Rock Solid

Hannah saw the other woman’s fingers clench. Angry, icy gray eyes and thinned lips emphasized her displeasure as Jackie looked Hannah up and down.

“Who is this?” Jackie asked Brody as if not hearing the dismissal.

“This is the reason you need to go,” Brody said simply, delivering a kiss to the top of Hannah’s head.

Hannah tried to step away—clearly she had walked into the middle of something awkward—but Brody’s muscular arm held her fast against him.

The tension thickened as Brody and the blonde stared each other down for a few seconds.

Brody won.

The woman grabbed her bag from the table and came to the door, standing only inches from Hannah.

“Jerk,” she spat back at Brody before she stalked out, marching to a white Mercedes that Hannah had parked beside.

The door closed, and Brody let out a breath.

“Good timing, sweetheart. Maybe that will finally get her off my back for good,” Brody said, dropping his arm from her shoulders and retreating through the foyer.

Hannah was immobile, still warm from his kiss as she watched through the window as the blonde kicked up a cloud of dust on the road that led away from the ranch.

“Wait. What the...?” Hannah sputtered.

She was pretty sure that the heat rebuilding in her system wasn’t from the kiss, but from anger.

“Did you just use me to get rid of a woman who’d spent the night?”

He looked at her from across the hall, leaning laconically on the door frame.

“She didn’t spend the night—not last night anyway. Come on in and have a muffin. There’s coffee.”

He headed into the recesses of the house. Hannah followed him. She was starving after her overnight drive, and lured by the aroma of coffee. She stopped in the kitchen and watched him pour two cups.

She also noted the half-empty beer bottle on the counter near the sink. Several empties, in fact. While the outside of the farmhouse was pristine, the inside was a wreck, as if no one had cleaned in several weeks. There was also some funky odor coming from the trash basket near where she was standing, so she moved. It was like the house of an eternal frat party. Brody was far from a neat freak, she knew, but he wasn’t a total slob, either.

He grabbed several muffins and took the food and his coffee into the adjoining dining room. Hannah’s stomach growled. She needed to eat something more substantial than muffins, but a fistful of carbs would tide her over. She grabbed the other mug and a blueberry muffin with coffee-cake crumbles on top.

In the dining room, she took a seat across from Brody at the long harvest table. She had to clear a spot to do so, moving old newspapers and takeout boxes that were stacked everywhere. When she was done eating, she seriously contemplated getting another muffin, but sipped her coffee instead.

“Are you even going to ask why I’m here?”

He looked at her over the top of his coffee cup. “I know why you’re here. You obviously needed some more top o’ the line Brody lovin’, right?”

Hannah coughed, her coffee going down the wrong way. When she caught her breath and started to protest, Brody chuckled.

“Calm down, Hannah. I’m teasing. So, why are you here?” he asked dutifully.

Hannah shifted in her chair, frowning. In spite of the kiss at the door—which had obviously just been for effect—he seemed distant. The connection she’d always had with him wasn’t there.

Something was off, and suddenly she didn’t feel comfortable asking him for his help. Not until she knew what was going on.

“I was in Atlanta, and I thought I’d come down and see how you were doing. Just a lark,” she said. It was mostly true. “How’s retirement?”

“You had business in Atlanta?” he asked, ignoring her question.

“Sort of,” she hedged.

“’Fess up, Hannah.” He sounded irritated. “Did Reece send you here to check on me?”

She sat back. “No, why would he?”

“He seems to think I’m not dealing with my retirement or my accident well.”

Another surprise. “What accident?”

He cursed as he leaned forward and shook his head. The gesture made him look even more tired.

“I forgot how to handle a horse. Got thrown, hurt my shoulder and lower back. It’s not the end of the world. I’ll be fine. Really. I’m just sore and stiff, but mostly better now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“You expect me to believe that?” he said, pinning her with a look. She could see faint circles around his eyes, a tightness around his lips.

“Are you saying I’m lying?” she challenged him, but now she was worried. She’d never seen Brody like this, and maybe Reece had been concerned for a reason.

He looked away. And then he began to tap his fingertips on the table as if he was holding something back.

“I never knew you had horses,” she said, changing the subject.

“There’s a lot you never knew about me, sugar,” he drawled as he roughly pushed his chair back and returned to the kitchen, apparently done with the conversation.

This wasn’t the Brody she’d known. Not by a long shot. Brody had always been a wild man, a partier and to a certain degree, a player—which was how she’d met him in the first place. But he wasn’t ever a jerk about it.

His eyes were bleary, and she noticed now that his gait was off, his walk more hesitant than usual. He held himself stiffly, his legs moving only with concentrated effort, as if each step was painful.

She followed him.

“If you’re fine, why is this place such a mess? Are you too hurt to pick up things? Maybe you need a cleaning service to give you a hand?”

He turned on her, eyes narrow, as if his patience was worn out.

“Listen, I don’t need help. Just because you and I had some fun together doesn’t mean I’m going to spill my guts to you or anyone else. So if that was the plan, forget it.”

Hannah took a steadying breath. “Something is wrong. Tell me.”

“You don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

Ouch. Hannah straightened, held her chin high.