CHAPTER 13 Liam Bradley
The Royal Treatment
We sneak each other secret looks across a long table all through dinner, and I spend the night in her hotel room again.
I’m more careful when I leave in the morning to get back to my room, and then it’s time to head to the airport.
As it turns out, we’re on the same flight back to Chicago, so we share a ride to the airport.
My seat’s up in first class, and hers is back in coach. I ask at the desk if I can upgrade her seat so we can sit together, but the flight is full, and first class is sold out.
I’m settled into my seat and have my first beer already by the time her boarding group is called, and when I see her step onto the plane and gingerly look around, her eyes fall on me. I offer a smile, and when she moves to pass my row, I stand.
“What’s your seat number?” I ask.
“Twenty-six B,” she says, her brows dipping together. “Why?”
I move into the aisle to block her from getting by. “Because that’s where I’ll be sitting. Take my seat.” I nod to the seat I just vacated, and the woman who’s sitting by the window that would have been next to me glances over with curiosity.
In another timeline, I might’ve hit on her. But suddenly I only have eyes for the woman I’m offering my first-class seat to.
“Stop, Liam. I couldn’t possibly take your seat.”
“Sit,” I demand, and her eyes seem to heat over a bit.
She clears her throat. “Okay,” she squeaks. “Thank you.”
I grin, and then I head back to twenty-six B, which happens to be a middle seat jammed between a dude who has his entire body turned to look out the window in such a way that no one else can see out of it and the gentleman in the aisle seat who claims the armrest before I even settle into my seat.
My long legs don’t fit back here, nor does my healthy frame.
It’s going to be a long four hours back to Illinois.
But at least the woman whose bed I kept warm last night is getting the royal treatment up in first class.
I watch a movie, and another one, and my legs are stiff by the time we land, but it was worth it for her to feel pampered if only for a few hours.
She’s waiting for me in the terminal.
“How was your flight?” I ask.
She smiles, her eyes closing for a beat. “So relaxing. Yours?”
“Fine,” I say, smiling that she got a few hours of time to herself ahead of the chaos it’ll be when she’s back to reality.
While I carried my luggage on, she checked hers. I walk with her to baggage claim, and I’m tempted to grab her hand, but many of the people who attended the party in Vegas this weekend are flying back here today, so just in case there are others around, I keep my hand to myself.
“My place should be ready for you and the boys if you want to grab them and move in tonight,” I say as we wait for her suitcase to drop down onto the carousel.
She glances over at me. “Are you absolutely sure about this?”
“I’m absolutely, one hundred percent sure, Pen. I’d love to have you.”
“Me, sure,” she says, setting a hand on her chest. “But I don’t think you realize what you’re getting into with having two kids stay with you.”
I press my lips together, certain she’s right. “We’ll take it one day at a time. I’m leaving for San Diego in a week, anyway, and then you three will have the place to yourself. Well, mostly. Dolores stops by a few times a week.”
“Dolores?”
“Didn’t I mention her? She’s my housekeeper.” And she’s my best friend. I refrain from mentioning that part.
“You mean to tell me that you don’t keep that gigantic place sparkling all by yourself?” She shakes her head. “And here I thought you were the full package.”
“You weren’t complaining about my full package last night,” I murmur, and she laughs and turns bright red at the same time. “Dolores is awesome. She’s in her sixties, has four grandchildren, and keeps my house organized for me.”
“Sounds like a mother figure.”
I scoff. “Dolores is more like a friend. She’s someone I can talk to about anything, you know? I was still staying at the Bradley Mansion and moved into the building after I got my inheritance from my mother’s death a few months ago, but we’ve gotten close pretty quickly.”
“You’re friends with a sixty-year-old grandmother?” she asks.
“Sixty-three,” I correct, and I nod proudly. “I am. And she’s the best. You’re going to love her.”
Her suitcase drops down, and I grab it off the belt.
“Well, thanks,” she says. She looks like she wants to kiss me, and I want to, too. I glance around, and I don’t see anyone I know, so I drop a quick one to her lips.
“Why are you saying that like it’s goodbye?” I ask.
She lifts a shoulder. “My car’s in the parking garage. Where’s yours?”
“I had a car service drop me. Why don’t we go to your place and get the kids and whatever you want to bring to my place for the night, and we can go back tomorrow when your ex isn’t there to get whatever else you need?”
She tilts her head, and her eyes soften. “What in the world did I do to deserve how wonderful you are to me?”
I twist my lips, and then I lean in a little closer. “You let me fuck your tits. Oh! And that thing you do with your tongue on my balls.”
Her face is red again, and this time I’m not sure if it’s from the heat of my words or the fact that she’s embarrassed, but in any case, it’s cute as fuck.
Goddamn, I’m smitten with her.
I drag her suitcase to her SUV. She opens the rear cargo compartment, and I lift the suitcase in, and then we head toward the house she shares with her ex.
The closer we get, the more nervous I feel.
Not about the ex. He can kick rocks for all I care.
But I’m about to meet her kids. I’ve never met the kids of a woman I’m screwing before, mainly because I don’t know if I’ve ever screwed a mother before.
It feels like so much more than that, though.
We’re going to need to pretend like there isn’t this attraction between us, like I’m not hot for her all the damn time.
And I’m going to see a brand-new side to her.
I’ve never had kids stay at my place, either.
The only baby I’ve ever held is Dex’s, and that was only for like a minute.
And this is a five-year-old and a seven-year-old.
I don’t know what they’re into, but I placed an order to stock my place with things I think they’ll like, and Dolores is taking care of the rest. I hope we guessed right.
She pulls down an alley and clicks a button for a garage, and she pulls into an empty space next to the kind of Bentley that signals tiny-dick energy. After she puts the car in park and cuts the engine, she pauses for a second. She closes her eyes and draws in a deep breath.
“You okay?” I ask.
She shoots me a tight smile. “Mentally bracing myself for Brent.”
It’s like she physically changed the second we pulled into the garage. Her shoulders are drawn up, and she seems stiff.
I reach over and grab her hand as I place my own nerves on the backburner so I can be stronger for her. “Hey. It’s okay, baby. I’m right here.”
She bites her bottom lip, and then she nods as she flexes her fingers in mine and squeezes my hand. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
She gets out of her side of the car, and I don’t bother opening my door slowly, instead shoving it into the driver’s side door of the Bentley. It may or may not leave a little scratch in the black paint.
We head inside, and she calls out as the door slams behind her. “Sammy? Benji? I’m home!”
Two kids come racing around the corner from another room, and they both plow into their mom at the same time. She braces herself for the impact, but I still hear an oof emit from her all the same.
I study the scene in front of me. A mom and two kids.
The two kids have a lot of her features—same hair and eye color, same chin.
I can tell they’re her kids just from looking at them.
There’s just this inherent characteristic I can’t put my finger on that tells me they belong to her.
Maybe the way they’re hanging on her after being away from her for two days.
I wonder if the other features come from their dad. I wonder if they hang on their father like this after spending time away from him.
“Hi, my babies!” She kisses them both on the tops of their heads. “Oh my goodness, I missed you so much!” She gets down onto her knees to hug her boys one at a time.
“What did you bring us?” the smaller one asks.
“Benji, don’t ask that,” the older one says, smacking his little brother in the chest.
“Let’s remember not to hit,” she reminds him, and she reaches into her purse and pulls out two big boxes of Nerds gummies.
“Nerds!” they both scream at the same time.
“Can I eat these now?” the older one asks, and the smaller one echoes him.
“Yeah, can we eat these now?”
“Go for it!” she says.
“Mommy, who’s that?” the older one whisper-yells as if I can’t hear him while he tears open the box of candy.
“This is Auntie Everleigh’s brother, Liam. Liam, this is Sammy and Benji,” she says, patting each one on the top of the head respectively.
“Hi, Liam,” they say in unison, and I grin as I wave.
“Liam invited us to have a sleepover at his house. Isn’t that cool?” she asks the kids.
“On a school night?” Benji screeches.
She nods. “Yep! Let’s get ourselves all packed up!” She nods upstairs, and she’s about to follow them up to their rooms when the man I assume is her ex rounds the corner.
“Fucking finally. Was your flight late?” He starts in on her before he rounds the corner and sees me standing beside her. He freezes, and then he tilts his head. “Are you one of the Bradley brothers?”
“Liam,” I say.
He stretches his hand out to shake mine, and I pretend like I don’t see it as I turn my gaze to Penny.
“He has some spare rooms and invited me and the kids to stay with him,” she says.
“To stay with him? You’re taking my children from me?” he scoffs.
Penny rolls her eyes. “I’m doing no such thing. My lawyer advised me not to live with you, and since you are being a total asshole about the house, I have decided to move out and take the kids with me. You’ll still get your weekends.”
“You can’t do this,” he snarls.
“Watch me.” She offers a smirk, and then she spins to walk out of the room.
“I’d say it was a pleasure meeting you, but that would be a lie,” I say to Brent, and I follow the sound of Penny’s cackle around the corner.