“You want some?” she asked Niall. “Might help you sober up.” Niall took the mug and had a sip. He made a face.
; “Too hot?” she asked. “Sorry, I didn’t ask how you take it before I went.”
“Coffee? Is that what you’re serving? This is the worst bar I’ve ever been too.”
Brenna laughed. “I can pour some scotch in there if you want.”
“No,” he said. He got up. “I’ll head out.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Brenna said.
“Likewise,” he said to her. He shot me a look that said our conversation wasn’t over. I’d tell him whatever he wanted to know. Everything. Well, almost everything. He knew most of what was out there to know about me but he didn’t know about Brenna. I never told anyone. The memory of her and what we had was just so sacred, I wanted it to be all mine.
“Do you want some coffee?” Brenna asked. She held a mug out to me. I took it.
“I’m sorry about Niall,” I said.
“Oh, that’s okay. I’m kind of sad he couldn’t join us.” She sat on the couch stirring her cup. “It was nice to have someone to talk to.”
“What did he tell you?” I asked.
She grinned. “Nothing incriminating. Don’t worry,” she said. First of all, I didn’t believe that. Niall took every opportunity to ruin my good name. Perks of being the one who didn’t have to inherit the title. She wasn’t forbidden from leaving. She wasn’t my prisoner. I didn’t care where she went as long as she came back but she wasn’t lonely, was she?
“I can't imagine he was good company.”
“It was nice having someone to talk to since you’ve been so busy this past week.”
She was lonely, or something like it. I didn’t expect a woman telling me I hadn’t been paying enough attention to her to excite me as much as it was right then. That wasn’t right. She was here at my house so I could keep an eye on her. Well, she was here so I could properly monitor her lifestyle; that was the reason on paper. I didn’t want to crowd her. She was in my house and she had signed a contract but realistically, if she wanted to walk out that door and never see me again, I had no way to stop her.
“Have you missed me?” I said because I couldn’t stop myself.
“You’re a way busier man than I thought you were, that’s for sure. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to avoid me,” she said, grinning at me over her coffee cup.
“If I was trying to do that then what kind of sense would moving you into my house make?” I asked. She shrugged.
“I don’t pretend to know how you think.”
“If Niall’s the best company you can come by, I’m worried,” I said.
She smiled at me. “Then stick around some more and you won’t have to be.”
We spent a little more time downstairs together but she went up for the night first. I waited, stopping at my office for a bit before I went up to my room too. I closed the door of the master bedroom behind me.
What the hell are you doing? Go after her.
I looked at the door. She hadn’t given me an invitation, just told me that she wanted to hang out more. It might have been a promise, it might have been an invitation for a later time, but she was not telling me to go to her bedroom tonight and ravish her. When she wanted it though, it could be arranged at her soonest convenience.
I underestimated what it was going to be like having her right there in my space with me. Monitoring her health wasn't the only reason that I wanted her around. Of course, it wasn't. She was the one that got away who I had finally gotten back. I was not going to be the fool that lost her again. That was nice to think about, but seeing her around, knowing she was there, even her fucking smell drove me completely insane.
I wanted her. As strongly as I wanted her that first night we got together, I wanted her now. It was a little too much, I wasn't going to lie. I went to the bathroom and took a quick shower to rinse off and... calm down. Back in the bedroom, all I could think about was the wall separating my room from hers. If I wanted to talk to her, she was right there. I wanted to touch her, well, that would probably be a little more complicated, but still, she was right there. We hadn't been this accessible to each other since that summer.
I flopped onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling. Those last few days were absolutely perfect. I wasn't that guy trying to get a baby via surrogate to calm down my frantic mother. She was just the girl working the beach snack shack. I closed my eyes. I probably wasn't going to get a lot of sleep. Did she ever think of that time? I didn't want to be the only one.
Seven Years Ago
Dreams really did come true, didn’t they?