Chapter 14

CHAPTER14

“Idon’t want to talk about it,” Cayley said as soon as Bryce opened his truck door, admittedly taking him by surprise.

Wondering why the small woman that he’d spent half the night thinking about was hiding on the floor of his truck, Bryce took a sip of coffee as he tossed his coat on the passenger seat and asked, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Embracing my obsession with you,” Cayley mumbled absently as she blindly reached up, grabbed his jacket off the seat and pulled it over herself. That was quickly followed by curling more tightly into herself as she did her best to hide.

“I see,” Bryce murmured thoughtfully, taking another sip of coffee as he ran his eyes over the small woman curled up in the fetal position before glancing around the small apartment complex’s driveway, absently noting his brother’s truck pulling into the parking lot before glancing back at the woman that was seriously fucking with his sanity. “Your feet are sticking out.”

That was followed by a curse, a grumble, and a sad attempt to curl more tightly into herself. “Do you want to tell me why you’re hiding from my brother?” Bryce asked as he watched Sean jump out of his truck and head to the front door.

“Because he’s insane?”

“You knew that,” Bryce pointed out as he stood there debating his options. He could let his brother know that the woman that he loved torturing was hiding in his truck or he could use this to his advantage.

Both were tempting at the moment.

“Is there any chance that you could start driving?” came the hopeful whisper that had him glancing back at his brother in time to watch him disappear inside.

“Now, that depends,” Bryce said, giving it one minute, two minutes tops before his brother realized that the little brat wasn’t home.

“On what?”

“On whether you tell me the real reason that you’re hiding from my brother,” Bryce said, taking another sip of coffee as he watched the front door suddenly get thrown open as Sean, who looked really fucking determined, came back outside.

“Did I not mention that he’s insane?” came the response laced with desperation, letting him know that it was only a matter of time before she broke.

“But you’ve known that since you were two, which means that there’s another reason that you’ve decided to hide in my truck,” Bryce drawled as he watched his brother run his eyes over the parking lot, taking in all the possibilities before his gaze met his.

“If you get in the truck and drive away before that psychotic bastard finds me, I’ll tell you everything,” Cayley said as Sean’s eyes narrowed on him.

“You’ll tell me everything?” Bryce asked, making sure to sound bored as he took another sip of coffee while he watched his brother’s expression turn determined as he headed back down the freshly shoveled walkway.

“Yes!”

“Deal,” Bryce said, holding up his thermos in mock salute to his brother as he threw him a wink and climbed into the truck. As he started the truck, Bryce watched as Sean released a curse as he debated trying to stop him before it was too late, only to release another curse and move his ass back to his truck as Bryce pulled out of his parking spot and headed to work, deciding to take the backroads this morning.

“Start talking,” Bryce said as he took a left on Oak Street instead of a right.

There was a grumble, and then, Cayley was shoving his coat off her and climbing onto the seat next to him. “I’m trying to do something and the big jerk decided that he’s going to help me,” she explained, making him wince before he could stop himself.

“Exactly,” Cayley said, nodding as she pulled on her seatbelt.

“Telling him was your first mistake,” Bryce pointed out, wondering why she hadn’t figured out that the best way to deal with his brother was to make sure that he never found out anything that he could use to fuck you over with.

“I didn’t exactly have a choice,” Cayley said, only to add, “He threatened to lock me in a closet if I didn’t tell him,” when he threw her a questioning look.

“I can see how that would be a problem,” Bryce murmured, thinking about all those times that his brother used to lock her in closets, the pantry, the attic, the basement, and the toolshed and couldn’t help but wonder why she never learned to run the other way when she saw Sean coming.

“I have short legs,” Cayley mumbled sadly, answering the unspoken question that he’d been wondering about for a long time.

“And the ‘something’ that you didn’t want my brother to find out about…” Bryce prompted as he glanced in his rearview mirror to make sure that his brother wasn’t following them.

There was a heavy sigh, and then, Cayley said, “He doesn’t think that I can handle being on my own.”

“You live alone,” Bryce pointed out, unable to help but frown.

“Which I pointed out to the annoying bastard, but then, he decided to point out that I don’t like living alone, which, let’s be honest, who does? That led to the large bastard saying a lot of things that pissed me off, which is apparently the basis for his asinine assumption that I’m afraid to be alone. So, I came up with a plan to prove the big jerk wrong and made a list of all the things that I would normally never do alone,” Cayley finished with a firm nod.

“Like Thanksgiving dinner,” Bryce said, which made sense, especially since he knew that she couldn’t cook. Never had any interest in it from what he’d seen over the years, which he figured had something to do with the fact that she could just eat at her family’s diner, but now…

“What’s on the list?” he asked as an idea started to come together, one that would make this easier.

“It got stolen,” Cayley mumbled sadly.

“I’m sure that you can remember enough to convince me not to call my brother and tell him where you are,” Bryce said as he glanced over to find her glaring at him.

“I made another list,” Cayley bit out with a grumble as she reached behind the bench seat and pulled her backpack out.

“What did you manage to come up with so far?” Bryce asked as he pulled into Jessup’s Bakery, which wasn’t the best bakery in town, but at the moment, it would do.

“Not much,” Cayley said, shrugging it off as he threw the truck in park and reached over and plucked the iPad out of her hands before she could argue, and judging by the look on her face, she really wanted to argue.

With a sigh, Bryce quickly took in the list that she’d created, noting that it was basically all Christmas stuff, sledding, Santa’s Village, only to feel himself frown when he took in the Strawberry Manor’s Christmas Eve party, and-

This was going to be easier than he thought.