by Natalie Ann
“Sweet,” he said, knowing his day improved greatly.
But when he was at the pub getting a burger and beer with Travis, Gavin stopped in and came over to sit down. “Brock, how are you doing? My brothers treating you well on your project?”
“They sure are,” he said. “Thanks again for talking me into it.”
Jolene being as nosy as she was had overheard Travis and him talking about an idea he had and gave him the push to move forward with it. They even offered to invest but he’d held them off saying he just wanted to see where this was going.
When Travis said he wanted in, there was no way he was going to tell him no, knowing if anyone could understand it’d be someone that was in his squad.
“Not a problem. You know Jolene and I would love to have a part of this. Travis is family and anything that he wants to be involved in we’d support. Hell, even the name of it was great, though Jolene wanted to know why you’d name it after a part of a foot.”
“Sounds like Ella,” Travis said. “Something about the women in this family.”
“Neither of you are complaining about your women are you?” Brock asked.
“Nope,” they both said the same time.
“We are afraid of them,” Gavin said.
Brock laughed. “I’m beginning to understand why you might be.”
Travis laughed but didn’t say a word. Gavin looked at him funny, but Brock knew his buddy would keep their conversation private and not even tell his wife.
15
Nosy and Meddling
A few days later, Jade was waiting for Brock to pick her up at her house. She’d contacted Brenda and was told they were indeed getting ready to list their house and just now lining up what realtor they wanted to go with. She’d convinced her to hold off and let Brock look at it.
And now the two of them were going together with Brenda and Tom letting them in and answering questions.
“Are you sure you didn’t have anything planned?” Brock asked her when she climbed into his SUV ten minutes later. He was early and she could appreciate that when not many were.
“Nothing,” she said. “I worked until a little after five, came home, ate a salad, changed, and have been waiting for you.”
“I just got out of work myself. Haven’t even eaten anything since lunch. Which of course was late.”
“How is work going?” she asked. They didn’t talk about his job much but then again they really only talked about the work she was doing for their firm. Or flirting. Flirting was good for her though.
“Better each day. I’ve got the lay of the land pretty good now and that was part of it. Now I can see what might work better than what they’ve got. Policies and procedures and strategies have always been my strong suit. Not writing them, but finding the best practices.”
“I’m not sure you are used to doing it in this kind of setting though,” she pointed out, suspecting more of his best practices and strategies were saving lives.
“No, but with the way the world is now, we need a lot of security along with best practices and how to implement them. Not to mention just everyday things that happen all over the campus. The minute I get one thing done, someone else wants to pitch an idea to me on something else. Budgets had never been anything I had to worry about before either.”
“You always had someone above you making those calls. You’re the person now,” she said.
“I am. I never wanted to be that person, but now I am. I’m better at it than I thought I might be.”
“I’m sure you’re great at it. You’ve got this way about you. A smile that you show when you want. A calmness at relaxing people even when you want to probably strangle them. But if you wanted to be firm, I’m sure you’d have people scattering like ants on a hill when the repellent came out.”
He started to laugh and turned to her, sending her a wink. “You’re still here. Not feeling like running yet?”
“Are you trying to get rid of me?”
“No. Do you want me to?”
“No,” she said. “I thought we were at the start of something. Not sure what yet. Seems like we haven’t gotten that far.”
“Guess I just wanted to make sure you were still at that place. Maybe I figured you needed a few days to think it over.”
“I’m a pretty decisive person. I know my mind...among other things.” Why not continue to flirt and prove it to him?
“Good to know.”
Just to test the waters, she asked, “Did you have a nice visit with Travis on Saturday?”
“Ella told you I was there.”
“She did. She said she only saw you for a few minutes before she went shopping. Since I was out shopping, I’d sent her a few pictures of cute baby things. I had no idea she was doing the same thing as I was and she texted me back she’d just seen you.”
She would have liked to get more information but didn’t know how to ask. Besides, Ella would have volunteered if there was more to say.
“I didn’t have much going on and wanted to fill Travis in on where we stood on Toh in person. We had lunch at the pub and then I stocked up at the brewery.”
“If you’re ever low on something you really want and can’t find, just let one of us know. Someone in my family tends to take a trip there once a month and supplies the rest up here. Not everything they want can be found in the stores.”
“Thanks for the offer. Mason brought that up too. To just add what I wanted in a text and he’d put it aside with the rest of the family’s stuff.”
“My family is good about those things.” They might be nosy and meddling, but they were caring too.
She’d been on the fence about calling Ella on Sunday to tell her what was going on with Brock. Or what she wanted to go on, but since they hadn’t really done much, there wasn’t a lot to tell. Maybe she’d have more this weekend since she and Brock were spending time together tonight and he’d worked out with her yesterday morning and planned on it again tomorrow, Wednesday, and Friday.
“They are,” he said. “My family is small. Just my parents and me and we moved around a lot. I’ve made a lot of friends over the years but never had any strong connections until I joined the Navy. I just didn’t stay in one place long enough.”
She wondered if it was that or he couldn’t form attachments. “Is that why you’re still single?”
“Ah, back to this conversation again. You said I couldn’t use my service time as part of the reason.”
“Since we are talking about starting something, maybe I want to know more. Not that I will change my mind,” she was fast to say.
“The simple answer is I moved often and spent a lot of time on the road. I was always busy and my career came first. The women I was in contact with were also in the service and it’s hard to have any kind of relationship that way. Women when we were on leave...they wanted something else.”
“I’m sure you were more than willing there too.”
He laughed. “No comment.” He turned his head and looked at her. “Your turn.”
She should have known he’d want to know, but since she started this she had to contribute to it. “I’ve been in some relationships. For a number of reasons they don’t last.”
“And what are those reasons?” he asked.
“Something different each time. Men are intimidated by me. They want my name. They don’t like my interfering brothers. I’m uptight. I’m high maintenance. I’m cold.”
“Those are all the reasons that someone might give not to be with you, but I’ve got the feeling there are more reasons why you don’t want to be with them.”
She stared at him, stunned he’d figured that out but shouldn’t have been. “I don’t want to be with anyone who feels any of those things about me.”
“I don’t believe that most leave you. I don’t picture you the type to form too many attachments unless you really felt someone could fit what you were looking for. The question is, what are you looking for?”
�
�Wow. This is pretty deep. You sure you want to know the answer to that? Maybe you aren’t any of the things I want.”
She was trying to joke because the truth was he was everything she wanted, but she had no intention of saying that.
“I guess I should know those things going in then,” he said.
“I’m not that hard to please regardless of what everyone thinks. I just want someone who wants me for me. That’s not so hard. But also someone that has certain traits that I haven’t been able to find.”
“Such as?” he asked.
“I love my family. I love my brothers and father and cousins. They all have their faults, but they all have really good qualities.”
“And you want some guy to have parts of everyone?” he asked. “That’s not too tall of an order.”
It was the dry tone he used that made her laugh. “Come on. It’s not that hard.”
“Try me.”
“Laid back, leadership, funny, independent, strong, protecting, caring.”
“Drake, Noah, Wyatt, you, the rest is a combination of your entire family.”
He hadn’t known them long or well and nailed each of their strong traits. “How did you figure that out?”
“It’s not that hard when you meet each and every one of them. Like you said, it’s their dominant traits.”
“So there you go,” she said. “Of course there is one other thing missing from that list that overrides the rest. Well, two things.”
“Attraction or desire,” he said, “is one of them.”
“Right again.” Holy shit. If she didn’t realize he fit it all before, this conversation would have nailed it for her.
“What’s the last thing?” he asked.
“I’m not going to tell you that,” she said. To her, it was pretty simple. She wanted to know she was loved. That what they felt for each other was equally as strong. She’d seen it with her brothers and she knew it was possible. She was waiting for her turn. She was waiting for the guy that she felt so comfortable around that nothing else mattered.
She could be completely herself. She could laugh. She could joke. She could lose her control. She could cry.
No one had ever seen those sides of her other than family. No one drew it out of her and she wondered if it could even be possible. Could she find someone that was so strong that nothing else mattered? That the control she had could be overridden and her guard could be dropped.
Not just dropped but smashed to the ground. Yep, that was the guy she was looking for.
“I didn’t think it would be that easy.”
“Well, there is one more thing,” she said. “This is a deal breaker for me, but I haven’t come across anyone who was opposed to it.”
“What’s that?”
“I want kids. I come from a big family and I want one of my own. I know there are men out there that don’t want kids. Earlier on, I didn’t care so much, but now I’m at an age where I don’t want to waste my time getting close to someone if they don’t see the same future as me if it worked out.”
She was angling her head at him waiting for his answer. She knew she’d be completely bummed if he said kids weren’t in his future. “Kids are great,” he said, causing her to smile.
16
Heavy Dreams
What was Brock supposed to say to her question? That he always pictured himself a father someday and now wasn’t sure if he could be one? At least the way he’d always thought.
She’d never said she wanted her own biological kids, just that she wanted them. This wasn’t the time to go into any kind of conversation about whether he could have them.
He had no clue if he suffered enough damage to affect reproduction. He could physically function, at least he was pretty positive of it from the boner he’d had for months since he’d seen Jade again. He would have been nuts if he hadn’t tried to relieve that himself and find out.
So yeah, everything was working just fine in that department. But if his little buddies were able to swim or survive, no one knew and he had no reason to get it tested. At least not now.
So much damage and the surgeries to his leg, hips and groin, shrapnel…it was just one of a long list of things he’d been told could be a long-term result or complication.
In his eyes though, Jade could have issues too, so that wouldn’t mean there weren’t other ways to have children. No one would know until they tried.
Yet he was wondering why the hell he was even thinking that when they hadn’t even kissed. Not one date either.
Two working dinners and a few workouts together. That was what they had along with some flirting and ridiculously heavy dreams on his part. Nothing more.
Hopefully they could get further though.
And those things she said she was looking for in a man, yeah, he met them all but wasn’t conceited enough to say that.
The rest of their drive was in silence after that. Just a few minutes and then he pulled into the driveway of the house they were looking at. It was dark out, no way he could get a good look at the grounds, but he didn’t think that would be much of an issue.
“This is a pretty big house. The last time I was here I didn’t think much of it. But now I’m looking at it through the eyes of a single guy.”
“I guess we’ll find out when we get in.”
The front door was opened before they could climb the front porch. He looked around quickly, noticed a few chairs there, plenty enough space. He was trying to pay more attention to it now than when he’d driven by.
“Hi, Jade.” He was assuming that was Brenda who said that.
“Brenda, this is Brock James. He’s new to the area. A client and a friend of the family.”
He liked the way that sounded. He supposed it was true, but coming from her lips made it sound...better.
He extended his hand out. “Nice to meet you. Thanks for the private showing. I haven’t started to look yet officially, but Jade knew I was going to and mentioned your house.”
“No obligation,” Brenda said. “Tom would be here but had to work late. He did write up a bunch of things for me if you have questions. Plus I pulled all the information from when we bought the house five years ago. They gave us a binder of information on the age of the furnace, roof and so on. Important things.”
“Thanks. Why don’t you just show me around and tell me about the place?”
“It’s about thirty-five hundred square feet. Four bedrooms upstairs with two full baths, one is the master. Half bath here on the first floor with family room, living room, dining room, kitchen and an office.”
Brenda showed them from room to room. The house was pretty modern and up to date with nice large rooms. He didn’t care much about colors; he could change that stuff himself. It was only paint.
He liked the hardwoods on the first floor, carpet on the second was fine too. He wasn’t all that fussy when it came down to it. The only thing he didn’t care for was lack of separation if his parents came to stay but knew that might be a hard find.
“So far it ticks all the boxes,” he said. Jade had been pretty quiet, which surprised him. He expected her to ask a bunch of questions or make comments, but she hadn’t.
“Let me show you the backyard,” Brenda said. “The pool is fiberglass. No lining to worry about. It’s only about ten years old.”
He’d never thought he’d be a pool guy and just imagined the work it might entail. “How much maintenance is it?” he asked, having never had one.
“Not bad. We’ll leave everything for it for the new buyers. We invested in one of those robotic cleaners. Just put your chemicals in and it vacuums itself. Makes life easier.”
He nodded, figuring he could handle that. Swimming laps might be a good exercise for him. “It’s not that warm out now. When do you close it for the year?”
“Late November,” she said. “It’s heated so you can get a lot more use out of it.”
They moved around the yard and the deck. Plenty of room for a hot t
ub in his eyes. “How big is the pool house?”
“About six hundred square feet,” she said. “We built it ourselves. We like to entertain. There is storage for everything in there, but it’s kind of a guest house.”
“Really?” he asked.
“Let me show you. I’m going to miss this most.”
The guest house solved all his problems. There was a small bathroom with a shower, a bedroom big enough for a queen sized bed, a living room and tiny gallery kitchen with a sink, fridge, and microwave. Pretty much everything a hotel would have to offer and perfect.
“This is nice,” Jade said. “You could easily have parties and store the food and everything else in here and out of the way. Could be a nice space for a home gym too.”
He was thinking that. The living room space was big enough. He wouldn’t have guests enough that he’d have to worry it’d be in the way. This was about him not visitors or entertaining.
“It’s a lot of space. More than I might have thought of but I like it. When were you planning on listing it?” he asked. He didn’t want to wait too long to move.
“Actually, next week. I put in for a transfer months ago, but we’d been waiting for Tom to find a job and he did. We’ll be moving faster than I thought. In about a month, so we figured the house would be empty for a bit.”
“I’d like to see the information from the binder and what you were looking to get for it.”
“If you’re interested and we don’t go through a realtor, then I’m sure we can work something out. Why don’t you leave your number and I’ll talk with Tom when he gets home and I’ll let you know soon.”
He shook hands with Brenda and he and Jade left. “It was a nice house,” Jade said.
“It is. How come you didn’t say much?”
“It’s not for me. It’s yours,” she said.
“Most women have some opinion. Especially one that shops like you.”
She laughed. “I wasn’t shopping. You were. If you are asking if it’s my style, then the answer is no, but that is surface stuff. The layout is nice, the space is fabulous. I love the pool and the pool house myself.”