Hooked for Life (2 page)

Brady grabbed her arm before she could move away. “Call me in the morning.” Giving her sister a quick peck on the cheek before Lissa was pulled back on the dance floor, Brady headed for the door.

But the little bar was filled to capacity and leaving was easier said than done. The wall of boisterous human bodies only got deeper as she neared the door. Some unknown person was jostled into her and she would have lost her balance if a pair of strong arms hadn’t reached out to steady her.

“Brady?” Blue eyes stared down at her and she felt her face go pink with heat. But Darren Black had always done that to her. Just the sight of him would tangle her tongue so badly she could only manage to look like an idiot. Which she had proven on a couple occasions in high school.

But she wasn’t a naïve little girl anymore and he was just a man, a married man if she remembered right. “Hi, Darren.”

“How are you?” He was shouting to be heard over the band, which had started a new song.

“I’m fine, just on my way out. How are you?” She eyeballed the door as still more people came in.

“I’m good. Let me walk you out.” He didn’t give her a chance to respond before he took her hand and headed for the door. He made it look easy, shouldering his way through the crowd, calling out hellos as he passed.

Brady followed close behind him and breathed a sigh of relief when they made it outside into the cooler air.

“Thank you, Darren, take care of yourself,” Brady said as she dropped his hand.

“Wait! We didn’t get a chance to catch up.”

“Catch up on what exactly?” It came out cattier than she intended.

His eyebrows went up and she waited for him to say something but he just stared at her, his eyes never leaving her face.

Then after several seconds, he said, “You haven’t changed much have you, Brady?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She didn’t like being put on the spot and she couldn’t help her defenses from rising.

“You still have a massive chip on your shoulder.”

“Well, we can’t all be perfect like you and Lissa and actually I’ve changed a lot.”

“Really? Because you still act like you’re too good to hang out with a dumb football player.” He took a step closer when several laughing people came out the door of the bar.

But Brady was confused. Her too good to hang with him? “I never acted like I was too good to hang with you and really it’s pointless anyway. High school is over.”

He nodded in agreement. “You’re right, high school is over and if you have changed as much as you say you have then prove it.”

“I don’t have to prove anything to you, Darren. Have a nice life.” Turning on her heel, she started to walk away but got no more than three steps before he had a hold of her arm. She tried to shake him off but he was having none of it.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said as he spun her around to face him. “I let you get away once and I’m not going to do it again.”

“What in the hell are you talking about? Let go!” She gave her arm another shake and he released it.

“Let’s go someplace where we can get some dinner and I’ll explain.”

Brady paced away, trying to put her jumbled thoughts back together. She didn’t know where this was going but he looked pretty determined to say whatever it was he needed to say. Wait a minute… “Didn’t I hear that you got married?”

“I was engaged for a little while but we didn’t go through with it.”

Brady tried not to think about the relief she felt hearing he wasn’t married but she still wasn’t going to have dinner with him.

It was probably better to just get it over with now instead of flying out the day after tomorrow and always wondering about it. But she really shouldn’t have dinner with him.

“Fine, let’s sit on this bench and you can talk,” Brady said as she sat on the edge of the bench.

“It’s really not a conversation I want to have in front of a bar full of people.”

Brady stood and moved down the street. The next bench was in front of a closed clothing store and she sat on that one. They were far enough away from the bar that no one would overhear their conversation.

Darren heaved an irritated sigh that made her want to smile before he sat next to her. “I don’t remember you being this stubborn.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sure you don’t remember a lot of things about me. We didn’t know each other that well. What’s this about?”

He didn’t dispute her comment and she didn’t add that she had soaked up every morsel of gossip concerning him and had secretly watched all the football games he had played in. But after she had gone off to college she had firmly closed the door on anything that had to do with Darren Black.

Suddenly he asked, “Do you remember the day I asked you to help me with our algebra class?”

Oh god. It was a day she wished she could forget forever. It had been the single most embarrassing day of her life. “Yes, how could I forget? You humiliated me in front of half the school.”

“Yeah, I did and I’m sorry.” His voice was low and he was staring at her intently, sending little frissons of awareness up and down her spine.

“Is that what this was about? You wanted to apologize?”

“Partly,” he answered.

“Well, apology accepted.” Brady got to her feet but Darren reached out to grab her hand. She felt the heat of his touch slither up her arm and her belly gave a slow roll. It seemed she wasn’t as unaffected as she wanted to be.

“Sit back down with me.” He gave her hand a slight tug and she gave in, sitting back down next to him.

“I think about that day a lot, you know, how bad I messed up and how weak I was. I never meant to hurt you. All I really wanted was to have a reason to get closer to you.”

Brady stared at him in shock, not sure where he was going with this. “Why would you want to get closer to me?”

He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees and she could no longer see his face as he turned away to look down the street. He sat for a moment and she wondered if he was going to answer her. But then he seemed to come to a decision and turned to look at her again.

“Really? You have no idea, Brady?”

She didn’t like his irritated tone. “I wouldn’t have asked if I already knew the answer.”

He stood suddenly and paced in front of her, running his fingers through his dark hair. Stopping, he dropped to his haunches in front of her and, taking her hand, he said, “I want you, Brady.”

Darren watched her face for a reaction but she didn’t reveal much there. But the hand he was holding got clammy.

This was not how he had planned to do this. Getting her to come home had been a bigger problem than he had expected. He had planned to take her to dinner and over some romantic candlelight tell her he had been pining for her for years.

But he should have remembered nothing went as planned where Brady was concerned.

He waited patiently for her to respond but it was killing him. “Say something, Brady.”

“I don’t believe you.” Her voice was flat, emotionless and it stabbed him right in the heart.

“Then give me a chance to prove it. Let me take you out for dinner.” He hated that he was pleading but he realized this was his last chance with her and he knew what he wanted. Her.

“I’m really not up to it tonight but thanks for the offer.” She stood, forcing him to do the same, and she pulled her hand free. “Thank you for helping me get out of there, Darren, take care of yourself.”

Then she surprised them both by rising up on her toes to brush his cheek with her lips. He watched her hurry away down the sidewalk, easily avoiding the groups of people standing about enjoying the warm summer air.

Sitting back on the bench, Darren cursed himself. It wasn’t going to be easy, not that he had really thought it was. But he had hoped.

All this last week, once he was sure she was coming home, his dreams had been filled with her falling into his arms. It wasn’t lost on him that if his friends found out how bad he had it he would be the source of jokes and good-natured ribbing for years to come.

But that was what had gotten him in trouble all those years ago. Worrying what other people thought. He wasn’t going to let it happen again.

Brady was right, she had changed a lot. He had seen pictures of her that Melissa brought home after going out to visit her but they didn’t do her justice. Her long red curls just begged for his fingers and her body no longer looked like a high school girl’s.

But it had always been her eyes that got to him, clear forest-green that could see right through him.

Seeing her again brought back memories, like the time he had gone to a study group at Melissa’s and watched her come down the stairs. He had been hooked after that first sight. But they had been young and didn’t hang out in the same crowd.

He thought he had been so smart when he had come up with the idea to have her tutor him. He could get to know her and his friends would never be the wiser. But his best friend Mike had guessed the motive, even if he had guessed backward and hadn’t been quiet about it. In the lunchroom, in front of half the school, he had said Brady only wanted to tutor him because she had a thing for him.

Darren would never forget the look on her face when all those heads had turned her way. She had gone beet-red and in the span of a few seconds the color drained, leaving her white as a sheet. She had headed for the nearest exit as fast as she could, tripping over a chair and falling to the floor, her books scattering around her.

Everyone had laughed, including him, and it had sealed the door between them.

He had brushed it off as a silly crush after that and had spent time chasing easier girls for the rest of high school. But she had always been in the back of his mind and when he had asked Sherri to marry him, her face had immediately come to mind.

He realized then it was more than a crush and had broken it off with Sherri two months before the wedding. It didn’t take him long to decide he needed a plan and had enlisted Lissa’s help to get Brady to come home.

He suspected Lissa knew where his mind was at but thankfully she hadn’t asked. Lissa had always been his friend and after one quick attempt at a romantic relationship they had sworn it off between them.

She had called Brady and had badgered and pleaded until she agreed to come home for her birthday, but only after Darren had flat-out asked her to.

Brady didn’t believe he wanted her and she probably thought he just wanted sex. While he wasn’t opposed to the idea, he wanted more than that. He was thirty now and he had watched people around him fall in love and get married. While he wasn’t sure if he was ready for all that, he knew what he wanted. And he wanted Brady. He wasn’t sure if they were perfect for each other. But he knew he had to try.

Standing up from the bench, he turned and headed for his car. He only had a couple days to get her to see the light and he didn’t have any time to waste.

But he prayed the ace up his sleeve would work. A romance writer would be a sucker for a romantic setting. He hoped.

Brady closed the door to her hotel room behind her and breathed a sigh of relief. Running into Darren had been a surprise to say the least, but she could have died of shock when he apologized for laughing at her all those years ago.

It had broken her heart to see him chuckling with his friends from her spot on the cafeteria floor. But no matter how much she wished it, she could never hate him.

Changing into pajamas, she switched the TV on for background noise and picked up the book she was reading. But the words made no sense and she had to reread the page she was on twice. All that kept going through her head was Darren saying, “I want you.”

Brushing it off, she figured he just had too much to drink and it made him spout out nonsense. Concentrating, she finally got Darren out of her head and got into the story.

Two paragraphs later her cell phone was ringing and it was a number she didn’t recognize.

“Hello?” she answered.

“You never answered me about dinner, Brady.” The voice on the other end was low and she knew it immediately.

“Darren! How did you get my number?”

“Lissa gave it to me. So how about dinner tomorrow night?”

“I don’t remember you being this persistent.”

“Yeah, well, there are a lot of things you don’t remember about me,” he answered with a chuckle and she couldn’t stifle a smile.

“Why dinner, Darren?”

“Because I want to. Can I pick you up about seven?”

She had no idea why but knew she was going to say yes.

“Fine, pick me up at seven.”

“Great, I’ll look forward to seeing you then.”

Brady hung up and stared at her phone for a full five minutes before she started panicking. What was going on with him? Why did he suddenly want to have dinner with her? Why hadn’t he gotten married? Worse than that, what was she going to wear?

Jumping up, she went to the closet where she had hung her few outfits she had brought for the weekend. None of them were going to work. Nothing for it, she would have to buy something tomorrow. Maybe Lissa would want to tag along, if she didn’t party the whole night away.