Dare to Tease: A Dare Nation Novella, Carly Phillips [well read books TXT] 📗

“I’m allowed time to process,” she said, annoyed he didn’t understand her feelings.

“You’re not processing. You’re sulking.”

She tucked a strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail behind her ear. “Same thing,” she grumbled.

Her brother grasped both her forearms. “Look. I get you’re pissed. Hudson should have been up-front with you about what his father wanted in exchange for the money. He wasn’t honest with me, either. Not until yesterday but I think he was humiliated. It’s embarrassing to have to ask for money and get forced into a corner.”

She knew that. She’d just been so shocked and hurt, the words she’d heard throwing her back to other times, other men.

“You need to listen to what he has to say,” Braden said. “And you also need to decide if you really think Hudson is like the guys who came before him or if he’s different and deserves you. I happen to think he does.”

And that was saying something, Bri knew. Her twin never approved of anyone she dated. Nobody was ever good enough.

“Who hit him?” she asked, ignoring his words for now. She’d deal with her life and with Hudson on her own terms.

As if they’d planned it, Braden held his hands up just as Hudson had. “You won’t hear who from me.”

“Men!” she shouted at him just as a group of players exited the locker room, laughing and rowdy, drowning out her yell.

Chapter Eight

Bri hated being stubborn, but she meant what she’d told Braden. She needed time to process what had happened, and that took her a couple more days. First she’d had to separate her past from her present, and that wasn’t easy. It meant she had to remember the assholes who’d used her, and there hadn’t been just one.

Then she’d had to deal with the fact that Hudson hadn’t trusted her enough to tell her the truth when all she’d done was stand by his side. She’d gone to New York, subjected herself to his rude parents, waited at the hotel while he went to ask his father for the money, and held his hand during his brooding silence on the flight home. He’d had a few weeks since then to open up, and he hadn’t. Trust was important, but was it a deal breaker?

She supposed that depended on his reasons, and she hadn’t let him explain. Which brought her to now, looking at herself in the mirror and admitting she’d been exactly what her brother called her. A stubborn princess and it was time she acted like an adult.

After stopping at a sandwich shop on the way to the clinic, she drove downtown and pulled into the gravel parking lot. Her hands had healed, and she wasn’t surprised when she saw Jimmy standing by a dumpster in the back of the lot. She drew a deep breath and climbed out of her car, food in hand, not surprised when Jimmy walked toward her.

“Hi,” she said, holding out the sandwich she’d brought him.

“Is that for me?” Surprise filled his gritty voice.

She nodded. “There’s water in there, too.” And also a twenty-dollar bill, but since she didn’t want a repeat of last time, she didn’t mention the money. He’d find it soon enough.

He grabbed the bag, and this time she released her grip fast so he didn’t drag her down. It helped that she was wearing sneakers and not heels.

“Take care, Jimmy.” She walked toward the building, in her mind already thinking about all the improvements Hudson and her brother could make once they were ready and excited about the prospect.

She let herself in, discovered a full waiting room, and resigned herself to wait. Striding up to the desk, she smiled at Nikki. “Hi. Do you think I could wait in the back office until Hudson has time to talk?”

The brunette smiled. “Sure. Dr. Northfield is the only one here, so it may be awhile.”

“That’s fine.” After the torture she’d probably put him through, she deserved to be kept waiting.

Bri made herself at home in the office Hudson and Braden shared, smiling at the pictures on the desk of her twin and Willow, whose wedding was coming up in a few months. May fifth to be exact. They planned a small affair at a local catering hall because July in Florida was just too hot to hold an outdoor event.

An hour passed and then another. The longer she waited, the more her nerves increased. Did Hudson not want to see her, or was he just so busy he couldn’t make time yet? Her stomach knotted, and she tried to kill time scrolling social media on her phone and occasionally attempting to read a book on an app, but she couldn’t concentrate. She was afraid she’d pushed him too far by not talking to him after the game, but then she reminded herself of the filled outer room and tried to calm down.

After a while, she rested her head on her arms on the desk and shut her eyes.

* * * *

What a fucking long day. Hudson had back-to-back patients, each one serious in its own way, and with Braden needing the day off and Thomas having abdicated the place to Braden and Hudson, he’d been on his own. Thank God for Janie, the nurse they’d recently hired, who was as reliable as she was efficient. Even Nikki had abandoned them midday when her mother called because she’d had an accident, and Nikki had to rush off to be with her. He hadn’t had five minutes to eat, let alone sit down and take a load off his feet.

He opened the door to his office and stopped short at the sight that greeted him. Bri sat in his chair, head resting on her arms on the desk, her dark hair falling over her shoulders and face. Even so, he knew it was her, and his heart started beating again for the first time since his fuckup at her mother’s house.

He