Chapter Eleven
Brady took her helmet when she passed it over and smiled at the way her hair stuck out at odd angles. Nothing could dull her inner shine, but she definitely didn’t look uptight or prim right now.
“That was awesome,” she said, smoothing her hands over her hair.
He tossed both helmets in the bin and joined her as they walked toward the counter.
She meant it. Her smile nearly vibrated with excitement. Smiling with her, he asked, “You ever test the limits with your Lexus on the open road? See how she handles?”
“Not really. Not past the freeway limit anyway.”
“You oughta do that. Bet she drives like a dream.”
“You keep calling my car a ‘she.’”
He stopped walking and turned to her. “Your car is a she.”
She bit her top lip, drawing his attention. “No. My car is a machine.”
Meeting her gaze, he told her seriously, “A beautiful machine. A she.”
Mia laughed. “Okay. If you say so. Is your car a ‘she’?”
“Of course,” he replied.
After getting back their licenses, Brady bought a huge bag of popcorn and a couple of colas.
“Racing makes me hungry,” he admitted when he joined Mia at a small table she’d sat at.
“Really? Winning does the same thing for me,” she said.
All he could do was grin. This was a different side of her for sure. One he hadn’t expected. He took a seat across from her. “You’re a little competitive, princess.”
She took a handful of popcorn and popped one kernel in her mouth. “I like to win. And you can’t call me that now.”
He took a sip of his soda. “Which is a shame. It suits you.”
Her mouth scrunched up like it was filling with unpleasant words. He laughed. “Don’t look at me like that. I meant it suits you in a good way.”
“Well, you’ll have to just use my name now. I won fair and square.”
Arching one brow, he took a handful of kernels. “I don’t know about fair and square. You did deke me. But, you won, so I’ll have to come up with a new nickname.”
She laughed. He shoved a handful into his mouth, watching her eat one piece at a time. She ate like a princess. Looked like one, too.
“Tell me something,” she said. She picked up her drink and sipped.
“Like what?”
“Something I don’t know. We’re trying to get to know each other, right?”
How long did she have? There was a long list of what she didn’t know about him.
“I was engaged.”
Mia’s lips formed a small O, capturing his attention. “When?”
Brady tossed a piece of corn up in the air and caught it. Then realized he should probably behave like an adult. Before he could apologize, she copied him. And missed. The popcorn landed on her chin, making Brady laugh.
“It’s an art. You have to practice,” he teased.
“I’ll make it my new hobby. When were you engaged?”
“Eight years ago. I was twenty.”
“You going to make me dig for the story or just tell me?”
He sighed and leaned on his forearms. “We were high school sweethearts. I’ve always wanted to get married, have a family. Wanted to run my dad’s shop since I was a kid. Those were the things I was working toward. I thought we were going in the same direction, but after high school, nothing was ever enough for Bethany.”
“What do you mean?”
“She wanted to travel, which I understood, but I wanted to save money so we could buy a house. Make a home, you know? She traveled a bit without me and when she came home, things just weren’t the same. We stayed together, but no matter what I did, she wanted something different. She didn’t want to go to the drive-in, she wanted to go to the opera. What the hell do I want to go to the opera for?” He stopped, looked at Mia. “You probably go to the opera.”
She took a sip of her drink, her eyes never leaving his. “I’ve been, but I don’t particularly enjoy it.”
Brady wasn’t sure whether to believe her or not. “Ever been to a sporting event?”
“No. But I like to try new things,” she said.
He wouldn’t have thought so, but he was learning that there was more to her than her expensive clothes and perfectly styled hair.
“I’ll remember that. Anyway, she wanted to do all these things I just didn’t. We usually hung out with the same crowd every weekend, but she wanted us to distance ourselves from them. She said we’d never climb the social ladder if we played in the mud.”
God. Even now, her words irritated him.
“Wow. That’s incredibly stuck-up. And she wasn’t even a rich, real estate mogul’s princess of a daughter?”
Brady laughed and picked up his soda. He took a long swallow. Maybe they’d both done some misjudging. “No. She wasn’t. But she would have loved it if she were. She decided she wanted to model. She pushed me to go to college and get a ‘real’ job. One that would bring in an income to land us in a fancy apartment in downtown Boston. I’d asked her to marry me because I wanted to show her, even though it felt like we were growing apart, that I was committed to a future.”
Mia’s hand drifted close to his. If he extended his fingers, they’d touch hers. A couple of guys came in, laughing on their way to the counter. It was about to get noisy again.
“And?”
“When I gave her the ring, she said it was a lovely starter ring and for some reason, I just couldn’t get those words out of my head. I didn’t want to be anyone’s starter husband. That’s what I felt like I’d be.”
Now her hand moved over his and he liked the slight weight of it pressing down on his.
“That’s horrible. I’m sorry.”
Brady shrugged. “It’s history. We should go before those guys get started.”
She nodded, but held his gaze a moment longer. They’d made it through a whole morning and instead of fighting, he’d opened up to her and enjoyed her company.
Don’t get ahead of yourself. There were still things she wasn’t saying—whatever secrets were behind the sad eyes from the night before. He couldn’t shake the feeling her mood at Shay and Wyatt’s was related to the six-month thing with her family. What the hell happened at the end of six months?
Let it go for now. They had a chance to be friends. He should take it. Though he couldn’t remember enjoying a kiss so much with someone he’d only wanted to be friends with. Anything more complicates things. For you, her, and everyone around you.
As they got back into the car, he thought of asking her what she was doing with the rest of her day, but she beat him to it.
“I have to arrange some meetings and check in on Justin. But that was fun. Thank you.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. It was nice to see you loosen up a bit.”
He felt her frown, even without looking at her. “I’m plenty loose.”
He winked at her. “Right. If coiled springs are considered loose.”
“Not everyone has the luxury of letting life roll off their backs,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“No, but they have the choice over what they let work them up. Speaking of which, I wasn’t trying to get your back up.”
She sighed. “No. I know. It’s pretty obvious when you are trying.”
Brady laughed. She wasn’t wrong. “It’s a strange kind of truce we have going here, Mia.”
“I’ll say.”
They could leave things exactly as they were. So the barely-there kiss they’d shared outdid any he could remember. What would kissing her for real be like? He could push the thought aside. They could both walk away, clean slate, and the rest of the people they had in common would breathe easier in their presence. Chicken. He was scared to see if she’d be interested in more. Scared he wasn’t good enough when he thought he was over those insecurities. Terrified that breaking his own dating rule would backfire in epic ways.
“Maybe we could try it again sometime?” He pulled out of the lot, telling himself they could get to know each other without labeling things.
“I could be persuaded,” she said.
Huh. Didn’t expect that, princess. He glanced over and smiled. Even though her lips were tilted up, she looked a little sad.
The fact that he wanted to fix what was bugging her didn’t escape him. He was already feeling more than friendly toward her and regardless of whether he’d lived by the no dating rule before, she was pushing him to bend it. Or break it entirely.
“What are we doing here, Mia?” It was easier to ask when he wasn’t looking at her.
“I was wondering the same thing.”
Undefined. He could live with that. “You all right?”
“Yes. Just have some things to sort through.”
That made two of them. Traffic was a bit heavier so Brady took the side streets back to the apartment. “I shared with you. It’s your turn.” Tell me about the six months.
Her laugh was low and sweet. “Nothing to share.”
Somehow he doubted it.
When he walked her to her door, they stood staring at each other. She was the only woman who could look at him and make it feel as if she were touching him.
“Are you waiting for permission?” she whispered.
His hand moved to her waist. Was he? Or was he scared once he started he wouldn’t be able to stop? “Do I need to?”
He felt, more than saw, the subtle shake of her head. His mouth touched hers, parting her lips. He inhaled and all he could taste was Mia and it consumed him. Holy Christ, kissing her the second time was a ten-star, whole-body, every-cell-tingling event. Heat spread from the unwinding knot in his stomach through every part of his body. Moving one hand to her hair, he tightened his grip on her waist. Turning so their bodies aligned, he took the kiss deeper, like somehow he could push their differences so far away, they wouldn’t matter. When they were touching each other like this, nothing else mattered. Her fingers curled into his shirt as he backed her against the door.
She pushed her arms up and around his neck, holding on like he was the only thing saving her from drowning. He was drowning in her. Waves of coiled lust, cresting so hard in his stomach, he knew he needed to pull back, rein himself in. How could there be this much passion between them when they’d only just decided to like each other? If just kissing her made him frantic, what would more be like? More would be ripping his rules to shreds and lighting them on fire.
His heart beat like a wild animal. He pulled away slowly, then pressed his lips to the pulse point in her neck, satisfied with its quick pace. Her breaths came in short bursts, matching his.
She surprised him once again when her lips curled upward and she remarked, “That’s definitely more than a truce.”
...
Brady didn’t think it was possible for anything to pull him down from the cloud he was floating on, but as he let himself into his apartment, his phone rang. Jared. Finally.
“It’s about time.”
“Nice to hear your voice, too,” Jared said.
“Your kid has been sleeping in my spare room for more than a week and this is the first time you’ve gotten back to me.” Settling at his desk, he tried to keep his muscles from knotting up just from the sound of his brother’s voice.
“I’m sorry, Brady, but some of us have real jobs that actually require brain power rather than just high-powered tools,” Jared said.
As it always did, the disdain his brother felt for the shop punched Brady right in the stomach. It was more than a dismissal of Brady and their dad’s trade—it was personal. Jared had no use for family. He’d proved it time and again, so Brady wasn’t even sure why his brother’s attitude surprised him.
“If you had that big a brain you wouldn’t have let your wife walk out on you with your kid twelve years ago, and you wouldn’t have sent him away now.”
“And you wonder why I don’t call you. Judgmental much? Is that what Justin told you? I sent him away?”
Brady pushed back from his desk, turning off the small lamp. He rubbed at the back of his neck. Judgmental and defensive. Brady could own up to both, but it didn’t mean he was wrong. “He told me you both turned your backs on him.”
Jared made a noise that sounded like frustration. “I didn’t turn him away. I said I needed time to…adjust.”
“Adjust to what?”
Unease raised the hair on his forearms.
“Adjust to what, Jared?”
“To his choices, okay?”
Brady shook his head and gripped the phone tighter. “He’s a good kid. What choice could he have made that threw you this much?”
They were all stubborn. His mother had been so stubborn she hadn’t gotten medical attention when she’d needed it. She’d died from pneumonia when Brady was eight. Something that could have been prevented if she’d just gone to the damn doctor. And Pop had a heart attack right at the very desk Brady used every day when he went into the shop.
“Jared. Spit it out.”
“He’s gay. I didn’t say he had to go. I said I didn’t understand his decision and I needed time. I’m sorry he showed up on your doorstep, but if he wants to be an adult—”
That was it? Brady’s nostrils flared and he leaned on the desk for support. He cut his brother off. “Shut up.”
Giving himself a moment, he breathed deep. “Are you telling me that your son confided in you, trusted you enough to open up, and instead of hugging him and telling him it didn’t change who he was one goddamn little bit, you told him you needed time to adjust?”
“It’s really easy to be a parent when you don’t have kids, isn’t it, Brady?”
Brady felt like wire was wrapping itself around his chest, tightening with every breath until he couldn’t pull any air into his lungs.
“It’s not like choosing to be a vegetarian, you moron. And this isn’t about being a parent. It’s about being a human being. Your son came to you because he thought he could trust you. He had no reason to and still, he turned to you.”
“Listen, I don’t need this shit from you. He wanted to bring his boyfriend to a company work party. I’m up for a huge promotion, Brady, but you don’t even ask how I am or how this would impact me—”
Brady hung up. He tossed the phone on his bed and paced back and forth in his bedroom. Why couldn’t people just be who they were without having to make excuses or find ways of being accepted? You judged Mia without knowing who she was. Maybe he was more like Jared than he wanted to be. He knew how it felt not to be accepted for who he was. In the last couple of days, he realized how badly he’d misjudged her. He’d assumed, because she came from money, she thought she was better than all of them. In truth, Brady just didn’t feel good enough about himself—but that was his own issue. But it damn well won’t be Justin’s. He had a family here at Kendrick Place and so would Justin. They weren’t alone. They just had to realize they were good enough for the people they surrounded themselves with.
Brady needed that lesson as much as his nephew did.