He stared at her with a suspicious but playful smirk. “So last night you said you haven’t been in a relationship in over a year.” The playfulness in her eyes seemed to wane a bit, so he hurried his point along and got past that part. “But are you seeing anyone else? Or is there anyone you go out with even casually?”
Lifting that cute little brow, her eyes challenged him now, confusing him. “You mean like you casually left the bar with that blonde?”
Okay, he walked right into that one. Damn it. “Well, yeah, something like that, only I’m not seeing her in any way.” He paused before saying what he wanted to say next, because it was a risk, but then just being here was a risk, so what the hell? He may as well get this straight now. “Until you, I didn’t do repeat visits, no matter what the circumstances. And I can’t even remember when the last time was that I spent the night with someone or had someone stay overnight at my place. Now I have an overnight bag in my Jeep outside.”
Her eyes widened a bit alarmed. “You do understand that tonight—”
“I got it,” he said with a smile. “I’m invited to sleep in your bed, nothing else, and that is definitively a first for me too, but I’m still looking forward to it.”
Her eyes went playful again, and she chewed her bottom lip. He did what he always wanted to do when he was distracted by her lips. He kissed her. Somehow, one day had changed everything, and he wasn’t holding back anymore.
The doorbell rang, and Brandon pulled away slowly. “You expecting someone else?”
From the puzzled look on her face, he already had his answer. “No.”
He got up then thought of his hermit parents and how they almost never got the door when someone knocked. He turned back to her. “You do want me to get it, right?”
“Yeah.” She nodded, the expression on her face as curious as he felt.
His insides tightened a little as he made it down the stairs. They definitely would be getting back to that conversation they’d started upstairs. Just the thought that he might be opening the door to a male friend of hers had him working his jaw already.
It was a dude at the door, but thankfully he was in an UPS uniform, holding a large square envelope with what felt like a book or something inside. Brandon took it from him, signing for it, and read who it was from: Chris Devereux MD. The originating address was from New York. He remembered her saying her mom used to have her meds delivered. Though he thought if that’s what this was it’d be coming from a pharmacy, not from what appeared to be a private address. He highly doubted any doctor’s office would be on Cherry Lane. Typically, it would have a suite or office number; this had neither. He shook it very subtly anyway as he walked up the stairs, but there was no noise.
Regina’s expression went as curious as he felt as soon as she saw him walk into the room with the package in his hand. “Hmm, I wasn’t expecting anything.”
“It’s from New York,” he said, handing it to her.
She read the return label, and the change in her demeanor was unmistakable. She even lost some color in her face.
“Your doctor?”
He pulled the tray with her waffles out of one of the bags on the bed, pretending not to notice her obvious sudden unease.
“No, um.” She glanced at him then put the package down next to her. “An old friend.” Bringing her attention to the tray he was now holding, with the see-through plastic cover, she smiled. “Are those chocolate waffles?”
“Chocolate chocolate chip, actually,” he said, pulling the lid off and handing them to her.
Her lips parted slightly in surprise as he sat down next to her and kissed her. She brought her hand to his face and kissed him deeper. “Thank you. These look delicious!”
Her reaction was pretty much what he’d expected, but something about it felt a bit forced. The package, or rather who it was from, had rattled her, and for as much as she tried bringing the focus onto her waffles and away from the package, he caught the struggle.
“Aren’t you curious?” he asked as she dug into the waffles.
She looked at him while chewing, her eyes nearly rolling back in ecstasy. “God, these are good,” she said, covering her mouth with her fingers.
Deciding to let it go—for now—Brandon pulled his steak and egg sandwich and orange juice out of the bag and joined her in eating breakfast. He told her about the shower chair he’d gotten from Walmart that morning and his history with the place he got the waffles from.
“Oh, one of my sisters lives near there. Wait.” She covered her mouth again as she finished chewing and thought about that. “Is Pacific Beach near La Jolla?”
“Yeah, that’s nearby there,” he said, crumpling up the wrap his sandwich had come in and throwing it in the bag.
“I thought so. I’ll have to tell her about this place. These waffles are to die for.”
Regina finished with her waffles, and Brandon gathered up the garbage in the bag.
“That was so good,” Regina said, tapping her belly. “And it was the perfect size, because I’m not overstuffed.”
“I thought you’d like them.” He smiled.
Seeing how content the waffles made her, Brandon was beginning to think maybe a drive out to La Jolla once in a while wouldn’t be so bad. Geez. Here he’d had the nerve to make fun of the other guys she very possibly had wrapped already. At least those guys had been around her for a few weeks.
Shaking his head, he stood. “I’ll go get the chair from my car.”
“Oh, yes!” she said with a big smile. “That’s gonna make showering so much easier. Thank you.”
He turned to her with a smirk, and she held her hands out. “Yes, I wanna thank you for it. Come here.”
She wiggled her fingers in front of her, and he was there in an instant, leaning over. Pulling him gently by his shirt, she gave him one of the deepest kisses yet, one that had parts of him shifting. He had to pull away before things got embarrassing. She’d already made it clear there’d be nothing more going on than what they’d already done, but if she kept this up, he may be tempted to try and change her mind.
“You’re welcome,” he said, pecking her one last time. “I’ll be back.”
The moment he was out of sight, he adjusted himself. As much as he avoided kissing in the past, he’d never let them get this frenzied, so while he had felt aroused by a single kiss before, he’d only felt the beginning of arousal. Never before had he gotten a full-blown erection from one kiss as he had now. This wasn’t just embarrassing. It was ridiculous.
Chapter Fourteen
Regina
Waiting until she heard the door open downstairs, Regina chewed her lip before ripping the package open from Dr. Devereux. First, she pulled out the card. She ripped the envelope it was in, saw it was an anniversary card, and read it quickly.
Regina,
I hope this finds you well. I was in the bookstore the other day and saw a sign announcing that E.R.Rico would be doing a book signing there in a few days and immediately thought of you. I remembered how books were your escape, even during your darkest hours, and that she was one of your favorites. So I decided to come back and get you a signed copy of her latest. In revisiting your file for your forwarding address, I noticed it’s been almost eighteen months since your very first therapy session. So I thought this would make a nice little anniversary gift.
Warm regards,
Chris
Regina put the card back in the bigger envelope as she heard the door downstairs open. Unable to resist, she pulled out the book to see which one it was: Endless. She smiled. It was one she hadn’t read yet. She flipped it open to get a sneak peek of the inscription and was startled by how fast Brandon had made it to the top of the stairs.
Catching herself, she slowed down after instinctively shoving the book back in the envelope in reaction. She could’ve kicked herself for being so stupidly obvious about it.
“Is it a secret?” Brandon asked, peering at the envelope as he walked toward the be
d.
He placed the box with the chair on the end of her bed, but his eyes were still on the envelope.
“No,” she said, clearing her throat a little. “It’s just a book—a romance novel by one of my favorite authors. My friend had it signed by the author and sent it to me.”
She smiled, trying to make light of it. As surprisingly comfortable as it was to talk to Brandon, this was not a topic she was ready to talk about. Telling him about her former therapist was something she hadn’t even decided if he needed to know at all. She pulled her legs off the side of the bed and pointed at the box he was now working on getting open. “That’s a good size. I didn’t know they made them that small.”
Brandon eyes went from her to the envelope then back to her. She knew he must be wondering about it still. She’d already bypassed his question earlier about not being curious about the package. Then she’d obviously waited for him to leave to open it, only to practically gasp when he’d walked back in the room so quickly.
To her surprise, he didn’t press further. But the raised eyebrow remained up even as he spoke of the chair. “I noticed your shower is on the small side, so I got the smallest one they had.”
He pulled the chair out, made some adjustments, and then walked over to the bathroom. “Yep,” he said. “Perfect fit.” She smiled as he walked out. “Did you want to take a shower now or later?”
“Now is good.”
He walked over and helped her up. She was getting better about walking on just one crutch. Her ankle was still very sore, but at least, the throbbing had subsided, so she didn’t need such a big dose of her painkillers. They made her feel sluggish, and today she hadn’t even taken them. Regina wasn’t sure if it was the distraction of having Brandon around or if her ankle was healing a lot faster than she was expecting. But if the pain didn’t get any worse than it was now, she probably wouldn’t be taking any more meds from here on.
Brandon helped her all the way into the bathroom. Then she waved at him with a smirk. “I got the rest from here.”
“You sure?”
Regina laughed. She was beginning to love seeing his playful side. The fact that not too long ago she’d actually wondered if he ever smiled made the silly grin on his face now feel like that much more of a treat.
“Yes, I’m sure,” she said, leaning in and kissing him.
He brought his hand around her waist and kissed her a little deeper before pulling his face away. “I’m serious. You sure you’re gonna be okay on your own?”
“Absolutely,” she assured him. “But I’ll probably be in here a while, so if you have anywhere else you need to be or any errands to run, by all means, go.”
Frowning as she once again rejected his help, he exhaled. “I have a few phone calls I need to make, and there’s something I needed to do at the base but was going to wait until Monday. Maybe I can knock it out today. You sure you’re gonna be a while and you don’t need me here?”
“Positive, and even after I’m done, I’m sure I’ll find a way to keep myself busy.” She squeezed him. “Just get back in time for our movie night.”
“Oh, I’ll be back way before that.”
After a few more kisses that had her wondering if maybe she should’ve taken him up on his offer to help her in the shower, he was gone.
Just as she anticipated, the shower took forever. Moving around with that damn splint and trying not to put weight on her ankle slowed everything down. She had plenty of time in there to think about what was happening between her and Brandon.
The untimely delivery had interrupted a conversation that had begun to make her insides wild. Was he really going to suggest a relationship? Or was it his way of trying to warn her he didn’t do them and this weekend was just an exception? On the other hand, he’d been pretty aggressive about getting down to the business of whether or not she was single.
Was she ready to move on as Dr. Devereux had insisted she needed to? As much as she’d enjoyed her single status in college before settling down—which had given her the opportunity to deal with a lot of different personalities—she’d never met someone quite like Brandon. He’d proven he could be such a sweetheart already, but there was something deep in those eyes that could go hard in an instant. She’d seen it happen several times now.
He admitted to never wanting to make attachments and that he had no family, nor did he mention any friends or acquaintances. That was a little alarming as well. Was it really a good idea to finally start to move on with someone like Brandon, so intense and atypical, which most likely translated to difficult?
Sure he’d been easy enough to get along with now that he’d finally come around. He’d been wonderful actually, and while he had his intense moments, he could be so down to earth. Even their kisses felt like something they’d been doing forever. But they hadn’t gotten into any heavy subjects yet. Everything so far had been light and fluffy. There was no hiding the fact that they were both skimming the heavier stuff and allowing each other to do so. Avoiding the tougher subjects was not the smartest way to start a relationship, but she’d tread cautiously for now.
Deciding she wasn’t even sure where this could go and that could very well mean nowhere, Regina wasn’t going to worry about all that yet. She’d take her weekend with him for what it was worth and enjoy it. At least, she didn’t have to worry about feeling dirty or used afterwards because she’d already set that boundary, and he’d assured her today he would be respecting it.
~~~
“I can’t believe that’s the first time you’ve ever seen When Harry Met Sally!” Regina said, shaking her head as she clicked the remote, turning the television off.
Smiling, Brandon shrugged. “It just never seemed like something I could get into.”
Brandon slid down from his sitting position on her bed and lay back all the way. Regina did the same, turning to her side and resting her head on her fist. “So what’s your take on it? Do you agree men and women can’t be friends?”
“Yep, absolutely.”
This surprised her. “Really? They absolutely can be friends?”
“No, I agree that they can’t, and I think Harry nailed the reason why perfectly. Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.”
“Wow, you really do have a good memory.”
“Not that good,” he said, smiling and playing with her hand. “I said I’ve never seen the movie, but I’ve seen plenty of parts, like that one and the part where she fakes the orgasm in the diner. Actually, I’ve seen most of the more famous parts. I just never sat through the whole thing from beginning to end before.”
“Well, this will probably get my woman card taken away, but I’m gonna have to agree too.” This seemed to surprise him. “But not exactly for the reason you or Harry think. I think it comes down to feelings, not just sex. I think, even if you don’t have sex, the relationship can be ruined because one side starts developing feelings and the other side might not.”
He shook his head. “Maybe for you that’s the case because you’ve probably never met a man who hasn’t fallen in love with you immediately. So you’ve never been able to keep friendships with men. But most of the time it’s about the sex, especially if, say, the woman you had sex with—and didn’t fall in love with, so you remained friends—gets an actual boyfriend or even husband. There’s no way that friend is gonna stay a friend without her man having issues with it, unless, of course, she lies about never having slept with her friend.” He frowned, glancing at her, his expression going grim. “In that case, if they’re starting off with lies or cover ups, the relationship with her new man is probably doomed to begin with.”
With her heart beating a little faster, Regina tried not to put too much weight on his statement about her not having met a man who didn’t fall in love with her immediately. He was just being sweet. She’d already established that he could be sweet—very.
Caught in his eyes for moment, her heart pounded even harder before she ma
naged to counter. “But that’s not exactly what Harry argued in the movie. He said that men and women can’t be friends because attracted to them or not,” she laughed nervously, “you pretty much want to nail them all anyway. You seem to be saying that only if you have sex with them you can’t be friends but if you don’t you can?”
“I’m probably the wrong person to be arguing this point to begin with, because I’ve never had many friends, period.” He reached out and ran his fingers through a few strands of her hair that fell to the side of her face, making her shiver. “So I can’t say for certain if I would or wouldn’t want to nail every one of my female friends if I had any. All I know is that’s my reason for no return visits with them whether we’ve had sex or not.” He paused, and it almost seemed to Regina as if he wanted that part emphasized. Then he went on. “Return visits with anyone form attachments. So maybe your reasoning is more correct than mine. Those attachments could lead to wanting sex, and, therefore, unless that turns into a relationship, the friendship is ruined.”
Regina tilted her head, staring at him curiously. “Why is that?”
He seemed confused. “Why is what?”
“Why is it that you don’t form attachments with anyone? You mentioned that before. You really don’t have any friends?”
He brought his hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling, his features going a bit stiff. “I really don’t.”
“But why? It’s obviously not for lack of personality or ability to hold a conversation. I’ll admit after the start we had I’m a little surprised, but never in my life have I felt as comfortable being around someone as quickly as I have with you.”
His smile surprised and relieved her a little bit, but he continued to stare up at the ceiling. “It’s never been because I can’t make friends or keep them, Regina. I choose not to make attachments that might lead to friendships.” He turned to her now, his expression much softer than when she’d first posed the question. “At least I had until now.”