I laughed again.
Me: And where’s the fun in that?
Unknown: I nearly froze to death when he locked me out of my own house, all because he wanted me to say sorry in a convincing way that didn’t make him want to set my house on fire.
Me: What did you do?
Unknown: Oh, I put snakes in the toilet, classic.
Me: How old are you?
Unknown: It was a welcome prank!
Me: Wow.
Unknown: Are we already breaking up?
Me: Were we together?
Unknown: Only in my soul.
Me: …what do you really want?
The little bubbles popped up. I held my breath like an idiot waiting for him to say something like “you,” when I realized I wouldn’t even know what to do with this sort of man. He was a handful — an arrogant, rich, famous, handful.
Who also made sure my son survived fame, my heart reminded me.
But still!
He dated supermodels, literally.
Unknown: I want to come over.
Me: I don’t do one-night stands.
Unknown: Yeah, you should have let me finish. Now you’re going to be embarrassed. I was going to say I want to come over, have nice adult conversation, steal sips from the wine you’re probably already drinking, and eat whatever dinner you just put in your oven.
Me: ARE YOU SPYING ON ME?
Unknown: Do you want me to answer that truthfully or just pretend I’m not in my car outside after forcing a bandmate to pry it out of Braden where you were staying?
Me: You’re an arrogant creepy ass.
Unknown: So that’s a yes? Also, I’m not creepy. You’ve known me for five years.
He wasn’t wrong, but our paths rarely crossed! Even at the Grammy’s, he was too busy being him to even notice me. Right?
The loneliness was clearly winning out as I chewed my lower lip then finally typed back.
Me: One hour, you can stay for one hour. Keep your hands to yourself, and your rockstar swagger turned on low or completely off, got it?
Unknown: You scare me.
Me: I’m a mom.
Unknown: I’m going to just not reply what I’m thinking.
Me: What?
Unknown: If I told you, you wouldn’t let me in, and I’m about ten seconds away from knocking on your door.
I threw my phone against the cushion, sprinted toward the hall bathroom to make sure nothing was stuck on my face or in my teeth, then barely managed to take a deep breath before my doorbell rang.
What the hell am I doing!
Loneliness had driven me insane.
Hey, it could be worse, I could be on drugs. Ha.
Or hoard cats.
Or… I stared at the solid black doors and gulped.
Drew Amhurst, the Drew Amhurst, the guy who I’d obsessed over during high school, the guy whose face had been on my teenage walls more times than I could count.
Was seriously at my door.
Breathe, just breathe.
I slowly opened it up a crack and then all the way.
Damn, I should have closed it in his face.
If this was turning the swagger to low, God help all women when he had it on high.
He was in a different outfit than before, braced across the doorframe with a lazy smile on his face, his eyes honing in on mine. Earlier, he had been wearing sunglasses; now I knew why. It was almost impossible to look away from the depths of the blue.
“Bronte.” His voice was hoarse as he leaned down and whispered next to my neck. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“I think that’s what the devil says before asking for your soul.” I fired the thought back, and then realized I’d actually said it out loud.
His chuckle was warm; it wrapped around me and squeezed tight. “I’m going to just ignore that, within five seconds of agreeing to friendship, you compared me to the devil.”
And just like that, Drew Amhurst stepped across the threshold, and into my world.
CHAPTER 3
Andrew
My first thought: Braden’s going to lose his shit.
My second: But it’s okay. We’ll send him away somewhere after I kiss up and down his mom’s glorious body. I may even take a selfie by her perfect hips and rest my cheek against her ass. Shh, don’t tell.
My third: He’s not too old for military school, right?
“You’re staring.” Her green eyes flicked to mine, her pink tongue snuck out and licked her bottom lip before her teeth held it captive for one-point-two seconds. I clenched my tatted-up hands into fists and swayed a bit toward her.
“Did you expect an apology?” I finally rasped.
Her eyes darted from mine to my nose ring, then to my neck, where I had an eagle tattoo on the right side, and then her gaze traveled south. I was wearing a loose black tank, so she was getting an eyeful of tattoos.
I tried not to preen when she continued to check me out, down my lean arms until her eyes rested on my right wrist.
I was wearing a white bandana around it, along with three leather bracelets on my right hand, and my always present red bracelet on my left hand that reminded me of all my sins and faults.
“I like those,” she said softly, and then she seemed to shake herself out of her stupor and gulped. “Wine?”
I smiled. “Thought you’d never ask.”
“And I thought I told you to tone it down?” she grumbled under her breath.
I wasn’t sure if it was a question or a complaint. Before I could think of figuring that out, she was walking away from me.
I grinned after her as her ass swayed back and forth, almost weeping when she made it into the kitchen and reached up into the cabinet to grab another glass. I was able to see it all.
Her ass.
Her curves.
The small of her back as her cream sweater lifted just high enough for me to see her smooth white skin.
“You like red?” She was still struggling to reach the glass when I took pity on her and came to her rescue.
I could feel the heat emitting from her body as I moved behind her and reached
