After Hurricane Nina, Reed's Resolution (Hot Hunks-Steamy Romance Collection Book 1)

by Natalie Ann

  “You’re smiling into your phone. Only a man puts a look on a woman’s face quite like that,” Wendy had said, and of course Wendy was right. She and Reed had been texting back and forth. Not just little sexy texts anymore, but more personal things. Asking how Mutt was doing since the dog got into something in the yard and had been sicker than, well... a dog...for two days.

  “Maybe,” Taylor said and left it at that. She wasn’t one to talk about her personal life and had no intention of starting right now.

  Today she’d actually gone to lunch with Reed. Meeting him somewhere as opposed to being seen coming and going together, which would cause speculation.

  Instead she’d left the building and got to the restaurant the same time he did. She was shocked no one had caught the two of them together yet, but so far they’d been pretty lucky.

  When lunch was done, they both climbed into their cars, him following her to the office. She guessed having them pull in around the same time wouldn’t cause anyone to think twice about it.

  But the luck she’d been experiencing for the past two months had finally run out.

  “Tay,” Jack said, walking toward her. “Why aren’t you answering my calls?”

  She rolled her eyes at the name. “I was out to lunch and busy,” she said back, looking over her shoulder to see if Reed had pulled into the parking lot yet. He’d gotten caught at a red light on the way back.

  “That’s no excuse,” he all but snarled at her. He was dressed in a suit, leading her to believe he’d just come from court. He didn’t often go to court and had told her that. He was a corporate lawyer and would rather sit behind the desk and make his own hours instead of being told what and where to be by “a person in a black robe.”

  “I’m not answerable to you. And how many times have you not responded to my calls for days?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. Maybe she could tick him off enough to stalk away.

  “Is that what you wear to work?” he asked, his eyes traveling the length of her. She had on a cotton shirt and jeans. Years ago he’d made it clear he wasn’t happy if she wasn’t in a clingy dress.

  “Is that why you’re here? To critique my wardrobe? Didn’t you do that enough when we were dating?”

  He snorted at her. “Like you ever listened to me.”

  “Nope,” she said, walking away from him. “I need to get back to work. I’ll call you tonight.”

  He grabbed her arm to keep her from walking away from him. So much for hoping she could escape before Reed pulled in. “No. A few minutes won’t make a difference to your employers, I’m sure.”

  “What is it you want?” she asked. “And take your hand off of me.”

  “Is there a problem here?” Reed asked as Jack’s hand fell away. Yep, just what she needed. There was no way to get out of this situation.

  She turned and looked at Reed standing there. Over six feet of deliciousness with a rock hard body and a cool stance. His eyes were dark and drilling into hers. She hadn’t seen a look like this from him before.

  Jack was in his three-piece charcoal suit, blue shirt, and blue and green tie. Reed and Jack might be the same height and both were gorgeous in their own right, but Jack repulsed her now. He wasn’t a man and he’d never be one.

  He was just a spoiled prick that she was stupid enough to get messed up with.

  “This isn’t your concern,” Jack said, dismissing Reed.

  That didn’t go over well and she didn’t expect it to. “It is my concern when you’ve got your hands on one of my employees on my property,” Reed said. At least he didn’t call her his woman. That was something.

  Jack hesitated a second. “This won’t take a second. Just a little family issue with our daughter. Tay will be back to her desk in a few minutes.”

  Any color that was in her face from anger was completely wiped away when Jack made that statement.

  “Daughter?” Reed asked, looking at her. There was hurt in his eyes—she could see it, only because she knew him so well. “Well then, I’ll let you deal with your family issues. If you’re not in your office in five minutes, I’ll be back to check if everything is okay.”

  She nodded, thankful he didn’t force the issue in front of Jack but knew he would the minute Jack left.

  “What is it that you want now that you’ve shown up here to embarrass me?”

  “I want Angela for her birthday next weekend. All weekend. Friday through Sunday for dinner.”

  “No,” Taylor said. “You can have her Saturday night because it’s your night, but she’s with me Sunday at noon.”

  “My parents want to have a party for her with some of our family.”

  “What family?” she asked. She’d never been introduced to any of the family.

  “It doesn’t matter to you. But my mother wanted to do it on Sunday, as Saturday doesn’t work for her. And since you’ve had her for the past two birthdays, I think it’s only fair I get her for this one.”

  She ground her teeth. “First off. You’re her father and you don’t want her; your parents do. That’s just sad.”

  “It’s the same thing,” he argued.

  “Bullshit,” she said. “Second of all. You are getting to spend time with her on Sunday morning. She has to be back by noon and she has a party scheduled at two with her friends.”

  “What friends?” he asked. “And where?”

  “Friends from daycare. And where the party is is no concern of yours. If your mother wants to have her meet the family, she can do it on Saturday. I’m not canceling the party or rescheduling it and if you think not returning her on time is a game you want to play, I’ll show up with the police to get her.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” he said.

  “Don’t push me. You’ve gotten your way because I don’t have the money to fight you. But I’ve got a lawyer here and I know my rights and as much as you hate judges, you don’t want to cross one here. I’ve heard you don’t have the best reputation with them.”

  He growled at her. “Fine. You win this one, but don’t expect to always get your way.”

  “I’m only winning it because you didn’t want to anyway.”

  “What does that mean?” he asked, turning around. He’d been a few feet away when she said that.

  “It means you don’t want to spend time with her. You don’t want to be saddled with her at all. It’s your loss, but don’t mess her up because of it. Maybe if your parents didn’t look down on me so much and had given any amount of warning or courtesy, we could have worked something out.”

  He didn’t bother to answer but just walked away.

  Then she turned and saw Reed standing in the doorway of the entrance. Guess her five minutes were up.

  Warning Signs

  He should have known.

  He shouldn’t have let himself start to feel something for a woman again.

  Especially one where all the warning signs of secrets were there. He’d thought it’d been a game she was playing. It was sexy and carefree. He was a fool again.

  She had a child. Why wouldn’t she have told him that? And why was it that big of a deal?

  “Do you have time to talk?” she asked him.

  “I’ll make the time. You’ve got some explaining to do.”

  “Actually, I don’t.” His shoulders tensed, but before he could say anything, she said, “We aren’t in a relationship. We’re friends. I don’t owe you any explanation as to what I do in my free time.”

  And this explained why she had so little free time. “I thought friends confided in each other.”

  Her shoulders slumped. “I’d rather not have this conversation where anyone can hear us and I’m already late from lunch.”

  “Call Jamie and tell her you were held up. She won’t ask why and you and I are going for a ride. I’d rather not have this conversation around others either.”

  She did what he said. “Where are we going?” she asked when he turned to walk to his truck.

  “Where
ver my truck takes me.” A few minutes of silence was all he could take and finally asked, “What’s your daughter’s name?”

  “Angie. Angela, but I call her Angie.”

  He wanted to stew right now, which was what he always did when he was pissed. And he was pissed off. Pretty much livid that another woman had lied to him. But she was right: she really didn’t owe him much of an explanation. They weren’t there yet and honestly he wasn’t sure they ever would be now.

  That might be what really ticked him off. He was finding himself getting lost in another woman who wasn’t feeling the same thing. Who couldn’t even be upfront with him when he’d thought she was the most upfront woman he’d ever known.

  If he pushed her too much now like he wanted, he’d lose her. It was best to step back and not let his true feelings be known. Not give her the satisfaction that he was bothered by what he’d discovered. Whitney used to lord it over his head if she found out he was annoyed over things she was doing, so he learned to keep those opinions and thoughts to himself.

  “How old is she?”

  “Three this weekend.”

  The questions were just piling in his head right now. She’d just moved here, how was this all possible? “How did you meet her father? Were you here on vacation or something?”

  She snorted. “Hardly. He was in Miami for work. We met in a club. We were dating. I thought it was the start of a good relationship. He was there over a month and I was planning on how to make it long distance.”

  “So what happened?” he asked, trying to ignore the fact that jealousy was a nasty green beast making an appearance right now.

  “I got pregnant and he got scared. He ran. He said it wasn’t his. I can’t tell you the amount of money I shelled out to prove otherwise. Then I fought him for support. He’s a hands off guy. I figured he was out of my life, but he was going to provide for his child.”

  “He hurt you?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” she said, looking out the window.

  “So how did you end up here?” He pulled into an empty parking lot, done driving for now and wanting to see her face as they talked. See what she was feeling right now. Her voice sounded empty and he could understand that, but he was assuming for different reasons.

  “His parents found out. I guess he’d been able to keep it a secret, but he likes to spend money. He needed to dip into his trust fund or someone told his parents. I’m not sure. Either way, once they got involved, they brought in a big lawyer and said if he’s paying he had the right to see his daughter every other weekend.”

  “Then he could fly down there if he has so much money,” Reed argued.

  “I said that, but I didn’t have the money to fight them. I moved here because I felt like I didn’t have a choice. His parents don’t care for me. Gold digger has been thrown my way several times, but they love Angie and that is all that matters.”

  “So they’re the ones that really wanted the visitations, not her father?”

  “Nope. Jack is hands off, like I said. He’s a corporate lawyer. I’m not even sure what his parents do. His mother never worked. His father is retired, but they’ve got a ton of money.”

  “What are their names?” He figured he might recognize it, but he didn’t know who Jack was by sight.

  “Jamison. Karen and Mitch Jamison and Jack is their only son. Angie has my last name, by the way.”

  “Bet that made it hard for the paternity.”

  “Not really. Blood tests don’t lie.”

  “So now what?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What about us?” He wasn’t sure why he was asking. As frustrated as he was over all of this, he wasn’t ready to end things either.

  “I haven’t lied to you, Reed.”

  “That’s debatable,” he said, feeling his blood firing again.

  “You never asked if I had a child.”

  “There have been plenty of opportunities that you could have said something,” he pointed out. The signs had all been there, making him look like an idiot.

  “There have been, but it really doesn’t affect our arrangement.”

  “So that’s the term now? Arrangement?”

  “It sounds better than fuck buddies, which is more of what you really wanted. You put a pretty name on it calling us friends, but the truth is, that is what you wanted without the risk of someone latching onto you. So now I’ve got to wonder why you seem all hell bent about finding this out. Or I should say why you’re annoyed over it.”

  Beat the hell out of him. “Maybe I put that name on it because you were so adamant that you were against relationships.”

  “Angie comes first. Always. She has to. This doesn’t change the amount of time I can get away.”

  He figured as much. Then found himself asking, “What about me spending time with you and her?”

  “I don’t think that’s wise.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I’m not introducing someone into Angie’s life that can walk out tomorrow. I’m just not doing it.”

  He couldn’t argue with that and realized, as much as he wanted to, now wasn’t the time. Instead he put his truck in drive and brought her back to work.

  ***

  There wasn’t anything else Taylor could say right now.

  She didn’t even know why Reed brought up the topic of wanting to see Angie. She’d all but given him an out and was wondering why he looked so miserable over it.

  Didn’t every guy want the kind of arrangement the two of them had?

  Even if he was looking for something more—and she highly doubted it—she didn’t have it in her. Not right now. Not when she was finally getting settled, and then Jack had to come in and just mess with her head even more.

  If for some ungodly reason Reed was changing the rules on her, he was going to be flying solo, because today she could barely focus on her job let alone him.

  Then why was she feeling so miserable that Reed might end things?

  Nothing to Hide

  Despite her better judgment, she decided to keep her plans with Reed for Saturday. It would help keep her mind off the fact that Jack might just mess up Angie’s birthday plans.

  She’d thrown out the part about getting the police if Angie wasn’t returned on time, but it was an empty threat. She had no way of knowing if the police would help her or not. Jack did seem to back down and she wondered if he just didn’t want the headache, or he truly could care less.

  She was guessing it was the latter and that Jack couldn’t be bothered with his daughter’s third birthday.

  It was probably stupid to let Reed pick her up at her house, but at this point she had nothing to hide. It’s not like she was going to let him spend the night because that was out of the question. For all she knew, Jack was having her house monitored.

  She wouldn’t put it past him, but the sad truth was, he didn’t care enough to do that. Now his parents, on the other hand, they’d love nothing more than to show her as an unfit mother.

  Karen and she didn’t get along and they never would. They thought she was out for the family money by trying to trap their only child. Karen soon learned there was no lost love between her and Jack and all Taylor wanted was her daughter to be supported.

  The Jamisons and she had a cordial, at best, relationship. They picked up or dropped Angie off more times than not, lifted their noses at her home, but never said a word. If they didn’t treat Angie like gold and if Angie didn’t love spending time with her grandparents, then she’d bar them from the property.

  Everything she did, she did for Angie, so if that meant turning a blind eye to Jack’s parents, then that was what she’d do.

  She looked around her humble rental home one more time. It wasn’t anything special, but it was nicer than what she’d grown up in.

  All of Angie’s toys were picked up and put in bins. The same with Mutt’s toys who was sitting in the corner. She hoped he behaved. He never liked visitors at all and she r
eally had been nervous bringing him on her date with Reed to the lake, but the ugly dog took to the hot man.

  She hoped the same held true when Reed came to the door rather than her having to put him in the back room because he barked and growled at everyone. He was a good guard dog, but Jack and his parents didn’t appreciate it one bit.

  The doorbell rang and of course Mutt ran there snapping and growling. She grabbed him by the collar and held him back saying, “It’s Reed. You like Reed.” She wasn’t sure if that was helping or not, said a silent prayer, and opened the door prepared to have her arm yanked.

  “Hey, what’s all the fuss?” Reed asked, squatting down to pet Mutt. The dog actually stopped almost immediately, then rolled over to get his belly rubbed.

  “That’s amazing,” she said. “He never calms down when the doorbell goes off. I normally have to put him in another room when I’ve got visitors.”

  He frowned. “How often do you have visitors?”

  “Jack or his parents,” she said.

  He nodded and didn’t say more. Things were still a little tense for her, but she guessed they weren’t for him. After they’d talked in his truck, she’d gone back to her desk and finished up her work. They hadn’t seen each other again, but he did text her that night.

  She’d thought he’d be mad over discovering Angie, but he actually seemed more curious. She was glad she was keeping her feelings close to her chest because obviously he wasn’t anymore vested than wanting a bedmate, so those thoughts of falling for him had to be locked back up.

  She knew he was testing the waters and she was fine with that. They probably took several steps back, and she reminded herself that they hadn’t taken all that many steps forward.

  “What’s that?” she asked when she noticed a yellow gift bag in his hand.

  “A present for Angie.”

  “I thought we talked about this. That I didn’t think it was a good idea for you two to meet.”