The Return of Brody McBride (24 page)

“You didn’t give me much time to think.”

“You knocked on the door and the next thing I know, you jumped into my arms and kissed me like your life depended on it.”

“It did. You pushed me away and I needed you back. I had to prove to you we belonged together.”

“I could have gone slower, been more careful. I knew you were a virgin. I was so far gone, I couldn’t stop myself, even if the house was falling down around us.”

“You were slower, more careful later that night.”

“I knew you were probably sore. I wanted to give you as much pleasure as you gave to me. You were so . . .”

“Wanton,” she supplied.

“Free. Open. Trusting.”

“I knew you’d never hurt me, felt how much you needed me that night. I didn’t know the why of it. At the time, I didn’t care. In my limited experience, I’d say no other woman has been loved that well her first time.”

“You thought I was that way with . . .”

“Don’t say her name. This is our first date. Dinner was lovely. The company, handsome and charming.”

“Not charming enough. We’re still at the table and not in bed.”

She laughed, but didn’t take the bait. “Tell me about your company. What do you do?”

They sat for an hour swapping stories about work, the girls, his life in the military, movies, the everyday things that filled their lives over the last eight years. They kept things simple and settled back into that comfortable friendship they shared so long ago. She laughed about the story of him and his buddies holding a karaoke contest for the worst singer in the squad. Brody came in second. Brody went through a range of emotions listening to the stories she told about the girls as babies and growing up. She brought the missing years to life for him, and he vowed he’d never miss another moment. Interested in his company, she asked several questions and listened to him explain his plans for the future. She warmed to the idea of traveling. They daydreamed of taking a family vacation. Something fun for the girls, like Disneyland or Hawaii.

“I didn’t think tonight would turn out this well. I’m glad I came,” she admitted, making him smile.

She picked up her glass of iced tea and held it up to clink with his. For the first time, he noticed she’d put his medicine on the table behind his glass. He tapped his glass to hers and stared at the bottle of pills.

“Take the ones you need, Brody. You’ve had a good meal. Don’t be reluctant to take them in front of me. I want you to be well.” She placed her hand over his fist on the table. He turned his hand over, her palm pressed against his, her fingers lightly stroked his wrist. So easy for them to be together like this, now that they’d shared some of their lives together with quiet conversation, the animosity and anger dissipated now that everything was out in the open.

She stood and grabbed both their plates. “You cooked, I’ll do the dishes.”

She stared at him for a moment. He took the bottle of pills, read the label to make sure he had the right one, and took one of the pills. He grabbed the bottle of pain meds and took one of those. After he downed his iced tea, she walked into the kitchen.

He grabbed up the rest of the bowls and glasses and carried them to the sink. He dumped the rest of the salad into a plastic-covered bowl and stuck it into the fridge while she rinsed plates and put them in the dishwasher. Moving in behind her, he kissed and nuzzled her neck, making her giggle and wiggle.

“Brody, I’m trying to clean up here.”

“I just wanted a little something sweet for dessert.” He kissed her neck again to rile her. “Sweetheart, you’re getting your sweater all wet.” He grabbed her hand and pulled up her sleeve.

“No! Don’t!”

Too late, he saw her arm and the nasty bruises. “My God, Rain. What happened to your arm? That’s gotta hurt like hell.”

She tugged down her sleeve, shut off the water, and moved away from him, never meeting his eyes. “It’s fine. It’s nothing. Really.” Her words came out quick and nervous.

Stepping around her, he stopped her in her tracks before she left the kitchen. She wouldn’t look at him. “Rain.” When she refused to raise her head, he put his finger under her chin and made her. “Did that happen last night at the pizza parlor?”

He read it in her eyes. The sad way she looked at him, imploring him to drop it.

He raked a hand through his hair and tried to remember everything that happened before Rain dragged him out of the restaurant and down the street to the park. Completely out of it, he followed her lead and prayed he didn’t frightened his daughters when they saw him disoriented.

Wait. His daughters. He remembered. “Dawn begged me to let you go.” He took two steps away from her, but she came after him and grabbed him by the front of his shirt.

“Don’t you back away from me. Don’t you shut me out.”

“I hurt you.” His voice barely made it past his lips.

“You slipped away from me,” she began. “We were talking and this look came over you. Right before I lost you, you grabbed on to me.”

“I hurt you.”

“I tried to bring you back.”

“I hurt you! I put those marks on you. Is your arm broken?”

“No, and you didn’t mean to.”

He threw up his hands and let them fall along with his sarcastic retort. “Well, if I didn’t mean it, then it’s fine to hurt you like that.” He took a deep breath and took a step back. This time she let him. “Oh God, I feel sick.” He put his hand to his stomach. He couldn’t believe he’d hurt her. “You have to go. Go home, Rain. You have to go. Please. Get away from me. I shouldn’t have come back. It was too soon. My mind . . .”

“Brody. Stop it. You aren’t sending me away.”

“I don’t ever want to hurt you again. You have to leave. Go. Please.” His lungs grew tight. Hyperventilating, he grabbed the back of a chair.

“Brody, honey, please. Take a breath. Calm down. You’re scaring me.”

“You should be scared. Look what I did to your arm.”

She threw herself into his chest, wrapped her arms around his neck, and pulled his mouth down to her. Her lips were insistent, and without a conscious thought his whole body responded to her. He slid his hands up the back of her sweater, over her soft skin, and pulled her close. Her tongue swept across his lips. He opened his mouth and devoured her. He’d been unable to breathe a minute ago; now, he breathed her in and held on to her warmth.

With intense tenderness, they held the kiss. She broke free and touched her forehead to his. Eyes closed, her voice no more than a whisper. “Do you love me, Brody?”

The muscles in his arms contracted and he held her closer. “More than anything.”

“Would you ever consciously hurt me?”

“I’d rather cut off my arm with a dull blade.”

“Please let this go. I have. You knew you were being taken somewhere you didn’t want to go. All you did was hold on to me.”

“That’s all I want to do. But I never meant . . .”

“I know.”

“You said you love me. I held on to that and pulled myself out of hell, hoping I’d hear you say it again.”

“I love you.” She kissed him softly.

He set her away and looked her in the eye. “Did the girls see your arm?”

“They saw you last night. I’ve talked to them about what you’re going through and that you need time to get better.”

“Dawn tried to pull my hand away from you.”

“She knew you weren’t really there. You saw her at the park. She was her usual self.”

“She takes after her mother, overlooks my bad behavior.”

“She has complete faith in the fact that her father would never hurt her mother on purpose.”

“What about Autumn? She’s so sensitive and takes everything to heart.”

Rain smiled softly. “She crawled in bed with me late last night, took my arm and kissed the bruises. She said, ‘He didn’t mean it, Mommy.’ She tucked my arm close to her chest and held on to me while we slept.”

He took her hand and held it up between them. Gently, he slid her sweater up her arm and really looked at the damage he’d done. He traced his fingertips over the darkest bruises. “Does it hurt bad?”

“I’m a tough girl.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“It’s sore. Seeing your reaction to it, I understand how you must feel. It must be very hard for you to reconcile being the badass boy you used to be. Nothing ever touched you. The world could go to hell. You lived your life on your terms. After everything you’ve been through, to be a man now and find yourself unable to control the images and nightmares that come to you. I know you’re frustrated, Brody. But it’s just your mind’s way of trying to deal with something that is terrible and inconceivable. The things you must have seen and done. At the time, you didn’t have the luxury of processing it. That’s all your mind is trying to do.”

“My mind is stuck in a loop of nothing but endless battles. I left that world behind. I wish my mind would do the same.”

“Give it time.”

“It’s been months.” His voice was rough and angry. He hated seeing her face take on that strange look. “Sorry. I get agitated sometimes.”

“It’s to be expected.”

“Now you sound like one of the shrinks at the VA hospital.”

“Maybe you should take their words to heart and understand that you can’t just flip a switch and make this go away.”

“So what, because I can’t do that I should be allowed to use it as an excuse for snapping at you”—he pointed to her arm—“hurting you.”

“Not an excuse. A reasonable explanation for your condition and the things that happen that are beyond your control.”

“Yes. Beyond my control. Which is why you shouldn’t be around me.”

“That’s not what you really want.” Ever patient with him when he was being unreasonable.

“I want you to be safe. I never want to hurt you . . . in any way,” he added softly.

“Then stop telling me to go away and stay away, because nothing hurts me more than being without you.”

Silence. They stood not two feet apart. He wanted to close the distance and take her in his arms, take her upstairs to bed and show her how much her admission meant to him.

The ringing of his phone broke the silence and the intensity of the moment.

“Why don’t you go sit in the living room and answer that. Get off your leg and rest while I finish cleaning up the kitchen.”

For the first time, he noticed he was absently rubbing his bad leg and the throbbing wasn’t easing. He’d done a lot of work that day, helping out the crew clearing space for the addition and walking the property to determine the best spot for the new stables and fence lines for the horses.

Without another word, Rain turned and went back into the kitchen. He limped over to the couch and picked up his cell phone from the side table.

Not wanting to talk to anyone but Rain, he halfheartedly said, “Hello.”

“Hey, man, it’s Jim. You’ll never guess what I just overheard.”

Chapter Nineteen

A
RIPPLE OF
dread went up Brody’s spine. Whether the words or the tone alerted him, he knew Jim wasn’t calling about the work on the house.

“What’s up, Jim?”

“Some of the crew and I came down to Roxy’s for a few beers after work at your place. I was waiting at the bar for the bartender to refill my beer when I overheard the manager talking to him. He said they needed to be ready in a few days because Roxy’s on her way back to town.”

“Did he say exactly when she’d be rolling in?”

Rain’s back went rigid and she braced her hands on the counter. Brody wanted to go to her, comfort her, promise her Roxy wouldn’t get anywhere near her or the girls. Especially Autumn. Too bad that was a promise he couldn’t keep, and she would know it was an impossibility. Roxy was a force unto herself. No way to stop her when she set her mind to something, and it seemed every time she set her mind to something it ended in devastation. Look what she’d done to his life, Rain’s, Autumn’s. He couldn’t allow her to wreck the tenuous bond he’d built with Rain. He absolutely couldn’t allow her anywhere near his daughters.

“I only heard them say in the next couple of days. Nothing definite. Sorry, man. I wanted to give you a heads-up. If I hear anything more, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks. I owe you.”

“You want me to call and warn Rain?”

“No. She already knows.”

“Huh.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for the heads-up.”

“Yeah, sure, man.”

Brody never took his eyes off Rain. She’d finished with the kitchen and stood leaning against the chair across from him, one leg crossed over the other. Tight jeans hugged her trim hips and thighs. Her arms crossed, pushing up her pretty round breasts, making them mound and tease him at the V in her sweater. Her hair was slightly tousled from their earlier kisses and his fingers sliding into the thick mass. Her eyes were like liquid chocolate. Beneath the steely determination he caught a glimmer of fear he hated seeing in their depths.

He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to the punch.

“Call Owen. Tell him Roxy’s coming back to town.”

“Jim, my contractor, said she wasn’t due for a couple of days.”

“Might be true. Maybe that’s what she wants people to think. If we aren’t expecting her for a few days, we won’t guard Autumn as closely.”

Brody punched the speed dial for Owen’s cell phone.

“How’s everything going there?” Owen asked.

“Listen, Owen, I got a call from Jim. He’s the guy I hired to work on my place. He was down at Roxy’s place tonight and overheard the manager saying Roxy is due back in town in a couple of days.”

“Shit!”

“Rain thinks it’s possible Roxy just wants people to believe she won’t be back for a few days, that she could actually be in town now. Maybe pull some stupid stunt, like coming to the house and trying to see Autumn.”

“Or worse.” Owen spoke Brody’s own thoughts. He just didn’t want to say it out loud in front of Rain. The evening had been going so well.

“Make sure the house is locked up tight.”

“I already checked, but I’ll make the rounds again, make sure all the windows are locked up, too. I’ll take a look out the upstairs windows, make sure all’s quiet on the street.”