Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4) (14 page)

“Did you come to play with us?” Callie asked with a bright smile.

“Of course I did. I missed my little buddies.” He swooped down and grabbed Callie by the waist and tossed her in the air, delighting in her shrill laughter before putting her safely on the ground and doing the same to Cameron.

“Come slide wiff us!” Cameron shouted before he and Callie took off in that direction.

Brett followed after, shooting a wink at me over his shoulder. Damn that sexy wink! Being friends with this man was killing me. If him being hot as sin wasn’t bad enough, watching him climb up that stupid slide and go down with both kids in his lap just about did me in. That was it. I needed at least an hour alone with my vibrator if I was going to make it through this
friendship.
It wasn’t lost on me that every other mom in the park was keeping a close eye on Brett’s every movement. I couldn’t blame them. There was nothing more attractive to a mother than a sexy man getting down in the dirt, not the slightest bit embarrassed to sit in a sandbox if that’s what made the kids happy. But that didn’t stop the nagging jealousy from rearing its ugly head every time one of them dared to get a little too close. Thankfully, I had to hand it to him; he had a talent of smiling politely as he brushed them off and went back to playing with the twins.

I watched as he made my children laugh and squeal in delight as he spent time following them from play set to play set, never once losing his patience like Lance had been so prone to doing.

About an hour later, Callie and Cam came running back over to me, out of breath and smiling a mile wide, with Brett trailing closely behind.

“Mommy, did you see how high I swinged?”

I scooped my little girl up in my lap and gave her a nuzzle, earning myself a laugh.

“I did! I was afraid you were gonna swing all the way to the moon.”

“Silly Mommy,” she giggled, kissing me on my cheek.

“I’d have missed you
soooo
much if you went all the way to the moon.”

I felt a shift on the bench as Brett took a seat next to me and pulled Cameron onto his lap, pulling his ball cap off and plopping it on my son’s head.

“Hey, Mom. Brett said I can wear his hat
all day
!”

“That’s really awesome, bub. It’s a great hat.” I smiled. “Did you tell him thank you?”

“Yu huh. He said it has magical powers. It’ll make me strong like Spiderman!”

“That’s right, bud.” Brett gave the brim a little flick. “My granddad gave it to me so I could grow up strong, and look at me now.”

Cameron stared up at Brett in wonder, awed that the magic hat could possibly make him so big. “Wow,” he breathed out.

“Yeah, my granddad was a pretty cool man.”

Cameron turned back to me and asked, “Is my granddad as cool as Brett’s, Mommy?”

I felt my smile falter at that question. I’d been dreading questions like that for the longest time, knowing I’d have to lie to them.

“Yeah,” I croaked out, trying to maintain a cheerful face as I spoke past the lump that had formed in my throat.

“How come we never seen our granddad?” Callie asked. My eyes went wide as I stuttered, trying to come up with an appropriate answer.

Thankfully, Brett seemed to be in tune with my sudden mood shift and quickly jumped on a subject change.

“Hey, guys, I’m starving. How about we go get ourselves something to eat, huh? I know Emmy’s dying to see y’all. We can head over to the diner for lunch.”

“YAY!” they cheered, hopping off our laps and jumping up and down.

We grabbed our stuff and left the park. As we walked, I looked over to catch Brett’s eye, mouthing a silent
thank you
to him. He smiled politely, but the expression in his eyes told me he was just as curious for an answer as my kids had been. That was a conversation I had no intention of ever having with him

All thoughts and talk of their grandfather was completely forgotten by the time we walked through the door of Virgie May’s. After eating a delicious lunch and visiting with Emmy, where she plied my kids with pie (whoever said sugar doesn’t affect a child’s energy level is a jackass), we spent the rest of the day running around, enjoying the beautiful weather.

By the time the sun started to set, Callie and Cameron were dead to the world and I was thankful to have Brett there to help me carry them up the stairs and into the apartment. He put Cameron on his bed as I laid Callie down on hers and stepped out so I could get them in their jammies and tucked in properly. Neither of them flinched as I got them set.

Stepping to the doorway, I flicked the switch off and turned to look at my two tiny angels sleeping peacefully in their beds before pulling the door to and heading back into the living room.

“Thank you.” I reached for the beer Brett offered and plopped down on the couch, sucking down a generous gulp before dropping my head back and closing my eyes. The couch dipped with Brett’s weight as he took a seat next to me, both of us sitting in companionable silence for a few minutes.

“I appreciate you coming with us today,” I spoke, breaking the peaceful quiet. I felt him shift next to me and my eyes popped open at the sensation of his fingers brushing along my cheek.

“I had fun. I always have fun when I’m with those two.”

The grin on his face as he tipped his head in the direction of the hall caused butterflies to take off in my belly. He was always so genuine when he talked about my kids.

“They really like you,” I whispered, emotion clogging my throat as I thought back to how he was with Cameron and Callie earlier in the day. I’d never seen a man connected so well with them before. Lance was always too busy or too tired to be bothered with them, but Brett had the patience of a saint. It pulled at something inside of me that I was trying so desperately to ignore.

“I really like them, too.”

I studied his face, trying to find something that indicated what he said was a lie, but I came up empty.

“You really mean that, don’t you?”

His eyes narrowed as he gazed at me as though he was trying to see all of my secrets. It was such a disconcerting feeling that I found myself leaning away from him.

“Why is that so hard to believe?” he asked softly. “You’re a fantastic woman who, in turn, is raising two fantastic kids.”

I turned away and took another sip of my beer with a mumbled, “Thanks,” not knowing what else to say.

Obviously having had enough of me evading his gaze, Brett took my chin between his fingers and tilted my face toward his.

“What happened to you, beauty? You can tell me.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” I lied, standing from the couch and taking a step away. All of a sudden, I needed space from him and his questioning eyes. I hated how he was looking at me. The pity masked with concern cut like a knife.

He stood as well and reached out for my hand, but I quickly pulled it away. “Kenz, I saw how you reacted when Callie asked about her grandfather. There’s something there, something you’re keeping locked up. You don’t have to do that, baby. You can trust me. I would never judge you.”

What a joke. If there was one thing I’d learned growing up, it was that you could never trust anyone but yourself. Trusting people—especially men—had never caused me anything but pain. Emotionally
and
physically.

“It’s late and I’m tired,” I replied lamely, choosing to ignore his declaration. “I think you should probably go. I’ll give you a call tomorrow.” I walked over to the front door and pulled it open, giving him no choice but to leave.

Brett calmly placed his half-full beer on the coffee table and made his way over, stopping just in front of me.

“You ever plan on trusting me, beauty?”

Lifting my chin in the air, I looked him directly in the eyes, working hard to make sure my voice didn’t waver as I answered, “I don’t trust anyone, Brett. I learned that lesson a long time ago.”

Something flashed across his face. Was it disappointment? The thought of him being disappointed in me in any way caused a pain deep in my chest that I couldn’t stand.

“That really makes for a sad, lonely existence, Kenzie.”

He didn’t say anything else as he walked away, not once turning back to see just how badly his parting shot gutted me.

I didn’t call Brett the next day like I said I would, or the day after for that matter. And before I knew it, six days had passed without any communication. My stomach was in knots as me and the kids drove to his house to help set up for their birthday party that was starting a few hours later.

My emotions were off kilter. I was nervous about seeing him for the first time since avoiding him for a week. I feared he’d give me the cold shoulder for how I’d been acting. But the feeling that stood out the most was how much I’d missed him.

By the time we pulled up, the driveway was full of cars. I got the kids out of the car and carried the cake up the front walk to the door.

“Brett! Brett!” the kids shouted as they barged through the door without so much as knocking.

“Callie, Cameron! You don’t just run into someone’s house,” I scolded as I followed after them, trying to catch up.

“Hey, birthday buds!” Brett replied just as excited as they were as he bent down and scooped them both up, one in each arm. He looked over at me with that signature grin of his and I felt the nerves in my belly uncoil just a bit. The relief I felt that he didn’t appear mad was almost overwhelming.

“Is that the cake?” Emmy and Savannah came rushing up to me, pulling my attention off Brett as they peeked through the clear plastic lid to the birthday cake I’d spent
way
too many hours making last night.

“Oh, my God, that’s so pretty!” The rest of the girls ran over to inspect my work, oohing and awing over the two tiered, pirate-themed cake I’d made. The bottom tier was black, with white skulls and crossbones for Cameron, while the top tier was pink with black pirate accents. The twins loved it and I was ecstatic that I only had to make
one
cake.

“How did you do that?” Mickey asked me.

“It was my first foray into fondant, and I’ll tell you this now, I’m
never
doing that again. There’s no friggin reason it should take me four hours just to decorate the damn thing!”

Brett set Cameron and Callie back on the floor and looked over my shoulder. As it did every time he was close, my body reacted to him, flushing with an attraction I couldn’t beat down.

“You did good, beauty. Why don’t you go put it in the kitchen? I have something I want to show you.”

“Hey, you two, why don’t you come with me?” Emmy waddled over to the twins and took their hands. “The guys are in the backyard. We have some surprises for you.”

I watched with a smile on my face as Cam and Callie jumped up and down as the followed Emmy out.

Grabbing my hand, Brett led me away from the back door. “Come on. I want you to see this.”

I blindly followed him down the hall, reveling in the feel of his palm against mine as memories of our one and only night together flashed back through my head. Arousal flowed over me the closer we got to his bedroom door. I couldn’t help but remember exactly how he’d manipulated my body in the very best ways in that room.

Pausing outside a door one room down from his own, Brett turned to look at me. I could tell the moment he realized what I was thinking about. His lids lowered half-mast as he took me in, his gaze trailing down my neck and chest before returning to my own.

“You’re remembering it, too, aren’t you, beauty?” he asked in a low, deep voice as he stepped in closer to me, crowding me against the doorframe. He leaned in and ran his nose along the bend of my neck to my ear. “I can’t stop thinking about that night, Kenzie. It’s burned into my fucking brain.”

“Brett,” I panted.

“You still feel it, don’t you?”

I reached up and placed my palms on his hard chest to push him back, but he only moved just enough to look at me.

“Please, Brett. Don’t do this. Especially right now.”

A growl rumbled deep in his chest before he dropped his forehead to mine and let out a deep breath.

“I’m sorry,” he said, taking a step back. “It’s just do fuckin’ hard not to touch you, Kenz.”