Love to Hate You: An Enemies to Lovers, Best Friend's Brother Romantic Comedy (The Fillmores Book 2)

by Melissa Schroeder

  “I will make sure you regret it.” It’s over the top, but I can’t help it. A growl vibrates in my chest and, Jesus, I really don’t know where this possessive streak is coming from.

  There is a long beat of silence, heavy with tension, but then, he smiles at me.

  “Well, I guess I don’t need to worry about you hurting her. I want to put some more security on the house.”

  I relax. “Okay. Although, I’m staying there since my house has been rented out this year.”

  “Still. It will help catch whoever is doing this. Where was her car?”

  “Wyatt’s.”

  He nods. “Nothing at her house?”

  “No, there was. The same night as the tire thing, some guy loosened her porch light.”

  He studies me. “You have any idea who could have been doing this?”

  “Well, your grandmother seems to think that Reggie Andrews would be a good fit for Nancy.”

  “That monster?”

  “You know about him?”

  He nods. “He’s always been a bully and when the rumors about the assaults started making the rounds, I knew they had to be true.”

  “That’s my first guess, but Josh said he had an alibi.”

  He shakes his head, his eyes scanning the room. “He would never do it himself. He would hire someone.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Dammit, that means I have to stay another day. I wanted to go home.”

  “To California.”

  “Sure.”

  I chuckle. “You’re alright, Howard.”

  “Right back at you. Just remember that I will fuck up your life if you hurt Nancy.”

  “Agreed. I would definitely deserve it.”

  I sip at my beer, watching him as he sets down the punch. “I’ve always worried about her being a target. She seems to think it’s no big deal, but she’s just not a cohost of a home improvement show. She’s the star of the Howard family and people hate us. Rightly so, but they really don’t like us. She would be a big target.”

  I nod. “I know. I hate that until recently, Nancy wouldn’t take security seriously.”

  “Comes from growing up in this family. Right when you are old enough to go out in the world on your own, you get a security detail. It didn’t matter to me because college life isn’t that much fun at thirteen. But for Nancy, I know it couldn’t have been easy to deal with. I hate that it took something like this to make her take it seriously.”

  “I feel your pain. But together we can make sure she’s safe.”

  No one is going to hurt Nancy, not without going through me first.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Nancy

  I watch my grandmother settle in the chair behind the massive mahogany desk. I’m sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the desk, the right one. The one I sat in countless times. I spent a lot of my childhood and most of my teenage years here. Well, after I got kicked out of boarding school. My childhood had been marked by an unstable home life. Don’t get any warm fuzzies about my grandmother. She didn’t do it out of the goodness of her cold heart. She did it because she knew my parents were unfit. Their inability to control me would result in more embarrassing situations. Once I made it impossible for my mother to enter me into pageants, she lost interest in me. My father had never been all that interested. So, Estella took over.

  “Do you want to explain yourself?”

  Ugh, how many times have I heard her say that? So, so many. I lost count that first year I lived with her.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  And I don’t. Usually I do. I knew every time I got pulled in here when I was a teen, and it usually involved something with Syd.

  “This carrying on with Travis Fillmore.”

  Oh, of course.

  “Carrying on? Are you talking about all the sex?”

  She spares me a withering glance. You might think she’s a prude, but she isn’t. One of the few things she did right by me was my sex education. This is Texas, so when I was in high school, it was lacking. Estella sat both Syd and me down and told us exactly how to protect ourselves and how to have responsible sex. It was awkward for both Syd and me, but I have to say it is one of the best things she could have done for me at that age. I never understood the idea that if you don’t teach kids how to protect themselves, they just won’t have sex. They will.

  “I have no idea why you’re wasting time on a man like that.”

  Anger is swift and vicious. She can put me down and question all of my other life’s choices, but I will not let her talk about Travis like that. We might have our issues, but he is a good man. “Don’t talk about him that way. Just because he doesn’t come from money doesn’t mean he’s any less than us.”

  “I don’t mean that; although, I would say that one would worry about his tendency to substance abuse because of his parents, but no, what I mean is that you are no longer doing the show together.”

  How does she know? The truth is, we have avoided the subject. Well, not really avoided it. We’ve been having so much sex, we haven’t been thinking about those kinds of things.

  “How did you hear about that?”

  Another withering look. If the military could bottle up that look and use it on people, it would be a good weapon. It works on most people. Not me.

  “I have my ways.”

  “You mean you have your spies.”

  Her hand tightens on the top of the cane, her knuckles going white for a split second. It is the only sign that I’ve annoyed her.

  “He’s just not right for you.”

  I don’t get it. Again, I can say a lot of things about my grandmother. Estella Howard is one of the most autocratic women in the world. People cower in her presence, including my father. All of her kids actually. Jon and I are the only family members who don’t give a crap about her money or power. But then, we are the only two that have nothing to do with the family business. Jon has more patents than Alexander Graham Bell stole from inventors. I think some of his inventions and applications have been used by the military. We are also the only ones who don’t need our trust funds.

  “But Reggie Andrews is.”

  “Date Rape Reggie? Yeah, no.”

  “Why do you insist on calling him that?”

  “I didn’t give him that name. He earned it when he was at A and M.”

  “Earned it?’

  “Yeah, the rumor was that no matter how cute you thought he was, a girl would be smart to keep away from Reggie. So many of the girls he dated would wake up with no memory of what happened. And more than once, he tried to force himself on girls. There have been rumors forever. And I’m sure he’s got that same reputation at the Petroleum Club.”

  “You were being serious before?”

  “That’s not something I would joke about. Maybe you can get one of your spies to check it out.”

  She says nothing to that. Of course, she doesn’t. The only thing about this conversation that makes me feel good is that she apparently didn’t know the full extent of Reggie’s issues. At least she wasn’t willfully sending me off to marry a monster.

  “So, if there isn’t anything else?” I say rising from the seat.

  “I think you should move back in here.”

  “Absolutely not.”

  “You are not safe at your house. Not by a long shot. Here there is a massive amount of security.”

  “That might be true, but it’s a false sense of security.”

  “You will be safe.”

  There is a thread of something I can’t define in her voice. It almost sounds like worry. But that can’t be true. Not with Estella. She fears absolutely nothing.

  “The problem is the stalker won’t go away. People like that rarely just stop, unless they end up dead or in the hospital somewhere. Otherwise, he’ll wait me out. I can’t spend the rest of my life hiding in this monstrosity of a house. Besides, the LOLs are on high alert. They will make sure that I am safe. Y
ou know nothing gets past them.”

  She levels a measured look at me. “How many of them know you’re fooling around with Travis?”

  “I have no idea because I don’t care.”

  I honestly don’t. People have speculated for years. I’ve heard the rumors. At least, now the gossip matches our relationship.

  “You might not like Reggie because of his personality—”

  “And the fact that he’s a scum sucking rapist.”

  “But what do you know of Travis Fillmore’s intentions?”

  That stops me in my tracks, and I narrow my eyes as I look at her. “You won’t be able to hang anything on Travis. For all his faults, his honesty is something I have no issue with. We don’t lie to each other.”

  “Are you sure of that?” There is a lilt to her tone that tells me she has something on one of us, but that is impossible. Travis is a lot of things, but he wouldn’t lie to me, not about this. Especially right now with the issue of a stalker.

  “What the actual fuck do you mean?”

  Yeah, I used the “f” word to irritate her. Unfortunately, the only reaction I see is the flaring of her eyes.

  “Do you think that he, all of a sudden, developed feelings for you after all these years?’

  I will not tell her of our talk, of admitting that we both had crushes on each other for years. Instead, I use one of her tactics and ignore the question.

  “Well, this has been fun, as usual. Happy birthday, I gave your birthday money to the animal shelter.”

  I turn to leave once more and I get as far as to have my hand on the doorknob, but she stops me.

  “You don’t think he would seduce you to get you back on the show?”

  Irritation and fear ride hand and hand on a crazy cart. Yes, I worry about that. My grandmother would know it too. She knows all the things I worry about, number one is that people would use me. It was a common thing I experienced as a child, and even as an adult to some extent. That’s why my friendship with Syd is so special. She has never asked me for one thing, besides what normal friends ask for. Before I met her and Travis, I always had friends who wanted to be seen with me, have me buy them things, or gain access to my family.

  Estella understands this and wouldn’t hesitate to use it against me. But I can’t let her see that it bothers me. If that happens, she will twist the knife in and let me bleed until she gets what she wants.

  I turn to face her, and I wait. She has something to tell me, I can tell by the way she is sitting there staring at me, daring me to ask. I do not. I’m too old for these stupid games.

  “He’s made it very clear to people at At Home that he intends to get you back. And once he does, what do you think he will do? He’ll drop you, leave you all alone.”

  “Kind of hard to do, since ya know, we would be doing our shows together.”

  She tsks at me, but I fight the doubt that is now winding its way through me. It was there all along, but now it is blossoming into an ugly stinky flower. I fight the urge to let it overwhelm me. I know Travis isn’t doing that, but my insecurities are deep rooted.

  “You think he won’t go back to his bed hopping? You think men stop doing that just because they get the love of a good woman?”

  “Good woman? Are you referring to me, because you normally have different adjectives for me?”

  She opens her mouth, and I realize that this isn’t going to get us anywhere. She will just make me doubt my relationship with Travis—if you can call it that yet—and I don’t need someone else to sabotage my happiness. I do that quite well by myself, thank you.

  “I said I was done. Have a nice night with our family.”

  I don’t give her a chance to respond. It’s cowardly, but I need to get completely out of here. Away from my family and their poison. As I scan the crowd, I can’t see Travis. It’s odd because he’s so big and tall, he’s easy to find in a room. Then, I see him coming out of the music room—aka the torture room by Jon and me—and I frown. Worry has my stomach clenching, wondering what he was doing in there. When I see my cousin Jon following him, my nerves settle.

  Inwardly, I cuss at myself. Seriously, one conversation has me worried about Travis? Really? He has yet to bring up the show. And why would he steal away with any other woman but me at this party?

  He scans the room just as I did and when his gaze lands on me, I expect him to smile. He doesn’t. Instead, he starts off in my direction. I do the same, thinking to cut the time in half that we need to be here. Jon is right behind him with a frown on his face.

  I ignore him when Travis and I meet in the middle of the room. People mill around us, but we don’t pay them any attention. My heart is in my throat, and my entire body is lighting up with happiness. How could I have wondered about him, about his intentions? He slips his arm around my waist and pulls me closer.

  “Are you all right?” he whispers in my ear.

  I nod.

  “You sure?”

  I pull back and look at him.

  “You look unsettled.”

  “Estella has that effect on people.”

  His mouth quirks and just like that, any second thoughts and doubts I had dissolve. He was worried about me and that warms my heart.

  “Really, Nancy? You weren’t going to tell me?” Jon breaks into our happy moment. I frown at my cousin.

  “Get bent. I can date Travis if I want to.”

  “I don’t care who you’re banging.” See, this is why we get along. “What I care about is your safety. You know I handle security issues for some big military contractors, but you don’t call me for help?”

  I shrug. “Everyone bothers you. I hate to take you away from work.”

  There is a beat of silence as people move around us. “You’re the one family member I like. Remember that.”

  I smile and beat back the tears that threaten to spill over. Nancy Howard doesn’t cry in public.

  “Okay.”

  “Nancy! So good to see you,” Reggie says from behind me. Both men in front of me go rigid. I turn and then take a step back. I didn’t realize how close he had gotten to me. Creepy AF, that’s for sure.

  I open my mouth to tell him off, but Jon steps in.

  “Listen, Andrews, leave my cousin alone. I’ll ruin your life, from top to bottom. Then, I’ll hand you over to Travis here who will happily fuck you up. Go away.”

  He hesitates, looking at Jon, then his gaze slips over to Travis—who growls? Reggie’s eyes widen as his smile fades.

  He says nothing as he backs away and then heads off in the opposite direction. I hope that it’s the last time I see him, but I know better. Men like Reggie are like gum on the bottom of your shoe. He’ll hang around until you get out a sharp instrument and get rid of him. I’m turning around when I notice my grandmother on the other side of the room watching the entire thing. There is a certain look in her expression as her gaze follows Reggie heading out of the ballroom. I dismiss her and turn around.

  “You going to be here tomorrow?”

  Jon nods.

  “Come by. Travis and I are leaving.”

  “See ya,” Jon says and heads off somewhere else. I have no idea where he’s going and, at the moment, I don’t really care.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Travis mutters as he pulls me through the crowd and out the door. After the valet gets Travis’ truck, we make an almost silent trip back to my house. It takes less than thirty minutes, but for once, I don’t try to fill the space with chatter. I keep thinking about my grandmother’s comments and that last look she had for Reggie.

  Travis pulls up into my driveway.

  “What the hell?” he says.

  I look at my porch that’s dark again, but beyond that, I see my front door is wide open.

  “We locked that,” I say, my heart racing and my worry increasing by the second.

  “And we armed the alarm,” he says as he opens the driver’s side door. “Call Josh.”

  I grab his arm. “Wait for
him. There could be someone in there.”

  “God, I hope so,” he says slipping out of the truck as I hit Josh’s number.

  “You don’t want me to have a good night, do you?”

  “The door to my house is open, Josh. Someone broke in while we were gone.”

  “On my way.”

  Then he hangs up. I slip out of the truck myself and walk closer, although I listen to Travis about staying away. It’s stupid that he’s in there, and I want to demand he come out, but I know he won’t listen to me. A minute passes with no sign of him, my worry increasing with each passing second. Finally, he steps out, just as the porch light goes on. His face is grim when he waves me closer.

  “I’m not going to lie to you, Nancy. I want to, but the bastard was in your house.”

  I swallow. “And he did something?”

  He nods, his gaze staying locked with mine. He takes my hand and walks me into the house. I worried that the bastard had ruined something in my house, but overall, everything looks okay. That is until I step into the kitchen. I gasp when I see what he was worried about.

  Someone took a knife to the beautiful table. Deep scratches mar the surface. They run the length of the tabletop. He left the knife behind though. He used it to anchor a piece of paper to the table. The moment I read the words, my blood turns cold and an icy finger skims down my spine.

  You will pay.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Travis

  As I wrap my arms around Nancy, my worry increases tenfold. I know that seems stupid to even think because, of course, I should be worried about her, and it should be getting worse by the day. There’s some kind of bastard stalking her and intentionally trying to scare her. Well, that was before tonight when it became clear: someone really wants to hurt her.

  It’s such an odd concept. Josh was right when he said she was everyone’s girl next door. She’s sweet. Sure, she could win a cussing contest with the saltiest of sailors, but beneath all that foxy is a sweet woman. The idea that someone wants to hurt her is foreign to me. It also makes me want to find the bastard and make him cry. But my concentration is on her now. She’s barely said anything, even when Josh showed up to fingerprint everything.