About Face (Love in the Suburbs Book 1)

by D. E. Haggerty

  I take a deep breath and force myself to hold off on my freak-out. I don’t have time to freak out right now. Nope. I have more important things to deal with. Like giving Brodie a piece of my mind. I’ll pencil in some time for a good, long freak-out later.

  “Did you notice how no one cared about your scar? No one stared at you or ran screaming the other way?” Damn it. Brodie’s not letting this go. I do not want to talk about this right now! Can’t he get the hint?

  “Of course, no one ran screaming away. We’re not extras in some B horror movie. But staring?” I shrug. “Shelby and Jackson have seen my scar already. And a real estate agent knows better than to stare at her clients if she wants to close the deal.” There. That ought to shut him up.

  Brodie smirks. “And all the people on the street? What about them?”

  All the people on the street? We weren’t walking around on the streets or anything. We just stood on the sidewalk in front of the property waiting for the real estate agent. The sidewalk. Which was crowded with people hustling and bustling around. Oh crap. Tons of people must have passed us by as we stood there. “I don’t understand.”

  “There’s nothing to understand, beautiful.” Brodie takes a step closer to me and puts his hand on my hip. “You scar doesn’t matter. Hell, I wouldn’t even be interested in you if it weren’t for your scar.” I gasp. Brodie tightens his grip on my hip. “Fuck, that’s not what I meant. I just meant… Well, you’re too perfect otherwise.”

  I snort. Too perfect. What has he been smoking?

  “You are. You’re this glamorous woman who’s always perfectly put together.”

  Um, not hardly. “Did you forget the ripping pants incident?”

  He smiles but refuses to be deterred. “You look like a model who stepped out of a magazine.” He obviously hasn’t seen me the last two days. “Your scar, though, it makes you real. It shows how strong you are. Shows there’s more to you than your superficial beauty. It gives you strength of character.”

  By the time he finishes, my mouth is hanging open. How can he possibly believe what he’s saying? I shake my head and pull back until he’s forced to release his hold on my hip. I’m not going to fall into his trap. Not again. He broke my heart and I can’t allow that to happen a second time. “Thank you, but it doesn’t matter. We’re over.” My chest constricts as I say those words, but I stand tall and stick with my decision. I will not date a man who kisses one of my girlfriends the minute I’m looking the other way.

  “Please, let me explain what happened.”

  “I don’t need an explanation. I have eyes. I saw you. You were kissing Becky.”

  “I wasn’t kissing Becky. She kissed me.”

  Snort. “As if that makes it any better. You could have pushed her away. No, you should have pushed her away.”

  “I did push her away.” Not fucking quick enough. “I did. I admit I should have pushed her away sooner, but I was shocked. Where I come from strange women don’t shove you in a corner and put their mouth on you. And she’s your friend, which shouldn’t have complicated things, but it did. And then I took too long to push her way. But, beautiful, her lips were on mine for mere seconds. Seconds.”

  “Long enough for me to stand there and watch.”

  He winces. “And I regret you saw that. No one should have to see their boyfriend kissing someone else. But I swear, honest to god, I didn’t kiss her back and I pushed her away as soon as I realized what was happening. Ask anyone who was in the room. Didn’t Bailey tell you your friends had a bet who could steal me away from you?”

  I growl. “Who told you?” He shrugs, but there’s only one person from whom he could have learned about the bet – Shelby. Note to self: Google poisons that combine well with chocolate.

  “Come on, you know yourself those girls are not your friends.”

  “Uh uh. No,” I wiggle my index finger at him. “You don’t get to say mean things about my friends.” Doesn’t matter if he’s right. They are not my friends. The incident at the nightclub weeks ago – although hurtful – might not have been enough to end our friendships, but the stunt with Brodie totally pushed them over the edge from friends to bitches I once knew.

  “I’m sorry.” He holds his hands up surrender. “I shouldn’t have said anything about your friends. It won’t happen again.” He closes his eyes and inhales deeply. When his eyes open, I can see the hurt plain as day in them. “Please forgive me. I care about you. Hell, I more than care about you. I’m not ready to let you go. I may never be ready to let you go. I want to see where this relationship is heading. Don’t let your friends take that away.”

  “How can I trust something like this won’t happen again?” Now we’ve reached the crux of the problem. I trusted Brodie – a lot. Enough to see my scars. When I woke up in the hospital room after my crash, I thought romance and romantic relationships were in my past. Somehow Brodie broke down my walls and I let him in. And then he broke my trust. I can’t go through that again.

  “What can I do to convince you? Get down on my knees?” He immediately drops to his knees. “Name your price and I’ll pay it. I won’t look at another woman again. I promise I won’t touch another woman who isn’t you again.”

  “That’s going to be kind of hard with your job.” His clients should be about fifty percent women, but with women begging for him to be their therapist, he has nearly three-quarters female clients. I’ve never been jealous of them. I trusted him. Trusted. Past tense.

  “I don’t care. I’ll transfer them all to Carrie.” Those poor women.

  “You’ll lose your job.”

  “There are other jobs.”

  “Okay. Enough. Stand up.” This has gone on long enough. “You can’t make outrageous claims you have no intention of following through with.”

  “You don’t believe me?” He pulls out his phone as he stands and pushes some buttons. “Here.” He shoves it in my face.

  “What am I looking at?”

  He pulls the phone back. “It’s a job offer from the NHL.”

  My eyes widen. “The NHL? Why haven’t you accepted already?”

  “Because I don’t want to live in the city, and I don’t want to travel for seven months of the year. I love this town.”

  My heart starts to race. “You would leave this town you love for a job you don’t want just to prove to me you are trustworthy?”

  “Say the word and I’ll do it.” He’s typing away on his phone. “Do I press send?”

  “Holy shit. No!” I grab the phone from him. “Don’t you dare take a job you don’t want because of me! Have you lost your mind?”

  “Yep,” he nods. “I lost my mind the minute this city girl showed up in the therapy room looking scared as hell but with her head held high.” He stands and steps close to me to whisper in my ear, “That’s not all I lost.” He kisses the sensitive spot behind my ear before his lips move further and he’s trailing kisses along my neck.

  “No?” I’m not sure what I’m asking. I lost my train of thought.

  He doesn’t respond to my question. “Am I forgiven?”

  I nod. I can’t not forgive him. Not when he’s willing to take a job he doesn’t want to prove his trustworthiness. Besides he’s right about what happened with the kiss. If I’m perfectly honest, I think I was more angry with my friends than with him. But since my so-called friends weren’t around to hear me roar, he bore the brunt of my anger and hurt.

  Brodie grins and pulls me closer before slamming his lips down on mine. His tongue invades my mouth and I forget all about my anger and heartbreak. When he releases me, I’ve pretty much plastered myself to his body. Oops. He rests his forehead against mine. “I promise I will never give you a reason to question your trust in me again.” He smirks. “And if I do, I’ll let your grandma decide my punishment.”

  “Are you sure you can handle her? Who knows what she’ll do if given free rein.” I shiver.

  He snorts. “You should have heard the lecture she ga
ve me before telling me where you were today. Your grandma loves you and wants to see you happy, but she certainly won’t put up with me messing up again.” Really? I cross giving Grandma a piece of my mind off my to-do list.

  “Come on.” He pulls away. “Let’s get out of here. Normal sex with you is awesome. Makeup sex must be out of this world.”

  “Hey! Who said I was going to have sex with you?” I’m blowing smoke up his ass. Judging by the smile stretching from ear to ear on his face, he knows it.

  “Wait!” I stop when we reach the reception area and look around. “Don’t we need to contact the real estate agent or something?”

  Shelby rushes in. I narrow my eyes at her. Was she watching and waiting for us to leave the whole time? “I got it.” She waves us off. “Go forth and put thee wand in her chamber of secrets.”

  I giggle and we start to leave, but then I notice her face is flushed. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Get out of here.”

  “Where’s Jackson?” I thought he’d stick around and try to push me some more about the business.

  Shelby’s hand fists. “He left.” Um, okay.

  “We’re done here,” Brodie announces before picking me up.

  “But—” I don’t get a chance to ask Shelby what’s bothering her as Brodie rushes out of the building carrying me bridal style. Guess he’s done waiting.

  Chapter 33

  A lady never kisses and tells.

  Anyone who tells you make-up sex isn’t all it’s made out to be is a big fat liar. Big. Fat. Liar. Because it’s better. Much, much better. I’m currently cuddling with Brodie in his bed following an afternoon of afternoon delight. I giggle. An afternoon of afternoon delight.

  The man himself nuzzles my neck and I moan. “We need to talk.” And there goes my happy afterglow.

  “Four most dreaded words in the universe.”

  He chuckles. “No need to be dramatic. You know I’m not breaking up with you or anything.” His arm across my belly pulls me tighter to him.

  I wiggle my butt to get closer and feel Brodie’s hard length. I gasp. “Seriously? Again? What are you trying to do? Break the world sex record?”

  He leans down and kisses my neck. We will break the world sex record if he keeps that up and he damn well knows it. The man has all my hot spots memorized and doesn’t hesitate to use the knowledge to his advantage. “Three times in one afternoon is hardly breaking the world sex record.”

  I twist in his arms to stare him down. “Are you saying this is a normal occurrence in your life?” I can honestly say I’ve never had sex three times in one day. Well, until today. I’m not sure I’ll be able to walk tomorrow. Oh, wait. I can’t walk anyway. No loss then.

  “Nope.” He kisses my nose. “This was a first for me.” He tilts his pelvis allowing me to feel his hardness. “I didn’t think it would be working again for a while. I guess you’re my own personal aphrodisiac.”

  I scoff. Whatever. “What did you want to talk about?” Because while little Brodie may be raring to go, little Frankie is out of commission for a while.

  He arranges me so I’m laying on my back and he’s towering above me. I’m completely boxed in. I’m not sure I like how this discussion is starting. “We need to discuss the future. Our future.”

  My eyes widen and my mouth drops open. “Our future? We’ve been dating for like a month. Isn’t it a bit early to start the ‘future’ talk?”

  “I have no idea. I’ve never had a future talk with a woman before.” I find that hard to believe but keep my mouth shut curious to hear where this is going. “You, Frankie, break all my rules. I’ve never dated a client before. I don’t date out-of-town girls either. And I’ve definitely never begged a woman to take me back before.”

  “I’ve never dated my physical therapist before.”

  He leans down and nips my bottom lip. “Smartass.”

  I’m almost afraid to say it, but I’m no chicken, “What are you trying to say?”

  He looks me in the eyes and declares, “I want you to stay.”

  My heart skips a beat. Does he want me to move in with him? Isn’t it too early for those type of declarations? “Stay? You can’t mean move in with you. That’s crazy talk.”

  “I agree it’s too soon for us to live together, but that’s where this relationship is heading.” He waits for me to nod before continuing. “What I meant is I don’t want you going back to the city.”

  Despite spending the morning viewing a potential office location and speaking to a possible client, I’m still unsure about the whole moving to the suburbs thing. “My job is there. My apartment is there. My friends are there. My life is there.”

  “Okay,” he nods. “Let’s tackle your issues one by one. First of all, friends. I hate to say it, babe, but those women are not your friends.” I open my mouth to yell at him, but he stops me with a kiss. “I know I promised not to bad mouth your friends again, but can we at least discuss this?”

  I don’t want to discuss what a freaking idiot I’ve been concerning friends. I thought Suzanne, Becky, and Bailey were my girls. Since the accident, though, I’ve been forced to face the truth. Those bitches didn’t want to be my friends. Nope, they wanted to use me to get tickets to the hottest events in town. I should have realized what was happening when they latched onto Tara without a backward glance towards me. How could I have been so blind?

  Maybe I’m being slightly unfair to Bailey, but I’m unsure where she stands. Sure, she warned me what Suzanne and Becky were up to but otherwise, she hasn’t exactly been different from them. Thinking back though, that’s not true. She did send me weekly messages when I first was laid up after my accident. It’s not her fault I didn’t respond because I was stuck in this selfish negative circle. Crap. I’ve been unfair to her.

  “I’m not discussing this with you, but I agree friends is not a reason for me to stay in the city.”

  He nods and moves on. Smart man. “Your apartment. Beautiful, seriously? Your apartment is a reason for you not to move here?”

  What can I say? I panicked when he asked about me moving to the suburbs. I’m a city girl. The idea of moving to the suburbs does not fill me with joy. “I like the things the city has to offer. Art shows. Museums. Movie premieres. Need I go on?”

  “You do realize you’d be moving to the suburbs and not Siberia? It’s a forty-five-minute drive into the city. Hell, half of the population of this town works in the city.”

  I hate when he’s right. “My job then. I can’t leave my job.”

  He chuckles. “Now, you’re being stubborn to be stubborn. You’ve got a perfect opportunity to start a new business. A new business which already has a huge company begging to be your client.”

  “One client does not make a business.”

  “Maybe not, but one big client will bring in more business. You know that.”

  “Fine. What about Jackson? I feel guilty making him move out to the suburbs.”

  Brodie raises an eyebrow. “Wasn’t it Jackson’s idea to start a business here?”

  He’s got me there. “What about health insurance? My therapy doesn’t come cheap.”

  Brodie rolls off me and pulls me into his arms. “Beautiful, you’ve come so far. You’re almost there. You’re walking now although you still need one crutch. Carrie said she talked to you about switching to therapy once a week instead of two. Most of what you need to do now is build up muscle strength. A normal gym will suffice.”

  Carrie did indeed talk to me about scaling down my therapy sessions. I was shocked since I’m still not walking without the use of crutches. Well, crutch in the singular. I’m getting close, though. I can practically taste my freedom from those stupid crutches. I’m already planning a bonfire to burn the fuckers as soon as I’m steady on my own two feet. All I need is some marshmallows and I’m all set.

  “I still need a place to live and someone has to tell Grandma I’m staying. She’s going to go out of her mind.” Grandma will w
ant to throw the party to end all parties. She’ll invite all her girlfriends, and they’ll probably spend the entire party staring at Brodie and making inappropriate comments. I can only hope they’ll keep their hands to themselves. If Grandma serves her hard lemonade, all bets are off. Brodie has no idea what he’s getting himself into.

  “Does that mean you’re staying?”

  I take a deep breath before jumping off the cliff. “Yes?”

  Brodie whoops and his mouth slams down on mine. He then proceeds to show me it is indeed possible to have sex four times in one afternoon.

  Chapter 34

  If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.

  The six months since I decided to stay in the suburbs have been a whirlwind. No, more than a whirlwind. What’s more than whirlwind? A tornado, maybe? Nah, we don’t use words like tornado here in the Midwest unless it’s for something negative. Trust me, those funnel clouds are nasty. Scary nasty.

  The first big news – I’m walking! Yeah! Without crutches. I still need a cane every once in a while when I’m tired, but for the most part, I am walking assistance free. I continue to go to physical therapy twice a month, though, and believe it or not, Drill Sergeant Carrie and I have become friends. Go figure. Turns out Carrie is more than a little protective of her colleague Brodie. When he started dating a former client – a city girl at that, she was sure I’d break his heart. Is it wrong I was kind of flattered to be thought of as a heartbreaker? I’ve never been one and it does sound a bit femme fatale.

  In other news, I moved out of Grandma’s house into my own apartment. Grandma cried. She actually cried when I left. She claims it’s because she’ll miss having me in the house. Personally, I think she’ll miss embarrassing me. She’s established a weekly ‘family’ dinner on Sunday afternoons. Shelby, Brodie, and Jackson are regular attendees as well. She’s now intent on setting up Jackson. And her friends’ granddaughters are as messed up as the grandsons. It’s hilarious watching Jackson squirm.