Page 38 of The Forbidden Sitter
“You’d tell me if Gannon did anything to you, wouldn’t you? I mean anything. Has he touched you at all?” The way he looked at me told me he’d bolt out of the room and go whip Gannon’s ass if I said one word to provokehim.
“No way! He’s not like that. He’s not the way you said he was with girls. With me, he’s not, anyway. He’s always respectable. You don’t have anything to worry about. I swear that to you. Gannon is so nice to me, but he’s not into me.” I tried to look earnest even as my insides grew hot with mylies.
“Oh, he is.” Brad placed his hands on my shoulders. “If you gave him a shot, he’d take it. So you can’t give him that shot. You have to stay on guard. Never let it down. If you do, he’ll swoop in and do to you what he’s done to countless numbers of other unsuspectinggirls.”
There it was again, him referencing Gannon’s conquests, and my gut twisted once more. I shrugged as if I couldn’t care less. But I did care; I cared a lot. “Why would I do such a thing? He’s old.” I laughed and shook my head. “Yuck,Brad.”
He laughed too. Then grabbed my hand. “That’s what I needed to hear. Come on, let’s go eatdinner.”
I thought I had him fooled. I kind of hated that I had done such a great job of lying. But I was happy he believed me, and Gannon was safe.For now,anyway.
At least Gannon saw what I was talking about. I knew he had had no idea of how my brother could be over me. Brad must’ve shown him a bit of the bear he couldbecome.
Finding Gannon and Braiden in the playroom, I smiled brightly at Gannon as I went to pick up Braiden. “Brad’s staying fordinner.”
“Great,” Gannon said as he got up and we all went to the dining room. They hung back behind Braiden and me and I overheard Gannon as he said, “See, I told you. I wouldn’t ever do a thing to hurt your sister. I care far too much for you andher.”
“Yeah, well, you just keep that care legit, and we’ll have no problem,” Bradreplied.
With an uneasy feeling about never being able to be truthful with my family, we sat down at the table to eat. With Braiden in his high chair next to me, Brad watched as I interacted with theboy.
“Are you hungry, Braiden?” I asked him. I talked to Braiden all the time as if he was older than he was. No baby talking at all. And when he nodded at me, I was overjoyed with his response and had to hug him and kiss his cheek. “Yes! Younodded.”
Brad laughed as he looked at the smile on Braiden’s face. The boy was so proud of himself, probably just as proud as I was of him. “That kid loves you,sis.”
“And I love him.” I tickled the small boy’s chin. “Don’t I, pumpkin? Brooke loves her littleman.”
He giggled like crazy, and I caught Gannon gazing at me adoringly— a thing Brad could not witness. So I stopped what I was doing and satback.
“She’s amazing with him, Brad. It’s like she and he were cut from the same cloth.” Gannon reached over and ran his hand over Braiden’s head. “He’s lucky to have her. I can’t thank you enough for letting us borrow her. But I don’t think my little boy will ever let you have herback.”
Brad nodded. “He looks at her like she’s his angel, doesn’the?”
I blushed as I felt like the center of attention, a thing I wasn’t comfortable being. “Come on,Brad.”
“No, I won’t come on, Brooke. He does. And you look at him like he’s the center of your world.” He sighed then reached across the table to pat my hand. “One day you’re going to make a greatmother.”
“You think so?” I found myself askinghim.
“I do.” He moved his hand off mine then winked at me. “But it’ll be in the faraway future. With a guy you meet later in life. After you’re done with college and well into your career, then you’ll meet a guy near your own age.” He purposely looked at Gannon, then back at me, a thing Gannon noticedtoo.
“You’re making her blush, Brad. Stop.” Gannon reached out and patted the top of my hand in the same fashion as Brad had, trying to seem as if he treated me in a brotherlyfashion.
It was hard not to look at Gannon, but I knew I couldn’t trust myself to look at the man who had just made me his the night before. All I wanted to do was crawl up in his lap and continue where we had left off before he’d left for hismeeting.
And I wanted to be truthful with what we had with my family too. But I wasn’t getting much of anything I wanted. And more than anything else, I wanted to know for a fact that Braiden was safe. The threat he was under made my stomachache.
What kind of a monster would threaten to kill an innocent child over a damnnightclub?
Part Four
Chapter24
Gannon
Ihad to admit;I didn’t know my best buddy the way I thought I did. Brad wasn’t Brad when it came to Brooke. He turned into the Hulk over that girl. And I knew we had our work cut out for us where her family was concerned. So I was into keeping things hush-hush for the time being. Just until I figured out what it would take to get her family onboard withus.
The two of us sat on either side of Braiden as I read him a book and watched him drift off to sleep. Closing the book, I looked at Brooke, who was gazing at my son. “The way you look at him makes me love you even more,baby.”
