Come Fly With Me

by Janet Elizabeth Henderson

  She held his hand tight as he smiled up at her. “I’m okay. It’s only a broken nose.”

  “Um, not only.” Katya winced.

  Brodie looked up at his brothers for answers.

  Darach appeared horrified, while Kade and Conall were fighting not to laugh. Bain stuck his head over Darach’s shoulder and burst into hysterics.

  “What?” Brodie demanded.

  “Let’s just say, you’re lucky there’s a dentist in town,” Bain said through his laughter.

  “It’s okay.” Katya patted his hand. “The doctor can realign your nose, and the dentist can fix those teeth. You’ll be fine in no time.”

  “Fix my teeth?” He felt for his front teeth with his tongue.

  And tasted blood, then the sharp jagged edge of not one, but two, broken teeth. Brodie groaned. So much for his romantic night with Kat.

  “I’ll call the Patels,” Conall said.

  “I’ll call the doctor,” Kade said.

  “I’m calling everybody I know.” Bain pointed his phone at Brodie. “Say cheese.”

  Since the Patels hadn’t yet set up a dental clinic in town, they’d called in a favor with colleagues in Fort William. So, after the doctor snapped Brodie’s nose into place and strapped it with tape, Conall drove him to the dentist to have his teeth fixed.

  By the time they arrived back in Invertary, early evening, Brodie had two black eyes, a taped red nose, and swollen lips. Oh, and thanks to an over-enthusiastic dentist, he also had no feeling in his cheeks and the inability to keep drool inside his mouth.

  “This is a disaster,” he told Conall, or at least tried to, as the words weren’t coming out properly through his thick, numb lips.

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” replied the overly chipper baby of the family. “Thanks to Dougal and Margaret letting everyone in on your secret, they all made a fuss about how upset Katya was, and how she cared for you, and how you could really see the love in her reaction to your injury.”

  “In other words, they went over the top in describing a fantasy couple who bear no resemblance to Katya and myself.”

  “Aye.” Conall grinned.

  Brodie groaned. “I had everything set up for a night of seduction. I’d planned on telling Kat I don’t want to pretend, I want our marriage to be real…in reality.” Maybe they’d given him more drugs than he’d realized because nothing was coming out right.

  “Seriously?” Conall glanced at him before returning his attention to the road. “You want to get back together with her?”

  “Aye, I was going to tell her I forgive her for leaving me and ask her to try again. I had it all worked out.”

  “Uh, so you planned to graciously forgive her and then try to seduce her?”

  Brodie frowned then yelped with pain. “I don’t like the way you put it, but that’s exactly what I’d planned.”

  Conall shook his head. “That’s exactly what you shouldn’t do.”

  “What do you know? You’re so young, you can barely grow a beard.”

  “Obviously, when it comes to women, I know a helluva lot more than you.”

  “You’re single,” Brodie pointed out. “I’m married. Who here knows more?”

  “Um, the guy who hasn’t had a woman walk out on him?”

  “Why are we having this conversation? It doesn’t even make any sense.” Brodie closed his eyes, wishing his face didn’t throb so much.

  “Hey, Siri,” Conall said to his phone, “call Darach.”

  “Calling Darach,” the phone said through the car’s dash.

  “No, don’t call Darach.” Brodie’s head was killing him, and he didn’t need to have this conversation with even more people.

  “What’s up?” Their brother’s voice filled the car.

  “Nothing!” Brodie called. “Everything’s fine. We’re hanging up now. Siri? Hang up on Darach.”

  The phone obviously took orders only from Conall.

  “Brodie plans on telling Katya he forgives her for leaving him, and he thinks it’ll make her fall into bed with him when he’s done.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Brodie objected, but he had to admit he’d been thinking it.

  “Wait a minute,” Darach said. “I’m putting you on speaker.”

  That had Brodie shooting straight up in his seat. “Is Kat there? She’d better not be listening.”

  “The women are out somewhere,” Darach said. “Now repeat that again for the rest of us.”

  Conall, the rat bastard traitor, did what he was told, and when he was done, laughter poured from the dashboard.

  “This is priceless,” Bain said. “You think she’ll be so grateful you’ve forgiven her that she’ll have sex with you?”

  “I didn’t say that.” Now his head was thumping.

  “If you’ve had a fight with a girl and you want her to sleep with you,” Kade said, “you apologize. You don’t tell her she’s forgiven.”

  “I’m with them,” Darach added. “It’s a bit condescending.”

  “You think?” Conall gave Brodie a pointed look.

  “And what exactly am I supposed to apologize for?” Brodie demanded.

  “For forcing her to choose between you and her dreams?” Darach said.

  “For making her leave and not going with her?” Kade added.

  “For being an arsehole,” Bain chimed in.

  “Look”—Brodie went to reach for the bridge of his nose, wanting to pinch away the tension, but caught himself before he caused any more damage—“I’ll admit I’m not as blameless in how our marriage ended as I thought I was. I should have given Katya a chance to explain more about her great-grandmother, maybe asked her to give me a few months to consider things before I gave her an answer—”

  “Maybe not have told her she was as crazy as the rest of the Savages,” Bain interjected.

  “I was going to say I probably shouldn’t have given her an ultimatum.” Brodie slumped in his seat as the magnitude of his predicament sank in. “I need to apologize, don’t I?”

  “You know,” Conall said, “this is why guys get a bad name.”

  “You’re a guy, dimwit,” Kade said.

  “An enlightened guy,” Conall corrected. “I’ve learned from the caveman mistakes of my six older brothers. Women love me.”

  “In your dreams,” Bain told him.

  “Brodie,” Darach said. “You need to apologize. You’ve been a complete dick to that girl. Anything you say that isn’t an apology will only make things worse.”

  “Even then,” Bain said, “it’s highly unlikely she’ll take you back. What’s to say you won’t do something that bloody stupid all over again? Anyway, for all you know, she’s got some rich guy waiting in the wings, and you’re ancient history.”

  “Thanks for the encouragement,” Brodie said.

  “I’m hanging up,” Conall said. “We’re outside the hotel.”

  There were grunts of goodbye from his brothers as Brodie eyed the town’s pub and hotel.

  “Why are we here?” He’d called off his night with Katya when he stopped a ball with his face.

  “Because this is where I’ve been told to take you.”

  Brodie shook his head. “You’ve got your wires crossed. The night’s off, and I’m going home.” To a lumpy couch and a whole load of painkillers.

  “Nope, the text definitely said to drop you off here.” Conall grinned at him.

  “What text?” Which of his brothers was messing with him now?

  “The one Katya sent while you were having your teeth fixed.” Conall leaned across him and threw open the door. “Off you go; your girl’s waiting.”

  Feeling more than a little confused, Brodie climbed out of the car. It was only as Conall drove away he realized he still had on his blood-stained football kit from earlier. With a sigh, he let himself into the hotel. Who cared what he wore? His day wasn’t likely to improve anyway.

  “Hey, Brodie,” the receptionist called out. “You’re in room 302. Go
on up. Katya’s already here.”

  “Great,” he grumbled. “I hope she’s brought painkillers.”

  With a crippling sense of defeat, he trudged up the stairs.

  24

  As Katya opened the hotel room door to Brodie, she bit her lip to stop from laughing.

  “It’s fine, go ahead. Conall almost wet himself when I walked out of the dental office. I don’t care if you point and take photos, as long as you have some painkillers in there.”

  Swinging the door wide, she stepped aside to let him in. “The doc dropped some pain meds off earlier. Then Dougal dropped off champagne and strawberries. Which do you want first?”

  “That’s funny. Watch me laugh.” He slumped in the red tartan armchair. “Oh, wait, you can’t because my face is frozen.”

  Katya took a glass from the minibar area, filled it with cold water, and handed it to him along with the pills.

  Brodie appeared hopeless as he considered them. “If I try to swallow these, I’ll end up dribbling all over my shirt.” He glanced down. “My blood covered shirt.”

  “It’s not the worst I’ve ever seen you.” Katya perched on the end of the bed. When he looked blank, she said, “That time you shaved off your eyebrows.”

  Brodie groaned. “I was a ten-year-old genius who looked like ET until they grew back.”

  “That’s what happens when you accept a dare from a MacGregor.” She felt no pity for him, as he’d made his brothers do much worse. “Now take the pills. I can cope with seeing you dribble.”

  “Great.” He fumbled with the bottle cap before downing two tablets with some water. And yes, there was drool. “You should have canceled the room. One look at me, and nobody will believe we’re holed up for a romantic night.”

  “I didn’t keep it to fool the town. They’re already eagerly drinking the Kool-Aid. Everywhere I’ve gone today, they’ve greeted me with a wink and hearty congratulations on our relationship. I thought you could use a night on a proper mattress instead of a lumpy couch.”

  He stared at her for a second before he closed his eyes and said, “Thank you, God.”

  “I’ll take that as an enthusiastic yes to a decent night’s sleep.” Katya headed into the bathroom. “But first, and don’t take this the wrong way, you need a bath.”

  “Shower,” Brodie corrected. “I’d only fall asleep in the bath and wake up riddled with cramp. It’s that kind of day.”

  “Shower it is then. I was going to run you a bath, but I think you can deal with a shower yourself.”

  “If I didn’t look like I’d gone ten rounds with Rocky, I’d make some lewd suggestion about how you could help me in the shower.”

  Katya couldn’t help grinning. This was Brodie at his best—self-deprecating and funny as hell.

  “I don’t suppose there are some clean clothes around here I can change into?” Brodie said.

  “Never thought about clothes,” she admitted.

  “Ah, you wanted to keep me naked.”

  “It would be a distraction from the sight of your face.”

  “That’s just mean,” he said.

  “Tell you what, I’ll rustle up some clean clothes for you while you wash off all that blood.”

  “It’s a deal.” He pushed out of the chair. “I have to ask, though, why are you here? Why not send one of my brothers to settle me or even get Dougal to tell me I had the room to myself for the night?”

  Katya shifted uncomfortably. She’d been asking herself that same question for hours, but the answer was staring straight at her, and she wasn’t afraid of being honest—especially with herself. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  Knowing information like that left her wide open, she braced for his comeback.

  “I’ll see you soon, then,” he said softly. “I really need that shower. Before the smell knocks me out.”

  “Lovely.” She smiled at him. “You want me to bring you up something to eat?”

  He stared at her.

  “Gotcha. Maybe later you could call down and ask Dougal to bring you up some soup…with a straw. Or baby food? You could have him blend his cottage pie into mush and serve it with a spoon.”

  “Enjoy this while you can, Kat. I’ll be my handsome self again in no time.”

  “How many weeks did it take for your eyebrows to grow back again?” She slipped out the door before he could answer.

  Still smiling, she made her way downstairs and into Brodie’s car, which she’d helped herself to earlier. It was only a short drive to Brodie’s house to pick up some clothes.

  “I thought you were staying at the hotel for the night,” Bain said when Katya let herself into the house.

  “Why would I do that?” And why was he pretending to be interested? Bain wasn’t famous for showing empathy for, or even interest in, the people around him. Basically, he was the human equivalent of an angry badger wearing a sandpaper suit—rough side facing out—and a tinfoil hat.

  “Do the words ‘fake marriage’ ring a bell?” he grumbled at her.

  “Brodie’s in no fit state to fake anything right now, and everybody will tell Catherine Baxter we were locked away at the hotel all night anyway—even if neither of us was there. After I take him some clean clothes, I’ll sleep here. If it makes you feel better, I’ll go back to get him for breakfast. A nice public breakfast in Dougal’s restaurant.”

  “That all sounds well and good, but I think you should stay there. What if he has a reaction to his pain meds? Somebody needs to be there to watch him.”

  Yep, Bain was definitely up to something because subtle, he was not.

  “Fine, you can go then. Make sure you grab him some clothes first.”

  “Hell, no.” He stepped back at the thought, then obviously remembered he was trying to be persuasive, so he flashed a smile. It reminded Katya of a crocodile she’d seen on her travels. All teeth and a blatant desire to bite. “I mean, what would Kitty Baxter think if anybody saw me coming and going from your hotel room? And you’re better at dealing with him when he’s in pain. You know what he’s like. He’ll take everything in sight to stop it, and those pain meds are dangerous.”

  “Right. It needs to be me who talks him out of downing all the pain pills. I wonder how Brodie coped for all those years while I was gone. It’s a miracle he isn’t addicted to aspirin.”

  “Aye, it is.” Bain nodded solemnly. “You should have thought of that before you ran away.”

  Okay, she’d had enough of him now. “Brodie isn’t going to have a reaction to the meds, and he isn’t going to overdose on them either. I’m taking clothes to him, and then I’m coming straight back here. Now, stop driving me crazy, Bain. I won’t stay away just so you can try to get Denise into bed.”

  He finally gave up all pretense of worrying about his brother. “For your information, I don’t need to try to get women into bed.” He turned and pointed to his backside. “This does all the work for me.”

  With a roll of her eyes, Katya stalked up the stairs to Brodie’s room.

  Denise was sitting on the bed, painting her toenails purple. “What are you doing here?”

  “Brodie needs clean clothes.” She opened the closet. “Did you know Bain’s angling to get you into his bed tonight?”

  “He can angle all he wants; Kade and Darach have been spilling his secrets all afternoon. Any mystery that man held for me is long gone.” The nail-polish-loaded brush paused midair. “Although I wouldn’t say no if he wanted to put on a tight pair of underpants and parade up and down in front of me for a while.”

  “You are deeply disturbed, and I wouldn’t suggest that to Bain if I were you. He’d do it in a heartbeat, and then he’d expect detailed feedback on how he looked.” After grabbing some jeans and a shirt, she turned to the dresser and rummaged for underwear. “I’ll be back soon. Please don’t do anything weird with Bain while I’m gone. I’d hate to have to bleach my eyeballs if I walked in on something I couldn’t unsee.”

  “I’ll make
no promises. In a town this size, a girl has to find her own entertainment.”

  With a shake of her head, Katya left the room, and a few minutes later, she was back at the hotel above the pub. Instead of walking through the pub to get to the rooms, she entered the building by the hotel entrance.

  The receptionist winked at her. “Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me,” she whispered before giving Katya a thumbs-up.

  “I feel so much better knowing that,” Katya said solemnly, and the woman beamed.

  The hotel room was dark when she unlocked the door, with only a sliver of light coming from the bathroom. It took a second or two for her eyes to adjust, and when they did, she saw Brodie lying flat on his back in the middle of the bed, a towel wrapped around his waist. His feet were still on the floor, but he was sound asleep.

  Amused, Katya tiptoed across the room to place his clothes on the armchair.

  “Kat?” he mumbled. “Come to bed.”

  “I’m going back to your place, so you can have a good night’s sleep.”

  He stirred then, raising himself to his elbows. “Stay with me, Kat.” His words were slurred, making her frown at him.

  “How many pain pills did you take?”

  A loopy smile lit up his face. “Enough to make the pain stop.” He pouted, or at least tried to. “But not the drool.”

  “Brodie,” she grumbled. “They’re strong pills. You’re only supposed to take what the doctor recommends.”

  “I know, I know, but what harm can it do? And now I feel gooooooood.” He flopped back onto the bed before raising his head. “Do I look better?”

  “No.” But he did look cute. Like a big, slobbering, lost puppy.

  “Ugh,” he grumbled as his head fell back to the duvet. “Stay with me, Kat. The bed’s too big without you.”

  The desire to agree struck her like a gust of wind, almost taking her off her feet. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “It’s a great idea.” He grinned at the ceiling. “It’s only sleep. I’m in no condition to try anything else. Plus, what if I have a reaction to the pills? What if I’m dumb enough to overdose? What if I wake in pain and can’t find the bottle?”