It was the longest week of Bren’s life. On Thursday they’d had a homicide, and in the small town of Via Del Caballo, that put everyone in a tailspin. Work was work, however, and when push came to shove, he did all the shoving. So he’d missed out on seeing Lauren, forced, instead, to ponder his memories of their time together. In some ways that was worse. The physical effects of his memories were damn near embarrassing.
He thought about their conversations over the past few weeks, too. Strangely, that’s what he missed the most. He and Lauren could talk, really talk, but there hadn’t even been time for that and he knew she must be thinking he was giving her the brush-off. So he’d sent her flowers and a note that he hoped to see her at the parade.
He just didn’t know if she’d show. She hadn’t called him. Hadn’t texted him thanks. He’d heard nothing.
And so he sat waiting in the pre-parade lineup, leaning against a fancy red-and-white sports car they’d rented for the occasion, waiting for things to get rolling, which should happen any moment now. It wasn’t like, as an elected official, he’d be riding in a car that would be judged by parade officials, but he still had to line up early. They’d decorated the convertible with Reelect Sheriff Connelly signs. His job would be to sit in the backseat and wave. In the distance, one of the high school bands played a melody that was just the tiniest bit off-key. Someone blared music, a float up ahead of him, one decked out in so much red, white and blue it looked like a political party had sacrificed all their leftover convention decorations in the name of patriotism. By his watch, they had five, maybe ten minutes before things would get going, and with each minute that passed, he wondered...would she show?
“At least it’s a nice day and not nine hundred degrees outside,” said his campaign consultant and the man playing chauffeur today, Jerry Blaylock. “Nothing worse than being forced to sit out in the sun waiting for a parade to start.”
Jerry should know. He’d helped out with his campaigns from the start, the older man a full-time consultant for various elected officials throughout the state of California. Bren considered himself lucky to secure his services.
“These are the days I’m glad I wear a cowboy—”
“Bren!”
His words died a quick death. His heart leaped. His body jolted with what felt like ten thousand volts of energy.
He turned, and there she was, Kyle by her side, and just like the other day, his gut kicked at the sight of her. She wore pigtails again, damn it. And she looked so gorgeous and so alluring in a white linen dress that hung off her shoulders that he felt her sexiness like a kick in the groin. She paired the outfit with cowboy boots and as she walked through the crowd, she drew the attention of every male in the vicinity.
Kyle flung himself into his arms. Bren pulled his eyes away from Lauren but only with a herculean effort. The little boy had wrapped his arms around him, his head buried in his chest.
“Hey,” he said softly, some other emotion filling his soul. “How you been?”
Kyle reared back, pinned him with an accusatory stare. “Where have you been?”
That was one thing about kids. They always said exactly what was on their minds. “I had to work this week.” And he added for Lauren’s benefit, “We had a homicide.”
He looked up from beneath the brim of his cowboy hat.
It hit him then, right then, that he was falling in love with her.
“You mean somebody died?”
Once again it took every ounce of his willpower to look away. “Sadly, yes.”
“Who?”
“Don’t know yet. That’s why we’ve been working so hard.”
Kyle nodded as if the excuse met with his approval. Bren had had to cancel his lesson with him this week, but if he’d known how much those lessons meant to Kyle, he wouldn’t have done it.
“Hi,” he said to Lauren as Kyle stepped back.
“Hello.”
That voice. He’d never noticed before how throaty and sexy it was and just how plain perfect he found it. He threw in the towel then. A part of him had convinced himself he could keep his distance. He’d thought he could cool it a little. He’d been kidding himself, and so he reached for her hand, her eyes widening at the contact, but they snapped open even more when he pulled her to him.
“Get the flowers?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Good.” And then he kissed her. Hard.
Kyle gasped. He thought Lauren might have, too. All it took was for their lips to collide and Bren forgot where they stood, and the people that walked by, and that he was soon to be on public display and so should probably be on his best behavior. He didn’t care about any of it.
He drew back, but only because Kyle said, “Jeez, you guys,” which made him look down and smile.
“Sorry, buddy. I’ve missed your mom.”
His young student stared between the two of them, and it was clear he’d had no clue he and Lauren had become an item. He would have expected the kid to be thrilled; instead he studied them as if he didn’t know what to think.
“I take it this was your date on Valentine’s Day?”
Jerry. He’d completely forgotten about the man who’d been standing nearby.
“Ah, actually...yes.” He turned to the gray-haired man. “This is Lauren.”
He’d never thought of Jerry as being particularly judgmental. He saw in an instant he’d missed the character flaw. Jerry eyed Lauren up and down and it was clear what he thought of her, and it wasn’t flattering.
“Lauren, this is Jerry. He’s my campaign consultant.”
She still seemed a little dazed, her lips swollen from his kiss, the hand she held out to Jerry visibly shaking. “Nice to meet you.”
Jerry took it, the smile he gave her a tinge on the sleazy creepy-politician side, and it made Bren immediately bristle, to the point that he said, “Lauren’s in the RN program at Santa Barbara State. She graduates later this year.”
The words had the desired effect. Jerry even drew back a bit, like a dog that’d been growled at by a smaller dog. Or maybe it was the tone he’d used when he’d said the words that had Jerry looking that way, but he wiped his face clean of expression, a talent that Bren sometimes wished he had.
“Wow,” Jerry said. “Impressive.”
“She has a 4.0 GPA, too,” Kyle said.
Bren doubted Kyle even knew what a GPA was, much less what it meant, but it was clear even the little boy had picked up on Jerry’s veiled disapproval.
“She’s going to graduate honorably next fall.”
Bren had to bite back a smile. “You mean with honors, buddy.”
“And I won’t graduate until the end of the fall semester, almost a year from now,” Lauren added.
“Wow,” Jerry said again, but he couldn’t keep his eyes from sweeping Lauren up and down, and for the first time since working with the man, Bren wanted to knock his teeth in. “You’re a lucky man, Bren.”
Just then someone blew a whistle and Bren looked toward the front of the parade. One of the horse units had started to move, hooves clopping on the pavement. The marching band suddenly improved tenfold.
“Well,” Lauren said, having followed his gaze. “We should probably find a spot to watch.”
He turned toward the fancy sports car. “You could have a front-row seat in my car.”
“What?” Jerry said at the same time Kyle shouted, “Cool!” his early disgruntlement having obviously died a quick death in the wake of his desire to ride in the red Mustang.
“I don’t know,” Lauren said.
He wouldn’t give her a choice, he admitted, not even if it meant enlisting Kyle’s help in convincing her. “I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“Let’s go, Mom.”
It was clear she was torn. It was equally clear she didn’t want to disappoint her son. And just like she always did, she put his needs above her desires. It was one of the things he most admired about her.
“Well, if you’re sure it’s okay.” She eyed Jerry.
His campaign consultant lifted his hands. “Not up to me.”
Because if it were up to Jerry, he wouldn’t let her ride along. Well, it wasn’t up to Jerry, and so he turned and opened the sports car’s door.
“After you, m’lady.”
For the first time she smiled. A real smile. Not the fake one she’d just given him when she first walked up or the forced one she’d used later. It set her eyes aglow and made him remember things from their night together that he probably shouldn’t be thinking about.
Kyle jumped into the backseat ahead of her. She followed behind, but Bren stopped her. “Sit up on top.”
She looked confused.
“Like this?” Kyle sat on the fold-down roof.
“Exactly like that.”
“Are you sure about this?” she asked as she took a seat next to her son.
“I’ve never been more sure about something in my life.”
* * *
KYLE COULDN’T STOP talking the whole time they drove the giant circle of the parade. Somewhere in between First and Third Streets he’d lost his dismay at spotting his mom kissing his steer-riding coach, but she’d seen the look on her son’s face and it surprised her. She knew Kyle adored Bren, but clearly the idea of his dating his mother was strange.
Perhaps too strange.
“Did you have fun?” Bren asked her son.
Kyle nodded. “I saw a bunch of people from my school. They’re going to be so jealous.”
“And how about you?”
She shelved her concerns for a moment. “It was great.”
His campaign manager had faded away, thank goodness. She didn’t like the man. Not at all.
“Just great?”
Damn his smile and the teasing glint in his eyes. She’d wanted to be mad at him, had been determined to give him a cold shoulder despite the flowers he’d sent her yesterday. How hard would it have been to pick up the phone and call her during the week? He hadn’t. And, yes, she’d been hurt. But now here he was, smiling at her, inviting her to ride in a parade with him, and she could feel herself falling again.
Falling, taunted that little voice.
Maybe not that. Or maybe it was that. She didn’t know, because she couldn’t concentrate when he was around.
“It was fun,” she amended.
He leaned down next to her, and every nerve ending in her body erupted as he whispered in her ear, “I know a better way to have fun.”
She blushed, glanced down at Kyle, but her son was too busy trying to peek under the hood of the sports car to pay attention to them.
“Why didn’t you call me this week?”
She hadn’t meant to blurt the words, but suddenly she didn’t care that it wasn’t the right moment to confront him. She’d seen him that one night, and then...nothing.
He looked away for a second and she saw in his eyes that she’d made him uncomfortable with her question. She gleaned her own answer then, and she didn’t like it. He’d been trying to avoid her. But then why the flowers?
“I thought maybe it might be easier if we took things a little more slow.”
She pinned him with a stare. “Easier for whom?”
He had the grace to look ashamed. “I realized quickly that it was the wrong call.” He faced her fully. “I want to see you. As much as possible. If that’s all right with you.”
She could read the earnestness in his eyes and the genuine remorse for hurting her.
“Don’t do that again.”
He nodded. “I won’t. I promise.” He lightly cupped her face with his palms, the gesture so tender and so familiar that she felt tears fill her eyes.
“It made me think you didn’t want to see me anymore,” she added.
“Never.”
He kissed her then and she gave herself up to it, only this kiss was unlike any she’d ever experienced before. It was at once tender and passionate. Both soft and rough. Both perfect and imperfect because she wanted it to go on forever and she knew it couldn’t given where they were.
“We should get going.”
The words came from a distance and it was only when Bren drew back that she realized they came from her son. “Uncle Jax is expecting us for lunch.”
He was. They were supposed to meet at Ed’s Eatery, and an invitation to join them was on the tip of Lauren’s tongue, but something stopped her.
Kyle.
She could tell he wasn’t sure what to think of Bren’s new status as her boyfriend.
Is that what he is? she asked herself.
Yes, she admitted. Or that’s what she wanted him to be. The realization was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. She hadn’t expected Kyle to react the way he had, though, and so she forced herself to step out of his arms.
“You’re right. We probably should get going.”
She had a feeling Bren knew what was going on. He didn’t seem to take it personally that she was running off to have lunch without him.
“See you later tonight?” he asked in a voice so low she knew it was for her ears only.
“Yes.”
He smiled as he turned and walked away. She smiled, too.