Axel’s chest tightened as Brynn stole his breath. Her strawberry-blonde hair fell around her sweetheart face, framing it like a portrait that should be hanging in the Met. She was truly a walking, breathing masterpiece.
Her skin had a dewy freshness as the morning sun shone down on her. She was wearing a Rick and Morty T-shirt, one of his and Izzy’s favorite shows, and sweats. He had the completely inappropriate impulse to put his arm around her, pull her into him, and kiss the top of her head.
He had a feeling that he was going to need to get used to having and suppressing inappropriate impulses whenever Brynn was around.
“Hey, did you guys have fun? I wasn’t expecting you back so early.” Brynn’s voice was several octaves higher than it had been the night before.
Axel wasn’t sure if she was nervous because her ex put her on edge, or if he was the one making her high-pitched. Either way, the last thing he wanted was for her to feel uncomfortable.
Ryder looked up at his dad for the answer.
“Something came up.” Max shot Axel a disapproving glare. “I didn’t know that you would have company.”
“He’s not company. He’s staying in the apartment.” Brynn waved her hand between the men and then toward her son. “Max, Ryder, this is Axel. Axel, Max and Ryder.”
“I like your tags.” Ryder lifted his chin toward the dog tags hanging around Axel’s neck. “You were in the military?”
“I was, but these are my father’s.” The dog tags and his mom’s engagement ring were all he had from his father. He’d died before Axel was born.
His parents were high school sweethearts and his dad joined the Marines when he found out his mom was pregnant. She was only seventeen and her parents wouldn’t give her permission to marry him but he gave her a ring. A ring his mom had given to Axel when he turned eighteen and decided to ask Sabrina to marry him. But he didn’t use the ring that had been passed down to him to propose. It hadn’t felt right. That should’ve been his first clue that it wasn’t the right thing to do.
“What branch were you in?” Ryder asked.
“Marines.”
Ryder squared his shoulders and stood taller. “I’m in the JROTC.”
“Do all of your tenants cut your grass?” Max took a step closer to Axel, making sure to add an extra layer of asshole as he emphasized the word tenants, as if he was insinuating something else.
“Bye, Max.” Brynn raised her hand in a stiff wave. “See you…whenever we see you.”
It was a subtle dig, but not one that Axel missed.
From the research he had on Brynn, he knew that her ex hadn’t been around much. Court records showed that he’d petitioned several times to have his child support reduced and those documents also revealed that he rarely, if ever, showed up for his scheduled visits.
Axel had never understood how a man could have a child in this world and not be in the kid’s life. He wanted to believe that if his dad had lived, he would’ve been in Axel’s life. But the truth was, he had no idea. The only things he knew about his dad were the things his mother had told him, and Axel knew that it was easy to rewrite history after someone was gone. Still, if there was one positive thing about having a parent that he’d never known, it was that he could believe anything he wanted about the kind of person his old man would’ve been.
Axel at least knew that his dad wouldn’t have been a blowhard like this loser in front of him.
Max made no move to leave. Instead he widened his stance and planted his feet shoulder-width apart as he crossed his arms. “What brings you to Whisper Lake?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Brynn was looking his way. He could practically feel the curiosity pouring off of her.
“Work,” Axel replied.
Then, before Max could question him further, Axel started the lawnmower back up and pushed it to the other side of the yard. The last thing he needed was an asshole blowing his cover, especially considering Seth hadn’t quite worked out what that cover was yet.
His assignment was clear. Stay close to Brynn and Ryder. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Call in back-up if he saw or felt that anything was off.
But as far as what his “work” was going to be, he had no idea. He knew that it would be something at the high school since that was where both Brynn and Ryder were all day, but he wasn’t sure beyond that. Would he be a security guard? A coach? A janitor? A P.E. Teacher?
Since this wasn’t a sequel to Kindergarten Cop, he knew that he wouldn’t be teaching math or some other subject he knew nothing about.
By the time he turned back, Brynn and Ryder were heading inside the house and Max was climbing back in his lifted truck. He had to be riding on 40” tires, which had Axel wondering what he was compensating for.
He put Max out of his mind as he finished up the landscaping, which was not only badly needed but also had given him a perfect cover for setting up motion sensors and tiny cameras around the front of the property where it was most vulnerable. He took the steps two at a time and when he pulled up the surveillance on his laptop, he was happy to see that all of the cameras were live.
He followed the instructions that Nate, his tech guy, had given him to link Elite Security’s network to the feeds. The contract called for twenty-four-hour surveillance and even with Axel living on site, that would be impossible for him to do alone.