False Perceptions

by Michelle Heard

  “Hayden,” I say.

  “Yeah, Em?”

  “I love it when we fight,” I tease.

  He starts to tickle me as he straddles my hips.

  “You don’t have a single romantic bone in your body,” he complains while he unmercifully reduces me to fits of laughter.

  I do love this man with every fiber of my soul, but I’m not going to say the words right after he told me he loves me. I would just be repeating his words instead of telling him my own.

  CHAPTER 58

  HAYDEN

  “You want to talk about what happened?” I ask as she settles into my side, resting her head on my chest.

  “George wasn’t my father,” she whispers. I’m not sure if she means that figuratively or literally. Before I can ask, she continues, “He was my uncle. His brother, Peter, was my father. My mom had an affair with Peter while George was away on a tour.”

  Oh wow, and the blows just keep coming. Will my woman ever catch a break from shit flying at her?

  “I killed George,” I say, getting right to the ugly. It couldn’t have been easy for Emilie to watch the man she thought was her father die.

  “If you didn’t, I would’ve,” she says, her voice dripping with hatred. “He paid them to take me. He ordered them to kill me. I feel nothing but disgust for that man. I am sad that I never knew Peter was my father. You would’ve loved Peter; he always had time for me. Do you think that maybe he knew I was his daughter?”

  “I don’t know, babe,” I answer. I press a kiss to her hair, inhaling her scent. “Totally off topic, why did you give the car back to fuckface?”

  She chuckles and looking up at me, she presses a kiss to my chin.

  “I don’t want anything that will remind me of him. I just want that part of my life to be over with.”

  “Yeah, but we could’ve used the car for target practice. I would’ve had so much fun with that.”

  “Yeah?” she asks as she turns onto her stomach, so she can look at me while we talk. “You want to teach me how to shoot a gun?”

  I nod. “Hell, yeah. But I’d probably end up fucking you between lessons. You with a gun. Damn, babe, now that’s a turn-on.”

  “You looked pretty hot yourself when you went all alpha male on George.” She pulls herself a little higher, pressing a kiss to my jaw. “And when you went all caveman on fuckface, I was done for. You could’ve taken me right there on the bike, and I wouldn’t have cared.”

  “Is that so? Public sex is something we’ll have to try then.”

  She lets out a sexy chuckle as she looks down at me.

  “You’re so handsome,” she breathes. “I love your beard. It’s not too long, just the right amount for me to drag my nails through.”

  “I need to trim it though. Evie will freak if I look like the wolfman at her wedding.” I place my arm behind my head just enjoying talking to Emilie. “That reminds me, I have to get back to LA. Are you coming with me?”

  “Back for the wedding, or back to stay?” she asks, dropping her eyes to my neck.

  I haven’t seen her be nervous around me for a while now. I kind of missed it.

  “That depends,” I say, teasing her.

  “On?” Her eyes meet mine again, and the hope shining from them is priceless.

  “Whether you want me to come back?”

  She bites her bottom lip for a moment before she pushes away from me, climbing off the bed.

  “I’ll have to think about that.” She shrugs playfully. “I don’t know if I can handle a dog, a crazy horse, and a badass Navy SEAL.”

  I shake my head slowly as I try to keep the smile from spreading across my face.

  “I mean, you all eat me out of the house,” she continues as she sways her sexy ass right out of the room.

  “Where are you going?” I call out.

  “Damn, Hayden,” she calls from the front. “You fucked the furniture all over the place.”

  I let out a bark of laughter as I get up. Walking up behind Emilie, I only laugh harder when I see the couch standing askew, the table is pushed halfway into the kitchen, and two chairs lie toppled over.

  “Not bad for our first fight,” she says.

  I watch as she starts to make coffee and lean against the wall.

  “You really have a thing for coffee, don’t you?”

  “You have no idea. Thinking about drinking coffee got me through the first days of captivity.”

  “You were there for seven days. What got you through the last days?”

  “Food,” she says, then rolls her eyes as she adds, “and coffee.”

  I let out a chuckle, glad she can talk about the trauma without having an episode. I’m sure there will be days where she will slip back, but I’ll be there to pull her out.

  She hands me a mug, and we stand drinking the warm liquid while talking about the most random stuff.

  “You never said whether you’re coming with me to Evie’s wedding,” I say as I place the empty mug in the sink.

  “You never asked,” she counters me, placing her mug beside mine.

  “Emilie,” I say, and I wait for her to look up before I ask, “Will you come with me to my daughter’s wedding?”

  “I’d love to, Hayden.”

  I smile as I lean down to capture her mouth.

  We drove back to Emilie’s early this morning seeing as we needed to make arrangements for Peanut and Jelly.

  I’m flying home this afternoon, but Emilie will only come through to LA two days before the wedding. I hate leaving her alone for four days.

  I walk into the hardware store hoping I can talk Gus into looking after Peanut and Jelly, then I can work on convincing Emilie to fly back with me. I want her to spend some time getting to know Evie before the wedding.

  “Hey, guys,” I say as I walk to the counter. “How’s business?”

  “Good since you’ve been fixin’ up that place,” Horace grumbles.

  I smile as Gus shakes his head, scowling at his friend.

  “How are things between you and Emilie?” Gus asks.

  “Great. I’d like to take her to LA for my daughter’s wedding, but I need to find someone to take care of Peanut and Jelly while we’re gone.”

  “Who’s Peanut?” Horace asks, not bothering to look up from the word puzzle he’s busy with.

  “Our dog,” I say as I glance down at the puzzle.

  “I can check in on them,” Gus says to my relief. “Don’t mind. Will give me time away from this old geezer.” He jabs a thumb in Horace’s direction.

  “That would be great, Gus. I’d really appreciate that. I can give you my set of keys so you can get into the house for their food,” I say while pulling the keys out from my pocket. “I’ll make it up to you with a BBQ once we’re back. It will be for two weeks at the most.”

  “No problem. I’ll take good care of the place and animals.”

  “You’re doing me a huge favor. Thanks, Gus.” I hand him the keys. “Have a good day,” I say as I head to the door.

  “Enjoy the wedding,” Gus calls out. Horace grumbles something I can’t hear, and I chuckle when Gus elbows him in the gut.

  Yeah, that’s going to be Max and me in thirty years.

  I head home after stocking up on food and Twizzlers for Peanut and Jelly. After carrying the groceries into the house, I go in search of Emilie. When I can’t find her inside, I walk out the back door and see her sitting down by the lake.

  When I reach her, I sit down, throwing my arm behind her on the bench.

  “It’s nice out here,” she whispers, probably not wanting to disturb the peace and quiet.

  “Yeah,” I agree.

  We sit in silence for a while before Emilie asks, “Do you want me to drive with you to the airport? I can drive the truck back then.”

  “No, thanks,” I say.

  “Oh, okay,” she breathes.

  “I’d rather we take a cab to the airport, and have you come with me,” I say, praying she’ll a
gree.

  “I need to make arrangements for Peanut and Jelly, and I can’t leave them alone for a week.”

  “Gus is going to take care of them. He’ll stop by every day. I got enough food to last them through a damn famine. We’re good to go. Come today, Em. I want you to spend some time getting to know Evie. It’s important to me.”

  She sits up and turns her body, so she’s facing me. A soft smile plays around her lips as she looks at me as if I’m her world. No one has ever looked at me that way.

  “I love you, Hayden Cole,” She says, and I can hear that she means every word.

  “So, you can be romantic,” I say, teasing her.

  “I can be very romantic when I want to,” she says, scrunching her nose at me.

  I tap the tip of her nose. “It’s cute when you do that.”

  Wagging her eyebrows, she says, “I know.”

  “Wiseass.”

  “You love my ass,” she chuckles.

  “I do,” I say, nodding. “I love your ass a hell of a lot.”

  “You want to go inside and fight with me?” she asks, a mischievous smile on her face.

  I glance at my watch and seeing that we have some time before we have to leave, I stand up. “Let’s go fight, babe.”

  As she stands up, I bend and throw her over my shoulder. Her hands instantly go to my ass.

  “I love the view,” she says, and as I slap her on the butt, she lets out a burst of laughter.

  CHAPTER 59

  EMILIE

  I start to worry my bottom lip as the plane touches down at LAX. I’m beyond nervous meeting Evie.

  What if she doesn’t like me? Crap, I don’t know what I’d do.

  Then there’s the worry about what happens after the wedding. Will I be returning home alone?

  Hayden leans over me and pulls my lip free from my teeth.

  “She’s going to love you,” he says, then kisses me quickly before we stand up.

  Hayden grabs his bag, swinging it over his shoulder, then takes hold of mine before I can reach for it. As we start to walk, I wring my hands nervously.

  Oh, God, please let Evie like me.

  Stepping through the doors, my eyes start to dart from face to face. A redhead jumps up and down before she breaks out into a run. Hayden drops the bags and moving forward, he catches his daughter, hugging her close to his chest.

  “I missed you,” he says to her, his voice filled with emotion. Watching them is amazing. It’s as if they’re in their own little bubble.

  “I missed you too, Daddy,” she says back as she presses her face into the crook of his neck.

  When Hayden sets Evie down, Rhett walks closer so they can shake hands. He’s the total opposite of Hayden. You can see Rhett is wealthy, not only from the designer clothes but also from the confidence a person gets from having money. He’s also quite attractive.

  As Hayden turns to me, my heart starts to beat wildly. I force a smile to my face when he takes my hand, pulling me closer.

  “Evie, I’d like you to meet someone,” he says, drawing me right to his side. “This is Emilie Swanson.”

  I reach a hand out to her, but she ignores it.

  Crap, that’s not good at all. I shouldn’t have come.

  I’m just about to hit full-blown panic mode when she steps forward and wraps her arms around me.

  “Hi, Emilie.”

  I let out a shaky breath as I return her hug. “Hi, Evie,” I say, feeling my heart swell because she’s welcoming me with open arms.

  I wait for her to break the hug, and as she pulls back, she laughs. “I’m so glad you’re here. Rhett’s been driving me crazy.”

  My eyes dart to Rhett, who smiles at her before he reaches his hand out to me.

  “It’s nice meeting you, Emilie,” he says.

  “Hi, Rhett.” I smile, feeling the nerves retreat as I shake his hand.

  The second Rhett let’s go of my hand, Hayden reaches for it. Evie’s eyes immediately fall on our linked hands, a huge smile on her face.

  Rhett grabs my bag as Hayden picks up his own, and as we walk out of the airport, Evie falls into step next to me.

  “I need to warn you,” she whispers. “Miss Sebastian is at Daddy’s place. Well, actually everyone is there. It’s a welcome home surprise party. But back to Miss Sebastian. She’s Rhett’s best friend and a bit unique. You’ll love her once you get to know her.”

  “Oh.” Yep, so much for not being nervous anymore.

  Hello, beehive in my stomach.

  Screw the beehive. It feels as if a nest of fire ants has taken up residence in my stomach.

  As we climb the stairs to Hayden’s apartment, he looks at me, a frown of worry settling on his brow. He can see I’m nervous, but not knowing about the surprise party has him probably thinking the worst.

  I squeeze his hand, smiling a little wider.

  Evie opens the apartment door and disappears inside with Rhett hot on her heels.

  “You okay?” Hayden asks before we get to the door.

  “Yes, just taking it all in,” I say.

  Before we reach the door, he stops, and leaning down he whispers in my ear. “Let them sweat it out a while.”

  “You knew all along?”

  “Of course,” he says just as a familiar looking face steps out into the hallway.

  “Seriously, Brother,” Max says, giving Hayden a glare. “Get your ass in there so I can have some alone time with Emilie.”

  I cover my mouth as shock vibrates through me. It only lasts a second before I rush forward and throw my arms around Max’s neck.

  “Oh, my God. I didn’t know you’d be here, Max.” Max’s arms wrap around me, and for a moment he lifts me off my feet.

  I feel Hayden’s hand on my back before he steps back, giving me some time with Max.

  All the matters is that I finally get to hold Max.

  “Thank you,” I breathe, wishing I had actual words that were worthy of describing how I feel.

  “You’re welcome,” he says, pulling back. He smiles down at me. “You look good, Emilie.”

  “You too, Max.” I swallow hard, knowing it needs to be said. “I’m sorry about, Dave, Mike, and Axel.”

  Max nods, hurt flickering in his eyes.

  “Thank you for helping Hayden,” he says, shooting a glance over my shoulder at where Hayden’s standing.

  I shake my head, not understanding.

  “We’ve been talking. Hayden told me what he said to you, about finding an angel in the middle of hell.”

  I nod, “Yeah, but he was talking about when you all rescued me,” I reply still not following what Max is trying to say.

  “No, Emilie. It was Hayden’s hell he was referring to.”

  “Oh.” I’m so surprised to hear this, but it warms my heart in unexpected ways.

  “Yeah, turns out you saved him right back.”

  I smile as I glance over my shoulder, reaching my hand out to Hayden.

  “Can’t tell the man shit and expect him to keep it a secret,” Hayden playfully grumbles.

  “Max,” a woman says from the door, and when my eyes fly to her face, I recognize Gabs from the photo Hayden showed me of her and Michael.

  Oh wow, I’m meeting everyone today. Max was already a huge surprise. I’m not sure I’m ready to meet Gabs yet.

  I don’t have a choice, because Max gives me a pat on the shoulder before he moves to Hayden’s side, punching him brotherly on the shoulder.

  “Hi,” I squeak, not sure how I should handle this situation.

  “Hi, Emilie,” she says, coming outside. “I thought I’d save you from Max. He’s all nice, and then the questions start, and next thing you know he’s interrogating you.”

  “Oh, okay,” I say, wondering if she’s serious.

  “I’m joking,” she laughs as she reaches for a hug.

  I hug her back as I chuckle with relief. “Thank, God. I wasn’t sure what to make of that.”

  “I hope you don�
�t mind, but Max told me about how the guys rescued you, and how much that meant to you.”

  Oh wow, I didn’t expect her to just launch into it.

  “Yeah?” I’m not sure what to say. How do you give your condolences to a woman who lost her husband?

  “I have something for you. I hope you don’t mind?”

  “Uhm… no.”

  “It’s inside,” she says with a smile.

  Here we go. I follow her inside, and quickly scan over the apartment which is filled with people.

  Gabs hands me a gift. An actual wrapped gift. Seeing the excitement on her face, I smile as I open it.

  “Gabs, I wanted to get this exact photo framed,” I say as I look down at the framed photo of my men. I read the writing under their picture, and I have to cover my mouth when I’m overwhelmed with emotion.

  “It’s their creed,” she says.

  I reread it, knowing that it must’ve meant a lot to my men.

  Every time you drop to your knees, it’s a chance to push yourself harder.

  Giving up means dying without honor, and honor is the foundation I stand on.

  You do whatever you have to do to keep going.

  You do not give up.

  The words resonate deep in my heart where the memory of these men will forever live.

  I reach for Gabs with one hand, drawing her into a hug.

  “Thank you so much,” I say, not only for the photo which will have an honored place in my home but for her sacrifice.

  When I let her go, she blinks away tears, and I can’t help but feel overcome with emotion.

  “Can I meet Michael,” I ask.

  “Yes, of course. He’s over there with Max.”

  I glance over my shoulder and smile when I see their beautiful little boy.

  Gabs walks with me, and seeing the beautiful boy in Max’s arms, I say, “He looks like Mike.”

  “Yes, I’m grateful that somehow Mike found a way to stay with me.”

  Crap, I’m going to be crying before this party is over. This is such an emotional day.

  “Here’s some wine,” a woman next to me says. “Looks like you can use a bottle, but my chunks of hunks will frown on us drinking straight from the bottle. You know, with it not being lady-like and all.”