33. Brooks
33
brOOKS
“Much as I’ve come to like your Brandywood,” Brooks said as he walked into the bedroom from the adjoining bathroom of the room they’d booked in the Serendipity Lake Lodge, “I’m still not sure how we ended up at this bed-and-breakfast when Paris was on the table. Or Quebec City, which might be one of my favorite places in the world.”
Maddie stood at the full-length mirror, applying her makeup, and she smiled at him. “Because it’s my grandfather’s birthday. My whole family wants to meet you. It’s not going to make a great impression on them that they’ve met Kayla three times and you not at all, considering she’s going to be there.”
Maddie had been unusually happy since she’d returned from a girls’ night with her sisters the night before. She’d suggested that they stay here at the Serendipity rather than at her place for the weekend, citing the nosiness of Main Street citizens.
He wasn’t about to question her good mood—she’d gotten straight onto her knees the night before when she’d entered the bedroom and given him the best goddamn blow job he’d ever had—but the idea of meeting her entire family terrified him.
He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. “Impressions are overrated. You know what’s not overrated, though?” His lips grazed the side of her neck. “The sound you make when you come for me.”
She turned her face toward him, and her freshly glossed lips found his. “Mmm . . . you know how to tempt me, babe, but I’m going to go with no. Even if you met no one else in my family, I’d want you to meet my grandfather. He’s my favorite person on the planet.”
He feigned a wounded look in the mirror.
A slow smile spread across her face, and she kissed his cheek. “Don’t worry. You’re my second favorite.”
“Hey!” His arms tightened around her waist, and he lifted her. She squealed, trying to get away as he carried her a few feet over toward the bed, where he dumped her. Laughing, she squirmed in his arms as he held each of her wrists down to the bed, his mouth crushing hers with a kiss.
She melted into his arms, the kiss slow and lingering, their tongues delivering well-practiced strokes. One week of nonstop sex had been exhausting—let’s face it, he wasn’t eighteen anymore—but her body felt familiar in his now, each curve and plane explored. She was ticklish behind her knees, and her chest flushed after an orgasm. She had a light smattering of freckles across her cheeks—mostly hidden by makeup—and an even cuter patch of freckles on her left shoulder.
And he didn’t have to question what he was feeling.
He’d never felt so content in his life. She was such a breath of fresh air. He’d never met someone so genuine in her affection, attentive to how she listened to him. ..and kind.
Gorgeous. Funny. Sweet. Sexy.
He was falling in love with her, harder and deeper each day.
When he broke away from the kiss, she moaned. “Not fair taking me horny to a family party.”
“We can do something about that, you know.” God knows he was ready to go again.
“Not unless we want to be really late.” She closed her eyes as though it pained her to push him away, then climbed out from under him. “I’m officially banning you from the room while I finish getting ready. Go on. I’ll meet you on the front porch. If you’re a good boy, I might even let you drive again.”
He chuckled, stealing her keys from her purse with a wink. She’d actually been good about letting him drive them anywhere this week—not that they’d gone many places. But while she still had the privilege of being one of the few people he knew that had ever driven him in years—because he couldn’t control when he needed to go by a chauffeur—she’d also explained that she understood his path to healing from the trauma of his mom’s fatal car accident was something he had to do on his own time.
Which he appreciated about her.
She didn’t look at his darkness and shame him for it. Somehow, she made him feel safe to speak about it.
He left the room and went down the hallway, then the stairs of the old house. A converted Victorian mansion, the Serendipity was owned by the cop who’d taken the police report that first day—Dan Klein—and his wife Avery.
As he stepped out onto the front porch, he bumped into them sitting there, each of them with mugs of coffee that steamed in the frosty morning air.
“Morning,” Dan said, standing from one of the chairs on the wraparound porch. “Sorry, people usually end up on the back porch in the morning. You want a seat?”
“No, feel free to sit. I’m just waiting for Maddie. Sorry to interrupt, actually.” He imagined they probably took this space as their little haven from the guests, considering they lived here.
“You didn’t interrupt at all,” Avery said, warmth in her green eyes. She swung back on a hammock swing. “We were actually just talking about you, Mr. Kent.”
“You can call me Brooks.” He turned and leaned his back against the railing, his hands on it. “Hopefully nothing bad.”
Dan’s face became more serious. “No, not about you. But I’ve had to chase a couple of photographers off the property this morning. I don’t have a lot of tolerance for stalkers. They’re parked across the street on the side of the road, though. Not much I can do about that, I’m afraid.”
Damn paparazzi. They’d been hounding him all week, trying to get pictures of him and Maddie. “That’s good to know.” He frowned. He didn’t want them following them to Maddie’s grandfather’s party and pestering them the whole time. By now, he was sure they had memorized Maddie’s car’s make, model, and license plate.
Dan seemed to read his expression. “You going somewhere this morning?”
He nodded. “Maddie’s grandfather’s having a birthday party.”
“You need a lift? They won’t know my car.”
The offer was tempting despite his dislike for being driven. But it seemed like since he’d arrived in Brandywood, it had been one person after another doing it.
“I don’t want to pull you away from the Serendipity,” he said.
“Dan can drive you,” Avery said, stopping the swing. “If you don’t mind. I’ve got it covered here without him.” She stretched, revealing a slight baby bump. “When I first moved out here from California, I couldn’t handle the constant curves on the roads. They made me so carsick.”
“You’re from California?” Huh. He wouldn’t have pegged her as anything other than a local. She seemed to blend seamlessly with everyone he’d met. “How’d you end up here?”
“I’m from Florida, actually. Even more reason for the roads to make me sick. Flat, flat, flat, there.” She gave her husband a loving grin. “But my family used to take summer vacations here at the lodge. I met Dan when I was a teenager, fell madly in love, and many years later, found my way back here.”
“There are more transplants to Brandywood than people realize,” Dan said. “Especially in the last few years. The whole town revitalized after Peter Yardley’s businesses took off.”
“Maddie’s grandfather?”
Dan nodded. “The man is a legend around here now.”
A chilly breeze rippled past them, carrying with it a swirl of yellow leaves. “So Maddie’s like...Brandywood royalty?”
Avery laughed. “I couldn’t have put it better myself. The Wagners and the Yardleys are probably some of the best-known families in town. They used to be rivals, but then joined forces when Bunny and Peter married.”
Brooks could hardly keep a straight face. “When you say ‘Bunny and Peter’ all I’m picturing is that Beatrix Potter character.”
“You know, I’ve never thought about that, but you’re right,” Dan said with a chuckle.
“Right about what?” Maddie asked as she pushed open the front porch screen. She sidled up to Brooks and set her hand over his.
“The names Bunny and Peter conjuring illustrated visuals of rabbits wearing blue jackets,” Brooks said dryly.
“Hey, don’t make fun of my grandparents,” she said with mock indignation. She squeezed his hand. “I’ll be sure to tell my grandfather. He’ll get a kick out of it. He hates the nickname Bunny anyway—he never called her that. It’s a nickname her late former husband gave her.”
“I’d forgotten about that,” Dan said, lifting his light-colored eyebrows. He smirked. “Anyway, I was a fierce Yardley loyalist, thanks to Lindsay, so I never liked Mr. Wagner. Bunny, on the other hand, she always gave us cookies.”
“Our little sisters are best friends,” Maddie explained to Brooks, and gave Dan a warm smile. “And Dan and I basically played in the sandbox together.”
A strange stab of jealousy went through him. Not because he felt like Dan was a threat in any way—but that connection. That feeling of belonging to a town and people you’d known your whole life . . . he’d never experienced that. Not like this. Fountain Springs had made him want to flee and never look back.
His parents were buried in the Presbyterian church’s graveyard, and he’d never even gone back to visit their gravestones since he’d left. Not once.
“If it makes you feel better,” Avery said, giving Brooks a knowing look, “these two play up the glamour of living in Brandywood pretty hard. If the Yardleys are royalty, the Kleins are like dukes.” She rolled her eyes. “Don’t let them fool you. There’s plenty of drama, small-town gossiping, little old men and ladies being outraged about inane things. Some people—like your friend Cormac—leave town and don’t move back.”
“Still, it seems like many people stay.”
“Because they make a home here,” Avery said, and snuck an affectionate glance at her husband, her hand curving over her bump. “If you find the right people, then all the petty things are easily overlooked. The good outweighs the bad.”
Brooks didn’t glance Maddie’s way, as a troubled feeling arose in the back of his mind.
Whether he wanted it to be, for now, his life was centered around LA. He might be wealthy enough to play house with Maddie at the lake house, but soon enough, he’d need to go back.
He didn’t want to think about that yet.
“Ready to go?” Maddie asked, holding the keys out to him.
“Apparently, we have paparazzi waiting for us, and Dan offered to drive us. It might be a good idea, so they don’t follow us to your grandfather’s house.”
“We can take my truck or my police cruiser. Windows are tinted in the back of the cruiser, but it might look suspicious,” Dan said.
Brooks had no desire to ride in the back of a police car. “Truck is fine.”
They said their goodbyes to Avery, then headed around to the detached garage off the driveway. “I noticed you don’t have a security detail,” Dan said as he unlocked the garage. “Have you given any consideration to one while you’re here?”
A cop would notice that. He had to give Dan credit, though. He clearly kept a close eye on his property. Knew who was lurking. Also probably a cop trait. “I’m just trying to fly under the radar here for a while. It worked for the first week anyway.”
“Well, it looks like they found you now.” Dan flipped on the light to the garage. “Just something to think about. Brandywood is about as safe as you can get, but it’s not people from here I’m worried about. And we don’t really have a ton of resources here like the big cities might to handle someone of your profile.”
Once again, Dan would have thought about that—and know the reality of the situation here—because of his background.
“There something we should worry about?” Maddie asked with a laugh as they climbed into the back of Dan’s truck.
“I’m just being cautious,” Dan said as he shut the door.
“We’ll probably want to just sit on the floor until we get past where the paparazzi are parked or this is pointless,” Brooks told Maddie as she buckled up.
Maddie raised a brow at Brooks and climbed to the floor. “Is this how you live? Constantly looking over your shoulder?”
Brooks shrugged, trying to relax as best he could onto the floor mat. She looked cute sitting there—and actually fit, unlike him. His knees were by his face. Damn, this is cramped. “Sometimes. I live in a gated community and I have bodyguards when I need them. Mostly, I just drown out the noise when I’m in public and avoid going out.”
Light flooded the garage as Dan opened the garage door.
“Isn’t that lonely, though?”
Dan opened the driver’s side door then and climbed inside. “All set?”
“I think so,” Maddie said and laughed. “I feel like I’m sneaking out of the house or something.”
She’s laughing now because she hasn’t had to live this way for years. In a way, he envied her naivety. The first time someone had asked for his autograph while he’d been out to dinner with Kayla, he’d walked on a cloud for the rest of the day.
Now he didn’t bother to eat at restaurants if they didn’t give him a private room or close off a section for him.
Somewhere along the way, all the attention had stopped being fun.
Maybe it had been the first time his life was threatened.
Or when a fan had broken into his hotel room.
Or when the paparazzi had mobbed his car and made it impossible for him to leave a parking garage in New York City.
He didn’t complain about it— poor, poor rich and famous boy, so sad, how tragic— and many people withheld sympathy.
But it was lonely.
He might not have even realized how lonely he was if not for Maddie.
Reaching a hand out, he interlaced his fingers with hers.
As if you get to keep her if you just hold on tight right now.
When would that wide-eyed innocence and laughter about riding on the floor of a truck fade? Would she come to hate him for it eventually?
“I think you all can probably sit on the seats now,” Dan said, breaking into his thoughts.
They climbed back onto the seats and Maddie took the middle, rather than the one a seat away. “Hi,” she whispered, snuggling into him. “You were too far away.”
He wrapped his arm around her. “This is perfect.”
“Have you met the full Yardley clan before this?” Dan asked, meeting his gaze through the rearview mirror.
“Not all of them. Just Logan and Naomi,” Maddie said with a grin. “And don’t scare him off, Dan. I already warned him they can be a lot. At least they’re not like the Klein brothers. You should see the hell Dan and his older brother put Jen through when she was trying to just be a normal teenager and date. Guys practically shit their pants if they talked to her and Dan or Warren happened to see.”
“Yeah, well, it’s no walk in the park to witness your baby sister get knocked up by an asshole, then leave her to fend for herself,” Dan said grumpily.
Brooks’s gaze flicked to Dan’s again. Interesting. I do, actually, know what that’s like.
Maddie winced. “Don’t worry, Dan, I never bought the story that you were a huge bully. I knew why you stood up for her.”
Maybe he and Dan had more in common than he realized.
The topic changed again to something more pleasant, and within a few minutes, Dan had pulled into her grandfather’s street and dropped them off at Maddie’s grandfather’s driveway.
Brooks reached for Maddie’s hand.
When was the last time he’d met anyone’s family?
The normalcy of it was more intimidating than anything else. He was just a guy, dating a woman, about to meet her family. That was how it went in the movies, right? A family barbecue was tame enough.
“You look like you’re holding your breath,” Maddie teased, poking him in the ribs. “Don’t worry, they’re not going to hurt you. Naomi is the most likely to give you a grilling, and she’s too repentant right now to say anything.”
“I’m fine. I’m just not the biggest talker, you know.” They drew closer to the back gate. A white picket fence. Of course. “Give me the rundown. Who’s here?”
Maddie tucked her arm into his, her breast curving against his arm. Dammit, woman. Was she doing that on purpose? “Well, you know Naomi. She’s over by the swings with her husband, Jeremy, and her two daughters, Emily and Olivia. And that guy over there by the grill is Jake, who is talking to my dad, Larry. You’ve met Travis. He’s playing corn hole with my sister Lindsay—the one who looks like me—and his sister, Grace. And Bunny is right next to my grandfather?—”
“Peter.” Brooks jerked his chin up with surprise.
Maddie’s grandfather was Peter—the old guy from the fishing boat.
He let out a chuckle of disbelief.
Maddie drew her brows together as she studied his profile. “You’ve met him?”
“Yeah, he—uh . . .” Brooks rubbed the back of his neck. “Drove me out of Main Street the first day we met. Then he took me fishing a week ago with his friend Brian.”
“You’ve gone fishing with my grandfather?” Maddie’s jaw dropped open.
“He’s . . . a good listener.”
It all made sense.
No wonder he felt he could bear his soul to the chatty man.
Maddie was just like him.
Peter saw him and raised his hand in a greeting. “Brooks!” He crossed the yard, ambling toward them with a wide smile. “I was wondering when I was going to meet you officially.” He kissed Maddie on the cheek, then shook his hand. “Looks like you solved that woman problem, eh?”
“ Woman problem?” Maddie crossed her arms. “Did you talk to my grandfather about me?”
Brooks laughed. “I didn’t know I was talking to your grandfather.”
“Don’t worry, Maddie, it was nothing bad.”
“You know, I don’t even want to know. If that old letch Brian Pearson was there, all bets are off on what could have been said.” Maddie lifted her hands and started to walk away.
Brooks caught up with her and grabbed her by the waist, dragging her back against him. He kissed the side of her neck as she laughed. “Mostly, we talked about how I shouldn’t offer you any sausage, but I didn’t listen,” he hissed in her ear. “And you’re not abandoning me to meet everyone on my own.”
“Oh my God!” Maddie’s cheeks predictably grew red, but her eyes danced with amusement.
“Awww, you guys are so cute,” Lindsay cooed and left her game of cornhole. She extended her hand to Brooks. “I’m Lindsay. Maddie’s nice sister.”
“Hey!” Naomi gave a shocked look. “Just because I was a jerk one time doesn’t mean you’re the nice one. I was protecting my sister.” She joined them. “But seriously, I’m sorry about my behavior, Brooks.”
“Wait, you women can’t hog Brooks all to yourself. I’m Jake.” Jake came jogging over. “And?—”
Jake scanned the laughing expressions of his sisters. “. . . and I’m going to immediately go shotgun a beer and burp to prove my masculinity.”
“Oh, honey,” Lindsay said with a laugh, “it’s going to take a lot more than a beer to prove that.”
Jake feigned a hurt look, and his gaze dropped to Brooks’s forearms. “Maybe a tattoo? Or three? Can you recommend someone, Brooks?”
“Hey, what about asking me?” Travis hollered from where he stood. “I actually live in town and have tattoos.”
A woman who appeared to be in her mid-fifties came out of the house then, carrying a tray of appetizers. “Young people and their fascination with marking up their bodies. I just don’t understand it. When I was a teenager, the only men with tattoos were in the military or in jail.” She stopped in front of the group and smiled warmly at Brooks. “No offense, Brooks. I’m Maddie’s mother, Susan. That’s my husband, Larry, by the grill. Maddie’s dad, I mean.”
Larry waved. “He looks perfectly normal. Like an actual, real-life person. Don’t know what everyone was making such a big fuss over.”
As the group bickered with embarrassment and laughter, Brooks caught Maddie’s eyes.
They were a lot to take in at once.
But she looked in her element.
Completely, totally happy and herself.
And she was beaming with pride at him.
Because this is her home. And she never wants to leave.
A lump formed in his throat. As Dan intimated, Maddie was practically Brandywood royalty, but she was also blissfully content. Brandywood has more implants than I thought, but it seems rare that people leave. Here, she had a good, predictable life, but away from here? Would she survive the harsh reality of the real world outside of here?
Witnessing her here made one thing clear—there was no way he could ever ask her to leave.