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Fuck. He’d been so distracted with Sage that he hadn’t taken enough care with her safety. And now they were caught off guard. He showed Sage the email, and she scowled.
“What’s going on, Mom?”
Sage sighed and he could hear the frustration in the sound. It had to be infuriating, getting away from the ex, re-establishing your life and then having to deal with him again. She turned to look at Adam.
“Your father is in town, and it just seems fishy.”
Brian shifted into gear as Sage told Adam what had been going on. They were going to head back to the house, and he was going to get on his computer to do some research.
“Why did he come here?” Adam asked. “We’ve done fine without him.”
Brian hated the fear he could hear in Adam’s voice.
“I don’t know,” she said, “but knowing Tim, he assumes he’s going to be coming into money or something. Don’t worry, buddy. I’m going to take care of you.”
“We’re going to take care of you,” Brian said, meeting Adam’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Believe it or not, I was a bodyguard for many years before I switched to money. He will not get close to you.”
Adam turned to look out the window and Brian knew this had to be hard. On the one hand, Adam knew that Tim had fucked them over when he’d left. But he was still his dad and Brian had a feeling Adam would want to talk to him. And maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea. Then he could see Tim’s true colors.
He glanced at Sage. Her face had closed down and her lips were pursed. The worry was there in her eyes, and he reached out to squeeze her hand. “It’ll be okay. We know he’s here and we know he doesn’t have altruistic purposes. Just be sure to always keep your security system and cameras on.”
She nodded her head and gave him a smile. “Thank you for today. It was nice while it lasted.”
“We can go somewhere else, but I have a feeling he’ll contact you sooner rather than later. If he’s following you, he’s making plans.”
“He used to follow me at home,” she murmured, glancing at him, “back when we were married. It was like he couldn’t take anything at face value. He was always scheming and doing things behind my back, and he assumed I was as well. He would just pop up in weird places, usually drunk, trying to catch me cheating or doing something wrong.”
Brian sighed. “A woman can’t live like that.”
“Yeah, I know, and once I got away from it I realized how abusive it was. He tried to control everything.”
“I think Brian should move in with us,” Adam said suddenly, leaning forward as far as the seatbelt would allow. “Maybe if Tim thinks you’re involved he’ll leave us alone. And he would protect us.”
They slowed for a light and Brian looked at Sage. She had an odd expression on her face, and she blinked several times. Then she looked out the passenger window. “Um, I don’t know buddy… That’s putting a lot of pressure on Brian, and we’ve already imposed on him enough.”
No, that wasn’t flying. Brian turned his blinker on and pulled off into a convenient gas station and parked the truck. Then he turned to her, fully. When she wouldn’t look at him, he gently turned her chin toward him. “Hey, it’s not a bad idea,” he said softly. “I already dread going back to my own place after I’ve been with you guys. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I really like you guys. Both of you.”
He wanted to tell her he loved her, but he didn’t want the words to because of the situation they were in. She would never believe them.
Sage frowned, hard, and she shook her head. “I don’t want to rope you into this, Brian. You’ve done so much for me, us, the past couple of weeks and there’s no way I can ever repay you. Seriously,” she said, meeting his gaze. Her mosaic eyes were greener today, stunning in the bright light of outside.
He gave her a lop-sided smile. “What if I want to be roped in? I can guarantee you I have not done anything in the past three weeks that I didn’t want to do.” Sage looked leery, but she didn’t pull away when he took her hand. “We were already in a relationship. We’re just speeding it up a little.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seems like I’m always speeding things up,” she sighed. She glanced back at Adam. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? I mean, we haven’t gone into detail, but you know Brian and I like each other.”
Adam snorted, grinning. “I think you more than like each other. I’ve seen the way you’ve been looking at each other. It’s obvious you’ve had sex.”
Brian barked out a laugh and Sage slapped a hand over her face, her cheeks going pink. She forced herself to look at her son, though.
“Adam! There’s no need to be crude.”
Brian tried not to laugh, but it was hard. “He’s ten, Sage. You don’t think boys talk about that stuff?”
She shook her head, resigned. Then she looked at him and gave him a soft smile that twisted his heart. “Brian, I would love it if you moved in with us. But there’s no obligation to stay,” she said quickly. “If, when, we figure out the Tim situation, I don’t expect you to stay.”
Brian sighed, wanting to shake her. She was so careful to always give him an out. Though he was fairly certain he wouldn’t want to ever get out. But he could see in her eyes the fragile hope that something lasting might be built.
He had that same hope and despite the way they were going about it, he was going to take advantage of it.
