Page 46 of Beehives and Broken Heroes
He placed a finger under her chin and nudged with the slightest pressure until she looked up at him. “That’s not a bad thing, Allie. You’re an open person. I like that about you, that you say and do what you want when you want, that you don’t hold back.” He held her gaze, his warm and inviting, and dadgummit if she didn’t love hearing every thing he was saying, even though those things went completely against her try-to-be-more-like-Jo plan. “It’s what drew me to you right from the start. That first day I met you and you almost took a swing at Millie Douglas, I liked you.”
She blinked up at him. “Why?” She wasn’t sure why she asked, but once it was out, she desperately wanted the answer. That wildness that he’d just claimed to like was what she and so many others wanted her to learn to control.
He tugged on a lock of her hair. “As an M.P., I’ve spent so much of my life working with liars and criminals, and when I wasn’t in the military, it was my family keeping their emotions and a whole crap-ton of other things from me. It’s not a fun way to live. With you, I always know where you stand, and that’s refreshing and comforting.”
She scrunched her nose, trying to hide the look of disgust on her face. She hated his brother and sister-in-law. The day he’d told her in his barn what they’d done to him, she’d meant her offer to go egg their house. In fact, when she’d gotten home that night, it’d take all the self-control she possessed to not look up their address.
Forcing a smile, she glanced up at him. She didn’t want to bring him down; she changed the subject. “So this is a date, but playing B.O.T.s in the woods and making out isn’t?”
He leaned down and kissed her nose. “You’re getting the gist of it.” He pulled back from her but kept her hand in his. “Now, I believe we have a gazebo, and some benches, and a few planter pots that need painting.” He pulled her toward the door, and her heart felt like it might burst. Why had she waited so long to finally give in? Brandon couldn’t be more perfect for her if he tried.
Chapter 15
Acouple of weeks passed before Brandon was able to get to his remodel project. He’d gotten slammed with work and stuck doing sixty-plus-hour weeks with his family’s marking teams to make sure everything was rolling out on schedule. It’d been grueling, but it’d been made marginally better by Allie stopping by with food, and reminders that he needed to take breaks followed by walks around the property, and more than a little kissing.
Where the three-date rule had been more of a guideline before, it was now almost nonexistent. Their dates weren’t as long, but having her stop by at all hours almost every day gave him something to look forward to. She was a bright ray of sunshine in what had been a dreary existence before.
On the last day of the month, after things had finally started to calm down, he surprised her with breakfast at her apartment and spent the morning helping her in Sticky and Sweet.He headed out early in the afternoon, after making plans for her to come over for dinner. He’d then run up to the hardware store and purchased the paint, brushes, tape, and tarps he needed for the remodel.
He had yet to tell her what he was up to, and for some reason, he was a little nervous. After fending off Barbie at checkout—the town flirt looked intentionally like her namesake—Brandon checked his watch and hurried to his truck. Hunter and Maverick were meeting him in twenty minutes to help move furniture into David Ward’s old shop until he figured out what to do with it. It’d be nice to have it out before she got there. The guys were in the driveway when he arrived. Lucky’s truck was there, which meant Lucky had to be with them too. Good, things would go faster with four sets of hands.
All three men leaned up against the truck. Maverick threw his hands up when he saw Brandon.
Brandon parked, dust floating up around his tires, and hopped out of his truck. “Fellas.”
“You’re two minutes late,” Maverick ribbed.
Hunter grinned. “Another minute and we’d have hightailed it out of here.”
That didn’t seem likely. They were still trying to get answers about Zoey. Hunter especially. The guy seemed to have fallen at first sight, a condition that Brandon knew all too well. He had a little pity for the guy. Pity that Zoey didn’t live close enough for him to ask her out, and pity that if she did, she was more likely to run circles around him than let him win her over.
Apparently, Lucky had some pity too. “Don’t let ’em fool you. They’re dying to learn more about Zoey.” Lucky reached over and smacked the back of Hunter’s cowboy hat, making it pitch forward. “Especially this one. He won’t stop talking about her.”
“Hey!” Hunter fixed his hat. “I didn’t say one word about her in the whole ten minutes it took us to drive here.”
“That was because I had the radio up,” Maverick said.
Brandon grinned and led the guys to the workshop in the back of the barn. They moved some equipment out of the way to make room for the few pieces they were bringing out, then headed inside once done. Brandon had removed everything except the heavy furniture already. The three men carted out the biggest piece first, a curio cabinet that wasn’t so heavy as it was awkward. They got it situated in the workshop and went back for the other large pieces.
The doorbell rang as Hunter and Maverick headed out the back door with the couch, and Lucky hauled out a chair, leaving the door open behind them.
Brandon jogged to the front of the house and let Allie in.
She pointed to Lucky’s truck. “Are the Westbrooks here?”
“Lucky, Hunter, and Maverick are helping me move some furniture,” he said mildly.
Her gaze shot up to his. “They are?” A gleam shone in her deep blue irises. He’d been right: she did want him to make his mark on the house.
He nodded and grabbed her hand, pulling her to the back of the house and to the now almost empty room. “I was thinking of turning it into a den or game room of sorts.”
She smiled up at him. “Do you know what you want it to look like?”
He was about to jump into his vision for the room, but shouts from outside drew his attention. Maverick and Hunter were yelling for him, some urgency in their voices. They’d better not have dropped that couch.
Allie laughed at the yells. It was never dull with the Westbrooks around; that was for sure.
“I’d better go see what they want,” Brandon said.
