Page 60 of Branded (Breakers Hockey)

Twenty-Six

Beth

He’d said he was going to take me to a movie and to dinner.

Something innocuous.

Something simple and low pressure.

This was…

A freaking helicopter.

“What are you doing?” I whispered when he parked at the airfield.

“We’re going to dinner.” He said it casually. Like we hadn’t just parked next to a sleek-looking helicopter. “I’ll have to rain check you on the movie, though, so I hope you’ll give me a chance for a second date.”

“What are you doing?” I whispered again.

“I have reservations at Lokanta.”

My eyes widened, heart beginning to thud against my ribs. “What are you doing?” I whispered a third time.

He unbuckled his seat belt, turned to face me, unclicking my restraint, catching it so that it didn’t whip back, drawing it slowly across my body until it was fully retracted.

Then his fingers were on my jaw. “Dinner, sugarpie.” He smiled, and it held just a bit of mischief.

“Plus, I had some inside info and know it’s your favorite restaurant. ”

It was.

It was one of the few things I missed from New York City.

Delicious Thai food. Staff that knew my name from my frequent dine-in and take-out trips and always had a ready smile for me. A quiet street tucked in the corner of a busy city center. One of my places in a life I’d tried to create on my own.

I’d taken Pru and Hazel there when they visited.

Of course, I had.

But I hadn’t expected them to have understood how important it was to me.

God, I loved them.

God, I loved this man . Loved that he’d cared enough to ask. Loved that he was kind and thoughtful and a good friend. Loved his body and mind and heart. Loved him.

The concrete rumbled. The demons rattled at their doors.

And for the first time ever I didn’t just wish the demons would vacate the castle, would cease to exist…I also wished that I could tell someone about them, could somehow do something to negate their power over me.

What would it be like to live without those demons?

Hazel would help me with that.

She had helped me with it, had connected me with Marin.

And that card was in my purse, my wallet.

And…I hadn’t so much as called the number.

Because I was?—

No. I wouldn’t go down that path. Not tonight. Not again. Not fucking ever. I slapped another layer of concrete down, threw an iron door into the walkway that led down to the basement.

I turned to Raph. “What if I said I was afraid of flying?” I asked softly.

His face went blank. No, not blank . It went careful, as though he were studying me, trying to sort out if there was a wrong answer. But then it seemed to change, going back to just Raph. Gentle still, but also with warm blue eyes and a soft jaw. “Then we would do something else.”

“Just like that?”

Quiet again, studying me. “Just like that, sugarpie.”

“I—” I broke off, heart pounding, and it was ridiculously hard to admit, “Not used to that, Raph.”

A beat. Then a soft, “I know.”

Heart still pounding, but the words came slightly easier now. “Didn’t see that growing up either.” What my father said went. What my stepfather decreed had to be obeyed, for risk of?—

“I didn’t either.”

I stared into gorgeous blue eyes; knew he wasn’t humoring me.

At the beginning of this, I’d wanted to fix him, to make him smile and feel again and do all that feeling while being happy. But he was jackhammering at my defenses, at the concrete, and he was making me feel so much, too much, but…

It was addicting.

It was impossible to resist.

It was—for all my talk of healing him and then moving on—it was something I wasn’t willing to give up. Not yet.

And maybe…if I talked to Marin, if I fixed the cracks, maybe I could banish the demons, and maybe I could keep Raph.

That had my heart pounding even harder.

That had hope curling through my middle.

I reached over and touched his jaw. My heart didn’t slow. If anything, my pulse picked up the pace, and I suggested, “Maybe we can make something different from what we both had?”

Eyes as warm as the Caribbean, hot white sand beneath my toes, a sticky, humid breeze over my skin. “Yeah, honey. I’d like that.”

Love.

Hope.

A man whose smile was as beautiful as it was gentle.

The demons didn’t have a chance.

“Beth!” Achara exclaimed. “It’s so good to see you, young lady—” She been reaching for my hands, but then her eyes widened, no doubt catching my new belly.

Rounded enough that I wasn’t just looking like I’d participated in consuming too many tacos, but that I was actually pregnant…and since I was pregnant with twins, my belly was definitely noticeable.

Even more so since I was wearing one of my old wrap dresses and it was skintight and?—

Belly time.

For sure.

Achara’s hands squeezed mine. “Congratulations,” she whispered.

“I—” I started to explain that they weren’t my babies, same as I always did when someone asked about the pregnancy, but Achara’s gaze went over my shoulder.

“Oh, is this your young man?”

That had me smiling, Raph and I were maybe a sum total of five years younger than Archara, but she called everyone young lady or man.

“This is Raph,” I said softly.

“Her man,” Raph agreed. “Though the jury is still out on whether or not I’m young.”

Achara smiled, glanced back down at me, mouthing, “He’s cute.”

I mouthed back, “Yeah. He is.”

That smile widened. “If you want a table, I can squeeze you guys in, but it might be a bit of a wait.”

“I actually made a reservation. Raphael Gomez at eight.”

Achara was positively beaming now. “Oh, you’re Raph,” she said a bit mystically before she glanced down at the list in front of her, making a few notes and then nodding behind her. “If you’ll follow me.”

No picking up menus.

No further explanations or questions.

Just that cryptic smile and Achara leading us to a booth in a quiet corner of the restaurant, Raph’s thigh pressed to mine, his body warm, and the spicy male scent of him surrounding me.

Then, with a squeeze to my shoulder, she was gone.

Before I could ask about menus—not that I needed them. I was boring and always ordered the same thing, but Raph would probably want a look. And anyway, it never hurt to look. Maybe this would be the one time that I would change things up.

Nah.

Who was I kidding?

That wasn’t going to happen.

I was going to get Tom Yum Goong, Som Tum , and then because I could never decide between them, both Tom Kha Kai and Gaeng Daeng —spicy shrimp soup and spicy green papaya salad and chicken in coconut soup and red curry.

Hey. I was eating for three.

(Never mind that I’d ordered the same, even not pregnant).

“Do you want?—”

Our server appeared, carrying two glasses, which she plunked down on the table, and before I could ask for those menus, she was gone again.

“I—”

A warm hand on my nape. “Relax, sugarpie. Food is coming—unless you want to step out of your usual?” He paused, and I shook my head, causing his expression to soften. “Then just breathe and enjoy being here.”

“You arranged it all.” Not a question, or not really phrased as one. But still one anyway.

“It’s our first date,” he said. Not an answer. But still one anyway.

My heart squeezed. “Raph,” I whispered.

He didn’t let us get drawn back into the past or my fears or what we’d both missed out on. Instead, he just lifted a glass, placed it in my hand, and then he lifted his, clinking it to mine. “To a beautiful woman, and a future that will be happy and whole.”

I sipped—and no surprise—it was my favorite iced tea, perfectly sweetened.

Another crack in the cement.

But instead of demons escaping, there was just happiness…and hope.

Hope that blossomed when all my favorites were delivered to the table in turn.

Hope that grew even bigger when instead of dessert from Lokanta—which was delicious like all their food but wasn’t my favorite—Achara delivered a box of passionfruit and whipped cream-filled cream puffs from her bakery just a couple of blocks over. Those were my favorites.

Those had me turning to Raph and sliding my arms around his shoulders, hugging him tight and whispering into his ear, “I really like you.”

His husky reply, “I more than really like you, sugarpie.”

Then he kissed me.

And if I hadn’t already been in love with Raph, that kiss, the hope that filled me from toes to top, would have.

Or maybe the way he promptly opened the box and served me up a cream puff would have.

Or maybe the way he held my hand as we exited the restaurant, blocking anyone coming close to bumping into me in the crowded space, tucking me close as we walked back down the sidewalk and to the car would have.

But I was already in deep, and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to let him go, not after this.

I was in for the long haul, in for the man, even if it meant that business card and Marin and facing those demons.

Because I had Raph and his gentle eyes, his soft smiles, that laughter, and the kisses, and his body protecting mine.

Because I had love and hope in my heart.

If only…

If only that hope had lasted.