by Brill Harper
I pick my head up and find a tissue.
Damn straight I can do this.
“You keep throwing around marriage, Leo. That’s not normal. And I’m going to table the wedding discussion until you’re not high on morphine. But if you’re asking me if I can handle the pressure of loving you. Then yes. I want to be with you, and I know I have to be brave. I can do it.”
“Hey, I mentioned marriage before the morphine too.” He gestures for me to give him my hand back. “Marry me.”
My head spins at his words. I don’t think I can catch my breath, much less form my own words back, but somebody says, “Yes,” and it sounds like me.
He smiles and kisses my knuckles. “I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you so happy you never realize what a mistake you just made.”
“I’ll settle for no more emergency hospital visits. And lots of sex.”
He laughs hard and then winces. “That’s probably going to have to wait a day or two.”
Pain is etched on his face.
“Oh, Leo. Are you okay?”
“It only hurts when I laugh.”
I make comforting noises and bring him the tiny bit of water he’s allowed to drink through a straw.
“Leo, oh my God,” a voice comes from the door.
“Here we go,” he groans.
A woman in a retro dress with lemons and the most kick-ass shoes sort of blows into the room the way a category five hurricane might. She’s got a pierced nose and tattoos and she’s carrying a cat.
“Why did you not call a single member of your family when you were rushed to the hospital?” She stops, notices me, looks at my hand linked with Leo’s. “And you have a girlfriend?”
“Stella, you can’t bring a cat into the hospital.”
“I couldn’t leave it at the shelter. It has anxiety. And don’t change the subject. What is going on and who is this delicious woman holding your hand?” She rakes her gaze over me, assessing. “You’re the librarian, aren’t you? I think I saw you at the grocery store the other day and I asked the checker who you were, and she told me you worked at the library. Said you’ve been here for a while, but you must not go out much. You want a cat? I mean, I know that’s cliché and all, but this one needs a home.” She holds him up like maybe I hadn’t noticed she was carrying a cat. “Also, are you having sex with my brother? I mean, I think you can do a lot better, and he doesn’t like cats.”
“Stella,” Leo warns.
I reach my hand across the bed to her. “I’m actually marrying your brother. My name is Dixie, and I have always wanted a cat. My landlord won’t let me have one, though.”
“You can keep him at Leo’s.”
“Goddammit, Stella,” Leo says, but there’s no heat in it. “You did that on purpose.”
“What?” she asks, the picture of innocence. “Cats are very independent. I’ve been telling you for years you should have a cat to come home to. He won’t mind your long days. And now you have a girlfriend he can keep company.”
He groans. “Can you at least not tell the family yet? I’d like to introduce Dixie properly before everyone starts making unnecessary trips to the library to stalk her.”
“Maybe.” She hands me the cat, and I move out of the way so she can sit next to her brother. “I can’t believe you didn’t call.”
“I was busy getting cut open.”
She forces the story of how we met out of him. Leo and I make an eye-agreement to just go with the internet dating explanation. It seems easiest. And she blows out of the room pretty much the way she came into it, promising to bring the cat to me tomorrow.
I start dimming the lights when she leaves. “You look tuckered out.”
“She’s exhausting.”
“She loves you.”
“She is like a sanity vampire. She sucks it right out of a person.”
The hospital starts quieting down as much as a hospital can. Despite my objections, Leo forces me to join him on the bed.
“You just had surgery. You need to rest.”
“I’m not asking you up here to have sex with me. I want to hold you. I want to fall asleep with you. I missed that last night. Knowing you were asleep in my bed wasn’t the same.”
When I curl into his body, when his arm is around me, when my eyelids start to get heavy, he says, “I love you. Don’t forget to buy bread.”
I can’t wait for the rest of our lives to start.
My last thought before I fall asleep is ...holy shit, I forgot to call my parents and let them know I wasn’t coming over on the ferry tonight. They were going to be very displeased with me.
Oh, well.
Chapter Seven
Leo
Two Weeks Later
WE WALK INTO IRONWING Pub holding hands. It feels good to bring her out into the light after we’ve been cooped up at my house for two weeks. She’s been a patient nurse, but I’m getting impatient. I want more. Not just the sex she’s been denying us until she thinks I’m healed. I want that too. But I want us to start living our real life, not the insulated version we’ve had. Not that I don’t like having her all to myself, but I’m ready to integrate our lives together.
She won’t talk about getting married, despite the fact that I remember her saying yes. I’m not completely sure she believes this will last in the real world, and I’m desperate to show her it will.
And having a drink at the bar when I know my crew will be playing darts is a good step.
Especially since this is the bar where I got that first wrong number text.
“Are you sure you’re up for this?” she asks. Her concern is genuine, but the way she’s biting her lip and squeezing my hand lets me know she’s the one who needs reassurance.
“It was a short walk, sweetheart. We’ll sit, have a drink, and then walk home.” Where I plan to seduce her in short order. I’m perfectly healed. Well, not perfectly. But I’m perfectly horny. I love having her fall asleep and wake up in my arms every day—but I need back inside her.
I nod to Jenkins, and the guys across the room at the dartboard, and we take two seats at the bar. Nash is at the other end, lining up shots, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The lighting is dim, and the sound on the Mariners game is off, but they’re winning, so that’s a plus.
Nash lifts his chin in my direction, and I hold up two fingers. “Well, look who graced my bar with his presence. It’s the local hero.” He sends his lady-killer smile at my woman to piss me off. “And this must be Dixie. We’ve heard a lot about you. Glad you made it by my establishment finally.”
She blushes. “I don’t get out much.”
“Well, I’m Nash. When you get tired of this clown, you look me up.”
“Are you looking to lose some teeth, McKendrick?”
He laughs and pours our beer. I like this dive bar. We all do. It suits us. It’s not pretty, but it’s friendly and clean, and who wants a pretty dive bar anyway?
“So,” Dixie says to Nash, “isn’t Ironwing the name of a band from the ‘80s? Why did you name your bar that?”
Nash’s eyebrows shoot way up, and he looks at me like he owns my ass now. “You haven’t told her?” Nash can be real evil and my goose is thoroughly cooked.
“It hasn’t come up,” I mumble, hoping it’s the end of it. I was hoping for a little more time.
“What hasn’t come up?” she asks.
His roar of laughter would be comical if it weren’t at my expense. “Ironwing is from Brazen Bay; they graduated from Brazen Bay High. Three of the band members live here in town still. My father is one of them. And Leo’s father is another.”
Oh, hell.
“Your dad is a rock star?” Her eyes get big. “For real?”
I swig as much as I can without looking like I’m at a college kegger. “Yeah. He, ah, played bass. It was just the one album.”
Dixie pulls out her phone, which I try to grab, but she’s wily when she wants to be and swivels her chair seat so she can Googl
e. “Oh my God. Your dad...”
“Is wearing assless chaps and has a mullet. I know. Believe me, I know.”
My dad is now a very fine lawyer, but once upon a time, he was in a one-hit wonder band that epitomized the culture of the ‘80s rock and roll scene. My sister Megan and I were both always very embarrassed by the attention he got, as well as the pictures we could never get away from. Stella, well, Stella always thought it was cool. But Stella has always been weird.
“Why didn’t you tell me? This is fantastic.”
I’m not ashamed of my dad. Not at all. He is a good man. A great father.
Nash heads down the bar again to leave me to explain. “I was worried that your parents would take that as another strike against me.”
She tilts her head thoughtfully. “Strike against you?”
“They already think I’ve brainwashed you somehow. They haven’t even met me.”
“You’re a wonderful man. When they do meet you, they are going to love you.”
Considering the near-constant thoughts I have about ravishing their only daughter, I doubt that. “When our daughter brings home some guy old enough to be her father, I’m sure we’ll have a different attitude.”
She chokes on her beer and grabs a napkin to mop her chin. “First of all, you are not old enough to be my father.”
I take a deep breath. It doesn’t help. I don’t like the tightness in my chest. “I’m not terrified of much, sweetheart. But I am terrified that I could lose you.”
“Leo, you’re not going to lose me.”
I grab her hand, not realizing until this moment how unprepared I am for this kind of lack of confidence in myself. This really never happens to me. I’ve always been the one who knows the plan and implements it. The idea that I might have a plan that won’t work is terrifying.
I study her face. Her beautiful face. Her soft, sweet mouth. Her serious pale eyes, so full of love. For me. “Not used to being needy.”
She smiles kindly, almost amused. I’m sure it’s a sight. A big strong man totally whipped by a tiny woman who thinks she’s a mouse. As I continue to stare, color flushes her cheeks. Something unspoken passes between us, but I need to speak it. I skim my thumb over her knuckles. She leans into me, brushing her lips over mine softly until she pulls back. “Will you marry me, Leo?”
My heart drums quickly, building in intensity. “Is this what you really want? Because I’m just selfish enough to take whatever you give me whether or not it’s best for you.”
“That is the worst answer to a marriage proposal ever. Try again.” When I hesitate, she supplies, “Leo, you are the answer to every dream I’ve ever had. I’m not going to be swayed by my parents or anyone else. I need you to believe in me as much as I believe in you. Even if your dad wears assless chaps.”
“One time. He wore assless chaps one time.”
I kiss her this time. Harder, angling so I can deepen the kiss. I love the way her bones soften like butter when I touch her. My hand itches to touch her more boldly, but I’m jolted back to reality when some asshole, most likely Nash, puts “Bold” on the jukebox and the whole bar starts singing to the lyrics of Ironwing’s only hit record like it’s the national anthem and not a tired song in a tired bar.
Dixie giggles against my mouth. “I think I should walk down the aisle to this song.”
“Aisle? You guys set a date?” I hear Stella ask from too close to me. Damn. So much for getting out of here.
“Are you guys getting married?” my other sister asks and I groan again. “I came over here to tell you I just sold the house next to you and I see you kissing some girl I’ve never met and talking about weddings?”
I ease back. “Megan, this is Dixie, my fiancée. Dixie, this is Megan, my mostly normal sibling.”
“Hey!” Stella shoots back. “What’s so great about normal?”
As usual, Megan looks like she just came from a ladies’ luncheon right down to her out-of-place pearls. Stella looks a bit like she’s wearing last night’s dress.
We make small talk for a few minutes. My new neighbors are a young married couple. Sounds like he is a mystery writer and she edits his work. Stella and Dixie talk about the cat, who I’ve been calling Cat despite the fact that I’m told his name is Socks. And then Megan offers words that chill me to my marrow.
“Hey, can I be your wedding planner?”
Stella and I wince to each other. Megan is Type-A with a Type-A chaser. Dixie is unfortunately unaware and agrees wholeheartedly. Nash, despite being an asshole, hears the news and offers a round of beer on the house.
Since there are about ten people in the bar, it’s not really a grand gesture, but as my crew offers congratulations, and Jenkins slaps my back, and my sisters rally around my blushing bride-to-be, I smile at the phone I used to scowl at when I see it light up with a text from Dixie near the door.
Dixie: Do you want to know what I’m wearing?
Leo: I can see what you are wearing.
Dixie: Do you want to know what I’m not wearing?
Leo: You dirty little minx.
Leo: I think you might be a bad girl.
Dixie: I think you just have a thing for naughty librarians.
Leo: God, yes. Brainy girls are hot.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED Leo and Dixie as much as I did. And I hope you continue reading the Brazen Bay series to learn more about Nash, Stella, and the mysterious new neighbors moving in next door to Leo and Dixie.
Each story will be standalone, but you’ll get to see Leo and Dixie again in each book as their wedding gets closer. The Right Stuff is about Nash, the owner of Ironwing, and Tru who is forced to move to Brazen Bay when she finds out her fortune has gone to the Cayman Islands with her ex and all she has left in the world is her investment in a little dive bar named after a one-hit wonder band.
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Did you love Wrong Number Text? Then you should read The Right Stuff by Brill Harper!
After being cleaned out by her bigamist embezzling husband, socially awkward academic Tru Stanhope finds herself with one remaining asset: a dive bar in the podunk town of Brazen Bay. Well, half a bar. The other half is owned by the infuriatingly hot Nash McKendrick. He doesn't want to sell and he really doesn't want his once silent business partner to have anything to do with his one true love--the pub.
Nash liked his solitary life just fine before highbrow and pretentious Tru brought trouble, and her little yappy dog, to darken his door. She may be intellectual, but she knows nothing about the real world and shockingly less about men. He's pretty sure he can handle the mousy little scholar, he just needs to figure out what makes her tick. She's just a woman, after all. And women tend to fall all over themselves around him. He'll just lay on the charm, sweet talk her into doing what he wants, and send her on her way to a life better suited for her so he can get back to his.
But Tru has different ideas. She's tired of the sheltered life she's lived until now. She wants to experience real passion, a real career, and a real purpose in life. And she's decided Nash is going to help her with all three.
Author Confession: Nash could have any woman he wanted, so I deliberately gave him the one he doesn't want. Because authors are evil and I like trouble. I hope you enjoy the opposites attract trope as much as I love writing it. This is book #2 in the Love in Brazen Bay series, but they are standalone. HEA guaranteed.
Read more at Brill Harper’s site.
Also by Brill Harper
Blue Collar Bad Boys
Bounced: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Na
iled: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Drilled: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Wrecked: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Laid: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Tagged: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Christmas
Plowed: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Bucked: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Banged: A Blue Collar Bad Boys Book
Tapped: A Blue Collar Bad Boy Book
Love in Brazen Bay
Wrong Number Text (Coming Soon)
The Right Stuff (Coming Soon)
Standalone
Dirty Jobs: a Blue Collar Bad Boys Collection
Notch on His Bedpost
Honeymoon With The Prince::A Modern Day Fairy Tale
Altogether: MMF Bisexual Menage Romance
Watch for more at Brill Harper’s site.
About the Author
Unfailingly filthy...and super sweet
Brill Harper is a pseudonym. Like…a secret identity. By day she’s Clark Kent, writing romance books for young adults and grownups. By night, she’s Brill Harper writing unfailingly filthy, yet super sweet books, that would make her alter ego blush.
She especially likes to writes book about quirky, awkward heroines and alpha bad boys. Well, except that they are really alphamallows once they fall in love. Seriously--these heroes only have one weakness, and it's sticky, sweet love. They don't let anything stand in the way of taking what belongs to them. Ooey-gooey marshmallow hearts in big, burly dominating dudes. What's not to love about that?
Brill's books are filthy/sweet for when you're in the mood for something a little over the top. Okay, a lot over the top. Sorry, not sorry.
Brill Harper is represented by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency.