3. Butterfly

Iwould’ve preferred to wait until Brand left to call my dad. However, if I didn’t do it now, I might talk myself out of contacting him at all.

After engaging the lock on the front door via the remote, I went upstairs to Tara’s studio. My dad’s cell rang several times before he answered.

“Hey, sweetheart. How are you?”

“I’m okay, Dad. What’s up?”

“I’d like you to meet Hailey.”

My father always wanted me to meet any woman he was about to marry. For two of his three wives after my mother, it was the only time I’d seen them. That’s how quickly the unions ended.

“I was thinking you could?—”

“Hold on. What did your message about a change of plans regarding the house on Fire Island mean?”

“That’s one of the reasons I want you to meet Hailey. She wants to keep it. Maybe even tear it down and build something more modern.”

“More modern?”

“Or fix it up and flip it.”

“Dad, you can’t be serious.”

“Listen, I don’t want to do this over the phone. Let’s get together for dinner. You girls can meet, and Hail will tell you her plans.”

Hail?Her plans? Who the fuck was this girl, as he’d referred to her, and why would my dad do anything she suggested? Had they even been dating for a month?

“You said you were going to give me the house.”

“I said I’d think about it.”

That wasn’t what he’d said at all, but I could tell by the tone of his voice that this call was about to end, anyway. “When do you want this meet and greet to take place?”

“Funny you put it that way. Hailey and I are in LA. She’s wrapping up a movie. Before you interrupted me, I was going to suggest you fly out here?—”

“No. I’m not flying out there to meet someone whose name I won’t remember a year from now.”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, Penelope.”

“And I don’t appreciate you changing your mind about giving me a piece of property that means nothing to you and everything to me.” I ended the call. Since I knew he wouldn’t change his mind a second time, there was no point in continuing the conversation.

I walked over to the window seat, sat down, and wrapped my arms around my legs. I’d tell my father it would be over my dead body that the house—actually, houses—my great-grandparents had built would be torn down or modernized, except that wouldn’t faze him. Once Harold Ramsey made up his mind about something, he went full-steam ahead, with no consideration for anyone else’s feelings. I was sure it was one of the reasons he’d been divorced so many times.

Doubting Brand would leave until I returned to the gallery, I splashed my face with cold water from the utility sink and slowly made my way down the stairs, giving myself time to mask my anger and disappointment with my father.

Brand stood near the steps. “Hey.” His eyes were scrunched, and when I reached the bottom, he took my hands in his.

“Um, hey.” I tried to pull away, but he tightened his grip, running his thumb gently back and forth on my skin.

“How did the call with your dad go?”

“Terrible. Apparently, his latest model arm candy wants to modernize the Fire Island house. ‘Fix it up and flip it,’ he said.”

“Flip it? Why? His fiancée has more money than she knows what to do with.”

“You know her?” I practically shouted.

“I know of her. Hailey Watson. The name doesn’t ring a bell?”

I shook my head. “Who is she?”

“The actress who starred in that string of blockbusters. The ones based on the comic books.”

“You’re kidding.”

Brand shook his head.

“If she has more money than she knows what to do with, why is she with my father?”

“Maybe she’s hoping one of her relationships will stick. She could also have a daddy complex.”

“Ew! Brand! I can’t unhear that.”

“Look, I’m sure she’ll get bored, or he will, long before anything happens on Fire Island. Next thing you know, it will be winter and the place will be deserted. By spring, when the season heats up again, I’m sure your dad will have forgotten all about Hailey’s plans. Maybe even Hailey herself.”

“He was adamant. He raised his voice at me.”

Brand let go of my hands and pulled me into his arms. “Come on. You know I’m right.”

There was something about his smug comment and the look on his face that set me off, and I leaned back. “I know you’re right? About my dad?”

“His prior relationships make what’s going to happen damn obvious.”

“That’s easy for you to say when nothing you care about is on the line.”

“Butterfly—”

“Don’t call me that.” I huffed, took his arms from around my waist, and stalked over to my desk. “I don’t know where you get off showing up here unannounced and insinuating yourself into my life ten minutes later. It’s been years since I last saw you, and even then, I wouldn’t call us friends.”

Brand closed the distance I’d put between us. “I wouldn’t call us friends, either. We’ve always been more than that, Penelope. The attraction between us has been undeniable since we first met.”

I raised my chin. “You have a vivid imagination. Maybe that’s what made you such a good, ahem, artist.”

Like the one and only other time he’d kissed me, Brand put his hand on the back of my neck and brushed my lips with his. When his tongue pressed against my mouth, I opened to him, as much as I knew I shouldn’t. The possession, the urgency, the need I remembered so clearly felt stronger than before. He wrapped his free arm around my waist and brought our bodies flush together. His hardness confirmed his desire was equal to mine.

Brand ended the kiss but didn’t release me. “Undeniable,” he repeated. “Which is why I’m not going to let you blow me off or push me away or tell me there’s nothing between us. It’s always been there.”

Arguing with him was pointless. He was right. Our attraction had been instantaneous, and no matter how much time passed between seeing each other, it returned in full force.

“We have a connection, Butterfly,” he said, moving his hand from my neck to my cheek. “I want to be with you more than I’ve ever wanted anything. That includes my job with K19. Don’t misunderstand me; the chance Doc is giving me is once in a lifetime. I plan to do everything I can to prove to him I’m worthy of it. Worthy of you too, Penelope.”

“It isn’t about being worthy of me. God, Brand, you’re…” Hot as fuck. Every fantasy I’ve ever had of a man come true. The person I judged all other potential suitors by. No one had ever come close to measuring up in terms of how he made me feel.

Brand rested his forehead against mine. “Wanna see if you can transfer whatever you’re thinking so hard about straight into my brain?”

I breathed in to the count of five, then exhaled to the count of five as well. How had we gone from him showing up here to me telling him about my conversation with my dad? It was the kind of stuff I never talked about, even to my closest friends.

I was the strong one of the group, particularly when it came to relationships with our parents. Since the first day of boarding school, I was the one who let things roll off my back, at least outwardly.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. It’s my father I’m angry with. Especially since he wants me to fly to LA to meet Hail. That’s what he called her. Hail.”

“So, go. Get it over with. While we’re there, you can get together with Quinn. Maybe even with Ava and Aine.”

I was grateful Brand already knew my closest friends and our history. There was so much I didn’t have to explain. I shook my head. “Wait. Did you say while we’re there?”

He grinned. “I did.”

“No. Absolutely not. I would not subject you to a showdown with my father. That’s way too much to ask.”

“I know you won’t ask, which is why I’m telling you I’ll go with you. If you want me to sit silently with my hands folded in my lap, I will. But there’s no reason for you to do this alone. Plus, it will give us time to practice being engaged.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

I shook my head. “You’re crazy.”

“Crazy about you, Butterfly.”

The truth was, I hated confrontation of any kind, but especially with my father. If the Fire Island property weren’t so important to me, I’d drop it and let him do whatever he wanted with it. But what I said was true. He’d never cared about the place as much as I did. I’d spend my whole summer there while he made an occasional guest appearance, usually around the Fourth of July, when there was a party on every block.

Would it really be so awful to let Brand come with me? I had to admit, just telling him about my conversation had made me feel better. I lowered my head to his chest and rested my cheek against his heart. “Okay.”

He stroked my hair, and I could feel him nod, but he didn’t speak. After a few minutes, I did.

“We have to talk about?—”

“We don’t.”

I stepped back. “You don’t know what I was going to say.”

“Doesn’t matter. Any sentence that begins with ‘We have to’ isn’t something we’re going to do right now. Unless it’s ‘we have to talk about dinner.’ That, I’d be up for.”

“That’s exactly what it was,” I said, smiling. “Too bad you don’t want to talk about it.”

“What needs to be done to close up?” he asked.

“Turn off the lights. Set the alarm.”

“Since it’s one minute after five, can we do that?”

I laughed. “Sure.” Walking over to the desk, I waved at the security guard on duty, who was standing near the rear of the gallery. “I’m heading out.”

“Have a good evening, Ms. Ramsey.”

“How long has he been here?” Brand whispered.

“All day. I mean, they work in shifts, so maybe since lunchtime.”

“He makes me nervous.”

“Probably reminds you of a prison guard.”

“Ha, ha.” Brand held the door open, and I walked out.

“I’m not sure what you had in mind. It’s a little early for dinner,” I said.

“The tavern is always open, isn’t it? It’s still there, right?”

“Same place it’s been for over a hundred years.” I hadn’t thought I was hungry, but their ricotta cavatelli sounded good right now.

Over dinner, Brand shared what happened the day Kade showed up at the minimum-security prison where he was serving time.

“I’ll admit I was anxious when I saw him sitting at the table in the visitation room.”

“He can be intimidating,” I said, laughing. I didn’t know him well, but from what I’d seen of him with Quinn and her daughter—his first grandchild—the man seemed like a big Teddy bear.

“I left Meyersville the same day. Just like that, I was a free man. That’s part of what makes him so scary. Who has power like that? He got me pardoned. There wasn’t much time left on my sentence, but the pardon is something entirely different.”

“When was this?”

“Three days ago.”

I raised a brow. “But your hair…”

“They’re not as strict at the so-called country-club lockups.”

“It’s only been four days since I met with the FBI agents.” Had Kade really gotten Brand out the next day? Even if he had, it must’ve been coincidental, right? I shuddered. Maybe all the things Quinn told us about her dad were true, after all.