It wasn’t him making her uncomfortable, and knowing she had no right to be upset only made her more so. She swallowed the feeling, managing a small smile and a nod so he’d know she really was fine and to please go take care of their guest—hisguest—his other guest. She was pretty sure she could find enough to do here to stay out of their way.
God, what if Adrianne stayed for dinner?
What if he walked her to the porch and kissed her goodbye, right in front of the window while Stace watched it happen?
Oh, she couldn’t handle that.
“You sure?” Brock asked, studying her closely.
She made herself smile and nod, and shoo at him with both hands. Her throat was so constricted she couldn’t have talked if she wanted to. She could barely keep herself breathing slowly and steadily as he headed back to the living room. The minute he was gone though, the effort to keep cleaning abandoned her and she dropped everything. Bending over, she buried her face in her folded arms, leaning against the sink and counter while she told herself to knock it off. Her eyes had no right stinging like this. She didn’t need to get all watery in the back of her throatbecause a man she barely knew already had a girlfriend. Her divorce wasn’t even six months finalized. Why would she even be thinking of complicating up her life with another guy right now? Especially not with a guy who didn’t think twice about stripping her out of her clothes and spanking her while she cried and called him Daddy when she was being naughty.
Was she being naughty right now?
The way she felt inside suggested maybe she was. For sure, her thoughts when they turned to Adrianne weren’t at all friendly or filled with grace. Especially now when the sound of Adrianne’s too cheerful laugh at whatever Brock had just said drifted back to the kitchen, making Stace feel sick to her knotted stomach.
Okay, she couldn’t do this. She just couldn’t.
Pushing off the counter, she slipped out the side kitchen archway into the hallway and crept as softly as she could to knock on what she hoped was Pops’s door.
“Come in,” his non-existent voice rasped.
She cracked the door far enough to peek inside. Pops was lying on his back, with Lily lying between his arm and chest, her small hand feeling the shiny photographs in the fishing magazine he seemed to be reading to her. “Hi,” Stace whispered.
“That she-buzzard still here?” the old man grumped.
“They’re talking now,” she replied, offering an apologetic smile. “Hey, I think I’m going to go home for a little. You know, to give them privacy.” She gestured with a nod to the living room behind them where Adrianne was laughing again, her voice high and tinkling and annoying as hell. “I made you a pie. Can you take it out in about twenty minutes or so? I don’t want it to burn.”
“Hell, I don’t want it to burn either, but don’t I remember Brock saying you were staying here until Monday?”
She nodded, her stomach twisting a little harder. “I’ll be back. I just... I have a lot of unpacking to do and... you know, cleaningup.” She tapped her fingers on the doorjamb, clearing her throat when he just looked at her. His mouth was flat, his rheumy eyes knowing. “I’ll be back,” she repeated, hoping he wouldn’t press because she was terrible at lying. She didn’t want to have to wrack her brain for a better excuse. She just didn’t want to be here, not when her emotions were confused like this and Adrianne was here, her very presence and the obnoxiousness of her voice driving home the weirdness of staying with Brock and his father, especially when she had her own place.
“All right,” Pops finally decided, but she could tell by his tone that he was neither convinced nor happy about it.
An intruder all the way, she snuck into his room and gathered Lily out of his arms. The baby fussed, whined and reached back for Pops who caught one tiny hand and smothered it with scratchy white bearded kisses. “You be good for your mama,” he told her gruffly, and Lily smiled. To Stace, he then said, “You’ll be back, though?”
She nodded, her smile so fake she could feel the plastic stiffness in her cheeks. “Before dark,” she promised.
“I’m gonna hold you to that,” he warned.
The only part of that Stace paid any attention to was the relief that melted through her the minute she snuck her baby out the back door. She closed the door softly behind her, for a moment just breathing in the crispness of the icy air. It leeched the warmth from her cheeks, the chill in the breeze piercing through the weave of the cloth of her clothes, pricking like needles along her arms and back. She’d left her coat on a hook behind the front door because… Brock and Adrianne—but it didn’t matter. She only lived next door and it was just until Adrianne was gone. Besides, while Brock was trying to take care of her out of polite concern, she really could take care of herself.
She just needed to prove that to him, so he could relax about it.
Snow crunching under her feet, she told herself over and over again, just prove it to him, then everything would be fine. Back to everyone’s preferential normal. She’d be by herself, learning how to be self-sufficient so no one could ever again confuse her of using another’s money, sweat, or labor to make her life comfortable. Brock wouldn’t have to watch over her anymore, and Adrianne... Well, she could relax too. Pops would get his companion, Adrianne would get her obviously desired one-on-one attention from Brock, and... and everyone would be happy.
Everyone deserved to be happy.
All the way home, she blinked to keep the stinging in her eyes from growing any worse, or more blindingly watery than it already was. She sniffled, hating winter. It always made her nose run.
Chapter 10
Arms folded across his chest, Brock searched his memory, trying to figure out when exactly he had set up an interview with Adrianne Moss, of all people. She seemed nice enough, but the woman drove him crazy, and not in a fun way. She was always smiling, always talking, and always right on his last nerve. Her voice had always hit him like nails scraping down a chalkboard. He’d have recognized her from the moment she said hello, even on a phone. But try though he did, he couldn’t remember setting up an interview with her. Yes, he wanted someone competent to watch out for his dad when he couldn’t be home, but while Adrianne had never struck him as incompetent, he honestly didn’t want to spend any more time with her than he absolutely had to. He for sure wasn’t going to hire her.
“How fortuitous is this?” she exclaimed for the third time. “I need a job and here you are, offering one.”
“I thought you had a job,” Brock said for the second time.
“It’s winter,” she said with a smile and a shrug. “Buster let half the staff go and lucky me, I made the cut.”
