by Cat Johnson
Ashley would know where. As teens they’d both snuck out of their houses enough times to be together.
A crease marred her pretty brow. “I don’t know—”
“Please.”
Ashley drew in a breath. “Maybe. Now, let me pour this dang tea and get it to Miss Eleanor. She’s fixin’ to pitch a fit if I don’t.”
“Okay.” He released her, but it was with a smile on his face as he did it.
Gone was Ashley’s mature professional persona that he’d found so strange and jarring since he’d found her at the door. Back was the girl he remembered. The one who said fixin’ and would do anything she could to avoid disappointing or upsetting the Cassidys.
Both sides of Ashley had merit, but this was the one he’d once loved.
Hell, he was pretty sure part of him always would.
CHAPTER 6
“Everything go a’ight at the Cassidy’s today?” Nana stood at the sink, hand-washing the supper dishes when they had a perfectly good dishwasher she could use. One Ashley had bought her with one of her first paychecks when she’d gotten the job at the hospital.
After Nana’s wrist had healed, Ashley had realized it was a losing battle. She couldn’t convince her grandmother to use the automatic machine on a regular basis.
The woman was old school and stubborn. Just like Miss Eleanor. Which was exactly why Ashley had no business kissing Brody in the kitchen today with his grandmother just down the hallway. And why she shouldn’t even consider meeting him later tonight.
So why was her pulse racing just thinking about the possibility?
“Yeah.” Ashley answered her grandmother’s question and then hesitated before adding. “Brody’s home.”
Nana flipped off the water and turned to face her. While grabbing a dishtowel to dry her hands, she said, “About time. It’s been too long since that boy visited his folks.”
“And far too long since I’ve seen you. Hey, Nana.”
Ashley’s eyes flew wide at the sound of his voice behind her. She spun to see Brody in the kitchen doorway.
“Brody Cole Cassidy, I know that your momma taught you to knock.”
He grinned wide at Nana’s censure as he strode across the kitchen. “Yes, ma’am, but Uncle Sam taught me even better how to sneak up on people and that’s so much more fun.”
Brody wrapped his arms around Nana. He lifted her until her feet no longer touched the ground, proof Uncle Sam had also given him some pretty strong muscles, as well, since Nana wasn’t a small woman.
She slapped at his arms. “Put me down, boy.”
Still smiling, he did as she asked, but he didn’t take his hands off her waist. “Yes, ma’am.”
Even as she was scolding him, Nana hadn’t been able to completely hide the twitch of her own smile.
“Did you eat supper?” she asked.
“Yes, but I might as well not have since it wasn’t your fine cooking.” He dropped his hold on her and moved to the pot still on the stove. He sniffed the air and even before he lifted the lid, he glanced at Nana and asked, “Chicken and dumplings?”
“It sure enough is. I see your nose is just as sharp as always.” Nana was already reaching for one of the plates she’d just washed. “Sit yourself down. I’ll serve you.”
“Thank you.” He looked like the teenage version of himself as he pulled out a chair and sat opposite Ashley at the table. “Hey, Ash.”
That was it? He’d kissed the hell out of her in his family’s kitchen, and then had followed her, uninvited, to her home, and all she got was a hey?
Of course, there was a good possibility he really was here for her grandmother—and the chicken and dumplings. Ashley knew Brody had truly loved both things—Nana and her cooking—while growing up.
Nana slid an overloaded plate of food in front of Brody.
As he tucked into it, Ashley wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or relieved that he’d apparently come there tonight for Nana’s food and not to see her.
“So, Ashley, got any plans for tonight?” The heat in Brody’s eyes as he asked the question between forkfuls clued her into the fact that Brody’s visit might have multiple purposes.
“Plans? Nope. Some of us have to work in the morning, you know.” She could tease him just as well as he could tease her.
“Aw, come on. How much work could taking care of one eighty year old lady be?” His lips quirked with a smile as Nana let out a snort.
She faced the sink where she’d begun to scrub the now empty chicken pot. “Lord, you know the answer to that, child.”
“Ashley can handle it, Nana. I’m sure of it. She’s very capable.”
“Being capable ain’t the problem and you know it.”
“Now, Nana. You keep talking like that and I’m going to begin to think you’re insinuating Miss Eleanor can be difficult.” Brody smiled.
“Pfft. Ain’t nothing I haven’t told her myself and you know it.”
Ashley grinned at the truth of it. Nana and Miss Eleanor always had a strange relationship. Nana was respectful but she’d never pulled any punches, and Miss Eleanor seemed to respect her more for it.
If Ashley had half the guts her grandmother had, things might have worked out very differently. She would have let Brody tell his family they were dating. She would have taken on the world of being a student and a wife without fear.
She glanced at Brody as he shoveled another forkful into his mouth, silently because how could he talk when he was eating so fast? He and Chris had always eaten like the hounds were about to steal their food if they didn’t get to it first.
He was so familiar, yet at the same time, almost a stranger at this point.
What would have happened if she’d made a different decision back then? What was stopping her from making a different decision now?
It was crazy. He’d asked her to meet him, which must mean he was single.
She knew him enough to know what that would mean if she did meet him. They’d be tangled up and naked before the dew settled on them.
Then what?
She knew the answer to that. He would go back to Virginia on Sunday and she would stay here and continue to work, because nothing had changed in that regard. His life, his future, was still the military and hers was still nursing.
“How’s your brother been?” Nana asked, dishtowel in her hand.
“He’s good. He’s got himself a girlfriend. They seem pretty serious too. I think this might be it for him.” Brody’s eyes were bright as he passed along that information about his brother. Probably because he knew how shocked they’d all be at the news.
Chris—who’d reached the age of forty still a bachelor—had a girlfriend.
“About time. I never thought that boy would settle down.” Nana echoed Ashley’s thoughts aloud.
Brody let out a huff. “You and me both.”
“And what about you?” Nana asked.
“What about me?” Brody leaned back from the table and pressed a hand to his stomach as if he was stuffed.
Meanwhile, all Ashley could notice was how his T-shirt clung to the torso defined beneath the tight cotton. She could see every ridge and bulge of his muscles.
There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him but more than that, she could see the boy she’d known had definitely filled out and become a man.
“You got a girl?” Nana’s question brought Ashley’s attention up from her perusal of the changes in Brody’s body and on to the topic of if that body belonged to another woman.
His eyes connected with Ashley’s as he said, “Nope.”
“Why not?”
He turned to Nana to answer that question. “Who’d want me?”
Nana tipped her head to the side. “Eh, I bet I could find a girl or two who might.”
“Well, please not on this visit. My dance card’s full this week.” He turned a meaningful glance toward Ashley before pushing his chair back from the table. Brody stood and turned toward Nana. “I’m saving all my tim
e for my favorite girls. You. Grandmother. Mother. And Ash. Ain’t got no time for anyone else besides the most important women in my life on this trip.”
Nana dismissed his flattery with a mock scowl. “Uncle Sam train you how to lie too?”
“As a matter of fact, he did. Thank you for dinner.” Brody grinned and pressed a kiss to Nana’s cheek. He glanced at Ashley and said, “See ya.”
Before he turned to leave the way he’d come his gaze told Ashley he’d still like to see her sooner rather than later. Tonight. At their place where they used to meet.
After the door closed behind him, Nana let out a breath. “That boy’s still a whole mess of trouble. Time hasn’t changed that any.”
“No, it hasn’t.” Ashley had to agree.
Getting involved with Brody again would bring her nothing but trouble.
Even so, in the back of her mind she was running through a plan of how and when she’d slip out to meet him.
CHAPTER 7
Dressed in PT clothes, Brody leaned into the doorway of the room where his mother and father were watching television. “I’m going out for a run.”
His father glanced up. “Now? It’s nearly nine o’clock.”
“I’m used to keeping strange hours. Besides, it’s still too hot to run in the daytime.”
His mother stood and moved toward him. She stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll say goodnight then. Your father and I will likely be asleep by the time you get back.”
“Okay. Goodnight. See you two in the morning.”
There were many hours before then, and Brody had great hopes for that time . . . if Ashley came through and met him at their place.
He headed out the front door and ran on the road until he was out of sight of the house. Slowing his pace, he cut through a patch of trees and emerged along the edge of the town park.
It had been years since he’d been there with Ashley, but his heart pounded at memories that were as fresh as if he’d lived it all yesterday.
If things hadn’t changed, she should be there any moment. Nana was a creature of habit. She’d watch television until nine and then head to bed. That was when Ashley had always slipped out of the house to meet him.
Back then she’d taken her bike. Would she now? He smiled at the thought, though more likely she’d drive her car.
He leaned against a tree and settled in to wait. If she was coming it would be soon.
What if she didn’t show? Well then, he should probably thank God for saving him from making a huge mistake because deep down he knew reigniting things with Ashley could be the stupidest thing he’d done in recent memory.
With a deep breath, he sat on one of the swings. He was a little big for the child-sized swing set but that didn’t stop him. He’d resigned himself to wait and see how the night would play out and he didn’t feel like sitting on the ground to do it.
Besides the swing seemed like a less absurd choice for an adult male than the teeter-totter and the merry-go-round, though not by much.
Brody’s cell phone vibrated in the pocket of his shorts. He had to stand to wrestle it out. For a brief moment, when he didn’t recognize the number, he thought it might be Ashley. But she wouldn’t know his number since he’d never given it to her.
“Hello?”
“Bro. Are you stateside yet?” Chris’s voice, not quite clear, came through the phone.
“I am and it’s about damn time you called me. I’ve been back in the country for days. I left you all kinds of messages and a note on the counter at our place.”
“Well, since I’m not in the country you’ll have to forgive me. My cell doesn’t work here so I jumped on Jon’s sat phone.”
Brody frowned at that little piece of news that Chris was working out of the country with GAPS. “I didn’t realize your job was OCONUS. Where the hell you at?”
Chris hesitated before he said, “This isn’t a secure line.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Eyes wide at that, Brody had to wonder what the hell kind of job Jon had landed for the company.
“Look, relax. I’m not saying you don’t have the clearance to hear where I am or that I don’t trust you. I’m just saying this isn’t a secure line.” Chris drew in an audible breath. “Remember the op last year while Jon and Zane were still in, and y’all had to swoop in and save a certain pretty young school teacher from the bad guys?”
“Yup.” Brody remembered it well.
It wasn’t every day a senator’s daughter got kidnapped along with a class of schoolgirls. Zane had practically lost his mind during that situation since he’d been getting very friendly with Missy before that.
“Well, we got the same target and the same location.”
Brody gathered from Chris’s hints that somehow GAPS must be in Nigeria working against Boko Haram, the organization responsible for the kidnappings.
“But not the same package being recovered, I hope.”
Chris chuckled. “No. As far as I know Missy is safely back in D.C., as if Zane would ever let her put herself in that position again.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so.” Brody had seen what had been done to those girls. Missy and her fellow teacher were damn lucky the team had found them as soon as they did.
“Sorry I wasn’t there when you got home. I owe you a beer when I get back to Virginia.”
“Damn right you do, but actually I’m on leave in Alabama.”
“Kiss ass. Now I’m gonna look like the bad son that I’m not there too.”
“Yup.” Brody grinned, knowing Chris was only half kidding since their grandmother had already commented on Chris’s absence. “Don’t worry. I’ll tell Grandmother you’re too busy fighting bad guys to come home for a visit.”
“Great. Thanks. That should go over like a fart in church. She didn’t like me being away when I was active. She sure as shit ain’t gonna understand it now I’m retired.”
“Oh well. Guess you’re out of the will then.”
“Dickhead.”
Brody grinned. He’d missed his brother, though he didn’t feel compelled to tell him that. As he was enjoying the banter, a sound caught his attention. If he wasn’t mistaken it was bicycle tires on grass.
Holy shit, Ashley was here and—just like in his imaginings—she’d arrived just as she used to in the old days. If that wasn’t a sign that nothing had changed between them, at least in the physical department, he didn’t know what was.
“Bro, I gotta go.”
“What do you mean you gotta go? You’re in Alabama with our parents and eighty year old grandmother. What the hell do you have to do instead of talk to me?”
“It’s like nine-thirty here, dude. All the old folks are probably in bed by now.”
“You’re with a girl,” Chris guessed.
“Not yet but in about thirty seconds I will be so yeah, love ya, get home safe, but I’m outta here. Bye.”
Chris was in the middle of a colorful cuss as Brody hit to disconnect the call.
Smiling, he shoved the cell in his pocket and watched Ashley bring the bike to a stop.
What a difference a day made. If someone had told him yesterday he’d be practically jogging to get to Ashley, he would have told them they were nuts, after he’d punched them. But that was exactly what was happening.
She was here, after dark, at their old rendezvous spot, and that could mean only one thing. He hoped beyond reason that her appearance here meant that she wanted to take a trip back to revisit their past together as much as he did.
He reached her in no time. She swung one long leg over the seat to stand on two feet and then leaned the bike against a tree.
“Hey.” She looked shy as she raised her gaze to meet his.
“Hey, yourself.” There was no stopping Brody as he strode forward to cover the very short distance left between them.
He rested his hands on her hips, resisting the urge to do more before deciding he didn’t want to hold back. Backing Ashley up un
til she was up against the tree he covered her mouth with his.
His hands didn’t stay on her waist as the kiss got intense. Before he knew it, the skirt of her sundress was hiked up around her waist and he was pretty sure it had been his doing.
He was slipping his hand beneath the fabric of her underwear when she pulled back and said his name.
Drawing in a deep breath he got himself under control. “Yeah?”
Wincing, she reached up to touch her head. “My hair’s stuck on something.”
She wasn’t asking him to stop, just telling him she was stuck on the tree.
He let out a breath in relief and reached up. Running his hand over her head he found the broken off branch that had snagged her hair.
After untangling her, he smiled. “Better?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” His heart was pounding so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if she felt it. That didn’t stop him from picking right back up where he had left off.
If she wanted him to stop, she was going to have to ask. If she did, he’d stop, but until then there was nothing that was going to prevent Brody from having her.
He moved his hand around and ran his thumb over her bottom lip. Her lips parted and he could swear she trembled beneath his touch.
They were both far from virgins, but damned if she wasn’t shaking. Him too, but that was from need and—if he was being honest with himself—the emotions pummeling him inside.
Being with Ashley wasn’t going to be easy. As much as he wanted this, and make no mistake he did want it, this was not some quick hook-up. There was too much history between them.
A man couldn’t have a one-night stand with the woman who’d once been his world. Who’d loved him and then left him beaten and battered.
Maybe he should thank her.
It was his trying to get over her that had gotten him through BUD/S. It was the memory of her refusing to even touch the tiny little chip of a diamond promise ring he’d bought her as an engagement ring that had him running full on into any challenge thrown at him.
Nothing the Navy could have done to him could have hurt him as much as Ashley had.
The painful memories had him crashing his mouth against hers. Claiming her with a rough crushing kiss.