Zoey And The Nice Guy (Big Girl Panties #1) (3 page)

He called Damon, who picked up on the first ring. “Where am I at?” Kellen repeated the question. “I’m at the hospital with your wife.”

There was a moment of silence. And then just as calm as could be, Damon said, “You tell her to keep her fucking mouth shut, you hear?”

Kellen would have punched him if he’d been standing there. “How do you do this to a woman, let alone a woman you love? How?”

“You don’t know the shit I put up with. You don’t know what I’m going through, so don’t you fucking judge me.”

Kellen closed his eyes and wondered how he could have been so blind. “You came to my house last night, crying. You had just beaten your wife in a house where your children were sleeping and you came to me and I let you stay there.”

“What’s your problem, Kell?”

“My problem is that I’m beginning to see my role in what’s happened to my sister-in-law. Get out of my house, Damon.”

“You don’t even wanna hear my side of the story? I’m your brother, for fuck’s sake.”

“I just can’t be near you right now. I’ll hear you out when I calm down.”

Damon laughed, and Kellen understood why, even as he hung up. Kellen’s version of losing his temper involved frowning. That was about it. He hardly ever raised his voice, and he’d never, that he could recall, thrown anything or stomped or slammed doors. When it came to emotions, he was very much an internal person. He didn’t like to show when he was hurt or angry or sad or happy…or anything. He just preferred to stay mellow.
 

The nurse came out of the exam room. “You can go on in, Mr. Bradley.”

“Thank you,” he said with a polite smile as he walked past her.
 

Maya was still in the hospital gown, lying down on the exam table with a blanket over her legs. He went to her and put his hand over hers resting on her stomach. He thought she might be smiling, but under the swelling and bruising, he couldn’t tell.
 

“I’m divorcing him,” she said.

Kellen nodded.

“They’re coming back in to take a bunch of pictures to document this, so that I can get protection. If you need to be with your brother—“

“I need to be with you.”

She was quiet for a moment. “Thank you. I could be here a while. They’ve got some X-rays to take.”

“I’m here as long as you need me.”

He saw two tears ease out of the corners of her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was high-pitched and weak. “I should have left so long ago.”

“You’re leaving now, and that’s all that matters.” How long had this gone on? How many times had he hurt her?

“My poor babies—“

“Will be better off, now. They really will. And, someday, they’ll thank you for getting them to safety and loving them enough to be so brave. You’re doing the right thing, Maya. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I never saw any of this before.”

The nurse came in with a camera. Kellen waited in the waiting room again. Sometime around lunch, Addy called for an update. Maya had finished having her X-rays taken by then and was waiting on the results.
 

He brought Maya some lunch from the cafeteria, and shortly after that, the doctor came in. She had a broken rib and a lot of bruising. There was nothing to do but give her pain medication.
 

Kellen drove her to Zoey’s house and walked her inside. Dread weighed heavily upon him as he entered the lair. Perhaps lair was the wrong word. It looked like a perfectly normal house. But maybe there was a dungeon in the basement. Or a secret gate leading to hell.
 

He eased Maya into a recliner and then took a moment to examine his surroundings. He’d never been in here. Never been invited. If that fact hurt his feelings a little bit, he didn’t see the need to acknowledge it. Sure, there’d been a time when he’d hoped to catch Zoey’s eye, but then she’d broken his nose and made his football game the next night pure hell, so he figured she wasn’t interested. Her actions hadn’t lessened his attraction to her, but they had definitely warned him away.

Zoey and Addy came down the hall and into the living room. They hurried to Maya’s sides and took over where Kellen had left off, making her comfortable, asking her questions, offering her food and drink.

Kellen could hear his niece and nephew laughing somewhere in the back of the house. Since Zoey’s attentions were on Maya, he snuck down the hall and peered into one of the bedrooms. The kids were jumping up and down on the bed, giggling and squealing.

The first to see him, Sophie shouted, “Uncle Kellen!” She climbed off the bed and hugged him, as though she hadn’t just seen him that morning. His favorite thing about being an uncle was that no matter how many times he visited, the kids still acted like he was Santa Claus. Matthew was next off the bed, hugging him.
 

“Wanna jump with us?” he asked.

“Does Aunt Zoey mind you jumping on the bed?”

“She hasn’t come back to stop us, yet.”
 

Kellen laughed. “You two go on. I’ll watch and make sure you don’t injure yourselves.”

He looked around the room and wondered how long the kids would be staying here. It was a nicely furnished room, with matching floral curtains and bedspread. It just didn’t seem very inviting to children. “Hey, Matthew,” he said.

“Yeah?” Matthew stopped jumping to listen.

“You help your sister and make a list of things you want from your rooms—just the really important stuff, okay? And I’ll go get it for you.”

“Mom said to just pack what we needed.”

“Oh, I know. But now that you all are sa—settled, I can go get some other stuff. Kind of looks like Aunt Zoey doesn’t have any toys for you to play with.” He’d started to say now that they were safe, but stopped himself. He wanted to make this situation feel like a fun adventure rather than a flight from danger.

Matthew hopped off the bed and led his sister to the dining room. They found a piece of paper and a pen and went to work on a list. Kellen turned back to the living room and came face to face with Zoey, queen of all that was unholy and violent.
 

“You can go now,” she said.

He hadn’t known how to mentally prepare for this moment, so he decided just to talk to her like a sane person. “I know. I’m going to the house to get the kids a few things.” He looked past Zoey to where Maya was sitting in the living room. “Do you need anything, Sis?” he asked.

“I don’t think so,” she said weakly. Addy was sitting next to her, murmuring something.

“I mean go and don’t come back,” Zoey said. “I can get the kids anything they need from their house.”

Kellen shook his head. “I don’t want you going over there. Damon could be there, and I don’t want you getting hurt.”

She snorted and lifted up her shirt just over her lower abs. There was a pistol tucked in a holster in the waist of her jeans.

Holy shit, she had a gun. Kellen jumped back. “Jesus, Zoey!”

“I’ve got my concealed carry license. I’m always packing now. I think I can handle Damon.”

He bit his tongue and glanced back at Matthew and Sophie. “Where do you store that thing?”

“In my nightstand.”

“Locked?”
 

She narrowed her eyes at him. “How would I get to it if there was an intruder if I had it locked up?”

“You’ve got kids here, now, Zoey. You can’t just leave it loose, where they can get to it.”

“I guess Maya and I will work out what to do. I want you to leave my house.”

He purposely ignored her meaning again. “Yeah, I’ll be back in a little while with their things.”

“And I told you I’d get them myself!”
 

“No, Zoey,” he said calmly.

“I can handle your worthless brother.”

“No, Zoey.”

“And I don’t need you anywhere around me, my friend, or her kids.”

“Enough, Zoey!” he shouted. The house went silent and shocked eyes turned his way. He really hadn’t shouted that loudly, it was just that no one was used to hearing him…put his foot down.

Hell, he was in shock, himself. Kellen stared at her with his eyes wide. She stared back, her eyes equally wide. There was something strange in her expression, too. Something that definitely wasn’t hate. He cleared his throat. In a cool and collected voice, he said, “I’m going to get the kids’ things. I’ll see you in a little while.”

This time she didn’t argue with him. She did bite her lip and arch her brow at him as she stepped aside.
 

Matthew ran over and handed him the list. Kellen took it and walked past Zoey, glancing back at her. He was slightly afraid of her now that he knew she had a gun, and she was looking at him so strangely. But then, he’d never yelled at her. Maybe this was rage. Maybe she was plotting murder.

He was relieved when he climbed into his truck and headed to Damon and Maya’s house.

Zoey dabbed a little drool off the corner of her mouth with the sleeve of her sweater. “Wow. Kellen being assertive is hot.” Suddenly he’d seemed bigger. Stronger. More alpha. It was as though she’d seen a blurry version of him all her life and now, suddenly, he was clear. She wondered what would happen if she pushed him even further.

Addy gaped, half shocked, half disgusted. “What is your problem?”

Zoey plopped down in one of her recliners. “He yelled at me.”

“And that does it for you?”

“Not usually. Just with him, I guess. He’s always so fucking patient.”

Addy glanced toward the dining room, where the children were drawing pictures.
 

“What?” Zoey asked.

“Language.”

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry, Maya. I curse like a sailor.”

Maya smiled. “I know,” she said softly. “Don’t worry about it. The kids are used to cursing.”

Zoey put her hand on her stomach at the mild wave of nausea that passed. She’d just been compared to Damon. She drew herself up and determined to make more of an effort to keep a civilized tongue.
 

“You know, Kellen’s always liked you,” Maya said.

“Bullsh—I mean, bullcrap. He’s just too nice-guy to say anything mean about anyone.”

“That’s not true. He’s very honest, even if he is nice. He likes you. He’s just confused about why you don’t like him.”

Zoey smiled at the thought. “Good. Too many women fawn all over him. He needs someone like me hating him irrationally to keep his ego from getting too inflated.”

“So you dislike him on principle?” Maya asked.

“Pretty much.”
 

Maya tried to grin, but the attempt was pitiful. Her voice was so weak. She was frail. Too thin, too broken. Not at all the woman she should be. Zoey bit back a pang of grief. “It’s not his fault,” she said. “It’s just hard to like anything related to Damon.”

Addy stroked Maya’s hair. The kids talked and giggled in the background. Zoey couldn’t help thinking how different this was from when they used to gather around Maya after her father had hurt her. Back then, they’d banded together, closer than sisters. Now, with Addy dividing her time between here and her graduate program in St. Louis, and Maya busy with family, they’d lost some of that tightness.
 

Zoey hated it. She wanted to push everything out of their lives that was keeping them apart. She wanted to go back to the way things were before Maya had gotten pregnant.
 

Zoey sensed movement and glanced out the window to see Kellen’s truck pulling in her driveway. He usually rode a motorcycle, but she supposed it was too cold.
 

She stood to meet him at the door, thinking she’d take what he’d brought and send him on his way. But he had two, big duffel bags slung over his shoulders and a box in his arms. He smiled at her like he was happy to see her.

She frowned and stepped out of his way, deciding to make him carry everything himself. He delivered the kids’ stuff to their room just as cheerful as Santa Claus and helped them unpack and even played with some of their race cars for a while. Zoey found herself leaning in the doorway, mesmerized.

“Wanna play?” Kellen asked.

“Not with you,” she said.
 

His smile faltered briefly before he turned his attention back to the kids. Zoey returned to the living room, shaking her head and wondering who he thought he was.

“Who does he think he is?” she asked, plopping into her chair. She immediately jumped back up and headed to the kitchen for a glass of wine. “Y’all want some of this?”

“Yes, please,” Addy said.

“Not supposed to mix it with my pain meds,” Maya lamented, so Zoey poured her some juice in a wine glass.
 

“So what’s your problem with him now?” Addy asked as Zoey sat back down.

“My problem is he’s such a fake. I’m sorry, but nobody’s that nice. I just feel like I’m being lied to whenever I’m face-to-face with him.”

“You’d certainly never bother to spare his feelings, would you?” Addy asked the obvious question with a weird smirk on her face.

“Hell, no. I’ll tell him straight up what I think of him.”

From behind her, Kellen cleared his throat. He was leaning on the wall at the corner of the hallway and the living room. He didn’t even look at Zoey, not that she would have cared if he did. She wanted him to know that she hated him. Even if her face was a little red at being caught talking about him.
 

“Maya, I gotta head home. Is there anything you need?”

“No, thank you, baby,” she said, sounding completely drunk.

Kellen grinned. “What have they got you on?”

“Some really good stuff. You have a good night, now.”

“I will. Got a date with Celeste. You liked her, right?”

“She’s a doll,” Maya said. “Your best pick yet.”

He grinned and kissed her on top of her head. Then he headed to the door and glanced back. “Zoey, can I talk to you for a sec?”

Zoey considered telling him to fuck off, but then she remembered her resolution to clean up her language. She stood and followed him outside, wondering if he would yell at her again.

He headed down her porch steps, across her lawn, and stopped at his truck. She stopped a few steps behind him, hugging herself to keep warm.