Choosing the Right Man (NICE GIRL TO LOVE Book Three) (2 page)

With another confused frown, Connor reached in his pocket and pulled out his phone. Or rather, what looked exactly like his phone, only with a small
Rosie the Riveter
decal on the back proudly exclaiming ‘
We Can Do It!
’ in all its iconic glory.

“Shit, I grabbed the wrong phone again this morning.”

An explosion of jealousy hit Abby like a sucker punch to the gut.

This time it was Brian that looked baffled, and more than a touch indignant. “You’re walking around with another woman’s phone in your pocket and you’re here giving Abby flowers? What are you, into harems now? Isn’t one woman ever going to be enough for you?”

Connor went as still as a statue, tension vibrating off of him in waves. His jaw clenched and unclenched before he replied through his teeth, “I’m not here to ruin Abby’s day.” He stepped up to Brian and ground out in a dangerously low murmur, “You and I, we’re going to have a serious talk later.” Turning back to Abby he added gently, “Us too.” His expression shuttered then, closed off a bit defensively. “…If you want to, that is.”

Honestly, Abby had no idea what she wanted right now. So she just nodded mutely.

All the while, she kept her eyes on Brian, willing him to look at her. And that’s when she saw it. A flash of white in the box he was holding. Peering down, a small gasp escaped her when she finally got a good look at the box Brian was holding.

Or rather, at the beautiful white egret orchid plant sitting inside.

It was like looking at a page straight out of her most cherished memories.

She
felt
more than saw Connor leaving,
felt
more than heard him whisper softly from the door, “Brian was always better with the gift-giving than I ever was.”

She watched him look from the massive array of flowers he’d brought, now sitting on her desk, to the delicate potted orchid Abby was already reaching for reverently. “Congratulations again, Abby,” he said in a voice stripped raw and almost palpable in its quiet envy. “I’ll call you tomorrow some time.”

Then he left.

And for one brief moment following, Abby was sure a tiny piece of her heart went with him.

Never had she seen him look or sound so vulnerable before.

It wasn’t until she felt a strong hand on her shoulder that she realized she was still staring at the closed door. Swiping her palms over her eyes, she plastered an overbright smile on her face. “And here I thought you were the dramatic Sullivan.”

A sympathetic light filtered into his gaze. “Are you okay?”

All the feral coarseness in his voice from the last few minutes had vanished. He was back to being the Brian she knew and loved. Perfect, protective Brian—her rock, her anchor.

The only one who could undo that turbulent feeling of free-falling she always got around Connor.

No, she wasn’t okay. But she couldn’t think about that right now.

Tomorrow.

She pulled her brain back to what she could understand, back to what she was
supposed
to be focusing on, back to what was right in front of her.

Brian.

Wrapping her arms around his waist, she sank into his python hug, thankful that he felt the need to hold on for longer than usual. She could hear his heart hammering, the pace nearly matching her own. But while his was because of anger toward his brother, hers…wasn’t.

The guilt over that simply compounded when she opened her eyes and caught sight of her amazing gift from Brian once again, perched on her file cabinet. So ethereal and magical in its delicate beauty, it stole the air out of her chest just as it had when she’d first seen it as a child.

Soon, she was flipping backward through the memory album of her life, to the days before all the pain Brian still didn’t quite know about or understand but kept doing everything in his power to help her overcome.

And she felt grounded once again.

“Where did you—” She reached over and touched the tiny wing-like petals of the flowers, marveling over the fringed softness, just as she used to when she was a kid. “How did you—”

Goodness, for someone who’d just survived a dissertation defense, she was doing a horrible job stringing together the words for a complete sentence.

He stepped back and finally, all the remaining traces of tension were erased from his face as he broke into a boyishly excited smile. “Do you like your surprise? I found a grower who could ship it out here last month. Skylar and I have been keeping it alive ever since.”

Abby chuckled over his choice of words. “So already this flower if faring better than all the poor fish that have passed through your house.” Carefully pulling out the plant, she held it in front of her and just stared at it for a minute, turning it this way and that, feeling the rush of happy memories filling her heart once more—memories she’d lost track of over the years.

“Thank you,” she uttered, sounding just as awed and supremely blown away as she felt.

“Don’t move.” Brian backed up, pulling out his smartphone. “I’m under strict instructions from Skylar to take a photo of the new Dr. Bartlett holding the orchid.”

Abby’s smile broadened, easily imagining Skylar demanding just that as Brian snapped the photo. “I better send it to the rugrat now. If not, she’ll be texting me every ten minutes until I go pick her up.”

He tapped out a quick message on his phone before studying her carefully. “You still up for having a celebratory dinner with us tonight? Because if you aren’t—”

“Of course I am,” cut in Abby firmly. “You guys are still sleeping over afterward, right? Skylar has been talking my ear off about this new dessert she wants to make later tonight.”

“We’ll pick you up at seven.” He smiled and leaned in for a kiss.

For reasons she couldn’t fully comprehend, or stop, she found herself turning her head to the side at the very last second.

Though he faltered a beat, Brian skimmed a kiss against her cheek like it was nothing and then turned to leave. But not before she saw the crushed look in his eyes.

“Brian—”

“Not today, Abby. Today’s your day.” He kept his face averted. “We can talk about all this tomorrow.”

Tomorrow.

Because she didn’t know exactly what she’d say even if they were to talk about this right now, she gave him a silent nod and watched him leave. It wasn’t until she was completely alone in her office that a sad realization rained over her, gave her heart a hollow ache.

For the first time in weeks, Brian had left without telling her he loved her.

B
RIAN WAITED UNTIL HE WAS
in his car before he allowed himself to lose it. He slammed both hands onto the steering wheel and grabbed for his phone. Too angry to even call forth the digits in Connor’s phone number in his brain, he had to search his phone book to have it dial for him.

“Hello?” called out a soft, sultry voice from the other end.

Goddammit!
“Are you and my brother going to be returning each other’s phones anytime soon?” he barked, not caring in the least that he sounded like a major tool right now.

The woman didn’t even seem to notice. She just laughed cheerfully and replied, “You must be Brian. I’m at a lunch party right now but I’ll be done soon. I’ll be sure to drive his phone back over to him right after.”

Great. A socialite partying it up in the middle of the day during the work week. Will his brother never learn?

“Do you want me to relay a message?”

Huh, this one sounded different than his other women though. She also knew his name—that was new. Usually, Connor’s bimbos barely knew or cared that he had a brother.

Maybe
this
was that mysterious ‘nice girl’ that Gabriella had been talking about who’d surpassed Connor’s one-month parameters. The possibility of it had hope filling his veins like a shot of heroin. “No message.” He gentled his voice a bit. “But thanks. I’ll try him again in the morning.”

“Are you sure? You might not be as spitting mad as you were a minute ago if you wait all the way until tomorrow morning,” she teased.

Definitely
not like Connor’s usual women. He fought the small smile that was inching its way across his face. “I’ll take my chances.”

“Suit yourself.” The sound of plates shuffling in the background filled the phone line before she exclaimed, “Oh! It’s cake time! I’ve got to go, Brian. It was fun almost talking to you!” And with that she hung up.

Strange woman.

Connor’s tastes sure were changing.

Brian pulled in to the front of Skylar’s school and shut off the engine. He still had about a half hour until she was done with band practice. Fortunately, talking to Connor’s latest flavor of the month had served to calm him down considerably.
Un
fortunately, the loss of that rage forced him to focus on what tomorrow could bring.

The very thing he’d been afraid of for months.

He’d hoped after all this time that his brother’s hold on her heart would have let up. Clearly, it hadn’t. Seeing the look on Abby’s face when he’d first walked into her office had absolutely shredded his insides.

“Hey dad!”

Brian made sure to wipe all the anxiety from his expression before he glanced up. Skylar was rushing across the courtyard, waving her phone excitedly. “Thanks for the picture! Abby looked so happy!”

The kid could make a Buckingham Palace guard crack a smile. Despite everything, he chuckled at his daughter’s utter lack of volume control as she neared the car pelting him with nonstop questions about Abby, interspersed with spontaneous anecdotes about her own day, all tied together by very thin tangential threads.

“Sounds like you had almost as big a day as Abby. How was band practice? You guys finished pretty early today.”

“We always finish at this time.” She buckled up quickly. “I just didn’t stay back to talk to anyone; I wanted to make sure we had enough time to get everything set up in the orchid house since we’re showing it to Abby after dinner. Were you able to find those twinkle lights?”

“Yep,” he replied slowly, proceeding with ultra vague hedging. “But you know what? Let’s hold off on showing Abby the orchid gazebo.”

“Why?” Skylar whipped her eyes over to him quizzically.

“Well, I’ve been thinking that it might be better if we showed it to her on another day. Let her get her bearings and all first. Besides, if we show it to her tonight, we may not have enough time to make that special dessert you have planned at her house.” It sounded like a pretty good argument, really. “So how about we do it next weekend instead? We’ll have her over and maybe barbeque outside or something.”

Next weekend
—
s
hoot, maybe he should’ve bought himself more time.

Disappointment streaked across Skylar’s face, and her shoulders slumped in silent disagreement even as she acquiesced to the rain check.

“Can we still put the twinkle lights up though? So Becky and I can do our sleepover out there with our sleeping bags tomorrow night?” She blinked up at him hopefully.

He chuckled. “Well played. You’ve got yourself a deal, munchkin.”

Taking one last bite of the ‘punchbowl cake and candy bar trifle’ Skylar and Abby had made, Brian marveled at how he was the only one suffering from a sugar high at this point. Both Skylar and Abby had passed out a half hour prior, leaving him to finish the DVD they’d rented, and the rest of the dessert, on his own.

Granted, he didn’t have nearly as much experience as those two did in this particular field event. After all their years of daily sugar training, it was very likely the pair were fully immune to the stuff by now.

He shut off the TV and quietly carried Skylar to the guestroom to get her settled in. After a minute of listening to her hold a one-sided discussion that was more sleep-drunk word bubbles than anything else, he tucked her in and headed back out to the living room.

Abby was only about a quarter awake and in the middle of a sleepy kitten stretch when she peeked open an eyelid and caught him gazing at her.

“What are you smiling about?” she fell sideways back down onto the couch. “Was I snoring?”

“Like a fog horn,” he lied, dropping down onto the ground beside her.

“Well get ready for an encore,” she murmured, already starting to doze off again.

“If you fall asleep out here, I’m going to have no choice but to join you,” he warned, testing the waters to see if the effects of Hurricane Connor were still lingering. As he slid a thumb over her lower lip, he watched her sleep fog lift in a slow panic. Her expression changed and she looked up at him as if she wanted to say something but just didn’t know what.

He knew what.

“Things aren’t the same between us now are they? Now that Connor’s back in the picture?”

Clutching a throw pillow against her chest, she admitted softly, “Honestly, I don’t know. I feel like I need to hear him out at least. Find out what he has to say.”