CHAPTER 5
Axel Vaughn.
The first thought Brynn had when her eyes fluttered open was of the man that had caused her to toss and turn in a sheet-twisting night of fantasy and frustration.
He’d filled every second of every minute of every hour of her thoughts since he’d walked off her deck after their dinner the night before at nine p.m. She’d tried to go to sleep. Hadn’t worked. So, she’d tried to lose herself in her Netflix. No dice. Tried again to read her new book. That was the biggest failure of all. She’d just kept picturing Axel as the hero.
The only time she’d ever come close to experiencing this level of obsession was the first time she tasted a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut. Mrs. Lindy had brought in a box as a treat and left it in the teachers’ lounge. One taste was all it took and she’d been utterly addicted. She’d tell herself that she wasn’t going to have one, and then find herself in line ordering a dozen. Having two doughnuts with a cup of coffee for breakfast had been a daily habit that had resulted in her not fitting into any of her jeans three months and fifteen pounds later.
She’d tried to ween herself off of them, but she ended up having to go cold turkey. Saliva still filled her mouth every time she walked into the break room and saw that damn white box with the green dots. It was a problem.
And she feared her new neighbor was a problem as well. He was even more potent and addicting than the gooey, sugary goodness of a glazed doughnut.
How could a man that she barely knew hold this much power over her brain?
She grabbed her phone off her nightstand and was not surprised at the time displayed. Every morning, without fail, she woke up at five a.m. Sleeping in was not an option for Brynn. She had a paper route from twelve to fourteen and since then she’d had an internal clock that was always set. It didn’t matter if she’d been up all night; at five a.m. her brain decided it was time to rise and shine.
When Ryder was a baby it had been miserable. Thankfully, she was younger and had more energy then. She wasn’t sure she’d fare as well now if she were dealing with a newborn on such little sleep.
Knowing that she was up for the day, she sat up and tugged her laptop, which was beside her on the bed, onto her lap. She tapped the space bar and the screen lit up, illuminating the darkened room. When it did, Brynn typed “Axel Vaughn” into the Google search bar.
“It’s totally reasonable to want to know who is going to be living on the property,” Brynn explained to Lucy who was curled up beside her. The pug couldn’t care less but Brynn felt better stating it out loud.
She’d been tempted to do a little background check on him after dinner last night. But she was afraid that it was the wine that was spurring her on. Drunk texting got a lot of people in trouble, she didn’t want to drunk search.
As the screen populated, she scanned down the first page of results. There was not a lot of information on him. No social media. She clicked on ‘images’ and saw none that matched the man who took her breath away.
Her nail tapped on the side of her laptop as she bit the inside of her lip. There had to be some digital evidence of his existence.
“Yes!” she exclaimed as a thought hit her and she typed “Izzy Vaughn” into the search bar.
She had no idea if his little sister shared his last name, or if it was creepy trying to get information on him via his teenage sister, but if Izzy was anything like the teens Brynn knew, she’d have a social media presence.
When she pressed enter, the first result was an Instagram page. She clicked on it and saw a young girl with long blonde hair and deep brown eyes that were the spitting image of the ones that she’d stared into over dinner last night.
Bingo.
It only took one scroll down to hit the jackpot. There was a picture of Axel glaring at the camera and Izzy smiling brightly as she took a selfie at a baseball game. It was captioned big bro + baseball = good times. There were several more pictures of Axel, in most he was wearing the same unhappy expression. It was clear he was not a fan of having his picture taken.
There were other pictures of Izzy alone, Izzy with friends, and Izzy with food, but Brynn noticed that there were none of her mom.
She clicked on another photo of Izzy and Axel and when she read the caption it squeezed her heart like a vise. It was a sequence of pictures. Some were side by side in split screen and some were solo.
The first was a teenage Axel in a hospital room holding a newborn baby that had the words Day One written across the bottom.
Axel in a cap and gown throwing that same baby up in the air.
Right beside it was a shot of a young Axel in his fatigues with a towhead toddler on his shoulders, at the bottom it read Year Two.
She swiped her thumb across the screen and saw Axel in dress blues on what looked like his wedding day bending down and talking to a girl with big blonde curls wearing a white dress, a flower wreath, and holding a basket of petals with the words Year Three written below.
And it kept going like that.
A shirtless Axel in the pool with Izzy wearing floaties with words Year Four under it.
Axel in basketball shorts and a T-shirt holding the back of a bike as a young Izzy’s blonde hair flew out from beneath a helmet with Year Five written.
There was one where Axel is sitting in a hospital room next to Izzy lying in bed holding a sign that read Goodbye Tonsils and beneath it saying Year Six.
They continued on, a picture representing each year until the final pic was Axel standing beside Izzy in her cap and gown for her eighth grade graduation that read Year Thirteen below it.
The caption read: “Happy Father’s Day to the BEST BIG BRO in the whole world. You have been there for me since day one and I don’t know what I would do without you. Love you! Your favorite Pita.
The post had over five hundred likes and Brynn wasn’t sure if it was because of the sweet sentiment or the shirtless picture of Axel in the pool.
She sniffed back the tears that were forming as a sudden bout of emotion overtook her. Axel had always been there for his sister and it affected her in a way that she hadn’t anticipated. He’d taught her how to swim and ride a bike. He was there for Izzy in all the ways her own father had never been there for her and Max had never been there for Ryder.
One thing was certain, these were not the pictures of an emotionally unavailable man.
Her mother’s words came back to her. “He is grounded, strong-willed, confident, fiercely protective, passionate, sexual…”
She closed her computer and jumped out of bed, trying desperately to ignore the emotions that she knew had nothing to do with the man that she was attaching them to. Sometimes her training in psychology really did take the fun out of things. Sometimes ignorance really was bliss.
As she paced the room, she noted that if she weren’t aware of what she was doing, she could’ve spent hours living in the fantasy that everything she was projecting onto Axel was really about him. She could float in the idea that he was a hero from one of her books come to life. She could allow herself the luxury of creating an entire persona that may only vaguely resemble the true man that he was.
But she did know better. She knew that everything she was feeling about Axel had to do with things she needed to work through in her own life. Things that she needed to come to terms with. Things that she needed to process and accept.
Everything except her attraction to him. That had nothing to do with any issues she had or baggage she was carrying. His sex appeal was so potent it made her lightheaded just thinking about it.
She thought about getting in the shower, but she realized she was not ready to face the world quite yet, so she snuggled back into bed. Lucy stood, spun around several times and then plopped down at Brynn’s side with an approving sigh.
Knowing exactly what she needed to start her day, she grabbed her Kindle and pulled up one of her favorite Violet Duke books to escape. Whenever she was feeling unsure or overwhelmed she reread a favorite book. To Brynn it was like visiting friends and family. It was comforting and reassuring. So she lost herself in Love, Chocolate, and Beer, a book she’d read at least a dozen times.
She was so entranced in her visit to Cactus Creek that she jumped when she heard the familiar sound of a lawnmower starting. When she checked her phone she was surprised to see it was eight a.m. She only had a couple of hours before she was supposed to meet the girls for brunch and she hadn’t done any of the chores she’d planned on knocking out this morning. Plus, she still had to shower.
“Do you need to go potty?”
Lucy snuggled further against the pillow. Brynn might be up at five thirty a.m. every morning, but her canine companion loved nothing more than sleeping in. The lazy pug would stay in bed till noon if she let her.
“Come on, lazy bones. Your bladder’s going to burst.”
Brynn hopped out of bed and as she passed her front window, the lawnmower cut off. She then realized that the sound had been coming from much closer than she’d originally thought. She pulled back her curtains and saw that Axel Vaughn was in her front yard standing behind the lawnmower that Brynn had thought was broken.
Before she was able to fully process that, she noticed that he wasn’t alone. Max and Ryder were there, too. And Max was puffing out his chest like the ridiculous buffoon he was.
Oh crap.
* * *
“Who are you?” Brynn’s ex asked, sounding more like a jealous husband than the low-life cheater he was.
“Axel.” He only answered the question because Ryder was standing beside his dad.
Axel was doing his best not to laugh at the way Brynn’s ex was puffing out his chest and staring him down. The guy was doing everything short of whipping out his dick and pissing on the property line to mark his territory.
He may have only known Brynn for twelve hours, but that was plenty of time to know that she was the kind of woman that you don’t mess things up with. She was that rare combination of funny, smart, insightful, nurturing, and generous. Not to mention jaw-dropping, stunningly gorgeous. She was every guys’ sexy girl-next-door fantasy come to life.
And this douchebag had been lucky enough to marry her and he’d blown it by screwing around on her. Axel couldn’t comprehend that level of dumbassness.
“Why are you mowing the lawn?” Ryder asked.
He started to answer, but was interrupted.
“Hey, guys!” Axel turned to see the door fly open and Brynn rush out into the yard.
Damn.
Axel’s chest tightened as Brynn stole his breath. Her strawberry-blonde hair fell around her sweetheart face, framing it like a portrait that should be hanging in the Met. She was truly a walking, breathing masterpiece.
Her skin had a dewy freshness as the morning sun shone down on her. She was wearing a Rick and Morty T-shirt, one of his and Izzy’s favorite shows, and sweats. He had the completely inappropriate impulse to put his arm around her, pull her into him, and kiss the top of her head.
He had a feeling that he was going to need to get used to having and suppressing inappropriate impulses whenever Brynn was around.
“Hey, did you guys have fun? I wasn’t expecting you back so early.” Brynn’s voice was several octaves higher than it had been the night before.
Axel wasn’t sure if she was nervous because her ex put her on edge, or if he was the one making her high-pitched. Either way, the last thing he wanted was for her to feel uncomfortable.
Ryder looked up at his dad for the answer.
“Something came up.” Max shot Axel a disapproving glare. “I didn’t know that you would have company.”
“He’s not company. He’s staying in the apartment.” Brynn waved her hand between the men and then toward her son. “Max, Ryder, this is Axel. Axel, Max and Ryder.”
“I like your tags.” Ryder lifted his chin toward the dog tags hanging around Axel’s neck. “You were in the military?”
“I was, but these are my father’s.” The dog tags and his mom’s engagement ring were all he had from his father. He’d died before Axel was born.
His parents were high school sweethearts and his dad joined the Marines when he found out his mom was pregnant. She was only seventeen and her parents wouldn’t give her permission to marry him but he gave her a ring. A ring his mom had given to Axel when he turned eighteen and decided to ask Sabrina to marry him. But he didn’t use the ring that had been passed down to him to propose. It hadn’t felt right. That should’ve been his first clue that it wasn’t the right thing to do.
“What branch were you in?” Ryder asked.
“Marines.”
Ryder squared his shoulders and stood taller. “I’m in the JROTC.”
“Do all of your tenants cut your grass?” Max took a step closer to Axel, making sure to add an extra layer of asshole as he emphasized the word tenants, as if he was insinuating something else.
“Bye, Max.” Brynn raised her hand in a stiff wave. “See you…whenever we see you.”
It was a subtle dig, but not one that Axel missed.
From the research he had on Brynn, he knew that her ex hadn’t been around much. Court records showed that he’d petitioned several times to have his child support reduced and those documents also revealed that he rarely, if ever, showed up for his scheduled visits.
Axel had never understood how a man could have a child in this world and not be in the kid’s life. He wanted to believe that if his dad had lived, he would’ve been in Axel’s life. But the truth was, he had no idea. The only things he knew about his dad were the things his mother had told him, and Axel knew that it was easy to rewrite history after someone was gone. Still, if there was one positive thing about having a parent that he’d never known, it was that he could believe anything he wanted about the kind of person his old man would’ve been.
Axel at least knew that his dad wouldn’t have been a blowhard like this loser in front of him.
Max made no move to leave. Instead he widened his stance and planted his feet shoulder-width apart as he crossed his arms. “What brings you to Whisper Lake?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Brynn was looking his way. He could practically feel the curiosity pouring off of her.
Then, before Max could question him further, Axel started the lawnmower back up and pushed it to the other side of the yard. The last thing he needed was an asshole blowing his cover, especially considering Seth hadn’t quite worked out what that cover was yet.
His assignment was clear. Stay close to Brynn and Ryder. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Call in back-up if he saw or felt that anything was off.
But as far as what his “work” was going to be, he had no idea. He knew that it would be something at the high school since that was where both Brynn and Ryder were all day, but he wasn’t sure beyond that. Would he be a security guard? A coach? A janitor? A P.E. Teacher?
Since this wasn’t a sequel to Kindergarten Cop, he knew that he wouldn’t be teaching math or some other subject he knew nothing about.
By the time he turned back, Brynn and Ryder were heading inside the house and Max was climbing back in his lifted truck. He had to be riding on 40” tires, which had Axel wondering what he was compensating for.
He put Max out of his mind as he finished up the landscaping, which was not only badly needed but also had given him a perfect cover for setting up motion sensors and tiny cameras around the front of the property where it was most vulnerable. He took the steps two at a time and when he pulled up the surveillance on his laptop, he was happy to see that all of the cameras were live.
He followed the instructions that Nate, his tech guy, had given him to link Elite Security’s network to the feeds. The contract called for twenty-four-hour surveillance and even with Axel living on site, that would be impossible for him to do alone.
Once the network was synced, he leaned back in his chair. None of the cameras were inside Brynn’s home, but some of them caught angles where he could see activity going on through open windows.
Everything was quiet in the Daniels household. Brynn was in the kitchen doing the dishes. She was dancing to music that was obviously upbeat from the smile on her face and her hip movements. Ryder was on the couch on his phone, probably Snapchatting with Fiona.
His phone vibrated and he lifted it, expecting it to be Nate calling to tell him that it was live on his end. But it wasn’t Nate.
“Hey, Iz,” he answered.
“Okay, hear me out.”
He knew that tone. It was Izzy’s best bargaining voice. He shut his computer and spent the next hour listening to his sister outline all of the reasons that she needed to leave Mercy Prep, and at the end of it, he’d caved. Sort of.
He’d made a deal with her to stick it out for one semester, and if she still hated it, she could leave.
When he hung up, he wondered if he’d struck that deal so he could stay here and finish the job. If he was back home, in Harper’s Crossing, would he be driving to pick his sister up?