How could I subject him to my family?
Two days later Brady joined me for a workout at the gym. His staff watched us with smirks on their faces, but no one said anything. “You don’t do this much, do you?”
“Do what?” Brady asked, utterly confused.
“Work out with a client.”
“Oh, uh, no. I never do.”
“Never? Why never?”
He shrugged. “I keep to myself. If I do venture out here during the day it’s rare that I talk to many people. My employees can handle things, but they know where to find me if they need something.”
“Why did you buy the gym?” I asked, curious to know more about him.
He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I liked it. The gym, I mean. I owned Dave’s Gym when it was smaller, just a basement gym, but I wanted it to be more. When this space opened up I grabbed it.”
He shrugged like it was no big deal, but I could tell there was more to the story. A lot more. Brady had lots of secrets, but he wasn’t big on sharing them.
“What are you doing tomorrow?” he asked.
“Um, I’m busy actually,” I stammered, not sure where we were going.
“Really? Are you working?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m off. I just have plans.”
“Oh,” he sounded disappointed. Damn, he thought I had a date.
“It’s not like that. I’m just going to my parents’ house.”
“Oh,” Brady sounded a little brighter, but not much.
“They always have a cookout for the 4th and we watch the fireworks from the neighborhood park. It’s one of my favorite holidays so I like to go see fireworks and celebrate, dress up in flag clothes and be kind of silly.”
“That sounds fun. I was going to see if you wanted to spend the day together, but it’s okay.”
Aw, crap. I wanted to see Brady, a hell of a lot more than I wanted to see my family. But I still didn’t know if I could do that to him.
“You can come with me, if you want.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose. I’m sure your family doesn’t want to meet me.”
I sighed. “Actually, they do. I sort of mentioned you to my mom the other day and she’s expecting you to come.”
His intense gaze cut through my shit and went straight to the heart of the matter. So did his words. “Why didn’t you want to tell me?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and willed myself to get through it. Brady rested a hand on my arm and let it drift down until he wound our fingers together. “What’s going on, Sam?”
“I didn’t know if you were ready to meet my family. We’ve only been seeing each other for a couple weeks and I worried you might think I was pushing you too fast. If you think that, it’s okay. It’s just my mom is sort of crazy about getting my life fixed up and she wanted me to sign up for online dating and I blurted out that I was seeing you without thinking about it and she latched onto it. So now she wants to meet you but she never bothered to ask if you were free or if I was ready to introduce you or anything and I’m sort of freaking out.”
Brady laughed and tucked my head under his chin. “I can see that. It sounds like we’ve got ourselves a little problem. First, you need to decide if you want to spend time with me tomorrow. Second, if you do, you need to tell me if you’re ready for me to meet your parents.”
“Oh, it’s not just my parents,” I interrupted him. “It’s my parents, my sister and her perfect family, and my brother and his perfect family. I’m the black sheep. The one without a decent job, without a spouse, without kids, and, according to my mother, without a real shot at a good future.”
He cupped my cheeks in his hands and turned my face up to his. He kissed me softly, gently letting our lips touch until I felt the fight leaving me and desire seep in. Then he pulled back.
“I’d be more than happy to go with you tomorrow. I’d love to spend the day with you, and meeting this perfect family will be interesting. I don’t know anything about those so it’ll be good to see one in action.”
“Brady, you don’t have to do this. It’s too soon.”
“Not for me, Sam. I’d love to meet your family. But if you’re not ready to introduce me, that’s up to you.”
I shook my head and knew the truth. “I want you to meet them. If you’re sure.”
Brady kissed me again, this time letting his tongue slip into my mouth. I held onto him tightly and tried to forget about everything except Brady. When he pulled back it was too soon, but just right. I could see the haze of desire in Brady’s eyes and felt powerful knowing I’d put it there.
And with him by my side, even facing my mother for a day didn’t seem too daunting.
~*~
I shouldn’t have been so confident. My mother outdid herself. The second we walked in the door she sized Brady up and decided he was another project. One she wasn’t willing to take on herself and wasn’t possible for her daughter.
Thankfully Brady didn’t seem phased by it at all. He laid on the charm for my mom anyway, not that she noticed. “Mrs. Reed, you have a beautiful home. It’s clear you have impeccable taste.”
“Yes, well, my husband has worked very hard for everything we have. He’s a police officer for the city of Buffalo,” Mom said proudly.
“That’s impressive,” Brady said as though he didn’t know. He took me to lunch and I spent the last three hours briefing him on every detail of my family so he’d know what to say and what topics to skip. Not to mention who everyone was and how perfect they all were in comparison to me.
“Yes, it is. He’s a strong man. Smart, too. What is it you do Brady?”
I bristled, knowing how Mom felt about entrepreneurship and self-employment. As soon as she found out Brady owned his own gym it would be over.
“I own Dave’s Gym, where Sam and I met.”
Mom laughed and swatted at an invisible fly. “Oh, you must be joking. Samantha thinks exercise is a form of torture invented by skinny people.”
Yeah, I guess I’d said that a few too many times.
Brady chuckled good-naturedly and said, “No, I’m not joking. Sam’s been coming to my gym for almost a month now. Not that she needs to lose any weight to be beautiful.”
I smiled gratefully at Brady as I waited for Mom’s next move. No doubt it would be-
“Samantha could stand to lose a good bit of weight. She’s always been a fat one. Even when they were kids. She’d rather be inside watching TV than outside or doing anything athletic.”
I felt Brady bristle beside me and squeezed his arm before he said anything he couldn’t take back. He softened just slightly and looked down at me with pity I didn’t want to see in his eyes. I raised my eyebrows and rolled my eyes so he knew I was used to it.
“I think Sam’s beautiful. I’m all for being healthy, but not for losing weight just to look a certain way. Sam doesn’t need that.”
“I would think owning a gym that you would be all for making sure people want to lose a lot of weight.”
“Mom, where’s Dad?” I asked, attempting to interrupt the tension building between them I might think my mom was nuts, but Brady didn’t need to be subjected to her. Which was why I didn’t want to bring him in the first place.
Mom glared at me then rolled her eyes in Brady’s direction. Finally she nodded toward the back of the house. “Everyone is outside.”
I tugged Brady’s arm down the hallway and away from my mom. “You weren’t kidding about her,” he whispered as I pushed through the door to the yard. “She’s a bit intense.”
I laughed. “Coming from you that’s rich.” He narrowed his eyes at me and cocked his head. “You’re the most intense person I’ve ever met. I thought you hated me being at Dave’s the first time I met you. Even the second time I thought you wanted to bite my head off.”
He leaned down and nibbled on my neck. “More like bite the rest of you. I wanted to throw you over my shoulder and drag you back to my apartment and lock y
ou up until I’d had my fill of you.”
His words affected me more than he realized. My nipples hardened and between my legs ached and dampened. My arms surrounded his neck and I leaned into him, delighting in the erection I felt starting between us. A throat cleared behind us and I remembered where we were.
Damn. That could have gotten good.
I spun around and plastered a smile on my face. “Hi everyone. This is Brady Wright. Brady, my dad, Gary. My sister, Heather, and her husband, Mark. Brian, my brother, and his wife, Jane, and the assortment of kids.”
Heather came over with her hand out, ever the professional. “It’s nice to meet you Brady.”
“Thanks, Heather. You as well. I hear you’re a big time lawyer, working mom, and all around wonder woman. That’s pretty awesome.”
My sister blushed like a school girl. My hard ass, kick ass, lawyer of a sister was blushing.
“I’m sorry, you seem to have me at a disadvantage. My sister hasn’t mentioned a word about you to anyone.”
My mom picked that moment to come outside. She was carrying a glass of iced tea and looking every bit the elegant wife she pretended to be. She’d tied her hair back into a low bun. Her khaki capris were neatly pressed with a crease down the front and back, and her light blue blouse was a nod to the holiday, even if it was silk.
“Samantha has found someone who’s as successful as herself. Apparently Brady owns a gym.”
“I’ll bet,” Heather purred as she inched closer to him.
Seriously? My sister, who was married, was hitting on my boyfriend, with her husband ten feet away.
“Heather,” I snapped, attempting to draw her out of her daydream about Brady. He chuckled softly beside me, but I did not find her funny.
“Sorry,” she muttered, shaking her head. “So Brady, what gym do you own? I’ve been thinking about switching to a new one.”
I rolled my eyes and sighed. She was ridiculous. It was like she’d never seen a hot guy before. Then again, Mark didn’t look anything like Brady.
“I own Dave’s Gym, in Winterville.”
“Oh,” Heather said, sounding disappointed. “We live in the city. That might be a bit too far to drive for the gym.”
“Yeah, it’s certainly too far to drive to visit your sister once in a while so I imagine it’d be hard to go daily just for the gym,” I snarled at her, not hiding my general frustration with her.
Thankfully Mark came over and rescued us. Or maybe he was rescuing her. “Hi, I’m Mark,” he said, extending his hand to Brady. Brady shook it with a nod that looked like a bit more than just a hello, but I didn’t speak men.
“Nice to meet you. Heather here was just telling us you guys are thinking about a new gym.”
Mark raised an eyebrow at my sister and she had the decency to flush. “I didn’t know that, but okay. How did you get into owning a gym? It’s got to be a pretty big responsibility.”
Brady nodded and shrugged at the same time. “Owning any business is a big deal. Mine’s a little different than Sam’s since I have employees, but with any business the most important thing is treating people well. I hire people that I like, people that I know will treat everyone well. We don’t tolerate judgement at Dave’s Gym, that was the first thing I learned.”
“Is that what your father taught you?” Heather asked. Mark wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him. I tried to hide my snicker at his jealousy, and her infatuation. Then I looked at Brady.
His lips were drawn into a thin tight line. His entire body went rigid. He looked like he was going to punch something. “My father didn’t teach me anything,” he growled. “He’s dead.”
Fourteen
How did I not know that?
All our conversations and all the time we’d spent together he’d never mentioned anything about his father. Come to think of it, or his mother.
“What about your mom?” I asked, feeling like shit for not knowing anything about him.
“My mom died when I was two. I don’t remember her. Apparently I’m her spitting image. That’s what my dad always told me.”
Heather and Mark drifted away, sensing our need to talk. I was grateful for their consideration and made a mental note to thank them later.
“When did your dad die?” I asked, wondering who raised him.
“When I was 18. I moved to Winterville after that and Dave took me in.”
“Dave? Like Dave’s Gym?”
Brady nodded. “I had no money, no skills. Dave and I sort of ran into each other and he offered me a studio apartment in his basement. He taught me everything I know about the gym. When he was ready to retire he gave me the gym.”
“Wow, Brady I had no idea. I don’t know how I didn’t know all this, but I’m sorry I never asked.”
He shook his head. “Don’t worry. I don’t talk about my past very much, especially my parents. Besides, your world is a whole lot more interesting.”
I stepped into his arms and let him make me feel better about being so horrible. As he rubbed my back I realized how much I’d come to count on him in such a short amount of time. I’d barely thought about Addi or being so alone since I met Brady. Yet in the same time, I’d learned nearly nothing about him. He knew almost everything there was about me, and I didn’t even know his parents were dead.
I was a self-centered person. I’d never thought that about myself before but it was hard to ignore as we stood in the middle of my parents backyard and Brady comforted me after I found out he’d lost both his parents.
What was wrong with me?
“I’m sorry about your parents. Were you close to your dad?”
“No,” Brady stated with no emotion.
“Did he ever remarry?”
“No,” Brady stated again, but I could feel tension seeping into him. “This is about your family today. Let’s not ruin it with my past. It’s behind me. We don’t need to talk about it.”
I nodded in agreement but couldn’t help wondering why he was reluctant to talk about his past. Maybe it was just too painful. I thought about the scars on his body and worried I was right.
We joined my family again and Mom launched right back into her interrogation. “So, Brady, where did you go to college?”
College was, in my mother’s mind, a determinant of whether or not you were a decent human being. Just because a lot of the criminals my dad locked up were high school drop-outs my mom thought if you didn’t have a good college degree you were destined to end up behind bars.
“I didn’t go to college.”
Mom pursed her lips so tight they disappeared. At a table surrounded by people who were highly educated, a high school diploma was not good enough for my mom. I couldn’t have cared less, but Brady may as well have told my mom he was a serial killer.
“What did you do instead?” she asked, like it mattered. She’d hate him no matter what.
“I started working at Dave’s Gym. Dave gave me a place to live and taught me how to run a business, how to treat people, how to survive. Year after year he gave me more responsibility and eventually he turned the business over to me. In the five years since I’ve taken over we’ve tripled our membership and moved to the current location, which is more than twice the size of our old site.”
Mom looked like she was going to pop. It was hilarious. I coughed to hide the laugh that started to bubble out of me. It never made sense to me why she hated self-employment so much.
“Well, isn’t that nice,” she ground out.
I rolled my eyes at Brady, and he squeezed my thigh under the table. He’d understand how my mom was eventually, at least as much as I did, as long as he wasn’t offended by her.
“So, Brady are you into any sports?” my dad asked in an attempt to change the subject.
I shot him a grateful smile, and he winked at me. Brady answered, “Yes, sir. I grew up playing football and still enjoy watching the game. I’ve taken up boxing as well, although it’s for fun and sport, no
t a career for me. Being around here I imagine everyone loves hockey, too.”
My dad nodded his approval. At least someone liked Brady besides me. Oh, and my sexed up sister.
“You’ll have to come with us to some football games this fall. The force supports the local schools and we go to a game each weekend to cheer them on. Sammy here gets really into the games.”
Brady grinned at me with his eyes twinkling. “Oh, really. I didn’t know you were such a sports fan.”
I shrugged, feigning indifference, but I could tell I wasn’t fooling him. “There are a few things you don’t know about me.”
“Mmm hmm,” he said before turning back to my dad. “That sounds great, sir. I’d love to join you. What do you do on the force?”
My dad leaned back and rubbed his mostly flat stomach with a grin that was supposed to be bashful, but instead looked wolfish. Dad loved to tell people about his job and how hard he worked to stay in shape. He was proud to still be out on the streets and chasing down the bad guys instead of buried in paperwork behind a desk.
Heather leaned over to me as Dad started talking. “He’s gorgeous. Where did you find him?”
I smiled, “He already told you, we met at his gym.”
Heather shook her head. “I don’t know what shocks me more… that you’re going to the gym or that you brought home such a hottie. Not saying I ever thought you couldn’t get a guy like him, but damn. He puts Channing Tatum to shame.”
I laughed. Channing Tatum was a god in Heather’s world. Saying Brady was hotter was the highest compliment she could give a man. Of course I agreed with her.
“When he first started talking to me I thought he hated me. He can be really intense. Then these jerks at the gym were nasty to me and Brady kicked them out then comforted me. He told me he’d wanted to kiss me since he first saw me. He’s an amazing kisser.”
Heather raised her eyebrows and glanced over at Brady. “I can totally see that. I bet he’s spectacular in bed, too,” she whispered conspiratorially.
Fat & Fine Page 11