Page 10

CHAPTER 10

Sunday dinner was a usual thing with his family. But with three of them being first responders working crazy schedules, sometimes the whole family wasn't there.

Brody showed up early to make sure they had enough chairs.

Well, that was the reason that he gave himself.

It seemed plausible.

"Brody! Wait for me!"

He turned his head as he walked across the green and saw Rachel coming out of Kay's house.

"These are heavy," he told her as he lifted the folding chairs he was carrying with him.

Rachel laughed and started to run a little to catch up with him. "They're so heavy that you can lift them all to show me how heavy they are? Try again, brother mine."

He looked at her. "How are you doing?"

She shrugged. "Okay. It's been busy at the clinic. I go to work. I come home. I just had to get some baby time over at Kay's before dinner."

Brody stopped walking and Rachel jogged on past him a few steps.

"What?"

He shook his head. "Unless someone cut Kay and the babies out of the family, you're going to see them in, what, a half an hour for dinner?"

Rachel moved back to him and took one of the four chairs away. She started walking toward their mother's house with her chin up. "Well, I'm not the only one who wants time with the babies, so once everyone else is there, I'll only get a little bit of time with them."

Brody caught up to her, grumbling softly about how, "the chairs are unbalanced now."

Rachel sighed but she was smiling when she looked back at him. "Anyone ever tell you that you're the most annoying brother ever ?"

He shrugged, the shoulder with one less chair going higher than the other. "The only one I can think of... is you."

She walked up the steps to their parents' deck. "At least that means you listen to me."

Brody shook his head. "It's lucky for you that I love you so much."

She opened the chair and set it down. "I hear you've been busy."

He set down two of the chairs against the railing and looked at her.

"Ohhhhkay?"

She reached for the last chair he was holding and opened it with a wink. "I'm cutting to the chase, old man."

"Old man?"

"From what I hear, you've been hanging out with a single mom who has a super cute kid."

He paused, about to open one of the chairs. "You do know that I work with that hot single mom, right?"

He opened the chair and set it down and started to reach for the other chair.

"I never said hot."

He picked up the other chair and turned to look at her. "What?"

"I said you've been hanging out with a single mom. You said ' I work with that hot single mom .'"

He looked at her, replaying their words back in his head.

And yes, he'd said hot single mom.

He turned back to the chair and opened it. "What are the chances that you'll forget I said that?"

He felt his sister's hand on his back and heard her whisper close to his ear. "Not a chance in hell."

When she moved away, he stood up and looked at her. "Rachel."

"And... I do believe she's coming to have dinner with us tonight?"

Brody glared at her. "Yes. She is."

Rachel steepled her hands together and tapped her finger together like a villain from a black and white silent film. "Bwa-ha-ha."

"Rachel..."

She raised her brows a couple of times.

"All you need is one of those curved mustaches and you'll be the perfect cartoon villain."

"I'm going to enjoy this, Brody... the last of the Armstrong men to fall!"

"Rachel," he reached out to her, "don't."

She got to the sliding door before he could catch her and the door slid open, but Rachel came to a screeching halt when she saw their father standing just inside, one hand on the door handle and the other holding a tray of veggies.

"Are you two playing around out here?"

"No, daddy." Rachel smiled sweetly at their dad. "I was just coming in to see what Mom needed."

Brody mouthed a choice word at his sister.

She made a kissy face back at him.

And he wrinkled his upper lip back at her.

"Kids?"

They both turned to look at their dad who was using 'that tone' of voice with them.

"Can you two manage to be adults during dinner? Or should I bring out the kiddie table we used to use when you were in Elementary School?"

The front doorbell rang, and Brody looked at Rachel just as quickly as she looked at him.

Their father sighed and stepped away.

It was like they'd heard the starter pistol at a race.

"I've got it!" "I'll get it!"

They both ran through the living room toward the front door. Brody thought he saw his mother turn from the stove to stare in horror at them as they rushed for the front door.

They'd done this before when they were kids and friends were coming over for a party. But it was probably quite another thing to see two adults running through the room, with their shoes on, trying to beat each other to the front door.

Brody reached it first, but that didn't stop Rachel from slamming into him from behind.

"Oof."

"Let me get the door, doofus."

Rachel tried to reach around him, but he hunched his back and pushed off of the door, moving her back far enough so that he could swing the door open.

He wrenched on it before he realized that the door was locked.

Damn.

With one hand braced on the door frame, he twisted the lock open and turned the doorknob.

As the door swung open, Rachel jumped on his back. "Hey!"

Rachel started to slip and slung an arm around his neck, almost choking him.

"Hi, there!"

Brody saw three different expressions on their doorstep. Chip was smiling from ear to ear as Brody's face started to turn blue. Rhea looked like she'd had a bucket of cold water dumped over her head. And Missus Hardy?

She had one brow lifted up and as he stood there, she folded her arms across her chest.

"Well," Missus Hardy shook her head, "some things never seem to change."

* * *

Rhea felt her stomach drop.

That gorgeous brunette nurse from the clinic was clinging to Brody's back.

He wasn't exactly fighting her off.

Breathe, Rhea. Breathe .

She was chiding herself and struggling to pull herself together as she stood there on the Armstrong's doorstep with meatballs and spaghetti in a dish. Would it be so bad if she went for a walk around... the town?

"Well," Bea shook her head, "some things never seem to change."

"Wow... who is she?"

If Rhea didn't have both hands securely around the warming container, she would have clamped a hand around Chip's mouth.

Bea put a hand on Chip's shoulder and gestured at the doorway. "Chip. You know Brody, but do you know his sister, Rachel?"

Sister?

His sister. Rachel.

Why did she feel a little lightheaded? Even a little sick to her stomach?

She had no reason to be jealous of Rachel.

She hadn't introduced herself to Rachel at the clinic. All she'd seen was a beautiful woman lean in and kiss Brody.

She should have known that it didn't have to mean anything.

But the question really was, why had she been upset about it?

Jealous of her?

She looked down at the cover of the warming dish in her hands, her lungs struggling for air.

What was going on?

"Mom?"

She felt someone tug on her arm and she turned her head to look down.

"Mom? You okay?"

She nodded and put a smile on her face. "Yes. Yes. I'm fine. Sorry, Chip."

Missus Hardy stepped closer and touched her cheek with her hand. "Oh, dear. You're warm."

Rhea felt someone take the warming dish from her hands and as she looked up, hoping to take it back, she saw Rachel step back out of the way and Brody reach out for her.

He took her hand and led her inside.

Rhea turned her head to see Missus Hardy take Chip's hand in hers and pat him on the back of his hand.

"Come in." She turned and saw Brody walking her into the house. "Are you okay?"

She looked around the house and nodded. "Yeah. I'm fine. I don't know..." She shook her head and focused her gaze on his face. "I don't know why, but I got a little lightheaded there for a minute."

As he led her further into the house, Brody walked her down the hall instead of out onto the patio.

"Brody?" She reached her free hand back down the hallway. "Why?"

He wrapped his hand around hers and gave it a squeeze. "I'm taking you to the bathroom. We can wet a towel, and you can use it to cool off."

"Cool off?"

Her voice sounded a little odd to herself.

"I'll be fine in a moment, Brody, really."

Brody opened a door and turned the light on.

"Don't worry about it." He tipped his head toward the open door. "My mom leaves the light on during family dinners anyway. Just in case someone needs to use the bathroom during dinner."

She nodded, feeling better about it, but still.

"Here, let me help."

He put his arm around her back and led her into the bathroom, leaving his arm there as he plucked a towel from the towel rack on the wall.

"Brody, those are decorative."

He put the towel in her hand and opened the cupboard along the side of the mirror. The whole cupboard was filled from top to bottom in towels with lacy edges and pretty trim.

"My mom has even more in the hall closet. It's okay."

He turned on the water and took the towel back from her. As soon as he tested the water with the back of his hand, he put the towel under the water.

"I... I can handle this." She reached out her hand.

Brody turned off the water and removed his arm from around her so he could wring it out. "Rhea? I know that was kind of embarrassing out there, but you should know that I'm not like that all the time. I want to say that my sister started it, because it's true, but I'm pretty sure you'd think I'm acting like a kid. My mom is probably already planning on kicking my ass for that display."

He folded the towel like an expert and touched it to her forehead.

"Missus Hardy was right. She's seen me and my sister act like little kids a lot. But mostly when we were little kids."

Rhea looked at him from under the towel, watching his face as he tried to cool her down.

"Right now," she spoke softly, probably because she didn't want to break whatever spell that was happening in the room, "I kind of feel like I'm the kid."

He lifted a brow. "I definitely don't see you as a child."

She smiled at that, laughing a little. "Well, that's good."

Both of his brows raised. "Yeah?"

She started to nod but realized that he was still holding the cloth to her head. "Well, if we're working and you started to talk to me like I was a kid, I'm pretty sure no one would trust me to start an IV or give them any kind of injection."

Brody nodded and laughed a little. "Yeah. That would be a little off-putting."

He lifted the towel from her forehead and turned on the water to cool it again.

"So she's your sister?"

He beamed a smile at her. "Sometimes." He shut off the water and wrung out the extra water again. "When she's not trying to climb my back like a monkey and ends up choking me in front of my third-grade teacher." He folded it into a long, thin rectangle. "And my partner."

She smiled at him as he lifted his arms and lowered them by her ears.

"Oh." She felt the cool touch of the cloth at the back of her neck.

"Sorry," he tipped his head a little to the side, "I probably should have warned you."

"It's okay. I was just... distracted."

"I saw the look on your face when you saw Rachel."

His words were soft, and he seemed a little closer than he'd been a moment before.

"When you saw me, I saw you smile." He smiled and she felt her mouth curve up, mirroring him. "Then you saw Rachel jump on my back and your smile..."

"I thought," she'd started speaking because she wasn't sure what he was about to say and stupidly she'd opened her mouth, "I thought she was hurting you."

She felt her face drain of all color and she saw the way Brody was looking at her.

Why did she feel like she wasn't fooling anyone.

"Look. When I first met you, I thought you were handsome. Okay?" She lifted her hands to take the ends of the cloth so she could hold it, and he could back away.

"Then?" He didn't push her hands away, but he didn't let go of the ends of the towel either.

"What?"

"You thought I was handsome... Which means you don't now?"

Rhea lowered her hands from the towel. "Brody. This isn't something we should discuss."

"We don't have to. Discuss it."

Relieved, she let out a breath.

"And I shouldn't tell you that I think you're beautiful."

Her next breath caught in her lungs. "Brody."

"You are a beautiful woman, Rhea."

She turned her back to the door and took a step back to put some space between them but stopped short when her back hit the door frame. Brody stepped in, his hands dropping to her shoulders. "Would you be okay if I kissed you?"

* * *

"Would you be okay if I kissed you?"

He saw her reaction. Several emotions crossed her face, but she didn't say a word.

She didn't move either.

And her eyes?

Those beautiful brown eyes?

They lowered to his lips and shit. That's all he needed as an answer.

He held her still by her shoulders and stepped in. He covered her lips with his, holding back the intensity that he felt, but he didn't want her to run.

He wanted her to enjoy it.

And when he lifted his lips from hers, she leaned into him, and he kissed her again.

Gentle.

Tender.

He felt her breathe into the kiss and part her lips.

He barely held back a smile as he pulled away.

He just kept his gaze on her face, looking for any hesitation.

All he saw was a curious kind of look and what he hoped might be a little wonder.

"So?"

Her brows raised and she blinked at him. "Hmm?"

"Am I handsome, again?"

She leaned back against the door frame and sighed. "You were always handsome. I just... I couldn't think about it."

"Because of my sister?"

"Well, that was part of it."

"And the rest?"

"Because, I'm working with you. We're working together ."

"Okay."

She shook her head. "No. Not okay, Brody."

He shrugged. "What do you mean, it's not okay?"

"Brody." The way she breathed, it was like she was putting distance between them. "I just moved here. Chip and I are settling in. And you," she looked him up and down, "you're a handsome man, more than handsome. I bet if I ask around, there's a bunch of women who'd be-"

"Rhea-"

"I have a son, Brody."

"I know," he lifted his hands, shrugging at the idea, "but why is that a problem, I-"

"Your cousins? Joshua and Gabriel? They're settled in their lives and I'm guessing it won't be long before they start their families. Kay has her husband and two children. I really don't see why you'd want to delve into a relationship, however lightly, with a woman who already has a child. That can't be at the top of your list-"

"That's the thing, Rhea. I don't have a list. I've dated some of the women around here and nothing happened. I-"

"Maybe you should try again, Brody. I'm not..."

She moved away from him and into the hallway, stopping to pull the towel away from her neck and folding it in her hands. "Where should I... um-"

"Here." He put his hand out and she put the towel in it.

"Thanks, Brody. For the... for the towel, and everything else."

She walked away and he was left standing there, wondering what he was going to do.