by Force, Marie
“You were with a woman you didn’t love for five years?” Daphne asked with amazement.
“It’s just one of many things I’m ashamed of, believe me. I’m going to have to tell you this stuff in small doses if I want to keep you around.”
She framed his face with her hands. “I didn’t know you then, but I know you now, and I love the man you are today. I love you, Brandon.”
“I love you, too,” he said, unable to keep the words inside for another minute. He leaned in to kiss her softly. “I’ve never said that to a woman before. I used to think that was so pathetic, but now I’m glad I saved it for you.”
“Brandon,” she sighed as she pressed her lips to his.
The kiss was hot and deep, but Brandon pulled back before they ended up making love on the sofa. He had plans, and that wasn’t one of them. “Will you do something for me?”
“Sure.”
“Come with me to my sister’s on Sunday, and bring overnight bags for you and Mike?”
“Easter dinner with the O’Malleys is a sleepover?” she asked with a saucy smile.
“Very funny.” He kissed the end of her nose. “Will you just do it and not ask questions?”
“What needs to be in these hypothetical overnight bags?”
“Well, Mike needs PJs, a toothbrush, a change of clothes, and Brandon the Bear.” He was amazed to realize he could pack the child’s bag himself if he had to. “And you just need a toothbrush in yours.”
She laughed. “That’s it?”
He pretended to give it significant thought. “Yeah, that’s about it.”
“What’re you up to, Brandon O’Malley?”
“Nothing you need to know about now. Will you do it? Come to Erin’s and bring the overnight stuff?”
“Are you sure your family won’t mind us being there? I don’t think your father likes me very much.”
“Oh, he’s a big blow-hard. Don’t let him scare you off. They’d love to have you, and Mike will have so much fun with the kids.”
Daphne bit her lip as she gave it some thought. “Okay. We’ll go, but on one condition.”
“I can’t wait to hear this.”
“Come to church with us on Easter morning?”
Brandon’s smile faded. “I don’t really do the church thing anymore.”
“I do it for Mike. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do it for me, too. With all the moving around, it’s the one thing that’s familiar no matter where we are. There’s comfort in that, you know?”
Strangely enough, he did. “I can see what you’re saying, but it’s not my scene.”
“Do it for me?”
“Don’t make that face,” he groaned. “I can’t say no to that face.”
“I’ll have to remember that.”
Brandon smiled. “Okay, you win. I’ll go—but just this once. Now, there’s one other thing I need you to do for me.”
“You’re becoming very high maintenance,” she joked.
“I’m just getting started, baby.” He gave her a sloppy, wet kiss. “Will you keep Mike out of the yard tomorrow afternoon?”
Daphne raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
“The Easter bunny left her an early present, and I don’t want her to see it until it’s ready for her.”
“What did you do, Brandon?” Daphne asked, all signs of kidding around gone.
“It’s nothing.” He squirmed under the heat of her glare. “Just a little surprise. I can buy her something if I want to, can’t I?”
Daphne sat up. “I don’t want you to spoil her. It’ll just make it harder when we…”
“When you what?” he asked, sitting up next to her.
“When we have to go,” she said softly.
Her words struck fear in his heart. “You’re not going anywhere, Daphne.”
“I won’t want to, but I will if I have to.”
Slipping an arm around her, he guided her head onto his shoulder. “While I was out today, I went to see a friend of mine who’s a lawyer.” He’d planned to wait to tell her until he had more information from Alan.
She gasped and looked up at him, her face white with fear. “You didn’t tell him…”
“I didn’t use any names. I’d never do anything to endanger you or Mike. You have to know that.” When he saw that he’d succeeded in reassuring her, he continued. “My friend, Alan, is doing some research on our behalf. He’s going to call me this week and wants us to come to his house for dinner. He has two girls Mike can play with while we figure this out with him.”
“I can’t afford lawyers, Brandon.”
“I can. I’ll spend every dime I have if that’s what it takes to work this out.”
“I can’t ask you to do that.”
“You didn’t ask me, so don’t worry about it. You can’t expect me to sit idly by and wait for them to turn your lives—and mine—upside down when they find you again. I can’t do that, Daph. I promised Mike I’d find a way out of this, and I’m going to do it.”
“When did you talk to Mike about it?”
“She told me this morning she doesn’t want to move anymore, and I promised her I’d fix it. Let me fix it, please?”
“I’m almost more afraid of stirring things up than I am of them finding us,” she confessed.
“We’ll be very, very careful. I promise you. I won’t let anyone separate you and Mike. Trust me?”
The look she gave him was the same one he’d gotten that morning from Mike when they discovered they liked the same ice cream. It was full of love and trust. “Of course I do.”
“I need you to promise me you won’t ever leave without telling me. I’d go out of my freaking mind if I didn’t know where you two were.”
“There’ve been times when I’ve had to leave within hours. That’s how fast it can happen. If that happens here, I’ll call you as soon as it’s safe. That’s all I can promise.”
Brandon’s jaw clenched with tension. “This has to stop. It’s going to stop.”
“Thank you for trying to help. Even if it doesn’t work, I’ve never had anyone to share this burden with.”
“You do now, and it’s going to work.” He couldn’t imagine the alternative.
The next afternoon, Brandon walked into a liquor store for the first time in seventy-three days. The sweet smell of the place made his mouth water, but he stayed focused on what he was there to do. “A case of Sam Adams, please,” he said to the kid working at the desk. “Cold. Two bags of ice, too.”
By the time Brandon paid for the beer and ice and stashed it in the cooler in the back of his truck, he was in a cold sweat. Not that long ago, he could’ve downed this much beer on his own. How he longed for just one of them now. Maybe this wasn’t the brightest thing he’d ever done, but he’d just proven he could walk into a liquor store and buy something he had no intention of drinking. He made a mental note to discuss the transaction with Joe after the next meeting.
He returned to the apartment building and dragged the cooler into the backyard. His brothers and Tommy were due soon, so Brandon dismantled the old swing set and then decided to get started on the new one. By the time the others arrived, he was ready to shoot himself.
“Are you already making a mess of it?” Tommy asked. He was tall and blond with blue eyes and a big smile. Erin had set her heart on him the day she met him, and the poor guy never stood a chance against her.
“Shut up and help me, will you?”
Tommy laughed as he grabbed the instructions and turned the page around. “This end up. That’s your first problem, jackass.”
Brandon fell back onto the grass laughing. “I should’ve paid the five hundred frickin’ bucks to get them to do this for me.”
“Bad time to be cheap, Brand,” Declan agreed as he came into the yard with Colin trailing behind him. They surveyed the pile of parts, pieces, wood, bolts, and tools, and turned around to leave.
“Get back here,” Brandon bellowed. “No one is leaving until this
is done.” When his brothers reluctantly came back, Brandon added, “There’s beer, but only if you help.”
All eyes fell on Brandon.
“You bought beer?” Colin asked.
“It’s no big deal, so don’t make it into one. Let’s get busy. We don’t have much time.” Daphne had taken Mike to lunch and the park, but she couldn’t keep her away forever, and Brandon knew Mike would come looking for him the minute she got home.
They’d made only a small dent two hours later when Dennis strolled into the yard with Aidan, who was home for Easter.
“We heard you all were up to something over here,” Dennis said. “What the hell are you doing? I didn’t authorize a playground, Brand.”
“Relax. I paid for it.”
“Looks like you’re paying, all right,” Aidan remarked with a smile as he took in the chaotic scene.
“Either help or shut up,” Brandon said.
With a glance at Aidan, Dennis shrugged and rolled up his sleeves.
“Why don’t they have a class on how to do this in college?” Declan asked. “All future fathers should have to be trained in this.”
“I tried to tell him,” Tommy said.
“Do you girls always talk this much when you’re working?” Brandon asked. “It’s a wonder the company isn’t bankrupt.”
Aidan snickered, and Brandon caught his eye to share the joke. The resentment and anger were gone. What remained was maybe the start of something new.
Another hour and a half passed, and the playground was taking shape, thanks in large part to Aidan, who’d done the job many times before for clients in Vermont.
Mike ran into the yard and shrieked when she saw what they were doing.
“Oh!” Brandon scooped her up to turn her away from the action. “You’re not supposed to see it until it’s done.”
“Is it for me?” she asked with wide eyes as she bent her head around him so she could see it.
“Sure is. Do you like it?”
“It’s awesome.” She wrapped her little arms around his neck in a fierce hug. “Thank you.” She kissed his cheek and turned up her nose with distaste. “You’re all sweaty.”
He rubbed his sweaty face over hers, making her squeal with laughter.
When Brandon looked up, the others were watching him with interest. “This is Mike. You know my dad, that’s my brother, Aidan, my brother-in-law, Tommy—he’s Josh’s dad—and my other brothers, Declan and Colin.”
Declan whistled under his breath. “And who is that?”
“Oh, it’s the goddess,” Colin whispered.
Brandon turned in time to see Daphne come into the yard. He shifted Mike to his hip and held out a hand to her mother. “This is Daphne,” he said, repeating the introductions.
“This is your little surprise, Brandon?” Daphne surveyed the playground with a mixture of amazement and dismay on her face. “I can’t believe you did this.”
The others went back to work, leaving Brandon to fend for himself with Daphne.
“It is a little surprise,” Brandon insisted.
“It’s a big surprise,” Mike said.
“Thanks a lot, squirt,” Brandon grumbled as Mike scampered out of his arms to go supervise the workers. Brandon turned to Daphne, who had her hands on her hips and her mouth set in that thing she did when she was annoyed. He hadn’t seen that in a while. “She needed a place to play, and you told her she’d have to have a ‘tetchis’ shot to play on the other one, so…”
Daphne smiled.
“What?”
“You’re a good guy,” she said, going up on tiptoes to kiss him.
Tuning out the catcalls from his brothers, Brandon surprised her by hooking an arm around her waist and taking the kiss to the next level.
“Get a room!” Declan hollered.
Brandon didn’t let her go until he was good and ready to.
By the time she finally managed to break free of him, Daphne’s cheeks were rosy with embarrassment. She ran a self-conscious hand over her mouth. “Well, I’ll let you get back to work. Do you want me to take Mike?”
“Nah, she can stay.”
After Daphne went inside, Brandon turned to find the others staring at him.
“What?”
“I told you he was canoodling with her,” Dennis said to no one in particular.
“Let’s finish this damned thing,” Brandon said, annoyed with the lot of them.
“Ummm, you sweared, Brandon,” Mike said, scandalized.
He gritted his teeth and pretended not to hear the others laughing at him, as he realized it would’ve been a whole lot less painful to pay the extra five hundred bucks.
Chapter 23, Day 73
Most of the beer was gone and the playground almost finished by six when Dec said he had to leave for a date with Jessica. After he was gone, Colin whispered to Brandon, “I think tonight’s the night.” They were working together to install the second slide on the far end of the playground.
“Why do you say that?” Brandon asked.
“Just a hunch. He’s been acting weird all week.”
“It’s still hard to imagine him married.”
Colin grinned. “I know.”
“Hey, squirt, that’s high enough,” Brandon called to Mike, who was climbing up the side of the tree house. “You’re supposed to play in it, not on it.” While Mike climbed down with assistance from Aidan, Brandon turned back to Colin. “How about you? Any progress with your lady?”
Colin’s expression changed abruptly from amused to dejected. “No. I’m ashamed to say I went to an Al-Anon meeting last night hoping to see her—that’s where I met her, but don’t repeat that to anyone. Anyhow, she wasn’t there. No one seemed to know where she was.”
“Can you think of anywhere else you might run into her?”
“She said she walks on the beach at the Light, but I can’t very well camp out there and wait for her. That has ‘stalker’ written all over it.”
Brandon smiled. “True. Why don’t you just call her?”
“Because if there’s a next move, it has to be hers. She made it pretty clear she wasn’t interested.”
“I’m sorry, Col. That sucks.”
“It does. There was like a loud click with her, you know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I think I do.”
“Speaking of chicks and clicks, you’ve been keeping some secrets over here at Melrose Place. Looks like you and Daphne are pretty hot and heavy.”
“I’m in love with her.”
“Seriously? That was fast.”
Brandon shrugged. “It’s like you said, I heard the click.”
“She sure is easy on the eyes.”
“Keep your eyes and everything else off her,” Brandon said, but he was kidding and Colin knew it.
“What does she think of you?”
“She loves me, too,” he said with a touch of awe. “It’s amazing how much better it is when it works both ways.”
“Good for you, Brand. You deserve something like this after all you’ve been through. Does she know about…everything?”
“Most of it. I just hope…”
“What?”
Brandon looked over at Mike, who had cajoled Dennis into pushing her on one of the swings. “I love them both. I’m terrified I’m going to screw it up somehow.”
“Just keep thinking about what it would feel like to lose them, and you won’t.”
Brandon smiled when Mike’s giggles filled the air. “I can’t even think about losing them. That’s not an option.”
Long after everyone left, Brandon continued to push Mike on the swing. Except for a brief pause for dinner, they’d played on the new playground all evening.
“Time to go in, squirt,” he said when he noticed her finally starting to tire.
“Not yet. It’s still early.”
“It’s time.” He brought the swing to a stop and tossed her up over his shoulders.
“This was the best day ever,”
she said as he carried her inside.
“I’m glad you had fun. Did your mom tell you that you guys are coming with me to Josh’s house tomorrow?”
