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Braxton shrugged and opened the door. “Then send her home. But this is our last stop. We’ve got rooms booked at the kink club a few miles from here.”
“There should be a rental car parked out back you can use.”
Pike stared up at the looming house. The call of three days of privacy and quiet was a strong one. The hooker would be an issue, but he’d pay her whatever they’d promised her and call her a cab. Easy enough.
“You’re just going to leave me here?”
Braxton clapped him on the back. “We know the last few weeks have been rough on you. Go. Recharge. Figure shit out. We’ve got a bag for you in the trunk.”
Pike looked between the two of them, the simple gesture saying more than anything else could’ve. He’d thought all these weeks the guys had been pissed that Pike wasn’t participating in the antics like he used to, but they’d been paying attention. They fucking knew he was struggling.
These were his brothers and they were trying to take care of him.
He reached out to grasp hands with each guy, thumping each on the back and thanking them. Braxton slid out of the way and Pike climbed out of the limo. He stuck his head back in. “Don’t get yourself in too much trouble at the kink club, amateurs.”
Geoff grinned. “Where’s the fun in that?”
Pike laughed, wished them luck, and shut the door. After grabbing his bag out of the back, he headed up the driveway, ready to face the last obstacle before he could get a few days of peace.
The large iron-and-glass front door was unlocked, so he let himself inside and tossed his bag on the marble floor of the grand foyer.
“Hello?” he called out, his voice echoing.
“In here.” The female voice was low and distant, but he could make out where it was coming from.
Pike sighed. The guys had gotten everything right except the hooker part. That was the last thing he fucking needed. But the good thing about working girls was that money talked. She’d go away happy for the weekend off probably. Way easier to send on her way than a determined groupie.
He headed to where he’d heard the voice come from and rounded the corner into a living room. An impressive wall of floor-to-ceiling windows looked out onto the pool and the dark desert mountains behind. That caught his eye first. But then he heard a shift of movement. He turned his head, expecting to find the hired help.
But a done-up woman with a practiced smile wasn’t who greeted him. No, sitting in the middle of the couch was the girl he hadn’t been able to get out of his mind since he’d left Dallas.
He froze half a step inside the room, all the air leaving his chest. “Oakley?”
Oakley smiled, tentative, beautiful. “Hi.”
THIRTY-FOUR
The floor seemed to fall out from beneath Pike as he stared at the woman before him. He swiped a hand over his face, unsure if he was seeing things, but Oakley remained. His body moved forward, automatically heading over to embrace Oakley—but he pulled up short before he could make a fool of himself. He gripped the back of the chair opposite her. “What are you doing here?”
“The guys didn’t tell you I was in here?”
“What? No they said—” They’d said they’d gotten him what he needed. Fuck, had the guys guilted Oakley into coming out here? His hope fell. He didn’t need some pity party from her. “They brought you here?”
She considered him, those dark eyes scanning his. “They helped me work it out. But I’m the one who called them.”
“You called them? Why would you—Why wouldn’t you call me?” He stepped around the chair and sank into it, afraid his legs wouldn’t hold him up. The rush of seeing her here was almost too much to process. He’d thought about her so many times since he’d left. Now she was here, just a few feet away from him, looking more beautiful than ever, like a mirage in the desert.
“I didn’t want to have this conversation over the phone. I … I needed to do this face to face.”
He leaned forward, bracing his arms on his thighs. “Do what face to face? Was the pregnancy test wrong?”
God, it was fucking ridiculous how his heart lifted at the thought.
She took a deep breath and then let it out, smoothing the skirt of her sundress. “No, it’s not that. I’m not pregnant. But from the beginning we’ve promised that we would be honest with each other, right?”
He frowned. “Of course.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. “I wasn’t honest with you before you left.”
