“I’m sorry. Can I?” she asked, her voice softened with awe.
“Of course,” Brooklyn said.
Indina gently picked up the drawing, handling it as if it was one of the Fabergé eggs that were sometimes on display at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Reid watched her eyes roam the drawing as she studied it with the same wonder he had the first time he laid eyes on it.
“I can’t…I can’t believe this.” Indina’s voice caught, and Reid had to clear the emotion from his own throat.
“Remarkable, isn’t it?” he asked.
“It looks just like her.” Indina looked to Brooklyn. “You drew this?”
Brooklyn nodded and shrugged. “It’s a hobby of mine.”
“A hobby? Girl, why aren’t you doing this for a living? This is amazing!”
“Yeah, we’ve had this conversation before,” Reid said.
“Okay, it’s more than a hobby,” Brooklyn said, her blush intensifying.
“I just…I’m speechless,” Indina said.
“Speechless? Somebody mark the date.” They all looked over to find Ezra, his dad, and Dad’s navy buddies striding toward them.
Indina held up Brooklyn’s illustration. “Would you look at what Reid’s girlfriend drew. Tell me this isn’t the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen in your life.”
Reid stood back and watched as the others all gathered around the table, marveling at Brooklyn’s work. She became more animated with each new drawing she revealed, describing the plan they’d come up with for the keepsake comic book program.
She captivated him. Thoroughly.
Reid was blown away by the ease with which she’d fit in so easily with his family. Chatting with Willow as if they’d been friends for ages, talking comics with Athens, even indulging his dad’s obsession with some random show on the History Channel that she’d caught once. She’d charmed the collective pants right off the Holmeses. And that had been before they’d seen the drawings.
The introduction of Dynamo Diane had solidified her place in their hearts. Reid was sure if they had to choose between the two of them, his entire family would pick Brooklyn over him.
Now that Indina was over her initial shock, she’d taken off like a rocket in her party planning, using her phone to look up local screen printing shops that could make Dynamo Diane T-shirts, caps, and buttons. Griffin convinced her to take a break only when Harrison announced that the barbecue was finally ready.
Over the meal, Indina rattled off some of the ideas she’d come up with based on what Reid had brought back from last weekend’s Comic Con, but an alert on Mackenna’s phone soon turned the talk to local politics. Two of her fellow colleagues on the New Orleans City Council had been indicted for taking bribes in what had turned into the biggest political scandal that had hit the city in years.
Funny thing is, that’s exactly what Ezra had accused Mackenna of doing for months. Reid couldn’t imagine Mack being anything but the honest, stand-up person she’d been for the twenty years since she’d come into their family as Indina’s close friend and college roommate, but for some reason Ezra had gotten it in his head that she’d gone rogue. As an investigative reporter, he had made it his mission to expose her.
The only thing his brother had exposed was his ability to get knocked on his ass by love.
“I can’t believe Washington and Babin thought they could get away with this,” his dad said.
“They’re cocky. Always have been. And they think they’re untouchable,” Mack said.
“I hope they both find themselves under the jail,” Indina said. “It’ll serve them right for making your life hell while on the council.”
“She doesn’t have to worry about being on the council anymore, because she’s about to become this city’s mayor,” Ezra said, harkening a cheer from the entire table. “That’s why you get the big piece of chicken,” his brother said, plopping a grill-marked chicken breast on Mack’s plate.
Once they’d all eaten more barbecue than the law should allow, his brothers decided to put the speedboat to the test. Reid took a pass, choosing instead to steal Brooklyn away. It had been too many hours since they’d been alone. He guided her toward the concrete embankment that ran along the shoreline of the lake. When he sensed her attempting to let go of his hand, Reid tightened his hold. He didn’t want to let go of her. He needed this connection.
“So, can you ever forgive me for bringing you around my crazy family?” he asked as they made their way toward the Milneburg Lighthouse.
“Forgive you for what?” Brooklyn asked. “Your family is wonderful. Especially Athens. He’s adorable. Although, I think he’s developing a little crush on me.”
“A little crush?” Reid asked with a chuckle. “I think the kid’s halfway in love with you already.”
I know the feeling.
The words were on the tip of his tongue, but Reid knew better than to voice them. He’d learned just how easily she became spooked when things got too heavy.
Besides, he had no idea if love was what he was feeling right now. He’d never come close to the real thing. But if this wasn’t the real thing, Reid wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle truly being in love. It felt as if he’d spontaneously combust from the myriad emotions that constantly crowded his brain.
Brooklyn turned to him, her eyes beaming with excitement. “I did not expect that type of reaction to Dynamo Diane. Your entire family was blown away. Especially your sister.”
“I knew they would be,” Reid said. “Did you see Indina looking up stuff on her phone? She’s going to have Dynamo Diane on everything. I wouldn’t be surprised if she shrink-wrapped her car and called it the Dynamobile.”
Just as he’d hoped, Brooklyn threw her head back and blessed him with her musical laugh. He wanted to make that laugh his ringtone, but he’d probably spend all day calling his own phone just so he could hear it.
He tightened his grip on her hand as they continued along the lake front. “The best thing about today was the look on my dad’s face when he saw that drawing,” he said. “I’ve been worried about him.”
Her smile dimmed, and Reid was almost sorry he’d mentioned it. But he wanted her to know how much it meant to see a smile on his dad’s face. She was the one who’d put it there. She deserved to know how special that was for his entire family.
“It hasn’t been that long since your mom passed,” Brooklyn said, her voice so soft Reid could barely hear it over the gentle crush of the waves against the seawall.
“No, not long at all,” he answered. He waited a few moments before trusting himself to speak again. “I still have a hard time accepting that she’s gone. She spoiled me,” Reid continued, a smile tipping up the corner of his mouth. “I was her baby, after all. It pissed Ezra off.”
“Can you be a little less cheeky about that?”
“Nope.” He laughed, then he sobered. “I just miss her so damn much,” Reid said. “I miss having her around to ask for her advice. I even miss her badgering me about having too many pairs of sneakers.”
“How many pairs do you have?” Brooklyn asked.
“You don’t want to know,” Reid said. He huffed out a laugh. “My mom thought more than two pairs was too much. This from a woman who owned at least three dozen church hats that cost well over a hundred bucks a pop.”
“Don’t you ever tell a black woman anything about her church hats. That’s not your business.”
“Believe me, I know.” He chuckled, then shook his head. “I’d trade every pair of Jordans I own for the chance to see her again. Just one more day with her. That would be enough.”
“Oh, Reid.” Brooklyn took both his hands and brought them to her lips, pressing a kiss to the backs of his fingers. “I don’t want to even imagine what it feels like to lose a parent.” She rested her cheek against their clasped hands. “But then, I should probably start preparing myself.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about? You’re only twenty-six. Your parents ca
n’t be that old.”
She looked up at him. “Your mom wasn’t old.” She had a point. “And my parents had me pretty late in life. My dad was almost forty when I was born. But age doesn’t matter when you’re dealing with a compromised respiratory system.”
She got choked up on the last word. Reid remained silent as he patiently waited for her to collect herself.
“You okay?” he asked after several moments passed. She nodded, but he wasn’t sure how true that was. “Is this why LeBlanc & Sons closed up shop?”
She pulled in another shuddering breath. “Yeah. It was the primary reason. It was getting too hard for him to continue. If I’d known how bad off he was, I would have insisted he stopped working long before he did.”
“How is he doing now?” Reid asked.
“He has his good days and his bad.”
He waited for her to continue, but when she didn’t, Reid decided not to try to get any more from her. He could sense the difficulty she was having with discussing her dad’s condition. Instead, he said the only thing he could say. “I’m sorry you have to go through this. I know the pain of watching a parent slowly deteriorate. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”
Shit. Emotion welled in his throat, making it hard to swallow.
Brooklyn reached for his hand, closing her much smaller palm around it and giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. They stood there staring out at the calm waters of Lake Pontchartrain. Reid watched the waves break gently against the smooth rocks along the shoreline of the tiny peninsula that jutted out into the lake, and tried to remember the last time he’d felt this kind of peace.
He hadn’t opened up to anyone about the loss of his mother since the night she died, when Willow showed up at his place to check on him. He’d collapsed into his sister-in-law’s arms and cried like a baby. But that was Willow. Reid couldn’t imagine sharing these feelings with any of the women he’d been with in the past. He couldn’t imagine any of them caring enough about him to want to hear it.
But Brooklyn did. She cared. She offered comfort.
Reid knew in that moment that there was no going back for him. This had to be love. This feeling that being around her evoked, as if his heart would burst clear out of his chest. What could this be if not love?
He couldn’t blame her for being unsure if she could fully trust him. With his track record, Reid wouldn’t trust a guy like him either. He didn’t deserve her yet, but he was getting there. He would eventually prove he was worthy of her love.
* * *
It wasn’t perfect, but it would do.
Brooklyn dipped the tip of the paintbrush in the purple paint again, then drew it lightly along the canvas, adding a bit of shadow to the curve of the fleur-de-lis.
“Exquisite.”
A shudder went through her as the softly whispered word traveled down her spine. She looked back to find Reid just over her shoulder.
“Why are you here and not working on your own painting?”
“I gave up on mine.” He gestured to his canvas. “It’s a lost cause. Besides, I’d rather watch you paint. You make it look so damn sexy.”
She rolled her eyes, but inside his words sparked an erotic charge that shot clear through her body.
“You’re such a flirt,” Brooklyn said.
“It’s working, though. Right?”
She couldn’t hold back her smile. She lifted her shoulder in a casual shrug. “Maybe.”
Reid’s answering grin triggered an abundance of excited tingles all along her skin. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to the part of her collarbone left exposed by the maroon off-the-shoulder sweater she’d bought on a whim this past weekend. She never wore stuff like this, but Reid had her doing things she’d never done before, feeling things she’d never felt before.
She’d been called cute, and a couple of the guys she’d dated in the past—particularly those who were into comics—even thought she was cool. But Reid made her feel sexy. The way he absently trailed his finger along the inside of her arm, the way he brushed his lips against her jaw, or along her neck, or at that spot just behind her ear. He seemed incapable of going more than ten minutes without touching her in some way.
And with just a touch, just a look, he made her feel as if she was everything in the world he could ever want. Never in her wildest dreams did she think a guy like Reid would look at her the way he did, but she wasn’t dreaming. This was real.
“I didn’t think this through when I booked this Sip and Paint place,” Reid said, his lips still too close to her bare shoulder for Brooklyn to think straight. “I’m at a disadvantage.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that my painting looks like something a second-grader did, while that, on the other hand,” he said, gesturing to her canvas, “should be hanging in an art gallery somewhere.”
Brooklyn burst out laughing, drawing the attention of half the people in the studio. She gave Reid a playful slap on the arm. “Stop making me laugh,” she said. “People will think I’m drunk.”
“That’s the whole point of places like this, isn’t it?” He jutted his chin toward the group of women who were celebrating one of the ladies’ 40th birthday, according to their matching T-shirts. The women became rowdier with each champagne cork they popped.
As if on cue, the distinct pop hissed as another bottle was opened and the women let up a roar.
“Maybe I should have read a few online reviews before bringing you here,” Reid said. “When I Googled ‘best dates for artsy people’ this is what came up.”
“You Googled for me?” Brooklyn asked, utterly charmed by his effort.
“You’re worth Googling for,” he said, planting a kiss on the tip of her nose.
She laughed again, but this time she was drowned out by the party-goers.
“Are you finished with your masterpiece?” Reid asked. “I’m ready to cut out early on Tatianya’s birthday bash.”
“Are you really not going to finish your painting?”
“Nah. But I’m still going to hang it on my wall. I can make a game out of making people guess what it was supposed to be.”
A half hour later, they were at a standstill on Interstate 10, waiting for yet another wrecker that had whizzed by on the shoulder twenty minutes ago to clear the last car in what, according to the DOT’s Twitter feed, had been a four-car pileup.
“My luck with traffic has been for shit lately,” Reid said.
“It’s okay,” she said. Without thinking, she reached over and put her hand on his thigh. She quickly pulled it away, but Reid clasped her wrist and brought her hand right back. He covered her hand with his, moving it up and down in a lazy caress.
“You should know by now that I want your hands on me every minute of every day.”
Her brow arched in amusement. “Every minute?”
“Every fucking minute.” He leaned over and buried his nose against her neck. “But it’s nothing compared to how much I want my hands on you.”
Brooklyn couldn’t adequately describe just how much she wanted that too. Since the night he’d nearly taken her on top of a hotel room dresser in Biloxi, her mind had been filled with visions of what would have happened if she hadn’t stopped him. Every time he kissed her, every time his skin made the barest contact with hers, it caused another deluge of erotic images to cascade through her mind.
The traffic finally started to move. Within minutes they were cruising along I-610. Apprehension and anticipation collided in her bloodstream as they passed one exit, then another. Brooklyn contemplated whether she was bold enough to go through with the plan that had popped into her head. When they neared the exit that would take them to Reid’s apartment, she quickly reached over and flipped up the blinker.
He glanced over at her with an inquisitive lift to his brow.
“Your place is closer,” she said.
The confusion remained on his face for a second before understanding dawned.
“Are you sure?” Reid
asked.
Brooklyn nodded. “Yes. God, yes. One hundred percent.”
She burst out laughing when he pressed down on the accelerator, swooping into the thankfully empty exit onto St. Bernard Avenue. He sped through two yellow lights, making it to his apartment complex in much less time than it should have taken them.
Reid hopped out of the truck and rounded it, catching her by the waist as he helped her out of the passenger side.
“Tell me now if you need foreplay,” he said.
“I don’t.”
“Thank God.” His relief was palpable. “I promise we’ll do all that shit eventually. Right now, I just need to be inside you as soon as possible.”
His words nearly caused her to orgasm right there in the parking lot.
They raced up to his apartment, kicking off shoes as soon as they cleared the threshold. Brooklyn figured she’d just ruined her new sweater with the way she stretched it out trying to get it over her head, but she didn’t give a damn. The only thing that mattered was how quickly she could get naked.
It turned out they were both going for the world record in how fast they could disrobe. Reid had his jeans and polo shirt off in five seconds flat, and it took Brooklyn less than two seconds to determine that the man was perfectly put together.
He should have looked ridiculous standing there in nothing but a pair of socks, but the only ridiculous thing here was how amazingly fine he was. His tight abs were so well-defined they looked as if they’d been carved out of stone. The corded muscle in his solid thighs exuded strength, bunching underneath his dark brown skin, making her hands itch with the need to smooth them over its firmness.
Brooklyn refused to acknowledge the obvious, because his ego was healthy enough, but her knees went weak at the sight of what Reid Holmes had been hiding in his pants all this time. She’d never seen one that big outside of the porn she occasionally—okay, frequently—watched.
Reid pointed past her shoulder. “In the bedroom,” he commanded.
She half-walked/half-ran ahead of him, tumbling onto his unmade bed and trying to tamp down her anxiety over what was about to happen. This was a first for her—not the sex, but the sex with someone she’d thought would only be a fantasy for her. Anticipation shot through her veins like liquid fire.
Awaken Me Page 21
