Passion, Vows & Babies: Tough as Nails (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Amy Briggs

  “Flynn Healy. The contractor you hired. I have an appointment with Jacinda? Jacinda Brennan?” I replied, thinking it odd they weren’t expecting me. I glanced down at my watch; I was a few minutes early, but not by much. For me, on time meant late. And late meant rude. It was how I was raised, and how I operated.

  I heard some muffled noises, and scurrying behind the door, right before a small voice uttered, “Son of a bitch!” in what I think was to be a hushed tone, but definitely wasn’t. A chuckle escaped me and I took a small step back from the door, to see if I could see through the window panel at the side of the door.

  “Uh, I have an appointment, is this a bad time?” I called out to the door.

  “Um, no. Just a minute. Hang on. I’ll be right there,” she replied, with another string of muffled curse words. Just then, the door flung open, and there she was. My dream girl. Wearing a towel.

  My mouth fell open, and words failed me.

  “Yeah. It’s me. I need to get dressed, I had an accident in the bathroom,” she said, trying to play off the fact that she was dripping wet and wearing nothing but a towel, standing before me. “Oh fuck, not that kind of accident. I fell. It’s whatever. Anyway, just stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  Left without a chance to reply, I remained where I stood and watched her limp up the stairs, holding onto the handrail carefully as she moved.

  “Do you need help?” I managed to blurt out.

  “Uh, no thank you,” she replied from the top of the stairs, as if it was a crazy question. I mean, maybe it was. I was completely unsure of the protocol for such an occasion as meeting the nameless woman of your dreams in a towel, soaking wet, after you had amazing sex the night before, where she has subsequently somehow injured herself. I’m pretty sure that’s not in any handbook.

  I leaned toward the room to my left while staying in place, just to get a glimpse of the interior as I waited for Jacinda to come back. Jacinda. What a beautiful name. It was befitting of her. My mind brought me back to the night before - reminding my cock, of course - and as I stood there with a half hard-on, soon to be a full one forming, she hobbled back down the stairs.

  “Are you alright?” I asked earnestly.

  “Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” She seemed out of breath.

  “So… umm… Jacinda, is it?” I grinned. I couldn’t help it. I caught her and beat her at her own game.

  Pursing her lips into a sneer, she nodded. “Yes, Jacinda Brennan.”

  “You left in quite a hurry last night,” I stated, expecting a reply other than her agreeance.

  “Yes, yes I did.”

  Unsure of how to play my cards, I decided that I’d just make it about work, and try to win over her trust that way, before making my moves on the rest of her again.

  “Ok, well. You hired me; what can I do for you?”

  She looked surprised, as though she expected me to continue asking questions about the evening prior. “Ah, yes. I did.” She looked around. “I inherited this house. It is painfully clear that it needs some work, and there are several things that I simply cannot fix on my own. I’d like your help bringing it up to code, so that I can put it on the market by the end of the summer. Is that something you are able to do?”

  “Well, that seems feasible, but I’d need to take a look around and see what we’re getting ourselves into here. No one has lived in this house for quite a while. I’m sure you already know that, though.” I relaxed my stance, and began wandering in the direction of the living room area, which had magnificent pieces of hand carved furniture.

  “Sure, of course. Please.” She waved her hand in the direction I was already walking and watched as I took in the home, mentally noting obvious things that needed work, but also enjoying the moment. Being in her presence was both calming, and exciting, and I was going to take my time.

  “Do you want to take me upstairs?”

  “What? Why?” she asked defensively.

  “So that I can see what needs to be done?” I replied, chuckling slightly. Her mind was exactly where mine was, and I loved it. She could pretend all she wanted, but it was obvious; she wanted me back. My heart began pounding rapidly against my chest at the thought.

  “Oh! Yes, of course. Sorry.” She shrugged, and began to pull herself back up the stairs, although she looked like she was in quite a bit of pain.

  “Are you sure you’re ok?” I began to reach out to her, then pulled my hand back sharply. I didn’t want to move too quickly and scare her off, but I was growing concerned about her.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m ok. I slipped and fell in the bathroom, just a few minutes before you got here, so I’m still reeling from that a bit.” She gingerly rubbed her lower back, just above her ass. What I wouldn’t do to reach out and touch her again; it was all I could think about. She paused for a moment before I followed her to the top of the stairs. As she leaned against the wall in the hallway, she waved her hand to what was likely the bedroom and the master bath. “I’m just gonna wait right here; you go ahead and look around.”

  I was getting a little concerned for her; she seemed to be in quite a bit of pain. Probably the shock of falling had worn off, and her injury was setting in. It must have been a nasty fall. As I looked around, I noted that the drywall needed to be patched or replaced in several places. In fact, every room in the entire house needed to be patched, sanded, and painted, if she was hoping to get market value for the house. Additionally, the handrail needed to be fixed. When I saw her leaning on it, I had grown concerned that she’d break it right off, as tightly as she was holding onto it.

  Once I glanced into the bathroom and saw the remnants of what happened, I looked back at her from the doorway. “Did that shower head snap right off?” I asked, noticing it on the floor across the bathroom.

  “It sure did,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

  “Jesus Christ. You’re lucky it didn’t hit you.” If the pressure was enough to blow it clean off the pipe, it could have knocked her out. Hell, it could have killed her, really.

  “Well, it turns out that karma had other plans for me. Once I dodged that, the water shooting out; almost knocked me over. And, if that weren’t enough, what really almost killed me was that I was too lazy to walk across the room to get a towel. I thought that stretching to grab it while standing in a puddle on an old tile floor was wise, and I lost my balance.” She winced as she recalled what happened, while I stood in front of her, mouth wide open in shock.

  “Fuck, Jacinda. Let me see where you fell.” I approached her in two steps, and she pressed herself closer to the wall.

  “No, no, it’s fine. Really.” She lightly pushed me.

  “Let me see,” I demanded.

  As her shoulders dropped, she gave in, turning around for me to assess the injury. I tugged lightly at the top of her yoga pants to get a look, where a giant purple bruise was already forming. She hissed when I pushed lightly on her hip and lower back; clearly, she was in much more pain than she was letting on.

  “Ouch, that hurts, stop messing with me!” She finally smacked my hand away, which in all fairness, was getting close to that beautiful ass.

  “I’m taking you to see Doc.” I righted myself, and crossed my arms over my chest authoritatively.

  “You’re not taking me anywhere,” she replied petulantly.

  “Listen, you need an x-ray. You might have actually broken something. It’s already five shades of purple, and it just happened. It’s not a request.”

  “I don’t need to go to some doc,” she said dramatically.

  “Oh, but you do. Come on, I’ll carry you. You need to stop walking on it until you get it checked out.” I moved forward to pick her up.

  “Slow down there, cowboy. You’re not carrying me anywhere, like some kind of caveman. I can walk. I’ll go, but only because I’m actually in a ton of pain, and it’s getting worse. Not because you said so.” She wanted that made very clear with her finger pointed in my chest.

  “Listen, honey
. I’m gonna carry you down these stairs. If you want to walk to my truck, fine. But I’m taking you to Doc’s right now, and then I’ll bring you back so you can rest. We can talk about what needs to be done to this house and make a plan. Deal?” I was going to let her think she was calling the shots, but there was no way she was walking anywhere until Doc had a look at her. That bruise was nasty, and even for a young person, you can break a hip falling on a tile floor like that.

  She pursed her lips into the sideways smile I was starting to grow fond of, and nodded before huffing, “Fine.”

  I picked her up in one smooth movement, which was easy, considering how small she was, and she immediately leaned into my chest. Her hair was still damp from the shower incident, which is what we’ll be referring to this as from now on. I could smell her shampoo, and that honeysuckle I’d enjoyed so much before. Something about this girl was reeling me in, and it had nothing to do with how delicious she’d tasted; even though putting my lips on her had crossed my mind about a thousand times in the last half hour.

  Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, she didn’t fight me to get down to walk, so I carried her right out the front door to my truck. Carefully, I opened the door and placed her in the passenger seat, trying not to jostle her too much. “Are you ok?”

  “Yeah, I’m ok,” she said quietly, her eyes focused on her hands.

  I lifted her chin so her crystal blue eyes would meet mine. “It’s gonna be ok. I promise.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, looking defeated as tears brimmed, ready to fall.

  Chapter 9

  Jacinda

  I felt so fucking stupid. I hired this guy to come work on my house. After I fucked him, of course; even though I didn’t know it was the same guy. Now, he was taking me to some backwoods country doctor to get checked out because I busted my ass in the bathroom. What in the everloving hell did I do to deserve this moment of sheer embarrassment?

  Flynn was basically a stranger, and I let him carry me down the stairs, out to his truck, and I was letting him drive off with me in it. For all I knew, he was some psycho, taking me out to the woods. Ok, I sort of knew that wasn’t the case, but the whole thing was still nothing short of a shit show. As my hip, ass, and back continued to throb, every pebble we drove over causing me to wince, Flynn reached over from the driver’s seat and took my hand in his.

  “We’ll be there in a just a few minutes. I know it seems kind of bumpy; I’m sorry,” he said sweetly. I was in so much pain that I gladly took his hand, gripping it rather tightly.

  “No, no. You’re fine. I just cannot believe that I did this.” I leaned my head back against the headrest and sighed.

  “It was an accident. Shit happens, babe,” he said with a smile, as he squeezed my hand.

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  “Thank you for what? I did what any gentleman would do in my situation. I am taking a pretty girl to the doctor, so I get to carry her around and show her off like she’s mine. What more could a man ask for?” he teased me, soliciting a small smile.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you my name.” I did feel kind of bad for that, especially now that he was taking me to the doctor and all. I mean, shit, this is not a sexy moment at all, so the fantasy got blown right to hell once I realized it was him at the door.

  “We can talk about that another time. Look, we’re here.” He squeezed my hand again as we pulled into what looked like a veterinarian’s office, more than any doctor’s office I’d ever been to.

  Once we’d parked, Flynn ran over to my side of the truck, where I was already trying to get out.

  “What are you doing?” he asked, stopping me.

  “I’m getting out,” I replied, as if it were a dumb question; which, it was.

  “I’m carrying you,” he said.

  “Oh, the hell you are. You are not carrying me in public. I let you carry me back at the house as a matter of convenience and time. But there is no way you’re carrying me into that office.” I was putting my foot down on this one. That was way too embarrassing, and we weren’t a couple. I was not about to let him carry me into some rinky dink doctor’s office like a goddamn caveman that caught his woman. Oh, hell no.

  “Are we really going to have this argument?” he asked.

  “There’s no argument. Not happening, buddy. Now step back,” I demanded.

  “At least let me help you get down.” He stepped forward.

  “Eh! Back. It. Up.” I pointed a finger at him as I started to slide my way off the seat to the ground, which was significantly further away than I’d realized. My fucking pride, and my mouth, had gotten me in a jam once again, as my feet began to dangle and the concrete felt miles away.

  “May I help you now?” Flynn asked with a chuckle, his arms crossed, watching me struggle.

  “Ugh, yes. Please,” I replied begrudgingly. I had to give in. I needed help. I hated needing help more than anything in the world.

  As he approached, I took notice of the tattoos on his arms. They were all black and white, or shades of gray, and extremely detailed. I’d only seen a peek of them when we first met, and I had tried not to stare at them when he was working the bar the night before. They must have some kind of meaning to him, and in that moment, I was curious what it was. He put his arm around my waist and scooped me up as if I weighed nothing. I wasn’t a tiny girl, but in his arms, I felt miniature.

  “You know I’m going to carry you in now, right?” he laughed as we made our way to the door.

  “Ugh, yes. I know.” I buried my face in his chest in angst, then caught a whiff of his cologne. He smelled like spice and pine; a heavenly mixture that caused me to inhale deeply.

  We dramatically entered the building and were immediately greeted by an older woman, with gray hair in a conservative bun, who seemed to be expecting us.

  “Ah, is this our patient?” She smiled and waved us to the back immediately. Maybe this small town doctor stuff is the way to go. Back home in the city, even if I went to the ER, I’d be hustled to the waiting room for who knows how long, unless I was missing a limb.

  “Hi Doc, this is Jacinda Brennan. She had a nasty fall this morning, and I insisted that she come see you.”

  “Hi Jacinda, I’m Dr. Helsing, but you can call me Doc. Everyone does.” As she turned her attention back to Flynn, she instructed him to take me to Exam Room One. Luckily for me, there was no one else waiting around, so it looked like she’d see me right away. I don’t know what exactly I’d been expecting - perhaps an old hillbilly man - but she was a pleasant surprise, and I felt immediately at ease around her.

  “Thank you, Doc,” I called back to her as Flynn carried me to the exam room, then directed my attention to him. “You don’t have to stay. I’m sure you’ve got other clients and stuff to deal with today.”

  “You’re not getting rid of me that easily,” he replied with a sexy smirk, as he set me down on the exam table. Well, I guess he was more of a gentleman than I thought, all the way around. “I’m going to wait outside for you. I have a few phone calls to make.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered. Before he backed out of the room, he took a step toward me, closing the distance between us and planted a kiss on the top of my head.

  “I’ll be outside,” he repeated, as he walked away.

  I’ll be damned. Maybe he was a player, but fuck, if he wasn’t going the extra mile on this one. I was a mess. When the doctor came back, I explained everything that happened and after we both laughed about the shower incident, she laid me down to take an x-ray and do an exam. Most of the places where she applied pressure hurt like hell, but I didn’t feel like anything was out of place. In fact, all I wanted to do at that point was go back to bed. I think the stress of the whole morning had taken its toll.

  In the fastest doctor’s visit of all time, thanks to digital x-ray and a small town, I was cleared to leave on my own accord. It appeared that I had bruised, but not broken, the bone. Turns out that a little meat on my a
ss saved it, literally. She provided me with a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, as well as a pain pill that I could take for the next three days. After that, I should start feeling better. I’d need to get the prescriptions filled, which was going to be another chore, but she did give me a pain pill in the office to get me through the afternoon, which was to be spent resting.

  I hobbled my way back out to the lobby where Flynn was sitting, patiently waiting. “So, what’s the verdict? Are you going to live?” he teased as he stood up, ready to help me.

  “As it turns out, I am.” I smiled a slow, goofy smile. The pill was already beginning to do its job; I was feeling loopy.

  “You’ll need to get these prescriptions filled this afternoon if you can, and you can have the pain pills for three days. After that, you should feel well enough not to need them. No driving, though. These are no joke. Flynn, you’ll be watching over her, I assume? She really shouldn’t be left alone until at least tomorrow.”

  “You have my word. She’s stuck with me,” he said. His voice seemed kind of foggy to me, as if he were far away. I thought he said I was stuck with him. Is that what he said?

  “I don’t even know him,” I blurted out.

  “Oh boy, it seems that the pain killer is already doing its job. You better get her home, Flynn.” I’m pretty sure the doctor laughed. Something was funny. If she was laughing, I should be laughing too, right? I started to laugh. I wasn’t really sure why. But something was funny.

  “On it, Doc. Thanks again for taking us so quick,” he said, before scooping me up. I felt lighter than ever. I snuggled into his chest, inhaling that rugged scent that smelled like home in winter.

  “You smell so good,” I said. I said it out loud. I didn’t just think it. I couldn’t stop myself from saying things. Why couldn’t I control my mouth?