Janie’s Day With the Guys
Janie was so excited; she was nearly jumping out of her skin when the white stretch limousine arrived to pick her up at her Aunt Chloe’s house. “Look, Bria!”
“I see. You are a real star today.”
Brianne turned to Janie’s parents. “I guess we’ll see you later then. I don’t know how late we’ll be. They said something about dinner and a movie tonight.”
“We trust your judgment. We’re just glad you could come along. We wouldn’t have been able to keep up with such a schedule,” Aunt Marian told Brianne.
Aunt Marian and Uncle Carl had had Janie when they were in their middle forties after years of trying. When their only, precious child had been born with Down’s syndrome, they loved and accepted her fully. Janie was a product of love and firm discipline. A wonderfully loving human being with enthusiasm for life.
“I'm glad you asked me. Janie is one of my favorite people in the whole world.”
“JC!” Janie cried when a man stepped from the limo. “Look, Bria! It’s JC!”
Brianne’s eyes swung around to see the handsome, blue-eyed singer take her small cousin’s hand. Oh, God, he looked even better in daylight! He was wearing tight jeans and a snug tee shirt that showed his well defined muscles in his chest and abdomen.
“You must be Janie Webster,” he said to Janie. “I’m JC.”
“I know who you are.” Janie pulled Josh in her wake to meet the rest of the family.
“This is my mom. This is my dad. And this is Bria.”
Josh shook hands with everyone. His hand lingered, holding Brianne’s. His eyebrows rose. “Bria?”
“Short for Brianne,” Aunt Marian explained. "Janie’s been calling her Bria since was a toddler. Nearly everyone else calls her Bree.”
Brianne was well aware that JC Chasez knew a lot more about her in some areas than her aunt would ever know – like how to make her squirm and beg for more in bed. She felt her cheeks pinken and grow hot.
“Some times, Bree’s a little shy,” her uncle added at her blush.
“She is?” Josh questioned. “Well, I’ll just see what we can do about that.” Josh winked at Brianne.
Josh held an arm out to Janie and the other to Brianne. “Shall we go, ladies?”
“All right!” Janie crowed enthusiastically.
In the car, Janie kept up a steady stream of chatter, allowing Brianne to remain quiet. With Josh sitting so close, Brianne could smell his woodsy after shave and feel the heat of his body. And that did melty things to her insides that she wasn’t comfortable feeling for a man who was more or less a stranger. Her eyes lingered just above his lion medallion. She knew if she were to lean forward and lick that spot he’d groan with arousal. Oh, God! She had to get a grip!
In a brief lull, Josh leaned over and whispered, “I can read what’s in your eyes, baby. Go for it.” He ran his hand covertly along her jean-clad thigh.
Brianne blushed hotly and removed herself to another seat.
“Why you moving there?” Janie asked.
“There’s lots of room. I decided I’d like to look out this window.”
“Okay.”
Though she didn’t see a thing out the window, Brianne listened closely to the conversation of the other two. To her pleasure and amazement, Josh listened intently to Janie. He answered every question put to him in the simplest terms without talking down to her. He was a special sort of man to do that. So many people were uncomfortable around her, treating her like a child, some even talked baby talk to her. Josh treated her as a regular person – which she was.
Once at, what they jokingly called the WEG Playground, the manager’s estate, Janie hopped from the car. Josh followed at a slower pace, assisting Brianne.
“Give me a few minutes later, okay?” he asked quietly.
“Josh—“
“You aren’t ditching me – especially after what I saw in your eyes in the car. I won’t let you.”
“C’mon!” Janie demanded impatiently.
“Later,” Josh growled in Brianne’s ear.
All members of the group made themselves available for pictures at the beginning of the afternoon. But Joey and Lance were the ones Janie had said were her favorites, so they were the ones who took her on the tour. This left Josh with no viable reason to follow the trio and Brianne around. So, he’d had to make excuses. Since he knew the itinerary, it wasn’t too difficult to arrive somewhere just as they were.
He came into the dance studio only moments after the other four had and leaned against the door, merely listening to the conversation.
“And this is where we practice our dance routines for the tours,” Lance was telling Janie.
“I saw it in the movie Bria bought me,” Janie told them. “She helped me learn the dances.”
Josh raised an eyebrow. Brianne knew their dance routines?
“Really, I just try to learn the basic steps to the choruses,” Brianne explained.
“Which ones do you know?” Joey asked.
“The Headache Song. Bye Bye Bye. Makes Me Ill. Space Cowboy.”
“The Headache Song?” Lance laughed.
“Tearin’ Up My Heart.” Brianne shook her head with a smile. “The chorus. ‘No matter what I do, I feel the pain’.” Janie held her head at the word pain. “The Headache song.”
All of them chuckled at that.
“Never thought of it quite that way.” Josh pushed from the door and joined them.
Janie was unaware of it, but everyone else present felt the sizzling awareness arcing between Josh and the schoolteacher cousin.
“You should be here, JC,” Janie told him. “You belong to Bria.”
He knew he did, but how did Janie? “Come again?”
“We decided.”
”Who’s ‘we’?”
“Our house. I like Lance and Joey best. Becca likes Chris and Justin.”
“No one picked you,” Brianne added with a grin. That should prick his ego some.
“So, we gave you to Bria.”
Josh laughed. Like schoolgirls and their fantasies, the women of the group home had divided the guys up – and no one had chosen him. And that might have hurt, except he had been ‘given’ to Brianne. “Then if I’m hers, I guess I should stay with her, huh?”
“Yeah, ‘cuz I got my two.” Janie smiled at Lance and Joey. “I wouldn’t want Bria to feel left out.”
“Janie, I’m fine,” Brianne muttered.
”No. No. If Janie wants me to stay, I’ll stay,” Josh offered.
“Good,” Janie pronounced.
“Okay, let’s see how we do the Headache Song,” Joey said.
Josh was impressed by the fact Brianne indeed knew most of the steps to the songs they played over the stereo system. And he told her so.
“When you have to play them twenty thousand times, you learn,” Brianne muttered when he gave her a smug, pleased look. “The first day I brought that video over, I had to watch it three times in a row. Every time Bye Bye Bye came on she called me into the room.” Brianne gave him a sly grin. “I even know the part where you started losing your pants.”
“What?” he laughed.
“Oh, you made it look close enough to the dance move, but I saw you tugging up your britches. The first time, I thought I was mistaken. The second time I was sure you were adjusting yourself and hauling up your waistband. The third time, Margaret confirmed I wasn’t seeing things.”
A slight blush stained his high cheekbones. “Great. Half the word was watching me adjust myself.”
Brianne patted his cheek. “Don’t worry. I’m sure only a couple of us were paying close enough attention to notice.”
He growled teasingly at her and nipped at her hand.
“JC, don’t bite Bria,” Janie admonished.
“Yeah, JC!” Joey mimicked. He had seen the way his friend looked at the schoolteacher. He knew that Josh had been smitten with her from the night before – and the two were playful, almost like lovers.
“Hey, Chris and Justin said they’d meet us at the bowling alley,” Lance stated. “We’d better be going.”
“All right!” Janie was ready for a new adventure.
As the troupe headed out Joey stopped Josh from following Brianne out the door.
“You’re hooked.” Joey noted as he watched his friend eat Brianne up with his eyes.
“Hook, line and sinker,” Josh admitted.
“And when she goes home?”
“We’ll make it work somehow.”
“Don’t you think you need to wait? You just got out of a bad relationship.”
“Being with Bree isn’t bad for me.”
“Are you so sure you aren’t using her?”
“I’m not using her – and before you ask, she isn’t using me. If anything, we’re just what each other needs.”
Joey kept his reservations to himself. He’d known Josh long enough to know it wouldn’t do any good to voice them.
Catching up with Brianne and the rest, Josh towed her back into the now empty dance studio. Before she could protest, his mouth covered hers in an extended, delicious kiss. It didn’t take long for her to soften against him.
“Just what I needed,” he purred against her neck. “Sugar from you.”
“Josh—“
“Janie’s with the guys. She won’t miss you for a few minutes.” He trailed his lips down her neck, knowing exactly where to touch her to make her melt.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she murmured breathlessly.
“Can I see you tonight?”
“We shouldn’t. I – Ah!” She broke off with a sigh as he grazed her sweet spot with his teeth then sucked on it.
“Please, baby.”
“Josh—“
Backing her against the door, he slid a hand beneath her shirt to caress the smooth skin of her ribs. “Please, angel.”
"About eight?” she whispered.
“Eight it is.” He kissed her lightly.
“You realize we’ve gotten ourselves in an impossible situation, don’t you? This is over when I go home.”
“We won’t be ‘over’, Bree. We’ll just have to work at it.”
Her eyes went wide. “You can’t mean—“
“You expected us to be a vacation fling?”
“Well, yes.” She had expected them to be a one-night stand, but he wasn’t buying that.
“We aren’t. We’re for real, baby. I have no intention of letting you out of my life.”
“But—“
Moving her from the door, he opened it and ushered her out. “Get used to me, Bree. I’m yours. You’re mine.”
Taking her hand, he led her down the hallway. “I hear them in the bowling alley.”
Brianne allowed herself to be towed along in his wake, too dumb founded by his declaration to even think clearly.
“Bria, I’m winning!” Janie cheered when she saw her cousin.
“I should have warned you guys. Janie has a gazillion medals from Special Olympics in Bowling,” Brianne told the four men.
“No wonder she’s beating the pants off of us!” Justin grinned.
“So, Janie, what would you like to have for dinner?” Josh asked her.
“Pizza!”
“What kind do you like?” Chris asked her.
“Me, I like everything.” Janie grew serious. “Bria only likes pepperoni.”
Josh grinned at Brianne. “I think I can afford both kinds,” he assured Janie. “Do you want to eat here or go out?”
“Can we stay here? Joey said he’d watch a movie with me.”
“Here it is, then. I’ll go call in our pizza order.”
Janie fell asleep the minute the limosene pulled out of the drive.
Brianne looked at her cousin, sleep in the next across from her and Josh. Her heart swelled with love. “She had a fabulous day. Everyone was so wonderful with her.”
“She’s a great little gal,” Josh stated. “What is she, twenty-years older than you?”
“Nearly. I’m twenty-five. She’s forty-two. She’s always been one of my favorite people, even when I was growing up. My late grandmother and her mother were sisters.” Brianne snuggled against Josh, laying her head on his shoulder. “Janie always loves me, even when I’m not particularly loveable.”
“I can’t imagine you not being loveable.”
“You don’t know me.”
“Then you’ve got to let me know you, baby.”
She sighed and closed her eyes.
“Tired, angel?”
“Yeah, but this pushy guy made me promise him a date tonight – and I hardly got any sleep last night.”
Josh laughed at her description. “We can stay in tonight.”
“That would be nice.”
“Want to go to my place?”
“Not particularly.” She rested a hand high on his thigh. “Come to mine?”
“Anywhere you want, Bree.”
“My place.”