CHAPTER 14
BRIAN
I watched Amanda leave to go meet who I assumed was Sarah, but I never saw her come back home. I went to go check on her and make sure the two of them were all right, but when I knocked on the door, no one answered. I was worried when I fell asleep and didn’t hear a car return. Had Amanda forgotten about coming to watch Lanie?
I woke up Monday morning and started making breakfast. If Amanda didn’t show up, then I would have to cancel the meeting. I couldn’t take Lanie with me, and I had no other backup. I would simply have to reschedule during a time when the nanny would be able to watch my niece.
And it would serve me right, trusting some young, bobble-headed girl. She was in over her head with that cabin, and it sounded like she was in over her head with her own life. Aspiring to be an artist and trying to paint her way through life. It was a child’s dream. I couldn’t believe I’d opened myself up to someone like that. Someone so frivolous and forgetful and—
A knock at the door pulled me from my thoughts. I set the scrambled eggs aside and went over to the door. I opened up, not really knowing who to expect on the other side. But the moment my eyes took in Amanda standing on my porch, guilt rushed over my body.
Until I started studying her.
She was in the same outfit as yesterday. Her hair was thrown up haphazardly, and her sunglasses hid her eyes. Where the hell had she been last night? Why had she not come home? Who in the fuck had she been with? Was there really a ‘Sarah’?”
My mind started running at a million miles a second, but I tried to shake the thoughts from my brain. She wasn’t any older than drinking age, so I didn’t know what I expected from her. She was still in her youth. Her prime. She had the right to go out with friends and get into trouble and have one-night stands and make memories. I had no right to lay any sort of claim to her, even though my body was thrumming with jealousy.
I wanted to know where she had been, but I didn’t hold that kind of position in her life.
“Morning,” Aman
da said.
“Thanks for coming to watch Lanie,” I said as I stepped off to the side.
“It’s not a problem. I’m sorry I’m a few minutes late. Getting up the mountain this morning was rough without coffee in my system.”
She walked into the house, and my eyes lingered on her. She had a light stain on the back of her shirt. And there were only a few things a beautiful woman like herself could do to get stains on her back.
I shook the anger from my body and tried to focus. I had bigger things to deal with than what some random college graduate was doing. I had to get my mind right for this meeting with my PI. I watched as Amanda went over to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup like she owned the place.
“What time is your meeting?” she asked.
She turned to look at me, and my eyes whipped up to hers. She’d perched her sunglasses on the top of her head and her eyes looked tired and there were bags underneath.
“Soon. I need to get ready and get out of here.”
“Then go get ready,” she said. “I’ve got this.”
I held her gaze one last time before I relented and started for my room.
I heard Lanie pad down the hallway past my room as I hopped into the shower. I could hear the two girls chattering away, with Lanie giggling and squealing with delight. That girl really did enjoy it when Amanda was here, and that fact both elated me and angered me. Did Amanda not understand what she was getting into with me? She couldn’t go off gallivanting around with whoever the fuck if she wanted to be with me.. She had a three-year-old that adored her What if something had happened to her last night? I didn’t have her number, and she didn’t have mine. She would’ve had no way to call me for help.
That was going to change today.
I finished with my shower and dressed. I had a few stops in town I wanted to make before my lunch meeting with the PI. I picked Lanie up and planted a kiss on her cheek, letting her know that Amanda would be taking care of her today. Lanie bounced up and down in my arms with happiness before she reached out for Amanda.
Then I wrote my number on a piece of paper and tacked it to the fridge.
“That’s my cell in case you need anything. Text me so I’ve got your number,” I said.
“Sounds good to me,” Amanda said casually.
“Amanda.”
She panned her head over to me as Lanie sat down to eat her breakfast.
“Call me if you need anything.”