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“Are you now? We’ll have to see about that. I could introduce you to all kinds of people that would get you out of a uniform and into a nice cushy office like Henry here,” she says with a nod towards the man behind her.
“I’m a detective and if I wanted on office job, I’d find one on my own. I’m here to work, nothing else.” At least not with you, I add silently, and she huffs away letting me go down with the rest of the group to get the layout mapped.
“When did you get a girl?” Tyler asks as guests begin to come into the room. Ms. Elliott, a two-time widow at forty-two—which I have some misgivings about now—is across the room. We might have been asked to attend to keep her safe from the threats she’s received but I’ll do that from as far away from her as possible.
“We’ve been dating for about a month,” I tell him. “She the complete opposite of that woman.”
“I don’t know, if you can overlook the fact that two of her husbands have just upped and died, she might be worth it,” Tyler says straightening his sleeve. “Well, other than these monkey-suits at least.”
“Not my type at all,” I state as heat rushes through me and I turn my head towards the doors seeing Jake and Annie coming in with Maia, Jillian, Jeffery and my princess. She looks fucking incredible in a floor-length dark blue dress and thank the gods it’s not strapless like Jillian’s is. It has lace sleeves as well and it looks amazing on my girl. Maybe too amazing because there are several other men looking her way and I have to force back a growl as some approach them.
The only thing that gets me through most of the evening is seeing that she declines more invitations to dance than she accepts. The ones she accepts are kept at a distance, but also men I know do business with her family. Two of them are married and their wives give Jaime smiles when the dances end. The only ones she relaxes with are her dad and brothers, and I can’t stop myself from heading her way when one of the more obnoxious men she refused goes back for a third attempt.
“Excuse me,” I tell the man, smiling down at my girl, “I think this is my dance.”
“It is,” Jaime agrees, settling into my arms with complete ease, and it makes me want to pull her even tighter, which is pure madness. She’d kill me if I made a scene and drew everyone’s attention to her most likely.
“You look amazing, princess,” I whisper leaning down towards her a bit more.
“You look pretty devastating yourself, Bryan,” she replies, her smile and the look in her eyes enough to keep me settled for now.
I have to go make rounds after the dance but come back to cut in three more times throughout the night, just waiting for the damn thing to end. Every time I have to let her go, my heart and body rebel, but I’m here to work first unfortunately.
There’s less than thirty minutes before the ball is supposed to end when Grace corners me on my next to last round of the space. I can smell the booze on her, and it just gets worse as she comes closer, her eyes narrowing my way in what seems to be anger.
“So, you’ll forget you’re ‘taken’ for someone younger will you?” she crows, and my jaw tightens in anger. “Don’t fool yourself that it’ll go anywhere with the little Cartwright heiress. She’s a bore. You’d have to choke yourself just to get through a night with her. Not that Jake Cartwright would let someone like you anywhere near her. Oh no, as hired help he’d let you through the doors, but not to get near his daughter. You’d have far more luck with me, sugar.”
“That won’t ever happen,” I counter ready to walk away but the damn woman doesn’t let it go and any thoughts I had about taking Jaime home end fast when she drops at my feet, out cold.
It leaves me fuming, especially when I look back to see Jaime laughing with some man I don’t know. Jake is talking animatedly with him as well, and it worsens when my girl easily goes into his arms for a dance while I have to deal with the mess at my feet.
It takes hours to confirm that she was merely passed out rather than that someone slipped her anything. By then, I’m in a dark mood seeing Jaime didn’t even respond to my message that I couldn’t take her home because of work.
It grows worse when I see her reply in the morning that someone named Chase surprised them and she forgot that she didn’t reply to my message. The man I saw her with last night had to be around my age, but it was obvious he wasn’t there in any work capacity. He fit into her world unlike me, which just pisses me off more on top of Grace’s warning about Jake not accepting me as part of Jaime’s life.
She’s everything to me and I hate that it’s most likely true. She needs someone who can navigate those damn events with her, keep other men away from her without causing a scene. Every time I interrupted and stole my dances, it was obvious the others didn’t think I had any right to do it, but I hadn’t cared. Not until I saw her with that man, looking so at ease with him it made memories return and bite me on the ass.
I send Jaime a response back that it was okay, and my night was long, before adding on that my newest assignment would keep me busy for the next week or so at least. I wasn’t thrilled with it when I got the message Friday that I was needed to fill in on the night shift for the traffic division detective.
He was out investigating a crash when his car was hit, leaving him thankfully with no broken bones, but a concussion that had him on medical leave. No one else was available except me, but now, maybe it’s for the best. I can get a little time to figure out how to handle all of these feelings I have for Jaime, because the hell if I know what to do right now.
Chapter 5
Jaime
Ugh…I honestly don’t know what’s going on. Up until the night of the stupid Heart Ball, everything with Bryan was going so well. Slow, but good.
Now, I can’t get more than a ‘sorry I was busy with work’ or a ‘sorry I was sleeping’ response via text whenever I call or text. I haven’t heard his voice in two weeks and I’m miserable.
I don’t know if it’s just something at work bothering him that he doesn’t think I can handle or doesn’t want me to know about, or what is going on with him, but it hurts that he’s shutting me out. I thought we had a good time dancing even if he was working.
After the first few days of silence after it, I texted him again to make sure he knew I wasn’t mad or angry that he couldn’t take me home. I was a little upset that he hadn’t stopped by for at least two seconds to tell me in person, and his response that he’d seen me dancing with someone and he didn’t want to interrupt didn’t make a lot of sense at first. Other than him, the only people I even danced with were business associates of the family business I’d known forever, who are well known around town, or family members.
It was when I realized that Chase hadn’t gotten there until just before the end of the night that I wondered if perhaps he wasn’t a bit jealous to see me with him. I mean, Chase is about a year older than him and handsome sure, but he’s also my cousin—my Uncle Aaron’s son who’s been living out of town since he left for college nineteen years ago. We see him on holidays at most usually, but he was excited to tell all of us that he’d taken a new job and was coming back to town. When he said it was with Brannigan where I work, I was elated.
I texted him back that I was with family, and they wouldn’t have minded, but he just said he was sorry once more and that there hadn’t been enough time as well. Since then, he’s simply grown more distant, and I don’t know what to do.
“Hey, you look about as grumpy as Jeffery on a good day,” Jillian says joining me on the couch.
