Erin Kern - Along Came Trouble

“What did he do that made him travel a lot?”

“He was a freelance reporter.” Elisa tucked her legs beneath her. “He used to get job offers all over the world. The traveling was his favorite part. I mean, he hated being away from his family, but at the same time he craved the adventure of going to places or situations most people didn’t want to go.”

“And your mother was a reporter also? Is that why they were both gone?”

“Sort of. She started off in a Dallas news station, basically at the bottom of the tier covering things like a high school championship football game. But over the years, she’d slowly worked her way up, and eventually she was offered an opportunity to cover riots that had broken out in Sao Paulo. That’s how she met my dad.”

“So, how did they end up back in the States?”

Elisa pulled a sip of wine. “Well, my mom loved Brazil so much that she decided to relocate there. She learned Portuguese and took a job at a local TV station. A few years later she had me and quit her job, but with Dad traveling all time, my mother got lonely. She had no family around and not many friends. So, my dad agreed to move my mom back to Dallas. Since he was freelance, the move was easy for him.

“Anyway, Mom still liked to travel so she would sometimes go with my dad when he’d go on an assignment.”

“And that’s why they were on an airplane,” he guessed.

Elisa nodded and stared down into her wineglass. “Yeah. They were on a twin-engine commuter plane in Panama.”

Brody tried to imagine losing both parents so suddenly and in such a tragic way. To have them there one day and gone the next. Not having a chance to say good-bye or prepare for their passing. “That must have been hard” was all he could think to say.

Her lashes lowered and she gazed into her wine before responding. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through.”

He tilted his head and looked at her for a moment. The death of her parents had scarred her. That much was painfully obvious just by the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes when she glanced at their picture. They’d been close, and she’d just been a kid when they’d been taken from her. This was another layer of Senorita Cardoso being peeled back for him to examine.

“How did you manage on your own after they died?”

She lifted her eyes to his and ran her tongue over her bottom lip. “It wasn’t easy. My parents didn’t leave us with much. But I was lucky enough to land a modeling contract that paid for the rest of my college tuition.”

Modeling? He knew it. She was tall enough, beautiful and ethereal enough to be good at it. “That’s what Tyler meant about the pictures,” he said more to himself than her.

“Pictures?” she asked.

He stretched his arm along the back of the couch and his fingers came within millimeters of touching her hair. “He said one day that you had pictures of yourself around your house. I wasn’t sure what he meant.”

A slow, sweet smile broke across her face. “Oh, my covers.” Her cheeks turned a beautiful shade of pink. “I can’t believe he mentioned that.”

If it was possible, she was even more gorgeous when she blushed. The color in her cheeks made him want to trail the tip of his index finger across her face. Would she allow him to touch her again? Would she blush even more?

“Being on the cover of a magazine is quite an accomplishment. You shouldn’t be embarrassed about that.”

Her teeth stabbed into her lower lip. “It’s not that I’m embarrassed. It’s just… I was never totally comfortable with the attention I got as a model. I was good at it, but I didn’t love it. That’s why I quit and turned to photography. I’d much rather be behind the camera than in front of it.”

Most women would have walked around with their nose in the air and a you-can’t-touch-me attitude. He’d been around a few women like that in his life. Their attitude alone made him turn the other direction. Elisa’s humility was an endearing trait. She’d lost her parents at a young age but she’d made the best of her situation by taking care of herself. Brody wished he had half her courage.

He lost his will and trailed his finger over a chunk of her hair. It really was as soft as it looked. Touching the weightless strands had more of an effect on him than when he’d touched other women in his life. Something about this one had him tied up in knots. She had a strange magnetic pull over him he was powerless to resist.

He set his wineglass, then hers on the table so there were no hindrances between them.

“Brody,” she said on a half sigh, half moan when his hand went farther into her hair.

“What is it about you that makes me feel this way?” he murmured.

“Like what?”

He trailed his finger down the column of her neck. “Not like myself. Like I’m having an out-of-body experience.”

Her lips quirked. “I’m not sure if I should feel flattered or insulted.”

“Trust me, there’s no insult in that. I’m just not sure how to handle what I’m feeling.”

She sat perfectly still while he continued his featherlike caress. “And what’s that?”

He just barely grazed her lower lip with the tip of his finger. “I don’t know. That’s what scares me.”

“If you’re scared then I’m petrified.”

Her tongue darted out and caught his finger. The cool moisture sent waves of fire through his blood. He had a sudden, animalistic urge to flip her beneath him on the couch and strip them both of their clothes. She had the sort of body a man could get lost in. All that softness and those curves had the potential to turn him into a babbling idiot. Hell, he was halfway there and they were still clothed.

“Dad?”

The voice came from behind Brody and had Elisa pulling away from him. He dropped his hand from Elisa’s mouth and stood up from the couch.

“Hey, buddy,” he said when Tyler stood in the kitchen, staring at Brody and Elisa. “Did you get your report finished?”

“Yeah. Can we go home and call Mom?”

Brody wanted to spend a little time with his son, talking about his day at school, before getting on the phone with Kelly. “Why don’t we go get some dinner first?”

“Elisa made me a sandwich, so I’m not that hungry.”

He glanced at Elisa, whose attention volleyed back and forth between him and Tyler. “It was just a grilled cheese,” she said.

“Thanks for doing that. I really didn’t mean to be late. With the state the restaurant is in, it’s hard for me to get away on time.” Every moment not spent with Tyler was like a rusty knife in his gut. The boy deserved every second of his undivided attention. Sometimes he felt like he needed to split himself a dozen different ways to please everyone in his life. In the past, Tyler had always come first. Lately Brody had been slacking in that department and needed to change it.

Elisa stood from the couch and walked them to the door. “You weren’t that late. Besides, Tyler had plenty to keep him busy. Didn’t you?” she asked as she placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

Tyler wrapped his gangly arms around Elisa’s midsection. “Thanks for all the help. And thanks for letting me use your computer.”

Brody’s heart clenched as Tyler held on a moment longer before letting Elisa go. He wanted to repeat Tyler’s actions with a hug of his own but settled for a light touch to her cheek. Like the night before, Brody grazed her soft cheek with one knuckle. “I’ll see you next week for the shoot.”

“Do you think Anthony’s ready for that?”

“I’ve been working with him in the mornings before we open, and he’s learning from Vic and Stanley. And I honestly don’t think throwing together some dishes for a camera will be a problem for him.”

Elisa nodded. “Okay. When should I be there?”

“Tuesday. Seven-thirty a.m.” Then Brody and Tyler left her standing in the front doorway.

WILL LILY BE THERE? Will Lacy be able to get out of bed when we get there?” Tyler continued to pepper Brody with questions as he drove toward Chase’s house. First he wanted to know if Mason would be napping, then he wanted to know if his uncle Chase would be there. This was the chattiest Tyler had been in several months, and Brody planned to take advantage.

“I’m pretty sure Lily will be there. But Lacy can’t get out of bed. You know that.” He tossed Tyler a glance. The boy had lost interest in his handheld gaming system, which now lay on the floor by Tyler’s black-and-white Nikes.

Lacy was just six weeks shy of her due date and had been restricted to bed rest since her second trimester. Chase told Brody this was a common thing among women who carried twins. He’d also told Brody that Lacy had not been shy about her distaste for lying on her backside twenty-four hours a day.

Her hobby of selling her sketches had just started to take off in the past year. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to draw as much as she’d like thanks to severe morning sickness and fatigue.

Chase and Lacy’s house came into view and Brody turned his truck onto the driveway. The vehicle hadn’t even come to a complete stop when Tyler threw the door open and ran into the house. When Brody ambled through the door a moment later, Tyler already had nineteen-month-old Mason in his lap. Two-and-a-half-year-old Lily bounced up and down on the living room floor, her dark curls springing in perfect synchronization to some musical cartoon. Avery walked out of the kitchen with a sippy cup in one hand and a package of crackers in the other.

Her friendly eyes lit up when she saw him. “I thought I heard someone come through the door. What’re you two doing here? I thought you normally worked on Saturdays?” Avery’s hair had darkened slightly over the past few years and brushed the edges of her jawbone. The cut suited her perfectly, practical yet sophisticated.