Chapter 5
Brooks
I f she was trying to hide, she shouldn’t have worn red.
I couldn’t help but focus on the red siren in a sea of black and muted colors. Imagine my surprise when I saw the woman who has invaded my thoughts for the last couple of weeks seated between a row of people in the church.
A thief.
And now, a wedding crasher .
I can’t help but feel intrigued and slightly frightened by her boldness. Does she have any boundaries? I spot her in the foyer before she finds me, and I’m able to study the delicious lines of her body from a distance. I questioned whether my memories of her beauty were exaggerated, but as I take her in, they were on point. She’s even more stunning than I remember. Her silky brown waves tumble over her shoulders as she glances around, searching.
For her husband.
I curse under my breath as I realize my mistake. Why didn’t I answer her call? I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge, but dealing with an annulment from a woman I don’t know has me feeling like a coward. I haven’t even confided in my attorney yet. Admitting that I made a mistake this big and acted recklessly is a bitter pill to swallow.
So, I’ve ignored her.
Not the smartest of plans.
Unwanted desire twists my insides, and two things run through my mind. One, if she wasn’t my wife, I’d drag her into one of the confession booths and fuck the sins out of her. We know she has them. And two, how do I get out of this mess? It’s not lost on me that both situations end with me being fucked. The latter is the one going to hurt. She’s here because she wants something from me.
Like money. Typical woman . Can you tell I have trust issues?
I let out a frustrated groan under my breath. This could have been avoided had I dealt with this immediately, or even after the wife message debacle.
She wanted my attention; she got it, all right.
The wrong kind. I had to talk my secretary down from contacting legal, convinced that I had a stalker on my hands. That little stunt could’ve turned catastrophic. I didn’t pick up any crazy vibes from Gray when we were together, so that surprised me. You drove her to it. Yeah, I get it. The nagging voice in my head likes to remind me. Which is why it’s in my calendar to fix this problem on Monday.
But here she is.
Now it’s become an immediate problem. One I didn’t want to deal with at a wedding. Who does she think she is? Your wife . I roll my eyes at the voice.
“Who is she?” Jade, one of my friends, murmurs, staring at Gray.
I sigh, running my hand over my beard. “Just a girl I know.” Jade waits for more, and I shrug. It’s not like I’m going to tell her who she is.
“Looks like she’s made a new friend.”
Rage prickles throughout my chest.
Fuck. Me.
I storm toward her as she bends at the knees, talking to my daughter. Touching her sacred toy like she has a right to it. Like she belongs in our world.
Like hell she does.
It takes everything in me not to rip my daughter away. When I clear my throat, Presley looks up, jumping with joy. “Daddy, this is Gracyn.” She continues blabbering about something, but my mind is stuck on the woman, on her knees , looking up at me with flushed cheeks.
It’s like déjà vu at the most inappropriate time. “That’s great,” I say with a tight-lipped smile. “Hey, Pres, where’s Judith?” I ignore Gray as she stands and straightens her dress with her hands running down her hips. Okay, ignore is not the right word, but I jerk away when she raises her head. “Oh, look, there she is. Can you go tell her we’ll be leaving soon?”
Presley looks at Gray. “Will you be at the reception?”
Gray’s laugh is awkward as her gaze bounces from her to me. “Probably not.”
That’s an absolute no.
“But you have?—”
“Presley,” I snap, interrupting her nonsense. “Do as I say, please.” The excitement in her face falls at my harsh tone, but my patience is on the verge of bursting. Her shoulders droop as she nods and ambles over to Judith. I’ll deal with the guilt of being a mean dad later.
As soon as Presley is out of sight, I grip Gray’s arm and escort her toward the front doors.
“You seem to have a problem communicating.” She twists out of my grasp. “All you had to do was ask me to talk outside.”
Who said I wanted to talk? I just need to get her away from my people .
The second we exit the church, I stop walking. “Stealing my coffee was cute … this is another level,” I say through gritted teeth.
“You thought it was cute, huh?” she replies with a sly smile, as if I’m flirting with her. “I mean, I guess it was cute enough to get you to marry me.”
I glance around, afraid of people within earshot. She steps in closer, her body brushing up against mine. When I pull in a quick breath, her familiar sweet scent fills my nostrils. I shake out of the momentary draw, irritated with myself.
“What. Do. You. Want?” I spit through clenched teeth. “If you think you’re going to come here and use my daughter to get to me, you have no idea who I am.”
Her shoulders square as her face hardens. Ignore her sexy, pouty, red lips . “You have no idea who I am, either. Brooks Handley, you’ve been served.” She shoves an envelope into my chest, and it catches me off guard, causing me to lose my balance and take a step backward. “And I do have an idea who you really are. You’re an irresponsible playboy who has a daughter, who I’m sure only sees her every other weekend because it’s court mandated, and gets drunk in Vegas and recklessly ends up getting married. And then is afraid to pull his big boy pants on and deal with the mess we found ourselves in. Am I close ?”
Her nostrils flare as she gets in my face, and I want nothing more than to throw her inaccurate accusation back at her, but I can’t because it’s almost correct. She looks at me like she has more to say, but she shakes her head and says, “Goodbye, Brooks. I’d love to say it’s been great knowing you, but it hasn’t.”
She storms down the stairs, her heels clicking, echoing in my ears, and I tear open the envelope to see what she’s demanding in the annulment. My mind races with worst-case scenarios as I brace myself for the financial hit that’s coming my way. However, as I skim through the document, a wave of relief washes over me. Gray isn’t trying to bleed me dry or tarnish my reputation. She just wants to sever ties with me.
No payout for her silence.
No stipulations.
Just an annulment.
A fleeting memory of us saying I do flashes through my thoughts, and then a heavy pang of regret follows. That was one of the best nights of my life. And that’s saying a lot. I pace for a few beats, staring down, the shine of my shoes catching a glare off the setting sun. How can I feel the loss of something that was a mistake? Over someone I despised seconds ago? It’s a perplexing emotion I can’t make sense of.
There was a connection.
It doesn’t matter , I argue with myself. My responsibilities don’t involve an impromptu wife.
Then let her go.
“I’m trying, dammit!” A few people look over at me, probably wondering who I’m talking to.
I can’t resist stealing one last glimpse of her as she weaves through the crowded sidewalk, wishing her a silent farewell. Passersby crane their necks to peek at the stunning woman in red. She demands attention even when she’s not trying.
With a hasty decision I might regret later, I run down the stairs, two at a time. “Wait, Gray.”
She glances over her shoulder and rolls her eyes in exasperation. Her hand shoots up in the air, hailing a cab, and one appears within seconds.
Frustrated, I step in front of her, blocking her from getting in, and lean in the window to say she’s not going. Her brows shoot up in surprise as the taxi pulls forward. A vengeful expression takes hold of her face as she waves her hand in the air again, and again, a fucking cab appears. Why does it take me ages to get a cab in this place?
“Would you stop that?” I wave him off with a sharp, angry jerk of my thumb. “I think we should talk about this.”
She blinks in confusion as I hold up the envelope.
“What’s there to talk about, Brooks? It’s pretty straightforward. Despite what you thought about me, I want nothing from you, as you can see . Your only task is to send your attorney in your place on the court date. It’s rather simple.”
Unfortunately, I never do things simple.
“I was wrong,” I admit.
But so were you.
Her red, pouty lips quirk up on one side. “I bet that stung coming out of your mouth.”
“You have no idea.” The air thins around us, and I blow out a ragged breath through puffed-out cheeks and scratch my head, not sure what the hell I’m doing. “How long are you in town for? Can we meet for lunch tomorrow?”
“I leave tomorrow.”
“You came here for a day?”
“I came here to do one thing, and I did it.”
A woman wanting nothing from me is a foreign concept. In fact, that’s never ever happened. Which has to be the reason I can’t stop the words that come out of my mouth. “Come to the reception.”
She looks away, biting her bottom lip, and shakes her head. “Brooks. I don’t think that’s a good idea. You have a daughter. Remember, complicated ?”
I wondered if she’d bring up the note. When I woke to an alarm I don’t remember setting, I was lying next to her. It took everything in me to not wake her and be with her one last time, but I knew I had to leave. Instead, I wrote that note as I watched her sleep, her naked body on top of the sheets. I almost took a picture so I’d never forget how beautiful she was. But that was a line I wasn’t willing to cross, so I stared at her for half an hour, memorizing every curve, every freckle, every detail that made her … her . With a plane to catch and still drunk, I left a lucky man.
Little did I know, I left as a married man.
What a life lesson to teach Presley someday. You can get drunk enough to get married and not remember it the next morning. It didn’t take long for the blur from a hangover to move our night of debauchery into focus. I haven’t slept one night without remembering it since.
The wind whips her hair across her face, and she pulls it back behind her ear. What is that? I trace a deep red line across her forehead that wasn’t there a couple of weeks ago. I vividly memorized her face that night, and I would’ve remembered that.
“What happened?”
She takes a step back from my touch. “You happened.”
What the hell does that mean?