by Natalie Ann
Guess nothing really got by him. “I don’t like to swear. There isn’t anything wrong with that, is there?”
“It’s a control thing with you.”
Bingo. “Why do you say that?”
“Because people swear when they lose control. When they show emotions or actions that aren’t planned. You’re always in control. Or most times.”
“Not always with you,” she said, taking a sip of coffee. “This is good.”
“I’m an engineer, I can figure out how to do just about anything.”
“And making the proper coffee is very important.”
“If it’s important to you, then it is to me.”
Talk about sweet. “Since when did coffee become such a big conversation?” she asked.
“It’s not just about coffee. You know that.”
She did. She didn’t want to admit it, but she did know it. “So what did you want to do today?” she asked instead.
He sighed. “You didn’t answer my question on the swearing.”
He wasn’t going to let it drop. “Let’s just say there was a colorful array of nasty and swear words flying around my house on a daily basis. Maybe things you’ve never heard or heard strung together before. Regardless, it was enough to last a lifetime.”
“Sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have pushed.”
“It’s not a problem. You wanted to know, I told you. That life is behind me where it’s going to stay. That doesn’t mean I have a problem with people swearing, it just means I do everything I can to avoid being anything like my parents.”
“I’m sorry you have those memories.”
“No reason to be sorry. There are kids out there that had it a lot worse than me.” She knew that, but it didn’t make what she’d lived through any better or any easier. She considered herself lucky that she not only could walk away but that she could also change her surroundings.
“And a lot better. Myself being one. I feel guilty about that.”
“Why?” she said, starting to eat her breakfast before she lost her appetite. “Your parents are hard workers, so are you and your siblings. Not one of you has an easy career or field. It’s not like any of you dropped out of school and can’t keep a job and need someone to support you. You’re all independent. Your parents must be thrilled and so proud.”
“They are. They tell us that. I want to say your parents must be proud too, but I have a feeling they aren’t.”
She laughed. “My mother just wants something from me. My father, I stopped answering his calls years ago. He’s given up.”
“What does your mom want?”
“Money. A place to stay so she can live off of me.”
He snorted. “She pretty much abandoned you and now wants you to care for her?”
“Yep. Our last conversation was her asking about the job market here. I told her it’s about the same as it is anywhere for what she does. If she wanted to move I wouldn’t stop her, but I’m not contributing to it. I’m not giving her one cent or a place to stay.”
“It’s more than the money. It’s moving on,” he said. “If she is here or close by it brings you back to what you ran away from.”
“Who said I ran away?”
“Come on, Kara. Be honest with me.”
“I am being honest.” More honest than she’d been with anyone else.
“I know. I shouldn’t push.”
“But it’s in your nature to do that. I understand.”
“I care about you,” he said, tucking her hair behind her ear. She was pretty sure it resembled a rat’s nest since she never slept with it down, but she’d been so exhausted after a night of sex with Drake that she’d passed out.
“It’s a little early for that, don’t you think?”
“And there you are running again. I’m not going to hurt you. There is no reason to run from me.”
She dropped her eyes and went back to eating. The silence in the room was choking her like a noose around her neck, forcing her to look up and see his eyes still on her. “I know. I have to keep reminding myself of that. And that if things don’t work out, I still have a job and I’ll still have a working relationship with you and your family.”
If she could handle seeing him day in and day out if they didn’t work out after spending just the past week together.
Control was a big part of her life, but the other part was protecting her heart.
And when she took Drake home on Sunday morning and kissed him goodbye, she knew beyond a doubt her heart was teetering on a circus wire and she was trying not to be the clumsy elephant navigating across.
“What do you think, Tyson?” she asked her cat later that night. That traitor of a cat that was sucking up to Drake the past two nights and mornings. She supposed the fact that Drake was feeding the cat more treats than normal played a part in it.
The cat didn’t answer her, not that she expected it. She wasn’t crazy. Maybe just stupid to lose her heart to someone like Drake Fierce.
She heard her phone go off with a text and picked it up to see it was from Drake. It wasn’t even five minutes since she’d walked in the door from dropping him off but he was just saying what a great weekend he had.
Me too, she typed back.
It was then she saw she had a message on her phone. She noticed she’d had a missed call when she picked it up but for some reason she didn’t see the message.
Since it wasn’t a number she recognized, it was probably sales.
She hit the button and heard, “Kara. It’s your father. I’m in trouble. Call me back.”
She didn’t need him to say who he was. She’d recognize that voice anywhere. She deleted the message, then blocked the number.
He could rot wherever he was.
She put her head in her hands. Just that short ten-second message brought back memories and flashbacks to her brain that she’d pushed aside for so long. The insulting names. The beer-stinking breath when he was in her face shouting. The pushes, the shoves, the backhands. He didn’t beat her, but he hit. It was the same in her eyes.
The dark closet she locked herself in at times as a kid. Barring the door as a teen so her father’s friends would stay out when she had nowhere to go and had to be in the house.
Yeah, he could go to hell. If he wasn’t already there.
Special Place
“You know what today is, right?”
Kara looked over to see Drake standing in the doorway to her office. He didn’t come see her often, nor did she go to his office unless it was work related.
She was pretty sure this wasn’t.
“Of course,” she said, grinning at him. “It’s Wednesday and I’m presenting the final budgets to your father and uncle. I’m glad that project is finally done. I’ll just make some tweaks after I meet with them and hand the budgets to everyone. Did you want to wish me well? Maybe present with me? I know this project has a special place in your heart.”
He laughed at her and walked forward, then shut her door. “It does have a special place in my heart. Just like you.”
There he was with those soft words he used on her often. More so in the past few weeks.
No words of love had been spoken, but they were in a rhythm of him spending the night at her house on Friday and oftentimes Saturday. He hadn’t pushed the issue of her staying at his house, but she knew that time was coming to an end.
“What about Tyson?” she asked. “He’d be upset if there wasn’t room for him.”
“How come you aren’t giving me the stink eye for being in your office with the door closed and not talking about work?”
“Because I know what today is and though I definitely want the door closed, I won’t renege on our agreement.”
That smile of his just glowed brighter than the LED lights in the ceiling. “Come here,” he said moving toward her desk.
“Nope,” she said, putting her hand up. “I will argue on that and you know it.”
“It was worth a shot
.”
He moved forward and sat in front of her desk, put one foot on his knee and leaned back. Damn, he was one sexy man. Maybe she shouldn’t have told him to stop. What would a little kiss hurt? Except it never stopped at one little kiss when they were alone.
She’d never thought she’d be so weak to fall for a man’s charms and looks, but she found that she was about as strong as dry angel hair pasta being picked up in big clumsy hands.
“So you want to tell your family?” she asked him.
“It is one month today. Well, one month we’ve been officially dating,” he said.
“I know. You’re not going to tell your father here, are you?”
“No. As luck would have it, my mother asked me to go to dinner tonight. I thought I’d tell them then.”
“You’re not asking me to go with you, right?” She hoped the heck not. That would be too much for her this soon. She’d rather know how it went before she faced Garrett the next day.
“You can go if you want, but I hadn’t planned on asking because I knew you’d say no.”
“You’re darn right I’d say no.” She paused for a minute. Noah and Wyatt had kept their word as far as she knew and hadn’t told anyone of her and Drake’s relationship. And if Drake was telling his parents tonight, that left one person. “I’d like to tell Jade if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. I think that would be nice. I bet she’d rather hear it from you than me. Or we could do it together.”
“Now?” she asked.
“She will appreciate not being the absolute last person to know. I have a feeling my ears are going to get blistered when she finds out Noah and Wyatt knew. She’d expect Noah. Not Wyatt.”
“As much as I’d rather not do this here, I’m trying to put myself in her shoes.” Not that she could, being an only child.
“Great. Let’s go see her and get it done.”
“You don’t have to sound like you are being put in front of the firing squad. That isn’t making me feel any better about it.”
He reached for her when she walked around her desk and pulled her in for a hug. “You’ll understand when you see Jade’s reaction. It has nothing to do with you personally.”
Drake let go of her and opened her door, the two of them walking back toward his office at the other end of the floor where Jade was. She stopped outside the doorway, letting Drake be seen and not her.
He knocked on the door. “Jade, do you have a minute?”
“For my oldest brother, always,” she said. Kara followed in behind Drake and he shut the door. “Oh man, is my budget being cut for yours? That’s totally not fair.”
Kara grinned, knowing Jade was joking and finding it funny that was the first thing Jade thought of.
“No,” Drake said. “We have something to tell you.”
He looked at her, almost helpless and she found it charming that he was struggling to tell his baby sister.
“What Drake is trying to tell you, and for some reason my cat must have his tongue, is that he and I have been dating.”
“Seriously?” Jade asked, not looking convinced. Kara was trying not to be insulted.
“Why is that so hard to believe?” she asked.
“Because you’re you and he’s him. You’re quiet and controlled and Drake just lands where the wind blows him with a grin on his face.”
“Maybe I wanted some structure in my life,” Drake said.
“You’ve got plenty of structure,” Jade said. “You know what I mean.”
“Maybe I wanted to loosen up,” Kara said, grinning.
Jade laughed this time. “You two are really dating? Have you been dating long? Since before we went shopping together?”
“No,” Kara said. “Just a month. I didn’t want to say anything until it’d been some time.”
“Today is a month,” Drake said. “I’m holding her to this date. I’m going to tell Mom and Dad tonight, but we thought we’d tell you now. If you could not mention anything to Dad, I’d appreciate it. I’m going to dinner tonight.”
“What about Wyatt?” Jade asked. “I’m sure Noah knows. He knows everything about you.”
Drake cleared his throat and looked to the ground, reminding her of a kid that would be shuffling his feet to figure out the best way to make a fast exit. “He knows.”
“What!?” Jade screeched almost making Kara cover her ears. “I’m the last one. How long has Wyatt known?”
“A few weeks,” Drake said. “He and Noah saw us out to dinner one night and joined us.”
“I hope to hell they left you with a massive tab,” Jade said, crossing her arms. “How come I’m the last one to know everything? It’s because I’m a girl, isn’t it? I wouldn’t have told anyone.”
Kara wanted to answer but didn’t. This was a family thing and she was staying out of it. “No,” he said. “I didn’t want Wyatt to know.”
“I didn’t want either of them to know,” Kara said, jumping in. “I really wanted to keep this private. Even after today, I don’t want it announced here in the office. I told Drake I’d break his fingers if they landed anywhere on my body in this office.”
“Only where people can see us,” he said with a grin.
She felt her face flush.
“Stay out of the locked rooms,” Jade said. “I don’t want to think about my brother having sex in the building.”
Kara gasped. “I would never.”
Jade burst out laughing. “Sorry. It was meant to be a jab at Drake. No insult to you. I still can’t believe I’m the last to know.”
“Well, really Mom and Dad will be the last. Doesn’t that make it better?”
“I guess,” Jade said. “So tell me, Drake. What do you think of all the colors that Kara has started to wear to work? Is that when you first noticed her?”
Kara grinned. “You didn’t have a hand in this because you talked me into adding color to my wardrobe. If Drake is to be believed it’s because I annoy the crap out of him.”
“I can see that,” Jade said. “The old fine line of lovers and fighters. I bet you do it both.”
That flush again, creeping up her face and spreading to the roots of her hair. “If you are asking if we fight, that might be a bit harsh. We do disagree though.”
“Argue,” Drake said. “She argues about everything.”
“I do not,” Kara said. “I just don’t always agree with you. You even said you like that I speak my mind.”
“See my point?” Drake said looking at his sister.
“Well, either way, I’m glad you came in here to tell me, even if I feel slighted that my brothers knew for weeks. Kara, you and I will have to go shopping again.”
“What does that have to do with Drake and I dating?”
Drake nudged her shoulder with his. “Nothing. Don’t you know that with Jade by now? That’s her olive branch for acting uptight over the news at first.”
Kara looked at Jade, saw her grin, then heard the answer, “He’s right. If I’ve upset or insulted you, sorry. It’s all meant for my big brother who keeps me out of the loop of everything. You were just a bystander. I know it.”
“It was my idea to keep it a secret,” she argued.
“Don’t disagree with me,” Jade said. “It was all Drake. I know. It’s always all Drake’s fault.”
“When it’s not Wyatt’s fault,” Drake corrected.
“Well, it is normally Wyatt’s fault for everything, but for once I can say it’s yours.”
They left Jade’s office and walked over to his where he shut the door. Drake had windows through which he could be seen, so she sat in front of his desk and acted like they were meeting about something.
“That went better than I thought,” she said. “At first I really thought she was mad at me. Are you sure she is fine with it?”
“She’s totally fine with it. You know Jade. If she wasn’t, she would have said something.”
“That’s true. I just don’t want to cause any rifts in
your family.”
“You won’t. I know you are worried that they might not like it or accept you. I’m telling you right now that won’t be the case. You just saw that with Jade. It’s all good. And Noah and Wyatt are fine with it too.”
“So that leaves your parents.” Probably the two most influential people in Drake’s life. The two she was the most worried about.
“My father will be fine. Maybe shocked over it as he prides himself on seeing what is coming. My mother, she’s a softie. No worries there.”
“If you say so. You’ll call me after dinner and let me know, right?”
“Of course. Now are we done with this meeting?” he asked, smirking at her. “You even picked up a pad and pretended to write on it when you sat down. You’re a piece of work.”
“Just keeping up the pretense,” she said. She stood up and put the pad back on his desk with the pen she was doodling with. “Remember. Broken fingers if they come anywhere near me where other people can see.”
“You might be almost as scary as my sister.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Slow His Roll
After work Drake drove to his parents’ house knowing that telling them about his and Kara’s relationship would be easier than telling Jade.
After it was all said and done, Jade actually was better than he thought. When they were growing up and she was the last to know, or felt excluded, she blistered their ears. Even pranked them worse than Wyatt now and again. She didn’t do it often, but when she did, she was scary good at it.
His father was already home, as he’d left earlier in the afternoon for an off-site meeting.
“Drake,” his mother said, coming forward when he walked into the kitchen. “I was just asking your father if you were going to be late.”
“Sorry. I got stuck on a call.” He wouldn’t say it was with Kara. He’d actually shut his door and called her from his office before he left, telling her not to work too late. To go home and spend time with Tyson.