Maybe he ought to have taken the damn dog. The thing had looked like a pathetic drowned rat with his all matted fur and gimpy back leg. His rejection of the idea had less to do with the dog itself and more to do with his shitty attitude. A disastrous day at work, coupled with a phone argument with Kelly, and Brody’s mood had been as black as the night sky. Seeing Elisa had helped. It’d been like coming out of a murderous storm and stepping into a ray of warm sunshine. His willpower had barely kept him from grabbing her, burying his face in her neck, and breathing in her scent until the world melted away.

It was edging toward eight p.m. and he was downright exhausted. He pulled on a pair of fresh boxers and went into the kitchen. Luckily for his sanity, there was one bottle of beer left. He snagged it off the shelf, popped the top off and tossed it onto the countertop. His cell phone chirped from where the bottle top landed. Brody seriously thought about letting voicemail pick up, as he knew who the caller was and had no interest in speaking with her. The phone continued to ring, the sound grating on his last remaining nerve. Brody simply took a swig of his drink while staring at the device.

Against his better judgment, he picked up the phone and touched “answer” with a sigh. “What,” he barked after bringing the phone to his ear.

“We need to finish our conversation,” Kelly said without as much as a hello.

“It’s finished,” Brody answered while walking into the living room and planting his tired ass on the couch. He sank down low, resting his head on the cushion behind him.

“No, it’s not. You hung up on me, remember?”

“You deserved it.”

“Stop being such an insensitive asshole and listen to me.” The end of the last word came off sharp, in the typical Kelly style when she was seriously pissed. Brody didn’t give a shit.

He took another deep swig of the drink before answering her. “No.”

There was a long pause, followed by Kelly’s heavy sigh. “Brody…”

“You’re not taking my son away from me, Kelly.”

Brody could actually hear Kelly’s teeth grinding together.

“Like I told you a dozen times this afternoon, this is not about you. It’s about my mother and her needing someone to take care of her.”

“See that’s generally what you pay the nursing home big bucks for. The taking-care-of part.” Brody allowed his eyes to drop closed and pressed the cool bottle to his forehead in hopes of soothing his pounding head. It didn’t work. And this bullshit conversation with his ex-wife wasn’t helping either. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean that. I know this is hard for you. I’m just tired and I don’t want to have this conversation right now.”

“Look, nothing is set in stone,” Kelly said as though she didn’t even hear. Or maybe she did and just chose to ignore it. “But I wanted to let you know that this is something we’re seriously considering. We can’t just dump her into a nursing home then leave her there. I’d hoped you’d be more understanding.”

“Understanding that you want to move my only child three states away? Not likely.”

“Well, what would you suggest?”

“How about not moving? Or better yet, bring her here.”

Deafening silence from the other end of the line exacerbated Brody’s bitch of a headache. “I already told you, transferring her here isn’t that easy.” A heavy sigh flowed across the phone lines. “We’ll talk about this later. I want to say good night to Tyler before I have to go help my mom in the bath.”

Brody was too pissed off to make chitchat as he stood from the couch and went to Tyler’s bedroom. Apparently Kelly wasn’t in the mood to ask him about the weather either. All that came from the other line was her quiet breathing and the occasional word to her mother. The house was eerily silent as he padded barefoot down the hallway toward his son’s room. He knocked once on the closed door, then pushed the thing open. Tyler was kicked back in his gaming chair, flipping through a Sports Illustrated. Brody came into the room and held the cell phone out.

“Mom wants to talk to you.”

A brilliant grin lit up Tyler’s face as he dropped the magazine to the floor and grabbed the phone.

“Hey, Mom. You’ll never guess what Elisa and I did this afternoon…”

Brody didn’t stay to listen to the conversation. He wasn’t in a particular mood to plaster a smile to his face and listen to the rescue story of Brinkley.

The bottle of beer remained on the coffee table where he’d set it a moment ago. The thing was nearly full, so he picked it up and gave a few hard swallows. What he really wanted to do was hurl it against the far wall and watch the golden liquid trickle down the beige paint. Then maybe it could puddle underneath the speckled carpeting because he just didn’t give a damn. Instead of giving in to his impulse, Brody stared at the bottle for a few more seconds before taking it into the kitchen. Once there, he dropped it into the garbage can, liquid and all. Technically he was supposed to empty the bottle out. Whatever. What were they going to do, arrest him?

Tyler’s voice drifted down the hallway as Brody made his way to his bedroom. It didn’t seem like that long ago that Tyler would fit into the crook of Brody’s arm. He’d pick the baby up, gaze down into the boy’s eyes so much like his mother’s, and wonder if he’d ever laid eyes on anything more precious. Brody hadn’t known jack shit about kids and had been nothing more than a kid himself when Tyler had come along, a scared-shitless kid who wondered time and time again how he’d gotten himself in that situation. As the provider for his family, it’d been up to Brody to be the strong one, to never let Kelly know how uncertain he’d been through her whole pregnancy.

When most other twenty-year-olds had been getting shit-faced at frat parties and banging as many girls as they could, Brody had been elbow deep in baby shit. When not doing that, he’d exhausted himself working long hours. Despite that, the time following Tyler’s birth had been priceless for him. During that time Brody would gaze down at his newborn son and see that unrequited love and hero worship children had for their parents. Tyler would blink up at him as if to say “I trust you to always take care of me.” Brody had damn near killed himself living up to that expectation for his son and wife. In the end he’d failed miserably.

Now Tyler was leaving him.

Brody landed face-first on the bed and didn’t bother with the sheets. He was too restless and antsy. His brain was pulsing up against his skull and his gut felt like it had a ten-pound bowling ball in it. There had to be a way around this. Some alternative to them packing their bags and moving to freakin’ Michigan. Maybe he could talk Kelly to moving her mother to Trouble.

He inhaled a deep breath and flopped over onto his back. That position didn’t feel any better. But he stayed there because he simply didn’t have the energy to flip back and forth like a fish out of water.

In addition to the confusion in his son’s eyes was the wounded look on Elisa’s beautiful face. There was no denying he’d behaved like an absolute prick. What he felt for her was completely foreign and scared the piss out of him.

I think you love me.

Those were the other words that refused to give him peace. They whispered through his mind day in and day out, taunting him, daring to admit she was right. They were the cause of his sleepless nights and his lack of concentration at work. Bad enough were the memories of being inside Elisa, of feeling her silky softness and her hands caressing his back. All those things had caused him to be a ticking time bomb for the past several days.

Wasn’t it just his shitty luck to go and fall for a woman, only to have her leave? Why couldn’t he have met her years ago? Why couldn’t she have another job? Why did she have to steal his heart so damn fast? Despite the looming end of their relationship, Brody didn’t think he could bring himself to stay away from her. The smart thing would be to walk away from her now before either of them got any deeper. The problem was, he couldn’t. Not only that, he didn’t want to. Her deep eyes and soft voice was only light in his darkness. He knew they had no future, but he also knew he’d keep going back to her for the short time she’d still be there.

He folded his arms above his head and gazed at the dark ceiling. But instead of the blackness, he saw Elisa’s face, the confusion and hurt in her brown eyes. She thought he’d been brushing her off, like she’d been some one-time bang and run. If only she knew what she really was to him.

If only he could tell her.


Charlene practically vibrated with giddiness when she went into Brody’s office, holding a piece of paper. He’d been going over the week’s numbers and welcomed the distraction. His eyes were crossing from his tedious task.

“Have you seen this?” she asked while waving the paper in the air.

He leaned back in his chair. “No, what is it?”

She dangled the paper between her thumb and index finger. “It’s a customer review. I’ve been monitoring the sites closely since Anthony took over. Want to see what it says?”

“Read it to me.” If his eyes focused on one more thing, his head would explode.

A delighted grin lit up her eyes. “I thought you might never ask.” She cleared her throat and started reading. “ ‘The last time we came to the Golden Glove, the experience was downright painful. We swore up and down we’d never return. Then we heard from a friend the place has a new chef, and their meal was very good. So we gave it another chance. What a surprise. Our meals were fresh tasting and delicious. We will definitely be back for more.’ ” She slapped the paper down on the desk and leaned on her hands. “O ye of little faith,” she taunted.