Rebound (Washington Senators Book 1)

by Amber Lynn

  “Is everything okay?”

  Brayden sounded winded as he answered. Willow wasn’t even sure he would, since he could’ve still been in the air. It was the first time she’d initiated a call, and the instant answer caught her off guard.

  She smiled at Connor, hoping the stress that had popped up wasn’t on the surface. He still looked more curious than worried. Willow came down on the side that was a good thing. Curiosity didn’t generally lead to nightmares.

  Before she could answer, another buzz went off. She gritted her teeth.

  “Was that the gate buzzer?”

  It sounded like he’d had a chance to catch his breath. And while his voice stayed on the calm side of the spectrum, she thought she detected a little fire in it. She wasn’t sure if that meant crazy woman at the gate at six o’clock was a common occurrence or he was just annoyed in general that someone dared to be there.

  “It’s some woman claiming she left some papers or something. I told her to call you, but I get the feeling that’s not high on her list of things to do.”

  He groaned loudly and cursed under his breath. Willow figured that alone meant she’d done the right thing.

  “I’m sure it’s Megan. I’ll call her and try to figure out what the hell she wants. I know there’s nothing of hers in the house, so don’t let her in. I’m at my car now, but it will take me a couple of hours to get there. Hold tight and I’ll take care of it. If she’s not gone within fifteen minutes, call me back, sweetheart.”

  Willow’s brain stuck on that last word. She stood there dumbly for a few seconds, not even realizing he’d ended the call.

  Sweetheart? Did he call everyone that? She didn’t know, and it shouldn’t have caused her stomach to flutter. Her hand drifted over her stomach trying to stop the odd sensation.

  “Brayden’s going to take care of it,” she said as she turned to Connor.

  At the mention of the man’s name, the boy’s eyes squinted slightly, but the worry she’d woken up to didn’t return. She didn’t know how much she trusted the man either. For now, though, she’d let him handle things.

  Chapter 12

  Brayden wanted to find his bed and fall into it. Running on zero sleep was one thing but dealing with Megan compounded the fact he felt like an eighteen-wheeler ran him over, and then backed up and ran him over a few more times for good measure.

  He’d accessed the front gate monitors to verify it was indeed Megan. He had no idea why his ex-fiancé decided to show up at his house, just a niggling feeling it had something to do with the fact the grapevine must have finally gotten to her about Laura moving in. He texted her, a very simple message.

  Get the fuck away from my house or I’m calling the police

  He had no patience for games at the moment. His phone was attached to the car’s Bluetooth, so he heard when the responding text came in. He hadn’t looked at it. When Laura didn’t call him back, he figured the problem was at least temporarily adverted. He didn’t think for a second Megan would sulk away to whatever crevice she’d crawled out of. It wasn’t her style.

  There was a time Brayden had admired that about her. It felt like decades had gone by instead of months. And the funny thing was that he still didn’t feel broken up about the breakup.

  After they first went their separate ways, he’d considered a weight lifted off of him. He had the time he needed to focus on Suzy and helping her get settled. He figured eventually he’d at least feel upset that three years of his life with a woman didn’t end with the walk down the aisle they both expected. But there was nothing.

  No aches in his chest. No threats of tears over what he’d lost. Not even a need to take a bottle of Scotch and drown his sorrows.

  He felt absolutely nothing for Megan, and it had taken them breaking up for him to realize it. As he reflected on that over the months they’d been apart, he found relief that they hadn’t gone through with it. Brayden had no idea how she felt, but the fact that it had taken her months to even try to contact him made him think she wasn’t all in either.

  He’d deal with her later. Much later if he had anything to do with it. The fact that she wasn’t waiting for him in his driveway was the first thing to bring a smile to his lips that day. Seeing Laura peek her head around a curtain as he pulled up only widened that smile.

  She made no move to wave or welcome him home, but the acknowledgement that she was still there and okay perked his attention. Missing her seemed foolish, since they’d barely spent more than an hour together in person. Yet, he knew the smile on his face had way more to do with the fact she was waiting for him than Megan being nowhere in sight.

  He parked in the garage and managed to pull his suitcases out of the trunk before he noticed a slight crack in the door between the garage and house. Seeing a single blue eye studying him from three feet above the floor let him know who his watcher was. He continued smiling as he closed the trunk and hefted the suitcase with a carrying strap around his shoulder and started wheeling the other behind him. When he got to the edge of the car, he called out.

  “Laura, I’m going to come through that door and don’t want to scare him. Do you have him?”

  The eye he could still see widened before disappearing out of view. At least the kid hadn’t acted like the first time they’d met. He showed interest, which beat the hell out of the fear he’d seen previously.

  “I’ve got him. Do you need any help?”

  Her voice didn’t sound as firm as it had during their phone conversations. The hesitancy he heard made him wonder if his tone had come off harsh. He hadn’t meant it to, but maybe the lack of sleep and travel got the best of him.

  “No, I can manage. I take it Megan left you alone.”

  He pushed the door open, careful not to make hasty movements. Laura seemed to be getting used to him, but Peter was a new story. Brayden needed to make sure the kid didn’t see him as a threat. If Peter showed any signs of being scared, Laura would probably have the two of them out of there before Brayden could find a way to fix things.

  “It took her about ten minutes to leave, but she stopped buzzing.”

  Brayden’s focus centered on the little boy hiding behind Laura’s left leg. He had to coax his eyes from remaining on that thin leg, which did nothing to hide the kid. That leg, and its twin had been stars in some of his dreams lately. A fact concentrating on Peter hopefully hid from his eyes.

  “Good,” he said as softly as he could. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t show up again.”

  Once he got some sleep, he’d give her a call and verify she was only trying to check out the woman who was being rumored her replacement. Suzy had been able to verify that everyone around town thought along those lines. He’d called her after it seemed the coast was clear. She’d had plenty of choice words when she heard Megan showed up, and Brayden sort of hoped Suzy would make good on some of her threats.

  “I know she wasn’t on the list you told me, but this is your house, so don’t go out of your way for us.”

  The meek voice was back in force and Brayden bit his tongue to keep from cursing. He’d expected her to ask about Megan. Every other woman he knew would have, but Laura proved once again that she was different.

  “Telling Megan to get lost wasn’t going out of my way.” He looked up to make sure she read the surety of that in his eyes. “I hope you guys have decided to stay a little longer.”

  Changing the conversation away from Megan as fast as possible was best for everyone involved. He wished the woman no harm, at least not any harm that would cause lasting damage, but his voice had a tendency to not be able to stay calm when talking about his ex.

  Laura studied him with those odd eyes of hers. He’d never seen anyone in person with eyes that color. There were some actresses who used contacts to achieve the same look, but hers were completely natural. She’d confirmed that much during one of their phone calls.

  “If you’re sure we won’t get in your way, and you still need someone to housesit. If n
ot, we can have our things packed in a few minutes and be on our way.”

  Brayden wanted to move closer to her and grab one of the hands she wrung together. They’d discussed her staying as long as she wanted. She had to know he didn’t technically need a house sitter, but he wasn’t about to tell her she could just stay. He knew she wouldn’t take anything for free. He also knew the money he promised to pay her for house sitting made a huge difference in her life.

  He’d paid her the grand before he left. She could’ve run at anytime if the money was all she wanted. She needed safety more than just money, and he’d counted on that.

  He watched as she drew her bottom lip into her mouth and bit on it softly. Along with her hands that he imagined she didn’t notice were at war with each other, her body language spoke of how nervous she was.

  “I don’t know about you, but I didn’t get much sleep last night and I’m about to fall flat on my face. Is it okay if I get a few hours sleep, then we can talk about how long you want to stay?”

  As much as he wanted to get a firm understanding that they were welcome for as long as she wanted, he really couldn’t hang much longer. Judging from the dark circles under her eyes, she could use a little rest herself.

  She nodded. “We’ll keep quiet. I can have dinner ready later, if you want.”

  The concept of food made his stomach grumble. Along with no sleep, food hadn’t been a priority. A bag of peanuts and a couple cookies wasn’t exactly the breakfast of champions, but sleep came first. He was already afraid his eyes wandered to her lips too many times. She hadn’t seemed to notice, but his mind clearly needed some sleep to get things better under control.

  “That sounds perfect. I’ll be up around noon, so we can talk. Maybe we can discuss getting some toys for Peter.”

  The boy’s eyes widened at the suggestion. Good, there wasn’t fear in them, and Brayden wasn’t against the idea of buying the kid off.

  Chapter 13

  With her scientific mind, cooking should have been easy for Willow. If she had any recipes, it probably would be, but she couldn’t find a single cookbook in Brayden’s kitchen. When he’d brought them to his place, he’d said to help themselves to anything. He had plenty of food, and she didn’t want to leave, so they’d had cereal for breakfast and peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and dinner.

  She figured the bread and milk would likely expire if they didn’t use them, so she didn’t feel too bad about eating his stuff. Although, she already planned on giving him back one of the twenties he’d given her.

  Since she was cooking for him, she figured the whole kitchen was game. That meant her cooking repertoire needed to increase a hundred-fold. Staring in the fridge, for the fifth time, she looked in the crisper drawers and found some lettuce that hadn’t been opened and didn’t look like it’d turned to brown slime yet. The fridge door had at least five different dressings, so a salad immediately made it to the menu.

  She still had hours to figure out if they were just having that salad or if she could figure out something to go along with it. A protein of some kind would be good, and he had plenty of those in the freezer. He practically had a full butcher shop in there.

  Sighing, she closed the door and thought about opening the freezer. The heat must have kicked on, because she felt abnormally warm and a cold blast from the freezer seemed like the easiest way to cool down a little.

  “Do you need me to run and pick anything else up?”

  Willow jumped when she heard the deep voice behind her. It took a good ten seconds for her heart to feel like it wouldn’t catapult out of her chest. When her breathing was almost normal, she looked over her shoulder to check on Connor, who’d taken a spot on one of the stools around the center island. His height hampered him climbing up himself, so she’d had to put him there.

  The grin on his face looked mischievous. She’d never seen the look on him, and she had to believe it had something to do with the promised toys Brayden had mentioned. Connor had been floating around since hearing that news.

  It reminded her of everything he’d missed in his life. Once they escaped and were settled in the apartment, she’d bought him a coloring book with a small set of crayons and a pair of dinosaurs from a store that touted everything under a dollar. He loved the toys and had all of them on the counter in front of him.

  “Don’t blame him for not warning you. I asked him to be quiet.”

  Willow’s attention came back to the man driving her crazy, making her realize the heat she’d felt was from the large male standing directly behind her. She hoped the small whimper she heard in her head didn’t make to her lips. She was pretty sure it wasn’t fear that caused the response. There was something about Brayden that made her feel… different. She didn’t have a name for what his presence did to her.

  “You asked him to be quiet?” She managed to squeak out.

  He shrugged and took a small step back. He’d only been a few inches from her, and the step didn’t even make it a full foot. Did people normally stand that close. No one else had with her, but every time they were in a room together, he seemed to crowd her space.

  “I went like this,” he said as he brought a finger up to his lips. “Since he smiled at me, I assumed that meant he wouldn’t sound the alarm. You know, I’m not expecting you to cook for me. I know we all have to eat, but I can cook for us or order something.”

  Now that she looked at him, she could see his wet hair slicked back. He’d taken a shower. When he’d shown up that morning, he was in a suit. She’d thought he’d looked attractive in it, but the knowledge of him being fresh from the shower and seeing his biceps bulging from his t-shirt strained her breathing. It was a crime to look the way he did. She was sure of it.

  “I figured we could have salads and some of the steaks from the freezer. Me and Peter can share one. How many do you want?”

  The fact that there were about thirty in there made her think maybe one wasn’t enough for him. She’d seen the prices on them and had almost said she’d settle for just a salad.

  With his promise of toys for Connor, which she wouldn’t let him buy, but at the same time couldn’t let the boy down, her budget was already going to take a little hit. Adding in another twenty for food wouldn’t break the bank, but it felt like the thousand dollars he’d given her would soon be nine hundred. In the grand scheme of things, she still had more money than she’d ever had, but they could eat for a full month with a hundred dollars if she spent it right.

  “Please tell me all those facial gestures weren’t you calculating how much you owe me for the food you’ve eaten or are going to eat.”

  Her eyes widened, and she wondered if she’d let something slip as she did the math. There was no way he could tell that was where her mind went.

  “Really, Laura? I told you to help yourself to anything. You guys have eaten this week, right?”

  He looked grief-stricken by the idea that they hadn’t. She didn’t need a reminder of what he’d told her, nor did she think she needed to remind him she replied by saying she didn’t take handouts.

  “We ate. I figure with the steak for dinner, I’m going to owe you thirty bucks.”

  His face quickly changed into one she’d seen many times on another man. With the fridge against her back, there was no space for her to step away from the look she’d come to correlate with physical punishment. Something must have shown on her face, because his expression moved to a sympathetic one before she could blink.

  “Don’t think for a second I would ever hurt you or Peter. It just frustrates me that you think I’m going to let you pay me back for the food. As far as I’m concerned, the job comes with a salary, a place to live and food.”

  He ran his hand through his hair and sighed. Then he glanced over his shoulder. Her eyes were glued to him, watching to see if his mood reverted to a darker one. She was used to a man who could change between emotions fast enough it gave her whiplash.

  When Brayden turned back to her, a smil
e spread across his face. She studied it, trying to decide if she really could trust the man. He’d asked her to almost every night they spent talking on the phone. She’d been non-committal, and he claimed he understood.

  She wasn’t sure how in the world he could. Even with his sister’s experiences, he didn’t go through them. He had no idea what it was like to be a prisoner, never knowing whether he would live to see the next day.

  “What exactly do you expect me to do for that incentive package? I think we both know the house-sitting position isn’t something you need. I went along with it because we need the money, but if we’re sticking around, you’ve got to let me do something.”

  Willow had absolutely no clue what she could do for him. Her skills focused so much on chemistry and medicine. Neither of which he probably needed an on-staff expert for. She’d been surprised that the big house didn’t actually have a staff. Over the last week she’d expected at least a house cleaner to show up, but the only people to show up were delivery drivers. And of course the annoying visitor that morning.

  His eyes darkened as he studied her. It wasn’t the same expression as when she thought he would hit her. She didn’t know what it should convey, but it wasn’t totally anger. She assumed that was a good thing.

  “I don’t understand you. I just want to provide you both with a safe place to recover and heal from whatever’s been done to you. Can’t you let me do that without fighting me for it?”

  Willow didn’t even have to think about her response. He’d heard the same thing plenty of times. He had to know it was coming.

  “I don’t take handouts,” she said slowly. At some point it had to sink into his thick skull.

  Rolling his eyes, he took a deep breath. She thought maybe she’d finally pushed him over the breaking point, but he reached out and his hand touched and stroked down her arm. The move at first made her skin catch on fire where he touched, but then a chill raced up her spine. And when he withdrew his hand, she felt somehow bereft. It made no sense. Of course, very little had where he was concerned.