What Might Have Been: Daniels Brother #4 (Daniels Brothers)

by Sherri Hayes

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  Abby closed the car door and started the engine. “Good night, Max.”

  “Call me if you need me.”

  While she wanted to roll her eyes and tell him she was a big girl and could take care of herself, she just nodded.

  An hour later, she’d downed several glasses of wine and her head was about ready to explode from staring at her computer screen. There had to be fifty files on the flash drive Max had given her—each one a spreadsheet full of numbers. It would take her weeks to make sense of it all, and that was assuming she could match up the numbers with actual accounts. It looked as if Emily had struck again, and Abby was left to clean up her mess.

  At some point in her search through the seemingly endless spreadsheets, her phone rang. Figuring it must be Max, she ignored it. She didn’t want to talk about her personal life any more tonight.

  Draining the rest of her wineglass, Abby stood and made her way into the kitchen. Her phone sat on the small kitchen table where she’d left it when she came home. As she rinsed her glass, it occurred to her that the call she’d chosen to let go to voice mail could have been from Trent.

  She tapped her fingers on the counter as she stared at the phone.

  A second later her feet were moving. She picked up the phone and logged into her voice mail. Trent’s voice came through the line and she felt a pang of longing in her chest. He didn’t say much, but before she realized what she was doing, Abby was calling him back.

  ***

  Trent had hoped Abby would return his call, but by nine o’clock he’d all but given up hope. He’d said goodbye to his family and headed home.

  As he was walking through the door, his phone rang. He didn’t bother looking at the caller ID before answering. “Hello?”

  “Hi.” Abby’s voice was timid, unsure. “I’m sorry I called so late. I didn’t realize what time it was.”

  Trent strolled into the living room and sat down. “Don’t worry about it. I just got home.”

  “Okay.”

  The silence stretched out between them.

  “Is everything all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? I can come over if you need me to.” There was a part of him that wanted her to say yes, even though logically he knew it probably wasn’t a good idea.

  “I’m good. I promise.” She paused. “I’ve been thinking.”

  “About?” Fear raced through him waiting for her answer.

  “You and me. Us.”

  “I should probably come clean about something.” Trent figured this was as good a time as any to bring up his conversation with his brother. “I spoke to Chris tonight. He told me what happened between the two of you in Fort Lauderdale.”

  “You asked him?”

  “Did you really expect me not to?”

  Abby hesitated. “I guess not.”

  “He owes you an apology. What he did . . .” Trent could feel the anger bubbling up inside him again.

  “It was a long time ago.”

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  “You sound like Max. Both of you need to relax. I’m not such a fragile flower.”

  “I know that, but it doesn’t excuse my brother’s actions.” The words came out a bit harsher than he’d wanted them to.

  Abby grew quiet again.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s fine.”

  Why did he get the impression that it wasn’t? “Did Chris not tell me the whole story? Did something else happen?”

  All his protective instincts surfaced when he heard what sounded like a sniffle.

  “Abby?”

  She cleared her throat. “I should let you get to bed. I’m sure you have a busy day tomorrow.”

  In that moment, Trent didn’t care if it was a good idea or not. He needed to see her. Hold her. To know for himself that she really was all right. “I’m coming over. I’ll see you in ten minutes.”

  Trent grabbed his keys and darted out the door.

  When he pulled up to her apartment he half expected the lights to be off and her not to answer the door when he knocked. After all, he’d kind of acted like a caveman on the phone. Neither of those happened to be the case. She’d left her light on for him and she opened the door as he approached.

  As soon as he saw her, he couldn’t stop himself from taking her in his arms. She molded her body against his, only solidifying that racing over to her apartment had been the right thing. Abby clung to him.

  He guided her over to the couch and tugged her down onto his lap. For several minutes, he sat there holding her, comforting her from whatever past wrong his brother had caused her. With every passing second, the desire to punch his brother grew.

  “Don’t be upset with Chris,” she murmured against his neck, as if she could read his mind. “It wasn’t all his fault. I was there, too, remember.”

  “He left you there. Alone.”

  She blew out a harsh breath. “Can we talk about something else?”

  Trent gritted his teeth and decided not to push his luck. “Sure. What do you want to talk about?”

  “Tell me what you’ve been up to since the last time I saw you. Besides starting your business, I mean.”

  Shifting them both into a slightly more comfortable position, Trent tried to relax and enjoy the fact that he was with the woman he’d spent countless nights fantasizing about. “Let’s see. Well, first I finished high school.”

  Abby reached between them and pinched him.

  “Ouch,” Trent said, feigning injury.

  She met his gaze. “You deserved it.”

  Unable to resist, he bent down and brushed his lips against hers.

  “I’ve missed you, Abby.”

  She closed her eyes and tucked her head into the crook of his neck, making herself comfortable. This was how it was supposed to be. Her cuddled up in his arms.

  He rested his cheek on the top of her head and continued with his story. “I ended up going to the University of Cincinnati. During the summers I got a job doing some landscaping with a company outside of Springfield. Chris knew the owner and he was glad to have the extra help in the busy season. Other than that, I helped Ma and Dad around the house, and saved up to buy my own place.”

  Abby ran a hand down the front of his shirt and his anatomy stood up and took notice. He did his best to ignore it. That wasn’t what this was about. That wasn’t why he’d come over.

  He picked up her hand and repositioned it higher on his chest. “What about you? What happened after you left for college?”

  She stiffened.

  “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

  “It’s okay.”

  He was patient as she gathered her thoughts. The few times she’d written to him those first two years of college had mostly been about her classes. Even before she stopped sending him letters, he’d felt the growing distance between them.

  “You know I went to NYU. During my first week there, I was trying to find one of my classes and ended up literally running into Max. He was a junior and gladly pointed me in the right direction.”

  “And you became fast friends?” Trent tried to insert some humor into what felt like a rather serious conversation.

  “Not exactly. We saw each other around campus a few more times before he joined me one day in the cafeteria for lunch. We talked about our classes and bonded over both being from Ohio.” Abby was quiet for a long moment. “Then he asked me out.”

  Trent knew it. There was no way Max, if he was indeed straight, hadn’t made a move on her.

  “I told him no.”

  “Why?”

  Abby sat up and he immediately wanted her warmth back.

  “Lots of reasons.” She twisted her fingers in her lap. “But mainly because I wanted to concentrate on my studies. Even though it had only been a few weeks, I was having to study harder than I ever had to in high school. The last thing I wanted t
o do was fail.”

  “And he accepted that?” With what little he knew of Max, he couldn’t see the man giving up after one no.

  She grinned. “No. He kept coming around. Eating lunch with me. Walking me to class. That sort of thing.”

  It pained Trent to ask, but he needed to know. “So did you two ever?”

  “No. That spring another girl in my dorm caught his eye and he asked me for help in getting her attention.” Abby smiled. “At first I said I wouldn’t help him, but Max can be very persuasive when he wants something bad enough. I think he was hoping to make me jealous or something.”

  Trent frowned.

  She took his face in her hands and brushed her lips against his. “You have no reason to be jealous of Max. By the end of the year, he realized that he didn’t want to jeopardize our friendship with a romantic entanglement. He’s been my best friend ever since.”

  It did make him feel a little better to know that she and Max had never dated.

  He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t realized Abby had shifted her weight so that she was sitting astride him. It was the feel of her lips against his neck that brought him back to his senses. He gripped her hips with both his hands and groaned.

  “I don’t want to talk about Max anymore.” She kissed the spot right beneath his ear. “I don’t want to talk about Chris either. Or your family.” She trailed her mouth up until it was a breath away from his. “Or mi—”

  Trent didn’t let her finish that sentence before he tangled his fingers into her hair and crushed her lips to his.

  Chapter 9

  Abby had lost all her common sense. She had to have because she didn’t know what she’d been thinking when she decided to straddle Trent and begin teasing him.

  Okay, she’d known what she was doing. Kind of. Her goal had been to distract him from any more talk of Max or college or anything else that might potentially lead her to spilling her guts. She should have known better.

  Whenever Trent kissed her, she lost all capacity for thought and reason. This time was no different. As his mouth moved against hers and his fingers pressed against her scalp, holding her head exactly where he wanted it, the only thing she could concentrate on was how she wanted to melt into him.

  Trent ran his hand down her back until he reached the edge of her shirt. He toyed with the hem briefly before snaking his hand beneath the thin material. The calluses on his palms sent shivers down her spine and a rush of heat to the spot between her legs. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d reacted this way to a man, especially this quickly. It seemed that all Trent had to do was touch her and she was like a live wire.

  He lifted her and twisted, changing their position. Before she knew it, she was beneath him, the lower half of his body pressed against her. The feel of his erection straining in his jeans left little doubt as to how much he wanted her. She lifted her hips, begging him for more friction as he continued to kiss her with a passion that left her dizzy.

  His hand slid up her side to cup her breast. She couldn’t stop the deep moan that escaped. It felt so good having his hands on her.

  The more he touched her, the more she wanted. They were still fully clothed and that was a problem. Abby wanted to touch him, to caress the muscles she could feel beneath. She reached for the bottom of his shirt and began working it upward.

  His shirt was bunched up beneath his underarms when he stopped kissing her and buried his face in her neck. “Why is it that when I’m with you it’s so easy to forget myself?”

  Abby felt him shiver as she ran her hands along the skin of his back. It thrilled her to know she wasn’t the only one so affected by what was happening between them. “For me, too.”

  Trent lifted his head and looked her in the eye. He seemed to be searching for something. “I want you, Abby.”

  His whispered confession moved her in a way she didn’t want to overanalyze. Trent had always been special to her, but it was more than that. Her heart felt as if it might burst as she stared into his eyes.

  Abby pulled his mouth back down to hers.

  He kissed her back, the previous moment’s indecision gone.

  She cupped the bulge at the front of his jeans, reveling in the feel of him in her palm. With each stroke the fire in her belly grew stronger, hotter.

  Fingers gripped her wrist, pulling her hand away from his erection, and she groaned in frustration.

  Trent chuckled and brought her arms up over her head, pinning them above her.

  “Not funny,” she gasped as he kissed his way down her neck.

  Releasing her arms, he nudged the cup of her bra aside with one hand and rolled her nipple between his fingers. Abby arched her back, begging him for more. Whatever she’d been about to say was forgotten as she gave in to the sensation.

  They lay there on her couch for what felt like forever, kissing and touching. She’d explored his shoulders, his back, his chest—anywhere her hands could reach. Trent had an amazing body, forged by physical labor, and she took pleasure in becoming acquainted with it as they made out in her living room.

  “Trent?”

  “Mmm?” He was nibbling on her ear and driving her crazy. It had been too long since she’d been intimate with a man and the desire to feel his skin against hers was almost unbearable.

  “We’re wearing too many clothes.”

  He grazed his lips along the line of her jaw, placed an all too chaste kiss on her lips, and then rested his forehead against hers. The look in his eyes told her that he was just as turned on as she was. “Our clothes are the only thing keeping me in check.”

  “What if I don’t want you in check?”

  Trent groaned and buried his head in her neck. Even then, she could feel the moment dissipating. She didn’t want this connection between them to end, even though she knew eventually it would.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “I thought . . .”

  He pushed himself up and away from her. Cool air washed over her body as he moved to sit on the other end of the couch. The look on his face was serious.

  Abby sat up, tucking her legs beneath her, and straightened her clothes. She waited for him to speak. He obviously had something he needed to say and whatever it was, she owed it to him to hear him out.

  As she gave him time to gather his thoughts, her gaze zeroed in on the still prominent bulge in his pants. She wondered if it was as impressive as it felt.

  “You really need to stop looking at me like that.”

  She snapped her head up to meet his gaze. He’d caught her staring at his crotch. Heat rushed into her cheeks.

  “That’s not helping either.” His voice sounded strained, as if he was barely holding on to his control.

  Abby grinned.

  He extended his hand, silently asking for her to come closer. She glided her fingers over his palm and followed willingly as he pulled her in.

  Trent tucked her against his side. “I’m trying to be a gentleman here and do the right thing. You aren’t ready for us to make love.”

  She wanted to argue with him, but she knew he was right. This wasn’t some random guy. This was Trent and it would mean something if they slept together. A big something.

  He sighed and brushed his lips against her hair. “How about some TV?”

  They spent the next hour watching a documentary on ancient Egyptian artifacts. She wouldn’t have pegged him as being interested in such a thing, but Abby was finding that there was a lot about Trent she didn’t know.

  Spending time with him was nice. Every so often he would give her a kiss or brush his fingers along her arm, but it was all very innocent. Trent knew she was keeping something from him. She was pretty sure he thought it had to do with Max since he kept bringing up her friendship with him. Abby wished that were the case.

  “Are you sure you’re going to be okay?” Trent asked as he stood at the door ready to leave nearly two hours after he’d arrived.

  She wanted him to stay, but he was right. She w
asn’t ready. And even if she was, sleeping with him while harboring such a huge secret—one that would affect his entire family—wasn’t something she was willing to do. She cared too much about him. “I’m fine. I promise.”

  He still looked unsure. She never should have allowed herself to break down in front of him.

  Abby went up on her tiptoes and kissed him. “Thank you for coming over.”

  “Anytime. You know that.” He splayed his hand on her lower back and returned the kiss. It left her ready to throw away all her good intentions and lead him to her bedroom.

  “Good night, Abby,” he whispered, backing away. “Sweet dreams.”

  “Good night.”

  She closed the door and leaned back against it. Her life had gotten a lot more complicated than it had been a few weeks ago, and she had no idea what she was going to do about it.

  That night Abby tossed and turned more than she had in years. Her mind kept jumping back and forth between her time with Trent and those last months of her pregnancy when she’d been afraid and confused. If she continued to see Trent, she was going to have to face her past and Chris.

  When she woke up on Sunday morning, Marilyn Daniels’ invitation weighed heavily on her mind. She thought about calling Max and asking his opinion, but he’d either talk her out of going or insist on going with her. That wouldn’t help the situation. If anything, it would make it worse.

  As noon approached, Abby knew she couldn’t put it off any longer. She was either in or she was out.

  Abby stood in the center of her apartment, clasping the pendant dangling at the end of her necklace. Her gaze zeroed in on the couch where she and Trent had made out the night before. As wrong as she knew it was, she wanted to do it again . . . and again . . . and again. And being with Trent, even temporarily, would mean dealing with his family. She was surprised his mom hadn’t shown up on her doorstep already.

  Before Abby could talk herself out of it, she went to her bedroom to get ready.

  It took her longer than normal to find something to wear. She didn’t want to appear as if she was going out of her way to impress, but she needed as much confidence as possible if she was going to be in the same room as her ex-boyfriend, his wife, and the man she was beginning to have more feelings for than was probably smart.