Burn For You (Boys of the South) (8 page)

“You were barely big enough to hold one up,” Cole says, running a hand through his dark hair. “Beau beat us by a mile when we raced.”

The brothers sit down again, memories of when we were little easing the tension in the air.

“Racing’s in my blood,” I say, grimacing.

“Then why are you going to race in Monaco?” Parker asks, grabbing a handful of Reese’s and offering some to Mia.

I glare at him. “No candy. What’s with you two wanting to feed my baby girl this junk? She has four teeth; stop trying to rot them out.”

Parker rolls his eyes and then downs the handful. “It was for you, dude. Or have you forgotten I’m the one who tries to make sure everyone eats healthy?”

“I wish I could forget it,” Cole mutters, then almost spits out his beer when Parker punches him in the side.

“I’m going to Monaco because that’s a dream of mine—to race a Formula One car. Remington doesn’t get it. My brothers don’t even get it. They all think it’s a joke. Although that didn’t stop Remington from trying to worm his way into going.”

“For the women and gambling,” Parker says with a nod.

“Yeah. He wanted me to leave Mia with Judith.”

“What about Paisley?” Cole asks.

“I texted her as soon as I found out.”

“And?”

“She doesn’t care.” I exhale. Lately, however, she’s been dropping off Mia and leaving her with me for longer periods of time. It worries me. A lot.

“That’s good?” Parker ventures.

I shrug. “Yeah.”

“How many hot chicks will Mia attract for you?”

Offended, I make a face. “I’m not using my daughter—”

Cole laughs. “Shut up, Beau. You don’t have to use your daughter. Women love men with kids. Hell, whenever I go out with Kelly, I swear to God, they flock.”

Parker nods in agreement. “Totally true. I get the same response.”

“Good to know, but I have to focus on racing, not women.” Except one woman will constantly be in my thoughts and in my life. She’ll be in my house, on the plane ride over, in the apartment I rented... but not in my bed. 

Or so I tell myself.

Our game is now forgotten. We’re just three guys, minus one player with Wyatt spending all his extra time with Lacey, drinking and shooting the shit.

Mia burps.  I look at my daughter, and she grins. “That was a manly burp, sweetheart.”

Cole nods his approval. “Good one.”

“Takes after her Uncle Parker,” I remark.

Parker grins and takes Mia from me, settling her against him. “Yeah, she does.”

A part of me wishes they could come with me to Monaco, but Cole and Parker have responsibilities that cannot be neglected. As I glance at them, I wonder how long this will last. How long will we continue to get together every Tuesday evening—either at my house or theirs— and play Texas Hold ‘Em, before life gets in the way?

I
have
never known a week to fly by so fast, yet so excruciating slow. I’m equal parts nervous and excited to be around Beau again. He’s flying me halfway around the world, just to watch his daughter while he races. My mind can barely comprehend it all.

Today, however, I’m sad because it’s my last shift as a baby cuddler at Charlotte Baptist.

“My dad asked me to get Remington’s autograph,” I tell Meagan. “I don’t have the heart to break it to him that it will never happen. Can you imagine what he would say to me?”

“Oh yeah. He’d probably hope you’d want him to sign your boobs.” Meagan snorts, and I smack her lightly in the shoulder.

“Sorry,” she says with an unrepentant grin and then lets it fade away. “You know, as soon as my mother found out about your job from Aunt Kimmie, she was all over me to talk to you about Remington. She actually wanted me to warn you about him.”

I swallow. “Is he that bad?”

“Oh, honey, he’s trouble, but not in the dubious-consent category. It’s like he’s a modern-day Don Draper, and he’s passing you the after-sex cigarette before you know what’s happening. Stay away from him. ”

I frown. “Duly noted.” But what about Beau? Is he just like his dad? He didn’t strike me as exactly that type... and he seemed to be disappointed that things didn’t work out with Mia’s mom. A man who is just a player doesn’t care about things like that, right?

“His sons are just as bad, except for Chase, but he only started behaving once he married Love,” Meagan goes on to say, making my stomach drop.

I twist my hands on my lap, focusing on the road as she drives. That’s basically what Beau had said as well. “Oh, so stay away from Beau, too? That’s going to be hard since I’ll be his daughter’s nanny.”

Meagan parks the car, hangs her staff parking sign on the rearview mirror, and looks at me. I can feel her eyes on me. “
Laaaandry
,” she sings out, clearly exasperated.

“What?”

“Do I have to give you permission to sleep with Beau?”

I gasp and turn to face her. “No!”

“You’ll sleep with him without my permission?”

“Yes. No.” My face flames. “I’m
not
sleeping with him.”

Her blue eyes dance. “You’ll use him to end your dry spell, then.”

Beau Montgomery could
so
make it rain for me. “I’m responsible for watching his daughter,” I protest. “She’ll be my number one priority.”

“But who’s responsible for you?” she teases. “You’ll be living in a foreign country, with a hot guy and,” her voice drops, “spending lots of time alone together.”

“I’m not that kind of girl,” I say primly, and Meagan practically doubles over with laughter.

“Oh God,” she groans. “You are too much and if I didn’t know you, then I’d think you were the biggest prude on the planet.”

“I’m picky.”

We get out of her car and start for the hospital. “You’re pitiful.”

“Sleeping with a bunch of different guys doesn’t make me a woman of my generation.”

Meagan stops me with a hand on my arm. “I’m not shaming you for being sexually inexperienced, Landry.”

I’m not a virgin, but I might as well be.  Meagan knows all about my old boyfriend—the one who took my virginity after senior prom, and then broke up with me two weeks after classes started our freshman year and he pledged Sigma Tau.

Honestly, I was a bit relieved when it happened—we’d been together for so long that I had wondered if we were together because we were too lazy to find someone else. There was no drama and no tears when Todd and I broke up.

But Meagan had taken me to Goodberry’s for milkshakes anyway.

“What were you shaming her for, then?” a familiar voice asks, and I wish for a hole to open up and swallow me in the parking lot. My new boss just heard my best friend call me sexually inexperienced. 

My best friend’s eyes go wide and she mouths, “I’m so sorry.” Then she raises her voice.  “Beau, so nice to see you. Here. At the hospital. For no apparent reason.”

“I’m here for the usual—donations.”

He came here to give money? I can’t turn around and face him. Instead, I start walking again, leaving Meagan and Beau behind. “Later, Meagan. Mr. Montgomery.”  I smash my lips together, feeling stupid for calling him Mr. Montgomery in front of Meagan. Obviously, they know each other socially, and he’s not that much older than we are.

“We need to talk, Landry,” Beau calls out, but I keep going.

Pushing open the door, I toss, “I can’t be late. Text or email me. Kimmie has my contact information,” over my shoulder and speed up my walk. Usually, I take the elevator to the first floor, but with my luck, he would somehow get on it and we’d get stuck together.

Not the most unpleasant thought, but only if we didn’t know one another. And if he hadn’t overheard Meagan giving me a hard time, I’d totally be on board with it.

But I do know him. And he did hear.

I sigh, and then take the stairs.

––––––––

B
eau

I watch Landry disappear inside the hospital before turning my attention back to Meagan. I don’t know her all that well. She doesn’t hang out with Paisley’s crowd, and thank God, I’ve never hooked up with her when I was going through my fuck-you-Paisley stage.

Yeah, I call them Bro Rules, but really, my rules are just codes I live by. Like never hook-up with your current or former hook-up’s best friend—or sister.  Which is a shame since my rule would have instantly made Landry off-limits and my life a hell of a lot easier.

Meagan gazes at me, eyes twinkling and smile knowing. “Beau Montgomery.”

“Meagan Thomas,” I reply, unable to keep my attention on her. I want to go after Landry, to find out what she’s doing and how long she’ll be. We need to talk, about boundaries and rules, and how I won’t put her in a position she won’t enjoy.

Shit.
I have got to stop putting the word position and Landry in the same sentence.

“Landry isn’t like Paisley, or any other girl you’ve dated,” she says bluntly.

No, she’s sexually inexperienced. Something that, despite myself, I find sexy as hell. “I don’t plan on dating her.”

“Plans can always change,” she points out, crossing her arms over her chest. “I don’t want my best friend to get hurt, because you decide to seduce her.”

My jaw works. “I don’t plan on seducing her.” A weak defense, I know, but what else can I say to defend myself?

Meagan makes a noise of disbelief. “I saw how you were looking at her.” She uncrosses her arms and taps her chin. “Then again, every guy looks at her like that.”

Jealousy surges, stunning me with its intensity. I don’t want any guy but me looking at her, but I sure as hell can’t admit that to Meagan. Or anyone else for that matter. “Does she have a boyfriend?”

“As her new employer, you can’t ask that.”

Jealousy gives way to irritation. “I’m not asking her. I’m asking you.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to know what I’m—” I swallow. I almost said
up against
. Like I had competition. “Dealing with. Will he get mad if I take her to Monaco?”

Meagan smirks. “Still not answering.”

“Thanks,” I say sarcastically. “Great talking to you.” I stride to the hospital, heading inside. I give blood and plasma for two reasons. One—because I’m O positive, which means my blood can be given to anyone. Two—I have to be tested to make sure I’m disease free to give it.

When I’m with Paisley, I don’t fuck around, but she doesn’t adhere to that same courtesy. Yet another reason why I’ve been mostly done with her for so long.  If it weren’t for Mia, I would be completely done with her.

As I greet the nurses, I check the time on the clock above their station. Landry volunteers in the neonatal intensive care unit from one to three. She’s a baby cuddler, a person who holds and rocks babies too tiny and too sick to go home.

I can’t imagine how hard and easy it must be to cuddle those babies. Some don’t ever go home. My throat gets a little thick at the thought of Mia being in one of those units.

Taking a sustaining breath, I sit in my usual place until I’m called back. I follow a nurse to one of the tiny rooms in the back and take a seat on the examination table.

James, the head nurse, comes inside, flipping through my test results and smiling. “Free and clear of everything, as usual,” he says, placing the clipboard full of paper in a hanging tray. “I’m ready when you are.”

“How are Henry and Charlie?” I ask, rolling up my sleeve and lying back while James grabs a small tray on the counter and sets it on a rolling tray.

“Running Karen ragged, but what can you expect with Irish twins?” he says with a smile. He snaps on latex gloves.  “Fist, please.” I curl my fingers into my palm, and then he ties a band around my arm. His movements are efficient as he finds the vein, cleans it, and then sticks me with the needle. “How’s Mia?”

“Giving up her morning nap, so crying. A lot.”

James runs a hand through his red hair. “Ouch. Those are the worst. They’re still tired, but they don’t want to miss anything. Worse Catch-22 imaginable, until something else comes along to mess with your sanity.”

I laugh. “Yeah, right now she’s with her mother. So, I’m getting a little break.”

“Breaks are good.” He checks over me once more, then pulls off the latex gloves and throws them away. “I need to run over to NICU in about five minutes. My cousin’s newest is in there, and I promised to update her every half hour while she’s at work. My nephew has been here for two weeks.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too. But we’re doing the best we can to help him.”

Gesturing to the needle with my free hand, I say, “Get going. Pretty sure I’ll be here when you get back.” Then it hits me:
NICU
. Maybe James knows Landry. “Are you friendly with any of the baby cuddlers?”

James nods. “A couple of the regulars, and then the new girl. Although why we still call her the new girl, I’m not sure. She’s been regularly volunteering for two months now.”

“Landry Basnight.”

“You know her?”

“Yeah.” It’s not a lie. I do know her. I just don’t know her beyond two meetings and a resume. “We’ve talked a couple of times.”

“She’s a sweet girl.” He leans against the door, crossing his arms over his chest. “But the first couple of times she was here... Man, I didn’t think she would make it.”

“Why?”

“The sight of blood makes her nauseated. Not just a little sick either. Full-blown
retching
in the bathroom. It was just her luck that on her first day, right as she walked in, an emergency came through the back doors. But she stuck through it, and now she barely turns green. The babies seem to love her. Staff too. It’s a shame she’ll be leaving to go nanny for some rich guy.” James grins. “No offense.”

I can tell he’s impressed with her. Hell, I’m impressed with her. “None taken.” Even if I’m the rich guy. James and I have been acquainted for years, and he speaks his mind. It’s not something I can trust a lot of people to do, beyond my buddies.

A woman walks in, holding a tray of orange juice and cookies. “Sarah,” I call out.

She smiles. “I’m here to relieve James.”

“Thanks. Five more minutes and he’s done,” he says to her, and then turns to me. “See you next week.”