Author's Note: This chapter frustrated me and my proofreader to no end while writing it. It got too long and wordy compared to part one for my liking. Attempts to simplify were not successful. So this story is done, just 2 parts. If inspiration strikes, feel free to use my story as a jump-off point and continue as your own story. Please don't forget to review and tell me what you liked or didn't like.
Brenda wakes a few hours later in the morning on the schedule that worked best for her and Chris, her nickname for Christianne. She goes to get up, but feels an arm draped over her upper body, breathing on her shoulder, and an obvious morning erection on her backside. "How am I going to get out of this," she thinks to herself. Hoping he doesn't wake up, she inches out of his grip and to the edge of the bed. As she slips on her robe she looks back at Dylan and sees he is awake. "Damn it, I was hoping to feed Chris before he woke up," she thinks to herself. Dylan sits up, "where are you going?" Brenda sighs, "Chris needs feeding." She gets up and heads over to the crib and picks up Chris and goes back over to her bed sitting down and then laying back down getting comfortable. She opens her robe and makes sure that the baby is latched on as she positions herself and a couple of pillows near the baby.
Dylan looks over at Brenda and their daughter feeding, "do you want privacy?" Brenda strokes her baby's hair and looks back up at Dylan, "you can stay if you want, I don't mind, you're her father." Dylan lays back down himself and turns onto his side looking at both Brenda and the baby. "This isn't something I thought I would see for years, I usually pictured you when I thought about it though." He finds that he doesn't stare at the baby breastfeeding, but at Brenda's face instead. "So, Chris is her nickname, guessing she's around 9 months old now, when's her birthday?" Brenda replies, "March 1. Yes, she's 9 months."
They stare at each other, Dylan notices that Brenda's hands are shaking. Unlike normal for him, her facial expressions and eyes are unreadable to him. Meanwhile he feels like she is reading him like a book. Brenda looks down and then Dylan sees why, she quickly swaps Chris to the other breast. He decides to give them some privacy and goes to get up. He looks around the parts of the floor of the bedroom that he can see, Brenda speaks up, "your clothes are over here. Also, I have coffee in the kitchen, but you'll have to make it yourself." Dylan comes around to her side of the bed and picks up his jeans and puts them on, "thanks, I'll be in the kitchen," then brazenly leans in to give her a kiss. He leaves the room, but can feel Brenda's eyes boring a hole into his back. He doesn't dare to look back though.
Brenda places Chris back in her crib after changing her diaper and putting clean clothes on her. Then Brenda heads to her closet and finds something to wear by choosing a short black floral dress with buttons down the front with thin straps. She combs through her hair and leaves it loose. She goes into her living room and sees Dylan sitting on her sofa reading a magazine that had been on her coffee table. She approaches him and he feels her coming towards him. He looks up from the magazine and locks eyes with her. "Chris doing ok," he asks. Brenda nods and stops in front of him. Dylan sits the magazine down beside him on the sofa. "Want to talk things out now?" Brenda climbs into his lap and straddles him, "that's going to take several conversations, I figured I could take advantage of you instead, if that's ok with you." Dylan moves his hands to her hips, "what way are you going to take advantage of me?" "I think you know." "Yes, I do," he states as he pulls her closer to him by her hips.
Brenda grabs him by the neck and goes to give him a heated kiss. He returns the kiss, but much more intensely. He runs his hands under her dress and up her body. She moves her hands to the waistband of his jeans that he hadn't even bothered to button earlier. She pulls down the zipper and reaches inside as Dylan locks eyes with her again. Dylan moves pushing Brenda on to her back. He quickly moves between her legs and she pushes at the waistband of his jeans and Dylan helps her get them pulled lower. He shoves her dress around her waist and thrusts into her hard. Brenda moans out loud in response. Dylan leans down and begins an assault on her neck as he continues to roughly thrust. Brenda breathes out, "you're not being very nice." Dylan bites her shoulder and gives her another series of intense kisses while talking to her between them, "you don't want nice, you want rough." Brenda grabs him by the face, "what makes you say that?" "I know you," he states and his tongue licks the length of her lips. She wraps her arms around his neck and attempts to pull him closer and deeper into her on each thrust.
Dylan pulls Brenda back up to where she is again straddling him. Dylan kisses and nibbles on her neck and asks her, "how attached are you to this dress?" "Why?" "Is it a favorite?" "Again, why? I have others like it." "That's helpful," he said while sucking on her neck, "if it was a favorite, I'm sorry in advance. Actually, no I'm not sorry." Brenda gave him a questioning look as he grabbed the straps with his fingers and yanked the dress down. Several buttons fell off the dress as one strap broke. Dylan moved lower down to her breasts and bites one nipple with his teeth and roughly pulled her closer again with Brenda screaming out.
After they finished, Brenda rested her head on Dylan's shoulder and breathed out. "I definitely feel freshly fucked now, just wish I felt like me." Dylan laughed at her blunt language, but was concerned about what she said. "What's going on Bren?" He rubbed her back, while they were both almost completely naked, there was nothing sexual in the touch, only an attempt in comfort. He had sensed that she was more fragile than normal. "I noticed that you're not acting like yourself." Brenda breathed out attempting to hold back tears, "my doctor said I have postpartum depression, then my family is so far away, talking to them on the phone is just not the same. Not that I know if I even want them around. Then you show up with no warning, really could have used a heads up. My emotions are all over the place, my acting techniques don't help right now. Sex doesn't feel right, it feels off. I'm miserable, Dylan." He hugged her closer and smoothed her hair down as she started to cry again.
Dylan continues to hold her as she finishes crying after what seemed like forever, but checking her wall clock it had only been 7 minutes. She sniffles, but stays with her face buried in his shoulder. "Bren, what can I do to help you? Are you in counseling?" Brenda stays put, but answers his questions. "I don't know, my counselor doesn't seem to know how to help me either. I get so angry during each session. Do you see my cell on the table? I'm going to call my friend to come over to help with Chris, I don't think you're ready to be on your own yet, no offense." Dylan laughs while glancing at the coffee table, "none taken, I didn't know what to do while you were feeding her." Brenda stood up and tried to somewhat cover herself with her torn dress. "Yeah, this dress is done for now," she gave Dylan a quick smile to show she didn't mind that it had been ripped. "I'm gonna get dressed again and call my friend, warning male friend." Dylan stood up to fix his jeans and grabbed his shirt that he had brought with him originally and sat back down. "Are you just friends, I don't want to cause more problems for you." Suddenly Brenda was uncomfortable looking at Dylan and looked at the floor. "It's too late for that, Dylan. We were until about 2 weeks ago, then the lines got blurred by too much alcohol and a shitty day for us both. I can honestly say I don't remember how far things went, whiskey was involved. Too much whiskey, but it did its job, we were both numb."
She forced herself to look back up at Dylan. She really didn't want to say the exact date, Dylan's wedding day, but she picked up from Dylan's body language that he knew what she didn't say and why it hit her so hard. Dylan nodded his head in understanding, he was still thankful for Brandon telling her for him. That conversation would have tortured them both if he had told her himself, if he was able to get the words out. Then again, she might have been able to talk him out of marrying Toni. That they were rushing into things, that they had just started dating. After all, she had recognized that she was rushing things with Stuart and called off her wedding. The guilt that he felt for causing Toni's death had been eating at him. Especially after wondering if they had married for the right reasons, his conclusion was that it had been a mistake. They had no business getting married, they were still getting to know each other. He cared about her, and found himself starting to love her, but he knew he hadn't been in love with her. He even recognized that his attraction to her was because of similarities he saw between Toni and Brenda. Even Brandon saw them. He had known the truth before Brandon had attempted to get him to slow down, he should have listened to Brandon. Why hadn't Brandon pushed harder to get Dylan to slow down? Dylan knew who he was in love with on his wedding day and it wasn't Toni. She deserved so much better.
Dylan heard the doorbell ring and decided that it would be better if he let Brenda answer it. She came out of her bedroom wearing a short red skirt this time and a black tank top, she was killing him. Dylan watched her move towards her front door and swing it open. "Rob, thanks for coming, oh you brought me croissants, you're so sweet." Brenda went to hug her friend and then took his hand and pulled him inside while closing the door. She led Rob into the living room and introduced Rob to Dylan. The guys shook hands and greeted each other. As Rob sized Dylan up, Dylan did the same to Rob. Dylan noted that Rob was about the same height as himself maybe a little taller, thin muscular build, long slightly wavy blonde hair, facial hair in the form of mustache and goatee, and sleeve tattoos on both arms.
Rob sat down, "so you're Dylan, what brings you here now when you couldn't be bothered to call or write before?" Dylan was taken aback by this guy's hostility and looked over at Brenda, "uh, Bren?" Rob started to smile, "I'm just fucking with you. I know why you're here." Rob runs his hands through his hair, "we have a lot in common based on what Bren told me about you." Dylan raised his eyebrow at Rob, "like what?" Brenda excuses herself from the room so the guys can talk.
Rob now seated across from Dylan, clapped his hands together, "well, let's see, I'm from Huntington Beach, California originally, my birthday is the week before yours, same year, I grew up surfing, dad's dead, closer with the ladies, but have some close guy friends, best friends are boy/girl fraternal twins, own a classic car, a motorcycle, love reading a little of everything and classic movies, but not fond of Casablanca. Oh, your late wife Antonia was my first love, we started dating when I was 16, she was 15, but really we were only about 3 months apart in age. We were crazy in love until a miscarriage tore us apart about a year ago, before that we had a pregnancy scare after our first time together when we had been dating about 6 months, her daddy wasn't too thrilled with me after either occasion. He put the pressure on us to get some space, stuck his nose into our relationship, I wasn't going to make her choose between me and her dad, she had very little family left."
Rob continued, "I would have done anything for her, broke my own heart when we parted, wish I hadn't let her go, we maintained contact mostly through letters and phone calls, had a couple of stolen moments together, she just recently stopped being in contact with me this past October, guess that's when she met you. I thought the pain of losing her was bad, but hearing she was dead," he pauses and takes a deep breath to compose himself. "That pain is deep, suffocating at times. Now that she's gone, I guess I'll never get another chance with her now. Even though we never really ended things and whenever we reunited we picked up where we left off. Maybe when my pain subsides some in a few years, I'll find a girl I can love as much as her. I can tell you now, if a daughter is in my future, her name will be Antonia as long as my future wife is okay with it. I'm only still open to love because I know Antonia wouldn't want me to shut myself off, but it's hard."
Dylan's mouth fell open surprised. "I guess Bren was right that we have stuff in common. I've never met anyone that had that much in common with me." Rob looks at Dylan, "same here." Rob takes the bag of croissants and holds it out to Dylan, "like one, plenty here." "Yeah, why not," Dylan replies while Rob hands him the bag and heads to Brenda's kitchen. He returns shortly with a cup of coffee and sits back down where he was before. Rob stares at Dylan and talks lowly, "where were you while Bren was pregnant, I watched several of her attempts to contact you and how they went unanswered. Did her brother give you her message about staying here? She said it wasn't like you to ignore her, I pissed her off more than once trying to tell her people, things change. She told me all kinds of things about you, stories about your past together, but then again I was pressing her for details attempting to help her. Also, telling you now, I really don't care if you mind that I know intimate details about you and Bren. She told me that it might make you uncomfortable and normally she wouldn't share those details with anyone unless necessary. I take you know her parents since you two met in high school." Dylan nodded his head, "Met her through her brother and another girl, about her parents, we are…" Rob cut him off, "I met her parents, her mom is a nice lady, her dad though, what is his problem? They visited for Christmas and I guess her mom tries to play peacemaker because talk about friction between her and her dad. He claimed she was a daddy's girl, but I didn't see much of that."
Dylan rubbed his hands over his face, "Jim and Cindy probably think I corrupted their daughter. I think it's more her being independent and they wanted her to stay their little girl." Rob snorted, "is it normal for him to point out things she's doing wrong, what she should be doing, not taking her feelings seriously? Comparing her to her brother? I've never seen a father treat their daughter like that. My sister was single and pregnant at a young age too, both my parents were disappointed, but she didn't get treated the way Bren's parents treated her. That's with our dad being a hard ass expecting certain things from us due to my family's social standing and my dad was an alcoholic that could get violent." Dylan looked down and shook his head, apparently not much had changed since Bren had left California.
Rob made eye contact with Dylan, "I kicked her parents out on Christmas Eve. Then spent the next two days trying to convince her that her parents were in the wrong, not her. She stayed in bed all Christmas Day. I never want to see her parents again, now I'm unsure if I even want to meet her brother. Funny thing is that Brenda defends her parents while crying from their treatment of her. It makes no sense." Dylan nods his head, "that's definitely Bren, guess it's the 'you only get one set of parents' thing. So, how did you meet Bren?" Rob smiles, "you may find this interesting. I was surfing in Cornwall and she approached me asking if I give lessons. She was there with a couple of her RADA classmates, one being a close friend of mine. She said her ex was a surfer that had given her a few lessons before a trip to Baja and she wanted to improve. She blushed when she told me how long she could stay on the board. She was beautiful, and those eyes, if I had been single I would have been interested in her, but I was with Antonia who was instantly jealous of my new client. I don't normally teach, but something about Bren made me agree. Oh that's right, almost forgot, Bren met Antonia. I was able to calm Antonia down by reminding her of my love and commitment to her. Antonia and I were with Bren when she got confirmation of her pregnancy. They seemed to get along for how briefly they knew each other. We've been talking awhile now, one of us should check on Bren." Dylan agreed and volunteered himself while Rob said he was going for another cup of coffee.
Dylan headed to Brenda's bedroom and poked his head in. His eyes got big as he saw her in that short skirt and tight tank top dancing and singing along with a R&B song that he wasn't familiar with, but he would find out what it was because it sounded hot. Soon Rob joined him and saw what Dylan was staring at, "watching her dance gets to me." Dylan cut a quick glare at Rob who returned a smirk. Dylan asked, "I thought you were just friends?" Rob took a sip of his coffee, "we are, but watching her dance, dancing with her, the suggestive songs, it's something else. I'm affected. I'm not blind either." That got Dylan to smile, "what is that song?" Rob looked at him, "My Up and Down" by Adina Howard, released last year." Rob watched Brenda for a few moments then at Dylan, "have you seen her do this before?" Dylan nodded, "seen her dance and sing many times." Rob smiled at Dylan, "if you get closer please be careful, I'm concerned about her." Dylan looked over at Rob, "I know how fragile she gets and really is." "Do you realize that you could hurt her more than anyone else? Please be careful, that's for you too. Based on what she told me, you and her seem intense together, overwhelming." Dylan stared at Brenda, "that's an understatement, when I get around her I can forget everything except her." Rob nodded and headed further into the bedroom and to the crib. He picked Chris up and headed back into the living room.
Dylan approached Brenda who kept dancing, but stopped singing. Dylan looked down at Brenda and the song changed, Dylan recognized this one, "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak. Now the music was going to mess with him. Brenda looked up at him, "I'm going to turn that off. Not in the mood to listen to it, I want to play something else." She stepped away from him and soon Janet Jackson's "Any Time, Any Place" was playing. She sat down on her bed and Dylan sat down beside her. Rob suddenly appeared in the doorway, "Brenda, why are you playing this song?" Dylan noted that Rob looked uncomfortable, Brenda looked at Dylan and then at Rob. "Do either of you know when this song was originally released? Rob, do you remember the last time we listened to it?" Dylan and Rob exchanged looks and then looked at Brenda. Rob spoke first, "two weeks ago, the day that is still fuzzy for us both." Dylan looked at Rob then at Brenda and spoke, "when was it released?" Brenda made eye contact with Dylan, "May 1994, know the significance Dylan?" He looked down at her shaking hands, "yes, Bren." Want to know some other popular songs from May 1994, I'll tell you anyway. "Stay (I Missed You)" by Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories and "I'll Make Love to You" by Boyz II Men. I just find it such a coincidence that songs that speak so much to me were big when I was going through big changes. Sometimes I think I'm living "Stay," with all the ways it matches my life."
"Dylan, I don't know how you could marry a stranger. I don't know how you could marry someone so quickly after you told anyone that would listen that my engagement was too soon when I had tried to talk Stuart out of proposing because it was too soon. I was hoping for a long engagement to know him better. Guess it's different for me versus you. Your friends didn't care that you were looking for a cure for your loneliness, at least that's what it seems like based on what Brandon told me. Your friends just thought I was crazy and stupid when I did."
"Brandon also told me that Toni seemed just as lonely as you were. My dad introduced me to Stuart because I was lonely, I wasn't looking for anything other than someone to spend time with, even my brother and best friend didn't have time for me. I loved Stuart, but I wasn't in love with him. But, Stuart did want to spend time with me. I don't know what I'm trying to tell you, maybe you two can figure it out. Can you both leave my room now, I need to be by myself." Rob nodded his head and turned around and walked away. A new song started and it was a gut punch for Dylan, the same pain he felt every time he heard that R.E.M. song. He looked at Brenda, "don't look at me, I was going to go back to Chris Isaak," as she gave Dylan a brief smirk. "Also you hurt your new friend Rob by marrying the girl he was in love with that you weren't in love with. Brandon could tell that you weren't in love with her, but he couldn't figure out who you were in love with, I told him it must be Kelly." Dylan noted the catch in her throat with her last words and stared at Brenda, sure he loved Kelly, but he was unsure if he was ever in love with her.
After a few minutes of staring at Brenda and her refusing to look in his direction, Dylan stood up. "Bren, I'm going to ask Rob something, it's private. Please don't follow me in there or try to listen in." Brenda looked at him, "go ahead, talk about me, I don't mind." Dylan leaned down and kissed her on the top of her head and left the room. Brenda called out to Dylan, "can you ask Rob to get me a drink, he'll know what to get me." Dylan agreed and disappeared out of the doorway.
A few minutes passed and Brenda wandered into her living room and saw both guys down in the floor with Chris. "Stop being cute, I don't have my camera ready." Dylan stared at her while Rob glanced over at Brenda, "your drink is on the table near the stereo." Brenda smiled, "thank you, sweetie." Brenda walked to her stereo and loaded a few CDs, hit the play button and picked up the glass tumbler. Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" started playing. Brenda swayed back and forth and came over to the guys and Chris and leaned down tickling her daughter's belly gently. Chris responded by making typical baby noises. She stood back up and walked right to Dylan, gave him a look and stuck her hand out to him, "dance with me." Dylan eyed her and then let Brenda help him stand. As Brenda and Dylan started to dance with little space between them, Rob looked at them and laughed, "Dylan, do you ever tell her 'no'?" Dylan looked at Rob, then at Brenda who took a sip from her glass and gave him a look, he stared at her.
"Usually was no reason to tell her 'no'. I'd try to talk her out of things I thought were bad ideas. Not that she always listened to me, nor did I expect her to." Brenda leaned towards Dylan and in a flirty tone, "I'm not sharing my drink with you." Dylan pulled her closer against him, "what are you drinking?" Brenda batted her eyes at him, "Macallan scotch whisky." "You can handle that?" Dylan smirked at her. Before she could reply, Rob spoke up, "no she can't. She tries, but she's such a lightweight. Feel free to finish hers." Dylan noticed Brenda give him a dark look and subtle shake of her head, "no, she'd toss me out, wouldn't you, Bren." She nodded at him as Rob asked why. Dylan spoke lowly "she's not gonna compete with my addiction, I'm a recovering alcoholic." Rob stated, "makes sense, forgot that she told me, my apologies." Dylan glanced over at Rob, "thanks."
Brenda and Dylan continued dancing while Rob tended to Chris. After a while Rob looked up at them. Brenda was running one of her hands through Dylan's hair while his hands held her close to him. He watched them stare at each other, they both looked so calm and relaxed. He hadn't see Brenda that content in months. Then Brenda rested her head against Dylan's shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist as he kept one hand around her waist. He moved his other hand to the back of her head with his fingers tangled up in her hair. Rob watched as Dylan closed his eyes while holding Brenda, he could see that her eyes were already closed. They were dancing, but barely moving.
Five minutes later, Dylan opened his eyes and looked over at Rob, "You have Chris covered for a while?" Rob looked up, "yeah sure." Dylan nodded his head and while holding her, started to walk Brenda back into her bedroom. He guided her to the edge of the bed and she crawled up into it and he came around the side and laid down himself. Afterward, Brenda moved closer to him, cuddled into his side and closed her eyes and fell asleep. Dylan laid there playing with her hair until he fell asleep himself.
Hours later, Rob appeared in the doorway and spoke up, "either of you awake in here? Chris is probably getting hungry, no bottles prepped already." Dylan heard Rob's comments and gently moved to his side taking Brenda with him as Rob disappeared out of the doorway. He looked down at her, he had to wake her up, he didn't know anything about baby feeding if everything wasn't already prepared. Dylan scooted down where he could be face to face with Brenda and leaned forward to kiss her. She stayed asleep until his tongue slid across her upper lip. She went to pull away, but was stopped by a hand on her neck that held her in place.
She opened her eyes to intense brown eyes and inhaled deeply. She attempted to separate herself from him so she could stop the rushing thoughts that entered her head quickly. However, when she did, he caught her in a lip lock and he was pulling her body closer to him and she wasn't stopping him. Being with him made her feel like her former self, the one before Christianne and postpartum depression. However, she didn't regret having her daughter at all and loved her deeply.
From the other room, "Here We Are" by Gloria Estefan was playing on the stereo and Dylan could see that it was having an emotional effect on Brenda, her eyes were glassy. Dylan slid his hand up the inside of her skirt. The song on the stereo changed to Annie Lennox singing "Walking on Broken Glass" and Brenda immediately pulled away from Dylan, made herself as small as possible and broke down in sobs. Dylan could immediately tell she was completely overwhelmed by too many thoughts going through her head. He called Rob into the room, he honestly didn't know if he could help her.
Rob hurried into the room with Chris, he saw Brenda and eyed Dylan. "I didn't do this, she just fell apart." Rob asked, "what's the last thing you did?" Dylan gave Rob a look, "we kissed, that's it, did not force it on her either." Rob reached down and rubbed Brenda's shoulder while asking Dylan where her cellphone was. Dylan immediately got up to search for it. Rob leaned over Brenda and whispered in her ear, "come on Bren, pull yourself together, you can do it, Chris needs to be fed, you need a shower. It's just a bad day that you'll get through like the ones before." Brenda continued to cry, but pushed herself into a seated position, then stood up and headed to the kitchen where she prepped a bottle for Chris. She was headed back to her bedroom to give Rob the bottle for Chris, but Dylan stepped in front of her to check on her. He looked at her with sad eyes, he couldn't stand to see her like that. To his surprise, she pulled him into an intense passionate kiss that left them both breathless. Then, without a word she stepped into her bedroom and soon after Rob came out and joined Dylan in the living room with Chris.
Dylan asked Rob, "Bren going to be ok?" Rob nodded his head, "I think so, she's on the phone with her therapist now. Postpartum depression, nasty shit, probably worse without family nearby. When I ask her what does she need, it's always the same thing, Dylan and Brandon." Dylan paced the living room, "well, I can be here as long as she needs. I don't know if I can get her brother out here without everyone finding out I'm here, I really don't want that." Rob stared at him, "why would that be a problem?" Dylan ran his hands through his hair, "I don't want Bren to get hurt from their opinions and comments on why I'm here." Rob asked, "why are you here?" Dylan stared at her bedroom door, "I missed her. I've been feeling her pain, I heard her calling out for me, I don't know how either. Maybe I'm imagining it." Dylan sat in the floor picking up Chris in his arms, "We could read each other, communicate without words, but it's gotten more intense, scarier. I loved her too much, I think it caused our problems before."
Brenda was still in her room and the guys in the living room when the front door bell rang followed by knocking. Rob went to open it and found two of Brenda's RADA classmates, a male and female. The guy spoke up, "hey, I'm Nick and this is Sara, we're here to pick up Brenda for dance rehearsal." Rob invited them in and both made their way to the living room and freezing when they saw Dylan in the floor playing with Brenda's baby. Sara leaned over whispering in Nick's ear, "that's Dylan, why is he here?" Nick leaned back over and whispered to Sara, "I have no clue, just like you." Rob headed to Brenda's bedroom and gently knocked on the door and poked his head in, "your ride is here." Brenda glanced up from where she was writing something in a notebook, "oh, thank you." She finished writing and closed the notebook and stood up placing it on her bed. She headed to her closet and pulled out her dance bag and followed behind Rob. Brenda sat down in the floor beside Dylan to be closer to Chris. Brenda rubbed Christianne's feet and spoke to her telling her she'd be home as soon as possible. She then glanced over at Dylan, "Rob's going to help you, but Chris is your responsibility while I'm out. Are you ok with that?" Dylan nodded and leaned over and kissed Brenda on the cheek, "see you when you get back." Brenda went to stand up, but Dylan grabbed her hand, "are you ok? You know from earlier." Brenda gave him a halfhearted smile and told him she was. Dylan took her hand he was holding and kissed her knuckles. "Have a good rehearsal." Brenda thanked Dylan and moved to join her classmates and they headed out to rehearsal.
On the floor Dylan continued to play with his daughter. Surprisingly he found it fun and calming, Christianne made the cutest sounds. Hell, she was the cutest thing to him, he'd gladly be wrapped around her little finger in no time. Rob approached him holding a plate, "lunch, I've been told I'm a decent cook so you shouldn't get sick." Dylan thanked him and took the plate. He was about to pick up his fork when his phone rang, he smiled when he saw it was Brenda and answered the phone. Rob watched Dylan's face while he was on the phone with Brenda only hearing his side of the conversation. "Hey, Beautiful. Yes, we're doing good. Excuse me, repeat that. Your classmates are beside you while talking like that. Oh they dared you, guess they know now. I'm not going anywhere, see you then. Love you, too." Dylan hung up the phone and saw Rob staring at him, Dylan shook his head. "Bren just told me in detail what she wanted to do to me if she was here." Rob laughed while asking if she's done that before. Dylan replied she had a handful of times.
Rob took a sip of the iced tea that he had made for lunch and cleared his throat. "Dylan, I've been thinking about what you asked me earlier. Let's lay it out to see if we can help you decide what to do. You told me that you're in love with Bren, it's why you're here now, Bren was on your mind on your wedding day as well. You know Bren is in love with you because she's told you. I wasn't there to stop Toni being with you. Toni is at peace, at least I know she had someone that cared about her as her husband, but it should've been me. You belong with your daughter whether you and Bren work out or not. Being with Toni and Kelly over Bren are permanent painful scars for Brenda and the only way you will be able to help her there is to show her she's your future. I'm not suggesting engagement or marriage there, just give her security in your feelings for her. And I have to get my shot in, you had a girl who had looks, brains, who loved you almost unconditionally, believed in you, was your best friend, would gladly choose you over anyone else if forced and you didn't hold on to her, actually cheated on her, married someone else, you were an idiot to the nth degree." Dylan looked on as Rob started to laugh and then joined in on the laughter.
Dylan decided the best thing for him and Brenda was to start slow, let them both get used to being around each other without their friend group. Brenda had returned from rehearsal in an upbeat mood. It was an uneventful evening and then everyone went to sleep. It turned into an uneventful week with Rob trading off with other friends of Brenda's to help with Chris while Dylan got more secure in his childcare skills. Having Dylan around and constant help of her friends greatly improved her mood and she began to relax.
Before Brenda knew it, Christianne's first birthday had arrived and passed, and Dylan and she were back together as a couple. They had decided to try again around Christmas after Brenda's healing was almost complete, she was now just a busy drama student and mom. Brandon had even been able to visit and was so relieved to see Dylan with Brenda and that both were doing so good. Christianne had her uncle smitten at first sight with him promising more frequent visits. Iris and Erica had dropped in multiple times as well to give Brenda and Dylan time alone together. When they had been together for a little over six months they had informed all their friends and family that they were living together as a couple.
A year later, Brenda breathed heavily as the orgasm finished moving through her body as Dylan rested his head on her neck. Brenda grudgingly looked at the bedroom clock, "we have to get ready for my appointment soon." Dylan leaned up, "I'm telling you, I think we have a sibling for Chris on the way." He leaned back in and captured Brenda's lips in a heated kiss. Brenda broke the kiss, "if so, you promised and we agreed to marry before another baby was born, you're not going to back out are you?" Dylan kissed one side of her neck and around to the other side, "no, we agreed, marriage before second child born, it makes sense for us. Besides I don't want to find out if Brandon and Steve are serious with their threats to kill me if I don't." "I don't think they're serious," Brenda stated as she pulled him back into the heated kiss. "How much time do we really have before we have to leave?" He asked as he started to move downward on her body. Brenda checked the clock again, "looks like 30 minutes, but Iris will make sure we are out the door on time." Dylan looked up at Brenda for a moment, "good." Brenda let out a giggle as Dylan moved lower, followed by a moan as his tongue made contact with her most sensitive area.