Page 25 of Reaching Hearts

“What?”

“You got so tense.”

I watched him evade the subject as he flipped me over and took me right there on the couch.

He was showing dominance. I got that loud and clear. He didn’t like how Tommy had looked at me, and this was how he acted on that.

Who was I to argue?

We walked to Lolinda afterward because I needed some iron and their Filet Mignon was divine. The walk was nice, but we didn’t hold hands. We rarely did. And our phones were constantly going off with emails and texts that couldn’t be ignored. I teased him that we worked too much, that we couldn’t take a break even for a weekend, that something was wrong with us. He smiled because he knew I loved keeping busy just as much as he did.

At one point during dinner, he raised his hand to get the server’s attention.

“Yes?” she asked, her hands trained behind her straight back.

“Can we have a bottle of Hermitage La Chapelle?”

“2001 or ’99?”

He answered without hesitation, “The ’99. Thank you.”

As she left, I smiled and leaned in to whisper, “I’m guessing that’s the better one.”

Brendan reached out and took my hand. “Do you think I’d give you anything less?”

The way my body melted was embarrassing. I was a grown woman and this younger man could break my heart in half. I nibbled on a roll, dipping it in the juices swimming on my plate.

“Brendan?”

He looked up from his phone. “Yeah?”

“I’ve had a really good time this weekend.”

His eyes lit up. “It’s not over.”

I smiled. “I know. I just wanted to tell you.”

“Get ready for some of the best red wine you’ve ever had.” Then his head dipped back into his phone and his thumbs typed away. I watched for a second and picked up my own to check if Connie had written back about the pet rescue place in Scottsdale, Arizona called Lucky Dog. She had and I loved that she was on board, so I wrote her back immediately. That email turned into another and soon the night disappeared before I even knew what had happened.

When we lay in bed that night, I snuggled up to him. “Are you awake?”

“Yeah?”

“Who’s your emergency contact?”

He turned to face me. “What?”

“I was thinking I’d like to be on your emergency contact list. If something ever happened to you, I’d like to know.”

He frowned and stared at me for a while. I waited, holding his eyes.

“Let me think about it.” He turned back over. I stared at his back, feeling irritated. Can’t you give me anything? I thought. It took me an hour of telling myself I could always end things if I couldn’t handle it anymore, before my eyes finally closed.

The next day at 12:30 p.m., there was a knock at the door. Alone, with Mark having gone to the gym and Brendan to his meeting, I looked through the peephole to find Tommy on the other side. My mind raced to understand what he was doing there. “Hey Rebecca.” I opened the door with a confused smile and he looked inside. “Brendan here?”

I shook my head, saying slowly. “No, he went to that meeting. Weren’t you supposed to go?” Tommy took a step forward to lean on the doorway. He was uncomfortably close. I hated to admit it, but he looked damned sexy. He was handsome, but all three of them were, with different things to offer. It occurred to me that together they must have desolated the female population in college.

He inhaled deeply, his mind somewhere else. “Nah. I wasn’t supposed to be at this one. I’m newer to the company, you know. Brendan’s the guy. He’s got more time and people like him more.” He looked at me like he wanted to say something, but then shook his head a little and looked away.