Chapter 20

CHAPTER20

“Shhhhh,” came the soft whisper in his ear as Bryce opened his eyes and-

Found himself wondering why the little bastard had his hand over his mouth. With a glare, Bryce reached up, careful not to wake the small woman curled up against him, and shoved Sean’s hand away. With a pointed look at Cayley, Sean stepped away from the bed, his eyes never leaving Bryce as he carefully shifted to sit up only to have the small woman in his arms grumble in her sleep as she snuggled closer.

Biting back a sigh, Bryce leaned down as he shifted again and pressed a kiss against Cayley’s forehead, somewhat appeasing the little bed hog before he finally managed to climb off the bed. With one last curious glance at Cayley, Sean quietly made his way into the hallway, leaving him with no choice but to follow him. He followed Sean into the kitchen, where the annoying bastard stopped to make a sandwich, his eyes remaining locked on Bryce the entire time.

Once he was done, Sean quickly devoured his sandwich before gesturing to the hallway. More than happy to get this over with, Bryce walked into the hallway and-

Released a pained grunt when the little bastard shoved him against the wall and got in his face.

“Start fucking talking,” Sean bit out with a look that told him just how fucking close his brother was to killing him.

“We’re not doing this here,” Bryce said with a pointed look at Cayley’s apartment door.

With a nod, Sean stepped back and gestured for Bryce to lead the way. Grinding his jaw, Bryce did just that and-

“Shit!” Sean gasped in pain when Bryce grabbed him as soon as they walked into his apartment and slammed his brother against the wall.

“You wanna tell me why you couldn’t be fucking bothered to look out for her when that asshole was around?” Bryce demanded, wondering why his brother looked the other way when she was dating that asshole but was getting in his fucking face when they both knew that he was the last fucking person that would hurt her.

“Because it wasn’t going anywhere,” Sean snapped as he tried to shove him back, but Bryce wasn’t going anywhere.

“Two years and an engagement ring and you don’t think it was going somewhere?” Bryce demanded, grabbing hold of his brother so that he could slam him back against the wall, tearing another pained grunt from the little bastard that should have done a better job watching over her.

“It was never going that far,” Sean bit out as Bryce stood there, struggling against the urge to beat the shit out of his brother and-

Fuck!

Realized just how fucking close he was to losing it. Taking a deep breath, Bryce released his hold on his brother and stepped away, ramming his fingers through his hair as he struggled to keep it together. He…was losing his fucking mind, Bryce realized as he dropped his hands away only to glance at his brother to find him watching him.

“You love her,” Sean said hollowly, looking absolutely stunned.

“Don’t,” Bryce warned.

Smiling, Sean pushed away from the wall as he said, “Yes, you do.”

“I’m not in love with her,” Bryce said, shaking his head because, at the moment, he had no fucking clue what he was. “Just drop it.”

“I could do that,” Sean said, sounding thoughtful as he made his way to the kitchen and helped himself to a Coke out of the fridge, “or I could help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” Bryce said because the last fucking thing that he needed right now was Sean’s help.

Nodding as though he hadn’t spoken, Sean said, “We’re going to need a plan of attack.”

“No, we don’t,” Bryce said firmly.

“We really will,” Sean mumbled to himself, looking thoughtful before he glanced at Bryce and said, “It wouldn’t kill you to start prettying yourself up to make this easier.”

Rubbing his hands roughly down his face, Bryce said, “I really fucking hate you right now.”

“Shhhh, not while I’m planning,” Sean whispered as Bryce dropped his hands away, only to sigh when he found his brother sitting on his kitchen island, looking lost in thought as he devoured the ice cream he bought earlier.

Bryce opened his mouth to tell his brother that he didn’t need his help, only to close it, knowing that it was pointless at this point. “I’m going back to bed,” Bryce said, heading back to Cayley’s apartment.

“You do that, pookie,” Sean murmured absently.

“Don’t call me pookie, asshole,” Bryce said as he headed across the hallway to let himself back in Cayley’s apartment, only to find her standing there, glaring up at him accusingly.

Worried that she’d heard the asshole, Bryce opened his mouth only to bite back a smile when Cayley grabbed hold of his hand and turned around, making her way back to her bedroom as she dragged him behind her, grumbling every fucking inch of the way.

God, she was fucking adorable.

* * *

You were warned.

Swallowing hard, Cayley looked from the text message that she’d received ten minutes ago when she pulled into Rerum Highland Construction’s parking lot to the building in question and found herself swallowing hard when she spotted Sean standing in the second-floor window watching her. Even from here, she could see the predatory gleam in his eye, the same one that he’d been wearing for the past week and the one that left her on edge and-

She couldn’t take this anymore.

She just couldn’t.

For the past week, she’d been looking over her shoulder, jumping at every sound, and living in fear of when the jerk that had been making her life a living hell would finally strike. But so far, nothing. Not one word or even a text until this morning.

For the past week, he’d been ignoring her and Cayley would have said that he’d also been avoiding her, but she couldn’t say that, not when he kept showing up first thing in the morning to devour everything in her kitchen and randomly showing up at night. He just stared at her, which was creepy enough, but sometimes she would get up in the morning to find him already sitting at her table, waiting for her so that he could screw with her head first thing in the morning. Before she had a chance to ask him what he was doing, Sean would head for the door, only pausing long enough to shoot her a wink.

It was deeply disturbing.

But it made it easier to accept the fact that she’d been banned from coming to work for the past week. They’d needed her out of the way so that they could gut the foyer, which meant that she’d been stuck working from home longer than she’d planned. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if Bryce had been able to join her, but he’d been forced to get up earlier than usual and stay later over the past week, trying to get the building ready for inspection and…she’d missed him.

Every morning she found herself reaching for him before she opened her eyes, only to bite back a disappointed sigh and resign herself to the long, lonely day ahead as she did her best to stop staring at the clock, counting down the minutes until he came home. Cayley never thought that she could miss someone so much, but when Bryce wasn’t around, she felt like part of her was missing.

There was really no other way to describe it. When he was with her, Cayley felt like she was exactly where she needed to be and she didn’t know why. Several times over the past week, she’d found herself wondering why he made her feel this way, why she couldn’t stop thinking about him, and why the thought of sleeping anywhere but in his arms felt wrong. It just didn’t make sense. Then again, none of this made sense but that didn’t stop her from shoving everything off her lap and racing for the door when she heard him coming home at night.

The only thing that stopped her from throwing the door open and jumping in his arms was the fact that it would probably reinforce his earlier assumption that she was in love with him, which she wasn’t. Not at all. No, the reason why she waited by her door and counted to a hundred before racing across the hallway and let herself into his apartment so that she could start making dinner while he was in the shower was because she was a dedicated employee.

It really was that simple.

Every night, she would get out all the ingredients for whatever yummy-sounding recipe she found that day while she’d been bored out of her mind and get everything ready while Bryce finished his shower. When he was done, he’d join her in a pair of jeans that hung low on his hips and take over, putting her on stirring duty while she did her best not to stare at him. While they made dinner, she filled him in on her progress with the Dawson Project, which admittedly wasn’t very much since Mr. MacGregor was still refusing to sell.

They’d be able to pull the project off without him, but it would cause a bit of a problem with the rest of the houses on the street restored to their original state, only to have the oldest and largest house on the street looking like it was on the verge of being condemned by the city, which in all honestly, it probably should be. But that was a problem for another day. Right now, Rerum Highland Construction owned ninety percent of the houses on the street, with four more houses under contract since Monday.

The neighborhood had once been the home of the town’s most affluent families. They’d all built huge, lavish houses with the latest amenities, beautiful gardens, and meticulous lawns while each family did their best to outshine the others. For over a hundred years, Dawson Road was the most sought-after address in town until the Great Depression hit, and one by one, they’d been forced to sell their homes for a fraction of the price or abandon them and flee the town for the city with the hopes of starting over.

Over the years, new families had come and gone, but no one stayed for long, leaving the neighborhood to slowly waste away. By the time that Bryce came up with the idea for this project, most of the homes had long ago been abandoned with only a few families living in the neighborhood, desperate to sell, while the rest of the houses had been taken by the town after years of neglect and failure to pay taxes.

It had taken some time, but Rory and Connor had been able to convince the town to sell the houses to them for a fraction of the asking price with the promise that they were going to bring the neighborhood back to its former glory. Now they were just waiting for old man MacGregor to agree to their offer, but Cayley knew the moment that she saw his name on the list that it wasn’t happening.

Mr. MacGregor was never going to sell that house and she honestly couldn’t blame him. It had been in his family for over two hundred years and he refused to be the one to lose it after everything that his family went through to save it. Bryce had been hoping that they could convince Mr. MacGregor to part with it, but at this point, their best bet was to convince him to hire them to renovate the house so that it matched the others, but knowing how stubborn Mr. MacGregor was, that probably wasn’t going to happen either.

While Bryce cooked dinner, they talked about how to handle this, the plans for Dawson Road, and making sure that they were ready when it was time to begin construction. By the time dinner was ready, they’d moved onto a comfortable silence while he read through her notes and made some of his own until it was time to check another item off her list. Without a word, Bryce would finish getting dressed, take her list, and with a resigned sigh, head for the door.

Cayley still wasn’t sure why he was putting himself through this, especially since it was clear that he hated anything and everything Christmas-related, but she wasn’t going to complain, especially since it meant that she got to fall asleep in his arms every night. The only downside, besides the fact that Sean was embracing the voices in his head, was that Kevin kept showing up everywhere she went.

When they were dating, it was like pulling teeth to get him to go anywhere with her, but now, it seemed like he was everywhere. It was definitely weird. Most of the time, Kevin just stared at her, but a few times, he looked like he was about to approach her but always stopped himself when he saw Bryce by her side. She wasn’t sure what else there was to say to her after last week when he showed up at the park for movie night and let her know that she’d ruined his life.

After that…

What else was there to say?

She-

I can see you.

-should have definitely stayed home, Cayley thought, deciding that was a good plan as she grabbed her bag off the passenger seat and began frantically searching for her keys, only to end up swallowing hard when her door was suddenly opened and she found herself slowly, ever so slowly, turning her head and looking at Sean as he reached over and plucked the bag out of her hands with a satisfied sigh and a murmured, “Now, let’s have that talk, shall we?”