Defensive Line (The Unlovabulls #1)

Chapter Twenty

If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

Lily

I felt like I was sitting around with my thumb up my butt.

Brody and Hayes were leaving for camp this evening, and the fact that I’d promised to basically do nothing was making my skin crawl.

I got it. I really did.

No one else had received a threat. But, it made sense to pull back and let these assholes relax a little. But six weeks...it was another six weeks those dogs spent in hell.

We were so close. But I’d made a promise I intended on keeping. So, I’d teach my classes, and go to trials. Work on my house and try not to diddle myself raw.

That was the other thing. It had been nearly a week since I’d crawled out of his bed to go home to my dogs, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Brody. He’d asked me twice to meet him this week, but one of the trainers was on vacation. I’d picked up two of her evening classes.

Dear God, having that man between my legs was nothing short of the divine. Yesterday, I’d been humming Doja Cat’s “Candy”—without realizing it—during our playgroup. Melissa and Kate accused me of getting laid. With a tap to the side of his nose, Everett had sent me a playful wink.

That wily old cuss knew exactly who’d put the smile on my face. But I didn’t tell him. Didn’t tell anyone. Not even Olive, who hadn’t been able to give much time to the mill search. Her newest high-profile client was the brat to beat all redheaded stepchildren. She’s slowly been pulling her hair out.

“Uhh, I swear, this girl.” She soft-whistled into the phone. “She’s for damn sure lucky she ain’t my child.”

I chuckled. I could hear the Texan poking at the edges of her cultivated accent-less voice.

“Why don’t you cut her loose? It’s not like you need the business.”

“It’s not her business I want. It’s access to her mother’s charity committees. Are you going to the trial at Will Rogers Memorial Center this weekend?”

“No, I’m keeping CC. I don’t want to leave her alone her first weekend. I’m headed to pick her up now.” I checked my blind spot before moving into the left lane.

“Mmhmm.”

There was way too much side-eye packed into that sound for my taste. Time to cut the call short. “Hey, I’m in the parking garage. Talk later, okay?” After hanging up, I shut the car off, opening the driver’s side door, and July smacked me right in the face. Even in the shade of the open-air garage, it was too much. The kind of heat that sucks the will to live straight out of your pores along with every ounce of sweat you had to your name.

Add that to the generous amount of dog slobber I was sporting today, and the artfully greasy way my hair mashed to my skull because I’d been sweating all day, and I would have loved a shower before I came over. Perspiration was for thin women with flawless makeup, and deodorant commercials. I sweat like a sinner in church.

My life was so glamorous.

Maybe I’d check out Brody’s shower.

I pushed his doorbell and tried smoothing my hair into some semblance of a ponytail, but when his door opened, my stomach turned into milk left on a hot sidewalk.

“Can I help you?” It was her. One of the women from the photo in the Spotted column. Tall, lean and strong—in Lululemon with no bra—her feet were bare, and her blond tresses made her look recently fucked.

“Uh.” It was all I could say.

My heart plummeted into the pit of my stomach. To think Brody had told me the truth? Or that I was the only woman he was screwing? Yeah, right.

I ground my teeth together to keep from snapping.

“Are you here for the laundry? I know he sends his laundry out.” She turned back over her shoulder before saying, “Staci, do you know where Brody left his laundry bag? She’s here for the laundry.”

Seriously? The laundry?

I heard the other female voice. “Umm, yeah. Hang on.” A second later Unidentified Blonde Number Two—aka, Staci—stood next to Number One trying to hand me a bag full of dirty laundry. And she had on less clothing than the one who’d answered the door. Tiny workout shorts that I had no doubt, if she turned around, would reveal perfectly toned ass cheeks, and a crop top that slid off one shoulder to showcase her sculpted stomach.

I forced myself to stop clenching my jaw. “I’m not here for laundry, I’m here to get the dog,” I snapped, trying not to lose my shit. After all, it wasn’t their fault. It was Brody’s.

Trust is a two way street, Lily. Trying my damnedest to throw off my initial reaction, I did something I hadn’t done in a very long time. Prepared to give Brody the benefit of the doubt.

“Oh, CC! Yeah!” Blonde Number One said. “He left her bag and leash over here, hang on.”

Staci grabbed the other woman’s arm but stared at me to the point it was uncomfortable. “Oh my God, Erica, check out her eyes. They’re purple. Like, Elizabeth Taylor purple.”

Erica turned back to me. Leaned in. “Oh wow. They’re gorgeous, darling. Are you wearing contacts?”

I cleared my throat. “Is Brody here? Where’s CC?” I did not want these fucking supermodel lookalikes complimenting me in my current state of bedraggled.

“He’s in the shower, CC is back there with him. Hang on. CeeeCeee?” Erica called.

In the shower? Seriously? You are not making this easy on me, Shaw . I really didn’t want to overreact, to fall back on the assumption, but this whole situation was sketchy as fuck.

“Do you want to come in?” Staci studied me with an expression I couldn’t interpret.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” I said, trying to rein in my temper. I needed to hear his explanation, and if it started with it’s not what it looks like , so help me God... Only, as I stepped inside the door, CC barreled down the hall going full out. Before I knew it, I was on my butt and covered in dog kisses.

That’s when I heard Brody. “CC!” The dog glanced back as he rounded the corner of the bedroom soaking wet with a towel he held around his waist.

Red fucking handed.

When he saw CC sitting on me, he ran a hand through his soaked hair. “Shit, Lily, are you okay? Let me help you.”

I ignored his extended hand only to stare at his tiny towel. A scowl settled over my face. Deliberately, I swept my gaze up to his face and back to the towel, then over to the half-naked women before I pushed myself up off the marble. “Do you want to even try to explain this away, or should I just sit with the fucking assumption that’s on the tip of my tongue?”

Jaw ticking, Brody’s face hardened. “Lily...” He stood there looking all broody, as if he had a right to be pissed that my brain would jump there. No let me explain, or they’re not who you think they are . No, there I was, giving him the opportunity to tell me his side, but he wasn’t talking. Again.

Maybe he didn’t feel like he owed me an explanation. Which, I guessed, he didn’t. He wasn’t mine; we weren’t a couple and he hadn’t professed his undying love. I didn’t have a ring on my finger. We were just two people who’d screwed and that was it.

I was only one more notch in Brody Shaw’s bedpost.

“Do you have her leash?”

“Got iiiiitttt!” Erica handed it to me, and I clipped it on CC’s collar.

“Lil—” he rasped.

“The bag?” I cut him off, directing the question to Staci.

“Here you go.”

“Lily—”

I took the bag and stared at him, daring him to finish.

Go on and tell me it’s not what I think . I gave him that heartbeat of space, which was more than I thought he deserved. Going once. Going twice... Instead, something like disappointment moved across his face. “Her bowl and toys are in there. Let me get her food.”

You goddamned cliché . “It’s fine. Text me what she eats and how much and I’ll pick it up.”

He nodded, scratched CC’s head. “Be good for Lily. I love you, baby girl.”

I slung the bag on my shoulder. “C’mon, sweet pea. Mack has missed you.”

I didn’t hear the door shut behind me when I turned to leave. But as the elevator door slid open, Brody stood in the middle of the hall with one hand holding his towel and the other sitting on his hip.

This was exactly why I didn’t let myself get attached when I fostered a rescue.

Because you couldn’t keep them. They always moved on.

This was on me. I knew who Brody was from the beginning, and I’d gotten attached anyway. I was the idiot falling for the starting linebacker for the Dallas Bulldogs while he was out banging the Doublemint twins.

It was a good thing he was going away to camp. Out of sight, out of mind. I needed time to repair the damage, to harden the shell that Brody had taken a sledgehammer to.

When he got back from camp, I would have all the info we needed, my feelings in check, and be ready to move on the mill.

By the time I got CC in my SUV, the tears I’d been holding through sheer will were all dried up.

Back to business as usual.