Wilde Magic (Wilde Women Book 3) (59 page)

Motherfuck. He sounded like a lunatic, didn’t he?

“It’s background information,” Cal bit out. “So anyway,” he continued with a growl. “I show up one day with flowers and whatever. She’s nowhere around so I go looking. Found her in the parking lot at the bakery doing burnouts and donuts in a muscle car—type of crazy antics ya’ see on YouTube all the time.”

“Muscle car?” Jax sniggered. “An orange Dodge Charger?”

Cal grunted, “Fuck. Yeah.”

Jax sniggered some more. “Continue.”

“How the fuck was I supposed to know she was a drag racing demon in high school?” he yelled. “It’s not like it ever came up in conversation.”

His brother was having a great laugh—at his expense. “Oh my God. Please tell me you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did.” He shook his head. “Crashed her little hot rod party with some heavy breathing. Said a bunch of stupid shit.”

“What aren’t you saying?”

He exploded with possessive, jealousy. “It was that fucker Jonas. And his little squad of overall wearing minions. They call her Chuck for Christs’ sake!” His arms waved, then he was pacing back and forth in front of Jax like a maniac and scrubbing a hand through his hair. “I might have tried to put the motherfucker on the ground.”

“Might have?” Jax chuckled.

“Would have too,” he assured his brother with manly indignity. “If she hadn’t jumped on me like a monkey on a tree. After that it all went downhill.”

“Holy crap, bro. There’s more?”

He winced and looked at his brother shaking his head, like, ‘really’?

“Of course there’s more. The girl drives me insane. I tried to calm her down and I’m sure from the expression on your face that you’re about to tell me never to insinuate to a woman that she needs to calm down. Don’t bother. Found that out the hard way.”

Frustration with the whole situation pushed him to his breaking point. For no reason he kicked the truck’s tire.

“The whole problem was right there—staring me in the face. We did it all wrong. Jumped into a physical relationship too fast. She’s special you see and I never want her to think that’s all we had. So, I uh kind of tried to slow shit down. I figured we really needed to establish what the fuck we were doing so these things don’t keep happening.”

“Oh you stupid fuck. Did you suggest a slow down plan? You did, didn’t you? My God, Cal. With all the celebrity sucky-fucky you did, didn’t you learn anything?”

“See?” he barked. “That’s what I mean. No, I didn’t learn shit about handling a woman I’m involved with because you dumb prick, sucky-fucky has absolutely zilch to do with love. Or romance. Or knowing what the fuck to do when your woman goes off on you.”

“Wow. So let’s do a quick review, hmm? You’re sleeping with her. Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re in love with her too,” he drawled when Cal growled at the characterization. “But you didn’t lock that shit down so when you went all caveman possessive over a little recreational driving she reacted badly. Bet there was a bunch of ‘who do you think you ares’ thrown in.”

Cal made a noise halfway between a chuckle and a groan. “Actually, I believe the exact phraseology was, ‘You aren’t the boss of me.’”

“Right. Then you forced your bad mood on Jonas and she took exception at your attempt to ass kick someone she probably likes.”

“Fuck you.”

“Yeah, Cal. I’m thinking that’s just what she thought too. And then, you went for the whole enchilada. Tried to calm things with a slow down suggestion. And since then? What? The Arctic chill? Icebergs floating by?”

“Yep.”

Jax back slapped him so hard he almost toppled over. “Okay then. So you’re persona non grata in the house if Charlie’s around. Got it? Brynn doesn’t know anything and unless her sister comes clean, which I doubt she will, she doesn’t need to be involved. Pregnant, remember?”

“Understood.”

Two tense weeks followed and every day Jax worried more and more. He could see how miserable and unhappy his young sister-in-law was but she was putting on such an extraordinary front for Brynn that he kept quiet.

While he and Cal completely redesigned the studio into an efficient home base for the new business, the women dove into decorating the finished nursery. Charlie was painting a jaw-dropping mural in the alcove above what he discovered was a gift from his brother. A repurposed buffet cabinet turned into the perfect changing station for the baby.

Everything was great as long as Caleb and Charlie didn’t cross paths. The few times they did, when he was around to see, their interactions were stilted and painful to watch. Both of them were hurting. It was a situation that simply couldn’t continue but Jax didn’t have any idea what to do.

If he interfered, Caleb might murder him, and Brynn? Well, then Brynn would know he’d been keeping something from her. Something that involved her beloved baby sister.

Jonas and Amy, however, were an entirely different matter. Jax was speechless when Amy sat him down and offered a blow-by-blow of the shenanigans playing out at Wilde House while he and Brynn were away. Sounded to him like Caleb and Charlie were glued at the hip—until they weren’t.

Amy agreed with him on Brynn not needing to hear chapter and verse of what their siblings were doing, so no worries there. Whatever Brynn knew or found out, wasn’t going to come from her trusted assistant and friend.

Running interference between his idiot brother and their foreman was a different matter all together. In a nutshell, Jonas thought Cal was a dick and Cal thought Jonas overstepped with Charlie. And they had to work together. Great.

It was easy to explain Cal’s absence from their dinner table by pointing out that he was taking on the lion’s share of setting up their business venture so Jax could concentrate on Brynn and their baby. Which is why it was just the three of them lounging around in the dining room after a spectacular meal.

“What the hell do you mean you’re going to Philly?”

Jax glanced back and forth between his wife and her sister. It was like watching a tennis match.

“I told you Brynnie. Finishing my degree means I have to meet whatever requirements are still hanging. Nana looked into it. You know her. She’s got all sorts of connections. I’ve made a work-study request at the University. They’ve accepted my proposal and now I have to go pull all the documentation together for a thumbs up, thumbs down assessment.”

“Well, I don’t care. You can do the same thing in Happy Valley with Mom and Dad. He’s a university professor for God’s sake so don’t give me that Nana has pull garbage.”

Jax sat very still and watched his wife closely. He heard the anxiety in her voice. She didn’t like what Charlie was proposing and the last thing he wanted was for his baby mama to get all worked up. He’d step in if he had to.

“Okay,” Charlie admitted with an eye roll. “Don’t tell Rhi, though.”

“Tell Rhiann what?”

“Nana is going to let me curate the vault.”

He glanced sharply at Charlie when a gasp from his wife split the air. “No! No way. The vault? Does Daddy know this?”

What the fuck was the vault? Is that where they kept Bryanna Charles’ libertine skeletons? Knowing the old tart, he wouldn’t be surprised at all.

“Relax. It’s N-B-D sis. You know Nana. If she’s up to something, I can’t imagine what, but seriously. I know a carrot when it’s waved in front of my face.”

Despite the half-assed reassurance Charlie offered, Brynn’s anxiety was building. He could see it in how she absently plucked at the sweater stretched across her belly. When she looked back and forth at him and Charlie, Jax hoped the innocent expression he forced on his face was believable.

Snippy and whining, his wife let them know that she didn’t care for being kept in the dark. “I do not react well to being the last to know.”

Challenge served. Good time to deflect the serve with husbandly confusion. “Excuse me but can one of you explain what the vault is?”

“My grandmother is having a Miss Havisham moment,” his wife told him with a dismissive sniff.

The comparison was beyond funny. “Well love, she is an eccentric old bird, I’ll grant you that. Is this vault where she keeps the bones of past lovers? Maybe the carcass of a Broadway producer or two?”

“Something like that.” She openly pouted, a for real pout, not one of those wrapping-him-around-her-little-finger pouts. “Dad came up with the expression. She’s got a storage space filled floor to ceiling with mementoes. Diaries. Costumes. Journals. Magazine articles. Pictures. You name it. The entire Baron-Wilde history is in that vault along with a breadcrumb trail of her colorful life. She’s held that damn collection over everyone’s heads for years.”

Charlie studied her sister with a frown. “That’s why I think this is more about Rhiann than luring me to the city. She wants her to write the story and so far Rhi isn’t biting.”

“Yes, well our sister has other things on her mind right now.”

His wife looked at him and then quickly averted her eyes. Damn straight she had a lot on her mind. Poor Rhiann. She was having a bit of a rough time at the moment.

He recognized the minute Brynn’s patience ran out. Things weren’t going the way she wanted them to. He was going to have his hands full when they went to bed later. He was married to a strong woman. The way she lived and the choices Brynn made spoke of her courage, tenacity and serious backbone. But when it was just the two of them, a different side of her came out. The side where her feelings lived. She was a pregnant hormonal mess at times. Like now.

“I don’t want you under Nana’s control but you won’t listen to me,” she griped. “And I guess Philadelphia is better than you running back to Italy.”

Charlie jumped up and hugged her sister. “Thanks Brynnie. And I do listen to you sis it’s just that some things,” her brows snapped together and she stopped talking.

“Some things what?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing,” Charlie chirped as she tried to laugh off her near gaffe. Waving her fingers, she cleverly used the ditzy blonde fade to cut Brynn off. “You know me. Mouth always out ahead of sense.”

Far as evasive tactics went, it was just enough.

“When do you have to leave?”

Jax wondered if Cal had any inkling that his woman was about to fly the coop.

“Soon as possible. New semester already started. The longer I drag my feet the longer it’ll take.”

Brynn looked at him. He saw the tears gathering in her eyes. Standing up, he pushed his chair in and reached out his hand for her to take. “Come on love. Time to relax and get your feet up. Pretty sure there’s a Friends marathon on or something.”

She sighed heavily and stood up, rubbing a hand in big circles on her tummy. “She wants ice cream, Daddy. And syrup. Lots of chocolate syrup.” Then his extraordinary wife turned to her sister. “I trust your instincts hippie girl. If you say Philly is where you have to be, I’m good. But I’ll tell you what, if you’re keeping something from me,” she glanced his way for a brief second. “I’ll take your name off my babysitting list and you can go suck a lemon.”

Charlie grinned as she put both of her hands on the bump. “Don’t threaten me bakery bitch!” she chortled. “Me and my niece or nephew already have a plan for how to bring mayhem and chaos to your list-filled life.”

Brynn laughed. “More trouble than you’re worth baby bitch.”

Jax shook his head. These Wilde women were a rare breed of awesomeness.