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

by Natalie Ann

  “You did say that. But it is her birthday and I just thought...”

  She couldn’t get mad at him over that. It was a nice thought. “She’s not here.”

  “I know. I figured you’d give it to her for me.”

  “Who am I supposed to say it’s from?” she asked.

  “Whoever you want. Just say it’s a friend of yours. She’s three, she won’t ask too many questions, will she?”

  “Probably not. She’ll be distracted by the gift. What did you get her?” she asked.

  “I wanted to do a doll, but then figured I had no idea what she had, what she liked, or if I was assuming something that I shouldn’t. Maybe she hates dolls but loves stuffed kangaroos. I had no clue. I was walking around the toy aisle and an employee took pity on me and said there are these magic markers that only show up on special paper so if she misses the paper they won’t stain anything. She told me she’d never met a kid that didn’t love to color. I took her word for it. I got her a bunch of those sets.”

  It was crazy to feel her heart soften at that, but she couldn’t stop the flutters. He didn’t just assume Angie would want a girly toy or dolls or anything typical for her daughter. Even Jack kept trying to force dolls and dresses on Angie, when she’d rather just run and play. She’d rather kick a ball, play fetch with Mutt, or go down a slide.

  “She’ll love it. When I want to settle her down for the night, I pull out paper and crayons. She has a special table to sit at only for that. I’ve seen those sets before but haven’t grabbed one yet. It was very thoughtful of you.” She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “I’m glad. If she doesn’t like it, just don’t tell me,” he said, laughing.

  “I know you probably don’t trust me right now, but I really wouldn’t lie to you.”

  The nod of his head was enough answer for her to know that she was right. Trust was an issue. But the truth was, she didn’t have much trust in men either, so she wasn’t going to fault him.

  By the end of the day, they’d driven all over town, him showing her some of the houses they were building. It wasn’t much of a romantic date, though it was nice to just spend time with him and not worry about the fact that something special had to be planned.

  They were back at his house with some take-out food for dinner and were sitting on his deck. “You’re quiet. How come? We don’t have to go upstairs, you know,” he said.

  “I know. I get it. Every time we’re together it doesn’t have to end up in sex. Though I’m sure you enjoy it just as much as I do. I just have a lot on my mind,” she said. “Though I guess the benefit of our situation is to end up in bed,” she said, laughing.

  He frowned at her. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

  “You don’t want to hear it.”

  “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t,” he said.

  She shrugged. “I just hope that Angie is brought back home tomorrow on time. That’s why Jack stopped me that day. His mother wanted a family party tomorrow rather than today. I’d already made arrangements for a kid’s party because today was Jack’s day.” She waved her hand. “You don’t want to be bothered with this.”

  “It’s just a conversation, Taylor.”

  It was the first time he’d said her name that she could remember. Those little warm fuzzies that she’d felt before around men she’d had a crush on were really working full force. She’d thought she was immune to them, but lately everything just seemed to be changing when she so desperately wanted stuff to remain the same.

  ***

  Reed was wondering what was wrong with him. Why he was pushing things with Taylor? Why he wanted to know more about her and her life when he was still annoyed that she’d hid her daughter from him.

  After their talk, he’d driven her back to work and drove away.

  He’d never been one to yell and scream. Not even to throw things.

  When he was mad, when he was hurt, even when he was confused he locked himself away internally.

  He didn’t want to talk to anyone. He just wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

  And if those thoughts turned dark like they had after everything he’d discovered with Whitney, then he turned to the bottle.

  But he’d stopped doing that. He’d stopped trying to lock it all up. Or he was trying to at least.

  He’d gone home the other night and he’d had a few beers. Not enough to get drunk like in the past, but enough to give him a wake-up call.

  He only really drank when he was confused and hurt. What he had with Taylor was supposed to be fun and light. No reason to get hurt. No reason to get angry.

  The more he analyzed it in his head, the more he realized that he never really wanted to just be friends with her. That it was only his excuse to get closer. To hope for more after the friendship. More than sex. More than friends. Maybe lovers. Maybe something...more, period.

  He knew her trust and opinion in men in general, including him, was so low it’d be like finding room under a worm’s belly, and that caused him to reach for the bottle again.

  He didn’t know how to approach this and was terrified of getting hurt again.

  He figured that maybe he’d try to appeal to her motherly love and bring a gift for Angie. There was no doubt he wasn’t going to be meeting her daughter any time soon, but it didn’t hurt to start bringing her into the conversations.

  “Yeah, but it’s a conversation that is turning more personal than we’ve gotten before,” she said.

  “That’s because we don’t spend a lot of time together and when we do, we’re getting naked. Not that I mind that. Maybe now that I know about Angie we can talk at night and not text?” he asked. “You know how many mistakes I make typing. These big fingers of mine and keyboards don’t always play nice.” He supposed she texted over talking so he wouldn’t hear her daughter in the background.

  She laughed at him. “Your fingers play nice more times than you realize. But sure. When Angie is in bed, we can talk now and again. Friends do talk on the phone.”

  Friends again. He was trying to figure out how to get away from that. And wondered if it was even possible.

  Special Treatment

  By the end of August, Taylor and Reed had gotten closer than he ever thought was possible.

  He still hadn’t met Angie yet, but he’d been hearing all about her. There was some lingering hope that he’d get his chance soon to meet her.

  Taylor and he continued to have a standing night together every other Saturday. It was normally at his house since she was reluctant to let him stay at hers. He wasn’t sure the reason and had been afraid to ask.

  He was pulling into the parking lot at Chapman Construction and noticed a new Mercedes in front of the building. Nothing new there, except for the man that stepped out of the driver’s door. Jack Jamison.

  “Something I can help you with?” he asked when he got to the front door, holding it open for the man that he’d love to kick off his property on principle alone.

  “Tay’s boss,” Jack said, looking him up and down. “I just need to speak with Tay. Don’t worry, it won’t be long.”

  Reed snorted over the shortened name that Taylor had told him she’d always detested and wanted to be an ass and tell him no, but knew he couldn’t do that. He had no cause and it was Angie’s father. It might be important, though he had a feeling it wasn’t.

  “Why don’t you wait here and I’ll go get Taylor for you?” Jack looked like he wanted to argue, but Reed added, “She’s pretty private about her life.”

  “Yet you’re aware of who I am,” Jack said, smirking.

  “I was in the parking lot when you gave your reason for having your hand on her arm,” Reed said, squaring his shoulders and narrowing his eyes.

  “Whatever you want to do,” Jack said, shaking his head. Reed knew when he was being humored, but this was his property and some slick-talking lawyer wasn’t going to come in here and push him around.

  “Yep, it’s what I
want. You can have a seat over there and cool your jets.”

  Reed walked away and took his damn time. He walked upstairs first, popped his head into his father’s office to drop something off, then sent a text to Taylor to meet him in the small conference room upstairs and take the back steps.

  It wasn’t long before she walked in. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Man, you look sexy right now,” he said quietly.

  She narrowed her eyes. “You better not have called me up here for that.”

  “Relax.” He moved to shut the door. “I met Jack in the parking lot. He’s down in the waiting room. He’s looking for you and I took a gamble that no one in the building knows you have a child, so I told him I’d get you rather than someone showing him to your office where a conversation could be overheard.”

  Her shoulders dropped. “Yeah. Thanks. I’ll go down and we’ll talk outside.”

  “Or I can bring him up and then stay in the room for moral support and usher him back out.”

  He held his breath while he waited for her answer. “I don’t know. It might set him off to have you in here.”

  “And your point would be?” he asked.

  “True. Oh what the hell. He shouldn’t always get his way. Bring him up. I can only imagine what his problem is this time. He didn’t even bother to call me.”

  “Just wait here,” Reed said, then went downstairs. Jack was sitting there thumbing through his phone, his leather loafer on the knee of his designer jeans. He was the image of a trust fund baby for sure. If Reed wasn’t mistaken there was a Rolex at his wrist. “She’s in the conference room. I’ll just bring you up.”

  “So she needs a guard,” Jack said. “Is this special treatment for your employees or is it something more?”

  “Don’t push your luck. I could easily throw your ass out and make you wait until after hours to deal with this.”

  Jack just laughed and Reed decided to let it go. For Taylor’s sake, he’d try to keep the peace.

  “What’s going on, Jack, that you had to show up at my job and couldn’t call me? It’s not like you even tried.”

  Jack waited and turned to address him, “Tay and I can take it from here. We’d like some privacy.”

  Reed looked at Taylor and got her nod, then left the room, pulling the door closed, but not clicking it shut. He wanted to hear what was going on.

  “Well, Jack. Why are you here now?”

  “I want Angela for a week. I want to take her on vacation.”

  “No,” she said. “That isn’t part of the custody agreement. You can go back to court if you want that.”

  “I can. And if I do that, I might just ask for joint custody while I’m at it.”

  Reed wanted to rush in the door as he imagined Taylor’s face just paled at that comment. “You wouldn’t,” Taylor said. “You don’t even spend half the time with her as it is.”

  “It’s none of your concern what Angela and I do when we have our time together.”

  “The hell it isn’t,” she argued.

  “One week, Tay. That’s all I’m asking. If you must know, my parents will be there.”

  “I figured as much. You wouldn’t know what to do with her for more than five hours if she was awake,” Taylor said sarcastically.

  “We’ve been over this before,” Jack said, his voice firm. “I didn’t want this. It was forced on me and you know it. I still think you did it on purpose regardless of what you say.” Reed fought his face from paling. He didn’t want to believe that Taylor had gotten pregnant on purpose, but she’d said a few times now that Jack’s parents called her a gold digger.

  Didn’t she say she didn’t have the best of lives? That money was tight?

  Was she really trying to better herself this way? Sometimes it was so hard when doubts crept in.

  “Believe whatever the hell you want,” she said, her voice terse. “Where did you plan on going?”

  “Not far. Just the Hamptons. My parents rented a house there. A few hours drive. If Angela wants to come home, you can come get her.”

  She snorted. “When?”

  Reed was shocked she was even considering this, but then wondered if there was the worry that Jack might go for joint custody if he decided to follow through with the threat. “Labor Day week.”

  “That’s next week,” she said, her voice rising.

  “Yes. Saturday is my day. We’re leaving then. I want to take her with me.”

  “I need to prepare for something like this. I need to prepare her. The most you’ve had her is two nights. Hell, Jack, I had to come get her early because you let her eat three boxes of candy and a full bag of popcorn and she threw up on your white sofa. What are you going to do with her for a week?”

  Reed rolled his eyes. He’d never been around kids much, but even he wouldn’t have done something that stupid.

  “That’s not your concern.”

  “I need to think on this,” Taylor said.

  “There’s nothing to think about. I’m her father. I’m not taking her out of state,” he threw out there and Reed realized that Jack wasn’t stupid at all.

  “Let me talk to Angie tonight.”

  “You’re going to leave this up to a three-year-old to decide? You’re still throwing it in my face about the food she ate that night because I let her pick it out, yet she can decide about a vacation?” Jack said sarcastically.

  “She isn’t making the decision, but I need to feel her out. I want to talk to your mother too to get more facts. I’m sure you can’t answer any questions I’ve got.”

  “Probably not,” Jack said. “I’ll tell my mother you’ll be calling her tonight.”

  Reed moved to the end of the hall, so it wasn’t like he was standing with his ear to the door. He could tell by Jack’s tone he was done talking and was right when the door opened a minute later.

  “I’ll walk you out,” Reed said to Taylor’s ex.

  “Whatever floats your boat,” Jack said, strutting forward. When they got to the parking lot, Jack said, “I’m not stupid. She’s a hot piece of ass. I tapped the shit out of it myself, but from one dude to the next, protect yourself. She got herself one hell of a meal ticket out of me for eighteen years and I wouldn’t put it past her to try to get another one.”

  Reed took a step forward. “Get the hell off my property before I wipe the pavement with your skinny ass.”

  Jack laughed. “You’re smart enough to not put your hands on me. I was wondering about what might be going on with you and Tay and now I know.”

  “I’m not doing it for any reason other than I don’t want to make things worse for Taylor.”

  “Watch your wallet around her,” Jack said again, smiling. “Just some friendly advice.”

  Start a Relationship

  Taylor was walking down the stairs in the front of the building when Reed walked back in the front door. “Can we talk?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Where do you want to go?”

  “Outside,” she said. “I need some air. You heard everything, didn’t you?”

  “I did. I wasn’t going to leave you alone.”

  She wanted to say that was sweet but held her tongue. “He wouldn’t have done anything.”

  “He had his hand on your arm a few months ago.”

  “He did. He’s not a violent person. Not physically.” Jack was a lot of things, but he’d never pushed her around. She’d rip him to shreds before he’d ever lay a hand on her.

  “Just verbally?” he asked.

  “Yeah. He never used to be that way either. He was actually fun to be around. We had a blast. I saw myself falling in love with him,” she said, surprised she was voicing those words.

  Reed stopped and then pulled her over to a picnic table in the shade that staff sat at on break. It was empty, thankfully. She couldn’t get a read on him right now and wasn’t sure if she should continue talking. Lately it seemed like Reed wanted to know so much more about her.

  They wer
e less like friends and lovers and more like two people trying to start a relationship, but neither of them was sure of it. Or more like she wasn’t sure but he was throwing out all the signs. It was time to explain things more.

  “What happened?” he asked after a minute of silence.

  “I found out I was pregnant.”

  “And he didn’t believe it was his, you’d said.”

  “Nope. We met in a club. We did a lot of partying, but we did spend time talking. He knew about my family. I knew a little about his. I didn’t realize the extent of his wealth until I went for child support. I was shocked at what I’d be getting.”

  She knew she was entitled to a percentage of his income, which was much higher than she thought because she had no clue of his trust fund that he drew off of each month. She’d gotten a better lawyer than she realized.

  Or maybe it was the woman she’d hired was pretty sour on men too and was out for blood with Jack. Either way, it probably made matters worse for the situation.

  “So he wasn’t happy with that?”

  “Nope. I told you his family thinks I’m a gold digger. You heard him—he thinks I got pregnant on purpose so I could get a free ticket. There is no free ticket when you’re a single parent. I’ve got a good job and I get a nice amount of money in child support, but I’m not rich. It’s not like my child support is equal to having a second income from having a spouse or significant other with a good job. He doesn’t see that.”

  “He wouldn’t,” Reed said.

  “He sees that I took something from him and that I was out to get him. What he doesn’t see is that being a parent is hard work. He has no clue because his mother does most of the work when they’ve got Angie.”

  She wanted Reed to understand that it wasn’t anything like Jack just said.

  “I wouldn’t know. I don’t know much about kids and haven’t met Angie.”

  “And you want to,” she said.

  “I’d like to,” he said.

  “What’s going on with us right now?” she asked. “I’ve got to know. I just don’t have it in me for games in my life.”