Hearts at Play (Love in Bloom: The Bradens, Book 6) Contemporary Romance (21 page)

The promise of feeling him drew her eyes open. She was so close to coming apart that when he said, “I love you, Bree,” it almost took her over the edge. She closed her eyes to savor the moment.

“Open your eyes. See me, Bree. Be with me.”

His voice was rich and smooth, and oh so sexy. She opened her eyes, and he drove into her, every magnificent inch of him, filling her completely, touching all the right spots as he thrust again and again, withdrawing almost completely and then returning with fervor, each time taking her higher. His eyes darkened and narrowed, but he held her gaze, and the strain of her arms against the thrust of his hips and the love in his eyes collided in a flash of lights as she reached her peak, and this time he caught her passionate cries in his mouth. A minute later, oxygen from his lungs filled hers as he found his release, and she held their silence by swallowing his gratified groans.

IT WAS ALMOST three when Hugh arrived home. He showered and checked his email, then wandered around the house that didn’t really feel like a home. Brianna’s apartment felt like a home. No, that wasn’t right either. Wherever Brianna was felt like home. Yes, that was it.

He picked up his cell and punched in Treat’s speed-dial number.

“You’d better be dying,” Treat groaned.

“Nice welcome for your baby brother,” Hugh teased.

“Hold on,” Treat grumbled. Hugh listened to him walk across the floor. A door opened, then closed. Treat sighed, and Hugh pictured him in his boxer briefs, his enormous body stumbling in the dark house Hugh had yet to see.

“You all right?” Treat was more awake now, with a sharp, irritated edge.

“Sorry for calling so late. I need a favor.”

Treat sighed again.

Hugh ran his hand through his hair. “Treat. I don’t know who else to ask, man.”

“Of course. Whatever you need.”

And just like that his eldest brother, the person who had always watched out for him, taught him, riled him up like no other, and above all else, loved him, was ready to help. That was the kind of man who Hugh was striving to be.

“When you proposed to Max, remember how she rushed to our house and you showed up and she backed into your car?” He spoke fast, anxious to get his point across.

“Like it was yesterday.” Treat yawned.

“Were you guys having trouble? Why was it all so…urgent?” Hugh stood before the glass doors in the living room, one arm crossed over his abs, his other elbow leaning on his wrist.

“Hugh, this is what’s so urgent?”

“Treat, please.”

“Yeah, okay. We were having some trouble, yes, but not trouble because we didn’t want to be together. It was more like trouble because we did want to be together, but it was scary as shit.”

He heard Treat breathing as if he were pacing.

“Hugh, what’s going on?”

“I just needed to make sure I wasn’t crazy. Are you still coming to the race?”

“Planning on it, but still waiting to hear about your plans for that night.”

“Shit, I forgot. I’m sorry, man. Listen, I need a favor. It’s a big one.”

“Of course it is.”

Not for the first time, Hugh thanked the heavens above for his family.

BRIANNA PULLED UP in front of the school Thursday morning, and when she turned to say goodbye to Layla, a knock on her car window startled her. Marissa’s mother, Cheryl, wearing thick eyeliner, red skintight jeans that accentuated her enormous ass and hips, and a thick black belt, stared into the car. She looked like Peg Bundy from
Married with Children
, complete with the eighties hair and spike heels. Brianna sighed and feigned a smile as she rolled down the window.

Cheap perfume assaulted her.

“Hey there, sugar.” Cheryl peered into the backseat. “Hi, Layla. How’s the birthday girl?”

“Good,” she said, unbuckling her booster seat strap.

“You know Marissa will be there today, right? We left you a message.”

“Yes, we’re looking forward to it.” Brianna glanced at Layla. “You okay, honey? You should get going.”

Layla pushed her face over the front seat and kissed Brianna’s cheek. “I love you.”

“Love you too, princess.” She watched her run out the door and into a pack of classmates, all with bright backpacks strapped to their backs like turtle shells.

“Will he be there?” Cheryl whispered.

“He who?”

Cheryl lifted her eyebrows and looked around, then pushed her head into the window and whispered, “Hugh Braden.”

“How do you know about Hugh?”

“Oh please. Do you really think you can hide a man like that?” She whipped the morning newspaper from behind her back, and on the front page of the Local News section was a photograph of Hugh’s smiling face, Brianna staring up at him like a star-struck groupie.

Holy shit.

She noticed two of Layla’s other classmates’ mothers heading for her car.

“Um, I don’t know, Cheryl, but I have to get to work. Sorry to be rude.” She rolled up the window and hightailed it out of the school parking lot.

She parked behind the tavern and dug through her purse for her phone.
Damn it.
She’d left it on vibrate and had three messages from Hugh. Her heart raced as she listened to them.

Hi, beautiful. Don’t freak out, but we’re in the newspaper. Complete with my proclamation of being off the market. Love you. I’ll call you later.

She groaned.

Hey, babe. Just trying to catch you before my appointment. I’ll see you tonight at Layla’s party, and I’ll try to call you later. Love you.

Why wasn’t it Friday night? Getting out of town would be so much easier.

Hey, still trying to reach you. It just dawned on me that you might be freaking out and I wanted to say…Sidecar. Love you. Don’t be scared. Nothing can ever come between us.

A call from Hugh rang through and she switched over.

“Hey there,” she said, thankful that he’d reached her this time.

“Sidecar.”

She let out a breath and felt her lips curl into a smile. “I’m not freaking out too badly.”

“I’m on my way into my meeting, so I can’t talk long, but I wanted to…no, I needed to know that you were okay.”

“I’m good. I’m not going to let my insecurities or fear come between us. How do you usually handle this stuff?” Layla’s lunch was sitting on the backseat.
Crap
.

“I don’t pay it any mind anymore. At first it was kind of exciting; then it became a pain in the ass. But to be honest, I’m kind of glad about this picture. Now the world knows I’m with you. That’s a good thing, because I’m ready to shout it from the rooftop.”

She pictured his eyes lighting up and his deep dimples on his perpetually unshaven and way-too-sexy cheeks. Then it hit her like a punch to the gut. “Layla. Oh God, Hugh. They’ll be all over her at school. I gotta get over there.”

“Damn it. I wish I were there. I’m sorry, Bree.”

She heard the distress in his voice. “It’s fine. I can do this. I’m not a wimpy weak girly girl.” She touched her locket. “I’m a brave, strong girlfriend.”

“Yeah, you are. Love you, babe.”

“Love you, too. I gotta go save my daughter, who is probably drama queening it up for the entire class about Prince Hugh.”

He laughed. “I can’t wait to see you.”

“Oh, wait. I’m sorry. One more thing. I was mobbed at school and they were asking if you were going to be at the birthday party. That was a little freaky.”

“Sidecar, sidecar, sidecar. I’ll leave that up to you. I don’t want to hide, and once your friends see that I’m a regular guy, they’ll get used to me and the excitement will wear off. But if you worry it’ll take the focus off of Layla, I’ll stay home.”

She sighed. “You’re so good to us. I’m not missing a minute with you because of fan girls anymore. I made a promise to myself.”

“Good. I gotta run, babe.”

She ended the call and said, “Sidecar, sidecar, sidecar,” as she threw the car into gear.

THE FIRST THING Brianna did when she walked into the school was go to the principal’s office. Principal Shue was not known for being warm and friendly. Oh, how she’d avoided that office when she was younger. But now, after seeing Cheryl’s reaction to Hugh, the only thing that mattered was Layla’s comfort and safety. Shue had ruled the school with an iron fist when Brianna was younger. Brianna was certain she’d enforce stringent rules when it came to her daughter’s safety.

As she entered the glass doors of the main office, she remembered that Shue required appointments before ten o’clock in the morning.
I am not a weak girly girl
.

The school secretary, Ann Olephant, smiled when Brianna entered the office. “Brianna, how are you, dear?” She was a sweet gray-haired woman with a slight hunch in her back and silver glasses that hung from a chain around her neck and never seemed to find their way to the bridge of her nose.

“Fine, thank you. How have you been?” Brianna’s stomach clenched when she spotted Shue on the phone in her office.

“Oh lovely, dear.” She leaned across the desk and whispered, “Saw your picture in the paper.”

“That’s why I’m here. I don’t have an appointment, but I’d like to speak with Principal Shue, please.”

“Oh yes. I think she’ll make the time, given the situation. Just have a seat, and I’ll let her know you’re here.” She pushed her stout body from her chair and hurried into Principal Shue’s office.

The situation? Now Hugh and I are a “situation”?

Brianna sat in the plastic chairs by the door. Two of the lunchroom aids breezed into the office. One carried the newspaper, folded to show the photograph of Hugh and Brianna. Luckily, they were so engrossed in the damn thing they didn’t notice her sitting to the left of the doors. She sank down in her chair.

“Can you believe it? I heard—”

“Brianna. It’s been a very long time.” All six feet of Principal Shue looked over her.

Brianna jumped to her feet. “Yes, it has. Thank you for seeing me.” She followed the
clomp, clomp, clomp
, of Principal Shue’s black orthopedic shoes into her office and sat across from Principal Shue, separated by a large wooden desk. She still wore her dyed-too-dark hair cropped short above her ears and layered throughout, and she still wore the same style polyester pantsuit that she’d worn when Brianna had been in school. She looked just as manly.

Brianna fidgeted with the seam on her purse, wrestling the same jittery feelings she’d had as a grade schooler.

“I hear Layla is a little celebrity today.” Principal Shue leaned back in her chair and crossed her thick legs.

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, her class took a few minutes this morning to discuss what it was like to know someone famous. It was a good lesson for the children. You know, etiquette and such. The teacher did a nice job of handling it.”

“Etiquette?” Brianna gripped her purse in both fists. “That is not at all appropriate for my daughter to experience in school. What our private life consists of is not up for classroom discussion.”

“Oh, Brianna. You always did buck the system.”

“Buck the system?”
I’ll buck the fucking system all right
.

“The way you used to fight against Take Your Child to Work Day.” She narrowed her eyes at Brianna, and Brianna bristled.

She’d always hated those days. They had twenty-one children in their class, and on Take Your Child to Work Day, she and the Baker twins were the only children who came to class. The Baker twins’ parents also worked two jobs just to make ends meet. She’d argued the validity of Take Your Child to Work Day every year her mother was unable to take her, and every year Mrs. Shue gave her the same song and dance about the importance of children seeing what it was that their parents did for a living. Unfortunately, she never gave her the answer Brianna had needed. She never told her that her mother’s boss was an ass or that at the time it had been difficult for a single mother to find employment that paid well enough to provide for them. Or what Brianna had really wanted to hear, even if it was unreasonable—that Take Your Child to Work Day had been canceled. Forever.

“I still think that day is quite silly,” Brianna said. “I came in today to ask that you please monitor Layla’s class and her friends now that…”
I’ve been photographed with my boyfriend? My lover? Oh God, what do I say?

“Now that the cat’s out of the bag?”

Brianna sighed. “Look, I don’t want Layla to be the center of attention because of Hugh’s career. She’s a six-year-old girl, and she’s here to learn and socialize, not to become a public spectacle.”

“Perhaps you should have considered that before you started dating Mr. Braden.”

Ouch
. Brianna stood. “Perhaps, but since this…issue has come about, can I count on you to protect my daughter or not? That’s the only thing that matters at this point.”

“Settle down, Brianna. Sit back down, please.”

Brianna obeyed like one of Pavlov’s dogs.

“Layla didn’t seem to mind talking about her night at the theater, and she was commended for her creativity for writing her own play. We’re certainly not trying to make a spectacle of her. There was a lot of excitement this morning, as two of the children brought the newspaper into class, and it grew from there.” Principal Shue leaned across the desk.

Brianna’s heart told her to take Layla and leave the school, but her mind told her to
behave
and
listen
.

“I can make certain that Mr. Braden’s existence doesn’t come into play in the daily classroom activities, but I’m not sure I can do much about what she’ll experience on the playground. But you know how these things go. Kids will forget soon enough, and life will go back to normal.”

Brianna remembered the two long years after her father left. Kids did not forget, and things did not go back to anything even close to resembling normal. And not once did any adult ask her how she felt about the name-calling or feeling left out during the special parent-child days when her mother had to work. She’d been labeled
the girl whose father left
.
And I’m still that girl.
There’s no way in hell she’d let Layla become
the girl whose mother is dating Hugh Braden.
Brianna’s phone vibrated.

“I’m sorry. Excuse me.” She dug her phone out of her purse to turn it off and was astonished to see three text messages from Layla’s classmates’ mothers.
Now that Hugh is around, they came out of the woodwork.

“Trouble?” Principal Shue asked.

“No.” She shoved her phone back in her purse. “I guess when you date a…someone like Hugh, everyone wants a piece of him.” She hated the frustration in her voice and the way her muscles all pulled tight across her neck. Was this what their life would be like? How could she protect Layla from getting an overinflated ego or from being used?

“Brianna, take a deep breath.”

Brianna obeyed.
Ugh!
She hated feeling like she was back in third grade. She wondered how Layla felt. Not what Principal Shue thought was right or wrong, and not even what she thought was right or wrong.
How is Layla dealing with the attention?
She knew what she had to do.

“Principal Shue, I’d like to speak to Layla.” She rose to her feet and headed for the door.

“I’ll be happy to have her come down and we can speak to her.”

“No, thank you. I’d like to speak with her privately.” She walked out of the principal’s office. “Actually, I’ll go get her. I can observe through the door for a few minutes. You can tell a lot about a child’s feelings by watching and even more by listening.” A few determined strides later, she was rounding the corner to Layla’s classroom.

She looked through the glass on the door. Layla waved her hand in the air, flapping it like a flag. Brianna smiled at her enthusiasm.
Maybe I overreacted
. She heard Principal Shue’s
clop, clop, clop
echoing down the hall. She wondered if Hugh had been right and this would blow over and he’d become just “Layla’s mother’s boyfriend” after a while. Layla was talking to the teacher, and she looked happy enough. Brianna was about to walk away when Principal Shue appeared behind her.

“Aren’t you going to speak with her?” She looked down at Brianna with the same stern look she always had.

“No. I think she’s okay.”

“Brianna, speak to your daughter. She’ll appreciate that you did, and you’ll have peace of mind.”

She met the principal’s surprisingly soft gaze.

“Your mother did this same thing when you were in school. After your father left, she’d come and observe about once a week. She’d feel confident after seeing you pay attention in class, or laugh at something, and then she’d go on her way. Take it to the next step, Brianna. You were never settled, and I think if your mother had pulled you from class and let you know that she cared about how you felt during school hours, it might have made you a little more at ease.”

“Then why didn’t you tell her to do that for me?” Brianna felt her legs weakening.

“I did. She didn’t have time. She worked very hard. Two jobs, as I remember, and she’d come over on a break and have to run back to work afterward.” Her gaze softened.

“She never told me.”
I wish she had
.

“Many parents don’t. They don’t want to embarrass their children by making them think they were checking up on them. You were a pistol. You stood up to the kids who called you names.” Principal Shue crossed her arms and looked as immovable as a linebacker.

“You knew?”

“Of course I knew. I tried to stop it, but you know we can’t do much. We can talk to the children, suspend them for a day or two, but that’s the extent of it. You held up a brave front. You gave it right back to them.”

Brianna had no recollection of ever
giving it right back
to anyone. She remembered feeling alone and different. Very, very different.

Principal Shue continued, and this time she spoke in a soft tone, her eyes translating pride toward Brianna. Her normal rigid facade was now more relaxed as she gazed off to the side, as if she were watching a memory unfold before her. “A few months after your father left, you began ignoring those comments. You’d lift your little chin and act as though you were deaf to it all.”

Deaf to it all? I was able to wall my emotions off then, too? Enough of that. No more.
Determined not to let Layla experience the same lonely, painful childhood, she changed her mind. “I think I will talk to her. Thank you.”

Twenty minutes later, after running Layla’s lunch back inside, Brianna left the school with more than peace of mind. She had a contented heart as well. She hadn’t yet explained to Layla what Hugh did for a living, and though her classmates made a big deal about it, Layla had raised her palm to the air and told Brianna,
All adults drive cars. Hugh’s nice, so I told them that he was nice and to stop asking about his cars. Sheesh!
Unlike Brianna, Layla seemed able to handle the situation—at least for now.

HUGH ARRIVED AT Jean’s house at five-thirty. “Wow, that’s a big box.” Brianna opened the door, and her heart swelled at the sight of Hugh. She wondered if she’d ever get used to his good looks or the sparkle that lit up his eyes when he saw her for the first time each day.

Hugh handed her a large gift wrapped in silver paper. “This one’s for you.”

“It’s not my birthday.”

“Sure it is. You gave birth to Layla six years ago. Besides, you can’t get mad about this. It’s a very utilitarian purchase. You need it.”

They went into the living room and Brianna untied the ribbon. “Maybe I need rules about not spoiling me, too.”

“I can adhere to the spoiling rule for children, but a girlfriend shall have no say on her own spoiling.”

Brianna gasped as she took the camera from the box. “Hugh.” She touched it as if it were made of glass.

“CD…Claude helped me pick it out.”

“Oh my God. I can’t accept this. These are super expensive.” She put it back in the box. They’d never discussed finances, and Brianna was sure Hugh earned a lot of money given his cars and what he did for a living, but it was still too lavish of a gift for her to accept.

“Bree, if I have to accept not spoiling Layla, then you have to accept the gifts I choose for you.”

“But…”

He wrapped her in his arms. “I love that you worry, but I promise you that I wouldn’t ever buy anything that I couldn’t afford.” Hugh set the box on the coffee table and pulled Brianna down to the couch beside him. “I make more money in a year than we could ever spend.”

We?
She wrinkled her brow.

Layla ran into the room. “Hugh!” She jumped into his lap and assessed the open gift. “Is that present for Mom?”

“Yup. Now she can take pictures of your party,” Hugh said.

“Oh goody!” She slid off his lap and ran into the kitchen. “Grandma! Guess what Mom got!”

A knock at the door drew Brianna’s attention. She should have expected that people would show up early, given the morning newspaper.

“Cheryl, hi.” Brianna opened the door, very aware—by Cheryl’s gaping jaw—of Hugh standing behind her.

Cheryl wore the same outfit she’d had on earlier in the day, though she had on enough perfume to gag a small army. “You must be Hugh. What a pleasure to meet you.” She held out a limp wrist.

Hugh nodded and flashed his dimples. “Hello, Cheryl. Nice to meet you.”

Marissa ran into the house. “See! There he is!” she yelled over her shoulder to three other little girls and their mothers. Each woman dressed as though she were attending a formal, albeit slutty, affair. Brianna had never seen these women in anything other than jeans and T-shirts. Now they flaunted cleavage, short skirts, and more makeup than Kat wore.

The children ran into the backyard with Layla, and the women swooned over Hugh, blinking their heavily mascaraed eyelashes and peppering him with questions.

“I didn’t even know you lived in the area,” Cheryl said.

“How did you two meet?” Lisa, a short blond-haired woman asked.

“We should get together for dinner sometime with the kids,” Kelly, a short, stout brunette suggested.