“Thanks,” he said, his expression unreadable as always. “It’s a badass gift.”
Pleasure rushed through me at his words.
“I’m glad you like it,” I replied, then after a second added, “Well, I have to get back to work.”
“Thank you,” he said again, then turned and walked back toward his family.
I opened the door and walked outside when I heard Brady say, “Hey, Bren, I bet you twenty that Brock gets distracted and burns the steak again.”
“You’re on,” Brendan replied, then I heard Victoria add, “I’ll take that bet.”
“Hey,” was all I heard Brock reply before the door shut behind me.
As I walked to my car I looked back behind me, and in the window I could see Brock, Victoria, Brady, Brendan, and Bronagh, all laughing and gesturing toward each other, and I wanted so badly to be one of them. To belong in that group, to that family. To take my place at Brady’s side and be the sixth member of their team.
But just as I yearned for it, I knew it wasn’t what Brady wanted. It wasn’t how he saw me. To him I was a temporary person in his life. A stepping stone to meeting the woman who would one day be his wife.
And as I pulled away from the curb and headed back toward my office, I wondered how much longer I’d be satisfied with being a stepping stone.
Chapter Five ~ Brady
You Up?
I shot a text to Ming on the off chance she’d still be awake. We’d both been working a lot, so I hadn’t seen her since my birthday, and it had been a couple weeks since I’d been to her house.
We weren’t dating, so we didn’t chat throughout the week about our day, or what we were doing. We’d agreed to sleep exclusively with each other, but we were free to date whoever we wanted. If either of us found someone that we wanted to get more serious with, we said we’d let each other know, and that would be the end of our arrangement.
This had worked for us for over seven months, but sometimes when we went this long without seeing each other, I wondered if there were any other guys working to take my place in Ming’s bed.
There was no denying she was hot, with that long dark hair and porcelain skin. Plus, she worked out in the mornings, so her body was tight.
All she had going on on the outside, combined with her intelligence and the fact that she was a successful lawyer … I’d honestly thought she’d find someone else months ago.
I shouldn’t have been surprise to see her come to Brock’s for my birthday. She usually came to every celebration my family had, but still, sometimes it was a little awkward since no one knew about us.
I’d felt a little bit annoyed when I first saw her, then jealous about Brendan and TJ joking with her about sex. When she gave me those drumsticks, I was surprised at how well she knew me, and then I’d been disappointed when she had to go back to work right away.
I didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me, but I’d thrown myself into work to try and forget all of the stupid feelings that were confusing my brain. It hadn’t really worked, and now I wanted to see her.
I guess I missed her, since we hadn’t been a part for this long since we started up together.
Yeah, come on by.
Ye
s! I rose from the couch where I’d been pretending to watch a football game and searched around for my jacket.
One of the reasons I always went to Ming’s place and never had her over, was that I’m a fucking slob.
I don’t know why. Brock is pretty neat, and Brendan only becomes a pig when he’s caught up writing music, but I’ve always been messy.
I threw yesterday’s jeans across the room to grab the jacket underneath and shrugged it on. Then I started the process of finding my keys.
Not in the kitchen.
Not in my bedroom.
Shit, I really need to clean up…