I stepped back and did my best to smile elegantly. His eyes were still wide, but he was grinning now and if I wasn't mistaken, a little pink around the cheeks.
"It's good to see you, Aislinn," he breathed.
"It's good to see you, too, Lucas," I replied and successfully kept the quiver out of my voice.
My lips were burning from the short second they had been on his skin and they wanted more. I turned away and climbed the stairs without looking back, feeling his gaze on me and smiling to myself.
I heard a soft smack when I reached the top and was out of sight. Dad must have smacked him because when I peeked around the wall, Lucas was rubbing the back of his head.
"Eyes, Lucas."
He cleared his throat, "Yes, sir."
Then they disappeared through the kitchen door.
As I made my way to the bedroom I had grown up in, that Dad hadn't felt the need to change at all, I thought of the only thing that my brothers didn't know about Lucas. The thing only I knew and would never share because I was selfish like that and wanted it all to myself.
My birthday may have been an awful reminder of the day my mother died of cancer, but it was also the day that Lucas gave me a gift that made the memories of her brighter.
On my 18th birthday, one year after she passed, he had given me a locket with her picture inside. She was a beautiful woman and Dad always said I looked just like her with my long brown hair, grey eyes, and genuine smile. It was my favorite picture of her and it may have been nothing, but I always hoped his gift meant he felt something more for me than just brotherly love. The next three birthdays, he made me my favorite S'more cupcakes, the ones Mom discovered when she was pregnant with me and always baked for me on my birthday. Lucas would come over early in the morning, before my brothers woke up and would light the lone candle he had sunk into the cupcake and tell me to make a wish.
He said he did it because he knew how to bake and my brothers and dad didn't, so he was just trying to save me from getting sick on my birthday. He would never know how much it actually meant to me.
After the incident on my 21st birthday, I thought it was over. No more S'more cupcakes, no more wishes.
When I arrived back at my Ohio apartment after a long day of work the next year on my 22nd birthday, there was a package waiting for me at the door.
A cupcake with a candle and a note that said 'Make a wish'.
Every year for the past seven years, the package was there. It was the only brightness I ever really got on that day.
And why wouldn't it be? After all, the name Lucas means 'light'.
Okay, so my parents obsession with name meanings had rubbed off on me a little. So what?
When I came back to Oakland, I didn't think I would run into him right away. I hoped I would be able to find a place of my own and be doing my own thing first, but life has a way of surprising people.
I started unpacking and hanging my clothes in the tiny closet that still held the pink and purple hangers Mom insisted I have. After Conall and Fergus, her only little girl was going to be thrown into a world of fairytales and unicorns. Unfortunately for her, I never really liked unicorns, and fairytales always bummed me out because they could never really happen.
Now, at 28 years old, I read romance novels and went into a short period of depression afterwards because there were no circumstances in my life that I needed a hero to rescue me from and end up falling in love with me and having a happily ever after with. Granted, I didn't want to experience any situation where the people I loved or even myself were in danger, but a little excitement now and then never killed anyone. Right?
After hanging the last of my clothes I started to organize my shoes and it made me smile. If Mom did one thing right, it was showing me how important shoes are. I had a lot of them, but never had the opportunity to wear most of them. They went into my just in case pile.
I knelt on the floor of my closet and rummaged through the mess, frowning at the heels I would probably never get to use and humming to myself and trying not to think about the man sitting in the kitchen downstairs. I stared straight ahead and took a deep breath and let it out, feeling my nerves go back to a less frenzied state. I noticed the tiny button that blended into the back wall, one you would never see unless you knew it was there.
Mom may have tried to get me into princesses and rainbows, but Dad got me into adventure and mystery. He spent a whole weekend building me a tiny space behind my closet that I could hold my most prized possessions or crawl into so I had the best hiding spot in the house that my brothers never knew about.
Hide and seek with me was a bitch.
Dad told me it was just for fun, but the dim light in his eyes told me there was more to it. The man had seen things I hoped to never see. He wanted his little girl safe if it ever came down to it because being in law enforcement didn't mean you were never in danger.
I pressed the small button and a portion of the wall popped out and swung open. It was big enough that I could still fit through it and the space behind it was as tall as the closet itself so I could stand and move around a little bit. There were a couple shoe boxes off to the side that I didn't dare open. I knew one of them held pictures of Mom and me and ticket stubs and post cards from all the different events she took me to, just me and her. The other held three items, all of which were precious to me but forced too many irrational emotions to surface.
The locket from Lucas, Mom's wedding rings, and the only wedding picture of her and my dad that they hadn't lost in the years they had been married.
I used to wear the locket all the time, but the night my brothers decided to mortify me beyond repair and Lucas decided to laugh it up with them, I put it in this box and walked away. Maybe if I kept his gift away from my heart, my heart would slowly let him go.
I sighed and shut the secret door that only three people in the entire world knew about. Me, Dad, and of course, Lucas. I mean how could I not let him know about it? He had convinced me to reveal my hiding spot long ago when playing with my brothers. He never told anyone about it, though, and whenever he was the one looking around, he never came to find me.
Another reason why the pieces of my heart belonged to him.
"Let him go? Yeah, right. You are doing a great job so far, Ash," I snipped to myself.
"Great job of what, my beauty?"
I startled and fell back onto the huge pile of shoes while clutching at the clothes I had just hung, ripping them off the hangers. Dad had always been the master of stealth and grace. Me? Not so much. I still smiled at the familiar nickname in my moment of pure terror, though.
Dad stood in the doorway with his arms folded across his chest and a huge grin on his face. Of all the people who knew about my infatuation with Lucas, Dad was the only one who was aware of how deeply I had actually fallen for him. He was the one I went crying to that night after all. He was the one who told me that things would work out for the best in the end and that no matter what happens in my life, I should follow my gut.
At the time, my gut was telling me to run away. He helped me run.
Got me into a nice apartment and helped me contact the people I needed to transfer my college credits and get set up to attend school in Ohio.
Why Ohio?
It's where my mother, Isabelle, grew up. It was the only place he was going to allow me to go. Isabelle means 'devoted to God', so you can imagine why he thought Ohio would be perfect. I was going to be close to my mother's parents who agreed to look out for me and who were also extremely religious. Unfortunately for Dad, they were already really old and both of them passed away within the first three years of me being there.
However, he still trusted me and he still knew that I needed this time on my own no matter the fierce protectiveness he felt for me. That's why Dad was my real hero. Regardless of what he actually wanted to do, he knew what he needed to do when it came down to it.
Let me live a life on my own.
"You scared the hell
out of me, Dad!"
He chuckled and moved over to the foot of my bed and sat down. "I apologize, sweetheart. You looked like you were thinking pretty hard about something. Had me worried."
He still had a little of an Irish brogue when he spoke, but it was gone for the most part. Mom begged him to never let it go because it was what made her fall in love with him in the first place. He held onto it until the day she died, then he gave it up because what was the point?
I loved the few times it came out. Reminded me of how much they loved each other and how much he loved all of us. He had left his family behind to make a family with her. The reason why that wedding picture was so important to me. It reminded me to never settle, to hope for something as wonderful as what my parents had. He gave up everything to be with my mother. Love like that is rare these days.
I had only ever met his parents twice. Once the day I was born and once at Mom's funeral. Neither time really gave me the opportunity to get to know them, but they supported Dad when he found Mom and they never fought it.
"I wasn't expecting him to come over," Dad muttered and ran a hand through his still thick and nearly black hair. "He took a few days off, which he never does, and wanted to make sure he was ready for the meeting."
"You don't have to explain anything, Dad. It's fine. I'm over it," I lied.
"Really?" he asked with a quirk of his eyebrow. His dark blue eyes twinkled with mischief.
I sighed and stood with my chin held high. "I will be."
He grinned, "If that is what you want."
I didn't respond, because any denial would be another complete lie so, he watched me for a moment while I attempted to hide the turmoil running through me. Why did I have to care about that man so much? Why did he affect me like no one else could? It was really annoying.
"He lives down the street."
My head snapped up. No, no, no.
"He moved into the old Johnson house several years ago. Left his mother behind in that nasty shack, made a name for himself. He is the youngest detective I have, but he is the best. I invited him over for dinner tonight."
"What?" I gasped. My legs were starting to wobble, but by some miracle they didn't give out. The last thing I wanted was to act like more of an idiot in front of him. Especially when Conall and Fergus weren't here. I wasn't completely prepared to act like the grown woman I wanted him to see. I had little scenes ready here and there, but a whole dinner?
I was so screwed.
"We won't be off until after 6 o'clock tonight. Would you mind whipping up something special?"
Against my better judgment, I nodded, my mind already planning a perfect meal to serve him. His favorite, my lasagna. Never had he spoken to me more than when I made lasagna. He praised and praised and praised while he was eating it and it had been too long since I heard him tell me how perfect of a cook I was.
"Great. I'll see you later tonight, my beauty."
He kissed my forehead and walked out of the room, leaving me to catch my breath and think about what I had moved back to.
Any other woman would take it as an opportunity to seduce the man she had loved for so long without interference from her overprotective brothers. I was hoping to take it as an opportunity to get over him and show him what he had missed out on.
"It's the only logical choice," I mumbled to myself.
Lucas wasn't going to know what hit him, but it was too late for him to do anything about it. I was going to be over it by the time dessert was over.
Chapter 2
Lucas
He should have known he wasn't over her.
How could he ever truly be over Aislinn Brannock?
As a girl, she was always looking for adventure, never finding it because Con and Gus never truly let her. As a teenager, she was too busy to look anymore. Worked to earn enough money to make her own way and never really knew how incredible she was. She always made him wish that he could give her what she wanted, but her brothers made it more than crystal clear to him.
"Stay away from her, Luke. Let someone else break her heart so we don't have to beat the shit out of you," they always said.
It infuriated him. How could they let anyone break her heart?
Now she was a woman. A stunning and frustratingly confident woman if that kiss had any say in it.
And he was definitely not over her.
Every year, he couldn't resist the need to send her a gift on her birthday. The same gift he gave her those few times they were alone in the early morning hours of her birthday when her brothers were still asleep or otherwise occupied. The only time he ever got a chance to just look at her without someone smacking him in the back of the head or threatening bodily harm.
When she had turned 15, he noticed how incredibly gorgeous she was becoming. Her dark brown hair, that she always kept long, always shimmered in the sunlight showing tints of red hidden within. Her stormy grey eyes pierced through him whenever she glanced his way, which was a lot over the years, and he always felt so vulnerable under her stare, like she would uncover all his secrets and the way he felt about her. Her lips looked like they were made to kiss, full and soft, and her little nose always twitched when she was upset. He and her brothers had pissed her off a lot over the years, something he couldn't make himself regret. He would have missed that little nose wrinkling in anger.
It had taken everything he had in him to leave the room when she entered after he realized she was something special to him and after her body had started to really change. She was short to a lot of people, but to him, it was the perfect height. The top of her head reached just passed his shoulders, so it would be easy to wrap his arm around her shoulders and pull her against him. Except her breasts had went from nothing to incredible in the span of several months so pulling her against him had been out of the question if he didn't want to embarrass himself. He did that enough in school just by staring at her all the time.
He grew up with her and her brothers, but always considered her like a sister when they were younger. Teased her along with Con and Gus and protected her in the same way. Until the day he finally convinced her to show him her secret hiding place. He saw the few possessions she kept hidden from everyone and it made him care for her that much more.
That's why, after her mother died, he couldn't help but bring her a little joy. A reminder that the day didn't need to be about mourning, but about celebrating two lives instead of just one.
Her mother was worth celebrating. His… not so much.
He grew up knowing that he wasn't going to get a good meal unless he went searching for it. His mother had been attentive enough up until his Dad showed up and found out he had a child. She had told Lucas that his father had left them both, but he realized he had just left her and had no clue Lucas was even around. He started getting involved in his son's life more and more and it was the greatest thing a 7 year old boy could ask for.
Then he was killed.
He was a cop, went out on an investigation, and ended up getting shot in the chest during an ambush.
His mother was never the same. Started drinking more, gambling more, and inviting her special friends over to take away the pain of losing the man she still loved, but was stubborn enough to push away.
That's when the Brannocks became his new family. Isabelle and his mother had been good friends up until there was nothing left of his mother to befriend, except her little boy. Isabelle had taken him in without question even after his own mother stabbed her in the back and tried to destroy her reputation as a captain's wife. Con and Gus had always been good friends of his. Con was three years older than him and Gus was one year older, but you would never know it. They were as close as brothers could be and took him in as one of their own.
Aislinn was a pleasant bonus. She followed him around like a lost puppy and dealt with the endless teasing they all dished out to her. She was the only one who saw how much he was truly hurting from his mother's abandonment. How much he wished he had gotten to k
now his father more before losing him the way he did.
That's why he became a cop, to follow in his father's footsteps. He worked hard and made detective faster than anyone else in the department. He was good at it, noticed things others would easily look over and dismiss. He liked his job and it had been the only thing he had truly felt was his accomplishment in life.
Walking into the station, he noticed that the captain hadn't arrived yet. He had only spent a few minutes catching up on some new developments in his case and then left before Ash could make her way back downstairs. He lived just down the street and thought that by the time he got his things together and took off, the captain would be getting into his own car to head to work.
Apparently not, and for some reason it made Lucas jealous. Captain Brannock would probably spend a few minutes talking to Ash about dinner later that night. He would have loved to see the look on her face when she found out.
She couldn't hide anything from anyone. Her face gave everything away. She thought she was good at keeping her feelings hidden or that she was sneaky with the way she maneuvered herself so she could smell him when he walked inside the house.
He smiled to himself, because she hadn't changed much, except now she was a strong and confident woman who had been on her own for the most part over the last seven years and had so obviously grown up in more ways than one. Unfortunately, she had been betrayed and when she told him about what that guy did to her, he wanted to run to Ohio and string him up by the ankles to use him as a punching bag. She didn't need him to do that, though, no matter how much he wanted to. It had taken a lot for him to let the subject go when the captain had walked into the room. He had to keep telling himself that she had probably already dealt with the annoyance of her brothers and didn't need his, too. She could take care of herself, but she was still his little admirer.
He had known she had a crush on him throughout the years, but he never knew how deeply it went until the day after her brothers had embarrassed her on her 21st birthday.
Leverage (The Brannock Siblings) Page 2