“You’re joking but I’m not. Well, if you change your mind, do it quickly because I’ll be back in about a week.” She paused. “I’ve really missed you, Ri.”
Touched, Ridley sucked in a breath, blinking back a sudden rush of tears. “I’ve missed you, too. Now, hurry up and get home!”
After they hung up she put her phone back on the nightstand. She’d lived apart from her sister ever since graduating from high school, but up until she met David, they’d talked on the phone every day. Raina would be back in a week. She’d already been here almost two days so what were a few more? But for some reason it felt like forever.
She was suddenly really homesick and for her, home wasn’t a place.
It was Raina.
* * * * *
NICHOLAS ALEXANDER HATED to be wrong. Almost as much as he hated Chinese food and clip-on ties. But since he’d learned over the years that even his radar could be faulty at times, he decided to bring in the experts. As he walked down the driveway to his car, he pulled out his cell phone and hit the third speed dial. While everyone was distracted inside, it was the perfect time to do a little sleuthing.
“You rang, little brother?” The wry voice coming through his cell phone was about two octaves deeper than his. His older brother, Elliott, was the kind of man that lesser men feared. And not just because he was bigger than most everyone else.
“I’m glad you haven’t left yet. I need you to look into someone for me. A woman.” Nick glanced behind him to make sure he was still alone. Most of the partygoers had already arrived but it would be just his luck for Jackson or worse, their mother, to somehow overhear.
“It’s always a woman with you, isn’t it?” Elliott said. The dry laugh coming over the line was a surprise. Elliott wasn’t the happy-happy, joy-joy type and treated most conversations as if they were life or death. Nick was actually surprised his brother wasn’t grilling him for details on the “subject” yet.
“So, you want to know if your new flavor of the month has any skeletons in the closet? Namely, any irate husbands who’ll come after you with a baseball bat?”
“Hey! That was one time,” Nick countered. “And he wasn’t her husband. At least I don’t think he was.”
“He was,” Elliott replied firmly.
“Oh, damn. I actually didn’t know that.” Nick made a mental note to start having Elliott check out his future bedmates. He liked to have fun but he wasn’t trying to break up anybody’s home. His parents had managed to raise him better than that.
“Anyway, it’s not for me. It’s for Jackson.”
As he expected, that statement got his brother’s attention. “Subject’s name, age and birthplace.”
“She’s a model so most of her information is already out there. Her name is Raina Winters.”
“Leggy?” Elliott sounded surprised.
“Yeah, they call her ‘Legs’. You know who she is?”
Elliott grunted. “I’m pretty sure every straight man in the western hemisphere knows who she is. She’s frickin’ hot.”
Nick tugged at the collar of his shirt. He closed his eyes tightly against images of those famously long legs wrapped around his neck while their owner bucked and moaned beneath him. They’d only spent one night together but it had changed everything. He’d told her things he’d never told a woman, experienced things he thought weren’t possible. He’d lost himself in her.
Then the next morning she’d just walked away.
Focus, Nick!
“Well, she claims to be locked out of her house. Jackson seems to have bought her story and he’s letting her stay with him. She’s been there since yesterday.”
“You think she’s lying about being locked out?”
“I don’t know but if she is I’d rather find out now before she wraps Jackson any further around her little finger. She told Jackson her real name is Ridley. That should help.”
His fingers clenched into a fist. When she’d needed a place to stay, she’d turned to Jackson. She’d confided her real name to Jackson.
Not to Nick.
Their night together clearly hadn’t meant as much to her as it had to him. Not that he didn’t already know that. Her refusal to see or talk to him since had pretty much driven that point home.
As angry as it made him, he couldn’t fault his brother for helping her. What was he supposed to say? I know she’s your neighbor and you knew her first but I claim dibs.
Even though she doesn’t want you.
Just the thought of telling his little brother about her soul-crushing rejection made him feel about two inches tall.
“Anyway, can you check her financials and see if she’s having money problems?”
After Eli’s grunt of assent, he ended the call and closed his eyes. He couldn’t tell his brother to stay away from her but that didn’t mean he wasn’t keeping his eyes open. There was nothing to indicate that Raina would use Jackson to get back at him but he would be prepared just in case.
If she was still the lying bitch he remembered, his brother didn’t stand a chance.
* * * * *
“I KNOW THIS is hard, but you have to get a grip,” Jackson said.
“I’m sorry about your wall, man. I’ll pay for the damage.” Matt stared at something on the ground and kicked at it, looking so miserable that Ridley was suddenly embarrassed to be there.