Not a Chance in Hell, (Navarro Triplets Book 3), page 19
“Absolutely.” Despite the disaster in his pants, Sheena took my nephew into her arms and followed Jade down the hall.
“Wow,” Max said once we were alone. “You’ve got it bad.”
“I like looking at her. She’s stunning.”
“She is, but it’s more than that.”
“More than what?”
“Just her looks. It’s written all over your face. Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” And here came Max’s version of a third degree. “Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing you like this,” said the mush.
Pretending ignorance, I snapped, “Like what?”
“Like…” He considered his reply. “You’re gaga over her. It looks good on you. Although I’m super confused. From what Nate said, you two hated each other.” Max leaned in a bit and lowered his voice. “She’s far from a she-devil, though.”
Fucking Nate.
“She was going through a hard time,” I defended.
“Of course. Anyone would understand that. But… she’s here temporarily, just lost a father that she didn’t know, and is vulnerable. Keep all that in mind, Brad.”
“There’s nothing to keep in mind.” I stared at a face identical to mine. “I happen to like hanging out with her, and she feels the same. Besides, we’ve been very open and honest with each other.”
“Meaning, you told her you only do physical?” More like she found that out on her own, but I said nothing. Now wasn’t the time to get into all the confusing contradictions clogging up my mind. Taking my silence as a yes, he added, “Well, it sounds like you two have it figured out. Just don’t hurt her.”
Part of me resented the assumption that I’d hurt her, while the other part couldn’t argue the possibility. It was rare for Max to give me advice on relationships. Then again, there was never a point, because I never really had one.
Max has always been a romantic, and before Amy, Nate only engaged in fuck-lationships, as he called them. So, of the three of us, he dubbed me the relationship virgin.
But before I could defend myself, Jade came in holding that baby monitor thingy, sans Michael and Sheena.
“He’s napping?” Max asked.
“Yeah. He could barely keep his eyes open.”
She placed the thing down as I asked, “Where’s Sheena?”
“Bathroom.” That ever-present smile my sister-in-law has been sporting reappeared when Max patted his lap and she settled on it. Leaning closer to me, she whispered, “I love her, Brad… and she is not evil.”
“I can’t help that Nate gossips like a girl,” I countered, ignoring the tiny fact that I had ragged to him about Sheena.
“Well, I’m glad we ran into you guys,” she went on to say. “It’s a funny coincidence, because I was going to call you this morning and forgot.”
“About what?” Jade called me only if she wanted something, and when she glanced at Max, I thought, Here it comes.
“My family is going to Miami for Mother’s Day. We decided to surprise your mother and fly her and Mitch down as well.”
“That’s nice.” My sister-in-law was always planning shit like that.
But she wasn’t done, as was proved when she tossed out, “The real surprise will be her three sons will be there.” Before I could say a word, she pressed her hands together and begged, “Please? It would mean so much to her.”
“Ugh… when is Mother’s Day?”
“Next Sunday,” she said as though it were obvious.
My eyes bulged. “Not all of us can traipse around the country without proper notice. I do have a business to run.” I reached for a glass of iced tea and took a sip.
“Of which you’re the boss. I also wanted to throw a surprise engagement party for Nate and Amy. It would be great if you and Sheena—”
The trace of liquid left in my mouth went down the wrong pipe, causing me to cough. “Whoa…” I glanced at the hallway before lowering my voice as well. “Sheena?” I shook my head and stared as though she’d sprouted antlers. “You need to calm down there, Mrs. Mush.” She rolled her eyes at the nickname while I continued: “Whatever this is between us is only a week old. Before then, yes, I had nicknamed her She-Devil because she hated me.”
Undeterred, Jade merely quipped, “Well, there’s a fine line between love and hate.” The exaggerated huff of air I released went ignored. “Come on, Brad. Stop overthinking it. It’s just us gathering in a different state to celebrate the day. Hell, Nate, Mr. Divorce himself, took Amy to your cousin’s wedding weeks after they started their thing.”
“I’m not overthinking anything. I just don’t want you putting her on the spot.”
“Okay, assuming she wants to go… do you want her there?”
Of course sat on my tongue, but that was a knee-jerk reaction, and I instead shrugged. “It doesn’t matter if I can’t go to begin with. My bar doesn’t give me the liberty to take off whenever I want to.”
“Dude, it’s not like you’re running the country,” Max said with his own eye roll. “It’s time you loosened the reins a bit. Delegate or you’ll never have a life.”
“Says the man who until recently never left his gym,” I griped. That was only partially true, when it’d been a few years since he had indeed loosened the reins in his own businesses. “Besides, I don’t know if Sheena would want to do that.”
“After what she’s just been through, she would probably love to explore a new city.” Jade folded her arms defiantly. “Besides, you won’t know until you ask her.”
My response was again halted as Sheena came into the room, hovering a bit until I patted the cushion beside me.
Sensing our hesitation, she asked, “Did I interrupt something?”
Jade looked at me, and I looked at her while Sheena’s focus ping-ponged between us.
“I was just telling Brad why he should come down to Miami for Mother’s Day,” Jade admitted. “Since he hasn’t been able to join us the last few times that we were together.”
“Don’t blame me. We were just all together for…” I paused, searching my memory for the last time we had been.
“Our birthday party,” Max filled in the blank.
“Right… back in November. You weren’t with us for the holidays, or for Easter. And you’ve had so much stress lately…” Jade’s sympathetic eyes cut to Sheena, and a returning smile encouraged her to continue. “Anyway, that’s what you walked in on.”
“Like I said, I think it’s a great idea.” Her comment meant they’d talked about this in Michael’s room. She then looked at me and added, “You should go.”
“Yeah, maybe. Provided I can make arrangements for the bar.” Sheena nodded in understanding.
But that was all I said. Even while Jade’s brows rose, encouraging me to ask her, I chickened out. I recoiled like a coward. I deflected by asking, “So how about those Yankees?”
Since leaving my brother and Jade’s, I’d flip-flopped between asking her and not asking her. A huge part of me knew there was no way she would agree to this. It was one thing to run into family at the park or sit around having iced tea and casually chatting, but another to invite her to a family function in another state.
Then there was the other part of me that wanted to convince her to come. Yes, it would put our connection under the microscope. It would throw me into the relationship ring without proper training. Regardless, for the first time in my life, I saw more than just a physical relationship… and I saw it with Sheena.
No sooner had we gotten into my apartment than I cracked. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” She dropped her tiny bag on the foyer table before taking a seat at the island.
I joined her, standing on the facing side, and leaned on my elbows. “Would you come to Miami with me?”
Her green eyes immediately widened. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah. Jade is right in it’s been a long time since we all got together, and she wants to throw a small surprise engagement party for Nate and Amy. I’d have to shift some things at the bar, but I think it would be a nice distraction after what you’ve been through.” She stared at me for a long pause and then shook her head. “What?”
“Brad, I’m worried you are caught up in the sex we had and it’s making you feel like you owe me something.”
That was not what I’d expected her to start with. “Um… what?”
My question, combined with the frown on my face, forced her to elaborate. “I don’t want you to feel the need to put up a false pretense now that we’ve had sex.”
“What false pretense?”
“Your brother and sister-in-law were shocked to see you at the park with me. But when Jade gushed—”
Her pause had me prompting, “Jade gushed how?”
“She meant nothing by it but went on and on how she is so excited for us. Clearly, she misinterpreted our relationship. Even after telling her that it’s only been a week, she claimed that was an anomaly for you. Which is fine… and what we shared was amazing. Still, you don’t have to feel responsible for me while I’m here or feel obligated to ask me to come.”
“That’s what you think I’m doing? I asked you because I feel obligated?”
“Well, yeah.” She looked at me peculiarly. “I don’t know your family, and I barely know you.”
“Sheena. Jade gushing is just Jade being Jade. I’m not going to deny the Brad they saw today was one they’ve never met. I won’t make excuses for my past, but I’m different with you. I have no idea why.” She looked at me like I was talking in tongues. Who could blame her when even I struggled with these alien thoughts and emotions? I waved a dismissive hand before saying, “Despite all that, nothing on my end has changed since we talked last weekend. In fact, if anything, I feel even stronger than before that we should spend time together.”
“For now.”
“Goddamn it… stop saying that!” Her eyes widened at my outburst, and I scrubbed a hand over my face to calm down and try a different tactic. “Look, I was pretty clear when I said I’m enjoying whatever this is. You claimed the same. And I’ve ignored how every chance you get you say, When I get back to California. Can we just forget about that right now?”
“How can we, Brad? I have a life, you have a life, and it’s okay to enjoy each other’s company while acknowledging we do have an expiration date. Casually mentioning a long-distance thing happening between us doesn’t mean it would automatically work.”
“No, it doesn’t, but if both parties are willing…”
“What exactly are you saying?”
I rolled my eyes at her pigheadedness. “I need to spell it out?”
“Yes, Brad. Spell it out.”
“I… like… you,” I admitted, although another word almost dangerously slipped out of my mouth.
None of this made sense, and I didn’t recognize the person I had become this past week. This was something Max the mush would do. Going—as he called it—gaga over a girl. In fact, he had done just that with his wife. When Max fell fast and hard for Jade, none of us had been surprised.
As for Nate falling, we were all shocked. But in his case, it was his cock that led him to a happily-ever-after. The cynic divorce attorney often bitched and moaned that men confused lust for love.
Love wasn’t on my radar. I take that back. I loved being a bachelor in New York City.
In a matter of ten days, that logic had dissipated.
So what the hell was my excuse? And why I was even considering the L-word at all was a whole other level of insanity.
Ten days.
Shit like that didn’t happen in ten days.
I needed to talk to someone because this couldn’t be normal.
Maybe it was time to seek professional help. I could see it now.
Hi, I’m Brad, serial man-whore who suddenly can’t imagine my life without a blonde she-devil who only came into it nineteen days ago. Oh… and by the way… ten of those days we were at each other’s throats.
“I like you too,” she admitted, but looked no less baffled.
I walked around the island and pulled her off the stool and into my arms. Out of nowhere, a jolt of emotion zapped the center of my chest proving it was more than like, and that caught me off guard. But while I struggled to understand it, there was one thing I was willing to admit out loud. “Provided I can go myself, I want you to come to Miami with me.”
As her eyes drilled into mine, she had no idea of the metamorphosis my psyche seemed to be going through. How my head and heart were both loaded with bewildering emotions I’d never in my life experienced.
And as my heart wanted to beg her to please come, I had no idea why it suddenly felt so strongly that she should. Her decision would prove to be a linchpin in our relationship… as though, if she said yes, then the scary part of her leaving New York could be dealt with somehow.
It seemed an eternity before she said, “Okay, I would love to come.” She smiled at the relief in my expression. “You do realize that this is lunacy, Brad.”
“Without a doubt. But something is telling me to trust it.” I kissed her softly. “So trust me?”
“I trust you.” Her words said one thing, yet the doubt in her eyes another. But when she lifted onto her toes to take over the kiss, I wondered if the doubt I saw was just her working through her own confusions.
And as her sweet lips moved against mine, right then and there I knew this woman had me by the balls.
“Mimosa,” the flight attendant said as she offered me a crystal flute.
“Thank you.”
“And your coffee, sir.” Brad also thanked her and placed his mug on the table tray. She then passed us a plate with assorted pastries before retreating to serve another passenger.
“It really is too early to be drinking,” I said. Hell, the sun was barely up, but I had no issue raising the effervescent beverage to take a healthy sip.
“For the next four days, we’re officially on vacation.” Brad the enabler smiled at me. “And it starts right now. Eat something and you’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” I didn’t need my arm twisted and took a croissant to enjoy with my cocktail. While relaxing against the cushy first-class seat Brad had insisted on booking, I wondered how I had gotten here.
One thing I knew for sure, my time in New York was flying by. Another week gone, and the last seven days had been more of the same euphoric existence that we seemed to have ambled into. I say amble because, although our shocking connection became stronger by the day, we truly didn’t know how to navigate it. All while that battle of wills we’d shared since day one had not diminished in the least.
Neither he nor I had an issue speaking up if something bothered us. During an argument, Brad had admitted he wasn’t afraid to hurt my feelings if he were to speak his mind. In fact, I think it turned him on to rile me up. Our last fight happened when I needed to go to Jersey to meet with the contractor because a problem had been discovered with dry rot in the attic.
Brad insisted he come with me, and I refused because he had plenty to deal with at the bar. That was when he claimed he didn’t trust that the man wouldn’t try to rip me off. In other words, he believed that I had no idea what I was doing. The way he tried to baby me hit a nerve for some reason, like I couldn’t tie my own shoes without him. Screw that.
I handled the situation just fine, and when I came back, I bypassed eating dinner at the bar and instead ate alone in John’s apartment, not wanting to see Brad.
Later that night, he barged in, furious that I hadn’t gone to his place. Obviously, he had been ready to talk about it, where I had instead clammed up. He was so right in that I was just like my dad. The thing with Brad, he would relentlessly push and push until I finally voiced out loud what had my panties in a bunch. That was how he handled a conflict, and he refused to allow me to stew. He also refused to go to bed angry, especially after he apologized, and he made sure to wear me down until I forgave him… usually by using his oral skills.
I did forgive him, going as far as admitting that it was dumb to flip out while acknowledging he meant well. But not before making it clear that I didn’t appreciate being made to feel incompetent.
Speaking up in that way earned me another orgasm. Apparently, that was all he wanted… honesty.
Each argument we had, each meal we shared, each night we had sex, each morning we woke together brought us even closer. And with each day that went by, I fell a bit harder for a man who squirmed his way into my life.
Between those passionate nights, he spent a lot of time at work, preparing for Miami. First thing he did was promote his assistant manager, Vic, to manager. Brad then promoted his head bartender, Bobby, to an assistant manager role, along with one of his waitresses. All three employees being at Brad’s Tavern since it opened meant their advancement was long overdue. He also arranged for his bookkeeper to work three days a week instead of one.
Brad created a new reality where he wouldn’t need to work around the clock like he had been. Still, I could tell it was difficult for him to count on others to handle his precious bar. That proved true when he booked the first flight out of JFK on Mother’s Day morning instead of flying out Saturday, which was the busiest night of the week.
It had nothing to do with not trusting his employees, and more to do with not having complete and utter control himself.
Personally, I was proud of him. Not only with his business decisions, but of the way he steered his way through life. I could see why my father, a textbook introvert, got along with him so well. Brad made no excuses for the person he was. Although he had admitted how our connection confused him, that hadn’t stopped him from exploring what could be.
Whereas I struggled with what would be.
When apart, I allowed my mind to mess with me. How could a serial philandering bachelor suddenly want the opposite of the lifestyle he’d created? But when together, every doubt I had vanished. For someone who had no experience with having a relationship, the man was a master. Considerate, chivalrous, adorably mischievous, and attentive were just a few of his qualities. Throw in sexy as hell and a champion in the bedroom, well, that had all those pesky doubts crawling back into the shadows of my mind.
