Defend

by Lindsay Paige

  “You want to do it; you tell her.”

  “Tell me what?” Shannon asks.

  Gregory glares at me before sighing and looking at his mother. “I would like to move in with Dad.” Shannon gasps. “Y’all never gave me the choice and now, I’m choosing. I think you’ll be okay now with Glenn around and I’ll stay with you like I stayed with Dad, but I want to live here.”

  Tears well in Shannon’s eyes. “What have I done for my children to not want to live with me?”

  “You haven’t done anything, Mom,” Gregory immediately reassures her. “I want a change of scenery and I’m sure Dad has more he wants to teach me about cars. It’s more convenient if I stay here.”

  Shannon clearly doesn’t believe him, but she says, “If you want to stay, I won’t stop you.”

  “Why couldn’t you be this nice when I moved out?”

  Shannon rolls her eyes. “I’ve obviously improved on my parenting skills.”

  Gregory stands and walks over to hug her. “Thanks, Mom.”

  Clearing my throat, I decide to speak up and tell Shannon about something Gregory and I discussed when he showed up at the shop after school. “Since we’ve been gone for a week, Gregory will spend the rest of the week with you before coming to live here.”

  That definitely improves her mood. Now, I just have to wait for Jamie to get home, help her unload and unpack, and enjoy the rest of my night.

  I pull into Brent’s driveway and sigh as I turn my car off. Today might just be the longest of my life. I lean my head against the headrest, closing my eyes. After the day I’ve had, I’m supposed to have energy to get out, get my things out of my car, and somehow not immediately crawl into bed? I don’t want to move.

  A knock on my window has me nearly jumping out of my seat. Brent stands outside of my car with a frown on his face. He opens the door and leans inside with an arm resting on the car.

  “Hon, I’d prefer it if you came inside and told me whatever it is your parents did.”

  “What makes you think they did something? I might just be tired.”

  “If you were just tired, you’d come on in and go to bed, not sit in the car and avoid coming inside,” he answers. He’s too smart for my own good.

  “Can we get all of this stuff out tomorrow? I need hot chocolate and a hot body to cuddle up with on the couch.”

  “If you’d rather wait.” He holds his hands out for me to take, which I do as soon as I unbuckle my seatbelt and grab my purse.

  “How did Shannon take the news?” I ask as we walk inside.

  “Better than expected. You have a seat. I’ll fix you your hot chocolate.”

  I kiss his cheek before he can walk into the kitchen. I drop my purse and keys on the coffee table, kick off my shoes, and fall back onto the couch. Just when I think my parents will do better because of the dinner we had after they met Brent, they show me that no, we still have some kinks to work out.

  “Jamie.”

  I open my eyes to the beautiful sight of Brent holding out a mug of hot chocolate. The mug heats my hands and the drink tastes heavenly. Brent sits down next to me. He grabs my legs and pulls them onto his lap.

  “You going to tell me what happened?”

  I rest my head on his shoulder. “It’s funny how your question sounds like a demand.” Another sigh slips out. “They were disappointed that I didn’t want to be closer to home. They think it’s too soon and spent half the time I was packing trying to talk me out of it. I reached my limit and started yelling and reminding them of what they promised me when we went to dinner that night. About being open-minded and listening to me and everything like that. That shut them up for a good fifteen minutes. They eventually came around to the idea before I left.” I look at Brent. “Since we’re living together, Mom expects us to get married in the next three years.”

  Brent doesn’t give me much of a reaction, but he does ask, “Are we planning to meet that expectation or are we going to disappoint her?”

  Keeping my face masked of my surprise that he actually asked me that, I play it cool. “I guess you’ll find out if you propose to me sometime in the next three years.”

  Brent chuckles and nudges my mug up to my mouth. “Then you should definitely relax and let me worry about things.”

  “That’ll be my new motto,” I tell him. “I’ll relax while you worry about all the problems. Yours and mine,” I clarify.

  “Go ahead. I won’t mind.”

  My head finds his shoulder once more and we watch TV in silence while I sip my hot chocolate. The rest of this week will be spent unpacking and working. It’s tempting to call in sick tomorrow. I don’t feel like I’ve had any time to recover from being on vacation, and a person always needs at least one day to recover from traveling, even when the trip was a vacation.

  I rest a hand on Brent’s thigh as I lean forward to place my mug on the coffee table. I look over my shoulder at him. “How bummed will you be if I go to bed early? Aren’t you tired too? I don’t know how you went to work today.”

  “I was ready, that’s how. Go on to bed if you want. I’ll be up in a bit.”

  Darn it. I was hoping he’d come with me. Instead, he gets a kiss and I go upstairs to our room all alone. It’s eerie. This is our room, no longer just Brent’s. I live with my boyfriend. For the foreseeable future, I share this comfy bed with someone.

  Well, except for right this minute.

  Regardless, my heart sings with happy heartbeats. I fall asleep the second after my head hits the pillow.

  When I wake up in the morning, my left thumb rubs my ring finger. I had dreamed that Brent proposed. It’s way too soon for that to become a reality. At least, I think it is. What do I know? I moved in with him faster than I pictured myself moving in with any guy. When Brent’s ready, he’ll ask. I’ll be prepared to answer, I hope.

  Stretching a little, I open my eyes and smile from the weight of Brent’s arm over my waist and the heat of his body behind me. But then I frown. Boxes upon boxes, plus a few other recognizable items, sit against the wall across from me. Those are my things. He brought them in all by himself?

  Brent’s alarm goes off and he rolls away from me to turn it off.

  “Brent?”

  He grunts in response.

  “You brought in my things?”

  His face presses between my shoulder blades and I feel him nod. “Didn’t want to leave them in the car all night.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Welcome, hon.” He exhales hard through his nose. “Do you always have to make it so hard to get out of bed?”

  I laugh. “The traveling is finally hitting you, isn’t it?” I knew he couldn’t be immune to it. Brent grumbles under his breath, which is enough of a yes for me. Rolling over to face him, I say, “You can always stay home today and go back in tomorrow.”

  “You going to call in sick with me?”

  “I already called in yesterday so I could go pack,” I remind him.

  “They’ll just think you’re really sick if it’s two days in a row.”

  “They’ll want a doctor’s note and it’ll say, ‘Not sick at all’ on it,” I reply back.

  He frowns. “Honey, you’re no fun.”

  “That’s what happens to adults; we turn into no fun people.”

  He chuckles. “Speak for yourself. I’m calling in.” Brent reaches for his phone and texts his brothers. “And you should too.”

  “They’ll fire me.”

  He surprises the hell out of me when he shrugs.

  “I do like my job, Brent!” I exclaim, sitting up. I can’t believe he would be fine with me getting fired just so I can stay home one more day with him. This doesn’t seem like Brent at all.

  “We could find you another one,” he replies easily.

  “It’s not always that easy.”

  “It might be.” Now, he’s not looking at me.

  “Brent, what are you getting at?”

  He sits up, rearranges his pillow
against the headboard, and then leans against it. “What if I told you that you could quit and get another job today with better pay, semi-flexible hours, fantastic bosses, vacations whenever you want, and great training?”

  “I’d hear you out.” And I would. Why would I turn down a job with better pay, great bosses, training, and good hours? Plus, apparently, all the vacation time I want. “But it sounds too good to be true. Where is this job? And just how many bosses are there?”

  “Three bosses.” My eyes widen at this. “It’s with me and my brothers.”

  “What? I don’t know anything about cars.”

  Brent bursts out laughing. “Don’t really need to, Jamie. When I went in yesterday, Ronnie and Peter told me our receptionist, Christy, is pregnant and she gave us notice because she wants to be a stay-at-home mom. We’ll need to hire someone new in six months. You’d be perfect for the job, Jamie. And my brothers are wanting to unload some of the bookkeeping duties they’ve been doing, so you can learn to do that, too.”

  It all makes sense now. How my hours would be semi-flexible, why he said the bosses were fantastic, and why he threw in how I could take vacations whenever I want. If Brent takes one, I automatically get to take off work without a problem. But that doesn’t sound so easy.

  “Say I’m interested, what will y’all do without a receptionist for a week if we were to take another cruise?”

  “The same thing we did when Christy was out; we did her job ourselves. It’s not fun to do that and work, but we can manage when she’s out.”

  This can’t even be serious. I fall to the side and rest my head on Brent’s lap. “You’ve gone too far, Brent,” I manage to tease. “I’m speechless and I don’t know what to think.”

  He runs his fingers through my hair. “I think you should take my job offer.”

  “What if we don’t work well together? We’ll see each other all day and then have to come home to one another. Our relationship might not be cut out for that.” This is a big concern and a big reason to say no.

  “You’ll be in a little office off to the side and you’ll only see me when you feel like it, if you have a question, or when I come to tell you to order a part or that a car is ready. Well, then and lunch. What I’m trying to say is that we’ll spend more time together at home than at work. You don’t have to decide today.”

  It’s starting to bug me when he says that. “Is that what you’ll say when you propose too?” I retort.

  Brent laughs heartily. “If you seem indecisive, absolutely.”

  I smile, happy with that answer. Time to ask my second most important question. “Do you think it can do for me what my current job does?”

  “Yeah, hon,” Brent answers softly, as if he knows the weight of my question and his answer. “You’ll get to talk to all kinds of people, most who become regulars. You’re one of their first points of contact, so you’ll be a big part in making sure they have a good, happy experience. They’ll probably leave with a smile on their face because they’ll chat with you while they’re there.”

  That sounds really nice. There’s another potential problem. “What if you have to fire me?”

  “Promise to be a good hard worker?” he asks.

  “I always am.”

  “Then you don’t have to worry about that. If you want to quit, you can quit, but if I thought there was a possibility where I’d have to fire you, I wouldn’t have offered.”

  “Brent, I still feel like we need to talk about how you’ll handle it if you or your brothers feel like I’m not doing the job well,” I insist.

  Brent sighs. “You’ll get three talks on how to improve and do better and then someone will fire you.”

  At this, I sit up. “Someone? You wouldn’t do it yourself?”

  “Maybe we should rethink this because I don’t know if I could fire you.” Is he serious? I don’t believe him when he says he couldn’t fire me. Brent gets things done, so I think if needed, he could. It’s not until he adds, “I’d accept a subpar work performance instead of manning up and telling my girlfriend she needs to stop getting so distracted by my hot body, trying to seduce me in my office, and actually get some work done.”

  I laugh. “You have one big ego, Brent.”

  He shrugs. “You don’t have to work for another few hours. Let’s get some more sleep.” He scoots to lie back down and pulls me against his chest. “I love you, Jamie. No matter what.”

  I kiss his chest. “I love you too.” But he’s given me yet another big decision to make.

  One Year Later

  “Hurry up!” Brent yells from downstairs. “We’re going to be late for work!”

  “Don’t rush me!” I holler back, pushing my earring into my ear while slipping my feet into my shoes.

  “You have one minute before you’re driving yourself!”

  I roll my eyes. His threat means nothing. He wouldn’t leave me. I know this for a fact, as I get this threat as least once a week. Have been ever since I decided to take him up on his job offer and he insisted we ride together. I unplug my phone from the nightstand and pause as my eyes catch sight of the wedding band on my left hand.

  Brent didn’t wait long to meet my mother’s expectations. I think he stunned everyone when last summer, barely three months after I moved in, he took me to that drive-in to see a movie and to make out, just like I told him I wanted to do. The night was absolutely perfect before he proposed. And then, as the credits were rolling, he hopped off the bed of his truck and dropped down to one knee.

  While I always wondered what I would say when the time came, my question was answered right then and there. Brent was on one knee and I screamed a yes before he could say one word. He laughed and asked his question, making me repeat my answer.

  We were married before the end of the year.

  “Honey, what the hell is taking so long?”

  I swivel around to face Brent, who actually looks a bit annoyed with me this morning. “Sorry, boss.” I wave my hand in the air, wiggling my finger. “I was thinking about how we ended up getting married. I’m ready, though. Let’s go.”

  His face softens and he grabs me by the hips before I can walk past him. “You do that a lot, you know.”

  “Do what?” I ask as he pulls me flush against him.

  “Think about the fact we’re married.”

  He may have a point. I get lost in thought sometimes, recollecting on the day he proposed or the day we got married. Those were the best days of my life and the longer I’m with him, the more I feel incredibly lucky to have him. To have this ring on my finger, a ring he picked out that’s so perfect, a ring that says I belong to someone, that I have a partner in life, and that partner is Brent? So. Incredibly. Lucky.

  “Yes, I do, because I love you,” I say. “Now, let’s go. We’re going to be late.” I don’t try to move, though, because he doesn’t seem interested in letting me go yet.

  He holds his hand up where I can see his own wedding band. “Does the same thing to me, hon.” He rests his forehead against mine. “Don’t know what I’d do without you,” he whispers. “But I’m so glad I’ve got you for the rest of my life.” His mouth slams against mine, telling me he experiences all the thoughts and feelings I feel when I look at my ring and think about us being married. His fingers dig into my hips as if he needs to sear his hold onto my body. “And I love you too,” he says, his lips brushing against mine.

  My body misses his as he steps away, my breathing still heavy from his kiss. Brent grins.

  “Now we can go to work.”

  The married life has surpassed any and all expectations. And I’m positive I have Brent to thank for that.

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  Watch for news on the next book in the Hearts in Carolina series, which will follow Henry Davenport (a character from the Carolina Rebels series), and Suzanne Stoll from Steady.

&n
bsp; Also coming soon is Collin Kessy’s book in the Carolina Rebels series, plus two super-secret projects. Check Lindsay’s website and social media for updates!

  Thank you, Kristalyn Thornock. You are a life saver, girl. I don’t know what I’d do without you.

  Thank you, Angie Wells, for being a beta reader for me! Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

  Thank you, Shannon Page, for editing my work. You are one of the most enjoyable people to work with.

  Thank you, Robin from Wicked by Design, for always doing an outstanding job with my covers.

  Thank you, Julie from JT Formatting. You always give me something I love and you’re lovely to work with.

  Thank you, reader, for taking the time to read this story. I hope you enjoy reading about Brent and Jamie and are excited to find out who will be next in the series.

  Lindsay Paige is the author of multiple Young Adult, New Adult, and Sports romances. She also enjoys writing books with characters who deal with anxiety and depression, issues which are close to her heart. Lindsay is a North Carolinian who loves watching hockey, sharing puns, having conversations with her miniature Schnauzer, re-watching episodes of M*A*S*H, and living her dream of writing books for a living.

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  Lindsay has written the following books/series:

  Bending Under Pressure

  Bold as Love series

  Bracing for Love series

  Carolina Rebels series

  Don’t Panic

  Hearts in Carolina series

  Sanity series