Page 68 of Fire in You

I sat there and wondered in a daze what in the hell had happened. Brock had successfully commandeered what was left of my date, beguiling Grady with tales of ourchildhood.

I was going to seriously kill him.

“You didn’t run?” Grady asked me.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. I leaned back once more, dropping my hands into my lap as I sucked in a sharp breath. I felt Brock’s fingers suddenly tangling in the mass of my hair.

What was he doing?

“No, she smiled at me and then gave me this little wave.” Brock slid me a sidelong glance. Our eyes met, and the air around us felt heavy as his fingers sifted through my hair without Grady seeing. “It was . . . adorable.”

Oh my.

“After getting food, he set me up in this guest bedroom and went to bed. Was like the man saw right through me and decided I was trustworthy enough to have in his house like that. I still find it unbelievable.” Brock’s fingers made their way through my hair and now were tracing little circles against the center of my back, obliterating my ability to focus. “Still blows my mind.”

“I can’t believe it,” Grady murmured, and it was then when I really hoped Brock would just stop, that he wouldn’t continue telling this story.

But I wasn’t lucky.

Nope.

God hated me.

“About an hour had gone by, and I couldn’t sleep. My head was all over the place. The house was too damn quiet. I wasn’t used to that. Wasn’t used to people actually sleeping at night, and not yelling or car horns blaring,” he continued, and I started to lean forward once more, to avoid those damn fingers, but he snagged a thick section of my hair, holding me in place. My eyes widened slightly. “I remember sitting in this room, the nicest room I’d ever been in at the time, thinking I needed to leave. You know, that I didn’t belong in this house,” he continued as if he wasn’t using my hair as a damn leash at the moment. “And then there was this quiet little knock on the door. I had no idea who it could be.”

“It was you,” Grady said, brows raised as he glanced over at me.

I closed my eyes as Brock’s finger slipped back through my hair, making patterns against the thin material of the dress. My entire being was focused on the burn of his fingertips.

“She brought me her teddy bear,” Brock announced, and I opened my eyes, letting out a sigh. “What did you say when I opened the door and you shoved the furry old thing in my hands?”

I couldn’t believe he was bringing this up. I also couldn’t believe he actually remembered it. “I said you looked like you needed a friend.”

Brock wasn’t smiling as he met my stare. “She then ran off, going back to bed, I guess.” A faint smile appeared. “I knew Andrew had a daughter. Even seen her a few times from a distance, but . . . never expected she’d give me, a complete stranger, a damn teddy bear.” Dragging his gaze from me, he looked over at Grady. “From that point on, we were close.”

I really, really needed him to stop touching my back.

“I can tell,” Grady commented wryly.

“I’ve been her shadow ever since.”

My gaze swung to his sharply. That wasnothow people related the story. I was his shadow. Never the other way around.

“Even took her to her senior prom,” he finished, and that wasit.

Lowering my hands under the table, I reached over and grabbed his thigh through his jeans, pinching until his arm jerked back.

His mouth twitched as he stared at me.

Satisfied now that his hands were in his own space, I let go. “He took me to prom because the boys who were my age were too scared of my father.”

“Huh.” Grady toyed with the stem of his wine glass. “Should I be afraid of your father?”

“No,” I affirmed.

“Yes,” Brock answered. “Hell, I’m still afraid of him.”

I exhaled heavily, noisily.

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