba looked back and forth between Brock and Barbara Jean as they argued. In HER living room. About how the laundry was supposed to be folded!
"Guys," Reba said, trying to break up the fight before it intensified further.
"You never think about my feelings, do you?" cried Barbara Jean.
"About SOCKS?" Brock exclaimed.
"Guys! Reba said louder. They'd only been married four years, but Reba didn't think she and Brock argued this much in their entire marriage!
"This isn't about socks Brock! It's about the fact that you don't care about me! You care about Henry, Elizabeth, Jake, Kyra, Cheyenne, Van! You care about REBA more than you do me!"
Reba's mouth fell open and Brock froze. "Honey," he reached out to touch her arm, but she jerked away.
"You don't deny it." she said quietly.
Reba felt her heart beating fast. She didn't know why, but what she did know that whatever Brock's big mouth said next would cause bigger problems. She had to stop this. "Barbara Jean," she said. "Of course he cares about you." she quickly turned and glared at Brock, silently ordering him to agree with her.
Brock stood there dumbly.
"See?" Barbara Jean said. Her face was unreadable. "I'm taking Henry home." she turned on her heel and left the living room.
"Barbara Jean..." Reba said helplessly as she watched her leave. She walked over to Brock, "Ugh you MO-ron!" she hit his shoulder.
"Ow!"
"Don't 'Ow!' me, you big baby!" Reba yelled. "How could you just let her say that you don't care about her? You need to go and tell her how much you love her! Now!"
"Reba," he looked at her with those big baby blues of his, Reba felt her knees weaken. "I can't."
Reba frowned and gained control of herself. "Why the heck not?"
"Because I realized something." Brock stepped dangerously close to her.
Reba gulped hard and tried to move away, but he reached out and took her by the waist. "Let go of me Brock." she stared at his hands, not being able to look into his hypnotizing eyes again.
He raised her chin with his finger and moved even closer to her. Reba's breathing became difficult. "B-B-Bro..." He kissed her. A full on the mouth, overwhelmed with desire, sweeter than honey, kiss. Reba melted into his embrace immedietly and began kissing him back. His arms were wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her as close to his body as possible, while Reba's arms found their way around his neck and buried her hands in his hair. They kissed fiercely and passionately, neither of them wanting it to end...and that's when Reba sat straight up in her bed, breathing hard. "Not again!" She groaned to herself.
-
After tossing and turning for a few more hours, Reba finally abandoned all hope for anymore sleep and got up for her morning shower, grumbling all the while because of the fact that she was up before 8am on a Saturday morning. Stepping under the hot water, she tried to think about something, anything, other than her dream. But no matter how much she told herself to think about the kids, work, the bills! Her mind would automatically start reminding her how his lips felt on hers, the protective and loving way he simply put his arms around her...
"Ugh!" Reba pounded her palm against her forehead. "Stupid, stupid, stupid."
That same amaz-ridiculous-she corrected herself-dream had haunted her every once and a while for four years. Ever since she and Brock had divorced. Oh there would be different versions from time to time, many times it would just be a passionate kiss, sometimes it would be...more, and other times he would actually get down on one knee and as her to marry him again with the sweetest proposal she'd ever heard. But it all had the same meaning, he still loved her above everything and everyone and he wanted to be with her for the rest of their lives. Reba scoffed at her dream's stupidity. That would never happen. But no matter how much she wished the dreams away, they kept coming, more and more frequently now, though she didn't understand why. It had nothing to do with the fact that Brock all too recently said he had made a mistake in leaving her. Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he never answered his therapist's question about still being in love with her. No way.
Reba shook her head hard. "Stop it." she commanded herself. "I'll get him out of my head if it's the last thing I do!" With a determined huff, Reba turned off the water and stepped out of her shower.
-
"I can't believe you'd do that Brock!" Barbara Jean yelled.
"Why are you so upset? She's a dog! Dogs belong outside!"
"Not Broq! She's special! You just hate her! Don't deny it!"
Brock raked his hand through his hair in frustration. "Barbara Jean, I do not hate your dog."
"My dog? MY dog?" Barbara Jean shouted.
"Um, yeah, you bought her without talking to me about it. She's yours." Brock replied, confused.
"Oh! I see how it is!" Barbara Jean stormed out of Reba's kitchen, carrying Broq, while leaving the other Brock standing in the middle of Reba's kitchen all alone. His hands fell to his sides and he sat down on one of Reba's kitchen chairs, trying to puzzle out what he did wrong this time.
Brock heard slow footsteps and looked up to see Reba.
"Is the crazy blonde gone?"
Brock half smiled. "Yeah." his smile disappeared. "But the stupid one's still present."
Reba was silent for a moment, trying to think of something to make him feel better, she went with, "Well I'm not gonna argue with that." and she turned away quickly and walked towards the fridge.
Brock shook his head. "Aw Reba, you always know what to say." he said sarcastically.
"It's what I'm here for!" she threw a smirk over her shoulder before continuing to search her fridge.
Brock got up from his chair and went over to lean on the kitchen island and surprised himself by saying, "You look nice." he didn't know why it came out, he had plently of compliments for her of course, but he never said them out loud, it would cause too many problems, he would tell himself.
Reba's searching hands froze for a half second before she forced them to move on. But her face turned red and her eyes went wide. "You tryin' to butter me up for something?" she said, in as normal of a tone as possible. She pulled out the yogurt she had been looking for and shut the fridge, then keeping her back to him, to make sure to keep her flushed face hidden, she set her breakfast on the counter.
"No. I mean it." he watched her closely as she opened her yogurt, were her hands trembling? "But you know I wouldn't mind if you could tell me what I'm doing wrong with Barbara Jean."
Reba turned around and opened her mouth. "WITHOUT," he cut in, "the sarcasm."
Reba rolled her eyes, "Party pooper." she grabbed a spoon from the dishwasher and took a bite of her yogurt.
Brock looked at her and waited. She couldn't stay silent forever.
Reba tried. She really did. She focused with all her might on her food. But his eyes never left her, and it was beginning to be irritating and unnerving. "Alright! What happened?" she said in frustration.
Brock grinned in victory, "Well, Broq was making a lot of noise and kept trying to jump on the table to eat my food, and so I took her to the backyard and left her out there until I finished. But then Barbara Jean came home and heard Broq barking outside and started yelling at me!"
Reba took the spoon out of her mouth, "Then how did you two manage to get into my kitchen?"
"It's where she always goes when she's mad at me." he answered simply.
Reba rolled her eyes and waved with her spoon for him to go on.
"So I followed her over here, and she kept saying how mean I was and how much I hated her 'poor little Broq', so I said no I do not hate your dog, and she got mad that I called Broq HER dog and she stomped out and now I'm all confused and don't know what to apologize for!" he finished in a rush.
Reba stood there with her mouth slightly open for a second before swallowing. "Are you serious?" she exclaimed.
Brock nodded, thinking to himself about how cute she looked when she ate.
"Geez. Can you two be any more ridiculous?"
"Just tell me what to do Reba. I'm trying to make this work, but she's never satisfied! I always mess up everything."
"Well it is one of your few talents." Reba answered dryly.
Brock glared at her. "Okay you're right." Reba finally relented. "Barbara Jean is acting weird." she thought about that, "More than usual." Brock shook his head. "Yeah I'll talk to her."
Lighting up immedietly, Brock walked quickly around the island counter to grasp Reba's shoulders. "You will?" he said excitedly.
Reba's eyes widened and she nodded, not trusting her voice to work with him standing so close.
He hugged her tight. "Thank you." he said quietly, ecstatic that he could use this rare opportunity as an excuse to breathe in her scent and feel her soft body against his again. Oh how he missed this.
Reba's heart pounded, and not thinking about how wrong it was, she hugged him back, secretly not wanting their embrace to end.
Brock pulled away slowly, "I'll tell you as soon as I find out something." Reba said quickly, not wanting it to become awkward.
Brock smiled at her, "You're the best Reba."
"I know." Reba quipped.
Brock chuckled and went out the door, as he walked, he couldn't help but notice how empty his arms felt without the presence of the warm redhead.
Back in the kitchen, Reba picked up her yogurt and started eating again slowly, not tasting it, just dreaming about how good he smelled, how warm he was, how-Ahhh! She couldn't be feeling like this! Reba threw the rest of her breakfast away, wrote Cheyenne a note about where she was going, and went out the door. "Time to go solve other peoples problems." she thought. That was fine. Just fine. As long as she didn't have to think about her own.
Van and Cheyenne didn't come out of hiding until they heard Reba's footsteps fade away. Cheyenne turned to Van, "Did you see that?"
"Yeah! How come Mrs. H can throw away food but if we do she yells at us and tells us it's 'wastful'?"
Cheyenne hit him, "Not that! The sparks that were FLYING between mom and dad!"
"Ohhh...yeah. I guess they're still Mr. and Mrs. HHHHHHHOOO-" Cheyenne hit him again. "What does this mean?" Cheyenne thought out loud, picturing once again how close her parents had been to each other, and how their eyes closed as if they had tasted a piece of heaven. "Anyone could walk in here and see that they still love each other, but what about Barbara Jean?"
"Don't worry about it Cheyenne, all they did was hug. We'll just spy on them, and if we see something more, we'll worry about it then!"
Cheyenne nodded and grinned. "Spying."
"Spying," Van nodded mischievously. "Spying with a capital...first...letter." They high fived.
-
"Ta-da!" Brock presented Henry his freshly made PB&J with a big flourish, bringing a smile to the young boy's face. "What do you say we go catch some 'Tom & Jerry' now, huh?" Henry nodded happily and the two set up trays, turned on the TV, and ate their lunch.
Brock ate his sandwich slowly, staring at the TV, but not really watching it. Instead he saw a redheaded beauty, her gorgeous blue eyes sparkling when she shot him a good insult, her red hair and bright smile lighting up the entire room, that delicious sway to her hips when she walked, her sweet smelling scent, oh the list was endless. He shouldn't be thinking like this, he knew it too, but everytime he would force his mind away from thoughts of Reba, she would simply come back only moments later. He knew he loved her. Always had, always would. But he also knew she would never take him back. He'd messed up big time, too big for even a saint like Reba to forgive him. He felt a pain in his heart. The most amazing woman he'd ever known had been his, and he let her go. Worse then just letting her go, he hurt her in the worst way, by betraying her and destroying her trust. He felt the familiar tears of anguish well up in his eyes, but he brushed them alway quickly, not wanting Henry to see. She would never take him back. He had to get over her and focus on his current marriage. That's what Reba would want him to do. Brock took a deep breath, and took another bite out of his sandwich and swallowed, forcing the boulder sized lump in his throat away.
-
"Just two cups of coffee please." Reba smiled her thanks to the waiter as he walked away with their orders.
Reba had hoped to simply talk to Barbara Jean at her house, but that quickly became impossible because of Big Distraction and Little Distraction, namely Brock and Henry. It's pretty obvious whom was distracting whom. Everytime Reba heard Brock's voice, her train of thought flew off the tracks and disappeared into oblivion, just in order to hear what he was saying, and Henry, as much as he loved Reba, wanted his mom's full attention. Finally Reba proposed that they go eat brunch, Barbara Jean was so excited that Reba had actually ASKED to go with her somewhere, she immedietly said yes and nearly dragged Reba out the door.
"Oooh," said Barbara Jean, flicking her eyes between Reba and the door where the waiter had recently disappeared into. "Was that your special flirty smile I saw?"
Reba raised an eyebrow. "I have a special flirty smile?"
"Oh yes! It looks like this." Barbara Jean blinked slowly and pasted on a sickly sweet smile that more resembled a clown.
"I do NOT look like that." Reba said firmly.
"Right. Ok. Uh huh." Barbara Jean winked. "I don't blame you, he's hunky."
Reba rolled her eyes, "Barbara Jean, I wanted to talk to you about Brock."
Barbara Jean's happy mood dissolved a little bit. "Oh? What about him?" she started playing with her napkin.
Reba watched her closely, "He asked me to ask you what's really going on between you two."
"Well I don't know what you mean." Barbara Jean started shredding her napkin, Reba started to think this was really serious.
"You guys sure have been fighting over silly things lately, the TV, the dog, socks."
Barbara Jean looked up. "We haven't argued about socks!"
Reba blushed. "Oh. Well, uh, you know, silly things like that! I thought since Brock moved back in you'd have less problems, not more!"
"Oh so you and Brock never fought about stuff like this, right?" Barbara Jean raised her voice.
Reba was a little confused at her outburst. "Well no. Not like you guys. Except when I was..." horror came over Reba. "Oh my gosh. Are you pregnant?"
Barbara Jean shook her head. "That might make things easier, but no."
Reba breathed a huge sigh of relief, "Make what easier?"
Barbara Jean looked at Reba, "I thought Brock and I would have less problems too," Barbara Jean took a took breath, "But Reba, I..." she said this quietly, "I realized that I was happier without him."
"What?" Reba yelled, the other people in the restaurant started staring at her so she lowered her voice. "Are you serious Barbara Jean? Isn't that the exact same reason you kicked Brock out? How could you hurt him like this?"
Barbara Jean stared at her. "You seem pretty worried about his feelings."
Reba's mouth fell open, but thankfully the waiter chose that moment to bring out their coffee and Reba was spared from having to come up with a response.
"Listen Reba," Barbara Jean went on, "The only reason we married was because of Henry." Reba began to protest but Barbara Jean waved her words away. "It's true. The only time we were happy was when we knew we were having a baby together. We thought we loved each other, but I've finally realized what we felt was lust, and now, friendship. Reba I feel awful. So awful! Ever since I found out, it's been killing me! I feel like I've been playing with his feelings, and I feel like the most horrible person in the world for that." Barbara Jean had tears in her eyes, and Reba was silent, so many thoughts running through her head. "But that is how I feel. And I don't know how to change that."
"Surely you could *learn* to love each other..." Reba tried.
"After four years and still no serious feelings?" Barbara Jean shook her head. "It's not going to happen. We weren't meant to be together Reba. We weren't meant to be with each other for the rest of our lives."
Reba felt dizzy, too much was happening. "But Brock..."
Barbara Jean half smiled, "You know, I don't think he'll have too big a problem. I'm pretty sure someone else still has his heart."
Reba's breath caught in her throat, "Switch topics!" Reba's inner voice screamed. "Don't even think about that!"
"Barbara Jean, if you're being serious, you're talking about divorce."
Barbara Jean nodded slowly. "I know."
"No! You can't do that!"
"Why not?" Barbara Jean asked calmly.
"Because! You just can't! We've worked so hard to get some kind of normal life going. You can't just tear it up again!"
Barbara Jean looked sad. "Look," Reba tried to calm herself. "Just go to Brock, tell him how you're feeling, and try to work it out. Please?"
Barbara Jean nodded. "I have to go. Van and Cheyenne have been by themselves too long." The two women smiled. "Tell me how it goes."
"Alright." Reba left the restaurant, leaving Barbara Jean to steel herself up for a difficult confrontation.