by Melody Anne
“I’m smarter than you guys. You’ll see,” Hudson said. He put away his drawings, then climbed into his truck.
“Good luck, little brother.” Noah moved to his own truck, and before Hudson could pull away, he added, “You’re going to need it.”
Hudson just smiled. He didn’t need luck. He was smart — much smarter than his siblings. He wasn’t going to get infected with the marriage flu like they had. No way. No how. No chance. Nope. He was all good.
Then a vision of Daisy flashed behind his eyes: those flushed cheeks, sparkling eyes . . . and no clothes. He pushed his foot down on the gas pedal, trying to speed past his thoughts. He’d win. He’d damn well win.
Because Andersons didn’t quit and they didn’t fail. Not ever. Well, except for every single one of his cousins, and three out of four of his brothers.
A shudder passed through him. He might actually be in trouble . . .
Chapter Fourteen
It had been three days since Hudson’s encounter with Daisy. During those three days, he hadn’t stopped thinking about her. He was confused, but intrigued. She was on his mind more than his work — that was a true feat.
He’d thought about women before, even days after seeing them, but he couldn’t recall ever thinking about one who’d come up with fire in her eyes ready to take him down. And even if a woman was on his mind for days, it wasn’t all-consuming. It was sporadic, and never lasted for a month. But that hadn’t been the case with Daisy Green.
He moved through the small town he’d be calling his home for quite a while. He didn’t believe there was a better place in the United States than the outskirts of Seattle. He loved big cities: the pulse, the nightlife, the diversity, and the options. But he loved stepping out of the city and finding the jewels surrounding the hugely populated areas even more.
Seattle was surrounded by a lot of small towns. And within those communities there was so much to be done. There were large bodies of water, mountains, trails, and recreation galore. A person could boat, hike, ski, hunt, dive, and on and on. Whatever activity a person was interested in could be found in the incredible Northwest.
He turned onto the small main street of the community he was considering buying a home in. He could live in one of the condos he was building, but it would take a while to complete that project, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be quite that close to his neighbors. He loved people, but he also loved privacy. And if the other tenants knew he was the builder, he’d probably not be allowed a moment’s peace.
It was a warm, sunny day and tables were set out on the sidewalks, the main street closed down as tents lined the area with a Saturday market that was crowded without being swamped. Adults and children walked about, eating, laughing, shopping, and enjoying the warm afternoon.
He was hungry but unsure what he was in the mood for, so he glanced at the different booths. Did he want to go healthy or greasy? Probably greasy. It felt like that kind of a day.
Hudson moved forward . . . then stopped in his tracks as he spotted a familiar blonde sitting at a table, her hair flowing free unlike the other day, her lips turned up in a smile as she laughed at something a dark-haired woman sitting across from her said.
He could turn around and walk away, and she’d never know he’d been there. But Hudson wasn’t the type of man to retreat when he wanted to move forward. And he was wondering what her grandfather had said to her. Had she given up? That would be a shame. He wanted more time with her, even if that meant possibly losing his property. Was a woman worth that? He surprised himself when the answer wasn’t a solid no.
She’d been on his mind for too long for him to walk away. Besides that, the woman had caused him to have a lot of restless nights lately. He wanted to know if that it was simply a fluke or if there was something about her that needed to be resolved.
“Good afternoon, ladies,” Hudson said as he pulled out a chair and sat at their table.
Daisy looked at him as if he were a fly she wanted to swat. Her friend, on the other hand, looked interested. He decided to focus on the friend. If they were close and he could charm her, Daisy would have zero choice but to be nice — or so he hoped.
“I’m Hudson Anderson,” he said, holding out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
The friend smiled. “Ah, you’re the one Daisy’s been ranting about for quite some time now,” the woman said with a chuckle as she took his hand. “I’m her best friend, Darla.”
Hudson gave the friend a mega-wattage smile. “So, what you’re telling me is I made an impression,” he said, liking Daisy’s choice in a best friend. She was charming, beautiful, and obviously had a sense of humor. Though their looks were different, they were both stunning. Even so, Hudson was only attracted to the feisty blonde, not the friendly brunette. That was interesting.
“I think you most definitely left her thinking about you. I can’t say that’s necessarily a good thing,” Darla said, her smile turning up a few wattages.
“That happens,” he told her. “But I can usually charm people if I can keep them from running away in the middle of the night . . . or riding away into the forest.”
“Is that so?” Darla asked as she chuckled. “I take it you don’t get left behind too often.”
“Nope, not often at all because I’m a great guy.”
“Are you guys going to pretend I’m not sitting right here?” Daisy said with an incredulous look and a smirk as her head whipped back and forth between the two of them.
Hudson turned his full focus on Daisy, and took a lot of pleasure in the hitch in her breath and the reaction she was trying to hide. She most certainly found him attractive. That was a step in the right direction. She might try to pretend nothing had happened between them, but he could read in her eyes she’d forgotten nothing and their mutual attraction seemed to have intensified, not lessened.
“I know you’re not the forgettable type of woman,” Hudson told her. He then reached over and grabbed a couple of her potato chips, popping them into his mouth. “Yum. Doritos. My favorite.”
“You love taking what isn’t yours, don’t you?” Daisy asked as he grabbed another chip.
“I believe in sharing, and besides that, I’m starving,” he said as he eyed her sandwich. She picked it up and took a bite, chewing as she analyzed him. He sort of felt like a specimen on a slide.
“Delicious. Too bad you don’t have one,” she said after swallowing.
“I’m finished with mine,” Darla said as she pushed over her six-inch sub. “I finished off the other half like I was a linebacker after a big game.”
“I’ve done that a few times. Thanks,” he said as he accepted her Italian sub. He took a bite and groaned. “Perfection.”
Daisy set her own sandwich down, obviously done with it. She picked up her soda and took a sip while he finished his food and eyed the rest of her sandwich. It only took a few seconds before she rolled her eyes and scooted it his way. He gave her a huge grin as he picked it up and took a bite before she could change her mind.
“I should’ve thrown it away,” she mumbled as he enjoyed the food.
“My mom always taught my brothers and me that food was a privilege for those who’d never felt hunger. We learned quickly to never order more than we could finish and to never complain about food that was lovingly put on the table,” he told her.
“My gramps always said the same thing,” she said, her eyes softening. “Yet, I get hungry and think I can eat more than I can to this day.”
“We all do that. I make up for it by donating a lot to food banks and giving my time there so I can have a better appreciation of food and those who struggle with hunger,” he said.
“Really?” Darla leaned in as he spoke. “I wouldn’t expect that from an Anderson.”
“A name doesn’t define your character,” Hudson said. “I’ve been an Anderson all of my life, but it’s only been a couple of years since I found out I was one of those Andersons. My brothers and I grew up with our mother
in a very humble lifestyle. We were taught about service and respect. But from everything I’ve learned about my family, even though they’ve always had money, they were taught the same lessons my brothers and I were. I’m not saying there aren’t wealthy people out there who are terrible, but having money doesn’t automatically make someone a monster.”
He was getting more used to the Anderson name and the power that went with it. But he’d been successful long before he’d been inducted into the famous Anderson family. He was grateful for that. His mother had taught him well. He’d had a good life. A much better life than his brother, Damien. It was still odd to realize he had another brother. He hadn’t quite figured out how he felt about that. He was curious about him, though, and that was a good first step. But Hudson liked to move forward, not live in the past, so he didn’t know how to categorize Damien. He was a ghost from the past living here in the present.
Damien was having a hard time accepting the new reality that had been thrust upon him. Hudson and his brothers had known their mutual father, known what a monster he was. Although none of them had imagined how totally deranged he was, but nothing about him shocked them much anymore. Finding out they had a brother was unexpected, but they wouldn’t be shocked to find another dozen siblings. It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities.
Joseph was all over the story of a missing sister. He wasn’t sure if it was true. Damien had been far too young to remember if his fake mother had grown round with another baby, so he’d taken her word for it when she’d said she’d left another child behind.
It was odd to think of Damien being raised by a woman who hadn’t been his mother. Hudson hurt for his mother for all of those years of thinking her baby was dead when they’d both ended up in the same area. It would’ve given her a lot of joy to meet Damien before she’d passed. Damien’s life would’ve turned out so much differently had he grown up with them. Why was he even thinking about this right now?
“What are you thinking?” Daisy asked, pulling him from his thoughts. He had the woman he’d been obsessing over for the past month sitting in front of him, and instead of focusing on her he was thinking about a long-lost brother. He was an idiot.
He looked at her, wondering what expression he’d been wearing. He could’ve given a cavalier answer, but he chose not to. He wasn’t sure why, but he wanted to connect with her on a deeper level. Maybe it was about more than sex when it came to Daisy.
“I recently found out I have a brother I didn’t know about,” he told her. Her eyes widened as if trying to figure out if he was pulling her leg or not. He waited to hear what she’d say. It didn’t take her long.
“How does that happen?”
“My dad was a terrible man. He had zero conscience. My mother had Damien first, who none of us knew about, because while she was pregnant with Finn, my father took Damien, convinced my mother he’d been kidnapped and killed, then gave him to his mistress.” Hudson paused for a moment. “Then my father faked his own death with the mistress, or second wife, whatever she was to him, and came back to my mother. She probably never told us about Damien because she thought he was gone forever, and she was simply trying to heal over the loss of her firstborn.”
“Oh my gosh, that’s horrible,” Darla gasped. “I don’t know how a person could get over something like that.”
“My mom was amazing. I’m sure she missed him to the day she died, but she was a great mother to all of us and loved us immeasurably. The world is a worse place with her being gone.”
Daisy looked at him with sympathy. She began to reach for him before pulling her hand back. He hadn’t told her the story to get a reaction from her, but he didn’t mind getting one. He’d be more than willing to open up if it took down a few of her walls.
“I’m sorry you went through that,” Daisy said.
“It’s no big deal. That’s all in the past,” Hudson said as he smiled at her. “I don’t let things like that get to me. It’s on my mind right now, but with a hot coffee and a good stroll the drama floats away like a balloon in the sky.” Daisy didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t argue with him.
“Wasn’t there something in the papers about Joseph and George’s triplet being taken at birth too?” Darla asked.
“Yes, a family as wealthy as the Andersons comes with a lot of drama. Richard was taken by the delivery room doctor, and Joseph and George’s parents never knew about it. Back then, there weren’t ultrasounds to know she was pregnant with triplets, and the father wasn’t in the room when the babies were being born. Add to that the fact that she had a bad delivery, and it was a recipe for disaster. When Richard came out, surprising all of them, the doctor decided to gift his wife with a child since she hadn’t been able to get pregnant.”
“That’s monstrous,” Daisy said. “I had no idea.”
Darla reached over and squeezed Daisy’s hand and smiled. “That’s because you don’t read the gossip rags,” she said. “Now do you understand why I’m so obsessed with them? There’s crazy stuff that happens in this world.”
“How did they find out?” Daisy asked.
Hudson laughed. “Joseph and George were looking at a paper and there was a picture of Richard in it. He was moving from the East Coast to the West Coast. They literally looked at a picture of a man who could’ve been them. It wasn’t hard to dig into the story and figure it all out after that.”
“Wow,” Daisy said. She’d completely dropped her defenses in her fascination with the story. “Is it difficult to become a part of a family that’s targeted so much when you’ve lived a normal life up until a couple of years ago?”
He thought about her question for a moment, then shrugged. “I guess talking about it is more dramatic than living it. Meeting my brother for the first time shook my world and is still making my head spin, but I wasn’t part of the Anderson family until recently, so it all seems like a book I’m reading instead of the reality I now exist in.”
“I think a lot of people would be shocked to realize that a lot of fiction is based on real life. I was reading a biography from an author I really respect, and she to the interviewer that she used reality in her work all of the time. Considering some of the thrillers she writes, I was truly shocked to hear that . . . and I might be a little wary if I were her husband.”
Both Hudson and Darla laughed. “I don’t think any artist can fully separate their art from reality. It would be too impersonal then,” Hudson said.
“That makes sense,” Daisy told him. “I had to love what I was talking about when I was writing articles. I tried to be unbiased, but that’s nearly impossible. If you can’t feel something, then you shouldn’t be writing about it in the first place.”
The conversation paused and Hudson glanced over at Darla who was grinning as she looked between him and Daisy. She seemed quite pleased. He wanted to know why.
“Carry on,” Darla said. “I’m simply enjoying the show.”
Shutters came over Daisy’s eyes as she seemed to realize she’d been enthusiastic about her conversation with him. Maybe she didn’t loosen up very often. She’d been standoffish on the plane until their heat had nearly consumed them.
“What are you doing here?” Daisy asked, the friendliness gone from her tone. He smiled, not letting it bother him in the least.
“I saw you two beautiful ladies looking like you could use some company, and I thought I’d join you.”
“We didn’t need company. We’re shopping the market,” she informed him. It was fascinating how she could go from friendly and open to closed and distant in the span of a single second. He liked that he could get under her skin so easily. He wanted to do it a lot more often.
“I love shopping. I’ll join you,” he told her, not willing to end this when it was getting better by the minute.
He saw rejection in her eyes, but before she could speak, Darla jumped back into the conversation. “That would be great. I can always use a bag holder.”
“I’m here to ser
ve,” he said as he rose. He gathered up the garbage from their lunch and stepped over to a can, throwing it away. “Let’s stop for an iced coffee first. I bet I can get a great one here.”
“Oh, a man after my own heart,” Darla said. “I can’t get enough caffeine. No soda or beer at night for me; I drink coffee all day long.”
“I can have a coffee nightcap before bed and still sleep like a baby,” Hudson told her.
“Me too,” Darla exclaimed. “My friends think I’m crazy for the amount of coffee I drink, but it’s much better than some habits people have.”
“Do I get a say in any of this?” Daisy asked, joining the two of them as they moved toward a booth selling coffee and pastries.
“Nope, my darling bestie, you don’t. I like this guy. He got you talking which is a miracle, and I want him to stick around for a while,” Darla said as she linked an arm through Hudson’s. He grinned at her. Yep. He’d known getting an in with the bestie was a smart move. He’d been right again.
“I talk just fine, Dar,” Daisy said with a bit of a pout. Hudson noted her eyes were drawn for several seconds on her best friend’s arm wound through his. Was she jealous? That would be interesting. He liked her best friend, but he really liked Daisy.
“With me you do, and on the job you’re phenomenal. But if a man walks into the picture you suddenly turn into an awkward teen,” Darla said with a laugh.
“I do not,” Daisy said, going so far as to stomp her foot, which made Hudson chuckle. At her glare he swallowed his laugh.
They ordered coffee and a box of donuts, then stepped back and waited. He was about to push Daisy again when a man approached, a scowl on his face, his eyes focused on Darla. Hudson was on instant alert.
“I’ve been trying to reach you, Darla,” the man said, stepping in front of her, invading her personal bubble. Darla stiffened as she took a step back. The man followed. Hudson’s body tensed at the man’s aggression.
“What are you doing here, Jeff?” Darla asked.
“You won’t return my calls. I had no choice but to look for you,” he said. He stepped closer, and Hudson had enough.
