Brady Remington Landed Me in Jail(12)

Brady wiped at a bead of syrup that lingered on the corner of his mouth before he folded his hands and bowed his head.

I prolonged the prayer longer than the normal twelve second chant. It lasted a good minute or two before Viola grew impatient and ended it with a final 'Amen.'

Brady tried to hide a grin as he reached for more of his pancakes, but Viola slapped his hand away. "Brady. Talk."

"I can talk. I can talk about a lot of things, Viola. What would you like to hear about? I can talk about how we went to Ned's. Did you know that Bob growls now?"

Viola grumbled, "I don't know why he named that damn station after his dog in heat. It makes no sense to me. And Bob. Who names a stupid Bigfoot? He wasn't supposed to keep the damn thing after all these years."

I relaxed after that and enjoyed a bowl of oatmeal as Brady dodged more questions. He kept her entertained with comments about Ned, Neil, and even the dog that Ned had named his gas station after. An hour later, I excused myself to my room and shut the door with a long drawn out sigh. I felt like I'd run a marathon. Collapsing on my bed, I curled into a ball.

This was where Brady found me an hour later when he landed on top of me and I shoved him off before I saw the door was shut.

"Thank God," I muttered.

"Thank who?" Brady snuggled underneath my blankets with me. "It's just me."

"Get away." I pathetically shoved at his shoulder.

Brady batted my hand away, wrapped both of his arms around my waist, and threw his leg over mine. I was trapped in place. Then he moved to lay behind me and rested his forehead on the back of my neck.

"You can thank me now, you know," he mumbled.

My skin tickled from his breath. "Thank you for what?"

"I distracted Viola. And she went outside to work in the garden."

We both knew what that meant. She'd be out there for hours.

"You didn't have to do that."

Brady yawned and I felt his chest rise and fall against my back. His arms tightened, but he still mumbled, "Yeah. I did. And you know it."

Tears pricked at my eyes, but I ignored them. He was right. I'd thought about confessing, but then breakfast happened and Brady was being questioned instead of me. That was how it was. My grandmother hadn't even wondered what I might've done that I shouldn't have.

His arm rested heavily on my waist. "Brady?"

His deep breaths answered me. He'd fallen asleep. Here's my confession to myself: sometimes Brady scared me. It wasn't him in particular, but how he affected me. I knew if anyone could coax me into doing things I shouldn't—it was the guy holding me. I felt a yawn coming and as it broke free, I turned in his arms. Instead of slinking out from underneath them—I snuggled into his chest and felt my eyelids close.

I pushed the fear at bay and enjoyed just having Brady close. For now.

CHAPTER SIX

When my phone rang at three thirty in the morning, I croaked, "Brady?"

A husky laugh was on the other end. Not Brady.

"I was calling you, sweetcheeks, to see if he was there."

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I must've still been asleep because I could've sworn that Clarissa had called me. Clarissa Cumberly had never called me in my life.

"What?" I rested against the headboard behind me. It felt cool to the touch and I looked to my side. My window had been left open and a breeze wafted through the curtains. That's when I realized that I was still in my clothes; I had collapsed in bed after breakfast.

That'd been in the morning. It wasn't morning anymore. Moonlight filtered into my room. It sent a soft glow into my room. I looked in the mirror and my eyes popped out at the nest on top of my head. As I patted at it, my eyes shifted to the left and my bed moved at the same time. Gasping, I dropped the phone and started to lurch out of bed. Before I could, Brady flipped on his stomach and threw an arm to land on my lap…Brady was still in bed with me.

When my heart rate slowed again, I looked at the clock and saw it was four minutes after midnight. I must've assumed it was three in the morning. Which still begged the question—why was Clarissa calling me? More importantly, why was Brady still in bed with me? I poked at him and then jumped when I heard a voice in the covers. I fumbled through the blankets and grabbed my phone again.

"…Rayna!"

"Uh…?" Brady grunted and rolled onto his back. He raked a hand through his hair before he opened his eyes and stared at me. A glaze of drowsiness was evident.

"Rayna…Rayna…" Clarissa's voice was muffled against my hand.

I stared, frozen, as he squinted and then looked at the phone before he took it from me. "Cumberly?"

"Brady!"

She sounded sexy. I had a nest on my head.

Brady pushed up from the bed and scooted next to me.

When I heard him laugh in return, I couldn't take it. I scrambled from the bed, grabbed a robe, and ducked into the hallway. Turning into the bathroom, I saw my grandparent's door was closed and their sounds of snoring blasted through it. Relieved, I stepped underneath the shower spray.

When I got out of the shower, I saw that the bathroom fan hadn't worked well. The mirror was still steamed, so my reflection was fuzzy, but after I wiped a small patch away, I saw that I didn't look that ridiculous, not as bad as I had in my room. My hair was normally a blondish brown, but it looked really dark when it was wet. The ends just teased the tops of my shoulders. As I tucked my hair behind my ears, I leaned closer and inspected the rest of my face.