Starting Over (Treading Water Trilogy)

by Force, Marie

  “You can’t drop that on me and not finish it.” Brandon rested his hands on her shoulders. “Tell me.”

  “Randy’s parents,” she whispered. “They’re looking for her.”

  “What do you mean ‘looking for her’?”

  She sighed. “I told you his family was politically powerful, right?”

  He nodded, and his jaw clenched with tension as he realized he wasn’t going to like this.

  “His father is the senior US senator from California.”

  Brandon gasped. “Jesus. You weren’t kidding.”

  “Randy was their only child, and they went to great lengths to cover up how he died. The rest of the world thinks he died in a car accident. Crazy, huh? No one knows the truth but the three of us and a handful of people they pay to make these kinds of things go away. After his funeral, I found Randy’s mother in Mike’s room, leaning over her crib. She was saying she couldn’t lose her, too, and Grandma would take care of everything. I saw what they did to Randy, what they drove him to. I knew if I didn’t get Mike out of there, they’d do the same thing to her. So that night, I took her and the few things we couldn’t live without, and I left. I’ve been running from them ever since.”

  Brandon stared at her, incredulous. “But you have rights. You’re her mother.”

  Daphne snickered. “I’m no one. I wouldn’t stand a chance against them.”

  “That’s why you move around so much.”

  She nodded. “Whenever I feel them getting close, we move. It takes them a while to find us, but they always do. This is the longest we’ve ever been anywhere—almost two years.”

  Brandon stared at her in disbelief. “How long can you keep this up?”

  “For the rest of my life, if that’s what it takes to protect my child.”

  “I want to help. Let me get you some help.”

  She shook her head. “They have power and money and people who do whatever they tell them to. I have nothing to fight them with, and I won’t take the chance that they’d win.”

  “I can get you money, lawyers, whatever you need.” He’d have to go to Aidan for the money, but for Mike, he’d do it in a heartbeat.

  She reached for his hand. “Thank you for wanting to help, but I’m handling it.”

  “You’re not handling it, you’re running from it. That’s no way for Mike to grow up.”

  “Do you think I don’t know that?” Her golden eyes heated with anger. “But the alternative is unimaginable. Just ask Randy.”

  He wanted to weep as he took her into his arms. “Daphne, please, there has to be something we can do to free you from having to live like this.”

  She rested against his chest and put her arms around him. “You’re helping me just by being here. Can’t that be enough for now?”

  Brandon was all churned up inside as he pulled back to look at her. “I have so many questions.”

  “Such as?”

  “How do you hide in plain sight?”

  “By not leaving a paper trail.”

  “But how do you support the two of you?”

  “I find people who’re willing to pay cash for what I do for them.”

  “Am I going to like this?”

  She laughed. “It’s nothing seedy. In my old life, I was a CPA, but that requires a license, and licenses create paper. So now I’m a glorified bookkeeper. I got really lucky here. The guy who owns the nightclub where I work has a bunch of other businesses, so he’s my only client. He lets me work from home most of the time, and I only have to go into the club two or three afternoons a week for a couple of hours to do the deposits and the payroll. He doesn’t mind if I bring Mike with me.”

  “Do you make enough money doing that?”

  She nodded. “We don’t need much.”

  Brandon ran a hand through his hair. “What about health insurance?”

  “I’ve gotten lucky there, too. We haven’t needed it, and it’s cheaper to pay as we go.”

  “Do I even know your real names?” he asked, pacing the small kitchen.

  “Our first names. Van Der Meer was my grandmother’s maiden name.”

  “What’s your real last name?”

  “Monroe.”

  Stricken, Brandon stared at her. “Harrison Monroe was your father-in-law?”

  She nodded.

  “Not just any senator—the Senate majority leader.”

  “I told you he was powerful.”

  Brandon took an unsteady deep breath. “How much does Mike know?”

  “All of it. I told her as soon as I felt she was old enough to understand the basic facts. I didn’t want her to be afraid, but I needed her to be aware of what we were dealing with so she could be vigilant.”

  “No wonder why she’s so mature.”

  “I hate that she has to live like this, but I think she’s a happy kid for the most part.”

  “She seems to be, but there’s definitely an old soul living in that tiny body.”

  “I know.” Daphne sighed. “I always say if I had to go it alone with her, I got the right kid. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. That’s why I can’t lose her.”

  “I’ll tell you something right now,” Brandon said fiercely. “They’ll take her away from you over my cold, dead body, you got me?”

  Her laughter was soft and delicate, just like her. “Where have you been all my life, Brandon O’Malley?”

  He ran his thumbs over her jaw and buried his hands in her hair. Tugging her to him, he kissed her with the same fierce determination. “I’ve been right here waiting for you.”

  “Now that you have me, what will you do with me?” she asked with a saucy grin that shot heat straight through him.

  “Oh, no. Don’t start that again. I thought you were mortified. What happened to ‘I was a sex-starved lunatic’?”

  “It was maniac—there’s a difference—and I got over it,” she said, pressing her hips against him.

  Brandon closed his eyes and tried to count to ten as her hands dipped under his shirt. He made it to two. “Big brain under attack from little brain,” he chanted. “Little brain winning the battle.”

  Daphne laughed. “I like the way little brain thinks.”

  “I want it to be special, Daph.” He captured her wandering hands in his and wondered where all this self-control was coming from. “I don’t want it to be just another roll in the hay.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Do you really think it will be?”

  “I know it won’t be. That’s why I want to wait until we’re alone.” He kissed her cheek. “Really alone.”

  “Okay. You’re right.”

  “I’d better go while I still can. Can I check on Mike first?”

  “Of course.” She followed him into Mike’s room.

  Brandon felt the sleeping child’s face. “She’s cooler than she was.”

  “She threw up most of the Tylenol that second time, so I’m glad some of it stayed down.”

  “What if she wakes up again? I told her I wouldn’t leave.”

  “Then don’t. Sleep with me. We don’t have to do anything.”

  He snorted. “Yeah, right.”

  She came up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. “I’ll behave, I promise. I want you to stay.”

  He put his hands over hers as his better judgment waged war with everything he felt for her. “Let me run downstairs and get changed.”

  “You’ll start a scandal in the building if anyone sees you coming back.”

  “The senior set is probably long asleep by now. I’ll be right back.”

  He was back ten minutes later wearing sweats, a T-shirt, and a look of amazement on his face. “You aren’t going to believe it.”

  “Believe what?”

  “I heard voices on the first floor, so I peeked down the stairs and saw Mr. Pauley and Mrs. Oczkowski making out in the hallway.”

  “Shut up! They were not!”

  “I swear to God! They’re both, like, what
? Eighty-five?”

  Daphne giggled. “And here I thought we’d be the scandal.”

  “My brother Colin said I’m running Melrose Place over here. It’s starting to look like he might be right.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, Melrose: the Senior Years.”

  “Is that, um, what you wear to bed?”

  She had changed into satin pajama bottoms and a form-fitting camisole. Looking down at what she was wearing, she said, “Yeah, why? What’s wrong with it?”

  “Nothing.” He gulped. “Nothing at all. This might not be such a good idea.”

  Snickering at the expression on his face, she took his hand to lead him to her room. “I promised to behave.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “You will. You’re Mr. Ethical High Ground, remember?”

  “Little brain is Mr. Degenerate, though. He’s the problem.”

  Daphne laughed as she turned on the bedside lamp. A tangerine-colored scarf covering the lamp cast an amber glow over the pretty, feminine room.

  “I like your room,” he said as a hint of her fragrance in the air caught Mr. Degenerate’s attention.

  “It’s my garden,” she said, referring to the flowers on her comforter and wallpaper. “We move too much to have a real one, so I take this one with me wherever I go.” She turned down the bed and held out a hand to him.

  “What will Mike say if she finds me here?” he asked as he lay down next to her and drew her into his arms.

  She rested her head on his chest. “I asked her today if she minded if you were my boyfriend.”

  “What’d she say?”

  “She said, ‘Why would I mind? I picked him for us.’”

  Brandon laughed. “She’s too much. Fixed up by a five-year-old. I love it.”

  “She did pick you, you know.” Daphne turned to face him. “She’s never taken to anyone the way she took to you from the first minute she met you.”

  “I haven’t, either. I can still picture her little feet coming into the kitchen when I was under your sink. I thought she was a boy because I heard you call her Mike.”

  Daphne laughed.

  “I don’t know how I could’ve ever thought she was a boy. She’s all girl. Just like her mama,” he said, running a hand up Daphne’s back. He leaned in to kiss her and was lost in her the second his lips touched hers. It was still a revelation to be doing this with someone he loved and to discover that love made all the difference. The kiss was unlike any other, even with her.

  By the time they came up for air, he was on top of her, and her hands were massaging his back under his shirt. He gazed down at her and kissed her again. Somehow, his shirt ended up on the floor. Hers landed next to it a minute later. He caressed her breasts as his lips coasted over her smooth skin.

  “I told you we couldn’t be in bed together and behave,” he whispered as he ran his tongue around her nipple.

  “Brandon,” she gasped, burying her hands in his hair to keep him there.

  When he heard Mike whimper in the next room, he stopped to listen before he reached for Daphne’s shirt and helped her put it back on.

  She went to check on Mike.

  Brandon fell against the pillow and willed his body to settle down. God, what that woman does to me! Just being near her was enough to send him into the most painful state of arousal. He couldn’t begin to imagine what it would be like to make love with her. “Is she okay?” he asked when Daphne returned.

  “Yeah, she’s dreaming.”

  When she got back in bed, he put his arm around her. “Saved by the bell,” he said.

  She giggled. “Go to sleep.”

  “Yeah, right. My head feels like it’s going to blow off my neck.”

  “One, two, three, sleep.” She pressed her lips to his chest and sighed with contentment.

  He felt her drift off to sleep, but he was awake for a long time, thinking about everything she’d told him and trying to figure out how he could fix it for her.

  Chapter 21, Day 72

  Brandon was suspended somewhere between sleep and consciousness when he felt a hand moving on his chest. He was aware enough to remember he’d slept with Daphne, and reached for her hand. Her tiny hand… His eyes flew open to find Mike standing beside the bed. Cursing himself for forgetting to put his shirt back on, he held his breath and waited for her to say something.

  “You have hair on your chest,” she whispered, scandalized by the discovery.

  “Uh, yeah.” He was not at all sure how to handle this. Since Daphne was curled up to his back sound asleep, she was of no help to him at the moment. “Do you feel better?”

  “A little.”

  He lifted the sheet to invite her to lie down with them.

  She looked at him for a long, endless moment, as if she was making up her mind about something before she got in next to him.

  He pulled the covers up around them and rested his hand on her face. “You still have a bit of a fever,” he whispered. “Does your belly feel better?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you mind that I’m here?”

  “No. I asked you to stay, remember?”

  He nodded.

  “Do you love my mom?”

  He was touched by the question and her serious expression. This was important stuff. “Both of you,” he whispered.

  “I don’t want to move anymore. I want to stay here with you.”

  He tugged her closer to him and kissed the top of her head. “We’re going to figure something out, squirt. Don’t worry about it, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  He sacrificed his morning run to have breakfast with Mike. They let Daphne sleep while he made Mike toast and brewed a pot of coffee. She told him where everything was and bombarded him with orders—cut off the crusts, put the cinnamon on first, then the sugar.

  “Don’t eat it too fast,” he warned her. “You don’t want to upset your stomach again.”

  She licked the butter and cinnamon off her fingers. “I hate throwing up. It’s so gross.”

  “But you felt better afterward.” He caught her studying him. “What?”

  “You look different in the morning,” she said with a giggle.

  He sat down at the table with her. “Different how?”

  “Your hair’s all messy, and you have scratchy stuff on your face.”

  “Well, excuse me, madam, but no one told me this was a dress-up breakfast.” He feigned offense as he ran a self-conscious hand through his hair and then over his face. “Most girls like the scruffy look.”

  She made a face that told him she wasn’t one of them.

  “Are you bummed about missing school today?”

  “There’s no school today, silly. It’s Good Friday.”

  “Ah, so it is. I forgot.”

  “We’re on vacation all next week, too.”

  “Great way to start your vacation—being sick.”

  “I know, but my mom will let me have all the ice cream I want later,” she said with a mischievous grin.

  He was relieved that she was feeling better and acting more like herself this morning. “What’s your favorite kind?”

  “Chocolate chip.”

  “Mine, too!”

  Her smile was full of love for him, and he could’ve burst from the simple joy she’d brought to his life.

  Daphne came into the kitchen and made a beeline for the coffee.

  “She’s not a morning person,” Mike whispered to Brandon.

  “Good to know,” he whispered.

  “I can hear you two,” Daphne grumbled as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

  Mike giggled.

  “Are you better today, Pooh?” Daphne asked.

  “She’s planning an ice-cream party for later, if that’s any sign,” Brandon offered, feasting his eyes on Daphne’s sleep-rumpled hair and rosy cheeks.

  She met his glance and held it as a hundred thoughts and feelings passed between them. “Thanks for letting me sleep in. I can’t remember the
last time I got to sleep past seven.”

  “I had a lesson on how to make cinnamon toast Mike-style,” Brandon said as he got up to leave.