Page 20 of Wicked Player

“Sure Gage.” He was already ignoring me. His eyes and attention on the pretty little blonde sitting on his bed, smiling down at him like he was the best thing since dark chocolate.

Couldn’t blame her.

The kid was cool as hell.

* * *

“Come this way.”Penny had her hand wrapped around my forearm and as she spoke, she pulled me to the wing almost set to open. The bright teal walls still smelled like fresh paint, but it was the Rough Riders logo that she stepped in front of.

“You’re not happy I brought that reporter into the room. Why?”

I’d rather shove a toothpick into my eye than tell Penny why Miss Hayes wasn’t wanted in that room. “That time was for Brandon and me. Not some reporter who followed me out of the press conference.”

Penny rolled her eyes. She had thatmomlook down. It was so much like my own mom’s when I was a kid and doing or saying something stupid I was fighting a smile despite still being pissed.

“Come on. You had to know you run out of there in the middle of speaking and they were going to lose their minds. That was news in the making.”

She was teasing me, but it didn’t sit well. I hadn’t actually considered the response I’d get when I practically hurdled the podium as soon as I saw the nurse.

Mostly because I didn’t know her, but she’d looked panicked, and that panic sent my blood rushing.

“Besides,” Penny continued, not caring one iota I was most likely glaring at her. “Brandon loves her. Seriously, I think he has a crush on her. She’s cute, right?”

She tugged on my arm playfully.

“Penny.” My tone was warning. Also a bit rough. Besides, she was more than cute.

“Well, you know I’m a sucker for giving Brandon what he wants, but that’s not why I invited her into the room when I caught her blushing while she peeked through the window?”

“She was what?”

“Well, she was blushing. And I have a feeling it wasn’t because she was sweet on Brandon.”

Blushing.Hadshe had the same visceral reaction to me I’d had to her?

I shook the thought out of my head. Thinking of the reporter led to a hard dick and I was standing two feet from a woman who was close enough to me to be my sister.

“Besides,” Penny kept talking, “this is what she’s here for, isn’t it? I mean, I’m assuming she was at the press conference so she’s covering you and the wing opening. So it makes sense she talks to one of your favorite patients.”

“Brandon is not a story.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Gage.” Her usual friendly expression vanished and in its place was the look of a mama bear. A woman who would fight and die and bleed so her son didn’t have to. “Brandon is theexactreason for the story. Him and kids like him and their families. He is exactly why you’ve done all of this and people should see who you’re helping. I want them to. More, he’ll want to do it.”

My teeth fused together and I turned to the window. It was October but unseasonably warm with no hint the weather would be cooling anytime soon. The colored leaves on the tops of the trees swayed back and forth in the breeze. I was feeling anything but gentle and calm.

Spending more time around this woman was not a good idea.

It was the absolute worst idea. But I was as much of a sucker for giving Brandon anything he wanted, too.

“Fine. Whatever Brandon wants.”

She nudged me in the arm with her shoulder. I barely felt the impact and grinned down at her. “That’s the spirit,” she teased. “Let’s get back so you can talk to her, too.”

She all but dragged my hand and I allowed her to pull me back down the hallway, on the way thinking how right Penny was.

The whole freaking reason I’d wanted to create the center she’d just taken me to was for Brandon and kids like him and their families. And who better than to share his story, share what it would mean to him, than one of the bravest kids I knew?

* * *

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