A Forever Kind of Guy: The Braddock Brotherhood, Book 2 (24 page)

“I’m going to New York,” he informed her. “We’re in talks with ESPN to do play-by-play and half-time reports. The Big Apple, babe. You’d love it.”

She turned back to him. The morning sun beat down on them relentlessly. Already the heat was beginning to build. The birds didn’t seem bothered by it, though. A few sang or flitted through the two trees in front of the duplex.

Hayley looked at her surroundings as if seeing them for the first time. The quiet street in a small town. The big old trees. The simple but well-maintained duplex. She wasn’t exactly happy and maybe not a hundred percent content. But she was off the treadmill of trying to be something she’d never, in heart at least, been. She didn’t have to keep up the appearance that she enjoyed her job as Trey’s wife. She saw it now for what it was. Her role had been to make him look good. To make him look like he had it all. She’d believed it. Believed herself to be happy reflected in his glory, orbiting around his fame and fortune. But the truth was, she’d lost herself in his aura, and it hadn’t been healthy for her.

It was only now, these past few months, when she’d woken up and begun to find out who she was without him. That she had strengths and weaknesses like everyone else. Likes and dislikes. Goals. Dreams that were her own and not someone else’s.

“Trey, I’m happy for you. Your recovery. ESPN. All of it. But you don’t love me. And I’m finally, happily, over you.”

“You are? You’re over me? You don’t love me anymore?”

“Yes. Yes. And yes.”

She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Have a great life. Now get out of my way. I have to go to work.”

She got into her car and closed the door. By the time she turned the ignition, Trey was in his Porsche and backing out.

Hayley smiled. Today was a good day.

Chapter Twenty

Ray glowered as he watched the touching good-bye scene playing out in the driveway. He clenched his coffee mug so tightly his knuckles protested as he watched Hayley and her ex-husband. When she leaned up on tiptoe and kissed the guy, Ray turned away from the window. He slammed his mug on the counter and grabbed Oscar’s leash. The puppy leapt up and followed him out the back, startling when Ray slammed the sliding door shut so hard it rolled back a few inches on its track, leaving an open gap.

Ray ignored it and led Oscar away from the duplex, past his shop and down a side street.

Trey Christopher had decided to make an appearance. Of course Ray knew who he was. He’d seen the guy numerous times in television interviews over the years. Ray’d never quite bought the southern boy charm, but he’d been a hell of a quarterback in his day, and Ray had spent numerous evenings cheering him and the rest of the Jacksonville Jacks on to victory.

He’d screwed Hayley over royally and broken her heart, but now he was sniffing around her door. Probably wanted her back, and who could blame him? Trey Christopher might not be the brightest guy in the world but he’d eventually get a sense of what he’d lost when he let Hayley slip through his fingers.

He made Hayley laugh, which meant he had the power to amuse her. In fact, Ray’d never heard Hayley laugh like that before. It’s what caught his attention and why he’d opened the door last night. He’d heard only their voices and after that, not any specific words. Then they’d gone inside. And Trey’s car was still there this morning.

Ray tightened his grip on Oscar’s leash and marched along the road like a man on a mission. Minutes later, he noticed Oscar struggling to keep up and he slowed his pace. He patted the dog’s head. Oscar’s tongue lolled out of his mouth. “Sorry, buddy. I was thinking.”

He turned and walked slowly home. If Trey wanted Hayley back, would she go? He hadn’t quite figured her out yet. His gut told him no, but then he had to remind himself, his gut had been wrong before. He hadn’t thought Caroline would abuse his trust in her, but she had. Women thought differently from men. If Hayley got back with Trey, she could make him pay for his mistreatment of her. Hayley’s financial struggle would be over. Hell, maybe she and Trey would adopt Fletcher and be one big, happy, freakin’ family.

The thought made Ray’s blood boil. This time when he shoved the sliding door open it hit the end of the track with a loud smack and rolled back shut in his face. When he went to open it, forcing himself to be calm, he found it was locked. Wonderful. He had a spare set of house keys in the shop somewhere. Only one problem. The shop was locked.

Luckily, Rick had a key to his house as well. Fine. He’d get in the car and drive over to the station. Nope. He’d be hoofing it over there. Because his car keys were now locked in his house.

“Come on, Oscar. Let’s take another walk.” He wasn’t looking forward to answering Rick’s inevitable question about how he’d managed to lock himself out. But maybe Kaylee had sent some of those muffins to work with him. A couple of those and it’d almost be worth the humiliation.

Rick was at his desk behind the counter. He had paperwork spread out before him and the phone glued to one ear. An eyebrow shot up when Ray came through the door and their gazes met, but then Rick went back to his conversation, repeating numbers and jotting down notes. Oscar collapsed, panting, onto the linoleum. Ray peered over the counter for possible sustenance.

Rick hung up the phone and opened his bottom desk drawer. He withdrew a small napkin-lined basket and held it up as if it were bait. “Looking for this?” He grinned.

Ray reached across the counter. “Gimmee.”

Rick held the basket out of Ray’s reach. “What do you say?”

“Creep. Come on. Share.”

Rick chuckled and handed the basket over. Ray flipped the napkin back. “There’s only one!” he accused his brother.

“Yeah, and you’re lucky it’s still there and that I’m such a nice guy.”

Ray sunk his teeth into the lone muffin and almost groaned with pleasure. “Blueberry,” he informed Rick before he’d swallowed.

“You’re disgusting. Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

“Yes, Dad,” Ray mocked. He took another bite.

“Wait until you are one. Trying to teach kids manners comes with the territory.”

Ray set down the rest of the muffin.

“Oh, shit. I’m sorry, man. I didn’t mean—”

“No, it’s okay. I know you didn’t.”

Rick looked chagrined. “Let me see if I can keep my foot out of my mouth long enough for you to tell me why you’re here. Want to sit?” He indicated the stool between his desk and the counter.

Ray picked up the last bite of muffin and savored it as he walked around the counter to the stool. “I need my house keys.”

Rick’s eyebrow shot up again. “Why? Giving them to someone else?” He waggled both brows suggestively.

Ray scowled. “I wish. No. I locked myself out.”

Rick rubbed his hands together. “Okay. Now we’re getting somewhere. How’d you manage to do that?”

“I saw Hayley in the driveway kissing Trey Christopher good-bye this morning.”

“What?” Rick’s verbal outrage nearly matched Ray’s silent one earlier. “But I thought, I thought—you and she—hell, I don’t know what I thought.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“What are you saying? He spent the night there?”

“Sure as hell looks like it.”

“Huh. Well. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

Ray looked at his brother with disbelief.

Rick held up his hands in defense. “Hey, I’m just saying. Kaylee and I were living under the same roof and we didn’t, uh, that is nothing happened. Not right away. She slept on the couch.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not a rich ex-football star she used to be married to, either.”

“True. But if Kaylee’s ex had shown up, I don’t think she’d have jumped into bed with him. There’s a reason those guys have an ex in front of their name.”

“You think he spent the night and nothing happened?”

“I’m saying you ought to give Hayley the benefit of the doubt and not jump to conclusions. If you’ll recall, I had myself half-convinced Kaylee was a jewel thief and a con artist. Things aren’t always what they seem.”

“Yeah. Maybe you’re right,” Ray conceded, although that nagging sense of doubt didn’t ease up.

Rick pulled open another drawer in his desk and rummaged around in it. “Here are your keys.”

Ray took them and stood. “Thanks, bud. I’ll see you around.” He picked up Oscar’s leash. No sooner had the door closed behind him than he opened it back up and stuck his head in. “Hey, thanks for the muffin.
Dad.”

He grinned when Rick lobbed a paper clip at him.

His steps were much lighter on the way home. He’d been purposely giving Hayley a lot of space. Not only because she’d made it clear she needed it, but mostly because he couldn’t trust himself around her. He was afraid to say or do anything to push her into something she wasn’t ready for or to scare her off completely. But he missed her like crazy, especially in the evenings when he’d begun to anticipate spending time with her, even if it was sitting in near silence on her porch. Her presence soothed him in a way nothing else did. She seemed to fill up the empty spaces inside him without saying a word or even touching him. She only had to be there, nearby, in the same room and he didn’t feel lost and empty any more.

When he got home he filled Oscar’s water dish and made a decision. Trey Christopher might want Hayley back. But Ray wasn’t going to let her go without a fight.

Ray swore Fletcher had a sixth sense. Or maybe he glued himself to the window to see when Ray knocked off for the day and headed back to his side of the duplex. As soon as he arrived, Fletcher was there, and the little boy’s presence never failed to lift Ray’s spirits.

“Hey, buddy.” He ruffled Fletcher’s dark hair and walked inside with him. Oscar went berserk, and Fletcher sank to his knees, letting the puppy jump on him and lick his face.

They had a routine established. After a few minutes of play, Ray handed Fletcher Oscar’s leash and let him clip it on. This could be a slightly time-consuming process because Oscar didn’t like to stand still for long and Fletcher, of course, never reprimanded him. Then Ray would let Fletcher hold the leash, and they’d walk around the block at a slow pace while Oscar sniffed everything in sight.

Sometimes Ray told Fletcher stories about the neighbors, or commented on the makes of cars parked in driveways. Other times he’d tell him what kinds of trees or bushes they passed or anecdotes about his own childhood.

He shared idle chitchat about his own day and the people he’d seen, the places he’d been, the jobs he was working on. “I went to see my brother today,” he informed Fletcher as they passed under the shade of an oak tree. “He had one blueberry muffin left and he gave it to me. His wife bakes them. Remember her? Her name’s Kaylee and she’s an excellent cook. We talked for a while. He says things aren’t always what they seem, and that we shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

“What do you think, Fletch?” He glanced down at the boy who didn’t seem to notice. “Probably better to give people the benefit of the doubt, huh?

“Like you, for instance. I’m pretty sure you can talk. And if you felt like it, you would. If you had something important to say, you’d talk, wouldn’t you?

“But sometimes it’s better not to say anything, isn’t it? Sometimes words can get you in trouble or you say the wrong thing. Or sometimes you’re too upset to talk, and you have to wait until you calm down. People shouldn’t try to make you talk when you don’t feel like it, should they?

“Hey, look there.” He pointed across the yard they were passing. “There’s a bunny. See it?” He hunkered next to Fletcher and took hold of Oscar’s leash. He pointed again. “Over there. Next to the birdbath near the rose bush. See it? It’s sort of brown and gray and it has a white tail.”

Fletcher stared in the direction where Ray pointed. He nodded. Ray swore his lips moved and he mouthed the word “bunny”. But he couldn’t be a hundred percent sure. Maybe it was his imagination. For sure Fletcher had made progress. Especially since Oscar’s arrival. He smiled more, and sometimes he laughed although he managed to do it without making hardly a sound. He had a small repertoire of barely audible noises, groans, grunts, whimpers or chortles, which he used occasionally to convey what he otherwise couldn’t. Or sometimes, Ray thought, when he couldn’t contain them.

Ray wondered what was locked inside Fletcher’s head, and why he resisted his natural inclination to communicate with speech. That said, Fletcher was a master with body language, facial expressions and eye contact. Ray could read his mood within seconds by looking at him. He still believed what he’d told Callie Maxwell weeks ago. Fletcher would talk when he was ready.

They turned the corner and headed home. From the end of the street, Ray could see a car parked on the edge of the road. A man leaned against the driver’s side door, talking to Hayley. When they reached the middle of the block where Oscar stopped once again to sniff and squat, the man straightened away from the car and turned to look at them. Or rather, Ray thought, he focused his attention on Fletcher. After a few seconds, he turned away and spoke to Hayley. He touched her arm, pressed something into her hand, opened the car door and drove off.

Hayley stood near her car and waited for them. Ray’s heartbeat sped up.

She didn’t say anything but her gaze locked with his. “Hi,” she breathed when they stopped in front of her.

“Hi, yourself.”
Wonderful, Ray. Brilliant. Dashing. Witty. So full of charm. Of course she’d choose you over Trey Christopher. What woman wouldn’t? And who was that guy who just left?

“Have a nice walk?” She included Fletcher and Oscar in her question, but Ray was the only one who answered.

“We talked. We laughed. We saw a bunny.”

“A bunny?” She giggled. “How…cute.”

It occurred to Ray that maybe using the term “rabbit” would have sounded more manly. But he’d already pointed it out as a bunny to Fletcher, and he didn’t want to confuse him. “Yeah. That’s right. A bunny. I can say bunny without fear of emasculation.”

Hayley giggled again. “Of course you can. You’re a tough guy, right?”

He grinned at her. “Right.” But then his grin died, and his thoughts went back to that night they’d spent together in her bed. He’d insisted he was man enough to take whatever she threw at him. Now all he had to do was prove it.