Dirty Deal (Perfectly Matched 2)

“Not you. I’m talking about this one.” She held out her hands toward Serena, who returned her hug with unabashed confusion.

“I’m sorry, have we met?” Serena took the seat opposite the elderly woman and Bryan followed suit, if only to distract himself from the fact that Q was now scaling the beams like a deranged King Kong.

“No, not in person. I do apologize. This old mind”—she sighed—“sometimes it gets confused. No, dear, you don’t know me, but I feel like I’ve met you a dozen times. Quinn told me your name, and I nearly fainted. Your granny never shut her trap about you. She was always showing me pictures and letters.” She shook her head, smiling fondly. “She also told me about the time you put soap in her mouthwash when you were just a tot.” Gran let out a cackle. “You told her you wanted to make sure her teeth were extra clean. What a hoot!”

Serena’s confusion had quickly become wide-eyed surprise, and a soft sort of sadness played over her features. He wanted to reach for her hand, but restrained himself, opting instead to pour the group some lemonade.

“I was a little troublemaker,” Serena admitted with a rueful smile.

“You came by it honestly, I can tell you that much. Your grandmother was quite the upstart, too. And a very dear friend. We used to spend a lot of time together as girls. I admired the hell out of her moxie.”

“Did you ever go to the beach together?” Serena grinned and shot him a look from the corner of her eye. So apparently even touching stories about her grandmother couldn’t repress her mischievous tendencies.

Funnier than that, though, was when his grandmother nodded. “Oh yes, it was a favorite pastime of ours. Going to the shore and meeting young men.”

He nearly choked on his lemonade at that one but managed to keep it together.

“I’m surprised we haven’t met before,” Serena said.

“Oh, these old bones don’t stay in one place long enough for all that. I visited Agnes every now and then, but life took us different directions. You know how these things go. I was very sorry to hear of her passing, though, and I am very sorry for your loss.”

That quiet sadness passed over Serena’s face again for an instant and then it was gone, stowed away under her armor.

“Thank you,” she murmured, then sipped her lemonade and changed the subject. As she had with Q, Serena opened his grandmother up in a matter of minutes. Soon, they were chatting away about things he’d never thought to ask himself. Old boyfriends, what life had been like when she was young, the things she’d accomplished in her life.

With his family situation as fucked up as it was, he and Q had spent a lot of time with their grandmother, but he’d always seen her in the way that children see the people in their lives. As his gran. Never as a full-fledged person.

Now, every story brought a new warmth to the old lady’s smile, and try as he might it was hard not to credit Serena with that. What was it about this woman that had other people so automatically swept up? And what was it about her that kept him there? All his concerns were a million miles away while he watched her holding his grandmother’s hand and laughing.

He pushed from his chair and said, “I’m headed in to see what I can do. Do you ladies need anything?”

They shook their heads and he started for the house, following behind his now earthbound sister.

“You’re bleeding.” He caught up to her just as they walked through the wide barn doors. “Let me get the first-aid kit.”

She smeared the blood on her left arm and looked down at her hand. “Huh. How about that.”

He ushered her into the little side room with a standing sink and end table, a wide window taking up most of the wall space. He could still make out Serena and his gran lounging beneath the magnolia tree. It was sweet, and it made his gut clench in a way that was less than comfortable.

“It’s just a little cut,” Q muttered, dragging his attention back to the issue at hand.

“It wouldn’t have happened if you were more careful.” He rummaged through a low drawer until he came up with a single bandage. Without ceremony, he stuck it on his sister’s triceps and they both headed for the sink.

“No antiseptic? What kind of hack doctor are you?”

“The kind who doesn’t want to do your autopsy. Stay off the goddamned ladder,” he said.

“Please, if you were worried you could have come over and done it yourself. Maybe you had more important things to do, though.” She waggled her brows and shouldered him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know. I’m not saying that this is my crowning achievement or anything, but…” She patted herself on the back and grinned

“Are you having some kind of mental break? What are you talking about?” He leaned against the counter.

“Do I have to say it?” His sister fixed him with a meaningful stare as she dragged the towel from her shoulder and passed it between her hands. When he didn’t respond, she went on, “You and Serena. You know, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” Quinn looked out the window and he followed her gaze to where Serena and his grandmother sat, still talking animatedly. “You like her.”

It wasn’t a question, but he found himself nodding as Serena threw her head back and let out one of her loud, exuberant laughs. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do.”

And for the first time since they’d met, he let himself admit it deep inside. He’d seen crazy, seen it brew and bubble over, and she just didn’t seem like that. She was attentive without being clingy, she was interested in his job but had her own thing going, too. He appreciated her independence and was starting to think, if he ever got out and settled down, it would be with someone like Serena.

“You know, the Colonel was out of his mind when he asked you to make that promise,” his sister murmured softly.

He met her clear gaze but didn’t respond. She hadn’t been there. She hadn’t seen him in those last couple days. Their father had so many weaknesses, but physically, he’d always been like Superman to them. Evading bullets in one skirmish or another, earning medals for dragging wounded men twice his size out of the line of fire. Until then, when stomach cancer had eaten away at him until there was nothing left. He’d been a shit father, but he was still his father, and when he’d made his last request, Bryan couldn’t deny him. Just the thought of breaking that promise felt like a betrayal.

“Hopped up on morphine, racked with pain,” Q pressed, leaning toward him and taking his hand in hers. “You’re a great doctor. You served your country. Unless this is your dream, why not let it go now? Let him go, and live your life. If he was any kind of father, that’s what he would’ve wanted. And if not? Well, then you don’t owe him a damned thing.”

He kept his head down, mired down in memories. She stayed there for another long moment before releasing his hand with a sigh.

“I’ve got to get back to work, but think about it, okay? I’d love to have you home, you could spend more time with Gran, find something at the hospital, and…”

She trailed off, but she didn’t need to say the rest out loud. And give this thing with Serena a real shot.

Maybe Q was right. Maybe it was time to reevaluate the path he’d assumed was a given and think about taking another.

One that included Serena.

…

Wedding prep was, apparently, hell on earth.

&nbs

p; She’d been to plenty of galas and charity events with her parents’ stuffy friends, but the catastrophe that was a wedding was beyond even her own comprehension. By the time lunch finally rolled around, everyone was exhausted, the bride was crying, and the entire barn was so overloaded with fake pink flowers that it looked like the set for an allergy pill commercial.

The only person who seemed totally unaffected by the whole ordeal was Q. In fact, she seemed in her element as she went over each detail, a soft glow in her eyes. Like she was a gambler and had just hit it big.

“No, guys, don’t put that there. That’s where the karaoke machine is going to be.” Q shooed away a handful of cousins who looked next to mutinous, but before they could object, a bell rang in the distance.

Like a herd of sheep, the men dropped everything and shuffled for the door.

“Uh, was that some kind of warning bell or something?” Serena stapled a chalkboard sign to the wall behind the makeshift bar and turned to Bryan.

“Nah, that’s the supper bell. The picnic must be ready.”

The bell rang again, and everyone gave a sigh of relief. Everyone with the exception of Q, whose shoulders slumped in disappointment. “We’ll pick it up afterward, guys,” she called. “No worries.”

Bryan threw an arm around his sister’s shoulders. “Everything looks amazing, Q.”

“Thanks.” She tapped his hand and the two followed the crowd with Serena trailing along behind them.

Not that she minded. She kind of liked watching the two of them together. Not only did it bring out a lighter side of the ball-busting Bryan she’d come to know, but it also made her feel for the kids they must have been.

When she was young and flitting from one boarding school to the next, she’d often wondered what her life would have been like if she’d had a sister. Someone to share the load of neglect and hurt. It might have been a comfort to her, just as it must have been for them.

She shook the thought away as Bryan released his sister and dropped back to join Serena.

“What’s so funny?” he asked.

She blinked a couple of times, then realized with a start that she’d been smiling. “Nothing. I was just thinking.”