The dynamics between us had shifted drastically since our heart-to-heart in the bathroom. He was literally tripping over his own feet to help me any way he could. It felt unnatural and awkward at first––to let someone do for me––but once I started to lean into it, I never wanted it to end.
The night before I was set to leave again, I couldn’t sleep. I also didn’t want to leave. Which was the first time that sentiment reared its head. Around one, I gave up trying and decided maybe a little warm milk spiked with brandy was in order. As I shuffled through the dark house, on my way to the kitchen, the enormous windows revealed heavy snowfall with flakes the size of quarters, painting an absolutely magical picture.
Hearing me mucking about in the kitchen, the dogs appeared. I didn’t mind having them sleep with me––I kind of missed their warm bodies, to be honest––but Scott had forbidden it while I was still injured, and my shoulder had agreed. One false move and I would’ve been back to square one.
“Hey, guys.” They danced around me, tails wagging. “Wanna keep me company while I try to get my drunk–on? Yes? Okay, good.” They looked at me like I needed to get my head checked.
I poured a second shot of brandy into the milk, grabbed the mug, and walked into the den, my attention consumed by the snowfall. The security floods had been turned on, backlighting the show Mother Nature was putting on. I turned a little, ready to plop down in one of the massive down-filled chairs in the living room, when I realized there was a body on the couch.
“Jesus!” My hand went over my heart and he smirked. “What are you doing up?” I barked, sounding affronted to find him lounging in his own house. It’s safe to say the sexual tension was making me as edgy as a cat on a hot tin roof. It was either that, or the straight-up lack of sex.
“Couldn’t sleep…you?” He rolled off his back and went up on an elbow, head in hand, chest bare and his jeans unbuttoned. I’d never seen a sexier sight, so handsome my eyeballs got wet. Among other things.
Trusty mug in hand, I settled in the chair across from him. “Me neither.”
We sat in silence for a while, and Tension, our third roommate, decided to join us. I could feel his eyes on me while I kept my attention on the snow. “It’s so pretty.”
“You won’t think that once you’ve seen it a few more hundred times.”
“But you don’t mind it? I mean, you choose to live here.”
“I love it here. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be…this is home.”
“It suits you.” I sipped the warm milk, hiding the hot flush of my cheeks behind the mug.
And it did suit him. He always walked in wearing a soft smile at the end of the workday, his expression relaxed. He wasn’t the type of man you could keep cooped up like an exotic flower in a hot house. Scott needed the outdoors, the elements, the challenge.
“Do you…like it here?” I heard a few seconds later.
“More than I thought I would––stampeding bulls aside.”
“I warned you.”
“Yeah, that bear spray sure came in handy.” I stifled a grin. I loved giving him shit. It shouldn’t have been this much fun and yet it was.
“Yeah, well”––he smiled one of his dimpled ones––“I’m teaching you how to shoot a pistol as soon as the snow clears.”
I made a face, not at all happy with that news. “Do I have to?”
“You live here now. You should know. I can’t handle another heart attack and I have a feeling I can’t stop you from running.”
“What about you guys?” I said to the dogs sprawled out at my feet. “Wanna play bodyguards?” The dogs stared back like I was too stupid to understand that they lacked the power of speech.
My eyes lifted to find Scott’s gaze laser focused on my chest. The long t-shirt I’d worn to sleep had slipped off my shoulder and exposed my cleavage. I pushed it back up. “How did you wind up with these two?”
The small smile Scott had been wearing up until this moment slowly melted away. “I…” My smile dropped as well. Whatever the story was, it wasn’t a pleasant one. He sat up and leaned forward, placed his elbows on his knees, absently running a thumb back and forth over his lower lip. He did that a lot when he was thinking something over. And right now I could see he was considering how much to tell me.
“Do you remember my friend Charlie Hewitt? He was at Devyn’s wedding.”
I racked my brain for a face to attach to the name and it finally dawned on me. “Didn’t he work at Blackstone for a short while? In property management?”
Scott nodded.
Then I recalled the rest of the details. The dude was never on time. Never. We had to assign someone else to follow up on the properties he handled because we were getting so many complaints. I only knew this because Frank had cursed up a storm when he’d been made aware. Then he showed up to work drunk one day, which was obviously a fireable offense.
“He had a substance abuse problem, didn’t he?”
With a pained look on his face, Scott nodded. “Charlie and I had been best friends since the fourth grade. And yeah, in hindsight he probably did.” His gaze flicked away briefly. “We both partied hard back then.
“He was infatuated with this girl I’d gone out with a handful of times. I had no interest in her so…I…I set them up, thinking I was just helping a brother out…”
The sinking feeling in my stomach said I was going to regret asking about the dogs. Scott looked off, into the snowfall as if he could escape his own memories.
“I thought I was doing a good thing…For a while, they seemed happy together––I mean, he was still partying a lot, but we all were…”
His gaze met mine again.
“We were at a wedding in the Hamptons…at some point in the evening, I ended up on the beach, drinking. Meghan found me and started coming on to me.”
I sucked in an audible breath.
“Charlie caught her trying to kiss me, but he also saw me push her away, so he started in on her immediately, calling her a slut, a whore, you name it…It wasn’t the first time I’d seen them fight. And it usually got ugly fast. But this time it got even uglier…she told him she’d settled for second best, that she’d always been attracted to me and only went out with him to kill time until I was ready to settle down. Which…was a ridiculous fantasy.”
His Adam’s apple quivered as he swallowed.
“What happened?” came out a rough whisper.
“Charlie pulled out a ring box, said he was going to propose that night but he couldn’t find the right moment. I had no idea. He hadn’t said a word to me––probably because he knew I would’ve tried to talk him out of it.
“Anyway, I left them on the beach yelling at each other and figured they’d work it out like they always did. Next morning, I got a phone call from his brother. The housekeeper had found Charlie hanging from the pipes in his loft.”
I felt sick, close to throwing up the milk I’d savored only minutes ago.
“He’d bought these guys from a breeder in the UK. When he told me he was on a waiting list for two puppies, I told him he was a dumb fuck who could barely take care of himself…They were delivered the day after his funeral. His brother didn’t want them, so I kept them.”