by Lily Kate
“I see that.” He nods toward the door, insinuating Lexi. “But I bet you wish you weren’t.”
My fist reaches out, curls around the front of his stupid t-shirt. “Leave her out of this.”
“Protective over someone who doesn’t want a relationship,” Leo says. “If I’m understanding this correctly?”
“You don’t understand a thing.”
“You’re ruining my shirt.”
I open my fingers, releasing him from my grasp. As he steps back and dusts himself off, I realize with alarming clarity how far things have deteriorated between us.
When we launched the business together, we were both so focused on making the gym a success, we threw ourselves into it entirely. He was coming off a bad breakup, and me, the injury. It had been our lives for that first year.
Then we’d started to see success, and I’d kept on as I always had. Leo, however, had changed. The wedge between us must’ve gotten bigger over the years while I’d turned a blind eye. I don’t love to talk about feelings and shit, so Leo and I did a lot of sweeping our problems under the rug. Kitty’s not the only one who loves rugs.
Now, however, the rug is getting to be pretty damn bulky.
“Cancel the budget meeting tomorrow,” I say. “Do whatever you want. I don’t care anymore.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Leo calls after me. “Throwing in the towel?”
I don’t respond as I storm out the front doors. Pulling out my cell, I hit Bill’s number. When he answers, I glance behind me, but Leo’s gone.
“I need something,” I tell Bill. “Now.”
Chapter 20
LEXI
“Please don’t be grumpy tonight,” I say, the second Brad opens his door. “Can we please try to have a nice time?”
Brad, looking absolutely stunning in dress slacks and a nice shirt, gives me a half smile. “That’s the first thing you have to say to me?”
“I’m just continuing the happy hour conversation!”
“That was thirty minutes ago.”
I make a faux-angry face. “Please?”
Bradley isn’t the most open book in the library, and these last few weeks he’s been hard to decipher. All I know for certain is that something’s up, and by using my powers of deduction, I assume it’s something at work.
He’s been spending more and more time at the diner, less and less time at the gym. Not that I mind, but the man ate me straight out of waffles. That’s never happened before.
Tonight is my brother’s birthday party. It’s been two weeks since we ran into Leo at the gym, and I sensed deteriorating conditions between the two partners. Not that Bradley would actually talk about any of it—he claimed he was just fine.
On top of his work thing with Leo, I could tell Bradley had been nervous about this party all week, even if he wouldn’t admit it. Little glances, quick comments—I’m not an idiot. Just because he doesn’t talk about his feelings doesn’t mean I can’t see them.
That’s why I’d invited him over for happy hour. All the way across the hallway to my apartment. We’d shared a couple cocktails and watched the first half of that British baking show again. The entire time he’d been a surly mess, and I can only assume it’s because work headaches were meeting personal life headaches.
“I’ll try to be positive,” he says with a frown. “Do I look okay?”
“You look fabulous.” My hands come up to play with the buttons on his shirt, and I wink. “In fact, you look mighty handsome.”
“Is that right?” He leans a hand high against the doorframe, and I snuggle under it. “How handsome?”
“So handsome I think I won’t be able to control my hands.”
“Only your hands?”
He leans down, his frame big, bulky, and oh-so-sexy. If anything, he’s gotten sexier as the days have gone by, and we’ve begun to relax around one another. Things are almost the way they were before... but better.
Because we kiss now, and we kiss a lot. At happy hour, I’d finally had to kick him out of my place because I’d ended up straddling his lap with his hand down my pants.
I’m already confident in the way I feel about him. I want him. I want to be with him. I want to throw myself fully into this thing, but I need some reassurance that he’s ready to do the same. I want the stupid date.
One of his arm curls behind my back, and I groan. “You know I can’t resist that.”
“I’ve noticed,” he says, holding me to his chest.
There’s something about the way he’s all stretched out, tall and hard and strong, that has me unable to pull away. I can’t hardly breathe when he holds me like this, let alone argue.
I look up at him. “What were you saying about my hands?”
“Forget your hands,” he murmurs. “What do you say we skip this party all together? Your brother won’t mind.”
The talk of Lucas, of birthdays, brings me back to reality. “You’re sexy, Bradley Hamilton, but your beautiful arms are not getting you out of this dinner.”
“Lucas doesn’t want me around.”
There it is. The thing that’s been dragging Brad down all afternoon. My arms squeeze around him tighter and tighter until I’m squeezing as hard as my muscles will allow. “Of course he does.”
“Did you tell him I’m coming?”
“Sort of.”
“What the hell, Lexi?” Bradley pulls away from the door and gives me a look of alarm. “You didn’t tell Lucas you were bringing me?”
“I told him I was bringing a friend.”
“He’ll think it’s Kitty. The man is crazy about Kitty.”
“I never specified which friend, and nobody asked.”
“Now I’ll let him down for two reasons. Not only is his asshole friend there, but I don’t have boobs, and my name’s not Kitty, so he’ll be extra disappointed.”
“I didn’t really think about that.”
He exhales a breath. “I’ll just stay home. Pick up Kitty along the way.”
“Maybe she’s busy.”
“Kitty’s never busy.”
“No.” I reach for his hand and latch onto it tightly. “I told my family I was bringing a plus one, and you are my plus one. I’m not ashamed. Are you?”
I have him in my crosshairs on this one, and he knows it.
“I’m not ashamed, but—”
“Great. Let’s go.”
“Hold on a second,” he says, following me into the hallway. “Your family will be there?”
“Yes, it’s a birthday party.”
“The way we used to do birthday parties was at a bar with a shitshow of friends.”
“Well, we’re all grown up.”
“And what does that mean?”
“It means we’re going over to my family’s house for dinner.”
“I can’t. No, I can’t. I thought this would be a party. With drinking. At a restaurant.”
“Am I understanding this correctly?” I stroll into the hallway, not bothering to keep my voice down. “You want to sleep with me, but you won’t join me and my family for dinner?”
He glances up and down the hall quickly, his eyes darting around. “That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Essentially.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“Well, family’s important to me,” I tell him. “And you are important to me, too. I’m going to dinner. Come if you’d like. If you don’t want to, that’s your decision.”
He looks painfully torn, and I’m aware that I’ve put him between a rock and a hard place. The thing is, he and Lucas used to be such great friends. I find it incredibly hard to believe that they can’t be friends still, if one of them would just make the effort.
However, they’re both boys at heart, and they’re both stubborn individuals. Normally, I wouldn’t interfere. I haven’t pressured Lucas into trying to talk to Bradley once over these last few years, but the circumstances have changed.
Whoever I eve
ntually bring home—a boyfriend, a husband, the potential for either—will be a part of my life, and I can’t have two parts of my life separated in such a huge way. If Bradley is serious about us, I need to know we’ll face all parts of life together. And that includes my family.
I’m at the elevator and pressing the button before he catches up to me.
“If they kick me out, you can’t hold it against me,” he growls. “I’m making the effort to show up.”
My heart skips a few beats. Through his grumpy exterior, I sense tiny tendrils of nerves. I reach out and rest my hands against his biceps. “They’re going to love you. They already do, we just have to get back into the swing of things. They’re not going to kick you out.”
“Famous last words.”
“Come on,” I say, pulling him into the elevator. “Let’s make out on the ride down. I hear it provides great endorphins.”
The doors shut behind us, thankfully leaving us alone, and I hit the button for the lobby. The second we start descending he takes me in his arms and winds himself around me, pressing me hard against the elevator wall.
His mouth descends on mine, and it’s not the playful, goofy make out session I’d anticipated; it’s a hungry, carnal desire that’s rife with tension. A squeak of surprise slips out of me, only until he pulls me tighter still, and the squeak fades to a low murmur of appreciation.
His tongue is doing amazing things, and I let the blackness of bliss take over. I can feel Brad’s desire to have me, to touch me. I can also sense his need for me to hold him, to reassure him, to show him this will all be worth it.
I’m so lost in him that it’s not until someone clears their throat behind us that my eyes fly open. Brad moves at the same time, and we knock foreheads against one another as he scrambles to right me and straighten my clothes.
“Ow!” I hiss, holding a hand to my head as we pretend to be super classy individuals and keep our chins high while parading through a lobby filled with people.
“What is it, ladies’ night?” Brad murmurs once we’re through the thick of it. “There were at least twenty of them.”
“There were six,” I mutter. “And yes, it was probably ladies’ night.”
He groans. “What do you think they saw?”
“Enough to make them jealous.” I wink at him. “You’re not embarrassed by a little PDA, are you?”
I, myself, am feeling exceptionally embarrassed, but I don’t show it. We’re going to dinner with my family, which means I have to be the one to stay sane this evening.
“PDA?” He raises an eyebrow at me. “The way your hips were moving wasn’t PDA. That was a full on dry hump.”
“Leave my hips out of this! It was your tongue down my throat.”
“I recall you being the one to say let’s make out on the ride down.”
“Right. Let’s make out... not practice sexing each other through our clothes in front of ladies’ night.”
We both pause as we step onto the sidewalk, turn to face one another, and break out into nervous titters of laughter.
“They got a show, didn’t they?” I say, reaching for his hand. I rest my head against his shoulder as we stroll to the parking lot behind the building where I keep my car parked. “Oh, well.”
“They interrupted.”
“Interrupted? Jeesh, how far were you planning on taking things in that elevator?”
His eyes blaze as if this opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
“Oh, don’t even go there,” I tell him. “I can read your mind.”
“It’d be fitting, wouldn’t it?” He spins me around as we reach my car. We’re locked into an embrace. “We began our courtship in an elevator, it only makes sense to—”
“What, consummate our relationship in an elevator? How romantic.”
“Wait and see. I’ll change your mind on this.”
“Get in the car, buddy, before you get turned on by your own twisted mind.”
“There’s only one reason you’re uncomfortable,” he says, trapping me against the car, one arm on either side. “And that’s because you like where my mind’s at.”
I’m a little out of breath against him, the moon blurring with the city lights to create a mystical sort of glow around us. Every once in a while, I’m still in awe that this is happening. Us, here, together.
I hadn’t even realized I’d been missing something. But over these past few months with Bradley in my life, an ache that’d existed so deep inside has started to ease, one I’d barely recognized to be there in the first place.
Being with him brings a whole new element to life. I’d been happy before, and my world had been sunny. Add in Bradley Hamilton, and my universe sparkles.
Chapter 21
BRADLEY
“You’ll be fine, just relax, and...”
Lexi’s voice fades into the background as the Monroe house looms into view. She parks, steps out without a backward glance, and is halfway to the door before I can unstick my ass from the front seat.
“Bradley?” She turns, a horrified look on her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. Come here, we’ll go in together. I’m just so used to...”
She trails off again, and I know what she’s thinking. Things have started to feel so normal between us, so familiar, it’s easy to fall into old patterns. Growing up as neighbors, all three of us had basically shared two houses and two sets of parents.
Our parents were friends, we were friends, it’d been the freaking Brady Bunch. When I’d left for college, however, my parents had moved away. Not far, but far enough that I had no excuse to swing by this cul-de-sac anymore.
My eyes land on the house next door—my old house—and then sweep over to the Monroe’s. “It hasn’t changed at all.”
“Don’t tell my mother that,” Lexi says. “She planted new trees and demands everyone compliment them, or else she’s offended.”
“I’ll remember that.”
Lexi hooks her arm through mine, then gives me a critical once over. “I thought your nerves might go away.”
“Nerves?”
“It’s useless to pretend you’re a cool cucumber,” she says. “You’re more tense than a jack in the box.”
“It’s been years. Last time I was here, we—”
“Last time you were here, you waltzed right through the door without an invitation. That’s how it’s always been, and things shouldn’t be any different now.”
“But they are different. I haven’t... swung by, stopped over to say hi. Your family must hate me.”
“Are you kidding? My parents have always loved you the most out of us three. They still ask about you all the time.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“And what did you tell them about my extended absence?”
She flinches under my gaze. “You know, the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That you’ve been really busy at the gym, and you said hello to them back, and...”
“You covered for me.”
“I don’t know about that, but I tried. I’m sure my mom suspects something. She got used to not seeing you when you went off to school, but even then you’d swing by once in a while.”
He grimaces.
“I’m sure she suspects we had a falling out, but you know my mom—she just picks and chooses what she likes to believe. Also, she’s been sending you food. So, you might want to thank her for all those meals you loved.”
“Food?”
“Let’s focus on the important part here,” she said. “Whatever happened was between you and me. I never hated you, Bradley, not even close. The last thing I wanted to do was make things worse while you were injured and alone.”
Her words ring straight through to me. Alone. Lonely. That’d be a good summary of the last few years. It’s also the reason why I’d thrown myself—financially, mentally, physically—into the business of working out so hard that I’d pass out in sleep every night. If I didn
’t physically exhaust myself, I’d stare at the ceiling all night long.
“I didn’t mean alone, I meant—”
“No,” I tell her. “You’re right. I’m just mad at myself for making you lie to your family.”
“I didn’t lie, I covered for you. Just like the time you covered for me when Kitty and I fell asleep at the drive-in and got locked in all night.”
“Maybe if you’d driven to the place and not snuck through the back, you wouldn’t have fallen asleep in the bed of someone else’s truck.”
“They weren’t using it. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there,” she says, brushing off the story with a faint smile. “The point is that they’ll love to see you. I didn’t cover for you because I had to, I covered for you because it was the right thing to do.”
She takes another step forward, dragging me with her. I let myself get pulled along for a second, but then I stop abruptly. When I stop, she keeps moving, but since she weighs as much as a feather duster, she snaps right back into my arms.
“Thank you,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.
We’re tucked into the safe zone between the two motion sensor lights out front. Some habits die hard, and I got used to avoiding those suckers like the plague in high school.
Her green eyes peer up at me, bits of stars glimmering there. “It’s nothing you wouldn’t have done for me.”
“Including the food?” I murmur, a smile on my lips. “Just out of curiosity, if your mom has been sending me food for years—where did it go?”
She gives a tinkling laugh. “To a good cause. Preventing hanger in Apartment 709.”
I shouldn’t—I absolutely, positively shouldn’t, but I can’t hold myself back. Leaning in, I brush my lips against hers, and a sizzle of current strikes between us. The whisper of air there, and the promise of what we might be.
I want to make her happy, and that’s why I’m venturing inside the Monroe house tonight. That’s why I’m facing Lucas who, if I know Lexi’s brother, will be chomping at the bit to put me in my place.
“Brad.” Lexi’s hands rise and frame my face. Her skin is soft, cool against my cheeks. “Breathe, honey.”
