Page 59 of Bad Boys After Dark - Brett
He returned his attention to JJ and asked, “How about you? Do you have a girlfriend?”
“Me?” JJ scoffed. “I wish, but no. Too many women have money signs in their eyes when they hear I own a bar.”
“I can relate to that. My brother and I own an international security firm.” He’d seen those dollar signs JJ mentioned too many times to count, but never from Sophie.
“Drink or date?” JJ asked as Lindsay and his sister, Trixie, approached. Sophie had introduced Brett to Trixie earlier. She was a quick-witted, long-haired brunette, and looked every bit the cowgirl in her jeans, boots, and a plaid shirt tied at the waist.
“Gross. I’m your sister,” Trixie teased. “And I’m pretty sure Sophie would kick my ass if I tried to hook up with her man.”
“Drink,” Lindsay said to JJ. “Something fruity, please. Brett, are you and Sophie sticking around after Mom and Dad go to bed?”
Sophie had mentioned that after the older generations had turned in for the night, she, Lindsay, and whichever friends were still around, would hang out and catch up over drinks. As anxious as he was to get Sophie alone, he was enjoying getting to know more about her through her friends and family. “Whatever Sophie wants.”
“Well, considering my very proper sister brought a guy home for the first time in forever and your stuff is in her bedroom,” Lindsay said, “I’d say we all know what she wants.”
Trixie high-fived Lindsay, and they both laughed.
Brett chuckled. He gazed out at Sophie dancing with her father and made his way around the dance area, taking in the vast number of friends still there. His mind traveled to his own family. He was close with his mother and brothers, but he’d never seen so much love in one place as he had over the past few hours. It was no wonder Sophie wanted it all. This was what she knew, what she expected of the world and of relationships. A life full of endless love and family, a husband she could count on for fifty-plus years.
Her voice sailed through his mind. One day you’ll wake up and realize I’m the best there is. There was no doubt Sophie was the best there was. But the word best didn’t sit well with him. What he felt for her had nothing to do with how she compared to anyone else. He was falling for the woman she was, and today he’d been privileged to see another side of her. The country girl who threw her head back when she laughed and blushed at stories of her childhood. The girl who danced with the young man she’d once babysat and the adoring daughter who looked at her father like he was bigger than life.
There had been a time when he’d looked at his own father that way. A time when his sister had looked at him that way, too.
“She’s always been a daddy’s girl,” Angel said as she came to Brett’s side.
Brett smiled, blinking away the emotions he was struggling with. “Your daughter is an incredible woman. I should have led with that when I met you, but—”
“You were shell-shocked?” Angel gazed out at her husband and daughter. “Our family can be a bit much.”
“Your family is exactly as a family should be. My mother would fit in well here.” Even after all his family had endured, his mother’s walls had never gone up the way his, and the rest of their family’s, had.
“And your father?” she asked carefully.
Brett clenched his jaw, his emotions roiling again. “Maybe at one point, but…” After my sister died, we all changed. “Life’s taken its toll on him. He’s not a happy man.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and tilted her head, as if she were thinking.
He saw Sophie in her expression.
“You know, Sophie’s pretty tight-lipped about her personal life, but she’s mentioned you to me quite a few times over the last couple of years.”
“She has?” A wave of pleasure swept through him and just as quickly he cringed inwardly, thinking of all the times he’d propositioned her. “I’m afraid to ask…”
Angel patted his arm and said, “Let’s just say that she saw right through you. I tried to tell her to be careful with her heart and that if you were a playboy, you might always be. But my Sophie is as stubborn as her father, and she’s also quite intuitive. She said, ‘Mom, sometimes you know there’s more to a person than even they see.’” Angel put her hand over her heart and looked lovingly at Sophie. “The little rascal threw my own words back at me. It’s exactly what I said about her father.”
