by Sarah Hegger
“The trouble on site has been escalating.” Eric tried to keep it light but the look in Matt’s eye said he didn’t believe it.
What the hell. His brother deserved to know and this protecting him from the truth thing had gotten old. He had once accused Matt of not sharing the family burdens, and now he was doing the same thing. Also he owed Brett Barrows big, like his life big.
* * * *
Blythe played it cool and professional as she met Chase in the lobby for his session the next night. It wasn’t the first time a client had asked her out, and she wanted to dispel any awkwardness.
“Blythe.” Chase met her by his treadmill and climbed on. He motioned between them. “Is this going to be awkward?”
Clearly they’d been on the same page and she laughed. “Not for me.”
“Not for me either.” He smiled ruefully. “It’s not the first time I’ve been shot down.” He grimaced and started up with the machine. “Probably won’t be the last either.”
“Somehow, I don’t think you get turned down that often.” Chase has a lot to offer and maybe if she’d had one small part of herself to share with someone else, she might have considered it. Client or no client.
Chase grunted and laughed. “That’s not always a good thing. Ask any of my exes.”
They finished on the treadmill and went to the weights section before Chase spoke again. “I didn’t ask you what you were doing in that part of town last night.”
Funny, she’d had much the same thought. “I live there. At least, I used to live there. I was raised there. So I went to visit my mother last night.” Overshare, much!
Giving her a long look, Chase completed his set before he spoke. “And yet you ended up here.”
“I didn’t get that far,” she said, and not nearly as far as she wanted to get.
Chase shook his head and took a sip of water. “Don’t knock what you’ve achieved. I know from personal experience that breaking away from your past take guts and determination. It isn’t easy.”
“You came from the wrong side of the tracks? I would never have guessed.” Blythe showed him what she wanted him to do next.
“I go out of my way to hide it,” Chase said. “My mother was a good woman, but she had me at fifteen without my father in sight. When she did marry, she chose badly. He used to get drunk and beat the crap out of her.” Chase racked the weights. “I swore I would get us out of there. I was only partially successful.”
“What happened?” This side of Chase opened up a totally different man.
His expression softened. “She didn’t make it. She got sick before I could make enough money to get her away from that bastard.” He smiled. “But at least by then I’d made enough money to make sure she could see good doctors and that she was comfortable in the end.” Looking away from her he cleared his throat. “Cancer took her.”
“I’m sorry.” Most of the time Blythe kept a strict physical distance between her and her clients, but his story touched her, and she squeezed Chase’s shoulder. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Not really sure why I did.” Chase picked up a set of weights. “It’s just when you said where you were from it made me think about Ma.”
“Mine is housebound,” Blythe said. “And she has a drinking problem, so I have to go and see her.”
“You mentioned brothers the other day,” Chase said.
“I have eight of them.” She laughed at Chase’s horrified expression. “And one little sister, as you know.”
He nodded and carried on with his weight set.
Something about knowing they shared a similar past made it easier to talk to him. “Most of my brothers take after our father, which is not a good thing. But Will, the youngest brother, is going somewhere. He’s been saving up for college since he was thirteen.”
Chase looked taken with that.
Blythe found herself telling him more. “He’s part of how I managed to get out. Partly, he inspired me to change what I didn’t like, and partly because I wanted to get him out with me.”
“And you took the little sister with you too?”
Blythe nodded.
“You’re quite a woman, Blythe Barrows.” Chase’s look warmed her deep down. His admiration had nothing to do with her looks or being attracted to her. “It seems we had more in common than I thought.”
They worked in silence for a while.
“Look.” Chase stopped and put his weights down. “I’m gonna put my cards on the table here.”
Blythe tensed at his direction and the renewed interest in Chase’s expression. “I’m sorry, Chase, but I—”
“You don’t date your clients.” He held his hands up. “I know that, but I also sense there’s something more behind the no dating than just me being a client.”
He was right but Blythe wasn’t going to talk about Eric. Especially not since Chase had business dealings with Eric.
“I’m older than you,” Chase said. “But hopefully not old enough to be creepy. And I really like you.” He grinned. “For more than the fact that you’re about the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. If whatever this other thing is that’s influencing your decision goes away, or you change your mind, let me know.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.” She didn’t feel threatened or cornered. Chase kept it honest and straightforward.
“But if it does.” Chased picked up his weights. “You let me know. I think we could be good together. I understand where you came from, Blythe. I can understand what you want out of life.”
He made some pretty bold claims, but they didn’t sound outrageous. She couldn’t give him false hope. “It’s not going to change for a long time.”
“And I’m not going to wait,” Chase said. “I’m too much of a realist for that. I just want you to know that I’m interested. Very interested, and if the timing gets right, I would like to explore this thing.”
Calling what they had between them a thing seemed a little presumptuous to Blythe. They were client and trainer and had discovered a common history. Still, Chase’s interest made her think. There would be life after Eric, and for the first time she could consider that future having a man in it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Blythe took a call from an unknown number the next morning. “Hello.”
“Hi, Blythe. It’s Bella. Bella Evans.” She took a breath. “I used to be Bella Erikson.”
As if she knew any other Bellas. “How are you?”
“I’m good.” Bella warmed up. “I didn’t know if you’d recognize my voice.”
Blythe laughed. “Even though we went to school together for most of our lives?”
“Fair point.” Bella laughed with her, but it sounded a bit strained. “Listen, I wasn’t sure whether to call you or not, but Liz said I should.”
“Damn straight I did.” Liz yelled from Bella’s side of the call. “Girl needs to know what happened to her man.”
“What man? What happened?” Blythe’s pulse jumped and kick started her heart beat into an erratic rhythm. She mentally sifted through the men in her life. She might not like her brothers but that didn’t mean she wanted them hurt. No it couldn’t be them. Dixie would have called, which meant it could only be one person. “Eric! Is he all right?”
“He’s out of hospital now,” Bella said.
“Out of hospital.” Heads whipped around in the gym, and Blythe tried for an inside voice. A nearly impossible task when she wanted to reach down the line and drag the details out of Bella.
Eric had been hurt. Hurt enough to be in a hospital. She was going to throw up. Or pass out.
Bella was speaking but she’d missed most of it. “What fight? Where?”
“On one of his building sites,” Bella spoke slowly and clearly. “There was a fire there last night, and Eric went to check it out.
Nate said he was jumped by five men—”
“Five men!” More looks snapped her way. They could stare all they liked. She didn’t give a crap. “Who? What? I’ll break their goddamn heads open.”
Randy met her gaze across the gym, all wide eyed and shocked. Well, he could just suck it up. You didn’t grow up with eight brothers like hers and not know how to inflict some hurt.
“That’s our girl,” Liz yelled.
Bella chuckled. “Nate’s got that in hand. I called to let you know Eric had been hurt but he was all right.”
“Thank you.” Blythe hung up a few seconds later.
Her client stood waiting for her at the weight benches.
Last night Eric had gotten beaten up so badly they’d taken him to hospital. She felt hollow and jittery and not with him.
Screw it.
“Gerald, I’m sorry,” she said to her client. “I have a family emergency. I’m going to have to reschedule or make it up to you somehow.”
Gerald murmured something she didn’t catch, because Blythe was already out the door.
She tried Will first and got voicemail.
“Will, it’s Blythe. There’s something I need to do. You and Blake need to take care of Kim.” Both her brothers had proven themselves more than capable.
As she drove to Eric’s house something Bella had said penetrated the brain fog. That Brett had been there and saved Eric. She needed time to get her head around that, but that was time she didn’t want to spare right now.
Eric’s house key was still on her chain with her car keys. Funny, she’d forgotten she still had it. Or maybe she’d had another of those convenient memory lapses that happened where Eric was concerned.
She let herself in through the oversize, dark wood front door and called, “Eric.”
She stepped into the silent house. God, she loved this house. In her days with Eric, she might have had a fantasy or two about living here. Dark wood floors, pale walls and high cathedral ceilings crisscrossed with thick dark wood beams, the house had been built to maximize the impact of the incredible views of the mountains.
“Eric.” She didn’t want to scare the crap out of him, and her workout shoes made very little noise.
The house brought back a flood of memories, and for once, she allowed them to come.
One of the things they’d loved to do was cook together in that beautiful creamy marble kitchen with its state-of-the-art appliances. Or she’d cooked, and Eric had poured them a glass of wine.
Those memories were what made being with Eric so confusing. They behaved like a couple but weren’t a couple.
She walked down the hallway beyond the kitchen to the master bedroom and peeped through the ajar door.
Eric lay on his side on the big bed, fast asleep.
Blythe tiptoed closer and stopped.
His lip was puffy and split on the side she could see. He also sported an enormous black eye on that side. His breathing rasped through his nose, and she’d heard her brothers make that noise enough to know it had probably been broken.
Not wanting to wake him, she crept back out to the kitchen. She stood and pressed her fingers into the marble island top and tried to push back the tears. It didn’t do any good because they refused to be denied.
Eric had been hurt, and part of her hurt for him. An even bigger part wept with relief that he was battered and bruised but basically okay.
* * * *
Eric kept his kitchen remarkably well stocked for someone who didn’t cook, and she was able to scrounge up the ingredients for a curried chicken soup that he used to love. While she cooked, she let the peace of the house settle around her.
His house in Denver had been spectacular, but this one felt like more of a home with less glass and steel and more wood and natural stone.
She got the fire going in the lounge to keep the room warm and cozy.
A key turned in the front door lock, and Matt let himself in, his hands full of grocery bags.
They blinked at each other.
“Hi, I didn’t—”
“I’m sorry I thought—”
Matt laughed and walked into the kitchen. “You go first.” He put the groceries on the counter and sniffed her soup. “Smells good.”
“Thanks.”
“Or are we still pretending you and Eric haven’t been having a…whatever you call it for the past however many years?” Matt winked and put a carton of milk in the fridge.
“Bella told me what happened.” Blythe joined him in the kitchen and helped with the groceries. “I wanted to make sure he was all right.”
“Yeah.” Matt’s face tightened into anger. “When we find out who is behind this, there’ll be hell to pay.”
Blythe gave the soup a stir. “He doesn’t know I’m here.” She jerked her head toward the bedroom. “I let myself in while he was sleeping.”
“With a key you don’t have because there’s nothing between you and Eric?”
The twinkle in his eye made her chuckle. “Something like that.”
“You’re not going to give me any details?” Matt frowned. “Even though Pippa is going to be all over me once this gets out.”
“It doesn’t have to get out.”
Matt laughed. “Then you don’t know my wife. Of course it’ll get out.” He carried on with the groceries.
She shouldn’t have given in to her need to see Eric and come here because now she felt foolish. Eric had a family who adored him. Plenty of people to take care of him. She gathered up her bag. “Now I know he’s okay, I’ll be going.”
Matt stilled and studied her. “Why?”
“You’re here now.” She picked up her sweatshirt. “The soup will only take another ten minutes or so. You can turn—”
“Blythe.” Matt took her by the shoulders. “I’m going home to my wife and my daughter. Now that I know Eric is in good hands, I can leave him. I’ll let Nate and Jo know that he’s taken care of.”
“But—”
Matt rolled right over her. “There is no doubt in my mind that Eric would much rather see you than any of us when he wakes up.” He opened the front door and dropped his key on the table beside it. “Call if you need anything. Eric has all our numbers.”
“But—”
The door shut behind him.
“Blythe?” Eric stood in the passageway from the bedroom, wearing only a pair of boxers and swaying like a stiff wind would blow him over. He blinked and looked bleary. “Are you here or am I dreaming?”
“I’m here.” Blythe put her arm around his waist and steered him back to his bedroom. “And I’ll still be here when you wake up.”
“Stay.” He let her position him back in bed, then caught her hand. His dark eyes stared at her, naked and vulnerable in his need. “Stay with me.”
“I will.” Because her heart hadn’t really given her much choice.
He closed his eyes and she turned to leave.
“Here.” His eyes popped open again. “Stay here.”
He meant beside him in that bed. “Eric, I—”
“Please.” He winced. “You’re totally safe from me.”
It certainly looked that way. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll get us some soup, and I’ll be back.”
“Don’t take too long.” He yawned, groaned and closed his eyes.
Blythe surrendered the fight she didn’t want to win. Here was where she wanted to be, right beside him, as close beside him as she could get.
She brought them both some soup and helped him to eat.
His swollen lip made the entire thing look horribly painful.
Afterwards, she made a few calls to check on Kim and move some clients. She settled on the bed beside Eric and turned the television on low.
Eric’s breathing deepened into the heavy sleep rhythms and she
got up and went into the other room.
Will answered her call. “Where are you?”
“I’m with Eric. He got hurt.”
The silence from Will shrieked, and then he said, “You shouldn’t be there, Blythe. You know it’s not good for you.”
“I can’t leave him.” It sounded weak.
“Yes, you can.” Will grew more insistent. “He has family who love and will care for him. Like you have family who need you here.”
“Is Kim okay?”
Will sighed. “She’s fine, Blythe. I’m fine and Blake’s fine. And we’ll even be fine if you decide to stay, but I’m worried about you. It took you long enough to get out of that relationship.”
“I’m not getting back into it.” She meant every word. At least her brain did. “I’ll be fine. I’ll take care of him until he’s back on his feet, and then I’ll come home.”
Will took a long pause. “Okay,” he said. “You know what I think, but you’re a big girl and you get to make your own decisions.”
“You’ll take care of Kim?”
“Of course.”
“Call me if she needs me. Or you need me.” The guilt at being there and not home tugged at her. Maybe she should go home and care for her family and let Eric’s care for him. She had no reason, nor right, to be there.
“Blythe?” Eric called from the bedroom.
“Just a minute.” Then she spoke to Will. “I’ll come home. I’ll call his brother to come and care for him and come home.”
“Blythe.” Will loaded her name with meaning. “You want to be there, so stay. I’ve got everything under control here and Blake is helping me out.”
Will hung up.
“Blythe?”
She moved to the bedroom.
Eric had woken and was struggling into a sitting position. “I thought you’d gone.”
“No.” She should go, she really should, but she wasn’t going to. “I called Will to make sure he and Kim were all right.”
Eric nodded. “Are they?”
“Yes.” She leaned against the doorjamb. His color looked better and some of the swelling had gone down. Of course the bruising would get truly colorful in a day or two. “Are you hungry?”