her hand uselessly—to do what? Wave? Shake his hand?—she let it drop to her side again.
Thoughts scattered as she remembered how he used to look in the morning...naked, mussed head of hair, gleaming eyes...and sexy. Extremely sexy.
Brody’s six-foot-plus frame filled the doorway. He hadn’t shaved. Shaggy brown hair that had been cut shorter when she’d been with him had sprouted waves, and a few curls brushed his neck. His jaw was strong but tense. His lips as tempting as ever. He was shirtless, the top button on his jeans undone, as if he had only now gotten out of bed.
That brought back a wave of memories that nearly did send her running back to her car. What had she been thinking, coming here?
Then his face broke into a welcoming smile, his expression switching from surprise to pleasure. The next thing she knew, Brody encompassed her in a bear hug. Then his delectable mouth was all over hers, his bare torso flush against her.
Hannah forgot to breathe.
His beard scratched her lightly, but she was so blindsided by the unexpected embrace that she held on for dear life, her fingers pressing into his bare shoulder blades, her internal temperature skyrocketing as Brody’s tongue parted her lips and sought out hers.
Stop this, her brain said.
Just one more minute, her very happy libido argued, getting a sudden charge from the kiss, as if she’d been hit by a lightning bolt.
She couldn’t help but smile into his kiss. This was Brody. He was never what she expected, but whatever happened around him, it was always good. At least, it had been.
Hope flooded her. He was glad to see her. Very glad.
“Excuse me,” an annoyed voice hissed somewhere behind them.
As Brody released her, breaking the kiss, Hannah found the source glaring daggers at her over his shoulder.
Tall, busty blonde, dead ahead.
Brody kept one arm around her, which was a good thing, because Hannah’s knees were definitely suffering from a slight wobble.
“I’m so glad you’re here, honey,” Brody said to Hannah, dripping with his own special brand of charm. But something about his tone hit her as fake; it was the tone he often used around groupies. “Jackie was just leaving.”
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
