Page 14 of Accidentally Mine

“Not particularly. I prefer the living. You don’t strike me as the type of woman who writes horror.”

“Well, I also struck you as a not-so-good girl, so I guess your first impressions are not very accurate.”

A slow smile spread over kissable lips as he motioned to the waitress. I’d been trying to get her attention for the past hour, but she responded to him in an instant. People took notice of him. I understood why.

“Coffee, please. Black,” he said, also motioning toward my mug. Then his eyes fell right back on me. “Sometimes, I think that we become what other people make us. Not necessarily what we wish to be.”

“Oh? So you’re saying you know more about me than I know about myself?”

He nodded. “Perhaps. I know that I probably would have become an electrician if it weren’t for my father. He pushed me to go into electrical engineering. Turns out that it was the right thing for me.”

I studied him, my nerves zinging so loud they were almost audible, thinking that he may have been right.

I’d been living in fear so long I’d forgotten who I was.

Back when I was fearless, I’d taken creative writing classes and written mostly literary fiction.

I’d wanted to be an architect, to help my father with his business.

It was the fear Anthony had instilled in me when we started dating that had molded me into the person I was today.

A girl who was afraid to have any fun, who gave up her architecture degree, and whose writing reflected the darkness and despair she felt inside.

“You’re an engineer?”

“Was. I own a company now. We’ve pioneered some successful medical technologies that have made it easier to detect certain anomalies in the body.”

“You sound important.”

He scoffed. “Not in the grand scheme of things.”

I stared at him. Anthony would’ve answered that with a yes.

Originally, I’d thought the corporation he worked for was a legit shipping business, and he’d said he was second in command, under his father.

He always wore a suit, with an air that he was better than everyone else.

He exuded a type of cockiness that had hooked me like a fish.

Back then, he’d treated everyone like shit except me, and I thought it just showed how special I really was to him.

Until he started treating me like shit too.

It turned out, a man who wasn’t cocky was even sexier. I tilted my head and studied him, having pretty much decided to see this conversation through, instead of bolting for the door like I should have done. “How did you get into the medical side of things?”

“I was always interested in brain trauma. My father died of a stroke from an undiagnosed brain embolism when I was eighteen, and my mother died of brain cancer shortly after I was born. I’ve always been a tinkerer, so I felt like there had to be a way to detect these things earlier, more easily and without radiation.

Our product is widely available and testing can be done in any doctor’s office, providing immediate results. ”

I could tell from the way he spoke that he felt passionate about it. “That sounds important.”

“Yeah. I believe our product is.”

My eyes tried to mist over with the way he spoke. He let the product shine. He didn’t say my product. He said our product, giving his company and employees credit. He didn’t make it a spotlight of his own magnificence, like Anthony would’ve done.

I looked away. Why was I letting this man in? I needed to stop this. And yet my butt stayed rooted to the seat. God himself couldn’t have budged me.

“Still,” I said. “Your father knew you. But you know nothing about me.”

The waitress brought a coffee carafe, filled his cup, and warmed mine. He thanked her and leaned across the table. “I know you’re in trouble. And I know you think you can’t get out of it. But there’s always a way.”

I blinked. Was I so transparent? “Not this time.”

He didn’t press me on the subject. Instead, we talked a little more about his company in Brookline, his hobbies.

He had a sister named Claudia, who he obviously loved.

During each pause in conversation, he asked me a personal question, but I’d quickly find a way to change the subject back over to him.

By the time we were finished, I’d learned he was an avid sportsman who loved the Bruins, who grew up lower-middle class in Woburn, and went to MIT on a freaking full-ride archery scholarship. Who even knew those existed?

What felt like only a few minutes later, I looked down and realized it was almost one. I wanted to stay longer, but I still had to stop at Whole Foods to fill Aunt Marie’s fridge.

“Oh, my gosh!” I closed my laptop and shoved it into my bag. “I’m sorry. I really have to go. I promised my aunt I’d go food shopping before lunch.”

“Let me drive you,” he said. “To the store.”

“What?” I looked out the window to see if he had managed to find a parking spot outside. There was barely any parking in Boston. “You drove here?”

He nodded, stood, and reached over, lifting my heavy bag off my shoulder. “Lugging bundles home on the T is not for the faint of heart. I’ve been there.”

I could see in the set of his jaw that protesting would be futile. I didn’t have it in me. Plus, my body and even my brain were screaming, yes please, more ! Okay, my body was a tad louder than my brain.

Even as I was telling myself to run, I found myself walking with him out to a shiny black sporty Cadillac, where it turned out that he hadn’t actually driven here. Someone else had.

I frowned. I should’ve been happy, because he was right, lugging bundles home on the T did suck.

And having a big strong man with me felt like another level of insulation from evil, way more protection than my overly large fuzzy cardigan.

But Anthony liked the glitz and glam, and he had been all about stretch limos.

All about expensive and fast cars and throwing his money around.

None of it had ever impressed me in the least, except maybe at first.

Now? It just made me wary.

Despite his humble upbringings, Brent didn’t seem like he was trying to impress me.

He opened the door to the XTS himself and motioned me in.

“Hey, old man,” he said to the driver still seated behind the wheel.

“We’ve got to go to a supermarket.” He climbed in and looked at me expectantly. “Where do you want to go? Whole Foods?”

I nodded.

The man behind the steering wheel was also wearing a suit and had a full head of silver hair, cut in a way that reminded me of a much younger man. He tipped an imaginary cap at Brent. “Whole Foods, coming right up.”

Brent leaned back and grinned over at me. “Ernest, this is Roselynn. Roselynn, this is Ernest. My valet .”

The way he said it brought an unexpected smile to my lips.

Ernest, who had sparkling blue eyes and salt-and-pepper stubble, turned in his seat and gave me a toothy grin. “Or his whipping boy. Whatever he chooses. He signs my checks.”

Brent smiled and drummed his fingers on his knee as I mouthed, “You have a valet ?”

I was surprised when pink creeped up on his cheeks. “Well. I suppose it sounds classier than the other options,” he said. “Ernest has been with me since the beginning. I guess you could call him my right-hand man.”

“Whipping boy,” Ernest said from the front as he pulled out into traffic.

I smiled. “Wicked nice car. You travel this way often?”

He looked around as if seeing it for the first time, pulling on his collar. “Actually, I’m not fond of driving.”

I smiled at that. I’d hated driving, ever since that day.

Once I arrived at Long Grove, a town I’d thought I could successfully hide away in, I’d sold my old Subaru for scrap and gotten an apartment that was in walking distance to all the downtown stores.

On the rare occasion I needed to go anywhere, I Ubered.

I blinked back thoughts of the accident and its aftermath as we slowly made our way through the busy city streets.

In the middle of the day, Whole Foods wasn’t crowded. After I climbed out of the car, I began to have second thoughts. “Don’t you have to get to your office?”

He exited behind me and slammed the door. “I think I told you, I’m the boss. I can do whatever I want.”

“Really? Are you sure? I mean, I can make it home fine from here.”

He put a hand on my forearm, stopping me in my tracks.

Why did every place he touched on my body feel so strangely branded?

“Roselynn, your stubbornness is charming, but you’re even more charming when you say yes.

And, for the record, I’m just as stubborn as you.

So say yes and let me help you, or they might sell out of organic cheese puffs before we make it out of the parking lot. ”

Heat rose to my cheeks as I tried not to smile. “Fine,” I said, turning to the entrance of the store and grabbing a basket.

We walked down the aisles of the market as I tried to remember at least a few of the things on my list for Aunt Marie. But I could barely think of anything except this remarkable specimen of human hotness beside me.

It was clear I wasn’t the only one who thought he was good-looking. Women in the midst of their shopping, pushing their carts, seemed to stop what they were doing and gaze after him. He didn’t notice. Probably happened to him all the time.

He moved along with that chiseled, brooding face of his, looking so out of place as he picked up a carton of almonds and looked at the contents. I had to laugh.

He raised his brows at me in question.

“Nothing,” I said before pressing my lips together.

I guessed even the gorgeous people had to go shopping too, but he looked more like an advertisement for a supermarket.

A hip, hot model, perfect in his white dress shirt and dark slacks, who made shopping seem glamorous and cool so people would want to do it.

He was succeeding. Suddenly, shopping had a whole lot more allure to it than it once did.