There With You by Samantha Young
Thane
“You seem in a better mood.”
Thane turned from watching the slowly lowering sunset across the water to meet his brother’s gaze. They were sitting on Lachlan’s comfortably furnished, raised back deck, beers in hand, enjoying the gorgeous summer evening. A half hour ago, his brother had texted to ask if he fancied a beer out back. He’d just put the kids to bed, and at Eilidh’s demand of a bedtime story from Regan, Robyn’s sister was still at the house. Thane had tried to tell Eilidh that Regan had to go as it was past her working hours, but Regan shushed him, happy to do as Eilidh asked. She seemed disinclined to return to her annex, and he didn’t mind her presence. It was actually nice not being the only adult in the house.
“Go have a beer,” she’d said as they descended the staircase. “I can stay here in case the kids wake up.”
“You don’t need to do that. I’m not paying you to work after hours, Regan.”
She’d given him a droll look. “Either I watch a Friday night movie in the guest house, or I watch it here. There’s no difference other than you can go have a beer with your brother if I do it here.”
Reassured, Thane left her in front of a romantic comedy, curled on his big sectional.
“Regan’s lifted the atmosphere in the house,” he answered his brother. “She’s taken the kids’ minds off Lucy. That whole thing was confusing for them. I think I made it confusing for them.”
“Isn’t it confusing for you?” Lachlan prodded quietly before taking another sip of beer.
Low-level anger burned in his gut as he looked out at the water. “I wasn’t the one she stalked.”
“What she did, how she could lie so brilliantly, fucked with my head. If it weren’t for Robyn, I’d have become even more of a mistrustful bastard than I already am. As it is, I find it difficult to trust anyone new coming into our lives because of what she did.”
Lachlan’s confession didn’t shock Thane. They were so close in age, they were more like twins. While they rarely discussed their emotions with other men outside of the family, they’d never held back from telling each other what was going on in their heads. Most of the time.
“Regan arriving hasn’t been easy,” Lachlan continued, and Thane experienced a twinge of something strangely like defensiveness. But before he could voice it, his brother said, “But I trust Robyn, and she trusts her sister. She believes Regan has owned up to her mistakes and that she means well … I’m glad you put some trust in her, for Robyn’s sake, but I wouldn’t blame you if you were struggling, in general, to trust people.”
Thane frowned. “Like I said, Lucy was stalking you, not me.”
“There was something between you. She admitted to us she had genuine feelings for you.”
That low-level anger flamed brighter. “Is that woman capable of genuine feelings?”
“I don’t know. Fuck, I hope so.”
“Nothing happened between us,” Thane said, turning to Lachlan. He knew his brother suspected he and Lucy had slept together, but it had never gotten that far. “We kissed. Once. After the ceilidh last spring. That was it.”
“Did you have feelings for her?”
“Why are you asking this now?”
“Because I don’t want you stewing over this shit. I don’t want any of us stewing over this shit. The trial looms, and with it a media storm, and all that won’t die until the trial is over. I don’t want it consuming our lives until then. So, we get the poison she put in us out. Now. Before it goes any deeper.”
Marveling at the change that had come over his brother since Robyn’s arrival, Thane felt a prick of envy. That was what a good woman’s love could do. He knew it firsthand.
He also knew firsthand what her betrayal could do.
“Well … Lucy … did you have feelings for her?”
Thane smirked unhappily. “She was a knockout, charismatic Hollywood star. And I’m a mere mortal. What do you think?” Despite knowing she’d been in his brother’s bed, Thane had been extremely attracted to Lucy Wainwright. She was the kind of stunning that was almost untouchable, but she’d seemed so down-to-earth. The type of woman who knew how to make any man comfortable in her presence. Lucy had also always been sweet to his children.
While he’d been on dates since Fran’s death and had slept with other women, Lucy was the first woman he’d been more than just physically attracted to. Thankfully, his feelings hadn’t developed beyond affection.
The thought of what might have happened had he let her any deeper into his life enraged him.
“She fucked with your head,” Lachlan surmised.
“I let her near my kids,” Thane hissed. “That’s what fucks with my head the most. The time she spent with Eilidh. Filling her mind with who knows what. And then having to explain to them that Lucy won’t be around anymore because she tried to hurt their aunt and uncle … let’s just say that was a confusing mess of a conversation for us all. I didn’t know what I should tell them and it was … just … fuck, it was a mess.”
Silence fell between them, and Thane took an agitated pull of his beer.
“Regan’s not Lucy,” Lachlan suddenly said.
Thane’s head whipped toward his brother so fast, a burn of pain flared up the side of his neck. “What?”
He shrugged. “Just saying. In case that’s on your mind. She is a beautiful redhead.”
“Do you think I would have hired Regan to look after my children if that was what was going on in my mind?”
“’Course not. I just meant … I don’t know.” Lachlan sighed wearily. “I’m just worried about her. Robyn thinks if we all make Regan feel at home, feel embraced here, she might settle down.”
Thane snorted. “She’s living in my annex, looking after my kids. How much more do you want me to embrace her?”
His brother burst into laughter. “Fair enough.”
Grinning, Thane stared out at the water again. A door closing in the distance sounded, followed by the hum of music. Lachlan glanced over his shoulder, toward the side of the house. When he looked back, he wore a small, almost imperceptible smile. “Robyn’s working.”
His brother had built a separate building for Robyn’s photography business.
“I’m glad you found her,” Thane said. And he genuinely was. Lachlan deserved someone special like Robyn.
Lachlan looked somber of a sudden. “I love her so much, I can barely contain it. I don’t know how you did it, Thane. How you got up every day and kept going after you lost Fran. I’m humbled by you.”
Emotion burned in his throat. Thane reached out and patted Lachlan’s shoulder. He didn’t know how to tell his brother that in the end, he hadn’t had with Fran what Lachlan had with Robyn. There was no point. It didn’t change the fact that a woman he loved, the mother of his children, had died abruptly and he’d grieved over her deeply. Still grieved for her.
After a few moments of silence, Thane said, “You’re going to let Eilidh be a flower girl, aye? Until Regan showed up, it was all she talked about.”
“Of course.” Lachlan grinned the smile of a smitten uncle. “We’ll make sure she gets the dress she wants … Eils likes Regan, then?”
“Oh, aye.” Concern niggled in Thane’s gut. “So does Lewis. You know he doesn’t take to folks quickly, but I can tell he likes her. I explained to them that it’s just temporary, that Regan goes back to the States in six months, but I’m worried about how attached they already are to her, and it’s only been two days.”
“If Robyn has anything to do with it, her sister will be here longer than six months.”
“What do you mean?”
“She thinks this place will be good for Regan.”
It would make his life easier if Regan could stick around longer than six months. “At her age? I doubt this place will keep her interested for long. Still, you should see my house. It’s gleaming. All the kids’ stuff is organized and tidy. I come home to dinner ready. Even my office … she cleans it without messing anything up in there.”
Lachlan grinned at him. “Sounds like you’re enjoying your nanny housekeeper.”
Although he knew his brother meant nothing sexual, Thane felt a flush of physical longing.
Just the beer, he told himself, unable to meet his brother’s eyes.
“It’s nice not living in chaos.”
However, when he returned to the house an hour later, he found Regan curled up asleep on his couch. He’d noticed her dress that morning, wondering what happened to her comfortable jeans and T-shirt, which was more appropriate for her daily tasks, but had made no comment since she could wear whatever the fuck she wanted.
But now he was definitely noticing the dress. It had ridden up high so he could see the curve of a very pert ass beneath it. Her gorgeous hair spilled across the sofa cushions.
His gut tightened with need as he took in the sight of the sleeping beauty on his sofa.
She looked sleepy and comfortable …
And sexy as hell.
Reaching for the throw over the back of the couch, he brought it down over her, careful not to touch her.
She was too young for him.
Not to mention his brother’s soon-to-be sister-in-law.
And he was her boss.
That she was a beautiful woman must be ignored.
Switching off the TV, he stood back, not making a move to leave, apparently hypnotized by the sight of her lovely face relaxed in sleep.
Earlier, he’d watched her face as she animatedly read a book to Eilidh. She was brilliant at acting it out and doing all the voices, and she’d even made him chuckle.
The image of her laughing face, those dimples deepening in her apple cheeks, made him harder.
“Fuck,” he muttered as he quietly stumbled upstairs. “Just a bit drunk,” he reassured himself. That was all. He wasn’t actually attracted to his twenty-five-year-old nanny.
He was a better man than that.