by Carrie Elks
A slow smile pulled up at the corner of his lips. “I’ve missed you.”
Her heart wasn’t stuttering anymore. It was galloping like it was at the Kentucky Derby. “I’ve missed you, too.”
“Who’s this?” Clara asked, standing closer to Brooke than she’d realized. Brooke jumped and turned around, her eyes wide.
“Um, this is Aiden Black. He works at the Silver Sands Resort site. He’s the one who found Perdita.”
Clara tipped her head to the left, as though she was scrutinizing him. “Hmm. I don’t suppose you’d like to adopt her, would you?”
It was hard not to laugh out loud at Aiden’s expression, but Brooke managed it anyway. Mostly by biting down so hard on her lip she almost broke the skin.
“Um, I don’t think I have the time to devote to a dog.”
“How about a python? They don’t take too much care. Or we have some amazing rodents which only need food and company.”
Aiden looked ready to vomit.
Okay, it was time to put him out of his misery. “Don’t panic, she’s not going to force you to look after a snake.” Unable to hide her grin any longer, she looked over her shoulder at Clara. “Okay, where do you want us to start?”
“That’s the last one,” Brooke told him as Aiden carried a large cardboard box full of brochures out to the van. Which was so full he had to stack the box on top of a basket full of menus, before he stood and closed the double doors. At some point in the past couple of hours he’d abandoned his suit jacket and slid off his tie, rolling it up and stuffing it in his pocket, unfastening his top few buttons to give himself some air.
It was a warm, still night. Even at almost ten o’clock the temperature was high enough for him to break out into a sheen. Without the ocean breeze he’d become used to it was almost stifling.
“Thank you so much,” Clara said, giving him a beaming smile.
“It was my pleasure. And I meant what I said, any time you want out of this place, there’s a job for you.” He winked at her. It had been a running joke all night. She was so organized, so prepared. He knew she’d fit in well at Carter Leisure. Not that she’d ever leave the animals. Like Brooke, he could tell she had a connection with them. She cooed and talked to them all whenever they passed the glass pens.
“You can head off now.” Clara glanced at them both. “I’ll drive the van over to the Beach Club tomorrow. One of the stewards will help unload it and put the boxes in the storage area until Saturday.”
“And then the fun really begins.” Brooke smiled, and it lit up her face. Aiden wasn’t sure he’d ever get over how beautiful she was. Every time he looked at her it made him want to touch her.
Who was he kidding? The thought of her made his fingers ache with the need to feel her soft, smooth skin. He couldn’t get enough of her. Not after she’d spent the night at his place, their limbs tangled around each other and the sheets.
“Well, goodnight. See you tomorrow, Brooke.” Clara turned to him. “And if you change your mind about that python…”
“I’ll be sure to let you know.”
He watched as she let herself back into the shelter, ready to hand over care to the night manager who’d be keeping a special eye on the new kittens. He could tell Brooke was already getting attached to them. She’d picked one of them up to show him, and the sight of her holding the tiny bundle of fur had made his chest feel like a python was squeezing it tight. Was it possible to want to kiss somebody and shelter them from the world at the same time?
It made him realize he’d done the right thing, sending money to pay his brother off. She didn’t deserve to have to deal with Jamie, not after everything she’d been through. There was too much goodness in her to let it be squeezed away by his brother.
“Do you want to grab a coffee at mine?” she asked him. “I have to get home and pay Cora, otherwise she might not babysit for me on Saturday night.”
He nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
“We’ll have to be careful, though. Nick sometimes wakes up in the night.”
“I promise not to touch you at all,” he said, his voice solemn.
She laughed. “Let’s not go too far. It’s been hard enough having this distance between us all night, I’m not sure how much longer I can keep doing it.”
Knowing she felt the same way was enough to propel him forward. Her eyes were wide as she stared up at him, those same moss green pools that always kept him mesmerized. Slowly he lowered his head to press his lips against hers.
God, her mouth was soft. His tongue slid against hers, warm and velvety. He could feel himself react within seconds, and as she pushed her body against his, he couldn’t help but let out a moan.
“I take it back,” he whispered against her lips. “I can’t not touch you.”
“I’m glad.” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Because I never want you to stop.
“I wish you could stay all night,” Brooke said as she snuggled into his side. Her warm body pressed against him as she lay her head on his chest. The two of them were in her living room, Cora having long since gone home. Nick was out for the count in his bedroom, but they were still fully-clothed. Neither of them wanted to risk him seeing something he shouldn’t.
Aiden kissed her hair. “I wish I could, too. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” He still had to pinch himself sometimes, knowing he was with the girl he’d fallen for all those years ago. She was everything he wanted – warm, soft, kind – and this time he was determined not to let her go.
“I never knew how good cuddling could be.” There was a smile in her voice as she traced the seam of his pants along the side of his thigh. Even when her touch was dulled by a layer of denim, it still felt electric. “No, strike that, I did. It was one of the things I missed most when you left. Not being able to hold you anymore.” There was a catch in her voice, and it cut him to the quick. He held her tighter, wanting to show her he wasn’t going to leave her again. As far as he was concerned, she was his, and nothing would tear them apart.
Not this time.
“Was it hard when we left?” he asked, his voice soft.
She let out a sigh. Her blonde hair brushed against his lips. For a moment all he could hear was her breath and his heartbeat.
“It was a bad time for me,” she told him, lifting her head to catch his eye. He could see the truth there, written plain. The memory of her pain was enough to make him wince.
“I was heartbroken. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. I barely cared about getting out of bed in the morning. I kept waiting for you to contact me, to let me know you were thinking about me, but you didn’t.”
His chest felt physically painful. “Christ, I’m sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault. I know that now. But then I didn’t. I thought you didn’t care, thought you didn’t love me. I thought I was unlovable.” Her voice cracked as she finished her sentence.
His heart ached for her. “That’s so untrue.”
“I don’t know how I got through those first few months without you. They’re a blur. I can remember getting into huge trouble for not handing in assignments, and hearing Mom and Dad having worried conversations about me outside my bedroom door. But I didn’t care.” She tried to smile. “I guess they thought I was some kind of melodramatic teenager. Maybe I was.”
“You were hurting. We all were.”
She bit her lip. “And the following summer, I heard Jamie was in town. I was so damn excited to hear that.”
He waited for her next words, his throat so tight he couldn’t move at all.
“I was so desperate for news about you, so I sought him out. It took a while, but eventually I found him staying in somebody’s apartment on the other side of town.” She glanced up at Aiden. “He’d been dealing from there.”
He looked down to see his hand curled into a fist. It took everything he had to unfurl his fingers.
“There were so many people coming and going he wouldn’t pay any attention to
me. People buying stuff and shooting up, a whole circle of people smoking. And when I tried to get his attention he said he’d only talk to me if I bought something from him.” She took a deep breath. “So I did, and that’s when he told me you’d met somebody else.”
“What?” A ball of fury formed in the pit of his stomach. “He told you that?”
She nodded.
“And you believed him?”
Her eyes were watery. “I didn’t want to, but I wasn’t in a good place. And it explained a lot…”
“I hadn’t. I would never have done that to you so quickly. It took me a long time to want to date again.”
“But I still believed him. So I took the joint he’d rolled up for me, along with a bottle of vodka he’d shoved in my hands.”
“He got you high?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I got myself high. And drunk as a skunk. That bit’s on me. What happened after… not so much.”
“What did he do?” His voice was sharp. It made her blink. “Sorry.” He kissed her brow. “It’s not you I’m angry at, it’s him.”
“It’s all kind of hazy. I remember kissing him, and I didn’t hate it. As awful as it sounds, I was so low. Any attention felt good.”
“And you slept with him?”
Brooke nodded. “I barely remember it, but yeah, I did. Once. It wasn’t until a few months later I realized I was pregnant.”
Aiden tried to remember back to those days. Jamie was hardly ever home by that point, and he’d liked it that way. It made his and Joan’s lives so much easier.
But if only he’d known where he was wandering to.
“I was almost six months along before I realized I was pregnant. He’d been out of town for almost as long.” Brooke rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. “Half of me didn’t want to contact him at all. But it didn’t seem right. And maybe there was a part of me that wanted any contact I could get with your family. So I hired a PI.”
“You did?”
“Yeah. It didn’t take the guy long to track your brother down. When he heard I was pregnant he told the investigator I should get rid of it and not to contact him again.” Brooke looked down at her hands. “So I didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you contact me?”
“What would I have said? Hey, I’m crazy in love with you, and guess what? I’m having your brother’s baby!” Brooke grimaced. “I was so ashamed. I never wanted you to know. Every way I looked at it I was screwed. So I decided to have the baby without any support.” She smiled at Aiden, as though she finally felt lighter. “And I’m so glad I did.”
“Jamie never told me. And I can’t believe he never told Mom, either. She would have insisted on seeing you both.”
“I know. I hate that Nick never had the chance to know his other grandmother.” Brooke looked at him with those wide, pretty eyes. “I’m sorry.”
He swallowed hard, ignoring the ache in his chest. “It’s not your fault. None of this is. The more I hear the more I realize you were everybody’s victim. I should have been here to take care of you, and I wasn’t.”
“You were taking care of your mom.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
She turned, her body brushing against his as she scrambled to her knees, cupping his strong jaw between her warm palms. “You told me this wasn’t my fault, well it wasn’t yours either.” Lowering her head, she let her brow rest against his. He could feel her breath soft against his lips. “It’s all in the past,” she whispered. “There’s no point in dwelling on it. I have Nick and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Her voice dipped. “I also have you, and I’m so happy about that.” She brushed her lips against his, and he felt a jolt of pleasure rush through him. “So let’s stop talking about the past and start concentrating on the present.”
He curled his arms around her back. “That sounds good to me.”
It was almost midnight by the time he’d left Brooke’s apartment. The town lay silent, the only noise he could hear was the gentle crashing of waves a few blocks to the west. He was still smiling from the memory of the evening – the way they’d kissed like crazy after she’d opened up to him. No more secrets, no more lies. Just the two of them laid bare.
Walking across the blacktop parking lot, he scrolled through the messages he’d missed for the past few hours. It wasn’t like him not to check his emails and texts incessantly. Maybe it was like him now, though. He felt like a different man. Taller, stronger, more complete.
He deleted the usual marketing messages, taking note of a couple of work emails he’d need to tackle in the morning. That’s when he saw the email from the Private Investigator his lawyer had retained. The man tasked with making Jamie an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Thank God he’d agreed to pay Jamie off. The thought of him seeking Aiden out and finding Brooke and Nick was enough to send an ice-cold shiver down his spine. A wave of protectiveness washed over him as he glanced back at her apartment building. He wouldn’t let anything happen to them. He couldn’t. They were too important to him.
He used his thumb to scroll down to read the message. He’d reached his car and leaned on the driver’s side, his eyes trained on the email.
Dear Mr. Black,
Your brother was released from prison earlier today. I met him at the gates, and discovered he doesn’t currently have a registered home, though he has been supplied a list of local shelters with spaces for him. I explained who I was, and offered to drive him to a local motel and pay for a night’s accommodation, which he agreed to. He also agreed that I could pick him up tomorrow morning in order to buy him breakfast, and take him shopping for some clothes.
He is aware that I am acting on your behalf, and that you will be funding the accommodation and any clothing purchases. I also explained that you would like to set him up for the longer term, and we will discuss it over breakfast tomorrow. He did ask about you a number of times, and I explained you were out of state on business.
I will send a further email to you tomorrow outlining the results of our discussion. Your brother seems likely to accept whatever help we can offer.
Yours,
Richard Neville
Private Investigator
Aiden slid the phone into his pocket and climbed into his car, half his mind on the email, the other half on Brooke. The fear of his brother contacting Brooke or Nick waned, enough to let him relax back into the driver’s seat as he turned on the engine. It came to life with a reassuring growl, cutting through the night air. Allowing himself one last glance at Brooke’s place, he put his foot on the gas and accelerated out of the parking lot.
After all these years, it felt as though everything was finally slotting into place; and it felt pretty damn good to him.
“I’m sorry. I know I’m late. But I brought you all coffee.” Ally breezed her way into the Heavenly Hair Salon carrying a cardboard tray filled with insulated coffee cups. She handed one each to Brooke and Ember – who were already in their seats, staring at the mirrors in front of them – and passed the rest to the stylists who were hovering around them.
Brooke grabbed her cup and took a long mouthful of Americano. After all these years, Ally knew exactly how she liked it – dark with some sweetness, and only a splash of warm milk. Truth was, she needed the caffeine kick.
“Sit down.” The third stylist pulled out a chair and Ally slumped onto it. Within moments she was wrapped in a black gown and Marie was running her fingers through her golden locks, asking her questions about how she wanted her style. When they’d finally agreed, she took her off to wash her hair.
“Hurricane Ally,” Ember said, grinning at their friend. “She never changes, does she?”
“Would we want her to?” Brooke asked.
“No way.”
In the past few years, having their hair styled together before the gala had become a tradition. Usually Brooke’s mom would join them, making a fourth along the wall of mirrors, but her seat was conspicuously empty.
“She’s not coming?” Ember asked, following Brooke’s gaze.
“I don’t think so.” Brooke swallowed. “I tried to call her last night but she didn’t answer. I left a voicemail.”
“And she hasn’t returned it?” Ember’s expression was full of sympathy. “That’s hard.”
Brooke nodded. “I guess I’m getting a taste of my own treatment. One way or the other I’ll see her tonight.”
“Do you think she’ll come?”
“Of course. It’s one of the biggest dates in the Angel Sands calendar. She wouldn’t miss the opportunity to catch up with everybody. Plus it’s for a good cause. She might not be talking to me, but she still does a lot of work for charity.”
“She’ll talk to you. I know she will.” Ember reached out from under her hairdressing cape and grabbed Brooke’s hand, squeezing it tight. “She loves you.”
“What did I miss?” Ally asked as the stylist brought her back over, a black towel wrapped around her head like a turban. She slumped into the chair again and grabbed her coffee.
“We were talking about Brooke’s mom.”
“Oh thank God. I thought you might be talking about Aiden without me here to listen.”
Brooke shook her head as Ember coughed out a laugh.
“Seriously. I need all the details. How are things going between you? Have you slept with him again?”
“Ally!” Ember looked around. Nobody was listening except the stylists, and everybody knew they took all secrets to their graves.
“Too much?” Ally asked.
“Yep.”
“In that case, you can at least tell us how you feel about him.”
Wow. She wasn’t expecting that. In a weird way the question felt more intimate than asking her if she’d slept with him again. Because while the sex was good – okay, amazing – her emotions were all over the place.