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Chapter Nine
Brad hit the landing of the stairs in time to hear the voices on the second level. At first he thought the girls were arguing, then he realized it was just Sara talking loud enough to shake the bats from the belfries they didn’t have.
“Oh, that’s your mom’s doll. You know, the one on the rocker. Isn’t she pretty? I love her hair. It’s so silky.”
“Yeah, Sar, the doll’s awesome. Why was she in your bed?” Undecipherable mumbling. Probably swear words, knowing his sister. “And why were you in Brad’s room?”
He gripped the banister and fought his urge to haul his ass upstairs and handle this situation once and for all. Surely Sara would fess up now, since everything was practically out in the open. She couldn’t keep lying when she was obviously caught.
“Oh, I couldn’t sleep in there last night, and I didn’t want you to worry that I’d never come home. You have enough on your mind. How are you feeling? Is your ankle better?”
He knocked his head against the wall. It didn’t diminish his ability to hear Sara’s high, panicked voice. For fuck’s sake. She couldn’t be honest. Instead she had to fabricate these asinine stories and expected him to go along with them. Every time he thought they were closer to her telling Kim they were seeing each other, she pulled some new shit.
Like telling Kim her bird had been mouthy, and Brad had been “out” so she’d used his room.
As much as he kept trying to deny it, it was becoming clear Sara might have another reason for not coming clean. Maybe she was ashamed of him. He wasn’t only younger, he was a mechanic. One that owned his own shop, true, but that would never compare to the men in the circles she belonged to. He didn’t compare, if she only looked at stats on a sheet.
He’d believed she wasn’t that superficial. Perhaps he was wrong.
About a lot of things.
There was no denying he had strong feelings for her. First as a friend, then as a lover. Somehow she’d slipped into the girlfriend role in his mind, and clearly that wasn’t in the cards. If she believed he’d keep lying indefinitely, evidently she hadn’t been paying attention last night. Good—fine, amazing—sex wasn’t worth losing his self-respect. He’d already done that once by marrying a woman he didn’t love for the sake of a child that didn’t exist. Months later, he’d yet to shake the betrayal that came from being played. And the disappointment of losing a child he’d never truly had but had come to love.
Now there was a new disappointment and new lies. Worst of all, he’d been complicit in them. Instead of looking deeper into why Sara wanted to keep things private, he’d taken her at face value. Obviously he hadn’t learned anything from the Darla situation.
At least he knew Sara wouldn’t try to trap him in a relationship. She didn’t want one, not with him.
So much for hoping that she’d swiftly see the idiocy of her plan to hide their relationship behind closed doors. She could say she didn’t want to chance ruining their freewheeling lifestyle in the house, but she’d done that all on her own. He needed to end things now before she ruined their friendship too.
He pushed his hands into the back pockets of his jeans—mainly to keep from punching the wall—and headed upstairs. By the time he reached the top and glimpsed Sara shivering in his doorway, wearing a towel and a grimace, his anger had ignited from simmering to full boil.
“Brad,” she said, her already huge eyes widening. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
Kim turned unsteadily, and he reached out to grab her elbow while she struggled to balance herself. “Yeah, well, you know how it is when you’re doing the walk of shame. Gotta be quiet.” His smile strained his cheeks. “Didn’t expect there to be a party in my doorway either.”
“Walk of shame? I thought you had to fix Sara’s car.” Kim looked back and forth between them, her dark brows fused together. “And I saw your truck in the drive last night.”
“I borrowed it,” Sara put in, still giving him that pleading look that made him feel like nails lined his throat. “While Brad worked on my car. Right?”
“Sure thing.” He couldn’t believe he was such an idiot. He’d even hummed on his walk to the shop this morning. Boy, he never learned, did he?
“How is it?” Sara asked. “All fixed?”
“Just a dead battery, clogged filter and some corrosion. I took care of it.”
“Thank you so much. What do I owe you?”
Terrific. Now she was going to piss him off by offering to pay for his work on her car, because you know, he needed every spare dime. He was practically indigent compared to the big fancy doc, right?
“Doubt you’ll ever be able to repay me, Sara Smile,” he said in his own equally loud voice. Did Sara think that shouting would add veracity to her story? Kim didn’t look like she was buying it, and he’d be damned if he helped Sara one iota. Not when she’d had the perfect opportunity to be honest, and yet again she’d shafted him without benefit of lube.
He strode up the hall and shifted around her to get into his room. As he squeezed past, he pinched her ass and she jumped. “Might want to get dressed, Doc. You’ll catch another cold.”
As he closed the door in their faces, Kim demanded, “Did he grab your ass?”
“No. Of course not. He, ah, stepped on my foot.”
His gut twisted as he put as much distance between himself and the door as he could. He took out a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt from his dresser and slammed it shut. Seemed like he’d be closing the book on a lot of things today.
