Brand New Sky

by Heidi Hutchinson

  “Should we knock...?” Sway asked over her shoulder.

  “Why? No one's here,” she said, finding the key and sliding it into the lock. “Well, no one is supposed to be here.” The door swung open and she stepped over to the beeping alarm and punched in the code Isabella had texted her earlier that day.

  She turned around and set her bag down. “Home sweet home,” she muttered.

  Everything was the same. Exactly. It was as if she had opened the door to the past.

  “Whose house is this?” Sway asked, setting his bag next to hers.

  She glanced his direction. “Mine. I thought you knew that.”

  “Nope.” He ran a hand through his hair and stopped at the back of his neck. Finally, he turned to her. “Maybe I'm just tired, but I don't get it.”

  “Don't get what?”

  He dropped his hand to his side. “Did you really want me to come with you? You haven't said three sentences to me since we left Hartford this morning.”

  Ryan frowned deeply, opened her mouth to respond and stopped.

  Sway rolled his eyes and dropped his head. “I'm sorry,” he said. “I think I'm just grumpy.”

  “No, you're right,” Ryan said as she went over her actions that day. She hadn't talked to him about anything. She hadn't even told him why she had to come back. And he'd been patient, giving her the space she needed. Waiting for her to tell him. Which was pretty much the exact reason she wanted him to come along. He was her grounding wire. Keeping her calm with his unshakeable presence. “I've been... in my head, I guess.” She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I thought I was... communicating.” She dropped hand and opened her eyes.

  Sway's shoulders relaxed and he opened his arms. “C'mere.”

  She didn't have to be told twice. She went there, resting her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist. His hands rubbed slowly up and down her back, soothing the tension that had been building all day.

  “You give the best hugs,” she sighed.

  He smelled good, and he felt better. Warm and solid and safe.

  “When are you going to tell me what's going on?” he asked.

  Ryan hugged him hard before stepping back. Keeping one arm around him, she gestured with the other to encompass the large beach house.

  “This is my home. It's where I grew up.” She patted his abs. “C'mon, I'll show you around.”

  Sway let her go and picked up their bags, following her out of the foyer and into the main living space. He whistled under his breath.

  The vaulted sixteen foot ceilings were indeed impressive. Most of the house was done in Florida Cypress. It was rustic and classic beach house all at once. But it was the furniture that really caught the eye.

  “That's a lot of wicker,” Sway observed.

  Ryan's smile was a combination of melancholy and nostalgia. “Yeah,” she said softly. “My mom loved the stuff. I could never bring myself to get rid of it.”

  “This seems more like a vacation house...” Sway said when they entered the kitchen with all of its lovely appliances and polished stone counter tops. He looked out the back deck area to the large, fenced in, heated pool. His blue eyes cut to hers. “You haven't been here in more than five years?”

  “I rent it out to help pay the expenses. So it's not like no one is ever here.” She walked to the window and pointed to the massive house next door. “Isabella is the caretaker. She changes the security code after every guest, hires the cleaning crew, runs the ad placement online.”

  “The neighbor lady?”

  Ryan shrugged. “I told you it would be hard to explain to you how I know the things I know. I thought it might be easier if I showed you. I know what kind of person you are, because I've been privileged to meet all kinds. Even the shitty ones.”

  Sway looked more confused than ever before. “Why are we here? Exactly.”

  “Legalities.” Ryan motioned to the bags still in his hands. “Let's put those in the bedrooms. There's a fantastic balcony on the top floor that I've been daydreaming about since yesterday. We can talk up there.”

  She moved through the kitchen—grabbing to bottles of tea out of the fridge, to the sitting room, and up the open staircase.

  “There's wicker in every single room,” she heard Sway muttered behind her. He wasn't wrong.

  They came to the second floor and she nodded to the two bedrooms. “You can pick whichever one you want, but the one on the left has its own balcony and bathroom.”

  Sway went into that one and left her bag, then placed his bag in the other room. When he came back to her, she took him up one more level to the larger balcony overlooking nearly the entire neighborhood.

  “So,” she said as she took a seat in one of the lounge chairs, handing him his tea. “My spoiled rotten family I briefly mentioned once? My maternal grandmother is in the hospital and the family is suing my trust to pay her medical bills.”

  Sway sat down in a chair beside her, cracking open the tea. “Can they do that?”

  “Sure. Anyone can do anything if they pay a lawyer enough to file the paperwork.” She kicked her shoes off and pulled one sock off at a time.

  Relaxing back in the chair, she closed her eyes against the glare of the sun and felt the heat soaking into her skin.

  “You sound remarkably unworried about that.”

  Ryan shrugged. “My lawyer is kind of a badass. He knew something like this was going to happen eventually. After my mom died, they contested the will and dragged me through a bunch of crap then too. They've been trying to find some way to get access to my trust forever.”

  “It's still in a trust?” Sway asked.

  “Yeah, well, most of it. It was set up so that I have a yearly income to live comfortably, on top of the life insurance settlement, I really have nothing to worry about. But I don't have full access to all of the money until I turn 28. So I imagine they're getting pretty desperate to get to it before then.”

  “How much is in it?”

  Ryan smiled. It was the question everyone wanted to ask, but were unsure how. Not Sway. He just asked.

  “A lot.”

  “What are you gonna do after that? Move someplace exotic?”

  The underlying tension in his voice surprised her. She swiveled her head his direction and saw him contemplating his shoes, sitting on the lounger with his elbows to his knees and the tea cradled in both hands.

  “My house in Connecticut was part of my inheritance.”

  He looked up at her and frowned.

  “I could have gone anywhere I wanted years ago. I like my house. I like that no one really cares where I live.” She snorted. “Except for Beardy.”

  Sway cracked a smile. “That guy sucks.”

  “Are you really worried about me moving?”

  He nodded slowly. “A little, I guess. A year ago, it wouldn't have mattered. But now... I wouldn't be able to follow.”

  Warmth that wasn't sun related stole into her chest. Every once in a while Sway would hand her a moment like this and she wished she could hold it in her hands, to see what it looked like from the outside. Because it felt like incredible.

  “Because of Miles?” she asked.

  “Yep.” He ran a hand through his hair then leveled her with those blue eyes that could stop her heart if she let them. “Who am I kidding? I'd still chase you.”

  “I think I'd probably be pretty easy to catch.”

  He chewed on his bottom lip and his gaze traveled over her body. He didn't mask his frustrated hunger and it made desire coil in her belly.

  The flashes of intense attraction between them always took her by surprise. It was like getting to the top of a roller coaster. The anticipation was electrifying.

  “Why are we waiting to have sex?” she asked out of the blue. Not really out of the blue, it was on her mind. By the look on his face, it was also on his mind.

  His lips spread into an impish grin and he winked. “I really love how your brain works. You
think it, you say it.”

  Ryan rolled her eyes and then closed them again, facing the sky. “We've never discussed it.”

  “Would you like to?”

  “Have sex? Or discuss it?”

  Sway burst out laughing, which only made Ryan smile. This kind of conversation would have mortified her six weeks ago. Not now. Now, talking about what was on her mind seemed entirely normal. Expected, even.

  His laughter died down and he sighed in good humor. “We'll get there. When it's time.”

  She nodded as she accepted his answer. “But you want to. You want to have sex with me.”

  Sway chuckled. “Uh, yeah. Please don't doubt that.”

  “Okay,” she agreed.

  He shifted to lay down on the lounger as he chuckled again. “So what's the plan from here on out?”

  “I thought I'd shock the shit out of the relatives and show up at the hospital unannounced. I already talked about it with Kelly—he's my lawyer—and he disagrees with me, but will support me anyway.

  “Disagrees with you about visiting?”

  “No. About me paying for her medical bills and her end of life care.”

  Sway cleared his throat and she quickly turned her head towards him. “I have the money. It would be nothing to me. And it might mean they leave me alone forever. So it's not really me being benevolent or stupidly optimistic that they'll suddenly be nice. I just want them to leave me alone.”

  Sway's neck twisted to observe her, his eyes clouded with worry. “That seems risky. What if they're ungrateful? Are you ready for that?”

  She looked back to the sky. “Ungrateful would be an improvement. Besides, if they don't drop the suit after that, I'll let Kelly do what he wants to do.”

  ***

  Sway wasn't fooled by Ryan's cool demeanor. She sounded very sure of herself, and probably had even convinced herself that she was. But he knew her. And right now, the nervous energy rolling off of her was unsettling.

  Mostly because it was stirring up the protective instinct in Sway. And color him surprised, it was strong as hell. He knew very little of her background. She'd painted broad strokes, making it seem like those things were settled. And seeing how she lived her life up north, they were. But back down here, there was the potential for pain. And he hated that. He hated that there was something out there that might hurt her, and he might not be able to stop it because he wasn't sure what to prepare for.

  Maybe that's how it felt from her end when they'd met his parents. She'd handled that well, though.

  He hoped he could return the favor.

  Maybe that was why she's asked him to come with. To give him the chance to be that for her.

  The rest of the afternoon he listened. She told him little things about the house, and her mom. He paid careful attention to that. But what he was hyper-focused on was the way her eyes would wander around the room and her sentence would die on her tongue. Or her tone of voice when she mentioned her dad living nearby.

  She'd been dealing with these things for so long on her own, that disregarding it was second nature. She was unused to vocalizing it.

  He finally stopped her as she was preparing dinner for the two of them that night. She had just set the vegetables out to slice and mentioned something about her mom being the one to teach her to cook. But she'd waved it off, like those details didn't matter.

  It was like a punch to his heart.

  He moved from his place by the sink and cupped her shoulders in his hands. “Ryan, I care about that stuff.”

  Her head jerked a little and she frowned at him in confusion.

  “I want to know all about you. Which includes who taught you how to cook.”

  She shrugged and tried to move out of his grip. “No, you don't. And it's okay, it's not like it's important.”

  He moved one hand to curve around her face and neck, directing her eyes back to his. “It is important. It's part of who you are and how you got to be one of my favorite people in the entire world. I want to know these things. The first time I was in your house, I went to investigate your bedroom,” he reminded.

  Her eyes narrowed. “That's right. Why did you do that?”

  “Because I wanted to know everything about you right away. You were that magnetic to me. And it's taken this long to get you to trust me, and now you're acting like those small details don't matter.”

  “But they don't,” she argued. “Not really.”

  “Yes, they do. They're a part of you.” He stared into her eyes, pleading with her to believe him. “And every part of you is incredibly important to me.”

  Her eyes glossed over and her lips trembled. “Damn you, Sway,” she whispered hoarsely. “I don't like feeling so...”

  “So what? Vulnerable?” he asked, dipping his head and grazing her lips with his.

  “Yes,” she breathed.

  “Look at us, taking turns dealing with our insecurities and trusting one another with our hearts,” he said in her ear.

  “We're insane.”

  He made sure he had her eyes before he smiled. “Yep.”

  Then he kissed her. And he took his time doing it. Because the more he took his time with her, the more intense their connection became.

  Until he was positive that one day they'd actually cause some sort of catastrophic atmospheric event.

  Then she finished making them dinner. They ate, talked, and she finally stopped cutting herself off mid-sentence. She fell asleep in his arms as they snuggled on the one non-wicker couch in the living room.

  And Sway finally felt like he understood what it was his father meant years ago when he said his woman needed him.

  Chapter 31

  What's Simple Is True

  Sometime in the night, Sway had carried Ryan up to her bed. She had been vaguely aware, but too tired to really acknowledge it. Instead, she'd snuggled into her covers and completely sacked out.

  She couldn't remember the last time she had slept that hard. Maybe it was due to the weather, or the extra vitamin D yesterday. Or maybe it was this feeling of her soul taking anchor. Feeling like it didn't matter where she was, Sway was going to be Sway and he was going to let her be her. Even if that meant occasionally weird and slightly neurotic.

  Which is why she was making eggs at the moment. Nothing said, “thanks for being there” like good old bacon and eggs for breakfast. And fresh fruit. Isabella had really stocked up the fridge.

  Strong hands slid around her belly as a scruffy cheek rubbed against her neck.

  “Good morning,” Sway said, his voice thick with sleep still.

  “Indeed,” she hummed, leaning back against him.

  “How did you sleep?”

  “Really well.”

  He chuckled and it vibrated through her whole body, making her tingle. Placing a kiss on the skin behind her ear he said, “Good.”

  “I'm so glad you're growing the beard back,” she said, reveling in the rough texture against the sensitive skin of her neck. She felt him smile and another deep chuckle followed.

  “I know,” he said, kissing her neck again. “You told me last night.”

  Ryan frowned down at the eggs in the pan. “I did?”

  “Uh-huh. You were very descriptive,” he said in her ear, his tone all sorts of naughty. Her entire body blushed. She tried to clear her throat, but mostly coughed.

  He placed another kiss on the bend in her neck before stepping away and patting her behind.

  Ryan focused on everything they talked about last night. She couldn't remember bringing up his beard at all. She had meant to, it had been on her mind. She'd touched it a lot as they snuggled on the couch. But she could not remember talking about it.

  “When, um, when did I say this?” she asked, her voice all pitchy and weird as she transferred the eggs to plates.

  Sway pulled the orange juice out of the fridge and set it on the counter, a pleased smile sitting crooked on his face. “You don't remember, do you?”

  Ryan rolled her
lips inward and looked away. Sway's laughter filled the kitchen. He crossed over to her, sliding his hands around her ribs and pulling her very close to his body. She looked up into his face and nearly went boneless. Sway had never looked at her like that.

  Like he was going to devour her.

  “You were sleeping and I carried you to bed,” he said, licking his bottom lip, his eyes dropping to her mouth. “And you told me all kinds of dirty things that involved me and my facial hair... and you and your...” his lips twitched, “lady bits.”

  Ryan swallowed. She wanted to die. No, she wanted to run away first, and then die. Preferably in a secret location where her body would never be found. “Oh, God,” she said, shocked that her words still worked.

  Sway's heated gaze meandered over her tiny pajamas—tank top and short shorts. He pulled in his bottom lip and bit down. “Let's just say I don't mind one bit that you talk in your sleep.”

  “I haven't—that's to say, I don't normally—”

  “Just said it didn't bother me, babe.”

  She tried to take a deep breath but found that difficult, what with all the embarrassment and the way Sway was still looking at her.

  “And I'm beginning to think that being with a writer who has a very creative imagination is going to be the best thing that's ever happened to me.”

  “Hm.” It was all she could say. Her eyes dropped to the center of his chest and she stared, waiting for this moment to pass and wondering if maybe this was a dream too. Maybe it was all one big dream, some sort of practical joke from God. Well done, God. I'm thoroughly pranked, you can call off the camera crew now.

  She was distracted by Sway's mouth. It started at her neck and slowly worked its way along her jaw line. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back, giving him easier access. He moved up to her ear, sucking in her earlobe and biting down lightly.

  “I told you, I liked it.”

  He pulled back, pressing his lips briefly to hers and then proceeded to pour them orange juice.

  Ryan stayed stuck to that spot, watching him. Is this what the future held? Mornings of hot kisses and breakfast food? Moments of blinding embarrassment and sexy reassurance? All fitting inside the day-to-day routines of a couple of idiots who had no idea how to be any other way?