Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“ C ome on, big guy,” Brielle cooed, helping Sparky out of the house and into her car. “We’re gonna go see Papa Harrison. You love him.” Gently, she helped Sparky step up, careful to watch his stitches, and settled him into a comfortable position in the passenger side of her vehicle. “Great. Now hang tight.”
She shut the door and headed around to her side just as another car pulled up in front of her house. Pausing, Brielle frowned, then barely caught her jaw from hitting the ground when Ryan stepped out.
He was dressed casual, like he’d been when they’d eaten dinner together, and his shorts and t-shirt looked far better on him than the scrubs from work. Not that Brielle would complain about seeing the scrubs again, but those weren’t her favorite uniform on a guy.
“Bri!” he shouted, giving a wave and jogging over, his hair dancing along his forehead. “Looks like I caught you at a bad time. I had several cancellations this afternoon and was able to get some rare time off.” He eyed Sparky through the windshield. “You going for a run?”
Brielle shook her head, trying to find her tongue. How many times did she need to speak to Ryan before her hormones would calm down? She’d almost given into his teasing and her feelings just yesterday at lunch, but luckily, he’d reminded her of his preference for women like her sister and Brielle was able to break the spell he’d been weaving.
It was absolutely ridiculous how much sway he had over her and the thing was, she wasn’t sure he knew it. Yeah, he’d been flirting and teasing about eating together, but he’d always been that way. It was what had led to their first kiss in high school was the fact that he didn’t know how to take ‘no’ for an answer.
But her feelings for him now? She could only hope he was oblivious like most men.
“Good.” Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. “I was sitting here feeling bad about having to break up your fun, but Sparky really shouldn’t go on runs while those stitches are in.”
Brielle let her temper flare a little. It helped against how attractive he was, leaning against her car like he didn’t have a care in the world. “I’m aware, thanks. I got the full run down yesterday.”
Ryan tilted his head, folded his arms over his chest and studied her. “Glad to hear it sunk in. You wouldn’t believe how many calls we get from patients who paid no attention and then are shocked when something goes wrong.”
Brielle huffed. “Right. But I’m going to be late, so if you wouldn’t mind…” She tried to shoo him away, but the stubborn man didn’t budge.
“Where ya going?”
Brielle gave him a withering look. “Ryan. I need to go.”
He grinned and shifted closer. “Where?”
“You sound like a toddler,” she snapped.
“So do you,” he retorted. “Perhaps one of us should start acting like the adults we are.”
She waited, but he just grinned. “It’s not going to be you, is it?”
His grin grew. “Where’s the fun in that?” He stepped even closer, and now Brielle was starting to feel trapped between him and the car door.
Trapped was a strong word. She actually was enjoying his little cat and mouse act, but her already broken heart was screaming that he’d only toy with her and spit her back out, just like he’d done when they were younger. You promised to let that go. Remember? On Sunday?
She relaxed her spine. “Fine. I’ll be the adult. I’m heading out to share Sparky with a friend. Now be a good little vet and check on another patient.”
Ryan’s right eyebrow shot up. “Wow…that was good. You’ve been practicing.”
Brielle chose to pinch her lips shut rather than roll her eyes the way she wanted to. She had a feeling he would only make a snarky remark about how childish that was, and she didn’t want to give him any more ammunition.
“So did you like it?”
Brielle blinked, coming back to the conversation. “Like what?”
“Your meal yesterday,” he said.
Her brows pulled together. “Uh…yeah. It was good.”
Ryan looked a little too triumphant. “Great. That means you owe me another dinner date.”
She shook her head. “Wait, what?”
“The bet was if you didn’t like it, you could pick the next dinner.”
“First of all, the bet was about you picking food for me. Second, I did like the food, so that’s a moot point.” She gave him her best scowl, but Ryan didn’t seem to be the least bit intimidated. Funny. It always worked on other guys. Why wouldn’t it do anything to the one guy who truly upset her equilibrium? She needed the dude gone, pronto. She had an appointment, and she wanted her peace of mind back. Her poor heart wasn’t going to survive if she kept giving it doses of Ryan Thatcher outside of their professional time together. The runs and the veterinary appointments were going to be enough to handle, thank you very much .
“Ah, ah, ah…” He stepped closer and rested one hand on top of the car and the other grabbed her door, essentially caging Brielle in.
She hated how much she enjoyed the feeling.
“We never actually said the bet didn’t count.” He was too close. Her heart was about to beat out of her chest. “You just changed the rules of it.”
“It still was about me not liking the food.” Her voice squeaked, and Brielle could tell by the quirk of his eyebrow that he didn’t miss it. The stupid guy knew he was making her nervous, and he was doing it anyway. Jerk!
She put her hands on his chest to push him back, determined to get some breathing room, but Ryan immediately trapped her hands against his chest and stepped even closer.
“Stop fighting it,” he said, his voice husky.
“I’m not fighting anything.” Liar, liar, pants on fire. Why does he even care? We all know what his type is and it’s not me. She couldn’t breathe. What was he doing to her and most importantly, why?
“I know you feel this,” he said, his voice even lower.
“Doesn’t mean we have to give into it,” Brielle said through clenched teeth. “I was stupid enough to do that once. I won’t do it again.”
Ryan frowned. “You regret our first kiss?”
“You don’t?” The words were out before she could stop them, and Brielle’s whole face became inflamed with heat. It was moments like this that she understood why her mother and sister got so mad at her.
Not only was she lying through her teeth, but the words themselves were just plain mean. Brielle liked being independent. She liked being strong. She didn’t want to be the type of person to take junk from anyone, but she also never wanted to be the mean one. She already had two family members like that, and if Brielle was going to be like her mom and sister in anything, it wasn’t going to be their personalities.
The barb hit Ryan right in the middle of his chest, but he worked hard to hide it. He knew most men wouldn’t stick around when the woman was so obviously against spending time with them, but Ryan wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
Yes, Brielle was fighting hard.
Yes, they had a bit of history together.
No, Ryan didn’t know why she was mad at him.
What he did know was that Brielle was different from the other girls. She wasn’t a cookie cutter mold, and she intrigued him and drew him in like a bee to honey, just like she had when they were younger.
He also knew that their chemistry level was something so rare that if he walked away from it, he’d regret it for the rest of his life. At least, their pull was amazing when Brielle let down her guard, which she didn’t do very often, but he’d seen it just enough times to give him motivation to keep trying.
Something was preventing her from letting him in. He didn’t know what it was, though he was starting to suspect it had to do with high school, and he wasn’t going to give up until he not only figured it out, but knew without a shadow of a doubt that it couldn’t be overcome.
He worked with animals. Even the sweetest of creatures got aggressive when they were hurt or felt threatened, and the more time he spent with Brielle, the more he felt like that was her.
But what is hurting her? And why?
Those questions wouldn’t answer themselves, and they certainly couldn’t be figured out if he gave up at the first sign of her temper.
Ryan slowly shook his head, not giving up an inch in his proximity to her. “No,” he said, unintentionally making his voice husky. “I don’t regret it.”
Her hands flexed against his chest and she started to push, but stopped, her arms hanging loosely after a moment. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I shouldn’t have said that. ”
He took a risk. “Why are you so upset about what happened back in high school?”
Her jaw clenched and the wall began to rebuild right before his eyes, so Ryan hurried to change the subject. He’d try again on that one another time.
“Or you could just tell me where you’re going.”
The walls hesitated, and she narrowed her eyes. “I told you, I’m going to visit a friend.”
“What friend?” he asked, trying to sound casual, but was actually a little worried she had a boyfriend he didn’t know about. It just now occurred to him that he hadn’t bothered to ask if she was single before he began throwing himself at her. This could be a problem.
Brielle rolled her eyes. “Just a friend. Isn’t that enough?”
“Only if you can bring another friend with you.” He held his breath. Yeah…it was pushy, but so was she and Ryan knew he’d never have a chance with her if he didn’t shove his way through the door. Her walls and locks were way too good. Always had been. He had to fight fire with fire.
Brielle studied him for a few moments. “Do you remember the Harrisons?” she ventured.
Ryan grinned. “Of course. Estelle was a queen, Aspen was kinda crazy, and there was one more…” He frowned, trying to remember the other sister’s name. “She dated Ethan for a while, I think.”
“Maeve.”
“Yeah, yeah. Maeve.” Ryan smiled wide, feeling much better about not asking if she was single. “You’re visiting them?”
Brielle shook her head. “No. I’m visiting Mr. Harrison, their dad.”
“Uh…okay?”
She looked uncertain, and it made Ryan feel uneasy. Just what was going on here?
“He’s sick,” she continued, her voice soft. “And Antony, the older brother is in the hospital in Portland. ”
“I’d forgotten there was a brother.” Ryan rubbed his jaw. “I think he was quite a bit older than us.”
“He was.” Brielle took a deep breath. “Anyway, Mr. Harrison has ALS, and I’m going to go sit with him while the family goes to the hospital in Portland.”
“Wow.” Ryan stepped back, rubbing the back of his neck. That was a lot of information, and he was trying to process it quickly enough to respond. If Mr. Harrison was sick, should Ryan really be pushing his way into the situation? And what about Antony? Why did the whole family need to go to the hospital? How hurt was he?
Ryan didn’t remember much about Antony. They were too many years apart, and Antony hadn’t played any of the same sports as Ryan. But still…it was hard to hear that he’d been hurt enough to require that kind of attention.
“Look,” he began. “I don’t want to intrude.”
Brielle shook her head, her curls dancing in the light breeze. “No, actually, I’m the one who’s sorry.” She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “I’m pretty sure Papa Harrison would love to have you come visit.”
Ryan froze. “Really? You want me to come?”
She shrugged, but the way she couldn’t look him in the eye told Ryan everything he needed to know and his hope began to bloom once more. “He’s always looking for new people to torture with his stories, so I might as well bring you along.”
Ryan grinned. “Sacrificial lamb, huh? Never been one of those before.”
Brielle huffed. “There’s a first time for everything, I guess. They’re not too far toward town. Just follow.”
Ryan jogged to his car. This was an unexpected turn of events, but he wasn’t going to complain. Brielle had once again shown her hand, and Ryan was only adding up the reasons to keep trying to break down her barriers.
She might not know it, but by continuing to show that she was caring and kind and loyal, she was giving him all the fuel he needed to keep going when she also got snarky and defensive.
“Just be patient,” he told himself while driving behind her. Something was still festering from when they were young, and he would figure it out. In the meantime, he’d keep spending time with her, keep working on melting the ice. Eventually, he might get to see the real Brielle, and when that happened, he planned to show her to the world. He had no doubt that she’d be magnificent.