We’ve been in line for 45 minutes, and we’ve barely moved.
Alex looks around and scowls, muttering.
“What’s taking so long?”
“Maybe we should head somewhere else, Alex,” I suggest, glancing down at my watch, “we’ve been here a while and we haven’t budged. The only people they’ve let in are people they obviously know, or are on some guest list.”
She nods and lets and exasperated sigh out, pouting.
“Yeah, I guess this idea was a bust, sorry. Okay why don’t-Oh!”
Out of nowhere her eyes go wide and she’s got a hopeful smile spreading across her face, and she eagerly points towards the head of the line.
“Hey, Izzie, isn’t that what’s his name, Brady? That super hot football player who, for some reason you’re not having sex with?”
I whip around and gaze over at the club’s entrance, scanning the crowd.
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Sure enough, there he is, waltzing up to the doorway with a smile. The bouncer obviously knows him, too; he’s grinning back at him and already moving to unhook the velvet rope for him blocking the door.
I roll my eyes and nod my head.
“Yep, that’s him. It figures that they’d let him in.”
Alex looks at me incredulously and throws her hands up in the air.
“Well,” she laughs, “What are you waiting for? Wave him down.”
I raise my brows and shake my head at her, moving to leave.
“And why would I do that?”
“Uhh, because he’s our ticket in there?” She scoffs, getting on her tiptoes to glance over the crowd.
I shake my head again, and grab her hand to leave, but, apparently, she’s got other ideas.
She’s calling his name out and before I can make an exit, he looks over and spots me, that stupid, awful, sexy grin of his plastered across his face as he calls me over.
“Izzie!”
I give him a polite smile and a wave, and he gestures to one of the bouncers, waving us over.
Alex and the girls eagerly make their way towards him and I follow begrudgingly, wishing I had just told Alex to go to our regular spot.
This was supposed to be a fun night away from the stresses of work, and here at the club with us now, is the biggest stress of my job, and is our only way in.
No, you know what? It’s my damned birthday, and nothing is going to spoil that for me, not even Brady Thomas, the selfish jock boy himself.
Although, he is letting Liam and I stay with him, so I guess I shouldn’t be so hard on the guy. Liam seems to really like him too, which kills me. I want to hate the guy, and I do, but at the same time, he’s Liam’s dad. Not that he knows that, but still.
Ugh, no, this is my birthday. I’m not going to worry about that stuff tonight; I’m going to have fun.
We make our way to the front of the line—earning a few dirty glances from other people waiting in the process—and I introduce Alex and the girls to Brady and the other guys from the team that he’s with.
“What brings you ladies here tonight?” He asks, looking me over with a smile.
I can feel the heat in my cheeks and I blush under his gaze, nervous laughter escaping my lips as Alex takes charge and responds.
“Well,” she croons, “It’s Izzie here’s birthday tonight, and we wanted to celebrate.”
Brady turns to me and grins, raising his brows.
“It’s your birthday? Well, we can’t have you spending it with the local riff raff, can we?”
Before I can reply he chuckles and a security guard ushers us in past the bouncer.
We head inside, and I’m instantly confused because instead of leading us into the main area of the club, we’re taken up a flight of stairs and into a separate area that’s roped off, another staff member letting us through as we go.
I look around the room that we’re led into and it’s stunning. Large, spacious, and it has several leather couches, as well as a private bar and a crazy view of the rest of the club.
I turn to Brady and he smirks at me as I glance around in awe.
“Happy birthday, Izzie. Welcome to the VIP room.”
He sits down on one of the couches and starts making an order, and I can feel the corners of my lips turning upwards into a smile, as much as I fight it.
A private VIP room and our own bartender on my birthday? Maybe running into Brady wasn’t so bad, after all.
Chapter 20
Brady
Good god, that girl sure cleans up nicely.
Who knew that behind that messy ponytail, khakis, and do-gooder attitude was a total bombshell? Well, I did.
But hot damn, is it nice to see it in action.
I’m happy that I glanced at the lineup of people on the street before we walked into the club, otherwise I would have never caught sight of Izzie and her friends, and I wouldn’t be sitting with them—with her—right now.
Actually, I barely recognized her at first.
I was gonna wave the group up, Izzie or not. But this is a hell of a blessing.
I don’t usually bring too many other people to the VIP room nowadays because of this morality contract. It’s so much better to just distance myself and still have a good time. But tonight, I’ll make an exception. As I’ve come to find out, it’s Izzie’s birthday.
Izzie and her friends are all looking fine as hell, Izzie especially. Maybe she’ll let me give her a birthday present when we both get back to my place. As long as we keep our mouths shut, no harm, no foul, right?
It’s not like I thought she was unattractive before.
Shit, she’s had the whole team salivating. She’s a gorgeous girl, and I’ve never seen her all done up like she is now. If she dressed like this to work, we’d all be walking on third legs across the end zones.
She’s got this sexy little black dress on and some crazy set of heels—which adorably enough still don’t bring her even close to my height—and I keep catching myself stealing glances at her.
I’m trying to focus on my drink, on Izzie’s friends, on anything but her, and it’s just not happening. I may look in another direction, but every now and then, I catch her laughing out in the corner of my eye. Or she’ll do that adorable thing when someone says something that makes her blush, and she turns five shades of red and looks away.
To that, I can’t help but smile.
Man, I’ve got to get a grip on myself.
I start talking to one of the guys about our next game, and I know that he’s telling me something that I should probably be listening to, but all I can see is Izzie.
The way she tucks a stray blonde lock behind her ear and smiles when she’s shy, the way she looks at me when I make her laugh, or how her lips pucker around the bottle she’s drinking from.
My thoughts wander back to the other night, when I walked into my bathroom to find her naked in my tub, steam and hot water giving her skin a smooth sheen…
Fuck.
“Yo, earth to Brady?”
I’m brought back to reality when my buddy in town snaps his fingers in front of my face and laughs, handing me another beer as he laughs.
“Were you even listening to me? Or were you too busy ogling?”
He gestures toward the direction where Izzie and Alex are sitting and exaggeratedly raises his brows. I shake my head and laugh, taking another drink.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
He shakes his head and grabs another beer, and I turn back toward the girls to talk to Izzie, only to see her getting up.
She looks over to her friend Alex. As she does, she gives me a shy smile.
“I’ll be right back, Alex. Just heading to the ladies.”
Alex nods at her, and I slide over on the couch and introduce myself.
“Alex, right?” I ask, grabbing a cold beer from the bucket and opening it for her, “I’m Brady. Nice to meet you.”
She giggles and takes the beer, nodding.
&nbs
p; “Yeah, I know. I’m a huge fan, actually” she croons, offering her hand to me, “I’m Alex.”
I shake her hand, and we clink our bottles, and she looks around the room with a smile.
“This place is great! Thanks for getting us in. It’s making Izzie’s birthday pretty cool.”
I shake my head and flash her the grin that I know always makes ladies swoon, chuckling as I speak.
“No worries, doll. My pleasure. How old is Izzie anyway?” I ask, winking. “She never tells me anything.”
Alex laughs and nods, as she takes another drink and smiles at me.
“Yeah, that sounds like Izzie, all right. She’s twenty four.”
Twenty four?
Wait…shit. That means she must’ve been pretty young when she had Liam.
My eyes widen in surprise, and I put my beer down.
“Twenty four, seriously? So that would mean she had Liam when she was sixteen. Shit, that must have been rough.”
“Oh!” she gasps, shaking her head. “Liam isn’t her son. He’s her nephew.”
Her nephew? What the fuck?
“Her nephew? Really?”
“Mhm, her sister died right after having him,” she says matter-of-factly as she takes another sip. “Izzie raised him as her own.”
“Wow. That was really brave of her, considering she was young then.”
Alex nods and smiles warmly.
“Yeah, Izzie’s unbelievable. Liam’s dad has never been in the picture. So it’s been hard, but she makes it work. She loves that kid.”
“Yeah, I can tell. Wow.”
So she raised a kid all by herself, and that kid wasn’t even hers.
Shit, that’s heavy. And what kind of a scumbag runs out on his own kid, especially when something so tragic and life-changing happens?
I shake my head and down the rest of my beer, just as Izzie walks back into the VIP room. I smile at her when she sits next to me.
I must’ve been staring for a long time because she smirks at me and tilts her head, nudging my shoulder playfully and laughing softly.
“What are you looking at, you big oaf?”
I chuckle and nod my head at her as I smile, holding her gaze.
“Just the most beautiful girl in the room, is all.”
She chuckles awkwardly and turns away smiling, her cheeks blushing about five different shades of red. She takes another drink and fidgets with the glass, eyeing me up from the side.
Oh, she’s adorable.
“Hey, birthday girl,” I say as I stand up, taking her hand, “what do you say we go dance?”
I gesture toward the dance floor and grin. Much to my surprise, she agrees.
“Why the hell not?”
She smiles back at me and stands, a train of our friends following behind as we make our way to the dance floor.
We dance half the night away, and Izzie gets more and more friendly after each drink she’s had—that guarded apprehension slipping and giving way to friendly warmth and welcome flirtation.
We’re having a real connection.
Raw Izzie.
I’m talking to the girl I’ve been trying to get to for weeks, and I can’t get enough of it.
That is, until the night takes a turn for the worse, when some drunken asshole decides that Izzie’s going to be his next conquest.
Or so he thinks.
This guy comes out of nowhere and cuts in, grinding on her like some dog in heat, and she’s clearly having none of it. She’s pretty buzzed at this point, so she shoves him off and laughs. She moves over to her friend Alex and continues to dance.
I flash her a winning smile from a couple feet away.
Good girl, she can take care of herself.
Then, Drunky McAssface is back again, this time with more gusto. He comes up behind her and grabs her hips and starts what I can only assume is dancing for him.
Once again, she shoves him away.
Only this time he doesn’t back off but holds on to her.
I see Alex say something to the guy, and he snaps at her, and Izzie whips around and tries to push him off. The idiot still doesn’t take the hint and tries to reason with her.
I don’t even blink before I walk over there and take care of it myself.
“Hey, pal,” I bark, “I don’t think she wants you dancing with her. Move along.”
He looks me up and down, sneers, and stumbles towards me.
“Oh, yeah?” he slurs, laughing. “And who are you, her boyfriend?”
Ha, don’t I wish, buddy, don’t I wish I was.
“Nope, just a friend. Now, I suggest you leave her the fuck alone.”
The guy stands his ground and instead of leaving, grabs Izzie’s arm. She swats him away, and that’s when I decide enough was enough.
“Hey, asshat,” I snarl, getting in his face, “touch her again, and you’ll regret it. Leave.”
Just then Izzie takes my hand and pulls me away, urging me to leave the dance floor.
“Come on, Brady, this guy’s just some drunken fool. Fuck him. He’s not worth the trouble. Let’s just get back to the VIP room.”
We start to walk, but then, he grabs at Izzie again, and I see red.
My hands ball up into fists, and my heart starts to pound as I let go of Izzie’s hand and turn around, shoving the guy as I yell at him. I want to just knock his fucking teeth out so badly, but Izzie is practically in my ear telling me not to.
“I’m not going to tell you again, fuck wad. Leave her alone.”
Apparently, this guy has another idea and takes a swing at me.
Great.
Luckily, he’s wasted so I can dodge the blow pretty easily, and I start to back away.
I don’t need this right now, and this isn’t how I want Izzie’s birthday to end. But this guy won’t let up, and he takes another swing. This time he stumbles and hits my shoulder.
I couldn’t throw the first punch.
I tried to walk away.
Sorry Izzie, but this isn’t instigation anymore; it’s self-defense.
He moves to take another swing, and I block it and sock him square in the jaw.
He falters, stumbling backwards and ends up falling on another girl, and then another guy, and all hell breaks loose.
People are throwing punches all over the place, and the bar is in a state of mayhem. I take advantage of the chaos and grab Izzie by the hand, leading her out of the frenzied crowd of the dance floor.
As I stare at the pandemonium, I can’t help but think about the chat coach will give me tomorrow about all of this. Not to mention that the chaos has ruined Izzie’s birthday.
Fuck.
Chapter 21
Brady
I pull up into the driveway in front of my house.
Izzie is in the passenger seat, her head resting against the window while she traces random patterns on the glass. Every once in a while, she’ll giggle at what she sees she has drawn.
As I park the car, she releases another giggle. I chuckle under my breath. She’s completely wasted, and it’s cute and hilarious to witness.
I turn off the car and look at her. She has a look of extreme confusion on her face.
“Why did we stop moving?” she asks.
“Because we’re home, Izzie.”
“No. It takes longer than that, and this isn’t my house. It’s yours.”
Technically, she’s right but whatever. She’s living here right now so it’s her home too, for the time being.
“We’ve been driving for twenty minutes Izzie, and this is where you’re staying while your house gets worked on.”
She giggles uncontrollably. I can tell she isn’t going to stop so I hop out of the car and go around to her side.
I pop the door open, lean in the car, unbuckle her, and scoop her out of the seat into my arms. She squeals when my hand slides under her and bring her up to my chest. She gets even louder when we start walking up to the house.
“Hey! We’re moving agai
n! See I was right. I feel like I’m flying right now,” she yells.
She’s adorable when she’s drunk.
I walk us up the pathway leading to the front door and place Izzie on her feet while I unlock the deadbolt. As soon as her feet hit the ground, she wobbles. Before she can fall on her ass, I grab her around the waist to steady her.
“Hold on to me, Izzie,” I tell her.
“Okay. I trust you, Brady. Don’t drop me, okay?”
She grips my waist and shirt as if her life depends on it. Whatever works as long as she doesn’t fall and hurt herself before I can get her upstairs and into her bed.
The door clicks open after unlocking it. I guide Izzie inside to the entry way and kick the door closed behind us.
“Who’s house is this?” she asks.
“It’s my house, Izzie. You know that. You’ve been staying here.”
“Right, right. Can you take me to bed? I’m a little dizzy,” she admits, leering at the stairs.
“Of course, Izzie.”
With the way she’s trying to not stumble over her own feet, it would probably be quicker for me to carry her upstairs. I bend down to do just that, but she stumbles backwards and buckles in her drunken state.
“I can walk myself Brady. I’m an independent woman who doesn’t need your help,” she states.
“Izzie, you just asked for help.”
“Shhhhhhhhhh!” she says, shoving a finger at my face.
I’m doing my best not to laugh. This is absolutely priceless.
She’s backed up all the way to the wall and is leaning back into it. I suspect if the wall wasn’t there, she would be sprawled out on the floor by now.
I lift my hands up in a I-don’t-mean-you-any-harm signal.
“I’m just trying to get you up the stairs without you hurting yourself,” I assure her.
“I’m not going to hurt myself. I’m perfectly fine,” she tries convincing me.
She believes it too, even while her head moves back and forth slightly. She’s probably seeing the room spin right now.
Just go along with it, Brady, I tell myself.
Last thing I need is her freaking out on me while drunk.
“I know you’re fine. Just trying to be a gentleman here, Izzie. Do you know what would be a great idea? How about I hug you and we can move together!”
A Daddy for Mother's Day_A Secret Baby Romance Page 12