Room for You(39)

He walked up behind me and curled his arms around my waist. “Yep, beautiful, isn’t she?”

“Very.” My fingers traced each frame as I looked at her closely. The resemblance was astonishing, from their same dark brown curls to their award-winning smiles. She was an older, softer version of her handsome son. “You have her eyes—beautiful and sincere, very expressive. You have the ability to tell a whole story with just one look. You know that?”

He hugged me tighter, resting his head on my shoulder while I continued studying the woman responsible for his existence.

My heart sank when I came to a picture of her sitting in a big chair, curled up under a blanket. She had a pink bandanna wrapped around her head and was very thin, her face drained of all its color. Despite all that, her beautiful, contagious smile spread wide across her face as she gave the camera two thumbs up.

“What about this one?” I asked cautiously.

“I took that,” he said proudly. “That was about three years ago, the morning of her last chemo treatment. She was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer, but she beat it. I keep that picture up there to remind me how far she’s come. I’m so proud of her.”

“You guys are really close, huh?”

He sighed, his breath warming my neck. “What can I say? I’m a mama’s boy.”

“Hope she doesn’t mind sharing.” I turned to the right and kissed his cheek. The instant my lips left his face, he grabbed my hips and spun me around to face him.

“I’m about to throw you on the bed and have my way with you. Can we please stop talking about my mom?”





“Ready to go?” Kacie called from the living room.

“Almost,” I hollered back. “You can come in. I’m just changing my shirt.”

My bedroom door creaked as she opened it, peeking around the corner. “You sure?”

I couldn’t take my eyes off her as she walked over to the leather chair, her wavy, auburn hair flowing around her bare shoulders as she went. She had on jean shorts that were long enough for public, but short enough to drive me bat shit crazy all afternoon, a hot pink tank top that showcased every single curve perfectly and black flip flops. Never in my life had I known little pink toes could be hot until right then. She curled up in the chair and grinned at me, crinkling her nose. Her pink lips were still swollen from the twenty minutes we had just spent rolling around on my bed before she halted things … again.

I meant what I said when I told her I was in no hurry to rush things along. I wanted to be inside her as bad as I wanted a Stanley Cup ring, but I could be patient.

I’d also be spending a lot of time in the shower, a cold shower.



I walked out of my closet with a navy blue and green striped polo and tossed it on the bed, watching Kacie watch me. Her all-consuming stare was a form of torturous foreplay, something that should be used on prisoners. When I locked eyes with her, it was just that, a lock. I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to look away. I wanted to walk over, scoop her up and lie her back down on my bed, after I texted Andy to tell him he could take his dinner party and shove it up Blaire’s ass. I would much rather spend the evening tangled up in bed with Kacie.



I pulled my t-shirt over my head and she gasped. “You have a tattoo?”

I laughed. “Yep. It’s the Murphy family crest … got it on my 18th birthday. My dad has the exact same one.”

“It’s huge!” She hopped up and came over to me for a closer look. She ran her hands softly over the skin in between my shoulder blades where my tattoo started and traced the outline all the way down my back. “Wow. This is amazing,” she said so quietly I almost didn’t hear her.

“What’s wrong?”

She didn’t answer and I turned to face her. The shimmer in her green eyes had been replaced with sadness and she was staring at the ground.

“Kacie, what is it?” I asked, cupping her face in my hands.

“Nothing.” She sighed, looking up at me. “I just feel like an ass.”

“Why?”

“When you left the inn that morning and I found your jersey on the fireplace, I jumped to conclusions.” Her shoulders drooped as she continued, “I assumed that since you were this single, big shot athlete, you must have been a selfish playboy who didn’t give a crap about family, or anyone for that matter. After hearing you gush about your mom, then seeing all your family pictures, and now this … I was wrong, Brody. I’m so sorry.” She looked back down at the ground and let out another sigh.

“Hey, it’s okay. You didn’t know anything about me.” I tilted her head up so she was looking at me again. “It probably just looked like I was some dude trying to get in your pants, and that part I can’t completely deny.” A tiny smile crossed her lips, but I wasn’t convinced. “It’s really okay. Come here.” I pulled her in close and wrapped my arms around her, holding her head tight against my bare chest.

“Hey, we have a couple hours until we need to get ready for this dinner tonight, wanna grab some coffee? I’ll show you around?”

Kacie smiled up at me. “Fantastic. You should probably put a shirt on first though, huh?”

“Or you could take yours off so that we’re even?”