Her Unexpected Detour (16 page)

“You don’t know anything,” she cried, pounding a fist against his chest. Traitorous tears welled in her eyes, spurring on her anger. “You don’t know what it’s like, being a woman in a man’s world. Having to prove yourself all the time.” She pounded at him with her other fist. “Trying not to feel. Not to care.”

Kayla pounded both fists onto his chest, one then the other. And again. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but still she didn’t stop. And he didn’t stop her.

Left, right. Left, right. Left, right.

“I don’t want to feel. I don’t want to care.”

But this outburst wasn’t just about her career, or Wayne Advertising, or Phillip Jacober. It was also about Kayla facing the collapse of a carefully constructed wall of steel she’d built around her heart. A collapse that had begun the moment she’d collided with Brent Masterson in that silly diner. And despite her best efforts, she’d been unable to stop it.

A sob escaped her as Kayla’s arms fell limp at her sides. Instead of turning her away, Brent pulled her in to his red and battered chest. His big, strong arms wrapped around her exhausted frame, and he rested a cheek on the top of her head. “Shh, it’s all right. You’re all right.”

“I thought I’d lost you,” she whispered into his chest. “I was so scared you were drowning, and I can’t swim, so I paced the shoreline, helpless. And all I kept thinking was how I couldn’t save you, just like I couldn’t save my mom.”

Brent’s arms tightened around her.

“But I didn’t drown.” His voice was quiet as he cupped her chin and lifted her face toward his. “And you never have to lose me, ever, if you do just one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Stay.”

Chapter Nineteen

B
rent watched Kayla’s red-rimmed blue eyes widen. “Stay?”

“Yes. Here, in Mount Pleasant.” He brushed his thumb along her damp cheekbone.

She sighed, then rested her face against his chest. “If only it were that easy.”

“It is that easy.”

“No, Brent, it’s not. I’m not some carefree kid fresh out of college. I have an apartment. Bills. Responsibilities.”

“But those are all things you can walk away from and start over with up here.”

“But what about my dad? I can’t just leave him there. Alone.”

Brent had no answer for that objection. He sighed and kissed the top of her sweet head. Vanilla and lilac flooded his senses, distracting him from his mission to win her heart. Maybe it was time he changed tactics, appeal to her physical side…

His lips moved to the top of her ear. Then just below her ear. She shivered in his arms. Brent could nearly taste victory.

“He’s a grown man, Kayla.” His lips brushed across her neck as he spoke. “He can—”

A song erupted from somewhere close by. Something upbeat and modern, yet instantly annoying and far too loud for the small bathroom. Kayla disentangled herself from him and reached for the cell phone in her back pocket.

“Sorry, hang on.” She glanced at the number on its screen. “Huh, no idea.”

With a scowl, she silenced the phone and shoved it back into her pocket.

Brent snagged the belt loops on the front of her jeans and pulled her back to him. “I get the feeling you spend entirely too much time trying to please everyone else.”

“I do no—”

She stopped. Listened. After a moment, he heard it too: another man’s voice. Only this one sounded very small…

“Oh, crap!” Kayla dug the phone back out. “Hello? Daddy! Yes, sorry, must have hit the wrong button. What’s up?”

Speak of the devil
.

Brent frowned as Kayla made her way out of the cramped bathroom. Nothing killed the mood like family interference. All he could hope now was that she’d keep it short. Politely excuse herself and come running back to him. He craned his neck to see where she’d gone.

“You’re where? He did? Uh-huh. And what did he say? Oh.”

So much for keeping it short. With a sigh, Brent walked out into his bedroom as well. He padded over to his dresser barefoot and glanced over at Kayla. Her cheeks were still flushed with what he hoped was desire, but her face had grown serious. Never a good sign with her.

She’d been checking him out in the bathroom, though. Maybe if he could sufficiently distract her, he could get Kayla off the phone and away from thoughts of her father. He gave his towel a small tug and let it fall to the floor. After a brief moment he turned his head her way, nonchalant. Kayla had her back to him, engrossed in the conversation and oblivious to his striptease. She stroked the top of Bear’s silky head, her eyes focused on something off in the distance outside his bedroom window.

So much for that idea
.

Brent pulled a pair of skivvies from his dresser and stepped into them, then swiped his towel off the floor and traded it for a pair of semi-clean jeans hanging off the back of a chair.

“…I don’t know, Dad. I mean, it’s not like Joe is going anywhere. Who knows what kind of stunt he might pull next?”

Ah, that’s my girl
, Brent thought with a satisfied nod. Some of what he’d said to her in the bathroom must have soaked in. He made his way over to his closet and yanked a clean tee off a hanger.

“Yes, I know. I know, Dad. You’re right. Yes, maybe I should give him another chance.”

Brent tugged the shirt on with a growl. Even without hearing the other side of her conversation, Brent could tell her father was laying it on thick. Couldn’t he see how detrimental this guilt trip would be to her in the long run?

“Yeah, I’ll wait to hear from him. Yes, he’s got my number. Okay, I will. Love you, too.”

She hung up and stood there, staring down at her phone. Bear pressed his body closer to hers, eager for her to resume petting him, but all she offered was a halfhearted pat on the head. With a snort, he sunk to the ground.

I feel your pain, buddy. I feel your pain.

Brent cleared his throat. “Everything all right?”

Kayla tucked the cell back into her pocket. “Right as rain,” she said, her answer unconvincing as she avoided his gaze. “You warm now?”

“For the most part.”

“Good.” She started toward him…and kept right on going. “We should probably get some food in you.”

Brent stood there, mouth ajar, as her footsteps echoed down the stairway. Damn it, he’d been so close. He snapped his jaw shut and gave himself a mental slap. Now was not the time to give up. She was still here, alone, with him. And she had yet to give him a solid no.

Until she did, it was still game on.

K
ayla set the remains of her sandwich down and groaned. “I ate
way
too much.”

“Ruby packs like she’s feeding an army, always has. I had to choose a career involving manual labor just to burn off the million calories a day she tries to cram down my throat.”

Kayla laughed and started to clear the plates from their picnic blanket. She thought they would stay indoors, to keep Brent warm. But he’d come downstairs with an old, mammoth-sized quilt insisting that since Ruby had packed them a picnic then, darn it, that’s what they were going to have. Before she’d been able to volley a decent rebuttal, he’d marched out the door. And because outside offered a whole lot more space to put between her body and his, she’d followed.

Now he lay on his back, eyes closed and stretched out like a cat sunning himself beside a window. With Bear inside and a thick wall of woods surrounding the side yard, it was gloriously quiet. Nearly intimate. As if they were the last two people on earth.

Kayla wished she could hit pause on some universal remote and freeze time.

She set their dishes aside and let her gaze drift back to Brent, who looked utterly at peace. The worry lines that typically flanked the corners of his eyes and lips had disappeared. So had the guarded, scowling man who had done his best to keep her at arm’s length earlier in the week. He’d been easier to resist, acting like that. But now…

“You’re staring at me.”

Busted
. “Just trying to see if your chest is still moving.”

“You really are a terrible liar.”

“Whatever.” Kayla lay down and stretched out on the blanket as well, careful to leave what seemed like an appropriate distance between them. “You know, when Tommy and I were kids, we’d drag blankets like this out into the backyard and stare up at the clouds for hours, making up stories about the shapes and animals we saw.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Mmm hmm. The clouds today would have made for some great stories.” She glanced his way, suddenly self-conscious. “Sorry, I bet that sounds silly. We can go if you need to get back.”

“Nah, relax for a bit.”

“But aren’t you behind schedule?”

Brent snorted. “I haven’t had a day off in over a month, so I don’t think one afternoon is too much to ask. Besides, it’s clouding up. Rain’s coming, I can feel it.”

“Feel it? Let me guess—in all those manly, broken bones of yours?”

He cracked one eye open and threw her a grin. “Bingo.”

Kayla turned toward him and propped herself up on one elbow. “You never did tell me what exactly you broke, or how.”

Brent’s eye slid shut once more. “Knuckles, mostly. On my right hand.”

“Pick a few fights you maybe shouldn’t have?” she teased.

“Oh, I didn’t start fights, I ended them. Someone had to defend Miles’s scrawny ass.”

Kayla sucked in a quiet breath. “Miles got picked on as a kid?”

“Yeah,” Brent grinned now, his eyes still shut. “Miles wasn’t always the tall, handsome chick magnet he thinks he is now. He was a late bloomer, one of the shortest kids in our class up until our sophomore year in high school. You’d think he’d learn to keep his mouth shut, but oh no, not Miles. There were a few bullies who liked to single him out. Only, instead of walking away, the little shit would turn around and taunt them.”

“He’s lucky you had his back,” Kayla said, her voice soft with awe.

The grin faded from his lips. “Yeah, well, I was there for him, and he’s been there for me. It’s what friends do.”

Friends. The word pricked at her heart. She’d had friends, lots of them, back in high school. Handfuls in college, too, until her mom got sick. Once Kayla assumed the role of caregiver to her mother, there was little time for anything else. College got put on hold for a year, along with her social life. The friends she’d abandoned finished school a year earlier than her. Most had since moved away, all had moved on. Not that she could blame them. The passing of her mother had changed her—stolen her innocence, rearranged her priorities. No one seemed to understand her after that. No one but Tommy.

“So, what do you see?” asked Brent.

“Sorry?”

“Up in the clouds. What do you see?”

Kayla brushed aside her melancholy thoughts and squinted up at the collection of cotton candy clouds overhead. The thick white puffs that hadn’t been there this morning drifted lazily between earth and sun, casting giant, intermittent shadows across the Michigan landscape. And with each shadow came what felt like a ten-degree drop in temperature. She snuck a quick peek at Brent as another shadow blanketed them, to make sure he wasn’t shivering again. Satisfied he was all right, she looked up once more.

“Well, over there,” she said, pointing up and to her left. “That one kind of looks like an elephant. And the smaller one beside it? That sort of looks like a three-legged dog. Maybe the elephant stepped on him in some freak circus accident or something.” She grinned at the absurdity of her explanation and wished for a moment that Tommy were there. “So, what do you see?”

“Clouds.”

“What?” she laughed.

“Clouds,” Brent said. “Just clouds.”

“Oh, come on. Use your imagination.”

He sighed. “Fine. Well, that one over there,” he said, pointing skyward, “kind of looks like the rabbit Bear dragged in a few weeks ago, back when we still had snow on the ground. Only, that rabbit wasn’t white anymore. More like—”

“Okay.” She pulled his hand back down. “I get it. You can stop explaining now.”

His fingers folded over hers, warm and gentle. “Is that what you get to do at your job? Use your imagination to come up with clever advertisements?”

“You know, I never really thought about it like that. But, yeah, that’s part of it. There’s way more to it than just brainstorming, though.” She closed her eyes and pictured a typical day at Wayne Advertising. “I’ve got to work with our clients, understand who they are, what they want, what they need, who their competition is, what their market edge is. It’s more than just daydreaming and doodling, that’s for sure.”

“It’s too bad Ruby doesn’t have someone like that to work with. She trusts Miles to figure out all this stuff for her, but he’s a numbers guy, not an idea guy.”

Kayla thought back to the sketch Miles had shown her. Brent was right—his cousin definitely wasn’t a natural when it came to design work. She’d offered some tips, but there was so much more he could do with that ad. Better angles to take, images to add.

Brent’s hand twisted inside hers. She glanced over to find him propped on one elbow staring down at her, the gap between them reduced to mere inches. The sight scattered her thoughts.

“You know,” he said. “Mount Pleasant doesn’t have an overabundance of ad agencies. If you’re as good as you say you are—and I believe you, trust me I do—why not come up here and start your own company? Be your own boss?”

“Brent…”

“Look, I meant what I said inside. You deserve better, Kayla. To be among peers who respect and trust you. And where you can trust them.”

Her own company? The thought had never even crossed her mind. Nor should it have—she didn’t have the financial backing necessary to run her own business. Or any staff willing to make the move with her. Or clients. No ad agency could survive for long without clients.

“Brent, I appreciate—”

“Wait. Don’t. Don’t tell me no, or why it won’t work.” He lowered his face to hers and brushed his lips across her near cheek. “Just…promise you’ll think about it, all right? You don’t have to go back to Wayne Advertising. Life’s too short to settle for less than you deserve.” His lips pressed feather-light onto her cheek. Her forehead. Her nose. “Please think about it?”

His honest plea stirred something deep inside her. No one spoke to her heart like that, not in a long time. It made her feel alive. Empowered.

Wanted.

She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, then pulled his face toward hers. He kissed her, tentative at first. Unsure. But she tugged at his hair, urging him on. Slowly he rolled so that his body covered hers, somehow keeping his full weight off her while wrapping one arm beneath her and the other up through the back of her hair as well.

“Promise you’ll think about it,” he whispered in between kisses. “Please, Kayla. Promise me.”

She reached up and traced the worry lines that had returned to his handsome face. A quiet desperation had replaced his prior calm. Kayla nodded, eager to ease his pain even if it might lead to more of her own. He kissed her then, his previously tentative demeanor gone. The kiss deepened and Brent’s body pressed down onto hers. Kayla arched up in response, wanting to be closer to him, needing to be. But was it the right thing to do? Could they truly make this work?

She broke the kiss, gasping for air and searching for reason.

A low groan escaped Brent as his forehead came to rest on her shoulder. “I know,” he said, his breathing ragged. “We shouldn’t.”

But reason wasn’t what she needed—Brent was. She clung to him, savored his warmth, his strength. She hadn’t meant to fall for him, hadn’t meant for any of this to happen. But it had. And she was as helpless to protect her heart now as she was to resist his romantic intentions.

“Yeah.” She turned her head and nipped at his earlobe. “But maybe this time we should.”