Page 39 of Hideaway Whirlwind
I knew Elliott’s sister-in-law was young, but for some reason, I hadn’t expected her tolookso young. I also hadn’t expected her to be so…pregnant, maybe a little further along than I am, since her husband is old enough to beherfather and not just the baby’s.
“And you must be Goldie’s Teagan,” Layla says, twisting her hair up and out of the way with a purple claw clip that had been clipped to her tank top strap.
Elliott’s Teagan, I correct in my head, immediately hurling the thought out of my mind. I’m no one’s but my own.
* * *
“So, this is the infamous Teagan. Welcome to our little slice of Texas,” Russell says when he comes to pick up his wife, reaching out to shake my hand.
He’s everything and nothing like what I expected—the same blue eyes as Elliott’s, but with a smaller, tidier beard and dark, peppery-gray hair instead of silver. The same sense of style with dark blue jeans and a thick flannel, but a little shorter, a little smaller than Elliott’s build. His smile is broader and faster to come, yet he’s just as intense when he sees Layla, tracking her from across the open-concept living room, kitchen, and dining room while she gathers her book and leather tote bag.
I make a noise of confirmation and wrinkle my nose when I silently question if I would have had the same reaction to him as I did Elliott if Russell had come to Vegas in Elliott’s place.
No, I wouldn’t have. Objectively, Russell is handsome. In good shape beneath his thick exterior, I’m guessing, if he works out as much as Elliott does. But there isn’t a speck of romantic attraction—only gratitude that he sent his brother to us…which is spectacular news, knowing that I haven’t developed some sort of freak attachment or attraction to just any man over twice my age. And also because his wife, with her sweet face and shy smile, suddenly turns speculative, almost suspicious, the longer I continue to stare at her husband.
To make up for my blunder, I paste on a shy smile to match her own and tell Layla, “Thanks for letting me borrow your clothes. That was really nice of you. I’ll, um, get them for you.”
A whole head taller and thinner than me with perfect makeup, massive wedding ring set, and the expensive cowgirl boots she’s wearing, I’m sickeningly self-conscious when I have to dig through my garbage bag to find her clothes—though I quickly bury the ruined, borrowed nightgowns at the bottom, forcing out the memories of the nights I wore each of them for Elliott.
Layla waves her hand. “Oh, that’s ok. You can keep them.”
“Thanks, but, uh…” It’s harder to keep my smile in place when I say, “They didn’t quite fit.”
Layla’s cheeks turn pink at my embarrassment, so not only is she gorgeous, she’s simultaneously adorable. And now I’m nauseatingly wondering if Elliott had the same reaction to her when they first met as he did to me. He’d better the fuck not.
Oh man, am I jealous? Is that what this is? This fire in my belly as I think of her and Elliott together, if she’d been the one he was sent to rescue?
Fuck, I am.
I quickly look away from her pretty face, unfocusing my eyes toward Davis, who pulls Russell aside for a whispered conversation. Russell’s jaw has hardened when he returns to his wife’s side, casting me a look I can’t decipher, not quite as warm now, before they both leave.
Elliott
My brother has never been able to move as quietly as me, and I track his bootsteps across the yard as soon as he steps out of the trees that separate our properties. He spins with a boyish squeal when I drop the hood of the midnight blue Bronco with a bang. Never have I been so motivated to finish up a restoration as when Birdie tried to walk out of my life this morning.Triedbeing the keyword, since I’m not letting her go that easily, no matter that she stomped all over my heart with those big ol’ boots of hers.
Russell clears his throat, crossing his arms as he looks me over. “I just picked Layla up from Davis’s place. Heard what happened.”
“Yeah. You and everyone else,” I say gruffly, wiping the grease from my hands with a rag, then hop into the front seat to fire up the Bronco. It’s a squeaker and still needs some work, but it’ll get me where I need to be well enough until I can source and replace a few more parts.
Russell idly kicks the gravel while he waits, and I try to ignore him for the most part as I put away my tools—ones that I hope to one day teach the kids how to use if any of them show an interest in restoration themselves.
“Sooo,” he starts as soon as I finish washing my hands inside the cabin. He takes a seat on my couch and drapes an arm over the back of it, keeping a cautious eye on Storm while she’s curled on the carpet with her nursing puppies. “When you said you didn’t mind Teagan and the kids staying with you, what you really meant was you were already falling for her?”
I don’t like the way his voice lifts at the end, as if in disbeliefor censure, and I curl my fists on my lap when I drop my weight on my recliner, my body still stiff and dead tired but my mind sharp. “You got something against her?”
“What? No.” He’s leery, reading the threat in my body language. It’s a first. We’re not the kind of brothers who fight, especially after all he’s done for me. “It’s just…” The tips of his ears turn red, and he rubs his forehead. “She’s so young and an itty-bitty thing, and you’re…” He doesn’t have to sayand you’re an old beast.
I can’t fight the curl of my upper lip. “Don’t be a hypocrite. She’s the same age Layla was when you fell for her. And if you’re asking how things work between us, don’t.” Now both our ears are red, since the height and age difference isn’t as large between him and his wife, so things mightworkdifferently in his relationship. Not that I care to know any of the details.
“No, god, no, I wasn’t. Just…” Russell gives up whatever arguments he has and sighs. “What’s going on with you?”
I lean forward with my elbows on my knees and ask a question instead of answering his. “What was it like when you first saw Layla?” I’d barely glanced at her when we met and thought nothing of her.
“Like everything snapped into place,” he says without having to pause to think about it. “Like realizing, all this time, I’d been missing half my heart and hadn’t known it until I saw her. Like everything I’d worked so hard to build was all in preparation for when she would come into my life.” He rubs his thumb across his wedding band like it’s a good-luck charm and studies me for a long moment before asking, “You think that’s what’s happening with you and Teagan?”
“I know it is.” Although maybe it wasn’t as…cute…as what Russell is describing. More like unnerving and life-altering, wrenching me violently out of my solitary existence.
“You’re absolutely sure? Because I know what it’s like to wait for the woman you’re meant to be with to be ready. The pain.” He swallows after casting his eyes to the kitchen window. “Three years I spent waiting, and it never got any easier.”
