Chapter Ten

Garrett

“Stef.” His voice sounded hoarse and too deep in his own ears. Her soft lips roamed his neck, and he closed his eyes. He didn’t want her to stop.

“Hmm?” she murmured against his neck. He arched back, letting her. Handing over the control he held on to so damn tightly without a thought.

“Sunshine, what are you doing?” he asked, though by the way she breathed him in deeply and he felt her body tremble over his, he knew exactly what she was fucking doing. She was going to kill him.

She was straddling his body, his back against the headboard, his hands clenched. He wasn’t touching her, and his hands ached to hold her. To push her down and press her to the ridge of his thick, hardened cock.

“Stef,” he mumbled, trying to stay in control. He liked her a lot. More than like, a voice whispered, but he wasn’t going to admit what that would fucking mean. He couldn’t.

All he knew was, he kept coming back to that damn bar to see her. Every week for the last month, he had returned. Every time, they ended up back in his room, and when she walked away and he drove home, he promised himself it was the last time.

But he was like a fucking addict for her.

Hell, he was even driving his ass out there during the week to have lunch or dinner with her after work now. When he wasn’t with her, she invaded his thoughts, and he hated how far he was from her.

“Stef…”

“I want you,” she purred her admission against his neck before licking his skin. He bucked up to her warm center at the sound of her words.

“I can’t give you more than this.” He closed his eyes at his words, the raw emotion in his voice obvious. “Sunshine, you deserve…” His words faded away when her lips touched his.

Fuck, every time she kissed him was like the first.

Tentative.

Explorative.

Sexy as sin laced with innocence.

He couldn’t help himself. He tried, he did, but there was no way she would give him the sweetest, sexiest kiss known to man and have him keep his hands to himself. He was far from a saint.

One hand went to the back of her head, and he held her closer to him. Instinctively, she opened her mouth, and his tongue dove into the warm, wet cavern of her mouth. Her taste, the feel of her, the sounds she was making as she rolled her sweet hips above him made him growl. He needed to get rid of all the layers of clothes between them.

“Stop,” he growled, and she froze. Her lust-filled gaze hit his as he ordered her off, and she complied. Fuck. She was going to kill him. Her trust in him fucking shattered him.

“Take off those pretty panties, sunshine,” he ordered, ready to play with her. She opened her mouth, probably to say something smart, when his phone rang, and she relaxed in his arms. He reached for it and frowned when he saw who it was.

“I gotta take this.”

“Okay.” she said, moving off his lap.

“Hello?”

“G?”

“Bry? What’s going on?”

“I need you,” his youngest brother said in a voice he hoped he would never hear again.

“What’s going on?”

“Val.” Bryan’s voice was hoarse with emotion, and Garrett swore his own heart stopped.

“What’s going on?”

“The baby. Fuck. I told her, man, I told her not to push herself so much. She was at work, and I guess someone spilled water and she didn’t see it. Man, you know how slippery hospital floors are. Fuck!” Garrett could hear something slam and crash to the floor in the background.

“Bryan. Breathe, man.” he ordered as he stood up and met Stefanie’s worried eyes as she handed him the T-shirt she had only minutes before taken off him.

“Man… she’s everything. She and the baby. After everything I thought…” His baby brother’s voice faded away, and he could feel the pain. Val was not only Bryan’s wife but Garrett’s friend. She was amazing.

“She’s going to be okay. You know how strong and stubborn she is.”

“I know,” Bry muttered, and he knew his brother was having a hard time keeping it together. “I gotta go to the hospital. Nicola and Mom are heading over. Man, I need you.”

“I’ll be there.” He stood off the bed.

“I’ll see you in thirty.”

“’Bout that, it’s going to take a little longer than that.”

“Oh?”

“I’m not home.”

“Where you at?”

“In the desert.” Stefanie watched him closely, her head tilted slightly, and for the first time, he couldn’t read her. “Look, I’ll be there in two hours, and don’t stress; it’s going to be okay.”

“Yeah.”

“It is, B. It is,” he reassured his brother hoping to God he wasn’t lying. “If you need me, call me. I’ll be on the road,” he said before ending the call and turning to look at her. This was his chance, the moment he could use to step away from her for forever.

“You have to go,” she said out loud, breaking the silence and their stare as she stepped back and bent to grab and pass him his shoes.

“I do,” he muttered, taking them and slipping them on.

“Okay,” she whispered and turned to grab her own shirt. Garrett felt torn.

He was dying to take her with him. But he couldn’t. This was his chance to do the right thing. He was too caught up in her. With her, he felt like a new man. Not the one his family was cautious around, hoping the man he used to be before the bombing would somehow resurface. Not that man who had fucked up time and time again since getting discharged. With her, he felt like himself. A combination of the man he was before he enlisted and after life blew up.

“I should go, too.”

“You can stay. The room’s paid.” He winced at how stupid he sounded.

“I’m fine. I’ll, umm, I hope whatever it is, is okay.”

“Me too.” A look of hurt flashed through her pretty eyes, and he swore the light slightly dimmed, making him feel like the world’s greatest asshole. He opened his mouth to share, to tell her about his sister-in-law and his brother and the baby they were expecting. Hell, he wanted to share everything about his life with her, so she knew exactly who he was. Instead, he shut his mouth and ran his hands through his hair. “Stef—”

“We should get out of here,” she interrupted him, shaking her head as she grabbed her purse.

“Baby—”

“Garrett, there’s no need. We’ve been doing this thing for a bit, and we don’t really know that much about each other. It’s cool.”

“Stef—”

“I mean, it’s not like there is much for you to know about me, but—”

“Babe.”

“I think we’ve run our course,” she blurted out.

“What?” He stilled. Everything around him felt as if it was frozen midair. Run our course?

“I mean, you and I are fun. Really fun. But it’s not like this”—she pointed between them,—“was more than sex or a thank you for taking care of you and—” He was done.

He wasn’t going to listen to any more of her craziness.

Stalking over to her, reaching her within three paces, he grabbed hold of her and picked her up. Her legs wrapped around him, her surprised gaze on his dark one.

“Let’s get one thing straight. Us fucking wasn’t some kind of thank you for helping me that night or you taking care of me,” he roughly stated, and she pressed her pretty lips together the way she did when she tried not to say something she might deem embarrassing. “Me coming here every week and then some has nothing to do with gratitude. Do you get that?”

“I guess.” She rolled her eyes at him, and his hand itched to spank her round ass.

“My brother’s wife fell,” he shared and found himself unable to stop. “She’s been admitted to the hospital.” The confused look on her pretty face made him explain further. “She’s pregnant, Stef.”

“Oh.”

“It’s their first baby, and knowing Bryan, he’s probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but I gotta go because not only is he a scared first-time dad and Valerie is pretty far along, but my mom and grandma are going to be there.”

“Are they not nice?”

“They are incredible, amazing women,” he shared gently, unable to hold back with his honesty, “who can also be a pain in the ass. My grandmother… well, she’s not your typical grandmother.” He sat down in the chair, settling her sexy, tiny body on his lap.

“I wouldn’t know,” she muttered under her breath. Before he could ask her what that meant, his phone went off again.

“I don’t want to go,” he truthfully shared, not moving from the chair, gazing into her eyes. Why would he ever want to leave?

“I understand.”

“We good?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, then looked away from his eyes. He didn’t like losing her gaze.

“I’ll be back,” he reassured her, something in the pit of his gut telling him she needed to know the reminder.

“Okay, Terminator.” She rolled her eyes and tried to stand and get away from him, but Garrett didn’t let her. He simply held her tighter.

“I like what we have,” he whispered into her hair, and she relaxed in his arms.

“You promise you’re not married with kids and this is some sick, weird double life thing you’re playing at?”

“You read too much.” He chuckled and watched the doubt come alive behind her gaze. His smile faltered.

“You aren’t promising.” she whispered. Damn. Did she think he would be capable of something like that? Probably. He didn’t share much about himself. He had held back.

“I promise, Stef. If I didn’t have to hurry my ass back to LA, nothing could change the plans I had for us this weekend.”

“Garrett, I’m not sure what’s going on here.”

“Going on?” his voice rasped. A tingle of worry mixed with need shot through his groin as his phone continued to ring, but he simply ignored it.

“Between us. What this is. Look, it’s cool, what we’ve done and—”

“If Bryan hadn’t called me and I didn’t have to leave, would we be having this conversation?” he asked and watched her scowl cutely.

“What?” she questioned.

“Was this something you were going to bring up?”

“No.” She shook her head. His phone stopped, and fuck him, he believed her. She wasn’t about playing games or mind trips. She wore her heart on her sleeve and played her hand away from the cuff.

“Then what’s going on, Stef?”

She opened her mouth, but his phone rang again, and she shook her head, her attention falling to their hands clasped together in her lap. “You should go.” She shyly glanced up at him, and his heart tightened.

He liked her.

More than a lot.

It wasn’t only sex and the way they seemed to explode and need one another anytime they were alone. He liked her. The way she could be a sexy, confident vixen one moment and a shy little morsel the next. He had observed her the last couple of visits when they met at the bar. She smiled, and with her smile, she gave more than he even thought she realized. She was kind and funny and sexy, and he honestly couldn’t stay away from her.

She made him want more.

In the past, he’d had all kinds of excuses why he couldn’t let himself think of more than a night with a woman. None of them were like Stefani, not even close. He had used the fact he was in the army as an excuse. He didn’t want to do that to his partner, the moving and instability. Then, after he was out, he wasn’t whole. He wasn’t himself and had no idea who that even was.

But now, with her, he was a mix of the three men he had been and someone new. She made him want more than he had ever wanted. More.

“Garrett?”

“I’m coming back, and we will talk about what this is. We will settle this.”

“Okay.” She stood and grabbed her purse, taking her keys out. “Garrett?” she called as he turned to grab his own things.

“Yeah?”

“If you’re going to ghost, just do it. Okay? No fake promises or anything,” she said in a tone he didn’t recognize, and he frowned.

“Sunshine—”

“I think that’s my favorite.”

“What?”

“In case you were wondering. Though, any of them were cool,” she rambled. “I’ve never had a nickname… other than Kip calling me kid.” There was a vulnerability in the way she held herself and shared that made his heart rate pick up. “No one cared enough.” He frowned at the words she had chosen and watched her shake her head. With a shrug and a sigh, she extended her hand. “Come on, walk me to my car.”

He wanted to address what she’d said. How the hell had no one ever given her a nickname? What did she mean, no one had cared enough? She was so much beauty wrapped in one he didn’t know which one to keep. He had so many questions about her, but his ringing phone and his mother’s face flashing on his screen made him nod brusquely as he grabbed her hand with one of his and his bag in the other before walking her to her car and heading back to a place that was starting to feel less and less like home.

_______________

He found himself in the game room all alone. After the longest couple of days ever, he had some well-deserved silence. Though, he wasn’t finding it as comforting as he usually did, and he knew he only had a tiny pixie to blame.

His usual time to himself, he would have a fifth of whiskey to keep him company, but he hadn’t had a drink since that night. Instead, he was doing a puzzle.

A fucking puzzle Valerie had given to him as a thank-you gift for having been at the hospital with them. She had gone into early labor, but seeing as she was only three weeks away from her due date, the doctors hadn’t been stressed. Henry Ronald Wright had come into world screaming. Garrett had been around and had even volunteered the duty of hanging out while Bryan closed up a couple of things at work.

Holding his nephew in his arms, a being so little and tiny, had been eye opening. Well, as much as he had been able to hold him. He’d had to run interference with his mother and grandmother, which had been tiring to say the least.

Even so, he had survived countless trips to the grocery store to make anything Valerie and baby needed while entertaining the women in his life.

All but the one he wanted to see.

He looked at the puzzle that felt like it had a million pieces and was a pain in the ass, yet there he was. Trying to focus on the puzzle before him while trying to not think about his sunshine.

Stef.

Sitting alone in the room, he found his shoulders lighter and his lips twitching at any little reminder of her. What the hell was he going to do about her?

“Uncle Garrett?” The tiny feminine but very familiar voice made him automatically smile as he turned around.

“Hey, kid.” He stood and walked over to her, looking over her shoulder, wondering where her mom or his brother were.

“What are you doing?” she asked, looking up at him.

“A puzzle.”

“I like puzzles. Can I help?” Lexi asked.

“Sure. Where’s your mom or—” He still didn’t know if it was okay to refer to Marc as her dad. He knew it didn’t matter to Marc. His brother couldn’t love Lexi any more than if she were his own flesh and blood. He just wasn’t sure if the kid would be okay with the reference. Thankfully, she answered for him.

“Mom and Marc are talking to Uncle Don.” She sighed as she sat down, and he realized she wasn’t her usual happy self.

“What’s going on, kid?” he asked.

“Nothing.” She shrugged, not looking at him, but he could tell she was pretending to pay attention to the puzzle in front of them. The kid was smart as a whip.

“You’re sad,” he pointed out, having learned from the beginning it was better to get to the point with Lexi.

“Marc has to leave again,” she shared. Hearing the sadness in her voice broke his heart.

“New movie time?”

“Yeah. The set is in New York this time.” He would have thought this would have made her happy. He knew his brother’s superhero franchise was one of her personal favorites.

“New York is cool. I’m sure it will make a great place to visit for you and your mom.” Marc made sure to always have his girls visit when he was away.

“I guess.” She frowned. Anyone looking at her would probably think she was focusing on the puzzle, which maybe she was, but he knew something else was going on.

“Come on, kid, help an old guy out here. What’s got you all mopey?”

“He just got back, and now he has to leave again,” she shared. He tilted his head.

“It’s his job.”

“I know,” she sighed, and her little brows squished together.

The sight made him think of Stefanie. She did something similar when he had caught her reading, and it was incredibly cute. Then another thought came to him. A little person who resembled Stef making that face. His mouth went dry. Am I thinking about kids with my bit of sunshine?

“You know how I call you Uncle Garrett?” she brought up out of nowhere, snapping him out of having a panic attack.

“What?” he cleared his throat.

“You know how I call you Uncle?”

“Because I am.”

“Yeah. Mom married your brother,” she pointed out.

“Not only because of that, but Lex, Marc adopted you, too. The day they got—”

“I know… the day they got married, he adopted me.” She rolled her eyes, and he had to bite away a smile from how cute it was.

“Exactly. So, legally, I’m totally your uncle.” He leaned back wondering what the kid was mulling over.

“It’s been three months, you know, since the wedding,” she pointed out, and he nodded wondering what the problem was. “I just don’t know if it’s okay to…” Her little voice drifted off. He moved to the edge of the couch, resting his elbows on his knees.

“If it’s okay to what? Call me Uncle?”

“No, I know that’s okay.” She shrugged, and he frowned.

“I’m not following, kid.”

“Do you think Marc would be mad if I called him Dad?” she asked so damn softly with so much vulnerability it made him swallow hard.

She wanted to call Marc Dad. The lucky SOB.

“I don’t think he would have a problem with that,” he finally answered.

“I don’t know.” Her little shoulder dropped. “He’s never told me to call him Dad.”

“Hmm…” he muttered, playing with a puzzle piece in his hand. “Maybe he doesn’t want to push you into calling him something you might not be comfortable with,” he suggested, looking at the kid, wondering why she had picked him out of everyone else to have this conversation with.

“Why would he think that?”

“I don’t know. Grown-ups can be funny sometimes.”

“I’ve never called anyone Dad,” she whispered. His head popped up and away from the coffee table to look at her. The dang kid had a way to punch him in the gut with her honesty. Her little chin wobbled slightly before she shook her head and furiously blinked away tears.

“Lexi…” he started to say, but she looked at him and took the piece he had been holding, placing it in the far end, fitting perfectly. Damn, the kid was good at puzzles. She was also strong as hell. “I think sometimes, life is complicated.”

“Aunt Gabby says that, too.” He blinked and tried not to laugh at how adorable the kid was. He sighed and looked at the puzzle pieces and picked one up before speaking.

“But sometimes, we make it that way. We’re the ones who wind ourselves up and make shit—crap—I mean stuff ten times more tangled up in our head than it really is.”

“What if I say it and he doesn’t like it or gets mad?” she quickly responded. Obviously, this had been weighing on her mind a while.

“Kid, he adopted you.”

“I know.” She sighed. “Jordy pointed that out, too. But…”

“But what?”

“He could have done that for Mom.” She shook her head. “Or for the magazines.” That made him hold his body still.

“Magazines?”

“Gina Burton said he probably adopted me, so he would look like some kind of hero on TMZ and the tabloids. You know, for publicity.”

“Gina Burton is a little shit,” Garrett muttered under his breath, but from her giggles he knew she hadn’t missed it.

“That’s what Aunt Gloria said.” That made him want to chuckle. Gloria Rivera was a ball buster and a half and one of the coolest women he had ever had the pleasure of sharing a beer with.

“You know I’ve known Marc his whole life, right?” he said, scratching his head. Lexi blinked. Her soft green eyes looked at him like he was lame and talking to her like a baby.

“You’re his older brother,” she pointed out, sarcasm painted on her face. He shook his head, biting away his laughter.

“I know for a fact he loves you, kiddo. Sometimes, all we need to do is have a conversation to clear things up,” he shared, painfully aware of how much his words would help his current situation. He needed to have a chat with Stefanie.

“A conversation, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Like the one Aunt Val gave you when no one knew where you were?” This time, it was his eyes that widened, and she shrugged. “I hear things.”

Garrett couldn’t hold back as a bark of laughter filled the game room.

Sometimes, all you need is to have a conversation.

Stefanie

One day had turned to three, and three into a week, and then two.

Just like I had predicted, Garrett had all but vanished into thin air. If it weren’t for the picture I had snapped of us on a whim one night, I would have thought I was going crazy and had simply made him up.

No. That wasn’t fair. I was just feeling a little dramatic.

Garrett had texted and called but hadn’t said when he would be back, which I understood. He was busy with family things. His sister-in-law had had a baby. The fuzzy picture of the little guy holding Garrett’s finger had made me swoon. Then a work thing came up he had to travel to, even though I still had no idea what he did for a living. What he hadn’t done was ask me to go to him. He didn’t want to have me around his people, and the feeling of inadequacy I had worked hard to fight off after leaving the system was starting to creep back in.

“Go out with me.” Alex grinned, tilting his head at me, snapping me out of my Garrett thoughts. I shook my head.

“No.”

“Older, broody guys your type? Because if they are, I can stop smiling and add some gray to my beard.” He winked, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“No.” I shook my head, taking a sip of my soda. “I don’t have a type.” Having a type meant meeting people you could get attached to, and it was time I started to remind myself of that. I had let things get too far with Garrett.

“You sure about that, sunshine?” a deep voice rumbled by my ear, and the idea of putting a stop to Garrett and me flew out the window. I turned and smiled so hard my face hurt.

“You’re here.” Holy crap, did I conjure him to life?

“I’m here.”

“I…” I hopped off the barstool. In flats, I was a lot shorter than when I wore heels.

“You what?” he questioned, his eyes filled with amusement. “Kiss me, Stef,” he ordered. I bit my top lip as I looked around at the curious eyes staring at us.

“Umm, there are people.”

“So?”

“Garrett—”

“Fine, sunshine, I’ll kiss you.” And he did.

Leaning down, one hand on the small of my back, he pulled me into his body, and his free hand cupped the side of my face gently as his mouth ravaged mine. It was hot and wet. His taste and scent felt like home, and all I could do was hold on to the front of his shirt. Before I knew it, I got lost in the feel of him and his kiss, hardly making out the sound of catcalls in the background.

He pulled away, and I whimpered at the loss of his mouth. His dark stare was on me when my eyes fluttered open. Lust and desire darkened his eyes, making them almost black.

“I thought you had that thing with your brother Marc.”

“I did. I flew back, landed in Palm Springs.”

“How did you get here?”

“Uber.” He winked. “What’s this I hear about you not digging old and broody?”

“You heard that?” I yelped, my cheeks reddening with embarrassment. His hand tenderly stroked my face.

“Do I need to remind you why old and broody works for you?”

“Hmm, maybe?” I flirted back and jumped as someone cleared their throat behind us. I turned and pressed my lips together as I looked at Kip’s serious expression.

“You done giving a show?” he huffed, scowling at us.

“Excuse me?” Garrett growled, and I stood between the two men and smiled.

“You missed her, boy. We get it.”

“Kip, this is Garrett Wright. Garrett, this is Kip McCallister.”

“Your dad?”

“No one’s luck is that bad, boy,” Kip mumbled, and I rolled my eyes.

“Be nice.”

“Be smart,” Kip grouched back and moved his ice-cold stare toward Garrett. “You hurt her, boy, they won’t find a spec of you.” I gasped, and my heart warmed at how overprotective he was being. He liked me. But before I could pretend to be miffed, Kip walked away, serving some of the other regulars.

“Ex-boyfriend?”

“Don’t be gross.”

“He’s older and grouchy.”

“Shut up.” I pushed his shoulder, and his hand slipped into mine.

“Missed you, sunshine.”

“Missed you, too, soldier. Wanna get outta here?”

“Not really.”

“Why is that?”

“We gotta talk.”

“Talk.” That was never a good sign of positive things to come. “Okay.” I knew better than to let things linger. “Let’s go outside. It’s quieter.”

We walked toward the exit hand in hand. I tried to memorize the feel of his hand in my mind. I didn’t want to forget what the closest thing to home I had ever experienced felt.

Looking at him, I swallowed hard, realizing that’s what he felt like.

Home and safety.

Stability.

Stability I’d never had.

I stupidly fell in love with Garrett Wright and figured it out just seconds before he was probably going to end it.