“Texas.”
“And you decided Redding, California was a better trade-off?” I asked.
“When you consider the circumstances we were running from, yes.”
My brow twitched with confusion as Makenna stared at the blank television screen. Her eyes grew unfocused, like the past was trying to pull her back in. I reached over and wrapped my hand around her wrist, trying to ground her into the present. I knew what it was like to slip back there. To slip back to a time I didn’t want to remember.
She had a kid to take care of, and I didn’t want Ana seeing her mother like that.
Her eyes whipped down to my hand before she jerked away. She wrapped her hand mindlessly around our connection point and began to rub. Like she thought I was going to hurt her. My blood boiled at the sight as I bit down on the inside of my cheek.
I’d kill the man if he ever came after them. No woman should run for her and her child’s life the way I sensed these two had.
“Wanna play outside?”
I peered beyond Makenna’s body at the small girl standing in what was now her playroom.
“Honey, I’m sure Mr. Brewer has other-”
“I’d love to,” I said with a grin, surprising myself. “If that’s all right with your mother, of course.”
I never really got along with kids. Sure, I would watch the kids play in our neighborhood, but that was mainly to just make sure that they were safe. But for some reason, I thought Ana was hilarious. I was happy to go play with her outside.
I gazed down into Makenna’s startled eyes and saw shock roll behind them. Was this not something she was used to? People wanting to get to know her and her kid? She didn’t shake her head ‘no’, so I brushed past her and headed for her daughter. Ana slipped her hand within mine and lead me out back where she had many different toys. A tee ball set and a slide. A small trampoline and what looked to be a portable garden. There was porch furniture out back that hadn’t been set up yet and a playground that still had to be assembled.
“You got other tools besides a screwdriver?” I asked.
I turned around and saw Makenna standing in the doorway, her luscious body leaning against the frame.
“Somewhere, yeah.”
“When you find it, bring it out to me. I’ll get this thing put together,” I said.
Then Makenna kicked a ball at my feet and we began to run around the yard, with her mother gawking after both of us.
Chapter 4
Makenna
What the hell had just happened?
This man had brought a box into my home, wiggled his way into piecing together my entire home, and was now playing with my daughter out back. Offering to put together her swing set I promised her if she was good on the trip out to our new home. I watched them kick a ball together as Ana’s hair fluttered in the wind as the sun began to hang low in the sky. I watched this man… this man who was our new neighbor… running around with my daughter and smiling as he kicked the ball to her. Teaching her how to get it before it passed her by and showing her different styles of kicks.
Where had this man come from?
I had never seen someone get along with Ana so easily.
I walked out onto the porch and began to rearrange the furniture. I placed the table and the chairs off to the side and stuck the massive umbrella into the hole in the table. I walked back inside and grabbed all of us some drinks. A juice box for Ana, and sodas for myself and Brewer.
Hopefully he liked soda, because I didn’t have much else.
I had wanted to avoid this man. Avoid looking at him. Because I knew the more I looked at him the more I wanted him. The more I wanted to know more about him. I sat in one of my porch chairs and cracked open my soda, then watched as this strange man ran around with my daughter.
Like he’d known us for years.
He looked up at me with those amber-colored eyes that accented the tanned skin his body was wrapped in. The longer he spent running around with my daughter in the sweltering heat, the more his shirt clung to his body. Painted the outline of his abs and the swell of his chest. I could see the pads of muscle disappearing beyond his jeans, the lines beckoning to my fingertips to trace them down to his groin.
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath as my daughter’s giggles filled the air.
“One of these for me?”
I jerked, startled at the sound of his panting voice as he pointed to the unopened soda.
“Take it. Yeah. Of course,” I said.
He cracked it open and tossed his head back, and I watched as his throat bobbed with his chugs. Sweat was dripping down his skin. Down his throbbing arms and tracing the veins bulging from his skin. His ass was accented in the jeans he was wearing and his shoulders were broad. Strong and cloaked in muscles as he guzzled down his soda.
I closed my eyes and took a sip of my drink, forcing my gaze to disconnect from his body.
I couldn’t stop staring at the man, and I couldn’t afford to dream about something that would never happen. I had a life to live and a heart to mend and a daughter to plant into a new life. I couldn’t think about such selfish things.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No. Thank you,” I said. “Ana seems to have taken a liking to you.”
“Watch out!” Ana exclaimed.
A ball came whizzing by our heads as a smile crossed Brewer’s cheeks.
His face lit up when he smiled.
“I’m gonna get you!” he said.
Ana screamed and giggled as she took off, and I watched Brewer run after her in the grass.
I was stunned with how well this rough-looking man was doing with my five-year old daughter. He had a trimmed beard that encompassed his face and hair that was drenched in sweat. He had faint scars all along his arms and I’m sure there were some on his legs to match. Between his looks and that bike he had sitting in his garage, I knew he was a rough character. His voice was steeped in it and his body language boasted of a rough past.
And yet, he was laughing and smiling with my daughter in our backyard.
I curled my legs up to my chest as I watched him run around with Ana. He was picking her up and swinging her around and she was giggling so hard she couldn’t breathe. It made my heart ache for her. Ache for the loss of her father. For the pathetic excuse of a man I had chosen after her father had died. I vowed to choose wisely next time. To not let my guard down because I was lonely. Getting selfish was what had resulted in my poor choice of men the second time around, and Ana was the one paying the price for it. She was the one having to be uprooted from her entire life and tossed into another realm to adjust at only five years of age.
I had to do better.
Ana deserved it.
The two of them ran around until sweat was dripping off them both. I finished off my soda and Ana came running for her juice box, her lungs panting for air. Brewer walked up and peeled his shirt off his body. He brought it to his forehead to wipe the sweat off his brow, but I couldn’t stop staring at his stomach.
At the washboard abs dripping with sweat.
The beads rolled down his tanned skin and disappeared beneath the hem of his jeans. I licked my lips, staring right at the bulge of his cock. It had been so long since I’d felt a real man against my body. A man that wanted more than to get his and roll over. Every orgasm for the past two years had been faked. A wonderful mockery of the life I had led with that pathetic man. He would shove his dick into me in the mornings before I could even wake up and I would lay there, waiting for it to be over and faking my own pleasure just to get him off me quicker. It had been years since I’d been cherished. Since I’d come by something more than my own fingers in the shower at night. My eyes danced along the lines that trimmed his body. That boasted of the chiseled muscles he kept sculpted for anyone’s viewing pleasure.
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath, feeling his stare on my face.
“You good?” Brewer asked.
I snapped my eyes
open and was met with that cheeky little grin.
“Yep. I’m good,” I said.
But I could feel my cheeks blushing with my lie.
The sun was beginning to set and I ushered Ana inside. She needed a bath before it was time for her to go to bed, which meant I needed to usher my guest out of the house. I shooed her upstairs after she had clung to Brewer, not wanting her new friend to go.
But I worked her arms from around his leg and sent her upstairs.
“She’s a good kid.”
“I’m lucky to have her,” I said. “And she seems to like you.”
“Then I’m halfway there,” he said.
I turned my head towards him and found him grinning at me. He was intoxicating. There was a magnetism to him I couldn’t deny. My body turned fully towards him and I watched as his eyes fell to my lips. Oh, how I wanted to. With Ana in the bathroom preparing for her bath and two of us alone downstairs, I was surrounded by the evidence of how much he had helped me today. I felt the air between us growing thicker. Like wading through mud on an obstacle course. The heat radiating off his body was pounding against my skin, causing my breathing to speed up.
The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end as my lips fell to his.
I felt him approaching. Growing closer as our bodies gravitated towards one another. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for something like this. To feel the sexual energy of a man touching me coursing through my veins. My eyes closed and I braced for the connection. For a magnetism I wasn’t sure I would be able to deny the moment that door opened.
“Mom! I’m ready!”
I jumped at my daughter’s voice, my eyes flying open and taking stock at how close Brewer was to me. I could feel his breath against my lips and I saw his eyes gazing into mine. I cleared my throat and took a step back, watching as Brewer nodded his head.
“You’re welcome,” he said.
Then he opened my front door and relieved himself of the situation.
“Mom?”
“Coming, sweetheart!”
I watched as Brewer made his way down the small hill that connected his yard with mine. His ass flexed with every step and his shoulders were draped in the colors of the setting sun. He landed onto his driveway and looked back at me, a small grin spreading across his cheeks. I felt something spark in my toes and drive up my legs, forcing a heat to spill between my thighs.
Then he turned and made his way inside, disappearing from my view.
Damn it.
Just… damn it.
Chapter 5
Brewer
I sat on my back porch, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Makenna’s backyard. Her daughter was adorable. Energetic and full of life. I missed those days. Days when things seemed easier and my only worry was whether or not Mom was going to let me have macaroni and cheese for dinner that night. That seemed like such a mountain of a problem, not getting macaroni and cheese.
I wondered if Ana liked macaroni and cheese.
I drew in a deep breath as I propped my feet up on the porch table in my backyard. I put my beer to my lips and took a long pull from the bottle. Holy hell, my neighbor was beautiful. Entrancing, almost. The way her voice lilted and the way she stood so strong. It took a hell of a woman to raise such an outgoing and confident daughter, and she was nailing it. Those stormy blue eyes that had seen too much and that dark red hair that beckoned to be pulled. I bet she enjoyed a bit of a dominant streak in her men.
It sounded like she’d been with enough pussies to crave that kind of thing.
I had enjoyed being around the two of them. Playing with her daughter and kicking the ball around. I didn’t get much of that in my childhood. I had to grow up pretty fast once my father left. My mother used to tell me when I was little that I looked like him. That we had the same mannerisms. For some reason, that stuck with me, and made me think that I would end up being exactly like him. Like the piece of shit father that he was.
My father and I had some decent memories, sure. But they were tainted by him leaving my mother. By breaking the heart of the one woman who was more important than anything in the entire fucking world. The only good thing about her Alzheimer’s was that she couldn’t remember having her heart broken. She couldn’t remember my father leaving her for his big-chested secretary. She couldn’t remember the nights she spent crying until she fell asleep and making sure she tried her best to hide her pain from me.
Makenna struck me as that type of mother. The strong one that stepped up to the plate because she loved her daughter. But who took care of her? Who made sure she got a break and had some time to herself? There were perks in raising a child with someone, and none of it had to do with any of that family bullshit. Sometimes, a person needed a break. A moment to retreat. That was where the other party came into play. Being a single parent was a thankless job, and I could see the stress of it written all over her face today.
She loved her daughter, but she was also stretched to her limit.
Ana was cute. A ball full of energy. But Makenna was strong. A resilient woman that probably wouldn’t complain even if she was bleeding out through her damn leg. I admired strength like that. It made me want to give her a break. It made me want to interject and give her something she didn’t have to share with her daughter.
Not because I didn’t like Ana, but because I also liked Makenna.
I took another long pull of my beer as a light flicked on in their home. My eyes rose to the second story and I saw Makenna’s shadow. Her beautiful hair fluttering in her air-conditioned home as she picked her daughter up in her arms. I could see her struggling with her daughter, and the faint whisper of her daughter’s giggles could be heard outside. A smile tugged across my lips as I watched the shadows dance. I wondered what they were doing. Maybe Ana was getting out of the bathtub even though she didn’t want to. Or she was ready to get out but she didn’t want to dry off. I watched the glorious battle rage between the two of them before their shadows receded from view, and the light soon clicked off and all was silent again.
I think I was going to enjoy having them as neighbors.
My phone ringing in my pocket pulled me from my thoughts. I reached in and looked down, grinning when I saw who was calling. Rock and I had been friends for years. Buddies in high school and a terror for our professors at the community college we attended. The two of us joined The Dead Souls as prospects at the same time, and we were constantly working side-by-side given our respective roles in the club. I handled the police and Rock handled the technology, which meant we were frequently in the police station together while he was trying to clone some shit and I was schmoozing my contacts.
I’d trusted Rock with my life. There was no way he was the rat.
“I got a beer over here with your name on it,” I said.
“We gotta talk more about this rat,” Rock said.
“Glad someone wants to talk about it. Don’t you think it’s odd that Diesel is still bucking against it?”
“I do. What I don’t get is why. He’s good at reading people. If there’s anyone who can flush the damn thing out, it’s him. But he won’t fucking do it. What does he stand to lose?”
“You know Diesel, he always wants to see the best in people. And his reputation is technically on the line.”
“The fuck does that mean?” Rock asked.
“If there’s a rat in the club and they came into the group anytime in the last seven years, then that means Diesel had to put his stamp of approval on them. People could twist it to make people think Diesel’s decision-making skills are compromised or some fuckery like that.”
“What the fuck? This isn’t politics. We aren’t Washington. There’s a damn rat and until we smoke them out, we aren’t gonna get anywhere.”
“I know. But we have to convince Diesel that it’s a good idea. Otherwise he’ll continue to shoot us down. And if we go behind his back, it’ll be seen as mutiny or something. He’ll throw us both out.”
“Do yo
u have any ideas as to who it could be?” he asked.
“I know it’s not you. You don’t have the patience to be an informant.”
“And I’ve known you for years, so that counts for something. Right?”
“Yep. Same reason why it counts for me,” I said.
“I’m gonna ask something that doesn’t leave the two of us.”
“You think Diesel’s the rat.”
“It’s odd that he’s pushing back so fucking much.”
“I have to admit, it’s crossed my mind. Diesel does have the skill set to be able to cover up some shit like this. He knows all the stuff he’s taught us about reading other people, so he would know what tells and ticks to cover up if he was lying to us.”
“You think Diesel would sell us out like that? I mean he’s the fucking president of our club,” he said.
“That’s the thing. It makes sense, but I’m not sold on it. None of this shit has made sense up until this fucking point, so why should it start making sense now?”
“At least someone else is worried about the damn rat. Knox is running around with Monroe now that she’s ballooned in her pregnancy and Grave’s fucking got Everly’s damn mood swings to deal with.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you hate kids.”
“I don’t fucking hate kids, you asshole. But we don’t live the kind of fucking life that can afford kids. And no one seems to give a shit about that. Each time someone gets someone else pregnant in our club, that’s two other people we gotta watch out for. I mean, what the fuck are these guys thinking?”
“You aren’t wrong,” I said. I glanced over to Makenna’s house and smiled. “But with the right woman, a kid could be kinda ok.”
“Don’t tell me you’re knocking someone up, too,” he said. “Don’t do that to me. I can’t take that. I need my bachelor buddy.”
“I’m not knocking anyone up. Though my new neighbor’s pretty hot.”
“Wrap it up, asshole.”
I chuckled as I took another pull of my beer.
“I’m serious. I got a beer with your name on it if you wanna come over,” I said.
Brewer (Dead Souls MC Book 3) Page 3