Chapter 20
ANNALISE
A half hour later and I’m in disbelief of how easy it is to bring a dead car battery back to life.
Watching Brody turn his truck to face my car and then haul two cords—one red and one black—from the back had done something to me.
That something only seemed to grow stronger and more annoying when he popped both hoods, connected them with the cords, and then ordered me to turn my car on.
It took far too much effort to keep from saying yes, sir, anything you want, sir.
When the engine started on the first crank, I nearly shrieked. That’s when the embarrassment had set in. It had been so easy to boost my car, yet I hadn’t been able to do it on my own. I didn’t know how.
Brody didn’t seem to care that I hadn’t known how to do it. I think he cared more about making sure I learned for the future than anything else.
That’s why he’s still here, walking back from his truck a second time with a bag in his hand and a long yellow cord tossed over his shoulder.
The toque he plopped onto my head before we left the house keeps sliding down my forehead as I lean against the car door. I have to push it up to keep from looking away from him when he steps in front of me.
“Is there anything you don’t carry in your truck?” I ask.
He chuffs a laugh. “You don’t even know what I have yet, and you’re already bustin’ my balls.”
“Fair enough. What have you brought me, Oh Mighty One?”
The serious shift in his expression has me sobering.
“You can’t be driving without an emergency kit, especially in the winter.
This has everything from flares to an emergency blanket.
Never take it out of your trunk unless you need to use it.
” He waits for me to nod before continuing, lifting the shoulder with the yellow cord slung over it.
“This is an extension cord for you to use to keep your car plugged in when you’re not usin’ it.
Every time the temperature drops below minus twenty-five, you’re goin’ to make sure your car is plugged in and that you’re startin’ it at least once a day.
When you start it, have it run for a good ten minutes straight if you’re not goin’ to be drivin’ it. ”
My face flushes beneath the weight of his instructions and explanations. He’s being gentle with his words, cautious as if to not make me feel completely useless. I appreciate the effort, even if it only half lightens the blow.
I lick my wind-dried lips. “You don’t need these things in your truck?”
“There are extras at the ranch,” he replies with an air of nonchalance that doesn’t match the intensity of his stare. I choose not to mention that.
“Thank you. I appreciate this.”
Taking a step closer to me, the toe of his boot nudges the side of mine.
His hand ghosts over my waist in a steady, comforting touch that lingers before he’s moving to the other side of me and opening the back door.
My blood heats, and that’s enough to have me pushing away from the car and putting some space between us.
Watching him try to squeeze his body into the small space of my back seat is what I imagine clowns look like popping out of a clown car. It would probably take a hearty push against his ass to get him inside.
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll just plug your car in before I head out,” he says.
I didn’t notice that I was smiling until I feel it fall. Disappointment falls like a rock in my stomach. What I’m disappointed about exactly, I don’t know. It’s not like I expected him to stay for dinner or anything.
“Alright,” I force myself to say.
When he extracts himself from the back seat and shuts the door, I can’t find it in myself to be the first to walk away. He returns to his towering height, and my head tips back further with each step he eliminates between us.
“Where are your exterior plug-ins?”
“I don’t know.” It’s the truth. I’ve never looked.
His smile starts small before growing. The first look at the dimple in his right cheek has me swallowing a swoon. “Let’s have a look, then.”
“Why are you smiling like that?” I blurt out.
“Like what?” The fucker somehow grins impossibly bigger.
“Like you know exactly how good-looking you are, especially when you smile like that. Are you trying to seduce me or something?”
His laugh is pure sin. It runs a soft touch down my body before settling between my legs. The involuntary clench that follows makes me breathless and annoyed all in one.
“If I was trying to seduce you, Anna, you wouldn’t be thinking so hard,” he coos.
I nearly moan. The realization of how easy it’s become for this man to turn me into a horndog is enough to relieve me from the effects of his words.
“You said something about finding my exterior outlets?”
brODY
I barely make it two steps into the ranch house before my grandfather finds me. My pep talk in the truck on the way home was for nothing. There’s not a damn thing that I could have told myself to adequately prepare for the ass whooping my grandpa’s prepared.
Leaning against the wall in the foyer, he has his arms crossed and cowboy hat dipped low. The lack of boots on his feet is courtesy of my grandmother, I’m sure. She’s stubborn when it comes to her no boots past the back mat rule, even if it weakens Grandpa’s rough and tough appearance.
Not only is my stomach empty, but my eyes are heavy, exhaustion a real pain in my ass. Slipping my boots off, I shut the heavy wooden door and wait.
“When are you leavin’?” he asks, the question sharp and demanding.
“Leavin’?”
“Leavin’ back to Nashville. I assume you’ve been plannin’ your return over the past couple of weeks with all of your disappearances. Clearly, you don’t want to be here.”
“Well, with such a cold welcome, I don’t see how I’d overly want to be here,” I snap.
Grandpa straightens, a hurt look there and gone in the blink of an eye. “It’s hard to get too close when we don’t know when you’ll be takin’ off again.”
“Don’t give me that. I’m still your grandson. You were fine until we went to that auction. What happened there that turned you around?”
It’s pissed me off ever since he switched up that day. Sure, he wasn’t exactly warm and cozy with my return, but he surely wasn’t this cold. Something or, more likely, someone messed with his head.
“I was too hopeful that you’d hang around.”
I remove my hat and rest it against my thigh, exasperated by his way of thinking. His fears are on me, I know that. They’re the consequences of my leaving, but fuck, that doesn’t make it any easier.
“I haven’t made plans to leave yet. You need to let what you think I’m goin’ to do go. You’re only pushin’ me away,” I tell him.
He guffaws, pushing away from the wall. Tugging off his hat, he smooths a hand over his grey hair. “You pushed yourself away, Brody. I’m sorry if your welcome back wasn’t everythin’ you’d dreamed of, but it’s gonna take some work to earn back the respect and trust you lost when you left.”
“What do you think I’m tryin’ to do every day? You’re the one so desperate to believe that I’m plannin’ an escape instead of appreciatin’ the time we have together.”
“Appreciate the time we have? That’s supposed to suffice? I raised you, son—don’t give me shit for not taking the scraps you offer us.” The old man seethes, a red tint to his cheeks.
I know I’m not going to get anywhere with him tonight.
The hurt runs deep, and the Steeles are as stubborn as mules.
We don’t forget or forgive easily. Especially not when it comes to abandonment.
And that’s exactly what I did. Whether intentional or not, I abandoned this place.
Abandoned him the same way my father did.
“Wade Steele, you go get washed up for dinner,” Grandma scolds.
I find her standing in the doorway, a pale yellow apron tied around her waist and a tea towel in her hands. Her scowl is brutal and aimed at her husband. At least he has the sense not to fight her on this, even if the look he gives me promises that we’ll continue this conversation at a later time.
He places a kiss on Grandma’s cheek as he passes her, leaving us alone in the foyer. My heart grows heavy at the soft gleam in her eyes.
“Give him time,” she tells me.
“How much time? I don’t have much left here.”
She considers that and places a steady hand on my shoulder, looking up at me. “Maybe that is something you have to take into consideration, then. If things haven’t turned around by the end of your time here, will you be okay with leaving things unsettled?”
“I’ve already been here longer than I should have.”
“And while I’m grateful for every moment I get to have you back, I’ll be honest and say that I want it to be longer.
I’ll always want more time with you. It makes me sad to see you so at odds with your grandfather, but I’ll always urge you to do what will make you happy, my love.
If that means you going back to Nashville, then I’ll understand. However, I will also want you to stay.”
I exhale and wrap my arms around her small frame in a tight hug. She sets her cheek against my chest and sniffles.
“This is dirty work, Grandma,” I scold teasingly. “It’ll take more than a hug and a sniffle to convince me to stay.”
She laughs, and some of my tension drains. “Are you finally going to tell me why you’ve been sneaking off every day like a naughty teenager?”
Pulling back, I set my hat back on my head and use the brim to avoid looking at her intense stare. Like a beast on the prowl, this one.
“Not yet.”
“Fine, don’t tell me. But a word of advice: maybe resist carrying the smell of her perfume into the house if you want to keep me from asking,” she warns slyly. The moment I look at her with wide eyes, she knows she’s trapped me. “Go wash up. You’re helping me set the table tonight.”
With two pats to my cheek, she spins and goes back to the kitchen. I pinch the collar of my jacket and lift it to my nose, breathing in the mix of lavender and coconut that I’ve quickly come to recognize as Anna. The scent has begun to linger in my truck and, now, my clothes.
I’m content to let it.