Page 34 of An Unexpected Home

“I killed you? I was dead in the water the second I opened the door to you last night.”

Tilting her head, she looked up at him. “I think you should know that I suck at relationships.” She wasn’t totally sure that’s what he meant when he said they should date, but she felt it was important that he knew.

“Then we’re a perfect match.” He was playing with her hair and it felt so good that she wanted to purr.

“No, I mean I really suck,” she said. “I’ve never had a relationship that lasted more than two weeks that wasn’t more than sex.” It felt odd telling him that. Hell, it felt odd living it.

“Other than high school,” he spoke slowly, “I’ve never had a girlfriend. Yes, there have been women who I have slept with for months on end, but I’ve never taken any of them on dates. Or even wanted to.”

She sat up, feeling like if they were going to have this conversation, she needed clothes. Reaching the side of the bed, she found a shirt – his not hers – and pulled it over her head. It smelled like him. Fresh and woodsy. She didn’t even know if woodsy was a word, but it fit Brandon.

Leaning against the headboard, she asked, “So why now? Why me?”

He sat up too, leaving the covers pooling around his waist. “Hell Leah, if I knew that, we wouldn’t have circled around each other for the last week.”

She let out a small laugh. The sun was starting to rise, making the light shine in from all the windows, and she could see him more clearly. “I guess it’s kinda the same for me.”

“What’s the same?” he asked, taking her hand.

“That I can’t seem to explain my attraction to you.”

“Do we need to explain it?”

“I –” he made a good point, but she couldn’t help but wonder what others would think. “Won’t people think we’re insane. We just met and all of a sudden we are dating?”

“Mind you, I am no expert on relationships but isn’t that usually how it works? You meet someone and decide you both want to be together, so you date?”

Damn him and his logic. “Yeah but...” She didn’t have anything after that.

“I see I rendered you speechless.” He laughed and squeezed her hand.

“My life is in complete upheaval right now. Are you sure you want to get involved?”

“Dating or not, Leah, I am already involved. This Will guy is nowhere to be found and I don’t trust him.”

She bit her bottom lip. She felt a little panicked at the thought of not dating him. When had it become a given, a sure thing?

“What’s wrong?” he asked, apparently already able to read her emotions. “You’re not scared of Will are you?”

That wasn’t the reason for her mood change but he didn’t need to know that. “Not really.” Which was true. “But I don’t love that he has just disappeared.” Also true.

“We’ll find him and I promise until we do, I’ll keep you safe.”

She was just about to say something about being able to keep herself safe when they both heard a beeping coming from some other part of the house.

“What is that?” he asked.

“I think it’s my phone.” Slipping out of bed she followed the sound and found her phone inside her purse that she had left in his living room. Grabbing it she saw that it was Carly.

Carly:

A phone call or text telling me you were staying with Brandon would have been nice. I woke up and freaked the fuck out that you still weren’t home. I thought maybe you had been murdered and that would have sucked.

She laughed out loud after reading it and then looked up and saw Brandon standing on the edge of the hallway, running shorts riding low on his hips.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just Carly. She kinda freaked when she woke up and I wasn’t there.”

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