“Katie, honey, your phone,” Gil says, pushing it my way.
While I was cracking up, probably thinking it was far too funny considering the situation we’re dealing with, Hannah texted me back.
“Oh, crap.” I shake out my hands. “I’m kind of nervous.”
“Just read what she has to say, babe. You have nothing to worry about. None of this is on you, yeah?”
Blowing out a breath, I straighten my shoulders. “Yeah. Yeah. Okay, you’re right.”
Hannah: Things are great! Marriage is WONDERFUL. How are you? What are you up to now?
I read it out loud and I hear a collective snort, making me giggle.
Me: I’m GREAT! I finished massage therapy school, got a job, found a new place to live, and I’m seeing someone. I’m so glad you’re doing well, too. Anything new with y’all?
Hannah: Oh? I hadn’t heard any of that! We totally need to get together for a glass of wine soon.
Me: We should. Maybe I can introduce you to a new friend of mine. I think you’d have a lot to talk about.
Hannah: Is this friend the guy you’re seeing?
Me: No. This is a different friend. Do you know Chase Stanton? He sings country music.
“You’re evil,” Johnny cackles.
Me: He’s actually a friend of my new boyfriend’s.
Brody snorts. “Hate to say this, but Johnny might be right.”
“Hey!”
Brody grins at his friend and so do I. They’ve made all the drama of the day bearable and I can’t love them more for it.
Hannah: For real? Who’s the boyfriend? Anyone I know?
“She’d better check her pants because the liar’s pants are on fire,” Gil says, chuckling at his own joke.
“That was such a dad joke,” I tease and he winks at me. So much like his son. “What do I say now?”
“Be honest. I’m your man. We don’t need to hide that.”
Never in my life would I have imagined Brody Redding telling me that he’s my man but it’s true. He’s mine. I’m his. And at the end of the day, no matter what’s happened during the day, even if it’s an absolute nightmare, I have that.
Me: Actually, it’s Brody.
Hannah: My Brody?
That bitch.
Me: No. My Brody. He and I started seeing each other shortly after your wedding and it’s been perfection. Aside from you trying to ruin it by spreading not only lies, but a video of the two of us together earlier tonight. But, I’ll just let Chase’s legal team take care of that for me.
I don’t wait to see if she replies. I turn my phone off and toss it aside.
Sure, there’s a video of Brody and me having sex on the internet, which is ironic because we were only reminding ourselves of something we’d created earlier, and it’s awful that it’s out there for the world to see. But in the end, Brody and I are together and nothing anyone can do will change that.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Brody
“Is it bad that I just want to sleep?” Katie asks. She’s curled up next to me in bed after the longest day in history.
I kiss her on top of her head. “I’m exhausted.”
“Me, too. What if…”
I interrupt her with, “Don’t worry about what-ifs, babe. Tonight we sleep and trust that Chase’s team has this under control. Tomorrow we’ll wake up together, and if I’m lucky, that will become a more permanent thing, and we’ll cancel everything and stay in bed all day if we want. Nothing can bring me down right now, Katie. Even the fact that you and I having sex is on the internet. We weren’t doing anything wrong.”
“Some might think so.”
“They’d be wrong. Hey,” I squeeze her to get her attention so she looks at me, “you need to know this, too. It’s something I should have said earlier but it’s between us and not the rest of the guys. I meant it that without you, it doesn’t matter. With you, though, everything makes sense. I love you, Katie. It might seem soon and maybe you’re going to panic because I’m freaking you out, but I want you to know that I do love you. I’ll support you even if you decide to take the job with Chase, even if I’ll admittedly hate being away from you.”
Her lips part but nothing comes out. Instead, she leans up, pulls my head down, and kisses me, hard. Her tongue sliding inside and twirling around with mine. I groan and turn us so she’s under me. One of her legs wraps around the back of my thigh. Her fingers are on the back of my head.
“I love you, too, Brody.”
“Good words.”
“Very.”
“Might think about using those words with you for the next fifty or sixty years.” It’s a promise of what I hope is to come but is too early. Though, a big part of me feels like it isn’t. It’s not as if I just met Katie. We’ve known each other for sixteen years, even if we weren’t close for that amount of time.
“I’m suddenly not quite as tired as I was earlier,” she says quietly.
“Me either.” I wiggle my eyebrows and kiss her again, reaching down and threading my fingers with hers, bringing our linked hands up and pressing them into the mattress above our heads. We kiss until our lips are bruised and our bodies are on fire, burning from within.
Much later, when we’re physically exhausted and thoroughly satisfied, we fall asleep tangled in each other’s arms. The realization of what happened today isn’t lost on either of us, but its sting is lessened a bit knowing that we’re in love.
“It’s done.”
“Already?”
Chase is sitting on the couch in my living room, having showed up at my home before eight in the morning. Katie and I were barely awake when we heard banging on the door.
“Yeah. I told everyone they’d be fired if they didn’t make it go away.”
I feel Katie breathe out a sigh of relief next to me.
“And that worked?” I ask.
Chase shrugs. “Yeah. I made my statement already and luckily the paparazzi in Nashville is nowhere nearly as ruthless as it is in Hollywood. They want to keep a good relationship with us. And y’all were right. It was Hannah Mitchell. We’re bringing up charges on her because she’s the one who stood outside your office and recorded y’all. Crazy bitch.”
Crazy bitch is right.
“I knew she was capable of petty stuff but I had no idea she’d go that far. This came out of nowhere,” Katie says.
She’s not wrong. Though, I can’t help but feel at fault for some of this. “I shouldn’t have gone to the reception that night. I started it.”
“No, you didn’t. This is on her.”
“What about my mom? Was she involved?”
“Can’t be sure of that yet. Depends on what Hannah says once she’s brought in, I assume. There was nothing in the uploads or photos shared that point to her aside from the one in the parking lot of the salon where her car was visible. It doesn’t sound like she was in contact with the press, but it’s possible your theory of her feeding information to Hannah is right. Just not sure what her motivation would be for that. She’s your mom.”
“Yeah, well, that’s a term I would use very lightly when it comes to her.”
“I’m going to leave you two alone. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused, too. It’s a part of the job that I hate, having everything I do scrutinized and in public for everyone to see. If I hadn’t kissed your cheek that day, none of this would have happened.”
“You can’t know that,” Katie tells him, with a small shrug of her shoulders. “It happened. It’s over with. In a month, everyone will have moved on and so should we.”
“Let’s hope,” he replies, standing up. “Just want you to know, the job offer I made to you? I didn’t only make it because I was crushing on you.”
“Only?” I grumble.
Chase smiles. “I’m not about to deny that, dude. Your girl’s hot.” I hold back a growl but can’t deny that he’s absolutely right. “But she’s your girl and I respect that. Just wanted y’all to know I’m not some sick ba
stard who was trying to hire her so I could sleep with her. I might have only had a half of a massage with you, but you’re talented.”
“Thanks, Chase, that means a lot to hear that.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll see y’all in a month or two, yeah? You’re still gonna do that build for my foundation?”
“Planning on it.” I stand, too, and shake his hand, which he tugs on, bringing me in for a bro hug.
“Good luck. I’m only a phone call away if something isn’t taken care of like we think, you got it? I mean that. None of this should have happened, especially that video and what the press was trying to say about you.”
We say our good byes and show Chase out the door. I want to ask him if he watched the video, because I’m curious, but a bigger part of me doesn’t want to know.
Once we’re alone again, I turn her in my arms. “I love you.”
“I love you.”
Just as we hear his vehicle pull out of my driveway, Katie’s phone rings. She turned it back on this morning and replied to her parents, Cami, and the few others who were genuinely concerned and not nosy about what happened, to let them know she was okay and we were taking care of it.
“Benton Police Department,” Katie says nervously, looking at the screen.
“Answer it,” I encourage. “You’ve done nothing wrong.”
“It’s just…”
“It’s going to be okay,” I promise, standing close.
She nods. “Hello?” A brief pause before, “Yes, this is Katie Landers.”
I watch her as she listens to whatever they’re saying on the other line, wishing it was on speaker.
“Yes, we were made aware of the photos and video yesterday.”
More listening and her eyes meet mine. “Uh, yeah. I know Hannah Mitchell. I was a bridesmaid in her wedding a few months ago and my boyfriend is… well, they dated a long time ago,” she adds, gripping my forearm and cringing.
“Right. Yes, we’ve heard that.”
I’m dying to ask her what they’re saying here.
“I can be there. I’m with him right now, I’m sure he’ll join me,” she says and I nod to agree to whatever she needs.
“Thank you, yes, see you soon.”
She hangs up and blows out a breath. “Hannah’s in a bit of trouble.”
The corner of my mouth ticks up. “You don’t say?”
“She sang like a canary the second the police showed up at her house. Chase wasn’t lying when he said he had his team working on it. Apparently, they’re representing us as well, and informed the police that we wanted to pursue pressing charges.”
“Good.”
“Yeah. Hannah’s the one who leaked everything. She claimed nothing was a lie, but did admit she sent the pictures and video.”
“Was she the one who recorded it?”
“Not sure. I think we’ll find out more when we go.”
“My mom? Is she involved?”
She shakes her head. “They didn’t bring her name up so I’m not sure.”
I rub my forehead. “What a nightmare.”
“It totally is. But you know what pisses me off the most? It’s that people commenting were like what a bitch and I can’t believe she’d do that to someone like Chase. Someone said they didn’t see anything special about me to get two hot guys. But then you and Chase come out like rock stars. Especially you because of the video of you having sex with me.”
I groan, both irritated that she read the comments when we promised not to and pissed at the people who felt the need to share their opinion on something that has nothing to do with them. “Why did you read the comments? I thought we decided neither of us would.”
She looks sheepish. “I woke up in the night and had to pee. I grabbed my phone to use the screen for light to get into the bathroom and I accidentally opened up my browser, looked up my name, and fell down the rabbit hole of temptation.”
“Accidentally? How the hell do you… dammit, Katie. It’s a bunch of strangers who are keyboard warriors.”
“I know that. Honestly, I do. I’m not even bothered — well, that much — by what the haters were saying. It was more about what they were saying about the female in comparison to the male. Does that make sense?”
“Yup. It does. I agree that it’s bullshit but I need you to promise you’ll stay offline from it all for a while. We can shut down our social media accounts if it will help. There’s no good reason for us to know what people are saying.”
“I agree. Honestly, Brody, I’m surprised in myself, too, that I’m not letting their words get to me but I think it’s because I truly know that they don’t matter. They can say I don’t deserve you all they want, but you told me just last night that you’re in love with me so why would I believe some idiot over you?”
I cup her cheeks and lean my forehead against hers. “You won’t. You shouldn’t. And I do love you. Very much.”
“I love you, too. I told the policeman we’d be at the station as soon as we could so we’d better get ready and head out.”
“Got it. Let’s get this over with so we can move forward.”
It doesn’t take either of us very long to get ready because we took a shower together last night. Twenty minutes later, we’re leaving my house with travel mugs of coffee in our hands.
“It’s getting colder,” I notice, turning up the heat on my pickup. My garage is insulated and heated but the heater isn’t turned on for the season yet. The temperature gauge on my truck reads only thirty degrees, though, so it I’d say it’s time.
Katie shivers a bit and zips up her coat. “It is.”
I pull out of our street and head toward the police department. “You want to start parking in the garage? I have plenty of room.”
She looks at me out of the corner of her eye. “Are you serious?”
I glance at her then return my eyes to the road. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know. That’s like… your domain.”
“My domain?” I chuckle.
“It is! Isn’t that where you started your custom build business?”
“Custom build business?”
She giggles. “Shut up! I don’t know what else to call it.”
“I’m not very creative with it. It’s Redding Garage. But yes, it is. And now I only use part of it because everything is in the shop. Might as well keep your car safe and warm.”
I reach for her hand across the console and she gives it to me. I lift it to my lips, kiss the back of her hand, and settle them back on the console.
“Thank you,” she murmurs.
A few minutes later, I pull into the parking lot of the police station. “Is it weird to you that we’ve technically known each other half our lives, only been out on one date, slept together not nearly enough times,” she giggles at that, “and now we’re getting ready to go into a police station so they can take our statement because my ex-girlfriend and your well, now, ex-friend uploaded a video of us having sex? And this has all happened in, what, two months? Not even?”
“If the last few months is any indication of what our lives will be like together, we’ll never be bored.”
“That’s for certain. All right, you ready? Hopefully this won’t take long then we can go back to my house and get naked.” I smirk and we climb out of the truck. I round the front and take her hand in mine.
She rises up on her toes and kisses me. “That sounds perfect. But maybe from now on we’ll make sure the shades are drawn before we make love.”
Epilogue
Brody
“I thought we agreed that public sex was probably not a good idea,” Katie murmurs against my mouth.
“Don’t care. Someone wants to record it, fine with me. Just so long as they zoom in on my ring that’s on your finger for the rest of our lives.”
She lifts her hand in the air to admire the diamond I just placed on her finger only ten minutes ago while I continue trying to get her skirt lifted, underwear
off, and my pants down. “It’s so beautiful,” she sighs.
“Beautiful woman needed a beautiful ring,” I explain. It’s cheesy but she likes it when I’m cheesy. Especially since it’s reserved only for her.
I lift her up and plant her ass on the basin of the sink of the coffee shop we were reacquainted in for the first time. “This is gonna go fast, babe. I can’t help that.”
“Everyone is going to think you’re a quick draw,” she teases, spreading her legs for me to step between.
I smirk and shake my head. “Don’t give a fuck. If we managed to get through the shit Hannah and my mother were pulling, we can get through anything.”
She spreads her legs wider, opening herself up for me, and then…
Paradise.
“Yes,” she moans. “Yes.”
“Never stopping,” I warn.
“Good.”
“Watch us.”
She looks between us and together we watch as we come together as one. I’m slick with her and it’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. Her body clenches around me and I use my thumb to move shit along because I wasn’t lying when I told her it was going to be fast. Seeing the ring I bought on her fourth finger, claiming her as mine for the rest of our lives has me feeling all kinds of everything.
“Paradise,” I whisper.
“For the rest of our lives,” she whispers back.
Those words.
That’s all it takes for me to go over the edge, pulling her right along with me.
“Man alive, that was good,” she says on a long exhale.
I help her down and we clean up. “Good part about being in the bathroom already is easy clean up.”
“True. And no windows.” She laughs.
“Ain’t that the truth.”
No matter how long we live, we’ll never get over the fact that someone made a sex tape of the two of us having sex and uploaded it to the internet within thirty minutes of us finishing. Hannah was working some warp speed magic there.
Without You: A Friends-to-Lovers Small Town Romance Page 23