To his relief, Regina had been right about one thing. His not having friends in his life was not for lack of personality and being able to hold a conversation with someone. He was way more comfortable having her in his life and even staying in his place than he’d ever imagined he would be.
Saturday morning, Brandon started to slip out of bed to go make her coffee. As much as he hated the stuff, he loved seeing that smile on her face when he brought it to her. Since being on the receiving end of Regina’s grateful and breathtaking smiles, he was beginning to understand what the allure was for her daddy and possibly most of the men she’d ever met to want to spoil her. Making her happy and taking care of her had quickly become his first priority. It was the weirdest phenomenon. He’d always heard that giving was so much more satisfying than receiving, and this entire past week had been proof of that. He’d never felt as satisfied as when he saw that content smile on her.
Just as he got up, her phone rang by the chair where she’d left it, and it woke her. Frowning, he walked over to pick it up and bring it to her. He glanced at the name on the screen. C. Devereux.
“Your friend Chris from New York,” he said, making sure she knew he remembered what the “C” stood for.
Her eyes widened, and she took the phone but didn’t answer him. Brandon waited for her to comment, say something, anything that might explain her strange reaction to this guy. But she offered nothing, so he had to ask. “Aren’t you gonna answer?”
Looking up at him, she started to say something then seemed to change her mind and answered the phone instead. “Hey, Chris.” She smiled, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes, I got it. Thank you so much. That was very sweet of you. No, no, everything is fine. I meant to call and thank you, but this week has been so crazy it totally slipped my mind.”
Brandon stood there, watching her, his jaw tensing at her telling this guy how sweet it was of him. Did all her guy friends go out of their way to do sweet things for her? This was exactly why he didn’t believe for a second that men and women could be friends. So this guy sends her a book, and she never responds. Can’t he take a hint? He has to follow up and call her and pretend he was worried because she hadn’t bothered to call him and thank him? Brandon could already tell he wasn’t going to like this old friend of hers, if, in fact, that’s all they’d ever been.
“In a few weeks? Yes, I’d like that. We can do coffee or dinner or something.”
Oh, hell no. She wasn’t going to start this shit. She had to know that unless she was planning on bringing Brandon along for that coffee or dinner with this guy this would never work. Panic crept in him slowly because things had been so perfect all week. Even when he’d brought up Antonio and her relationship with him, it had gone smoothly. He didn’t want to ruin things by getting into an argument now, but there was no way he could begin to hide what he was feeling.
“No,” she said, her voice going a little strange. “I have had my moments when I’ve been very tempted to call you.”
She glanced up at Brandon and cleared her throat, sitting up a little as he struggled to remain calm and not glare at her. Very tempted to call him?
“Listen, I gotta go, but it was really good to hear from you, and, again, thank you so much for the book. Call me when you’re in town.”
She hung up and smiled at him. “Were you going somewhere before the phone rang?”
“To get you coffee,” Brandon said with no intention of letting her brush the subject of her friend away again as she’d done before. “Your friend’s gonna be in town?”
She nodded, bringing her legs to the side of the bed. “In a few weeks.”
“And you two are getting together?”
“Most likely,” she said, getting up. He reached his arm out to help, but she motioned that she had it.
She hadn’t worn the splint all day yesterday, and she was actually walking on her ankle now. She said it didn’t hurt to step on it anymore, but Brandon had still warned her to take it easy.
“You said this was an old friend. How long have you two been friends?”
Without looking at him, Regina reached the bathroom. “Did I say old really? Not too long. We met last year. I’ll be right out.”
Last year? After her husband passed? A part of Brandon wanted to just let it go—not stir the waters. But he’d picked up on something ever since her reaction to the book this guy sent her. There was something about this subject—this guy. Something made her nervous to talk to Brandon about this friend. He’d since decided he wouldn’t push it, that it wasn’t a big deal. The guy didn’t even live in California. How much trouble could he be? But now he was calling her, and she was talking about meeting up with him? A guy she’d been very tempted to call?
Brandon was determined not to make a big deal of this, but he was absolutely getting to the bottom of this today.
A few minutes later, he heard the toilet flush then the water running. More minutes passed. Then she opened the door, her toothbrush still in her mouth, and she smiled. Even with a mouthful of toothpaste, bed head, and no makeup on, she was adorable. He couldn’t help smiling, but it only made him more anxious about this guy she thought she’d be getting together with.
After rinsing and wiping her mouth with a towel, she walked out. “You know what I’m craving?” she said, all bright-eyed. “Chocolate-chocolate-chip waffles.”
He hated to put a damper on her cheery mood, but he had to know. “We can go get some if you want. But you wanna tell me about this friend of yours from New York first?”
Her smile instantly vanished, and she started toward the bed. “No, not really,” she said, surprising him.
Brandon thought for sure she’d try to make light of it and change the subject. This just turned up the need to know more about this guy a few hundred notches. “Why?”
“Because it’s not something I feel like talking about.” Her response was abrupt—terse—not at all what he was expecting.
Taking a few steps toward her, he chose his words wisely because he could feel this getting tense already. There was no way he was letting this go now. “Why do I get the feeling there’s more to this friend that you’re not telling me?”
She turned to him with a look he hadn’t seen on her since the day she confronted him at the base, the glare that had him holding back a smile then. Only now he was in anything but a smiling mood. “We’ve been together for all of one week, Brandon. You really think I’ve told you everything about my life? I agreed to do this with you because I didn’t want things to go back to the way they were. I like having you in my life, but, Jesus, give me some time. There are some things I’d rather not talk about just yet.”
Brandon didn’t want to regret having done this with her. He didn’t want to regret that they were just into this one week and already the thought of her having a guy friend she didn’t want to tell him about had him wanting to punch a hole through a fucking wall. “Like ex-boyfriends or male friends you plan on getting together with?” he asked, every word louder than the last. “Because I’ll be damned if—”
“Chris is a she,” Regina said sharply, but then the severity in her own expression lessened, and the corner of her lip rose. She reached out and touched his face with her hand, relieving some of the enormous pressure already brimming in every one of his muscles. “If that’s what you’re worried about, don’t. You’ve made it very clear how you feel about men and women being friends, and if you recall, I agreed with you.”